Marked

Chapter Three

"There's no happier place in the world than a room full of laughing children!"

Rachel grimaced and watched the hoard of tumbling toddlers on the other side of the glass partition. Her and Debra stood outside one of the ship's nurseries, the wind whipping their hair into a frenzy, and she imagined their blonde and red strands must have looked like crackling fire from afar.

She saw Debra's smile fall a little as she took in the uncertain expression on her face. "I really think this will be good for you. Copenhagen told me you had a nervous breakdown when you got lost downstairs and that you ran into a glass window and cut yourself up—is that true?"

"If that's what he told you."

Debra placed a warm hand over Rachel's shoulder. "You know, Rachel, it's perfectly normal to have triggers especially when you've gone through something that greatly upset you. It's nothing to be ashamed of. But studies back in the old days proved that spending time with babies can lower stress levels. I think this will help you--at the very least, can we just give it a try?"

"Okay... I guess I'll just go in there and..." She trailed.

Rachel propped the door to the nursery open. Music filled the air, the sounds of raspberries being blown and the blabbering of babies not yet old enough to form words. She bumped her knees against a gate, turned to glance at Debra but she was already gone.

"Hey, you must be my new helper." A woman peeked up over the counter, her hands covered in mittens with animals sown onto each finger. She held out her mitten-clad hand for Rachel to shake.

"Oh, sorry!" Her cheeks dimpled as she smiled, pulled away and offered Rachel her empty hand instead. Rachel smiled back and shook her hand, glancing behind the woman at the two babies sitting in bouncy seats.

"My name's Lexi and boy am I glad to see you! There's too many babies and only one of me so please, come in, come in. They're going to be so happy to meet you!" Lexi spun around and faced the room which was littered with dozens of toys, a purple and pink play kitchen in one corner, a slide and a ball pit. Drawings were tacked onto the walls, giving the room a colorful appeal.

"Kids, come meet our new friend, Rachel!"

Rachel hadn't noticed how many of them there were until they started popping out of the most random of places. A toddler jumped out from under a chair, another two emerged from the depths of the ball pit, a couple more spilled out from a green tent.

Her smile froze on her face as dozens of huge, round eyes looked up to her.

"You're just in time for snacks," Lexi turned around and motioned to the top shelf beside the counter. "They get wild if you don't feed them."

Rachel laughed uneasily as she picked the various boxes of cookies and crackers off the shelf and placed them on the counter.

"Come inside." Lexi motioned. "Have them form a line, will ya?"

"Err, okay. Um, kids, let's make a line to get the snacks, okay?"

The children stared silently at her as if she were a giant, three headed monster. Did they even understand words?

"Look, cookies." Rachel picked up a box and shook it in the air. That was all they needed to rush at her like a stampede of miniature horses. A few wrapped around her legs, two of them began to wail and the really tiny ones sat in their bouncy seats laughing at her, or at least she thought they were laughing but they could've been choking for all she knew about kids.

"Okay, okay." Rachel pulled cookies out of the box and handed them into tiny, chubby hands that she had to admit were pretty cute despite the way they were clawing at her like animals.