Chapter 12: Sparkly eyes

A/N: Okay, I know this chapter isn't very long, and I know you probably thought that I disappeared off the planet, but it seemed like a good place to cut it off. It's slightly less fluffy, depending how you look at it, for all those people who want more action, I'm still working on that part. This still isn't the main conflict though, I don't want to rush it, because I don't have that part totally planned yet…

Disclaimer: I don't own Wanda, or her "sparkly eyes", as said by Lily.

Ian pushed the red door aside so Lily and I could walk into the cave entrance. Once we were inside the room, we all settled onto the bed. I started to braid Lily's hair so it wouldn't become frizzy while she was sleeping. Ian sat with his back against the wall of cave on the opposite side of the mattress from Lily and me. Ian broke the silence.

"Lil, do you want to sleep in your bed tonight or with mommy and me?" Lily had still liked to sleep with us instead of in her "big girl bed" sometimes, especially when we came back from raids, so her answer was expected.

"With you." She replied in her high soprano.

"Ian," I began as I finished the braid at the end and held the tip in my fingers, tracing the curl at the bottom repeatedly.

"Could you get the pack of hair elastics I got? They're in the bag over there." Without replying, he got up and retrieved them for me and then went back to his previous position. I twisted the elastic around the end of Lily's braid four times and watched her turn around to face me when I finished.

"Mommy," she said as she pulled on my curls so they bounced back up. She was kneeling in front of me. " How come you have yellow hair but I have brown?"

"Because you got Daddy's hair, sweetie. I just happen to think it's pretty." I pushed a short piece that always seemed to escape behind her ear. She smiled.

"And I have Daddy's eyes too right?" She began to trace around my eyes as she spoke.

"Yes, my darling, and I think they are the most pretty in the world."

"Mommy, if you had a baby like Auntie Mel did, could she have sparkly eyes and yellow hair like you?" Lily asked genuinely curious. This, however, I didn't know how to answer.

"Ummm…" Words didn't come to me like I'd hoped. However, Ian came to the rescue.

"No, Lil, Mommy's special, so she has special eyes."

"So Auntie Sunny is special too?" I didn't give my daughter as much credit as I should, she's very observant.

"Yes, she's special too." I smiled at her.

"Can I make my eyes sparkly eyes too?" This made me suck in a breath. I didn't even want to think of someone implanting some soul into my Lily. At times like these I always think of how my species are parasites, no matter how many times Ian and everyone tries to convince me otherwise. Ian must have noticed that my thoughts were wandering. He was starting at my face with a peculiar expression, trying to read my thoughts. Lily was staring into my eyes.

"I want sparkly eyes! Can I have them for my birthday?" This time Lily turned to look at Ian. His face didn't give away the nervousness and fear he must have been feeling inside.

"Your eyes are too pretty to give up Lil." He kissed each eyelid when she closed them. She was pouting. She had no idea how lucky she was, and how horrified she would be if she could understand what my silver eyes meant. Ian scooped Lily up and cradled her like a baby for a few moments. He leaned forward and kissed me chastely on the lips. His felt so soft, so warm. He kissed me again. I looked down now. Lily was squished between us, still in Ian's arms. She reached her little hand up the try to break the connection between our lips. I broke away laughing. Lily pulled herself up to wrap her arms around Ian's neck. I lifted my hand to reach out and rub her back soothingly.

"I think, it's time to go to bed." She fussed a little at this, which in turn made me smile. "Come on, it's late, and you don't want to be cranky tomorrow. Ian laid her down on the side of the mattress toward the wall. He and I laid on the other side, snuggling and relaxing. We just had to wait for Lil to fall asleep. Ian went and put his hand on the side of my neck. He pulled me closer and closed his eyes briefly as our foreheads touched. I pulled my hand up and tugged on the ends of his hair between my fingers.

"Looks like you're due for a haircut, love." His hair was almost in his eyes. The contrast between them was beautiful.

"Hmm…I was trying to grow it out."

"What? Do you want to look like a…" I searched for the right word. I had heard Mel use it before, then I remembered, "hippie?" Ian laughed at this.

"I swear, sometimes I forget you're not one hundred percent human." His smile remained.

"Ian, I'm not one percent human." I looked him seriously in the eyes. His smile faded slightly and his expression came to match mine.

"To me, you are. In fact, if you were completely human, it would take something away from you. Something a purely human creature could never alone possess. Your compassion, Wanda, is part of you, the soul part of you." He kissed me on the nose softly. "And part of the whole that I couldn't live without." This time he closed his eyes and moved his hand down to my waist. He gently pressed his lips against mine. I couldn't think of any way to respond. He constantly rendered me speechless.

"Ian…" I breathed. He kissed me again. And again. His grip on my waist tightened. My hand moved to his hair. We kissed for several minutes, both stopping when I felt Ian's fingers at the hem of my shirt. We both knew that we couldn't continue any farther with Lily here. It was just wrong. I leaned down and scooted down a bit until I could rest my head on Ian's chest. Our feet tangled together, dancing. Our arms encompassed each other as we fell into a deep sleep.

*~*~*

I was walking through the caves, but it was eerily quiet, and darker than usual. I couldn't remember where I was heading, but my feet continued to carry me along on my undetermined path. After a few minutes, I heard another set of footsteps behind me. I started to get nervous. I quickened my pace. Suddenly, I felt a hand on my shoulder, a small hand. My heart jumped out of my chest and I spun around, my hand covering my mouth, preventing a scream.

"Mommy..?" I cover my chest with my hand. It's just Lily, but at the same time, it's not. Her features are still all there: my nose, Ian's eyes, my mouth, Ian dark black hair, my curls. However, she's different, she's older, and she's…frightened? She looks scared out of her mind. She releases my shoulder, she looks about seven or eight. I just notice that she's carrying a flashlight. She slowly raises it to my face. At first, I don't realize what she's doing, but then I understand when I hear a blood curdling scream come from her mouth. I try to move my hand to hug her, to comfort her from whatever danger, but she turns and runs away from me. As she runs into the distant cave hallway as she yells,

"PARASITE! YOU'RE A PARASITE, A MONSTER!"

"Wanda. Wanda!" A voice pulls me out of my nightmare. I feel myself trembling. I gasp when I realize it was just a dream, a nightmare. I try to control my breathing, but it's still rushed. I search in the dark for Ian, and pull myself towards him when my hand finds him.

"Ian." I sob into his shoulder. "It was…it was…" I couldn't even put it in words. No adjective, on any planet I had lived on had a word to describe how horrifying it was. I could feel Ian rubbing my back. It felt nice, but couldn't completely dismiss all of the fear that was quaking through my body. After a couple minutes I gather up the strength to ask Ian a question.

"Ian, is—Lil, is Lily ok—okay?" His eyebrows knit together.

"Of course she is. She's sleeping like a baby." He smiled and turned to look at who I assume is Lily.

"Ian, how old is she?" This really confused him.

"Wanda what happened, it was just a nightmare. Lil's only three, love." I sighed in relief.

"I had a dream—a nightmare, that she was older, and she realized what I was. She—couldn't accept it. She called me a parasite." It seemed silly now, as I was telling Ian, but at the time, it was the worst thing I could imagine, except losing them, of course.

"Oh, Wanda. That would never happen. Lily loves you, loves you a lot." He wiped away the silent tears that were staining my cheeks.

"But Ian, how are we going to tell her. She won't understand. Do you remember what she asked tonight? She asked if she could have silver eyes for her birthday. She doesn't even know that that would mean losing herself forever." My rant ended in a sob. I couldn't even think of condemning my daughter to a life of that.

"Wanda, she didn't know, she's practically still a baby, our baby, and a baby who loves her mother. She loves you. Don't forget that."

"I don't know if she would if she could understand what I am."

"We'll tell her…gently. When she's older, we'll explain, we'll show her how both humans and souls have good and bad sides. It'll turn out okay, Wanda. I promise." He leaded forward and kissed me softly on the lips and then the forehead. "Now, try to get some sleep, love. I won't let anything else scare you, everything will turn out fine. Lily will love you no less, she'll probably love you more when she finds out how brave and strong you were." Now, we were lying in our normal positions. Ian had his arms around my waist and my back was against his chest. I pulled my feet back so they rested against his calves. He was so warm…and it soothed me into a deep sleep, this time full of pleasant dreams.

A/N: Okay so Wanda and Ian will face the problem of telling Lily...eventually. She's too young to understand, but it seems like it would be an issue they would have to face sometime. So, I was going to post this two weeks ago, I'm just really lazy, how horrible does that sound. I literally had it typed, I just didn't feel like proofing it, so it has been sitting in my computer for two weeks. I'm lucky I saved it on a different jump drive than I usually do, because my main one which has all of my stuff from the last four years is completely dead. I'm REALLY depressed about that, because I want to be a graphic designer later in life and ALL of my designs are on there, a lot of important stuff. So yes, I almost lost this whole story, which would have really sucked. I'll try to update soon, and am actually looking for someone to help me plan out the next main plot twist, which should be the "big thing" everyone is waiting for…but they would pretty much have the story ruined for them! So, if you want to, tell me in a review…or just review anyway! Hopefully I'll write the next chapter soon, but no promises, these last two weeks of school are going to be SUPER BUSY! Review please!!!!!