What Price Pleasure
Reflecting, Panic, Comfort

BY: Cassy

Disclaimer: What? You still don't know what's going on? *throws hands up in air in disgust*

After some more discussion with Asher, Jean-Claude returned home to face his servant's possible wrath.

Tamara wandered off to the nursery, hoping to find Gigs there. She learned from Nathaniel that her third had taken the corvette and left. She hoped that Gigs would be safe, but understood how a long drive could be therapeutic.

Tam decided on joining Nathaniel in watching over the sleeping infants. Even as the chaos of the evening churned around in her mind, Tamara couldn't help but marvel at the beauty of Asher and Gigs' children.

A few hours later, a sleepy Tyler stumbled into the nursery, thirsty and looking for Mommy. Tamara stretched out her senses, trying to locate her friend. It took some hard concentration; Gigs had her shields up and wrapped tightly closed. She finally pinpointed the tiger at her old apartment. She told the boy that his mother went on an errand to get something from their old home. Then she gave him some water, escorted him to the bathroom, and tucked him back into bed.

Seeing Tyler all snuggled in, Tam thought bed was a good idea and headed for her own room.

Asher stood, silent, outside Tamara's room. He watched as she approached from the direction of the nursery.

He'd been sending her husband on out-of-town business frequently of late. He resolved to stop doing that for a while, knowing his servant would need all the emotional support she could get during this unexpected pregnancy. But, after the way the news had been received, he was glad she wouldn't have to face telling her husband she was pregnant by another this evening.

Just as Tamara reached the door, they both were slammed with a wave of anguish from their third. "Lord help me," her heartbreaking cry rang through their minds.

"Kimberly!" Asher cried out. "Ma rose! Could you not feel her sorrow and despair?"

"Yeah," Tam agreed. Worry that the Council had arrived unexpectedly and perhaps found Gigs isolated and relatively defenseless gnawed at her. "She went back to her old apartment," she told Asher. "Do you think we could reach it before dawn?"

"Oui," Asher stated. "But you should not be flying in your condition," he added protectively.

Tam rolled her eyes and snorted. 'It didn't take him long to get patronizing,' she thought to herself. Out loud, "Fine, then you can carry me, because I am NOT letting you go into a possible trap all by yourself."

Asher saw she was adamant on the subject and reluctantly agreed to carry her, refusing to let her fly under her own power.

They arrived at the apartment's threshold about an hour later and entered cautiously. Searching each room for enemies, the discovered the tiger asleep atop the comforter on her bed. Her head rested on top of a thick book. Her hair and some of the comforter were damp, where she'd cried herself out.

Asher gently drew the book from under his wife's head. A comforting glow emanated from it the moment his hand touched it. Unconcerned, he laid it on the bedside table. The gold embossed letters on the leather cover proclaimed the book to be a Bible.

Tamara gaped in astonishment, realizing that her master had just activated a holy object and suffered no harm from it.

Automatically, she pulled the covers back when Asher lifted Gigs from the bed. As he settled the tiger in more comfortably, she asked, "How...?"

With a smile of wonderment, he replied, "I believe it was my own faith that activated the holy glow, ma rose." A shadow of pain crossed his face. "The dawn is approaching...."

Tamara went to the window and secured the blinds and draperies against any light that might try to enter...leaving the bedside lamp on its lowest setting so as not to plunge them into total darkness. Asher settled himself in beside his wife, drawing her into his arms. Tamara crawled in from Gigs' other side, spooning against her and draping an arm over to touch Asher as well, completing the triumverate. Sleep took her shortly after her master succumbed to the rising sun.