Mr. Imperfect(35)

She looked at him as if he were laying out the seven temptations on a picnic blanket. "I don't expect you to understand."

"Oh, I understand too well. I know your parents didn't bring you up to  believe this, but being a good person doesn't have to mean always  stifling your own needs." Hell, on the basis of his track record why  would she listen to him?

"The coffee's getting cold."

Engine spluttering, John Jason charged back into the lounge and demanded  a tire change. "I burned rubber." Christian took the proffered toy and  sat. There was no point in discussing this further anyway. Kezia had  clearly retreated behind defense mechanisms that only dynamite could  breach.                       
       
           



       

Grimly, he shucked off the tires and dropped them onto the table. A  sheet of purple writing paper caught his eye. Bringing over his coffee,  Kezia caught the direction of his gaze and removed Roland's letter but  Christian had seen enough to fill in the puzzle. "John Jason-" he  replaced one tire "-I'd sure like to see that Batman cape your auntie  Kez bought you."

"I hate it."

"I just wondered if it was one of those new magic ones." In the middle  of handing Christian the next tire, John Jason paused to stare at him.  "You know about the magic ones, don't you?" The child shook his head.  "Go get it and I'll check it for you."

The boy crawled under the couch, pulled out the offending object and  brought it over. Christian examined it, praying for a distinguishing  mark. "Ah! See that?" He pointed to the label-Made in Korea-and received  an awed nod. "This means it's a magic cape. Makes its wearer  invincible." John Jason looked blank.

"That means nothing and no one can ever beat you." Kezia clarified, and the child's eyes widened.

"Then I should give it to Mummy," he exclaimed.

For a moment Christian couldn't answer. Out of the corner of his eye, he  saw Kezia turn away. "It's really kind of you to think of doing that,  but you know, the doctors are using their own magic on her." He held out  the cape. "So what do you say?"

"I want to put it on."

Christian helped him, pulling the shiny black hood over the child's  head, adjusting the oval eyeholes and straightening the crumpled ears.  As he tied the shiny ribbons under John Jason's chubby chin he foresaw a  potential problem. "You know, the magic in this cape is so powerful  that you should really only wear it some of the time, a few hours. The  good thing is, the magic still works when you take it off, say, to have a  bath or go to bed."

When the cape was secured, Batman stood back, his eyes button-bright behind the mask. "Am I in'cible now?"

"Invincible? Yep." Christian nodded seriously. "One more thing about  that cape, you have to be nice to whoever gave it to you, otherwise the  magic won't work."

Kezia turned back sharply.

"Oh," said John Jason. His lower lip pushed out, then his small fingers tugged at the bow.

Recognizing this was no easy fix, Christian backed off. "That means, saying 'please' and 'thank you' and using your manners."

"Then the magic will work?"

"It will work," he promised.

"Okay." The child glanced at his godmother. "Thank you for the cape,  Auntie Kez." Spoken grudgingly, it still made her brown eyes glow.

"You're welcome."

"I'm gonna see how I look in the mirror." Batman disappeared into the bedroom.

Reluctantly, Kezia's gaze met Christian's. "Thank you." Could he count  that as progress? She moved to the door. "I'll see you out." Guess not.

He followed her without protest. "You didn't ask me how I found out. I went back to Waterview."

That surprised her. He watched her eyes widen as she took in his  proximity, realize he'd blocked off her escape route. "I came back to  try to be that guy you wanted. To see if I could change." He put his  hands on the wall on either side of her body, watched her face pale.

"Christian, don't."

"When I heard about Marion I knew I didn't deserve another chance. So I came here to make amends and leave."

She made no protest. He'd known she wouldn't, but her eyes were luminous  with regret. Christian leaned forward and kissed her, knowing full well  she'd kiss him back if it was intended as a goodbye.

Not knowing he'd changed his mind.

Still, he wouldn't be Christian Kelly if he didn't take advantage of the  last willing kiss she would give him for a while. Her kiss was warm and  sweet and sad until he caught her face in his hands and breathed fire  into it. She broke free.

"That was my plan when I came here. Then I find you intending to  sacrifice your life to guilt. So I figure I'll marry you." Kezia made a  strangled sound. Christian paused politely but she couldn't seem to get  any words out. "Because if you're set on throwing your life away on one  error of judgment, then, babe, it's going to be me."



"HI, SOLDIER." IGNORING THE MEDICAL paraphernalia, Christian laid a hand on Marion's cheek, and got a wan smile in reply.

"I was hoping you'd show," she said. "We need some comic relief. It's all too mighty serious around here."                       
       
           



       

"Can we be serious just a little longer?" He stood where she could see  him without the aid of mirrors. "I'm here to confess. It was my fault  the banister wasn't fixed."

"And Kezia's fault she fell and needed help, and my fault for packing  blocks in a flimsy box." She was obviously weary of the subject. "I  don't see any point in playing the blame game, Christian. Being human is  an imperfect business. When I'm better, remind me to slap you around."

He felt he'd gotten off too lightly; she sensed it. "It was an accident,  a bad hand. From the same deck as your lousy childhood, my broken  marriage and the mess Muriel left Kezia. All we can do is make the best  of the cards." Tears trickled down her face. "I haven't been doing that,  but I need to be a survivor now-not a victim."

Something shifted inside Christian, something big and important. He took  a tissue from the box on the bedside table, gently wiped away her  tears, and swallowed a couple of his own. "How can such a wise woman be  scared of spiders and not rats?"

She half laughed, half sighed. "Thanks for giving me another reason not to lie here helpless longer than I need to."

Christian scanned the ceiling, declared it spider-free, and pulled up a  chair. "Talk to me or nap, it doesn't matter. I'm company."

Over the next hour Marion did both. Through their drifts of  conversation, he learned a lot-some of it from what she said. He learned  Kezia had been her rock, but Marion was ready to deal with the  specialists directly now if her overprotective minder would just back  off. He learned that Sally had been stirring the pot; Kezia had taken it  off the boil, but Marion was worried about future confrontations. He  learned that while Kezia had Marion's loyalty, she really didn't want to  lose her sister, the only family she had left.

"How did a man like you get so good in the sickroom?" she wondered  sometime in the second hour as he adjusted her mirrors so she could see  the jacaranda flowering outside the window.

"My mother was sick for a long time before she died."

"I remember your mother," said Marion as though his admission was  unremarkable. "She was a nurturer like Kezia but … " Her voice trailed  off.

"But?"

"These silly painkillers loosen my tongue."

"Finish what you were going to say."

"But too passive. My mum always said she should have left your father."

Christian had never considered that. The beatings had only started after  her death but Paul had always been a difficult man-moody,  unpredictable. Theirs had never been a happy home. He changed the  subject. "I saw John Jason this afternoon. You've got a great kid."

"I'm worried about him. This is no place for a little boy."

Christian agreed with her. "How about if Kez took John Jason home and brought him back weekends to visit?"

Marion's eyes lit up, then the worry lines reappeared. "I know Kezia,  she'll see it as banishment. And what about her wrist? She's managed  this past week because she's had to, but … "

Suddenly he saw a way forward for all of them and it involved jumping off a cliff. "I'll go with her, share the child care."

"I want to shake my head in disbelief right now but I can't. Is this where you tell me I've been asleep for a hundred years?"

Christian relayed the highlights of his conversation with Kezia and  Marion's eyes went as wide as saucers. "How did she react to the  marriage thing?"