Chapter 141

Later, a subdued and thoughtful Arlene walked beside her father as they made their way along the passageway. When they entered the room with the healing chamber, Diana took one look at her daughter, came over and hugged her. "Are you okay?"

Arlene let out a weak chuckle. "Yeah. Just something to contemplate. I'll talk to you later." Looking over at the healing chamber, she continued, "The procedure with Hope is complete. The Ship thinks she has accomplished what Hope needs."

Diana cast a quick glance at Jeff, who nodded with a grin just touching his lips, even as the shield over the chamber ceased to exist and the mist cleared.

Helen reached in to take the teenager's hand as she sat up, "Let me help you."

As Hope stepped out of the chamber with a look of wonder on her face, she haltingly said, "I met the nicest lady. We had a long talk about ... Uh, that's funny. I can't seem to remember exactly what we talked about, but I remember it was very pleasant. But I think..." She hesitated for a moment as she thought. "Oh, I seem to remember talking about what my father made me do. I think we discussed that awful night in that motel room." As everyone tensed, she went on, "That was so gross, but at least my father can't make me do those bad things anymore. Oh, well, that's all in the past, anyway, and I don't need to worry about any of that anymore."

Diana and Helen exchanged questioning glances, and the women took turns hugging Hope. "Why is everyone looking so worried?" the teenager said, stepping back to look at them. "I'm fine. All that bad stuff is behind me, and ... for some reason I'm really hungry," she finished as she focused on Diana. "Would it be okay if I stopped by the kitchen to get a snack?"

Diana laughed and hugged Hope again. "You know you can have anything you want, and you better know you don't have to ask," she teased.

After quickly donning their coats, they started out. Just before the weather barrier, Diana, walking last with Jeff, turned to look back inside. "Thank you," the Queen said, addressing the Ship.

The Prime smiled at his wife. "She says, 'You're welcome.'"

Hope and Arlene had run down the ramp and were already in the vehicle when the others got there, Arlene driving of course, with Hope sitting in the front with her. As they quickly closed the doors against the wind-driven snow, Diana looked over at Jeff. "She can produce healing chambers and things to sit on; why haven't you taught her to prepare food for us?"

Helen stifled a giggle. Diana's question had a slight bantering tone to go with the good mood of the moment, but there was also a tone of seriousness in it as well. Jeff chuckled, "Well, she can produce all the emergency rations you would ever want. But we were very hungry and on half-rations before we, or rather I, found out how to accomplish that. The only thing we had with us for food samples was our rations. Other than rations, she is able to produce only food that the race that built her ate, or eats as the case may be, if they still exist. I don't think we're compatible, food-wise, and ... I haven't had time to introduce our food to her."

"So what do we need to do?"

"Uh, I guess just prepare something and have her ... analyze it. She'll be able to reproduce it from then on."

"Jeffrey Matthews, we had food brought out here for Bobby and Sandra while you and Kayla went to your team's breakfast. If you had..."

"I didn't think about it, Babe," he quickly said, hearing Arlene giggling from the front as she put the Escalade into gear and turned them toward the Retreat.

"Men," Diana said with a little grin, just before Jeff reached over and kissed her hard.

"Jefmmff," she tried to talk around the kiss. Aware of Hope in the front seat, the Prime carefully let the tiniest amount of pheromones go as Diana giggled into the kiss. Putting her arms around his neck, she kissed him back with fervor. When they broke the kiss, she looked at him, "That wasn't fair," but there was a near purr as she leaned against him.

"Didn't mean for it to be," he teased her back. "Beats the heck out of getting my ass chewed, though."

"You're going to pay for that later tonight," she whispered into his ear.

"Oh, I'm scared," he whispered back, chuckling.

As the group strolled down the hall, Jeff said, "Oh, by the way, the General mentioned that he, Barbara and Ellen wanted us to marry them. Frank said he and his women are ready, also. And I've already said that we would marry Fred and his women. So the General and I agreed that it shouldn't be any problem to do them all at the same time..."

"What?" Diana said as she suddenly stopped and spun to look at him. "You did what?"

By this time, Helen and Arlene had joined in the stare-at-my-mate theme.

"Well," Jeff got out, not understanding why the women suddenly seemed so upset, "uh ... I assumed that you would want to marry them. I don't see..."

"Oh, I think the weddings are an excellent idea. Wed-dings, as in plural. So let me get this straight. You and the General decided that it would be logical to have one mass wedding?"

"Well, we thought ... Uh, subject to your approval, of course..."

"Somebody's going to sleep on the couch tonight," Arlene said very quietly and in a singsong voice.

"Have you discussed this with anyone else?" Diana sweetly asked — too sweetly.

"Uh, no. It started with Fred. He said Carla would call you. They're going to see about dresses and rings, then get back with you."

"I need to go talk to Barbara and Ellen right now." Turning to the others, "Arlene, would you please see that Hope gets food? Then come join us. Helen, would you come with me please?"

A few minutes later, Jeff met the General in the hall. "Women," Whitworth snorted. "Seemed like a good idea to me."

"Hell, I thought they would like it," Jeff agreed.

Frank came wandering down the hall, his hair sticking up erratically. "What the fuck happened? I was taking a nap on the couch when a bunch of wives woke me, and I was invited to get the hell out for a while. What stirred them up?"

Jeff and the General looked at each other, both trying desperately to keep guilty looks off their faces. "Uh, since you're out here, want to go to the range and bust a few caps? I got in some 'bad guy' targets the other day. Might be fun to fire a few rounds at them?"

"What the fuck happened?" Frank demanded, looking at first Jeff, then Whitworth.

"We, uh, made a logical suggestion. Hell, it seemed logical to me," Jeff defended.

"What suggestion could possibly stir them up like ... Let's consider now. You used logic in regard to weddings?" Wainwright said.

Jeff looked a bit guilty despite himself, "Yeah, we kinda agreed that we could have all the weddings at the same time. You and your women, the General and his women, Fred and his women, and Art and his women — all at once."

"And that's all? You didn't do anything else to stir them up?"

Both men were shaking their heads. "Still, it must be something else," Wainwright agreed. "Couldn't have been that. That's not a bad idea. We would always remember a big wedding like that." Frank looked back down the hall, obviously wondering what was going on. Shrugging, "Come on; let's go shoot a few rounds. Out of sight, out of mind."

"Let's stop by and get Dave..." Jeff started just seconds before Dave came hurrying out of his apartment.

"What the fuck?" he said.

Jeff looked at his buddy, "It's better if you don't even know. You can disavow all knowledge of the crime. Come on, we're going to the range for a couple of hours."

"Fuck yeah," Dave said, "I'm with you." Then to no one in particular, "Little One took care of their periods, but does a woman still have PMS if she doesn't have a period anymore?"

None of the men knew, and they weren't going to risk logic right now.

"Should we check on Bill? He might want to go with us?" Jeff asked.

"I doubt it," Frank offered. "He was going back to his suite to take a nap just as I was. Maybe he missed out on ... whatever the fuck this is. But what about Art? Should we ask him if he wants to shoot? We don't want to overlook him."

Jeff thought for a second. "He was up all night. With the healing and everything that's happened, he's probably asleep by now."

"Or playing with his new mates," Dave offered.

"Or playing with his new mates," Jeff agreed.

Unaware that anything was happening, Sandra, Bobby and Art were sitting on their couch with a new laptop on the coffee table in front of them. They had just finished ordering Art a wardrobe to "get him by" until his growth spurt was over.

"I still can't believe I'm going to grow a couple of inches," he said as he absently rubbed Bobby's back while she did a search on the computer.

"Diana and Jeff both say you will, and all the food you're eating is bound to go somewhere," Sandra said. "They assured us that none of us will get fat. And with all that's happened, we might as well believe what they tell us until they're proven wrong."

Art focused on the computer screen as Bobby paged through sexy costumes. "Why are we looking at Halloween costumes?" He had already begun to dread the answer.

"It's almost Halloween, silly."

"But we're adults..."

Tapping the screen with a fingernail, "Do these look like children's costumes?" his wife-to-be asked?

"Uh, nooo, but where are you going to wear..."

"Here," both women said.

Bobby continued with, "Diana told us they were going to take Selina to a haunted house, then to a church trunk-or-treat. After Selina's in bed, we're going to have an adult Halloween party."

Art was doubtful. "I don't know. We hardly know these people. Maybe we need to skip things for now."

Both women turned to look at him as Sandra said, "They have bought wedding dresses, rings for all of us, plus a tux and a wardrobe for you, not to mention healing you and enhancing all of us. And they came to save our lives. We can't not go to their party."

Bobby smirked at him, "Are you worried about your women straying?"

"What? Of course not."

"So, check out the screen and help us pick out costumes."

Art sat up straighter and stared at the screen. "That cat suit is painted on," he said, aghast. "Look at her nipples. No way is that ... that... outfit going to be on either of you."

"Oh, but it's neat," Sandra said just to tease her mate. "Look, she has a row of fake nipples down her belly like a real cat. That cat mask makes her look real, and those cat ears are so cute. I don't see how the tail attaches, though."

Bobby took up the description, "Besides, there's an optional thong that glues on to cover most of our vulvas, should we be modest."

"'Modest, '" he croaked out. "You wouldn't have anything on your breasts except paint, and that thing is even worse than being totally nude. It accents the model's breasts. That one tiny little 'optional' patch is the only difference from being totally naked."

The women ignored him. Bobby clicked on the men's page. "Ohooo, look at the tomcat."

"Isn't he cute?" both women said in unison.

"The man's costume has an optional piece that glues on over his package," Bobby said, reading from the site.

"It glues on?" Art managed to get out; major worried now. "Hell, you can still see everything he has."

"Uh, and it looks like he has a lot," Bobby teased.

"Not as much as our man," Sandra added, as both nurses giggled.

Much to Arts relief, there was a knock on the suite door. He quickly got up and opened it. Arlene looked past him to the nurses. "The women are having a meeting about the weddings. We need your input."

As the women hurried out, Arlene leaned back in the door. "The guys are on the inside range." Pointing, "Down the hall, take the stairs to the basement, turn right and keep walking."

Art opened the door to the range, and the men ceased firing, all looking to see who walked in. "Ear and eye protection on the rack there," Jeff motioned as he called out to Art. The men safed their weapons, each putting his weapon on the shooting station shelf beside him, and hit the target return for his station.

Dave, Frank and Whitworth checked their targets, but Jeff turned and took the few steps to greet Art. "We would have invited you, but we were afraid we would wake you, considering that you were up all night last night."