Earth

2027

Seven Years Later

Sweat peppered Rory's temples as she shifted her grocery bags. The military base had a bus that she could take, but it had been packed full, and Rory preferred breathing fresh air to the stale stench of overcrowded transit.

"Oh, Rory!" Her friend waved at her from across the street. "Did you decide about next weekend?"

Rory simpered and stopped walking. "I don't think I can. It's so hard for me to get approval for travel and I've been busy with work." Those video games wouldn't test themselves. It had been nice finding work she could do from home and plenty of companies loved the publicity she brought.

Her friend groaned and picked her way across the street toward her when a car passed. "It's just ridiculous that they still make you go through this process. It's a been a decade since you came to Earth and we're all still here. The world didn't end."

"It's for my protection too. I understand."

"You're always way too understanding."

"True." Rory nudged the other woman. "I hope you have fun though. A girl's trip does sound nice."

"I promise I'll plan the next one with more notice so you can jump through all those stupid hoops."

They parted with the promise of lunch later in the week and Rory finished her walk home. After surviving the first few years, both Rory and the rest of the world had managed to accept this bizarre situation, having her here with no memory. They all had adjusted to her as best they could, to the unknown threat that lingered somewhere in the universe. And so they'd let her settle into a life here at Fort Liberty in North Carolina. Sometimes she missed those early days in the desert, but this facility better met her needs and the government's.

Rory wrestled with her front door and pushed it open. The cool air washed over her as the scuffle of little paws on the hardwood floor clashed from the other room. She smiled as the dogs sprinted for her.

"Babies!" She closed the door with her heel and fell back against it when Benji and Chip jumped up on her. Their tongues hung out, tails wishing back and forth. Making kisses at them, she bent and let them both lick her cheeks at the same time. "I'm home. Where's Daddy? Napping or researching?"

Benji barked, twisted in a circle, and sprinted for the living room, but Chip jumped again to try to reach her face. Rory took a detour to put down her bags in the kitchen, which was very distressing to Benji. He ran to the kitchen, back to the living room, and returned to her again, yipping.

"Is he in there sleeping?" She bent to lift Chip into her arms and followed her excited boy to the couch where her husband looked like a bundle of blankets. Must have been a long day.

Kneeling down beside him, she ran her fingers along the thin streaks of gray at his temples. "Theo…" She peeled down the blanket and kissed his cheek. "Let's get you to bed." The dogs bounced between them, desperate to have both of their attention at the same time.

He moaned and reached for her blindly without opening his eyes. "No, I should wake up."

"I know you didn't sleep long last night."

"I'm almost done with the paper." He groaned and squinted. "You're home a little early. I thought you had to get that functional MRI."

"Yeah, I thought you'd need some help tonight. I rescheduled so I can type while you dictate."

Theo smiled and drew her down to his lips, kissing her softly.

"I missed you," Rory whispered against his lips.

"You miss me everyday."

She giggled and kissed him again. "Don't tell me you don't miss me every day too."

He hooked her waist and pulled her onto the couch. Chip leapt on top of her, prying a grunt from her. "Okay. You can cuddle too." She shifted, letting the dogs climb onto them.

Theo closed his eyes as he grabbed Benji with one arm and held Rory with the other. "You know I always miss you too."

"I just like to hear you say it."

He was already drifting off. Nestled close so they could both fit on the couch, Rory closed her eyes as well, enjoying the warmth of coming home to her boys. Benji had settled with his head against Theo's chest, his butt waggling in the air, while little Chip curled up against their legs.

Floating some place between asleep and awake, Rory's worries surfaced, as they so often did. Stress about the press interview they had to prepare for this weekend–like the testing, the interviews had never stopped. Theo's deadline and how the shit they had to do kept getting in the way of that. Whether she'd break out of the funk that kept her from painting.

Eventually she did sleep and woke to Theo gently shaking her. "Only an hour before the journalist comes. We overslept."

Rory jumped up from the couch, immediately greeted by Chip pawing at her foot.

She picked him up and wiped her tired eyes. "I know. We don't like these people always coming into our home."

"The prep shouldn't take long. They want to check the lighting. Ask us a few questions."

"That's what they always say and they always overstay their welcome."

Theo kissed the top of her head. "Okay, grumpy."

Pursing her lips, she jabbed him with her elbow.

The house didn't need much tidying. They cleaned quickly and were fortunately prepared when the journalist and her crew arrived ten minutes early.

Just rude.

Rory smiled as the woman invaded her home. Although, Rory had accidentally invaded earth. So maybe she had no room to complain. "Welcome," Rory said.

"Hi." The reporter offered her hand in greeting.

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As they all chatted, the journalist shared her name, but Rory wouldn't bother remembering. She was one of hundreds before her and hundreds to come.

"So." They sat around the kitchen table with steaming mugs of tea. The journalist was always smiling. "I want to make sure the topics I have work for you. Your publicist approved, but I like to be thorough."

"That's fine." Rory held back her sigh.

"You are okay with questions about your life at Fort Liberty?"

"Yes. Ask away. We'll answer what we're allowed to."

"There's the usual next. Your memory loss, being the first interplanetary–or interdimensional–couple, new theories about you and your people…" Her eyes scanned her list. "What about the fertility issues? Fair game?"

Rory's voice got stuck in her throat. Theo stiffened, but saved them with a gentle smile. "We are not speaking publicly about the matter."

"I'm so sorry. We must have bad information."

"You do." Rory rose from the table to grab a glass for water. "It's off limits."

Rory took a drink even though she really wanted to hurl her glass at the woman. She'd known. She just wanted to see Rory's reaction and gauge the truth of whatever tip she'd received. Their publicist would have never approved that topic. The journalist would jump at a scoop of the failed pregnancies between two different species of human. The intrigue that they could conceive but never a viable fetus. Never a baby to hold in her arms. Plenty of women suffered from the same kind of fertility problems, but Rory was never the same as other women, even when dealing with shared experiences.

"I think we've covered everything." Good. The journalist had the sense to get the hell out of here. "I look forward to our interview on Sunday."

"Can't wait." Rory didn't try to soften her voice.

Theo escorted the woman to the other room where they discussed lighting. Once they all finally left, her husband joined her in her studio, as she stared at her paintings of violet skies and teal grass. It'd been months since she'd painted anything, even though fans were begging to commission her art.

Everyone wanted a piece of her and her world. Too bad she still had no clue what these were even pieces of.

"You okay?" Theo wrapped an arm around her from behind.

"It's wearing on me. I want it to be quiet for once. Just us and the dogs. That's selfish when I've caused so much chaos. But still."

"You didn't cause anything."

"We don't need to have this fight again. However you want me to word it, I came to this planet, and when people learned about me… Children all around the world were terrified aliens were going to invade their world and kill them. It was chaos. People died. The economy took six years to recover and there's literally death cults because of me."

"You didn't cause any of that."

"I didn't? I make choices, Theo. Those choices had consequences. Look… I just need a break." She turned in his arms and laced her fingers over the back of his neck. "Don't you?"

"This is why I've been saying we should vacation."

Rory grinned. "You always manage to work that in there." She rested her head against his chest, aching inside.

His voice came soft against the top of her head. "Talking can help, honey. Talking about why you're really upset."

"Talking can't fix it."

"Come on. Try that thing we learned in therapy. Say the thought that comes up when you silence all the distractions."

"I hate knowing that you can't have a child because of me."

"Rory."

"I fucking hate it."

"You have to start listening to me. How many times do I have to say I'm content with or without children?"

"One day you may feel differently. You've sacrificed so much to be with me. Children. A normal life. Freedom." She leaned back to look at him.

"I'm not a hostage. I want you. I want our life. You're not happy without children, though. We should explore our options again."

"There are no options. No one is going to let us adopt. The assholes of the world will have us tied up in litigation forever."

"Surrogacy."

"She'd have to stay at the base without leaving until the delivery. I can't ask someone to do that. We face enough shit. I'm not putting that onto another woman. They'll eat anyone who helps us for lunch. Or kill her. You know someone would try. They tried to kill me."

"Most people support you now."

"Well, the violent ones have a way of drowning out other's voices. Especially when they have guns and think I'm the devil's spawn. Or an actress who's helping the government manipulate the masses."

"Fine. I'll let you feel how you feel." He drew her head back to his chest and just held her. "It's okay."

She closed her eyes as the memories swept in. It always struck her that she couldn't hold back some things when other parts of her life remained stuck in a bottomless hole. It'd been two years since her last loss and she hadn't wanted to try again since. That time she'd only made it to seven weeks. Half the time as the previous pregnancy.

"I thought it would work this time," She'd whispered it as she sat in the tub, letting her hopes wash away down the drain.

Theo had slid down behind her, legs on either side of her. Holding her.

Her heart had been broken then just as it was now, and her husband couldn't mend it. But he had soothed where the jagged edges tore against her insides. With soft whispers and kisses along her jaw, he'd carried her through another long night.

Something inside her longed to hold a baby in her arms, something she could not satisfy or reason with.

The loss had echoed through the days after and to this moment.

But it wasn't just her pregnancy losses. The old pain flared within her. Hurt she had no memory for gripped her so badly that she couldn't breathe, like hunger pangs from an empty, starving stomach. She'd forgotten whoever she left behind. Whatever she'd left behind. She'd forgotten, but she'd never stopped missing them, no matter how much Theo and their life together filled her up.

Same way Benji still jumped when they dropped something on the ground. Their old forgotten lives never truly went away.

It made her feel guilty, both for moving forward without the people she couldn't remember, and for longing for something other than Theo when she loved him so much.

Rory wanted to accept that she'd lost the life she'd once lived and that she'd never remember it. She wanted it to stop overshadowing the home and family she had now. But the pain never faded. Never even dulled. She loved both Theo and a life she would never remember. Loved two very different things at the same time.

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Laughter filtered in from the open window. Their friends gathered outside, celebrating the paper that Theo had very nearly finished.

"Five minutes for the burgers." Theo grabbed American cheese from the fridge and skirted past her as she arranged the fruit on the platter.

Nights like this made it all worth it. Rory loved pretending to be normal in her backyard as if they didn't spend their entire life stuck in a military base. Like they were one of these families. Mostly, she loved seeing Theo happy. He sacrificed so much for her.

Rory hummed at the kitchen counter as she placed a spoon in the fruit dip and lifted her wine glass to her lips.

A warm sensation trickled slowly inside of her skull. The cup dropped from her hand. Smashed on the ground. Fingers trembling, she reached for her head, but her muscles seized. Body collapsed.

"Rory!"

Theo caught her, held her up. The dogs were barking. World spinning.

Purple splotches spread over her vision until she could no longer see her kitchen or her husband and dogs, but instead a dark sky, faintly glowing violet. The world was shadowy and vague. Moving in slow motion. There were people she couldn't see. Voices she couldn't hear. And then something in her head popped and she doubled over screaming.

Rory came to kneeling on the floor, her hands digging into the hardness of desert ground. No. No. She blinked. Cold tile. Her kitchen floor.

"Honey, look at me." Theo had a phone to his ear. "Her eyes are open but I can't tell if she's actually conscious."

She couldn't make sense of the rest of what he said as her mind slipped back to the shadowy world. Her heart hammered.

"Theo…"

Knowledge as elusive as the shadows of that world spun through her mind. After thousands of nights on an alien planet with no idea of all that she'd left behind, she remembered. Not everything. Not much. Just pieces floating in her mind.

The loss over the past decade escaped as a deep moan. But there was no time to feel it. Because if Rory was finally remembering, it meant that woman had allowed her to. The woman who'd sent her to earth. The woman whose eyes burned in her mind now after ten years of forgetting. "Theo!"

Rory met her husband's eyes, sweat slithering from her hairline.

"They're coming."