I shook my head. “It’s different for everyone.”
“I planned to go to nursing school,” he said. “I want to gain my qualification as an R.N.”
“R.N.?” I asked, not knowing what that was.
“Registered Nurse,” he clarified. “They can hand out medicines and have more training and other responsibilities than licensed practical nurses.”
I had no idea what he was talking about, but I was certain that he would be able to be accommodated.
“Shit, I just had a thought!” he hissed a moment later. “We’re going to be living within the Fleet, not down on Earth. Do you guys even use nurses?”
“If I am understanding you correctly, yes, we do. They work with the medics.”
“Medics?” He swiped a hand down his face. “Why do I have the feeling that means something different than what it means down on Earth?”
“I’ve heard our chief medical officer referred to as ‘doctor’ by some of the humans aboard,” I offered.
“Yeah, not the same thing. We call a medic someone who renders emergency care until you can get to a doctor.”
“We have that sort as well,” I assured him.
“And you also call them medics?”
“Yes. What else would we call them?”
He didn’t reply, a look of confused consternation on his features. I knew it was no doubt all very confusing now, but he’d soon grasp the nuances. It was simply a matter of rank and training, after all, that distinguishes one type of medic from another. Much like how the nursing thing sounded to me, actually, though I could be wrong. Regardless, Mitchell would be given the education and training his heart desired, which was the important thing.
An awkward sort of silence fell over us, neither of us knowing quite what to say and hyper aware of our audience and surroundings. I was content to wait for further personal discussions when we’d be away from other ears. He seemed to feel the same way, his attention focusing back on the screen where some impossible-looking chase was happening as the dog and his human companion ran down a hallway, going in and out of doors, sometimes emerging from one dressed in some sort of wacky disguise as the dog giggled.
I shook my head, a small smile playing at the edge of my lips. It was good that they didn’t completely get away and that the monster of the day had their disguises uncovered without much effort. It was an excellent lesson for us all – you can’t run from your troubles, and if you try to hide, you will eventually be found.
CHAPTER10
MITCHELL
I felt sort of disconnectedfrom reality as I sat here in this sleek flying fricking hell saucer, watching Scooby Doo with an alien and his kid that I literally just became the other legal parent to. Oh yeah, let’s not forget how legally, I also freaking married an alien at the same time.
As I watched Fred pull the mask off the villain to reveal who was pretending to be the ghost, my heart thundered in my chest. Not from fear over some jokily spooky kid’s cartoon, but from the realization of the magnitude of what I had done. I’d signed my life away to become the husband of an alien and to become some kid’s dad because I had, foolishly as it turned out, thought I could not possibly be anyone’s perfect match.
And why had I thought that? Because I’d been a dumbass of the highest order, that’s why. I’d listened to all those niggling doubts, the ones fed by the taunts of bullies as I grew up and the nasty words of my misery guts grandmother. The ones that said I was unattractive because my hair was so very, very flame red and my body less than perfectly sculpted. Oh, yeah, let’s not forget how I’d tossed stupid in there too, despite knowing otherwise, because my IQ had tested just fine at school and I’d graduated with a decent GPA that was good enough to apply to the nursing school I wanted the scholarship for. Now that had been the stupid part. Not an intellectual deficit, but a common sense one.
Uh huh, I was kicking myself now. The most unexpected thing about this whole affair, though, was how hard and fast I fell for the kid. Boom! Instant protective dad mode activated! And I also didn’t feel squicked out by Jolar. He was a genuinely nice guy, and it didn’t hurt that he was hot as all get out, either. If I’d been matched to him via the dating app instead of Mr. Jerky McJerkwad, I’d have stayed for the rest of lunch and probably tried to make sure we had a second date, and a third, and a fourth, and so on, come hell or high water. I shifted in my seat, mentally sighing.
But we didn’t meet that way and it’s all ‘Ta da! Perfect match, congratulations to the groom and groom.’I chewed my bottom lip, thinking. It had been a huge surprise to him, too, and we had Neal to think of.Maybe we can take the time to go slow. Have sex if/when we feel the urge, and not just to finish signing off on the paperwork. He’s hot, and I definitely would not mind sinking myself into that tight-looking ass.
My cock twitched, thinking of the firm, pert globes that Jolar’s pants had clung to in all the right ways. Hell, my teeth itched, wanting to take a bite of that juiciness. We could do that, right? Have a good fuck to test out the insane chemistry supposedly bubbling between us, which, yeah, I was feeling, thank you very much. Then once we scratched that itch and dotted our i’s and crossed those t’s for the scholarship requirements of having completed our bond, I could get started on my nursing school. It would be better for the kid, too, anyway. Routine was important for kids, as it showed stability. So, the sooner I began my classes, the quicker Neal would be used to my schedule and it would lessen how unsettled my arrival made him. It sounded like a plan. All I had to do was talk to Jolar about it, once we were home and Neal was finally in bed.
The ceiling, floor, and walls began to turn transparent, interrupting my train of thought, my breath taken away by the sheer majesty of what I was seeing. Earth was below us and with the vividness of the blue and the way the deserts and clouds and land masses dotted and swirled, it was apparent why it was often likened to a blue marble. The blackness of space framed it, making it look as if we were getting an up close look at a treasure in a black velvet-lined presentation box. Turning my head, I saw the truth of it all, though. The blackness reached forever, broken up only by the twinkling lights I began to make up floating around my home planet – satellites, bits of old spacecraft and stations, and the ISS. Oh, and those things that were not little twinkling lights anymore, but slightly larger ones that were getting more massive by the moment.
Then we were approaching one of them, and the sheer scale of the ship hit me. Once, when I was ten, my grandmother drove some friends of hers to where they were going to catch their cruise. It was across state lines and was going to take a few days to get there and back, so she called the school and told them I had tonsillitis. I sat in the back with Mr. Gianni while his wife Frances sat in the front passenger seat. We stopped at a Best Western the first night and a Holiday Inn the second, paid for by the Giannis, who also paid for Granny’s gas and our meals which were always either at a Stuckey’s, Big Boy, or Denny’s. Those had been once in a lifetime experiences for me, the closest I had ever gotten to having a vacation away from home, but were not the highlight of my adventure.
No, that had been once we reached the dock. I’d seen cruise ships on TV, and as we drove down the divided highway towards the docks, I could see the ships there, and they looked the size I had expected from TV. Then we reached it, stood to wave goodbye to Granny’s friends, and it was a shock to the system. The ships were friggin’ immense! We were like ants in comparison. This spaceship, though. Holy fuck, it made the cruise ship look like a gnat. It put into perspective just how big a small city actually was, as that’s what these basically were – floating cities in space, contained within warships ready to defend us in case some of the less-savory beings in the universe decided they wanted what we have.
A small giggle brought me out of my own head. “Your mouth is open, like this.” Neal giggled, showing me. His mouth made a wide ‘o’ and his eyes were as wide as they could go.
“You looked like that when you first came up,” Jolar reminded him.
“And I lookeded funny!” Neal giggled some more. “Stitch said so!”
