Chapter 19: Gayle joins the clan

While Terry had a strong intuition that his one-time girlfriend, Gayle, would be a net benefit to the family, he was less certain about her integrating into the family than about anyone else. Aside from her skills as an editor and researcher, Gayle was incredibly knowledgeable about science fiction, which always could be a source of nontraditional thinking. She was also a walking repository of space information. She had also been a high school teacher, and, by the accounts Terry had heard, a very good one. She confided to him, however, that she had left teaching because she was sexually attracted to teenagers, both male and female. It occurred to him that if she could control herself and remove what was then temptation, she might be very good at initiating young people in the Brave New World of the Confederacy.

Gayle had distinct, and often what Terry thought were very mentally healthy, ideas about her appearance. In her case because of a childhood fall, she had a severely receding chin, as did Karen and Athena. Quite calmly, she saved until she could afford standard Earth plastic surgery to correct it. She was not interested in any other cosmetic surgery, in that she considered any other aspects of her appearance that with which she was born and were unique to her. The chin was a result of an external event and thus was appropriate to correct.

With the chin repair, she had quite a striking face. Gayle was of Scandinavian ancestry, and had extremely pale blue eyes, very high cheekbones, and a generally heart-shaped face. Her hair was a somewhat indeterminate shade, which Terry still considered dark blonde rather than light brown. He thought she looked spectacular in the summer, when she'd tan to a deep skin tone, while her hair would sun-bleach to a very light blonde.

Gayle, however, was a paranoid schizophrenic. When she stayed on medication, she could be creative, professional, and charming. Even when she went off it, she still took care of herself, but would drift into terrifying hallucinations.

Her sexuality was quite complex, but might well work in the new culture. When Terry first dated her, she varied from minimally interested, to passionate. As their friendship grew, she confided that at the time, she was most excited by male teenagers. She had never had any actual encounters or problems, but that was one reason she stopped teaching.

In the new culture, Terry thought she might be very good for the young adults. She wasn't romantically attached to them, but also had no intention of hurting them. In the present situation, he thought she could make it clear that the involvement was for mutual pleasure, and selective friendship. He also thought she could be good with the young women, but he was a little more concerned there for emotional attachment.

In the past, she expressed a strong desire to become pregnant, which scared Terry. In a multi-parent household, Terry had no strong objection to that.

After a time, however, she felt increasingly strong lesbian desires. For a time, she was exclusive to women, but then became interested in a wider scope. While she focused on Terry's then-wife Vanessa, she definitely enjoyed threesomes. At times, he would spend the night with her when he was in her nearby city; Vanessa knew and approved.

Terry never quite understood what would make her interested in a given act. She seemed very oral and loved passionate, extended kissing, but said she would not suck a man other than a possible future husband. Rather by accident, however, they discovered, while spooning nude without any specific plans, that she reacted to mild contact, with her anus, as if she received a very pleasant electrical shock. Soon, they experimented further, and found she absolutely adored anal intercourse. Gayle was scrupulous in her personal cleanliness, and the two found that his licking her ass to be a great deal of fun for them both.

Terry thought she had absolutely spectacular legs and hips. While she tended to be rather conservative in her attire, when she wore even a business suit and wasn't careful about her hemline when crossing her legs, one look could bring him to instant erection. He always thought, in a nice way, that she looked like a young Gloria Steinem.

Therefore, Terry, with some trepidation, invited Gayle to visit them. He was a bit vague other than saying it involved a true opportunity with space. For the first time, he decided it was appropriate to use a neuralizer, to prevent her from discussing the experience should she not accept. After some thought, he also decided to have its nanites programmed to increase her sexual excitation -- a way of enhancing communications.

Still, the two shared a warm hug in his reception area. "Gayle, we've been through a hell of a lot. Long ago, I gave up trying to characterize our relationship, other than appreciating it for whatever it was at the moment.

"I'm going to hit you with a couple of surprises. First, if you accept, you will be going into space. Second, you'd be joining a very unusual household of mine, which I think you'd find very, very exciting just with the people involved -- to say nothing of some new customs that will apply in space.

"Let me introduce you to a couple of my partners. Gayle, from what I've seen, the women that especially attract you tend to be big-busted, athletic, or both. First, this is Dolores." Terry had had Dolores take special care to show off her bust, as well as her dancer's moves. "Second, this is Karen. You probably see some resemblance between the two of you and, as we talk further, you'll find the two of you have a lot more in common."

Dolores and Karen encouraged her to the couch, where they sat on either side. At first, they just made occasional contact, touching her arm when they spoke, triggering shivers from Gayle. They were also careful to sit such that they "accidentally" showed off quite a bit. "Gayle admired both, but blushed when she realized they noticed.

In response to her blush, Dolores put an arm around Gayle, gently took one hand, and slid it slowly into her own cleavage. "Gayle, dear, believe me, it's all right to look and touch. Don't worry about Earth rules; we are creating our own."

Terry coughed. "Gayle, we need your creative insights. There's going to be enough unexpected things that your science fiction knowledge could be a key resource. You'll also find that you and Karen have a good deal in common professionally. I think you'll find out you can be very good friends." He knew he'd have to explain the situation, and then have her talk to the psychiatrists.

"Oh my." Gayle lost her blush, but was feeling a little faint. "Oh my. I may have stepped through the looking glass, but I like it. Tell me more."

"Gayle, we've always been honest with each other. For you to fit into the family, and indeed the culture, there will be some sexual things outside what has been your comfort zone. There are also some things, in this new culture, that I hope you'll like very much. If you join us, we will expect some commitments from you.

"You are an absolutely great kisser and I've always thought of you as very oral. You've told me, however, that you would only suck your husband, when and if you had one. Well, we don't quite have husbands in the Earth sense, but oral sex, with both women and men, is a requirement. You would need not just to tolerate it, but be enthusiastic about it."

Karen spoke up. "Please, Gayle, look closely at me--touch and do whatever you like. I also had to learn to be enthusiastic about sucking men. You don't know it yet, but I've spent more time in relationships with women than with men, and was celibate for a while, but now I'm very bi." Gayle was unsure, but Karen stretched a long leg, inviting Gayle to stroke it.

"Our bodies are quite a bit alike and, to be honest, just looking, I'm hot for you. It would be sort of like having sex with myself, in a very nice way. We share some other things. From what I understand, you have always been attractive, but both of us had chin problems -- I had a hell of a lot more wrong with my face, and the cosmetic capabilities of the medtube did a lot for me. If you wanted them, I can see it doing some enhancements -- not repairs -- for you. We can project a three-dimensional preview, although I'd take you to bed right now!"

Gayle breathed faster, and reached to stroke Karen's legs.

Terry added, "Karen also shares a lot of professional interests with you -- research, writing and editing. You haven't met Athena yet, who is in another family within our clan, but she again shares the same professional interests, as well as chin repair--odd coincidence, but a nice one."

Dolores said, "Terry tells me that you seem to like big boobs on other women. I hope you can have fun with mine, and Athena is big as well. May I?" She pulled Gayle to her, comfortably putting the back of her head between her breasts. Gayle's eyes grew very large, and then very pleased.

"Gayle," Terry observed, "You've mentioned to me, on various occasions, that you want children. You even asked me to make you pregnant. I wasn't comfortable bringing up a child, but, in this kind of extended family, any child will have lots of parents, some of whom absolutely adore children. If you wanted me to father a child, I would be more than OK with it, and there are other fine men here.

"While you've been lesbian identified at times, it's fair to say that we've found things that are fun for both of us. You might be the most enthusiastically anal woman I've ever met." He grinned. "Given that, it's rather nice that you have a fantastically good looking ass.

"Gayle, it's always struck me that you are a survivor, even when you have been pretty disturbed. You always kept yourself housed and fed.

"When you told me that you stopped teaching because you realized that you are strongly attracted to male teenagers, that also was wise at the time. Now, though, everyone from 14 up is perfectly appropriate. We've thought that you might even be a good person to initiate some.

"When you had your chin repaired, I remember you didn't want breast augmentation, because you said your chest was what was natural to you. It's utterly up to you if you want to do that or not, but, if you think about it, that age group tends to be very boob-aware. That might be a reason for you to think about it. Incidentally, do you have the same interest in young women, since your interest in women came later?"

"Good question, Terry. I don't think so, but I wouldn't rule it out."

"Another thing -- you will have to stay on medication, if the psychiatrists sign off. In space, though, there will be no noncompliance. The nanites will administer the drugs automatically.

"Now, if you do want to join us, everybody has lots of roles. You, along with Karen and Athena, would be what we call, in intelligence, a reports officer. That's the person that assembles the raw reports, does some correlation and organizes them for the specialized analysts. It's extremely important.

"If this sounds interesting, I'd like to have you meet with Rona Fiore, our lead psychiatrist, and perhaps some other people in her team. My gut impression is you'll be fine if you stay on your meds, and be sexually flexible -- in a way I think you'll like." At that point, Karen leaned over and began kissing Gayle.

Dolores said, "Bless you, my children," and moved over to kneel in front of Terry, undo his pants and, meeting Gayle's eyes when they surfaced, luxuriously sucked him. At that point, however, Karen's thigh went insistently between Gayle's, and they both began to grind. Even without being undressed, the two were taking turns having repeated orgasms; they were finding their bodies similar enough to be having a wonderful time, as if they were making love to themselves. The excitement of their sounds soon had Terry exploding into Dolores' mouth. Dolores curled, catlike, against Terry, satisfied as he recovered enough to return the compliment.

The four were eventually sated, and Terry called Rona to see Gayle. Rona welcomed her, and they simply chatted for a time, talking about the clan, until Rona took a formal history. She then sent Gayle for structural MRIs, and scheduled a functional MRI to be done before her next dose of her antipsychotic was due, and a second fMRI after she took the dose and it was at the maximum blood level.

Gayle agreed to meet with Rona and Terry to hear the preliminary results. "Overall," Rona said, "these are encouraging results. Yes, my clinical impression, as well as the structural brain imaging, shows that you, Gayle, do have schizophrenia, with paranoid ideas. Besides the changes associated with schizophrenia, you have no other organic brain problems.

"Right now, you respond well to an old but useful antipsychotic, trifluoperazine. For your anxiety peaks, you take alprazolam, which is a drug that can cause addiction although you don't seem to be dependent. Still, I think we can find safer and more effective drugs for anxiety.

"While I have no intention of taking you off trifluoperazine, there are some exciting new drugs for treating schizophrenia. Trifluoperazine, like most of our older antipsychotics, has an effect on the neurotransmitter, dopamine. We used to think that schizophrenia was a disease of the dopamine system, but we now know it's more complicated than that. An additional neurotransmitter, glutamate, may be involved, and that seems to have a genetic basis. Since your brother, George, also has the disease, that's further evidence that you might have the genetic coding.

"There are several promising trials with riluzole, which is used as an additional antipsychotic drug. It may help anxiety, but the most exciting thing is that it might -- we aren't at all sure -- not just regulate the disease, but may actually reverse it to some extent.

"Gayle, I believe you can be effective here, keeping you on trifluoperazine, but perhaps trying some different agents for anxiety. The latter are fast acting, so we can learn quickly if we should make that change. I'd like to start you on riluzole as well, and hope for a strong response.

"No pill ever cured this disease, but I think it's fair to say that you are going to be surrounded by tolerant, loving, supportive people. From what you and Terry have told me, you have been trying to define your sexual identity, and I think it's fair to say that if you're willing to try some new things, we should be able to carry out your fantasies." She grinned. "I know that Karen is waiting eagerly to see what the two of you can do in a real bed, not just the sofa. Let me suggest, though, that you and several others look at how you might tweak your image in the medtube. The medtube also has some sexual enhancement capability that I think will increase your pleasure in several things.

"If you want to take the enhancements, doing so will not commit you to joining the Confederacy forces. In fact, I would suggest you decide what you'd like, have it done, and perhaps try out your sexuality before making a decision. It's my hope, though, that they will work out very nicely for you. Since I've seen you as a physician, I can't ethically jump your bones, which pisses me off!