Baby Blues

Part 6

by Mary Christmas (unicorn_76010 at lycos.com)
4/12/02
Chapter Five
Lestrade was still grinning as she stepped out of the restroom and walked down the hall. She still had no idea what she was going to do with herself for the rest of the day, but she was feeling infinitely better. The look on Holmes' face when she'd said it was her brother's baby! It had been a cross between disgust, shock, confusion and disbelief. Another chuckle passed her lips. It was a moment she'd remember for all time.
As she slipped outside into the warmth of the day, she recalled her decision to talk to Alice, and decided today it was still a good idea.
"Alice, are you sure this is the right place?" Lestrade questioned as they pulled up before a rather rundown apartment building.
They had just spent the past hour talking about, well, about baby things. Professor Presbury had left them alone, and Edith had been out running some errands, so that when Alice came across a website depicting a class for first time moms, there were no objections save for Beth's when she signed them both up.
The first class was in a week, but they needed to check in now, to get an interview with the person in charge, and a tour of the place they'd be at. So now here they were.
"Well, this is the adress," Alice began, "But, I don't think it said anything about it being an apartment...."
Lestrade nodded, and motioned for Alice to park. "You stay here -- just in case. I'm going to check it out. If everything's okay I'll signal you with my wristphone."
She slid from the hovercraft and walked up to the front entrance to the building, keeping all her senses aware for any sign of danger. Pushing open the double doors, she walked inside to find a very nicely -- if sedately -- decorated interior. A teenage girl with purple hair sat behind a desk situated a couple feet from the door, and grinned at her entrance.
"Hello, Officer. Is there any problem?"
"No," Lestrade, grinning herself, "Actually I just signed up for this class that...."
"Oh! Well, congratulations! Just give me your name and I'll have Professor Peters come straight away." The girl reached for a pen and poised it over a pad in front of her. "My name's Jenny, by the way. I'm sort of the all-round person here."
"Thank you, Jenny. I came with a friend; she's pregnant too. Let me just tell her everything's all right."
"The outside's pretty offputting, isn't it?" Jenny said, shaking her head, "Professor Peters says it's to keep unwanted attention from us. He says that pregnant women shouldn't have to have more stress placed on them than they've placed on themselves, and a ritzy place would attract the wrong sort of crowd. I say it's because he doesn't want anyone just dropping in off the street. You'd be surprised at how many young women who've found the place over the internet pretend to be pregnant and come just for the free food, and the other stuff we offer. Of course the Professor finds out eventually and sends them on their way to the rec center, which has pretty much the same resources. The only real difference is that anybody can go there."
Alice stepped into the building at that moment and smiled nervously at Jenny. "Hello...."
"Hi. Okay, can I get your names now? Oh, no need for last names. They're on your signup list, and on the doctor's notice. We will of course inform your physicians so that they can tell us if we're doing something upsetting, or if there's problems that you haven't told us about. Or so we can tell them if anything happens to you."
"I'm Beth and she's Alice," Lestrade said. This girl was certainly a talker, but extremely friendly. She didn't seem the type for malicious gossip like Aunt Janine.
"All righty, then. Just let me take this up to the professor and he'll come meet you in a few minutes. In the meantime, there are some chairs over there that you can sit on. I'm afraid all we have are books to read. The professor thinks that people in these modern times spend too much time on the computer. I used to hate books til I came to work here. I used to hate Yardies too." She shot Lestrade a grin, and then disappeared up a stair case at the far end of the lobby.
Lestrade and Alice exchanged amused glances, then wandered over to the chairs on the opposite wall from the desk. After taking a seat, Lestrade decided they were more comfortable than they looked. "How long did that website say they'd been in business?"
"Um, three years, I think. It got started just before Galileo City opened." Alice looked at her oddly before sitting down in the chair beside her. "Why do you ask now?"
"So, they've had at least three groups of women, right? Oh, no reason; it's just that the way Jenny talked they'd been here a long time."
"I see. Well, no, I don't, actually. Anyway, if we don't like Professor Peters, we can just leave, you know."
"I know--I'm just being paranoid is all." Lestrade smiled and shrugged. "Comes with being a cop."
Thirty minutes (and several racy jokes) later, Jenny popped back down the stairs and into the lobby. "Sorry about the wait. He was having some trouble with his jacket...it got caught in the lift door, and being the silly man that he is, he didn't think to take the thing off. Then, when he'd done that, he spent the next thirty minutes trying to get the doors opened. I finally convinced him that there really were two people down here, and that he'd better come straight away. He thought I was just trying to keep him from getting his jacket."
"Yes, well, Jenny dear, you do come up with the craziest plans to make me move faster when nothing important is going on at all."
The warm masculine tones were coming from the vicinity of the staircase and Lestrade craned her neck to get a good look at him. He appeared to be in his fifties with balding grey hair and an angular face with many laughlines. He wore an old fashioned (twentieth century) brown pin striped suit -- including a tie, and brown loafers. All in all he gave the general appearance of being a genial man, and Lestrade relaxed ever so slightly. There was still something not quite right though. Perhaps it was the icy blue eyes that, though they seemed warm enough, still gave her the chills.
"You must be Beth and Alice. Welcome. I'm Professor Peters. Come along and I'll give you your tour -- I'll explain more about the program as we walk. And you can tell me a little bit about yourselves as well."
"Why do they do this to me? Why? I just don't understand. What have I done?"
"You've refused to do their bidding, but made the mistake of remaining within their reach, I'm afraid." He looked over at her and grinned before turning his attention back to the airspace. "Anyway, it's a rather good idea in terms of getting the kids interested in something other than stealing and hanging out in the Holocade. Nobody else seems to want anything to do with them. If they're given enough responsibility, I think they can make quite a turnaround."
Put in a logical manner like that, she couldn't argue. So what if she did when Holmes said pretty much the same thing about the Irregulars? After all, he put them in dangerous situations, which was an entirely different matter from giving them hammers and nails. Okay, so she just liked to argue with Holmes. It was fun.
Her father expertly maneuvered the craft into a perfect landing in front of the rec building. It was one of the older structures in the city, but it filled its purpose nicely. It had once been a school. They exited the car and made their way into one of the rooms upstairs. A crowd of about ten kids between the ages of twelve and sixteen were listening intently to Aunt Janine as she patiently explained the difference between a pastel yellow and an ordinary yellow. Her mother stood beside her shaking her head in the negative.
As Lestrade's gaze scanned the rest of the room, it came to settle on the back of the room with five familiar figures. In this order, from herself to the other side of the room they were Uncle Frank, Deidre, Wiggins, Watson and Holmes. And they were all giving Aunt Janine the same rapt attention as everyone else. Then, Janine finished her little speech and asked if there were any questions.
"I have one Mrs. Lestrade," Holmes replied, "I understand the theory behind what you say, but will you be using practical application? That is the best way to keep a student interested in a subject, after all." Lestrade couldn't see his face from where she stood in the doorway, but she was certain he had just given his most charming grin, judging by the way Aunt Janine tittered and fluffed her hair.
"Why, certainly, Mister Holmes. It's for my niece...a very nice surprise for her. I feel that with so many people working at once it will get done faster....are you quite all right?"

On to part 7!
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