Alien in the Family

would mean the process was too complex. Also, they wanted to see how Jeff and Kitty did for a year before allowing any others to marry. Richard got the deadline as a compromise.”
    And he’d never mentioned it once, to either me or Martini.
    “Huh. That seems odd to me, as a Giant Lizard. They gave a deadline of May first, and if Jeff and Kitty met that, then everyone can get married?”
    “Yes,” Serene said, still concentrating on the buttons.
    “But if they got married on, say, May second, then everyone else would have to wait until May of the next year before they could consider marriage? And it would be dependent upon how Jeff and Kitty were doing?”
    “Yes. There, all done. Jareen, can you check and make sure it looks right?”
    Jareen moved around behind me. “Perfect.” Serene beamed.
    “Thanks, Serene. So, pretty much, we have until midnight to get married or else no one else gets hitched to a human?”
    She nodded. “But we’re fine. I think the ceremony’s scheduled for six.” She left the room.
    Jareen and I looked at each other. “Twenty of your dollars says someone tries to stop this wedding.”
    “Unlike my Nona Maria, I don’t take sucker bets. This is why James is so frantic. He knows about it—but I don’t think anyone else we’re close to does. I mean, why would Christopher have let us dawdle along if there was this kind of restriction on us?”
    Jareen shook her head. “No idea.”
    “James must have discovered this when he was in the hospital wing. He would have told me if he’d known before all the invasion stuff started. I mean, he was going to help me get a dress before Moira attacked him, but there wasn’t any urgency, not like he’s had since he made his miraculous recovery.”
    “Then why hasn’t he told you?”
    “Maybe he can’t. Or else he’s protecting someone.” Neither answer seemed totally right. I had no idea what was going on. Conveniently, I knew someone who could always figure out what was going on. “No one’s going to like this, James and Jeff least of all, but I need to talk to Chuckie, right now and in person.”

CHAPTER 69

    JAREEN NODDED. “I KNOW HOW to get him in here. Just sit, well, stand tight.”
    She hypersped out of the room and was back in a flash with Chuckie. “Oooh, dude, nice tux.” It was nice. Of course, I’d seen it before, at our ten-year reunion. When he’d proposed. Worked very hard on being emotionally cool and calm.
    “What’s up? Jareen said ‘emergency,’ grabbed me, and I’m here.” I brought him up to speed. He looked thoughtful. “Get Serene, Lorraine, and Claudia, only, in here.”
    Jareen went off and got them. “What’s up?” Lorraine looked perfectly calm.
    “Serene, could you tell everyone in the room what you told me and Jareen? About the deadline, I mean?”
    She looked confused but told the others what Jareen and I had already heard. There was dead silence when she was done. Claudia and Lorraine looked beyond shocked. “You didn’t know?” Chuckie asked them.
    “Hell no,” Lorraine said. “We’re in the next group to get married. So’s Serene.”
    A thought occurred. “Serene? How did you find out about the deadline?” She looked really embarrassed and more than a little scared. “Honey, you’re in Airborne now. That means if you were doing some sort of, ah, intelligence work, that’s okay.”
    She looked a little less scared. “Well, when the invasion stuff started, after James was hurt, everyone was running around and doing a million things, and you’d brought me out, but I didn’t have anything to do. So I figured maybe I should make sure I was watching Richard—you know, he said I could call him Richard—just to make sure nothing happened to him.”
    “Yes, he’s fine with you calling him Richard. And that was really good thinking on your part, Serene.”
    “Really? Great!” I gave her a meaningful look. “Oh. Okay. So, at one point, he was talking to a group of people—it was right when you guys brought me out, so James was still in the hospital—and since I couldn’t see them in my mind I . . . spied on them.” She looked ready to run.
    “Good job,” I said quickly. Relief washed over Serene’s face. “What did you see and hear?”
    “The people were really upset with him, saying he was destroying the race. Lots of arguments went on, and they made him agree to a new deadline.”
    “There was always a deadline?” Chuckie asked.
    “Yes, I think so. At