Note: This story was dynamically reformatted for online reading convenience. OK everyone, here's what up. * This is not a stroke story, though it does get closer at the end of the chapter. If you don't like that, stop reading. * This story concentrates on the feelings of the main character. If you don't like that, stop reading. * All descriptions in this story are completely made up, none of it is real. If you want a confession, stop reading. * I like stories where the right people end up together at the end. If you want heartache and pain, stop reading. If you are still here, I hope you enjoy. But remember all rights are reserved for the author who claims exclusive use. Permission to repost or print for profit is not granted. Please contact the author with any questions. Always With Me Chapter 9: Requiem for a Nightmare, Living a Dream By Secret DC Guy (mf, MF, rom, preg, d/s, voyeur, ws) * * * I wouldn't presume to say that Jenny and I had a normal college experience. We did pretty much all of the same things that other kids did, but unlike them, we knew we had someone to come home to at the end of the day-at least metaphorically. True to his word, Dr. Amos Martin found rooms on the same floor of the freshman residence hall for us. He also served as a good mentor to us our first year. Though he was not married and stressed that he had no frame of reference as to what we were going through, he was always there to listen to our struggles. Several times he even greased the wheels of the Cap U. administration to help us whenever our relationship held us back. Our first struggle had to do with academics in general. Since I was 10 years old, I had wanted to be an engineer, as Amos Jones had suggested. However, I couldn't decide whether I wanted to be a civil engineer or study materials engineering. When I asked the dean of the school of architecture and engineering about a double major, she said that my tenuous status at the time of admission made the department uncomfortable. She wasn't convinced I could even finish my freshman year. However, a week later I was back in her office listening to how respectable the Jones family was and that if they had faith in me, she would too. However, she also told me that I had better not screw it up. Jenny had a bit harder of a time. She wanted to major in both architecture and business administration, which would require her to study in two different schools. While the architecture and engineering dean was enthusiastic about it, even talking about how they wished they could have a joint program, the dean of the business school was only partially receptive. He was a man that made even Amos Jones look ancient. He was known for being strict in how he ran the programs and old fashioned when it came to the role of women in business. To him they should be secretaries at best. However, he was willing to let Jenny double major-for a price. He told her that she needed to sleep with him. When she came to my room crying that night, I immediately called Dr. Martin. Within a week the business dean had retired for medical reasons. The other problem we ran into arose because of Jenny's cheerleading. The shooting guard for the basketball team was Vladimir Ublyudok, and he made no secret about his feelings for Jenny. Though not the best player, he did think that he had the right to date any woman he wanted. Regularly, he told her that she needed to "get rid of nerd" and come to bed with him. Once, he even tried to feel her up after a game. Like many times in our lives though, the least expected person came to our rescue. Kwame Fitzpatrick was the center for the basketball team and a true giant. He was seven foot two inches and built with muscles like I'd never seen. The downside to him was that he seemed the picture of a dumb jock. Regardless, he was very protective of Jenny, always getting between her and Ublyudok. The Russian was persistent though, and if he couldn't get Jenny to choose him, he would get rid of the competition. Thus, one night while I was walking out of the gym after an intramural volleyball game, he accosted me around the side of the building. After slamming me against the wall, he drew his fist back to punch. However, in a second he was spun around by a smiling Kwame Fitzpatrick. The big man didn't look angry, more amused. Tossing Ublyudok to the side, he addressed me as 'little buddy' and offered to walk me home. To say the least I was grateful. The next Saturday, during a game against our biggest rival, tragedy struck for the team. Coming down from getting a rebound, the usually nimble Kwame Fitzpatrick came down on Vladimir Ublyudok's knee. With major ligament damage, Ublyudok's college career was over. The commentators maintained that if they were on different teams, they would swear that it was intentional. Jenny and I knew it was. A few nights later, Jenny and I were walking out of the science building after a Married Student Network meeting. Though we had been discussing it for a few days, we were still trying to figure out why Fitzpatrick would have risked the team's season and his place on it. We were so distracted that we got off on the second floor instead of the lobby. As we passed a seminar room in the math department, we heard a deep somewhat dumb sounding voice lecturing about something called 'fuzzy math'. We discreetly looked into the room, and saw the most surprising sight. Kwame Fitzpatrick was standing at a white board writing out equations and explaining them to the faculty and graduate students for the department. Some of them asked questions, but most simply sat dumbfounded. Eventually, the chair of the department leaned back in his chair and said, "Well, you're at a higher level than me. I'll take your word for it." With that he got up and walked out of the room. When everyone turned to watch him leave, Fitzpatrick saw us and invited 'his little buddy and his good friend' in so that he could have some friendly faces. Sheepishly, we took up two seats in the back. What we heard then was a lecture on mathematics that was both subtle and beautiful. Needless to say, neither of us understood a word of it. The whole school had heard that most of Fitzpatrick's classes were by tutor, but everyone assumed that it was because he had trouble passing. Now we realized that it was because other students wouldn't be able to keep up with him. Later that evening, Kwame, Jenny, and I were sitting alone on the second floor of a quiet Vietnamese restaurant several blocks from campus. In his usual dumb sounding voice, he explained that he could feel for me because of how smart kids were treated. He even talked about transferring middle schools and taking on a dumb persona so that he could survive. It seems that even the sports star couldn't survive being labeled as a geek. It turns out that he was really envious of us for having found the right person so early on. In his case, it was hard to even find a date. Smart girls had already labeled him as a dumb jock, while other girls only wanted to be seen with the basketball star. After that evening we became great friends. Just as when we were in high school, Jenny was always trying to help a friend, so getting Kwame a girlfriend became her pet project. The perfect opportunity came up sophomore year. Tina Fernandez was a finance major who Jenny had met in class. She was incredibly talented at business, but romantically challenged. Every time they talked about Kwame, though, Tina got a dreamy far off look. However, she tried to limit herself to dating 'smart guys', but none worked out. Jenny decided Tina and Kwame would be perfect together. So one night when Kwame and I were having dinner at the quiet Vietnamese restaurant, Jenny walked in with Tina. For a few minutes it was awkward as Kwame and Tina tried to feel each other out. However, an hour later there were 15 placemats in front of us with the two of them sketching out an equation to predict something having to do with investment banking. After that night they were inseparable. It became a scandal when they sold the process they developed to an investment firm for half a million dollars. The NCAA investigated to determine if the purchase was because Kwame was a basketball player. However, by the time the next season came around the firm had quadrupled its value, and investigators determined that the sale was legitimate, but undervalued. By the time they got married the summer after graduation, Kwame and Tina were already rich. * * * When freshman year ended, Jenny and I did not go home. We found an apartment towards the end of May, and finally set up house together. It was a small one-bedroom apartment about a block off of campus, close enough to participate in campus life, but far enough away to have our own private space. While we would go to parties, we didn't really drink and never used drugs. There was no need. Love was all we wanted. So it came that at the beginning of senior year, Jenny, Kwame, Tina and I were sitting in the back of a literature class bored as we fulfilled our last requirement. The title was "Amateurs and the World Wide Web: the Future of Erotic Fiction", which sounded interesting when we all signed up for the course. However, when we got the syllabus it seemed about as boring as any could be. The professor, Julia R. Maloney, was just finishing her first year at that school, and was described as 'non-descript'. Rumor had it that she was just another new academic who had trouble connecting with the classroom. As she called role Kwame was trying to figure out some mathematical proof, Tina was discreetly looking at stock prices in the Post, and Jenny was sketching a building she wanted to build. I on the other hand was paying close attention. I couldn't put my finger on it, but she seemed familiar. When she came to my name she paused, then looked around. "Brian Schaffer?" she asked. When I said I was there, she asked what my hometown was. When I told her she said, "Please come see me during office hours on Thursday." I shrugged and agreed. Jenny must have been paying more attention than I thought, because when Professor Maloney called her name she responded while giving the professor a death stare. Defensively, the professor asked if we were related. Instead of saying we were married, Jenny replied, "something like that." On the way out of class, Jenny excused herself saying that she had something she needed to check into. Two days later, I was sitting in Professor Maloney's office still feeling that she was familiar. "Brian, do you remember me?" she asked. Then it struck me. It was Julia. The girl I thought was my first love, but who was really a budding pedophile who had stolen part of my youth. "I didn't make the connection." I confessed. "Well that's OK. I guess it has been a long time," she said sounding a little disappointed. "The fact is, my sweet Brian, over the years, I've missed you. More than anything though, I think we have some unfinished business. I wanted you so much back then. You were my life. I was going to give you everything; I just needed to wait until you were a little older. But I still want you, maybe forever, but at least one time." I was boiling angry. How could this woman, who had hurt me so much, say she wanted me again. "I'm married," I muttered. "I am too," Julia replied. "Is that going to stop us?" "Him yes, both of us, no," a voice behind me said. It was Jenny. With a perfect cheerleader smile, she plopped down in the seat next to me. "See professor," she continued, "I haven't shared my husband before. But he is quite wonderful, isn't he?" Julia agreed. "So professor, I will let you have him, but I need to be there too. And I will participate. Do we have a deal?" I was speechless. I didn't want to share Jenny and didn't want her to share me. I had seen our parents happy, sharing and swinging. I loved them, but that was not the life I wanted for us. I was about to protest, but Jenny gave me that look that asked, "Do you trust me?" Audibly I said, "Always." It was settled, Jenny and I would meet Julia at her house in the suburbs for dinner the next evening. Her husband was on a two week business trip to New York, and wouldn't be there. We would have an entire weekend to play. * * * I should have been nervous as we drove the Cabriolet through quiet streets of a suburban Maryland neighborhood. However, after knowing her for years I had a feeling that Jenny was up to something. She was wearing makeup, which she still rarely did, and was dressed in a long flowing skirt. When I asked about it, she said, "I'll need easy access." Julia's house was not modest by any stretch of the imagination. Instead, it was what people were calling a mini-mansion. There was no way she could afford it on a professor's salary, so her husband must have done something important. When we knocked, my abuser greeted us at the door. Her smile was happy, but also showed hollowness from years of separation. I almost pitied her. Jenny refused dinner, saying she wanted to get right to it. As Julia led us to the bedroom, Jenny held my hand tightly. I could tell she was nervous, but also determined. Though I had no idea what she was planning, I knew it was something she needed. I held her hand a little tighter to let her know I was with her all the way. When we got to the bedroom, Jenny said that she needed something but that we should wait for her. I could tell Julia was getting impatient, but was willing to wait until Jenny got back if it meant having me. In a few minutes Jenny returned with a backpack I didn't know she had brought with her. Placing it down she told Julia that she would be in charge for the evening. Jenny stressed that both Julia and I would get what we needed, but we needed to follow her direction. In her voice I could hear a ring of my father when my mother let him dominate her. However, unlike their relationship, I did not hear any respect or affection. Though I didn't think that Julia would agree, she immediately got on her knees and bowed her head. Jenny walked over and patted her head. Then helping her to her feet, she led her to a chair next to the bed. She moved the chair and had Jenny sit. Then she said to me, "Now be a good Boy Scout and tie her up, please." After I had finished, Jenny led me to the bed and said something I never expected. "Brian, we've been married for three and a half years and there is something I never asked you to do. I've always been afraid it would make you think of her. I thought it would hurt you. But tonight, even if it is only for one time, I am going to ask you. Please, Brian, will you go down on me?" I looked to the chair where Julia was tied up and saw a smaller version of myself sliding between her legs. I saw a little boy taking off her panties and begin licking her clit, his nose and eyes buried in her bush. I felt like I was going to pass out. However, when I turned and faced Jenny, the feeling went away. There before me was a person who would never hurt me-a person who loved me no matter what. Looking back at Julia, I sneered and said, "Gladly." Jenny lay back on the bed and pulled up her long skirt. To my surprise, she wasn't wearing any panties. Instead I could see her bush against pale skin waiting for me to come. I laid her back on the bed and kissed her tenderly. Slowly, I kissed her neck as she mewed. Though she was still wearing a shirt and bra, I still kissed down her chest and onto her stomach. There I finally hit bare skin. While Julia had always had me get right to the point, I had heard that women liked to be teased, so I kissed the rest of the way down Jenny's stomach and over her bush right to her clit. But before I touched it I kissed to the side then up the inside of her thigh to the knee. I could smell how turned on Jenny was and decided to give her some relief. Working my way back up, I kissed her until I got to her pussy which I slowly licked up and down. Jenny squirmed and begged me to get her off. Obligingly, I started to lick her clit. Almost instantaneously, she arched her back and drenched my face with her juices. Pulling me back to her face, she kissed me deeply. "Thank you," she whispered. After stretching like a cat after a nap, Jenny sat cross-legged and looked Julia deeply in the eyes. "Now, you're not the only one Brian's done that to. So you don't share anything special between you anymore. That power is gone. But you see, Brian was my first and only, and I am his first and only. I think I can speak for the both of us when I say it's going to stay that way. You will never have him. My power over you is that Brian fucks me every night and will eventually give me babies. You have to settle for that disgusting husband of yours." Lying back and turning her face towards me, Jenny said, "Now please husband, come fuck your wife." What Jenny said must have destroyed Julia because she started cursing and calling Jenny a bitch. Up and down, she swore her revenge. Finally, Jenny just sat up and spit in her face. Quickly she lay back down and pulled me towards her. Together we worked my kakis and boxers off. Then we started kissing, there was love for each other in our kisses but also hatred for the woman tied up in a chair next to us. Our bodies moved together-showing the woman next to us that Jenny and I were made for each other. No matter what she had done, no matter what she wanted now, I belonged to Jenny and Jenny to me. As I penetrated my wife, I could hear Julia crying. As our bodies moved together, I could see Jenny's deep green eyes open wide. "Not this time, but soon I want this to be for real," she said. I must have looked confused because she continued, "as soon as we graduate, I want to stop the pill. I want you to give me a baby." With that she bucked her hips as hard as she could into me. As I shot deep inside her I grunted that I would. Still on our post sex high, I whispered to her, "why not now?" Without waiting to come down from our high, I pulled my pants up and Jenny pulled her skirt back. There was no need to put on a show any more. Looking over at Julia sobbing, I knew she was broken. I was free of her, but she would never be free of me. Getting out of the bed, Jenny walked over to Julia and lifted her chin. "Did you hear that, little girl? My husband is going to give something to me that you will never have. Not with that husband of yours." As she looked up, I could see that Julia was scared. Obviously, Jenny knew something Julia wished she hadn't. The smile on Jenny's face would have made me think she was the most evil person on the planet, if I hadn't known better. "Little girl," my wife continued, "I have friends who can find things out. Did you two think a simple name change could cover up what either of you are? Maybe he thought it would. We'll find out soon enough." With that Jenny pushed me back onto the bed and started snuggling. It was only a few minutes before I heard someone coming up the stairs. The person was obviously in a rush. Then the door to the room burst open and a man built like a mountain burst into the room. "Julia, what the hell is going on here?" he yelled at his crying wife. Then looking at us he shouted, "Well who the hell are you?" Before I could say anything Jenny replied, "Mike Nelson, or wait, you go by Maloney now, don't you. You should remember me, JJ Jenkins." Then it struck me. Somehow the same fate that brought Jenny and me together brought both of our abusers together as well. The girl who hurt me married the man who hurt Jenny. With that the man looked as if he were going to explode. "You," he stammered, "do you know what I went through because of you?" Turning to his wife, he said, "Baby, you said that if I ever saw her again, I could do whatever I wanted to her. That still the case?" As Julia shouted her approval, he opened the top drawer of a dresser and pulled out a knife. "Now, I'm going to cut that little boyfriend of yours, then do what I should have done to you all those years ago." I was scared enough to wet my pants, but Jenny was unphased. "Husband, actually. Brian, when will people ever get it right?" she nonchalantly sighed. Then snuggling close to me, she continued, "I thought it was too good to be true when I heard who this piece of trash married, but imagine my luck with you standing here right now. Thing is, you're not going to do anything to me." I could see that the man had reached his limit. Instinctively, I sprung between him and Jenny. Snickering, he raised the knife and was about to come at us when suddenly his eyes and mouth opened wide. His body froze, and he fell forward. Behind him stood three men, two black and one mixed. "Amos Jones doesn't like this new technology. No. Not at all," our old friend said to Dr. Amos Martin who was holding some kind of stun gun. Next to them was our friend Kwame Fitzpatrick maintaining that he could have just bashed the guy's head in. "Well, what's done is done," said Dr. Martin. "Now I think the young lady had something she wanted to do." With all of her cheerleader grace, Jenny vaulted off the bed and walked over to the fallen man. I saw only hatred in her eyes as she looked down at him. "You want to see something?" my wife taunted. "I bet it looks different now." Whether it was fear or anger, I don't know, but Mike said nothing as Jenny stood above him. "Fine with me," she continued. "Let me show you what you made me do all of these years!" When Jenny stepped to straddle Mike's face, I knew what she was going to do. However, before she could, I slid off the bed and gently grabbed her by the arm. Pulling her to the side I said, "Love, I don't want him to see you down there, even if it's for that." Jenny seemed shocked that I had stopped her, but a big smile appeared on her face when I unzipped my fly and pulled out my cock. "Actually, Mike," she snarled, "I guess my husband is going to demonstrate." With that, I let loose and pissed all over the man who hurt my wife when she was just a little girl. When I finished, Mike was crying. It seemed impossible, but we had broken him already. In the space of a couple of hours, both of the people who hurt us were broken. We were free of the last control they had over us. Dr. Martin and Amos Jones cut Julia loose with the knife her husband had tried to use on us. Still crying, she was dragged into the hall. Kwame pulled Mike to his feet and brought him out as well. Jenny kissed me tenderly and told me it was time for us to go. Exiting the room, we saw our friends holding Julia and Mike by the necks. They were both naked. Jenny stopped us and we turned around. The two broken people were pushed to their knees in front of us. Both bowed their heads. Stepping forward Jenny asked them who was in charge. When they said she was, Jenny looked at me and said, "No. We are." After the couple agreed, Jenny continued, "I am your mistress and Brian is your master. You will do whatever we tell you to do. Now here is your order, and there will only be one. I will give it once and you will follow it until your grave. Now I know that you have trouble functioning after getting attacked in Juvenile Detention, Mike, so that makes this even better. You two are only to ever touch each other from here on out. No swinging, no threesomes, and especially, no children. Are we clear?" The couple nodded in affirmation. Amos Jones stepped forward and said, "Now in case you think about going back on your little promise I should tell you that Amos Jones has a very big family and they're in a lot of places. Basically, you never know who they are. Their last name could be Jones-or maybe Martinmaybe Fitzpatrick-and now I think we can add Fernandez." He looked behind him as Tina stepped out of the shadows and took Kwame's hand. Smiling, the old man continued, "You just never know. But know this, no matter where you go, how far you run, whomever you try to fool, someone will be there. They won't be watching you every minute, but you don't know which minute they will be watching you. So be good. Now go back in that room and fail to make a baby." Without any further prompting, Julia and Mike scampered back into the bedroom and locked the door. The rest of us simply left the house. On the street Jenny and I walked back to our car, while Kwame and Dr. Martin walked towards Amos Jones's car. Surprisingly, the old man followed us, calling for the other men to go back without him. "I need to take these two somewhere," the old man said. * * * I drove through the darkening evening back towards the city holding Jenny's hand on the shifter. However, instead of heading home, Amos Jones directed us onto the Washington Beltway and across the river to Virginia, getting off at the first exit marked towards Great Falls. We had only driven a short way though, when we were further directed off the main road onto what looked like a long driveway. About 100 yards off the road, we came to a gate. A sign read, "Society of Jesus Retirement Home". Jenny whispered to me, "Isn't that a name for the Jesuits?" I vaguely remember a Catholic friend of mine saying something like that, but wasn't sure, so I just shrugged. It would have been really strange for Amos Jones to have brought us to a place like this. Amos Jones got out of the car and stretched. Walking over to the call box, he hit a button. After a muffled greeting that I could not hear the old man said, "Tell Father Hoban that Amos Jones is here to make a good confession." Seconds later the gate opened and I drove us inside. We pulled in front of a rather large house to see an ancient priest coming out of the door, yelling greetings at Amos Jones. Both Jenny and I stood in silence. The man before us had always been an enigma, but we were realizing how little we actually knew about him. Who would have thought that he was a Catholic? "I had almost given up hope that you would ever come back, Mr. Jones," the old priest said. "How's she doing..." He must not have noticed we were there because when he saw us, he stopped mid question. Something had been mentioned that we were not supposed to hear. "Awake and talking, father," Amos Jones said. His face beamed like Jenny's had on our wedding day. "The Lord be praised. I told you to never give up hope old friend," the priest said, smiling almost as big. "And Amos Jones is no dead man," our old friend replied. "Now can my young friends go down a ways to that nice scenic place while I make that good confession?" When the priest looked at us suspiciously, Amos Jones laughed and said, "They did it young, but those two are married, father." The priest laughed as well and directed us down a dirt lane on the far side of the house. It took just a few minutes of slow careful driving for us to get to a field overlooking the Potomac River. Down river we could see the lights of Washington far over the trees. On the other side, we could see the lights of large but quiet houses on the Maryland side. Up river, though, was only darkness and the roar of water rushing over the Great Falls. As Jenny and I cuddled on a blanket that we kept in the trunk in cases of emergencies, I thought about how well that represented our lives. After tonight I could safely feel that the turbulence of our youth was over and we were free to build the rest of our lives. I could have lain there peacefully all night, but then Jenny pulled me closer. Without saying anything our mouths opened and we began to kiss. Though there was love and passion in the kisses, there was something more-freedom. That night we had become free of Julia and Mike; we could now give ourselves fully to each other with no fear and no reservations. As our kisses became more passionate, Jenny started to unbutton my shirt. At the same time my hand was under her shirt feeling her breasts under her bra. Quickly, we worked my shirt off and I pushed it to the side. Then Jenny rolled on top of me and I pulled her shirt over her head. Without letting me try, she reached behind her back and unclipped her bra, which she tossed into the growing darkness. In the moonlight I could see Jenny's breasts above me. They had never gotten very big, just a little smaller than average-a B cup I think. But on the moonlit September night, they looked more amazing than the moon and the stars in the sky. Putting my arm behind her back to hold her close, I sat up and began to kiss her neck. Jenny purred as I worked my way around and then down between her breasts. Slowly I kissed one than worked my way over to the other. As I teased her nipples, she began to breathe fast and grind her pussy into my khakis. I had kissed her breasts before, but with our new freedom it was less reserved and more passionate. Suddenly, Jenny pulled my head tight against and let out a gasp, cumming for the second time that night. Without saying a word, Jenny gently pushed me to the ground. Standing, she kicked off her shoes and pulled her skirt off. Then kneeling before my legs, she untied my shoes and slowly slipped them off. Next my socks were discarded. Finally, my wife gently pulled my khakis and boxers off. Then for the first time in our lives, she knelt between my legs and took my cock into her mouth. Though she had never done it before someone must have told her what to do, because Jenny worked up and down kissing the head and the shaft, taking it deep then shallow, fast then slow until I erupted into her mouth. Though she gagged a little, she swallowed everything. When she came back up to kiss me, I had no problems letting her do it. Eventually, Jenny pulled back from the kiss. Pushing her body up with her arms while she lay on top of me, she asked if I could go again. When I said I could, she continued, "Did you mean what you asked back at their house? I mean, do you really want to start tonight?" At first I was confused, most of the evening was a fog at that point, but then I realized that Jenny was asking if I wanted to have a child with her. Being 21 years old and married three years was one thing, but starting a family was something entirely different. The comment had just sort of come out, but as I quickly thought about it, I realized that Jenny was the one I was always going to be with. She was my wife, my soul mate, and my future. Tonight I felt that nothing could stop us from succeeding at everything in life. Smiling at the beautiful green eyed girl, I said, "Yes." The smile on Jenny's face was brighter than the Milky Way above us. Almost in a trance she stared into my eyes as she slid back against my body. Over the years, our bodies had learned what they needed to do. So with just a little lift from me, my cock slid inside my wife's pussy. As she slowly began to work it into her, she said, "Then tomorrow I'm throwing out my pills. Brian, I want you to give me a huge belly that I can show off at graduation." With that, Jenny thrust herself down onto me. After pausing for a second, she slowly slid up and back down. Eventually, she began to pick up speed and hit a rhythm that got both of us close but made it last. Finally though, it was inevitable and Jenny began to slam her hips onto mine. As I was about to cum she started to yell, "Knock... Me... Up... NOW!" The last word became a scream as my wife had the biggest orgasm I had ever seen. That drove me over the edge and with a loud grunt I bucked my hips into her and came harder than I could remember. Afterwards, we lay there in the moonlight on the blanket in loving silence. For the first time, we had truly consummated our love. We hoped it would start growing inside Jenny immediately. Eventually, we decided we needed to go pick up Amos Jones, so we tried to find our clothing and get dressed. Jenny's bra had landed in a little creek we hadn't noticed, so she couldn't put it back on, and one of my socks was missing. We laughed as we started to drive back through the woods. We must have looked a sorry sight as we got out of the car. Amos Jones chuckled as the old priest asked if we were going to soon "fill the face of the Earth." It took us a minute to get the joke, but soon we were laughing too. Though we should have been embarrassed, we felt welcomed enough to accept an invitation to stay for a late dinner. * * * Jenny didn't get pregnant that night. It was probably a good thing because both Jenny and I were able to start our careers. We worked for the same architecture and engineering firm for about two years, just to get experience, then we went to work for Jenny's father. The company was renamed JJS Enterprises, so we could advertise that we took projects from design through construction. Our first small projects were well received, getting us reviewed in the Washingtonian Magazine. From there the business took off. Though we didn't participate in the building boom in downtown DC, we did enough work in the suburbs that we built a good business. Jenny became the face of the company as everyone thought it was named JJS after her initials, but really it was short for Jenkins, Jones, and Schaffer. Everyone thought it was time that Amos Jones got his due. Eventually, both of our parents moved to DC. It happened when my father's bank bought a DC area bank that was mired in scandal. "Mr. Clean Comes to Washington" read the headlines. It's ironic that those lines were for a banker, not a politician-well maybe not. He turned the bank around, but then decided it was time to get out of the business. Seeing the credit card debt and personal bankruptcies among young adults, he decided to get his teaching certificate. Now he teaches economics and personal finance at one of the suburban high schools. Jenny's father first steered JJS enterprises towards building 'residential communities' in the suburbs where housing, office, and commercial space were integrated. It seemed that all you needed to do was be near good schools and people would move there. However, eventually he became concerned about what development was doing to the countryside and became a 'green space' activist. Much of our business afterward was involved in redesigning failed projects in the suburbs. Often we bought failing malls and converted them into our residential communities-just heavy on the commercial space. It turns out that if you approximated an oldfashioned downtown, people would gladly shop there. By then though, Jenny and I were fully in control of the company. After the business's transition, Mr. Jenkins decided to get into politics. He's now a Democratic state senator from Virginia. Rumors are that he will eventually run for governor. Our mothers continued their relationship, eventually each identifying as 'lesbian +1', the +1s being their husbands. They were still devoted wives, showing their love for our fathers more and more as the years passed. Eventually, they became gay rights activists, though somewhat shunned because they remained married to men. They also became very involved with the Episcopal Church, volunteering with several of their charities. My cousin Tony eventually became a psychologist specializing in children with severe mental disorders. Back in our home town, he opened what was considered a model facility with a school and long-term treatment integrated. He worked with insurance companies to keep kids as long as they needed to be there, convincing the companies that it was much cheaper to send kids to his facility than pay for the after effects of 5 suicide attempts. He's won several awards for his work. The Reverend Anthony Jenkins was as popular a preacher as I had guessed he was. Eventually, he built a large complex-well we built it for him-near Culpepper. Because no one can really classify him as conservative or progressive, he is quite controversial. His message is that if people actually took the gospels seriously and loved like Jesus did, the world would have no problems. I can understand why that's appealing. Eventually, I ran into Jake from Boy Scout camp. It turns out that he went to one of the other DC colleges, but I never knew it. He works as a staffer on Capitol Hill. What he does there I really don't know. Otherwise, we lost touch with most of our childhood friends. The people we did stay friends with were Kwame and Tina. They were married right after college, before Kwame was drafted to the NBA in the third round. He wasn't an all-star, but was a useful center for about seven years before he retired. No one was surprised, but the ESPN anchors did lament "one of the good guys of the NBA" retiring. The real reason he retired was that he had just finished his PhD in mathematics. Today he teaches at an Ivy League university, where Dr. Amos Martin is the youngest provost the school has ever had. Tina managed her and Kwame's assets full time for a while. After getting a reputation as an astute business woman she started a hedge fund and made even more money. At the same time, she and Kwame had five children-or at least that's how many they have today. We'll see what it's up to next year. Julia and Mike, our abusers, did try to get away from our control. Julia took a job at a small college in southern Louisiana and Mike started running an English language program for immigrant children. You can guess why. Unfortunately for them-and fortunately for the rest of the world-one of the volunteers for the program was one of Amos Jones's nephews. Eventually, he discovered that Julia and Mike were grooming a brother and sister as their next victims. I hear that Louisiana prisons are particularly nasty. After the night at the Jesuit retirement home, Amos Jones was a changed man. He immediately went into partial retirement and started to travel the world. It shocked everyone. Eventually, we found out exactly why, but it's not really my story to tell. We didn't think much about it when Jenny didn't get pregnant our senior year; we weren't actually trying to get pregnant, more just letting nature take its course. We began to get concerned though when after two years of that and two years of actively trying there was still no baby. When we visited a fertility specialist, he said that when Mike had abused Jenny he had done some kind of damage. We would probably not be able to have a baby. Finally, we decided to get on the waiting list for adoption. Unfortunately, it was five years long. Someone was smiling on us though, because after a party on New Year's 2000, yes Y2K, we spent the night back at the Hay Adams Hotel. When we got back to our room in the wee hours of the morning, Jenny asked me to do her like it was our first time. I obliged, though not being teenage virgins this time it lasted a lot longer. A month later, Jenny went to her doctor for what she thought was a stomach virus she just couldn't kick. It turned out she was pregnant with twins! Later that year, after a hard pregnancy and labor, she delivered healthy identical twin boys via C-section. Because of the difficulties, Jenny would not be able to have any more children, but we had the two that we had always wanted-Jack Martin and Kevin Amos. Our boys were smart and funny-popular with other kids and adults. Everyone loved them. However, they were best friends, often to the exclusion of other kids. Over the years we got concerned. One day when they were five, Jenny was on a website for parents of multiples. Another woman had started a chain on the bulletin board asking about resources in our area. Jenny suggested our town as a good place. Neither of us made a connection when the house next door to ours, which had been on the market for about 6 months, sold the next weekend. However, a few weeks after that on our boys' birthday, a moving van pulled up to the house. The boys had been inside playing a game, but came running down stairs telling us to look outside. There standing timidly in the front lawn were two redheaded girls. They looked like twins. Jack and Kevin were bouncing up and down asking if they could go out and meet the girls. I was about to tell them to wait until the next day, but before I could say anything Jenny came into the room and told them to have fun. A few minutes later, two boys and two girls were kicking a soccer ball around our back yard. We admired them for a few minutes before we grabbed a bottle of wine and went over to meet our new neighbors. Later that night, while my wife and I lay in bed glowing after a round of great sex, Jenny made the casual observation that the boys' bedroom faced the smaller bedrooms on the other house. At first I smiled, seeing the cyclical nature of life. Our boys now had little girls to be friends with just like Jenny and I had. However, then I began to realize that it would not be the same for them. We had been very protective of our boys, so they had never experienced what Jenny and I had, which was good. But because of that they would never be able to replicate the bond that their mother and I had formed decades before. This time, just like so many other times in our lives together, Jenny had to have known what I was thinking. "They're not broken like we were," she yawned in my ear, "but it'll still work out." When I asked her how she could be so sure, she sat up and stared at me. "Brian you goof! Do you really think it would have been any different," she asked. "Well, maybe it would have been for you, but not for me. No matter if you were broken, or I was, or neither of us were I'd still be right here in bed with you right now. Yeah, we bonded over what happened to us. But that's not why I love you. From the day we met until we graduated, you were at the window almost every night. You made a commitment to always be with me and you were. How could any girl ask for any more from a guy? I'm not sure when I fell in love with you, and I know was a manipulative bitch about it. For that I will always be sorry. I didn't deserve you then and probably still don't deserve you today. But you have always been committed to me and I will always be committed to you. Our boys are just like you-your mini-mes. If they decide they like these girls, there is no way the girls won't fall in love with them too." Smiling, she straddled me. "Now, enough being sad. You need to fuck your wife again." As Jenny leaned down to kiss me, I heard a window open on the other side of the house. --end chapter 9- --end Always With Me- As this series ends, I have to give immeasurable thanks to my editor, who wishes to remain anonymous. His editing and feedback has helped me develop this series into the product it is today. He did this in spite of not really liking my characters. A writer could not want more. I always appreciate feedback. If you really like, really hate, or can see some improvements to my stories, send feedback to secretdcguy@hotmail.com. I am also looking for story ideas, so if you have one please let me know. This is my favorite genre, but I do others as well.