Invited

Eight - Timber

"And I think that brings us up to date with everything that's been happening to me," I said softly, holding Talia in my arms. Her skin against mine kept me warm in the otherwise overly air conditioned room. I wasn't about to complain because it gave us a good excuse to cuddle. After we made love and snuggled for a bit, we laid together and I told her the whole story of where I'd been and what I'd been doing. I made sure not to leave any details out. Pretty sure I told her more than I did my parents, but Lia is so much easier to talk to. Hopefully she believed me more than my parents had.

Her silence wasn't all too reassuring to me. For a long time, she laid there, her head on my chest and she traced the lines of my abdomen with her fingers. She let out a thoughtful sounding sigh before lifting her head up and looking into my eyes.

"You swear this is the whole truth and nothing but the truth or else I'll make you wish you were never born," she said, and I knew she was serious. Lia never made an empty threat.

I held her gaze with my own, holding on to the seriousness of the topic at hand. "I'm not lying, and you know I'm not that creative to make something like that up."

"Not with so many details, no." She narrowed her eyes at me, still looking into mine. Her soft, pale blue eyes allowed me to see inside of her. The gears were turning in her head and hopefully in my favor.

Rather than force her to believe me by continuing to talk about it, I stretched and tried to relax, to savor the moment. "It's fine if you don't want to buy into it now. Paul will be here later and he's a lot better at explaining everything than I am anyway. I just wanted you to hear the whole story from me and not leave you wondering."

"I appreciate that," she said quietly. "So this Chevelle girl..."

"Hmm?" I asked, intrigued at that being the thing she wanted to ask questions about first.

"She's pregnant?"

"Yeah, with her boyfriend's kid. Well, they were co-workers first. They worked at the toy shop in the mall, the one I went to take shelter when the attack started," I said.

She nodded. "So you said earlier. I know you wouldn't sleep with another woman, Timber. I'm not that insecure. Even if you claim these aliens were wanting you two to attempt making babies or whatever. I was just more wondering...how all of this is going to work out. You say you want me to come with you, but what about her?"

I shrugged. "Her family is coming, I'm still going to do what I can too, and we'll just take it one day at a time. You'll really like her, I think. She's not like a lot of the girls around here."

"So you're not expecting her to keep living with us or anything?"

"I don't know. There probably isn't room for that sort of thing." I laid back and gazed up at the ceiling. "Especially not if we're going to have Lara with us too."

"I didn't know you were so...paternal," she whispered.

Raising an eyebrow, I glanced her way. "I promised her at the mall I wouldn't let anything happen to her. I couldn't go back on that. After a while, I got used to it, but she's a lot more mellow and calm for a six-year-old. There have only been a few issues. I've kind of been forced into being a kiddie caretaker for a little while. Until my other job kicks in."

"This is almost harder to believe than the aliens thing," she mumbled. "It's not like you."

"It isn't?" I asked.

Her turn to shrug. "Not really. I mean, yeah, you've always liked kids, but I never thought of you as a babysitter or someone who actually wanted them."

"No...not now at least. Maybe when I'm thirtyish. That's a little over eight years away, though."

"And you think these aliens are going to be okay with you waiting for eight years to procreate? Seems like they want you to do it right now." She rolled out of my arms and laid next to me, her entire body tensing up.

I shifted to my side so I could look at her, even if she wouldn't look at me. "No one is going to make us have kids. I'll put my foot down on it. There's no way they can force anything to happen, and I'm definitely not going to make you do anything you're not ready for. They'll respect your wishes. The Achlivans worship women. We'll be able to take our time."

Lia's jaw tightened. "Maybe. You're making a lot of assumptions."

"You're right. I'm still growing in my knowledge of how all of this works. Just from what I've seen happen, and what I've been told, there's no way they'd disrespect your wishes. They'd probably blame me for you not being ready instead of realizing the truth." I sighed. "I mean, when I first got on Salvation, Paul told me that if Chevelle and I didn't act interested in one another – even mildly – that I might be given to someone else. Some people there are more integrated into the Achlivan culture than others."

"Yeah, I remember you telling me that part too," she snapped. There was a hint of jealousy in her tone. What did she think happened between Chevelle and I? She shook her head, rolling away from me and onto her side. "And I wasn't talking about these aliens making me do things I didn't want to do. I was talking about you assuming I'd come with you in the first place."

Right then, I'm pretty sure my heart snapped in two. Pain hit my chest at full force and my stomach churned to the point where I almost got up and puked in the bathroom. I was striking out, again. "So you're not going to come? That's what you're saying? You want to stay here and take your chances with whatever is going to happen when that chunk of moon hits?"

"I didn't say that either," she said quietly. "It just sounds a lot like you've got all of these plans mapped out in your head and you're making decisions for me without even asking. This whole alien thing is a lot to take in as it is, and then you add on: oh by the way, we're going to have five million babies and be together forever as we repopulate the human race on a completely different planet."

I shifted onto my back again. "You knew going into this relationship that I don't just date for the sake of dating. If I don't see things lasting, I don't stick around. Do you remember what I said on our first date?"

"That if I wasn't careful, you'd like me too much and I'd be stuck with you for life," she whispered. "I get that, Timber, really, I do. I feel the same way. You know that. Why waste time being with someone, just to be with someone. I'm not saying I don't love you anymore and want to break up."

"Then what are you saying?" I snapped. "Cause it sure sounds that way to me."

"I'm saying, I don't have my life all planned out for the next ten years, let alone even one year in advance. I just turned twenty-one. There's no way I can know my entire future in the amount of details you've just described to me."

I'd spaced about her having a birthday in December. She was one of those people born right before Christmas time. And here I was hogging the scene. Could I be any more of a doorknob?

"I don't want to fight," I said. "For the record, just to be clear, I didn't describe a detailed future for us. The only thing I said was I wanted you to come with me. This whole time I've been gone, you were the person I wanted to be near the most. The original plan was for me to come home again once they decided it was time for me to be released. When they told me what was going to happen to Earth, I knew I couldn't leave you behind. Beyond that, I haven't made any other plans."

Slowly, she turned back toward me and put her hand on my shoulder. "I don't want to fight either. Let's just not talk about this right now."

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to make you think –"

"Timber, seriously, I mean it. I don't want to talk about it or think about it. Since you owe me a birthday present, just drop it and pretend we're...normal...again."

"Okay..." I faced her, running one of my hands through her hair. Ever so gently, I placed soft kisses against her shoulders and along her collarbone, making my way up to her neck. If she wouldn't let me verbally express my remorse, then I would just have to show her how sorry I truly was – not to mention give her one fantastic birthday present...or three.