Believe it or not, but I haven't had internet since my last update... it's been stupid, but it's over with now. So I just kept writing. Sorry for the delay!
Thanks to Bloomerica, ladaane, piccolover22, twihardhannah, oohapoo, jediahsokaroxx, .xx, Miss WolfGirl10, gaararoks and CrazyLady97 for your reviews!
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.
Melanie POV
"Go Jared, go Jared! Go, go, go Jared!" I cheered from the sidelines of the soccer match that I was watching down in the 'games cave' as it had been dubbed by some of us. Kyle had jokingly challenged Jared to a match, but he had taken it very seriously and led us to the game after dinner. Jared was winning so far, but it wasn't quite half-time yet so there was still a lot of playing time.
I had tried to convince Sunny to come down and watch, but she had flat out refused, saying that she wanted to help Jeb with the strawberry harvest or something equally as boring compared to anything soccer related in my eyes. On the other hand, I wasn't entirely sure that Kyle would have wanted her there to see the pummelling that was happening to him.
No less than five minutes later, or so I was assuming, I called them in for half-time so that the boys could rest up a bit and have something to drink.
"Awe, come on Mel! Do we have to stop?" Jared whined from all the way across the field. It was very dark in there, so I didn't answer right away to get my point across and within two minutes I heard footsteps trekking across the dirt towards me.
"Yes you have to stop," I answered Jared after I'd handed the boys a water bottle and watched as Jared downed nearly half of his in under thirty seconds. "You need a... uh... rest for a minute."
I had a small lantern with me to illuminate at least some of the cavern and the sight of a sweaty, dirt covered Jared guzzling a water bottle while half of it dribbled down his chin made me want to lick it up, but I refrained from doing so. The light made his skin glow and lit up all the beads of sweat that fell and I watched one with my eyes as it made its way down from Jared's chin to the top of his shorts. They had long ago ditched their shirts as it was ludicrously hot in there, especially while running around like a bunch of fools.
"Are you sure that you brought your A-game there, Kyle?" Jared taunted him, tossing the now empty bottle to the side where it fell against the stone floor with an echoing clank.
"Jared, quit teasing him," I reprimanded him, cuffing the back of Jared's head for good measure as well. "There's still another half to go anyways, maybe he's just trying to wear you out first, you old man." I winked at Kyle who laughed out loud then.
"Yeah, how do you know that's not my game plan, old man," he stressed and shook his head, casting his bottle to the side too. "How much resting time do you need there, gramps?"
"I'm good if you're good," Jared countered and I noticed the familiar competitive glint in his eyes and knew that he was raring to go again. Kyle simply had to nod before the two of them tore off back to centre field again to start over.
I sighed and sat down, willing to watch the rest of the testosterone-filled match while conserving my own energy. I really shouldn't have been tired since I had slept most of the day away, but I supposed that was how it went; my body hadn't fully recovered from missing a full night's sleep. I had imagined pulling all-nighters once I had made it to college, but that was in a totally different lifetime; now I was missing sleep to find out if people were still human or not.
"Oh, how the world turns," I said to myself, crossing my legs Indian-style and leaning back on the palms of my hand, tossing my hair over my shoulders with a flick of my head.
I watched them for several minutes until I heard my name being called from a fair distance away through the tunnel that led to the cavern. I ignored it for as long as I could, not wanting to do any sort of work that day; in fact, I was absolutely determined to say no if the call was for work at all. As the soft voice got closer to me, and Kyle actually got around Jared and on a breakaway, I recognized the voice as Wanda's and answered her immediately without taking my eyes off of my sources of entertainment.
"Mel, are you down here?" I heard her ask from my left and turned my head to see her standing timidly in the entranceway.
"Yeah, I'm over here by the light," I replied, smiling and hoping that she could see it in the limited light that we had. "Come on over, you're missing one heck of a game."
I turned my attention back towards the sweaty men duelling it out on the field as Wanda slowly made her way over to my side. She stopped and I waited to see if she would sit with me and I was about to tell her to pop-a-squat when she gently folded herself down to the dirt beside me.
"So how goes it?" I asked right before cheering as Jared kicked the ball toward Kyle's net and the latter had to boogy his ass to get back in time to make the save. "Did you have a nice sleep?"
"Yeah, it was good I suppose," Wanda replied, sighing a bit. "I just feel guilty sleeping all day and not doing any work at all around here; it seems almost criminal."
"Eh," I shrugged, looking at Wanda then. "We all need a day off every now and again."
"You guys keep saying that, but I'm wondering when it will be that we run out of these days off," she commented and I rolled my eyes at her; a useless thing to do when she wouldn't be able to see the gesture at all.
"Wanda, before all it happened, North Americans got two weeks holidays, plus some sick days here and there that they could take off if needed. Australians and I think people from New Zealand got ridiculous amounts of days off; something like six weeks a year or something, I forget. The point is that you should think of us down here as Australians; we get to take a lot of days off," I concluded, trying to sound smart, but it was probably dumb in Wanda's eyes, she was the smarty pants around here.
"I guess," she said, her small voice fading quietly into nothing. We sat in silence for a few moments, other than the grunts and groans and panting from Jared and Kyle as they chased each other all around the place for the ball.
"Who's winning?" she asked and I smirked.
"Jared, of course," I replied coolly, like it wasn't a big deal that my man was in the lead or anything.
"Kyle will be mad about that one," Wanda commented and I laughed while nodding my head, totally agreeing with her.
"He sure will."
"Mel, I actually came to talk to you about something, but if you don't have the time right now, I totally understand," Wanda told me and I sat up straight again to turn my full attention on to her.
"Wanda, I've always got the time for you," I told her sincerely and I truly meant it; I would always drop anything I was doing for her just like I knew how she would do it for me.
"Well, it's just that I know that you're having fun watching them play and all and..."
"Wanda, stop!" I interrupted the girl, laughing at her silliness. "They're just being a bunch of stupid, sweaty boys right now trying to show off to each other. I could do with a little less of that in my day and a little more girl time with you. Now, do you want to stay here and talk or go somewhere quieter?"
"Quieter please, if you don't mind," Wanda added quickly, but I had already stood up on my feet and jammed them back into my sandals by that point.
"I'm leaving with Wanda!" I called out to Jared, knowing that he would for sure hear me in the otherwise quiet room.
"'Kay!" he replied seconds later, a little breathless. "Where will you be?"
"Uhh, not sure," I told him, shrugging my shoulders and looking down at Wanda who did the same thing. "Just come and find us when you're done. There are extra bottles and towels over here and I'll leave the light for you. And I promise that I won't squeal if you happen to have another break in there sometime."
"Whatever, Melanie!" Jared called out before cursing as Kyle got around him once more. We stood to watch as Jared didn't catch up to him and Kyle ended up scoring a goal; Wanda and I cheered loudly for and Jared flipped us the bird.
"Let's go," I said to her, laughing at their stupid antics. "We'll find somewhere out of the way then, shall we?"
"Yes please!" she answered me and hooked her arm in my elbow as we walked out of the cave. "How about the schoolroom?" Wanda suggested once we were farther up the tube. "It should be deserted at this time of night."
"Sure," I told her, nodding my head. "Only you'll have to show me where it is, I have no idea."
"You've seriously never been to the school room?" Wanda asked in total disbelief. "Never pulled Jamie out of class?"
"Never ever been there," I swore to her without actually swearing and this time it was Wanda's turn to laugh at me. "Yeah, yeah. Laugh all you want there, Wanda but it's the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth."
I then basically stood back as Wanda took charge for once in her short human life and led the way to the school room and I would never have found it if it weren't for her. The room turned out to be in the most remote place and the passageway to get there was incredibly narrow and had many twists and turns; a claustrophobic person would have had a hell of a time getting there. Mind you, a claustrophobic person would have a hell of a time getting anywhere within the confines of our living quarters anyhow.
Wanda awkwardly stood in the doorway for a minute or two, kind of hesitating to see if anyone was for sure inside there or not. Clearly there wasn't as it was after 'school' hours anyways, but I was very surprised that no one was using it for a little quieter session. It was certainly well out of the way, but I supposed that it was too bright in there for that. I really needed to start thinking about things other than that, but it appeared to be something that was easier said than done in that department.
"It's empty," she announced even though I already knew that. I also realized once I stepped through the door that I should have known where this place was from the memories that I still had of Wanda being in my body. Curiously though, I had no recollection of it. That fact freaked me out a tad because I didn't know what else I'd forgotten; how would I if I'd forgotten it.
"Wanda, is it possible for a host to forget about some of the things that they experienced when they previously had a soul in them?" I asked her, trying to be as non-chalant about it, so I bit the nail on my thumb to seem cooler, I supposed.
"I've never heard of it happening before," Wanda answered me thoughtfully, looking all pensive and innocent. "But then again, nobody's really ever heard of or studied host bodies after the soul has been removed. Well, hosts that are still alive anyways."
Her response only somewhat quieted my fears as it was still very weird for me to accept that I'd forgotten that fact, but it did help me to realize what the hell I was doing to my nails and stopped that right away. I had been working too hard on re-growing them since Wanda had chewed them all off for me to destroy them in seconds like that. I assessed the damage, which was minimal, and placed my hands behind my back to avoid any further temptation to rip the crap out of them.
"Um... okay, new topic. What did you want to ask me that you had to drag me all the way down here for?" I inquired, wanting to change the subject away from the morbid thoughts that were starting to creep into my mind. When she mentioned the whole 'none that are still alive' thing, it got me thinking about death and how they probably just discarded the bodies that were no longer used or something.
"I'm so sorry if I inconvenienced you in any way, Mel. I wasn't thinking about what you could have, or did have planned for this evening and..." she was apologizing for dumb things, but luckily I was able to silence her with just one look. It was the same one that I used on just about everyone and had the same affect of silencing them; except Jeb of course, the one where I simply raised one eyebrow in a 'stern' face.
"Continue please," I nodded at Wanda who was nervously fiddling with the hem of her shirt, silver eyes glancing wildly around the room presumably for people sneaking up on us. She was silent for a few more moments as the room began to get progressively darker in the dimming sunlight and I took the opportunity to walk the three steps closer to her and sit in a chair right by her side.
"I don't mean to be so secretive, but I just wanted to run something by you without him around; he has a good track record a finding me," she began and I was immediately concerned and a little confused.
"Wait. Are you telling me that you're sick of Ian?" I asked, feeling a little sick myself at the thought of them breaking up; they were just so good for each other.
"What? No, no, no, no, no," Wanda panicked then, her eyes wide as she fervently shook her head back and forth so fast that her blonde hair was like a whip around her head. In fact, if I looked close enough, I could see tears forming behind her eyelids. I scrambled right away to stand up and undo the damage I'd clearly caused her.
"Wanda, I'm sorry! I didn't mean to imply that at all, it was just the vibe that I was getting from you," I apologized, trying my hardest to convey with my eyes how sorry I was that I had messed up.
"It's okay, Mel," she tried to reassure me, sniffing up her snot and placing her right hand on my arm, giving me a watery smile. "I know you didn't mean to upset me, and you really didn't. It was just the thought of breaking up with Ian that freaked me out. I just love him so much that it would kill me if that ever happened.
The whole time she talked about Ian, Wanda's round face shined with pure love for him. I really did feel bad about what I had implied, but I was at least relieved that they weren't splitting up. They really needed each other and not to break up, and I was an idiot so I just hugged her tightly as best as I could.
"Okay, continue then," I instructed, sitting back down and motioning with my left hand for her to carry on with what she was saying before. In that motion, my ring caught the last sliver of light in the room and made the diamonds sparkle off of the rock walls around us, making my heart leap with joy at the thought of eventually being married to Jared.
Wanda giggled a little bit before finally explaining.
"Well, you know how you guys talk about your old lives all of the time?" I nodded, a little nervous about what was coming next, but I could see in the dusk light that Wanda was practically bouncing with excitement. "What if you guys were able to get those lives back? What would you say?"
"I'd say that it's totally impossible and that you're crazy," I told her truthfully, shrugging my left shoulder up to my ear. "In a good way, of course."
"I've been doing a lot of thinking about this subject lately and I may have come up with a viable solution. It would take a lot of time and energy, and there are a lot of kinks to iron out, but please just hear me out first."
She looked so damned cute when she was worried, so I gave Wanda a great bug toothy grin to hopefully placate her; assuming that she could see my gesture in the twilight.
"I'm all ears, pinkie promise," I swore, holding out my right pinkie finger which she took while giggling again and we made it official.
"So, you know how before when they were bringing back souls to try and figure out how to do an extraction but it always turned out wrong?" I nodded, trying to encourage Wanda to keep going because I truly was interested in knowing where she was going with this.
"What if we were to bring back humans with souls, extract the souls to send them off-planet and then integrate them into our community; you know, make them feel welcome and all." Wanda had begun to pace back and forth in front of me so I crossed my legs underneath of my body to wait it out right until she was finished.
"If we let them in until we got enough people, then we can put everyone back in society and see what happens. Then hopefully with enough time, humans and souls will be able to love together and you can all have your lies back. Well, as least you can live as close to normal as you can get."
I was silent for a few seconds while I thought it over, so Wanda was silent as well. My initial reaction was excitement at the prospect of owning a house with Jared and actually having a shower, a tv, a couch, hell, even a toilet that I could use whenever I wanted. The more I thought abou tit however, the more questions I came up with until the rational side of my brain won over and I bit my lip at bringing them up to Wanda but I figured that she would be open to it.
"Aren't there a few things to work out first though? Like the issue of space? How would we fit a lot of people in here? This plan would surely take a fair amount and we barely have enough room for all of us in here at the moment to begin with," I pointed out even though I really wanted to make her idea work. Now that Wanda had planted that seed in my head, it was really hard to think of anything else than getting the hell out of the caves and into the real world once again; this time to stay there permanently.
"I know, I know that there are a lot of things to think about, but I was thinking that if I was able to convince the other rebel clans to help me out, that would boost our numbers and spread out the humans. We wouldn't want to put everyone out in the same area because that would be dangerous, depending on how they're received by the souls out there so that's what I was thinking about that one, at least. It's a long shot, but if we're all united in a common goal then it might work out better."
"That's true," I mused, trying to sound intellectual about it, but a few seconds later my facade broke and I smiled widely at her. "I think that its' a wonderful idea, Wanda! A little large scale, but if it works then it would certainly be worth it!"
Wanda literally sighed in what was probably relief and broke out into a huge grin as well.
"Just one question though," I prompted and she nodded away, still looking thankful that I had embraced her suggestion.
"Anything, Mel. You know that!"
"What does Ian think of your plan?"
As soon as I asked her that question all of the brightness and smiles that had lit up her face immediately disappeared, leaving her face darkened and a little guilty at the same time.
"Well, that's what I meant by running it by you first, Mel. I haven't told him just in case that he flips out or something or he doesn't think that it's a good idea and squashes it so I wanted to let you in on it first. I don't know what I was thinking, to be completely honest with you. He's going to kill me, isn't he?"
She began to pace back a forth in front of me, clenching her small hands, twisting them together before running them in her hair. Wanda grabbed her hair at the roots and tugged three times, looking like she was beating herself up internally over what I had just brought up. I tilted my head to the side, watching her react to this.
"Wanda? Quit berating yourself over it. Ian won't care, trust me, he'll just want to know what's on your mind because it's probably been driving him crazy; you're good at that, you know," I tried to make a joke out of it, but she was too far gone for that. "He'll still love you, you know."
"Will he?" Wanda turned to me, shaking her head when I realized that the sky had darkened for the night. I looked up and the stars were overhead, the moon shining brightly.
"Has he ever given you a reason to think that otherwise? I mean, other than the obvious time when he was doubting it, but can you really blame him? He..."
"That was totally my fault and I'll admit to that in a heartbeat, you know. He said something to me the other day that I didn't understand, Mel and I don't know how to take that," she said stopping the pacing at least, turning to me.
"Well, Wanda tell me what he said. Let me help you, help yourself," I patted the desk by my side and she plunked herself down in a rather unceremonious kind of way still looking a bit frazzled about everything. I touched her arm as a way to comfort her and Wanda immediately melted into my side so I wrapped my arm around her shoulders.
"This morning we were lying in bed together, having a moment, whatever when he told me that he was going to 'worship my entire body the way that it deserves to be' if that's supposed to mean anything at all."
I would have laughed my head off at her because she was so worked up again about a little statement like that but because I was such a good friend I kept my big fat mouth shut and smiled to myself instead.
"Wanda, it means that he wants to sleep with you."
"But we already sleep together every night, I still don't understand what he means by wanting to sleep together," I groaned and leaned my head down on top of hers in defeat; if she really didn't understand me after my next explanation I really didn't know what I was going to do with her.
"Not like that kind of sleeping," I sighed. "Like the kind of sleeping together that you do, but you're not actually sleeping. Like, the kind that you're awake for, you know?"
"Are you talking about when we lie away and talk like how we were doing this morning? There were some kisses exchanged, but for the most part he was just holding me and stuff and..."
"No. I'm talking about the kind of sleeping that you do with all of your clothes off and there is lots of kissing and touching and stuff," I said kind of bluntly, but it was the honest truth and if she couldn't take it then she clearly wasn't ready to do it with Ian.
"You mean...? Ohhhhh," she finally understood and I allowed myself to laugh then, easing the little moment that she probably thought was embarrassing; I just knew her all too well.
I knew that her face would be as red as a cherry tomato so I allowed her a few moments to collect her thoughts before I lifted my head up and she followed my motion. As I looked down Wanda's little face it was clear that I was right about the whole blushing thing as there was only a little tinge of red left over from what I was sure was an awesome blush.
"You finally get it?" I inquired, smiling down at Wanda who slowly nodded her head a few times, practically gnawing on her bottom lip.
"I sure got it," she replied, looking nervous again so I rolled my eyes.
"Listen. You don't have to do anything that you're not ready for. Don't argue with me, but that's the way that it is, okay? It's your body and your mind so you get do what you want with it; don't let Ian push you into anything. If he does, you tell me and I'll kick his ass," I promised Wanda and her eyes immediately widened with the mention of any sort of violence directed at Ian. "Fine, you tell me, I'll tell Jared as much as he needs to know and I'll let Jared kick his ass at something, but not literally because I know that you'll freak out, kay?"
"Okay," Wanda agreed while giggling, which I took as a good sign that she was recovering from it, I just hoped that I would never have to actually go through with what I had sworn to her because that would suck majorly.
"Melanieeeeeee!" I could hear Jared hollering my name from afar, but his big loud voice echoed through the caverns and passageways like he was always carrying a bull horn or something. On one hand, it made finding him that much easier, but he also had a tendency to say things louder than he really should.
"I suppose that's for me then," I commented, standing up right away and shaking my hair out behind me as a reflex motion; now that it was growing out nicely I could do things like that again.
"Yeah, you'd better go to whoever is calling you," Wanda told me, nodding her pretty little head in the direction of the doorway.
"You're coming with me, missy; no 'if's', 'and's' or 'but's' about it, you hear?" I extended my right arm towards Wanda, who looked a bit apprehensive but took it anyways and followed me out of the room once I'd hauled her up out of her seat and started walking towards the ever echoing sound of my name being called out.
Jared shouted out my name once more so I decided to play with him a little bit, winking at Wanda before I called out,
"Polo!" giggling to myself. Wanda only looked confused until I explained that it was a game that kids everywhere used to play mostly in the pool and stuff; then she was giggling along with me when a resounding 'Marco' was heard.
"Polo!" I exclaimed again and Jared and I shared the exchange four more times before I spotted him in a common area, standing there looking down the wrong passageway for me. I saw my opportunity, pressed my right index finger to my lips in the universal 'sh' motion to Wanda and crept up behind Jared. I managed to launch myself, using cat-like reflexes leapt silently off of the ground and pounced on top of Jared's back.
"What the hell?" Jared cried out, obviously blindsided by my excellent ambush as he tried to get me off of him, shaking his torso back and forth but I held strong.
"Relax, it's just me," I whispered into his ear and watched as Jared shook his head back and forth. He then reached behind his back to link his strong arms in the crooks of my knees in order to hold me in a piggy back so that I didn't fall to the ground when my legs gave out.
"How'd the rest of the game go?" I asked, resting my head on Jared's back and closing my eyes, breathing in his familiar smell; I was home again and that's all that I needed.
"I won, of course. By a landslide, babe you should have seen it," Jared told me with a chuckle, patting my left thigh. "Tired?"
"Extremely, but I don't know why, I mean I slept practically all day Jare," I said to him.
"It's fine Mel. I'll just take you to our room before I go and take a bath. I don't know how you're able to stand being attached to me like this because I smell," he joked and I giggled pathetically.
"It's just because I love you so much," I replied and was delighted when I heard Jared's heart rate increase with those words.
"Well, no normal girl would be able to stand it," he pointed out, starting to walk away and that was when I picked my head up to tell Wanda where we were going but she was already gone. I hoped that she'd gone to find Ian and tell him about her excellent plan; the sooner she got started, the sooner we'd all be out of there faster than a speeding bullet.
"Guess I'm not a normal girl," I quipped, practically waiting for Jared to figure out a comeback to that one, but he never did. Another day, then.
Ian POV
I didn`t get to watch Wanda walk away from me before I left the kitchen with Brandt as I could tell that his patience was already running thin at being around her, which I understood to a point and I didn't want to push him any further than I already had. I experimented with him by wrapping my arm around Wanda and pulling her closer to me when he came up to us simply to see what Brandt's reaction would be to it. I noticed his jaw tighten almost immediately and he kept his sentences short so I knew that he wasn't totally over himself yet.
"So are you on babysitting duty then?" I asked as we walked; well I walked and Brandt more marched ahead of me along the way.
"Unfortunately so. Your little friend is driving me crazy though; she keeps talking out loud to her friends about all kinds of shit and how she wants to talk to you. I'm like this close from taking her back to where we found them and leaving her to her own devices," Brandt told me, illustrating his point by holding his thumb and index fingers about half an inch apart.
"Well, she always was a bit brazen in her own way. Sorry for that," I half assed my apology, not really feeling sorry for how she was reacting as I clapped a hand down on his shoulder.
"Yeah yeah, whatever," he replied, shrugging my hand off of him.
"Is everything okay?" I asked, wondering when he had changed so much. The Brandt that I remembered from before Wanda and Mel had arrived at our home was much more care-free and a funny guy to be around. He didn't care much for Kyle, but then again, who really did because the guy was a jackass but he and I had always gotten along. It kind of hurt to see our friendship go down the drain like that.
"Really?" Brandt turned around to face me, walking backwards at the same time. "You're really asking me if I'm okay?"
"Well, yeah. You seem very... uptight," I concluded shrugging my shoulders at him and Brandt shook his head.
"Well, yes I am okay. And if you're going to go all 'Bromance' on me, I'm going to kick ass so hard that you'll end up in the next century wondering what the hell you're doing there," he threatened, but I didn't laugh for it was clear that Brandy was really being serious about everything right that second.
"I'm not doing that, I was just wondering, that's all Brandt," I said, holding my hands up in the universal surrender position. "I'm being serious about that as well. As serious as a heart attack."
"Screw you," he said, shaking his head. "I'm off anyways. You can find your own way to the stupid place where she's at. Don't tell Jeb that I'm leaving you alone because technically I'm supposed to be there with you but I've had enough and I need a break. I'll be back eventually."
"Sure, Brandt, whatever," I said and he nodded before trotting off and I set off for Megan, still wondering what the hell she wanted with me.
On the way there, I made up my mind that if she started in about anything to do with Wanda and how she shouldn't be there, I was taking off. I didn't need to hear that shit; I got enough of it from Wanda herself when she was feeling particularly bad about herself. I hated it then, and I especially hated it when others said that too, it struck a nerve in me that I didn't understand no matter what I did.
Nobody seemed to notice me as I walked through the passageways and it was almost too easy to slip down the storage tunnel. Brandt had obviously left a handy little solar light by the entrance which I quickly grabbed, turned on and went down the tunnel. It struck me as odd as I got closer that there was no sound at all from the people who were supposed to be in there so I started to jog down the path, only to remember that it was totally plausible to think that they could be sleeping at that time of day. There was no light, after all and according to Wanda the concept of day and night completely disappears down there.
"If that's you, jackass stay the hell away from us," a deep male voice called out from farther down because he could hear my footsteps echoing off of the walls around me; there was nothing else to listen to so of course they would know that I was coming. I assumed from his little speech that he was referring to Brandt and I speculated that, only because I didn't know who else had been placed on guard duty down there.
"I'm here to speak with Megan," I announced prior to turning on my lamp just to be sure that they weren't going to rush me as soon as the light was turned on thinking that I was Brandt.
"Finally," she commented as the light illuminated the small space and I easily spotted her sitting with her back up against the wall, both literally and figuratively; she looked pissed off. "What the hell has taken you so long?"
"I was sleeping until not too long ago and then I had dinner and then Brandt came to find me, so don't give me that attitude. What was it that you wanted anyways?" I explained to the point as I knew the kind of mood that she was in and I didn't want to put up with her whininess at all.
"I just want to know when we can leave this shithole and get on with our lives," she said, looking right up at me. "That other guy wouldn't give me an answer and was just being a jerk so I kept asking for you so that you can bust me out of here."
"Hey!" a man standing on my left shouted at her and I stared straight at him but it didn't seem to affect him at all.
"Fine, bust us out of here; happy?" she revised her statement accordingly and the man didn't say anything more but I heard his heavy footsteps retreat from our immediate area. "So how soon until we can get out of here?"
"First of all, I can't bust any of you out of here; I'd be in serious trouble if I did and I don't want to get into any more trouble if that's okay with you," I told her and she rolled her eyes, shaking her head up to the rocky ceiling above us. "You've got to wait until Jeb feels comfortable enough that you're not going to either run screaming from this place or try to kill Wanda once you're out there."
"Seriously? You're still talking about that soul like she's human, Ian. I don't like that one bit. She shouldn't even be living in the same area as humans; that's not what she's built for. I don't know what's so 'special' about this one, but in my opinion, she has to go back to where she's come from. How do you ever expect to get out if she's in here; the first opportunity she gets she's going to rat everyone out ," she bit back at me, which got my temper flaring like it usually did when Wanda was put down like that, especially when it was behind her back.
"Stop it!" I shouted at her, listening to the sound reverberate through the cave. Megan looked shocked at the fact that I had actually yelled at her and her mouth flapped open uselessly over and over again. "That is exactly the kind of behaviour that will keep you down in here all cooped up like a dog. Wanda is not like the others and if you can't even begin to accept that, there is no way in hell that you're going to be able to join us, ever."
"I just don't get how you're able to live comfortably with her hanging around," one of the other men piped up as he walked closer to us, standing in the light from my lamp. "Aren't you scared out of your mind that she'll give you all up?"
"At first she wasn't exactly welcome around here, and I actually tried to strangle her with my own hands, but that's a whole other story," I told them, calming myself down by picturing Wanda lying beside me in our bed, smiling and looking beautiful. At the same time, my hands burned from the memory of strangling Wanda way back when.
"Well, we've certainly got the time, you can tell us this story of yours," the same man practically instructed me and I frowned at his manner.
"Matt, don't be like that. Do you really honestly want to hear about a stupid soul like that?" Megan asked and I made up my mind. Wordlessly, I sat down on the floor and scooted back so that I was resting against the wall. I then held out my hand in a silent invitation for them to sit with me and they did, but only after a moment's hesitation.
I started at the beginning of when Wanda and Mel came to us and how everything went down, before I even introduced the fact that Sunny was living with us as well. Megan and Matt looked horrified once I started talking about integrating Wanda into the community and I honestly thought that she was going to vomit when I told them about my feelings for her. A sound of disgust was heard from my left when I told them that I was in love with the soul and not the body and another man came to sit with us while another stood a little ways away from us, but was still listening in on us.
My throat was hoarse and sore by the time I finished our little sorrowed tale, even including those difficult months when Wanda was away from me and after that, making sure to stress the reasons why a number of times to let it sink in to them. It was quiet in the room when I finished and the lamp was beginning to dim; it must have been an older one because they didn't hold their power nearly as well as the newer ones.
"How do you believe that she really wants to stay here though?" the new man to the group asked me and I got a good look at him; he was older with gray hair and his eyes indicated that he's seen a lifetime of sadness.
"I just have faith in the love that she has for me and for our community. I saw how much it destroyed her to be away from us once, and there is no doubt in my mind that she will ever want to leave again. Like I said, she did it to protect us, which is a hell of a lot more than most souls living with humans would ever do," I shrugged and Matt scoffed.
"Most souls don't live with humans; it's not natural. We're supposed to be here, not them."
"Believe what you want, but if you ever want out of this cave then you'd better start to change your attitude. I'm telling you, we'll keep you down here as long as we have to in order to ensure the safety of our family here," I said, standing up and getting ready to leave, grabbing the lamp and such. I wanted to get back to Wanda; it sounded pretty wimpy of me, but I missed her like crazy especially talking about her for that long.
Nobody moved once I started walking except the older guy who had joined us later on when he jogged after me and grabbed my arm to stop my movements.
"I'm Ethan, by the way," he introduced himself, holding out his hand which I shook right away. "I just wanted to say that I know what it feels like to lose the one that you love for any amount of time and it sucks."
"It sure does," I agreed, nodding my head and he smiled a tight-lipped smile at me.
"I'm not sure where I stand on the whole situation that you've got going on out there, but I can accept that you would do anything for this Wanda, even if it means keeping the ones who will hurt her out of the way like this. Megan will come around, I wouldn't worry about that. And I think that Matt and Derek will too, just not be really accepting, but enough to get the hell out of here. We really just want to live peaceful lives until God intervenes and takes us on in our next lives."
"I... yeah. Well, thanks man," I told him, nodding and walking away from him up the tunnel. He seemed like a nice dude, but one could never really tell with them.
Aaron was waiting just around the corner in the Y-split of the tunnels, apparently waiting for me to finis because he started back down the same was that I'd just come from. Instead of dwelling much on the conversation that I'd just had with that Ethan guy, I trotted off to find someone else to talk to; perhaps Jeb or someone to tell them that most of the people down there weren't ready to come out. As bad as that sounded, I really wanted everyone to be safe, not just Wanda, but the others as well.
When I exited the passage I spotted Jeb hanging around with Maggie and a few others so I set off in his direction; but then I scanned the entire space around me and noticed Wanda seated on the ground beside Jamie. I weighed my options right then and there; do I interrupt Jeb and his little circle that he had going on with Maggie, Doc, Trudy and Lucina, or do I just go over to Wanda and leave it for another day?
Wanda laughed then and it made up my mind for me; I scurried off in her direction, unable to stop smiling as I got closer and closer to her. She was sitting right on the dirt beside the strawberries while Jamie began to pick the ones that were ripe and tossing them into a basket. I observed as she picked off a few and threw them in as well. Wanda laughed and the sound was music to my ears; she tossed her head right back and her blonde hair flowed over her shoulders perfectly. She hadn't had it cut in a long time and the length looked beautiful on her, in my humble opinion, anyways.
"I hope that you're eating some of them as well, Wanda," I spoke to her, smirking as I sat down on the ground beside her. Wanda shook her head and smiled at me so I reached my right arm around her to pick a berry right off of the vine and plopped it in my mouth.
"I haven't tried one, I'm waiting for everyone else to have one first," she answered me, smiling a beautiful smile at the same time.
"Have you ever eaten a strawberry before, ever?" Jamie asked her, sounding a little bit sceptical of what her answer might have been.
"Not in my life here. Pet was allergic to them, so there aren't any memories from her to help with scent or taste, either," she answered truthfully, shrugging her shoulders apologetically while staring right at me with her big silver eyes.
"You've got to be kidding me," Jamie replied, looking positively dumbfounded at the notion, so I pecked her cheek to make Wanda feel a little better.
"Here," I offered, placing my legs around her body and wrapping my left arm around her mid section to reach around and blindly pluck a berry off for her. "Try it, you'll love it."
"I really don't think that I should..." she said apprehensively, but I silenced her by placing the berry on her soft lips, tracing it back and forth.
Wanda wanted to resist it, that much I could see, but temptation got the best of her and I watched as her little pink tongue darted out from between her lips to touch the red fruit. I lifted my eyebrows at her and opened my mouth in a wide smile as her face turned speculative at the taste.
"Good?" Jamie asked and she began to nod her head slowly, still calculating the sensation.
"I think so?" she answered with a question and I laughed.
"Here, try it," I suggested, holding the berry up to her face again and Wanda hesitantly opened her mouth and bit the end off of the fruit. I watched in awe as she experienced the food for the first time.
Wanda smiled to herself and closed her eyes while she slowly chewed food. I chuckled as she peeked out at me through one eye and opened her mouth for another bite, which I gave to her, holding the strawberry up to her lips once more and she took a bigger bite the second time. Again, she chewed slowly but that time a big fat drop of the juice dripped down her bottom lip and trailed down her chin before it fell down somewhere. I didn't see where it went because I was so focussed on the trail of juice that had been left behind on her skin. I reached out with my left pointer finger and wiped off some of the juice before licking it off of my finger. Wanda had opened her eyes by that point, so I leaned in to her and before either of us really knew what was happening, I had licked and kissed the liquid off of her face.
"Ian!" she squealed out loud and I stopped what I was doing, suddenly pulled out of the bubble that I was previously in with her.
"Sorry," I whispered gently, watching as she shivered when my breath fanned across her face.
"Oh kay, I think that I will be going now," Jamie said in a bit of a sing-song voice, standing up and taking the half full basket of strawberries with him.
"See ya Jamie," I called to him without taking my eyes off of Wanda as he walked away.
"Later, O'Shea. And Wanda, of course," Wanda giggled and smiled up at him before looking back at me.
"You really didn't have to do that, you know. It would have sufficed it you had just wiped it off with your finger or something," she said, shrugging a bit.
"Are you saying that you didn't like it?" I countered that and Wanda shook her head.
"No, I'm saying that it might have been a little forward for out here in front of everyone," Wanda told me, leaning in closer to put her head on my shoulder.
"But Wanda, I want everyone to see how much that I love you; I don't want to have to hide that when we're out around other people. I'd show you off to the whole world if I could," I said honestly, resting my head down on top of hers as she nodded.
"I guess I shouldn't be so sensitive anymore then," she said, thinking out loud so I took my head off of her and bent down to look Wanda right in the eyes.
"You can be whatever you want to be, I'm just trying to tell you that it's okay to do things like that out here; nobody really cares."
"Except for Brandt and Maggie... and Lucina..." she started to list but I interrupted before Wanda could get too far.
"Right, nobody really cares, just like I said."
Wanda rolled her pretty eyes at me, smiling all the same. "Ian," she groaned and I chuckled in response.
"Just believe it," I replied, smiling at her.
"I'm trying," she whispered honestly and looked so forlorn that I wanted to take her under my wing and never let her go. Obviously I couldn't exactly do that, but I hugged her tight to me just the same.
"I know you are," I kissed her forehead and stood up, holding my hand out for Wanda who took it right away to get up on her feet. "Let's go for a wander," I suggested and she laughed.
"A wander? To where?" she inquired and I shrugged, still holding her little hand in my big one.
"That's the point, my dear, we don't have a direction or a destination; it's all about the journey," I informed her and gently started to lead her away from the spot we were occupying.
Not three steps later, Wanda said "Incoming!" to me and I stopped short just in time to drop Wanda's hand and catch Freedom as he side swiped me and launched himself through the air.
"Woah, buddy! What are you doing?" I laughed, cradling him tight to my chest and then spinning around in circles one way and then the other way. "Were you trying to sneak up on me or something?"
"Maybe!" he replied through his squeals and laughter that rang through the air around us, making me laugh along with him just because the sound was so infectious. I eventually stopped and remained on the spot for a second or two to help him adjust to being still again so he wouldn't be so dizzy.
"I just wanted to say hi to you, Miss Wanda," Freedom said shyly to her and I turned us around so that they could talk directly to each other.
"Well hello to you too, Mister Freedoom. How are you today?" Wanda replied and I couldn't help but to notice that her entire face lit up when she was talking to the child. She always glowed when talking to me, or about something that she was really passionate about and I knew that Wanda had a soft spot in her heart for children. As the two conversed, I just trained my eyes on Wanda, winking at her when she noticed and then proceeded to blush.
"Freedom! Time for bed!" Lucina called out to him and he threw his head back, groaning at the same time.
"Do I have to, Mom? I'm having too much fun!" he complained, but knew that it was a useless argument all the same; heck, we all knew that there wasn't any point to disagreeing with what she said at all.
"Now Freedom!" she called again and I had no choice but to squat and let him down from my arms. I returned the tight hug that he gave to me and then watched as he repeated the gesture to Wanda, touching the bracelet that he had previously given her before he took off towards his mother who scooped him up before carrying him away.
"He's such a sweet kid," Wanda remarked as I stood up, shocked when she was all of a sudden right beside me and wrapped her arm around me; I was only too happy to repeat the gesture.
"He really is," I agreed, nodding off for us to continue our little 'no-destination' walk. "They both are."
"Mhmm. He reminds me of the kid Tyler that I met out there; they both were so happy despite everything going on around them. Granted, I'm not sure that children as young as them have much of an idea of the seriousness of everything going on around them, but still," Wanda commented and I totally agreed.
"I remember you telling me about Tyler, I think. He was the human kid that you met in the park, right?" I asked and she nodded, confirming my half guess.
"Can I run something by you?" she enquired, but continued before I even had the chance to respond. "I mean, you totally don't have to agree with anything. You can shoot it down if you'd like, not literally of course, but verbally, you know?"
"Wanda," I chuckled, pulling her closer to my body. "Just tell me what's on your mind, I promise not to interject until you are totally finished and everything. I really to hear what you're thinking about."
"Really?" she asked a bit sceptically and I internally shook my head at myself. I clearly wasn't doing my job right if she still doubted how I felt about her and how much I valued her opinions in my life.
"Really really," I teased her, pecking at her temple as we continued to walk slowly.
I remained silent from then on as Wanda literally spilled everything and anything that was on her brain and I was nearly struck dumbfounded by the amount of thinking she had been doing as of late and that she hadn't told me anything about it. The selfish part of me was hurt by that, but then I really listened to what she was saying and realized how hard it would have been for her to even fathom telling people her idea, no matter how wonderful it may sound to her. Just the fact that she had told me and Melanie about it was a huge accomplishment for Wanda; she was finally starting to open herself up and by the sounds of it she wanted to go to Jeb and the others too.
There were a lot of things that I could think of that could possibly go wrong with her little plan, and I had a lot of questions for her, but I figured that it would be best to just let her finish first before I talked.
"Well, what do you think?" Wanda asked after she'd talked herself hoarse but I was still trying to process everything that my brain had just absorbed and I wasn't quite sure where to start.
"You've certainly been busy thinking up all of these things, haven't you?" I joked and she shrugged, trying to pass it off as nothing, but it was a really big something that she had come up with.
"I think that you should do what you said and tell Jeb. I'm sure he'd have a say in everything, but at least let him know what you're considering here."
"But do you think that it's a good idea? I mean, there are a lot of things to mull over before it could even be started, and we'd certainly have to get a lot of people on board and all and..."
"I think that it's a wonderful plan," I told her definitely. "If you can pull this off, then it will be one hell of an accomplishment that you can throw on a resume for the job you'll have when we're out of here."
"Well, it wouldn't just be me, you know..."
"Wanda, seriously?" I raised my eyebrows at her and she giggled in response. "You're the mastermind brain behind the operation and the rest of us are just the puppets that you use to carry out the plan."
"I won't be able to take all of the credit you know..." she tried to pawn it off again, but I refused to let her.
"You are the one who came up with this, Wanda. Not me, not Melanie, not Jared, heck, not even Kyle could dream up something like this in his wildest dreams. You are the one who has to take full responsibility for this. I am more than willing to help you in any way that I can, but you've got it all up here; you just tell me what to do," I said, touching her head with my free hand for extra emphasis during my speech. Hopefully she got it.
"I really want to do this," Wanda said in a soft voice, gazing up at me with her big doe eyes again. "I'm just not sure that I can go to Jeb with it. What if he doesn't like it and puts a stop to everything before it even starts?"
"Then that's a chance that you have to take."
"We," she said decisively.
"We?" I asked, just to make sure that I knew what she was talking about.
"Yes, we. You and I are going to go to Jeb and the others together. If nothing else, I need you there for moral support," Wanda admitted and I loved her for it.
"Anything you want," I whispered, just happy with the knowledge that Wanda was making the effort to branch herself out more.
I was really excited by all of this; if her plan actually succeeded, then we would be out of there faster than a speeding bullet, which was something that I absolutely could not wait for. Fortunately, everyone in there was in the same boat, so I didn't see them rejecting her plan because the end result was too tempting. Of course, there were bound to be problems, and the first batch of humans sent out there would have to be practically suicidal, but I was sure that it would all work. It would have to; our livelihoods basically depended on this whether we knew it or not.
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