Venus Ascending Pt. 12

John never heard the rest because he was already out of the door running in a panic. His eyes misted over as he ran and he prayed. "Please God save her, I know it's selfish but I need her and she needs me. Please give us more time together, oh, please God save my love."

He burst for the hospital doors and a nurse was waiting to take him to Lisa. When he got to her room Dr. Fitzpatrick was there waiting. He stopped John and held him as he told him her heart had stopped a couple of times they had to restart it. He told John that between the low volume of blood and some pervasive blood clots; these are the kind of complications he was talking about earlier. They had her on blood thinners and given her plasma to get her blood volume backup so hopefully this would be the last of the problems.

John went over and picked up her cold hand and pressed it to her face. He was thinking it couldn't be good for her to be this cold, so he took off his shirt and lay on the bed next to her trying to share some of his warmth. Carefully he threaded his arms through all the tubes and wires, cradling her against his chest. He held her, kissed her and lightly caressed her as he whispered sweet nothings into her ears.

John hoped that with his warmth, his scent, his kisses and his voice talking to her, she would know he was with her. He told her that her master wouldn't let her go and she needed to come back to him. Eventually his fatigue got to him and he fell asleep cradling Lisa in his arms.

The nurses would come wake him up every couple of hours to check on Lisa and each time he resumed his whispering and gentle caresses. He tried to bring her back to him and he also learned to pray again, something he had not done much of in his life. Now he needed God's help and he was determined to remedy his lack of faith. John always believed in God but never seems to find the time to talk to him. He promised that if he saved Lisa he would go to church and take her with him.

In the morning when he woke her color seemed better, her pulse stronger and she seemed to be breathing easier. He cradled her back into his arms and resumed talking to her about their upcoming life together, but eventually dozed off again. A few hours later he woke again but this time saw two beautiful green eyes staring at him. They were full of pain, confusion, but when she saw him her love bubbled to the surface.

He gently kissed her and whispered, "Oh baby I love you so, thank you for coming back to me." He leaned into her and kissed her again, but when he pulled back from the kiss she was already asleep again. John knew now she was fighting to stay with him and he was convinced she would be okay. He gently disengaged his arms from around Lisa and went to her bathroom where he showered, shaved and dressed in some borrowed scrubs. One of the nurses was kind enough to bring him a large breakfast and he ate it ravenously.

John looked at the clock and realized it had been over 12 hours since he last talked to his engineering staff. He sat next to Lisa holding her hand as she slept and called the engineering war room. Ken answered and in a testament to their caring, the first words out of his mouth were, "John, how is Lisa?"

John looked over at Lisa with the lump in his throat and choked out an emotional response, "Her color is better and she's breathing easier. For a few moments earlier she opened her eyes she still in danger, but I finally think she might make it."

John heard a cheer from everyone in the room and a murmurs of, "yes," "thank the Lord," and "oh yeah."

Their support meant a lot to John and he croaked out an emotional, "Thank you, thank you all for your prayers and support." John paused, composed himself then added, "Now tell me what's going on?"

Ken started off saying, "The manifesto, our declaration of independence and our documentation of the torture and murder are being heard all across the world. The ground swell of support has been enormous, with demonstrations in virtually all the major cities and countries. Our demonstrations of taking out the ground and launch station also had a chilling effect on many of the governments. Fortunately, everyone took our warning seriously so there were only a few injuries, but no casualties."

"They didn't think we had any weapons to fight them and our show made a lot of people take us a little more seriously. All the talk of sending a group of mercenaries to retake Venus has ceased and no one wants us to get mad and have us blow something else up. The UN Security Council is meeting today in emergency session to talk about us."

"We haven't had very many issues with the people here on Venus. Most of the guests just want to continue having fun and as long as they get their entertainment and food, their fine. For the most part the culinary and entertainment staff's are still in their wait-and-see attitude. A lot of the female staff has either been abused or knows someone who was harmed, so they are behind us. We have had a few of the male entertainment staff that are loyal to the Council and they have created some minor disruptions. We have locked them up and we're primarily just taking care of troublemakers as they crop up."

George chimed in, "We have several people with relatives that are high powered lawyers back on earth and they have gone to the UN to speak on our behalf. The Cartels have filed lawsuits demanding the reimbursement of $1.5 Trillion for the cost of "Venus Ascending". Since we are not taking over the casino's the lawyers are telling us that we shouldn't worry about that."

"We found all of their surveillance systems in the cartels control center. Were using it now to see if there's any resistance or any other sabotage might be going on. That's how we caught the few people in the entertainment staff that resisted us. We tied it into our central control monitoring system here, but we also have someone watching it 24/7 for a reprisal."

George took a deep breath and excitedly blurted out, "You and Lisa have become a legend. One of the guys working on the declaration of independence thought a human interest story might help our case. They put together yours and Lisa's story. They titled it, "The great love that sparked a revolution" and John it has gone viral."

John sat there stunned that he and Lisa were now a viral love story. He looked over at this stunningly beautiful woman lying battered and bruised on the bed and his eyes start to mist over. John ever considered himself anything special. He knew he had a strong will, a quick mind and a singular wit, but nothing special until she came into his life. She had made everything in his life bright, wonderful and very special.

John had been lost, just doing jobs to get by and practically killing time. His heart was dead inside and he was wandering aimlessly until Lisa gave him direction. She made him feel things again, she gave him focus and direction, but most importantly her love gave him a reason to do what he did. In John's mind Lisa was the special one, he was only special because he was with her.

"John ... John, are you there? John, are you okay?" Ken shouted through the phone.

It snapped John out of his reverie and he responded, "Yeah, yeah I'm here. I'm just trying to get my mind around being part of the great love story. All of you guys done a great job and I can't believe how much progress has made in 12 hours. Are the negotiations going on and what did the former counsel do once they made it back to earth?"

A voice John didn't recognize spoke up, "John this is Darrell the legal team and I'm heading up the negotiations at least from our side up here. As part of the PR campaign we also solicited donations for legal team and as a result have lots of very high powered legal talent working on our behalf. Most of them are doing it pro bono, but we do have money to pay them should it come to that."

"As George said earlier the cartels have filed a lawsuit against us and we are trying to negotiate a deal that will negate any lawsuit. We are in effect following the guidelines that you originally set out. The cartel still runs all of the businesses here, but they will pay a small fee to the government of United Arab Emirates. This fee will be used to create an independent governor and police force. At least that's what trying to do and so far we seem to be getting a lot of traction, but we still have a long way to go."

Dominic spoke up and said, "The old cartel members immediately tried a PR campaign against us when they got to earth. There were a large number of mercenaries ready to come back and retake Venus for the cartels. However, the broadcast of the snuff films and the constant list of names scrolling on the Internet turned the public tide back in our favor. The public outrage quickly shut down all of their attempts to retake Venus. Plus the two smoldering craters where their launch site and ground station was also made a compelling argument on our side."

John looked over and saw Lisa stirring in her sleep. He swiveled back to the phone, "Something's happening to Lisa so I have to go, but I thank everyone for all the hard diligent work. All of you have done tremendous things in a short period of time and I'm very proud of all of everyone, also the way everyone pulled together. I'll be in touch later, goodbye."

John clicked off the phone and stared at it for a second before he heard something being whispered from the top of the bed, "Ma Master? John?"

John almost got whiplash as his head swiveled towards Lisa. He saw her luminous green eyes were open with fear and confusion. When she finally saw him, she gasped and her eyes started to fill with tears.

John rushed to the bed cupping her delicate face in his hands as he smothered her face with tiny little kisses. After every inch of her face had been kissed John nibbled on her ear and whispered, "Oh God, baby I thought I had lost you. You came back, oh baby I am so glad you came back to me. Oh God I love you so, baby don't ever leave me like that again."

Lisa struggled to get closer to him, but all the tubes and wires made it difficult to snuggle the way she wanted. She got close enough to once again feel his warmth seeping into her and she breathlessly said, "John, I never left you. I was with you the whole time, but you saved me. Hold me for a while longer I need to feel your love and warmth."

John crawled into the bed beside her gently wrapping his arms around her, but being careful of all the tubes and wires. He pulled her back tightly against his chest wrapping his arms around her. As he held her he felt her snuggle deeper into his embrace then her breathing softened as she went back to sleep in his arms. Something about holding her delicate form in his arms felt so perfect and he tried to get her tighter into his embrace. As exhaustion and sleep overtook him the last thing he remembered was feeling Lisa nuzzled deeper against his body.

He woke later and Lisa had turned in his arms and was facing him as she gently kissed him awake. As her lips descended upon his he sucked her bottom lip into his mouth nibbling on it before their tongues softly touched and caressed each other. John pulled back and gazed into those soft luminous eyes with the depth of her love overwhelming him and only matched by his love for her.

Lisa was having a hard time catching her breath, but she finally whispered, "John, you saved me ... Your love saved me!"

John felt as if she was giving him way more credit than he deserved. He corrected her trying to set the record straight, "I got you into this mess my pet and all I did was carry you to the hospital. All the doctors and nurses worked hard to put you back together."

Lisa shook her head, "No master, you saved me. I saw everything and I heard you praying and telling God how much you loved me. However, even with everything everyone did things kept getting darker and I was getting colder. Then I heard your voice and felt your warmth surround me. I felt your love, caring and warmth pour into me and you started to pull me away from the darkness."

She gently raised her head and kissed his lips, "I knew you were trying to save me and I had to fight to get to you. I couldn't stand to be away from you and started climbing towards your warmth and your voice. I felt your kisses, your tears, but mostly I felt all the love you have for me and I had to fight to be with you again. I love you John, more than I can never say and the thought of not being in your arms was just too awful think about. I had to find you and be with you again." She whispered lovingly.

John pulled her back into his arms and lovingly kissed her as tears began to fall from his eyes. He wanted to respond but that damn lump in his throat kept him from telling her how he felt. He swallowed hard trying to get the lump to ease and he finally said, "I thought I was losing you, but I couldn't let you die. Everyone else had done all they could and they left it up to God, but I had to fight and I had to save you."

John took a deep gasping breath in a raspy emotion filled voice said, "If you died so would I, my heart is tied to yours. If your heart stopped beating, so would mine and I couldn't let that happen. I don't want to live without you and so I held you, kissed you and talked to you hoping you would come back to me. You did, you did come back to me and I want you to promise to never leave me again like this."

Their lips softly merged in a loving kiss and when they separated John whispered in his strong and demanding tone, "Promise me that you will never leave. Promise me you will always be with me."

John saw the tears flowing into Lisa's eyes as she responded in a deep emotion filled voice. "I promise my one and only love. I promise my master and my husband. I promise to never leave you, but you have to promise to never leave me either. You're the reason I live and you're the reason I came back. So you have to promise to never leave me either."

John burrowed back into her arms and muttered, "I promise my love, I promise."

They snuggled together and fell asleep again in each other's arms. Only when John's phone woke them up did they separate. It was Ken on the phone and his first question was, "How is Lisa?" When John responded that she was awake and doing better he quickly changed the subject. There was tenseness in his voice as he said, "Can you come to the conference room for a few minutes, we need some clarity on what you think our direction should be?"

John looked over at Lisa's angelic face glowing with her love for him and he knew she was going to be okay. He raised his eyebrows silently asking her if she needed anything and when she shook her head John said, "I'll be there in a few minutes." John hung up the phone, leaned over and kissed Lisa lovingly, yet gently then left the room.