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A month has passed since Chapter 38. During all this time Wanderer has been living with Jared and Jamie. At first things were slightly strained between Wanderer and Jared, but Jamie was in such a happy mood and would talk to and about Melanie so often that things became a little easier on all of them. “We were … sort of happy. Both Melanie and I.”
Unfortunately a week before the chapter begins Jared, Jamie, Geoffrey, and Trudy left on a “short” raid and both Wanderer and Mel are sick with worry. Ian is doing his best to cheer Wanderer up, but neither she nor Melanie are having any of it. Ian finally tells her he needs help with an important project, so she relents, only to find out his “project” is a game of soccer with Lily and Wes. She is completely against it at first, but agrees when Ian guilts her into it. “Ian hugged me with what Melanie thought was unnecessary enthusiasm. “You’re my very favorite person in the known universe.”"
Melanie is suddenly excited by the chance to run and compete. “It felt good: the stretch and pull of muscle, the sweat of exertion rather than plain heat, the teamwork with Ian.” Ian and Wanda win the game and Wes wants a rematch, but Lily is too tired: “Don’t be a sore loser,” Lily said, reaching out to tickle Wes’s stomach playfully. He caught her fingers and pulled her closer to him. She laughed, tugging away, but Wes reeled her in and planted a solid kiss on her laughing mouth.
Wanderer gets a moment to talk to Lily alone, and Lily confesses: “It was Wes’s… reaction to you that surprised me. I didn’t know he had so much depth to him. I was never really aware of him before that. Oh, well. He’s too young for me, but what does that matter here?” She laughed again. “It’s strange how life and love go on. I didn’t expect that.”
Once Lily finishes her adorable gushing, Ian challenges Wanderer to a game of one-on-one and Melanie is more than happy to accept. Mel is angry when she realizes Ian is just letting her/Wanda win, and gives Wanda taunts to throw at him like “Tell him he’s playing like a girl.” Nothing works to make Ian play to his full ability until Wanda proposes (despite Mel’s objections), that if Ian wins he can sleep in the room with her until Jared and Jamie get back. This lights a fire under Ian, and he wins easily.
Ian is obviously becoming more enamored with Wanderer, doing things like absently putting his arm around her waist and even asking: “Do you think Melanie would make you very uncomfortable if I were to kiss you right now?” Unfortunately, Mel makes sure Wanda spurns his advances.
Suddenly, noises are heard around the cave. The raiding party is back! (Ian grumbles to himself; no sleeping next to Wanderer.) Wanderer runs up to the plaza where most of the group is and finds Jamie. She is so relieved that grabs his shoulders and pulls him into a huge embrace. After her moment of elation she finds out that Jamie has been hurt and freaks out just a bit. Jamie says that he tripped with a knife in his hand and cut himself a few inches above the knee. Everyone assures Wanderer/Melanie that the injury is nothing, and that Jamie just needs to lie down. Trudy is acting shifty, especially when Wanderer asks about the rest of the raiding party. (Although Jamie says Jared is okay, Wanda and Melanie want to see it with their own eyes.)
Wanderer knows something’s up that she’s not being told about, and that it’s going on in the hospital. Once Jamie is lying down Wanderer effectively, if bumblingly, gives everyone the slip and runs down the tunnel toward the hospital, afraid of what she is going to find.
