Chapter 77

... Jeff got an evil little grin on his face. "I'm going to sleep with you two tonight," he said, looking at Caitlin and Joyce.

Two stunned women looked back at him.

"What..." Caitlin started.

Jeff grinned at her knowing what Caitlin thought. "Don't you think it's time?" he asked, teasing.

"Well, I, uh ... when you kiss us, we can't tell you no. But I thought..."

"Oh, Jeff, quit teasing the poor women," Helen broke in. "Not that I don't think that he's perfectly capable of making you almost rape him if he wants, but I think he means it literally, as in sleep. He slept little Friday night, and probably not much more in that hospital room sitting by Joyce's bed Saturday night."

"Oh," Caitlin said. Her face turning red, she said again, "Oh," as she realized how she had sounded.

Jeff stood, put the healer gently into Diana's lap. Leaning over, he tilted Caitlin's face up with a finger and kissed her, pushing with his mind and letting loose the restraint on his pheromones.

Caitlin moaned into his mouth and her nipples popped, visible a little even through her bra.

As he pulled back slightly, barely separating their lips, he quietly asked, "Still grumpy?"

Caitlin shivered, but finally managed to pull her eyes away from his. "I'm not grumpy," she said very grumpily. "I'm still just a little confused. I still miss my dad. Just give me time..."

"No one is pushing you," he said, kissing her on her nose. "I'll never push you into sex, well at least penetration," he chuckled.

Turning to Joyce, whose face was already flushed, he tilted her head up and kissed her the same way he did Caitlin. When their lips parted, Joyce sighed. "I'll wait until my sister is ready." Looking at Caitlin, she continued, "But she had better get there in a hurry," she finished, grinning.

Jeff took the healer from Diana. "Little One needs to spend some more time with you, Joyce, and then you Caitlin. And I don't see why I have to sit in a corner taking catnaps while she's helping either of you."

"There's nothing wrong with me," Caitlin protested. "I mean, if you want to sleep with us and your other wives don't mind, and we don't, uh ... But there's nothing wrong with me," she repeated.

" ... That you know of," Jeff said. "She'll just spend a little time with you and get your body started optimizing itself. She will spend more time with both of you as you get more accustomed to her."

"And besides that," Diana added, "she does something else that you'll want before Jeff really sleeps with you." At Caitlin's raised eyebrow, Diana continued, "Birth control. No need for birth control pills, or anything else along those lines with her. We won't get pregnant until we want to. Then she'll make us fertile again."

Caitlin couldn't think of anything to say, but just nodded.

Diana, still sitting by Joyce, hugged her. "I guess you can tell how much we missed you and how worried about you we were." After hugging for a moment more, the women pulled apart.

Diana got up and pulled Caitlin to her feet, hugged her as well. "We know that you miss your father, but whether you make love to my husband or us, you're still one of us. We all hope that you will want to become a wife very soon. But whether you do or not, just know that we love you."

Caitlin sighed into Diana's shoulder. "I do love all of you, and ... I guess I am in love with Jeff. I'm just confused. Somehow I feel like I would be cheating on Dad to ... well, you know."

Diana braced back from Caitlin, her hand on the nurse's shoulders. "You went to talk with your unit manager at the hospital, but you never said what the outcome was."

"Yeah, I talked to her. I'm taking two weeks vacation." Glancing at Jeff, she continued, "I guess I'll put in an application while I'm off. Looks like this is going to be our home, and Denver is too far to commute every day."

"Yes," Diana exclaimed, hugging Caitlin again, to be quickly replaced by Joyce doing the same.

"You didn't tell me you were going to do that," Joyce scolded.

"Well, I was going to save it for a surprise when we were alone together later."

"Oh, I'm sorry," Diana quickly interjected.

"No problem," Caitlin said. "I should have already told her."

Jeff, feeling foolish, came over to hug Caitlin. "Of course you two would like to be alone after all that's happened, but ... somehow, we've got to work the healer in. She's insistent that she needs to continue with Joyce tonight."

Diana took Jeff's arm. "It's getting late and stud here has a little homework to do with his wives. Just a short get-acquainted session and then we'll send him to you with the healer. That way the two of you can have some quality time alone with each other before Jeff comes down. How's that?"

"That'll work," Joyce said, grinning. "And I am still feeling very weak. Now that I know what took care of me in the hospital, I certainly want to give her time to finish the job."

Later, Jeff knocked on the bedroom door, then after a few seconds went on in. The lights were low and it was obvious that Joyce was asleep as she lay beside Caitlin. Jeff, healer already in hand, walked over to Joyce's side of the bed. As he held Little One out toward Joyce, the blue glow bathed her face.

Jeff raised the sheet a little and put the healer on her chest. As Little One settled into place, he put the sheet back and looked at Caitlin, who now had her eyes open. "Sorry for teasing you earlier. I should have known from what you had already told me that teasing of that nature wasn't the thing to do."

As Jeff started to go sit in the chair, Caitlin motioned for him to come sit by her on her side of the bed. Amazing him as he sat, she took his arm and pulled it around her as she sat up and snuggled into him. Holding his arm tightly against her, she absently ran a fingertip along a prominent vein on the back of his hand as she gathered her thoughts.

She spoke, at first, so quietly even Jeff with his excellent hearing had to strain to hear her, then clearing her throat, she spoke a little louder. "It's almost time for my period, and I'm the bitch from Hell until it's over. I'm in love with you..." As Jeff tried to say something, she shushed him, saying, "No, let me finish, please."

Jeff put his other arm around her, too, pulling her tightly against him as he leaned back against the headboard, snuggling her to him.

"I ... I shouldn't have run my mouth in there when you were kidding us. It was foolish of me. I mean, you've had every opportunity to take us in the shower and in this bed when you were loving us before. Deep down, I knew you were teasing, earlier. I don't know ... With this horrible thing that happened to Joyce, I guess I just chose you to lash out at, as they say. I just want to go crying to Daddy for him to hold me, but ... he can never hold me again," she finished, her voice choking.

Suddenly, she turned full into him, hugging Jeff tightly as she sobbed. After a while when Jeff managed to reach over to the bedside table and retrieve some tissues, she blew her nose. "I was so scared that Joyce was going to die. So scared. This just doesn't seem real. I mean, the whole thing. That terrible phone call from Diana to tell me about Joyce, then that, that... ride to Denver. I was scared to death that we would be killed, yet I wanted to scream at you to go faster."

Pulling her head back a little so she could look him in the face for a second, she again hugged him and continued. "I know that you're thinking that I'm acting like a fruitcake, but Daddy and Joyce were all my world. Then Daddy died so suddenly, and obviously," she sniffed, "I haven't gotten over his death. When I thought that Joyce was going to die, it just brought everything back. Then you just... casually showed me an alien that was walking across Joyce. Oh, shit, Jeff. You have no idea what that did to me..."

"I'm sorry, Sweetheart. It wasn't even intended. I was so worried about Joyce, and someone coming in that I forgot to tell you to close your eyes when Little One moved." Jeff chuckled and squeezed her to him for a moment. As Caitlin pulled back a little and looked questioningly at him, he quickly said, "Oh, I'm not laughing at you. Not ever, my darling Caitlin. I just thought of a rather crude expression that seems to fit quite well."

At Caitlin's look, he continued, "You didn't know whether to shit or go blind when you saw her," he laughed.

"Oh, Jeff," she laughed, in spite of herself. "That is so tacky."

Jeff kissed the top of her head as he pulled her tightly against him again, then sighing, "I would have been just as upset as you — was until I got into that room. But I knew what the healer could do. She saved Helen as she was having a fatal heart attack. Saved me as I was bleeding to death. I — we — knew what she could do, but you were losing the last of your world. You had a right to be upset then, and you do now."

Tilting her chin up to him, he tenderly kissed her lips. "I can't replace your dad. Wouldn't want to try. But I'll be here when you decide that you can accept me — us — into your life. I won't say that I won't tease you. All of us tease and play with each other frequently. But I'll also hold you in my arms and let you cry over your dad anytime you want. As far as getting over him is concerned, I doubt it will ever happen. I wouldn't want it to, either. But you are part of us, just as Joyce is, and he was part of your life. To change that would be to change you, and we kinda like the you that I'm holding in my arms right now."

After a pause, "Helen still cries for her first husband — and her sister-wife," he continued.

When Caitlin made a little sound, Jeff said, "Yeah, you heard me correctly. I'll have Helen tell you about them. They were killed by a drunk driver."

"How long ago was this..."

"No. I'll ask Helen to talk to you about them when she thinks she can. We don't try to forget loved ones here, and to that end, the girls are preparing a surprise for Helen. I'm sure as soon as things settle down, they'll tell you about it. And when they do, you will know that we really mean what I said about not forgetting."

Jeff hesitated a moment, then, "Because of the healer, I suppose, we've all become more attuned to each other. My wives can feel each other's emotions ... and more. They know where I am all the time, and Lord only knows what else. I don't have a word for it, so I'll just use feel as well, although it isn't exactly right. I can 'feel' their emotions — feel them, somehow when we're making love, and when I'm just holding them, to a lesser extent. And as we grow closer, I imagine that we're all beginning to 'feel' you more and more.

"Like Diana said, we're past the turning back point. So when you hurt for your dad, to a lesser extent, of course, I do too."

Again, Caitlin pulled back a little from him so she could look him in the eyes. "Is that how you knew that Joyce was hurt?"

Jeff thought for a moment, a frown darkening his countenance. "I tried to talk about that with Little One as we sat in Joyce's room last night with the healer on my shoulders. It would probably be better for Diana to talk to you and Joyce about some of those things. I think she will be better able to explain the concepts to you."

Jeff stopped for a moment, absently caressing Caitlin's back as he thought, then, "Little One has talked about enhancing some of my latent abilities. At least, abilities that she claims I have. Maybe it was one of them that suddenly..."

Jeff wound down as his mind dredged up for the hundredth time the terrible feeling of impending loss of a loved one, the feeling of impending disaster that he had felt; heard again the maniacal screaming of Crawford — felt the pain that slammed through Joyce's body as Jeff seemed to be there joined to her soul during the last few seconds as that .44 fired and the round slammed into her vest, it's energy pushing her sternum and ribcage inward to squeeze her heart and lungs so horribly.

"If I had been there, I could have put a round through his head before he could have fired," he whispered, almost to himself. "I could have. But all I could do was watch." His voice faded away as he lived over and over the last few seconds of that time.

Caitlin felt Jeff's body tense, saw the unshed tears pool in his eyes as he remembered, called his name, but he didn't respond. She tried to shake him, but it was useless; she couldn't move him at all. It was as if all his muscles had locked. She couldn't even move his arm.

After a couple of minutes, louder, desperate, she called his name again, "Jeff." Then screamed it, "Jeff!"

She felt him move a little, saw the look change on his face as his mind returned to the bedroom and the present, then finally saw his eyes focus on her. "You scared me," she accused. "What were you thinking?"

"I've got to find that son-of-a-bitch and kill him. I can't let this happen again," he quietly said, thoroughly confusing Caitlin.

"But he's dead."

After a pause. "Oh, I don't mean the idiot who shot Joyce. That's what I was remembering, obviously," he said, somewhat sheepishly, "but I'm talking about Hagewood. I can't allow what happened to Joyce to happen to anyone else in my family. He's threatened to kill us, but nobody can find him. Somehow, I've got..."

The bedroom door slammed open as a nude Diana came through it, Glock in front of her, tracking. She scanned the room, then relaxed, pointing the pistol to the floor as the bedroom erupted with Jeff's wives led by Arlene, all armed, a look of mayhem on their faces, all panting from their run.

"What's wrong?" Diana said through clenched teeth, her body shaking, just before the rest of the wives broke out with questions and exclamations, their blood streams pumped full of adrenalin, and nobody's ass to kick.