Notice, in the first chapter I just noticed that I by accident wrote that Toh was 8'7 tall. He's 7'8. Sorry for the slip up.
And sorry, there won't be much action or anything in this chapter, only a little more knowing of characters.
Thanks to all my readers and all the nice reviews I received, they make me all warm and fussy inside.
Disclaimers: read one of the others from the previous chapters, nothing has changes ;)
Chapter 7 – Meetings
A smile was his greeting as he woke from the land of sleep. The woman in his arms was sill sleeping and the morning's event played like a movie inside his head. This woman was not only the strong willed female that could break a hard meat's neck with her bare hands, but also the girl whose past still hunted her.
The woman moved and with that the yautja allowed his gaze travel down her body. The covers shielded her lower part but her naked upper body was exposed. Her breasts pressed up against his side, Goosebumps covering her pale skin, indicating the colder temperature in the room.
It was mid day, if he read the sun's position right. It was a lot easier with only one sun. How he missed his home world's twin suns. They didn't create wonderful paintings every morning or evening but they were just as beautiful like this earthen sun in between and the heat they provided was a lot more welcoming than this winter coating world.
Max stroked a hand across his chest. He savored the feeling of her hand's soft touch. The purr came before he noticed it himself. It was so nice, so calming in one way and still exciding at the same time. Shame the only times Max would touch him like this was either when she was upset or asleep.
A sharp sound pierced the silent. Max stirred, not entirely awake but not asleep either. Toh looked around for the source; he knew that sound, why couldn't he remember what it was?
"Toh, would you please take the phone for me?" Max asked with her face buried in his neck. The male looked for the small device. Luckily he found it within reach and quickly retrieved the annoying cell.
"Yes?" Her voice sounded muffled as her face still was hidden in his neck and her still groggy voice made her sound even more tired.
"What? Yes you did… No. Of course not." Toh could feel her warm breath against his skin, it felt good but what felt even better was that even though the woman was fully awake now she still held her position up against him. Her breasts pressing up against him with every breath she took.
"You want to do what? Why?" The female moved to a sitting positing, making small movement with her unoccupied hand when she spoke. His hand still held its place at her right thigh. She glanced at Toh for a brief second and a blush crept up her face.
Who was she talking to? Toh tried to see if he could hear what the other said in the other end of the conversation but couldn't. The only thing he could do for now was wait and enjoy the view of the woman's exposed skin, enjoy the beautiful long scars that wrapped her back.
If only she hadn't turned her back at me. He chuckled by his own thoughts. He knew she had deliberately turned her back to him when she sat, she would not be comfortable enough to show it all at once and he was honored that she had showed him so much so far. She had not yelled at him or moved away from him when she woke. She had not let him know that this had been a one time accident, that if he didn't let go she would kick his ass; but mostly and all, she hadn't covered herself but stayed in his arms.
"I will talk to him…" Toh turned his attention to the discussion once more. Was she talking about him?
"… Just wait a minute okay?" Max covered the mouthpiece with the palm of her hand and turned her head to his. The twist she was forced to make with her body gave Toh a nice view of her left breast but kept his eyes with the female. "Terry wants to meet us both. He and Ian really want to meet you." She smiled with a blush as she pulled the white towel up to cover her front.
"Why?" He asked not that he didn't want to meet her family, but he really wanted to know why they first asked now.
Max dropped her eyes from his. "They have been tormenting me about it ever since they learned about you." She looked at him with apologizing eyes. "Sorry Toh, I just didn't think it would be safe." She said sincere.
Toh let out a low purr to let her know that he wasn't mad. "Then let us meet, maybe they will stop bugging you if they do." He said with a grin and she returned the smile when she went back to the phone.
"Terry, you still there? Yes we'll come; only you, Ian and Tanya. Not Paul is that understood?" She asked; her brow knitted in the middle of her forehead. "Good, we'll be there tomorrow alright? Love you too, see you soon." And with that she ended the call.
Toh stroke a thumb over a spot on Max's hip before getting up. He had to see if he had received any transmissions via the repaired long range transmitter.
No one yet, but that didn't mean his clan hadn't received his message though.
-
Max was nervous about the whole thing; one thing was letting Terry and Ian know about Toh, another was showing him to them. She trusted her family but something told her that this day would not turn out as planned; if it was for the better or the worse she couldn't tell.
"What's troubling you Max?" Toh's voice cut her back to the real world.
She sighed inwardly and thanking that the road was a straight line. She had lost herself completely and first now noticed the road in front of her. She sized her grip around the steering wheel before answering. "What do you mean?" She asked. Answering with a question, the best solution for questions you rather shun.
Toh touched her unoccupied arm and with that Max shuttered, trying to concentrate on the road instead of the contact they now shared. "Don't avoid my question woman, you should know better." He said all close up and she could smell him more freely than she had before.
She didn't answer for a time. The chill sensation down her back was first now starting to ward off. "I'm just worried that's all." Max said to her invisible friend beside her. They had that morning decided that if he was about to go anywhere in the middle of the day he was forced to cloak himself from prying eyes. She sighed now loud enough for him to hear. "And don't call me woman, she said almost in defeat. He had call her 'woman' as his personally nick name and she hated it; knowing what he meant by it. Not that she hated knowing that he wanted her but the fact that she lately was starting to react to the name, that she starting to like it and that made her hate it even more.
"You told me that you trust these people and that they are your family, did you not?" He asked calm, his hand trailed further down to her hand and let it rest on top of it like it was perfectly normal.
"I do trust them; it's just a feeling, okay." She snapped, taking her hand away from his, hating herself for it.
He didn't say anything after that and Max was starting to wonder if she had been too hard on him, she had been a little hash and denying him like that was not her real intention but she couldn't stop herself.
Ever since their moment the day before she had felt weird around Toh; she had felt her heart beat twice as fast every time he neared her and though she wouldn't amid it did she curl a little closer to the big male that night. In her own mind she had convinced herself that it was because she was cold, but she knew that wasn't completely true.
They arrived at Terry's house. Maxine and Toh'el'ach stepped out of the car and closed in on the house. Toh noticed how plain the house looked compared to most others he had seen. The lawn was barely kept and thick plants were growing on every inch of the walls that he could see. Before they even could knock, the door opened and in the doorway stood a woman. By her looks, Toh estimated her to be a little younger than Max and by ooman standards, not including Max, she was fairly pretty. Her hair was short and blond, her eyes brown, her body slim and her skin pale as if she didn't get enough sunlight. Toh couldn't stop being proud of his woman every time he saw another ooman woman, this time included. He liked the way Max had her hair, how she dressed and kept her figure and mind in shape every day.
"Hi little sis, how's it going?" He heard Max say in front of him.
The two hugged each other, something he had seen her do with her brothers as well. It must be a ritual of some kind. He thought.
"Hi, big sis. You know how it is; the others are already ready and waiting." Max's sister said, then looked behind Max as if she was looking for something or someone. "He is with you right?" She asked in a slight whisper to her bigger sister.
With that Max couldn't stop herself from laugh. "He is, now let us come in and you'll meet him soon enough Tanya." She said, looking directly at Toh.
The yautja knew Max had a way to know where he was; cloak or not, she knew. Tanya showed them inside and the first thing Toh noticed was the cheer size of the house. It hadn't look like much from the outside, but the inside was a whole different story. They had stepped in to a hall of some kind; he could see a pair of stairs leading from the room and upstairs to the second floor. Muffled voices draw him to one of the adjoining rooms.
Max took off her coat and showed it away into a closet. Smiling she moved toward her friend. "Come and meet my family Toh." She said. He followed her and Tanya, who still was gazing everywhere trying to catch a glimpse of him, into a larger version of Max's living room. Inside sat two males one on a couch and on in a cozy-looking chair. Tanya sat on the couch with one of the men; all had fixed their attention toward Max. However, he knew that would soon change.
"Tanya, Ian and Terry." Max started. "Please let me introduce you to the friend that I have told you about; Toh'el'ach." She smirked, and then added. "Also under the name Toh."
Toh, who was surprised that she had pronounced his name perfectly this time turned off of his cloaking device; letting the oomans see him.
The siblings sat almost doubting their eyes as a shape appeared in front of them like water was washing him visible. Then when the cloak was fully down they was stunned; in front of them stood a 7'8 tall, thing. He was dressed in armor and leather, his hair was in dreadlocks and he wore a mask that covered his face. They knew Max had told them that he was an alien and that he wasn't like any other humans, but she failed to mention all the other things like his ability to be invisible, his sheer size or how foreign he looked.
"Well…" Was all what escaped one of the males. Toh found the silence annoying and just wanted the whole starring at the alien to be done and over with.
It looked like Max had noticed the deadly silence and took the opportunity to do something about it. "Toh, this is my siblings; you have already met Tanya" He looked at the female who almost jumped as she saw him turning his attention to her alone. A frighten little thing. He thought. "Next to her is Terry, they're twins." She explained.
Toh turned his attention to the male and could instantly see what she meant by twins. The male had the same Brown eyes and blond hair. Beside that they just looked like an exact copy of each other, the one just female and the other male.
"Left is Ian." Max said, walking over to the alien. Toh looked at the last person in the room. He was tall, by human standards, with dark hair and even darker eyes. He looked even younger than all the others but not much. The ooman male gave Toh a slight nodded in greetings and Toh returned it the same way.
An awkward silence fell as the four siblings didn't know what to say and Toh had no idea what to say. This had all been Max's brothers' idea if they had second thoughts it was a little too late now.
"What are they waiting for?" Toh asked in his own language to Max hoping that she could make things more pleasant for him as he right now was the object of three pair of staring eyes.
"Okay! Guys, enough with the staring, as I told you earlier; he's alright and am not here to harm anyone." Max said to the others.
"Speak for yourself woman." He had been on several hunts, on this planet all had been bad bloods but still hunts. Not that he ever would harm anyone that Max cared about, however She had even been with him on most of the hunts herself and enjoyed it and that made him care about her even more.
"You're not helping!" She spoke frowning; which gain her the attention now as none had understood what Toh had been saying but Max had answered in plain English.
"You understand him?" Ian asked with a raised eyebrow.
Max just sighed, why didn't I explain the things more thorough when I had the chance? She thought. Taking Toh under the arm and led him to the empty couch, they both sat. "Yes I understand him, no I don't speak his language yet and yes he does understand what we are saying." She said knowing that these questions would have been the next on the list.
"Okay so can I ask him a question?" Terry asked, looking at Toh.
Finally, Toh thought as he nodded to answer the male.
"What, Who are you? What are you doing here?" Terry asked.
Toh could sense the worries and suspicions in him as the male spoke. He turned to Max and if she could see through his mask, she would have seen that he was looking at her with one question written all over his face. You didn't tell them?
She gave him her most apologizing eyes she could muster without being caught by her siblings.
"You translate for me right?" He asked, not waiting for the answer he continued. "My name is Toh'el'ach, I am an honored hunter among my people called the yautja." He started to fume with the hoses to his mask while Max translated for them. The hiss made a really good effect as he noticed Max's siblings sitting listening like three little pups. He took the mask off and let them take in his face. The two males didn't say or do anything but Tanya made a little gasp; her eyes fasten on his mandibles. "I came to Earth for many weeks ago on a hunt for three bad bloods; criminals. That was where I first met Max. She helped me and saved my life. (Max added 'and he saved mine') She tended my wounds and let me live with her. Both the bad blood's and my own shuttles are beyond repairs so I can not leave the planet." He finished, letting Max speak the last couple of words.
"So you're stuck here, huh?" This time it was Ian who spoke.
Toh nodded.
"And you saved our sisters life?" The male continued.
Again Toh nodded slightly annoyed that the male hadn't been listening.
"That only leaves me back with one question." The dark haired man said. Toh prepared himself for anything; these oomans cared for their sister a great deal and that showed; they would even go so far to challenge him if they thought he wasn't worthy to her. "Would you do it again or was the saving grace only a one time thing?" He smirked.
"Ian!" Max burst, throwing a cushion from the couch at him. She couldn't believe her own brother had asked that question and to Toh. The yautja's ego would be boosted tenfold after this.
Toh just smirked back, feeling pride swelling up in him, her brother had accepted him and that made him proud. He couldn't hold a chuckle as the cushion flew through the air and hit the male right in the head. After that the mood was much more pleasant and they started to talk more freely. He told them about himself and his people and they listened very intense; even Max who had heard the stories a couple of time before sat watching him while listening and translating for the others.
After a while they decided that it was time for some lunch and all the way the 5 sat around the table laughing and joking at each other telling old stories about each other; to Max's dread as Terry decided that his today's theme was 'Max's embarrassing moments'.
"Oh. Oh. Do you remember when we were one of our assignments and Max was using her hidden secret to find the case that we had been ordered to find and bring to General Wilson?" Terry asked gaining a deep blush from Max who was about to seal the boy's mouth shut before he could start.
"Oh yah I remember, Toh you will love this one; go on tell it Terry." Tanya laughed. Max just groaned hiding her face in her hands as he started on the tale.
"So we were assigned to get this case; none of us knowing how it will look like or how to find it but our leader and brainiac…"
"Ian is the brainy one among us, not me." Max stated but let him continue.
"I know but not this time; you did succeed remember? Well, we were no more than 16 and it was one of our last missions before the shutdown. Max had us all standing outside this huge complex trying to find a plan that would take us to the target. She used us all like her little soldiers until the real thing. She assigns us in three groups me and Tanya, Paul and Ian and her alone to cover the area. Tanya and I took the hangars, Paul and Ian had the bunkers and Max here decides that she would take the main building alone. Our job was easy as all was either asleep or not noticing us.
Max on the other hand decided that a sneak in was the way inside. She just used the wrong window as entrance; the fist thing she sees is one of the officers split naked right in front of her. He was about to take a shower and the only thing that Max could think of, not to blow her cover, is to go with the flow." Terry smirked seeing Max turning more and more crimson in her face, giving him a daring look which he just returned with a bright smile.
"So what did she do?" Toh asked eager to hear the rest of the story.
"She took off all her clothes, hiding it, wrapped a towel around her and faced him; telling that the women's shower was not functioning and hurried out of the room. The officer didn't anything else; he had only enjoyed the look of a young woman almost naked.
Making sure that she was not seen and she ran determined to find the case, she found the commanders office and after looking several places she found it but right when she was about to hightail out of there the owner of the office stepped inside, sees her and think, like most males do, that she's there just for him. The really ugly man started to hit on her and make all kinds of attempts to get her out of the towel. Max with one hand around of the newly found box and the other busy holding the wrapping in place she does the only thing she could think of. She started to cry. The dumb folded man stopped his teasing and that's when our colonel escaped by hitting the man's pride, making sure he wouldn't get up for a long time and after rounding us all up she walked back to our rounding sight only in a white towel and Ian's jacket in 1 foot snow." Terry finished the story and all started to laugh.
It had all been much more funny as she had had a little almost invisible camera attached to the side of her head recording the whole event. General Wilson had promoted Max after that to Colonel. They all had a good laugh and she a good excuse to beat the crap out of them all.
"Okay laugh it up guys I still tries to whip out the picture of the naked guy from my mind and I did what I needed to do, even if it meant wandering around naked." Max smirked as she tried to contain her blush that almost made her face look like a wild fire.
"Oh and do you remember when you got shot in your..?"
"Ian!" Max cried, stopping him from finishing the sentence.
The man sent her a smirk. He loved when they had the opportunity to make her embarrassed and it had work as he heard a deep rumble he only could determine as a laughter from the alien, and Max's face flushing more crimson than he had seen it for a long time.
"If I knew your family to be this entertaining I would have insisted on meeting them for a long time ago." Toh chuckled; his only response was eyes like deathly daggers from the female beside him.
"You wouldn't say that if it was you who they would crack jokes about the whole day. And for your information, the bullet hit my thigh, nothing else." She had laughed at the first couple of jokes, but as the time went by it started to get old and annoying.
Toh let his hand take hers under the table just to give her a reassuring squeeze. Their eyes met, if only for a second before Toh let go just as fast as he had touched her and the unmistakably sight of red across her cheeks made the chatter that had sounded loudly to calm down.
"Tell me Max, how can it be that you can understand our friend here?" Tanya asked, while Terry and Ian listened intense.
The memory of how Toh had handled that task came fresh in mind and with that a smile. They both had no idea how to handle the other.
"Toh gave me a shot of nanobots to translate for me. We had a little language problem that needed a solution. Toh's was the quickest way out of that one." Max answered, Still trying to figure out why Toh had taken her hand like he had.
"You're kidding right?" Terry leaned a little over the table as he was trying to see the hint of amusement in either Toh's or Max's eyes. Nothing. "You can do that? We, as the human race, has tried to figure out how to use nanobots for I don't know for how many years but still haven't made them do anything else than blow themselves up." He said astound, sizing his sister like if he was deciding if she would blow up any second.
"Actually it is possible, just not with the current science interest our government have now a days. They like the explosive nanites and when all research companies has to go through the government before even think about new science and development, there's not much research on that front. If it isn't for the military they simple doesn't care and that's why we have a society like we have today where we have the rich and powerful and then everyone else." Ian explained in 'a matter of fact' tone and continued before anyone could interfere his rant.
"If our government used there recourses right, we wouldn't have homeless children or so many criminals on the streets or so many innocent in the jails. We wouldn't have to be frightened every second."
"Like I said, Ian is the brainiac." Max giggled when she saw the others looking at Ian in a very weird way.
"Dude, you spent too much time in the geek world." Terry stated.
"Is he alright; he sounds like one of those men, you call politicians, I have seen on the TV." Toh asked concerned for Max's brother.
"Uh? Oh he will be. He get this way sometimes and he's right, the world today is not full of joy and it is the governments fault that the human technology is so far behind as it is and it's definitely theirs fault that we are hunting the criminals instead of the police." Max said.
"I agree with you one that one, the human race has become a lesser prey in the last many decades."
"Thanks, just rub it in, so we're a lesser prey now, that's nice to know." Max frowned, not paying attention to her siblings that was listening to their conversation; or rather her conversation as they couldn't understand Toh.
"So Toh, do you have anymore of those shots or is it just me that feel left out?" Terry asked, looking from the 'couple' to the others three.
"I'm with you bro." Tanya stated while Ian nodded in agreement.
Toh tapped both his lower mandibles in thought. "I did only have one sample; it's not common to have any with us at all." Toh said in thoughts and Max translated.
"If you hade the right facilities would you be able to make some more?" Ian asked already starting to find solutions on the problem.
"I could but needed a sample from the original ones that I gave Max and I'm not sure your facility is advanced enough to produce them correctly." Toh didn't like the idea of taking samples from Max. The nanobots were attached to her brain and if the attractions went wrong she could be damaged.
Max translated. "Don't worry about getting a sample from the originals; I think it will be easier than you think." She winked. The female knew just what he was thinking and the knitted brows and the endless tapping of his upper left mandible told her that.
"I think my lap will do, so when do we start?" Ian said with a smirk. He loved science. He worked at the local hospital with his wife but on the side he worked in his own little lap.
"What about first thing tomorrow? It's starting to be dark and you have a wife and daughter to go home to. When is your next shift?" Terry said for the yautja.
"I'm free for the next couple of days, so is Tina." Ian looked at Toh. "So what do you say, Tomorrow morning then?"
Toh looked at Max for approval and when he saw it in her eyes he nodded yes.
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There you have it, as I said nothing big but I really hope that it was okay anyway.
Please review people!!!