Chapter 19: Findings

"But what?" Gunga prompts me as I have broke off half way though a sentence. I blink at him in confusion. I lost my train of thought in relief that the Parthin's were not being mean to me in any way, they most likely thought that they were doing me a favor by adding some small toy to amuse myself. Too bad I hadn't figured out at the time.

"The ones who made, manufacture some of my implants they would have added the hardware in." I let myself smile soft, how silly is that, something the Parthin's thought as child's play was something Earth still used.

"So you can. What? ... hear ... radio signals?" Gunga tries to clarify in his mind what I am telling him.

"I think so. But I can not decrypt it on my own. I would need a terminal or something, in order to make sense of this." I scrunch up my face at the thought of all this noise in my head. "Right now it is just noise in my head."

He moves closer to my, edging into my space with his knees.

"It is too bad we are out on a job." he looks over at me with more than a hint of lust.

"No it is not. We made a pact." I remind him. Not to say he is not tempting but I have more then I want with Nimrod and Saul.

"I Know." He sighs. "It is only that. Now having met you and having that night I am stuck with how great it was. How much I enjoy being with you." He confesses to me. OH my it is like a punch in the gut for me. Another sweet and wonderful man. I never had this much luck when I was in space.

"Then you will need to look for someone outside the Kindred." I say to fill up the blank space.

"Why is that?"

"You would have met and chosen someone by now if you were meant to. The fact that I am the one who pushes all you buttons says to me that what you seek can not be found at home. you must have tried but felt there was something missing." I add. "You need something different."

"You have the best wise man act I have ever encountered." He chuckles at me now. no longer anxious to have me fell up his loving void.

"Good I have worked very hard on it." I grin back at him.

"Then this pact: be my friend and help me find my love." Gunga Din offers me his hand to shake.

I take it and press my fingers to his palm "I am your friend. May the universe guide us to your love." I seal the pact.

"Come here." He says with a grin as he pulls on my hand and maneuvers me into his lap. I find that I am giggling at him. It is a very uncomfortable lap, he has weapons stashed in the legs of his trousers.

"Right, this is not working." he mumbles under his breath. We shift around till sits with his legs spread open and I can lean back against his chest.

"I think we are going to start with the finessing of the love. 101, snuggle." crank my neck around to face me. "What in the universe are you carrying?"

That gets me another chuckle and shrug. "the usual." he replies and then surprises me as he wraps his arms around my waist. I let him hug me to his chest.

"You know Seth is in love with you." Gunga murmurs into my ear.

"He needs to find a nice girl to settle down with." I reply.

"hmm." his breath tickles the back of my neck. "Do you have someone in mind?"

"Oh please. I know exactly 4 eligible ladies." I sputter. "Two of them have gone back home. One of them is a menaces and the last is pregnant."

He leaves off comment on that, we drift off into a comfortable silence.

It is only a few minutes before Saber and Galahad make their way to our location. Saber gives us a silent hail with hi hands. Gunga and I climb back to our feet. I hand Saber the key to the Hummer. He gives me smile of realization and tries to get comfortable in the drivers seat. I just stand there with a little amused grin on my face as he tries to adjust the seat. Gunga Din rolls his eyes when he figures out what I am grinning at and he hits me on my shoulder to get me moving.

Galahad, looks back and forth between Saber and me. I think he is not sure why Saber is willing to take this abuse and why I can get away with it. Saber is a bigger than your average man, it could make a person nervous.

Gunga Din and I leave the two of them to get comfortable as we set to work on cleaning the path back out.