Born Free

"You sure?" Rory asked, not believing a word.

"Rory, the only woman I ever loved, is you, so get that jealous look out of your eye; I see that hasn't changed in seven years," Jeff said with a smirk as he carried the box out to the garage. Where his tool chest sat, waiting for the U-Haul people to deliver the pods. Which would be picked up the same day and delivered to his parents' home. "Decided to help, I see," he mused as he walked back into the guest bedroom.

"The sooner we get you packed and home, the sooner you can start putting babies in me," Rory said in a firm tone. "There is no way that woman will be the only one that gets to carry your child."

"I see, that jealous, are you?"

"I didn't go through all this, Jeff, and not be mad when I hear you've been putting babies into women when you know damn well I've always wanted that?!" Rory huffed as she angrily folded his clothes and roughly sat them on the stack that had been forming.

"Well... how about we get settled into our routine back home, then when you're ovulating, we fuck like rabbits like we did when we were teenagers. I'm sure this fertile womb of yours will have little Rory's growing in you in no time," Jeff mused as he stepped up behind her and reached around, his hand lightly rubbing her stomach in a small circle as he said that.

"Promise?" Rory asked, rubbing her ass into Jeff's groin.

"Have I ever lied to you?" Jeff whispered as he lightly tugged Rory's right earlobe just like he always did.

"No, you should want to put babies in me; I am going to be your wife the moment you're free of this bitch," Rory said, so very pleased that Jeff hadn't forgotten all the little things to get her turned on. "Just like we planned on before, you had to go and be the hero," she teased as she leaned back into him. "Now let's finish packing, then I'll take care of big Jeff just like I promised," Rory cooed, lightly smacking Jeff's right cheek.

Eve didn't come home that night. Instead, she decided to stay with her sister. She couldn't face Jeff (or Mike as she knew him), not when he had another woman in their house. Which was fine to Jeff; it gave him extra time to catch up with the woman he had to leave behind. Something that lasted well past midnight. Jeff was surprised that the cops weren't called due to the screaming and moaning Rory was doing when he had her cumming on his tongue, fingers, and cock.

"Mike, can we talk?" Eve asked, watching how he and the woman she had never seen before packing up the two pods that sat in their driveway.

"What is it, Eve?" Jeff inquired, holding up his hand when Rory started to speak, listening to her huff as she stomped off to the garage.

"I see you're moving out," Eve observed.

"No, I'm going home," Jeff corrected.

"But... I thought Reading was your home?" Eve stated, confused, her eyes cut hard to the strange woman when she snorted. "And just who is she anyway?"

"Me?" Rory's voice perked up; she had been waiting to lay into the woman that mistreated her man. "I'm the woman Mike (using his false name so Eve couldn't track Jeff down if she wanted a second chance with her man), should have married in the first place. I'm the one that's going to ensure that he's never going to need another woman in his life. That's who I am."

"Oh," hurt flooded her eyes at Rory's words, "I've signed the papers; I'm not going to fight you on the divorce. I caused this. I'm so, so sorry for what I have done to us. I don't know what got into me. I still don't know how that man hoodwinked me into betraying you. I'm sorry for being so weak as to fall under his spell. I hope in time you can forgive me for what I've done. You were never at fault; I was the one not strong enough to hold to my vows," Eve said, stepping up to him, placing her hand on his chest. Feeling the man that had swept her off her feet years ago. Knowing this would be the very last time she would ever be able to do so, she had a feeling once he was gone, she would never see him again. "I hope wherever you're going, you'll find happiness, and I'll never forget you," she said, rising onto her toes and kissing her soon-to-be ex-husband on his lips. Feeling that connection one last time that she had willingly destroyed by her own selfishness. "I'll send your lawyer the check for the house when it sells. I hope you're safe wherever you're going. Maybe in time, we can at least be friends. I might have cheated on you, Mike, but that didn't mean I didn't love you. Maybe I got blinded by Stan's words, but that love is still there. Take care of him since I failed to do so like the wife I should have been. Goodbye, Mike, I'll never forget you," Eve said, seeing Rory nod before walking to her car and heading off to work with tears in her eyes.

"Come, we have lots of packing left to do," Rory said, tugging on Jeff's hand.

With the pods loaded and locked, waiting for the U-Haul people to arrive to cart them off for their cross-country trek. Jeff's pen moved over the title of his car, hearing the scratching of it as the ball moved along the paper on the hood of his car. Handing over the keys to one of his former co-workers who had bought it for half of what Jeff did just so he could sell it quickly and so his co-worker's son would have something to drive. Shaking the man's hand when he dropped the keys into the hand of the very happy teenager. Nodding to the man when he said to call if Jeff ever needed a hand with... anything. Jeff might not have been in their brotherhood, yet he had earned their trust by keeping his mouth shut and giving a few alibis when the cops came asking.

The rumble of the bikes' engines played on the early morning air as Rory and Jeff set out in the driveway for their multi-day journey back to Rio Rancho. They had stayed one last night in the house so they could get a full day of riding in before they had to stop for the night.

"You ready to go home?" Rory asked, looking over at Jeff as he eased his sunglasses on.

"Where I belong? Oh, hell yeah," Jeff replied with a warm smile.

"Good, because you are never leaving my side again," Rory stated with firm determination as she switched her bike into first gear and pulled out, followed by Jeff.

How Rory loved seeing him riding beside her on the interstate. That feeling of completeness filling her heart at the sight of him on his '46 Flathead. How the wind played along his clothes as they just cruised down the road at sixty-five miles an hour. While it only took a little over twenty-seven hours to drive from Reading, PA, to Rio Rancho, NM, they stopped every ten hours to give their bodies a rest from the long ride they both experienced together. When they stopped, after they fueled their bikes and bodies, Rory and Jeff could be heard by the passing guests of the motel they were staying at as they weren't exactly quiet.

It was around two in the afternoon when Jeff and Rory rolled into his parents' driveway. Flipping his kickstand down, seeing the pods had already beat them there, seeing the shadows moving behind the curtains. Holding out his hand to Rory, who didn't hesitate to fill it once she to got off her bike. A warm, loving smile graced his lips as his mother burst out of his childhood home, screaming his name with her arms outstretched as she ran towards him with his father quickly following behind. Jeff felt slightly embarrassed when his mother planted kisses all over his face in her excitement. Rubbing her back as she just rocked him as she hugged him hard after seven years of not seeing one another. His father took hold of his face, his eyes moving over it, studying the man Jeff had turned into in this exile before he too hugged his son long and hard. The two brothers looked at one another, knowing it was Adam's folly that had caused his brother's disappearance from their lives when he tried to be like his older brother, yet he wasn't cut out for the criminal life. Still, that didn't stop the warm embrace the two of them shared after Jeff got a good look at the man that his brother had grown into.

"You aren't planning on running off again, are you?" Kadin asked in a teasing tone as she guided her son back into the home that had missed his presence.

"No, Mom, I'm home for good, I hope," Jeff answered, looking over at Rory, who shot him that knowing smirk of hers.

"Good, good, no more running off. My heart can't take it," Kadin said, affectionately patting her son's hand.

"Have the two of you eaten?" his father asked, looking at the two of them, not bringing up the fact of how Rory was holding onto his son. He knew the moment she found where Jeff was, there was no stopping her from bringing him home.

"No, Mr. Briggs, we rode pretty much nonstop once we got up this morning," Rory said with a warm smile on her lips.

"Adam, come help me fire up the grill, and we'll get some food into your bellies," his father said in a loving tone.

"Tell me you have some of those bratwursts?" Jeff pleaded; that was the one thing, other than his family and Rory, he'd missed since fleeing to Reading.

"I believe I do," his father nodded with a grin. "You want one or two?"

"Two, been starving since we skipped breakfast," Jeff chuckled, patting his stomach.

"We'll you two go sit, get comfortable, and I'll bring you something to wet your throats," Kadin said affectionately.

"Now tell me all about where you lived for the past seven years," Kadin said, sinking down into the chair across from them once she had handed them their drinks.

And so, it was late into the night when Jeff and Rory left to go to her apartment, only to be guilted into spending the night at his parents' home just so they could all have a warm breakfast together. After breakfast and an hour or two with Jeff and Adam hanging out a bit showing his older brother what he has done with his life after he left town. Rory took Jeff over to her... their apartment. Soon upon entering the bedroom, Rory leapt into his arms, wrapped her legs around him, and christened their bed and home in the smell of their sex for the next three hours. Jeff and Rory rode over to her father's home. His old gang was all there, having been told of his return. Who led Jeff into a private room and made him an offer. Rory's father knew all about the setup at the shop Jeff had worked at since fleeing Rio Rancho. He knew Jeff's character, so he knew Jeff could be trusted with the gangs' money and bikes. Rory's father already had the building; he was just waiting for Jeff to get back before retrofitting it to serve as a money-laundering front. He knew his daughter was trying to keep Jeff out of the gang life again, and he respected that. Yet he needed someone he could trust on the inside of the shop to watch over the business. Plus, he had two people who had been wounded and could no longer ride with them, yet they were still a part of the gang. Who would work under Jeff to ensure everything was kosher. A month and a few weeks later, Rory and Jeff tied the knot like it should have been when they turned eighteen. While it was a rough start getting the shop up and running, Jeff soon had it rolling along and turning out bikes that were selling nearly as quickly as they could build them. Rory still worked for the same hospital, yet when their first child came along, she opted to seek other employment in a hospice without the long hours and better pay than what the hospital was offering so she could spend as much time as she could with her daughter, then two years later their son was born. One could say it was a happy marriage, yet like all marriages, it was a work in progress. They argued, fought, and threw things, but in the end, their love never waned.

What happened to Eve, you ask? After she had come home to find the house cleared of everything related to Mike, she broke down. More so when she got the divorce decree in the mail. She had ended up quitting her job and moving up north. Where she found suitable work in Buffalo. In the early days of her divorce, she did wonder how Mike was doing. If that woman she had seen was treating him right and so on. Soon as the years passed, Mike gradually left her mind. That didn't mean she had forgotten her greatest mistake of her life. She could never forget that. So on a warm day, five years after their divorce, Eve met a rather shy and charming man. After a few months of dating, she told him the whole truth about what had happened to her marriage and why it failed. She didn't sugarcoat anything, didn't lie about what she had done, didn't demean Mike in any way. She had ruined one relationship with her lies, and she wasn't about to do so again. After a few days of not hearing from him, Eve was sad at the thought that she had scared him off. Only to find him standing at her door on the third night after her revelation. Eve knew after that he had watched her like a hawk for a month, yet she wasn't ever going to be that foolish again. Not if she had another chance to be happy. Which she did a year later when she and her second husband married. They had three children together and stayed happily married until Eve died of a heart attack at the age of sixty-eight.

The End.