"Here goes nothing," she muttered, taking hold of the zipline that ran from the window to Mom's desk. Hopefully she wouldn't be too mad about all of Lina's adventures. She could already hear the lecture she'd get about working on the matter transporter without supervision and how this is exactly what she's been worried about all this time and how she thought she was dead and gone forever.
Lina's chest tightened. But there was no avoiding it. And just looking at Mom made her heart swell with joy. Putting off their reunion because of guilt was ridiculous.
Bain's hand settled on her shoulder and squeezed, giving her the last little bit of strength she needed to finally take the plunge and jump. The feeling of ziplining again was exhilarating; she'd forgotten how much she used to love just flying around on the threads stretched about the room. But just as she remembered how much she enjoyed it, the ride ended and she stumbled onto Mom's desk in a roll.
Mom was still humming to herself, studying data on the computer screen intently, when Lina walked over and got in front of her.
The movement startled Mom first and she jumped, but then she looked closer and her eyes went wide, brimming with tears as her mouth fell open.
"My stars, Lina... Is it really you?"
"Hi Mom," she said, smiling and waving.
Big, fat tears fell from Mom's eyes, splashing on the desktop, getting Lina all wet, but she didn't even care. She was crying too, so happy to see that look of relief on her mom's face. So relieved herself to actually be back.
"Oh, Lina," Mom cried, holding her hand out. Lina climbed aboard like she had so many other times and hugged her fingers tightly, wishing that they were able to embrace for real. Now that she knew what that was like, a real, honest-to-goodness, back-cracking hug from Mom sounded like the best thing in the Universe.
"I know I shouldn't have been messing with your experiments and I'm sorry I was gone for so long... I was trying to get back to you," Lina said, her voice hitching as more tears fell from them both. There was a small puddle gathering in Mom's palm and Lina backed up to the ridge below her thumb to stay dry.
"I'm just so happy you're back," she said, sniffling.
"You're not mad?"
"Oh honey... No, of course not. I was so worried! I thought..." Her voice broke and a new stream of tears fell like a waterfall.
Lina hugged her thumb tight. "I know. I knew you'd be worried. I'm sorry."
"Where have you been? You must have so many exciting things to tell me! Are you okay? Have you been eating?"
Lina laughed and nodded. "Yes, I'm fine... It's... It's a long story," she said finally. "But I made friends... People like me. And..." She didn't know how to bring Bain up, biting her lip, the nerves bubbling over into a full-on tizzy now. It was one thing when she was expecting a lecture. When she thought there would be more emotions than just happiness and relief. It was one thing when she thought that the craziest part of this whole thing was how far she'd gone, but now, glancing back to Bain hiding behind a potted plant on the window ledge, Lina realized he was probably the craziest part about this whole story.
"What is it?" Mom asked, her voice wavering. "You can tell me anything."
Lina held in a laugh about that. Mom probably believed what she was saying, but there were so many things Lina didn't know how to tell her. Like how badly she wanted to go back to Mabnoa and help the Fibbuns find the peace they were after. She took a deep breath and shook her head. That would all come in due time.
"Mom, there's someone I want you to meet."
Mom's eyebrows shot up into her hairline, her eyes going impossibly wide. "Oh?"
"Yeah, but... Don't embarrass me, okay? I really like him."
"Him?" Mom's eyebrows lifted even higher, like they were attached to a string that kept getting pulled tighter.
Lina's face burned hot and pink, but she nodded. "Yes, him. His name's Bain and..." She didn't know how to put the rest of her feelings for him into words. There was so much she wanted Mom to know about Bain, but none of it was really quantifiable. How could she explain how he made her feel light and without a care? How could she explain that he made her laugh when it seemed all was hopeless? How could she say that he brought light to even the darkest of situations, stability to the most precarious times?
"You love him," Mom said with a knowing smile. "I'd know that look anywhere. Alright, let's meet him then. Where is he?"
Lina looked back over her shoulder to the window and Mom stood, still with Lina in her palm, and walked over to the ledge.
When they reached the other side of the room, she placed Lina back on the ledge. Lina crept around the potted plant, grabbing Bain by the hand. "She wants to meet you," she whispered to his look of apprehension.
"Lina, I don't know... Are you sure..."
"Oh, don't tell me you've suddenly developed an aversion to risk-taking? She's just my mom. Besides, I've already met yours and mine isn't even a queen."
He pressed his lips together in a thin line, his eyes still wide with worry and she laughed.
"Come on, you big baby," she said, dragging him out.
Mom still stood patiently by the ledge, her eyes level with their feet. At least she wouldn't seem so giant from up here.
"Mom, this is Bain; Bain, this is my mom."
"It's a pleasure to meet you, madam," Bain said stiffly, bowing.
Mom giggled and squinted, looking at him closely. "He's cute," she said conspiratorially, like he wasn't right there to hear it. His face went bright red and Lina beamed. Not only because Mom was right, but because it was adorable to see him so flustered. "And so polite! It's nice to meet you Bain, please call me Susan."
"If you're certain," he said, still too formal. Lina elbowed him and mouthed the word relax at him.
"Would you like a lift?" Mom asked. "I can get some snacks and you two can tell me all about what's been going on all this time you've been missing." She held out her hand and Lina climbed into her palm without hesitation, but Bain lingered on the window ledge, unsure.
"It's alright," Lina promised, holding her hand out to him.
He took it and she had to yank him onto Mom's palm with her, his whole body rigid.
"What's wrong?" she whispered as Mom carted them across the lab.
His eyes darted up furtively and he shook his head. "I knew she would be huge, but I wasn't really prepared for it..."
Lina snickered. "Don't worry. She's harmless, I swear."
He nodded stiffly again, his hands clenched tight at his sides as he fought to keep his balance without holding onto Mom for support. Lina was more used to riding in someone's hand and kept her arm around him to steady the sway of Mom's steps.
Soon, she set them down on one of the work benches and flitted off for tea and cookies. Of course they'd be drinking drops and eating crumbs, but it gave her something to do and Lina could tell she needed a moment to herself.
"Everything's going to be fine, I promise," Lina said to Bain, expecting him to still be semi-frozen next to her. But when she turned around, he wasn't doing his best impression of a statue anymore, he was darting off to examine all the odds and ends and nuts and bolts scattered over the work surface.
"This is where you learned how to... do what you do?"
Lina nodded proudly. "Yeah, with screws that weigh as much as I do."
"Somehow that makes it more impressive," he said, making her cheeks turn warm. "I mean, how you were able to work on things of our scale after being so used to... this," he said, waving his arms around wide. "This is just... so different," he sighed.
Lina's insides twisted, and her smile fell. "I know, but it's not so bad... and we have each other. We'll get back to Mabnoa."
He sank to the tabletop, leaning against a wrench with his legs stretched out in front of him, and heaved a heavier sigh. "Will we?"
Her frown deepened. It was one thing for Bain to agree to live here with her when he had no idea of what he was getting into, but now it seemed he was having doubts. Second thoughts.
She sat down with him, her head resting on his shoulder. "We will."
"How? The ship is destroyed."
"There's always the way I went before..."
He frowned. "You don't even know how that happened. That's hardly a reliable option."
She leaned into him, nudging his shoulder with hers. "Hey, whatever happened to 'anything is possible' Bain?"
"He found a planet far too big for him and got overwhelmed."
Lina sighed and squeezed his hand. "Throughout all of this, we've had to trust each other and blind faith and somehow those things got us here. I'm not giving up just yet and you shouldn't either. There are people back on Mabnoa who miss you."
"You're right," he said, sounding resigned. "But even if we go back, you'll have someone here that misses you. There's no denying how happy your mother was to see you again."
Lina's heart sank because she knew he was right. It was one thing to tell herself that she needed to go back for some lofty goals, for some noble cause, but knowing that it would make Mom so sad only made that choice harder. It seemed there was no way to make everyone happy. No way to appease everyone from three different species. Who'd have thought that could be such a difficult undertaking?
She snorted at that thought.
"What?" Bain asked, looking up at her burst of soft laughter with a hint of a grin.
She shrugged. "It's just crazy how we're torturing ourselves over not being able to make everyone happy."
"Well, the person I most want to make happy is you," he said, and she couldn't help but grin at the cheesiness of it.
"Same," she said.
"Then I guess all that other stuff will just have to sort itself out. Maybe we can help, but if all we ever manage to do is make each other happy, I think I'm okay with that."
"Good," said Lina with a resolute nod. "Me too."
"I don't know what kind of snacks you prefer, Bain, so I brought some of Lina's favorites," Mom said, flitting back into the lab with a plate of sweets and a mug of tea.
Bain laughed as she set the plate down, circling the offering. "I never thought I'd see a cookie as big as me. Surie would lose her mind."
"I'm not sure even Earth has enough chocolate to satisfy your sister's sweet tooth," Lina chuckled, taking a crumb of cookie for herself.
Mom pulled up a stool and set down a thimble, filling it with tea from a pipette. She sat there patiently while Lina instructed Bain on the different treats, waiting for him to have his tea, perched on the edge of her seat the whole time.
And she was fidgeting. Lina had never seen her mother look so anxious. Though it was understandable, she supposed. There was a lot that Mom didn't know about. That she could only speculate about. Surely it was driving her crazy.
So, taking a deep breath to bolster herself, she went to the edge of the workbench and sat with her legs dangling over the side. "I guess now's as good a time as any to tell you everything," she said, and Mom looked like she might just explode with anticipation. But she didn't. She sat in rapt silence as Lina told her about fixing the transporter and getting sucked in, being sent to Mabnoa where she was found by Bain and his sister, how she made friends on Mabnoa, attended their parties, fixed their things, and made a life for herself among them.
Mom still said nothing as she told her how they'd cobbled together a spaceship to come back to Earth, Bain interjecting details now and then, and the harrowing experience of being captured, only to find out their sworn enemies were not really enemies at all.
She didn't know why she did it, but Lina left out the parts about Vessa. She didn't really want to think about the other woman and she didn't want to make Mom feel inadequate in any way. She'd rather pretend that whole part had never happened. That they were able to talk to the Fibbuns and come to an understanding without that bridge.
And then they finally got to the part where they crashed on Earth and had to find their way back to the lab. Lina also hadn't mentioned her 'magic' yet, but now there didn't seem to be a way around it.
"So we, um... rode, would you say rode?" she asked, turning to Bain.
He shrugged. "Sure, why not."
"Right, so we rode the ivy around the building to find you."
Though Mom had been quiet this whole time, just soaking everything in, smiling in all the right parts, looking worried in others, now she just looked confused.
Lina sighed. "It would probably just be easier to show you." She scurried from the workbench to her network of string that crisscrossed the lab, and climbed back up to the window ledge, Mom following the whole way. Bain went to the edge of the work table, but didn't attempt to navigate her string network.
"What is this about?" Mom asked, sounding stern.
Lina just shook her head. There was no explaining it. Just demonstrating.
"...Just watch," Lina said, reaching out for the potted plant on the ledge. She took a deep breath and closed her eyes, feeling the soft greenery under her fingertips, the gentle humming vibration that came from the leaves. She focused on pouring her energy into the plant, in strengthening the connection between them. And this time, she felt it. She felt the plant respond to her touch, the leaves jumping at the chance to do what she wanted. She opened her eyes and watched as the plant grew taller and bushier, turning back to Mom with a sheepish look.
Mom's mouth hung open, her eyes wide as she babbled under her breath. "What... how... did that just..."
"Apparently," Lina said carefully, "this is a gift that my species has. Bain can do it too. Probably better than me." She looked over to him, watching her from the workbench and he shook his head.
"But you... You just made that plant grow in an instant! Do you know what this could mean? The implications..."
"Mom... Mom, no," Lina said firmly. "Don't. There was a whole war started over this. The whole reason Bain's people were afraid to leave their planet... the whole reason my parents..." Her voice broke into a growl at that word. "The whole reason I was sent here was because there were those who wanted to exploit this gift. It's best if we just keep it to ourselves."
"But you could end hunger! You could save so many lives!"
Lina nodded. "But what would humans do to my kind to make that happen? They wouldn't just let us help when we felt like it. Especially not when they could so easily overpower us or capture us."
Mom's expression fell and Lina felt guilty for it, but she knew she was right. She knew there was no way for them to be benevolent without opening themselves to danger. These were the kind of tough choices their leaders had been making for generations. Probably the same kind of tough decision that was made to originally isolate Mabnoa.
"She's right," Bain said from across the room, scrambling across strings, doing his best not to look down as he focused on Lina. "My people are already fearful. They'd never open themselves up to that kind of uncertainty. And I'd never ask them to," he added, dropping down to Lina's side, slipping an arm around her waist.
Mom sighed and nodded. "Of course. Humans don't have a great reputation for being grateful. If someone gives us something, we only demand more of it, rather than appreciating what we've been given. That is quite the gift you have there though. I can't believe we never discovered it."
"I didn't really believe I could do it when the queen told me."
"The queen?" Mom asked, her eyebrows going high. "You met with a queen?"
Lina swallowed and looked over to Bain. Apparently, there were a few more details she'd left out in her quick recap of the story. She wasn't really sure how to say it, but...
"The queen is my mother," Bain said, removing the dilemma altogether.
"So you're..."
"The prince," Lina said, coughing like she thought she could cover up what a big deal that was by acting like it wasn't. Mom wasn't going for it though.
"A prince? My goodness. That certainly explains the manners," she laughed, shaking her head. "My my, Lina, you've done well for yourself, haven't you? I always worried... I didn't even know if there were others like you. I had no idea if you'd ever have normal things like dating or love... Marriage and children seemed like a fanciful dream when there weren't even any prospects. But I'm so happy for you, dear. To know that you've found your people, that you've found such a nice young man... It makes me happy to know that you'll still be cared for when I'm gone."
"Mom... don't say things like that."
But the doctor shook her head, swiping at tears. "No, I mean it. Every parent wants that kind of happy future for their child and I always wished there was something I could do to make that a reality for you. You were never going to be like any other kid on Earth, but to find this kind of normalcy..." She sniffed. "I'm just thrilled for you sweetheart. And I'm so happy you're here, Bain. I'm sorry I'm such a silly old cow."
"The thing is..." Lina said, rocking on her toes, her heart growing heavier by the minute. "With Bain being the prince, and all this new information we have about their enemies... We need to find a way back." She hated even mentioning it. It felt like a betrayal to her mom. It felt like after everything they went through to get to this point, that she was just saying it didn't matter anymore and they needed to turn around. That her mom wasn't important enough for her to want to stick around. And of course that wasn't the case, but no matter how she tried to rationalize it, it still felt like she was turning her back on everything she'd ever known.
"Well of course you do!" Mom cried. "You don't think I expected you to stay here after all of this, do you?"
"Well... I mean... I fought so hard to get back to you..."
Mom grinned from ear to ear and patted her on the head with one fingertip. "And I'm so glad you did, honey. I was worried out of my mind because I didn't know if you were okay or not. But now I know. And I know you're in good hands. I wouldn't want you to give up all the wonderful things you've discovered just to keep me company! That would be awfully selfish. I'm content to know you're safe and happy," she said with a watery smile.
"Really?" Lina asked, completely baffled.
"Really," Mom said gently. "There's nothing that would make me happier."
Bain's hand came and circled around Lina's waist, squeezing her side. "Look at that, things working out."
Lina smiled at him, but it didn't last long. "We have no idea how to get back though. The ship crashed somewhere out by the fountain and Bain doesn't think that it would be a good idea to fly straight back anyway."
"Well, what about the transporter?" Mom asked.
She looked over to Bain, giving him an 'I told you so' look.
"Is it safe?" he asked.
Mom worried her bottom lip, looking over her shoulder. "I've been working on it a lot since you disappeared, trying to find out where you'd gone, if there was any way to follow you... But the problem is scale. I don't think it will work on anything much bigger than you two."
"But that's hardly an obstacle for us," Lina said, zipping across the room. The others followed, but Bain hitched a ride in Mom's palm rather than zipline across the room. For all his plant-riding bravado, he still seemed a little trepidatious about her network of strings. "The problem as I see it," Lina continued, "is that we don't have a way to dial it into a specific location." She paced around the workbench, examining the parts and pieces of the matter transporter and its clones. Mom had been hard at work, that was for sure.
Mom nodded. "That's true, but I think we might be able to figure that out with the location known. It'll take us a few days maybe, but I don't see why you two couldn't be back on Bain's home planet before the week's out."
Lina's heart felt like it would burst and wither all at once. The thought of going back to Mabnoa, of seeing Surie and Farita again, of being back in her cozy little apartment surrounded by projects, filled her with so much excitement. But the thought of leaving Mom behind, of maybe never seeing her or Earth again, put a damper on that mood.
"I guess we should get to work then," she said, knowing that was the right answer even if her heart protested meekly. Mom wanted her to go and start her own life. That's how it had been for as long as history could remember. Parents raised their kids the best they could hoping that when the time came, they'd be able to forge their own path.
But did everyone else feel so guilty about forging that path? Lina certainly did.
"Tomorrow," Mom said brightly. "For tonight, I think we should spend some time together."
There was no way Lina was going to argue with that. It sounded like exactly what she — what they all — needed.