Alien Proliferation

reaction.
    “That makes sense.”
    Reader and I looked at each other. “Personal growth is a great thing, babe.”
    Jeff sighed. “Look, all jealousy aside, if the person you run to when I’m not here is your best friend who happens to both be gay and married to one of my closer cousins? I’m great with that. The baby wasn’t trying to get Reynolds in here. I can’t even say how grateful I am for that.”
    “Maybe you could stop dwelling on Chuckie and his supposed still-romantic interests in me, Jeff. Since, for the past nine months at least, I only think about him as a romantic alternative when you bring it up.”
    “Huh. Fine. So, why knocking? And why did she knock out and move the Security team? I get that she wanted James with you, not them, but I don’t understand the rest of it.”
    “I have no idea. She’s a baby in the womb. I don’t have a good idea of how babies in the womb think, Jeff.”
    Reader looked thoughtful. “She’s reacting to you, though, isn’t she, Kitty?”
    I thought about it. “I suppose. The knocking stopped my crying. But it scared the crap out of me, too.”
    “Yeah, you’re not kidding.” Jeff hugged me. “I wasn’t joking—I could feel your terror in Paris. If we hadn’t been running for our lives, I’d have gotten home a lot faster.”
    “I probably don’t want to know.” Of course, I knew I’d find out. And soon.
    Reader cocked his head. “That’s it.”
    “What’s it?”
    He shrugged. “The baby wanted Jeff back, right? To calm you down and make her feel safe and secure. Mommy started crying, but Daddy wasn’t there to do the reassurance drill. Jeff, I’ll bet you wanted to get home when you felt Kitty start to go hormonal, but it was still something that was a lower priority than your assignment.”
    “Right,” Jeff said slowly. “But, to finish where I think you’re going with this, the moment I could feel how terrified Kitty was, I almost left Christopher to handle the situation so I could get back here.”
    “But you couldn’t. And Jamie must have realized that. But, by then, I was scared out of my mind, and that meant that . . . what? James had knocking on his door, too.”
    “Testing,” Jeff said. “Who’s going to come when Daddy can’t?”
    “Uncle James to the rescue.” Reader grinned as Jeff snorted. “What? You’re naming her after me but I don’t get the uncle title?”
    “Of course you do. Uncle Christopher would have come, too,” I added. “But she already knows that . . . .”
    “What do you mean?” Jeff sounded like he was heading back to Jealousy Land. And he’d been doing so well for the past few months.
    “Jeff . . . for God’s sake, I cannot physically handle Jamie’s reactions to your jealousy, okay? Can you just curb it? If you go all wiggy on me right now, she’s going to freak out, and if the last bout was any indication, I’m going to be in ICU.”
    “Sorry.” He rubbed my stomach. “I haven’t heard this story.”
    “It wasn’t that big a deal. You were somewhere else, Christopher wasn’t. I fell, he came and helped me.”
    “First of all, why do I know nothing about this, what were you doing that you fell, and how did Christopher know to come to you?” Jeff sounded like he was just holding the jealousy in.
    Reader shook his head. “Jeff, I don’t know about it, either. Christopher got to save the day instead of me. Maybe I should stomp around the room a bit, whaddaya say?”
    “Okay, fine. I’ve been up since midnight, and we’re heading toward dawn, and I had to dodge bullets and thugs on the Parisian streets with a moment’s notice and less sleep, after a day from hell, but, you know, don’t cut me any slack.”
    I managed to laugh. “Oh, poor baby.” I leaned against him and snuggled closer. “I didn’t tell you because it wasn’t a big deal. I tripped over something and fell in the bathroom. It scared me a lot, though, because I just missed hitting my head, again, and I wasn’t sure if I’d done something to the baby.”
    “So, again, how did Christopher get the call?”
    “He told me that our wedding picture he has on his nightstand fell over. He put it back up; it fell over again. Did that a couple more times, he got freaked out, came down to check on me while he called in to check on you.”
    “Oh. I remember that call. I thought it was weird.” He looked at Reader. “When we were at Top Gun, for the flyboys’ ceremony thing.”
    “Right, Kitty