2.50 A Whole New Plan

Allie had been bored for a long time. She’d forgotten for awhile. The grief of losing her father, and the weight of watching her mother slip so far away had deadened her senses momentarily. The vacation helped, but now that she was home, back to real life, it too was back. The never-ending, mind-numbing boredom. Allie hadn’t realized how much she loved, needed the excitement of the Curse. But the trail of clues had stopped cold the moment Lazlo disappeared. Since then – nothing. No one breathed a word of Bella, or her dogs.

Maria’s twin boys were growing like weeds in the rainy season. Maria and Red couldn’t be happier, or more disinterested in anything to do with the Curse, and Maria’s father was well on the way to recovery after his time under Bella’s control. Things were good on their little homestead, and Maria planned to keep it that way. She’d had enough pain and misery for one lifetime, and now she wanted to enjoy her moment of happiness.

Caprice was home more often now that summer school was in session, and Phebe made an effort to come to town when she could as well so Bianca had two more looking after her. Not that Bianca seemed to need it. She was more herself these days, and getting back to her usual activities after the loss of Joel. Everyone just seemed happy, and homey.

And Allie was so bored.

The new work assignment was all she had going for her, and thank the goddess for that. Maybe she wouldn’t have taken it, had there been more going on, had the search for the Curse been turning up more clues. Maybe she would have stayed with the department, and it’s everyday routine of writing parking tickets that never got paid, and pretending nothing bad or suspicious or mysterious ever happened in Strangetown. Maybe.

But probably not. So one night, she agreed. And her Commanding Officer showed up a few weeks after the vacation was over, and asked if she was ready. That was it. She should have thought a bit more about it, but she didn’t. That just wasn’t who she was.

But to be fair, she didn’t know.

She didn’t know the lingering stomachache, the constant feeling of butterflies in her stomach, was anything more than jitters at a new and important undercover assignment. She just didn’t know. How could she know?

She was pregnant.