Thank you to those who reviewed. I appreciate it as always. I made you guys wait so I made this one a little bit longer and it is not a dream this time.

I am happy that people are reading it and I hope that you all enjoy :)

Oh and I don't own any of these wonderful characters, they are Stephenie's

Ch 5.

We left the hospital to meet everyone for breakfast, it didn't take long before we smelled the sweet aroma of perishable foods. By the time Ian and I eventually made our way to the kitchen for breakfast we were clearly the last ones to arrive. We went to join our usual table, but were surprised to see it was already full. Jeb, Nate, Jared and Mel took up the back of the table by the wall facing us, while Sunny, Kyle, Rob and Burns were on the aisle side with their backs to us.

Ian walked up behind Kyle and flicked his ear with his finger. "Hey thanks for saving us a seat, bro," he sarcastically said to his brother.

"Hey man," Kyle groaned as he dropped his fork and grabbed his ear, turning back towards us. "How was I supposed to know how long you love birds would be? For all I know you two were rolling around in the mud somewhere – " His sentence interrupted by Mel's roll bouncing off his head, but not soon enough to stop the blush from coming to my cheeks. "Hey! What is this? Beat on Kyle day?" He whined as Sunny inspected his head to make sure there was no damage.

"Might not be a bad idea to give you a shot in the head every morning," Jeb pondered, scratching his beard. "It might help keep you in line." Sunny looked at Jeb with a shocked expression. My own expression was only slightly less worried as I was getting more used to Jeb and his crazy ideas.

"Oh Sunny, don't worry about that hard head. I could have thrown a rock at him and still done no damage," Mel said rolling her eyes. "Anyways, Jeb was only joking..."

"Half joking," he corrected.

Ian raised his hand. "Could I sign up for that duty? That would be a great start to my day."

"Ian," I tried to pull his arm back down as he raised it, but he just pulled me up with it. Everyone started to laugh at me dangling off his arm, so I let go and dropped back to the floor. I crossed my arms trying to look angry at him. This caused everyone to laugh even harder. "As much as I didn't like Kyle's comments –" I glared at Kyle. "- I don't agree with beating him up over it."

"You are cute when you are angry," Ian said as he kissed the top of my head. "Why don't you find a seat while I get us some food," he suggested, but I didn't move my body. I raised one eyebrow – a look I had seen Mel give to Jared many times. "Don't worry. I promise I won't go beating Kyle up..." he paused. "Unless of course, he does something to really to deserve it."

"Like he could..." Kyle mumbled into his food, causing Ian to smack him in the back of the head one more time as he walked away. I sighed and shook my head at the two brothers. I doubted I would ever understand that relationship. Souls always ensured to work as a collective, treating one another with respect at all times. I was often boggled by how humans who connected on a much closer level by blood relations could so often treat each other with such disregard.

"Here Wanda, I saved you two a seat at the table beside everyone," Jaime announced with a triumphed smile, waving me over to his table. I took the seat across from him, closest to the other table. "Don't worry Wanda, I didn't forget about you."

"Oh oh, looks like Ian may have some fresh competition. No wonder you picked such a young looking host for her kid," Kyle smirked, causing both me and Jaime to blush and quickly followed by another "Ouch!"

"Aw come on Mel! That was my roll –" Jared complained "- and I was still planning on eating it."

She reached over and grabbed Kyle's roll off his plate. "Fine. Eat his then," she plopped it down on Jared's plate. Looking at Kyle she warned him. "And you just keep that trap shut for the rest of this meal." I sometimes missed Mel's feistiness in my thoughts.

Nate looked over at Burns and chuckled. "Just like home, isn't it Burns."

"Almost," he said before looking over at me. He sat in the seat nearest mine at the other table. "Although I am sure they do some things a little differently."

Ian dropped down into the seat beside me with two plates full of scrambled eggs and bacon, pushing one over to me, taking my attention from Burns. "We were late so they are a bit cold, but I figure that still has to be better than what we usually call food around here," he explained as he shovelled the food into his mouth.

"I am sure it is," I started. "But I have no idea how you expect me to finish all of this." I looked wide eyed at my plate, clearly an Ian sized serving, which could feed me for the entire day. "I don't want to waste anything."

"Trust me," he said. "Between us O'Sheas here I am sure one of us can finish whatever you don't." He looked to Kyle like nothing had happened before. "Right Kyle?"

"Damn straight! Nobody can out eat an O'Shea!" He announced proudly.

The rest of the breakfast went by with no more incidents, just some casual conversation. True to his word when I was half way through the massive plate of eggs I passed it over to Ian, telling him I might burst if I ate any more, and he happily finished my food until the plate was so clean it didn't even look like it had to even be washed.

"Alright everyone has enjoyed this lovely breakfast that our friends brought back from their raid," Jeb said to the group. "But I believe you all have jobs to get started, and sitting here ain't going to get any of those done, now is it?" I wondered for a moment why no one answered his question, but then I realized it was one of Jeb's many rhetorical questions.

The room started to empty out and Sharon came by and practically dragged Jaime off to school, but not before shooting a disapproving look at Burns as she passed him at the table. I was used to being on the receiving end of those looks, which truthfully I did somewhat understand as at one point I had taken away her cousin from her. Those looks had also improved slightly since my move into Pet's body, which made me more surprised at her reaction to Burns. I felt very protective towards Burns, despite the fact that physically he towered over almost everyone. I still had the urge to stand between them when Sharon looked at him that way.

Our tables were the only ones that stayed so I got up to clear our dishes but Sunny came over to take them from my hands. "It's okay Wanda. I am on dish duty today so I can get those for you," she said with a smile.

"Oh. I can help you with the dishes today Sunny," I offered, but she shook her head. "At least let me help you carry the bins to the water?" I tried again.

Kyle came over at that point and took the dishes from Sunny. "That's what I am here for."

Ian pulled me back down into my seat and wrapped a large arm around my shoulder. "Today is our day off, remember?" He looked towards Jab for confirmation. "Right Jeb?"

"I always like you guys to take a rest after a raid. It's the least I can offer you for risking your necks every time you go out there," Jeb agreed quickly.

"Of course it hasn't been nearly as bad since Wanda joined us," Jared added, with a smile in my direction.

"I agree," Nate said. "I don't know how long we would have survived without Burns here."

"Well before you guys start exchanging notes here, I want to give our guests the grand tour of our accommodations," Jeb said. "And even though I said you could have the day off...I thought that some of you may want to join us. Especially you Wanda, seeing as your perspective may be important to Burns..." Oh, if he only knew how true his words actually were, I thought. "...Which of course I am sure means Ian will join us as well."

"You got it," Ian agreed.

"Melanie and Jared?" Jeb asked. They exchanged a quick look and agreed. I was sure Mel realized how badly Jared wanted to pick Nate's brain about raids and how we could be more efficient.

"Count us in," Melanie responded.

"Okay then, I have to go make sure everyone has their tasks straight for the day," Jeb started. "So how 'bout we meet in the main plaza in 20 minutes. Jared can you show our guests back there okay?" He got up from the table and made his way out of the kitchen.

"Sure thing Jeb."

Ian got up from his chair. "Hey Wanda, I have to talk to Jeb for a quick minute," he explained as I started to get up with him. "Why don't you hang out with Mel and I will meet you in the plaza?" I gave him an anxious look. I wasn't sure about him leaving me with Burns here. "Don't worry, you'll see me again before you know it." He kissed my forehead and was out the door before I could protest any more.

Mel was at my side as soon as Ian was out of my sight. "Come on Wanda," she said as she dragged me out the door. "I gotta use the bathroom and you can come with me."

"Why do I need to go with you?" I asked innocently. "Do you need help going to the bathroom?"

She shook her head. "It's just a girl thing. Trust me."

"Don't worry Wanda. I never understood why girls go to the bathroom together either," Jared called out as I was pulled out of the kitchen and down the hall.

Mel and I took the opportunity in the bathroom to fix ourselves up a bit. The rains had made the caves very humid and our hair was paying the price. Mel easily tied hers back in a quick ponytail, whereas mine took both of us to get it out of control. Oh I wished I could just chop it all off somedays, but I didn't want to see Ian's face if I did.

We met the rest of the group back at the main plaza. They were all there waiting for us, leaning against the rock walls casually talking. Mel went straight over to where Jared stood with Nate and gave him a playful punch on the arm. He pretended to injured from the hit, although even I could see that she barely nudged him, he stood there pouting at her rubbing the spot where she hit. She moved his hand and gave the area a light kiss. A smile stretched across his face and I understood that he had planned that. He put his arm around Mel and placed his hand on her hip.

I walked up to Ian, who was standing with Jeb discussing the possibility of giving everyone the afternoon off for a soccer game with our guests. When he saw me he stopped talking and opened his arms inviting me in for a hug. "Missed you, beautiful," he said as he gave me a squeeze. He leaned in to whisper in my ear. "Now just be yourself. Burns said he would listen to what you have to say and you know he will be true to his word. I just want him to see how wonderful you are so he can appreciate you before we explain how you came to be in this body. Okay?"

I looked up and gave him a nod. I was still nervous but seeing the way he looked at me with such confidence it made me feel like everything would work out okay. He was still my personal protector and always would be.

"Okay now that the girls are here we can start the tour," Jeb said to our group. He pushed himself off the wall and started to make his way to the hallways, we followed behind him with Nate, Jared and Mel directly behind him, Rob and Burns behind them and Ian and me bringing up the rear, hand in hand. I caught Burns looking intently at Mel in front of him, shaking his head. I didn't understand why he seemed upset at her. There didn't seem to be anything wrong with her… Then I noticed that with her hair up you could clearly see the little pink scar on the back of her neck. We all had them now, thanks to Doc and some soul medication, but I forgot what the significance of Mel's would have on him.

My mind started to wander to the conversation I was going to have to have with him later today. I wasn't sure what I was going to say How I was going to be able to convey to him the absolute necessity it was to give Mel her body back. I was so lost in my thoughts I wasn't even paying attention to Jeb's tour or where I was walking and I tripped over the uneven floor stumbling forward. Ian caught my arm at the last moment, stopping me from face planting onto the floor.

"Are you on another planet there my love?" He asked as he pulled me into his side wrapping an arm around me and holding my waist like I was in a vice. "Because I would prefer if you stayed on this one."

"Sorry. I guess I was lost in thought…"

"You have missed half of the tour, silly girl."

I tried to pay more attention now, embarrassed by my earlier stumble. The group was standing in the fields, Jeb and Jared were holding up the lamps so the light reflected off the mirrors showing them to Nate. "Now if you came here once the rains stopped you would see that this room mimics the brightness and warmth of outside almost perfectly," Jeb explained, proud of his creation.

"Very impressive," Nate commented as he looked around. "I think that we could incorporate something like this in our community. What do you think Burns?"

"Very creative. I would have never imagined to find this in a cave."

"You should see how tall the corn gets," Jeb said, chuckling. "Poor Wanda would be hidden only half way to harvest. Heck, I grows to be about as tall as you Burns."

Again my attention was drawn to the large height difference between Burns and myself. I was not much more than half his size and he even had a couple inches on Ian, but with a much leaner build almost like if you took Jared and stretched him out. He was looking back at me now and had a small smile on his face, clearly noting the difference in our statures as well. The smile helped to put me a bit at ease. Ian must have noticed as well as he squeezed my side ever so slightly.

We made our way back through the rest of the cave, pointing out our rooms as we passed. I got a warm tingle in my stomach as we passed Ian's and my room. We made our way back to the kitchen and dining area next.

"Well I know we already were here today but this room but that was only for one purpose," Jeb started. "This room also serves as a storytelling room of sorts." He looked back at me and motioned for me to go stand beside him as Ian urged me forward at the same time. I could already feel the blush coming to my face. "That again is thanks to our little Wanda here."

Jeb put his arm over my shoulder before he continued. "It took a little bit a trickery on my end, but eventually we convinced Wanda to spend the evenings telling us more about the other planets she had been to. Expanding our knowledge on the universe and giving us a better understanding of what the souls bring to each planet."

"How many planets have you been to Wanda?" Nate asked.

"This is my ninth planet," I quietly answered, looking down at my hands.

"Well that sure explains where you got your name from," he responded. "You must have some good stories. Burns here has amused me for days on end with his stories and this is only his third planet. I look forward to hearing some of yours."

"Wanderer is only one of her names," Mel chimed in. "But I think it suits her the best. I couldn't have picked a better one if I had named her myself."

"I kind of like 'Lives in the Stars'," Jared added.

Burns gasped.

I looked towards him, nervous at his reaction.

"Y-Y-You are 'Rides the Beast'," Burns stuttered out, almost in shock. "I heard of you on the Mists planet… you were one of the bravest souls I had ever heard of."

"That's my wanderer."

That was the first time I had heard Ian since I left his side. I looked past Burns to see him standing in the back corner, his arms over his chest with a proud smile on his face. I now clued in on to what he had been discussing with Jeb earlier. They were quite the co-conspirators. I could feel my face burning bright crimson from all the attention.

Jeb cleared his throat. "Our Wanda."

"Okay guys," Mel interrupted "As much as I love our Wanda, if we continue to gush over her she may actually burst into flames from the blush on her face. So let get this tour done so we can get onto our day off."

The rest of the tour went on as normal with no more references to me. I assume Ian and Jeb felt that they got their point across. Burns would still occasionally look back at me with a stunned look, like he didn't know what to make of this new information. We ended the tour in the hospital wing. Jeb made sure to be vague with this end of the tour, failing to mention the amount of soul medication we had and I was grateful that someone had hidden the cryo tanks from view.

"Well folks," Jeb announced. "That would be the end of our tour. I got to be checking on everyone else's chores." He started to walk out of the room.

"Would you mind if we joined you?" Nate asked. "I have a few more things I wouldn't mind picking your brain about." Jeb gave him a nod and with that Nate and Rob followed him out the door.

Mel grabbed Jared's arm and pulled him out the door shortly after them mumbling something about finding a quiet corner somewhere for some private time. That left me, Ian and Burns. My palms started to sweat.

The three of us stood there in silence for what seemed like forever, but in reality was less than a couple of minutes.

Ian cleared his throat. "Well, unfortunately the cots are in the plaza," he said. "Why don't we sit on the floor? It may not be comfortable but we may be here for a while."

Burns sat right where he stood crossing his legs. Ian sat down across from him with his legs spread out and I tucked in beside him mirroring Burns. I couldn't speak or even look at either of them. I was focused solely breathing. In and out.

Burns spoke first. "I must say," he started. "I am surprised that 'Rides the Beast' would share the one secret we are bound to keep," he continued. "Don't get me wrong. I have seen the error in us taking this planet. The few don't represent the whole, but sharing our secret is dangerous to all of us. Souls are a peaceful community and if this secret got into the wrong hand…." He was unable to finish his thought, but he didn't need to for me to get the meaning.

"I am sorry… but I was very careful who I shared the information with. Only Doc, Ian, Mel and Candy know the actual procedure and Candy already had most of the knowledge from when she hosted a healer." I started to explain.

"How many souls have you discarded?" He asked with a little disgust in his voice

"You said you would hear her out before you judged," Ian warned him.

"My apologies, I did promise that."

I looked at my hands fidgeting in my lap. "We have removed 4 souls including myself….actually 5 if you count Sunny, but her host never surfaced so we re-inserted her."

"And what happened to the 3 other souls?"

"We have acquired cryo tanks from the nearby hospital for the removed souls. After discussing the background of the souls with their host, I chose a planet suited to them and we sent them out on the vessels to the other planets." I said.

"That seems reasonable to me," he accepted. "So what brought you to the decision to remove yourself from your host?"

I took a deep breath, a quick glimpse at Ian for strength and then I began the story of my journey on with Melanie. I told him about the beginning when she blocked her memories, to when she started to bombard my thought with images of Jared and the overwhelming love she felt for him. I told him that through those memories I also feel in love with Jared. I looked at Ian at that point to see how he was reacting to the retelling of my initial feelings for Jared. He was watching me Burns intently gaging his reactions.

I reached over and placed my hand on Ian's making him look back over at me. "I am sorry Ian."

"It's is okay Wanda. I know it was Melanie's heart that loved Jared," he said quietly. "Continue the story."

I went back to where I was in the story telling Burns about my Seeker and my last minute hike into the desert. Trying to follow Melanie's directions to get back to her family and the moment that I thought we were going to die in the desert and thinking that I had failed. I spoke of the moment Jeb found us, Maggie slapping us and when he first brought us into the caves.

"Unfortunately I was not welcomed by everyone as warmly Jeb did. The thing that hurt the most was the look of horror that was on Jared's face," I continued. "The pain Melanie and I had seeing that look hurt more than our face when he struck us. Fortunately for us he could not stand to see Melanie's body injured and he would not allow anyone to hurt us. He stood guard as we stayed in a storage room on the other end of the caves, until he was needed by the group and Jeb took watch over us instead –"

"Wanda," Ian interrupted. "You are not telling the whole story."

"Ian he doesn't need to know that. You are not that person anymore."

"Burns," Ian asked looking back to him. "Would you mind if I told part of this story."

"I think it would be good for me to see this from both sides."

"We were all shocked that Jeb had allowed a soul to come into our community. The way we saw it you had destroyed all of our lives. You were to blame for everything. I will admit I was angry and I needed someone to aim that anger at. A few of us decided that we could not stand for this parasite…I am sorry Wanda," he paused. "To be allowed to live. We figured that we would all prefer to be dead than lose ourselves to the souls and we figured Mel would have wanted the same thing."

I leaned my head onto Ian's shoulder. This was not an easy memory for either one of us to relive.

"We approached Jared one night looking to get at her. Jared and Kyle got into it and Wanda threw herself in between them. They flung her away, but she insisted on sacrificing herself to protect Jared and threw herself back between them. They tried to get her out of the way but in the process she stepped into me. With Jared distracted I took the opportunity to take care of her myself…"

Ian reached over to me and ran his fingers down my cheek to my neck with pain in his eyes.

He looked back to Burns and continued. "I tried to strangle the life right out of her…and I would have succeeded if it wasn't for Jeb and his gun."

Burns looked at us with his mouth slightly open. "And you are now in love with the man that tried to kill you?"

"With my entire soul." I simply stated.

"After that moment I couldn't shake the feeling that I was wrong. I went back to Jared to make amends and I got to see her and for the first time I really looked at her. She was afraid of us, scared to death of us, but she would throw herself in front of us to protect Jared." He continued. "Once she saw Jaime the love she felt for him was undeniable…"

I just sat there leaning against Ian, feeling the warmth of his body. I listened as he told our story. I had never heard it from his point of view. I let it all soak into me.

"…at first I was just curious about her but the more time I spent around her while they were on their raid the more I needed to protect her. I just knew I couldn't let anyone hurt her the way I had. She was kinder that any human I had ever met and was so selfless." He took a breath.

"I only wanted to do my fair share. It was my species that forced you into the caves so I felt I owed more than my share." I tried to explain.

Ian told the rest of our story. He spoke of the return of Jared and Kyle and how Jaime begged to save me. The discovery that Mel was still with me in her body. The story he told of Walter, my dear friend, and his death brought tears to my eyes. The pain from his loss still stung. He voice changed when he spoke of the incident on the ledge with Kyle and I could tell he had a hard time retelling it. He spoke of the tribunal and standing against his brother to defend me. He spoke of Jared new admiration of me and the jealousy it brought out in him.

"To think it took some attention from Jared to make me realize that I had fallen for Wanda," he said.

"But wasn't it more of Melanie's body that you fell in love with?" Burns asked. "Human's base so much of their emotions on the physical aspect on it."

"No," Ian explained. "It was what she did with the body, her devotion to those she loved, her expressions, it was what was inside her that I fell in love with." Ian continued to go through our experiences, the struggle I fought against my body and it pulled me between 2 loves. He spoke of when they returned from the raid that Jaime got injured on and the same one that Jared brought back the soul on.

"You have to understand where he was coming from," he was almost pleading with Burns as he described the process Doc was attempting. "We thought we were fighting for our survival and Jared was fighting to free the woman he loved. It tore Doc apart to destroy them, but not as much as it tore me up to have Wanda walk in on it."

Burns listened to this quietly.

"She mourned for days with no food or water. She was almost killing herself. That was until she heard of Jaime." Ian said. "He was real sick and there was nothing we could do, except for Wanda. She found a way to get the medication from the hospitals…she almost cut her arm off to do it." He shook his head at the thought of it.

Ian continued the story of Jaime's recovery and the new advantage to the raids. He spoke of how close I had been to losing Melanie. And finally he spoke of the capture of the seeker and the death of Wes at her hands. He looked to me at that point. "I think you need to explain your thoughts at this point Wanda. You kind of kept me in the dark at this point."

I thought back to that day.

"I first have to admit that I really didn't like the Seeker at all," I started. "She was not like a soul. She was cruel. I was shocked to see her here and I feared for my new family. Melanie wanted her dead to ensure we were all safe…but I couldn't harm her."

Ian rubbed small circles on my back.

"I had to find a way to save her without endangering us…" I paused. "That was when it came to me. The one way I could do that. So I removed the wall that I had put up to block Melanie from the secret." I was looking at Burns as he took this in. "You see, it was more the realization that I could give Melanie back to the ones that we loved that made me want to do this. I loved her and I wanted to give her life back. Saving the Seeker's soul was a bonus for me."

I went through the technicalities of getting the cryo tanks and the small group of people I let in on the plan. I explained how the Seeker was a test to see if they could respect my wishes and protect the souls. I told him that I knew after the first one that they would protect our secret and that the souls would be safe. He seemed to be surprised that the hosts were able to come back once we were removed. I talked about the healers, both the one that survived and the one that took his life. And then I got to Sunny and my decision.

Ian shifted his position when I got to this point, bringing his body so he sat behind me now, placing me between his legs and wrapping his arms around me. Almost like he was afraid I would disappear.

"I had finally found a planet that I wanted to stay on, more than even the Origin, and I didn't want to leave. I had to give Mel her body back, even though she fought me on it," I said. "I just thought they would be okay without me. Ian fought to keep me here, but knowing that the hosts were still there in so many bodies, I couldn't bring myself to be a parasite once again. It broke my heart to do it but I made Doc give me his word."

"You just didn't take Jared and his knife into consideration," he said quietly behind me. I knew that still ate away at him. The fact that Jared had been the one to change my fate and not him.

"Yes. Jared forced Doc to go against his word." I continued. "Ian kept watch over my tank while Jaime, Mel and Jared found me a new host that would not wake up. Ian put me in this body himself and in the end I got all I wanted….more actually." I looked back at Ian and smiled.

He looked down at me and nodded with approval. He whispered in my ear. "You were still the most beautiful sight I have ever seen."

Burns just sat there for a few moments.

"Wow," he finally let out. "And I thought 'Rides the Beast' was a strong soul. That story pales in comparison to your experiences here."

I wanted to have part of this from Ian's point of view. Hope you enjoyed. Please review so I can continue to make this a story that everyone can escape in. - Mel