Becoming the Storm
65 Stabilizing
IT WAS THE FIRST NIGHT I’d spent apart from Dani. She and her sisters were in the master suite. Debbie and Dolly had been to the house every day since Xan was born, but they hadn’t spent the night. Tonight, our baby was three weeks old and the girls were having a slumber party. I didn’t mind. It was the first night that I’d been in the big bedroom upstairs and Nikki was on my agenda.
“What did you do to me, Brian?” she moaned as we came down from our orgasms. There were several moans coming from around the room as we all relaxed with our lovers. Liz rolled toward us and gave me a kiss, gently patting Nikki on her shoulder.
“I think he gave you a screaming orgasm,” she chuckled. “I had to use my fingers.”
“I’ll give him up shortly,” Nikki said. “Then your little red twat can take the place of my bald one.” Nikki squeezed with her pussy muscles just enough so that my cock slowed its rate of deflation. “But what I meant was to me, the goth anarchist, lost in depression, spewing darkness and anger in her poetry, and battling psychosis. What did you do, Brian, to turn me into a blonde bimbo who loves you, can’t wait to be with her hearthmates, cries when she leaves the ranch, and writes comedy sketches. What did you do to me?”
“I’ll answer that in one,” Mary said before I could get any words out. She wiggled up next to us. “He loved you. Even when you scared the shit out of him, he loved you. Even when you lashed out with anger and torment, he loved you. When you wouldn’t let anyone touch you, he loved you. And when you waxed your pussy, he really loved you.” There were giggles from all around us. It was like we were all basking in a massive afterglow.
“And not just Brian,” Rose said. “Sure, he broke the ice. He got us to open our eyes and see who you really were. But then we all decided we loved you. Not that we all are equally excited over your bald pussy. We just love the you that we discovered.”
“That wasn’t all Brian’s doing,” Whitney said. “As one of the three exclusively heterosexual women in our casa, let me say that you showed us love. It wasn’t just us accepting you. You accepted us, even on those dark and stormy nights when you wanted to kill us.”
“Please don’t use that phrase again!” Nikki moaned. We all laughed. Ever since Nikki had started her novel, people would randomly look at her and say, ‘It was a dark and stormy night.’ Even now, Nikki’s pussy was pulsing around my cock as she laughed with the rest of us. “I just want you all to know that I love you and I can’t wait to get back here in the spring to join the casa full time. I never realized how completely I’d cut my parents out of my life until I accepted my family here. I wonder if I could have loved my home in Mishawaka as much as I love our home here on the ranch. I love you. I love all of you. I love each of you.”
The Lady Hoosiers came into the new semester 9-0. Their center was knocked out in the first practice after the break with a stress fracture. For a while it looked like Whitney would get moved again, but they had a freshman who was a real dynamo. January is when Big Ten play starts and even though they were scoring, by the end of the month they’d accumulated three losses and were 4-3 in conference play. Whitney wasn’t the high scorer with Kris dumping in just about every shot she took, but Whitney was hitting a consistent three or four three-pointers in every game and made a lot of plays.
After the men’s team lost at Illinois and the women won against Northwestern on the 30th, both teams had a 13-4 record going into February.
I didn’t have class on Tuesdays, but I hung around the studio after the taping was over. There had been an interesting mixed group for an audience, about half men and half women. They were all seniors in high school and members of DeMolay and Rainbow Girls. I was surprised that Jean and Ariel Duval were there, as well.
“Papa Jean. Ariel Mom,” I said, when I saw them. “What brings you down to the show? Is Nikki coming back home? I didn’t hear anything.”
“No, Brian,” Jean said. “Nothing as exciting as that. You know we’re active in the Masons and Eastern Star.”
“Uh… Yes. What does that have to do with it?”
“Oh,” Ariel said. “Did our daughter teach you nothing?”
“It’s never been an issue, I guess,” I answered.
“Jean and I are liaisons for the Grand Lodge of Indiana to the various youth organizations in the state. DeMolay comprises young men ages twelve to twenty. It is a social and civic organization appendant to the Masons. Similarly, Rainbow Girls are young women of that age,” she said.
“Oh! I thought the girls went to Job’s Daughters,” I said. “Isn’t that what Nikki is in? I went to all those functions with her.”
“Well, she’s older now,” Jean said. “The age limit is twenty-one. But Job’s Daughters have to be related to a Master Mason. Rainbow Girls and DeMolay don’t have the relationship requirement.”
“Oh, I see. Nikki’s almost twenty-two, though. Does that mean she’s out?”
“Not exactly,” Jean said. “She is referred to as a Majority Member and is still active in some volunteer work in Rhode Island. She can’t hold an office, though.”
“So these kids are, like, baby Masons?” I asked. Ariel rolled her eyes. Jean just looked at me.
Regardless, they were one of the best-behaved audiences we’d ever had. The guys all wore sport coats and ties. The girls were all in dresses. Still, they were teens. The thing that got me hanging around was listening to them after the show.
“There needs to be a guys’ show like this,” one of the boys said.
“What would guys talk about?” a girl asked. “They don’t even allow gross boy humor on television.”
“Yeah. Are you going to make jokes about penises and farts?” another girl laughed.
“I think Elaine does a pretty good job of that,” the boy said. “You know, things like they teach us in DeMolay. The values. Family love, reverence, courtesy, comradeship, fidelity, cleanness, and patriotism. It’s easy to talk about them, but there aren’t really that many examples of it. Like courtesy. I still don’t know what fork to eat with. Is it discourteous for me to use the wrong one? And is a ratty old pair of torn jeans okay to wear if they’re clean?”
“That chef dude probably knows all about that,” another boy said as they headed for the door. “And courage. Did you know that’s the guy who stepped in front of a bullet last spring? Where does that even fit in our values?”
And then they were gone and on their bus. I didn’t even know who the kids were.
“Impressive kids, aren’t they?” Jean said from beside me.
“Oh! Don’t you have to be on their bus?” I asked, surprised that he was still there.
“Dear God, no!” Ariel said. “We’re liaisons, not chaperones. They have their leaders. We just thought we’d stick around for a while and enjoy the ranch. Want to invite us to dinner, future son-in-law?”
Uh-oh. That was forward. Especially for Ariel Duval.
“My dear future tribal in-laws,” I said, making sure we understood that there was not going to be a licensed wedding between Nikki and me. “Would you like to come over to the house and stick around for dinner this evening? It’s my daughter’s first month birthday. You should come in and practice holding a grandchild.”
“You evil boy,” Ariel said. Jean was laughing too hard to speak as we left the studio.
“Your daughter is as close to holding a grandchild as I am likely ever to get,” he said when he caught his breath. We went into the big house and I was greeted with a big kiss from Dani. Xan was placed in my arms. I spent a few minutes loving and kissing on the little girl before I surrendered her to Jean. Hannah, April, Elaine, and Jason came into the house. We often collapsed in the family room together after the show and then got some lunch ready.
“Oops,” Hannah said as she came into the kitchen. “Keep your clothes on. We have parents here.”
“Oh, make yourself comfortable, dear,” Ariel said. “As long as Jean has a baby in his arms he won’t even notice you.” It seemed true as the man I always considered kind of a stuffy corporate lawyer had taken Xan to the family room and settled into my chair with her. He was cooing and making faces at her while she chased his glasses with her pudgy little fingers.
Dani brought out a tray of sandwiches and then settled into Jean’s lap with her daughter. Jean was really sweet and kissed her forehead. Before long, all three were asleep in the big chair.
“The magic touch,” Ariel sighed. “Nicolette should consider being handfasted to Danielle instead of to you.”
“Oh, she is,” Elaine said. “Danielle is cónyuge to all of us, even Nicolette and Angela. We all want to cuddle with her.”
“Hello? Are we early?” a voice asked from the door about three o’clock.
“Art? Teri?” I said. “Did we have an appointment today? I must have spaced it. What are we meeting about?”
“Oh, just stopped by to visit our little girl,” Art said.
“Oh. I’ll go get her. She’s in the studio. She usually works until five. She’s been doing a great job marketing the show and lined up a national sponsor last week,” I said.
“That’s my girl,” Art said. “We’ll just hang out and wait for her. We don’t want to get her bosses mad by interrupting her work.”
“Fat chance,” I snorted. Teri had already zeroed in on Xan, now in Hannah’s arms. Hannah gladly surrendered the baby.
“I think I’d better go get some more babies,” she said. “We’re done with our production meeting.” She headed for the door.
April went with her. “I’ll help.”
People started arriving back from classes about that time and I headed to the kitchen to get dinner ready. I noted that Art and Jean were deep in a discussion. Hmm. Just wanted to visit daughters and babies? Something’s up.
“So to what do we owe the pleasure of your company, this evening,” Rose asked as we ate dinner.
“Now that the co-CEO is here and has called the meeting to order, we might as well address the issues,” Art said. “We knew that Jean would be down this afternoon, so we wanted to get some non-billable time with him to discuss the matter of John Smith, also known as the reporter Chase Sanborn.”
“Can’t we just have him ground up and use him as fertilizer?” Jennifer asked in disgust.
“No! He’d poison the garden and all the crops,” Samantha growled. “I don’t want any trace of him around the ranch, dead or alive.”
“Take it easy and let Art explain what the issue is, honey,” Teri said calmly. “It will be okay.”
“It’s just… Whenever I hear his name it just makes me so angry… I just…”
I pushed my chair back from the table and opened my arms. Sam flew into them and sniffled against my chest.
“Please go ahead, Art,” Rose said. “It’s still a pretty tender subject for all of us.”
“Okay. I’ll just get right to the point. The Star wants to settle. They are throwing Smith under the bus, but they understand that they bit off more than they could chew this time. By knowingly paying for the photos of the vandalism after they had been warned, they became complicit in the vandalism. They are willing to pay quite a bit to have us drop the charges against them,” Art said.
“Isn’t that like bribery?” Elaine asked.
“Not exactly,” Jean said calmly. He was sitting near me and reached over to pet Samantha’s hair. I think he was still on a peace-high from holding Dani and Xan. “The criminal charges don’t do anything for you or the ranch. The law is punitive. If the court finds them guilty, they might be fined a few thousand dollars and told to go and sin no more. You don’t get any of that. It is not restitution. The main reason for naming them in the criminal case is to have them in the civil case. While the court’s judgment is a slap on the wrist, the suit could cost them real money.” Jean nodded and Art took over again.
“We named the Star and its parent company in the civil suit because we have no idea what assets and resources John Smith has that he could pay from. For an individual, he would be fined and possibly sentenced to a short jail term, but more likely put on community service doing something like scrubbing graffiti off walls. Then we get him in the civil case, but he might not have any money, or have it too well buried to find,” Art said.
“What are they offering?” I asked.
“One point three million,” Art said. “The ranch would see roughly $900,000 after my fees. Remember, I’m working on a percentage.”
“That isn’t as much as you projected when we talked a couple months ago,” I said.
“No.”
“Can we press for more?” Rose asked. Hannah came around the table and collected Sam from my lap. She led our cónyuge to the big chair and cuddled her. She didn’t really need to be in thick of this meeting.
“We could. And possibly get more,” Art said hesitantly. “I think it is their opening bid. They expect to negotiate.”
“Art, Teri, and I talked about this for a while this afternoon,” Jean said. “Teri had an interesting perspective that I believe is worth considering.” We all looked at Teri expectantly.
“Like Samantha, I am a little vindictive. Believe me, I think the Star should pay until it hurts. But ultimately, I want Smith destroyed. They’ve already shown they are willing to throw him under the bus. I think we should put the bus in gear. I want him blacklisted. The Star should agree that they will never again pay that man for photographs or stories. They should also put the word out to the other tabloids. They are very influential in that area and their parent company also owns half a dozen other publications into which Smith could funnel his work. Then when we go against Smith, we press for a judgment that says he can never again photograph or mention anyone affiliated with the ranch, the clan, or the tribe. That would get him off Heaven’s scent as well,” she said.
I nodded and looked at my hearthmates. Each one around the table also nodded.
“Negotiate the best settlement possible with the Star,” Rose said, “that includes the terms you’ve just outlined. Being rid of him is more important than money to us.”
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