Free A Plain Jane Book One by Odette C. Bell Page B

exactly angry, but he didn't sound pleased
either.
    ‘ Nobody told me not to. I
overheard the doctor talking about it. I don't know what one is,’
she added at the end for good measure.
    ‘ Sorry, I didn't mean to sound
annoyed. It's just . . . ’ he trailed
off.
    The two of them were
walking down the corridor slowly, and Jane had absolutely no idea
where they were headed, and wasn't in fact sure whether Lucas knew
either, but she followed him nonetheless.
    ‘ The doctor said that she sent
you home, why are you back at work so quickly?’ Lucas
asked.
    ‘ I'm fine,’ Jane found herself
repeating, as if it were a mantra.
    ‘ I would have thought that you
would have wanted to rest,’ Lucas said as he glanced her way, an
intrigued look on his face, ‘the doc said that you don't sleep,
something about the fact you can rest while you're awake. Sounds
cool,’ he added, though it seemed awkward, and he instantly
grimaced at himself.
    ‘ I guess. I have never really
thought about it like that . . . ’ she trailed
off. ‘I know that I don't sleep, but, well, I never really knew
why,’ her voice grew steadily quieter until she dwindled into
silence.
    Lucas got the kind of look
that suggested she was all kinds of crazy for not knowing or
bothering to investigate earlier in her life why she never
slept.
    ‘ Okay,’ he managed quietly. ‘I
guess there are always so many differences between alien
physiologies,’ he supplied politely.
    For some reason Jane
latched hold of her ponytail, and was now twisting the edges around
and around her fingers.
    ‘ I . . . I guess I
want to ask you some more questions about what happened last
night,’ Lucas managed, though his words did not flow smoothly,
almost as if he had to think about each and every one of
them.
    ‘ I told you everything I know,’
Jane said plainly.
    Lucas tensed, and the look
he suddenly shot Jane seemed to suggest she’d caught him out on a
lie.
    ‘ Look, I've gone over the
security parameters that have been put in place, and I have
confirmed that they are . . . okay for now. But
still, I think you should be careful,’ that note of authority was
back in his tone.
    ‘ But it was just an accident,’
she repeated, and she was aware of the rather innocent note in her
voice.
    He stopped in the corridor,
turning to her fully, brow completely compressed and creased over
his eyes. ‘We don't know that. Not for sure, and until—’
    ‘ But nothing like that happens to
me,’ she repeated again. Yes, she was aware of how stupid it
sounded. Though people sometimes accused her of being slow, or
painfully naive, Jane wasn't either of them. She was aware that
simply repeating that nothing like this ever happened to her was
useless in the face of recent events, but she couldn't stop herself
from doing it. It felt like something was hardwired into her brain
that made her believe and act like she was normal, and shun
anything exciting, dangerous, or adventurous, even if it were just
a suggestion of it.
    ‘ Okay . . .
actually, not okay. Jane, look, I don't know if you know much about
how the Galaxy works . . . ' he
began.
    That would be when Jane took a
sharp step away from him. Bloody Lucas Stone. Accusing her of not
knowing how the Galaxy works, typical of someone like
him.
    Before she could get too
irritated at him, he put up his hands, and looked genuinely sorry.
‘Sorry, I'm sorry, that came out wrong. What I meant
is . . . look, until we know why that thing was here
and what it was really after, we shouldn't
assume . . . look, it's just always safer to put
security measures in place until we know the full truth.’ Lucas
gave another awkward shrug, and even put a hand up to his neck and
tried to stretch out one of his shoulders. ‘What I'm saying is that
until we complete this investigation, it is probably safest for you
to stay somewhere where there are a lot of people, somewhere
populated. I know you live out in the country, but do