Chapter 16: Medical Necessities

The meal was absolutely great.

Caleb was distracted during the meal by JJ. Every few moments, her face would scrunch up, as if she didn't like what she was hearing, or was explaining something unpleasant to someone. He thought about the teenagers he had met at the mall, and wondered if he had been doing the same thing.

About halfway through the meal, Kim got a surprised look on her face. Then she looked like she was concentrating furiously. Caleb caught her eye, and raised his eyebrows in question. She nodded in resignation, then returned to eating, her brow wrinkled in concentration.

A few moments later, Blake grimaced, before getting a stubborn look that he kept the rest of the meal. He was scowling at his plate and his food, as if they had personally offended him. Occasionally, he would blush.

"Look," Blake thought at his Companion. "I don't mind hearing what other people are thinking, but I don't want people hearing what I think. I don't want them hearing, even if they have an alien in their head, too. Do you understand that?"

"I don't think that will be a problem, after I'm completely acclimated," the alien replied. "Are you angry with me? Have I done something to offend you?"

"Um ... no," Blake thought. "I just don't like the thought of someone hearing my thoughts," he continued.

"I don't think that I have a choice about listening to your thoughts," the alien pointed out, sounding worried. "Al gave me a brief outline of what my responsibilities are, but he didn't tell me how to not hear your thoughts. I don't think I could carry out my responsibilities, if I didn't know what you were thinking. I'll ask him if blocking myself from your thoughts is even possible."

"No. That's okay," Blake said hurriedly. "I don't want anyone else to hear my thoughts. Sometime, they're kind of embarrassing."

"Does that mean that I only need to shield some of your thoughts?" Blake's Companion asked. "How will I know which thoughts to shield?"

"Shield all my thoughts," Blake thought furiously. "That way, you won't have to worry about deciding which to shield."

"Which thoughts are you embarrassed about? Maybe you shouldn't be thinking them, if they're embarrassing," his Companion observed primly.

"They're usually about girls, and mom kind of said that it was normal for me to think about them all the time, at my age," Blake admitted, after it was clear the alien was waiting for an answer.

"Ah, procreation issues," the alien reflected in satisfaction. "Yes. There was a warning in Al's briefing that humans are very confused about procreation."

"I'm not confused about procreation!" Blake exclaimed in his mind. "It's just embarrassing for others to know that I'm thinking about it."

"I'll think about the shielding problem," the alien replied. "Do I get a name like Caleb gave his Companion?"

"Yes," Blake replied. "I thought Aaron would be a good name."

"Why Aaron?" Aaron asked.

"Names have meanings," Blake replied. "I found two meanings for Aaron. One meaning, with a Hebrew origin, was 'enlightened'. The other had an Egyptian origin and was 'Kingly Lion'. I liked both, so I thought it would be a good name," he concluded with a shrug.

There was silence in Blake's head for a moment, before Aaron said, "Thank you, Blake. I like the name. I'll figure out the shielding thing."

Kim's Companion wasn't being as helpful.

"You are not my mother, and I don't need another conscience. My own works perfectly fine," Kim yelled, silently, in her mind, at her Companion.

She had finally lost patience with the intruder in her mind, after her Companion had proceeded to tell her, chapter and verse, how she should conduct herself in the future. It was all Kim could do not to start yelling out loud. She also had more sympathy for Caleb's frustration with dealing with his own Companion. They were intrusive little creatures.

"I'm not trying to be your mother, and I'm certainly not trying to be your conscience. That would be way too much work," the alien retorted, just as angry. "Al's briefing said that I have to protect you. That is what I will do, whether you like it or not."

"Protecting me is not telling me who I can have for friends, and where I can go," Kim explained icily. "It means warning me of dangerous situations, and helping me defuse situations that I may find myself it. You can even change my 'filtration system, ' whatever that means, so I can't get a buzz, if that's what protecting me entails. But, you will NOT tell me who my friends will be. I will not stand for it."

"Very well," the alien said sullenly. "Don't be surprised if you end up agreeing with me, after you hear what they think," she added. "Based on Al's briefing, some peoples true feelings can be pretty ... You may be a disillusioned when you hear them for yourself," the alien concluded on a softer note.

There was silence between them for a moment, before Kim thought, "I think I'll call you Alice."

"Alice? Why?" Alice asked, startled by the sudden change in the direction of the conversation.

"Because of my favorite story when I was a little girl," Kim said in her mind, a little sadly, realizing that she wasn't a little girl any longer. "The main character was Alice. She fell down a rabbit hole, and discovered a very strange world. I think I kind of know how she felt, now. I always felt like it was some great adventure. Now I know how afraid she must have been."

"There's no reason to be afraid," Alice said soothingly. "I haven't cataloged all your memories, but I found the one about Alice. Thank you for the name but, was that a true story, or a not true story, fiction? I can't tell from your memories."

"It was very real to me," Kim replied in her mind. "I can't speak for everyone that read that story, but it was very real to me."

JJ wasn't worried about what the alien in her head was going to tell her to do, or what the alien was going to do to her body. She was past those kinds of concerns. Her goals in life had changed in the last twenty-four hours. She was looking forward to getting a little extraterrestrial help in accomplishing her newly defined goals.

"Al gave you an overview of what your purpose is, didn't he?" JJ asked her alien.

"Um ... yes," her alien replied uncertainly.

Her human wasn't as timid, and unsure, as Al had told her to expect. Maybe there was something wrong with Al's human. She would need to talk to Al later, and compare notes.

"Good. I don't care what you think that you need to do to protect me," JJ continued, barely giving the alien time to answer. "As long as you help me in accomplishing my goals, everything else is fair game for you. Does that sound okay to you?"

"Um ... yes, I guess. What are your goals?" the alien asked.

"Aren't you reading my thoughts?" JJ asked surprised.

"I just got situated so we can speak," the alien said defensively. "I haven't had time to categorize all your memories. Besides, voicing your goals makes it easier to accomplish them."

"My primary goals are to protect my children, and Caleb," JJ enunciated clearly in her thoughts. "All three have the normal dangers that anyone in this society faces. Maybe Caleb's dangers are a little more than normal because of his job."

"There is also the added danger to Caleb from General Branch," JJ continued. "By this evening, I want you to have everything I know about General Branch, conscious, or unconscious, cataloged. He is the most dangerous threat to us, right now. Is it hard for you to communicate with the other Companions?"

"No. It isn't hard at all," the alien replied. "As we speak, I am getting more information from Al, and discussing some of it with Aaron and Alice. At least, I'm discussing the information that may impact you."

"Who are Aaron and Alice?" JJ asked, startled.

"Kim and Blake named their Companions," JJ's alien explained, and she really tried to keep all accusation from the tone of her thoughts.

"Oh," JJ thought. After a moment she continued with, "I should probably give you a name, too." She was silent for a moment before softly thinking, "I think I'll call you Amy."

"Why?" Amy asked.

"When Blake was born, we couldn't tell what his sex was before he was born because of the way he was positioned," JJ thought wistfully. "We had to pick out a boy's name and a girl's name. Amy was the name we picked if we had a girl. It means 'beloved'."

"Thank you," Amy said in her mind. "I will do everything in my power, and yours, to protect your family."

"Thank you, Amy," JJ said.

The grimaces, scowls, frowns, and smiles weren't missed by Collette. She was surprised her husband or brother hadn't made a comment on all the expressions crossing her daughter's and grandchildren's faces. Who has expressions like that when they're not even in a conversation?

The mother and children had answered questions, and contributed to the normal table conversation that one would expect at a family get together. But, their conversations lacked the spark that Collette was used to when talking to them. Her daughter was smart as a whip, and if anything, her grandchildren were even smarter. Usually, Collette was hard pressed to keep up with her grandchildren's conversations. Something was going on, and she was going to get to the bottom of it.

Collette thought that JJ and Caleb had had sex already, when they first arrived. Then, after Caleb proposed, she didn't know if the proposal confirmed that they had sex or not. She didn't agree with sex this early in a relationship, but JJ was an adult and pretty level headed. By the end of the meal, Collette was fuming.

Caleb set his fork down with a sigh of satisfaction. He sure hoped JJ could cook as good as her mom. He jumped when Collette slammed her fork down on the table.

"You're done eating, so spill it!" Collette ordered. "What's going on?"

"But, Blake and Bill are still eating," Caleb protested, enjoying teasing JJ's mom.

Through Al, Caleb could feel Collette's frustration at not being able to figure out what was happening. He was pretty sure that Collette was a force to be reckoned with, and the only way to stay one step ahead of her, would be to keep her off balance.

"Bill isn't company, and Blake would eat the table if we let him," Collette rebutted his argument.

"How about desert?" Caleb asked, trying to sound plaintive.

"I'm going to feed you some desert where the sun don't shine, if you don't tell us what's going on," Collette growled.

JJ blew some iced tea out her nose at her mom's words. Blake choked on a bite, and both Kim and her Uncle had to pound on his back to knock out whatever had been stuck.

"Bran, your sister is a potty-mouth," Bill complained to his brother-in-law.

"I gave up any claim of control over her when she married you," Bran protested. "Not that I had any before. She's your problem, now."

"Okay ... Okay," Caleb said, laughing at Collette's scowl, and Bill and Bran's antics.

Caleb's laughter stilled after a moment, and his face turned serious as he considered how to explain this to JJ's parents. He had thought about this moment, and was no closer to a solution than he was the night before, when he realized that it would need to happen.

"Have you checked for bugs?" Caleb asked Al.

"I have, and there are none," Al replied. "The only risk is if your or JJ's cell phones are switched to broadcast. That is a low probability, but still possible. I don't know if I would detect it if that happened because the signal is always there."

"Thanks, Al," Caleb said, before reaching for the phone on his belt.

"JJ, would you take the battery out of your phone, please," Caleb asked, as he proceeded to remove the battery from his own.

"Sure," JJ said, as she fished her phone out of her purse. When the battery was out, she asked, "Why did I need to do that?"

"Because, I think General Branch only has your number and mine right now," Caleb explained. "Al said that there are no bugs within hearing, but he couldn't vouch for the cell phones because the signal is always there."

"And, after finding the tracker on the car this morning, you don't want to take any chances," JJ said, nodding in understanding. "Thank Al for me. I never would have thought about that."

The atmosphere around the table had suddenly become very tense, and very serious.

"Caleb, you're making it sound like my daughter, and grandkids, are in danger," Bill said slowly, careful of his words like many large men. "I think Collette's right. You need to explain what's going on, right now. While you're at it, maybe you can explain why all three of them have looked like they had ants in their pants all during the meal."

"You noticed that?" Collette asked in surprise.

"I'm male honey. That isn't quite the same as being blind and deaf, despite what you might think," Bill said drily.

"Amen," Bran snorted.

Caleb took a deep breath, as the other's laughed at Bill, and leaned back in his chair as he let it out. He met JJ's gaze, and she nodded. He nodded back and took another breath before beginning.

"JJ told you that a rocket landed on my camp in the desert the other night. That was a lie, but she had no choice but to tell it. An extraterrestrial space ship crashed on my camp, and living beings were aboard..."

It took over half an hour to finish a bare bones version of the story, with all the questions from Bill, Bran, and Collette. None of them looked happy.

"So, you endangered my daughter and grandkids," Bill rumbled his version of a summary.

"Yes, Sir," Caleb said. "My only defense is that it wasn't intentional. Sir, my Companion, Al, the being that lives in my head, is billions of years old. Something like this hasn't happened in the history of his species. To say that it was unexpected ... well, 'understatement' doesn't begin to describe it adequately."

"What was all that wiggling around about?" Bill asked.

"It normally takes a Companion around twelve hours to become acclimated enough to communicate with their host," Caleb explained. "It was just over twelve hours, since they received their Companions, when we sat down to eat. You were witnessing their first conversations with beings from another world, or maybe a different dimension."

"Telling us what happened..." Collette began, but stopped and shook her head, trying to get her thoughts straight. "This information is dangerous," she started again, stating her own version of a summary. "You have put the three of us in danger by telling us. I've just met you, young man, but my intuition tells me that you wouldn't intentionally endanger us without good reason. Why did you tell us?"

Caleb met JJ's eyes again. He nodded, and JJ turned to the table to explain.

"Uncle Bran has cancer," JJ said. "Al says that it's pretty advanced, and that he'll die if it isn't fixed." She looked at Bran and asked, "Have you been to a doctor, yet?"

Bran was looking at his plate of food that he had been pushing around with his fork. He was pale, and strain could be seen in the set of his eyes and mouth. He had wanted this visit to be a happy one, free of worry about an insidious disease.

He nodded in resignation, and said, "I waited too long to go to the doctor. I was feeling bad, and didn't have an appetite. I thought it was just the stress of the project that I was working on. I didn't have time to stop to go to the doctor. I waited until the phase of the project we were working on was finished, to make an appointment. I got the initial prognoses last week. Then, they took a biopsy and did a lot more tests, and I got the results back the day after Thanksgiving. That's why I couldn't fly in until Friday night."

"What did the results of say?" Collette demanded, anger and fear warring in her voice.

"That the cancer has metastasized, and that it is aggressive and fast moving. It has spread to my lymph nodes, now, and there's nothing they can do," Bran said softly. He looked at his sister with a crooked, sad smile, and said, "The doc said three months ... tops... if I'm lucky. Or maybe that's if I'm unlucky," he shrugged and said. "The pain has already started. That's what the pills that I'm taking are for. The pain will continue to escalate until the pills won't be enough to dull it. Then, I'll just wait until the end."

Bran shook himself, pulled his shoulders back and raised his head before looking around the table with a bright, forced smile, and asked, "Does anyone need someone killed? Bad cop? Old boyfriend that was particularly obnoxious? Crooked Politician?" He snorted and added, "How can you tell a crooked politician from a straight one? The answer is..."

"Bran," Collette said in warning.

Clearing his throat, Bran continued saying, "Anyway, the point is, I don't have to worry about the consequences, now."

"Ooo-Rah," Bill said softly to his friend.

The call of solidarity, and determination to face whatever may come that they had shared in their hitch in the Marines, eased Bran's smile. He didn't need to force it as much, and that helped him focus on immediate concerns.

Bran turned a grim expression towards Caleb and said, "I don't know how you found out about my cancer, but you had no right to announce it. This is the last holiday that I can spend with the people that I love most in the world. I wanted it to be a happy occasion, but you took that away from me. Why?"

JJ answered for Caleb, softly saying, "Because we don't want it to be your last holiday with us, Uncle Bran."

"I don't know how well you listened, or how much you believe of what I told you, but it was all true, Bran," Caleb said. "Al said that he can heal your body, as in get rid of the cancer, but it will take time. I'm going to have to spend some time with you. JJ, Kim, and Blake should be there too, so their Companions can learn from Al. He can show them the memories later, but I've learned that memories and first-hand experience are like comparing a black and white film to a colorized version."