Chapter 13: The Rest of the Story

I was right though, and when Sandy and I made it to the bed, we just collapsed in each other's arms. We exchanged gentle kisses and whispered sweet nothings to each other. We were both enjoying the feel of naked skin when the sheets moved a bit and the bed shook some.

I looked over my shoulder to find Mel and Hailey had decided to join us, and like the two of us, gently held each other, kissing quietly.

I turned to smile at Sandy, but she was already in the clutches of the sleep fairy, so I just tenderly wrapped my arms around her joining the slumber.

Later in the evening after we had all rested adequately, we once again converged in the kitchen area to decide what we were going to do for dinner.

The evening's activities were more or less predetermined by Janet's condition. It had improved some during the day, but she still wanted a rest so that she'd be ready for the "free for all" tomorrow night.

Mel and Hailey had raided the "storage facilities" earlier and had grabbed a few steaks, which were well thawed and ready to throw on the "Q", and there were always veggies at my place, so it was just a matter of choosing which to steam.

I figured I'd surprise everyone with one of my "specialties", scalloped potatoes.

So with the assignments passed out, I started first since my dish would take the longest. It was actually up to me to choreograph the meal. I was actually pretty good at getting everything done and on the table at the same time so it was hot'n'fresh.

We chatted while performing our various tasks. Mel and Hailey had the veggies. Janet and Sandy were the wizards of the BBQ grille.

So in about 90 minutes we sat down and had a meal that couldn't be beat, sucked down a good bottle of red wine and generally enjoyed life.

Clean up was a breeze and we grabbed another bottle of wine and headed into the living area to do whatever it was we decided to do.

Sandy and I sat together with our arms around each other just enjoying the kind of closeness we had only been able to enjoy in the distant past. It had been quite some time since we were able to be with each other without worrying about looking over our shoulders.

I could see that both Mel and Hailey were enjoying seeing Sandy and I together. Our conversation earlier gave them some level of appreciation for our relationship without creating any concern on either of their parts. They were comfortable in their positions, and to hear them tell the story were happy that they were able to share, especially with Sandy.

If they wanted any deviation in the schedule, it was just a quick word with the other and maybe some spirited negotiations but there was never any contention.

I continually marveled at my fortune. Where I may have had the urge to pinch myself to see if I was in a dream, I didn't even want to know anymore. If it was a dream, just let me sleep!

Even with our nap, we were all still pretty tired, and knew we had a big night planned for Thursday before Janet's departure. Keeping that in mind, we all called it an early crash.

At Mel and Hailey's invitation, Janet bedded down with them so that Sandy and I could spend our night together though we told them we were finished with the "sex" portion for the day.

Re-thinking things Janet decided it would probably work best if she just took one of the other guest rooms so that the "youngsters" didn't keep her up. She was still dead tired and wanted to sleep.

We all kissed and hugged around and migrated to our chosen rooms to hopefully get some semblance of rest.

Yeah, right!

We slowly undressed and showered together; tender caresses, kisses, and hugs being the rule. We both knew that this was not going to be the last time we'd be together for a long time like it has been in the past. With Mel and Hailey in the picture, we'd be able to meet a bit more often, though our requirement to be extremely aware of our surroundings and careful about our meets, we now had a legitimate solid cover that we could use. We were used to covering our tracks, so it wasn't a foreign concept.

We dried each other softly and made our way to the bed where we laid together in each other's arms, giving each other tender pecks on the lips, eyes, nose, neck and other various spots that we could reach.

"Bob, do we have a problem with the conversation we had this morning?"

I could tell there was honest concern in her voice. It was really up to her, by her choice, to maintain the safety of our exile. It's why I had left it with Mel and Hailey that Sandy would control our time. She knew the best opportunities, so she could have our meetings happen without incident, though we were both in the habit of looking over our shoulders whenever we were together. It was just a self-preservation habit.

"I don't think so Lish", actually slipping a bit using her real name. "I think curiosity will overcome their present level of fear, but that gives me some time to decide how to deal with it."

Then with a loving gaze into her eyes, "I think I'm going to need your help though."

Hearing her real name for the first time in quite some time brought some wetness to her eyes. Like me, she missed Alicia.

"Jason. Oh god, how I miss the real 'us'. But do we dare? We have to be Bob and Sandy don't we? I know we can never be a couple again, but I do miss it."

"So do I Hon, and to be honest, I can't believe what's been happening to me over the past months."

"I think we're going to have to tell them some of it," she said wistfully, "But how much is going to be enough?"

"I think we can probably get by with the last mission, and the name changes. They both seem to be accepting of the fact we have secrets, and they say they understand the need but we both know they haven't a clue."

She started to chuckle a bit, "Yeah, tell them about our biggest failure."

"Lish, you know as well as I do it wasn't a failure."

"I know Jas, but look where it got us."

We were both quietly crying on each other's shoulders now, "Jas, I want so much for Alicia and Jason to make love again."

"Me too, Honey. Me too. I just don't ever want to slip with the girls, because you know that will cause more questions."

She nodded, "It's so beautiful Jason. I think Sandy is so ingrained in me, that if you call me Alicia, I'll look at you funny, but only for a nanosecond or two. Do you think we can do it once in a while, or should we just forget?"

"Lish, you know that neither of us can, nor ever will forget. I think the most important thing is that Mel and Hail never use our names, and the best way to make sure that happens is to make sure we never slip with them. As long as we don't make a habit of it, I want desperately for you to be Alicia for me again, and I want to be Jason for you. The hard part for me is not being able to have the relationship we had. You were my world Alicia, but I'm not allowed to live in that world anymore. It was difficult for a long time and I hate to admit it but having Mel and Hailey now has been an immense help in coping."

"Yeah, I have to admit I was a little jealous at the beginning, but then I realized it was the best thing that has happened to either of us in a long time. The side benefit is that it gives you and I a reason to be together that won't raise any eyebrows anywhere."

I looked at her and smiled. As usual, she was absolutely right.

"Oh Jas, I wish to god we could go back and change things, but I know it's not possible."

As she was saying that, she wrapped her arms around my neck and began to hold me tightly. We both lost ourselves in our own thoughts for a time.

Sandy got up and went to the "ladies room" to change into something to sleep in.

As is my habit, I began to over think everything that had happened today. Well I don't really over think things but because of the training I analyze every little nuance to see if there are any flaws, holes or misconceptions in whatever it is I'm analyzing.

While Sandy was gone, I'm thinking about Mel and Hailey and what I can do to appease their curiosity. Probably tell them the truth would be the best place to start. Well, as little of the truth necessary to quench their thirst.

It was going to be a fine edged sword, or as Col. Kurtz said, "I watched a snail crawl along the edge of a straight razor. That's my dream; that's my nightmare. Crawling, slithering, along the edge of a straight razor ... and surviving." I couldn't give too much, but I couldn't hold back either. The devil is in the details.

I knew that at some point, I was going to have to come up with something to satisfy Mel and Hailey's curiosity surrounding what we didn't tell them. They accepted it for now, but I had no doubt that the analytical curiosity they were both blessed with would get the better of them eventually. I know it would have raised a lot of questions in my mind if it were me.

We had just whetted the curiosity and I knew it would fester until one or the other would come to ask. It was only going to be a matter of time.

How can I tell them that in a "past life", almost literally, that Sandy and I were "married" to each other? There was no ceremony or paperwork, but in our line of work those kinds of "marriages" happened all the time.

We lived together, we slept together, we ate together, and we worked together. We laughed, cried, and had exceptional sex together.

If anyone were to notice the couple in the nondescript red brick house with the double car garage who had just kind of "showed up" in the neighborhood one day, they'd have just assumed that we were a happily married couple that kept to ourselves.

Some would have made the attempt to welcome us to the neighborhood and we would have done whatever we needed to do to appease their welcome, but we wouldn't have "integrated" into the group. We had no idea how long we'd be there, and our work wasn't conducive to conversation. Those discussions needed to be avoided at all cost.

We were friendly but extremely standoffish so though accepted, we weren't sought out which suited us fine.

Our families knew some of what we did for a living so they were aware that we were in danger most of the time when we were gone. They just accepted us as a family and treated us like we were officially married. "Living together" was not an abhorrent concept to either of our families and typically both mothers continually queried when we were going to have our first child.

We finally had to tell them that in our line of work a child wouldn't fit very well because we'd rarely be around and couldn't drag a child around with us while working. It just didn't fit the lifestyle. We did let them know that as soon as we retired we would give it some serious consideration.

How can I tell Mel, Hailey and even Jessi eventually, the details surrounding our final mission, a mission that cost us not only our careers but also our very lives. No, we didn't die but our lives were over nonetheless.

Alicia and I were an elite team, clandestine operatives working on a complex mission to break up a bevy of opposing radical political factions, which were a hindrance to peace initiatives in the region.

Every time that peace was deemed possible, one of the groups would do something to fuck it up. We were tasked with causing the divergent groups to focus on killing each other rather than the peace process.

It was thought that once the leaders of the factions were in the ground a majority of their followers would go back to being farmers or whatever it was they did before.

There were numerous groups of tribal factions that wanted everything their own way. Problem being that having it their way was detrimental to everyone else in the area. Being tribal in nature, there were no conciliatory possibilities. It was the 'my way or the highway' syndrome.

Groups that would stab their own mothers in the back if it would give them an advantage over another. These were ruthless barbaric people that used ruthless methods in an attempt to ensure they got their way. The interesting part was that they all kissed each other's asses, and made nice-nice while maneuvering to get an advantage over the other. Even more interesting, is that they all knew what was going on and chose to play anyway.

It was our job to bring them all together in such a way that the groups would fight with each other. The objective of all of this was killing off as many of them as possible. We were aiming at the leadership and those who would destabilize the whole situation, the goal being that they would no longer have the capacity to elicit the friction they had been creating.

Since we were not native to the region, everything we said and did was questioned, but we had forged some good relationships with the intention of causing problems so that the said killing would seem to be "self induced".

"The secretary will disavow any knowledge of your existence ... blah, blah, blah..."

How do I tell the girls that on our last mission together, which turned out to be the final mission for each of us, we had worked for over 19 months in that little red brick house to set up a masterful "sting" that didn't exactly come off as planned, they never seemed to, but in the end, didn't totally backfire.

As sometimes happens with FUBAR realities, it actually turned out better in the end. We achieved about 99% of our goals in an operation that didn't happen the way we had lined it out. Even fuck ups can turn to gold.

In clandestine operations one needs to be very flexible as to plans. In the nine years that I was involved there was never once a plan came off as it was originally drawn up. Everything seems to end up being improvisation, based on circumstances with a whole fleet of alternative solutions.

One major objective is to insulate yourself from the actual operation as it goes down. We had been extremely successful at being elsewhere when the shit hit the fan, at least up to this point, and things were actually going rather well this time. We were actually nearing the end of the planning and about to pull the trigger, but it turns out there was sand in the Vaseline!

The real big problem we encountered was that we both inadvertently ended up in a crossfire between two of the opposing factions who had prematurely discovered the other was there trying to do an end around on the other. An error of timing, but an error that was totally out of our control if we were to remain anonymous. Without that anonymity we'd have both been dead in an instant.

Fortunately, they wouldn't figure out that "we" made sure they were both there in the hopes they would end up killing each other off. It looked like I was there accidentally and that Alicia showed up looking for me and wondering what the gunfire was all about. The fact that we were both armed to the teeth may have raised some questions, but those that would have raised them were soon going to be dead.

The timing got fucked up when one of the "big cheese" leaders couldn't keep his dick in his pants and went out to find some "local female companionship". Hey, he's a guy! He only had 8 wives, but was away from home so he was on the prowl looking for some strange.

While doing so, he discovered that his main rival was in town attempting the same type of backstabbing that he himself was trying to pull, and it was only by the chance of choosing different "watering holes" they hadn't run into each other sooner. That would have worked out a bit better for us because had they discovered each other earlier, the shit would have been on the fan before I got there thus saving me and unfortunately Alicia some extremely heavy wounds.

Having discovered his rival, instead of continuing his pursuit of some local pussy, he decided to round up his "boys" and attempt a preemptive strike.

That's actually what the original plan ... remember the plan? ... Had called for, but he and his henchmen went off totally unorganized and half-cocked - like most of those types of idiots do. It didn't help that most were also hopelessly drunk.