Chapter 25

"Ummmmm ... Errrr ... Wha-?"

"Please, Rob," Kaitlyn's voice was shaky, "can we just cuddle with you? We just want to be close to you tonight." I turned on the bedside light, and saw that Laurel was there too, snuggled up against Kay, and she was nodding her head. "Well," said Kay, "I do, and I don't want to leave Laurel all by herself, so..."

"Just sleeping, Rob," said Laurel, "No fooling around. Definitely no fooling around!" Kay was shaking her head in agreement.

"Well," I cleared my throat and looked around, "I toss and turn a lot, and you might not get much sleep."

"I think between the two of us, we can hold you still," said Kay, giggling nervously. Laurel nodded again, and slid over to make room between the two of them. I sighed, and slid in to my appointed spot.

I usually sleep on my right side, and rolled over that way, only to come nose to nose with the wrong nose. "Hmmm," said Kay, "I love you, Laurel, but not that much! Let's switch places." They did, and I got glimpses of two sweet forms in panties and tee shirts, absently noting that both of those shirts had come out of the freshly laundered stack in my closet. Much better!

I spooned up against Kaitlyn's cute behind, then reached over her to turn off the light, then settled back, and there was Laurel. She cuddled up behind me, put her arm over me. Guess I'm not gonna roll off the bed anytime soon! I draped my arm over my Kay, and she hung onto my hand for a little bit, then placed it over one delightful breast, and held it there with her own hand.

I. Am. Not. Superman.

At least, most of me. One noticeable part did turn to steel, and Kaitlyn did notice.

"Rob?"

"Ahmahamauh?"

"Is that... ?"

I backed away as far as I could, but as Laurel was right there behind me, she must have guessed what was going on, and she started giggling, adding to my embarrassment. "Mmhmm," I said, "and you were expecting what?"

A moment's silence, then, "Rob?"

"Yes, sweetie?"

She giggled. "Are you up to five times five yet?"

"You're terrible!"

From behind me came, "Five times five?"

Another giggle from the front, and a groan from me, then sweet Kaitlyn said, "This isn't gonna work, is it?"

"I'm sorry, sweetie, but I don't think so."

A snicker from behind got us all laughing again, until Kay said, "C'mon Laurel, I guess we'll all sleep better if we go back to our own room."

I'm sorry, I just couldn't help myself. And Laurel must have wondered why Kay burst into hysterical, nervous, almost relieved-sounding laughter when I said, "You can count on it."

They calmed down, and both kissed me goodnight again, and I still don't know which one of them patted little Rob when they got off the bed and headed to their own room. I heard another muffled burst of laughter. Kay must have explained "count on it".

I made it to three times eight.

Kay's turn again:

Whoa!! I knew it would be ha- I mean I knew it wouldn't be easy! But I wanted so much just to cuddle with Rob. Laurel is sweet, but she's not Rob. But I couldn't put him (or me) through any more of that, especially not now. So Laurel and I went back to our bedroom and snuggled together, and went to sleep.

Got up early this morning, and decided to fix a good breakfast. Laurel started in on the hash browns – good thing we all like 'em with onions – and I whipped up a batch of pancake batter and put some bacon in a frying pan to get started. Almost used Rob's big black cast iron pan, but turned it over to Laurel for the hash browns. Made sure she used a wooden spatula so as not to scratch it. Her eyes got real big when I explained just how long it took to get a "cure" on it, and she promised me she wouldn't leave a mark on it. Maybe I'll use that pan for the corned beef hash we talked about the other night.

The other night – Wow! So much has happened in just a few short days! But it seems like I've known Rob forever, and if that doesn't prove there's such a thing as love at first sight, then I don't know what does. But I still feel so bad that he's gone through so much crap just because he stopped to help a dumb blonde. So glad he did, though, and I guess that kindness got multiplied, because there's Renee, and we met Hector and Reynold, and, well, look who's fixing breakfast with me! Do I dare send her in to wake him up? I know if I go in there, we might not make it back out in time for lunch, let alone breakfast! Maybe we'll both go get him.

I told Laurel the pancakes would be ready to start frying very shortly, and that we should go wake up Rob. "We?" She just looked at me. "Not just you?" Then she grinned and gave me a hug, "You're probably right, if we wanna eat sometime this morning." The taters were done, so she put them on a burner set low to keep them warm, and said, "Let's go wake up Rip van Winkle!"

I looked at the clock, and said, "Yeah – it's past time he gets up."

She's bad! She grinned at me and said, "I 'wooden' say that too many times for the next couple of weeks if I were you. Don't wanna make my job any more difficult than it is."

That totally went over my head. "Your job?"

She giggled at that, and said, "Yeah! Remember, you made me guardian of the gate, or whatever, until you do the "I do" thing. And I take my job seriously!"

"What job is that, Laurel?" Rob had just come in to the kitchen and heard her last statement.

She blushed. Well, I guess we both blushed, at that, and I said, "I think she might be talking about her job at the hospital. Hi sweetie! We were just comin' to wake you up for breakfast. Get a good night's sleep?"

He looked at me out of the corner of his eye and said, "After 24 I did. Just woke up a few minutes ago. Slept straight through."

My turn to wonder. "Twenty four?" Another zinger over my head, I guess. "I don't get it." Rob just looked at me and didn't say a word. And I still didn't get it, until much later. Got a dirty look from my psych professor when I burst out laughing in the middle of his review lecture.

Laurel, again:

I dreamed I'm in the middle of a weird psycho Marx Brothers vs Anthony Hopkins movie, only Harpo is wearing that leather mask, and it's all scaring the shit out of me! But I blink and it's Love Story, and Harry met Sally, and Thelma and Louise, and then I wake up and I'm shivering and crying and scared. And then it's okay, because Kay is just holding me close and humming some song I never heard, but it makes me calm down, and I go back to sleep and wake up again with her still holding me, and it's so good that I don't want to move. But I gotta go, and she's gotta go, and we giggle, and she does a little dance 'cause I got here to the bathroom first.

Then I wait for her to get done in the shower, and take mine while she's drying her hair. And when I get done and dried and dressed, she grabs the brush and does my hair, "Just like my sister Krista's. Now I've got two sisters who'll let me brush their hair!" And it hits me. Sisters! I never had a sister, and now I do! And I want to cry again, but she won't let me. Makes me laugh at something silly, then says, "Know what?"

And I look at her, "What?"

"I love you, sister, that's what." And she wraps her arms around me and we both cry a little, then giggle a little, and she says, "Let's go fix Rob some breakfast." And just like that, it's all better!

I think I said I'd probably be dead if she and Rob hadn't come along and rescued me. Still don't understand why they did that, but it's like they opened up a whole new world for me. Heck, a whole new life!

We were just gonna go wake up Rob, when he came out and gave us both a good morning kiss. Well, hers was a real kiss. Mine was a little on the stingy side. I told Kay that, a little later, and she just laughed.

Never felt so comfortable with anyone before her. No, not that kind of comfortable. Just, like she said, sisters. Or how I would imagine real sisters would be. I actually envied Krista there, just for a second, but then I thought maybe she'll be like a sister, too. Maybe it runs in the family. Can't wait to meet them.

We were in her car, heading for school, and I remembered. "Kay?" She glanced over at me, question in her eye. "I forgot to tell you, I've got a follow-up appointment at the clinic this afternoon. They set it up for me before we left the hospital. It's right after my last class. Will that be okay?"

"Sure, no problem. We can drive right over there, and our new note-takers will just have to go with us."

I'd forgot that we were supposed to meet them. "But aren't we supposed to have our hands bandaged to make it look real?"

"There's a bag from the drugstore in the back seat," she said, "bandages, tape, everything we need. We can fix 'em up in the parking lot when we meet the girls."

"Hmmmm," I said, "from what George and Mitch said, they ain't exactly "girls", more like Marine medics in disguise."

She pulled into a Donut Shoppe parking lot, and said, "We'll see shortly, dear, here's where we're supposed to meet them."

I looked around, and saw a beat-up Ford with two young-looking women in it, one white and one black, apparently waiting for something. Kay pulled in beside them, and said, "Here we are."

I must have looked surprised, because one of them said, "Hey pale princess, if you're gonna walk around all day with your mouth open like that, at least stick out your tongue, too. Give us a little thrill?"

The white girl laughed and said, "Never mind Richelle, sweetie, she's that way with everybody. I'm Suzie, your date for the day. George said you cut your hands and need some help?"

Kay was laughing, and said, "Yeah, we need note takers. You up for the job?"

"Oh yeah," said Richelle, "friend of ours got fucked over by this Todd guy and his buddies, and we're definitely up for this. Need any help with the bandages?" She looked into the bag Kay held out to her, then turned back to me. "Fingers free so you can scratch yer cootchie?"

I don't know who blushed more, me, or Kay. She looked at me and said, "George was right. I think we're gonna get an education!"

Kay, again

Wow! George said something about turning off the blush switch, and I see what he meant! Richelle got over next to Laurel, and started running gauze and tape over her hand. Did a pretty good job at it, too. Meanwhile, Suzie asked which hand I wanted bandaged, and I held up my right hand, and said in my best little girl voice, "Kiss it and make it better?"

Laurel cracked up at that, and Richelle just looked at me over the tops of her sunglasses, and said, "Bitch don' be messin' wid my stuff! Save dat kissin' fo' yo' own sugar pie!" Guess we didn't get those switches turned off in time. Laurel said she thought she wet her pants. I knew I did mine!

We split up then, and Laurel rode with Richelle, while Suzy climbed in with me. She said, "Okay, time to be serious." She looked back at the other two, who were following us. "Laurel's getting the same lecture from Richelle, so here's the drill. We're your note takers for a few days. Maybe until the end of the semester. That's what, the rest of this week and Monday and Tuesday of next?" I nodded, and she continued, "We're cleared for all your classes, and we'll do the lunch or break room thing with you, just like your normal day. Try to avoid crowds, and if you gotta go pee, expect me to be in the next stall, or somewhere up close."