Alien Proliferation

she thinks.”
    “Uh-huh. Ames? He’s freaking brilliant, okay?” And he hadn’t been awkward for over a decade and had been pretty darned handsome for that long, too. He’d also been damned good in bed, but I wasn’t going to mention that aloud.
    “I hate it when you think about him like that.” Jeff was on “rabid dog” again.
    I looked at him. “Who did I marry? Why did I marry him? Discuss.”
    “Fine, fine.” It wasn’t, but at least we weren’t going to have our domestic dispute in front of the whole transient floor. Sylvia and Clarence fought about Jeff and Christopher, Jeff and I fought about Chuckie. Some things seemed universal between spouses.
    “Anyway, here’s what I hope Tim’s in good enough shape to tell us. He heard Sylvia and Clarence fighting. Heard that drug name mentioned. It didn’t register. Did his thing in our room, went to my house. The gate in my parents’ house lets you out in their guest bathroom, ’cause, you know, why mess with the theme?”
    “There are pictures of Paris in that bathroom,” Kevin said. “I’ve seen them. Eiffel Tower shot is the first thing you see when you exit the gate.”
    “Yep. I’m guessing that the word clicked for him then. He’s been to the house; he knows where my room and my music are. Trotted in there. I’ll lay money he looked at my bookshelf, which happens to have a French/English dictionary sitting on it. Took a look, said, ‘crap,’ and put Operation Solo in action.”
    “I’m still not clear on why he’s not in Florida.” Jeff ran his hand through his hair. “It would have made more sense to get there and advise us.”
    “Variety of possibilities. I’m going with the fact that he’s hoping to stop whatever else is going on—because, trust me, there’s always more than one thing going on, don’t forget—before it gets more out of hand. I stress again, he’s not alone. He’s with four other agents. He said they weren’t hurt, at least, not when he’d called.” I chose to ignore the fact that the last thing we’d heard from Tim’s call was the sound of screeching tires.
    Jeff took a deep breath. “Okay. James, call Paul, and let’s get moving.” He grabbed my hand and pulled me aside. “I’m serious, baby. I want you staying here, where it’s safe. I don’t want you leaving Jamie; I don’t want you, either of you, in danger. We’ll talk about your door destruction and prisoner interrogations later. At least you weren’t holding our baby while you did them.”
    “I’m not a total idiot, Jeff. Besides, she’s in the sack, safe in Emily’s arms, fast asleep.”
    “I can’t believe she didn’t wake up.”
    I leaned up and kissed his cheek. “Her daddy was here to take care of her and her mommy. No reasons to worry.”
    He kissed me back, full on the mouth, and I relaxed and enjoyed it. “Promise me.”
    “Jeff, I’m not going to do anything to endanger myself or Jamie. I promise.”
    He didn’t look as though he believed me at all. “Okay. What are you doing with Christopher?”
    “I’m going to see if he can tell me anything else. I can’t believe he’d take anything from Clarence. He can’t stand your brothers-in-law, possibly more than you can’t. So there’s some intermediary somewhere, maybe more than one. We have to find out how widespread this is—were they just testing on Christopher, or do we have more A-Cs out there slowly turning into mutants?”
    Paul and Michael Gower arrived. Michael was a younger version of his older brother—big, black, built, bald, and totally gorgeous. He was also The Player of the A-C community. If there was a single woman around, human or A-C, Michael was batting with intent to score. “We’re leaving lockdown?” Michael sounded relieved.
    “Yeah, rub it in. It’s a big place, but the term ‘stir crazy’ is starting to apply.”
    “New mothers are supposed to stay in bed.” Gower looked more closely at me. “Uh . . . Kitty?”
    Michael was staring at me. “Wow. You look fabulous as always, Kitty.” He didn’t let the married gals feel unappreciated, either. Sometimes it was too much, but I’d gotten used to him now, and he didn’t really faze me.
    “Thanks.”
    “We’ll explain on the way,” Reader said, voice crisp and no-nonsense. He looked at Melanie and Emily. “Ride herd on her. Trust me when I say she’s crafty.” Melanie laughed while Emily gave Jamie back to me and helped me hook the Snugli back on.
    “Love