Alien Tango

of our entire family.”
    “I don’t care. The person you should be apologizing to is Jeff.” I stalked out of the hallway, still carrying Kimmie. “Where’s the dining room?”
    She pointed through the kitchen. I walked around the various women and did my best to ignore them completely. “Mommy, I’m going to sit with Kitty!” Kimmie said to Marianne.
    “Good,” she said quietly. “I’ll just help you two get settled.”
    We walked into the massive dining room. Clearly the Martinis were used to feeding small armies. “Nice place to grow up.”
    “It was fine. I’m sorry about my mother and Barbara. Despite how it looks, my mother doesn’t hate you.”
    “She’s faking it really well.”
    “She’s afraid for you.”
    I looked at her. “Come again?”
    Marianne shook her head. “Empathic children are the most difficult.” She led me to a spot somewhere in the middle of one of the two big tables in the room. “The closest comparison I can come up with is autism. Only it’s worse with an empathic.” She sighed. “I can remember how much my parents wanted a boy and how happy they were when Jeff arrived. And then ... ”
    “Then he was a little work?” I tried not to sound huffy and failed.
    “No. You don’t understand. Babies can’t filter anything. Most empathic talent shows up later, but Jeff was empathic at birth. And Jeff was so powerful—if our mother was tired, or cross with us, or angry with our father, he could feel it all. It was horrible. If Aunt Terry hadn’t been able to take him, we’d have had to institutionalize him, for his mental safety.”
    “But there’s nothing wrong with him.”
    “Now. Oh, unless you count someone having to shoot adrenaline into his hearts to keep him alive.” She was trying not to cry. “He’s my baby brother—we all wanted him so much. And then we couldn’t be around him, couldn’t even hold him, because we couldn’t keep all emotions from him. And we could see it was killing him.”
    “Okay, so it’s difficult. But isolation chambers, medical, learning how to get to the Happy Place. You all have a lot of empaths, not just Jeff, and I know some of them show their talent earlier than puberty or adulthood Surely you have techniques.”
    “It’s rare to get an empath of Jeff’s power in a nontalented family, but, yes, there are things to do. Things that are easier for an A-C to do than a human.”
    “Jeff’s pretty good at all this stuff,” I said dryly. “I’d imagine he’ll be able to do what Terry did.”
    “If he’s alive.”
    “What do you mean?”
    Marianne shook her head. “We know what kind of jobs you do. Jeff almost died how many times today?”
    “Three or four.” I’d lost count.
    “One day, he won’t be lucky. The bullets will hit him, the superbeing will be too much for him, the adrenaline won’t get to him in time. And that will leave you with a child or children you can’t hope to take care of. That’s what our mother’s trying to protect you from.”
    “By alienating her son?”
    “By driving you away.”
    “I don’t roll like that, sorry. I’m really stubborn. If I’m told ‘you can’t,’ then that’s exactly what I’m going to do. Oh, and that includes taking care, proper care, of any children I might have.” I was clutching Kimmie to me, I realized.
    The little girl patted my back. “It’s okay, Kitty. You don’t have to be upset. Everyone likes you, even though they were pretending not to. Well, other than that mean lady. But she doesn’t like anyone, not even Grandma, though she pretends to. I don’t like her. I’m glad you hit her, she wanted to hurt you.”
    Marianne’s eyes widened. “Kimberly. . . . ”
    “It’s okay, Mommy. You don’t have to be so scared.”
    “That’s right.” Martini said from behind me. He took Kimmie out of my arms. “We took care of all that, didn’t we?”
    Kimmie hugged him. “Yes. I do what you taught me every day.”
    He kissed her. “Good girl.” Martini looked at Marianne. “She’s empathic. Not as strong as me, but pretty close.”
    “But, Jeff, how . . . ?” Marianne sounded close to fainting. He shrugged. “I was there when you delivered her. I handled it then.”
    “Handled what?”
    “I implanted what she’d need to survive until she was old enough to protect herself. Just as I’ve done for all the other kids in our family who are empathic.” He gave her a small smile. “Mom and Uncle Richard might not have talent,