Free Ground Zero by Rain Stickland

social with any of us since we got here, and she was a baby when we knew her before.”
    “She’s had a lot to deal with in the last few months. You know that,” Mac said, her tone defensive.
    “Oh, I know. I wasn’t complaining. Just seems weird to me when I think of what you were like at that age. How we all were for that matter. We talked about anything and everything. I remember losing my cousin, getting shit-faced, and bawling on your shoulder one night. Then you did the same with me when you found out one of your old boyfriends died.”
    “Yeah, but you’re not her tribe of friends, either. She’s got Kirk and Leigh, and if she’s gone over there she could very well be there to unload. I think you’re right that she’s been holding a lot in over the last few months, but killing someone isn’t something her close friends are really going to understand. She didn’t know I would understand better than anyone.” When she stopped speaking, Gilles gave her a strange look.
    “What do you mean?”
    “I never told you, I know. It wasn’t until I told Cam that I realized how long I’d been holding it in, and how many people I loved that didn’t know that one big thing about me. I was the one who killed her father. The police knew. It was self-defense. I think,” she finished lamely.
    Mackenzie realized then that they’d arrived in the kitchen, and Lisa was staring at her, wide-eyed. She grimaced.
    “Relax. I don’t make a habit of it. He’s the only person I’ve ever killed, and it wasn’t done with conscious intent,” she said acerbically.
    “Uh, Mac, what do you mean you ‘think’ it was self-defense?” Gilles was giving her the same look Lisa was.
    “I mean, he was threatening me with the knife, but I managed to grab it from him. He lunged at me, and the knife was already pointing toward him. I’m just not sure if I had time to move the knife away, and if I did, whether or not I would have. He was there, threatening to kill me over a lousy thousand bucks, and when I begged him not to leave my daughter without a mother, he got this look on his face like he was going to head off to her bedroom first. That’s when he stopped paying attention to the knife he was holding, and I grabbed it to keep him from doing whatever it was he was thinking of doing to Cam.”
    “I would have done the same,” Lisa said, touching her arm gently. “Jake’s birth father wasn’t violent like that, but even thinking about someone being a threat to him fills me with fear. I’ve basically felt like that ever since my mother died. Occasionally I would hear people outside on the street, and the first thing I would do was grab the big knife out of the block on the kitchen counter.”
    Gilles’ expression was one of understanding, as well, now that she’d explained things a little bit better. Mac could see he was curious about their new arrival, too.
    “Oh, shit. I’m sorry, Gilles. This is Lisa, and the little one is Jake, though I guess you’ve surmised that already. We found them in town. I went to school with her mother, Michelle. But there’s something a little more urgent we need to discuss regarding survivors.”
    While Mac was explaining what had happened in town, Neil pulled out the makings for soup and sandwiches. It might not be a full supper, but they were both too tired to do anything major for dinner. Added to that, Lisa wasn’t used to eating full meals anymore, so simple would be better.
    “Is Jake eating any solid foods yet? You said you were still breastfeeding him, but I thought maybe you might have been giving him some of your mother’s preserves,” Neil explained.
    “Not very much, though it hasn’t been easy. I know he needs more sustenance than he can get from my milk, but there was so little food I was trying to spread it out for both of us. I’d like to start him on solids, but I don’t know what I can give him now.”
    By the time Mac had finished telling Gilles about the