Just Once, You Out Of Your Mind?

Editor's note: the author of the original story gave open-ended permission for other writers to create derivative works.

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'Just Once, if you don't mind ', deals with some extreme phycological issues that have been overlooked in other endings to this story. I wanted to address these issues as well as align the behaviors of the characters in the story with the accomplishments that they were said to have achieved in the original story. Colonels in the U.S. Army are being prepared to become Generals and are Alpha and Sigma Males, so displays of Beta behavior is incongruent with this achievement, particularly one that flew attack helicopters. Marcy's behavior is extreme as discussed in this version of the ending.

My apologies for the length, however I am a story teller and wanted to be thorough.

Your Votes are important, as Writers this is our Art. If you have a negative thoughts, leave a comment that can improve the Art, but don't just leave a negative vote. What is the point of that?

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Leslie sat across from Rick in the kitchen, looking cute as could be and in a different time, in a different situation, he would take her to bed and enjoy himself.

Rick looked at the Marcy's letter and wondered, what was she thinking?

Like many people, she seemed to have forgotten, Rick was a Retired Colonel from the U.S. Army. A former Attack Helicopter Pilot, that hung up his love of flying at the request of this ungrateful bitch. He was now a retired Intelligence Officer, working for a premier international security company. She talked about making sacrifices in her letter, but apparently, she had forgotten that it was a two-way street. He thought that maybe she was thinking that once he retired, he left his Code of Honor with the Army. That is not something that had happened. He had his morals and integrity, before he had entered the Army, so that was not going anywhere. One hard fast rule he lived by was, he didn't sleep with married women, regardless of their arrangements in their marriage.

"Leslie," Rick said, looking up at her. He seemed to startle her with his words, as he had been silent for some time, lost in thought.

She had been staring at her wine glass, running her finger around the rim.

"You are lovely woman, but I have a rule about not sleeping with married women." Rick said, with a smile on my face.

"But Rick, your wife gave you a hall pass, aren't you going to use it?" Leslie leaned forward in her chair with her hands between her legs. She had flashed him her bare pussy again, putting her hands between her legs and then she pressed her breasts together with her arms, maximizing her cleavage in the top of her sundress. It was obvious that she wasn't wearing a bra as her nipples were trying to poke their way out of the thin cotton material of the dress.

"Yes, she gave me a hall pass, after she took one for herself. She gave it to me as a consolation prize." He let his anger be heard in his voice. "Do you like being a consolation prize, Leslie?" He asked, softly.

She lost her smile, dropped back in her chair, arms folded across her chest and crossing her legs at the knee.

"No, I don't like being a consolation prize." She pouted. "Especially one that not wanted."

"Well, Leslie, thank you for the wine. I think you had better go home, now." Rick said politely as he stood. He gestured towards the door.

Leslie left without further comment. He watched her cute ass wiggle as she walked across the back yard to the gate to her house. He closed the door, before she could look back, as he didn't want to give her the satisfaction of knowing he had watched her.

Rick thought; all Marcy's reasoning was just bullshit rationalization. It was faulty, didn't take into account how he felt about anything.

If this is the way she was going to disrespect him, he didn't owe her anything, at all, he thought.

She was just a selfish bitch, not the woman he had sacrificed so much of his personal happiness to maintain marriage with, and definitely not a woman he wanted to continue to be married to in the future.

"Know your enemy and know yourself, and you will be successful in battle 100% of the time." Sun Tzu

This was a quote that Intelligence Officers lived by or should and it was one of Rick's favorites. He even had the quote framed on the wall in his home office.

Rick took a legal pad of paper and began to write out something of a psychological profile for Marcy. This was something commonly done in the intelligence community. As a matter of fact, the first psychological profiles had been done by Military Intelligence during World War II. Commanders and politicians used these profiles to anticipate the action opponents. Rick was going to do the same and use it as a filter for his emotions as he was detaching himself emotionally from Marcy. He knew he shouldn't be doing this as he was too close to Marcy, but he had little choice. Her comment in the letter about learning interrogation technique while helping him study, made him laugh, because she had completely misread his embarrassment as him lying. He wrote down her actions with regard to her planning her adultery, the steps she had taken, writing the letter, planning with Leslie, etc. He analyzed the letter she wrote, looking for keys to her thought process. He concluded that Marcy had developed a feeling of entitlement from her position of importance at the hospital. Her position also fed her ego, which in turn caused her to believe that she was more important to the marriage than an equal partner. Her ego fed her growing delusion of self-importance to the point where she felt she could do anything and Rick just had to put up with it.

Rick concluded that Marcy, despite how hateful she had been in the letter and phone conversation, did want to return to the marriage, but it would be on her terms. Rick would just have to put up with whatever Marcy demanded.

If Marcy wanted to just leave him, she would not have tried to appease him by offering Leslie.

Rick wrote 'Narcissist?' at the bottom of the page, but Marcy admitted in writing to being a coward and a narcissist wouldn't do that. Then he wrote 'SOCIOPATH' as if he had unlocked the key to what made Marcy think. Her career success, sleeping with a younger doctor, had made her believe 'normal rules' no longer applied to her, like her marriage vows. The definition of a sociopath.

Rick now knew his enemy, Marcy. And in the course of working on the profile, he had already begun to formulate my plan.

He had been a Colonel and if there is anything he could do, it is plan. He was also a Ranger, having suffered through Ranger School as a young Lieutenant and there you learned to plan under duress. He was under duress now. He had also been an Operations Officer as a Captain, when he was flying and again as a Major, when he switched over to the Intelligence Branch. Operations Officers do nothing, but plan.

The job he had taken at Gibraltar Securities, Director of Operational Planning, that allowed him to work largely from home, was because he had been recognized for his ability to plan. It was also the reason he was being considered for General, before he retired.

He smiled to myself as he had a realization and decided to make a phone call.

"Hello, Rick, it's been a while. What's up?" Diedre Kline answered on the second ring. He could hear the excitement in her voice.

"Hello, Diedre, how are you doing?" Rick answered.

"I'm doing good, Rick. How are you?" She replied.

"I'm doing alright." He said, wanting her to know that he wasn't alright. Combat Veterans talk to each other in subtle codes like this. "You have told me, more than once, if I was ever single, to give you a call. Well, I'm calling."

"Oh my God, Rick! What happened?" Diedre asked, in a shocked, excited voice.

Rick gave her the short version of Marcy's edict to him and some of her reasoning, to include Rick owing it to her for the sacrifices she had made during their marriage.

"I'm sorry, Rick. But what a selfish bitch!" Diedre said, after he concluded his tale.

"My feelings exactly!" Rick replied, laughing.

"What are you going to do?" Diedre asked. It was a loaded question, as she already knew most of the answer.

"Get a divorce, for sure. As well as gain some of my self-respect back." Rick answered.

Rick outlined most of his plan as he was still formulating some of it in his mind. Diedre had been a Field Intelligence Officer for the CIA, so Rick felt good to have her feedback for some of his ideas. They talked for several hours and it was getting late.

"When we were talking before she left, she said that you had come by and said you had 'taken care' of me, while we were in Iraq. She thought that meant we had been intimate and used that as an excuse as well." Rick said.

"I seriously think Marcy is delusional. I only meant, I had you back. I said I took care of you while we were over there. I was trying to allay her fears of you getting hurt over there. What a bitch." Diedre explained. "She twisted it to use as an excuse to screw around on you."

"Well, we did have that one encounter..." Rick said. His voice trailing off as he thought about the possibility of reliving that experience with Diedre and adding more.

"But you confessed to her what happened and she said that she forgave you." Diedre replied.

"I think in her twisted logic, it just became a marker she could use against me later. Like she has now." Rick commented and then there was a moment of silence as the two thought.

"So, the conversation started with an offer. Is that offer still open?" Diedre asked.

"Diedre, if you don't know. I have loved you for a long time, but was unable to act, because of my marriage. I put my feeling for you away in a box in the corner of my mind marked, 'Do Not Open'. I had to do that for my own sanity, because I still loved my wife very much and wanted to maintain my marriage. Well, now that my soon to be ex-wife has destroyed our marriage, I can open that box up, now." Rick finished speaking. There was silence on the phone and Rick thought he had misspoken and offended Diedre in some way. He heard her sniffle on the other end of the line.

"Oh, Rick. I think that is one of the most beautiful things I have ever heard." Diedre finally said, after what seemed like a very long time. "Of course, I love you. You had to know that, but I respected your marriage. Obviously, something Marcy isn't doing."

"Well, if you want to be with me, Diedre. I am very open to the idea." Rick stated. Diedre and Rick already had a very deep bond, having been in combat together. Combined with romantic love and their relationship would be very solid. You never trust anyone more than someone that you have shared a life-threatening experience with and survived. Rick and Diedre had that bond as they had been willing to literally die for one another in battle.

"I want to tell you I love you, but I want to do that in person the first time I say it." Diedre said.

"I do too and will wait until we are together." Rick replied. They were both aware of the hypocrisy of their statements.

"Goodnight, Rick." She said.

"Goodnight, Diedre." Rick said, in parting.

They hung up with plans to meet in a few days. Diedre had to get time off work and make travel arrangements.

Rick smiled as he looked at his phone, then went to bed.

Rick woke just a little after sunrise and went for his morning run. He still had a smile from the night before as he had a plan and would begin executing it in a few hours. He thought about Diedre and the potential of their life together.

After the run and a shower, his first order of business was to call the kids and let them know that he was divorcing their mother.

Rhonda, in the Navy, was on a float and would only be available via an abbreviated telegraph system. Rick would compose a short note to her later and send it through her Command.

Rick got ahold of Kyle.

"Hey, son, how are things going at school?" Rick asked, trying to ease his way into the conversation.

"Jeese dad, you call at 8 in the morning and act like it's a casual call. What's up dad?" Kyle said, getting to the point. He wiped the sleep from his eyes, after he threw back the covers on his bed. He forgot he wasn't alone and quickly covered the young woman sleeping next to him before she woke.

"I'm divorcing your mom. She is currently in Bogota, cheating on me with one of the doctors she is working with down there. She gave me an ultimatum that she deserved to screw around and I just had to put up with it, if I wanted to stay married. She was actually in bed with the guy, when I finally got her on the phone last night. She did offer the next-door neighbor as a consolation prize." Rick finished speaking and waited for his son to wake up and digest what he had said.

"Alright, that sounds good." Kyle said, after a moment.

Rick was shocked, he was sure Kyle would side with his mom, he had thought they were close.

"Do you have any proof of her screwing around on you?" Kyle asked. "Otherwise, you are going to have to divide all your assets 50/50."

"No, I don't, I was going to use my connections at work to hire someone in Columbia to take care of that today." Rick replied.

"Don't bother." Kyle said. It sounded to Rick like Kyle was making coffee for himself. "Go up to my room. In the bottom drawer of my desk under my porn, there is a folder. It is from when you were in Korea. The Private Investigator you hired, rolled on you. When mom figured out you had paid to have her followed, she bribed them not to. You should have used a different source of funds. The charge to the bank account for the PI came up, like the day after you made it." Rick was up in Kyle's room and had the manila folder in his hand. "I found out when mom was pissed that morning and went storming out of the house. She left the computer on and all the windows open. I looked at what was on the screen and saw the $1000 charge for the PI you made. So, I concluded that you thought mom was cheating."

Rick had the folder open now and was leafing through pictures of his wife screwing a man at the Red Roof Inn. Rick did not recognize the man, but soon knew his name by the notes that accompanied the photos. He recognized Kyle's handwriting in the notes and some handwriting he didn't recognize.

Rick had no emotional reaction to the photos beyond anger.

"I figured that mom was going to warn her boy-friend and try to do something about the PI. I decided to do some investigating myself. Me and a couple of my friends collected what is in the folder. It wasn't hard. After mom paid off the PI, she wasn't too careful." Kyle explained. "Did you find the folder?" He asked.

"Yeah, I have it." Rick replied, as he shuffled through the pictures and notes. "Why didn't you tell me about this?"

"I thought you knew, but were trying to keep us together as a family. So, I was doing the same thing." Kyle reasoned.

"That makes sense. I had my suspicion, but wasn't going to push the issue because I did want to keep us together as a family." Rick answered. "So, she paid the PI off? How did I not see those charges in the bank statements?"

"Mom hides money, Dad." Kyle stated flatly. "She has bank accounts and a P.O. Box where she receives the statements. She probably paid for it out of one of those. Why do you think she files her taxes separately? She makes a lot more money than she tells you she does and she has been hiding it for years. The information should be that folder. If not, I can send it to you. It's in that bank right by the hospital." Kyle said. It seemed that Kyle was slowly putting together everything his mother had been doing over the years and it all added up to screwing his father over. Kyle was getting pissed now.

"Wow," Rick commented looking at an old bank statement from one of Marcy's accounts from a few years ago, that Kyle had placed in the folder.

Rick was mad for a second and then smiled.

"Dad, are you okay?" Kyle asked. There had been several moments of silence on the phone.

"Yeah, I'm good. Your mother thinks she is so smart, but as part of the preparation for her Doctors without Borders trip, she signed a Power of Attorney to me." Rick said, laughing.

"Holy shit, she's toast!" Kyle exclaimed.

"Sorry, honey. I'm talking to my Dad." Kyle said to the young woman he had accidently awakened with his enthusiastic reply to his Dad.

"You're not alone? Sorry, son." Rick apologized.

"It's okay, Dad. We have class in a bit anyway." Kyle responded. "Keep me updated and if you need any more information or anything else, call."

"I will Son. I love you." Rick said. He felt really close to his son at that moment.

"I love you too, Dad." Kyle replied and hung up. Kyle looked at the phone and shook his head.

"What's up Kyle?" The brunette with the long hair, that had spent the night in his bed asked.

"My Dad is divorcing my Mom." Kyle replied, with a sarcastic smile. She leaned over and kissed him.

"You don't seem too broken up about it." She commented.

"Constance, my Mom has been cheating on my Dad for years, hiding money from him and completely disrespecting him." Kyle began. "He did everything he could to keep the family together for my sister and me. Then last night, I guess, she threw it all in his face and said she was going to screw around on him with one of the doctors she was working with and he would just have to suck it up." The anger could be heard in Kyle's voice as he finished.

"Good God, wasn't your Dad a Colonel in the Army or something and worked with the CIA?" Constance asked, she had her arms around Kyle and was pushing her boobs against his shoulder to try and comfort him. It was causing Kyle to consider missing class this morning and stay in his room and playing with Constance.

"Yeah, he was a Full Bird Colonel in Army Intelligence and worked really close with the CIA." Kyle explained.

"Jesus, I'm sorry, but your Mom sounds like one dumb bitch." Constance remarked.

"You got that right." Kyle agreed. He kissed Constance on the cheek and decided they had better get to class.

Rick called his boss, the CEO of Gibraltar Securities and told him what was happening. His boss was concerned because Rick was the lead for Embassy Security Contract that they were working on, but Rick assured him that he would be fine. His boss offered all the assets of the company to help him in his pending divorce. Rick thanked him and said it wasn't necessary.

Rick remembered that Rhonda could get emails on the ship and he sent one off, explaining that he was divorcing Marcy and why. He scanned the letter Marcy wrote and attached it to the email.

Rick decided that he was not ready to show his hand yet and delayed what he had planned to do next, which was see an attorney. He had almost six weeks to worry about that.

Rick went back to the evidence Kyle and his friends collected. Some of the notes looked like Rhonda's handwriting when she was younger as well and he made a mental note to ask her later about it.

Looking at the bank records, he knew what his next task was, banking. Grabbing the Power of Attorney, he headed to the bank, where Marcy seemed to have secret accounts. Kyle said the bank had a branch right around the corner from the hospital and Rick decided to go there to see if he could do some damage to Marcy's world.

The Branch Manager looked uncomfortable as he looked over the Power of Attorney, after Rick had informed them that he was closing Marcy's account at the bank. The main savings account had nearly $400,000 in it and the checking account had just under $100,000 in it. The Manager said that cashier checks would have to be prepared and it would take some time. The Manager then asked if he wanted the contents of the Safe Deposit Box as well.