Second That Emotion

Second Thoughts and Last Chances

Latikia

Edited by

The Old Fart

Chapter 18

During the eight years I’d been with Internal Security there were, on average, six annual meetings with either the Senate or House sub-committees. Forty-eight meetings total, give or take, not counting the two joint sessions; once a year to argue over the budget, the other five to explain and update on the department’s progress, or lack thereof. And I can categorically state for the record that, with the exception of the first and latest, I’d come away from each one with a splitting headache and an overwhelming desire to commit mass murder.

The girls knew how much I enjoyed meeting with these committees, especially the once a year budgetary gala. They knew that I almost always returned home in a foul mood, unfit for the company of civilized human beings, so they’d gotten into the habit of feeding the kids early and hustling them off to bed, then hiding themselves away, leaving me to my own ends for the remainder of the evening.

Usually, after getting myself something to eat and killing half a bottle of vodka, my mood improved sufficiently for them to come looking for me. Generally after say, three or four hours of sitting in the den with all the lights off and vehemently cursing every politician who’d ever been born as well as their parents, who obviously weren’t smart enough to drown the slimy little bastards at birth.

This most recent session, however, despite everything that had happened, had left me in surprisingly good spirits. Perhaps it was because, for the first time in years, I’d gotten to inflict some damage on them, rather than the other way around.

For the first time in ages, I felt as though I’d come out ahead of the game.

One senator dead, one resigned, an admitted traitor executed, and the remaining members of the sub-committee cowed to the point where I doubted any of them would ever have the balls to cross swords with me again.

All things considered, not too shabby.

What the hell was I waiting for? Why did I let them push me around for so long?

Rule number four: Don’t ask questions you don’t really want the answers to.

In boot camp, one of my senior DI’s, a twenty year Master Sergeant by the name of Jerome Spitzer, had impressed me with his personal code of ethics. Four simple rules, he liked to say, had been the guiding principles for his life and career. ‘Stick with them boys and girls and you’ll never go far wrong.’

Rule 1: ‘Never volunteer.’ (There was a caveat to this rule, of course. It was okay to volunteer, as long as you were pretty damn sure you’d get more out of it than you’d have to put in. MSgt Spitzer was a practical man who hadn’t achieved his exalted status by being a stickler for rules.)

Rule 2: ‘Always cover your ass.’ (After all, if you don’t, who will? And if someone else will, it’s never a good idea to rely on them always being there to do it.)

Rule 3: ‘Never mess with another man’s woman.’ (Or, he amended, being an enlightened child of the times, another woman’s man.)

Rule 4: ‘Never ask questions you don’t really want the answers to.’ (Doing so would only make you more miserable than you probably already were.)

MSgt Jerome Spitzer was something of a philosopher, even though I doubt very much he ever thought of himself that way.

In my own fashion I’d adopted his code and tried to live my life by it, but with questionable results.

At one point or another over the years I’d managed to break each and every one, some more than once. Rule 4 was one of my favorites to smash into tiny, sharp edged little fragments, especially when talking to myself.

The hell with Rule 4. Talk to me.

You know why.

Don’t play coy with me, just answer my question.

Fine, you asked. Because of ‘ them’.

I assume by ‘them’ you mean the girls.

Who the fuck else would I mean?

I’ve been letting the Congress push me around because of the girls?

Yup.

I don’t…

Just think about it, would you? And it hasn’t been just the politicians boy-o, its every-fuckin’-body.

So I thought about it; all the way out of Washington, over the Potomac to McLean where I picked up a metallic briefcase along with the five hundred thousand dollars I’d requested from the Black Ops slush fund which the Director was only too happy to give me, from there into Alexandria, down the freeway, on the off ramp and down the forested road that led to our house.

I was still thinking about it as I pulled up the drive and parked next to Lilly’s mini-van.

I was thinking about it as I got out of the car, walked thru the three inches of snow that covered the walk leading to the front door, thought about it as I fumbled for my keys, unlocked the door and stepped inside. I hung my overcoat on the coat tree, went to the den and put the briefcase into the wall safe then headed into the kitchen to make myself something to eat.

I took my sandwich and coffee into the dining room, sat down and proceeded to eat and think some more.

I didn’t much like the way my thoughts were going round and round in circles.

What’s-a-matter sunshine? Two plus two not comin’ out quite right?

There are times when it’s best to just ignore the little voice in your head.

I heard footsteps out in the hallway leading to the dining room, so I dropped what was left of my sandwich back on the plate, sat back in my chair and picked up the coffee cup. I was taking a second long sip when they came filing in, Lilly in the lead, followed by Peggy and Izzy. They looked puzzled.

As they spread out to face me, Peggy’s frowning continence slowly reformed into a pleased smile. Lilly and my sister soon followed her facial transformation.

“How are you Ike?” Lilly asked timidly.

I set the cup down next the plate and nodded my head.

“Fine. Actually, better than fine. I feel pretty good.”

“Your meeting went well then?” Peggy asked, a slight furrow formed between her eyebrows.

“You could say that. I got everything I wanted from the tightwads. Yeah, I’d say it went quite well.”

Izzy pursed her lips as if to speak, hesitated for a moment then continued.

“The news…we heard that two people died.”

I smiled. “Yeah, that too, but I’m afraid it was unavoidable.”

“You?” Peggy inquired.

“Why don’t you girls sit down and I’ll answer all your questions, okay?”

They hurriedly pulled chairs out and sat down, eagerly looking at me, waiting with barely curbed impatience.

Normally I don’t discuss my work with them. I’ve tried hard to keep a wall between my family and my work for the CIA. In part because they just don’t have a need to know; a cliché phrase I know, and one that’s seriously overused in government, but applicable none the less. And partly because I know what I do bothers them, especially Izzy, even if they never actually came out and said so.

I think I may have been badly mistaken on both counts.

“So, you heard on the news that two people died.”

The three of them nodded, nearly in unison.

“And that Senator Gottschalk had resigned.” Peggy hurried to add.

“All true.” I told them.

“Why?” Lilly asked.

“Why did the two people die, or why did the Senator resign?” I retorted with a grin.

“Come on Ike, just tell us.” Izzy insisted.

“Okay, sorry. Well, let’s see…I went in and told the committee that I wasn’t happy working with them anymore and I handed in my resignation.”

“You WHAT!” Peggy nearly screamed.

“I quit.”

“You didn’t?” Lilly demanded.

“Yep. I told them why I was shutting my department down, told them in no uncertain terms that most of it was their fault, and then I dumped my most recent spy squarely in their laps. Told them that if they weren’t going to let me to do my job, they could bloody well do it themselves. They didn’t like that option much.”

“I don’t suppose they would.” Izzy muttered.

I nodded my agreement. “Then they started bargaining. What would it take for me to stay? So I gave them my list of demands: increase my budget, get rid of those damn restraining orders and leave me the hell alone so I could do my job.”

“And they agreed?” Lilly’s pulse had increased noticeably, as had Peggy and Izzy’s. Their body temperature had gone up a bit as well. My smile became a little smug.

“Eventually. Except for Senator Gottschalk and one of her protégées. She wanted the committee to call in some shooters to kill me. I’m afraid I wasn’t terribly diplomatic or kind while dealing with her. Never have liked that woman. She’s been thorn in my side for years. So I made her resignation one of my demands.”

“Wow.” Izzy breathed out in a rush.

“So what about the two people who died?” Peggy persisted.

“Well, the Senators didn’t quite give in at first. Gottschalk’s protégée convinced the rest to call for an ATF hit squad, under the pretext of the spy I’d brought in to show them being armed and dangerous. They were going to have the ATF folks shoot me instead.”

Lilly gave me an odd look, but remained silent. Peggy continued pressing. “So then what?”

I shrugged. “The committee stalled on meeting my demands long enough to get the shooters into the room with us. I figured out what they were doing and put a stop to it. In the process, Gottschalk’s protégée was killed by me, the spy by the ATF, and afterwards the committee decided it would be in everyone’s best interests to give me what I’d asked for. So Gottschalk resigned, I got what I wanted, along with four ATF shooters to go along with my five FBI guys.”

I picked up my coffee cup and took another swallow.

“That’s it? That’s all that happened?” Izzy demanded.

“More or less.” I said. “If you’ve got a few hours I could give you a complete, word for word replay, but that’s pretty much what happened.”

“You set them up.” Lilly said breathlessly. “You never had any intention of resigning, did you?”

I grinned and sipped my coffee.

“You devious bastard.” Peggy said admiringly.

“Why should they have all the fun?” I said, finishing the last of the coffee in my cup. I set it back down on the table. “So, apart from the news, how was your day? Anything interesting happen around here?”

They looked at me like I’d just sprouted gills and a tail.

“That’s it? That’s all you’re going to tell us?” Izzy was incredulous.

“Sweetie, that’s all that happened. Apart from that it was a damn dull day.”

“You don’t seem like you usually do after one of these things.” Peggy said. Her frown deepened. “You’re usually as grumpy as a bear with a bad tooth.”

I smiled at them, feeling better and better by the second. Feeling more and more in control of my own life.

“What can I say? Generally speaking, things went just the way I expected them to. So why wouldn’t I be in a good mood?”

I pushed my chair back from the table, stood up and stretched, flexing my back and shoulders. I stepped out and moved around next to where Izzy was sitting. Bending down I took her chin in the palm of my hand, gently turned her face towards me and pressed my lips to hers. I linked with her and quickly shot her an infinitesimal fragment of a spark, not into her inner ring, but simply let it go where it wanted to. Her eyes had begun to droop slightly, but as the spark hit, her eyes widened and the intensity of our kiss increased ten-fold.

I cut the link and pulled back, allowing just a little space between our lips. “Very nice. Very, very nice.” I whispered before flicking my tongue out and teasing her lower lip.

I stood up and moved around behind my sister’s chair to where Lilly sat eyeing me. I smiled, bent at the waist and met her parted lips with my own. Her hands came up, one on either side of my face, softly caressing my cheeks as our mouths said a silent hello. Linked and fired off another minuscule sparklet. Lilly moaned her passionate response into my mouth, thrusting her tongue in search of mine. I put my hands on her shoulders and slowly pushed us apart until only our noses were touching.

“Sweet as honey.” I murmured, stroking her cheek with one finger. Then I cut the link.

I stood up, slipped around behind Lilly’s chair and approached Peggy. She didn’t wait for me to get there. In a flash she pulled her legs up under her and stood upright on the chair, her eyes level with mine. I reached out, put one hand around her back and pulled her towards me. Peggy’s arms went around my neck and she attacked my lips with hers. We linked at almost the same instant, and as I sent a third burning fragment her way, it was met and passed by a soothing flow of contented delight that turned to bubbling happiness as the spark hit her.

I released my arm from around her waist and set her feet back on the chair, but didn’t completely let go until I’d dropped my hand and gave one butt cheek a gentle squeeze. Peggy groaned deeply, refusing to take her lips from mine.

I chuckled deep down in my chest, put my hands on her shoulders and pushed myself back. I grinned at the disappointed look on her sweet little face, and the expression of embarrassed contrition that quickly took its place.

“I missed you too, half-pint.” I backed up into the doorway and smiled at all three women as they turned in their chairs to watch me. “I’ve missed you all.” I turned to leave, but had a sudden flash of memory. I turned back. “There’s a single sock at the back of my top dresser drawer. I think you three might find the contents of that sock interesting.”

Then I turned around and went in search of my children.

We spent the rest of the evening in the family room, with the kids taking turns sitting on either my lap or their mothers’ as we watched TV. Jeopardy had just ended when Tink, who’d been aggressively competing with her sisters to see which of them could answer the most questions, hopped off Peggy’s lap, came over and climbed up next to AJ, who had wisely kept out of the battle and was, at that point, dozing peacefully in the crook of my arm.

“Daddy?” she whispered loudly.

“Hmmm?” I murmured as her little brother snuggled back against me.

“Can I ask you a question?”

I grinned, beaming down at my smallest child.

“I think you just did.” I whispered back, just as loudly.

“Daddy!” Tink pouted prettily.

I wrapped her up with my free arm and gave her a gentle hug.

“Okay…what’s your question?”

“What’s a wave?”

She might as well have asked me to explain entropy. I mean, honestly. Little children who were about to turn seven in two weeks time didn’t ask questions like that. Not in my experience they didn’t. I’m pretty sure I never did.

“Wow. That’s one heck of a question Tink. Couldn’t you find anything in the library?”

“I found lots of stuff, but it’s kinda confusing.”

I chuckled to myself. “You just want to show up your old dad and make him feel silly.” I kidded her.

The look on Tink’s face, the seriousness in her eyes, caught me off guard.

“I wouldn’t do that Daddy.” she said, shaking her head.

I smiled just a little and increased the pressure of my hug.

“Waves, huh? Let’s see…” I thought back to my last physics class, the last book on electrical theory I’d read, the last time I’d used the word in conversation.

“Okay, here goes…wave can mean to move freely back and forth or up and down in the air, kind of like branches in the wind. Or it can mean making a signal with an up-and-down or back-and-forth movement of the hand. Or to have an undulating or wavy form, like curly hair.

“It can also mean a ridge or swell moving through or along the surface of a large body of water. Sometimes it can even refer to the water itself. Have you ever heard someone say, ‘it vanished beneath the waves’?”

Tink nodded her head rapidly.

“Well, when they say ‘waves’, what they really mean to say is ‘it vanished beneath the water’.”

Tink’s forehead furrowed. She looked so damn cute.

“It is confusing, isn’t it?” I offered. Tink grinned brightly.

“A little.” she giggled.

“Okay now, where was I?”

“Waves mean the water.” she reminded me.

“Right…let’s see, it can also be something that suggests the form and motion of a wave in the water.”

“Suggests?”

“Gives the impression, or hints at, or makes you think about.”

“Okay…I see.”

“It can mean a movement up and down or back and forth.”

“Like waving hello or goodbye, right?”

“Exactly like that, sweetie.”

“Wouldn’t that be the same as the signaling thing?”

I grinned proudly. “In a way. See, there’s the act of ‘waving’, which is doing something, and there’s ‘the wave’, which is what is being done, or what you’re seeing. Make sense?”

The frown between her eyes eased up some. “I think so.”

“A wave can also be a surge or rush, a feeling or sensation, like a wave of nausea or a wave of happiness.”

I looked down into the cheerful face of my precious little pixie. She tilted her head way, way back and looked at me.

“But my favorite type of wave is the kind they have in physics; a disturbance traveling through a medium by which energy is transferred from one particle of the medium to another without causing any permanent displacement of the medium itself.”

“What’s that mean?”

“Ocean waves, sound waves, light waves; all of them can be described using math in ways that make them seem very much like the same thing. The basic concept that applies to each type of wave is called periodic motion. A motion is periodic if the thing moving comes back repeatedly to the same place or close to it, at regular time intervals. The big old clock in the upstairs hallway? The swinging thing below the face is called a pendulum, and it has periodic motion. Back and forth – back and forth. So does a horse on a merry-go-round, a plucked guitar string, and a weight attached to a spring that bounces back and forth and up and down. Then there are waves that travel through open space, like sound or light. Even if you can’t see them, they’re still there, moving around from one place to another, sort of swimming thru space. And then there’s the whole frequency aspect of waves. Do you know about frequency?”

Her tousled little head swiveled back and forth so fast I thought it might come off her shoulders.

“Frequency is a little hard to explain. It has to do with sound pitch as well as the color of light, but it mostly it’s about time.”

Tink’s eyes twinkled and she grinned widely.

“You sure are smart.”

I shrugged expansively and pulled her close.

I’m still not sure exactly why she brought it up, but I never forgot that she did.

I stayed close to my children as they got ready for bed; tucked each one in and kissed them goodnight, promising over and over that Lilly and I would return home from our trip as quickly as we could.

“Trust me…nothing’s going to keep me away from you guys for long.”

When I got back to my room I found my three larger girls digging industriously thru the sock drawer of my dresser, completely oblivious to my presence. I smiled to myself and began undressing for bed. By the time I had my shirt and pants off they’d found the sock, Peggy snatched it out of the drawer and held it up over her head like a trophy, squealing with triumphant delight.

She started spinning around like a top, the sock clutched in one hand, dodging away from Lilly and Izzy’s grasping hands, when she bumped into me. I was standing on one leg, as gracefully as a drunken flamingo, trying to remove the sock from my foot, when Peggy plowed into me and sent the both of us crashing to the floor. Before I knew what had hit me all three women were perched on various bits of my anatomy. Peggy had plunked herself down on my chest and held the sock they’d found under my nose.

“What’s in this thing?” she demanded prettily.

Izzy chose that moment to readjust herself heavily on my stomach, making it very difficult to talk, while at the same time Lilly was busy straddling my hips.

“Why don’t you take a look?” I wheezed.

Peggy gave me a quizzical look, lifted one eyebrow, took the sock out from under my nose and examined it for a moment. She shrugged her shoulders slightly and started unrolling the sock. I could hear the tinkling of metal pieces banging against one another as the material unfolded.

Peggy stopped for a moment and her eyes darted from the sock in her hands to my face then back to the sock.

“Ike…”

“Just look, would you?”

Peggy plunged her hand into the neck of the sock, down into the depths of the toe and found the prize hidden there. Her eyes got very wide and her heart began pounding very hard and fast.

“Well?” Izzy asked, putting one hand on Peggy’s shoulder and shaking her. “What’s in there?”

Lilly seemed to be ignoring the other two women, contenting herself instead with running her hands over my lower stomach and hips while grinding her crotch slowly over my cock and balls.

Peggy pulled the sock from around her hand and looked down at the contents of her cupped palm.

“Rings.” she said quietly. “Our rings.”

Izzy leaned over to the side, looked over Peggy’s shoulder into her hand. My sister’s lips formed a silent O, and I could feel the mixture of annoyed relief and poignant melancholy building within her.

“I looked for days and couldn’t find them.” Peggy said softly to no one in particular.

“Me too.” my sister said, laying her cheek on the top of Peggy’s head.

I groaned a little, as Lilly continued to grind her pelvis against me. Peggy and Izzy turned to look at her in unison. The movement was so well choreographed I couldn’t help but be amused…so I laughed. My laughter caused Lilly to lift her head to look in my direction, but her gaze was intercepted by Izzy and Peggy’s scowling faces.

“What?” Lilly asked, her hips stopped rocking and twisting, granting me a breather.

“You knew!” Peggy accused her.

“Knew what?”

“About the rings…you knew!” Izzy joined in.

Lilly glanced down at Peggy’s hand then back up to her face.

“Oh, those. Yeah, I knew.”

“And you didn’t tell us?!”

Lilly shrugged. “Ike took them. I figured it was up to him to give ‘em back…if he wanted to.”

“You didn’t TELL us?!”

Lilly stared Peggy in the eye, her inner calm was steady and unshakable, not a hint of guilt or uncertainty to be found. After ten seconds of mutual glaring, Peggy looked away.

“You could have told us.” she mumbled. Izzy gave the tiny woman’s shoulder a firm pat.

I watched these proceedings with interest. It’d been a while I’d seen the three of them at odds with one another. It was one of the more bizarre facets of our eight years together that I was able to count on the fingers of one hand (with a few left over) the number of times I’d witnessed them fighting amongst themselves. It just didn’t ever seem to happen when I was around. So when it did I got a kind of voyeuristic kick out of observing the way they interacted and reacted to and with one another.

“If it makes you feel any better, I’ve only known they were there for a couple of days. Tink’s the one who told me about them.”

Peggy’s head twisted around and looked down at me.

“And how did Tink know?”

I shrugged and put my hands behind my head. “Beats me. Probably looking for birthday presents.”

“That little scamp.” Izzy said admiringly.

“Yeah, she gets into everything; curious about everything.”

Peggy returned her attention back to the jewelry in her hand. “When did you…?”

“That night.”

Izzy looked back at Lilly, who shook her head.

My sister shifted her bottom on my stomach and looked down at me.

“When were you going to give them back to us?”

“When I was damn good and ready.”

“Ahhhh…” she said.

“And you’re ready now?” Peggy asked.

“Apparently.”

“What makes you think we’re willing to take them back?”

I said nothing, just kept looking her squarely in the eyes.

Peggy blinked first. “Alright, stupid question.” she muttered.

She dug thru the jumble of jewelry and picked out her pair then dumped the remainder into Izzy’s waiting hand. And while Peggy was placing her rings back on her finger, my sister searched for hers. She passed the rest to Lilly. I watched them put their rings back on, and then Lilly crawled off my hips and knee walked up to my left shoulder, holding one last ring between finger and thumb.

“Ike?” she inquired plaintively.

I held her gaze for a long fifteen seconds before taking my left hand from under my head and holding it out to her.

No sooner was the twisted tri-metal gold/white gold/titanium band back on my finger than I felt the temperature in the room increase threefold. Clothes went flying in all directions and I was hauled up off the floor and hustled over to the bed, pushed back on the mattress and assaulted by a flurry of lips, hands and assorted naked female body parts.

You just can’t beat make-up sex for intense passion. And times three…let’s just say the sheets got more than a little singed.