New Home in a Strange World

First night in the cabin.

Josh allowed Ileana to guide him slowly down the hallway that night into a room simply decorated with a view of the lake that mirrored the full moon outside. She urged him gently to lie down then smiled as she tucked him in and kissed his brow while he gripped the sheets. He watched her walk away and closed his door, leaving him to his racing thoughts.

 

He didn’t want to be there alone. He sighed and closed his eyes, hoping to fall asleep as quickly as he had in the hospital.

 

This place was fully of strange new sounds. The wind howling through the trees and stealing into his room with its icy fingers scared him. He pulled the heavy blankets up over his head and curled on to his side, hoping to warm up and drift to sleep soon.

Hours past and the sounds would not cease. He poked his head into the room and glanced around, staring at the shapes illuminated by the moonlight. The dead trees outside cast shadows on the wall that made it appear as though monsters were with him in the darkness. His mind flashed to Ileana alone and with no way to protect herself. In a bolt of raw adrenaline, he pulled his blanket off the bed and made his way down the hallway, glancing in each room in an attempt to find Ileana.

 

He found her sleeping in her bed with her hair splayed over her pillow. He tilted his head and watched her sleep, envious of her peace. He stepped up onto the foot of her bed and pulled his knees to his chest then wrapped the blanket around his body with a shudder. Moose looked up at him from the floor, licked his chops then fell on to his side with a heavy sigh only an animal of his size could produce.

 

His eyes grew heavy and he struggled to stay awake.

 

Ileana turned on to her side, pulling a pillow to her chest and nestled down into it, inadvertently kicking Josh as she got comfortable. Her eyes opened and found him.

 

“Josh?” He turned to look at her as she stood and sat beside him. “What are you doing? You were supposed to be in bed hours ago. Can you not sleep?”

 

He watched her cringe as an all too familiar feeling crashed into her and she put her hand on his shoulder to balance herself. He grunted with a frown as she closed her eyes then looked around for an unseen assailant that slipped by him. He tilted his head to see her better.

 

“I don’t… I don’t feel right.” She stood, still using Josh’s broad shoulder to maintain her balance. She swayed on her feet as the world turned into vertigo. She grabbed her cell phone from her bedside table as her vision began to go and desperately searched for Rafe’s number and pressed the button to dial it with a trembling hand.

 

“Boss, it’s two in the morning!” Rafe’s groggy voice greeted her as she lost her fight and collapsed. Josh scrambled from the bed, tripping when his feet got tangled in his blanket. He crawled to her as Rafe called her name and shook her shoulders. “Josh! Josh! Pick up the phone, Josh! Pick up the phone!”

 

Staring at the piece of technology with its shattered glass face and tilted his head as nonsensical mumblings spewed from his mouth. He lowered himself down and pressed his ear to it, excited to hear another voice saying his name. His voice grew louder as he tried to explain what had happened, growing frustrated when he realized the language barrier once again grew too strong to penetrate.

 

“Alright. Alright. Cool it, man. I’m on my way. I’m coming. I’m coming.”

 

Josh picked the phone up and went back to Ileana, putting his hand on her cheek as tears of confusion and fear rolled down his cheeks.

 

 

Rafe arrived and burst into the home, despite Moose’s anxious barks. He ran into the bedroom where Josh was shaking Ileana slowly, tears staining his cheeks still as he tried to talk to her. Josh looked up at Rafe and then back at Ileana, picking up her hand and shaking it before dropping it to the ground to indicate she was dead.

 

“Ana! You gotta wake up, Ana. Come on!” Rafe pressed his fingers to her neck. “Okay, she’s got a pulse. Hang tight.”

 

Josh watched Rafe bolt into the bathroom and rummage through the drawers until he found what he was looking for. He hurried back in and prepared an injection. Josh pulled Ileana close to him and snarled at Rafe when the other man went to stick the needle into his chief.

 

“Relax, this will help her. This is good. Do you understand? Good. She needs this, man! She could die!” Rafe locked eyes on Josh and stealthily administered the glucagon. Josh stared down at her as her head rolled to rest against his chest. Rafe watched for only a moment, touched by the concern of the ancient man before snapping back into action. He went to pick Ileana up but stopped when Josh snarled again and pulled her closer to him. “We gotta get her on her side. She’ll puke all over you, man. Trust me, you don’t want that.”

 

Josh watched Rafe hold his hands up to signify he wouldn’t hurt Ileana and motion to the bed. Josh realized the chill of the hard floor and nodded, allowing Rafe to pick her up. He watched the other man ease Ileana into bed and roll her on to her side. Josh climbed up on to the bed and wrapped the blanket around his shoulders with a yawn.

 

“You should go to bed, man. I’ll watch over her.” Rafe patted the pillow beside Ileana and nodded when Josh laid down, nestling close to her then closing his eyes to finally succumb to sleep.

 

 

Josh woke hours later, curled around Ileana. He watched her for a moment, taking in her slender body and felt heat well in the pit of his stomach. He looked around for Rafe and pulled the sheets down when he realized they were alone. He hooked his fingers in the waistband of Ileana’s pants and began pulling them down when a squeak from the hallway’s floor made him jump. He looked up and saw Rafe standing in the doorway with a mug of coffee in his hand.

 

“What are you doing?” Rafe raised a brow as he glanced at where Josh’s hands were.

“Ah, I knew this would come one day! Lemme tell you a little something about women today. They have the right to say ‘no’. So, unless they say ‘yes’, it’s an automatic ‘no’.”

 

Josh simply frowned, physically unwilling to comprehend what Rafe was telling him. He turned back to Ileana and continued to try and pull her pants down not caring if Rafe watched or not.

 

“Woah! I just told you that you can’t do that! No!” Rafe set the coffee on the floor and pulled Josh’s hands from Ileana. Josh gave a mournful cry and stared down in his lap. “Dude, just go in the bathroom and take care of it. You’ll feel better, you know that. Right? You know about that! Of course you do. You’re a guy. It’s just natural to find out about that!”

 

Josh turned his frustrated eyes to Rafe and raised his brow the way he had seen Ileana do when she was irritated. Shocked, Rafe turned his attention to Ileana. “You did this to me on purpose! Alright, come on.”

 

Rafe motioned to Josh to follow him into the bathroom.

 

While they were gone, Ileana opened her eyes and looked around the room, rubbing her sore head and sighed when she was alone. She sat up and leaned against the headboard of her bed, pulling her knees up to rest her cheek on. She clenched her eyes shut for a moment before easing out of her bed, mindful of a sleeping Moose on the floor directly below her. She made her way down the hallway, looking into each room as she went.

 

“Josh? Josh! Where are you?” She frowned when she reached the kitchen and saw a freshly made pot of coffee. “There’s no way possible. Josh?”

 

“He’s taking care of something.” Rafe watched Ileana jump and turned towards him. He held his hands up and slowly made his way to her. “Relax, boss. Josh called me and was freaking out. I came here and boom, there you were on the floor. Josh thought you were dead, you know.”

 

“S**t.” She ran a hand through her hair and put a hand on her hip. “Is he okay? Is that what he’s taking care of?”

 

“Yeah… about that.” Rafe frowned and put a thoughtful finger to his lip. “Remember those urges I told you he’d have? Well, he got one. Tried to take your pants off a while ago.”

 

“That’s what he’s…? That is simply just gross. There is such a thing called too much information, Rafe! Good grief, man!” Ileana shook her head and went to the refrigerator for an orange. She sighed as she began to dig into it slowly, careful not to break the neat ribbon of peel she was creating. “Has he said anything to you?”

 

“He asked if you were okay. Seriously, he said and I swear this, Ana. He said: ‘Is Ana okay?’ It was insane! How could he possibly understand how to construct a sentence like that if he was just learning to say simple words this morning?”

 

“He’s had to have been listening to us. I think that because they were nomadic, they were incredibly adaptive. Their minds are programmed to learn much quicker than ours are. They didn’t have Google or really anyone else to teach them how to do a thing. At the time he was originally alive, humans were developing very rapidly. They were mining copper.” She bit into her orange as Moose came trotting into the room. “Did you see the tattoos Josh has? They’re simple but in areas that could have been painful. I think they were actually made as some kind of pain relief. They’re on his ankles, knees and lower back. With the kind of work he was more than likely doing, there is a very good possibility that there is considerable damage done to these areas. Think of it. They knew that acupuncture would help with the pain. They were more advanced than we give them credit for. Just because he doesn’t respond the first few times doesn’t mean he can’t understand. It could be that he’s taking a moment or two to allow the new words to fully sink in.”

 

“Ana?” Josh poked his head into the room and glanced at Rafe who nodded towards Ileana. She gave him a smile and allowed him to wrap her in a hug warmed by his intense body heat. She shuddered and nested against him for only a second then pulled back.

 

“You need to be careful of your blood sugar.”

 

“You’re right. I do.” She smiled and nodded as she offered him a wedge of her orange. “I’m sorry I worried you earlier.”

 

“You’re okay now.” Josh hesitated for a moment then kissed her brow like Rafe had informed him women liked. Ileana’s eyes widened as she looked to Rafe who just shook his head with a smile.