Caleb 59 - Family

E was standing there with Connie, both looking nervous.

"Hi," said Jules, "I'm Jules. Come on in." They followed her into the living room where everyone apart from Ness and I were. Ness and I followed in after.

"E," I said. He turned to look at me. I made the introductions. The twins went full shining on him.

"Hi," they said in perfect unison. "We've been looking forward to meeting you."

His eyes widened a little, but Connie grinned.

"Do you do that to freak out all the new people you meet?" she asked. The twins both laughed.

"They do," said Josh. "The first time I met them it was creepy as fuck."

"I seem to remember," said Amanda with a smile, "something different happening the first time you saw me."

Josh blushed but grinned. "That's a tale for another time," he said. "We don't want to completely freak them out."

E looked from Amanda to Josh and then to me. I finished the introductions with Dean and Cheryl.

Cheryl gave them both a brief hug. "It's lovely to meet you," she said. "Welcome to the family."

"We..." started E seeming a little stunned.

Connie stepped in. "Thanks," she said. "Although it is a little overwhelming."

I cleared my throat. "I'm sorry," I said. "But there is someone else coming I wanted you to meet. John has another daughter, Sarah. She and her family should be here soon."

"Sarah?" asked E. "I'd heard about her, but we've never met. She's coming too?"

I nodded. "All things being well, the plan is to remove all three of your amulets today, if you want."

"Wow," said Connie. "You don't do things half way, do you?"

Dean laughed. "That," he said, "is an understatement." He probably would have said more, but there was another knock on our door and, this time, I went to answer it.

Sarah and her parents were standing on the porch.

I looked for Edgar but he wasn't with them. Sarah, seeing my glance, said "We left Edgar with a sitter," she said. "He wouldn't do great with a lot of people all at once."

I invited them in and took them into the living room.

Sarah looked around all the people there nervously.

"Sarah," I said, "this is Mary and Amanda, my fiancées."

"Hi Sarah," they said together, smiling. Sarah smiled back and nodded at them.

"Jules, my fiancée," I continued. Jules smiled and half waved, "And Ness, my fiancée." Ness grinned at her.

"Over there is Josh and Louise, who live here with us," I went on, and they both offered grins and small waves, "and Gracie and Dana, who also live here. So that's every inmate. Next is Dean and Cheryl, who are technically Jules and Ness' parents but have kind of adopted us all. And last but definitely not least this is E, our other brother, and his girlfriend Connie.

Sarah's eyes widened a little at my introduction of E and Connie, but she smiled tentatively at him.

"Hi," she said. "So, you got dragged into this too?"

He grinned at her. "Caleb is kind of persuasive," he said. "Besides I was told he was going to take my amulet off."

"He is?" she looked at him, then at me. "Then..."

"Yes," I said smiling. "The plan is, if you were up for it, to take yours, Melanie's and E's off all together. That way I could explain to you all at the same time some of the rules of using powers, and start to train you in their use."

"Will they show right away?" asked Sarah. "Will I know what powers I have?"

I shook my head. "Mine took a few days to all manifest," I replied. "My Compulsion was the first, although I don't know how long it was between my amulet failing and my first use of power. My empathy showed next a little while later, followed by TK, and I think telepathy was the last to show. It kind of goes without saying that you need to keep a tight hold on yourself and your emotions once your amulet is removed, until you have a handle on what powers you have, and how to control them. Compelling someone could be problematic but not half as much as setting them on fire, if one of your powers happens to be PK.

"Anyway," I finished, "to finish the introductions, and not to be rude to Sarah's parents, Brian, Sarah's dad and Carrie, her mom. Her brother Edgar didn't come today, but I'm sure you'll get to meet him at some point, or at least I hope so."

I looked at Brian and Carrie who were returning acknowledgements to the nods, waves, and smiles they had gotten from those in the room.

"Lunch is ready," said Ness. "We decided a buffet would be best rather than a sit down, so go grab a plate, get some food, and find a seat. The house is kind of full, but you can find seats in here, in the kitchen, or out on the deck. I suspect that the grown-ups," she indicated Sarah's parents, and Dean and Cheryl, "might want to chat."

Dean stood, walking over to Brian and holding his hand out. "Dean Steadman," he said. "I'm Jules and Ness's dad."

Brian took his hand. "Brian Cross," he responded. "Good to meet you." He glanced at Deans arm. "Jarhead?" he asked, and Dean nodded grinning. Both Cheryl and Carrie rolled their eyes knowing what was coming next.

"Squid?" responded Dean and Brian grinned.

"Well," said Cheryl to Carrie. "That's them two MIA for the rest of the day. Why don't you and I get to know each other." Carrie smiled and they both went into the kitchen to grab some food.

"We're going to divide and conquer," said Jules to Connie. "You're with me. As one of the 'norm' fiancées, I'll be able to answer questions from that perspective. Unless you're nervous about leaving him alone?"

Connie shook her head. "I guess I'm going to have to get used to it," she said. "Especially if he has Empathy."

Jules put her hand on Connie's arm. "No," she said. "If you're not comfortable, then stay with him. We can all stay together. I was joking about dividing and conquering. The last thing we want is for you to feel uneasy."

Connie looked at Jules. "I admit," she said, "I am a little nervous about what happens next."

"Don't be," said Jules gently. "We'll look after both of you. From what Caleb says, it's less likely that E will have Empathy, since he's most likely to have just Compulsion. But even if he does, we'll help both you and him adjust. It's a different way of looking at things, but Caleb showed me his memory of your chat, and the love you have for each other is amazing. You will get through it, I promise."

Connie took a breath and then seemed to make a decision. "Let's go eat," she said, and Jules led her into the kitchen.

E, Sarah, Melanie, and I were left to ourselves. The others in the room filing into the kitchen to get lunch.

"We'd better go eat," I said, "while there's still something left."

"I'm not really hungry," said Sarah, looking nervous. I looked at E and he looked, if anything, slightly nauseous.

"Me neither," he said. "I just want to get this over and then see what happens."

"Okay then," I said. "Let's give people a few minutes. I guess, Sarah, you'll want your parents there when I take off your amulet?"

She nodded. I looked at my watch.

"Let's give them a half hour," I said. "From experience with Dean, when they meet other veterans, it can be difficult to pry them apart."

Sarah grinned. "I know," she said. "And it happens all the time. Dad's always meeting up with vets. Once he starts talking to them, he's gone."

"If you don't want to eat," I offered, "would you at least like a drink?"

"Do you have a beer?" asked E.

I tutted theatrically. "You're not 21 yet," I said. "Underage drinking?"

He looked at me a little amazed but then realized that I was ribbing him.

"It looks like I'm not the only one with a sense of humor," he complained.

I grinned at him.

We all moved into the kitchen. E accepted the beer while Sarah, Melanie, and I each took a soda.

"Are you sure you don't want to eat something?" I asked indicating the table, which was still fairly full of all kinds of food. E regarded it for a moment uncertainly and then picked up a plate. He moved from end to end of the table and, by the time he'd finished, his plate was piled high.

"It's a good thing you're not hungry," said Sarah giggling. "There'd be nothing left."

E glanced down at his plate and then looked embarrassed.

"You should see Caleb when he gets going," said Mary who'd followed us into the kitchen. "That wouldn't even be a snack to him."

Sarah looked at me, eyes wide.

"Using your powers can make you a bit hungry," I said. "You'll find that out." Then I turned back to E.

"How's the knee by the way?" He blushed.

"Oh shit, I forgot," he said. "I don't know how you did it, but I trained on Thursday evening and it feels as good as it ever was. I didn't push it hard, since it wasn't a full week like you said, but I'm really going to give it a workout on our next training session on Monday night. I've also not needed to take the painkillers either."

"Good," I said. "If there are any problems just let me know."

"I'm sorry," he said. "I guess I was sceptical when you said you could heal it and then, with everything else, it kind of slipped my mind. You must think I'm an asshole. I didn't even say thank you."

"It's fine," I said. "I can see how that can happen. See how you go on your next training session. If it's still not right, then let me know and I'll fix it."

I turned to Sarah.

"Did you decide what you are doing about school?" I asked. She glanced at E, a little embarrassed.

"I'd like to go to PSU," she said, "if it's okay?"

"Of course," I said. "And what about moving in here? How about I show you the room on offer?"

She smiled. "That would be good," she said. "Mom?" she called to her mother, who was still chatting with Cheryl. "Come see my room."

I smiled to myself a little at that. It seemed like the decision had been made.

Carrie smiled at her daughter and nodded, excusing herself from Cheryl. She walked over to us.

I led them down the hall and into the room that we'd set aside for her. Dean and Cheryl were sleeping in, what was going to be, Gracie and Dana's roo since they'd elected to stay in the den until probably tomorrow. I led her into the room.

"You can keep or ditch any or all of the furniture," I said. "We can always get new stuff. We just had an ensuite put in. Its not in use until tomorrow, when the grout dries, but you can kind of see how it looks."

Sarah looked around happily. "it's great," she said. "The bed's huge and even with the ensuite there's still room for a desk. I like the furniture."

"Well," I said, "if you do decide to move in, then this will be your domain. You've kind of seen the rest of the house. Ness and I tend to do the cooking, and we have a lady that comes in and cleans a couple of times a week. The twins, Jules, Josh and Louise, and Dana all go to PSU so you'll never be short of a ride there or back, at least until next year. By that time I'm sure you'll probably have your own transportation. The only limiting factor here, at the moment, is parking but I suspect that will work itself out. Worst case we can pave the lawn at the front and that will give us two more slots, but we'll cross that bridge when we get to it."

"What about rent?" asked Carrie.

"I don't charge family rent," I said. And I doubt that our grocery bill will go up markedly with a single extra mouth to feed. Her expenses will be minimal. I'll cover her tuition, books, and anything she needs for school. We can discuss her incidental expenses. If she doesn't want to move in with us, then she can always move into the dorms at PSU. I'll obviously cover that too."

"I don't understand," said Sarah. "Why are you doing all this?"

I sat down on the end of the bed.

"I was brought up an only child," I said. "Until a year ago, I didn't even know I had uncles or aunts. I only found out about John a couple of weeks ago, and Melanie, you, and E just after that. Don't get me wrong, my parents are awesome, and one day I'd love to introduce them to you, but having everyone here, finding Melanie, you, and E, shows me what I missed growing up. I suddenly find out I had a brother and sisters and I missed out on that all my life.

"I was lucky enough to get given some money, more than I need, so why not? Why shouldn't I help my family to get to where they want to be. I get if you don't want to move in here. But either way I don't want to lose you, especially now I've found you."

She looked at her mom. "Your dad's talking to Dean." Carrie said. "Let's see what he says. Cheryl did tell me some interesting tales too."

I looked at my watch.

"I promised E that we'd get his amulet off in a half hour," I said, "and we're already past that. Are you ready?"

Sarah, looking both nervous and excited all of a sudden nodded.

"Let's go out back," I said. "It might be better for you to be laid down when they come off, just in case. The lawn chairs on the deck will be ideal."

"Can I use the bathroom first?" asked Sarah, looking nervous. I smiled at her.

"Sure," I said, showing her the family bathroom. "Come out onto the deck when you're ready."

Carrie and I walked toward the kitchen. She put her hand on my arm once we were a few steps from the bathroom.

"If she comes here," she said, "will you sleep with her?"

"That will be entirely up to her," I said honestly. "I can, and will, make sure that she won't get pregnant until she decides she's ready, and I can, and will, make sure that nobody...not me, nor anyone else...will force, coerce, Compel, or in any way make her do anything she doesn't want to do."

"And if I, or Brian, forbid it?" she asked.

"My answer hasn't changed," I replied calmly. "Sarah is eighteen and capable of making her own decisions. Neither of us has the right to dictate who she chooses to share her bed with. I will be keeping an eye on any boys or men she brings back, just to keep her safe, but other than that she's free to do what she pleases. She will actually be safer here than in the dorms because here she'll have multiple people looking out for her. In the dorms she'll be on her own."

"But will she be safe from you?" she pressed.

"I am not my father," I said. "I understand that he left you with a poor impression of our family. I can only tell you about me and what goes on here. You're asking if we'll end up in bed together, it's possible, likely even, but it will be totally up to Sarah as to who, when, and how."

She sighed. We heard the toilet flush in the bathroom and so we continued into the kitchen.

E looked up as we entered and caught my eye. I nodded. "Let's go out onto the deck," I said.

We went into the garden and I sealed the gloryhole with TK. This was something I didn't want next door peeking at.

Melanie, the twins, Dean, Brian, and Josh and Louise were out here. Connie followed E out, and Sarah joined us a minute later.

I walked over to the lawn chairs.

"Who's up first?" I asked. The three siblings looked at each other. "E's the oldest," said Sarah. I looked at Melanie. She nodded.

"E?" I asked. I saw him mentally bracing himself and he nodded. "Grab a seat," I said indicating the lawn chair. "I don't know what this feels like since I don't know when mine came off. Apparently it stings a bit as it's removed but I'm sure a big strong boy like you can cope." I grinned at him, and he rolled his eyes at me.

Connie sat on the edge of the lawn chair next to him and held onto his other hand.

"Ready?" I asked. He nodded.

Taking the device from my pocket, I held my hand out for his arm. He held it out for me. Turning it over to expose the inside of his wrist, I placed the 'spoon' of the device over the small lump in his wrist and, without pausing, pressed the button.

The LED on the device flashed red and stayed on. E flinched a little and I saw his jaw clench and then the light turned green. When I moved the device away from his wrist, I saw that there was a tiny cut on the inside of his wrist and a tiny metallic disc was still attached to the spoon.

"How was it?" I asked.

"It stung a little," he admitted, "but I've had worse."

I looked at his wrist which had already stopped bleeding. The wound was so small I didn't even consider healing it. It would close up in a matter of minutes and almost certainly be gone in a few days.

"How do you feel?" I asked.

"A little weird," he said. "I can feel something, almost smell something. It smells kind of coppery but," he sniffed, "it's not a smell."

"You're feeling other power users," I said. "You're sensing us, but your brain doesn't know what to do with the information so it's presenting it to you as a 'smell'. You get used to it."

"Oh," he said. "Now what?"

"Now you need to test your powers," I said. "If only we had someone who might want to volunteer to be Compelled."

I glanced in Louise's direction and she grinned at me.

"See Louise over there?" I said. "Fix her in your mind and get her to do something. Before you decide what, remember two things. Josh, her boyfriend is sitting beside her and, probably more importantly, Connie is sitting beside you."

E looked at Connie, and then at Louise. I saw his brow furrow and a tiny thread of compulsion suddenly connected him to Louise.

Instantly Louise stood, put her hand on her chest, and began to recite the pledge of allegiance.

I chuckled. "Good call," I said. "How did that feel?"

"Wrong," he said. "It feels so wrong to do that to someone." He looked across at Louise who had finished the pledge. "I'm so sorry," he said.

She smiled at him. I looked at her aura. Even doing something as innocent as reciting the pledge had her horny as hell. I grinned. She came over and took his hand.

"You're fine," she said. "I volunteered. Caleb has trained his Compulsion a lot on Josh and me. We're used to it."

"Anything else happening?" I asked him. Does anything look different? Can you hear voices or anything like that?"

He shook his head.

"Okay," I said. "That may mean that either Compulsion is your only power, or that the others are not yet ready to manifest. If anything else happens, or you do anything else like move something, then let me know. Try not to get into any stressful situations if you can. No dizziness or pain?"

He shook his head.

"Okay then," I said. "We'll chat more about powers when I've taken the other amulets off since I'll be telling all of you pretty much the same thing. I'll also do a little training with you before you go."

He nodded and turned to Connie. "You okay?" he asked.

She smiled at him and leaned in, kissing him gently. "I love you," she said. He blushed a little since we were all looking at him, but he smiled at her.

"I love you too," he said softly, "forever."

They embraced, and I decided that perhaps we'd move to one of the other lawn chairs for the next one since E and Connie were using that one.

"Who's next?" I asked. Sarah and Melanie looked at each other.

"Melanie's next oldest," said Sarah.

Melanie arched an eyebrow at the younger girl, but walked over and took a seat on the next lawn chair. Jules came and sat by her, taking her other hand and squeezing it gently. Melanie smiled at her.

I moved to Melanie's side and she held her hand out to me. I squeezed it briefly before turning it over to expose the inside of her wrist. I looked at my device and noted that the 'spoon' was clear. I wondered what had happened to E's amulet. It must have dropped onto the floor. I determined to make sure to catch Melanie's. I was certain that Jules would want to take a look at at least one of them.

Placing the 'spoon' over the small lump in Melanie's wrist I pushed the button. Once more the LED turned red and then, after a moment, turned green. Melanie didn't even flinch. I suspected that she'd had so much pain in her life that this didn't even register with her. Straight away I looked at the spoon but there was nothing there. I looked at Melanies' wrist. Nothing. I wondered what happened to the amulet. Right now, though, Melanie was my prime concern.