"But you're the same guy," Martini said patiently. "You've been in love with Kitty most of your life. And Naomi's gone. Maybe . . . maybe this Kitty is here to fix that."

Everyone stared at him. Charles shook his head. "Who are you, and what have you done with Jeff?"

Martini made the exasperation sound. "If this was my Kitty? I'd kill you before I let you have her. Unless she wanted you more than she wants me. And she does. And she's not my Kitty."

"Jeff, I realize you're being, like, the King of Chivalry, but I can't even imagine what this would do to your career. Or to those who don't know what's really going on. Or even those who do. I'm not saying that I'm in love with you, because I'm not. But this isn't my Charles, either, and you've both made that clear. I don't understand why you're so insistent that we don't even, well, try."

Martini sighed. "Because, in exactly nine months, the entire world will know that you and Chuck have been having that torrid affair all the papers say you are."

CHAPTER 80.

"UH, EXCUSE ME?"

Martini heaved a bigger sigh. "Kitty, you're pregnant. Congratulations, by the way. No idea what the s.e.x is yet, but I'll know in a few months."

The entire car was silent for a few very long seconds. "How do you know?" I asked finally.

"I told you I can read my Kitty's mind, right?"

"Yes. And you said that I'm enough like her that you can do it with me, too."

"Well, I can see her internally, if I'm concentrating hard enough. I tried, to see if I could maybe see her through you. Instead, I saw you. Inside you."

"You knew when our Kitty was pregnant with Jamie," Charles said. "She told me you knew almost immediately."

"Yes. It's a change, a big change, in a woman's body." He smiled at me. "But you came like that. So the baby that comes is going to be your child with Chuck, your Chuck. And it's likely to look like his child, not mine, because you're both humans."

"Human genetics rule the outside," Kyle said from the front seat. "A-C genetics rule the inside. For hybrids, I mean."

"Oh. Wow. Uh . . ." Looked at Mom. "I don't know what to do."

She nodded. "We do nothing right now, other than rejoice that you're not able to drink alcohol with the A-Cs anyway. We don't share that you're pregnant, we don't race to divorce court, and we don't admit that anything's wrong."

"For how long?" Martini asked. "I wouldn't be worried, but Jamie . . ."

"Jamie is a little girl," Mom said firmly. "A talented and amazing little girl, but a little girl nonetheless. As adults, we need to listen to her concerns, do what we can, but also accept that what seems like the end of the world to a child is not the same as the actual, real end of the world."

Dad smiled at me. "You saved the day here, so James tells me. When it looked like everything would be disastrous. I'm willing to have faith that our Kitty will do the same."

Leaned against Martini. "I hope you're all right."

Staying here wasn't the issue. Never seeing my children again was the issue. Not seeing my Charles again. Leaving Dad alone without me to take care of him. And so many other things.

We reached Sydney Base and went to our rooms. Mom and Dad were going to stay in Australia with us-the President agreed that ensuring our relationship with the PM couple remained strong was vital, and he also wanted Mom here to handle any issues with the actions Australia was going to take against Club 51.

"Do you want to get dinner in the commissary?" Martini asked me, after I'd changed out of Margie's dress and into the standard wear to match the Beauty Queens. Would have preferred jeans, but I had to represent while we were here officially as Mr. and Mrs. Vice President.

"Honestly? No. I'd like to go out. This is my city half the year."

He nodded. "Then we'll go out. You want Jamie with us or with your parents?"

"Whichever will make her feel the most normal."

"We'll leave her with your parents, then."

We checked with them and they were fine with keeping Jamie. Who hugged me. "I do love you, Mommy, you know that, right?"

Hugged her tightly. "Yes, I do. And I love you, too. So very much. And if your real Mommy can't come back, then I'll do everything to be as much like her as I can be."

Jamie shook her head. "You just need to be you."

Kissed her head. "That's good advice for everyone, Jamie-Kat." Hugged her tightly again, then did the same with Mom and Dad before we left and headed to the ground level. Len and Kyle were waiting for us. "You two are coming?"

"You two are going by car, meaning Len's driving and I'm the muscle."

"And Mister Buchanan's lurking somewhere," Len added with a grin.

"Works for me."

We got in the car. "Want to see where you live?" Martini asked me softly.

"Yeah." Gave the address and directions to Len.

While we drove there, both Martini and I looked out the windows. "It's a beautiful city. I can see why you like living here."

"I like the people. So much."

"If you divorce me, I'm sure you two will end up here, just for the sake of convenience and to avoid the media frenzy."

Took his hand in mine. "Stop saying that. Stop a.s.suming that she and I won't be able to go home."

He squeezed my hand but let it go. "I have to be prepared for the . . . worst."

"There's no guarantee the baby will look like Charles. Jamie is our third and she looks exactly like me."

"It will be easier for you, Chuck, me, and the child if you're married to him."

"Jamie needs her mother as well as her father."

"Joint custody."

"Wow, are you always this fatalistic? Dinner's going to be a blast."

He laughed. "Sorry. I'm just trying to accept that the life I thought I was going to have isn't going to really happen." He sighed. "Chuck's been dealing with this for a year and a half. I've tried to help him. But some of this kind of pain and acceptance you just have to go through alone."

"Maybe. But only if you insist on it."

We were quiet for the rest of the ride to our house. My house. Not our house. Didn't know how to think of it. Kyle put music on. The Neon Trees' "Living in Another World" came on. Refused to let tears come. Held out until Paul McCartney and Wings' "Just Another Day" hit the airwaves. But I blinked the tears away. Martini had been the one telling me to have hope. If he didn't have any, why should I?

More songs and more roads and finally we were on the street where I lived as Gerry Rafferty's "Baker Street" came on. But we didn't live on Baker Street. And we didn't live here, not in this world. However, this alb.u.m was the one I listened to whenever I was down. For whatever reason, this alb.u.m, more than any other, spoke to me when I needed it to.

"Gated community of one," Kyle said, whistling, as we idled, parked across the street. "Nice."

"You live in that emba.s.sy and you're impressed by this?"

He grinned at me over his shoulder. "I'm easily impressed by wealth, Kitty, what can I say?"

"You should have turned pro."

He laughed. "What we do with Centaurion and the C.I.A. is so much better. And so much more important."

"You want to get out?" Martini asked me.

"Maybe. But, Kyle, can we just hear this alb.u.m, not a mix?"

"Sure, Kitty, whatever you want. Straight or mixed up within the alb.u.m?"

"Oh, we can keep ourselves guessing a bit. Surprise me and mix the alb.u.m up." Why not? Things were mixed up, after all.

The song ended and "Right Down the Line" began. Let Rafferty's soothing voice and music relax me. "I can't wait for Amadhia to record. Her voice can make everything right, even when it's all wrong."

Martini took my hand in his again. "You changed her life. And Aaron's. No matter what else you did, and you did a lot, you've made the difference in the lives of two people who deserved it."

"Most people deserve to be happy."

He kissed my cheek. "True. And you deserve to be happy, too."

"You're right. You and Charles both deserve to be happy, too. You know, he said that he thought his role in this world was maybe to be the guy who's never happy. I don't believe that. And I don't believe that you're supposed to take that role and be the unhappy person, either."

"There's only one you."

"No. Actually, there's at least two mes. And if there's really a multiverse out there, then there are probably a lot of mes. And a lot of yous."

"But we only know the life we have, baby." As he said this, "Stealin' Time" came on. Chose to take it as a sign. I wasn't going to be here for long, so I should enjoy the time with these people and this world that I had.

"True enough. Len, let's go. Use GPS or whatever and find us a nice restaurant."

"You don't want to pick?" Martini asked.

I smiled up at him. "No. I've never been here before."

CHAPTER 81.

ALFRED'S SUIT took a licking and kept on ticking, even though these bullets felt more like rocks. .h.i.tting me than pebbles.

I reached LaRue in a second, wrenched the gun away from her, tossed it, and tackled her all in another second. "You shape-shifted into something to survive that explosion."

"In a way." She sounded funny and she was glowing from the inside. "I shifted into something that was able to absorb the explosion." She grabbed me and held on. "It's going to destroy me. But I'm going to take you with me."

Better me than everyone else. We rolled and I was able to see that while the speeders were still there, no one else was. Hopefully this meant that Alfred had had them link up and he was getting them the h.e.l.l away.

"So, you were always a traitor?"

"I was always willing to see the Z'Porrah's side in the evolutionary argument." LaRue wasn't fighting me, she was just holding me so tightly that all I could do was roll.

"They tried here with the dinosaurs and then, when that failed, the Ancients tried a more successful experiment with apes."

"The Ancients sent a bomb to destroy the Z'Porrah's experiments, as you call them, because they felt the Z'Porrah were raising an army."

I'd met the dino-birds, I could believe it. "Were they?"

"Yes, and why shouldn't they use this planet as they needed?"

"Nice to know we're the entire galaxy's dumping ground and experimental alien ant farm. But we're sentient and we're just not willing to put up with that c.r.a.p anymore." Was doing my best to roll us near to the crater. "So you were always a traitor. Did you kill the others on your ship when you landed here?"

"Yes. I expected us to be shot down, but the weapons I was promised weren't here. They'd been stolen."

Go the Ancients. Presumably that 1950s mission had saved this Earth by removing the power cubes. Hoped they'd made it home okay. "Why aren't you shifting into something else?"

"I can't anymore." She was glowing more brightly. I had one shot.

Slammed my forehead into her face. She hadn't expected it, and her hold released a little. Did an escape move t.i.to had taught me and scrambled out of her reach.

She was on her knees and one hand. The other hand reached for me. "I will take you to what you call h.e.l.l with me."

Did a spinning back kick and sent her flying into the chasm. "Not today." As always, when the skills were exceptional and my execution perfect, there was absolutely no one around to witness. Watched her explode, to be d.a.m.ned sure this world was safe from her, then I ran for the speeders. As I did, a camouflaged plane rose up from a grove of trees in the distance. It was flying low. Jumped on a speeder and headed for it. Didn't activate the shield, though. Was glad I'd taken it off autopilot before, because it was my only hope.

Chuckie was leaning out the door on the side of the plane and I headed for him at a diagonal. Hoped he was braced, because I was only going to get one shot. As I just missed the wing I leaped up and the acceleration kept me moving forward.

The speeder went under the plane and Chuckie just managed to grab my extended arm. I hung there for a moment, each of us holding on, me looking up while he looked down. He tightened his grip, and I saw him say, "I will never let you go."

Then someone pulled him back and me up and I flew into him. He fell back and we knocked into Alfred and Buchanan, who had been holding Chuckie and pulling us up. We all went down, but I was inside the plane.