Part Four - "You and me"
December 11
th
, 2020
They were on their break walking around the basement when Aisling dropped a bombshell on Fiona. "I take it the next part of your story's going to be about Lauren," Fiona said as they stopped to pet Muninn, who'd begrudgingly settled down long enough for Fiona to stroke his back a few times.
"Nah, not really," Aisling said. "I know none of this is going into the book, especially since we're talking away from the tape recorder, but I sort of knew right away that Andy and Lauren were never going to really be on the same emotional level as me and Andy are. That isn't to say he doesn't love her, because he absolutely does, or that she doesn't love him, because she absolutely does as well. But Lauren and Taylor have always been each other's Big Love, and as much as Lauren's biologically tied to Andy, her heart belongs elsewhere. I mean, c'mon, you've had to notice that for most of the last month, Taylor and Lauren have always tag-teamed him rather than going one at a time."
"Of course I'd noticed, but I'd wondered how much of that was down to Lauren and Taylor just fully recommitting to their relationship," Fiona said with a giggle. "I remember when me and Moira reconnected, and let me tell you, that was an
intense
couple of months. We didn't get out of the house most nights."
"Well, as soon as Taylor showed up, Lauren's hesitation with Andy made total sense. It wasn't like she was holding back with him, but I think both Andy and I could tell she wasn't going all in the same way I was," Ash said. "And that was fine. It was early days when she showed up - they were just starting the Oracle program and didn't have anywhere near as large a pool of candidates. I had a few days to establish me and him first before she showed up, but I think once she landed on our doorstep, that was when we knew things were going to get a little crazy. I've talked to Phil a little bit about it, and he told me there was just an effort to quickly double down on the people who'd said they were open to polyamory, like a backup plan."
They made their way to the small little lounge area downstairs where Nicolette had left them some tea and fruit, and based on how warm the tea was, they must have just missed her, only convincing Fiona even further that Nicolette was some kind of super ninja.
"I'd sort of wondered if she was feeling bad about not being asked to marry Andy, but..."
"Oh, they worked it out without much conversation, really. It was pretty amicable between the two of them, what with Lauren and Taylor talking about getting married to each other at some point in the future. They're both still likely going to bear Andy's children, but that's just the way of the world now. If this family was a pyramid scheme, Lauren's tier two."
Both Fi and Ash had a good giggle about that. They needed to take a break, so the two of them stepped into the backyard, stripped down to nothing and then slipped into the hot tub for a little cool down. Neither was used to having their own hot tub on demand still, so they were doing everything they could to get used to the new home. It had really been a massive adjustment, and even now, the whole layout still hadn't fully settled in almost anyone's mind. There were simply so many rooms, so many corridors, so many things to keep straight. Ash had joked around that they should have the layout on a map in their dosing app, but Niko and Lexi had immediately put their foot down, saying that it was "sensitive information" and that there was no way they were making that information accessible to anyone with an internet connection.
They'd been in the hot tub for about five minutes, sitting mostly in silence, enjoying the warm water, before Ash spoke. "Do you think I should start carrying a gun?"
Fi turned her head in surprise. "Where's this coming from?"
"Just a little bit ago, you were saying that you were disappointed Andy wouldn't carry a gun himself. I've been thinking about that. Maybe I should reconsider Lexi's offer to train me into shooting. Andy's the love of my life, but he's... he can definitely be too optimistic, too trusting of people. I know basically Niko or Lexi are going to be around looking out for his well-being any time we're out in public, but..." She sighed. "I dunno. Maybe I'm just wonderin' if that's not going to be enough. Maybe we should insist all the wives are packing."
"If you want to have a gun on you, Ash," Fiona said, "I can respect that, but I'm not keen on the idea of having one on me all the time. There's always the chance of the weapon going off, or of you shooting yourself instead of your attacker. Eventually I'm sure they'll convince me to learn how to shoot, how not to be a complete klutz with it, but having one around all the time? I'm just not up for that. I think each girl should decide for herself, but I just wouldn't feel safe having a gun on me all the time. Leave the weapons to those completely trained to handle them, you know?"
"Mmmm," Ash said. "I can respect that. But I also feel like maybe two armed guards around Andy isn't quite enough and having a few more wouldn't do anyone any harm. Besides, I'd look like a bad ass with a gun in my hands."
"That you probably would, Ash," Fi said. "I think I'd look like a soccer mom trying to front and fail on every level."
"Nah, you'd look like that actress you look like in the film where she loses her memory and fucks shit up with Sam Jackson," Ash teased. "But if you don't want to carry a piece, nobody's going to tell you that you have to."
"That's good," Fi said, before the two sat in the silence of the hot tub for a couple more minutes. Eventually, however, Fi broke the silence again. "You really think I look like her?"
"Want me to prove it?" Ash giggled. "Say 'chefs do that.'"
Both women devolved into laughs before grabbing towels, drying off as they headed back into the hidden basement of the building. When they got back to Ash's studio, they found that Nicolette had left lunch for both of them, as well as a couple of cocktails. "How
does
she know everything in the house that needs doing,
and
do it with nobody
seeing
?"
"It's the mark of a really great housekeeper."
* * * * *
Like I said, there isn't all that much to talk about with me and Lauren. We got along fine, but even from the onset, I could tell there was someone else in the picture who would figure into things later. Yeah, I wouldn't know Taylor's name for months, but her presence? Sure, she figured into that time like you wouldn't believe.
We had fun with expanding Andy's mind a little bit, though. I'd figured out we weren't his first threesome early on, but when he told me it'd been a long while since he'd gotten laid, I knew we had some major rebuilding of confidence to do, and Lauren, bless her heart, hadn't really been with men much, despite going both ways, so I sort of had to do the overselling for both of us.
It wasn't too hard, convincing Andy that he was a sort of sex god. I mean, in most ways, I'm not really exaggerating with that. He wasn't exceptional at first, but he was still good, damn good, and his willingness to learn made up for any shortcomings he might have had at first. You know that about Andy - if you give him a task and tell him it's important, he will do absolutely anything to get good at it, as good as he can be.
I mean, the man already ate pussy like a champ, but everything else? We got there soon enough. He was a very eager student, and each time, whether it was the vaccine running through my veins mixed with his DNA or just the fact that he was hellbent on learning everything he could about both me and Lauren meant we both felt pretty loved up early on.
I felt a little bit more possessive about Andy than Lauren did, but it wasn't obvious to him, I guess, even when I was at my worst. No, telling you about early days with Lauren, you're not going to learn a whole lot about me and Andy and how we got along.
Which is why we're going to skip forward a little bit and talk about the next member of our family to join, Niko. Don't grin at me like that.
You're
the one who's going to figure out how much of what I tell you you're going to want to include in your book. It might well be none of this whole next section, but hey, that's for you to decide, not me.
So, the day before Niko showed up, Lauren and I got to meet Phil for the first time, although at that point, we didn't really know how deep Phil's ties to the whole thing went. I thought he seemed like a guy well deep in the know, but it would be months and months before we found out how much Phil had to do with the Quaranteam vaccine.
Still, during Andy and Phil's conversation, we got a hint of the bigger picture to come, with Phil talking about maybe as many as five million people dead by the end of it, which, we both know now was a gross underestimation, but I like to think he was trying to keep Andy from losing his shit too much while still being able to talk to someone about what was going on. That was also the day that both the former President and the former Vice President collapsed, and early in the wee hours of the next morning, the Speaker of the House was sworn in as President Pro Tempore.
Later that day, there was a knock on the door and Niko was dropped onto our lap. While she wasn't in quite as bad a state as Piper was, Niko had clearly been given her dose much earlier than her arrival on our doorstep, because she wasn't thinking entirely clearly. Not so poorly that her judgement was impaired, but she was
not
in the mood to wait if you follow my meaning. She basically had her way with Andy in the common area of the tiny old condo, and we had to carry her up to bed afterwards.
In the middle of the night, she sucked Andy off, and in the early hours of the morning, she fucked him while he was still sleeping. It took three full dosages of Andy's love before she felt like the fog around her brain was starting to clear.
The very first thing I realized about Niko was that she was
quite
a bit younger than Andy. I mean, I'm a decade younger than him, and she's half a decade younger than me, so while Niko assured us she liked older and more mature men, I also knew it was going to be one of those sticking points with Andy for a while. She was 22 at the time, but even still, that might as well have been an entire generation for Andy.
