Alien Research

CHAPTER 49

JEFF GOT JAMIE FROM DAYCARE while I requested dinner from the King of the Elves. Had to give this to Algar—he made great food. Had no idea how he snapped it into existence, and decided not to care.

We had a quiet dinner, spent some time snuggling with Jamie and all the pets, the Poofs in particular, then followed our nightly family routine to the letter. Read stories to Jamie, then her bath time, tucked her in, sang songs. Jeff moved all the Poof Condos into the nursery.

Jamie wasn’t in a crib any more. While I’d felt a twin bed was just fine, Jeff hadn’t, and Jamie was in a queen. This left plenty of room for the pets, most of whom slept with Jamie these days. Jamie truly insisted that the animals be with her 24/7 as much as possible, and they all seemed good with the arrangement.

In addition to her Poof, Mous-Mous, a variety of other, unattached Poofs, were cuddled next to her. All the Poofs mewed at me, and Harlie and Poofikins both jumped onto my shoulders, purring, and gave me love-rubs, before settling into bed with Jamie as well. So at least they didn’t hate me for calling for Fuzzball. One for the win column.

The cats rubbed up against me and Jeff, then went with the Poofs and settled themselves on the bed with Jamie. The dogs normally slept in their doggy beds in our room, but all four of them walked into the nursery, gave us both snuffles, got pets, then sat down and looked at Jeff expectantly. He moved their beds in there, too, and the dogs happily settled in for the night.

This left Bruno and Lola, our Peregrine pair. Lola squawked gently at us and settled herself at the foot of Jamie’s bed. Bruno surveyed the scene, squawked a command to his troops, then trotted out.

The animals all seemed quieter and a little huddled, which was to be expected. They’d lost one of their own, too. Wanted to apologize but really didn’t know how.

Jamie gave me an extra hug. “It’ll be okay, Mommy.”

Didn’t really know what to say to this, so I hugged her back and kissed her head. “Yes, it will. Mommy and Daddy will make sure of it.” Hoped that covered any little girl worries the day and my guilty worrying had created, but wasn’t willing to bet the farm on it. However, did my best to focus on how much I loved Jamie and the rest of our family, whether on four legs or two, and hoped it would do the trick.

Once we were out and Jamie’s door was closed tightly, Bruno squawked at me. After some head bobs, intricate clawing motions, wing flaps, and more squawks, he waited for his scritchy-scratch, which I gave him right between his wings where the Peregrines liked it best, and he trotted off.

“What did he and the other animals have to say?” Jeff asked, managing not to sound freaked out, which was awesome personal growth on his part.

“Um, whatever’s going on, they agree that Jamie is the focus. All the animals are sleeping with one eye open.”

“All?”

“All. Bruno’s going to be on patrol in our apartment, and Walter’s Peregrines are sleeping with Brian, Serene, and Patrick, along with a variety of extra Poofs, because they agree that Patrick is a target as well.”

“Is that all they said?” Jeff asked gently.

Heaved a sigh. “No. They insist that Fuzzball and Michael being murdered wasn’t my fault.”

Jeff hugged me. “They’re right. Let’s get into bed and try to get some sleep. We all need it.”

“How are you doing? I’ve been worried about you all day.”

He nuzzled my hair. “I’m fine. Just need some sleep like everyone else.”

Didn’t believe him but decided not to argue. If Tito hadn’t demanded Jeff go into isolation, then maybe all Jeff really did need was sleep. “Are your blocks up?” I asked as we got undressed and into our standard A-C issue nightclothes, consisting of white T-shirts and blue pajama bottoms.

“Yes. They need to be.”

“I know this is the worst for the empaths, isn’t it? You especially.”

“In a way. However, it’s never as bad for us as it is for those closest to the deceased.”

“In this case, that means it’s just as bad for you, or worse.”

“Not worse. I’m not happy, and I’ll be the first to admit that part of me still doesn’t believe what happened is real. But, baby, you need to remember—every Field agent is trained to expect death. Of people they know, their partner, even themselves. Michael was an astronaut—he was trained to expect things to go wrong, too.”

“You’ve said that before, and I still say that while you can be trained and be told, and even expect it, it’s still a shock when death shows up and kicks you in the gut. And most people really don’t believe they’re ever going to die, let alone like . . . what happened today.”

Jeff pulled me into bed. “I know. And I agree. That’s why everyone needs to just be together with their families tonight.”

“Where’s Caroline?” I hadn’t seen her since we’d left her and the rest of the Gowers with Michael’s body. My old friend Guilt dropped in to mention that I was undoubtedly winning the Worst Friend in the World Award.

“She’s with Abigail. Aunt Ericka and Uncle Stanley are in the guest room next to them, so two down from Naomi and Chuck. James and Paul are on the other side. They’re all together, and my mother and father are there, too. And everyone understands that we’re leaving them alone until they’re ready for us.”

“I should have gone down and spent time with them.”

“Why?” Jeff sat up in bed and looked at me. “So you can tell them, again, that you think what happened is all your fault? So they can tell you, again, it’s not? So that you can say, again, that you’re sorry?”

“Yeah, I guess. I mean, it’s what you’re supposed to do. And I didn’t. Not enough. And you’re supposed to be there to comfort your friends and I didn’t even know what room Caroline was in until just now.”

“While you were supposedly going to the bathroom but were actually crying in the closet, Uncle Richard told us that the family just wanted to be together. No one blames you, and they said that, too.”

“Naomi does.” Which made the whole thing hurt all the more.

“Naomi’s under the influence of a drug. Which you discovered so it could be countered, I might add. No one in control of their own mind blames you, baby. If I’d had any way to call in a strike team and tell them where to go, I would have. You activated the only things that had a shot of finding our people. You didn’t know Walter and his team were on the way, any more than we were advised that the Marines were deployed.”

“But my order is the reason two of our own are dead.”

Jeff made the exasperation sound. “Are you listening to me? At all? I can’t tell. I realize you want to wallow in guilt for some reason, but it’s misplaced. Leaders make calls, run plays, try different tactics and strategies. And sometimes what they try works, and sometimes it doesn’t.”

“I’m listening. I just—what we tried worked, but the wrong way.”

Jeff stroked my face. “I know. But, we’re in a war, baby. It’s covert, but it’s still a war. And in wars, we lose people. Did I want to see my cousin murdered in front of me? No, of course not. Did we do everything we could to prevent it? Yes, we did. The outcome is one of the worst we could have ended up with, but death is a part of life. We can complain about it, but we can’t change that.”

Algar had certainly said the same. Decided I was exhausted and just wanted to sleep. Jeff realized, because he lay back down next to me, pulled me close to him, and kissed my forehead. “Go to sleep, baby. Let’s put this day from hell into the past.”

“O-kay,” I said, with a yawn between syllables. Focused on the hair on Jeff’s chest, how nice it felt when my face was snuggled in between his awesome pecs, and drifted off.

Was rudely awakened by someone tapping my shoulder.

“Missus Martini, how nice to see you again.”

Looked around. Lucky me. There I was, back in front of my friends, The Congressional Grand Inquisition.