**

Klaatu stayed, of course; there was no reason for him to trust humans after all he'd seen and heard, and what better way to keep track of progress at the tipping point then staying?

Still, there was a strange sense of déjà vu when Helen caught the first glimpse of him emerging from the rising dust, looking grim and tired and almost human: there was a moment where she was almost dizzy with a double-mirage of a – a what? A what-if; a parallel universe – what nonsense.

Jacob looked at her with a crossly expectant look, and Klaatu looked at her with that expressionlessly expectant look, and of course, of course she answered, almost without thinking:

"We – we have a guest room. You can stay with us till – you can stay with us, if you want."

And the alien had followed them home.

**

Helen had expected the military to find him within the week, but it seems she's been giving her government more credit than it was worth these days.

They came to her house once; and then did everything short of body-napping her to places that didn't officially exist twice more. For some reason, no one seemed to really think their extra-terrestrial visitor had stayed. But once their interrogations started to repeat and expire into ridiculously trivial questions – which happened alarmingly fast – they decided she wasn't going to be of anymore use, and left her alone.

Before they did, Jackson I-Am-The-President's-Voice-So-Don't-Fuck-With-A-Bitch gave her three things: the closest thing she got to an apology ("National security," the human bulldog snapped); the closest thing she got to thanks ("I still don't understand why we're standing here, but the shit is going to hit the fan when they find out what why we almost aren't"); and a bribe – oh, sorry – a token of her government's (and currently in-the-dark world's) gratitude in form of a monetary gift and for god's sake stick to the cover story because the truth has to be leaked slowly. Preferably through clandestine meetings with the world's governments, and then trickling down over three years. Maybe four.

Helen did ask for one thing before they left her alone for good, though. She must have gotten the right mix of defiance and sadness and sentimentality in her expression because Jackson just gave her one long, hard look before giving a curt nod. Later that week, scrolling under the media carnage that was the news, a text reel in red capitals made repeat appearances for several days: FALSE ALARM – MISTAKEN IDENTITY OF ESCAPED 'CONVICT' – POLICE APOLOGISE. She doubted many people would be on the look-out for Klaatu in the aftermath of the New York devastation, but it didn't hurt to have his media record wiped.

Of course, it was still necessary to leave Manhatten. Every part of the globe was in uproar, but Manhatten was still Ground Zero, and it was too easy to sink back into the dark sticky web of the mess, too easy for Klaatu to be recognized. Too easy to get involved again. The university protested a little at losing their expert astrobiologist, especially at a time when whispers and world-devastating evidence of aliens flew fast and thick, but she wasn't on a contract and they had to let her go.

There was as sick feeling in Helen's gut that felt a lot like fear, like the underside of panic, but she knew the act of moving away looked far more like cowardice. So when she announced her decision that night, she had braced herself from howls of anger from at least Jacob, and perhaps a side of if Dad was here, he would STAY and HELP. Instead, neither of them looked surprised. Then Jacob pointed his fork at Klaatu and said, in a tone both sulky and oddly hopeful, that he supposed he was coming too, and Helen realized her stepson had gotten used to the alien at their dinner table too.

**

Before they left, they went to see Mr. Wu again. This time: Subway.

He was already there when they arrived. This time, it was his granddaughter waiting patiently in another table, sandwich crumbs by her elbow. To her surprise, Mr. Wu gestured for her to approach as well, and so she found herself seated next to Klaatu and staring at the only other extra-terrestrial on earth.

There was a speck of meatball sauce on his shirt collar. A Sub-of-the-Day lay half-eaten in front of him.

"This is the one who changed your mind?"

The alien's voice was slow and curious, warmly accented. He observed her carefully, then, to Helen's amazement, smiled. Like a human.

"I can see why."

Klaatu said something stilted it Mandarin while she flushed. Mr. Wu glanced to the side where Jacob sat with his granddaughter, a suspicious glare on his small face.

"Ah," he said. "I see." But the smile on his ancient face only shifted to something more knowing, and Helen flushed even deeper.

They conversed in Mandarin for some time while Helen sat worrying at the hem of her shirt and feeling useless. Occasionally, they would glance at her and then Klaatu would say something brief and irritable. The old man never stopped smiling, and when they finally stood to leave, he smiled enough that the spider-web wrinkles nearly obscured his eyes.

"Wait."

The dark-eyed man turned. Mr. Wu hesitated.

"Thank you," he said simply, at last. "I know there was nothing personal in your decision, but – thank you."

Klaatu stared. For a moment, Helen thought he wasn't going to answer. Then,

"Don't thank me yet," he said, and with that, they left.

**

It took four days driving before they got to their new home. Klaatu took over after the first day, and despite it all, was a much better driver than Helen was: one hand light and low on the wheel, as if an afterthought of formality. The car moved and stopped as smoothly as thought.

They had no real destination, since Helen's resignation letter had been the first purely impulsive significant thing she'd done that – something, Helen thought with swallowed hysteria, that she always thought only happened in movies. But on the fourth evening, Klaatu suddenly jerked upright in his seat as if touched by a current, and said evenly and tensely that This Was It. This was where they had to stay.

Jacob grumbled sleepily in the backseat, but there was no real spirit in it. Helen directed Klaatu into the nearest decent-looking motel, and they turned in for the night.

In the morning, on the way to the bathroom, Helen paused at open door of Klaatu's room. The sheets on his bed were crisp, untouched. And their alien was gone.

I'm currently using this very fast and loose style because, well, I want to get somewhere fast instead of dwelling on agonizingly insignificant details. It's a very self-indulgent style, particularly because I don't really know where I'm going. I may settle in a slower pace soon, I may not.

I wrote because I really wanted to read some interspecies lovin', for which both movie and (non-existent) fandom is lacking. I could not find any fic, so I wrote.

In short - feedback, especially mature, is very encouraging and indicative of any fellow Helen/Klaatu readers out there!