There Must Be A Mistake Ch. 18

Note: All persons in this novel are fictitious. If you are looking for a great deal of explicit sexual activity, this story is not for you. Those scenes that are included will be evocative rather than just for the sake of sex itself. This story is for your reading pleasure. Its length is undetermined at this time, because I do not know where my mind will take me along the way. I hope you will stay with me during this journey until it reaches its inevitable conclusion.

Note: Relax: You asked me to lengthen the story. This chapter will show you some of the places I am going, and some of the places I am going to keep hidden from you. Why would I tell you the ending before I get there? Isn't that what a good book does to keep you interested? I certainly hope I can make the ending of the story gratifying to all of you. P_D10

*****

81. Disclosures

"Cassie let's go for a walk, we have to talk."

"What's up Christian; why can't we talk here?"

"Trust me; we can't discuss what's on my mind here."

They went for a long walk into the fields, behind the main house. Cassie knew something was wrong with her brother, because her brother was unusually quiet. His head was down, his fists were clenched, and his face was taught. Finally, she grabbed his arm and turned him to her.

"Okay big brother, what the heck is going on?"

"I'm going home Cassie. I can't be around you any longer. As long as you were fixated on Callum, I was safe. That is no longer the case. I cannot keep my feelings for you under control any longer. I've been in love with you it seems from the day you were born. I know it's wrong, but there is nothing I can do about it. You are the most beautiful woman on the face of God's earth, and if you were not my sister I would have asked you to marry me years ago. I would treat you like a queen, because in my eyes that's what you deserve. You are wonderful to everyone around you, even if they are not the same way towards you. I have watched you pick up people when they are down and help them stay up and get nothing in return. You are as beautiful inside, as you are outside, and I can't stay near you any longer. I just wanted you to know why I was leaving."

Cassie looked into her brother's eyes, and saw tears forming in their corners. She knew every word he said was true. He never took any girl out on a date, and he never had any close female friends. Actually, he didn't have any close friends at all. He was always hanging around her and her friends. It all made sense now, and she was shocked that she never noticed it before.

"What am I supposed to say Christian, what am I supposed to do?"

"Nothing, this is my problem, not yours. I probably will move to Nevada or New Mexico, and start up a business of my own. It will be easy enough with the amount of money I have, and I have the talent to do it. I won't tell mom or dad why, and neither should you. Do what Patti said; 'find the man of your dreams, and marry him'. Live a long and happy life, and remember that I loved you. I will be leaving tomorrow morning. I just wanted to say good-bye."

Christian kissed her cheek, and began walking back towards the house.

Cassie stayed where she was, stunned by her brother's revelations. She had to talk to someone about this turn of events; but who?

If she spoke to Callum, he would knock Christian's head off.

Patti might be more understanding, but she was too close a friend of her mother. She might feel obligated to say something to her.

Sabrina was a possibility, but she worked for Patti and she might tell her.

That left Laura and Anna, two women her age who might understand her quandary more readily. Now that Junie was in stasis, they were actually getting along with one another. She would try them, while they were monitoring Junie's progress tonight.

After she finished her eight-hour shift with Callum; Laura and Anna took over for the 10 PM to 6 AM shift. She told Callum he could leave, because she wanted to have some girl talk time with Anna and Laura.

Callum said, "Oh God, I don't need to hear this; I'm gone." He ran to the house, as if he was on fire."

"What's up Cassie, it looks like you have the weight of the world on your shoulders."

"I feel like I do, but you have to promise it stays between the three of us forever. Christian and I had a really strange talk this afternoon and I don't know what to do about it."

Laura said, "If you're talking about Christian being in love with you, everyone knows it."

"How, I just found out today. He told me this morning. How did you know?"

"You were looking at Callum all the time. You never saw the way your brother looked at you. His eyes glow every time he looks at you. If you said something funny, he laughed the loudest. You could be wearing a potato sack, and he would have thought you were the most beautiful woman in the world. My mother said to you 'Find a man out there that deserves you.' Who did you think she was talking about?"

"Your mother knows?"

Laura replied, "I told you everyone knows, except you; because you weren't looking."

"What am I supposed to do? I can't marry my brother, it's against the law. I don't know if I love him that way."

"Why don't you go away together and find out? We will cover for you."

"Where would be go?"

"You can go to New York City and do the town, or go to Niagara Falls where all young lovers go. If you go to Niagara, you'll need your passports. Do you have it with you?"

"We never leave home without them."

"That sounds like a commercial I know."

"He's leaving in the morning, how do I stop him?"

"Climb into bed with him, fully clothed, and tell him what you've decided to do. Explain there will be nothing sexual, until you've made your decision. If he really loves you, he will jump at the chance."

Cassie hugged her two friends. She said she would thank their mother herself in the morning. She ran, as fast as her feet would carry her, to her brother's room.

His bedside light was on, a book lay on his chest, but he was unconscious. She jumped into the air, and landed on his bed beside him.

He sat up; the book went flying, and wondered what the hell had happened.

"

Hi bro, remember me?"

"What the hell are you doing in here Cassie?"

"Making your dreams come true."

"We can't do that Cassie, it's not right."

"Screw what's right and wrong, I want to find out if it is good for the both of us. I have been blind. Everyone knew you were in love with me. The only person that didn't know was me. I was going to talk with Anna and Laura about our discussion this morning, and before I got a word out, they told me everyone knew. Everyone knew except me. Their whole family knew your secret and never said a word. I always wondered why you never had any friends, and always hung around with me; now I know why. This is what we have decided to do, and if you don't want to do it, you can go your way, and I will go mine.

"We are going on a sexless vacation. I want to find out if I am in love with you the way you love me. I know I love you as a brother. I need to know if I could love you as a wife and partner. Are you willing to go on a vacation like this with me with no promises either way?"

"Yes, affirmative, sure, certainly, absolutely, naturally, of course, indeed, okay, no problem, by all means, fair enough, positively, and did I say 'YES?"

Cassie laughed, "Yes Christian, I think you covered the entire dictionary for the word 'YES.' We will speak to Patti in the morning, and tell her our plans. Callum will be furious with us, but I will put him in his place."

"No baby, I will. He doesn't have a claim on you now, I do. He can shout from the highest rooftop if he wants to, but this is none of his business."

"He will tell our parents."

"If he's half the man he supposed to be, he will keep his mouth shut. If he's not, I will bankrupt him."

"I won't let you do that. It would bring you down to his level if he does it. You are a better man than that."

"Okay, we will see what the morning brings. It's time for you to go to bed. I'll see you in the morning."

"I am in bed, and I'm staying here until morning. Could I have a good night kiss?"

Christian kissed her on the cheek as he did in the morning.

"Is that the best you can do Christian?"

"I could go a lot further, but I don't know what your boundaries are."

"I'll let you know if you cross any boundary lines."

He kissed her deeply, as his hand roamed around her belly and move up towards her breasts. He wondered where she was going to stop him.

She let him go a lot further than he ever expected. He felt the soft flesh of her breast underneath her blouse. He let his thumb roam across her nipple. When he felt it expand, he moved his mouth down to suckle on it. He heard her moan.

"You're not wearing a bra."

"I took it off just for you."

"Baby girl, you are going to kill me."

"I had to do something to make you stay. It was the easiest thing I could think of."

"May I see them?"

"No, that would be crossing the line. Go to sleep and dream of me. I will dream of you. We will see what the future brings."

"You are going to make this hard for me."

"You should be hard already."

"I'm hard, you are horny, and you want us to go to sleep. This is going to be a long hard night."

"Hopefully, it will be the first of many very long hard nights, if you're lucky."

"Woman, you are going to kill me."

"Possibly, but you'll know if I love you when it's over."

"How long is this vacation going to be?"

"We have to be back before Junie comes out of the 'Beauty Box'."

"One year, please tell me you're lying."

"It is not a year, it's only 351 days."

"There's not enough cold water in the world to keep me under control."

"There is where we're going."

"Where is that Greenland?"

"No, we're going to Niagara Falls."

"Great, when I can't take it anymore I can go over the falls in a barrel."

"As you're about to go over the falls look at me, I'll take my shirt off. I'll bet you wish you hadn't done it."

"Cassie you are mean."

"We are only going for a few weeks, maybe a month. I'll know one way or the other if we are right for one another."

"What are we going to do then?"

"The same thing we've been doing all our lives, tell each other the truth. If it's yes, we will tell our parents. They may not like it, but they can't stop us from doing it. It's been happening all through the ages. Every philosophy course I took in college tells you about it. From the earliest Chinese records up through England and France, interbreeding was common. The Roman Catholic popes had children with their own daughters.

Will you stop that, you are hogging all the covers, Puffy. I'm getting tired I'd like to go to sleep."

"Can we cuddle?"

"If you don't I'll kick you out of bed."

"Is that a bet?"

"You will be very sorry if I wind up on the floor tonight Puffy."

"Are you trying to tell me I have to lose weight?"

"I'm not going to give you all the answers you gave me for this one word, but YES!"

"Good night Bitch."

"Good night Puffy."

***********************

Test after test after test after test, I had never had so many tests done on my body in all the years of my life. If they put me through one more I swore I would go home without the results. If there was a machine in this hospital, I had been through it. If there was a blood test to be done, they did it. They did a bone marrow test, a spinal infusion, colonoscopy, endoscopy, and brain scan. They did things to me I didn't understand, if I had pancreatic cancer.

Doctor Rubin assured me all these tests were necessary.

The only reason I made it through these three days of testing was because Jennifer was at my side every moment of every day, and night. She slept in the same room as I did. She was stronger than I was, and she lent me some of her strength.

Delicious became suspicious when I was not at work for two days in a row. She knew I would have to be dead to miss that many workdays in a row.

She went to my secretary and asked Brenda where I was.

"I'm sorry Mrs. Thyme I don't know. I was just told he would not be in to work for a few days."

"Page Gordon, and have him come to my father's office please. Tell him his dad is back."

"Mrs. Thyme, I would be lying to him."

"Do you want to be working tomorrow Brenda?"

"Yes ma'am, I'll page him."

Gordon burst in to our father's office and asked, "How did your test go dad?"

Delicious turned the chair around and asked him, "What tests?"

"Oh shit, it's you. I'm not supposed to tell you."

"Do you know what death by asphyxiation would feel like? I could explain it to you if you'd like."

"Mom and dad will be pissed at me if I tell you. I'm in trouble either way."

"Remember Gordon, they will only be angry with you. I will kill you if you don't tell me what's going on."

"You better tell them that otherwise I am in deep shit. Mom and dad are at the University Hospital in Austin. Dad has pancreatic cancer."

After the shock wore off she asked, "Are they sure it's pancreatic cancer?"

"The doctor here was sure it was, but he sent him to a specialist in Austin to verify it, and recommend a course of action. He's been there for three days, and I haven't heard a word from them. I'm frightened Delicious, what am I going to do without him?"

"Get ready to leave; we're going to Austin."

She called Gray. "Hi honey, you are babysitting Newton. I'm going to Austin with Gordon. My father is in the hospital, I will let you know what's happening."

"Do you know anything at all?"

"Gordon said the initial finding was pancreatic cancer."

"Oh shit, get going baby, I'll hold down the fort."

"Thanks Gray, I will keep in touch."

*************

"Dan, you son of a bitch, you knew my father was in Austin, and you didn't tell me."

"It was on a need to know basis, and you didn't need to know. We have him covered."

"Well, I'm going to make your day more interesting. Gordon and I are going down there. We are leaving in 10 minutes, with or without escorts. Have a nice day Dan."

Dan screamed, "You bitch!"

He called the ready room, and started barking orders. Three of the four principal designers of the Beach Ball were going to be in a place that could not be effectively guarded by an army, unless it was shut down. He knew that was not possible. He was going to have to single down coverage on some of the scientists in the order to get more coverage at the hospital. He also had to increase coverage on Grayson Thyme.

"I hate that woman."

By the time Delicious and Gordon made their way to the parking area there were six black SUVs waiting to leave. The armored SUV was open for them to get into.

Gordon asked Delicious, "What did you say to General Morgan to get us this much coverage?"

"I told him I was going to drive to Austin. I think he looked at my test scores and didn't like the results."

"You probably got 100 on your tests, and he thought you cheated."

"Actually, I didn't cheat. I never took the test."

"I won't even ask how you did that."

"Good because I'm not going to tell you. I graduated high school the same day."

"You cheated the system!"

"You could say that, but it wasn't my doing. Some of dad's friends cheated for me."

"Dad has a lot of powerful friends. Why don't you call one of them and find out where the best hospital for dad would be if he needs an operation."

"I'd rather wait until we know the results before we send out an S.O.S."

"Dad said the maximum life expectancy for this type of cancer is five years. We have to get off the ground a lot sooner than that. I mean a lot sooner. I want to push everyone into high gear. I don't want sloppy work, but I want to explain to everyone how important it is to get our father's dream into space before he passes away."

"Listen to me kid, there are ways to do things, and their ways to do things properly. We don't want to fail when we are so close. The third wall is going up now. Once it is completed the bearings go in to keep to the main levels at a constant 1G so we don't go floating around the ship. Then the flooring gets completed, and the inside of the ship starts to get fitted out. That's a 12 to 18-month procedure. We are looking at a maximum of 18 months to two years before we can take off, and that's if nothing goes wrong. We may be able to close those 18 months down a few months by adding extra personnel, but we don't want people tripping over each other. Then there's the problem with Stasis; I don't know how that's going."

"Yes you do."

"How do you know you little runt, have you been spying on me?"

"You shouldn't leave messages on your cell phone from Junie Penick. I just wanted to make sure she was alright. Imagine my surprise when she told you she was engaged to Callum Robbins, and she was going into Stasis the next day for one year."

"Snoop, you're never to be trusted."

"I know, but apparently you didn't. Do you want to know something else that's going on in your household that you don't know?"

"Am I going to be horrified, or just surprised?"

"If I were you I would go with horrified."

"What's going on in my house? Did Newton find a way to assemble an atomic bomb?"

"No nothing as horrific as that. He has broken into your coded secret files and correcting some of your mistakes. Instead of telling you, he's been emailing me."

"My room is double locked. He can't open the simple locks on the kitchen cabinets; how is he getting into my room?"

"There is nothing like making a parent relax her vigilance than by letting her watch you struggle with something simple. If you can't open it, it's not possible for him to bypass the sophisticated locks to her room, is it?"

"The babysitter wondered why he took such long naps in the afternoon. I have to warn Gray what our child is doing."

"Why, when dad found out what I could do he encouraged me to continue doing it, instead of stopping me. If Newt is finding flaws in your work can you imagine how smart he is? I was almost four when dad turned me loose on Sequoia. Can you imagine what Newt could do on Big Blue?"

"I'm afraid to think about it."

"Call Gray and have him bring Newton to work tomorrow, and see what happens."

"How much do you think my husband can take in one day?"

"Given him a chance, he will be fine. It's his son you're talking about. He will be very proud."

**************

I was lying down in bed recuperating from what they told me was the final round of testing, when the tornado, that is my daughter stormed into my room. As she looked at my exhausted, pale face, all the fury in her eyes dissipated.

"DADDY!"

She ran the few steps from the door to my bed and hugged me. I wanted to tell her everything was going to be all right but I didn't want to lie to her.

"How did you find out I was here?"

"You weren't at work two days in a row. You would have had to been dead for that to happen. I went to your secretary, and she said she didn't know where you were. I had her page Gordon, and to tell him your back. He came running into your office and asked how your tests came out. When I turned your chair around and he saw me he about died. I threatened him with his life and he told me you were here. Do you have the results yet?"

"No, not yet, I should have them first thing tomorrow morning. I took the last tests today. I swear if they come up with one more test I'm leaving. There isn't one part of my body they haven't seen, probed, x-rayed, or scanned. I've had enough. I want to go home. I want to go back to work."