Chapter 17: Connecting the Dots
Once Monique had rested and her fever had dropped to a reasonable level, David helped her back inside the house. While David had certain specific plans in mind regarding the Charlottesville group he held responsible for both Monique’s current state and the two most recent deaths, there wasn’t anything he could do about it at the moment, so they’d have to wait while he took care of other necessary details. One of which was taking care of Monique.
“So, here comes the Grande dame,” Tom announced with a flourish as they entered the kitchen, directing them to their seat at the large table with a wave of his hand.
“Thanks, but I’m not sure I like the… Grande dame bit,” Monique protested, still struggling to regain her breath from her exertions. “It makes me sound like a distinguished older woman.”
“I meant it only as an honorific, my lady,” Tom hurried to assure her, “signifying how you’re now one of the senior members of this small community of survivors.”
“Don’t worry about it,” she answered with a dismissive wave as she collapsed into the chair that he held for her. “But you may want to think of a better… phrase. Not to mention the… senior part,” she panted, her thin frame struggling to breathe deeply enough to replenish her strength.
“It’s great to see you back among the liv…,” Melissa began before catching herself, not wanting to remind everyone about those who hadn’t made it. Those from the house had gathered around as David and Monique had entered, and the others living nearby were hovering nearby to welcome her back too—as well as to discuss what the next plans were.
“I’m glad to be back among the living,” Monique answered with a heartfelt smile, not taking any offense at the phrase, nor Tom’s poor wood choices. “I wasn’t at all sure I was going to make it, and the efforts of Peter and Nina shouldn’t diminish what is a major advancement.”
“Was it really as bad as everyone describes?” Wendy asked. “No one else really wants to talk about what it’s like.”
“I don’t think that’s because they’re afraid of talking about it,” Monique quietly said, taking another sip to sooth her scratchy throat. “It’s more that it’s hard to describe to anyone who hasn’t experienced it. It’s not something I’d recommend—unless it was unavoidable—but it’s much better than the alternative,” she added with a weak laugh.
“I know that you and the others are concerned about a memorial service,” David said as he took a seat himself. “I wanted to ensure that Monique was ready for one. I’m also sorry you couldn’t have been there when I buried them, but you realize why I did that, don’t you?” He asked, looking at their surviving siblings with concern clearly apparent in his eyes. “They were still too contagious to risk exposing the rest of you. Monique should already be past the highly contagious phase.”
“No, I understand,” Wendy answered, tears silently returning to her eyes at the thought of her older sister.
“We all knew what was likely to happen,” Jenny calmly said as she valiantly tried to steady her trembling lower lip. “We know that the Great Death is a… well, that it’s a death sentence. I’m just glad that you’ve managed to save so many. I’m upset that Peter and Nina weren’t among them, but we’ve got to count our blessings where we can. If it wasn’t for you, none of you would have survived,” she added, indicating the group of five survivors of all the Great Death plagues.
“We’ll talk more about that later, but for now let’s focus on the party at hand,” Tom said, trying to keep the gathering on target as Melissa set a small cake on the table.
“Honestly, I can’t even imagine eating that,” Monique informed her.
“Don’t worry,” Tom said, “I’ve got another of my shakes. But based on past experiences, you should be able to eat a little later on, and you should be up to eating small regular meals by tomorrow.”
“If you say so, but I feel like I can hardly even lift my arm.”
“That’s from lying still for so long. Your muscles have atrophied,” David explained as Tom delivered the promised protein and fruit shake. Luckily he also provided a straw, so she didn’t have to lift it. “Also, you’ve lost a lot of muscle tone as your body burned your fat reserves trying to find the resources to keep you going.”
“Uh, what about the Peterson gr—?” Franklin started to ask, motioning towards the living room.
“Nope. Don’t even suggest it,” David warned him, casting him a steely glance. He wasn’t about to let anyone sidetrack this little ritual he’d developed with Mattie and Betty. “This is a celebration that Monique has survived, and we’re not going to sully it by turning it into a discussion about other topics. We’ll all sit down later to iron out other details, but right now we’re rejoicing that we’ve avoided losing yet another one. Each life saved is a blessing and needs to be celebrated.”
“I’m sorry,” Franklin hurriedly apologized. “I’m just so anxious about everything. You’re absolutely right. Monique, my dear, for as sickly as you look, it’s a real treasure having you here.”
She somehow managed the strength to stick her tongue out at him, and everyone laughed.
The kids were especially interested in hearing the details of the event, both so they could better understand it—potentially anticipating it—and understand what their siblings had suffered through. Monique was very patient with them, even though she had to pause frequently, but the kids were in no rush to hurry her.
“Did… did Peter say anything?” Jenny asked, not bothering to fully state her question, although everyone seemed to know exactly what she was asking.
“We were all pretty well out of it, after all, it happened while we were asleep, but I was well aware of what was happening. When that alarm goes off, it grabs your attention right away. I was too weak to get up, but I watched what was happening.” Monique slowly sipped from her protein shake and sank back into her chair before continuing.
“Your brother was too weak to respond, much less speak, but David and Alice worked heroically on them both. I don’t know whether it was just their time, or just the timing, but with both of them having attacks at the same time and with our not being properly prepared for such an event, they were scrambling.
“They managed to revive both quite a few times, but Peter never really came around. They’d get his heart beating for short periods, but he never fully recovered. Nina actually did a bit, but she slipped away some time later. I suspect that they were already too far gone, and that David’s miracle cure didn’t have enough time to work on them.”
Although they knew they weren’t supposed to, Jenny, Adam and Wendy all turned to Tom for a more ‘official’ explanation.
“I’ll discuss it in more detail later, but she’s right,” the scientist shrugged. “Whatever David’s plasma did for everyone else, it didn’t work for them. Their internal organs began to break down, so there was no way they could have survived. Peter was probably fortunate to have suffered from a heart attack first, but there wasn’t any hope if he’d survived that.”
Jenny hung her head at that and the others respected her grief, but the teenager was actually relieved. She knew how horrible a death it was, and if her brother had avoided most of it, then she felt that it had been something of a blessing—one that he’d earned.
The others remained quiet, lost in their own reflections, until Mattie blew a party whistle they’d recovered from one of the houses they’d cleaned out. “Enough talk. More party. If you can’t eat that cake, then the rest of us will have to do it for you,” she offered.
Monique smiled and waved her forward, and the young girl distributed the cake slices that Melissa cut up. It was a strange celebration, part sad memorial for the recently departed, part welcome home for Monique. Left unspoken was the open question of how everyone who had not been through David’s miracle cure would fare when it was their turn.
“OK, it looks like Monique is getting tired,” David informed the others as he hovered over his charge. “She should really lie down.” But she turned and laid her hand on his arm, now that she could.
“No sleep yet. Memorial still,” she said, already too tired to complete her sentences.
“Are you sure?” he asked, but she firmly nodded, reinforcing her decision, so David told the others to gather by the mass grave outside while he and Alice helped Monique outside. He’d assumed he’d have to physically carry Monique the entire way, but was pleasantly surprised when Debbie showed up with a slightly modified wheelbarrow equipped with a supporting chair back. Monique smiled her appreciation as she was led outside.
“Thank you, that was a beautiful tribute,” Jenny told David as they reentered the house following their impromptu funeral ceremony.
“It was the truth,” he said with a shrug. “I didn’t know either Peter or Nina for long, but I was very impressed by what I saw, and I’m sure I’d have been even more impressed if they’d have continued.”
“Still, I appreciated it. I know they both thought the world of you.” The older teen sniffed once more and dabbed the corners of her eyes with her sleeve as her emotions started to settle down.
“Monique, I should get you upstairs and into bed,” David said, turning his attention to the woman on his arm. She had managed to make it through the short ceremony, but the light exertion had taken its toll and she looked more than a little peaked.
“The hell with that,” she stubbornly insisted as she stiffened, trying to remain standing through sheer force of will. “If I rest now, you’ll make all your plans without me, and then I won’t be able to object to any stupid, self-sacrificing decision you might make.”
“Wait…,” David said, looking perplexed, "I’d assumed you’d remain here and rest while the rest of us go and deal with the situation.”
“Screw that!” Monique growled as she tightened her grip on his arm. “There’s no way I’d let you leave me behind. Tom tells me that I’ll be okay if I rest for a little, and I figure I can rest the entire way there. But don’t you forget, mister,” she added, waving a stern finger in his face, “I’m the only medical authority you’ve got, and if you’re planning to do what I think you are, you’ll be needing a lot of medical assistance.”
“Yeah, I’ve got to admit you have a point,” David admitted. “I was worrying about that little detail.”
“Face it, Dad, she’s got you over a barrel on this,” Alice told him with a small smile as she helped to steer the shuffling frail woman to the couch in the living room where her father could watch over her. The view through the window was still grand, although it was a bit obscured by all the medical equipment and scientific gear. “You might as well surrender to the inevitable while you still can.”
“OK,” David replied with a sigh. “I don’t like it, but I’ll take you along just as long as you listen to my restrictions.”
“Don’t worry, boss man,” Greg replied. “We all know that you’re the man in charge.”
“Besides, you don’t need to tell me about proper medical care,” Monique reminded him. “I do have some experience, after all. I would probably be lecturing you if our roles were reversed, but if I relax and take it easy then I’ll be OK.”
“All right, I’m convinced,” David said, looking around the group and seeing the determination in everyone’s eyes. “So is everyone expecting to discuss the details of the trip now?”
“Actually, before you begin, there were a couple of things I want to cover first,” Tom informed him. “First of all, I never told you about the results of my experiments in Charlottesville with the electron microscope.” Here he glanced at each of them, letting the tension build slightly. “That was because it takes a long time analyzing the results. All I could do while I was there was to run as many tests as I could, not taking the time to analyze any results. Thus it took some time to scour the data.”
Everyone leaned forward, as they’d been wondering what he’d discovered.
“The results are exactly as we’d been hoping for,” he told them, grinning widely. “They prove that we’re on the right track. That there’s a companion cell than actually helps carry and transmit the virus, and that we can use it to identify and measure the lethality of the plagues.”
“While that’s good news, I never really doubted you,” David told him proudly. “You already had too much evidence backing you up. If you were wrong at all, it wouldn’t have been by much.”
Tom puffed up with pride over David’s words, but just as quickly turned serious before tackling the next subject. “Related to that, while you’ve been ministering to the sick I’ve been doing more research, and while I don’t have enough evidence yet, I think I’ve got a pretty good understanding of why your plasma is saving so many lives.”
“Pray tell, continue,” David told him as he settled onto the couch. Monique snuggled up beside him, comforted by his steady presence. He was a little surprised she did, given how weak she seemed, but he wasn’t surprised when Betty curled up on his other side. “I feel confident that everyone is anxious to know what’s happening.”
“Well, when I told you earlier that your version of the virus wasn’t as aggressive as the unmodified strain, that wasn’t correct,” Tom explained, instinctively slipping into ‘professor lecture’ mode. “Instead it’s still as aggressive as the regular, non-David version of the virus. It attacks almost all the cells it encounters, and as we’ve seen, it can clearly still sicken and kill, but it’s not quite as destructive as the pure strain of the plagues.”
“Wait!” Alice interrupted. “How can that be? It clearly doesn’t make sense. If it attacks the body’s cells enough to have killed both Peter and Nina, then why doesn’t it damage them?”
“Ah, that’s just it,” Tom replied with a knowing smile. “It’s a virus, and as such it invades the individual cells trying to find a home that will support it. But the Great Death viruses themselves don’t actually kill anything. The key is that the deaths we’ve been attributing to it aren’t actually caused by the Great Death itself. Instead it’s an autoimmune response.”
“I’m pretty sure I know where you’re going with this,” Monique told him, “but you’d better explain what you’re referring to for everyone else.”
“Right,” Tom agreed with a nod. “Essentially, these new viruses, unrecognized by the body, try to find a home in each cell they come in contact with. It just latches on and lives happy as a clam. But the fact that the virus is so alien catches the body’s immune system by surprise—basically the body doesn’t realize it’s being invaded at first. As a result, the plagues manage to infect quite a number of cells before the body realizes that anything is happening. But once the body does react, it goes into overdrive.”
Tom paused to let them consider that, watching everyone’s reactions before continuing. “Since the disease is something that’s never been encountered before in Earth’s biological history, the body has no predetermined defense mechanisms—no ‘ready response’, if you will. So the body goes into panic mode, attempting to wipe it out at any expense. The immune system tries so hard to exterminate the diseases that it actually begins to destroy each infected cell.” Tom ran his hand down his torso, indicating his internal organs. “By the time the immune system starts to work, the viruses have already infected the host’s vital organs, and so….”
“Tom and I discussed the progression of each variant earlier,” Monique offered, filling in for Tom. “Each one tends to focus on a specific region of the body. One concentrates in the lungs, one in the liver and kidneys, another in the heart.”
“Basically, once the blood becomes infected,” Tom said, once more taking over because he was so excited to reveal his discoveries, “every cell in the body that delivers oxygen becomes infected, which in turn infects every cell that they touch—which basically means every single part of the body. Thus everything suffers this overactive immunological attack. While we can’t observe it on a cellular level, seeing the death of each individual cell, we only notice it when the major organs begin to fail.”
“But you first thought that David’s version wasn’t aggressive, meaning that while it still infects each cell, it doesn’t cause as much damage?” Greg guessed, skipping ahead.
“Exactly,” Tom replied with a nod. “What David and Alice’s plasma does is to shut down this overreaction behavior—essentially it tells the immune system to quit, to back off, and to treat it just like it would anything else. That buys the victims time. What the body does then is to attack the virus at a more leisurely pace, which also allows the diseases to progress at their own pace. Thus those treated with his plasma become quite sick, and still suffer horribly—still mostly because of the autoimmune response—but it’s not as severe, so they’re much less likely to die as a result.”
“Fascinating,” Monique replied. “I’m guessing that the immune systems’ delayed reaction plays into the treatment as well?”
“Precisely,” Tom agreed, pleased to see everyone catching on. “Because the plasma treatment delivers the virus directly into the bloodstream, it spreads it throughout the body very quickly, which gives the body time to absorb whatever it is that affects the immune system before the immune system launches its attack. That’s why it’s so necessary that we begin the treatment right away, the sooner after the infection the better. If we wait too long, we might miss our small window of opportunity and the body may begin to break down before the immune system has adapted.”
“Is that what happened to Peter and Nina?” Jenny asked quietly, leaning forward, eager to understand this phenomenon despite its reminder of what it had done to her brother.
“Sort of,” Tom replied as gently as possible. “The transference from David to the kids was blood born, which is a much more effective infection vector than touching or even inhalation. Thus their immune system started ramping up before we could apply whatever it is in David’s blood that blocks it. Since it took Peter and Nina so long to get back here, they only had a limited amount of time until it would have been too late.” He paused for a second, and then stumbled on, desperate to give Jenny and the other kids some small measure of comfort. “But even so, they lasted for a long time. They lasted for quite a few days, far longer than they would have if they did not receive the treatment. That shows just how effective the treatment actually is.”
“While I survived longer before I underwent the plasma treatment because I’d only touched David and the infection hadn’t spread as quickly, right?” Mattie asked.
“Yes, and in that case each cell that was infected by the virus had already started turning off the immune response in the nearby cells, so you had a lot more leeway.”
“Believe me,” Melissa broke in with a snort, “we’re not about to move very far away from you after this. Do you have a spare room we could share, just so we’ll be that much closer when we manage to get sick?” she added with a smirk.
“It’s actually a very real concern,” Tom agreed, taking her teasing comment seriously. “We don’t have a firm grasp on how soon we’d have to respond before it’s too late, but I’m guessing it may be too late if we encounter a random sick person during our travels. It may only work if they get sick after we’ve already met them. But again, we can’t be sure about that.”
“So Amy likely wouldn’t have survived even if we’d been able to treat her at the time?” Alice asked her father, addressing something that had been bothering her for some time.
“No, she was cut up pretty badly when that woman shot her with her shotgun when we confronted her in her shop, and there were too many exposures to her bloodstream over too great an area of her body,” David surmised. “The unadulterated virus was applied almost directly to her bloodstream. Not only that, but it took us too long to get her back here.”
“Not knowing the details of that incident, I’d have to agree with David,” Tom added. “The time between the exposure and when she could have received treatment would have been critical. But beyond that, there’s a difference between the blood being exposed, and being exposed via a blood transfer. By having your blood splattered on their already cut up flesh, and because it was in too small a quantity to affect enough of their immune system, both Peter and Nina were particularly bad cases. I’d guess this Amy would have had more time simply because she wasn’t exposed to infected blood, but by exposure by contact instead.”
“Is there any way you could provide a guesstimate about how much time we’d have in each case?” Greg asked.
“Not without us studying each case in isolation,” Tom informed him. “There are just too many variables, like the amount of contaminants, the size and quantity of any cuts, the absorption rate, variations in each person’s immunological response. We’ll only be able to provide estimates once we’ve watched it happen in more cases. But at least we know what to look for, so when we see it, we’ll be able to learn much more quickly than we could in the past. That’s why I said that Peter and Nina taught us a lot. By watching how they were exposed, and how they responded, we learned a lot about how the diseases progress.”
“Well at least they achieved something by how they died,” Adam insisted, his voice holding a touch of sadness even as he tried to maintain a brave face. “I’m glad it wasn’t a total loss.”
“Yeah, I’m sure they’d be proud that we learned so much from their sacrifice,” Jenny agreed with a sad half-smile.
It took them a while to flesh out that particular topic, so David insisted that everyone take a short break before they tackled the next. Since Monique already knew she’d be accompanying David and the others, she didn’t resist when David escorted her upstairs, getting her settled in the large master suite before he returned.
“The next thing we wanted to discuss,” Alice announced once he’d gotten settled, “is what’s been happening with our various radio contacts. Unfortunately, Tobias has disappeared from sight, and we have absolutely no idea what’s happened to him. In fact, we haven’t heard anything from him for some time now.”
“That’s really unsettling,” David responded with a sour look. “I was hoping we were making a difference across a larger area, but if people are still dying or killing each other, then things must be even grimmer than we’d thought.”
“Well, I wouldn’t immediately jump to that conclusion,” Greg told him. “All we know is that he can’t establish radio contact. That could mean anything. Remember, he said he was going to try sailing around the blockaded bridge. I’m guessing he took the inland route rather than putting out to sea again. He could have been hit with a stray shot, or more likely, he could have run into a sunken vessel of some kind and sank. It could even mean that he lost electricity to his boat but that it’s otherwise okay. All it would take to lose radio contact would be to damage the part of the mast that the antenna is located on. Hell, for all we know he might have left the bigger boat with the radio behind and took a smaller, faster boat to get around quicker.”
“Hmm, those are all quite reasonable explanations,” David agreed. “While I’m still not pleased about losing contact. I’ll put off making any assumptions yet. But still, it’s a setback.”
“Yeah, that it is,” Greg agreed.
“Anyway,” Alice continued, “we heard from John Taylor, the guy from Hilton Head. He said that he’d met someone, and that they’d decided to set up and stock a safe house before venturing into Savannah, so it looks like we might not get a lot of new information for them for a while.”
“Disappointing, but I actually applaud their approach,” David responded. “It is better preparing and acting defensively than it is taking unnecessary risks. Information is one thing, but I’d rather have a voice in that region of the country that can effect changes in the long term.”
“Well, the other news isn’t much better,” Alice continued. “The guy from Utah didn’t respond for a long time, but that was expected as he’d set out on the Great Salt Lake, so he’d have been indisposed for several days. He finally reestablished contact yesterday, but it turns out he responded much like John did. When he entered the outskirts of Salt Lake City, he was so discouraged by the amount of dead he found there that he didn’t feel it was safe venturing any farther.
“He says he found two women and a couple of kids, none of them related, and they set up in a nice little out of the way mansion they thought they could stock. Luckily for them, the Mormons tend to prepare for disasters so most of the Mormon households have sizeable stocks of long-term previsions. They’ve been exploring locally, trying to collect as many of those supplies as they can in much the same way we are.”
“Again, I’d have appreciated hearing about how many people have survived, but knowing he managed to find that many people in only a short time means there must be a fair number of survivors. It’s better that they’re taking the time to prepare, as at least a few of them are likely to survive whatever happens.”
“It’s better long term news than short term,” Melissa agreed.
“We’re in this for the long term,” David reminded them. “Nothing we’re facing will be resolved quickly. We have to get everyone to prepare for the coming winter, and we’ve got to figure out how to resist the Great Death, and then we’ve got to find a way to unite the various survivors so we can start rebuilding. None of that can be done very quickly.”
“OK, now that that’s all out of the way, how about we finally tackle the giant pink elephant in the room,” Greg suggested. “What are we going to do about these people who tried to kill you, and who will obvious try to hurt any other survivors they come across?”
Knowing this was going to be a long discussion, with a lot of planning and scheming, David settled back, preparing to outline his plans and see what holes the others could poke it them.
“Hmm, about time you finally came to bed” Monique said sleepily, glancing up as David tried to slip quietly into the room. She could hear the sounds of the girls laughing over a game they were playing in the other room, so Monique knew that Alice had arranged it in order to avoid her, Mattie and Betty coming to bed. Alice knew what this event meant to her, but Monique hoped she had recovered enough to make the most of it.
“Shh, you should be asleep,” David whispered, his fatherly attitude showing that he was as ignorant about what was happening around him as he usually was. Monique smiled as he kicked off his shoes and started to undress. He could plan things out in intricate detail months in advance, but give him a social relationship and he was helpless without someone laying things out for him. “You need your rest,” he continued. “By the way, where are Betty and Mattie?” he asked, glancing around in confusion since they weren’t in his bed as usual.
Despite how awkward it sometimes was with so many people of different ages in the same bed, David was confident that they somehow made it work. He wasn’t sure how, but somehow the younger girls were never there whenever Betty wanted to get romantic. David still felt odd about the age difference between himself and his college-aged lover, and he was conflicted about her fascination with him. He wasn’t sure if she was actually attracted to him for himself or because she’d formed some kind of dependency on him. He certainly didn’t mind the physical aspect of their relationship—but the emotional aspect gave him cause for concern—mostly because he felt he was taking advantage of her.
“No, I’ve been waiting up for you,” Monique said as she stretched beneath the covers. “I think I’ve rested enough, and right now I need someone to cuddle up with. I figure the extra body heat is just what I need.”
“If you’re cold I can get the comforter,” David offered as he paused with his shirt half-off his body, still not quite getting the point.
“No thanks. That would be too much,” she said patiently. “What I need is some physical contact. It’s been too damn long since I’ve touched another human being, and in case you haven’t noticed it, that’s a basic human need that everyone is starving for.”
“Oh, yeah, Betty’s been kind of making that point to me. Even Mattie and Alice snuggle up a bit close during the night. They don’t try anything, but you can tell how much they relish being able to cuddle.”
“Exactly, and I’m ready for some of it. I’ve been watching the four of you, and I’m in the mood to reap the benefits of what I just went through. I’m going to grab onto you and not let go for some time.”
David laughed easily, his mirth indicating that while he wasn’t against the idea, he wasn’t quite taking it all that seriously either. “Well then, scoot on over, I’ve got enough body heat to warm up a bed full of… uh… people, I guess,” he responded, blushing as he suddenly had visions of both multiple lovers and kids sharing his bed.
“Umm, that feels so nice,” Monique murmured as she snuggled up against him. “But there’s no need to be quite so formal. Move a little closer, will you? I need to reach something.”
“Yeah, like what?” he asked, scooting closer.
“Like this,” Monique said, reaching up as if to pick something off his cheek, but when he leaned in so she could get it she grabbed him and pulled him in, planting a big lip lock on him. Her sudden move pulled him off balance and caused him to fall forward onto her. He resisted for a bit, but once he finally figured out she’d planned it and that he hadn’t just fallen onto her he relaxed and actively kissed her back.
“Uh, that was unexpected,” he said when she gave him enough of a break for him to speak. “Was that a part of the ‘reconnecting to your humanity’ moment?”
“I’ve been wanting to do that since we first met, you big dummy,” she replied, giving him an extra kiss just to punctuate the statement.
“Really?” he asked with a small smile. “Then why did we fight so much when we first met? And why did you fight so hard to get away from me?”
“I said I was initially attracted to you, but I also realized what you represented. I had no intention of dying for you, and when I first learned that you were contagious I wanted to get Debbie and me as far away from you as we could. That’s was just common sense.”
“But then you found out we weren’t quite as contagious as you’d thought,” David suggested, hoping to draw her out, as he still didn’t feel secure with where he found himself yet.
“Yeah, it took a while, but after Tom initially explaining what he’d learned, I started to relax,” she continued as she snuggled against him, this time lying atop him, instead of merely rubbing shoulders. “And the fact that everyone trusted you so implicitly certainly helped. Then when you started organizing things, explaining what you were doing, I was hooked.” She laughed and gave him a little kiss on his chest. “By the way, I think Debbie was captivated right away,” she added. “She was against leaving from the very first, and she practically begged me to return the moment we did. So when I found Greg and the others it was essentially a done deal.”
“But still, our relationship was hardly one of star crossed lovers,” David argued, still not able to reconcile her strange reactions.
“You are such a blind naïve romantic,” she teased, giving him another gentle kiss. “Haven’t you ever heard of fire and ice? Often the most intense relationships border on active dislike. Think of Sam and Diane on the old ‘Cheers’ TV show. It’s a part of the whole ‘opposites attract’ mystique.”
“Forgive me, but until fairly recently I was a strictly one woman man. I hadn’t had many romantic entanglements.”
“Oh come on. Surely Linda wasn’t your first?” Monique asked, unable to accept that someone as good looking as David could have been so sheltered.
“No,” he admitted. “I had a few encounters in college, but I was enough of a nerd that I wasn’t exactly with the in-crowd. But Linda was my first real love. I was committed to her—until we split up—and afterwards I simply wasn’t interested in anyone else.”
“Until they literally fell into your lap,” Monique laughed. “Don’t forget, I’ve heard your life history from your own mouth several times over now.”
“Yeah, Ellen and I fell in love right away, but the others were all due to Ellen’s machinations. I never went looking for any of them, but she pointed out how they regarded me so I took the emotional attachments seriously.”
“From what I heard, you took it very seriously, so I know you won’t object to getting involved with me,” she smiled with a look of a cat with a canary in its mouth.
“That may be, but not until I can work out the details with Betty,” he warned her. “I’m not about to test how someone really feels about me by cheating on them. After all, I’m not quite that naïve.”
“Oh, I don’t know about that,” she replied, smiling up at him. “Why do you think Betty and the others aren’t here right now? Do you really think that game out in the living room happened by chance? On a night before you’re scheduled to head out on a grand adventure?”
She waited while David considered it, and she could see the wooden cogs in his head slowly rotating. However, he seemed to be getting there a little slowly, so she decided to try heating him up a little, hoping to loosen his mental connections. Rolling over slightly, she half-pulled him on top of her and firmly planted her lips against his, almost feeding on his mouth as she squirmed against him.
“So everyone knows what’s been happening besides me?” David asked when they broke their kiss.
Monique now had some hard evidence that he was definitely interested in her attentions, and she didn’t think it would take long to finish off this discussion. He may be slow, but he eventually put things together in a nice complete package.
“The others have been through the process before,” she patiently explained. “They all know the intense emotional connections it forms. Even if I hadn’t been nuts about you before, I would have been after what we experienced together. As it is, you couldn’t chase me away with a stick. You could before with the threat of death, but luckily I’m immune now, so that threat no longer applies.”
“What about the others? Are they in on it as well?” David asked, wondering whether everyone downstairs was laughing at how clueless he was.
“I don’t know about them, but if they aren’t quite as obtuse as you are, several of them were likely to have observed the clues. Alice knew right away that I was attracted to you. Mattie did too.” Monique flashed him a wry smile. “Debbie figured it out after a little while, so my clever antagonistic disguise wasn’t quite as infallible as I’d been hoping.”
“So I don’t need to worry about being embarrassed tomorrow morning when I walk downstairs, except for the youngsters, of course?”
“You don’t have to worry about us,” a voice that David recognized as Adam’s called out from the hall. “We won’t be surprised.”
David jumped at the interruption of their private moment, but he sighed, figuring he should have assumed they’d be listening.
“Yeah,” Alice called out from nearby Adam, “we decided to move your morning embarrassment up a bit.”
“I thought you people were supposed to be playing a game?” David called back, strangely comforted by the familiar voyeurism.
“You didn’t think we’d stick with a silly game when there’s a much more entertaining program playing out here, did you?” Debbie offered. “Face it, this affects all of us, so we all want to know how it plays out.”
“Besides,” said Jenny, “if you think about it, this is just a different kind of game—one where we all win! Even if we can’t touch you like she and Betty can, at least we can dream about it,” she added with a snicker.
“I don’t think you’ll need to be embarrassed about anything,” Monique assured him, ignoring the interruptions, though she answered a bit louder than she had before. “Here you are, with several women willing to do anything for you, while most of them either can’t touch anyone, or if they can, they still live in constant fear that one of them might have been accidentally exposed. As far as I see it, you’re the luckiest man in the world right now, and that includes everyone who’s already survived one of the Great Death plagues.”
“Well, on that we can agree. Despite how antagonistic our relationship has been up until now, I’ve always thought the world of you, and I’ve always admired your abilities and professionalism.”
There was a loud groan from outside at that response. As David turned to respond, Monique pointed out just why his statement was so wrong. “Gee, just what a girl wants to hear when she’d alone naked in bed with the man of her dreams,” she teased.
“Yeah, even I know what a dumb statement that is,” Adam added, which caused laughter from the hallway. However, Alice quickly hushed them up.
“I’m just saying, I’m more than ready to take this to the next level,” David explained after finishing the kiss he gave her as a testament to how he really felt about her. He stopped for a moment, and then called out, “Is Betty sitting outside?”
“No, dad, she figured it’d be better if she sat this one out, though she asked us to remind you that she’d catch the encore later,” Alice responded.
Satisfied by that response, David turned back to Monique. “Although I love Betty, we’re not really compatible due to the basic age difference. However, with you, I think we can really build something.” With that he leaned in to kiss her, but stopped, turning to once again yell to his audience. “Just a note, that’s not to be repeated to her, got it?”
There was a collective groan from outside. “Yeah, we got it. We may be young, but we’re not quite as slow about this relationship stuff as you are,” Alice teased.
“Wait a minute, stop right there,” Monique told him when he turned back, pushing him back to show how serious she was. “There’s no way you can ‘dump’ Betty. She’s intricately tied to you just like all of us are. We’ve each ‘imprinted’ on you just like a bunch of baby ducks. You can’t cut those ties. They run too deep. Just like Ellen did before, you’re now stuck with several women whether you like it or not. You may not always relate to each of us, but between us, I’m sure we can keep you entertained.”
“And just like Ellen, I can see I no longer have any control of my own life. So, yes, ma’am, I’ll do as I’m told, though you don’t mind if I try to preserve my dignity by pretending like I still have a little control over my life.”
“No, we’ll give you that much, just as long as you behave yourself. Now shut the hell up and do what you’ve been avoiding up until now. Here I am, all hot and bothered having waited up for you for hours, and all we’ve been doing is yammering away. Let’s see how you use that little tool of yours. After all, I’ll need to see whether I need to throw you back after all.”
“We’ll see, though I have a feeling you’re not about to toss me aside quite that easily,” he answered with a confident grin, even as he leaned in, kissing her again. Breaking the kiss, he called out one last time.
“OK, kids, you’ve heard all you need to. Now go finish your game and give us a little privacy at least. After all, knowing you’re out there is likely to give me some unnecessary performance anxiety, which isn’t likely to improve my performance.”
“Don’t worry, dad,” Alice responded. “We’ve all heard everything we needed to. But don’t be surprised when we show up afterwards to congratulate you both. After all, we’ve all been waiting for this for some time.”
Assuming they’d finally be left alone for a little while, David kissed Monique again, giving her all of his attention. She was glad he was finally comfortable with the situation, because she’d worn out much of her little remaining strength arguing with him. She’d actually been glad for the interruptions by the kids as it gave her a chance to rest between arguments. She hoped she could stay awake for it, because she was really looking forward to this, but she was still as weak as a kitten. Well, time for him to play the masculine roll. She’d just lay back and let him do all the work. She smiled up at him, snuggled down under him, and was looking forward to what she knew would be an unmatched emotional thrill ride.
The kids, meanwhile, proceeded to discuss the latest development as they resumed their game. When Betty asked them a silent question with a single inquisitive look, Alice merely nodded her head. She understood everything that she needed to know from that simple acknowledgment.
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