Font of Fertility Ch. 16

"Happy to help," I said. "MacGregor can suck it."

She laughed and led us to the elevator to send us down, air-kissing with each of us before thumbing the lobby button. "See you tonight," she said. "I've got some work to do."

Down in the lobby, Fred the doorman turned and nodded to us. "Miss Venture sounded pleased. Will you be joining us?"

"We will," I said, and offered him my hand. "Nice to meet you, Fred. I'm Jeremiah, and these are Lindsey and Stacey. I'm not going to be able to be here as often as I'd like so I'll be counting on you to make sure they are safe in our new home."

"Happy to, sir," Fred nodded.

We left, and outside the building we all sort of slouched and exhaled from the 'wealthy twenty-something' show we'd been putting on as we decompressed.

"Holy shit, you guys," Lindsey said. "We're getting a penthouse."

"And you deserve it," I said and pulled her into a kiss. Stacey got one right after.

"We should get Fred a Christmas present," Lindsey said as we walked over to Victorious, whose engine roared to life as he saw us coming. "That's what rich people do, right? They get presents for their doorman and their maid and stuff?"

"I don't know," I laughed. "But he seems like a professional, so we might as well try and show him we'll appreciate him."

We ended up bickering lightheartedly over what we should buy Fred, and also Moira, for their work. Neither of them technically worked for us, but we decided we wanted to lay down the roots of building a network of people.

I kind of liked the idea of being the 'I know a guy' person, and taking care of the guy in charge of keeping people out of Lindsey and Stacey's new home felt like a good move to make. Not to mention having a real estate person - if I ever wanted to set up my own 'sanctum' I was going to need space to do it.

Victorious brought us back to Stacey's so we could finish packing up her room, and the three of us changed back into our grubbier clothes - well, Stacey and Lindsey did. I changed into the grubby work clothes I'd been planning to wear the next day.

It took another forty-five minutes to finish packing everything except the furniture, and by the end Stacey's room and the short hallway had luggage and boxes lining them thigh-deep. Then we went down and, since he was there anyways, hopped back in Victorious and he drove us across town and passed the main Cardinal campus into a student housing residential area.

When we pulled onto the street where Lindsey had been staying for the past year and a half she started crying. I'd noticed that she had been getting less... well, less 'her' through the drive. She was sitting in between Stacey and I by chance, and as Victorious parked at the curb in front of the house I turned and wrapped my arms around Lindsey as she broke down, and Stacey did the same on the other side.

"I'm sorry," Lindsey gasped between sobs. "I just- I don't-"

"Shh," Stacey shushed her softly, rubbing her back. "It's OK."

I squeezed the crap out of her, not sure what I could say or do for her other than try and keep her close and make her feel that I was there for her.

It took a couple of minutes, and even Victorious had the decency not to speak up as Lindsey struggled to find the words. "I feel so fucking ashamed. It's- God. I don't want to go in there. The things I did, and allowed..." She turned to me and clutched my shoulders, pressing her lips to mine in a tearful kiss. "I'm so sorry, Jerry."

I wanted to tell her she didn't need to be. We'd had this conversation before in a couple of different ways, and I'd told her that then. But I knew it wouldn't help make her feel better or reassured if I just repeated it again and again. I hugged her harder instead of saying anything, and she buried her face in my neck. Slowly her panicked breathing subsided and she got a light grasp on her emotions.

"Let's just be as fast as we can," Stacey said softly, still rubbing Lindsey's back as I held her. "We'll just get the most important stuff to you and leave the rest. We can replace everything else. I'll help. A whole new wardrobe, all new cosmetics."

Lindsey slowly nodded and pulled herself from me a bit, turning around and looping an arm around Stacey's shoulders to hug her. "Thank you," she said, and kissed Stacey on the cheek and then rested their foreheads together.

We piled out of Victorious, who grumbled about not being a pack mule until Stacey stuck her head back inside and said something to him that I didn't hear. The three of us then crossed the lightly snow-covered yard to the front door and Lindsey pulled out her keys and opened it up. Inside the place looked about like I would imagine a bachelor student housing unit would look - it wasn't a dump, but it clearly was inhabited by dudes. There were cheap posters on the walls for decoration, and the furniture was mismatched and generally screamed 'thrift store.' It was also a mess.

"What the fuck?" Lindsey sighed, glaring from the front door into what looked like the main living room. "I cleaned before I left. How the hell did they get it so messy?"

There were pizza boxes and takeout bags scattered across the beat-up coffee table and dishes stacked on the side table next to the couch. There was also a pile of colourful something on one of the couch seats, and Stacey narrowed her eyes as she stepped over and then turned around and gagged a little.

"That's disgusting," she said.

Lindsey looked pained, her face burning with embarrassment and anger. "I asked them not to do that," she said in a hurt and defeated voice.

I couldn't help myself, I walked over and looked at what Stacey had seen. It was a pile of wadded-up panties and thongs, some of them frilly and lacey, others just basic stuff, and they had the clear sign of having been... used. And crusty.

Anger didn't describe what I felt. It was hard to really narrow down what it was. Disgust was high in there too. Revulsion? Loathing? And a massive dose of hurt for Lindsey.

I turned and went back to her, taking her into my arms and holding her tightly again. "Don't worry about it," I whispered to her. "You'll never have to go through this again. Ilove you."

Lindsey led us deeper into the house to her room and we started piling up the stuff she wanted to take with her on the bed. We'd used up all the boxes at Stacey's, so we only had Lindsey's luggage that she'd left here to work with. She swore it would be enough. As she and Stacey started to quickly sort through the things she would need to take - schoolwork and textbooks, important keepsakes like pictures, and her favourite clothes - I went and grabbed a couple of garbage bags from under the kitchen sink and started to cleanse her presence from the rest of the house.

I didn't care about the fact that it might have been a waste of some magic - I focused and dropped a spell into my pool of power so that anything that Lindsey considered her property in the house would glow a little bit to me. I started in the living room, not wanting to leave her perverted ex-roommates with the chance to keep even her soiled underwear. Then I moved through the kitchen, tossing out anything that looked plain and was obviously bought on the cheap, and bringing her a few mugs that looked like they might actually mean something to her. One she packed away, smiling as she looked at it, but the other made her wince and she shook her head. I didn't ask why, I just tossed it in the garbage bag.

The next stop was the washroom and I emptied out everything except for an unopened bottle of hair conditioner. Everything went, from hairbrushes to makeup to shampoo. If nothing else we were leaving the guys with a lot more bathroom counter and drawer space.

Having covered the main 'public' areas, I did something that most people would have probably thought of as wrong. But what did I care? I was just a punk high school kid who was angry at the way someone dear to him had been treated. Not to mention a Sorcerer of Sex.

I went into one of the bedrooms. I didn't know who it belonged to - Lindsey hadn't even ever told me the names of her roommates and so-called friends. Inside I poked around, opening drawers and the closet, grabbing anything that glowed. I found another couple of pairs of her panties and some socks. One of the pillows on the bed was hers.

The next bedroom had a similar scattering of her discarded clothes, including a t-shirt and a tight dress. There was also a buttplug that went into the garbage bag.

I was just entering the last room when the front door to the house opened.

"Hey, who's back? And what's with that fuckin' hot rod of a car out front?" a guy called.

"Fuck," I muttered. That explained the mess. Lindsey had been expecting all three of her roommates to be away still, but it seemed like one of them had spent the break here. I glanced around the room, grabbing and throwing everything that glowed into the bag without taking the time to evaluate it as I listened carefully to the conversation in the hallway.

"It's me, Oliver," Lindsey said, coming out of her room. "I have people here with me."

"Linds?" Oliver said, his happiness clearly evident in his tone. "Awesome. I missed you."

I bet you did, I thought, picturing the pile of nasty panties on the couch.

"Don't," Lindsey said, her tone a little tense but not overly so, warning him off from something. "I'm here with my girlfriend Stacey."

"Girlfriend?" Oliver asked.

"Yes. I'm her girlfriend," Stacey said forcefully.

"That's... super hot," Oliver said. "I didn't realize you were looking to-"

"It's not like that at all, Oliver," Lindsey said. "I'm leaving. I'm moving out. This is all over."

"W- wait, what?" Oliver stammered. "You can't. You livehere. With us. Your name is on the lease, you can't just bail on us."

"I'm going to cover the rest of my rent for the lease term," Lindsey said. "But I'm not staying. This house... I'm done withall of this, Oliver. All of it."

"Lindsey," he said, a massive patronizing tone seeping into his words. "Honey, I don't know what this bitch has been trying to convince you of, but everything isperfect-"

I dropped the garbage bag in the hallway and stepped around the corner towards the conversation. Lindsey was standing with her arms crossed over her chest at the top of the hallway, Stacey standing next to her with an arm around Lindsey's waist. Oliver, who up until recently I would have likely considered a threatening-looking guy with a strap of beard along his jaw and a physique that looked like he'd been an athlete in high school but had put on the Freshman 15 each year of university, was standing at the mouth of the living room.

"Who the fuck is that?" Oliver asked when he saw me round the corner.

"I'm the guy who's going to shut your mouth for you if you don't tone down the bullshit and insults," I said, moving to stand next to Lindsey. I put my hand on her shoulder so that she would look to me and asked her quietly. "I want to throw him out of here until we're done, but I don't want to overstep and I know this conversation is probably important for you. What do you want me to do?"

She smiled softly and mouthed 'Thank you,' and then said, "I'll handle this."

"OK," I said and kissed her on the cheek.

"Seriously, who the fuck is that?" Oliver demanded.

"He's my sister's boyfriend," Lindsey said. "And he means more to me than you and Charlie and Zander put together. And hewill make you eat your own dick if you act like an asshole."

I stepped back down the hallway and grabbed the three garbage bags I'd filled as the conversation continued. I was careful when moving around the girls but bulled my way past Oliver as he shifted through what I could only think of as the stages of grief in the argument. He refused to accept that this was what Lindsey wanted. Then he got pissy and called the other roommates and was yelling at them. Then he started begging with Lindsey, making promises that they'd be better. That they would treat her like a queen. They'd cover her rent.

By the time I'd gotten the garbage bags into Victorious's trunk (much to the car's annoyance) and then brought out the packed luggage and put it in the back seat, Oliver was sulking and looking around at the filthy living room as he texted someone and muttered to himself. He had to have noticed his missing pile of used undergarments at some point and knew we knew what he'd been doing.

"I'll send you guys the money for the rest of the semester," Lindsey said from the door.

"You don't need to do this," Oliver said from his spot on the couch.

"I do," Lindsey said, openly holding Stacey's hand and secretly holding mine where Oliver couldn't see. "I shouldn't have ever even let it get started. You know, at one point I actually liked you, Oli? But now I- just don't. I need you and the others to leave me alone, OK?"

Oliver didn't answer other than nodding without looking up, and we left.

Lindsey cried again in the car, this time from the relief she was feeling, and Victorious drove us out of the neighbourhood as Linds let out her emotions. Eventually he brought us back to Stacey's and I brought the garbage bags over to the big bins at one end of the underground parking while Linds and Stace moved the luggage over to the sedan so that we weren't making Victorious haul it around.

The whole deal at Lindsey's old place had taken a little over an hour total including travel time, so we thankfully still had time to handle some of the other business we needed to. We sat down at the kitchen table and worked out a plan, then started to put it into action. I called up the Bank that Stacey and I had gone to and asked to speak to Phillip Singer, the manager we had dealt with before.

"This is Phillip. How may I be of assistance, Mr Grant?"

I smirked a little. "How did you know it was me?"

"Our secretary has call display, sir," he said.

I couldn't help but snort at my own cluelessness. "Of course. Well, first I want to thank you again for your assistance the other day, and I was hoping to ask you for a favour."

"For a man of your position, Mr Grant, I would be happy to do anything within my power," he said.

"Well, hopefully I won't be asking too much of you," I said, trying to play it cool and chill. "I am signing a lease for a temporary property and will need a cashier's check for three hundred thousand dollars, plus enough to cover the applicable taxes. I'll also need another cashier's check for twenty-five thousand, and the same again in cash if it's available."

"I can handle processing the cashier's checks myself, sir," Singer said. "And I should be able to arrange a cash withdrawal within the hour. When should we expect you?"

"Is an hour enough time?" I asked.

"Certainly, sir."

"Then I'll see you in an hour," I said. "And Phillip, I know these withdrawals are a decent dent in my funds that you're holding. I just want to assure you that as I acquire some of the other resources in the... estate, I'll be consolidating it a bit. My predecessor spread himself wider than I want to deal with going forward."

"A welcome assurance, sir," he said. "Unnecessary, but we thank you nonetheless."

I said goodbye and we hung up, the plan on the move. Between the money that had gone to Annalise and Maya, paying for their Bed and Breakfast, and the purchases that had been happening it was surprising how fast our first stack of cash had been disappearing so I was happy to be replenishing it, especially if we were going to start laying out big tips when appropriate.

With Stacey's place fully packed and the money situation sorted I ended up sitting with Lindsey on the couch and just holding her. She was quiet, still sensitive from earlier, and Stacey puttered around the apartment and checked in on us by peeking her head around the corner occasionally.

"Thank you," Lindsey said finally. She was sitting with her head on my shoulder, one of my hands in both of hers as she traced her fingers along the creases of my palm. "I know you don't want me to think of it like I owe you or anything, but I still need you to know I feel thankful for you."

"You're welcome," I said and kissed the top of her head. "And I love you."

"I love you too," she sighed, wrapping her fingers in mine. She tilted her face towards me and kissed the edge of my jaw. "I don't think I'm ready for sex right now, but later tonight... whatever else is going on, I want you to be rough with me, OK? I love every time we're together, but tonight I need it like that first foursome we had. Order me around, make me do things. Take me hard however you want. I need to know I'm yours tonight."

"OK," I agreed. "You're mine. Tonight and forever."

"Promise?" she asked.

"Absolutely," I said, and kissed her softly. "One question though."

"What's that?"

"What did you mean by 'whatever else is going on?'"

"Oh," Lindsey said and smirked a bit. "Nothing. Don't worry about it."

I sighed and gave her a look.

"Seriously, don't worry about it," she said, her smirk turning into a full playful smile. "I promise, all good things."

I just shook my head and rolled my eyes a little, making her giggle.

* * * * *

I ended up taking Lindsey with me to the bank since the additional power cost of the teleportaling was about half a blowjob.

Yes, I still hadn't been able to shake that method of quantification. I didn't have actual numbers to compare it to, OK?

Phillip Singer, after getting the necessary names from us to print on the checks, handed them over and then brought me a big manilla legal envelope with the cash inside. Lindsey thanked him, and I promised that I wanted to sit down with him soon to discuss bringing over more money and working with him on investments. Linds held my hand almost the entire trip, and we both shook his hand before leaving.

Back at Stacey's, we stashed the cash deep in one of Stacey's luggage bags other than a thousand dollars. While we'd been gone Moira had been texting with Stacey and we'd gotten an address for our dinner meeting, and since it was going to be a little later in the evening we were left with 'nothing' to do.

Stacey hadn't ever hooked up with anyone in the apartment, and we had it to ourselves for one last night, so...

We all ended up needing to shower afterwards. Not because we'd been so vigorous that we were sweating everywhere or anything, but because Stacey had had a can of whipped cream in the fridge still and the two of them had fun spraying it on me and licking it off, and it had gotten all over their faces.

Of course we were late getting out the door, but with Victorious driving we still arrived on time. We'd all dressed back up in our nice clothes, and we walked into the fancy sushi place to the glances of a lot of older, more prestigious-looking people who probably had fancy jobs and shit. I had to assume we looked like 'new money' or something, but I didn't care.

The only thing I would have changed was having Lauren with us as well. Lindsey and I had texted her updates after we set up the bank plan, and then a picture of the three of us in our outfits. She had let us know that everything was going fine back at home, and Annalise and Maya were good. I texted Anna anyways and asked her to get Lauren to hang out that night to watch a movie in their rooms or something. I had a feeling that after two weeks of almost never being alone without me or Lindsey close by she would be feeling lonely. I'd also texted Angie, just a kissing lips emoji to let her know I was thinking of her, and she replied with a kissy face emoji back.

The hostess, a pretty Asian woman of nebulous Japanese descent (I had a feeling she was actually Korean), led us through the restaurant and Moira stood as we approached. She had changed at some point and was wearing a shimmery, silver sleeveless dress that went down to an asymmetric angled hem just above her knee on one side and down to the middle of her shin on the other. It was beautiful and fancy, but not a full ballgown. She'd also done up her hair, pulling it back from her face in pretty waves and curls.