[Note: This is a romance story with some erotic scenes. It is
not
a story with erotic scenes in every chapter. Some chapters have incredible sex scenes, but many others have none.]
Epilogue
One Day Out
"Did I fuck them? Are you really asking me that, Harry?"
Goldie lay back on the bed and stretched. Like Harry, she was totally nude. Harry noticed with great pleasure that her vaginal lips were glistening with small white droplets.
"Yes, I am," said Harry.
"Let me ask
you
a question first, Harry. Did you fuck my sister?"
Harry's mouth dropped open. "Yes, but I thought you were dead!"
"Not relevant!"
"Very relevant!"
"Did you love her?"
Harry was silent.
"Harry, I asked you a question," said Goldie. She paused. "Harry, in my latest... recruitments for The Foundation, I ended up fucking two men."
"Two?"
"Not five. Not ten. Not twenty. Two. Or three, if you count a hand job I did," said Goldie. She leaned closer to Harry's face. "But I never loved any of them. Can you forgive me, for that? Can you, Harry?"
"Yes," said Harry softly.
"Good," she said, kissing him. He kissed her back. He still couldn't get enough of her. It was like he had been in a desert for months, and she was an oasis of love.
"Claire..." said Harry softly. Claire was all right. She had been taken into custody, like the rest. They had been told that her conditioning to love Harry, could be reversed, with proper treatment.
"Yes, Claire. Why did you choose me over her, Harry? I'm still puzzled," said Goldie innocently, with a sparkle in her eyes. "After all, we both know that Claire is prettier than I am. She has bigger tits and a bigger brain, not to mention all that messy baby making equipment."
"Yeah, those big tits. Those was so hard to turn down!" said Harry, tickling her chest, and her arms, and her legs, until she laughed.
But even persistent tickling didn't get Goldie to give up on the subject so easily. "So why did you choose me, Harry?"
"You're just dying to know, aren't you?" said Harry, continuing to tickle her, moving between her legs.
Goldie cackled. "Yes. Yes! Stop, Harry, stop!" she cried.
Harry stopped. "I never realized you were so ticklish down there."
"Harry, you're avoiding the question," said Goldie.
"What was the question?"
"Why did you choose me?" Goldie asked again. She straddled him, pressing her pubic hair against his. She started to rub her nether lips against his organ, slowly and intently.
"Why did I pick you? Well, actually, I didn't, not really," said Harry. "As you said, I simply have terrible aim."
Goldie cackled hysterically and kissed him all over his face. He loved the feeling of her body pressed against his, but even more so, the sheer strength of her affections. She loved him so thoroughly, with ever fiber of her being, and Harry felt it.
"I love you, Harry Crater," said Goldie, lying on top of him.
"And I love you, Goldie MacPherson," said Harry. "But... what was I was saying? I was chasing a thought."
"What, dearest?" she said, looking up at him with those beautiful blue eyes.
"There's a chance that Claire might be..."
"Pregnant?"
"We were two weeks into her latest cycle when this all happened," said Harry.
"Not a problem," said Goldie dismissively.
"It's not?" Harry said.
"If sis turns out to be knocked up, we'll wait until she gives birth, hit her on the head, and take the baby."
"You're not serious," said Harry.
"Hey, Harry, it's half yours. Finders, keepers," said Goldie.
Harry's jaw dropped open as he realized Goldie
was
serious.
Two Weeks Out
Claire wasn't pregnant.
Goldie and Harry visited her in the hospital. The doctor warned them that she was still programmed. They were studying the Chair, and would hopefully reverse the procedure in the next few days. They had also offered to reverse the procedure on Goldie, to which she had given them dark looks.
"Harry. Sis," said Claire, sitting up in bed. "I guess you heard... the good news." She looked crestfallen.
"We did," said Goldie.
"I got my period," said Claire.
"I've never been so excited to hear those words in my life," said Goldie.
"Yeah," said Claire, looking crestfallen. "Harry, I...."
"There's no need to apologize, Claire," said Harry.
"I wasn't going to apologize, Harry," said Claire sharply.
"Oh."
"I just wanted to say that... I... I still have feelings for you," said Claire.
"You never give up, do you sis?" said Goldie.
"She's the same, Harry! We're both programmed!" said Claire.
"No, you're not the same," said Harry. He shook his head. "You never were."
"Doctor Selby says you'll feel better once you've been deprogrammed, dear," said Goldie. "Come on, Harry."
They turned to leave.
"No! I don't want to be deprogrammed! I want you, Harry! Harry, come back, please! Harry, I need you, inside me!"
Her voice cut out as the door closed behind them.
Goldie looked up at Harry, her eyes shining. "I need you inside me too, Harry."
He kissed her. "I can't be everywhere at once."
"That's what I like to hear," said Goldie.
*********
Doctors Severin and Slattery were in jail. The FBI found a giant repository of cloning tubes in their headquarters. Hundreds of people, many of them clones, were taken into custody.
Harry applied for, and eventually received custody of his clone. As he thought, it was a four and a half year old version of himself, exactly as he looked at that age.
"But he doesn't have your experiences, Harry," said Goldie. Goldie had received custody of the little girl, who also proved to be an identical match to her DNA.
"You looked so cute as a little girl!" said Harry, looking at her through a window at the childcare center where she was temporarily interned.
"Yeah, she does, doesn't she?" said Goldie. The little girl had bright blonde hair. Well, that would fade a bit in time. But she would still be beautiful. "I'll enjoy raising my little girl. Maybe we can arrange playdates some time, with your little boy."
"Play dates?"
"Well, Harry, I assume we'll still be friends, and see each other, from time to time-"
Harry cut her off with a kiss. "We planned to get married in September, didn't we?"
"Well, yes, Harry, but that was before you cancelled our-"
"It's September now," said Harry. He got down on his knees. "Marry me, Goldie. Marry me right now."
"Without a formal wedding ceremony?"
"We'll go to city hall and do it right now," said Harry.
Goldie smiled. "It's tempting, Harry. But aren't you worried that I'll leave you, once my programming wears off?"
"No," said Harry, smiling broadly.
Goldie nodded, gulping noticeably. "Then let's do it, Harry."
Twelve Years Out
Goldie didn't leave Harry the month after they were married.
Nor on the sixth month mark.
Nor on the one year mark.
After that, Harry stopped being worried. Mostly. He knew his own programming would wear off over time, but he wanted to believe that she loved him.
So he did.
Anyway, Goldie's programming should have worn off a long time ago. He no longer worried about that. Instead, he and Goldie enjoyed a dozen warm, loving years together.
Harry, of course, wanted to go back to Nanqu and continue the work on the matter transmutation device.
Goldie, of course, not being a Fourther, had no intention of living in an isolated community of geniuses. Harry said that it would be great for Hank. Goldie said that it might be great for Hank, but not so good for Gerri, who wasn't going to grow up to be a Fourther.
That's right, Goldie had named her child after Jerri Thomas, the woman who Harry had impregnated. While this didn't seem intuitive, Goldie knew that if Jerri hadn't thrown her body in front of Harry, that she would be dead. They all owed her a big debt. And in some ways, it was also a tribute to the child Jerri had been carrying, the child Harry would never know. Harry was deeply moved by her gesture.
They argued some more about where they should live. In the end, however, Goldie compromised, because she loved him so much, and they spent half the year at Nanqu, and half in the States. Harry continued his work in the States via remote connections. Goldie coped in Nanqu, and to her surprise actually made some friends among the Fourthers, many of whom didn't treat her as a retarded person.
Claire was deprogrammed, and declared she no longer had any feelings for Harry. Six months later she married a black man with a large penis she met in Nanqu, another Fourther, and within two years she gave birth to her own child, which she endlessly compared to Goldie's clone.
They were relieved when Claire and her husband moved back to the States.
After a dozen years of marriage, Harry could clearly see the difference between being with Goldie and Claire. Goldie's love for him never abated. She never dismissed or ignored him or treated him any differently. They fought at times, as any couple did, and she sometimes disparaged Harry, but always with that little smile, that little smile that told him that even as she tore him down a bit, she was also aching to get him in bed later that night. Goldie was passionate and expressive in ways that Claire never was. She always made an effort every day to let Harry know that she loved him, and every day Harry was grateful he had made the right choice.
Harry no longer needed sleeping pills; Goldie's body was the most natural sleeping pill there was. He no longer felt he was wearing a spacesuit. He no longer thought of killing himself. Why would he? He was living with the love of his life, and he loved every day of it.
They raised the children together. At first, they didn't tell Hank and Gerri that they were clones. The kids had no way of knowing. They looked like Harry and Goldie did when they were children, but Harry and Goldie obviously looked a lot different as adults.
They let the kids think that they were brother and sister, until they turned 15, when they told them the truth. Goldie was very nervous as she and Harry prepared to have the talk with them. How would they react to learning that they were clones, rather than natural born children? Would there be psychological repercussions?
They thought the kids would be shocked, or surprised. Goldie watched anxiously as Harry told them the truth. When he was done, they looked at the kids,
"Is that all, Dad"' Gerri asked
"All?" said Harry.
"Hank figured out the truth three years ago," said Gerri.
Harry looked at his son, who beamed with pride. A smile slowly broke out onto Harry's face, as Goldie grabbed his hand and squeezed it.
Afterwards, when the kids ran out to play, Goldie said, "So we had kids after all, Harry. The most beautiful, wonderful children ever. I'll bet you never expected to be raising kids when you proposed to a barren woman."
It was a pleasant surprised. Harry had been prepared to pay the price of not having children when he married Goldie. And then, unexpectedly... they had children! Two of them! It made their lives full, and complete, and now Harry regretted nothing.
Harry smiled. "I do love raising them. But they're not exactly our kids, though."
She looked intently at him. "Harry. They're our children. Both of ours."
"Of course," said Harry.
*********
When Gerri turned 10, she got her first period. No one was happier to discover a bloody mess in her daughter's pants than Goldie.
Three years ago, several of the Fourthers had developed an inoculation for Grimwave's Syndrome. They hadn't know for sure it would work, but... Gerri never developed the same fever that Goldie did.
"Harry, she can have kids! She can have kids!" said Goldie excitedly, jumping up and down.
"I know," said Harry, smiling.