Chapter 29

Disclaimer/Warning: This work is not mine. Contacting the original author is impossible, but I like to think they would be okay with my posting it here for as many people to see as possible. This work is NOT complete and it will NEVER be complete. I'm sad too.

With that said, enjoy.

- - -

Soldiers have different rituals while they wait to ship out. Some spend the last hours with their wives or girlfriends; others go through their equipment again and again to make sure nothing is forgotten; still others get drunk enough to feel immortal.

Jason and I played catch.

His death made the hours of waiting the emptiest of my life.

It took Rachel awhile to realize she had nothing to do with it.

I sat in the dining hall surrounded by quiet Siblings and Alyssa. Some of the sorority sisters were sitting next to out table watching Rachel disapprovingly. She was having dinner with my ex-roommate and the three Tau idiots. From the sound of it, they were enjoying their meal immensely.

The sisters decided they had enough and stalked out of the dining hall. Rachel watched them leave with a tight smile. Alyssa's lips pressed together in anger. She got up and started towards their table.

"Alyssa," Doris Alex barked.

Her lover froze and turned around.

"It's not necessary," Doris Alex said.

"But..." Alyssa said plaintively.

"Whatever you might think, Alyssa," Doris Alex told her. "It is not about them."

Alyssa looked from Doris Alex to me to the other table. Her jaw set but she returned quietly. The Tau idiots laughed. Alyssa moved my hands out of her way so she could sit on my lap. I had not eaten most of my meal so she decided I needed feeding. I chewed and swallowed what she put in my mouth mechanically.

Rachel stood up and walked over to our table with my ex-roommate in tow. She gave the three idiots courage enough to walk up to our table with her. Rachel sat down and pulled her playmate into the chair across from me. The other Taus sat in the chairs the Siblings emptied to move to my side of the table.

"See I told you, Joseph," Rachel said brightly. "These are my friends. This thing between you guys is just a misunderstanding."

"It's hard to misunderstand being handled by animals, Rachel," Doris Alex with a dangerous glint her eye.

She might have baited the Taus into the assault, but Doris Alex was not the type to forgive weakness. Rachel looked at the three idiots and a spate of anger crossed her face. Had it been any other time, I would have admired her willingness to cut herself to spite me. She turned away from them and stared into my eyes.

"You told me taking a formal logic class was the best thing I could ever do in college," she reminded me.

I did not bother to nod.

"I want to take one next semester, can you tutor me if I get in trouble?" she asked with a wide smile.

Alyssa traced my ear with tiny kisses.

"Alyssa," Doris Alex admonished. "It's not time for that yet."

"It's only foreplay," Alyssa said with a pout. "I want to make sure when he's inside me I cum just from the anticipation."

"Don't worry about cumming when he's inside you, Alyssa," Janet said. "I know I can't help it so you won't have any problems."

The Siblings nodded their heads in agreement to her statement. The three idiots' jaws tightened as if they were trying to find enough brain power between them to say something intelligently cutting.

"You know, Joseph," Melisa said looking at Rachel. "I think I'm going to call Anna. You remember her; the old woman in the wheelchair you met in David's house. I think if I told her that David deserved a really nice Christmas present and that you..."

She pushed her chair back as my ex-roommate leaned forward angrily.

The cocking of a.45 was not a sound most people at the table were familiar with. My ex-roommate was not likely to ever forget it after his recent experience with Anna and me. He froze and turned his head towards me. His tension was palpable to everyone at the table. Alyssa looked from him to me and then back again. A feral smile touched Doris Alex's eyes as she sensed his fear. Melisa pulled her chair back to its original position and crossed her arms.

I took a deep breath. It was a close thing; so easy to have pulled the trigger, ripping a bullet through his gut and cutting his spine in two. I could have stood up, handed Alyssa to Doris Alex and walked the line of Taus putting a bullet in each of their heads. Samantha would get me the information I needed on the way to the two other assholes. The world would corner me eventually, but there would be a few less impolite assholes by the time I was done. I kept a mental list of people that felt their opinion had to be shoved down everyone else's throats. The world owed me Stephanie's rapists; the ones on my list would be a public service before I retired to a small plot of land.

Jason whispered his disapproval. I sighed knowing how bad it had to be if Jason was the one talking sense. Killing these fools might make getting to Stephanie's rapists harder; not significantly, but enough to make me un-cock the gun.

"Why are you sitting at my table?" I asked the three idiots.

They stood up immediately and backed away like their guardian angels were tugging them out of harm's way. I turned to look at my ex-roommate.

"Go away, Joseph," I said.

I tapped the gun against the bottom of the table. Rachel and Alyssa looked at the table curiously. My ex-roommate stood and backed away quickly. I turned my eyes to Rachel.

"Your friends are leaving," I informed her.

She gave me a hateful look before getting up and walking out with the Taus. Alyssa gasped when I pulled the gun from underneath the table and put it back in the holster at my back.

"You're not allowed to have that in school," she whispered to me.

"I have a permit to carry a concealed weapon," I told her.

"Oh," she said pursing her lips. "Why?"

"I did some pretty nasty things to people who have friends and family that don't think they deserved it," I said. "The federal government is hoping that if those friends and family come looking for me, nasty things will happen to them too."

She nodded unsurely and reached for my fork. She stuck the fork in her mouth instead of mine.

"That's my food," I pointed out. "I thought you weren't allowed to touch my food."

"You're not doing anything with it," she said with a shrug. "Plus things have changed."

"They have?" I asked.

"Yeah," she said. "I don't want to fuck you anymore; now I have to fuck you."

I was cleaning the 9mm's after their second test shoot when Doris Alex dropped off Samantha's folder. Jeremy completed his delivery in a more timely fashion but equipment is easier to acquire than trustworthy information. Samantha had waited for the second Thursday after I was told to deliver what I needed.

Doris Alex sat down to my right. She smiled at seeing Malia and Michael playing in the pool. The two were well on the way to an active in-pool fuck.

I did not look at the folder. I wanted the guns ready for action since I was leaving the next morning for Stephanie's home town. I cleaned the guns with machinelike precision as my mind wandered back to the day before my first mission in uniform. Jason and I were playing catch while the Master Chief watched.

The officer walked up behind him.

"Commander," the Master Chief said with a salute.

The greeting was acknowledged with a nod.

"Can I ask a question, sir?" the Master Chief asked tentatively.

He received another nod.

"How the fuck did these two get in, sir?"

The officer laughed and shook his head.

"I'm one of the best at my job, Master Chief," he said. "If I weren't military, most of the people on this base couldn't afford to sit on my couch to be told what was wrong with their heads."

The Master Chief sat up to pay closer attention.

"I've given those two every test imaginable," the officer continued. "There isn't one Jason can't beat, or that doesn't spit David out as perfectly sane."

"They're juggling knives to relax, sir!" the Master Chief said. "It wouldn't be a problem except they're not very good at it."

"Look again, Master Chief," the officer said nodding at us. "They're not juggling, they're playing catch... and they're trying to hit each other."

"What?!?" the Master Chief turning back to us.

There was a lull in the conversation. I wondered if they realized that while they were out of Jason's hearing range, I could hear them perfectly. The thought evaporated as Jason hid the next throw better than usual. I had to get out of the way rather than try to catch the knife.

"Shit, they're fucking crazy," the Master Chief declared.

"You make sure your men are okay before you ship out," the officer pointed out. "These two play catch with knives; same difference."

"You're telling me they're not crazy, sir?" the Master Chief asked in amazement.

"Oh no, Jason's so fucking crazy I won't be alone in the same room with him anymore, unless David's there with us," the officer said with a shudder.

"What about David, sir?" the Master Chief asked curiously.

"Master Chief, David's so utterly sane that you and I are closer to Jason than to him on that particular scale."

"Sir, he's playing catch with knives!"

"Yes, but he's good at it," the officer replied. "So it's on par with you going down to the shooting range."

The Master Chief looked at him like he could not believe the words that were coming out the officer's mouth.

"How did they get in then, sir?"

"Like I said, I don't know of a test that Jason can't beat," the officer said tapping his thigh. "He's a complete sociopath. If it weren't for David, there would be a trail of bodies behind him. The worst part is that because there would be no motive we could understand, finding him would be like looking for a needle in a haystack."

"What do you mean if it weren't for David, sir?"

"I would say Jason's sociopathy is that he doesn't believe anything except David is real, not even himself," the officer said thoughtfully.

"He's in love with David?" the master-chief asked incredulously.

"Listen to me carefully, Master Chief," the officer said angrily. "Jason does not believe anything except David is real. Deep down inside where you believe in God, Jason believes we're all figments of David's imagination."

"That's fucking crazy!"

"Certifiable," the officer said. "I just can't prove it."

"What?"

"I have no idea what tied Jason to David. I have their background checks; there's probably a moment where Jason saw something in David that he lacked," the officer said almost talking to himself. "Be very careful fucking with David where Jason can see it, Master Chief, there's nothing to stop one figment of the imagination from killing another. "

"Shit! Nobody had to tell me Jason's dangerous. But what about David, Sir?" the Master Chief said looking at me calculatingly.

The officer studied me for a few minutes before replying.

"David is..." he said finally only to sigh. "I wish I could explain it to you. Every test says the same thing; a perfect example of sanity with almost no subconscious. Not that he can control his subconscious mind you, but that he doesn't have much of one."

"You make that sound like a bad thing, sir," the Master Chief said.

"Master Chief, the rest of us are crazy compared to him and HE knows it," the officer replied seriously. "Convincing David that anything outside of him has to be considered is like trying to make a real atheist care that something is a sin."

"I still don't understand why that's bad, sir," the Master Chief said.

"Take my advice, Master Chief, always be polite to David. Your life depends on it," the officer said sincerely.

The master-chief turned back to us.

"Why don't you help kick them out, sir?" he asked.

"They play catch with knives, Master Chief," the officer said. "Jason will kill anyone without a perceptible change in heartbeat. As for David, if you ever decide to give him a reason to kill you tell me first. I'd like to be out of the state to make sure I'm not in his way. The universe spit out men like these two so we better have some on our side as long as we don't know how many more there are out there."

I lay the 9mm's on the table and sat back.

The Commander should have asked me. I would have told him what caused Jason to bond with me. I decided to kill my monsters; they knew it and tried to beat the purpose out of my eyes. I shoved the fear out of me and into them. They sent me back to the system rather than be trapped in their lair with me. The social worker figured out what happened to me and hid it. I decided to kill her too. Jason is the one that brought me back. He promised he would never let anyone do that to me again; he was twelve but I believed him. Jason filled the emptiness inside him with me because from my eyes he learned there was another choice. Monsters can be killed as easily as a little boy's soul is destroyed.

Rachel opened the door to the pool house and walked in angrily.

"Jesus fucking Christ, she has to be in love with you," Doris Alex said in frustration.

Rachel had grown quiet the second week after I was told about Stephanie's rape. She figured out that the quiet in the house had nothing to with her and the Taus. She stalked towards the table. She blinked at the sight of the guns but sat down anyway.

"What did you do to Joseph?" she asked.

"Why?" Doris Alex asked with amusement.

"I'm not talking to you," Rachel told her in annoyance.

"Watching Malia and Michael made me horny; I was thinking of a quickie so you better give me a damn good reason I should delay," Doris Alex told her.

Rachel looked at the corner Michael and Malia were in. She did a double-take noticing that they were grinding against each other and that their bathing suits were floating in the pool.

"Joseph won't come over to the house," Rachel said.

"What do you see in him?" Doris Alex asked shrugging Rachel's statement aside.

"He annoys the shit out of David," Rachel replied.

"Oh..." Doris Alex said very surprised her question was answered truthfully.

For the first time, Doris Alex studied Rachel seriously.

"At least, I thought he did," Rachel continued. "I'm not so sure this is about him anymore."

"It's not about you," I told her.

"But what did you to do him that he's afraid to come over here," Rachel asked pushing at me.

"David's relatives were visiting after your night with Joseph," Doris Alex informed. "One of them propositioned Joseph in a way he did not appreciate."

"You threatened him," Rachel deciphered looking at me.

"No, I did not," I told her. "I insisted on a certain level of politeness when talking to an elderly woman. She asked him a question and he answered rudely. If he can't be courteous to my guests, it is better that he not come by."

"You threatened him," Rachel repeated doggedly.

I stared at her quietly.

"Seeing him kissing me did not annoy you, did it?" she asked.

"I gave you permission, so I what I felt is unimportant," I reminded her. "Personally, I think you crossed the line and have some fences to mend with Melisa but that doesn't matter anymore."

"What does matter?" she asked seriously.

"Nothing that has anything to do with you," I replied.

Her eyes turned angry.

"I wouldn't do that, Rachel," Doris Alex warned. "Not right now."

Rachel turned to look at her and so did I. Doris Alex's worried expression got through where nothing else had in the last two weeks. Rachel turned back to me. I was still staring at Doris Alex; something had changed with Rachel's moment of honesty.

"Why are you so... angry?" Rachel asked.

"I'm not angry," I told her.

"You're not angry at me, but don't tell me you're not angry at something."

"I'm not angry, Rachel," I said picking up Samantha's folder and opening it. "Melisa is angry, and hurt. I told you before I'm past words like angry and enraged."

I started reading the first document. Samantha had been thorough as she could be in three weeks and it was obvious her research began the moment she was told about Stephanie's rape. At least, she was a good intelligence puke.

"The sorority house's renovations made it so most of the sisters wanted to live there," I told Doris Alex looking up from my reading. "Please see if a room can be found for Rachel next semester."

She nodded as I turned to a stunned Rachel.

"I don't interfere with the social lives of the people in my house," I said quietly. "You have new friends and should have them over if you want. Unfortunately, they have history with Doris Alex."

"You're telling me to leave?" Rachel asked with tears forming.

"Compared to what happens to some people, Doris Alex's assault is minor," I continued. "But I understand her antipathy towards her assaulters and anyone associated with them."

"I would never bring one of them here!" Rachel hissed at me.

"You think Joseph didn't find out about it that night?" I asked. "Do you think he said 'Guys, that was wrong; I'm going to the cops'?"

"He's their brother," she insisted.

"Yes, he is," I agreed. "If I have to choose between you in my house, or someone that I have a relationship with not having to walk into her home and facing someone that raised a full glass of beer to her assault, then I choose Doris Alex."

"You said you wouldn't fight back," Rachel accused.

"This is not me hitting back, Rachel," I told her calmly. "You invited her assaulters to sit at Doris Alex's table. The only way to make sure that never happens again is to remove you from my life."

"I did not invite them over to the table," she said.

"I'm sorry," I said. "The stench clung so tightly that I couldn't tell you weren't aware of it."

I turned my eyes back to the folder. I heard her stand up and walk away. She stopped a few steps away and came back.

"I didn't sleep with Joseph," she said. "He slept in my bed and I slept in Melisa's."

She walked out of pool house.

"The stench thing was cruel, David," Doris Alex said surprising me again.

"So was bringing one of those assholes anywhere near you," I replied. "You might be too civilized to say anything, but civilization is trapping I'm not wearing right now."

Doris Alex eventually got tired of waiting for her quickie. She joined Malia and Michael who were happy to extend their play into a threesome.

Samantha's folder made for interesting reading. Three weeks was not enough time to plan something that required precise execution, but she had tried. I thought her ideas through and reread her information to make sure I had not let her skew my thinking. She favored taking them in their homes, but that would trap me inside three times; once in each of their apartments and finally at the funeral home. Intelligence pukes always prefer doing things behind closed doors. I focused on some of the patterns that Samantha found. The two assholes went bar-hopping every Saturday until they were ripped to the tits. Stephanie had been raped on a Saturday night. I liked the thought of hitting the pair on their bar tour. They would be together and on the streets giving me more options to get out safely. If worst came to worst, there was always Samantha's way. I liked Samantha's arrangement for getting me on the ground. She left getting out of town to me so I was glad I researched methods of egress in case things went cleanly.

I put the 9mm's away and carried everything into the house. I needed sleep to catch the plane in the morning. I walked into my room and found Melisa lying naked on the bed.

During the two weeks after being told about Stephanie, I kept my attentions to Doris Alex, and Heather. They seemed the most capable and willing to handle sex in the mood I was in. Melisa and I had not been alone in the same room for those two weeks. I set everything down on my table and turned to look at her. She sat up and stared back at me.

"Rachel told me you're kicking her out," she said calmly.

"I've asked Doris Alex to find her a room in the chapter house for next semester," I said.

"Why?" she asked.

"She invited those three Tau idiots to sit at the table with Doris Alex," I answered.

"Oh," she said. "She didn't invite them, David."

I shrugged.

"I think she wasn't thinking about anything except getting back at you," she said quietly. "Kinda like I didn't think about her when I brought her into this house."

"Why are we talking about Rachel, Melisa?" I asked.

"I haven't had sex with her since she spent the night with Joseph," Melisa said without expression.

"She says they slept in separate beds," I told her.

"I don't care. It was after we got closer so it felt like she was doing that to me instead of you," Melisa said.

"Just tell her that being with her is not all about me," I said. "It's the truth and she deserves that at least, considering everything that happened."

"What's the point?" she asked.

"You feel something for her. There doesn't need to be a point except not regretting it later," I asked.

She looked at me for awhile.

"Why have you only had sex with Heather and Doris Alex?" she asked.

"Malia likes it to be fun, and right now I'm not a whole lot of fun," I said. "Janet is Janet so that's not a good idea."

"What about me?" she asked.

"You've always been different so right now wouldn't be a good time either," I answered.

"No, David," she said. "Right now is a good time."

"Melisa," I started patiently only to be interrupted.

"David, I know what you're going to do," she said. "I know if something goes wrong you won't be back."

I nodded.

"I've been playing at being a Sibling," she said.

"I never thought you were playing," I told her.

"You let it be fun," she said. "You let me do what I wanted and when I went too far you gave my butt a good whacking but you let me play you into making even that something else too. I guess for me it was a lot like it is for Malia."

I shrugged.

"I made a decision a long time ago because I was scared," she said. "I made the same decision again because I can't have the man I love."

I waited for her to continue.

"You're right, I want Rachel for me too," she said clearly. "But how much I want her for me is nothing next to how much I want her for you."

"It's not going to work, Melisa," I told her still not sure where she was going.

"I could get up right now, David, and walk up those stairs into my room. I could grab Rachel by the hair and as soon as she knew where I was taking her, she'd stop fighting. I KNOW that because I've had the same itch she hasn't been able to scratch for the last two years. Every Siblings has had it. Fuck! Most of my sorority does."

"I'm nothing special," I said.

"You're not that good-looking," she agreed. "It's something else, and I didn't really understand it until I saw the pictures of Stephanie."

"Who showed you her pictures?" I asked between gritted teeth.

"I asked Doris Alex," she said staring at me. "I had to; you've never been more what I wanted than in the last two weeks."

I looked away while rage returned to burn away something that surprised me by surfacing.

"If I brought Rachel here, she would come willingly," Melisa said. "She'd stand still while I took her clothes off. She wouldn't need help lying down and I'd hold her legs open for you. As you fucked into her, I'd kiss you. She'd love it. I'd love it. You'd love it."

I looked back to her. Her green eyes seemed to take up all of the room.

"Tell me that's what you want, and I'll go get her for you," she said.

"Haven't you been trying that?"

"I already admitted I've only been playing at it," she pointed out. "Tell me you want her, and you'll fuck her tonight."

"Why?"

"Because no matter what Doris Alex thinks, I am more a Sibling to you than she could ever be to a Brother," she said with eyes filled with as much purpose as mine.

We were quiet for a minute.

"I need you tonight, David," she said. "I need to be the one that says goodbye with her body, not Doris Alex or Heather. It's my right. They belong to the Brotherhood; I belong to you."

"It wouldn't be like it has been between us," I warned her.

"We can return to that when you get back," she said. "I'll be sleeping in your bed until you do. I want to be able to close my eyes and remember that I gave you a reason to come back."

I stared at the floor.

"We can only go so far if you only let me in so far, David," Melisa said.

"There's places I don't want you to go," I told her.

"There's places inside you that I don't want to go," Melisa replied. "Saying goodbye isn't one of them."

I stood up and took my clothes off. Melisa was kneeling when I got on the bed. I pulled her tightly against me and tried to kiss my way into her soul. Her nails dug into my back as she tried to pull me closer.

Rage and purpose retreated not wanting to confront something that might be stronger.

I pushed her down on the bed and leaned over her. My hand touched her center. I wanted her wet but she pushed my hand out of the way to take a grip on my cock. She guided me towards her. She grabbed a fistful of my hair and pulled me down into another deep kiss as we touched below. I pushed into her feeling her body's dry resistance. I did not care; I wanted to be inside Melisa so I forged forward not heeding any discomfort. She wrapped her legs around my waist and pushed up needing the completion as badly as I did. I felt myself hit bottom. I pulled my hips back and pumped forward to take Melisa again. She pushed her forehead against me and gasped. I put my hands on either side of her face and kissed her with an open mouth. Her tongue welcomed me inside her. We waited for her body to adjust to my presence. Finally, we felt the moisture that was necessary for us to continue.

Melisa moved her hips experimentally underneath me.

For the first time with her, I did not feel the need to hold back, to protect her even from myself. I moved my hands underneath her body until I could palm her asscheeks. Her nails dug into my back again as I gripped her tightly. I pulled back and stroked into her hard; she met me halfway. She arched her back trying to get me deeper inside of her body. I lay my weight completely on top of her and put my face against her neck to suck her skin. I wanted to leave a mark that would last the days I was gone.

"Yes!" she whispered as she felt my intent.

She moved her hips trying to reach a moment of forever. She came and her pussy squeezed me. I pumped into her one last time and released everything I had not been able to give Doris Alex or Heather in the last two weeks.

The sun woke me in the morning. I got up without disturbing Melisa. I stood by the bed looking at her. She had done most of the talking during the night. She played with my dick after the first time until it hardened. We did it slowly the second time; there were a lot of things she could only say with her body. After that, she talked while I packed my bags. I did not think she was expecting any response from me and if her uninterrupted stream of chatter was any sign I was right.

It was as good a ritual as playing catch; even Jason sat quietly in my head listening to her.

I stepped out of the bedroom with my bags to find Doris Alex waiting.

"You weren't really planning to drive yourself, or take a cab?" she asked.

"I didn't think I had to ask," I told her honestly.

She stared at me for a few seconds.

"Really?" she asked with a smile.

"I would've woken you up," I said.

"Maybe Melisa is doing a better job than I give her credit for," she said seriously. "I'm glad she decided to grow up enough to be the one that said goodbye for the rest of us."

She did not have to say 'just in case'; it was understood.

I nodded and headed out of the house. She drove within fifty feet of the private jet. I got out of the car without saying anything. She walked with me to the steps. I handed the bags to the waiting steward and put my foot on the first step. Doris Alex grabbed my arm to stop me.

"Melisa won't be only one waiting up for you," she said quietly.

I counted the brown imperfections in her dark green eyes. I kissed her softly. I turned around and finished my climb into the jet.