Page 2 of Medusa

“I totally understand. Can you stick around this morning, let her get used to Hestia and I before you go during the afternoon?”

“Yes, yes, anything! My boss is fully aware that my hours will be shortened for the next while. They’re very understanding, thankfully.”

“Why don’t we sit and talk?” Maddie suggested to Chloe. To the baby, she asked, “Atlanta, may I carry you to the couch?”

The baby hid her face in her mother’s shoulder and Maddie nodded. “That’s just fine. I’m a complete stranger to you.”

Chloe chuckled. “Actually, she might be a little startled by your hair.”

“My hair?” Maddie repeated, startled. “What…” She caught a glimpse of herself in the reflection cast by the window. “Yikes, that’s quite the bedhead!” She immediately started running her fingers through the brilliant crimson strands, trying to calm it down. “There must have been a power surge or outage at my place last night. My alarm didn’t go off this morning. I made it here with only seconds to spare!”

“Impressive,” Chloe said.

After her hair was somewhat tamed, Maddie led the way to one of the squashy couches, grabbing a couple different sensory toys on the way, to help the baby get to know her.

She alternated conversations between mother and child. “You like the zebra?” Maddie asked the fascinated infant, who was now sitting comfortably on her mother’s lap. “Would you like to hold it?”

The baby didn’t make any movement to grab it, so Maddie made it prance across the distance between them and up Chloe’s thigh. At the top, the zebra seemed to see the girl and shied away from her, hiding on the couch cushion.

“This is Atlanta. She’s new here. It’s okay to be a little scared of new things, Mister Zebra.” Maddie deepened her voice to speak for the zebra, “I don’t like new things! I only like you!” Back to her normal voice, she continued the one-sided conversation, “Aww, that’s sweet. But I know you’ll absolutely love Atlanta once you get to know her.”

Atlanta leaned so far forward to see the stuffed animal that Chloe had to catch her before she fell off her mother’s lap. “Ba!” the baby said, making grabby hands. “Bababa!”

“Zebra,” Maddie enunciated clearly. “You would like the zebra?”

“Ba!” she shrieked delightedly when the zebra’s head popped into her sight again, her wings reappearing on her back. She grabbed for the animal and Maddie surrendered the toy gracefully.

“I assume you would like to encourage her shifting?” Maddie said to Chloe while Atlanta was distracted with turning the animal around in her hands.

“Yes, of course.” Chloe leaned back against the cushions and took a sip of her coffee. “Her wings are too fragile to carry her weight, as slight as she is, so we’ll need to build up her muscles.”

“As with any other muscle group at this age,” Maddie agreed. “May I touch the wings?” she asked both of them.

Chloe nodded and Atlanta ignored her, so Maddie gently ran a finger over the top edge. “Similar to a baby bird with how the bones are arranged, soft down feathers, those will fluff out in time,” Maddie muttered under her breath.

“You just had to mention the lack of feathers,” Chloe put in, amused.

Maddie blushed. “Sorry. I assume they’re similar to her father’s?”

“Lucifer’s are much bigger, but they do seem to be built along the same lines,” Chloe replied.

“How do you feel about her exploring on her own in the house and in the yard?” Maddie asked. “We can, of course, wear her if you’d prefer she not be let down…” she trailed off, letting Chloe talk.

“She does love to be held,” Chloe said thoughtfully. “But I think letting her figure things out on her own would be good for her. It might encourage her to transform into a wolf the full way. You’re fully fenced in, right?”

“Yes, and we keep a close eye on them at all times in case something dangerous made its way into the grounds and we missed it. What does she eat?”

“I’ll give you a couple of bottles of breastmilk every day, one for mid-morning, one for mid-afternoon. At lunch, she can have whatever the others are having, in bite-sized portions. She especially likes to feed herself cheese.” Chloe smiled.

“Dairy isn’t a problem, then?”

“No, no dietary restrictions that we’ve found so far. We’ve tested all the usual human and wolf intolerances, just to be safe.”

“Smart,” Maddie said. “Two naps?”

“Yes, one hour at ten and two hours at one-thirty, although if you wear her or she’s feeling under the weather, she’ll sleep longer.”

“Naturally. Would you like to see the nap setup?” At Chloe’s nod, Maddie reached out to Atlanta again. “May I hold you?”

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