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Message-ID: <56290asstr$1184785802@assm.asstr-mirror.org>
From: Shalon Wood <dstar@pele.cx>
Subject: {ASSM} Prudence, TX Population 1276 61 (Mff ff Mm rom)
Lines: 233
Date: Wed, 18 Jul 2007 15:10:02 -0400
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Newsgroups: alt.sex.stories.moderated,alt.sex.stories
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Standard disclaimers apply; this story may or may not contain, in any
given part, graphic depictions of lesbianism, homosexuality, group sex,
bdsm, underage (teen) sex, magic, occultism, violence, and biting 
sarcasm.  If you're underage, or if for any other reason it's illegal 
for you to read this, or you're disturbed by the content, please don't 
read it.

Archived at http://prudence.pele.cx, and we've got a web-forum at
http://playground.pele.cx/forums as well, for discussion of both
Prudence and our other stories. Send an email to velvet@pele.cx and
I'll add you to the mailing list to be notified when Prudence
updates. 

Comments *greatly* appreciated.

Enjoy,

Velvet
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The psychologist turned up shortly after lunch. She was an older woman, her
dark hair dusted with silver, with a pleasant smile. She took one look at
the crowd around Kristen's bed and suggested that Angie take a walk with
her.

Angie left with a worried, anxious look to her eyes, but she was smiling
when she returned. Quietly, she told them that she'd managed to convince
the psychologist that she was stable now, and that the suicide attempt had
been an overreaction to an immediate and unexpected situation on top of a
very stressful day, and that she was glad it hadn't succeeded and had no
intention of trying again. This success meant that she would be released
that afternoon, but she did have to promise to show up to 10 sessions with
a therapist in order to avoid criminal charges.

True to his word, the doctor released Kristen, as well. They didn't have
any real reason to hold her, but between her unusual 'birth defects' and
the fact that they still had no idea what had happened to threaten her life
in the first place, the doctor was less than thrilled to see her go. Mark
and Steven both held firm, however, and so the papers were signed, albeit
reluctantly.

Aaron's car was only large enough to seat four, so Steven, with poorly
concealed reluctance, invited Angie to ride with him. She glanced nervously
at Kristen, who nodded slightly, and then gave him a weak smile and agreed.

"Kris?" Steven looked at his daughter questioningly, and she bit her lip
and looked from Steven and Angie to Kayla and Aaron. Finally she shook her
head.

"I'll ride with Aaron, Daddy, and see you at home," she said.

One corner of his mouth twitched upwards in a crooked, cynical smile as he
turned to Angie. "I guess it's just you and me, then," he said. "No point
in standing around then. Let's go."

She nodded and followed him, but not without one more anxious, unhappy look
back at Kristen as she went. Kris blew her a kiss, and gave her an sweet,
encouraging smile.

When she turned to Mark, though, Kristen's smile faded, and her teeth once
again tugged on her lower lip. "She will be okay, right?" she asked softly.
"I thought... maybe they should have some time to... you know... talk
things out in private. But I'm not sure he really understands... she's
fragile right now."

He bent and kissed her forehead. "She'll be fine. He knows she's important
to you. And they do need that time."

She sighed and leaned against him for a moment. "You're right. I'm just...
nervous. I don't know how everything got so complicated!"

He hugged her tightly. "We all love you, and want you to be happy. That's
not all that complicated. Don't worry, love. It'll all work out, you'll
see." He hugged her tightly, and leaned close to her ear to whisper, "I
talked to your dad about rings for Kayla and Aaron. We should have them in
a week or so."

She smiled up at him, her eyes sparkling, and he raised his hand to caress
her cheek. "You'll see," he said again, softly.

Kristen turned her face and kissed the inside of his wrist, then let him
lead her to the car where Aaron and Kayla were waiting. Aaron offered Mark
the keys, but he waved them away and crawled into the backseat with
Kristen, instead.

Once they were on the way, Kayla turned halfway around in the front seat,
wrapping her arm around the headrest, and said, "Okay. We need to decide
what story we're going to use at school."

"Story?" Mark asked, shaking his head. "About what?"

Kayla rolled her eyes and sighed. "I imagine the rumors are already flying.
'Kristen had a miscarriage,' 'Kristen tried to kill herself,' 'Mark beat
her up because he caught her cheating on him,' and endless variations on
those themes," she said, her lip curled in disgust. "You should know how
people are by now!"

He frowned thoughtfully. "Hmmm. Point. How about an allergic reaction to
something you ate?" he asked, looking down at Kristen.

She nodded slowly. "That would work, I guess. There'll still be a lot of
rumors, but when I show up healthy and we're still together, most of them
will just look silly."

"Right," he said. "And an allergic reaction would hit fast, and go away
just as quickly. And if it'd been a miscarriage, there's no _way_ you'd be
back at school tomorrow."

"Right," she agreed. "This shouldn't be too bad... right?"

He glanced at Kayla, who shrugged.

"It could certainly be worse," Kayla said. "Like you pointed out-- if
you're both there, happy, healthy, and still obviously in love, most of the
rumors are just going to look stupid. The main thing is to have _something_
to offer them so they don't make up their own idiocy. An allergy works for
that."

Kristen relaxed against the seat. "Good. I'm tired of being everyone's
target for their nasty gossip."

Mark took her hand in his and squeezed gently, thinking that he agreed with
_that_ statement totally and completely.

***

It was a tense group that sat in Steven's den that evening. They'd started
out talking easily enough, but outside of the hospital setting, Angie's
presence felt more unfamiliar, almost alien as she hovered awkwardly on the
edge of the group. She practically radiated tension, shooting nervous
glances at Steven in between quick, guilty, longing looks at Kristen.

Steven, himself, seemed uncomfortable, and Mark caught him looking coldly
Angie's way more than once... as did Kristen. Every time she caught her
father's eyes, she would give him an unhappy, pleading look, and for a
while he'd try. He'd turn his attention to the others, smile, even make
some small conversation, but he'd always grow quiet and then his eyes would
grow cold and drift Angie's way again. Finally, after another of Kristen's
silent pleas, he stood up and excused himself to his office, claiming he
needed to catch up on neglected work.

Aaron and Kayla left shortly after that, Kayla needing to get home to
reassure her parents, and Aaron needing to head home himself since, as was
a rare occurrence, his father was actually home. That left Kristen and Mark
alone with Angie.

After a few moments of awkward silence, Angie smiled weakly. "Um. My car is
still at my house...."

"Do you really want to go back there?" Kristen asked her. "Tonight?"

Angie looked down at her lap and slowly shook her head.

Kristen looked up at Mark and hesitated. He could almost see the question
behind her uncertain green eyes-- what do you do with your primary partner
when one of your secondary partners isn't into three-ways? She probably
wouldn't have put it just that way, but it was clearly what she was
wondering, and he smiled down at her before turning to Angie.

"Would you like to spend the night with us?" he asked. "Not... anything you
don't want, but if you'd like to sleep with Kristen, she's got two sides."

"I... um." Angie blushed, not looking up. "This is awkward, isn't it?"

"Yeah," Mark agreed with a shrug.

She peeked up at him. "If you don't mind, and--" She hesitated, and turned
to Kristen. "And if she wants me to?" she asked softly.

Kristen smiled at her, ducking her head shyly, and nodded. "I'd like that."

"Then... I'd love to," Angie whispered. Her eyes were locked on Kristen and
full of desperate, aching hunger... and a trace of fear, as well.

Looking back and forth between the two of them, Kristen nibbled on her
bottom lip, and finally turned and stretched up to whisper in Mark's ear,
"Love, could you... would you give us an hour or so?" He could feel her
hand trembling against his arm, and hear the worry in her voice, and it was
easy to see that she was torn between her fear of hurting him and her need
to comfort and reassure Angie. Most other men would have been hurt, angry,
jealous, or all three.

Fortunately, Mark wasn't most other men, and their bond made the kind of
insecurity that fueled such feelings impossible, even if he had been
inclined towards them. So instead, he grinned down at her and put his hand
over hers on his arm. Squeezing gently, he said, "Sure, love."

She stared up into his eyes for a moment, and her own eyes grew soft and
adoring, and as the last of her uncertainly faded, she gave him a dazzling
smile.

Kristen hopped to her feet, then bent and kissed Mark firmly before
straightening and turning and treating Angie to the same brilliant smile.
She held out her hand and Angie took it, looking somewhat dazed and
confused. Kristen tugged her out of the chair, and then pulled her towards
the stairs, and Angie looked back at Mark, wide-eyed and nervous.

Mark grinned at her, and gave her a little wave. "Go on," he said. "I'll be
down here." He nearly laughed when her eyes went even wider, her face a
portrait of shock, and a bright red blush spread across her cheeks. She
actually stopped dead in her tracks for a moment, but then Kristen turned
back to smile at her again, and raised one soft little hand to caress her
cheek, and Angie just seemed to melt into her touch, her eyes fluttering
closed as the last of her will to resist dissolved. When Kristen tugged on
her hand again, she went willingly and with no further hesitation.

Whistling happily, Mark walked over to pour himself a drink from Steven's
liquor cabinet, then headed to the library for a book. It wouldn't be fair
not to give them at least a couple of hours, after all, and if he didn't
have something to distract him from what he was pretty sure was going on
upstairs, he'd be in no shape to _sleep_ when he joined them. Fortunately,
it was a good library.

When he did finally creep into the bedroom, after first listening carefully
to make sure he wouldn't be interrupting, they were curled up together on
the bed, both of them sound asleep. Angie was wearing one of Kristen's
over-sized t-shirts and wrapped around the girl's naked body so tightly it
looked like she was trying to crawl inside her skin. Kristen had one pale,
slender leg thrown over Angie's thighs, and the woman's head cradled
against her breast. He smiled down at them, then quietly removed his own
clothes and crawled in beside Kristen. She sighed in her sleep, snuggling
back against him as he wrapped his arms around her waist and dropped a kiss
on her shoulder.

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If you like this, you might want to take a look at Strange Love, an
e-zine of sf/fantasy/paranormal erotica. The first issue is on sale
now for $2 at:

http://strangelove.pele.cx

Take a look!

-- 
Pursuant to the Berne Convention, this work is copyright with all rights
reserved by its author unless explicitly indicated.
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