I bow to Stephenie Meyers (and J.K. Rowling)! I do not own The Host, right to it, etc, etc. This is a short one-shot on Melanie's awakening. Let me know what you think. I do appreciate a good, grateful review.

Where am I? What am I? Who am I? These questions shot through my head like bullets, as the blackness came into view. It was not the black that had been absent before. It had been my consciousness. I could not seem to hear or smell or taste or feel...I could only see the dark. A noise pierced the silence. A sob? What was that? It wasn't good, but what was good? What was anything? Upon hearing one more of these anguished sobs, I started to remember. And soon the memories were coming back so quickly, I couldn't contain them at all. The pressure was overwhelming, and I jerked a limb involuntarily. My arm hit something solid, cutting the noise off completely. I stopped breathing. My arm... My... Mine... A rush of confusing emotions overtook me... An overwhelming desire to run on my own two legs, to shout whatever I wanted at the top of my lungs until I no longer could, to blink, to spit, to do anything just because I could...

A voice, more familiar than any other sound in the world, pierced this new pressure-filled silence. "Mel?" His voice broke on that one syllable. I felt the heat of his hand on my own, and a smile broke from my lips. This was the first time I had been able to smile for myself in over a year. He gasped, and I finally took it upon myself to open my eyes. I opened them slowly, expecting Doc's bright ceiling to blind me, but there was darkness except for a blue tinge from where the desk must have been. But I didn't care about any of this. I searched frantically for him with my eyes until I found him. He was bent over my side, clutching one hand to his nose where my hand must have hit him, the other grasping my arm. I could dimly tell that his eyes were rimmed with red. "Mel!" He exclaimed this time, a true smile lighting his face for the first time in a long time.

I was no longer in control of my limbs this time. They took over for themselves, for suddenly, I was flying off the side of the cot and into Jared's lap. What was that noise? Oh, that was me. But...was I crying? Was I laughing? It didn't matter because it was the same strange noise Jared was making as we kissed each other anywhere we could. Our hands roamed all over each other, touching everywhere to make sure this was true, that this was real. My lips finally found his, and as I pressed against him as hard as I could, I could taste our mingling, salty tears.

"Jared, Jared, Jared," someone was saying, as if from a distance. The tone was one of pain, desire, pleasure, fear, happiness. Who would address him this way? And I suddenly realized that I'd been doing this too without realizing it.

"Oh, Mel," he kept whispering back as our lips parted and met, parted and met. The kisses were everything we'd been missing since our last good-bye. They were gentle and rough and loving and soft. They set the fire that spread within seconds throughout my entire body by way of my veins. My lips found the hot point on Jared's neck where I used to lay my head to feel his heart pulsing, and I kissed him there.

"I love you." This became my new mantra as my lips slowly became bruised with making sure this was not a dream this time. He grasped my chin, angling my face up, so he could press his 

lips once again to mine. "I love you so much," he repeated to me. We were clutched so tightly together, there wasn't much closer we could be. There was only one thing left to do, but the place was hardly appropriate. It took a few minutes before we could be satisfied with simply our arms around each other, though they were twined so hard I thought I might break. The pain was worth it because it was nowhere near as bad as the pain I felt on being separated from him.

"Melanie!" A new voice broke through my skin, piercing me with a fresh, raw pain and pleasure that tore me away from Jared to see my baby tumbling through the door.

"Jamie!" My voice was cracked and dry, as I tried to keep myself from crying. It wasn't long before I had slipped off Jared and was receiving Jamie into my arms. He came at me so strongly, that he pushed me back onto Jared, so we were both sitting in his lap. "Oh, my Jamie," I gasped, as I clutched him to me tightly and kissed his forehead and his tightly closed eyes and his nose over and over again. A dry sob racked my body as I clutched him to me. I had felt it before when... When Wanda would hold him... But it wasn't nearly the same... I clutched him to me the way I imagined a mother would clutch their newborn child to protect it from danger. I felt his tears as they began to soak through my blouse, but it didn't matter, for my tears seemed to be doing the same to his. And then we were all embracing and speaking all at once. The love was overwhelmingly heart-breaking as I clutched them both to me. I would rather die a million painful deaths than feel the pain of that separation from them again.

After another few minutes, Jared was holding both Jamie and I tightly in his arms, I on his lap, Jamie on mine. There was so much to say, but I felt I only had the energy to be there. Besides, I didn't think there were words that could convey how happy I felt. So I let myself be captivated in the moment, let myself feel things I knew I could only ever feel once. At the sound of the loud footsteps jogging down the hallway, I tore my moist face from Jared's to see who it was.

A face as familiar to me now as the two pressing against me appeared in the doorway, and the smile felt shatteringly quickly from my face. Ian stared in horror in our direction. His eyes told me he was willing himself not to believe what he already knew to be true.

His voice broke painfully as he spoke. "Wanda?"

So, I didn't edit this probably half as much as I should have, but I'm in a rush to leave, so review, please. Let me know what you think , where I went wrong, or what is absolutely perfect, you just can't stand it!