“Holy crapsicles,” Masie whispers, causing me to laugh uncontrollably. “Sorry. I creatively cuss because I run most of the children’s programs here.” She gives me a genuine smile.
“I kind of love it,” I admit.
“Thanks.” She perks up. “So how quickly do you need information on these?” she asks Adam.
“As soon as you can. I understand it may take some time, but our investigation is pretty dependent on knowing where all of these came from or who would have interest in them.”
“Understandable. I can’t guarantee anything, but I would say I’ll have something to you within the week. I’ll hyper-fixate on it so I should make good time.” Masie grins.
“Uh, okay, that would be great. Thank you.” Adam peeks over at me like he’s unsure how to handle this tiny bundle of energy. “Here’s my card. Give me a call if you need anything.”
I’m still trying to contain my laughter as we stroll out of her office.
“You want to walk around while we’re here?” Adam asks once we’re on the main floor once more.
“Sure.” Talking to Maise has given me some kind of distance from my fear, so I may as well take advantage of it.
We mosey over to the Greek and Roman area before either of us says anything.
“How are you doing?” Adam asks me.
“Honestly? I have no clue. Right this minute, I feel okay. I don’t feel like the walls are closing in, or like I’m lost or have zero clue what I’m supposed to do.”
“Is that how you’ve been feeling lately?”
“Ever since Lex took me away from New Rochelle and I took a pregnancy test.” I nod.
“How can I help?”
“I have no fucking clue.” I chuckle humorlessly. “I think I’ve been avoiding everything with Charlie and Cano, but my brain is saying, ‘No can do, girlie.’ It’s time to face it all. I only have four months to this one here, and I want to be … healed, I guess, for them.” I rub my stomach.
“Makes sense, but you’ll be the best mom. I know it. Do you need to talk to someone?”
“Probably. Except I have no idea where I’m landing next week, let alone next month. I don’t have a home that’s mine. I don’t have a job. I just revamped my website so I could get a small income to live off of. I’m not actually adding any posts to it right now. I have nothing. Yet I need to work through all my shit in order to move to a place where I can get all of that solidified,” I ramble.
“You have a home,” he counters.
“Yeah, no. A safe house provided to me by the U.S. Government isn’t exactly my home.”
“We’re not going to kick you out.”
“I know that. But that also doesn’t mean that it’s mine. I don’t have a home base. I can’t work traditionally because who alone would even hire me this far? Hell, I have no clue what I’d even do.” I throw my hands up as we pass another sculpture that Charlie would have loved.
“I can talk to Woodcroft.”
“God, no. Your team has done so much for me already.” I’ve already more than taken advantage of their help. It makes me tear up again just to think about it.Dammit.
“Claire …”
“At some point, I need to figure out my life. What am I going to do, just stay at the safehouse and help you guys when you randomly need it? Eventually the case will close, and then what? Pop out this baby and live at a bare minimum?”
“There are options. We can help you. And you know damn well I wouldn’t let that happen. You have me even if you don’t realize it yet.” He looks so damn honest right now.
“You have already helped enough. I promise. I used to be Queen Independent, and now I feel like I don’t have an independent bone in my body. It’s time to get back to that. Well, as close as I possibly can.” I sigh.
“I’ll help however I can.”
“I know, and thank you. You’ve done more than enough, I promise.” And I mean that. His team and he have gone above and beyond.
