Quaranteam - North West

====================================

QT:NW continues the official Spin-Off for the Quaranteam universe originally created by CorruptingPower. You do not need to have read the original series to enjoy this one, but you really do need to start with Chapters 1-4 (I really suggest you read the original though, it's great!). Fans of the original should be pleased to know CP has approved the story and the continuity.

In this chapter you can expect physical and sexual reunions, moves, MF, Anal, and a couple of overdue arrivals.

Returning Dramatis Personae

House Black

- Harrison 'Harri' Black - Sheriff of Black County, 'Jason Momoa-looking motherfucker' mountain man (mixed heritage), former Army MP

- Kara Swiftwater - Harrison's high school sweetheart, former community leader of the local Native band, Gerty's second cousin, Raven hair

- Kyla Bautista - Trained dancer, Phillipino Spy, Harri's Deputy Sheriff, Raven hair

- Tanaya Airington - Former rodeo barrel racer and native relay rider, petite and stoic native

- Gertrude 'Gerty' Swiftwater - Kara's second cousin, Tribal police on the Rez, Voluptuous Native, Raven hair

- Erica LaCosta - Fiancee of Harri, Italian Tattoo Artist, Leo's sister, Dark Brunette

- Ivy Gauthier - Quebecoise stripper, half-tattooed, Dirty Blonde anal queen

- Vanessa Peters - Construction Forewoman, Daughter of Brent Peters the head of the construction project, Brunette

- Macho - Rescued daschund puppy, named for his big balls, mascot and beloved pet of House Black

House LaCosta

- Leo LaCosta - Harri's best friend and former roommate, Italian carpenter, Erica's brother

- Danielle 'Dani' - Australian stripper, Brunette

- Aria - Girlfriend of India, Stripper/Sugar Baby, Ginger, Member of House LaCosta

- India - Girlfriend of Aria, Hippy Stripper/Sugar Baby, grew up in a commune, Brunette dreads and braids, Member of House LaCosta

Military

- Lt Col Miriam Abarbanel - Military friend of Harri's, Air Force Lt Col, Jewish heritage, Commanding Officer for Valhalla Hills construction and the Oregon Quaranteam research project

- Captain Laura Bloomberg - Air Force JAG serving as Miriam's second, Blonde

Other

- Julia De Luca - Helicopter Pilot, former Air Force Pararescue Pilot. Friend and Client of Erica.

Referenced Characters

- Josie 'Joss the Boss' Draper - Professional Wrestler, Athletically Trim Blonde

- Mary Duncan - Attended high school with Harri, former cheerleader, Husband has disappeared while looking for work, left to join a 'commune' with her kids

====================================

"It's bugging you," Kara said, shooting me a smirk as she sat next to me.

I let out a breath and shook my head. "No, it's fine."

"Well now I

know

something is bothering you," Kyla said, looking across the truck at me. We were loaded up into the back of one of the ambulance trucks that the Air Force QRF had used two days before, except the medical equipment had mostly been unloaded and the space was filled with sealed hard cases destined for Miriam's future 'base' on the construction site. There was a small bay of seats right behind the separate cab, and I was sitting in between Kara, who had barely let go of my hand after she'd woken up, and Tanaya who had snaked her pinky finger into my jeans pocket like she wanted to feel connected but wasn't comfortable enough to actually hold my hand or put hers on my leg.

Kyla, Julia and I had our clothes and most of our equipment returned shortly after Kara had woken up, but the three native women with us were still dressed in the Air Force greys they'd been given at the Portland facility. Gerty, Kyla and Julia were all sitting across from us in the back of the truck, and my girlfriend had an eyebrow raised as she looked pointedly at me.

"It's nothing," I told her.

"Does he ever let you drive?" Kara asked. "And I don't mean

ever

, but when he's in the car does he ever ride shotgun?"

"No," Kyla smirked a little, looking at me. "He doesn't."

Kara chuckled. "He'd let me borrow his car without a second thought when we were in high school, but if he was in it he wouldn't let

anyone

drive it. Hell, Harri, if it was someone

else's

car you would still try to insist on driving."

I snorted softly and shook my head. "Did anyone else we know drive better than me?"

"Taylor Vanderpine literally raced derby cars," Kara said. "He won prizes for driving."

"Yeah, and he drove all the back highways like he was on a track," I said. "You think I wanted to be in a car with him at the wheel? And don't get me started on you."

That got chuckles out of Gerty and Tanaya.

"Hey, I'm not a bad driver," Kara said.

"No, you just have a bit of a lead foot," Gerty said. "How many times did I have to give you a warning when I had a badge?"

"Two," Kara said.

"Five," Gerty said.

"...Fine," Kara sighed.

"I didn't know the driving was a whole thing," Kyla said, eyeing me a little analytically. "And Erica never mentioned it."

That got everyone's attention, and I realised that of the five women I was stuck in the metal box on wheels with, one was Erica's friend who wanted to know more about my relationship with her, and three were now

my

partners which meant they were weirdly family to Erica now - and they knew she was my fiancee, but not a whole lot else about her or my other partners.

Gerty and Tanaya had met us on our way to Kara when she'd first woken up, and we'd all piled into her hospital room together - a room that smelled a lot fresher than it had the day before. Kara even looked less dishevelled, and I assumed one of the female nurses must have given her a sponge bath while she was out. My ex/newest partner had been a little overwhelmed by all four of us coming in at once since she'd had time to hit the washroom, dress in the sweatshirt and pants and gulp down some water before we got there, but little else. Kyla and I had held back, letting Gerty and Tanaya hug her and share a moment, but Kara's eyes had been all for me. I'd seen that look before, the one that had a half dozen questions and concerns floating around, but was also just happy to be looking at me. It had been a long fucking time since I'd gotten a look like that from her.

Our physical reunion had been weirdly tentative. After everything, from the verbal sparring over the years to our slow reconciliation to the animalistic imprinting, somehow I'd found myself feeling awkward for the first time since way back when I'd first asked Kara out when we were fifteen. We'd ended up awkwardly holding each other's forearms as we sort of just looked at each other, unsure of what to say, eyes travelling up and down like we were trying to make sure we were both OK. Then I couldn't handle it anymore and I'd pulled her in and wrapped my arms around her and hugged her, and she'd squeezed me back as hard as she could.

Kyla had gotten a hug as well, and then we'd let Gerty take charge of updating Kara on what was going on, particularly with the other women and the children from the tribe. Kara was both thankful and furious, and had spent the rest of the morning split between trying to convince the last two women who hadn't agreed to the vaccine, speaking with the other women who were wrapped up in the emergency therapy program, and fighting with one Air Force staff member after another to try and get the contact information for the women that had already been shipped off to partners. She'd made her way all the way up to a Major when I had cut in as it looked like she was going to rip the man's throat out with her teeth, reminding the unfortunate officer of the various ancestral crimes the Federal government had committed against the Native American population, not the least of which were forcible displacement and allowing the Catholic church among others to basically kidnap kids and teens and attempt to 'de-savage' them.

The guy had gone white as a sheet as he realised what I was explaining, and what Kara was furious over, and had mumbled that he would submit the requests as soon as possible to get Kara the clearance for the contact information she was demanding. Unfortunately, my own clearance didn't cover personal details like that, so we found ourselves stonewalled for the moment.

Miriam had come to fetch us herself when it was time for us to leave, just a little before lunch. Other than a slightly cool moment between her and Kara as they were both clearly trying to be polite for the sake of circumstances, it had been a fast but warm send-off - she was still finishing up her hand-off to the new General's staff and the underground garage where we piled into the transport had been hectic. Even without being settled into her new command, the General was putting her mandate into effect and starting the rollout in Portland.

"To be fair, Erica and I have known each other for years but it was casually through Leo," I said. "Not a whole lot of daily driving going on, even once we were quarantining together. I've definitely been in a car a lot more with Kyla than with Erica since we've been doing the Sheriff stuff."

"Speaking of which," Gerty said. "Can we get the full story on that finally? Because I've been curious about that whole thing for weeks."

I let Kyla do the telling and just cut in when I had an embellishment to make or to explain that while I didn't have any 'proper' police training I still had my background as an MP to fall back on. And the few times I had to correct the record as Kyla teased me over some little things. Julia was laughing along with the others, and in the midst of Kyla telling them about the shootout with the bikers on the streets of Portland I caught her looking at me. She grinned and turned back to focus on Kyla, but I thought I saw something there in her eyes, and I found myself feeling that urge again. That hunger that said that it was done now, she was mine. I'd

make

her mine. It took a serious shake of my head to clear my thoughts, enough that Tanaya looked up at me seriously for a moment from beside me until I gave her a soft smile and then leaned down and gently kissed her forehead. She kept looking up at me for another moment before letting out a breath and leaning more heavily against me. I lifted my arm over her shoulder and hugged her to me lightly, and she got comfortable.

We didn't have any windows out of the truck bed so it was tough to know where we were, but having done the drive to and from Portland on the trafficless highways a few times now, when I checked the time on my phone I guessed, "Probably about thirty minutes out now."

"Actually," Kara said. "Are we able to use the intercom thing there to ask for a detour? I'd like to stop by the Rez."

"I do too," Gerty said. "See what's going on, and maybe grab some of our things from home? We need our clothes, and there's family stuff I want to make sure doesn't get looted, or ruined or whatever."

I grit my teeth for a moment, wanting to say yes.

"I don't know if that's a good idea right this minute," Kyla said, reading my minor expression change with a glance. "We don't have any information about what's been going on there other than that the National Guard was doing sweeps for survivors three days ago."

"It might still be on lockdown," I added. "But Miriam is supposed to be joining us tonight. Can you wait that long for her to be able to make some calls?"

"We can wait," Tanaya said, surprisingly forcefully.

Kara seemed like she wanted to argue, but clicked her mouth shut. Gerty raised an eyebrow but nodded.

"We're heading to our new home, to meet a completely new family," Tanaya said after a moment, her low, slightly husky voice softening. "What happened, and the past, isn't something we're ever going to forget. But I- We need to look towards the future, too. It's the only way this works."

"OK," Kara said, letting go of my hand to reach across me and grab Tanaya's. "You're right. Today is for tomorrow. We can look at yesterday... tomorrow..."

"Got a little bungled up there in the meaningful phrasing, did you?" I asked with just a hint of a smirk.

"Shut up," Kara said with a chuckle, nudging me with her elbow.

"You and Erica are going to get along famously," Julia said, grinning from her seat across the truck. "That or one of you is going to go full Highlander on the other. I'm excited to see which happens first."

I groaned, and Kyla sighed. "Why?" I asked. "Why would you put that out into the universe?"

- - - - -

The welcome home was a whirlwind of introductions that almost rivalled when we'd driven our then-smaller number up to Valkyrie Falls at the start of my investigation on the raid of the construction site. There were also physical changes happening.

Yet another large barracks building was mostly built, bringing the total now to four, and the camp administrative offices had grown as well. The entire clearing where my family home had once been was built over with the camp now and with the cutting back of so much of the brush and foliage I was quickly losing the ability to recognize the surroundings. The horizon was still the same, the rocky foothills and mountainous terrain unchanged, but up close it was all different.

Our little compound was mid-change as well. Another RV had been delivered just like Miriam had said, but the other two ended up being big 'Fifth Wheel' trailers that might as well have been RVs but needed to be towed around by a truck - thankfully my Sheriff's Truck was equipped with a hitch and would have the horsepower to move the things around. All three of them lacked the shiny newness that the original two RVs had when they'd first been delivered but thankfully seemed to be lightly used at worst. One of them was supposed to become Miriam's mobile base of operations for the moment and I assumed that would be the actual RV. Along with the new additional living quarters, there was also a new Sea-Can shipping container, still up on a flatbed truck and waiting to be dropped off where we wanted it. That was going to be useful considering we'd be trying to collect and move whatever we could salvage for Kara, Gerty and Tanaya in the coming days from their homes back on the Rez.

Everyone came out to meet us as we unloaded from the truck. With the danger passed, Erica and Leo had made the executive decision to move the families back home so it was a full yard in our little parking lot as introductions were made, or remade. I was torn, wanting to run around and scoop up Erica, Ivy and Vanessa in my arms because I hadn't seen them in days, throw them all over my shoulder and carry them caveman-style back to our bed for a

proper

homecoming. But I also wanted to shepherd the newcomers, particularly Kara and Tanaya for very different reasons, through what might have been contentious or overwhelming meetings.

My decision for either option was taken from me, unsurprisingly, because the women in my life had a tendency to be strong-willed and didn't give a fuck about waiting for my go-ahead on just about anything.

Ivy was jumping into my arms, hitting me like a cannonball, about one second after my feet hit the ground. I caught her, having been half-expecting that sort of welcome home from her, but was still pushed a little and ended up leaning back against the military truck as she kissed me with a ferocious passion. I wrapped one hand around her tiny waist to help keep her up while she pinched her legs around my hips and held me by my beard.

"Hi," I could hear Erica saying. "Kara, nice to meet you again. You might not remember since it was brief both times, but I'm Erica, the 'white woman with the tits.'"

Oh, fuck,

I thought and tried to pry Ivy off of me, but she was latched on like a leech.

"I'm-" Kara said, not quite enough for me to know how she was reacting, but she was interrupted.

"I'm just fucking with you," Erica said. "You're family now, come here." I managed to twist Ivy enough on my waist and lips to see past her head and note that Erica had pulled Kara into a hug. Dani was right there with her, introducing herself to Gerty, and then Ivy turned her head and my view was blocked again.

Finally, my little Quebecoise partner let our kiss end as she came off of me with an audible smack of our lips separating. She didn't let go of my beard though and stared into my eyes with the tips of our noses touching. "

Je savais que tout irait bien, mon guerrier. Je le savais juste.

"

I had no idea what she'd said. "I missed you too,

mon coeur

," I said.

She chuckled and leaned in and kissed me again, then let go of my beard. "Put me down, Harrison," she said, her warm Quebecoise accent music to my ears. "I need to meet our new partners."

I did, and she gave my hand a squeeze before slipping away into the group. Once again, however, I was stopped from needing to make a decision of who I should check on or look for first - this time by Leo, who came over for a backslapping hug.

"You good?" he asked.

"Yeah," I grunted. "Everything good here and at the Falls?"

"They want to see you, but otherwise yes. All good," Leo said. "Lots of changes happening around here, but I'll let Vanessa tell you about them. That 'regen' thing sounds like a trip, though."

"You have no idea," I sighed. Waking up that morning I'd almost forgotten it had happened until Kyla had made a point of running her fingers, and then her tongue, over my newly visible abs before a Good Morning blowjob.

I pulled Leo into another hug, but my fiancee clearing her throat had us separating because neither of us wanted to keep her waiting. Leo flashed me a smirk that said I

might

be in trouble and backed away to join Aria and India talking with Julia.

Erica didn't catapult into me like Ivy did, instead she somehow turned a few steps into an entire catwalk of strutting despite the fact that she was dressed in one of her baggy Metallica tees tied up off her side to bare some of her stomach, black yoga pants and flip flops. She wasn't wearing any makeup and her hair was a bit of a mess and pulled back into a ponytail.

I wanted to kiss every inch of her.

She stepped into my arms and I swept her up, one hand landing on her ass and possessively grabbing it as I lifted her a little off the ground and spun her, my other hand grabbing the back of her head and weaving into her hair as I kissed her just as ferociously as Ivy had kissed me. Before I'd seen her, before I'd gotten out of the truck, I wanted to be... maybe not 'demure,' but conscious that what I did in this moment would have an impact on Tanaya, Gerty and Kara. I didn't want to make them feel like they were any less because I was coming home to my girls with a welcome like this, and they hadn't had a moment with me that could compare.

But there was no hiding my love for my partners.

Erica groaned into the kiss, her tongue teasing between my lips. She gripped the front of my shirt with one hand and her other reached back to mine on her ass, holding it in place. Then she pulled me back with her until she was braced right where I had been on the side of the truck, still keeping me locked into the kiss until finally, she let me pull away after getting her teeth on my lower lip and giving me a tug.

"Hubby," she gasped, panting lightly from the kiss.

"Wifey," I said, equally winded.

She grinned and then it turned into a playful smirk as she lifted the front of my shirt and looked down at my body. Erica blew out a breath, shaking her head. "Kyla was right, we need to feed you more. You're all skin and bones." She touched where the scars from the grenade shrapnel had once pocked my side.

I snorted and hugged her, and she squeezed me almost as tight as Ivy had with her legs. "Leo said everything is OK on the homefront?" I murmured.