Chapter 3 – Replaced
I woke up to Jaime stirring.
He turned to look at me. "Hey, Wanda. I thought you'd be with Ian."
"Jaime," there was a lump in my throat. I had thought a good night's rest would have relaxed me a bit. "Wanda is with Ian."
Jared was stroking my arm while I waited for Jaime's response. His eyes got wide a half second before he threw his arms around me.
"Mel! You're back. I missed you so much! I mean, I know you were here, but it wasn't the same. And I do love Wanda, but I wanted to talk to you. I'm so glad you came back. How do you feel? Are you mad at me? I'm sorry I didn't believe you would come back. You always come back. But don't leave again, okay, Mel? I want you to stay right here!"
Jaime hardly took a breath through his whole speech. I held him close and ran my fingers through his hair. It was getting long.
"Don't worry, I'm not going anywhere. And why would I be mad? I'm so proud of you. You've been so brave and helpful. I'm glad Wanda had you to help look after her."
His ears turned a bit red. I knew Jaime. Compliments in the right place and time made him puff out his chest like a proud bird.
"Will she stay?" The worry in his voice was evident.
"I don't know, Jaime. I won't put her in a body with someone else, but I'm not sending her to a different planet, either. For now, we're all just going to have to keep thinking about what might work best."
"Can I see her?" He jumped up so fast that he almost took me and Jared with him.
"Okay, but be careful with her. Ian's got her, so I'm sure wherever you find him, you'll find Wanda."
"Aren't you coming?"
I was far too comfortable in Jared's arms. Not to mention the fact that I was dreading meeting everyone in the community. Again. I was sure that my confrontation with Lacey was the latest cave news.
"Not right now."
"Okay. Love you, Mel." He squeezed his way around the screen and I heard his footsteps as they echoed their way down the tunnel.
I sighed, relieved. "That went better than expected."
"What do you mean?" Jared's voice was soft in my ear.
"Wanda and I have been most worried about Jaime. You and Ian were only fighting for one of us. Jaime loves us both. He should never have to choose."
"He won't have to. We'll find her another body."
I rolled over to look in his eyes. "I'm not putting her in unless we're sure that some humans never wake up. She was partly lying yesterday. No matter what host we put her in, she'd never put anyone here in danger. But, it would be torture to make her live in a body with someone else again. I won't do it."
His mouth was a hard line, but he nodded. Wanting to erase the worry in his eyes, I pulled him to me and kissed him softly. He responded immediately.
Jared and I didn't come out of our room all morning. It was heaven, this time we had to spend with just the two of us, trying to make up for all the time we had missed.
He wanted a play by play of everything that had happened. And not just from the time I was caught till Wanda and I had shown up; he wanted to know what my opinion was on everything Wanda had done with my body.
It was a relief to talk and move so freely. Eventually, though, both of our stomachs reminded us that we hadn't eaten all day.
We walked hand in hand to the kitchen, still talking so much we hardly had time for breath. There were a few people there, but they merely smiled and waved at us. I saw a few of them with curiosity burning in their eyes. I still didn't feel ready to talk to them.
After we had eaten, Jared and I decided to see what was going on in the hospital. There were voices drifting down the hallway, but they were so muddled that I couldn't figure out who they belonged to.
When we got around the corner, I was surprised at how many people were in the small southern room. I had expected it to be almost empty, but Doc, Mandy, and Trudy were standing next to his desk. Mandy still looked timid, but seemed to feel better with Trudy holding her hand.
Ian and Kyle were standing on opposite sides of Jodi's cot. They were mirror images of each other; each with a lit cryotank in one hand, stroking the arm of the small girl with the other. I shook my head in disbelief. Those two were more alike than they'd ever admit.
Jared spoke up first. "How's she doing?"
The two brothers looked up, and the group at Doc's desk paused for a moment.
Kyle brought his eyes back down immediately. "No change."
I noticed that Ian's eyes lingered on my face for longer than normal.
We all stayed there for several minutes, looking at Jodi as we avoided looking at each other. Eventually, I started listening to the other conversation in the room.
"It's really used very often."
"We have limited resources and have to make do."
"I don't know how I'd survive without it."
Curious, I wandered over to the desk. Mandy cringed back into Trudy as I approached.
"That's the soul!"
Trudy stroked her arm. "Shhh, it's okay, Candy. She's not a soul anymore. This is Melanie."
I cocked my head. "Candy?"
"I remembered it last night. You...you were like me." She looked absolutely terrified. I tried to smile kindly.
"Yes, I had a soul in me, too. But she gave me my body back."
"Why?"
I sighed and glanced back at Wanda in Ian's arm. "Because she knew it was right."
There was an awkward pause before Doc helpfully changed the subject. "Candy has been telling me about the medicines we still don't have."
Candy nodded. "He doesn't even have Mend!"
This even got Jared's curiosity going. "What does Mend do?" he asked.
"It heals internal injuries," Candy said. "Heal is for outside cuts. Mend is for broken bones, bruises, pulled muscles, things like that. You also don't have Sleep or Awake or Still."
I glanced at Jared, a question in my eyes. He nodded. "We could probably get them for you," he said.
Her face lit up. "Really?"
"Sure, next time we raid, I'll bring some back."
She looked absolutely delighted. "And a scanner?"
"What's that?" he asked.
"A computer hooked to a device that diagnoses any problem. It helps us know what is wrong with the body so we can properly heal it."
Jared was thoughtful. "That one might be difficult. I doubt we'd be able to walk out of a hospital carrying a computer without anyone noticing."
Candy was clearly disappointed, but Doc addressed her again.
"Candy," Doc said, "do you know how the different medications work?"
She nodded again. This was clearly a topic she felt comfortable with. They launched into a discussion far too complex for my own understanding. It seemed too complex for everyone except Doc, but Trudy stayed calmly by Candy's side, still holding her hand.
Jared and I found Jeb after that, and he had just as many questions as Jared had, but his were more about how I had managed to stay, talk to Wanda, and control my body. Jaime found us after school, jabbering on and on about things I had witnessed, but he seemed intent on making sure I had missed nothing from the past few months.
I was tired again as we headed to bed. Talking all day had been more work that I thought. But there was something from the day I wouldn't mind repeating.
"Jaime?" I said.
"Yeah, Mel?"
"Would you mind sleeping in Ian's room?"
Jared raised his eyebrows at me. Jaime, however, seemed almost to have been expecting this. He looked back and forth between me and Jared, smiling.
"Sure, no problem. Have a nice night!" And he ran off toward Ian's room.
Jared and I didn't sleep a whole lot that night.
We spent the next day working around the caves. It was nice doing the manual labor - actually having control over the muscles that would bunch and stretch as we irrigated the wheat. Jared never left my side the whole day, and whenever we could, we held hands. It would take a lot more than an invading alien race to separate us this time.
The other nice thing about the hard work was that it gave me a chance to interact with the people in the community without being constantly bombarded. We were so busy that conversations were short and few, giving us all the space we needed to get used to one another.
I laughed as I realized I was going through the same routine Wanda had when she and I had first arrived.
Two mornings later, after crashing in our room and getting a lot more sleep than we had on our first night alone, Doc came to get us at breakfast.
"Melanie, Jared. Will you come with me? It's Jodi."
We jumped up and followed him down to the hospital. He spoke to us on the way.
"It's been almost 72 hours. We can keep her hydrated, but I don't know how to feed her at all. She could very well starve to death. And on top of that, if we let the body just sit like this much longer, the muscles will start to deteriorate. And the brain will begin to lose functionality. But I don't know what else to do!"
We had reached the hospital by now. Kyle didn't look like he had moved at all in the past three days. There was no one else there.
I walked over slowly and put my free hand on his shoulder. "Kyle? Kyle, we're worried about Jodi."
The only acknowledgment he gave was a simple head nod.
Doc continued, repeating his concerns, but gently this time. When he had finished explaining, no one spoke for several minutes.
"Put Sunny back in."
There was a shocked silence as we all turned to look at Kyle. He still wasn't looking at us, but he kept speaking. "She was so sweet and, maybe... maybe she'll be able to find Jodi. Like Wanda found Melanie."
I didn't want to point out that I didn't exactly need finding, except for that one time.
Doc was already moving. He gathered the necessary instruments and placed them on the table next to the cot.
Kyle handed me the cryotank. "I don't know what to do," he said. He moved out of my way and held Jodi's hand.
Doc put a No Pain on her tongue and then got Kyle to help him flip her over. I pressed the button on the tank that began thawing. Wanda hadn't specifically taught us this, but I still remembered how the tanks worked, and Doc could figure out easily enough the insertion process.
"Ready, Melanie?" Doc asked.
The light on the lid had turned purple. "Yes. Make the incision."
When we could see the spinal column leading up to the brain, Doc stopped and turned to me. I took the lid off the container and carefully took out the silvery soul. I tipped my hand over the wound, letting Sunny slide off my hand and into the body on the table. She slowly stretched, reaching in all directions as she searched for the right places to put her antennae. After several minutes, she stopped moving, and I gave Doc the go ahead to close the wound.
Sunny woke up almost immediately after we moved her to a clean cot, though she gazed around with obvious confusion.
"Sunny?" Kyle said.
She turned to him. "Kyle? What happened?"
He swallowed. "We, we were wondering if maybe you'd like to stay."
"Really? Can I?"
"Yes, Sunny," I said, stepping forward, "but we were hoping you'd help us."
"Help you with what, Wanderer?"
Oh. Of course. Sunny hadn't actually met me yet.
I shook my head at her. "I'm Melanie. I was Wanderer's host. She and I used to talk all the time. Do you think you could try to talk to Jodi?"
Sunny looked at me like I was crazy. "I don't know how to do that," she said in a very quiet voice.
I glanced at Kyle, who was looking at me with a pleading look.
I tried to put some hope in my voice for his sake. It worked fairly well - I was a better liar than Wanda. "That's okay, Sunny. Just keep trying, and let us know if you ever hear her."
She seemed to think about that for a minute and then nodded. Kyle then took her to the kitchen, and Jared and I set off to look for Ian.
We found him in the eastern field, helping with the irrigation. Wanda's tank was on the ground right next to him.
I moved over to him and reached down to pick up the tank. His hands were faster. Ian grabbed Wanda and gave me a look that clearly told me not to try that kind of stunt again. I tried to ignore the slight butterflies in my stomach when I saw his blue eyes and instead motioned him to follow me. Jeb happened to be there too, and I waved him over. He deserved a say in this.
When we were out of earshot, I turned to them, Jared squeezing my hand reassuringly.
"Ian, Jodi never woke up."
He looked pained. "Is she gone then?"
"Well," I hesitated. "We're not entirely sure. Kyle asked us to insert Sunny. He's getting her something to eat right now."
They both looked staggered by this news. But after a minute, Jeb was nodding.
"Yup. So I guess you want to go get a body for Wanda, that right?"
Ian gasped and clutched the cryotank tighter.
"What do you think, Ian?" I asked.
"Definitely."
I smiled at him. He actually cracked a small smile back. "Alright then, let's go."
I started to move, but Ian shook his head at me. "I'm not coming."
"What?" Jared said.
"I'm not coming," he repeated. "I don't care. Just bring someone back that she'll like. You know she won't complain, no matter who we find. But, make it good for her."
I tried to touch her tank again, but Ian moved it out of my reach. I dropped my hand, giving up.
"Don't worry," I said. "We'll do it right."
I wanted to let Jaime know we were leaving, so we pulled him out of school for a minute, under Sharon's furious glare.
"Gee, thanks, Mel. Sharon's been awful lately."
"Maybe we'll get Wanda to teach again in a few days."
His eyes lit up as he processed my meaning. "Alright! Are you going to find her a new body?"
"Yeah, we'll leave as soon as it's dark."
"Can I come?!"
"No!"
His face fell. "Aw, please, Mel? I'll be good."
I still remembered what had happened on his last raid. "Absolutely not."
He was begging by this point. "Please? Please please please! I promise to do everything you and Jared say and I won't get in the way. I can really help picking a body that's good for Wanda."
That made me think. Besides me and Ian, Jaime was the person who knew Wanda best.
Jared voiced my thoughts. "I think the kid's earned it."
I pursed my lips as I thought about it. Finally I nodded.
Jaime let out a celebratory whoop.
"But, listen up," I said. "You will do exactly what we tell you to and you will not leave the van unless necessary. If I decide to change my mind we will turn around right away and bring you back."
He was hardly listening. "No problem, come on, let's go!"
