Fallout

Ryan sat speechless as the limousine rolled through the neighborhood. Across from him sat his new children. Lisa slept silently and Henry sat quietly, babbling and cooing in his car seat. Under his right arm, his closest friend, confidant, and new wife, sat Thaelor, a wide, satisfied grin on her face that stretched ear to ear. In this moment, Ryan felt that this one, was the best in his life. After everything he had ever been through, all the hardships and heartaches, this one was the one that life had prepared him for. Total bliss with HIS family. All of the sudden, the car began to slow, almost lurching to a full stop.

"Reggie, Ryan shouted to the driver. What the heck is going on?"

"Sir...I'm almost at the address, but the streets are crowded with people."

Thaelor moved to the window, a gasp escaping her lips. "Oh My God."

The street leading to the Senator's mansion was absolutely overrun with a throng of people. As the car continued forward, many of the gathered multitude began beating on the car windows. Most of them reporters and paparazzi asking a myriad of questions that blended into a cacophony of noise. Enough to awaken Lisa from her slumber and shake Henry from his place of bliss. Both children beginning to cry from fright. Ryan's irritation began to show as he wanted to remove his children from their seats and quiet them down. But the assembly of humanity wanting answers from the siblings was making that an impossible proposition. Since they had to say goodbye to their father, the late Senator Robert Morrison, the country had been in mourning over the fall of one of its most beloved Civil Servants. Now the siblings were trying to get home and decompress from the most tragic entry in their lives. If only the people knew of the true Senator Morrison, they might not be so quick to lionize him. As the car inched toward the gate, the siblings were happy that the security detachment came forward to quell the mob. Several heavily armed members stepped forward to push the throng back away from the property. A large man, wearing the uniform of the Marines stepped toward the car. The driver instinctively lowered the back window to allow the occupants to answer his challenge.

"Identification please." He said.

Ryan knew of the man from just his visage. Master Sgt. Paul Morrow had been a part of the detachment for the past 4 years. He was a decent enough man, and Ryan was all too happy when he found that Paul's assignment had been extended for another 6 years.

"Hey Paul...it's Ryan and Thaelor. We're returning from our trip."

"What's with the crying sir? I had no idea you had kids."

"Paul...it's a long story. I'll have to tell you later when you come up to the house for dinner."

"I can't wait to hear that sir; and by the way, we of the Security detachment are all sorry for your loss and send our condolences."

"Thank you Paul. We'll talk to you later."

The car sped through the gate. The siblings watched as the men of the detachment stopped several photographers trying to squeeze through. From the rough way that they were handling the situation, they had no doubt that the ones still on the outside would get the very clear message...the property was off limits.

"That's going to leave a mark." Ryan replied watching the fracas be resolved in the rear window. "No kidding. Thaelor added. Those guys will be feeling that ass whipping for months." As the limo crept up the remainder of the drive, Ryan's eyes watched the top steps to the mansion. Sure enough, their faithful Butler Steppan stood ready to receive his charges. But this time, he was not alone. A short, bundle of nerves jiggled next to him in pure excitement. The siblings favorite cousin Britney.

"Did you know about this?" Ryan asked in an almost annoyed voice.

"Yeah...I texted her we were on the way home while we were on the plane. She was adamant about meeting us here." Thaelor answered. "I hope you don't mind."

"You didn't tell her...did you?"

Thaelor looked at the floor. In a sheepish voice she simply answered...."No."

When the car came to a stop, Britney bounded down the steps to greet her family. The grin on her face was undeniable and stretched the entirety of her face. Thaelor opened her door and rushed to meet her cousin just as the wheels came to a halt.

"Thhhhhaaaaaaeeeeellllllorrrrrr!!!!!!!" The pint sized relative howled.

Thaelor ran around the back end of the vehicle and hugged her cousin. Her face gave the new mother a boost in spirit just to see her. "Oh my God....I missed you so much!!!"

"It's good to have you home young lady." Steppan added as he marched down the stairs.

As the cousins hugged, the ring on Thaelor's hand turned, scrapping the back of her tiny lover.

"Ow Thaelor...what the hell was that?"

"Oh...that...ummm..."

"Hey hon...a little help here please?" Ryan remarked. His hands full with the newest addition to their life...a pink blanket named Lisa.

"Master Ryan...what is..."

Just then, the driver reached in and filled his hands with the blue blanket named Henry. Britney's mouth dropped. Grabbing Thaelor's wrist, her eyes fell onto the huge diamond encrusted wedding bands on her cousin's finger, as well as the matching band on Ryan's.

"THAELOR!!!! WHAT THE FUCK?!!!!!!"

Ryan stepped into command mode. He wasn't about to have this conversation out in the open. "Not now!" He demanded. "Steppan, grab the rest of the bags, and meet us all in the house. We'll explain inside."

"Ryan...I..."

"NOW BRITNEY!!!"

Without another word, the three cousin's mounted the stairs, with their driver in tow. Not another word spoken in the open. But one thing was certain...one cousin's countenance had reached DefCon 1.

Upon entrance into the house, Mrs. Michaels stood in the hallway; two of her cleaning subordinates in tow. She immediately sprang into action hearing the commotion from outside. Yet nothing could've prepared her for the site of the two youngest Morrison's holding babies.

"Mrs. Michaels, did 4 huge packages arrive by courier the other day?" Ryan demanded. His voice leaving no doubt that he was now in charge.

"Yes. What exactly are they?"

"They are the twins' new sleeping beds. Have the maintenance crews assemble them in the downstairs guest room and put the children to sleep. If they awaken' I'm sure Myron can come up with something to tide them over until you go shopping for formula later." Handing the pink bundle over to her, Henry being handed to another of the staff. Ryan marched a beeline to the study. He was in dire need of a stiff drink. Thaelor did the same, quickly following on Ryan's heels. Steppan and Brittney close behind.

Upon reaching the study, Ryan walked over to the bar display. He had hoped this would go over better than what it was shaping to be. He certainly wasn't expecting Britney to be there. And by the look on her face, she was not at all happy with the new "marital" development that had occurred. But as any builder can attest, all problems needed to be solved, one at a time. Filling a glass with his father's favorite bourbon, Ryan jumped at the sound of the rolling door being slammed. To his surprise, it wasn't Britney that made the abrupt noise...but Steppan. In the entire time Ryan had known the man he loved like a 2nd father, he had never seen Steppan so upset. His skin was blacker than normal, no doubt a testament to the blood racing through him, the vein in his forehead pulsing noticeably.

"WHAT THE HELL HAVE YOU DONE RYAN?!!!! HAVE YOU LOST WHAT LITTLE MIND I TRIED TO INSTILL IN YOU? WHERE THE HELL DID THOSE KIDS COME FROM?!"

"That's what the fuck I WANNA KNOW!!!" Britney added.

"If you two will calm down, I was going to explain..."Ryan countered.

"EXPLAIN WHAT?!!!" Steppan interjected. "I'm neither blind, nor stupid!!! How were you going to explain; that somehow, you have married your SISTER?!!!!"

"Steppan...I think you need to take a seat..." Thaelor responded.

"OH NO!!!! I THINK I HAVE SAT BY LONG ENOUGH!!!"

"Steppan...I love you...but right now you need to lower your voice and have a seat."

"NOT A CHANCE!!!"

"STEPPAN; MY FATHER IS DEAD, I AM THE INHERITOR OF HIS ENTIRE ESTATE, WHICH MAKES ME MASTER AND COMMANDER OF THIS HOUSE, WHICH MEANS YOU!!! NOW SIT DOWN!!!!"

Steppan met the eyes of the young man and woman whom he had tried to raise as his own. His heart sank, his face fell. But even as he sat on the old leather couch, his resolve of anger would not dissipate. Thaelor, ever the courtesan, brought him a fresh glass of spirits. The ice already melting as he took it in his hands.

"Now..." said Ryan in a lower tone. "If you must know..."

Just then the door slid open. Mrs. Michaels walking in and closing the partition behind her.

"What in the Sam Hill is going on in here? What's with all the shouting?!! And Ryan...where did those two come from?"

"THESE TWO APPARENTLY!!!" Britney snapped. In the maelstrom of noise, Ryan and Thaelor had almost forgotten about her. By the way she paced back and forth, it was a wonder such a thing was even possible.

"I was just getting to that. Please have a seat next to Steppan." Ryan continued.

Taking a stiff pull off of his drink, Ryan recounted what had transpired since they left. How they had arrived to find their father for all intents and purposes dead. Their trip to his hometown in Georgia. The trip back to D.C. and his inheritance of the estate and the children. More importantly, the reason he married Thaelor. None of these facts (although not surprising), caught Steppan off guard. Mrs. Michaels on the other hand took the glass from her friend's fingers and gulped the "fire water" down in a couple quick swallows.

Steppan was almost inconsolable; "I have failed. I have failed the both of you and your father so badly. Not only have your siblings been arrested and imprisoned, but your father is no doubt rolling in his grave because his children have not only been committing incest in his home, behind his back. But his older children are rotting away in prison because of their own iniquities. But I tried my best to steer you both in the best way I knew how."

"Never you mind about Travis and Monica...I have taken steps to fix that issue. They were set up."

"REGARDLESS!!!!" Steppan continued. "You and Thaelor knew better than to do THIS!!! It's admirable that you would both step up and take care of your younger siblings...but to go so far as to MARRY EACH OTHER???!!! That just goes against all the laws of NATURE and MAN!!!!"

"It is ALSO against the laws of nature and man to disregard and systematically destroy your CHILDREN; But I don't hear you yelling at our father's grave about THAT!" Thaelor yelled.

"All of you are giving me a FUCKING HEADACHE!!!" Britney screamed.

As Ryan stood at the bar, the telltale signs of stress were beginning to take their toll. His heart pumped faster; his color blanched. His eyes became red as apples...his notorious ailment began to affect his very being.

"WHY DON'T YOU ALL SHUT UP!!!" He yelled. The glass of liquor in his hand shattering. Spilling its contents all over. With little strength left, he dropped to one knee. Barely able to handle the strain on his body.

Thaelor rushed to his side, her hand reflexively touching his neck. It was boiling hot to the touch. The true sign that he was in distress.

"I'm out of here." Britney said, slamming the door to the study. Her walk that of an Amazon to war.

"Quick...get his medicine!" Thaelor screamed. "Oh God Ryan...don't do this to me."

Before she could yell anymore instructions, Mrs. Michaels was pushing her charge out the way. A hypodermic needle at the ready. Plunging the sterile implement into his arm, she administered the drugs with a powerful push of the plunger. Working in tandem, Steppan and Mr. Gannon (the overall head of security who was pressed into action by Mrs. Michaels), lifted the weak and vulnerable new head of the Morrison family up and escorted him to a quiet, dark guest room, so that the medicine could take hold.

"Master Ryan, due to changes in circumstance, I can no longer in good conscious be employed at this estate. Immediately, I am tendering my resignation." Steppan spoke.

"Steppan...what are you doing you old coot! Now is not the time." Mrs. Michaels admonished. "If you can't take this from someone you claim to love so much, did you really love them at all?!"

"It doesn't matter one way or the other Mrs. Michaels. Because your request is DENIED!!!!" Ryan spat through clenched teeth. "Nothing changes and nobody quits until I give the okay. As my deceased father's representative and heir, I am the final authority. You are all still employees of the government of California until such time as a new Senator is placed. Therefore, you CAN'T quit!!! Get back to work!!!"

Thaelor was on the verge of tears. Seeing Ryan in such pain, yet still being in command, further cemented her love and admiration for him. In her heart, she knew she had made the right choice for a mate.

"Ryan....rest. Baby...please..."

"Sweetheart...I'll be fine. I can feel the medicine working already. It just needs a little more time. But, you need Britney. I know how much she means to you. Go get her." With that, Ryan's eyes shut. The sedative action of the drug concoction transporting him to the safe land of dreams.

"OK everyone...back to work like the man said." Thaelor instructed. "Mr. Gannon...is my car ready to go?!"

"Of course. We start and drive it every few days Ms.....I mean...MRS. Morrison." Gannon replied.

Without another word, Thaelor raced through the kitchen where Myron the chef was busy rifling through an old recipe book, searching for homemade baby food, crunching a carrot loudly. A deep, thoughtful furrow across his brow.

"Did Britney come through here?" Thaelor stated, not so much as a question.

"Yeah. She seemed to be in a big hurry too." Myron countered.

Ripping her keys from the hook, Thaelor burst into the garage, the motion activated lights illuminating the collection of vehicles stored inside. Thaelor slid into the seat of her mother's old VW Bug and turned the key. Like the voice of an old friend, the car churned to life with a monstrous growl. She threw the car into gear and peeled the tires through the open doorway onto the drive. First gear, second, third, security barely had time to open the gate as she careened right, the back end of the car fishtailing like in an old '70s cop show. Slamming the gas, the vehicle responded smartly. Thaelor saying a silent prayer in the hopes that she knew where Britney was headed. Her heart split between two loves.

Monica

Walking to the common area, Monica thought to herself, this was new to her. For all of her life, Monica Lyshey Morrison had lived the life of a kept woman. Her father was a powerful US Senator, her mother was a doting parent, and her life was spent in the lap of luxury. Nothing was out of her reach. She had a drop-top car at her fingertips, a limitless credit card, access to the hottest eateries and parties just for asking. But all that was gone. First she lost her mother to cancer, then she was arrested in a party sting, convicted for drugs and underage prostitution just for being there, sent to a federal maximum-security prison, and now, just a few hours ago; she learned her father was dead and his wife was a wanted criminal. All in all, things weren't so bad. Her first night there, she figured she would have enemies all around her. Yet, that wasn't true. Her years spent around mostly white females prepared her to walk amongst them without any issue. It was the black women that raised her antenna.

But over the past 3 ½ weeks, she found she had nothing to fear. Inside the prison, there was no longer access to Paul Masson's salon products, but in a couple hours, she had an appointment with her new friend CeeCee to get her first braids. And God did her hair need it. The shampoo inside was drying her hair out, and the safety rubber bands that they sold in the shop, broke her hair so much, at times she thought she was shedding. Inside, she was treated better than she could expect. She had learned to play board games, chess, and even some card games she had never played before. "Tonk" and something called "Spades," became her new distractions if there were no trashy TV shows that the ladies agreed upon.

For the most part, her prison stay had been palatable. Yet, every rose had its thorn. And LaTrisha Coleman, AKA ""Big Momma" was hers. If she had known that Lupe Atchivera was involved, she never would have spoken a word to her. Inside, the women mostly spoke about gossip. Much of it centered around men. The men they loved, the men they hated, the men they fucked, and most importantly, the men that got them behind bars. Yet, under these discussions about men, a current of female love had flourished. Not that Monica was "new" or even put off by female love (hell, she had her cousin eat her out once...she wondered about her more and more lately), but Lupe came like a candy-coated pill of arsenic.

It hadn't been a full 2 weeks since Monica arrived in prison. On the tails of her brother and stepsister visiting and Travis spilling the beans, Lupe showed up in the dining hall. All five feet, five inches, long black hair to her ass, mesmerizing eyes, and a body that even the God-awful orange and black prison uniforms couldn't cover up, Lupe was one of the first to sit next to her at chow. Speaking in tones that were unmistakable in inferring that she had a thing for Monica. She even gifted Monica her apple. That was her mistake. Not knowing that the property of a kept woman behind bars, meant that the gift actually belonged to her "wife." And so it was that Monica was confronted by "Big Momma" about the gift at a card game.

"Hey cute bitch, you owe me an apple." She stated.

"I've never taken anything from you, I don't even know who YOU are. So, I don't owe you shit." Monica snapped back.

Monica took a quick look at the women gathered around her. Although no one else spoke a word, she knew just from their faces and the way they turned away from her to look at anything else BUT the situation unfolding before them...that she...was all alone.

LaTrisha stepped closer, the hair on the back of Monica's neck standing up. She just knew something was going to happen. Shifting the cards in her hands, she prepared for the worst.

"HEY! 'Trisha! Anything I should know about?!" The voice booming from the far side of the common area was Officer Josephine Barrow. Officer Jo made it very clear on the first day of indoctrination to the unit...SHE ran that yard. And her subsequent actions of locking women in solitary or taking their commissary proved her points loud and clear.

"No Jo...nothing too important." LaTrisha answered back. "Just checking out the game." Once the corrections officer became engaged in something else, she placed a dagger to the conversation. "This ain't over cute bitch. You owe me an apple and I aims to get it back. Oh...and stay your cute ass away from my wife." With that, she walked back to the stairs of her tier.

"Phew! Girl...you better watch yo' back. I think Big Momma got it in for you fo' sho!" Said Stephania Bell, one of Monica's card playing friends. Stephania was a mixed breed woman that was 27 and looked 16. She was caught up on a 3-5 year stay, for receiving stolen property and not turning her boyfriend in. A lot of good that did her...he was shot and killed doing another burglary 3 months into her sentence.

"Yeah...no shit. Thanks for having my back." Monica snorted.

"Girl, you know we got your back." Added Denise Fleischer. A slightly older woman that got hit up on her third strike for prostitution.

"Yeah...way back." Monica answered. If only her friends knew, inside...Monica was a bundle of nerves.