Seeing Eric standing with Candice in the crowd brought back all sorts of a bitter-sweet feelings to add to the nervousness I already felt.  He looked a little taller, and his features had started to fill out, but the biggest difference in him from the last time I saw him was the smile which radiated through the crowd like a warm beam of sunlight.

I had hung back a little, letting Suzi and Joey go ahead in hopes it would help break whatever ice there might be, and despite the feelings of tenderness and... uhm... the slight sexual attraction to him, I was finding it very hard for me to simply walk up to him and say hi.

But then I clearly heard him say, "Where's Tim?" and my heart started to race in hope he felt... different about my existence.  I didn't even know I was walking towards him until I was practically standing in front of him, but then after an awkward moment, my eyes watered up and I gave him a hug.

"God, you've grown," I moaned before letting him go.

"Uhm, yeah, I guess," Eric said a bit shakily as he turned red and avoided looking in my eyes.

My heart sank as he maneuvered away from me, and even though I only stood there a few moments before turning to say hi to Candice, Joey and Suzi both made sure I was okay before we moved on.

Eric was very warm and chatted openly with Suzi and Joey, but he seemed so...  not cold towards me.  Just...  reserved, like I was a stranger who he was unsure of.

So I hung back to stay in the rear while we walked down to get our luggage, prompting several queries from Joey and Suzi making sure I was okay to the point where I got tired of it and had Joey initiate the share link so they could monitor my... 

Well, not my thoughts exactly.  I guess you could say they could monitor my emotions telepathically, but that's kind of misleading.  I guess I'm splitting hairs about this, but empathy and telepathy are two completely separate things, and while you can read the thoughts generating an emotion and read the physical sensations resulting from that emotion, telepaths can not truly share an emotion like empaths do.

Oh, and in case you were wondering what took us so long to reform the share link, before I had left, we had made a bet to see how long it would take them to ask me.  I guess you could say I lost the bet, but then I had hoped I would lose when I had made the bet in the first place.

While we were catching our bags as they spun around, I sensed Suzi trying to scan Eric's mind and quickly stopped her.  She immediately demanded why I had done that, but then she saw Candice's glances of concern and understood.

Candice looked good, by the way.  You could say she grew up a lot in the past year, and I don't mean just physically either.  I sensed a greater amount of maturity from her, and it took me a while work out that she seemed to be carrying a considerable amount of responsibility on her shoulders.  And it didn't seem to be concerning Eric either.

I was glad to see she had gained a lot of confidence in herself since the day of my parents' wedding.  Back then she was afraid of displeasing her father and was very careful to get his approval on anything she did.  But now she was comfortable about her own decision making abilities, although she had doubts I would see things her way about what she had done to Eric.

In fact, she was worried about what I would demand of her.  She knew from last time I was much more powerful than she or her father was, and despite the long relationship between her father and mine, she didn't doubt I wouldn't hesitate to overpower them if needed if I thought they had done some harm to Eric.

So I tried to give her some relief while we were walking out of the terminal to the waiting limo by thinking to her, "I have to admit you've made Eric very happy.  No matter what happens Candice, I'm grateful for that.  And remember it will be his decision, not mine.  I don't think you have anything to worry about."

"Thanks," she thought back with weak grin.  "He means a lot to me."

I looked over at Eric as he opened the limo door and announced he wanted Suzi and Candice to sit next to him, then thought to myself, "Looks like the feeling is mutual."

I spent the ride to the Cord Estate quietly observing Eric's responses looking for anything unusual or out of place.  Apart from the slight southern accent, nothing seemed amiss, or at least as long as he wasn't looking at me or something.

It was really bothering me how he seemed to deny who I was.  Every time he glanced at me, I could see it in his eyes.  "You're not Tim, so don't even try to convince me like you convinced the others."  He seemed to accept the fact that he couldn't convince the others, but it didn't matter to him that they were fooled.  It was like it was is own personal war or something.  I kept going around in circles trying to feel him out about it.

"Hello in there," Candice said to me, interrupting my deep thought.

"Huh? Yeah?"

"Weren't you listening?" Candice said somewhat suspiciously.

"Yeah, I heard every word."

"So?" Joey asked, enjoying the moment of putting me on the spot.

"So what?" I asked as I frantically tried to reconstruct the conversation from the bits and pieces I had caught.

"Are you going to accept my dad's gift?" Candice asked.

"I guess..." I said, then suddenly something clicked and I immediately added, "not."

"Why not?" Candice asked surprised.

"I just don't do that kind of thing, that's all."

"Oh... Then how come Charlie told my dad you'd love it?"

"Charlie?" Joey said with amusement.

"Tim's dad," Candice clarified.

"I knew who you meant," Joey said, grinning.  "I just never heard anyone call him anything but Charles before."

"It's his childhood name," I explained.  "My grandmother called him that too.  Well, when she wasn't calling him Master I mean."

"Like father like son, eh Timmy?" Suzi said with a grin.

I smiled and said, "Yeah, I guess so."

"I thought you and your dad got along," Candice said to me.

"We do.  He was just trying to... uhm... whatever it's called when a father tries to mold his son into his own image."

"Well, I guess the orgy is off then," Candice said without regret.  "Some of my sisters sure will be disappointed."

"Shit.  He uses his own daughters for that kind of thing?" Joey asked.

"Not like he used to, but on special occasions he still does.  It's a family thing."

I caught Eric looking at me just then, and I accidentally made eye contact which resulted in them locking on to each other which the others quickly noticed.

"Stop," Eric said firmly, struggling to break away.

"Come on Eric," I said pleadingly.  "It really is me.  All you have to do is..."

"NO!" he yelled before jerking himself off the seat and landing on his butt on the floor.

Despite his maneuver, I still had his eyes locked with mine, and I was starting to feel something deep down that I knew was going to have to come out.

"STOP IT, you FAKE!  You SON OF A BITCH!" Eric spat.

"Timmy," Suzi said carefully while standing up and moving into our direct line of vision.

"Don't you EVER do that again!" Eric spat angrily as he got back up on the seat next to Candice.

"Well?" Suzi said, turning towards me for my explanation.

I didn't answer her immediately as I tried to sort out what I had sensed from the empathic connection, but I had never felt anything quite like what was embedded deep within Eric's emotions, and three minutes later Suzi got impatient and slapped my right thigh to get my attention.

"Well?" she repeated.

I looked over at Eric again, and was surprised when he met my eyes and literally dared me to try it again.  I tried to sense as much as I could without making a full empathic connection, but when I continued to stare into his eyes without blinking, he nervously glanced away then looked at me again before closing his eyes.

I did the best at describing what I had felt to Joey and Suzi over our private link, then on Suzi's recommendation I repeated the whole thing for Candice while Eric continued to refuse to open his eyes for anyone.

When we reached the gates of the Cord Estate, Eric announced he was going to go home.  That upset Suzi a lot, and Eric finally opened his eyes to say he was sorry and he would be back the next day.  But then warned her he would leave again if I even looked in his direction before kissing her and Candice on the cheek and got out of the limo by where his truck was parked.

I had just got out myself when Eric's red pickup went up the drive towards the main gate, then as we walked past the lined up servants towards the main entrance, Eric's squealed his tires as he took off down the road heading for home.

"I'm sorry Suz," I said, rubbing her shoulders from behind.

"It's not your fault," she said.  "Just try and not make him mad again."

"He wasn't mad, Suzi," I said softly.  "He was scared."

"Of what?" she said, stopping and turning towards me.

"I guess he's afraid to find that I'm really me," I said somberly.

Suzi wrapped her arms around me for a hug, then while I was returning the favor, Joey wrapped his arms around both of us from the side.

"You two keep leaving me out of all the good stuff," Joey said with a touch of amusement.

Suzi put one arm around him, then when I backed out she threw her arms around his neck and hoisted herself up to his face and said, "Not all the good stuff," she said with a wicked smile.

"I love you," Joey said with sincerity while holding her up against him.

"Says who?" Suzi replied.

"Says me."

"And me," I said, grinning as I went and stood by Candice.

When they finally kissed, I said to Candice, "You and Eric ever kiss like that?"

She looked at me, then looked back at Suzi and Joey with a slight smirk.

"Why, didn't you two?"

"Heh.  Touche'," I said, noticing for the first time the foyer we were in was... dignified, and not gaudy.  "Nice place you have here."

"Mmmm, I suppose.  Different from your Daddy's place, huh?"

"Yeah.  I mean, the servants lining up and stuff, that's the same.  But we don't have any plants or benches in the main hall like this.  Er..  Or vending machines..."

She showed us around a little while explaining the estate was more than just their home, but it was also the family business.  What that business was, I hadn't a clue, but there were offices and conference rooms with people in suites walking around in that front building I had mistaken for her home.

We passed through a security point before crossing a enclosed bridge to the main house.  I was surprised when we had to pass through another security checkpoint before actually entering the building, but then we were greeted by another line up where the women and girls were topless.  Oh, and the guys were too.

The eldest of the bunch couldn't have been older than twenty five, and as Candice started introducing them one by one, I suddenly realized they were all her half siblings.

I shared this with Joey and Suzi as I struggled to also try and remember their names as I shook or kissed their hands, but quickly gave up by the time we reached the six year old girl who wrapped her arms around my neck when I bent over to kiss her hand.

"Mandy, let Tim go," Candice said patiently.

"Uh uh," Mandy said, hugging me hard.

I stood up and moved her over so I could carry her more comfortably as Joey said, "Hey Tim...  You get yourself a new girlfriend?"

"Sorry about this," Candice said, giving Mandy the evil eye.  "I should have warned you she's a bit clingy."

"It's okay.  My brother's the same way," I said, giving the little girl a friendly smile and looking her in the eyes.

When the little girl puckered her lips, I had to chuckle, and say, "And she wants to kiss on her first date.  Does this mean MMMPHMNNPF!"

"MANDY!  NO!" Candice yelled while commanding her to let go.

"Shit," I exclaimed when the six year old removed her tongue from my mouth and dropped down to her feet and ran off. 

"You're picking them kind of young, aren't you Timmy?" Suzi teased as I wiped my mouth.

"She picked me, remember?" I said, watching the little girl excitedly talking with her other young siblings while some the older ones started to wander away.

"I'm really sorry," Candice said again.  "She's hard to predict sometimes.  I'll have to punish her for..."

"Oh, don't do that," I said, then grinned and added, "I mean, for a six year old, she really knows how to kiss."

"That's what daddy says too," Candice sighed.  "Well, seeing my daddy isn't back yet, I guess I can show y'all to your rooms so you can relax a while."

As we followed Candice down a hall to our right, two of Candice's sisters about her age joined her and were talking to her a few moments before I realized most of her other older siblings were right behind us.

I was then distracted by the sudden feeling of disappointment from the two girls who where with Candice, and watched them glance back at us unhappily.

Candice motioned for me to join them, so I quickened my pace and said, "Yeah?"

"This is Kerry and Allison.  They were supposed to be your...  gift."

"Yeah, I kind of worked that out," I said, feeling a bit put-on-the-spot. "I'm sorry, you're very pretty and all, but I'm ahh...  Trying to uhm...  Well, cut down on that kind of stuff."

"Ohhhh..." they both whined.

"But Daddy said," Kerry complained to Candice.

"Can't you make him want too?" Allison asked Candice.

"No she can't," I answered for her.  "And neither can your daddy, or my daddy for that matter," I said abruptly.

"He is powerful," Kerry said with awe.  "I can tell.  It's in his voice."

"And that one," Allison said pointing at Joey, "He's your man slave?"

"I'm _her_ man slave, not his," Joey corrected.

There was a rumble of discussion from the group following us, then the guys slowly started making themselves more visible to Suzi, most of them trying to impress her with the size of the lumps in their shorts.

"Now y'all stop that," Candice said without much force.  "If they want you, they'll send for you.  Now go back to what you're all supposed to be doing.  Shew!  Shew!"

"You too," Candice said to her two closest siblings.  "I'll be done in a little while then we can talk about it, okay?"

"Okay, Candice," Kerry said.  "Come on Allison."

"I love you..." Allison said desperately to me while Kerry pulled her away.

"Shit, Candice.  Now I understand why you were unhappy last year," I said once they were gone.  "But they don't seem to be the typical slaves."

"Not any more they don't.  I got daddy to let me free them, but then he made me responsible for them.  It's been really hard to get them to think for themselves...  and half the time they still think like... like that.  But I'm getting there.  Kerry almost actually argued with me.  I'm kind of excited about what that means."

"I wouldn't be," Suzi remarked.

That started a rather complicated discussion between Joey, Suzi and Candice, and after we reached our guestrooms, Suzi and Candice ended up sitting on the bed in Suzi's and Joey's room chatting like they were old friends.

I suppose you could say Suzi has a fairly unique perspective of telepathy, enslavement, and the problems which go with them.  She's been the Mistress and the slave, and has had to make a lot of moral decisions concerning the uses of my abilities before Joey ever shared them with her.  That and the fact that Suzi could make a discussion of a root canal a fun and humorous thing resulted in Suzi's and Candice's hour and a half long talk on their bed while Joey and I unpacked, showered, explored the guest wing a little, and finally just laid down on the bed and listen to them talk about cute guy butts.

"Joey's butt's like that," Suzi said at some point.  "Joey, stand up and show her."

Without comment Joey got up and walked over to their edge of the bed and turned around.  Suzi was just about to pat his butt when Joey pulled his shorts and jockey's down with a single motion then waited patiently without looking back at their astonished faces.

While Suzi started turning red, Candice licked her lips nervously, then patted Joey's butt cautiously and said, "I see what you mean.  Really firm Jell-O."

"You know, it's too bad Eric isn't here right now," I said to Joey as he returned to the bed beside me.  "I know he'd have a thing or two to say about guy's butts."

Candice stopped in mid-sentence when I said that, then after a moment of silence, she turned towards Joey and I and opened her mouth to say something but lost her nerve before uttering a single sound.

"I take it he doesn't find male butts all that exciting any more," I said carefully.

Candice nodded her head and avoided making eye contact with any of us.

"Does he even remember being gay?" Suzi asked point blank.

Candice couldn't help but look Suzi in the eye from apparently hitting it on the nose, then unhappily shook her head before glancing at me to see if I was going to get mad.

"So he doesn't remember a lot of what he and I..." I started.

"He remembers being very close to you and doing things with you that wasn't..." Candice trailed off.

"What about James?" I said a bit too calmly.

"I know what y'all are thinkin', but Eric was so unhappy when he got here because all his... boyfriends had ended up leaving him in one form or another.  We went out a few times, but he was miserable and wouldn't talk about it with me, so I took a chance and made him forget it all to see if it helped, and then couldn't bring myself to undo it afterwards from all the good it did him."

"GOOD IT DID HIM!" Suzi exploded.  "You make him forget who he was and two of the most important people in his life, and you call that good?!?"

"Yes I do," Candice said sternly.  "Eric means as much to me now as he ever did to any of you, probably more, but what I did wasn't because I wanted him for myself.  You saw how cheerful and happy he was today?  Well that's nothing compared to what he's like when he isn't worried about..."

"Worried about what?" I said with complete calmness.  "Why is he so afraid of me being me when he doesn't even remember what he...  I mean what I meant to him at one time?"

"I don't know," Candice said while standing up.  "But I do know Eric's happy right now, and if you really care about him even a fraction as much as I do, that should be all that matters.  I have to go and get my brothers and sisters ready for dinner which will be in forty minutes.  I'll send someone to show you to the dinning hall in a half hour."

And with that Candice left the room without glancing back.

"EwH!" Suzi exclaimed as she stood up and started pacing back and forth.  "How dare she make it sound like she did him a favor by making him forget!  I was actually starting to like her too!"

I watched her pace back and forth a few times as she continued to fume and mutter under her breath, then finally sighed and said, "Suz, maybe she's right."

"What?!?" Suzi exclaimed just before she tripped on her own feet and fell flat on her face onto the carpeted floor.

When Joey rushed to help her get up, she yelled, "I'm fine, let me go!" then nearly did an instant replay when he did what she had ordered.

"Why did you do that!?!" Suzi barked furiously as got up on her own and glared up at Joey like David and Goliath.

"I uh...  I just wasn't thinking and..." Joey said unhappily.

"What's been wrong with you anyway?  You've been acting like a big wimp ever since that damn haircut!" she spat.

"I..." Joey said weakly and turning a little pale while I started making my way towards the door intending to leave them alone.

"Well?!?  Speak! Or has all your brain cells gone to muscle?"

"Suz, I..." Joey said emotionally before turning away from her, then stifling a sob.

"What is WRONG with you?!?" Suzi demanded not as harshly as before, but not gently either as she tried to make him turn around to face her.

"NothiNG!" Joey blurted out emotionally before jerking himself away from her, then attempted to calm himself down while Suzi was too stunned to react.

"What's wrong with him?  Timmy!" Suzi yelled just as I was closing the door.  "Timmy, get your ass back here and tell me what's going on!"

I sighed, then opened the door and stuck my face in long enough to say, "Nothing's wrong with him Suzi.  Just...  Feel him out, and you'll see."

Suzi yelled my name when I closed the door again, but this time I didn't go back.  I knew it wouldn't take her long to work it out now that she's aware that something was different about Joey.  Besides the haircut I mean.  Heh.

The Cord mansion was larger than any of my dad's, but it also housed a considerably larger number of people, most of which were second or third generation slaves to the Cord family.

The grounds of the estate crawled with security, and that bothered me a while until I realized they were there to keep unauthorized people out rather to keep the slaves in.  In fact every slave I bothered to scan their mind of was perfectly happy with their lives and would never dream of leaving the security of their home.  Hmmph.  Big surprise, right?

The place was brightly lit and buzzing with activity no matter where I went, and the atmosphere was very cheerful to my empathic senses, but there were a few dark clouds which overcastted those sensations a lot.

The first of which was the differences between the private quarters of the slaves there verses my father's.  I may have mentioned before that my father went out of his way to ensure his slaves have every comfort that he had himself, which resulted in every slave's room being large and well furnished.

I got a good look at what a family of seven lived in, and if you excluded the closet they called a bathroom, their entire living area space was no bigger than my own bathroom back in the North mansion.  I have to say though the place was spotless and well organized, but I had to step over two kids playing in the entry area to look in their so called living/bed room.

Comparisons between those people and the slaves which Steven's and Penny's family had been breeding kept popping up in my mind as I wandered.  Whole families of at least three generations lived within the walls of the estate, a great portion of which didn't have a social security number or even a birth certificate to record their existence to the rest of the world.

They were all happy hardworking loyal to the grave slaves.

But what really bothered me was how there was a strong class difference between the black and white slaves.  I found out later that Chuck Cord's father had gotten into really big trouble with the Cabal when in 1968 he attempted to undo the progress the civil rights movements of the late 50's and early 60's after the riots following the assassination of Martin Luther King Junior.  The Cabal's Inquisitor of the time was a black man himself, and as punishment he made Chuck's father unable to ever use his telepathic abilities again before resigning as the Inquisitor of the Cabal.

I didn't really explore the place very long before I made my way back to the guest quarters in hopes of regaining my appetite back for dinner.  After changing into my dress clothes, I looked in on Joey and Suzi and was surprised to find them acting like nothing was different.

After a few moments of indecision, I knocked on the door and went in when Suzi said, "Come in, Timmy."

"I was wondering if you were going to get back before we had to go for dinner," Suzi said somewhat irritated yet not overly so.

"I checked out some of the slave quarters...  You could say I have a new respect for my dad," I said as Joey closed the clasp of Suzi's necklace from behind her.

"That bad, huh?" Joey said sitting down on the bed and unbuttoning his dress coat.

"I don't care about the slaves right now," Suzi said before I could reply.  "What are you going to do about Eric?"

I sighed, then said, "I don't know, Suz.  We have five days to figure what should be done, and since Eric doesn't seem to be suffering any, lets just wait and see, okay?"

"And what about you?"

"What about me?"

Suzi stood there with her arms crossed and waited silently for me to answer her question without bothering to explain since she knew I had understood her meaning all too well.

I sat down next to Joey and without looking up at her I said, "I'll just find something else to do while you two go do stuff with Eric."

"Like what?" Suzi prodded gently as she sat down next to me and squeezed my hand.

"I don't know.  Heh, maybe I'll help Candice out by showing some of her brothers a good time around town."

"You'll probably end up with a six year old around your neck if you try that," Candice said from the door as she opened it.

Suzi almost commented on her rudeness for not knocking, but instead only said, "Dinner?"

"Not just yet," Candice said carefully.  "I'd like to speak to Tim alone for a minute before we go to the dining hall."

"I'll be right out," I replied before anyone else could.

"She's really starting to piss me off," Suzi said under her breath after Candice closed the door again after her.

I took both of her hands in mine and looked her in the eyes and said, "Don't take it personally, Suz.  Candice isn't used to having to worry about other's privacy and stuff, and she's just as worried about Eric as we are.  If after dinner you and Joey want to check into a hotel or something that's fine, but I have to stay here because of my dad.  You can stay cool until after dinner, right?"

Suzi sighed slightly then gave me a peck on the cheek before saying, "You better go before the princess gets tired of waiting."

I looked at Joey as I got up to see if there was any hint as what happened while I was gone, but got nothing back but... patience.

Candice was leaning against the wall on the other side of the hall when I left the room, and when she gave me a weak grin out of embarrassment, I couldn't help but smile back a moment.

"You think they will get a hotel room?" Candice asked once we were walking down the hall.

"Probably not tonight, but maybe later this week, I don't know."

"I'm sorry if I... intruded," Candice said.  "Eric keeps telling me I got to pay attention to that stuff."

"Candice," I said, stopping and looking her in the eyes.  "You love him?"

Her surprised expression only lasted a moment before she looked down and nodded her head.

"Have you two...  done it?"

"Now who's being rude?" she said with a little grin, then looked me in the eyes and said, "No we haven't."

"Do either of you want to?" I asked bluntly.

"Eric does, but he knows I don't want to yet so he hasn't tried.  I've offered Kerry to him a couple of times, but he always gets upset when I do.  Thank God Kerry's never seen how big he is."

"Heh.  It's so big it's a little scary, isn't it?  But after the first few times you're stretched enough that it doesn't hurt that much."

"I'll try and remember that," she said with a slight frown.

"So what did you want to talk to me about?" I said after a moment of silence.

"Daddy is going to be upset that you refused Kerry and Allison.  I thought maybe you could...  fake it or something."

"I guess I could, if it's that important," I said carefully.  "Just this once though."

"Thanks.  Well since you already answered my other question while I was listening to your conversation earlier, I guess it's time for dinner.  I'll just wait here for you to get Suzi and her pet."

"He's not my pet," Suzi said walking out with Joey glowing red right behind her.  "He's my love slave."

"Oh.  Sorry," Candice said while I let out a snicker.

"I wouldn't be laughing if I had to fake an orgy with two girls," Joey said bluntly.

"Oh yeah," I said with a start.  "Say Suzi...  Could I like borrow your love sl.."

"Go get your own," Suzi said while her arms reached above her head and wrapped themselves around the back of Joey's neck possessively.

I watched as Joey's arms crossed in front of her protectively, then looked away as they moved to exchange a little kiss.  I felt a tug on my heart from the desire to hold Her protectively like that, but I quickly shook it off as we made our way to the dining hall.

Chuck Cord sat at the point of a large V shaped table with all his children lined up respectively by their assigned places awaiting our arrival.  I had expected Chuck's father to be there as well, but there were only four places left, three on his left and one to his right.

"Timothy Grodmen, I welcome you and your companions to the Cord table," the Master of the house said in his deep voice.

"Thank you sir," I replied with respect.  "My father has mentioned his visits to the Cord estate many times with mucho enthusiasm.  I'm very happy to be here."

We took our places and waited for him to sit before sitting down ourselves, then I took a moment to gaze down the two legs of our V table at all the faces which grew younger the further down you looked.

I did a quick count and if you included the two rug rats in highchairs there were nineteen heirs to the Cord name, all dressed like royalty and carefully watching their father for his signal to begin the meal.

You would have never known by looking at them that they were the same lot who had greeted us at the second security checkpoint.  The girls were dressed very conservatively, and like the guys they displayed nothing but the utmost respect to their father and his guests, many of them participating in the table conversations quite intelligently.  Not exactly what you'd expect from a table of enslaved youths recently set free.

The food was good and the mood was surprisingly relaxed despite what I had discovered earlier about the place.  Mr. Cord entertained us with stories of his and my father's youth, all of which were surprisingly sex free.

"I was very sorry to hear about your grandmother," Mr. Cord said as dessert was being served.  "She was a wonderful woman.  A real prize as my daddy always says.  I've come to the realization that he regrets losing her more than the coin to your grandfather."

"Losing her?  What do you mean?" I said after nearly choking on my first bite of chocolate mousse. 

"You mean Charlie never told you?" Chuck said with astonishment.

"No, I guess not."

"My father and your grandfather were... friendly competitors I suppose you could say.  They were constantly competing in one form of contest or another, sometimes lasting for months before one of them would claim their victory and claim their prize.  There was always a wager, you see.  My father spent several year's profit on purchasing your grandmother, then lost her to your grandfather in a game of cards."

"What about the coin?" I prompted him.

"He lost it to your grandfather in the next hand trying to get her back. I think if your grandfather hadn't agreed to bring it to test my brothers and sisters for the gift as they came of age that it would have been the end of their friendship.  Which reminds me... Charlie mentioned he gave it to you.  Would you allow me to test my youngest spouts for the gift?"

My ears started turning red as I tried to think of the best way of explaining why I no longer had my coin, knowing he would only see my gift of love as being a naïve act of youth.

I didn't really notice Suzi's fork clanking to the floor, and only barely knew it when Joey pushed his chair back to retrieve it for her.  But as I opened my mouth to begin my tale, Joey's hand clutched mine from underneath the table and then he pressed his coin into my palm as he stood up, not even looking at me as he went to sit down on the other side of Suzi to begin cleaning her fork off with his linen napkin.

"I guess that would be okay," I said after inspecting the coin a moment and handing it over to our expectant host.  "I wouldn't want to break with tradition now."

"I'm glad you feel that way.  To show my appreciation, my two daughters who are closest to your age shall attend to your bedside for the remainder of your stay here.  Please feel free to embrace their... offerings as much as you wish."

"I... Uhm..." I said nervously as I began to perspire rather heavily.

"I can see it all over your face," Chuck said after handing the coin to his eldest son to begin its journey down one side of the table.  "You're not happy with my gift, are you?"

"Is it that obvious?" I said guiltily.  "I mean, I don't want to insult you by..."

"The only insult would be to accept something which you are not happy with.  Gwen, Julian, and... Nicole...  You shall join Allison and Kerry in attending to Tim's every wish and..."

The three girls squealing in delight cut him off, and almost immediately following them, Mandy, the little girl who had, uhm, tongued me yelled, "Daddy Daddy!  Daddy Daddy!"

"What is it, Mandy?" Chuck said as he stood up and rushed to the excited little girl.

Mandy stood up on her chair and announced proudly and happily, "It tickles me!  It tickles me, Daddy!"

"The coin?  The coin tickles you?" Chuck exclaimed as the room exploded in excited discussion.

"Uh Huh!" Mandy cried joyously and started to hop up and down on her chair hugging the coin to her chest until her father gathered her up in his arms and they exchanged a large hug.

The other young ones crowded around their father and half sister attempting to see if they too would feel anything from the coin until Candice shouted, "All right now... The rest of you, line up!"

As her siblings all scurried to fall in line sorted by age, Candice patted the back of Mandy's clutched hand and said, "Mandy, let me have the coin so we can see if anyone else..."

"No!  It's mine!" Mandy shouted while putting her hand between herself and her father protectively.

"Mandy, give Candice the coin," their father said gently.

"Do I have to Daddy?" Mandy said while already complying with his request.

"Yes, sugar.  We need to see if any of your little brothers or sisters can feel the tickle too."

"Okay Daddy,"  she said weakly as she dropped the coin into Candice's waiting hand.

As they watched the coin being handed down from oldest to youngest again, Mandy suddenly said, "Daddy?  Does this mean I can kiss whoever I want?"

"No you can't, Mandy," Candice said with a tone of annoyance.

"But Daddy..." Mandy whined.

"How about this, sugar.  Since you've made your daddy very very happy today, you can kiss whoever you want just for today."

"I can?" Mandy gurgled in delight.  "Anybody?  Even him?" she said pointing at me.

My eyes made brief contact with hers, and before Candice or their father could say anything, I said, "Sure you can.  It's Mandy's kissing day."

(She hadn't actually intended to kiss me, just figured I'd be the last one her daddy would agree to letting her kiss.)

"Mandy's kissing day,  Mandy's kissing day!" Mandy started to sing while hopping up and down in her father's grasp.

"Daddy, Benny has it too!" one of the little girls cried out.

"He does?" Chuck excitedly exclaimed before putting Mandy down and rushing over to the three year old boy who held the coin out at arms length like he was afraid of it.

Suzi, Joey and I just sat there quietly watching the Cord clan celebrate their discoveries from our seats at the table.  Mandy almost immediately started making good on her own personal holiday, for once she found that the attention was centered on Benny, she walked over to her oldest half brother, gave his slacks a couple of tugs to get his attention, then said, "Davy, Daddy said I can kiss anyone I want, and I want to kiss you first."

"Okay, Mandy, but just for today," Dave said in a deep voice very much like their father's.

After watching Mandy and Dave going at it for almost ten minutes, I nearly ran out of the room when Joey announced, "Pucker up, Timmy-boy.  Here she comes."

Shit, and later I nearly fell over when Suzi said, "Well hi there Mandy," while I was trying to talk my five bedmates out of showing up at my room.

About an hour after Mandy's discovery, Candice came over and sat down wearily in her father's chair holding the coin in her hand.

She stroked her cheek with the coin a few times, then handed it back to me with a sigh and said, "It would just have to be Mandy."

I looked around for Chuck before flipping the coin to Joey, then asked, "Where did your dad go?  To tuck Benny and Mandy in for the night?"

"Close.  Knowing him he's moving my momma and my aunt into his master bedroom."

"How come?" Joey asked as he slipped his coin back into the rubber holder attached to the chain around his neck.

"Mandy and Benny are sister and brother, and my half cousins," Candice said slowly as she watched Joey slip his coin necklace inside his shirt.

"If he wanted telepathic children so bad, why don't you have any full brothers or sisters?" I asked.

"Because my momma couldn't have any more kids after she had me, that's why.  My aunt was only thirteen when your daddy let me hold the coin and I felt it tingle.  But three years later Mandy was born..."

Something about Candice's tone drew my empathic sense's attention to the fact that she was very upset about what had happened. 

I carefully moved so I could look her in the eyes and said, "Your dad isn't the same man he was back then you know."

"No, but...  The moment he knew Benny had the gift, he forgot all about Mandy.  I've worked so hard to prove to him I could take over the family business like he did from granddaddy, but now...  Now he has a son, so Mandy and the others will just be his little girls again."

I wiped the tear flowing down her cheek away and said, "Only if you let him.  I saw the pride in his eyes when he looks at you.  You're his right hand, er, well, man.  At least you are were the family is concerned.  So if nothing else, you can help Mandy become the woman you are, and not the girls Kerry and Allison are."

"But..." she says before sighing and shocking me by breaking my empathic connection with the turn of her head.  "Thanks Tim, but you just don't understand.  And I need to go."

It was my turn to say, "But..." as she left without giving me a chance to reply.

"Nice try Timmy," Suzi said standing up and rubbing my shoulders.  "I guess you just can't fix everyone's problems with your magic stare."

"Yeah, I guess," I sighed.  "I don't know about you two, but I'm pooped."

"Heh, yeah, but not as pooped as you're gonna be after those five girls get through with you," Joey said.

"Shit, don't remind me," I moaned and dropped my head onto the table with loud thud.

"Come on, buddy," Joey said shaking me gently a few minutes later after I almost fell asleep like that.  "If you don't want to deal with them tonight we can just have them go to their rooms to sleep and explain it tomorrow if we need to."

"Yeah, I guess you're right," I yawned sitting up, then had to rush to stand up to follow them out.

By the time we reached our rooms, we had forgotten all about the girls who were supposed to be waiting in my room, and it didn't occur to me as I got undressed and showered that they were missing.

I was in bed almost asleep when my door opened and a single cluster of swirling symbols entered and made their way closer to my bed.

When I felt the bed sheets being parted, I opened my eyes and said softly, "I'm sorry, Kerry...  I..."

"I know...  That's why I'm here."

"But..." I said as she pressed her naked body against my side.  "You're alone?"

"Yes.  I told the others you picked me to be your bedmate, but I know you don't want me to....  pleasure you, so I'll just sleep beside you if that is all right?"

I turned towards her and looked in her eyes to verify what she had said was true, then said, "But your daddy said..."

"I know, but I don't have to do _everything_ Daddy says, do I?"

I grinned at her, then said, "No, I guess you don't...  Does Candice know you're doing this?"

"Not yet.  I'm not sure if she'll like it."

"Trust me...  She'll love it.  You'll make her day, Kerry."

"Then I'll tell her tomorrow," she said as she moved her face closer to mine.

"Uhm, Kerry..." I said as she closed her eyes for a kiss.

"Sorry," she said with a frustrated sigh and backed off.

"Good night, Miss Kerry," I said firmly.

"Good night, Sah," Kerry said coolly.

The next thing I knew, Joey was standing at the foot of the bed with a grin from ear to ear.

"Morning.  Sleep well?" he said as I yawned and stretched.

"I guess so," I said just before smacking Kerry's naked butt accidentally, shocking her and myself both.

"Down boy," I muttered as Kerry silently got out of the bed, then Joey and I both watched her backside as she went into the bathroom.

"So...  You have fun last night?" Joey said, throwing himself onto the bed sideways and waited for me to squirm with the same grin he had on when I awoke.

"Nothing happened," I said.  "She told the others I wanted just her but knew I didn't want to do anything and didn't push it."

"Awwww.." Joey said after his grin disappeared. "Shit, Tim.  Don't you think you're taking this no sex thing a little too far?"

I threw him a blank look as I sat up and got out of bed, then found myself being grabbed from behind and drug back on the bed.

"Stop it, Joey!" I yelled.

He let me go, then he said, "Man, you sure are grumpy when you don't get any."

"Grumpy?!?" I growled.

"Yeah, grumpy!"

I turned around, stood up on my knees on the bed with my hands on my hips and said coldly, "I am NOT grumpy!"

"Yes you are! Grumpy Timmy!  That's your name!"

"Oh yeah?!?"

"Yeah!"

"Says who?!?"

"Says me!"

"I'll show you who's grumpy!" I yelled as I dived for his armpits and started making him wiggle and laugh.

My attack on his tickle spots only lasted maybe twenty seconds before he was able to overpower my arms and wrestled with me a little bit, then after a couple of minutes he used his superior strength and pinned me to the bed.

Joey just sat there on top of me as we puffed for our breaths, then grinned when I said, "Grumpy Timmy, huh?"

I screamed with laughter as he sought revenge on my own pits, then suddenly stopped and got off leaving me breathless and hanging halfway off the bed.

"Your bath is ready," Kerry said after watching Joey leave.  "I guess you won't want me to wash you so I'll..."

"Wait Kerry," I said, getting up and hurrying over to the door before she could leave. 

"Uhm, thanks," I said before kissing her on the cheek.  "You don't know how much I appreciate what you did for me last night."

She smiled, then nodded and opened the door to leave.

"I guess I'll see you tonight then?" I asked before she could close the door behind her.

"Maybe," she simply said before the door clicked shut.

Breakfast was somewhat an anticlimax to the night before.  Candice sent one of her half brothers our age to guide us to the regular dining area, and even though most of the Cord siblings were there, they all seemed to be on some sort of a schedule and didn't dawdle while eating their meal.

Jim, the guy who had led us there, was pretty quiet during the meal, but after Candice showed up for only a minute to tell us she had to take care of some business until noon, she assigned Jim to take care of us and he seemed to like the idea.

After we finished our breakfast, I asked Jim if we could see where he and his siblings sleep out of simple curiosity. I felt his panic for a moment before he got a grip on himself and agreed, then lead the way to a room which resembled what became my living room, but on a much larger scale.

The circular shaped room was at the heart of the Cord mansion with three sets of white and gold staircases swirling up the sides and seemingly holding up the stain glass dome seven stories above us like a crown.  The open space was so large that there were full grown trees with a few birds scattered about the gymnasium sized room, along with fountains and a flower garden or two.

But what was the most eye popping thing about this room was the large number of nude women of all ages littered about the place.

Jim pointed up to one of the many doorways somewhere on the third or fourth floor and said, "That's my room where my ma and I sleep.  When Candice talked daddy into letting all the girls have their own rooms, Kerry took the room right next to mine and usually sleeps with us," Jim said with a hint of pride.

"You sleep with your mom?!?  And your sister?" Joey exclaimed in disbelief.

Surprised, Jim hesitated a few moments before asking me, "Is he an orphan?"

"Heh, nope.  Believe it or not, most people in the world think incest is a bad and evil thing."

"In-sest?" Jim repeated without comprehension.

"Fucking someone you're related to.  Like your mom or your sister," Joey blurted out.

"Ohhh....  But that's...  That's...  Stupid!  I mean, don't they love their mommas?!?"

"Of course they do," Joey urged.  "But having sex with your mom...  I mean what if she gets pregnant?  Shit, if the kid didn't turn out totally retarded from the inbreeding, the kid would be all confused from not knowing whether to call you brother or dad..."

"What are you talking about?  I can't get my momma pregnant!  It's impossible!"

"The hell it is!"

"Whoah there guys," I said as Suzi stepped between them from the way they were looking at each other.

"Joey, we're not here to teach them our morals," Suzi said firmly.

"Yeah but..." Joey said before sighing and lowering his eyes to the ground.  "You're right.  I'm sorry."

"If you can't keep your man servant under control, I should take y'all back to your rooms," Jim said while trying to calm down.

Joey's head snapped back up to argue, but Suzi's warning look stopped him before he could open his mouth.

"How about we just go somewhere else," I suggested after politely refusing an unspoken offer for sex for the tenth time.  "Somewhere less..."

"Tempting?" Suzi said with a smirk.

"Uhm, yeah, I guess."

"Fine," Jim simply said before leading us back the way we came in.

"Jim," I began when I felt he had calmed down enough to approach the subject.  "I don't mean to offend you, but you can't tell me a son can't get his mother pregnant."

"My momma can't have any more kids.  When I couldn't feel anything from your daddy's coin back when I was little, daddy had her tubes cut.  All my step mommas get theirs cut after their kids get tested and fail.  And my sisters.  Except Candice.  And I guess Mandy too now.  It's almost a fucking shame Mandy has it.  She would have been good when she got old enough."

Joey was biting his tongue to keep quite, and I admit I was having trouble not saying anything myself, but Suzi diverted our attention by asking about the family business.

There was still some tension between Joey and Jim throughout our expanded tour of the mansion, but after about an hour, Joey was back to being himself, and Jim realized Joey was a lot more than just a man servant to us, and treated him with more respect after that.

When it was time to go meet up with Candice, I asked Jim if he might like to go out and show me the town.  I was surprised when he got extremely excited at the idea, but then when we found Candice and I mentioned it to her, she said he couldn't because he had to go to class.

"But it's summer vacation," I said, shrugging off Jim's disappointment to keep it from affecting me.

"For you and me, yes.  But Jim and all my other brothers don't stop their schooling until they have their masters in business and a second masters in another field, so they don't get a summer vacation."

"That sucks," I said.

"Oh, don't feel sorry for them.  They get everything they want, plus some," Candice said with just a touch of bitterness.

"That plus some is your sisters and step mothers," I concluded out loud.

"Exactly," Candice said, looking me in the eyes.  "Kerry told me what she did last night, and what you did.  She's feeling pretty proud of herself.  Thank you."

"No problem," I said with a shrug.

"So what are you going to do while we're out with Eric?" Suzi asked.

"Uhm, I don't know.  If none of the guys can go anywhere...  and I take it the girls don't get out much?"

"No they don't," Candice confirmed.  "But daddy said this morning that granddaddy would like to meet you, so if it's all right with you, you can go out to his plantation and spend the time there."

For some reason her suggestion stunned me, and I ended up sitting down in a chair to think it over while Candice called Eric up to tell him they were about to leave.  Seeing that I really didn't have anything else to do, I agreed, but I was feeling very uncertain about meeting my paternal grandfather's best friend.

My feelings only grew stronger when I found out the trip was a three hour drive to the middle of nowhere, and I was expected to spend the night and next day there before returning the next evening after dinner.

You see, after getting to know my own father and seeing how much his father intimidated him, I was starting to feel... intimidated myself about meeting the best friend of the man I had associated with everything corrupt and evil.

I was confident my abilities and more importantly my morals would be more than enough to protect me from any possible threat this man could be to me.  But yet I feared him in a way I couldn't quite define in my mind, so I was considerably distracted during my goodbyes and getting packed for my little trip.

But when I got in the limo and found both Kerry and Mandy apparently going with me, I was jolted back into focus.

"I was under the impression I was going alone," I said carefully while having the driver keep the limo in park.

"Daddy wanted me to go with you," Kerry explained apologetically.

"I want to go see Granddaddy, and I can do what I want," Mandy said stubbornly.

Kerry wanted to argue with her, but it was obvious she was intimidated herself by Mandy's new status as a telepath-to-be.

"Mandy, I don't think you should go," I said firmly.

"I don't care," Mandy said while making the mistake of looking me in the eyes.  "I can do what I want..."

I instantly saw past her mask of aggravating stubbornness and felt her confusion and how it was upsetting her.  The emotions of a six year old are so... open...  So direct and uncomplicated, it was easy enough to see what she really needed was someone to simply say...

"No."

"I'll tell Daddy!" she threatened angrily.

"Go ahead and tell him.  You're still not going with me."

"But.. But..  I don't want to stay here..."

"Why?"

"Because... It's not fun here any more."

"Why?"

"I...  The others..." she said before she clamped her lips together and her little chin started to wobble up and down in a weak attempt to not cry.

"Kerry, do you remember when Candice was tested?"

Kerry nodded, so I asked her, "How did you and the others treat her afterwards?"

"We did what she said, just like we did what daddy said.  She was special, like daddy.  I was so happy for her I used to cry."

"Did she seem happy though?"

"No, not right away.  She stopped playing with us for a while, but then one day she just showed up and asked if we wanted to go outside...  I had never been outside before and was a little scared, but Candice was so sure we would like it...  I just had to go.  And she was right."

"I've been outside," Mandy whimpered.  "I've been outside lots of times."

"But only because Candice started taking us out there before you were born.  She's taken us places and showed us things that we would have never had done if it wasn't for her."

Mandy brightened up suddenly after that had sunk in, then she jumped to her feet and exclaimed, "I know!  I'll take them to the zoo!  I love the zoo!  Bye!"

After Kerry and I finished chuckling, I said, "That girl... She is something else."

"Candice was a lot like her.  Always getting into trouble by doing things she knew she shouldn't do.  Even worse than Mandy."

"Yeah?" I said with a grin.  "If you want to come with me, I guess I wouldn't mind hearing some tales of Candice's early days to pass the time.  But only if you want to come, and not because your daddy said you had to."

"I really would like to go with you," Kerry said before blushing slightly.

I signaled the driver to proceed, then spent the next three hours exchanging stories about our youth.

Somewhere in Alabama, southeast of Columbus, there "be" an unmarked dirt road leading up to an old weathered sun beaten shack of a house.  An old white haired black gentleman sits rockin' on that there porch, with an old hound dog sleeping besides him and a shot gun laying across his lap.

Our car drove slowly by the front porch, and as the old man squinted to see through the darkened glass, I sensed another mind within the shack preparing a telepathic probe.

When the black woman initiated her probe, I quickly determined that it was innocent enough and allowed it through to Kerry's and the driver's mind.  She didn't attempt to probe me which was somewhat a disappoint.  It would have been easy enough to fake the probe's responses without her guessing her probe wasn't really getting through.

Hidden behind the old house was another dirt road leading into a dark and lush forest which quickly hid the old house from our view as was intended.

The road suddenly widened out and after one last turn Sheldon Cord's plantation spread out before us right out of the blue.

I felt like we had traveled back in time to the old South as the car traveled up the long straight road to the plantation house.  There were fields of corn, wheat, and cotton, gardens of vegetables, and orchards of fruit carefully laid out on both sides of the road, and immediately behind the main house there appeared to be a stable with a good number of horses fenced in beyond it.

And everywhere you looked, there were dark skinned shiny-with-sweat people attending the fields, gardens, and everything else.  There wasn't a single white man or woman to be seen.  Well... Except for Kerry and I, that is.

When the car finally drew to a stop at the main house, I wasn't really surprised by the line up of servants waiting for us.  At least nobody was nude, which was kind of a shock when I realized it, but I was too concerned about meeting our host to give it much thought.

The head man was a tall black man with just a touch of white showing up at the edges of his hair, and after introducing himself as Jessie, he explained the Master was out riding and would be back shortly.

I was somewhat relieved to have put off meeting this friend of my long dead grandfather, and agreed to being shown to our room to freshen up and get out of the summer heat.

While it was cooler inside, I quickly realized the building wasn't air- conditioned.  In fact as we were led up the winding staircase and down a hall, I noticed the unlit light fixtures on the walls were not electric, but were actually oil lanterns.

Our room was very elegant and spacious, and contained among other things, a bathing basin and a very large feather stuffed bed.

After making sure we were... uhm, happy with the room, Jessie left for only a minute before returning with a young black girl about eleven or so.

"Anna will attends gettin' your bath wata when yous ready, sah.  Just lets her know ahead a time so she can fills it up and lets it warm up.  Well wata can bes  awful cold, you knows."

"I can imagine," I said, trying not to show how uncomfortable this scene was to me.  I managed to smile at the girl before saying to her "I usually...  bathe before I go to bed.  Is that okay?"

The little girl said in the softest of voices, "Yes sah.  I be's fine with d'at."

Her voice was so...  Well, it wasn't the kind of thing I wanted to think about like that, but despite her trying to hide it by speaking softly, her voice was very low pitched and rough in a way that normally turns me on.  I couldn't help but wonder what she'd sound like in the heat of passionate sex when she got older.  But she was way too young for me right then.

Kerry and I were left alone for about twenty minutes, and during that time I changed into the coolest shirt I had brought while Kerry...  Well, she spent the time laying naked on the bed trying to stay cool.  It was more humid than I would have liked, but it wasn't unbearable to me like it was to her.  After living practically all of her life inside an air conditioned environment, Kerry was very sensitive to the humidity and wasn't about to make it worse by wearing clothes when she didn't have to.

A boy about eight delivered the message that I was to go to the stable, alone, to meet the Master Cord.  Shit, I couldn't believe how nervous I felt while I was walking towards the stables, and got kind of pissed off at myself for it which kind of helped.

I took a deep breath before opening the door, then walked in and didn't see anyone but a couple of horses in their stalls.

After letting out the breath I had been holding, I noticed a sort of scraping sound coming from the other end.

"Hello?" I said before making my way towards the noise and two sets of clusters of symbols.

"Here boy, take over for me," a strong deep voice said.

I was about to stutter something about what I was supposed to take over when a younger voice said, "Yes sah."

When the senior Cord opened the stall door they were in, our eyes met for an instant and my earlier feelings of intimidation flared to an all time high.

This man was anything but a frail old man.  His arms were thick with muscle tone and were connected to wide shoulders, his hair may have been whitening, but his face was still relatively young despite the weathered look from years of sun.  His chin was... chiseled I guess is the word.  Everything about him said he was powerful, confident, and totally in control of his life.

I don't remember moving to shake his hand, but I do remember his strong grip, and his probing eyes which he used to gauge my emotional state like a professional empath.

"Well at least you're not a cocky son of a bitch like your grandfather was," he said after releasing my hand.  "He wouldn't be here more than ten minutes before having half the women up in the guest room sucking or licking him."

"No, I'm not like that," I managed to say as I followed him back into the stall.

"You're not?  But I hear you brought one of my granddaughters with you."

"Her daddy wanted her to go with me, and I..."

"BOY!  Pay attention to what you're doing!" he snapped at the fourteen year old stable boy.  "You're brushing her the wrong way!"

"Sowy, Masta.  I won't do's it agean."

"Tell me, boy," he said to me.  "You like horses?"

"I guess I do.  But I really haven't had any pets."

"Pets!?  Boy, horses are not pets.  They are the finest animal on this here earth.  No other animal has worked harder for man, and we wouldn't be where we are today if it wasn't for this beautiful animal.  Now touch her coat.  She won't bite."

I hesitated only a moment before reaching out and petting the animal's front neck.  The mare's skin twitched slightly with the gentle contact I was giving it, but then the senior Cord grasped my hand with his leather like hand and forced my hand to rub it deeper.

"Just like Richard," he grunted after letting my hand go.  "Never done a good day's work in your life, have you boy.  My closet maidens have rougher skin on their hands than you."

I didn't respond for I didn't know what to say to that, so I just continued stroking the animals neck, finding it rather pleasant after all.

I could sense the mare was enjoying the brushing the stable boy was giving her, so looked around and spotted another brush and said, "May I?"

"There's hope for you yet, boy," he said after a nod.

"I've never really paid much attention to horses before," I admitted after getting the hang of brushing the mare's coat.  "But I can see what you mean about them being...  uhm, beautiful."

"Don't suck up, boy.  It doesn't go over well with me," he said flatly.

"No, really.  I've done a lot with birds, and I've checked out dogs and cats and a few squirrels, but I've never felt an animal so calm and trusting...  It's kind of beautiful that she can be like that."

"That's because we bred it into them.  They have the loyalty of a dog, the strength of ten men, and the grace of a fine woman in her prime."

"Yeah..." I said, kind of caught up in the emotions he was emitting.

The moment was interrupted however when Sheldon noticed the stable boy's prancing around as he brushed.

"Boy, if you have to pee, go pee!"

"Yes, sah.  Thank you sah!" the boy exclaimed as he set the brush down and hurried to the stable's door.

"Good girl, Jezebel," Sheldon said affectionately as he motioned to me we were going to leave.  "I'll have Wes finish you up then take back out to Rocko."

I watched in disbelief as the horse gave him a lick on the cheek, then turned away when he was about to return the kiss.  I imagine he only kissed her on the nose, but I really didn't want to find out.

Wes was just finishing up draining his lizard on some tall grass when we came out, and before he could tuck it back in, Sheldon yelled, "Here boy.  Let us take a look at you."

Wes somewhat bashfully walked over to us with his lizard hanging out of his trousers, then sucked in a big gasp of air when Sheldon grasped the thing and felt it and his nuts.

"How long you been squirtin', boy?" Sheldon asked after checking the size and shape of each of the boy's testicles.

"Sah?" the boy said as his flag pole finished inflating and just stood there waving in the wind.

"Answer my question, boy."

"T.t.two years now, masta," the boy said nervously.

"Your moma been helpin' you doing it?  Or one of your sisters?"

"Yes sah.  Momma does it when she can, sah, but Girtsy and Anna do's it every night for me."

"Boy, look me in the eyes and tell me...  You ever fuck a girl?"

He stared intently as he said, "No sah.  I never fucked a girl sah."

"You wanted to, right boy?"

"Yes sah.  Very badly sah.  But yous said I can't, so I don't, sah."

"That's right boy.  Now go on and finish Jezebel before taking her back out to Rocko."

"Yes sah," he said with relief.

"And boy..." Sheldon said after him.  "You can put your spurter away now."

"Yes sah," he said before the stable door slammed shut behind him.

Sheldon caught my questioning expression, then said, "That boy has some fine breedin' behind him.  Loyal, trusting, hard working, but stupid as a post.  I gave his pa the job of putting in a new well before I left to visit Chuck a few years ago, and by God that boy had it finished by the time I got back.  Worked himself so hard he grew ill and died on me.  I've got to breed some more smarts in to them before I get too old to watch over them."

I blurted out, "You sound like you're talking about your horses, not human beings."

"What?!" he laughed in disbelief.

"You heard me.  You care more about your horses than you do for these people.  I bet you shed tears when one of your mares dies, but you..."

"Boy, if you know what's good for you, you just hush up," he said with flames coming out of his mouth.

"Why?  I'm not afraid you.  I can see you for what you are now.  A bigot taking his bigotry to the extreme and... and..."

I stopped cold as my eyes noticed two horse back riders approaching from behind him...  two black nude... twins.

I didn't even hear his very loud response, but it didn't take long for him to notice where my attention was and I imagine he was grinning to himself as the two chocolate brown, dripping with sweat empaths dismounted their bareback horses and approached with that synchronized twin walk.

Shit, I was in hell.  My hormones were making my blood boil, my eyes were taking in every inch of their hot and sweaty female form, my dick was struggling to get out of my shorts, and then my nose caught the scent of their musk...  Oh God why do you tempt me so?

If the twins had even as much as hinted at something kinky, I would have been lost to the call of my lust.  But instead Sheldon gave them some kind of signal, and the next thing I knew I felt the all too familiar tingle of their call to Timmy the Toy Boy.

That snapped me out of my daze, and I was able to fight off their powerful call, but only barely.

"I'm impressed, Tim," Sheldon said moments after calling his girls off.  "Wendy must have taught you very well."

I found myself shaking from the drain it had been to fight off the twin's call, and didn't resist his suggestion to go sit down in a covered deck like area which looked out over the horse's running area.

"You even have your grandmother's eyes," Sheldon said gently after sitting down in the cushioned chair that had been rushed out to him by a couple of young men.

"Don't patronize me," I spat.  "I didn't come here to be tested by you or your...  Your twins."

"No...  You came here to learn about Richard, Wendy, and the coin, didn't you."

"Maybe.  Or maybe I was just honoring my host's request to visit his father.  But what I'd like to know now is what you wanted to see me for.  From what I gathered, you don't even invite your own son to your....  plantation.  So why did you invite me?  You're not stupid enough to think nobody would notice what changes your girls would make of my personality.  So why?"

"Its very simple, boy.  You're a God damn freak of nature.  Your voice breaks every rule in the book.  No bloodline has ever had more than three generations of voice, and the third was always weakest in the chain."

"So?  Have you ever considered I get it from both sides of my family?  Maybe being the third generation twice is..."

"You are the FOURTH generation, boy, and all the possible combinations have been tested over and over centuries ago.  So you didn't know that your great grandfather had voice.  I'm not surprised.  Your daddy never appreciated what it meant to be the grandson of one of the most powerful voices fighting in the civil war."

"Yeah?  Well I'm only the third generation on my mother's side," I countered while I tried not to think about which side my great grandfather must have fought on.

"Boy, you don't understand the inheritance principles of voice.  Only one of the parents can have voice, and only if the other has no trace of it in their blood line for ten generations will they have a child with voice."

"Then how does anyone get it in the first place?" I said after a moment of thought.

"It's a naturally reoccurring potential in about five percent of the human population, but that's only the potential.  Something has to awaken their voice, and about half of those go insane.  The second and third generation usually fair better then the first since they are usually given the guidance..."

"You mean brainwashing," I inserted.

"Damnit boy!  What Richard and I did was for the boys' own good.  We were both lucky enough to be taken in by Gladius when we discovered our voices, but there were no openings..."

"Gladius!" I said with panic.  "You were one of Gladius's..."

"The old Gladius, not the one you know of now.  Now wait just a damn minute!  You get your mind out of my head...." he said before I sent him into dreamland.

Wow!  Have you ever stuck a fork or something into an electrical outlet?  Well, that's pretty much how it felt when Sheldon's twins zapped me with their empathic punch.  I was dazed a moment, then discovered I was about to get mobbed by protective workers nearby.  Before I could throw out the blanket command I got zapped again, but I managed to save myself by waking their master up before passing out on the next zap.

I awoke in the limo alone, finding the vehicle already on the paved highway.  The moment I realized Kerry wasn't there, I made the driver stop and ordered him to take me back, but found that this driver wasn't the same who had brought me and didn't know where the place was.

After spending several hours trying to find my way back, I had the driver take me back to the Cain estate, hoping Sheldon wasn't the type to hurt his own granddaughter.

By the time I got there and explained three times what happened (once to Joey and Suzi, once to Candice, and then again to her father,) I was wiped out.  I slept like a log, and must have been really out of it for it wasn't until I was about to cum in Allison's mouth that I woke up.

I barely managed to stop it before it reached the point of no return, then I very angrily ordered Allison out which she did so while getting very upset.

"Shit, that was close..." I said just before jerking myself off to prevent myself from getting blue balls.

Joey, Suzi, and Candice were already gone by the time I got dressed, and I nearly crapped in my shorts when I found out it was already after ten in the morning.

I felt a little... self-conscious going down and getting breakfast all by myself, and afterwards I almost joined Mandy's little group of kids when I came across them and she waved.  But I wasn't really interested in getting down on all fours and playing zoo animals with them, so I kept moving and eventually got a little lost in the numerous halls and had to stop and ask for directions from an old man hobbling out of a room nearby.

"Eh?!  Speak up, sonny!" The old man said with a lisp.

"Could you tell me how to get back to the main hall?" I repeated out loud and by thought.

"Ahhh.... You must be the Grodmen boy," the man said brightly.  "Yes...  I can see it in your face," he said while looking closely at my face through his bifocals.  "Interesting...  Very interesting..."

"What?" I said, trying not inhale his rather potent breath.

"What's that?" he said while lifting up my right hand and studying it.

"I said, what is so interesting?"

"Eekgad!  What's the matter with you, boy?  You forget how to use your voice?"

"My voice?  Oh...  Uhm, well, it wouldn't be polite to..."

"Polite?!?" the old man hooted.  "Great Scott!  A voice with manners!  Now I've seen everything!"

The man crackled and hooted as he wobbled back and forth on his feet, and twice I moved to catch him when I thought he was going to hit the floor, but he somehow he caught his balance both times.

He then suddenly became very serious, and while he gasped for his breath he took off his glasses and wiped the lenses with a handkerchief before saying, "Allow me to introduce myself.  My name is Alfred Steinbruck, the world's greatest genealogist!"

"Ahh..." I said, trying to sound impressed... and failing.

"Don't tell me you never heard of me?!?" he said with amazement.  "Every voice in the country comes to me when they want to have a child with voice!"

"Really?  But Chuck already has kids with voice..."

"Ah yes, but I must keep records!  New births, confirmation of voice inheritance, new raw voices, and of course the mating of voices with mutes.  All must be recorded for the future generations, my boy.  It is a life's work which my family has been carrying on for three centuries now.  So many records, so many names...."

His voice echoed down the hall as he walked rather rickety yet very quickly towards the room which he had come from.  The room was a small library of sorts with three large tables covered with family trees, birth and death certificates, and some sort of portable computer was humming away on the messiest table of the three.

"What is your name, by the way?" he said with a sudden amount of excitement.  "Your full name please."

"Uhm, Timothy Jasper Brandton."

"Timothy Jasper...  Mind if I put you down as Grodmen?  It makes the tree much more symmetric..."

"You can put my little brother down as Richie Davis Grodmen, but my legal name is Timothy Jasper Brandton.  B r a n D T o n."

"Very well," he sighed as he finished pecking in my name.  "Brother...  Richie...  Richard rather...  Davis you said?  Ahh...  the paternal grandfather's name...

"Date of birth?" he queried.

I sighed, then started to uncover a chair which he immediately rushed to do for me so the documents would not get... misarranged.

"January seventeenth, nineteen seventy one.  And before you ask, Richie's was May twenty ninth nineteen eighty eight."

"Good, good...  Now your mother..."

"Samantha Helen Brandton, November eighteenth, nineteen fifty."

"Excellent.  You have other siblings?  Perhaps mutes?"

"Nope."

"Come now...  You may not like to admit their existence, but I must record them..."

"I was an only child until Richie was born," I said firmly.

"I see..." he said while typing in a question mark into a field on his screen.  "Now what about your mother...  any siblings there?"

"Nope."

"Hmmm...  Is she currently your father's slave, or yours?"

"Neither!" I said with distaste.

"Is she immune to voice?" he asked with surprise.

"No... She has voice," I said, smiling at what I suspected would be his response.

"Do you think this a game, young man?  Do you have any idea the importance of having accurate records of..."

I looked in his eyes and said, "She has voice."

"But that's..." he said weakly from feeling the truthfulness of my words.

"Sheldon called me a freak of nature," I said, giving him a moment to recompose himself by examining some of the family trees laying on the table in front of me.  "I don't understand why a child of second and third generation voices couldn't have voice himself."

"What?" he said hoarsely before turning and rummaging through a stack of papers on the corner of the table farthest from me.

"Good Lord!" he exclaimed after holding one sheet out to the light.  "But this is impossible!  Oh dear..."

"What?" I said, looking up from the incredibly wide branching tree of the Cord's family.

"Child....  I don't know how to tell you this..." he said with great anguish.

"What?" I said with just a twinge of concern entering my gut.

"You...  are not...  That is, your mother and father could not have had..."

"Wait...  Are you trying to tell me my mom and dad are not my real parents?  Because if you are, you're nuts."

"I know this must me hard for you to accept, but the evidence is very clear to me..."

"Evidence?  What evidence?  These?" I said waving my hand over the document covered tables.  "You said yourself you could see my dad in my face.  And I am 101% sure I'm my mom's flesh and blood.  I've seen her memories of my birth, for pete's sake!"

"Even so, you can not..." he rambled on as I suddenly caught the sight of a familiar name on one of those trees.

"Mr. Steinbruck, what exactly are you here for?  I can't believe all of this mess is just for updating a few records about the younger Cords."

"I fear you are not taking me seriously.  You must be made to understand..."

"Look!  I'm sorry if my genes don't match up for your records, but I AM who I AM!  Now tell me what you are doing here, and why you have THIS!" I said with my voice just barely cracking in emphasis as I held out the carefully drawn newly constructed Roberts tree.

Alfred paused a moment before letting out a huff of stretched patience and peered through his bifocals at the page in question.

"I already told you...  I'm here to update my records on new births, voice inheritance, and matings between voices and mutes," he said with an added tone of stretched patience.

"And this one is?"

He looked at it again, then said, "I was investigating the candidacy for a possible mate for one of Cord's girls.  This particular one had some rather... unique physical traits which Mr. Cord was interested in adding to his blood line.  I haven't finished my analysis, but my tentative findings are encouraging.  A few minor...  adjustments would probably have to be made, but over all..."

"Adjustments, huh?" I said, seeing how accustomed he was to the practices of his... clients.

Despite his constant attempts to prove I was not related to my parents, I spent the entire afternoon learning about the bloodlines of voices and explored my family tree on my father's side as far back as I could.

Wendy, my dad's mother, had the most remarkable and complete tree of what I saw that day.  Not only did it record all of her ancestors for twelve generations, but all of her masters, including my father where on his thirteenth birthday he became her ninth and final master.

Alfred's experience in discussing the complexities of voice inheritance was very apparent in his patience and well structured explanations.  I suppose we both lost track of time for we were suddenly interrupted by one of the in-house security guards radioing in that he had found me.

"Uhm, I guess I better go," I said when I sensed that my disappearance had been somewhat of a scandal.  "Thank you very much for your time.  I've learned a lot."

"Before you go..." Alfred said while digging around the table a moment, then pulling out a leather briefcase and opening it.

"Please take my card with you and call my family's office for an appointment.  We must get your birthright straightened out."

"Yeah, okay.  I'll do that."

"And just so you remember," he said, rolling up my grandmother's tree.  "Take this too."

"I can't take this," I said, sensing how fond he was of it.

"Oh but you must.  If not for yourself, then for your father.  Don't worry.  This is just a copy."

I accepted the gift and thanked him, then after a friendly handshake I left with the guard to go to the security compound.

After they logged my explanation of my whereabouts, I was escorted to my room where Allison was watching TV on my bed.

"Daddy said I'm not to leave your room until I make it up to you for what I did," she explained after jumping up, snapping off the TV and turning crimson red.

"You don't have to make anything up to me," I said sitting down on the bed and patting the spot next to me.  "I over reacted, and I'm sorry for yelling at you."

"But...  You like Kerry the best, and I..."

"I would have done the same thing if it had been Kerry and not you," I said.

"I don't understand."

"For some people, sex is something which should be only shared with only the one person you want to be with the rest of your life.  I thought I had found that person, and she believed in this very strongly.  She left me, but I want to save whatever I have left for whoever I do spend the rest of my life with.  Do you understand?"

"No..."

"I didn't think you would," I sighed, then thought of something else.  "Just think of me being like Candice."

"Candice?"

"Yeah.  She hasn't had sex with anyone yet, right?"

"But she's a girl..."

"So?  Can't a guy save himself for the right girl too?"

"Why would you want to?  You could have any girl with your voice."

"No, not any girl.  There are some people in the world who can't be touched by voice."

"If you're afraid she might find out, I won't tell anyone, I swear.  You can make me forget, or..."

"That's not it.  I'll remember, and that's..."

"Please?" she said, starting to slip off her t-shirt.  "Daddy said..."

"I'll give you a choice.  You can either keep stripping and find yourself outside my locked door, or you can stay here and watch TV with me until Candice and the rest get back."

She blushed a bit before pulling her shirt back down and saying, "You won't say anything about the TV, will you?"

"What TV?" I said while stepping past her and turning it on only to find it on a evening soap opera.

I plopped myself down on the bed beside her, then laid back to watch the TV with my head on a pillow.

I have to admit Allison was pretty good to look at.  She was laying on her stomach holding her head up with her arms while her legs went up and down, up and down behind her.  She wasn't intentionally doing it, but she was giving me some lovely glimpses down her short legs, and even though I had already blew my load earlier that day, I was getting damn hot from it all.

Luckily she was too glued to the screen to notice my weakened state, and after a while I got tired of all the stress and fell asleep.

I awoke to sounds of my stomach rumbling, and Allison happily went with me to get some dinner which she insisted she should feed to me.  After eating with the same fork and spoon, touching each other in innocent and not so innocent ways, I guess you could say my resolution to not let anything happen was a bit worn down by the time we finished and went back to my room.

I told myself I wasn't going to fuck, and told Allison the same thing too when I suggested we try out the hot tub together.  Well, she was all for that, and I guess I let her get away with more than I should, for it wasn't ten minutes later that she was giving me a hand job while I teased her nipples with my tongue.

Luckily for me, Mandy decided to join us in the hot tub just about then, and even though they both tried to talk me into doing it some more, I wasn't about to with a six year old watching close up.

I got out of there pretty quickly and went back to my room alone to jerk off again. 

The next morning, I snuck into Joey's and Suzi's bed and surprised them with a good morning hug and tickling contest.  Shit, was I sorry I started the tickling thing.  They ganged up on me and had me in tears before letting me go.

But all was forgiven when Suzi suggested that Joey and I go out and explore Atlanta together that day.  I was really not looking forward to spending another day in that house of temptation, especially after Allison just so happened to walk by my room naked before I had gone to wake Joey and Suzi up.

Since Joey had gone to the Six Flags amusement park the day before, we tried to find some other things to do like visiting the zoo and checking out Martin Luther Jr.'s birthplace.  But by three in the afternoon, I didn't argue a bit when Joey suggested we go, and we were there until they closed at midnight having the best time together since...  Well...  So long we couldn't remember.

There was a sort of party going on in the parking lot, and because we didn't want to end our night out together so soon, Joey and I joined the fun.

Suzi was pissed when we got back around four in the morning.  We both had drank a little, I having drank a half a beer before deciding I really didn't like the stuff, and Joey had nursed one the whole time without ever finishing it.  I mention this because Joey ended up sleeping with me after burping in bed and Suzi getting a whiff.

As you might expect, Joey and I slept in the next morning.  I wasn't surprised to find that Suzi had left without Joey, but Joey seemed worried about it and wouldn't give me a positive answer about us going out again that day.

It wasn't long after getting ourselves something to eat that one of the early teen Cord girls came to tell me Kerry was back.

"I think you like her," Joey teased as we hurried to the huge harem chamber.  "You haven't been this anxious to see someone since..."

"Since?" I asked when he didn't finish his sentence.

"Never mind," he said as we were stopped by the security outside the chamber's entrance.

After only a brief delay, we were allowed in, but after seeing who was with Kerry, I turned right around and left before anyone saw me.

Joey came running after me several moments later saying, "Where you going?"

"Anywhere but in there," I said firmly.

"Why?" Joey said, catching me by my arm and bringing me to a halt.

"What do you mean, why?  You had to have seen the black twins standing there."

"Yeah, but...  Don't tell me you're scared of them!"

"Scared?!" I spat.  "Don't make me laugh."

"Then what the fuck are you running away for?"

"I'm not running, I'm choosing my ground."

"Your ground...."

"Yeah.  I'd rather he come to me than the other way around."

"Uhm, so how's this spot?" he said just before I noticed we were no longer alone.

"Tim, why did you leave?" Kerry said walking up to us.

"I didn't leave.  I was thrown out.  Are you okay?"

"I'm fine," Kerry said before looking over her shoulder at her grandfather a moment, then turned back towards me with a fading smile on her lips.

"Of course she's fine!" Sheldon crooned as he walked up and put a more than friendly arm behind her back.  "Why wouldn't she be?"

"Well," I said with a slight edge to my voice. "Seeing as she had come down with me, but wasn't in the limo after I woke up, I was a little worried as to the reason why."

"Well you can just stop your worryin'.  I was enjoyin' my granddaughter's company too much to send her back so quickly..."

"I bet you were," I said without reservation.

"Tim..." Joey said worriedly. 

"Kerry my dear, would you show my girls where we be staying tonight?  I have some unfinished business with our young master Tim he'ah."

"Yes, Granddaddy," Kerry said uncertainly.

"Now you alls get," Sheldon said when his two faithful companions didn't move to follow her.  "I said, GO!"

With a momentary questioning glance at their master's face, the two black beauties turned and followed the uncertain girl back to the harem without looking back.

"Just because you called off your watch dogs doesn't..." I began.

"Now look he'ah sah!  I've had just about enough of your disrespectful tongue wagging.  If you had any smarts about you, you would realize I wouldn't come all this way just to butt heads with you again.  And you wouldn't have come back as you did if I had meant to do you harm."

"Then just what are you here for?" I said after feeling him out and found he was speaking the truth for the most part.

He glanced over at Joey, then before he could respond, Joey said, "I think I'll just go and check to see if Suzi..."

"No you're not," I said, this time grabbing his arm and forcing him to stay put.

I looked Sheldon in the eyes and said, "I'll just tell him afterwards, so there's not much point of him not hearing it in the first place."

"You wouldn't if it endangered him to know such things," he said with earnestly.

Despite distrusting his motivations, I sensed the truth in his words and understood exactly what he meant.

"Now wait a minute," Joey said when he saw I had changed my mind.  "If it would endanger me, then it will endanger you too.  Maybe we all better not hear what he has to say."

"Joey," I sighed before looking him in the eyes and saying, "I don't think anything he has to say will put me in any more... danger than I am already in, not that I really think I am.  I promise, if there's any way you can help me by knowing whatever it is, I'll tell you, okay?"

"Promise?"

"Yeah, I said I promise."

"All right.  Just don't take all afternoon arguing over stupid stuff...  Get to the point and get it over with.  Got it?"

"Yeah, I got it," I said.

"Got it?" Joey said firmly while looking at Sheldon.

"Yes, sah!"  Sheldon responded with a humorous two fingered salute.

"Good," Joey said with a slight grin.  "Carry on then."

"So that was the boy wonder whom you share your voice with," Sheldon said once Joey was out of hearing range.

"Boy wonder?" I asked.

"What else would you call a being whom can tap the power of a voice and share it with others?"

"A pirate?" I said with a smirk.

Sheldon chuckled slightly, then became extremely serious and looked up at the ceiling to say, "Damn your luck, Richard.  Damn your luck."

When he looked back at my stunned expression, he simply said, "My parlor is this way," and started walking down the hall.

I followed him in silence while I considered not what it was he felt he must tell me, but why.  I almost walked right into him when he stopped at an elevator, and for a moment I could sense the...  commitment he felt about what he was planning on telling me.

"You're nothing like Richard," he said after the doors closed and we began to rise.  "I expect you're pleased to hear that."

"I guess," I said, stupidly feeling a bit guilty about it.

"He was a selfish bastard.  Didn't give a damn about other people or any other living thing.  To him life was just one big game.  He never had to work to get anything, never appreciated anything he had of value, but never let anything of his go without making it more trouble than it was worth."

"I thought you two were good friends?"

"Friends?!  I hated the man.  But I can see why people would say that.  Once I understood him, I found I could trust him."

"Trust him?" I said as we stepped out of the elevator and entered a sort of sitting room on the top floor overlooking the harem chamber.

"There aren't many people a voice can truly trust without having control over them, boy.  Richard was a greedy child wanting to have all the toys, but like all children he found it was much more fun to play with the toys with someone else than by your lonesome."

We each took a seat and took in the scene below before I looked over at him and asked "So you were playmates?"

"Playmates, partners, competitors, co-conspirators.  We spent five years watching each other's back, helping each other to gain what we wanted, and sharing in our conquests while working as slaves ourselves in Venezuela."

"Gladius," I said under my breath while raising my defenses instinctively.

"As I tried to tell you before, the Gladius you know is the son of the Gladius I spent five years working for and learning from.  I know what that son of a bitch tried to do to you, and his old man would have castrated him for it if he was still alive.  As long as I had known him he never used his girls like that."

"My grandmother wouldn't agree with you, and she should know better than anyone."

"So she did tell you something," he said, looking me in the eyes.

"She told me enough that I wouldn't trust your Gladius anymore than my Gladius."

"Wendy?" he said in disbelief.  "What did she say, boy?  You must have misunderstood her."

"I didn't misunderstand her, and I swore to her to never tell."

"Tim," he said with a new urgency to his voice.  "Your grandmother meant a great deal to me.  I met her my second day working for Gladius, and she was the most beautiful creature I had ever seen in my short life.  You ever experience love at first sight boy?"

I swallowed nervously before saying, "Yes, I have."

"She was the forbidden fruit in my garden of Eden.  I adored her from afar for nearly a year before getting the nerve to simply talk to her, then spent another two years just being her friend while resisting making anything more of it.  Then one day I accidentally saw Gladius and her having sex, and afterwards she knew something was bothering me.  I don't remember who told who first, but we told each other we loved each other, and almost had sex right there if she hadn't stopped us.  She always stopped us from going too far, her loyalty to her grandfather was absolute, even after he sold her a few months later."

"You seem to be pretty loyal to him yourself for what he did to you indirectly."

"I didn't blame him for anything, boy.  I understood his reasons, and above all I believed in him, just as Wendy did.  For six years after I left Gladius, I worked to get enough resources to buy her for myself.  She was very valuable because of her breeding..."

"No voices in her family tree for twelve generations," I commented.

"Sounds like you've been talking to Wayne."

"No, some old guy name Alfred.  Who's Wayne?"

"Wayne's Alfred's son.  Alfred was here?  I thought he retired."

"Doesn't look like it.  Although I think he almost retired permanently when I pointed out I was a fourth generation voice."

"I bet he did," Sheldon chucked.  "Probably couldn't accept you being Richard's grandson."

"Yeah.  He kept trying to convince me I was adopted or something.  Especially with my mom having voice to."

"Now you understand my reason's for wanting to meet you."

"Yeah, I guess.  I don't understand why you wouldn't make the same assumption as Alfred though."

"You mean you not being Charlie's boy?  Oh, I believe you are.  No doubt in my mind.  Richard always had the damnedest of luck."

"Luck?  You believe it's all luck?"

"Believe?  I don't just believe it!  I fuckin' have proof!" he shouted.  "Six men including myself did everything they could to get your grandmother pregnant, then Richard fucks her once and nine months later Charlie was born..."

Sheldon suddenly lightened up and chuckled before saying, "The bastard considered it to have been bad luck.  He never wanted to have children, and after all the attempts of getting Wendy pregnant failed before him, he didn't take any precautions."

"Chuck said you lost her in a card game?  If Richard always had such good luck, why did you bet her?"

"Liquor, foolish pride, and a stroke of winning hands made me feel pretty cocky.  That and the fact that through the years of being the fuck toy of other men, Wendy had lost her spirit.  She was a different person, and I suppose so was I.  But when I lost her to Richard, I found I couldn't let her go."

"And that's when you bet the coin," I said.

"Damn his luck," he said again while ironically looking out at his grandchildren.

"You mean damn my luck," I said.  "I mean, I'm the freak of nature.  I'm the one with the wonder boy as my best friend.  I'm the one who inherited the coin.  Speaking of the coin, where did you get it?  I've always wondered where it came from."

"Found it on the street when I was a boy," he simply said.  "Never showed it to anyone until I discovered my voice.  I knew it was something special, but I didn't know why until I let Richard hold it and we figured it out."

I suddenly noticed Sheldon's twins on their knees surrounded by a circle of male grandchildren, and it took me a moment to realize they were giving out blow jobs.

I looked over at Sheldon a moment, and it was obvious we had reached the somewhat dangerous part of our conversation.

We both went back to watching the women as they worked, bringing each boy to their knees in pairs, then stopping and going to the next before they could cum.  They worked steadily for over a half hour before all eight boys were all sprawled out around them, completely under their spell. From the 22 year old man cock to the three year old pencil, all were at attention and waiting for whatever the girls wished to do next.

"Do you recall the Tiananmen Square massacre?"

"You mean when China's army went in and killed a bunch of students while they were all protesting a couple of months ago?  Yeah, how could I forget?"

"What would you have done if you had been there?"

"I would have stopped them," I said very loudly.

"And what would you have done then, Tim?  Turned the army around and had them overthrow the Chinese government?"

"I wouldn't have gone that far, but...  I don't know.  I just wouldn't have let all those people die for standing up for themselves."

"So you would have simply prevented the deaths and nothing else?"

"Yeah, if I could.  Why?"

"If those people hadn't died, we wouldn't be talking about it right now.  The rest of the world would not have felt that slap in the face.  A single voice could have prevented a natural moment of history from taking place.  You understand the importance of history, boy?"

"History: If man does not learn of the mistakes he has committed throughout the past, he is destined to repeat them," I quoted.

"The history books do not mention the parts voices have played in our history.  The Salem witch hunts were triggered by a voice who didn't understand what voice was.  There have been many other instances where a voice is discovered and caused a panic, but the other voices of the time cover it up or completely erase the event from the minds of the mutes involved.  But by doing so we lose those lessons and so we repeat them over and over again."

"So we have the Cabal to thank for cleaning up our messes?"

"The Cabal are only one of several secret organization of voices.  But they only take care of the little threats.  They are not prepared to take on the greater threats which have been also been left out of the history books."

"Greater threats?" I echoed.

"Just imagine what it would be like if someone put together an army of voices to take over the world.  In the past voices were always limited by their geological location.  Take the Roman and Greek gods for example."

"They were voices?"

"It took over a century before all of their children's children died and left no further heirs with voice, and we don't really understand why other voices didn't take their place after that.  If there ever is another voice uprising, the human race will most like end in the largest bloodiest war in our history.

"That is what they are here for," he said softly, indicating his two sucking pets.  "No male can resist the temptation they represent.  If an army of voices ever do appear, one by one the males will be seeded, and when the moment is right they will turn against any female accomplices and end the threat."

"How do you know all this," I said after a few moments to reflect.  "I mean, the more people who know about it the less likely it will work."

"No one can force this information from me without killing me, and I have never told another soul until this very moment.  Your father and I were conditioned by Gladius's head twins before we were made the soul masters of our twins.  You appear to be a threat to Gladius's son because you broke your father's twin's bond to him.  You are a voice with the empathic skills, but you are not invulnerable to another voice's control.  And as I had suspected before meeting you, you are able to resist the twin's power.  I may disagree on his methods, but I believe he was right that the safest place for a threat such as yourself would be right where Gladius could keep an eye on you and protect you from falling under another's control."

"So that's what this is all about?"  I said slowly.  "You want me to.... go down to Venezuela and hide for the rest of my life??"

"Others would prefer to simply...  eliminate the threat all together, but I feel I owe it to your grandmother to see if I can make you see reason..."

"Are you saying I'm in danger of being... assassinated?" I said, standing up.

"Now that's not what I said!"

"Well it sure sounded like it to me.  I appreciate what all you've told me, and I swear I won't repeat it to anyone, but I think I've heard all I want to hear.  Good bye, Sah..."

"Tim!" he yelled after me as I left the room and didn't look back.  "God Damn it, boy!  I'm warnin' ya!  If history does repeat itself, I'll come after you myself!  And I won't be comin' to protect you!  You hear me boy?!"

"Fuck!" I spat as the elevator doors closed behind me.  "Just what I fucking needed!"

I started calming down as I made my way back to my room, having decided to pack my things and leave with Joey and Suzi as soon as I could.

As I entered the hall leading to my room, Joey found me and immediately said, "You look pissed.  What happened?"

"He just threatened to kill me after telling me his life's story, that's all," I growled.

"Kill you?  Why?"

I stopped and turned to face Joey, laid my hands on his shoulders, looked deep into his eyes and said, "I can't tell you that, or anything else he said.  But Joey?  If I ever disappear, die again, or... or supposedly run away or something, you'll know where I'll really be."

I could see the confusion in his eyes clear just before he softly asked, "Venezuela?"

"Si amigo.  Venezuela."

"You mean old man Cord and Gladius are..."

"I can't talk about it, Joey.  Trust me.  You don't want to know anyway."

"Shit, Tim.  Then what do I do if you do disappear?  Come after you?"

"I don't know Joey.  If you think you can trust him, you probably should go to my dad.  Uhm, I don't want to sound paranoid, but whatever you do, be careful.  Don't trust anyone unless you know they're themselves, you know?"

"Shit...  Now I am worried," he said, looking down at his feet

I grinned and rubbed my hand over his crew cut a couple times, then said, "Yeah, well...  Don't worry about it unless something weird happens to me.  And I kind of doubt Sheldon will have to come after me with a shot gun.  I'll be long gone by that time."

"If you say so..." Joey said as I let go of his shoulder and we started walking again.  "Since we're not in danger right now, and Suzi isn't back yet, why don't we go find a barber joint and get that hair cut off of your head."

"Damn, I thought you might have forgotten about that," I said with a grin.

"Shit, I'd scalp you myself, but then you'd be so messed up you couldn't hang around me and Suzi."

"Heh.  Thanks a lot."

"No problem.  Any time."

I gave in and got a buzz job like Joey's, then we spent ten bucks in an arcade across the street from the hair cutting place before heading back to the estate to have our last dinner at the Cord estate.

When we got back to Joey's and Suzi's room, we immediately knew something was wrong just from the way Suzi said, "Hi."

"You have a headache?" Joey asked testingly.

"No, nothing like that," she said while sitting down on her bed with a sigh.  "I'm still not sure about leaving Eric like this."

"Well, you're the one who's spent all five days with him," I said, giving her a kiss on the top of her head and sitting down next to her.  "Is he happy the way he is now?"

"That's just it.  The first couple of days I _wanted_ to see him...  I don't know...  blanking out or... something that would make it right to undo what Candice did to him.  But that day at six flags I gave up because... he _was_ happy, and he didn't seem to be missing anything."

"I think you just don't want to leave him yet," I said while watching Joey starting to pack some of their stuff.

"No, it's not that.  Yesterday, when Joey didn't come with us?  Eric...  he seemed aggravated about Joey spending the day with you.  All day long he made fun of what you and Joey might be doing, and it was just so...  Unlike Eric."

"Why didn't you say something last night?" I asked with concern.

"Yeah Suz," Joey said somewhat stunned, having stopped his packing a moment and was standing there with a couple of Suzi's bras hanging from his hand.

"I didn't expect you two to stay out all night drinking!" Suzi said with frustration.  "I kept waiting and waiting for you to get back so I could talk about it, and I guess I got so mad that I forgot."

"Sorry," I said, giving her a kiss on the cheek.

"Yeah, I'm sorry to, mistress," Joey said, sitting down on the other side of her and giving her a kiss on her other cheek.

"Well, I'm not mad anymore.  I'm just...  worried," Suzi said, reaching over and taking the bras from Joey to fold up right.  "He was a lot worse today.  It's like he's the opposite of what he was.  Everything we said ended with a slander against homosexuals from him, and once..."

Suzi paused to wipe her eyes and nose with one of the bras before saying, "We were having lunch at this little sub sandwich place, and he kept going on and on about the two guys behind the counter being gay.  They weren't, and Candice and I kept trying to tell him that, but...  He embarrassed himself and us by..."

"I think its time to go talk to Candice," I said, standing up.

"Don't you want to know what he did?"

"Not really," I said opening the door.  "You coming?"

"Could you wait a minute?  I need to...  You know," she said, taking the tissues Joey handed to her and blew her nose.

"All right, but hurry up.  We're supposed to have dinner in fifteen minutes, and I don't really want to talk about this at the table, do you?"

"Uhm, you're not planning to go to dinner dressed in your street clothes are ya?" Joey asked.

"Shit.  I guess it will have to wait until AFTER dinner," I groaned.  "Uhm, I'll be uhh...  getting dressed," I said before shutting the door behind me and doing just that.

I met them at their door dressed in my snow white tux, then we started walking to the dinning hall together after exchanging compliments on how we all looked.

"Why do I have the feeling this is going to be a very long dinner," Suzi said, breaking an extended period of silence during our walk.

"You think he'll be there?" Joey asked me.

"Probably," I sighed.

"Who?" Suzi asked.

"Yep, it'll be a really long dinner then," Joey said.

"Who will be there?"

"Candice's granddaddy," Joey answered.

"What'd he do?"

Joey and I just looked at each other, then I looked at her and began with, "Trust me," before Joey joined me in saying, "You don't want to know."

"Oh," Suzi said with a frown.

We walked in silence for another minute or two before Joey asked me, "Are you sure this is the right way?"

"I don't know," I said surprised.  "I was just going wherever you were going."

"Uh, so was I," Joey said.

Suzi sighed, then wet her right index finger and stuck it up in the air a moment before saying, "This way," and headed down a hall to our left.

"Do you think she really knows?" I asked Joey as we hurried to catch up with her.

"Does it matter?" Joey said.

"Heh.  I guess not," I said with a grin.

Ten minutes later, after only having to back track once, we finally arrived at the back door to the dinning hall.  We stood there another minute listening to the chatter inside, then made our entrance with the words, "Sorry... We uhh.. got lost."

After settling into our seats, I had to divert my eyes to keep Sheldon from catching me staring at him sitting by Kerry in the lower ranks.  My attention was somewhat divided between explaining to Chuck what all we had planned for our trip to England and watching Kerry and Sheldon talking and joking and carrying on like a pair of...

"Lovers," I accidentally said out loud.

"Excuse me?" Chuck said while wiping his mouth with a cloth napkin.

"Uhh...  Nothing.  Sorry," I said while turning a bit red.

"You didn't get emotionally attached to Kerry, did you?" Chuck asked quietly.

"Huh?  Uhm, no not...  Well, maybe a little."

"She still has that... spirit, doesn't she?"

"Spirit?"

"Yes.  Like every time is her first time.  I wasn't a bit surprised you picked her over the others.  She has the nicest ass of all my girls.  Knowing how fond Charlie was of her ass, I just knew you'd favor her too."

"My dad fucked her ass?" I choked out.

"A couple of years ago.  Kerry had just come of age, so I invited him over for her first fucking party.  I'd never seen anyone wear Charlie out like that."

"Wow," I said under my breath before taking a big bite of my food.

Candice was keeping a tight lip, and other than Sheldon and myself avoiding eye contact, the dinner went pretty well all things considered.  Joey somehow managed to get Suzi and the oldest Cord girl Darlene talking about sexy clothing, and I think he kind of enjoyed listening to them as they gave away all their secrets on how to catch a guy's eye.

One time during the meal, I noticed Jim staring at Kerry as she fed Sheldon a spoonful of the frozen fruit salad, and if my empathic senses hadn't told me he was feeling rather jealous, I would have probably scanned him without thinking, which would have drawn Candice's and Chuck's attention like a bulls eye on his head.

If it hadn't been a possessive jealousy, I probably would have said something to him to let him know he wasn't alone.  But his emotions were entirely self- centered, and I reasoned his thoughts were probably about not wanting to give up his other bedmate or something like that.

After desert, Sheldon stood up and announced, "Well son, it's time for me to head back now."

There was a chorus of awwws, the guys' being the loudest, but he ignored them as he looked me in the eye and said, "It was nice meeting you, Master Timothy.  I hope you learned somethin' from our talk."

"I did...  Thank you," I replied with an even voice as Kerry stood up to go with him.

"Kerry?  You haven't been excused from the table yet," Chuck warned her.

"But..." she said, reaching to take a hold of Sheldon's arm.

"Kerry my sweet, your place is here with your brothers and sisters," Sheldon said firmly while untangling her hands from his left arm.

"But granddaddy..." Kerry said emotionally.  "Can't I go with you?"

"NO!" Candice objected immediately.  "You can't go."

"Please daddy?" Kerry said with tears in her eyes.  "I love him, daddy.  Please?"

"Kerry, don't make this harder than it already is," Sheldon said firmly, yet not authoritatively like before.  "I'll come visit you as much as I can, but you can't leave your home just to be with an old man like me."

"You're not an old man," she said with tears falling from her eyes.  "You're strong, but so very gentle....  You're so powerful, but you only use it to keep order...  And you're lonely.  You're so lonely.  Please DADDY?!?  He needs me daddy?  Please?"

"No daddy," Candice said, this time pleading instead of ordering.

Chuck sighed, called Kerry over to him, then wiped some of his daughter's tears away with his cloth napkin as she waited for his response.

"You tired of your brothers' fucking?" Chuck asked once he laid his napkin down.

"I...  No, sah."

"Have you thought about who would take over for you if you left?"

"No, sah," Kerry said, hanging her head.

"Have you considered what would happen to your mother if you left us?"

"Momma could...  Could move in with Jim?"

"You trust your mother with him?" Chuck said with surprise.

"Jimmy fucks just like you, daddy.  I think momma would like being with Jim."

"Daddy," Candice interrupted.  "_I_ don't want her to go."

"Shut up, Candice!" Kerry said emotionally.  "You're the one who's always tellin' me to think for myself and not to want to do whatever I'm told to do.  This is what I want.  I want to be my own person, and have my own man.  I thought you would be happy for me...."

"Kerry, don't talk to your sister like that," Chuck scolded her.  "And Candice, I'm her daddy, not you.  It's my decision, not yours."

"But daddy," Candice whined.

"Hush girl!" Chuck said with a warning glance before looking over at his father and saying, "Well daddy?  Do you want her?"

"I would, if I knew she'd be happy down there."

"I'll be happy," Kerry pleaded.  "I'll be with you."

"Kerry my darlin', I know you say so now, but...  If you comes with me, I will expects you to dress like a lady all the time, not just for a few hours like yesterday."

"I'll dress like a lady.  I promise, granddaddy."

"And no sex with any of my boys.  Even ifs I don't give you any for weeks on end."

"I... I...  I promise," Kerry said weakly.

"Well then, I suppose I'd be willin' to have her."

"Daddy?"  Kerry said, turning back to her father for his decision.

Kerry rushed to fill Chuck's arms when he opened them to her, then gave her daddy a wet tonguey kiss as he slid his hands beneath her dress and apparently fondled her ass vigorously.

"You know your granddaddy doesn't appreciate a fine ass like yours," Chuck said a little breathless while Kerry straddled him and smiled as she slowly sank down to his lap.

"I'll miss my daddy's lap something awful," she said softly.

"And I will miss your smilin' face even more," Chuck said before Kerry rose up slowly and then sank down just as slowly as before.

"Shit, he's fucking her ass, isn't he," Joey whispered with a touch of disgust.

I only nodded as the entire Cord family watched with partial interest as Kerry started working up her speed on her daddy's lap.

Candice left the room without saying a word, and I would have followed if Suzi hadn't have stopped me.

"What?"

"Eric's here.  She left to go meet him."

"How do you know?" I said surprised and a little suspicious.

Suzi looked over the wall to our right with unfocused eyes and said, "I felt him, okay?"

"Oh," I said a little hurt that she could feel him when he was nearby when I couldn't.

"I've spent the last five days with him, remember?"  Suzi said gently just before Kerry and her father came to a rather noisy climax.

I guess we should have expected it, but when the table broke out in cheers and clapping, the three of us looked around clueless to what they were applauding for until Kerry stepped down from her father's lap and used his napkin to wipe her ass.

"She's all yours, daddy," Chuck said out of breath as he apparently stuffed his cock into his pants from under the cover of the table cloth.

"Well then, lets get you dressed up right before we go," Sheldon said, accepting her arms wrapping themselves around his left one.

"You're all excused," Chuck said in a tired voice.

Joey, Suzi and I watched as everyone else at the table got up and congratulated their sister while Chuck left with two of the more busty waitresses.

Chuck had just walked out the door when Candice burst through them saying "Tim, Eric wants to ta... talk to you."

The expression on her face made me jump out of my chair and run past her before she could even catch her breath from speaking, but then when I realized I didn't know where to go, I turned around and ran right into her as she came around the corner after me.

"Where?" I thought to her.

"Follow me," she thought back to me just as Suzi and Joey caught up with us.

I followed behind her as patiently as I could until I felt him, then sped past her and took a left towards where I felt he was.

"Tim!  Not that way!" Candice yelled out just as I found it was a dead end.

"Shit," I spat as I turned and ran to catch up with them.

When I finally got to the door where Eric was waiting behind, Candice said between gasps, "If you have to do it..."

"I'll tell him why," I gasped, seeing the fear in her eyes.

I opened the door and was startled to find the lights off.

"Don't turn them on.  It's...  Better this way," Eric said, his voice filled with stress.

"All right," I said, closing the door behind me, sending the room into complete blackness to my eyes.

"Something is wrong with me, and it has something to do with you," Eric stated.

"Why do you say that?"

"Because ever since I fucking looked in your eyes, I've been fighting something I can't even remember.  What did you do to me?"

"I didn't do anything to you, Eric.  I only tried to feel you out."

"Feel me out," he said with distaste.  "You mean feel me up, don't you?"

I ignored the remark and said, "Eric, what exactly are you feeling right now?  If you won't let me feel you out, then at least tell me what you're feeling."

"I feel...  Fucking confused, that's how I feel!  How would you feel if someone's been messing with your head, putting thoughts in your mind that aren't yours?"

"What kind of thoughts?"

"You know what kind of thoughts!  Faggy thoughts!  Guys fucking guys, kissing guys, sucking guys...  I want it to stop!  It's driving me NUTS!"

"Eric, listen to me.  I know you think you've never had these thoughts before..."

"You're damn right I haven't!"

My eyes were getting used to the light, but then I didn't need the light to see the symbols buzzing around his head like angry bees.  There were streams literally colliding into each other, rippling out and disrupting others in a way I had never seen before.  I couldn't make much sense of it all, but I knew it wasn't normal and had to be the source of his confusion and strong emotions.

"So you think I put these thoughts in your head?"

"Yes," he said between gritted teeth.

"Why?"

"Why?  I don't fucking know why!"

"Eric, who am I?"

"What?  I... I don't...  I don't know."

"You don't believe I'm the Tim you used to know?"

"No.  You can't be."

"Why?"

"Because!  I saw you... I saw HIM die!"

"That wasn't real, Eric.  That memory was planted in your mind."

"No it wasn't!  It was real!"

"Why do you even care if I'm Tim or not?  You didn't care about me before."

"Yes I did!  I mean, I cared about Tim.  The real Tim."

"I care about you too, Eric," I sighed.  "When we came back from Southeast State, I would've been lost without you.  Joey hating me... and Suzi having found someone else.  All I had was you.  When I first met you, you were a little kid who needed somebody to understand you, be with you, maybe even look up to.  And then when you and I were at Southeast state, I had to watch over you, and I worried about you...  But somewhere along the way, between the time we came home and the time you thought I died, you grew up...  Because you were watching over me then."

"You're not Tim," Eric said between sniffs.  "You can't be him."

"I loved you.  I depended on you.  I'm sorry if it hurt you so much when you thought I died.  I never wanted to hurt you.  Ever.  Last thing I wanted was you to get hurt like that.  But you did hurt, and it hurt really bad, and I wish I could have taken the hurt away.

"Candice tried to, but all that's done now is confuse you.  She tried to make you happy, Eric.  And for a while I think she did.  But it's time to undo the blocks and get rid of the pain once and for all..."

"What are you doing?!?" Eric said, somehow sensing I was in his head.

"Listen to me, Eric.  I want you to think back to when your Tim was alive.  Think of some time that only you and he would know of.  Something only the real Tim could remember."

"Stop IT!  STOP!" he said as he started remembering some of the times we had spent together which had been blocked for so long.

"I won't stop until you tell me!" I said, letting some of the emotion I was feeling slip into my voice unintentionally.

"No!  NO!" he cried, trying to cover his head with his arms as if it would shield him from his own memories.

"Tell me!" I said just before releasing the blocks holding back the more intimate and sexual memories.

Eric sank to his knees yelling "NOOO!  STOP!  STOP IT!"

"TELL ME ERIC!  TELL ME!"

"DORITOS!" he cried.  "DOritos..."

"Doritos?" I said, pulling the last block out and disconnecting from his mind.

"Only the real Tim would know what that means," he sobbed.

"Doritos," I said again while stretching myself to remember anything I could about the nacho cheese flavored corn chip.

"I knew you weren't Tim," he sobbed wearily from the floor

"I am, Eric..  I really am," I said, kneeling down beside him and rubbing his back affectionately.  "Just give me a minute.  Maybe I still don't remember everything..."

"We ate Doritos in bed once," he said, moving away from my touch and standing up.

"Doritos in bed..." I said finding it familiar.  "Yeah, yeah... I remember..  I REMember!  It was one of those Saturdays nights you spent at my place.  I got a big bag of Doritos and had a cooler full of root beer, and we watched the Three Stooges for hours before they went off, then I put some old horror movies in and we laughed our asses off..  Revenge of the Killer Tomatoes, right?"

"I..  I think so.." he said shakily with his back to me.

"Doritos..  How could I forget that," I said, walking up behind him.  "We both were in only our boxers, but didn't fool around or anything until the sun was up.  And then we kept having to stop because the damn Doritos in the bed were poking us when we fucked."

"I...  Remember," he said softly.  "I kept trying to brush them off the bed, but you kept stopping me and eating them..."

I laid my chin on his shoulder and reached around front of him to give him a hug, and for a second I was panicked when he pulled away.

But then he hugged me, and I hugged him back, and we just stood there crying like idiots until someone opened the door and turned on the lights.

"Is everything okay?" Candice said emotionally.

"I think so," I said while Eric gave her a smile and a nod from my shoulder.

Then we moved apart, and as he looked into my eyes he said, "I can't believe it's really...."

I've never seen a face go from such extremes before.  On second he was happy and joyous, the next...  Terror only begins to describe the expression he had as he backed away with a muffled scream.

"Eric!?  What's wrong?!" Candice exclaimed as his fear slapped me in the face.

"GET AWAY FROM ME!" he screamed when Candice stepped closer to him.

"Eric?!?"  Candice pleaded loudly as I grabbed her arm and kept her from trying to grab a hold him.

"Stay back!  Whatever you are!" Eric warned as he opened his pocket knife and held it out before him as weapon.

"Eric, put the knife away," Suzi said, moving towards him despite his warning.

"I said, stay BACK!" he said, taking a swipe at her with the knife and actually cutting her on the arm.

"Shit!" Suzi exclaimed as she backed away, covering her wound with her hand and exclaiming, "Eric what's wrong with you!"

As Joey rushed forward to protect Suzi, Eric exclaimed, "Joey?  What's happening?  Look out!"

Eric made another slashing motion towards Suzi which caused her to jump further away from Joey, then Eric stepped in front of Joey to protect him from...  Well, us.

"We'll leave, you try and calm him down," I thought to Joey.  Then to the girls who were begging Eric to listen to them, I thought, "He's not going to listen to us, but he might listen to Joey if we left them alone."

They both were about to argue with me, but when Eric took another slash at Candice and me, I didn't give them the choice, overrode their legs, and marched us out of the room.

"I hate it when you do that!" Suzi said angrily when I released them and shut the door.

"I'm going back in there," Candice warned me.

"Why?  Can't you see he's terrified of us?" I said, blocking the door.

"I don't care.  I have to find out what wrong with him!" she said as she tried to force me out of the way.

"I know what's wrong with him," Suzi said, looking me in the eyes.  "I've seen it before."

"Then what is it?" Candice said, swirling around, looking as if she was about ready to take a swipe at Suzi herself.

A drop of blood from Suzi's clasped hand dripped to the floor making me interrupt to say, "Suz, go get that taken care of.  I'll stay here and explain it to her.  And here," I said, opening a link between us.  "You'll know everything that happens while you're gone, okay?"

Suzi sighed an okay, then checked her wound and said, "He only just nicked me though," before leaving.

"Well?" Candice said impatiently after attempting to scan Eric's mind and only getting a lot of confusing emotion.

"Right before my faked death, I had a sort of empathic breakdown..."

"You mean nervous breakdown."

"Not exactly, although I suppose I had one of those too afterwards.  Anyway, I think Suzi's right.  Eric doesn't recognize us through the mask of corruption he senses from us.  It's very terrifying at first..."

"Are you trying to say Eric is suddenly... Empathic?  I'm not buying it!"

"I think Gladius's twins messed around with Eric's emotions so much that when I convinced him of who I was, mixed with what he was, it...  broke something and caused... this."

At that moment, Joey thought to me, "Tim, I've got him calmed down.  I'm pretty sure he understands what happened, so I don't think he'll try and hurt anyone again.  He seems to trust me, but he won't give me his pocket knife.  How's Suz?"

"I'm fine," Suz answered on her own.  "Is Eric okay?"

"Eric, Suzi wants to know if you're okay?" I heard Joey ask Eric.

"NO, I'm not okay!" Eric yelled emotionally.

"Eric?" Candice called through the door.  "Can I come in?  Please?"

"Who are you?" Eric called back nervously.

"It's... It's me...  Candice," she replied emotionally.

"Candice?"  Eric said, somewhat doubtfully.

Joey confirmed it was her with a nod, so Eric said, "Okay, but...  Just stay by the door...  Just in case."

"Okay, I'm coming in..."  Candice said, looking me in the eyes to tell me to get out of the way.

Her eyes were still locked on mine as I put both hands on her shoulders and said, "If he spazzes out, you get out, understood?"

"All right!" she said impatiently.  "Now let me through!"

I stepped aside, then watched her open the door carefully and enter the room.

"Eric!?  Please, you have to see it's me!" Candice cried out desperately after I heard Eric whimper.

When Candice stepped forward intending to rush up to him to some how prove it to him, Eric yelled, "Stay BACK!" before Joey intercepted her, picked her up and carried her kicking and screaming to the door, she basically throwing a fit.

I had to help Joey get her through the door, then blocked her explosion of pain commands from reaching our testicles while Joey tried to hand her over so he could go back and calm Eric down again.

Unfortunately, when her telepathic approach didn't work, she tried the old fashioned way and kneed me right in the happy sack. 

Just as I doubled over, Kerry cried, "Candice!" from the other end of the hall, lifted the bottom of her fancy pink hoop dress up and rushed to aid her sister's escape.

"Let her GO!" she yelled as she turned at the last second and knocked Joey off his feet with her butt.

"You'll only scare him!" I gasped as Candice scrambled away and headed towards the door.

Joey exclaimed "OUCH! SHIT!" while struggling to get past Kerry moments before Eric's and Candice's exchange of emotional pleas began.

Before I could do anything about all of this, Sheldon boomed out, "What in tarnation is going on 'ere!"

"Granddaddy, he was hurtin' Candice, Kerry exclaimed as she rushed over to him for protection.

Eric came running out of the room as I opened my mouth to disagree, then we all got hit by Eric's terror when he saw all of us, freaked, and fell back onto his butt.

Everyone was frozen for several seconds before Sheldon's twins stepped forward from behind him and Eric caught sight of them.  By this time I had gotten back on my feet and had been getting ready to blanket the lot of them with a sleep command, but now that option was out with the twins on the scene.

I was ready to literally grab Eric and run just to get him away from the twins if Eric seemed to be falling under their spell, but to everyone's surprise Eric closed his eyes tight and then reached a hand out towards Joey while calling his name.

(The looks on the twins' faces were absolutely priceless, and even though I had only gotten a momentary glance, I'll always remember their shocked bulging eyed expressions they had had.)

Eric wanted to go outside, but even though the mansion's exit was right around the corner, it only exited out to the bridge back to the office building where a lot of other people were.  So Joey led him back into the room where they had been and closed the door.

Suzi came out of nowhere and helped me explain what was going on while Candice kept her back to everyone to hide her distraught acceptance of the situation.

Kerry shucked her ruined fancy dress before going over to consul Candice in just her underwear, then ended up holding Candice as she had a short cry.

Sheldon's twins were very insistent about trying to help Eric.  I didn't trust their motives, and I certainly didn't want them left alone with Eric, so there was a long...  debate I'd call it, considering no one ever raised their voices, and two of the participants never even spoke a word.

I have to admit I was impressed by Sheldon's ability to understand what his twins were expressing.  I mean, when a twin is...  communicating with someone, it's a very one on one sort of thing due to the large amount of information exchanged through eye contact.  But Sheldon could interpret what his twins were telling me without the direct eye contact.

I didn't attempt to hide my distrust for their motives, and they didn't try to explain them either.  All they would express was that they could help restore Eric's perception, but would not or could not say he wouldn't have a relapse after they had gone.

Candice was all for a quick fix, but it was Suzi who rationalized to me that if they could do something to help Eric, even just temporarily, maybe we could learn from what they did and apply it later, perhaps by our own twins.

When Suzi contacted Joey so he could talk this over with Eric, Joey opened a more formal link with both of us to hear what Eric was saying.

".. looked at them, they looked normal... like you, Joey.  And looking in their eyes made me feel... safe, I guess.  But then it all kind of clicked in my head.  I _know_ what they can do to me, and that scared me enough to close my eyes.  I think you're the only person I can trust right now..."

Between Sheldon's impatience to leave and thus taking his twins with him, Candice's insistence, and my own memories of what it was like to have the vision of the damned, I had Joey convince Eric it was his best chance to end his nightmarish condition.  I wasn't at all comfortable with the arrangement, but I guess I was just hoping for the best.

Suzi and I watched through Joey's eyes as Eric's whitened expression relaxed and then blanked within thirty seconds of looking into the two cocoa brown twins eyes.  Once Eric was completely under their control, Suzi, Candice and I entered the room while Joey finished getting undressed and assumed the position beside Eric on the floor.

Eric and I both had refused to allow Joey to be the so called "blank", especially when the twins refused to explain why it had to be Joey instead of someone else.  I had been prepared to be the blank myself, mostly because I felt I could resist anything they might attempt to do to me within the empathic wash.  But again Suzi pointed out to me that Joey had also been able to resist the twin's brainwashing once, and I would be the only one who could monitor what was going on and possibly stop the whole thing if something went foul.

Joey was nervous as hell as the twin knelt down to mount his waiting rod of flesh.  I almost stopped it before it could even begin when the thought we might lose both of them entered my mind from the nervous glance Joey gave Suzi just before his focus became centered on the twin's empathic call.

I'll say this for those twins...  They were all business.  Not five minutes went by before Eric convulsed with a terrified scream and blacked out, then the twins dismounted the pair of them and left without a single orgasm being shot.

Joey was a little dazed, but he shook it off and even complained, "That's it?"

"Looks like it," I said, looking him in the eyes and empathetically probing him for a moment.

His eyes went a bit unfocused from my probe, but I couldn't sense anything different about him. Well, besides his deep commitment to Suzi that is.

"Is he okay?" Suzi said worriedly beside me once I closed the empathic link and Joey blinked.

"He's all yours, Suz.  Literally."

"All yours," Joey echoed in agreement, his eyes going unfocused again as he looked into Suzi's probing gaze.

I think Suzi kissed him, but I was a bit busy feeling Eric out at the time so I'm not entirely sure what Suzi did to bring him out of his daze.

"Well, did it work?" Joey asked before reaching for his shorts to put back on.

"I think so," I said with a sigh.  "But I can't really tell with him being unconscious.  I guess we won't know for sure until tomorrow."

"I wish we weren't leaving tomorrow," Suzi said, brushing a few strands of Eric's damp hair off his forehead.

"I've been thinking about that.  Depending on how Eric feels tomorrow, I think the best thing might be to take him with us.  It's either that or bring Joy and Honey here..."

"Then bring them here," Candice said while carefully sliding Eric's underpants up his legs.  "I can't leave now, and I'm not about to let him go anywhere without me."

We watched Candice as she carefully picked up Eric's deflated monster with two fingers and tucked in under the elastic band of his underpants, then wiped her fingers off before noticing the looks on our faces.

"What?" she said while turning a bit pink.  "He pees with it!"

"Let's just wait until tomorrow to see what happens before deciding who goes to England and who stays," I said firmly before helping Candice put his shorts and shirt on.  "Right now the best place for Eric is home in bed."

"He can stay here.  His parents won't care."

"His parents will care once they know what happened," I said patiently.

"Don't," Candice said with an unsteady voice.

"Don't tell them?  Why not?" I said with false surprise.

"You know what I mean," she said with increasing hostility.  "You're going turn them against me.  I won't let you do that."

"I have this understanding with my mom and dad that I've been applying with you and your dad.  As long as you don't interfere with my affairs or mettle with my friends, I won't interfere with your affairs or your friends.  But Eric's mom and dad are MY friends.  When I needed Eric's help and wanted..."

I wasn't prepared for Candice's telepathic attack on my mind at that instant, but I blocked her commands just in time with reflexes I hadn't realized I had, then just reached through her barrier and disabled her attack without even a pause in what I was saying.

"... to take him away with me for several months, Eric's mom and dad trusted me enough to allow it because I was straight with them and I hadn't altered their perspective when I could have.  If you had met Eric first, then I probably wouldn't even be here right now.  But I met him first, so you knew anything you did to him or to his family I might just undo later if and when I found out."

I did pause at that point because Candice's eyes were so wide that for a moment I thought her eyeballs were going to pop out of their sockets.  It would have been amusing if the color hadn't also left her face.

So to take the edge off her shock, I handed her a sock and started putting the other one on, then said, "I'll try and explain why you did what you did, but from now on the only way you'll get their trust is by earning it."

I had finished putting the shoe on the foot I had socked, and seeing she still had his other sock in her hand, I gently slipped it out of her fingers and finished getting Eric dressed.

Candice remained on her knees staring at Eric for a few minutes before finally sniffling and saying, "Take him home then," then stood up and walked out.

"Shit," I sighed after letting out a deep breath.

"Serves her right for meddling with innocent peoples minds," Suzi said.

"Seems like she's a bit innocent herself," Joey said.

"Her?  How can you say..."  Suzi began.

"He pees with it," Joey said while imitating Candice's use of her fingers as a pair of tongs.  "It's either innocence or..."

"Or programming," I finished for him.  "The question is, whose programming?"

"What do you mean, whose?" Suzi asked in surprise. "Her daddy's, who else?"

"Or Candice's," I simply said as I slipped on Eric's body and had him stand up, Suzi jumping in surprise.

"Shit, you startled me," Suzi said after a gasp, then a moment later she raised one of her eyebrows, frighteningly similar to Joey's Mr. Spock imitation, and asked with a grin, "Timmy...  Can I try that?"

I pulled up in front of Eric's house and shut off the Toyoda's engine and lights before studying the dwelling a few moments.  I ended up studying Eric's reflection peacefully sleeping against the window I had been peering through longer than the two story brick house.

"Is that a little stubble?" I said softly with amusement as I reached over and ran my hand over the millimeter high hairs on his chin and left cheek.

I caressed every inch of his sixteen and a half year old face until I got teary eyed and had to use the same hand to get rid of the evidence on my cheeks.

"Who knew a thirteen year old cock sucker would break so many hearts," I sighed.

"I knew," I had Eric say before I had us both get out and walk around to the back door.

While the downstairs was dark, I was pleased to find everyone still up. Jodie, Eric's thirteen year old little sister, laid on her bed writing in her diary while listening on her 'broken' speakerphone to Karen's private conversation with her boyfriend.  I did a quick scan of their minds for commands, and only found one that very effectively blocked any memory of Eric having been gay.

I put a few of my own commands in before canceling Candice's, mine having the same affect as hers but would dissolve once they were asleep.

Eric's parents mind's had similar commands, but because they had been more involved with Eric's coping of his previous losses, there were a significant number of commands I had to dig out of their heads, especially his dad's.

Once I had put Eric to bed and cleaned up their minds, I headed for the master bedroom.  I paused a few moments while taking a couple of deep breaths to steady my nerves, then knocked on the door and manipulated their senses so they believed they heard Eric's voice.

"Mom... Dad...  Tim's here, and he needs to talk to you."

"I don't know a Tim, do you?" Eric's mom whispered to her husband.

"May I come in?" I said through the door while altering my decaying memory blocks so they would decay a little faster.

"Eric, have your friend come back tomorrow.  We're already in bed," Steve said.

"Eric's in bed asleep, Spanky," I said.

I heard his feet hit the floor before his symbols drew closer to the door.

"What did you call me?" he said while opening the door partway, then after a brief pause he frowned and said "Have we met?"

"I was one of Eric's friends before you moved," I prompted.

He blinked a few times in rapid succession, then said, "Weren't you in an accident?"

"Kind of," I said, unconsciously shuffling my feet.

"Who is it?" Eric's mother said.

"Now Mary, don't get up," Steve said, turning away from the door and walking towards the bed.

"Whoa, you're pregnant," I said with sincere surprise when I got a look at Mary struggling to sit up.

"I've noticed," she said with a strained voice as she reversed her attempt to get out of bed and allowed Steve to help her lay flat again.

"It's nice to see you're okay, er, Tim, but as you can see it would be better if you came back tomorrow," Steve insisted.

"Wait Steve..." Mary said while staring at my face.

"You're close to being due," I said, having been feeling her body out ever since I saw her enlarged abdomen.

I felt the little monster's kick from across the room, and it made me forget all about the situation at hand.  I walked right up to her with this fascinated/amused look on my face saying, "Wow, she's got a lot of oomph in her.  Does she always kick with both feet?"

"Kick?" Steve said with confusion just as the unborn Roberts sibling kicked again.

"Whoa, that was... Cool," I said pleasantly surprised, then looked up at Mary's incredulous expression and asked, "Did Eric kick like that?"

"You... You felt that..." Mary said with astonishment.

"Uhh...  Yeah, sorta.  Uhm...  I didn't mean to uhm... invade your privacy like that..." I said while turning red and backing off.

Steve startled me by grasping my left shoulder and turning me around towards him, but I sensed no hostility and managed to control my instinct to jump away.

He only studied my face a couple of moments, then he looked in the direction of Eric's room with concern.

"Eric's asleep," I said when Steve started walking towards the door.  "I don't think it'd be a good idea to wake him up."

Steve took hold of the door handle and opened the door the rest of the way, but then after a moment's hesitation he slowly reversed his action and finally clicked the door shut, then leaned against it as more blocks broke free in his mind.

"I remember asking you..." Mary said distantly.

"Asking me?" I said while sitting down on the edge of a chair filled with their bed spread.

"Yes," she said, looking over at her husband and saying, "I wasn't sure how you felt about having another baby, and he...  Steve...  What's going on?"

"I don't know," he said while wearily coming over to the bed and sitting down.  "How could I forget...  How could I forget..."

My unintentional sigh drew both their attentions towards me, and as they struggled to piece together their reemerging memories to construct the obvious questions, I formed a partial two way between themselves and their unborn child.

Steve's gasp and Mary's "Oh my god..." was the only thing they said for the next five minutes as they experienced the sightless yet very comforting life in the womb.  Steve was nearly in tears as he caressed Mary's exposed abdomen, and they both were silent for some time after I had slowly decreased and finally cut the sensory streams I was feeding to their brains.

"Thank you," Mary said while reaching down to stroke her husband's head now resting on top her swollen tummy.  "That was... precious."

"It was the least I could do," I said with some guilt in my voice.

"Why?" Steve said while raising his head to look me in the eyes.  "You didn't have anything to do with this, did you?"

"No, but...  I can't help but feel I could have done something sooner.  Or... something."

Steve put his face in his hands, then carefully rolled onto his back as the last few blocks broke and spun his mind around in circles.

"Is Eric okay?  What did she do to him?" Mary asked, struggling to get up again.

I immediately went to her side putting an arm behind her shoulders and taking a hand, then overrode her control of her body to make her lay back down while saying, "Candice did what she thought was best.  She tried to take what she thought was the cause of Eric's pain away.  Anything she did to you was just to keep things... er, sane I guess is the best word.  And I hate to say it, but for the most part it worked.  At least until I showed up."

"I said he was acting strange," Mary said with some agitation.

"If I ever see that little...  bitch," Steve said with growing anger.  "I've literally been ignoring everything that Eric..."

He sat up with a snap and scrambled off the bed saying, "Something is wrong with him.  I can feel it."

"Just don't wake him up," I said desperately, seeing they weren't going to be happy until they saw Eric with their own yes.

I helped Mary get out of bed then walked down the hall with her to Eric's room, finding Steve laying behind his son, holding him in almost a lover's embrace.

After explaining what had happened earlier that night, they were only that much more confused since they didn't know the details of what happened leading up to it all.  So after helping Mary sit down in the chair at Eric's desk, I leaned up against his dresser and began verbalizing what I had been piecing together all night in my head.

"When Eric and I came back from Southeast State, my dad's adopted twin daughters, Joy and Honey, convinced me to talk Eric into letting them...  empathetically seed him.  It's a different kind of control than what Candice used, and in this case the idea was to try and condition Eric to be able to resist that kind of control if he needed to.  Or at least that's what they told me.

"We're still not sure how much Joy and Honey had to do with my supposed death.  All I know is the man who kidnapped me used the controls the twins had placed in Eric to blank his mind when they must have grabbed me, then probably used another set of twins to implant the memories of the crash in his head.

"Their control is all based on emotions.  The memories Eric has of my death, the images, the sounds, everything, were all generated by his own mind while the twins inflicted on him the emotions that went with them.  To Eric it was all very real.  Too real, in fact.  That's why when I came back, he emotionally couldn't accept that I was alive and was constantly struggling to deny my existence.

"When Candice blocked his memories of his sexuality, it blocked out a lot more than just his past boyfriends and the heartache that went with them.  It created a hole in the twins' emotional controls.  Well, maybe not a hole.  More like an imbalance.  He still emotionally denied my existence, but many of the memories that went with the emotions were blocked.  He started to search for other reasons to deny who I was, one being the concept I was bi which he had no... sympathy for any more.

"I'd like to think somewhere deep inside him he's been fighting all this, and maybe that's what caused him to seek me out tonight.  But when I removed Candice's memory blocks and controls, then helped make him fully accept who I was, it was too much for him.  His emotions were so stretched and bent out of shape, his mind went super sensitive to the emotions people broadcast in their body language.  Hopefully what Candice's Grandfather's twins did to him tonight restored his emotional balance to somewhat a more normal level.  But we won't know how much until he wakes up tomorrow."

"He's been through so much," Mary said sadly.  "It was such a relief when he started acting happy again that I didn't want to think something else was wrong."

"We didn't have the choice," Steve growled as softly as he could.  "Ever since I met Tim I've feared something like this happening.  Someone altering us.  Altering Eric..."

Just as he had done several times while I had been talking, Steve gave his son another loving kiss on his cheek from behind.  He had always been very protective of his son, but now there was a strong sense of possessiveness riding on top of the wide range of emotions he was transmitting.  Love, desire, tenderness, lust, sorrow...

The next kiss was more of a wet smooch, but despite Steve's longing to relive some of his bittersweet memories sharing a bed with his brother, his love for his son overruled the other emotions at play, and he carefully untangled himself to get up.

I was offered a couch for the night which I gratefully accepted.  Joey and Suzi had gotten us a room at a motel for the night, but I wanted to be there when Eric woke up just in case he needed me.

I think I was asleep before my head reached the pillow, and I'm pretty sure I didn't move an inch all night I was so tired.  Man was I stiff getting up off the floor.  Of course that might have been partially due to having jumped horizontally off the couch when Jodie let out a high pitched scream from seeing a stranger sleeping on her couch.

I had just gotten Jodie to calm down when Steve shouted, "Eric! Wait!" and I turned to find Eric slamming on his brakes and his face turning pale at the sight of me.

It was obvious it was too soon for him see me, so I did the only thing I could think of.  I dived over the back of the couch to get out of sight, braining myself good on one of the metal frog statues they had behind it.

"Are you okay?  Why'd you do that?" Jodie said a minute later, hanging over the back of the couch above me.

"Ughn," I groaned as I checked my poor head for holes and cracks.

I laid there a good minute trying to rub away the pain in the side of my skull, then laid still a while listening to Eric nervously talking to his mom and dad about what had happened the night before.  His side of the story was a little different than mine, but not significantly so.  Okay, so it bugged me a little that Eric believed Joey had taken charge of the whole situation, defending Eric when he was scared out of his wits and stuff like that.

"I remember you," Jodie said after staring down at me from the back of the couch a while.  "You and Eric were... Uhm..."

Her smirk didn't quite go with her embarrassed red cheeks, and it didn't stop her from turning around and saying to Eric, "How come he slept on the couch and not in your bed last night?"

"Jodie, why don't you go help Karen make breakfast like you're supposed to," Mary said with an increasingly strained voice.

"Mom, you okay?" Jodie asked concerned.

"I..." she grunted followed by a lot of sudden movement.

"Oh God, not now..." she gasped out.

I sat up and looked over the couch, finding Mary sitting on the floor with her legs spread strange with Steve, Jodie, and Eric all trying to talk to her at the same time, all asking the same question differently.

Suzi once told me that when I'm hurt, confused, or otherwise emotionally distressed, my eyes seem to attract other people's attention.  I guess that's why with all the commotion going on around her while she struggled to control the already fading contractions, Mary noticed me looking over the back of the couch and stared back with this slightly panicked expression on her face.

I instinctively formed an empathic connection to calm her, then felt her out to ascertain her condition.  I hadn't had any experience with women _going_ into labor, so the sensations I was getting back from her were new and unfamiliar to me.  She was hoping it was just another false alarm.

The empathic link broke the moment I felt Eric's eyes on me, and it was really hard not to look him back in the eyes before taking cover again.

As the family followed their well rehearsed plan for the trip to the hospital, I could feel Eric's unsteadiness, his uncertainty...  His instability growing.

I was in the middle of relaying what had happened that morning to Joey and Suzi when Eric sat down on the couch and said shakily, "Is Joey coming over?"

"Do you want him to?" I asked carefully.

"I think I'll need him...  I don't feel...  right."

"He's on his way," I said as Joey scrambled out of bed, almost knocking Suzi on the floor in his wake.

"Eric?  Are you coming?" Karen exclaimed after flying down the stairs from having gone up to her room to change into some street clothes.

"I don't think I can," he said honestly after everyone else in the house had stopped what they were doing to hear his response.

"Are you sure," Steve said with urgency, torn between the two immediate problems.

"Joey's on his way," was all Eric could say as the females filed out to the van.

"It could be just another false alarm," Steve said from the door.  "But if it isn't...  I'll call.  Just..."

"Go dad...  I'll be all right."

"I love you son," he said with emotion before slamming the door behind him.

"Tim?"

"Yeah Eric?"

"I felt something from my dad..."

"What?" I said, looking over the couch at the top of his head.  "What do you mean, you felt something?"

"I felt how he bad he wanted to stay...  I could feel everything he was feeling...  Am... am I..."

"Empathic?" I said while searching my senses for an answer.

"Yeah."

"I don't know," I said after a long pause.

"Is Joey almost here?"

"About another ten minutes," I estimated out loud.

"Good," he said with relief, then looked up at me and said, "Sorry."

"Sorry? For what?"

"About Joey.  I don't know why, but I just feel better with him around."

His eyes met mine a moment, and I could feel him pulling me in...

"Eric, stop," I said, turning away.

"I couldn't help it," he said shakily.  "Oh God...  It's starting to happen again."

"Close your eyes and hum," I said firmly while taking cover behind the couch again.  "Hum as loud as you can, and try focusing everything on your humming.  Feel your humming, hear your humming, Don't let anything else in but your humming.  It used to help me when I felt it starting to get worse."

He hesitated before trying it, but after gently humming in a single breath, he took a really deep breath and hummed really loud.

Eric hummed so long and so hard he was making himself dizzy, but it didn't slow him down at all when we heard the car pull up outside.  He was opening the front door before I could even call out to tell him they were there.

"Hi," Eric said cheerfully to Joey as he strolled up the walk.

"Hi Eric.  You feeling better?" Joey said cautiously.

"Now that you're here," Eric said with a sigh.

Joey gave me a questioning look, but all I did was shrug before going back to the kitchen to finish eating my bowl of wheaties.

The phone rang almost immediately after I had sat back down, but I didn't get up since Eric had already yelled he'd get it.

I did end up having to get on the phone though.  Mary was in labor, but it didn't look like it was going to be a fast birth despite this being her fourth child.  I had to explain that our flight to Washington DC was scheduled for noon, but Eric nearly broke down with the thought of Joey leaving.

Over the next hour, Eric's emotional state kept bouncing from chirpy enthusiastic to pitifully depressed and back.  And one time when Joey left to go to the bathroom, Eric became so nervous and uncomfortable, he ended up waiting outside the bathroom door talking to Joey as he finished taking his dump.

And to make matters worse, I couldn't go into the room with Eric without his eyes locking onto mine and we'd start drawing each other into an empathic link.  I was very tempted to let it happen, but after what happened the previous night, I was afraid it would backfire and push him over the edge again.

So I stayed in the kitchen for the most part, spending a good portion of the morning trying to get our tickets changed for later that week without much success.

Noon came and went, and finally after Eric's sixth depressive mood had passed, his emotions seemed to level out a bit for a while.

By that time I was convinced I needed the twin's help to fix his unstable emotions, and despite having rescheduled our flight for that evening, I couldn't get a return flight any sooner than our scheduled flight two weeks later.

I had planned to go to England by myself to get the twins and bring them back with me, but no matter what strings I tried to pull, I couldn't arrange it.  I don't care what they say.  Trying to manipulate a stranger's mind on the other side of the ocean is pretty damn impossible even when you have them on the phone.

I was slowly banging my head against the kitchen table after trying yet another airline without success when Suzi came and wrapped her arms around me for a hug.

"How's Eric?" I asked after relaxing in her firm hold from behind.

"Asleep.  He passed out with his head on Joey's lap watching TV about twenty minutes ago.  I think it was that last cry that did it.  Have you found anything yet?"

"Nope," I sighed as she let go and started massaging my shoulders.  "I can get there, but I can't get a flight back before mid June.  Mmmmmm..."

"Timmy, can't you do it yourself?"

"What, you mean... do what the twins did?"

"Well, it isn't like you two haven't..."

I turned around and looked her in the eyes and said, "If I thought I could do it, them maybe I'd consider it.  But I don't know how.  The twin's have always guided me when I did anything like that.  Without their fine control, I'd just make things a whole lot worse."

"Oh," she said with more than just disappointment. 

"What's wrong?" I said, catching her arm before she could turn to walk away.

"It's just...  How do you know you can trust them?"

"Who, the twins?"

"Yes.  You've said it yourself you're not sure how involved they were in your kidnapping.  What if they play along just long enough to get you under some sort of..."

"Sheldon's twins couldn't control me, so I doubt Joy and Honey can.  It's a risk I'm willing to take to help fix Eric.  Besides...  That's why I need you and Joey..."

"But we were going to stay here while you went to get the twins, remember?"

"Yeah, you're right," I sighed, letting her arm go and watching her butt as she checked out the fridge.  "It would be simpler to just take him with us."

She turned around with a thoughtful look on her face, then said, "Well, why couldn't we?"

"I'll tell you why.  Steve would never go for it, and I doubt Eric could handle being in such close quarters with so many people.  Did I ever tell you about my first day at college?"

"I think so.  You had a severe claustrophobic attack or something."

"Yeah.  Pretty much."

"But maybe being with Joey...  You know I still don't get that.  Why Joey?"

"Yeah, why me?" Joey said coming into the kitchen and heading for the fridge.

"What are you doing in here?  Get back in there in case he wakes up," Suzi hissed.

When Joey complied without a hesitation or complaint, Suzi and I just looked at each other with the same conclusion.

"I still don't get it though," Suzi said after going back to the fridge and looking for something for Joey to eat.  "If that's the reason, why that?"

"The twins," I suddenly realized.  "That has to be it.  When I first met Honey and Joy, anything my dad said they did without hesitation or argument.  They were completely dependant on my dad to decide what they should do.  Gladius must have had his twins implant this deep trust for that trait into Eric in case something went wrong.  He must have thought no one but his girls would have that kind of loyalty to another person.  Looks like he was wrong."

"I'll be right back," Suzi said softly as she rushed out of the kitchen.

A minute later, Joey walked in with a bewildered look on his face.

"What's wrong?" I said with a grin big enough that Joey could probably see my molars.

"Women.  They're so unpredictable," he said with a shrug while opening the fridge door.  "Man, I'm starved.  I haven't even had breakfast, you know."

"You know, maybe you shouldn't take Suzi's requests so literal," I said while getting up to get him a plate and glass.  "When she told you to stay in the living room with him, she didn't mean you couldn't have breakfast.  We thought you weren't hungry because you didn't ask for anything."

"Yeah, well, I just didn't think about it.  It isn't important anyway," he said as he started putting a huge sandwich together.

He was just putting the finishing touches on his sandwich when we heard Eric ask, "Where's Joey?  He didn't leave, did he?"

"I'm here," Joey said, putting down the knife full of dressing and walking out empty handed.

I finished putting his sandwich together, then placed it and his drink on the kitchen table before slipping through the dining room and announcing Joey's sandwich was on the table.

A little while later, Steve and Jodie came home, Steve using Jodie's karate lesson as an excuse to come back and check on Eric.

When Steve asked about our trip plans, I said, "I'll leave tonight and bring the twins back with me somehow, Suzi and Joey can stay here."

"You're not going by yourself," Suzi said firmly.  "I'll go with you, Joey can stay."

"But you won't be able to defend yourself," Joey said to Suzi with concern.  "I should go with you too."

"Then I'm going too," Eric said with anxiety.

"No," Suzi, Steve and I all said.

"Why not?" Eric said with a sound of stubbornness in his voice.  "That would be the fastest way."

"Your mother is having a baby, Eric," Steve said firmly.  "I don't want her worried about where you are and what's happening to you while she's trying to recover from giving birth.  And I don't want to be either."

"But what if I get worse and Tim can't get back in time?"

"Eric, remember how you felt what your dad was feeling when he left and how upset it made you feel?" I said gently.  "Think what it would be like to be in an airplane for seven or eight hours with a couple hundred people around you.  Sensing every little sound, every little movement anyone makes..."

"But I'll be with Joey," Eric insisted.  "And you could always lock me up in a toilet...  Or knock me out.  That would work, wouldn't it?  If you made me sleep through the trip?"

"Uhh, yeah, I guess so," I said hesitantly.

"Dad, I need to go with them.  I can't just let Tim and Suzi go by themselves without Joey to protect them.  It would just be safer for me to go with them, and if I get worse, then I'm that much closer to getting help."

"Eric, it feels like I just got you back," Steve said emotionally.  "I can't let you go without me, and I can't leave with your mo..."

I stood up with a start when I realized Steve and Eric were looking in each other's eyes, but I didn't intervene out of the fear it might be too great of a shock to Eric if I did.

My heart was pounding as father and son joined their lips together and gave each other a deep french kiss, making Suzi also get up and say, "Oh Timmy...  Do something!"

"Like what?" I said as Steve reached up to get a firm hold of Eric's head to steady it as they raped each other's mouths.

"Should we pull them apart?" Joey offered, changing his position next to Eric in preparation to take hold.

"I don't know!" I whimpered as I tried my best to comprehend what I was sensing from them.  "Eric's tapped into Steve's mixed feelings for him and his dead uncle, and they've both been swept away by it!  But breaking them apart might cause Eric to go over the edge again..."

"And this won't?" Suzi yelled.

The next moment we heard a loud SMOCK like sound, and my jaw nearly fell off from the realization that Steve had pushed Eric's head away and was holding him back.

"Take him," he gasped, and once Joey got a hold of him, Steve scrambled to his feet and dazedly made his way to the door.

He leaned heavily on the door handle after opening it, then paused and said between gasps of air, "Do what you have to, but you bring him back to me when you've done all you can do, no matter what his condition is!  In the CAR Jodie!  NOW!"

And that as they say was that.

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