Here you go!
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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.
Ian POV
Wanda and I stayed out until the sun was very high in the sky and I couldn't deny that it felt good to have it beating down on my arms, legs and face instead of just feeling the pure humidity that was in the caves. I closed my eyes to the sun, relishing the redness that was behind my lids with the sun shining down on them and pretending that I was somewhere else with Wanda; somewhere out in the real world as I liked to frequent in my day dreams. I know that I said it a lot, but I really did believe that there was going to be a time that we could leave the caves for good and get our own place to call home.
I knew that once we did leave, we would all have to find houses relatively close to each other; there was no way that Wanda and Melanie could be separated by oceans and countries let alone states, at least in the beginning anyways. I even had to admit that it might not be so bad to live in proximity to Kyle as well, I never thought that would ever happen, but since Sunny had come into his life he'd tamed it down; at least at little bit.
I supposed that since the resistance had lived on its own for as long as it had that we would have no problem fitting back in with society as long as we had the right people to back us up. It would be a lot of work, and all that I wanted to do then was enjoy my life for the moment and not have to think about much else other than Wanda; not that I did much else anyways.
AsI sat there and listened to the cicadas making their noise even that early in the morning I was able to picture Wanda and myself sitting out in an old wooden swing on the porch of our typical white picketed fence all American home, watching the world go by. It was cheesy, but the mental image was definitely something to smile about. I could see us doing exactly the same thing that we had just did in real life; watching the sun rise up over the horizon, but in my mind we were sitting on that swing. Wanda could sit beside me with a blanket draped over top of her to keep the morning chill away, one of her jean clad legs hanging out from under it as her bare foot with its pink painted toenails gently rocked us back and forth. She would be wearing a sweater with her hair ruffled gently from sleep as beautiful as ever, but she would still be cold and have to lean into me for warmth and I would gladly wrap my arm around her. I could be wearing shorts and a sweat shirt but with socks and shoes on so that I could go for an early morning run to keep me in shape. The two of us could be drinking coffee from matching mugs, the steam curling up from the hot liquid into the cool morning air. It really was a perfect image.
"Ian?" Wanda's gentle voice lifted me out of my reverie and brought me back to the present where she was still sitting beside me, but in a t-shirt and shorts with little flats on that appeared to be a little worn out; we would have to get her new shoes from the stash pretty soon.
"Yes, love?" I responded equally as soft to try and keep out voices down so that the sounds of nature from around us were the predominant noises around us.
"What do you think that you would be doing in your life if things weren't as messed up as they are?" she inquired and I was a little taken back by it, as in no century or time was I expecting to hear her ask me that.
"First of all, things are not messed up—" I began, but I could feel Wanda shaking her head back and forth gently against my chest so I stopped in order to hear what she had to say to me.
"Things are messed up compared to what you would have normally been doing with your life had nothing ever happened though," she pointed out and I remained silent, not wanting to admit that she was indeed right; it had nothing to do with my self esteem or anything, I just wanted to non-verbally let her know.
"Well, I for sure would have been out of College and working full time by now. I wanted to be an Athletic Therapist, if you can believe that," I said with a small chuckle, resting my chin back on Wanda's head as I watched a hawk fly over head.
"What is an Athletic Therapist?" she asked and I rolled my eyes at myself for just assuming that Wanda knew exactly what I was talking about. She would have had no exposure to things like that since souls didn't need reconditioning like that or anything.
"It's basically a person who works with all kinds of athletes that have had injuries and stuff. They give like training to them according to their sport, deal with injury prevention and also injury rehabilitation so that they can get back to what they were doing before," I explained as best as I could, but I feared that she still wouldn't get it and I would have to really struggle to find the right words.
"Oh, that sounds neat," Wanda commented and was silent for a few seconds. I took the opportunity to release my hold on Wanda with one of my arms to bring it up and comb it through her hair as I knew that she really liked it when people played with her hair, and to be honest I liked feeling its silky smoothness as well.
"What made you want to become an Athletic Therapist Ian?"
"Well, I spent my fair share of time in with my therapist with the various injuries that I had over my many years of sports playing, so I guess that it was kind of natural that I took an interest in the profession; especially as I got older and was thinking more about my future and stuff," I told her, reminiscing about the past and all those appointment that my Mom had to take me to for that kind of thing.
"Where were you going to go to school for that?" Wanda began running the tips of her fingers along my forearm that was still wrapped around her waist and I flexed my muscles a bit to keep from laughing as it turned out that I was ticklish right there.
"The University of California Pennsylvania," I answered without hesitation. "For whatever reason I had it in my head that I really wanted to go there really for their soccer program as well. We had a guy from my neighbourhood go there on a football scholarship and he really enjoyed it there, so it didn't seem like a bad choice. I did end up going there and starting an Undergraduate degree in Biology, if you can believe that. Then everything happened when Kyle and I were home for a few weeks of summer vacation."
"And did you like it? I mean, the school, the soccer and your program and stuff?"
"I loved it," I told her with a smile on my face. "I had the best time there, and it wasn't because of all the partying and stuff because I honestly wasn't in to that kind of thing; I'd been dragged along to enough high school parties by my friends that I was over it by the time that College hit. More often than not, I could either be found in the library studying my ass off or in the gym working out."
"So by this time you'd be out on your own and stuff, done with all of that schooling I would assume," she mused and I nodded gently. "Would you have been married, or starting a family?"
"No," I answered, not thinking twice about that answer. "Absolutely not."
"Why?" her question was just a whisper in the wind and I was still able to make out the soft strands of her voice before they were carried away from me. I closed my eyes and nuzzled my face into her neck, eliciting a soft giggle from Wanda.
"Because you weren't there. Now that I know what I had been missing all of those years, I know that I never would have truly been happy; and I know that I've told you that hundreds of times, but it really is the truth, Wanda."
"Surely you would have settled down though..."
"But it would have been just that—settling. I might have been with someone, but they never, ever would have made me truly happy or anything; not as much as you can," I breathed into Wanda's ear and I felt her tiny body shudder within my grasp. "I know that it might sound cheesy or corny, but it's the absolute truth."
Wanda remained quiet for a moment or two before nodding her head gently against my chest. I wondered what else she was thinking of, but I decided that if she had something more to say then she would say it, without a doubt. Until she did though, I moved all of her hair to the left side of her neck, gently brushing it with my fingers in the process until the scar for her insertion was visible to me. Personally, I really loved that part of her, because that was how my Wanda was brought exclusively to me.
I began to tenderly massage the scar with my right thumb and it was almost funny how Wanda's body immediately began to relax as soon as I touched it for any length of time. I had noticed that many times before and I knew that if I kept touching it, Wanda might start to fall asleep; which was what I wanted her to do so that she would actually get some rest instead of working herself into the ground.
"Ian, that's not fair," Wanda's voice mumbled up towards me and I couldn't help but to chuckle. "You know what it does to me."
"I know," I simply responded. "Come on up here, love." Wanda turned around as I let go of her completely so that she could see me indicating that I wanted her to sit up more on my lap than where she was seated.
"Why?" she inquired and I shrugged.
"Just because," I told her and she rolled her eyes, but didn't protest as she moved to sit up with me. Once she had gotten in position, I put my arm back around her so that she was cradled into my side before I resumed with rubbing her scar again.
I could tell that she was getting tired; which was after all, my ultimate goal, as her head started leaning on my chest and I could just see her eyes beginning to close up. Just when I thought that she was asleep, Wanda spoke to me again.
"Do you think that Sunny and I will have to hide from the new people for awhile?" By the tone of her voice, it was clear to me that Wanda was concerned about it without deliberately coming out and saying that she was. I sighed before answering her.
"No, you won't," I told her with finality. "I know that they may have seemed a little hostile, but they've really only got one choice; they have to abide by Jeb's rules or else they have to go and I don't think that any of them are ready to go back out on their own again."
"Alright," she conceded, but I didn't totally believe her as Wanda's voice was laced with sleep and it was only a matter of seconds before she was completely asleep.
After a few more minutes of sitting there massaging her neck and watching the same hawk circle over top of us, I placed a kiss to Wanda's forehead and slid my other arm underneath the backs of her legs so that I could carry her back inside. Figuring out how to manoeuvre myself up with her in my arms proved to be tricky, as I didn't want to jostle her and wake her up or worse; I didn't think that I could live with myself if I dropped her at all. I just used my apparent superhero powers and somewhat gracefully lifted her up and began to walk back to the opening in the rocks, careful to check around me before I moved too much to make sure that no one was out there watching me.
Once inside the caves again, I realized quickly that the entrance tunnel was too small for me to carry Wanda through normally as she would hit her head and feet off of the walls and that was no good. Instead, I had to scuttle sideways similar to how a crab walks in order to safely travel around. Before we got too far, I glanced back at the opening behind us and watched the beams of light disappear as we travelled further and further into the darkness below the ground. I wasn't sure when the next time that either of us would get to safely sit outside like that again.
Approximately five minutes later, or at least it felt like five minutes, I could see the light from ahead of us in the main cavern as it streamed down from the holes in the ceiling above of us. I could also hear a deep voice echoing around and as we got closer I was able to recognize it as Jared's. I rolled my eyes and shook my head a little as I edged along the last few yards to the opening where I was able to step out into the relatively open space and turn to face the few people that were milling around in there, Jared included.
"Ah, there you are O'Shea," he commented, walking right over to me and shoving his hands to his front pockets, nodding towards another direction for me to follow him in.
"Was there something that you needed, Jared? Or are you just coming to say a nice hello for the hell of it?" I joked quietly so that Wanda didn't wake up as we talked. I saw Lily waving to me out of the corner of my eye and I smiled back, only to see her trotting after us.
"Hey Ian, what is going on in here? I saw a bunch of new people being led in with blindfolds a little while ago. Are they souls?" Lily asked and it almost felt like a game of twenty questions, only she was the one asking them all in a row.
"I didn't answer any of your inquiries, what makes you think that Ian will?" Jared responded and I could tell that his patience was wearing thing as he seemed a little weary and tired; totally understandable since we had been working all of the previous day and then out all night.
"Well Ian is a bit more personable than you are, you know," she retorted quickly and I held back a laugh, smiling all the same. "The way you're acting now is similar to that of an irritable bear that has woken up after the winter and can't find any food."
Lily's snappy responses and the way that she was glaring up at Jared with her hands on her hips was just the best sight to be seen and I so desperately wanted to clamp a hand down over my mouth but for obvious reasons I couldn't. I looked away from their little spat to see if anyone else was looking and noticed that Andy and Paige were full out laughing at the situation as well, so at least I didn't feel like I was the only one who thought that it was funny in any way.
"Ian, seriously though, what is going on?" Lily asked, her face flushed pink from her spat with Jared.
"We'll have someone come out in a minute; I want to make sure that I've gotten all of the facts right myself before we disclose any information about anything," I told her in the best way that I could, trying to sound professional and not flip out on her for asking as I knew that everyone who had seen them come through was wondering the same things.
"You'd better get someone to get out her quickly or else I'll come looking for you two myself," she threatened and I just nodded, understanding that it was best just to let her think whatever she wanted to; once Lily cooled down some then she would certainly be a little more patient and forgiving about not knowing everything right away. Lily trotted away then as Jared and I continued on our way.
"So what was it that you needed, Howe?" I asked him as we neared the entrance to the spider web of sleeping caverns and I was sure that we were alone.
"Well, Jeb really wants you to come down to where we're keeping them to discuss the whole situation. He feels like if you're able to get through to this Megan chick then the rest of the little group will follow suit once they see that it's really okay," he explained, shoving his hands into the front pockets of his jeans, leading us through the small entrance tunnel and down the one that lead to my room.
"I guess that makes sense," I said thoughtfully, carefully minding the space between Wanda's head and the wall once again, seeing that there was a little more space for her here. "But I don't see why Kyle can't do it, he knew her too."
"He's been trying, but she's so preoccupied with the fact that the both of you are alive that she's not really paying attention to him at all; that's why Jeb thinks it would be better if you went down there too, just to really prove that you're alive as well," Jared told me and I rolled my eyes; she would need that extra reassurance and of course it would be a pain in my backside.
"Could you get that for me? My hands are kind of full," I asked Jared once we'd come to a stop at my room, pointing with my chin at the door that needed to be moved out of the way in order for us to pass through.
Jared smirked and stood there, pretending to contemplate whether or not to open it for us, so I carefully held Wanda's body away from mine and towards his to indicate that he could hold her while I did it if he so preferred. Jared shook his head, rolling his stupid eyes at me and moved the door out of the way instead.
"Gee, thanks for being so helpful," I sarcastically remarked and he snorted, following me into my room. It was very light in there, no thanks to the holes in the roof way above us, but there was no way that I could block out the light for Wanda while she slept. I gently bent down to lay Wanda on her side of the bed and once she was completely on the mattress she moaned a bit and rolled onto her left side, cradling her blonde head with her arms. I smiled at her and pulled up a light sheet, kissing her forehead in the process before standing up.
"Jeez Ian, you think that you could have cleaned up a bit before you invited company in here, eh?" Jared teased and I flipped him off, making him quietly chuckle to himself.
"In all seriousness though, I can totally stay here with her if you want while you go down to Jeb. It won't take you that long," Jared offered and I turned to face him, gaping at the suggestion. "What? You don't trust me alone with her?"
"No, it's not that," I said, scratching my hair and mentally noting to get Wanda to give it a trim soon. "Well, I mean it's partly that, but why would you need to stand and watch her? What's going on?"
"Well, I don't know about you, but I don't entirely trust those idiots down in the storage room a hundred percent at all; you saw how they reacted to seeing her with us. I just don't want to see Wanda getting hurt over something so stupid; something that she absolutely can't control," Jared said simply and I had to say that I completely agreed with him.
"Are you sure that you'll be okay here? I promise that I won't be long and..." Jared simply held his hand up and sank to the floor against the wall close to the door.
"I'll be fine. I don't want anything to happen to Wanda just as much as you do; Mel would kill me if I did let anything happen, but that's besides the point. She's a good kid, and I can see how good she is for you. She won't even know that I was in here in the first place. Now you just run along and get back here as fast as you can."
I just smiled in thanks before taking off, slightly rattled by how nice Jared was being, but I supposed that he just loved Wanda as everyone else did; like a sister. It still shook me that he would want to step up like that and offer me the chance to see what was going on without having to worry about her being all alone. Realistically though, none of the newcomers would be able to get close to her anyways with us being down in the tunnels with them, so that even if they did escape we'd catch them before they got too far. I still quickened my pace though back through the main cavern, treading the path that I had just travelled on to get it all over with as fast as I could.
I didn't know for sure where they were keeping everyone, but I just followed my instincts and headed back up the tunnel to the entrance, but I veered off at the Y intersection away from the light of day as opposed to going directly towards it. As I got further under the ground it became cooler and the sound of hushed voices floated up to me as well. I stepped into the space and was instantly hit with an onslaught of memories from the time that Wanda had spent down in the room, instantly feeling guilty once again for all that I had done to her in the beginning.
A beam of light flashed in my direction from one of the lanterns that someone had evidently scooped up and in the slightly cramped space I could make out four sleeping bags that had been rolled out onto the floor. The space was partially take up with supplies, but there was enough room for that and for the nine or so people who were either standing or sitting as well; there was no sight of the rifle though, I noticed.
"Ah, there you are Ian," Jeb's voice called out to me from where he was standing over on my right. "I was hoping that you wouldn't be too long so that we could get the ball rolling. Now, we've already tried to explain the whole 'soul' thing to them, but they're just not getting it and Kyle's being no help at all. I was hopin' that you could try as well."
It was sort of a question, but more of an order, so I simply nodded my head at the request, cutting my eyes to Kyle who was pacing to my left; usually a sign that he was good and frustrated.
"I never thought that you would cross over to that Ian," Megan's voice rang out through the silence, louder than it should have been in the small space. "You, of all people who hated what they were doing to us once you found out and everything are now fraternizing with the enemy!"
"Things change, Megan," I simply said, crossing my arms across my chest to remain firm. "What they did to us was wrong, yes, but some of them are truly good and Wanda is one of them; not every one of them is our enemy."
"What is she, your pet?" Megan snapped and I rolled my eyes at her brazenness while I heard a distinctive snort that I would assume came from Kyle as no one else really cared enough to show an interest in the conversation.
"Well, that was her name," Kyle told the group and I nodded; sure it was, once upon a time in another lifetime.
"I thought that you just told us her name was Wanda," a nameless man came to stand beside Megan, looking confused.
"It is; well at least that's what I named her. Her real name is Wanderer, but I think that's a bit of a mouthful don't you?" Jeb asked and the guy seemed to back down at least a little bit. I took a second look at him and pegged him as a potential threat if he didn't comply with the rules; he was taller than me probably taller than six feet, and was built pretty large. I wasn't entirely sure who would win in a fight against him, but maybe the point was just to look threatening and not really carry out the part.
"So what? You meet one of them and all of a sudden you've converted? I thought that you were better than that," Megan spat and she technically had a right to be angry because she just didn't understand what was going on.
"What the hell? She's a..." I pivoted on the spot to glare at Melanie, effectively stopping all of the noises that were coming out of her mouth so that I could properly explain. Why she was even down there in the first place was beyond me as well.
"Wanda came to us in Melanie's body," I started, set on giving the abridged version of her story so that we weren't there for the rest of our lives. Melanie held up her hand and waved at them all just to show who exactly she was.
"After awhile Wanda realized exactly how much Melanie and Jared were in love with each other and she felt that she was intruding, so she decided to give Mel back her body so that they could live in peace. Wanda did all of this behind everyone's back, but luckily Jared was there when the separation happened or else she would have... died," I croaked out the last word, thinking of how crushed I was once I'd realized exactly where Wanda had disappeared to.
"Why would you care if she lived or died? She's just a soul, she's not supposed to be here," the other woman spoke up then and I got a look at her before she shied back into the shadows; she was definitely older than Megan by a number of years and it looked like she belonged to the older man or something.
"Wanda was my sister!" Mel said, stepping forward to stand directly beside me, giving me a small smile to let me know that she'd back me up. I returned it and also nodded my head a tiny bit too.
"And with Ian being in love with her as well, we couldn't exactly just let her go and die like she wanted to. She wanted to be buried on this Earth because she felt like she finally belonged with the human race. So we went out and got her a new body; one that already had a soul in it!" she said quickly before anyone got really angry with her. "And then we put her back where she belongs and it's worked out ever since."
I noticed that she conveniently left out the bit about our little separation but I was thankful for that; I had a feeling that they only would have blown up more over that little piece of information. Jeb started yawning really loudly and those of us who knew him took that as the cue to wrap things up so that he could get his 'beauty sleep'.
"So that's the story of Wanda; take it or leave it. She's one of us and she always will be," Mel said with finality and none of the newcomers spoke.
"Well, I don't know about the rest of you, but I'm bushed. Bed time, anyone?" Jeb called out and several people nodded in agreement. "Brandt, you're in charge."
It went without saying that we all began to file out of the small room and I made sure that Melanie went right in front of me; it only made sense because she had stuck her nose in the story and since Jared was looking after my girl I should probably look after his too. She was silent for the remainder of our travels out to the big room when she grabbed a hold of my arm and stopped dead in the spot so that I had no choice but to stop with her. I just simply nodded my head when Maggie passed by us, giving us her patented questioning look, trying to let her know that it was okay. In the few seconds that we were standing there I started to sweat as it was probably nearing mid-morning and I internally groaned at the fact that Wanda might not want me so close to her because of the heat.
"What was it that you needed?" I asked Mel, slightly irritated that she was cutting into the amount of time that I had to sleep.
"Keep your voice down, Ian," she instructed me, looking around the room at Lily and the gang who were still standing there; clearly in the dark by the looks they were shooting our way. "What are we going to do about Wanda?"
"What do you mean, she's fine," I replied reaching up to wipe the sweat off of my forehead with the inside of my left wrist.
"Well, I just don't entirely trust these new guys with all of the questions and the hostility that they're showing towards her and all. I tried to talk to Kyle about it as well for Sunny, but they don't really know about her yet so it's not that big of a deal, but still," she told me and I nodded in understanding, waving my hand and indicating for her to follow me; I didn't want to stand there and have anyone overhear anything until it was all settled down a little.
"You sound just like Jared," I told her, chuckling a little bit. "He's in the room right now watching her as she's sleeping. I guess we all have the same concerns then."
"Well, yeah. All I told him to do was go and get you for Jeb, not to stand and watch over her like that; it's really nice of him to do that though," Melanie replied thoughtfully. "But still, don't you think that it would be better if we all slept in the same room or something for extra protection?"
"Wanda would flip at that," I remarked, beginning to walk down our corridor and I heard her huff behind me.
"I know that she would, but it would be for her own good."
"Well, think about it Mel. These people don't even know where the sleeping rooms are, do they?" I didn't wait for an answer. "So there's no point in doing that kind of thing until they've decided to stay or not and Jeb's given them the all clear to be integrated into everyone's lives. Trust me, when that happens, I'll be on high alert," I told her, reaching my room and Jared stepped outside of it.
"I guess that's acceptable; there will be more of a threat then anyways. Alright, we'll play it by ear then, but I don't like it much!"
"I know you don't, Melanie," I chuckled, stepping into my room and sliding the door back in place before I bounded across the room and slid into bed beside Wanda, not worrying about the heat and just snuggling down with her.
A/N: Happy Summer! And Happy Canada Day and 4th of July tomorrow!
I was hoping to have this up last Monday, but my dad kind of sprung an impromptu trip to the cottage then (because my one job ended then and my other one starts this Monday and I have no vacation time this summer at all!) and we've only just gotten back. On the plus side, Chapter 9's done!
Review : )