Chapter 97: Taran

I pace the apartment in agitation as I await news of Diogo's meeting with Emery. I know he's met her, and I just hope he sees the sweet woman beneath the tough, sometimes abrasive exterior. She's not one to hold back her opinion if she thinks a person has done something they shouldn't. But she's also very sweet, exactly the person I need to be with right now.
The door opens and Diogo strides in, his cloak of arrogance firmly in place. The implacable grim look on his face causes my heart to sink. The meeting didn't go well. She said something he didn't like or maybe even refused to come. After all, the Tower is a key building in Sanctuary and it firmly belongs to the Warlord's side.
I'm about to demand an explanation for my missing friend when she pops out from behind Diogo. His broad body was blocking my view of her.
"Emery!" I grin and launch myself at her.
She meets me halfway around the table, clasping me against her body and holding tight. We rock back and forth and cry for a few minutes while Diogo watches, his face softening a little. He knows how important this moment is to me and he made it happen. I love that Diogo will always try to make me happy. Even if it goes against his core beliefs, he will find a way. He didn't want me to leave the Tower, so he brought exactly what I needed to me.
"I have to go," Diogo announces. He gives Emery a little nudge, forcing her to step back while he reaches for me, cupping the back of my head and leaning down for a kiss.
"Thank you," I say, telling him with my tone just how much I mean it. "Please, be safe out there."
He doesn't answer. He releases me and strides out the door, barking out a few orders to my bodyguard; don't let me leave, watch over us, keep us inside, no one enters the apartment except Diogo, etc. The usual safety commands. Today I care less than I did yesterday. I may be trapped in a cage, but the addition of my beloved friend will make the time pass quickly.
The moment Diogo leaves, Emery announces, "You're pregnant," and then launches herself at me again.
I'm so shocked I don't know how to respond. I just stand with my mouth open as she grabs me and hauls me into another tight hug. Then her familiar embrace calls to me and I melt into her. Emery feels like home in a way nothing has in a long time. Like the fond remembrances of childhood; fuzzy memories, nostalgia, and good intentions.
"How did you know?" I finally manage to ask when she breaks the hug.
"Your face is a little rounder, so is your belly and you look pale and tired, like you haven't eaten properly or slept in weeks."
I frown. I didn't think I looked that bad.
"How far along are you?" she asks and then looks around. "Where shall we sit?"
I laugh as she gazes first at the table then off to the side where our bedroom is. The place is not really set up for guests. Diogo was a long-time bachelor when I moved in and I haven't had much of a chance to make changes yet. I can now see the apartment's deficiencies through Emery's eyes. Very little furniture. Just a table that dominates the room next to the door. One bedroom, and the rest is just open concrete with big windows. We're going to have to have walls built so we can add a baby room.
In comparison to Emery's crowded comfortable home, with mismatched furniture and useless old electronics that don't work anymore, this place must look completely bare.
"I suppose we'll have to sit right here until I find some suitable furniture." I wave her toward the table and she pulls out a chair and sits. I follow suit, pulling out the chair that Diogo usually sits in and moving it closer.
We both look pointedly at Grayson.
He clears his throat. "Uh, think I'll just step out. I'll be just outside the door if you need anything."
When he leaves, I laugh and turn back to Emery. "At least he's no longer worried I'll climb out a window and scale down the side of the building."
"Please tell me you wouldn't do that!" Emery admonishes me.
"Well, not anymore. I don't have the stamina for it now and the baby might not like heights. The last thing I need is to throw up while I'm climbing down a twenty-story building."
Even though she knows I'm joking, she still shakes her head. "Maybe becoming a mother will settle you down a bit. You were always a bit of a wild child, impossible to keep in one place. Always climbing this or that, giving me a heart attack with your shenanigans."
I grin at her description. I'd never thought of myself as difficult before. When I lost the last of my relatives I became fiercely independent, outspoken and unabashedly idealistic. As far as I was concerned, there was nothing holding me back from achieving the things I wanted in life. Xavier encouraged this behaviour as he saw it as my rebellious streak shining through. When I'd moved in with Emery, I hadn't made any real changes, though I knew she worried about me. She tried to mother me. At the time I hadn't had much patience for her, but now I'm grateful that she persisted.
"I'm sorry if I caused you any heartache." I reach out to grip her hand. "You took me in when you didn't have to. You've always been kind and generous, providing for me and never making me feel like some stray that you picked up."
"You have no need to apologize. You were a teenager, and though you were certainly rebellious at times, you never caused me heartache. I was proud of you then and continue to be proud of the woman you've become. I'm grateful that I've had the opportunity to watch you grow and to stand in as a surrogate parent when you needed one."
It takes me a moment to find my voice in a throat swelling with emotion. "I'll always need you, Emery."
She squeezes my hand. "Good, because I'm not going anywhere according to your Warlord husband. He's informed me that a suitable suite will be made available on one of the lower floors and that I'm welcome to visit with you whenever he's not here."
"But that's not fair," I cry, though I'm grateful that Diogo has created this possibility. As always, he's using his dominant force to get what he wants, which is ultimately what I want. "He should've asked, not demanded. And what about your beautiful little home? All those antiques and memories."
She shakes her head. "Not to worry, I wouldn't have agreed if it wasn't what I wanted. He's having my things moved over. I do love that home, but memories aren't in places or things, they're in our minds. It's up to us to preserve the things we love by remembering them. I can't see or touch my mother anymore, but I remember her clear as day. I don't need a house to remind me that she existed."
Though she denies it, I know that house means a lot to Emery. It's been in her family for generations. Her mother raised her in that house alone and then died of the flu before Emery was full grown. A common story, one that I can relate to.
She must sense my continued concern, because she says, "Commander Fuentes told me that he'll have the house boarded up and protected from squatters. I told him not to, that I would like to invite some of the families living in deplorable conditions in the slums to move in. I haven't told him, but I intend to offer it to Kelly and Joanne Hunt and their children."
The Hunts are a refugee family, struggling to get by without jobs or food vouchers because they were escorted into the city illegally by me and don't have documentation. I was arrested shortly after helping them into Sanctuary and unable to see to their immediate needs.
"Thank you, Emery. They deserve more than they found when they arrived in Sanctuary. I'm happy they'll be more comfortable. Maybe I can convince Diogo to give them papers to."
She shakes her head and laughs. "A few months ago, I would've thought you'd be killed where you stood for suggesting the Warlord give legal status to illegal refugees. Now I've seen the regard the Warlord holds for you, I believe you can make it happen."
I don't know that I entirely agree with her on that. There's still plenty that the Warlord won't allow me to change or become involved in. If the task includes leaving the Tower, I may as well forget about it. Unless I'm escorted by my husband and several armed guards, I won't be leaving the premises. The new greenhouse plan has been almost entirely abandoned.
I light up at the thought as an idea hits me. Emery has always had a green thumb, is always planting seeds in her yard and nurturing them. She's passionate about feeding the less privileged in our city and is one of the many that gives away her own food rations in order to feed others. The greenhouse project is perfect for her!
I outline the expansion plan and she quickly agrees, eagerly offering her own advice as we chat. If she takes to the project, perhaps she could even replace poor Mr. Sharp as greenhouse manager.
"Let's not get ahead of ourselves," she laughs. "I'm not sure I want to take on a project that big."
"You will," I say confidently.
She gives me a fond look. "You always were one that liked to get your own way."
"No," I protest with a laugh. "I can just predict the future. And I know that you'll become our new greenhouse manager."
"Whatever you say."
As we talk, another bigger idea hits me. All along I've struggled to get Diogo to see my point of view, to integrate some of my ideas into a Sanctuary driven by survival and held together through harsh security methods. The lack of resources is one of the major setbacks in making changes to things like food, clean water, medical aid and education. But we're missing out on a major resource right here in our own city. People! If we can get Diogo's people to work with the rebels instead of against the rebels, we can put a group of passionate well-intentioned people to work to better our city.
It's a long shot, and even I can see the ridiculously idealistic idea for what it is; an unlikely dream. But I have to try. Now I can use Emery as my mouthpiece. I can send her out to talk to our rebel friends, get them to see the merits of working with the city elite instead of against them. We can pair people from the slums with medical and first aid knowledge with Bishop and Dee, generate ideas and spread resources. We can pair educators from the lower classes with people like Milla.
When I outline my idea to Emery, she takes some of the steam out of my plan. "Are you forgetting that this city is at war? The rebels blew up the wall. Your husband isn't likely to forget or forgive something like that, and to be honest, even to a rebel like me, I don't think he should. He'll look like a weak leader if he just forgives such a huge transgression. As far as I'm concerned, I was lucky to get off as light as I did."
"That was an extreme action taken by extreme people," I argue, eager to make my plan work. "We both know that the majority of the rebels are peace-loving people that just want to see changes for the better. Diogo was able to accept me, and now he accepts you too. He'll accept others once he sees that they don't pose any kind of danger."
"He only accepts me conditionally and because of you," Emery points out.
"Then he'll accept everyone else because I tell him to," I say firmly, drawing a laugh from Emery. I do sound arrogant in my assurance that I can get Diogo to do what I want, but my plan is reasonable, there's no reason he should say no.
"I've missed you, sweetheart, and your wildly optimistic ideas."