It Started in the Rain Ch. 05

As much as I might want my chapters to stand alone well, I think they work much better together. This story contains oral, coitus, threesomes, polyamory, and romance.

Instead of parking my car near the gate of Point Mugu Naval Station this time I pulled up to the gate. My watch read 1050. We were ten minutes early for our meeting. Kat showed the guard her ID and I showed my driver's license. He checked his clip board and told Kat where we were to go. We were waved in and Kat directed the drive. It wasn't far.

As I parked Pam came out of the building, still in her whites. When she was ten feet from me I asked, "Can I hug you when you're in uniform?"

"Not really, but I'm glad you want to." Her smile showed that she wasn't fine yet. She ushered us inside and to a conference room. Seated inside were two officers. One with a rank I couldn't identify and one with silver eagles on his shoulders. A Captain in the Navy. They stood as we entered and I suddenly had the feeling I was supposed to salute. I knew that wasn't true, but I had the feeling.

As we sat Kat whispered, "The Captain is the base psychiatrist."

"Good morning," the Captain said, "I'm Captain Abraham Evans and this is Commander Cross. I'm glad you could meet with us this morning. I know that you don't know why you are here and I need to say some things before we get to the real meat of this meeting. Please bare with me.

The subject of this meeting is beyond being classified. If it gets out it could ruin more than one career. I don't want that to happen. I don't think any of you do either."

Heads nodded all round.

"So I must ask each of you to promise me that nothing that is said here or that may happen after this meeting will ever be spoken of outside this room. If any action is to be taken by you it must be without official sanction or even official knowledge. Is that understood?"

We nodded.

"I need you to say it."

Kat said, "I understand and I agree."

Pam said, "I understand and I agree."

I said, "I understand and I agree."

"Thank you. Now, to the crux of it. We have some marines and sailors here who were hurt during hostilities in other parts of the world. We do our best to heal them in both body and mind. I think we do an exceptional job with most of them. It is the others that have us puzzled. We heal their bodies but their minds don't seem to be making the trip back to us."

The Captain took a breath and Commander Cross took over speaking. Commander Cross was a woman, about forty, short straight dark brown hair, blue eyes with glasses and a starched crisp white uniform.

"Just yesterday I was working with Lt. Dalby," she pointed at Pam, "and we were talking about one of our boys. He is healing well from the car bomb that sent him back to the states but he isn't healing mentally. Pam, Lt. Dalby, found out from his roommate that right before he was sent here he had a visit from his fiancé. Two days later he got a Dear John letter. His roommate says he reads the letter every day. He says he has no reason to go on. He says that while he hasn't read the letter he has been told that the reason she broke off the engagement was that she didn't want to marry damaged goods."

Pam took over the speaking, "I went in and talked with... Pete. His name is Pete Alcord. I went in yesterday to take vitals and he was sitting there and he wasn't crying but his eyes were full. I joked with him, like I do with all my boys and he didn't respond. I made a motion to his roomie and he left. I sat on the edge of Pete's bed and asked what was going on. At first he didn't want to talk, but he started and his story seemed to gush out of him. He does feel like damaged goods. The scars will show every time he wears shorts or goes without a shirt. He hasn't lost sexual function but he did lose one testicle and there are lots of scars in his genital area. One thing he said was, "No normal woman is ever going to want to be in bed with me." I told him that wasn't true and he said, "Nurses don't count. You aren't normal, wanting to take care of damaged people."

I spoke up. "OK I think we have the story. Why are we here?"

Captain Evans answered me. "You're here because the conversation between Lt. Dalby and Commander Cross has sparked an idea. We want to see what you, a civilian and someone who works with people in the area of sexuality, thinks of the idea."

"I can already tell you. That man needs to get laid, and with someone who is not a nurse!"

"Exactly!" Captain Evans smiled and so did Commander Cross.

"There's more, isn't there?"

"Yes." Pam said. "We can't put an ad in the paper saying emotionally fragile man needs pretty woman to have sex with him. We thought, no, I thought that maybe we could set things up so that we took him home, to your home, and maybe there could be someone there who would like him and maybe even bed him."

"Please! The only woman in my home who isn't a nurse is my daughter! You think she would be interested in a mercy fuck? You think Pete would take one?"

"No. No. Not a mercy fuck. Maybe not Megan. You know lots of women. Aren't there some who might like Pete and who, if they did like him, would take him to bed and give him the therapy he needs?"

My mind suddenly had five names on a list. I did know five women who would play in this game. They would get laid, have fun, and feel good about themselves and their service to the country as well. Damn! It was crazy, but it would probably work.

"How are we going to get Pete to my house for the weekend?"

"I have that worked out." Captain Evans took over. "We will be painting his room and we only have one unused bed. We are letting his roomie have that bed so we can keep an eye on the infection he still has. We found someone in the community willing to have a guest for the weekend. You are that someone. We will even be sending a nurse along to make sure he's OK."

"I'd buy that. OK. Next weekend?"

"Yes! I'm sure you understand that when you recruit whoever you recruit for this they cannot know what we are doing. If word of this ever got out I would be doing psychotherapy on Mars. You would be invited on the Jerry Springer show and these ladies would be branded sluts by the media."

"We all have good reasons to save Pete and to keep this very quiet," I said.

"Can you arrange to pick Pete and Lt. Dalby up next Friday afternoon?"

"What about me?" asked Kat."

"You will be working next weekend. It just worked out that way. Lt. Dalby was on this weekend, you will be on next."

"OK."

It was clear that Kat wasn't too happy. I'd do something to make it hurt a little less, as soon as I thought of what that might be.

The meeting was over. I knew that because Captain Evans shook my hand and said "Thank you" to the three women, then he was gone.

"Are you free to go now?" I asked Pam. She looked at Commander Cross and she nodded.

"Wait here. I'll grab my bag and we can go." I couldn't answer, she was gone.

"You must be a very unusual man."

"Thank you. I think I am. Kathleen told me recently that I am so we are building a consensus in that direction."

"I have arranged for you to have a base pass so that you can drive onto and off the base easily. Just put this decal on your bumper and fill out this card and it's done. From now on you can pick your passengers up inside the gate rather than waiting outside."

It was obvious that Commander Cross was choosing her words very carefully. I wondered why.

"Commander, I wonder if I might ask you for a big privilege?" She nodded. "I am not in the military. Haven't been in over thirty years. If it's possible I'd rather we used our names rather than always calling you commander and referring to Lt. Dalby and Lt. Walters can't we allow that when we are dealing with me she is Pam and she (pointing at Kat) is at least Kathleen?"

"Yes, that makes sense. Even if it hadn't been quite that long I know the Air Force isn't as formal as the Navy tends to be. I am Corine."

"Do you have a car, Corine?"

"Yes."

"Then I recommend that some time between tomorrow and Friday you drive down to my home and spend some time there. I want you to see where this special project will be happening. That way when Pete talks to you about his weekend you can honestly tell him you had checked it out ahead of having him stay with me."

Pam was back. I gave my business card to Corine and she gave me hers. We said our good-byes to Corine and she watched us drive away. At the gate the Marine snapped us a salute as we passed through. That felt good.

Fifty yards outside the gate I didn't turn onto the road that would have taken us to my home. I kept going straight.

"Are we going to Ojai?" Pam asked.

"I hope so," Kat answered, "I left my other clothes there."

"Is Madaline still in the room?"

"No. She is with Richard. He's a good friend of mine and they are lovers. I told her that if Richard and she want they can call us and maybe we will share dinner with them tonight."

"Maybe?"

"It's your call. Even if we do share dinner Madaline is spending the night, the whole night, with Richard. If I know Richard he may invite Kat to join them if we have dinner together."

Kat spoke up from the back seat, "How would you feel about that?"

"Are you asking if I would be jealous?"

"Yeah, I guess I am."

"I am male. Men are biologically constructed to want many women to impregnate. There is a biological mechanism that rebels at the thought of some other man depositing his seed in you. I am stronger that that biological mechanism. Part of how I can do that is that I know he's not going to get you pregnant. I also know I'm not going to impregnate anyone. If you choose to go home with Richard and share their bed I will be OK. It won't hurt our relationship."

"God, you are so strange."

"Is that good?"

"Any other man would have said Yes or No and stopped talking. You tell me your thinking about it, your thought process. Is there anything you haven't thought through?"

"Lots of things, but not in the area of relationships. They are what my life is about. Ask me about what car to buy. I have some stray thoughts that are as likely to be wrong as right. Ask me about love, sex, or relationships and now I have opinions and some solid research to back up my thinking."

"If Richard invites me, do you want me to go?"

"No. However, maybe we should also be asking Pam. She might want some one-on-one time and want you to accept Richard's invitation."

"No, I don't. I love you both and the best feeling I've ever had was when the three of us woke up holding each other. Last night I was sitting at the nurse's station and I was thinking about what I was missing. What I was missing was touching and being touched by both of you."

Pam started unbuttoning her uniform. She asked Kat to get her a shirt and pants from the bag. She was tired of being in uniform. She stripped down to bra and panties and then dressed in a nice long sleeved shirt and Levis. Kat handed Pam her athletic shoes and she put those on too.

"I think that tonight we just might have Pam sleep in the middle," Kat said.

"Good idea." I waited a few seconds and asked, "How well do you two know Corine?'

"I didn't know her name was Corine."

"Neither did I."

"When did you talk to her about the Plan?"

"Yesterday in the late afternoon. Why?"

"She said something that let me know she is smart, through and likes mental games."

"What did she say?"

"I asked if we could use our names rather than ranks and surnames. She responded that that would be Ok in that the Air Force wasn't as formal as the Navy."

"I didn't know you had been in the Air Force," Pam said.

"She did her homework. One of the guards at the gate probably wrote down my license number when I picked you up. She did some research. She knows where I live; she knows I was in the Air Force and even knows a little about what I did during my Air Force time. She communicated all that in one throw away statement. It was also a test. She wants to know if I will catch what she did."

"I hate to change the subject but I'm hungry. Can we stop somewhere and have lunch?"

We were in Camarillo so I got off the freeway and found a western BBQ restaurant I knew of and we ate there. Both women had a bbq'ed chicken salad and I had half a rack of baby back ribs. Two men sitting at a table not far from us looked at me strangely when Kat said, "Bathroom break," and Kat and Pam both kissed me as they left. I could almost hear them thinking, "What's that old guy doing with two beautiful women." If they only knew the truth!

When we got back in the car after lunch Pam spoke up.

"I've wanted to ask before now, but what are the oranges doing on the floor?"

"Do you like oranges?" I asked.

"Yes, if they're juicy."

Kat held up three and said, "Choose."

"I just had a big salad."

"We'll share one."

"OK." She picked one. Kat started peeling. The smell of orange filled the car. Pam got the first section.

"Oh my, that's really good! Where did you get these?"

"Found them."

"Can we find some more, Daddy? Can we?"

I love the sound of both of them laughing. I also knew that if Megan was with us she would be right there in the game too. I smiled. I've always liked the feeling of being Daddy. We rolled through town and Kat pointed to the things she remembered from yesterday and soon I was parking the car next to the orange groves.

We left with ten more oranges. We ate another one. Pam peeled and fed us slices while I drove. At the top of the "mountain" we washed up, walked around and found ourselves at the bench where Kat and I had spent some time the day before. I made sure Pam sat in the middle of the bench and that we spent time snuggling her.

"Lee, will you make love to us tonight?" Pam asked.

"No," I said, softly.

"No! Why not?"

"It isn't the act I object to, it's the words. I love you already. Putting my penis in you won't increase that. We won't make any more love than already exists. We will join. We can come together in ways that deepen our connectedness, bind us together in spirit. That is joining. I am happy to join with you any time or place that won't get us arrested, sun burnt or drown."

"You're right Kat. He thinks about relationships all the time."

"I think about these relationships a lot. I want this experience to benefit each of us in every other relationship we ever are in. Like the ones you have with Abraham and Corine. Like the one you have with Madaline and Richard."

"Does Richard believe what you do about relationships?"

"Richard doesn't believe what I believe. He sees some personal advantage to going along with what I believe and what Madaline believes, but he doesn't believe in love and life and relationships like I do."

"He didn't have much trouble letting Madaline come spend most of the night with us last night."

"If he had trouble with that he would be telling Madaline that he wanted something more in their relationship, like exclusivity. He wants to be free to have anyone in his bed. He does not want a commitment. As long as he doesn't have a problem with Madaline loving me he gets a great bed partner whenever she comes by."

"That means that Madaline doesn't believe as you do either."

"Closer than Richard. She isn't afraid of commitment. A few years ago I had a tough time. My health and my life went in the wastebasket. Madaline came from wherever she was and stayed with me and cared for me until I got back up. She loves me, cares for me and is committed to my life being great. Richard didn't even visit."

"This is a lot to think about. I used to think about being in love, being in relationship, being married. Hell, on paper I was married. Now I'm swimming in my thoughts about this, whatever this is. I know I don't fully understand what this is but I know I love being here. I have no idea where this is going or even if there is somewhere for it to go."

"Pam, take a deep breath. When the water gets deep and you start wondering if you can swim repeat this mantra, 'I am totally and unconditionally loved." Say it."

"I am totally and unconditionally loved."

"Kat."

"I am totally and unconditionally loved."

"Again."

"I am totally and unconditionally loved."

"Again."

"I am totally and unconditionally loved."

"When you are with me you can say, "I am totally and unconditionally loved by you." It will be true. It is always true. There is nothing you can say, do, or believe that will ever change that."

We sat quietly a long time. The sun was low in the sky when my cell phone rang.

"It's Madaline," Kat said.

It was. She and Richard invited us to dinner at the same wonderful place where we ate the night before. Kat said she wanted to show Pam that wonderful restaurant. Pam said she was Ok with having dinner with them. I told Madaline I would swing by Richard's and we would follow them.

As we drove I told Pam that eating at this place would give us a chance to dance, as they had music after dinner. I also reminded her that she never had to do anything she didn't want to do.

Madaline and Richard were standing by Richard's truck and when they saw us they got in, started up and drove. We followed. Pam's only comment was, "Pretty woman."

Dinner was wonderful again. Different, and just as wonderful. No menus. No bill. I was served one of the best servings of Cocoanut shrimp I had ever had. When the music began I asked Pam if she would like to dance. She stood. I stood. She took my hand and led me a few feet away from the table. We danced. We didn't talk.

As the music ended she whispered, "I love being loved by you."

I kissed her.

We stepped back to the table and Pam gave Kat the sign language word for bathroom. Kat got up and so did Madaline. Pam and Kat looked at her surprised.

"Aren't I invited too?" Madaline said.

They laughed and off they went. Richard and I watched them go.

"I have envied you for many years Lee. Now I think it is hate." He laughed.

"Hate isn't a word I use much."

"I'm joking. I think you are the most fortunate man I have ever known. I've known since 1988 that Madaline loves you. I knew Bonny and Bonny loved you. Susan loved you, probably still does. Kat loves you. Pam loves you. Have I missed anyone?"

"Yes. But I get your point. I am loved."

"No. My point is that Madaline is the only woman on the planet who loves me."

"For some men that would be enough. For others that would be too much."

"I know I've asked you before, but how do you get women to love you?"

"Do you remember what I answered last time you asked?"

"No."

"I don't do anything to get them to love me. I start every relationship by loving her, totally and completely. That seems to open them up to loving being loved. Some even give it back."

"I'm not even that sure I love me, much less someone else."

"Therein lies the problem."

"Yeah." The conversation ended as we could see the three women walking back to us. I noticed that both Kat and Pam were now braless. Kat held out her hand and I took it. She led me to dance as the trio started playing, "You've lost that lovin feelin."

I said, "I love this music but I'm glad they don't sing the words."

"I love it too."

We molded together and I held her to me just tight enough that she would know I wanted her that tight to me. I knew she could feel my erection pressing against her. As the music ended she said, "I don't have a bra on, or panties."

"I don't either. We're even." We laughed and stepped back to the table.

Kat was back up and we went back to dance as Richard and Madaline stood to join us.

The band played an oldie, "Mood Indigo." Kat felt very good in my arms.

"I saw how you danced with Pam."

"How?"

"Anyone looking would have said, 'they love each other."