Chapter Twenty-Five.

"I'm going to punch him."

"What?"

"Punch him, smack him, give him a noogie. Something like that."

"Why..." I trailed off in bewilderment. "Why would you want to do that to Jamie right off?"

I couldn't see her in the dark tunnel; I could only hear her smirk in her voice. "He won't know it's me. I'll let him know, by doing something Wanda would never do."

Mel was impatiently anticipating her reunion with her little brother. I could tell, from her excitement, that she'd been planning it out subconsciously for a long time. And she was right—I could never imagine Wanda being so playfully violent. Once, when we'd been out raiding for food, Kyle and Ian had gotten into a mock fight in the back of the van, and she'd almost had a heart attack. Greeting Jamie with a stroke of violence would definitely awaken the kid to his sister's presence.

"I don't think she'd like you hitting him."

"Then it's a good thing she's not here."

She leaned into my side as we walked. I kissed the top of her head. "You smell great."

A small hand whipped into my ribs. "I haven't had a bath in two days."

"That's exactly what I meant."

Her voice grew contemplative. "Actually, if you think about it, I haven't bathed in, like, a year? Two? I've lost track."

Light from the main plaza bloomed at the end of the tunnel, and I was finally able to look into her familiar, beautiful face, meet her uncertain eyes. "It doesn't matter anymore. You're here."

She smiled faintly. "I'm so nervous. All this time I've spent here, I haven't had to do anything. Now it's all up to me again."

I paused to imagine her situation. Being a prisoner, trapped inside her head, would be the most frustrating thing in the world. Yet once she and Wanda had made peace with each other, wouldn't it be...nice? To not have to do anything? Simply observe life as it passed by?

Maybe she'd had it easy.

The main plaza was full of people working the field, putting in their day's labor. None of them batted an eye at me and Mel—to them, there was no difference.

We made our way to the cramped corridor where Sharon held her daily class, where Jamie surely was. Before we rounded the last corner, though, Melanie tensed suddenly, her whole body going rigid.

"Can...can you get him?" she whispered to me. "I'm afraid if I see Sharon...I won't be able to hold myself back."

Sharon's behavior toward Wanda had been, at best, abysmal. Given that Mel had given her body and, apparently, her life, to ensure Sharon's and her mother's survival, there would certainly be some mixed feelings now that Melanie was herself again. And Mel was more keen on answering hostility with more hostility than with passivity, as Wanda had done.

That could be dealt with later. Right now, Jamie needed to see his sister, truly in the flesh.

I breached the sacred confidentiality inside which Sharon gave her lessons to tell her I was pulling Jamie out for the remainder of the day. She answered me with nothing but a fierce scowl, hopefully only indignation at Jamie's eagerness to escape her dungeon-like teaching space.

He bounced up from the stone floor, dusting the purplish-brown streaks from his pants. "I woke up this morning and you weren't there! You or Wanda."

I hooked an arm around his neck as we strode away. "We...had to take care of something at the hospital."

"Why so early?" Jamie wondered.

We rounded the corner. Mel was struggling to contain her smile.

"Was Ian there too, with you? I haven't seen him all day—oh, hey, Wanda."

She smacked her fist into his arm.

"Ow! Wanda, what—" His jaw dropped, his hand gripping the bicep she'd hit.

"Wanda?" There was no hiding Mel's evil grin now. "I'm disappointed, little brother. I taught you that right hook."

Jamie's mouth remained open in shock for a few more seconds, inching closed as his confusion gave way to comprehension. "Mel?"

Her eyes were wet, the sly, mischievous grin morphing into one that overflowed with emotion and affection. "Hey, baby."

He threw himself into her arms, the force of his embrace nearly knocking her backwards. She chuckled tearfully, clinging to him like a life preserver in the open ocean. He buried his face in her shoulder, taking in deep breaths of his sister, his real sister.

Why hadn't this scene, this pure, unfettered love Melanie and Jamie shared, been my drive to bring her back? They had all but forgotten my presence, entirely lost in their reunion, in each other.

The blissful moment didn't last long, of course, because the pieces clicked together in Jamie's mind. He pulled back from Mel, searching her face, her eyes. "But...if...if you're here, then...then where's..." His eyes widened.

"Wanda's fine," Mel assured him quickly. "She's in a tank in the hospital. Ian's with her." Her eyes locked on mine behind his back. The message was clear: He doesn't need to know.

Wanda's plan to die on Earth was...dark. Learning her true intentions had been both stunning and nauseating. Ian had been cut deep. And if he'd carried through with it, Doc would have never fully recovered from the trauma.

Jamie was still a kid, still innocent. We could protect him from the whole truth.

Wanda would have agreed.

The kid was still overwhelmed by Mel. "Why are you here? Why now?" He clutched her hands in both of his.

"Wanda and I talked it over," Mel began, only hesitating slightly. "She decided it was time for me to have my body back, since we're taking other souls out."

"But what about her?"

I stepped forward, wrapping my arm around Mel again—I'd been apart from her for too long to stay away now. "We're going to get her a new body."

One without an inhabitant. One she would feel no guilt in calling her own. One all of us could love without any drama or complications. I didn't know exactly how all of this—bodies, souls, human hosts—worked, but I was certain that we could find a way.

After all Wanda had done for us, we owed her.

"I'm glad you're back." Jamie rested his head on Mel's shoulder. "Don't tell Wanda, but I really did miss you."

She enfolded him into another tight embrace. "And I missed you. Soon you'll have both of us here with you."

Entangled in a long overdue three-way hug, we remained motionless in the corridor until my arms had almost fallen asleep.

I would've gladly stood there for years.

Mel was the first to move. "Is it lunchtime yet? I'm hungry."

As we made our way to the dining hall, Jamie and I pressed in on Mel from either side, sandwiching her between us. With our bodies so close, I could easily detect her ragged breathing, her crescendoing nerves as we approached the common area—where she would have to talk to people.

"I'm right here," I breathed into her ear. "Everything's going to be fine."

"I'm not Wanda," she murmured back to me. "Everyone's going to see me as the body thief."

"Come on," I said bracingly. "They liked Lacey. They're going to love you."

Entering the cavern was no different than emerging from the southern tunnel earlier: No one noticed anything out of the ordinary. Lunch being served was much more interesting than us to everyone.

Except Jeb.

He approached us with a guarded wariness, fixated on the proximity between me and Mel—or lack thereof. "Jared," he greeted me gruffly. "Wanda. Jamie. Now, where's Ian got to? Haven't seen him all day."

I elbowed Mel.

She cleared her throat shakily. "Ian's at Doc's place. And...so is Wanda."

Jeb did a double take. "So...Wanda is..." I had never seen Jeb speechless before. "Melanie?"

"It's really me, Uncle Jeb." Her smile was much more bashful this time as she revealed herself.

Faded-blue eyes crinkled under his bushy white hair. "Well. Well. Good to see you, kid."

"It's nice to use my own mouth," she admitted. "To say what I want." Uncharacteristically shy, she peeked around the room as she spoke.

Then her eyes locked on Maggie, lunching by herself.

The room seemed to drop ten degrees.

"I'll be right back." Ducking from underneath my arm, Mel strode toward her aunt purposefully. Laid a hand on her shoulder.

She was ready to face them now, those who'd tormented Wanda.

The exchange was brief and tempered. Mel remained cool and emotionless, though I could imagine the words she said were anything but. To her credit, Maggie said nothing in retaliation. She hid her shock well, after the initial jolt that her niece was speaking to her in the flesh. The only indication of any fright was the one hand she kept over her heart, over her heaving chest. I almost felt sorry for the woman.

As Melanie nodded curtly to Maggie, turning her back with finality, I noted a hint of her old confidence in the way she swaggered back to me, back into my arms.

And in the way she kissed me in full view of everyone.

If there were a way to let everyone know about her...this was it.

A resounding whoop cut through the astonished whispers and mutters. "That's my sister! My sister Mel!"

Not at the moment, kid, I gloated silently, hoisting her into the air, marveling at the ease with which we fitted back together.

At the moment, she was all mine.

...

The humans were...confused, to say the least.

Apparently, no one else had made the connection between Doc removing souls from bodies and Wanda herself being a soul. No one had expected our favorite alien to leave so suddenly.

And of course, no one expected Melanie to be so familiar with everything here. Once people had completely grasped the fact that this was not Wanda, but rather the body's original human owner, they made a point to introduce themselves, welcome her to the caves.

Of course, Mel knew all their names. And more importantly, she knew exactly what each of them had thought of Wanda. The level of warmth with which she greeted each of them correlated directly to their individual attitudes toward Wanda being here.

To Geoffrey, Heath, and Heidi, Mel offered genuine smiles and thanks for their kindness. She made a special point to speak to Trudy, who was busy convincing Mandy, the Healer's host, to eat something. And to Lily, seated alone in a corner, she offered both condolences for Wes and an apology from Wanda, that she hadn't gotten to say goodbye personally.

However, when Brandt and Aaron, Reid and Violetta approached her, Mel had nothing beyond a stiff "hello" and "thank you" for their salutations. None of them had ever voiced any support for Wanda, and although she'd been living as a fully integrated and trusted member of our community for weeks now, they'd still been quietly averse to her permanent residence here.

Melanie was going to right a lot of wrongs. Ones Wanda had been too timid to even touch.

Through all the greetings and introductions, she never let go of my hand. The only indication of her true nerves came through her fingers, slowly crushing bruises into mine. Siphoning off her fear and anger toward the imperfect humans while smiling and thanking them.

Wanda didn't remember that they'd once all voted for her death—that is, she chose to not remember.

Mel did.

After the greetings had subsided, the three of us finally settled on a counter to eat canned soup. Jeb stayed with us. He had lots of questions for his niece—he wanted to know exactly how it felt to host a soul. Mel answered his queries softly, almost sadly, and I could tell she was thinking of Wanda.

I hardly could. Wanda was safe in the hospital, with Ian watching over her. But Melanie was here, beside me, in my arms. And I knew which one I'd rather have.

His most burning curiosities satisfied, Jeb finally posed to the most delicate question to us. "What do we do about Wanda?"

Mel and I exchanged a glance.

"Now, I know she didn't want to steal another life, but surely there's a way for her to stay here." Jeb eyed us shrewdly.

I widened my eyes in a picture of innocence. I knew no more about this than Jeb.

Beside me, Melanie pursed her lips in a familiar way. Thinking. Sifting through Wanda's lingering knowledge, probably. Searching for some answer, some elusive, useful fact.

"I think I might have an idea," she said slowly. "I'm not sure about it. It's kind of...cruel—in a way."

"What are you thinking?" Jamie piped.

"I'm thinking about Jodi," Mel replied pensively. "Six years is a long time to be gone." A shade of sympathy twinged her thoughtful tone. "Six years ago, she might not have even known for sure what was going to happen to her."

I nodded in agreement. It had taken us humans a long time—years—to even notice that something was wrong, let alone deduce the exact nature of the alien invasion.

Mel was onto something. I thought back to when she'd been caught, given to Wanda as a host. Knowing what would follow her capture, holding fiercely onto herself with every fiber of her being, had been what saved her from erasure. It was what had brought Wanda here, brought Melanie back to me.

"So..." Jeb mused. "Jodi isn't comin' back quick because...she wasn't prepared?"

Mel bit her lip. "I think that's the key."

I understood her plan now. Taking a soul out of its host was easy enough for us. The trick would be to find a body with no human conscience inside it. No one who'd clung to their humanity, to their memories. No one who had put up a fight. No one who would come back with any amount of coaxing.

Basically, we had to find someone the souls had already killed.

Mel was right. That was cruel.

"I want to talk to Doc," Mel said, hopping from the counter. "Then is it okay if we leave, Jeb? I think we'd all like Wanda back sooner than later."

Jeb inclined his head once, giving consent.

Turning back to me, Mel pulled me off the stone surface and planted yet another kiss on my lips; I poked her ribs in retaliation. She jerked away involuntarily, a laugh bubbling in her throat.

My mind flashed back to our countless intimate hours spent teasing each other, wrestling, tickling each other, basking in each other's company. I'd hardly dared remember the pleasure of those times, knowing I could never be that happy or playful again.

I'd been wrong. Here we were.

Jamie, standing behind Melanie, wrapped his arms around her waist and leaned his head against her shoulder. "Can I come? Please, Mel?"

Mel's face blanked momentarily, her hand tightening around Jamie's wrist in a protective gesture. She'd still been trapped inside Wanda, but I knew she remembered as vividly as I did the chaotic debacle that had ensued from Jamie's last venture outside: the accident with the knife, his sickness, the anxious, wild raid for soul medicine.

But we'd learned so much since then. Wanda had showed us a whole new way of raiding.

And I remembered my resolution from the night before—had it really been such a short time ago?—to include Jamie in more of our lives. He was a kid, practically my and Mel's kid, but he wasn't a child. I knew that.

Jamie wouldn't be in danger. We—Melanie and I—could protect him.

I met Mel's uncertain gaze with a soft, reassuring smile. She got my message.

"Okay, baby. You can come."

"Yes!"

Everything was so easy now. All these choices, these lesser decisions—nothing seemed complicated, not after last night's impossible dilemma had been untangled.

The three of us ventured again into the caves, past the rest of the humans busy in the main plaza, tending to the waist-high sprouts of wheat.

When was the last time I'd done a day's work to earn my keep here? We'd been very busy lately, Wanda and I.

But not Wanda anymore—it was Mel who walked alongside me now, as we were swallowed by the blackness of the southern tunnel, Mel who wrapped herself around me in the dark, Mel who would keep me very busy from now on.

Upon reentering Doc's infirmary, though, I was reminded of the sobering reality of the mess we had to clean up.

Kyle and Ian were both still there, huddled in separate corners, each living his own waking nightmare.

Doc was in the process of examining Jodi's comatose body. At the moment, Kyle wasn't at Jodi's side, waiting expectantly for her return—he sprawled at the foot of her cot, leaning dejectedly against the wall in the universal posture of defeat.

Waiting was hard. I knew firsthand.

Across the room, Ian's body language mirrored his brother's: seated on the floor, his shoulders slumped despondently. Wanda's cryotank lay on his lap, the picture of futility—her physical presence obviously wasn't enough to quell his looming depression. He stared deeply at the purple-brown rock wall, focusing on nothing.

Mel and I surveyed the sad picture silently, our eyes finally meeting as we came to a mutual agreement. Leaving Jamie in the middle of the room, the two of us parted ways, she heading for Ian and I for Kyle.

I knew he saw me coming, but he had no reaction, no acknowledgement of my approach.

"Hey, man."

He jerked his head once. "Hey."

Although I knew what I had to do—comfort Kyle—I was by no means a therapist. I had no comfort for Kyle that would mean anything to him. In fact, given the conversation Mel and I had just had with Jeb, the bleak, onerous possibility kept niggling at me. The possibility that Jodi would not wake up ever again. That the souls had...killed her.

"We're, uh...we're going out to get Wanda a body. Just—just sit tight, okay? Jodi'll be back...soon." I winced at the lie, the easy, false consolation that was little more than a stall.

"How soon?" His eyes pleaded with me like a small child's as he asked the question. "Doc says she needs hydration. He's going to have to feed her water if she doesn't wake up."

A new voice saved me from making up answers. "Have you tried using Awake?"

Doc, Kyle, and I turned in unison to face Mandy, the Healer's host. She looked remarkably different from the last time I'd seen her—minutes after she'd woken up. Trudy had found some spare clothes for her, allowing her to change out of the dirty scrubs she'd been wearing when we'd captured her.

Though Trudy still hovered hesitantly at her elbow, Mandy stood upright, hands behind her back. Leaning with interest in toward Doc's unconscious patient, she appeared more confident and alive—more human—than I could've imagined her.

"Awake?" Doc repeated.

I recognized the title. Wasn't that what the Seeker who'd pulled us over had given Wanda? The caffeine mist?

"We used it occasionally—or, I guess she did," Mandy explained, a shiver running through her slight frame. "To make patients sleep, we used Still, then we used Awake to...wake them back up. For procedures. Like insertions."

"She wanted to come back in here," Trudy told us somewhat apologetically. "It's where she feels most comfortable."

"Did you say Still?" Doc asked. He made for his desk with long, quick strides, rifling around briefly before coming up with a paper and pencil. "For sleep?"

"Yes, for sleep."

"That would work so much better than chloroform," Doc breathed. He scribbled the word down excitedly. "Jared, you couldn't pick me up some of that, could you?"

"Sure," I chortled, amused at his reaction over the single syllable. Although he did have a point—chloroform was a human innovation. If the other soul medicines were any example, this Still would be good for operations—and kidnappings.

Like the one we were about to pull off.

"Doc, we'd better go," I said ruefully. "Good luck with the...everything."

"Thanks," he threw back to me, his full attention fixated on Mandy. Now that she was ready to share her knowledge, she had a more-than-willing audience.

"Mel," I called to her. Already my body felt...empty without her at my side. My arms itched to hold her again.

She was speaking to Ian in earnest, kneeling next to him on the floor. One hand stretched to lightly touch his cheek.

I tried not to read anything into that.

At my voice, she turned to face me, murmured some parting words to Ian, and stood. Crossed the room to me. And passed me right up.

"Let me talk to Doc. I'll be quick."

Doc reluctantly pulled his attention away from the former Healer to listen to what Melanie had to say to him. I could tell he was still marginally off-put by the change her body had undergone.

I inspected the infirmary again, in comparison to when we'd first entered. Kyle and Ian didn't seem any happier—our respective comfort sessions hadn't seemed to help much. At least Doc was more invigorated, although the change in him had less to do with us and more to do with Mandy.

Mel finished her short conversation with Doc, touching his shoulder in a comforting gesture as she left him. She seemed to be trying to reassure people to not be unnerved by her—that she and Wanda weren't so different.

Hopefully that was all she'd been doing with Ian.

Finally, she returned to my side. "Ready?" Her lips curled into an impish smile.

"More than."

We didn't wait for nightfall. There was no fear in going outside anymore—maybe there should have been, given that we were only human, but Wanda had instilled a courage in us that wasn't easily snuffed out.

No one wandered the desert searching for us, no helicopters hovered overhead. Mel and I walked hand in hand, with Jamie trailing slightly behind.

We took the Jeep. When she saw it, Mel let out a soft gasp of recognition and nostalgia. "Hey there," she breathed.

"It's just like old times!" Jamie crowed. "Mel, it's you, me, and Jared!"

"The original gangsters," Melanie added with a laugh. She instinctively made her way to the front passenger door.

I climbed behind the wheel. Here we were, the three of us, the original gangsters, as Mel put it, on a mission to save the newest member of our family.

We'll get you back, Wanda.

Did I mention how annoying it is to actually have to WRITE scenes from pure IMAGINATION? This project has completely spoiled me on writing without a source! Lol.

Anyway, here we embark on another adventure, this time to save Wanda. I love Mel, but man do I miss Wanda in these scenes!

Hope you enjoyed this chapter! Until next time, and, as always:

Thank you for reading KylerM!