& Epilogue

Chapter 9

Sunday Morning.

Tabitha awoke to the now familiar sound of the music of the band from the bar scene in "Star Wars." Groggily, she opened her eyes and reached for her phone on the night stand next to the bed. She pushed the answer button and held it to her ear, barely aware of what she was doing. "Hello," she said sleepily.

"Hey, Tabitha. It's Simon," said the voice from the other end.

"Si? What the fuck? What time is it?"

"A little after eight. Were you still asleep?"

"What's up, Simon?"

"Well, if you two are just getting up, probably Dave's dick."

Tabitha reached under the covers and found her brother's bare cock engorged with blood. as it was nearly every morning. As she squeezed it, he woke and let out a yelp. She blew him a kiss. "Yeah," she said slowly. "I'll take care of that. What do you want, Si?"

"Well, Mom, uh, Lisa wanted me to ask you to come over for dinner today."

"I don't think that that would be a good idea."

"It's okay, Tabitha. It's not about what went on between you and me. She wants to see you to ask a few questions."

"Si, I'm with Dave now. I don't think it would be right."

"Let me talk to him," said Dave. Tabitha handed him her phone. "Simon, this is Dave. Look, man. You're going to have to give up. She's not going to be with you anymore."

"It's not like that, Dave. I'm not trying to get her back. Mom, uh, Lisa, just wants to talk with you guys. Can you come?"

"You mean both of us?"

"Yeah. Of course. We don't want to break you two up."

"Fuck! Did you tell her about us?"

"Well, yeah. I had to. You know what your parents rule is about secrets. 'No secrets between lovers.' But it's all good, man. She won't do anything."

"Fuck," said Dave looking at Tabitha. "He fucking told his mom."

"Can you guys just come to dinner?" said Simon. "Be here at two and we'll eat around two-thirty. Oh. And if she hasn't already, have Tabitha tell you what I told her last night about my mom and dad and how they got together. It's that no secrets thing again, and we definitely don't mind if both of you know. See you around two?" he asked.

"Alright, Simon," Dave said after some thought. "We'll be there." He hung up the phone and handed it back to his sister. "He fucking told his mom. We'll have to go. Maybe we can get her to keep quiet. If not, we're in for a lot of trouble."

"I'm sure it will be okay, love. Simon promised me that he wouldn't use the information to hurt us."

"I guess you had to tell him. That would have been the only way that you could get him to understand why you were breaking up. I wish you had told me, though."

"I'm sorry. I didn't think about it in the midst of getting to fuck you last night in the living room and then again in here after we got in bed. I wasn't trying to keep it a secret from you."

"Speaking of secrets, Simon said to have you tell me about what he told you last night. Something about his parents?"

"Oh, yeah. Okay, I'll tell you that later over breakfast. Right now, I think there is some morning wood I need to take care of?"

"That shrunk while I was talking to Simon on the phone."

"Well, I can take care of that, too," she said with a wry smile.

"Bathroom first, I think."

"Yeah, you're probably right. You go first then I'll go after you get out. No more wetting the bed."

"I wouldn't say that," said Dave. You made it pretty wet last night."

"That's different. It wasn't piss," she said with a slight blush. "Now, go and get back so I can."

Dave left the room not bothering with clothes and went to the bathroom. After flushing and washing his hands, he was just exiting it and stepped into the hall nearly running into his father. "Shit. Sorry, Dad. How are you this morning?"

Jim Moore looked at his son and without a word raised his hand back and drew it across his face in a hard slap that was heard throughout the house.

Tabitha had stretched and closed her eyes while thinking about the events of the night before with a smile on her face. When she heard the slap, her eyes popped open and she rushed out of the room and between the two men.

"Stop it, Dad," she cried stepping in front of her brother.

Jim took a look at his children, both standing before him naked. "Are you two trying to celebrate Nude Day?" he asked. "You're a bit late. It was last month."

"There's a nude day?" asked Tabitha.

"It's on the fourteenth of July," her father answered.

"Why didn't we celebrate that?"

"You weren't eighteen yet," he answered.

"Oh. Anyway, we both slept naked and he didn't bother getting dressed to go to the bathroom," she said. "I didn't have time since you were hitting the love of my life."

"He deserves a lot more than the slap I gave him," Jim said his anger rekindling.

"I guess Mom told you about the kidnapping," said Dave.

"You're fucking right she did. I was all for waking you up and beating the shit out of you in the middle of the night when she told me. What the FUCK were you thinking?"

"That's exactly what he was thinking about, Dad," Tabitha said calmly so that it might ease the tension in the air. "Fucking. But it's over and done with now. Let it go. Please. Mom hit him last night and you've hit him this morning. Let that be the end of it" she begged. "Please?"

Jim looked at his children again and thought about it. " You hurt her or do anything like that again," he said as he raised his fist at his son, "and you won't have to worry about the cops taking you to jail. Understand me?"

"Yes, sir. And I'll never hurt her. I love her. If I would even think of hurting her, I would hand you the loaded weapon to kill me with myself."

Tabitha breathed a sigh of relief. She threw her arms around her brother and pulled him in for a kiss. "I've still got to go," she said. "I think that that just killed the mood for both of us. Let's get dressed and have some breakfast."

"Okay," said Dave. "But, I'll just put on a robe. After breakfast, I could use a shower."

"Sounds like a good idea. I'll join you, but no fucking in the shower this morning."

"Okay."

Sunday Afternoon.

Tabitha sat on the left corner of the three-seat couch in the family room of the Brooks home. Dave was right next to her, leaving room for two more people, nervously holding her hand. He hadn't been around Simon very much and had never met his mother before. Now, here he was in their house where he thought he was going to have to try to convince the thirty-two-year-old mother not to turn them in for incest. Simon sat across from them in the love seat as they waited for Lisa to finish something in the kitchen and join them.

"You look nervous, Dave. Relax. Everything is alright," Simon said.

"So you say," answered Dave. "But how do I know that I can trust you or your mom? I don't really know you very well and I've never even met her."

"Trust Tabitha's trust of me."

"I wasn't expecting you to tell your mom what I said last night," Tabitha replied. "I'm a little unsure of things myself at the moment."

"Okay. That's finished," said Lisa as she entered the room. "Dinner should be done by two forty-five. Sorry it's a little late."

"I'm sure it's fine, Mrs. Brooks," Tabitha said.

"Please call me Lisa. We are all on the same level, now." She looked at her guests and her eyebrows raised. "Dave! What happened to your cheek? Tabitha, have you slapped him for something already?"

"That's not my handprint," she said holding her hand to his face and gently rubbing it. "See? Much bigger than mine."

"Then who's is it?"

"It's my dad's," Dave said.

"What did he do that for? Don't tell me he found out that you are fucking your sister and got mad."

"No. He's known about that since the first time we fucked on Friday night. He's okay with that. He's pretty much used to such ideas because of Uncle Bill and Aunt Sue.

"That's the couple you told me about, Si dear?"

"Yes, love bunny. They're their mother's brother and sister."

"I see. So why the slap?"

"Long story, ma'am."

"Now didn't I just say that we are all on the same level? I'm not ma'am to my friends. And I do want us all to be friends. Anyway, we have some time. You can trust me."

"I think we'll have to hold that back for the time being, Mrs.- Lisa," said Tabitha.

"Alright," she answered. "Then I guess I should move on to the reason I asked you here today."

"We're not going to change our minds about our relationship," Dave chipped in.

"Oh. I never intended for you to think that I would try," she replied. "No, I think that you two look great together and I'm glad you are in love with each other. It makes it easier for what I'm going to talk about and ask. I know Simon told you about my story, Tabitha, but did you have a chance to tell Dave?"

"Yeah. I told him this morning after breakfast while we were getting cleaned up. It was a way to keep us from getting too handy in the shower." Her face blushed at what she had just admitted.

"Good. Well, I'm sure Simon told you everything that he knew, but he didn't know everything. So, let me go over some of it again.

"As you know, I was only thirteen when Simon was born. My husband, Mike, was a friend of my brother's. His name is Paul. They did everything together, and I was usually tagging along. This went on for a few years. They were both three years older than me, but I loved being with them. I was totally in love with Mike and I was very close to my brother. We didn't have the usual fights that you hear about between siblings in most families. When Mike expressed his interest in me, Paul wasn't against it, but he told him that I couldn't date until I turned sixteen. Still, since I was following them everywhere, there were times when Mike would sneak in a kiss or two with me behind Paul's back. I think he knew that we did so, but he kept quiet about it.

"I loved what was happening and went to bed each night giving my pillow a good night kiss pretending it was Mike. Then came the time that he asked me to sneak out with him to go to the drive-in.

"There was nothing I wanted to do more then be with him at a movie. I was so much in love that I couldn't have said no to him for anything.

"Of course, they had taught about sex in the schools, but not everything. It all seemed very mechanical. Tab A fits into slot B and the needle pushes the fluid out of it into the target area. The guy has these little bugs called sperm and they try to swim upstream like salmon in a woman's vagina looking for some egg to fertilize and then a baby develops and is born. So, of course, I knew what sex was.

"On that Friday night, I let my parents think that I was spending the night with my best friend, Amanda, and she covered for me. She had a bunch of girls over spending the night sleeping in the tent outside her house. We thought if one girl was missing, it wouldn't be noticed because of all the others. I started the evening there and then snuck out for the drive-in and came back there afterwards. It was a fantastic night, and we actually watched the first movie. Then during the second, we decided to not watch. I won't give you the details, but you know what happened.

"Paul didn't know that we went to the drive-in that night. If he had, he probably would have stopped us from going or at least have gone along and kept things from going too far. It was a month and a half later when I finally had to tell my parents that I was pregnant. The shit hit the fan real fast. They were going to send me to a boarding school after having an abortion and that would be the end of it. They were also going to see to it that the boy involved would be jailed. I wouldn't tell them who it was, though, and no amount of interrogation was getting it out of me. We went around the dining room table a few times, me staying just out of reach of my father as he yelled at me trying to get me to tell who it was and calling me names like 'slut' and 'whore.' He even called me a bitch a couple of times. Finally, I had enough and a made a run for it. I got out the back door and ran for the woods. Once I was sure that I had lost him, I made my way to Mike's house. Paul was away for some band thing, or he would have been able to tell them where I would go, but they didn't think to call him. Still, it was risky to go there because they knew that I hung out with Paul and Mike all the time.

"So, I waited until dark to make my appearance. I snuck in through the back door and made my way to his room as quietly as I could. He wasn't in his room and I found I had to wait. I couldn't risk showing my face elsewhere in the house in case my parents were there. I was scared to death about what Mike's parents would do, but I had nowhere else to go. So, I hid until Mike finally came into his room.

"He had been out looking for me because my parents had come by and said that I had ran away. They didn't say why because they were trying to not let anyone know so that they wouldn't look bad. I hadn't told Mike about the baby yet, but I had to tell him then so that he understood why I ran. One of the main things for me was that I wasn't going to let my parents kill my baby and he agreed. He told me then that he had planned to marry me as soon as we could and he even got down on one knee to ask me if I would. Of course, I said yes.

"Then he went to talk to his mom. He thought it would be easier to talk to her and let her tell his dad. I stayed in his room, but by then, I really need to go to the bathroom. I almost got caught sneaking back into his room by his dad, but just then, his mom called to him and he went to see what she needed.

"They let me spend the night, though they made me sleep in the family room and Mrs. Brooks spent the night with me. The next day, they told me what was going to happen. They were going to go talk to my parents and set up a kind of deal that would allow me to keep the baby and teach me a lesson at the same time. I didn't know what they had in mind, but if it meant that my baby wasn't going to be killed, I was all for it.

"While they were gone, Mike told me what he had done the night before while talking to his dad. They knew it was safe to leave the two of us alone because Mr. Brooks had made Mike promise to not have sex with me until everything was done. That's when I learned about the experiment that he had cooked up and talked his dad into. I was so happy that we were going to get to be together I would have laid right down there in the middle of the family room and let him make love to me all over again if he hadn't promised his dad not to. I told him I would honor that promise as well and we waited for his parents to get back.

"When they did, they had my suitcase with them. When I learned what my parents had said, I was flabbergasted. I couldn't believe that they would do that to me. I couldn't believe that they didn't care for me anymore than they would a family pet. It wasn't a hard decision to make at that point. I thought that at least Paul would still try to keep in contact and be friends with Mike, but the next time I saw him, he said that he didn't know me and that he didn't have a sister. All my classmates and friends turned their backs on me, too. Even my best friend, Amanda, wouldn't talk to me. In less than two months, I had lost everything except the two most important things to my life. I still had Mike, and my baby was going to be born.

"The wedding was quick. Only our parents were there. No bridesmaid or best man. No fancy dresses or tuxes. No flowers. No reception. And nobody else other than the judge, who had made it possible as a favor to Mr. Brooks, and his daughter. His name was Stevenson and he was a friend of the Brooks who had helped him with campaign money. Just like that, we were married. But there was no honeymoon. We went to our new apartment and met the lady who was going to help teach me to care for a child and at the same time watch the two of us. She was a spy for Mike's dad. If we stepped out of line for anything before I turned eighteen, it could all go away.

"It wasn't easy those first years. I still had five years before I could trust that I wouldn't be torn from the man I loved or my baby taken away. I didn't trust Mr. Brooks, but I loved Mike and we made it through as best as we could. It was lonely, but I can say that I was happy. Mike was wonderful. He made us as comfortable as he could with what little he made from his job at one of his dad's company. I am here to tell you that it was all worth it.

"There are things that I would have done differently if I could. I would have waited until I was older to go on that date with Mike. I'm sure he would have waited for me to turn sixteen, but we can't change the past. It would have been nice to have friends to talk to when things weren't going very well, too. In school, I was an outcast. No one was allowed to talk with me. I sat alone in the lunch room, and projects that required a partner I was allowed to do on my own. The teachers looked down on me just as much as the kids. It was a very lonely time.

"I think you are lucky. Your parents won't abandon you and I want you to know that I will be here for you to talk to if you need to, but as your friend. You need to try to keep the friends you have because you might need them some day.

"When Mike died, there was no one there to provide me comfort. No shoulder to cry on. His parents blamed me for his accident and they cut off all ties with me and Simon. Once again, it was lonely. I missed Mike so much it hurt. He was such a good man. A wonderful provider, husband, and father. And he was good in bed, too.

"I didn't think that I would ever feel that again after his death. Oh, there was the desire and I found a way to get relief, but the passion and the love and the warmth of a man's body filling mine was no more, and I thought that it was gone forever. I never thought I would get it back."

"You mean that you have it back?" asked Tabitha.

"Yes. Thanks to you, I got it back last night."

"What I'd do?"

"You brought Simon home early."

"Wait. You mean that you and Simon... The two of you are fucking?"

"Look at the way the four of us are sitting. You and Dave are on a three-person couch and there is room for two more people to sit there. Simon and I are sharing a loveseat made for two, and there is still room for at least half a person. I thought you might have figured it out when he called me 'love bunny.'"

"And this happened because I brought him home early?"

"Yes."

"There's got to be more to it than that."

"Well, yes. But it's rather embarrassing."

"It's still funny as hell, sweetie," Simon said.

"I definitely hear a story in that," said Dave. "And I would like to hear it, but first, I want you to know that my admiration of you for the hardships you have endured has risen significantly as has my trust of you. You have shared with us some really personal stuff and trusted us with a really big secret. So, before you tell this story, I want you to know what it was that we didn't want to share." he paused before going on, looking at Tabitha for her okay. Once she nodded her agreement, he continued. "I was the one who kidnapped Tabitha."

"Really?" asked Lisa.

"I realized it the first day," Tabitha said. "I would know those hands, those footsteps, and even his smell rather I was blindfolded or not."

"So, you knew all along?" Simon asked.

"Well, not at first," she replied. "When it first happened, I was pretty scared. I woke up and didn't know what was going on. But the moment that he got close enough to me to touch me, I knew, and I was able to calm down. I knew that he wouldn't hurt me, so I thought I would just enjoy it."

"Why?" Simon asked turning to Dave.

"I thought the two of you were already fucking," he replied. I thought there was no way that she would want me and I just had to know what it was like to be with her even if it was just once. When I found out that she was still a virgin, I couldn't go through with it. A person's first time shouldn't be some fucked up ordeal where they are tied up and blindfolded. So, I decided to not do anything with her and resigned myself to never knowing what it was like to show her my love for her like that."