Her Alien Protector: A Sci-fi Romance

Part 22

The wall unit translates Ava's words. Tarak's eyes are like saucers, his tail thrashing.

Kayla clears her throat. "We are so proud of you for doing this, Ava. Confronting a fear can be hard. Tarak, do you have something you want to say to Ava?"

Tarak's gray eyes bounce from Kayla to Ava, but he stays silent.

Kayla pats Tarak's knee. "Tarak is working on learning to say what is in his heart, and what he would say to you right now is..."

The silence seems to stretch with Tarak opening and closing his mouth, until finally... "Ava, you will always be crew, and I will always protect my crew."

When the wall unit finishes translating Tarak's words, Kayla adds, "A crew is like family."

Tarak and Ava stare at each other. They seem stuck. Maybe I should help them?

"Good job, Ava," I say. "You've made a lot of progress in your treatment today, and if you like you can leave us and go to the other–"

"Stop," says Kayla, flashing her palm at me.

Anger flares through me at the audacity of Kayla to silence me, the behaviorist, during this session.

Kayla's lips move, but her voice is so soft I cannot hear what Kayla says to Tarak.

I nearly jolt when the wall unit both repeats and then translates Kayla's words: "Hug."

What are they doing? I want to enfold Ava in my wings and rush her away to safety.

Tarak's eyes still look like they are bulging out of his head, but his prominent fangs, the ones that often jut out at me, sink into his mouth. I need to squint to see the tiny tips.

In all my decades working with scourges, I can count the number of times on one hand that I have witnessed a scourge making their fangs nearly invisible.

Tarak lifts his big arms, but other than that he stays in his chair and does not move.

Ava shuffles toward Tarak's outstretched arms. Tiny trembles run through her.

I clear my throat, readying myself to tell Ava again that she does not need to do this. Yet again Kayla flashes her open palm at me.

So, we will wait this out. One signal from Ava, and I will enfold her in my wings.

Even sitting in the chair, Tarak dwarfs Ava. No wonder scourges terrify her.

Tarak lowers one of his arms at a glacial pace, patting Ava's back. Ava leans toward Tarak. When Ava backs away, Tarak's arms fall limply to his side, ending their hug.

"Thank you," Ava whispers.

***

At the end of the workday, Ava is asleep on my office couch. She has made progress, but it is evident that it exhausted her. I pull her into my arms and carry her home.

When I arrive at my place, Ava reawakens, and talks to the wall unit, making hand signs at it while I rummage through the cold storage drawers for food options. I grab a few orange pieces of fruit when my wall beeps, alerting me to an incoming message.

"Proceed with the message," I tell the wall unit.

"Important message regarding Ava's evaluation," says my wall unit, and the rest of the message is hard to understand because Ava has initiated film loops of peeping rahonis on three different walls, distracting me.

I turn toward the wall and silence the film loop.

"Repeat the message," I ask the wall unit.

"The required evaluation for Ava has been rescheduled," says the wall.