SquidgeWorld Archive

Ham's Diamond
By Mrs. Meaker

"Would you ever have imagined?" asked Julie of Mike Donovan as they watched the party winding down. It was almost three in the morning and no one seemed to really be interested in heading for bed, not even the guests of honor.

Donovan chuckled. "Never. Never. NEVER!" he said so emphatically, Julie had laugh. He watched and thought back to a week ago......

**

The number of dead Visitors surrounding them was about twice the number they had expected when the battle began. They had inadvertently walked into a trap and they had been surrounded and things were looking very bleak when, suddenly, the Visitors were themselves surrounded and the two forces joined and won.

Mike Donovan and Ham Tyler stood watching the dust clear, still almost unable to believe their luck. "We should have bought it." Donovan said. Ham simply grunted agreement.

A man approached them. "Ham." He said to Tyler.

The man grinned. "We had a bit of a clue you were walking into this trap and thought we'd try to help. Been a long time. Good to see you old buddy." But his eyes were hard and cold.

He began to speak again, when he froze staring at a spot directly behind and between Donovan and Tyler. They spun around and found themselves facing a woman with a 9mm pointed directly between Tyler's eyes.

Donovan's first thought was that she was one of the most beautiful, dangerous looking creatures he had ever seen. Her skin was light brown and her eyes, fixed not on him, but on Tyler, were a beautiful green. Her long, straight black hair was down to her knees in a pony tail. He snuck a look at Tyler. Tyler's face wasn't it's usual mask. Donovan would have sworn he saw something in Tyler's eyes. But what? It wasn't anger, which is what Donovan would have expected to find. He couldn't place it.

"Gem." Tyler said, his voice a little hoarse.

"Ham." She said, not moving the gun one centimeter. "Been a long time."

"Yea."

"Yes."

Donovan took a moment to look at the man they had been speaking to earlier. His mouth was slightly open, as though he couldn't believe what he was seeing. "Gem. I know you didn't bring us all the way out here to fight this battle just to put a bullet in his head." He paused. "Did you?" he asked, looking even more confused, but slightly pleased by the prospect.

Still not taking her eyes or her gun off of Tyler's Gem said, "No, I didn't. The Lizards needed killin. I'm still thinking about him."

"You going to fucking kill me or what, Gem?" Tyler asked.

"I sure the fuck ought to, oughtn't I?" she said.

Tyler and Gem looked into each other's eyes and apparently communicated something to each other. Gem snorted and lowered the gun. "Waste of ammo." She muttered. She holstered her weapon.

She turned to Donovan. "You were set up. My Intelligence reported to me yesterday. You have a traitor in your midst somewhere."

Donovan turned to Tyler. "Would you mind telling me who this IS?"

Tyler suppressed a smile. "This is Gem, also known as Emerald Hauser. She and I go back farther than even you and I do."

Donovan looked again at Gem. She looked easy fifteen years younger than Tyler. She had the same sort of wall behind her that Tyler had. Now that he had half a minute to think about it, she radiated the same air Tyler did. He knew he didn't have time to speculate, as if Tyler would answer his questions anyway. He offered Gem his hand.

She ignored it and turned again to the man they had been speaking to. "Max, round everyone up and we'll go back to their camp." Max turned to go, a strange look in his eyes.

"You know where our camp is?" Donovan said.

Gem looked at him. "I know everything."

**

Sure enough Gem lead Donovan's entire group back to their newest camp, where they had been not thirty days. "Find your Julie and whoever else is privy to information. There will be a meeting in twenty minutes." She then turned on her heel and walked away.

Donovan grabbed Tyler's arm. "Wanna explain?" he asked, unable to keep the edge from his voice.

"No." Tyler said.

Twenty minutes later the highest-ranking members of the LA Resistance were together in the main room of the log cabin that was their main building. Donovan had briefed everyone there as best he could. Julie was demanding information from Tyler, who remained stonily silent. Suddenly the door opened and Gem walked in with Max. She walked up to Julie and spoke.

"I am Emerald Hauser and this is my associate Max Richards. Before we rescued your people from the clearing they were about to be executed in, we ....."

Donovan interrupted "Wait just a minute Lady!" He exclaimed.

Gem turned on him. "You were outnumbered two to one. Fifty of you, not even, versus a hundred of their best fighters. If my hundred hadn't shown up, your men would be wolf food and you and the Fixer here would be reliving your worst nightmares for Diana and her Lizards." She shot a look at Tyler. "You're losing your touch, Ham." She said quietly.

Tyler did not reply. Donovan noticed he looked a bit shaken.

"NOW!" Gem went on. "We were collecting Intelligence on the group that attacked you. They were scheduled to finish you off and move on to us, in the desert. I found this plan unacceptable." She grinned.

Julie looked at Gem. "How did you find this out? Who are you? Why should we trust you?" she asked.

Gem held up a finger. "I have my sources." She held up another finger "I told you who I am." She held up a third finger. "I just saved the lives of fifty of your best fighters."

Julie turned to Tyler. "You know this woman?" she asked.

Chris Farber choked a laugh into a cough and cleared his throat.

Tyler gave him a venomous look. "I do." Was all he said.

Julie gave him an exasperated look "Would you mind horribly elaborating?" she demanded.

Ham Tyler heaved a huge sigh. "Chris and I have worked with them in the past."

Julie was about to say something more when Chris interrupted.

"Julie. I think you will find that Gem is all that Tyler is." He grinned slightly and glanced at Tyler. "Maybe even more. She is completely trustworthy. What she says is the truth. She has my backing and she has Tyler's backing." Not a single person in the room seemed to believe this, looking at the look on not only Tyler's face, but Gem's. "The four of us, me, Tyler, Gem and Max, all worked together before the Visitors." But he glared at Max.

Julie looked for a long time at Gem. "Chris' recommendation means a lot." She said to Gem.

Gem nodded, once, but said nothing.

Chris cleared his throat. "Julie. If you haven't noticed already, in many ways she IS Tyler."

Julie nodded. "I noticed." She said. Sighing. "Tell us what you know."

Gem explained that their camp was being watched from the inside by a Convert planted by the Visitors. They needed to move their camp first, then flush out the spy and deal with it. Gem suggested three places and allowed the group to vote on the locations without her or Max present. The rest of her people seemed to take it upon themselves to begin breaking down the camp.

After being allowed back in, Gem went on. "There is news I also have to deliver to Donovan." Here she paused, and her voice was almost gentle when she spoke again. "It has to do with his son."

The group hushed. Everyone knew about Donovan's son, Sean. Converted by the Visitors, he had, for the last three years, been working for them against humanity.

Donovan straightened. "What news." He said, bracing himself.

Gem seemed to be looking for the right words, then gave up. "Your son is dead."

Donovan closed his eyes. He didn't think he could have felt more pain. "How."

Gem, straightened. "He was killed by Resistance in the desert."

Donovan opened his eyes. He looked into the eyes of this exotic woman. "Who ... How... " he began.

Gem returned his look. Her eyes were completely unreadable. "Suffice it to say, he was a spy sent by the Visitors. When he was discovered he choose to fight, rather than submit to our Conversion Cure. He was killed."

Donovan and the others had heard of the Conversion Cure. It was supposed to be as difficult and dangerous as Diana's Conversion, but was made worse by the fact that the Cure was resisted more, it seemed. Few were converted BACK. Most seemed to be willing to die rather than to submit to the Cure.

Donovan took a deep breath. "When should we start moving?" he asked the floor.

**

Three days later, at the new camp, close to the desert, Ham Tyler finally got a chance to talk to Gem in private. He had been dreading this conversation for many, many years. He almost broke down and had it back in Chicago, where he had gone with Elizabeth, the Star Child and run into Gem. One of them had always managed to avoid talking about anything more serious than militaristic tactics every time they had been together. Not that he had seen her more that a dozen times in the last dozen years.

Gem lived in a relatively large tent at the very back of the camp.

Tyler approached the tent and heard voices inside. He recognized Max immediately.

"We will lose these people once we find their spy, right?" he was asking.

"We need reinforcements. We may stay on with them." Tyler heard her say.

"Because of HIM?" Max said, tightly.

No answer. Tyler hurried to the entrance of the tent. He heard Max grunt "He'll be the death of you. Mark my words. He threw you away, remember?" and saw him throw back the tent flap and storm away. Once he was out of sight, Tyler approached the tent.

"Come in, Ham." She said.

He entered the tent. She was sitting at a desk, holding a cup in both hands. She had not heard him approach, he knew. She always seemed to KNOW when he was around.

She turned now to face him. "I almost killed you that day in the clearing." She said, looking at him for the first time in as many days. She drained her cup and put it down.

"I know." Tyler said. The sun was setting fast and the shadows were lengthening in the tent. Gem did not turn on any lights.

Gem stood. "It is time, isn't it." she said. "Time for the talk we have been avoiding for so many years."

Tyler raised his hands, as if to touch her, but dropped them. "I should have married you, you know." He said heavily. "I should have married you a hundred times by now."

Gem smiled weakly. "You trained me too well. I would have said no." she said. "Chris was right, you know. I AM you."

Tyler returned the small smile. "Emerald." He took a deep breath and began again. "Diamond." He said, now looking directly into her eyes. "Not even Chris is a better partner to me." He searched her face. "I should have married you a thousand times by now." He returned to her eyes. "I owe you an apology. You deserved better than I gave you. You deserved better than me." He pinched the bridge of his nose. "This isn't working. I should go." And he turned.

He had forgotten how strong she really was. Her small frame gave no clue to the muscle she possessed. She grabbed his arm and turned him around. She cold knocked him before he knew what was happening. He fell down hard on the cot, knocking it over. He sat up and whipped at his nose, which was bleeding slightly.

"You son of a bitch!" she breathed. She looked at him, her eyes somehow hard and soft at the same time. "I should have married YOU a thousand times." She kneeled beside him. "You were my first. You have ruined me for the few men stupid enough to try and take your place. I hear we have the same problem. Won't let anyone near. Not because of battle scars, as we allow everyone to think, even ourselves." She wiped the blood from his face. "Because we" she paused a moment, and Tyler wondered if he would hear it for the first time ever. He was disappointed "care about each other and are so damn afraid of destroying each other that we have come too close too many times to destroying ourselves. How many suicide missions have you assigned yourself, Ham?" she asked him.

He looked into her eyes, which were brimming with tears he knew she would never allow to fall. He took her into his arms and neither needed to say anything as they wrapped themselves in each other for the first time in twelve years.

**

In the few hours before dawn, Ham and Gem lay on the floor of Gem's tent. In one night they had tried to make up for the years they had not allowed themselves to enjoy.

"I missed you Di." Tyler said into her long black hair. He felt her nod her agreement.

She heaved a huge sigh and got up. Diamond. He hadn't called her that since Chicago. Before that? Probably ten years. She tossed him his clothes and began dressing herself. They did not speak. In some ways it was like they had not been together in years, but it felt more like they had been together every day between. They both knew the relief of finally freeing your heart to another.

Tyler cleared his throat after tying his boots. "Diamond. What are we going to do about uncovering the spy here?" he asked, all business again.

"I'll take care of it today." Gem replied, ignoring the use of Diamond instead of Emerald or Gem, though the slip told them volumes about where they stood with each other.

"Need help?" Tyler asked, knowing the answer.

"Just get your people together by 7am in front of the main tent. I'll take care of my people and everything else."

Ham nodded. He walked to the tent flap, then suddenly turned around and rushed to give her one last kiss.

"I'm sorry Diamond." He said.

"Don't be. I'm not. Not anymore" She replied.

At 7am, everyone in the camp was gathered in front of the main tent. Donovan figured there had to be at least 200 people here, between the two Resistance groups. Tyler had informed him this morning that the spy would be uncovered this morning by Gem and she would be taking care of it. When he asked Tyler how he thought she could uncover a spy in a group of people she didn't even know, he simply said "She will." And abruptly left his tent.

When Gem appeared before the group, Donovan was again amazed by her beauty. Her knee length hair was braided and tucked into a linen tunic, so only the hair on top of her head and below the tunic could be seen. She walked through the crowd, arranging people in orderly lines. She then approached the front of the lines and motioned Julie, Donovan, Tyler, and Max to step forward. In a voice carried by the wind so every one of the two hundred people could hear her, she spoke.

"We are here to uncover the spy in the Resistance group lead by Julie, Mike Donovan and Ham Tyler. No doubt the question has already been asked: 'How can she do that without knowing anyone in this group.'." A murmur went through the crowd, confirming.

She walked along the front line of people. She stopped at the last man, a redhead who had joined with Julie and the others one year earlier. Donovan could not for the life of him remember the man's name. She looked into his eyes a moment. She pulled out a gun and pointed it between his eyes.

"How?" He asked, stonily.

"You set them up. How many times before I could find you? But then you were hidden by my own Intelligence, weren't you?" she asked. She raised her voice. "Your spy!" she exclaimed. She kept looking at him "Last chance to be Cured."

"You and your friends will lose, Gem. Make it easy on yourself and give yourself up to Diana." He said just before she pulled the trigger.

Julie rushed forward, with Donovan at her heels. "What the HELL!" she demanded!

Gem ignored them. "Who is the Priest among you?" she asked.

Father Matthews stepped forward. Gem motioned him to give Last Rites.

She turned to Max.

Max suddenly went red. He stammered .."I Is this the time to walk down memory lane? You brought them all out here to find a spy in these peoples ranks, not to talk about me." He glanced, ashen faced at the fallen body. "You found him, let's leave them to themselves now."

Gem grinned even more broadly, but it was a cold grin. "I'm getting there. There's one final thing to take care of." She said.

"I trusted you, Max. It took me so long to see. YOU were responsible for breaking up our Team, weren't you? You kept trying to keep us apart. But, what? A dozen times, you failed. We'd leave New York and there was Ham. Again and again. And you hated him."

Donovan remembered the look that had passed between Tyler and Max that day in the field. Gem had taken their attention, but now he realized that Max and Tyler knew each other. And hated each other. Because of Gem? Donovan asked himself. Tyler had never shown interest in another human being. The closest had been Ruby, but that was no romance. This was looking like some sort of lovers triangle.

Max looked stony, but perplexed. "I have never hated Tyler. If we have to go through this now for some reason, I knew that you two were nothing but distraction for each other. Always have been. You two wouldn't notice a cannon pointed in your face when your panting over each other. You know it's true, don't you? You were only ever safe with me, Diamond."

Donovan couldn't believe his eyes when Gem hauled off and hit Max so hard he spun twice before falling into the sand. "Do you think I am blind Maximillion?" She kicked him in the ribs. "Did you think I would not recognize your own brother because you think I have never seen him before?" She kicked him again in the head. "And only ONE person is allowed to call me Diamond. You aren't HIM!"

They pulled guns on each other at the same time. Donovan saw Chris grab Tyler by the arm as he tried to move forward. "Leave it, man. It's her fight."

Max and Gem were staring at each other, each looking into the barrel of the other's gun. Max managed to get to his feet. "So you figured it out, finally." He sneered, whipping at a laceration on his head. "You had me convinced that you finally had the sense to kill that scum asshole Tyler four days ago when you held your gun on him. But no! You did everything but fall on the ground and fuck each other blind right there!" he took a deep breath. "I protected you all those years. Tyler has the luck of the Irish. I have been trying to kill him for fourteen years, ever since I realized he wanted you and, worse, you wanted him. If you had gone with Tyler you would both have been dead by now. I should have killed him 4 days ago!" he spat.

He took that moment to throw Tyler a venomous look. It was enough time for Gem to kick the gun away from Max. He brought his attention back to her, and smiled. "Go ahead. Kill me."

She threw her gun after his. She assumed a fighting stance.

"You think he taught you well?" he sneered. He looked for a moment at Tyler. "You taught ME better". And he assumed a fighters stance also.

He threw the first punch, knocking Gem to the ground. She curled up and brought up both feet into Max's groin. She hopped back to her feet as he rolled around on the ground, but he quickly recovered himself.

Most of the people in Julie's camp began to rush forward to stop the fight. It seemed so mismatched. Gem was five foot seven, at best while Max was at least a foot taller than her and seemingly at least a hundred pounds heavier.

A gunshot made everyone freeze. Tyler lowered the gun and yelled, "Leave them alone!" He walked over to Gem and Max. "She'll kill you Max," he said. "You know she will. Run while you still can."

Max glared at him while whipping blood from his nose.

"Think about it Max." Chris yelled. "Is it worth it?"

Max glared at Chris, then again at Tyler and again at Gem. He glanced at his gun, then turned in the opposite direction and stalked off. No one moved. Two minutes later they heard an engine revving up and a jeep driving away.

Chris walked up to Father Andrew, who was done administering last rights to the guy Gem had just killed. Father Matthews finished and stood facing Chris.

"Can I borrow you a moment, Padre?" he asked

Father Matthews followed Chris to where Gem and Tyler stood looking at each other. Julie and Donovan joined them.

Ham and Gem stared around at them. Tyler's eyes fell on Chris and Father Matthews.

"Before you say anything, Tyler," Chris began in a deadly serious voice. "I have been a part of this Family for fifteen years. I have watched you and Gem here fight this thing while you were together and I have watched you fight it, alone, for the last thirteen years. Your anger at yourself has driven you for all this time." He glanced over at Gem. "If you two had gotten married fourteen years ago, like you wanted, you could have driven the Lizards off the planet together with no help from any of us." He looked back to Tyler. "Do it. Do us all a favor."

Tyler tightened his jaw. He turned to Gem. He whipped the small stream of blood trickling from her nose with a finger. "I should have married you a hundred times by now." He said, even more gruff than usual. "I should have married you a thousand times by now. I never even asked. I never said a word. I guess I didn't have to. We both knew. But I never said a word." He looked deep into her eyes. "I love you, Emerald, my Diamond and I want you to be my wife. Will you marry me?"

Gem returned the look. "I married you in my heart the day we met." She said, her own voice quite hoarse. "Yes Ham, I love you and I will marry you."

Someone driving into the camp that moment would have thought the Visitors had fled the planet. Even on Victory Day it seemed there was not so much cheering. Donovan looked at Julie and there were tears in her eyes. Donovan could not believe the Tyler he was seeing. The man was smiling the first real smile Donovan had ever seen on his face. It seemed that Tyler was suddenly ten years younger. No. Thirteen years younger.

***

The wedding was scheduled to take place three days later. Ham asked both Chris and Donovan to stand by him. As they helped him dress in a suit they had scrambled into town to get, Donovan had a chance to get some questions answered.

"Fourteen years?" he asked first.

He was surprised again when Ham smiled and actually laughed. "Yes. We met fourteen years ago. All four of us were assigned to a top-secret mission by the CIA. Di was the youngest. She was all of twenty years old, fresh out of the Academy. A damn trainee."

Chris laughed at the memory. Donovan settled himself down no a trunk in the tent to listen.

"They were cut from the same cloth. You could tell immediately. If Ham here was ever twenty, he would have been just like her, 'cept uglier" he added, snorting with laughter.

"I was told to take her under my wing and teach her everything I knew. I fought her assignment with everything I had! Once I lost, though, I figured the only way to keep us from all getting killed because of that little girl was to do the thing right! I shortened her name to Gem, just to annoy her" he remembered, grinning. He looked up at the canvas top of the tent they were all sharing. "But she is the fastest learner I have ever known. I never had to show her anything twice. Seemed like half the time she learned something before I even finished teaching her." He marveled at the memory.

"I told her I was going to call her 'Diamond' because she was better than I expected. A diamond in the rough, like. Truth was within 6 months I was so deeply in love with her I didn't know what to do. She had become more precious to me than any Emerald, so I sort of promoted her." He said, and Donovan almost fainted as he say an unmistakable blush rise on Ham Tyler's cheeks. "She was the perfect partner to me. She anticipates me better than Chris does. By the end of the first year we were sleeping together and Chris was telling me to marry her and give him and Max a break."

Chris grinned at the memory. "Yea, but Max .... " He broke off, his face clouding. "Gem was always a knockout. The only woman I have ever known who could kick your ass in an evening gown and still look ladylike doing it. She earned my respect when I got made the mistake of calling her Diamond, trying to tease her." He pulled up his left pants leg. A long, old scar was there. "She gave me this." He sighed. "Anyway, Max must have had something for her too. They had a big ol fight one day. Ever since then, it seems, Ham has been having close shaves. Remember El Salvador? I don't thin that was so much an accident as a MaxIdent."

Tyler took over the storytelling. "Yea, I remember that. They kept breaking us up. Me and Chris, Gem and Max. After the CIA stuff ended and the Resistance stuff began, we separated for what we thought would be the last time. All I know is that Max had managed to get Gem to trust him enough so she bought some story he fed her. He told her it was MY idea to break the team up this final time. She wouldn't talk to me before we left for California. I tried to call her, but you know how badly the Visitors made phone calls. Writing was just not an option. I didn't know exactly where she was, anyway. The longer I was separated from her the more bitter I got. Ruby came closest to hearing this very story, but ..... " he broke off, remembering Ruby.

He and Chris cleared their throats at the same time. "After most of it was over, I wanted to find her. Chicago was closer to New York than LA was, so I went with Elizabeth there. Turns our New York Resistance took it upon themselves to send Max and Gem there also. I ran into her on Michigan Avenue on Victory Day. She was alone and we almost literally bumped into each other." He grinned and chuckled to himself. "Elizabeth was a very bright girl. She sensed something.

She insisted Gem join us for Dinner at the old Allerton Hotel. Somehow Elizabeth managed to get us over awkward silence and talking. Then she got us to dance together. We stayed out there for two hours, " he remembered. "It was like the separation had never happened by the time we decided to sit down again. Max was seated at the table instead of Elizabeth." Tyler's voice suddenly became very hard. "I should have asked her out there on the dance floor, but I didn't. Max whisked Gem away on some last minute assignment bullshit. I didn't see her again until a week ago."

"I thought she was going to kill you" Donovan said.

Tyler laughed. "So did I. I guess she was seriously considering it. No. I know she was seriously considering it."

In Gem's tent she and Julie were having a similar conversation.

"I have never seen Tyler like this" Julie marveled.

"He is closed. So am I. I suppose that is why we are so .... Made for each other." Gem replied. "He fought my assignment to his team with everything he could think of, but I got in anyway. He tried to break me, make me quit, but I am just as stubborn as he is" she grinned. "Somehow during his training of me, we fell in love." She suddenly looked bitter. "Max changed that. He did everything he could to break our perfect team up. He tried to kill Ham in Laos and El Salvador to name a couple of places. They were no accidents, Ham is too good with explosives for that."

"Anyway, it looked like Max has split us up good and permanent when we went to different coasts to offer Resistance." Gem went on. "Max told me it was Ham's idea. He said Ham told him he had finally come to his senses. There's a sixteen-year age gap between me and Ham, you know. Max said Ham wasn't willing to appear like some rich old man with a young girl on his arm. I should have known it was bullshit, but Max caught me after a big battle against the Visitors in Boca Raton and I wasn't thinking straight. I got the truth in Chicago. That Elizabeth was something else! If it weren't for her ..." Gem broke off. "But Max found us at dinner and pulled me off to some 'emergency call'. A drunk Visitor that Max used to get me out of the Allerton." She scoffed.

Julie looked rapt. "If you don't mind my asking ..." she began.

Gem looked at her with a smile. "I think I am in a good enough mood to answer anything."

"Why does Tyler call you Diamond?"

Gem turned a darker shade of copper. "He said it was because I was training out so much better than he expected, I must be a diamond in the rough." She said. "But I think it was his way of telling me he loved me. Priced me with a precious diamond."

"Ham Tyler?" she said, disbelieving.

Gem laughed out loud. "I hear Ham was as closed as I was before he hooked up with you guys. He is as relaxed as I have ever seen him with your group. Like the family we were before Max split us apart. Guess he is surprising you still?"

"That's an understatement" Julie said, still smiling. "He was closer before Ruby ...." Julie trailed off. "Since then he closed in more. Too much pain, I guess."

Gem suddenly jumped up. "I have to talk to Donovan. Now!" she said and ran out of the tend with Julie at her heels.

At Donovan's tent they came in. The men stopped talking at once, and Gem caught the look between Julie and Donovan that they had been learning about Ham some pretty incredible things.

Ham looked into Gem's face. "What?" he asked, concerned.

"I. I have to tell Donovan about his son." Gem said, taking a deep steadying breath. "About how he was killed. I don't want to put it off any longer." She walked up to Donovan and took both of his hands in hers. "He was in the Fight. That's what we call it when they won't be Cured willingly. Usually I oversee all Cures, but I was planning a battle. The Visitors were going to try to free him. He had too much information from us. Anyway, Max did something to him. I don't know exactly what. Pushed him over the edge somehow. Fool!" she hissed at the memory.

She took another deep breath. "Sean came storming into my tent with a gun in his hand. He told me he knew the truth and he was going to finish 'us" all off. He shot me and I fired back at him. Headshot." She finished.

Gem looked Donovan deep in the eyes. "I am sure he meant you, Julie and Ham, somehow conspiring with us to finish him off. After killing me, he was going to go off and kill you all. That was a little over a year ago. I'm betting Max was going to use Sean to infiltrate your camp and eventually destroy you all. When I killed Sean, Max was forced to use his brother."

"I didn't want to have to tell you this," Gem flushed again "after the wedding" she ended softly.

Donovan was silent for what seemed a long time. "Tyler called my son a converted brat a couple of times. Made me want to kill him." He looked over at Tyler. "But he was right about one thing, always. Sean was converted. "He didn't stand a chance, you know that right?' he said to me before we infiltrated the Mother ship." He looked into the deep green eyes. "He would have killed you. Then he would have come here ant tried to hill me and everyone else here." Donovan swallowed. "My son died many years ago. You shot a ghost. Someone I sure didn't know." He squeezed Gem's hands and dropped them. He walked out of the tent.

Donovan stayed gone for so long they considered postponing the wedding until he would be found. But Donovan showed up the morning of the wedding looking like he had been crying and not sleeping.

"Common guys!" he shouted when he saw all the concerned looks. "This is a wedding! And I want to see Tyler smiling. Someone better damn well get that shit on FILM!"