Ned was just starting to doze in front of the television when he heard the commotion from his garage. He'd had a long day of running around a factory floor and trying to explain the effects of gruesome eye injury to various workers who thought that protective eyewear was merely a suggestion. At the end of the day, he was frazzled. He stopped by the gym to work off some frustration, which helped calm him. Ned hadn't even made anything for dinner yet and he was already feeling like he should just head to bed.
The clattering of metal on concrete jolted him out of his sleepiness. He had played left tackle in his college years and was still spryer on his feet than the average middle-aged man. The sound had barely begun to die away when he was at the door to the garage and turning on the light.
The garage was chilly; the area had seen a cold snap recently that made Ned yearn for summer. The space also had one window across from the door, and it was slightly ajar. As Ned flicked on the overhead light, he saw a smaller-than-average form dart back from the window and take refuge behind the his car.
Ned groaned. There had been a few break-ins recently that had been chalked up to neighborhood kids. He figured that somebody had forced the window open and then dropped something while searching for something to steal. His quicker-than-expected arrival must have interrupted the intruder from making an escape.
"I got a gun," he growled, trying to sound like Clint Eastwood. Another bit of Western movie dialogue came to him. "I don't want to kill you, and you don't want to be dead." He hoped the bluff would work; he was going to feel pretty damned stupid if he was found in the morning with a bullet in his head.
There was no sound at first in the garage, but then Ned heard the faintest sniffle. He instantly felt like garbage. It was probably some scared little kid who'd been put up to it by his peers.
Ned walked slowly forward and began to move around the car. It was even colder than he expected in the garage, and he could feel the chill through his tee shirt. At least he was wearing sweatpants. It would look really bad to the police to be confronting a kid while wearing only tighty-whities. He heard another sniffle, louder this time.
He held up his hands and tried to make his voice as gentle as possible. "Okay, look kid. I'm not mad, and I'm not gonna hurt you. You just scared me, is all. Tell you what, come on inside and we'll call your folks."
He heard a very faint voice, "No, you can't." The voice was high-pitched and feminine. Right now, it also sounded resigned and hopeless.
Ned moved even more slowly now. "Why not? Did they..." He stopped as a horrifying thought came to him. "Did your parents hurt you? Did you run away?" His voice hardened. "I can help you. We can talk to the police, there's good people who can help you."
He edged his head around the corner of the car. There was a small dark shape huddled against the rear tire. It was in the shadow cast by the overhead light and he couldn't make out any real details. Whoever it was, they were small. They couldn't have been more than four feet high.
"Okay, now," he said in a soothing tone. "No worries, okay? Whatever's wrong, we can fix it. That's my job, after all."
There was another sniffle. "It is?"
By now Ned was sure that the speaker was female. He hoped this wasn't a case of sexual abuse by some asshole father. Time to be cheerful, he thought. "Yep, it sure is! I'm the safety officer for Arcor Aerospace. I make sure that everyone's safe, and right now that includes you."
The huddled form didn't move. "No, you can't fix this."
"You'd be surprised. Now come on inside. I'm freezing my ass off out here."
He saw the figure's shadowed head move and look at him. He caught the glint from a pair of huge, almond-shaped eyes. Eyes that were much larger than any human's. Just as he was about to take a step back in surprise, Ned got another shock. A pair of long ears unfolded from the back of the figure's head and rose up.
The intruder stood and walked towards Ned. She was wearing a blue tattered raincoat with some sort of black tracksuit under it. The tracksuit was also ripped and torn. Through the gaps in her clothing, Ned could see a light gray fur that covered her skin. She had a scrape on one cheek and little cut over her opposite eye. Her face was coated with the same gray fur as her body. She had a pink snub nose and whiskers.
She was a goddamn four-foot-tall humanoid rabbit. The furry newcomer reached Ned and glared up into his dazed face. Her huge blue eyes were red-rimmed and watering.
"Can you fix this?" she asked, in a quavering but defiant voice.
Ned almost freaked out right there, but then his training kicked in.
Work the problem, don't guess, don't get emotional, just work the problem...
He took a deep breath. "Okay, I obviously have a lot of questions. But first things first. It really is cold out here, so let's get you inside and get you some food. You must be hungry."
His sudden brisk energy must have surprised her, because she took a step back. "Okay." She didn't sound that trusting.
Ned held up his hands "I understand, you've clearly been chased by somebody or something. You're worried that I'm going to call the cops or the government. But I like to have all of the facts before I do anything. So we'll go slowly. Let's get you fed and talk about what happened to you and we'll both figure out what to do from there. Okay?"
She slumped, and her ears fell down behind her head again. "I...okay. I just don't want to be hurt."
"Not gonna happen. Not while I'm around."
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Priority one was water. His guest drank about four full glasses of water before she said she'd had enough. Priority two was clothes. Ned found an old tee shirt of his as well as a sweatshirt that had shrunk in the wash. He had handed her the clothes and let her change in the bathroom. She'd emerged with both of his shirts on and with her old ripped clothes in a plastic bag. The tee shirt was ridiculously big on her, and hung down past the bottom edge of the sweatshirt. But now that she was dressed in warm and un-ripped clothes she seemed to be more relaxed. She'd also found a Band-Aid to put over the cut above her eye.
Ned was itching to take a look at her old clothes to see if he could figure anything out from them. But he figured that would appear really creepy, and his number one mantra right now was 'Don't Be A Creep'. Besides, he was sure that she would tell him her story in due course.
He kept trying to figure it out. Was she an alien? Probably not, she was too close to an earthly species to be from somewhere else. Maybe she was the runaway creation of some crazy genetic engineer?
"So what's your name?" he said as he bustled about his kitchen.
The rabbit sat at his kitchen table and looked around at her surroundings. It wasn't a look of wonder, it was more like...puzzlement.
"Holly," she said. "Holly Arnbock."
"Pleased to meet you, Holly. I'm Ned Chiang." He was thinking of making a salad, but decided that hot food would probably be more comforting. Ned took out some frozen peas and carrots and began heating those on the stove while he cut up some potatoes. He paused mid-slicing.
"Um, I'm assuming you're okay with eating vegetables. What about potatoes?"
