Chapter 19 – Expectations

Adam awoke to the uncomfortable awareness of a heavy weight on his full bladder. He blinked and gave Cringer a hard shove. The huge green cat murped unhappily, but Adam shoved again and rolled off the bed out from under him.

“Adam, are you okay?” his mother asked.

“Nature calls,” he muttered. He looked over at Felinar who nodded and followed him into the privy. He came out a few moments later to find his mother knitting quietly. He looked at the wall behind her and around the room with mild surprise at the industry his decorators had shown while he slept. There were tapestries on all the walls, making the barren room a warmer, more colorful place. He walked over to the one that hung opposite his bed. Reaching out with a gentle hand he smoothed the fabric. “Good old Phylas and Renobin,” he said. “It’s been years.” He smiled. “We used to enact this when we were little.” He turned to Felinar. “Raon would be the dastardly villain Crebin, Teela would be a surprisingly martial Phylas, and I would be Renobin, rescuing her against all odds.” He grinned at the memory. “Though occasionally she’d rescue me if Crebin got too enthusiastic.”

Felinar grinned back. “I can imagine. It must have been great fun.”

Adam nodded. At that moment, the door to the room opened and Jonis came in with his wretched blood pressure device. Adam sighed and went to sit down on the bed again, allowing Jonis to have his way. The medic did his little test, then made a note on Adam’s chart and left again.

“I’m getting really tired of that,” he said.

“I know,” his mother said.

“You haven’t been here all day, have you?” he asked suddenly. “Mom, you’ve got to get out more. You can’t mew yourself up here like this.”

“I’ve just been here for a few hours, love,” she said softly. “Don’t worry. I’m getting enough fresh air and sunlight. Which reminds me . . .” She stood up and walked over to the window. “I didn’t want to open these while you were asleep, but you need some fresh air and sunlight too.” So saying, she pulled the curtains back with a flourish. Sunlight flooded the room, brightening everything. She threw open a window and a breeze wafted in, filling the room with the scent of roses.

He smiled at the light and fresh air, but then he leaned forward, peering out into the infirmary garden. “I don’t want half the palace peering in, Mother,” he said with a grimace.

“Duncan has solved that problem,” she said. “He came up with a screen that blocks the view of those outside, but that lets sunlight and air through.”

Gratitude mingled oddly with annoyance in Adam’s spirit. Rightly or wrongly, at the moment, anything Duncan did irritated him beyond reason. He took a deep breath and said, “Remind me to thank him later.” He thought it came out without emotional overtones, but evidently he was mistaken.

His mother leaned towards him. “Adam, tell me, why are you so angry at Duncan?”

Unprepared for the question, he didn’t know what to say. He looked out the window. “I’m not angry at Duncan, Mother,” he replied unevenly.

“Adam, don’t try to hide it,” she said with gentle pressure. “That’s half your problem, trying to hide your emotions. If you’re angry, be angry.”

“Mother, I’m not angry,” Adam said, and this time his voice was under better control. He felt safe turning towards her and meeting her eyes. “Why would I be angry with Duncan? He’s been my staunch supporter for all these years.” He blinked and turned away from her surprised expression. The bitterness in his voice surprised even him. “Mother, please, I don’t want to talk about it.”

She walked over and sat on the edge of the bed, taking his hand. “I’m sorry, Adam. I didn’t mean to push.”

Adam shook his head. “It’s okay, I just don’t want to talk about it.”

“I’m just concerned that you may need to talk about it.”

“I’m already talking to Mekanek about it,” he said.

Her expression cleared. “Good. I trust his judgment.” She stroked Adam’s cheek with a worried smile. “You know I love you, don’t you?”

“I love you, too, Mother,” Adam said.

There was a knock on the door and Felinar opened it. Adam sat up with a smile when Teela and his father came in, but their sober looks worried him. “Is something wrong?” he asked.

“There was an attack on Pelivali,” his father said, walking over to the bed. “Skeletor was beaten off with no deaths and relatively few casualties.”

“Few?” Adam repeated anxiously. If He-Man had been available, there probably wouldn’t have been any. “What few?”

His father sat on the side of the bed and patted his knee. “Don’t worry, Adam. No one was badly hurt. Ram-Man was there alone when the attack started, so he sustained a few injuries, and a couple of the villagers had minor hurts. Nothing out of the ordinary.”

Teela flushed. “There was one thing out of the ordinary, but I didn’t get hurt at all,” she said.

Adam sat up straight and then slipped off the bed, going to her and taking her by the shoulders, scanning her for signs of injury. “Are you all right?” he demanded urgently. “What happened? What did those bastards do to you?”

She tried to push him back towards the bed. “I just said I wasn’t hurt,” she said. “Skeletor tried to grab me, that’s all, and I got away from him.”

Adam refused to let go of her. He gazed down into her eyes, looking to see whether she was hiding anything from him. If she was trying to protect him. “Tried to grab you, but you got away?” he said suspiciously. “That sounds like he succeeded in grabbing you. What happened?”

Teela put her arms around Adam and squeezed, her cheek pressed against his chest. He wrapped his arms around her and held her tight. “I’m fine,” she said firmly. “Skeletor surprised me from behind, he grabbed me and started to fly away on one of those stupid platforms of his. I got away from him and everything’s fine.”

“Teela, everything’s not fine!” Adam exclaimed, his emotions gone haywire. He knew Teela could handle herself, he knew she was a better fighter than ‘Prince Adam’ could ever let on to being, he knew she had been fighting Skeletor and his minions for three years with minimal damage, but that didn’t stop him from abruptly acquiring a sense of her fragility. Her frame seemed alarmingly small and frail in his arms, suddenly.

“It is fine, Adam,” she said, drawing away and looking earnestly into his eyes. “See, I’m here, I’m not injured, Skeletor didn’t get what he wanted. It’s fine.”

“I can’t lose you,” he said involuntarily, pulling her close again. He rested his face on the crown of her head. “I can’t . . . if I lost you, I don’t know what I’d do.”

Teela wormed her way closer and said, “It’s all right, Adam, I’m going to resign as captain of the guard. I won’t be going out anymore.”

“But you can’t!” Adam exclaimed, pulling away from her again and sitting down so their faces were closer to level. “I know how much you love your job. I wouldn’t dream of asking you to quit it.”

“You’re not,” Teela said with a smile. “I’m quitting it of my own free will, and I want to. I want to be with you, and . . .” She broke off, her eyes going wide.

He cut into her sudden rush of incomprehensible babblings with a kiss.

Slightly stunned, Randor tried to think of some way, or even some reason, to interrupt the two young people, but he knew they’d be terribly embarrassed if he awoke them from their pleasant daze. Of course, they’d be equally embarrassed if they came out of it on their own. Then the infirmary door opened, taking the option out of his hands. The kiss stopped abruptly, but Teela immediately buried her face in Adam’s neck, turning a shocking shade of pink.

One of Marlena’s ladies came in and whispered in her ear. Randor watched, wondering what was coming up. Marlena’s eyes widened, but she smiled, and Randor felt an unexpected tension in shoulders release, and realized that he’d been subconsciously armoring himself against bad news. Marlena nodded and gave a few quiet instructions to the young woman, whose eyes kept detouring to Adam and Teela. Finally, Marlena waved her away and shut the door. She turned to the young couple. Adam had rested his cheek on the top of Teela’s head. They looked adorable.

“Well, I think it’s time for Teela and I to go, and Adam, what would you like to wear for the concert tonight?”

“Wear?” He blinked. “I suppose I could just wear what I was going to wear to the tavern.”

Marlena’s face was a study in maternal dismay, and even Teela looked startled. Before either of them could say something that might made Adam dig his heels in, Randor shook his head. “No, no, no, that wouldn’t do for a palace engagement. Think about what she’ll expect.” Adam’s eyes had been narrowing, but at this point, he blinked and started nodding. Randor pressed his advantage. “You’d need something more regal, more in keeping with your rank.”

Teela nodded decisively. “I’ll go choose something,” she said.

Marlena’s eyes widened. “No, dear, you won’t!” Teela had started towards the door. At Marlena’s sharp tone, she stopped and turned slowly back, eyes wide with consternation. “You’re not married yet. That’s the sort of thing married people do.”

Teela flushed crimson, but Adam went white. “Married?” he exclaimed blankly. “I never said married. She never said married. No one’s getting married.”

Randor rolled his eyes, but Teela took a step back towards Adam, worried hurt in her eyes. “You . . . you don’t want to marry me?”

Adam stared at her in utter shock. “You don’t want to marry me!” he declared unsteadily.

“But I . . . I . . .” She shook her head. “I love you, Adam.”

He looked down her, his eyes warming briefly. “I love you, too,” he said. “Too much to marry you.”

Teela put her hands on her hips and tilted her head in a very familiar way, but the tone of her voice when she spoke was much less harsh than Randor was used to hearing from her towards his son. “That makes no sense.”

Adam shrugged. “I love you too much to saddle you with a throne you don’t want and early widowhood.” In the stunned silence that followed that remark, he went into the bathing room and shut the door. Randor was shocked immobile for a moment, but then hastened to follow him.