Outside Meerkat for the moment, Monday early afternoon.

[izzyalienqueen]

After spending a lazy morning sharing coffee with Jack and then visiting Janet, Elizabeth, and Tempe over at Pangolin, Isabel changed into her running clothes and went outside to stretch.

[locked to someone who knows who he is. Okay to say they ran together. Conversation itself is NFB]

Comments

[like-a-sponge.livejournal.com]

Meerkat and Stickbug? Kind of close together. Which would be why when Greg left his cabin for his afternoon run, he immediately noticed Isabel.

"Um. Hey," he said, waving and distracting himself by tying a shoelace.

[izzyalienqueen.livejournal.com]

"Hey yourself," Isabel waved back, attempting and failing to keep from smiling extremely brightly. "Going for run?" she asked.

[like-a-sponge.livejournal.com]

"Um, yeah, actually, but I could run like, somewhere else if I'm going to annoy you," he said awkwardly.

[izzyalienqueen.livejournal.com]

"What?" Isabel asked, surprised. "Never. Besides, I thought we were going to run together on a non-rainy day. Doesn't this count?"

[like-a-sponge.livejournal.com]

"Sure," Greg said, shrugging and standing up as he stretched up on the balls of his feet. "Today's fine, I guess. If I'm not in the way or anything."

[izzyalienqueen.livejournal.com]

"You're not. I promise. Why would you think that?" she asked. "I like your company." Because statements like that generally induced blushing, Isabel turned and pointed towards a path that led off into the woods. "I was thinking of heading out that way. What do you think? Maybe it'll end up at the water."

[like-a-sponge.livejournal.com]

"Sure. Water sounds nice," he said, looking at the path. "Ready when you are."

[izzyalienqueen.livejournal.com]

"Then I'm ready now." Flashing him a grin, she started down the path, quickly settling into an easy jog. "Try and keep up," Isabel called over her shoulder with a laugh.

[like-a-sponge.livejournal.com]

Greg followed, using long strides to easily catch up and match her pace. "It's a challenge, really," he said teasingly as he ran beside her.

[izzyalienqueen.livejournal.com]

"Smartass," she grinned. "You lead then. I'll follow." Isabel slowed her pace just enough so that Greg pulled ahead. It was easier that way, you never knew when the path would get narrow. And the view wasn't bad either.

[like-a-sponge.livejournal.com]

Greg glanced back at her over his shoulder a second later, and called, "So, how's the whole cabin thing going?"

Because talking about anything but what Jamie had told him? Infinitely preferable.

[izzyalienqueen.livejournal.com]

"Aeryn and I decided that interesting is the word of the week," Isabel laughed. "Because seven girls and one guy with completely different personalities living in close quarters for a week? Is definitely going to be interesting." Careful to pay attention to the surface of the path and avoid anything she might trip on she continued, grateful that the pace wasn't fast enough to make her huff and puff. "Alanna and I discussed who would be the first to break and run screaming back to civilization in the dorms, I nominated Zack to be the official creepy crawlie remover and Dawn and I discussed stargazing."

[like-a-sponge.livejournal.com]

"Sounds fun," Greg noted, also mindful of the path. Or possibly just finding the ground fascinating. "Glad you're liking it."

[izzyalienqueen.livejournal.com]

"For the moment it's fun. Ask me again on Friday. I might be ready to burn the place down by then," Isabel smiled. "How's your cabin? Did Peter ever get to mess with Charlie's bed? By the way," she added casually. "I stopped by yesterday but you weren't around. I like the new decor."

[like-a-sponge.livejournal.com]

"Cabin's fine, Peter didn't do the bed thing yet, and yeah, he told me you were by," he said a bit shortly.

He veered off the path into a small clearing that overlooked the water as he felt a stitch start to form in his side, and slowed to a stop.

[izzyalienqueen.livejournal.com]

There's only so long a person can stay happily oblivious. "What's up with you?" Isabel asked, curious because this was not the happy Greg she'd grown used to. She kept moving, slowly walking about the clearing as she let her heart rate slow down.

[like-a-sponge.livejournal.com]

"Nothing," Greg replied, stretching out his side. "Why?"

[izzyalienqueen.livejournal.com]

Isabel paused, tilting her head and studying him, as she tried to find the right words. "You just don't seem like you. Is there something wrong?"

[like-a-sponge.livejournal.com]

Greg sighed, and with a shrug, finally said what was bothering him.

"Betrothed?"

[izzyalienqueen.livejournal.com]

"Betrothed?" Isabel repeated. "Oh my god, you heard about that?" She sank down on a large, conveniently placed rock and buried her face in her hands.

[like-a-sponge.livejournal.com]

"Jamie told me yesterday," he said with another shrug. "It's not a big deal. I mean, I get having commitments or whatever."

[izzyalienqueen.livejournal.com]

Isabel made quiet plans to kill Jamie. "It is too a big deal. Because it's really not a big deal no matter what he said. I told him it's a hell will freeze over before it happens deal," she said vehemently.

[like-a-sponge.livejournal.com]

"Uh huh, but isn't it like, a thing?" Greg asked eloquently. "I mean, aren't you obligated?"

[izzyalienqueen.livejournal.com]

She rolled her eyes. "Not if we have anything to say about it. Come and sit," Isabel said, patting the open space next to her. "This might take a while."

[like-a-sponge.livejournal.com]

Greg, slightly reluctantly, took a seat. "Okay. So you're...not betrothed?"

[izzyalienqueen.livejournal.com]

Mentally headdesking, Isabel went for avoidance. "I told you how we came out of the pods. What I didn't tell you is that we didn't wind up in pods because daddy and mommy alien loved each other very much and decided it was time to make baby aliens." She stared off into the distance, focusing on the wind driven waves that stretched to the horizon. "Back on Antar, our planet, Max was king and Michael was his second-in-command. Tess was married to Max, and I was betrothed to Michael. There was a war and somehow, some way, we were killed," she explained, trying very hard not to think of what she'd read about in Special Collections. "Our alien mother somehow managed to combine our alien essence with human DNA and we were sent to here to earth so that we'd grow up, learn to use our powers and eventually return to Antar to save them all."

[like-a-sponge.livejournal.com]

Greg stared at her.

"So you're supposed to go back and save them?"

[izzyalienqueen.livejournal.com]

Isabel nodded slowly. "Yeah, kind of scary isn't it? The three of us responsible for saving an entire planet. We don't know when we're going to go, or how. We sort of lost our way home," she sighed. "But someday we're gong to have to." Isabel closed her eyes and tried to keep her face blank so Greg couldn't see how much the idea bothered her.

[like-a-sponge.livejournal.com]

"And you know it for sure?" Greg sighed, staring at his hands.

[izzyalienqueen.livejournal.com]

"That's the message we finally got last year," she said flatly. "But that message was over fifty years old. So much could have changed since then. We just don't know." She stretched out her hand towards a pine cone and it floated over to her. Plucking it out of the air, she turned it over in her hands, studying it as if it would provide answers. "So many things went wrong when the crash happened. We spent years without answers, wondering who we were, where we were from. We've finally gotten some, but of course they only leave us with more questions."

[like-a-sponge.livejournal.com]

"And you're actually betrothed," he repeated incredulously.

[izzyalienqueen.livejournal.com]

"Maybe in that lifetime. But not in this one. I've spent way too long thinking of Michael as a brother to even try imagining him as something else." The pine cone? Was fascinating. "Besides, he's so in love with Maria..."

"Remember I said we lost our way home?" she asked abruptly. "That's because back in March, when I went home for Alex's funeral we almost wound up leaving then. Ask Peter about the email I sent him," she said with a sad, quiet laugh. "I'm surprised he didn't kill me when I got back here. But the things is, there we were standing in the Granolith, minutes to go before it left, and Michael, who's wanted to go home forever and gave us such a hard time about the ties we have here. Michael chose to stay. For Maria. Because he loves her that much. So as far as we're concerned, there is no betrothal."

[like-a-sponge.livejournal.com]

Greg was quiet through all of this, thinking. He finally said, "Good to know. Um. Not, um, that I had any real reason to know. But, you know, in general." He gave her a shy, genuine smile for the first time that afternoon.

[izzyalienqueen.livejournal.com]

Isabel ducked her head. "It's okay. I don't mind telling you the truth."

[like-a-sponge.livejournal.com]

"Well, I don't mind hearing it," Greg said, a bit nonsensically. "But not for, um, any reason, like I said."

[izzyalienqueen.livejournal.com]

"Oh. Yeah. Of course, no reason," Isabel replied feeling strangely disappointed. "I guess it's time to head back then. I need to track down some lunch."

[like-a-sponge.livejournal.com]

"Right," Greg nodded, standing up and offering her his hand, completely oblivious to any and all disappointment and actually feeling somewhat relieved, himself. "Food would be good."

[izzyalienqueen.livejournal.com]

Isabel sighed softly to herself as she took his hand and got to her feet. Being friends wasn't such a bad thing she reminded herself. "Race you back?" she asked with a smile as she pulled her hand away.

[like-a-sponge.livejournal.com]

Greg smirked and waggled his brows. "Sure. Onyourmarkgetsetgo," he said as he started running like a big cheating thing that cheats a lot.

[izzyalienqueen.livejournal.com]

"Hey! No fair," Isabel yelled as she took off after him.