Thank You for your reviews!:

Phoenix xxxxx, LifeRequiresImagination, Magician Girl Mirani

Author's Note:

I'm sorry that there isn't much of Jared/Ian and Kyle/Jaymie, but I was trying to set the scene for Doc and Calihan in this chapter. :) I promise the next one will have more of the other couples in it! :)

Anyway, enough from me, and enjoy the chapter! :)

~Sweet-Hearted SilverEars~

Chapter 8 Getting To Know You

"So, your name is Calihan?" Jeb asked the other man where he stood beside Jared and Ian where they held each other's hands tightly, the couple clearly happy to be safely back in the caves, their home.

"Yes, it is."

"He's a healer," Ian explained, smiling at Jared when the other man squeezed his hand in reassurance.

"Kyle said that you could use another healer," Calihan said softly, his two differently colored eyes pleading slightly with Jeb behind his elegant, silver-framed glasses. "I want to stay here. I can help, if you'll let me, if you'll trust me."

"I don't know you, boy," Jeb replied, his voice gruff, though not unkind. "But I'd trust Jared and Ian with my life, so if they checked you over and say that you're safe for everyone here to be around.."

"Actually," Jared spoke up now to explain. "It was Kyle who examined him."

"Mmm.." Jeb hummed thoughtfully, scratching his chin briefly as he spoke. "Then I'll be having that talk with him before I make any decisions, but you can stay here for now."

"You'll probably have to wait until tomorrow at least," Jared said, looking slightly uncomfortable when Jeb turned his suddenly narrowed eyes on him.

"And why is that?"

"Because Kyle's in bed already," Ian answered him softly. "With Jaymie…"

"Oh. Fine, then. Take healer Calihan to meet Doc. Then you two can scamper off to your own room like I know you be wanting to."

"Alright," Jared agreed with a nod.

"Of course," Ian agreed as well, Calihan nodding to Jeb respectfully before following the other men as they turned and left.


"Doc, this is Calihan," Jared introduced them. "Calihan, this is Doc."

"Cal is a healer," Ian explained quietly, leaning his head against Jared's left shoulder when the other man wrapped that arm around his waist tenderly. "We raided his house for supplies while we were out and about, but since we brought him, we wound up bringing everything that we could of value, even his car. He's here to help you."


"So. What should I do?" Calihan asked professionally once Jared and Ian had left the hospital together.

"My medical tools need cleaned," Doc snapped out in reply, not looking at him as he spoke. "There's alcohol in that crate over there, and the bowl that I normally use to do it in."

"Right," Calihan said, obviously bewildered by his sharp tone of voice as he went to gather up the supplies and tools efficiently. "Um, did I.. Do something wrong, Doc? You seem upset."

"Damn right I'm upset! They brought you here to replace me! They just don't have the guts to say it to my face, that's all."

"What? No! I.. I'm not here to take you job, I don't want it, I swear. I would never agree to that. I'm only here to help you, but.. If you don't want me here, I'll go. I'd rather stay with you, where my skills can be of some use, but I'll go."

"No, you can stay. It's not like it matters, anyway. Maybe I should be replaced. I'm not getting any younger, after all."

"You shouldn't say such things," Calihan said as he poured the alcohol from its plastic container into the bowl and stared to clean the metal knives and scalpels carefully. "I'm sure you're a great doctor. You'd probably have to be in order to handle working in this kind of environment and conditions."

"Don't be ridiculous. You don't even know me."

"I wasn't being ridiculous.." Calihan replied softly, sounding a little hurt by the older man's words. "Though you're right otherwise. I don't know you, but.. I would very much like to."

"Are you flirting with me?.." Doc asked incredulously.

"Am I?.." Calihan teased him, then his face became more serious as he turned to face him now. "I confess. You caught me, Doc."

The older man frowned at him, drawing himself up to his full height, his posture stiff now as he spoke. "I'll have you know that I am very, very straight. And married."

"Oh.." Calihan sighed, his face falling with disappointment at his words. "I'm sorry, then. I just.. thought I felt something. But it's okay. I'll find someone, someday. I'll.. get back to work now."

"Good," Doc said shortly before turning away from him to get started on one of the many other things that needed doing to keep the hospital clean and safe for it's many patients.


"Ahh, Jared!" Ian moaned, his arms twined around the other man's neck as he cried out where he lay beneath him while his lover moved inside him between his widely spread thighs. "Yes! Don't stop! Hhaaa, harder, please!"

"As you wish.." Jared panted in reply, moving faster inside him now, sweat dripping from his hair and forehead with his wild exertion.

Ian moaned again, convulsing beneath him with pleasure as he came hard and fast, Jared doing the same within him, then slumping down atop his boyfriend's trembling body after pulling out of him with obvious reluctance to remove and discard the condom.

"Oh, god.." Ian panted softly, clinging to Jared as they both recovered slowly. "I love you, Jared.."

"I love you, too, Ian. Always."


"So.." Calihan asked Doc a couple hours later. "If you're married, why aren't you wearing a ring?"

"We're.. She and I are sort of.. estranged right now. Living here.. It's been harder for her then it's been for me. I was never much of a social butterfly, but Sharon.. Sharon used to be. Losing that side of herself to the invasion made her very bitter. Nothing I say to her seems to make any difference anymore. Why were you looking at my hands, anyway?"

"Because they're sex-" Calihan replied, cutting himself off quickly as pink colored his cheekbones and nose quickly. "Uh, I meant steady. You have very steady hands. Reliable. Maybe.. maybe I can help you with your.. with Sharon. I've been told when I take the time away from work I can be very romantic."

"Why would you do that when you want me for yourself? You made that fact very clear from the beginning."

"Because.. You're a good man. You deserve to be happy. Even if it isn't with me. Regardless of what I want, if Sharon is your destiny, then it would be wrong of me to even attempt to stand in the way of it. I would never do that to anyone that I lo- that I cared about."

"Oh," Doc said, looking slightly uncomfortable now. "Thanks anyway, Calihan, but.. I think that the things that Sharon and I once had are gone, and I honestly don't know if we'll ever be able to get them back. The only reason that I haven't officially left her yet is because.. It just seems so final, you know what I mean? We were good together, before the aliens came. I wanted us to be good again, but I think that it really is over.."

"Oh. I'm sorry," Calihan said, turning back to his task now before Doc realized that his eyes had gone wet at his words. Unfortunately, he must not have been quite fast enough, because he felt the other man touch his right shoulder gently.

"Hey.." Doc said softly, concerned now. "What is it?.."

You said my name, Calihan longed to say to him, but he held himself back, keeping his wildly behaving emotions in check. "I have eye problems," Cal admitted truthfully to cover his tracks quickly. "Bright lights sometimes make them water, or hurt. It's been that way ever since I was a baby. My adopted parents could only use candlelight near me, or flashlights, but never near my face. The aliens couldn't even find out what the problem was, let alone fix it."

"Really?.. Hmm.. Maybe I can take a look? I am a doctor, after all."

"No! Uh, I mean.. It's alright. I'm sort of.. used to it by now, anyway."

"But you shouldn't have to be. Let me help you. Please?"

"It's okay. Really. I'll be fine, Doc."

"Look, just because I rejected your attentions.. That's no reason to be foolish about your health."

"What? No, that's not.. Believe what you want to believe, but I don't need your help. I'll be alright."

Calihan gasped softly when he felt the other man's hand tighten on his shoulder suddenly, spinning him around to face him now, freezing as one of the nearby lights shone directly into his eyes, causing him more pain, shuddering with it as they flashed silver over the walls of the hospital cave.


"Oh, Kyle!" Jaymie moaned, shuddering as the other man's arms rose up to twine themselves around his neck loosely, panting softly as he moved atop him, riding Kyle like the beautiful, muscular wild stallion that his older lover was. "Haahhh, you feel so good inside me.. I love you!"

"I love you, too, Jaymie.." Kyle promised, pulling him down closer against him so that he could kiss his lips hungrily, his hot, wet tongue darting inside to taste the younger boy's mouth deeply. Taking Jaymie's soft cry into himself as he stiffened, coming quickly as his hips sped up now, spilling his seed across Kyle's lower abdomen, Kyle releasing only a few seconds after him.

They curled up together afterward, their arms around each other as they drifted off to sleep again with contented smiles on their faces where they lay now tucked beneath the blankets to conceal their nakedness just in case anyone should walk by the cave.


Calihan was hurt, but not really surprised, when the other man recoiled from him, reeling back a step or two as his eyes went wide, Calihan turning the light away so the silver reflection vanished as quickly as it had appeared.

"You- You're one of them!" Doc stammered, looking shocked and confused at this sudden revelation. "But.. You don't have the scar.."

"Please, don't turn me in.." Calihan said softly, his two-tones eyes imploring, almost begging him. "I can't go back there.. I'd rather die!"

"Don't be overdramatic."

"I'm not. If you knew what they did to me.. The things that they put me through.."

"Then explain it to me," Doc said stiffly, and Calihan was sorry to have lost even the other man's pity, though he hadn't wanted it before.

"I.. Alright," he replied softly, swallowing visibly. "You might want to sit down. This.. won't be easy to hear.."

Doc sat down on one of the cots wordlessly, and Calihan took the one closest to him, forcing himself not to react visibly as Doc moved as far away from him as his own cot would allow.

"I never wanted to come to this planet in the first place," Calihan began softly in explanation, his hands trembling with the words where they rested on his knees now. "I was.. not happy, exactly, but content on our home planet. I don't like the things that my former race has to do to survive.. It's wrong to take the life of another, no matter how you do it. Unfortunately, because of my alien body's unique coloring, I was chosen to be sent here for a special new plan of infiltration that had been devised a few years after the initial invasion, one that had yet to be tested to see if it could work. They never asked me how I felt about it. I wasn't given a choice in the matter. They just sent me here.."

"What was the infiltration plan?"

"The unborn. They used a human-like surgical procedure to place me inside a seven month old boy child."

"That's awful!"

"I know," Calihan agreed with a soft sigh, his eyes sad now. "But, as I said, I was never consulted. There's no way that I would have ever agreed to such a blatant atrocity."

"Are there others like you? Without the scars?"

"No. I'm the only one."

"Why?"

"Because I deceived them into thinking that the experiment had failed. I overheard the scientists who had done the procedure talking about it years later. They think that I died, so they're unwilling to risk any more souls by trying again. I just.. I couldn't let them do that to anymore innocent babies. Regardless of how they saw it, it's no different them abortion. I may not have been consulted about it, but I.. I killed that poor baby.. I destroyed him, and now.. I have to live with that guilt every single day for the rest of my life. You can't imagine the pain, the agony that I feel. I try to live the life that I think that child would have wanted, as much as I can. That's why I took up healing, and music.. Good, peaceful things. About the only thing that differs from that is my attraction to the male body. That's why they think their experiment failed, because they believe that no soul would ever willingly care that way for the same sex as that of their host body. It doesn't make sense reproductively, but not everything can be explained that way, because some people never want children. Whether the boy would feel this way about men or not.. I can't say, because I knew him such a short time.. but I do. I have ever since this body, my body, reached sexual maturity. Whether they knew it or not. I've considered myself to be human for a long time now. I don't remember.. I don't let myself remember my former life. This is all that I want now. Earth, however unlikely it may seem to you, has become my home."

"You're right, it does seem unlikely, but that's not my choice to make, it's yours. I won't tell, but I think that you should. Someone else is going to find out eventually, it's pretty much inevitable, and it'll backfire on you somehow. Some of the others won't care at all, because we actually had another soul living here not that long ago."

"I.. I'll think about it," Calihan promised Doc, though it clearly made him uncomfortable to do so. "You had a soul living here? What happened to it?"

"She died."

"She was a Queen?" he asked in obvious surprise.

"Yes. She was like you, sort of."

"How did she die?"

"It was an accident. Rock-slide."

"What made her decide to come here?"

"I'm not exactly the best one to explain that," Doc said firmly, though not in a mean way. "It's very.. complicated. I was her friend, but Jared and Ian know a lot more about it then I do. They were.. much closer to the situation then I was. But if you ask them about it, be careful. Neither of them are thick. And take it easy on them. Their wounds are still raw yet, okay?"

"Of course. I'll use all of my considerable sensitivity."