Script Kiddies

Chapter 17

Haley bolted upright as the scream pierced the air. She flew out of bed and across the pathetic excuse of a living room, heart pounding.

Jacob wailed in his crib, kicking and screaming with every ounce of strength a four--week old could muster.

Haley scooped him up and bounced up and down, trying to quiet him.

Hector rolled over, mumbling something she was glad she didn't hear.

She pulled Jacob to her breast, and he abandoned his protests as he was momentarily satisfied. She sighed and sat in the rocking chair in the corner. It creaked and groaned when she sat, and she still hadn't been able to get the green stain out of the wood on the seat, but she was too tired to care.

She looked down at Jacob as he sucked on her breast, one blue eye staring up at her.

He was so beautiful.

Everything she could have wanted.

Hector stirred again, and she noticed there were still four hours until the alarm would go off. Not that she would get to enjoy all of them in bed.

She looked down at Jacob. His eyelids were half closed, though his mouth still worked on autopilot. When he finished a few minutes later, she wiped the last remnants of milk from his lips and set him gently back in the crib.

He cooed once, then his eyes rolled back, and he was fast asleep.

"Sweet dreams, baby. Mommy and Daddy love you so much."

He had Hector's long face and dark hair, but her eyes. He was going to be a heartbreaker; she could already tell.

She crawled back in bed, and tried to get some rest, despite the noise. The sirens outside had almost become a lullaby at this point, though the occasional gunshots still made her jump.

The idiot upstairs had fallen asleep in front of the TV again, so could hear whatever stupid product the infomercials were hawking as if she was in the room with him. And while a self-cleaning toilet system sounded fantastic, she doubted it would be a match for the decades of filth that had stained theirs.

When Jacob woke her up again a few hours later, still well before the alarm went off, she didn't feel any more refreshed than when she'd crawled back in bed.

This time, after Jacob had his fill and was sleeping again, she pulled out one of her textbooks and tiptoed around the corner of the kitchen cabinets to the corner where she'd put a small desk lamp for such occasions. Flipping the light on and the book to open to the latest chapter, network diagrams, encryption protocols, and attack vectors floated across the pages.

Eventually, the sunlight overpowered the lamplight, and she heard the buzzing of the alarm.

She closed her book and rubbed her eyes. Hector groaned as he sat up and shuffled to the bathroom. A moment later, Haley heard the shower start.

She started the coffee maker and pulled a box of store-brand cereal from the cabinet. Washing the previous night's remnants of ramen from two bowls, she poured cereal in each before she realized they only had enough milk for one.

A few minutes later Hector emerged from the bathroom, a towel around his waist. She handed him the cereal with milk.

"Thanks babe," he kissed her on a cheek. "How was he?"

"We've had better nights."

He winced. "You could have woken me up."

"You need your rest," she said. "Big day today."