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"Then give me my memory back so I can make a better decision about all of this."
I don't think he's going to say anything at first, but then he surprises me. "Ivy, they’re your memories. I have no say in whether or not you take them back. But as your husband, I would advise against it."
"Because you did something you don't want me to know about?"
"Absolutely not. As I said before, bad things happened. Why would you want to remember when you don’t have to?"
"Because it happened to me, and it's part of our story, and you know it all."
He shakes his head at me. "I don't know it all either. The first time I rescued you, our ship was waylaid coming back to the base. I spent every day with you in a medical pod to make sure you survived until we could reach the medical center here. By the time we arrived, I'd formed a strong bond with you, but since we didn't know each other from before your abduction, both of our memories were erased about what we shared." He surprises me by smiling and then says, "But I tried to keep something. Hold out your hand."
Curiously, I present him with my left hand while saying, “That’s a stupid rule that you have to know each other before abduction.”
"It is. Your other hand."
I hold out my right hand, and he takes it gently between his large hands. "Close your eyes."
I don't know what I expect to happen, but I close my eyes to humor him, and then suddenly, I'm seeing myself from his perspective. I'm pale as a sheet, and my hair is so greasy, but he feels only attraction for me, and there’s a strong urge to protect me at all costs.
This moment plays over and over again until I open my eyes.
"What was that?" I ask as he releases my hand.
"The first time we touched. You had been shot with an Octopod venom gun and couldn't walk. The venom was eating you up alive. I picked you up, and when we touched, I knew we were meant to be together. When the commander and the doctor wanted to erase all of our memories, I wanted to keep that one for you, just in case I ever had to prove to you that I knew from the moment we met you'd be my wife, and I think you knew it too. But I didn’t have enough time to link your memory from that moment to mine. That was something I did quickly in the medical center when Caroline gave me literally one minute."
"True love."
"Souls separated by the goddesses finding one another again," he says.
"How did you do that though? Some kind of technology?"
"My mother was telepathic, and I have some of her skills, but nothing compared to our doctor here."
"Is your mother not with us anymore?" I ask, trying to be diplomatic.
Sadness washes over his face. "She was killed in an uprising on my home planet. My father and I are still seeking justice.” I try to apologize for asking. “No. You should know as my wife."
I pull him into my embrace. "I'm so sorry." As I hold him, I realize now that this also could have been a factor in his reluctance to tell me the truth. Like me, he has no mother, and then his best friend just died. Perhaps he just didn't have the emotional energy to say to me, 'By the way, I'm an alien. Let's deal with this.' I'm still angry, and I don't know what the future holds for us, but I'm certainly not going to begrudge him my sympathy now. Is life ever not messy?
When Sem releases himself from my embrace, he says, "If you really want your memories back, you can have it done tomorrow. The doctor is sleeping now, and this isn't an emergency."
"It is an emergency. If we're accruing punishments for every day we wait, then I want all my memories so that I can make the best decision now."
I get up and try to walk out of the room, but I fall because his clothing on me is way too big. I feel like I can feel him smile as he watches me, and it’s in his voice.
"Where are you going?"
"To find the doctor and make this happen. Are you coming? Or will I just have to roam around the base, tripping over myself in your clothing, deaf and dumb to your alien language, asking strangers to help me? That won't look good for either of us, will it?"
Sem gets off the bed and says, "Promise me this: you won't blame me for the terrors you're about to uncover. I'll be here to comfort you, as I did then, but remember, I tried to stop you. Also, know that when you request this, no doctor will ever hide them again. And speaking as a whole, that's all I ever wanted to do, Ivy, was to protect you."
A thought occurs to me. "Did you know about Scott before that night?" I ask out of the blue, wondering how much he knew about me before meeting him on Halloween and if the All Hallows’ Eve party chance meeting was all some kind of stalker setup.
"I knew nothing about that man, Scott. I only knew you from when I rescued you the first time. I knew your name and the city you were from."
"How did you find me then? Or was that fate?"
"I cheated a little," he admits. "Social media. I knew you went to that bar frequently because you had publicly checked in there. It was fate that brought us together at that moment on Halloween, and had I known what Scott had really done to you besides insulting you on that night, he would've suffered a lot more. Now, if you're content with my impromptu trial, let's go get your memories back. I want to get this over with. You're going to be doing a lot more crying, and I'm going to be the one that's going to comfort you."
