Caleb 50 - Justice

When we were ready, we all - everyone was going - piled into three cars and made for the airport.

Matilda and Emily were waiting for us near the hangar as we arrived. The jet stood, door open, waiting for us to board.

Gerry came down the steps and began to collect our luggage.

I walked over to Matilda and Emily.

Once again, Emily trembled as I approached. I wondered briefly what she had been told about me.

"This is ridiculous," I said as I approached. Matilda looked at me a little surprised.

"What the hell have you told Emily about me?" I asked. "The poor woman looks petrified."

Matilda looked at her companion and her gaze softened.

"She's spent too much time around the rest of the council," said Matilda, "hearing the horror stories about those with Compulsion. It got worse when you broke the binding oath."

I sighed.

"Emily," I said gently. She looked at me. "May I soothe your fear a little? I promise, no Compulsion, just a little Empathy. Matilda is here to see I don't do anything more."

Emily looked at Matilda and then back at me. She nodded still a little fearfully.

A rolled a tiny amount of power over her. Relaxation and safety. She stopped trembling at least.

"I don't know what you were expecting," I said, "but I'm not, we're not, the monsters that we've been painted to be. None of my living family has done any of the bad things you have heard about. You might say that was because of the binding oath, but I've had my powers now for just over a year, and I haven't taken the oath.

"Two of my fiancées have power but the other two are Norms, as are the other two people that live with us. I can't say that I have never Compelled those two. I can, however, tell you with full honesty that each time I have, it has been at their behest. It's kind of a fetish of theirs."

Emily Blushed.

"Why don't you sit with Josh and Louise on the flight," I said, "and talk to them?"

I held out my arm, pushing a little more relaxation and safety over her, and she linked her arm in mine. I guided her gently to the steps of the jet. Most of the others had already boarded with just Dean on the apron waiting for me.

Emily started to climb the stairs, and I stepped back to allow Matilda to follow right behind her. I went over to where their bags were still standing on the ground and picked them up, took them to the back to the plane and climbed the steps. Dean followed behind me and closed the door.

Inside the jet, Cheryl was in her usual seat at the front, the girls and me in our usual place, and Josh and Louise near the back. I directed Emily to go sit with Josh and Louise, and Matilda followed.

After I stowed their luggage, I went to go and take a seat with the girls, but Gerry shouted from the flight deck.

"Caleb?" I went up to the cockpit and he looked up at me.

"Would you co-pilot for me?" he said. "Everything seems to be okay, but I'd feel happier to have you up here in case something goes wrong."

"But I..." I said.

"You know you can fly this bird just as well as I can," he said. "I looked at the telemetry and your landing was perfect. I did consider hiring a second pilot for my first flight, but I thought since you are here..."

I looked back at Dean, he grinned at me. "You are always worrying about saving money," he said. I sighed and slid into the right seat.

"Well," Gerry said, "since you're there, you handle the radio. I've already got clearance to start engines, and the tower frequency is set."

I nodded, put my headset on and contacted the tower to request permission to taxi.

About halfway through the flight Ness shouted up to ask if we wanted coffee. Predictably I heard Dean say "I've told you, don't spoil the hired help..."

Without looking back, and with a timing so precise we might have rehearsed, Gerry and I both held our inboard arms up, middle finger extended. There was a storm of laughter from within the cabin.

Ness was still chuckling as she brought our drinks up shortly after.

The remainder of the flight went without a hitch and Gerry landed us flawlessly in Portland. We taxied to the Signature Flight Services tarmac where there were four dark SUV's waiting.

"I took the liberty of informing Maggie of what was going on," said Matilda as I came out of the cockpit. "She said she'd arrange transport for us all."

Dean opened up the door and people started to file off the plane. When Emily passed me, I smiled at her and was surprised to see her blush; her aura now not showing fear, but the deep rich purple of arousal.

I looked at Matilda and she laughed. "Louise tells some very intriguing tales," she said. "Perhaps when the dust settles, we might spend some time getting to know you?"

I saw Amanda and Mary grinning behind her. Ness was rolling her eyes, but she also had a ghost of a smile on her face.

I shook my head wryly as Matilda deplaned followed by the rest of the girls. Aside from Gerry, I was the last down the steps.

Maggie was standing by the open back door of one of the SUV's looking at me.

I remembered our last encounter and winced. I walked up to her and, before she could say anything, pulled her into a hug.

"I'm sorry," I said.

She stood stiffly for a second before putting her arms around me and hugging me back.

When we separated, she looked up at me.

"I get your frustration," she said. "Believe me I do. I've lived it for the last forty years. Just know that I will always do everything I can to protect you and the rest of my family. I failed somewhat in that respect with the oath..."

I opened my mouth to speak but she held up her hand.

"I did, we all did," she said. "I've spent a lot of time thinking things through since your birthday, and I realized that there were things I could have done, actions I could have taken, that just didn't occur to me."

"But you were bound," I said. "Not only that, you didn't know you were bound. You can't be responsible for that. It's just lucky in one sense that the Eversons needed us around for muscle, otherwise our line might have been extinct by now."

She sighed. "I did say," she said, "in my office that day that I doubted that things would be smooth sailing, so I guess you proved me right." She smiled up at me gently. "Come on," she said indicating the car. Let's get you guys home."

The car with Matilda and Emily set off in another direction and our cars took us all back to the house.

Maggie declined the offer to come and have some dinner with us, claiming that she had things to prepare for the next day. When I opened the door to the house, I was treated to the sight of Gracie's naked ass flashing down the hallway and into her bedroom. The door slammed.

I grinned. She was obviously not expecting us back. I wondered if she had her new man here.

We brought our baggage into the house, showed Dean and Cheryl to the spare room, and Gerry to the den bedroom. When we came out, Gracie had emerged from her room wearing jeans and a t-shirt.

"You didn't say you were coming back," she accused.

"Sorry," I said. "It was a short notice thing. We're here overnight then we're going back up to the ranch. We'll be out of your hair tomorrow."

Gracie bit the corner of her lip.

"It's okay if you have someone here," I said. "It's your home. Why don't you invite them out? I'm just about to start dinner."

Her eyes flitted to her bedroom door which was currently behind me. I heard it open and felt a presence. Turning I went to introduce myself and came face to face with an obviously hastily dressed Dana.

I grinned. "Hey," I said. "It's good to see you. You coming for some dinner?"

She smiled sheepishly. "I guess," she said.

"Perfect. It'll be ready in half an hour or so," I said. "You might want to put your t-shirt the right way out."

Dana blushed but then grinned at me. "Bastard," she said. "You're enjoying this."

"Enjoying seeing two of my friends having fun?" I queried. "Guilty as charged."

Gracie closed with me a little.

"I still owe you that night though," she said and, before I could say anything, Dana also closed in.

"And I still want that taste too," she added.

I was rock hard in an instant which didn't go unnoticed by either of the girls. They both smiled equally predatory smiles.

"Caleb!" Ness said poking her head around the kitchen door. "Put them down and come help with dinner."

I shrugged apologetically to the two girls who practically had me pinned up against the wall by now. They sighed theatrically and let me loose. I headed for the kitchen, adjusting the front of my trousers as I went.

"I came over to pick up a book I left here," said Dana over dinner. "Since it was getting close to dinner time, Gracie kindly invited me to eat with her, and we kind of got talking, and... I guess..."

"The rest is history," I said, grinning.

"Yes," Gracie said, but then her face got a little more serious.

"I needed to talk to you guys though," she said. "You see Dana and I..."

I looked at her, eyebrow raised.

"We were going to start looking for a place," she finished.

"Already?" I asked.

Gracie grimaced. "I know it seems really quick," she said. "But..."

"Tell you what," I said, "and feel free to say no, but we were honestly going to offer Dana the spare room when we returned from break in any case. Why not do that and see what happens? No pressure."

Dana and Gracie exchanged glances.

"Look," I said. "You two talk it over. As I said before, we're only here overnight and then you'll have the place to yourselves again. You can let us know when we come back."

"How much would rent be?" asked Dana.

"He charges us what we'd pay at the dorms," said Josh.

"But that's..." began Dana.

"I know," said Louise, "and we have to fight to pay our share of the food and stuff."

"Dean pays all the bills," I said indicating him where he sat quietly eating his dinner. He didn't look up. This conversation had nothing to do with him as far as he was concerned. "So, I just put what you pay rent into paying for food. That's all."

Dana looked around the table.

"You were going to ask me to move in anyway?" she asked.

Jules nodded. "We all hated thinking of you sitting in your room alone," she said. "But we couldn't really ask you to move in and then all piss off and leave you all alone again. We decided we'd ask after the break."

Dana looked at me.

"I..." she began.

"Don't answer yet," I said. "Let's leave things as they are for now. If you're here with Gracie that's fine and, like I said, we're leaving in the morning anyway and won't be back for a couple of weeks. But we need to talk properly before anything definitive happens."

Gracie looked at me. "You're..."

"I need to speak to Dianna first," I said.

Gracie nodded. "Okay then," she said, then paused. "Okay."

Dana looked from Gracie, to me, and then to the girls. She looked like she might ask something, but decided not to, and went back to her dinner.

"So," said Gracie, "what are you guys doing up here anyway?"

I grimaced. This was going to be a difficult story to tell. Or so I thought.

"Caleb has to go talk to a judge about a case," said Mary. "Someone tried to kill us on our last flight home."

Gracie and Dana both gasped.

"They hypnotized Gerry here," she continued, "and once we were airborne, he could no longer remember how to fly a plane."

"So, what happened?" asked Dana. "How did you manage to land safely?"

"It's MY plane," Dean said pointedly and left it at that.

"Anyway," Mary continued, "since we didn't all die, Gerry was able to tell who had gotten to him, and they were arrested."

"So why does Caleb need to give evidence?" asked Dana. "Surely its Gerry that needs to do that."

"There's a lot of backstory," Mary replied. "It's kind of complicated. But the long and the short of it is that the guy who did it is one of the ones that came to his birthday party. You might have seen them."

"Those three people in the Limo?" asked Dana. "I wondered about them. They didn't stay long."

"We had words," I said.

"Some words," said Dana. "I don't think I ever came out of Ethics class literally wanting to murder you," then she grinned. "There were one or two close calls though."

That raised a laugh from everyone at the table.

We finished dinner and, after clearing up, I went to the range with Dean to pick up my gun.

Hoss was, as usual, at the counter.

"Hi Hoss," I said as I walked in. He frowned.

"I don't have you booked in," he said. "We don't have a lane free."

"I only came to pick up my Glock," I said, laying my CCP on the counter. He picked it up and then looked at Dean.

"This is Dean," I said, "Jules' and Ness' pops."

"Ah," said Hoss, "the Marine." He held his hand out. "Nice to meet you. You trained those girls well."

Dean smiled. "You too. And thanks, although I'm not sure about that. Maybe in shooting. The rest..."

Hoss laughed. "You can only do so much." He said digging in a filing cabinet and pulling out a form."

He made some notes on the form and then passed it to me. "This is a transfer of ownership form," he said. "Now you're old enough and have your permit, you need to sign to say you bought the gun from us."

I signed the form and Hoss went across to a display stand and pulled out a belt holster.

"You'll need one of these," he said, laying it down on the counter in front of me. Dean picked it up and examined it.

"Nice," he said.

I handed over my card without even asking the price. It wasn't a negotiation. Hoss smiled at me and handed it back. "I hear you just turned twenty-one," he said. "Let's call that a late birthday present."

"Thanks," I said grinning at him.

After collecting the gun and some spare magazines, I bought a box of ammo for the Glock and another box for the CQB and we headed home.

When I got back to the house, I put the Glock, and the ammo, into the safe with the CQB. It was a tight squeeze but they just about fit. Dean and I spent our customary hour on the deck just chatting. About half an hour in I heard the tell-tale sound of the gloryhole opening and smiled to myself. I would have to warn Gracie and Dana about that.

The next morning I was out on the deck again, training. About an hour in Gracie came out in her robe and sat on one of the chairs watching me. I finished the Kata I was working through and then looked at her.

"Sorry," I said. "Did I wake you?"

"Not really," she said. "I just wanted to talk to you. I figured you'd be out here and, to be honest, I didn't sleep much last night."

I went and sat down beside her.

"Are you alright?" I asked.

She nodded, then paused, and then shook her head. "I don't know," she said. "I don't know anything anymore."

I took her hand and held it in mine.

"Tell me," I said simply. She looked down, but then peeked at me through her hair which was partially covering her face.

"You don't know?" she asked with a half-smile.

I shook my head.

"When I first met you," she said, "you were just a kid, with powers, who was going to help me cram for my mission. I never even considered you as anything other than that. Oh yeah, we flirted, who doesn't at our age. But I was with James, and you had. . .well, I wasn't sure what you had, but I'd been told that you were spoken for.

"Then you discovered my secret and helped me through it. You gave me a place to stay and you, and the girls, were there for me when I needed someone. Again, I knew your situation and, although I was now free, I was about to go on a mission. We slept together sure, and it was amazing, both with you and with the girls, but even so...

"And then you saved my life."

I opened my mouth to say that Jeevan had done most of the work, but she shook her head.

"I spoke to Jeevan at your party," she said. "He told me that had you not been there, he would have not even started to try and heal me. It was too much for him. He was dubious about it even with you and your power available. I would have died, Caleb. Dead. Gone. Done. You saved me.

"When I woke up in the ICU and you were in my head," she continued, "that was when I realised that it was you that had taken away all my pain, and it was you that stayed with me. And I realised that I was in love with you. When you came back that time when Dylan was there and said what you did, I understood what you were doing, and why. You told me long ago that your family was complete and you weren't looking to add to it.

"Then you saved me again, this time from Dylan. Not quite as dramatic, although he was a big enough drama queen for it to be. I honestly thought I'd never get away from him, but you took care of him - of me - and put me back on my feet. I'm just about ready to go back to work, just over a month after being left for dead, and it was all because to you.

"Then I met Dana. I'd seen her around here, sure, but hadn't really paid much attention to her. She was just another girl that hung around you. But then she came over while you were away and we got to talking and, oh I don't know, she lit something up inside me. Something that had only burned recently for you.

"When she eventually told me who she was, I was shocked at first. Not at the revelation, but at how unimportant that was to me. I would have been sure that I would have freaked if presented with a trans woman in the past. Hell, I've only just started being interested in women, and now I fall for one and...

"But it didn't matter. She wasn't girl Dana or guy Dana - she was just Dana, the person I fell for. Caleb, I think, I think I love her."

I smiled at her gently. "And?" I prompted her.

"I still love you," she said. "My love for you, and for her, it's different somehow. I can't tell you she replaced you because you're still there, but..."

"But I'm not your number one anymore?" I asked still smiling.

She nodded, looking apprehensive. "I don't know what to think, or to feel."

Gracie jumped as Dana slid her arm around her and sat down beside her.

She had come out onto the deck few minutes before, and I had chosen not to tell Gracie. I wanted her to hear what I knew Gracie was going to say.

"Oh Dana," said Gracie, "I'm so sorry I..."

"Hush," said Dana taking Gracie's hand from mine and clasping it between her own. "I know exactly how you feel. Because you and I. . .we feel the same way. I've been in love with Caleb for months. I've just been too scared to tell him. When he found out I was trans, I thought he'd push me away. Instead, he pulled me closer. Never putting any pressure on me to be anything but who I am.

"One thing I have noticed though is Josh and Louise. Have you?"

Gracie frowned. "Sure," she said, "they've lived here all the time I have."

"But have you really noticed them?" Dana insisted. "Have you noticed how in love they are, how close they are, and how much they are both in love with Caleb?

"I've been observing the dynamic here and there's no doubt. Both of them are head over heels in love with each other. They are each other's first loves, but Caleb is there too, for both of them. Louise told me. She loves Caleb more than she thought she could love anyone, but that love, instead of interfering with the love she had for Josh, just strengthened it, made it more.

"There's something about him, Caleb, that makes people love. They love him, but it also makes them love others too, and their love for him doesn't preclude that. I was overjoyed to hear you tell Caleb that you thought that you loved me, because, Gracie, I have been quietly falling in love with you since that first night when I came over to find that book.

"You were so kind and so easy to talk to. I was terrified what you would do when I told you about me, but I had to do it before I fell too deeply in love with you, but you were just...amazing. You ARE just amazing, and I love you."