CHAPTER TWO-DEAL WITH IT

"Mr Keller, this is merely a precautionary measure. You understand." Dr McGill said in his soft bedside voice. He sounded reassuring.

"How long's precautionary?" He asked as the restraints tightened around his wrists and ankles. The head of his bed was up and he sat bound to the bed like a psych patient. "You don't strap down the ones in comas." He added as the doctor tied off his arm and gained IV access.

"The first 24 hours is a must. We haven't introduced this virus directly into a patient in the past."

"Oh."

"So we are going into uncharted territory."

"Oh."

"So we do not know how fast you would react to the virus, if for some reason your natural immunity is challenged."

"Oh." Jay repeated. "Could you stop telling me now?"

"Sure, Mr Keller."

"Jayson. You can call me Jayson." He said. He'd said it ten times already.

"Once the door is closed, it locks."

"Lucky I am not claustrophobic."

Dr McGill obtained a syringe and with gloved hands he injected the solution through Jayson's IV. He went to the clipboard he had on the counter and jotted down some information. He looked at the monitors attached to Jayson and he jotted down his vital signs, his general appearance. Dr McGill tapped a button on the door frame and the lab tech buzzed him out of the room.

Jay flipped through the TV channels. He was impressed the variety of channels and that there was cable. He sat and watched TV all evening and into the middle of the night. He occasionally forgot he was tethered to the bed rails and was reminded fairly quick whenever he attempted to move his hands. Every couple hours a lab tech would come into the room and release the restraints one at a time. When one restraint was reattached, then she would release another. She went around the bed and did this. She allowed him to eat while she stood quietly with him, watching the monitors and taking his vital signs.

Dr McGill returned the next morning and Jay was woken by him. McGill had many questions. How was the night? Any problems? How did he feel? Was he uncomfortable? Was he in any pain? A full neurological exam was completed. A physical assessment was completed. Dr McGill drew more blood and released the restraints while he visited with Jayson.

"So, Dr McGill, should you try again?" Jayson asked, getting off the bed. McGill said he could walk around a little while, stretch, get his blood moving and flowing. "Shouldn't I be sick?" He asked, taking his hair down and letting it flow over his shoulders and back.

"You should be. I will not say you're out of the woods yet, but you're vitals are great and you are looking as stable as you were yesterday."

"So, what now? You tie me back up? I won't give you any trouble." He assured him. "Hard sleeping strapped up like this, but I can manage a little while longer."

Jayson made himself comfortable on the hospital bed again and allowed Dr McGill to strap him in after he ate his breakfast. He spent all morning and afternoon and evening strapped to a hospital bed, watching TV and waiting to feel a twinge or a cramp, some nausea or some visual disturbance. Nothing happened. He felt fine. His usual. In fact he was quite bored. Shifts changed and meals were eaten and Dr McGill, a man of his word, released Jayson from the restraints after a full 24 hours.

"Is this going to be a long few weeks or what? I'm sorry, doc. I feel like I am wasting your time."

"Oh, no, Jayson, you're doing the opposite." He said, his voice sounding for the first time to have a tone of excitement to it. "I have wanted this since I met you."

"Oh, you sound so romantic." Jay joked.

"Well, speaking of romance." Dr McGill said smiling. He held up a specimen cup and placed it in front of his patient. "You understand this is considered an STD?"

"I heard." He smirked, thinking of Julia. He wondered who gave it to whom and he figured doc sought the answer to the same question.

Dr McGill also set out 2 other specimen cups on the table. "Urine and stool samples."

"Ok." Jay said as he watched McGill open a culturette swab. Jay opened his mouth and the doc swabbed his throat. He then set it aside and swabbed his nares.

"Going to see what grows." McGill informed him. "Would you be interested in calling Julia?"

"No, thank you." Jay answered.

"Oh, that was one of the first things she asked for once she woke."

"I'm different. Thanks. I just wanna know if anything happens to the baby while I'm in here. Other than that, I don't need to talk to her."

"Alright, then. If you should change your mind, let me know. I think she must be worried."

"Has she called?"

"Five times, yes. My secretary has assured her you are well."

"It's not enough. It never is. She has trouble trusting people."

"You don't."

"I take people at face value. That's all." Jay shrugged. "Hey, you know, I never had a problem with you or your people. I like what you're trying to do here. I do take this seriously. It might not seem like it, but I do."

"Everyone who comes through the door has the same goal in mind." Dr McGill told him. "By volunteering to do this, I hope to help a lot of people."

"I hope so too. I don't want to live through that again. None of us does, but there are some people who thrive on it, miss it, obsess over it and make that life part of this life. Some people are so affected by it, they're never the same once it's over. It's a shame."

"Would you be speaking of Julia?"

"Yes. It's strange that she was happy in the middle of it. She felt like she had a purpose. She's an expert on the issue."

"We've spoken about the issue. We quarantined next to each other for three weeks."

"Then you know how she is. Most people think she's mental and she is to a degree, but this she never came back from. She told us all this wasn't over. None of us heard it, but here we sit."

"There's a couple hundred people who have similar stories."

"There's more." Jay corrected him. "I have mine and you never heard mine. Anyone who has witnessed it has a story. Sometimes people wind up there through no fault of their own, pulled into the horror by those who live it. The problem is when we come back from it, we bring part of it back and not all of what we bring back is good."

"You know of others."

"Sure. There's plenty you don't know about. That's why you need the transparency, doc. It is coming. They think I don't think about this. I don't spend all my time dwelling on something I can't control is all." Jay thought of Julia, how he indulged her, helping her to control something she could never control. That was what Jay was doing in the lab at that moment. He sat there not purely for selfish reasons. "I guess that's where you come in, doc. Good luck."

Dr McGill left him alone with his remote control, channel surfing. Jay thought this would be a long three weeks ahead if nothing happened to him. He had envisioned at the very least a fever or a chill. He felt his normal. He had a hard time believing he'd been injected with anything other than a flush for his IV.

On his third day in the glass prison, he felt like he was going stir crazy. He'd slept well all night. He'd exercised in place in his sick bay. He ate breakfast and had his routine assessments, his routine question and answer session with McGill. McGill surprised him with a psychiatrist visit in the early afternoon. A pretty woman who wore a red dress and a fashion sweater over it. The kind of sweater a girl wore because it was pretty and not for the warmth value. She had the nicest legs he'd seen in awhile. This chick wore stockings and he hadn't seen a woman in stockings in ages. Who actually bought and wore them anymore? He heard her walking toward the sick bay before he saw her, hearing the clack of the high heels on the floor. She was fairly attractive, but those legs sealed the deal for him. Her presence was definitely better than an afternoon of television. She stood outside the glass sick bay as tall as he was, maybe taller in those nice heels. Dark brown hair hung just past her shoulders, shiny and clean like the shampoo commercials on TV. Dr Balfour took a seat by his door and crossed those long legs in front of him and she had him at "Hello, Mr Keller. I am Dr Nina Balfour."

Well, hello...I'll tell you anything you wanna know, doc..."Hi." Was all he could manage. Where had she come from? Women actually look like this? He averted his eyes from her legs in those heels.

"How are you holding up in there?"

"O-Ok." He answered, getting out of his hospital bed. He sat in a chair by the door opposite her inside his enclosed space. Why do I have to meet you in here?

He spent an hour talking with Dr Nina Balfour and unfortunately she had the personality of a flat soda. Smart and thoughtful, but dull. She wasn't exactly in the lab to make friends and he found her to be cold and distant. He answered her questions honestly and he would have recited the ABC's for her if she'd asked. Nina sat dressed fine and he wondered if she smelled as good as she looked. She was so sexually distracting. He felt weird in her presence, sitting in a white tee shirt and gray sweat pants provided by the facility. His white sweat socks covered his feet.

"You seem clinically depressed." She announced, scribbling on her notepad.

"Yeah, I know." He replied.

"You know?" She asked quizzically.

"Sure. I dropped out of school. I have a dead end job. My girlfriend is pregnant with what doc over there says is a zombie baby. She cheats on me with her ex by the way. My brother is kicking me out of our house. My other brother ran away from home and I had to go pick him up from his girlfriend's house in Delaware. All I do is work and fight with Julia. I struggle to see an upside in this."

"It's not funny, Jayson."

"I didn't say it was, Nina."

"What do you want?"

"Go back to school, find a new girlfriend, slay the zombie baby. Move out, but I still wanna take care of my brother and sister."

"Slay the zombie baby?" She repeated.

"Not exactly in those terms, but someone will have to put her down. Shouldn't that be me? I am her dad. I think it is a responsibility that I should take. I have put people down before."

"Have you ever put down anyone that you love?"

"No. Julia does that, but she shouldn't have to do this. She's been through enough."

"And you haven't? Been through enough?"

"There's no limit evidently." He replied. "We done, Nina?" He asked as she scribbled on her notepad. While she wrote, he looked at her legs again.

"I'd like to prescribe an antidepressant." She suggested.

"No, thank you. I'll be alright." He replied, looking at her hands. "Nina, are you single?" Jay asked.

"No." She answered.

"You must get that all the time."

"Yes." She answered. "Do you recall the three items I asked you to remember at the beginning of our conversation?"

"Glasses, mountain, and fork. Yes."

"Good." She smiled. "I have to ask before I leave you. Do you have any intention of harming yourself or anyone else?"

"Um, no." He smiled. He wondered if Julia had told McGill how they wound up on the flipside? That information wasn't usually something she went around telling people about. "Why do you ask, Nina? Is that something you ask everyone or is it because I said slay the zombie baby?"

"It's something I ask everyone."

"Who will put down the baby? Is there someone assigned to that job?"

"I don't know, Jayson."

"I feel a stranger shouldn't do it is all. We take care of our own."

Dr McGill stopped by before he went home for the night. Jay sat on the side of his bed eating dinner.

"There's your semen sample, doc." Jay said, pointing to the specimen cup in the specimen hatch of the sick bay.

"Thanks."

"Don't thank me, thank Nina. Good night, doc."

"Good night, Jayson."

"Julia, what did the secretary say?" Tavin asked as she sat nervously in the kitchen chair.

"He's 'well'. What the fuck does well mean?" She asked Tavin. "I mean, is he comatose, is he-"

"Julia, enough. You been freaking out for days. He's well."

"I know what their version of well is. I'm worried about him."

"Welcome to the flipside of all this. You know, you're a hundred times worse than he gets when it's you that's sick. 10 days is an eternity isn't it?"

Julia's thoughts of the lab kicked in high gear. She was all energy, all nerves, all worries. The not knowing made it a million times worse and she had no idea how this felt until she had to walk in his shoes. The house was clean and she had nothing to do but think and think some more. The fact she couldn't be there for him made it worse. He at least got to sit by her bed and see her, watch her as she progressed and got better or at least kill off the threat that loomed a door away from her. She got none of that. She got nothing. The one person she should be able to take care of when he was 'well' or sick and she was restricted. She had even asked Chess where the lab was, but he said he didn't know and even if he did he wouldn't tell her.

Julia finally got hold of McGill himself on the tenth day in the afternoon. He called her back and told her to stop harassing his secretary. He assured her that Jay was awake and alert and he was stable. "I wanna talk to him."

"Julia, he doesn't wish to speak with you. I will ask him again."

"What do you mean he doesn't wanna talk to me?"

"Julia, he seems quite content and he's well. That's all I can tell you. You will see him soon enough. Stop harassing my secretary."

"Yes, Sir. Where's the lab?"

"Goodbye, Mrs. Morgan." Dr McGill hung up.

Tavin shook his head as he sat across the table from her. "You got what you wanted?"

"No." She sighed, dropping the iPhone on the table. "NO." She repeated. "Why won't he talk to me?"

"You tell me why." Tavin raised his voice. "Do I need to spell this out for you?"

"No. But you know why I did what I did."

"You have to create an illusion that absolutely nothing is going on outside the two of you. You have to cover your tracks. No evidence."

"But I feel bad, though."

"You got caught. Maybe you should stop fucking other people. Cover your ass, amateur. You think and plan out everything else. Think you would have figured this out by now."

"Don't they always know, though, Tav?"

"Oh, yeah. They know. But this time you gave it away, Julia." He told her. "You know, I don't even know what happened. Before you got sick, you two were perfectly fine and then once you woke up, you haven't been you."

"I was gone for two years, Tavin."

"Well, it wasn't two years to him."

"What do I do? What do you usually do?"

"Beg and plead at first and then when that doesn't work, leave. Or have her leave and then she gets all sentimental or sad and starts thinking about-" He shrugged. "It works out is all."

"What does she start thinking about?"

"How we met. How we got together. How she got pulled in. Once she gets to that weak point, then it's easy."

"Oh, so when she gets into her feelings, then you do what?"

"Remind her why she has them in the first place. And then start all over." He answered. "For you, it was taking you back to the beginning, then hitting the high points along the way. Once you start crying, it's all over."

"Oh, come on." She balked at that idea.

"I've done it, Julia. I could do it now, but I don't feel like going there with you."

"Cause it ends bad."

"Cause it feels good and then it ends bad. I mean, why open myself up and then have it fall apart. Just when we get somewhere...you know, Julia."

"Huh?"

"When I'm with you, you take me there. Where I take her, Julia. When I say I take her back to the beginning, you take me back to mine. I don't like rolling the dice to get hurt. That's what you do to me, get me all open and raw, pouring my heart out. I get emotional, Julia. That's what you do to me."

"Tavin-"

"It's true though. We always get so close and then we both start pulling back. Like it's too real, too good. And we don't know what to do with good or real."

"So you've thought about this."

"I have. It's why it sucks living with you, it reminds me. You think what we gave up to be together only to wind up back in the same place with the same people, more problems, still messing shit up and taking shit for it. It's why I never wanted any of this."

"All of this isn't problems, Tavin. You think we're all problems?"

"Yeah, Julia. I think of all the times my gut told me to leave or not come back at all. This is why."

"You always thought this was too much. I tried to make it easier for you. I tried to-"

"I know, and you have. It's not you. I know exactly where I stand with you. It's like it always has been, wherever you want me at the time. You only make this whole thing easier on me. Even with your moods and your weirdness, yeah. She's never gonna be able to-"

"She will, Tav. You gotta give her a chance."

"Julia, maybe she's one of those things like you got, it won't work here."

"It'll never be perfect, Tavin. They're delusional if they think they can get perfect out of us."

"How did it work before? You said we always made it work."

"It helps when they know their place." Julia said. She pointed at the pack of cigarettes. He shook his head, but slid the pack to her anyway. "It helps when we all know our place, Tav." She spun the cigarette pack around on the table, hands debating whether to light one or not. She slid the pack back to Tavin and got up. She took what was left of his and sat next to him.

"Smoking is bad for you." He reminded her.

"I know." She said, taking a drag on the cigarette. "I sneak sometimes."

"I know that." He said, looking at the cigarette between her fingers. "They get angry and act all hurt, but they stick around. It's a mystery to me why they do it. I'd like to live without all this drama."

"We created all this drama, Tavin Keller. They didn't." She reminded him. "Is that what you wanna do?" She asked, stubbing out the cigarette in the ash tray. "It can be done easily, you know."

"How's that? This isn't easy."

"It can be done easily, I said." She repeated herself and realized why Chess hated repeating himself. "It's harsh and unfair to them, but it can be done."

"Cause I am sick of all this shit, Julia."

"If the life you want is single and without any responsibility, then that's what you do."

"The baby though?"

"You can have the baby and you can still do whatever the hell it is you think you need to do."

"Jules, the only person I wanna be responsible for is my son."

"My dad and your mom told me a week ago to grow the hell up. Maybe it would be a good idea if we all fucking did."

"I have been."

"Well, you can go in reverse then."

"Well, then..." He sighed, lighting another cigarette. "Where would mommy put the kids?"

"I have no idea."

"Julia, this is insane."

"Oh, it is. I agree." She shrugged, taking his cigarette from him.

"Chess did it. So, if that runt can do it, then so can we."

"Who'd have thought he'd break first? You know he's as miserable as the rest of us."

"Is he better off?"

Julia laughed, thinking Chess would disagree with that statement. None of them would be better off. None of them was the same since the bullets fired from Jay's gun. Once the trigger had been pulled, their lives changed.

Tavin left her at the kitchen table with her thoughts and head upstairs with his own to his pregnant girlfriend. Was he serious with what he was thinking? She didn't know. She hadn't dropped any ideas in his head. He had thought that up all on his own.

She opened the lap top and read her emails. There was no way she'd get the trailer palace in Mav Commons. The realtor explained that she was a risk and had no job despite the fact that she could pay for the trailer in full. The realtor suggested she find someone...blah, blah, blah...Julia emailed the realtor back and gave him all Chess's personal information. She texted Ray, asking if he was home from school yet. He said the next week he'd be home, which was a good thing. Julia went on the DMV website and paid for Chess's driver's license renewal as well as his car registration and his car insurance. She had the confirmation email sent to him and she got a text from him a while after that, saying thanks . The card for the driver's license she had sent to the house and she'd wait for it to arrive. Ray could take care of that like he did the last time. All she needed was Chess in a picture with a driver's license and a signature. She only needed his name and his info and a guy that looked just like him.

She texted him-I can have Ray take care of all this with me. ILY

-Great, put me in debt, wifey.

-No debt. Just a homeowner. ILY

-ILY2, when?

-Not sure. I'll let you know.

-This is stupid. Just stay there.

-lol, Chess...lol...talk to Tavin...it's not me, it's him.

-heard from Jay?

-no

Jay was going stir crazy in his sick bay. The minutes ticked by like hours and all he wanted to do was leave. Dr McGill had stated he was in the clear. He hadn't so much as broke out in a fever. All his labs were perfect and he wasn't doing anything other than sitting in a bed playing solitaire and watching Law and Order. One of McGill's nurses named Georgeann was nice enough to bring him McDonald's for breakfast and a fresh cup of coffee. He'd made friends with this moody woman over two weeks, but he saw a nice side to her as she had him. Georgie, as he called her, remembered the last quarantine in the last lab. She'd been in the lab when Chess killed the zoms, one of them having been a close work friend named Eden. She described how it had all happened and she described how they all crammed into the sick bays against their will and against their better judgment. They opted to stay as if they had a choice, but she felt sure they could have sneaked out before the team had arrived. A few of them could have got away without anyone knowing they there.

She described the weeks as they had passed as boring with nothing to do except for work. She got paid for being stuck in there and McGill had made them continue their work behind glass enclosures. Paperwork, endless paperwork. She sympathized with Jay. She sympathized with anyone stuck in the lab for three weeks, especially alone.

Jay prodded her with questions on and off about the whole experience. Georgie volunteered some information about the whole situation and when she talked of the couple that was stuck in the bay, the man who'd put down the zoms and patient J who was his wife, she smiled. They had companionship at the very least. They were quite content under quarantine. They didn't have a care in the world. She described them as romantic, loving, sweet with each other and then as the third week approached they disappeared. They pulled the curtain in their quarantine room and those around them rarely saw either of them. They'd heard them, knew they were there, but they went unseen for the most part.

"The world was already blocked out to us and they went and blocked it out more." Georgie sighed, taking the blood pressure cuff off his arm. She entered his vital signs into her computer and she moved onto his lungs, his belly. Dr McGill didn't even bother with his assessments anymore. They said the same thing every day.

"It must be nice though having your girl with you." Georgie was a gossip if nothing else. If you wanted the scoop on anything in the lab and who was doing what, Georgie was a wealth of information. "I was glad to get out of here. They seemed like they didn't want to leave. Just saying."

Georgie left him with his McDonald's and Jay thanked her again. Thanked her for more than breakfast. She didn't give him a lot of insight into the weeks they spent there, but she confirmed his suspicions. In the middle of talking about her kids and her husband and her life outside the new lab, she had given him information she wasn't supposed to talk about.

McGill approached the glass and he stared across the quarantine room at him. "Julia is harassing my secretary. Would you like to call her?" He asked again. He'd asked once before and he received a negative response.

"No." Jay replied.

Day 14, Dr McGill woke Jayson from his sleep and discharged him. He shook his hand firmly and handed him his appointment card for five weeks from the date. His appointment lined up with Julia's from that point on. The appointments were first of the morning to allow for Jayson's work schedule and also so that he could be present for Julia's GYN appointment and ultrasounds.  Julia's next doctor's appointment, the following week, he was welcome to join her and he had been cleared to accompany her. McGill also informed him that he had called the Franklin B Mastro Reformatory personally as his physician and he spoke directly with the human resources employee, Ginger LaSpada. He informed HR that Jay was ready to return to work and that he had paperwork for his return. He verified that there was no other specific paperwork required and he handed Jay an envelope with his diagnosis and his recent physical, stating his ability to perform his job requirements.

Jay had several questions in regards to the appointments specifically. How long does the typical first appointment take post quarantine? Should he plan on an over night stay? McGill replied no. Appointments typically last 45-60 minutes each person and after the appointment he was free to leave and return to his normal routine.

"So this won't take all day?"

"No, Jayson. Unless you're showing symptoms or unless you've developed any problems related to the infection or anything new since the quarantine, then no."

Jay wasn't surprised by this answer, but he had to ask. Julia had lied. Georgie and Dr McGill had given him more than enough information this two weeks in his sick room. Where had she been all that time? He knew who she was with, but where were they after this short and sweet appointment? The first and the second took longer than a couple hours. Jay added up time in his head. Double appointment, two hours tops, then the ride home. There was nothing that could explain their over night on the first appointment and their all day on the second appointment.

"Good luck, Jayson. It was a pleasure getting to know you. Thanks for your service."

"Yeah, sure, doc. You're welcome." Jay replied, shaking his hand.

He was escorted through the halls to an underground garage into a van with a divider between the front seats and the rear. He sat in the rear and he had no idea where he was and when he was long away from the facility, he still had no idea where he had been. He was deposited in Maverick in front of the house on a warm May morning with his patient folder in the same clothes he wore to the lab two weeks prior. He stood outside a minute, looking at the house, knowing she was inside and he hesitated to go in. He needed to talk with her, but he didn't know what to say and he definitely didn't know what he wanted to come of it. He head inside. The house was quiet. The kids were all in school. He called to her from the bottom of the stairs before he started the climb. He didn't need her getting scared with footsteps on the steps. "Hey, Jules."

"Jayson?" She asked, poking her head out of the bathroom. Her head was wrapped in a towel, holding up all that red hair. "You're home early." She stepped in the hall and hugged him. "You ok? I was worried about you."

"I know. I'm fine. Never got sick, babe."

"Thank God. I wouldn't want you to do it alone."

"I wanna talk about you and Chess, Jules." He cut her off before she started rambling, separating from her, inhaling the scent from her body wash.

"Ok, what do you wanna know?"

"The truth."

She was quiet, stepping back in the bathroom. He waited in the hall across from her, watched as she dried off and pulled on a pair of shorts. Her tummy had popped out some. Just shy of 20 weeks pregnant and she finally had some visible evidence of it.

"Julia," He pressed her.

"I was gone for two years, Jayson."

"I want the truth not excuses."

"I fucked him in the lab and I fucked him when we went to see McGill the first time. But not after that."

"It's what I thought."

"If you know then why are you asking?"

"To hear you say it." He answered, listening to her voice, the sound of her breathing. He could see her getting emotional, she was crying but she was trying to hide it. She pulled a cami on and covered it with a tee shirt.  Her boobs had popped off her chest like her tummy had popped off her usually flat abdomen.

"So you wanna know why?"

He held back from calling her a slut. He held back from the criticism. He wanted to call her names and he wanted to say that everything she thought about herself, he thought too.

"It's not cause it was there, Jay."

He stayed quiet, biting his tongue and holding it in.

"I was gone for two years, Jayson. It's a long time and I fell in love with him all over again, Jay."

"Fuck, Julia."

"10 days to you, two years to me. A lot happens in two years, especially when you're dead. You saw part of it when you two dropped in my head, Jay. When I was sick." She explained. "You stop me when you heard enough." She released her hair from the towel and started brushing, then tied it up in a tail.

She decided to start at the beginning, launching into the story of her time away from beginning to end. She started with her arrival in Upstate New York at work on a truck with Antonio Freeman and detailed every bit of unsaid information she could remember, ending with the last doctor appointment when she went to Chess's apartment. She covered the room, Chess's creation, on the third floor of the fortress. She detailed every painful memory and every highly emotional memory. She tried to make sense of the submission for him, tried to make sense of it for herself and she wondered after all was said and done if he had any questions. He hung on the end of the conversation in silence. He didn't know what to say to counter all that. He had no clue any of this had gone on and she'd done a good job of shielding all that from him.

As she and Jay walked to the school to get Tatia from kindergarten, she described the year she spent in the fortress with her husband.

"I couldn't talk about it, Jay. So every time I said, I can't talk about it, I meant that."

"Because he told you not to talk about it."

"Yes."

"You're talking about it now."

"Because I can. I explained that."

"Jules, I don't even know what to say."

"Nothing. You don't have to say anything. I know it hurts and I know I can't make it right what I did. So what do you wanna do?"

"What do you mean, Julia? What do I wanna do?"

"With me, Jayson. Can you live with it or not?"

"Can I live with you fucking Chess? You are unbelievable, Julia."

"I don't expect you to trust me. You never have been able to trust me. So, you want me to make it easy for you?"

"Make what easy for me? Us?"

"Yeah, I can leave, Jay. It's that simple."

"That's it? You just decide and you get the final say?"

"Since you can't make a decision, yeah. You don't deserve to get fucked over like this. We should have never started it, Jay. It was stupid. I told you I was nervous about it and I told you why. This is exactly the point I was trying to make, Jayson."

"I love you, baby." He said to her, holding her hand for dear life and not liking the direction this conversation took.

"Are you crying, Jay?" She asked. "Jay, babe, don't do this to me."

"Jules, do this to you? Are you crazy? I haven't done anything wrong."

"I know. You're crying, though. I don't like it when you cry."

"Jules, you don't like it cause you don't know what to do when someone is hurting because of you."

"Tell me what to do, Jay. Please. I'll do it."

"Regret it a little, say 'Jay, I'm sorry I fucked my ex' or maybe you could act like I mean anything to you at all. Julia,"

"Jay, please tell me what to do. Make a decision."

"Make it easy, that's what you want. I'm tired of being hurt by you and the worst part is you don't care. Julia, why don't you care?"

"I do care. It doesn't seem like it, but I do. Anything I say, you're not gonna trust anyway. I don't know what to say other than you're right."

"But Julia, what about Caroline?"

"We have her as long as we have her and that's a good thing. It's the only thing we got right now."

"Are you really leaving me?"

"Why do you put up with me? That's a question you need to ask yourself and answer for yourself."

"I thought you changed though, Jules. It was so good and then..."

"I fucked up, like I always do. Babe, we should have left it at one night, on Christmas, and it would have been a great memory. Now this, here we are."

"Would you have been able to leave it at one night, Julia?"

"Yes, Jayson. Could you say the same? You like being hurt? After all these years, you still love me. So much you're willing to overlook this?"

"Julia, it's not us anymore. It's her too."

"Jayson, did you hear what the doc said? Do we have any children together ever? No. I'm not saying I don't love her any more or less because of it, but Jayson, please, think here."

"So, it's over. I went through all that for nothing. I don't mean anything to you?"

"All what? You went cause you wanna be there for her, Jay."

"I went for you. I went so you wouldn't be alone, Julia. I did it for you. I didn't get sick, but I could have and I could have died."

"I didn't ask you to do that. I never thought you would do that because it's crazy."

"The only crazy I see here, is you."

Jay muted the conversation. He was done arguing, listening, discussing. 

"I love you, Jayson." She said, standing at his side, waiting for the door to open and let the kids out. "That hasn't changed."

"I love you, too, Jules."

Tatia was excited to see him, jumping onto him and squealing. She had a multitude of questions and said she had a card at home she had made for him. Once home she led Jay to her room and then talked his ear off and gave him his card. She made him play, then they took a break and had lunch then did her homework. With only a couple more weeks left in school, there wasn't much homework left to do.

Jay walked into a house that was upside down it seemed. No one was talking to each other. No one was happy. The house was immaculate as Julia's nerves had obviously been in high gear. Kelly was gone as was all her stuff. A lot had happened in two weeks time. He started to wonder if maybe he should have called home. Should he have at least contacted his brother? McGill had offered a phone call. Alex was still moody and miserable with everyone because they made him come home from Delaware. He barely spoke and when he did, he was critical and mean.

Tavin came home from work late, having taken Kelly home from school. She'd missed her bus because she had a paper due that she was working on for her end of the year history assignment. When he got home he and Jay sat outside on the patio and he started the grill. He was as moody and distant as the rest of them. He told Jay what he was thinking in regards to the house and everyone in it.

"You can stay, Jayson. I never planned on making you leave."

"But the rest of them, brother? The kids-"

"Are not my kids. They are my family, but they aren't my kids. I already talked to mommy."

"Mommy? Our mother?" Jay asked shocked. "Is she ready for them?"

"She doesn't have a choice."

"What the hell happened?"

"This happened, Jayson. I never wanted all this."

"It's not the right thing to do. None of you are doing the right thing. Has everyone lost their mind in this house?"

Jay got up and went inside. He went down the basement, threw some clothes in a bag and left, walking out the front door past all of them and he doubted they noticed he left. He started walking and was unsure where he was going till he got there. He passed the suburban in the driveway and walked around back. He called a quick hello to Uncle John in the garage and went inside through the kitchen door. Sandy sat in the living room watching TV.

"Sandy." Jay said calmly.

"Hey, kiddo. What's up?"

"Can I stay over night? Would you mind? What's for dinner? Is Ray home yet?"

"Yes,  no, left overs are in the fridge and not yet." She replied, looking over her shoulder at him, answering all his questions at one time.

Jay helped himself to meatloaf, mashed potatoes and string beans, then heated them up in the microwave. He sat quietly eating at their kitchen table scrolling through his phone.

"You ok, Jayson? What's going on?"

"I needed out of there, to think."

"Ok. About?"

Jay told Sandy what his brother had planned, told her about Julia having slept with Chess, Alex's teenage angst, his own situation...he can stay. He wasn't angry, rather confused by the whole state of affairs in the house.

"He's giving them back to my sister." Sandy said quietly from her chair. "Just like that?"

"Just like that, yes, which makes me nervous, but she's with Julia's dad, so they'll be alright."

"Well, I won't comment on what I think about Julia and Chess. Your brother took on too much and too many people at once. So I understand that. He should have kept it at you three and left it at that. He's got a kid of his own coming."

"Yeah, well he's thinking about selling the house, Sandy."

"Ok, it is his house. He's young. He's got a lot to deal with."

"Huh?"

"It's not easy when you're the only one."

"But he's not."

"But he is. The way this originally was supposed to happen, Jayson, was you and the two kids. Not you three and everyone else. No matter how much you guys help, there's still that vibe where everyone is taking over your house. You can't move without having someone in the way. I completely understand."

"He let everyone-"

"And he regrets it. Let him do what he wants with his home and his house."

"Ok."

"I'll talk to Karen and Cal, if you're worried about Tatia and Alex."

"Alex is being difficult."

"Welcome to 14." She muttered. "No one was more difficult than Chess. I'm surprised that boy is still alive."

"Why? He wasn't too bad."

"Yes, he was, Jayson. Yes, he was. I'm so proud of him though. He's really straightened himself out. I was scared when he went into the marines, but the kid has grown up because of it. Has his own life, his own place to live, and he can take care of himself." She sounded happy talking about Chess. "Now if we can work on you. Then we'll be doing something."

"Me. What about me?"

"Go back to school. Quit wasting your life and your time."

"I know, Sandy. I know." He sighed. Jay washed the dishes when he finished eating and then took his bag down the basement to the Xbox, which was right where Ray had left it. He opened his phone and texted Chess.

-you got any weed at home?

He set the phone down and he turned on the TV and Xbox and signed into live.

-go through my room, stash spot. I doubt it tho

Jay lifted off the sofa and head up to Chess's room. He checked the stash spot behind the headboard and came up empty. Chess went and got responsible, quit being their dealer. He opened the top drawer of Chess's dresser and saw pictures of him and Julia, condoms, some MAC receipts, a couple bank statements. Condoms...Jay thought. He pulled his cell out of his pocket and he scrolled through the contact list in his phone. It had been about 6 months, but her number was still in there. Steffie, Mav East, Macy's friend. He'd texted her when he was still with Jess when Jess was thinking about another girl. That hadn't worked out, but the number...Julia said to save it for a reason. He texted her. He didn't have her pics anymore and he'd long deleted the texts he'd sent her, but her number was still there. Steffie texted him back and he set up a date.

"Thank you, Julia." He smiled, pulling a couple condoms from Chess's drawer.

He may not have weed, but random pussy was a close second. He approached Uncle John awkwardly as he usually didn't bother his Aunt and Uncle for anything. John handed over the keys to the suburban and told him to be back before he had to leave in the morning. 

"I won't be that long. Thanks." Jay said, hopping in the suburban. As he drove he realized this was out of character for him. He realized he would never consider having anything to do with Steffie from Mav East on any other normal day of his life. But this was no normal day of his life. This day he decided he didn't care as much as everyone else around him didn't care.

He met Steffie in the Denny's parking lot on the edge of Mav East and Oaks.

She hopped in the passenger side of the Suburban in a Denny's uniform. "Hi, you're the one Macy was talking about. I'm Steffie." She smiled.

"Hi, Steffie. You got a job. I thought you-"

"Oh, I don't do that anymore." She said, applying her seatbelt. She released her blond hair from a clip and let it fall to her shoulders. She gazed at him with crystalline blue eyes, a friendly smile. "I need a ride and wouldn't mind some company, so you wanna drive me home?" She placed a black purse in her lap and waited for him to pull the truck out of the parking space.

"Oh, yeah, sure." Jay nodded. "Where we going?"

Jay followed her directions and he drove to her small efficiency apartment above a flower shop fifteen minutes away from the Denny's. "Takes more than an hour to get home on public transportation." She complained.

"Yeah, I know. I don't work too far from here and I got two busses to get home." He told her. "I'm off work and I saw your number in my phone. I thought what the hell."

"Yeah, I made enough money to get what I needed and then I found a job. I'm on a budget and I pick up extra shifts if I can. I got myself in a jam and had to think of something, so I made money the old fashioned way for awhile."

Jay parked and realized he wasn't in the best part of town. Stef said she found what she could afford and since living at home wasn't in the cards, she had to do what she had to do. She had dreams though, student loans and college and all she had to do, according to her, was make it through school and then life would get easier. She didn't plan on making Denny's a career, only a step to achieving a goal.

Stef opened the street level door with a key, then they climbed a flight of stairs to her efficiency. She lived in a box that she kept tidy. Used furniture and decorations courtesy of Target and Walmart. She locked them inside with a chain and a deadbolt and a handle lock. "You never know." She mused, turning the last lock. Jay noticed she had a baseball bat by the door. Stef slipped into her bathroom and shed the uniform. She came out in a satiny robe tied at the waist. "Macy said you're good people." She mentioned as she went in the kitchen area, which was visible over a counter partition that separated her living room/bedroom area. She opened her fridge. "Wanna drink?" She asked. "Or do you just wanna fuck and leave?"

"Oh, a drink would be nice, thanks." He said, approaching the counter. He set his keys down and took a glass of iced tea off her. "You talk with Mace a lot?"

"I do." She answered, filling her own glass.

Jay looked over the books laid out on the counter. Spring semester was over.

"Summer one." Stef said, seeing Jay looking over her school books. "I'm gonna be a guidance counselor." She announced. "Well, one day."

"Cool. I was going to school, but I quit. I was thinking social work. Something to do with kids, then a cop, and now I just don't know anything anymore."

"I know exactly how that feels." She agreed. "Ugh, it ain't easy figuring out what you want and then when life beats you up a little, you gotta figure it out fast."

"I think that's what's up right now. For me anyway." He looked at her pretty eyes. When she rounded the counter to him, he set his glass down.

"She said you were cute, but you are beyond cute." Stef smiled, untying her robe. She left it fall off her shoulders to the floor.

"Uh, you look just like your pictures." He said as he observed her nude body, her perky breasts, her slim waist.

Stef took his hand and walked him to her bed, hips swaying and a perfect small ass. She laid across her bed and stared up at him as he undressed. He wondered what she was thinking, feeling a bit self conscious. As she spread her legs, he got over it.

"You got condoms, Jay?"

"Yep." He nodded. He hadn't had to use one in ages and it was a minor inconvenience as he slipped it on and covered her body with his body.

What Jay envisioned as 45 minutes at most with a random girl for random sex turned into 4 hours of sex and conversation with a pretty girl who was as into the random sex and conversation as he was. Stef had a sweet little body and a decent personality to match it. Macy had told her more about his family than she needed to know, so she felt comfortable sitting with him, talking to him and getting off with him. She confessed after he came that she didn't want to get paid, she just wanted to hook up. From what Macy said, he came highly recommended.

"I never hooked up with her." Jay informed her.

"You didn't? I thought you and her hooked up. She said that she spent a weekend with you and a redhead."

Well, thanks, Tavin...Jay smiled. "Stef, you're thinking of my brother." He said, pulling out of her. He further moaned when he noticed the condom broke. He wondered whether to even say anything about that.

"Huh? What? Wait a minute, you're not the threesome guy?"

"Nope." He smiled, heading in her bathroom. "I'm his brother." Jay cleaned himself up and poked his head out of the bathroom. "Hey, Stef. Um, that condom broke."

"I know. I feel it." She replied, scurrying off her bed. She wound up next to him in the bathroom. "You're his brother?" She smiled, kissing his shoulder as she pressed against him. She watched as he cleaned up.

"Yeah, uh, if you were with my brother you would have never made it out of the parking lot at work and you woulda rode the bus home." Jay turned his head and kissed her forehead. "He would never call you to begin with. He wouldn't pay you for this."

"You're a great lay, Jayson, and I don't want your money. I told you I don't do that anymore."

"Oh, I'm sorry, I thought that...nevermind. Cool, then."

"We could do it again sometime." She said, standing on her tippy toes to reach his mouth with hers.

"You wanna fuck with me like that?"

"If you wanna fuck with me like that, then yeah, I'd do it again."

Jay stepped out of the bathroom and started getting dressed. He pulled his shorts on and took her robe to her, draping it around her shoulders. She slid her arms in the sleeves as Jay's hands settled on her waist, then slid over her stomach to perky breasts, a handful of firm breasts. As she grinded back against him with an even firmer ass, he started to get hard again.

"Got anymore condoms, Stef?" He asked, not wanting to let go of those breasts.

She moaned, placing her hands behind her and she pushed at his shorts.

"No," She answered as Jay freed up a hand to help her out with the shorts.

"You on anything?"

"No," She answered.

Fuck it, Jay thought as he pushed inside her. Fuck it.

Stef was an escape, a pretty and funny and sweet escape. He left her with a half hour to spare before his uncle had to go to work. On the ride home, he felt like he understood Tavin a little more. Maybe he needed an escape, too, from time to time. To forget, to feel wanted, to just get off without any fuss.

"Cutting it close, Jayson."

"Sorry, sorry, sorry. I know. I'm back though. Thanks." Jay set the keys on the kitchen table and hit the shower before he started firing questions at him. He set his phone on the sink and saw he messages from Julia and Tavin and one from Chess.

Chess-did you find any weed?

Julia texted him multiple times-where ya at, Jay? I thought we could talk.

He almost texted her back, but decided to let her wonder.

Tavin-I'm sorry, Jay. You can stay. I'm serious. UR my brother. I love you.

Tavin-where the hell did you go, man? You ok?

He called Tavin before he left the house to go to work. "Yo, I'm fine. I get it and you're right."

"Where you at? You like disappeared."

"Sandy's."

"You told Sandy on me?"

"I talked with her, yeah. I had to get out of there. Julia, you know."

"Yo, you never have to leave this place because of her, Jayson."

"I know. It was her, then you and then Alex and I had to get out of there."

"You two had it out? Or what are you doing?"

"I'm -uh- I can't answer that. Let her. I been up all night, so I'll see you later."

"Up all night doing what?"

Jay let out a little laugh, "Um, giving her a dose of her own medicine, brother." He regretted it as soon as he said it.

"No fuckin way. Who do you know? I mean, you don't have anyone else."

"You told me once, Tav, there was pussy everywhere. So..."

"A one nighter? Really. You?" He laughed. "Can I tell her? Please, Jay. Please. I wanna see the look on her face."

"Nah, don't tell her anything. Let her find out like I did."

As he fell asleep, he never thought he'd have to worry about her finding out anything. He hadn't planned on calling Stef again and doubted he'd hear from her again. He'd drag himself off the sofa in Sandy's basement and go home whenever he woke up and then he'd resume life. One day at a time with Julia, one foot in front of the other for Caroline's sake. He thought Julia was right, that she had a point when it came down to it about her and their relationship. He didn't regret anything he'd done since Christmas. He'd never be able to trust her. Would he be able to trust any girl because of Julia? He thought she didn't try hard enough. He had heard her story, listened to her excuses and he hadn't accepted or understood them. The more he thought about Julia and Julia going to bed with Chess and then the lies and denial that followed, he felt the right thing to do was cut it off with her and move on. Again. How many times had he thought that very thing? How many times would they go through it? If he stayed with her, things would get better between them if he let it happen. As soon as things improved, she'd find a reason or an excuse to mess everything up. He decided Julia was right. It was pointless.

Jay spent the rest of the week avoiding any interaction other than normal conversation and a routine hello and good bye. He didn't call her from work like usual. He didn't text her when they were apart. Jay reversed into the casual friendship that they had before Christmas with more distance between them. The only physical contact he made with Julia was an occasional belly rub when they were in bed together and even then Julia slept through it. When they woke in the morning, they were usually tangled up with each other, arms and legs and hair. Sometimes he'd wake first and separate from her and when she woke first, she usually left him hold onto her till he woke up.

Stef had also started texting him. He would hang on the phone texting back and forth with her on and off through the day and he found himself getting to know this girl by accident. She'd texted him on her break at work, then she called later on her next break and asked him flat out if he wanted to hook up again or not. "Yo, am I wasting my time here? I thought we had a good time."

"Oh, I thought you like wanted to go out somewhere."

"I don't want a boyfriend, Jayce." She hummed. "But we had fun, so yes or no?"

"Let me get this straight, you just wanna have sex, Stef?"

"And maybe smoke some weed. You smoke? I mean you don't have to."

Oh, you had me at smoke..."Hey, I can be there. You want me to get you at work?"

"Uh, yeah." She answered. "Around 10. Ok?"

"Yeah, sure."

Jay still held the phone in his hand and he looked at the ceiling above him. He texted Tavin.

-can I have the car?

-come get the keys

"Where you going?"

"I'm gonna go fuck this girl." Jay smiled.

"The one nighter?" Tavin asked, raising an eye brow at him.

"Yep. A two nighter. She got weed, man."

"What's this girl's name?"

"Stephanie. A cute little blond lives over near Oaks. She works at the Denny's and she goes to school and-"

"Jay, you got a life story from a one night stand?"

"Oh, she's a nice girl. We've been texting. I like her."

"Like her, like her?"

"I could hang with her, yeah. She's cool."

Tavin tossed him his car keys. "You clearly do not understand the concept of a one night stand."

"I was thinking about going, then she said weed and then it was a no brainer."

They quieted when they heard Julia coming up and heading into the bathroom. When the door closed, Tavin shook his head. "She know yet?"

"No." Jay answered quickly. "Thanks."

Jay head back downstairs and before Julia even came out of the bathroom he'd left the house. 

Stef leaned back on her pillows and looked over her belly at him as he licked at her. "How long can you do that?" She giggled.

"As long as you want." He answered, pushing her legs wider. He kissed and sucked each thigh then pulled back from her. She held the joint out to him. "Wow, that's good, too, Jayce. Is there anything you can't do? Who trained you?" She laughed, closing her thighs. "Thank the girl for me, please."

Jay opened her legs and moved up between them. He handed her the joint back. "I'll be sure to tell her when I see her."

"Oh, my God, seriously, I'm not used to that at all." She smiled, setting the joint on the edge of the ashtray. She wiggled her body down against him. He reached for a condom from the box on the bed with them. She wrapped her legs around his waist and pulled him down on her.

"You are the horniest girl ever." Jay said, rolling them both over, setting her up on top of him. She leaned down and kissed him, then held the bed frame above him, dipping breast into his open mouth one at a time as she moved on top of him. "You feel so good, Stef." He said, thinking of Julia. She'd done this to him a million times only Stef was making it feel better. She knew what she was doing, pleasing herself and not him. He only benefitted from her. She sat up straight on him when she was ready and leaned back, her hips rising and falling on him, her rhythm quickened and he started to move below her.

"Don't." She moaned, holding her hands firm against his thighs. "Don't move."

She repeated loudly.

"Alright, J-Geeze, " He caught himself, then fixed the slip up more for himself than her. She hadn't even noticed he'd started to say her name.

Stef was a bossy and demanding lay, knowing exactly what she enjoyed and how she wanted him to make her feel. She didn't need instruction. She even volunteered oral, shifting off him and shimmying down over his legs. He watched as she gave him head, putting her mouth completely over him and she pulled the condom off with her teeth. She spit it over the bed.

"Stef, what-"

"Shh, I want to swallow you." She grinned, then went back to work. He rested his head back on the pillow. He wasn't about to argue with the girl. Though the more time he spent with her, he felt like he knew her. He had one just like her at home.

While Stef was in the bathroom, he dressed halfway, pulling his shorts on. He listened as she ran the water and got a shower. She hummed to herself while she bathed. He saw the similarities between this sweet and sexy girl and the sweet and sexy girl at home. Do all hookers train the same place? He wondered. Do all bipolar girls have the same weird personality traits or was he a glutton for punishment? Or was she just a random, normal, fun and sexual person? He had more questions than he had answers and he head to the bathroom doorway, saw the outline of her body through the clear yet fogged shower curtain.

"Hey, Stef. I'm gonna go." He said.

"Oh, you sure, Jayce?" She said, sounding kind of disappointed when she asked.

"Um, yeah, I uh gotta go."

"You got somewhere to be in the morning?"

"Um, not exactly. Did you want me to stay?" He regretted asking that question as soon as he said the words.

She pulled the shower curtain aside, standing soapy and nude in front of him. Everything inside of him at that moment said turn around and leave, run, escape. Jay, you don't need two of them. One's enough. You got enough trouble right now and they're too much alike...

This girl didn't even need to speak, her eyes said it all as she stood waiting for him. The water ran over her body, over her breasts and over that ass that was so firm.

Fuck it, he thought, just fuck it all...he mumbled to himself as he dropped the shorts he'd just put on and got into the shower with her. Her turned her around and she poked her perfect ass up at him, looking over her shoulder at him.

Fuck it...he thought.

He woke to the cell ringing around six thirty. He saw his brother's number on the screen.

"What the fuck, Jayson."

"Shit. I'm sorry. I'm leaving now."

"I got a ride. Fuck. Just pick me up after work."

"Yeah, I will."

"That pussy that good, man?"

"Yes, absolutely. Without a doubt. No comparison. Nothing out there like it." Jay said sleepily into the phone. He'd had two hours sleep. He set the phone back on the table and fell back to sleep.

Around noon he awoke for the second time, feeling heat against his skin. "Stef, God, you're hot." He said, scooting away from her. He felt her flesh moist against him. "Geeze, Stef." He moaned, rolling over to uncover her and let her cool off. He opened his eyes after pulling the sheets off her. "Hey, Stef, girl. Wake up." He called, shaking her a little. She groaned and he jumped away from her, his heart rate picking up a little. He rubbed his eyes and sat up. "Stef." He yelled, taking hold of her hand. She looked ill. "Oh, shit." Jay gasped, shaking her by her shoulder. She felt like she was on fire. "Oh, shit, no." He said, getting up. "Hey, Stef, talk to me. Wake up."

She roused only a little and he felt fear. Fear she was running, fear she was seeing death in the flesh and on her heels. "Jayson." She struggled to find her voice. Her eyes opened only for a moment. He reached for his phone.

"Hey, tell me how you feel, Stef."

"Pain." She managed to say. Her mouth was dry, her lips dry.

"Where, Stef?"

She didn't answer as he found Chess's number and he called him. Jay pulled down her eyelids and she recoiled from the light. That got her moving and she covered her face with her hands for only an instant till she closed her eyes again. Jay jumped when she moved, leaving her eyes go. She moaned again, waking only a moment to curl into a fetal position. Her small nude body in a ball and she rocked a little complaining about her stomach hurting. She complained about the light and he pulled the shades down, pulled the curtains closed, but turned on the kitchen light.

He got Chess's voice mail. He disconnected, then redialed. He left a message. "Chess, call me. There's a problem." He hung up and he stared at Stef. Should he call 911? He wanted to call 911. He called Chess again, then again till he left another message. "Stef, you with me, girl?" He asked her, pulling on some shorts in a hurry. Her skin flushed red and she started gagging. He grabbed a towel from the floor and folded it beneath her head, making sure she stayed on her side. "Stef." He repeated as he nervously texted Chess.

-fuckin answer me

The phone rang in his hand and Jay answered. "Yo, I got a problem."

"Is this about Julia?" He asked. "Jay, she told me she talked to you-"

"No, it's not that. I got this girl. She's hot, photophobic, stomach pain, nausea. She's like semi-conscious. I think I got her sick."

"Huh? What?"

"I think I have a girl with the infection."

"Is it Julia?"

"No." Jay answered. "Her name's Stef. I need you or your people. She's sick." Jay hesitated. "I can call 911. Should I call 911? I'm gonna call 911." He said, losing his ability to breathe and speak at the same time. He went in the kitchen with his towel he used the night before and he soaked it with cold water, then rung it out. He took it back to her. "Chess, should I or are you gonna deal with her?"

"She dead? Dying?"

"No, she's alive and up till 330 or so she was as fine as me." He placed the towel over her to cool her down. "Stef, babe, talk to me." Jay called, crouching next to the bed. She started drooling blood from the corner of her mouth. "Blood, Chess. She's infected."

"Jay, who is she?" He asked. Jay could hear him moving around wherever he was. He'd set the phone down and was getting dressed. He had Jay on speaker phone and was talking to someone in the background. "Jay, gimme a minute ok? Go through the symptoms again."

"She's hot. I don't have a thermometer. She can't take bright lights, so I closed her shades and curtains. Complaining of abdominal pain and now she's drooling blood. She's semi-conscious." Jay stopped when Stef started moaning. He held the phone over Stef as she let the guttural moans escape her mouth then the whimpering. "Hear that? Sound familiar? I got her sick. Fuck, I did this to her."

"Shut the fuck up, Jay. We don't talk about that. Keep your fucking mouth shut." Chess snapped at him. "I'll call McGill. If she dies, you got this?"

"I do, but-shit."

"Address."

"Huh? Um I don't know."

"Jayson, pull it together and calm down. Think, where are you?"

"Yo, I seriously don't know the exact address. On 221, on the border of Oaks, but in Maverick above the flower shop."

"If you gotta call 911, then do it. Call me if you do and we'll re-route. Send me a picture of her."

"She doesn't have clothes on. Should I try to-"

"No. Jay, who is this girl?"

"A friend." Jay answered. He heard a car starting and someone talking to him in the background.

"We're coming." Chess disconnected to call McGill on a Sunday afternoon. McGill never had a day off and he was on call 24/7/365.

Jay sat next to her. "Hey, if you hear me, Stef, you gotta fight them. Whatever you do, fight them."

He sat next to her a few minutes before he got up and replaced the cold towel on her to cool her off again. He dialed Tavin's number. "You busy on a Sunday, Tavin?"

"Believe it or not, no. Why? You ok?"

"Um, can you spare an IV? I need fluids and I may need oxygen."

"What's up? Are you still at the girl's place?"

"Drive by. Bring your bag. Leave your partner outside."

"Are you in trouble?"

"Yeah, I need help."

"Where are you?"

Within five minutes his brother was in the apartment with a bag. His partner trusted him fortunately. Jay made him put on isolation gear and then he went to work. Her vitals were unstable and she was definitely dehydrated. He searched for a viable vein and barely got an IV in her. Jay held the bag up and let it free flow into her.

"Ice, Jay. She got any? Pack her in ice. She's 104."

Jay head to the freezer and emptied all the girl's ice into an empty shopping bag. He threw a couple bags of frozen food on her as well.

"She should go, Jay."

"They're coming. You gotta go." Jay warned him.

"Um, Jay, what the fuck happened here?"

"She was fine when we went to sleep. I woke up and she was like this. I think I got her sick."

"Jay, this could be a lot of stuff."

"You seen this before and so have I and I got her sick."

Tavin pulled two more bags of fluids from the pack and did one last set of vital signs. He wrote them down. He ran a rhythm strip and left that with the vitals. "She'll stabilize with the fluids for a minute, but if she starts seizing or, Jay, what if she dies?"

"I'll handle it."

Tavin said to let bag number two run in quick like the first. He showed him how to slow down the flow with the clamp. The third bag, he told Jay, run slow.

"Seizure. Hemorrhage. Distress. You call 911 and I will come back."

"I'd say this is distress." Jay said as Tavin peeled off his yellow gown and mask and gloves. He dropped them in the trash can and then scrubbed himself up in the sink.

"I'm serious, Jay."

"Yeah, thanks. I want to keep her alive till they get here."

"You want me to stay?"

"I can handle a 100 pound girl." He muttered.

Tavin noticed her lips were turning purple. He reattached all the equipment to her and rechecked all her vitals. He placed oxygen on her, running the tank at 5 Liters. "Jay, get him on the fucking phone before I get fired, please."

Jay called Chess. "Here, talk with Tav."

Tavin got on the phone. "I want McGill. Now or I am rolling outta here with your patient."

Within five minutes Tavin had McGill on Jay's cell phone and described the patient's condition and vitals as well as what he'd done for her. "How far out are you?" Tavin asked him. He listened. "Yeah, ice packs and fluids are running. I'm bolusing her D 5 1/2 Normal saline. Approximately 1200 milliliters so far and I have an extra bag for him. I think she's stable for now, but I don't feel comfortable leaving her here with him." He listened as McGill's voice spoke calmly through the phone. "Look, it is not a done deal if she codes. I have done this before and we successfully revived her. That is a fact." Jay paced as Tavin listened to McGill. "I suggest you turn on the lights and sirens." He glanced at his brother. "Go tell Shorty to trust me. I'm not going anywhere. You better hope we don't get a fucking call, Jay."

"I'm sorry. I did this to her."

"Shut up, Jay, this takes murdering the pussy to a whole new level."

"Ugh, no. I didn't mean to-"

"This is like level expert." He laughed. "Oh, sorry, sometimes we use humor to-nevermind. Shorty. Go tell him please."

When Jay came back up to the apartment, he brought Chess and his partner, Ben with him. Chess assured him that the doc wasn't far behind them. Tavin was over Stef on the floor and she was semi covered. "Light. I need light." He said, pulling her head back.

"What are you doing?"

"Tubing her. She's not breathing." He said opening packages in front of him. The three watched as he slid the tube down her throat. Chess mentioned it looked just like TV. "Bag, Jay." He pointed to the bag in his kit. Jay opened the package and handed it to Tavin and he hooked it to the tube in her throat. He squeezed and he watched her chest rise and fall. He listened with a scope the first couple times that he squeezed the bag. "Jay, grab this and squeeze it like I did, please." He moved away from Stef's head and applied the pads to her chest. He felt for a pulse as he looked at his monitor. Jay kept giving her air and Tavin readied the machine to zap her. "Let go." Tavin said, he pressed the paddles on the shock pads on her chest and he said, "Clear." He squeezed the paddles and the shock jolted Stef's body. He looked at the monitor. Jay reached for the bag and Tavin said, "Clear", then Stef's body jolted to the second shock.

Jay grabbed the bag and started squeezing. The rhythm returned and she started vomiting blood.

"Move," Jay shoved Tavin away from her, holding her on her side. Blood spewed onto Jay's shorts and chest. Tavin backed away from the blood and looked at the monitor. He got behind her and held her over.

"Air, Jay." Tav said, seeing how distressed his brother was. "Jay, she's alive." He said, reassuring him. "You know, you're good at this, Jayson."

"Eh, so are you."

Both brothers stared at Chess and Ben as they stared at the scene that played out in front of them. Stef wretched again. Blood oozed from her mouth and onto the carpet.

Jay looked at Chess and Ben. "She needs to go."

"Should have already left." Tavin mumbled.

Chess and Ben replied in the negative and five minutes later the team from Maryland arrived to a bloody scene dressed in full isolation gear. They took a full report from Tavin and scooped up all his equipment, then left with their patient. McGill stood cautiously in the hallway as he watched and listened.

"I see you revived her."

"Successfully. I told you so." Tavin remarked, moving to the kitchen sink. He scrubbed his hands and arms twice and then dried off with paper towels. Jay needed more than hand washing as he stood by the bed. Ben had gone in the ambulance with the patient and the medics.

"Who else have you revived?" McGill asked.

"Julia." Tavin muttered, looking at his brother and his cousin. "It killed her the first time."

"I sent your partner back to work. Your equipment will be replaced by the end of the shift and your employer is under advisement that your girlfriend is having a pregnancy issue. You had to leave."

Tavin pulled his cigarettes from his pocket and since there was no patient and the lie had been fabricated, he felt comfortable lighting up.

"Doc, what do we do with them?" Chess asked.

"Me?" Tavin raised his voice. "Chess, try me."

"Jayson, we will have to determine how she contracted the infection. Can you shed some light?"

"Not now, no." He answered, looking around at the three men that shared the room with him.

"There was sexual contact, Jayson."

Jay turned from them and went in the bathroom.

"Jay, it's cool. We ain't gonna rat on you."

"This is not cool, Chess. I don't care if Julia knows or not, but damn...Doc, has this happened before or am I gonna infect everyone like that?" He came back in the room with them.

"We need to contact those you have had sex with, Jayson."

"I had sex with her." Jay pointed to the bed.

"Julia, Jayson?" Chess asked.

"No." He shook his head. "You know why." He looked at Chess, then McGill. "Do I gotta go back to quarantine?"

"You're immune, but obviously you have introduced this into the community." McGill pointed out.

"The community? One vagina." Jay corrected him.

"Did you cover it up, Jay?"

"Yeah. Well, not every time." He answered honestly. He stood nervously. "I can't have sex? Doc, for how long?" McGill didn't have a clear answer. "Doc, are we talking forever? Oh, my fuckin God." Jay went back in the bathroom and closed the door.

"Damn." Tavin said under his breath. "I would kill myself, if that was the case. I would kill myself."

"Could you imagine?" Chess sighed, shaking his head. 

"Are you taking them or what, doc?"

"You aren't taking me any damn place." Tavin refused.

"No one asked you to get involved, Tavin."

"Jayson asked me to get involved. I'm sick of this shit, Chess."

"And I'm not?" Chess yelled. "I didn't wanna make this a career. I wanted a machine gun and a desert. I should be sniping ISIS right now. That's what I thought about when I signed the dotted line. I didn't expect this shit every single day of my life. I'm tired of cleaning up your zombie messes."

"Unless it's Red, right?"

"I love her like I love my family. That's why I take care of her."

"Sure it is."

"Why do you have trouble believing that?"

"Why do you have trouble believing it when I say it?"

"I am tired of arguing about her too. She's causing problems."

"How's she causing problems?"

"You gotta ask? He left the house because of her. It's like she's forcing me to choose between the two of them."

"What do you do to make that decision? Flip a coin?"

"Chess, he's my brother. His sanity comes first. Think it was an easy choice for me? I get along with the girl. I take her whatever she does, but she went too far in that lab. She went too far on that doc appointment and she will always go too far messing with his head."

"You started this. You never could keep your hands off her."

Jay opened the bathroom door and poked his head out. Tavin tossed him a set of scrubs he had from the ambulance. He always kept a set in the rig.

"Stop fighting." He said from the bathroom. Once dressed, he joined them. "Everyone's right about everything, so can we go?"

"Doc, where we going?" Chess asked.

"To the lab. Where else?" The three looked wearily at Tavin.

"I got a baby coming. I am not going to any lab." He sounded so insistent and confident. "I work. I got stuff to do. I can't just disappear."

"Mr Keller, it is an inconvenience, yes."

"No. Who's gonna take care of-" Tavin silenced. "Julia will." 

"I told you to leave."

"Like I would have left you handle that alone. I knew she was gonna die, Jayson." When they went outside, an unmarked white van waited for them. Chess knew Tavin would put up a struggle and there were two very large and serious marines awaiting them, armed and ready. "I am not going. I told you." Tavin still declined the invitation. "I have rights."

They held the rear doors open and he watched as Jay climbed inside. "Just get in, Tavin." He muttered. "Chess, call Julia and let her know we'll be away."

"What do you want me to tell her?"

"Believe the lie you can't talk about. How about that?" Jay replied sarcastically.

Tavin reluctantly climbed inside and sat beside Jayson.

"I am not sick. I can monitor myself. There's no reason for any of this."

Tavin was fuming mad. He hadn't seen the light of day in two days. His assessments, vitals and lab work were normal. He allowed them every single bit of information as well as blood and samples they chose to extract, some samples more humiliating than others. He felt violated upon completion.

"If I was gonna get sick I would have by now."

He stood at the glass in gray sweats rolled up like shorts and shirtless. White sweat socks on his feet. He didn't like being clothed or closed in. He put up a fuss with every staff member and eventually they had enough and informed him they would sedate him if he didn't stop.

"You make me come here and now you want me silent? What are you gonna do?"

"Tavin, please just sit down and stop. You're driving me crazy with all this anger."

"How can you sit there and be so complacent?" He yelled. "You just go along with this...this is crazy."

"They're gonna drug you. Shut up, Tav."

"This is so wrong, Jay."

Jay flipped through the channels, then held up the cards. "Wanna play?"

"No, I don't wanna play. This is not how the health system is supposed to work."

"It is what it is. They're trying to do the right thing."

"How many other people are in labs just like this all across the country? How many other people are being held against their will?" He yelled through the glass. "When I leave here I don't want anything to do with this ever again."

"Ok, Tav." Jay sighed, laying back on the bed. As if it was that easy. He laid on his side and he looked through the glass to the next sick bay and saw Stef laying in her bed. She still hung on. She still had fluids running into her. She'd stopped vomiting. The tube protruded from her mouth, the ventilator breathed for her. "I bet she's on the adventure of a life time." Jay watched her chest rise and fall.

"Yeah, I bet." Tav agreed, pushing on the door. He pressed the button that he'd seen McGill press to get out of the quarantine room. He heard the buzz and then pushed the glass. Nothing. He did it again and repeated the action till Georgie stood before him at the door with a syringe.

"Let me tell you what's going to happen to you. I'm going to have two men enter that room and tie you to that bed over there. Then I will enter this room and I will inject this directly into your deltoid. I will inject you around the clock until you are discharged. Do you understand me?"

Tavin smiled and winked at her.

"Then while you lay sedated on the bed and tied down, no one will release you or provide care for you. You will soil yourself until you are thrown out of this lab. Do you understand me?"

"Georgie is serious." Jay advised him.

Tavin looked over the woman who stood all of five foot three, one hand on a hip and the other holding up a syringe. Her blue scrubs were a size too big for her and her face was scrunched up and red.

"Why do you wear that thing around your head?" Tavin asked.

Georgie wrapped her hair up in a clip and then applied a thick hair band around her head to keep all her hair up, which she swore she wore to keep her hair from being soiled. Jay had asked the same question, but the more he listened to Georgie speak about her marriage and her husband, the dynamic of her family, there was more to it. She definitely didn't like to be prodded on her outfits that were too big and her hair bands that hid long pretty brown hair. She never wore make up either. It was clear she chose to look as unattractive as physically possible. Or her husband made her look as unattractive as possible.

"Do you understand me?" She repeated. She loosened up a little. "It will not be much longer for either of us. I assure you of that."

"Georgie, he understands." Jay said, pulling a light blanket over himself. "Come on, brother. I'm gonna knock you out myself, if you don't stop."

"You're part of the conspiracy."

"I am a nurse. And you, you are a pain in the ass."

"They say those in the health care field are the most difficult patients." He told her. "Put your syringe away, Georgie." Tavin backed down and went to his bed voluntarily. "She's a peach." He commented, laying back on the stiff mattress. "Remote, Jay." He held out his hand and waited for Jay to hand it over, which he did, only he tossed it from his bed to Tavin's.

Jay felt sleepy, so he laid his head down and he fell asleep while he watched Stef breathe.

He woke in the dark to a cold chill. Opening his eyes, he glanced around the darkness and he saw he was enclosed in wood. A cabin, maybe. He rolled over and he felt her body laying next to his covered in sleeping bags. "Julia?" He said, shaking the bag, trying to adjust his eyes to the dark around them. "Hey, Jules, wake up. Where are we now?" She wore a dark red hat on her head, slept in her coat.

She roused from slumber, taking his gloved hands in hers and snuggled against him. "It's too early, Jayce." She mumbled in a whisper.

Shit, that's not Julia..."Alright. Go back to sleep."

Jay kicked off the sleeping bag and comforter, then tucked them around her to keep her warm. He scrambled to his knees, feeling around the floor. There had to be supplies. If he was running with her, then he'd have the basics. They wouldn't be defenseless, lightless and without some sort of supplies. He finally found a duffel bag and he went through the pockets, the inside. A flashlight. Before flicking the light on, he felt around the walls for a door, and when he didn't find one, he turned it on. A wooden box. Big enough for him to stand clear head to toe. There were some old and fading pictures, a small table and small chairs, those bought for children, not adults. He shined the light on the ceiling then the floor. There was a hatch in the floor. He lifted it and looked down at a ladder and grass below.

"I'm in a tree house." He said aloud, dipping his body so he could poke his head out the hatch opening and take a look around. A tree house in someone's yard in the middle of the night. "Stef, wake up. Stef." He called.

"What?" She moaned.

"Where are we, Steffie?"

"Oaks." She answered. "Where else would we be?"

"Ok, Stef." He closed the hatch. He crawled across the floor and he got back beneath the sleeping bag and the comforter. His companion wiggled back against him, her firm round ass pressing against him.

"Jayce," Her voice hummed. She smoothed her jeans over wide hips and rubbed back against him. Being a living and breathing male, he hurried and pulled his sweats over his hips. His hands held her hips and eased her onto him.  Stef moved and grinded on him. "You got a perfect ass, Stef." He groaned as he came. She pulled off him and fixed her jeans back around her bare ass. She fell back to sleep like she'd never been awake. 

When he woke later, the sun was bright outside. Inside the tree house it had warmed up some. Several spots in this tree house were worn and the construction was iffy at best. Sunlight streaked through the gaps in the boards. Jay rolled up his bag and then tied it in a roll. He gathered up their supplies and he stuffed them in the bag. He then took to the task of waking his friend.

"Hey, wake up. We gotta go, Stef."

"Where, Jay?" She asked, tears formed in her eyes. "Where we going, Jay?"

"Why are we in a tree house instead of in the house?" He asked, lifting the hatch. "Come on. I gotta piss." He tossed the comforter aside and then slid the sleeping bag off her.

She sat up, stretching, rubbing her eyes. "You're gonna help me." She said, smiling through a frown as the tears flowed.

"I'm taking you someplace safe." He rolled up her sleeping bag and tied it in a roll. "Weapons, Stef?" Jay asked, dropping the bags and the duffel bag through the open hatch.

She shook her head. "We run, Jayce."

"Oh, no. Not anymore." He stepped out of the tree house onto the top step and then climbed down. He looked around the yard. "Down, Stef. Now." He called, walking around on the grass toward the street. He looked up and down the road. A couple blocks down he saw a group of them and he crept back to the tree house. He pointed to the house. "People in there or no?"

"I'm not sure. We saw this and you said-" She replied as he walked with her toward the rear door.

"Ok. Ok. Dead in there?" He asked as he peered through a window.

She shrugged. "I don't know. I haven't heard anything, but-"

Jay tried the knob and when that didn't work, he broke the window and let them into the kitchen. Jay rummaged quietly through the drawers and the cabinets till he found the knife he wanted, then he told her to wait there while he looked through the house. She didn't listen, following along behind him. He stopped, pointed to the kitchen and then instructed her to wait till he was done clearing the house. "There's a way to do this. Go find us something to eat." Jay cleared the house and then took a piss. He tried the water, turning the knobs on the sink. Nothing. He tried the switch on the wall, nothing. He figured as much. When he returned downstairs, he opened the basement door and since there was no odor, he felt safe going down there. He cleared the basement and being that there was enough light from the basement windows level with the ground, he had Stef bring him containers from the kitchen. Any buckets she could find and any empty pitchers. As Stef brought them downstairs, he found the tools he needed and went to work on the fairly new hot water heater.

"What are you doing?"

"Getting us some clean water." He answered. "Unless you prefer the toilet water."

"Oh, ok."

He started filling up the containers and he had her carry them all upstairs. He looked in the laundry room and he had her carry the bleach upstairs as well. Jay sealed up the hot water heater and head upstairs with a crowbar and an axe he found with the tools. He handed her a few pitchers and had her set them on the back porch in the sun. "Direct sunlight, Stef." He reminded her as he unscrewed the cap off the bleach bottle. He poured some in a measuring cup from the laundry area down the basement and he dipped in a paper towel from the counter. Stef watched him as he added a few drops of bleach to each container and he told her to stir the water or shake the containers that had lids.

"What about these?" She asked, pointing to the cleaning buckets he'd filled.

"When was the last time we got a bath?" He asked, picking them up. He pointed at the gray bucket. "Wash." He said, then he pointed at the red bucket. "Rinse. Or vice versa."

"Good, thank you."

"Hey, we're gonna be alright."

"I know." She cried.

"What's to eat? You find anything?"

"Some canned goods. Spaghetti and veggies."

Their options were limited, so they chose to share a can of cold spaghetti. Jay set out a few more cans on the table next to the water, the crowbar and the axe. He set the can opener with the cans. He carried the buckets of water to the second floor and set them in the bathroom, then they both found clean clothes that would fit them.

Jay started scrubbing first, standing in the bathtub with the buckets and the curtain pulled in front of him.

"Stef, could you tell me why we were in a tree house instead of in the house?"

"We were being chased and that's where we went." She answered. "Are you mad at me?"

"No. Why?"

"You're different this morning. You're not your usual self."

"I woke up in a tree house, Stef. I'm dirty. I had to pee and I was hungry."

"How's that different from any other day?"

"True." He replied. "Why are we alone? Where's everyone else?"

"Who's everyone else?"

Jay reached for his towel off the rack and wrapped up. "Go ahead. Your turn." He opened the hall closet while she was in the bathroom and wrapped another towel around his shoulders. He grabbed a deodorant, toothbrushes and some toothpaste. He went back to the bathroom and scooped a cup of clean water from the rinse bucket so he could brush his teeth. His mouth tasted strange. He had a film on his teeth.

She peeked around the curtain. "Here's a tooth brush." He set one for her on the sink and took his own with him to the bedroom. He dried off, got dressed and head back downstairs with their new supplies.

He grabbed his bag from the back porch and started going through it, placing everything on the kitchen table. They had a decent cache of supplies, especially with all they'd gleaned from the house. He looked for a recycle bin inside, then outside. There were old plastic containers in the bin so he grabbed a gallon jug and a few smaller water bottles, then set out in the kitchen sink to clean them.

When Stef came downstairs, the girl brought nothing with her.

"Stef, the buckets. The clothes, the tooth-where's the stuff from upstairs?"

"Up there. Why?"

Jay finished cleaning the bottles and rinsed them then swished some bleach around the bottles, shaking them well to get them as clean as possible. He filled up the bottles, thinking this girl would be a lot of hard work. When he finished, he set the water bottles on the table. He took her back upstairs and he handed her a bag of her own. He took her to the closet in the hall. They stood in front of the shelves. "Anything?" He asked as he looked inside.

"No."

Jay handed her a pack of pads.

"I'm not on my period, Jayce." She looked at him, lost to the idea of planning ahead.

"You will be eventually." He head to the bathroom and then as he handed her supplies from the cabinet beneath the sink. Had he been with Julia she would have already done all of this. "Gotta think, Stef. Think ahead and think about your place in the world now."

"You always make the runs and you always find the things we need."

"It's getting cold and it's gonna get colder, Stef. We need shelter, heat. We'll never survive if we don't get these basic things. Ok."

"Ok." She started crying again, stuffing everything in her bag.

When they got to the kitchen table, he had her take everything back out and place it on the table. He looked over everything a moment to see if anything was missing. He put clean silverware and a couple dish rags on the table.

"How are you carrying all this?"

"I'm not. We are." He answered, dividing things in half between him and her and he started packing the bags. He found a large sandwich bag and filled it with her pads, then placed that in her bag for her. He divided up the water bottles and placed them in the bags, then affixed the gallon jug of water to his bag with a rope through the loop at the top of the bag. He tried to center it over the middle of his back.

"I need a knife. A pocket knife or something. I'll find one." He thought aloud incase he needed to cut that gallon off him quick. That gallon would weigh him down. "Hey, the water on the porch, bring one in."

Stef stepped and fetched. She could follow directions at the very least. He tried having some sympathy for her, thinking back on his own first night and his own situation. He was as lost as she was back then. When she brought the pitcher in he started drinking the water. He handed a pitcher to her. She looked at him with some suspicion, but she took a much needed drink.

"It's clean." He reminded her as she cautiously took a sip.

"It is." She nodded, taking a bigger drink. "It tastes like water."

Jay tied the empty buckets from the bath to her bag. "I think we're ready."

"I'm ready, Jayce." She smiled as she looked up to him. He knew that smile, her eyes said it all. He wondered how she did that to him, spoke with her eyes. A look, the kind that he knew well only slightly different.

"Stef, we got stuff to do, girl." He told her as she reached her mouth toward his.

He kissed her, holding her hands and he backed her toward the living room. She teased him with her tongue, sliding it over his lips and around his mouth as her clothes started coming off. The late October chill didn't hold her back as she stripped to nothing in front of him. Plump little nipples on full round breasts. He tugged at her nipples with his fingers while she kissed him then he moved his mouth down her neck to her chest. His hands held her breasts as his mouth covered each brown nipple. She backed him to the white sofa behind them and he sat back as she straddled across his lap. Her legs spread and waiting for him as he kissed and sucked her breasts, leaving tiny hickeys over her light skin. His hands fumbled with his jeans, shimmying them over his hips and to his knees. Before he could get comfortable, she positioned herself and slid over him.

"Aah, Stef, that's so hot." He groaned, feeling her tighten around him, her grip amazing and warm and as she moved she knew exactly how to work her hips to tease him or please him. She tightened and loosened around him as she lifted then lowered on him and he felt sure that this girl was going to be around awhile. Whether she was crazy or weird or just totally being herself, he wasn't exactly sure yet, but what she was doing on him had never been done before. "Stef, keep going, girl. I love that. Stef..." He breathed heavy, couldn't catch his breath as she rode him. She held his hands, fingers intertwined in his as she leaned back as far as she could. When she started to come, her tiny body began to shudder and she moved as hard and fast on him. He emptied in side her and she kissed him, throwing her arms around his neck, she shivered from the orgasm, her body trembled.

"That was fucking great, Jayce." She giggled.

"That's the best pussy." He swore at that moment it was the only pussy he ever wanted to get inside ever again. "Nothing compares to that."

She placed her small hands against his cheeks, holding his face to hers.  "Like this super snatch, do you?" She giggled.

"Yeah, that is most definitely, without question the most super snatch, Stef."

"Yep, I know." She winked, hopping off him. She began to dress.

"Hey, come back here. Where you going?" He caught her arms as she stood in front of him wearing nothing but unbuttoned jeans. Her blond hair hung to her shoulders, cut sharp at an angle that framed her face. Those pretty blue eyes.

"Hmmm, Jayce, what are we gonna do?" She giggled. She had a happy laugh, a wide and genuine smile. This kid was happy in the middle of an apocalypse with her boyfriend. Jay assumed that's what he was.

"We gonna do that again." He grinned, giving her a tug onto the couch. He laid her out beneath him and pulled her jeans off while his lips caressed her breasts again. Boobs...Jay thought...perfect boobs, just enough. He felt a need for this girl. He felt the pull to her, easy, playful, touching her, tasting her, exploring her.

"Hey, we really need to leave this house." Jay told her as they cuddled up against each other for warmth. They lay beneath a handful of blankets in the king sized bed of the master bedroom in this house. He suddenly realized why they didn't make it out of Oaks. They didn't get out of each other's pants long enough to leave.

"Go where?" She asked. "We can go absolutely anywhere we please, live anywhere we choose. It's wide open, Jayce. When we run out of stuff here, we'll go. It's worked this far, right?"

"We need to keep warm. Maybe some place with a fireplace."

"Great. We'll do that. Tomorrow. For now, we'll keep each other warm right here, just like this."

"Good. In the morning, we'll go find ourselves a dream house with a fireplace."

"You know how to start a fire."

"Oh, yes, girl. I know how to start a fire."

"Oh, my. There's a fire right here." She said, drawing his hand to her thighs.

"My favorite fire."

Jay grabbed the water pitchers from the porch and he carried them to the tree house in the back yard. He climbed up there three times, each time, placing the water in the tree house, then he closed the hatch. In case they had to come back for some reason, or if they got separated, there was drinking water available. Jay did the talking while she did the listening. He gave her numerous pointers to remember, or try to remember if they got separated. They got about three blocks away from the house when she started complaining that the pack was heavy and the only advice he could give was 'You get used to it'. She had no idea what exactly he was looking for or exactly where they were going, but she kept a pace with him. He stopped when he found a driveway with a car in it.

"Here." He said, looking inside the Ford Focus. Jay walked on the porch, leaving Stef off to the side looking in the window.

"Oh, he's dead." She said, looking in the window at the zom who sat immobile in his chair in the living room.

"Good." Jay said, dropping his bag on the porch. He pulled the crow bar from his bag. He tapped the door, which got its attention. Its head snapped toward the direction of the door and Stef gasped. Jay turned the knob. Locked. He wedged the crowbar between the door and the jamb and gave it a shove as he pried the door.

"It's getting up."

"Ok. Stay here." He said, giving another good push and another forceful pry of the door. It gave and he went inside, shutting the door behind him. One swift motion of the crow bar through the elderly man's skull, he dropped in a heap to the floor. Stef watched through the window as Jay approached. "Watch your back, not me." He reminded her, pointing toward the street. Stef spun around, thinking there was something or someone behind her, but it was as clear as they'd left it. Jay came back outside with a key ring. He hit the button on the key pad and the car unlocked. "Wheels."

Stef hurried behind him to the car, tossing her bag in the back seat like Jay did. Then he started the car and drove them away with half a tank of gas.

"Where we going, Jayce?" She asked.

"We'll know when we see it, right. Fire place, so look for a chimney."

Georgie woke him up with a dinner tray, setting it in front of him on his table. "Hey, Jay. Time to eat, bud." She called, waking him from a dream that he really wished to continue. 

"No, Georgie. No. You woke me up." He moaned, adjusting his eyes to the bright fluorescent lights above him.

"Yep, dinner." She grinned. "Extra cheesecake. I know you like it."

"What about me?" Tavin asked, looking at his own tray.

"I don't like you." She shrugged, stepping out of the room.

"Thanks, G." Jay called. "That's why she's my favorite."

"She's a monster, Jay."

"Oh, no she isn't. I will share with you."

Jay sat through his meal, describing his day with Stef. From tree house to car ride. 

"Dream or real, you think?"

"Real for her."

"So where's Red?" He asked.

"No clue. We'll make our own way."

"You're gonna get to know this girl. You're gonna fall for this girl."

"The sex though." He pointed over his shoulder to the unconscious girl who lay in bed in the room next door. "She's crazy, too. I like her." Jay ate his first slice of cheesecake in his happy state of mind.

"You still do not grasp the concept of a one night stand, Jayson. Are we even related at all?"

"I think so." Jay smiled, happier than he'd been in a long while.

During dessert, Dr McGill approached the glass and he spoke with Jay. "We've analyzed the virus and you did not transmit this virus to her, Jayson."

"Then who did?"

"We've cross analyzed the virus in her blood against all the variations and DNA in the system and this leads back to you." Dr McGill looked at Tavin.

"I don't know the girl, doc. I never saw her before Jay called me."

"We crosschecked all the variations of your blood work with that in the database. And this matches two other individuals." Dr McGill didn't say names, but they guessed by the look on his face who the two virus donors were. "You all have the same original virus. Jayson, you may have activated it with your contact as you have a different variation."

"None of us know her, so how did she get it to begin with?"

"There may have been a dormancy and then when Jayson and she had relations, it activated her immune response and she was overwhelmed." Dr McGill replied, rubbing his head with frustration. "Have any of you ever come in contact with her before this date ever? Even in passing? Tavin?"

"No." They both replied in unison.

"The Morgans?" McGill pressed them.

"Macy is her cousin."

"Who is Macy?"

"Chess's girlfriend." Tavin answered.

"If she is Chess's girlfriend, then-"

"She was Julia's girl first, then we were together a minute and we had relations." Tavin said as he mocked Dr McGill's tone of voice.

"I do not understand your family. I will never understand your sexual behavior and I find it mind boggling that all of you go around and around with each other. I usually don't put my personal beliefs out there like this, but fellas, you have to understand this is strange."

"We prefer unconventional." Tavin replied. "But it is weird. Yes."

"This is a sexually transmitted disease. You have infected how many people approximately?"

"My list is short." Jay answered. "I told you."

"More than half I didn't catch a name. Doc, I am lucky I am alive and you want names."

"Since you contracted the infection, then I would say within the last 2-3 years?"

"Like I said, you want names? I hook up with girls. At group and that's anonymous. I hook up at work. Once at home depot with this beautiful stay at home mom. I hook up at the bar when we go out. I have had more girls in the bathroom at the local bar than you two combined. "

"Unprotected?" McGill asked, wrapping his head around the amount of people Tavin had revealed.

"Sometimes, hell most of the time. If a girl wants me to wear something, then I will."

"You do this regularly?"

"Not all the time, no."

"I'd like for you to see our psychiatrist."

"Oh, please. Yes. Doc, is she here?" Jay asked excited to see the beautiful Nina Balfour. He pushed his tray away from him. 

"They'd meet privately." 

"I'd get out of this room?" Tavin asked. "Then, yeah. I'll see her."

"First thing in the morning, then. Good night, guys."

"Wait till you see this woman, Tavin." He grinned, thinking of the lovely Nina. He looked at Tavin and his untouched meal. "You gonna eat? I saved you half my cheesecake."

"I'm not hungry. I don't feel good."

That caught Jay's attention. "Huh?"

"My stomach is upset."

"Georgie!" Jay yelled, getting off his bed. He approached Tavin and felt his head. "You don't feel hot." Jay told him.

"Jay, I'm ok. Really. Don't call the monster in here."

"It's why we're in here dammit. Why didn't you say anything to McGill?"

"Cause it'll pass, Jay."

Jay hit the button on the wall and called Georgie the old fashioned way. "It's a symptom."

"No, it's not, Jayson. I'm ok."

Georgie appeared at the door, then she came inside. "He doesn't feel good."

"I'm ok, G." He said to Georgie, sitting up on the edge of the bed. He felt dizzy and he swayed a little.

Georgie passed Jayson and she helped Tavin lay back down. She started with vitals and then an assessment. When she listened over his abdomen, Tavin didn't like the face she made. He knew that face. She looked concerned. "I swear I'm ok." He whispered. Georgie smiled, then ignored him as she stepped away. She redirected Jayson to his bed and she pulled the curtain. Tavin stopped her when she tried to apply leads to him for an EKG. He motioned her to come closer to him. He put a finger over his lips to hush her. "I am fine. It's personal."

"What?" She said loudly. "Pers-"

He hushed her.

Jay sat on the other side of the curtain and then heard her laugh a little, then heard Georgie apologize for laughing. "Yeah, I understand. What would you like me to do?" He heard Tavin talking low. "If you're messing with me-" She said, her voice skeptical of whatever he was saying.

Georgie rounded the curtain and looked around the lab. She took Jay by the arm. "Hey, let's go." She guided Jay to the door and pushed the button and led him outside quarantine. She shut the door behind her.

"What's up?"

"None of your business." She answered, arms folded across her chest.

"So, G, how's the family? Your husband find anything yet?"

"He got into that company, but part time. We wanted something full time, so I don't have the extra shifts. Part time is better than nothing. The kids are good. They're done school already."

"The little one get used to his meds yet?"

"The dose was too high. He's alright now. I was worried. You obviously didn't work things out with your girlfriend." Georgie frowned, looking past him to Stef who lay still in bed.

"She gave me her excuses, G. She broke it off with me. Said I can do better."

"This is better, Jayson?"

"She's a nice person. We only met a week or so ago. I didn't know this would happen."

"Yeah, I know. I'm sorry, Jay. I hope she gets better. Maybe you could get to know her more. Would you like to see her?"

"Nah. And do what?"

"She's alone." Georgie led him to Stef's sick room. She opened the door and let him take a seat next to the girl. "Just talk to her. If she liked you enough to invite her in her home, then she would like your company."

Jay got comfortable. He didn't touch her, but he made his presence known. Said hello, he drilled her some more about keeping safe, being aware of her surroundings, always fight. Never give up. He looked at her color, a rosy pink and her vitals on the monitor were stable and good for someone as sick as she was. He wanted to do more for her, but wasn't sure he was allowed to take any kind of care of her.

Georgie fetched him a half hour later and she made him scrub himself in the sink before returning to his own room. When he washed his hands and arms with the antibacterial soap that stunk like a hospital, he noticed the curtain was pulled back around and he could see Tavin sitting up in bed. He looked 100% improved, which was a surprise to him.

"All better?" Jay asked, looking at him strangely.

"Yes." He answered. "I needed a nurse."

"Oh, so you're fine now?"

"Yes. The monster made me all better."

"You could have just said you had to poop, Tav."

"We will not speak of this."

"I'm your brother. I go too. It's-"

"Jayson." He said sternly. He'd never seen Tavin uncomfortable about anything. He could talk freely about his drug problem and his criminal ways, even the most despicable things he'd ever done, but the simplest human act made his skin crawl.

"Of all the things I have witnessed and heard and this bothers you. Strange. Just sayin'."

Julia was confused why the brothers had been taken into the lab. It made no sense to her and Chess was mum on any details. She sensed he was being less than honest with her. All he'd say was they were in the lab, both of them and if they wanted her to have any of their information or details, then they would fill her in when the time came. "End of story, Julia." He said calmly. He had his serious voice on despite reminding him that they didn't keep things from each other. This only made her more curious.

The more Julia thought of the state of their family union, the more disappointment and failure she felt. She saw Tatia and didn't want to separate from her. She saw Alex, miserable and distant and argumentative. He leveled out around Julia after time in the same room, but then the he reverted back to the misery. Julia felt nervous about releasing them to Karen, and it didn't matter if they were biologically hers or not. The option of Cal being involved was a bonus, and the only point that Tavin made that pleased her.

Julia tackled Alex first. She fed their ever dwindling group of people dinner and no one spoke. Jody ate in silence and occasionally texted a girl he was seeing. Tatia talked about her last activities at school and the parties that would be fun.

"You love to have fun, my Tia."

"Oh, Jodeeee, I always want to have fun." She gushed excitedly.

"Alex." Julia called his name and he didn't hear her over the ear buds he had stuffed in his ears. Julia snatched the iPad from in front of his eyes and threw it across the kitchen toward the laundry room like a Frisbee.

"What the hell?" He gasped. Tatia jumped in her seat and Jody sat still, knowing full well Julia wasn't launching any objects his way.

"What's the problem?" She demanded as he stood up. She stood as well and shoved him back into his seat.

Alex's hands trembled. He was finding it difficult to listen to her. He started tearing up.

"What the hell is wrong with you lately?"

"Ha, where should I start?"

"Start with something I can fix."

"I don't wanna live with Karen."

"Fine, you won't. I personally agree. Next."

"I don't wanna live with mommy Karen either." Tatia said, looking at Alex after he spoke.

"Fine. Ok. You won't either. Next."

"Where are we-"

"Let me deal with it. Next."

"Care."

"Fine, one weekend a month. You leave on a Saturday morning and come back on Sunday so you can go to school on Monday morning. No bullshit or I take it away. Next."

"Two weekends."

"One. Maybe she could come your way one weekend, Alex? And I will need to beg your brothers who aren't happy with me right now."

"There's that. Fix that."

"I fucked up. It takes time to fix that."

"What did you do to Tav?"

"Nothing. He's taking up for his brother."

"Why can Jay stay and we have to leave?"

"I will fix it, I said."

"How?"

"I have ways. Don't worry."

"And you're leaving. I want you here. You fix things."

"I can fix things from anywhere. If it takes me leaving then that's fine. I'm still your sister. We don't not talk in this house."

"You screwed everything up with Jay."

"I did. It's none of your business."

"I know though, Julia. You showed me when you came home."

"I didn't show you anything that would explain why I did what I did."

"I know you love him, but this is just crazy, Julia."

"Yeah, I know you love Care too, but I saw Julia, too leaving here this morning with you."

"That's different."

"How's it different? This is probably our fault and having you see all you saw while you were growing up and at the farmhouse, but Alex you can't do it too."

"Tavin does."

"Oh, God." She sighed. "I can't explain it then. But you should be more sympathetic."

"It's not a hard choice between the two though. Why can't you-"

"I can see the right choice, too. Why can't you?" Julia asked him right back. "It's not that easy when there's feelings involved. When it's someone you don't care about, then it's easy."

"I can make it easy, Julia."

"Go ahead and do that for yourself, then. Next."

"Where's Kelly?"

"Oh, Alex. I can't fix that."

"Yes, you can."

"You think I got superpowers or something? I am not involved in anything that goes on between them."

"You always run things."

"Not exactly. I don't run things."

Jody spoke up. "Actually, yes you do. You always said you're in charge of these people."

"It's not a zombie apocalypse, Jo. Not yet."

"Oh, really? Where are they then?"

Julia sat back in the chair. "Cool, I will deal with Kelly too." She agreed reluctantly on this as she had no clue how she'd make that happen. "Jody, you got anything? Anything I can actually fix?"

"I would like to have my girl over for dinner one night when everything isn't so crazy."

"She can come over whenever. There's multiple levels of crazy here. If you're that interested in her then she'll get used to this."

"She is a nice girl. I found one finally. It has taken all these months, but she's different."

"I like her, Jodeeee." Tatia announced, pushing her plate away. She reached for her drink. "She's so nice, Julia."

"What's her name? Where's she from? She work?"

"Her name is Rebecca, she's from here and she works at the pizza shop a couple days a week."

"Commonly decent huh?" Julia asked.

"I don't go for commonly decent. She does." Jody looked to Tatia. "I spent all that time looking to replace the princess and then I remembered I didn't choose the princess, she chose me. She would say different, but it's true."

"Is that all it is? Remembering who chose who, Jo?"

"Sometimes it helps to remember that."

"Can I get up now?" Alex asked, looking to the laundry room.

"Oh, yeah. Go ahead." She answered. "Hey, if it's broken I will replace it." She told Alex as he picked the iPad off the floor. "Who chose who?" Julia repeated. "Hey, Alex, is there a way to track Jay and Tav's phones?"

"Sure." He answered. "Think we could find that lab?"

"Yeah, try."

Alex fortunately had a hard case over that iPad of his and it worked just fine. A sliver of a crack was on the edge of the screen. Julia wasn't worried about a small crack on the screen as long as the thing functioned. He slid the iPad across the table to her. "It's here."

"That's in Oaks, Alex."

"I know. That's not a lab. It's a flower shop."

"How about Tavin's phone?"

Within a few minutes time, Tavin's phone hit over Maryland, but the exact address wasn't coming up. He said he'd talk to some friends on line and try to get the exact locale. "Yeah, you do that." Julia said, thinking about that address in Oaks.

"What the hell is in Oaks?" Julia asked Jody.

"I don't know." He answered, thinking about Jay's new friend. Perhaps that was her location.

Julia grabbed her cell and she dialed the only person she knew who could give her a ride without questioning her. Within a half hour Ray was outside and she hopped into his dad's suburban in the passenger seat. She told him to drive to Oaks, on 221 and ride north till she saw the flower shop. Ray pulled into the lot as on street parking was not allowed. Behind this flower shop was Tavin's car.

"Julia, where are we?"

"I have no idea, but Jay's cell is up there." Julia hopped out of the suburban and looked inside Tavin's car. Locked up tight. She turned the knob on the door. Locked. She looked around them and looked up, scanning the building and structures around them. She waved at Ray and he hopped out of the suburban. "Kick this door as hard as you can with the flat of your foot right here." She pointed at the old wooden door and hoped it would pop open. "Do it." She ordered. Ray kicked. "Harder." She giggled.

"You want me to do it harder, Julia?" He laughed.

"As hard as you can." She laughed.

"We've had this conversation before." He laughed as he kicked. The door gave way. "You want me to come?" He asked, laughing a little more.

"Not yet." She told him as she head in and climbed a flight of stairs. Yellow tape on the door. He looked up the steps at her as she pulled the tape down. She turned the knob and it was locked too. "Ok, you can come now." Ray jogged the steps and stood on the cramped landing. Julia stepped down a couple steps. "Shoulder, put your weight into it." Ray tried a couple times unsuccessfully. Julia rolled her eyes. "You're doing it wrong."

"Well, if you know how to do it, then you do it."

"Shit hurts, Ray. I don't wanna blow out my shoulder." She told him. She angled her body and showed him how to hit the door. "Like this. I've seen the guys do this. Just put your body into it."

"So you think it's cool if I hurt my shoulder?" Ray tried once she moved off the landing and the door popped open. When they stepped inside, they saw two more locks on the door. Plus a bat. Whoever lived there knew the neighborhood and knew that one lock wasn't enough.

"Probably a girl." Ray guessed.

"I think so." Julia agreed with him as she took in the surrounding efficiency apartment. "Jay's got a girlfriend."

The bed was a mess, blood on the top corner of the bed and then more on the floor. Packaging from equipment on an ambulance. So, Julia thought, Jay had a problem and he called Tavin. EKG rhythm strips and vital signs on a piece of paper. Bad vital signs.

"Ray, stay over by the door. This place is infected. If I get you sick, man, your brother will end me."

"I ain't touching a thing."

"You shouldn't be in here at all."

Julia saw the towels and the frozen food bags that had since thawed and sat on the floor. A lot of trash from Tavin's rig. Julia knew by the equipment used what had gone on. She also assumed the person was female. She saw Jay's phone on the counter and took it. She took Tavin's car keys too. She peeked into the bathroom. Bloody clothes. Jay's bloody clothes. He had tried to save the girl.

Julia opened Jay's phone and put the pin in the lock screen. He always used her birthday-0226. She saw Jay's text to Chess. 'fuckin answer me', it read. She went to the call log and saw multiple calls from the morning in question. She saw a phone conversation that lasted 12 minutes. The next was to Tavin lasting two minutes in length. She saw an number she didn't recognize and when she dialed it, McGill answered. She didn't expect that and she didn't know what to say.

"Dr McGill?" She asked when she heard his voice.

"Yes, who's this?"

"Julia. I'm on Jay's phone. I didn't recognize the number. Sorry to bother you." Julia hung up. "Shit. I think I just got us caught." Jay's phone rang. She answered. "Are you in the apartment, Julia? It's a biohazard."

"I came for Jay's phone and the car. I-" She looked at Ray. "I have Chess with me." She handed off the phone to Ray, then grabbed a notebook off the kitchen counter. The girl went to school.

"Hello." Ray said. Julia scribbled quickly. -Dr McGill- "Dr McGill, yes." He motioned to Julia as she scribbled. -apologize for bringing me here. She held the book up for him. "I'm sorry. I brought her for the car and the phone." Ray listened as McGill rambled in his ear. "Against protocol? Biohazard material?" Julia scribbled. She held up the notebook. "It's been days, Sir. The bacteria is not -um- not-"

"infectious any more." Julia whispered.

"Infectious anymore." Ray said. "My superiors? Uh, no. Please don't inform them."

Julia scribbled some more, trying to think. She held up the book. "I can secure her and bring her in." Ray sounded like he was reading. Julia cringed the whole time, hoping Ray could sound a little more assertive or think outside the box for once. "I'll do that, yes Sir. I'll secure her and bring her in."

Julia scribbled, then showed Ray the book. "Where exactly do I bring her?"

McGill rambled some more and then he hung up. "He said follow protocol. What's the protocol?"

"I don't know. Where?"

"He didn't say, he said follow protocol, Julia."

"Shit. Your brother's gonna kill me. Maybe, if I'm lucky, that's protocol."

"I say we just go home and pretend this all never happened."

"No, we're going to your brother. He'll secure us and bring us in."

"Us?"

"I need a ride there. I can drive all the way to Maryland by myself on a highway. You know how long it's been since I drove a car? I was nervous about driving Tav's home."

Before she left, Julia opened the books and found her class list and her itinerary.

Her name was Stefanie Monroe. She rummaged through the girl's back pack till she found a school ID. Stef M, Oaks Community College. She knew Stef from somewhere, which meant that Jay knew Stef from somewhere. But where? She couldn't remember. Her night transferred from one bad neighborhood on the edge of Maverick to another bad neighborhood in Maryland near a marine base. She peered up at the apartment and the lights were on.

Julia had never been so nervous as when she and Ray climbed the three flights of stairs to his brother's apartment. To say he was surprised to see them was an understatement , but he was happy to see his brother. Once Julia explained herself and their actions over the last couple hours, Chess nearly went through the roof. She wasn't sure which pissed him off more, that she'd brought his brother into something risky again, impersonating a member of the armed forces or that they'd broken into someone's home that hadn't had a team inside to clean yet. Chess dialed McGill and informed he they were ten minutes out and he seriously secured the both of them and tucked them in the back of his dad's suburban.

"But Chess, just take me in."

"I will not get in trouble for this. No."

"Hey, dad needs the truck for work, so will we be long?" Ray asked, leaning into the space between the back and front seats.

"Why would you go anywhere with her, Ray? After the last time?"

"Well, she asked."

"No more rides. If she asks for a ride, tell the girl no."

"I thought I was helping out my friend. She's my friend too, you know."

"Are you retarded, Ray? I know you were born second, but were you deprived of oxygen or something? She used you."

"I did not, Chess."

"Why him then, Julia?"

"He drives, Chess."

"Get your own driver's license!" He yelled.

"I can, but who would kick in the doors?"

"Bring a tool, crow bar or something. Not my brother." He was fuming at this point. "You take him on a drug deal, then you have him breaking into an apartment building and an apartment? Julia, are you out of your mind? We talked about this."

"But-"

"And then you walk him into a biohazard."

"I didn't know it was a biohazard. He didn't touch anything and he stayed over by the door. I watched him."

"And you just got over the infection. You just got well and you're pregnant. What were you thinking walking through there? You had no business there. I told you that too. If they wanted you to know then they'd tell you."

Chess pulled into a lot in a shopping center and pulled into a parking spot. He waited for the arrival of the van. Chess got out and lit a cigarette and told them to stay inside. He needed to think and he needed to calm himself down before he hurt her. He considered hurting her. He'd only considered it a couple times in their course of time together and this was one of those times.

"I'm sick of this shit." He said to himself. He tossed the cigarette when the van pulled up at the end of the suburban. McGill stepped out of the van wearing street clothes. Pressed khaki's and a polo shirt.

"Morgan, your family will be the end of me." McGill was short with him.

"First, I apologize for these two." He said to McGill. "She knew what she was doing, but he was talked into this unknowingly."

"He who?" McGill asked.

Chess returned to the suburban and he opened the rear door. "You, out. You, stay right there." He said to Julia, slamming the door of the truck closed on her. Chess stood alongside of Ray. "This is who you spoke to on the phone."

"There are two of you. A twin?"

"He has absolutely nothing to do with this other than he thought he was helping her out. I assure you he has no intention of-"

"Who is this?" Ray asked, looking over the tall and fit black man that stood in front of him.

"I am Dr McGill. You are?"

"Ray Morgan."

"Who is the Ray Morgan that lives with the Kellers, then?"

"He's using my identity." Ray answered. "Ask Julia cause I never met him."

"Ray." Chess snapped.

McGill rubbed his temples with both hands and tried to understand these people. He was angry, but held back. "Were you in the apartment in question, son?"

"I was, but-"

"In the van. Her, in the van. You, Morgan. In the van. Everyone get in the damn van. I am tired. I had to leave my family and my son's school play.  I have had enough of all of you." 

Chess left Julia out of the truck, then locked it up. He climbed in and he sat with his brother and Julia. The van doors slammed behind them.

"Where are we going?" Ray asked.

"I have no fucking clue. Prison?" Chess muttered. He looked at Julia, "If you open you're mouth I swear to God, I will squeeze the life from you. And I will enjoy every minute of it."

McGill escorted all three of them to the new lab via a corridor that connected to an underground garage. He guided them through the hall and he had them deposit all their personal effects in a bin that he sat aside on a table by the entrance. They continued through the metal detectors into a disinfectant spray chamber. McGill instructed them to strip down and they deposited their clothes into a patient bag. They mist sprayed them head to toe and Julia held her breath. "This is an alcohol based mist, Julia. You may breathe." Dr McGill informed her. After a two minute drying period, he released them through the door and he handed them the lab clothes. 

"Where the hell are we?" Ray asked.

"Isolation lab, location unknown." Chess said, stepping through the exit of the chamber when the mist finished spraying. 

"Um, Doc, I need my-"

"I do not want to hear your needs."

"I'm diabetic, doc." She said quickly as she pulled the shirt over her head.

"We will check your sugar and dose your insulin and give you a snack."

"Thank you."

The lobby looked like a mini triage. McGill looked at the nurse behind the desk who'd also been called in from home. "Margie, hello. Reopen," He said pointing to Julia. He moved to Chess, "He's not here." and then he pointed to Ray. "New chart, standard orders for new chart."

"Yes, Sir." Margie smiled. "You first." She motioned to Julia to sit with her and she drew blood and took vitals. Julia heeded Chess's warning to keep her mouth shut. Fifteen minutes later, Julia's chart was reopened and she was led to the hall where Chess waited. Julia observed the outfit, the gray sweats and white tee shirts. White sweat socks. Unisex. She rolled up the pant legs to her leg length and then folded the waist over to pull them up higher.

"Your bump. You're poking out." Chess noticed as she folded her waistline. He reached his hand over and rubbed her belly. "For good luck." He smiled. Julia didn't respond, but left him rubbing the bump. A half hour later, Ray appeared with Margie and they were told to wait.

"She stuck this long q-tip in my dick. What the fuck." Ray complained. "Among other places." Julia laughed. Chess cringed. "This is not right. I thought we were going to jail."

"Calm down, Ray, we've all had it done."

"My dick though. And she was not gentle. When can I use the phone?"

"Who you calling?"

"Mom." He answered.

Chess started laughing with that. "Man, what's mom gonna do?"

"Uh, she'll know." Ray answered. "If I tell her, Chess, she'll know what to do."

"You aren't calling anyone." Julia told him. "They'll let us go."

"When?"

"Eventually." Chess answered.

"The entire family? This should be fun." Georgie grumbled as she opened the door to the lab. She stood in the doorway looking angry. Her head cocked to the side, hands on her hips. She waved her arms around while she was talking. "I just got one under control. So don't cause problems." She looked over her three new patients. "Are you serious? There's two of you?" She asked Chess.

"Georgie, it's so nice to see you, too" Julia replied to her nurse for the night. She never liked this passive aggressive little nurse. Three weeks of this one in a lab enclosure was more than enough. She figured out early on that she endured an abusive marriage, which Julia surmised was definitely emotional and possibly physical.

She pulled a syringe from her pocket. "This is a sedative. If I have any problems from any of you, I will have two men hold you down, strap you to a bed and I will inject this directly into your deltoid muscle. You will remain sedated till they throw you out of here or I clock out, whichever comes first. Got it?"

"Yes, ma'am." Ray said, taking her quite seriously.

She looked furiously at Chess and Julia. "Don't bring your drama into my quarantine."

"Yes, ma'am." Ray repeated.

"Ray, you got no drama." Julia reminded him.

Georgie turned her back to them, dropping the syringe into her pocket and she escorted them into the lab where she opened the door to Tavin and Jay's q-room. The three filed in one after the other and they saw that Tavin was knocked out and Jay was watching TV. Julia took a seat next to him and watched as one of the two males Georgie threatened them with rolled in three roll-away cots. Chess started unfolding them, siding them into open spots in the lab.

"What are you guys doing here?" Jay asked.

"Don't ask." Chess answered as he stretched out on the cot.

"You guys alright?" Julia asked, looking back and forth between them.

"Yep."

The girl in the bed in the next sick room caught her attention. "Is that Stef Monroe?"

"Uh," Jay looked at Stef in her coma, then back to Julia.

"She has a lovely apartment, Jayson. What happened there?"

"Don't start any shit, Julia." Chess told her.

"You went to her place." He said, thinking about that as he looked at her and then his cousins.

"Yes, we did. Did you do that to her?"

"Oh, um, according to McGill, you all did. She's got your DNA wrapped all around the virus in her and his and his. McGill can explain this better. Like the strain is the same. McGill said the virus was probably dormant and then activated for some reason and her immune response was overwhelmed by virus."

"Bullshit, I don't even know the girl."

"You know her cousin."

"Who's her cousin?" Chess asked, tilting his head at an angle to see Julia's face.

"Monroe, Chess. Macy Monroe." Julia thought about Macy who had never been sick. "How did she get it from Macy?"

"Yeah, that's the same question doc had." Jay leaned back in his hospital bed as Georgie brought Julia her insulin and her snack. Two needles with two separate insulin's to cover the reading that Margie in triage got on her glucometer.

"291. 20 long acting and 10 short. Eat up, Julia." Georgie said, pulling the sleeve up over her arm. She plinked the syringe in and then moved to the next arm, following suit with the next injection.

"Thanks, G."

"Yeah, you have any problems call me, ok."

"Yep. Will do."

"How far along are you now?"

"20 weeks." She and Jay answered her.

Julia unwrapped her cheesecake and dove in. "This is good, Jayson." She sounded rather pleased.

"It's my favorite." He replied, watching her eat.

"Bite?" She asked.

"Nah, I had two pieces earlier."

Ray roamed the small lab room, looking in the drawers, sliding open the hatch to the outside of the room. He wandered to the glass and looked around taking in the desks and the workstations. He made his way to the right of Jay's bed and stared at Stef. He remarked how sick she looked as he watched the IV's drip into her, the ventilator as it breathed for her, the monitor as it flashed numbers and rhythms on the screen.

"She gonna be ok?"

"I don't know. She's alive though. He saved her." Jay pointed to Tavin. "It's why he's here. It's kinda why I'm here."

"We saw the mess you all made there."

"Wasn't as bad as the mess you made in the basement." Chess commented. "You lost half your blood volume. She didn't lose hardly any."

"What were you doing there anyway?"

"Me and Ray went there. Alex tracked your phone there. I was curious."

"Jealous." Chess corrected her. "You were jealous." Chess quieted, remembering it wasn't his story to tell.

"Um, we tracked Tav's phone too and we got a hit over Maryland, but it couldn't locate the exact address. Alex is working on it."

"That would give you the location of the lab we're sitting in." Chess guessed.

"Well, yes, Chess. It would." She got up from her seat and threw her Styrofoam plate away. Then she went to the toilet in the corner of the room and dropped her pants. They listened as she peed, avoided looking at her while she did so.

"You have no shame at all do you?" Chess noticed.

"Are you all pulling a curtain to piss or just me?"

"You're supposed to."

"You guys are something else."

"You're not a guy."

"Why's there a difference?"

"Because there is, Julia."

"You two gonna fight the whole time?" Ray asked.

"Maybe you could go back to owning her and she'd shut up?" Jay suggested. "She'd stay out of places she doesn't belong and stop tracking phones that don't belong to her. She also wouldn't be here right now and neither would you two."

"If you stayed where you belong instead of 5 deep in some other bitch, then you and Tav wouldn't be here either."

"That was wrong, Jules." Chess said.

"Ok, maybe it was. I'm sorry." She apologized. "All I'm saying is no one needs to be here if we all would have just stayed where we belonged."

"I was in my apartment minding my own business both times. On Sunday I did my job. Tonight, you fucked up."

"I did. I admit that."

"And you fucked him up in the process. You know I am not your case manager every time you guys have a problem."

"You told us to call you." Jay argued. "Is there a zombie hotline set up for situations like this? If there is, I can put it in my phone."

"You're right, Jay, but I am just so sick of this fucking shit. I wanted to shoot terrorists in the desert. That's all I wanted to do."

"Put in for a transfer and go shoot terrorists in the desert half way around the world, then, Chess. Bail on us. You already have anyway."

"In what way, Julia, do you think I have bailed on you? Did I turn your ass away ever? Have I not done every God damn thing you ever asked me to do? Have I not forgiven every single fucked up thing you ever did? When you call me, I am there. When you need someone, I am there. I give up. I really just give the hell up. There is absolutely no pleasing you at all. You-you don't know what you want or who you want? I have put up with you cheating on me and getting me into all kinds of illegal shit. I have done some pretty fucked up shit and for what? For you to say I bailed? Me? You're the one who keeps bailing, so fuck you, my fucking queen." Chess quieted his rant for a moment, stewing over every word he just said. "And furthermore, I should have sent those fucking divorce papers in to the lawyer. I mean, really, why am I still married to you? Because Kelly said in some far off future I might be happy with you for five minutes. Fuck you, Julia."

"I signed those papers, Chess and you threw them out before you knew of any fucking visions if I remember correctly. I have had to put up with you cheating on me too. I asked you not to go. I fucking asked you not to sign up for anything. I told you not to do it, but wait, I told him. Remember, because you were such a dick, you passed me off to your brother, so you could go off and fuck Carla. So don't throw that shit at me that I cheated on you."

"One girl compared to how many-" Chess stopped. "I won't go there."

Julia and Chess zoned into their argument and overlooked the fact that three others sat in the room with them. Jay left them go, figuring this all needed to be said on one level or another. Tavin had even said she needed to deal with Philadelphia in her own way in her own time and in her own head. Philadelphia affected two people in that room, not the lot of them.

"Go ahead and go there if you have to. We never really went there."

"Philly was a lot of fun for a while. We did drugs and we partied. Whatever we had on the side, that was a small part of our time there."

"Whatever we had on the side?" Julia shook her head. "Small part of our time there?"

"Julia what I did to people. I transported massive quantities of drugs through three states and held my breath every fucking minute thinking I was gonna get caught. If anyone ever found out the shit I did I would die in prison. That was my side. You act like that was no big fucking deal. You fucked men for money, Julia."

"I wanted something to fall back on when we got done fucking the world and everyone in it."

"How much do you even really remember, you were so high on anything you could use and when you weren't high, you were off mental and crying with a bottle. That's what you were doing."

"I was raped at a frat party. One party and the world went to shit, Chess. All over again. You think I did drugs for fun after that? Cause drugs feel good? I did them so I didn't freak out every time you-"

"What the hell are you talking about? You never said a word-"

"I said a word. I said a lot of words. You don't even know the half of it."

Chess sat up on his cot and spun himself around.

"What's that mean?" He asked, changing his tone of voice with her.

"22 year old white kid on the street by the college. 5' 10, shaggy brown hair, kinda heavy set, brown eyes, brown bomber jacket and jeans, Chess."

Chess leaned forward and hung his head. He ran nervous hands through his hair then balled up his small fists. "I can't believe you would keep something like that from me. For this long, too. You coulda told me I did what I did for a good reason."

"I couldn't say a word. If anything like that even got reported, the cops would be all over him and everything he is into. The drugs, gambling, girls, the guns, even the dogs. Everything would have come down on him and everyone involved. We would have been screwed, and yes, you would be staring that prison death of yours in the face. That's if they didn't kill us both first."

"So he threatened you?"

"No. He threatened you."

"He never threatened me, not till that morning we went there over Thanksgiving."

"He didn't threaten you. He threatened me with you, if I ever spoke of it or anything we ever did. You went alone, but you were not alone."

"Yes, I was."

"I watched it, Chess. You weren't alone. Not on this one."

Chess quieted, thinking. "Can we still watch it, Julia?"

"Yes. Why you think you got out so easy?"

"First of all, I would never admit any of that anywhere to anyone."

"I know."

"Second of all, we could have handled that on our own. What were you thinking?"

"I wasn't thinking clearly. I was drunk. It wasn't supposed to happen. He was not part of the job. I don't wanna talk about it."

"Why now? Why tell me now?"

"You took it there. Seemed like the right time and the right place." She answered, rising again from her seat next to Jay. She went to the cot he'd opened up for her and she flipped off the light switch above it.

"Julia-"

"It's been a year and a half."

"But, Julia-"

"I deal with it like I deal with everything else. Just let it go, Chess."

"Well, I might have been nicer to you if I had known."

"Maybe you could be nice to me anyway. We could all stand to be a lot nicer to each other. All this spiteful mean stuff, it's just old. I'm tired of it and I don't like this anymore."

"What do you want, then, Julia?" Jay asked her, having listened to them argue over their past and their actions and the ones perpetrated against her.

"I would like to go home and sleep in my own bed. Get up in the morning and start this day all over again. Instead I will sleep here with you people. Cause seriously, what is home anymore? It doesn't exist anymore. It's as broken as anything else and for what? That's my fault too, I guess. I do everything I can to hold it together and for what? It's not my fault I get sick. Everything I do when I am sick is right and whenever I'm awake it's wrong. You give up, Chess. I'll give up too. And you, Jay, you can give up and Tav can give up and we'll all just give up and go our separate ways instead of dealing with it." She laid on the cot, tucking herself in and got comfortable. "Deal with it. I'm the it that everyone needs to deal with." She wiped tears from her face as they fell from her eyes. "No one listens to Julia when life is just fine. When life is shitty, though we'll blame Julia but we all expect Julia to fix it. Julia, we don't wanna live with our mom. Why doesn't anyone want us anymore? It's not my choice. Fix it, Julia. Oh, and Julia, you screwed things up with Jay, fix that too. And bring Kelly back here and fix that too. And while you're at it make sure I can see Care, fix that too. And while you're at it, you can't leave, fix that too. Oh, some things I can't fix. You know how to fix things when they're broken, so fix everything so we can live happily ever after hating each other, but then I'll have to fix that too."

"Who said all that?" Tavin asked, listening as she rambled out loud.

"Alex. I did manage to fix Alex, but I agreed to fix everything that he wants fixed, which is impossible. So now it'll look like I am a liar on top of everything else."

"Did you lie to the kid?" Tavin asked.

"Not at the time, no. But damn it I made someone happy today and that was worth it." She laughed. "Jody has a girlfriend named Rebecca who has the potential to be his next princess. He wants, get this, to introduce this nice girl to our family. Individually, we're all fine people. As a group, we're a hot mess, but the kid thinks enough of us to want to bring her home, to his people, to his family, to the people that care about him. We're nicer to strangers than we are each other. So there he was telling us about Rebecca, knowing all the while he wants the princess, but he can't have the princess and that's my fault too. So he says something so silly, but so cool. He says he didn't choose the princess, the princess chose him and isn't that sweet? Then he says, it's as simple as remembering who chose who and why we chose who we chose."

"Then remind them?" Tavin added.

"Yeah, Tav. But remember how you said that's a lot of work?"

"Yeah. But it's a piece of cake reminding the one we chose. The ones we gotta work for are the ones we didn't choose like there's always other interests for the ones you gotta chase after. But the one that's sitting right fucking next to you, that one doesn't need chasing at all."

"Just a friendly reminder once in awhile."

"Commitments, I guess."

"Like marriage." Jay suggested.

"Nice one, Jayson." Chess sighed, looking at Julia.

"I'm not being a smart ass. That's a commitment, right? Why are you still married?"

"Cause he tore up the papers."

"You never had a legal first marriage. But you both swore you were married."

"We were. You were there, Jay." She reminded him.

"It had nothing to do with paperwork. The paperwork was a formality. I was thinking about going in the service and I wanted you to get the insurance and the benefits if I died. The marriage wasn't a marriage because we already were married." Chess explained.

"I can't see what you two ever saw in each other." Tavin said.

"They weren't like this." Jay answered.

"Nah, we were nothing like this. The opposite." Chess added. "We never fought like this."

"We didn't have anything to fight about. It was all so simple. Easy."

"We are experts at entertaining ourselves in confined spaces." Chess pointed out.

"You made that obvious." Tavin moaned, getting out of his bed to his feet. He rounded the head of his bed and took a piss.

Julia and Chess quieted on that note, the small reminder of their time in the lab together. Ray had stood by the glass listening to their conversation. He'd said nothing. He'd made no observances, took no digs at them.

"I remember that July like two years ago. Everything changed overnight. No excuses, no explanation. Everyone stood around like, what's going on with these people? No one really said anything, but everyone was talking about it."

"We never made excuses because we don't have to. What we lived through, we only make excuses to each other. The rest, it was nobody's business, Ray." Chess answered. "I told you what was going on."

"I thought you were nuts, Chess. Who would believe anything like that bullshit story you gave me about zombies and farms? It sounded crazy."

"Is it crazy now?"

"It still doesn't make any sense." He admitted, taking the short walk to his cot.

"No, and no one's gonna believe you if you start running your mouth. Then you won't make any sense. You'll get yourself locked away in some nut house somewhere."

"I don't wanna do that again." He got comfortable, laying on his belly, hugging his pillow. "I believed it a little bit, because I wasn't right for a long time. Mom took me to the crisis center and had me committed. I was only gone like 2 weeks, and they told mom I may be schizophrenic."

"When was this, Ray?"

"I don't know, it started in the fall and I went through it for a few months. She took me to all these doctors and tried to figure out what was wrong with me and when they didn't find anything, they made her think I was crazy."

"Were you?" Jay asked.

"I felt like it sometimes. I swore I was being watched and followed and there were the people in the black suits. Like a swat uniform without the bullet proof covers and without the guns, but they did carry pistols and the one time I was chased, or I thought they were chasing me. That's when I got hit by the car. I can't believe you don't remember this."

"I do remember all that. But I was in Pittsburgh. You still see these people?" Tavin chuckled at him.

Ray didn't know whether to answer for sure or not. "Julia believed me."

"Huh? I never knew any of this either, Ray."

"They followed you, too. When I was in the psych ward, you visited me on visiting day. Told me to keep my mouth shut and stop talking about it or I would never get out of there."

"Really?"

"Yes, you told me we would figure it out together as soon as I got home. We started working on it and then you guys all switched up on me. You were with Chess, he was with Jess. Tavin came home to live and I really thought I was nuts. You never said another word about the men in suits and you and me, well, we weren't like close anymore. You were cool as shit, too. We were going to set them up. We were gonna catch one and we were gonna get information out of him. You believed me. You knew they were real."

"So you were close, Ray?"

"Very, yeah. She was always over the house anyway cause of Jay. We saw each other all the time. Cass wasn't really interested in my mental health. Julia, though, was different."

"Ray," Tavin raised his voice. "You didn't answer the question. You still see them or no?"

"They didn't follow me to school."

"Are they here now?" Tavin joked.

"Tav, come on. He's serious. It's not funny either."

"They were outside Chess's apartment. They're probably going through the SUV."

"Ray, honey, I was at Chess's and I didn't see anyone." Julia used her soothing voice, trying to sound as nice as possible.

"Julia, we don't talk about it anymore."

"Ok, so next time you see them, then you point them out ok."

"Gonna fix that too?" Tav asked sarcastically.

"How about you fix something for once?" She spat at him.

"They track my cell phone too." Ray volunteered. "I can hear them on the line if I am talking to someone. If I text, they read them. I know they look at the pictures if I have any."

"This all sounds so-"Chess shook his head, thinking he was as crazy as he sounded. But they also sat crowded in a lab room together.

"Crazy. I know. You never believed me."

"Like we never been followed before, Chess."

"Julia, they were real people."

"Why aren't Ray's people real? They pursue him."

"He's done what exactly to warrant pursuit?" Chess asked Julia. "By the men in black of all people?"

Tavin laughed, "I thought they did aliens. You seeing UFO's, Ray?"

"Enough, stop picking on him." Jay spoke up in Ray's defense.

The five settled in for the night, quieting down and thinking about the men in black, Ray's pursuers. They didn't know what to believe. Jay didn't think it too far fetched, considering their location.

Julia woke to warm streaks of sunlight on her body, sheer curtains blew lightly from a breeze through an open window. The mattress beneath her felt so good. She felt good. She lay listening to the world around her, the sound of the occasional car that passed, a child playing outside, a TV played somewhere else in the house.

"Hey, now. Look who's up." Tavin said, from the door way. He stood bare chested, wearing jeans. This paint, pale yellow with light beige carpet. She lay with white sheets over her.  Tavin came to her, kissed her forehead, took a spot beside her. "Morning." He smiled, his hand touched her face and swiped red hair over her ear. She couldn't speak, though she tried. She couldn't move, though she tried. She saw clearly. She heard clearly. Her eyes darted around the room. Pictures on the wall and the clock and the hooks with a heavy sweater and a light jacket.

"Hey, now, calm down. Every morning." His voice was soothing and he held her hand. "You're fine, pretty girl. You're ok." She tried to squeeze his hand, then tried to move her hand. "Busy day today." He told her. "Gotta get you up and moving, right?"

Julia doubted that. She couldn't move, speak or assist him. She lay in place and she listened to his voice. He talked and Tav wasn't much of a talker. He took hold of a bed remote in his free hand and he leveled the bed up to his height and Julia endured a bath and a hair brushing and a dressing from him. Tav's hands were strong and his hands were gentle. He'd done this before. Everyday?

When he finished dressing her he scooped her into strong arms and he placed her into a chair. A comfy and cushiony chair that set back so she leaned as opposed to sat up straight. She watched him as he cleaned up, made the bed. His torso as it moved, muscles as they flexed. His brown flesh. A dragon tattoo on his back. He caught her looking, then smiled.

"You know, Red, they say you aren't in there. But sometimes, I know you are. They say, you don't know what she thinks, if she thinks anything at all. Her condition...blah, blah, blah. But I know, Red. You're in there. We just gotta draw you out."

He sat on a chair next to her very own chair. He lifted her shirt, folding it to her rib cage. "Hungry?" He asked.

Not really, no. Julia answered him. He opened a package from the table next to her and he placed a dressing around the tube that stuck out of the top left of her abdomen.

"Getting fat if you ask me."

She moaned at him.

"Oh, don't like that, do you?" He asked, rubbing his palm over her jiggly belly. He grabbed a can from the table, pulled the tab and opened it. He pulled a large syringe from a plastic cup and stuck it in the tube in her belly. He pulled back. Nothing. He pulled the plunger from the syringe and then stuck the syringe back in her tube. He held it up high, then poured the contents of the can into the syringe.

Julia woke up startled to the quiet of the lab. The boys slept around her, except for Chess.

"You ok?"

"Yeah. A dream. I wanted to wake up. It was weird." She got up to pee, hidden in the dark this time. When she went back to her cot, Chess held his hand out to her. She took it. "Why are you up?"

"I'm up every morning this time, Julia." He answered, sitting up. He leaned back against the glass and pulled the blanket over his legs. He sat her next to him and she covered herself with the rest of it.

"Anything else I need to know about the city of brotherly love, Julia?"

"You didn't need to know that. I'm sorry I ever said anything."

Chess leaned into her shoulder. "I'm gonna kill that motherfucker, Julia."

"Ok," She nodded.

"You really broke shit off with him?" Chess whispered.

"I didn't expect him to take me seriously."

"You had me let you go to go home to him and then you broke it off with him."

"I didn't expect to take that road with him. He's madder than he lets on."

"I told you I would give it all up, Julia. Macy, Ben, the blond and whatever else crosses my path. I wanted you to put the ring on. I have always wanted you to put the ring on."

"Gimme the fucking ring, then." He reached in his pocket and handed her the ring, which she expected to be in a bag somewhere in the lab with the rest of their belongings. "You are not supposed to have this in here, Chess."

"I had it in my mouth since we got in the van. I always keep the ring on me."

She slid it over her finger, held her hand out. "It's like, in a way, a good luck charm. Like if I have it, then it keeps me alive cause if I die, you'll never see it again."

"Oh, that's interesting. Maybe you should hang onto it then?"

He held her hand. "I like it where it is, where it belongs."

"Too soon to say that."

"That commitment, Julia. That first one, you can't break it, dissolve it, do away with it. Doesn't work like that." He explained. "So you hang onto it for awhile. You put it away when you want and you bring it out when you need to."

"You know what this thing does to me."

"I know very well what it does."

"Yeah, I do love this though. You chose the perfect one. This is like steel or something?" She inspected the band, a grayish in color. The setting that held that stone was a filigree flower, holding up the blue stone, possibly aquamarine. "Think there's any real value to this thing? Like is it a novelty or-"

"It never turned your finger green, so I would say it's got some value." He believed.

Julia leaned against him, listening to the machines next door to them. She listened as the boys slept around her and the one who was awake, breathing against her head.

"No one ever asks me what I want." Chess sighed, putting his arm around her shoulders. "I want you to go home and I want you to be alone till this baby is born. I want you to think. Not about me, or him or him or her." Chess pointed to the girl through the glass. "I want you to think about you. Be selfish and obnoxious and arrogant and funny and thoughtful and strong and all those things that made me love your ass in the first place. You control you, then the rest falls in place."

"Is that what you're doing? Controlling yourself?"

"I can do better." He squeezed her hand. "I will, if you will."

"What do you want, Chess?"

He leaned to her ear. "The same thing I always wanted."

"How's this gonna work? How-"

"It's not important now. This is." He rubbed her belly. "You know that as well as I do."

"You're right."

"Yeah, we all need to deal with all this, Julia. Everyone needs to deal with their own shit. It's the only way we make it work."

"Is it worth making it work anymore?"

"That's part of dealing with it. You'll find out. So will I. And him and him and schizo over there. What the hell was he talking about?"

"I don't have a clue." Julia laughed, looking at Ray. "Yo, ask your mom. Tav mentioned he was in an asylum when I was wheelchair bound, maybe that?"

"Well, figure that out. Maybe he could be your friend?"

"He is my friend, Chess. Why do you think I include him on my adventures? He's always up for it."

"Well, he's losing his mind from the way he talks and I can't be there like I should be."

"What do you want me to do?"

"Figure out if he's telling the truth or if he's imagining all this. It could go two ways."

"Yeah, I'll hang with him. I'll make time for him, sure. I like him."

"And spend some time with him at mom's house. Get right with my mom."

"Oh, boy. That's a lot to ask for."

"She doesn't like you. Make her like you."

"But-"

"It's what I want."

"Fine."