Chapter 7

It was time for a short pep talk and it seemed I was elected. The joke on Jenna had been mostly harmless but it had distressed her and it was actually very unfair of the others. Not to mention that we didn't have time for a fun and games above all else attitude right now.

They were all adults and despite her near physical maturity, Jenna's emotions were still those of a bewildered teenager. I actually admired the camaraderie that had developed among the others, but I couldn't let it stand at Jenna's expense.

"I know this was just a fairly harmless bit of teasing among you. I really hope it was the sort of thing a bunch of older sisters would pull on a younger one; but we don't have the luxury of pulling these little stunts. We have to be careful, at least for a while, not to offend, hurt, or anger each other.

"Everywhere I ever worked, while I was in the real world, women would invariably form little groups. If there were only two women things always went fine, but if there were three, two would band together against one and pick on her.

"If there happened to be more women it made for larger groups, but it always ended up with the larger group picking on the smaller one. I'd always thought it was some leftover ancient tribal ritual or some form of race memory and just laughed at it before.

"We can't afford to let that happen now. I won't let it happen. We'll have to consider our family our group and save the teasing for other groups we may encounter later.

"In the workplace, shenanigans like this could only affect a person's job. Here and now, in our situation, it can affect their life or ability to keep living.

"We have to cling together and protect each other. I'm not trying to take the fun out of our new lives. I'm just trying to make sure we all keep on living them. It's always fine to have fun, but only if we make sure we're all having it.

"Jenna would you please go into the kitchen and make some coffee? You'll be receiving a few visitors in a moment," I said.

I had wondered about Diane going along with the joke. I guess it just didn't seem as serious to her as it did to me. I could see at once by the way she was looking at me now I had been mistaken.

There was utter devotion to me plastered across her face and I knew that I'd just become her hero. I tried to ignore it since I wasn't through.

"I am not trying to be mean or bossy but I'm afraid you've hurt Jenna's feelings more than you realized. We'll all go back to work now but I expect each of you to visit Jenna, one at a time, and assure her that no real meanness was intended."

We went back to work, except Nancy, who went into the house at once. As we finished the sorting process, I kept a watch, and all the women went to see Jenna for a few minutes.

I could tell they'd all cried during their visits and I was glad that Diane went last. Jenna must be a wreck after the whole thing. Luckily the work lasted longer than the talks.

After Diane came back, red eyed but smiling, I went into the house and found Jenna in the kitchen. She was facing away from me and didn't hear me approach.

"Is the coffee ready?" I asked.

Jenna seemed to freeze for a moment, then she turned around and looked into my eyes. Hers were puffy and red rimmed but gleaming. She charged me, throwing her arms around my neck and hugging me to her with all her strength.

"I can't believe how much I love you," she said, "My own daddy wasn't as good to me as you've been. I feel like you're my daddy now and I'm just so happy."

"That's wonderful Jenna, I love all of you women too, even though some of us have just met, but I'll admit that I'm not feeling so fatherly toward you right now," I said, trying to sound cute as I dropped my hands to her tight little ass and pulled her to me.

Jenna wasn't repulsed; she latched her lips to mine and invaded my mouth with her tongue. She mashed her breast against my chest and jumped up to wrap her legs around my waist again. She began slowly grinding her sex against my abdomen. Finally she relinquished the kiss and put her mouth by my ear.

"You are my daddy now though and you know they say incest is best," she said, whispering it in my ear in her sexiest little girl voice.

Jenna pulled back to look into my eyes again.

"It won't be long now but I'm counting the days," she told me, seriously.

She hopped down off me then and scrambled to get a mug of coffee; then she dug around in the cabinets and found a package of cookies and opened them, putting them on the counter in front of me.

I told her if I'd had any idea I could have hoped for this kind of service, I'd have chewed the others out a lot sooner, and I was thinking about going out to lay into them again.

This broke the tension and she was soon laughing so uncontrollably I was afraid she'd loose her breath. It wasn't that what I'd said was so funny, she was just on edge, emotionally, and the little joke had tipped her over into laughter.

All in all, I was a little proud of myself for the whole thing. I drank my coffee and ate a few cookies then patted Jenna's ass and kissed her before going back out to the garage.

When I returned, I could tell that we were close to finishing. I asked Janet to go see Jenna and explain to her how to get started with the pills.

"Do you need to examine her or anything like that?"

"It's a normal part of starting someone on the pill, but I've always been her doctor and there won't be any problems. She'll start as soon as her next period is over," Janet said, snagging a couple of packages of the pills as she headed into the kitchen.

We finished what we could do in the garage for the night. The women had gone into the house and I'd just closed the doors. It was about nine thirty, the sky was clear and the moon was bright. There were streetlights in my subdivision and they were still working.

I was just about to enter the house when I heard a shotgun go off. It wasn't right on us but it probably wasn't more than a couple of blocks away. A few seconds later I heard two shots from a handgun.

They were close together and I thought they must have come from a semi-auto. Guessing, I thought they were probably from a nine-millimeter, but I was guessing.

I went into the house and the women were standing in a bunch, looking at me. I could tell they were frightened so I had them to turn off all the lights and get their side arms and holsters. They scattered to obey.

There was some initial scrambling around and it took about three or four minutes before almost all the lights were off and the women were back in the living room, armed.

Most of them were fooling around, trying to put on their web belts and holsters. I told them to forget that for now and just lie on the floor facing the windows, and shoot anyone they saw approaching that wasn't me.

Going through the house room by room, I looked for things that might be giving off light. I unplugged clocks and radios and two night-lights. In the living room, I unplugged the VCR and the DVD player and then I just unplugged the power strips they were all plugged into.

In my study I unplugged the computer system's power strips from the battery backup and threw a nearby blanket over it. Its light would stay on until the battery was completely dead and if I unplugged it, the alarm would beep every minute for the duration. Satisfied that we were blacked out, I returned to the living room.

I made sure they could all hear me and then divided their responsibilities as to which window or entrance to cover. There were no doors for the hall so I had Jana and Beverly watch where it entered the main part of the house. I reminded them that anyone that came in through any of the bedroom windows would have to enter the main house that way.

Jenna got to watch the front entrance and I told Diane and Janet to watch the garage door and study door, which I'd closed. I asked Nancy to get a shotgun and watch the kitchen, which had a rear entrance door and a sliding glass door onto the patio.

I gave Karen the living room windows and told Diane and Janet that they would probably hear it if anyone tried to enter the garage or the study, since they would have to either break a window to get into the study or raise a door to get into the garage. I reminded them all not to shoot each other and not to shoot me when I returned.

Back in my bedroom, I put on a dark, long-sleeved shirt and then strapped on my web belt with the Glock, putting a couple of extra clips in one back pants pocket. Taking an M16 with a full clip and putting another clip for it in my other back pocket, I took a small Mag light that had fresh batteries and headed for the door. Giving the women last minute instructions to shoot to kill anyone who kept approaching after one warning I wished them luck and slipped out the kitchen entrance. I heard another shotgun blast just after I closed the door.

I moved off toward the sound of the shotgun staying back from the street and streetlights. I moved through yards and stayed close to, and in the shadows of, the houses. I had not made a survey to see if anyone was still alive living near me, and now I cursed myself for that failure. The houses were mostly dark but a few had lights on. I felt like they had probably just been left that way. I nearly pissed my pants the first time a light came on from a motion detector but; I realized what it must be and fled the light. I heard a shot from the handgun and I could tell I was getting closer.

I knew I would have to cross the street. I did it now so I wouldn't have cross in the light when I was in shotgun range. I ran but tried to do it quietly. I moved into the shadows of the houses on this side praying I wouldn't come across anymore automatic lights. I was grateful that fences weren't popular for front yards in this suburb.

When I'd passed through two more yards I thought I heard someone speaking and with another yard crossed I could hear plainly.

"Just throw out the gun lady and come out. You know you don't want to shoot me. Just throw out the gun. You can't live by yourself. You know you need me."

"Just leave me alone."

I couldn't see the woman but easily saw the man with the shotgun. He was lying halfway in a gate entrance to a backyard with a high brick privacy fence. I guess he thought he saw some movement or thought he could tell where she was since he raised the shotgun to his shoulder and fired.

I moved as quietly as I could just after the shot. I knew it would take several seconds before he could hear properly again. I had already made sure the M16's safety was off and that it was set to single fire. I could see him clearly in the light from a streetlight. He rose as if to fire again. I shot him through the right shoulder. The one he had the shotgun butt raised to.