"So, how can I help?" Leilani asked, nibbling on a cheese Danish.
Lucy fought back the doting smile that threatened. She knew that Leilani wouldn't appreciate the smile or the sentiment behind it. Leilani did need fattening up, but she ate like a dainty little princess.
As if that wasn't enough, she had scads of curling black hair and bright button green eyes, a sign of her container. All of her container siblings had green eyes as well. It was a way to track them, a physical tell. It was probably also why Aarti and Leilani were so fond of each other.
Some containers passed down their eye color, hair color or even a birth mark. Lucy wasn't sure how the overlords and their researchers had been able to guarantee the birth marks, but there were multi-generational, so to speak, container-siblings to prove that they could. Usually it was something easily recognizable.
There were few exceptions. Some containers were one-use only due to any number of factors. Then there were the true believers who thought the overlords hung the sun in the sky. Lucy had never been able to understand that thinking, no matter how much indoctrination had been introduced.
"You can help by staying here and being safe," Lucy said with a smile. It was more genuine than the ones she'd been showing lately. "After that scare with you, we're starting to look for the more," she paused, searching for a term. "Ah, for the more 'interesting' children," she finished, using an alien term for interesting that Leilani would know.
Leilani shivered, withdrawing into herself. They all knew what happened eventually to 'interesting' children. They all had friends who'd disappeared to the labs for testing, having been called 'interesting' beforehand.
"Then you need to find Sabrina," Leilani said. She stared at the ground. "You know where she is, right?"
"Somewhere in the Midwest?" Aarti ventured, returning from stowing away her bags. She eased onto the stool next to Leilani and gave her a one-armed hug. "How is my favorite little container sib?"
"Aarti," Leilani complained happily. She shrugged off the hug. "I'm doing fine, but Sabrina is probably safe. I think."
"You think?" Lucy paused in the act of sifting flour into a giant container. "Why do you think she's safe?"
"Because she's Sabrina," Leilani explained. "If I hadn't been sold out, I'd be safe as well. Plus, she's not where they stashed her. She ran away like me."
Lucy felt the headache that wanted to come start to build just behind her eyes. She really, really, really felt like blowing something up. Lucy was starting to realize just how cathartic it was to cause some simple mayhem, much to her personal dismay.
"Then how are we going to find her?" Rena asked, drifting towards the kitchen, an empty container in her hand.
Lucy looked askance at that container. Once upon a time, it'd held twenty perfectly baked oatmeal raisin cookies. Rena had switched to them saying that too many chocolate chips would give her pimples. Lucy hadn't paid much attention to that, pulling out the requisite container.
She just hadn't thought that Rena would eat the whole thing.
"San was right. You're all gonna get fat," Lucy announced, rolling her eyes.
"Well, you keep baking all this stuff," Aarti complained.
"That's because Court's here, and he eats like a horse," Lucy said. "I also don't have to worry about someone poisoning the cookies and stuff."
They all looked at her. Leilani blinked wide eyes and slowly arched her brows. She looked absolutely adorable.
"Someone poisoned your cookies?" She finally asked, tilting her head to one side.
"They just wanted to see what would happen," Lucy explained. "It's not like I was the one who ate the cookies."
"But someone ate the cookies?" Rena asked, fascinated.
"Yes, but it wasn't me, so it's all good," Lucy said. She crumpled up the empty flour bag and tossed it into a nearby garbage can.
"But people who weren't you ate the cookies?" Aarti leaned on the counter, eyes bright and sparkling.
"Yes, but none of those people were me," Lucy said, throwing up her hands. "Can we move on? There are other things we can talk about, you know. How about we discuss where Sabrina is hiding?"
"I don't know," Leilani shrugged. "However, I do have her phone number."
"How does she have a phone? How do you have a phone? You do realize that you two are only thirteen, right?" Lucy scolded.
"And out of all of us, we're probably the safest." Leilani shrugged. "But you know Sabrina, right? She can make you the happiest person in the world, and people give her stuff all the time."
"That's a dangerous talent to have," Lucy scolded half-heartedly. She couldn't say that she wouldn't have done the same thing at Sabrina's age, but in today's world, that type of talent was a dangerous one to show off. "When was the last time you spoke to Sabrina?"
Leilani fidgeted. She put her Danish down, having nibbled all the way around its edges. She glanced at Aarti and then Rena. Then she sucked in a deep sigh.
"As far as I know, Sabrina is hiding out in an amusement park in Gotham." Leilani looked down. "She did say that she was going to switch to a bus depot because she needed to get out of town."
"And I wonder why she would need to," Aarti drily said.
Lucy sent her a quelling glance. She wasn't about to send Court or Leilani to get Sabrina. That left her, Aarti and the twins. Despite Rena being present, she was just as big a target as Leilani or Ella. The same went for Court and Jebediah.
"I'll go," Dawnie chirped.
"No." Lucy shook her head solemnly. Did Dawnie think she hadn't noticed how gaunt she looked when she brought back Leilani? "I'll be going. Gotham is my backyard, after all."
"Which makes me wonder if we shouldn't try to get some adult opinions on this?" Rena asked delicately.
Aarti ran a hand through her short, black hair. Lucy watched her curiously for a moment.
"That is an idea, and one we'll look into further later. However, right now, we need to concentrate on getting all the people in imminent danger to safety. Well, as many as we can manage," Lucy hastily added with a shiver.
"And what about San?" Leilani asked.
"San can fend for himself," Lucy said with a 'hmph' of sound. "He's part of the reason we're stuck doing all this."
Lucy wasn't sure she liked all the laughter that erupted after her proclamation.
Wrote three chapters! Yay! Only, one of those chapters happens three-four chapters down the line... Boo!
(And am I the only one who thinks the little 'fast phrases' are a little bit weird????)