Demicore

Chapter 7

"Only when I met her, not long after that. Are you going to let me tell you this story or not?" She nodded and gestured for him to continue. "Her condition was getting worse. I'd tell you about it in detail, but I don't think you want to hear it nor do I thi!!nk you would understand. She needed help or she would have died, but her insurance wouldn't cover the surgery because they said it was too experimental. So I did the only thing I could do - paid for it myself. I caught some flack for that, but it also gave me a lot of positive press..." he paused and looked at her hoping to find that she would loose interest in the story. "The surgery went great, the collar that went around her neck to connect the nerves between her brain and the rest of her body was even stylish... but not removable."

"Collar?" she asked in surprise, "You gave her a collar?"

"Well, that is what she fondly referred to it as so that is what the rest of us started calling it. Really it rerouted the electrical currents in her spinal cord that carry the -" she waved for him to stop, not really caring since she already had a good idea what he was saying without the dissertation on it. "Ok. We went through three models before I made one that was completely contained within her neck. She started spending a lot of time with the three of us... she was close to the same age as the girls... then, well..." He paused not sure how to proceed. "You must be getting hungry."

"You are avoiding the question, but yes." They got up and went to look for sandwiches for lunch.

Elizabeth was the first up the stairs. As they approached the top she stopped, hearing Sonya and Katlin talking in hushed tones and wanting to know what was going on.

"We should wake them. They are late to the range and we need to get Mom into a decent routine or this will have a more detrimental effect on her mental state than it already has," Sonya urged Katlin.

"No. Besides, putting a projectile weapon in the hands of a wife hearing about the other woman - doesn't matter how long she was dead before the second relationship - is never a good idea. Let them be," Katlin retorted with an air of finality.

"You know that Dad is uncomfortable with this whole thing, he would appreciate the interruption-" Sonya was cut off by Elizabeth clearing her throat and stepping through the doorway, Erik right over her shoulder. Both girls looked like they had been caught with a hand in the cookie jar.

"Good afternoon, Mom, Dad. How did you rest?" Katlin finally said to break the awkward silence. Elizabeth arched her eyebrow. "You have learned to walk very quietly... How long were you standing there?" The concerned way she spoke let them both know she really had had everyone's best interests at heart and was embarrassed that they had been overheard.

Elizabeth walked around them to the refrigerator and started getting out the items she needed for sandwiches and decided to put a little bit of heat on the girls to see how they would react. "Were you close to Andy?"

Katlin choked on her sandwich. Sonya spewed milk all over the kitchen. Erik laughed and tried to make it look like he was coughing, too. He was caught somewhere between panic and amusement and trying not to show either. Elizabeth had her back turned, making her sandwich, so that her smirk wouldn't show. She knew she had hit a sensitive point and wondered how they would react.

"Mom..." Katlin began, "you have to understand that you were pronounced dead. Not once did we ever think about replacing you. Yes, we were close to her but not in a maternal sense." Katlin's voice was almost pleading. She wanted Elizabeth to understand that Andy was a friend not a maternal influence.

"And?" Elizabeth probed.

"And she was a good friend. We were glad to see them both so happy. They were good for each other for a while. It's not like Dad ever lost sight of his reason for living... The goal was always to reopen the portal and get you back," Sonya broke in, she was worried. They had come so far, it would be tragic to have her turn on them now.

Handing Sonya the sponge from the sink to clean up the milk while grabbing the dishcloth herself. She marveled at the thought of how much money they had amassed, the changes they had made to the house, and the kitchen still being as small as it was when Erik's grandmother had lived in the house and it only had two bedrooms and a basement.

"So what is this I hear about a shooting range?" Elizabeth asked, making an attempt to completely change the subject. She needed to think about what had been said, still unsure how she felt about the situation.

"The range is about a mile from here. It's a gorgeous walk and they already have Grandmother's twenty-two and Dad's old nine mil. over there in case you'd like to shoot them," Sonya said.

Katlin muttered under her breath. Elizabeth started eating her sandwich. "Yeah," she said after a couple of bites, "I think I'd like to go shooting. It would help to get into a routine." Katlin rolled her eyes, careful her mother couldn't see. Sonya smiled.

"Your appointment is in half an hour. We could drive you over on the hovercraft if you like," Sonya piped up again.

"Erik, do you think we need anyone else to drive us or do you think we are grown enough to go to the shooting range without a chaperone?" She c****d her head to one side and her hip to the other when she asked, making him feel like a teenager again and both girls blush deeply. It wasn't often they completely forgot their father's presence.

"I don't know, do you think they can trust us to be alone with projectile weapons, earmuffs, and the entire staff at the range? We might sneak away for some alone time," Erik tried to keep a straight face, but ended up laughing.

"According to Katlin, you would be in more danger if the staff were off duty. Would you like to arrange that or should we put her mind at ease a little?" At that moment, they knew there mother had overheard more than they were comfortable with her knowing they had said. Sonya's eyes grew twice their size. Katlin turned several more shades of red. Erik burst out laughing. Catching his breath, he apologized to his daughters who looked horrified that he had found the whole thing so humorous.