Two
Jared took a sip of his lukewarm coffee, trying to force himself awake. He needed to be alert today of all days, finally meeting Jeb, the man Melanie talked about the way religious people spoke about their various deities.
He wasn't sure who exactly Jeb was, only that he was safety, the one thing Melanie needed most. And also the only thing Jared was never able to give her. He regretted not being able to, not knowing how to protect Melanie from the people who wanted to take her away.
"Jared Howe?" someone called out from beside him. He was a guy who looked a few years older than Jared, no more than 26. His dark hair contrasted starkly with the pale tone of his skin, but what struck Jared the most was the guy's nose. It sad oddly crooked, as if it'd been broken a few times.
"Who wants to know?" he asked, instantly defensive.
"No need to worry, name's Kyle. Jeb sent me," the guy said, holding out his hand.
Jared shook it carefully. "When can I meet him?" he felt a hint of annoyance, but at the same time he knew a man like Jeb would have to be cautious if he was anything like Melanie said he was.
"Just follow me, stay a little back, try not to make it obvious you're following me, wait here a moment. I'll be over near the station," Kyle said and gestured towards it.
Jared sighed, but made no complaints. He nodded in confirmation and then began to wait, taking a huge gulp of the last of his coffee.
o0o
Following Kyle was harder than it looked. Jared followed the older guy through the station and through a few strange out of the way streets, placed he'd never seen before, despite having lived in this city his entire life. After nearly losing Kyle for the fifth time, Jared spotted him by the door to a warehouse and held back as Kyle opened a side door.
After a few minutes, he headed in, standing a little taller in his determination. Now he was finally going to be able to meet this Jeb, do the one thing Melanie always wanted to do. For a moment, a great sad ache formed in his chest. He wished Mel was here, standing beside him with a grin on her face. She'd be excited, so excited she'd probably be trying to contain the shout of joy he knew she'd want to make.
Jared opened the door carefully and stepped inside, into the darkness. He felt a thrill of excitement. Finally, here he was.
"This way," a voice said beside him, not Kyle's, but someone else's, feminine and sweet. A hand grabbed his and tugged him to the right, and he let the hand lead him through the darkness to another door, that opened into light.
Inside, stood a group of people gathered around a table covered in paper. In amongst it all, Jared saw maps covered with dots and crosses as well as files with pictures of people he'd never seen before. They all turned to look at him, standing a little less casually than before.
Looking for a familiar face, Jared spotted Kyle standing beside an older man with a weathered face and the kind of tan that could only be from farming. For a moment, Jared held his breath. There he was, Jeb, it had to be. This could only be him.
"Hello, Jared," Jeb said, smiling. "I hear you knew my Melanie."
"Your Melanie?" he asked, confused. Who had this Jeb been to her?
"My niece," he replied.
"Oh," was all Jared could say, although it explained a lot. Mel had always been about family. She'd protected the secret of her younger brother fiercely, determined to keep him safe. He didn't know what happened Jamie after it all, but as far as he knew, Melaine had made sure he'd gotten to Jeb first, sending him ahead when things were looking like they were falling apart. Jamie had always been her number one priority.
"It's unfortunate, what happened to her, but you know we're here to stop it. My Mel deserved better than that," the way Jeb said it, Jared knew he'd found the right place to go. Here was where he could fix everything. No more would Mel be just a painful memory, he could fight in her name, change the world for better. It was what she would have wanted.
"I know, which is why I'm here. I want to help," Jared said, the conviction feeling deeper with every moment. Here he could change things.
Jeb smiled at him. "Always good to have another in, everyone helps around here. The only thing I ask of you is that you follow my orders. No matter what you think or whatever you've heard, I'm not here for violence. We're not going to let them do this anymore. We fight from the inside out."
Jared didn't quite like the idea of such a quite movement, but he wasn't going to just walk out because of it. If Jeb had a way that worked, he'd stick with it.
"I'm in," he replied. "Just tell me what I need to do."
The days in the hospital seemed to stretch on forever, an endless stream of infomercials and daytime TV, the extent of Wanda's thrilling entertainment. By the third day, she'd seen the ads for almost every strangely useful kitchen appliance and fad workout machines to last her a lifetime. The TV became white noise after a while, something to fill the strangely empty hours of the day, punctuated by the frequent visits from the nurse.
However, the fourth day bought something different: a new nurse. He was a tall, young attractive guy with bright blue eyes and dark hair. Wanda only bothered to notice because of how strangely friendly he was as he checked everything was okay. The name on the tag that hung around his heck read IAN O'SHEA. Wanda decided right then she rather liked the name.
"You feeling anything unusual? Fever, shortness of breath, fatigue? No? Well any urine problems or weight gain?" Wanda shook her head. So far, she felt fine, her body felt whole now, the solid weight of the heart beating in her chest still thrilled her some.
"I feel perfectly fine," she told the nurse, unable to stop herself from beaming. It just felt so right with this heart in her chest, like finally this was everything she was supposed to be.
"That's excellent to hear," Ian said with a warm smile, like he was personally happy to hear it. He had a nice smile, something that lit up his face entirely. This strangely perfect ernestness only improved her mood.
"I'll see you later then?" she asked hopefully.
"Of course," he said, smile still on his face. "Now, time for you medication for the day."
Wanda looked away, pointedly ignoring the needle he was sticking into the IV tube.
"Another nurse will be in later to help you with your rehab, soon you'll be up and running, for real. No more lying around."
The idea had been in her head ever since she'd gotten word her new heart was waiting for her and now to hear it from someone else suddenly made it much more than a fantasy. She wanted to run, to finally not worry about collapsing or weakness.
"Goodbye then," she said as he walked out of the room, suddenly feeling a lot more happy about her hospital time.
o0o
Jared felt most at home among the files, countless stacks of paper dedicated to tracking down every part of Melanie and all those like her. The kids that ran away into the night never to be seen again, the boy who didn't make it home and the countless others who vanished without a trace.
How Jeb had managed to pull together such an extensive system amazed Jared, the way everything was so organised and the fact that there was so much.
"Information is easy to find, you just need to know where to look," Jeb had told him when Jared asked about it all. It was true, the information was everywhere, in the small town articles and the strangely scant police reports, all the things that weren't written on the page told better stories than what was on there, the reality of who these people were. They deserved justice, to have the real truth be told for everyone to hear.
The best part of it was the quietness of it all, most people didn't venture into the stacks and stacks of information, they just skimmed around the edges, but Jared wanted to know everything, how they really caught her, what happened to the parts of the body that was Melanie's. A curious file on HEART #04343BE3493M caught his eye, a simple document confirming its removal from the "host" and it's preparation for transplantation.
The host ID matched that of Melanie's and for a small moment, he felt the excitement of the discovery, a quick thrill at being one step closer to more answers. However when he looked at the dates of the transplant, he realised it was already in the body of some other person. A clueless rich person no doubt, someone who had no idea of the history of this heart, no idea it belonged to a girl who didn't want to give it up.
Anger suddenly took over, a fresh wave of heat making his blood boil and the grief well up anew. He hated it, hated the people who'd taken Melanie away from her family, from her life all for some stupid transplant to someone who didn't know what they'd been given. For a moment, he wanted to destroy everything and burn it all, but that faded and he sunk to the floor, trying not to cry.
