The quarantine lasted the rest of the winter and well into spring, during which time she was able to collect unemployment and tend to her health—namely her pregnancy, the first symptoms of which had begun less than a month after her encounter with Equinox. She’d been questioned, of course—everyone in Kettle Rock, population 1,637, had—but ultimately nothing had come of it, and by the time she was in her 14th week she was back at the diner working part-time and fielding an endless stream of questions and congratulations, at least from her regulars. Her younger coworkers, meanwhile, Claire and Sally, had done everything in their power to distance themselves from her—as to whether this was because of the rumors surrounding her since the top-secret military accident or just plain jealousy, she
