Chapter 15

-Sumalee-

To say it had been an interesting evening would be an understatement. The relationship Daniel has with his team would make for a lifetime study by any clinical psychologist. We met two more of them that night: the brothers Stanley and Samuel. Their reaction to Lidia and myself was fascinating. It was almost like they had known us as long as Michelle, Brian and Nathan; almost like they had shared memories. As I said, fascinating, exciting and just a little intimidating.

Not that they showed the least bit of animosity towards us whatsoever; just the opposite in fact. The accepted and treated us like we were already an established part of their captain's life. A thrilling feeling, true, but still daunting. Who was this man that in just a few short days we have tied our lives too so completely? What was he that he so effortlessly commanded such absolute loyalty from such a diverse and capable group of men and women? And why did I so naturally think of 'we' instead of 'I.' Lidia was as much a stranger to me as Daniel but there was no doubt she was the other half of what had become his.

Antigua Delmar was another story entirely. What was her intention? The fact that she was hopelessly in love with Daniel was bright as day to any inclined to notice and yet I felt no overt jealousy from her towards us because of our sexual and emotional relationship with Daniel. Did she consider herself a third member of his harem or was she merely biding her time waiting to strike? That Daniel had feelings for her was evident but the exact nature of those feelings was unclear. She was a factor to be watched but I believed not one to be worried about immediately.

Michelle: The practitioner in me screamed to help the tortured woman trapped inside that lovely body. The mental torment she must have suffered during the war must have been horrendous. The alcoholism and promiscuity were classic ― almost textbook ― examples of a mind trying to come to grips with something so overwhelming it was either hide behind them or die. The traditional approach would be to slowly rebuild her psyche over time until she, hopefully, could once again stand alone as a functioning human being. I was not convinced this was the appropriate approach in this case or even practical. My thoughts kept returning to the words Samuel said to us: " ... Mike lost a big part of herself long ago and it ain't coming back. The captain is that part of her she lost." Ridiculous, absurd, unacceptable by our present day standards! And yet a part of me truly believed that might indeed be the case. What he breathed in she breathed out. We were tied to a man who had a living, breathing shadow; if he ceased to exist so would she. Fascinating and terrifying! What would happen if she suddenly decided Lidia and I were a threat to her god?

"Alee? Alee, honey, are you with us?" I shook my head; Daniel was talking to me. We had come back to the cabin and were now ready for bed. I was exhausted but lust was starting to stir me to action once more. I glanced at Lidia; she was at least as tired as I was. At least I was used to being up at this time although my days with Daniel had reset my biological clock somewhat.

"Come over here and sit down, please," he said patting the bed. He motioned Lidia over also. "I have something I need to talk to both of you about if that's okay?" Lidia and I looked at each other. Another talk? We had already taken care of this we thought.

"Yes, Daniel?" I said settling in where he wanted me.

"I know we're all tired and I don't expect an answer tonight or ever if that's what you prefer," he paused. "Lidia, I love you. Alee I love you. You may think I'm crazy and I won't argue with you about it but even though I've only known each one of you for only a few days, I can't even conceive of a life without either of you in it."

"Thank you, Daniel," I smiled. "We feel the same way." Lidia said nothing; she peered intently at his face as if expecting something.

"Thanks. I'd hoped you felt that way," he smiled nervously. "As far as I'm concerned we can live this way till the end of time, but..." he paused again and took a deep breath. "I'm kind of an old-fashioned guy and I want the world to know you're more than just my loves and my lovers; I want it to know you are my wives. I guess what I'm doing in a really piss-poor way is asking you to marry me." I was stunned, shocked and just about to launch myself at him when Lidia raised her hand.

"Wait," she said sharply. "We will marry you under one condition." I was sure she had lost her mind!

"Anything," he said softly. "Anything you want. If it is my power to grant your wish I will do it gladly."

"We want your children," she said, her breathing shallow and ragged. "I know that you have two already although you are now estranged and if you do not wish any more, we will understand. But if we are truly to be your wives then we will also bear children."

"I never thought of that," he said sounding startled. "But you're right: If you are my wives then of course you will carry my children. If you consent, that is. If you don't want any I'll accept that but nothing would make me prouder than to be the father to your babies." Suddenly there were two of us doing our best to smother our man with our bodies and lips.

I looked up and caught the eye of my future co-wife, "Should we fuck him to death now or wait until after the ceremony so we can get his money?"

"I say we do it now," she grinned like a cat with feathers stuck to her whiskers. "We can always backdate the license later."

-Daniel-

It wasn't as simple as that of course, nothing ever is. There would be immigration to deal with; the fact that Alee was a citizen of a marginally unfriendly superpower didn't help but I'd decided if that became a problem we'd move to either the EU or somewhere down south. That didn't faze me one bit.

We told everybody at breakfast. We'd planned to get together before Tink and her crew had to leave so it seemed like the perfect time. Everybody seemed happy about it although Tink became bossy right away telling us we couldn't have the ceremony until after her tour was done because of course she was going to be the maid of honor. It almost came to a real spanking when I tried to explain the girls were going to decide that and not some prepubescent nosy squirt. Fisticuffs were avoided when the girls assured me they wouldn't have it any other way.

"Mother's going to love this," she cackled evilly. "Do you think you can get knocked up in the next week or so? That would be even better!"

"Leave your mother alone," I demanded. "Cynthia has some serious issues but the fact is she did me the biggest favor anyone has ever done for me. If she hadn't done what she did I would still be with her and I would never have met the two people I was supposed to spend the rest of my life with." The girls blubbered and Tink grudgingly agreed but I was afraid "leave alone" wouldn't be interpreted as having the same meaning that I intended it to. Well, there was nothing I could do about it. Tink was a force of nature unto herself. One can only hope to guide or deflect her somewhat but never control.

We decided the girls would remain onboard for at least a while after I left and they made arrangements to move into a cabin as roommates. I was going back to take care of all the paperwork that was needed. It wasn't too awfully bad. The Xanadu had a set route that brought her by Miami every week and they'd be able to take the shuttle in and we'd have a day or two together at least. They could take the Tube over to Tampa or I'd meet them in Miami. They'd be able to work and still send money back to their families the way they'd been doing. I told them I'd make sure their families got everything they needed but they postponed that saying they couldn't get more than temporary visas until the paperwork was completed so they might as well work anyway. I didn't like it but I agreed. Getting Stubing to agree wasn't a problem although he pissed and moaned about me running off with two of his best and prettiest crewmembers. He was right but I enjoyed the bitching anyway.

We still had a few days until I had to leave and it was kind of like our pre-honeymoon. Lots of relaxing, lots of fun and lots of loving. We practiced baby-making every chance we could and I think we got pretty good at it. None of us thought there'd be any problems when it came time for the real thing.

"Wow, look at that," Lidia said pointing down towards the pool area. We were up on one of the upper decks just taking in the sea air strolling along with my ladies on my arms. "Isn't that Brian? Who's that sex-bomb with him?"

"I don't know," I admitted. Brian was sitting on the edge of a deck chair apparently talking to some kid I'd guess to be about eight or nine years old and both of them were glancing up at the really impressive woman who was glaring down at them with her fists on her hips. She had to be almost as tall as Lidia; large chest and long dancer's legs that seemed to go on for klicks. She didn't look happy. "Looks like he's in trouble, though. Good thing he can run fast."

"I don't think he'll want to run away from her very fast," Lidia giggled. "She's gorgeous."

"If she was looking at me like that, I'd be running," I said shaking my head.

"He's a big boy; he can take care of himself," Mike grunted.

Mike was out there with us like she was most of the time. She was usually around somewhere when we were out of the cabin although we were always alone in there. I really hoped it didn't bother the girls but they poo-pooed me whenever I tried to talk about it. They seemed to accept her presence as just a natural occurrence, sort of like air.

At the time I figured she was probably right: he was a big boy and could keep himself out of trouble. The gods must really love it when you say things like that.

The first day back sucked. I felt like pieces of myself had been torn away from my side. I felt empty and alone. I was sitting on the aft deck of the Katherine with the only consolation being that I had to start thinking about finding a bigger place to live. The Katherine would be nice and cozy for a while and obviously they didn't mind living on a ship but I doubt they'd appreciate the downsizing for very long. Mike was sunbathing up on the flying bridge when her head popped over the side and she yelled down to me.

"Boss, visitors!" I grunted and looked up. There was a car coming down the pier: it looked like Brian's.

"Better get your top on," I yelled back up to her.

"How'd you know?" she squawked. "You been peeking again?" I hadn't ― it'd been a guess ― but since she'd been sunbathing topless most of the cruise it wasn't too wild a guess.

"Of course," I said pulling myself out of the chair as the car stopped and Brian along with a woman and child stepped out. "I'm going through withdrawal. I need to feast my eyes on nubile female flesh or I get the shakes."

"I thought you only liked my legs and ass," she responded jumping down the ladder and walking up next to me tying her top behind her back.

"I take what I can get," I shrugged. "Besides, you're filling out some."

"Thanks, Boss. I'm going to tell on you."

"They already know I'm a despicable old lecher. Hasn't scared them off yet."

"True," she admitted. "Hey, isn't that..."

"The woman from the boat," I finished for her. "I think you're right." It was the tall blonde with the impressive ... posture. She looked scared and Brian looked worried.

"Hey there, Cap," he said a tried to smile. "This is my friend Allison Benson and her son, Jeremy. They have a little problem and I need to go out to Tucson for a few days to fix it."

"Tell me about it," I said offering them a seat. He did. It was a problem all right. Not one that anyone in their right mind would want to get involved in but I could tell by the way their hands naturally drifted together as he explained it, it wasn't one that could be ignored.

"You need back up," I stated flatly.

"Captain, I can't ask anyone to get involved with this," he protested. "I don't know what I'll be getting into."

"That's why..." I started to say.

"I'll go," Mike interrupted. "We'll see if Weird or Top want to take a Tube trip." Top was out of town helping Carla Medford; he wasn't going to be available.

"I'll go..." I again started to say.

"If you go then I'll have to go anyway," she interrupted, again. "This way I'll know you're safe back here."

"Yeah, but I won't know you guys are safe out there," I protested.

"You're sweet! Now shut up," she said patting my cheek. "You heard him. Allison and the kid need a place to hide for a few days. Think you can do that without fucking it up too badly?"

"You're a pain in the ass. You know that?"

"You're just now figuring that out? Not too bright, are you," she smirked. It might have been better if she'd at least phrased that last part as a question.

"Fine," I huffed. "Get your gear. We'll work on the logistics through Sara on your way out. Sara, see if Weird is available, please?"

"Well Miss Benson, Jeremy, welcome aboard the Katherine."

-Mike-

Well, it'd been fun while it lasted but Brian's little problem was about three thousand klicks above ground behind us and two meters below so I was starting to get bored again. Paperwork sucks but watching someone else do it sucks even more. Why do they call it paperwork anyway? The boss didn't have a single scrap of it on his desk; all the forms and such were on his desk viewer right where they were supposed to be. Every once in a while he'd have something printed out on hard copy but not enough so you'd notice.

"I'm boooored," I sang from where I was sitting on his credenza behind his desk.

"Then go find yourself something to dooooo," he sang back without looking up. "Ya know, if you're going to pretend to be my personal assistant or something silly like that why don't you do some actual assisting?"

"What the hell do personal assistants do?" I asked. "Other than fuck the boss, which ain't going to happen. Make you coffee? You want me to make you coffee, sweetie?" He shuddered a little.

"I thought you wanted to keep me alive, not poison me," he chuckled.

"I'd tell you to eat shit," I hissed, "but I'm going to wait until after dinner and then tell you what you ate." He had the nerve to chuckle again.

"You could go out and sit at that nice desk we got for you looking pretty and attentive," he offered.

"Naw, I just fall asleep out there," I frowned. "The chair's too comfortable."

"Then either go play in traffic or sit there quietly and do your nails."

"Daniel, your 1400 appointment is here," Sara chimed in through the desk link. "Shall I send them in?"

"Of course. Please do."

"What's up, Boss?"

"Beats the crap out of me," he shrugged and stood up getting ready to greet them at the door. "Remember Brad Miller? Three of the women he was assigned to want to talk to me about something."

"He been pressuring them for something?" I asked. I could feel my voice getting a little harder. We both knew what "something" meant. If that were the case it was going to be ass-kicking time and since Stan and Sam were still out of town I'd get the pleasure of doing it myself.

"Don't think so," he said shaking his head. "I heard the com this Patricia Henderson had with Sara and she was very adamant about not having Brad removed from their case. Sounded like she was going to come down here and tear me a new one if I even considered it."

"Hmm, this is starting to sound interesting," I mused and started to rebuff my nails. Damn was I glad I stayed. What a hoot!

-Patricia-

I was nervous and I'm sure Grace and Sam were also. We asked at the front desk where we needed to go to find this Captain Mayhem and were directed towards the back to a row of actually offices. We passed by a lot of desks but only a few of them were occupied. It was only a guess but I think it's where the field reps worked from when they weren't in the field. I looked around to see if there was one I could identify as Bradley's but didn't see anything. The few people that were there smiled and waved at us as we went past, though. It made me feel kind of nice but I didn't want to feel nice right then; we were going in for a fight and I wanted to feel mean. We came to an empty desk and wondered where to go from there when a disembodied voice called to us.