“You will catalog your injuries and defects to me so that I may treat you and assure your health. Now, or you shall be in an exam room, stripped and analyzed.”
“For once, I agree with Surnen,” Trax said, stepping closer and crossing his arms over his chest.
She looked between us. “Holy crap on a cracker. Are you kidding me with this?”
Rachel chuckled and that small sound broke the tension from Mikki’s body. “They aren’t kidding. Get used to it, Earth girl. You aren’t in Kansas anymore.”
“Fine,” she grumbled. “I broke my middle toe kicking a soccer ball in sixth grade. I’ve had stitches all over my body from catching the fin on my board or rolling under and hitting rocks or coral. Coral is, well… an animal, but it looks like rock and it’s often hard. It’s under the water and is what makes waves… partly.” She sighed because I sensed her difficulty in explaining something I’d never seen. “I’ve had three concussions, all fine now, and I broke the bones around my left eye. I have wires holding my cheekbone together on the left side, but they buried the scars behind my hairline so no one would see them. I blew my ACL—” At my look, she clarified. “The ligament in my left knee, had it rebuilt… human style, and then tore it again. So two surgeries there.”
“Stop.” I could not take any more of this, especially knowing there had been no ReGen wand or pod nearby to help her. It was a wonder she was alive. “You will not abuse your body this way. Voluntarily going into the dangerous water… on a small board. Do you understand?” Mikki had more injuries than some fighters I knew.
“Now you do sound like my father,” she snapped.
“Then he was a highly intelligent male.”
She frowned, practically scowled. “That is true. But I don’t recommend talking to me the way he did.”
“Why not? He sounds like a good father.”
She pulled away, her eyes closed tightly. Her snort was rude, but it was the pain coming through the collar that made me let her go this time.
“Textbook.”
Again I was lost. “Rachel? Please translate this term.”
Rachel spun in her chair, leaned back and looked at me, and the pity in her eyes made me anxious, as it was not for Mikki but for me. “Textbook, on Earth, implies that the thing being discussed is perfect on paper. Every rule followed. Everything that is socially expected and considered normal has been done. So her father was, in the eyes of the world, perfect.”
I turned to my mate. “I do not understand. If your father was perfect, why do I feel such pain and buried anger coming from you when you speak of him?”
Mikki reached up and tugged at her collar as if it pained her. As if the connection we shared was a burden.
Rachel chuckled again. “Can’t hide anything out here, Mik. And they are relentless.”
“You would know,” Mikki fired back at her new friend.
“Exactly.”
What were these human females discussing? And why had Rachel referred to my mate as Mik? That was not her name. “My mate’s name is Mikki,” I stated.
“Of course, it is.” Rachel’s smile was unreadable.
Females.
“I wish to scan your body to assess the lingering effects of these injuries.”
Mikki shook her head. “Oh no. I know you think humans live like Neanderthals and our healing methods are primitive.” She glanced at the line of pods. “Which they probably are, but I’m fine.”
“Surnen,” Rachel began. “I’m impressed you didn’t give your mate an exam.” She gave me a pointed look that told me she had yet to forget her own. “However, if you wish to get lucky ever again, you may just want to limit your obsession to a simple body scan.”
“Get lucky?” I asked, confused.
“Sex,” Mikki added, eyeing me. “If you ever want to have sex with me, ever again, you won’t even think about coming at me with your alien probes.”
Rachel snorted and I narrowed my gaze at her. Those probes saved lives, and if my mate needed assistance—
“I mean it. If Rachel is not freaking over this body scan, then I’ll allow that. Nothing more.”
Trax handed a wand to me. I hadn’t seen him grab it, but I was thankful and began to slowly move it in front of her body. She rolled her eyes but stood still to allow it. As if she had a choice.