BJ slowly woke, the sun shining through the window blinds just enough brighten the room. It must have been morning.

She took a deep breath before opening her eyes and stretching, not sure if she hadn’t dreamed the past day.

She smiled to herself. The bed was so much softer than a floor. She looked down at the pretty comforter covering her. It was decorated with big flowers in pink and purple. She would never have chosen it; it was too girly, but that didn’t mean she didn’t appreciate it.

Todd was curled up against her. They had been given adjacent rooms, but Todd had quickly snuck over to her room, afraid to be alone in this new place. He told her there had been a guard at the end of the hall, but the guard either hadn’t cared or didn’t see him.

Each room also had a private bathroom, with hot water. She imaged this was what it was like being in a luxurious hotel.

While they were watching the movie in the medical center, someone had come with some fresh clothes for them. She hadn’t asked where they’d come from. She was just happy to have something clean to wear. The clothes fit relatively well. They were also given a T-shirt and shorts to wear to bed.

There was a knock at the door. Todd stiffened, opening blue sleep-filled eyes as a second knock sounded.

“Annalisa?” BJ recognized the voice as that of Dr. Martin. “May I come in?”

BJ got up to go to the door. There was no peephole for her to look out to make sure the doctor was there alone. She stared at the door, trying to decide if she should open it.

“Anna, we know Bobbie’s with you. It’s okay,” Martin said.

They were in foreign territory. This wasn’t their turf. She was going to have to trust these people to a degree, unless they did something to destroy that trust. She unlocked the door to let the doctor in.

Dr. Martin smiled at her. “I hope I didn’t wake you,” she said.

BJ shook her head, moving out of the way so the doctor could enter. Todd was sitting up in the bed, rubbing the sleep from his eyes.

“I brought some things for you,” Martin said. “Toothbrushes and paste, soap.” She held out a bag. “Why don’t you and Bobbie get showers and brush your teeth? You can wear the clothes from last night again. I’m going to take you to the cafeteria for breakfast, then Princess and Keyop are going to take you shopping for some new clothes.”

BJ sat down on the bed in shock. They were going to buy them clothes? New clothes were expensive.

“We don’t have any money,” she pointed out in a low voice.

The doctor took the bag into the bathroom. “It’s okay. This is on ISO.”

“The ISO? What’s that?”

“The Intergalactic Security Organization. This is one of their bases.” BJ still wasn’t sure what she meant. It must have been clear on his face because Dr. Martin chuckled. “You really have been out of the loop, haven’t you?”

‘Who’s Princess?’ Todd signed. BJ translated. It was just automatic for her to do so. Actually, she wanted to know, too.

“Princess is Jason and Keyop’s adopted sister. There’s also Mark and Tiny.”

“Is her name really Princess?” BJ asked. She wouldn’t want that kind of name. It would result in too much teasing.

“It’s her nickname. Her real name is Sondra, but hardly no one calls her that anymore. Aren’t you getting hungry?” Martin asked, changing the subject.

Actually, BJ was. They had been given small turkey sandwiches with the fixings, as Keyop put it, shortly before going to bed.

Todd nodded vigorously, almost falling out of the bed in his eagerness to get out of it. BJ had to smile. He signed ‘Me first’, heading straight for the bathroom. That was one thing about the house they had been living in: it had still had running water, so they risked taking quick cold showers weekly. She hadn’t thought about the fact they probably stank from body odor. The thought was embarrassing.

While Todd got cleaned up, Dr. Martin asked to check BJ’s ankle. She had actually forgotten about it. It hadn’t hurt when she got out of bed to open the door. “It didn’t ache all night, did it?” she asked, sitting beside her on the bed. BJ shook her head.

She shook her head. She had tried to stay awake all night to guard Todd, but had finally fallen asleep at four. The clock told her it was now almost nine.

By nine-thirty they were in the cafeteria. BJ couldn’t remember having seen one let alone been in one. Todd was looking around with wide eyes. They were both getting stares from the various workers and military personnel, being the only children there. Todd’s scarred neck was exposed, but he didn’t seem to care at the moment. He was looking at all of the food with awe. BJ was too busy getting the knack of using crutches. Dr. Martin had insisted she use them for another day or two even though her ankle wasn’t hurting.

Dr. Martin deposited them at a table with seating for four while she went to get the food.

She returned a few minutes later with a full tray. She placed a bowl of cereal, glass of milk and a bowl of mixed fruit in front of each of them.

“Don’t overeat,” she advised as she deposited the same on the table for herself. “Stop eating as soon as you feel full. You’re still going to need a few days to adjust to steady meals.”

BJ stared at the food. They hadn’t had fresh fruit in a while. Todd was already digging into his.

She liberally sprinkled sugar over the Cheerios, then poured some of the milk from one of the glasses onto it. She’d only taken a few bites when she heard a familiar voice.

888

Jason slowly woke, so groggy at first he wasn’t sure if he was really awake or not. The pitch black room didn’t help with that assessment. He knew there was a clock on the nightstand beside the hospital bed he was in, set only to illuminate if touched.

He lay for a moment in the silent dark, accessing how he was feeling. His head felt as if it had cotton in it, but that was ten times better than the one thousand strong drum line that had been in it before. A combination of the drugs that allowed Dr. Rafael to adjust their cerebonic implants usually left the cottony feeling behind.

He reached for the clock; he knew exactly where it was from memory since he had been in the room so often over the past three years he no longer counted the times. 

The migraines had started just as they were ramping up for the war with Spectra. Diagnosed as stress-related, they had quickly become debilitating.

The Chief found no record of them in his family, so they had turned to Dr. Rafael, the inventor of their cerebonic implants. He had tweaked Jason’s implant to combat them. The first try had made them worse and ‘Jason’s Cave’ had been born to remove the sights and sounds that aggravated the condition. The second try had worked, but they’d found time wore on the tweak so that the process had to be repeated every so often.

Jason reached for the lamp, also on the nightstand, turning its control to gradually bring up the intensity to test his eyes. There was no pain, so he turned the light up full.

The chair beside the bed had a clean change of clothes for when he felt like getting up. The room also had a private bath. He really needed a shower, so he slowly got out of bed. To his relief, he wasn’t dizzy, which sometimes happened after having his implant tweaked.

Once he was cleaned up and dressed, he left his cave, finding one of the nurses manning the station to the restricted G-Force section of Medical. She smiled when she saw him.

“Glad to see you up,” she said. Jason recognized her as Veronica. “Feeling all right?”

“Yes. Much better,” he answered. She reached across the desk for a piece of paper and handed it to him.

“It’s from Chief Anderson,” she told him. He opened it and read. “I’ll tell him you’ll be there?” she wanted to know.

“Yeah. No problem.” He had expected the Chief would want his version of what had happened. But first, he needed some breakfast.

888

“Hey.” BJ looked up to see Jason standing next to the table, a tray of food in his hands. “Good morning. Care if I join you?” he asked.

She couldn’t help but smile. He looked a lot better than he had the day before.

“Feeling better?” Martin asked as Jason took the seat beside her. BJ looked at his plate. He had a stack of pancakes, two fried eggs, a pile of hashbrown potatos and toast. His cup was steaming with dark liquid, so she assumed it was coffee.

“Yeah. Rafael worked his magic.” He looked over at her and Todd. “I heard it was a high ankle sprain. I wanted to tell you again that I’m sorry I hurt you.” He seemed genuinely chagrined.

BJ shrugged. “That’s what I get for trying to steal your car.”

“Regardless, I’m still sorry,” he said. “I heard Princess and Keyop are going to take you shopping.” He reached for his toast and the butter.

“Dr. Martin said Princess is your adopted sister?” she asked around a mouth full of cereal. She was hungrier than she realized. It was as if her stomach knew food was readily available now and had every intention of making her eat as much of it as possible.

“Yeah.”

“So you, Keyop and Princess are all adopted,” she continued, still curious about what he had said about being like them.

“Yes and we have two other brothers, Mark and Tiny.” That was what Dr. Martin had told her.

“Hope you’re not using my name in vain.”

The voice was deep, boisterous and joking. A large man had stopped next to Jason. He wasn’t as tall as Jason but had girth to make up for it. He had wild brown hair and large brown eyes and a huge smile.

“Tiny,” Jason acknowledged, motioning with a fork holding a large amount of pancake at them. “This is Annalisa and Bobbie,” he said in introduction.

Tiny’s smile got bigger, if that was possible. BJ felt right off the bat he could be trusted.

“Cloud told me all about you two.” He grabbed a chair from the next table to pull over so he could join them. “Sounds like you’ve had a rough time but you’re safe here now.” His hand slapped the table in emphasis.  The table shook with the impact, drinks sloshing.

“Easy there, big guy,” Jason requested, grabbing his cup to keep more coffee from spilling.

“Just burns me up when Spectrans start messing with kids,” Tiny said, reaching towards Jason’s tray to snatch one of the two pieces of toast. Jason slapped his hand.

“Get your own,” Jason snapped, grabbing the piece of toast back.

BJ had to laugh. It was clear the two had a good relationship and Tiny having mentioned Cloud made BJ feel even more disposed towards him.

“Jeez. Touchy.” Tiny leaned towards BJ, cupping his hand to his mouth conspiratorily. “He gets that way after a migraine for a little while, so just take him with a grain of salt,” he advised. Jason’s eyes narrowed at him, which had Todd shaking with silent laughter.

“He’s been as nice as he can be to me,” BJ countered with a smile that she got a wink from Jason for.

“Bobbie, right?” Tiny directed at Todd. Her brother nodded. “I told Keyop to make sure he got you both tablets so you can play games with us.”

‘Tablet?’ Todd signed with a frown. Tiny frowned for a moment, then nodded.

“That’s right. You can’t talk, can you?” he asked in a gentle voice. Todd shrugged.

‘Could be worse,’ he signed, which got a laugh from Tiny.

“That’s true. A tablet’s a hand-held computer and phone, this big.” Tiny formed a rectangle with his hands several inches across. “They have fantastic graphics.”

“You mean for video games?” BJ asked. She’d seen something like that in a store once. Her parents had promised her one for her next birthday, but their disappearance had ended that possibility.

“And lots of other things, huh Jase?” Tiny elbowed Jason just as he was placing a forkful of hash browns into his mouth. He nearly impaled his cheek.

“Tiny…” He gave his brother a glare that had Tiny out of his seat in a heatbeat. Todd was shaking with laughter again. BJ couldn’t help but join him. In his haste, Tiny nearly fell over another chair.

“That’s my cue to get some food. See ya later,” he promised as got his balance and backed away.

“Don’t encourage him,” Jason requested, still glaring at his brother’s retreating form.

“There you are.” BJ heard. She turned to find a dark haired young woman coming up behind her, Keyop on her heels. BJ had no idea who the woman was talking to until she stopped beside Jason. The woman was pretty, BJ thought, with vivid green eyes and a pale, flawless complexion that was at odds with her dark hair.

“Hey,” Jason acknowledged after swallowing what he’d had in his mouth.

“How are you feeling?” the dark haired young woman asked, reaching out to lay her hand on Jason’s arm with a familiarity that had BJ frowning.

“Better, but these migraines are getting old,” Jason responded with a deep sigh. “So you’re going to take Annalisa and Bobbie out shopping?”

That got BJ’s attention. This was his sister? That somehow made her feel better about the touch.

“Guess so.” The young woman turned to her. “Hi. I’m Princess,” she said, sticking out her hand. BJ shook it, not getting the feeling Princes was happy about the idea. Actually, she looked to BJ as if she was rather put out about it.

“Annalisa and this is Bobbie,” BJ said, motioning to her brother. Todd waved. At least when she looked at Todd, Princess’ eyes softened.

“Hi,” she told him, then turned to Dr. Martin. “When can we go?” she asked the doctor.

“Use my car,” Jason said, fishing keys out of his pocket.  Princess took the keys with raised dark eyebrows.

“Which one?” she asked. What did she mean, BJ wondered.

“Your choice,” Jason said with a smile. A look passed between them that BJ didn’t understand.

“They’re ready to go as soon as they finish eating,” Dr. Martin answered Princess’ question. BJ was pretty much done. Todd finished his milk, signaling he was ready.

“I’ll get the car and meet you out front.” Princess pointed at BJ’s crutches. “The garage is around the back. It’s too far for you to hobble.”

“Thanks,” BJ said, smiling. Princes turned to walk away without returning the smile.

Keyop stayed, immediately reaching a hand towards Jason’s plate. Jason smacked it away.

“What is it with you two,” Jason said as Tiny came towards them with a full tray. “Get your own.” He raised a fork in a threatening manor. Keyop backed off with a laugh.

“He gets…touchy - ”

“After having a migraine,” BJ finished for him, getting her own glare from Jason, “according to Tiny,” she added.

‘They hurt,’ Todd signed, his amused look turning serious. ‘Real bad.’ BJ translated for Dr. Martin.

“That’s right. Anna said you get them,” Jason said, turning to Dr. Martin. “You might want to check him over for them.”

The doctor had sat up straighter, her eyes becoming serious. “You’re awfully young for them, Bobbie,” she told him. “Did you have them before you were shot?”

Todd shook his head.

“He started getting them this past year,” BJ told her. “I thought it could be his eyes, or we…” She looked away, suddenly embarrassed. “We weren’t eating well.” Her eyes suddenly stung. If her inability to provide Todd with the proper food had permanently affected his wellbeing…

She felt a hand on her arm. BJ couldn’t look up. If she did, the tears would spill over.

“It’s okay now, Anna. We’re not going to let anything happen to either of you,” Jason told her. His hand squeezed comfortingly.

“Anna, poor nutrition can cause really bad headaches, but once the nutrition has been restored, the headaches go away,” Dr. Martin said, adding her hand to Jason’s on her arm. But there are many things that can cause headaches. I’ll run some more tests tomorrow so we can find out what’s going on.” BJ opened her eyes to see the doctor was also directing her words to Todd. “Do you get auras?”

Todd frowned at her.

“Lightning bolts,” Jason said, his hand still on BJ’s arm. It was warm and reassuring.. By the time he pulled it back, she had regained her composure. “That’s my warning I’m going to get a migraine,” he went on. “I get this squiggly line that appears in my vision. The line moves up and down like the drawing of a lightning bolt. It flashes like a strobe light.”

BJ had watched her brother. He had listened to Jason’s description and halfway through began to nod vigorously.

“The pain hits about ten to twenty minutes later,” Jason continued. Todd kept nodding.

“Those are classic symptoms,” Dr. Martin confirmed. “We’ll check further tomorrow. How often do you have them?” Todd turned to her.

“Three or four times this past year. I’m not exactly sure,” BJ supplied. Dr. Martin nodded.

“We better…get going,” Keyop interrupted. “Don’t want…to keep Princess…waiting.”

BJ saw Jason sign at Keyop as she reached for her crutches. Keyop smirked. It took her a moment to realize Jason had signed the letters ‘PMS’.

“What’s PMS?” she asked, rising from her seat with the help of the crutches. Jason’s face reddened as Dr. Martin chuckled.

“Serves you right,” she told him, then turned back to BJ. “Anna, we need to have a long talk about becoming a young lady later,” she told her. BJ shrugged.

“Okay,” she said, wondering what that meant.