I'd let a married alien man sleep with me. And the next day, I did something else awful. I stole a box of Morning After pills. It wasn't easy. They keep those behind the counter and I had to act like I was going to buy it and acted like I wanted to read the box but instead I took off running threw the store and out the door with them. I didn't even know if I could get pregnant, or if I could that these would do anything!

When I came back to the ship Jed and Boss were relieved I was ok, since I had insisted they not follow me. They could have trailed me anyway while invisible, but. . . I don't think they did. I took the pill and we sat down for breakfast: more weird nachos. I was planning out some way to get Boss alone to ask him about babies and such, but at the end of the meal he seemed to want to talk to me as well.

"Jed, Jake, clean up the plates. Zoe, will you join me in my room a moment?"

Neither Jed nor Jake seemed fazed and I wondered if I had missed another one of their conversations about me while I was asleep. My cheeks went red, but I followed Boss into the bedroom.

I waited for him to speak, seeing as he had asked me here first.

"Zoe, I don't know how to say this. . ."

Oh shit my heart was racing now.

". . .so I guess I'll just say it right out. . ."

I fidgeted and picked at my fingernails. He still didn't say anything.

"Can I get pregnant?" I blurted.

He nodded.

"With an alien child?"

He nodded again.

"Will human, um, anti-preggo pills work?" I asked.

He raised his shoulders. Well, shit.

"Zoe, that's not all I wanted to talk to you about."

Shit. Shit. Shit.

". . . I. . . We're leaving today. The hunt is over. We cannot extend it. We cannot stay. You cannot come."

Well, he made that painfully clear. I held back tears, and nodded.

He turned to leave, but then I all but yelled, "Wait!"

He stood, waiting.

"Boss. . . I don't care what rules your planet has. I don't care how impossible it is. I don't care what the excuses are. . . You have to come back. In a few months or eight months—but I just cannot have an alien baby alone."

He nodded solemnly.

"No, you have to promise me. Promise me you'll return to see if I'm pregnant. Promise."

"I promise Zoe, I will return to you."

He kept that promise. Eight months later he followed the tracking device Jed had installed in the flesh of my palm. He came to me in winter, at night, when I was alone.

I was asleep and he nudged me awake saying, "I don't have much time."

My eyes fluttered open and I thought I was dreaming, ". . . Boss? Is that you? Am I dreaming?" What can I say, I was still groggy...

"Yes, Zoe, it's me."

I leaped from the bed and gave him a big hug, flinging my arms around his neck. "I didn't think you would actually come!"

"I see you're not with child. . . I have to go."

"No! Why? Please, just stay with me a while."

"No, Zoe I have to go. My flights and the recordings by my helmet can be audited at any time. I won't endanger you any further. I have to go. The sooner I go the better."

He pried my arms away from him and sat me on my bed. He left me then, in the dark, wondering if it had all been a dream after all.

It had been a year since I'd seen any aliens, then one night I ran into Jed. We met like the first time I had ran into him. He was in an alleyway at night and I literally walked into his invisible form. He had done it on purpose.

"Hello Zoe." An invisible voice cooed.

I felt the invisible object in front of me, a smile growing on my face.

"Guess who?" He asked.

"Jed, I know that's you!"

He let himself be visible to me them. I wrapped my arms around his torso, "It's so good to see you! How's Boss?"

"He's great. That's actually part of the good news I came to tell you about!"

I think my heart literally skipped a few beats.

"He's been talking to members of our council about 'a female ooman with no fear' that he met on an Earth hunt. Zoe, he's been trying to get you a pass to our planet! I talked to him about me making you as my mate and now he's going to make it happen!"

My heart sunk. Boss was trying to get me to their planet—for Jed.

"I know I'm not much of a hunter, but I am going to be the best and raise my status and they will allow me to keep you then. I love you Zoe." He continued.

I was speechless. I was flattered . . . but. . . I began to cry.

"Don't worry Zoe! I promise I will do everything I can to claim you as my love! I will make this happen! You will be mine!"

That wasn't why I was crying, and I knew I had to tell him the truth . . . but it wasn't like I was going anywhere tomorrow. It would be a long time before anything happened, if they did in fact decide I could come. And if it was anything like immigration control here in America . . . it would be years and years even. I didn't have the strength at the time to tell him I didn't love him.

About five years had passed before Jed returned to Earth—with good news. He followed the trackers signal threw the town, honing in on my location. He walked, invisible, past the gates and threw the grass to stare at my tombstone. . . It said my name, "beloved daughter", the dates. . . He did not know the cause of my death nor would he ever know.

Very soon after that, Boss risked another visit to Earth. Jed had told him of my condition. At night, he walked right up to my grave and sank to his knees. His hands griped the stone in front of him and his chest heaved with strained breaths. For a few minutes he was like this, then he did something that surprised me—he began to dig. His clawed hands dug into the dirt with absolute madness.

"I'm so so sorry." He murmured, "I should have tried harder to get you to my planet. . You would have been with Jed but at least I would have been able to look at your face."

"I should have taken you with me." He said latter, still digging up my body. . .

"No I should have stayed with you."

"I could have at least stayed longer that night."

"Should have done more."

"Should have visited."

"Should have . . . should have. . ." He came to my coffin. . . "I should have told you I loved you."

If I wasn't a motherfucking ghost I would have cried my eyes out right then. Damn it I loved him too . . . and now I couldn't say it. He lifted the coffin out of the earth and carried it back to the ship, which was actually parked in the cemetery. He came back and filled in my grave, but took the tombstone with him. I watched him disappear forever.

. . . Well, at least I didn't have to break the news to Jed that I didn't love him, that I'd never loved him. . .

~O final~ (Galician for "The end")