Serix smiled slightly at Cassie’s reassurance that Ryan didn’t mean as much to her as he did. He still didn’t trust the human male, but at least Cassie didn’t seem to have any feelings for him. The embrace the two had shared was just a friendly gesture, nothing more. However, he made a private note to set Ryan straight if he continued to try and win Cassie over the way he had been so far. His tolerance could only be stretched so thin, after all. Putting his own problems aside, Serix was glad that Cassie wasn’t too uncomfortable here. He had no doubt that she would readjust quickly to the humans’ underground society. He just hoped that he would be able to do the same. Cassie was definitely right when she said that the half-bloods were outwardly untrusting of him. He wasn’t particularly afraid of them, but their hostility made him uneasy. He would have to tread carefully to avoid getting separated from Cassie and locked away in some hold. “Hey,” Serix said gently when Cassie said she was worried about his safety. “You don’t have to worry about me. I can take care of myself. ‘One stray person’ won’t be able to do anything.” If the humans teamed up against him, however, he wasn’t quite as certain that he could defend himself against all of them. But for Cassie’s sake, he left that part out. “I think, to be safe for now, we need to stay together,” Cassie said, brushing a stand of hair from Serix’s eyes. “You are not allowed to leave my side. Anywhere I go, you go. And anywhere you go, I go. If we stick together, then neither of us can get hurt by these people.” “Yes, commander,” Serix gave her a teasing salute. “Anything else?” “And in the next few days we need to map out this place,” Cassie said softly, leaning close to his ear as though someone was trying to listen in on them. “Just in case.” “I’m way ahead of you on that one,” Serix said just as quietly. “Here.” He opened a telepathic link between them and sent her a mental image of the tunnel layout. He didn’t have much done, and he had only been able to make rough estimations so far, but he was fairly certain of his accuracy. Mapping and navigating were always things he had excelled at in his training back on the Lunairan ship. We’re in the third room on the right in that top left hallway, Serix thought to her. Got it? He closed off the connection and spoke to her aloud, “We can build the rest of the map from there.” Serix yawned and lay down beside Cassie on the mattress. The day wasn’t even halfway over, but he was already completely exhausted. Getting captured twice in a matter of hours was quite straining on a person. Still, he couldn’t let himself fully relax. Not yet. He had no reason to trust the humans enough sleep comfortably in their presence. He wrapped one arm around Cassie, habitually holding her close to himself, and planted a soft kiss on her cheek. “I love you,” he murmured as he began to drift off. -- Serix slept lightly, so when the curtain to their room slid open, he was instantly awoken. He opened one eye and glanced up to see the green-eyed human standing in the doorway. His ears were red, though whether it was from anger or embarrassment at catching Serix and Cassie in a bed together, he couldn’t say. Serix nudged Cassie awake and sat up, meeting the human’s gaze challengingly. The green-eyed male crossed his arms over his chest and glared right back, “Ryan wants me to show you around your new home.” His eyes drifted to Cassie, making it perfectly clear to which of the two he was speaking. “He has some business to take care of first, but he’ll meet up with us along the way. You can come back to your… err… Lunairan friend afterwards. Let’s go.” He waved a hand, gesturing for Cassie to follow him. Instead, Serix got up and helped Cassie to her feet. He turned back to the human, “Wherever she goes, I go, too. We’re a package deal, so I suggest you try to get used to me now. It will make your life a whole lot easier.” The human looked uneasy, “I don’t think Ryan—” “In case you hadn’t noticed,” Serix interrupted. “I don’t care much about what your leader thinks. He’ll just have to learn to tolerate me, too, because as long as Cassie stays here, I’m not going anywhere.” “Well…” the human faltered. He seemed to finally understand how pointless it was to argue with the Lunairan. “Fine. Just don’t blame me when he gets pissed off.” He pivoted on his heel and started walking, leaving Serix and Cassie to catch up with him. “This will be a good opportunity to work on that map,” Serix said quietly when the human’s back was turned. He took Cassie’s hand in his and followed the green-eyed male down the corridor.

Cassie had become very comfortable sleeping curled up against Serix. Their weeks together had gotten her used to being close to someone when sleeping and now it was a very safe and secure being wrapped up in his warm grasp, her head rested against the front of his shoulder. But she sure wasn't used to being nudged awake to see someone staring at them. And so, when Serix gently nudged her with his shoulder, Cassie sat up, yawning, only to jump, wide eyed and her hand immediately grasping for the pocket knife, thought didn't flip out the blade. Not yet. Instead her eyes followed him as he stepped over to the bed and spoke to her, clearly leaving Serix out of what he was planning. She was about to speak out against going alone, when Serix acted first, standing up and helping her to her feet and spoke as well, saying they were a packaged deal and that he was staying with her. There was a little resistance in the male about that, but after a few more words he was going to allow it. This made Cassie smiled lightly, holding Serix's hand tightly in hers as they made their way from the room, following the male down the cave halls, nodding when he said this would be a good time to map the caves. She was already doing just that, memorizing ways and rooms as they went. There really wasn't much to learn. Most rooms were storage for different things and boy did they have storage. They must have gone on a lot of mass raids to get all that they had. But then again, if they really did have twenty one people here then they would indeed need a lot of materials. There were other things though that seemed very interesting. One was an artificial farm, where different plants and foods grew. She smiled as she looked at it all and walked up the long aisle of the plants as she spoke to Serix, "Wow. I haven't seen some of these thing in years. Heh, I can't believe some of these things even still grow." "Thank Ryan's parents." The green eyed man spoke, crossing his arms once more as she looked at it all, "When they came here, they brought seeds with them. They started the farm. Now we keep it going." Picking up one of the apples laying in a pile already picked, he tossed it over to Cassie, to which she caught, turning it over in her hands as he continued, "Go ahead. Try it. Tastes just like they did years ago." Cassie hesitated but finally gave in, taking a bite and smiling more, nodding her head, "It does still taste just like I remember!" Turning to Serix, she held it up for him to take a bite out of, speaking as she did, "These used to grow here on Earth, before the plague took over and the farmers stopped planting." She handed it to him and turned to look at the man again when she thought about something he had said before, "Wait, you said Ryan's parents? Ryan's parents started this? Where are they?" He sighed, rubbing the back of his head, "Not my place to say, ask Ryan if you want to know that answer." He turned and nodded for her to follow him once more. He showed her where they all ate their meals together which was a simple room with some tables, a large empty room that apparently served for recreation and meetings, and showed them a room that served as a impromptu hospital with abut ten twin sized mattresses and shelves of medicines and herbs. That left the end of the tour and the man spoke to them once more as they walked, "It's about dinner time. everyone should be meeting in the dinning hall. Time for you to meet the gang." Holding Serix's hand tightly, she looked up at him before taking a deep breath and continuing to follow him. Sure enough, when they got to the dinning hall, everyone was there, sitting at the once empty tables and as they walked in, a young woman with brown curly hair and, much to Cassie's surprise, a very young child on her hip, approached the three of them, smiling at the young man that had been escorting them, "Hey Conner." She enthusiastically kissed him and then turned her attention to Cassie and Serix, her smile still bright, "Oh, and you must be Castiel!" Again, she surprised Cassie and hugged her excitedly, "Ryan has told us all so much about you. Even before we found you. But...well...we all thought you had died years ago. I'm really glad to see we were wrong." She looked over at Serix, smiling still and shaking his hand, "And I see you've brought a friend?" "Emily," Conner warned, pulling her back a few steps more gently Cassie thought the built man could ever manage, "Don't get to close to it." Emily turned to the man and smacked his chest, placing the child she had been holding in his arms, "Oh, shush you. As much as you don't like to think it, we're all half Lunairan. Not all of their kind is bad. We should all know that form out parents." She turned and smiled at Cassie again, "Don't worry, everyone around here will lighten up once you two have been around a couple of weeks. So , Casitel, what's your....friends name?" She asked friend questioning, obviously unsure about the relationship between Cassie and Serix. Cassie blinked in surprise, speechless a moment at what she had just seen before finally finding her words, "Um....I...uh....go by Cassie. And this is Serix. He's my husband." She said, hugging Serix's arm once more before she turned her eyes to the young child now being held by this Conner man, "And....who....I mean....a child? I didn't think children would....be safe? Here?" Emily smiled slightly and taking the child in her arms again, the little boy smiling brightly and giggling as his mother bounced him slightly, "Here in the caves, its safe. If he cries, no one outside this place will hear him. He's happy and well here." She nuzzled her head against the little boys, laughing as the child giggled, "Isn't that right Jamie?" She asked playfully before looking at the two again, "Well, why don't you two come join us and get some food?" She and Serix were lead to get a simple meal of chips, fruit, jerky, and a water bottle before sitting down with this Emily, Conner, and their son. At the table as well was a few others, whom Emily was quick to introduce, "Serix, Cassie, this is Sarah, her brother Jerald, and his wife Victoria." The red head that was introduced as Jerald spoke, an unsure look on his face at the sight of Serix, but said nothing on it for now, "Everyone calls me Jerry. And my wife goes by Tori. Emily here is the only one who calls people by their full names." Sarah crossed her arms, obviously not too concerned about names and more outspoken than her brother, spoke out, "Whats the alien doing out and about? Shouldn't he be in the hold?" Cassie, holding Serix's hand tighter spoke, her eyes challenging the woman, "He's not going to the hold. He's staying with me." This just made Sarah laugh and shake her head, "Whoa, someone's vicious. Have to say, your the first girl here besides me who has even a little spunk in her. Good for you." "Oh, leave them alone Sarah." Emily started, "At least let them get settled in before you start harassing them like you do everyone else." "Okay, okay, Mrs. Prissy Pants. I'll leave them alone for now. But I have to be curious, what does Ryan feel about all this." "Eh, I'm dealing with it." Cassie looked over her shoulder to see Ryan himself coming up from behind and sitting on the other side of Cassie that Serix wasn't sitting on, grinning at Cassie, "How have things been so far, Casitel?" Cassie gave him a look, "It's Cassie, Ryan. You know I don't go by Castiel anymore." He chuckled, "I"ll always call you that. Just because it annoys you." He teased, making Cassie roll her eyes at his antics and then he looked to Serix, leaning around Cassie to give him a not so friendly look on his face, "And what happened to you staying behind, huh? Threaten anyone into letting you come along?" Cassie looked sharply at Ryan, putting a hand on his shoulder to make him back off of Serix, "Knock it off Ryan. I wanted him to come." Ryan sneered at Serix, though giving into Cassie's instantly pushing on his shoulder to make him back off from Serix he rolled his shoulders, "Fine. Whatever." He looked to Cassie again, "Well, not that you've had the tour, I was think maybe me and you could go and just talk some more after dinner." He glanced briefly at Serix before turning his gaze back to her, "Alone."

The compound was much less complicated than Serix originally thought. Most of the branching corridors just led to more storage rooms, which led to even more storage rooms. The humans had overflowing amounts of supplies and ample places to keep them stowed. If only his and Cassie’s hangar had had this many provisions, they never would have had to leave in the first place! At least, it would have been much longer before they had to risk confronting the other Lunairans. Thinking of them led Serix to wonder what they were doing now. Most of the Scouts had been killed in the battle with the humans, so he couldn’t imagine the higher powers just sitting back and letting them off the hook. And then there was the pilot. As far as Serix knew, he was still somewhere on Earth. The higher powers wouldn’t let him slide, either. He lost five or more Lunairans in that fight, and they were already toeing the line of extinction. They definitely wouldn’t be happy with his performance that morning. The question was: where was the pilot now? Serix was pulled from his thoughts when their guide led them into a large chamber filled with various plants. It looked like a huge garden, a scaled-up version of the one on the Lunairan ship but with different crops. A few humans tended the underground fields and groves, which flourished with what looked like edible fruits and vegetation. Serix had been mostly unimpressed with the tour until now, but at the sight of this garden, he couldn’t help the soft exclamation of surprise that escaped his lips, “Wow.” The green-eyed human tossed Cassie a fruit from one of the harvested piles, “Go ahead. Try it. Tastes just like they did years ago.” After a moment, Cassie did what he said and bit into the fruit. “It does still taste just like I remember!” she smiled and offered the rest to Serix. “These used to grow here on Earth, before the plague took over and the farmers stopped planting.” Serix curiously turned the fruit over in his hands. It was a deep red color, with a soft, white interior where Cassie had bitten into it. He lifted it to his lips and bit off a piece. His eyes widened. The fruit was ever more flavorful than the canned food Cassie had back in the hangar. He finished the rest of it while they walked, casually memorizing rooms and hallways as their guide showed them around the rest of the compound. Eventually, he led them to a dining area filled with the entire half-blood population. Serix hung back slightly when heads started turning in their direction. He could still see hostility in the eyes of the humans who met his gaze. “Hey Conner,” a female got up and approached the group. She was carrying a small child at her hip. Serix looked down at it curiously. It looked almost identical to a Lunairan infant, apart from the eyes, of course. The baby stared back at him and broke out in a wide, innocent smile. It was the friendliest expression Serix had received since he arrived at the compound. He couldn’t help but grin back. “And I see you’ve brought a friend?” Serix startled when the female reached for his hand. She gave it a firm shake in what he could only assume was a human gesture of greeting. “Emily,” The green-eyed male carefully pulled her away, looking wary. “Don’t get to close to it.” The female turned and gave him a chiding look, handing over her child to him. Serix guessed that the male, Conner, was her mate. “Oh, shush, you,” Emily said. “As much as you don’t like to think it, we’re all half Lunairan. Not all of their kind is bad. We should all know that form out parents.” It was then that Serix decided he liked this human. She was the most reasonable one he had come across so far, and she was even willing to give him a chance to prove that he wasn’t like the more supremacist members of the Lunairan society. Cassie went on to chat with Emily, giving her their names and explaining their relationship, and Emily led them over to get some food, introducing a few more of the humans in the dining hall when they found a table to sit at. The two that Emily called Jerald and Sarah caught his eye. They both had fiery red hair, a color he remembered Cassie mentioning at some point but he had never actually seen until now. The diversity of humans continued to fascinate him. The female, Sarah wasn’t nearly as impressed. She crossed her arms, “What’s the alien doing out and about? Shouldn’t he be in the hold?” Serix was about to tell her where she should go, but Cassie spoke first, “He’s not going to the hold. He’s staying with me.” The red-haired female only laughed, “Whoa, someone’s vicious. Have to say, you’re the first girl here besides me who has even a little spunk in her. Good for you.” “Oh, leave them alone, Sarah,” Emily spoke up. “At least let them get settled in before you start harassing them like you do everyone else.” The banter went on, but Serix stopped listening when he saw Ryan enter the room. Predictably, the human leader headed straight for Cassie, making himself right at home beside her at the table. Serix glared at him and held on to Cassie’s hand as he began to speak, “How have things been so far, Castiel?” “It’s Cassie, Ryan,” she said in reply. “You know I don’t go by Castiel anymore.” “I’ll always call you that,” Ryan said in a teasing way that made Serix’s blood boil. “Just because it annoys you.” The human finally took notice of his presence and gave him a disgusted look. “And what happened to you staying behind, huh? Threaten anyone into letting you come along?” “Knock it off, Ryan,” Cassie said warningly before Serix could respond. “I wanted him to come.” “Fine, whatever,” Ryan muttered. “Well, now that you’ve had the tour, I was think maybe me and you could go and just talk some more after dinner.” He glanced at Serix. “Alone.” “Anything you say to her, you can say to me, too,” Serix spoke up challengingly. “Not everything is about you, you know,” Ryan snapped at him. “I just want some time to catch up with my dear old friend.” He rested a hand on Cassie’s shoulder. “Well, then you can pretend I’m not there,” Serix retorted, pointedly wrapping his arm around Cassie’s waist and holding her to his side. Ryan was getting far too touchy with his mate, and he needed to be reminded that she was off-limits. “You’ve been doing a fine job of ignoring me so far.” “Don’t test me, alien,” Ryan narrowed his eyes. Serix’s gesture had obviously struck a nerve. “I’ve been courteous to you so far, but I still have an empty hold with your name on it.” He smirked when Serix glared at him. “Because I’m feeling generous, I’ll just ask for one hour with her alone. You can see her again afterwards, okay?” Serix hesitated for a moment and then let out a reluctant sigh, “Fine. Just don’t go far.” He turned to Cassie and whispered in her ear, “I’ll be fine out here. Remember what I taught you about panic links. If this creep tried to do anything to you, you call for me right away, got it?” He kissed her and shot Ryan a challenging look. The human just glowered at him in response, his lip slightly curled. “Come on, Castiel,” Ryan said, standing up from the table and offering Cassie a hand. “Let’s go have a chat.”

Castiel really wasn't enjoying what was going on between Serix and Ryan. There was a challenge in both of their gazes as they stared each other down and snapped at one another, and Cassie could only hope that neither of them acted on that challenge. Sh was tense, ready to get in between them and push each other back. Thankfully, neither of them acting on their anger toward one another and she was able to relax a little. That is, until Ryan actually convinced Serix to let him have alone time with her. Not that she was scared of Ryan. No, she was sure he wouldn't hurt her. But he was very manipulative and knew he would try to put bad thins in her mind about Serix. It wouldn't change her mind about Serix of course, but she still just didn't want to hear it. So to know she would have to talk to him for an hour was a very draining thought. She just hopped all he talked about wasn't going to be him trying to convince her to leave Serix. That and, they had agreed to stay together here. They had both decided it was too dangerous to go off on their own. And now they were separating? Yes, she wasn't worried about herself, but what if the humans here tried to do anything to Serix? The thought scared her. Looking to Serix, she gazed up into his violet eyes and nodded when Serix whispered in her ear and reminded her to contact him through panic link if anything went wrong. She just hopped that if it came to that she could focus enough to do just that. She had indeed gotten a lot better at links, but they had never tested it out in a dangerous situation. If she got too scared or something of the sort she might not even be able to focus on sending a link. She could only hope it never came to her testing that out. When he kissed her, she kissed him back for a moment and nodded "I'll be back soon Serix." With that, she stood up and followed Ryan out of the dining hall, looking back over her shoulder at where Serix sat with all the others, hoping everything would be okay when she returned. They walked down the halls that by now Cassie had almost completely memorized, and they made it to the recreation field and the two sat down on the ground next to each other, staring out into the darkness of the room, the dim lights not doing but to light the large space. They were quiet for a long moment before Cassie finally spoke, "So.....Ryan. What exactly happened since I last saw you? I mean...a lot probably for you to have to have become the leader of the human resistance." Ryan shrugged, rolling his shoulders, "My parents were the ones to build this place up. And they brought most of the people here to us." He sighed, "I'm going to guess you don't know a lot of our past so I'm going to spill the beans and not beat around the bush. Pretty much all of the sympathizers knew and still kept in touch with each other. There were twenty one sympathizers in all. All of them had children and --" "Wait." Cassie cut them off, trying to count in her head, "But...you said there were only nineteen people here besides myself. And some of those are even siblings. If twenty one of them had children then where are the others?" Ryan frowned more, "We loose people Cass. Some died during the first invasion years ago as children. And some died while they were here." There was silence before she looked back to him, "How....did they die here?" He was quiet for a moment before answering her question, "In our history, we've had about seven hybrids die. The first one to die was a man who went on a raid with us and was attacked by humans crazed by the plague. Another two died of the plague itself. Apparently they were more human than Lunairan and weren't able to fight the disease off. The next three were...." He took a deep breath, "killed here. By out own kind. Tensions were high after my parents died and there was an argument. I was still kind of young so they kept me away from it for a while, but when I finally did see some of it, thing had blown out of proportion and an all out death match had started between some of the men. Three of us died because they weren't able to control their tempers." "And the last?" "The last was a woman very close to us. She grew up with us and we knew her well. She had been living in this place for eight years for goodness sake." He sighed, rubbing his hands over her face, "She had a kid, the little girl in the dinning hall? You may not have seen her. She had her husband, Hunter. You know, the tall guy with blank hair and brown eyes. We should have never let her go on a raid, but we did. Let her kid with Emily and she came with us. And some wild dogs attacked." He shook his head, "Never thought something like that would end one of us, but it did. We brought her back here and she died that night. That was just two years ago. I don't think Hunter will ever get over it and the poor kid even sometimes still asks for her." He sat up straight again, "Anyway, those of the lost. Back onto subject. All of out parents, every single on of us, they knew each other and stayed connected. They knew my parents were building this place and most of them made plans for them to come here if things got bad. But apparently the leaders caught on somehow and attacked before this place was finished. Everyone scattered and those who were still alive struggled to find each other. My parents were able to find most of the kids but by then, the parents had already been killed. They brought them all here and here we've been." She frowned, looking at him, "And your parents?" This made him sigh again, "Come here." Standing up, Cassie watched him curiously, and followed him deeper into the caves, to a place they hadn't gone on the tour. In this part of the caves, layed neatly carved and aligned stones that made her skin crawl. Graves. "My parents are here. Most of the sympathizers and the lost children are here. All we could that is." Cassie slowly walked up the stones, looking at each one. Some had names, and some were marked, especially the older ones from years ago, 'lost child'. Those were the ones they never knew names for. And, toward the end, two made her stop and sink to her knees rather quickly, grief and sadness overwhelming her as she saw two very familiar names written on two stones, a teddy bear sitting in between the two. On the graves was written Garrett Greyson and Kidamas Greyson. Her parents. She was speechless as she kneeled there staring at the stones and finally Ryan spoke behind her. "You parents were the first people my parents wanted to find. They went to your house the night the attacks started but...you're parents were already dead...and you were no where to be found...." He sighed and kneeled down next to her, wrapping an arm around her shoulder when he saw some tears beginning to escape her eyes, "My parents brought their bodies back here and gave them a proper burial." He paused, "Castiel, what happened that night? Why didn't my parents find you?" "I was hidden..." She whispered quietly, her eyes unmoving from the graves, "They put me in a secret room....the one who found me was my uncle. He came the next day and took me away." "So you were there when my parents came there." He cursed to himself, raking his free hand through his hair, "That would have changed everything." He looked back to her, "And where did your uncle take you?" "Everywhere." Cassie sat up a little more, "Anywhere we could live, find food, and stay away from people that could hurt us. He took care of me until the day he died." She was still rather quiet and even had picked up the teddy bear as Ryan spoke again, "We....we thought you had died. Well, not me I guess. I always kind of just...knew you still were here with us. My parents though brought that here. They knew it was your favorite toy and so they thought it would be a good 'memorial' for you? Since we had no body. I remember stealing it a couple of times to carry around. It...gave me hope I guess? I always knew I would find you again." He grinned and put his for head against hers, to which she sighed and put some space between them. "Ryan...don't do that." He frowned and rolled his eyes, "Oh yeah, that's right. You have your alien. How did you meet it anyway?" "I met him," She said with emphasis, "About two months ago. He was a scout and even though they were ordered to kill remaining life here, he didn't." She left out the fact that he had shot her. That information wasn't exactly going to get the people here on their side, "He let me live and it just..developed from there. And finally we got married." He gave a condescending laugh, "Oh really? And how did you two get married? There are no witnesses and no one to run a ceremony." "We did our own ceremony. Witnesses or not, we still said our vows and we are still married." "No your not," He countered, shaking his head, "Cassie you are not married to that thing!" "Would you stop calling him that?! I don't understand why you can't just be happy for me!" "Because he doesn't deserve you damn it!" There was silence between the two after he yelled that, his fist banging hand against the ground, and after catching his breath he looked down and shook his head, "Cass...his kind killed our parents...and I'm pretty sure it wasn't as smooth between you two as you claim it was....he's the enemy Castiel. He's not good looking. Not smart enough. Not human at all. He's not one of us. And he sure isn't good enough for you." Cassie sighed and shook her head, "Ryan...what will it take to get this through your thick head? I love Serix. To me he is smart. And kind. And good looking. And the best man I've ever met." She took Ryan's hands gently, trying to get him to look at her, "Ryan, you are my best friend. But...you will never be to me what Serix is. Please.....don't make this harder. I've already lost my family. I don't want to loose my friend too." He was quiet another moment, looking down at the ground, before he looked up to her slowly, thinking about it and slowly nodding, "I'm still here for you Cass. And I still am your best friend. I will...try to tone it down when you are around. But I'm not promising I'll stop hating him. Kind of hard not to hate the man that stole such a beautiful girl right from under my nose." Standing up, he sighed, "Come on, my time's up. Let's get back to the dinning hall before the thin--" Seeing the look from Cassie he corrected himself, "before he gets mauled by the others for dong something stupid." And with that, the were walking back toward and into the dinning hall.

As Cassie walked away with Ryan, Serix was starting to rethink his decision to let her go by herself. She didn’t look particularly happy to be alone with him, and Serix definitely did not want to be alone with the rest of the half-bloods. He could handle one or two if they decided to attack him, but he was completely surrounded in the dining hall. The feeling of vulnerability was suffocating. Serix glanced across the table when he heard a whistle. The red-haired girl, Sarah, was staring at him with a raised brow. “Wow,” she said. “That was a bold move in more ways than one. I’ve gotta say, I’m impressed. But,” she leaned forward in her chair, smiling mischievously. “Can you back it up? You’re alone with us now. You can’t hide behind your girl.” “Sarah, please,” Emily said. “Don’t do this now.” “Lighten up, Em,” Sarah rolled her eyes. “I’m just having some fun with him.” “Leave him alone,” Emily sighed. “He just got here.” She turned to Serix. “I’m sorry about that.” “No, it’s fine,” Serix shook his head and looked up at Sarah. “Although, I don’t need to hide behind anyone. You’re not as frightening as you think you are.” “Oh?” Sarah laughed. “You’ve got just as much spunk as your girl. I can see now why she likes you.” “I will never understand it,” a new voice spoke up. Serix glanced over his shoulder to see a tall human male standing behind him. He had black hair and a mean looking snarl on his face. He stared down at the Lunairan with contempt, “I will also never understand why we’re giving this one special treatment. It should be locked up in the hold, where it belongs.” “Is that so?” Serix turned on him. “Please tell me: Why do I ‘belong’ there? Is it because I’m a Lunairan? Because by that logic, you belong in a hold, too. Or are you just special because you have one human parent—” He flinched when the man snatched at the front of his shirt and pulled him forward so they were nose to nose. “Look here, alien,” the man hissed. “You and the rest of your kind are nothing but a bunch of murderers. You should go back to them while you still have the chance. You don’t belong here.” “Hunter!” Emily gasped. “You know it’s true,” the male replied without looking away from Serix. “This alien shouldn’t be here, eating our food and taking up one of our rooms. It’s just a waste of resources.” “I still don’t see why you think that,” Serix said angrily, forgetting his situation. “I’m hardly different from you. Well… except for the fact that I seem to be more intelligent.” Sarah whistled again, seeming completely enthralled by the verbal fight, but Hunter narrowed his eyes at the taunt, “Why, you…” He swung at Serix, but the Lunairan ducked out of his grasp and quickly got to his feet, stepping away from the table to give himself more room. By now, all of the other humans were watching them. Some were even cheering and encouraging them to fight. Apart from Emily, none of them tried to defend Serix— not that he expected them to, of course. If anything, he was worried that they might try to join Hunter in his attack. “You really think you can stand up to me in a fight?” Hunter growled. “Funny, I was going to ask you the same thing,” Serix said. Part of him knew he was making a foolish decision to start a fight in a place where his audience would probably be happy to see him dead, but he was done letting these humans push him around. He quickly evaluated Hunter’s stance. The human had his left foot forward, but most of his weight was placed on his back right leg. He was most likely going to throw a punch with his right arm. Serix shifted his own stance to create a false opening on his left side, giving Hunter an intentional target. As expected, the human fell right into the trap. He lunged forward, swinging his right arm out to strike Serix just below the ribs. He wasn’t prepared when Serix closed the false opening, stepping to the right so his opponent’s fist just grazed him, and brought his elbow down on the human’s shoulder, using the momentum of his punch to knock him to the ground. The spectating humans hollered with laughter, but Hunter wasn’t finished. He swept his leg up to catch Serix behind the knee, causing him to stumble, and grabbed him by his shirt, pulling him over while he was still off-balance. Serix quickly rolled to his feet and spun back around to face Hunter, who was also getting up. This time, Serix attacked first, aiming a jab at Hunter’s throat before he could regain his stance. The human shifted so that the strike caught him on the jaw and then threw a punch at Serix’s face. The Lunairan ducked out of the way, but his opponent’s fist still scraped his cheek. They both parted, looking for openings in each other’s defenses again. “That’s enough!” a voice boomed over the shouts of the small crowd, which had gathered around the two during their fight. Everyone quieted and Hunter froze. Serix turned to see another human approaching them. With the respect the others seemed to give him, he assumed this male was important. The new arrival turned sternly to Hunter, “You know better than to start pointless fights.” “I’m just showing this alien its place,” Hunter muttered, bringing a hand up to gingerly touch the spot on his jaw where Serix’s fist had connected. With the way he winced, Serix knew Hunter was going to have a bruise there tomorrow. He smirked in satisfaction. “Ryan is letting him live here with us,” the older male said. “It’s not your place to disregard his orders like this. If you have a problem, take it up with him personally.” “Tch, whatever,” Hunter grumbled. “I’m going to bed.” He turned and headed out of the dining hall. Once he was gone, Serix brought a hand to his own face to inspect the damage. The cut on his cheek stung, but it was shallow. He estimated that it would heal completely before the end of the week. He licked a finger and wiped the blood away. When he looked up, he saw the older human approaching him. “My name is Jacob,” the human said, holding out his hand. Serix just stared at him for a moment before he remembered how Emily had greeted him by shaking his hand earlier. He took Jacob’s hand and copied her gesture. “Serix,” he introduced himself. “Well then, Serix,” Jacob said with a smile. “I hope you know that you’re not off the hook either. If you’re going to live with us, you have to follow the same rules that we do.” “Err, yes,” Serix said sheepishly. “I know.” “Good,” Jacob nodded. “But if you can’t keep that temper in check, I would suggest avoiding people like Hunter. Oh, and you should see Ray about that cut.” He tapped his own cheek to indicate Serix’s scratch. “He can patch you right up.” “Thanks, but I’m fine,” Serix held up his hands. “I heal quickly.” “If you say so,” Jacob shrugged. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to go see if these pigs left me any food.” He turned and walked away, and Serix returned to his table. With Jacob and Emily, there were now two half-bloods who spoke to him like an equal. Maybe living here wouldn’t be so bad, after all. “Are you okay?” Emily asked when Serix sat down. He nodded, but she didn’t relax. “I’m sorry. I probably should have warned you about Hunter. He hates Lunairans.” “I can see that,” Serix said, wiping the rest of the blood off his cheek. “That was… pretty impressive though,” Emily said after a pause. “Don’t you agree, Sarah?” “It wasn’t bad for an alien,” Sarah said with grudging respect. “Hunter is one of our best fighters, but you stood on equal ground with him,” Emily nodded. “I would watch out in the future, though. He hates being shown up and he already hates you for being… well… a Lunairan.” “I will,” Serix said, although the advice was unnecessary. He had already made a mental note to keep an eye on Hunter. He doubted the human would leave him alone after a skirmish like that. “What’s wrong with his eyes?” another voice spoke up. Serix glanced down to see a female child standing beside him. “Oh, Ava,” Emily sighed. “What are you doing here? You’re supposed to be in bed.” “It’s too loud,” the child said plainly, then repeated her first question, pointing at Serix. “What’s wrong with his eyes?” “I’m sorry,” Emily apologized again. “Ava, go to bed, honey. Your daddy’s going to be worried if he sees you’re not there. Go back to your room and leave the nice man alone.” “No, it’s okay,” Serix said. “I don’t mind.” The little kid’s innocent curiosity was a welcome break from the hostile glares of the older humans. He turned and leaned down to address Ava. “There’s nothing wrong with my eyes. I’m a Lunairan. It’s normal for our eyes to glow like this.” “No,” the child seemed skeptical. “Daddy says Lunairans are evil. You’re not hurting people.” “Her father is Hunter,” Emily explained when Serix gave her a quizzical look. “Not all Lunairans are evil,” Serix said, turning back to Ava. “Some of your ancestors… err…” he paused, searching for a word the child would understand. “Grandparents,” Emily supplemented. “Right,” Serix nodded at her. “Some of your grandparents were Lunairans.” “Did their eyes glow, too?” Ava’s gaped in amazement. “Yes,” Serix laughed at her astonishment. “Can my eyes glow?” “No, you also have human grandparents, so your eyes don’t glow.” “Aww,” Ava pouted. “Alright, young lady,” Emily broke in. “It’s way past your bedtime. Say goodnight and go back to your room.” “Goodnight,” Ava said. She wrapped her arms around Serix’s waist for a brief moment and then took off, heading back to her room as instructed. Serix shook his head in wonder as he watched the child scamper out the doorway. “How did Hunter make that?” “She gets her sweetness from her mother,” Emily laughed, gently rocking her own baby. “Well, I need to get this one to bed, too. Goodnight, Serix.” She got up from the table and left, as well, leaving him alone with Sarah— Jerald and Conner had already left by now. Neither of them had anything to say to each other, so they sat in silence for a few minutes before Cassie and Ryan returned. As soon as he saw Cassie come through the door, Serix got up from the table and came over to meet her. Ryan, as always, was displeased to see him, but Serix was too focused on his mate to care about the human’s irritability. He gathered Cassie in an embrace and kissed her on the forehead, leaning close to whisper into her ear, “You’re okay, right? He didn’t do anything to you?”

Cassie shouldn't have been surprised when the moment she walked into the dining hall Serix immediately stood up and and rushed over to see her, pulling her into his grasp and pressing a gentle kiss to her forehead as he asked her if she was okay and if Ryan had done anything to her. She smiled up at him softly, "I'm fine Serix. All that happened was we talked." Her gaze moved to his cheek, seeing the long shallow cut on it and them to how dirty his clothes were from falling to the cave floors and she frowned deeply, giving him a worried look, "What happened Serix? Did they attack you?" From the table, Sarah laughed slightly and stood up, getting ready to go back to her room as well for the night, "More like your lover here got into a fight with one of our best fighters in the caves. The two rolled around for at least a good minute or two before Jake had to break them up." As always, after spilling the beans and probably causing more trouble, the female walked off, leaving Serix to have to deal with the wrath. Ryan looked ready to start accusing Serix of causing trouble, but Cassie was already on getting onto her husband, giving him a disappointed look, "Serix, you have to stay out of trouble. I know its hard. And I know they aren't exactly the best people to be around. But this is our home now. We don't need to be starting fights and bringing tension." She scorned him, moving to wipe the blood from his cheek. "Next time this happens he's going in the hold Cass." Cassie looked to Ryan, a glare on her face, "This probably wasn't even his fault. I can about guarantee it was the other person's fault. Serix isn't the type of guy to start fights, but if they touch him, he will sure as hell finish them." Ryan huffed, sticking his hands in his pockets, "I don't blame them for starting a fight with him. If I had the chance, I would--." That got his toe stomped on pretty hard by Cassie, making him yelp and stumble back. He glared back at her for a moment before remembering wheat he had promised and, grumbling under his breath a moment, rubbing his hurt foot he growled out, "Fine. Whatever. one it down. I get it." Cassie huffed in annoyance and took Serix's hand, "We're going to bed. See you in the morning." With that, wanting to escape the tension between Serix and Ryan, she practically dragged Serix back to their room and shook her head, "I hope it's not like this forever. If so I have a feeling I'm going to have to pumble both of you before you two actually start acting civilized." She brought him over to sit down on the bed and then going over to her bag (it had been brought with her when they had went on the supply run and still had the supplies in it), she pulled out a small first aid kit she had packed. Walking over to the bed, sitting down as well, "Hold still." She took out one of the anti-septic wipes and brought it to his cheek, beginning to clean it, "I know, it stings. But it will get rid of germs and make it so it won't get infected." She said and once the cut was cleaned, she put a bandage over it, "Don't say you don't need this. Germs are worse on Earth then they probably are on your ship. Thing can get infected really easily and if that happens I doubt we have the right medicines to fight it. Its better to be safe than sorry." She put the supplies back into the box and setting the box beside the mattress, she sighed moving to sit next to him, shaking her head, "Serix, am I going to have be worrying about you all the time?" She asked, leaning in to kiss him gently, "I know it's hard and a lot of these people are complete jerks, but I don't want you getting hurt because of them. I know for a fact some of them would kill you and not feel a single regret. Just...please...refrain from getting into fights here. If not for yourself, then for my sake? I don't want to have to worry about whether or not if I go somewhere I'll come back to find you beaten up or worse." Kissing him again she nuzzled herself close to him, "Try to stay away from whoever did this to you. In fact, don't agree to be separated again. At least for now until we get a feel of what people are like here." Sighing she looked up at him, "Other than the fight, how did it go? Hopefully not all of the humans were rude to you?"

Serix brought a hand to his face when Cassie asked what happened to him, suddenly remembering the scratch from his fight. It was a dead giveaway that there had been trouble. Of course, Sarah had to go and make things worse by telling Cassie and Ryan exactly what happened, only serving to worry his mate more. The light-haired male’s expression turned cold, and Serix recalled his harsh words about only giving him one chance. He turned to Ryan, his mind racing with possible explanations to defend himself if the human accused him of causing trouble. Unfortunately, none of his options looked good. Ryan didn’t seem like the type of person to lay the blame on one of his own people when he could pin it on an outsider, even though it was Hunter who had started the fight in the first place.

“Serix, you have to stay out of trouble,” Cassie said, wiping some blood from Serix’s cheek. “I know it’s hard. And I know they aren’t exactly the best people to be around. But this is our home now. We don't need to be starting fights and bringing tension.”

“I know, I’m sorry,” Serix dropped his gaze to the floor. He hated hearing the disappointment in her voice, but he couldn’t blame her for being upset. She had left him alone for one hour, and he had managed to get into a fight and make a bad first impression on everyone in the compound, when they were both trying hard to get the humans to accept him here. It wasn’t exactly an accomplishment to be proud of.

“Next time this happens, he’s going in the hold, Cass,” Ryan spoke up, glaring at Serix with contempt.

“This probably wasn’t even his fault,” Cassie snapped, flying to Serix’s defense. “I can about guarantee it was the other person's fault. Serix isn’t the type of guy to start fights, but if they touch him, he will sure as hell finish them.” Serix reached for her hand and gave it an appreciative squeeze. He had plenty of things he wanted to say to Ryan, too, but in order to avoid getting locked up, he decided it was probably better to keep his mouth shut and let Cassie do the talking. She didn’t seem to need his help, anyways, as she had no trouble putting Ryan in his place.

Ryan still looked unhappy, “I don’t blame them for starting a fight with him. If I had the chance, I would—” He cried out in pain when Cassie drove her heel into his foot, and Serix had to bite his lip to keep from laughing. He was almost certain that he would get sent to the hold if he mocked the human leader now. Ryan muttered something under his breath before he spoke again to Cassie, “Fine, whatever. Tone it down. I get it.” Serix frowned, wondering what that meant. He glanced at Cassie. What exactly happened between them during their hour alone?

“We’re going to bed,” Cassie said to Ryan, ending the conversation. “See you in the morning.” She turned and grabbed Serix, practically dragging him after her. He glanced over his shoulder to see Ryan looking visibly uncomfortable when they left together, although maybe it was just his sore foot. Either way, Serix decided it was probably best to avoid the human for a while.

Cassie spoke again as she led Serix back to their room, “I hope it’s not like this forever. If so, I have a feeling I’m going to have to pummel both of you before you two actually start acting civilized.” Once they were back in the room, she sat him down on the bed and went to grab some of her supplies.

“I promise, I’m trying my best,” Serix said meekly. “But I can only handle so much abuse before I defend myself. I’m not just going to sit there and let them push me around like that, Cassie. Especially when they start getting physical.” He watched as she brought over her medical supplies and sat down in front of him, pulling out a small cloth that smelled of chemicals.

“Hold still,” Cassie said, gently pressing the cloth to the scratch on his cheek.

“Ouch,” Serix said in monotone, wincing slightly.

“I know it stings,” Cassie said. “But it will get rid of germs and make it so it won’t get infected.” She pulled out a bandage next. Serix frowned. It was a shallow cut that would heal in a matter of days. He didn’t need a bandage for it. Cassie seemed to read his expression, because she spoke again before he could argue, “Don’t say you don’t need this. Germs are worse on Earth then they probably are on your ship. Thing can get infected really easily and if that happens I doubt we have the right medicines to fight it. It’s better to be safe than sorry.”

“Okay, fine,” Serix gave in and let her put the bandage on him.

Once she was finished nursing him, Cassie put her medical supplies away and sat beside Serix on the bed, “Serix, am I going to have to be worrying about you all the time?” She kissed him gently, and he returned the gesture. It was moments like these that made all the stress worth it and reminded him why here was here. If Cassie had been with him earlier, he might not have given in to his frustration and gotten into a fight with Hunter. She was definitely right when she said that they were a stronger team together.

“I know it’s hard and a lot of these people are complete jerks,” Cassie went on. “But I don’t want you getting hurt because of them. I know for a fact some of them would kill you and not feel a single regret. Just... please... refrain from getting into fights here. If not for yourself, then for my sake? I don’t want to have to worry about whether or not if I go somewhere I’ll come back to find you beaten up or worse.” She kissed him again and leaned into his side. He wrapped his arm around her and sighed, “I’m sorry. I’ll try not to let them get to me.”

“Try to stay away from whoever did this to you,” Cassie suggested. “In fact, don’t agree to be separated again. At least for now until we get a feel of what people are like here.” Serix nodded in agreement and Cassie looked up at him, “Other than the fight, how did it go? Hopefully not all of the humans were rude to you?”

“They weren’t all completely awful,” Serix admitted. “Emily was friendly and there’s another one named Jacob who treated me like a regular member of the group, although I think I came off as temperamental to him because of that fight.” Serix shook his head and sighed again. “I wouldn’t be surprised if they all thought that now, but I swear I didn’t start it. Well… I did say some things to provoke him, but Hunter wouldn’t leave me alone, and he was the one who threw the first punch.” He leaned his head against Cassie’s. “I’m sure he hates me now. I’m definitely going to avoid him for a while, but…” he pulled away from Cassie and met her eyes searchingly. “What happened between you and Ryan? Why did he want to talk to you alone?”

Cassie sighed when listening to his explanation of the two people who were actually kind to him. She was thankful to Emily and this man named Jacob. At least she had a little hope. If at least one or two of these people could accept Serix, then maybe the others woudl just kind of fall into line and start to accept him as well? She could only hope things turned out like that, because if they didn't, then she and Serix were going to have quite a lot of problems down the line. She sighed and leaned back when he asked about what had happened between her and Ryan, trying to think. Where did she even begin to explain all that they had talked about or all that had happened. They had gone in so many different directions it was hard to pinpoint what exactly they had talked about to tell to him.

Sitting up again, she moved to sit in front of him, "Well, we talked about a lot. Maybe it's best just to show you?" Placing her forehead lightly against him, she took a deep breath and made the connection with his mind. It was amazing how easy she could do it now and how much longer she could last when connecting her mind to his. Used to be she would get tired very easily as well, but now she could last a good few minutes with their minds linked. It was a useful thing for times like this when she needed to show him something, rather than tell him.

Taking a deep breath, she showed everything to him, the whole hour, in a fast paced movie, slowing it down to normal speed on the important parts. It didn't take long to get through with it. She was a little tired after words because she had been linked with him a little longer than usual this time but the tired part wasn't as bad as it would have been weeks ago when she was still learning. Taking a deep breath she pulled away slightly and opened her eyes, looking at him, "Like I said, we talked a lot. And I found out a lot of things that I've been searching for the answers to for years. I finally found out what happened to my parents and where Ryan and his family had gone. On top of finding out I'm not the last of my kind, I have to say that today has been a very informative day."

She looked up to him, "I'm honestly also surprised he actually agreed to lay off a little. I mean, even as kids he was very possessive over me." She laughed slightly, rubbing the back of her head, "You aren't the first guy he's hated being around me. When we were kids he'd beat up any guy that tried to be my friend. I told him he can't beat you up though. He should be a little less....vicious toward you. Hopefully. And if I catch him being otherwise toward you I'll just put him in his place again." She joked slightly, knowing Serix probably got a kick out of seeing her hit Ryan when Ryan was practically twice her size.

Brushing her blonde hair back from her face she moved to kiss him again, this kiss lasting a little longer then the couple she had given before, her hands going to his cheeks. And when she pulled back she rested her forehead against his, "Okay, so tomorrow, we need to make sure we stay together. We also need to find out exactly which of the people here we can trust and which ones we need to stay away from. Obviously this 'Hunter' is one we need to keep away from and Emily and Jake are ones we can be around. All the others are up in the air right now. I haven't seen much of any of them to really see if we can trust them or not."

Moving to lay back on the mattress once more she sighed, looking up at him from were she was curled up at, "Serix? Before we go to bed, will you tell me what you think of all this? I mean, you've heard how I feel about seeing all these people and being here with my own kind, but you never told me how you feel about being here."

Serix closed his eyes as Cassie rested her forehead against his to show him what had happened between her and Ryan. He watched the events unfold in his mind like a moving picture, while Cassie sorted through which parts she wanted to show him. He felt a pang of irritation when he caught a glimpse of a fast-paced scene where Ryan moved uncomfortably close to Cassie, but he seemed to back off quickly enough, so Serix relaxed.

After a few minutes, Cassie closed off the connection. Serix opened his eyes again and looked at her. She had maintained the link a bit longer than she normally did, but she didn’t seem too exhausted. He smiled and kissed her lightly. She had come a long way since he first started teaching her to expand her Lunairan abilities. To relay an entire hour of her memories to him like that was a big achievement.

“Like I said, we talked a lot,” Cassie said. “And I found out a lot of things that I’ve been searching for the answers to for years. I finally found out what happened to my parents and where Ryan and his family had gone. On top of finding out I’m not the last of my kind, I have to say that today has been a very informative day.” Serix just nodded in response. The day had been ‘informative’ to the point of overwhelming. He wasn’t sure if Cassie felt the same way, but Serix was completely drained. He had been captured twice, saw some his people get shot and killed, discovered a hidden society of human survivors —none of whom seemed to like him very much— and been attacked by one of them. On top of that, he couldn’t even let himself get a good night’s sleep for fear of being ambushed while he was unconscious.

“I’m honestly also surprised he actually agreed to lay off a little,” Cassie continued. Serix stared at her for a moment before he realized she was talking about Ryan. “I mean, even as kids he was very possessive over me.” She laughed. “You aren’t the first guy he’s hated being around me. When we were kids he’d beat up any guy that tried to be my friend. I told him he can’t beat you up though. He should be a little less... vicious toward you. Hopefully. And if I catch him being otherwise toward you I’ll just put him in his place again.”

“Oh, I’m sure that will stop him cold,” Serix teased, placing a hand on Cassie’s head. “You’re such a frightening little thing.” He shifted his hand down to the back of her neck and closed his eyes when she leaned in to kiss him. He returned the kiss, smiling contentedly, and stole one more peck when she moved to pull away.

“Okay,” Cassie said, resting her forehead against his. “So tomorrow, we need to make sure we stay together. We also need to find out exactly which of the people here we can trust and which ones we need to stay away from. Obviously this ‘Hunter’ is one we need to keep away from and Emily and Jake are ones we can be around. All the others are up in the air right now. I haven’t seen much of any of them to really see if we can trust them or not.” She lay down on the mattress and looked up at him. “Serix? Before we go to bed, will you tell me what you think of all this? I mean, you’ve heard how I feel about seeing all these people and being here with my own kind, but you never told me how you feel about being here.”

“It’s… a lot to take in,” Serix said honestly. He kicked off his shoes and lay down beside her, drawing the blanket over them. “I mean, I’m happy that we found more humans. It’s great that you’re not the last one, but you know as well as I do what they think of me. I’m not very welcome here, Cassie.” He reached to put out the lantern beside the bed and then turned back to her. They were close enough that her features were dimly illuminated from the glow of his eyes in the dark. He leaned forward and kissed her gently on the lips once more. “I’m just glad you’re here. I can tolerate the others as long as you’re still beside me. Now, let’s try to get some sleep. I have a feeling that tomorrow’s going to be a busy day.”

It was kind of hard for Cassie to fall asleep. It wasn't that she was uncomfortable. No, laying beside Serix, curled up against him, was very comfortable. But the thought of having someone possibly sneaking in and doing something to either she or Serix stuck in her mind and that kept her up for most of the night. Even after they had said goodnight to one another, the two layed there awake. Sometimes she was be staring into the darkness of their room, and other times she would see that Serix was awake as well, his violet eyes opening in the dark and giving off a little bit a light. When they happened she would look over silently at him and the two would share a silent moment. It seems she wasn't the only one worried about people coming in.

It was an hour or two before they were to wake up that she finally did fall asleep. And so, when someone came into retrieve the two of them she was beat and slightly unwilling to wake up. She groaned when she heard the curtain pull back, nuzzling her face against Serix's neck, thinking maybe they might go away if she said nothing. But they didn't, "Hey, you two, Ryan says its time to wake up." Sitting up slightly, she saw it was one of men they had yet to officially meet standing in the door way, his arms crossed over his chest, a grin playing on his lips, "Come on, don't want Ryan to see you two all snuggled up like that. He might get mad."

Cassie replied with a huff, "I don't care. It's none of his business anyway."

The man laughed, "Ah, so that spunk wasn't an act." He stood up straight from where he had been leaning against the door way, "My names Quincy by the way. Just figured I'd say welcome to you two. Breakfast starts in a few so I would get there fast before Jake eats all the good stuff." With that, he left,leaving she and Serix to themselves.

Leaning down, she kissed Serix a moment before going to get up, "Well that one didn't seem too bad. But then again, we didn't talk to him that much." Once she was up and had stretched she walked with him down the dining area. She at the place she had yesterday, Emily, Conner, Sarah, Jerry, and Victoria already seated. With them was two younger members of the colony. They looked to be around eleven and twelve years old and Cassie had a feeling he knew who the girl was. Last time she saw Ryan, he had a baby sister. That was eleven years ago. This girl looked like too. It was a strange feeling to see her after only seeing her a baby, but it was a good feeling too that made her smile. As she sat down, she nodded to the girl, the smile staying on her face, "You're Sally."

The younger girl looked at her wide eyed, leaning forward in curiosity, "You know my name?"

Cassie nodded and laughed slightly, "You wouldn't remember me, but I knew you when you were just a baby. My nae's Cassie."

The girl's big eyes grew even wider, "Wow! You're Castiel?! Ryan talks about you all the time."

"Yeah, he totally has the hots for you." The young boy beside her made a face and stuck his finger toward his mouth, "Gross. Gag me with a spoon."

Sally looked to the boy, "Charlie!" She smacked him in the arm, "It's not gross. It's sweet."

"Sweet?" Charlie counted, giving her a skeptical look, "You're too much of a girl. Besides, look at her dumbo. She's with the alien."

Moving her blue eyes back to Cassie and Serix she frowned, "Oh yeah, she is, isn't she?" She sighed, "Oh well. Guess big bro is just going to have to settle for Sarah."

Sarah nearly choked on the juice she had been drinking, making all the others at the table laugh at the tween's antics of pairing everyone up, and Sarah spoke, coughing at the same time, "Kiss a guy one time and suddenly it means something?"

Charlie sneered, "You've kissed all the guys here. Glad I'm not old enough to date you, you old hag."

Sarah's face reddened and if it wasn't for Emily putting a hand on her shoulder, Sarah might have jumped at the young boy, "So what if I have? Its stupid to have something serious going on between two people down here anyway. I'd rather have all the guys than just one." Standing up, she huffed, "I'm going to get started on the crops. Come when you're all done lazing about." With that the girl was gone and Emily shook her head, looking at them.

"Sarah's a bit of....player? She been in a relationship with pretty much all the guys here expect for Conner and Hunter. She just....has had bad luck?" She turned her gaze to Charlie, "And you need to watch your mouth young man. You need to remember to have respect when talking to adults."

Charlie frowned in annoyance and leaned back in his seat, "Fiiiiine." After saying this he saw Sally stick her tongue out at him and returned the gesture, the two getting into a pretty childish competition of making ugly faces at each other.

"You two keep that up and your faces will get stuck like that. That's sometime I can't fix." Cassie looked over her shoulder to see another of the young men had come over, smiling at them all before going to introduce himself to Cassie and Serix, "I'm Ray. I run the clinic here."

"Why are you talking to them Ray? I would have waited until the thing was gone." Another man with brown hair walked up as well.

"You have to be polite Monty. They are new here." As they stood there, a white and brown pitbull wobbled over to sit beside Ray.

Seeing the dog made Cassie smile. It had been a long time since she had seen a tamed dog. She looked up at Ray, "Is it okay to pet him?"

Ray chuckled and shrugged, "Sure. He's very well behaved. He's my assistant in the clinic. Have to say, he's more reliable than any of the people here."

She reached her hand, petting the top of the dog's head, to which the dog enthusiastically licked her hand before, much to Cassie's surprise, he jumped into her lap and wiggled excitedly, at the attention Cassie was giving him. She laughed and looked over at Serix as she tried at the same time to avoid getting licked in the face by the happy dog, "Dogs used to be tamed as pets by humans. This one isn't like the wild ones we saw on the streets."

Ray nodded, "Some were even trained to do jobs, like I did with Gizmo here." He grinned at Serix, "Go ahead, you can pt him. He won't bite."

Serix spent the majority of the night tossing and turning in bed. He continually woke up after what felt like only a few minutes of sleep at a time, and he always found himself glancing at the curtain that hung across the doorway as if he expected someone to burst into the room with a gun. Even when he did manage to fall into a deep enough sleep to stir up some dreams, they always turned into nightmarish scenes of humans gathering outside the room with weapons poised, waiting for Ryan to give the signal to attack. When this happened, Serix awoke in a cold sweat with a racing heart, his eyes focusing on the curtain the instant they opened. He had to lie still and remind himself that he was just being paranoid and stifle the urge to get up and search the room so he wouldn’t wake Cassie.

Because he slept so fitfully, Serix woke up the instant the curtain slid open and one of the humans stepped inside. He opened one eye to verify that the male was unarmed, and then closed it again. He was far too tired to bother with the human. He felt Cassie bury her head against his neck. She obviously felt the same way. Unfortunately, the male didn’t leave them alone.

“Hey, you two, Ryan says it’s time to wake up,” the half-blood sounded amused. “Come on; don’t want Ryan to see you two all snuggled up like that. He might get mad.”

“I don't care,” Cassie replied moodily, although she did sit up. “It’s none of his business anyway.”

“Ah, so that spunk wasn’t an act,” the human said. “My name’s Quincy by the way. Just figured I’d say welcome to you two. Breakfast starts in a few so I would get there fast before Jake eats all the good stuff.” Following his own advice, he left the room to head down to the dining hall, leaving the choice to go after him up to them.

Once they were alone again, Cassie leaned over to kiss Serix and then got up from the mattress. Serix didn’t want to get up yet, though. He had hardly slept at all, so he was still exhausted. He rolled over and threw the pillow over his head, “Ten more minutes…” Despite his request, he knew they shouldn’t wait long to join the humans for breakfast. The longer they stayed in the room, the more impatient Ryan would get, and Serix didn’t want to face him this early in the day. He climbed out of bed, yawning wearily, and walked down to the dining hall with Cassie.

They found a place to sit at a table with the group they had met the day before. Only this time, there were two new children amongst them. Cassie’s eyes lit up in recognition of one of them, whom she revealed to be Ryan’s younger sibling, Sally. Serix looked at the young female curiously. Like Hunter’s child, Sally was much more pleasant company than her older relation. However, Serix’s good humor faded slightly when she mentioned Ryan’s obsession with his mate. He impulsively slipped his arm around Cassie’s waist, even though he knew the kid was just innocently relaying information.

The two children went on to torment Sarah until she left and a pair of new humans arrived at the table. The friendlier of the two introduced himself as Ray, and Serix recalled what Jacob said about him being a medic. The second male, Monty, was blatantly hostile, looking down at Serix with obvious dislike. The Lunairan privately decided that this human was one to be avoided in the future.

Serix startled when he saw a dog trot over to the group. How had the animal gotten so far inside the compound? More importantly, how had none of the others noticed it? Then, to his surprise, Cassie smiled at the beast and moved to touch it. The dog further confused him by tamely licking her hand and crawling into her lap.

“Dogs used to be tamed as pets by humans,” Cassie explained, noticing Serix’s baffled expression. “This one isn’t like the wild ones we saw on the streets.”

“Oh,” Serix still didn’t move from his spot at the table. Humans domesticated wild animals? It was clever, but he didn’t understand why it was necessary to keep a dog around. It was just another mouth to feed, and he wasn’t certain that the beast could be fully cleansed of its feral tendencies.

“Some were even trained to do jobs, like I did with Gizmo here.” Ray grinned at Serix. “Go ahead, you can pet him. He won’t bite.”

“Um, okay,” Serix said hesitantly. He crouched down beside Cassie and reached a tentative hand towards the dog. The animal immediately turned and licked it, and then proceeded to waddle over to sniff at him. Serix frowned, “What? I don’t smell that bad, right?” He glanced at Cassie, and his expression darkened when he saw Ryan walking up behind her.

“G’morning, Cass,” Ryan said, completely ignoring Serix as usual. “Did you sleep well?”

Cassie tried not to laugh as Serix so hesitantly went to pet the dog. He didn't seem too trusting of the creature, ye the dog was so loving and calm with him, even licking his hand and sniffing him. She finally did laugh though when Serix asked if he smelt bad and knew he was questioning why the dog was sniffing him. She had to remind herself that on the ship it was likely that they didn't have any animals at all. This was possibly his first encounter with a domesticated animal and it was adorable to Cassie.

When she finished laughing she shook her head and spoke, "No, Serix. You don't smell bad." She moved to reach over and pet the dog as well as Serix held it, "Animals sniff you to get to know you. Their eyes aren't as good as ours, but their sense of smell is amazing. They used to be used to track and find missing people from miles away. Or to get people out of fires. Or find threats like drugs and bombs. They are really amazing creatures when raised right." Pulling her hand back she looked back to Ray, "So, is Gizmo here the only animal here in the caves?"

Ray shook his head, "Nah. We have three. Gizmo here is mine. Then there's a German Shepherd that belongs to Gunner. Gunner's in his room working on fixing some of our guns so you probably won't meet him until later. And there's Sally's cat--"

"Smoky!" Sally filled in the information excitedly, speaking to Cassie happily, "Ryan got him for me as a birthday present. Said it would teach me to be responsible and plus he can catch any critters that wander down here!" She stood up, hopping excitedly, "I'll go get him!" Then the girl ran off, leaving some of the others around to laugh and chuckle.

"I need whatever's in her coffee." Monty joked, jerking a thumb toward where Sally went.

"We all do." Ray chuckled and then looked to Serix and Cassie again as Ryan came up behind Cassie.

“G’morning, Cass,” Cassie jumped at hearing his voice, having not expected to hear his voice in her ear when she had still been focused on the dog attacking Serix with licks, “Did you sleep well?” She looked back at him and shrugged, "To be honest? Not really. But I'll catch up on sleep when I get used to being here I guess." She glanced over to see the expression on Serix's face and gently held his hand giving it a squeeze, "We'll be fine though. A little less sleep won't do much to us."

By now the young girl had come back, carrying a rather large grey cat in her grasp (or maybe it just looked large compared to her small frame) and when she saw her brother, she smiled brightly and quickly went over to him, hugging him, "I brought Smoky for Castiel and Serix to meet!"

Chuckling and smiling fondly at the girl, he ruffled her long hair, "Well, isn't that nice of you. Well you better show them before Gizmo gets rid of their interest in animals."

Nodding quickly she walked over to Cassie and handed her the heavy cat, Cassie laughing, "Wow, a cat. I like him. He's really pretty."

This made Sally beam and she looked to Serix, "Do you like him too?" She asked, looking at him with happy eyes that searched for approval.

Serix held on to Cassie’s hand. He wished Ryan would leave them alone. It was one thing for the human to linger around Cassie because he missed their friendship. It was quite another for him to yearn for something more when she was already taken by another male, and Ryan had made it perfectly clear which of these two reasons brought him back to her side. Serix narrowed his eyes at him. It was not Ryan’s business to be possessive over his mate.

The human caught sight of Serix’s hostile expression and shot him an equally cold glare, “I hope it’s safe to say that you didn’t sleep well either?”

“Oh, no,” Serix replied sarcastically. “Considering how welcome you’ve made me feel here, I slept wonderfully.”

Ryan looked like he had something else he wanted to say, but the tension was broken when the young female, Sally, rejoined the group. She was hauling a large, fluffy animal in her arms, which Serix assumed was this “cat” the others had mentioned. Her features brightened when she caught sight of her sibling and she hurried over to him, “I brought Smoky for Castiel and Serix to meet!”

“Well, isn't that nice of you,” Ryan said affectionately. “Well you better show them before Gizmo gets rid of their interest in animals.” Serix stared at him curiously. It was almost impressive how quickly his expression changed from disgust to care when he addressed his sibling. Serix could see just how much he loved her.

Sally brought the cat over to Cassie first, dropping the gray animal into her lap. Cassie laughed, “Wow, a cat. I like him. He’s really pretty.” The child looked pleased when she said this. Then, to Serix’s surprise, Sally picked the animal up and carried it over to him, dropping it into his lap next. She smiled at him expectantly, waiting for him to say something about the furry creature. He glanced at Ryan to find the human glaring at him with more force than usual. His dark expression sent a silent threat that said: ‘If you upset her, I will personally murder you.’

Serix turned back to Sally and gave her his best smile, “He’s very soft, and we don’t have cats where I come from, so he’s unique to me. I like him.”

The child looked pleased with his reply. She gathered the animal into her arms and looked up at Ryan, “I’m going to put him back.” When her sibling nodded at her, she hurried away.

“Props for not making the kid cry, alien,” the human called Monty said dryly to Serix. He nudged Ray, “I’m gonna grab something to eat before the good stuff’s all gone. Wanna come?”

“Sure,” Ray said. He turned to Serix and Cassie. “It was nice meeting you two. I’ll see you around— hopefully not in the infirmary.”

“That was a lame joke,” Monty shook his head as the two walked away with Gizmo loping along at their heels.

Once most of the others were gone, Ryan turned back to Cassie, “So, I was thinking that today we could get you properly settled in, Cass. Everyone who lives here has to help keep this place functioning. We all work together for the benefit of each other, so I want to introduce you to some of the jobs around here that you’ll be doing now that you’re staying with us.” He glanced irritably at Serix when the Lunairan cleared his throat. “You’re still on probation. You can work with us once you’ve proven yourself to be trustworthy. And quite frankly, you’re starting out in a pretty deep hole.” His eyes fell to the bandage on Serix’s cheek.

“How am I supposed to prove anything if I’m only allowed to sit around all day?” Serix argued. “I have to start somewhere.”

“Fine, you can come see the different jobs with me and Castiel,” Ryan said as if Serix didn’t have a choice in the matter. He looked back to Cassie, casually offering her a hand to help her stand up, “Come on, Cass. Let’s go.”

Cassie smiled slightly when Sally plopped the large cat into Serix's lap and she could see that Serix wasn't sure what to say at first. The cat sat there in a mild manner way (probably used to being tossed about by the young girl) and even layed down in his large a moment, giving a small 'mew' and a yawn. When Serix said he liked the cat, it was adorable how the girl beamed even more happily. It took away the tension in the room for a moment in time and let everyone relax a little bit. But that didn't last long, as the girl soon took the cat away and scampered off to put him up again. She watched the young girl hurry away and then turned her attention to Ryan as he spoke to her.

He talked about getting her introduced into doing some of the jobs here and of course Serix cleared his throat as if to let Ryan know he should be included as well. Ryan didn't like that idea though and looked at Serix in an annoyed way. He didn't wan to include Serix in the jobs yet, but Cassie didn't see the problem in doing so. It wasn't like in doing jobs he was going to hurt anyone. She was fairly sure Ryan was acting like this just to get on Serix's nerves and Cassie in turn give Ryan an annoyed look to show she disagreed with his view. Along with Serix speaking against it as well, Ryan gave in and said he could come along. Good, because after Serix got into that fight yesterday, she wasn't leaving her husband alone with these people just yet.

When he held out his hand to her to hep her up from where she sat, she rolled her eyes and took the hand, standing up, though once she was up immediately let go and took Serix's hand. She didn't want to give either of them the wrong idea. She didn't want Serix to get jealous and she sure didn't want to encourage Ryan either. Hi was an all around difficult situation for her. She just wished these two could get along with each other and be civil at least while they were around her.

Sighing she walked with Serix in tow, following Ryan as they made their way through the caves, Ryan speaking to them.

"Most people around here works in the farm growing food. Its where we get most of our food supplies from so of course that's going to be one of our main jobs. Then of course we have the people that cook and fix meals. And people who wash the dishes after."

"Where do they get the water to water the plants and wash the dishes with?" She asked, curiously. Surely they didn't get all their water for all that with water bottles?

Chuckling Ryan turned down into a part of the cave they hadn't gone into the day before, "We didn't show you this place yesterday because its a pretty large area of the caves and easy to get lost in with newcomers. You really shouldn't come down here unless its with one of us." Stepping down into the deeper caverns, he helped Cassie down off the small ledge as well. Once they were down, Cassie could hear what she swore was rapidly flowing water and sure enough, when Ryan turned on the lanterns that were hanging on the walls of the caves, she could see that it really was flowing water.

An underground river.

Ryan moved over to the edge of the water, "We gather water from here for all sort of jobs and tasks. We gather the water from this section of the river, and then down river if where we bathe and all." He pointed downriver to show where he meant and then continued, "This place is a big part of our survival here, but its also dangerous with the rapids upsteam," He pointed further up on the opposite side he had pointed before, "Never go up there. There's not enough footage and people have almost died being stupid enough to go up there." He turned to her, and lead the two back out of the lower section of the caves, helping Cassie up the rocks until they were on the more steady passages and heading back up to the main caverns.

"Other than those main jobs, we have the Scavengers. They're the ones who go out and grab supplies. Right now we have two teams that switch out for each raid. Team One consists of me, Hunter, Gunner, Conner, and Monty. We're the ones who brought you back here. Team Two is Jake, Quiny, Ron, Wes, Sarah, and Jerry. They go out once a month with those trucks you saw and bring is stockpiles for us. Right now with what we have we could last at least a year without going out, but we go once a month anyway just in case there does come a time where we can't go out."

Stopping he finally turned to them, "We'll start you out in the farm for now until you get adjusted. Sarah, Jerry, Tori, and Hunter should be there now. I have to go talk to Jake so I'll meet up with you later Cass." He said nothing to Serix and when Cassie nodded and turned to leave with Serix, Ryan made sure to give the Lunairan a glare before leaving.

Once they were at the farm, Jerry was the one to approach the two, a grin on his face, "Ah, so Ryan sent us the newbs to put to work." He stuck the shovel he had been holding in other ground and leaned on it, "I don't know if thats sch a good idea. It takes a pretty skilled person to put seeds into the ground. What do you think, Victoria? Think they can handle it?" The red head looked over his shoulder to the young woman with black hair who smiled quietly and nodded, "Okay, the Queen gave her judgement." He bowed silently toward Tori, which made her laugh silently and shake her head. At the sight he had made her laugh, Jerry smiled more and looking to Cassie and Serix again, he picked up the shovel he had been leaning on and tossed it to Serix, "You can start digging holes for us to plant in. Cassie can put the seeds in."

With those instructions, Jerry went back to work. Cassie shrugged, grinning up at Serix and then went to work with Serix planting seeds, Tori going behind them to water them. At one poit Cassie had turned to go down another aisle of plants and ran right into Tori. She gasped and smiled apologetically, "Sorry. You okay?"

Tori just smiled back and nodded, which confused Cassie as to why she didn't answer. Sarah, apparently noticing this as well called to Cassie from across the room, "Yo! Castiel! Come help grab some of these tomatoes to plant!" Nodding and walked over, Cassie grabbed the seeds and when she did, Sarah spoke quietly to her, "Tori's mute. She doesn't talk. Until you can really understand her from her body language just make sure me or Jerry's around to translate what's she's trying to say."

Cassie looked at her, "You and Jerry must be able to understand her well?"

Sarah shrugged, "Jerry married her. So she's basically my sister. We've spent the most time with her over the years. She's already a shy girl, so that doesn't really help the others to under stand her when she wants to communicate something. But if your around her enough you'll start to see signs when she is." Sarah waved her with her hand, "Now, go get back to work. Those seeds won't plant themselves."

Cassie rolled her eyes with a slight smile at Sarah's personality. She had to sat she was getting used to it. She shrugged and went back over to the holes Serix was digging, plopping some seeds in. Looking up at him, she ginned up at him, "How you holding up Serix?"

Serix continued to glare at Ryan when he offered Cassie a hand to stand up. The human’s antics were becoming increasingly frustrating. Fortunately, Cassie immediately came over to Serix and took his hand once she had gotten up. Ryan didn’t look particularly happy about it, but he said nothing more as he led them out of the dining hall. Maybe he was finally beginning to understand that he didn’t have a chance with Cassie? Somehow, Serix doubted that. The human was too stubborn to give up so easily.

As they walked, Ryan began explaining the different types of jobs that were done around the compound. Of course, keeping the garden alive was the biggest concern for the humans, since they needed the food. What interested Serix the most was the way the humans seemed to rotate jobs. In his society, the Lunairans were assigned one position for life based on how they tested for certain attributes. To have more than one job was unheard of. There were occasional volunteer positions that opened up, such as the Scouting mission, but they never lasted long, and the participants always returned to their original positions once the work was complete. The diversity in human life continued to fascinate him.

Ryan eventually led them to a part of the caves they hadn’t seen on the tour. These tunnels were slightly narrower, but much taller than the ones they had been through so far in the main sections of the compound. They tapered off and then opened up into passageways that were wide enough for all three of them to walk side by side if they wanted to. These larger tunnels then brought them to an enormous cavern. It was long enough that Serix couldn’t see either end of it from where he stood. However, the most impressive part of this cave was the flowing body of water that ran down its middle. Serix stared at it, eyes wide with amazement. If the ground wasn’t so slick from the spray of the water, he would have been tempted to climb down and get a closer look. He had never seen an underground river before.

“We gather water from here for all sorts of jobs and tasks.” Ryan explained. “We gather the water from this section of the river, and then down river if where we bathe and all.” He gestured at the section of the water he was speaking about. “This place is a big part of our survival here, but it’s also dangerous with the rapids upstream.” He turned and pointed at the other end of the river. “Never go up there. There’s not enough footage and people have almost died being stupid enough to go up there.”

Serix peered at the far end of the river Ryan had indicated. Sure enough, the water flowed much more quickly upstream. If someone were to slip and fall in, he would get sucked under in a matter of seconds. Serix swallowed. He made a mental note to stay far away from that side of the river, instinctively thinking ahead about his own safety. With all the humans that wanted to see him dead, an ‘accident’ could easily be staged in a dangerous place like that. He wasn’t going to give them that opportunity.

Ryan brought them back to the section of the compound that they were familiar with, leading them next to the gardens where he planned to let Cassie start working. He said nothing about Serix, of course, but he didn’t need to. Serix wasn’t going to leave his mate’s side again, so he would start in the gardens as well, whether Ryan liked it or not.

Once the two arrived at the ‘farm,’ the red-haired male, Jerry, approached them with a grin, “Ah, so Ryan sent us the newbs to put to work. I don’t know if that’s such a good idea. It takes a pretty skilled person to put seeds into the ground. What do you think, Victoria? Think they can handle it?” He turned to a dark-haired female who was working nearby. She smiled faintly and nodded, and Jerry turned back to Serix and Cassie. “Okay, the Queen gave her judgment.” He bowed teasingly at her, grinning all the more brightly when the female gave a slight laugh. “You can start digging holes for us to plant in. Cassie can put the seeds in.” He tossed his tool at Serix who, not expecting the sudden action, fumbled to catch it. With that, the red-haired male went back to his own work.

Serix turned the tool over in his hands. Having been trained only in combat, he wasn’t sure what to do with it at first. He snuck a glance at Jerry, who had grabbed another tool and started digging. Serix watched him use the spade-shaped end to turn the soil over and make shallow holes for the black-haired female to drop seeds into. He repeated this action, making a neat row of the holes and spacing them evenly apart.

After observing the human for a moment, Serix understood the basic idea and went to work with Cassie. He started on his own row of holes, turning over the soil with the spade-tipped tool as he had seen Jerry do. As he worked, Serix was beginning to realize something else about the Lunairan society that worried him. With their specialized training, his people were incapable of surviving on their own. He only knew how to fight and operate the Lunairan military technology that his rank would have permitted him to use, had he completed his schooling. There were others who only knew how to organize storage units or teach history to young children. In fact, the number of Lunairans who worked in the synthetic garden on the ship was extremely slim.

Serix had an unsettling feeling that his leaders intentionally structured the society in this way. Without the knowledge of how to grow their own food or perform other necessary life functions, the Lunairans were completely dependent on their leaders to survive. Even if some of his people ever decided to openly rebel or run away, the sub-society they created would quickly fall apart because they would have no way to maintain it. It was a frighteningly clever setup. He decided to take every opportunity to learn the survival skills he lacked, just in case he and Cassie ever ended up on their own again.

“How you holding up, Serix?” Cassie asked, grinning up at him from where she was planting her seeds.

“Just fine,” Serix smiled jokingly back at her. “You probably couldn’t tell since I’m doing such a good job, but this is the first time I’ve ever done work like this.” He went back to digging, finishing up his first row and starting a second one.

“Oh, you have got to be kidding me,” a familiar voice growled behind Serix. He turned to see Hunter standing with his arms crossed over his chest, glaring down at the Lunairan with even more hostility than usual. Serix’s eyes fell on a dark spot that marked the human’s slightly swollen jaw. He grinned. Hunter had come off worse in their fight than he had. The small cut on his own cheek was already closed and healing.

“We’re letting the alien near our crops now?” Hunter went on viciously, turning to Jerry. “What’s Ryan thinking? It could damage the fields or poison our food.”

“Lighten up, Hunter,” Jerry said, not bothering to look up from his work. “He’s just helping.”

“Its kind can’t be trusted!” Hunter snarled. “They’re all murderers; every last one of them.” He shot Serix another glare. “I still say we should have gotten rid of this one like we did all the others yesterday.”

Serix opened his mouth to respond, but one glance at Cassie told him to let it go. As much as he hated to let the human spit threats at him like this, he couldn’t let Hunter get to him again. Ryan was already looking for an excuse to lock him in the hold. For both his and Cassie’s sakes, he couldn’t give him a reason to do so. He turned away from Hunter and resumed working.

“Hey, alien, are you listening?” Hunter leaned over him. “You don’t belong here. Go back to your ship and fly away with the rest of your miserable species.”

Serix grit his teeth and closed his eyes, taking a deep breath. He knew the human was just trying to get a rise out of him. Hunter knew just as well as he did that one more fight would get him locked up. He was out of chances.

“I left them,” Serix said plainly.

“You left them?” Hunter raised a brow. “That was a stupid decision. You’re not welcome here, and you’re not welcome there, either. Huh, seems like you don’t have a home anywhere, do you, alien? You’re just a worthless outcast.”

“My home,” Serix snapped, finally turning on Hunter. “Is wherever she is.” He took Cassie’s hand in his and glowered at the human.

“Hunter, come on,” Jerry said impatiently. “You’re wasting daylight. Get to work, ya lazy bum.”

“I’m not finished with you yet, alien,” Hunter said in a threateningly soft tone. “Not until you’re out of here.” He shot the Lunairan one final glare and went back to his section of the field.

Serix let out his breath and cast a grateful look at Jerry. If Hunter had taunted him just one more time, he didn’t think he could have held himself back. The human really knew how to rub him the wrong way. He leaned against Cassie and sighed, “Sorry. I know you want me to stay out of trouble. He’s just so infuriating.”

Cassie smiled up at Serix and laughed when he mentioned about how he was doing such a good job at digging the holes, "Wow, your first time, huh? Very impressive."

“Oh, you have got to be kidding me,” Cassie heard a voice behind she and Serix and stood up straight, turning to look at whoever was talking. It was a young man with a rather dark bruise on her jaw, letting her know that this was likely the person Serix had gotten into a fight with with the other day. Immediately thinking tht she already didn't like this man and the tone he was using with Serix now didn't help him in this situation at all, “We’re letting the alien near our crops now?” Hunter went on viciously, turning to Jerry. “What’s Ryan thinking? It could damage the fields or poison our food.”

Really? Was this idiot trying to take some verbal swings at Serix? And especially with her and the others around? This guy obviously didn't know he was very much outnumbered and wouldn't win. Or, maybe he did and that was why he was only attacking him verbally instead of physically. Either way, she didn't like this man and glared at him, standing close to Serix protectively as he continued on. The red haired man, Jerry, defended Serix, which she was thankful for. Serix glanced at her and she looked back at him. The look on her face said it all. Ignore him and get on with their jobs. They didn't need any more trouble.

And Serix knew what she meant as well because he had turned and started digging holes again. Nodding to herself, she moved to the table to get more seeds and turned back, much to her annoyance to see Hunter leaned over him, much too close to comfort to her husband. She moved quickly to stand close beside Serix once more and the man took a couple of steps back at that, as well as after hearing Jerry tell him to get bakc to work. She glared after him as he left with a few threatening words. She stared after him with ice cold eyes, the gears in her mind turning. This man had really ticked her off and she wasn't going to let him get away with talking to Serix like that. Cassie wasn't really one for revenge, but it couldn't hurt just this once, right?

She took a few moments to set some seeds into the holes and then stood up straight, looking absent mindedly over to Serix, "I'll go get some water to water the crops with." With that, she walked over to the large container of water over beside the cave wall and taking a large bucket, filled it to the very top, going to walk back over, crossing paths with Hunter. What she did was quick and when she did it everyone turned their attentions to her. Her tripping was so terribly fake, but that made it all the better for those watching with grins on their faces. Hunter had been bent over, putting a seed into one of the holes, when the large bucket of water was poured over his head, leaving him completely soaked.

Quickly standing up straight, Cassie feigned an innocent wide eyed look, much like she had when she had first brought Serix to the airport what seemed like so long ago, "Oh, I'm soooooo sorry. I'm terribly clumsy. Must be that Lunairan side of me." She said, twirling a strand of her blonde hair around her finger in an air headed motion, "Well, at least maybe the water cooled that temper of yours off."

Next thing she knew, Hunter had snatched the bucket from her hands, snarling at her, "You little bitc--"

"Oh thats not a nice word." Cassie teased, taking a causal step back, "But then again, your not a nice man, so what can you expect?" She could see the man's anger rising more and more and yet she continued, "If I didn't know any better, I would say it should be you locked up in the hold. After all, your the one who can't control his anger." After she said that, Hunter made the awful mistake of reaching out to grab her arm rather roughly, and Cassie acted on it. Her other arm drew back and snapped forward, connecting with Hunter's cheek. Then, when he was off balance from the hit, not expecting a small looking girl as herself to pack such a punch, she kicked out her leg, hitting him in the back of the knees so that he face planted onto the cave floors. And when he was down, Cassie took it a step further to grip his arm and twist it back into a painful position, her foot resting on his back, "Here's a hint for you, Hunter. Lay off. You touch my husband or talk to him like that again, " She pulled his arm up a little more, the joint just a little ways from being taken out of socket, "And you loose an arm for a few weeks."

She was glad that Serix had taught her a bit abut fighting in the few weeks they had been in he hide away. She wasn't nearly as good as him, but she knew basics and she knew how to cause pain. And boy was she causing Hunter pain. He was grunting, trying to get out of the position and for a moment, Cassie thought he might actually knock his arm out of socket in his struggles. That is, until she heard someone speak up, "Cassie, do I even want to know what's going on?"

Looking up, Cassie saw Ryan walking in, Jake and Conner in tow, an eyebrow raised in question.

Seeing Ryan, Cassie moved to step off of the man, but not before kicking him in the head, making him grunt in pain so more as he rolled over to stand up, "Probably not. But if your asking, this idiot threatened Serix and tried to start another fight with him." She moved to stand by Serix once more, "You didn't do anything about it last time, so I assumed you wouldn't this time either. I saw no other choice but to take things into my own hands."

Serix went back to his work, although he kept an eye on Hunter as he dug in the fields. He was still kicking himself for letting the human get to him so easily. He had promised Cassie that he would try harder to stay out of trouble just one night ago, and now here he was almost getting involved in yet another fight. His promise hadn’t even lasted a day. He exhaled. He really needed to do a better job of keeping his temper under control around Hunter.

“I’ll go get some water to water the crops with,” Cassie said. Serix nodded and continued working on the last row of seeds. He finished it quickly and set down his spaded tool, reaching his arms over his head in a luxurious stretch. The repetitive motion of digging holes had made his shoulders a bit sore.

Suddenly, Serix heard a shout from behind him. He spun around to see Cassie getting up from the ground with an empty bucket. Hunter was soaking wet. Serix took a step forward, initially thinking that Cassie had tripped, but stopped when he saw the mischievous look in her eye. He grinned. The water spill was no accident.

“Oh, I’m soooooo sorry,” Cassie said, airily twirling a stand of hair around her finger. “I’m terribly clumsy. Must be that Lunairan side of me. Well, at least maybe the water cooled that temper of yours off.”

Hunter angrily snatched the bucket away from her, and then went to grab her arm. Serix tensed. How dare the human lay a hand on his mate like that? He didn’t need to move, however, because Cassie immediately punched him in the face with her free hand. She followed up by knocking Hunter to the ground and twisting his arm behind his back in a similar fashion to how Serix had caught her when they first met. He crossed his arms, beaming proudly at his mate. She was turning into quite the talented fighter.

“Cassie, do I even want to know what’s going on?” Serix turned to see Ryan approaching the group. With him were Jacob and Conner.

“Probably not,” Cassie admitted, letting Hunter up. “But if you’re asking, this idiot threatened Serix and tried to start another fight with him.” She walked over to stand by Serix as she spoke. “You didn’t do anything about it last time, so I assumed you wouldn’t this time either. I saw no other choice but to take things into my own hands.”

Ryan looked from her to Hunter, who was getting painfully up from the ground. With the injuries he had received from Serix and Cassie combined, he was going to be sore for a good long while. The thought brought a smile to Serix’s lips. Ryan didn’t share his joy, but then again, when did he ever look happy about anything? Serix was beginning to think that the frown on his face was a permanent feature.

“Cassie, you didn’t have to do that,” Ryan sounded uncertain. Serix could almost imagine what was going through the human’s mind. He didn’t want Cassie to get hurt, but he also didn’t want to punish Hunter for harassing a Lunairan. After a moment, he turned to Hunter, seeming to come to a decision. “Don’t waste time fighting with the alien. We need your energy for more important things.”

“That’s it?” Serix laughed mirthlessly. “When I get caught up in a fight, I get threatened to be locked up in the hold, but when he does the same thing, it’s ‘don’t do it again’? I’m sorry, but I fail to see how this is just.”

“Simple,” Hunter growled, rubbing his cheek where Cassie struck him. “You’re an alien. In the grand hierarchy, you stand below me. Get used to it.”

“That’s enough,” Ryan said with a discreet glance at Cassie. “Hunter, you can go take a break.” He waited until the dark-haired male left the area, and then walked over to Cassie. “You can’t just attack people like that, Cass. We do have rules around here. If he causes you trouble, you come get me first, okay?”

Serix rolled his eyes. If Cassie had gone to Ryan, he wouldn’t have done anything. It was much more efficient for her to pummel him, herself. Serix would have done the same thing if he wasn’t sitting under the threat of getting locked up for causing trouble. He held Cassie’s hand as she stood next to him, “I think she did just fine. She was more helpful than you’ve been since we got here.”

“It was still out of protocol,” Ryan shot him a glare and turned back to Cassie. “Just be more careful, okay? I can’t keep showing you favoritism when you break the rules, Cass.”

"Favoritism?" Cassie hissed at Ryan, clearly frustrated at how he was viewing all of this, "If I had gone to you, all you would have said is 'the alien deserved it'. You want to talk about favoritism, alright. Let's talk. You and quite a few of the others here treat Serix like a piece of crap, and then when he goes to defend himself its his fault? Ryan, you're more favortist than you want to admit and I'm really getting sick of it. You call yourself a good leader? Then start acting like it! Actually reprimand someone when they do something that is clearly wrong! Get off your high horse and start acting like a role model rather than a man who's butt hurt that he didn't get what he wanted!"

Cassie had no idea where all this was coming from. She wasn't usually so snappy. In fact, it was rare if she yelled about anything. But to be like this to her best friend? That was one sure way to tell how upset she was about how unjust Ryan was being. She had to calm herself if she actually wanted to talk sensibly though, and so she took a deep breath, looking up at him. It was clear her words had struck him pretty hard, but if she let it go now, then she was never going to get through to him what she needed to say, "It's not right, Ryan, and you know it. Would you have wanted people to treat your father that way? After all, your father was the one to make this place. A Lunairan was the leader of this colony before you ever were. If it wasn't for a Lunairan, you would have all been dead by now."

She took a step back, holding Serix's hand, "You can't keep living in the lie that all Lunairans are bad, because we should all know better than that. They're not. Otherwise we wouldn't be here. None of our parents would have fallen in love and had us if that were true." She sighed, brushing her hair back from her face, "Yes, I know I should be more careful. But Ryan, I'm not going to sit back and let you or anyone else here treat him like he's a worthless animal. You can do whatever. Punish me. Lock me up. But the day I have to let anyone treat him like that and just stand at the side lines is the day I leave this hole in the ground."

She looked to Serix, then back to him, "I think you need to make a decision Ryan. You can start doing your job around here to keep everyone safe, "She put emphasis on everyone to make sure he knew she was talking about Serix as well, "Or Serix and I can leave."

"Heh, you can't leave. Too dangerous with him around. He would probably go tell his friends where we are and we'd have an attack on our hands." Monty spoke up from behind Ryan, though Conner pulled hi back and mumbled to hi, telling him to 'shut up'.

Cassie turned her glare on Monty, then looked back at Ryan, "Or, if leaving isn't an option, then lock us both up. If I have to be put in the hold for defending what is right then so be it. Serix will always come first to me. No matter what."

Serix jumped slightly when Cassie yelled at Ryan. He had never heard her raise her voice like that before. Even when he had done things to anger her back at the hangar —among other things, he had accidentally damaged one of the robots when he knocked a large can of oil off of one of the lifts and it fell into the open engine Cassie was working on— she always dealt with her frustration in a calm, level-headed manner. This was the first time he had ever heard her shout over anything.

After her initial outburst, Cassie seemed to calm down a bit. She continued to scold Ryan, but she did it in a milder tone. Serix watched Ryan’s face contort into a grimace at the sting of her words. Surprisingly, he didn’t seem to have anything to say in response. Serix would have expected the sharp-tongued human to argue with her, but he didn’t even try to defend himself. Perhaps Cassie’s unexpected outburst had startled Ryan just as much as it had him.

“Heh, you can’t leave,” Monty spoke up when Cassie threatened to leave with Serix. “Too dangerous with him around. He would probably go tell his friends where we are and we’d have an attack on our hands.”

Serix stared at the human for a moment. He hadn’t even considered the fact that the half-bloods would force him and Cassie to stay in the compound. He had assumed that they would be happy to see him go, but thinking about it now, it made sense that they would want to keep him here. They still believed he was with the other Lunairans, despite his explanations. He shifted his weight. The thought of being trapped here made him uneasy.

“Or,” Cassie went on. “If leaving isn’t an option, then lock us both up. If I have to be put in the hold for defending what is right then so be it. Serix will always come first to me. No matter what.”

“Come on,” Ryan said tentatively. “There’s no need for that.” He paused as if searching for words, and then cleared his throat awkwardly. “Well… lunch is gonna be served soon. I just wanted to tell you that.” He turned and walked away, engaging in a soft-spoken conversation with Jacob and Connor.

Once they were gone, Serix sighed and gathered Cassie into his arms. He ran a hand slowly through her hair in an attempt to calm her down, “It’s okay. You don’t have to get so worked up over him. He’s not worth your anger.” He pulled away from her and tilted her chin up with one hand so she could look him in the eyes. “Cassie, it doesn’t matter if they don’t like me. We’re still together, right? That’s what counts.” He kissed her gently and smiled.

“Bravo,” Sarah spoke up, walking over and clapping her hands together. “That was like watching a really bad chick flick. Now come on, lovebirds, let’s go get some food.”

Cassie watched silently as Ryan left. She wasn't sure if her words had gotten to him or not, but she sure hoped they had. If not, they were going to have to go on dealing with people looking down on Serix, something she couldn't stand for. When they were out of sight, Cassie gasped slightly when she was taken into Serix's close embrace. Letting out the breath she had been holding, she held herself tightly to him as he stroked her hair and talked to her.It was very comforting and she rested there for a moment, her head resting on the front of his shoulder until he finally pulled back, telling her not to worry about them and that as long as they were together everything would be fine.

Smiling slightly, she nodded and kissed him back, her arms slipping around his neck, only to hear Sarah interrupt with another one of her snide comments. Sighing Cassie looked to Serix and rolled her eyes playfully as Sarah left the room, "Well, all that was....interesting." Taking his hand, she kissed him once more, "Let's just hope this doesn't become a normal thing." She made her way with him through the hallways and back toward the dining hall. Everyone was gathered there once again and Cassie brought them over to sit next to Emily and the others once more, hoping there would be no interruptions again.

"Sooo, how did the farming go?" Emily ask, gently bouncing little Jamie as she sat there.

When Cassie hesitated to answer, Sarah of course, as always, was all too willing to answer for her, "She beat the hell out of Hunter. Worse than her mate over here did."

Emily frowned, "You did? What happened to make you do a thing like that?"

Cassie sighed, "Long story short, he was talking bad about Serix and I wanted him to know that wasn't okay. It's not like I wanted to beat someone up but I felt like it was the only way he would listen." She absent mindedly, as she sat there, huffed to blow a strand of hair out of her face and when she did, the baby in Emily's laughed went into a giggling fit. Instantly Cassie's mood was lightened at the sound of that and she smiled brightly as well, leaning forward to speak to the baby, "Awww, you're so cute. Did you think that was funny?" The baby in turn cooed and giggled some more.

Smiling as well, Emily looked to Cassie, then to her son, then to Cassie again, "Do you want to hold him?"

Blinking in surprise, Cassie pointed to herself, "Me? Hold the baby? Are you sure? I mean, I've ever really held one before."

Emily laughed, "It's easy." She positioned herself to show how she was holding the baby, "Just support the baby's head and everything is fine." Leaning over, Emily set the child in Cassie's waiting and gentle arms.

Cassie smiled as she held the baby and after a moment of looking at him, she looked up to Serix as well, a smile on her face, speaking quietly as the baby yawned, seemingly so comfortable in her grasp that he was falling asleep, "Look at him Serix....he'e so peaceful." She smiled down at the boy that was drifting off and smiled more, wrapping him up a little tighter in the blanket in a motherly fashion, "I can't believe I'm holding a baby. Never thought I would." She then began rocking the infant, humming softly.