Baubles and Ben Read online

  Baubles and Ben

  by Nalini Singh

  Marlee wondered where Ben had gone. He'd miss all the cake if he didn't get here quick. Grabbing an extra slice while no one was looking, she wrapped it up in a tissue and put it in her pocket, then went looking for her friend.

  "Whoa, Marlee!" Uncle Drew and Hawke lifted up the big table they were carrying so she wouldn't hit her head as she ran underneath.

  "Thank you!" Ducking past more busy adults setting up for the big party, she waved at her other friends but didn't stop. She'd be back soon anyway. First, she had to find Ben.

  She went straight to the edge of the white zone and the tree where he had a treehouse. It wasn't really his treehouse; all the pups were allowed to play in it, but it was his favorite place to sit when he wanted to be alone. She was always invited though--Ben hardly ever wanted to be all alone.

  "Ben!" she called up, but there was silence from above, and when she searched with her telepathic senses, she didn't catch any hint of his bright, smart mind. Marlee would never read anyone's mind without permission--not that she could with changelings anyway, but her daddy said it was all right to use her senses like this. It was the same as a wolf using his ability to smell things she couldn't.

  Realizing Ben wasn't up there, she decided to go a little ways into the forest full of pine trees heavily dusted with snow. She was glad she was wearing her boots that Aunt Indigo had given her, and her pink coat with the black velvet collar that she'd chosen herself with her mom, Lara, when they had a "girls day out."

  The forest was outside the perimeter for pups but Ben was naughty and he liked to go to the waterfall sometimes to watch it. It'd be pretty right now, all frozen and shimmery under the mountain sunlight. Marlee knew because she was often naughty, too. She'd go with Ben and they'd sit and talk by the waterfall, the spray cool on their faces.

  Ben shifted at times into his wolf pup form and then his fur would be soft under her hand while they sat there. Marlee's other friends were nice, but now and then, they teased her for being friends with a "baby."

  Ben wasn't a baby but he was several years younger than her. He didn't understand more grown up things that she did now, but he understood the inside of her. He knew when she was scared or worried and he'd put his hand in hers and they'd stand there and she'd feel better.

  He was her best friend even if he was small and still wanted to play with trucks. After a few more years, she'd learn to drive--then she'd drive him around in a real truck.

  "Ben!" she called again halfway to the waterfall. No reply but...there he was! Sitting on the pine-needle strewn and snowy ground with his head down, his dark hair glinting with snow that must've fallen from the branch above.

  "Ben!" She ran over, expecting to see that he was looking at an interesting bug.

  But when he lifted his head, she saw dried tears on his face. Marlee froze in place for a second. Ben never cried. Ben was always happy. "What's wrong?" She fell to her knees beside him and immediately hugged him close, the snow cold through her jeans. "Did you fall?"

  "Yeah." He nodded against her. "I broke my bobble."

  Marlee looked down to see that he was holding his ornament for the party. They and the other pups had spent a whole week after school making each of theirs. "It looks okay," she said.

  Turning his hand, Ben showed her the big dent on the side. "It's broken."

  Marlee sat down beside him. She thought about saying he could have hers, but she knew he wouldn't want it. He'd made this one special for his mom--it had cut out pictures of him and his mom and dad and baby Elodie, plus Ben had drawn beautiful snowflakes with a glitter pen. He was better at that than even the juveniles!

  He'd drawn them on her ornament too when she asked. "Maybe we can fix it," she said.

  Rubbing the back of one hand over his eyes, Ben shook his head. "It's all crushed in. See?" He showed her.

  "Yeah, it's got a small hole too." When she took the ornament and gently shook it, she heard something moving around inside. "I think the piece is inside." She bit down hard on her lower lip. "We could make a new one together."

  "It won't be the same." Ben took it back real careful. "I don't want to give my mama a broken bobble." A new tear rolled down his cheek and it hurt Marlee's heart.

  One arm around his shoulders, she hugged him closer. "Your mom won't mind." Lara never minded if Marlee's gifts weren't perfect; she used the mug Marlee had made in pottery class even though the mug was lopsided.

  "I know," Ben said, "but I keep breaking things." He sighed. "I wanna give her a not-broken thing."

  Seeing his face crumpling again, Marlee dug desperately into her pocket and held out the squashed piece of cake. "I saved you this."

  He took it and, putting his ornament carefully in his lap, opened up the tissue to eat the cake with his fingers. But he was still sad, she could tell. She didn't like it. Ben had sparkly dark eyes and he laughed all the time.

  She'd learned to laugh with Ben. Before, where her family had lived, in the PsyNet, she hadn't been allowed to laugh or feel any emotions and so she hadn't known how when she'd come to live with the wolves. But then Ben had just decided to be her friend and he'd kept on laughing until one day, she'd laughed too.

  "Come on," she said, getting up. "I have an idea."

  Ben gave her the tissue and she stuffed it into her pocket. His face still had chocolate icing on it when they found Uncle Judd. He was talking on the phone on the snowy whiteness outside the den entrance, a serious look on his face. But he smiled when he saw her and Ben.

  Knowing then that it was all right to interrupt, Marlee kept Ben's hand in hers as she walked over to her uncle.

  He hunkered down in front of them after hanging up, and opened his arms. They both walked in to stand inside them. "What is it?" he asked in that quiet but serious Uncle Judd way, a way that made Marlee feel that what she had to say was important to him.

  "Ben broke his gift to his mom." She showed him. "See?"

  "Ah." Taking the ornament in one hand while keeping the other one around Ben, he said, "Is that why you're so quiet, Parrot?"

  Ben's lips curved, his eyes a little sparkly again. "Yeah. I'm sad."

  "Well, that won't do." Uncle Judd's own eyes, a dark chocolate brown with gold specks in them, met Marlee's. "Did you try yourself?"

  She shook her head. "I might break it more." Her control wasn't that good and she had nowhere near her uncle's telekinetic strength. He was powerful. Sometimes, the tiny hairs on her arms stood up near him. Not because she was afraid but because he had so much telekinetic energy in his body.

  "We'll test that another day, but today..." He looked at the ornament with quiet concentration and slowly, the dented part began to round outward. It wasn't glass. They weren't allowed to play with glass. But Marlee had hoped that meant the dent could be fixed.

  "There's a broken bit inside," she whispered as Ben's smile grew bigger.

  "I have it." The broken bit flew up from the inside to slot neatly into the hole and then Uncle Judd did that thing only he could do: he made the piece unbroken from the rest. He was a special kind of Tk-Psy and he mostly fixed people, but sometimes, he fixed things if Marlee asked.

  "What do you think, Ben?" He held out the ornament to her friend.

  Eyes shining, Ben cradled it gently in his hands. "It's perfect! Thanks, Uncle Judd!" He hugged Uncle Judd with his head over Uncle Judd's shoulder--he was holding his bauble with both hands. "I'm gonna give it to my mama right now! I don't wanna break it again."

  "I think that's a good plan." A smile that wasn't big but that Marlee knew was big for her uncle who'd had to spend his whole life in the PsyNet where they'd hurt him and hurt him again. All to make him into an Arrow, the most dangerous kind of
soldier.

  People thought she didn't know that, but Marlee was big enough to understand that her daddy and Uncle Judd and Sienna hadn't ever got to play like she did. No one had ever hugged them or tucked them into bed or read them a bedtime story. It was hard for her daddy to show his emotions too, but Marlee felt his love like a warm blanket around her.

  As she felt Uncle Judd's playfulness at that moment when he said, "Want a ride? I'm sure Ava is in Indigo's office."

  When they both nodded enthusiastically, he teleported them right into the den!

  "Benny!" Ben's mom smiled that big warm smile from where she sat in the chair on this side of Indigo's desk. "And Marlee sweetheart. Have you two been bugging Judd for lifts again?"

  "Mama, I made you a bobble!" Ben held it out with both hands. "It's special. And I broke it and I cried and I was sad but Uncle Judd fixed it and now it's perfect again."

  Ava took the ornament with a soft look in her eyes. Moving over to stand next to Indigo's chair, the wolf lieutenant sitting with her legs up on one side of the desk, Marlee leaned in close. "I think Ava's gonna cry," she whispered.

  Putting one arm around Marlee's shoulders, Indigo nodded. "Yep. I think you're right." She raised an eyebrow. "Even my tough, stony heart is melted. Your friend has a way about him."

  "Your heart's not stony." Marlee frowned. "You sent Uncle Drew roses last week."

  "Shh." A finger to her lips, Indigo scowled. "I have a reputation to protect."

  Marlee laughed as across the office, Ava cried and snuggled Ben.

  But these tears were happy tears and Marlee knew about those now, too. Never again would she have to squash her emotions into a hard ball in her heart. She'd grow up free--and she'd grow up with a friend who wouldn't always be so young.

  She wondered suddenly what Ben would be like as a grown up. But then he laughed and kissed his mama on the cheek and the thought flew away.

  "Let's go steal more cake!" he called to her.

  Grinning, she ran out of the office with him, while his mother wiped away a tear and placed Ben's bauble on Indigo's desk, where it caught the light and sparkled like Ben's eyes.

  Copyright (c) 2017 by Nalini Singh

 

 

  Nalini Singh, Baubles and Ben

  (Series: Psy-Changeling # 15.20)

 

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