Chapter 71

Harriet:

Our sponsors' reaction was pretty predictable. Farris summed it up, "If he breaks me in half, his summary execution afterward isn't going to matter much to me. Besides," he wrinkled his nose, "Terise needs a lot of work!"

"So did I, Dear," I reminded him.

"Duly noted," he grunted -- but that was the end of it.

We looked at maybe two dozen couples with kids -- and none stood out. The Wrights only did so, probably, because they presented so many challenges. Kathy had five couples on her 'short list' and couldn't really get excited about any one couple -- and I didn't blame her, because I was having the same problem. Bernie's women seemed to just be along for the ride -- moral support for Kathy, apparently.

I hit up Farris in private in bed that night; he was feeling somewhat mellow -- something to do with the deposit he'd made in my sperm bank, no doubt. "I'm not victim to racial prejudice," Farris mused, "but Ramon is imposing. Still, he and the children are the most impressive group we've seen; if you would like, we can interview them in person. I just don't see me getting a lot of respect from a three hundred fifty pound grizzly bear..." He eyed me. "What about you? Do you want that lying atop you?"

I was a little surprised. "Would he be?"

"I think it is fair to assume that it would happen at some point," Farris mused. "Impregnation is one thing, but if he were to prove tractable, I certainly would not deny him access to Terise and at some point it might tickle your fancy to try him out..."

I really didn't know how to answer that...

Trinity:

Monday evening Felicity and I put our heads together and went to Bernie. Somehow, I got the lead, which was hairy now that Bernie has rolled over and come up swinging. Man, did HE take me by surprise!

"Master? About this afternoon..." I began.

Bernie's eyes narrowed. "What about it?"

"Well, there wasn't much -- but there WERE the Wrights..."

"So?" Bernie eyed me. "What's YOUR interest in this -- as if I couldn't guess!"

I waved my hands. "Not guilty, Master! We were just trying to figure out how to help Kathy. They were kind of uneven in person, but they have a lot going for them -- on the other hand, they're a BIG jump for Kathy..." I flicked a glance at Sis, hoping for support.

She came through. "I think that Terise, in particular, is someone Kathy could, well, not worry a lot about -- AND she has good parenting scores -- VERY good, actually."

Bernie cocked his head. "What about Aretha?"

"She would be more of a threat," Sis admitted, shrugging, "but I think race works in their favor in that Kathy isn't all that worried..."

"Ramon is a problem," Bernie mused.

"Is he, Master? He seems sensible," I stuck my oar back in. "Okay, so he's big -- muscular..." I made the modification to keep the size of Ramon's dick out of the conversation, although it really wasn't any bigger than Bernie's. "He's also smart..."

"That might put him one ahead of me," Bernie muttered. "And that means he's one ahead of Gene, too. They're a lot to take on. There is also Wesley; he's ready for sex, I bet -- and in six months we could have another male concubine on our hands."

"Isn't he sponsor track?" Sis argued.

"He's on track, but that doesn't mean he'll be one," Bernie shot back.

The AI busted in, the way they tend to, with, "We have excellent data from his educational work. Wesley Snipes Wright will be a sponsor."

Bernie glared at the ceiling, then shrugged. "Okay, one less problem. It's STILL a lot for Gene and Kathy."

"What if you guys doubled up?" I burst out. I don't know WHERE that came from...

"What?" Bernie kind of rocked.

"Well, you and Gene hang out together all the time and Kathy needs help. I dunno, I just thought..." I petered out.

Bernie sat a moment, thinking. "I don't know if we can do that. AI?"

"There are a number of cases of sponsors operating combined households and even sharing resources. This does not always work and may be temporary, but it is an available option. Kathy Bradley is improving, but the timeline is tight and the quality of the remaining concubine couples continues to dwindle. Asset authorization for the combined household is equal to that of the two sponsors -- and a couple is essentially a free addition, as credit for accepting the male offsets the headcount reduction for accepting the female," the AI declared.

"So we have everything to gain and nothing to lose," Bernie mused.

"Precisely," the AI agreed.

"Still, this is between Gene and me..." Bernie eyed me.

"Absolutely, Master!" I threw out my hands. I didn't want to get into THAT again...

"Okay, tomorrow you can brace Kathy on the Wrights and see where she stands and I'll talk to Gene. There's no knowing at this point what he'll think of this..."

I nodded; Sis did, too. We went away and I spent some time examining my motives -- and I REALLY wasn't in this for Gene's dick -- or Ramon's. They were a nice addition, but...

Tuesday morning we dropped the kids at school after breakfast and went over to visit with Kathy. Sis opened with, "Pickings were kind of thin yesterday, huh?"

Kathy nodded. "There was only one family with really good numbers, and they..."

"Were black?" I guessed.

Kathy wrung her hands. "That wasn't so godawful, exactly -- I mean, that Terise ... I wouldn't have a lot of worries about her and Gene. Aretha, well, she's young -- I think we could, you know, meet, kind of. Ramon..."

"Yeah, Ramon," Sis muttered. "What did Gene think of Ramon?"

"He made him nervous, you know? Gene is just getting used to his new equipment and Ramon has basically the same thing ... And he's HUGE ... Then there are the boys..."

"It's a lot," I agreed. "What if you had help?"

"Help?" Kathy blinked.

Felicity took the plunge. "What if we were there?"

"For what?" Kathy asked suspiciously.

"All the time," Sis explained. "What if you guys moved in with us. Then there would be you and me and Trini and Harrah, rather than just you. And Gene would have Bernie for backup."

"I..." Kathy thought about it. "It's more of a guy problem, really, isn't it? What am I giving up?"

I kept my big mouth shut and let Sis address it carefully. "I guess that would be up to what the guys negotiate. There would be a bunch of stuff on the table. Does Bernie share Terise or Aretha? What kind of, um, access, would they offer Ramon?"

Kathy nodded, head down. "That's big. I just don't know if I'm ready to take on Ramon -- and if it's just us, I don't know how I could avoid it fairly. I mean, for him to be the first man besides Gene to..."

"Well, you've already done something with Bernie," I pointed out.

"I sucked him. That's not..." Kathy muttered.

"No, it's not," Sis agreed, "But if they decide to do this, you might end up having Bernie, um, visit you, occasionally..."

"That's ... a lot less scary," Kathy admitted, "But..."

"Us?" Sis pretended surprise. "Maybe Gene will limit himself to Terise and Aretha..."

"And maybe he won't," Kathy sighed. "I wouldn't want him to, anyway. I can probably work my way up to Ramon..."

Sis shrugged. "Start with Bernie..."

"If it's what Gene wants..." Kathy shrugged. "I'm ... getting used to the whole thing." She pointed to her collar. "This helps." I smiled. "What?"

"Nothing..." I turned away.

"Felicity?" Kathy turned her attention to Sis.

"You don't think the BOYS thought that up, do you? They recognized a good idea when they heard it, but Trini came up with it," Sis replied. Outed, I smiled, embarrassed.

Kathy eyed me. "I thought you just wanted..."

"Helping you was always on the agenda," I replied. "Anything else was a bonus. I admit that getting into Gene's pants was on my short list of fringe benefits, but Bernie lowered the boom on me when he figured THAT out!"

"This would give you what you want," Kathy mused.

"Hey, I can leave it totally alone..."

"Not if Gene wants it," Kathy shot back.

"None of us has that choice," I noted. "In the end, we do what we're told."

"Yeah. I'm learning that," Kathy agreed.

"So..." Sis pressed.

"If Gene thinks it's a good idea, I do, too," Kathy replied.

Bernie:

So now I had this bright idea to pitch to Gene. Now, granted, I wanted Gene with me at work -- but was I Super Mentor where family matters were concerned? I was certainly pretending I was ... I took Gene to the Brinkman meeting and Dr. Chambers was good with it; I figured we had a lot of conversion work to do and a steep learning curve and Toni was going to be up to his/her ass in the helpdesk function. Coming away from the meeting, I hit Gene with the idea. "The girls think it might help Kathy if we combined households."

Gene was as surprised as I had been the night before. "How would that work?"

"I think the details are up to us," I replied. "We're probably going to want to sit down and be very clear about it -- Kathy is an issue, for example."

"Yeah." Gene nodded. "The ring thing helped, I think. She wants to make the leap, but I'm not sure if she is ready."

"Yeah, I know. We were kind of hoping that the girls could help her get over the hump."

Gene looked sheepish. "Who's gonna get ME over the hump?"

It was my turn to look sheepish. "Me, I guess -- not that I'm any expert."

"You've been right thus far," Gene pointed out.

"I had help." I thought about it. "Let's get a coffee at the mess."

"Good idea."

I didn't know it, but there were some smaller dining rooms off the mess; the AI pointed them out when I asked for a quiet place to negotiate. We settled at a table in an otherwise empty room and kicked back. After a moment of quiet sipping, Gene said, "I should probably talk to Kathy."

"Yeah," I agreed. "You could force it, but it wouldn't be smart. We want to help, not screw things up. She ought to have an answer ready; I think the girls hit her up this morning."

"No kidding? That will help. AI, can you set up communications to Kathy? I want Bernie to hear but not be seen."

"Affirmative. Link active." The AI just put it up in the air rather than using a wall; I assume that distance was a factor.

"Gene?" Kathy gave him a full frontal and I had a moment to admire her breasts. My girls didn't have as much up top...

"Hi, Hon," Gene replied. "Look, Bernie is pitching the idea that we might all want to live together..."

"Uh huh. The girls came by."

"What do you think? We don't want you to feel threatened..."

"We went over it, kind of piece by piece, and while if I'd been taken by surprise, my reaction might not have been all everyone could have hoped, I think it's a pretty good idea -- especially if we take on the Wrights," Kathy replied, forthrightly.

"The Wrights?" Gene blinked in surprise.

"Um, yeah, we discussed that," Kathy replied. "There would be problems if you and I just tried to take them on -- I mean, I just don't have the experience with men and Ramon is kind of threatening, even though I don't think he wants to be, so that is a big issue for you, I'm sure ... This way, you and Bernie could sort of back each other up..."

Gene, clearly bothered, came back with, "Yeah, about Ramon..."

"I know he's a pretty big deal," Kathy said, musing, "for both of us -- but he IS the reason the Wrights are all up there for scores. And Terise has her physical issues, but they're fixable. If Bernie is around, that kind of dilutes things, you know? Ramon REALLY doesn't threaten anybody -- he's just a big guy..."

"I don't know," Gene mused, "I think his hackles went up..."

"Well, we were talking about playing with his equipment, weren't we? Would you want yours downsized?" Kathy pointed out.

"No, you're right -- I wouldn't even think about it, anyway," Gene agreed, "I'm not sure where it came up, even."

"Me, either," Kathy shrugged.

"Bernie and I probably need to negotiate some -- um, who gets access to whom -- that sort of thing," Gene ventured.

"Yeah." Kathy nodded. "We kind of played the scenarios. I think ... I think if I'm ever going to graduate to Ramon, I need to start with Bernie."

"Um, yeah..." We were BOTH thrown for a loop! "So you figure you'll end up with Ramon?" Gene pressed.

"Not right away?" Kathy petitioned. "But if he's in the family, I imagine it will happen eventually. I will just need some time to adjust..."

"And the women?" Gene asked carefully.

"You know, I wanted to ask you to start with Terise and Aretha -- but that's silly, I think. Once we're all family, I'm sure it will be fine," Kathy was again forthright.

"What about pregnancy?" Gene asked.

"That's ... not my call," Kathy replied. "In fact, none of it is -- but I appreciate you getting my opinion. You're in charge..."

"I understand that," Gene replied, "but the idea was to make sure we didn't break something while trying to fix it. How terrible would it be for you to discover you were carrying Bernie's child?"

"Once we're all having sex, I don't see how it makes a difference -- I mean, I love you, but ... Isn't that part of the deal? More daddies? Mixing up the gene pool?" Kathy looked away, her eyes wet. "This is up to you and Bernie. You can control it, I bet, but maybe you won't even want to. We'll be family, right? One big family? Even Ramon?"

"That's not..." Gene began.

"Why not?" Kathy queried. "Terise and Aretha are going to get babies from you and Bernie -- and we KNOW Ramon contributes positively. Why would we NOT have his babies, too?" She looked at him for a moment. "Would YOU want to be told no?"

"It's within our rights as sponsors," Gene pointed out.

"It's within your rights to shrink his cock down to this size, too," Kathy said, measuring about an inch between her thumb and forefinger, "but doesn't that make YOU the smaller man?"

BOTH of us took the hit from THAT remark! Gene shook it off and said, "So, no limits."