Starting from Scratch Ch. 06

Chapter 6- No Good Deed...

Margaret boxed Thomas in the toilet closet and stood there, feet set wide apart, arms crossed over her chest like a formidable Secret Service agent that was not going to let him leave, move, or otherwise get away from this catastrophe that was his life.

"What happened?" Margaret asked, but then rubbed her head as if her head hurt from just the act of speaking.

"I don't know," Thomas hissed, and then clutched his head from the pain, "All I remember is celebrating last night with you and Leslie. How much did we have to drink? Fuck! My head is splitting!"

"I don't know," Margaret mumbled, "I don't even remember drinking anything alcoholic other than that first glass of red wine. After that, all I had was cranberry juice with just enough champagne to make it bubbly. Still, it shouldn't have been enough for this kind of hangover."

"How is Leslie doing?" Thomas asked.

"How do you think?" Margaret replied bitterly, "I'm pretty sure pure rage cut through her hangover!"

"I don't understand," He moaned, "I have no idea how I got there. All I remember is making love to you and Leslie in the best menage a trois ever! Well, my only menage a trois ever..."

Margaret snorted derisively and opened her as if she were going to say something, then stopped.

He hung his head and rested it in his hands, the heels of his palms pressing at his eye sockets. Somehow the one pain seemed to lessen the other, marginally. He groaned, "I'm telling the truth, Margaret. I love only you, and Leslie! I have no idea what happened. I did not do what you think I did! I made love to you, and Leslie only! All night!"

"If that were the case then you would have woken up in my bed with me and Leslie, wouldn't you?" Margaret said in a prosecutorial tone, that also sounded like the verdict had been rendered.

"I..." He started to say that he didn't know again, but then a memory of Leslie flashed in his mind's eye and he said, "Leslie said that we should go back to her room so that we wouldn't wake you."

Margaret's eyes narrowed. Thomas could tell she was furious and skeptical. Closing the door to the toilet closet, she left. When she returned she tossed a shirt, pants, underwear, and socks down at his feet.

"Get dressed," She commanded.

He did so, and Margaret disappeared again then returned dressed in a tank-top with a western button-up shirt and a new pair of tight-fitting jeans. It all bulged in the front a little around her expanding belly. In her hand, she held his wallet, keys, and his motorcycle helmet.

Thomas looked at his few personal possessions, and then he looked at Margaret with tears in the corners of his eyes as he said, "You're sending me away? Margaret, please! I promise I didn't do it! I don't know what happened, but I know I love you. I love you, Margaret! And, I wouldn't betray that!"

Tears welled up in Margaret's eyes and ran down her cheeks, but her face remained firm, "I know Thomas. I want to believe you, but I think it is dangerous for you to stay here now. You had best go. Go back to Florida and deal with what's going on there, and maybe, it would be best if you just forgot about us."

"Margaret," Thomas begged, "No, please! Don't do this!"

"Please, Thomas," Margaret said, her tone cold and sad as she cast a glance back up the hallway, "Don't you think you've broken my heart enough today? Right now, we have to keep those girls safe, and if that means you have to go, then so be it. Leslie and I will investigate what happened. There are a whole lot of questions about last night, but in the meantime, we can't let it appear that we left a potential predator in the house and dismissed what happened. So, please. Please. Just go."

Thomas wiped his eyes. He put his wallet and keys in his pocket, and then he took a step toward Margaret to give her a kiss. She took a step back and turned her face away from him, and he let his hands fall to his sides.

"Fine," He growled bitterly, "I see now. This was how it was always going to be. I am so stupid to have believed that this could have been any different than before!"

"No, Thomas," Margaret replied grimly, "It wasn't Leslie or I who was caught cheating this time."

Margaret swallowed down her tears as Thomas's expression turned from pained heartbreak to cold fury. He pivoted on his heel and stomped out of the house. She heard him put on his boots, and then a few seconds later she heard him start his motorcycle. He revved it far higher than it needed then he tore out of the driveway as he accelerated quickly through the gears.

Leslie heard Margaret wailing as she ran past Cheyenne's room. The door to the Suite slammed closed, and Leslie's heart broke. It broke for her best friend, and it broke for her daughters. Why did this stuff always happen to them? Looking over at Cheyenne and Lauren sitting on Cheyenne's bed, she suddenly felt like all her motivation to keep living was pulled out of her and she collapsed unceremoniously to the floor and cried too.

----(!)----

Over the next week, Margaret and Leslie questioned the girls over and over. They rooted out as many details of what happened as they could. It left Margaret wondering how she could have been so wrong about a man, and it left her a shadow of herself filled with regrets. Part of her was so furious with Thomas, but then, there were so many unanswered questions, like their hangovers the next morning that just was not answered. Those unanswered details made her question everything, and that led to the largest part of her mourning Thomas leaving even though she was the one that sent him away.

The chores, the gardening, kept Margaret moving. They kept her sane. However, it all became robotic and by rote. She rarely smiled, and Leslie was beginning to worry for her. She was often found brushing Jasper or Evergreen down with a faraway look and a lost expression until Leslie finally came out to the barn and told her that she had been currying the horses for hours. Or, the girls would find her standing in the garden staring off at the trees and mountains, all while gently caressing her growing belly.

Her growing belly. She would always have reminders of Thomas now. Two reminders of her brief stint of happiness, and now, her incredible loneliness. As for Leslie, she was subdued. She worried for her girls but also found it curious that as soon as Thomas was gone Cheyenne and Lauren had acted like nothing happened at all. It made her doubt them, and then immediately berate herself for being a horrible mother for doing so.

She found herself missing Thomas too, but also feeling angry and betrayed. More than anything else though, she worried for Marg. Marg's relationship with Thomas had been a lot more profound than her own relationship with him. Her relationship had just really taken off whereas Marg had spent months living with him, falling in love with him. She had been so hopeful that finally, a good man loved her! She wanted so badly for Thomas to be her knight in shining armor. Her prince. Her savior. Oh, how it had all gone so wrong. How was it that monsters always found her, and her girls?

Nothing was ever the same again. It was like Thomas had somehow become the main gear by which everything ran and all of them, Marg, Leslie, and the girls had all orbited around, and now, without him, everything just seemed off. At night Leslie and Margaret still slept together. However, instead of lovemaking, Marg cried herself to sleep in Leslie's arms while Leslie silently wept and fumed over the colossal mess Thomas had left behind.

From there, the days turned into weeks, and the weeks turned into months. The harvest came. The fall turned cold. Winter came, and the snow started falling and piling higher and higher. Five months passed by, and during that time Cheyenne and Lauren's relationship changed steadily growing more and more contentious. They snapped at each other and argued. Something they had never done before.

It was the last week of February. It was Gwyn's birthday. The snow hadn't melted off and wouldn't still for weeks. That was life in Montana. The party was modest with only a few friends from school being able to get their parents to brave the snow-covered roads to drive down to Margaret's farm. Cheyenne and Lauren were in the living room while the younger boys and girls were in the dining room. Margaret and Leslie were in the kitchen carefully keeping an eye on everything.

"It's a good riddance that he's gone," Cheyenne growled as she watched aunt Marg wash dishes, her expression sad as usual and her eyes a little lost, as if she were remembering something. Honestly, Margaret wasn't really moping around the house anymore, at least not for the last two months, but she wasn't smiling. Not like she used to, "I was right, Thomas is just like all guys! Sex crazed just like the boys in school, and just like Larry!"

"No, he wasn't!" Lauren hissed as she looked around to make sure no one was nearby, "What's wrong with you Cheyenne? You won! Can't you just leave it at that? You sound like you're trying to convince yourself that what we did to him wasn't absolutely the most horrid thing ever!"

"I won!" Cheyenne laughed scornfully as she rounded on Lauren, "I won? If that were true, then why does mama and aunt Marg still, months later, mope around the house depressed and crying for a guy that... did stuff... to us?"

That last part she finished in a hiss.

"They should be happy that he is gone!" She growled

"They loved him!" Lauren retorted, then shook her head in disgust all the while glaring at her older sister, "You! You are the one that is just like dad! Mean! Cruel! And, I am sorry I had anything to do with you or your "Plan!"

"Take that back!" Cheyenne shrieked as she launched herself at Lauren, "I am nothing like dad!"

"No!" Lauren screamed as they rolled across the floor punching, clawing, and pulling hair.

"What is going on?!" Leslie screamed as she ran into the living room with Margaret on her heels and pulled the girls apart.

"She's a liar," Lauren said of Cheyenne.

"You shut your mouth," Cheyenne shrieked, "You're the liar! Everything you say is a lie! Mama, aunt Marg, all Lauren does is lie!"

"No!" Lauren countered, "She's the liar, and she's cruel! Just like Larry!"

Cheyenne shrieked again and launched herself at Lauren against Leslie's grasp who was trying to hold her back. Cheyenne hissed and growled and cried, and then she collapsed to her knees and sobbed, "I am not like Larry! I'm not!"

Hannah, Gwyn, and a few other kids stood in the archway connecting the dining room to the hallway and the living room. Hannah and Gwyn looked embarrassed, the others, looked curious. They watched for a few more seconds and then they returned to the dining room.

"That is a horrible thing to say about your sister, Lauren! Take it back!" Leslie said sternly.

"I won't mama. It's the truth, and sometimes the truth hurts," Lauren replied.

"What is this all about?" Leslie asked as she searched Lauren's eyes for the truth.

"I'm sorry mama," Lauren whimpered as she also started crying, "I'm so sorry! I didn't know it would be like this. I'm sorry aunt Marg! I'm so sorry..."

Margaret loosened her grip on Lauren as she looked from one girl to the other, and then her expression changed to one of confusion and worry as she asked, "Cheyenne. Lauren. What did you do?"

Lauren crumpled to the ground beside her sister. She looked over at Cheyenne who was crying, then begging not to say anything, then snarling that Lauren was nothing but a liar.

"Shut up Cheyenne," Leslie finally snarled.

Lauren's eyes dropped to the ground as she confessed, "We spiked the wine and juice with your prescriptions. We thought it would just make you sleep, but instead, it made all of you weird. I said we should stop, but Cheyenne said we had to continue. So, we kept your wine glasses full. After you went to your room we could hear everything you were doing in there. So we waited until it got quiet. It was Cheyenne who went in to get Thomas because she's the one that looks the most like mama. I watched though and saw everything. All three of you were asleep. It wasn't hard, Cheyenne woke Thomas up, and then she... convinced... him that she was mama."

"Convinced?" Margaret gasped, "You mean..."

Lauren nodded.

Margaret's face paled to ashen, almost sickly. She was almost seven months pregnant, and her belly was very very large, so she sat down in her rocking chair and leaned heavily on the armrest while her hands were on her mouth. Her horror at Cheyenne's betrayal was gobsmacking. Leslie openly glared at Cheyenne now, in shocked horror, and she clenched her fists like she couldn't decide what form of beating she wanted to give the girl.

"Then, Cheyenne and I..." Lauren continued but Margaret didn't hear the rest.

She couldn't hear the rest.

"I... I haven't the words," Leslie gasped once she let Cheyenne fall into a heap on the ground, "Marg, I'm so sorry!"

Margaret sat there staring at her own hands for a long time before finally saying, "He told me he didn't do it. I was so mad and hurt. I felt betrayed. I wanted to believe him, but I didn't! Then, I sent him away! Leslie, I sent him away and told him to forget about us!"

Then Margaret shrieked like a crazed banshee. It took everyone by surprise, causing a few of the youngest children to scream in the dining room, and before anyone could react Margaret launched herself at Cheyenne. She raised her hand back and she slapped Cheyenne squarely across her face hard enough to send her reeling across the room!

"How dare you!" Margaret screamed, "You ungrateful brat! You stupid, petty, foolish, little girl! You are just like your father! You've ruined everyone's life, for what? To prove your prejudiced lies!"

Cheyenne was crying and blubbering that she was only protecting the family. Margaret was opening and clenching her fists, thinking of doing more than slapping the girl when suddenly Leslie was between the two of them looking like a mother bear about to attack. Margaret hissed at her friend, and then turned on her heel and trotted back to the Suite. Leslie's mouth fell open as if she wanted to say something, but then closed her mouth and watched Margaret leave. Then, she turned her glare on Cheyenne.

Cheyenne shrank away from her mother as Leslie shook her head in disappointment before sparing a glare and a disappointed head shake for Lauren too. By the time she finally turned and left, they were both crying but for completely different reasons. Cheyenne in frustration that she had been caught, and Lauren from shame and true remorse.

"Do you want us to leave?" Leslie asked as she shut the Suite door behind her. Dread welled up in her heart at the possible answer and spilled over into her voice.

"No," Margaret replied as she sniffled. Tears fell from her cheeks and chin to spatter silently on her clothes, "This is your home now. I am not rescinding that offer. Also, I love you. Your daughters can't change that, but, Leslie, what they did. It's unforgivable!"

"Then what's happening Marg?" Leslie asked.

"I will call Carl and Darla," Margaret answered as she turned back to her closet for more clothes. Her voice was muffled as she continued, "They will help you and the girls with the planting come springtime, and they will help with the animals. I am leaving. I am going to Florida. I am going to find Thomas, and then I am going to beg him to take me back!"

Margaret stopped speaking after that and she turned to her best friend and lover. Her eyes were red-rimmed and glossy from crying. Her braid looked frazzled and her expression was pure anguish as she said, "Leslie, I love him. I love him so much!"

Leslie crossed the room and hugged her best friend as tight as she could as Margaret mumbled into her hair, "I thought I was making it... for so long... after George died. But, I was so lonely. I didn't even realize it until Thomas moved in, and then, one day I was falling in love! Leslie, everything became so much brighter. So much better! I can't do it again. I can't make it. I can't lose Thomas!"

"Shh," Leslie hushed Margaret, "I understand. I loved him too, you know. Go. I will stay here with the girls."

Margaret nodded her head on Leslie's shoulder then sniffled hard, raised her head, and stepped back. Leslie smiled reassuringly. Margaret's smile was weak, but it grew more determined as she packed.

She packed one carry-on bag filled only with dresses now. She was too big now for any jeans except maternity pants, and she refused to wear those god ugly things. She added socks and already wore her fanciest pair of boots. She didn't bother with bras. Her breasts had been growing lately and none of her bras fit anymore. She packed a few panties. She very rarely wore them, but in the last month of pregnancy, she found she liked having a little something on in case the twins decided to tap dance on her bladder. Fifteen minutes later, she kissed Leslie soundly, hugged her, went pee, then trotted out to her truck and sped down the driveway toward the county road.

----(!)----

It took two days to drive from Montana to Florida at the speeds Thomas went. When he arrived, the first place he stopped at was Martin Green's law office.

"You look like shit," Martin remarked as Thomas sat in a chair across the desk from him.

"It's been a long hard ride," Thomas retorted dryly.

"You're here earlier than I expected," Martin said as he reclined in his chair.

"Shit happened," Thomas growled, "and I was told to leave."

"Fuck!" Martin hissed, "I'm sorry man. When I spoke to you last, you really sounded good. Much better than when you left. I was really hoping for you and this Margaret chick you were in love with."

"Yeah," Thomas mumbled, "The shit of it is, I still love her. It wasn't like catching Heather with Richard. This... was something else entirely..."

Martin watched Thomas for a long moment. His friend looked so tired and haunted. It must have been bad.

"Thomas," Martin said as gently as he could, "Is this "shit that happened" something I should know about, and possibly prepare for?"

Thomas shook his head, but then, as he considered the recent experience he nodded and said, "Probably. A couple of days ago Margaret and I found out we're expecting twins..."

"Oh fuck! Congrats!" Martin gasped.

"Thanks," Thomas replied with a weak smile before continuing, "That night, we all celebrated. That is me, Margaret, Leslie, and her four daughters Cheyenne, Lauren, Hannah, and Gwyn. Leslie and I were drinking wine and Margaret was drinking cranberry juice laced with champagne. Still, we all got drunk! Or, something like it. Margaret was so hot, and so was Leslie, and I don't mean overheated. I mean horny! I don't remember much about dinner, but later Margaret and Leslie took me to bed and we fucked, all three of us..."

"Dude," Martin gasped with a goofy jealous smile, "I hope you know how fucking lucky you are! You bastard! Seriously! Two women, together, at once!"

"Just wait," Thomas growled bitterly and continued, "Margaret fell asleep first, and then, I swear, all I remember is that Leslie and I made love for a long time before we fell asleep. Then later, Leslie woke me up wanting more. So, we fucked one or two times more, then she said that we should go back to her room so we wouldn't wake up Margaret. It seemed logical, so I did. After that, honestly, I don't remember a thing. It is like a vapor in my mind. The more I try to remember, the more it evaporates."

"I still hate you right now," Martin said, his voice thick with jealousy and sarcasm.

Thomas gave him a toothy grin and continued, "The next morning though, I wake up and Margaret and Leslie are standing over me. I'm hungover and shocked because I could have sworn they were in bed with me. However, when I look down at the bed around me I find Cheyenne and Lauren sleeping next to me. Martin, I swear, I have no fucking idea what happened. All I know is, there is no fucking way I fucked those girls!"