Alien Proliferation

the risk, however.”
    “I can see the people I care about, when they’re in trouble, if I’m thinking about them. Sometimes, anyway.”
    “Okay, helpful, but still not worth it.”
    “Worth it to me.”
    “But not to anyone who loves you. You know, the easy way is just to find a girl and have babies.”
    “Yeah, so I can watch her die in labor?” He was clutching me the way Jeff had.
    “I came back.”
    “Most girls aren’t you.”
    “Maybe that means they’d do better. Paul’s mother had four, and she looks fabulous. Everyone’s different, honey.”
    “Jeff won’t like you calling me honey.”
    “He won’t mind.” I kissed his head again. “Here’s what he’s going to mind. That his cousin, his best friend, the person he’s always known loves him is slowly killing himself. Even when you hated him, he knew you loved him. Christopher, for so long, you were the only person he knew loved him. Don’t you know what that means to an empath, and to Jeff, in particular? How in the world do you think he’d manage if he lost you to something like this?”
    “He has you and Jamie, now.”
    “That doesn’t mean he doesn’t need you any more. It just means there’s more of us who need you. But we need you , not some super-enhanced version of you. I know Jeff’s glad his powers were enhanced. But, Christopher, he’s been terrified for my entire pregnancy that because of the drug he was endangering me and the baby. We have no way of knowing. Maybe the drug is the reason why I, according to everyone, died and came back. Why would you risk that, risk putting yourself and the people you love, into that kind of danger by choice? Jeff didn’t take that drug willingly, neither did Serene. And they got it out of their systems as fast as they could. Serene and Brian are afraid, too, of what the drug might have done to her, might do to their baby. I ask again, why risk that willingly?”
    “I’m never getting married, so it won’t matter.”
    I sighed. It was really reminiscent of Operation Fugly, only this time it was Christopher who had his fatalism set to high.
    “Oh, honey, sure you will. Maybe you’ll meet a nice girl in rehab.”
    He managed a weak laugh. “Our rehab is isolation. Not a lot of girls in there.”
    “You can’t make me believe that in all the world, the only two possible girls for you were Lissa and me.” He shifted uncomfortably, and I hugged him closer. “I love Jeff so much, as you know. But I think I could have managed to be happy with Chuckie. I’ll bet I could have managed to be happy with someone else, too. Maybe even you.”
    “Uh, thanks. Not feeling better.”
    “My point is that I had more than one or two options, and so do you.”
    “Not seeing any.”
    “Well, most nice girls do try to avoid getting attached to drug addicts.”
    “I’m not an addict.”
    “Yeah, right. Needle tracks say otherwise, honey.”
    “Why honey, all of a sudden?”
    “I’m a mother now. Comes with the territory.”
    “You’re not my mother.”
    “No, I’m not. But I know she wouldn’t want you doing this, more than me, even.”
    “We have to protect you, you have a daughter now.” He sounded freaked and scared . . . and like a little boy.
    Ah, there it was. “Christopher, you turning yourself into some scary super-A-C isn’t going to protect Jamie or me. You being you has been pretty effective all this time.”
    “You save us a lot more than we save you.”
    “Well, I am a modern feminist, after all.”
    “Yeah.”
    “And, it doesn’t matter who saves whom. It matters that we’re all trying to save each other. We’re not alone, like your mother was. We have each other. But Jeff and I won’t have you if you continue to do this to yourself. We want Christopher, not Scary Man, the raving Imageer Lunatic, who will terrify you with his bloodshot eyes.”
    He managed a laugh. “I suppose.”
    I held him and rocked him and spent some time hating their family. Not White or Jeff’s parents, but their parents and grandparents and all the ones who’d exiled an entire race here because they believed in a different version of God. The ones who’d turned little boys into men at ten years of age. The ones who’d cared more about power than love. The ones who had helped to shove Christopher into a mind-set where he could convince himself that what he’d done was a good course of action. Sure, he’d made the decision on his own, but it was easy to connect the dots to