Caleb 95 - Stud

We chose to run the next morning. The dogs, minus Terra, chose to come along for the fun, and we covered probably about eight miles without ever leaving the property.

Fortunately, or unfortunately, depending on the point of view, it wasn’t raining, so we didn’t have to do the naked walk after the run. We simply went into the house, got showered, and met the rest of the family for breakfast.

“What’s the plan for today,” I asked. I’d guessed that, since he hadn’t told me to be ready by five thirty, Dean didn’t have any work that needed doing.

“Today,” he said, “I’m giving you some time to acclimatize. We cleared the plot where the buildings you took down were, and we’re going to be marking out and fencing off the new fields. The guy we bought it from had smaller fields than I want to use, so we need to remove all his fencing and re-map the land and fence it appropriately.

“Okay,” I said. “So if that’s tomorrow, what’s today?”

“We’re heading out,” said Janine. “Since we’re so close, we’re going to go spend a couple of weeks in Yellowstone. I’ve always wanted to see it and Robin rented a cabin out there. We’ll be back the week before Christmas, when your parents get here.”

“Close?” I said, “Yellowstone has to be, what, a five hour drive away?”

“Closer than from New York,” said Robin. “When Dean invited us over, I mentioned it to him. He suggested we come here first to catch up with you guys then go from here. We’ll come back for Christmas, and then head off probably the day after you do. Poor Gerry is going to be flying all over.”

“How are you getting there?” I asked. “The jet’s good but it can’t carry a car.”

“We’re renting a car.” Robin said. “It should be being delivered this morning. All being well, we’ll hit the road mid-morning and arrive there mid to late afternoon.”

“Looking forward to it?” I asked Ethan.

“Ethan’s staying with us,” said Dean. “He’s going to be helping on the farm, aren’t you?”

Ethan grinned. “It’s really cool here,” he said. Then he looked at Melanie. “Will you make me fly again?”

Melanie laughed. “We’ll see,” she said. “I can’t do it for long. Caleb is the expert at making people fly.”

Ethan turned big eyes toward me.

“If,” said Janine, “you behave yourself, then I’ll ask Caleb to make you fly after we get back. But only if you’re good for Uncle Dean and Auntie Cheryl.

I grinned at Dean. “Uncle Dean?” I mouthed to him. He suddenly developed an itch between his eyes that he scratched with his middle finger.

I looked to the girls. “You got any plans?” I asked.

“Fiona’s coming over,” said Ness. I nodded. It wasn’t a bad idea to check in with her and her mom since we were up here. “Other than that,” she continued, “we’re just going to chill for today.”

“Sounds good,” I said.

I helped Ness clear the breakfast things away. Melanie and Edie went out into the yard. They’d barely been apart, other than to sleep, since we arrived, and I didn’t wonder at that. Given the time they’d been separated, I would have expected nothing else.

I was a little concerned about the glances that Edie shot in my direction when she thought I wasn’t looking. They were calculating and hostile. Carrie had once seen the resemblance between my father and me, and I wondered if Edie was seeing the same thing and drawing conclusions. Then she’d go back to talking to Melanie.

Another thing I found interesting was the glances that Danny shot at Edie when SHE wasn’t looking. Again, I wondered about that. Perhaps Arnie had already spoken to his dad about her working at the flight school and he was thinking about it. Arnie was, even now, sitting with his father and they were talking together. I guessed that was the reason for the looks.

Sarah, the twins, Jules, and Ness had their heads together and I wondered about that too. Blue was curled up at Melanie’s feet, and Terra had, as was her wont, seated herself next to me her head on my lap. I petted her head.

“How long has she got to go?” I asked Cheryl, who was seated nearby.

“From the scans,” she said. “She’ll probably whelp sometime in the next week or so. The vet says she’s carrying four pups. From what he could tell three bitches and a dog.”

“Are you keeping them?” I asked.

“We’ll have to keep them for eight to twelve weeks,” she said. “Then we’ll see if anyone nearby wants them. They’re mongrels so they won’t be worth anything and we’ll just want them to go to good homes. If we can’t find them homes, then we have plenty of land. I think Jonah has already asked his dad if they can have one though. Did you want one?”

“I’m not sure it would be fair to the pup,” I said. “We’re all out all day, and we live in a city. Out here they can run to their heart’s content. There they’d have to be on a leash all the time.” I chuckled quietly. “I always wanted a dog,” I mused, “like I always wanted a big family.”

“Well,” said Cheryl fondly, “the family seems to be working out for you.”

I smiled at her, and then jumped as all the dogs, minus Terra, jumped up and raced out to the front. Terra didn’t get up, but she did bark.

Cheryl got up and I followed her to the door. As expected, it was Fiona and her mom.

Fiona threw herself into my arms.

“Caleb,” she yipped happily. “Another fifteen pounds,” then she pouted. “I only lost three pounds this week so…”

I remembered that I’d set the trigger for her weekly orgasm to be a four pound loss. She’d missed out this week.

“Never mind,” I said with a grin. “Next week you should be golden.”

“Maybe,” she said. “But you said I had to lose at least four pounds per week. What if, now I’m starting to get near my ideal, it’s slowing down.”

“I’ll figure something out,” I said. She grinned.

“Let’s go,” she said trying to pull me into the den. I laughed.

“Give me a minute to get your mom.” I told her. “You go ahead.”

Clarissa, Fiona’s mom, had gone into the kitchen with Cheryl. Turning around to follow, I noted Edie watching me again. I smiled at her and went into the kitchen.

“You ready?” I asked Clarissa as I entered the kitchen.

“You go ahead,” she said. “I think Fiona wants to talk to you in any case.”

“I can’t,” I said. “Not without you there.”

“Why not?” asked Cheryl.

“Because she’s a young woman,” I said. “I don’t want people thinking that I’m taking advantage of her.”

Clarissa laughed. “It’s far more likely to be the other way around,” she said and then sighed. “Fiona wants to talk to you, and it’s best if I’m not there, although we’ve discussed it between us.”

“About what?” I asked.

“She wants you to be her first.” She said.

My jaw, slightly out of practice, still managed a creditable performance as it dropped.

“What?” I asked. “No, that can’t…”

“She’s been talking to Ness. Ness told her about how good you made it for all your girls. And she wants that for herself.”

“I wouldn’t mind a go too if I’m being honest,” she thought.

“But she should be looking to find herself someone…” I began.

“And she will,” said Clarissa. “She’s not asking for a long term commitment.”

“But…” I said.

“Look,” Clarissa said taking my hand and sitting me on one of the stools by the counter. “I was brought up that your first time should be with the love of your life, and you’d get married and have kids, but we all know that that’s total bullshit. It’s purely to try and persuade girls to keep their legs closed and keep the horny boys from getting them pregnant before their time. In reality most girls first times are miserable experiences, filled with fear and pain. Some girls never get over that, and it marks them for life, ruining any joy they might have had from sex.

“My first time wasn’t much better, but at least the boy stuck around for a while after. Until I got pregnant that is. But that’s a whole other story. Girls today are becoming sexually active earlier and earlier, it’s almost like we’re regressing to the middle ages when girls were married off as soon as they started to bleed. The phrase ‘if there’s grass on the field, play ball’ is actually becoming the reality of the world.

“In many ways Fiona being so overweight may have saved her. It put her outside the preferences of most young men, and also made her so miserable that nobody wanted to talk to her, let alone do anything else. But now she’s emerging from that. She’s lost a lot of the weight and she’s becoming a happy, pretty, and sexy young woman. Boys, and girls too, are starting to notice. At some point, and probably fairly soon, she is going to be having sex.”

“I still don’t see what that has to do with me,” I said.

“She wants her first time to be special,” said Clarissa. “In today’s world she can’t have the dream, the fantasy, that we were brought up to expect. So, she’s going to have to lower her expectations.”

“Flattery won’t work either,” I said raising my eyebrow.

Clarissa laughed. “Sorry, that came out wrong. What I meant was the best that she can expect is to enjoy it, to have a good time, a memorable time, with someone that is as concerned about her pleasure as he is about his own. We’ve both been reliably informed that you fulfil all those criteria.”

“What am I? A stud animal?” I asked.

“A stud at least,” said Ness coming through the door, smiling.

“You set this up?” I asked.

“Not really,” Ness said. “You know girls talk. I told her how good you made it for me and for Jules. I might have mentioned that you gave the twins a memorable first time too, I’m not sure.” She looked a little embarrassed.

“She asked me if I’d be upset if she asked you to be her first. Obviously, I told her I wouldn’t be upset.”

“And I presume,” I said. “You’ve talked to the other girls about this?”

“Of course,” Mary sent.

“Yep,” came from Jules.

“Definitely,” sent Amanda.

“I think you should,” sent Melanie.

“And did anyone think to ask me about this?” I asked.

“What?” Ness asked.

“You can’t just pimp me out to your friends when you feel like it,” I said. “You’re treating me like I’m some kind of party favor. If I went and told Anthony how good you were in bed, and that I was sure if he asked you, you’d take his cherry, how would you feel?

Ness paled.

“I’m sorry Clarissa,” I told her. “This is not happening. You need to take Fiona home. Giving her, and you, the incentives I did was a really bad idea. I see that now. It gave you both totally the wrong idea about me. That’s on me. I can only apologize. Both incentives will wear off over the next couple of weeks in any case and after that I don’t think it would be a good idea for me to see either of you again. Melanie or Sarah can keep an eye on Fiona’s progress.”

I looked at Ness.

“We need to talk.” I told her.

“All of us,” I sent out through the connection.

Clarissa stood up.

“I’m sorry,” she said. “I guess… I, we, didn’t think that you’d mind. I know she’s still overweight, but I thought…”

“NO!!” said Ness vehemently. “Don’t you dare.”

Clarissa looked at her, startled.

“Her weight has nothing to do with it. Caleb is NOT like that.” She sank down on a chair by the table.

“This is all my fault,” she said. “I got carried away. I’ve known Fiona most of my life. We’ve been friends forever, and shared most everything. We got in to all kinds of mischief together. When she stole one of her mom’s cigarettes, she shared it with me.” She kind of laughed. “It was gross and we were both sick, but it didn’t matter because we were doing stuff together. Whenever anything happened in her life I was the first person to know and vice versa. We talked about everything and anything. When she put all the weight on, I lost her. She became someone completely different. I lost my best friend.

“Then when Caleb got her to start losing weight, she came back. She was the girl I’d always known, I had my best friend back all over again, the girl I shared everything with. The girl I could tell anything to. Even when I moved to Portland, I’d call her every day and we’d talk. Even now that I’m working, after you guys go to school and before I have to go to work, I call Fiona. We share everything. She told me about the boys that have asked her out. The dates with them trying to get into her pants. I tell her about my life.

“Then she was telling me that she was thinking about having sex. She asked me about my first time, I told her how wonderful it was and how you’d made me feel. You see, sex was something she’d been kind of avoiding. In her mind she’d decided that no boy would want to go near her. She told herself that she didn’t want, didn’t need, sex.”

Ness turned her eyes to me. “But then you came along. You did two things. First you showed her that she could lose the weight and be the person she was before. She found out that people were interested in her and it gave her back the confidence to believe that there would be someone out there for her.

“But you also showed her how sex felt. You let her feel what she’d been missing. Fiona hadn’t even wanted to pleasure herself she was so unhappy. She felt she didn’t deserve it. You showed her what she was missing and sparked her interest in something that she’d had no interest whatsoever in before.

“I guess I figured that since you’d done that for her, you’d be happy to… I should have spoken to you first before even mentioning it to Fiona. When you put it like you did, I can see how badly I screwed up. I know you’re not someone, someTHING I can just pass around like, I don’t know what. But that’s the way I, we, are treating you.

“Caleb, please. I’m sorry. I didn’t mean this to turn out like this. I got carried away with my scheme. I figured you’d give Fiona a great first time, and she and I would have something else that we could share. I never even considered how that would make you feel.”

The door to the kitchen opened and Fiona entered. She looked around the room, seeing the look on Ness’ face.

She looked at me and sighed.

“I figured it was too much to ask,” she said, “but I hoped… Ness said that you were so kind, so gentle, so loving. I can wait until I lose more weight…”

“Fiona,” I said. “It isn’t about your weight. It never was. When we first met you were unhappy, and I understand why. But that unhappiness made you bitter and angry and that turned people away from you.

“The last few times we’ve met, I’ve met the real you. The bright lively vivacious happy beautiful young woman. You’ve seen for yourself how that change has made people’s attitude to you change. Yes, there are assholes out there who are only concerned with looks, but most people are nowhere near that shallow. Even when you were at your heaviest, if you’d been the person you are now, people would have been attracted to you.”

“But not you?”

“My attraction to you has nothing to do with it,” I said. “Tell me, how would you feel if you had a boyfriend, and one day he invited a friend over to have sex with you, completely out of the blue, without even mentioning it to you, or even asking how you felt about it? How would that make you feel?”

“It’s not the sex,” said Ness. “It’s like Max and David.”

“Who?” asked Clarissa.

“It doesn’t matter,” I said. “Please, I think you should go.”

Fiona came up to me.

“I’m sorry,” she said.

Clarissa looked at Cheryl, who was standing by the back door watching us. She’d made no comment throughout the whole episode.

“I’ll call you,” Fiona told Ness, walking out of the kitchen. Clarissa followed her wordlessly. She didn’t look at me.

“Ness,” Cheryl said. Her voice was quiet, but firm.

Ness looked at her mom.

“Go to your room. YOUR room.” Cheryl said.

“But…”

“Now,” Cheryl didn’t raise her voice, but there was a tone in it that brooked no argument. Ness blinked at her for a moment and then, without saying anything else, left the kitchen.

I leant on the kitchen counter. My head in my hands.

How had I gotten things so badly wrong? I knew Amanda was always looking to get me into bed with different people and I knew that I needed to share just as they did. I just didn’t know how that would translate to Ness thinking that she could hand me off like a favourite dildo. I’d never shown her that level of disrespect, had I?

“She’s young,” said Cheryl softly, taking the seat beside me.

“Was I wrong?” I asked. “To refuse?”

“It’s never wrong,” she assured me, “to not have sex with someone you don’t want to have sex with. Being forced into it, either by physical, mental, or emotional coercion is the definition of rape.”

She gave a quiet laugh.

“What’s even more ironic,” she continued, “is that you could have used your powers to resolve that situation in an instant. But the thought never even occurred to you, did it?”

“It would have been…” I started.

“Wrong…” she finished. She shook her head.

“Would you ask your girls to join us please?” she asked.

“All of them?” I asked. “Or is Ness still grounded?”

She smiled.

“I’ll speak to her in a minute,” she said. “The others though.”

Mary, Amanda, Jules, and Melanie joined us in the kitchen. Sarah and Arnie followed in as did Edie.

“Have a seat,” Cheryl said to the girls indicating the dining table. Dean who’d poked his head in the kitchen took one look at Cheryl and backed away.

She looked around the girls for a moment.

“What’s going on?” asked Edie.

“The girls did something,” said Cheryl, “that warrants discussion.”

“That girl?” asked Edie. “Melanie told me. He was going to take her virginity. I don’t see the problem. He’s nothing but a man-whore, like his father.”

“Sit down and shut up,” snapped Cheryl. “You know nothing about this man, about who he is, or what he will or will not do. Just because you had a bad experience with the man who sired him; not, I hasten to add, the man that raised him, doesn’t mean you know ANYTHING about him.

“You’ve known him less than forty-eight hours and, despite everything I tried to tell you, you’re judging him. But I’m not talking to you. I’m talking to them. Either stay silent or leave.”

Edie opened her mouth, but then closed it again. I’d never seen Cheryl like this. She radiated fury and I understood now why Dean had backed out of the kitchen.

Cheryl turned her gaze to the girls.

“What the HELL were you thinking?” she asked. Nobody was looking at her. I saw Arnie move closer to Sarah and take her hand.

“Did you know?” she asked him.

He looked at Sarah. “Did I?” he asked, not having the faintest idea what Cheryl was all fired up about.

Sarah shook her head. “It was between us girls,” she told Cheryl. “Arnie didn’t know.”

“And how would you feel if it had been him that Ness had whored out instead of your brother?” Cheryl asked her.

“Arnie’s not like Caleb,” Sarah said. “He’s a norm.”

“So because Caleb has power, he’s somehow lesser, due less respect? Less consideration? Less of an opinion of who he does and doesn’t sleep with?”

“I didn’t mean it like that,” said Sarah. “Caleb needs to share. Arnie doesn’t.”

“Oh,” Cheryl said. “So because he needs to share, you get to say who with and when? Is he just some mechanical sex toy for you wind up and point at whoever you feel like letting him fuck? A human dildo that you can lend out to your friends whenever you feel like?

“I know you all love Caleb, I’ve seen it, I can feel it. It’s not love that’s missing from your relationship, or at least from your relationship with him, it’s respect.

“You show absolutely NO respect for him.

“He, however, respects each and every one of you,” she glared round the room. “Or am I wrong? We don’t see you very often so am I just missing the times he shows the same disrespect, disregard for your feelings, that you keep showing him?”

“We…” started Mary, but she quieted when Cheryl looked at her.

“Yes?” she asked.

“We do respect him,” Mary ventured.

“IF you respect him,” asked Cheryl, “then why did you bring someone to my house, promising them that he’d take their virginity, without once thinking to mention it to him?”

“We didn’t promise,” started Amanda. “We said she had to ask.”

“Bullshit,” said Cheryl. “Fiona arrived here today fully expecting for him to perform. It’s like he said to her, you’d all but turned him out to stud. When Clarissa came into the kitchen, she told me all about it. It was all arranged. She was going to leave Fiona here, and maybe she’d pick her up later or maybe Fiona would stay the night. They were going to use Ness’ room.

“Now you may not have been part of making the arrangements, but you sure as hell ALL knew about this, and yet none of you even considered asking Caleb if he would like to have sex with Fiona. You just thought you’d present him with the mare, he’d mount up like a good stud stallion and do his duty. Tell me exactly…how does that show your respect for him?

“But this isn’t the first time, is it?” she asked. “You often make decisions behind his back believing that they are ‘in his best interest’. You got your neighbors to go into his school and tell everyone what happened the night of the shooting. You forced someone with PTSD to confront the event that gave it to him, with no warning, in front of a class of his peers.

“Did ANY of you even consider what that might do to him? Yet again you made the decision without him and, not only that, kept it secret from him, you hid it, you LIED to him.”

“We didn’t lie,” said Amanda.

“You lied by omission,” said Cheryl.

“I’ll tell you this, it’s a damn good thing that he loves you as much as he does because, if he didn’t, your relationship wouldn’t stand a snowball in hells chance of surviving, given the way you treat him.

“I warn you,” she continued, “people can only be pushed so far. No matter how much love they have, if you continue to do what you have been doing, you’re going to lose him. Remember how long you live. He will eventually get sick of the disrespect, the duality, the inequality of the relationship where he gives all the respect and gets none in return, and he’ll leave.

“And you know what? I wouldn’t blame him.”

All through this, I sat, my mouth open, stunned. I’d never seen Cheryl more than mildly annoyed. Right now, she was radiating fury like I would never have believed.

“All of you,” she said more quietly, “have to do better, have to stop thinking that you know best. He’s older than all of you, and yes, Mary, Amanda, I know that you’ve had powers longer and know far more about them than he does, but you’re still young. You do not have the life experience to be making the decisions on his behalf that you have been making. He deserves to be included in those decisions. ALL of them. And if you’re keeping secrets from him because you think he’ll veto your idea…well, if anything, that’s even worse. Because whether you believe it to be in his best interest or not, you’re going against what you know his wishes would be which is an even bigger disrespect.

“Talk to him. Tell him how and why you think something is a good idea. Give him the chance to contribute to the discussion. Who knows, if you’d said to him that Fiona was nervous about her first time, and maybe asked him, before speaking to her, if he’d be kind enough to help her, to show her, to teach her, then maybe, being the kind, generous, and selfless person he is, he might have agreed. Then again, he might not, there might be all kinds of reasons for him not to that he knows about, and you do not, but you will never know because you never asked.

“Think about that, because you’re running out of chances. Each time you do something like this, it will take a tiny chip out of your relationship, no matter HOW strong it is, and eventually it will be destroyed. Think hard.”

Cheryl sighed.

“Now get out of my kitchen. All of you.”

I went to stand but she put her hand on my shoulder.

“Edie,” she said. “A moment?”

Edie, who’d been following her daughter, turned.

“Sometime soon,” Cheryl said, “you need to talk to this man. Find out exactly who he is. Don’t rely on your preconceptions, or what anyone else is telling you, even those that love him. You need to discover him for yourself. The funny thing is that he needs the same from you.

“You think you have the monopoly on loving and worrying about your daughter? He’s as scared of you hurting her as you are of him doing the same. Don’t look at him and see John. I’ve been told that they share almost the same eyes, and I can see how you’d fall into that trap.

“Find out for yourself, learn about him, and let him learn about you. Perhaps then you can both be there for Melanie. Isn’t that what you both want?”

Edie looked from Cheryl to me, her eyes calculating. Then, without saying anything, she left the kitchen.

Cheryl looked at me.

“I think you’ll have to do lunch,” she said. “Ness and I are going to be busy for a little while. Is that okay?”

“Are you okay?” I asked.

Cheryl laughed and pulled me into a hug.

“That’s why I love you,” she said. “All of this and you’re still more concerned about me.”

“I’m fine,” she said. She looked at the clock. “Lunch in an hour? Janine and Robin will be gone, and Ethan is with Jonas, so it’s just Dean and I, your brood, Edie, and Danny.

“Okay,” I said. “Any preferences?”

“Just something light,” she said. “Sandwiches and chips?”

I nodded. “Done,” I said.

She leaned in and kissed my cheek.

“Don’t let them off the hook on this, Caleb,” she said seriously. “I’m not kidding. They need to learn or, no matter how much you love them, your relationship will fail.”

I nodded. “I’ll try,” I said.

Cheryl left the kitchen. I heard her say something in the living room but couldn’t hear what. I started on lunch.

I’d half expected one or more of the girls to reach out to me over the connection, but it was eerily silent. They weren’t even talking to each other. I considered checking in with them, but I had no idea what I’d say.

While I worked, I considered what I would have done if Ness had come to me as Cheryl had suggested. I imagined the conversation.

Ness - “Caleb can I ask you something?”

Me - “Sure?”

Ness – “You know that Fiona and I are like really good friends right? I mean I’ve known her most of my life. We grew up together. We told each other everything, shared everything.”

Me – “Everything?”

Ness – “Trust you! Yes. I guess that she was technically my first kiss. We needed someone to practice with just in case.”

Me – “Okay. So?”

Ness – “When her dad left, and she gained all that weight, it was like she was a different person. I lost my best friend. And now she’s back – its kind of like she never left. Were back to sharing everything like we did before. We talk every day, about everything.”

Me – “Everything?”

Ness – “Most things. I’ve not said anything about powers, but everything else.”

Me – “Okay.”

Ness – “We were talking yesterday. You know now she’s lost a lot of weight she keeps getting asked out, and she’s seriously considering maybe accepting… but…”

Me – “But?”

Ness – “She’s scared. She’s still a virgin, and she’s heard all the horror stories. Every story she’s ever heard has said that the first time is always bad. Its painful and the girl almost never gets any pleasure out of it. She actually told me she’d be better borrowing her moms vibrator and just jamming it into herself to get it out of the way. “But then I told her about my first time, how gentle and caring you were, and how good it was for me. How you not only didn’t hurt me, or rather hurt me far less than I thought, but made me feel soooooo good.”

Me – “Are you asking what I think you’re asking?”

Ness – “It’s not like she hasn’t thought about you. Who do you think she is imagining when she gets her Monday morning wake up call? Will you? Please? Will you help her, show her how good it could be?”

I wondered to myself what my answer would have been in that situation.

I’d just finished getting everything together for lunch, and was making coffee to go with, when Cheryl re-entered the kitchen.

“How is it going?” she asked.

“Nearly ready,” I said. “Just making coffee.”

“I’ll call them through,” she said.

I was putting the trays of coffee on the table when people started to file in.

Dean was first. He picked up a plate and began to select from the variety of sandwiches I’d put out. He grabbed some chips, and then a coffee, before sitting in his usual place at the table. As per his habit, he waited for everyone else to come in and get theirs. He wouldn’t eat until everyone was ready.

Since nobody else came in just yet, I selected my own sandwiches and drink and took my usual seat.

Jules was next in. Without looking at either of us, she made her own selection, a single sandwich, and a couple of chips. She got some water and sat, looking at her plate.

The rest of the girls arrived, Ness bringing up the rear. None of them looked in my direction, or seemed to be making eye contact with anyone, each chose tiny amounts of food and water and sat. It seemed that there was going to be a lot left over.

Arnie and Danny arrived with Edie. They were less cowed as they looked around. Arnie looked a question at me but I just shrugged. They filled plates and, after Cheryl got her lunch and sat, we all dug in.

We ate in complete silence. Since it was sandwiches there wasn’t even the sound of cutlery on plates. There was the occasional crunch of a chip, or a thud as someone put a bottle or glass down, and I had to fight the urge to laugh. It was simply bizarre.

The girls all finished quickly, having barely dirtied their plates. They left the table, and the kitchen, heading to goodness knows where.

I looked at the pile of food still unselected and uneaten.

“Well,” I said, breaking the silence. “The dogs are going to be happy.”

I ate for a few minutes more before realizing that I didn’t have much of an appetite either. I forced another sandwich down and took a drink of my coffee.

“When you’re done,” said Cheryl, “the girls are waiting for you in the den.”

I raised an eyebrow to her.

“They have something they’d like to discuss with you,” she said.

I nodded, suddenly not eager to finish my lunch.

“I’ll just…”

“We’ll clear up,” she said. “You go.”

I sighed.

The den door was open as I approached. I could see Mary and Amanda, sitting on each end of the couch. Jules and Ness were between them. Melanie and Sarah weren’t visible, but I expected that they’d be sat in two of the chairs facing the couch.

I closed the door behind me as I entered.

All of them looked up at me. I could see that Ness had been crying, as had Melanie. Mary and Amanda looked like they might cry, but it didn’t seem like they had been. Sarah just looked sad.

I looked at Mary, expecting her to be the first one to speak and was surprised when Sarah started.

“Caleb,” she said. I looked at her. “I’m sorry. I know that I’ve not been with you for very long, and that I’m not really part of…no, that’s not right. I really still don’t know how I fit in to your family. It’s sometimes difficult for me to understand what’s going on, but there’s no denying that I knew what was going on, and I said nothing. I could defend myself by saying I was asked to keep quiet about it, but I should have spoken up, should have argued. You made promises to me and to my parents. You said that NOBODY would touch me or do anything to me that I didn’t want, that nobody would Compel or Coerce me to do anything I wouldn’t want. You kept your promise. We didn’t give you the same consideration. While nobody used powers on you, we tried to put you in a situation that would force your hand.

“I made the mistake of thinking that you were sleeping with so many people; all of us, the neighbor, that woman in Seattle, what would one more matter? I never considered that you might not want to sleep with Fiona. You’re a guy. Guys will stick their dicks into anything that lies still long enough. Only you’re not just a guy. I sometimes forget just how restrained you are, given your powers. You could literally have almost anyone you wanted, whenever you wanted. And yet I’m betting I probably have as much, if not more, sex than you do.

“I’m sorry. I didn’t give you the respect that you deserve when you’ve shown nothing but care, consideration, and respect for me. I hope you can forgive me.”

“Sarah,” Mary said bringing my eyes to her, “wanted to say something first. We’re not going to go around the room, each speaking her part, like some stupid story. We screwed up, badly, and I don’t just mean today. We, Amanda and I, have to take the majority of the blame. Not for Fiona. That was Ness, mostly. Yes, we agreed to go along, but she instigated that. But she only got the idea that it was okay to do that because we’ve shown her that kind of behavior toward you is acceptable. We’ve shown her that it is okay to make decisions on your behalf without talking to you. Amanda has shown her that bullying you into ‘Sharing’ is okay. I’ve shown her that making arrangements, like the neighbors going into your school, without talking to you first is okay.

“When we first got together, we were told to teach you, to show you about powers. I guess that advice went to our heads. We imagined ourselves as all knowing, all wise, and even when we screwed up, like with Max and David, we still didn’t realize that we weren’t as clever as we thought we were. We still didn’t realize that until just about an hour ago.

“Jules tells me that she’s only seen her mom that mad maybe twice in her life. What’s sad is that it took that to get us to look at ourselves, look at what we were doing to you, and wake up to the fact that we were treating you like a child. We were the adults, we knew best, and you, being you, would mostly just go along because you loved us.

“Even pushing you so hard that you had to go to Jeevan and Meena, rather than come home, didn’t wake us up, nor did Meena’s words, although she had some very choice things to say.

“The problem we have now is that we have absolutely no idea what to do next. We are all truly, deeply sorry for what we did, not just today, but every time we’ve made major decisions on your behalf without consulting you, for disrespecting you, like we have been doing. There is absolutely no excuse for it, and I promise you, we will remember this and try to treat you with the same love, consideration, AND respect, that you show to us, and have shown to us since the day we met.”

“We have literally no idea how we can make amends,” put in Amanda. “My instincts are to… well you know what they would be, but that just makes it look like we’re trying to distract you from the real issue. An orgy would be wonderful but, given the position we put you in, it would feel like we were saying – ‘see, you are a man-whore after all.’ All we can do is say sorry, love you, and make sure we don’t make the same mistakes again.”

I waited for a few minutes, to see if any of the other girls was going to say anything.

“Thank you,” I said when it became apparent that they weren’t. “I love you, all of you. What I’d like, more than anything in the world, is for us to just be together, no sex and no powers. I’d just love for all of us to reconnect, to lie in our bed, my beautiful family in my arms, love them, and be loved. Can we do that?”

Jules looked up at me, a small smile on her face. “I’d like that too,” she said.

Ness still hadn’t looked at me. She was staring at the floor.

“Squirt?” I enquired. She looked up. “Will you be there?”

“Do you…” she began but Melanie interrupted her.

“Of course he does,” she said. “He wants us all there. Arnie too. He wants to show us that, despite everything, he still loves us, and I’m guessing he’d like to feel the same from us.

“I would,” I said. “Is it a date?”

“It’s a date,” Ness said.

I stood. “I’m looking forward to it,” I said, opening the door, and leaving the den.

I don’t know why I did that. It just felt right, in the moment, to leave them alone together. I didn’t know where I was going. I just walked and so, predictably, I ended up in the stables.

Or maybe I did know where I was going, because for some reason, I was holding a couple of apples.

Blaze was always good company. Granted it probably had more to do with the treats I took him, but he was always happy to see me, and always let me talk, never interrupted, and never argued. He was the perfect ear.

Of course I had to be doing something while I was talking, so I got out his brushes and started work.

“They said you’d be here,” a voice came from behind me. I recognized it of course, and I stifled a sigh. I wasn’t really up to this conversation just now, but it seemed that it wasn’t my choice.

I turned.

“Edie,” I said. “Did you need something?”

She walked over, running her hand over Blaze’s flank. “He’s beautiful,” she said. “Cheryl said that Dean gave him to you because of something Jules said?”

I huffed a short laugh.

“Yeah” I said.

She raised her eyebrow when I didn’t elaborate.

“I’m trying to figure you out,” she said.

I nodded. There was no question in there, so no need to respond.

“You’re not exactly making it easy,” she said.

“What do you want from me Edie?” I asked.

“Ideally?” she said. “I want you to go away and leave my daughter out of your sordid, perverted, seedy little plans.”

“That’s kind of the answer I expected,” I said. “Thanks for your honesty.”

That seemed to surprise her.

“That’s not going to happen though, is it?” she asked.

“There’s only one thing that could make it so,” I said, “and that is for Melanie to say, and mean, that she wants that. You, being you, could possibly apply enough pressure in an ‘its him or me’ scenario to force her to leave with you. But I’d know.

“I might even let you do it too. Because you’re a norm and we’re Power users. You’ll be dead in about forty or fifty years, we’ve still got a couple of centuries. I’ll find her when you’re gone and make her happy again. Of course, you’ll have given her fifty years of pure misery, but hey – that’s on you. In reality it will probably be less because she’ll grow to resent you, even hate you, for taking her away from the love of all her family.

“Of course there is always the chance that she’ll call your bluff and stay, and you’ll be alone again, in the wilderness, moving from place to place with the huge empty hole in your heart yet again. You’ll grow old, bitter and twisted, and die alone. But you see that won’t be good for me either, because Melanie will grow to resent the fact that she lost you again. Even if she doesn’t blame us directly, the thought will be there that we could have, should have, done something to make you feel welcome, to prove to you that we were good people, that we could be a family, and could all be together.

“There are two important things for you to bear in mind. First and most importantly, I – am – not – John. Eighteen months ago, I didn’t even know he existed. Nathan, my Dad, brought me up and I hope did a good job. When I found out what he and my mother did to my Dad, I hated them both. Then I found out the truth – of how he played her, in exactly the same way he played you. You saw my reaction. My parents and I are rebuilding our relationship and, believe it or not, what I did was instrumental in that process.

“The second thing you need to bear in mind is that we both want the same thing. We both love Melanie and want her to be happy. I’m as concerned about you hurting her as you are about me. I know that you’ve been flitting from place to place, never staying more than a year in any one place. I’m terrified that in a few months, or a year, you’ll up sticks and leave, destroying her in the process.

“I’d love nothing more than to be proved wrong. For you to settle down either with us, or near enough that you and she can have a real mother-daughter relationship. Believe it or not I’d also like for you to find your own happiness, because seeing you happy will make Melanie happy.

All the time I was talking, I was brushing Blaze, not looking at her.

Edie huffed.

“You can certainly talk the talk,” she said. “But that doesn't come as any surprise, given who your father is. He could talk the birds down from the trees. How do I know that you mean what you say, that you really do love Melanie, and you’re not just using her?”

“Using her for?” I asked.

“You know what for.” She snapped.

“You think I’m just using her for sex?” I asked.

“Aren’t you?” she retorted. “I know you’re sleeping with her.”

“No,” I said. “I’m not just using her for sex, any more than she’s using me. We love each other, and sometimes that love is expressed physically. Just like with all the other people in the relationship.”

“You’re collecting women, building a harem,” she accused. “Even John had the decency to only go after a single woman at a time.”

I laughed at that.

“You think John was faithful to you when you were together?” I asked. “Just because you didn’t know they existed doesn’t mean there were none. My girls and I love each other. Melanie is as much Mary’s fiancée as she is Amanda’s as she is Jules’ or Ness’ or mine. I don’t have a harem, Edie, we each have each other, so that’s something you might consider. Because if you do try the ‘its him or me’ strategy – it’s not just me, its me and ALL the girls you’d be up against.”

She sighed. “I can’t win, can I?” she asked. “You’ve got her so ‘indoctrinated’ in your little cult that there’s no getting away from you.”

“You know,” I said, finishing up with Blaze and packing away his brushes, “you’re not the first Mom to accuse me of running a cult. Less than four weeks ago Sarah’s mom tried to kidnap her using a power user who specialises in rescuing kids from cults. She failed of course, but in the process the woman who does the rescuing actually read Sarah’s mind.

“She saw what you might see if you’d only stop looking at me and seeing John. She saw that Sarah was healthy, happy, and free to make her own decisions, and that Sarah had decided to be with Arnie, and with us.”

“I can show you the memory of that if you’d like. Or probably better still get Sarah to do it. I’m sure you don’t want me going anywhere near your mind.”

Her eyes widened at that.

“You could, couldn’t you,” she blurted. “You could make me do, or think, anything you want.”

I nodded. “Pretty much, yes,” I said. “John could force you to do things, but I could actually, and literally, change your mind.”

“And yet…”

“I’m – not – John.” I said. “I think we covered this.

“Actually that isn’t fair. I don’t think John used his powers on you, or any woman. Or maybe he did, just a little, just a slight nudge here or there. Who knows? He certainly didn’t do what some guys do, that is just make women have sex with them.

“That maybe only because he’d get put in jail if he did though. I couldn’t be sure.

“They can do that?” she asked.

I nodded. “Sadly I can show you memories of that too.”

“You didn’t…” she began.

“No,” I said. “Not me. I took down two power users who were using their powers that way. One just after I found my powers and one a few weeks later. I have some memories of theirs and their victims to see what they did.”

“So you’ve never used your power to get sex?” she asked.

I sighed.

“I can’t say that truthfully,” I said. “But I’ve never used my powers to get sex against the wishes of the person involved.”

“I don’t understand.” She said. “Why would you need to use your powers if they were willing to have sex with you in the first place?”

“Have you heard of BDSM?” I asked, she nodded.

“Why would you need to tie someone up if they were willing?” I asked. “And yet people do. It’s a kink.”

“There are people who…” she asked.

I grimaced. “They live with us,” I said.

“Your lodgers let you…” she started

“Let us?” I asked. “Try BEG us to… It’s also a good way to train power, so a win-win… win. We get to train our powers, they get their kicks, and I guess so do we. Triple whammy.”

I sat down on a hay bale. Edie looked around to find somewhere to sit. There was room on my bale but I guessed she didn’t want to be that close. I pulled another bale down with TK and placed it just behind her. She sat.

“Thanks,” she said.

“It all sounds so…sordid, so perverse,” she said.

“I guess if you looked at it through the eyes of someone brought up as a Norm, it is.” I said. “I know, because I was that man. When I found out the rules for power users, it freaked me out. Having multiple girlfriends never occurred to me. I started with just Mary and Amanda. Then the thought that one or both of them would have to share with other people, that was a real mindfuck.

“When I first met Melanie, I remember, Amanda asking if she was going to join our family. My first instinct was – ‘what? Are you mad? That’s my sister you’re talking about.’ But, thankfully, before I could articulate that I remembered that I was talking to a twin, one of two sets of sisters I was already in a relationship with, who were also in relationships with each other.

“I confess even now it messes with my head. But that doesn't mean that I love her any less. Melanie told you what she had to do to stay alive. How she made enough money to eat, or get a place to sleep?”

Edie nodded, tears filling her eyes at the thought.

“When I first realized Melanie wanted to have sex with me, I initially thought it was out of gratitude. I’d bought her things, fed her, brought her in out of the cold. I figured that was her go-to way of showing her gratitude, of paying off the debt.

“I was scared witless that once we’d slept together, maybe a few times, Melanie would figure she’d repaid what she owed and then be on her way. I was so scared I was going to lose her.”

“You told her she owed you?” she asked.

“Never,” I said. “I told her I owed HER. I said that it was my job, as a big brother, to look after her and I’d done a completely shit job of it so far. I did nothing for her that was not part of my duty to my little sister.”

“I wish…” said Edie. “You seem so…so nice and kind and…honest. I just wish I could believe that what you’re saying is the truth. Cheryl said she’s seen the love you have for her daughters, that she knew without a doubt that no matter what, you’d always love and protect and care for them. I wish I could be that sure.”

That gave me an idea.

“Melanie,” I sent. “where are you?”

“We’re in the house. Why?”

“Can you come to the stable please?”

“Okay,”

“I think I might have a way,” I said. “I could show you, but you might think it’s some kind of trick.”

“What?” she asked.

“Melanie will be here in a minute.” I said, “I’ll explain when she gets here.”

The door opened and Melanie entered. She looked at Edie and I sitting on the bales of hay.

“Is everything okay?” she asked.

“Not yet,” I said. “But I have an idea that might help things improve.”

“What?” she asked.

“You remember when we brought you into the connection?” I asked. Melanie smiled and nodded.

“Yes,” she said. “It was wonderful.”

“I want you to give that memory to your mom,” I said. “If she’ll allow it.”

Edie looked at me. “What is this?” she asked.

“I’m sure Melanie has told you that we are all connected together,” I queried. Edie nodded.

“When you’re in the connection, you can often feel how the others feel about you, but you get used to it. It becomes almost like background noise unless something prompts one or other of them to have a surge of feeling. But when you first connect, it’s all new, and you feel everything that everyone feels for you. Their true feelings. If you’ll let her, Melanie will show you, and then you’ll know exactly how we all feel for her.

“You won’t feel Sarah in there though, or Arnie, because they hadn’t joined the connection when Melanie did. They came later.”

Edie looked at Melanie. “You can do that?” she asked.

“If you want,” said Melanie.

“And it’s not some kind of mind manipulation?” she asked.

“That’s why I wanted her to give it to you,” I said. “Do you trust your daughter to give you a true memory?”

Edie looked at Melanie, then nodded.

“Sit beside her,” I told Melanie. “Hold her while you do. She’ll need it.”

I walked across to a dispenser by a sink and pulled out some paper towels.

“You’ll probably need these too.” I told Edie handing them to her.

Edie frowned. “What for?” she asked.

I smiled at her. “You’ll see.”

Melanie sat beside her mother, and put her arm around her shoulders. “Are you ready?” she asked.

“Yes,” said Edie.

Edie’s reaction had been every bit as extreme as everyone else who’d ever been added to the connection. Even though it was not an actual connection but just a memory of it, she got hit with the full force of all the emotions that we all had for Melanie when she joined.

Sobbing, in her daughter’s arms, she figured out what the paper towels were for.

I decided to leave them together and, after patting Blaze on the rump in passing, made my way back to the house and got in the shower. I stank of horse.

Ness was in the kitchen making dinner when I came down after my shower. The rest of the girls were in the living room. Melanie and Edie were still absent.

Cheryl asked where they were.

“Last I saw,” I said, “they were in the stables.”

“What were they doing in there?” she asked.

“Edie came to talk to me,” I said, and then, rather than go through the entire episode. I simply gave her the memory of our conversation and how it ended.

Cheryl huffed. “You think I could see that memory?” she asked. “I’d love to see how things are now. It’s been a while since we…”

“Ask Sarah if she’ll share hers.” I suggested. “If not then I’m sure Melanie will.”

Cheryl looked across the room at where Sarah was sitting talking with Arnie and Danny.

“I think I’ll give it a couple of days,” she said. “Maybe they’ll have forgiven me by then.”

I saw Arnie glance at Cheryl and then put his hand on Sarah’s arm. He spoke to her for a few minutes and then Sarah looked at Cheryl too. She stood up and came over.

“Thank you,” she said to Cheryl. “As a wise old man once said. It takes a great deal of courage to stand up to your enemies, but just as much to stand up to your friends.”

I laughed. “Gryffindor ten points?” I asked. Sarah grinned.

“I’ll be happy to show you my memory,” she told her. “But maybe it would be better in private. It can be very emotional. I know it was for me.”

“Later?” asked Cheryl.

Sarah nodded. “Not too late though, we’re all having an early night.”

Edie and Melanie returned to the house just as Ness called dinner was ready. Edie’s eyes were red rimmed and, when she looked at me, she gave a small smile. I wondered if we’d reached some kind of watershed. However, even if she now trusted me, I still wasn’t fully convinced I could trust her. I didn’t know how that was going to go.

I also noticed Danny’s look of concern at seeing Edie looking upset. He said something to Arnie, who shrugged.

Ness had performed flawlessly in the kitchen once again, and we all enjoyed an amazing dinner. As we got up to clear away, Edie came over.

“Can you spare me a half hour?” she asked. “Before your ‘man time’?” she smiled. I looked at Dean, he shrugged.

She led me out into the yard, taking a seat.

I sat opposite her.

“That,” she said, “was beautiful. I’ve never EVER felt anything like that. I could feel all of you, recognize all of you, and feel the strength, and depth, of your love. Of course it felt like it was for me, since I was seeing Melanie’s memory but I get it now. I know what Cheryl meant. Maybe sometime in the future, you can show me some other memories? Maybe stuff from your time with Melanie, things I missed?”

“I can show you her graduation, such as it was,” I told her, and explained about how I’d come home and Melanie had taken the tests online and was excited to show me the results.

“Would you?” she asked.

I showed her the memory, from when Melanie had come out to meet me in the garage, hopping from foot to foot like and excited child, and all but dragged me into see her computer. How I’d looked and seen the screen saver, had known what she was trying to show me, but had kidded that I didn’t and thought it was the picture she wanted me to see. How pleased Melanie had been with my reaction to her results, and how happy she’d been when the rest of the girls had come home and seen them too.

Edie eyes were bright with tears again at that memory.

“Thank you,” she said. “I want to see it all, everything, from the moment you found her. I don’t mean anything private between you but… well … whatever you can show me. How you found her, rescued her. Everything.”

“Okay,” I said.

“But first,” she went on before I could say more. “You’ve proved yourself to me. You’ve given me everything you possibly could to show me that you can be trusted, that you love my daughter and you will care for her, keep her safe, and make her happy. But that’s only half of the deal.”

“Is it?” I asked.

“Like you said. Just as I was concerned about you hurting her, you were equally concerned that I might. You stepped up, so it’s my turn.”

“Okay,” I said “How…”

“I want you to read my mind,” she said. “Look for yourself. Do whatever it is you have to do to convince yourself that I’m going to spend the rest of my life doing all I can to make my little girl happy.”

I smiled at her.

“I don’t need to,” I said.

“What? Why?” she asked.

“Because you offered,” I said. “The fact that you offered tells me all I need to know. I don’t need to violate your mind to confirm. So now you and I have a common goal, to make sure that Melanie’s life is as happy as we both can make it.”

She nodded. “Deal,” she said.

“One thing though” I said. “Remember that Melanie loves you.”

“What do you mean?”

“Melanie’s happiness is going to be contingent on your happiness. You need to find your own happiness to make her happy. Can I ask you a very personal question?”

“I was about to let you read my mind,” she said. “Go ahead.”

“Dean suspected that each time you moved, it was because you’d started to develop feelings for someone. Was he right?”

“I…” she said. Her voice breaking a little. “I couldn’t take the risk of hurting someone else.”

“Well now,” I said, “you’ve found your daughter. The emptiness inside should be filled with love and, if you have any space left in there, I’m sure that the rest of us will help you fill it up with even more love, given a little time with you.

“It’s time for you to have some happiness too.”

Edie slid off her chair, going to her knees in front of me, and pulled me into her arms.

I stood, using TK to lift her to her feet, and returned the hug.

After a minute I leaned in and whispered in her ear.

“Does this mean I get to call you Mommy?”

Edie laughed. Pulling back a little.

”Melanie is right. You can be an ass.” She chuckled.

Dean and Arnie came out a few minutes later, just after Edie had returned inside.

Dean handed me a beer.

“Hell of a day,” he said.

“Yeah,” I said. Then I looked at him.

“You know,” I said conversationally. “When the house got attacked, and Ness went at them with a baseball bat, I thought she got her ferocity from you.”

He chuckled.

“I was wrong, wasn’t I?” I asked. He nodded.

“Cheryl rarely gets mad,” he said. “But when she does, it’s time to be someplace, anyplace, else.”

“I’m so glad she wasn’t mad at me,” said Arnie. “When she asked me if I knew, I near peed myself.”

“Did it help?” Dean asked.

“Her getting mad?” I asked. “I don’t know. The girls were contrite and apologized. But they did the same after Meena spoke to them after the school incident. I guess we’ll have to wait and see. Amanda is always going to be Amanda and will keep trying to get me into bed with people.

“I honestly think the person that really needed to hear that was Mary. She wants so much for me that sometimes she tries just too hard to make things right. When I was first struggling with the concept of sharing, they tried to engineer my sleeping with Louise.

“I know I was wrong to resist, that I needed it, but what I needed most was to be included in the process, and not just presented with a solution. I needed to make the journey.

“What are you going to do about Fiona?” asked Dean.

“I don’t know,” I said. “I feel bad for her, and her mother, getting caught up in the middle of this. She’s a lovely girl, and I know that turning her down will have really knocked her confidence, after she’s worked so hard to lose the weight and build herself up again. Maybe I’ll go and talk to her. Or Maybe I’ll just stay away and let her do her own thing.

“Whatever you do,” he said, “do it soon. I’m guessing that after today she’ll likely just go out and grab the first guy she can find. If you’re going to help her, do it fast. It would be even more tragic if you went over there in a few days and she’d already had a terrible first time. That would just make it even worse for her.”

“Maybe Arnie would like to go,” I suggested timing it just right.

Arnie choked on his beer.

Dean laughed.

“That was unkind,” he said. “But funny.”

“Ass,” Arnie complained, wiping his face.

I knew the moment I felt the cold wash over my back when I was in the shower who it was going to be.

Jules smiled at me as I turned to face her.

“May I?” she asked.

I returned her smile. “Always.”