The Apple... Ch. 11

The apple doesn't fall far from the tree

Chapter 11

"Oh Mother, do you think they will be all right, Sarah" Andrew said as he checked the women's pulse again. As a physician, he considered himself a pragmatist and even if he was aware of Catherine's talent, he had never put too much credence in it until this night. But when Sarah had explained the phenomenon, he found that his participation in it had overcome whatever doubts he had.

"I tell you. I recognize the symptoms. Cat exhibits them when she goes in her meditative trance. I taught her how to control it and they should all be safe." 'I hope.' She amended to herself. "I can only speculate they were so closely linked, that Jules and Ari followed her there."

"If you say so, Doctor." Andrew grumbled, unconvinced.

"I'm not a doctor." Sarah replied automatically.

All of a sudden, they felt a faint echo of the earlier psychic events.

Sarah laughed whole-heartedly. "They are coming back. Trust Jules and Ari to come up with this particular way to initiate the transfer of their consciousness from Cat's haven to their bodies."

The three women shuddered and opened their eyes in unison. Moans echoed through the room and Andrew jumped from the bed as if hit by a jolt of electricity. Sarah stayed sitting, Ari's hand in her own.

"Welcome back ladies. Had a restful trip to the beach?"

The women were laid side by side on the bed, holding hands, cool compresses on their brows. When they heard Sarah, they turned their heads toward her, still in unison. On seeing this, Sarah frowned inwardly.

"Catherine, Juliette, Arianna, you are back. Now I need you to do something important for me. Listen to my voice. You are safe. Everything is all right. You did good, but you need to let go of each other. I know it feels good, but you must let go. Listen to my voice. I am Sarah and you all know me. You know you can trust me. I promise I will teach you how to go back and play on the beach together if you are good girls. Now, show me how good you are."

These last words reached Ari first, then Jules recognized them too. They stirred, their eyes focusing on Sarah. Then they turned together to Cat, and embraced her, cooing reassuring nonsensical words to her, calling to her to join them again.

Sarah let out a sigh of relief when she shuddered, her eyes unglazing and she hugged her new friends with tears of happiness and love.

When they had collected themselves, though they were still a tangle of arms and legs and other parts. Sarah asked them if they were all right. Her heart skipped a beat when they turned their heads in the same movement.

"Yes Sarah, we are all right, thank you." Ari said.

"That was incredible. We were on a beach and we didn't get sunburned, but we were sad because you weren't there with us. Then Cat said it wasn't a real beach. She said we were in her head. Can you believe it?" Jules was so excited, she couldn't stop talking until Cat pulled her over and kissed her.

"Yes, I can believe it. Hum, Cat, you can stop now. I think that was enough for one night. Next time you girls want to get together again to play, we will have to find a more isolated place. There were a bunch of senseless people in the living room. The first wave was pleasurable enough, but the second overwhelmed everybody. Luckily, we were all sitting down or somebody could have gotten hurt when they fainted. And thank the blessed Mother this is the middle of the night and everybody is asleep or we would have to talk mighty fast to explain this to the neighbors. As it is, there will be a lot of soiled sheets in the morning, I'm sure."

Cat raised a finger. "Sarah, the first time, I was projecting, but the second, they were."

"What? That's impossible. They don't have a trace of empathy projection talent. I would have known after a week of playing with the both of them."

"You are wrong d... hum... Sarah. They are more closely bonded than you think. I could feel them communicating in a way similar to mine plus, when they 'play' as Jules calls it, they come together in more ways than one and you of all people should have realized it. Remember the incident you told me about earlier?"

Sarah slapped her forehead in a dramatic gesture. "Ah! You're right. That's what happens when the observer is too close to her subjects."

Jules and Ari let go of their new friend and sat bolt upright. "We remember!" Jules shouted.

"When we were on Cat's island, she said something about you." Ari continued.

"Yes, and there were also other things."

"When you cured me with the catharsis..."

"You said some things but..."

"You distracted us by saying that you read..."

"Scientific journals and that you were not..."

"A doctor!" The last sounded like a single voice emanating from two throats after the dizzying fast paced alternation.

Seeking to gain some time to come up with a satisfactory answer, Sarah laughed as she pointed to Cat's chest. "Welcome to the family, Cat"

Jules and Ari turned back to Cat and after a stunned second as they took in the telltale bite marks on her chest and breasts, they lunged at her. "We love you Cat!" they cried. "You are part of our family. The Mother says so. We will play with you all you want as soon as the hypocrite sitting there shows us how to go to your island together because we are good girls or we can ask Ari's parents to let us use their chalet so we don't bother the neighbors and, if she asks nicely, maybe we can invite the meanie to come play with us."

Laughing through the tears of happiness at the love flowing over her, Cat hugged her new friends and lovers fiercely. "I love you too. But.. I... I already have a family. I have a girlfriend. Her name is Martine and I love her very much." Her tears of joy turned to sobs when she realized the special link she shared with the two soul mates would be a one-time affair. Jules and Ari fell in her arms also crying, their hearts breaking in response to her pain.

Sarah jumped to her feet and ran to the kitchen. As she passed the living room, she saw all the sad faces and some quiet weeping. Picking up the phone she dialed and waited impatiently for someone to pick up. "Yes. Hello. May I speak to Martine, please? This is an emergency... This is Doctor Sarah Grisholm, please wake her up and put her on the phone... Martine, I need you to get dressed and come home right away... No, Cat is not hurt, but you must come over right away... I know, there's no bus at four in the morning, you can run, it's not too far or ask your brother to drive you, but once he drops you off, don't let him get out of his car. Send him back home right away... No, I told you she's not hurt, but she needs you right now... Whatever, make it quick."

She paced back and forth, trying to reassure her friends that everything would be okay, that help was on the way. When she felt a renewed wave of sadness wash over her, she rushed to the bedroom where she found the women still hugging and crying together.

Sarah heard the front door crash open and Martine shout. "Cat? Darling, what happened? Where are you?" She raced to the living room. "Sarah, why is everybody crying and why did you tell my mother you were Doctor..." That's when it hit her. Every drop of blood seemed to drain from her face as she turned unerringly toward the bedroom. She was already underway when Sarah intercepted her. She had to use all of her strength to hold her.

"Martine! Martine! Listen to me! Listen to my voice! This is important." She shook the woman out of her trance-like state. When she saw that her eyes were focused on her, she went on. "Listen carefully. Something extraordinary happened here tonight. No, I didn't see it coming. I'll explain later. For now, she needs you. You were trained with her for a reason. You are her anchor and she came to love you very much, but now, it's causing her pain. Stop struggling right now. Listen to me. You know me. You know I would never hurt either of you. Now get undressed woman. Yes, get naked and fast, there's no time to waste."

She almost ripped Martine's clothes off in her hurry to help her. "She still loves you just as much if not more and it's tearing her apart. She went through an intense experience and she has trouble re-centering herself. Yes, take off your underwear too. I said naked, didn't I, damn it! You will go in there and let her know that you love her. Don't be surprised by what you see. For the Mother's sake, remember that you love her and that she loves you. Focus on that to the exclusion of all else. Now remember the breathing exercise. This is for just such an occasion."

At those last words, Martine got really worried. A low-level receiving empath herself, she had first been paired with Catherine to establish a link that would anchor her in reality when her talent threatened to overwhelm her. Sarah herself had taught both to center themselves using breathing exercises to attain a light hypnotic trance where they could link more solidly. They hadn't needed it for months. If they did now... She expected the worst. Tears welled in her eyes and she began to shake in fear for her lover.

Sarah shook her again, hard. "Martine, listen to me. Listen to my voice. Snap out of it. You were trained for this. You need to be strong for her. Yes, breathe deep. Center yourself." Still holding the naked woman by the shoulders she turned to her friends. "Andrew, I need you to call the clinic, you know the number, right? Tell them to send the special ambulance fully fueled over here. Tell them this an omega emergency and to implement the special provisions for Ari and Jules. They will know what to do. What are you waiting for? Get to it, man."

Andrew said. "Yes, Doctor, right away." Before running to the kitchen.

It was a measure of Sarah's concentration that she didn't correct him. Instead, she spoke to her stunned friends. "Guys, things sort of got out of hand, but in a good way, don't worry. Now, we have a delicate situation on our hands, I suggest you all get dressed and make your way home. I'll be in touch to let you know how it went."

When she looked back at Martine, she could see she had followed her training and was now in the light trance. With a gentle tone, she directed her. "Listen to me Martine, listen to my voice. You will walk to your bedroom where you will hug your girlfriend and show her you love with all your heart. Don't be surprised by anything you see or hear. Concentrate on your love for Catherine."

Nodding, Martine walked calmly toward her bedroom. The closer she got, the stronger the waves of sorrow and anguish were. 'What could have happened to cause such a reaction? That's never happened before even with the patients in the worst shape. I need to be strong for her. Breathe deep Martine, she needs you. You can't fail her. You were trained for this.' She repeated to herself over and over as she had been taught.

When she entered the bedroom, she reeled at the onslaught of pain being projected at her. 'Blessed Mother, there are three of them and they are all projecting. How is it possible? There are no others as strong as Cat in the city. The nearest I know of is a thousand miles away.' Taking a deep breath, she approached the bed and sat on it quietly. Centering herself, she reached and put her hand on Cat's hip, the only piece of her easily available, so entangled was she with the other two.

"Catherine." She said quietly. "Listen to me. Listen to my voice. Do you know me, darling?"

Three heads came up, tears flowing freely on three sets of cheeks and it seemed to her like a single voice wailed. "Martine! You are here! I LOVE YOU!" And she was engulfed by an avalanche of bodies hugging her and kissing her as a flow of love, happiness, relief, rolled over her.

She felt like she was losing herself in the tidal wave of emotions threatening to submerge her when she heard Sarah's soft calm voice. "Martine, listen to my voice. Tell her you love her and that you understand. The most important thing is that you keep telling her you love her. The others' names are Jules and Ari. You remember Arianna, don't you? Tell them you love them too. Listen to me Martine. Help is on the way, but you need to be strong for Cat."

Gulping, Martine steeled her resolve and returned the hugs and kisses, cooing her love for each individually, but most specially for Cat.

Seeing that they were calming somewhat, Sarah went back to the kitchen and she dialed another number.

"Hello, Henry, this is Sarah, are they still there? ... Yes, I know they were going out later, are they awake? ... They didn't sleep at all. Ah! Why am I not surprised? Tell Douglas I need to speak to him... Yes, I call him Douglas. Now put him on, it's important... Hi Dou... Stop shouting. No, nothing happened to her, she's fine... I tell you she's okay. After all these years, are you going to start doubting me now? ... I tell you she's fine. There just won't be a wedding this morning... STOP YELLING, DAMN IT! ... Something extraordinary happened tonight and she's part of it... Listen to me. LISTEN TO ME! I need to use the chalet for a few days again... Yes, it's for my special project... No, she's not a patient, but if you let me finish... I tell you she's not a patient, but if everything works out as I think it will, she could be one of our best therapists... Shut the heck up and listen for a second! ... If I'm correct, she has been showing signs all week, but her latent talent may just have emerged tonight and I think it may be the reason she blocked that whole year. It was possibly just developing and when all that shit happened. She repressed it along with everything else and now it's come out at maximum power, all at once. I need a quiet place to train her in handling it. And on top of it, she may have blown open a channel in her bonded... No, you can't come see her for a while, she needs to be surrounded by trained people. You wouldn't want to set her back to square one, would you? ... Come on Douglas, don't cry, everything will be fine, I promise... Yes. Have I ever steered you wrong? ... Tell Lorelei not to worry. I'll call you as soon as I can. Bye."

'Phew! That went better than expected' Sarah thought. She heard tires screech and doors slam shut. Rushing to the front she opened it and was almost hit on the face by a woman in a soft blue uniform in the motion of knocking on the door. "You made good time, Karen. But what are you doing here? You don't work the night shift."

"No, Sarah, but one of my patients needed me earlier and I was getting ready to leave when you called an omega emergency, so..."

Sarah was relieved her mentor, Dr. Karen Jackson, was there. She couldn't have a better support team leader if she had asked for it. "Karen, we may have a strong projecting empath who came to her talent suddenly as an adult and you know what that can mean."

"It showed at full power and she is not trained for it so it is threatening to burn her brain out unless..." She stepped back to look at the civic address on the mantle of the door. On seeing it, she blanched.

"Yes, you're right, this is Catherine's home and get ready for another shock: the emerging talent is Arianna."

"No! Not Arianna, she's just recovered her memory."

"Yes and she may have recovered more than her memory.

Quick on the uptake as always, Karen saw the implications immediately. "You think the talent was linked to her trauma and she sublimated it by repressing any trace of the events relating to it. She was a young girl after all, approximately at the age where the talent is known to manifest."

"You've got it, teach! That's why you get the big bucks, your name is on every official piece of paper at the clinic and get invited to all the parties at the university." Sarah teased.

"Young lady, as soon as we can safely tell her, you will have no more excuse and you will have to accept the damn piece of paper. You know and I know and everybody at the clinic knows that you are the brains behind the operation. You've left me behind years ago and it's your name that should be on my door."

"Come on, Karen, you are still the best clinician psychologist in the country, if not the continent. All I do is run my special project and help here and there around the place. Plus I don't have a thousandth of the administrative skill you have. The place would flounder in a month if I was director. Oops! Let's continue this conversation when we are on the road."

Turning to the orderlies coming up the sidewalk, she said in a brisk tone. "Sorry guys, but I don't think we will need the stretcher tonight. Leave it here, but bring the mattress back in the bus. Also, take all the cushions and pillows you can find. We have three people to transport plus support therapist Martine. Yes, four! Now close your mouths and hop to it!"

"I just love it when I have the opportunity to say that."

"You take pleasure in such little things, Sarah. But you said three plus Martine. Who's the other one?"

"I told you Ari was bonded to her soul mate which is how I was able to reach her and allow her to recover her repressed memory. Well, that bond was deeper than I thought. And they were in a deep link with Catherine when she was thrown to her haven..."

"What! That's impossible! The only way she can get there is through meditation."

"You know, I'm getting pretty tired of the 'I' word. I've been hearing it far too often lately. What do you say we replace it by something else? 'Unheard of' has a nice ring to it, don't you think?"

"You may be right Sarah. With all the 'impossible' successes you've achieved with your 'special project', it's coming to sound a bit ridiculous. At least, now that you can publish, your research will be accepted in the scientific community so they will become 'possible'."

"I'm not too sure about that. Let's wait and see. But first, what do you say we take our people to a place where they won't mess with the neighbors' emotions."

"Mother! Here we are yapping and I completely forgot about them. Where are they?"

"The reason you forgot about them is that Martine is doing her job admirably and that she's calmed them or you would be hard pressed to keep from crying yourself. I don't think we'll need to sedate them, but I'm glad you're here and that you've brought the most stolid orderlies we have. They need emotional calm most of all."

**********

All they heard as they entered the room were soft cooing noises from Martine and giggles from the other three. They were in such a tangle on the bed that if it wasn't for the different skin tones, one would have been hard pressed to determine where each body began and where it ended, much less the route it took from one end to the other.

The four were hugging and kissing and caressing each other in a loving manner, no more. Sarah was glad that Martine had remembered to keep things on an even keel.

"Sarah, they are all naked. We can't take them outside like that and it's going to be even colder up North."

"I know, but there's no way we'll be able to dress them. At least, we can put some shoes on and we'll wrap them in as many blankets as we can. Please go tell the boys to back up the ambulance as close as possible to the door and to crank up the heat. Also, tell them to bring out the mattress from the other room. It's going to be more comfortable than the carpeted floor for the long ride. Come back here when everything is ready and bring their shoes, they're strewn all the way from here to the front door."

When Karen had left, Sarah sat on the bed and looked at her wives with a mixture of love, pride, and sadness. When she saw the frown appear on all three brows, she ruthlessly suppressed this last emotion as she had taught her therapists and their support staff. She gently stroked their hair and leaned until her mouth was close to Martine's ear. She was proud of her when she saw that the woman was deep in her supportive trance. It would make things easier.