#108: Kelly's Dilemma, Part 1

Lana spent that night sleeping fitfully on her sofa,

and reported to her new police job for the second day.

She was required to work out for one hour and, since Lana was quite out of shape (she had NOT been taking care of herself), this proved difficult for her.

Lana was sent out on patrol, and this did not go well,

as she was beaten up by a civilian.

She tried to calm the fellow down,

but ended up giving him a citation.

She got a tip that there might be someone who knew something about a crime at the Rattlesnake Bar,

so questioned a number of people there.

On reasonable suspicion, she arrested Martha Cary,

and took her back to the station and searched her (and found a knife on her),

took her mugshot,

fingerprinted her,

and put her in a cell.

She took a report from a civilian who had come in with a complaint that "some weird guy" kept rummaging through his trashcan (Lana privately wondered whether it was Devin Austin),

took more mugshots of perps,

and went to talk to the Chief about Devin.

"Nice work on the Austin matter, Moriarty," the Chief told her.

"The new laboratory in town says they have an opening for someone like him."

This made Lana wonder what the heck kind of work the laboratory did, but she was happy to get a compliment from the Chief.

"Okay, Moriarty, I'm bumping you up to Officer," the Chief said.  "Congrats.  Now get out of my office."

_______________

Back at her rental house, Lana paid her bills in the amount of $465.  'What the heck for?' she muttered.  'This place is a dump.'

She sat down on the small bench outside the house.

Although she was happy she'd been promoted, she was exhausted, and she knew once she went indoors she would find that Declan had done nothing--not cleaned any dishes, not taken out the trash, not even made the bed.

She screwed up her courage and entered the house.

As she had expected, the place was a mess, and Declan was watching TV and playing a video game at the same time.

"Declan!" she said firmly.  "We've got to talk!"

________________

Kelly liked nothing better than to sit in her new nursery and read children's books.

"I just can't wait for this baby!" she said aloud.  "My new daughter will just make my life perfect!!!"

________________

"So, how's Kelly doing?" Bill asked his wife, over his shoulder, as he was giving Daedelus a bottle at 5 a.m. the next day.

"Oh--you know--everything's always 'kittycats and moonbeams' with her," Regina laughed, as she made breakfast.

"She hasn't even had morning sickness ONCE!"

Bill and Regina loved their friends, Derek and Kelly, but still thought it was fun to goof on them.

"So this must be like a virgin birth, right?" Bill teased.  "Because I can't believe a quality gal like Kelly ever had sex with Derek."

"Oh, STOP--" Regina teased back.  "They must have had sex at least ONCE!"

_______________

Across the street, Derek was getting ready to leave for work.
"Hey, hon--smells great!" he said enthusiastically.

"I'm so lucky to have a generous husband who makes it possible for me to stay home from work," Kelly said.

They sat down to eat breakfast together.

"Well, we're not rich," Derek said, "but we can at least get by for the time being.  It's just one small baby girl, and--if she's born healthy--how much trouble can she be?"

_______________

Derek left for his astronaut job soon thereafter.

Kelly cleaned up after breakfast,

and was heading back upstairs to the nursery to read, when there was a knock at the door.

Kelly came back downstairs,

and opened the front door.

"Hello," Kelly greeted the pleasant-looking young woman, and the cute little boy by her side.  "May I help you?"

"My name is Lana," her visitor announced.  "I'm a police officer, and I have to go to my job.  This is Declan, and he needs to go to school.  Oh, and--by the way--he's Derek's kid."

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If you want to know where Declan came from, read post #61.