"Ian!" Mel gasped, shocked by his sudden appearance. "How are you?" Ian looked anxious, tired, and most of all, worried. He was clutching Wanda's cyrotank tighter than ever, his fingers turning red. From the looks of his red eyes, he hasn't slept since they left for the raid.

"How long?" he asked, avoiding Mel's question.

"Till what, O'Shea?" Jared asked, squeezing Mel around the waist. Jamie gave him a nasty look then smiled at Ian.

"Till tomorrow afternoon, Ian. That's what Doc said," Jamie answered.

"Oh."

"Don't worry, Ian," Mel tried, awkwardly placing her hand on his shoulder. Ian's head snapped up and stared at her hand, remembering Wanda's hand touching him gently like that. But this wasn't Wanda. This was Melanie. She quickly jerked her and off and tucked it behind her back. "She'll be back soon. We just need to make sure that a human isn't still alive in there," Mel said, tapping her forehead.

Ian nodded, understanding despite the fact that he didn't want to. "Can I see her?"

"Ian, it's not her yet."

"I know. I didn't mean Wanda," he sighed. "I mean the, uh, body." Ian loved Wanda for who she was-a Soul- but that didn't make it any less hard to talk about the logistics of her species. Having to know that he would never be able to kiss or touch or feel the real Wanda hurt him. He just would never say so. She would feel so guilty.

"Oh, um, yeah," Mel said. She hadn't thought Ian would want to see Pet's body before Wanda was inserted, but I guess she was wrong. "Do you want us to . . .?"

"No, I'll be fine," he said, reading her thoughts. He slid past them and into the hospital. Doc was working quietly at his desk, looked up, and smiled at Ian. He just nodded and walked over to the only cot occupied. On top of it sat a beautiful, petite girl. Maybe 16 or 17 years old. Long blonde hair, shimmering in the pale light, fanned out behind her head. Her ivory skin looked soft and delicate, and Ian almost reached out to touch it, but decided not to. This wasn't Wanda yet, anyway. The human could still wake up, after all. The girl's lips looked soft, a rosy pink. Her cheeks were slightly flushed, a few stray freckles covering her skin. Her body was thin and tiny, the perfect size to hold at night. Ian liked the idea of that.

He smiled down at the girl, happy with Jamie's pick. Even though Ian would love Wanda in any form, whether a disgustingly ugly woman or a completely different species altogether, but the thought of having Wanda in a body as beautiful as her personality felt right. And having Wanda in a body besides Mel's would make everything so much easier. He still felt weird around her, since he only had memories of Wanda inside of her, and having her own body would clear things up. Still, he suspected that things would remain weird between him and Mel for a while. Probably with Jared and Wanda too.

Ian sighed and looked down at the cyrotank in his hands. "Oh, Wanderer," he whispered, though he knew she couldn't hear him. "I can't wait till you come back to me."

Jamie shot out of bed the next morning, earlier than usual. After his "welcoming home" last night, he had gone straight to bed, hoping the morning would come faster. He still had a few hours to spare until Doc would insert Wanda, but he couldn't sleep any longer. He rushed down the hall and to the cafeteria, grabbing breakfast and eating fast, hoping to get to Doc's soon. Maybe he would start early.

"Woah, kid, slow down," Jared snickered, sitting down in the chair beside him.

"Yeah, throwing up isn't going to change what happens to Wanda," Mel joked, despite her own desire to choke down her food quickly. She was just as excited about inserting Wanda. And nervous. How would she react? She'd probably feel guilty first, then feel happy for a second, then regret that moment of selfishness and apologize. Yup. That sounded right.

"I know, but I just really want her back!" Jamie said, stuffing a piece of bread is his mouth. "Mel, you know I love you, but Wanda was stupid to do this. We could've gotten a new host first, waited for her to wake up, and then taken Wanda out. It would have been a quick switch!"

Mel laughed. "Trust me, Jamie, I would've liked that too. But you know Wanda. She never would have listened. Hell, if she wasn't so anti-violence she'd probably kill us for putting her back in a host."

"Not in that body. That girl's got no muscle," Jared laughed.

"I know. Now she can finally lay off the work!" Melanie said. "She works too much, and now we have an excuse to get her to take it easy!"

They ate in silence for a little while before heading off to work for an hour or two while Jamie went to school. Everybody, even anti-Souls like Sharon and Maggie, seemed on-edge. They were all glancing anxiously at the cracks of sunlight seeping through the walls, all talking as much as possible to pass the time. Even though Wanda's only been gone for about 3 days, the change is obvious.

Three hours later, right as everyone was finishing up lunch-Jamie bursted into the cafeteria, yelling for everybody to come. Well, not everybody, but anybody who actually wanted to. Mel, Jared, Lily, Jeb and a few others followed him down to the hospital, where he had eaten his lunch, standing watch. As the group piled in, Doc checked Pet on last time for any sign of brain activity. There was none.

"Okay, can somebody get Ian?" Doc asked. Jamie turned around to go after him, but he was already coming down through the tunnel. He must've heard everybody from his room.

"Why is everyone here?" he asked, a bit angrily.

"Because we care about her, Ian," Mel said, a bit offended. If anybody should be here for this, it was Mel.

He didn't answer, but just walked stiffly over to Doc. Doc extended his hand, as if asking for the cyrotank, but Ian just kept hold of it. Doc looked at him for a moment, then sighed. Ian knew the procedure well enough to be able to assist him. "Can I watch?" Jamie asked eagerly. Mel wanted to say no, but he'd already seen it once before, so she agreed.

"I'm ready," Ian murmured. He breathed in anxiously as Doc slid his knife across Pet's flawless skin, opening the same scar once again. Doc stepped away, allowing Ian to get in, and walked over to grab the rest of the material's he'd need for the healing. Ian knelt down beside Pet so that he was level with her slit neck. He unlocked the cyrotank and carefully slid Wanda out, into his palm. He gasped as she sunk into his hand, her soft, round body sending a fire through his skin. The same fire he felt when he had kissed Melanie.

She's beautiful, Ian thought, looking at her for the first time. His mouth was open as he stared at her, wide eyed. She was no bigger than his thumb, a thin line of silver still in his hands. She glowed like an angel, a wonderful, sweet angel. His angel. He smiled as he stroked her back lightly with his finger, hoping she could at least feel it or sense it or something. He wanted her to know that he cared.

"Ian," Doc whispered. He knew that only a minute more without a host and Wanda could die. Despite not wanting to let her small form go, he couldn't risk it. Everybody was staring in the same shocked state at Wanda as Ian was. They all had believed she looked more like a parasite, an ugly, crawling worm you'd find in your backyard. But no-they were wrong. Souls were beautiful creatures.

Ian took a deep breath and placed Wanda carefully around his finger. He pulled open the wound on Pet's neck, giving himself enough room to let his finger in. He slid it in, along with Wanda, and helped guide her to the areas that she had described to Doc. He'd never done an insertion (obviously), but he figured it was just the opposite of removing a Soul, which he'd seen enough times before. He waited until Wanda was situated where he thought she needed to be to remove his finger. After he did, he quickly shifted to the other side of the cot to let Doc in. He smoothly, professionally smeared Clean, Heal, and Smooth over the wound, smiling as he did so. They whole room was smiling, filled with joy at the near reunion with their friend.

Ian sat back as the girl-as Wanda-shifted slightly. He didn't expect her to react that quickly, but what did he know? No human has ever seen an insertion before and he didn't know what to expect. Would Wanda awake this fast? Would he be able to hold her in his arms in just a matter of minutes?

They waited for what seemed like hours, but was only about half of one. Wanda shifted slightly every so often, probably stretching herself inside of Pet's body to connect to all the correct nerves. Or maybe she was replaying Pet's memories. Hopefully they were good memories. Jeb went to get some of the others after Doc informed him that Wanda should be waking soon. Trudy and Geoffrey, Paige and Andy, Kyle and Sunny, Heath, Brandt, Hiedi. They all piled in, waiting anxiously as Wanda stirred a little bit more.

Wanda's mouth popped open, as if she was surprised, and Ian nearly jumped out of his seat. "Wanda? Can you hear me, Wanda?" he asked eager, stroking her hand. He wanted to kiss her so badly, feel her.

"Use the Awake," somebody murmured to Doc, hoping to speed up the process. Doc leaned in and sprayed a quick puff of the grapefruit scented stuff in front of Wanda's nose, and she immediately reacted. She took a long, deep breath and Ian's eyes got watery. She was almost here.

Ian felt Wanda's hand tense up slightly inside of his and he bit his lip to keep from kissing her right then. He leaned in close to her ear, so that only she would hear, and breathed every so slightly, "Wanderer? We're all waiting for you, honey." He almost kissed her ear, but didn't want to startle her. "Open your eyes."

Wanda caught her breath, recognizing Ian's voice. Ian took this as a good sign and leaned gently over her face, kissing her softly on her full lips. It felt so nice. He had missed that, even if it was with a different pair of lips. It still felt like Wanda. He trailed kisses over her eyelids, which fluttered under his touch.

"She's waking up!" Jamie squeaked, jumping up and down a little. Ian skimmed his hand gently along her face, running softly over her smooth skin. Her eyes flickered open slowly, though it appeared that she couldn't focus. Her eyes were a pale gray, ringed with that Soul-like silver. He thought they were so beautiful.

Wanda seemed to look around anxiously, trying to process everything. "Wanderer?" he sighed, waiting so desperately to hear her speak, to be with her completely. Her eyes settled on his and she nearly cried out in happiness.

"Ian?"

AHHHH! So I hope you liked that fanfic :) All of that dialogue at the end is directly from the book, and I do not own any of it. I really had fun writing this and it appears that some people actually like it? Haha well, anyway, I just wanted to say thank you for reading (and maybe reviewing)!

Also, I started a new Host fic, called "Reinserted." It is going to take place a year or two after the end of the Host, and will discuss what happens when Pet's body is injured fatally, and there's no cyrotank around.

s/8982907/1/Reinserted