Marie Harte - Hale

How did you live, where did you go?”

He rubbed a tired hand over his face and stepped back. His head no longer throbbed, but he still teetered on an emotional precipice. God, he had a sister. He loved her, that hadn't changed. But she was here. She was Circ.

She was Circ.

“What they did to Mom and Dad affected you too.” He studied her from the top of her head to her feet. “You're Circ. I heard Pearl talk about you more than once, though I didn't know it was you he was talking about.”

“I don't understand.”

“I was nineteen when our parents died and everything changed. I spent two years living in the woods. I ate what I hunted and fished. Dad taught me how to survive, remember?”

She smiled through her sorrow, grief there for their lost parents.

“I admit, I occasionally stole what I needed from the smaller towns edging the mountains. It took time, but I began to remember bits and pieces. I think my inner beast was developing at its own rate. When it was ready, it showed me how to right the wrong done to us. I remembered Elliot Pearl, and I started investigating.

“When I ran across information about you, I avoided it. My beast wouldn't let me sense you. I don't know why, but I never knew who you really were, at least, not until I got here. Whenever I'd think about you or hear about you, my head hurt.”

“Repressed memories,” she whispered.

“I guess. Before I found Pearl, I made a living doing odd jobs. Mostly security work. I caught the attention of some government folks. Right time, right place, you could say. And there I met Mike Shields. He was a colonel then. A good man. He smelled right,” he joked, pleased when she grinned back at him.

“So then what?”

“Then Mike convinced me to join his team. All unofficial. Mike has friends in high places even Kohl can't touch. When Project Dawn started, I was training with his men in foreign countries. I did some work for Uncle Sam. But Mike knew what I was after.

He helped me when I needed it, and I helped him right back.

“He managed to hook me up with Elliot Pearl a little over three years ago. I became Pearl's bodyguard and Mike's eyes and ears. We've been trying to take Pearson Labs down for years, but General Kohl and Senator Kuntz were unexpected additions to an already top-heavy organization. Seemed like anytime we thought we had an airtight case, a witness died or evidence disappeared.”

“How can you make evidence like that disappear? There are Circs running around committing murder.”

“Tell that to a federal judge with hands deep in Pearl's pockets. Or an investigative team who relies on Kuntz's authorized funding to increase their spending.

Investigations into illegal activities at the lab were always forewarned. No one ever saw any evidence of wrongdoing, or the hint that a Circ might exist.”

“Oh.”

“Yeah.” He sighed. “But Mike thinks it's time. We're closing in on that hellhole.” She nodded.

They fell into an awkward silence.

“So,” they both said at the same time.

“Go on.” He waited for her to speak first.

“I was just going to ask you what you think will come next. I mean, I feel like I've just found you. I don't want you to go away anytime soon.”

“Oh.” He was having a hard enough time dealing with the present. What the future held, he couldn't say. “I, ah, I think I have two mates. I don't think they'd like me to leave just yet either.”

She smiled. “That's right. Hale's the best. He won't let you go.” After a moment, she blushed.

“You okay?”

“Oh, sure.” She shifted, and he caught the full force of her scent.

It was ripe with a subtle sweetness. His sister was pregnant. No longer a young girl, the woman she'd become verged on motherhood. “ Shit . I have to sit down.” He sat in the middle of the mat on his ass, completely floored.

“Are you okay? You want me to get Doc? Roane?”

“Hell, no.” He groaned at her crestfallen expression. “I guess I'll have to try harder to get along with Roane now that we're related, huh?”

“Yes. He's really not so bad, once you get to know him.”

“Does he treat you well?”

“He loves me.” She snapped her fingers. “And that's all I need to do to keep him in line.”

McKinley grinned. “Nice. Wish I could say the same.”

“I don't know. The way Paige looks at you, she's definitely in love.” He thought about that. Paige had never made any pretense about the way she felt.

And she'd been trying like hell all week long to make him see how well they fit together, sexually and otherwise. He felt himself blushing and glanced away. When he caught Caitlyn's eye, he saw her trying to stifle a smile.

“What?” he growled.

“You still embarrass easily,” she teased. “God, Robbie. I used to call you that, you know.”

“I remember.” Probably why it had felt so right when he'd first told Paige to call him that.

“I'm so happy right now. I know we're not out of danger, that until Pearson Labs closes for good, we'll always have to worry. But finding you is just so incredible. It was so hard after the crash…” She started crying again.

They talked for another hour, then two, sharing parts of their lives they'd never told anyone else. Their relationship healed as if it had never been severed. As youngsters they'd been close; as adults, this new intimacy felt like a natural progression.

Caitlyn clearly loved her mate and all of Circe's Recruits. She approved of Robbie, especially of his relationship with Paige and Hale. The way she blushed when she mentioned Hale a few times made him take note to talk to his mate about his past relationship with Caitlyn. It couldn't have been improper, though, not with Roane such a possessive jackass.

He grudgingly admitted his respect for the male, and he promised to make an effort to get along. She also prodded him not to leave without saying good-bye. As if he'd just ditch Caitlyn and the others without a by-your-leave.

He opened his mouth to disabuse her of that notion when Hale rushed in.

“We've got a problem. No one can find Doc, and there's an odd scent in the house.

I can't be sure, but I think there's been a struggle in his study. Doc's papers are out of whack, at least according to Kelly. You ask me, the place always looks like that.” Shit . McKinley had a bad feeling. He'd known this respite was too good to be true.

“I need to make a call. If Doc's not out for a drive and not in his lab belowground, my guess? The PPA has him. Kohl finally found himself a new head scientist.”

Paige had no idea what to do. She'd finally felt as if she and Evan had connected.

He was so sweet. He went out of his way to make her feel at home. He'd even persuaded her to look at house plans, trying to convince her to stay here with him and the others. “ You’ll need a bigger room than Hale’s to fit all three of you ,” he'd said without judgment. To Evan, Circ sexuality was merely a part of the whole package.

During the past week, though Paige continued to prod him to do more tests on her, he refused. He wanted her to think about it and not confuse their growing friendship with anything more. Evan was so careful not to exploit her or her feelings that she couldn't help wishing she'd met him years ago. What would it have been like to grow up with him as a father?

Not that Evan didn't have his faults. He regularly missed meals, kept a disorganized study that had Kelly, his assistant, on edge, and could lose himself in his work if no one reminded him to come up for air.

But he was loyal to a fault with Circe's Recruits, the men and women he considered family. Caitlyn had confided how incredibly happy they all were to finally find her. Doc had been misled by someone he dearly loved not long ago. And though he and Elliot hadn't been close, family meant something to Evan. Losing his brother right after that other loss had debilitated him. He'd lost weight, looked unhappy, and spent too much time away from the others. Finding Paige had become a lifeline for him.