“The Catalyst” Series
Chapter 14: Discussing Closet Space
Alex entered the restaurant with his sister and Gail. As he
was directed to a large table Gail hung back, telling him she’d get a seat near
the door. When he asked her about it, she told him she was uncomfortable with
the large group and the angry protests, and thought she could better protect
him by being discreet. He couldn’t argue with that, so he allowed her to make
her own arrangements. She had a credit card issued by the foundation to cover
her own expenses so he wasn’t worried about her.
As Alex and Cate approached the table he saw Jenny and her
husband, Tommy Cox, as well as Lauran Fraser with a woman he assumed was her
life partner, as well as three people he didn’t know, but whom he could figure out
pretty quickly.
Rising from her seat, Jenny took on the role of host,
introducing her husband. But Lauran took over the rest of the introductions
from there. “Alex, I’d like you to meet my spouse, Christie Hollie, as well as
Kevin Eldridge and Nick Griggs, who we discussed earlier, as well as Carla
Swift, their intended surrogate. Carla’s a Watcher by the way,” she said,
although neither Cate nor Alex needed her to tell them that much, since Carla
didn’t seem to be able to look away from them. “I thought I should do the
introductions since I’m more familiar with everyone,” she explained.
“I’m pleased to meet each of you,” Alex replied shaking
their hands, then hugging both Nick and Kevin. “I think we’re beyond the formal
handshake at this point, if you’re going to be raising a child for me,” he told
them. If Alex was going to pick two people as being gay, he wouldn’t pick these
two, as both were large burly guys who didn’t seem to be overly sophisticated
in that typical persona that many gays took on. He then turned to Carla, a
little thing dressed in a gray dress, and gave her a firm hug, to which she
promptly responded by molding her body to his own, while Cate welcomed the two
men in her own style. Carla was obviously young and ready for life, though
probably not yet ready for life with a baby yet.
“So does anyone need to know who either I, my sister Cate or
our bodyguard Gail is?” he asked with an easy laugh. They each laughed in
response, and assured him they were all quite familiar with him. At that point
they sat down and got started on the discussion.
“I’m really pleased to meet you. I know I’ve got no reason
to be included in your inner circle, but...” Kevin started to say when he
noticed Alex’s eyes glazing over. He’d been warned beforehand that this might
happen, so he had the sense to wait until he seemed to be listening again.
‘Alex, this is Shani. I just got a call from Lisa. It
seems that Albert Rodriguez contacted her, since he has no other way of
contacting you. If you’ll remember, she sent him that video earlier. It seems
he’s got a 6:00 news program that’s going to start soon, and he wanted you to
have a chance to see it, since it’s about you and your followers. He also said
he’d appreciate it if you could give him a call afterwards.’
‘Thanks, Shani. He certainly doesn’t give much warning,
does he? I guess there isn’t much we can do about it now, besides, we’re
sitting down to dinner and we don’t have access to a television. But I’ll try
to relay the information to someone who can check it out for us. Hopefully they
can warn us if it’s likely to cause us any trouble,’ Alex told her.
‘From what I’ve been hearing you’ve already been having
some trouble, although you seem to be handling it better than your last visit when
Albert was causing you troubles.’
‘Yeah, I’ve got a lot of good people down here and
they’re all pitching in. It makes a big difference having a lot of people to
draw on,’ Alex said. ‘I’ve got to go if I’m going to head this off.
Thanks for warning me, though,’ he said as he switched to his next
telepathic broadcast.
‘OK, people, this is Alex, as if you ever get any other
telepathic comments from anyone else,’ Alex broadcast to all his Seers in
New Orleans. It took a bit of effort to identify and select them, but not as
much as one might suspect since the connections were all mental. ‘We’ve got
a bit of a problem. Mr. Rodriguez is doing a TV special on me that is starting soon,
and I’m stuck without a TV. If a few of you could watch it for me and let me
know how damaging it is, I’d appreciate it. If anyone has access to a DVR and
could record it for me, that would help as well. I suspect my family might
appreciate seeing it, as it’s about all they’ll have seen of me since I left
home a week ago. Check with Patricia to see if there’s someone who knows enough
to record it electronically so someone can send it to my iPad, since it would
be good to see if there’s something specifically I need to respond to. But
let’s not get crazy about this, folks. We’re likely to be seeing a lot of
reports about us in the future, so we’ve got to learn to take it in stride and
respond to it the best we can. Let’s keep everything in perspective. OK?’
Alex got numerous positive responses, which surprisingly he
was able to identify, even if he didn’t know the respondent’s name, but somehow
he could place each with a face. One girl said she was at home at the moment
and could get her boyfriend to record it on his computer, so Alex thanked her
and told her he’d get in contact with her after it was over. Patricia then
asked him if he wanted her to do anything, to which Alex simply warned her to
be prepared since she was likely to get a lot of flack due to her being so
publicly affiliated with him.
The whole series of exchanges took only several seconds, so
Alex’s eyes refocused and he met Kevin’s eyes once again. Kevin, who wasn’t
sure what had just happened, was afraid Alex may have lost his train of
thought, so he started over.
“I was just saying that Nick and I have no reason to be
included in your mission, but Lauran got us excited about the possibilities,
especially when she suggested we may be able to help by finally getting the
baby we’ve been trying so long for.”
“Sorry about fading out like that, I get distracted with a
lot of information sometimes,” Alex told him, leaving off any details since he
didn’t want to upset any of his dinner companions. Those dinner companions
consisted of only three Watchers, none of them would know what was happening
until they started to talk to the others in the community. Even Gail was in the
dark about what was going to occur.
“That’s fine,” Kevin assured him, waving it off. “We
understand. From what we understand, you’re responsible for a lot of people,
both here in New Orleans and elsewhere.”
“I can understand why you’d want a baby,” Alex told them,
changing the topic as he regarded them both, “but why did you feel drawn to
this particular community?”
“Oh, that’s easy,” Nick responded. “Now that gays are being
so widely accepted by the world, from the military which persecuted us into
better paying jobs, to religious figures who accept us completely, except in
cases of marriage or being near kids. Heck, even those who occasionally beat us
up on the streets feel the need to tell us ‘Not that there’s anything wrong
with that’,” he joked with a somewhat bitter laugh. “But we felt that if
there’s still this much hostility for something that’s almost been
accepted as normal, your group is likely to face even stronger opposition.
Plus, there’s something quite cache in raising the next potential Angel of New
Orleans. It’s the newest gay thing,” he teased.
Alex had been observing the two men while Kevin had been
speaking. Kevin was what is referred to as a ‘Bear’ in the gay community,
referring to a large man, often with a decent sized belly and/or with a lot of
body hair. Alex would never have known any of this, but the other Alex had
brought him up to date when Alex continued to prompt him about gays in
anticipation of his travels. The gays, unlike the straights, considered this a
sexy trait, since it was so much like cuddling a big teddy bear.
Nick, on the other hand, was a sleek muscular young man who seemed
to be the antithesis of the typical gay stereotype. In fact, neither one
exactly shouted ‘gay’ by their appearance.
“OK, that answers a lot pretty quickly,” Alex replied with a
reassuring laugh. “I’d hardly presume to understand what you’ve had to go
through in coming out, but there are parallels. We face potential persecution
based solely on who we are, something we have no control over. Those that I
trigger seem to be based on a completely random genetic trait that no one ever
knew they had, so many people are finding themselves part of this community
whether they knew about it or even wanted to. But we’re always glad to have
anyone voluntarily join us. We’ve got several people without these traits who
have already joined us. Many of them were from my school.”
“Lauran has really been driven lately, and we noticed and
asked her about it,” Nick explained. “Since we’re fairly close friends and have
been talking about raising kids together, she confided in us. We’d heard about
you earlier so we were intrigued, but the more we heard the more enthused we
were as well. This is the first significant genetic advancement anyone in
recorded history has noted, and it sounds like a major one. It’s too bad it’s
restricted to women only, but we’re hoping it will eventually benefit
everyone.”
“Just how much do you know about it?” Alex cautiously asked.
“Well, Lauran never said too much explicitly, but we’re
aware there are three classes of followers. We also know that you can transmit
thoughts and feelings, and that the Seers are able to see things like how
healthy people are,” Kevin replied.
“That’s a pretty good summation, although each of the girls
is able to feel emotions. That’s because they can sense the energy that each
person gives off, and that energy is flavored by a person’s personality. So it
would be good to pay attention whenever Jenny, Lauran or Carla warns you about
someone. But as you can imagine, the idea that there are people who can
communicate telepathically is likely to panic people. Plus the idea that people
see me as a religious figure upsets most of the people in the established
churches.”
“Yeah, Jenny explained that you weren’t particularly
religious,” Nick replied.
“Nope, although the women can literally see what we call a
soul, I’m still not sure how to relate to it. I see it as a feature of a
person’s personality, but I still can’t see it floating away into space, so I
have trouble seeing a big king of the spirits floating around in a make believe
ethereal kingdom,” Alex told them, expressing his own difficulties with his new
position.
“Yeah, I can see where you’d have a problem with religion
with that framework,” Christie responded with a slight smirk. “I think it’s
interesting that the famed Angel of New Orleans doesn’t believe in God,” she
observed.
“It’s worse than that,” Cate told her. “He’s supposedly an
Angel who doesn’t believe in God, he lets people see souls that he doesn’t
believe exist, he heals people using energy he can’t see, and he doesn’t think
anyone should treat him any differently than anyone else.”
“Some people seek greatness, while others have to be dragged
to it kicking and screaming,” Kevin observed. Cate seemed to think that was
very funny.
“So normally I’d quiz you on what you’re looking for in this
as well, Nick, but I trust that Jenny has already tackled that topic. I assume
Christie and Carla have also been vetted, so I don’t have to worry about
whether any of you will be good parents. Oh sure, you’ll each struggle, but
that’s the whole nature of parenting.”
“So says my ‘oh, so experienced of a parent’, brother,”
teased Cate.
“You know,” Christie said, “I think you need to consider this
movement of yours as your own parenthood. You’ve essentially delegated the
actual parenting, but you need to grow the movement. From what I’ve heard,
you’ve been doing a good job, but you’ve got to get over this shy retiring
persona of yours. You need to address things directly.”
“Ha, you should have seen him before,” Cate observed. “He’s
making great strides, but personally, the rest of us think of it as our friend
Anh does. Alex always seems to come to the right decision for all the wrong
reasons. That’s why we feel he’s guided in his decisions. He seems to have a
knack for judging people and making decisions. Now, whether he’s guided by God,
by Alexandria, or by a bunch of unnamed spirits, we don’t know. But he does
have a real talent for doing the right thing.”
“After being told how we and those we love are all going to
hell for loving each other, it feels nice to be working on God’s side for a
change,” Christie teased, only somewhat exaggerating.
They were about ready to order and were looking for the
waitress when they heard a loud commotion at the front of the restaurant. When
Alex glanced up, he noted that Gail was halfway to the table before she
realized the noise had come from the front of the restaurant, which was behind
her. Glancing around a bit nervously, she returned to her seat and watched the
door nervously. She didn’t investigate the disruption, since her responsibility
was in guarding Alex, not policing the restaurant.
The disruption, which sounded like it might have been a
fight as they’d heard some shouting, was over quickly, and everyone looked
around trying to figure out what had happened. But as soon as Alex decided it
didn’t involve him, or present a threat to those he loved, he put it out of his
mind. When the waitress finally came to the table a few minutes later to take
their orders Carla asked what the problem was.
“Oh, there was some argument in the bar,” she answered. “It
seems some idiot turned off the normal sports channel to watch some news
program, and a couple of people started arguing about it. I guess it was some
religious thing.”
Alex sighed and turned to his sister. “Cate, go to the bar
and see who’s there. It’s likely one of ours.”
She quickly got up and hurried off. Tommy asked the
waitress, “Did anyone get hurt? Any damage done?”
“No, one guy shoved another,” she said. “That seems to have
been the extent of it.”
Alex perked up at that. If it had been one of his followers
trying to defend him against someone mouthing off after the news story, one of
the two should have been a woman.
“Did you hear what the argument was about?” Lauran asked,
picking up on Alex’s interest in the topic.
“Sorry, I wasn’t there. I just heard about it when I was
placing an order,” she told them.
‘Gail, it seems there was an argument about us in the
bar,’ Alex explained. ‘Chances are the participants were thrown out.
Cate’s checking the bar, could you check outside and see if you can find anyone
that might be related to us? They were supposedly two men, so it may be hard to
identify them.’
‘I’ll do it. You sure you’re going to be OK without me?’
‘Sure, what could possibly... never mind. No, I should be
fine. Besides, you’ll only be gone for a couple of minutes and there are plenty
of people here.’
Gail nodded at him and stood up, quietly walking out of the
restaurant. Alex gave the waitress both his and Cate’s order, since the waitress
was waiting for his order. Finished, she headed off just as Cate returned.
“Sorry, whoever caused the trouble already left,” she
informed Alex. “The program they were watching was still on. I caught a little
of it. It seemed to be about you.”
“Yeah, I already know about it,” Alex told her. “Apparently Albert Rodriguez got a TV special dedicated to me. I chose to ignore it, but I’m wondering just
who may have been fighting about it just now. I’m not particularly worried
about the pro-tradition participant, but whoever was defending me might be of
interest. I’m particularly concerned with why he was defending me.”
“Wait a minute,” Jenny interrupted him. “There’s a news exposé
about you, and you just chose to ignore it? No wonder there’s a fight. That’s
some big shit. We need to get you out of here. There might be trouble.”
“There’s hardly...” Alex tried to explain, but everyone
started getting excited.
“Oh, man, that’s major. Do you want us to escort you out?”
Nick asked.
“Let me check if there are any crowds outside,” Carla said,
getting ready to head out.
“Everyone, RELAX. It’s not that major,” Alex told them all,
staring at each of them, letting them know he wasn’t fooling around. “No one
knows that I’m associated with this, hopefully it was a fair report. I’ll deal
with it after it’s done, but I’m not going to spoil my dinner worrying about
something that I have no control over.”
“Yeah, right, when was the last time you saw a fair and
impartial report on anything on television?” Tommy asked. Cate snuggled up
beside Alex and held his hand, trying to figure out just what was going on.
“So far we’ve been fortunate in that the news has favored
us. There hasn’t been anything to report about us, and what there was to report
has been very unimpressive. Frankly, most people aren’t going to care about a
miracle that has qualifications. However, the news cycle is now likely to be
filled with reports of traditional conservative churches reacting negatively to
us. And by conservative I mean that literally, these are the types of churches
that don’t want to see any changes of any kind, so they aren’t likely to appear
sympathetic to anyone. So, yes, I see this as something we can weather. But
what we can’t do is to overreact. We can’t fly off the handle and do something
stupid that will focus the attention on us that we’re trying to avoid.”
This stopped the others, and they each watched him as the
ideas he proposed percolated through their brains. While they were thinking
about it Alex turned to Lauran.
“I’ve got someone who is organizing the relatives of my
followers, trying to get them together with available Watchers, Seers, or type
3s. I’ve come to think she may need some assistance. It seems to me she should
have some help from the lesbian and gay communities. I’d like you, Lauran, and
you, Kevin, to meet with her, and you and your partners can assist her in
helping merge these people into our community. There are actually two different
groups, one is essentially a community dating service, while the other is
trying to bring friends and relatives into the group. I’d like each of you to
take part in both groups. I want to make sure that anyone coming to us feels
welcomed.”
They glanced at each other, thinking about what he was
proposing. Alex’s ploy had worked. They were so thrown by Alex’s suggestion
that their previous arguments were temporarily forgotten. They started
whispering to each other, measuring their spouse’s feelings about the topic.
Alex could see that the type 3s, Nick, Kevin and Christie, were interested, as
this would give them a position of some importance in the community. Not only
that, but it would allow them to meet and get to know both those within the
community as well as those coming into it. It would allow them to move from the
role of outsiders to integral members.
However, before they could respond, Gail walked up to them.
“I couldn’t see anyone. It looks like they’re gone,” she
told Alex.
“I’m not sure they would have told us much. I was just
concerned about whoever was supposedly defending us.”
“Well, I’m sure you’ll find out who it was eventually,”
Tommy told him. “You don’t need to thank him immediately.”
“Oh, no, I didn’t want to thank him. Well, I did, but that
wasn’t the only thing I wanted to meet him for. I want to emphasize that we’re
not supposed to be picking fights. We’ll do much better blending in,
essentially remaining in the closet, and quietly influencing people one at a
time. Thus we need quiet confidences, not outright confrontations.”
“You’re suggesting your people enter their own closet?”
Kevin asked, blinking in confusion.
“Our biggest responsibility right now is simple survival. We
need to protect ourselves until we’ve established a large enough base so we can
withstand a potential attack. Right now we have two distinct communities, and
an attack on either one would likely lead to the other. So we’re vulnerable at
the moment. We can’t take chances.”
Kevin seemed to understand that, so Alex continued.
“Luckily we don’t stick out much. Unlike the early closeted
gays, we don’t have to worry about being caught frequenting underground bars.
With our abilities, plus modern telecommunications, we can easily arrange to
meet on our own. After all, it’s not like we’re meeting complete strangers.”
Alex saw Cate about to object, so he went on.
“Yes, I’m meeting strangers, but everyone else in the
community basically knows who belongs and who doesn’t, so we shouldn’t be as
exposed as other groups have been in the past. One of our biggest objectives
right now is to not panic the public. Our second is to reach out to our
friends, family and coworkers, to educate them about who we are and what we
represent. We especially have to communicate that what we represent is no
threat to anyone else.”
“So you’re suggesting the best approach is to hide?” Tommy
asked. “I’m sorry, but that runs counter to everything we’ve learned in the gay
community.”
“This isn’t a civil rights movement yet,” Alex told him.
“Right now we don’t have the numbers to stage an effective protest of anything.
I’m working to increase our numbers, as are each of you, but that’s going to
take time. Until we manage to reach a critical level, we face the very real
risk of being wiped out in a single strike. We can’t take the risk of
alienating anyone.
“Our best hope is to demonstrate to people that we aren’t
dangerous. Hopefully, once we’re finally exposed we’ll have a few people who
can stand up for us, because I have no doubt we will be exposed before
long. And once we are exposed, there’s likely to be an explosive reaction to
us. What the general public will perceive is that we’re capable of reading
minds, which they’ll equate with mind control, which will just bring up a lot
of basic fears in people. I doubt anyone will sit still and listen to the
limitations to our abilities. So yes, right now my central concern lies with
protecting everyone as much as I can.”
They each considered that.
“Well, it’s hard to hear that, considering where the gay
community stands at the moment,” Nick said. “But I’ve got to consider that
we’ve only reached this stage with a lot of new scientific knowledge that’s
only come about due to recent exposure. Before this we’ve had to hide for the
last several thousand years. Even places known for their acceptance of gays in
the past, places like Lesbos in ancient Greece, were more known for being a
small collection of like minded people than for any widespread community. So,
yeah, I can understand where you’re coming from.”
“I must admit, our community, while organized, is pretty
small at the moment,” Christie agreed.
“I also want each of you to remember that point when
confronted in the future. First of all, protect yourselves. If you’re exposed,
I’ll expect you to protect the community first, since the many are more vital
than any individual, including myself, but the best way to protect the
community is by protecting each of us.”
So Gail returned to her table by the door as the waitress
returned with their dinners while everyone contemplated Alex’s ideas on the
subject.
They gathered outside after their dinner was finished.
“Thanks for giving us this chance to be involved,” Nick told
Alex. “It means a lot that you’d accept us, even if we have no particular
abilities of our own.”
“Yeah,” Jenny agreed. “I was worried that I would be
subjected to a smaller role in the community because I’m not a Seer, but now I
see you plan on giving everyone a role, whether they’re a Seer, a Watcher or
just a typical Joe from off of the street.”
“That goes doubly for us spouses,” Tommy said. “We’ve been
concerned we wouldn’t be able to help our mates in this aspect of their lives,
and we have images of it disrupting our relationships. It’s nice to know you
won’t hold our not being one of you against us.”
“Hey, the way I see it, if you accept us then you are
one of us,” Alex told him. “The only reason I haven’t included more outsiders
is because I’ve been afraid of how they’d react to learning about us.”
They each thanked Alex and told him they’d get started on
the various tasks he’d assigned to them, as well as putting out feelers to
others who may feel sympathetic to the community. Each either shook
Alex’s hand or gave him a big hug. As they split up Alex, Cate and Gail headed
off to their car.
“Gail, since I’m focusing on individual tasks for people, ask
around and see if there are any security people in the community here,” Alex
suggested. “We need someone who knows what to expect if we’re ever attacked.
Keep in mind that I don’t want a militaristic response, so look for a couple of
people not in the security field to counterbalance the others. This will be
important over time, so we need to set it up now.”
“Will do, Boss. I’ve already been looking, though I don’t
have anyone identified yet, but I’ll keep you apprised,” she told him.
“Alex, what about this TV show?” Cate asked worriedly.
“Well, we need to see if we can find someone who heard it to
find out what it was about. After that we can see if we can get a copy of it so
we can study it in detail.” With that Alex took about doing just that.
‘Hey, there, I’m sorry to disturb you, but I don’t even
know your name. I know who you are, since I remember you from the mass
activation we had, but...’
‘Hey, Alex. My name is Rose. My boyfriend managed to
record it, and he’s got a recording although we don’t know how to get it to
you. We can send it to someone else with a computer, but sending it to your
iPad might be a little difficult. The studio is local, so they haven’t put it
on the internet yet.’
‘That’s OK,’ he replied. ‘The last thing I want is
for us to put it on the internet for others to find.
I basically just want
to know how much damage they did. What did you think of it?’ he asked her.
‘It was essentially pretty accurate. He still doesn’t
know much, but it wasn’t aggressive or argumentative. Instead he mainly focused
on the established churches’ reactions to you. He started out detailing what
little he knew about us, then did a series of interviews of people at Peter’s
coffee shop, then he showed a series of film clips about local churches staging
prayer protests about us.’
‘That doesn’t sound too bad so far,’ Alex conceded.
‘Well, it’s going to bring us a lot more attention.
Before, it was only the people reading the local paper. The TV reaches a
broader market, so there’ll be more people aware of us. We’ll have to be even
more cautious.’
‘You’re right. I’ll tell you what, Rose, start setting up
a series of small klatsches where you can show the video you recorded and
discuss it within the community. I’ll try to make it to the first, but there’s
always the possibility that I may have to run off unexpectedly,’ Alex
warned her. ‘So how big of a fuss were the churches putting up?’ he
asked.
‘It varies, and the show really put them in a bad light.
It emphasized that you’re not making a theological point, that it’s strictly a
personal thing, and even if it isn’t, this movement is hardly more of a threat
than any of the other religious groups. He said that so far we seem to present
no threat to anyone, no one is being compromised or cheated, and a lot of people
seem to take great delight in a series of very minor miracles. I’d say you
don’t have to worry about it too much.’
‘Well, that’s good to hear. Now we’ll just have to see
how the public responds to it. They could either side with us in opposition to
the church’s overreactions, or they could turn on us. Only time will tell, but
it’s hard to keep something this big a secret in this day and age.’
Turning back to Cate and Gail, Alex gave them his view of
the situation. “The TV show didn’t make much of an impact. Generally it didn’t
attack us and came down somewhat hard on the reactionary churches. However it
brings more attention to us, so everyone will have to watch themselves. We’ll
have to focus on shifting as many people as we can out of New Orleans. That’ll
take some of the pressure off of us.”
“That’s good,” Cate replied without embellishment. “Now come
on, we’re supposed to meet with Sarah and Emma. They’ve brought some family
members with them for us to speak to and evaluate. They’re on the way to the
apartment as we speak.”
“Wha... how?”
“Alex, sometimes you can be such a luddite. They called
while you were busy inside,” she replied.
“But you never answered your phone while we were...”
“That’s because I’ve got one of these,” she replied, moving
her hair aside to reveal a little device in her ear. “It’s Bluetooth. It tells
me when I get a call, and lets me talk to someone without having to talk into
the phone. Since we were having dinner I let the call go to voicemail, but then
I listened to the message. When I went to the ladies room I called to make
arrangements. Sometimes, Alex, there’s a whole lot you just don’t pick up on.
Thank God you always focus so totally on whoever you’re with, because otherwise
you’d miss everything.”
“That’s why I always try to surround myself with smart
people,” Alex replied, “so they can keep track of things.”
“Yeah, like you have any choice in who surrounds you. You’ve
just been lucky most of them have been so competent. But, yeah, I got it so I
could help keep track of what you’re supposed to be doing, just so we’ll
prepared for circumstances like this. Not all of your followers can speak to
you whenever they feel like. Sometimes they have to go through me.”
“Well, thank you for that, my beautiful little secretary,”
Alex responded, taking Cate in his arms and kissing her to show her his
appreciation. “I have no idea how I’d ever function without you.”
“Humph, you’d just find someone else to do all these things
for you. Luckily I manage to do it all so you don’t need any more hangers on.
If I had to deal with any more people following us on a daily basis I’d go
ape-shit. It’s hard enough finding time to cuddle with you as it is.”
They managed to return to Allison’s apartment in time to
prepare for company, though Alex had to meet with a few people beforehand. He’d
promised Vicky Amhurst he’d meet to thank her for heading off the Watchers
getting tattoos. He also met with the potential Seers in the park that turned
out to have no abilities, but those meeting didn’t take long.
When their company buzzed the apartment Alex was about to
buzz them in, but Gail warned him not to. Instead, Cate told him she’d escort
them up. Gail didn’t look pleased at that, since she felt she was Cate’s
guardian as well, but there wasn’t much of an alternative. She wasn’t going to
abandon her guard to run errands. It’s when professionals start not taking
their jobs seriously that trouble happens.
Alex and Gail were ready when they came up. Cate knocked,
letting Gail know they were there. Once again she wouldn’t let Alex open the
door until she’d checked it herself, and even then she bolted it and made sure
the proper people were in the hallway before she’d open the door. Alex felt a
bit exasperated at the precautions, but he also knew how important it was, so
he remained silent. It was moments like that when he missed his former life. He
didn’t have many moments when he felt like that, but they were getting more
common as time went by.
Emma and Sarah gave Alex big hugs and said hello to Gail
before they introduced those with them. They’d both brought their mothers, Emma
brought a sister, and both brought a niece. However, as usually happens,
nothing went quite as expected. Sarah’s mother and niece were Watchers as well,
but Emma’s mother wasn’t, nor was her niece. That meant that Emma got her
abilities from her father instead of from her mother. Alex was a little
surprised that her sister was also a Watcher, until Cate patiently explained to
everyone why that made sense from a genetics point of view.
“You’ll need to tell your father that he’s a carrier of the Watcher
gene, which means you’ll have to explain what it means and how it impacts your
life,” Alex told her. “He really needs to know. Besides, hopefully it will
bring him closer to your new life so he doesn’t feel ostracized. Your mother
has already been included, so they’ll have that to share as well. But it’s
important to keep your family close to you if it’s at all possible.”
“You’ll also need to contact the female members of your
father’s family,” Cate added, “since there may be Watchers in his family as
well.”
They sat around and told everyone what they each needed to
know while Emma and Sarah made tea for everyone. They also fixed Alex his
snack, since they knew how he needed to eat constantly. But as soon as they
conveyed the information they needed, Alex played up what an eventful day it
had been, claiming he was exhausted from the stress. Since Cate had explained
about the TV coverage and the religious protests in the streets, everyone
quickly made excuses and made their exits. Cate was about to send Alex to bed
when he instead grabbed her and held her in a loving embrace.
“As nice as it is meeting new followers, I wanted the
evening to be ours,” he told her.
“But I thought...” she started to say.
“Shh. Yeah, I know, Patricia thought I should take a day to
rest, but you and Gail have been doing without spending any time at all with me
for the last week, and it’s not looking like you’re going to be getting any
anytime soon, either. As soon as we start traveling again we’ll meet more
people along the road. About the only chance we’d have to spend any time
together is if we stopped at a fleabag hotel somewhere, since any nice one
would be likely to have a Watcher or two either staying or working there. No,
it’s worth it exhausting myself, rather than watching the two of you do without
for so long. I know it’s hard for you to pretend you’re only my sister.”
Cate actually began crying as she stood there holding him,
but that didn’t stop her from kissing him. Nor did it stop her from dragging
him to the bedroom, where they both made room for Gail to join them. Gail was
very patient, simply assisting as Alex made quiet gentle love with his sister,
and only then did she make her own needs evident, as she rushed through her own
time with him.
“Damn, I don’t think I’ve ever been through a tougher tour,”
Gail told them both. “Trying to pretend that you’re just a client all that time
was killing me, when I wanted to grab you the whole time.”
“Yeah, imagine how I feel,” Cate commiserated. “At least you
can admit that you and Alex have slept together. I have to keep pretending I’m
just his overprotective sister.”
“You realize that these women would make allowances for
almost anything that Alex did, don’t you?” Gail asked her.
“Yeah, I realize that, but they’d have reservations about
both him and me as a result, and I don’t think we want to risk that. Besides, I
just don’t feel comfortable announcing to the world that I’m sleeping with my
brother. Call me old fashioned, but that’s just not how I want to be known.
After all, I’m hardly a sex crazed young floozie who couldn’t control herself.
Alex is the only guy I’ve ever slept with.”
As everyone recovered, they sat Alex down at the dining room
table to feed him his snack and then escorted him back to bed. They cuddled
with each other, and the two girls did a little fooling around as well. Later
that night Alex awoke to someone playing with him, and he managed to give his
sister a repeat performance of his brotherly love. Gail had to settle for
Cate’s going down on her while Alex held her. However she found that worked
well, since she was still more excited by the idea of a girl making love to
her, even as she got a chance to soak up Alex’s energy. They all fell asleep
happily sated for a change, and Alex felt both exhausted and strangely at
peace.
They’d managed to weather yet another storm, and they’d
managed to handle it quite well. He couldn’t have asked for a better outcome to
having their movement exposed to the public, and while he was sure there’d be
several bumps in the road, he had to mentally thank everyone who helped keep
his followers in New Orleans organized and responsive. He just hoped they could
weather each storm as well as they’d handled this one.