A day late SORRY! Just the normal today I do not own The host or any of the characters although I wish I owned Ian O Shea or Jared Howe. They belong to Stephenie Meyer however I do own the plot.

Chapter 9

Mel's POV

He stood at the door just staring at Jared and I, Doc sat at his desk still; whiskey glass in one hand staring at Ian at the door.

The sudden silence must have alerted Jared because after a few seconds he let me go and turned to look at what Doc and I were staring at.

"Ian!" Jared exclaimed. His voice echoed throughout the small cave bouncing off the walls making the sudden silence seem even more notorious.

The silence lasted for a few minutes longer; still I couldn't move my eyes away from Ian even though I knew Jared was watching me. Eventually Doc stood up and coughed. Jared, Ian and I turned to look at him and shifting from one foot to the other he broke the awkward silence.

"Well...Erm...I'm going to have to get going. Sharon said she wanted me to help her with one of the lessons today so I'll leave you three to sort out whatever you need to sort out."

Doc grabbed his whiskey bottle and shuffled out of the room. Ian moved out of his way as he moved out of the door and moved into the hospital a bit more.

We both began to speak at the same time.

"Ian..." I began

"Mel I just wanted too..."

Jared still stood silent. He looked awkward standing between Ian and I and for once I just wished he wasn't there. As if reading my thoughts Jared spoke up.

"I'm going to leave you two to it" he said. "You need to talk and I guess you don't need me around making things awkward. I'll go find Jamie or something or see if Jeb needs a hand."

He walked over to me and bent down to kiss me. His lips brushed my cheek and then moved closer to my ear. I felt his breath on my earlobe and it reminded of the many whispers he had muttered in my ears over the years"

"Don't let him push you into anything you don't want to do. I'm here for you no matter what, just you remember that."

He pulled away slowly, kissed my cheek one more time and then sauntered over to the door. He looked at Ian who was leaning against the cot by the door watching our exchange.

"You do anything to hurt her and I swear that you won't live to see another sunrise, I'm promising you that now O'Shea. That black eye will be nothing compared to what I will do to you if you hurt Melanie you can count on that."

Ian nodded and then looked at me. Jared looked from me to Ian one final time and then stalked off down the tunnel back to the main caves.

The silence remained for another minute until finally I couldn't stand it any longer.

"Ian what are you doing here?"

There I'd said it. The thing that was on my mind since the moment I'd seen him at the door. This was the biggest question, the answer I didn't want to hear the most so I wanted to get it out of the way first.

Ian's POV

"Ian what are you doing here?"

What was I doing here? I needed to tell Wanda what was going on before someone else did; she needed to hear this from me. Sunny was right though. I needed to sort things out with Melanie first, I hadn't exactly left things the way I would have wanted.

Mel's question stumped me. Surely she should have realised the reason I was here, that it would be about the baby.

"I came to talk to you...about the baby"

Mel looked shocked, maybe she hadn't expected me to want to talk about the baby.

"Ian you don't have to worry. I'm not going to force this baby on you...I was going to have an abortion; that's what I came to Doc for, that way you wouldn't have to worry about Wanda finding out or have to deal with a baby at all. But Jared has offered to help me out. He's going to be there for me so you don't need to talk to me really I'm...okay"

She hesitated at the end and that's when I knew she wasn't really okay. Did she really think that I would want her to abort the baby – my baby!

"Mel that isn't what I want!"

"Well I didn't want to keep it either at first but really you won't have to do anything I promise. Jared and I may even leave the caves to make this easier on you."

"No" I shouted. Melanie flinched.

"I'm sorry Ian" Melanie muttered.

"There's no need to be sorry Mel. What I meant was I don't want you to leave...not that I want you to get an abortion. I came here to tell you that I'm going to help you in any way that I can. I'm sorry that I freaked out earlier but it was a big shock and to be honest not something I expected." I laughed.

"You want to help?" Mel asked.

"Sure I do this is my baby too" I walked over to Mel until I was stood directly in front of her; I took her hands in mine and brought them to my chest.

"Melanie I never said I didn't want anything to do with you or the baby. I freaked out at first but that's understandable right...I mean I'm sure you freaked out first of all didn't you?"

Mel nodded.

"I'm not going to leave you to deal with this all on your own, I'm going to be there whether you want me too or not, I'm sure Wanda will be too...she did have a hand in this after all."

Mel pulled her hands from mine.

"What's the matter?" I asked.

"Nothing is the matter"

"Is this about Wanda? She won't say anything Mel...she can't...I mean she knows this is not our fault; she will want to help and be there for you."

"Are you going to try and take the baby away from me" Mel asked.

The look on Mel's face was heartbreaking. To be honest she had a point. I hadn't said anything yet but I was going to offer that I and Wanda take care of the baby. We had conceived it and it was unfair to force a child on Mel. Wanda would make a brilliant mother, she and I had created this baby on the only time we had been together so technically it was ours.

Mel was still looking at me questioningly, afraid of the answer I was about to give. Maybe I should leave this subject till a later date.

"Of course not Mel; not unless you wanted me too."

"Thank you Ian"

And then I stepped forward again to hug her and she fell into my arms and started to cry again. I had a lot of explaining to do to some other people now that I had finally sorted Mel out.

Okay so this isn't the longest chapter ever sorry but what I intended to right would have gone on a bit too long so I have split the chapter into two so the next chapter will be the other half of this one. I'm hoping to put some Ian and Wanda together soon for everyone that likes those two together. I love Ian and Wanda too and miss them together but I really want to see how this partner swap turns out. PLEASE READ AND REVIEW! 27 reviews now but I really want some more. I'll try to update soon but I am Christmas holidays now and have offered to work some extra hours so will be limited of time. If I don't update sooner HAVE A MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!!!!!!!!!