Chapter 487: Betrayals and True Friends

I went back to sleep. The girl was back in bed with me when I woke up, though freshly showered and with a bulging belly. She had on a soft sleepshirt but was now without panties. The girl rolled over, pushed her back against my side, pulled my hand down between her legs to cup her fuzzy mound, and went back to sleep. I did too.

“No, don’t do it slowly. Pull it out quickly. David won’t feel it much if you do it fast,” I heard someone saying.

A small hand held my dick, and the other pulled the catheter out quickly.

Well, that is one plus for the shield. I didn’t have to feel that feeling again.

I felt sheets get tucked in under my legs up to my hips. They folded the top under my dick so that I could get a boner and it would stay covered.

“Now you can get in his lap and sleep on his chest like you’ve tried to do since he stabilized,” someone said. “Not sure how a four-year-old knows more about medicine than us, but April told us he was out of the woods yesterday, and we didn’t believe her. As long as you eat and drink regularly, you can stay with him.”

I’m not weak anymore, which is interesting. Was that a ploy for the people talking about killing this girl?

Someone raised the head of my bed, and the girl moved to straddle me. I felt her squirm around, then move down to my knees. She pulled the sheet down off my dick, and then I felt her cool fingers reach down to touch it. The girl aimed my dick toward my knees. I felt the sheet folded over the top of it before she moved back to straddle me. Her fuzzy mound brushed my stomach as she moved around to get comfortable. Once she found her happy spot, she lay on my chest and slept.

I moved both arms around her to hold her to me.

Both of my IVs are gone now.

Someone came into the room loudly talking.

“Ssh. The girl is sleeping,” I said as I turned my head and opened my eyes to look at whoever entered the room.

The person went pale as they backed out of the room.

I soon had two nurses and a doctor rush into the room.

“David, you gave us a scare,” the doctor said softly, not to wake the girl I was holding. “April and Ellen told us you were invincible, but like we would believe that claim from two children. From what we found, that may not be that far from the truth. You fell asleep in a tub holding a friend of yours. Someone injected ten times the lethal dose of box jellyfish venom into you. From what the scared girl said, you started convulsing. It was so strong it splashed most of the water from the tub. When we got there, your temperature was one-hundred-seven point seven degrees. We filled that large tub with ice to cool you down, but it melted as fast as they could get it to you. April told us to bring you here to put cold water inside you. We didn’t know what she meant. She left and came back with boy and girl twins. They explained that April didn’t know what to call an IV, only how it put water into your body. We had four IVs dumping in ice-cold Ringer’s Lactate as fast as your body would take it, which was exceptionally slow since your heart rate dropped to twenty beats a minute and your respiration was nearly indetectable. April said you didn’t need to be on a ventilator, but we intubated you anyway. Your little friend kept getting in the way as she tried to get where she could hold you. We don’t know how someone got box jellyfish venom in that amount or concentration. Still, I admit it was diabolical, given the number of jellyfish we pulled off after you rescued your daughter from the jellyfish. We identified that someone injected you with it versus a delayed reaction to your earlier stings. We gave you the antivenin, but it didn’t have any effect. Your temperature dropped to one-hundred-two. We got an urgent alert that, while odd, this wasn’t off for you and not to question it. It was only your core temperature, but your head and brain remained below one hundred degrees. It is the damnedest thing. They said to ask April if you were ok because you two have a deep bond. She would know if you were in trouble.”

“I don’t know about the convulsions, but given my martial arts training, I wouldn’t be surprised if I didn’t put myself into a meditative state. That is a likely reason for my slowed metabolism. Decrease how fast the toxin gets through my body. I heard I didn’t let the girl go and kept trying to keep her safe, so I must have been conscious on some level,” I told him.

He said, “That is what was also in the urgent message. We were not to do anything to take someone away if we were protecting them, even if you showed little brain activity. I do have to ask that you keep a close eye on Ellen. She had a look in her eyes that I’ve seen many times in cold-blooded, soulless, heartless killers. She appeared to enjoy removing that man’s scrotum, circumcising him, and then getting creative with his face. I do have to agree with her sentiment. That man is a big dick. I heard through the grapevine that he went to the big man upstairs. The decision was that Ellen wanted that man to live with a daily reminder and decided not to have the man killed. The man returned to his family, disgraced.”

“Ellen is more robust than people think, especially those in what used to be her Elite family before I adopted her. Long story and not mine to tell,” I explained. “I, her Aunt Ava, and April are all ensuring Ellen doesn’t cross that line. I remember hearing Ava saying Ellen had it ten times worse than anyone in her family. That says a lot. I don’t have my IVs anymore, so does that mean I am about to get out of here?”

He joked, “If you can stand up and walk out of here with that girl in your arms, then you are free to go on your way with a clean bill of health.”

“Ok,” I told him as I got a hand under the girl’s butt, stood up, and started to walk toward the door. “Can I maybe get some pants first?”

“I’m starting to think your girls saying you were invincible is getting closer to the truth by the minute. Fifty-three hours ago, you were on death’s door, according to your stats. Now you are walking out of here as if nothing happened,” he explained as a nurse helped me step into some hospital PJ bottoms. “Ellen was bitching up a storm about your jellyfish tracks disappearing sometime yesterday. She still has hers.”

April popped in with Ellen and said, “Told you, doctor. Daddy was okay the whole time. He only needed cold water put in him.”

The infirmary is on the opposite end of the complex from my suites. Ellen and April walked beside me as I carried the girl in my arms. I was pretty sure who it was, but I didn’t want to know until I returned to my suite to put her to bed. I got a lot of very odd stares and some showing relief. When we finally got to my room, I had a big surprise. Crimilda and Becky were waiting for me with Camden, Skylar, Corwin, and Mary.

I was sure this was Crimilda I was carrying. Who the hell is it?

The girl was older than I thought. I guessed she was closer to fourteen or fifteen. She had fading bruises on her face, arm, and legs. I saw she had scabbed over areas on her hands and feet and was missing two fingernails. Still, her face looked familiar. What I couldn’t ignore was that the girl was way underweight. It explained why I felt her stomach pushing out when she returned to bed with me after eating something.

“Anyone know who she is,” I asked those here.

Becky replied, “She won’t tell any of us, but she said you saved her life twice. Given you being you, David, that didn’t help any. I can’t remember where I saw her once before, but her eyes are familiar. When she wakes up, we can find out. The girl looks like she has been through hell.”

I tucked the girl into my bed and talked with the women. April said she would watch cartoons in my room if the girl woke up. Ellen went to one of the smash rooms to work out some anger issues. She needed to get in line because it had become popular in the last twenty-four hours.

“We need to talk in private, but I promised I would let your other baby carriers make sure you were ok first,” Becky said.

“You had many visitors, but I heard you heard at least three of them talking,” Skylar told me. “One is not for us to discuss, but we can tell you about the other two. The man that Ellen emasculated is the head of what remains of an elite family. The rest of his family killed each other, fighting for their spot at the top. He was one of those sent to do the family’s dirty work but was not considered capable of doing wet work without screwing it up. Evidently, they hoped he would get himself killed at some point because none of his family still lives has a clue about their family businesses. All anyone got out of him was that grabbing or killing that girl would fix all his problems. He believed that killing you would be a big payday, but he now knows that reality is the opposite. They had once been one of the top ten elite families, but now they can’t make money selling Marijuana in Washington, California, or Colorado. His family owns most of the land used to grow marijuana crops in those states. The growers have all the expenses and must pay the man’s family the best fifty percent of each harvest, prepackaged and ready for sale. He didn’t like to pay licensed pot sellers one percent to sell his pot and decided to have his family sell it out of state or to street dealers. Their ineptitude and smoking up their product caused them to lose all their property for not paying property taxes. We have a head-of-families meeting right now, but they are waiting because we wanted to be sure you are ok first. He is at the top of the list to explain why we shouldn’t exterminate what remains of his family instead of just banishing them forever.”

Mary said, “We do need to discuss some information you learned before someone tried, and failed, to kill you, but it is a small matter I can clear up at a better time.”

“The other woman you heard speaking in your infirmary room is Tia and Tara’s mother. She believes you slighted her by letting her daughters choose you as their first lover back when you were fourteen,” Corwin told me. “Both women have confirmed that you are the only one who has been able to get them pregnant with children they carry to term. Their mother tried twice now to kill you. She is responsible for having those jellyfish released ten feet from Ellen because she knew you would rush to get Ellen. We found she planned to kill April, but her hired hands were smart enough not to incur Elena’s or her father’s wrath for hurting their twins. When her first try failed, she sent someone into the bathroom where you were trying to comfort Crimilda and injected you with the toxin. Whoever this mystery girl is in your bedroom, Tia and Tara’s mother felt the girl would redeem her in her peer’s eyes if she killed the girl. As their guest, Tia and Tara’s husbands’ families must now answer for the woman’s crimes. Tia’s and Tara’s mother still await her meeting with the big man upstairs in his waiting room.”

Interesting. I wonder if Tia and Tara’s father knew his wife fucked up this badly?

I told the woman, “I’m fine. Head down to be the heads of all families. What those people did to me was business-as-usual for the elite families. I don’t want to know their fate as a result. For some reason, I protected the girl in my room even when I was on the brink of death. I need to be here when she awakens.”

To Becky, Mary said, “You have fifteen minutes to conclude your private discussion with David and be at your spot around the table.”

Becky thanked her and pulled me into one of the sound-proofed offices in my suite.

She hugged me and cried. She had to get things out. Being late to the head of the family’s meeting wasn’t acceptable.

“David, we can go into a lot more detail later, but my grandmother has been fucking over my family since long before I was born,” she told me. “I learned a lot in the last forty-eight hours. We need to talk in-depth about it later. The older family members said it was not something for me to address. They are taking matters into their own hands. I might need some help with the kids until I can find some good nannies. I don’t expect my grandmother to be returning home. She knew all along about Crimilda because she was the one that had my mom’s eggs and dad’s sperm frozen. She provided them to that bitch that birthed Crimilda, and grandmother allowed those horrid things to happen to my sister. I am better than just killing that old conniving lying bitch. Don’t worry about her giving up anything about you, though. Someone told me that the Triplets ensured that grandmother forgot anything that would hurt you, your family, my girls, friends, or me. That included the tunnels and other hidden tidbits she failed to tell me about. I was told that you would be able to access everything they learned and removed after we got home. Grandmother has conveniently also forgotten all the details of where she and I lived. Someone has scrubbed my home clean of my grandmother having lived there. She now has a little house in the middle of no-fucking-where Nebraska. All records of her ever living in our town are gone, thanks to one of your well-connected friends. As far as anyone can find, she has lived in Nebraska all along. I am so sorry about everything.”

I hugged her and told her to get a move on so she wasn’t late.

I ordered food for April and me. The smell of food brought out the mystery girl. She first asked to eat before explaining things.

When she finished and used the bathroom, she said, “David, I had no right to come to you, ever, much less here of all places. You are the last person I should come to for help in the world, and I expect you to send me away. I don’t have anyone else. You once saved my life when I was a spoiled, ungrateful, prissy, arrogant little bitch. I wanted you dead, yet by all rights, I was yours to do with as you chose, and you refused. I saw it in your eyes when you went into that room in the restaurant to do what those people expected from you. My parents did pay to have each other and me killed. I know you didn’t mean for it to happen, but you saved my life that day when you came to ask if you could visit me when you came to U.S. Samoa. People went to my school and said they were there to pick me up because of an emergency with my parents. My parents embarrassed the United States, so my dad was already officially out of a job. He called in some favors to stay in the embassy until I finished the year at school. Someone went to ask my dad if he knew you and if they could let you know we still lived there. Both were already dead inside the U.S. Embassy, and no one saw or heard a thing. They sent Marines to get me. It was enough of a distraction for me to escape. Everyone thought I was dead, and I tried to keep it that way.”

She came to me to hold her again as she cried.

Over the next few hours, I learned that she spent years living on the streets in Samoa. Speaking English and knowing the area let her make some money off tourists to buy food and clothes. At first, she blamed me for all of her problems. One day, a little kid found her crying and asked what was wrong. As crazy as it sounded to her at the time, the six-year-olds wisdom made her stop to think. She was only alive because of me, and I wanted nothing in exchange for saving her life. Me punishing her that night in the restaurant immediately affected her attitude. Some took a few years to become clear to her. That following day, when I woke to her sucking my dick, she did what she believed was the only way she knew how to thank me. To her, it was the most disgusting thing in the world and something she would rather die than ever do. It wasn’t her only saying that, either. She would take the bullet if given the choice of a bullet to the head or sucking a dick.

She managed to slip onto a boat with American tourists to get out of Samoa. Marlene found a girl that looked close enough to her that she could use that girl’s passport. When the cruise got to Sydney, she slid through customs before the girl whose passport she had stolen found it missing. Cameras at the port couldn’t tell her from the girl. That passport wouldn’t work again, but now she was at least out of Samoa. Over a year, she worked out a system that let her get enough money to eat, buy some clothes, and save some.

Marlene knew all about getting friends into the embassy in Samoa. She also knew how being an American kid in a foreign country felt. It didn’t take much to befriend a girl whose parents worked at the embassy. Slowly she managed to get invited to visit the girl inside the embassy. That turned into a few sleepovers. Before long, she could walk into the embassy to see her friend without anyone questioning it. She was twelve but looked younger due to not having enough to eat for her body to start puberty. All the fat she had when I met her was long gone. Visiting her friend resulted in the girl’s parents insisting they feed Marlene because she was too skinny, even if her friend wasn’t there at the time. Her first plan was to get caught naked with her friend’s dad to blackmail him into getting her a valid passport.

One day, Marlene had the perfect opportunity. Her friend and mother were out, but Marlene spent the weekend with the family. It was only her and her friend’s dad. He was in the shower, so she stripped to get in with him, knowing she could get a video of it all. She thought about me when she was about to get in the shower with her friend’s dad. Marlene waited, still naked, on the counter in the master bathroom for her friend’s dad to get out of the shower. She told him how she planned to use him to get a passport. Not all the reasons why, but enough that he understood. He was a decent guy and managed to get Marlene a black-ops-style passport.

Marlene got a ticket out of Australia on a ship headed to Hawaii.

It was a lot easier to get money from tourists there. She was doing honest work. Marlene had meticulously used what she was taught as a child to keep off the radar if she ever had to hide from kidnappers. One day she was hanging out with some middle school kids from the naval base in Pearl Harbor. Marlene met them while giving a tour of the memorial. She knew her black-ops passport let her get on the base to use the PX and Commissary.