A/N: I'm back! Enjoy the warm fuzziness of this chapter. I'm sucking up because I'm way behind on this piece and I don't know when I'll be back. I've got a 34 hour work week (and here I thought I worked part time) and am working hardcore on three other pieces.

Humanization
Part 2: The First Thing
five

"I thought I told you to wake me up when you wanted to go to bed," Elaina greeted Joshua when he got back to his room for the evening. She was sitting up by the pillows with the box of her belongings open beside her. The sticky note saying it was hers was still attached.

"I had work I needed to do, so I let you sleep."

"Liar," one corner of her mouth quirked up as she said it, "I woke up and found you in the chair. You sleep like a brick, you know that?"

Joshua didn't know how to answer that. He shrugged off his lab coat and hung it next to the door.

"Hey, thanks for bringing my stuff, by the way. I'd been dying to know what was in that box."

"I had assumed you would go through it." He gestured the bookshelf and the open cabinets underneath. "Like you did the rest of the room."

Elaina stared down at her crossed ankles. "I… uhm…" Abruptly, she reached into the box, took something out, and scooted up next to Joshua. He was sitting at the foot of the bed, removing his shoes. "Do you think you could make this work. I know its earth technology, but maybe you know how to tweak it so the spaceship walls don't interfere with the reception?" When he was finished taking off his shoes, Joshua took the cell phone Elaina was holding out to him.

"This is a communication device?"

"Yeah, I just want to call a coworker and ask her to feed my dog. He can only survive by the raiding the kitchen trash for so long," she said with a wry laugh.

Joshua handed her back the phone. "I'm sorry, but there is no way this will work. Your earth technology is not strong enough to communicate over these kinds of distances."

"How far away can we possibly be?" Elaina asked.

"A little less than two light years by now."

The color drained from Elaina's face. "But… it's only been three days… not even three days! How…" she trailed, then decided, "I don't believe you."

"Our ships travel much faster than anything that exists on earth."

"Still…" Elaina stared at the floor, eyes wide and mouth opened in a startled 'o'. She looked Joshua pointedly in the face. "I don't believe you."

Joshua sighed and got up from the bed, stepping back into his shoes as he did so. He walked to the door. "Come with me."

"Where?" Elaina didn't get up.

"I'm going to show you how far we are from your planet."

Elaina shrugged then slid off the bed and found her own shoes sitting in front of the book shelf. "Is it really okay for me to be wandering around the ship?" she asked before Joshua touched the sensor to slide open the door.

"Yes." As an afterthought, Joshua handed her his lab coat. The oversized garment would hardly make her inconspicuous, but it would draw less attention than the street clothes she had donned upon getting her belongings back. Joshua swallowed hard as the door hissed open. He wasn't actually certain Elaina was allowed to be outside his quarters, but she was "his," and he supposed he could take her where he wanted.

Elaina walked beside Joshua the entire way. She didn't shrink behind him when they left the empty halls of the living quarters and entered the ships bustling main walkways, and she did her best to hide her wonder at the vast corridors with their vaulted ceilings and buttress lined walls, but once, to Joshua's mild amusement, she nearly ran into a someone because she was admiring what was above her. More walkways, narrower than the one they were on, arched over them, carrying V's in their various uniforms all over the ship.

"It's kind of amazing," she whispered to Joshua, so softly he had to lean in to hear her.

"Yes," he answered, "It is." Then he took her arm to lead her down an empty hallway that dead ended in dome shaped observatory. A floor to ceiling window spanned the curved wall in front of them, granting and endless view of black space dotted with stars.

Elaina left his side, walked to the window, and pressed her hands against the glass, hesitantly, like she was afraid she might fall through. "This isn't real." She shook her head. "It can't be. It must be a video of some kind."

Joshua's eyebrows wrinkled together above the bridge of his nose. Elaina had been so accepting of everything thus far, he wasn't sure how to handle her blatant denial now. "No," he came up beside her and pointed to the brightest star in the twinkling sea. "That is Proxima Centauri, the star closest to earth. Clearly, it is much brighter now than it would be if we were still on your planet."

Elaina turned just her head to look at him. "Clearly," she echoed sarcastically.

The human girl made Joshua want to shout and stomp his feet like a child, but he resisted. "I do not understand your disbelief. I have no reason to lie."

Elaina sighed, "I know." It was only then that Joshua noticed the glazed look of her eyes and the water welling up in them. She wiped away the first droplets to roll down her cheeks. Tears, his mind supplied for him. Joshua found himself more uncomfortable than he had been when she was arguing with him.

"You should not cry," he told her. "It could draw attention to your being human."

Elaina managed a humorless chuckle and continued to try and brush the tears away. "Easy for you to say, lizard. You didn't just realize you were never going home." She dropped her forehead against the glass and started to sob.

Joshua took a step toward her, hoping to hide her from anyone who might glance down the hall and see them. He stumbled when she threw herself against him, pressing her face into his chest and fisting her hands in his shirt. He reached for her unconsciously, realized what he was doing, and then froze with his hands hovering above her shoulder blades.

"You wanna know something stupid?"

Joshua did not, but he didn't think saying so was appropriate, so he waited silently for her to continue.

"I can't stop worrying about my dog. Who's gonna feed him, take care of him, wake him up when he makes that squeaky noise 'cuz he's having a dream. It's ridiculous," she said, swiping a hand across her a face. "I'm supposed to be sad that I'm never going to see people again, right?" She pushed away from him some so she could look him in the face. It put her back flush with his palms, but she didn't notice, just stared imploring up at him.

"I…" he stammered, "I don't know." He wished he did. He wanted badly to have an answer, any answer that would make her stop crying.

Elaina took a deep breath, leaned into him again, and wrapped her arms around his waist before speaking. "That's right. I'm sorry. I shouldn't have asked that."

Joshua felt frustrated heat rush to his cheeks. Nothing in her tone had been bitter, but the words stung all the same.

Elaina inhaled slowly, and by now Joshua recognized the measured breaths as a means of calming herself. "Let me explain," she said, voice a little hoarse. "Humans form attachments to other humans, brothers, sisters, parents, spouses, or they're supposed to anyway."

This Joshua did know. He had studied it, but he let her keep talking anyway.

"It just seems sort of tragic, I guess, that I don't have any of those attachments to miss. Just my dog." She squeezed him tighter. Joshua realized the physical contact with him was also comforting to Elaina, and so allowed himself to put his arms around her shoulders.

"I'm sure you have someone." It was a fact about humans, one the V's often exploited, not a point of consolation.

"Nope," she answered, "not that I can think of."

Joshua rested his chin on the top of her head, pondering. They stood like that until Elaina had composed herself enough to walk back to his room.