Chapter Eleven

Nana settled the large pot that she was carrying on the ground and wiped her hands on her pants. She looked down at her palms and saw them streaked with red dirt. Ahead of her she heard a laugh.

“That’s why you should be wearing gloves.”

She flashed Gannon a face, but she didn’t know if he even saw her through his concentration on the planters on the table in front of him.

“You aren’t wearing gloves,” she pointed out.

The hybrid man didn’t stop his work but held up one hand.

“Does this look like the hand of a person who frequently wears gloves?”

He flashed her a smile and went back to carefully transplanting tiny bean vine seedlings into the small pots spread across the table. Nana laughed, but in the same moment the appearance of his palm and the undersides of his fingers was horrifying. They were marked with a complex pattern of scars and callouses, the remnants of the many years that he had spent held captive by Ryan. She didn’t want to know what he had gone through to give him those scars, or what any of the other hybrids had gone through. It was something that she knew that she would one day need to know, but her heart and her mind weren’t ready for it yet. She would talk to them about it when she knew that things had been worked out and that she would be able to handle it. For now, she would simply put it behind her and move on, giving them the help that they desperately needed to have a life ahead of them rather than dwelling on what had been.

“Well, I left mine over on the other side of the greenhouse and by the time that I realized that I hadn’t put them back on, I was already more than halfway here with that behemoth of pot and I decided I wasn’t going to lug that thing all the way back over there so that I could put some gloves on to protect my hands while carrying it. I might as well just keep going because it would end up with about the same in the end.”

“Except that you could have just as easily put the pot down, walked back over to your gloves, walked back, and then picked up the pot again to bring it over here.”

Nana thought about this for a brief moment before feeling incredibly foolish.

“That would have been a far better plan. What would I do without you, Gannon?”

“You did just fine up until we came along,” he said.

Nana started back across the greenhouse to retrieve her gloves before she could allow the emotions that she was feeling to take over. There was levity in the words, but she could still feel their impact. Of all of the people Aubrey brought to her house that night, she had connected most closely with Gannon. This massive, powerful man was something far more than just the weapon that Ryan had designed, and she was unspeakably grateful that they had rescued him from the facility. There was something truly remarkable about him and she wanted to do anything that she could to protect him and help him to discover the life that he really deserved.

He had been in her house for a few days when she noticed him show interest in the greenhouse out back. Though she didn’t ask what drew him to them so much, she could tell that he wanted to see them and explore them, and she brought him with her one morning. Instantly Gannon fell in love with the plants. As the days passed, he became more and more involved with the plants, and more and more invested in the abundance of the fruits and vegetables. Nana had always seen her greenhouses as a hobby, just something to fill her time and sometimes provide her with crops that she could enjoy. In Gannon, though, she saw a purpose, a drive that brought him out before the sun rose and kept him there as long as Nana would permit.

Gannon thrived in the greenhouses. In even the short time that he had been helping her, he had brought new life and lushness to the fruits and vegetables. Though she had always prided herself in the health of her gardens and the wealth of produce that she was able to use in her kitchen at harvesttime. Immediately, however, she recognized that there was something about Gannon that went beyond just her understanding and skill with the plants. He was able to detect issues that she would never have thought of and provide solutions that saved plants she likely would have lost, and coaxed what seemed like the beginnings of a harvest more bountiful than anything that she had ever grown, but it was more than that. He was happier and more confident now than when they first met, and she could see the peace that was coming over him the longer that he spent in the greenhouse. It seemed to be soothing his soul, helping him to forget everything that happened to him during his life.

Nana had picked up her gloves and was starting back toward Gannon when movement out of the corner of her eye brought her attention out of the greenhouse to a figure walking down the sidewalk along the side of her house. A few seconds later she recognized that it was Willow, a young woman who had become a close friend of Nana’s despite their age difference. It had been several weeks since she had seen her, but while she was happy to see her again, she felt suddenly nervous about her coming into the greenhouse and seeing Gannon.

There wasn’t anything particularly strange or startling about Gannon. He was very tall, but times had changed since she was young. Now Earth played host to so many species that it wasn’t unusual to encounter non-humans. Many young people seemed to barely even notice when they interacted with those who were different from them. As she watched Willow approach, however, she knew that it wasn’t this woman’s reaction to Gannon that she was concerned about. Instead it was Gannon’s reaction to her. He had had such little interaction with others and it had taken him time to even trust Nana enough to talk to her without Jonah or Aubrey in the room. Nana’s compulsion was to protect him just as she wanted to protect the rest of those who had come to find solace and sanctuary in her home. She wanted to guard them, to shield them from any more pain or difficulty.

In truth, though, she knew that this wasn’t realistic. She couldn’t expect to simply keep the hybrids and women trapped in her home for the rest of their lives. Eventually they would be healed enough that they would be ready to leave and try to create their own lives, and that meant that they were going to have to be prepared to handle interacting and spending time with people other than those in the house. Willow was probably going to be the best way to start. She rushed toward Gannon and took him gently by the elbow.

“Gannon, a friend of mine is here.”

“Do Jonah and Aubrey know that you invited someone here?”

“I didn’t invite her. She comes to visit sometimes. She has greenhouses, too. It’s how we built our friendship. Besides, I don’t need permission to have someone at my own house.”

Gannon looked stung.

“I didn’t mean…”

“I know,” Nana said. “I just want you to remember that you are alright. Eventually you are going to have a life outside of all of this, and you are going to do just fine.”

****

The door to the greenhouse opened and Gannon turned to see a stunning woman step inside. She looked around and then her eyes fell on Nana and she smiled. He felt stuck in place, unable to do anything but just look at her. She crossed the greenhouse toward them and Nana stepped forward to take her into a warm embrace. Nana stepped back and looked at the younger woman with a smile.

“I’m so glad to see you. It’s been too long.”

“I know. I’m sorry. Things have been crazy. But I wanted to stop by and see how your plants are coming along.”

“It’s still early yet, but I think that I’m getting a pretty good start.”

The woman looked around at the plants nearby, her face registering obvious surprise.

“I would say so,” she said. “These are gorgeous. How have you made them so strong already?”

“Well,” Nana said, stepping back slightly and gesturing at Gannon. “That’s all thanks to Gannon here. Gannon, this is Willow.”

Willow turned to look at him and their eyes met. He felt a strange jump in his heartrate, but couldn’t bring himself to say anything.

“Hello,” Willow said.

She didn’t seem put off by him, and Gannon was immediately taken by feelings that he couldn’t understand. It was a draw, an attraction that he had never experienced. He had never been in a situation that would allow him to be attracted to someone and the sensation hit him hard. He didn’t know anything about what he was feeling except that he wanted to be near her, to listen to her and share these moments with her in any way that he could.

“Hello,” he finally said, not knowing how long had passed since she had spoken.

Willow’s smile widened slightly and she exchanged glances with Nana.

“I haven’t seen you around,” Willow said. “How long have you known Nana?”

Gannon wasn’t sure how to respond. He looked to Nana, who smiled and linked her arm with Willow’s.

“Let me show you what Gannon has been able to do with my tomato plants. I wasn’t expecting anything from them, especially this early in the season. They were just a couple of clippings from my plants from last year, but Gannon was able to transform them.”

Willow looked at Gannon for a few seconds longer and then allowed Nana to guide her away from him. He watched as they made their way over to a row of tomato plants that had been one of the first projects that he had taken up when Nana showed him the greenhouse. It hadn’t escaped Gannon’s attention that Nana had avoided answering the question of how long they had known each other, and he was sure that she wasn’t going to tell Willow how they had actually met, who he was, or where he had come from, but he didn’t know how he should feel about it. He had spent so much of his life anonymous and overlooked, but at the same time he didn’t know how he would have explained it all to her, either. Until this moment he hadn’t thought about what it would be like to encounter someone completely outside of the situation and what it would mean to talk about what he had gone through. Now he was feeling things that he never knew possible and the reality of there being more to life than captivity was suddenly sharp and detailed.

Gannon walked up to the plants and noticed Willow touching the leaves. Her fingers ran over the budding fruits and she turned to him.

“These plants are absolutely beautiful, Gannon,” she said. “How do you do it?”

Gannon shrugged. He couldn’t tell her the truth of why he knew so much about these plants and how to nurture them so that they would thrive and become as strong and productive as possible. Telling her that would be telling her too much. Instead he just smiled at her and reached out to break a wilting leaf off of the vine.

“It’s just a passion of mine,” he said. “I guess I’m good at it.”

Willow walked down the row of plants and touched the growing fruit on another of them. This vine he had trained on a spiral of wire so that it could grow more densely without taking up as much space. She examined the spiral and then looked at him.

“Maybe sometime soon you can come over to my greenhouse and help me with some of my plants.”

Gannon saw Nana’s eyes slide over to Willow but he couldn’t decipher the thoughts behind the expression. Gannon didn’t know how to respond. It pleased him that she would think to ask him to do that and he knew that he wanted to spend more time with her, but he couldn’t deny the nervous feeling gnawing at his belly. Going to her house to help her meant spending time interacting with someone he didn’t know and who didn’t know him. There had been no preparation, no lead-in that would help her to understand his perspective and no guidance to help him understand hers. He would have to figure this out as it came.