If Mary had hoped to be able to slip back in to the city with no fuss, and even less notice, like the rest of her hopes and dreams, this too would be dashed. But at least the letdown was of a gentler nature, and not so dire this time.

"Maurice?"

Mary stopped as she and her two Uncles heard the Orangutan's name being called. She watched as Maurice fell back a little, then the sound of low human voices came to her and Luca's ears. After a few moments, Maurice gave a low grunt. She and Luca turned, and Maurice beckoned Mary back to him. She looked questioningly at Luca, but the huge silver-back just shrugged.

She was in a hurry to get back to Hope and Lake, not wanting to stick Lake with the human baby's care for longer than necessary. Still, curiosity getting the better of her, Mary walked back to where Maurice stood with three humans. As she drew closer, she saw it was Malcolm and Ellie and Malcolm's son. All the human's eyes were very wet. Ellie was still weeping a little.

"What's wrong?" Mary asked out loud.

"They heard your song," Maurice signed to the young Ape girl. "Just a warning, if they heard you, then I'm guessing a lot of the Apes did, too. Our hearing is sometimes a lot better, you know."

Inwardly, Mary groaned.

Maurice patted her shoulder as Malcolm stepped forward. He opened his mouth, but before he could speak, Ellie rushed ahead of him, and flung her arms about Mary.

"That … that was the most beautiful thing I ever heard," the human woman sniffed. "I am so sorry, Mary."

Mary gently returned Ellie's hug. When she reached up and put a hand on the back of the human's neck, Ellie allowed the young Ape to gently draw their foreheads together. When they drew apart, Mary was amazed by the tender expression on Ellie's pretty face.

"Uh, Alexander has something he wants to give to you," Ellie told her quietly.

Mary looked away from Ellie, and caught the human boy's eye. He was smiling at her shyly. She returned his smile, then she released Ellie, and walked slowly towards him.

"Hi, Alexander," Mary carefully pronounced the boy's name. "What … what do you have for me?" she went on quietly, very curious now.

Back home and through Maurice, she had had some good conversations with the boy, mostly about his art, and that Mary liked to draw as well whenever she had the time and the equipment. But they had never spoken to one another without Maurice in the middle before now. The boy had been too shy, and Mary had feared her Father's wrath if he caught her mingling too much with the younger human. He had attacked Alexander once before for no good reason. Unless Mary suspicions were right, and he had done it because of her.

Looking around, Mary was slightly annoyed to see that all four of the adults, Alexander's Father, Ellie and even Maurice and Luca, had drawn away a little as if giving the youngsters some privacy. Alexander caught her looking, and followed her gaze. She thought he was annoyed by the adult's actions, too.

She waited for the boy to speak, but his shyness seemed to be taking over again. With all that happened recently, Mary thought she had some idea how he felt. She did not want to talk to other Apes nearly as much as she used to, either.

Slowly, Mary held out her hand to him, and waited for reaction.

He placed a long round tube of paper in her hand.

"What is this?" she asked.

"Open it," the boy encouraged her.

Very carefully, Mary unrolled the paper, and gave a small cry of joy when the drawing unfolded. It was a remarkably life like drawing of Ash and herself. She clutched the drawing to her chest, and beamed at Alexander.

"OH, Alexander. It is … it is so beautiful?" the Ape girl gasped. 'But why … did you do this for me?"

"Well, actually, your friend asked me to draw that for you," Alexander admitted.

"That's very like Maurice," Mary began.

'No, not Maurice," Alexander corrected her. "Your friend there, in the drawing."

Mary blinked.

"Ash … asked you to do this?"

The boy nodded.

"Well, he spoke through Maurice, but yeah, I think that's close to what he wanted."

Mary blinked back a few tears.

"Oh, it's almost perfect," she exclaimed.

"Almost?" Alexander asked, looking a little crestfallen. "What's wrong. I can probably fix it."

Mary held out the drawing. It was so lifelike she could almost expect Ash to come bounding off the page at her. She pointed to Alexander's depiction of herself.

"Not me. Too pretty," she told the boy.

Alexander blushed and looked bashfully down at his feet. Then Mary was surprised when he looked up in to her eyes again.

"Really? I … I didn't think I drew you pretty enough," he muttered. "But drawing supplies are hard to find these days."

It was Mary's turn to blush and stare quickly down at her feet.

After a moment of awkward silence between them, Mary put her free hand gently on Alexander's shoulder. The boy reached up, and she tensed, expecting him to shove her hand away. But instead, he simply placed his hand over hers.

"Maurice told me … he said your friend in the picture, that he died," Alexander said after a moment. "I'm sorry. I … I hope that helps you to remember him"

"Thank you," Mary murmured sadly.

Their hands drifted down from Alexander's shoulder, but were still entwined. Before they even realized it, the two-young people, ape girl and human boy, began walking back in to the city together. Mary wondered if she should be letting the boy hold her hand that way, but he was being so nice, she couldn't bring herself to be the one who pulled away first. And it felt good to have someone's hand to hold. Now Mary knew why Maurice and Karin held hands so much … or she thought she had in inkling. A human hand could be very comforting.

"Did you know him, your friend, a long time?" Alexander asked hesitantly.

Mary swallowed hard.

"We grew up together," Mary told the boy. 'Always together, Ash and me."

"That must have been nice," Alexander commented. "Wish I had a nice girlfriend I could've grown up with, too. Or even a sister would have been okay, I guess."

"Isn't Ellie your Mother?" Mary asked.

Alexander shook his head.

"No, she's Dad's, uh, well, lover I guess. They aren't legally married, not yet."

"Do you want them to be?" Mary asked.

"I guess I wouldn't mind," Alexander told her. "Ellie's really terrific, not my Mom of course, but she's so nice. And she loves Dad a lot."

"You too," Mary put in. 'She loves you too. I see how she looks at you, that's why I thought she was your Mother."

"Where … where is your Mother," Alexander asked.

"I don't have one Mother," Mary told him. "Papa never would take a mate. All the women of our village helped Papa raise me. I guess Cornelia is the closest I have, she is Caesar's wife. She treats me like her own daughter."

"But, even so … and even if you do really love them, it isn't quite the same, is it?" Alexander said.

Mary was amazed by the boy's observant nature. She nodded ever so slightly.

'My mom … she died," Alexander said simply. "When I was little."

Mary felt a sudden sharp stab of sympathy for the boy.

"But at least I still had Dad, and then Dad found Ellie. I do love Ellie, but—"

"As you say, it isn't quite the same," Mary murmured.

She stopped and turned to face Alexander. The two stood for a long time in total silence, just holding on to each other's hands and gazing in to one another's eyes.

'Hey, wait up, you two," Malcolm called out.

All the adults, ape and human, were now striding towards them. Both she and the human boy jumped a little guiltily, though Mary did not quite understand why. They dropped each other's hands in unison, but did not step far apart. She did not know if he knew it or even meant to be, but Alexander had been more comforting to her in the last few moments then all the compassionate well-meaning apes had been, except for Maurice and Luca, who had literally gone out of their way to be extra consoling

"slow up for the old folks, hey buddy," Malcolm teased his son. But Mary thought she caught a look of concern flicker across the man's face. Had he seen them holding hands? And did he object?

Oh boy, Papa sure would have, Mary thought. She shivered, thinking she could almost now feel her Father's stern and accusing glare at her back.

"did you like the drawing, Mary, is it?" Malcolm asked.

Mary held it out proudly and beamed again at Alexander.

"Yes, Sir," she told Malcolm. "Your son is very good. And so kind to draw this for me."

"He's been looking forward to giving it to you for hours," Ellie put in as she joined them.

The human woman shot Malcolm a look Mary did not quite understand, but it seemed to be warning.

"We'd better be getting back, Alexander," Malcolm told his son.

Ignoring another sharp look that Ellie flung towards Malcolm, Mary stepped towards the older human man.

"Are you leaving the city now?" Mary asked quickly. "I was hoping, maybe, alexander and I could … maybe talk some more."

"No, we're not leaving yet," Malcolm told her, looking down at her with an unreadable expression. "But I think Caesar's gonna ship us out soon, whether we want to go or not."

If she had not felt so suddenly sad at the thought of never seeing the humans again, especially either Ellie or Alexander, Mary would have laughed out loud at the nervous and cautious look Malcolm flung back to Luca. Whenever Caesar Ordered Malcolm to be escorted somewhere, physically and usually against his will, it almost always seemed to be big Luca who did it. Malcolm did not know how fortunate he was, but Mary knew what a gentle gorilla her Uncle was, most of the time. Having Luca lift him up and take him places was, she knew, Caesar's attempts to keep him safe.

'Malcolm," Ellie murmured, taking hold of Malcolm's arm.

Mary and Alexander watched on as she stubbornly tugged him several steps ahead. They might have been out of alexander's hearing, but Mary heard them quite clearly, every word.

"What's the matter with you?" she heard Ellie hiss at him. "Let them be together a little while. What will it hurt?"

'I don't want him getting attached to—"

"An Ape?" Ellie whispered again angrily. "You don't want him getting attached to an Ape girl? Christ, Malcolm, they were just holding hands and talking. With all that's gone on, we all need a little comforting around here."

'Dammit, Ell, that's not what I meant. I don't want him getting attached to someone he won't be able to see for much longer! Hasn't he lost enough people in his life?"

Mary gave alexander a sad look.

I … I guess I'll see you later, Alexander … maybe," Mary remarked sadly.

She turned away quickly so Alexander would not see her tears, and ran back to where Luca and Maurice were walking. It was Luca this time who put his big arm around her shoulders. She leaned in to her gentle giant of an Uncle, but when they reached the entrance to the women's quarters, Luca knelt in front of Mary.

"Don't?" he signed, his expression tender. "Please don't get too attached to that human boy, Princess. He's a good human, but sometimes, getting attached to a human, even a very good and kind one … it can be a very painful thing, even when they don't mean to hurt you."

With that enigmatic statement, Luca trudged off, leaving a stunned Mary to stare in incomprehension at a sad-looking Maurice.

"He hasn't called me Princess since I was little. But how would he know about human attachments and pain, Uncle?" she asked Maurice, not understanding at all.

"Never mind, dear," Maurice signed still looking sad, and if Mary was right, more than a little guilty. "You'd best go check on Hope now, hadn't you?"

Mary knew when her Orangutan Uncle did not want to talk about something. Normally, she would have pressed for more, but the times were far from normal.

"Yes, Uncle," she murmured.

She left the Orangutan standing there, and with Alexander's drawing still clutched to her chest, she went looking for Lake.


A/N:

I kind of emotionally rung myself out on chapter 7. LOL! So, I needed to write something a little more warm and fuzzy.

For anyone who wants to know who the Karin was mentioned briefly here, please read my story, Angel of Mercy.

Big huge hugs and thanks to all my readers and special thanks to anyone and everyone who has reviewed or sent me PMs. Please keep them coming. I love the input, folks.