When he caught sight of Sunny, Kilnor didn't know whether to cry and laugh. He could feel his heart pounding in his chest, swelling with emotion.
She was here, and she was alive, but she was so little, and Kilnor had thought she was fragile the first time he set eyes on her, but now he was cruelly aware of how correct he had been.
Before Kilnor could say anything, not that he knew what to say, Zalon was speaking.
"I want her in the medbay," he said, tone brooking no argument. Kilnor would not have argued. He was not going to let Sunny out of the medway until she had been cleared at least three doctors.
Nevertheless, he stepped forward and took her from Cade's arms. Cade let him do it, and he mouthed a voiceless thank you. His weakened body staggered slightly under his weight, and he could feel the wound in his chest tugging, but he only clutched her frail form closer to him, unconcerned with the filth covering her.
It was a mark of the relief that Zalon was feeling that he didn't admonish Kilnor for straining his body, and only repeated himself.
"Medbay, if you could."
Murmuring nonsense endearments and words of affection into Sunny's hair, Kilnor turned on his heels and strode back through the ship.
Medbay was perhaps too grand a word for what it was they actually had, which was more along the lines of a cupboard with a narrow stretcher in the middle, with just enough room for some various pieced of medical equipment and a sink squeezed around the side.
As gently as possible, Kilnor laid Sunny down on the stretcher. Even in her unconscious state she seemed unwilling for him to leave her, letting out a small murmur of distress as his arms left her.
Kilnor immediately reached back out, placing his hand along the side of her face. He fairly dwarfed her, with the majority of her face nestling neatly into the palm of his hand.
Not too far behind him, Zalon entered the room, surveying his latest patient with a critical eye. For Kilnor's benefit, he spoke of what she'd need.
"I want fluids in her," he said. "I shall also need to insert a feeding tube - luckily for us, she does not appear to have been physically abused, just abandoned and starved. She is extremely malnourished."
He gave her another once over.
"Her system will be weak," he added. "It is best if we clean her first - the slightest germ could make her seriously ill. Help me undress her."
If it was anyone else, Kilnor would not have been able to bear them seeing his mate naked. But this was Zalon, the consummate professional, and Sunny may as well be a mannequin for all the sexual interest Zalon would feel. Even Kilnor, who loved and desired every inch of her body, could not find anything sexual in the prone body in front of them. No, in the state she was in, Sunny was something to be cosseted and protected - not desired.
They removed her clothes quickly and efficiently, and then Zalon passed Kilnor a damp cloth that smelled faintly of flowers.
Working quickly, but methodically, Zalon set about cleaning the filth from Sunny's skin. Kilnor's movements were slower, more tender and infinitely more tentative.
Several times the water and clothes had to be changed as the ones they were using grew too encrusted with filth, but finally, Sunny seemed to resemble herself more, though she was still much too small.
The moment that task was complete, Kilnor could feel the entirety of the tiredness he'd been staving off envelop him, and he staggered on his feet.
YOU ARE READING
Heart of Gold
Romance"Two moons, she thought wondrously. Scientists and astronomers alike would kill to see such a sight, and all it had taken was being kidnapped by aliens and dragged halfway across the universe to be sold at a slave market." "I have never heard of a...
