22

Welcome back, readers! As always, thanks to Corrupting Power for letting me in to create this story in the first place. All of the other QT writers helped with input, editing, and approving and there are getting to be a whole lot of us in this Universe. Check them out, rate their stories, comment on their work! We're all deeply vain and crave the feedback. Sit back, relax, and enjoy the show!

Chapter 21

September 18th, 2020

-o0o-

Issa was the first to wake up the morning after Grace's heartfelt reveal. All three of them had gone to bed, expecting Colin to join them soon but the emotion of the day had driven them all to sleep without him. She had woken up clinging to Jodi, snuggled behind her and one hand over the older woman, hand filled with a wonderful tit. She had teased Colin for waking her up in the exact same position, his excuse being that it was the perfect spot for his hand to rest instead of him being a randy bastard. It was mildly annoying to realize that he was 100% right even as she vowed to never admit that to him. The sliding door to the balcony had been left open and she found him asleep on the couch just inside, huddled with no blanket and obviously dreaming restlessly. She sighed. From all that she had gotten to know of him over the past few months, *of course* he had acted his ass off to make sure that Grace was ok.

Self sacrificing idiot.

He was on his side, leaving enough space for her to sit in front of him as she studied his face. It wasn't carrying an especially peaceful expression even in sleep, but she still felt that tugging at her heartstrings. Before this all of her emotional attachments had been to jocks even when she knew that that kind of guy was likely to leave her heartbroken. Colin was getting into the kind of shape that she appreciated, but his general blend of sarcasm and nerdy quietness was a change of pace that left her surprised at how much she craved coming home to see him. Grace was like a sister that she only occasionally lusted after but Colin was definitely someone she could see getting old and wrinkly with. That was *weird* for a woman who had never really planned more than a year or two ahead at best.

His breathing slowed more and his eyes stopped roving behind their lids as she stroked the tousled hair out of his face. She and Grace both felt emotionally calmer in his presence and she was guessing that he got the same benefit from them. The sun was barely up as Colin woke up and lifted his head with a grunted sound. Issa gave a half smile. It was the exact same noise every time he got pulled out of his slumber. He blinked and looked up at her, the arm behind her reflexively moving around her. He made a contented noise as she leaned against him. "I see that you're smart enough to hide that you're freaking out, but too dumb to come to bed and get some comfort for yourself."

Colin pushed his face into her knee. "Just... just don't tell Grace. I ~"

Issa silenced him and rolled her eyes. "I kept her secret, you goob, I'm not going to go and blabber about yours." Her tone quickly became as gentle as the way she was tracing her fingers over the angles of his face.. "No one expects you to be a rock all the time. We know you're hurting. We know that you miss... *them.*"

He winced like she had slapped him, still not meeting her eyes. "See, you can't even say their names."

She took his chin in one hand and tilted his face up to look at her. "*Beth* and *Raina* wouldn't want you to hurt." Issa said fiercely. "From what you've told me, Raina might be a bit smug knowing that she could still have this effect from the great beyond, but she would never have expected you to keep your life from moving forward just because you haven't crossed some... some arbitrary threshold of misery!"

Colin set his jaw stubbornly. She knew that he was holding in his emotions, trying not to break down in front of her. She also knew that this probably wasn't the moment to get him to crack and let it out. Getting him to sit up, she brushed the increasingly shaggy hair out of his face. "We need to get this trimmed up. I like it longer on you, but you're getting little wispy curls on the sides."

He closed his eyes and took a deep breath as she played with his hair. Both of them knew that she was giving him the moment he needed. They also both knew that once an emotional break happened, it would be all the worse the longer he kept on holding it all in. Issa kissed him softly as she turned on the couch to end up in his lap. At heart, she was simple. She had been told over and over that she wore her heart on her sleeve. But that wasn't really it. She had no patience for emotions. In others they were inconvenient. In herself they were *annoying.* A weakness. Her mother was exactly the same way, much to her father's amusement.

But dealing with the raw emotions of others was never her strong point. She had been with more than a few flings over the years. Men and women both, and she had never let emotion get in her way of pursuing a good time. Even when she flirted or showed a little skin to get the job done on a case she certainly enjoyed herself. But after imprinting, there was something about Colin's hazel eyes on her that made all the other attention that she enjoyed pale in comparison. Even knowing that it was probably some effect of Quaranteam wasn't enough to make the butterflies in her stomach stop doing flips.

It wasn't the best way to deal with her own turmoil but Issa couldn't pretend much longer that she wasn't catching the feels for her partner. She deepened the kiss, slipping him some tongue and reaching between them. His morning wood was easy enough to find and she gripped him firmly. His hum of pleasure was easy enough to decode. Biting his lip she slid down onto the floor, leaving him looming pleasantly above her. He spoke up as she tugged off his boxers. "You know you don't have to..."

Running her thumb under the head of his cock she raised an eyebrow. "This is a lot more fun now that I'm guaranteed a payoff in the end. Just shut up and let me show you that you're loved around here."

He made a very interesting face as she took him between her lips. "Did you just say lov-?!"

Issa didn't have a lot of time before the other two would be awake so she went to work on him. Fast and sloppy was the way to go today. It wasn't long at all before she felt him flex against her tongue and her own awareness whited out for a moment, orgasm crashing along every nerve ending and leaving her feeling complete. Swallowing the last bits of him she looked up with a slightly dazed grin. "Yes, I'm pretty sure that you heard me right."

Pulling her up, Colin held her. A soft sob came out of him, but only one. Clinging to her, Issa stroking his hair until he found his voice again. "I love you too, Issa."

-o0o-

Jodi was the first out the door for the day. She was driving with a medical team into the city to begin sorting through the children who were being collected at the Gonzaga campus. Hundreds were there already and the testing for DuoHalo had shown that a large number of them were carriers. Within the next few days it was all but certain that the only adults who would be able to directly interact with them were the ones who were on Teams already. There was a decent chance that she would be spending two days at a time there with a single day off at home. There had been a pleased smile when she said 'home' at least.

Issa was next. She was still riding the high of their morning's encounter. By the time that Grace was out the door, Colin had logged in to check for emails. Kissing her goodbye he watched the door close behind her. Leaning back with a sigh he stared at the ceiling. The turmoil that seemed to be lapping at the shores of his soul faded at least a little with his partners around him. Each one made things more... complete. Quieted the voices of his past a little bit each. But even as he tried to move on there was some part of him that was rising up still. Some part that wanted him to remember a person that he knew didn't deserve another moment of his life.

Hayes.

Now that he was alone he could practically hear her voice. He remembered the not-so-gentle way she touched him. And even as it made him want a shower it was like a drive to go out and find her again. She had been demented and violent but he would swear now that she *should* be there with him while at the exact same moment knowing that it had been worth it to walk through broken glass to escape her. Colin didn't like it. Especially knowing that it might not just be good old fashioned trauma. The Quaranteam serum had linked them for however brief a time. How much of that link was still there?

He shook his head and turned his attention back to his messages. He had gone to college and never taken a single course that would actually help him understand any portion of the work that had gone into the whole thing. Whatever tricks of biochemistry were happening in his veins were going to move at the same speed regardless of his understanding. It did make him happy that he didn't have to deal with making it at least.

The usual pile up of incoming questions and data distracted him quickly enough in any case. The waves of deaths were leveling off in line with one of the more dire predictions, but not the overall worst case scenario. One of his three drone crews was being moved and retasked to train another group somewhere out on the East Coast. General Quinn wanted a full accounting of the number of surviving 11 and unders without guardians. Three different proposals for turning the burned section of the city into housing. Two were fairly normal plans for neighborhoods. The third was for some kind of self-sustained arcology where the residents would never have to leave or even own a car.

Overall, it was a day where he didn't actually need to go into his little office. But, with the sun shining and still feeling physically rejuvenated after partnering with Jodi, he decided to go and walk down there anyway. In addition to all his aches and pains he felt like he had far too much energy to sit still. Almost caffeinated but without the jitteriness. Throwing on a clean shirt and a tie he stepped out. The autumn sun was bright and warm and he reveled just a bit in listening to the sounds of the base without the ringing that had been plaguing him since the convent. How the hell people lived with that, he had no idea.

As he walked he watched the Air Force personnel going about their days. It wasn't the normal routine he would have expected pre-DuoHalo. The numbers were lower, the gender split was all messed up. He honestly wondered what was going to happen with the generation that had just lost parents and older siblings. While the current crop of adults was living a strange ratio that worked out because of the number of men who died, the kids of today weren't dying like that. They would still be close to a 50/50 split. Polygamy would be the way of the world as long as the vaccine was being used but he just didn't see how the demographics were going to work after that.

Pushing away the problem of his mind fixating on problems he couldn't solve was hard, but he had managed it by the time he arrived at his office. The small team of data analysts and drone pilots would be arriving soon. He had pushed their hours away from a 9 to 5 grind realizing that the drones would be especially useful around nightfall to track the number of lights that came on each evening. Swiping his badge and entering he did his best to show a confident face. Settling in at his desk, he brought up the latest data. Even though he had told his people to stay home the day before more than half of them had shown up and kept working anyway. Honestly if he hadn't been unconscious he would probably have forced himself to be there with them.

One of the drone crews had been there and there were a series of pictures of the burn scar along the north side of the city. The angle was just different enough from what Colin had seen before in the drone views that it made him pause. He knew the area that had been burned right on the edge. With a sick feeling he scrolled through the pictures. He knew he needed to check, even as he knew what he would find.

Calling Issa, Colin haltingly asked if she could try to get a car to get them off base.

-o0o-

It took almost an hour, along with a promise of not getting out to three separate officers, to get a car and permission to head into town. Colin had managed to avoid saying exactly what it was that he was heading out to look for, which he took as a point of pride. Right up until he found that Issa had pulled Grace out from her tasks as well. He wasn't happy about dragging either of them along but they made it quite clear that their presence was the only reason he was getting off base at all.

The ride was quick due to the fact that the roads were abandoned. 3 checkpoints later and they were heading up the arterials with only a few burned out wrecks for company. Even those had been pushed off to the side by the patrols. The only other working vehicles that they saw were a procession of commandeered panel trucks heading west. Colin quickly realized that they were almost certainly bringing more bodies out to the mass graves.

The silence of the drive was complete after the first few miles and Grace and Issa gave up on trying to get Colin to talk. By the time that they were nearing his destination? It felt almost like sacrilege to speak up. Colin let out a breath as his destination came into view. The entrance to the cemetery was on the west side, green and untouched. But over the low wall the trio could see the burned out skeletons of the massive pines that filled the grounds just inside. They were only able to drive a short way before the fallen trunks blocked all the available paths for the car.

Colin seemed dazed as he got out. His lovers followed, looking around at the charred remains of the place and realized that this was where the firefighters had stopped the blaze. Grace quietly explained just why Colin was here as they followed him. He didn't shrug off their comfort so much as he simply didn't register it. He slowly shuffled through the ashes. His eyes moved from one tombstone to the next as he made his way around debris and cracked memorials. He knew the path. God help him, he felt like he was following it in his nightmares.

His goal was on the eastern end of the cemetery. The tiny little pond that had been filled with irises had evaporated in the heat. The statue of St Francis shattered and crumbled. On the low rise above, the mausoleum full of generations of various vaults and remains had collapsed completely. He remembered the service for his dad in the chapel on the first floor. The houses that had stood around the fenced off edges nearby were no more than husks. Chimneys were only accusing fingers pointing up at an uncaring September sky, the light breeze pushing veils of ash to hide the destruction.

Looking at all of that, taking it all in was just a distraction. He knew what he was about to find. The grass here had been completely scorched away. Bare earth stretched out, cracked and parched. One of the trees by the pond had come down across the graves that he was looking for. Colin fell to his knees. The branches of the tree were gnarled and shattered, blackened remnants crushing what had been here before. He stared into the tangle helplessly. He knew what was down there. And it didn't feel right leaving it for someone else to clear.

His hand reached out to start pulling the charred mess away. Issa's gentle grip held him firmly. Grace was on his other arm in the blink of an eye. Some piece of him gave way with a physical sensation next to his heart, letting him breathe again. Instead of the grief or despair that he had expected there was only a hollow place in his chest. It almost seemed like a blessing. In the wake of that pain, their whispered words meant nothing. They were simply sounds flowing over and around him, not anything that could be directed at him. The sun was at its height, shadows banished into pools of ink that stained ground already the same color as the branches he stared into.

It was a long time before they could draw him away.

-o0o-

Grace had Colin in the back seat as they drove back to the base. He didn't say a word as he stared out the window, but he clung to her anytime she shifted. He didn't speak because he couldn't get himself together. She and Issa didn't speak because there was nothing they could think of to bring him out of that mood and they were more than a little scared to try. Grace was waiting for him to cry, to rage, to do *something* other than sit motionlessly and squeeze her hand.

Returning to the base they managed to get him up the stairs and sitting on the couch. She exchanged a glance with Issa. It was like he was catatonic. She checked him over, finding his pulse fast (but not fast enough to call an ambulance) and pupils reacting normally. Her breakfast was shifting uneasily from the stress. There wasn't anything *physically* wrong with him. And she didn't know how to fix anything that was wrong with his emotions. She was sitting next to him as his gaze fixed on a point on the wall. Issa had texted Jodi to ask for advice but the newest member of the family hadn't answered yet. Coming back with a glass of water, Issa settled on the opposite side of him from Grace.

Holding a hushed conversation about what the hell they should do got them nowhere. Issa finally turned on something mindless about vampires as they waited for Jodi to get back to them. As the minutes stretched painfully slowly both Issa and Grace jumped as Colin took in a deep breath and blinked rapidly. Grace took his face in both hands and watched him as he registered where they were. "Hey! Hey hey hey, it's alright. We're here. You're alright..."

He locked eyes with her and she could tell that he was coming back from wherever the last few hours had taken him. He held one of her hands against his cheek and Issa wrapped her arms around him from behind. Being surrounded by them seemed to get his mind back in order. He quietly spoke up in a hoarse voice for the first time since the cemetery. "I- I'm ok?"

Grace must have had some worry on her face as he cleared his throat and got the question out of his reply. "I'm OK. You're both here... I'm ok."

They stayed there for hours and he let them hold him. Grace was still worried but he didn't slip back into the fugue that had overcome him. Eventually he offered to get up and make them all some snacks and Issa went to the kitchen with him as he even tried to crack some jokes with her. Grace went to their second bedroom which had simply been converted into a little office since they were all sharing a bed anyway.

Opening her laptop she did her best to break through her own worries and send an intranet email that probably should have been sent long ago.

-o0o-

September 26th, 2020

One of Jodi's infrequent days off finally matched the rest of the team's free time. They were lazing around the apartment during a rainy Saturday morning discussing what to do among the very limited entertainments that the base had to offer as all three women leaned on Colin. Their combined nearness did a lot to help banish the melancholy that he had been suffering through. Focusing on Grace's condition made him try to hide the remainder. Distance running had been traded for walking every other morning with her. Issa traded between sprints and weight training. Ever since Jodi had arrived he had stepped up a bit, though not to a new level, able to almost keep up with his partners in physical pursuits as he kept on managing to lose the weight that he had collected through the last ten years or so of benign neglect. He had also continued to feel his libido ramp up to the point where Grace, Jodi, and Issa were all rotating through far more frequently than they needed.