"All finished?" it was ten minutes since Marcus started talking with Professor Johanson, and since it was supposed to be few minutes, Rick thought that it would take longer than this. When it comes to science stuff, few minutes is usually few hours.
"All finished, we can go now."
"Good, we will now go to the city, we will get you two an ID first. With it, you will be able to move around easily." That's a number one thing that he needs to take care of, if he loses track of them at any point, if they have an ID on them he will be able to track them.
Through the whole way to the city, Marcus kept asking questions, nonstop. What is a car, how is it moving, what are those ropes, how are those buildings so tall? The questions kept coming, and after dozens of them, Rick was sick of them. He understood that they are from a different dimension and that they don't have things like this in their world, but still it was annoying to answer all of those questions.
And it only got worse as they entered the city. After twenty minutes since they entered the city, they arrived at their destination. The city hall, the military already contacted them, and now they only need to fill in all of the information, get fingerprints, retinal scan and a DNA sample. Then they will get their ID's.
"Fill in this form." Handing in the forms to them, he expected it to be fast, but both of them were taking a long time. "Is there a problem?" Rick asked.
"Well… there are few things I'm not sure. Place of birth, Surname. I don't know the first one, and I don't have the second one. Well, there are some small things that I'm not sure as well." Said Marcus.
"I think that since we are not from here, and we don't want to stand out, we should use a place form here for the place of birth. But as well as Marcus I'm not sure about some things." Xiao Mei added.
Only now Rick remembered that they know nothing, this knowledge was so obvious to him, that he couldn't understand how someone didn't know it all. But they are different, they look like any person, but in the end, they are from a different dimension.
So he helped them to make up some details. But the biggest problem had Marcus; he didn't have a surname. So the three started to ponder for a one that will be fitting him. And Rick was the first one with an interesting proposition.
"Hear me out; there is an old legend from ancient times, it talks about a god associated with lightning and death. He was said to guard the sun as it traveled through the underworld every night. He had the body of a human and head of a dog, one time he cried so much that he lost his eyes leaving only empty eyesockets. His name was Xoltol, the god of lightning and fire."
"Well, it does sound nice. Marcus Xoltol, I can go with that."
"Mei Xoltol, why not?"
What? What is she talking about now? She has a surname already; she doesn't need to change it. "Xiao Mei, what are you saying? Why are you changing your surname on the form?" Marcus didn't know how to react, what is she thinking?!
"Well, it will be easier to say that we are siblings. Isn't that right Lieutenant Garey?"
"… Yes? I could tell that you two are children of a distant relative. Sigh… why didn't the army took care of this? They are making things more difficult for me." He later realized, that minimizing the movements concerning the identity of the two will be a good thing for them. With military not involving themselves with it, they minimized the traces of their identity. They will only make some fake past for them after they establish all of the facts.
After that, there was only some problem with the retinal scan for Marcus, and it took them a while to solve it. Checking the time, he saw that it was already 7 pm. It will take an hour to get to his house. So on the way, Rick bought food, a lot of it.
When they arrived the sun was already down, Rick opened the door and entered the house with Marcus and Xiao Mei following him. And soon they could hear footsteps, and a woman showed up.
"Rick!" seeing her husband she hugged him immediately, and with tears in her eyes, she kissed him. Following that a girl, around the age of Marcus and Xiao Mei, came. "Dad!" She ran up to Rick and hugged him.
After a few minutes of crying and hugging, the two finally calmed down and noticed the existence of Marcus and Xiao Mei.
"Honey, Alexa, this is Marcus and Mei, they will be staying with us for a while. Marcus, Mei, this is my wife Jasmine, and my daughter Alexa."
"Hi." "It is nice to meet you." Said Marcus and Xiao Mei.
"Hello…" Jasmine responded awkwardly.
"Dad, who are they? And why are they staying here?" Alexa was ruthless, with no pleasantries she started asking questions.
"We will have to talk about that, Alexa for now, you can take Marcus and Mei and show them the house." Before talking with his daughter, he needs to explain everything to his wife. The situation is complicated, and they need to be careful.
And that's what he did, he talked with his wife and told her the truth. And together they decided not to tell the truth to Alexa. But the moment that she entered the room, she started telling that both Marcus and Mei are crazy. At this point he realized, he created them a past, and he assumed that this is what they will stick too. But he never expected that because Alexa is his daughter, they will tell her the truth.
He asked them later, and they told him that if it were a stranger, they would lie.
But since the milk was spilled, he just told his daughter the truth.