Follow James

They'd split them up after they got to the police station. He'd been yanked through getting fingerprinted, and pulled into a hot metal room. He thought that was just a t.v. drama thing...apparently not. He'd been waiting, with a knot in his stomach and feeling ready to puke, for hours now. Finally, the policeman that had been with the officer that had driven him here came in. He sat down across a table from James and set down a tape recorder.

"Officer Alan, badge 10392, interview 1. Subject is James Stewart... Mister Stewart. You're being interviewed before any formal charges are made, but currently you're being looked at for possible kidnapping of a Novaxan. That's a federal crime, due to the nature of their lives here."

James tapped his foot nervously. Were they treating her this way, too? Trapped in some hot box to dry out? "She's safe, right?"

"Aurora - the Novaxan woman. She's safe, right? Somewhere with water?"

Officer Alan didn't hide his surprise. "Well...no, she isn't...we wanted to ask you about that. What did you do with her hydration suit?"

"She didn't have it when I found her. Please, get her in a tub or something she's been out for close to too long already."

Alan leaned forward, extremely curious. "How do you know that?"

"I just...look, get her into some water and I'll tell you everything. Hook me up to a lie detector if it helps, but don't let her just dry up. She'll die..."

Alan stood up and made for the door without turning off the recorder, "Just...give me a moment. I'll talk to the others about that."

James sat as still as he could for several minutes. Alan came back sooner than he expected. "Okay, so here's the deal...you tell us everything. Where you first encountered the Novaxan woman, and why you kidnapped her. Everything. Then we'll get her into a tub of some sort."

James clenched his jaw. They're holding her life against him... Are they allowed to do that? Shit.

"Fine, fuck....okay. I found her last week...exactly a week ago, today. She was almost dead, curled up in my back yard."

"And you didn't call anyone?"

"Hey, literally right before that I was a quiet guy living alone with nothing unusual okay? All I knew was, all of a sudden, there's a dead alien on my grass!"

"So what compelled you to kidnap her?"

"I didn't, I put her in my bath tub and got her hydrated. She hissed at me and started turning red, I freaked out, she made nice and threw half my food across my living room, ate moldy yogurt, and we had to sleep!"

"But you called out of work the next day."

"See, by then I'd had some time to think. "Why did a Novaxan woman end up nearly dead and naked on my back yard?"...nothing really came up that could be a good thing. I know they're placed in homes on purpose, so what if me making a call sends her back to whatever the reason for it was?"

"I see...and why didn't you call the police about any of this?"

"Because she's just end up back in the same situation either way. I needed time to find out what happened, so we could tell someone who could help why she ended up there!"

"And your mother and sister know because?"

"They found out through surprise visits... I convinced them to help me find out what happened. After we found out, I was going to call someone so there could be an investigation or something."

"And where in all of that does a forged hospital visit come in? Why go to those lengths?"

"I...that was my aunt. As a favor to my mom...neither of them knew yet, though. I'd been telling them all I called off of work for a week-"

"Ah. Telling who? Who is "all" in this case?"

"Everyone else there, my mom, sister, and my boss. I told them a friend was in the hospital, because it wasn't...completely a lie. On the second day Aurora was there, she tried some of my coffee. She liked it so much she tried to drink it right from the pot, and when that burned her mouth she freaked and spilled it all over her front."

"Mmm...and that's the reason you're going with for the bandages, I take it?"

"Wha- yes! Because that's what happened! I did a bunch of searching online for treating burns on people and on fish and I tried them both. It seems to be working okay, she's healing pretty well."

"And you know this because?"

"Because I've been the one changing her bandages, fuck... that's when I called out, and that's when she started learning english."

"And why didn't you say anything to the men from the placement program when they came by?"

"Same reason I didn't call them, I still didn't know what happened to her...I still don't."

Alan stood, and stopped the recording. "Well. I'll be back after I show this to the people who need it."

"And get her in water."

Alan looked at him, slightly confused. "...And seeing about having that done, yes. Sit tight."