Mary is in her room, reading the Bible. The Bible is super interesting. The Bible is so much more interesting than the pervasive wrong feeling in her head. Her assignment for her sub's Bible study group this week is practicing gratitude, and she's currently endeavoring to do so without lying to herself. She is grateful that she can get away with being alone when she reads the Bible. She is grateful that the Scripture is distracting. She is grateful that she might be able to get away with sneaking out to the library in a few days and reading something she hasn't read like twenty million fucking times okay this is against the spirit of the exercise. The fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control...
- a girl, clothes look dom or foreign or both, hair looks subby and bubblegum pink, spontaneously appears and nearly drops the baby she's holding.
Well she's a girl so probably she's a sub or else she needs to find Jesus and then she'll be a sub.
Mary stands up, startled, and moves towards the girl as if to help steady her, then stops because she's not sure if that's what you're supposed to do in this situation, then says, "Do you, um, need help? Also how did you get here."
...the girl says something in a foreign language and pets her baby soothingly.
Okay. Um. Mage from another country? Person who happened to be standing next to a mage from another country? Aaaa what is she supposed to do here.
"I'm Mary," she says, pointing at herself. "This is America." She sort of...awkwardly gestures around the room.
"...Peka," she points at herself, "Katin." The baby.
"Hi, Peka," she says. "Do you need to...call someone?" She doesn't have a cell phone but there's a landline in the bedroom. She picks up the phone and offers it to Peka.
Peka blinks at it. She pulls a similar device out of her pocket and pokes it a bit and displays it to Mary. There are weird probably-letter symbols on it.
Well that's new. Is that just what phones look like in Europe? She doesn't have another explanation ready. What would someone who'd randomly been teleported here from another country need, a place to stay? Someone to help with travel plans? Well, Mary isn't in charge of any of that, is she.
He probably wouldn't do anything untoward. Not to a sub with a baby.
"I don't know how to help you, we should probably talk to my dom," she says, aware that she's mostly talking to herself. She steps out the door, then gestures for Peka to follow her.
Peka and baby follow.
John's in the kitchen.
"Sir," she says. "This sub appeared in my room out of nowhere, and she doesn't speak English. Her name's Peka."
"Appeared," he says. "As in teleported?"
"Yes, sir," she says, more quietly. He moves towards her. She freezes. He kisses her on the forehead. She holds perfectly still.
Then he turns to Peka, smiling. He has a very nice smile.
"John Nesbitt," he says, pointing at himself. He extends a hand.
- Peka says something in a foreign language and takes a step back.
He withdraws his hand graciously.
"We'll do everything in our power to help you get back home, Peka," he says reassuringly. (He figures the reassuring tone is helpful even though she can't understand what he's saying). "Now, let's figure out where you're from."
He opens his laptop and pulls up a map of the world.
...she rummages around on her phonelike device and finds a map. It's a city map, not a world map, with a neighborhood color-coded in red and everything marked in an unrecognizable alphabet.
John blinks. Well, that doesn't look like anywhere on Earth.
He points to a few of the countries on the world map. "Country," he says. He points to her map, then to the map of the world again. "Country?"
She doesn't seem to have a country map on hand. She just stares at his world map and shakes her head. Points at her city: "Tapa itak te Tapa pona."
He pulls up a picture of the planet.
"Planet," he says. Points to the city map again. "Planet?"
That is not a look of recognition wrt Earth. "...Amenta."
"So," he says pleasantly. "We've found an alien!"
"We should tell Pastor Dan."
"She just got here, sweetheart, let's give her some time." He turns to Peka. "Are you hungry?" He mimes eating. "Tired?" Mimes sleeping.
...she mimes bottle-feeding the baby.
"Well, we don't have any baby things in the house." This is very pointedly addressed to Mary.
Mary is given a strict time limit and instructions not to speak to anyone other than the cashier and some money and a kiss on the forehead, and is told to pick up some formula and diapers and other assorted baby materials.
And in the meantime John can help Peka get acclimated to the language! He starts by teaching her the names of various items in the kitchen--"table," "chair," etc.
Peka tries. She takes some notes on her phone. Eventually she displays what might be a battery indicator - a pie chart with the white share now slightly less than half.
John beams at her whenever she gets something right.
When he sees the battery, he winces. "I can't help you there." He holds up his phone next to hers and shows her that the charger ports look different.
He can get her a pencil and paper if she wants to continue to take notes without running down her battery!
...it's kind of hard to take notes one-handed with pencil and paper while holding a baby, which she does not want to put down. She isn't sitting, either, or touching anything.
Yeah that's pretty weird.
"You can sit," he says, pulling out a chair and gesturing towards it invitingly.
"Um -" She pulls a lock of pink hair.
John looks confused!
"Your...hair?" he says.
...shrug?
Also shrug! He wonders if she has a dom with rules about furniture. Well, it's her decision.
"Do you want me to take the baby?" he says. He mimes cradling the baby, then holds out his arms. "So you can write down words?"
...she takes a step back, touches her hair again.
"Hmm." He frowns. "Afraid is--" he makes a scared face. "Touching is--" he touches the table. "Are you afraid of touching?"
..."No."
"Sick is--" he mimes coughing. "Are you scared touching will make you sick?"
...wobbly gesture.
"So I'm close," he says. "Scared touching will make the baby sick? Scared touching will make me sick?"
Wobble, wobblier.
"Closer to 'the baby will get sick' or 'I will get sick'?"
"...closeh to you." She can't make an "r" sound.
He smiles at her encouragingly.
"You're worried if you touch something, you'll do something bad to me that's like being sick?" he tries.
Wobble, nod.
"What can I do to let you sit down and stop the bad thing?"
...she pulls her hair again.
"If we change something about your hair, will that fix the bad thing?"
She doesn't seem to understand the question.
"What's bad about your hair?" he tries.
She says something else in her language.
He slaps the table, frustrated. "Be more clear."
She jumps and makes a squeaking noise.
John is, um. A fan of that reaction.
He tries pointing forcefully at the chair. "Sit."
She sits.
He smiles. He has a very kind smile!
"Good!" he says.
The front door opens. Mary walks back into the kitchen and sets down her bags.
"Does, um...should you...with the baby..." she says, gesturing at the bags
...Peka blinks at her.
"She can't understand you, idiot," John says pleasantly.
He starts pulling things out of the bags and laying them on the table in front of her. Formula! Diapers!
"For baby," he says. (He considers asking her if any of these things look familiar or if aliens have different diapers or whatever, but figures she doesn't have the vocabulary and decides against it).
...she manages to identify some formula and a bottle even though they are all alien and tentatively sets about mixing up a bottle.
"Go set up the spare room for her," says John.
Mary hesitates. "We should really tell Pastor Dan."
"It's getting late, we shouldn't bother him now. We can sleep on it and decide what to do in the morning. Now do as you're told."
Mary leaves. John watches Peka feed her baby.
Baby gets fed.
"Do you want food?" he asks her.
...she mulls over what that probably means for a bit, then nods.
When Mary gets back he has her heat up some leftover pulled pork from dinner.
He gets her silverware, and demonstrates how to use it in case she doesn't know.
The exact details are unfamiliar but she's acquainted with the concept.
He continues eyeing her while she eats.
Mary watches him watch her.
She's not quite sure what to make of that!
She finishes her food.
"Are you tired?" he asks, then mimes sleeping.
"No..."
"Baby tired?" Points at baby, mimes sleeping.
Peka turns so he can see that the baby is asleep on her shoulder.
He walks over to the spare room and gestures for her to follow, then opens the door to show her the crib inside. Then he mimes putting the baby in the crib.
"Yes or no?" he says.
...she puts the baby down.
He leads her back to the kitchen and attempts to teach her more words (and provides her with better note-taking materials). More vocabulary, plus conjunctions and basic questions and that she should call him "sir".
She learns words, and forgets words and relearns them, and calls him sir!
He is extremely patient with her when she forgets words!
(She only needs to know enough English to interact with him and Mary, anyway. She'd need more if he were planning to let her leave, but.)
He attempts to teach her adjectives. For example, he shows her pictures of sunsets and models and similar and says "beautiful." Then he uses it in some sentences--"Peka is beautiful, Peka has beautiful hair, Peka has beautiful eyes."
...she giggles.
He looks adorably pleased to have caused giggling!
Words words words it's night and he eventually gets tired.
"I will sleep now," he says. "You stay in your room." He takes her by the hand and leads her to her room.
She giggles again when he takes her hand and grabs some formula on the way out, presumably in case of nighttime baby wakeups. She goes to her room.
He follows her in.
And pushes her against the wall and kisses her.
...okay that's apparently happening now.
He steps back and smiles hopefully, trying to evaluate her reaction.
...smile? Smile.
Smile!
He kisses her again. And there is also some hair-pulling.
Not her kink, but, uh, okay.
...you know, on the one hand he was planning to finesse this particular seduction a little more, but on the other hand, he really wants to fuck his new alien.
He leads her to the bed.
"Sit," he says, pointing at the bed.
She sits.
"Wait for me," he says, and he goes back to his room to get his gear.
Mary's there. She watches him go to the closet and get his things.
"John," she says. "We're going to call Pastor Dan in the morning, right?"
"No," says John. He walks past the bed and towards the door.
"Where are you going with that?"
"Not your concern."
Mary grabs him by the wrist. "You," she says, her voice shaking, "are not going to...to sleep with her."
He jerks his hand away. "You don't give orders," he says, softly. (He expects her to flinch. She doesn't.)
"We're married," she says. "You...you stood up in church in front of God and everybody and you promised you'd love me and only me forever, that's not... you can't just decide to break the sixth commandment like it's nothing."
He slaps her. She staggers back. He turns, expecting that to be the end of it. So when Mary picks up a lamp and swings it as hard as she can into the back of his head, it takes him completely by surprise.
She walks to Peka's room and opens the door.
...Peka waves.
Mary does sort of an awkward half-wave and then a "come here" gesture.
Peka goes there.
And Mary finds John's car keys (it takes her a couple tries to grab them, her fine motor skills currently seem to be...not) and then shepherds Peka to the car and indicates that she should sit in the front passenger seat.
"No! No -" She does not be shepherded past the door. She goes back for Katin.
"What? Don't--" Mary says, then remembers that, right, there was a baby.
(She feels like such an idiot she can't do anything on her own--)
"Sorry," she says to Peka when Peka gets back. She's tearing up a bit. She's not even sure if Peka will understand the sentiment, but she doesn't really know what else to do.
She shepherds them car-wards again, a bit more shakily this time.
Peka sits where she is told once she has her sleeping baby.
Mary drives. She's very focused on the road and doesn't seem to be paying attention to Peka or Katin.
She stops at a gas station and makes a phone call. Then she returns to the car.
"Um," she says. What the hell did John even teach Peka. "There are...people who can talk to you. In your words. Coming to find us."
Apparently he didn't teach her enough words to let her do more than blink at that.
Mary doesn't have enough energy to try again. Shouldn't be long before magic translation gets here anyway.
In fact it is only a few minutes, because the recipient of the phone call also employs a teleporter.
The polyglot knocks on the window, then, when Mary rolls it down, says, "Hello! I'm Jen, it's nice to meet you, what's your name?" in perfect Tapap, though without the accent.
The first word of Tapap gets her flinching and looking away and clutching her baby but she murmurs "Peka, ma'am."
"Um," says Jen. "I'm sure this has been a difficult and traumatic experience for you, and I'm happy to answer any questions you have. Casey here is going to teleport you to somewhere safer as soon as you're comfortable with that. Is there anything urgent you need to communicate?"
"No ma'am."
"All right! Casey can teleport you and your baby by touching you, it may be disorienting."
Teleporting. They are now in the living room of a nice apartment. There is a very comfortable-looking couch and a TV and some glass artwork.
"So, welcome to the planet Earth! Do you want me to answer your questions now, or would you rather wait until later?"
"- how do you know my language?"