“You guys aren’t still fighting, are you?” She gives me an exasperated look and adjusts her wrap as the baby stuck to her middle flails and waves its fists. Dang. She looks so domestic.
“Does a bear shit in the woods? Of course we’re fighting. He’s breathing, I’m breathing, therefore we’re fighting.”
“Josie, you’ve got to try harder.” The look she gives me is practically motherly, which is weird considering we’re the same age. “We’re all moving back into the main cave together and we need to have harmony with this many people around. I’m not saying be best friends with him. I’m just saying…don’t antagonize him, all right?”
“Everything I do antagonizes him,” I tell her, sipping my tea. Somewhere in the distance, a baby wails, and I feel a bolt of longing. It’s baby central here, with all the new births thanks to the chain-reaction of resonances and mated couples that have been happening ever since we landed.
Happening to everyone but me, of course. Well, Tiffany too, but I get the impression that she doesn’t want a mate. Me? I want a mate and a family more than anything. More than all the cheeseburgers and chocolate left back on earth.
“You needle him, too,” Georgie says. The baby takes that moment to barf on her top, and I feel a little stab of envious glee at the sight. She makes a face then whips out a towel and mops up her tunic and the baby’s round little blue face. “I’m just saying—“
“I know, I know,” I interrupt, not wanting to hear this again. It’s the same softly-worded lecture that Kira gives me on a regular basis. “It’s not all me, though. I could smile at the man and say ‘good morning’ and he’d find a way to take it wrong.” There’s something about him that makes me…tense and unsettled. Like my skin is itching or I’m about to burst. It’s irritating and so is he, and it normally comes out of me in the form of bitchiness vented in his direction. “I’ll try harder.”
Lies. I can’t stand Haeden. I don’t know why everyone cares that we don’t get along. It’s not like we have to hold hands and sing “kumbaya” to live together. We just have to co-exist without killing each other, and we’ve done a great job of that for the last year and a half.
“Well, I’m glad you’re here.” She loosens the wrap around her middle and pulls Talie off her lap, setting her down and changing her fluff-stuffed diaper with quick movements. “It’s so good to see you, and you were so brave to come and warn everyone. So Taushen went back to the south cave?”
“Yeah, and thank God he did, because it was really hard just jogging here. I can’t imagine trying to jog a full day back to the other cave.” My little girl-scout floating compass saved my butt more than once. That, and I was lucky enough to find a trail with a lot of footprints leading back to the caves. That helped, though I’ll never admit it aloud.
“And Tiffany and Salukh?” She fixes Talie’s clothing and picks the baby up again, smiling and nuzzling it’s tiny nose before looking over at me. “You said they were at the old ship with you?”
“Yupper.”
“And they stayed?”
“Tiff hurt her ankle and Salukh stayed behind to help her out.” I bite my lip. “I’m pretty sure they’re hooking up.”
Her eyes widen. “Oh. But I thought she had a bunch of other guys flirting with her? What about Hassen and Vaza?”
My tea’s cooled enough that I can down the rest of it, and I finish it quickly and put my cup down before Georgie can try and refill it again. I extend my arms toward her, yearning to hold the wriggling, happy blue bundle of baby in her arms. I want a baby so bad. I want a mate even more.
Why does everyone get a family but me?
She hands the baby over and I try not to show how surprised I am at how heavy she is. She’s a huge baby – Kira’s little Kae is smaller, but Kira’s tinier than Georgie and Kae’s a lot younger. The sa-khui men are enormous, though, so it makes sense that they’d make big babies. Man, Georgie’s poor vagina. I heft Talie in my arms and she reaches for my mouth, smacking at it with a fat baby hand. So cute. “Tiff’s love life is kinda complicated. First it was just Hassen and then Taushen. Then Vaza, because you know that old coot’s desperate for anything. Then Bek joined in and she started freaking out and getting all overwhelmed, so I helped out.”
Her brows draw forward. “You helped out? How?”
I explain to her the competitions I set up, the games I made them compete in. She laughs at a few parts and shakes her head at the reactions. “Aehako was wise to step in when he did. That could have been a really volatile situation.”