Chapter 12: Boarding the blasted barge!

Tom walked back through the woods, and into the backyard. He saw Bets sitting on the back porch, sipping a steaming cup of coffee. That, of course, made his own mouth water. Hell, since time began, nothing had been invented for putting the 'get up and go' back in a man; that was better than a little roasted bean, soaked in hot water.

"That was a hell of a long walk, old man. I would have been worried except Dregg confirmed that you were still in the area and still breathing," Bets remarked as he walked by and kissed her on the cheek.

"I'm sorry honey, guess I must have just dozed off under the stars," Tom said.

He made a quick departure, before the questions got too uncomfortable to answer. Besides there was coffee waiting, to give him his morning shot of 'get up and go'.

Bets watched as her husband disappeared through the back door, wondering just what the hell he was really doing out back in the damn woods, all night.

'Well I'll have to wait another day for that investigation because I'm overbooked right now just getting off this planet, ' she thought, as she stood to go wake up her son.

Bets looked into the kitchen as she came in the back door and didn't see Tom.

'Must be taking a shower, after spending all night in the woods. I hope he didn't pick up any ticks while he was lying out on the damn ground, ' she thought as she walked down the hallway to her son's room.

Bets opened the door, and stepped into the darkened room, she walked over to her son's bed to shake him, and tripped over a mountain of fur laying on the floor in the dark. Next thing she knew Bets was flying head first onto Tommy's bed, and slammed onto the poor boy. Of course going from being dead asleep, to having a body slam into your 'manly parts', will wake up even the heaviest of sleepers.

"Yaahhhh!" Tommy yelled.

This, of course, set off Hugo barking at the intruder, even though he knew who it was. His boss was screaming in pain, and the boss of his boss was the reason. That made the big German Shepherd want to do something.

He sank his teeth into the seat of the flying object attacking his boss. He at least had the good sense not to go for meat, but instead sank his teeth into a hunk of flannel. He yanked backwards as hard as his 200lb body would allow the big dog to do.

Bets felt something grab her ass ... well, the bottom of her flannel pajamas ... then she was flying backwards. She landed, hard, on her butt. She swore that Hugo was trying to make her go deaf, as he barked at her with that damn foghorn he called a mouth, from only a foot a way.

Tommy was curled up in a fetal position holding his gems, and moaning. Meanwhile Bets and Hugo were carrying on shouting/barking conversation in the dark. Tom turned on the bedroom lights, to find out who had been killed.

Hugo quit barking in mid-arf, when he saw Tom standing in the door, and Bets giving him the evil eye from a foot away. Still the big dog thought he had done a competent job of protecting his main boss. He hopped up on the bed to check on his young moaning master.

Tommy didn't seem to appreciate Hugo slathering him with his huge tongue and pushed the dog away. Well that didn't work out so well as Hugo tried to keep his balance and stuck a paw on Tommy's already abused 'manly parts'.

Tom stood in the doorway trying to take in the picture before him. He only moved when Tommy yelled again as Hugo paw nudged the young man's tenderized 'boys'.

"Hugo, down!" Tom ordered.

The big dog carefully moved down off the bed. He couldn't figure out just what he had done wrong, but he knew something must have happened for the big boss to use that commanding voice on him.

Bets stood up, muttering under her breath, wondering if the glue factory only took horses. If so, maybe she would buy Hugo a damned saddle and take him for a ride. She leaned over to check on her son, which set Tom off chuckling for some reason.

"What?" she asked looking over her shoulder at her husband.

Tom just bit his lip and asked, "How's the boy doing?"

The throbbing part of the pain was subsiding and the nauseous part that made you want to throw up was setting in. Tommy realized that his mom was standing beside him as he was holding onto his 'boys'.

"Mom! Please go away! I'm fine, now. Just leave, please!" he begged.

"No, Tommy, not until you let me see where you are hurt. You might need a doctor if you have a broken rib or something," Bets said.

Since Tommy was still under the covers, Bets had not really noticed just where Tommy's hands were. Tommy took a deep breath sucking in air seemed to help a lot.

"Mom you didn't land on my ribs. Please go away, now," the urgency in his voice finally caught Bets attention.

"Oh my little boy! I'm so sorry. I tripped over Hugo in the dark, when I was coming to wake you up. Please forgive me, Tommy. I'll get you a bag of ice. That always helps your father when we are sparring," she said, stepping back from her son.

Tommy watched as his mom turned to head towards the door, and saw the seat of her pants for the first time. Even in his dull aching pain, he had to laugh a little. The entire seat of his mom's pajamas was ripped off and her 'yellow rubber ducky' panties were waving to the world. "Hugo, you better go hide for a while, until mom has a chance to cool off, boy," he said to the big dog.

Hugo nodded, winked one eye at the boy, and took off for parts unknown.

Tom watched the dog fly out the backdoor of the house, just as Bets let out a spine tingling scream, swearing death to that damn horse. He grinned at his son as he walked over and sat down on the edge of the bed.

"Hell of a way to start a trip to another world, huh, boy?"

Tommy grinned and slowly sat up in the bed wincing a little.

"Yep, Dad. Now, do you think you could get Mom to forget the dang ice for now? It's bad enough that she knows about it, already. Besides, a warm bath will take most of the ache away."

"Sure, Son. I've been there, done that, and walked a little funny a few times, myself. I'll see you in an hour or so, ok?" Tom asked.

Tommy nodded. He carefully got out of bed, and headed for the bathroom.

"I will be putting a few nightlights in my new bedroom, though, Dad. I don't want to ever wake up like that again," he mumbled as he closed his bathroom door.

Tom totally agreed with his son. Through the years he had been hit in his 'boys', too ... but never while he was dead asleep. Tom shivered at the thought, and started thinking about adding nightlights in their new bedroom, too, as he walked back to the kitchen to refresh his now cold coffee.

Just as he was pouring a new cup of coffee, Dregg walked in the backdoor.

"Is everything all right in here, Tom? Falash said both Bets and Tommy's heartbeats went up very dramatically in the last few minutes and then quickly fell back to almost normal again."

Tom nodded and explained what had happened, to make the sensors jump on the ship above.

"Dregg, I'd really appreciate it if you would let the matter drop completely. It's very embarrassing to a young man, to have the subject brought out in public," Tom requested.

"There will be no mentioning of the event from me, I do have another subject that I do need to bring up though," Dregg replied, looking at the human.

Tom had a feeling he knew what that subject was but had hoped to avoid it for as long as possible.

"Oh and what would that be, my friend?"

Dregg knew that Tom knew what he was going to ask about, so why did the human act as if he didn't know.

"There seems to be a very unusual power signature coming from one of the storage containers. In fact it is like nothing that Falash or I have ever seen before. Can you tell me just what it is?"

Tom looked around and made sure that Bets had not come out of their bedroom and motioned for Dregg to follow him outside. They walked over to the pod where the Stone was stored and Tom quietly explained what it was.

"Impossible!" Dregg exclaimed. "I can't believe you expect me to believe such rubbish! Magical creatures living in stone?"