Caleb 11 - Opening the Back Door

I felt her stiffen as she woke, and then she began to sob.

"Amanda?"

"Happy tears."

She rolled over to face me, letting me see them.

"Thank you, Caleb," she said. "That was everything I hoped it would be."

"It's me who should be thanking you," I said. "My only concern is I have no idea how anything could ever measure up to that again. Am I doomed to a life of disappointment?"

She smiled. "I'm sure we will be able to come up with something."

I offered her a fist bump. "It's something of a tradition, apparently," I said as she obliged.

We both spoke at the same time.

"Caleb," she began.

"Amanda," I said.

She giggled and I smiled. I loved that sound.

"Please," I said. "You first."

"This may sound strange," she said, "given the way Mary and I keep encouraging you to 'share' - and we will. We love to share. Both of us are really looking forward to Debs sharing with us, and anyone else, male or female, we want to invite, but..."

She looked uncertain, but I knew what she wanted to say, because it was exactly the same thing I wanted to.

"But our family is complete now," I said. "You, me, Mary, Jules. That's all I need and all I could ever want. If at some time in the future some kids come along, then that's something else, but as far as the 'adults' are concerned, we're closed to admission."

She looked at me, biting her lip."You don't mind?"

I laughed. "Three months ago, I thought I was bound for a monogamous relationship. I wasn't sure who, or even what gender, they would be, but I thought that when I found 'the one' that would be it.

"And then I found Mary, and then you and Jules, and you are all 'the one.' Even without the bond, I could no more be without you or Mary than my head, and the same goes for Jules.

"I never wanted a harem. I just wanted someone to love, and who would love me. And I have found them."

"But what if you..." she began.

"What if you... or Mary, or Jules?" I countered. "If that happens, we will deal with it then. Yes, it is possible that any one of us might fall for someone else. If that happens to Jules and she wants to leave us to be with that person, then I will be personally devastated, but she deserves to be happy.

"The bond makes our situation a little more complicated. If any of us falls for a new person, then we are going to have to discuss it. But for right now, I don't think I want anyone else in this relationship. I am more than happy with those who are currently involved, and I'd love to spend the rest of my life proving it."

I heard a sniff from the door and saw that Mary and Jules were standing there. We had been so tied up in each other that neither of us had noticed their return, even through the bond.

Jules came over and climbed on the bed beside me.

"I'm not going anywhere," she said. "There is no way I could ever find anyone that I could love as much as I love you guys."

I smiled at her and pulled her in for a hug.

She wrinkled her nose. "You stink, by the way."

I saw Mary look at Amanda, and then Mary's eyes glazed over for a second. I guess she had shared the memory of our time together.

"Hey, that's cheating," I said. "Now I have to think up something new."

Mary smiled at me, tears running down her cheeks.

"If you make it that good," she said, "I don't care if you repeat yourself a little, but Jules is next in any case."

I looked at Jules. "You want to do something with just me?" I asked, wondering what she had in mind. I was thinking of movies or a night out.

She smiled a little bashfully.

"Tomorrow, with luck, will be the last day of my period," she said. "I was hoping that Tuesday night, you might like to help me 'scratch my itch.'"

I pulled her closer. "I would love to help you," I said.

"You still stink!" she said, pulling away. "Go shower."

I let Amanda use the bathroom first, giving her some privacy to clean up from our activities. I guess I could have used the family bathroom, but I busied myself stripping the bed and taking the laundry to the utility room.

I ran into Josh and Louise in the kitchen as I walked through, naked. I grinned at them.

"Oh hey, congrats," I said, offering Louise a fist bump.

She looked at Josh, a little annoyed.

"Sorry Louise," I said. "If you want to keep stuff like that private, then don't sing so loud when it happens."

Josh laughed and Louise went scarlet, but then relaxed and laughed also.

"Sorry," she said. "Considering all we have done together I shouldn't be bashful."

"Amanda was so jealous that you lost it before she did," I said.

"I'm sure you'll get to it," Louise said, before looking at me again. "Oh, I guess you already got to it, which is why you smell like a backstreet brothel and are changing the sheets." She offered me another fist bump.

I shook my head. "She wasn't my first, but I was hers."

"She was your first woman, though," Louise said, holding out her fist.

I gave up and bumped her.

I put the sheets in the washer and made my way back to the bedroom. Jules had remade the bed and Amanda was out of the bathroom. I went and showered. After that, I spent a couple of hours in the garden, doing some martial arts training, took another quick shower, and then decided I was going to try my hand at cooking dinner for us all.

About ten minutes in, Mary came and rescued me, and we spent an enjoyable couple of hours cooking and then eating a meal together, everyone gathering around the table and complimenting me on the beans I had managed to not destroy.

I needed to learn to cook.

Since I would be having a training session early the next morning, I had an early night, and went to bed, accompanied by Amanda.

"You don't need to..." I began. It was quite early for her.

"I want to," she said. "To use the vernacular, I'm fucked." She grinned at me.

"Are you okay?" I asked. "I didn't hurt you?"

"A little, but it was a good hurt," she said. "Right now, I'm floating on air."

I remembered that Jules' pain block would expire in the early hours of the morning, so I checked in on her with my powers. I could still see the pain signals firing, so I extended the block for another twenty-four hours. I made a note to check her again tomorrow.

I pulled Amanda to me and curled up behind her, soon falling into a dreamless sleep.

When I got to the gym the next morning, James was not alone. There was a small woman standing with him who looked to be about fifty, with iron-grey hair pulled back into a tight bun and spectacles. She looked me up and down and sniffed disapprovingly. I raised an eyebrow at James.

He grimaced. I could see in his aura he was dreading what was about to happen.

"Caleb," he began. "I would like to introduce you to Maggie Forbes. Maggie, this is Caleb."

"I'm pleased to meet you," I said politely. She just stared at me.

I stood relaxed and waited. I had an hour and a half to kill, so if she wanted to play games then I would be happy to go along.

"A pleasure to have met you," I said to her at eight o'clock, and I left to go shower before breakfast. If nothing else, the ninety-minute meditation had done me some good.

+++++

"Who?" asked Mary, as I queried her about the woman.

"Maggie Forbes," I said. "Small woman, I would guesstimate in her fifties, although if she is a power user, I have no idea. Gray hair."

Mary shrugged, although I felt something awry in the bond.

"So, you do know her, but have been told not to warn me about her," I concluded. "Whom by - her, or Dianna? And by what right?"

"Caleb, please," Mary said, "it's not always that easy."

I considered, for a fleeting second, just pulling the information from Mary's mind. She wouldn't even know I had been there. But that would be a violation of trust. Even if I felt that she had violated my trust already, I couldn't do that to her. It was one thing overhearing errant thoughts, but purposely digging into someone's mind without their consent, that was something else.

I picked up my phone and called Dianna.

"Caleb," she said upon answering. "What can I do for you?"

"You can tell vinegar tits that I won't be training with her in the future," I said. "She stepped over the line telling my girls to lie to me."

I heard Dianna sigh.

"Maggie likes to make her own assessment of her trainees," she said. "If the girls had told you, then you would have been prepared for her."

"Well, I am prepared for her," I concluded, "for her to fuck off and leave us alone. I don't need her meddling in my private life. My relationship with the girls is built on love and trust. How much can I trust them if someone like her can order them to withhold information from me? If anyone, and I mean anyone, told me to withhold information from them, then I would go tell them to take a walk. I guess I am starting to appreciate my status in the pecking order."

I put the phone down, looked at Mary, and left the table to go to my first class.

Once again, I was mad as hell.

I was mad with the Forbes woman, but I was even madder with Mary, who had agreed to do whatever this woman had wanted. I didn't know where Amanda stood, but I guessed that she had been told the same thing. I wondered what she would have done in the same circumstances.

I skipped English, not wanting to speak to Mary just then. Instead, I went to the gym and did an hour's worth of martial arts practice. At lunchtime, I chose to run around the track. I wasn't hungry in any case.

I just didn't understand. I thought the bond meant that we were supposed to be there for each other - a solid unit, unassailable from the outside, looking out for each other and having each other's backs. Or did that only count when it was me having their backs? Was it all one way? I examined the bond and could see the love there, but if that love was true, then how could she so easily be compelled to lie to me, or at least withhold information? I didn't mean Compelled, either. There'd been none of that; I would have seen it. They'd been asked, told, or convinced to do it, and I struggled to imagine what would convince me to do the same to them.

I was coming around the track for the fifth time when I saw Jules sitting on the bleachers, waiting for me. For an instant, I considered running right by, but I supposed she was blameless. I sincerely doubted anybody had looped her in.

I jogged up and plonked myself onto the bench beside her.

"Hey you," she said. "How's it going?"

"Jules, I love you," I said, the corner of my mouth turning up. "And I love Mary and Amanda. But right now, I'm mad, certainly at Mary, and probably at Amanda too. Am I going to be mad at you too?"

I looked into those brown pools and hoped against hope she wasn't part of it.

She nodded. "I'm sorry Caleb," she said. "They made me swear an oath not to tell you."

I sighed and climbed to my feet. Again, I knew I could easily pluck the information from her mind, but I couldn't do that to her.

"I'm sorry too, Kitten," I said and ran on.

Amanda was standing outside my first, afternoon lesson in the science block. I nearly turned around and walked away. It wasn't that I didn't want to see her. I just really didn't want confirmation that all three of the girls that were supposed to love me - that should have my back and that I should be able to trust one hundred percent - had chosen to prioritize something or someone else.

Amanda, as always led with her heart. "Caleb, you know we love you," she said. "Please don't be mad at us."

"Do I?" I asked. "Then tell me, who is Maggie Forbes? And by what right can she tell you to lie to me, or at least withhold information? We are bonded - supposedly an unbreakable bond of love and trust, only I'm not feeling much trust. So, Amanda, tell me: who is she?"

Her eyes filled with tears. "I can't tell you. Please don't ask me."

I nodded my head sadly. Again, the temptation to reach into Amanda's mind and just extract the information was there, but I pushed it away. If she was unwilling to share it with me, then I had no right to violate her mind to steal it from her.

I closed the classroom door as I entered, leaving Amanda standing outside. I remembered nothing at all from the lesson.

I needed to think, to decide what to do. I needed some peace and quiet. It was too noisy. Then I realized where I was.

I climbed the stairs until I was facing the door to the roof, which had been kept locked since the university had heard of Jules' attempt.

It took me longer than it should have to use my TK to open the lock. I stepped out onto the roof, walking over to the parapet. I leaned on it, looking down at the scene below. I was on the other side of the roof to that which Jules had chosen, and was overlooking the quadrangle.

The parapet came up to my chest. I had no intention of throwing myself over, I just wanted some peace to think and decide what to do next.

Being on the roof reminded me of Jules, and I wandered around to where she had been sitting on the parapet, legs dangling over the drop below. I was disappointed in Jules, but I could understand how she might get bullied into holding back information, especially if she could be convinced that there was a good reason, and that the information wasn't that important in any case. What had devastated me was that the twins had gone along with it. The bond was supposed to be an unbreakable, unimpeachable link. It was the foundation on which I had started to rebuild my faith in both me and those around me. According to Dianna, those girls were supposed to be mine, just as I was theirs. As far as I was concerned, it would be impossible for me to withhold information about anything from them, even if, for some unfathomable reason, I felt it was the right thing to do. I didn't understand how the same couldn't be true the other way.

I checked my tell again. I wasn't in an illusion... Still, I couldn't shake the feeling that something was wrong. I did have faith in the bond. I did trust my girls. I reconsidered: what was more likely, that the twins somehow violated the bond without me knowing, or that James had figured out my tell, and had accounted for it in the illusion?

I was curious as to how he had gotten through my shields, but the more I thought about it, the more I became convinced that that was what was happening.

I felt a wicked grin flicker on my lips. I thought about payback. If I was certain I was in an illusion, I could put on a show of my own for anyone watching. I could run amok, cause mayhem, and make them think I'd completely lost my mind.

The problem was that I wasn't certain. My faint flicker of feeling powerful and in control vanished, and I got mad - just plain mad.

I imagined the scene below me freezing, and the filmstrip appeared, melting from the middle to leave me staring at James' grinning face. Maggie stood beside him, regarding me coldly. They were both outside of easy punching distance. That was smart.

I turned around and started to walk away.

"Caleb," he said, "we're not done."

"Yeah, we are," I replied, pulling my ID out of my wallet and dropping it on the floor.

"Is that rainy day fund still on offer?" I sent to Mary and Amanda; their response was immediate.

"Of course, what did you need?"

"We need a place to live." I sent. "I just quit my consulting job."

My phone rang: Dianna.

"Caleb?"

"Agent Everson."

"Agent? What? What's going on, Caleb?"

"They crossed the line," I said. "I told him right at the beginning that if he used my girls in the training, my response would be extreme. I think I'm being incredibly restrained."

"Maggie said you stormed off in a snit, like a child."

"And standing there refusing to even acknowledge my greeting was the sign of a mature adult?" I retorted.

"Caleb, you can't just walk away from this," she said.

"No?" I said amiably. "Watch me."

I hung up the phone, and then switched it off. Anyone I wanted to speak to just then didn't need to use a phone. Anyone else could leave a message.

While I walked, I checked my shield. I had been holding it since the last time James had asked me to drop it, and it had degraded. I hadn't been paying attention. The cloak was patchy, and the shield itself had stopped spinning. It was no wonder she'd been able to get through. I had become complacent, and it had cost me.

I reconstructed the shield, and then for good measure created a second one to run inside the first. I covered both with the cloak and then examined them. Collectively, they seemed as good as I could make them. It did make me feel hungry, though, which tracked.

It was still too early for there to be many students in the cafeteria, but they were open, so I decided to get myself a good breakfast. Picking up a tray, I moved along the buffet line, making selections from the displayed trays of food. When I reached the end, I saw that I had selected almost double the amount of food that I would normally eat, but I knew that I needed it. I added a carton of milk and a carton of juice.

"Hungry?" asked the girl on the register, and I grinned at her.

"I'm a growing boy," I said, and she looked me up and down with a twinkle in her eye.

"You look fully grown to me," she returned as I paid.

I moved to a table, not nearly as keen to flirt as usual. I had barely started eating when James and Maggie pulled out the chairs opposite me and sat down. I ignored them both and continued to eat.

"Caleb," Maggie opened. "James..."

"Ms. Forbes," I cut her off.

"It's Assistant Deputy Director, actually," she said a little snippily.

"Apologies, Assistant Deputy Director Forbes," I corrected myself. "I don't recall allowing you the use of my given name. I would prefer it if you would address me as Mr. Stott."

"Caleb," James started.

"And I would prefer it if you didn't address me at all," I said to him as I went back to my breakfast.

"How long do you intend to sulk like a petulant child?" she asked. I noted she didn't address me by name.

"Sulk?" I asked, raising my eyebrows. "I'm not sulking. We had an agreement. He broke the agreement, so our relationship is terminated." I continued working my way through my breakfast, not looking at them.

"You were becoming complacent," she said. "Your shields were a joke, and he figured out your tell. You had to be corrected."

"All good points," I said, cutting into a particularly tough piece of bacon, "and ones I would have been delighted to be corrected on, but we had an agreement. The twins were not to be used in training. I warned him of the consequences."

"And we didn't use the twins," she said. "We used an illusion. To put it another way, we've been bending over backward to accommodate you, even though the entire point of this training is to get you ready for when somebody truly malicious makes a play. Frankly, I'm both disappointed in, and surprised by, James' restraint. Dianna's is equally disappointing, but not surprising. That's why I'm here."

"Well, now you can leave," I replied. "I'm no longer your problem."

"You'll always be my problem, Caleb," she said. "I was hoping you'd be more than just that."

"And what did I say about my name?" I asked, flattening my tone.

"Trust me, young man, I have a lot of other things I'd like to call you right now."

James had a lot of discipline, but I felt him squirming next to the iron lady - if not literally, then at least figuratively. It was only when I felt Ms. Forbes' power amassing that I felt him shift, mentally, into a ready stance. He shot her a quick glance. Her eyes didn't flicker toward his, but I could tell she got the message. Her jaw tensed, but the power dissipated.

"You're a loaded weapon, young man," she said. "You are always going to be my problem until I retire, and some other poor fool replaces me. You can't just wander around without training in how to prevent yourself from being used."