The van didn’t return Sunday, either, and they weren’t sure if it was because they’d given up or because the skies had opened up with yet another winter downpour. Either way, they were happy for the breather. Shane came by with blinds for Kayla per the measurements that Steve provided him, and they worked together to quickly install them while Kayla watched out the front window. The shield they provided made Steve feel much better about not just their safety but his confinement. He got his freedom of movement back, and while he really needed a day outdoors, he actually kind of loved it here. So the fact that he could now move about freely at any given moment made a world of difference. Shane also installed a new lock and deadbolt for the loft door. One key a piece went to Steve and Kayla, and one got buried in a small box in the ground in the bushes in case they were locked out or there was an emergency. Before he left he briefed them on his progress, which wasn’t moving fast enough for them.
Kayla’s period started on Sunday, which truth be told, relieved both of them far more than either wanted to admit. She could rationalize it all she wanted, but the fact was that the unprotected sex they were having was risky. They both knew it, but they weren’t interested in blaming each other, because their sexual expression was critical for them in these past three days. Now that the threat of pregnancy was over they would be taking precautions for the next two weeks until the pill became effective so that they didn’t end up in more pain and grief.
Monday was awful for both Kayla out of the house and Steve in it. It started out well with a big breakfast made by Steve, but once everyone’s bellies were full it really went pretty much downhill from there.
Kayla had cramps, she still felt unstable with her expected hospital routine, and she was dreading having to see Sam. When she arrived to an empty office she was knew immediately something was off. Moments later Raj and Stacy entered with Sam bringing up the rear. Raj seemed to be trying to communicate something to her with his face, but Stacy was smug.
“Dr. Johnson,” Sam said neutrally, “good morning.”
“Good morning, Dr. Granger,” she said cautiously. “Raj, Stacy,” she added.
“Everything ok?”
“Yes,” she said, trying to smile congenially while she tried to figure out what she must have missed, because clearly she did, indeed, miss something.
“Did you forget about our staff meeting?”
Kayla slowly closed her eyes and mentally kicked herself. “Ah … yeah. I did. I’m so sorry. I think the, ah, sick day threw me.”
Sam sat up slightly straighter. “Wait, again?” Kayla pursed her lips non-committally. “Which one of you?”
“Um …”
“What you’re not sure?” Stacy’s bite was so conspicuous paired with Sam’s good nature. He was ignoring the junior doctor, because to give girls like her a reaction was to validate them. She was a very good physician, and she was admittedly very nice to look at, but that’s as far as his attention went with her.
“You should have told me, I would have had your shift covered for you on Saturday.”
“Um … ya know, its just been a long couple of days,” she tried to laugh it off.
“Yeah, we’ve all had them,” Raj said, trying to cover fo her.
“Dr. Kumar, I think you’re all paid up on the favors now,” Sam said with a tone that straddled amusement and meaning business. “This goes for all of you, no more finishing each other’s charts. I’m dead serious here, got it?”
“Yes, doctor,” Raj said.
“Absolutrely,” Kayla agreed.
“Don’t look at me,” Stacy muttered, “I never do anyone’s charts for them.”
“Yes, which is why no one does them for you,” Sam volleyed. Kayla couldn’t help but smile at his unstated support, even amidst the slap on the hand. She would have slapped her hand, too, she remembered doing Raj’s charts for him, she was lucky the Chief of Staff didn’t catch her.
Their patient collaboration meeting didn’t go particularly well, as Stacy did not appreciate Kayla interjecting on Melissa Matteo’s care before she was done briefing the group. The chemo had been very rough on this patient, and she wanted to ease the side effects.
“That’s the wrong steroid for her, it’s going to make her swell more than she already has,” Stacy argued.
“Every steroid will result in bloat, so I’d vote in favor of softening the blow of the 24/7 nausea.”
“It’s not your call, Kayla,” Stacy insisted hautily.
“No, it’s mine, and I’ll remind you, Doctor, that you might want to think about capitalizing on Dr. Johnson’s experience.”
Kayla wasn’t sure if Stacy was more wounded or pissed, but she she closed her mouth, uncrossed and recrossed her leg, and made a notation in her notes as Sam did the same in the patient’s chart.
The last chart was the extremely sick young boy that was Scott Riley. Sam skimmed the chart as he questioned Kayla about her patient but then abruptly stopped speaking. He flipped a page, then another before going back to the original, squinting at the words.
“Doctors, go ahead and get headstart upstairs.” Kayla uncrossed her legs and stood up. “Not you, Kayla.” She stopped halfway up out of her chair and sat back down while her colleagues looked confused. “We’ll be right behind you two.” This was very unusual. Even all these years later Kayla knew something wasn’t right in Sam’s tone. She instinctively looked to Raj, but he shrugged with obvious concern and could only head for the door. Stacy, however, remained where she was standing and appeared to be debating whether or not to put voice to the words dying to come out of her mouth. “Do you need clarification, Stacy?”
“Actually, yes, because if this is a personal conversation—”
“Then that would make it not a public one,” Raj interjected while physically turning her shoulders toward the door and ushering her out.
“Do you mind?!” Stacy protested.
“Not at all, people have personal conversations every day. We’re just leaving as instructed now, Dr. Granger.” Then he somehow managed to close the coor behind them. Now Kayla was alone with Sam, whose face was completely unreadable.
“Is, ah … something wrong?”
“Phlebotomy?” Kayla reached for what he could be talking about.
“On Scott Riley?”
“Yes, on Scott Riley. I told you to do it, why did you call them down?” Kayla didn’t have a clue on this one. It was a conversation he’d had with the doctor that belonged here.
“I … forgot. I – definitely dropped the ball, I—”
“Ya think? How many sticks did that poor boy have to deal with?”
It was alot, and now this was starting to fall into place. Sam had always called her the best stick in the hospital, and there were a great many patients he’d forgone phlebotomy on for her to do the blood draws even after she’d moved on to other rotations.
“Too many, you’re right. I’m so sorry, Dr. Granger.”
“Dr. Granger? It’s just you and me here, Kayla, are you trying to tell me something?”
“N—No.”
“Then what’s with all the formality?” Then he softened to a bit of a whisper, his voice no longer that of a supervisor. “Kayla, did I do something wrong? Are you mad at me?”
Kayla swallowed. The way his tone turned on a dime was a huge red flag to her on where his head was on their relationship. For him, it wasn’t just a working one. “What do I have to be mad at, I’m the one who screwed this up.”
He let out a breath. “Then what’s going on with you?”
Kayla scratched her head and narrowed her eyes as she tried to reach for some excuse. “Ya know, I’m still feeling a bit off,” she said. “I’m really sorry.”
Sam seemed to accept that. “Ok,” he shrugged. “Let’s just … forget it. Lunch?” Kayla nodded. Then he got up to go.
“Wait, Sam? I wanted to talk to you about one of Stacy’s cases, Melissa Matteo.”
“You disagree with the course of treatment?”
Kayla paused. “Not … entirely …”
“Ok, save it for rounds. It’s bad enough she thought you were getting the personal advantage with me. If she thinks we were consulting on her patient she’ll really make a stink.” Kayla grudgingly accepted this and headed for the door. “Of course, she’s right about that personal advantage,” he smiled. Kayla did nothing to encourage this any further and simply smiled back as mildly as she could. If Steve had known that his hand was on her hip as he ushered her out the door he’d have blown a gasket.
Stephanie was having a pretty awful day, herself. Usually she was the shine of the sun. Not today. She had always gotten along very well with pretty much everyone. At age ten, most of her classmates were still kids in body and spirit, but Amber Clarke was more advanced. She had an older sister, the only one in that house that really gave her much attention at all, and the only thing life was about for her was trends, boys, popularity, and money. Amber followed that only lead she was being shown, and it was a completely different kind of lead than Stephanie had a shred in common with. Amber was already doing her level best to wrap boys around her little finger like her sister did, but Stephanie just wanted to talk about cars and play sports. It made her a lot more fun to be around and a lot better able to forge friendships than Amber was. They didn’t see eye to eye on everything, but Stephanie had real friends who were boys. On this particular day she taunted Stephanie about “that piece of junk your mom dropped you off in,” the brown bag she used for her lunch, and the butterflies in her hair, calling her “Sabrina, the teenage mechanic.”
“I think you’re the witch, Amber,” Stephanie volleyed in music class.
“I didn’t call you a witch, I called you a mechanic. Sabrina.”
“What’s wrong with Sabrina?”
“Oh nothing. If you’re a baby. I guess you’re a baby, you don’t even know that only babies watch that show.”
“Hey, I watch that show,” her friend, Amanda, said quietly from beside her, to which Amber elbowed her in the ribs but nothing more.
“You know what you are, Sabrina? Poor.” Stephanie had no idea what to do with that. Poor? As in no money? She didn’t feel poor. She wrinkled her nose and got a genuinely confused look in her eye.
“I live in a house!” Stephanie reasoned. The laughter coming out of Amber, however, made her blood boil.
“I’ll bet your house is as cheap as those brown lunch bags.”
“Huh?!”
“Nevermind. Have fun with your carbonator and swizzle stick, Sabrina!”
This she understood and took her turn to laugh. “It’s a carborator and dipstick, dipshit!”
“Oh, the baby Sabrina can swear and cry to her mommy on the same day. Go ahead and cry to Mommy, Sabrina, go ahead, and keep playing with your car, teenage mechanic!”
“I can’t help it if my daddy loves me more than yours does!”
That stopped the girl short. “Your daddy’s dead.” Then like the coward she was, Amber ran off in another direction before Stephanie had a chance to hit her.
Stephanie did want to cry. She fought it with every ounce of will she had and won, but it was close. She wasn’t sure she’d ever been that upset in her whole life. Because her daddy wasn’t dead. She sat at her desk in her classroom pod of four the rest of the day sulking.
“Are you really poor?” Reed Kim was a very quiet boy with very dark hair that usually kept to himself. He was alphabetically right behind Stephanie, which is why they were seated in the same pod.
“No!” Stephanie was not in the mood, and usually Reed was nice, so this only made her more upset.
“Oh. ‘Cause she called me poor last week, too.” Stephanie looked up at the boy whom she’d just swapped spelling tests with. “Do you think it’s ‘cause my dad died, too?”
“Your dad died?”
“Yeah. He was in the marines. I never met him, I was a baby.”
“I … I was, too.
“I think that’s why she calls us poor. That and the food stamps.” Stephanie wasn’t sure what that was, but her mother’s explanation from a couple weeks ago came back to her.
“She’s just jealous of us,” Stephanie whispered. “Because her daddy is alive and doesn’t pay any attention to her. So she has to be mean to make herself not be sad.”
“That’s lame. I’d rather be poor.”
“Me, too.” But the truth was that her blood wasn’t done boiling on this and remained moody the entire rest of the day.
Steve fared as well as his girls did. He felt tied down and really hated relinquishing control of his fate to Shane while he sat there waiting for freedom. He was never good at helplessness, and it was a particularly bad look on him today. He was too restless to watch TV, his brief workout didn’t help, and what he really wanted to do was go outside. After a while he couldn’t take the pacing inside the house and took a chance in the back yard picking more flowers off of Kayla’s bushes. Enough to fill every room, he brought them inside and enjoyed the mild fragrance that began filling the little house. He’d been drawn to the kitchen, however, and began a winter crockpot stew from his favorite cookbook that Kayla gave him that, thankfully, kept him occupied for a little while. Boredom drove him to the computer, but the new email waiting from him perked him up. It didn’t take him long, however, to begin scowling again.
Dear Steve,
I wasn’t sure if today would be easier or harder than my first, but now I know. Harder. I missed a staff meeting this morning, and I also messed up something Sam told the other Kayla to do with a blood draw that I had no idea about. I kind of remember it now, actually, because this boy doesn’t make it. It’s terribly sad. Knowing what I know now, I want to try to save him. I realize it’s pointless, but it’s heartbreaking. Anyway, this was a big mistake, and Sam was not happy with me, but Stacy was the one who was really mad. I knew she had a thing for Sam but the claws really came out today. He gave me a bit of special treatment slapping my hand alone instead of in front of them. She pitched a real fit and was unprofessional on rounds, and I don’t remember her having behaved that obviously before. It was something else. Poor Raj just shook his head, it was like a train wreck he couldn’t stop from happening, he just had to watch her plow on and create this spectacle for herself. Unfortuantely, it made things a little worse for me with Sam, because now he is even more on my side than he was before.
Steve pursed his lips.
I couldn’t get out of lunch with him. I was going to make an excuse, but after the blood draw incident I just thought I’d better make the best of it. It was mostly just talking shop, a lot about the boy I mentioned, quite a bit about one of Stacy’s patients. He knows she’s making a play for him and said he doesn’t know what her motivation is. I suggested it was because she likes him, and he said, “no, Kayla, you like me, she just likes my money.” He was so sweet and hopeful.
Steve started pumping the muscles in his jaw.
I wanted to tell him the truth right there, stop him from getting any more invested in me. Instead I just flirted back. As little as possible.
Not little enough. Steve knew in his head that this had to be done. Like she had to kiss Shane, she had to flirt with her boss. But his heart didn’t like it, and the amplification effect knew it. The physical result was a massive dose of extra-curricular oxytocin coursing through his system causing a shroud of jealousy to be cast around his heart. It felt awful. He knew what was happening but didn’t care, Steve did not want Sam making a play for his wife. He pictured the way she looked and how she smelled and the beauty in her eyes and knew exactly what the man was feeling for her.
Were things moving faster with Sam than Kayla had originally told him about in Hawaii? It seemed they were. Steve ruminated on this for a bit and found himself with a most unexpected erection. Kayla was his wife. His. Wife. He needed to connect with her and feel that truth. He rubbed at his crotch and then sent a brief reply.
Maybe you should start comin’ home for lunch. I could show you what investment really looks like.
He hit send, and he was pissed. There wasn’t really anything to be pissed about, but he was pissed anyway, and there was no stopping it.
Steve didn’t do anything about the rod in his pants, but it did cloud his brain with thoughts of sex. Good sex. Hot sex. Dry orgasm. Steve wondered just how authentic this whole possibility was. Could he really come without ejaculating? “How does that work, do I save it up or somethin’,” he wondered out loud as he opened a new browser. The boredom drove Steve to their secret email. Kayla’s email drew him into vehement jealousy, which ended up being heightened to intense arousal, which caused a real tunnel vision into whether or not this dry orgasm thing was real or not. Without really thinking, Steve entered “dry orgasm” into the search box. The amount of pornography that came back in the results was astounding. Steve guffawed and started clapping his hands he was so amused. He’d forgotten that 2000 was like the teenage boy equivalent of sex on the Internet. Big tits, spread legs, platinum hair, and leather. Lots and lots of leather. He took a cursory scroll through the results to see if anything remotely more on-topic than porn showed up and realized he was going to have to clean up the computer to be sure no early model tracking software, cookies, or Trojans had now made it onto the machine.
Steve was mid-click on the one link that looked like a pretty legitimate piece of information about tantric sex when the loud knocking came to the back door. Steve jumped and immediately put his head in the game, ready for a serious fight.
“Steve, it’s Shane!” he heard before he could check the front for the goons he was expecting. “Open up, mate, it’s just me!” Flustered, Steve headed carefully for the kitchen.
Shane smiled at his friend peeking out at him through the blinds. Steve didn’t know why this made him frown, but his mood had suddenly turned sour again. He tried not to let it affect his demeanor as he opened the door for Shane and sat down at the kitchen counter, especially because the news wasn’t, necessarily, bad.
“Little risky comin’ over here in the middle of the day, don’t you think?” he asked.
“Normally, yes, but I’ve got a safe house at the end of the block watching for Dimera’s men. We know where they’re holed up at the moment.”
Steve didn’t know whether the bigger news was a second set of people watching the house, or if it was that the goons had been tracked to a lair. He decided it was the former but didn’t say anything. What did he expect, Shane to leave them here unprotected with that threat out there like that? So he just nodded as the awkwardness set into the air around them.
“Don’t suppose I’m gettin’ out of here anytime soon.” Steve prompted.
“Well, that’s one of the reasons I’m here, we’ve made some progress.” Shane debriefed him on the latest and was very pleased to say that with any luck, Steve could come out into the open in January. Shane thought this would bolster him, but he was met with pretty much the opposite when Steve scowled. “Sorry. I know this is not the timeframe you were hoping for.” Steve grunted. “I can assure you, I’m making this happen as quickly as we can. I can’t just grab the enforcers.”
“I know.”
“Because where there’s one there’s more.”
“Yeah, they’re a dime a dozen.”
“Then Dimera will be tipped off, and he’ll just send more before you know it.”
“I got it, man.”
“I did think about it, but we’ve just got to let them continue to think they haven’t been made.”
Steve exhaled heavily. “Yeah, I got it. Gotta put on a show for the kiddies. Fine.”
Shane smiled good-naturedly. “Right. Of course.” The air had not gotten any warmer, but Shane soldiered on. “You must be bored silly.” Steve finally cracked a smile and chuckled in agreement. “Maybe there’s something I can bring you to pass the time. A game system?”
Just then a very loud and pronounced moaning began sounding from the other room. The female voice sounded like it belonged on the Bo Peep looking to make the lost sheep of Las Vegas come that he’d left behind two weeks ago. The horny, provocative sounds were unmistakable, and both men’s faces changed at the sound of them.
“Well, now,” Shane scowled in obvious disapproval. “Sounds like you’re passing the time just fine to me, after all.”
“Sh*t.” Steve ran to the computer and unplugged the ethernet cable as fast as he could but assumed the damage had already been done. “It’s not what it sounds like,” he said as he tried to silence the coital computer. Shane followed him, and what he saw over his brother-in-law’s shoulder told him quite the opposite.
“Really? That woman looks pretty ready for whatever you’re fantasizing for her, I think.”
“I’m tellin’ you, man, I didn’t search for that,” he insisted, bent over the PC from a standing position as he tried to close the unresponsive window.
“That did not just show up, mate.”
Steve glowered at him then back at the screen, the legitimate link clearly being not so legitimate. “I was researching something, dude, come on.”
The girl continued to moan, the choppy video showing a clear act of self-gratification as Steve repeatedly clicked the X in the upper right, to no avail.
“Research, is that what you call it?” Since Steve wasn’t about to tell Shane that he was terribly interested in tantric sex as a means of prolonging his sexual performance so as to give his wife a guaranteed, unrushed, and mind-blowing climax every time they had sex, there wasn’t a whole lot he could do to defend himself. So, he didn’t try. “Alone, while Kay isn’t here?”
Now Steve was fully triggered. The pet name, the smug look on Shane’s face, and, frankly, the refusal to take Steve at face value – it all cracked that control keeping him civil and friendly with Shane. He stood up and tuned out the sexual noises flling the room.
“You judgin’ me?” Shane pumped shis jaw and crossed his arms. “You got the nerve to sit there and not take my word for it?! When the ISA knew Dimera was into human trafficking on top of all his other seriously sick sh*t back in ’92?!”
“What are you talking about?!”
“I’m talkin’ about you, of all people, Double-0 Donovan! You come in here, assume you know what you’re talkin’ about, and have the nerve to stand there and judge me!”
“You’re looking at pornography while your wife is at work.” The accusation in that statement was the exact wrong thing to say. The meaning behind his emphasis on the word “wife,” an absolute mistake for Shane to put out there.
“You got no business,” Steve seethed, “talking about my wife.”
Shane wasn’t ready to back down, the gross disservice Shane perceived in what he thought Steve was doing to Kayla thrusting him into an unfortunately misplaced chivalry. “Someone needs to look after her, so if you expect me to keep this a secret from her you’re sorely mistaken.”
“It’s not a secret, goddammit, it was research!”
“Right, and how does Kay feel about this research you’re doing, hmm?”
“You leave her out of it!”
“Yes, well you very clearly have done so, now, haven’t you!”
Steve threw the first punch. It was a blow that deep down he’d been wanting to level upon him from the moment he saw Shane touch Kayla’s leg on that horrible jump to the pier in 1991. Steve was beyond over Shane, which was why the charade Kayla carried on with him to this point wasn’t so difficult and why this wasn’t a punch he’d ever planned on actually throwing. But now it was here, and the sentiment it came with exploded from within him. Shane staggered back, but he quickly recovered and responded with one of his own, their fists connecting twice more in ways that reminded both men that they weren’t spring chickens anymore. Steve saw stars but recouped enough to adjust his patch and then drive Shane back with a strong push against his chest. Shane pushed back, more than capable of giving what he got, the pushing and shoving eventually taking them just over the threshold of the arched doorway and into the kitchen. Steve advanced, Shane took up a defensive stance to prepare for it, and for a moment Steve felt something satisfying course through him at the physical expression of the dormant anger that had risen up to the surface. But in the next moment, something shifted. He saw the blood trickling down the corner of Shane’s mouth, and it took him out of his rage just long enough for him to clear his head. And he saw that Shane was acting in defense of Kayla. That he genuinely perceived a disrespect happening and was protecting her. His perception was wrong, but his heart was in the right place. Steve forced himself to acknowledge this and felt himself begin to deflate.
Shane watched the ire suddenly drain out of his not-so-dead brother-in-law and relaxed a little, as well. He told himself he didn’t know what the hell just happened here, but the truth was that he did. He knew exactly what this was all about, and it wasn’t the porn. Not really. The two men stood there glaring at each other in absolute silence as the throb started to set into their jaws. It was a full minute before Steve finally turned to the freezer. He took out two bags of frozen peas and handed one to Shane. He took it, and both men nursed their wounds. A new woman in a new video that had picked up where the last one had ended broke the brief silence, and Steve rolled his eyes.
“It’s infected, isn’t it?” Steve asked.
“’Fraid so.”
Steve went to address the PC and succeeded in everything from clearing the search history to closing every window except the video. When he looked up Shane was standing over him.
“I don’t give a sh*t what you think.”
“Clearly.”
Steve angled his head to the damnable computer. “Can you get rid of it?”
Shane huffed. “I don’t know, are you going to sucker punch me again?”
“Not if you get rid of it,” he smiled completely without mirth.
“Let me drive.” Steve got up and Shane took his place. “Just what I wanted to do today,” he muttered.
“Yeah, ‘cause I’m loving this garden party.”
The air was very pregnant with so many unspoken facts as Steve shoulder surfed, watching carefully what Shane was doing with the registry and a multitude of DOS windows that he had to admit he didn’t have the skills for. It didn’t take exceedingly long, but it was long enough for the bleeding to stop in Shane’s lip and Steve’s chin to get a little purple.
“Fixed,” Shane said standing up. “Don’t mess it up with any more research.”
Steve narrowed his eyes at this man that had once loved Kayla. “What I do with and for Kayla is between her and me. What I was doing wasn’t a secret from her. The porn you walked in on wasn’t what I was lookin’ for and had nothing to do with what I was doing.”
“You want to tell me what it is you were doing, then?”
“No. Because it’s none of your business, man.”
“It’s my business if it has anything to do with getting you all out of this mess.”
“It doesn’t.”
Shane’s expression eased up. “I’m just looking out for Kay’s best interests. I’m only trying to protect her from getting hurt again. You don’t know what she went through.”
Shane couldn’t possibly understand exactly what Steve did or didn’t know, and his frustration that there was no really good way to set Shane straight was the worst part of this. He did know what Kayla went through. He witnessed it. He experienced it. The loss that Kayla felt was a loss that he, himself, felt, too. So much pain and anguish they’d been through. Yet here was Shane lecturing him about Kayla’s pain. Shane had no clue. He just had no clue. And his motivation was because he truly cared about Kayla. That’s why it was time. For what Steve had to say next. So that everyone’s roles in this fabricated existence that wasn’t meant to be were clear to Shane. And so Steve could just get it off his chest.
“Kayla is my wife, Shane. My wife.” The statement went through Shane like a live wire. Steve had just acknowledged the elephant in the room. For the very first time, Shane knew without question that Steve knew about he and Kayla. “That’s not your job – anymore,” Steve almost choked on that word, and the meaning of it left absolutely no doubt for Shane that this conversation he’d wanted to avoid was now here. “I’m alive. I’m back. I never wanted to leave her, and I never stopped loving her.” Shane didn’t speak as he processed this information, just pumped the muscle in the back of his jaw. “You looked out for her before,” he rasped. “You protected her before.”
“I loved her.” If it was out there, he wasn’t doing it halfway. It was brave, it was true, and Shane had to say it.
Steve swallowed hard. “Before.” The word hung there, its meaning very, very clear.
Shane nodded. “That doesn’t mean I don’t still care for her. Care what happens to her.”
“You don’t get to care anymore!” Shane’s look turned defiant.
“I’m Kayla’s friend. Are you saying I can’t be?”
“Don’t split hairs with me, man, Kayla chooses her own friends! I’m not talking about being her friend!”
“I’m not trying to be anything more than that! Not anymore!” Both men turned from each other needing air. Then Shane whirled from his position in the archway of the kitchen. “I cared about you, too, once, you know.” Steve had no come back for this. “You were my friend, too. When that mountain blew up and left me for dead, I thought you were my friend, too.”
“What are you talking about?”
“I’m here trying to get you your life back, but you left me for dead on that mountaintop!”
“That’s bullshit, Shane!”
Shane turned and angrily stormed into the kitchen, but Steve wasn’t done yet and followed him in.
“I went out looking before the dust even settled! I was hanging off of cliffs and breaking ribs looking that night! The ISA barely did sh*t, did you know that? Agent Fluffy Hair wanted to send the whole outfit packing, but I said no! Did you know I was out there with a flashlight, a canteen, and just my own bare hands looking? I limped back into camp, Kayla and Marcus fixed me up, and then I went back out there in the daylight! All goddamn day till sundown I was out there! I only gave up because the ISA shut it all down! They’re the ones who gave up on you, not me! I almost died trying to find you! And I blamed myself. You know that? I blamed myself for you dyin’!”
“Yes, well, it all seemed to work out for you in the end, you’ve got your wife back, I lost mine!”
“That’s not my fault, man. You moved in on my wife, but I didn’t move in on yours, that was that other guy! Don’t blame me for letting Kim get away!”
“Well, how nice for you that it all worked out in the end!”
“You think it all worked out for me? You really think that?! I lost–” he almost said 16 but stopped himself just in time, “—years off my life, Shane! YEARS WITHOUT MY FAMILY! I lost my daughter,” he almost choked up at the reminder of Emily. “I lost Kayla while you moved in on her! How long’d it take, Shane, how long? She wasn’t a widow a week before you had her shackin’ up at your place!”
“That’s not fair! I was protecting her!”
“And now I am!” The air was so charged between the two men that if they’d lit a match the entire place would’ve gone up in flames. “I’m the one who’s gonna protect her, now,” he repeated more quietly.
Shane sat heavily into a chair. Steve did the same, the two men mirroring each other with their elbows on the counter. “Loud and clear,” Shane said, his voice almost to its normal tone again. “You’ll protect your family.” Steve nodded back. “With a little help from your friends?”
The corner of Steve’s mouth inched up. “You mean the ISA?”
“I mean me and the ISA.”
“They haven’t really done either of us that much good.”
“They’re not perfect, Steve. It’s just that the bad stuff makes us hurt more than the good stuff makes us happy.” Steve thought Shane was probably right about that. “Friends, then?” This was just about the two of them, now. Shane was reaching out a real olive branch. Steve understood that, but the truth was that he just couldn’t go back to exactly how it was before.
“It’ll never be the same, Shane. Put yourself in my shoes. Do you wanna go have a beer with whatshisname?”
“Phillip?”
“Yeah.”
Shane huffed out a cynical chuckle. “I barely want to be in this room with you.”
“See? There ya go, then.” The two men laughed, and the rest of the true anger dissipated with it. “You’re not gonna understand this, but you proved to me once that you’re a good man. I know that you are. I don’t know anyone more capable at protection, rescue, and recovery than you are. I could barely see straight at the time, but I know you’ve given up a lot. For you’re your integrity. We’re never gonna be the same. But you’re not the enemy.”
Shane didn’t understand exactly, but he knew that Steve was serious about the sentiment. And in honest truth, he wasn’t going to feel as familial with Steve as he once did, either. “Friendly allies,” Shane suggested.
Steve smiled. “Ok.”
Despite not wanting to share any beers, Steve took two out of the fridge, anyway, and the brothers-in-law continued to cool off.
Steve couldn’t help but be relieved when Shane took out the three ISA Cell phones.
“They’re not much,” Shane said, “but they’re safe, you can call or text.”
“Can I order a pizza with this thing?”
“Yes, you could, theoretically, it’s similar to a satellite phone, but it only bounces off one tower, so to speak, using an ISA cellular frequency. Unhackable, untraceable, no one but the ISA will be able to see the logs.”
“So that’s the catch. You can see everything we say and do.”
“Well, we’re not listening to your conversations, if that’s what you’re worried about,” Shane frowned, “you can say whatever you want, no one’s listening to you.”
“Did I say I was worried?”
“We’re just logging locations and incoming and outgoing calls.” Then Shane cocked his head slightly before shifting his eyes back to Steve. “And it’s possible some scrub might be logging your text transcripts.”
“Great.”
“You still want pizza?”
“I might.”
“Where would they deliver it?”
“Shane!”
“My point is to just play it safe, don’t go calling your mother!”
“I hear you, a’right? Jeez, man!” A beat. “You guys got cameras built into these things yet?”
“Of course, not, what could you need a camera for?”
Steve chuckled. “Nevermind.”
“Just make sure you tell Stephanie it’s not a toy. That she knows how to use it.”
“We will.”
Then Shane handed Steve one more thing. “I think you remember how to handle one of these,” he said, “standard issue.”
The 9-milimeter was just like several he’d used before. “How many strings you have to pull to get one of these for a man who doesn’t exist anymore?”
“Not too many, as Kayla rightly said the other night, I pretty much am the flagpole, now.”
“Guess I should be glad you’re on my side.”
Shane looked Steve in the eye. “I am.” Then he quickly looked away.
Shane was about to sneak out the back door when Kayla came in with Stephanie. Both of them looked downright pissed off at the world. Even Stephanie didn’t come running into her father’s arms like she usually did, this time she kind of dragged herself over and leaned into them.
“Little Sweetness, what’s wrong?”
“Bad day. Not those men, Mama already asked. Just – a bad day.” She exhaled heavily and the the feel of her father’s arms around her spread a little more warmth through her.
Steve kissed the top of her head. “Missed you. Papa’s here, now, we got a date with Harry Potter, I think there’s a train ride comin’ up.”
“Did you read ahead?!”
“Nah, I just kinda heard it from somewhere.”
“Kayla,” Shane said pleasantly but with something beneath it that made her look over at Steve.
“Everything ok?” she asked.
“Peachy,” he said with an absolutely straight face. “I just came to drop off a couple things, update Steve on the strike team.”
“Oh?!”
“Don’t get too excited, baby, we’re still lookin’ at January.” Kayla’s face fell. “Maybe.”
Now she felt those cramps a little more than she did before. “Some update,” she said. Stephanie said goodbye to her Uncle Shane and then headed for her room to do her homework. Shane gave Kayla the basics, then announced that he was about ready to head on out. “Wait, that’s it?”
“Oh, there’s more you should know, I’m sure,” he said with a strange emphasis that she didn’t understand but made Steve purse his lips. “I think Steve is—more than capable of conveying the details of the afternoon to you. Aren’t you, Steve?”
“I think I can get her up to speed,” he said neutrally.
Kayla wasn’t sure what was going on, but she had a feeling a discussion had happened, the thought of which made her very nervous.
“What went on between you two?” she asked very insistently.”
“Nothin’ for you to worry about, baby,” Steve said.
She cut right to it very quickly. “You told him you know, didn’t you?” Kayla said to Steve.
“Sweetness.”
“Don’t Sweetness me, you did, didn’t you?
“Kayla, it’s fine, really,” Shane said.
“Oh, don’t you start, too.”
Shane gave Steve a confused look. “What did I do?”
Kayla rubbed at her temple, she had a splitting headache. “Would you like to stay for dinner?” she asked. “I think—I think we should—just—talk … Is that a bruise?” The “uh oh” on Steve’s face told her that it was. “Steve what went on here, are you ok?”
“Sweetness, stop, I’m fine.” Kayla turned his chin in her hand before he leaned out of her grasp. “Would you let it go, we’re fine now!”
“Now? So, something happened here? How did this happen?!”
“Shane’s fist fell into my chin.” He couldn’t resist and got a little thrill out of Shane’s indignance. Kayla whirled on the other man in the room.
“Why?!”
“I think you should ask your husband who threw the first punch, Kay.” She felt Steve bristle behind her. “He gave as good as he got, trust me,” Shane added rubbing his cheek.
Now she understood. “What the hell is wrong with you two?”
“Nothin’ anymore,” Steve grinned.
“You think this is funny?” Kayla railed as quietly as she could for Stephanie’s sake.
“Only a little.”
Shane shook his head. “You really don’t know when to quit do you, Johnson?”
“Back to that, huh? See, baby, I told you we’re good, here. Back to normal.”
Kayla was seeing red, however. “Do you need me to look at that for you?” she asked Shane.
“No, Kayla, really, Steve’s right, we’re fine, now. Thanks for the dinner invitation, but I’ve got some work yet to do tonight.” He headed for the back door. “Besides, looks like there’s just enough in there for three.” Kayla looked to Steve, who gestured that it was fine with him, but he knew better than to think Shane would change his mind. “Really, I was just leaving. We’ll talk soon.”
Kayla crossed her arms and stewed against the counter as Shane left.
“Hey Donovan!” Steve called out to him from the doorway. Shane turned, clearly ready to be done with this visit. “Why are you sittin’ back and lettin’ your life go by like this?”
“I’m sorry?”
“Kimberly.”
Shane looked at Steve askew. “What about her?”
“Go get her back.”
“Steve, I assure you, you’ve nothing to worry about—”
“I know. But I’m talking about you. Go get her back.”
“Back? Steve, she’s married now.”
Steve shrugged. “And?”
“Oh bloody hell.”
“Kayla was married, once, too. It wasn’t supposed to happen that way, I set it right. Dude, I remember when Kayla told her you died with Jehrico.” He shook his head. “You were it for her. Not sure who this clown is, never did meet him.”
“Of course, you didn’t.”
“But if you hadn’t been presumed dead in that explosion, you really think it would be like this today?” Shane glared at Steve. “This is all wrong, man. Maybe you should try to set it right.”
After a significant pause, Shane said, “You’d better get in the house. You never know when the van will be back.”
Kayla was standing behind her husband when he shut the back door. “You’re going to flip the timeline on its head,” she chastised him.
“You mean like I already did?”
“Like we both did.”
“I mean it, us together is bad enough.”
“What?”
“For the timeline, come on, you know what I’m saying.” Steve pulled her into his embrace.
“Yeah, I know what you’re saying, I’m trying to save a patient who’s not supposed to live.”
“Yep, that’s my baby.”
“And now you’re giving other people ideas, too.”
“You want me to stop?”
“No,” she smiled.
Steve chuckled. “Rolf must be having fun in that lab watching us mess everything up.”
“Yeah, well he started it.” She threw a look of death to the ceiling, as if Rolf were up there somewhere.
“Sweetness, what’s gotten into you?”
“Bad day.”
Steve let out a pfft. “Did anyone have a good day?”
“No,” his girls both said at the same time as Stephanie walked in from the other room.
It was during dinner that Stephanie asked the strangest question. “Are we poor?”
Both Steve and Kayla put down their forks. “Why would you ask that, Baby Girl?”
“I’m just – Amber Clarke said we’re poor. Do we have food stamps? ‘Cause you go to the post office sometimes.”
“No! What did she say to you, why does she think you’re on food stamps? We were never on food stamps, Steve,” she turned to him, “I promise you, I took care of our little girl.”
“I know, baby, don’t worry about it,” he assured her before turning a concerned visage back on his daughter. “Steph, those aren’t like postage stamps, you don’t mail stuff with ‘em, they help you buy food when you don’t have enough money.”
“Then … then why are food stamps bad?”
“They’re not, Stephanie. What did Amber say to you?”
“Wait, that’s the girl that’s been pickin’ on you about the bluesmobile?”
“How did you know?”
“I was hidin’ up here a while watchin’ over you two before you found me, Little Sweetness. Now what did she say?”
She says I’m poor ‘cause of the car and my house is cheap and I use brown lunch bags, and I told her that it’s not my fault her daddy doesn’t love her as much as mine does.”
“Stephanie! You can’t let on that your papa’s alive!”
“I didn’t! Remember, you told me that she was just jealous that I know how much papa loves me even though he’s ‘dead,’” she used air quotes and rolled up her eyes, “because she doesn’t feel that same thing from hers, and he’s alive.”
Steve thought about that. “You did tell her that, I was there.”
“I did? I mean you were?”
“Yeah.”
“Oh. Well … that makes sense, I remember this girl, she was a handful. Lots of money in that family.”
“Reed Kim asked me if I was poor, because he is, and he says that food stamps aren’t that bad, even though later Amber started pretending to lick stamps and stick them on his back.”
“That’s terrible, Stephanie.”
“I know. Reed is really nice. I think he wants to be friends. But … so, we’re not poor?”
“We’re not rich, Stephanie, but no. We’re not poor,” Kayla replied.
“And food stamps are good?”
Kayla paused a moment and phrased her response carefully. “Food stamps are not good or bad. They are there to help people. They’re not something you want to use for the rest of your life. A lot of people use them when a mom or dad loses their job and can’t make ends meet while they’re looking for a new job. Or when someone in the family dies that was the breadwinner. The one supporting the family. It’s temporary until that family gets back on its feet.”
“Papa died. I mean, he didn’t, but we thought he did.”
Kayla knew where this was going. “Yes, he did. But he knew how to take care of us in case that happened, and we were ok.”
Stephanie saw her parents having another one of those conversations with only their eyes, and despite the very serious conversation she could tell it was, it made her feel very safe. That her parents were this connected that they could communicate this way, despite the trouble they were all in right now, despite the years that separated them, she felt very safe.
“It would be ok with me if we were poor. As long as we’re together, I don’t care if we need food stamps or not.”
Steve was a little overcome. Kayla’s eyes filled with tears at the incredible daughter they had. “Sometimes I forget,” she whispered as she reached out and stroked Stephanie’s hair. “How special you are. How beautiful your soul is.”
Stephanie smiled at the immense pride she could see her parents taking in her. “When everything is ok again, can we have Reed over for dinner?”
“I think that would be great, Baby Girl.”
That night Stephanie sat curled up against her father as he read Chapter 5 of Harry Potter. He could feel her introspection before he was even done. When he closed the book, she didn’t beg for the next chapter like she’d done the previous four nights before this. “What’s on your mind, Little Sweetness?”
“The galleons.”
“The galleons.” She nodded. “Harry’s galleons? In the bank?”
“Gringotts.”
“What about ‘em, baby?”
“Harry has all this money he didn’t know about. Ron Weasley doesn’t have any. We haven’t gotten to him yet, he’s in the next chapter. Then the sorting hat, but that’s as far as I got. But Harry has lots of money. Because his parents died.” Steve stroked her hair and let her say what she needed to say. “I never want a lot of money.” The meaning in Stephanie’s words broke his heart a little.
“Steph, you are going to have everything you ever need, because me and your mama are gonna make it happen for you. Because we’re both gonna be here for a very long time to make sure of it. No one’s leavin’ any galleons in any bank, we’re here, and we’re not goin’ anywhere.”
“Forever.”
In this moment, Steve forgot that this was a temporary timeline. All he felt like was Stephanie’s father. Like he’d never stopped being her father for ten years. “Forever, Baby Girl,” he promised.
Steve was somber as he and Kayla sat in the loft debriefing their day. Her headache hadn’t gotten any better, but she completely failed to stifle a laugh when Steve told her exactly how it went with his research into tantric sex.
Steve smiled. “Laugh it up, baby, I like hearin’ you smile.”
“Good, ‘cause it’s pretty funny. So, the monitor started having an orgasm at the worst possible time. Was it good for you, too?”
“Not funny, Sweetness, Shane thought I was looking at porn.”
“Oh, he must have loved that.”
“He did the opposite of love that, he swooped right in there to defend your honor. Thought I was doin’ somethin’ behind your back.”
“Really?”
“Yeah, really. Thought I was cheating on you with online porn.”
That word never failed to sober Kayla. “So, that’s how it started,” she realized quietly.
“Yeah.”
“From that shiner on your jaw it looks like it didn’t go particularly well.”
“Like he said, baby, I dish it out as good as I take it.” Kayla gently brushed her lips against the decent bruise. “How ‘bout a few more of those, this is a big booboo.” Kayla complied, and Steve filled her in on the rest. She was pretty astounded at where it all ended up by the time she’d walked in the door.
“So … that’s it? You two are … what are you?”
“I dunno what we are, baby. But he said something that kinda bugged me. He said I got my wife back, he didn’t.”
“That bugs you?”
“Yeah, ‘cause he’s right. I blamed myself for a long time when we thought he was dead. Then when he turned up, I blamed myself even more. If I’d only looked harder, I’d’ve found him. No one knows better than us how the smallest changes could mean the biggest things. Who knows where you and me would be.” He looked down for a minute, then shrugged. “He and Kim might still be together.”
“If Eve didn’t do something to drive them apart first. That girl’s a real piece of work, even now.”
“What about us? We were gonna do the Bo and Hope thing. Sail around the world with our baby girl. Who knows where we would have ended up. How many … more kids …”
“Shh. Don’t.”
“None of it was supposed to happen, Kayla.”
“I believe you. We were meant to be together, not apart. Something went wrong with our fate. But we’re together now.” Steve smiled and caressed the side of Kayla’s face. They sat silent for a little while before Kayla spoke again. “So you want me to start having lunch at home, huh?”
Steve perked up, not entirely in a good way. “Yeah, I think the less time that guy has to wine and dine you the better it’ll be for my blood pressure.”
“Your blood pressure?”
“I’m not a young man anymore, baby, I have to watch my stress levels.”
“You’re 44 right now!”
“I mean it, Kayla.”
“Come on, it was the hospital cafeteria with nothing but people watching.”
“This is escalating, baby, can’t you see it? It’s moving a lot faster this go ‘round than how you said it went the first time. We changed something by being here, and now he’s pushing for you harder, getting bolder.”
Kayla had to agree. “You’re right, but it’s not like I’m encouraging him.”
“Well it’s hard for me to hear about, anyway.”
“So you want me to stop telling you?”
“No, I want you to stop having something to tell me!” Kayla huffed out a frustrated breath and leaned back angrily against the couch. “I mean it, baby, this is goin’ the wrong direction!”
“You know what, I mean it, too, but this is not going to get any better, if we don’t get you sprung until January I’m gonna have to go on this date with him.”
“Well, I don’t like it!”
“I like it even less, Steve. So, you need to suck it up.”
“Suck it up?!”
“I love my job, but I hate pretending with Sam. I’m the one dealing with it.”
“I’m the one watching it!”
“Not the same.”
“Ok, how ‘bout next time I have to fake it with Ava we get you a ringside seat!”
Kayla nearly slapped him. All she saw was red as she balled up her fists and just wanted to cry from the sheer, blistering anger. “Don’t you ever f*cking throw her in my face again. Ever!” Kayla did not swear like this, and he realized this was no longer a debrief on their day, it was now a fight.
“Kayla—”
“No!” She got up and pointed severly at him. “F*cking no!” Then she flew down the stairs and into their room.
“Shit,” Steve muttered under his breath. He found her in there sitting against the headboard with her knees drawn up agsinst herself stewing. Steve sat beside her on the edge of the bed. It came to him all at once and surprised even himself with his next words. “This is that jump effect, Kayla, not us.”
“Trust me, there’s some us in there, too.”
“Fair enough, but we’re not as upset as we think we are, we’ve gotta calm down.” Kayla took a deep breath, and Steve did the same. “Better?”
“No. Don’t use her as any examples, all she does is make me upset.”
Steve nodded. “Ok. I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have done that.” Kayla looked up neutrally. “But I get upset knowing Sam is all over you, too.”
“Sam’s not all over me.”
“Yet. You said he was a good kisser. You said there was kissing. He touched you at the party. That’s three weeks from now, and let’s be honest, unless we jump first, I’ll still be stuck here. He calls you every night.”
“He didn’t call tonight.”
“Isn’t this his long shift?”
“Yeah, actually. You know that?”
“Yeah, I know that. Trust me, he’ll call every night for the rest of the week.” Steve rubbed the top of Kayla’s foot while she looked at him from over her knees.
“Don’t use her against me again,” she said quietly.
“Ok. Sorry. Don’t dismiss my feelings about you and Sam.”
Kayla nodded. “I’m sorry, too.” Now she smiled, and Steve knew she was about to say something devilish. “So,” she said, brushing her thumb across his chin lovingly and then his lips, “tell me what you learned with this dry orgasm research.”
Steve narrowed his eye at her. “You’re teasin’ me, baby, I know there’s nothin’ gonna happen tonight. It’s not nice to play with your husband like that.”
“I’m not teasing,” she insisted. “I’m preparing.”
They ended the night on this high note, but the rest of the week was pretty grueling, especially Wednesday, when prime Kayla had her first 18-hour shift. She went over every aspect of her schedule, asked for reminders from Raj where she needed them while avoiding Stacy as much as she could, and Tuesday night she was as ready as she’d ever be. Part of her was hoping to jump before she’d have to do this, but when she woke up Wednesday she was still here. That meant she was really gonna have to do this. Survive on her own without seeing her husband or daughter for the next 18 hours. She hadn’t gotten a whole week with Stephanie and already she had to give her up for two days. She did, though, and somehow she made it through without any real issues. No emergent cases, no deaths, no allergic or adverse reactions, and really just very standard stuff. As Steve predicted Sam did call to go over some cases. It was a legitimate call with legitimate patient care to be discussed. And to his credit, Sam was almost entirely all business on this phone call. He wasn’t calling for just nothing, he was a good doctor and made very sure his patients were getting not just the proper standard of care, but beyond. That didn’t mean he didn’t sneak some personal conversation into the mix at the end.
“Do you like sushi?”
“Uh … not really, to be honest, no. My pop was a fisherman – is a fisherman – my folks owned a fish market. I was the daughter that threw them all back.” Sam laughed. It was such an affable and cheery sound. He’d make someone very happy one day, she just didn’t know who.
“I’m sure he loved that.”
“He did not, as a matter of fact. I finally stopped and really just let the lobsters go.”
“The carp got no pass, huh?”
“Here’s a secret, carp is awful. Perch, yes. Carp is not a fish you want to eat if there’s perch around.”
“Ok, I’ll try to remember that. So how about a wine bar, they’re popping up all over LA now, have you been to one?”
“I … can we just start with the party? Honestly, I want to go kind of slow here.”
“That’s what I mean. I thought we’d start with dinner, you know how it’s always just finger foods at these things. I’d feel like a cheap jerk if I didn’t take you out first.”
“Oh. Sam, really, that’s—not necessary.”
“Kayla, please, give me a chance.”
He was so kind. So genuine in his pursuit. He liked her. Her advanced knowledge told her that he liked her a lot, but this time she really felt just how much. She didn’t remember if they’d had dinner the first time or not, but she reasoned that In 2000 she would have said yes to this. So, she did so again, and they agreed on the new wine bar that had opened in her own neighborhood just weeks prior.
That was about all the flirting Kayla could stand, so she excused herself for rounds and ended the call. She then took out the secret cellphone that she had in the bottom of her purse and called her husband.
“Did I wake you?” she asked.
“Naw, baby, I’m up watchin’ Letterman.”
“Yeah, who’s on?”
“No one I’ve ever heard of.”
Kayla giggled. “So, you miss me?”
“What do you think?” he asked muting the TV.
“I think you miss me.”
“I think you’re right.”
“I think you really miss me.”
“Still right.”
“Hmmp. Good. ‘Cause I miss you, too.”
“So, you’ve been thinkin’ about me?”
“A little bit, yep.”
“A little bit?” he repeated. “You must have forgotten what you’ve been missing if it’s just a little bit.”
“I know what I’ve been missing. It’s been weeks.”
“It’s been three days.”
“It feels like weeks.”
“Dr. Johnson. Are you horny?”
“I’m at work. I’m a professional. I don’t get horny when I’m at work being a professional.”
“Really?”
“Mm-hmm.”
“So you’re saying that if I were to come over there and show up in your office with a hard on just for you that you wouldn’t be interested?”
The warmth spreading throughout her body told her the real answer to that question, but she was having a very good time playing hard to get with her husand. “Well, define what you mean by interested? Can you specify the level of interest that you’re talking about?”
Steve loved the game as much as Kayla did. “I’m talking about you. Hot, baby. Aroused. Ready for me.”
“Ready for you,” she said in wonder. “What do you mean by that?”
“You want more specificity, do you?”
Kayla laughed at his use of that word. “Yes, I think I want more.” She audibly licked her lips and got great satisfaction out of knowing that Steve appreciated it. “Specificity.”
“What I mean by that is you body. Your pussy. Wet. Ready for my cock to slide into it.” Kayla sucked in her breath. She wasn’t expecting Steve to rise to the occasion – so to speak – quite so deftly. “How’s that for specific?” Kayla replied by clearing her throat. “Oh, I strike a nerve there, baby?”
“You struck something.”
“Good, I like stroking you.”
“Bad boy, Steve Johnson, I said struck, not stroke!”
“Don’t say that too loud, we don’t want the ISA to hear us doin’ it over the phone. Or the hospital people.”
“You said no one’s listening to our calls. And we’re not doing it!”
“No, what do you call it?”
“Talking about doing it.”
Steve cracked up. “Last time I checked, that was called phone sex, baby. We just had phone sex.”
“Steve. Did you come? I didn’t come. We didn’t have phone sex.”
“Waaaait a minute, baby, we don’t have to come to have sex, you know that.”
“Ok, yes,” she rolled her eyes, “ok, but this is different.”
“Felt the same. Except for the being by myself part.”
“That’s why it’s different!”
“Ok, lemme ask you this.” Steve was more serious now. “Did you like it? I mean, is … this is ok?”
“Yes,” Kayla smiled. “Except—”
“Except? No exception, baby, if you’re not into it.”
“No, that’s not it.”
“Then what’s the except? I mean it, Kayla, I don’t need—”
“It’s just that now I’m wet and can’t do anything about it,” she interrupted.
Steve couldn’t help it, he grabbed his cock and rubbed. “You just made me even harder and didn’t even have to touch me to do it.”
“So, what are you going to do about it?”
“I’m going to let the hard on pass. Then when I see you I’m going to make you scream.”
“Good thing I brought condoms home last night.”
“Oh yeah, forgot about that. Wait, you did?”
“Mm-hmm. Sorry. We could wait if –”
“No, I’ll take the condoms. How long?”
“A week from Sunday and we’ll be safe.”
Steve sighed. “And what are you gonna do about yourself? Anything? Rosie Palm and her five friends?”
“Nope, not tonight. Remember I’m at work.”
“Alone in your office.”
“Would it help you feel better if I told you I was getting myself off?”
“No, that would make me feel hornier.”
Kayla shook her head. “Why are we still doing this?”
“I dunno, but I wanna f*ck you so bad right now I can’t see straight.”
It was just after 7am when Steve woke to the feeling of his wife’s mouth sucking him into hardness. The sensation was intense, and in no time he was hard as a rock. Kayla’s upper body was beneath the covers as she sucked, licked, and fisted his erection. She positively owned him, and he loved it.
“Come here, baby, I got a promise to keep.” Kayla was already naked, her soft skin gliding against his as he pulled her on top of him. She gasped loudly when Steve’s tongue made contact with her clitoris.
“I love this,” Kayla said so sexily that Steve felt it when the bead of cum escaped to his tip.
“I know you do,” he said. “I can’t wait to hear you scream.” Kayla’s arousal was almost desperate, her lips humming their pleasure hot and hard up and down his cock. It didn’t take long for her moans to fill the room. The more he flicked her nub with his forceful tongue, the harder she sucked. Steve hit that edge very quickly, but Kayla hadn’t come yet. He wasn’t gonna settle, she had to come. Steve licked harder and faster with the whole pad of his tongue, and Kayla released him so she could cry out.
“So good! So good, Steve! More! Don’t stop! Oh … oh … God!”
Steve was drunk on it all. He would never get tired of the sound of his wife being pleasured by him. He would never get enough of it. He didn’t know if it was day or night, and he didn’t care, he just wanted to exist in this coital ecstasy for as long as he could.
Just then Kayla began licking in exact rhythm with her husband, and now they were both at the point of no return. Kayla gyrated her hips while Steve beneath her held her center to his mouth by her thighs. The moment she tensed he felt his own orgasm begin in the base of his spine. He grunted into his licks desperate to wait until the very last moment. Finally she bucked against him and gave Steve exactly what he promised, a scream so filled with sexual pleasure that he thought it might be the best sex she’d ever had.
“More!” he demanded. “I wanna hear more, Kayla!”
“Then,” she gasped between tremors, “don’t … stop!”
Steve tasted Kayla’s cum on his lips filled his palms with her ass and squeezed as his own orgasm overtook him. He pulsed his essence into his wife’s mouth and felt every little rush when she swallowed. He knew she was overstimulated now, but the pleasure coming out of her spurred him on to suckle her clitoris already swollen with climax.
“Yes! Yes!” Kayla smacked her palm against the bed, and without warning, Steve felt his wife’s next orgasm rip through her. She shook on top of him while humming her moans around the cock she’d been sucking, and despite her own euphoria, she could tell that Steve couldn’t take anymore. So, as the last of her trembling ebbed, she did what she’d done on their September 5th wedding night and gave him a final and very hard suck from base to tip. Steve screamed out this painful pleasure just as he had in 1987, for a moment out of his head in rapture.
Kayla collapsed onto her husband and rested her head on his thigh as he wrapped his arms around her middle. “I love you,” Steve gasped, barely capable of speech.
“I love you, too,” Kayla whimpered.
“I love you.”
Kayla felt the emotional connection, because it was always there. But the pure physical release was so exquisite – so purely sexual – that she couldn’t move, she had to recover first.
Finally Kayla got up and fell onto her back beside her husband. Their bodies slick with sweat and cum, they just laid there, catching their breath, too hot to share body heat just yet. But Kayla needed to be touching him, so she reached out her hand and Steve took it, holding fast to each other as they cooled down.
“Was that the best sex you’ve ever had, baby?” Steve finally asked.
Kayla smiled but shook her head. “Best orgasm, maybe, I think.”
“Yeah?”
“But not the best sex. That’s still our fist time on the roof.”
Kayla turned to look at him as her chest continued to rise and fall. “What about you?”
Steve shook his head. “Plane to Hawaii.”
“Hmmp. It’s funny, in the moment, I want it to be the best you’ve ever had, never want it to end. But then when it’s over, I hope I didn’t top it. I don’t want to.” Kayla leaned up on her elbow and then gently kissed him.
Steve smiled. “It’s hot that you wanna kiss me after I’ve gone down on you.”
“I always want to kiss you. I just went down on you, too.” Steve leaned up for another kiss, this time much deeper.
“God, Kayla, you’re unbelievable.”
“No I’m not. I just missed you.” They kissed again. “Because I love you.”
Kayla showered while Steve made them breakfast, then after they ate Steve did the same. It was all Kayla could do not to fall asleep in her omelet she was so exhausted.
“You get some shuteye, Sweetness,” he said as he pulled the covers over her.
“Wait, I wanna tell you about my day,” she said sleepily.
“I already know about your day, we had some phone sex, you got hot and bothered, then came home and mauled me right out of a dead sleep.”
“You’re right, that about covers it.”
“Ok, off you go, now.”
Kayla slept like the dead all the way until the late afternoon. She was disoriented, not yet used to this schedule, and was confused when Steve shook her awake so quickly.
“Sorry, baby, but Kim just pulled up with Stephanie, I got disappear now. You good?”
“Yeah,” she said, not really quite sure what day it even was.
“Kay!” Kim called.
“Mama? I’m home! With Aunt Kim! We’re in the livingroom!”
“Nice announcement,” Kim said. “What’s with the weird every time I come over here, now?”
“Nothing!” Stephanie said tightly. “WHOEVER’S HOME, WE’RE HERE!”
“Kiddo, are you expecting Harvey?”
“Who?”
“Kim!” Kayla said as she popped out from the hallway. “Sorry, I was sleeping.”
Kim looked at her watch and then back at her sister before angling her head down the hallway.
“You got company or somethin’?” All Kimberly wanted was for Kayla to find a man, but this wasn’t quite how she wanted her to do it, in the middle of the day, looking like she’d just had a roll in the proverbial hay.
“Of course not, Kim,” she chided, “why would you even ask that with Stephanie standing right here?” she added in a whisper.
“Because it’s practically dinnertime and you’re still sleeping. In your clothes.”
“So what, it was a long day, 18 hours is a long time.”
“Kay, I’ve never known you to still be asleep by the time aftercare is done.”
“Yes, well, first time for everything.”
“Yeah, first time …”
Kimberly was really getting on Kayla’s nerves. She was really observant and really persistent, both of which were fundamental Brady traits, but right now, she could do without them. When she left, it was a relief, hugs and kisses were had by all, and the rest of the night was spent with each other, not to mention a double-chapter book club to make up for the Wednesday night she didn’t get a chapter.
Steve checked out the front window before they turned in for the night and was utterly dismayed to find that the van had returned.
Kayla sighed as she stood behind him at the livingroom curtains. “How are we gonna make it a month like this? Through Christmas?
Steve turned, and they held each other tightly. “We’re gonna take it one day at a time, we’re gonna protect our baby girl, we’re gonna live every day like we’re jumpin’ tomorrow.”
But they didn’t jump tomorrow. Or the day after that, or the day after that. It was starting to feel a little more long term. Because that’s exactly what it was.