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Jason turned slightly and saw Lily lying on the pillow next to him. She let go, allowing him to turn and face her.

“Good morning,” she said, brushing her hair from her eyes.

The RV rocked gently as someone climbed back into the vehicle. The engine started and Jason felt the vehicle pull back out onto the freeway.

Light filtered in through gaps in the blinds.

Jason lay on his back with his hands behind his head. Lily rested her hand on his chest, sliding her fingers up under his shirt. He sighed, wishing life could be as simple as it seemed right then, but he knew the nightmare would continue today.

“Sleep well?”

“Like a rock,” Jason replied as Lily ran her nails across his chest. Damn, that felt good, he thought. He rolled sideways, resting his head on his elbow as he faced her.

“I don’t understand,” he confided, speaking in soft tones. “Up until yesterday, I was just an ordinary guy going to college. What changed?”

“You were never ordinary,” Lily said. She pulled her hand back. Her fingers rested on his forearm. “They needed you to think you were just like everyone else because it’s only when you’re relaxed that you doodle.”

Jason was silent.

“You’ve been doing them for years. Every time you scribble something on a scrap of paper and throw it in the garbage, someone hunts through the trash and matches the sketch with one of the formulas on the UFO. For you, it’s nothing. For them, it’s like pieces of a jigsaw puzzle slowly coming together.”

Jason looked deep into her dark brown eyes. Her voice was soft. There was compassion in her tone. Perhaps he was reading too much into her manner, but he felt like she cared deeply about him. The connection between them seemed like one forged over years, or perhaps decades, and not just a few days.

“They learned a long time ago that under stress you stop drawing, so they left you in the community.”

“What about Mitch and Helena?” he asked.

“I know they’re your friends,” Lily replied, squeezing his arm gently. “But they aren’t, not really. They’re NSA agents. They’re on a long term assignment.”

Jason was stunned. His mind was spinning with disbelief, but then he realized Mitchell was one of the people that had run down the street toward him when he jumped on the bike with Lily. So somehow, Mitch was mixed up in this, too. As much as Jason didn’t want to believe Lily, there was a nagging persistence to that statement in his mind. It was the little things. Mitch was always there. Whether it was calling him when he was doodling or catching up with him on the steps of the university after the meeting with Lachlan. Mitchell was always a little too close.

“And you?” he asked, stiffening unconsciously .

“Me?” Lily replied, touching her hand to her throat and gesturing at herself. It seemed to be a question she hadn’t considered before then. “I’m no actor. I didn’t come because I had to or because I was ordered to. I came because I wanted to be with you. My father has told me so much about you, about how he rescued you, but it wasn’t just you he saved from North Korea. He rescued my great grandfather, my uncle and my mother. He saved all of us.”

Jason watched as Lily swallowed a lump in her throat. She struggled to keep eye contact with him as she spoke.

“He told me that what they were doing to you was cruel. He told the NSA team they should be honest with you. They said they were making progress, but DARPA wanted more. My father tried to get permission to try another angle, to get you to relive that moment in the sea so many years ago. They told us this was the final attempt, that after this they would institutionalize you.”

She sighed, adding, “They wanted to treat you like a lab rat. That’s when my father knew it was time to make a move.”

Tears ran down her cheeks. Lily tried to hide the tears, turning away and bringing her hand to her face.

“Hey, it’s OK,” Jason said, pulling her hand back.

Lily sniffed, wiping her nose with the back of her hand.

“My father has spent two decades trying to unravel the mystery of the young boy from the sea. Some have said you’re not human. Others say you’re an alien experiment.”

“What do you think?” Jason asked.

“I think you are human. I don’t know how or why, but somehow you’re mixed up in something none of us fully understand.”

“And your dad,” Jason said, slowly getting used to referring to Professor Lachlan in that manner. “He thinks if I see this craft I’ll somehow remember?”

“When the UFO first came to America, they brought you to it. You touched the skin and the craft glowed as if it was radiating energy. It scared them. There was no explanation as to why the UFO should react like that, so they made a decision to separate you from the craft.”

“And the pictures?” Jason asked.

“My father has worked hard to get them. I don’t think he’s seen the craft, but he’s talked to people who have.”

The door to the bedroom opened and Professor Lachlan poked his head through.

“Good to see you kids are awake. Are you hungry?”