Chapter 12

We went into our bedroom and removed our clothes. Walking out, we went to the hot tub and removed the cover and eased in. It felt good as we stayed in to our necks and held each other.

We had the hot tub and a pool but found we didn't use them often enough. We had a service that came out on Mondays and Thursdays to service them year round. We had decided that they weren't the best options for our home. Like our basement exercise room, we had good intentions but poor follow through. We did enjoy walking in our forest, both on the paths and on the trails we had tramped out. We had overall made a good decision on the house. Time and love made it into our home. We were looking forward to the summer though we would be filling in for Jack and for Melody and Mitch. We also were looking forward to having Karen and John stay with us for a time while Jack and Emily were on vacation.

It's late spring and Lisa is starting to show. The doctor has confirmed the pregnancy though couldn't quite yet confirm sex. Lisa told him she didn't care about that because we knew it was a girl. Paul and Linda have met their granddaughter!

They were having lunch at our place one Sunday and we were all sitting outside enjoying the sun when a small voice in our minds said, "Grandfather, Grandmother, you seem relaxed today." Paul and Linda had shocked, happy looks on their faces.

Paul said, "Laura, is that you?"

"Grandfather, how many grandchildren do you have?"

"None that are born yet."

"So what?"

He said, "I can see you're going to be as easy to raise as your mother!"

"Oh, no! I'll be easy. I'll be grown as soon as I'm born."

Linda laughed. Paul said, "That's when Lisa became difficult, when she grew up."

Lisa sat on my lap with her back to me and lying back wearing a pair of short shorts. Her parents were on either side of me with their hands on Lisa's bare tummy. I was cupping my wife's breasts through her tee shirt ostensibly to help her stay in position while we were having this conversation with our unborn daughter.

I said gently, "What is Doc Fincher going to say if Laura pops out talking?"

Lisa said, "We'll cross that bridge when we get to it."

"I'm going to have a talk with our friends, Frankie, and Laura to determine a course of action that makes sense. You two will be involved in that talk. I want the birth to go well and at least seem normal. I don't want to give Doc Fincher or any nurses heart attacks nor draw undue and perhaps unwelcome attention to Laura's birth. Al and I have had our 'fifteen minutes' of fame and we don't want to create another.

"Have you considered what might happen if the government took an interest in our friends and our relationships to them?"

Paul said, "Actually, Milt and I talked about that shortly after he received a friend. He and I aren't alarmists but it is something that we fear. The government would want to determine if our friends could be used in some way. If nothing else, there would be an attempt to control them or us. Even in our small town, we are not a big enough group to be going public. Also, this would be difficult to keep from going 'viral' because it will appeal to people and those who don't have an alien partner will want one whether that's a good idea or not for them."

I added, "We have always told people to keep a lid on it. Sooner or later, the word will leak out but I would like for it to be as far into the future as possible. If our companies weren't growing so quickly, we would have more issues on the governmental interference in healthcare. I have to be concerned with having government involved in my life. The NSA issues in the news don't leave me with a warm fuzzy either.

"What's worse, I can think of some terrible uses to which our friends could be put. I'm very slow in spreading knowledge of our friends. They bring some awesome possibilities to human beings. I am concerned about those things. I can just imagine what some crazed government agency would want to do with the possibility of Laura. Then think about the women's rights groups being faced with the possibility of a baby being sentient from conception. There are more problems than our small group can handle. I will not have my wife or my daughter become a test subject." Lisa patted my hand realizing that I was agitated.

We left the subject and talked to Laura until time for Paul and Linda to go home and for us to go to bed. Our lovemaking was slow and gentle that night. That way was where our minds and hearts were located right now. That meant that Lisa had repeated orgasms as we slowly built me to a big one.

We had talked about what to do with our partners and many of our friends and their partners. Our partners seemed to understand while other people's partners didn't seem to get it. Finally, I suggested to one couple that they go public like they were suggesting we do. I think the wife was willing! Doc Baker had given them a partner and their relationship had improved but I wasn't sure that they were sensible. In taking with Baker, he admitted that, if he could do it ever again with them, he wouldn't. He said that they were involved in a swinging lifestyle that had gotten out of hand mostly on the part of the wife. I had to admit to myself that she was a pretty young woman though couldn't compare to Lisa. I had noticed that she stood closer to me than necessary when talking to me and then later noticed she did it with every male.

Doc said that he thought they might consider it seriously. They still came in every two weeks because their insurance would pay for it. He said that he would talk to them about the possibility.

He did talk to them and they were willing to take the risk. The three of them built a cover story that the couple were the only ones with an alien partner. Two weeks later, they met and gave Doc the approval to contact the authorities. It would use the same contacts that had sent me to him. He did.

The government quietly but quickly swooped in and took them into "protective" custody for their protection from unknown parties. I wasn't comfortable with that but it was what we expected. The husband reappeared three months later without his friend or their partner.

This is his story as told through Doc.

My name is James Battle and I almost married Janine Walker. We have been together for two years. My age is twenty-seven and hers is twenty-six. It would have been the second marriage for us both. Both of us married the wrong person and divorced without rancor or children. We met when using the same lawyer. When our decrees were finalized, we went out for a lunch to celebrate the ends of our marriages. As we talked, we realized that we were kindred spirits to a great extent. Janine took me to her apartment and to bed. We both enjoyed the experience and found in the other a sexual partner who seemed to have no limits.

We went out a few times when Janine asked if I would go with her to a group meeting. She admitted that she had been involved in swinging and enjoyed it. I knew I was getting more sex from a willing, uninhibited partner. I agreed to go admitting that I had never done anything like that. Janine explained that we had to leave jealousy and any ideas of guilt at home because both of us would be having sex with others, together and separately.

That was true. Janine was popular with men and women because she would do anything sexual with anybody, male or female. I was "fresh meat" and therefore in demand. We left for her apartment where I was staying most nights totally worn out. Both of us had as many partners as we could handle that night.