Chapter 70: Dana

Monday morning arrived quicker than I would have liked. We’d stayed up late, just chatting and reconnecting with each other, something that had been kind of missed out on. Sarah was far more involved in the discussions than she had been and I sensed a change in her attitude to both me and the rest of the girls.

She’d been getting more and more relaxed around us as things had progressed. However, I’d never before gotten the sense from her that she was completely at ease with us, as she seemed to be now. Her very minor dalliance with Amanda had seemed to break down her remaining reservations. My attitude to her had also relaxed and, whereas before I’d had no plans to add her to our network, I was seriously thinking about it now.

I held off though, mainly because I didn’t want to get in the way of what Sarah and Arnie were building. It was important to me that they make their own way together, and I didn’t want the connection or our interference to get in the way of that. What would happen once they had established themselves? Well, that remained to be seen.

Melanie and I went out for a run. It wasn’t raining and since Melanie wasn’t up to my level, I held back a little bit to stay with her. Despite that, I enjoyed myself far more. Running can be a lonely occupation and having someone to run with. It made running much less tedious.

When we got back to the hotel we showered together, spent some time washing each other, and then joined the girls in the room for breakfast which had been ordered from room service.

I’d decided that I was going to find an architect today and, over the weekend, had sent out a couple of emails to see if anyone had any availability to speak with me this week. I had no idea what kind of waiting times these kinds of professionals had, but I wanted to get to see someone sooner rather than later. There was less than a month before we’d be ready to start thinking about digging foundations and until and unless we had a plan, we’d be sat doing nothing. I was already unhappy with the thought of how long it would take to get the rebuild done and the thought of things standing idle made my teeth itch.

One promising development arrived in my email inbox mid-morning. The realtor for our new temporary home had sent me a message saying that we would be able to access the property to take measurements. She gave us the option of Tuesday or Wednesday evening.

I thought it might be good to get Marcia to go with so she could plan her work, as well as perhaps looking at doing some other things like installing a proper workbench into Jules’ Workshop.

I had a couple of hypnotherapy sessions in the morning. My deaf client was doing well and her friend, who had come with her as chaperone, asked if I would be able to help her too. She’d been skeptical at first, especially given her friend was deaf. The fact I was able to converse with her friend in ASL without difficulty seemed to have changed her mind about me.

Just after lunch I relocated to the range, in time to see my singing star client. He was looking much better and was very pleased with his progress, having had neither relapse nor craving in weeks. He told me that his roadie-dealer had moved on. My client had apparently recommended his services to another band who were as interested in his extra-curricular activities, as much as his skills as a roadie. I also suspected that there had been a significant payment made for him to just quietly ‘go away.’ I still wasn’t sure that that was the end of the matter, but I wasn’t interested in getting involved any further with that situation.

I called Marcia and set up the appointment for Wednesday for us all to go and see the ‘new’ house, since I was expecting to be back teaching my martial arts class on Tuesday.

Since my last appointment didn’t finish until four, I didn’t bother going back to the hotel but made my way directly to the airport for my flying lesson. When I got there, the Cirrus was back on the tarmac, and Danny was waiting for me beside it.

“No Arnie today?” I asked.

“No,” he said. “I’ve given him the week off. After what happened on Saturday, I thought it better that he had a little time to gather himself. I took him up earlier for an hour just to see how he felt about it, and he seems okay, but a few days off won’t do him any harm.

“I would have suggested that you take a break too, but something tells me that what happened didn’t affect you quite so much.”

I smiled at him.

“I’m fine,” I said. “It was a great learning experience and, aside from losing my headset and logbook, I’m none the worse for it.”

“Here,” he said, passing me a new, boxed headset. It was the same make as the one I’d had before, but the higher model.

“This isn’t the kind I had,” I said. “Will the insurance pay for the upgrade?”

“That’s from us,” he said. “Kind of a thank you. No matter the cause of the accident, most people would have been screaming about suing us for what happened Saturday. The idea didn’t even seem to enter your head.”

“In truth,” I said, “it hasn’t. What happened wasn’t your fault, possibly not anyone’s fault, but if there was blame to be had it would likely be with the rental company. The NTSB will sort that out. Suing you would be a stupid thing to do. My instructor, your son, saved my life, getting me down in one piece, under some very difficult circumstances.

“Considering his age, which I know seems incongruous coming from someone only a couple of years older, he was amazing.”

“You didn’t have to wash his underwear,” he joked as we started the external checks on the Cirrus.

As we passed around the front of the plane, I grabbed the prop and gave it an experimental tug.

“Just checking,” I said grinning at him. He laughed.

“Asshole!” he said.

Later, as we were tucking the Cirrus up for the night, he said, “That completes your instructor hour requirements, but if you want to take another shot at your cross-country flight next Saturday, that plane is still in Nevada awaiting collection.

“I won’t charge you anything for the flight at all. It’s really the least I can do.”

“Will it be you or Arnie coming with?” I asked.

“Arnie,” he replied. “Only this time you’ll be flying the Cirrus.”

“Well,” I said, “at least we’ll have the parachute.”

“Don’t,” he said grimacing. “That’s not even funny.”

When I got back to the hotel, Arnie was there with Sarah. They were sitting together, chatting amiably with the rest of the girls.

Arnie looked at his watch as I entered.

“My god,” he said. “It’s that late already?”

I grinned at him.

“You still in one piece?” I asked. “You can’t have been here that long.”

“I think Sarah’s been protecting me,” he said, sharing a glance with her. I accepted hugs and kisses from all the girls, Sarah included. Arnie looked on, a mix of amusement and admiration on his face. I was pleased to note that there wasn’t a hint of jealousy in his aura.

“Did dad ask about Saturday?” he asked me after I settled down.

“He did,” I said. “I said yes.”

“What’s happening Saturday?” asked Sarah.

“We’re going to try again to get that plane,” I said. “I’m going to do my cross-country flight back from Nevada.”

“Can I come?” asked Sarah instantly.

I looked at Arnie.

“She’ll have to travel back with you,” I said, “so it’s up to you.”

Sarah turned to her boyfriend giving him the ‘Puss in Boots’ look. I think Ness had been giving her lessons, although for some reason blue eyes didn’t have quite the same impact. They seemed to do the trick on Arnie though.

“Sure,” he said. “If Caleb is happy to fly the outbound with you onboard, then you can hitch a ride with me on the way back.”

I could feel others wanting to ask if they might come too, but they restrained themselves wanting to allow Sarah and Arnie some alone time.

Sarah squeaked happily and threw her arms around Arnie. He blushed but grinned as she kissed his cheek.

“Aren’t you on a curfew?” I asked him after a few minutes. He glanced at his watch and jumped up.

“Oh shit,” he said. “I need to go.”

To give her her due, Sarah didn’t pout at all, merely standing up, and walking him out to the elevator, where they spent a few minutes while they waited for the car to arrive.

“I like him,” said Amanda after they left. “He’s a nice guy, and clearly besotted with Sarah.”

“Head over heels,” said Ness. “Even I can see that.”

“They both are,” said Mary. “Did you notice Sarah’s aura when they’re together?”

I nodded. “They certainly seem to be a good fit,” I said.

“So, when are we going to tell him?” asked Amanda.

“Give it a chance,” I said. “They’ve only been going out a couple of weeks. We’ve got the break coming up soon. We need to decide what we’re doing for that. Also, we need to ask Sarah.”

“Ask Sarah what?” asked Sarah as she came back into the room, her face still a little flushed from the goodbye kisses.

“We normally go up to the ranch in the break,” I said. “I was wondering what you were going to do.”

“The ranch?” she asked.

“Our parent’s place,” said Jules. “We go stay with them for a few weeks.”

“I’m really looking forward to it,” said Melanie.

“There’s no pressure,” I said. “If you want to stay here, or go see your parents, or come with.”

Sarah bit her lip. “Can Arnie come?” she asked.

“If he can get time away,” Jules said. “I’m sure Mom and Daddy would be fine with it. Do you think he would be able to?”

Sarah shrugged. “I have no idea,” she said.

“What about your parents?” I asked. “Won’t they want to see you in the break?”

Sarah frowned. “Things just keep getting more complicated,” she complained. “I just remembered I told them I’d try to get to see them this weekend. Dad was going to come pick me up. But if we’re going to Nevada on Saturday...”

“How about,” I said. “I drive you over to see them Sunday?”

“Would that be okay?” she asked.

“Sure,” I said. “We can head up there reasonably early, you can spend the day with them and either your dad can bring you back, or I can collect you.”

“You’re not going to come with?” she asked, looking a little hurt.

“I thought you might like some time with your family,” I said.

“You are my family,” she replied.

I smiled at her.

“There is another option,” Amanda suggested. “Maybe see if Arnie would like to go meet your parents?”

Sarah looked aghast. “Not yet,” she said. “I need to speak to them about him first.”

“And warn him about them,” she added after a moment’s thought.

The next morning, while Melanie and I were training, Sarah joined the other girls, who usually ran a couple of easy miles in the morning. Since Empathy wasn’t that strenuous on the body, the twins didn’t need to train heavily, although they were all attending the martial arts class I was teaching on Tuesday night. Sarah had decided that she too would join. I did warn her that she’d need to probably train more than the other girls, since Compulsion was actually harder on the body than Empathy was. She didn’t exactly look pleased at the prospect.

Wednesday morning my ethics professor announced that he planned to assist all of us who were doing our senior thesis on an ethical subject by debating each of our hypotheses in a classroom session. He requested that we each submit to him the question that we were going to consider, and each week we would have a discussion on that topic. That way, the person who was actually writing the thesis would get some perspectives that they hadn’t perhaps considered for themselves.

It turned out that there were sixteen of us in the class who had decided to do this, and we had until next week to send him the information requested. He would then determine the order in which they would be discussed and how long we would spend on each discussion.

He also told us that we would not be told who was considering each question, only that it was going to be considered. Finally, he said that he would also be injecting a couple of questions of his own. That way we would not know whether the topic up for discussion was, in fact, one related to a class member, or simply something the professor wanted us to consider.

I sat and thought about the actual question I was going to ask. I knew the general topic was going to be the ethics of a ‘superhero’ but that was such an all encompassing subject that I wanted to distil it down some ... to make it more focused.

I decided to consider something that I’d been struggling with a little.

The statement ‘With great power comes great responsibility’ was what had been troubling me. I could kind of understand that from one viewpoint. For instance, if you had a lot of power, you had to use it in a responsible manner, and not abuse it, or those around you. But what did that actually mean? Did that responsibility include righting ALL the wrongs you came across in your life? Did I have the responsibility to insert myself into EVERY situation where I could see people were suffering? If so, where would it end?

I decided that that would be the topic of my senior thesis and quickly constructed an email, and sent it to the Professor, even before the class was over.

Dana and I walked out together.

“How are you doing?” she asked, linking my arm as we walked, as she so often did. “I heard about the crash.”

“Not so much a crash as a bit of a rough landing,” I corrected her with a smile.

“You ended up in a tree,” she said. “That, in my book, is a crash.”

I conceded the point. “I’m good. It wasn’t as big a deal for me as it seems to be for everyone else.”

“Often the case,” she said sagely.

We walked in silence for a few minutes.

“Gracie asked me to ask you when you are going to come over,” she said, rushing the words a little as if she’d had to work herself up to it.

“Come over?” I asked.

“You and I have some unfinished business,” Dana said blushing a little. “And Gracie misses you too. We were hoping you could come spend the night one day soon?”

“Things have been a bit hectic recently,” I said. “What with the fire, and the crash. Living in the hotel is nice, but I think I’m going stir crazy in there. It’s surprising how limiting it is. I haven’t had the chance to cook in forever, and eating out for every meal has definitely lost its appeal.”

“Then come over and cook dinner,” she said. “I certainly won’t complain about getting a decent meal. My cooking isn’t great, and Gracie can barely boil water.”

“Are you sure that Gracie is okay with it?” I asked. “I got the feeling that she was kind of pulling back from us. I don’t want to cause you guys any problems.”

Dana stopped and looked at me. She sighed.

“Gracie,” she began, “and, to a certain extent, I was pulling back. But not for the reason you might think.”

“Oh?” I queried.

“You know we both love you, right?” she said. I didn’t answer and she took that as affirmation. “Well, we were starting to be a little too much IN love with you. We were both beginning to feel like we wanted more than we had, like we wanted to be connected to you, like the girls were. We wanted to be a part of your family.

“I know that’s not what you wanted, nor was it really what we wanted truth be told, but living with you, day in day out, was drawing us in. I honestly don’t know how Louise and Josh can stand it. They are obviously a lot stronger than we are.”

“I think it might have something to do with them being together before they got involved with me,” I suggested. “Their love was already in place, even if they didn’t know it.”

“Maybe,” she said. “All I know is that since we moved out, things have become much clearer for us both. We still love you all, still want to be a part of your lives, still want to ... occasionally. But having that space, that time apart, gave us the opportunity to find ourselves again, to be together, and not spend all of our time wishing for something that could never be.”

“I’m so sorry,” I said. “If I’d known it would be like that, I wouldn’t have suggested you guys move in with us.”

“No,” she said. “Don’t apologize. What you did, for both of us, was amazing. You took us in when we needed somewhere safe. You gave us the time and space to find each other. But it was time for us to move on.

“However,” she continued. “That doesn’t mean we don’t still want all of you to be a part of our lives, and for you to spend some time with us, if that’s okay with you, and the girls too.”

“I’ll speak to the girls,” I said. “And we’ll arrange some time, sometime soon.”

Dana smiled, then reached up, pulling me down into a long kiss.

Several people in the corridor stopped.

Just then Amanda arrived.

“Caleb,” she said.

“Uh-oh,” I heard one guy say. “He’s in trouble now!”

I heard a few chuckles from the other guys around.

Amanda ignored them all, walking up to us just as we broke the kiss.

“Dana,” said Amanda, “Nice to see you. Do I get a kiss too?”

Dana smiled at her, and they shared a short kiss, before Amanda kissed me.

“Oh wow,” I heard from around me. Along with some murmurs of “Lucky bastard.”

I grinned. “Lunch?” I suggested to the girls, and they nodded, each taking one of my arms as we walked to the cafeteria together.

We joined Jules and Melanie at a table and were soon joined by Mary and Sarah.

“Great idea,” said Mary, when Dana repeated her request for me to go spend the night with Gracie and her. “You’ve been banging around the hotel suite like a bear with a sore head. A change of scenery will do you good. When?”

“I don’t know,” I said.

“Why not Friday night?” asked Melanie. “Then Mary and Amanda can maybe go out and find someone to share with too. You’re not the only one that’s been getting antsy.”

Mary looked at Melanie. “Are we?” she asked.

Melanie grinned at her. “It’s been a while, hasn’t it?”

Mary nodded, but then looked at me. “Would that be okay?” she asked.

I smiled at her.

“That would be perfect,” I said. “What about you, Jules, Ness and Sarah?” I asked Melanie.

“I’m sure Arnie will come over to keep Sarah company,” said Melanie. I think Ness and I can find some mischief to get up to. Jules will probably read. You know what she’s like. Once we’re in the new place she’ll be glad to get her workshop back.

I looked at Dana. “How does Friday night sound?” I asked.

“You going to stay over?” she asked.

I looked at the girls, and they all nodded, smiling.

“Okay,” I said. “But I have to be at the airport reasonably early on Saturday, so I’ll have to leave early.”

“You’re up at stupid o’clock anyway,” said Dana. “I’m sure we can get you on your way in time.”

“Check in with Gracie and let me know if it’s okay.”

“I’m certain it will be,” she said. “But I’ll send you a text after I’ve spoken with her. What are you going to cook?”

“I’ll think about it. If you or Gracie have a preference, let me know.”

I mentally made a note to go and buy some more knives. Ness’ knives had been in her locker at Catering College so they had been spared the fire. Mine had been ruined.

When I got home, there was a surprise in the form of two letters from the insurance company. The first was an offer for settlement for the personal possessions. They had conveniently itemized it and, when I looked through it, they had been reasonably generous. I wondered how much effect our relationship with Dean had on their decision to pay out. I was certain, given the amount of business that he did with them, that our the amount of our claim meant very little to them.

I sent them an email, accepting the offer, and gave them my bank details for them to deposit the funds. The letter said that once the acceptance was received the funds would be transferred within seven to ten business days.

I opened the second letter to find another offer of settlement, this time with respect to the clearance and rebuilding of the house.

I whistled at the amount, which was far more than I had originally expected. I never really knew how much the house had cost to buy since Dean had purchased it at auction from the FBI. I had guesstimated it to be about one point five million, but the offer for rebuild was over double that. Perhaps it cost more to build than to buy? That didn’t seem right, but I didn’t have much experience in this.

I decided to get some advice on this and called Dean.

“Hey Pops,” I said as he answered.

“Well if it isn’t Biggles,” he said. “Don’t tell me, you parked in a tree again?”

“Yeah yeah,” I said. “Very funny. How did you find out?”

“Jules called us, just after you told them about it,” he said. “Then she called again after you were picked up to let us know you were all right. You’ve certainly had an eventful few weeks.”

“You could say that,” I said.

“Are you coming up for the break?” he asked.

“We’re just figuring that out,” I said. “Sarah has a new boyfriend and wanted to know if she could bring him?”

“He the instructor guy?” he asked.

“Damn,” I said. “Does Jules send weekly reports or something?”

He laughed. “We speak to both our girls almost every day,” he said. “In any case – yes, he’s welcome. Will he be bunking in with you or will they need a separate room?”

“Separate room,” I said. “He doesn’t know about powers yet. I don’t know if he will by the time we come up, things are still fluid.”

“Okay,” he said. “We’ll play it by ear.”

“I got an offer from the insurance company,” I said. “For the rebuild.”

“Okay,” he said, “how much?”

I told him the figure.

“That sounds about right,” he said. “I’d accept if I were you. The sooner that’s all sorted the sooner you can start the rebuild.”

“I’ve got a contractor clearing the site as we speak,” I said. “Hopefully we can start digging foundations in a couple of weeks. I’ve got an appointment tomorrow afternoon with an architect. Hopefully we’ll be ready to apply for permits by the time the ground is cleared.”

“What about your new house?” he asked. “When are you moving in there?”

“We’re going to take some measurements this evening. Hopefully the realtor will have an update for us then too. It can’t come too soon for me. This place is amazing, but I’d rather be in my own home.”

“I know the feeling,” he said. “Before we settled here, Cheryl and I spent a lot of time building the business, and I spent a lot of time on the road. I stayed in really nice places, but hotels aren’t homes.”

“You’re not kidding,” I said. “I’ll be glad to get out of here.”

He laughed. “Hopefully it won’t be too much longer. Give our love to my girls.”

“I will,” I said, knowing that he was talking about all the girls, including Sarah. He and Cheryl seemed to have adopted all of us as a family. I loved them for that, and I knew my girls did too, although Sarah had yet to really get to know them. “Give our love to Cheryl. Love ya, Pops.”

We ended the call and I typed out an email to the insurance company, accepting the offer for the rebuild as well. Once the money was in my account, I’d have to transfer money to all the girls, Josh, Louise, Gracie, and Dana according to the list that they’d sent.

I spent the time waiting for the girls to return from school working through the lists that the insurance company had sent, and working out how much of the money they were going to send would be given to each person. I hoped that they would be happy with the amount.

Once the girls got back, we met up with Josh and Louise and went for an early dinner. The appointment at the house was for seven, and Marcia was waiting for us when we arrived.

“Hey Marcia,” I said as she got out of her truck when we pulled up. She was grimy from, I assumed, just coming from our old house having been working there.

“Hey, Caleb.” She said. “Any news on the plans yet? We’ve demolished the rest of the house and are just in process of removing all the remains from the site. Once that’s cleared, I’m going to be digging out the old foundations. Two weeks and the site is going to be ready for the new foundations to be dug.”

“I’ve got an appointment with an architect tomorrow,” I said. “Hopefully we can at least get some plans underway. I think it’s probably going to take a couple of months for that to happen, and then we need to apply for all the permits.

“In the interim there is the work on this place to be done.” I finished.

She turned and looked at the new house, just as the realtor pulled up in her car.

“Mr. Stott,” she said getting out and walking towards us.

“Good evening,” I responded, smiling at the older woman.

She simply handed me a set of keys.

“I’ll wait in my car,” she said. “You go ahead and do what you need to do.”

“Any progress on the sale?” I asked taking the keys.

“I suspect another couple of weeks,” she said. “I’ve been trying to push it, given your circumstances, but there is only so much we can do from this end. Hopefully I’ll know more by this time next week, and maybe by then I might even have a date for you to be able to take possession.”

“That would be nice,” I said. “There are things we need to order, and it would be good to be able to have a date for that.”

We went through the house, taking measurements for drapes and furniture, and decided that the bigger bed would definitely fit in the master bedroom.

Marcia spoke with Jules about how she wanted her workshop set up, and made a definitive list of the jobs that she’d alluded to when we’d viewed the house prior to buying it.

When we came out, Bob and Angela were waiting on the front yard.

“I thought that was your truck,” said Bob grinning at me. Angela came over and gave me a huge hug, pressing her body into mine. I was still not sure what was going on with these two.

“What are you doing here?” Bob Asked.

“We need a place to stay after the fire,” I said. “We bought this place to use until our house is rebuilt.”

“Wow,” said Angela. “We’re going to be neighbors?”

“Almost,” I said. They lived about four houses down. “Is there anything we need to know about the neighborhood?”

“Nah,” said Bob. “Most of the houses on the street are rented to students at PSU, except for this house and the house where...” he stopped, not wanting to say Harold’s name.

I nodded. “Who owns that place now?” I asked.

“It’s a young family,” he said. Looking at the house next door. I hadn’t realised that we lived that close to Harold’s old house. I looked at the house and noted that there was a late model pickup truck on the drive, and a smaller compact car.

“I pity them,” I said with a laugh. “Living among the rabble.”

“Cheek,” Angela said, slapping my arm gently. I grinned at her.

“I do hope you’re having a housewarming party,” said Bob, “when you move in.”

“We’ll think about it,” I said. “Don’t want to upset the neighbors.”

He laughed.

“Invite them all,” he said. “That’s what we do.”

“I’ll think about it,” I said. “We need to get in first.”

“Well let us know if you need any help moving stuff,” said Bob.

“Sadly,” I said, “there’s nothing to move. Only our clothes and some tech we bought after the fire – everything else went up with the house.”

Bob grimaced.

“Sorry, man,” he said. “That really sucks.”

“It’s fine,” I said. “Good opportunity to get some new stuff.”

We finished off at the house, bade goodnight to Bob and Angela, and went back to the hotel. Marcia had made a list of jobs for which she was going to send me an estimate.

Thursday afternoon found me standing outside a small office building which was let out to a number of small businesses. It wasn’t the most elite of places, but the offices were clean and neat.

I walked through the door to find that there was no reception, but there was a directory of sorts on the wall in the elevator lobby. There were only three floors total in the building. Looking at the board I could see the office I wanted was on the second floor. Rather than waiting for the elevator, which appeared to be stuck on the top floor, I took the stairs.

There were two offices off the second floor elevator lobby, one seemed to occupy the majority of the floor, and another which looked to be about the same size and shape as a broom closet. It did have a half glazed door which was currently slightly ajar. There was a company name etched in the glass. At least at first glance it looked etched. On closer inspection I could see it was a simply plastic sticker, made to look like etching. It made sense. Replacing the full pane of glass would be costly each time a tenant moved out.

I knocked on the door.

“Come in,” said a voice. It sounded young and, when I opened the door, I found myself facing a desk which occupied about a third of the space in the room. Behind it, to one side, there was a drawing board, and on the other some filing cabinets and a large format printer which looked to have seen better days.