Page 54 of The Alien's Major Dilemma

He reached for a towel and realized he hadn't thought to grab one so took her tank top and used the mostly clean parts to wipe Marissa off before handing her the shorts.

"Hey, Cooper," John yelled from the door.

Cooper covered Marissa's body with his and turned just in time to get hit with a bundle of clothes. The door closed and Cooper took the shorts from Marissa and dropped them with the wet tank top and his discarded clothes.

Once they were both dressed, he picked up the dirty and damaged clothing, put her various soaps back in her bag, handed both bundles to Marissa and picked her up.

"I can walk," she told him.

"Of course you can," he answered. "And I'll let you. Eventually. Some day. When I'm certain there isn't someone waiting around the next corner to take you away."

He could tell she felt like she should argue with him but decided to relax into his arms instead.

Chapter 23

Time to rest and heal had been rare in Marissa's career and she was determined to take advantage of whatever time she could. She had almost a solid twenty-four hours before someone came looking for her. Most of it was spent cuddled up with Cooper, both of them asleep or resting quietly, with occasional interruptions by members of her team with food or news.

It took longer than she'd expected for someone to come with a summons to the Base Commander's office after the 'guests' arrived. They'd managed to find replacements for most of the uniform pieces that had been lost and a set of civvie clothes that almost fit Cooper.

When he'd protested that he'd prefer to wear a uniform, Marissa had gently reminded him that he wasn't there as a spy any longer, but as a representative of his people. It had madehim visibly uncomfortable and she wondered if he'd ever spent much time out of uniform.

The walk to the office was slow but less painful than she'd thought it would be. Moving her head too fast would still make it throb but she was less light and sound sensitive than she'd been the day before. She knew some of that was Cooper doing whatever he could to shield her from pain.

Her memories skittered away from the other things he'd shielded her from. She'd deal with those eventually. After they were past the immediate crisis.

Maybe.

Her team was walking with her to the office, on unofficial and self-appointed guard duty, and John opened the door to the Commander's office for her.

Marissa took a step into the room and stopped abruptly. Cooper stopped just short of running into her and hissed in pain with the weight on his still-healing toes.

"Major, come in," the Base Commander said from behind his desk.

"Sir," Marissa started and glanced over at the lizard woman sitting in one of the visitors chairs.

"I understand you've met Ae-cha Da," he said. "She approached us with an offer to help."

The lizard woman stood and faced Marissa and she could feel Cooper bristle against her back. She put her hands together and bowed.

"I deeply regret the misunderstanding that led to your mistreatment in our home," she said. "It is my hope that any help I can offer would make up for it in some small way."

A derisive snort came from further into the room and she realized there was another lizard man. Marissa couldn't decide if she just hadn't noticed him at first because her attention hadbeen taken up by Ae-cha or if he had some ability to blend into the furniture.

"Sir, I don't think I'm qualified to comment on whatever offer has been made," she said.

"On the contrary, I think you're uniquely qualified to comment," the Base Commander said. "Though I acknowledge the difficulty you might have in doing so. Most of what's coming next is above my pay grade but we have immediate concerns that need to be addressed and I would like your input."

"Yes, sir," Major Ozark said and stepped further into the room. She took a chair by the unknown lizard man as it was the one furthest from Ae-cha. Cooper stood behind her left shoulder and she could feel his determination to keep her safe.

The small room felt very unbalanced and she got the feeling that nobody really liked Ae-cha very much.

"Since you've met Ae-cha Da already, I'll introduce our second visitor. This is Zoric. I understand your people don't use surnames?"

Zoric nodded. "We've adapted some of our naming conventions to the humans we've encountered but our history has not been conducive to creating surnames. We have other methods of distinction which aren't relevant and would only serve to confuse."

"Do you use historic names," Cooper asked. "Or are you using an existing database?"

"A little of both," Zoric said with a nod. "I am named for one of the first of my line to land on this planet."

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