Date: Mon, 23 Dec 2002 17:11:49 -0800 (PST)
From: William Becker <billdrae2002@yahoo.com>
Subject: Protecting David 12

This is a work of fiction and the characters and story are
just that, fiction.  I love receiving email and if you would
like to email me I can be reached at billdrae2002@yahoo.com


                         Protecting David 12

Jamie Blair, David's principal London partner, turned out to
be a tall, trim, good looking guy with dark brown hair, that
he was constantly brushing off of his forehead.  His father
was English, his mother American and Jamie had lived for ten
years in the states, which of course was when he had met
David.

I knew of Jamie's ability to coax millions of pounds out of
England's population of matrons and meeting him now I could
understand how.  The guy was pure charm.  I knew from David
that there was a sharp mind behind the charm but the charm
was a palpable thing.  Waiters, cab drivers, bellhops
everyone seemed to just naturally rush to accommodate the
man.  This guy could pull out a cigarette in a rowboat in
the middle of the English channel and somebody would show up
with a lighter.

Jamie had just picked me up at Heathrow and he was
navigating his black Audi through heavy traffic on his way
to central London.  "Mark, honestly, I can't tell you how
happy I am to finally meet you.  David talks of you all the
time but I was beginning to think that he was making you up.
I see now that he wasn't exaggerating."

I laughed.  "He loves me, it clouds his judgement.  But I've
been anxious to meet you too.  David speaks of you so often
that I feel that I know you."

"Actually for some time now I've wanted to thank you.  To
thank you for what you've done for David."  Jamie brushed
the hair out of his eyes for the tenth time.  "No one on
this earth deserves to be happy more than David and I was
beginning to wonder if it was ever going to happen."  He
smiled at me broadly.  "Then you showed up.  The cavalry as
it were."

"I really didn't do anything Jamie, other than fall in
love."

"Oh Mark, you've done more than you know.  In a very real
sense we owe everything to you."  He swept his hand back and
forth.  "Everything we have now, the company, it all
happened because you freed David, gave him the secure base
he needed to let that fertile mind of his roam."

"Jamie I think that you're giving me more credit than I
deserve but I do agree about David's fertile mind.  He's
about the smartest person I know but ya know it's more than
just smart, it's his whole personality."

Jamie laughed.  "You should have seen him in college.  Oh
god, that dorm room of his!  How the devil the man ever got
any sleep is beyond me.  Truly you could walk into David's
room in the morning and find ten other people there,
sleeping, talking, anything you can imagine.  And you know,
I think that he keeps in touch with every person he's ever
met."

"Jamie, you can't imagine, or maybe you can, how many emails
he gets and answers in a day.  He spends probably two hours
in the morning and another hour in the evening just on
email.

"You're at Clairidge's aren't you Mark?"

"Yep, Frank must be going dottie in his old age but that's
where he's got me booked into."

"Well, you'll love the hotel, we can have dinner there
tonight and we have friends there."

"Friends?"

"David's made an obscene amount of money for the groups
Managing Director."

It suddenly hit me that David and Frank had negotiated an
agreement.  It was exactly what they both would have done
and they thought almost the same on everything.  Apparently
David would stop having me followed if Frank arranged for me
to stay in places where David felt that I was safe.  I was
too amazed at the perfection of the agreement to be angry at
being manipulated, at least for the moment.

"Huhh?  Oh!  Duh, the company of course."  I laughed.  "Must
be jet lag." I turned slightly in the seat.  "So, he's a
client of yours?  The Managing Director."

Jamie smiled.  "Well actually we started with his wife.  She
comes from a bit of money herself and well we started
managing her personal money and then well, she was pleased
and then he came aboard too."  He laughed again.  "Word of
mouth.  English ladies," he sighed, "well I guess all
ladies, like to think that their money is theirs and your
money is theirs."

"Jamie there is an alternative, if you don't mind changing
the habits of a lifetime."

Jamie laughed out loud.  "That's what David keeps saying.
Alas, I'm afraid that I'm stuck playing for this team.  And
now that we've got a new baby....well lord, you've got Alex,
so you know."

Just the thought of Alex made me homesick and practically
brought tears to my eyes.

"How old is the baby, Jamie?"

"David will be, and yes we did name him for you know who,
six months old in three days and as you can probably tell
from the sound of my voice, he's the center of my universe."

"Jamie I know what you mean.  I kinda wish he had had Alex
when he was a baby so that we could have had that
experience.  We didn't get him until he was almost four,
well within a few months."

Jamie was patting himself down searching for something.
"Mark, would you totally hate it if I smoked?  I'll open the
window a bit to draw it out."

"Not at all, feel free.  I won't even lecture you."

Jamie laughed.  "Well thank all the gods for that!  Amanda,
my wife, does plenty of that.  The only way that I can smoke
at home is if I go outside."  Jamie got a very serious look
on his face.  "I do know that I must quit, especially for
the baby.  I mean it wouldn't do for him to grow up seeing
his dad smoking.   Might decide to try it himself."

We were turning onto Bayswater Road and if memory served we
were nearing the hotel.
"Jamie, you'll be able to come to dinner tonight?"

"Yes Mark, certainly, but I can't change your mind about
coming out to the house for dinner?"

"I'd love to Jamie but my business here is going to take the
whole day and tomorrow we'll be leaving early for one of
your military air fields.

That evening with Jamie was a study in how to handle people.
From the moment Jamie entered the restaurant until the time
we left, the staff lavished attention on him and also on me,
because I was with him.  Jamie never made a demand, instead
he found something to compliment everyone on, he had an
instinct for saying exactly what everyone needed most to
hear and he was adored for it.  Frank was right, if this guy
had decided to do things illegally at some point in his
life, the good guys would have been in trouble.

The next morning General Shetlan picked me up at the hotel
and we drove together to a small airfield where we grabbed a
British Puma helicopter for a hop to a much larger base
where we could watch the Tornado's handling some of our more
sophisticated armaments.

The weird thing is the way that Shetlan treated me for the
whole trip.  I mean we had always had a pretty good
relationship but now it was like we were best buds.  It was
anything that I wanted, every joke that I told was funny, my
every point of view was the right one.  Even the British
generals and businessmen seemed to treat me like they knew
something that I didn't.   Something was up!  I wondered if
it had anything to do with David but I sure couldn't see
how.  David had clout in financial circles but surely that
didn't extend to the military and certainly not of another
country.

Well anyway the major disappointment of the trip came the
day before I thought we'd be heading home and Shetlan told
me we needed to go to Germany and basically repeat the
performance.  The Germans weren't as friendly as the Brits.
It wasn't that they were hostile, more that they were, well
for lack of a better word, formal.  It was definitely
chilly.

Finally on the 19th of December, six days before Christmas
we boarded a United Airlines flight for the long flight
home, stopping first in Washington, where the general would
get off and then on to Chicago and then after a plane
change, a quick hop to Milwaukee.

I felt horrible, not physically horrible but emotionally,
having left David and Alex by themselves for the couple of
weeks preceeding Christmas.  While I had been flying around
England and Germany talking about ways to blowup
installations hundreds of feet underground efficiently,
David was home putting up a Christmas tree and walking with
Alex through crowded, holiday lit, department stores.  I
missed Alex and my need for David was a steady ache, being
without him for two weeks left a gap in me, like an
emotional artery had been blocked off, draining me of my
strength.  While traveling through England and Germany and
in meetings with generals and businessmen I would find
myself thinking of David, the feel of his trim body pressed
to mine, his lips, his eyes.  The thought of holding his
face in my hands while I gently kissed his eyes, his nose,
his lips, well....it was driving me crazy.

I missed the half hour before Alex went to bed, when he'd
crawl up on my lap dressed in his flannel pajamas and I'd
read to him.  Either David or I would have washed Alex's
face and combed his hair and he would exude a clean little
boy smell, as David said, the smell of innocence.  When
David and I walked him to his bedroom with each of us
holding a hand and Alex walking between us and then tucking
him into bed and then his arms around my neck as he kissed
first me goodnight and then David.  And watching David's
face as he kissed Alex goodnight, seeing the goodness there,
the love in his eyes and behind that the fundamental decency
of the man.


I stepped off of the ramp from the plane into the terminal
and heard Alex screaming.  "Dad!  Dad!  We're over here!
Dad!"  He was bundled up in a winter coat but was holding
his knit red knit cap in his hand, his hair was statically
charged from having the woolen cap on and his blond hair was
standing straight up, like he'd been plugged in.  David was
holding him in his arms and looking up at him and laughing
from the pure joy of watching him.  People were turning to
look at Alex and smiling at this handsome little blond boy
who was yelling to his dad.

The guy next to me said.  "Guess your kids glad to see ya."

I just nodded and said.  "Yep, looks like he is."

Alex was going ballistic in David's arms.  It almost seemed
like he was trying to fly, I couldn't imagine how David was
holding him.  I dropped my briefcase and plucked him out of
the air.

"Daddy we bought your present today!"  Alex was almost
screaming.  Then he lowered his voice in an almost
conspiratorial way.  "But Dad, Santa is still gonna bring
you a present but we're just helping.  Cause Dad, Santa has
got so many houses to stop at he needs us to help."

I was trying to listen intently to Alex without laughing and
he was holding my face in his hands so that my attention
couldn't be diverted.  "Alex, don't I get a kiss hello?"  He
gave me a huge kiss on the cheek.

I looked at David and then put my hand behind his head and
pulled him to me.  We tilted our heads and met in a kiss.  I
could see some stares out of the corner of eye but thought.
"Fuck em!"

I looked at David.  "God I missed you!"

"Did you miss me too Dad?  Cause I missed you!"  Alex was
turning my head again with his hands.

"I sure did miss you sweetheart.   I thought about you all
the time.  Were you a good boy while I was gone?"

"I sure was Dad.  I was the best boy ever!"

I slowly lowered Alex to the floor.  "You're getting too
heavy for me Alex."

I looked at David.  "Why does he seem to have no fear of
heights?"

David laughed and ruffled Alex's hair.  "Cause he's half
monkey."

Alex was walking between us and occasionally pulling himself
up so that he could lift his legs up and swing.

"David this is going to take forever.  Why don't you take my
briefcase and I'll give Alex a piggy back ride?"

David smiled at me.  "You're braver than I am."

Alex was going wild and shrieked when I swung him up onto my
shoulders.  "Okay Alex watch your head and make sure that I
don't walk you into something.  Can you do that?"

"Yeah dad, I can.  Wow it's scary this high."

"Is it too high Alex?  You can come down if you want."

"No dad!  This is great!"  While we were on the moving
walkway Alex played airplane, holding his arms out and
banking right and left.

Waiting for my bags to come in from the plane Alex kept up a
steady flow of conversation about shopping in the mall,
Joe's lack of enthusiasm for Christmas, daycare and how much
he sometimes loves it and sometimes hates it, and it went on
and on.  David and I talk on the phone a couple of times a
day when I'm away on a trip, not to mention email, so there
isn't too much that he has to fill me in on when I get back.

The one thing that we can't deal with by cell phone or email
is being physically together.  Sometimes I think that if I
ever somehow lost David and was never able to touch him
again I would die.  The touch of his body, waking up next to
him, wrapping my arms around him while he sleeps, these are
the things that give me life and without them what would be
the point, how could I ever live without that?

We both know that no matter how tired that I may be from the
trip, when we get home and after Alex goes to bed, we're
going to have sex.  Actually the foreplay began the moment I
stepped into the terminal and our eyes met.  I've mentioned
David's eyes many time before but it's almost impossible to
overstate them.  His hair is very black, his skin, in
winter, very pale and then those emerald green eyes.  The
very first time that I looked into them I almost had an
orgasm and not much has changed.  When David looks at me and
the full force of those eyes hit me I usually forget what I
was going to say and just seem to fall into them.

We're standing next to each other waiting for the luggage
and David and I keep bumping into each other, casually, our
hands touching for a second.  Sometimes I step behind him
for something just so that I can look at his beautiful ass.
He doesn't wear tight pants but they always seem to form
perfectly to his butt, a butt that's rock hard and perfectly
rounded.  Sometimes at moments like this I find my hand
reaching out for him, just wanting to touch him, not
sexually, just as a connection.  Usually I catch myself and
pull my hand back, at least when we're in public and
sometimes he'll see my hand and ask if there was something I
wanted and then I just get a stupid look on my face and make
some lame excuse, when all I really wanted was for us to be
one, at least for a moment.

"Mark, that's your bag isn't it?"  David was pointing at
garment bag with an Army decal on it.

"I'll get it Dad!"  Alex was standing in front of me, my
hands on his shoulders.

"No sweetheart, you let daddy get that, it's gonna be too
heavy for you."  When it came around I swung it off the
turntable and we were finally able to get on our way.

With Alex strapped in in the back seat and David driving we
pulled slowly out into traffic, the snow that fell the day
before was crunching under the tires.

"Have you been oppingshay orfay istmasChray?"

David laughed.  "Esyay.  Actually I'm about done.  But I
thought that it would be great if you and I could go out
together shopping alooooone, for at least one evening.
Maybe we can get Mrs. Meurer or Joan to watch Alex."  David
glanced in the back seat.  "He's asleep, thank god!  He's
been just goin crazy today, with you coming home and
Christmas, it's just got him wound tighter than a drum.

"Anyway," David continued, "we need to buy for Frank and
Marcy and we really oughta get a little something for Chris
and Jason and maybe something cute for Mike and Ted.  What
about your mom and dad?"

I groaned.  "Can't I just send them gift certificates?  Like
for some store that isn't in Milwuakee.  I don't wanna do
anything that will bring them in to see us.  I especially
don't want him around Alex.  I don't want Alex exposed to
that hateful old bast," I turned to make sure that Alex was
asleep, "to that guy.  I know...Fruit of the Month Club,
it's a great gift and the name will drive him crazy."

David laughed.  "You know, that's not bad."

As we were pulling into our driveway a taupe colored Joe was
jumping up and down in the dining room window, turning his
head occasionally as if looking for someone to alert.
Inside of the house for the first sixty seconds Joe was
trying to make himself airborne, flinging himself into the
air and emitting a canine whining bark.  Amazingly, Alex
didn't even stir in David's arms.  I kissed a sleeping Alex
goodnight while David carried him in to his bed.  In the
mean time I knelt down and talked to Joe who seemed
desperately to want to tell me something if only he could
find the words.  How frustrating it must be to know what you
want to say but be unable to say it.  He finally settled
down to a state of canine quivering as I spoke quietly to
him and gently stroked his head and ears, the nails on his
paws clicking impatiently on the tile.

David came back out of Alex's room and grabbed my garment
bag.  I pulled him to me and kissed him deeply, shoving my
tongue as far into his mouth as I could get it.  "Babe, I
feel so grubby, I'm gonna take a bath, my back is a little
sore too."

David kissed me again.  "Go ahead, I'll bring you a drink."

I had just lowered myself into the hot bath when David
walked into the bathroom carrying two small scotches on the
rocks.  Our bathroom is huge and the tub and shower are
separate.  The bathtub is a really large with those jet
things in the side of it that shoot out water and bubbles if
you want.

David set the drinks down on the side of the tub and began
to take his clothes off.  He pulled the sweatshirt and his
tee shirt off over his head and dropped them down the
laundry shute.  He sat down on the edge of the platform that
has the tub in it and took off his shoes and socks.  He also
tossed the socks into the laundry shute.

He took a sip of his drink and then smiled at me.  "We're
havin sex, right?"

I grinned at him.  "You can't see cause of the bubbles but
I've already started."

David bent down and kissed me.  "Well don't get too far
ahead.  I've been saving myself."  He pulled off his pants
and underwear together and his hardon slapped up against his
stomach.  I took a sip of my drink and watched as David
climbed into the tub and then sat down straddling my waist,
trapping my cock between his butt and my stomach.

He lifted himself off of me for a moment.  "Wet your hair.
I'll give ya a shampoo."

I ducked the back of my head under the water and then David
sat back down on my lap and started lathering my hair.  I'm
not sure that David realized it or not but as he shampooed
my hair he moved his butt back and forth over my cock.

There's something very erotic about having someone wash your
hair, not that I really needed anything more than seeing
David's butt to get me going but feeling his knees against
the sides of my thighs as he worked my hair into a lather
did the same thing to me.

He lifted himself up again.  "Okay, rinse."  I ducked my
head down again and rinse the shampoo out.

When I wiped the water out of my eyes David was sitting
lower on my legs and was slowly lathering up my cock by
gently and slowly jerking me off.  He looked up from my cock
for just a second.  "I don't want you getting any ideas
about getting off this way."  He looked at me again.  "I'd
like to get fucked in the shower.....that is unless you've
got your heart set on the bedroom."

I started to rub his legs and forearms.  "Why the shower?
But I mean yeah, that's fine."

David leaned forward and then stretched his legs out behind
himself so that he was lying on me, his head directly over
my heart.  "I was reading a story where the guy gets fucked
in the shower.  Actually I wanna use that steam thing we've
got.  I want us both to be steamy and sweaty."

I whispered in his ear.  "If you don't quit hunching me I'm
gonna shoot between us right here."

"Nope.  We can't have that."  David lifted himself up and
pulled my cock so that it was pointing straight up then he
lowered himself again leaving my cock trapped between his
thighs, pointing straight up with the top side of it press
against his perineum.

I kissed the top of his head.  "Oh right, that's an
improvement!  For god's sake don't clench your ass!  David!

He laughed and got up on his hands and knees.  "You're so
easy!"

"I'm fucking horny!"

David got quickly out of the tub and went over and turned
the steam on in the shower.  Then he came back and held out
his hand.  I took it and he pulled me up and over to the
shower.  Inside it was intensely tropical, the steam was
heavy and David turned on the shower for a while to warm the
floor.  Then he laid down on the floor and pulled me down
with him.

I wrapped him in my arms and kissed him deeply, caressing
his back and shoulders.  I finally broke the kiss and looked
into his eyes.  "I missed you.  I know that I told you that
already but somehow this time it was worse than usual.
Maybe cause I was so far away."  David was lying between my
legs with his head on my chest.  The steam was softly
hissing and the condensation was running down the tile sides
of the shower and the glass door.

David lifted his chest up and dragged his body higher on
mine, rubbing hard against my cock.  He took my face in his
hands and kissed me hard forcing his tongue into my mouth
while I dropped my hands to his ass.

He rolled off of me and turned around so that his feet were
at my head and his face was near my cock.  He pulled on my
leg.  "Lift your leg up so that I can suck on your balls."

"I can do better than that."  I got up and knelt, straddling
David's head, my balls, were hanging down almost to his
mouth and he then also had access to my cock if he wanted to
suck it too.  He gently sucked one of my balls into his
mouth and then carefully pushed the other one in with his
fingers.  Although he wasn't able to actually speak, he did
start to make the David sound very quietly.

I was kneeling over him and was about to go for his cock
when he took my balls in his mouth.  "Oh fuck David!  Oh
fuck!"

"David, now keep my balls in your mouth and don't let them
pop out while I try to pull them out."  I began to lift
myself slowly away from David's mouth and the feeling of my
scrotum being slightly stretched was exquisite.  "Oh yes!"

I bent forward and took David's cock into my mouth and then
wrapped my arms around his butt and rolled his whole lower
body up into the air while my balls were still in his mouth.
After sucking his cock and balls for a few minutes I started
to lick his butt hole while he went crazy but couldn't say
much because of my balls in his mouth.

David was doing some serious moaning though and then pushed
my thighs up so that he could pull my cock down and get it
in his mouth.  "Oh yeah babe, suck that cock!"

After a few minutes I was about ready to cum in David's
mouth so I lifted it out of his mouth despite his trying to
hold onto it.  I rolled David over to his side and then
pushed his left knee up towards his chest while I straddled
his right leg.  He raised his head and looked up at me with
a look of almost frenzy as penetrated him slightly with my
right thumb.  I leaned over him.  "I'm gonna fuck ya now
babe.  I'm gonna fuck ya hard."

I used the enormous amount of precum that I was producing as
lube, spreading it all around my cock and then, using my
thumb as a quide, I started shoving my cock steadily into
David.  He was almost screaming the David sound and seemed
like he was trying to get away from the pain before laying
his head back on the warm, wet tile and saying.
"Aaaahhhhh!"

As I was reaching bottom I leaned forward and started
licking the side of David's face like a dog.  He felt so
mine in an animal way but also in an intensely human way.
While I knew that I might conquer David's body with my cock,
and my greater strength, I also knew that his mind and soul
had a much higher price and I was more than willing to pay
it but right now the greatest need, for both of us, was
physical.

I pulled my cock slowly almost all the way out of David's
ass and then shoved it back half way in hard and then slowly
the rest of the way.  His head was still on the tile but he
said.  "Oh fuck yes, Mark!  That's so fucking good!  Hard
babe, as hard as you want."

I was fucking him long and slow.  "You sure?"

"Yeah babe, really hard."

I started to build speed and soon I was pile driving into
him.  "Baby, this isn't going to last.  Oh fuck!"  I reached
down and started to jerk David's hard cock.

I lifted his left leg and twisted him slightly until he was
on his back and his feet were on my chest.  I started
beating him off again and then reached down and pushed my
thumb against his perineum.  His reaction was instantaneous.
He slammed his ass against my cock and yelled the David
sound.  Two seconds later he started shooting.  I pulled my
cock out of his ass and scooping up some of his cum gave
myself a few quick strokes and shot on his chest.

I rolled over onto my back, gasping for air.  "Steam and
sex....heart attack."

David crawled over to me.  "So when ya gonna be ready to go
again?"

                         ----------------------------

My head was under the pillow to try and keep out the light.
Why was it light?  Then something was jumping on the bed.  I
reached out for David.  Joe was licking my hand.

"Dad!  Dad!  You gotta get up."

I pulled the pillow off of my head and laid my head on it.
"What time is it Alex?"

"It's late dad!  You got jetlag, that's how come you slept
so late."

I sat up and leaned against the headboard.  Joe was lying
where David usually did and Alex was bouncing in the middle
of the bed.  "Where's David, Alex?"

"He's getting our coats, we gotta go to the store."

I looked at the clock, ten o'clock.  I rubbed my eyes.  "You
guys shoulda woke me up."

Alex sat down straddling my waist.  "You need your sleep
dad."

David walked in.  "Hey you're up.  We're goin to the store.
You'll be okay?"

"Yeah, I'm good, just not used to sleeping this late."

David smiled.  "All that flying...and steam.  Come on Alex,
let's get goin.

As they were going into the garage I was walking to the
shower.

                    ---------------------------------

When I answered the door Frank was standing there dressed in
a parka and carrying two department store bags full of
wrapped presents.  Behind him the snow that had started an
hour before as a gentle fall had now become almost
horizontal with the pick up of the wind.

"Frank!  Come on in."

"Well Marky, I see that you survived the Brits."  Frank was
unbundling himself, which turned out to be quite a job.

"Frank, did Marcy wrap you for shipment to the north pole or
something?"

Frank looked at his galoshes.  "The woman is nuts.  But
she's pretty and has a nice disposition."  I helped Frank
off with his boots and got him into the family room near the
fireplace.

Frank stretched his legs out, put an unlit cigar in his
mouth and clasped his hands over his gut.  "Did you notice
Marky, that you can get great buys on scotch at Heathrow?"
He was looking around the room.

"So Frank, what you're tryin to tell me is that you want
some Black Label on the rocks?"

"You got it kiddo.  Nice tree.  You do that?"

Frank was referring to our Christmas tree that I hadn't seen
until the evening before.  "Frank, I'm lucky I can tie my
shoes.  You think I could do a tree like that?"  I poured
Frank's drink and handed it to him.  "No, that's David's
doing, he wants things to be especially nice for Alex.  They
went to get more tinsel, should be back in a few minutes."

Frank held up his drink in salute.  "Cheers" Then after a
long sip of scotch.  "Shetlan was thrilled.  I still can't
believe that asshole called me at four in the morning.  I
mean just because he's used to getting up before the sun
doesn't mean he should disturb normal people."

I sat on the sofa with Frank but perpendicular to him with
my legs crossed under me.  Frank looked at me like I was
hanging from the ceiling.  "So you gonna tell me what
Shetlan wants and what you've probably already agreed to?"

"You know Marky, you have a very suspicious nature.  I'd be
deeply offended if you weren't right."   Then gesturing with
his glass at the decorations in the room.  "David really did
a nice job with this room."

I smiled grimly at Frank.  "I'm not even gonna bring up the
deal that I have a feeling you struck with David."

"He wants you to go with him to the hill."  Franks tone
became serious.  "You don't seem to be aware of it Mark but
you have a way with people."  He smiled.  I must admit that
this supposed quality of yours sometimes eludes me but who
am I to argue with the powers that be.  Anyway, that,
combined with your ability to explain some of these
complicated systems makes you someone that Shetlan feels can
help him with the politicians and the DOD and I think he's
right.

Remember, Shetlan has been doing this for quite awhile and
he's no dummy.  He likes you but that prick never did
anything for anybody because he liked them.  He needs you,
or someone like you.  The whole nature of warfare is
changing and that means, as you know, there's some educating
to be done.  It's not just a case of, "send more bullets" He
patted my knee.  "Trust my judgement Mark.  People like you
and you explain things like a normal person.  Those are
qualities that are rarer than you may think."

He paused and then smiled at me.  "As far as the David deal
goes, my thinking was simply that if David's happy, you'll
be happy and for that matter we both would have to admit
that he's right a hell of a lot more than he's wrong."

"Well," I scratched the back of my head, "I guess that I
agree with you.  I don't want him worried."  I threw my head
back and groaned.  "When does Shetlan want me in
Washington?"

"Middle of January Marky, you've got all the time in the
world."  He smiled and took an imaginary puff on his cigar.
"I'll have to check the list but I think you're booked into
the Watergate.....great restaurant there."

                         ------------------

"Santa's coming tonight, right?"  Alex looked seriously from
David to me.

I touched his hair with my fingers.  "Yep sweetheart, he's
coming tonight."  I pulled his blanket up to his chin.

"So when I get up in the morning he will have come and left
presents for everybody?"

David kissed Alex's forehead.  "That's the way it works
sweetheart."

"And Joe gets stuff too, right?"

We both nodded yes.  "But you have to go to sleep or it
isn't gonna happen."

He yawned.  "Okay but he won't scare me or anything?"

"Nope, Santa never scares little kids.  You go to sleep now
Alex."

"Where's Joe?"

"He's right here Alex, at the end of the bed.  But Joe needs
to sleep too."

We both kissed Alex again.  "Night son."

                         ------------------------------

I took David by the hand and walked with him to the family
room.  I laid down on the sofa and pulled him down with me,
his back against my chest and his head on my right upper
arm.  The room was lit only by the Christmas tree and a
large red candle on the coffee table.  The snow would hit
the sliding glass doors from one direction, form a little
tornado on the patio, dissolve and then hit the doors from
another direction.  I pushed my left leg in between his
legs.

"Mrs. Meurer bringing dinner tomorrow?"  I kissed David
lightly below the ear.

"Mmmm, she should be here about nine.  Then she's going to
her son's house."  David put his left arm over my right and
pulled it up against his chest.

"Nice just lying here."

"You weren't mad about the hotel thing?"

I laughed.  "No, I know how you are.  Oh and I have to go to
Washington next month."

"It'll be a good thing."

I started to ask David how he knew that but decided against
it.  "Think he's asleep yet?"

David lifted his head and saw Joe standing by the kitchen
door.  "Yep, he's asleep."

"Then I guess we'd better play Santa."  We went to the
basement got the presents and laid them beneath the tree.

As David was arranging the presents under the tree I was
watching his butt, the way the muscles moved, how thin his
waist was and how it flaired upward to his shoulders.

When he was finished I asked him.  "You suppose that Santa
ever has sex David?"

David turned off the lights on the tree and then took my
hand.  "He does tonight."