“Poppy, I received a message from Wheaton once I reached myquarters. I am sorry but he is unable to escape the Council for the noon meal.”He cringed as he broke the bad news to her.
“But why didn’t he call here to leave me a message?” sheasked.
“I am assuming that he thought I was still escorting youback when he called. My band alerted me that I had a message waiting but Iassumed it was regarding another matter so I did not check it until I was backin my own quarters,” he explained. With a sad smile, he gestured to thecountertop where the lunch she’d made for Wheaton sat.
“Do you mind if I join you or would you rather have sometime alone?”
“Well, sure, Dath. I could actually use the company now so Idon’t dwell on my disappointment too much. Once I go down that rabbit holenothing except for an obscene amount of ice cream can lure me back out.” Shesighed. “I hope you like hamburgers.” She tried to smile even though she wantedto cry a bit. She’d never thought she was a crybaby and usually couldn’t standwhiners. But dammit, she had wanted to see Wheaton and talk about last night’sno-show, as well as the fact that Hellacious Hannah was able to go to theCouncil meetings.
Lunch ending up being quite pleasant with Dathrow’s companyand he had time to answer questions that Poppy had from the morning tour.Between bites, Dathrow was able to draw her up a legend of all the symbols onthe doors she would need to remember when walking around on her own. He laughedand almost choked on his burger when she mentioned going around and placingsticky notes everywhere.
Poppy picked up their plates. “Thank you for the cheatsheet. Hey, I don’t want to just wait around until Wheaton calls. Can you walkme back up to the medical unit? Tamin called and said he needed to go over myregen bed reading with me,” she explained.
“Of course, I will walk you there but will not be able tostay. I have been called to a meeting this afternoon. If you take your cheatsheet with you, you can try finding your way back, but I am sure that Wheatonwill assign another escort for your return trip. He has informed me that hewants an escort with you at all times unless it is unavoidable,” he said with asmile.
That was one thing nice about Dathrow—he was always smilingat her. It had taken her a couple days to squeeze the first smile out ofWheaton but Dathrow had smiled the day they met. Knowing he was a great catchmade her wonder when he would be assigned his bride. Hopefully the bridal snafuworked its way out sooner rather than later.
She followed him out the door. Before leaving she called andleft Wheaton a brief message. In case he was able to sneak out, it would be agood idea to let him know where to find her. Their walk to the med center tookthem past her old apartment. Pausing for only a moment to toss a sad look atthe door, she decided she definitely needed something to distract her. The medcenter seemed a good place to start.
Chapter Nineteen
Tamin and Rodin were extremely happy to see Poppy, judgingby their huge smiles. Their reaction made her anxious for some reason. They hadstopped looking at her with their normally friendly glances and now werestudying her as if she were an experiment. Images of them using pegs to pin herdown to a board and dissect her flitted through her overactive imagination. Shekept an eye out for chloroform and scalpels, just in case. The men usheredDathrow out quickly once Poppy was in the room with promises of keeping hersafe and secure until he was able to send an escort to walk her back.
Poppy turned to the guys with an expression she was surewould let them know she was getting antsy to have them staring at her as if shewere a frog in a high school biology class.
“Ummmm, guys…what is it we needed to talk about? You’remaking me nervous the longer you stare at me.”
Rodin turned to Tamin and they shared a secret smile. Aftera few seconds, Tamin nodded to the other doctor.
“Spit it out, guys!” Poppy snapped, unable to hold back anylonger.
“Tamin would like for you to have another scan. We areunsure if we received a false reading today and need to run a new scan beforewe discuss the findings,” Rodin said, ushering her into the closest exam room.
“Yes, Poppy, I do not want to cause alarm if the regen bedreadings are incorrect.” Tamin opened the quietly humming bed while Poppy toedoff her shoes to climb in.
“Okay, guys, just an FYI for future reference though… You’refreaking me out and need to work on your bedside manner if you’ll be assistingbrides. You’re eyeballing me like I’m going to sprout wings and take off,” shesaid grumpily as she lay back.
As the door slid closed, Tamin quickly said, “We still needto discuss wings when you have a chance.”
Oh Jesus Christ. They were back to the fucking pads again.
The thirty seconds for the scan passed quickly, but oncePoppy had climbed out, the following five minutes seemed to last forever. Itdidn’t help that both doctors were hovering over the screen at the end of theregen bed waiting for the results to pop up. Both of them were ignoring hercompletely, instead choosing to stare at the pod as if waiting for a pot ofwater to boil.
Tapping her toes on the shiny white floor, she fiddled withher bracelet, wondering if it was working correctly since she hadn’t had amessage from Wheaton all day. It was supposed to light up with an indicatorwhen she had a message waiting in the system but nope, no blinking light andshe was starting to get pissy the longer it stayed unlit. Banging it againstthe palm of her hand a couple of times, she stared at it harder. Nope. Nada.Nothing. Damn.
Five minutes had passed at an agonizingly boring pace whenTamin gave an
