Only Consenting Adults

[Author's note: Tia's husband has finally talked her into having another child (

WWS01

), so naturally Billie has organised a lingerie shopping trip, leaving Cassie to reminisce about her first ever meeting with Syn (

WWS06

).

Meanwhile, Quinn's statement about the way the new laws will affect the life they lead has troubled Madame Syn and Cassie greatly. If they pass, the Lost and Found will be no more and the life they lead will be marginalised. Jen's father, the architect of the new legislation, is unwilling to compromise. Jen now understands why, after seeing the blackmail recording, but it feels all too little and too late.

Warning, this chapter contains depiction of self-harm. Please skip to the next installment if this troubles you]

---

WHEN TOMORROW WE ARE GONE

Syn was drinking her coffee at her desk in the corner of her penthouse apartment, her back turned so she could look out at the cityscape. Cassie called out from the kitchen.

"Do you want anything? I'm going to make some lunch."

"I might skip lunch today," Syn responded, not turning around.

"You sure? It's not healthy, skipping meals."

"Oh, don't worry. I've done it for years. It hasn't killed me yet."

Cassie opened the fridge and began to make herself a sandwich. When she was done, she wandered barefoot across the wooden floor to perch on the edge of Syn's desk. The laptop was open, showing a news site. Syn didn't look up.

"You okay? You seem a little quiet."

"Don't mind me, Cassidy, just thinking."

"Anything I can do?"

"No. But thank you."

Cassie ate her sandwich, distracted by the view from the window, lulled into watching the cars on the streets far below with Syn in peaceful silence.

"I remember the first time I ever came here," Cassie said, "The two of us curled up on the daybed together. That was the first time we really properly talked."

Syn sighed to herself. "Yes, I remember. That was not the way I thought the day was going to go when I woke up that morning."

"Was it better, or worse?"

"Better."

"For me too. That was the day you talked to me about the club, about building a legacy, do you remember?"

Cassie studied the older woman's face, side-on, the blonde hair streaked through now with silver threads, the high cheekbones. Syn's delicate lips curved into a smile, but it was careworn.

"A legacy," she echoed, "Yes. All we leave behind, when tomorrow we are gone."

Syn turned to face her, the arresting grey-blue eyes locking onto hers.

"You're going to be late for your shopping trip. You can't just hang around with me all day. You've got a busy life."

"Sure you don't want to come?"

"Do you think your friends would get along with me?"

Cassie leaned in to give her a kiss.

"I'm sure you could play nice, if you wanted."

"Maybe not this time, Cassidy. I have something I need to do."

"Have it your way. Damian still has the boys, so shall I see you tonight?"

Syn nodded, smiling faintly. "Yes," she said, "That would be lovely."

---

Billie was sitting in the back seat among the shopping bags, laughing.

"Oh shit, yeah," she gasped, "And then Tia says, 'Oh, do you have them in red?' and the guy just loses it."

"That was poor customer service," Tia purred from the passenger seat.

"Twenty minutes looking for the right pair of shoes, he was livid," Cassie interjected.

"You're fucking hard to please, is the problem," Billie snorted.

"I know what I want. Anyway, it has to be right," Tia replied.

"We're here," Cassie announced, pulling into an empty space on a quiet street.

"Really? This is it?" Billie asked.

"Yes."

"Doesn't look much, Cassie."

"Doesn't have to. Come on."

Cassie opened the door and got out. Her friends followed her. They'd spent the afternoon shopping, frittering away the day on retail therapy. Cassie led them to a shop.

"Oh, I see," Tia remarked, looking through the front window.

She leaned forward slightly, her long blue dress hanging down almost to her ankles, her sleek figure hidden in the folds. Even though it was just shopping, she'd been careful with her lustrous, dark hair, arranging it to tumble in studied chaos over her honey-coloured skin. Billie smirked at her, clad in a summer dress and low heels. She hadn't attempted to match parity with the tall Brazilian woman. Neither had Cassie, but anyway, this was Tia's stop on the grand tour of the city's shopping destinations. She was on a very specific mission.

Cassie opened the door and stepped into the lingerie shop. Billie swept past her, cackling to herself with Tia in tow.

"Oh, this is where the real work gets done," she called out. "Tia, let's go. What're you thinking?"

"Elegant. Refined."

"Raunchy."

"Yes, raunchy too."

"You're looking for something that tells hubs that he's honoured to be allowed in your presence. But at the same time, something that screams, 'Breed me,' am I right?"

"You have a way with words."

"But this is about babies, correct?"

Tia approached a mannequin adorned with a lace camisole and garters. Her fingers traced the elaborate neckline. She gave Billie a sultry, smoking glance.

"Yes, I would like to be bred tonight. You're quite right."

Billie cackled again, then dismissed the camisole with a wave of her hand.

"Then let's get you dressed, babe. Let's find something that's gonna make him cry."

She disappeared further into the shop.

"She's keen," Tia murmured to Cassie.

"She's also got a good eye. She's able to see it from the man's viewpoint," Cassie replied. "Still, so he finally talked you into it."

"Into ruining my figure one more time."

"Hey, I had twins."

"And look at you now, Cassie. Spectaular."

"A lot of effort, believe me."

Tia grinned at her. "All for a new person in your life."

Cassie shook her head.

"Cassie, come on. I told you why I'm here. Why don't you tell me why you're here? Your special friend."

"I, wait, what?"

"It's okay."

Tia folded her arms, a half-smile on her lips.

"But, hold on. What?" Cassie sputtered.

"Your little secret is out, Cassie, but it's okay. We're all girls here, well, mostly. You can talk about it."

"I haven't said, though. Well, maybe Billie. How do you know? Has she...?"

Tia laughed, "Oh, yes. Billie would be my first pick for the weakest link in the circle of trust too, but she kept your secret. Morgan too."

"Really?"

"I'm as surprised as you."

"Then how?"

Tia leaned close, her eyebrows arching as she divulged her source.

"Charlie."

Cassie's mind blanked for a moment. "Uh, what... Charlie?" she stammered.

"He told Hope and Olivia about his mother having a special friend."

"When?"

Tia frowned, glancing over to where Billie was wandering through the racks, then back to Cassie.

"Hope's been getting teased. One of the girls is calling her No-Daddy. Charlie stepped up for her."

Cassie stared at the beautiful Brazilian's face, trying to put the pieces together.

"Tia, come on. I've got an armful already," Billie called from across the shop.

Tia turned, leaving Cassie standing in the middle of the floor on her own, facing the mannequin with the camisole. She reached out, stroking the fabric.

Not a lace girl after all. That's what Syn had said. She'd come up behind Cassie in this very shop, stood next to her in this same exact spot, and carelessly dismissed what the mannequin was wearing. Thirty seconds either way, and they would never have spoken. Cassie would have perhaps passed the elegant older woman at the door and gone back to her failing marriage with Damian. Half a minute had made all the difference in her world.

Syn had joined her for coffee after, they'd talked, and Cassie had decided to make contact again. She'd needed a new friend, as Lily turned the screws. Standing in this spot over a year ago now, the woman that she'd been had no idea of the woman she was going to become, the secrets and the incredible things she was about to experience.

One of those secrets still gnawed at her: the night on the stage at the Lost and Found playing to an exclusive audience of her own husband and his cronies. She'd worn a mask to disguise herself, stripped bare in front of them all, handcuffed them to chairs, humiliated them each in turn. She'd fucked her husband's best friend right next to him and then revealed who she was at last. She had destroyed him in front of his closest confidants to pay him back for flouting Lily in front of his friends to show that he was fucking the willowy younger blonde woman instead of his wife.

In that moment where she lifted her mask to stare into his eyes, it had felt like justice at last. In the hours that followed, kissing Syn in the doorway, still high on the rush, she had felt vindicated. But in the days and weeks that followed, the elation of having finally broken free turned to shame. Damian had deserved to be shamed, but she'd been blinded by revenge. She'd done the exact thing she counselled her own clients not to, she'd lashed out.

It had destroyed any hope of a relationship between them, but surprisingly, there had been few ramifications beyond that. Damian's buddies had closed ranks, burying the night in the vault. Nothing had ever leaked from the twelve men that were in the Lost and Found that night. It was a mark of the respect that her ex-husband had engendered in them that they had seen one of their own go down and they had rallied round to stand him back up again. She hadn't reckoned on that, and in retrospect, it had turned out to be a blessing.

In the same way, Billie and Morgan had also closed ranks around Cassie, helping her to bear the load of the collapse of her marriage in fiery disaster. They knew she was seeing a woman, how much Cassie had changed, and they kept her secrets. Even Billie, with the mile-a-minute mouth, hadn't let anything slip. Instead, it had been her own son, seeing everything at the age of eight and putting it all together. He'd known about special friends because he'd seen Hope's family, her two mothers. It seemed incredible that her baby boy had been watching everything and understanding.

Cassie could imagine Charlie in the playground, stepping into the fray to defend Billie's daughter. It was history repeating itself. The same playground, the same issues, but not Cassie and Billy against the mean kids, now Hope and Charlie. Again, one helping the other to come to terms with being different, like Cassie had done with Billy, helping him through his transition.

"Cassie, heads up."

Billie was calling her over. Cassie turned away from the camisole to go and find her friends.

"So, this. What's your opinion, Cassie?"

Billie was holding up a cream leather bustier with matching g-string and stockings while Tia looked on. Cassie could tell she was relishing the task. Cassie nodded enthusiastically.

"What do you think Tia?" she asked, "You're the one wearing it."

"It's a little revealing," the taller woman confessed.

"But you're full Brazilian, right?" Billie asked.

"I, um, yes, obviously, but that doesn't mean I'm kinky," Tia replied, emphasising the last word.

"No, I meant, down there. The g-string's pretty tiny. You're not going to be showing forest?"

Tia actually blushed, then took the garments from her friend.

"I'll be fine. Let me go and try them."

With that, she turned towards the changing rooms. Billie grinned at Cassie, her eyes dancing.

"Oh Cassie, remember that time in the playground? The time they were ganging up because I'd said something about underwear? Remember that?"

"Kinda."

Billie turned to watch Tia slip behind the curtain.

"If you'd have told me back then I'd be wearing a dress helping a goddamn actual Amazonian goddess pick out kinky lingerie, I'd have died on the spot."

Billie laughed to herself, adding, "And gone straight to heaven."

"Enjoying this?"

"Oh, you have no concept. I'm awful. I think I'm coming untucked."

"Billie!"

"Cassie! We're both on the same team now. You can't talk."

Cassie wanted to protest that, but Billie had slipped past her down the aisle. She hurried after her friend.

"It's more complicated than that."

Billie came to a halt in front of another mannequin. This one was wearing a strappy one-piece garment in black satin with little D-rings sewn into the major joining points of the material. Cassie cast an eye over it, noting how impractical it would be from the point of view of actually securing the wearer in a bondage position, then startling herself that she'd thought like that.

"Cass, I know it's more complicated than that. I get it, I really do. Now, what do you think about this? It's Morgan's birthday coming up."

The piece had been designed to add a little spiciness to vanilla play, allowing the wearer to feel naughty without fully committing to kink.

"You're going to buy it for Morgan?"

"I thought, though I'd probably find myself dressed up in it. She does like to take the lead in the bedroom. Still, happy wife happy life."

Billie shrugged then flashed a smirk at Cassie.

"Fuck it," she hissed, "Life's too short, right?"

Cassie wandered to the front of the shop while Billie made her purchase. She opened the door and stepped out into the late afternoon sun. Cassie had stood here and broached the subject of coffee with a mysterious elegant woman and her life had never been the same afterwards. The memory from earlier in the morning of Syn's face observing the cityscape came back to her, the melancholy look in her eyes.

There was a rattle behind her as the door swung open.

"Chauffeur, home please. Our business is concluded," Billie announced airily.

She was clutching a bag, grinning. Tia's hands were empty. They crossed over to Cassie's car.

"So, not good?" Cassie asked the taller woman.

"What?" Tia replied.

"The, uh, the outfit."

"Oh, no. It was perfect."

"But you didn't buy it."

Tia paused by the car door, smiling coyly. "I did."

"But you...."

Cassie gestured at her friend's empty hands.

"I'm wearing it," Tia confessed.

She gave a little jiggle and slipped into the back seat. Billie turned to Cassie, fists bunched, and put her knuckle between her teeth. She mouthed, 'so fucking hot,' and grinned like a fool before getting into the passenger seat.

Cassie couldn't help but smile.

---

Driving away from Billie's house, Cassie made a snap decision to head into the city instead of home. She had been intending to get some work done before Monday came around again, but thoughts of Syn had been popping up in her head all day. She had come to understand Syn's moods, the way that sometimes the woman she had come to share her life with needed distance, to be on her own with her thoughts. This was in sharp contrast to the other side of her, the absolute force of nature that was Syn in full flow, the imperious, spirited dominatrix able to bend just about anyone to her will. Cassie understood that the one necessitated the other, that the two halves balanced each other perfectly.

As she drove, she replayed the conversation from the morning in her head. There had been something about it, some niggling detail that Cassie had overlooked. The news site had been talking about the passing of the Seven Pillars law, how it had cleared its final hurdle. It would probably mean the end of the Lost and Found, let alone the damage it would do to people like Quinn.

That itch was there still. She dialled Syn's number as she drove. The phone rang and rang, and clicked over to voicemail. In itself, that was not unusual; Syn was often busy.

"Hi hon," Cassie said, "Just checking in. I'm thinking of heading to the club early. On my way now. I guess that's where you are. See you soon."

Cassie got there after eight, parking in the street across from the club and taking the back door inside. She emerged into the main area to find an early crowd mingling. It was a Sunday night, so it would be quieter, mostly just the locals. She saw Adam in a booth across the floor, talking to a stocky middle-aged woman with blonde hair. Eve was at the bar, talking to Armal. She could never figure those two out, but it seemed to be working for them. At the entrance, Tony was on duty as usual.

"Quiet night," Cassie remarked.

"Yeah, a bit of a change after the last few nights. It's been going off," the huge Pacific Islander replied.

She could see Tony scanning the faces.

"I guess you've been following the news," Cassie said.

"Yeah. It's all a bit shit."

"Do you have anything else lined up, I mean, if it comes to that?"

Tony gave her a look and then laughed, "Oh, don't you worry about me. As long as there are pissheads, there'll always be work."

Then his face became more serious. "I've had a word with the Rockerfeller. They've got an opening. I was wondering if they could call you as a reference."

"Of course."

"If it comes to that. There's always hope." Tony brightened again. "There's always hope," he repeated.

"I like your optimism, Tony. They'd be lucky to have you at the Rockerfeller."

"It's baked into the DNA, optimism."

"How?"

"You're talking to the descendant of a long line of chancers who crossed the largest, wildest ocean on earth using only these tiny bloody wooden canoes, with nothing but the stars to navigate. You always have to believe it'll all work out for the best, eh, otherwise you sink."

That made Cassie laugh, and she felt her spirits lifting. "Hey, have you seen Syn?" she asked.

"She's in her office. We got the 'do not disturb'. I think she's going through the paperwork."

"When did she get here?"

"Couple hours ago."

Cassie nodded. "I might just go up and say hello."

Tony laughed again. "Do not disturb. You'd be the only one brave enough."

She patted the big guy on his arm and headed back to the door that led upstairs, into the private area of the club. At the top of the stairs, she hesitated and then knocked at the first door.

Upstairs was quiet; there were no regulars in the playrooms. It would be just Syn in her office. She knocked again.

"Hi Syn, it's me. It's Cassie," she called.

There was no answer. Cassie tried the handle, but to her surprise she found it locked. She knocked again, harder.

"Syn, hey. You in there?"

Cassie got the awful feeling that something was wrong. She hesitated a moment and then turned back down the stairs, feet moving quickly down the steps. Opening the door to the main floor, she strode briskly to the bar, waving Armal over.

"Hey, is there a spare key to the office down here somewhere?"

Armal shook his head. "Unlikely, unless Tony knows about it."

"Okay, thanks."

Cassie crossed the floor, finding Tony where she had left him. He gave her a broad smile as she approached.

"Tony, uh, do you know where the spare key is to the office?"

The smile faded from the big man's face.

"Why? What's going on?"

"I don't know. I need... uh, can you come with me for a minute?"

"No worries."

Cassie led him back upstairs. She stood in front of the office door again, a hard knot of dread settling in her stomach. In her apartment that morning, looking out at the traffic, Syn had misquoted herself. When tomorrow we are gone, she had said; tomorrow, not one day. She'd said tomorrow. Cassie banged on the door with her fist.

"Syn it's me, can you open up please?"

They waited in silence but there was no response.

"Tony, I need a spare key. Do you have one?"

Tony's eyes didn't leave the door. He shrugged his massive shoulders.

"I have about a hundred and twenty kilos of spare key."

Cassie nodded. "Do it," she barked.

Tony took a couple of steps back and then launched himself against the door. There was an almighty crack, and the big Islander reeled back from the impact. He set his shoulders and launched again, and this time the door split. Tony's massive bulk continued forward, ripping the door apart in a cloud of wooden splinters, sending him sprawling across the office carpet to land in a heap in front of the desk. Cassie followed behind him, stepping through the jagged wooden carnage. The desk was unoccupied.