Disclaimer: I own nothing! Just Aiden and Macey.


I was not the same.

Melanie's death took a lot out of me. I never had to really mourn someone that was that close to me. Someone who was a part of me.

I still often call to her in my head, still thinking she's there and realizing with great sorrow that she not and she won't ever be.

Jared's been an angel through it all. Being there, holding my hand, wiping my tears as I mourned her.

It's still hard for Jamie. He misses his sister, and I'm not her, I can't fill that role. What they had, is something I'll never be able to replace or fill. And I don't want to. That was her brother. She knew him all those years. She wiped the tears, she soothed the nightmares this war had created. I can be there for him, but I'll never be Melanie.

It took me a while to realize that, while she's gone, I still have memories of her, I still see sometimes in my children. I see her any moment Jamie decides to be stubborn.

I always have her in my heart.

And that helps me get through the day. That helps me comfort Jamie when he misses his sister. That helps those who really loved her, have a smile on their face instead of tears running down their cheeks when they think of her.

It gets easier every day.

Most of the people in the caves still treats me the same. Most of them never really knew Melanie. But the ones who used to treat me like I was a pariah changed when they saw how much I deeply loved and mourned Melanie.

I guess they see me as human now. A human, who loves, hurts, cries, laughs, and mourns. Just like them.

Like Lucina, for instance, she no longer puts up a fuss when her children wanted to hear my stories. When they want to hear about the Dolphins and Bats. She didn't even flinch when little Freedom crawled up on my lap or when Isaiah, who was much too old for such displays of affection like the ones of his younger brother, would hold my hand.

Maggie still ignored me, but I guess Sharon decided that she would rather love then choose to have such deep, unneeded hate for me. One day she just up and moved back in with Doc. And think was because of our Healer gone human, Candy, who Doc was continuously around. But I honestly don't think he noticed her pretty features, he was just picking her brain.

Sharon no longer glared at me, but she didn't go out of her way to communicate with me.

That didn't bother me much.

The caves weren't the only difference.

The monsoons came late to the desert.

I had never smelled the rain before; I could only remember it from Melanie's memories. The washed out the musty caves, left them smelling fresh and almost spicy. The scent clung to my hair and followed me everywhere. I smelled it in my dreams.

There was a great deal of reshuffling to be done in Jeb's caves, and the move to the big game room-now the communal sleeping quarters-was good preparation for more permanent arrangements to follow.

Every space was needed, so rooms could not remain vacant. Still, only the newcomers, Candy-who had remembered her correct name at last-and Lacey, could bear to take Wes's old space. I pitied Candy for her future roommate, but the Healer never betrayed any discontent at the prospect.

When the rains ended, Jamie would move into a free corner in Brandt and Aaron's cave. Ian had kicked Jamie out when his relationship with Lily started to grow.

Kyle was working on widening the small crevice that had been Walter's sleeping space so that it would be ready when the desert was dry again. It really wasn't big enough for more than one, and Kyle would not be staying there alone.

At night in the game room, Sunny slept curled into a ball against Kyle's chest, like a kitten who was friends with a big dog-a Rottweiler whom she trusted implicitly. Sunny was always with Kyle. I couldn't remember ever seeing them unattached since I'd opened my eyes again.

Kyle seemed constantly bemused; too distracted by this impossible relationship he couldn't quite wrap his head around to pay attention to much else. He wasn't giving up on Jodi, but as Sunny clung to him, he held her to his side with gentle hands.

Jared also surprised me with making a tiny little room big enough to fit the twin's mattress in there that was connected to ours.

We both decided that they were big enough to sleep alone. And there was really no where for them to fall off the bed. The bed only had barely an inch of space away from the walls and we put a big blanket on the top where the entrance way was, that's the only place where they could really fall.

So when the rains would end, the twins would be having their own room, and Jared and I would have ours.

It came time that we would need to raid. Kyle would not go out with us; Sunny had gone hysterical the one time he'd mentioned it.

Jared didn't want me to go. He didn't really want me to do much of anything these days, but I was needed so, Jamie and Jeb had volunteered to watch the twins. They had been getting better at that, so I hoped there wouldn't be too much damage when I came back.

Supplies had been dwindling; this would be a long, thorough trip. Jared was leading the raid, as usual. Aaron and Brandt volunteered, not that we really needed the muscle; they were tired of being cooped up.

We were going far to the north, and I was excited to see the new places-to feel the cold again.

Maybe I was too excited. I was bouncy and hyper the night we drove to the rock slide where the van and the big moving truck were hidden. Jared and Ian were laughing at me because I could I was barely holding still as we loaded the clothes and sundries we would need into the van. Jared curled his arm around my waist, he said, to keep from flying off the ground. Like I really needed that.

Was I too loud? Too oblivious to my surroundings? No, of course that was not it. There was nothing I could have done. This was a trap, and it was too late for us the minute we arrived.

We froze when the thin beams of light shot out of the darkness into Jared's face. My face, my eyes, the ones that might have helped up, stayed obscured, hidden in the shadow made by Jared's back.

My eyes were not blinded by the glare, and the moon was bright enough for me to clearly see the Seekers that outnumbered us, eight to our six. Bright enough for me to see the way they held their hands, to see the weapons that glinted in them, raised and pointed at us. Pointed at Ian and Lily, at Brandt and Aaron-our only gun still undrawn-and one centered dead on Jared's chest.

My fist curled into Jared's shirt. My heart shattered into a million pieces, and I fumbled for the pill in my pocket. The one that would kill both of us.

"Steady, now, everybody just keep calm," the man in the center of the group of Seekers called out. "Wait, wait, don't be swallowing anything! Jeez, get a grip! No, look!"

The man turned the flashlight on his own face.

His face was sun browned and craggy, like a rock that had been eroded by the wind. His hair was dark, with white at the temples, and it curled in a bushy mess around his ears. And his eyes-his eyes were dark brown. Just dark brown, nothing more.

"See?" he said. "Okay, now, you don't shoot us, and we won't shoot you. See?" And he laid the gun he was carrying to the ground. "C'mon, guys," he said, and the others slid their guns back into holsters-on their hips, their ankles, their backs... so many weapons.

"We found your cache here-clever, that; we were lucky to find it-and decided we'd hang out and make your acquaintance. It's not every day you find another rebel cell." He laughed a delighted laugh that came from deep in his belly. "Look at your faces! What? Did you think you all were the only ones still kickin'?" He laughed again.

None of us had moved an inch.

"Think they're in shock, Nate," another man said.

"We scared them half to death," a woman said. "What do you expect?"

They waited, shuffling from foot to foot, while we stood frozen.

Jared was the first to recover. "Who are you?" he whispered.

The leader laughed again. "I'm Nate-nice to meet you, though you might not feel the same way just yet. This here's Rob, Evan, Blake, Tom, Kim, and Rachel along with me." He gestured around the group as he spoke, and the humans nodded at their names. I noticed one man, a little to the back, whom Nate did not introduce. He had bright, crinkly ginger hair that stood out-especially because he was the tallest in the group. He alone seemed to be unarmed. He was also staring intently at me, so I looked away. "There's twenty-two of us altogether, though," Nate continued.

Nate held out his hand.

Jared took a deep breath and then a step forward, me moving with him since I still clenched his shirt. When he moved, the rest of our little group silently exhaled all at once.

"I'm Jared." He shook Nate's hand, then started to smile. "This is Wanda, Aaron, Brandt, Ian and Lily. There are thirty-eight of us altogether."

I scowled and. poked him in the back. "Thirty-nine."

I knew he rolled his eyes. "Fine. Soon to be thirty-nine." He looked back and gave me a little smile. Reaching behind him, he patted the bump that was starting to grow on my belly.

Nate blinked at Jared's revelation, and then his eyes widened. "Wow. That's the first time I've ever been one-upped on that one."

Now Jared blinked. "You've found others?"

"There are three other cells separate from ours that we know of. Eleven with Gail, seven with Russell, and eighteen with Max. We keep in touch. Even trade now and then." Again, the belly laugh. "Gail's little Ellen decided she wanted to keep company with my Evan here, and Carlos took up with Russell's Cindy. And, of course, everyone needs Burns now and then -" He stopped talking abruptly, glancing uneasily around him, as if he'd said something he shouldn't have. His eyes rested briefly on the tall redhead in the back, who was still staring at me.

"Might as well get that out of the way," the small dark man at Nate's elbow said.

Nate shot a suspicious glance across our little line. "Okay. Rob's right. Let's get this out there." He took a deep breath. "Now, you all just take it easy and hear us out. Calmly, please. This upsets people sometimes."

"Every time," the one named Rob muttered. His hand drifted to the holster on his thigh.

"What?" Jared asked in a flat voice.

Nate sighed and then gestured to the tall man with the ginger red hair. The man stepped forward, a wry smile on his face. He had freckles, like me, only thousands more. They were scattered so thick across his face that he looked dark skinned, though he was fair. His eyes were dark-navy blue, maybe.

"This here is Burns. Now, he's with us, so don't go crazy. He's my best friend-saved my life a hundred times. He's one of our family, and we don't take kindly to it when people try to kill him."

One of the women slowly pulled her gun out and held it pointed at the ground.

The redhead spoke for the first time in a distinctly gentle tenor voice. "No, it's okay, Nate. See? They've got one of their own." He pointed straight at me, and Ian tensed. "Looks like I'm not the only one who's gone native."

Burns grinned at me, then crossed the empty space, the no-man's-land between the two tribes, with his hand stretched out toward me.

I stepped out from around Jared, giving his hand a little pat as he reached for me, abruptly comfortable and sure.

I liked the way Burns had phrased it. Gone native.

Burns stopped in front of me, lowering his hand a bit to compensate for the considerable difference in our heights. I took his hand-it was hard and callused next to my delicate skin-and shook it.

"Burns Living Flowers," he introduced himself.

My eyes widened at his name. Fire World-how unexpected.

"Wanderer," I told him.

"It's... extraordinary to meet you, Wanderer. And here I thought I was one of a kind."

"Not even close," I said, thinking of Sunny back in the caves. Perhaps we were none of us as rare as we thought.

He raised an eyebrow at my answer, intrigued.

"Is that so?" he said. "Well, maybe there's some hope for this planet, after all."

"It's a strange world," I murmured, more to myself than to the other native soul.

"The strangest," he agreed.

Never did I expect in my former live that I would find this. Find a world that I loved. That I would find a mate, someone who was the other half of me. Never did I expect that I would have his and Melanie's two amazing children to go home to. And that I would have the honor of carrying another that was us. That was Jared and I. Never did I expect that when I opened my eyes to this life that I would have some else in my head. Someone who I would love and will always love and have with me forever. Never did I expect that I would have this huge family. Or that I would be irrevocably in love with someone and he, me, for the rest of my life. Someone to go to sleep and wake up with. Someone to hold my hand through the easy and hard. Someone to love in sickness and health, through the good and bad, until death do us part. Someone to love me for who I am, an alien.

This is a strange world. But it's my home. Because of Jared. Because of my babies. My family. They made my home.

They are my home.


Author's Note: Well, that's all folks. We have reached the end of the road. It's been a pleasure. And thank you all so much for reading and reviewing. I decided that if you guys have any questions that I haven't answered about the story or that I haven't answered in the story, any questions at all, I'm going to give you all a week or so to get them all in and I'll post a Author's Note chapter to answer them. So, if you review as a guest or as your profile, I'll answer all.

I will still answer questions later for those who read this at a far later time, but not if you are a guest! Only if you have an account!

It's been fun!

Thank you!

-BethDee