Lori too.”
“Did you have to wear gloves to touch us?”
“No, but then we’re only half-sibs.” Damon shrugged.
Brian wondered how he could look so cool and calm. “Do you feel him? The baby? Like you do Lori?” And apparently me?
“Some, yeah. Not more than the two of you. A little tug. I won’t come running every time he has a dirty diaper.” Damon gave Charlie a dark look. “You will see me up close and personal if you hurt him.”
“Oooh,” Charlie murmured. “I’m so scared.”
“Cut it out.” Nick pushed to his feet. “Now what? Does Lori need anything? Does Josh? What’s next?”
“Next is Lori asked to see us before she takes a nap.”
“All of us?” Nick asked.
“Well, not you, but I figure you’ll tag along.”
Nick gave Damon a withering look and pushed past him toward the hallway. Damon laughed and turned to follow, with Charlie behind him.
I don’t want to. Brian set his empty can down neatly in the center of a coaster, got up, and went to see what Lori wanted now.
The room had been tidied, and the window was cracked open to let in some fresh, cool air. Lori leaned back on her pillows with the swaddled baby in her arms, plastic gloves on her hands. Only Josh’s little face and bald fuzzy forehead peeked out of the wrappings. His eyes were shut, baby lips pursed and working like he was still sucking.
Brian stared at Josh, then away, then at Josh, then away. No white lights and cones of hypnotism. Whatever had happened, it was all right for now. While the baby slept, anyhow.
Nick said, “Brian? You okay?”
“Yeah. Testing. Asleep like that, without Finding, he’s just a baby.” If only.
Lori rocked little Josh with a sway of her shoulders against the pillows. As she looked down at him, her face was soft and almost sweet. As sweet as Lori ever got. But when she glanced up, her gaze sharpened. “So you can look at him asleep and not get sucked in?”
“Seems like it.” Brian shifted his weight uncomfortably. “His trace isn’t pulling at me.”
Lori pushed one of the gloves up to expose her wrist and hovered her bare skin over the baby’s forehead. Very slowly, she lowered her hand to touch him. She didn’t wail or cry, but her eyes immediately drooped closed and her body went limp.
Zander quickly put a hand under the baby as her wrist dropped away from him. Lori’s eyelids fluttered, then opened. She shot a quick glance from Zander to Josh, then pushed herself more upright and took a firm hold on the baby. Her lips trembled, but she said roughly. “I’ve got him. Let go.”
Zander hesitated, then straightened.
“Like sinking into a pit full of cotton wool. Fuck!” She brushed damp hair off her forehead with her wrist. “He’s fast asleep and I still can’t touch him? How fucking unfair is that?” She looked at Zander. “And why was I fine with him inside my damned belly for 9 months, and now he’s flipping my switch? Did I suddenly become allergic to him?”
“I think it’s a skin to skin thing,” Zander said.
“No shit. But he was in me.”
“But separate. The baby floats in a fluid sac inside the womb. Baby and mom don’t really touch until the sac breaks. And that’s when you started reacting.”
“Oh. Crap.” She bit her lip. “Will it wear off?”
“Do I look like a psychic?” Zander ran a hand over his head and glanced at Brian. “Sorry. But I honestly have no clue.”
Lori blew out a long breath. “Either way this is my kid, and he’s going to have a great life. So. The birth certificate?”
Damon said, “I put a copy of the North Carolina home birth form in there.”
Zander shot him a look. “Yeah. I have it. Question is, what’s going on it?”
“Lori Anderson and the new social,” Damon said. “For starters.”
Zander said coolly, “There’s other info to be entered on it. No requirement to fill it all out, of course, but the more complete it is, the less it’ll be noticed.”
“Aaand…” Lori drew out the word. “The number one question is who to put in for the father.”
Clammy sweat broke out under Brian’s arms. He blinked hard. “Aren’t you leaving it blank?”
Zander said, “Some do. Some have to.”
“I was going to, but I’m rethinking it. I want Josh to be protected if something happens to me.” Lori hugged the baby and he gave a squeaky whimper, then quieted. “Like, if I never came out of that seizure thing.