The Secret Life of Ceecee Wilkes Part 13

"We need to get both of them out of here," Forrest said.

"I know, I know." Naomi brushed her husband's words away with a wave of her hand. She looked from the infant to CeeCee. "How did she die?" she asked.

"It was right after the baby was born," CeeCee said. "There was tons and tons of blood. It was so awful."

"She bled bled to death?" Naomi frowned. to death?" Naomi frowned.

She doesn't believe me, CeeCee thought. CeeCee thought.

"She said she had some kind of condition," CeeCee said. "I didn't believe her at first that the baby was coming or..." She started to cry again, or maybe she hadn't yet stopped. "If I'd believed her, maybe I could have gotten her to a hospital somehow."

"You really screwed up." Forrest pulled a cigarette from the pack on the dresser and lit it. "Just what we need is the governor's dead wife's kid here."

His words cut into her. He was right. Her presence was a danger to them. But what else could she have done?

"Look at her," Naomi said, moving the washcloth over the baby's head. Her voice was calm, but her trembling hands gave her away. "She's absolutely perfect."

CeeCee looked at the baby's features, really seeing them for the first time. Her head was round, not like the elongated or misshapened heads of some babies she'd seen. Her mouth was a perfect 0 when she cried, and now that Naomi had washed her head, it was clear she had inherited Genevieve's red hair.

"She should go to the hospital, shouldn't she?" CeeCee asked. "She's three weeks early. Will she live?"

"No way we're taking her to a hospital." Forrest blew a stream of smoke into the air.

"Listen to her." Naomi nodded toward the wailing baby. "Does she sound like she's dying to you? She's not all that small, actually. Bigger than Dahlia was." Naomi held the end of the umbilical cord between her thumb and forefinger. "Did you do this?" she asked.

CeeCee nodded. "I used a knife. Boiled. Did I do it okay?"

"Yeah, you did great," Naomi said. "You're a tough cookie, CeeCee. There's some alcohol and Q-tips in the bathroom under the sink. Get them, please."

She found the supplies and brought them back to the bedroom, where Naomi showed her how to clean the umbilical cord. "It'll fall off naturally in a couple of weeks," she said.

CeeCee sat down on the bed again, her legs too shaky to keep her upright. "Do you think there was something I could have done to keep her from dying?" she asked. "She said to ma.s.sage her uterus, and I tried, but I wasn't sure what I was doing."

"They might not have been able to save her even if she'd been in a hospital," Naomi rea.s.sured her.

"How do we get them out of here?" Forrest asked.

"Forrest." Naomi sat back on her heels, annoyed. "It was your big idea to help them in the first place," she said. "Now we have to deal with the fallout. Get some of Emmanuel's newborn clothes from the bag in the hall closet, please. And then start a fire. The baby's freezing."

Forrest shook his head, mumbling to himself as he walked out of the room.

"I'm sorry," CeeCee said, after he left the room.

"As soon as we get her dressed and warmed up, we'll feed her," Naomi said. "I have formula I use to supplement my breast milk." She patted the baby dry with one of the towels CeeCee had handed her, then wrapped her tightly in another and lifted her up. "Hush, little one," she said, rocking her back and forth. "Shh." She looked at CeeCee. "Do you know what's happening with Tim and Marty?" she asked.

CeeCee shook her head. "There was no phone in the cabin and I don't know where they are, except someplace in Jacksonville. I don't know what's going on with them and the governor or even if they're still there or on their way back or..." Her voice trailed off as she imagined Tim and Marty walking in on the horrific scene in the cabin. "How do I let them know what happened?"

"I think I know how to reach them, if they're still there," Naomi said. She pressed her lips to the baby's temple. "Shh, Sweet Pea."

"You know where they are?"

"I'm guessing," Naomi said. "I don't know for sure, but there are some SCAPE people in Jacksonville. They might be there. I don't like using our phone, but I guess I'll have to. I'll call after we get the baby taken care of."

CeeCee let her breath out in relief. She needed to talk to Tim. She needed him to tell her that none of this was her fault and that he still loved her.

"What about Genevieve?" CeeCee said. "I just left her lying there on the bed. Blood was everywhere."

Naomi squeezed her eyes shut with a sigh. "Did you touch anything?" she asked.

"I wore gloves the whole time except when the baby was born and when I took Genevieve's pulse. I left one of them on the bed and the other is in the car. And the mask, too. The mask is at the cabin. I...I guess I touched the door k.n.o.b getting out of the house."

"Did you touch anything else without the gloves?" Naomi asked.

"The knife," she said. "And maybe the closet door." She couldn't remember if she'd opened the closet door before or after she'd removed the glove. "The gun!" she said. "I didn't touch it, but I left it there, too."

"Okay." Naomi seemed exhausted by the list. "I'll ask Forrest to take care of all of it."

"Take care of it? What will he do?"

"It won't be the first grave he's dug," she said.

CeeCee stood up. "Oh no!" she said, horrified.

"Do you have another suggestion?"

"Her family needs to..." Her voice trailed off. Needs to what? Know what happened? Pick up her body? What? She closed her eyes. "This is terrible," she said.

"It's a mess, all right," Naomi said.

"Are you sure Forrest will do it? He's so mad at me."

"He'll do it," she said. "He'll do it to protect us as well as you. You get caught, we all get caught. Can you tell him how to get there?"

"I...maybe. I'll try."

"You're a mess." Naomi eyed her clothes. "You need to clean up."

CeeCee looked down at her flannel shirt, growing stiff with blood. Her jeans were cold and wet against her thighs, and her laceless shoes were splattered with red. She sat down on the bed again. Seeing Genevieve's blood on her made her dizzy.

"Take a shower," Naomi said. "Put your clothes and that wig in a bag and we'll burn them along with Forrest's when he gets back."

CeeCee touched her head. She still had on the blond wig.

"Then help yourself to some of my clothes." Naomi sounded as though she'd done this many times before. "Go ahead." She nudged her with an elbow when CeeCee didn't move. "I'll take care of the baby."

She took a bath instead of a shower because she didn't trust her legs to support her. She leaned back to wet her hair, washing it with Naomi's shampoo. Then she scrubbed herself hard with soap that smelled like lemons, and she cried the whole time. Images of Genevieve ran through her mind. Genevieve reaching for the baby. Asking CeeCee to keep her alive. Genevieve had known how much trouble she was in, CeeCee thought. She'd known.

She got out of the tub and pressed a towel to her eyes, picturing Genevieve's five-year-old daughter, Vivian, left motherless. Don't think, Don't think, she told herself. Dropping the towel, she shook away the image. The time for crying was over. Now she needed to figure out how to get the baby to the governor. And she needed to talk to Tim. As much as she'd wanted him to rush back to the cabin when she was there, now she hoped he had not yet left Jacksonville. She didn't want him to discover Genevieve as she'd left her. she told herself. Dropping the towel, she shook away the image. The time for crying was over. Now she needed to figure out how to get the baby to the governor. And she needed to talk to Tim. As much as she'd wanted him to rush back to the cabin when she was there, now she hoped he had not yet left Jacksonville. She didn't want him to discover Genevieve as she'd left her.

She dressed in a pair of Naomi's jeans that were too long for her, a red-and-white checked flannel shirt, and moccasins that fit perfectly, and by the time she walked out of Naomi and Forrest's bedroom, two babies were crying. She found Naomi in the kitchen, heating a bottle of formula in a pan on the stove. Emmanuel's sling was over her shoulder, and CeeCee could tell from the size of the infant that she had placed Genevieve's crying baby in it. Emmanuel cried from his cradle in the corner, as if he knew he'd been displaced.

"Can she breathe in there?" CeeCee tried to peer inside the sling.

"Does it sound like she's breathing?" Naomi lifted the baby out of the sling and handed her to CeeCee.

When CeeCee'd held her before, the baby had been a bulky little package wrapped in a blanket made for a double bed. Now she felt so light. So tiny. She was dressed in a blue terry-cloth sleeper and wrapped in a green baby blanket and she smelled powdery clean.

CeeCee rocked her back and forth the way Naomi had done earlier, trying unsuccessfully to still her wailing. The baby had been crying for so long. Could she be injuring herself? She sounded as if she were in terrible pain, a little catch in the intake of breath between each cry.

"Is she hurting herself with all this crying?" CeeCee asked.

"She's fine. Just hungry, and we'll take care of that soon enough."

"Can we try to call Tim while we're feeding her?" she asked.

"Sit in the rocking chair by the fireplace," Naomi said. "I'll bring you the bottle and you can feed her while I'm nursing Emmanuel. Forrest's gone to the cabin. He said he thinks he knows how to get there from looking at the map with Tim and Marty." She peered out the window. The sky was beginning to grow light. "He wanted to do it before it got too light out," she added wearily.

CeeCee had turned this family's world upside down. "I'm sorry, Naomi," she said.

"It will all work out okay," Naomi said. "Go on. Go in the living room."

CeeCee sat down in the rocker by the fireplace. Naomi came into the room carrying both Emmanuel and the bottle, which she handed to CeeCee. "Do you know how to feed a baby?" she asked.

CeeCee nodded, taking the bottle from her. "I did a lot of babysitting, although not with a baby this little. This new. new." She touched the nipple to the baby's lips and within seconds, the infant latched on and began to suck.

Naomi nodded approvingly. "She's going to be an easy baby," she said, as she sat down on the other side of the hearth. She lifted her sweater, did something CeeCee couldn't see with the front of her bra, then raised Emmanuel to her breast. "Ah," she said, as all crying ceased. "Peace." She nearly smiled as she looked at CeeCee. "I trimmed one of Emmanuel's diapers for her. We can cut some more later."

"Okay." CeeCee wished Naomi shared her sense of urgency about calling Tim. "I think we need to try to reach Tim before he and Marty-"

Naomi held up her hand to stop her. "I've already spoken to Tim," she said.

"You did? did? I wanted to talk to him!" I wanted to talk to him!"

"I know you did, but it's better this way. There was really no time for that."

"He's still in Jacksonville?"

Naomi nodded.

"What did he say? Is he furious with me?"

"One thing at a time," Naomi said. "He's still in Jacksonville and he's had several conversations with Governor Russell, but nothing firm yet. He's not mad at you. He gets that this was a situation out of your control. He's going to up the ante and ask that Andie be set free."

CeeCee was astonished. "He's going through with this even though Genevieve is dead?" she asked.

"Of course he is," Naomi said. "But now he has to get Andie's freedom. If Russell agreed to commute her sentence and then Tim couldn't produce the goods, Andie'd be in worse trouble than before. So he has to get her out of there."

"But..." This had gotten so out of hand. "It's wrong," she said. "This whole thing is so wrong."

"You're finding religion a little late." The tone of Naomi's voice was kinder than her words. "He said for you to go underground right away."

"Underground?" CeeCee was stunned to hear the word applied to herself. "I can't do that," she said. "I mean, I don't know how-"

"We'll help you."

"I don't want to have to-" She stopped herself. She was going to say that she didn't want to be on the run, but she suddenly realized this could work to her advantage. "If Tim and I are both underground," she said, "then he and I could be together like you and Forrest."

Naomi shook her head. "Forrest and I had a completely different situation," she said. "Yours is too dangerous. You should never see him again."

"But I want to be with with him." Once more, she felt the threat of tears. "We planned to-" him." Once more, she felt the threat of tears. "We planned to-"

"Grow up, CeeCee." It was the first truly harsh thing Naomi had said to her. "You're playing in the big league now. You have to forget about him. You won't be CeeCee anymore, and he won't be Tim. You have to start over."

"What if I...I could just go back to my old life." Oh, she would give anything to have her old life back! "My roommate thinks I'm visiting a friend. That I broke up with Tim. I could just go-"

"The pigs are going to find out who your boyfriend is. Or was," Naomi said. "It doesn't matter which. Then they're going to find you and interrogate you. First, you're so green that you're going to crack, but even if you were...streetwise, how are you going to prove you were with this friend? Who's the friend who'll vouch that you were visiting her? Do you get it? You're up to your eyeb.a.l.l.s in this mess and you can't get out."

"Where will I go?" CeeCee asked. The baby must have sensed her panic, because she lost the nipple for a moment and started to cry. CeeCee slipped it between her pink lips again. "What will I do?" she asked.

"You can stay here for a couple of days until we can get you some doc.u.mentation," Naomi said. "But you have to stay inside. No one can know you're here."

"What do you mean, doc.u.mentation?"

"A new name. A new ident.i.ty for you and the baby."

"The baby? baby? She needs to go to the governor." She needs to go to the governor."

"CeeCee." Naomi sighed. "How do you propose to do that?"

"I don't know, but we have to."

"No, we don't. She's going with you."

"I can't take care of a baby!"

"Well, you'd better learn how in the next few days."

"Can I leave her at a police station?"

"How? Will you walk into a police station, drop her off and skip out, no questions asked? You have to avoid leaving any kind of a trail behind you, CeeCee. You wouldn't be putting just yourself in jeopardy, but Tim and his brother and sister and Forrest and me and our children. No one knows this baby exists, okay? That's the one lucky thing you've got going for you. No one's going to be looking for a baby. Just a pregnant woman."

"But it's completely wrong for me-"

"Everything you've done for the last few days has been completely wrong, even though you did it with the best of intentions. This is the risk you agreed to take. There are always consequences."