Disclaimer: I don't own anything to do with The Host: A Novel, unfortunately for me. All the rights belong to Stephenie Meyer. :)

A/N: This is my first story in the Host category, so I'm kind of nervous about it. I hope that all of you reading this story will review! O_O Anyway, this one shot is in Ian's POV. It occurs between chapters 58 and 59. Enjoy!

Summary: Ian and Jared work together to stop Doc from sacrificing Wanda to save Melanie. Takes place between chapters 58 and 59. Ian's POV. Unfortunately, this is now discredited thanks to the bonus chapter that was released. But whatever.

Spoilers: Obviously, there's quite a lot for The Host: A Novel. :P

When I awoke, the cave was hot and stuffy. I could feel my various limbs strewn across the much too small matress, and one of my hands was slightly numb. I lay there silently for a moment, wondering what had woken me. I could see no light from behind my closed eyelids, so I knew that it wasn't daylight yet. So what was it, then?

Suddenly, realization struck me. I forced my eyes open, and hurriedly sat up. The mattress sagged limply beneath me. I glanced down at my depressingly empty arms, then at the other side of the bed, where Wanda had supposedly been sleeping. She was gone.

Horror flowed through me as I realized what was wrong with this picture. She had gone to Doc. My little Wanderer was going to make him kill her, to give Melanie her body back. I heard a choking sound, and somehow knew that it was coming from my own lips, though I was numb and felt absolutely nothing. My lungs squeezed painfully as I gasped for air. What if I was already too late? What if Doc had already murdered her in cold blood?

I flung back the flimsy blanket, twisting my body so that my feet touched the ground. I swung myself into a standing position, ignoring the wave of dizziness that moved over me. Why hadn't someone stopped her? Jeb, Jared, or Jamie? Though knowing that arrogant idiot, Howe had probably escorted her there, tied her down, and cut into the back of her neck with his own knife. Everyone knew that he would do anything to get his Melanie back, even if it meant resorting to murder.

I raced out into the tunnel, shoving both doors out of the way. They landed with loud clanging sounds against the cool stone. Which way? Had she gone directly to see Doc, or maybe somewhere else first? To Jamie? To see Jared? Her body was in love with him; it would make sense that she wanted to say goodbye. A pang twisted through me at the thought; she hadn't even said goodbye to me.

I turned towards the hospital wing, ready to run as though my feet had wings. But my body betrayed me, freezing as the set of pounding footsteps came directly at me from the tunnel I had been about to travel through. I waited, heart thumping painfully against my chest, to see who was approaching. Was it someone trying to stop me? Someone who actually wanted my Wanda to die? Several likely candidates came to mind, and I tensed. If I had to fight, I would. No one would stop me from saving her. No one.

"O'Shea!" It was definitely Jared's voice. He skidded to a stop before me, eyes coming the closest to wild that I had actually seen them. In his right hand, he clutched a large carving knife. It looked like one from the kitchen. Ah, so that's how he was planning to keep me from interfering with his precious Melanie. He wanted to kill me.

"What do you want?" I was annoyed to hear my own voice come out breathless, afraid. Not for myself, but for Wanda. It was going to be too late before I got there. I wasn't going to have enough time to save her. This horrible thought made me want to stop breathing, to die with her. "Did you come to stop me? I'm not going to just surrender to you, Howe. You're going to have to fight to keep me from going to the hospital. There's no way in hell that I'm going to just stand back and watch you and Doc murder Wanda."

Jared waved the hand holding the knife in my direction, scowling darkly. "Shut up, you idiot. I came to get you. Doc is about to perform the procedure. He won't go back on his word to Wanda, so I went to the kitchen to get him a little...inspiration." He gestured widely with the knife again.

I frowned. Was he actually telling the truth? Maybe he was trying to lead me off in another direction, to get me away from Wanderer. My eyes must have shown the clashing indecision that I felt inside, because he suddenly snapped, "Come off it, Ian. I'm not trying to lie to you. I want you to help me save Wanderer, okay? Is that good enough for you?"

I didn't give him an answer, just darted around him and ran down the tunnel. My footsteps echoed loudly off the rock walls, and darkness closed in around me. I could heard Jared's measured breathing from behind me as he easily kept pace. I didn't give much thought to him tripping and 'accidentally' stabbing me in the back with the knife, as my thoughts were focused completely on Wanda. If Doc killed her before I got there, he would have to face me. And I wasn't likely to be very careful with the knife when it came to his neck.

I could see the faint blue light of the hospital wing just up ahead, and pumped my legs even faster. Doc had better hope that I couldn't find even a single hair out of place on Wanda's head, or he was going to have to kiss his own life goodbye. I wouldn't stand for anyone hurting her.

I ran around the corner, skidding to a stop. I nearly crashed into one of the cots before I could stop myself, and tripped over a metal pan. It clattered loudly, several metallic tools tumbling out and scattering across the ground. My eyes darted around the room, and I easily spotted Doc. He was bent over his makeshift desk, a gleaming scalpel held in one shaking hand. I saw the look of surprise cross his face, then Jared blocked my view. He tackled the doctor, knocking him roughly to the ground. The scalpel went flying, and bounced off the edge of the desk.

Ignoring the two of them, I rushed to Wanda's side. She was already unconscious, face-down on the desk. Thankfully, no crimson blood was pulsing from the back of her neck. It appeared that I wasn't going to have to kill Doc, after all. "Wanda? Wanda, are you okay?" I gently touched her shoulder, though I knew that she was too far gone to hear me. The tangled and destroyed bodies of the tiny silver souls that Doc had previously experimented on, before learning the secret of correctly removing them, flashed through my mind. I swallowed down the sour taste of bile, trying not to imagine Wanda's own silver blood splattered on the walls.

"What the hell did you think you were doing?" My numb ears focused back in on the world, and I could hear Jared shouting at Doc. Turning my head, though keeping one hand carefully against Wanda's shoulder, I saw him jerking the doctor to his feet. The knife still gleamed sharply in his hand. "You can't just kill Wanderer!"

I was surprised to see the outraged anger that he was showing. I thought that he would have been more than happy to get rid of the parasite attached to his girlfriend. It was probably all an act.

"I have to," Doc cried, fear showing in his eyes as Jared pressed the knife against his throat. He swallowed hard, throat muscles working as he tried to keep from moving the rest of his body. "I gave Wanda my word. And you know that it's murder to just keep Melanie locked up inside of her!"

"It's murder to kill an innocent soul," I ground out, teeth clenching tightly together. "She never did anything to you, or anybody else. She's done everything she could for us, and never anything for herself. Hell, she even saved my worthless scum of a brother from dying after he tried to kill her! Why would you do this to her?"

"I gave her my word," Doc whispered brokenly, and I could see the lines of strain spread across his face. I saw now that he hadn't wanted to do it anymore than I had wanted him to. "She doesn't want to move on to another host species, like all the other souls we've removed. She made me promise to bury her with Walter and Wes so that she wouldn't carry the pain of memories along with her for eternity."

I clenched my jaw to keep from shouting anything that I might regret later. I carefully took a deep breath. "We all need Wanda with us, and both of you know it. Melanie is fine where she is." I'd never known the person who had once owned Wanderer's body, so I had no love lost on her. If it meant killing Wanda so she could live, that was too damn bad.

I saw Jared's eyes tighten, and his lips formed a white line. "Melanie deserves a choice, Ian. You can't just condemn her to death, just because you're in love with it...her."

I felt like ripping the knife from him and tearing his throat out, summoning my inner Kyle. "I thought that you agreed with me! You said that you were going to help me protect her!" I roared, moving my body so that I was protectively between Wanda and the two of them.

"I do agree with you," Jared said in a low voice, still pointing the knife at Doc's throat. "But only to some extent. I don't want Melanie to die, either."

"Then what do you expect us to do? They can't just share the same body! You've heard what Wanda says, O'Shea. There isn't enough room for them both in there. And I don't want you kissing her every time that Melanie tried to fade away into nothing."

Jared narrowed his eyes at me. "Likewise. The body belongs to me, and to the woman trapped inside. Not to Wanderer."

Doc cleared his throat, then swallowed again as a small drop of crimson blood trickled down the pale skin at his neck. "I don't mean to interrupt, but we seem to be going in circles right now. You both have very good points, but we need to come to an agreement before the No Pain and chloroform wear off," he said nervously.

I glared at Jared, not backing down. "Well? What's it gonna be, Howe? Am I going to have to kill you to keep Wanda safe? If that's your final decision, then so be it."

"No one needs to kill anyone else tonight," Jared stated calmly, relaxing a little. I kept my body tense, ready in case he was going to try to jump me. "But we will be taking Wanderer out of Melanie's body."

I growled, the sound bubbling up from deep in my throat. "No. Don't even think about trying it."

Jared held up his free hand, obviously trying to reassure me. "Damn it, O'Shea. I don't mean that we're going to kill Wanda." He said this in a bored and slightly offended tone, like he'd never even considered the thought. I knew differently. "We're going to take her out, then we're going to put her in a cryotank."

"What?" I asked him, suspicious of this supposedly brilliant new plan.

"We're going to put Wanda in a cryotank so that she can survive for a little while without a host, then find her a new body," he repeated, shrugging carelessly. The knife sliced a little deeper into his prisoner's neck.

Doc winced, a grimace spreading across his face. "Could you please be a little more careful, Jared, while you two discuss this?" he questioned tensely.

I ran Jared's words through my mind once more, for the third time. They made sense. Wanda would still be alive, but so would Melanie. Everything would come out all right in the end. "But where would we get another body for Wanda?" I demanded.

"Just one where the soul has completely dominated the body, leaving no consciousness left inside. It would be a waste to let a perfectly good body die without someone inside it."

I nodded once, the gesture short and jerky. "Fine, we'll do it." I held up my hand to silence both of them before they could say anything. "On one condition."

"What is it?" Jared asked quickly, tone sounding as though he were feeling just a little bit desperate.

"That Doc promises not to try to sabotage this somehow." This time, I focused my gaze in on the pinned doctor.

His eyes widened in shock. "Why would I do that to Wanda?" he exclaimed indignantly. "I want her to live just as much as you do, and I swear that I will help you safely remove her."

"Good. Then let's do it." I turned around to face Wanda again, watching as her body softly rose and fell with each shallow breath that she drew into her lungs. I heard a shuffling sound behind me, then Doc was at my side, rubbing his sore throat gently. "Okay, how do we do this?" I questioned him, taking a deep breath. I couldn't remember much of what Wanda had taught Doc, in anticipation of her leaving, I now knew. My mind was too jumbled, too concerned for my little Wanderer.

"Jared, bring me a cryotank," he said as a response, picking up his scalpel from where it had fallen to the floor. He shot me a nervous look, as though wondering if I was going to attack him. Checking over his shoulder to make sure that Howe was doing as ordered, he took a deep breath. I thinned my eyes and watched as he carefully pressed the scalpel to the skin at the back of Wanda's neck.

Being very careful, he drew the sharp blade down the skin, and crimson blood bubbled out. I grimaced, hands twitching as they fought against my control. I couldn't stand seeing someone hurt Wanda like this, even if they were just doing it to save her life. When the cut was only a couple of inches long, I could see the gleam of silver through the blood.

I swallowed hard. That was Wanda in there. This was what she truly looked like, under the body that she wore. Would I still love her, even after seeing her true, parasitic form? Or would I prefer to crush her beneath my feet, as she had told me herself? This very thought caused a pang of agony through my chest, and I gasped for air.

Completely oblivious to my choking, Doc reached with both hands towards the glowing mass of silver, just as Jared approached from behind. He traced up the back ridge of the tiny soul, expression determined and cautious at the same time. He nodded once, almost to himself, and slid his gloved finger deeper into the wound, disappearing into the flow of blood. With his other hand, he gently massaged the soul that was Wanda, a caring look now crossing his face.

I swallowed again, tensing. This was it.

The back of the body's neck rippled, and I could barely see the silver antennae rolling up into Wanda's tiny body. When almost all of them had retracted from Melanie, Doc carefully pulled with the hand underneath her, guiding her out of the wound.

My hands clenched into fists. Wanda was so delicate, so small and defenseless. If Doc did even one thing wrong to her, it would all be over. She would die, the life draining from her like the blood that was trickling from Melanie's neck.

The small soul came free, cupped gently in Doc's hands. I automatically curled my own hand into a cup, and held it out for her. Doc slid Wanda slowly into my hand, and I cupped the other around her as he hurriedly turned back to take care of Melanie.

I was full of wonder and awe, amazed at the beauty of the gentle creature in my hands. Despite the small splotches of blood coating her like a thin membrane, the silver coloring gleamed brightly from the crimson layer over it. Wanda's antennae rippled slightly, drawing the rest of the way into her tiny, round body. She looked like an angel; she was absolutely beautiful. There weren't any words to describe the way I felt at that moment, the love pulsing in my chest as I held her protectively.

"Here." Jared held the cryotank up in front of me, and I jumped slightly. I was careful not to let my grasp slip from Wanda, like it so easily could. "You need to put her inside now. She can't survive out of this without a host."

I nodded, then slid her through the opening of the cryotank. The intense cold burned my fingers, then I released my small burden. Jared clasped the lid down securely, then moved to place it in the corner, on one of the cots.

"No!" I snapped, grabbing it back from him. I cradled it against my chest, turning my back on him. Walking towards the far wall, I sat down against it and let my legs spread out in front of me. I gently placed the cool, smooth cryotank in my lap, careful not to jostle it. I could hear Doc and Jared mumbling together, but tuned then out. Only Wanda mattered. And no one was going to touch her or her tank until she was safely inside a new host body

"As soon as Melanie wakes up, we're going to go find Wanda a new body," Jared told me, touching my shoulder. His deep voice was dark and unemotional. I started, wondering how he had walked over without me even hearing his footsteps. "I thought I might wake Jamie and take him along with us. Are you going to come?" He waited patiently for my answer.

I fiercely shook my head, clutching the round cryotank to my chest. I imagined that I could feel the pulse of a heartbeat through the slick, metal walls. "It doesn't matter to me what she looks like in her new body. I'll still love her," I stated stubbornly, not moving from my position against the wall.

Wanda was still alive, and that's what mattered.

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