notsocommon | for Wanderer

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for Wanderer

Helen had promised to spend a little more time talking one on one with Wanderer when there weren't the concerns of arrival or the bustle of a party to contend with and she'd settled for having tea with her on a Saturday afternoon. She'd brought Gregory along, of course, because she hated to saddle Will with him when she was unoccupied and it seemed that Wanderer had been fond of the baby; Helen was always pleased with people who were interested in her son.

She was a bit early, so she'd snuggled Gregory in his sling across her chest and gone to boil the water for tea, hoping to at least have that done before Wanderer turned up in the kitchen. Whether or not they'd stay in the Compound was up to her - Helen hardly had an opinion - but this part would need to start here.

When she heard a noise behind her, she turned slightly. "Just getting a few things ready for us. Did you want anything in particular?"

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I'd always been curious. Of course I had been. Hadn't I spent millenia travelling the universe to experience it? The idea of seeing the small human up close had my hands raising almost of their own volition. It was like having Melanie in control again.

"You don't think it would frighten him?" I asked. "My eyes...?"

"He's got no frame of reference for that, I don't know why they would," Helen said, shrugging a bit.

"For him, it's just another eye color. He may not even be able to really differentiate them yet. It's your face that he'll be focused on, and the feel of you holding him, and he's really too young to be frightened by strangers just yet. I think he'll be just fine."

"You'll stay close?" I asked, fear in my voice almost palpable. I could still hear the Healer's host's reaction to my eyes when she'd awakened finally from wherever she'd been while Summer Song had been in control. Even with those fears, I did want to hold the baby. More than I thought I should.

"Of course. I wouldn't just throw you to the wolves," Helen promised, laughing lightly. "You'll want to cradle him in your arms in such a way as to support his neck," she explained, gently lifting Gregory and helping transition him from one set of arms to the other.

"I promise you won't break him."

I remember watching the mother in the park, with Ian and Jared behind me. That baby had been older, but I'd seen the mother cradle her human child the same way Helen did now. I moved my arms in the same motion, like I was already holding him...and then I was.

I made a sound that was more startled than humor. "He's heavier than I expected."

"Aren't they? I swear, I think I'm actually developing biceps for the first time in my life," Helen teased.

"Though some of that may have to do with the fact that your body is very slight and I'm much larger. Was Melanie's body similar to the one you have here?"

I shook my head, my eyes fixed on the baby in my arms, tensed for any slight indication that he was uncomfortable. He seemed, to me at leaat, perfectly at ease.

"No, Melanie was taller. And stronger. She liked sports, running and soccer, and she was a fighter. She had to be, with the lift she left. As far as I can tell, Pet was coddled almost from the first."

"How strange, to go from a strong body to one unaccustomed to such. How strange to go from any body to another, I suppose I should say, though I imagine that is less strange for you than it would be for me. Occasionally that happens here on the island, though," Helen explained.

"You'll wake up in someone else's body. It's disconcerting, I can imagine."

"It was every bit as strange as waking up a different species," I admitted. "It's why I cried so much in the beginning, why I was so jumpy. Pet's sheltered life didn't lend itself easily to shocks or surprises." I smiled. "Nothing like giggling for the first time and startling yourself to the point you jump backwards," I added, a blush to my cheeks.

"I suppose I would be startled, as I never giggle," Helen said solemnly, only to burst into a peal of laughter that would, in most people's opinion, be a giggle.

"I think I could listen to you talk for hours on end about all this. I apologize, curiosity is both a virtue and a vice of mine."

I didn't point out that the sound she made was very like the one I had - I didn't want to be rude - but I did smile with her. "I still reach for things I should be able to manage without step stools, and it still feels like there isn't quite enough of me sometimes, but it's getting better, starting to feel more like my body and less like Pet's."

"Is this your favorite species, then?"

Helen couldn't imagine having a choice in body and wondered if she would still choose her human one if she hadn't been born to it originally or had a choice of living in another type.

"It's hard to say favorite, as they're all so different; but I know I don't want to be anything else. I don't want to move on after my life term ends here."

I'd been about to day I wanted to die here, but that seemed a little more melodramatic than I wanted. Especially since my humans had decided to keep me, apparently.

"I, too, am going to live out the rest of my years on this island. It took away the longevity that kept me alive long past a normal human life span and made me normal again. It's a mixed blessing, sometimes, but I think I was done with being immortal. I would rather have family," she said, beaming a bit at Wanderer, "and friends without worrying when I'm going to lose them."

I laughed a little, but there wasn't a great deal of humor in the sound. "And I won't be moving on if anything happens to this body, that's for sure. I don't think there's anyone here interested in having a parasite in the back of their neck."

"Possibly, possibly not," Helen said, giving her a little smile. "It depends on who you asked, I suppose. Is it a relief to have described it to someone, at least?"

"Someone here, yes. It's nice to know that if something bad does happen, someone will know me for who I am, who I was. Back where, when, I come from, it was well known from the moment my eyes are visible."

I raised an eyebrow at her. "There are suicidal people on the island?"

"No, but we've had people before," Helen said quietly. "It's not outside the realm of possibility. But that's morbid talk and not suitable for a friendly chat between friends, is it? You'll live a long, happy life. I'm sure of it."

I remembered the look on Ian's face when they'd asked my age. "Some would say I've already had one, but I'll settle for a peaceful one here on the island. I think that would be lovely."

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