Chapter 6: Sleepovers

"So," said Zoe quietly "the last time I was in school neither bears nor soft toys could speak so there is obviously more to this than you've told me so far. Now you know that I won't freak out on you, will you tell me? If I can take lying here having a conversation with my favourite stuffed animal don't you think I can take what else you might have to explain?"

Robbie sighed. He decided she was right and that he might as well take the chance and get everything out in the open. Besides, he was really not comfortable deceiving people. He was naturally inclined to be honest. So he thought he would share everything, despite the fact that he was ashamed of some of the things he had done over the last day or so.

"Um, I don't really know where to start," he said.

"At the beginning silly," Zoe giggled.

"Okay. My name is Robbie MacRae, I'm sixteen-years-old and I come from Glasgow, Scotland..."

Robbie glanced at Zoe to see how she was taking this. Her eyes had widened but there were no signs that she was about to scream or anything so he continued with his story. He described the car crash, squeezing Zoe as she stiffened with the memory of her father's death. He tried, with difficulty, to explain about waking up in the ICU room and floating above his unconscious body. Zoe's eyes were growing wider and wider as the tale unfolded. As he began to talk about his meeting with Jason, Zoe clutched at his arm.

"You saw daddy? How," she whispered urgently.

"He was out of his body just like me," Jason replied. We both watched as a doctor told you and Amanda that he wasn't going to make it." Zoe gasped. "I was holding his hand when all the monitors started to go crazy and it was clear to both of us that he was going. I tried to get him to fight it but it was no use."

Zoe was now sobbing quietly at his side. He stopped talking and simply held her. Rubbing her back lightly, moving his hand in circles over her soft skin, willing her to feel better. After some minutes he remembered the phrase and began to whisper it to her as he continued to stroke her back.

"Shhhh, shhhh, Bruno says its time to stop now, Bruno says its time to stop now." He repeated this over and over until at last Zoe quietened.

"I'mmmm sorrrrry," she stuttered. "I llllove himmm and mmmiss him so much." She paused for a second to control her breathing. "If he was here he would be doing and saying exactly what you are now and it is so hard sometimes to stop from crying, especially when something reminds me of him."

"I know, he told me what to say and what to do to comfort you. He told me to tell you his last thoughts were of how much he loved you and your mother and he made me promise to look after you."

They lay silently for some minutes as Zoe let this new revelation sink in, to come to terms again with her father's death.

"Bruno?"

"What is it?" he replied, noting she was still calling him Bruno.

"How did you get here, to the house?"

"I just followed you and Amanda," he replied. He didn't go on to explain his ability to 'think' himself from one location to another.

"Bruno?"

"What?"

"Do you need to be merged to be able to touch me?"

"I don't know, I don't think so," he said.

"Could you try please?"

Robbie de-merged from Bruno and floated round the bed to approach Zoe from the other side. He reached out to touch her back lightly and she responded by jumping, startled at this sudden change of the direction he was coming from. Robbie stroked her skin, marvelling at how soft and silky it felt. He tried to exert a little more pressure but immediately found his hand sinking to merge with Zoe's cells and tissues. He floated across the bed and merged with Bruno.

"It seems I can touch you but only quite lightly," he said.

"Why did you think it would work?"

"I thought you felt me earlier when I touched your back as you were reading something at your PC so I thought I must be able to do it."

In the darkened room Zoe flushed at the thought of Robbie being behind her when she was reading the erotic stories on storiesonline. The flush deepened when she recalled the fashion show she had put on for Bruno and how she had ended it by masturbating. He must have been there because he had whispered that the school uniform had won hands-down. She also came to the uneasy realisation that she was lying naked in bed with a sixteen-year-old boy, almost a complete stranger.

"Oh god," she thought, "how long has he been here tonight? Did he watch me rubbing myself, playing with myself? Does he think I'm a disgusting little slut?"

Robbie interrupted her thoughts, "no Zoe, I thought you looked beautiful and I'm really sorry I watched you. I fully intended to leave, honest, but you were sssooo hot that I just couldn't pull myself away."

"So, he thinks I'm hot?" she thought.

"Of course I do. You are so pretty and seeing you like that just about blew me away. It was killing me"

"Hold on, are you reading my thoughts?"

"Yes."

Zoe gasped in astonishment once more. Then the guilt she had felt earlier about having sexual thoughts about her father returned ten times stronger. Had he heard those thoughts?

"Yes, Zoe," he said. "I heard those and the ones about Tom Ferguson. I know you are feeling guilty about it but believe me those kind of thoughts are perfectly natural. You don't love anyone as much as you love your dad. At fourteen or fifteen you are also bound to be exploring your sexuality. Without any reference points or experience with boys you couldn't stop thinking about the one male you are with most and feel closest to, even if you tried. Honestly there is absolutely nothing wrong with that. And I'm sure if Tom was here he would tell you the same thing."

Zoe thought about what he had said. She was sure he was right, Tom would say the same things but that was a story, not real life, so she couldn't fully shake off her guilt. But at least she felt a little bit better. Then she thought "so you think I'm fifteen?" That made her little chest swell, to be thought of as older was quite a thrill, it made her feel almost grown-up.

"Yes," he said. "Why?"

"I'm only thirteen," she replied.

It was Robbie's turn to gasp in surprise. While he recovered, Zoe carried on.

"So you think I'm pretty?" she asked.

"Beautiful," he replied. "As beautiful as your mother." As soon as he said it Robbie could have kicked himself, he had really put his foot in it now.

"So you've watched mom too?" she asked in quiet anger.

"You're one to talk," he replied "wasn't that you at her bedroom door with your hand in your panties?"

Zoe blushed once more in the darkness. He was right, she thought, she was just as bad, spying on her mother like that. She understood now what he meant earlier when he said he couldn't pull himself away from watching her rubbing herself. She had felt the same fascination and inability to pull her eyes off of her pretty mom when she was playing with her pussy.

"So let me sum this up," the thirteen-year-old continued in a whisper. "You found yourself out of your body. You talked with my father and promised to look after mom and me. Then you lay holding me all night last night to comfort me. You watched me perform a little show and you've watched me, umm, rub myself twice. You've watched mom play with her toy and then, finally, I found you stroking me when I woke up. Does that about cover everything?"

Robbie decided that telling Zoe about his experiences with Becky was best left out for now.

"Um, yeah, apart from the fact that I also experienced you rubbing yourself on Bruno's chest and leg," he said sheepishly.

They both lapsed into silence. Robbie could 'hear' the jumble of thoughts rushing round inside the girl's head. He could sense the idea that he was merged with Bruno was still just too abstract for her to grasp and she was thinking of him largely as 'Bruno'. She was replaying the scenes of both her own and her mother's sexual activities and that was jumbled up with thoughts of the loss of her father and even some scenes that Robbie guessed must be part of the Tom Ferguson story. He could discern different emotions coming from her.

Eventually Robbie could tell that Zoe had allowed her erotic thoughts to override the others she was experiencing and he could feel her squeezing her thighs together, squirming slightly. She focussed on the possibilities her current position presented. Robbie felt her eyes on him/Bruno as these thoughts took shape in her mind and he knew what she was about to do. Of all the competing thoughts that had been in her mind, of all the competing emotions, she had settled on remembering the feel of his hand stroking her when she had awoken. Robbie realised that she had found the feeling highly exciting and that she wanted more. With a growing sense of unease he waited for her to finally make up her mind and to take some action. She hesitated, unsure as to what to do, unsure of what his reaction might be, unsure about what he would think of her if she made a move. As unsure as any thirteen-year-old about what she was feeling and what she really wanted.

At last Robbie felt her decide, but just before she could reach out to him he stopped her. He gathered himself and focussed on projecting his thoughts to her. Her startled look confirmed that he had succeeded.

"Zoe, this is not what you need right now, believe me. You need to focus on everything that is happening to you. You've been through the mill, exposed to some extreme emotional situations - the death of your father, seeing your mother highly aroused - that's some highly charged stuff. Sometimes we get so confused by supercharged emotions that we don't do the right thing. We can go a wee bit crazy. You've heard about people doing stupid things 'on the re-bound' haven't you? You know, like boys thinking they can take liberties when a girl has just broken up with someone? We can sometimes try to strike out at the world, try to defy the natural order of things and get ourselves in way over our heads, go further than we ever would normally go or want to go."

"That's not the basis for deciding you want to experience sex, and certainly not with someone who is a virtual stranger. It's important for social animals to come to terms with their grief. You need to grieve for your father, be there for Amanda, but most of all spend some time focussing on what Jason meant to you and how you keep that with you as you carry on with your life. If you duck that and instead try to find some kind of comfort in sex you'll hate yourself later, you know you will. Yes, find comfort from those around you, we all need that, need to feel contact with others, but we should do that as rationally as possible. Please think about what it is you really need, really need Zoe, and then talk to me. We can be knocked out of our strides by things like this, completely change our normal way of acting and we need to try to step back and keep things real. I promised Jason I would look after you and I'm not gonna fail at the first test. Please listen to me, sex is not what you need right now, let me just hold you and comfort you, please?"

Zoe sighed and felt acute frustration at Robbie stopping her after she had weighed things up and steeled herself to make a move to instigate a sexual encounter. She pondered what he had said, unable to deal with the complex and conflicting emotions that he had referred to. She wasn't happy but decided there was something in his words. She wrapped her arms around him and tried to accept going to sleep as an alternative to the racier ideas she had entertained earlier.

Robbie rested too.

He became aware of dawn breaking as the room gradually brightened. As more light came in he was able to make out Zoe's features as she lay beside him, breathing softly. He looked at her pretty face, her pouting mouth and realised that despite everything he had experienced he had still not kissed a girl. He leaned over carefully and brought his lips to hers in a gentle, soft, caress. The feel of them against his own set his heart racing and he lost himself in the sensation until at last he felt her awakening, felt her returning the sensuous caress of his lips with her own.

"Mmmmmmmmmm," Zoe moaned as she came fully awake. She realised she was in the middle of her very first kiss and she decided that she really liked the feeling. "What a great way to be woken up," she thought. "Thank you. That was a lovely, even if I can't see you," she giggled. "That was my first ever kiss. Are they all going to be that good?"

"Mine too, and I'll always try my best," said Robbie. "Now come on sleepy head, no more.

"Okay, I'm getting up for breakfast."

"I need to go and check on things at the hospital," he thought to her. "I'll catch up with you later."

"Okay, bye Robbie," she replied.

Robbie noticed with pleasure that she had referred to him by name for the first time. He smiled to himself happily and leaned forward to peck her cheek as he made to leave,

"Bye," he said and flitted off to the ICU room.

Zoe raised her hand to her cheek, touching the spot where she had felt the kiss and smiled to herself. She leapt up and proceeded to dress then headed downstairs to snag breakfast. Her mother was in the kitchen and she approached her from behind, hugging her tightly.

"And to what do I owe that treat dear daughter," she laughed. Zoe beamed at hearing her mother laugh. She poured some cereal and added milk. Through a mouthful of cereal she asked her mother

"Mom, was anyone else involved in the crash daddy was in?"

Amanda was surprised at her daughter being willing to raise issues surrounding her father's death so soon after the event. She was amazed at Zoe's resilience.

"I'm afraid so honey, there was a family in another car and daddy's car hit it. The mom and dad died but their son was rescued by the emergency services. I believe he had to be cut out of the car but wasn't badly hurt."

"Can we go visit the boy mom?"

"Why would we do that honey?"

"I guess because maybe daddy was a little bit to blame for him losing his mom and dad and because he is kinda a last link to daddy."

Amanda thought about Zoe's response. She could see some logic in what she said and was proud of her daughter's thoughtfulness. She tried to think of a down-side to visiting the boy and concluded that the only potential negatives were bringing Jason's death back into focus and the sight of the boy in the hospital. Zoe seemed to be handling the first issue surprisingly well and as the boy had apparently not been badly hurt the second shouldn't be a big issue. She decided that it might be a good thing to agree and go and see this boy.

"Okay honey, I'll phone Dr Anderson at the hospital to make sure its okay, but I agree, perhaps we have a responsibility to go and visit this boy."

Zoe hid her little smile of triumph. Her main aim had been to get a chance to check-out Robbie MacRae, ace kisser and sometime bear impersonator.

"Mom, I'm planning to sleepover at Alison's tonight so could we go this morning so I can get ready this afternoon?"

Amanda agreed. She lifted the phone mounted on the wall of the kitchen and dialled Valley County Hospital, asking to be put through to Dr Mike Anderson. Mike was the doctor who had been in attendance when Jason passed away and she felt that he was her best chance of cutting through the inevitable bureaucracy and red tape at the hospital. After a lengthy delay he came on the line and he confirmed that, although it was somewhat unusual, he should be able to arrange for Amanda and Zoe to visit Robbie.

"We're all set honey, we need to be at Valley County Hospital within the hour and Dr Anderson will make sure we get in to see the boy. His name is Robbie MacRae, apparently he is Scotch," Amanda advised Zoe.

They soon set out for the hospital, Zoe trying to contain her excitement lest her mother spot that something unusual was going on. Amanda parked in the same car park she had used two days before after receiving the news of Jason's accident. They made their way into the hospital through an icy wind. At the reception desk they asked the duty nurse to page Dr Anderson.

Robbie had returned to the ICU room some time earlier and quickly merged into his body. He ran a check of his cells and tissues, feeling himself able to examine them in minute detail, and thought he could detect an improvement in his breathing. Nothing else seemed to have changed. He focussed on his unconscious mind, quickly identifying once more the black spot he had tried to breech on his last trip. He decided there was something key about this spot, he was convinced that in some way his comatose state was linked to it. He circled the inky blackness, probing it with his senses, trying to find some way of breaking into its core. His attempts were disturbed by the arrival in the ICU room of a doctor and nurse Becky.

Robbie floated out of his body and took up a position in one corner of the room, watching what the medical staff were up to. It became clear to him that his feeling about his breathing was in fact correct. The doctor and the nurse removed the tube from his mouth and throat that were hooked up to a ventilator that had been helping him breathe up until this point.

"Well at least there are signs of some improvement," the doctor said. Still nothing to indicate he might regain consciousness but that could happen at any time. Could you make sure everything is tidied away nurse. I have agreed he can have some visitors this morning and we don't want them getting the impression we run a messy ward."

Nurse Becky tidied the medical equipment onto the trolley that held the ventilator as the doctor left the ICU room. Robbie floated over to make contact with her and open up her thoughts. "Well looks like I wont have the chance for a repeat performance with my stud here today," she snapped. "Who can be visiting a sixteen-year-old foreign orphan? And why couldn't they have left it until this afternoon so I could have had my fun?" She could feel her panties were still wet with the juices she had been producing for the last hour as she had anticipated taking advantage of the young boy once more. The fact that he seemed to be recovering and that her opportunities for a repeat might be limited simply added to her frustration. She finished her tidy up and left the room, obviously angered by the situation that had sunk her plans.

Robbie was also wondering who his visitors might be. "Well, he said this morning so it shouldn't be too long until I find out," he thought. He floated over to the chair beside the bed and prepared himself for the wait.

About an hour or so later the ICU room door opened and the doctor returned. Robbie was amazed to see Amanda and Zoe follow him into the room. While Amanda's gaze immediately went to his unconscious form and continued staring, Zoe had taken a long look at his body, particularly his face Robbie thought, but had then begun to furtively look round the room as if searching for his 'ghostly' form.

"Mike thank you so much for helping us out here," said Amanda. "Zoe felt we had a responsibility to come and see how the boy was doing given the circumstances that led to him being here."

"Why you little minx," thought Robbie. You might be able to fool your mother but I know you're here simply so you can check me out!"

"That's okay Amanda, it's the least I could do for you," said Dr Anderson. "Besides you are unlikely to get in the way as we have so far been unable to identify any next of kin for the boy. His parents had no brothers or sisters and there are no surviving grandparents either. The poor boy seems to be entirely alone and to be honest I'm hoping we can contact somebody before he comes round. I'm not sure how he will cope with finding out he is alone, on top of the shock of the crash."

Unable to find anything out of the ordinary elsewhere in the room, Zoe returned her attention to the boy in the hospital bed. She moved closer to get a better look at Robbie MacRae. He seemed tall to her, tall for sixteen anyway and from what she could see he was pretty well built. He had shortish brown hair and Zoe wished she could see his eyes, eyes that were currently closed and which still showed faint bruising. She let her gaze drop to his mouth, shivering in pleasure as she remembered the feel of her first kiss, her first ever kiss and these had been the lips that had caressed hers. Overall the impression she had was that he had a 'strong' face, perhaps indicating a strength of personality. "He's sooo cute," she thought, reaching out and stroking the hand closest to her.

Amanda looked on with surprise and growing amusement at the intensity of her daughter's scrutiny of the unconscious boy. When Zoe began to stroke Robbie's hand and stare almost lovingly at his face Amanda was puzzled by the familiarity. If she didn't know better she would swear that her daughter was visiting a very good friend who had been hurt, not a complete stranger. She determined she would need to question her daughter later.