Alien Diplomacy

on, still trying not to barf.” Thankfully, breakfast had been hours ago. I was cool with the fact it looked like we were going to miss lunch.
    I got my stomach under control and realized I had no idea where, in the vastness that was the Science Center, Lorraine and Claudia actually were. Or if they were even in the Science Center.
    Jeff got his phone out. “Huh. No missed calls.” Everyone else checked their phones, too. The lack of someone trying to reach them was shared.
    “Look, call it my feminine intuition. Call one of the flyboys or check with Gladys. Meanwhile, we can head either to medical or to their living quarters.”
    “They could be in a meeting,” Serene said. “I left everyone in one when I came over for Tito’s exam.”
    “Kitty, is this just an exercise in your needing to make us all racearound for nothing?” Christopher snapped. “Because right now all I see is business as usual going on. No emergencies.”
    “Let’s discuss this on the way to the elevator banks.” I strode off, wondering if I’d misinterpreted ACE’s comments. Right now, Christopher seemed right, and if that was the case, I was going to have a whole bunch of really annoyed people on my hands.
    Jeff caught up to me. “Baby, are you sure you’re just not being jumpy for no reason?” he asked me quietly.
    The elevators opened before I could reply, to show Jerry standing there, phone in hand, looking worried. He gaped at us. As he did so, everyone’s phones started ringing. “You’re here,” Jerry managed, as he hung up his phone.
    “We are indeed. What’s going on?”
    “I’ve been trying to call you. Why aren’t you answering your phone?”
    “It’s in my purse. I think.”
    Jerry gaped at me. “And you don’t have your purse with you?”
    “Um, no. Actually, no, I don’t.”
    Jerry stared at me. “Who are you, and what have you done with Kitty?”
    “Just put it down to my still adapting with little grace and absolutely no skill to my fabulous new position. Are Lorraine and Claudia okay?”
    Jerry blinked. “Yes, I mean, they should be.” He looked around. “How did you all know to come over now?”
    “A big penguin told me. Look, what’s going on?”
    Jerry grinned. “The miracle of birth. Times two.”



CHAPTER 26
    “I KNEW IT!” IT WAS NICE TO BE RIGHT, especially because Christopher had the grace to look chagrined.
    “Well, I don’t know how,” Jerry said. “It just started. We were leaving a meeting, and both Lorraine and Claudia started to feel labor pains.” He backed into the elevator, and we followed him. “We do want to hurry.”
    “Yes,” Melanie said, “our babies come fast.”
    “Like you wouldn’t believe,” Jerry said under his breath. No one else but me seemed to hear him, possibly because they were all on their respective phones. I felt really out of the loop. However, from what I gathered by shamelessly eavesdropping, everyone was having the same conversation, which was essentially “hurry it up.”
    The elevator doors opened on the medical floor, and Melanie and Emily disappeared, using the serious Mama Bear Hyperspeed. Tito hung up his phone and ran after them. The rest of us looked at Jerry. “When they say fast, they mean fast,” he said with feeling.
    Christopher grabbed Jerry, Jeff grabbed me, and we all took off after the others. We were there in seconds, which was good, because even by the time we got there, things were hopping.
    The girls were in one large room that had two beds and a couple of typical hospital curtains to provide the privacy the girls clearly weren’t experiencing—there were a lot of men in there with them. I certainly knew what that felt like—awkward.
    “Out!” Tito thundered, right on cue. “Only the fathers.”
    I took Jamie out of White’s arms, grabbed Serene, and walked in. “And us, Tito. Trust me.”
    He gave me a long look, then nodded. “Fine. Shut the doors will you?”
    Serene did as he asked while I stood between the two beds. “You two are really carrying the ‘best friends do everything together’ thing a little far.”
    Both girls managed the labor equivalent of a chuckle, which was a gasping semi-yelp. Joe and Randy looked ready to pass out, particularly when they looked at me. Lorraine and Claudia’s fathers were there, too. They were functioning as gophers for Tito, Melanie, and Emily. So it was cozy, until their dads looked at me, worried. I was fairly sure why ACE had given me the huge hint