Jacque glanced at Sally. “Tripping?”
Sally shrugged. “I’m feeling my inner gangsta. You told me to quit feeling my inner Jen. Problem solved.”
“Now you’re just talking gibberish.” Peri waved Sally off. “How are we to find this woman breast expert?”
Jacque gasped and used her best southern bell accent. “Oh, you wouldn’t believe it, but they have this thing called the in-ter-net. Honey, it’s just the best thing since soft butter.”
“Can I hit her? Is that allowed in the whole friendship deal?” Peri asked Sally.
“Allowed, but frowned upon unless completely necessary,” Sally said.
Jacque was already ignoring them, staring, instead, at her phone as she looked up the info she needed. She soon found the name and picture of several their lactation specialists. This particular hospital had a specialist on hand twenty-four hours a day. “Boom,” Jacque said, finally looking up from her phone. “Found our boob chick. Let’s do this.”
Peri sighed as she took both their hands. “Where am I taking us?”
“New York City, specifically New York Episcopalian/Upper Manhattan Hospital,” Jacque answered.
“We get in, we get our girl, and then we get out,” Peri said, giving them both stern looks. “No funny business.”
“Pft.” Jacque huffed. “Like we would ever engage in any business, funny or otherwise.”
“Also, I have one other stipulation, and there is absolutely no grace for breaking this rule. While I’m with you, no matter how long it takes to get Jen sorted, you will absolutely not bring up the wolf-who-must-not-be-named.”
Jacque opened her mouth, but Peri slapped her hand over it. “No,” she said. “Not a single word.” She waited until Jacque nodded and then dropped her hand. Sally saluted her, and Peri rolled her eyes. “I’m going to regret this,” Peri muttered and then flashed them from the Serbia pack mansion library.
Jacque stared at the illuminated map hanging on the wall of the entryway to the hospital. She looked at the directory next to the map and then searched for the corresponding color. “Got her,” she said, pointing to a name with one hand and a location on the map with the other.
Sally leaned closer as she read out loud. “Kimily Blankenship, APN, Lactation Specialist. 4th Floor.” She turned her head slowly to look at Jacque. “You know Jen is going to have a field day with that name, right?”
“I know.” Jacque threw her hands up. “But there’s nothing I can do about the woman’s name.”
“Yeah, Jen’s going to be all over that. It’s almost cruel,” said Peri.
“Can you make up for it like by giving her awesome hair or skimming off some extra weight or something?” Jacque asked.
Peri’s eyes narrowed. “What the hell do you think I am, a Jenni Craig clinic wrapped up in this delectable fae form?”
Sally laughed and smacked her hand over her mouth when others started glancing at them. “Jenni Craig,” she whispered. “Classic.”
Jacque shrugged. “You’re Peri-freaking-zada of the bloody high fae. Or at least that’s what you remind us of on a minute-to-minute basis. And”—she held up a finger—“you’re also not humble about your power, like, at all. So forgive me if I don’t have a yippity-yappity clue about what you can and cannot do!”
Sally and Peri were staring at Jacque, both with furrowed brows.
“Yippity-yappity?” Peri said.
“Did you mean for it to rhyme? Cause it did. It definitely rhymed,” Sally said, still speaking very softly since her last outburst of laughter.
“Yes, I’m a regular Dr. Seuss up in here,” Jacque said dryly. “Look, let’s just get her and then we’ll deal with the repercussions of Jen and her lack of filter and this poor woman’s name.”
All three nodded at the same time and headed for the nearest elevator.
When they reached the fourth floor, a mechanical voice began to speak. “Please insert security card for access to the maternity floor. If you do not have a security card, access is denied.”
Jacque’s eyes widened as Peri and Sally looked at her. “What? How was I supposed to know we’d need a security access card?”
“There’s this thing,” Peri said as she punched the first-floor button, “called the in-ter-net.” She said the word just as Jacque had when she’d been mocking the high fae. “I’m sure on the hospital’s website it would mention having to have special access to this particular floor.”
“It’s to protect the babies,” Sally said just as the doors opened. They stepped back out into the hospital lobby.
