Isla’s face, then tucked her into my arms to sleep.
Emma said, “Lean forward.” She wrapped a long piece of plaid around me and Isla, nestling the baby against my front.
Hayley dug through her satchel, pulling out a motherfucking gigantic gun. “You could carry this one, but it’s my favorite. I do have this handgun.” She pulled out a gun with a holster.
“Fuck Hayley, put that away!” She shoved it back in the bag. “Does it even have a safety?”
“Shit yeah, it’s got all the things, fingerprint sensor — you know what, I wouldn’t give you a gun that was going to accidentally go off in your pocket, so give me a little credit. My almost niece and nephews are crawling all over you, you can’t be hurting them. You remember how to shoot, James and Michael took us to the firing range?”
“Yes, we went a lot.”
“Remember the safety lessons?”
“Yeah, James drilled me about it endlessly.”
“Good.” She slid the gun and holster over to me.
“Jeez Hayley, we’re in a nursery.”
“All the men are carrying swords, and they aren’t decorative. No one is batting an eye that I’m passing you a gun. We won’t shoot in here, that would be crazy.”
“When did you get like this?”
“When I time-jumped to the eighteenth century and got taught a lesson by a mob of rape-happy monsters. The safety is on, it’s cool. Let me put it on you, you’ll look cool as hell.”
“To have a baby strapped to my chest and a gun at my hip?”
“Yep, cool as hell — you’ll almost make being a mom look fun.”
“Ugh Hayley, put it in my bag, with the safety on.”
She put the gun in my bag.
Emma said, “So let’s get back to Archie for a minute.”
Archie and Ben were rolling the wooden cars that Hayley had brought making vroom-vroom noises that most of the kids didn’t understand.
“Do you think... not sure how to put this without totally freaking you out — do you think she took Archie away and brought him back? I mean...”
I shuddered at the possibility of Archie not telling me. What would I have done if he had just disappeared?
I waved him over. I put out my arms so he could climb into my lap. “I love you.” I kissed his face all over until he giggled and pushed me away.
He scrambled off my lap. “Go play!”
“Wait,” I held him in front of me. “Tell me something, okay?”
He put on his serious face. He was so wee, but his serious face carried a glimpse of the man he would be someday.
“Did you see your mammy?”
He nodded solemnly, mimicking my face. There was no way to bring lightness to the moment. “Did you go somewhere with your mammy? Did you go?”
“I go.”
“I mean, did you go, or will you go? Do you know the difference? Did you go away?”
He put his hands on the sides of my face. “Kay-be no go to park. Isla is baby.” Then he put a big sloppy kiss on my nose and ran off.
I pouted. “I don’t know.”
Emma said, “I don’t think she took him anywhere. Why would she bring him back? Plus, I think he would tell us if something different happened, like he would say storm or something. I think she just told him she was coming to get him to take him.”
“Yeah, I guess so, there wasn’t a storm either. It would have been too hard to get him away and back in a short enough time.”
Hayley watched Archie play for a bit. “What’s Magnus’s take on all of this?”
“He’s all confused up in his head about what to do, but that’s fine, I get it —”
Hayley said, “Truthfully he doesn’t have to worry about it. I’m going to kill that bitch if she touches a hair on that boy’s head. I’m auntie Hayley, I am not to be toyed with.”
“She slept with my husband, get in line behind me.”
Emma said, “This is the weirdest conversation for a nursery ever.”
“Welcome to the dark ages.”
Three - Kaitlyn
Lizbeth entered and joined us. She pulled up a chair beside me and looked adoringly at Isla in my arms. “What a sweet countenance. She must scream terribly tae make up for it or we would never do anything but give birth tae bairn.”
“She does have strong lungs when she’s pissed.”
“Good, then I feel safe around her.”
Hayley shuddered then joked, “You would want another one Lizbeth? Aren’t all of these yours?”
We looked around the room, fewer than twenty children. Lizbeth said, “Och,