She stared at him. The suggestion was so absurd, so utterly insane, that for a moment she couldn’t formulate a response.
“You want me to hand my baby to you.”
“Yes.”
“An alien. A complete stranger. In a facility where I’m being held prisoner.”
“Yes.”
“You’re out of your mind.”
“Perhaps.” His tail swayed behind him, a slow, rhythmic movement that should have been threatening but was somehow soothing instead. “But I’m not the one who’s been awake all night. I’m not the one who’s starving. And I’m not the one whose distress is making a difficult situation worse.”
Robbie chose that moment to let out a particularly piercing shriek, his face going purple with the effort. Something inside her cracked a little, just enough to let the desperation seep through.
“He doesn’t know you,” she said, but her voice had lost some of its edge.
“No. But he also doesn’t have any preconceptions about me. He has no reason to fear me.” He took another careful step forward. “Look at him. Is he crying because of me, or because of how you’re reacting to me?”
She didn’t want to admit that this stranger, thisalien, might have a point. But Robbie’s cries had become almost rhythmic, matching the frantic pace of her own heartbeat, and she could feel the way his tiny fingers were clenched in her shirt, holding on as if she were the only solid thing in a universe gone mad.
He’s not crying at the alien. He’s crying because I’m exhausted and terrified.
“I can’t,” she whispered. “I can’t just?—”
“You’re not abandoning him,” he said very gently, like he was talking to a spooked animal. “You’re letting someone help you. Just for a few minutes. Just long enough to catch your breath and eat something.”
“Why do you care?”
“Because you’re in my charge now. Your welfare is my responsibility.”
“That doesn’t answer my question.”
“No,” he agreed. “It doesn’t.”
They stood there, locked in a strange standoff. Robbie continued to cry, his voice growing hoarse with the effort. Her arms burned, her head throbbed, and the smell of the untouched food was making her stomach cramp with the hunger she’d been trying to ignore.
This is insane. This is absolutely insane.
But she was so tired. So impossibly, desperately tired.
“If you hurt him?—”
“I won’t.”
“If you try to take him?—”
“I won’t leave this room.”
“If he gets more upset?—”
“Then you take him back immediately.” He extended his arms, palms up, in a gesture of surrender that seemed universal. “I give you my word.”
The word of an alien. The word of a captor.
But something in his eyes… something in the careful way he held himself, the gentleness in his voice, the way he’d stopped every time she flinched…
I’m too tired to fight anymore.
