Defiance (Significance #3)(21)

"Let her go," Rodney said in exasperation and came to stand beside me. "Do we really have to go through the whole spiel with each person individually?"
"What spiel?" the man huffed.
Rodney crossed his arms. "The spiel about Maggie being your frigging Visionary and you better show some respect or she'll fry your tail."
"Uh…" The man's eyes darted from Rodney, to the other guy, to me. "Fine." He waved his hand for us to go. "You won't get very far anyway."
I pushed past him and ran my face straight into the chest of a tall man. "Ow," I muttered and looked up before seeing his face. Donald.
"Are you quite finished making a fool of yourself?" he said pompously. "I don't even know you and yet you're so predictable. This is why the Visionary shouldn't be imprinted. You're letting your emotions get the best of you instead of doing what's right."
"And what's right is keeping someone locked up for protecting someone else?" I replied evenly.
He sighed. "Visionary, you are completely unreasonable. Law is not ruled by emotion and passion." 
"It should be!" I yelled up at him. "If you're not passionate about it then how can you even say you're invested? All that should matter is what's right and what's good for these people. And Caleb being locked away as some silly punishment for defending me isn't right! And you keep saying that I'm the Visionary," the bars next to us started to rattle. He glanced over nervously and then back to me. "And you keep saying that I'm important and I need to lead, so let me. Move out of my way!"
Donald glanced over my shoulder. "Is this your pathetic excuse for backup?"
"No, they're just watching the show. And as mad as I am, there is going to be a huge one if you don't move."
He scoffed. "Are you trying to pull rank on me?"
"I'm trying to pass." He just gawked, so I let my feelings go and when the energy ribbons came, he backed away and inched around me. He hadn't seemed too fond of them the first time he saw them either.
I know it seems like I was just bullying them all into doing what I wanted, but I would explain everything tomorrow when they were all together. I couldn't let Caleb stay stuck down there.
I followed Donald with my eyes and saw him motion to a few others standing off to the side. At first, I thought he was ordering them to attack me, but they followed behind him up the stone steps. Ahh…he was using them as a shield from me.
Coward.
I turned back to the cells. There were four of them and Caleb was in the last one in complete darkness. My energy ribbons illuminated his arms stuck out the bars as he rested his elbows there. I ran to him like I hadn't seen him in weeks.
He grabbed my face and sighed as we both we released from the coiled aches. I caught all of his emotions at once. He was mad I put myself in 'danger' to come and get him, but he was so happy and proud of me. To watch me stand up to Donald… I thought he'd be angry about it, say I had acted childish for pulling the Visionary card, but instead he was overflowing with pride.
"Open it," he said gruffly.
"Keys?" I called to Rodney and the guard.
"They don't use keys down here, babe," Caleb explained. He motioned to the bars and I noticed there wasn’t a lock. I pulled the door, but it wouldn't move. I looked at him questioningly. "It's charmed."
I huffed, "Is everything charmed in this place?"
"Yes," he answered softly. "It is. Our abilities are what we all have in common when we're here."
"So can't you just borrow their power and get yourself out?"
"The inside of the cell is charmed. They aren't that stupid." He motioned again. "Open it. I'm ready to kiss you like crazy." I almost smiled as I tried to yank it again. He corrected me. "No, babe, magic for magic. Your human strength won't open it, but your ability will."
I understood. I did what I had to do and yanked it open with my mind. It slammed against another cell and I squeaked as I moved out of the way. Caleb stumbled forward and engulfed me in his warm, broad arms. With his lips on my forehead, he spoke against my skin. "Mmm, you're in so much trouble." He looked down at me and grinned. "You refuse to listen, don’t you?"
"When it's about you and jail? Yes." I grinned back. "Come on, gorgeous, let's go.""Hey, that's my line," he laughed and winced as he stepped on something. I looked down and saw he was barefoot.
"Where's your shoes?"
"They took them. I think it's a humiliation thing." I felt my lips purse in disapproval. I bent down closer and saw that he was stepping on bones; mouse bones. "Ew!" I squealed and practically dragged him to the stairs. "Gross, disgusting. Real prisoners in real prison are treated better then that!"
Caleb smirked at me in humor and then turned to Rodney. "Dude, I thought you were going to watch her."
"Hey!" I bristled.
"I meant look after," Caleb admonished sweetly. I knew he was throwing me a bone, but I fell for it anyway. Especially when he added his arm to my shoulder and kissed my temple.
"This is me looking after her," Rodney said. "If I didn’t come, she'd have come by herself."
"And you, Aleza," Caleb said, hard and angry. "What are you doing here?" The man who I'd talked into letting me get to Caleb stood awkwardly and looked down at his shoes. "Aleza, you put me in that cell yourself, so why would you help her get me out?"
"For the same reason I did," Rodney replied. "Your girl here can be pretty persuasive. The fact that she can pretty much do anything she wants, and just hasn't realized it yet, is the scariest part of all."
Aleza looked up. "I did it because she made me see that some things are more important than my loyalty to a blind cause."
"I hope it stays that way," Caleb said begrudged and pulled me to walk in front of him on the steps. I could feel the pull and tingle of my touch as I healed Caleb's feet. Aleza parted ways and Rodney walked with us to my door. Or Caleb and my door, I should say, because I wasn't letting him out of my sight tonight. Or any other night.
"Well, I'll let you two get to bed," Rodney said and went to turn. I grabbed his arm and hugged his around his neck.
"Thank you."
"Thank you," he whispered, "for looking out for my boy."
"I'll always do that."
He leaned back and smiled, winked at Caleb and he was gone, stealthily down the hall.
Caleb pulled me into the room without a word and went straight to the shower...leaving the bathroom door wide open. He took his shirt off with one tug from the back over his head and then he unbuttoned his pants, letting them hang loosely on him as he started the water. He turned and watched me as he let them fall to the floor and he was only in his boxer briefs. 
Boxer….briefs….
My body was reacting strangely as I leaned against the wall of my room. I gulped, breathing was a thing of the past, and my eyes refused to blink for fear of missing something. He didn't smile, he didn't smirk or wink, he just watched me. He hooked his fingers into the waistband and pulled them down.
And like an idiot, I closed my eyes at the best part.
I laughed at myself, at my utter ridiculousness. He was my fiancé, he had seen me naked already. I wondered what I was scared of, but in truth, I knew. I was scared of starting something that I wasn’t ready to finish. When I opened my eyes, he was already in the shower. And this charmed room kept his thoughts private, and I was almost glad for that for a split second, that it kept my secret as well.
I walked toward the bathroom door. I could see his silhouette through the frosted glass of the shower stall. Ok, Maggie, you are not a child anymore. You are going to be eighteen in a couple of days, you're about to get married, you're about to technically lead a race of people.
I boldly walked forward to the sink and grabbed my toothbrush. I picked up the toothpaste and spread a fat line that dropped off the end and dripped into the sink. I shook my head at myself and scolded my shaking hands. It was just brushing teeth, this was not intimate.
I turned on the faucet, wet my toothbrush and put it in my mouth. As soon as I started working the bristles around, I straightened and watched Caleb. He was washing his hair and my stomach got a funny knot in it as I watched his arms flex and move. I continued to brush my teeth and looked at the girl in the mirror.
Wow, I really wasn't the same girl anymore. It wasn't just my looks, but my eyes, even I could see the change, the determination in them.
The shower cut off and he pulled the towel from off the top. Then a few seconds later the stall door slid open and he was standing there, the towel low on his hips. He watched me with fascination. I smiled slightly around my toothbrush before spitting and wetting my toothbrush and brushing again. When I straightened back up this time he was behind me. I watched him in the mirror as I rinsed, then I turned.
He shook his head slowly, his lips parted. Then he moved towards me, reached around me, and opened a drawer beside us. There was a stockpile of bathroom toiletries in there, all laid out neat and straight of course. He pulled a new toothbrush out, opened the wrapper and went to the side of me to brush.
I stayed right there. I think we both knew this was a new step for us; being normal, being human, doing human things around each other that are considered an intimate but necessary thing. This was something married people did.