The blasted thing was stuck in yet another knot.

"Ouch!" the woman gave an involuntary cry as she tried to pull the tangle out of her hair.

Karin winced, and threw the hairbrush aside.

She felt dizzy again.

By trying to straighten up her house, and herself a bit, she had overdone it. So, now the poor woman lay stretched out on her worn sofa, a cool wet cloth across her forehead, and a scowl on her pinched and haggard face.

Besides the hair brush, on the old coffee table in front of her was a bowl with another cloth and some water, and what was left of an old battered book. It was one volume of an old set of encyclopedias several decades old, its cover half torn off, and pages sporadically missing or half moth-eaten throughout. She'd gone to all the trouble of unearthing the ragged thing that she had not seen since her childhood, and only succeeded in aggravating her headache and her dizziness yet again.

And, what she searched for was, naturally, mostly in those missing pages

Orangutans …

Karin had hoped to do a little reading up on the species of her newfound friend, Maurice. She wanted to make him as comfortable in her home as she could for as long as he kept coming to visit her. And she did not want to start grilling him with questions no matter how curious she was about him and his people.

Also, Karin was not used to being waited on hand and foot by anyone, and had hoped to return at least a little of Maurice's favor.

But the book excavation was a disaster, and she had only made herself quite weak by hauling it up from her dark cellar. And all that work for nothing!

If I had the strength, I'd set fire to the blasted thing, Karin thought with annoyance. She made a mental note to get rid of all that junk down there as soon as she could. But I don't even have the strength to brush my own hair.

It did not help that it had been ages since she had even bothered to try to do anything at all about her hair. After all, who but her was around to look at it. And Karin had almost stopped caring about much of anything at all. Except that she got the Apes those dried foods in the wintertime, and the small foods she put out for some flocks of birds that lived near her home, she believed she had no other reason to go on living.

But then, she did something stupid and hurt herself out in the forest. And he had come. Maurice, an Ape, had taken pity on her pathetic human form, and somehow found his way back to her home, carrying her all the way, and had then set about trying to take care of her as best he could. And he had come back the next night to do pretty much the same thing, take care of her. Not only that, but talk with her. There communications were still a sometime frustrating mixture of his sign language, her human speech, and both their body languages. He was picking up her languages much faster than she was with his, but they were getting by very well with one another.

And for the first time in years since she'd lost her little girl, Karin became interested, and curious, and though she dared not admit it even to herself yet, caring.

A smile slid across her face. Gingerly turning her head to one side, she glanced at her cluttered table, and then began to laugh a little. Here she was, getting all upset because she could not scrub her house and get her hair nice and neat because an Orangutan, an Ape, would be coming later. The absurdity of that thought made her laugh harder despite the pain in her head.

She laughed and laughed until tears flooded down her face. It occurred to her that if anyone were in earshot, her laughter might sound a little insane to them. But she did not care. There was no one in earshot, unless …

She looked at her old battered Time X watch, and sprang off the sofa to peer meekly from behind her blackout curtains. She thought it was almost time for her Orang visitor to make an appearance.

Those sounds were a little disturbing. Before Maurice could make his usual tapping gestures on her door, he heard the female making those sounds.

He stood stock still, listening intently. At first, he was sure she had been laughing, but then it got shriller, and by the time it subsided, Maurice was sure she was either crying or screaming or both. Either way, he knew he needed to get in there, fast.

If she was hurt … if someone Ape or human was in there hurting her!

Maurice suppressed a snarl as he approached her door, his hair bristling, his whole body tensed for a fight and his fists raised. He would pound the thing down to reach her if he must. He would defend her no matter what or who was threatening her!

Going to the door, he reared up, ready to give it a mighty blow. But it was his turn to freeze now. It was Karin who opened the door, and there were tears coursing down her face.

He watched her take in his appearance, and saw the fear flicker across her face.

And, that did it. Without asking her permission his time, he slid a long arm around her waist and lifted her easily up.

"Maurice," he heard her gasp. "What … what's wrong?"

The old Orangutan did not answer. He simply carried her back in to her house, pausing only long enough to kick the door closed behind them.

He held on to her for another moment, his eyes roving around the living room.

"Karin, stay," he rumbled at her as he set her down on the couch. She opened her mouth, but he put a hand on the back of her neck and gave a low rumbling growl at her, and she closed it again.

Maurice searched her house thoroughly, but there was no sign of any other living beings or of any threats to the woman at all.

He came back in to her main living area where he had left her. She was now curled in a submissive position on her couch.

Gazing down at her, the poor old Orangutan felt awful. He knew he had terrified her. It had just occurred to him that while he was behaving as any normal decent male should when defending his female, especially an injured female, Karin might not see it that way. He had to remind himself that she was human, and not as familiar with Ape ways. He had to be far more delicate with her. He also sternly reminded himself that she was not his female in any way shape or form, and never could be.

He pushed that last totally ridiculous thought out of his mind and sat on the floor beside her.

"Karin?" he rumbled her name as softly as he could manage. "Karin?"

Karin heard Maurice making his way none to quietly through her rooms. Now that the initial shock had worn off, it was a toss up to whether she was more frightened or angry.

She stayed curled in her tight protective ball until he came back in the room.

She heard him say her name, twice, in that wonderfully soft rumbling voice of his. Normally, she loved hearing him say anything, especially her name. His voice was so deep she could almost feel it in her very bones each time he spoke.

This time, it just made her furious.

"Don't you Karin me?" she cried, springing out of her protective ball and coming to her knees on her couch. She twisted sideways to glare at him.

"Why the … What were you … What in the world?"

She was trembling with a mixture of rage and fear and bewilderment, so upset she could not complete a full spoken sentence.

"Sorry," came the low rumble from deep in the Orangutan's throat.

"Not even a Hi. You've got no right to just manhandle, I mean Ape handle me like that … … What—What did you say?" She stopped mid tirade, panting slightly

"Maurice … is … sorry," he said it again, speaking very slowly and carefully, his troubled eyes fixed on her flushed face. She thought she could almost feel the regret in their depths.

"Sorry," Karin exploded. "Well, if you think that fixes it, then you … well, you're just … You are just …"

She was softening towards him now, despite herself. She was running out of steam in the face of his total calmness, and his sad eyes

"You scared me half to death, Maurice," she complained more quietly. "The last time an Ape … I mean someone grabbed me like that, I thought he was gonna kill me … or something. Why did you do that?"

"And, please don't say Sorry again," she interrupted as he opened his mouth. "I believe that you're sorry. Just tell me why you busted in here like a bull in a China shop?"

He blinked.

"Never mind about a bull or a China shop," Karin exclaimed, half-laughing now. "For God's Sake, just tell me why you did that, okay?"

"Hurt," Maurice said simply.

She gaped at him in confusion.

"I thought Karin was hurt," he told her in his slow careful way.

"But why would you—"

She broke off, and made a disgusted sound.

"Oh man, you heard me, didn't you? Right before you came in, you heard me laughing and … and—"

"Not laughing," Maurice objected. "Crying. Karin sounded hurt."

"Oh, Maurice! I'm so sorry," she cried. "It was all my fault then. I just, um, I thought of something silly and I laughed too hard, that's all. It hurt my head."

Not totally a lie, Karin thought. It did hurt my head. That was not the entire reason, but she did not want to have to try and explain the intricacies to Maurice just now.

She looked passed him to her front door. Then her eyes focused again on the big Orang. He managed to look a little sheepish.

Karin reached out and patted his hand.

'You were really gonna try and break that down, weren't you?" she whispered in awe.

"No," Maurice objected. "Not try, would break it down … for Karin."

What little bit was left of Karin's fury melted away in a sudden rush of warmth for the big Ape.

"Oh," Karin swallowed hard against the lump in her throat. It never ever failed. He always did that to her at least once each visit.

ON an impulse, she reached out to put both arms around his neck to hug him, overbalanced, and fell off the low couch, landing squarely in his lap.

As the woman flung her arms out towards his neck, Maurice's eyes widened. Did she mean to try and strangle him? His offense had not been that great, had it?

But before he could decide what to do, she overreached and landed in a heap on his lap.

He gave a huff of surprise. But she was not trying to attack him.

"Well, that didn't work quite right," she scolded herself, laughing. At least, he was almost sure she was really laughing this time.

So, he laughed back.

"Sorry about that," she apologized. "Guess I'd make a terrible circus woman, huh." He had mentioned to her that was when he learned to sign, in his circus where he was born.

"Dead circus woman," he told her bluntly, helping her to sit up properly and letting her lean against him.

"Ouch, that's cold. Why'd you say that?" Karin objected, pouting a little.

"Karin falls down a lot," Maurice commented dryly. "Circus woman who falls down a lot dies."

"Guess I'd better stay away from circus's, then. But would you believe I used to be a dancer?" Karin asked him. "When I'm feeling better, I'll show you, sometime. Not that I'm very good at it anymore," she added quickly.

Once Karin caught her breath a little, he sat her back down on her couch. And insisted that she eat something.

Later, he asked her about the battered old book. She told him it had once been something that held a part of the sum of human knowledge. Then, she admitted to him that she had been trying to look up Orangutans in that book.

He had been surprised, and yes, more than a little flattered by that. He was almost as disappointed as she had been to find out that those pages were gone or mangled beyond recognition.

"What did Karin want to know?" he asked. When she had replied, "Everything," he had chuckled at that.

"Everything is a lot," he told her. "Even I don't know everything. So, how could your book know anything?"

"Well, it doesn't anymore," Karin said. "The moths and time have eaten it all away."

Saying this seemed to make her so sad. So, Maurice started telling her of funny things, like something one of the children had said or done. When he talked of the Ape children, she looked a little sad, but at the same time, hearing of them seemed to sooth something within her.

When it was time for him to leave her, he hesitated. They stood together at her closed front door, and he gently touched her shoulder.

"I am worried for you," he rumbled quietly.

"My head is getting better," she objected.

But he sighed.

"Not that." He reached out and laid his fingers against her forehead. The swelling did seem to be going away. But that was not what frightened him.

"I do not like leaving you alone," he admitted.

She flung her arms around him again, but did not fall down this time. He guessed this was what she had meant to do before. It was a nice gesture, and he returned it.

After a time, she drew away to look in to his face.

"I've lived alone here for a very long time, Maurice," she told him matter-of-factly. "I'm used to it by now."

"That is not right," he shot back.

"Well I'd love to have you stay around, Big Guy, but you can't," Karin said, trying to smile. "You got responsibilities at home. So, what choice do I have."

That was part of Maurice's deep frustrations. He had a home, one he could easily build on to, if more room was needed. He had a large extended family of all kinds of Apes, but he knew he could not invite her to be a part of any of that, not yet. Not because of Caesar's reactions, but because of some of the others. He would just be introducing her to even more dangers.

"You'd better get going," she sighed. "Go on, don't make this harder on both of us. Just … come bac, when you can."

So, she did not want him to leave either. Unless this was another Ape Human miscommunication. He hoped not.

"I will come back," he promised her, signing and speaking the words out loud. "Karin stay safe till I do."

"Yes Sir," she said crisply, pretending to give him a solute. "Orders received, Sir!"

He did not know exactly what that meant, but guessed she was trying to be funny.

They both laughed again. And she hugged him again.

And, sadly, he left her again, but he could not help looking back more and more. Once he could no longer see her sweet sad human face pressed against the glass of her window, Maurice headed home with a heavier heart than ever before.

\They were not totally alone, but neither the old Orangutan or the human woman knew it. Hidden in the trees near the well-sheltered human dwelling, a shadow lurked. It could not see a lot, but it could hear very well.

It saw Maurice enter the human dwelling. It heard the woman's voice … the human woman's voice, raised in agitation.

It even heard Maurice's low growl, and for a moment, it sensed the old Orangutan's sudden protective rage.

Thinking it was caught, and trembling in sudden dread, it drew well back. It did not want the old Orangutan to catch it, not yet.

What was he doing here in secret with this human female? Not training her in proper respectful human behavior towards apes, that was almost certain. No, Maurice was far too tender-hearted to teach these humans their proper place in the world.

But unless he planned to claim her and bring her back to the Ape village, and that did not seem likely, Maurice could not stay with the human female all the time. She would be alone and unguarded sooner or later. Then, she would learn her place.

The unseen Watcher knew that far too much leniency had been given to this human female because of her little child. But, there was no sign of the little female around her home now. Was it dead? It didn't matter, but if so, maybe that was for the better.

Not ready to act just yet, the shadow slipped silently back to the Ape village. No one seemed to notice..

a/n:

These chapters just get longer and longer. Thanks to all my loyal and patient readers for hanging on here with me. Keep the PMs and/or reviews coming, folks. Just please no wwar spoilers.