Wed to the Alien Prince by C.V. Walter

Chapter 25

Kaelin knew the look on Aidan's face. He'd heard more than they wanted him to. The only question was how much and if he realized they'd been talking about his mother. She really hoped he hadn't caught that much. He didn't need to worry about her any more than he already did.

"Thank you, Aidan, we'll be right in," Kaelin said with a tug on Serogero's hand. "I appreciate you getting it set up so quickly."

"Yeah, it's easier to get it going when I leave most of it up for mom to use as she needs it." He turned and walked through the door and Kaelin glanced up at Serogero.

His face was clearer to her today and she was glad she'd made peace with what was happening. She was still torn about the fact that she really felt like she should be upset but all she could feel was relief. It was a sign, maybe, that Molly was right and she was letting other people not only dictate her life but the reactions in her brain.

She'd spent so much of her life as the poster child, literally sometimes, for her condition that the thought of doing something to make it better was still hard to fathom. With Serogero, it was easier to think about what she actually wanted and being able to see his face without her glasses was something she hadn't actually considered she could want.

The screen for the video call was up and her mother's number was entered and waiting. She wasn't certain she wanted to know what came up on the other end to indicate where they were calling from.

It look less than thirty seconds for her mother to answer the call.

"Kaelin!" Her mother said, juggling the phone until she moved the camera around to her face. "I was waiting for you to call me again. Where are your glasses?"

"Being on the spaceship has had some interesting side effects," Kaelin said. "Where are you?"

"I am at my reception," her mother said and laughed.

"Your what?" Kaelin asked, shocked.

"My wedding reception," her mother repeated. "Surprised?"

"Yes!" Kaelin said. "When did you decide to get married? We talked, like, three days ago? What the hell, mom?"

Her mom laughed and the joy in her voice made Kaelin's heart clench. "Well, the general asked me to marry him a while ago and I told him I couldn't while you were still unsettled. Because really, K.K., I didn't want you to have to deal with a step-father in the military and trying to date and all the things that go with it."

"You never said anything," Kaelin protested.

"I know baby and I'm sorry," her mom said. "I didn't mean to keep it from you but there just wasn't a good way to bring it up. And I didn't want you to think you were responsible for my happiness or like you were keeping me from living my life and don't tell me you wouldn't have thought that, K.K."

"I, can't," Kaelin stuttered to a stop. "You're right, I would have assumed it was my fault. When did you finally say yes?"

"After you called me the last time," her mom said. "With your young man, I figured you'd be settled and moving on to run your own life and you wouldn't worry about me as much anymore."

"I'm always going to worry about you," Kaelin said. "Both of us getting married isn't going to change that."

"And I'll always worry about you, at least a little," her mom said. "But now you don't have to worry that I'll be alone and I know there will be someone to take care of you when I can't."

"Okay, but when did you decide to get married?"

"Well, we talked it over and I told him I didn't want the big wedding and a bunch of fuss. I'm too old for all that nonsense. So, since we didn't have to wait for a whole bunch of planning and you were going to need to let him know what was going on sooner rather than later, we figured we'd get the paperwork and just go and do it."

"You just eloped!" Kaelin squeaked.

"Yep!" her mom giggled. "I feel like a teenager and this is probably the best thing we could have done."

"I'm happy for you, mom, really," Kaelin said. "And the general. I'm assuming he's there?"

"He is," her mom said and angled the phone to the other side of the room where the general was in one of the least formal outfits she'd ever seen him in and one she didn't think he'd own.

"Well, that's convenient," Kaelin said with a laugh. "Though I didn't think he owned a shirt quite that color."

Her mom giggled. "He didn't. I got it for him for the party. I thought the flamingos were a nice touch."

"Very nice," Kaelin agreed.

"Did you need to speak to him about something?" her mom asked, turning to face the screen again.

"Well, I was planning to speak to you and ask you to talk to him about it but I almost feel like I should call you back on a more secure line."

"Is something wrong?" her mom asked, suddenly all business.

Kaelin sighed. "Yes, but we don't know how badly yet. There's going to need to be a little pre-official meeting contact."

"How soon?"

Kaelin looked back at Serogero and he stepped up next to her shoulder. "Within twenty-four hours, I believe. Can your people move that fast?"

Her mother frowned and Kaelin knew her mind had gone to logistics and what she knew of the general's job. "It's possible," she said. "Though it's not likely. How much do you need from us?"

"Immediately? A clear flight path and nobody to interfere with the operation," Serogero said. "There are things that we'll need quickly but those are the most important."

Kaelin's mom pursed her lips and nodded. "Can I call you back on this number?" she asked.

A glance at Aidan showed him nodding. "It'll take a minute to connect but the number on your screen should ping up here."

"Is that Aidan?" her mom asked.

"Yes, ma'am," he said, coming to stand at Kaelin's other shoulder.

"Young man, your grandmother is worried sick because you haven't called her since you went to meet up with your mother. I know you're busy and I've talked her out of putting out a missing person's report but if you don't want her to cause problems, you might want to call her and let her know you're okay."

"I told her I was going to be out of touch for a while," Aidan said, obviously annoyed.

"She said you were camping with some friends and then planning a through hike on one of those trails you were talking about," she said. "But she expected you to check in at some point and since you haven't she's convinced that you're literally dead in a ditch and is ready to call in search and rescue to go find you."

The frustration on Aidan's face told Kaelin that he really didn't want to call his grandmother but he also didn't want to be the reason a dozen different search and rescue teams were sent on a wild goose chase.

"I'll call her," he said. "But tomorrow. I have too much to get done tonight for this."

"Young man," her mom started.

"Why were you talking to his grandmother in the first place?" Kaelin interrupted.

"I was asking what she knew about what happened at the hotel," she said. "I had the feeling that there was going to need to be some soothing of ruffled feathers. And I was right, by the way, just not the ones that I was expecting."

"Thank you," Kaelin said and nudged Aidan.

"Thank you for talking my grandmother down," Aidan said. "I'm sorry she was being like that."

"Aidan, you know I'm happy to help," she said. "I just need you to tell me that you need it. If I'd known what was going on, I would have had a better idea of how to help and that you needed it before she was nearly out of her mind with worry."

"Yeah," Aidan said. "I wasn't really thinking about that. Sorry."

"It's alright for now but call your grandmother." Kaelin's mother looked over her shoulder and waved. "Alright, K.K., I'm going to find a better line and call you back. With the general if I can get him away from the boys. Fifteen minutes, more or less, okay?"

"Okay," Kaelin said, the anxiety she expected to feel strangely absent. "I'll be available."

The screen went dark then back to the waiting animation that had been on it earlier.

"Why does your mother call you K.K.?" Aidan asked.

"It stands for Kaelin Karen," Kaelin told him absently. "Karen was my grandmother's name."

"Seriously?" Aidan said, looking at her.

"I probably should have asked if she's taking the general's last name," Kaelin said thoughtfully.

"Your mother is Margaret Carter," he said. "And you want to know if she changed it to Margaret Rogers?"

"She can't help what the men in her life are named," Kaelin said. "But I suspect she accepted the date with the general in the first place because of his name."

"Why would his name be important?" Serogero asked. "Did it denote some ancient noble lineage or something?"

"Something like that," Kaelin said. "My mom's a major nerd and, well, the name meant something to her. And you can tell she's kinda scary when she's got a goal in mind."

Serogero nodded. "Yes, I can see how that could be intimidating."

Kaelin grinned at him. She looked up at his face and the room went fuzzy then everything snapped into very sharp focus. "Holy shish kebab," she gasped and her hand shot out to grip his arm.

"What's wrong?" Aidan asked.

The Prince turned to support her with a hand on her elbow. "Kaelin?"

She gulped and blinked hard but the focus didn't change. "Holy crow, that was weird," she said. "It's like someone just redid all the settings on my eyes to force them to focus," she said.

"How does your head feel?" Serogero asked.

"Um, not bad?" she said, blinking more. "The headache is kinda fading a bit, I think."

"What happened to your eyes?" Aidan asked. "Why did you have a headache? Where are your glasses?"

"The glasses stopped working," Kaelin told him. "So I stopped wearing them. Which is where the headache came from, I think."

"Why did the glasses stop working?"

"Because the bio-nanos started changing my vision," she said. "They were just supposed to gather data but they started fixing things."

"Just your vision?" Aidan asked.

"I don't know," Kaelin told him. "And we won't know until we get more information. The vision is just the thing I can tell is changing without any outside input."

"Okay," Aidan said.

"We're doing everything we can do find out just how much is changing," Serogero told him.

"And if it's changing something in everybody?" Aidan asked.

The Prince nodded. "There hasn't been any evidence of it in anybody else that we can point to but we're not taking chances."

"Well, except for the changes in my mom," Aidan said. "But you didn't know it would do that, right? I mean, you knew it would fix the broken stuff but you didn't know what was broken and what was on purpose."

"That is correct," Serogero said.

"Yeah, that's less reassuring than I think you want it to be," Aidan said. "But I get what you're saying. And what you're not saying. I'm cool for now, alright?"

"Aidan, the minute we know anything-"

"Yeah, I know," Aidan said. "And Mintonar's good at what he does."

The screen next to them started to flicker. Aidan turned to it and Serogero squeezed Kaelin's arm slightly. She turned to look up at him and he smiled.

"Everything will be okay," he said.