Chapter 3

It was 10 AM when Fred led the small band out of the front of the hotel on their march towards the convention. He wore jeans, a Roger Waters 'The Wall' tour shirt, and his favorite Buffalo Sabres hat. The last might not be advisable in Philly, but fuck Philly fans. Taylor wore a light red sundress that showed off her white limbs, while Anita wore a Devil's Panties black baby doll t-shirt and jean shorts that curved and swayed in ways that would make every hetero male and homo female take three or four looks. Rachel had chosen more geeky garb, black jeans that weren't that form fitting and a black t-shirt with an old school diamond Doctor Who logo on it. Fred approved.

In fact ... Fred approved of all of her. Her curly blond hair, the large glasses ... He may have ended up with two goddesses, but this was the type he had tended to be drawn to in high school and college. Apart from the hair color in many ways she was like Lisa. Especially when it came to her mind. Taylor and Anita were smart, but they weren't ... geeky. Or quick with a quote or bad pun. Fred hadn't known how much he missed that till now.

He stopped them in front of the 24 hour diner, and Taylor looked at it in horror.

"Oh, HELL no!"

Fred and the others laughed, and he patted her head as if she was a dog.

"Oh hell yes! It's good, filling food, and we have to start with a hearty brunch. Besides, you could stand to gain 20 pounds or so." Pouting, she put both her hands on her belly.

"I'll be gaining weight soon enough another way!" Rachel looked a little startled at this and started blushing. She blushed at everything, Fred noticed. Once again he vowed to make sure everyone tried not to scare her. Opening the diner door he pushed Taylor in ahead of him, and the waitress seated them at a booth in the back. Picking up the menu he looked it over. They served everything all day, so you could have pancakes at 8 PM or fried shrimp at 8 AM. His eyes quickly found the breakfast specials, and he decided on a platter with heaps of everything. If you're going to vacation, vacation as he always said. Taylor picked some cereal and fruit, which Fred poo pooed. Anita laughing tried the eggs and sausage, and Rachel getting into the spirit of things picked her own stack of pancakes and bacon. Fred rewarded her with his approval, and she smiled and blushed happily.

Taylor ended up stealing some bacon from Fred and a sausage from Anita, although the latter put up a good defense of her food. It took a diversion of "hey, that baby looks like Freddy!" to free up the food. The two women growled at each other, forks at the ready for combat. Fred just looked over at the shyly grinning Rachel and sighed.

"Kids."

They took their time walking over to the convention center, wandering around near City Hall for a while. Fred took their pictures with the Masonic temple in the background, just because. They arrived at the large impressive convention center, and entered the lobby.

Fred stopped. There it was. Hanging down near the registration tables was an old purple banner with, in large white letters, "World Science Fiction Society" written in four lines. So far as he knew this same banner was hung at every Worldcon, and to him it symbolized that this was the real thing. Other conventions might be bigger, flashier, and nowadays even more important, but nothing else was Worldcon.

They got in line to pick up their registrations. Taylor had legally changed her last name to match Fred's, even though he was legally married to Anita, so all three stood together. Rachel had to pick another line, but they all finished about the same time and headed off to an empty corner and sat on the floor by the wall in a circle to check out their goody bags. Large soft cover convention book, a name tag- Fred quickly attached his to the provided string and hung it around his neck. The others did the same, joking about how well it matched their various outfits. The highlight of the packet however was the pocket schedule. Sure, nowadays they had a PDF version, but for Fred the small spiral bound booklet was much more the thing. He pulled out the pen he had grabbed from a swag table they had passed, and started going through the various panel listings. So much to see ... Did he do the review of images from the latest Mars mission, or listen to fantasy authors talk about plots you should never do? Lovecraft in roleplaying, or Reality: Fact or Fiction? So many choices!

Today, being the first day, started late so the first panel wasn't until 1 PM. Anita and Taylor were comparing notes and trying to find things they both liked, but Fred noticed Rachel just listening and looking down at her booklet nervously. Time to step in.

"OK, ladies." All three looked up at him. "It's time for a plan of action. There are LOTS of things to do here, and there's no way we'll all be on the same page for much of it. I say we just each make out our own schedule, and not worry about if we're the only one that wants to do it. If we meet up in one, great! If not, we have something to talk to the others about. Agreed?" They nodded, with Rachel looking especially relieved. Fred looked down at his picks for the day. "I found something for each of the first three sessions today. How about we take a quick look at the dealer room..." Taylor gave him a pleading gaze. " ... or art show, then split up and meet again in the dealer room at 6 PM. Sound good?" Taylor darted her head in and gave him a quick kiss, which drew some amused or jealous looks and the usual blushing from Rachel.

"Well, let's go!"

Rachel checked the map again, then the schedule. Room D-8 ... ah, here it was. "Godzilla vs Gamera: Who's The Real Big Green Guy?" She was so glad the panel names were written on whiteboards just outside the rooms. She had a terrible phobia of being in the wrong room, but so far it looked like it would be hard to get lost here. Well ... at least harder. She was sure she'd somehow manage it at least once by the end of the week.

She entered the room, which was lightly occupied as of yet. About fifteen rows of chairs were divided by an aisle down the middle, facing a long table at the far end with a white table cloth, microphone, and a half dozen chairs. Rachel looked around for a good place to sit ... and saw him. Alone. Fred was sitting about four rows from the back to her right. She had never been alone with him. OK, there were other people in this room, but it would be just him and her and no wives ... should she go sit next to him? Could she bring herself to actually do that? In all her teen years she had never ever had the strength to do something like that. But ... this was different. He was different.

She, maybe, was different.

"This seat taken?"

Fred looked up and saw Rachel standing there, smiling nervously, and he broke into a grin.

"Have a seat!" She sat down one chair over from him, which he knew for her took quite a bit of nerve. He put down the schedule he had been going over for the tenth time, and was about to say something when he noticed she was trying to get up the courage to speak. He stayed silent, giving her his full attention.

"I ... I wanted to thank you for all you've done for me. You and the others!" she quickly added, blushing. "I'm not used to anyone taking an interest in me. I ... don't know ... well," she smiled, "I don't know if I'd know if you were dangerous or trying to take advantage of me or something."

Fred smiled, stroking his chin.

"You know, you're right. For all you know we could be some evil satanic cult trying to lure you in for fiendish reasons!" Rachel laughed.

"Yes! Maybe you want me for a virgin sacrifice!"

Rachel's eyes suddenly went wide and she tensed up. Why had she said that. Her gaze whipped around to see if anyone had heard. Why had she said that! He'd now know ... She felt a hand on her shoulder, a light touch. Looking she saw Fred with an understanding expression on his face. He was turned towards her, and she could tell he was ready to remove his hand the instant she hinted it was too much contact. She could feel her heart beating, and every nerve in her body seemed to be focused on that one point where his fingers met her shirt. This was the point where she should run. She could run, then replay the moment in her fantasies and imagine how it could have been if she had stayed. She could at least have that...

Rachel reached her left hand up, and taking Fred's left hand off of her shoulder she brought it down to the chair ... still holding it. Her face was burning red, and she brought her other hand over to help with the hand holding, as if one just didn't have enough experience to do the job well. Fred stayed quiet, waiting. She just squeezed his hand. Fred saw over her shoulder two men he assumed were the panel speakers walk in, so he gently removed his hand then gave both of hers a quick caress.

"I do want you. All three of us do. If you want to be wanted. Be warned, we have never had anyone join us casually ... and never will." He turned her attention to the stage. She may have faced it, but for the first half hour her thoughts were elsewhere.

Taylor was walking through the dealer area, thinking.

Things weren't going as planned on this trip. They never did. On the other hand, she'd be a fool not to see the parallels to their Mexico adventures. They just HAPPEN to come upon a young woman in need who finds Fred incredibly handsome, and who Fred is obviously attracted to ... it was the "young" part that was bothering Taylor the most if she was going to be honest about it. The girl was eighteen. Eighteen! Was she going to be getting an eighteen year old wife?!?

There she was again, assuming all these things were already pre-decided. She and Anita had never, seriously, talked about if this relationship was open to having others join them. Oh, sure, there had been joking, such as Fred's rule which Anita had broken- had she suspected where things would lead when she did that? Taylor thought she had. Anita had sensed a potential wife, and rather than ignore it as Taylor might have (and had, in a couple cases over the years) she had gone over and talked to the girl.

The girl ... OK, Taylor may have been all of 23 when she had met her love but she had been acting like a slutty high school kid. Rachel was obviously repressed but she was serious and probably more grown up then Taylor. Being a mother didn't make you an adult, it just means you had sex without protection.

Taylor suddenly had a vision of Rachel nude on all fours, her belly swollen, being fucked by Fred as both her and Anita sucked on a breast. She stopped walking in front of a display table and closed her eyes for a second.

"You OK?" A woman in a very Wiccan outfit was sitting behind the table and looking at Taylor with concern. Taylor shook her head and looked at her, smiling. The booth sold small pewter dragons and fairies, along with assorted jewelry.

"Oh, I'm fine. Just a sudden erotic fantasy. Oh! Fred!" She waved then ran over to her lover, who was standing with Anita and Rachel.

The woman watched her as Taylor gave Fred and Anita a big hug. Now SHE had an erotic fantasy for later.

The four made another circuit of the dealers room, with Fred buying a "What part of 'Bwahaha haha haha!' don't you understand?" t-shirt and Anita picking up some wooden toys. Taylor noticed that Rachel was being quiet, which was normal, but she now and then would reach out and touch Fred. Something had changed. Tonight might bring more changes.

Taylor insisted they check out the art room again before leaving for dinner. Rachel was fascinated as they slowly walked down the rows of paintings. She had never been the artistic type, but simply loved looking. They had set up four aisles of wooden pegboard cubicles, and each artist could buy one or more walls to put up their wares. Convention goers could either place a bid on a piece, which would go to auction if there were enough bids, or an artist could supply prints to be sold at the print shop. There were some amazing pieces, many having been used as book covers. There was also crap, but, hey, art was in the eye yadda yadda.

When they came to Taylor's section, Rachel looked in awe. It was ... incredible. The three walls of the cubical were covered with various sized paintings, mostly of various fantasy themes. Her style was realistic yet with a fluid line that made them come alive. One that jumped out at her was of a nude pregnant woman who obviously Anita ... Anita with cat features lounging in front of a Mayan temple. Rachel just looked at Anita, then back at the painting, noticing the size and shape of the painted breasts, the curve of her hips, wondering how the reality compared ... she was blushing again. Anita looked at her, a knowing smile on her lips.

"She's good, isn't she." She pulled Taylor into her arms and gave her a quick, tender kiss. "I don't know how she talked me into posing, but I'm glad I did. I've never looked so beautiful." Her face suddenly clouded, and in an instant Fred was there to whisper into her ear. She closed her eyes and nodded, then turned and buried her face into his chest. Taylor stood there, letting them have their moment. Noticing Rachel was looking confused and embarrassed, she went next to her and spoke softly.