Chapter 17: Odds and Ends - and Clara

Alex, Cate and Gail were glad to finally get out of the city. They didn't have any trouble getting out, but they were worried about how close they'd come to getting into some serious trouble before they did. As it was, they were sure that photos tagging Alex would be in every paper in the country tomorrow, along with YouTube videos of his latest miracle and interviews by Susan, who'd claim he'd refused to help her poor helpless daughter. The potential for trouble seemed unlimited.

However, at the moment Alex was simply trying to recover from the exhausting attempt to heal Jennifer's kidney. He'd succeeded, but the strain of doing so under the time constraint he was under wore him out, and he'd only been able to repair a single kidney. He was laid out on the back seat, sweating and weak, while Cate leaned between the seats feeding him. An unidentified woman had handed Cate a little bag of goodies as they'd been making their escape. She hadn't thought much of it at the moment, and by the time she'd realized the woman had given her something she was already gone. It wasn't until they were driving away and she realized she had nothing to feed Alex that she even looked in the bag. It had several muffins, candy, energy bars and bottles of juice. Apparently Alex's followers knew his history well enough to know what he needed after an episode like this, and that encouraged Cate. It always helped when you didn't have to worry about someone all by yourself. Being your brother's protector, lover and science advisor was tough enough. Acting like his mother was the last thing she wanted to do.

Alex, meanwhile, was busy trying to marshal his strength again. He was well aware of the trouble they were in, as well as the threats he now faced, but was too weak to worry about that now. Using this new technique of supplying a constant heavy flow of energy to force someone to regrow dead tissue was exhausting, and he knew he'd have problems every time he did it.

He'd done it before with Rachel, healing both her kidneys at the time, but Alex hadn't been as stressed beforehand and he hadn't had to work so swiftly. That combination of events left him worn out.

It wasn't until they were nearly out of the city before Alex had regained enough strength to cease eating and relax. He let his mind blank for a while, but then started thinking of what he'd left behind. Not just the people, but the responsibilities, the friendships, and the things that needed to be done. He left nine separate women who might end up as the mothers of his children, each without anyone to defend and nurture them. He felt like he'd just swept into their lives and abandoned them as soon as he'd had his way with them.

He knew that wasn't true. They would be protected and helped by the community, and if he had remained he would have brought them unwanted attention. Still, it wasn't easy to shake the self-recriminations he felt. He just didn't feel comfortable leaving someone pregnant after only knowing them for a day.

Then there were all the women hoping to get pregnant who hadn't had a chance to be with him yet, not to mention the multiple Seers he'd activated but hadn't actually spoken to. There were also many, many Watchers that he hadn't met, as the scene on the street had revealed, when they'd appeared out of the woodwork to help him.

When he felt a little better he finally sat up, which relieved Cate. She kissed him, telling him she was glad to see he was back among the living once again. Alex could see they were already near the outskirts of the city, so they started talking about how the streets looked and how busy the traffic was. Simple things they could distract themselves with, but that kept them from focusing on the issues that were bothering each of them.

'Alex? Sorry to disturb you, I know you were pretty upset about what happened while you were leaving the city. This is Lekesia.'

'Hey, Lekesia. I'm always happy to speak with you. What's up?' Alex replied.

'Well, I wanted to give you an update before you left. It turns out that most of us are, in fact, pregnant. Amanda and Becky aren't yet, of course, since it's still too soon to tell. My mother, Noel, didn't take though, probably because it's a little harder to get pregnant when you're older. We're planning on going to Dr. Lampre for an additional sperm deposit. It's not as enjoyable as a direct deposit, but hopefully it'll get the job done. Catlin didn't catch either.'

'Oh, that's too bad. Tell them I'm sorry and I wish I could help out, but... '

'Yeah, we know. You're no longer available. On to the newest recruits. Try to think of us occasionally. We'll be thinking of you a lot. You tend to make a big impact on us impressionable young ladies.'

'Well, each of you certainly made an impression on me as well. And make sure you each take care of yourselves. As important as your babies are to me, each of you is vital to me as well. I'd hate to see something happen to any one of you.'

'Thanks. I appreciate that. But none of us plan on doing anything dangerous in the near future. Anyway, I just wanted to let you know where we all stood before you left. I had to check on the others to be sure I didn't miss any. That's why it took a little while for me to contact you. Have a good time and take care of yourself. We're all looking forward to seeing you again, and we want you to come visit your children. We'll talk to you later with updates on our pregnancies, ' she promised before she ended the conversation.

Alex told the others the news while they continued out of the city and beyond. Surprisingly, they didn't encounter many new followers. It may have been the time of day, since most people were already at work, or it might have just been that the three were too distracted to notice anyone else. Alex was concerned about the possibility, but he was still too worried about the events in New Orleans to focus on it too much.

They only met two women. Both were on the outskirts of the city or farther out. One had heard of the famed 'Angel of New Orleans', but being nonreligious she hadn't given it much thought. The other tried to avoid the obsessive business of the city, thus hadn't heard anything at all about Alex. Cate advised they visit the city to meet the others like them, but Alex doubted the one girl would, since she disliked the city so much. You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make them drive into a city they feel uncomfortable in.

They drove past the Maurepas Swamp, where the highway was elevated above the marshes providing a normally excellent view, but they paid little attention to the scenery. They kept driving until they were well away from Baton Rouge. They turned off at a small exit near Lake Bigeaux. A smaller divided road, South Bayou Road, ran along a small river. They managed to find a small motel that looked spartan, but that they felt was isolated enough it wouldn't have enough people to present much of a problem for Alex. They were each ready for some time away from his followers for now. Alex told Patricia where they'd stopped so she'd be able to join them, but she informed him that the girl who'd been in the traffic accident had complicated things, and they'd had to delay leaving while they helped her make arrangements for the car and speak to the police about it. She thought they'd be leaving soon, but she couldn't make any promises yet.

So they checked into the plain room, unloaded their stuff, and took a walk along the riverfront, finally unwinding from the unsettling activity of the past several days.

Alex took Cate's hand, glancing meaningfully into her eyes, wordlessly thanking her for her assistance, devotion and love these past weeks, as well as asking for her forgiveness for having to ignore her for this long. While it was true he'd made love to them both on Saturday, and they'd fooled around with Becky and Amanda on Sunday, they'd been unable to acknowledge how they'd felt about each other in public, and they each had to pretend they weren't intimate with each other even when they were all in bed the previous night. His look promised that he'd try to make amends today while they waited for Patricia, but everyone was still too wound up to retreat to the hotel room for any hanky-panky. Instead they went looking for a quiet out of the way place to get away from anything that reminded them about what they were hoping to escape for a little while.

Looking back, he saw Gail still silently trailing them, as she'd been doing so much recently, so Alex stopped and motioned her closer.

"We're no longer in the city. We're isolated where we're unlikely to encounter anyone, and no one would think of looking for us here. Besides, there's no one here to object to a young man walking with his sister and his lesbian lover. So consider yourself officially off duty."

They each laughed at that, and Gail gladly took his other hand, joining him and Cate as they each basked in the closeness of the others after having spent the last several days in an emotional holding cell, even as they remained so close together. They meandered along, not bothering to speak as the three of them wandered the riverfront, until they found a nice little spot where they could sit by the river and take in the scenery. They sat down, able to relax for the first time in a while.

They sat in companionable silence, taking in their surroundings, each thinking their own thoughts until Cate broke the silence.

"You know, I've been thinking about what I first surmised after Rakeem attacked you," she said. Apparently she was back into her science mode again, and Alex knew better than to distract her. This was Cate's passion, after all, and she tended to return to it when she relaxed. Cate wasn't the type to find comfort in emptying her mind, but instead reveled in challenging herself, and took great joy in doing it in such a peaceful surroundings where she could do so uninterrupted.

"I told you I thought your primary ability lay in opening portals between dimensions. I also explained that gap in your brain by suggesting the gray matter had essentially been sucked out of your brain. Well, we've long debated how you could manage to do something so drastic to your brain on your very first try, and not do any significant damage.

"I've been reading some about the theory of quantum minds. You know quantum theory, the one that says that an electron can be in several different places at the same time? Well, I no longer think that portion of your brain was removed. Instead I think it was shifted. I think you didn't suffer any damage because your brain is working as a single organized entity, and it doesn't notice any difference. I think your brain is accessing the missing grey matter even while it's in a different dimension."

Alex knew better than to interrupt her. She was on a roll, addressing an issue she'd been thinking about for a while, but had only felt comfortable enough to address once everyone was relaxed enough to give it their full consideration.

"The idea of a quantum mind is clearly a complex one, but I think your brain can exist in a separate location because it's still receiving nutrients from your brain, plus it's surrounded by this life energy of yours that helps maintain it. I think that's also how you're communicating with your girls. I think you created that shared quantum link in their brains. You may each be sharing a common segment of your brain, so the thoughts of one are shared by each. It's a fairly well understood concept in quantum physics, although they've never applied it to a situation quite like this."

Alex and Gail simply sat quietly, contemplating the idea without speaking. There was no pressing need, since they were removed from the stresses of constantly having to address multiple issues at the same time. Finally Alex addressed it, speaking aloud, as if to the passing river.

"That has a certain rationality to it. It would explain a fair amount. It covers the hole in my head, and it explains the telepathy."

"It actually does more than that. It could also explain your relationship to the Watchers as well," Cate suggested. "You seem to communicate with the Seers through the link you've created in their brains, but a quantum entanglement, a merging of matter across a wide physical space, wouldn't require such a specific space. You could actually be sharing a smaller segment of your brain, or your thoughts, with the Watchers without needing that gap to trade information. That might be why you each feel so strongly for each other. You might also be sharing other things besides actual thoughts. You might share emotions, feelings and connections. That might be why you feel so strongly towards them. It's only conjecture at this point, but it explains a lot of what we've been missing so far."

"Do you actually accept all of this?" Alex asked her more than a little skeptically.

"I'm not convinced of it yet," she responded. "Let's just call it a working hypothesis. But it explains a lot of detail we couldn't quite explain before, so even without overwhelming evidence, it's got a lot going for it. But when you add in how the Watchers close to you each felt your orgasms, it shows there's some physical connection between you, which hadn't been established before."

"I'm not sure I quite understand all the implications," Gail said, joining into the discussion, "but it sounds like it parallels Anh's basic theories as well. Essentially this is a mechanism for sharing Alex's ancient spirit. It's like Alex has discovered a way to split his mind between here and Anh's spirit realm, sharing space with the other women as well. They each tap into the common aspects of his spirit, allowing each to connect to each other. I don't think it requires quite so complex an explanation in physics, but I think she'd like to hear this theory."

"I think it's a little more complex than that," Cate said. "His establishing a connection to his previous spiritual world wouldn't account for the energy he receives, so it seems clear he's established a connection somewhere else. But yeah, despite not being up on modern western thinking, Anh's got an inquisitive mind," Cate observed, "and she grasps the ideas I present pretty well. I'm sure she'd appreciate this one, and she'll manage to put her own spin on it."

The conversation halted for a moment as they considered the implications of this newest idea, but Cate soon broke the silence. "There was something else I wanted to discuss, though you may not like it," Cate said. She waited until Alex turned to face her before she continued.

"I've been thinking that these kinds of connections would take a fair amount of energy to produce. I can't imagine they would just open up on their own. What's more, they probably take energy to maintain once they've been created. So far we've been treating your symptoms as if you were suffering from a form of radiation energy. I'd suggested it was stressing your system, but we may be wrong about that as well.

"Now I'm thinking that each person you connect to requires more of your own energy, not the energy that's pouring out of your system. The first couple of people you activated didn't do much to you, but as you continued to add more, you started running low on the energy you need to maintain your body. You're essentially trading your health for the maintenance of these links to your girls."

"Hmm, an interesting idea," Alex said, once again regarding Cate's newest proposal.

"That makes sense as well," Gail added. "It accounts for why his symptoms took so long to show up. If he'd had this since he was young, then you'd think he'd have shown symptoms of being weaker than normal before he ever went to New Orleans."

They each considered this newest twist, quietly contemplating what it might entail. Cate let them alone in their thoughts.

"You know," Gail said, getting into the idea of sharing different thought together, "there's something that's been bothering me as well. We keep talking about the energy your body is accessing hurting you. It seems to me that if we could focus some of that energy on healing you instead, then maybe there'd be less to harm you."

"How so?" Cate asked.

"Well, Alex has been exercising more in order to build up his endurance so he'll be in better shape, which will hopefully improve his health. As a result he's bulked up a fair amount over the last couple of weeks. Well, before we left home that is. But he also hasn't had any major episodes since then."

"Except for that one on the treadmill, or the one at the dialysis unit," Cate reminded her.

"Or the one today," Alex added.

"OK, one that we didn't induce ourselves," Gail corrected herself. "What I'm suggesting is that perhaps by bulking up we can refocus the energy on healing rather than weakening Alex. Besides, if Alex is larger, then there's more body area to either absorb or radiate the energy away."

"It's an idea," Cate said, appearing to consider it. "But I'm not sure the energy works like that. We use the term 'energy' pretty loosely to describe several different things. The energy that Alex is bringing in and giving off is very different than what we use ourselves to process our food and function every day. I'm not sure you can equate one to the other. Plus, the idea is that Alex potentially has too much energy coming into too small of an area for it to be processed properly. My analogy was that it was like having a major power plant located in a few millimeters of your brain. You'd expect it to do a lot of physical damage, even as it provided a lot of energy. I'm not sure bulking up would change any of those things. There may be more tissue surrounding the damage, but the damage would still be occurring internally."

"Besides," Alex added, "how the hell am I going to exercise while traveling cross country?"

"I thought about that," Gail told him. "We're going to be staying in hotels most of the time. I'd like to get you into the gym and the pool each night and really work you over. Hopefully we can at least make you strong enough so you can fend off any trouble for a little longer."

"Well, I'm not sure you can relate one form of energy to the other," Cate reiterated. "It's like trying to use an excess of whale oil to power your iPod. But there's nothing wrong with Alex trying to maintain his body. That would be good for him no matter how you look at it."

"Except for the question of logistics," Alex argued. "Every time I get to a new area, or check into a hotel, we head either to the lobby or the restaurant so I'll be easy to find. If I go from the lobby, to the room, to the gym, to the pool, then to the room again, then finally to the restaurant, there won't be any central location for anyone that's drawn to me to find. Instead we'd end up with a bunch of people wandering around any given hotel looking for me in the several places I've been. They'd be unable to separate the various energy trails from each other."

"I don't buy that," Gail said. "No one has ever mentioned following an energy trail before. Instead we all feel you at your current position, not where you might have been in the past. As long as you stay in one place, anyone looking for you would find you," she explained.

"OK. That's good to know. But even then, it's made even worse if we have to move everyone else around. In Memphis we did well because we left you in the lobby while I was in the room. However, if I'm walking all over the hotel, you're going to feel obligated to follow me, and if I'm burning up a lot of energy, then Cate's going to feel it necessary to follow me around checking up on me. That leaves no one to check for anyone looking for me. We showed at the hospitals in Memphis that it makes sense to spread out so we can watch for those that feel attracted to me, but that are too hesitant to approach me. We can't do that if I'm continually on the move."

"We would have Patricia and her other band mates," Cate offered. Alex simply rolled his eyes.

"They don't have the experience yet. They might be able to lend a hand, but would you want to have one of them guarding me, or taking care of me if I have another crisis? And what happens if they encounter a new follower but don't know how to approach them?"

"OK, I'll concede defeat. It's looking like a largely unworkable solution," Gail told him.

"Not completely unworkable," Alex relented. "We'll just have to be careful how we approach it. If we have the facilities in a given hotel, we'll have to make sure we stay in a central locale. It would be better than traveling all over town. That's why I haven't toured the places we've visited, to be sure that anyone that needs to can find me. I just think we'll have to think about it some more as we get more used to traveling."

"Well, if I can't get you to exercise more, then I'll show you some exercises you can do in the car or the hotel room while you're sitting. That at least will help a little."

The conversation lagged again as they watched the river run past and the clouds float by.

"Thinking about your theory, Cate, the one about my energy being drained by my girls, that is," Alex said after a short pause, "as interesting a theory as that is, I'm not sure I can fully accept it. I'm not saying it doesn't have merit, and it may have some effect, but if it were the case, then I should be really weak now. I've easily doubled the amount of people I've activated in the last week, yet I seem to be fine at the moment. If I was expending that much energy for each person I'd activated, then by now I'd be overwhelmed. It probably has some effect, but I still tend to believe your original idea."

"Still, it accounts for why your symptoms only showed up once you started activating people, and even then no one noticed anything until you'd activated a fair number of people," Gail offered. "We'll need to see how you progress over time. If we're talking about stressors, then it may not show up until you are under a certain amount of bodily stress."

Alex didn't respond as they once again lapsed into silence. It was a relaxing afternoon, and no one felt the need to stress about the ideas they were exchanging. This was a chance to think about those things they hadn't had time to consider yet. There was no need to rush to a decision on any of them.

"So I'm sure you're glad to be away from that whole 'meet the newest batch of women you're supposed to impregnate today' scene," Cate said, changing the subject and finally tackling the topic she knew had been bothering her brother, now that she'd cleared her mind of her newest scientific theories. She knew her new ideas would take time to sink in, and she was satisfied that Alex had simply listened to them with an open mind.

"You'd better believe it. I think next time I'll ask Patricia to simply snip off the ends of my rubbers rather than build up each of these women's expectations about motherhood so much."

"Ha, when have you ever used rubbers, Alex?" Gail asked with a laugh.

"Hey, I use them occasionally," he protested, even though he knew it wasn't very frequently. Actually, it was ironic that she'd bring the subject up, since he'd used them with her most of the time. But Alex knew she had a point when she made one.

"I could see how uncomfortable you were with getting so many people you hardly knew pregnant," Cate said. "I wanted to come in and hold you to help get you through it, but I was afraid revealing our relationship with each other would only complicate things. The last thing you need to tell a new mother is that the father of her baby is in an incestuous relationship with his sister."

"Yeah, it really bugged me. I wasn't sure I could get through that first night without some major embarrassments," he observed.

"I'm not sure I could do it myself," Gail observed, "for more than just the obvious reasons. I've had enough trouble just getting beyond the 'I love you' statement from a lot of girls, but to jump from that to impregnating them is a whole different order of magnitude."

"Funny you should bring that up," Alex commented, "since you're planning on having a baby with Melissa."

"Yeah, though I suspect you'd feel more comfortable knocking me up than you were those girls that first night," she responded. "The look you gave Lekesia was priceless. I thought I was going to lose it, but I knew you'd never forgive me if I did."

"So how are you feeling, Alex?" Cate asked. "Have you recovered from this morning, or do you think you could use a quick massage?"

"Hey, I'm not about to refuse a massage from my second in command and my favorite girl," he replied.

"Well, I've got no problems climbing on top of my brother and working him over, although I'm not sure what to do with all these clothes in the way," she teased as she started to work on him. "You're doing better, but you're still pretty tense."

"It was a stressful week," he reminded her.

"I can think of something else that will relax him," Gail suggested with a friendly leer.

"We'll get to that in a minute," Cate informed her. "This is called 'build up'. As careful as Alex is to take everything slow with everyone else, no one ever does a lot for him in return. I think he deserves a little care and attention."

"Even if I fall asleep as a result?" Alex asked, as he relaxed, resting his face on the grass, listening to the quiet murmur of the river.

"We might forgive you if you fall asleep, but don't worry, we'll wake you long enough to do us each a couple of times before putting you to bed again," she told him.

"I'll do that if—" he started to say before he was interrupted.

'Alex? This is Rose. I hate to disturb you, but I've got some unsettling news I figured you'd want to hear.'

Alex quickly sat up, surprising Cate and Gail, but Cate could tell by his studious expression that he was talking to someone, so she continued to work on his shoulders, which had just gotten much tighter.

'What is it?' he asked.

'It's Clara. I know you told her to stay away from the media, but it seems she made a phone call which has everyone upset. You'd better find a TV somewhere and turn on Fox news. They're running the recording pretty frequently now, so you can't miss it. As you can guess, it's a doozie, but I don't want to tell you how to interpret it, so I think it's better if you see it for yourself.'

'Thanks for alerting me. It'll take us a few minutes to get back to the room. Is it anything I need to address right away?'

'I don't know, ' Rose responded. 'It depends on how you want to react to it. That's why I didn't suggest anything. I think it will be better if you have some time to think about it first.'

'Well, thanks again. I'll let you know what I decide to do about it. I'll have to talk to Clara again I suppose.'

Alex stood up and helped the others to their feet. They still held hands on the way back to the motel, but it wasn't quite as lighthearted and romantic as the walk to the riverfront had been. Alex filled them in on what was happening on the way.

It took about fifteen minutes to walk back to the hotel. Gail left them alone, heading across the small community to a nearby market to pick up something for dinner. None of them felt like eating out where they might encounter anyone. Cate watched nervously as Alex turned on the television in the room and started flipping through the various channels. Frustrated, Cate grabbed the TV guide the motel offered and took the remote from him, quickly locating the Fox network.

They had to listen for a while, since there was an ongoing program on Fox. In the meantime, Alex took back the remote and started flipping between the main broadcast stations again until he found what he was looking for.

" ... news. Apparently God doesn't want anyone to listen to Fox news. At least that's what his angel in New Orleans has been telling people. More on that in a moment."

Alex groaned, but quickly changed the channel back to Fox, knowing how long it was between the typical teaser and the actual story. It wasn't long until the story surfaced on Fox again.

"The Angel of New Orleans, a young man trying to get young women to follow him by claiming he's a 'subangel' led by God, has announced that God doesn't want anyone to watch Fox news. Not only that, but like all good liberals, he wants them to go to the liberal bastion universities to think like liberal socialists. But you'll see more in the following telephone exchange recorded earlier on a regional call in news program.

A voice Alex instantly recognized came on while the television showed what was being said.