Part 4

The group in the Jetta was the first to arrive at the Valenti home. They parked on the street and got out of the car. "They're not here yet," said Maria, "What do we do? Do we go inside now or do we wait for them?"

"They can't be too far behind. We should wait," said Max. They stood in the driveway silently for about a minute.

"Maybe we should go wait in the car," said Liz, looking around.

"They'll be here any minute now," said Michael. He looked up at the house just as Jim Valenti was coming out of it. "Great..." Michael sighed.

"What?" asked Liz and Maria.

"Hey," Jim called out, "What are you guys doing out here?" He walked up to them.

"We're waiting for the others to get here," Max explained.

"Yeah, they should get here soon..." continued Michael.

"Any minute now..." added Liz.

"Yep," Maria finished.

"Well... why don't you come inside to wait. I don't mind."

"Well, we want to wait for them out here, if that's alright," said Michael.

"Yeah, sure. If you want to," Jim nodded.

"We do," said Michael.

"Okay," Jim nodded again. They were silent again.

It had been a few weeks now since Jim had learned the aliens' secret. He was mostly fine with it, even starting to adjust to all this new information. However, that still didn't keep some awkward silences to slip into their conversations once in a while.

"So did you, uh,... Did you find anything at that, that dome... place."

"Yeah, we definitely found something there," said Maria, exchanging a look with the others.

"Or more accurately, we found... someone," Max explained.

"Really..." said Jim, sudden curiosity showing on his face.

"Yeah..." Liz nodded, "That's kind of why we want to wait here. The others are bringing her over."

"Oh... okay then," said Jim.

"Is that okay with you?" asked Max.

"Of course it is," Jim answered sincerely. "You know you're all always welcome here."

"Thank you," said Max.

"I think they're coming," Maria spoke up suddenly. They all looked to see the Jeep driving down the street. Inside the vehicle, they could tell Cailin was getting excited. When the car stopped, she looked up at Tess expectantly.

"We're here," she whispered to her. Isabel, Alex, and Kyle were first to come out of the car.

"Dad," Kyle greeted Jim when he saw him, "We all have some stuff to talk about, and it'd probably be a good thing for you to be there."

"Of course," Jim nodded, "So where's this person you found at the dome?" In that time, Tess had come out of the Jeep, helping Cailin afterwards, then carrying her toward the others. The girl had no shoes on, and Tess didn't want to risk her getting hurt.

"She's right here," Tess spoke up. Jim looked up and saw Tess and Cailin.

"Well hi there," the Sheriff smiled. In his attempt to greet her, he had reflexively picked up the child's hand, unaware that he'd just facilitated her to communicate with him.

"Hello!" she greeted back through the connection. Jim seemed surprised by this, but still kept the contact with her.

"What's going on here?" he asked her.

"Don't be scared, I won't hurt you," she assured him. She'd been told about him briefly on the ride over, so she knew she could trust him. "You're Kyle's dad, right?" she asked him. He was already starting to relax around her, although he wasn't sure why.

"That's right. But you can call me Jim. I hope you don't mind me asking you this, but are you a... I mean, are you..."

"An alien?" she concluded for him, "Yes, I am. Maybe we should continue this inside or we'll start attracting some attention we may not want to attract."

"Right, of course," said Jim before the connection was broken. The ten of them headed inside the house and went to sit in the living room. They were a bit tight in their places as there was a lot of them and not much room to fit them in. "Someone want to tell me what's going on, here?" Jim asked the others.

"I'll do it... if you guys want me to," Tess volunteered. They nodded for her to go ahead. So she explained it all, saying Cailin had been 'responsible' for the robbery, then going on to explain about Isabel injuring herself, then the door to the dome opening up. She told him about going in and coming face to face with the cloaked Cailin. Next, she told him how Cailin had revealed herself to them after healing Isabel, how she'd connected with each of them to communicate with each of them to communicate as she had before, and that they had learned some things about her. Tess told him that Cailin couldn't speak outloud, that she COULD eat, but it wasn't necessary. Finally, she told him how Cailin had been in that dome waiting for them by herself for ten years.

"Wow," said Jim when Tess finished, "That's... quite a story. One I still don't understand enough to see how I fit into all this." The others all looked to Kyle.

"You said you had an idea..." Max reminded him.

"Right... well, it's simple. Cailin needs to be close by. She can't stay with people who don't know about the whole... thing," he explained, pointing skyward on the last part. "And since... out of all of us, there's only one house where all the residents know what's REALLY going on... I think she should stay here." They looked to each other, considering this option.

"Kyle's right," Tess finally said, to which the others agreed. "Sheriff?" she asked Jim, "Are YOU okay with this? Wouldn't want to force this on you. It IS your home, after all..." They were silent for a few seconds.

"Of course, it's fine," he finally nodded slowly. Everyone else seemed to let out a breath they hadn't realized they'd been holding.

"Thank you," Cailin said, through a quick connection with Tess.

"You're welcome," Jim smiled.

"That just leaves one more thing," Isabel pointed out. They turned to her. "It's one thing to say she'll be staying here, but... we'll have to make her be out in the open. I mean, we can't keep her hidden. If someone happened to see her at some point by accident, we'd have some serious explaining to do. And besides, she's been 'hidden' long enough, don't you think?"

"You're right," said Tess, "But what do we tell them? What do we say if they ask who she is?" Jim looked to his son.

"How do you feel about a visiting cousin?"

"What?" Kyle asked, confused.

"If she was your mother's sister's daughter, no one would question why they've never heard of her. We can say her parents needed her to stay somewhere for an... undetermined period of time."

"That's perfect," Tess nodded.

"So I guess we're cousins now," Kyle grinned to Cailin. The girl smiled and went to hug him. The others laughed shortly. Everyone stayed a while longer. When they had to leave to go have dinner, Tess was the last one out. She crouched in front of Cailin and held out her hand. Cailin understood as she took it and connected with her.

"Will you be okay here? I could stay with you tonight if you'd like."

"I'll be fine," Cailin assured her. She didn't really understand why Tess was so worried about her, but she liked the feeling of being cared about that much.

"Alright... but if you ever need me..." Tess started.

"I'll have Kyle or Jim call you," Cailin finished for her. Tess smiled.

"Well... good night."

"Good night." They were silent. Finally, Cailin hugged Tess. Eventually, Tess had to let go and leave but she knew Cailin would be okay.


End of part 3 of the Silent Ally Series.