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Time continues to pass and for Wanderer it all blends together, one, two weeks. She continues to work in the field, but not always with Jeb to protect her. She always at least has either Ian, Doc, or Jamie with her, however. She tries to work twice as hard as everyone else because she feels she has no right to be there. Although they still don’t talk to her, she begins observing the other humans in the caves and learning their names and relationships to each other. Not counting those out on the raid there were “twenty-nine humans in the caves now, and one mostly unwelcome alien.” She also starts studying who lives in the hall with her. She learns that Ian and Kyle shared a cave in her hallway, but Ian had begun bunking with Wes in another corridor in protest of Wanderer’s presence, but had moved back after just two nights. Doc, Sharon, and Maggie also left their caves in protest, but none of them had returned.
Sharon and Maggie “were still the strongest opposition, the only people here whose ignoring [Wanderer] continued to feel aggressively hostile.” Jamie explains that Melanie’s suicide mission to save Sharon was not in vain, and that once Jared had found Melanie’s note saying she was captured and had found Sharon and Maggie and led them to the caves along with Jamie.
Jamie has become comfortable talking to Wanderer about Melanie. Wanderer is worried, however, because Melanie “rarely spoke to [her] anymore, and when she did it was muted.” Finally the subject can no longer be ignored:
Jamie: Do you think she’ll go away? Really gone?
Wanderer: I don’t know. I hope not.
Jamie: Do you like her like you like me? Did you used to hate her, like she hated you?
Wanderer: It’s different than how I like you. And I never really hated her, not even in the beginning. I was very afraid of her, and I was angry that because of her I couldn’t be like everyone else. But I’ve always, always admired strength, and Melanie is the strongest person I’ve ever known.
A few days later, Jeb approaches Wanderer about teaching a class again. She immediately says no. Still, her “refusal sent a pang of guilt through [her]. [She'd] never refused a Calling before. It felt like a selfish thing to do.” Her answer to Jeb doesn’t waver, however, no matter how be tries to convince her it’s “for the greater good” and how people “ought to know more about the universe–not to mention the new tenants of our planet.”
“At mealtimes [Wanderer] usually sat with Jeb and Jamie… Ian always sat near, though not really with us.” One particular night, Doc comes over to Wanderer during dinner, and although Doc continues to make her nervous, she doesn’t move when Jamie grabs her hand. Doc tries to make small talk, and eventually starts to ask Wanderer some questions. As Wanderer reluctantly answers some of his questions, several people look up from their meals (including Trudy, Geoffrey, Lily, Walter), interested in what Wanderer is saying. Wanderer lets Jamie answer most of the questions, because he is eager to impart what Wanderer has told him and only steps in when he is asked a question he doesn’t know the answer to.
Finally the only one not pricked into listening to Wanderer’s stories is Sharon, who continues to purposefully look away. We learn that Wanderer may be thousands of Earth years old, and that souls can live forever as long as they have a healthy host. Wanderer is finally able to slip away back to her cave with Jamie. She realizes, and Jamie confirms her suspicions, that these probing questions are going to continue either by Doc, Jeb, Ian, or Jamie every time they are out in the open for others to hear. That bothers her, and so Jamie asked worriedly if Wanderer hates it here in the caves. She answers “‘I’m fine’… and at that moment, it was entirely the truth.“
