Adaptive

Adaptive -3- Return

The car came to a stop in the driveway. Both girls sat looking out the windshield at the old house. It was home, at least for Jade and... Adam if he was actually here by now. As badly as Jade wanted to jump out of the car and rush in and find out, she was also a little scared to do just that. What if he hadn't made it home yet? She knew he was at least alive and well, as far as she knew, but where had he been?

And, also, there was Cindy sitting behind the wheel and this new... something... between them had Jade craving even more time with her bestie. Looking to her left, Jade saw Cindy looking out the windshield as deep in thought as she was herself. Second thoughts? Doubts? God forbid, regrets? Jade's stomach was in knots. Her heart was fluttering just looking at her best friend as if seeing her for the first time with new eyes. Oh God it was confusing.

As they sat there, wrapped in their own thoughts, the light in the kitchen of the old house came on. Marna was expecting Jade and probably had dinner already waiting for her and Adam. Adam? Was he home? GOD! Jade felt torn. She sighed and turned once more to look at Cindy, who was now looking at her. Those big blue eyes, that cute little button nose... those... lips. Jade groaned almost inaudibly and bit her bottom lip.

"So... Um... Pick you up tomorrow morning?" Cindy asked, then chewed her own bottom lip. Her big eyes almost pleading.

"Cin... we're off tomorrow." Jade replied, then it dawned on her. Cindy was asking to be together on their day off, just the two of them.

"I... I know... but if you don't want to..." Cindy deflated a little thinking that she had overstepped and Jade was turning her down, that maybe she didn't feel the same things that she herself was feeling.

"Oh! No, no, no, no... That's not what I mean... meant. I'm sorry, babe. Um... What'll I tell Mammon? I mean, that we're going somewhere?" Jade said, her mind racing now.

"Uh... I hadn't thought that far ahead, actually." Cindy admitted, both relieved and feeling silly for not having thought this through a little further than just seeing Jade. "Maybe... maybe some volunteer work... you know, helping people out after the storm last night. I don't know."

"Yeah. That would be good maybe" Jade replied, her gaze looking as if she were looking inside herself rather than at her friend for a moment. "Yeah. I guess this is good night then..."

Cindy reached out with her right hand almost touching Jade's face but hesitating just inches away for a moment, as if double checking with her best friend, looking into her eyes, before continuing and brushing her cheek softly. Jade leaned her cheek onto Cindy's hand and closed her eyes momentarily, a warm smile on her lips, before looking at Cindy once more. She nodded and then turned to open her door and get out of the car. She stood and watched Cindy back down the driveway and then drive away. The butterflies were making Jade feel light headed.

From the kitchen window, Marna had watched the two girls say good night. She knew that look that they had shared. She may be an old woman now, but she still remembered her youth. It didn't matter if it was a boy or a girl, the look shared was the same. Marna smiled sadly and stepped away from the window. She herself had experienced the wonder and excitement and doubts that she knew Jade was going through this moment. But it was not her place to help Jade make her decisions for her. That was something Jade would have to do for herself.

*****

It was getting darker by the minute. The sun had already settled on the horizon, not that you could see it from where Kyle and his team mates were gathered by Meteor Lake. The picnic grounds had been appropriated by them for this little impromptu party. Kyle and Eric had built a bonfire and kicked back drinking while the rest of the team had been actually searching for signs of Adam Ronan. It was Kyle's efforts to form the search party, but it was only because his father had ordered him to do so. Kyle couldn't give a flying fuck about Adam to be honest. Of course, he didn't say as much to the team while organizing this little search party... well... the searching anyway, the party he did care more about. Especially if it ended up with him getting laid or drunk of both.

"So, when are the bitches going to get here?" Eric asked in a slightly peeved voice as he crushed a now empty beer can in his hand and tossed it over his shoulder before reaching into the cooler beside his chair and pulling out a fresh can.

"Fuck if I know! They should have been here already. Maybe they are getting food or something." Kyle said before he threw his empty can into the bonfire a few feet away from where the two boys were sitting.

By now, a few of their team mates had begun trickling into the picnic area after having combed the culverts along the road from the bottom of Big Hill Road. They were sweaty, tired and hungry, they all started grabbing beers or soft drinks of their choosing before gathering around the fire. So far, no one had seen or found anything to mention. It was as if Adam Ronan had vanished.

There came the sound of car horns blaring from the entrance to the parking area behind the picnic area where Kyle and crew were gathered. They all turned to see three or four cars full of sorority girls pulling up to park. There were shouts of greetings and elation as some of the guys went to meet the girls and help with moving the food from the cars to the picnic tables. Of course, Kyle wasn't one of those helping to do anything. He and Eric just sat there drinking and exchanged a fist bump with knowing smiles.

"Bout fucking time." Kyle muttered before taking a long chug of the beer in his hand and then belching loudly.

*****

The insistent buzzing finally reached through the fog of sleep and captured Tara's attention. Fumbling for the obnoxious noise maker, she knocked over a half empty glass of soda. Ice and soda ran over the surface of her desk where she had fallen asleep with her head on her arms as she studied for Biology 101. Not that genetic mutations were all that interesting in the first place but to try to study it while being so tired from lack of sleep was probably not a good idea in the first place.

"Oh Damn!" Tara muttered as she grabbed a towel that she had used earlier to dry her hair and dabbed at the wet mess on her desk, and her phone buzzed again.

With an aggravated sigh she reached for the phone and picked it up to see who would be calling. She was ready to let loose a nasty tirade if it was that prick Kyle Williams. Her face softened and she cocked her head to one side with a bit of a surprised smile growing as she keyed her phone before answering.

"Hi... Travis!" She said a little demurely, her smile growing brighter.

"Hi Tara. I hope I'm not disturbing you... I just wanted to... I don't know... talk a little maybe?" Travis's voice sounded through her phone's speakers as she switched to speaker so Tara could continue to clean up her spilled soda.

"Oh! No... not disturbing me. I just kind of... well... nodded off for a bit there. I was studying biology. No wonder I fell asleep at my desk." Tara gushed a little sheepishly, telling on herself.

"Ugh! Biology! I didn't like it in high school, I can only imagine what it's like in college." Travis lamented.

"Oh, it's really not that bad, I was just tired, I guess. So, what's up Mr. Travis?" Tara asked leaning back in her desk chair and twirling her hair around a finger of one hand, idly kicking one foot like a metronome.

"Not much really. I heard something earlier today that didn't make much sense to me though. I was wondering if you had heard the same thing." Travis said with a bit of confused curiosity in his voice.

"Heard what?" Tara asked, cocking her head to one side as she toyed with the neckline of her oversized t-shirt that she preferred to sleep in.

"That Kyle Williams was putting together a search party... to look for Adam Ronan... can you believe that?" Travis huffed with the irony of the words he'd just spoken.

"I can believe he's organizing a party... but to look for Adam? Nahh... I think it's just an excuse to get a bunch of girls out together. I'll guarantee there's alcohol involved somewhere or somehow in all that." Tara huffed and rolled her eyes, even if Travis couldn't see her do so.

"Right?" Travis agreed, and sighed. "I'm glad you're not out with them..." He added, then paused as if he'd spoken something aloud that he hadn't intended to speak.

"Really?" Tara asked, smiling for the first time that evening. Not having missed his slip of concern. "Why Travis Mabry! Do I detect a bit of interest in me from you?" Tara teased back and bit her bottom lip. Travis may not be the pretty boy hunk that Kyle Williams appeared to be, but she sensed that Travis was a deeper, less superficial, man than Kyle could ever be.

"Um... I mean... well..." Travis sighed, biting his tongue but somehow glad that she had asked the question, even if it set his mind to scrambling for something "cool" to say in response, and he couldn't come up with anything. "Yeah, I guess so... I mean... I don't know what to say Tara. I like you, I always have, but I never thought I stood a chance if I... you know... wanted to pursue anything with you." He fumbled with the awkward confession and hung his head feeling a mental face palm, just knowing he had blown it for real.

"Really?" Tara asked.

An awkward silence for a few heartbeats, that seemed to Travis like an eternity, still teetering on thinking she was going to laugh at him or simply hang up disgusted. In the end it was neither.

"Travis? I would have been flattered, if you had asked me out, or that you were interested in me." Tara confessed sounding a little bit shier than Travis could ever remember hearing her.

"You're... you're not pulling my leg are you, Tara?" Travis asked with a voice full of awe.

"No, Travis. I'm not pulling your leg... at least not... um... I mean, I'm serious. I would have been happy to have you showing an interest in me. It might have saved me a lot of humiliation and hard lessons too." Tara sighed then shrugged sadly as she remembered how her infatuation with Kyle had brought her nothing but disappointment and shame. To think someone like Travis might have been interested and the possibilities of what they might have been was kind of thrilling if she were being honest with herself.

"Oh wow!" Travis mumbled in what sounded like humble disbelief. "I... I never thought..."

"Travis... DON'T. Don't think about it... DO it!" Tara all but shouted, and held her breath.

There was, again, an awkward silence on the other end of the phone. Tara thought to herself that she might have scared Travis off. She bit her lip and held her breath, hoping not.

"Tara? Would you... like to go out sometime?" Travis finally asked, the sound of hope in his voice tinged with a bit of resignation as if the answer were already, No.

"Travis... I go out all the time. With my girlfriends, with my family... you are going to have to be a little more specific than that." Tara teased with a girlish little giggle that she couldn't restrain.

She could not see him blushing, or the goofy grin that Travis suddenly sprouted on his surprised face, but Tara could hear his slight gasp before he too let slip a soft chuckle of his own.

"Right! So, to be a little more specific... Tara... would you like to go out with me... sometime?" Travis amended, and again holding his breath for some reason.

"I would love to go out with you... sometime... Travis." Tara giggled openly. "See? That wasn't so hard, was it?" she asked and giggled again.

The continued to talk for another twenty minutes or so until Tara's phone pinged with an incoming text. Having taken the phone off of speaker earlier, she pulled the phone away from her ear to see who the text was from. Seeing it was from her bestie Rene' she reluctantly told Travis that she had to go and would see him the next day when he picked her up for their date. Tara then opened the text messenger on her phone and read what Rene' had sent.

Rather than send a return text, Tara hit the call button and waited for Rene' to answer her phone.

"Oh, thank God you didn't go!" Rene' blurted in way of greeting.

"Go?" Tara feigned ignorance.

"Kyle and his minions organized a search party to look for Adam Ronan this afternoon. I'm pretty sure it was just an excuse to have a party off campus though. He called my sorority house to get the girls to meet him and the football team at Meteor Lake this evening. He told the girls to bring food but that the guys would supply the booze." Rene' spouted sounding halfway amused and halfway angered.

"Yeah, I know. I got a call from Travis asking if I'd been asked to go." Tara smiled to herself as she again twirled her hair with her free hand and gently turning her chair from side to side. "I told him that you had already told me about it earlier today and that I was done with Kyle FUCKING Williams!"

"Travis? Travis Mabry?" Rene' asked.

"Yeah, the one and the same..." Tara sighed openly on the phone and Rene' did not miss that.

"Oh, girl! Don't tell me you're falling for one of Kyle's minions!" Rene' groused.

Tara laughed out loud. It seemed funny to her now, but even one night ago she would have agreed with Rene's outlook on Travis. What a difference a day can make. People change, or at least our perceptions of them can change. She went on to tell Rene' about Travis asking her out and other things they had talked about. Girls gotta talk after all.

*****

"Data? I had a thought." Adam began, holding his phone in his hand looking at it pensively.

"I am sure you have many thoughts, Adam. Which thought might you be referring to?" Data sounded, this time from Adam's phone itself.

"Whoa! That's cool!" Adam responded with a grin before coming back to his thought. "Anyway... I'm going to have to roll around at the edge of the lake to get wet and nasty again as if I've been wandering around in the woods since last night. My phone had already been submerged and the battery had been drained. How would I explain that it's fully charged and in working order now?" Adam queried, then glanced up at Xiba who was only half paying attention to his conversation with Data.

"Subterfuge." Data responded cryptically, before explaining. "I've been able to make your phone appear to be unusable to anyone examining it. I will still be able to monitor all activity and conversations around you of course. And, you can communicate with me without my responding. Same can be said for your tablet. For appearances, you can address your tablet or phone as you would if you were using the built in AI Siri for instance. Simply call my name and then state your command or pose your question. If you are not alone, I will simply respond in kind with the voice of the built in AI or show on your screens in the form of text." Data replied.

"So, my wallowing in the water and mud won't harm the phone or tablet?" Adam asked to make completely sure of what Data had said.

"Not in the least. But only you will know that." Data replied. "By the way, I believe the nocturnal cycle has resumed."

"You mean night has fallen, it's dark?" Adam queried with a wry grin.

"Yes. That is what I said, did I not?" Data replied sounding just a little puzzled.

"In a manner of speaking, I suppose you did, but you need to loosen up a little bit." Adam added while grinning.

"The languages on your planet are so very colorful. Your language, English, is perplexing at times however. So many ways to say the same thing, it can be confusing." Data lamented playfully.

"Adam? I know you must return to your home and resume your life as you and others know it, but..." Xiba began, her head hanging down as if what she was saying embarrassed her. Her face had taken on a darker tinge of blue and Adam now knew that was in fact a blush.

"But you're wondering if I will indeed return to help you and Data recover and repair your ship?" Adam supplied, with a serious but warm voice.

"Yes. I know you don't owe me... us... anything, and I would understand if you didn't want to help us in any way." Xiba began again but with a soft smile tugging at her lips and a hopeful look in her very large very blue eyes.

"Are you kidding? I DIED! You brought me back. Yeah... this whole mutagen thing and changing is still... well... blowing my mind. But I DO owe you... I owe you my life. I will be back. Plus, you will be in constant contact with me if what Data said about my phone and tablet are to be believed." Adam effused, then fell silent as he noted more closely Xiba's outward demeanor.

For some reason, he just knew that she was feeling anxious and for more reasons than just worrying about repairing a broken ship or recouping her viral mutagen and saving her planet. This was something on a far more personal level, something that he had little to no experience in himself, at least, up until now. Adam sensed if not felt a deeper connection, almost like what he felt for his sister Jade... only different somehow.

There it was again. Thinking of Jade only hammered home his compulsive need to go home. He knew the only people in this world that loved and cared about him were deeply worried about and missing him. He needed to set them at ease and let them know he was indeed alive and well, he could figure out moving forward after that was done.

"It should be sufficiently dark now to allow us to surface and move to the shore of the lake for you to disembark Adam." Data supplied, causing both Adam and Xiba to snap out of their perspective thoughts.

"Data, please handle the movement of the life pod. I think it would be prudent to be cautious and remain vigilant of our surroundings and sensor readings." Xiba said in a slightly commanding tone, all the while watching Adam's face very intently. It was almost as if she were longing to say something but couldn't bring herself to say it... yet.

*****

The guys from the team and the sorority girls began paring off as it got darker and the music got louder. They were dancing, drinking and generally having a good time. Kyle and Eric still sat by the edge of the fire as if sitting on thrones. Food was brought to them but mostly they were left alone. Oddly enough neither had a girl on their arm that evening.

"So, where's Tara?" Eric finally asked, as he tossed yet another empty can into the fire.

"Tara who?" Kyle responded with something that looked like a cross between a smirk and a grimace.

"You dump her already?" Eric asked a little surprised, as he reached for yet another can of beer but finding the cooler between them now empty of beer.

"You could say that... Bitch!" Kyle mumbled with a bit of a slur, holding out his hand without looking at Eric waiting for another beer. When he didn't feel one enter his grasp, he looked up to see what the matter was.

"Looks like we're out." Eric said with a shrug and leaned back in his chair allowing his head to loll back and let out a loud obnoxious belch.

"Fuck! You drank the last one?" Kyle groused.

"Who said it was me? Probably was you that got the last one." Eric responded in kind.

"Damn it!" Kyle swore, shaking his head and then regretting it. It took a moment or two for the fire to re-coalesce into just the one fire and the world to stop spinning again.

"Dude!" Eric laughed seeing his buddy look a little disoriented. "Maybe you've had too much." He added after chuckling at Kyle.

Kyle absent-mindedly flipped Eric the bird with one hand and went to stand up from his chair, albeit very slowly. He stretched his arms out and leaned back and yawned then scratched his abdomen and looked around through bleary eyes.

"Fuck... I gotta piss. Why don't you find some more beer before I get back?" Kyle stated more than asked as he half stumbled half staggered towards the shadows on the outskirts of the bonfire's light. Closer to the shoreline, near the bushes would be a good place to relieve himself he thought.