The Trendy Troodon: Fiction: Chelsea the Social Worker Epilogue!

It's Monday night, and it's been dawning on me that I really have nothing. So I tried to think what I have backlogged, and realized my best bet was something I teased way back, the actual ending of Chelsea the (bad) social worker. So, here goes. As usual, the table of contents is at the end. And yes, this is exactly how I am with a baby...

Chelsea returned home to the sound of a crying baby. She entered the townhome unit on the second story, and quietly descended the stairs. What interested her was the sound of the voice drifting up.

“I don’t understand, cuddle bunny,” Shad said. She spotted him seated on the floor next to the crib, his back against a couch. “I changed you, I fed you, I read to you, you have your blanket and all your favorite toys.” As he spoke, the baby in his arms cast aside a squeaky dicynodont. “I just don’t know what you want.”

“She’s a baby, she doesn't want anything except attention,” Chelsea said. Shad looked up, and she gave him a smile. “I keep telling you, babies fuss. The more you try to make them stop, the more they fuss. They’re jerks that way. Hey, bunny, mommy’s here.” Shad handed off the baby, who if anything cried louder. Chelsea cooed nonsense as she cradled the baby, adding editorially, “Why are you making your daddy worry so…?” She freed a hand to clear the clutter of toys out of the crib, then laid their baby down and laid a blanket over her. As an afterthought, she took all but one especially beloved toy, a fuzzy caterpillar. She stood by without intervening as the baby continued to cry. After 15 minutes, she hugged the toy and quieted.

“She was doing okay most of the night,” Shad said. “We were having fun earlier. She just got fussy when I tried to put her to bed.”

“That’s because you’re a pushover,” Chelsea said. “By the way, have you noticed you talk to her the same way you do to me?”

Shad shrugged. “How else would you talk to a baby?” he said.

“That’s my sweet man,” Chelsea said. She kissed him on the lips.

“How was work?” Shad asked.

“The usual grind,” Chelsea said. “I delivered 12 state assignments, approved 3 petitions for separation, and got two couples assigned an instructor. How about you?”

“Oh, you know, stuff,” Shad said. He grinned. “I finalized our video.”

Chelsea grinned back. “You should show me,” she said.

“I was planning to,” he said. But he continued to look down at their daughter’s crib. “She turned out… different, didn’t she?”

“Well, anything can happen once,” Chelsea said. Leaning over, she ran a finger through the fuzz just beginning to appear on the bay girl’s scalp.

It was purple.

Table of Contents

Part I: The romance!

Part II: The parking violation!

Part III: Capsule hotel destruction!

Part IV: The Kelsiraptor, and Harryhausen monster bureaucrat!

Part V: The restraining order!

Part VI: The trial, part 1!