Chapter 20: Quicksilver

I faded back into familiar reality, feeling a wet little nose nuzzling behind my ear, and a gentle noise I couldn't quite focus on, and slowly the fuzz ebbed away and I opened my eyes. Dare's little black orbs gleamed back at me, and she chattered in a very non-ferret way. Ginny's face, red from crying, I thought, as my brain finally found a reference for the soft noises I'd been hearing, suddenly appeared above me.

"Davey, are you awake?"

"Yes," I said, or tried to.

"Oh my God!" Ginny said and threw herself against me, burying me in a warm embrace that got Dare squeaking in a more normal tone of protest. She kissed me and I kissed her back. I struggled against her a little, trying to sit up and she jumped back. "Did I hurt you?"

"No Blossom, I"m fine." I felt for the nearest jump point, and pulled a little power from it and used it to flush all the fatigue and disorientation out of my system. I did it naturally, with barely a thought.

"Davey, you've been unconscious for almost an entire day! I need to go let everybody know you're awake."

"What time is it?" I stood.

"Almost morning. Everyone will be getting up for breakfast in about an hour."

"Can you fetch me a cup of coffee?" I asked. I could feel Dare in the next room happily relieving her bladder and realizing I urgently needed to do the same thing quickly joined her in the bathroom.

By the time I had finished addressing that problem, and had splashed some water on my face and combed my hair into something less resembling a bird's nest. Ginny was back with coffee for both of us. I was wearing nothing more than my boxers, so I threw on a t-shirt.

Ginny walked over and slid into my arms and kissed me again, more slowly this time and with a little more passion. "Happy Birthday Davey. You're sixteen today."

"Its good to be Davey again."

Mom and Dad arrived. There were tears, there were hugs and kisses. This was followed by the taking of the pulse, feeling of the forehead, looking into the eyes, and requests to say ahhh!. A strong dose of the Mom Eye signaled a finish to the Doctor Mom session.

While he was less demonstrative, I could see the concern in Dad's face.

"You are all concerned over my health after laying unconscious for a day, and I appreciate your concern. In a sense your concern is misplaced. I was not unconscious. I was gone."

I reached up and stroked Dare's head where it rested on my shoulder.

"Dare and I were gone. We went together."

Dad stopped me there. "Davey, this story needs to be heard by your Grandpa, and Sheb and a few other Clan leaders. They will all be gathered here tonight for your birthday. As much as it pains me to ask, can it wait until then for the telling?"

"Of course" I said "As long as Ginny and Mom are included."

Mom reminded us that others would be being awakened and summoned, and perhaps we would rather gather in the kitchen around the table.

Of course my arrival in the kitchen set off another little chaos bomb. Irene and Emma were nearly incoherent in expressing their fear, their joy and their anxiety over the unexpected early arrival of the family for breakfast ... I got them calmed down and asked them to just go back to their cooking. I sipped my coffee and held my Goddess's hand and thought about the coming day and how I was about to change my life, and the lives of so many others.

Grandpa McKesson was a naturally early riser, as many elderly people are, and he had been up and sitting in his robe reading on the porch in front of his bedroom. His bedroom was the only one downstairs, to accommodate his poor leg. The room was actually quite dramatic, as it had originally been a solarium and had ceiling to floor windows on two of its four walls. When word of my awakening had reached him, he put aside his reading and got dressed, and was the first to join us at the kitchen table. He came to stand beside me, leaned down to kiss the top of my head and sat beside Dad. Ginny and Mom had stationed themselves protectively to either side of me.

Ginny asked if she could get him a cup of coffee, but Emma, having seen him come in, arrived with tea before he could even respond.

As I was saying this my Uncles arrived along with Sheb and Violet. I rose and poured coffee for all of them, encouraging them to sit and not fuss over me.

"I'm fine. There is absolutely nothing physically wrong with me. Please put any of those concerns out of your thoughts."

"Son, you've been unconscious for over 20 hours, of course we need to be concerned," Grandpa said grumpily.

"There's a story to tell there, but Dad has asked that I wait until tonight to tell it, when all who need to hear it will be here. In the meantime, I'm hungry!" That got a chuckle at least from Dad.

Alice and Emma had been whirlwinds in the kitchen and even though we were all almost a half an hour early for breakfast, they soon had the table full with big plates of bacon and what dad called 'Ham Scramble', which looked to me like scrambled eggs with little bits of diced ham, onions, and peppers. The surprise ingredient was little chunks of crumbled up buttermilk biscuits that had been drizzled with butter and toasted crispy under the broiler before being mixed in with the rest of the scramble right at the end. Along with that came a big platter of fresh strawberries and sliced peaches with bowls of fresh cream and honey sitting in the center. At the risk of sounding gastronomically repetitious, Yum!

Everyone ate and while we ate we talked around the recent events, mostly talking about it being my birthday, and what we would do that evening. Grandpa had wanted to cancel the party and let those invited know not to come, but Dad had suggested waiting. The family doctor was called, and though he was one of the invited guests I would see this evening, and a guardian, he suggested we would be wise to drop by his office this morning for a quick once over. He had already been by to look at me when they brought me back to the house yesterday and had declared me in no physical distress. The certain knowledge of everyone involved that there were larger mysteries at work here seemed to have tempered a lot of decisions, but a Doctor's opinion is still best heeded, so Mom told him to expect us. When we were all finished eating, and finally convinced Irene that we couldn't possibly eat another bite, I suggested we all go, get cleaned up, showered and changed and meet on the front porch in a half an hour.

I put about two inches of warm water in the bottom of the big cast iron tub for Dare to splash around in and had just gotten the water adjusted to the proper temperature in the shower when I felt a wisp of cool air on my back. Ginny's arms slid around me and some very pleasant feeling girl parts were causing very pleasant sensations where they pressed into my back.

"Need a back scrubbing partner?"

I spun in her arms and pulled her into a kiss. I felt my erection between us. Ginny felt it too.

"Ooh, I like the feel of that!" No giggle, just a slow, intake of breath that spoke volumes and promised the world.

"So do I, my love." and I pulled back a little to look down at her beautiful breasts with their hard little nubs. I leaned down and kissed the perfect tip of one, and then the other. "Shall we exchange gifts tonight, after the party?"

"Mmmm" Was what it came out as, as she pulled me down for a kiss, but I knew a yes when I heard it.

I grabbed the wash cloth and soap then, and lathered it, reluctantly turning to the task of getting clean and ready in the allotted time. Well, reluctantly at first, but I soon discovered that the chore of cleaning those lovely perfect girl parts was pleasant duty indeed. This was followed by the discovery that having your sweetheart clean your boy parts is not too shabby either.

We arrived on the front porch at the appointed time and found Cyrus waiting with the limousine. Mom, Dad, Ginny and I climbed in and were very shortly off to downtown Chocowinity. Dr. Aillard's office was in a nondescript brick building, with nothing to indicate what it held except for a small brass plaque by the door inscribed with