Due to circumstances beyond her control, it became necessary for Caitlin, now twenty-four, to return to live at home. There were offers of bridge money from her mother and dad, but the idea of settling back into her old room, and falling back into old familial routines was appealing. Caitlin was at a crossroads professionally, and had been saving hard for her own condo downtown. She would appreciate a holiday from the bills right now. There was more. A few months earlier, Caitlin had acted on a long-smouldering urge, and now she was carrying her dad's baby. Caitlin's future was very much in flux.
When mom was home, Caitlin and her dad Christian assumed their respective roles. Together the family observed some traditions, where Allie, Caitlin's mom, organized meals (often that meant ordering in), and tried to keep track of Christian's and now also Caitlin's work and social lives, balanced, or perhaps measured or compared against her own. For some reason, Allie seemed increasingly non-committal when it came to remembering the details. Caitlin had suspected that she had long checked-out of caring deeply about the goings-on at home, and in fact wondered if there was another life she had been leading, a separate life, maybe a man, maybe even a family, apart from the address she shared with Caitlin and Christian.
Caitlin heard her mom and dad having sex a couple of times, but Mom's moans seemed dutiful and rapid, more than passionate and loving. Dad made no sound at all, save the slapping of his thighs against Mom's butt (probably) in the moments leading to his ejaculating. Sex seemed brief, Caitlin thought. Any foreplay and oral sex a distant memory to be sure. Hearing them together did not make Caitlin wet, nor did it make her feel uncomfortable. She just felt an occasional irrational jealous twinge. Not because she was afraid of losing her new lover back to Mom, but because she felt she was the one Dad actually wanted. She was carrying his baby, and in that was he was bound to nourish her and her alone with his cum. In her heart Caitlin knew that although the marriage had become stale, Dad needed to keep up the ruse. And so did Caitlin, for as long as she could.