Barbara – My turn

I could just say ditto to what Ashley and Marjorie have already written and let it go at that. However, vanity drives me to say more.

I was lucky to have Ashley as my next-door neighbor and bestie. We had been together since we were in diapers. Although born in different years we were only a few months apart in age. While I was not crazy over science fiction like Ashley or Marjorie, being exposed to both of them (remember where Ashley was, I was almost assuredly close by) caused me to be exposed to all the best science fiction and fantasy books. I tended to favor fantasy.

Ashley was a short little busty girl. If I were to give her a pocket description using the anime world that Ashley loved I'd call her loli big-boobs, that is she could cosplay Hestia with only a wardrobe change.

Ashley had more drive and self-confidence than anyone I had ever met. She would face down a fellow C.E.O. standing a foot taller and massing a hundred pounds more without hesitation. It is not the size of the man in a fight, but the size of the fight in a man that counts.

The night that my life changed forever, I was with Ashley. (Where else would I be?) Multiple shocks to my psyche changed how I looked at the world. Through shared trauma, that has been described often enough that I don't need to repeat it now, I bonded with this group of girls. I did not ever want to let go of this closeness. Serina was my hero, and I fell in love with her. But Lance was the one who blew every fuse in my body. Then I caught a good look at him while he was changing out of his armor when Bridget and Caitlín had their adventure on their way back home, and wow! That changed my feelings about him even more. That he acted and behaved in a way that complemented the way he looked, well that just made him irresistible. But as Serina had a prior claim all I could do was worship from afar.

That was until Serina sacrificed herself for all of us. I'm not sure that you can say that Lance was also sacrificed. Somehow, I feel that being the center of a family like ours has much more in the way of compensation for him than for Serina. Serina is merely the world's best. I had hopelessly loved Lance from the start but had never had any hope that things would change to allow that love to be returned. Once that restriction changed, my life was forever changed for the better. Lance built my self-image up to heights that I could never have imagined. The way that he made me feel reflected in my self-confidence. I had no idea until it happened that a man and a woman together can create an experience that was light years away from anything that they could do singly.

Serina might clarify this herself, and I might be letting the cat out of the bag. But—from my point of view, it was not until Serina brought all of us girls together and bluntly talked about what was tearing our family apart. And what Serina was willing to do to solve this issue, that I changed my feeling towards Lance for the last time. We drew straws as to who would be first, and Erin won. But if it had been me, I would have done my best, even as a virgin, to make Lance see the inevitable.

{Ha! I knew it! The issue was never that I did not love you and the rest of the girls, but that I was mentally incapable of acting, which affected me physically and I literally could not physically act on that desire. Serina and I even attempted play-acting, with her as one of you. And even though I knew it was Serina, just thinking that it was not her caused me to not be able to. Until Serina and Erin proved to me that I could. Even then, without Serina giving me specific instructions as to how she wanted things to be in our family Erin would have been the first and last. – Lance}

I should reveal that there was one other event that changed my feeling toward Lance to the point that I was not willing to leave the family even though I was as baby hungry as they come. It was after Betty and Erin had joined us, but before we moved. Getting tub soaking time was something that was hard to find. I had waited until everyone else had gone to bed and then snuck in to take a long soak. Afterward, I thought I was safe in streaking back to my room that I shared with Ashley and Marjorie. Well, I rounded a corner and slammed right into a solid wall. Well, it felt like one. It was as I was lying on the floor, directly under the night light that we kept on in the hall, that I realized that my wall was Lance dressed only in his jockey's. There I was practically spread eagle, perfectly spotlighted, on the floor—too stunned by the way Lance looked almost nude to move.

I could see him looking at me, and I don't mean looking me in the eyes. Then he reached down and pulled me up, I kind of stumbled or at least I acted like I did and I found myself up tight against his body. I could feel that he wanted me, but he was too much of a gentleman to do anything about it. I could tell by the way that he held me close, in a way enjoying this encounter as much as Lance would let himself, that he loved me as well. Even though he would never break his commitment to Serina. Nor would I want him too. In fact, if he had, it would probably have destroyed my image of him. I was better off keeping my dreams in my head that acting on them.

Ashley hit the nail on the head with her comment about growing young again. I was staring the dreaded big three-oh in the face when Lance and Serina sprang the surprise of staying young looking for possibly centuries. There is nothing to compare with watching your body grow young again. Not that almost thirty is that old, but hard work, long hours, and then toss on having three babies on top of it and yes, your body is going to show that wear and tear. We don't know what is in those little balls of leaves and flowers, I know as I asked Bit, but it has kept me looking like I was twenty-one ever since and that is even after I added a dozen more children to our collection. With eight other women to help share the load, not just in watching and tending our children but sharing in nursing them. (No more days spent in that strange state that lack of sleep can do to a mother!) Then tossing in a body that does not get worn down, staying at twenty-one in looks and operational well-being, even when you are hitting your nineties, well more children are something to be expected. Being baby hungry, at least for me, is not something that you ever get over.

Serina asked me to take combat training, so of course, I signed up. Enough has been said about the suit. I don't care how the thing works as long as it does what I want it to. OK, OK, yes it took more training than I wanted, but I mastered that suit. I owned it.

Even Ashley with all her training could not get her suit to do what mine did. Then Serina gave me a new suit that was overpowered and had better communication capability. Why? Because she was appointing me regimental commander. Why? (which is exactly what I asked Serina at the time.) Well because Ashley could power her way through any negotiations with those big executives of the companies we had to deal with, in spite of their anti-women in the workplace biases, she was not good at the type of care it took to keep our internal employees work at peak. Ashley had been the C.E.O., I was the C.O.O. I handled all internal operations. The people that I was responsible for worked at peak because they wanted to please me. In return, I took care of them. I made sure that they were taken care of, be it a family crisis or a medical emergency.

Time is moving forward, and basic training is finished, next is war games.