“Did what you girls always do and dived headfirst into a pool that may or may not contain water?” Peri asked, interrupting her.
Jacque sighed. “Okay, so maybe we occasionally leap without looking.”
“Have you learned a valuable lesson today?” Peri asked.
Sally and Jacque looked at each other and then spoke at the same time. “Nope.”
“Excellent,” Peri muttered. “Let’s go find our girl, and please, just don’t talk anymore. Let me handle it. Also, I’m going to glamour us, so don’t walk into anything, or you’re going to freak people out.”
“We got it.” Sally nodded and clapped her hands. “Eye on the prize, ladies.”
Jacque looked at her friend. “Feeling your inner Jen again, eye-on-the-prize chick?”
“You know it,” Sally said in a deep voice, sounding like she was trying to pump herself up as they followed Peri from the bathroom.
After what felt like forever, they finally found an office with a sign that read “Lactation Specialist.” Peri glanced back at them. “We’re all going in, but she will only be able to see me. And keep a hand on me.”
Peri pushed open the door without knocking. Jacque and Sally nodded and followed her in, both holding onto the back of her shirt. Inside the office, a small woman sat behind a desk, staring at her computer. “Hello,” she said, pulling her eyes away from the screen and looking at Peri. The woman’s name badge indicated that she was indeed Kimily, the one they were looking for.
“Hi,” Peri said in her musical voice. “Sorry to barge in, but we have a situation in Romania that requires your assistance, so we’re just going to pop on over there, let you do your thing, and then we’ll pop right back here. Sound good? Great.” Peri didn’t give Kimily time to say anything. The fae simply grabbed the woman’s wrist and flashed.
They reappeared in the hallway just outside of Jen’s suite.
“Everyone here?” Peri asked. “I feel like I should start making you all count off when we leave and arrive places so I know we have everyone.”
Jacque glanced around Peri’s body and then turned in a circle like an idiot. “Where the bloody hell is Sally?”
Peri stomped her foot. “Dammit, I knew I should have started the counting thing sooner. Maybe a buddy system will work.” She handed the woman’s wrist to Jacque and looked in Kimily’s face. “You’re safe. Everything is fine. You’re about to help a patient.”
Jacque knew she was doing something with her fae mojo to keep the woman from freaking out, and she wouldn’t mind getting a dose herself considering Sally was supposed to be standing beside her, and now her friend was nowhere to be seen.
“Be right back,” Peri said quickly to Jacque before she flashed again.
Kimily looked at Jacque, her eyes wide. “I feel like I should be freaking out right now, but I can’t. That’s weird, right?”
Jacque sighed. “It’s only going to get weirder, so don’t bother freaking out until the end.”
* * *
Sally stepped closerto the shelf and leaned down to peer at the models and diagrams it held. Most were pictures and charts containing drawings showing different stages of fetal development during pregnancy. One in particular, however, was a model of a chest, and that had caught her attention. One of the breasts was a cut-away model of the inner workings of the breast, and it showed tissue, veins, and mammary glands, but the other was just the outside of the breast. It looked so real that she found herself leaning closer, fascinated, wanting to just touch it and see if it felt as real as it looked. In the back of her mind, a voice told her it was a little strange she was curious about the fake boob. But she ignored that voice and took solace in knowing that Jen would have picked it up already and been comparing it to her own. So, really, by Jen standards, just wanting to poke it wasn’t that weird.
Just as her finger touched the fleshy surface, her other hand picked up the base of the model, and she froze. She looked at her hands and frowned. “Dammit, Sally,” she muttered to herself as she realized she’d not done what Peri had instructed. She hadn’t kept a hand on the high fae. She didn’t bother setting the model back down. She actually clutched it closer, as if to ground herself in reality, and squeezed her eyes shut briefly before standing up and turning back to where Jacque and Peri had been standing. Yep, they were gone. She let out the breath she’d been holding but quickly sucked in another when Peri suddenly reappeared.
The high fae glared at her and crossed her arms. “Sally, why are you holding a pair of boobs?”
Sally hurriedly set the model down. “It’s a funny a story,”
“Aren’t all stories funny that end with a person holding a random boob?” Peri asked as she grabbed Sally’s hand and flashed them from the office.
They reappeared, landing next to Jacque and the woman, Kimily, who looked like she didn’t know if she should laugh, scream, or cry.
“I found her,” Peri said as she straightened her clothes, though they were already immaculate, as always.
“Where was she?” Jacque asked.
Sally rolled her eyes. “I’m right there. You could ask me.”
Jacque simply glanced at her and back to Peri.
