Now she had to worry that anything she gave it to eat might kill it.
And, when all was said and done, she didn’t know a damned thing about human babies!
Don’t panic! One thing at the time.
Decisively, she moved to the side of the containment and held her hands out. “Come on and let me look at you, baby. I don’t know if you’re hurt or not, but I have to get you out of here and someplace warm. Ok?”
The poor thing launched itself at her, making her heart contract painfully before she realized it was just desperate for anyone.
She caught it and lifted it out of the casket carefully and then pulled it close to her chest and wrapped her jacket around it.
It was abigbaby, and heavy!
But she was convinced it was a baby.
She had a hell of a time getting back to her car with it. It was so heavy it made her awkward. Finally, huffing for breath, she managed to maneuver both of them through the door when she discovered it was clinging too frantically to peel it loose.
“It’s ok. This will be better anyway since I don’t have a car seat, but you’re going to have to let me move you from between me and steering wheel or we aren’t going anywhere.”
It was a long, awkward drive, because she realized as soon as she pulled up in front of her house that it was pointless to get out.
She didn’t have anything for a baby—any kind of infant.
She sat staring at the cabin for many minutes, trying to think how she was going to pull this off—a shopping trip with her carrying a baby alien.
That looked alien.
She hadn’t even gotten a good look at him yet and there was no doubt in her mind.
In the bright lights of a store …?
But she couldn’t leave him alone at the cabin or in the car.
Shaking those thoughts, she backed the car up and turned toward town. “We have to get some things. I don’t have baby food or bottles or diapers—car seat or crib. I hope to god I have enough money in the bank ….”
The monologue brought her to an abrupt realization—she couldn’t just load up on baby stuff in the tiny town closest to where she lived. She might be a loner, but she was willing to bet everybody in town knew everything about her.
And they would know she didn’t have a child.
Quite aside from the sudden need for all the baby stuff.
She made the turn just before she got to the city limits that would take her to the city a couple of towns over that was big enough to offer some privacy from prying neighbors.
Of course, there was always the chance that some of the townspeople were over there shopping, but she had to get supplies somewhere.
Thankfully, she didn’t see anyone that looked even vaguely familiar.
Then again, she didn’t look.
She tucked the baby into her jacket and shielded his face and head with one hand and steered the buggy with the other. Heading straight for the baby section, she made sure she got enough supplies for several weeks, deciding to wait on a car seat and crib since she didn’t see any way in hell she was going to load or unload them with the baby in her jacket.
Diapers, bottles, formula and food.
She didn’t have a clue of how old the baby was, but she knew how damned heavy he was because her back and shoulders felt like they were on fire long before she managed to get back in her car and point it toward her cabin.
Her luck held, she thought, until she was about a mile from her cabin.
That was when she ran into the military road block.
Chapter Two
Shock jolted through Emma, suspending brain function for critical moments, but, in the back of her mind she almost instantly connected the young man in uniform to the little bundle sleeping in the seat beside her wrapped in her jacket.
She eased her window down about an inch when he stepped up to her door.
“Ma’am, I’m going to have to ask you to turn around.”
Emmaline gaped at him. “But ….” She almost blurted out that she lived down that road and had no other way to get home. Fortunately, her survival instincts were in full possession of her tongue. “What’s going on? Why?”
“Sorry, Ma’am. I haven’t been issued that information. Orders are to clear civilians from the area.”
“So … there’s danger.”
“Again, Ma’am. If you’ll just back up over there and turn around. This area may be clear by morning. You can try again later.”
Emmaline had to struggle with the urge to demand answers. Instead, she swallowed the urge, nodded, and put her window up.
Because the baby stirred and that brought danger to the forefront of her mind.
She was glad he’d told her to back up. That made it impossible for him to take note of her tag number and she hoped by the time she had backed into the driveway he indicated that she would be far enough away to prevent any chance of reading it.
She didn’t know if that would make any difference at all to her, but she felt better about it—frightened, uneasy for reasons she couldn’t wrap her mind around at that time, but vaguely relieved when she’d turned around and headed back.
The uneasiness prompted an impulse to head back to the anonymity of the city again and find a room at a hotel that looked respectable but not upper crust. They might be safer from discovery at a flea motel, but she didn’t feel up to trying to fight off murderers and rapists and drug addicts.
She was so exhausted by the time she managed to get them into a room all she really wanted to do was drop to the bed and sleep, but she hadn’t really examined her little rescue. She’d given him a cursorily exam when she first got to the car with him. There’d been no
