Author's Note: This is a multiple chapter fic about Wanda and Ian which I hope is realistic, but who really knows, right? Stephanie might write another book and I know I'm not alone in hoping she does. I've written a one shot about Melanie and Jared and I hope you will click on that story and enjoy it. Please read and review, I want to know what you think. Plus reviews help me update faster...

Disclaimer: I am not Stephanie Meyer but I do use some of her text in this chapter.

The New Host

Chapter One

Thinking

Before Ian O'Shea tried to kill the soul called Wanderer, he had been a man like his bother Kyle much to his chagrin. They had both lost so much that paranoia often took precedence over softer more reasonable emotions. Such as thoughtfulness or insightfulness and most especially compassion. I don't think anyone can really blame him for this. Err Wanderer's arrival everyone surviving in the caves lived everyday with the knowledge that this might be the day they lost their humanity forever. When faced with the possibility of one of the creatures responsible for the end of life as you know living in the same safe space as you… It's a hard pill to swallow, as anyone would agree.

But as anyone who has read the book "Summer of My German Soldier" would also agree, the individual is blindly valued in human society. For some inconceivable reason human beings are willing to look past the travesties committed by one set of people when the one person standing in front of them proves worthy of that consideration. It took some time but Ian O'Shea saw the error of his ways and did everything he could to differentiate himself from his brother. What started as a guilty conscious, turned into friendship and then into love.

Ian knew almost immediately after wrapping his fingers around the neck of the girl Wanderer lived inside of that he had made the wrong choice and he was a bit relieved when Jeb arrived and saved Melanie and the creature. He knew he had to make it up to her somehow and thankfully he wasn't alone in this desire. Doc knew full well how much he scared Wanderer and-being the genuinely good man that he was- he wanted nothing more than to make a second first impression. And Jeb being far more open minded than most any human ever gets to be had already decided something about this specific creature was different, something about this specific situation deserved more consideration than any other. It seemed he already knew that Wanderer was different and needed to be treated differently than perhaps any other creature he had ever come across.

And so Ian became her guard and slowly but surely her friend and when he stood up against his brother to defend this defenseless creature- not Melanie, Wanderer- he knew something had changed. And in the moments while Jeb was doing everything he could think of to keep Jared from killing Wanderer all Ian could think about was what it would feel like to live on knowing she had died in so much fear, so much pain and all alone. It felt like his heart would die. But the very worst part was watching and knowing just how much Wanderer, separate from Melanie, loved Jared.

It was easier with Jamie, everyone loved Jamie, it was almost impossible not to. But Jared had done nothing but hurt her since the moment she arrived and still... She loved him. Both of them loved him. The rational side of Ian's brain realized that the love Wanderer felt for Jared came entirely from Melanie and this need for him came from the body she was in, not from her. But in a battle between one's reason and one's emotion, reason never wins.

So Ian stuck to her side, mostly because he couldn't help it, but partially to protect her and entirely because he loved her. And when he sat close to her during the tribunal thinking again about losing her- this time because of his brother's never ending stupidity- and he thought about who mattered more to him- his brother or his Wanderer- the answer was so glaringly obvious he felt no guilt voting to let his brother be kicked out of the caves.

And then it got worse. Because Jared had finally gotten his head out of his ass and realized that Melanie was still with Wanderer and he wanted to be close to her, to the one he loved, just as Ian did. But Jared didn't love Wanderer and being close to him like that did nothing but hurt her because she knew it. Worst of all Jared was willing to do anything to get his Melanie back even sacrifice a creature that loved him. Ian couldn't let her out of his sight even when he knew she had every right to hate him with everything in her. He sat in her punishing silence and hated himself and hated Doc and hated Jared and hated this situation that made these atrocities seem necessary. He sat in silence and loved her as hard as he could and hoped that she might feel it.

Everything was so hard and so complicated now that she was here. It had all seemed so black and white before and now those who bothered to try all lived in a murky grey area- hating what had been done to their species but loving Wanderer. That grey area expanded when Wes died and she removed the Seeker and then showed Doc how to remove the Healer. More and more people trusted and appreciated her than ever before and just when it looked like things would be getting better she hit him with his worst nightmare. Really Ian didn't know why he hadn't figured it out before. All the subtle hints she dropped, the way she avoided Jamie those last few days. He was so in tune with her he should have seen it coming. She was so selfsacrificing. And she loved so deeply. It was so obvious when Walter died, when Jamie was sick. She would endure anything for the ones she loved. And it was all over her that she loved Melanie. Why would she try so hard to get Melanie back in her mind if she didn't love the person who really owed the body she wore?

Ian really didn't want to be callous to Melanie's needs and desires and he knew that she deserved to live just as much as Wanderer but couldn't imagine spending one second parted from her and now he was faced with spending the rest of his life without her.

He wrapped his arms around her and wept like a child. Once the pain faded, the anger returned and with it a healthy dose of desperation. He barely enjoyed hearing her tell him how she loved him too, barely felt her lips against his, barely recognized the joy this moment should have brought him. The rage after the agony was too great for anything positive. He took a moment to think and finally came up with an idea, a last desperate hope. He thought that if Jeb and a tribunal decided she had to stay that she would abide by their wishes. If the right people made it clear they wanted her to stay than he knew that she would cave. He pulled people to the rec room he felt would be on his side.

That night after the tribunal decided to spend the night thinking about the situation, Ian fell asleep with the center of his universe wrapped snugly in his arms. He fell asleep believing that she would wait, that if Jeb had told her to wait she would. If he'd thought otherwise for even a second he would have never fallen asleep in the first place, he would have spent the whole night watching her, he wouldn't have taken his eyes off her for a moment had he even suspected. But he hadn't and she'd waited until he was too far gone to notice.

The next morning when he found she wasn't there beside him, even then he hadn't believed she would really leave. So when the body he was accustomed to seeing her in came barreling into him- he smiled. How could he not? Just hours ago she'd told him that she loved him, that he was her partner, her reason for wanting to stay on this planet. He loved her more with every passing second. But as soon as he touched her… Nothing. No spark, no nothing. He looked down at her and felt nothing. And he knew there was only one way that could possibly happen. Here, standing in front of him was Melanie, all by herself. It took a second after that for the pain to set in. His mind was numb but his body felt like it was dying.

He barely heard her say, "She's fine. She's in a tank. We'll get her a body. She'll be fine. Fine. She's fine." He relaxed a bit. She was absent but not gone, though the pain lingered. It intensified once more when he saw Wanderer's former body try to reach for him and remembering holding that body he tried to reach back, but he stopped himself- a few times, he stopped himself. Still he couldn't wrap his mind around her doing this to him. Trying to leave him in the middle of the night. How could she? How?

"Do you want to… Go to her?"

He didn't know why but until she spoke those words the thought had never occurred to him. Bewilderment set in, but when Melanie moved so too did he. The movement helped him think and the more he thought the less he liked imagining his Wanderer all by herself in a tank, he sped up.

"I couldn't stop her."

It was impossibly dark now, and the words took him by surprise. He asked honestly wanting to know the answer. "Did you want to?" Ian almost didn't recognize his own voice but he could hear the nearly unrestrained anger.

"Yes."

The selfless honesty of that answer took him off guard for a moment. He had fully anticipated her saying "no." He could not let it go at that. "Why?"

"Because she… Is my best friend."

A calmness settled over him and he nodded to himself. That made sense. "I wondered about that… I wondered if anyone who really knew her could not love her. You knew her every thought." For one bitter moment, Ian almost wished he could have been the one Wanderer had wandered into. That he could have known her every thought.

"Yes. I love her."

After a moment of thought he can't help but wonder. "But you must have wanted your body back?"

"Not if it meant losing Wanda."

He could accept that, believe it even because that was how he would have felt had Wanda wandered into his mind. He would have been willing to leave her there if it meant he could keep her. This was a kind of love he completely understood. After a few seconds of silence the panicked anger returned. Her little plan was not going to happen.

"She's not leaving this planet," he growled.

It took a second for her to respond. "That was never her intention." Ian's anger and panic were derailed by confusion. If she never meant to leave what had she intended to do? "She was making that part up, so you all wouldn't argue with her. She wanted to stay here… She planned to, well, be buried here. With Walter and Wes."

It came in waves this time- thousands of tiny bitter waves of pain, engulfed by a giant tsunamis of fury. He stopped walking because if he didn't he would fall apart. If he moved at all he would shatter.

"But she's fine, like I said. Doc put her in a tank. We'll get her a body. Soon. First thing."

He heard the words floating through his consciousness in a voice that sounded so like the one he love. But the anger is too great to take any comfort in her words. "How could she think of doing that to me?"

"No, it wasn't like that. She felt like she would be hurting you more if she stayed here… In this body."

"That's ridiculous. How could she want to die rather than leave?"

"She loves it here, she doesn't want to live anywhere else."

Anger was easier to deal with so he let vent all his frustrations. "I never thought of her as such a quitter."

"She's not," Melanie snapped at him. It actually made him feel better to have some of his own anger thrown back in his face. She explained it all after that, how his Wanda had been feeling and how much she wanted those feelings to stop. He understood how she wouldn't want to live at someone else's expense and that was why he loved her so much. Because he'd never met a human like that. All the anger drained out of him. He didn't want to be mad at Wanda or even Melanie.

He picked up on what she was saying again. "So she really needed a break, but she got all- all melodramatic about it. And I thought I couldn't save her. I didn't know Jared was following us."

Ian sighed. He was too trusting but not Jared, paranoid bastard that he was. "Jared caught on, but I missed it."

"Jared's just overly cautious. Always. He goes overboard. Way, way overboard." Ian could almost hear her eyes rolling.

"But he was right," Ian pointed out, silently thanking his rival.

"Yes. Paranoia comes in handy sometimes."

Finally having the chance to talk to someone who not only knew Wanda as well as he did but nearly loved her as much, Ian couldn't help voicing his fears. Maybe she could quiet a few of them. "Do you think she'll be angry with us when she wakes up?" It was easier to think of her as sleep.

Melanie snorted- compounding the differences between her and his Wanda. "Wanda, angry? Please."

"Unhappy, then?" His voice quieting.

"She'll be fine." There was so much confidence in her voice, Ian couldn't help but smile a bit. It felt foreign on his face. But Melanie was just so sure and that was encouraging. He liked to think that Wanda would be happy because this situation made everyone else happy and that was just in her nature. But before he could let himself be happy he had to be sure.

"What you said before, about her loving you, and Jamie, and Jared… And me."

"Yes?"

"Do you think she really does love me, or was she just responding to the fact that I love her? Wanting to make me happy?" She hesitated and the panic returned. He spoke quickly wanting to get it all out before he lost it again. "I'm only asking because I don't want to be a… A burden when she wakes up… Don't worry about hurting my feelings. I want the truth."

"It's not your feelings I'm worried about. I'm just trying to think of the right way to describe it. I've been… Not entirely human for the past year, so I get it, but I'm not sure you do."

Ian did his best to keep the hope out of his voice, "try me."

"It's strong, Ian. The way she feels about you is something else. She loves this world, but so much of the reason she couldn't leave was really you. She thinks of you as her anchor. You gave her a reason to finally stay in one place after a lifetime of wandering."

Peace settled over him then, peace and understanding and relief. A lightness filled him up and when he spoke he could hear it in his voice. "Then that's all right."

"Yes."

"Don't rush."

"What?"

Both moved faster when the light of the hospital came into view. Both surely wanting the same reassuring feel of Wanda's tank in their hands.

"When you go to find her a body. Take your time. Make sure you find one she'll be happy in. I can wait."

The light allowed Melanie to look up at him. The face she saw was finally calm. "Won't you be coming with us?"

He was a bit startled the thought even crossed her mind. It hadn't crossed his. He needed to be here with his Wanderer.

"I don't really care about that part. You know what she needs. And I'd rather be here with her."

When they finally reached the hospital all Ian could see was her tank. The faint red glow telling him that she was really all right. He knew Jared was there but couldn't take his eyes off of the tank. "Thanks."

"I owe her."

Ian owed Jared now because whether the other man knew it or not he'd saved Ian's life as well.