#et's

The walls were covered with pictures of Big Foot, ghosts, and UFO’s, and for Marianne it had become home. There were very few places she felt safe, but in that tiny office with agent Bog King, Marianne always knew she could be herself.  

King was shoving his long arms into the sleeves of his long brown coat as he walked, and Marianne had to do a little jog to catch up with his lengthy strides, careful not to spill a drop of the precious liquid.  

Bog’s hand stretched out to his side and Marianne inserted the coffee cup. This was routine for them.  

“Ah, that’s good coffee Faye” Bog complemented, smacking his lips after tasting the drink.  

Marianne rolled her eyes at his gloating. They’d had a little bet going last night on who the killer was on the episode of CSI they were watching, looser buys coffee in the morning. Marianne had lost.

“You know, for some reason, free coffee just tastes better, dornt you agree, Tough Girl?” he asked, still rubbing in his victory as they stepped into the elevator.

“Yes, and I’ll be the one enjoying a free coffee tomorrow” Marianne challenged.

“Oooh, yer on.”

“So, where are we off to in such a rush?” Marianne asked, finally able to take a long swig of her own coffee.

It tingled pleasantly as it made its way through her internal system waking her up.

“A UFO, just crashed landed not too far from here, I figure we could be the first on scene.” Bog said enthusiastically.  

He still had most of his coffee to drink but he was already bouncing on his heels.

Note to self, do not bring King coffee on days UFO’s are expected to be sighted, Marianne thought to herself.

“Remember last time you thought you saw a UFO,” Marianne cautioned, “and it turned out to just be an old satellite.”  

She didn’t want him getting his hopes up, but still a hard lump had lodged itself in Marianne’s chest. Marianne hated playing the role of the skeptic, hated how everyday she had to come into work and lie to her partner.  

“Nah, this is the real thing” he said with confidence, still slightly bouncing, “Ah can feel it in my bones!”  

The pair climbed into Bog’s black 1956 Cadillac Sixty Special, a car that Bog’s father had owned and spent a lot of time on. The radio came on, blaring tunes from Bog’s favourite local rock station and the two were off. Yup, just another normal day for agent’s Faye and King.

This was easily Marianne’s most favourite place to be. Riding shotgun while Bog drove, window’s rolled down, all the best classic rock songs filling the air. Yup, there was no place else in the whole universe she would rather be.

***

The crash site looked bad even before Marianne got too close. A deep rut was carved into the ground, the path of destruction about two miles long, trees had been uprooted in its wake. Whatever had brought them down had to be big.

Bog and Marianne glanced at one another and nodded in silent agreement as both of them took out their weapons. Who knew what dangers they might face? They followed along the trail of carnage in silence, both perfectly at ease with each other, since day one it seemed the pair made the perfect team.

As they rounded a slight bend Marianne’s heart leapt to her throat, there was the spaceship, it had come to a grinding halt just short of a river. Marianne knew that make and model, she had one just like it parked in garage at home.

“Dawn” Marianne whispered, her breath shaky, “Dawn!” she yelled running towards the wreckage.  

***

Bog was dumb struck, it was real, it was all real, aliens, UFO’s, he had been right! He was so caught up in his own emotions he didn’t notice the panic that had taken over his partner or her fleeing towards the UFO.

When he finally did notice, Marianne was already shifting through the debris. This confused Bog. Since meeting her three years ago Marianne had done everything in her power to prove Bog’s paranormal theories could be explained with science. She had made it quite clear she didn’t believe in ghost, aliens, or things that go bump in the night.  

“There is a reasonable explanation for everything” she always told him. He wondered what her “reasonable explanation” would be this time.

Bog jogged over to help her, maybe she thought someone, or something, could be trapped in the wreck and was trying to help free it.  

At last Bog caught a glimpse of a shiny blue head, with large black, insect like, sightless eyes. The head was attacked to a slender neck, and shoulders.

“Help me get her out” Marianne huffed as she tried to get her arms around the torso of the ET.

Bog didn’t stop to ask how Marianne might know the being was female, he just did as she asked.  

They laid the body out on the ground, it was long and sleek.

There was the sound of pressurized air being released and Marianne removed the alien’s head, no not it’s head, a helmet.  Its skin beneath the helmet was a silvery-blue but most surprising of all was the mass of yellow-blonde curls that covered its head.

“Come on Dawn, breathe, breathe” Marianne gently slapped the side of the ET’s face.

Its eyelids fluttered and then it moaned.

“Marianne?” it asked, clearly confused and delirious.  

Its eyes opened fully and recognition filled them.

“Marianne! It is you!” the ET cried with joy.

“Dawn, Dawn thank the stars you’re safe!” Marianne pulled the blue alien into a tight embrace.

Marianne rocked slightly, cradling the ET as if it were a child, finally seeming to have had enough of the coddling the alien patted Marianne awkwardly on the arm.

“There, there, Marianne it’s only been a week.”

Marianne pulled the ET off her to look it in the eyes, she shook her head with a sad little shake, “Oh, no Dawn, for me it’s been three years.”

“Three years?”  

Bog sat there mouth agape as the two conversed back and forth, at last he had to intervene.  

“What?” he growled.

Marianne turned and looked at him, as if seeing him for the first time.

“I’m sorry about this, King, I really am” Marianne said, approaching him and Bog could see the remorse in her eyes.

She pulled her arm back and the last thing agent Bog King of the FBI saw was a tiny fist knocking him on the jaw.

***  

“Damn that stings,” Marianne cursed as she sat shaking out her fist.

“Are you sure he’ll be alright?” Dawn asked, not for the first time. Her first human and she had messed up so bad. She looked back at the long prone form at the human her sister called King.

“We must have broken fifty intergalactic laws today” she whined.  

“Fifty-one actually” Marianne corrected, “Not that I’m keeping track” she amended at the look her sister shot her way.  

“It’s cool” Marianne assured, “I’ve broken like a thousand since I’ve been here and probably have close to two hundred minor infractions.”

Dawn’s jaw dropped at her sister’s casual mention of law breaking.  

“Who are you, and what have you done with my sister?” Dawn asked, aghast.

Where was the law abiding, tough love, stern older sister that she had known back home?

“Ha-ha, very funny Dawn. Here hold this, I’m going to check on him.” Marianne said dryly, handing over control of the spaceship to her younger sister.

“Do you really trust me with this thing? After last time?” Dawn asked, taking control with some trepidation.  

“Just, stay on course” Marianne huffed.

After knocking out King, Marianne and Dawn had done all they could to hide Dawn’s crashed ship from any prying eyes, they then carried the dead weight of Marianne’s partner back to his car. Marianne then drove them all to the house she lived in where her spaceship, one near identical to Dawn’s sat untouched for the last three years in her garage.

Together the sister’s maneuvered Bog from the back seat of his Cadillac into the rear of Marianne’s spacecraft.  

Marianne was still wearing her human skins as she approached Bog and watched him just lying there for a few minutes. All these years Marianne had felt so guilty hiding the truth from him. She had come to care for the human, more perhaps than she thought possible to care for anyone. Of course caring for him meant protecting him from the truth. It was with a heavy heart that Marianne had to wipe Bog’s memory of every ET encounter they had ever had.  

Marianne felt the tears spring to her eyes, stupid emotions.  

She would have preferred to leave him behind, it was forbidden for humans to get involved in alien affairs, but it was too late, he was already involved. She needed him awake to take his memories and after Dawn had explained the dire situation on her home planet, well they were going to need all the help they could get.  

Marianne knelt down next to where he lay, after this she would probably never be allowed to see him again. She was going to lose her best friend, it felt like losing a piece of her heart.

“Bog” she said softly, “Bog can you hear me?”

***

Bog jerked awake and upon seeing Marianne’s face so close to his immediately sprung back away from her. His heart pounded in his chest and thudded in his ears. Bog brought his long legs up in front of him to provide some kind of cover should Marianne start shooing laser beams from her beguiling eyes.  

“You lied ta me” he hissed, and the look of shame and hurt in Marianne’s eyes nearly broke his heart.  

Bog had found himself enamoured with Marianne almost from the moment he met her. All his protests of not needing a partner, and being better off alone had fallen on deaf ears, and he was so very glad they had. By the end of their first month of adventures Bog was sure he was head-over-heals in love with his new partner, but he knew better than to tell her. He would just scare her away, like every other woman he had met. But Marianne wasn’t like every other woman, she was so different and ultimately that was what had drawn him to her the most.

“Yes, I did” she said, clearly sorry for it.

He watched as she fiddled with a function on her watch and the human facade melted away. Her skin took on a purplish hue and large wings, like that of a monarch butterfly emerged from her shoulder blades, only they were purple where it should be orange. Her usual gray dress pants and blazer were replaced with, what Bog could only describe as a dress, one that hugged her leath frame tight and flared over her hips. The hem of the dress met with tops of boots that came right up to her knees. She still had the same honey coloured eyes though, and the same wild brown hair with its caramel highlights.

Well now he knew just how different she really was. All those times she told him aliens didn’t exist, every time she knocked down one of his “crazy theories” and she had been one of them all along.

“King” she said calmly, as if speaking to a child, and he turned his head.

“King” she said again, more sternly, “look at me!” she finally cried out.

He refused.

“Bog, I’m sorry I lied, but I had to, to protect you” her voice waivered with emotion and Bog thought he heard her sob.

Now he was feeling guilty. He felt empty inside, there had never been an issue the pair couldn’t work through before, was this really so different?

Bog chanced a glance at her and saw that Marianne hadn’t moved. He took in the rest of his surroundings and nearly fainted, they were on a spaceship! Marianne’s spaceship!

Marianne must have seen his eyes dilate in awe because she started giggling at the look of absolute delight that had taken over his dark scowl.

“Bog” Marianne said his name with a tenderness he didn’t think he’d ever heard her use before, and this time he looked at her as she spoke.

“My planet is in danger, my ex-fiancé has led a coup, overthrowing my father, who is the leader there. I ran away to Earth after I called off my engagement but now we have to go back and stop Roland. He’ll blow up every planet in the galaxy looking for me if we don’t. Are you with me?”  

Bog couldn’t deny the urgency in Marianne’s voice. She was still the same woman who had captured his heart all those years ago.  

Bog was nodding before the words came to his lips.

“Yeah Tough Girl, Ah’m in” he said.