Chapter 27: Another Good Day
Once I got home I had a few things to get off of my chest. I was pissed at Gail and insisted on calling to yell at her. True, I could have done it without a phone, but somehow it’s more meaningful when you can hear yourself yell and listen to the response. Call me old fashioned, I guess. She patiently listened to me, and then told me I was full of crap and that there was too much riding on me to risk getting beaten up all the time just because I was stubborn. She did have a point.
“You can’t let your mission get sidetracked by being courageous. You don’t see the President getting into fist fights, do you? And you seem to be taking a cavalier attitude simply because no one got hurt, but you don’t know what might have happened if one of the girls bashed their heads in when they were tripped. Besides, the police know how to handle things like this. That’s their job. And from what I hear this has been going on long enough. It sounds like every day you walk into that school you’re taking a risk. At least wait until we have some of your essence stored first,” she teased, although I certainly knew she didn’t mean it.
“Speaking of essences, it’s too bad you didn’t get a chance at me while you were here,” I told her, teasing her back.
“I know, I hated to miss it. I can only imagine what the other girls are telling me. Now that they can talk without you they’ve been busy gossiping. They were always a bit concerned about using your brain power for simple messages before. But I’ll wait my turn on the weekend. The only problem is I have to try to fit my turn in between your girlfriends’ time over the weekend.”
“Yeah, but we’ll manage to work something out. There’s always morning wood you know.”
“No, I wouldn’t know about that, as I’ve never actually encountered it. I know about morning pussy, is that close?”
“Pretty close, one’s soft and messy and the other’s only messy just before it goes soft.” She laughed a bit and we both relaxed from my earlier tirade. There’s nothing like joking about dick with a confirmed lesbian.
“Hey listen, I called the New Hope Center and they won’t be open over the weekend. We can use them if you can come up during the day on Friday, otherwise there’s a new clinic I’ve heard good things about that says they’re open on Saturdays. Oh, and neither one seems to be real big on treating under aged teens for obvious reasons. Think your Mom would want to come and visit the city?”
“Hmm, which one of them has a smaller and more personal approach? Just make sure they both are capable of doing the work, though. The biggest factor is their maintaining their own samples, and their being open to operating under unusual circumstances. That’s why I’m anxious to avoid the big multi-clinic operations,” I told her.
“As I’ve said, I’ve known several lesbian couples who have reported good experiences with New Hope, but we’ll try the new one instead if you don’t feel comfortable with a big franchise.”
“Yeah, that’s a big issue. Let’s stick with Saturday. There’s less chance of my being overwhelmed if we limit my exposure. The overall population should be reduced over the weekend as it’ll mostly be limited to tourists.”
“Sounds good, I’ll make the arrangements,” she told me.
“That’s a good idea. Thanks, and sorry for yelling at you, but I just had to vent.”
“That’s alright, I’m just glad you’re OK.”
“Yeah, but next time you have a bright idea on how to keep me safe, could you run it by me first?”
“It was kind of a last minute decision,” she tried to defend herself.
“Yeah, if only there was some way you could reach out and communicate with someone.” She laughed with me, “Yeah, just imagine what a simple life we could live if only we had a magical ability like that.”
Just after dinner Allison and Anh both announced they had some ‘business to attend to’, without providing any details. They said they’d be late, so they’d probably stay over at Brooke and Rebecca’s place for the night. I figured that was fine, as they didn’t need me looking over their shoulder constantly, but it had an effect on my planning for the night.
Despite my reservations about having to make love to everyone all week long, there actually weren’t that many of my girls left, especially since we always managed two a night. I’d already gone through Shani on Saturday, then Brooke and Allison on Sunday evening. Without Anh to consider, and since Patricia wasn’t in consideration until I could see her again, that only left Rebecca and Natalie, not counting Cate of course. Damn, that also left Jennifer, I reminded myself. Still, I was slowly whittling the list down.
Tonight would be interesting since both Rebecca and Natalie were watchers. I had no idea whether I’d trigger any increase in their abilities like I had in the other girls. Cate was interested in the question as well, and had been asking me what I thought may occur all evening. I guess she thought it would distract me from thinking about Tony and my troubles at school.
When Cate eventually escorted me upstairs, both Natalie and Rebecca were waiting for me with expectant smiles. Natalie busied herself undressing me while Rebecca carefully folded my clothes, and Cate folded the bed down and undressed herself. She was still officially ‘on the rag’, so there’d be no lovemaking with her tonight, but she still wanted to be involved each night. Sometimes I just can’t figure these women out. Why the hell isn’t she pissed that all these other women get to go before her?
In fact, why wasn’t she bothered that she had to listen to both Kitty and Chalise tell her all about their encounter with me, yet acted like nothing was bothering her. Of course, not being subject to their conversation, for all I knew she might have asked them not to talk about it. But I had a feeling I’d have picked up on the tensions between them if something like that had occurred. So far Cate seemed perfectly happy taking a back seat in all these pairings so far.
When we were ready for bed I held the covers for Natalie and Rebecca before climbing in myself. I then helped Cate in as well. Once we were all situated I noted there was once again romantic music playing. I hoped it was on a timer, as I had no plans to get up to turn it off after I was done, and I may not be too pleased about anyone else climbing over me to do it either.
I took Natalie in my arms. I felt bad that Natalie always took a lesser role in things, feeling she didn’t belong as much as the other girls. She did, of course, but they each had their own roles and, so far, Natalie didn’t really have one yet. Sure, she was making all my summer travel arrangements, but I wouldn’t be able to show her my appreciation for that until she was done. As a result I tried to show her my appreciation for everything she’d been doing for the last several weeks tonight, as I kissed her slowly and lovingly.
She sighed as we kissed. She may only be a watcher and not able to see and feel my emotions as strongly, but she still seemed to respond to me. But then so did Cate, Kitty and Chalise. So far they’d all been pretty responsive. Even Gail, with her proclivity for something feminine, was pretty quick to get off. She didn’t cum as strongly as the others, but she seemed hardwired to my touch.
It was then I realized I was allowing my mind to wander, so I broke my kiss with Natalie, told her I loved her, then rolled over and grabbed Rebecca. She was happy to get a hold of me as well. I always loved the feel of her soft but firm muscles under my hands, since it was a different sensation than I was used to with the other girls. That and her tattoos always reminded me I had something special with her.
We kissed while she held me tightly to her. I had wanted soft and gentle like I had the others, but she was having none of it. She wanted it a bit rougher and I wasn’t about to let her down. I rolled her over and pressed her into the bed as we kissed, leaning up enough to get my hand onto her breast, and I used the other to grab her buns. She growled in appreciation, just like a jungle cat, and proceeded to suck my tongue out of my face. Man, was she ever primed tonight. If I had to guess, I’d say maybe she was about to join Cate, as I’d noticed several of the women seemed to get especially randy just before their periods.
We both rolled around in place for awhile, until I had to take a break because I was getting too worked up. Moving back to Natalie to calm down a little, I had to consciously adapt my techniques from aggressive to soft and gentle. Luckily she’d been getting enthused watching me fool around with Rebecca, so she was a bit more excited as well. She rolled us over towards Cate, and came to rest atop of me, where she moved my two hands to her breasts and demonstrated how she wanted me to manhandle her breasts for her. I guess she wasn’t quite as interested in ‘soft and gentle’ as I’d thought. I broke our kiss off long enough to nip at her nipple, which caused her to shudder slightly, and then I went to work suckling her breast. She seemed to love it, cradling my head against her chest.
The contrast between the two girls struck me. One was demure, reticent, nervous and soft, while the other was strong, aggressive and demanding. It was like a sweet and sour sexual dish, the two approaches seemed to work well together as I marveled at the differences between them while also focusing on the delights of each. However, the longer the two lay together, the more the two flavors overlapped one another. Natalie was now becoming more aggressive. Trying to head her off while maintaining my own control, I started to head farther south. However she grabbed me and shook her head, letting me know she wasn’t interested in such things tonight.
“I’ve been hearing too much from the other girls,” she told me. “They’ve been ranting and raving about the benefits of full contact exposure to you, telling me the orgasms are more explosive than they are through oral sex. I want you up here, although if you are ready for a change, how about you finally make love to me?” she asked with a sweet but deadly sounding purr.
I climbed back up and kissed her. “I’d love to,” I told her. Rebecca took over the duties tonight, grabbing my cock and getting it ready, lubing it up in Natalie’s juices and slotting it for me. When she was ready, I eased slowly into my lover, and she bit her lip as I did so.
Despite her own previous fevered pitch, Rebecca seemed to be OK with me taking my time with Natalie. I doubted she’d wait patiently, though, but as long as she had something to play with I felt secure in the assumption she could wait her turn.
Natalie felt wonderful as she yielded to me and her moist flesh molded around my cock. I resisted the impulse to shove it in fast and deep and tried to go extra slow. I guess it worked, because she started to rock her hips to try to entice me to hurry up. Since I was only about half way in, I paused, looked her in the eyes, then steadily pressed myself in the rest of the way. Her eyes sparkled with delight as she felt me slide home, and she pulled me down into a steamy kiss.
“Man, you three are hot tonight,” Cate observed.
“Imahr mrif onrry onne affra mommenph,” I tried to tell her, since Natalie wouldn’t release my lips.
“Yeah,” Cate said, “I agree, focus on the one your with. Rebecca and I will just watch. Just don’t expect us to remain idle while you’re dallying.” They both laughed as I pulled back from my kiss.
Ignoring my two cohorts, I looked meaningfully into Natalie’s eyes as I pulled back then shoved deep into her again. She purred like a smaller cat than Rebecca’s tigress, and pulled my hips into her as she ground her pelvis into mine. We quickly set up a steady motion, although we maintained full body coverage, so I couldn’t keep looking into her eyes to measure her responses, though her body left no doubt about how she felt.
I’d only been pumping into her for a little while when I felt her stiffen and her pussy began to flutter around me. I shoved in deep and let her have her orgasm without trying to fight it. Once it began to quiet down I began thrusting again, the slight pause giving me more breathing room myself. I held her tightly as I began working on her, and it only took a short while until she started a second minor orgasm. Man, she was ready to go tonight! I guess hearing everyone else talk about their explosive orgasms had them both primed. I just hoped they didn’t expect the same response, since I thought much of the other girls’ responses was due to their brains adapting to the physical changes I’d made by increasing their abilities.
When she finally got beyond her peak I started getting serious, setting up a nice pace, nothing too frenzied but active enough to keep our libido’s firmly moving to our combined crescendo. She was now matching my motions and we were moving well together. Just as I was getting close, I felt movements to my two sides and felt my two ears being bitten while one girl goosed me, thankfully avoiding my asshole, and the other fondled my balls. My balls shrank in response and I felt them drawing my essence in preparation, so I shoved home and started spurting into my current lover. I called her name out and I shot into her, and she clutched me to her, trying to pull me as deep into her as she could get me.
As I was orgasming Natalie started her own. But instead of a quiet flutter, she started gasping and moaning and her whole body started responding as she shook. I wasn’t expecting the whole otherworldly experience I’d so recently had with the other girls, since it seemed each one got slightly more normal as my body slowly adjusted to what happening each time, but it was still a tremendous experience as I emptied myself into her. But the sensation kept building until I had another set of lights go off in my head, and I seemed to lose myself for a few moments. When I regained myself I was still grasping her, trying to force out the last of my seed into her, but it was clear I was dry. I collapsed onto her in exhaustion. I felt Cate and Rebecca caressing us as we both tried to regain our breath.
“Man, they weren’t... kidding,” Natalie gasped. “That was... intense!”
“Was it better than normal?” Rebecca asked anxiously.
“Much! Shani and Allison were right, you can feel his energy rippling throughout your body this way. Man, as much as I like getting eaten, I think I’ll skip it in the future if I have a choice. I...” she stopped speaking for a bit.
“Alex, I can feel your love for me. It’s really clear.” She paused again. “Rebecca, I can feel your love and awe of Alex. Man, I think he’s done it again. It seems like he just kicked up my abilities another notch. Damn, I think I’ll follow Allison to the hospital tomorrow. I feel like maybe I’m at the level of the preactivated seers.”
“Damn, I knew it!” Cate enthused. “This is great. If we could just schedule these ability boosts somehow...”
“Please, Cate, Natalie,” I warned them. “Let’s try to keep our focus. You can play with your new abilities for the rest of your lives. But I’ve got someone I want to make love to at the moment.”
Just then the door opened. “You wait, I know you, Alex, and you need snack before you continue,” Anh said as she entered.
I really hated to stop just then, but she had a good point. I was starving! Between the act of love making and whatever it was my brain was doing to my partners, it was taking a lot out of me.
After a brief repast, we started again and Rebecca finally got the attention she deserved and was craving. I know she’d been getting the short end of the stick lately, and I lavished a lot of attention onto her. Just like before, when Natalie had soaked up much of Rebecca’s aggressiveness, now it seemed that Rebecca had absorbed Natalie’s subtleness. She was quieter, but much more focused on us and the moment between us. We were soon working together toward our mutual release, although, like Natalie, she was primed enough she reached a couple of minor peaks before I managed to find my own. It really was a beautiful experience, independently of anything else that may have happened. However our response was like Natalie and mine had been, as we were both overwhelmed by the response. Rebecca’s reaction was just like Natalie’s had been. She had her own nascent abilities boosted to the other women’s preactivation level. When we finally fell asleep that night we were a happy bunch. Everyone pretended to fall asleep with me, yet Cate was too excited to lie still. She got up before I was fully asleep to begin writing notes about what had just occurred. Natalie and Rebecca were so full of energy they had to get up to wander around. Chances are they’d wander out into the street, looking for stray people to take readings of.
Me, I slept the sleep of the truly exhausted yet thoroughly satisfied.
I was anxious about what the day held for me when I picked up Kitty and Chalise the next morning. I was planning to brief them on what we’d discovered last night simply because I thought they’d be interested, but also because Cate was chomping at the bit to talk about it to someone. But as soon as Chalise climbed in after giving me a kiss, Kitty immediately launched into her own issue.
“Alex, I should warn you, my father’s still a bit guarded about you. I mean, it’s better now that he at least knows about you, but he’s pretty hesitant about allowing me full access to you, thinking the whole situation is a little ‘out there’.”
“Frankly, Kitty, I think I agree with him. My entire life lately has been pretty ‘out there’ the last few weeks. But maybe it would be good to sit down with him and discuss it.”
“Uh, Alex, your recent history of discussing things with family members isn’t very good,” Cate reminded me.
“Yeah, but we still need to do this. Kitty is close to her family, and he’s not likely to attack me if we invite him over,” I argued. I stopped and thought for a moment. “Uh, how do you think he’d feel about having Chalise with us? After all, she’s a part of the relationship so she really deserves to be there. But if you think it’ll be too much for your father....” I said, leaving the sentence unfinished.
“Actually, I think that’s a good idea. It’d be better to get everything out in the open at once,” Kitty responded.
“Good, how about if we take them to ‘ l'Oignon Pleurer’ ?” I asked them both.
“That sounds good, as it’ll get him out in public where it will be harder to create a scene. Still, are you sure you’re OK with this, Alex? My dad can be pretty gruff at times. Plus, you know how fathers are with their little girls.”
“Yeah, this is family and family is important. I’ll try to make a reservation soon. I’ll probably make it during the week as it’s a little easier to get a reservation then. Plus I’d really rather leave my weekends open for more, ahem, important things,” I said, leering at them in the rear view mirror.
“And let them know that it’s my treat since I’m the one inviting them,” I said, continuing my thoughts. “Also let them know it’s somewhat dress up so they’ll be prepared. That also means I want the two of you looking your best for him as well. He’ll react much better seeing his girls at their best.”
“We’re not his girls,” Chalise corrected me. “He’s only got a single girl; we’re your girls.”
“Actually, phrased like that, the sentence might not be as distinctive as you’re hoping,” Cate teased.
“You’re right. Still, you get the idea. We want to get the idea across that this is the way it’s going to be. He can either approve or disapprove, but he’s not going to change anything,” Kitty told me.
“OK, I can get behind that, but you don’t mind if I manage to find a more subtle way of expressing it than that, do you?” I asked, smiling sweetly at her.
“And you’re going to have to work out how you’re going to spring Chalise’s being there? I want it to be as natural as possible, but it’s important that we all show up together, presenting a united front as a unified whole.”
“Again, yes, but are you really sure it’s such a good idea? He’s liable to blow a gasket when he discovers you’re not only having sex with me, but that you’re dating someone else at the same time. Not to mention what he’s going to think about me having sex with another girl.”
“Well, technically you two aren’t having sex together,” I corrected her.
“A minor technicality that Bill Clinton proved has no particular merit. If we’re in bed engaged in sexual behavior, then we’re ‘officially’ having sex,” Kitty pointed out to me.
“I’ll keep that in mind, but yes, I’m sure this is how I want to present it to him. He’ll need time to get used to the idea, and there’s no sense trying to slowly wean him on the idea. He needs to know up front, and the sooner he finds out the better.”
They both mumbled their assent before Chalise jumped in with her own news.
“I’ve got my own Daddy issues,” she giggled. “Dad called all in a huff last night and talked to us both for a long time. Seems a certain unnamed police detective called him up and talked to him about how, if someone related to Brandon were to attack you in a similar manner, and if the University were to be defending them, that it might subject the University to a charge of, what was it, oh yeah, ‘Criminal Collusion and Organized Crime’ charges. He got scared thinking the University might get frightened off defending him. Said detective also told him how he should really take time to evaluate just how much a decent wife, the mother of his children, and an only daughter, meant to him, and whether they were worth throwing away just in order to prove that he was right. Think any of you might be able to guess who the unnamed detective might be?”
“I’d guess it was Detective McCallister,” I offered. “I’m still not sure I like all of this. All we need is to have more government workers getting close to us and learning too many of our secrets.”
“Whatever do you mean, kind sir? Me and my delicate little friend have no secrets. You must be referring to your own nefarious plans,” Kitty went on in a bad Scarlett O’Hara imitation.
“Yes, sadly I’m referring to my own nefarious little secrets; something you all have became a party to, and are thus subject to charges of collusion for defending,” I laughingly pointed out.
“We can certainly see your point, Alex, but really something needed to be done. We can’t have every other guy in the school thinking they can try to beat you up.”
“It’s certainly not that many people. Plus it’s not too long until the end of school.” That seemed to have reminded Chalise of something, as she was quick to bring up another, unrelated, topic.
“I was going to add that Dad is ready to meet you, under the same conditions as you’re meeting with Kitty’s dad; meaning that he has no idea you’re dating the both of us. However, he’s making an effort to reach out to you. He also mentioned something about watching your back, and how he couldn’t be responsible for others, or something like that, so you may want to be careful. It sounds like he might have already made some plans to have you whacked or something,” she stated in all seriousness.
With that out of the way, Cate proceeded to detail what had occurred last night. I knew Cate liked to talk about her theories concerning me, and I was glad she had this outlet. I was also sure that Cate would be discussing it with Becky soon as well.
“You know what this means, of course?” I asked, just to be sure they were aware of it. They both just looked at me. Hating to have to say it, I jumped in. “It means that when I start traveling after school I’m likely going to need to have sex with quite a variety of people, both the new Seers that I meet but also the numerous Watchers too.” I waited to see what their responses would be.
“Oh, well, we’re talking ‘mysterious strangers’ as in Anh, Shani and Gail, not like some bimbo off the street, right?” Chalise asked me.
“And you’ll make sure they’re tested and that it’s safe, as well?” Kitty asked.
“Yes, of course. I’ve made sure with each of them so far. Although I didn’t check with you two, which I really should have. Can you two get me a doctor’s certificate by the end of the week? Ideally in enough time that I can present it to your fathers as well” They both hit me fairly hard for that one.
“You really checked?” Kitty asked.
“Well, actually no,” I admitted, “but each had their own unique circumstances which made it unlikely they’d be infected with anything. They all either got tested or are getting them, but I’ll admit we’ve been fooling around orally and manually without the tests. But you really never know, I should probably have refrained until the tests came in. I guess I’ll try to do that in the future. Although I haven’t been using condoms with you, I should, but I’m thinking it’s like the hospital gloves, I don’t think the effect will be the same wearing one.”
“You know, you’ve got an issue there. You really need to try it with another watcher wearing a condom just to see if you can achieve the same thing,” Cate said, thinking science rather than considering the friends in the car with her.
“That could be a problem,” Chalise commented, completely bypassing my telling them I could potentially be making love to hundreds of women. “You never know what someone might be carrying around, and you don’t seem to be very picky about who shows up at your doorstep. You’ve been pretty lucky so far, but you never know,” she warned.
“But, beyond those issues, we’ve already said we’d share you,” Kitty emphasized.
“Yeah, but you specifically stated that you’d share me with the people you already knew about, and under some pretty specific rules. You didn’t know about the additional women I might meet traveling, or even the potential numbers we may be talking about.”
“Alex, we both realize that you’re a special circumstance all on your own, and the rules that you have to operate under are different from anyone else. We understand your concern, but basically we trust you because so far you’ve behaved in a trustworthy manner. Keep doing that and we’ll keep trusting you. Just don’t put us in any kind of danger, or get cocky and think you can cheat on us, and we’ll all be OK.”
“And having sex with potentially hundreds of women doesn’t constitute cheating?” I asked. We’d arrived at school and I’d parked, but we were all more involved in this discussion than in preparing for school.
“It would if you simply have sex with them,” Kitty responded angrily. “You’re not allowed to simply have sex with anyone, not even us! We allow you to continue to see the others because we can see how much you love them, and how much they all absolutely love you, as well as realizing it’s part of your mission. But if you want to just bang someone you have no feeling for, then the whole deal is off.” I held my hands up to try to ward off some of her anger.
“Hey, I’m sorry, but that’s what I meant. I’m not the kind of guy who’d take advantage of somebody. If it wasn’t the unique situation that it was I’d never have gotten involved with anyone, and I’d certainly not get involved with anyone I didn’t care deeply for. But if we are talking about all the watchers, that might change things a bit. There are a lot more watchers than there are seers, and I don’t know whether I’ll care for all of them the same way as I’ve cared for everyone else so far. What about someone like Betty? She’s a watcher and she’s been very patient about my not spending much time with her. Would you consider it appropriate if I were to make love with her?”
“Well,” Kitty said, thinking about her response, “I hadn’t really thought about that. That brings it home pretty quickly. But, we can both see that Betty already loves you a lot, just like the rest of the girls at lunch do. But most of them wouldn’t gain anything by having...” here she paused for a moment. “No, they’d definitely gain a bit by being intimate with you. What I meant is they don’t need to have sex with you for the same reasons. But the people we are talking about are your people. They need you, so you can’t just ignore them. You’ll have to think of some alternative approaches, as everyone needs you, and you’re contracting something like AIDS isn’t an option, but we trust you to do what you need to do.”
“Yeah, we can’t lay claim to you like with a normal guy,” Chalise offered. “You officially belong to your people, the people that will make up your new nation. They need your, uh, ‘services’. And we can’t stand in the way of something like that. Just try not to enjoy it too much,” she teased. “Or, better yet, try to picture us while you’re doing it with them.”
“Come on,” Kitty warned her friend, “when has Alex ever thought of anyone other than who he’s with at that moment? When he is with someone, he is completely with them and them alone. That’s just the way he is. But we expect you to come back to us. Don’t go joining, or even starting, your own cult out in California or anything. At least not without including us.”
“That’s all we ask,” they both agreed, leaning forward and kissing me. “Now we’d all better hurry or we’re going to be late,” they insisted.
“Just remember that I’m leaving early today for that thing with Ryan. Normally I’d offer to take you along, but I figure it would look odd, as I’m supposed to be the nondescript research nerd that no one should notice.”
“The day you don’t get noticed is the day I’ll buy a lottery ticket,” Kitty said as she pinched my cheek.
We all climbed out of the car and headed toward the building, with me watching out for any new confrontations, worrying about any possible follow-up from the trouble with Tony on Monday. However Cate noticed that I was having a little difficulty walking normally.
“Hey, Alex, it looks like all this recent activity is getting to you. You can hardly take a normal step. Look, I’m still spotting a little, and I’m sure everyone will understand. I’m going to put you on a temporary time out tonight. No sex for you. You need to rest that poor little dick that everyone has been abusing so much, otherwise the other girls will never forgive me.”
I simply smiled weakly at her, “Anything you say, boss.” She stuck her tongue out at me, but it was all in good fun. She was aware of how my girls would occasionally call me “Boss”.
Thinking about it a little more, Cate, who’d been silent through most of the discussions, sidled up to me.
“Do you really mean that?” she asked.
“Mean what?”
“That you’d avoid helping someone you found who needed our help, just because you didn’t like their looks.”
“Hell, yeah, I mean it,” I insisted. “I realize it’s much too important to risk everything by placing our trust in someone who can’t be trusted. If they seem untrustworthy, if they’re unreliable or a danger to us or someone near us, then we’ll give them just enough information to help, but then I’ll just leave them on their own. You can’t keep everyone safe, especially from themselves. There’ll be several we’ll have to simply throw to the wolves if they can’t survive on their own.” She just shook her head, as if doubting I could ever follow through on such talk. Well, I certainly hoped I could.
I stopped by the office as soon as I got into the building, just to make sure I was cleared to leave mid-day. Mrs. White told me that everything had been cleared, saying “You know, after what Dr. Moore has done for the school, if he asked if you could take a short trip to Bermuda we’d probably agree.” I laughed along with her, wondering whether that was actually how Mr. Phillips thought, or whether he was just lying low because of all the troubles that Michelle McCallister had promised him if he didn’t try to take some form of action.
Once again I spent much of the day just observing how everyone was reacting to me. Most kids, aside from our core group, simply kept their distance, although there was still no lack of dirty looks. It seemed the announcement that Ryan made had won over many, but certainly not all, of the sports figures, but that left quite a few that still didn’t like me very much. Those that seemed sympathetic before remained so, but I didn’t give that much weight, as popularity in any high school is a very fickle thing, as I’d recently learned from my previous three best friends.
During each class someone always wanted the inside information on what had happened Monday. I told them each that it was nothing, that I’d told everyone that there wasn’t any confrontation, and that I’d really wanted to talk with Tony about it but simply never got the chance. I then added that someone I didn’t know had contacted the police, but that I didn’t believe they had any business getting involved in a minor schoolyard skirmish. I don’t know if anyone believed a word of it, though.
Anyway, I managed to sneak away pretty quietly, considering how many people would have loved to see me get into trouble today. It was strange driving all the way to the hospital on my own. I’d had so many people with me all the time recently, that it felt completely alien to be on my own. It was nice for a change, but I kept turning around to make a comment, only to find no one there to listen to my every word.
When I arrived at the hospital I found Shani waiting for me.
“Ryan wanted Allison watching over everything while they’re prepping the patient. He also had Brooke assisting in the surgery, so there’ll be a few people there. But he wants you to remember that you are only to appear to be a walk on character today, so we’ll simply sit in the lobby until it’s time for you to appear. Allison is watching from the observatory, so she’ll let us know when we have to make an appearance. But Ryan said that he and Edward wanted to discuss something with you about the MRIs they did on Sunday, so keep that in mind.”
As a result we spent a while sitting in the lobby drinking a soda and just gabbing. Then Allison told us both the operation had officially started, so Shani accompanied me to an area near the operating room where we waited patiently outside. After quite a bit Allison finally told me that it was nearly time, and that Ryan was on his way to see me.
“OK, Alex,” Ryan said when he met us in the hallway. “I just want to go over a few things. Robert Palmer, the heart surgeon that’s doing the operation today, is an arrogant jerk, like most successful surgeons. Just do what he says and you should be fine. He’s unlikely to even notice you, other than to grumble about you getting into his way. Whatever you do, try not to throw up or drop your little bottle, as either one would invalidate your participation.”
I told him that I understood, so he accompanied me into the scrub area overlooking the ongoing surgery. He outfitted me in a generic hospital gown and I scrubbed in, then Ryan gave me a single glove to put on.
“He’s liable to comment on the single glove, but I already told him the contents of the spray reacts negatively with the latex gloves you are wearing, so don’t pay it any mind. Just keep your responses simple, and chances are he won’t even pay attention to whatever you say.”
I’ll admit I was nervous. Never having been exposed to much blood before, I wasn’t sure how I’d react to someone’s open heart surgery. Still, from what I saw looking out into the operating room I really couldn’t see much. The doctors looked pretty clean, and there wasn’t much blood apparent. Hopefully they’d have the patient closed and sewn back up before I needed to make my appearance.
It took a while, considering I’d only entered after they were nearly done, but finally Ryan told me they were about ready and Allison told me they were nearly finished stitching him up, so I made my way out, awkwardly clutching my useless spray bottle.
The operating room was filled with doctors, nurses and the anesthesiologist. I was a bit concerned with looking foolish, but figured the best approach was to march in and do what was needed. Ryan followed me out and told the surgeon that the “research fellow is here”. Dr. Palmer simply grunted, never even looking up. But after a moment he finally glared at me, as if to ask what I was wasting my time doing, so I hurried over to him. I sidled up to the patient, lying flat on his back with a huge sewn up incision along his chest. I could see how it would be a problem as it looked terrible. I made a scene of moving the bottle up, spraying several squirts as I quickly moved my hands steadily along his chest.
‘I can’t see the patient’s chest through your hands, Alex, your blocking my view,’ Allison told me from the observation gallery above us. ‘I can’t tell what you’re achieving. Are you just going superficially or are you trying to go deeper?’
‘I’m trying to stay superficial, but I’m trying to go a little deeper as well, just to make sure the whole incision heals properly. But I’m not even trying to reach his heart. I figure that part of the surgery is none of my business.’
‘It’s a shame,’ Allison reflected. ‘Perhaps if they had you do this beforehand he wouldn’t have needed this?’
‘I doubt it,’ I told her. ‘I’m just here for an emergency patch job. I can’t do anything major like reconstruction or removal of dead tissue. I can give a little energy boost, but that’s about the extent of my abilities.’
‘Don’t downgrade what you...’ she started to tell me before I cut her off.
‘Hey, I’m trying to concentrate here. If you want to talk, we’ve got all evening after I’m done.’ Luckily she was quiet after that and I could focus on what I was doing.
I’d kept up the energy like Allison had been teaching me as I steadily moved my hands over his exposed wounds, spraying just enough to make his skin look damp. I knew the spray was meaningless, but we needed the appearance so no one would question what had happened to the patient. I figured this time I wouldn’t even learn the man’s name, as opposed to all the other cases that I’d helped in. Being inconspicuous had its disadvantages, I guess.
Even so, I quickly finished up. When I was done I stepped back a second, just so Allison could review my work. I’d been purposely ignoring Rebecca’s presence for fear of giving away the relationship between us. When Allison told me it looked good I started to leave.
“You know, Ryan,” the surgeon said behind my retreating back, “you’re going to have to tell me sometime what’s really going on here. Your ‘research techie’ here seems to be universally respected by everyone here, with most of the nursing staff treating him more deferentially than they treat me. Then there is the new nurse you foisted on me and the whole surgery to begin with. I get the feeling there’s a lot more going on than you’re letting on.”
I winced a little but tried not to react too noticeably as I continued walking without responding to his words.
“He’s just a kid, Robert, he didn’t even develop the stuff himself,” Ryan tried to reassure him, but I seriously doubted he’d be fooled. By then I was out the door and hurriedly washing up before anyone could come out and question me about my actions. Ryan followed me in to wash up himself.
“You did fine. That’s the problem when working with intelligent people, very often they pick up on subtle clues you hope they’ll overlook. But I wouldn’t worry about it, he figured out you’ve been here before and that the nursing staff knows about you, but that’s all he knows. Don’t fret about it. Now, I’ve got to get back in there because this operation means a lot to the hospital’s future, but I’ll catch you afterwards as I have some things to discuss with you.”
I grunted my thanks for the reassurance but still got out of there as fast as I could. I met Allison and Shani in the hallway. We quickly made our exit as there wasn’t much any of us could do. Ryan had told me he wanted me to do a follow up while the patient was in recovery, so we waited in an attached waiting room not affiliated with the surgery in question. There really wasn’t much to do, and I suddenly realized it had been quite a while since I had a book in my hands to while away the time. Before everything had occurred to me I used to read constantly. Now my life was suddenly so full that I almost never took any time for myself anymore.
Allison went out after a while to grab us sodas and to observe what was happening. When she got back she told us that there was a lot of excited talk by the hospital staff. They’d picked up that something exceptional was happening, as this was the first open-heart surgery ever performed here, and they all suspected it was arranged because of me. Plus, the talk of the surgeon’s comment had rippled around the hospital pretty quickly as well. As a result we kept our heads even lower than we’d initially planned.
Finally Ryan stuck his head in. “Ah, there you are,” he said. He stopped and waved to someone out in the hallway. “You’ll need to give the patient another treatment while he’s in recovery. The surgeon was planning on getting a quick dinner, so let’s give him a little time to get there.”
About that time Edward Padilla walked in. “You never cease to amaze me, Alex. That you can do all of that just by passing your hand over him. Watching you was more interesting than watching the surgery.”
“Yeah, that was impressive,” Ryan agreed, “but we had something more specific to discuss with you.” At this point Edward pulled out some MRI print outs and laid them on the table before us.
“If you’ll look at this,” Edward began explaining, “Ryan and I were interested that we couldn’t find any trace of where your girls’ vision was coming from, there didn’t seem to be any likely new brain activities that would explain it. We looked in all the usual places but there didn’t seem to be much activity there. Then we started looking a bit further and we noticed a particularly bright spot outside of the actual confines of the brain. Right here,” he said, pointing to a spot just on the outskirts of the image, “you’ll see it. This bright spot just behind the eyes. It looks like there is new brain growth here, right where the optic nerve leads into the brain. Apparently you somehow managed to grow brain tissue outside of the brain. That in itself is amazing, since no one can do that even with stem cell research, but we were fascinated by what it might mean.”
“It looks like that’s why your girls all see these visions as an optical phenomenon," Ryan said, taking over the explanations. "However, we have no idea how this new tissue transmits what it picks up into the brain itself unless it passes it as optical images along the optic nerve. But that’s unlikely, as the optic nerve isn’t designed to handle a whole new color spectrum, so it seems we’ve got yet another mystery here.”
“That means you are doing multiple brain manipulations in only a second’s time,” Allison observed. “It’s amazing trying to figure out all the processes you must be triggering all at once. The complexity is absolutely amazing.”
“He might be triggering and programming stem cells,” Shani suggested, “but the fact they could produce results that fast without preprogrammed DNA instructions is really surprising.”
“Yeah, that’s fascinating,” I told them as I studied the prints. “Damn, I wish it was clearer. Still, it provides more insight than we had. Do you mind if I take these with me. I’m sure both Cate and Becky will want to study these.”
“Yeah, that’s fine,” Ryan told me. “Now we should be heading to recovery. We should have plenty of time but we might as well get it out of the way.”
So we followed Ryan and Edward to the recovery room where they kept patients before they’d recovered well enough to be taken back to their rooms. It allowed a bit more privacy than we’d have otherwise. As we entered I noticed the various nurses all looking on respectfully, and I wondered how I’d missed this behavior previously. No wonder Dr. Parker had picked up on it.
When we walked up to the patient’s bedside Ryan and Edward both stood back to give us plenty of room. While Allison and Shani looked on I again applied a gentle coating of energy to his new wound, although I was beginning to get familiar enough with it to do it mostly on my own. This time I took more of an initiative, trying to go a bit deeper to help the badly bruised ribcage heal a bit better.
“So, did I miss anything?” I asked Allison, just to be sure.
“I’d say I’m the one missing something,” we heard from behind us. I spun around to see the surgeon, Dr. Parker, standing there watching us.
“I thought I may catch something by coming back early. So, this is the ‘nerd researcher’, doing follow-up treatment on my patient?”
“He’s just applying another application of the new experimental medicine,” Ryan corrected him.
He walked towards us. “Then why isn’t he using his little spray bottle. By the way, nice touch using the antiseptic in it, it makes it evaporate quickly so no one can check to see what it is.”
“As I said before, it has a very short lifespan. If it isn’t used right away it’s useless,” Ryan replied, looking a bit cross.
“So, what is it you’re hoping to achieve with whatever you’re doing?” he asked, looking over my shoulder at the patient.
“Exactly as you were told, simply to advance the healing with a minimum of scarring. As long as it works, how it’s achieved shouldn’t matter,” I told him, assuming there wasn’t much point in denying it any longer.
“Except I wouldn’t be able to utilize it myself?” he asked.
“No,” Ryan confirmed for him, following my lead. “No one but Alex can do what he does, although each of his women have their own abilities and serve as his aids.”
“Can I ask what these abilities are?” he asked.
“No,” Rebecca, Shani, Allison and I all answered at the same time.
“You realize I could just walk out of here and take my surgeries with me. Not only that, but I could press charges against the hospital for conducting unauthorized experimental procedures,” he replied threateningly with an arrogant sneer.
I turned on him, I wasn’t in the mood to deal with anyone’s nonsense at the moment, after everything I’d been through the last two days.
“Do whatever you damn well feel like,” I told him, looking him dead in the eyes. “I’m assuming the patient signed off on authorizations for an experimental treatment. Besides, there’s no evidence of any unusual treatment as I haven’t even touched him. You stated yourself, the treatment solution has already evaporated. You aren’t doing me any favors, since you don’t control my paycheck. I’m interested in seeing what I can do with this treatment, but I can do that either with or without you. So either file your charges or get out of the way. Just realize this, if you try to cause any trouble, you won’t see my face again.”
It looked like he was about to spit nails, but I could see him running his options in his mind. Finally he seemed to come to a decision.
“Alright, I’ll reserve judgment until I see what the results are, but I’ll promise you all this much, if this patient suffers any unexpected complications this hospital will get shut down,” he said, threatening us again. I simply shrugged, further infuriating him.
“As I said, I’ve got no association with the hospital. While I hate to see Ryan suffer for something I am responsible for, your threats are empty to me.”
Dr. Parker steamed for a few long seconds, but he finally saw the futility in carrying on. He shrugged as well, trying to show he could take the same attitude that I held. “I’m also guessing that I’m not supposed to mention any of this to anyone?”
“You can mention that the hospital has a useful procedure that assists healing, but anything further will just cause complications. Saying more will cause us to lose the little access we have to the resource,” Ryan explained. “Frankly, his ability to reduce scaring is the least of his many abilities.”
“All right, I’ll wait until I see the results. If they’re as amazing as your intimating, then I’ll bite. However, if you are pulling a huge scam with nothing to show for it, I’ll make a mockery of this hospital and I’ll start a full investigation,” he threatened again.
“Sounds fair, now if you’ll excuse me I’ve got to get home. I’ve got a few women waiting up for me,” I said before turning around and heading out, once again not looking back.