Chapter 23

Friday was a day that the household started under a cloud of extreme tension. Beck and Lana were both emotionally invested in my recovery as much as I was. The parents worried too and Patty had her own reasons to want my report to come back favorably

At breakfast, Lana snapped at Lilly when she made one of her normal teasing comments and apologized almost right away, but I caught Lilly’s eye and winked to let her know it was okay. Then Lana, Beck and I got in the car and went to see Dr. Spencer at the hospital.

They waited outside while she poked and prodded the area, checked my range of motion and asked pointed questions about my activities and any pain or discomfort.

I answered honestly and then we sat and chatted about my week. I told her I was noticing how full my schedule was getting, but that I was okay with it and was trying to make sure that no one got neglected. I also told her about Dr. Saddler’s comment about the psychology department. “I didn’t have the heart to tell him Lana and Beck are sisters, let alone about their mother. Next time the three of us are together though, you feel free if you think he can handle it. The look on his face should be priceless.”

She laughed. “Carl can take the news. He may actually decide to include your dating habits in the study though. It does seem to have started at the same time as your other abilities so it bears investigating.”

I thought about it and nodded. “That’s probably fair,” I admitted. “So what’s the final word? Am I healthy enough to resume my deviant lifestyle or are the assassins going to be sharpening knives and gnashing teeth?”

She laughed. “It’s like that, is it? You’re a good boy who’s perfectly content to follow doctor’s orders but they’re the instigators?”

I shrugged. “I’ve seen the kinds of things medical equipment gets used for online. It makes me leery of crossing any woman who can order a table with stirrups without anyone asking questions. Although...” I trailed off, looking thoughtful for a moment before shaking my head. “Nah.”

She’d heard enough of my banter to not be shocked. “Oh I don’t need the bench, Mr. Russell. I’m sure I could perform a full examination if I should be inclined.”

“You’ll have to clear me for duty first and I think there’s a sign-in sheet somewhere,” I teased.

“You’re shameless,” she laughed. “I’m tempted to take you back down to X-Ray and throw you to the wolves.” She finally nodded. “Go easy, Matt. I know you should come with a label that says ‘contents under pressure’ right now, but try to pace yourself. If you find yourself in pain, stop immediately and have them call me. Not kidding. The study has me in charge of your overall well-being and that means that I’m your first call when you need so much as a Band-aid.”

I nodded. “I’m more likely to need a cardiac needle full of adrenaline if the girls have their way.”

“You’ve had one of those already,” she reminded me. “Anyway, get out of here before I have to order sedatives for the Bedtime Mafia and remember, try to keep it to one girl at a time until you’re back in top form.”

I laughed and told her I made no promises, but I’d try.

When I opened the office door, they were waiting with expectant looks. I nodded and was engulfed in a three-way hug that was punctuated with squeals that only dogs could hear the full extent of. They practically manhandled me back to the car and were intent on going straight home to spend the rest of the day shaking the foundations apart.

Sadly, other plans interrupted those ones. Mom had booked an appointment for me to accompany her to the high school to speak to the principal about the study and my special needs.

We waited in the office while the principal was in another meeting and I took the chance to look around, thinking that it was a lot nicer than the school I’d been in last year.

We were shown in and were introduced to Mr. Peterson, the principal. We shook hands and Mom outlined the program I was participating in and what it entailed. I sat quietly, paying attention, but also letting my eyes wander over the room. It was a typical educator’s office from what I knew. Filing cabinets, desk, diplomas, a picture of him smiling and holding up a fish while standing in a boat.

I didn’t see any pictures on his desk which said he wasn’t married as loudly as the lack of ring on his left hand did.

“Forgive me, Mrs. Russell,” he said delicately. “I just don’t see it. Your son’s barely shown any involvement with our conversation at all. He doesn’t seem capable of focusing for any length of time. I don’t mean to seem indelicate about it. It’s just my observation.”

I turned my eyes back on him. “Would you like to see a magic trick?” I asked him, deciding that it was time to show my hand, as it were. I knew he’d indulge the dullard he’d taken me for.

“Certainly son,” He said, leaning forward.

“You’re well educated and proud of that, but you’re overqualified for this position so you’ve taken down some of your more prestigious diplomas. You’ve replaced them with pictures from your vacations, but it was done hastily since you didn’t have the photographs resized and re-framed. If I had to guess, the diplomas and the pictures swapped locations on the wall here and at your home office. You’re not wearing a wedding ring and have no tan-line on your finger so you’re not divorced. No pictures on your desk seem to indicate no close family, but the vacation photos were taken by someone close to you. Does your boyfriend fish?”

I don’t think I could have had a more profound effect if I’d hit him with an axe handle between the eyes. He sputtered and I smiled a little.

“I’m not judging and I’m not carrying tales. I have friends that are gay and bisexual. You just had such trouble seeing me as a perceptive, intelligent student, when the truth is that I was looking around the room to get a feel for who you were. Admittedly, I have you at a bit of a disadvantage today since all you can judge me on is my appearance and a doting mother and what mother isn’t convinced that her baby boy is brilliant? On the flip side, your personality is all over this room if someone knows to look for it.”

I shrugged. “To put you at ease, I’m told by Dr. Saddler that I read about 200 words per second when I’m taking my time, my comprehension rate is over 99% and I spoke in front of the Harvard Grant Review Board earlier this week. That board has several members on the Admissions Board and at the end of that meeting, I was granted admission, full scholarship and special permission to take classes in a pilot project that will not only help nurture my gift, but help Dr. Saddler understand how it works and, if the project works out, it will likely become the model for how genius level prodigies are educated all over the world.”

He seemed shocked now that I was talking. “What will you need from us?” he asked and I took the initiative.

“First, I’ll need unrestricted wi-fi access everywhere in the school. Not firewalled for content, not choked for bandwidth. Wide open. It can be heavily password protected to prevent other students from piggybacking, but that’s how I’ll be attending my lectures for my University classes. Second, I’ll need permission to have and use my laptop in the school. I don’t know if that’s standard here, but if not, it’s necessary. Third, I’ll need my teachers to be informed about my condition and let them know that I may have ear-buds in to listen to my lecture material during times the other students are working at assignments and other classwork that I’ve completed. Finally, there’ll be times that I have to be excused from classes to participate in testing at the university. I sometimes won’t know about those tests until the morning of the test in the case of pop-quizzes. Arrangements will need to be made for me to be emailed any assignments and reschedule any pop-quizzes that conflict with the college courses. My desk should also be positioned near an electrical outlet so I can keep my computer charged. That has some flexibility since the charger has some distance to it.”

He made a few notes on a pad he had in front of him and nodded as I talked. “I’m sure we can arrange that. You said it was a Dr. Saddler?”

“Yes, Dr. Carl Saddler. We also have some of the documentation from my registration here for your files to verify.”

Mom handed over the stack of copies we’d made for this meeting and the meeting went more smoothly from there. He was still flustered and asked that we not mention anything about his sexual orientation.

“Like I said, I have friends that are gay and friends that are bisexual. It’s never occurred to me to make that an issue. I don’t particularly lead a conventional lifestyle myself so it’s not for me to point fingers. No one will hear it from me,” I assured him and Mom nodded in agreement.

“As far as I’m concerned, it’s none of anyone’s business except yours and your boyfriend’s,” Mom said in agreement. “That’s speaking as both a parent and a member of the staff.”

He nodded and looked grateful. We shook hands and he promised that he’d have things ready. “I may ask you to come in early so we can set up your passwords for the network here, but that shouldn’t take more than an hour to test the connection strength in the classrooms.”

With that out of the way, Mom was intending to head home when I suggested something else. “Anything you might have planned for me for the weekend is going to get shot to hell the second we pull into the driveway,” I pointed out. “Any shopping you wanted to get done for the school year is going to need to take a backseat to the girls for the next few days.”

She nodded and we went to the nearest big-box row. She got me a quality pair of headphones and a good set of earbuds for at school, an I-Pod for music and we looked at a few extras for the computer, but I told her I could get flash-drives, DVDs and print supplies from the Harvard bookstore through the grant. I suggested we take stock of what the girls had for computers and next week go make some sales-monkey a lot of commission.

We were back in the car when I broached another subject with Mom. “I’m worried about the other girls,” I said. “Tabby’s living at home and working to save money for college and Collie’s living in the dorms and working to make ends meet.”

“What did you have in mind?” she asked.

“I want to start helping them out. They can’t be making more than $300 a week at a part time job and probably less. I want to talk to them and see what they need, but bare minimum, I want them to have a new computer to start the new year and maybe sneak a little payment onto their tuition every month. If we did it in small chunks, it wouldn’t make any waves and putting $500 a month on their tuition bill would give them a lot less to worry about.”

She considered it and nodded. “You did say they were your girls now,” she said, “and you always intended the money to put you and the girls through school. Talk to them and see what their needs are and we’ll do what we can.”

“If I had my choice, I’d pay their tuition, buy their books and make sure they had all the tools they needed to graduate at the top of their class,” I said. “I know Collie’s living on campus, so I want to have her around the house more for meals and things like that. Campus food can’t be that good.”

“Just for meals?” she asked leadingly and gave me a wry look.

I shrugged. “I thought about that, but this late in summer, I don’t know if she’s locked into living on campus. I’d also never be dumb enough to try to move her in without talking to you, Lana and Beck.”

“Lilly doesn’t get a say?” she smirked.

“Lilly’s going to complain either way just because it’s me,” I said with a laugh. “She confessed that she’s not bothered by it when I was in the hospital. She just pretends so she can pick on me. Though I think she’s only half kidding about moving next door. I’ll have to talk to her about that.”

We decided to put off clothes shopping and took the electronics home to have dinner. We were barbecuing tonight and the backyard was filling up. Collie and Tabby were both there and we all chatted back and forth. I figured we still had another 20 minutes before supper was ready so I asked Tabby and Collie to talk for a bit. I had two things in mind.

I led them down to the bedroom and started up my old computer, loading the website I’d ordered the collars from and we measured them for theirs. They picked them out and I produced Mom’s credit card to pay for them. The money to pay the card was plentiful, so I didn’t worry about it. They were both pleased and looking forward to getting them.

“I had something else I wanted to talk to you both about,” I said, sitting them on the bed. “I want to know how I can help with college. I know you’re both working jobs to help pay for it. I want to put a stop to that so you can focus completely on school. We can pay for books and supplies, tuition and anything else you need. I don’t want you to struggle because you need to choose between a shift at work and studying for a test.”

“You’d really do that?” Tabby asked, surprised.

“You’re my girls,” I said as if that answered it. “I want you to succeed. If you need something and I can give it to you, it’s not a question. It’s yours. I seriously don’t want either of you to have to make shitty choices like that while you’re in school. We’ll pay your tuition in small enough chunks that it all gets paid on time, but without any suspicion about where the money came from. Books and supplies we’ll buy in cash. I also want to make sure you both have the best computers and software we can get you for what you’re doing. We’ll make some time to go shopping for that next week and you can pick out what you need personally. We’ll get your books at the same time and put a moderate payment on your start of term tuition.

They looked at each other in shock for a moment then at me and then back at each other. I began to think they’d been understating the enormity of the strain they were both under financially as I saw it slowly lifting from their shoulders.

Collie had tears in her eyes. “I can never thank you enough for this!” she said, sobbing and threw her arms around my neck, hugging me tight.

I held her and cried a little with her, feeling her burdens lift as she held onto me. Tabby was still stunned by the offer. “But why?” she asked.

I nodded that I was going to answer, but I took a few minutes to calm Collie down first. When she was back on the bed and watching me and wiping her eyes, I started talking.

“When we first found the money that Miranda had hidden around the house, my first thought was to use it to make our lives better. I wanted it to be used so that me and the girls could all go to college without worrying about money or taking jobs while we were trying to get ourselves an education. All my girls. That includes you two. If you need something, we’ll get it. You’re important to us and we want you to succeed alongside us. If later on, you drift away, then we can say goodbye, knowing that you’re going to be fine.”

Collie shook her head when I said that last part and I confirmed in my head that she’d taken that pledge deeply into her soul. Death would be the only thing that separated her from us. I was certain of it. I smiled at her reassuringly.

Tabby nodded and came to hug me, words failing her. I kissed her cheek softly. “When I said ‘welcome home’ at the restaurant, I meant it,” I told them both.

She returned to the bed and her and Collie hugged, both of them looking a little emotional at the moment. “There was just one other thing I wanted to bring up. Tabby, you’re living at home with your parents, right?” She nodded. “Collie, you’re on campus. How well do those situations work for you?”

Tabby seemed at ease talking about it. “My parents are okay. They live close to campus, so that’s pretty convenient. I have as much freedom as I need and they don’t ask questions that they don’t want answers to. They may ask what’s going on if I come home with a new computer though.”

I nodded, understanding. “What about you Collie?” I asked wondering how she was getting along.

She shrugged. “I’ve got a small apartment on campus with another girl. She likes to party a lot so there’s times I wish I could get some peace and quiet, but we try to make it work.”

“Okay. I thought you were in the dorms,” I said.

“I was until summer started and I had to move out till September. There was a girl that was advertising for a roommate and I took the offer. I have to decide whether to move back to the dorms or stay there for the year. It’s a little cheaper in the dorms, but not by much and it’s not the best situation.”

“When do you have to decide?” I asked.

“Next Friday. She’ll be able to pick up a roommate pretty easily once the students start coming back.”

“Okay. Well let’s go eat and we’ll talk more about that before you have to make a decision,” I suggested. We went back upstairs and rejoined the party. We were just in time for the food coming off the grill and the talk mostly turned toward light topics.

After dinner, I had a chance to talk to Lana and Beck. “How much room do we have in the closet downstairs?” I asked them softly, trying not to attract attention to us.

Lana shrugged. “There’s a bit. Why? You planning on hanging up more clothes?”

“Thinking about it, but not necessarily mine. Collie’s not in the best situation. Choice between dorms or a small apartment with a party girl. Collie doesn’t strike me as a complainer. If she can find bad things to say about both places, she’s got it pretty tough. I wanted to ask the two of you and Mom before I made the offer to her though. It’s your room too. It’s up to you to decide if there’s enough room for all of us.”

“Tabby coming too?” Beck asked. She really liked Tabby. I thought it was the bright red hair.

I smiled but shook my head. “Her home life is a little more stable. Her parents live near campus and treat her well enough. If she were in trouble, I’d ask how we could make it work for her too.”

She nodded and the two of them shared a look. “Do it,” Lana said with a grin.

“You’re sure?” I asked and they both assured me they were. I kissed them both and then went looking for Mom.

I quickly explained the situation to her and asked what she thought. “I already talked to the girls and they’re good with it.”

She mulled it over for a few minutes and nodded. “If you’re sure you can manage with the three girls down there,” she said with a sigh.

“Mom, there’s going to be nights that Tabby’s here too, I’m sure. Do king sized mattresses come in bunk beds?”

She laughed and shook her head. “Read a book in carpentry and build one,” she suggested.

I laughed, but it wasn’t a bad idea to build something custom sized if I could manage it.

I left her for the moment and went to talk to Collie and Tabby. I told them that there was room for Collie with us downstairs if she wanted it.

“If your home situation was more stressful, I’d have asked you too, but you said it was working for you. You’re still welcome with us any time, day or night,” I said to Tabby who smiled at the news.

“It’s cool. I have a workable deal where I am. I’ll take you up on your offer to spend a night every once in a while if there’s room, but if not, an afternoon is fine. It’s all good.”

We both turned to Collie, who hadn’t responded yet. If she’d looked at me with shock over the help I’d offered with tuition, she was floored by this. “Live here? With all of you?” she whispered.

“Only if you want to,” I assured her. “This isn’t an issue I can compel you to do by your collar. It’s a choice you have to make, free of those commitments.”

She nodded, thinking hard. I could see her working through it. Finally she raised her eyes and asked how it would work.

“You’d move into the room downstairs with us. We’ll make it work for all of us. It may involve us taking over other parts of the house when we all have to study, but my old bedroom upstairs is being turned into an office for my mother. I’m sure she’d be okay with you studying in there if you needed a place to get away. You’d have the run of the house, the same as the rest of us do.”

“No, I meant ... for sex,” she said, shaking her head.

“Ah. Well I assume that being part of a group with Miranda that neither of you would be exactly shy in front of the other girls. Lana has watched me with Beck and Beck has watched me with Lana.”

“They haven’t ... been together?” she asked.

I shook my head. “I think that’s part of the reason that they were originally eager to meet both of you. I haven’t pushed them into each others arms. I don’t know if they’re either not comfortable or not ready to be with each other that way. Being naked in the same bed and even having sex with the same person is different that crossing the line into incest. They might want to experiment with another woman first or they might never want to touch each other like that.” I stopped and thought about it. “Or they may be waiting until tonight.”

“What’s happening tonight?” Tabby asked curiously.

“I was cleared by the doctor today for sex. Technically the three of us are all virgins. We’ve done things together, but never intercourse. We need to change that tonight.”

“You said you had sex though,” Collie pointed out.

“Oral only and anal once,” I said. “We were waiting until the girls were both on birth control and it kicked in completely. Now that it has and my incision has healed a little, they’re going to try to kill me.” I smiled a little.

They laughed a little, but Collie still looked like there was something on her mind.

I took her hand and met her eyes. “Talk to me. What are you thinking?”

“I’m not sure. Miranda never even suggested that anyone move in with her except Donald. It’s new to me.”

“It’s new to me too,” I assured her. “Let’s see what we can figure out.”

She nodded. “You guys are super young. I don’t want to get in between you. I mean, I remember how quick girls turned on each other over a guy when I was in high school. It’s not much different in college.”

I nodded. “Most of those were over someone stealing her friend’s boyfriend or getting caught cheating with him, right? No one’s stealing me and no one’s cheating. We’re a single unit. None of us are cheating because none of us are in the dark. If I come home and you’re busily pleasuring Lana or Beck or Tabby, that’s a reality I’m well aware of ahead of time. In that situation, I would quietly remove my clothes, sit down to watch and take care of my own needs while I enjoyed the most erotic sight imaginable. There’s no secrets, no jealousy. You’re free to love any one of us without restrictions other than the ones that life imposes on us all. That answer your question?”

She nodded and blushed a little, grinning. “I was kind of worried about that.”

“I assumed from the fact that you were with Miranda that you were both comfortable with loving women. I also assumed that if you weren’t comfortable with men that Donald would have been a friction point and that if it had been, you would never have accepted me at the restaurant. I’ve never seen two women pleasuring each other, but the thought of it is exciting.”

That opened them both up about the topic. Once they knew that there was no taboo, they were far more relaxed. We talked a little more about the details and logistics of Collie moving in, but in the end, we decided that there was room in our bed and in our lives for her. I reiterated to Tabby that if her situation changed, she only had to say the word and I’d start working on a double-wide Bed frame and we’d add a second king mattress for all of us.

“You’d buy custom furniture just for me to move in?” she asked, skeptically.

“Mom suggested I build it rather than trying to explain to a carpenter what I needed and why,” I said. “I already read a book on home repair. A complete idiot’s guide to carpentry seems like the next logical step.”

We were joined by Lana and Beck then and they asked what we were talking about.

“Matt wants to build a custom bed-frame so we can put a second king-sized bed in downstairs,” Collie said with a giggle. “He thinks that it’s getting crowded with just one.”

“It’s not a bad idea,” Tabby admitted. “You can build it with all kinds of spots to attach ropes and cuffs.” I’d been wondering if this was going to get brought up.

“So we’re going to be building dungeon furniture disguised as a normal bed?” I asked playfully.

“Why disguise it?” she countered boldly. Everyone who might see it already knows you own us, right? So who cares if they know that there’s bondage going on too?”

I shrugged. “Alright. Dungeon-themed, double-wide kink-sized bed it is,” I smirked at the kink-sized comment, not having any idea how true it would become at the moment.

We all broke up into laughing and split up to chat with everyone else. Collie was moving in next week and we’d go get her stuff with her car and Lana’s.

I found Mom and Dan talking and told them about it. This was the first Dan had heard about it and I filled him in on the details of why. “Sharing a bed with three high school students is more stable than either of the options she has and we all agreed we wanted her here.”

He nodded and shrugged. “Just don’t let Patty wait for too long. She’s starting to climb the walls now that you two have talked things through,” he reminded me. I nodded solemnly. I wasn’t 100% comfortable with the situation, but I felt like it was a duty I could perform and I would.

“I’m still really worried about how everyone’s going to feel afterwards, but we’ve all promised to handle it together,” I said, expressing my concern, but also my determination to see it through. “I should go talk to her though and let her know what’s going on.”

When I caught up to her, she was shutting down the grill, having cooked a few more things to put in the fridge for the next few days. “How’re you holding up?” I asked, glad that everyone else was inside for the moment.

She looked at me and chuckled. “Dan?” she asked instead of answering.

“No. I wanted to talk to you, but he suggested that you were starting to watch the clock a little bit. Think you can hold on a couple more days?”

She nodded. “I’ve waited this long. I take it the girls are going to spend tonight trying to put you back in the hospital?”

“They’re gonna try, but the smart money’s on me. If I feel like I’m in trouble, I can always put Lana’s lights out and then I’m back to one on one.”

“Not spending a full night on them each?” she asked, surprised.

“All three of us are virgins. We want the first time to be together. WE still have a few details to work out though, like where and when. I don’t assume you want to climb into the same bed that your girls use and I don’t assume you want me in the same bed you sleep in with Dan. Just a matter of logistics, but important things to consider for everyone’s comfort.”

She nodded. “I’m comfortable with your bed,” she said simply. “I appreciate you being considerate about our bed. I’ll be sure to mention that to Dan.”

“I figured there’s a bit of a jump between knowing it’s going on and getting to sleep in the place where it happened,” I said simply. “There’s one other complication that I need to talk to you about. Collie’s moving in next week. Her current options are a party dorm or a pretty tiny apartment with a party girl for a roommate. I already talked to everyone but Lilly, but I suspect Lilly’s only half-joking about wanting to move next door with you and Dan. How hard has she been working on you?”

“She’s mentioned it a few times,” Patty admitted. “She always makes it a joke, but when a girl jokes about something often enough, it’s on her mind. Any idea why she’s thinking about it?”

“I dunno, but I’m gonna find out,” I promised. “I know she’s detached from Donald pretty completely, but I’m starting to think that she’s bothered by more than that. Maybe it’s just living in the house where we were all a family. Mom’s going back to work, I’m ... Well, let’s just say that Mom and I have both changed. Maybe she feels like she needs a change too.”

“The answer is yes when she gets around to asking seriously,” she told me solemnly. “Dan and I miss having the girls at home. I know they’re still within shouting distance, but the house is too quiet sometimes.”

I nodded. “Another good reason for us to consider getting a bigger house for all of us. Explaining to a real estate agent that we need one bedroom to have three en-suite bathrooms though might be a little tricky.”

She laughed. “Just three?” she asked.

“I figure with five of us, we could probably get along with two, but who knows what’s going to happen in the next four years? Lana could meet someone that takes her breath away at college, Collie and Tabby could end up moving to other parts of the country and Beck could get bored with me and move on to someone more interesting.”

“Do you really think any of that’s going to happen?” she asked skeptically.

“No,” I admitted. “I think I could weld Collie’s collar shut and she’d thank me for it. Whatever Miranda did to her, I don’t think there’s a way back to independence for her. She needs someone and I’m it. I think I’ve treated Tabby better than anyone she’s ever met in her life and that makes her wary, but ultimately it makes her crave it more. I think Lana and Beck love me as much as I love them and that we’d be half-alive without each other. I think that when I’m at the end of my life, I’ll be surrounded by those girls and whatever children and grandchildren we have and that when I go into the ground, it will be with the understanding that each of them will be lain with me when their time comes.”