Alien vs. Alien

Jeff and Chuckie will agree.”
    White nodded. “It’s quite reasonable. And true. Now, let’s do as Mister Buchanan suggested and get ourselves as back to normal as we’re able to.”
    Every apartment in the Embassy had its own dining area, and the kitchen had two nooks, an island, a table for four that could extend to a table for eight, and a bar where you could eat. However, the Embassy also possessed a huge formal dining room, and that’s where we found the others.
    I was pleased and surprised to see Bellie nowhere in sight and Jamie in Jeff’s arms. Good thing Buchanan hadn’t joined us—I’d have owed him twenty bucks.
    I got the “Mommy’s Here!” squeal. It was always nice to know my baby missed me, even if I was only gone from her for about an hour.
    “See, Jamie-Kat?” Jeff said. “I told you Mommy would be home soon.”
    Jamie was bouncing with excitement. For her, this had to be the best night in a long time, because she had both of us. I sat next to Jeff and took Jamie while he put his arm around me. Everyone else was he ne . For here, chattering away, catching each other up on what had gone on while we were gone. Even Nurse Carter, who was sitting next to White, seemed relaxed and part of the group. It was pleasant and comfy. I leaned against Jeff. “It’s nice to be home.”
    “It’s nicer to have you home.” He hugged me and kissed the top of my head, then nuzzled my ear. “I missed you, baby. More than you can imagine.”
    Humongous dining table filled with people and our baby in my lap or not, I started to drool just a little. It had really been far too long since I’d been naked with my husband.
    Jeff chuckled. “Nice to see your mind’s gone straight back to the priorities.”
    I chose not to share that my mind hadn’t left the priorities for the past month, but I was too busy trying not to let the drool get onto Jamie.
    The conversation was pointedly kept on either what interesting things our Embassy personnel had done while we were gone or mundane Washington stuff. Of course, mundane meant scandals, snubs, and the like. Pierre was, unsurprisingly, a fount of all that was Insider: Washington.
    Doreen and Irving were also loaded with stories about all the interesting things we’d missed, including their baby’s first smile. Doreen insisted Ezra had given her the first, Irving felt he’d gotten it. Pierre’s expression indicated that, as far as he was concerned, Ezra’s Uncle Pierre had scored the first smile in reality.
    I would have liked to exchange stories with Doreen about what cute things Ezra and Jamie had done while we were gone, but Jamie had spent most of her time being miserable, and now wasn’t really the time anyway. I wasn’t all that interested in who was sleeping inappropriately with whom, mostly because I couldn’t keep it straight and tended to either forget or mix it up at the wrong time, which meant when I was with one or more of the people being indiscreet.
    Amy, however, was fascinated. Chuckie looked like he was taking mental notes, which, as I thought of it, he probably was. I checked everyone else out. Yep, they were all hanging on Pierre’s every juicy word, even Tito and Christopher, who I wouldn’t have thought would care at all about who was zooming whom. The thought occurred that I should maybe pay attention.
    “And the lovely people from the Czech diplomatic mission were our neighbors, but only for a fortnight.” Pierre shook his head. “We barely had time to visit before they had to move right back to their old haunts, which are inadequate for their needs but are at least livable.”
    “What happened?” Amy asked.
    “All the pipes in their building’s basement burst. All of them. Flooding up through half of the first floor. Cleanup and repair will take months.”
    “Not if A-Cs did it,” I said. “Speaking of which, are NASA Base’s gates all back together?”
    Christopher nodded. “Good as new. James told us they’d finished up just a couple of minutes before dinner. Though I don’t think NASA wants you to visit again any time soon.”
    Before I could say, yet again, that it really wasn’t my fault, Amy spoke up. “What’s going to happen to the building the Czechs had?” I wasn’t sure if this question was asked purely out of interesoutt t or because NASA Base was now on my Don’t Ask Don’t Tell list and Amy was getting the conversation back onto a safe track. Had a sinking feeling it was the latter, which