Mike & Karen Ch. 11

"Wheelhouse?" Mike suggested.

"Sure, wheelhouse," Freja accepted. "And I am thinking that your wife, son and sister-in-law are preferring other activities."

"It's true that Kar wouldn't have any particular patience for it," he agreed. "Tinkering for tinkering's sake wouldn't appeal to her much."

"Jeanette has suggested maybe we set up play dates to do this," Freja mentioned. "Would you be willing?"

"Absolutely," he said, nodding. "As long as we don't blow up Karen's house or scorch the furniture."

"It is okay to smoke like this? Out here?" Freja asked, holding up her joint. "I know it is legal in Canada now, but this is still someone else's house. It is polite to ask."

"I doubt your head will end up on a pike, unless the smell gets in her bedding."

"Then I am glad she does not have a pike," Freja sighed.

Mike said nothing, but just looked out into the night.

"She has a pike?!" Freja asked in alarm, the colour draining from her face.

***

Later that night ...

Alex was sitting in the living room, watching 'Godzilla vs. Megaguirus' when his laptop flickered an icon at him. Sure enough, his lovely wife was calling him. He paused the movie and engaged the Skype call. Alexa's beautiful smile greeted him.

"Hey, gorgeous," he said, glad to see her. He missed her so much. "How's the most wonderful wife in the world?"

"Your mom's fine, but I guess I am too," she teased, winking at him. Predictably, she was not wearing a stitch of clothing, lying on the hotel room's big bed. She was lying on her front, kicking her legs back and forth slowly and resting her chin on her hands. Her hair was up in a sloppy ponytail and she'd removed whatever makeup she'd been wearing earlier that day. "How're things there?"

"Oh, doing fine," he replied, shrugging. "Watched Jeanie fail at video games, then I said something so nice that Freja left to go see dad so Jeanie could show me what it was like to have her be in love with me."

"Ooooh, nice," Alexa said, smiling slyly. "Did she do that roll-y thing with her tongue?"

"I'm not sure where she did it on you, but my little Alex certainly enjoyed it," he chuckled. "How 'bout you and mom?"

"Well, I think I blew her mind when I told her about my real bad hero worship phase and cut my hair in a bob to match hers."

"So you told mom about the time you Dutch bobbed your hair just like hers?" he asked. He tried to picture his mom's response. "What did she have to say to that?"

He watched as Alexa merely shrugged coyly. He would never tire of looking at that woman. "Not unlike yourself, good sir, she was amused. She called me a ding-dong, if memory serves. We were just lying in bed, and she asked me to tell her something about myself she wouldn't expect."

"I'm surprised you two ever have time to say anything in bed," he quipped, smirking. "At least without wet, muffled sound effects."

"Oh, hush, you," his wife giggled, blushing slightly. He'd decided to follow his father's lead and not really care about a physical relationship or intimacies between his mother and his wife. After all, Alexa didn't seem to mind if he fucked other girls, even if she wasn't present. She was confident in his devotion to her, and she had every reason to be. If his father wasn't jealous, why would he be? Sounded like a bunch of misogynistic, incel nonsense to him.

"What's your opinion on the family lounge at Blackwell HQ?" she asked.

"Oh, I love it there," he said cheerfully, nodding. "It gives me such a sense of history, and my family heritage, y'know?"

Alexa raised an eyebrow. "It doesn't offend you on some level?"

"I love it; doesn't mean I'm enslaved to it," Alex pointed out, shrugging. "I won't fall for its trappings, like some other Blackwells seem to have. But mom probably told you that just about everything in there was brought over from England, and belonged to past iterations of the lounge. The doors are almost three hundred years old."

His wife sighed and blew a stray hair out of her face. "I guess I've got a lot of acclimating to do still, because the place raised my hackles somewhat. It touched something inside me that I didn't like."

"Hey, you got to smack around Shred, I'm envious," he said, laughing. "Talk about livin' the dream."

"Yeah, I guess," Alexa admitted, shrugging. "Maybe that's part of why I'm uneasy. Because that was a really Blackwell way to handle the problem, and it was just so innate to do it. It got brought out in me so quickly."

He chuckled and shook his head. "Alexa, I know you're still new to being a Gordon and a Blackwell, so it'll be a bit unnerving, but I'm sure you'll adapt just fine. If it makes you feel any better, smacking him around like a little bitch would be a DeBourne response as well."

"How encouraging," his wife said dryly. "Mom spent my whole life telling me that violence was not the answer, and every time I got in a fight, I felt like I let her down. Now I find out that my family's corporate life is about as civil as the octagon."

"Not just the Blackwells, either," Alex pointed out. It did feel a little strange to be tutoring Alexa about her families, but he'd spent a great deal of his life around them, whereas she hadn't. She'd have to forge her own place and character with them. "From what mom and dad have told me, grandma was the peaceful Gordon. The rest of them are like some hilarious stereotype of Scottish people who love to fight. I've gotten into punch-ups with a few of them for no good reason."

"Your dad must be a big hit with them ..." Alexa said almost under her breath.

"Literally," Alex agreed with a grin. "He's clobbered more than a few during Gordon family gatherings, and he always wins the caber toss."

"Jeebus, they really do a caber toss?" Alexa asked, looking rather incredulous.

"It's still weird to me that I know so much more about the Blackwells and Gordons than you do, since you're literally a synthesis of the two," Alex said, voicing his thoughts. He wasn't teasing her, but he really wanted her to understand how he meant to approach this for her.

"Well, mom kept me completely cut off from both families," Alexa answered with a shrug, although he could see the regret in her eyes. "She had her reasons, even if we'll never know them."

"Eh, one day," replied her nephew casually, moving on to another area that interested him. "Surviving the meetings?"

His wife sighed deeply, and he could hear the stress in her voice come out. "It's hard, Alex. I mean, yeah, maybe slapping Ripley sounds fun to you, and I wouldn't blame you, but ... even more than you, I'm related to these people, and it's hard to accept that. My mom told me about them, Kar's told me about them, and it's still difficult, y'know?"

He nodded readily, feeling sympathy for her, and wishing desperately that he could do more. "I do, actually. It's hard sometimes to believe I'm related to them. I identify a lot more with the DeBourne side of the family, but they're genuinely nice people."

"I'm looking forward to meeting them," Alexa said, smiling prettily. He could tell she meant it.

"Apparently they were all there when you were born," he explained, hopefully filling in a little piece of the puzzles she had about herself. "They couldn't be kept away, no matter what the Blackwells thought, and grandma insisted they be present."

She giggled prettily, twirling a finger in her hair, a playful light appearing in her eyes. "It's almost like we should've known one another our entire lives. Only one little thing, one little mishap prevented it, and nobody knows what it is."

"Well, the important thing is that we're together now," he announced. "The way it should be."

"Speaking of the way it should be ..." the blonde goddess he called his aunt and wife purred, setting the laptop down on the plush bad and then rolling onto her side, resting her head on her hand while exposing her lush, naked body to Alex. "It's about time I put on a show for you."

Alex was already hitting the video record feature on his laptop while Alexa began slipping her fingers in and out of her already wet pussy, moaning as she did so ...

***

The conversation between the elder DeBournes had been every bit as informative and intimate in its emotion, although they also took the time to discuss plans they'd made. Freja had returned to her condo some time earlier, once she was sure there were, in fact, no pikes in the house. Alex had arrived shortly after and opted to watch a Godzilla movie while waiting for his call from Alexa. Sitting in the bedroom now, Mike gazed at the lovely visage of the woman he'd loved more than anything for thirty years now.

"Sounds like everything is working out so far," Mike said as he watched her. She was sitting on the chesterfield in the hotel living room, wearing a plush robe, the top parting to display the cleavage of her magnificent breasts. "Alli's adapting well."

"I wish she didn't have to," Karen sighed, clearly troubled by the admission. "Reuniting with one's family should be a joyous occasion; it shouldn't involve pimp slaps and savage negotiation."

"I'm thankful your family is the way it is, Kar, because that's exactly who gave me you," Mike said with a certainty in his voice that brooked no denial. "Who knows what would've happened if they'd been different?"

"So my entire life was just a lead-up to meeting you and suiting your needs perfectly, is that it?" his wife teased, trying to sound offended, but unable to keep the smirk off her face.

"I can think of worse ways to spend a life," Mike he replied, making her smile and roll her eyes. "I've always believed that was true for how I grew up."

"Yes, but you saved me from my life," Karen pointed out, her tone betraying her earnestness. "You've given me more than endless Blackwell and Gordon resources could ever have hoped to."

"Well, you gave me something to reach for, Gordon," referring to how she opened up entire new worlds for him. The world had been so small for him, and then there was this goddess in his life, giving his life more meaning than the relentless pursuit of academics ever could. Life in Kapuskasing was too small. Even life in Toronto, at university, while an amusing distraction, would one day have proven maddeningly underwhelming. It wouldn't have mattered where he went - Oxford, Cambridge, Stanford, RMC, MIT, Tokyo ... it would have been missing the one thing he didn't know he'd needed. Until she came along.

"It's so hard being here without you," she sighed, and the weariness in her voice was telling. He felt a small surge of anger toward her family for what they were doing to her. They didn't deserve her. "Yes, I love having Alli with me, but it's Hell when you're not around, Michael."

"It's Hell even when I'm there, and you know it," he pointed out, trying to sound cheerful, even if he hated the reality of what he was saying. "I can't keep threatening to punch them, and they need to understand that I'm not your source or strength or resolve. If I could solve this problem for you, Kar, I would, you know that."

"I know," Karen said. "I wish you could too. And tomorrow will be the true test, since they'll know about Alli and our son by then."

"Just remember, we're counting on them to know," he reminded her. As ugly as things would get that following day, it was necessary, and it had to be to their advantage, impossible as that sounded. "They'll think they have an advantage, but they'll play right into your hands."

He watched as she pinched the stinging tears from her eyes, and it bothered him how helpless he felt about it. "It shouldn't have to be like this, Michael. My baby sister and our boy shouldn't be used as pawns like this. Are you sure I can't just walk away?"

"You'll never forgive yourself if you do, Kar," her reminded her. He wanted nothing more than to tell her to walk away, at least, part of him did. But it was wrong and selfish to do so. "Alex and Alli might want to flex their muscles in that company one day. If it was just the two of us, I wouldn't even blink, now that Miranda's gone."

He watched her wipe at her eyes and tried to be as encouraging as possible. "If you win this round, then the fight is over, and your family legacy is secure. And it'll be your win, Kar. If you lose tomorrow and are voted out, you can leave it all behind, and you're extraordinarily wealthy. Not a bad outcome for us, either way."

She sniffled and smiled, shaking her head. "Count on you to find the silver lining in everything. Okay, you big lug, I'll tough it out until tomorrow night. Our plans are sound, and we still have aces up our sleeve. More than anything, though, I appreciate the moments I get to be vulnerable, Michael. I need them so badly."

"Anyone else would've crumbled by now, Gordon," Mike said, meaning it. "Crumbled or just thrown in the towel and quit. And I wouldn't blame them."

"And me?" his wife queried. She needed his encouragement here, and he was used to being by her side when he did it. This was so hard, since it felt inadequate.

"You pushed out our son's head, so I happen to know you can endure a lot more than this!" he said, laughing and delighted to see an instant change in her demeanour. It almost seemed as if a great weight had been lifted from her shoulders, and she smiled radiantly, beautiful beyond words. "Just stick to the plan; it'll all be over soon enough."

Karen nodded and tried not to yawn. "I should go sleep. One final push, and then it's smooth sailing, hm?"

"That's what I kept telling you while you were in labour," he pointed out, making her shake her head yet again. "Message me when you get up, Kar. I love you, princess."

"I love you too, Michael ..." she murmured, her eyes glistening. The call ended, and he closed the window, pushing away from his desk and sighing. Yet another night without his wife at his side. He'd see out the week, but if things went awry, he wasn't above storming Quebec City to set things right.

He flopped down on his massive, reinforced bed, staring at the ceiling, ochre light from the rock salt lamps giving the surface a warm glow. Before long, he'd drifted off, and his dreams were about his beloved wife, and how central she was to his being.

Yes, yes, there was always more science to indulge in, more learning to be done... but these were things meant to sate his voracious appetite for knowledge, which had been his driving force since learning to read when he was three. Goals, distractions, whatever one called them, they were just to be fed on. Alex had laughingly called his father 'The Galactus of Human Knowledge,' since he pretty much consumed everything he encountered, and was always left hungering for more.

Then this radiant angel came into his life, and she was utter perfection. Her mathematics skills surpassed even his, and she made everything simplicity itself. She had her own zest for life, and never backed down from a challenge. It differed from Mike's predicament, in that he was often too big for challenges, sometimes literally. He hadn't ridden a skateboard since he was twelve - he simply couldn't, unless someone made one from vanadium steel one day. But Karen, she feared nothing, and would not back down. She was seemingly created to bring her world to heel, and he was dazzled by how elegantly she did it.

If they were both confronted by a mountain, Michael could break it, a terrifying feat in itself, but Karen could make it bow to her. And he loved her for that.

Of course, he understood how devoted she was to him as well, and sensed the reverence in her, but what good was he if he wasn't earning that from her every day of his life? No physics problem or other academic question had ever driven him as relentlessly as his need to prove worthy of her had. And nothing had ever been anywhere as close to rewarding.

When he won a Nobel Prize one day, he wouldn't be as proud of that fact as he was of earning yet another glance of her love, her adoration and approval for doing so. Even better, it was entirely likely that she would be earning it alongside him - and that was something to look forward to.

Karen Gordon-DeBourne. Technically, her surname was hyphenated, but she never referred to herself as anything except 'DeBourne' unless the circumstances required it. So what would happen if she and Alli succeeded this week? If the Blackwells were brought to heel, would she potentially begin using the Gordon surname again?

Did he even care?

He remembered chuckling as he watched her ride a skateboard and forget she was wearing a skirt. He pictured her playing her cello in the courtyard near the koi pond, enchanting every living thing that could hear her. He could see her sitting on a stool in a dingy karaoke bar, enthralling the crowds with her voice, her presence completely out of sorts with her surroundings.

He pictured her in white on their wedding day, those bewitching, almost golden eyes gazing up him, shining with love as she said "I do ..."

***

Author's Notes: I very much appreciate the feedback I'm receiving about the Karen & Alexa arc, even if a minority of them amount to temper tantrums, because at least it shows that people are invested in what happens to these characters, and I can appreciate that. For those who threw tantrums, all I have to say is just wait, and see what I have planned. I'm the author, I'm God. You are not. I cannot and will not compel you to keep reading, but if you do, spare yourself the tantrums, because I won't notice.

I feel compelled to remind people that I in fact have a web mistress who checks my reviews for me. I actually do not do it myself, except on rare occasions, usually when she asks me to take note of something. For the record, she has my full confidence in running the page. If she deletes your review, it's because she considered it temperamental and useless. It's something of a game to her, and she takes great delight in doing it. And if she's happy, I'm happy.

If you need me to see something from you a little more directly, send me a PM or an email review, since I'm the one who gets those. I still may not at all agree with you, especially if you're a tantrum thrower, but I'll probably reply, since I'm Canadian and driven by courtesy.

As for this chapter, I'm enjoying the interaction of Mike and Alex with Freja and Jeanie, since it helps to develop the group dynamics and give further depth to the story. As for flashbacks, I nearly killed myself laughing when I thought of the 'Fig Newton' gag. Karen and Lisa make a cute couple, and Mike's merciless but good-natured teasing is comedy gold.

I'm also enjoying how in awe of one another Mike and Karen are, even if they're competitive on some level. I think it's probably fairly obvious that the two of them are doing what they can to stave off what is clearly the inevitable, because that has to be terrifying for people so young, with their whole lives ahead of them. La forza del destino, and all that.

Welp, onto KAQ3 (as my editor and I refer to Karen & Alexa), and Mike & Karen 12. I'm really excited about what's coming up next, so I'm gonna pound these two chapters out and move on. Hope you're along for the ride.

Keep your stick on the ice!

Management