Chapter 1 - First world problems
***************************

Miranda relaxed next to Chris as he played an Earth based electronic game he called a playstation, something Jeanie had in her home. She said it was used to "kill time"; a notion Miranda found quite disturbing, even for an earthling; things were still so very new to her here. She peeked over and watched him. He was thoroughly engrossed with the game he called GTA and chuckled to himself from time to time when he heard the character swear. She was writing down things in her journal that she was learning about but kept peeking up over her tablet that she was writing on. She screwed up her eyebrows as she watched him move his character around on the screen kicking and hitting his way through the city. She wasn't too thrilled to see this kind of violence but Chris assured her it wasn't real. Apparently he found it entertaining. She had learned how to use the machine a few weeks ago when they had returned from Ork via a line jumped I-28 beam, the new system that Orwell had installed made trips back and forth to Ork much quicker than pod or ship travel. There had been a similar set up about thirty years ago but it had been dismantled when her dad and mother returned to Ork. She looked back down and continued to touch the glass screen lettered icons and update her records for Ork about Earth and what she had learned in the few months she had been here; the games audio playing was a bit distracting. She was pleased with her progress since their return from Orwell's and Naruu's wedding and in the process, Chris had his Orkian part of him charged to super full with her help and he was exceptionally strong now and Miranda was humming constantly in his presents. She smirked as she remembered their lake encounter and she stopped typing. Chris noticed her smiling and her "glow" getting extremely bright as she paused in mid thought and he had a notion what it was all about. He could feel her humming like a high tension wire all day.

"Isba?" He asked in Orkian, he found the language interesting and was learning very quickly how to speak it. Miranda found it to be quite a turn on. She blushed but responded.

"Necce." She said dragging out her response slowly with a bit of a devious smile. She knew he could read her thoughts. He'd been learning the same abilities that she had, so she was aware he knew what had tangled her thoughts into a wonderful mess. He paused his game.
"Rursho?" He asked with a smirk as he held the paddle in the air. He flitted with the images of the lake before him that wandered in her mind and he rather enjoyed that she was thinking of him.

She blushed uncontrollably and bit her bottom lip as she let her tablet slid to her lap. "Neph." She responded as she leaned towards him with a half cocked smile.

He straightened up with her response and his eyes got wide in mocked shock. "Goodness me... NO?!"
He placed his hand on her forehead and shut his eyes. She giggled as she moved the tablet to the flat arm of the sofa and pounced on him, his controller dropped to the floor as he wrapped his arms around her as she attacked him with a mind bending kiss. He loved these kind of assaults. She kissed him and sighed.

"Tisba." She responded. He chuckled as he wrapped his arms around her and let her snuggle against his chest.

"Are you now?" He swore to goodness she purred as she nodded her head in agreement against his chest, his shirt shifting with each movement of her head. He smirked above her and instinctively tucked her dark hair behind her ear. All he had to do was hold her and she seemed to be content. He turned when he heard the click of the lock from the front door, Miranda's head followed suit but she relaxed on his chest knowing who it was before they even entered.

Jeanie walked through the front door and dropped her keys into the darkly swirled wooden dish she had sitting on a small side table at her front door and turned around to see the adorable site of Chris and Miranda curled up together. Too bad she was going to have to break it up since she had info she was most certain Miranda would love to get.

"Evening." Miranda said to Jeanie as she walked into the living room. "How was work?" Jeanie was waiting for that same question; one she'd gotten every night since they all returned from Ork. She sighed and that alone made both Chris and Miranda untangle from each other's arms and sit up and ask what was wrong.

"Is everything OK?" Miranda watched as Jeanie ran her hand through her now lengthened dark hair.
Jeanie now wished Reach wasn't on mission currently as she'd get him to double check her findings before telling Miranda but since he's away and she didn't have any other direct contact with Ork other than through Miranda and Mearth she might as well fill her in on details since Mearth was in Washington with Holly working.

"I'm not too sure yet Miranda." She paused looked around and decided to sit in the recliner off to the left of her TV. She leaned forward and looked at both the two most amazing creatures she'd ever been blessed to meet. She still to this very day thanked Mork for being in her life, without knowing him she was sure her life would be so very different. Jeanie had forgotten that Miranda and Chris both were able to read minds so was a bit taken aback when they both looked at each other with a confused look.

"Uhh, what does dad have to do with whatever is going on?" Miranda said. Her confusion evident on her face as it was on Chris's.

"Well if it wasn't for him I wouldn't have the medical info I have now on your newly dubbed species you call Earkins." She said as she looked at her hands twining her fingers into each other. "It's because of that info that makes me think I have an Earkin at my hospital." She looked up at Miranda and Chris and sighed as she watched the shock and bewilderment register on their faces.
"WHAT?!" Miranda said. Her eyes were huge, she reached over and grabbed Chris's hand.

"Are you sure?" Chris asked, still confused on how on Earth Jeanie found an Earkin before they did, since it was after all an ability both he and Miranda had. He held onto Miranda's hand about as tight as she was his. The tension was in both of them and he was sure she could feel his too.

"DNA analysis confirmed it to my own records. I only bothered to check because she was showing the same protein strain in her blood work as you guys do. I never in my life thought I'd find one of your own ON my own." Jeanie did look bewildered, but she looked very concerned as well.
"How did she end up at the hospital?" Miranda was concerned now. There was more to this then she was saying at the moment and no mind reading was getting through the jumbled mess that both of them were getting from Jeanie.
"She was beaten, badly." Jeanie said, her eyes watered as she spoke the words. She hastily brushed them aside trying to remain strong so she could explain better. Letting her emotions get the better of her wasn't going to help the situation.

"I had to do surgery to repair her arm it was fractured that badly. She has a fractured zygomatic bone, so her left eye is swollen nearly shut. From the damage you'd think she was hit by a car but there's no damage to her legs at all, so I am sure she was beaten." She let a tear slip past her worried, tired eyes. She let it fall to the floor and looked up at her friends.

"I did my best to stabilize her but I think you two need to go see her before we lose her, internal bleeding from lacerations to her liver was extensive. My team did all we could to put her back together on the inside. Now it's a wait and see." Jeanie sighed as Miranda reached over and held her hand. The energy from her reaching her and calming her.

"Take us to see her OK. We will do what we can." She looked over to Chris and he nodded with a smile. He knew they would do whatever they had to in order to help the injured child, even if they child had no idea who they actually were.

Jeanie nodded and got up. "I need to clean up some first. She's stable for now so I'm hoping I have enough time to change and then we can head out. I haven't eaten all day because my guts have been rolling from stress."

"Sure, do what you need to." Chris replied as he saw her get up and head to her room. "We're just going to get ready." He watched her wander to her room and looked back at his lovely girlfriend who's face said it all. There was a challenge there and he knew she was going to take it head on.

Jeanie knew that Miranda's reaction to seeing this girl wasn't going to be the best. She knew that for the first time ever this wonderful young lady whom she'd gotten to know; who's innocence's was as endearing as her father's when he was around; would be shattered within a world she knew was partly her own. Not growing up here was bad enough, learning what hate could do to a person was going to be a very hard bitter pill to swallow and Jeanie hated to be the one to show her the results of what abuse could do to a person. She slipped into her new clothing, the smell of the hospital had been washed from her only thirty minutes before, her hair still wet but she knew she'd have to go back Miranda was instant on seeing this young lady. She pulled back her hair into a folded ponytail, and headed out the bedroom door. "I'm ready if you are." She said to two sets of anxious eyes. She picked up her keys from the bowl and was followed to the door without a word.

She was hardly bigger than a twelve year old child. Miranda cried when she saw the young lady. Her face so swollen her left eye wasn't even visible anymore. The angry prismatic colors that blotched her tiny facial features were dark and sullen save for the bright red streaks where her face had been lacerated, the suppurated wounds oozed. Miranda wiped tears from her eyes angry that someone could do this to a child. She looked at Jeanie.
"For crying out loud! Jeanie! How old is she?" The shock and anger registered in her voice.
"Well from all indications she's about twenty five, yet she looks to be about fifteen; give or take a few years." She absently added as she reached over to check her patients pulse.
"There's no way she's twenty five!" Miranda said forgetting herself as she wallowed in the appalled emotion she was feeling for this young girls plight. Chris reached over to her.

"She very well might be, remember what Jeanie said; She's Earkin." He looked up when the realization clicked in her eyes that this sprite of a girl could be aging backwards.

"Oh Shazbot! Why in the Ork didn't I think of that?" She was bewildered with herself as much as she was dumbfounded over the damage this poor Earkin had gone through.
"You're worried maybe?" Chris pulled her towards him and placed both his hands on her shoulders making her look him in the eyes. "Breath, I know this is tough; but remember you're still learning. This just happens to be the bad part of what humans can do."

"Abusive situations like this come in here more often then I'd like to see." Jeanie stated as Miranda turned around; Chris still by her side.

"So what can be done?" Miranda asked.

"Actually; nothing can be done right now. She needs to come out of her coma on her own and once she does the police will likely be brought in to ask her questions. Problem is..." Jeanie trailed off and sighed. "Problem is, more often than not these girls just tell us a lie and go right back to whoever it was who put them here in the first place." She looked at the tiny body on the bed. "I know this girl is part of our cities ever growing issue. A homeless child. Who works the streets to feed herself."

Miranda looked confused at first and Jeanie knew this would be hard to explain to her. She watched as her friend walked to the young girl and laid her hands on her. Jeanie knew it'd only be a matter of time before the young girl was awake but she needed to ensure that Miranda understood what was going on.

"There are a lot of people who live on the streets Miranda."

"Why?" Miranda asked, she felt her power flow from her, the color seeped across the young woman's hand.

"Some have no choice. Some lost their home. Some have addictions." Jeanie said.

"Addictions?" Miranda looked up. "You mean like drugs?" She watched Jeanie nod her head in agreement. Sighing Miranda looked down at the mystery woman. "Well I can tell you she's not someone to do drugs. Her system is strong, even if it's broken."

Jeanie wasn't surprised that Miranda could tell she was drug free. Toxicology told her that three house ago when she had her blood work done up. "We still don't know what happened to her." Jeanie picked up Jane doe's chart and looked over it. "To explain it in lamest terms, half of her face is pretty much a shattered mess. Both cheeks and nose. I was surprised to learn her jaw was intact."

Miranda looked at Jeanie. " Working the streets? A broken jaw isn't as bad as a broken life. If she's drug free what else is there?"

There was a sigh to her side, she felt Chris tense up. "Prostitution." He replied. "It's likely she was selling herself to live. If that's what happened, it's likely a John beat her."

"Well we need to find that John guy and have him sent to jail!" Miranda said, her brows furrowed with rage. "How dare he beat a small woman! It's not right!" She watched the monitor beep faster.

"Miranda." Chris looked at her. "A John is someone who buys sex from someone. Not the name, it's just a term used to say who that person is."

"Well whoever he is, he's vile!" Her upset made her burst and healing waves splashed around the whole room and even though Jeanie couldn't see it she sure could feel it. Even in a tense and moody situation she relaxed. It helped her think clearer.

"Miranda, if you keep with the healing waves, you're going to drown us all." Jeanie smiled. That alone dissipated the strain in the room. Miranda lifted her hands off the girl and watched the monitor steady.

"Why would someone need to sell their body like that? Doesn't love have any true value here other than currency?" Miranda's soul grieved a bit at the notion.

"Sometimes, when survival is all you're aiming for; love is left out all together. It's the act that gets the means to live. " Chris didn't like knowing this anymore than he could see she did. It was a very hard first lesson to learn.
"I pray this isn't the case for this poor child!" Miranda didn't want to think this tiny child like woman had to perform like an animal in order to live. She knew she'd waken soon and when that happened she wanted to be there. She looked over and took stock of the girls facial features through the bruises and cuts. She could tell she had sharp features. Squared jaw. Her matted colored hair was enough to make her noticeable no matter where she was. Miranda picked up her hand and looked at the marks all over her. She rubbed but the marks remained.

"What is this?" She asked pointing to a semi colon mark on the woman's arm. Jeanie spoke up.

"It's a semi colon." She said smiling not realizing at first the confusion Miranda had.

"Uhh, I get the usage Jeanie, but why is it on her skin. Why doesn't it come off?"

Jeanie did have to stifle a chuckle. She still tend to forget just how green she was to Earthly things.

"It's a tattoo. An inking of the skin. These do not come off. It's wearable art." She looked at the tiny mark. Simple but with a powerful meaning.

"Why a semi colon?" Miranda didn't understand. She knew it was used in writing when a writer could have ended a sentence but chose to continue.

"It's for mental health awareness Miranda." Chris said as he too looked at the small mark, running his finger over it. "You're the writer of your life's story." He looked at her knowing her own father had ended his life's story. Understanding registered on her face and she nodded.

"A powerful message in a simple mark." Chris let her lean back against him as she took in the info she was getting. It was then that she heard the thoughts of the young girl beside her before she heard her.
She stiffened and looked down.

"OH my!" Miranda said. She looked at Jeanie. "She got hurt trying to save someone Jeanie!"