Nadine

24. Best Effort

I can feel the tears coming back up. I get to my office and shut the door. I take off the veil and gloves. I only need a minute. I sit down at my desk and wipe my eyes. It's a few tears, I can get control of this fast. I hear the door shut and lock.

Tre sits down on the opposite side of the desk. "I'm sorry I've done this to us princess. I love you and I miss you. I hate that you are afraid of me." He wipes a tear away. "I'm sorry I was treating you like a child and not like my mate. I'm sorry I didn't talk to you before I insisted on drugging you. I'm so sorry." He wipes tears off his face. "If you don't give up on me, I promise to do things differently. I want to make you smile again."

I can't stop the tears. "Tre I'm so mad."

He picks me up and puts me on his lap. He lets me cry and rubs my back. "I promise I'll find a way to make it up to you."

I shake my head and cry harder.

He wraps his arms around me. "I will." I hear his voice break and can tell he's crying too. "Please don't give up baby."

I lay my head on his shoulder. "I miss you too."

"Will you go to the send-off party for my father tonight with me?" His voice is so gentle when he asks.

"Yes."

"After, will you have dinner with me?" I start to shake my head. "I'll plan out something for us. Start treating you the way you should be treated. Something nice. Please?"

"Ok. Dinner."

I feel him relax a bit. "Thank you." He starts rubbing my back again.

"Just your father? Is your mom not going?"

"She's staying for a month to help with the baby."

I relax into him a little bit. "I need to start my work."

"1 more minute of this please."

We sit there for 5 more minutes. He holds me the whole time.

"I really need to do the rounds."

"Ok baby, I'll be back about 15 minutes before the send off starts. Please don't let me see your eyes again like that with someone that's not me."

I sit up. "I'm sor..."

He kisses me. A deep passionate kiss. "Don't be. I'm the one that has been pushing you away. It's my fault. But please don't let me see that again. It does something to me that I don't even understand." He lays his forehead against mine and closes his eyes.

I kiss him this time. He pulls me closer into him and we sit there another minute, kissing and holding each other.

"I miss this Tre."

"So do I baby." He pushes my hair back from my face and looks into my eyes. His eyes start to darken and I try to get off him. He holds me in place. "Please don't run and don't be afraid." His eyes go clear. "I hate that you're afraid. I don't know how to fix that, but I will. I know it's my fault."

I relax into him again.

"I'll set up something special tonight. Just us. I promise." He kisses my head and helps me up.

We don't say anything else, we leave my office and go back to the desk.

Elkie gives me a double take. "Oh are we not doing the veil anymore?"

I grab my head and it's not there. I run back to my office.

I come back out with it on. Mary, Dipak and Tre are all laughing.

Elkie is all confused. "But I thought..."

Mary slams a book down. "You saw nothing."

"But."

Dipak shakes his head. "Nothing."

"Ok."

"Can you make her not have goo on her 15 minutes before the send off please?"

"Yes sir..." She looks from me to Tre. "I will do my best."

He kisses me on the cheek. "I'll see you tonight."

"Have a good day sir."

He smiles at me. "Well I will now." He kisses me on the other cheek then leaves.

Elkie puts a finger in the air. "So are we still mad at that one?"

Me and Mary say, "Yes." at the same time.

Lots of people are waking up that were in the convoy accident today. It's a lot of discharges and we stay busy all day.

All the table people keep coming in and out to see the baby. Frode doesn't leave all day. Which gives Dipak someone other than us girls to talk to. I skip lunch. Way to many discharges to try and get anything else done.

"It's time to get you ready miss."

"Oh but I don't want to put down this precious baby. She's so perfect and sweet."

Mary stands there staring at me.

"What are you thinking Mary?"

"I told Tre I would try my best to get you cleaned up. I'm deciding how much effort is required for 'best' little miss."

Me, Thora, Dipak and Frode all start laughing. Dipak's eyes are dark again, watching me with the baby. He doesn't try to hide it this time. I look into his eyes and smile.

I remember what Tre said about my eyes. He probably wouldn't like it if he saw Dipak like that.

I hand the baby to Frode. "I will come back tomorrow. I'm coming Mary."

We go to my office and I get cleaned up. I come back out and Tre and Dipak are at the desk together. No one's getting punched so that's nice. I am a little afraid to go up to both of them alone though, then I see my mom walking around the corner. Oh thank you mom.

Tre kisses me on the cheek. "How was your day?"

"Busy."

Someone says, "Are we ready?"

My mom starts counting heads. "Yes we are."

We all go out the front doors together. There is a massive amount of people here. Tre stands with his arm around me. We don't talk through the whole thing. I stand beside him holding my own hands in front of me. We all wave as the carriages take off. The whole thing is really stressful and feels wrong. I'm about to tell him I want to go home but he starts down the steps with me.

"What?"

"We have an hour and a half before dinner hour. I want to take you out of the castle for a little bit."

Another carriage stops in front of us.