Chapter 13: Truth and Consequences

"What do you mean?" Caleb asked Al.

At the same moment, JJ whispered back, wondering why they were whispering, "What do you mean?"

Caleb mentally shook his head. Trying to hold two conversations, on such similar tracks, was difficult. Mental conversations were much quicker. An entire mental conversation could happen during a pause in a normal conversation.

"Something happened to our connection," Al explained. "We were fused, somehow. I don't think I can voluntarily separate from you. Caleb, I ... I think that I am mortal. I think I will die when you die."

"Well, you did say that I could live for a long time," Caleb pointed out.

"Caleb, living a few hundred, or even a few thousand years is not the same as living billions of years." Then Al's thoughts became excited, and almost as chaotic as a human's when he thought, "But, I think I reproduced, too. Caleb, I think I'm a father."

"No way am I pregnant," JJ whispered flatly.

"What? No!" Caleb blurted in a whisper. "I mean ... Kim and Blake didn't stay at your parent's house. They're here. They're in the hallway."

"No! How do you know? Oh, shit," JJ breathed, as her thoughts and emotions began spinning out of control.

JJ had been drifting on a tranquil cloud of bliss, in the aftermath of their love making. Tendrils of thought began asking the questions, 'What now?' and 'Does he really love me?' and more equally unique female questions. JJ remembered the questions from her initial forays into intimate relations as a teenager. She recognized the insecurities in herself that had spawned most of the questions. Unlike her teen experiences, this time she got answers to her questions. JJ recognized the answers as definitely not coming from her mind.

Caleb had whispered the words, "I think we've got a problem." and then she thought she heard something about being a father. JJ knew she had heard his initial words, but couldn't swear to hearing the last.

Pregnancy wasn't possible. She had been on birth control pills since she started her menstrual cycles at age twelve. The only time she had stopped was when she and Mike decided they wanted children. JJ had stopped taking the pills one month, and was pregnant the next. Nine months later, Kim was born. She didn't resume taking the pills quickly enough after Kim's birth, and Blake soon followed. JJ was more careful after Blake's birth, and had been religiously taking the pills ever since. It wasn't a matter of preventing pregnancy. It was maintaining control over her body, and her life.

Caleb's assertion that her children were in the hallway destroyed any semblance of control that JJ thought she had. She had actually thought about how to explain her intimacy with Caleb to Kim and Blake. That had been a fantasy though, and had been filled with sugar and spice and everything nice. This was reality, and she didn't know what to do. She began trembling.

Caleb pulled JJ into a tighter embrace, and said, "Shhhhh, JJ, everything will be alright."

His voice was soothing, and his touch calming.

"JJ, this is an embarrassing situation. I would take the lead to resolve it, but I think that you need to. They wouldn't listen to me. I'll be with you, and I won't leave you. Whatever support you need from me, you've got it."

JJ heard the truth in his words. She FELT the truth in his words, and her whirling thoughts began slowing.

"But, my kids. They'll hate me!" JJ whispered.

Caleb snorted before whispering back, "I don't think you could do anything that would make them hate you. They might hate me. I hope not, but if that is the way this falls out, I'll deal with it. They would never hate you. They couldn't hate you."

"We have more problems than them hating you," Al reminded Caleb, in his mind. "I'm a father! I have procreated! My species has never procreated. This is the first time this has happened in over thirteen billion years!"

"What are your talking about?" Caleb asked in his thoughts in confusion.

"Caleb, you can feel me in your mind," Al explained excitedly. "Feel, with your mind. Look for an echo that feels like me, but slightly different."

Caleb relaxed his mind, and let it flow out like he had just moments before. He could still feel Kim and Blake in the hall, but he was looking for something different this time. Al said to look for an echo, so he tried. And then he felt it. An echo. He felt it from all three of them. JJ, Kim, and Blake all had a companion.

"Oh, shit," Caleb murmured, somehow mixing fear, excitement, and trepidation in the two words.

"What was all that about echoes, and why are you so much more worried now than you were when you found out the kids were in the hallway?" JJ asked in a rush.

She sounded like she didn't really want an answer, but knew that she was going to get it anyway.

Caleb sighed before saying, resignation clear in his voice, "JJ, we've got a lot bigger problem that we thought. It's going to involve all four of us. The good news is, I love you. I really do, and now you will be able to know that without a shadow of a doubt. I already know that you love me, because I can feel it. I'm afraid that, us loving each other, is going to be kind of inconsequential. We need to talk."

"Isn't that supposed to be my line?" JJ asked with a snort of nervous laughter, and trying to add a little levity to an already serious mood.

Caleb professing his love for her had calmed many of her whirling thoughts. She could feel his love. She didn't know how, but she could. She seemed to be hearing some of his thoughts, too. That was strange, but maybe it was something that happened when two people felt this strongly for each other.

"I guess it is," Caleb said with a chuckle. "But that doesn't make it any less important," he continued, as the mirth faded from his voice. He sighed, and said, "Why don't you ask the kids to go down to the kitchen and fix us a cup of coffee. I like mine black. Tell them to fix something for themselves, too. Something like hot chocolate, or some tea. Both of us need to talk to them. They are in for some changes, and both of us will need to help them through it."

"What do you mean?" JJ asked, alarmed at his statement.

"Just send them, and then I'll explain it to you before we go down," Caleb said as calmly as he could. "At least, I'll explain as much as I can, because I don't understand a lot of it, either," he muttered, rolling away from JJ.

JJ looked at Caleb in consternation, before shaking herself. She didn't understand what he was talking about, but she did trust him. Everything that she had read about him, at the base, depicted a man that was extremely trustworthy and reliable. Her brief acquaintance with him had only strengthened and refined the impressions his records had portrayed.

She got out of bed and walked to the door, before calling out, "Kim, Blake, go down to the kitchen. Coffee is already made. Fix a cup of coffee for us. Caleb likes his coffee black. Fix some hot chocolate or tea for yourselves, too. We need to talk."

Caleb was watching JJ, but his attention was beyond the door, and he heard Blake whisper, "How could she hear us?"

"I don't know," Kim whispered back. "She's a mom. Maybe she has super hearing. Or maybe you just whispered too loud."

There was a hesitation before Kim uncertainly called back, "Okay, Mom."

Caleb pulled his attention back, and froze on JJ. She was absolutely beautiful. She seemed to glow in the dim light of the bedroom.

"You are so beautiful," he breathed, in utter awe of this woman that had accepted him, with all his warts.

'Well, maybe not all of them, ' he thought, snapping back to their current predicament.

"Al, what is going on? What happened, and what is going on?" Caleb demanded.

"I really don't know what or how it happened, " Al replied with a puzzled tone and excitement still buzzing in his thoughts. "All that I know, right now, is that somehow, JJ and her children have Companions. Their Companions are different than I am, though. They're different than any of my species, yet they're the same."

"Al, that doesn't make any sense," Caleb objected warningly.

"I know it doesn't," Al snapped back. "I'm not some fount of instant knowledge. I want to know what happened as badly as you do. Caleb, this event has ramifications on so many levels that it frightens me. I don't understand what happened. Think about it! This event changes your personal situation. I know that you'll deal with that, and I will help in whatever way that I can, but these new Companions ... They feel new. They feel unsullied by nearly fourteen billion years of experience with hosts, and I don't know where they came from, or how they came to be! Caleb, my species was on a path to extinction. Legend says we started with billions of Companions, and now, only a few million are left in the entire known universe. Now, Caleb, there are three new Companions," Al concluded almost reverently, but sounding frantic at the same time.

Al was beginning to sound hysterical, and Caleb barked mentally, "Al! Calm down! There's a problem that needs to be resolved. There are questions that we need answers to, and we will find the answers. We will start with the problems and the questions with the most immediate ramifications. We'll deal with them, and then we'll tackle the harder problems. Start working on the questions that you can get answers for," Caleb ordered.

"Yes, Caleb," Al replied.

He sounded and felt much calmer, and seemed almost relieved that Caleb was taking charge.

JJ flowed into Caleb's arms, still nude, and murmured, "Thank you."

It took Caleb a moment to catch up, shift gears, and realize that she was responding to his praise of her beauty. Now he had an armful of naked woman that he appreciated way too much for the current circumstances.

Caleb laughed at himself, and his ability to 'rise' to the occasion, despite the circumstances, and said, "Oh, JJ. You are the most beautiful woman that I have ever seen. And as you can probably tell, if I keep holding you like this, our coffee will be cold and your kids will be hot ... as in angry ... when we get down there."

He squeezed JJ one more time, relishing the soft, yet firm, body pressing against him, and let her go reluctantly. Caleb stepped back and gently raised her chin so he could look in her eyes.

They gazed at each other a moment, before they each said, "I love you," at the same time.

Caleb snorted in laughter.

JJ giggled.

"Let's get dressed," Caleb suggested. "We'll talk while we're getting dressed.

"Just a little while ago, I envisioned tonight as a night of making love," JJ pouted, as she turned towards her clothes. "I didn't expect to have to deal with the kids' acceptance of us as a couple tonight."

"Um ... JJ ... I'm afraid they're going to have to deal with a lot more than that," Caleb told her as he started putting his own clothes on. "There is something that I didn't tell you, at the base."

She stopped in the process of untangling her bra and faced Caleb. JJ's face reflected her concern, and her confusion, at how the crash of a space-ship would be included in their first conversation in her bedroom.

"JJ, please put your bra on," Caleb said, blushing. "I can't concentrate when you're like that. I can barely speak."

She laughed out loud, and said, "Wipe your chin. You're drooling. What does the crash have to do with tonight."

Caleb sighed again, before walking around the bed, and sitting down. He motioned for her to turn around, then helped her fasten her bra, before urging her to sit beside him.

"That's a first in my life that I've helped a pretty woman put a bra on," Caleb began, laughing at himself, and delaying what he needed to say. "Usually, I'm more concerned with getting it off."

"You're delaying," JJ pointed out. "What's going on?"

"I didn't exactly tell the General the truth, at the crash site," Caleb began. "You see, one alien was still alive, but near death. The thing is, he had another alien living in his mind, in a type of symbiotic relationship. I didn't know it at the time, but that alien in his mind could move to other hosts, and it moved to me," Caleb blurted.

Caleb continued, and told JJ everything. The good, and the bad. He explained the nature of his Companion, and his fear of what the government would do if they knew about him. Even though the species was asexual, Caleb thought of his Companion as he. It took several minutes to explain everything, up until this evening.

"What?" JJ squawked.

"That's pretty much how I felt, too," Caleb commiserated. "Al said that something like this hasn't happened in the history of his species. In fact, he said that his species was on a fast track to extinction, because they couldn't reproduce. Now, because of what happened tonight, there is hope for his species."

"Well, they will only be increased by three, because we won't be reproducing anymore," JJ assured Caleb acerbically. "Being the mother of a species is not in my game plan for this week, thank you very much. And, what about Kim, or Blake. This will ruin their lives!"

JJ sat with her arms crossed, and tears began to glisten in her eyes.

"JJ, I didn't know this would happen, and I can't change what happened, now. All I can do is help you and the kids adjust to having a Companion," Caleb pleaded.

"You should have told me before you were released from custody," JJ cried.

"And what?" Caleb asked, beginning to get angry. "Turn into a guinea pig for your damn General? You know what would have happened. I would have never seen the light of day, for the rest of my life. Besides, I didn't have a clue about what happened until the ride home. I mean, I knew that something had happened, but I thought the space man had died before I could help him. I didn't know that I had someone hitching a ride in my head."

"At least, now, I'm a someone instead of a something," Al groused in Caleb's mind.

Caleb rolled his eyes.

"What just happened," JJ demanded, seeing Caleb roll his eyes. "He's not going to make your head explode or something, is he?" ending the question in a squeak.

"Al, my Companion, the space alien that lives in my head, just happened," Caleb explained in frustration. "And he's not helping much. And, no, he's not going to make my head explode. If I die, he dies, so he's doing all kinds of things to me to make sure I live longer."

"What did he say?" JJ asked fearfully, some of the scenes from terrifying space-alien shows flashing through her mind.

Caleb snorted, not humorously, before throwing his hands in the air in surrender. He got up and began pacing.

"Okay," Caleb said in frustration. "I'll tell you what he said. Here I am, trying to explain to you why I didn't have any choice at the Army base. I'm trying to explain why the world hasn't come to an end, if we just stay calm and deal with facts. My 'Companion's' contribution?" Caleb asked the air in frustration, making the word companion sound like it should be spelled with four letters, and waving his arms in the air. "He's happy because I'm referring to him as someone, instead of something, like I usually do."

JJ had to suppress a smile, despite her worry, and her tears.

"I'm sorry, but that's pretty funny," JJ said.

"No, it isn't," Caleb said crossly. "It isn't bad enough that I have an alien in my head. Oh, no! I've got to have a temperamental, sarcastic, smartass alien in my head."

"Do you think having an alien in your head is what is making you so ... um ... grouchy?" JJ asked curiously.

"No! I come by that the good old-fashioned way," Caleb growled. "I get it from dealing with idiots."

Suddenly Caleb growled again, and started pulling his hair in frustration.

"What's wrong?" JJ asked in alarm.

"I can't punch him. That's what's wrong. I want to punch him so bad," Caleb declared. "He even fixed my 'filtration system' so I can't get an alcohol buzz! For my own good, he said. Aahhrrrggggg," Caleb growled through gritted teeth.

"What? Why?" JJ asked. "What did he say? What did he do?" fearful that one of those terrifying scenes was about to take place right in front of her.

"He said that he was sure that he's got a defective human," Caleb explained, nearly in tears himself. "He said that now that you've proven it, he's mad because he can't trade me for another human. We don't get along very well."

"That ... That is almost funny," JJ said, relaxing slightly, now that she felt a little more reassured that she and her children weren't in immediate danger.

"What is?" Caleb asked, feeling like he had taken another wrong turn during the conversation.

"That you have an alien living in your head that you don't get along with," JJ said, trying to maintain a serious tone of voice.

Caleb shook his head dismissively, and said, "Don't worry about me. I'll be fine, and I wouldn't have even taken you out if I had thought something like this could happen."

He got down on one knee, next to JJ, and held her hands in his before saying in a serious voice, "JJ, I didn't say 'I love you' just to have sex with you. I said it because I really do."

JJ interrupted and said, "Yeah, you messed that part up. You're supposed to say it before sex. Not after. You'll have to try that again sometime, and try to get it right next time."

Caleb shook his head, trying to shake the words into different slots in his mind, so that this conversation would make more sense. It didn't help, so he continued with what he was going to say.

"JJ, I'm serious. I do love you. And I'm worried. What happens to me, if the General finds out that I have an alien in my head."

"A little white room, for the rest of your life," JJ said, nodding soberly in understanding.

"Which may not be that long, if they decide they can find out more by dissecting me," Caleb added. "What is worrying me even more is what happens if he finds out that you, Kim and Blake also have an alien in your heads?"

JJ immediately sobered further, and said, "I didn't think of that. What can we do? Can my al ... um ... my Companion help?"

Caleb rose from the floor with a sigh, and sat on the bed beside JJ. He continued holding her hand.

"That's what we need to find out. Al," Caleb said aloud, speaking to the air in front of him. "You could communicate with me while you were still in the little space guy. Can you communicate with JJ the same way?"

"Yes, Caleb," Al replied. "Do you wish me to? Are you going to yell at me again, and threaten to make me live in a hound?"

JJ gasped. She had heard the response.

"Smartass," Caleb muttered. "Maybe a rat, or a mouse, would be a better home for you."