Apocalypse Wow, Pt. 16

"Any requests for our last session together?" he asked playfully and Dani smiled warmly as she lifted her head to look at him.

"Well... let me see now..."

She kissed him again, harder and deeper this time and Luke didn't resist the urge to reach for the straps of her dress, sliding them gently off her shoulders. Her skin felt as smooth and soft as it had the first time he touched her as his arms slid around her and her dress pooled at her feet.

He lifted her, as he had done that in that first session and she giggled at the memory as he carried her to the bed, depositing her there just as gently as he had before and for long minutes they lay together, kissing and touching eagerly as if discovering each other for the first time.

And like that first time, he kissed his way down her body, ate her pussy until that wave crashed over her once more before he slid himself inside her with a long, deep groan, their eyes remaining locked together until he filled her one, final time.

"Dani..." he said, as she lay enveloped by his body, his cock still buried in her. "I... I don't know how I can ever thank you. I'm... I'm so grateful, so lucky that you were my first... I... I hope it... I hope it was..." He cut himself off, fearing his voice would break as he felt the tingle behind his eyes.

She smiled as she felt his eyes break from hers, saw them glisten, and she took his face in her hands gently, lifting his eyes back to her.

"It was... it was perfect Luke. Everything Servicing should be and... more... so much more than that. It's me who should be grateful. The way you've made be feel these last four days... I... I've... I've never..."

As she trailed off, Luke didn't resist the urge to kiss her again.

"Stay," he said softly as he basked in her warm smile of affection.

And she did stay, though it was pretty unorthodox for a Servicer and a women being Serviced to spend the night together. Technically though, his Servicing obligations in Simonia were complete so falling asleep in each other's arms had nothing to do with their official relationship. It was just what they both wanted, what felt right.

"Thank you again Luke," Dani said again the next morning, showered and ready to go, her hand resting gently on his chest.

Luke just smiled and kissed her softly.

"Maybe... maybe next time you're down Haven way..." he said, a little self-consciously, at least until he saw the broadness of her smile.

"Count on it," she said.

Having made their farewells and loaded their wagon with their own supplies as well as some materials for transport from Simonia, there were smiles all round as they got on the road for La Plage.

For Luke, his first Servicing experience had been more successful that he'd ever hoped or dreamed and, in Dani, he knew he'd make a special connection. She came out to see them off and was delighted to finally meet Bonnie, given all Luke had spoken of her during their time together, and she renewed her assurance to visit them in Haven some day.

And for both Luke and Bonnie, there was undoubtedly a degree of excitement in their smiles. Simonia was as far from Haven as either of them had been and the prospect of journeying through the whole Network as it opened up before them almost made them feel like Scouts. Marcus and Simon smiled knowingly, understanding if not sharing their Team mates' excitement at the six long days of travel they had in front of them on the road to La Plage.

But Luke and Bonnie's excitement never dampened, even as the days turned to weeks, the weeks to months during their long circumnavigation of the Network. At night, they would talk excitedly about their experiences, about how different and intriguing these new communities they'd never experienced were; the hedonism of La Plage, the quiet peacefulness of The Lake, so different from the bustle of Haven.

Everything seemed new and exciting, though they'd heard and learned so much about it all at home. On the road, Marcus and Simon would point out landmarks they'd read about, the communications infrastructure that bound the communities of the Network together, those special locations marked with stones and statues where First Contacts had been made. In Peacetown, or The Glen as many knew it, the Servicing admin had even been kind enough to arrange a tour for them of the nearby hydro-electric station.

And they met so many people, quite apart from the many women Luke Serviced. For the first time in their lives they really started to understand just how big the Network actually was, how much hope there was for the future.

As they left Harbortown for the final leg of their journey, the road home, it finally hit Luke that, if everything had gone perfectly, in just a few months he would be father to nineteen children, nineteen new citizens of the Network, nineteen new bundles of possibility and potential.

It was around midday on the sixty-fourth day after their departure when they at last stepped back through the Main Gate of Haven. A small crowd had gathered to meet them; Karen and Jenna, Alex, Alice and the admin team, Penny, Jake and Lisa, Luke's room mates. They were exhausted but Luke was sure he'd never forget that first warm embrace of home after being away so long. Travelling the Network was a lot of fun, he concluded, but there really was no place like home.

They had the rest of the day to relax and recuperate after their long journey and were scheduled to have their debriefing at the Servicing Centre the following day where, among other things, Luke would learn if his Servicing in the first few communities they'd visited had been successful.

Sally Fraser from the Comms Centre came down to the Gate to welcome them home too, and to tell Luke there was a vid message waiting for him, had been for some time. It certainly piqued his attention, having never received a vid message before. Because of their size and the bandwidth they demanded on the Network's limited data-sharing infrastructure, vid messages were relatively rare, usually the preserve of important trade or Council business.

So he was pretty excited as he sat down at the screen in the Comms Centre, with Bonnie standing behind him, while Sally showed him how to play the message. Somehow though, he wasn't surprised to see Dani's smiling face when it started.

"Hey Luke, I hope you're feeling OK and glad to be home. I know... I know they'll get word to you at your debriefing but... I really wanted to be the one to tell you," he saw her smile and look down towards her stomach before she went on. He felt his eyes glisten and his breathing grow heavy.

"We did it. I'm pregnant. I guess I'll be two or three months along by the time you get this message but... I... I wanted to be the one to tell you and I thought this was... better than a letter. The Comms people normally wouldn't allow a vid message for something like this but... well, I guess there are some perks to being Jim Sullivan's daughter.

"Anyway... Thank you Luke, I...... Thank you. I guess this means I won't get to visit Haven as soon as I'd have liked but... well, that's a small price to pay isn't it?

"Write me... let me know you all made it home OK and... give my love to Bonnie. I hope she's there with you now. I know she knows just how lucky she is Luke. You're a good man. I'm proud that you're going to be my child's father."

He felt Bonnie's hand on his shoulder and he reached to grasp it instinctively as, with his other hand, he wiped the tears from his face. As the message ended, he felt like his heart was going to burst. He stood and embraced Bonnie tightly.

But even as happy as Dani's news had made him, he was still unprepared to learn the next day that, through Simonia, La Plage and The Lake, he had a 100% success rate. Twelve women Serviced, twelve women pregnant.

And over the following weeks, he continued to be disbelieving as word came through from The Glen and Harbortown that he'd maintained his success rate.

Quite apart from coming to terms with the knowledge that he was going to be nineteen times a father in the coming months, life changed quite a bit for Luke in that time.

His living arrangements were maybe the most fundamental.

In normal circumstances, a person in Haven generally had a shared bedroom, like the one Luke shared with Penny, Jake and Lisa, until they had completed the initial phase of their post-school education or training. This generally meant most people were twenty-one or two before they could apply to have their own room.

In Luke's case, although he had a long way to go in his apprenticeship as a carpenter and builder, by virtue of his Servicing Training, he was eligible to apply once he returned from that first rotation.

He'd known in advance that this was the case of course but he hadn't really felt in any great hurry. He knew it would mean having to leave Karen's house, that there were no prospects of any rooms freeing up there, and he knew it would mean leaving Penny and Jake and Lisa. They'd been together for most of their lives and the prospect of living apart from them wasn't instantly appealing. They were everything he knew, everything that was safe and reliable and comfortable.

He'd felt that instinct start to change a little as his relationship with Bonnie started to get more serious. And after nearly ten weeks on the road with her, his desire to be with her all the time only grew. Although she had as long to go in her own apprenticeship in the stables and livery as he did with the builders, because they were in a relationship and because he was eligible, they would be able to apply for a room together, if that's that they wanted.

He knew it was a huge step. He couldn't think of many couples their age who'd taken it. But the more he considered is as their journey around the Network went on, the more it felt right.

Still, it had taken him until the final day of that final leg on the journey home from Harbortown to ask her, when they stopped for lunch. Marcus told him after that he thought someone had seen a red-eye or something when he heard Bonnie scream.

So, a couple of weeks after they got back, and after he'd spoken to Karen and to Penny, Jake and Lisa, he and Bonnie filed their application and were assigned to a room together in one of the newly built houses on what had become known as New Street. There were more than a few tears when he left Karen's house for the final time, although he kept trying to tell himself that, of course, it wouldn't be the final time. His new house was barely three minutes walk away. Still, it was as hard as he'd known it would be.

He knew it would be just as hard for Bonnie, and it was, but there was joy too, for both of them, as they finally walked into their new house together.

The house was built to a design common in the Network, one by Lola McKinnon herself. Spread over two floors, there were seven ample-sized first floor bedrooms, three bathrooms and large, open plan living spaces. It was bright and airy in the summertime and warm and homely in winter.

Luke and Bonnie were assigned the last free bedroom, the other six already occupied by people not much older than themselves when they arrived, including one other couple. At first, it felt a little strange to be living in a house that had no children in it, but when they considered the possibilities that offered, they got used to it pretty fast.

And even though they had no more used for it themselves, Luke still paid relatively regular visits to the Free House, most often with Penny although there were a reasonable number of unofficial revision sessions with Jenna as well. And Lisa, his other former room mate invited him too, as a way of staying connected, she said, now that he wasn't in the house anymore. He'd never had a sexual thought in his life about Lisa but, after that night with her in the Free House, he couldn't deny that she'd had a good point.

They got to know their new house mates pretty fast. They were friendly and outgoing in general and it was a fun place to live. Piper Bennett had the sweetest voice Luke had ever heard. Willy Shriver could fix just about anything. Jane Gonzalez could do things in the kitchen that seemed like magic.

They grew especially close to the other couple in the house, Eva and Peter. Peter was a couple of years ahead of Luke in carpentry and building and Eva and Bonnie shared a love of animals. It was around eight weeks after they'd moved in that Bonnie first raised the idea of swapping.

"Eva and I were talking, you know, comparing notes," was how it had started.

It ended, or at least developed, it never really ended, a couple of nights later with Luke in Eva's bed and Peter in Bonnie's. So that too became a part of their lives and they included some of the single people in the house too, although Bonnie insisted they could never spend the night with someone else unless they were both doing it. They'd gotten too used to sleeping together, she said, to be able to sleep alone. So Luke spent the occasional night with Piper or Jane, while Bonnie slept with Willy or Donny, who worked on the farm.

And so their lives fell into this new pattern easily and comfortably and, although he enjoyed his occasional visits to the Free House or some of the other bedrooms in his own house, most nights Luke knew only a deep contentment as he felt Bonnie's body lying peacefully next to him and his love for her, his devotion to her, only grew.

He corresponded fairly regularly with Dani and she was even able to send him the occasional vid message, 'so you can keep track of my size', she joked. As her due date approached, he started working extra hours and volunteering for additional duties so he could build up vacation days. Peter was a huge help at work, helping to finish tasks faster and staying after to keep him company and lighten the load.

The day his son was born, he was trudging up the hill to the house after another long day when he saw Bonnie racing towards him, glee on her face. Dani had sent word. A fine, strong, healthy boy. Mother and child doing great. He wrote her back right away, congratulated her, told her how happy he was for her, how happy he was! Although it was far from usual or customary for Servicers to have any involvement in the naming of their children, Dani insisted and they settled on Tommy, in honor of Luke's own late father. Dani noted that her own father, having been very close to Tom Jackson, had especially appreciated the choice.

Little Tommy was nearly six weeks old by the time Luke finally managed to take his vacation days. He hitched a ride on a wagon from Harbortown loaded with salvaged metal.

Of course, by then, Cindy's and Mel's children had been born too and, much to Luke's surprise, the three women had organized a little party in his honor on his arrival in Simonia.

Cindy and Mel had both had girls, Cara and Jamie. It was a little jarring to Luke to see how different Cindy seemed outside a Servicing suite, so calm and relaxed. Mel cried when she hugged him, whispering thanks in his ear.

And he got to meet Dani's father, the great Jim Sullivan. Luke was surprised at just how normal, how understated and easy going Jim was. For some reason, he'd expected the Network's most famous citizen to be somehow larger than life.

His three days in Simonia felt very different to the last time he'd been there. Dani showed him the whole community and all around. They spent hours walking in the forests and she showed him this beautiful lake, out beyond her father's house.

But the nights, in Dani's bed, felt incredibly similar to what he'd experienced with her on that last, official trip to Simonia. Her skin was just as soft, her smile just as warm, her eyes just as tender. And her body just as eager.

Shortly before he left to return home, Dani arranged for a photograph to be taken. Working digital cameras were not totally unheard of, but they had unusual access in Simonia to a film camera. The film and the paper used to develop the images were incredibly rare, Dani explained, so it was something of an honor.

As he sat on the shaky wagon on his way home, Luke couldn't take his eyes off the picture. Beneath the sign that welcomed visitors to Simonia, the community motto 'You're Not Alone' framed clearly above his head, he held little Tommy, his first born child, in his arms. Dani was next to him, her arm around him, that warm, broad smile on her face, with Cindy and Mel on the other side of him, cradling his daughters.

He thought back to his first day of Training, how nervous he'd been, even uncertain, and he shook his head and smiled, hoping that one day he'd get to meet his sixteen other sons and daughters, being born even now all around the Network, and the many more that would surely follow in the years to come.