After a long excruciating walk from the living room, Aura having to hold Adan up the entire time, the two of them finally had made it to the bedroom. Though as the hour hit four am, it seemed that Ilian was still the only one of the three of them getting any sleep at all. Not that that thought was very comforting either. The longer it took him to return to consciousness, the less likely it felt that he would at all.

“So, you still awake?” Adan murmured, the pain still clear in his voice from where they both now lay staring at the ceiling above.

Aura turned her head slightly toward the clock on the stand next to the bed before answering. “Well, it’s only four, so yes,” she sighed softly.

Adan made an attempt at shaking his head at her response, since it was one of the only parts of him he could move without too much pain. Though the pain was still there, considering his entire left portion of his torso had taken on a purplish hue, which only lent more credence to the theory that that weapon had indeed caused some sort of internal injuries. Though without Ilian’s knowledge any guess at the degree of those injuries was pure conjecture.

“I seem to be having a bit of trouble sleeping tonight too, it seems,” he stated with a soft sigh.

“But it’s been such a peaceful and trouble free week,” Aura returned wryly. “Miscarriages for me. Poisonous toxins for Ilian. Alien visitors shattering half your bones and probably collapsing your heart and lungs. What could possibly be keeping you awake, Adan?”

“Well, I was just gonna say mind-numbing pain, but yeah, that all may be possible causes too,” he returned her sarcasm, though sadly.

Aura frowned as she moved to her side, pushing herself up to her elbow as she looked down at him. “Sorry, do you want me to get you more Ibuprofen?”

Adan blinked slightly at the mention of the drug, considering. “No, you should save it. At least until--” he then rethought the statement.

“Until what?” Aura narrowed her eyes. “You’re in pain, Adan, come on.”

Adan scoffed, “I doubt anything less than Morphine would help with this particular scenario, Aura.”

She continued to frown at him not answering her question, but moved on, for now, “I could see if there’s some of that I suppose.”

Adan let out an attempt at a wry laugh, only to regret that due to the pain in his lungs that it resulted in. “I’ve never been a masochist, but I’m still not sure I wanna risk getting hooked on that shit. All things considered.” He sighed again. “We should at least wait ’til Ilian wakes up and looks me over before I start injecting myself with anything too hardcore.”

“But you’re in pain,” Aura argued weakly.

“Kinda getting used to it at this point,” he mumbled.

“Obviously not, if it’s making it impossible for you to even sleep.”

“As you pointed out, there are other reasons keeping both of us awake right now.” Adan let out another sigh. “I don’t know how you survive on like two hours of sleep a night, Aura. It’s amazing you can even function at all, honestly.”

“Yeah, that’s me: Amazing,” Aura returned sarcastically.

Adan managed a smile up at her in response to her tone, “Well, pretty sure you’re the only one who was still standing after our close encounter of the fourth... or fifth kind, is it? I honestly don’t even fucking know. But the fact remains that me and Ilian were down for the count, and you kept it together. You are amazing,” he added more gently, reaching his good hand up to gently touch her cheek.

“I think ‘together’ is a subjective term,” she whispered, sniffling slightly at the reminder of the horror of the day. “So, until what?” she asked a moment later.

“Hmm?”

“You said I should save the Ibuprofen until something. Until what?” she narrowed her eyes down at him once more.

“Um,” he tried to find a good answer to that, one that would not result in him having to mention Ilian’s secondary goal when going outside. One that could very well have been directly responsible for him being spotted by the dead thing that was now laying in the entrance hall of their underground home. “You know, until you need it again,” he decided on.

Aura let out her own scoff then. “I doubt that will be any time soon. You can barely move, and we still don’t know what all was damaged, Adan.”

“Well, I wasn’t suggesting that as a way to deal with our current insomnia or anything, Aura. Was just trying to be optimistic I guess.” He then added, “And just because I may be outta commission at the moment, it doesn’t mean that Ilian will be. After the last time he nearly poisoned himself with that shit, wasn’t that when he actually woke you up in a particularly eager way?” he smirked.

“You can’t be serious right now,” Aura replied sharply.

Adan was then the one with the puzzled look, “Just trying to lighten the mood, Aur’.” Another pause, “And again, I didn’t mean right at this moment. I promise.”

She just turned away and lay back down, turning her back to him and hugging the pillow to her head. “Besides, I don’t need the Ibuprofen. If it ever actually happened again, Ilian could just do what he did before.”

“What thing that he did before?” Adan asked, wishing he could sit up and turn toward her rather than speaking to the back of her head, but that was a futile hope.

“When he told me I was pregnant, he found a different way to trigger the miscarriage. I don’t need the pills anymore. Assuming I ever need them again at all,” she added in more of a mumble then.

Adan wasn’t sure what part of that to address first as he was at a loss for a moment. “Um, trigger it?” he decided on.

“Yes, he could make it happen without pain,” she managed, though her voice was still nearly too quiet for him to hear.

“Wait, he made you have the miscarriage?” Adan asked with shock, attempting to sit up anyway, despite the pain.

“I asked him to, Adan,” she assured, though her voice was still just as low.

Adan had to struggle to find words for another moment, “Exactly how did he actually make you have a miscarriage again?”

“A painless miscarriage,” she reiterated, finally turning to lay on her back again and look up at his worried expression. “And I don’t know how he did it. He just did it. He is a fucking alien. In case you forgot,” she finished with a bit of bitterness.

Adan shook his head down at her, “So he just what? Laid his hands on you and made you lose the baby?”

“Pretty much,” Aura admitted with a sniffle as she averted her eyes.

“He can do shit like that?” Adan’s shock continued.

“Did you miss the ‘fucking alien’ part?” Aura retorted. “Cause I sure as hell didn’t miss that. At least not anymore, after today,” she added more quietly.

“Fuck,” Adan breathed, not sure what else to even say then, as he laid his head back again, both of them sinking deep into their own thoughts once more.

By afternoon, Adan and Aura had finally at least given into a couple hours of sleep before actually remembering that they might actually need to eat at some point. Aura had just been returning from taking the dishes to the kitchen when she couldn’t help a wary glance towards the glass doors of the living room. She swallowed hard as Ilian was finally just beginning to stir, at last.

Ilian pushed himself to a sitting position, wincing slightly at the after effects of his exposure to the black seeds. Aura had removed his helmet before leaving him to recover on the sofa, however he was still wearing the rest of the hazmat suit, which he then looked down at with a sigh. Just as he climbed to his feet to remove the suit, he glanced around the room.

He narrowed his eyes at the fact that the bag he had taken with him on his foray into the outside world was still resting on the floor, next to where he had lost consciousness after the intense chase back to the bunker. He sighed heavily as he absently pulled the suit down his arms and legs. Discarding the suit, he moved toward the bag, only to cast a wary glance at the steel doors.

As though just putting together the events of the previous day in his head, he cast a worried look around the room. That was when he found Aura watching him through the glass doors as she remained in the hallway. Her expression was troubled, and she quickly averted her eyes once Ilian noted her there.

He took a few shaky steps toward the glass doors and slowly opened one. “Aura, you’re OK?”

“OK? Also a subjective term,” she mumbled more to herself, still not able to look up at him.

“Last thing I remember before I passed out was him shooting at us. What happened?” he asked quietly, afraid of what her answer would be.

Trying to force down her urge to flee from this conversation right then, she made herself answer, “He shot Adan.”

“No...” Ilian choked on the word as he cast another look at the living room behind him, as if trying to find evidence of her statement. “I’m so sorry, Aura,” his voice cracked as he moved toward her as though to embrace her. Aura quickly stepped back from the embrace though, causing Ilian to look even more pained by her reaction, though he supposed it was understandable. “I should’ve been more careful. I hoped I could lose him before I got back here. I knew my resistance was nearly running out though, and I wanted to...” he just looked down sadly, knowing any excuse would be futile. “I’m so sorry,” he whispered again, not able to meet her eyes then either, knowing she’d never forgive him for what had happened.

“We don’t have time for any of that now,” she made herself force back her own emotions then. “You have to tell us if he’ll be OK.”

“What? Us?” he looked back at her, perplexed by the statement.

“Yes, we have no clue what that weapon actually did to him. We’re assuming you can tell us though,” she added, still not able to look directly at him.

“You mean Adan’s not...” Ilian shook his head. “Adan’s alive?” he asked with both shock and relief.

“You thought he...” Aura finally allowed the briefest glance back up at him. “Yes, but he’s in massive amounts of pain. We don’t know how much damage it actually did.”

“But he’s actually alive, and conscious?” Ilian repeated in continued surprise.

“He’s conscious now. And yes he’s still alive. But if he’s got internal injuries or something, he may not be for long. Come on!” Aura told him a bit roughly as she moved to lead him down the hall toward the bedroom.

“How?” was Ilian’s greeting as they reached the room where Adan had been propped against several pillows as the two had eaten their lunch earlier.

“How?” Adan stated, with a mixture of emotions on his face, only a portion of which was relief at Ilian’s return to consciousness.

“You shouldn’t even be alive,” Ilian breathed the words as he moved toward the bed.

“Thanks,” Adan returned wryly as he looked down.

“I mean, I’m glad you are but...” Ilian shook his head again as he approached. “That weapon should have... done a lot worse,” he settled on.

“Like blowing me into a million pieces?” Adan retorted, then added, “We caught the news that first night, before TV died too.”

“Are you sure it was the same kind of weapons they were using on the news?” Aura interjected, not really directing the question at either of them specifically.

“I’m not sure what weapons were on your TV, but the one he had: It’s definitely meant to kill your kind.”

“But not your own kind?” She then made herself ask, “So, why didn’t it kill Adan?”

Ilian was quiet as the two looked back at him with fearful and expectant expressions. “I guess for the same reason that the black seeds no longer kill me. At least not immediately,” he made himself admit, though he looked just as shaken as them by the theory.