Interlude 1

I walked next door with the rest of the girls and led the way into the house, saying hi to Matt’s mom. I’d started thinking of her as my mom too. I guessed it wasn’t too weird to have two moms since there were same-sex couples with kids in the high school. “Hey. We’ve got a couple of friends with us,” I told her.

“Hi Lana,” she said, beaming at me and then at Beck. “We met Colette when Matt got home. He still next door talking to Patty and Dan?”

I nodded and shrugged. “You know Mom. She wants every little detail. She’ll probably have him there half the night making him relive dinner. Anyway, this is Tabitha. Tabby, this is Matt’s mom and his sister, Lilly.”

They both greeted her warmly and we chatted for a few more moments before we started to head downstairs. We were just on the other side of the living room when the front door opened again. I expected it to be Matt, but Daddy was standing there. For some reason, he had Matt’s cane. I figured he’d wanted his crutch instead. He’d been limping pretty badly when he came to the table.

“Hi everyone,” he said, looking really upset. “Can I talk to Matt for a few minutes?”

I felt the blood drain out of my face and I exchanged a look with Beck. “What do you mean?” I demanded, knowing something was wrong. “We haven’t seen him since we came over here. Why do you have his cane? What’s going on?!!?”

“Oh SHIT!” he swore. He looked shaken and that was scaring me more. Daddy was never shaken. “He left. Your mother ... Patty didn’t take the news well at all, she ... she attacked him. I don’t know what came over her, but it was all I could do to pull her off him and then he was gone out the door, running as fast as he could. He dropped this right outside the door.”

His mother stood up and was all business as soon as there was a crisis. I liked that about her. She picked up the phone and dialed his number. While it was ringing, she opened her laptop and got the tracking site running. “Dan, it looks like he’s heading for Long Pond. He’s still moving.”

Daddy yelled that he had his phone with him and took off, we could hear the car starting and I was torn between going with him and staying here. I made my decision when she started talking into the phone.

“Honey, where are you? Are you okay?” she asked gently and I realized, I was holding my breath. “It’s okay, you’re near Long Pond. I’m looking at your tracker now. Just turn around and walk back to the road, Dan’s coming to get you.”

We could all hear him shout “NO!” and then I could hear thrashing. I knew that area and he was going through the bushes and trees there. He wasn’t following any of the trails.

“What the Hell did she do to him?!!?” Beck asked me softly and I shook my head.

“I don’t know, but I’m gonna find out. Wait here and I’ll be back.” I looked apologetically at Collie and Tabby. “Don’t leave,” I pleaded. “I have to find out what happened.”

I went next door, half wishing Daddy had left Matt’s cane because I was tempted to use it.

I opened the front door and didn’t see her in the kitchen. I turned and went up the stairs and followed the sound of running water into their bedroom. She was standing in front of the sink in the Master Bathroom, water dripping from her face while she looked into the mirror. “Mother,” I said to get her attention. “Matt’s gone missing. He didn’t come home when he left here. He’s currently fleeing into the woods blindly according to his mother, whatever you said or did has him in such blind panic that he’s actively trying to get further into the woods when he heard Daddy was going to get him. Daddy said you attacked him. What is going on?”

I was kind of surprised that I was as calm as I was. Matt was out there alone and running on an already injured ankle and scared out of his mind by whatever had happened after she’d sent us next door. I needed to get out there and help bring him home, but I also needed to know what she’d said to make him snap like that.

She flinched when she heard me call her name and put her head down, leaning against the sink with both hands while I told her what was going on. “Go next door Lana. This isn’t your problem.”

“Oh, isn’t it?” I asked hotly. “You send me away, assault the man I love, drive him out of here like Satan himself is chasing him, he’s panicked, running on an injured leg, so he’s probably back to not being able to walk before school starts thanks to whatever you decided to fly off the handle about. He’s wandering the woods alone, terrified out of his mind, at night, wearing dark clothes and is hurting himself with every step, but it’s not MY problem? Thanks for clearing that up. So glad we had this little talk!” I hissed and then turned and left her standing there.

I marched back downstairs and went back to the house which I was happy to call my home now. I was furious. I was scared for Matt and I was aghast at what Daddy said had happened.

“Is there any change?” I asked, closing the door behind me.

Beck shook her head. “He forgot to hang up, but he’s not talking any more. Lilly’s talking to Daddy and telling him where to go. She’s got Dad’s phone tracker on her computer and is sending him to Matt.”

I put a hand to my forehead for a second and tried to make sense of it. I motioned for Tabby and Collie to come with us and I led them and Beck downstairs to our room. “Not how we wanted things to go tonight,” I said apologetically and got everyone seated. “So, Matt tells Mom everything and I do mean everything. For her to blow up at him is bad. He loves her like his mother. Well, you heard what he said about his mother and father at dinner. Our parents have sort of become surrogates for his since the divorce. Whatever happened over there was bad. Beck, don’t go next door for a day or two. She wouldn’t even talk to me. Just told me that it wasn’t my problem.”

Tabby was the first to speak. “You don’t need to explain. My parents separated when I was ten. I had a surrogate too. They were an aunt and uncle, but same idea. The first time they had to punish me after my ‘rents split, it was ten times worse and your dad said she attacked him, so I can only imagine.”

“Yeah, whatever happened scared Daddy, so it was bad.”

We sat in silence for a few minutes and I looked at Beck. “Get changed,” I told her.

“We going to look for him?” she asked, already reaching behind her for the zipper on her dress.

“If we have to, but running from here to Long Pond on a bad ankle means he’s likely going to spend time in the hospital again. Better to be comfortable when we get there.” I reached behind me to work the zipper on my dress and Collie bounced up to help before I could get it down on my own. “Thanks. If you’re okay wearing sweats and deck shoes, you’re more than welcome to come with us.”

They nodded and the four of us changed quickly and I sighed. Not the way I’d hoped the four of us would be wriggling out of dresses tonight, but things don’t always happen the way you want them to.

Upstairs, it looked like things were going downhill. The house phone was on speaker phone and it sounded like Matt had run himself to the end of his strength. His breathing was labored and it sounded like he was falling and scrambling back to his feet. I closed my eyes in silent rage and thought about taking a hammer to my mother’s foot for what she’d put him through.

“You’re right on top of him,” Lilly was telling Daddy. Yeah, you should be able to hear him. Mom’s got him on speaker phone here and he’s making a hell of a racket.”

Then we could hear Dan’s voice on the house phone. “Matt!” he said and then he swore. “Aw Jesus! Come on, son, lets get you some help. I’ll take your phone for now. Don’t worry about it. I’ll take care of everything. Just rest here for a sec while I put your phone away.” The phone jostled for a moment and he spoke again.

“Hello, Charlotte? I’ve got him. I’ll take him over to the hospital. You and the girls can meet us there. He’s had a rough run, but he’ll be okay.” He hung up and we were in motion before the phone was back on the cradle.

In the end, we took two cars. Beck and I took Lilly and her Mom with us and Collie and Tabby took Collie’s car so she could go home directly from there. Their dresses were at the house, but they’d be back for them. If this scared one or both of them off, I swore I’d wring my mother’s neck.

We got to the hospital well ahead of Daddy and Matt and informed the attendant that they were coming. We didn’t know what shape he’d be in, but we knew that his sprain was likely relapsed and maybe injured worse. “He’ll be covered in cuts and scrapes,” I offered helpfully. “The area around Long Pond has a lot of thorn-bushes.

When Daddy brought him in, he looked even worse than I’d thought he would and we all looked shocked. He was covered in mud from falling and blood from the thorn-bushes, but they’d been worse than even I thought. When Daddy carried him in, he was limp and I hoped he’d passed out and wasn’t feeling any of it.

When he turned him over to the emergency team, he came over to us. He still looked shaken and his shirt was bloody where he’d carried Matt. He had no words for a moment and I threw my arms around him and kissed his cheek. “Thank you for bringing him back to us, Daddy,” I said earnestly.

He hugged me back and then we sat down to talk out what had happened.

“There’s a lot I don’t know yet,” he said grudgingly. “I have to talk to Patty and with Matt and with how they both reacted tonight, it may be some time before they can talk about it.”

“I went to see mother,” I told him. It wasn’t often I called her mother, but I reserved it for the moments when I wanted the most distance between us. Right now, it still felt uncomfortably close. “She wouldn’t talk to me, even after I told her what had happened. Just told me that it wasn’t my problem.”

He nodded. “I don’t know what she was thinking.” He looked at Colette and Tabitha. “Don’t take this to heart, but she was furious about the two of you. It’s probably because of Miranda. She very nearly got Matt and Lilly and Charlotte killed. He just barely managed to avoid it. She probably doesn’t trust you because you were close to her. I know that close to her doesn’t mean you knew what she was doing, but she might view it as an unforgivable lapse in judgment. She started shrieking at him that we’d trusted him with our girls and I couldn’t get her to calm down. She wouldn’t let him explain what was going on in his head, just kept screaming at him. Then he stood up and she grabbed hold of him and I could tell she was about to do something we’d all be horrified by later so I pulled her off him and by the time I had her under control, he was gone.”

He stopped and ran a hand through his hair. “When he heard me behind him, he went berserk. He practically dove into the thickest brush, trying to keep away from me and he’s cut up pretty bad.”

Just then the air was split with a shriek of pain from the emergency room and I got up to go to him. Charlotte pulled me back down and wrapped her arms around me. “They’re just cleaning the cuts and disinfecting them,” she said comfortingly. Daddy had a similar grip on Beck to keep her from sprinting off to be with him.

“We told them about his ankle,” I told Daddy and hugged Charlotte back. “They’ll be able to fix it.”

He nodded. “Hopefully it’s healed enough that he’s not back to square one,” he allowed. “He’s scared out of his mind, in shock and he’s probably lost more blood than is healthy for him.”

We all sat and waited while they worked on him. There were no more screams from the emergency room, but that was hardly any better.

About an hour later, a nurse came to the door and called Charlotte in. We all approached the doors and the nurse looked a little uncomfortable. “Just Charlotte, folks. Sorry.”

“We’re family,” I said defiantly.

She nodded. “I understand, but we can only have one person in to see him right now. Once he’s moved to a room, he can see a couple of people at a time.”

I finally nodded and released Charlotte and we all returned to our seats to wait for word. She was gone for what seemed like hours, but in reality, it was probably less than 20 minutes. When she came back, she was carrying a clear plastic bag with the tattered remains of the suit he’d been wearing at dinner.

“They’re keeping him over-night at least. No surprise there. He’s in deep shock and wouldn’t respond to anything except that scream when they swabbed out his cuts. They’re sedating him and say he’ll sleep for probably 12 hours. They’re concerned about his mental state. They didn’t see any reason for him to be unresponsive, so they want to reassess him tomorrow when the sedative wears off. We should go home and get some rest.” She shook hands with Collie and Tabby. “Girls, thanks for coming to make sure he was okay. I know we all just met, but try not to let this color your opinion too much. We try to keep at least three weeks between hospital visits.” She smiled weakly and told them she hoped we’d see them again soon when he was feeling a little more like himself.

They left and we promised to meet them back here tomorrow.

“I want to see him,” I said firmly when it became clear that everyone else was content to return to the car. Well, not quite everyone. Beck had refused to leave her seat until I said that. She came and stood beside me.

She was about to argue with us, but in the end, she nodded and went to talk to the nurse. We were told he was asleep and we couldn’t wake him, but she’d take us down to see him before he was taken upstairs.

He was indeed every inch the mess that Daddy and Charlotte had described. “Oh, Matt,” I said softly, running my fingers through his hair gently. “Sleep and get better. We’ll be here for you when you wake.”

We left quietly and I had a gleam in my eye that my sister recognized. “What are you gonna do?” she asked, worried.

“We,” I corrected her. “We’re going to do what he needs from us. We need to protect him. I never thought he’d need protection from mother, but we’re going to make sure he gets it from now on.” I looked at her and she nodded. I don’t think she was particularly thrilled with the thought of butting heads with mother, but I’d rather that than give her the chance to hurt him like that again.

She nodded. “I was hoping that we were done with them separating us to talk. From now on they can talk to all of us or none of us.”

I nodded in total agreement and we walked back to the family. I took her hand and we went out to the cars. Daddy took Charlotte and Lilly with him and we drove together.

When we got back to the houses, they were just separating to go to bed. It was late and there was going to be a lot to do tomorrow. When we got inside, Charlotte was waiting for us. Lilly was already on her way upstairs. She gave us each a hug and asked us to sit with her.

“So those girls were Miranda’s?” she asked, having gathered that much from what Daddy had said had caused the blow-up at the hospital.

I looked at Beck and then nodded. “Yes. Matt said that Donald asked him to help the three of them find a new Dominant. I guess he also asked if he’d consider keeping them. Matt said Donald thought they’d thrive more with him than someone else. They were both convinced that they’d had nothing to do with what she was up to and tonight at dinner, Collie said she thought Miranda was going to leave them too.”

She sighed and nodded. “Of course Donald has his foot in all of this.”

“That’s not completely fair,” Beck admitted. “He just emailed Matt the details he could about them. We sort of ... pushed him toward them,” she said sheepishly.

“You did?” she asked, surprised. “Why?”

“Well, it’s ... I’ve never really done anything with another girl,” Beck said and fidgeted. “They’re both really attractive and older and more experienced and I don’t know about Lana, but I thought it’d be fun to do some of the things that Matt does to me.” She didn’t mention the one time we’d kissed to share Matt’s cum and I didn’t think his mother needed to know about that in particular.

I nodded in agreement with what she’d said. “Yeah. They looked awesome and we were both excited about meeting them, so he got his father to invite them to dinner tonight and we hit it off. We all agreed that we’d give it a try. We were all excited when we got home. I don’t know what mother was thinking, but she turned a happy evening into a nightmare.”

“I’m sure your father is trying to find out what she was thinking as we speak,” she said and suggested we all go to bed so we could return to the hospital in the morning.

Beck and I went downstairs and I turned the lock on the door before we went to bed. “Charlotte has the key,” she said. “It’d be in the stuff she brought home from the hospital.”

We got undressed and got into bed, clinging to each other in the darkness. I told her I loved her and she said it back to me and we hugged tighter. I missed Matt. I knew she did too. I kissed her lips lightly and she sighed, relaxing. We were asleep in a few moments, but neither of us slept well.

When we woke, I felt like I’d slept on rocks. Beck looked more drained than she had the night before and I knew I didn’t look any better. I looked at myself in the mirror and sighed, starting to run my brush through the tangles in my hair. I’d noticed that I tossed and turned when I wasn’t with Matt and I ruthlessly fought through the tangles before we went to shower. It was like old times with the two of us sharing the bathroom and I hated it. I missed Matt in our morning routine. I knew Beck did too so I gave her a hug before we left the bathroom, freshly showered. “I miss him too,” I told her and we went to get dressed. I hung up Collie and Tabby’s dresses from last night and hoped they didn’t hate us after what had happened.

I finally sighed and took her hand. “Let’s go see what it looks like upstairs in the light of day,” I said, dreading whatever was going to come from mother today.

Charlotte had a simple breakfast ready for us and there was no mention of going next door for breakfast. We ate in near silence, the tension thick enough make us all uncomfortable. Even Charlotte felt it and she was nearly as steady as Daddy. I wondered what thoughts were going through her head, but didn’t think it was my place to ask. By silent agreement, we all got ready to go to the hospital and we had the door open when I saw Daddy coming up the walk.

He greeted us and tried to put on a pleasant enough face, but he’d had as rough a night as we had, maybe worse. “On your way to see him?” he asked softly and nodded when we said we were. “I just wanted you to know that I need a hand moving the luggage carrier from our garage to yours before we all get started. I think you should move the contents and keep them somewhere else for the near future.”

We all caught the meaning in that. Patty couldn’t be trusted to have access to it or know where it was. Charlotte nodded and led us back inside. She called the hospital and made sure the girls and Dan would be allowed in to see Matt. “They’re family. No one else except for his father or I are to see him.”

I tapped her arm to get her attention. “Collie and Tabby,” I reminded her and she nodded.

“Sorry. There are two others, named Tabitha and Colette. I don’t know their last names, but they should be allowed to see him too. No one else. It’s important. I have a few calls to make to family and then I’ll be over to clarify. I just want to make sure that his visitors list is restricted.”

She answered a few more questions and then hung up. “I’ll stay here and make sure things are smoothed over. You guys go and I’ll catch up.”

Daddy gave us each a hug including Lilly and then told us he was staying to help Charlotte get everything carried.

We nodded and piled into my car to drive to the hospital. I glanced next door and thought I saw the curtains twitch. “Beck. I need you to stay here,” I said suddenly. “More importantly, Matt needs it.”

She looked at me, surprised. “Why?”

“Stay with Daddy and Charlotte. Help them and then come to the hospital with them. We don’t know what Mom’s going to do, but I don’t trust her. With Daddy and Charlotte alone in the house, she might accuse them of having an affair.”

“She wouldn’t!” Beck gasped, but Lilly didn’t so I could tell the thought wasn’t out of the question to her.

“Wouldn’t she? Yesterday she wouldn’t have attacked Matt,” I pointed out and Beck nodded and unbuckled her seat belt, getting out of the car and hurrying back into the house. Lilly got in the front seat and we got moving.

“Smart call, getting Becky to stay with them,” she said, looking out the window on her side. “I saw her looking out the window before we got in the car. It wasn’t a happy look. I dunno what she’s gonna do, but something’s definitely changed.

I nodded. “I don’t know if I want to find out. What could she possibly say that would make us all look past it. You saw him when Daddy brought him in. He looked...” I trailed off and shook my head softly. “Hopefully he looks better today.

When we got to the hospital, we went to find his room and after some confusion, we ended up being sent to the same room he’d been moved to the last time he was here.

I knew something was wrong as soon as we opened the door. There was a heart monitor and a breathing mask on his face. I checked to make sure we were looking at the right bed and went to the nurse’s station to find out why he was on a monitor and breathing mask.

“I’m afraid I can’t discuss that with anyone except a direct family member,” the nurse said gently. The only thing I can tell you is that he’s stable for the moment.”

“No,” I said firmly. “I was standing next to his mother when she specifically had myself, my sister and my father added to the visitor’s list and she EXPLICITELY said we were family. If you can’t tell me and his sister what’s going on, then we need to speak to his doctor directly.”

She brought up his file and asked my name.

“Lana Powers,” I said and waited for her to reread the patient notes.

“Sorry Miss Powers,” she said when she’d seen the notes from the call. “We just didn’t get an alert that his visitor list had changed. I’ll update the other nurses and you won’t have any more trouble. He had some difficulty through the night and needed to be resuscitated.”

“So his heart stopped?” I asked, stunned. “Do you know why?”

She nodded. “He suffered a blunt force trauma to his chest and the left side of his face. It was missed in the initial exam because the bruising hadn’t begun to rise yet. He’s got a couple of cracked ribs and it’ll hurt to breathe for a while. We’re monitoring him because of the cardiac event, but it hasn’t repeated so far. From what you’d told the attending doctor last night, he probably ran straight into a tree in the dark. We would probably have caught it and treated it sooner, but he was unresponsive when he came in and was sedated for his own good after his mother described the distress he’d been in at the time of the injuries.”

I nodded and thanked her before returning to Matt’s room. Lilly was sitting with him and the only sound in the room was the beeping of the heart monitor and the slow hiss of oxygen in the mask.

“He died through the night,” I said after we’d been sitting for a while and her head snapped up. “That’s why the monitor and the mask. His heart stopped. They said he ran into a tree full-force in the dark and cracked a couple of ribs. How terrified must he have been to do that and pick himself up and keep going?”

We each sat and took one of his hands, watching him rest. Not that there was much to see. His face was covered with bandages and his hands were heavily wrapped too. We gingerly cradled his hands and talked as we watched him.

“What a shitty summer,” Lilly said tiredly. “First the ankle, then Miranda, now this. No wonder he bolted. I only had to watch it and I feel like I’ve aged ten years this month. He had to be in the middle of it.”

“You forgot the divorce,” I reminded her gently.

She shrugged dismissively. “That was months ago for me. As soon as I found the pictures of Miranda on his phone, I knew it was over for my parents. Matt was right about that. He was the only one that didn’t get a heads-up. I still feel kinda bad about that.”

“Well, I think it kind of pales by comparison to this,” I told her. “Besides, he’s so far over that now that he’d be surprised you still think about it. Look at it from his perspective. That was the last catalyst he needed before he and I could talk and actually find each other. I doubt it’s a happy memory for him, but he sees it as leading to so many other happy memories that it doesn’t seem unpleasant any more.”

She nodded and smiled a little at that thought. “I’m really okay with the way you guys are,” she confided in me after a moment to think about what I’d said. “I tease him about it because I’m his sister. I’m supposed to tease him, but he treats you guys like gold and I know that he loves you and Becky both. I’m surprised you fell in love with HIM though. Mind telling me how that happened?”

I looked at him tenderly for a moment and nodded. “I’ve known for years that he had a crush on me,” I told her. “I always thought it was sweet. A few years ago, he got really awkward and stopped being able to even talk to me when he’d see me. I thought at first that he stopped liking me, but then mother said he was just going through a phase and was scared that he’d say the wrong thing.” I reached down and picked up one of his hands gently, cradling it in mine before continuing. “He used to leave little presents for me on Valentine’s Day. They were from a ‘Secret Admirer’, but last year, it had snowed the night before, so he left tracks. It was incredibly sweet and romantic and he’d tried so hard not to let me know it was him. This year, I got up extra early and watched him leave the card and the little box of candy that was this year’s gift.”

“So why didn’t you say anything before if you liked him too?” she asked, scrunching up her face in confusion.

“We weren’t ready. I wasn’t, he CERTAINLY wasn’t. He couldn’t even speak to me. How would we do anything together?” I shrugged. “All I could do was give him some time and hope he snapped out of it.”

She laughed a little. “Is that why you didn’t have a boyfriend all last year?”

“Sort of,” I admitted. “Wait! How’d you know I didn’t have a boyfriend?”

“I lived across the hall from him. If you’d started going out with someone, I would have heard the sobbing at night,” she told me dryly. “The one time you DID go out on a date, he was miserable for a month.”

“Ugh!” I said, reminded of the worst date imaginable. “He wasn’t the only one. I only went out with him because he was Marlene’s cousin. She needed someone to double-date with and I was it. He was such a fucking creep. I don’t even talk to her when he’s in town now. I just tell her to call me when he leaves.”

“What did he do?” she asked, wide-eyed.

“Tried to get me to fool around with him,” I told her flatly. “I’m not a prude or anything, but I’d met him that day and he thought he could put his hands all over me.”

“What did you do?” she asked, surprised.

“I punched him out,” I said simply. “Right in the middle of the movie theater. It was in the middle of a really quiet scene and it sounded SO loud it scared me for a second. Then I left and called Daddy to come get me early.”

She laughed and asked me what happened after that.

“Marlene wouldn’t talk to me for a week and then for the next month she kept giving me shit about it until we got in a huge fight about it. She’s treated me like a Goodie Two-shoes ever since. She doesn’t believe half of what I tell her about Matt.”

“Tell her to talk to me,” she offered with a grin. “I’ll be happy to tell her how much noise you two make together.”

It was my turn to smile and we enjoyed each others company while we sat with him and waited for a doctor or the rest of the family.

I’d lost track of the time when the door opened again. It was Beck and she looked upset about something.

“What is it?” I demanded, knowing her well enough to know something wasn’t right.

“Mom’s lost it,” she said softly. After we’d left, she’d come over and started banging on the front door while they were out in the garage. “I put the chain on the door and opened it to talk to her and she started ranting at me to get my father and for you and me to be back in our rooms by the end of the day. She’s serious. I could barely recognize her. She was shouting and acting crazy. The old guy down the street was standing on his porch watching. I went and got Daddy and he tried to talk to her, but she wouldn’t talk to either of us. Just kept ranting for us to get out of that house.”

“After the news I got when we arrived here today? I choose Matt over her. I’ll sue to get her removed as my legal guardian if I have to. Matt died last night. They were able to get his heart started again, but the fact remains that he died. If we hadn’t been able to get to him or if he hadn’t had his phone, he would have died in the woods out there last night.” I let her take my chair and gently put his hand in hers while I went to speak to the parents.