Alien in the House

Chapter 88



THE ROOM WAS SILENT, to the point where someone honestly could have heard a pin drop.

Naomi huffed at me and spun on her heel. Abigail grabbed her and held her. “No,” she said quietly. “I’m done. You don’t get to leave.”

“What? Why not? She’s insulted us and told me to get out.”

“No,” Abigail said calmly. “She insulted you. By telling you the truth, what I should have had the guts to tell you months ago. And she only said to get out if you were refusing to stop feeling sorry for yourself.”

Gower put his arm around Naomi. “You are not leaving.”

“Are you getting rid of her, then?” Naomi asked.

“No,” he said calmly. “Because Kitty’s right. You’ve been acting like a spoiled, petulant child, and we can no longer afford to allow you that luxury.”

“But she was mean to me!”

“Did you lose maturity when you lost your powers? I mean that seriously. I’ve never heard you this whiney and out of control, Naomi. Is it just the wedding crap, are you sick, or have you simply become the biggest whining pain in the ass ever?”

“How can you talk to me like this?” Naomi asked.

Amy rolled her eyes. “Oh, for God’s sake. She’s talking to you like this because she cares about you, and, more than that, she cares about Chuck. I’m with Kitty—why should we let him marry a whining loser? Or, to put it another way, who are you and what have you done with the Naomi we know and love?”

“Could she be an android? I’m sort of serious.”

“You want to cut my head off to find out?” Naomi snarled. “Tito might be able to sew it back on.”

“Tito. Good call.” I grabbed her wrist and pulled. I was riding on waves of fury—there was no way Naomi was getting away from me. We headed out of the kitchen and for the stairs. Everyone else followed us. Dinner and a show. Though we hadn’t had dinner, come to think of it.

“Let me go.”

“Only when we get to the top so you can roll down the stairs.”

“When did you become my enemy?”

“When did I become your romantic rival? You played that card, my friend, I didn’t.”

“You’re pulling rank.”

“Babe, I have the rank. Ergo, I get to pull it all I want.” I’d been moving at the slower hyperspeed, so we reached the third floor quickly. I headed us into the infirmary.

Nurse Carter stared at us. “You two okay?”

“Major girl fight between me and Whiney Bridezilla here. Is Nathalie awake?”

“Yes. Doctor Hernandez is with her. I don’t think it’s a good idea for you to go in.”

“No, probably not. But I think we need to.” Went to the room Nathalie had been in. Knocked quietly and then opened the door.

Nathalie was crying. Less hysterically than before, but still, crying. I shoved Naomi into the room. “Her husband was just murdered in front of her, tossed off the top of the building where they lived and were happy. We don’t know why. I wanted you in charge of trying to figure that out while the rest of us were off doing other things to try to figure out who killed him and why. We’re fighting because of your response to that request. Think about someone other than yourself for the first time in what appears to be far too long a time.”

I closed the door and held it shut.

“Kitty,” Abigail said slowly, “I have to ask—is this a common human technique?”

“No, it’s not.”

“Ah. Because it seems like you and Naomi are really fighting.”

“We are. She doesn’t get her act together before I have to go hang with the Dingo, she’s persona non grata in this Embassy.”

“Um, she’s marrying your best friend.”

“Sucks to be her, then. He’ll still have to come here all the time. She won’t be allowed. Ever.”

“I know you’re angry with her attitude,” Gower said. “We’ve all been dealing with it for months. But I don’t understand why you’re so angry, Kitty.”

“Maybe you all don’t. Here’s the deal. I’ve seen a lot of people die in front of me over the past three days. Santiago died while I was holding his hand. Edmund Brewer fell to the ground pretty much at my feet. Representative Juvonic died on the floor of Rayburn House, in front of me. And Eugene Montgomery had his head blown off while I was standing next to him.”

“I can understand why that’s upsetting,” Gower said soothingly.

“Yeah. And now my husband and yours are off on missions, and the rest of us are about to be. All of those missions have danger attached to them. And your sister made the unfortunate decision to whine about being asked to lead the team that gets to sit inside the Embassy, in our large yet cozy kitchen, and look for clues that we might be able to find in dead people’s trash.”

White cleared his throat and Gower and Abigail turned to look at him. “Yes, Uncle Richard?” Abigail said hopefully.

“If I may, Paul?”

Gower nodded. “Please.”

“Katherine has not been allowed to grieve. At all. Whereas Naomi has been allowed to grieve perhaps a little too long. I believe there is a tiny bit of jealousy at the core of Katherine’s reactions, though not about who’s marrying whom. Katherine isn’t allowed the luxury of wallowing in her loss.”

“I can see how that would make you jealous,” Abigail said. “Sis has gotten to plan a wedding, only, and we haven’t done our jobs, when we can do them without talents. Maybe not as well, maybe just as well. But we don’t know because we haven’t tried. I’d be mad at us, too.”

White came to me. “You’re allowed to cry. And perhaps you should. Now. Before we go meet up with your ‘uncle’ the assassin.”

“I don’t need to.” Felt far too angry to cry.

“I think you might,” White said.

Looked at Amy. “How pissed off and crazy do I look?”

“I wish Jeff and Chuck were both here and I’m glad Jamie isn’t.”

“Ah. Gotcha.” Looked back to White. “I’m too angry to cry.”

He patted my shoulder. “That will pass.”

There was a knock on the door I was holding. Decided to try to get back to normal, so I opened it.

Tito stepped out quickly. “I’d ask what’s going on, and if I need to hand out sedatives to everyone, but I think I caught enough when you flung Naomi at my patient.”

“Is Nathalie okay?”

Tito nodded. “I think what you wanted to have happen did.” He opened the door and gently shoved me into the room. Naomi was holding Nathalie and rocking her while Nathalie cried and clung to Naomi.

Naomi looked at me and there were tears in her eyes. “I get it.”

Someone came in and closed the door. It was Amy. She went over to Nathalie and took her from Naomi. “You two work it out,” she said softly. “And do it quietly.”

Naomi got up off the bed and stepped closer to me. “You really hurt my feelings.”

“I know. You really disappointed me and pissed me off.”

“I know. Did Chuck tell you he doesn’t want the big wedding?”

“He had one guy for his side, James, who isn’t his friend, in that sense, but is his fiancée’s brother-in-law. Jeff had to suggest himself as best man. Chuckie didn’t have to tell me, all I needed was to look at him and hear how friendless he feels. He’ll do anything for you, but you need to do the same for him.”

She nodded. “Do you really want me to leave and never come back?”

“No. Do you really want to keep wallowing in your loss?”

She looked over her shoulder. “No.” She turned back. “I get what you meant. She’d give up a limb, her sight, her looks, if she could get him back. I lost something precious, but we don’t even know if that’s a permanent loss. But I haven’t lost the most precious things. That’s why you’re mad at me, isn’t it?”

“Pretty much, yeah. Well, that and you acting like your wedding is more important than saving someone’s life or bringing a murderer to justice.”

She sighed. “I was originally thinking a small wedding.”

“I was originally thinking I’d get to enjoy my daughter’s first birthday party.”

“Yeah.”

We were both quiet. My anger was ebbing fast. Which meant embarrassment for blowing up at Naomi in front of a lot of people was vying for my attention. “I’m glad Chuckie’s marrying you, you know.”

“I know. I’ve really been a horrible Bridezilla. I’m not asking, I’m saying. And you haven’t even seen most of it.”

“Everyone will forgive you if you go back to being you.”

“Even you?”

“Especially me. You’re marrying one of the five most important men in the world to me. I don’t want to be angry with you or have you angry with me. I liked you before you and Chuckie got together. I want him to be happy. And you make him happy.”

“I’m not sure he’d pick me over you.”

“I am, but let’s not force him to choose.”

“Deal.”

Amy sighed. “Kitty, you need to let it out. There’s only us here, and Richard’s right.”

“Right about what?” Naomi asked.

“Right about the only thing Kitty’s jealous of you over. You’ve gotten to wallow, and she hasn’t even gotten to cry.”

“I have. I cried when Santiago died. And even when Eugene died.”

“But you just lost another friend,” Naomi said softly.

“Yeah.” I could feel tears wanting to come. I just didn’t want to let them.

“Tell me about him, Nathalie’s husband,” Naomi said. “Please.”

Could have said a lot of things about Brewer. But what came out of my mouth wasn’t what I was thinking. “He was going to be Jeff’s mentor, you know, the guy who helped him learn his job and was there to back him up. He was all excited about it, and it was like we were going to have friends, a couple, who we could do nice normal people things with, even though we’re not normal people. Jeff’s going to be all alone there now, with no one he likes or trusts to turn to. And I’m going to be all alone, too.”

Naomi shook her head. “No, you won’t. We’re family, all of us. We fight, and we get mad, and we say angry words, but when it’s over, we’re still family. That’s just how it is.” She smiled. “And there’s nothing you can do about that. You’re stuck with us and we’re stuck with you.”

The tears chose this moment to decide they’d held off damn well long enough. I started to cry. Naomi hugged me and I hugged her back. Which of course meant that I was now doing the really big, body-wracking sobs.

“Sorry,” I managed to get out, as I started slowing down.

“It’s okay. I’m not crying because I used all my wallowing over stupid stuff. And don’t worry. I promise, we’ll work on what you wanted us to. And if there are clues there, we’ll find them.”

“I hate fighting with people I like.”

She laughed. “Me too. So let’s go fight with people we don’t like.”

“I want to help,” Nathalie said. “It’s my husband they killed.”

Naomi and I pulled apart. “Are you sure?” Nathalie didn’t look like she could walk, let alone focus on clues. Then again, I probably looked like a crazy person, so I was in no position to judge.

“Yes. Please, let me help.”

“Absolutely,” Amy said. “Let’s get you and Kitty cleaned up, and then we’ll get you a nice glass of warm milk and you can help us look for clues.”

There was a sink in every infirmary room, thankfully. I did the cold water splash and then blew my nose for a while. Amy and Naomi helped Nathalie do the same. Reasonably presentable, we left the room.

Everyone was out there, waiting, looking worried or expectant, or both. “Everyone okay?” Gower asked.

“Yes,” Naomi said. “Kitty and I are both sorry we had a fight in front of you, I was being a jerk, she’s sorry she hurt my feelings by telling me the truth, and Nathalie wants to help us look for clues.”

“I’m not sure that’s a good idea,” Tito said.

“Not a problem,” Naomi said cheerfully. “You and Magdalena can come down with us to watch Nathalie and help dig through the trash.”

Tito looked at me. “Seriously?”

“Yeah. I told you this job was going to be all you could ask for and more.”