Quaranteam Se Team Davies Ch 09

Quaranteam: Southeast - Team Davies

The Quaranteam Universe is the creation of CorruptingPower, used with permission.

Thanks to BreakTheBar, AgathonWrites, RonanJWilkerson, The_Licentious_Laureate, BronanTheLibrarian, OtterlyMindblowing, SilverRyden, BirchesLoveBooks, Reader737b, and the other QT Writers for their feedback and contributions with this work. Be sure to check out their work.

Chapter 9

All Characters depicted in sexual situations in this story are over the age of 18.

****Gainesville, FL - 0830, Saturday, August 8, 2020****

The week sped past in a blur of activity. Miles' team celebrated his promotion to Captain at dinner Tuesday night, with 'special' celebrations later that night after the kids were in bed. The next day, Miles, Debra, and Ava began putting together a larger crew for the 1

st

Tranche of activities under Operation Endure.

Miles received permission to add other members of his team to the operation in various support roles, and immediately recruited Sophia and Maddie, then delegated tasks for all four separate elements of Tranche 1 to each of the four women on his staff; Debra focused on identifying housing that could be quickly leveraged to host teams, Ava to assign teams to designated existing homes, Sophia to locate structures that could be retrofitted to support large team sizes, and Maddie to organize efforts to reclaim reusable goods from housing deemed unfit for teams.

The remainder of the week was a blur of activities, from locating possible workforce among the local survivors to isolating potential housing for new teams. They planned to send out survey units beginning the following week to catalog unoccupied housing for reclamation efforts.

Eventually, Saturday came. Miles was determined to try to spend time with the kids on weekends, whenever the pressures of life allowed. On this weekend, he was revisiting a task not yet completed, while beginning a few others.

He brought Sean, Ellie, and Trent out to his workshop in the Outhouse right after they'd finished clean-up chores from breakfast. Miles spent the first ten minutes or so going over safety rules for his shop. None of the children were to operate any of the power tools or workbenches without his direct supervision. He made the kids laugh when he demonstrated to them that he could only watch one thing at a time, making it clear that only one of them could be supervised at any given moment, so only one of them could operate a power tool at any given time unless more adults were present to supervise them.

Bringing out the marker that he and Sean worked on seemingly a lifetime ago, Miles held it up for the others to see. "Sean and I started this to commemorate Marcus, not quite two weeks ago." He ran his fingers over the wood, feeling the roughness of the incomplete sanding job. "We were making this because we'd been told there's a very long wait to get a proper headstone or grave marker during this pandemic. We plan to put this next to his mother's gravestone," he explained, catching Ellie's eyes to see that she was paying attention. "El, do you think you'd like to do something like this for your dad and Mary Beth?"

He watched as his niece appeared to weigh the matter in her thoughts. "Will their bodies be there?" she asked, looking a little pensive.

He shook his head. "I don't think so, no. I've been told that the local undertakers have been overwhelmed by how many people we lost recently. They have been discussing options, but it seems like they'll probably have to do something new and different, and folks won't be burying bodies one at a time like before."

Ellie looked a bit distressed at this information but was not deterred. "You and Sean are still going to put a marker up for Marcus, even though he won't be buried there, right?" Miles and Sean both nodded in response to her question. "Why?"

Miles thought for a moment before he started to answer, but stopped short as Sean spoke.

"We used to go there all the time to talk to mom. We liked to spend time there, just telling her about things we've been doing, or sharing memories with her. I want to be able to do that with Marcus. It doesn't matter to me that his body won't be there. It probably doesn't matter where I choose to talk to either of them, but it makes me feel better when I do it there."

Ellie weighed Sean's words for a moment, then nodded her head. "Yeah, I can see how that might work. Uncle Miles, if you'll help me, I'd very much like to create something similar for my sister and daddy. Can we put the markers next to Marcus and Aunt Beth?"

"Of course, sweetie. I think they would like that very much, and I know that your dad and sister would be happy to be remembered there as well."

"Okay," she responded, looking sad but resolved. "How do we begin?"

****

Miles got the three of them to the point where they were past the need to use any power tools, the only remaining tasks being to sand and varnish the markers. Applying the EDGE method he used to teach scouts, he explained how to sand and varnish the markers, demonstrated each step to them, and then stood by to guide and enable them, ready to explain anything they didn't understand. A little past noon, Penny and Jan came out, bringing plates of sandwiches, bags of chips, and drinks for them.

Telling the kids to go seal up the cans of varnish, Miles took the time to explain the importance of rinsing the varnish out of the brushes and cleaning up their work area before he let them go wash up for lunch. Checking to make sure the shop was properly cleaned and the tools put away, he noticed that his partners were still in the workshop with him. Penny moved over to examine the marker Ellie had been working on with Trent and Sean's assistance, her eyes tearing up as she read the inscription on each. Miles stepped up beside Penny and wrapped an arm around her, saying nothing, just being there for his partner.

"This is all I will get, isn't it?" she asked him with a tremble in her voice. "No body, no ashes, no coffin, nothing to bury." She looked angry, but helpless at the same time.

Miles rubbed her shoulders as he tried to comfort her. "You have all that you need, Pen. You have their memories, and those will always be there. The rest isn't really important. Just make sure that you keep those memories safe and share them often with your... with

our

little girl. She deserves to know all that you can tell her - that we can tell her - about her sister, and her daddy."

Penny buried her head in his shoulder, softly sobbing, as he rubbed her back. Eventually, she composed herself and looked up at him. "Thank you, Miles. Thank you for doing this, and for including all of the kids. Thank you for doing all that you can to make our team their new family," she finished, hugging him with all her strength.

"Ssh," he soothed her, kissing her forehead. "I'm doing this for all of us. You are just as responsible for picking up the pieces of our broken families and putting them together into something new. I should be thanking you." He hugged her tightly again, trying to put his feelings into the embrace.

Relaxing his grip on her, he blew a stray hair out of her face, asking with a forced laugh, "So, what fine lunch did you wonderful ladies bring out here for us hard-at-work souls?"

Picking up on his forced playfulness, Penny responded in kind. "Why, only the best, dear sir! We have the finest selection of ham and cheese sandwiches - Swiss, of course - as well as an assortment of PB&J, followed by a variety of chips and last - but not least - your tea," after which, she did a little curtsy.

Bowing to her in return, he exclaimed in a booming Cubmaster voice, "Ah! A lunch fit for royalty! Our thanks, Milady." This garnered a round of laughter and applause from the three children, while Jan tossed him a smile from across the room, and Penny softly slapped his chest, grinning. He leaned over slightly to kiss her again, this time patting her rump as he did so.

Jan strolled over to the pair of them with a happy look on her face to ask, "Got any of that for me, sailor?"

Miles reached over and brought Jan into the hug, kissing her as well, earning them all a chorus of oooohs from the kids.

****

Later that afternoon, all three of the markers were completed and set aside for the varnish to cure, so that a coat of resin could be applied afterward as a final weather barrier. Miles directed the cleanup efforts, restoring the shop to order before sending the kids inside to play. He was still puttering around, lost in private thoughts, when Penny and Jan came back out to join him, this time with his other partners in tow.

With a combination of curiosity and dread, he eyed them all before asking, "What's up?"

The ladies exchanged glances before Penny spoke up. "Well, we wanted to run a few things past you, sweetheart. But we really didn't want to have this conversation within earshot of the kids," she said, glancing back toward the house.

"That doesn't sound ominous at all," he replied with a slight frown, raising one eyebrow questioningly.

"Well, it's not, but... it's... it's complicated." Penny was wringing her hands now, making Miles a little more worried.

"Oh, for Pete's sake!" Jan interrupted, "Miles, we need to figure out how to house more kids. There. Was that hard?"

Penny shot her a stern glance, then softened her gaze as she turned back to him. Sophia and Maddie walked over to the storage closet nearby and grabbed a couple of folding chairs, while Debra and Ava went upstairs to grab a few chairs from around the table. Before too long, a circle of chairs was arranged in an open area of the shop so they could all sit down for the coming conversation.

Miles took the brief interruption to relax, knowing that there was going to be a good reason - perhaps several - behind Jan's statement. Understanding that his demeanor would directly affect theirs, he did his best to maintain a calm presence, attempting to conceal the initial panic that was running through his thoughts.

After they were all seated, Miles motioned to Penny to continue.

"We've... been talking about kids," she began, a bit hesitantly, "and one of the things that became clear pretty quickly was that we need to address the current bedroom situation before too much more time passes." She paused for a moment, gathering her thoughts before she went on. "One of the issues of pressing concern is the kids without families. There are still more than five thousand kids that don't have any surviving families in this area, and who knows if, or when, their extended family will be located and able - or willing - to take them in. I was thinking that we should maybe consider fostering a few of them, do our part to help out, while we encourage other teams to do the same."

Miles nodded, but patiently remained silent, suspecting that this was not all that the girls wanted to discuss. He was not wrong.

Now Ava spoke up. "Miles, I want to have your children. I've always wanted to have kids, and I see how you are with the kids now, so I want to have at least one child with you. More, if you're willing."

"Me too," chimed in Maddie.

"I feel that way as well, Miles," added Sophia.

Debra just shot him a grin, tilting her head a bit, one eyebrow raised slightly.

He looked at Jan, who just smiled and shrugged in a non-committal way. "I've already given birth to one child, Miles, but I'm not opposed to having more."

Turning back to Penny, he asked, "And what about you, Pen? Are you also considering having more children?"

She chewed on her lip for a moment, looking like she was struggling to answer before she finally just shrugged. "I don't know, Miles. I'm still young enough to have more children. I just don't know... I love the idea of this family getting huge, and I know we'll all find a way to make it work, but..." She paused for a moment, before sighing and finishing her thought, "I'm just not sure I need to bring another child into the mix when there are children already here who need families."

"Anyway, to get back to the original point... however we choose to add more children, it's going to happen." Her cheeks flushed as she pressed home the point. "So, we were thinking about options to increase our capacity here at our home. I know that - eventually - you'll probably move us into one of your revolutionary modular living units, but for now, you've got a really big house that, with some simple modifications, could host more kids. We'd like to explore those options with you."

"Okay, let's hear your ideas," Miles suggested. "Let's start with the quickest issue - if we foster a few more kids, what are your thoughts on that?"

Jan perked up at this point. "I was thinking, we could maybe look to double up beds per room for the kids. Plenty of siblings share a bedroom, plus, I've seen ways to redesign rooms that divide up the space so that each child gets their own space, instead of being crammed into one common room. I think we could easily convert one or two of the bedrooms to achieve that objective in a relatively short amount of time."

"Another thing to consider," Penny added, "is that you could reconvert the home theater into a large set of bedrooms in a similar fashion - easily dividing it into space for another four kids, if necessary."

"And, if you considered moving your home office out here," Ava suggested, her eyes shining with enthusiasm, "you could easily convert your current office into a nursery for newborns and infants."

"We could all move our 'home offices' out here," Maddie enthused, getting more invested in the hypothetical possibilities, "at least for the short term until we could build another, separate structure, or add onto this one - potentially for both home offices and homeschooling."

All the girls were practically bouncing in their seats at this point, clearly getting invested in the ideas they were presenting.

"Okay. So, let me suggest a few things," he began, looking around the room. "Jan, you said you'd seen some online ideas for how to transform a bedroom. If you could, please bird-dog those for me. I'll need details - plans, or at least drawings, as well as a list of materials to put something together."

As Jan nodded her head, he noticed Penny making notes in her little notepad he'd seen her always carrying. "Penny, do you want to look into the foster care issue - see what the current process is, and give me some idea what we're looking at? Maybe see if there are any kids from our extended scouting family to start with?" She nodded affirmatively, while again jotting notes in her little booklet.

"Maddie, Sophia, I've got the original as-builts and blueprints for this structure. Would you two like to take a look at them, and work up a proposal to modify the existing structure to better support remote work and school, as well as whatever other options you might choose to include? I'd ask you to include additional power requirements and might as well factor in how to activate the light-oil heat transfer system." Both of his former students nodded with enthusiasm at the challenge.

"Okay... what am I missing?" he asked.

Ava gave him a smoking hot 'come fuck me' look and answered deadpan, "You have to knock a few of us up."

**** Gainesville, FL - 2000, Saturday, August 8, 2020****

The women on the team decided that Miles would have a date night with his two Air Force partners that evening. After dinner, the three were sent off to the Outhouse, Penny, and Jan shooing him away when he'd tried to help clean the dishes.

Earlier in the week, Penny, Jan, Maddie, and Sophia moved some things over from their old homes - Penny's old sectional sofa unit was brought up to the second floor of the Outhouse, along with her coffee table, end tables, and lamps. Maddie added some flair by bringing her oversized beanbag chairs, Sophia brought her floor rugs, and Jan brought her 55" flat-panel TV.

Moving into this newly furnished area, Miles turned the lamps on at their lowest level of illumination and took a seat in the middle of the sectional unit, where he was joined by Debra and Ava, to his left and right. Ava grabbed the TV remote, and turned on a fireplace screensaver, while Debra brought up a smooth jazz playlist from her Spotify app and adjusted it to a low volume. Then both women snuggled up against him, each leaning over and resting their heads on his shoulder, contenting themselves for the moment by being in his arms.

Luxuriating for a while in just sitting there with a woman on each side, Miles finally broke the silence by inquiring, "What would you ladies like to do for our date night?"

Debra examined her fingernails while responding, "Jan told us what the three of you did on their date night," she replied, looking up at him hopefully, before continuing, "We were thinking maybe we could do something similar."

Miles shifted slightly as he recalled the events from the other night. "Are you referring to the questions or the... after?"

Ava smiled as she spoke up quickly, simply saying, "Yes," with a broad smile on her face and a gleam in her eyes.

Debra echoed her sentiments just as succinctly. "Both."

"I see," he chuckled softly, rubbing each of the girls on their shoulders. "Do you girls have question cards like they did, or...?"

"We thought we'd just start out asking you a few questions of our own," Ava purred demurely, leaning in to give him a quick kiss while Debra got up to fetch them each a bottle of Mike's black cherry hard lemonade.

As she accepted a bottle from Debra, Ava took a quick drink before continuing. "Let's start by filling in some gaps. How about you tell us about your family? Mom, dad, siblings. Where you went to high school, that sort of thing. We don't know much about that part of your life."

Miles took a long draw from his bottle as he considered his response. "Let's see... well, I was born down in Dunedin - that's down near Clearwater, about two hours or so south of here - and grew up there. My mom's name was Elizabeth. She died from cancer when I was about ten. She and my dad didn't have any other kids." He paused for a moment, a faraway look in his eyes as he stared at things only he could see.

"My Dad's name is Carl. Carl Jackson Davies," he added a bit more sharply. "He works for the FBI and is living in Reston, Virginia with his second wife, Victoria. He married Vicky when I was about fifteen - it was during the summer break between my sophomore and junior years in high school." His voice softened a bit as he continued. "Vicky brought with her a little girl from a previous relationship - her name is Andromeda. I didn't get to spend much time with Rommie - when I came up here to start college at UF, they picked up and moved to Virginia. Rommie started Kindergarten in Falls Church the same year I was a freshman in college. I never lived with Dad and his second family after I started college. As an ROTC midshipman, I'd spend breaks on remote attachments, or I'd hit Daytona. You girls know what those years are like." He grinned just a little as he reminisced. "Anyway, Rommie just graduated from the University of Virginia Law School back in 2018. I took the boys up to visit their grandparents and aunt to celebrate her graduation. Not sure what she's up to now - we don't speak very often these days."

Debra looked at him with one eyebrow cocked, as if she wasn't sure she'd heard him correctly. "Hold on - your dad's a Fed, and your stepsister is a law grad from UV. What does your stepmom do?"

Miles shrugged, shaking his head with a slightly annoyed look. "Last I heard, she works for the State Department. I haven't kept track, so I'm not sure."

"State Department, FBI, Old Dominion Law. And you - top of your class in Navy Nuclear Power School - no small feat, that - master's in engineering, some sort of Sustainability Whisperer to Ron DeSantis. Just what is it with your family, Miles? Overachievers, much?"