A/N: Yay for 400 reviews! I seriously have to thank you all for reading and reviewing my story! I never would have thought that my little story could have gotten so much response! Thank you so much! I send baskets of homemade cookies and cupcakes your way!!

Thanks to brokenfromthepast, Shannon17, siramad21, O'SheaFan, hanaharoo, TopKat90, anmapamo and PrincessSxySwan for your awesome reviews! Only 97 more till 500. 500!!

Disclaimer: I do not own The Host or any of its characters; they belong to the lovely Stephenie Meyer. I do however, own the plot.

Wanda POV

"Pet! It's getting dark out; and chilly too! I can see that the wind is picking up and I don't want you outside too much longer or we'll end up in the Healer's office again!"

"Yes Mom," I replied unenthusiastically, but it was enough to get her off my case as I heard the front door shut a few seconds later.

After only a week of being back in Pet's home (I refused to call it my home because it wasn't) I was already going bonkers. Cloud Spinner was purposefully going out of her way to ensure my safety; almost to the point where it was completely over the top. I had spent more than a few hours sifting through Pet's memories, trying to recall if Cloud Spinner was that way before Pet disappeared from under her nose. I had concluded that she was protective of Pet before, just not to the extent of how she was acting with her 'back'.

The thing that I worried about the most was that the real Pet would return. I knew that technically, in every sense that this wasn't possible; after all I had been the one to make sure that she was sent off planet. There was still always a small chance that something had gone wrong and she hadn't made it off. In the worst possible scenario her tank could have been misplaced and put into the 'incoming' or 'receiving' pile and then inserted into someone's body. She could be wandering around somewhere on Earth and we would have no clue.

I groaned at the possibilities that would come of Pet actually staying on this planet; and they weren't good. Since I knew about Pet's past, I knew that she wouldn't hesitate at all to go to the nearest Seeker station and tell them about everything that had transpired before her recent insertion. After a quick search, they would find me. Of course, having the stupid cuff on my arm would make it that much easier.

The other likely thing that she could do would be to jump in a car or on a shuttle, and make her way to Seattle. One simple conversation with Cloud Spinner and they would have me under the knife and shipped off the planet faster than the time it would take to say "Arizona". Then a Seeker would be inserted into Pet's real body and...

I shuddered, not wanting to think about what would happen next. The only thing that kept me sane with those thoughts was the knowledge that Pet couldn't have been on the planet, as none of those things, or anything else of the like, had happened.

I pulled my knees up to my chest and laid my head on top of them, wrapping my arms around my legs. I hated it in that house. I was constantly close to breaking down, though I tried to suppress the feeling until late at night when I knew that Cloud Spinner was long asleep.

Whenever I allowed myself to have one of my late-night 'pity parties' as I called them, I felt like such a wimp. After all, it was my fault that we were all in this mess. I had run through the events of that night over and over in my mind dozens of times, desperately trying to see if there was any possible way for me to have changed the situation. I was never able to find that 'golden opportunity' where I could have done something different to make it so that I could have stayed with Ian and everyone. Everything that day happened so fast that there was no other way. I just wanted my Ian back.

"Pet! Pet, the streetlights are on honey. I want you in the house, you know that."

I groaned and turned my head towards the front door where sure enough, Cloud Spinner was marching her way across the lawn towards me. I didn't want to go inside; I wanted to go back to Arizona and be in the caves where there was no mother watching over me like a hawk, and I didn't have a curfew. Of course, the only reason I had a curfew here was again, my fault. Mel, Jared and Jamie had chosen Pet's body for me.

"Come on honey, let's go inside," she said to me, gently stroking my hair. "I'll make you some of that hot chocolate that you like; it'll warm you up."

I reluctantly nodded my head and stood up from the curb that I was sitting on.

"That's a good girl, come on love."

Love.

That one simple term of endearment sliced through my heart and caused a wave of pain to shoot through me. Ian used to call me that. At once, my mind was flooded with images of Ian and I felt overwhelmed, almost on the verge of a breakdown. Cloud Spinner must have sense my distress about it, though she would never actually know what the cause of it would be, and she touched my arm.

With one simple touch, I was brought back to reality and it was just in time too; we were at the bottom of the front stairs. If she hadn't touched me, I would have fallen on my face due to lack of concentration. I followed her up the stairs and into the house and proceeded into the kitchen as she took the time to lock the three new locks on the door and arm the new security system.

I remembered the time when she had them all installed; the installation men though that she was insane or something, asking her several times if she was sure that she wanted it. Normally they installed home theatre systems or stereos, not security systems. They were almost unheard of because no one broke in or stole things anymore. Still, they got the job done and Cloud Spinner seemed pleased with the addition. It made me feel even more like I was being held in a jail though.

"Now, how about that hot chocolate, hm?" Cloud Spinner asked as she entered the kitchen, scratching her arm.

"Sure, that sounds good mom," I agreed. "I'm just going to go up and change into some pyjamas, alright?"

By this time she was already digging around in the fridge for the milk, so she just nodded her head.

I slowly made my way up the stairs and pushed open the door to Pet's room, switching on the light. I tried my best to ignore the very pink paint that adorned the walls, and the frills that were everywhere. That may have been Pet's thing, but it certainly wasn't mine. I quickly changed into my pyjamas and slid my feet into a pair of ugly pink fuzzy slippers. I shrugged, they were warm. I softly padded my way across the pink carpet and sat of the ledge of the big bay window that dominated one of the walls. As I leaned back onto a big pink pillow and tucked a white fleece blanket around me, my thoughts immediately turned to Ian, as they usually did.

I tiled my head back and rested it against the window behind me, closing my eyes. I wondered if they had made it back to the caves alright or not. If they didn't and were caught somehow, I could have just added that to my list of things that I had screwed up by coming to the planet.

My thoughts were interrupted again by Cloud Spinner, this time as she entered the room with two steaming mugs of hot chocolate. She handed one to me and I smiled in thanks before blowing on my drink to cool it down.

"Pet, I was wondering if we could have a talk," she started to say and I nodded, a little nervous as to what exactly she wanted to talk about.

"Have a seat," I offered to her, curling my legs underneath me to make room.

"Well I just wanted to start off saying that I'm so happy that we got you back, Pet. Those months that you were gone were the hardest of my life."

"Oh please," I thought to myself. "You haven't been here forever, I know it. Besides you have no idea what 'hard' is."

I quickly silenced my thoughts as I noticed that Cloud Spinner was looking over at me almost expectantly. Oops.

"Sorry, I was thinking of something else," I admitted, blushing.

"It's alright Pet," Cloud Spinner laughed. "I was just wondering if your hot chocolate was okay. I noticed that you haven't drunk any yet."

I looked down at my mug and resisted the overwhelming urge to roll my eyes at the pink marshmallows floating in it. I took a small sip and my eyes immediately began to water as I swallowed the scalding liquid.

"Hot?"

"Mmnhm," I replied and looked up to see her trying to hold in her laughter.

"It was hot!" I defended myself, though I couldn't help but to giggle at my pathetic self.

"I know honey. Just give it a few minutes," she suggested, putting her mug on the ledge beside her. I opted to hold mine, due to the warmth that it provided. Who knew that a small cup like that could give off so much heat?

"Um, I understand if you don't want to talk about it at all, but..." she trailed off and I noticed that she was fiddling with the hem of her shirt.

"Yes?" I said, allowing the conversation to continue.

"Do you remember what it was like when you were with the... um... humans?" she whispered the last word and I sighed. I knew that this was going to be hard.

"I don't remember what a lot of it was like, to be honest. A lot of the time I was kept in the dark, and they never let me know where exactly we were. They fed me when it was time, but the meals weren't always the best, by what do you expect."

Cloud Spinner reached out and patted my covered leg before speaking.

"Were they nice to you?"

I internally snorted at her ignorance to the 'real world'. But then again, she had never interacted with anyone other than souls, and of course they were always nice to each other.

"Um, well not so much in the beginning. They started to get a bit better when they wanted something from me, like wanting me to do something. I just got used to it after awhile and went with it. At least it kept me alive," I mused.

I took a big gulp of my hot chocolate, smiling because it tasted amazing, and it was the right temperature too.

"This tastes incredible," I told her, but the smile she gave me in return didn't quite reach her eyes.

Instead, she sat up straighter and opened her arms wide for me. I recognized the action as the universal sign for a hug. I briefly contemplated ignoring it, but one look at Cloud Spinner's face, and seeing the tears glistening in her silver eyes made me change my mind. Quickly, I carefully set my mug down beside me and leaned into Cloud Spinner's waiting embrace.

I tried to suppress the yearning for Ian that I felt while being held in her arms, pushing it away for later when I was by myself. I knew that I wasn't getting any sleep that night. I would have to face all the memories that seemed to be resurfacing all at once that day.

"Pet. My baby. I'm so happy that you're home."

Cloud Spinner squeezed me tight one last time before pushing me away enough to cup my face in one of her hands.

"I feel like you're changed, Pet. You're a little different now."

"Cue rapid heartbeat," I thought, looking down and out the window. "I hope she's not onto me."

"I'm sorry Mom," I whispered.

"Don't be sorry baby. I know that it wasn't your fault. If anything it was mine."

I frowned at that.

"What makes you think it was your fault?" I asked, clearly not getting it.

"Honey, if I had been a better mother and watched out for you more, that never would have happened."

I shook my head at her and she let go of my face. "No, it wasn't your fault at all. It was a combination of factors. It was my fault as well."

"Pet..."

"Is that why you've been so overprotective lately?" I asked, fitting everything together.

"Well, I'm just taking precautionary measures to make sure that it doesn't happen again."

"Mom," I sighed while giving her a smile. "It won't happen again. All your extra 'precautionary measure' are going to waste. Nothing will happen. Besides, I couldn't get to far anywyas with this thing on my arm."

I held up my cuffed wrist t prove my point and she gave me a tight lipped smile.

"I know, and I'm grateful for that, but it seems almost cruel to make you wear it. It's so ugly," she joked.

"It doesn't bother me too much," I told her, and it was half the truth anyways. "If I just pretend that it's a watch I can forget about it."

"I'm still sorry about it."

"Don't wo—orry," I told her, yawning halfway through my sentence.

"Finish your hot chocolate and get into bed; it's getting late," Cloud Spinner told me and I nodded, gulping down the last of my drink, wincing a bit as I realized how cold it had gotten.

I unravelled myself from the blanket and padded my way over to the bed, where Cloud Spinner had already turned down the comforter so it was ready for me to get in. Once I was in the big bed and settled, she tucked the pink down comforter around me and sat on the edge of the bed.

"I'm so glad that you're back, baby," she said to me and I gave her a weak smile. If Cloud Spinner spoke that phrase again I might have to strangle her. Instead, I played along.

"It's good to be back."

Without saying another word, Cloud Spinner rose from the bed, straightening it in the process before leaning in and kissing my forehead. She then grabbed both of our mugs and turned out the big overhead light so we were engulfed in darkness.

"Good night Pet, I love you."

"Night Mom, I love you too."

She gently shut the door and I was finally left in peace.

Having that talk with Cloud Spinner was interesting, I mused. At least I finally knew why she was being a little overbearing, so that was a good thing. I knew that there would be no convincing her to stop her efforts, but maybe she might be a little better after that. A part of me understood where she was coming from; I would be protective of my child if they had been taken away from me. But then, at the rate I was going I wouldn't ever have children. I closed my eyes visualizing my imaginary children.

I smiled to myself once I saw them; two boys standing with their arms around each other. They both had dark brown, almost black hair and brilliant blue eyes. A taller man walked into the picture and stood behind the two brothers, clapping them each on the shoulder. The man bent down and whispered to the boys, who both grinned matching grins before they ran off. I continued to look at the spot that the boys, my sons, had just vacated until a pair of legs came into view and were getting closer. My eyes began to look up at the man; taking in his dark wash book cut jeans, his loose fitting black tee shirt, and his biceps that were subtly bulging out of his sleeves because his hands were in his pockets. I saw one hand reach out to me and touch my hand, so I finally looked up at his face.

My breathing came to a halt as I saw the smoldering look on Ian's face. Before I could even blink once though, his beautiful face became contorted into one of anger. I realized that he was opening his mouth to start yelling at me, but I didn't want to hear it.

"Oh!"

I sat up in bed with a start, placing a hand over my chest to try and calm my rapidly beating heart. I hadn't even realized that I'd fallen asleep until I woke myself up like that. I really disliked those kinds of dreams. They were fine and I really like them until Ian's face would start to look angry and then I almost considered them nightmares; as much as it pained me to used the words "Ian" and "nightmare" in the same sentence.

Still, it seemed that no matter what I did, I always ended up with bad dreams of Ian yelling at me. Then I would be afraid to fall back asleep, thus keeping me awake all night. Unfortunately, being awake with nothing to do caused me to start thinking, initiating these awful 'pit parties'.

I found it very upsetting that my subconscious kept on showing me and angry image of Ian all the time. I constantly hoped that he wasn't really feeling angry at me, though I knew in my heart that it was probably true. After all, he had every right to be mad at me. They all did. Once I thought about it, everything that had gone wrong had been my fault.

When Mel and I arrived in the caves, we had angered everyone and caused a lot of turmoil. Their peaceful community was essentially destroyed because of it. Even once the initial resentment had died and I was semi accepted into everyone's lives, I was still the reason for the fighting between Ian, Kyle and Jared. I had single handedly destroyed the relationship between Ian and Kyle because Ian fell in love with me. It was that very same reason that Jared and Ian fought as well.

After my insertion it calmed down a bit until the raid. I groaned and held my head in my hands. If I had just sided with Ian, everything could have been avoided. Ian and I would have been safe back in the caves simply biding our time until the others came back. My life would have been totally different, and I wouldn't have ever dreamed that I'd be sitting in a pink room, surrounded by pink pillows and blankets, looking up at a pink canopy. I would never have pretended to be someone that I wasn't.

I felt the tears begin to prick at my eyes and I willed them away in frustration. I was going to try my hardest not to cry over the situation anymore; it wasn't getting me anywhere and I was almost certain no one in the caves was crying over my absence. I looked down and tentatively touched the cuff on my arm as a new idea popped into my head. Instead of crying over everything, I was going to focus my efforts on getting the cuff off and leaving.

As much as it would hurt Cloud Spinner, I couldn't stay there for the rest of my life. If she knew the truth, then she would understand my need to leave. I remembered something then that I had been briefed on when I was coming to the planet in hibernation.

It was mentioned that some of the humans all over the world used to believe in God. I had learned all about the bible and everything that went along with it, absolutely everything. But what struck me the most about that lesson was the fact that people would pray to God. I decided to give it a shot. I needed a miracle, and I thought that maybe, just maybe He could help me out; or at least give me a little faith that this was going to work out in the end.

I quickly jumped out of bed, got down on my knees and prayed for what I needed the most; a way out of there. I really hoped that He had heard me.

Jared POV

One hundred and sixty-eight hours. One thousand and eighty minutes. Six hundred and four thousand, eight hundred and sixty seconds. Seven days. One week. How ever way you put it, it was a long time. It felt even longer when the one person that you loved the most was a wreck and couldn't speak more than a few words at any given time because she was so distraught. It sucked.

It also sucked when no one in the caves seemed to speak in more than a whisper around you; they wanted to protect you, it was said. I knew that they were all thinking the same thing though; we should have done more to prevent this. This was exactly what we had feared in the beginning of everything; Wanda would escape and go back to the people that she came from. I guessed it was true.

As I had watched over the span of one week, life in the caves deteriorated a huge amount. Everyone was silent and melancholic and no one spoke unless it was necessary. Wanda's name was almost like a taboo, no one wanted to be the one to say her name as if something horrible might happen to them if they did. Everyone slowly became fearful of each other, which was wrong but I didn't know what I could do about it. They seemed to be retreating to within themselves to protect everyone. It was stupid.

Mel spent most of her time alone in our room. I wished I could do something more for her, but she insisted that there wasn't anything. The most important thing that I could do was bring her food and make sure she ate it. A few times I had to force it down her throat. She had lost so much weight and it really wasn't healthy.

No one had seen or heard from Ian at all. Once Lily found out from Jamie what had happened she had tried to go into his room to help him, to return the comfort that he had provided for her after Wes had died. He wouldn't let her in though. According to Lily he growled at her to go away and it scared her off. I knew that everyone wanted to help him, but he was refusing it. We didn't go near his room.

Sometimes Jamie came in and sat with Mel but neither of them spoke. A lot of times Mel just held him tight to her, very reluctant to let her go. I sighed and looked over to where she was sleeping, glad that she was still with me after all of this. She could have done the complete opposite of accepting my presence with her and completely pushed me away. I was so thankful that she didn't. I decided to go and get breakfast for Mel; she didn't eat a lot the night before and I didn't want her to starve.

I left the caves and walked all the way to the kitchens. Everyone that I met gave me a sad smile and also walked a wide path around me. I retrieved some scrambled eggs for Mel that Lily and Trudy were making, but they didn't say anything to me either. I had a funny feeling that the silence would continue until Ian emerged from his room. Either that or we got Wanda back, and I didn't think that it was very likely any time soon.

When I got back in the room, Mel was awake and Jamie was with her. I walked in and placed the plate in front of Mel and saw her roll her eyes.

"Eat," I instructed her and she reluctantly picked up the fork.

"Yeah, Mel you look like you need it," Jamie piped up and I gave him a look in thanks. I settled myself down on the mattress behind Mel and rested my chin on her shoulder as she ate.

"Jared, will you tell Jamie that his plan is stupid and won't work?" Mel asked between bites of her egg and I frowned at him.

"Why won't it work? What's your plan?" I asked him and he took a deep breath, looking up at the ceiling.

"Well. What if we went back to the hospital and staked it out? We might be able to find Wanda that way and get her back. Then everything would go back to normal and we'd stop being so depressed. You know that it's bad around here when Sharon has cancelled her classes," he tried to joke through the last bit, but I was shaking my head before he had even finished.

"Why not?" he asked, getting defensive so I held both of my hands up in surrender.

"Hey, I'm not trying to get on your bad side or anything, but it won't work."

"Why not?" he repeated and Mel tried to explain but I stopped her with a hand over her mouth.

"I'll tell him, but I need you to eat," I told her before removing my hand. Even though I was behind her, I could tell that she was glaring at me, but she stuck a forkful of food in her mouth anyways.

"It won't work because we'd be caught too. You don't understand Jamie. It wasn't like the hospital here where we can leave the van out front of the building with someone inside it when we go in the building. We had Sunny in the van when we went inside, but we still had her drive away and then come back. It was a major hospital, and truly in thinking about it, it was stupid of us to even try to use it. We should have just moved on," I tried to explain, but I knew that he would need more of a reason than that.

"So, we can do this Jared! You're always the one that everyone goes to to get a plan set in motion! You of all people should understand the necessity of getting Wanda back!"

"Jamie, I do understand, and I know that people do come to me for that, but realistically we can't! It wouldn't be worth losing someone else to do this. It's a good plan, just not for the particular place that we lost her in," I tried to reason with him, but clearly it wasn't working.

"What do you mean 'it wouldn't be worth it?'" Jamie practically screamed at me so Mel had to jump in at that point.

"Cool it," she instructed him, pointing her dainty little finger in his direction. "And there's no sense you getting mad over this either," she added to me and I nodded.

"Jamie, there's not a good chance of Wanda being there right now anyways," she began to explain to him and we saw that he was going to open his mouth to argue back, but she silenced him with a glare. "Seriously. They caught a fellow soul who was hanging around with other humans, they're going to detain her, yes, but seriously what are the odds of her actually still being in that body, let alone at the hospital?"

No one had an answer for that.

"They would have taken her out for sure. Wanda's a horrible liar. I wouldn't doubt it if she was on her way to her next planet now anyways, as much as it pains me to say that."

"There's got to be a way though," Jamie whispered and she shook her head.

"Jamie, I've been lying here in this bed for the last week thinking about nothing but this situation. Trust me, I've gone through every method off getting her back and none of them are likely to work out at all; for us or for Wanda."

The room was quiet while we all digested that.

"Shouldn't we have a meeting about this or something? I mean, discuss it with everyone in the caves to see if we can't do anything as a whole group?" Jamie asked, clearly grasping at straws by that point.

Mel and I both shook our heads at the same time.

"Wanda's name is like cursed around here lately," I said and he rolled his eyes.

"Only because they don't know what really happened to her. They're scared of what may happen, yes, but mostly they don't know if this has caused the Seekers to spy on us or something. They don't want to make too much noise. They think that's how they got her, that you were too loud and they randomly grabbed someone."

"That's bullshit though. That's not what happened," I said, still not getting their logic.

"Jared, hush," Mel shushed me, leaning back into my chest.

"It still wouldn't be a bad idea to have a meeting with everyone," she mused. "I don't think that any of us are strong enough to recount exactly what happened, but it might help to put some of their fears to rest. Plus, we need to beef up security to make sure that no one is following us."

I sighed. "I guess you're right. But I definitely call dibs on neither you, Ian or I telling what happened. I would highly doubt it if Ian even came out of his room for anything except Wanda's return by this point."

"How is he doing?" Mel asked me and I shrugged.

"He won't come out. He won't let anyone in. I have no idea."

"I heard that Kyle's going to go in and check on him today. He's been leaving food just inside the door and it's kind of been eaten, but there's no telling what he'll actually look like," Jamie reported and I nodded.

"That's good. Kyle's brave enough to face the wrath of Ian for sure; God knows that he would have had to face it more time than he's cared to count in his life," Mel joked and I wrapped my arms around her. "I just really hope that Ian's going to be okay. I wish there was some way to help him."

"I know Mel, I wish so too," I whispered in her ear and kissed the side of her neck. I was going to need to talk to Kyle after he was done with Ian about everything too. I decided to give him a few hours to deal with Ian though.

Red Fires' POV

I looked down at the pulsing red dot on my handheld screen again and smiled to myself. The door to my office opened and Sky stuck his head inside.

"You wanted to see me boss?" he asked and I waved him in, still smiling.

I waited until Sky was sitting down before I wordlessly placed my computer down on my desk and slid it in his direction. As he leaned forwards to pick it up, I put my feet up on my desk and crossed my legs while putting my hands behind my head.

"Know what that is?" I asked him and he shook his head in confusion.

"That's our humans."

Sky almost dropped it in shock.

"A...are you sure?"

"Course I'm sure," I replied. "I've been watching that dot for the last few days. It's always come back to that address and stayed there for awhile. We've got them. We need to get out there as soon as we can to get them. I'll let you get organizing that."

"Great work then, Red Fires," he said to me, smiling.

"I know," I replied and closed my eyes, imagining the take down.

I know that you wanted Ian's POV in this chapter, but once I got rolling this is how it turned out. Plus, I think that Wanda and Cloud Spinner needed to have a heart-to-heart.

But I can promise you that the next chapter is DOMINATED by Ian.

Review! : )