Page 16 of Purring, Presents, and Parties

“Sure,” Ari said and plastered a smile on her face. “But I need a little baby time!”

When she held out her arms, Daniella passed Allie to her. The baby made several sounds that were close to words but not quite there.

“Hello, sweetheart!” Ari cooed at the baby, setting her on her knee and bouncing her a little. “You’re growing so fast! Pretty soon it’ll be time to teach you how to walk and run!”

“Let’s finish figuring out crawling first,” Daniella said. “You can’t go skipping developmental milestones!”

Ari made an exaggerated scoffing sound. “You’re so demanding!”

They both chuckled at the exchange, then Ari asked them a more serious question.

“How are things with the Govi family?”

“Perfect,” Christos said with a wide smile. “You should see all the safety measures they took after they found out how easily toddlers could hurt themselves. There are shutdown sensors on everything now!”

Shortly after baby Allie was born, Daniella and Christos agreed to be adopted by a Talin couple with a large property not far away. Today the three were visiting so everyone could get a checkup from Rossimun. Although the healer was perfectly willing to go to them, Daniella and Christos liked this arrangement so they could see everyone and visit. That’s why they’d insisted on coming hours early for their appointment and asked to stay for the evening meal afterward.

The couple who owned them indulged the little family in anything. Baby Allie was going to be a very spoiled child!

“I guess they don’t need to make many accommodations for Talin children,” Daniella said with a shake of her head. “Did you know they start forming memories at birth? They often remember the process of being born.”

Daniella and Christos laughed at Ari’s look of horror.

“I felt the same,” Christos said.

They talked more about life with the Govi family and being treated like beloved pets. It was weird, but Ari was a little jealous. The Talins who owned Daniella, Christos, and Allielavished attention on the three humans. It was rare that the family left the humans home alone, and other members of the extended family constantly sent gifts in an attempt to get the humans to interact with them.

Daniella said she had more clothing and bedding than she knew what to do with, and Allie had so many toys they took up an entire third of a room!

Baz treated Ari like an equal, but the tradeoff was that he didn’t seem to have time for her anymore. Even now, he was off doing something secretive that he refused to talk about.

Maybe she wasn’t an equal anymore. Maybe she was in a strange gray area between pet and partner.

A sick feeling started rising up in her again, and Ari did what she’d been doing all along, she shoved it down deep and ignored it.

“Ari?”

She met Daniella’s gaze to find the woman holding out her hands for Allie. Ari gave the little girl a quick kiss on the head and then reluctantly handed her back to her mother.

“You did it again,” Daniella said, handing Allie to Christos then leaning closer to Ari. “You spaced out. What’s going on?”

Ari forced a smile. “Everything’s fine. I’m—”

Daniella held up a finger, cutting her off. “Don’t bullshit me. I can see you’ve lost weight and you’re paler than normal. Even if you could explain that away as a few bad nights of sleep, you keep zoning out and you’re slow to respond.”

As a skilled physician's assistant, Daniella had been the only medical care for their mining crew for years. Just this once, Ari wished the woman wasn’t so observant.

“I might be struggling a little,” Ari admitted. “But it’s nothing, really.”

Daniella pinned her with an unwavering gaze. “Tell me everything right now, or when we see Rossimun I’ll tell her you are severely ill and need overnight observation in the infirmary.”

Ari had to admire Daniella’s threat. No one wanted to spend the night in the infirmary. The lights were always on and there was constant noise from sensors, meters, and various pieces of equipment. The beds were high off the ground, having been designed for Talins, and the mattresses were thin and hard. Zuri was the only one who never complained about spending time there and that was only because she was desperately in love with Kasium.

“Did you know Zuri kicked Kasium out of their cottage?” Ari asked, hoping to distract Daniella.

Daniella raised an eyebrow. “Nice try. The threat still stands, talk or I go to Rossimun.”

That’s all it took, and Ari found herself spilling her guts to Daniella. She talked about feeling useless and alone. Once she started, she couldn’t stop and even told Daniella and Christos how Baz didn’t trust her to do even the most simple tasks. She confessed that most days all she wanted to do was sleep, and maybe drink, because after getting drunk with Zuri, she’d felt happy for the first time in a long time.

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