Chapter 3: Confrontation

It took me only a second to recognize the uncharacteristically eerie voice: Ian. It took me less than a second to realize without even looking at Jared that he was livid. I waited for the yelling to start, wondering just how long Ian had been standing there and just how much he had seen.

"O'SHEA!" Jared shouted. "Get OUT!" He sprung from the bed, reaching for his clothes as Ian ducked out of the room. I could still see his shadow as he stood outside our room.

"I'm sorry," Ian muttered, once again in that unusually eerie voice. "I only wanted to see Wanda. I missed her."

It didn't take me long to realize that Ian was sleepwalking; however Jared was not so quick. He was out the door before I could say anything, beating Ian with force that I hadn't seen him use since...well, that didn't matter anymore. It was in the past. If I didn't do something soon, Ian would be beaten to a pulp in a matter of seconds.

"Jared stop!" I screamed at the top of my lungs, hoping someone else in the caves would wake up. Preferably Jeb, who would hopefully bring his gun. "He's just sleepwalking. He doesn't realize what he's doing. Let me handle it."

He stopped hitting Ian, who was now in a heap on the floor, to stare at me with a dumbfounded look. If it weren't for the circumstances, it might have actually been funny. I tried to keep a straight face as I waited for a response.

"...Oh. But honestly Mel, if what I just did to him didn't wake him up, then what can you really do about it?" he questioned. Then sarcastically he added, "What are you going to do, sing him awake?"

"If it works, yes." I retorted. I loved the man, but sometimes he really knew how to piss me off. He really did an outstanding job of it on those rare occasions. "Just give me a minute with him. I'm usually pretty good with this sort of thing. If we talk to him quietly he'll be more likely to wake up than if you just beat him relentlessly."

"How do you know so much?"

"Jamie used to sleepwalk all the time when he was a little kid. I'm used to this sort of thing." I said smugly.

"Oh. Sorry. Well get dressed and get out here while I still have the ability to restrain myself." He would be patient for now, but I knew it wouldn't last long.

I was out the door and at Ian's side in less than two minutes. He had been kind to me the day they took Wanderer out of my body and put her in the cyrotank, but ever since then he had shied away every time I had walked into the same room he was in. I knew why...to him I was still Wanda, and I guessed that in a way he would always see some of her in me, even after she was inserted into another host. But none of that mattered right now. What mattered was getting Ian to wake up so the rest of us could get a little sleep...at least those of us that weren't plagued by nightmares anyway.

"Ian, can you hear me?" I asked him, almost in a whisper. Then, on the off-chance that Jared had beaten him awake, "Are you awake?"

"Wanda," Ian whispered. He had a blank, vacant look in his eyes and I knew that if he was conscious at all that it was only a little.

"No Ian, not Wanda," I whispered back, feeling tears form in my eyes. I missed her too. "It's Melanie. You're dreaming. Wake up, Ian. Please wake up."

I knelt beside him and stroked his cheek gently with the back of my hand, looking up at Jared just in time to see him shudder and turn away. I knew it must have been hard for him to see me do this. He'd had to watch for a long time as Ian had chased after me, but it wasn't me he had been after. It had only been my body and the Soul inside of it; but not my soul. I wondered what effect the transition into Wanda's new body would have on him.

Finally after about ten minutes, Ian blinked once and sat up. Please, please let him be awake, I prayed. If we couldn't wake him there was a distinct possibility that we'd have to wait until he woke up on his own, which could take all night.

"Melanie?" he asked, confusion and bewilderment in his voice. "What am I doing here?"

Thank goodness, I thought. He doesn't remember it. There was no need for all of us to be embarrassed and be awkward around each other for the next two or three weeks.

"You were sleepwalking. Jared and I heard you outside our room talking to yourself, so we came out to see what was going on, but everything's fine" I lied smoothly.

"Then why am I bleeding?"

I looked down and noticed Ian's bleeding lip and the beginnings of a black eye. "You must have tripped on the way here," I lied again, looking down. "Don't worry we'll get you taken care of."

"You bet we will," a harsh voice boomed from the end of the tunnel: Jeb. "There's no way he's going with them on that raid."