Challenge #01606-D145: Miss Handling

"You place too much trust in me, I think."
"Until you can place more trust in yourself you may rely on mine in you." -- RecklessPrudence

Rael got the shock of his life just being invited to someone else's home. Five seconds inside the door, he got one big enough to turn his entire body silver.

Officer Lyr Marken, Subchief of Security for the JOAT sector of the Elemeno, had just handed him her infant daughter. With nothing more than a negligent, "Here, hold her for a sec'."

Rael fumbled not to drop her. Human infants, he remembered reading, were far more fragile than their adult counterparts. For such a small creature, she was amazingly heavy. She burbled and dribbled saliva at him. "Uh... I'm not sure I--"

"You're doing great. It won't be long, I promise."

There was an older child staring owlishly at him from a high chair. Both infants were blonde, like their mother, and making noise about something that disagreed with them. Rael was certain it was all his fault. "Uh. If I can come back later..."

"Don't you dare leave me on my own right now," said Officer Marken. "Paul had to go do an emergency patch on Left Fin Three, Aunty Fan-Fan's midwifing and everyone else is up to their elbows in it. All I need is a spare pair of hands. You're going to be fine."

The tiny human cradled in his arms had set up a good solid howl about the general state of affairs.

"You place too much faith in me," he said.

Officer Marken - technically Lyr since she was off-duty on maternity leave - placed a bowl in front of the elder daughter and wrapped a spoon in the child's hand, and then undid her top before she scooped the younger child out of his terrified grasp. "Until you can have more faith in yourself, you can have a loan of mine in you."

Rael turned away before he could glimpse anything usually hidden by Lyr's Skins. "Is... this all you called me about?" He did not say, Can I escape, now?

"No, the food printer's on the fritz. I had to bodge up something from long-term emergency supplies and a hotplate."

The eldest child, having mastered placing food in her mouth, evinced her disappointment in her current fare by saying, "Yuck!" and flipping the bowl off of her tray.

Nutrition of infants was important, too. Rael did not wish to engage the wrath of a mother, let alone a Deathworlder mother. He'd heard they could get ferocious. "I'll see what I can do."

"Time plus two all-you-can-gorge-in-an-hour specials at Harga's," said Lyr.

Wow. She was desperate.

[Image (c) Can Stock Photo / PaulPaladin]

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