This is a story. It never happened and never will. The General Disclaimer is incorporated herein by reference.

Chapter 5a: Falling Out

I managed to finally finish my book that night, staying up until well after midnight. I spent the next morning proofreading it, changing a word here and a word there, waiting for the girls to come over and announce their mother's departure. Around 10:30, I heard the front door open and the sound of light steps coming up behind me. I was in the middle of reading so I didn't turn around, and a small pair of hands reached around to cover my eyes. "Guess who!" giggled a high-pitched, cheery voice.

"Elementary, Watson," I chuckled. "It's Tammy!"

"Awww, how could you tell?" she said, disappointed at being unable to fool me. She came around the chair and leaned her hip against the side. She was wearing cutoffs this morning, and a bright white t-shirt that showed off her tan nicely.

"I don't really know how I could tell," I told her honestly, not having the faintest idea how I did it.

"Even our teachers can't tell us apart," she frowned, wondering about it. I pointed out that her mother could, though. "Yeah, but she's our mom," she explained.

I asked her if her mom had gone off to work, and she nodded. "Where's your sister?" This was the first time I'd only seen half the set.

"She's outside somewhere," Tammy shrugged. "Did you finish your book?" she asked, indicating the computer.

"Yep, all finished. Well, almost. I'm still putting some finishing touches on it. As soon as I'm done we can all go swimming if you want."

Tammy grinned in agreement and asked if she could stay here and watch me work. I told her it wasn't very exciting to watch, but she was more than welcome to stay if she wanted. She beamed a happy little smile and promptly sat on my lap. I realized she just wanted to be with me, and it didn't matter whether what I was doing was interesting or not. While it made typing on the computer a bit awkward, I felt quite happy myself. Her clean, fresh-smelling, sun-bleached hair just below my nose was a bit distracting though.

We both sat there quietly, my arms reaching around her to work the keyboard, as I continued where I had left off. After a few minutes of this, she craned her neck to smile contentedly at me, and impulsively I kissed her smooth forehead. 'I wish you were my dad,' I heard a small voice say. At first I smiled back at her, feeling quite pleased by her fondness for me. Then I realized that she hadn't actually said anything. Her mouth was shut, and her lips hadn't moved a tiny muscle. My expression changed to one of surprise, and Tammy's to disbelief. She quickly got out of my lap, saying in a shaky voice, her face suddenly pale, "I'm g-gonna go find Terri." She started backing towards the door, breathing fast like a frightened animal.

"Tammy, wait a minute," I called. I definitely wanted to find out what was going on here. All of a sudden she bent sharply forward, her breath whooshing out of her as if someone had punched her in the stomach. She grimaced in pain.

I jumped out of the chair and ran to her, kneeling down and putting a hand on her shoulder. "What is it? What's the matter?"

"It's Terri!" she cried, her face now filled with panic. "She fell out of a tree!"

"How do you-"

"C'mon!" she said, bolting for the door as I ran along, bewildered, behind her. Tammy headed unerringly to the back of a building two units over, where we found her sister laying on the ground beneath the low branches of an apple tree, groaning. I quickly went to her, expecting the worst and wondering what bones were broken. "Don't move!" I ordered the girl as she tried to sit up. Tammy stood tensely to one side, watching with concern.

Trying to find out how she felt, Terri sat up anyway. "I'm okay," she said, reaching beneath her to rub her butt. "Just got the wind knocked out of me."

Almost laughing with relief, I tousled her hair. "Please, don't do that anymore," I begged. "You scared the crap out of me."

"It's not like I did it on purpose," she frowned, looking pointedly at her twin.

I turned to see Tammy watching me, her face still quite pale with worry. "Relax, Tammy. She's okay." I looked back at Terri, whose expression now mirrored her sister's, nervously biting her lip. I realized that Tammy wasn't worried about her sister, she was worried about me. Pieces of the puzzle started fitting together inside my head as I looked at the two of them, and Tammy now grew quite alarmed, her lower lip trembling. I made a startling conclusion, and tested it. 'You can read my mind, can't you?' I thought silently at her.

Her reaction startled me even more. She started crying, hot tears of shame running quickly down her tender cheeks. "I'm sorry!" she wailed, her face flushed. "I can't help it!" Whimpering, she quickly ran back the way we had come.

I turned, totally confused, to Terri, who was glaring at me angrily. "Damn you!" she swore at me, her face livid. "What did you say to her?" Her curse felt like a slap to the face and she flinched as much as I did, getting to her feet as she started crying also. "You're just like our father!" she yelled accusingly before running off after her sister.

Stunned, I sank to the ground with my thoughts in a whirl, as I tried to figure things out. Tammy had obviously heard my unspoken thought, and just as obviously Terri hadn't. Looking back, I realized that it had been Tammy who knew my name before I had told them, Tammy who seemed to answer my questions before I asked them, yet Terri seemed to know how I was feeling, if not what I was thinking. I couldn't believe it had taken me this long to figure it out, but they were very good at making up excuses for their abilities, and had clearly been trying to hide them.

Telepathic twins? Incredible, but not unbelievable. I had heard of twins who were able to communicate between themselves, but this was a step further. More importantly, why were they so upset at my having found out, and how was I like their father? Were they afraid I wouldn't like them any more? They certainly already knew my biggest secret, that I was a little girl lover, and had probably known it from the first time we met, and they still liked me. I was more than a little embarrassed to realize that Tammy, at least, had heard my thoughts about their sexy bodies. But instead of running away screaming they had almost seemed to encourage me. I had nothing else to hide, really. The fact that at least one of them was a mind reader didn't really bother me. Instead, I wanted to find out more about my extraordinarily gifted young friends.

I got back up and headed to their house, hoping that was where they had run off to. The door was unlocked so I let myself in, and I could hear a muffled sobbing coming from the back rooms. The door to their room was closed, but now I could hear the heartbreaking little sobs much clearer as I stood outside, hoping I could get a clue as to the cause of their distress. "Don't cry, Tammy," I heard Terri say. "He just wanted to have sex with us anyway." Ouch. That hurt. Serves me right for eavesdropping, I thought ruefully.

"That's not true and you know it!" Tammy said hotly. Then, softly, "He's outside the door."

"Go away!" Terri shouted. I wasn't going to be gotten rid of that easily. I opened the door and saw them sitting on the bottom half of a bunk bed, Terri with her arm protectively, soothingly around a sobbing Tammy. It broke my heart to see her stricken little face all flushed and wet with tears.

I sank to my knees in front of them. "Why are you so upset that I found out about you?" I asked her gently.

"'Cause now you think we're freaks!" Terri said angrily, hugging her sister tighter.

"But that's not true," I said, defending myself. "I never once thought that. Can't you read my mind too?"

Terri shook her head no, looking at me doubtfully. "I'm an empath," she told me. "Tammy is the telepathetic one."

"Telepathic," Tammy groaned.

"That's what I said."

"No, you said... never mind." She frowned in consternation at her twin, sniffing and wiping her face with the back of her hand.

I looked at Terri. "You're empathic? You mean you can tell how other people are feeling, but you can't hear their thoughts?"

Terri nodded. "You know, like that lady on 'Star Trek: The Next Generation'?"

"You mean 'Troi'?" I was a big trekkie fan.

"Yeah, that's the one." She grinned slightly, impressed by my knowledge. "She's the counselor for the whole ship!"

"Well then, you should be able to tell if I'm lying or not, right?"

"Yeah..." she said slowly.

Tammy was also looking at me, her face filled with hope. "You... You really don't hate us?"

"Hate you?? Why would I hate you?"

They were both silent for a long time, looking at the floor. Finally, Terri whispered softly, "Our daddy called us freaks."

"That's why he left," Tammy added, another tear running down her cheek.

Silently, my heart filled with compassion, I took a girl in each arm and hugged them tightly. Both girls clutched me almost desperately back, and I knew they could feel my love for them. How a man that had helped create such beautiful, gifted young girls could call them 'freaks' was beyond me.

"You're angry," Terri said, pulling away and looking afraid, as if I might be mad at them.

"He's mad at our dad, not at us," Tammy explained, letting me go. Then she bit her lip, realizing she was reading my thoughts again.

"It's okay, Tammy," I said, reassuring her. "I really don't mind."

"You don't?" she said doubtfully, finding it hard to believe.

"You can tell that I don't, can't you?" She nodded slowly. "Did you really think I wouldn't like you anymore?"

They explained how most people were terrified of having their thoughts read, of having their innermost secrets discovered. "You already know my biggest secret, and you still like me," I pointed out.

Terri looked confused, and Tammy explained, "He means that he likes young girls like us." Terri shrugged, non-plussed, as if that weren't nearly as bad as other people's secrets. I shuddered to think what these girls had been exposed to, from an early age: all of the hate, lies, anger, lust; all gleaned from the minds and emotions of others. No wonder they weren't bothered by my attraction to them. It was a credit to their mother's love that they were sane.

Tammy was watching me. 'We're doin' ok,' she thought at me, making me jump. "I'm sorry!" she said out loud. She looked like she was going to cry again.

"It's ok, Tammy," I told her again, wiping a tear from her cheek with my thumb. "It's just going to take some getting used to. That's all. Did you two really think you could keep this a secret from me?"

"We were gonna try," Terri admitted honestly, "but Tammy kept goofing up."

"You did too, once!" Tammy retorted. She sensed I didn't remember when this was. "In the pool, that first day," she explained. "Terri said you were tired."

I thought of something else. "Now that I think of it, she always seems to start getting sexy acting just when I'm thinking something sexy about one of you, too. That's not a coincidence, is it?" Terri looked bashfully at the floor, and I knew it wasn't. "That could be embarrassing, when you're watching a sexy movie with someone else."

"It only happens when I'm around someone I really like. I kinda get 'connected.'" She smiled shyly at me, blushing.

"Do you really think I only want to have sex with you?" I asked her, remembering what I had heard her say while I stood outside the door.

She shook her head, ashamed that I had heard her. "I can tell you really love us," she said softly. "I only said that to try and make Tammy feel better." She looked at me, her face apologetic. "I'm sorry I swore at you before. I know I hurt your feelings."

I hugged her again by way of forgiveness, and everything was all right once more.

Now that the crisis was over, I asked them to explain their abilities. Apparently they could communicate together telepathically, but only Tammy was capable of hearing others. Tammy was also able to make her mother hear her, if she projected a thought at her, but no one else. That was why she had been so surprised when I heard her think, 'I wish you were my dad.'

"So that's what you meant when you yelled 'He heard me!' at me," Terri exclaimed. It seems Tammy had flung the thought at her twin, catching Terri off guard.

"I'm sorry I made you fall out of the tree," Tammy apologized, but she was sucking in her lips, trying to hold back a grin. I chuckled as Terri frowned at her; even I could tell the apology wasn't entirely sincere.

"I think you're mostly sorry about the fact that you felt it when she fell," I teased. Tammy nodded, smiling openly now.

I wanted to test something. I told Tammy to tell me what I was thinking, closing my eyes and trying to feel her 'inside'. All the science fiction books I had ever read talked about things like 'probing tendrils of thought'. Tammy laughed derisively, picking it up. "It's not like that," she scorned. I hadn't felt a thing; it was kind of disappointing. She went on to explain that it was something like listening to different stations on a radio. Each person had a different 'frequency', and all she had to do was tune in. Until I came along, she had only been able to 'broadcast' to her mother's and sister's stations. "Do you think that's why you can tell us apart so easy?" she speculated.

I had to admit it sounded plausible. Perhaps, somehow, the three of us were linked in some way. It might have had something to do with my attraction to young girls, I suppose.

Being girls, the twins decided they had had enough serious talk and said they wanted to go swimming. "I have to finish my book, first," I told them regretfully, trying my hardest to think only about my work. They begged and pleaded, and my concentration slipped. Tammy immediately realized I was joking.

"Wow," she said, impressed. "You tricked me!"

"I'm smarter than you think," I grinned slyly, wrestling her down on the bed and tickling her until she begged for mercy, her tears forgotten. It was comforting to know that she could still be fooled; I would have missed the pleasure of teasing her, otherwise.

I sat on the bed and watched as they stood up, stripping off their T-shirts, leaving their little girl chests bare. I quickly reached out and poked a finger into each little navel while their heads were covered, making them both suck in their bellies. "How come you like tickling us so much?" asked Terri, exasperated by my constant kitchie-cooing.

"Because I like hearing you laugh," I answered simply, "and it's easier than telling you jokes." She smiled indulgently, shaking her head, graciously willing to put up with my eccentricities.

They took off their shorts and panties, standing back up unashamedly while I openly admired the now-naked twins, all of us glad that we no longer had any secrets between us. I noticed their sunburns seemed to be healing well, already turning to a light colored tan. I could feel my penis starting to swell as I looked at them, and Terri soon after began to scratch at her bare pussy in empathy. "You're a dirty old man," she teased, snickering as she fondled herself suggestively.

'Spank her!' I heard Tammy suggest to me silently, a giggling echo trailing the thought. Not needing any further encouragement, I snatched Terri off the floor and bent her over my lap on the bed, catching her completely off guard. It seemed that Tammy was able to selectively 'broadcast', and her twin hadn't heard it as she yelled in surprise.

"Dirty old man, huh?" I said in mock anger as I gave her twitching little buns a playful slap. Tammy laughed in delight as her twin cried out in alarm at having been deceived. I gave her a few more little slaps to make her sister happy (and me too, I must admit), and I noticed Tammy rub her own behind as if she were feeling it also. Terri shouted her apologies, and I rolled her over. Her delicate little mound, fully exposed, was probably trembling with predesire, if she was empathic to my sexual appetite. I held her thin wrists in one hand over her head and looked at Tammy. "I don't think she's really sorry, do you?" I asked her with a grin. "Maybe we should tickle her to make sure." Tammy nodded her eager agreement, and before her sister could protest we started poking and prodding her everywhere on her body, leaving nothing untouched. Tammy would tickle her chest and nipples while I squeezed a knee, and I would poke her belly and ribs while Tammy playfully squeezed her thigh very close to her pussy or pinched her behind until Terri was screaming and squirming, hiccuping with laughter.

"Enough?" I asked the panting girl, who was so out of breath she could only nod her head as I released her, her chest rising and falling in relief as I stroked her soft tummy.

"I think I'd rather you told me jokes," she said wryly, once she recuperated. I gave her ribs one final poke and she giggled again in spite of herself. Then she accused us of ganging up on her. Tammy artfully reminded her that she had done the same thing last night, more or less, and Terri let it drop, figuring they were even and wanting to go swimming instead of arguing about it.