Corrupting Power
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Quaranteam: Piper's Prelude - Part 5
🕑 Added 2022-08-02 16:00:01 +0000 UTCPart Five
It was starting to settle into evening while they took their coffee break. Jenny had gotten some exotic blends of coffee and the girls had learned that if they weren't specifically craving one of the things they'd already been introduced to, they should simply ask to be surprised, and would inevitably be introduced to a new thing they didn't know they already loved.
Dinner was just a few hours off, and Nicolette told them not to ruin their appetites by eating too much in advance, and both Piper and Fiona had rolled their eyes at her, assuring her that they would definitely be more than hungry enough to devour their share of dinner.
From their vantage point on the balcony, they could see Phil and his bodyguard Linda were dropping off Emily's friend, Maya, one of the final additions to the House of Rook. Fiona asked Piper if she wanted go down and introduce themselves to her, but Piper insisted they take the time to finish her story first.
“Maya's not going anywhere and we'd only be crowded her with too many faces and names all at once,” Piper said. “Let her get situated in the house and spend some time talking with Emily. We'll get a chance to meet her at dinner. I want to tell you about this last part, simply to cleanse my palate from the horrible rest of it. If I leave it there, I'll only be grouchy throughout all of dinner.”
“You're the storyteller, Piper,” Fi said to her. “I'm just along for the ride. Where do you want to pick up? From the morning after leaving Covington's?”
* * * * *
So, yeah, like I said, my first two encounters before the imprinting process are mostly just scraps of memory, but nothing I can hold onto with any level of real detail. When I awoke the next morning, I felt sort of scrambled, but amazingly refreshed. It was the strangest thing, but I felt rejuvenated, like I'd gotten the best rest of my life. There was, like, a lingering level of bliss still hovering over my brain, almost... shit, almost like I was high. Like I'd been smoking pot. I don't do it very often, but the few times that I have, I've always felt massively relaxed, like all the stress just leaves my body.
It felt like that.
The room wasn't decorated at all, but I could tell I wasn't in Covington's house anymore. I felt like I should be at least a little worried, but I wasn't, which I remember thinking was strange at the time. The haze and fog of the previous day was still too dense for me to even remember what the man I was imprinted to even looked like, much less what his name was.
I'd learn later that when we'd gotten back to the house a few days earlier, Niko and Ash had immediately taken me into the bathroom and hosed me down, washing me off and cleaning my hair before putting me to bed. They'd also gotten me dressed in a pair of Andy's boxers and one of his t-shirts, hoping that the scent of him nearby would put me a little more at ease.
My cellphone was plugged in, charging on top of the dresser, along with a note, addressed to me that I decided to look at after checking in on my phone. As it turned out, I'd actually been imprinting for over a day, and woken up around as early as I normally did, the sun just starting to crest over the hill I had a great view of from my bedroom window.
My gold medal was resting on the dresser right next to the phone. I guess that Covington didn't want to fuck with it for fear of getting the IOC on his ass, or maybe Alicia had gone out of her way to keep it safe for me. I'm not really sure how it got there safely, but there it was.
The group chat the volleyball team's had going for years had blown up in my absence. Several of my teammates had been paired up with men, although a handful were still waiting for ideal matches to show up. That meant that those who'd been through the process were detailing it all to others who hadn't yet had the chance to get imprinted. Most of the girls had been allowed to keep their phones with them while they were waiting in redistribution facilities scattered across the country. A couple of them had gone radio silent while they were getting treated, but all of them had come back into the conversation a few days later, once they were at their new home.
I knew I was in my new home, but I didn't know where or with whom that was.
My absence in the group chat hadn't gone unnoticed, and several of my friends were worried that something had gone wrong with the imprinting process, or that I had contracted DuoHalo in transit and had died somewhere along the way. There wasn't a lot I could tell my girls yet, but I could at least assure them I was alive.
My phone told me it was 5:45 am on November 4th, which meant it had been more than two weeks since I'd left Colorado on the plane, so I completely understood why my teammates were nervous. Several of them were on the East Coast now, so when I sent a message saying that I was alive and had just landed at my new home, I immediately got several responses. I also sent a message to my parents, letting them know I was okay, and that I would give them a call later in the day, once I'd gotten my bearings a bit more. I didn't want to tell them what I'd been through. Shit, I didn't even want to think about it. I wasn't ready to actually talk to anyone. That's why I was looking for anything else to focus on.
The envelope with my name on it sitting next to my phone kept calling my name. The handwriting on it was messy but still legible. I didn't know it at the time, but Andy had taken quite a while writing it by hand, making sure he didn't rush, that each letter was unmistakable, the meaning and the intent impossible to read as anything other than he had intended. He told me later that he felt like seeing hand-written words would give more credibility to his message. He was right – it made it all feel that much more personal. He'd also been in quite the fragile mental state when he wrote it, although I didn't know that at the time.
I turned on a light next to the bed, picked up the envelope, tore it open, and pulled out a couple of sheets of paper, and started to read. I've been carrying the letter with me everywhere I went since I read it, so let me just take it out and read it to you word for word, although if I'm honest, I probably know the entire thing by heart at this point.
Piper,
My name is Andy Rook, and for better or worse, you and I are now bonded together. I can only hope that you will find me acceptable as a partner.
In my efforts to try and rescue some of one of my current partner's friends from the horrible bastard named Arthur Covington the 4th, I heard that you were unwillingly in his care. He described you as “more trouble than she's worth,” which to my ears means you are a hell of a woman. Covington's plan was to give you as a “booby prize” to whichever man came in last in his demented little game, a consolation gift for whomever he expected was going to wash out, but I could sense that he intended that more as a punishment for you rather than trying to place you with someone whom you would find happiness with.
Covington and I do not care for one another, so through some cajoling, I convinced him to add you to the prize pool of women who were being gambled for.
This part requires a bit of explanation, so let me try and do it simply – Covington and his friends have a regular card game, where they use women they are to be paired with as collateral to stake with for chips for the poker game.
Let me stress first and foremost that I find this sort of thing abhorrent, and wouldn't have willingly participated in such a game, but my partner Niko informed me that one of her friends was, along with her daughter, going to be sent to Covington, to be made members of his household. Before he would add them to his family, however, he was going to use them as a stake for his card game.
Niko pleaded with me to join the card game for a single night, just to rescue her friends. I was very hesitant to do this, because it meant I would be gambling with the lives of two women whom had entrusted me with their safety.
That said, I also knew exactly what kind of man Covington was, and Niko had told me that he had planned to use both her friend and her friend's daughter at the same time. Together. And would force them to engage with each other. Sexually. As troubling as it was, I knew that if I left those women to Covington's clutches, I would never forgive myself. The problem was that it meant risking the lives of two other women, each of whom had chosen me.
It was an impossible choice, but in the end, I realized that if I tried and failed, I would be losing four lives, but that this was only a possible outcome. If I did not go at all, that mother and daughter ending up with that horrible bastard Covington was a definitive outcome. Yes, it was possible that someone else could have won them, but Covington seemed to control that group like an iron fist, and I fully believe he would have manipulated the situation to get them back under his control. I would have been forced to live with my inaction, and knowing that I might have been able to do something would have haunted me my entire life. I had to try, even if it meant I lost even more than I had originally intended to. I simply chose to let that fuel my will to endure the trial before me.
I suspected that Covington might have had some additional help in his previous successes, so upon my arrival, I insisted upon two things. The first was that we rotate the dealer duty between all of the players involved, to ensure that no player was cheating. I was a little surprised that none of the other players had thought to do this, especially since the dealer was normally a member of Covington's house, and it sounded like he usually won. While Covington clearly seemed put off by the request, there was such support from the other players that he felt compelled to go along with it.
I don't know for a fact that he was cheating, but the fact that he lost and lost big on the first night where his designated dealer wasn't in play certainly implies that pretty heavily. Also, as someone who's been playing cards for a long time, he struck me as the kind of person whose tells would've been readily apparent to any decent card player after a handful of games.
The other thing I insisted upon was that you be added to the pool of women who could be selected by the winners, and not just relegated to the position of consolation prize. It wasn't met by much resistance from Covington, and I got the impression that he just wanted to be rid of you.
I'm afraid I don't really know that much about you. After we got home, I did a little bit of research on you once we got back to the house. I know you've won a gold medal, so congratulations on that. I know you were in Sports Illustrated's Swimsuit edition, after a video clip of you warming up went viral and was turned into a meme. The interview with you on Jimmy Kimmel made you seem very nice and kindhearted.
I'm not sure why Covington requested you, but Niko tells me that you were requested specifically, which implies intent. Knowing Covington, he probably heard about the meme and decided he wanted to have you in his house to rub in someone's face. He strikes me as exactly that brand of petty.
My original intent was just to get you out of Covington's house and to let you pick yourself someone to be bonded with, but the state you were in... it seemed medically dangerous to let you go any longer without being imprinted. Heh. Not that you really left me much of a choice, to be blunt. You were very focused on getting out of the waiting room process your body had been stuck in, and you sort of overwhelmed me and forced yourself to be imprinted on me.
A little bit about myself – I'm originally from the Midwest, but moved out to California a decade and a half ago to pursue a career in the tech industry, where I'm still remote working for the time being. I also am an urban fantasy author who uses the pen name of Blake Conrad, and have written several books in a series called The Druid Gunslinger, which has a small but loyal following.
Before all of this, I had been single for several years, but since the pandemic started, I have been paired with several women, whom you'll meet soon enough, but let me provide the briefest of introductions to them.
Aisling Blake, commonly called Ash around the house, was the first to come into my life. She's the boisterous redhead you'll meet early on, originally from Dublin. She works as a contractor for Google doing graphic design for them. She's remarkable, about a million times outside of my league, but then again, all of my partners are. Honestly, since we were paired in June, I've been waiting for the other shoe to drop, but I only find myself falling deeper in love with her each and every day. I seem to make her happy, which is, I suppose, all I can ask
You won't be able to miss Lauren White, as she's tall enough to tower over everyone, even you. She's originally from Australia, and she's a personal trainer for the 49ers. She can be a little shy and reserved at first, but I think you and her will be able to bond over your time in professional sports. Covington destroyed all the clothes in your suitcase and left you with some, well, some unsuitable attire in the suitcase, which we've disposed of, so the clothes you'll find in your room are some of Lauren's spares, until we can get the rest of your things brought here from your home or buy you new things. He left your gold medal intact, out of fear or respect maybe, I don't know. I placed it next to your phone, and hopefully you already found it.
Lauren's ex-girlfriend Taylor showed up recently, and there's some friction between Lauren and Taylor at the moment, but I suspect the two will eventually fully patch things up and bond together closer than they have ever been. That said, Lauren's punishment for Taylor's previous infidelity (the reason they broke up) is a bit extreme by any definition of the word, and something I'm not entirely comfortable with, but Lauren insisted and Taylor agreed as a path to get back into Lauren's good graces, so who am I to tell these ladies they can't live their lives as they see fit?
My final current established partner is 2nd Lieutenant Niko Redwolf. She's half Lakota, one quarter Mexican and one quarter Japanese, and is part of the security forces for the local Air Force base that is managing the response to the DuoHalo pandemic. Ash and Niko have become best friends since they met several months ago, and the two of them take my well-being incredibly seriously, which is good, because I suppose someone should, and I've never been very good at that. Niko's a badass, and while I suspect she's keeping secrets from me, at this point I feel like the only reason she would do that is for my own good, and so I trust her with my life and my love.
Of the two women that Niko wanted me to rescue – Dr. Charlotte Varma and her daughter Asha – as it turned out Dr. Varma has never been particularly attracted to Caucasian men, so she is going to be paired with one of my oldest friends, Dr. Phil Marcos, who's Filipino. I don't want any woman to be with me simply because she feels obliged to, and we had time to find her an alternate partner. Because Charlotte felt strongly that a mother and daughter should not be imprinted on the same man, Asha is remaining with us, as one of my newest partners. As I write this, she is also in the midst of the imprinting process.
I'm a little uncomfortable about Asha, the age gap being a strong contributing factor, as I'm twenty years her senior, her being eighteen and me being thirty-eight, but Asha insisted that she wanted to be a part of this family, as she and Niko have spent time on the base discussing our household and Asha seemed quite smitten, not just with me but the household in general.
As I write this, I know that there are three more women scheduled to arrive before I anticipate you awakening from the imprinting process, but until they are here and imprinted on me, as the old saying goes “Anything can happen,” so I won't seed your mind with information about them in advance, as I simply don't know if they're actually going to show or not, or if they will be at all like they've seemed in interviews. (Two of them are quite well-known actresses.)
Of the two women I was required to “stake” as part of my entry into the poker game, one of them is going to remain in the house, and her name is Sheridan, although I know very little about her at this point, other than she used to work as an acrobat for Cirque Du Soleil, and that she chose to join our family deliberately and with relative understanding of what the household composition looked like. The other I staked was, as it turned out, my ex-girlfriend, whose name is Erin Donegal.
As antagonistic and difficult as Erin's and my split was several years ago, I do not hold enough animosity towards her to wish that she ended up with Covington, and so I was pleased to see that she went to another household instead. Regardless, even if I hadn't engaged in the poker game, I would have sent Erin back to the Air Force base and encouraged her to pair with someone else.
During the course of my relationship with her, it became readily apparent to me that Erin expected to have complete and total control over my life, and our relationship ended when she dictated to me one day that either all my friends went or she did. You can imagine how well that went over, and what my response might have been. (Spoiler: I hadn't seen her in many years since.)
I would also be remiss if I didn't mention the staff here at the house. Again, I'm compelled to tell you that the decision to have house staff wasn't mine, but I've been assured and reassured that this is entirely by their choice, and that each of them decided this was what they wanted. Nicolette is the maid (and I swear to you, I have told her again and again and again she doesn't have to wear that ridiculous outfit), Jenny is the cook and Jenny's wife Katie is the caretaker of the estate grounds.
I do have sexual relationships with all of these women, in order to reinforce my resistance to the DuoHalo virus as well as enhance theirs. This Hugh Heffner life I've been dictated to live according to the government's rules in order to ensure my survival... It's not just excessive; it's more than a little absurd. But this is what the government is mandating to us, in order to up the odds of our survival as a species, something that still very much isn't guaranteed at this point.
You may not have heard, but the fatalities of men here in the US is quite likely in the tens of millions. That's what my source told me a few hours ago anyway. The fatalities of women is maybe a tenth of that. For whatever reason, the DuoHalo virus aggressively targets the Y-chromosome, and the government is basically grasping at straws to keep as many men as possible alive.
I can only apologize endlessly that you're now linked to me sexually and will need to engage in sexual activity every ten days or so. You should have had a choice in who that was with, and it sucks that you didn't get that. As such, if you just want to avoid me entirely and have me come and drop off a bottle of semen each week, I would completely respect that. If instead you want to simply have an unemotional sexual encounter once a week and no other contact with me, that is of course your right, absolutely. And should you want to be a regular member of the household and one of my partners, not only physically but emotionally and mentally, of course I would be more than honored by that as well. I don't want to impose the expectation on you that should choose that option, but I don't want you to feel unwanted, because you strike me as a very remarkable individual.
You gave Covington a hard time, a hard enough time that I could sense his frustration over you and used that to flare his temper even more and make him reckless with his gambling. You got under the man's skin, and I don't think he's used to women having such an impact on his self-image. For that reason alone, you must be an incredible woman, one that any man would be insanely lucky to have in his life. I don't know that you and I can make each other happy, but if you want to try, I would consider it a magnificent honor.
If you're unhappy here, however, I will make it my personal mission to keep tabs on all the research in regards to unassigning a woman to a man, or even reassigning them to another, and as soon as it's proven low-risk, I will make sure your name is at the top of the list for it. I fully believe in a woman's right to choose her own destiny, and refuse to be part of the long line of men who have habitually tried to stamp out women's rights.
You didn't have a choice in this life, you didn't have any choice in any of this, and I can't tell you how angry that makes me on your behalf, and I want to do everything within my power to make it right, to set the scales back to even, to give you the happy ending your story so desperately deserves. I've only been around Covington a brief while, but even in that short expanse of time, he made my skin crawl, and I'm what he considers a peer. When I first met him, he wouldn't let the woman with him even speak in public. I can only imagine the horror he subjected you to, and for that, I am so sorry.
I'm not Covington. I promise you that. I know it's hard to believe me, especially after what I image you've been through. I could be anyone, and I can only imagine how frightening that is. So believe me when I tell you that if you find you don't like it here, we will do everything within our power to get you out of here and to someplace more to your liking as soon as we are physically able to do that.
Whatever you want, I won't just respect it, I will make it happen.
That also includes if you want to stay here. I like to say that I'm no catch, but I know my first partner Aisling would chide me for being unnecessarily self-effacing so I'll simply say that I strive to make sure everyone I'm partnered with is living their best life within the realm of my meager abilities. We haven't had many real arguments, and those we've had generally blow over quickly enough. I have been insanely lucky to be bonded with some of the most unforgettable women alive, and even more so that I make them at least nearly as happy as they do me.
As I've said multiple times over the course of this letter, you strike me as a very remarkable woman – intelligent, charming, gorgeous and in the best possible shape. If you want to remain here, I'd be honored to have you as my partner, and would do my best to enhance your life as much as you would feel comfortable letting me.
It's a very weird new world we find ourselves in, and while I can't promise I won't make mistakes, I can promise that I will spend my entire life trying to make sure everyone in it is as happy as I can make them, placing their needs above my own as much as I'm allowed to.
(It's probably important for me to stress that the physical health of all my partners is dependent on my own, a monumental responsibility that I cannot afford to take lightly, so I still need to make sure I'm not being so selfless that I'm accidentally putting everyone at risk.)
None of this is a decision you have to make right now, and whatever decision you make, you can obviously change your mind again at any time. Whatever you choose, I will back you 100% and will make sure the rest of the house does as well.
While you're thinking it all over, just be open about your needs and wants, and we'll make sure we're doing our best to accommodate them. If you want faceless detached sexual encounters just to ensure you're not biologically losing your self-control, we will do that. If you want romantic, intimate sexual encounters with an emotional connection, well, we can try and do that as well. I can't promise an immediate emotional bond, but I'd like the opportunity to try and make you happy, which is all anyone can ask of me.
Different partners have different sexual tastes, and I like to think of myself as at least somewhat adaptable to come close to satisfying those needs. Aisling loves dirty talk. Lauren loves intensity. Niko loves variety and novelty. Taylor loves being submissive and forced.
I like to think of myself as a man of all seasons, and pretty flexible sexually. (I suppose you could be into pegging or scatophilia, as unlikely as that is, both of which I'm going to take a hard pass on, on the off-chance that you are, but just about anything else we can probably make work.)
Take some time and consider your options. Call your family and friends and let them know where you are, and that you're okay. Do this immediately, if you haven't already done so. I just lost my only brother, so you never know how much time you have left. You will only regret not calling them the longer you wait. Think about what you want from here, from me. Whenever you're ready, explore the house. Meet the people here. See what you think.
I don't even recognize the world we live in anymore, so I'm just doing my best to survive and take care of my new, weird and wonderful family. Decide if and how you want to be a part of that, and we'll welcome you with open arms however you want us to.
The town you're in is called New Eden, and it's just west of San Ramon, up in the wooded hills. It probably won't be on any maps, because it literally didn't exist a year ago. Once you're comfortable and settled a little bit, I'll happily give you the grand tour, and we can reach out to the Air Force about getting the rest of your stuff delivered here.
I hope all of this helps. I probably didn't think of something, and for that, I'm sorry. I haven't been through what you've been through – I doubt almost anyone has – but whatever you need, I want to give that to you.
All I want to do is make you happy.
I hope I'll be able to do that.
Your humble servant,
Andy Rook
I didn't just read that letter once. I've read it pretty much two or three times a day since I got it, so that's, what, at least thirty or forty times over the last two weeks, since I got here. I had read it at least three or four times before Andy came into my room that morning.
It was strange, but I remember around the third time I was reading the letter that morning, a scent that had been lingering in the back of my nostrils. It was warm, like vanilla, but also a little bit rough, like worn leather. There was something marvelous about it, but I didn't know what it was, just that I sort of knew that I loved the smell of it, whatever it was. And I realized it was starting to get closer, and I think around that point, I knew it was a man.
I knew it was my man.
“I didn't want you just to awaken in a strange home without some idea of what was going on,” Andy said to me, waiting in the doorframe, like he didn't want to impose on me by walking into the room. “You were so out of it that–”
I remember charging at him, and I know I was crying, but I wasn't sad or angry. I was thankful that he'd saved me, taken me out of that nightmare I'd been trapped in for over a week. “Thank you for rescuing me from that bastard,” I remember telling him. “I woke up a couple of hours ago and have mostly just been reading and rereading this letter you left me.”
“I'm sorry we had to meet this way, but here we are,” Andy told me. He looked so taken aback, so nervous that I was going to be angry at him. I realized, as he'd said in his letter, he didn't know what I was thinking or feeling, so I decided to put him at ease.
I leaned down and kissed him, holding his head in my hands so he'd know it wasn't being done out of pity, but out of affection. Just from his letter, I knew Andy was a good man. I mean, he'd even said in his letter that if I didn't want to be here, he'd do everything possible to get me to where I wanted to go. That was a whole lot to commit to for a person he'd never even spoken to. The weight of that was still hanging on me when I tried to speak again. “It's... it's all a lot to take in,” I told him. “I don't have to make a decision now, do I?”
He was nothing but compassionate with me, and offered me a warm, comforting smile that quickly put me more at ease. “You've got plenty of time to figure out what you want to do here, and how you want to engage with me and the rest of the household. How are you feeling? People aren't supposed to wait that long to get imprinted, so we were a little worried there might be unforeseen complications.”
“Not that I noticed?” I said quietly to him. “Although there's one thing...”
“If there's a problem, definitely let me know and I can call my friend at the base. We can have some of the doctors check you out.”
“It's not a problem so much as just a weird thing...” I told him. He was right next to me now, and he was that weird intoxicating blend of vanilla and leather. It was him that had that luscious scent. “I could... I could smell you? Coming down the hall? Like, I knew it was you, because the smell made me feel warm and tingly inside. Like, a little buzzed, in a good way. But it kinda makes it hard to think clearly? Maybe it'll pass. But I feel a definite connection to you, like I'm safe around you? I don't even know you, but I feel safe. How weird is that?”
He shrugged a bit at me, I think trying to put my nerves at rest. I could smell that he was nervous and more than a little turned on. It was cute. “It might just be some part of the imprinting process that's functioning on a deeper level because of what you went through. I don't know. One of the doctors who's responsible for developing the process is now the partner of a friend of mine, so we'll have her check you out.”
“Is it okay if we wait a few days before we fuck again?” I asked. I wanted to do him right then and there, but I somehow felt like I needed to get my bearings, to get my feet firmly back on the ground. “I know I have to do it regularly, but I want a few days to clear my head, if that's cool.”
Andy reached up and tilted my head down so he could kiss me on the forehead. It was weird, but I think he meant it to be comforting and to show he wasn't going to push me to do anything, which was odd, considering I'd just kissed him on my own. “You have at least a week before you'll feel any real need for my cum, and if you're still not ready by then, you can just blow me, or have one of the girls jerk me off into your mouth. Whatever's easiest for you.”
“Oh, I'm ready to fuck you right now,” I told him. I needed him to know I wasn't thinking about leaving. I wanted to strip off those clothes and have a go at him right then and there, but I needed to make sure it wasn't something that would be fleeting. “Maybe it's just the process, but I was ready to fuck you the second I smelled you walking down the hallway, but I want a few more days so I'm not in so much of a daze the first time we fuck. Well, the first time that we fuck that I remember. Your letter makes me sound like I was quite a handful the night you rescued me.”
I swear to you, he turned bright red and couldn't look me in the eye. It was adorable, and that confirmed everything his letter had told me. This was a good man, and in the face of an impossible decision, he'd just rolled up his sleeves and did the best that he could to survive and prosper against staggering odds. “Yeah, you can ask Niko about it, but you basically just pinned me down, climbed on top of me and rode me like I was an oversized sex toy.”
I'm pretty sure I blushed myself when I giggled, trying to imagine it. He didn't make it sound like a bad thing, but I had to focus my head and not start imagining it, otherwise I wasn't going to let him out of the room. I'm telling you, Fi, I wanted to throw him over my shoulder, put him on his back on the bed, rip his clothes off him and just bounce on him like a pogo stick. “Well, I'm sorry about that, I guess, but, not gonna lie, it also sounds fucking hot. I'll talk to Niko about it. So is this my room for good then?”
“If you want it to be, or you can move into the master bedroom as well, if you want. And you don't have to do just one or the other. You can have this as your personal room, but sleep in the main bedroom any time you want.”
Even with Andy giving me the option, I sort of knew that I wasn't going to be in this room long. Whatever Covington had planned for me, it hadn't been me ending up with someone like Andy, someone who was doing everything in his power to give me all the power in the situation, to put me at ease. Andy wanted me to know how in control I was, as if he could sense how important it was for me to reclaim a sense of that in that moment. After a week where everything had gone wrong, Andy did everything right. “Okay, I'll sleep here for the next few days while I'm sorting my head out. I need to call my friends and family and explain what's happened and where I'm at. Is that okay?”
He hugged me again then pulled away, even though I didn't want him to. I think I could've just folded those arms around me and crawled into bed again, feeling safe and protected. “Absolutely. Do whatever you need to. The letter included a list of everyone who's in the house right now and a short description of them. If you need help finding something, feel free to ask Nicolette. If you're hungry, just tell Jenny what you want and she'll whip something up for you.”
I was torn because I could feel my stomach rumbling, but I also needed to call my Mom and Dad, let them know what had happened. I remember deciding that I would make up my mind once Andy had left the room, because his very presence made it a little hard to think about anything other than sex. “Thank you again, Andy. I have a feeling I'm going to be saying that a lot in my life moving forward.”
“Call your family. We can talk more later.”
As much as I wanted to get something to eat, I needed to tell my folks I was okay. The same with my teammates. So for the next couple of hours, I was on the phone, letting everyone in my life know where I'd landed, but after about two hours, I just had to eat, so I went and got some food from the kitchen, which Jenny prepared for me, despite me offering to just make stuff myself.
While she was cooking, I got a chance to talk to her without anyone else around, and asked her if Andy really was the kind of man he seemed to be. “How does he seem to be?” she asked me, a soft smile on her face while she was stirring the pasta in the water. She'd decided I needed carbs to recover some of my lost energy, so she was making me chicken fettuccine alfredo.
“He seems too good to be true,” I told her, sitting on a stool. “You're not his partner, so give me the God's honest truth.”
“Oh, he is too good to be true, but as far as I can tell, he's true as a man can get,” she said with a knowing look. “Let me tell you this. When we got here, my partner Katie and I were both pretending to be bisexual, even though she's a strict lesbian. We both thought Andy was going to flip, but he was so relentlessly understanding that Katie and I kept waiting for the other shoe to drop, to find out what horrible dark secret this seemingly nice and kind man was hiding. It took a while, but we found it out eventually, what his weakness is.”
I remember being a little nervous at that, but decided to follow up. “Which is?”
“He's too nice,” Jenny laughed. “He's too trusting, too naive and maybe too optimistic about what people are capable of. He's always looking to find the best in people. I think that's why it's good he's got Niko in his life, making sure he doesn't get in over his head.”
“He was really cool with Katie not being attracted to him?” I remember asking.
“He actually seemed bothered by the fact that he couldn't just let us be with each other exclusively, but he's done as much as humanly possible to make it work for us, all the while being respectful of our feelings. And despite the fact that we've tried to insist upon a level of removal, so that the household thinks of us as servants rather than family, he's made sure that we never get lost amid the shuffle, and that if something's going to affect the house, he checks with us,” she said, an amused exasperation to her voice. “We're going to keep trying to make sure he doesn't get too emotionally attached to us, but I think it's a lost cause, and I suppose we'll just have to make peace with it. To be honest, I've never had a boss like him before ever in my life.”
Just as she was putting the pasta on the plate, Niko walked into the room, a big grin on her face before she even noticed me, but once she did, she offered me a little wave. She reminded me immediately of one of my teammates in that she just exuded confidence and swagger. I knew I liked her on sight. “Hey Piper, I'm Niko,” she said to me. “You probably don't remember us meeting, since you seemed pretty in the grip of the serum's siren call, but it's nice to see you up and about. Feeling more like yourself?”
I ran over and hugged her hard, and I remember her squeaking a little when I did, the whole gesture catching her off guard. “Thank you so much for getting me out of that bastard's house,” I told her, trying not to cry again. “I know you didn't make Andy enter the game to get me out specifically, but if you hadn't done that, I would've probably been with some other asshole who didn't give a shit about me. That means I owe you, so you and me, we're going to be good friends, okay?”
“Okay?” Niko laughed. “If it means you'll stop crushing me?”
I started laughing a little bit, wiping moisture from my eyes as I let her go. “Just for now,” I told her. “Because you and me share a man now, so I want to be sure we're cool.”
“Relax,” Niko giggled. “We're cool. Welcome to the family!”
* * * * *
“Since then, the last two weeks have been one rollercoaster ride after another,” Piper told Fiona, stretching her arms out over her head. “It's been wild. I hadn't even realized that just before he wrote me that letter, Andy had learned his brother had died. He mentioned that his brother had just died, but I had assumed he'd found out, like, weeks or months ago, not, literally, a few hours earlier. Even with all that grief overwhelming him, he still wanted to make sure I was okay first and foremost. He really does need us to look after him as much as he does us. Anyway, a couple of days after that, Andy went through a process where he let us all pitch women to bring into the house, and while he didn't add my friend Brooke to the house here, he still found a way to get her nearby, so I'm going to have my bestie just a few minutes' drive away.”
“That's Andy for you,” Fiona replied, a knowing smile on her face. “Hopefully you've learned in that time that Andy really is who he seems to be – a good, if somewhat too trusting man with one of the most noble of hearts, willing to fight off the armies of Heaven and Hell to keep those he loves safe, no matter the cost to himself.”
“You think he loves me?” Piper asked her.
“I do,” Fiona said with a confidence that seemed unshakable. “I heard you and he and Sarah had a bit of fun last night.”
Piper giggled, suddenly holding her hands up to her face, blushing feverishly, shaking her head in embarrassment. “OhmyfuckingGAWD, who else knows in the house?”
“By this point? Considering how talkative Sarah is? Probably everyone,” Fiona laughed. “Not that there's anything wrong with that. Sarah said you told Andy you wanted to bear his child, though. That true?”
She tilted her head a little, looking carefully at Fiona, a question on her lips. “It is. That going to be a problem?”
“Nope,” Fi said with a smug grin, “I'm just trying to get a read on who's going to be in this big marriage ceremony we're going to have next year. Apparently Andy's already engaged to Aisling, Niko, Sarah and Emily, but he hadn't thought to ask me yet, nor you.”
“Well, of course I'm going to marry him,” Piper laughed, rolling her eyes. “Just like you and Moira are going to, obviously. I'm just waiting for him to ask.” She paused, narrowing her eyes a little. “Wait, do you think Andy still thinks he needs to find a way for me to get reassigned?” Her mouth was nearly hanging open. “Even after everything? He isn't concrete in how I feel for him?”
“Andy's one other weakness is his low self-esteem, Piper,” Fiona told her. “He's always going to think you can do better than him.”
“Good lord,” Piper sighed with a resigned smile. “I'll make sure I put that notion to bed quick at dinner tonight or tomorrow night, and I won't be subtle about it, so it sinks in, even though he really should know better already. My parents absolutely adore him. My dad talked to him on the phone for like half an hour, trying to get the lay of the land what his own life was going to look like, since my mom's apparently going to have to share Dad soon. It'll be weird having parents plus a handful of after-market add on stepmoms, but that's the world we're in now, I guess. God, you think they're going to try and have kids again?” She shuddered, which made Fiona laugh.
“Based on your age, I'm guessing they're in their 50s or 60s?”
“Yeah, and I'm an only child.”
“Then it's mostly just for your Dad's survival at this point. Your dad liked him, though?”
“Said he seemed like a pretty remarkable man doing the best to keep his head above water in a rather chaotic world,” Piper told her. “I mean, Dad's also a massive fan of the Daggerfall Academy movies, and Em in particular, so he said my life seems like it's turned pretty great since my escape, although I had to make him promise not to try and hurt Covington whenever he comes out here.”
“I've made no such promise myself,” Fiona said coldly. “So let's hope Convington steers clear of both you and me.” She glanced down at her watch. “We should get down to dinner, before they start without us. Thanks for sharing all this with me, and I'm sorry for what you had to go through to get here, but I'm really glad you're here.” The two women stood up and hugged each other closely. “And if you ever want to dabble with women, you know where to find me.”
Piper burst out laughing at that, shaking her head. “Emily's going to be the real test. I mean, I'm, like, almost entirely sure I'm straight, but if she blinks those blue eyes at me enough times...” She laughed. “I'm only fucking human, Fi.”
“Oh I hear you,” Fiona chuckled. “I can't wait to hear that British lilt moaning as I'm running my tongue on her clit, that oh so refined voice begging me to stop or keep going, completely lost as to what to do.” She winked. “I'll make you the same offer.”
“I'll keep it in mind,” Piper said. “Let's get moving.”
“For what it's worth,” Fiona said. “I fully suspect karma will come back and bite Covington hard in the ass sooner or later.”
“God I hope so.”
It turned out to be sooner, and sooner than either Piper or Fiona could've suspected.
fin
Comments
SP Rupert
Thank you to the kind person who commissioned this. It was an incredible story to tell as part of the QT saga.
Rick Shaw
Great close!
