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lovley ladybug, Fu Fu's the name, Moxie Michelle Cullen, Barbiegirl2435, and Twilighternproud FOR REVIEWING!
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Ian's POV
Although I didn't like the man, Burns definitely knew how to lead a raid.
He knew every single city from Nashville, Tennessee to Augusta, Maine. He knew which stores to raid and which towns to avoid. He knew which hospitals wouldn't notice a few bottles of Heal missing and which clinics would have the newest, fast-acting pain killers. He knew the exact address of every motel in the state of Massachusetts, and was even able to give us a small guided tour of Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut.
Although I was still slightly bitter that we had changed our raiding plans at the last minute, everyone could see that taking the Northeast route had been the better choice. Burns wasn't lying when he said he knew his way around this area. I admitted to myself that any resentment I had was completely selfish; there would be more raids, with more opportunities to show Wanda where I had been raised. I refused to hold a grudge because my personal plans were thwarted.
After the first week, I could tell Jeb and Jared had been right: two souls were better than one. We now had twice the amount of supplies in only half the time. Luckily, Nate had indeed hid a truck in the who-gives-a-shit-what-you-call-it Gap, so we were able to store all the extra supplies wherever we went in the large, moving-sized truck. At this rate, we would be able to return home within one month of our departure, a new record for a raid of this size.
It was quickly becoming one of our most successful.
And I hated nearly every minute of it.
Every day Burns and Wanda would drive off in the van, going out to gather supplies at some new location. I would be left at the truck or in the motel room with Jared, Melanie, Andy and Brandt. It was during these long periods of time were I was overcome with boredom or wracked with worry. I always worried when Wanda went somewhere without me.
And it did not help that she was with Burns.
They would return hours later with a trunk full of food, medical supplies and clothes. I think Wanda could tell how much it hurt to be apart from her, for the first thing she would do every day was open the door before the car had even stopped and jump into my waiting arms. I don't think she understood how much that simple act meant to me.
In the hours I spent waiting for Wanda and Burns to return, I would often think about how close they had grown to each other, and how they were experiencing something that was unique only to them. They both were 'rogue souls', living with us beastly humans after renouncing their entire species.
Out of all the things Wanda and I shared, I could never share that with her. I could never share the understanding of the journey that had led her Earth, and then ultimately to Jeb and the caves. She had lived entire other lives on different planets. Although I understood she came with history and wisdom only obtained through lifetimes of experiences, I couldn't possibly imagine the sights she'd seen, or the number of lives she had touched.
And there was another problem.
I know she never spoke of it, and I know she lived with no regrets, but she still placed significant blame on herself for betraying the souls and showing us the secret of dislocating a soul from a body. There would be times when she would try to explain something from a planet she had lived on, and it made absolutely no sense to me. Although she tried to hide it, I could tell she was sometimes disappointed that no one seemed to understand her thoughts or accept her point of view.
As much as it killed me, the more time she spent with Burns, the better off she would be. Each week they seemed to grow closer and closer, every raid creating another shared experience to tell the rest of us about that very same night. During these times, I would always remain quiet, letting them share their world and the stories that came of it.
To say it was painful would be an understatement.
Melanie could see that it bothered me, and I knew it was only a matter of time before she approached me about it. She finally came up to me when we were stopped in a suburb of Boston, although I hadn't bothered to check what it was called. Wanda and Burns had gone into the city, and would not be back for at least another five hours.
Just breathe deeply and slowly, Ian, I told myself. She'll back before you know it… she and Burns.
Burns Living Flowers. What a creepy name. Who the hell called themselves that anyway? Out of all the names he could have picked, he chose that one?
It was then that I heard Melanie's voice.
"Hello, Sunshine," she greeted. "Don't you look marvelously uncheery and depressed today."
I didn't even look up. "If Jared was out there you'd be doing the exact same thing."
"Yeah, but as far as I know, I don't have a soul who's interested in trying to take him for itself. Unless he's keeping something from me..."
I glanced up at her. "I have no idea what you're talking about."
"Sure you don't." She rolled her eyes, then looked at me seriously. "Ian," she said, "everyone's noticed it." She paused. "Well, everyone except Wanda."
Yeah, I know. My Wanda would never see Burns' advances as anything more than platonic and friendly. Look how long it took for her to figure out I loved her, and even then she had needed the assistance of Melanie. I hoisted myself off the bed of the motel room and thought about how much I didn't want to have this conversation. Maybe I'd go find Andy. We still had a poker game to finish. Loser had to sleep in the van.
However, Melanie wasn't done talking. "She may not know something is wrong with Burns, but she knows something is wrong with you."
I stopped walking, and turned back to look at Mel, noting her raised eyebrow and hard set to her mouth. I'd seen that look before. Better just stay here and listen or else she'd follow me outside and continue her verbal tirade there. Oh joy.
"So, I don't know who you think you're in love with, but you should know by now Wanda is particularly acute to other people's emotions, particularly other people's pain. She can see right through you." I looked down at my shoes, feeling not unlike a small child being lectured by his mother.
She wasn't done.
"I was wondering how long it would take you to see that you're not only hurting yourself, but also Wanda." I mentally cringed. She just had to play that card; everyone knew I'd rather die than put Wanda in pain. "Wanda actually approached me the other night and asked if I thought anything was wrong with you. She can feel you pulling away, and she has no idea why."
Oh boy.
"Now," Mel continued, "you know Burns All Happiness is not my favorite person. However, what has he honestly done to you?" I snapped my head up to look at her in disbelief.
"What do you mean 'what has he done'? He ceaselessly finds some small excuse to touch Wanda, spends as much time as possibly with her, constantly monopolizes her time so we have absolutely no time to even talk-"
"I know, I know," Mel interrupted, putting her hands up defensively. "However, has he tried to kiss her? Has he harmed you physically? Has he driven off with her and never come back?"
"Well, no-"
"Do you trust Wanda?" I looked at her, slightly taken aback by the question.
"Of course I do."
"Then you need to stop playing the 'woe is me card,', and start realizing that although this man is annoying, there's nothing to worry about." She walked over and put a firm hand on my shoulder. "I promise you, Ian. Nothing and no one will ever take her away from you. She's our Wanda, and she's not going anywhere."
I nodded my head, clinging desperately to the truth of her words.
With a solid nod of her head, Mel removed her hand and smiled at me. "See? That wasn't so bad to sit through." I just remained looking at her. She just kept smiling. "Go find Andy. He said that you and him still needed to finish that game…"
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Later that night, I walked to the motel room with a smile on my face. I hope Andy wouldn't complain too loudly tomorrow morning after sleeping in the van. Again.
As I neared the door to our room, my thoughts drifted to the Soul standing just behind it.
Wanda had not woken up with anymore nightmares, but I could tell she had them. I would go to sleep at night with her wrapped securely in my arms, but just a few hours later she would begin to toss and turn under the covers, a frown would appear on her brow, and an occasional whimper would escape her mouth. I would simply hold her closer and rub her back or stroke her hair; she eventually quieted.
In the morning, she never wanted to talk about what she'd been dreaming.
Some nights I would simply gaze at her sleeping, wondering at the sheer magnitude of how much I loved the woman beneath me. More often than not, Wanda would pass out quickly, exhausted after a full day of traversing the Northeast. When Burns and Wanda did return, she was always needed somewhere else, or by someone else, or we would be driving together in the van or truck with the others. As a result, we hadn't been able to spend time to together, just the two of us.
I missed it more than words could express.
I walked through the door to find Wanda facing the window, her back towards me. She was looking at a brochure she had taken from the lobby of our motel, softly humming to herself. The sun was setting, bathing her features in golden light. The golden highlights of her hair were accentuated by the light, and my next breath suddenly caught in my throat. She was possibly the most beautiful thing I had ever seen, and I needed her with every fiber of my being. The weeks of separation suddenly seemed like years, and I strode across the room with a single purpose: to be with the woman I love.
I came up behind her and snaked my arms around her waist. She immediately relaxed into me, closing the brochure she'd been reading. I kissed her just behind her ear, then again on top of her head, breathing in her scent. She continued humming nonchalantly, and I slowly began swaying in beat with her tune.
I could feel every inch of her pressed again me, and it was impossible to ignore that fire that started just under my skin wherever we touched.
I turned her around in my arms and gave her a slow, languid kiss. She hummed in satisfaction as I pulled away.
"I've been waiting to do that all day," I whispered. She shivered in response.
"I love you," she said before giving me another kiss, this time making it last longer. "I've been waiting to tell you that all day."
"I love you, too," was all I could manage before pressing my lips to hers once again. This time I knew there would be no stopping. She instantly opened her mouth, and my tongue took that as an open invitation. As the moments passed, our kisses grew more fervent, and I slowly backed her against the wall. She groaned and pushed harder against me, slipping her leg between my legs. I put my palm on the back of her leg and hiked her knee up so she was fully straddling me. Doing this definitely did things to both of us, and this time we both groaned at the new contact.
My hands were everywhere, touching wherever I could; her face, her neck, her back. Eventually I plunged my hand into her hair, slanting her mouth so I could kiss her harder. Her hands, previously massaging my shoulders, came up to tangle in my hair, pushing me and as hard as I was pushing her.
It was amazing the air around us didn't go up in flames.
She pulled her mouth away from mine, and I automatically followed. However, the separation was only temporary. She jumped so she could fully straddle my hips. I pushed her harder against the wall, now the only thing supporting her. Just as soon as she was secure, she again attacked my mouth. Not that I was about to go anywhere. She needed me, and I needed her. We hadn't been together since the night we had met Nate and his group, and I obviously wasn't the only one who had missed this.
We needed a bed. Now.
I slid my hands underneath her legs and picked her up, carrying her with ease across the room to the bed. Wanda groaned in appreciation when I finally laid her down and climbed on top of her. She was just beginning to inch her fingers under my shirt when I heard, "Oh, sorry!"
I pulled away almost instantly, but it took a moment for Wanda to orient herself.
"I knocked, but no one answered, and the door wasn't locked…"
When she spoke, her voice was still shaking from our previously shared activities. "It's alright, Burns," Wanda said, slightly out of breath.
Now that I had…calmed down, I was able to think more clearly. I dragged myself off Wanda, standing up to fully confront the man who had been a pain in my ass since I first set eyes on him.
I looked at Burns and caught him glancing at Wanda, and when I turned and looked at her, I was momentarily distracted. Her tank top straps had fallen off her shoulders, leaving no small amount of cleavage showing. Her hair was tousled, leaving nothing to the imagination of what had just transpired, and her once modest skirt was currently covering only part of her thigh. She was obviously embarrassed from being caught, yet she didn't cower away as other women would have done; she wasn't ashamed of her feelings or our actions. Looking down at Wanda, I ready to jump back on top of her and finish what we had started. She looked, well, sexy.
And Burns was currently staring directly at her.
I walked to the foot of the bed, disrupting his obvious perusal of Wanda's figure. Burns turned his attention back to me. Finally.
"Actually, it's not alright," I said with an edge in my voice. "If there wasn't an answer at the door, you should have walked away."
"Jared wanted to discuss something with Wanda," Burns said calmly. When he said her name, he glanced over my shoulder. I clenched my jaw and hardened my gaze.
"And it couldn't have waited ten minutes?" I snapped.
"Ian," Wanda said softly, her small hand grazing my back gently. I took a deep breath and exhaled it loudly. I needed to work on my breathing exercises. I locked with Burns' gaze, and although mine was full of frustration and anger, he continued to regard me coolly.
"It's probably about the raid location tomorrow. I'll go talk with him now." She sat up, quickly adjusted her clothing, and leaned upwards to kiss me on the cheek.
"Later," she whispered, gave me one more kiss, this time on the mouth, then flitted out the door.
I watched her leave, wishing beyond belief that we could have finished what we started, then turned back to Burns. He definitely did not seem happy about Wanda's display of affection, but then his frown turned into a smile.
"Wanda and I are heading into Lewistown tomorrow," he said.
I took a deep calming breath. "I know."
"We should be gone for most of the day."
"I know."
He regarded me with that same cool expression, his eyes never wavering from my face.
"I can tell she loves the Northeast. She was telling me the other day how happy she was that Jared had decided to come here."
If Wanda believed that, she certainly hadn't said anything to me. My right eye started twitching, but I kept myself in check. If I did what I really wanted to do, which was go over and punch the smirk off his face, it would upset Wanda. And that was high on my list of 'Things I Never Want To Do.' Still, my body was having a hard time coming to terms with the logic of my brain.
"It has been a pretty successful raid," I told him instead. "She's happy that no one has gotten hurt."
"That's very true," Burns agreed. He kept looking at me. Just as I was about to excuse myself to go find something else to do other than imagine myself violently attacking the man before me, he said, "You're very lucky, you know."
Somehow, someway, I just knew he was talking about my Wanderer. So I answered him truthfully.
"She's my first thought when I wake up, my last thought before I fall asleep, and the anchor that keeps me grounded in reality." I looked at him pointedly. "So yes, I know how lucky I am."
His eye twitched as he turned to leave the room. "As long as you're aware," he muttered before he softly clicked the door closed.
Now what was that all about?
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