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Quaranteam-Northwest: Part 14

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Quaranteam-Northwest: Part 14
Vaccine Enforcement.

Based

on a post by Break The Bar. Listen to the
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"I'm sorry for

earlier," Kyla said. It was late, well after dinner, and the return of the
overcast sky had the evening hour darkening quickly. She'd asked me to come on
a walk with her so we'd laced up our hiking boots and headed out with jackets
and flashlights. Even before the construction I knew most of the trails by
heart but would have brought a light anyways, now half of the trails were gone
and we couldn't walk fifty yards without spotting one of the road cuts through
the trees, but it was still worth being safe.

We were walking hand in hand

and hadn't gone too far before she'd said what she'd been holding onto.

"I know you are,

Kyla," I said. "I'm not mad."

"And I know you

aren't," she said. "But that's part of why I want to always
keep falling in love with you. I; While I was growing up, and then when I went
into training, backtalk or teasing like that wasn't the norm. My family wasn't
playful. They loved me, sure, but I never felt loved like I do now. I had to learn
how to be playful and tease when it was decided I would be stationed in the
United States at the University because that was what was expected of a
popular, attractive Western girl. And I got used to that, and with the way
everything has been happening and growing between all of us, and how close I
feel to the others... When Ivy played that little joke on you, it felt like
back in college and I pushed the teasing. But that's not who I am."

"That's not entirely

true," I said, tugging on her hand to get her to stop. We were deep into
the woods now on one of the old paths, but the sound of a cutting crew wasn't
too far away. As she stopped I used my hand not holding hers to sweep some of
her silky black hair away from her face. "Teasing and being playful is
part of you. And it's a fun part. It's just not all you are; I've known people
who are all banter, all the time. Usually, they grow out of it in high school,
but some of them can't lose it. I knew a few of them in the military. Those
guys never felt settled, and rarely had a good group of core friends, because
they never let anyone get closer than the good-natured teasing. But you are so
much more than that."

"I don't,” Kyla started,

but stopped herself and seemed to rethink something quickly. "I don't want
to become cold," she said. "I don't want to be the way my mother was
with my father, or with me. But I also don't ever want you to feel like I'm
disrespecting you."

"Kyla, Kyla, Kyla,"

I sighed, pulling her into a hug and wrapping her body up in my arms as she
pressed her cheek to my chest. "I'm not going to lie to you, we all turn
out a little like our parents even if we don't want to. But you are more than
the sum of your parts, and together we can make sure we're both the best people
we can be for each other. And our kids. And, even though it's fucking crazy, we'll
also have Erica and the girls to call us out on our shit, too."

"I know," Kyla

said. "I; I'm actually looking forward to that. But still, Harri. I don't
ever want you to think I'm trying to put you down or make you less than the
amazing giant of a man that I see you as."

"I love you, Kyla,"

I said.

"I love you too,"

she said.

We walked some more, taking a

couple of turns away from the noise of the cutting crews, walking hand in hand
until we skirted around one of the lowland areas that were usually a little
boggy but had dried out that spring, and into a clearing. Looking up into the
sky, there was a bit more light pollution than I was used to from the nearby
spotlights lighting up the work areas, but it was still way better than in a
town or city. As I was looking up at those stars and smiling to myself, Kyla
tugged me towards the other end of the clearing and flicked on her flashlight
to reveal there was a blanket spread out, and a little travel cooler and
backpack.

"What's this?" I

asked.

"Something I got some

help with," Kyla said.

"You girls constantly

amaze me with how you do this."

"I've been thinking

about this for a while," Kyla said with a smile, pulling me towards the
blanket and settling down with me. "I thought out here, surrounded by a
place you love and under the stars, was a good way to start."

"Are you;?" I

started, my eyes widening.

"No," Kyla said

with a smile and both her hands on my arm, assuring me. "No, not yet,
Harri."

"Oh," I said. And

that little word, or the way I said it, caused something to change in Kyla. Her
expression shifted, her eyes getting a little bigger, and she leaned in and
kissed me deeply.

"Soon," she said

after our lips drifted apart. "It'll happen soon."

I just smiled and nodded.

"This is about something

else," Kyla said and reached for the cooler and opened it to reveal it had
a lining of ice and two beers. She took one out, cracked it open and handed it
to me, and then took the other out and cracked it open for herself before
taking a long swig of it.

"Liquid courage?" I

asked.

"Something like

that," she said, then set the beer down. "Harri, I want what Erica
has. I want to be all yours." Now I raised an eyebrow, trying to think of
how I could be engaged and marry two different women. Being in the weird polyamorous
arrangement of the vaccine was one thing, but I was pretty sure marrying two
people was still illegal. Kyla quickly shook her head, "No, not like
that," she grunted a little sigh. "God, I'm messing this up by
beating around the bush."

I had to laugh at that,

leaning in to press my forehead against hers. "Just tell me," I said.

"I want to do anal with

you," she said. "I've never done it with someone before, and I want
to bring it... into rotation. Like Erica. Not all the time like Ivy, but I want
to share that with you."

That made my eyebrows rise up

as I blinked. "Oh," I said. "Okay. I'm; Yes, please?"

That made her chuckle, which

got me chuckling as well. "Do you want to? With me?"

"Kyla, please," I

said. "I would love to. But out here?"

"Hmm," Kyla nodded.

Then she reached for the backpack and unzipped it, pulling out a bottle of
lube. "Erica helped me with a butt plug earlier, and Ivy's been giving me
tips."

Now that was a scene I

might have paid for tickets to see, Erica helping Kyla with her first butt plug
experience. I could only imagine how awkward yet caring yet silly it would have
been.

I leaned in and kissed her,

her plush lips smashing against mine as she slowly leaned back and I followed
her down until she was on her back and I was over her. Making out with each of
my partners was different, and with Kyla, I was always struck by a soft
tenderness behind her firmer, athletic energy. We continued to kiss as we
started to strip; my shirt was off first, followed by hers. I left her lips
behind to kiss down her neck to her chest. Her skin there was so amazingly
smooth as I kissed down further between her tits and I planted kisses across
her bosom and bra while she ran her fingers through my hair and scratched
softly at my scalp.

Kissing lower, I was just

reaching the button for her jean shorts when the loud ring of my cell phone
started bingling in my pocket.

"Umm," I grunted,

my lips pressed just below her belly button. "Hold on." I rolled to
the side and off of her, pulling my phone out and frowning at the number.
"Hello?"

"Sheriff Black, this is

Captain Toranno," said the gruff voice on the other end. I didn't
recognize the name, but I did recognize the voice; it was the big State Trooper
Captain from the morning after the shootout at Mary's. "Are you available
tomorrow morning? We've got an issue we need to deal with and an extra vehicle
would be a big help."

"Um, yes, Captain,"

I said, looking over my shoulder at Kyla. She was currently on her back and
pushing her shorts and panties down her legs, her bra already discarded.
"Tomorrow morning should be fine. What are we doing?"

"We need to transfer a

handful of prisoners," the Captain said. "It shouldn't take more than
a few hours. We'll need you down in Sheridan for 8 AM, is that doable?"

"Absolutely, happy to

help," I said "Just text me the address and whoever I should be
asking to meet with."

"Great," the

Captain said, and then without even a 'thank you' he hung up.

"God damn," I

grunted, dropping my phone and turning fully to my very naked girlfriend.

"What are we doing

tomorrow?" Kyla asked as she pushed me onto my back and started working at
undoing my belt.

"Prisoner transfer of

some sort I guess," I said. "I thought the US Marshals were supposed
to be in charge of that, but what do I know?"

"So we need to be

sitting in the truck for several hours tomorrow?" Kyla asked. She'd gotten
my belt and fly open and was tugging my jeans down.

"You don't have to

come," I offered.

She gave me a look as she

peeled my pants from my legs. "You think I'm going to let you go out on another
trip without me, or at least another of the girls?"

"I guess not," I

said.

She had my cock in her hand

and leaned in, this time riding me down to my back as we kissed. "If I'm
spending that much time sitting down tomorrow, I think we need to hold off on
anal tonight," she mumbled between kisses.

"Makes sense," I

muttered back, a little disappointed but for a good reason.

"Another time.

Soon," Kyla promised.

"Okay," I said. My

hands had found her ass and were kneading her butt cheeks as she slowly stroked
my cock and we kissed.

"Just fuck me,

Harri," she gasped. "Fuck me and I'll keep the butt plug in."

My fingers delved between her

cheeks and found the little round stopper for the butt plug, teasing it by
pushing on it a little and wiggling it.

"Fuck," Kyla

moaned. She got up with one foot on the ground, opening herself up more, and
tilted my cock into position so that she could start sitting down on it.
"I love you, Harrison."

"I love you too,

Kyla," I gasped as she took the head of my cock inside of her, squeezing
me tight.

She gasped as she bottomed

out on me, her warm golden-brown skin pressing down onto mine as we both
reveled in the feeling of each other. The butt plug in her ass made an odd
pressure against me inside of her, but it wasn't particularly large so she
didn't feel overly stuffed to me. Then she began to use her hips to slowly
start grinding on my cock, her black hair hanging around our faces as she looked
down at me in the dark.

The sex was smooth and

liquid. Kyla had perfect control of her body and encouraged me to let my hands
roam over her. And like a couple dancing, we traded positions and power with
ease, rolling over so that I was on top and could thrust into her with the same
languid grace as she was showing me. With me on top, the light from the moon
peeking around the clouds showed me her gorgeous face as her hair spread out on
the blanket around her. I dropped my lips to hers and kissed her desperately,
breathing in her scent through my nose.

We made love like that for a

good fifteen minutes before she rolled out from under me onto her side and I
spooned up behind her. Kyla's balance and poise made it so that this position
still allowed me to get deep into her as she raised her leg into the air, and I
reached around and softly played my fingers along her clit and labia as I
fucked into her.

"Yes, Harrison,"

she gasped into the night. The chirps and croaks of the wildlife were all
around us, and the cutting crews were just a distant hum nearly drowned out by
nature. "You feel so fucking good, dear."

"You are amazing,"

I grunted, hugging around her chest with my other arm as I started focusing my
fingers on her clit.

"Do that. Do that

more... God, I want your cum inside me, Harrison. Fill me. Breed me, Harrison.
I'm ready. You're ready. I want you."

I planted my lips onto the

top of her shoulder, muffling myself by kissing her skin as I grunted hard and
began to release inside of her. Kyla didn't have the same muffle and she
groaned loudly and wordless, her cry of ecstasy at her orgasm rolling through
her releasing into the trees. I hoped, dreamily in the midst of my own orgasm,
that hers wasn't just the vaccine and that we'd hit that peak together naturally
despite it, not because of it.

We lay like that for a good

amount of time as I slowly softened inside of her and then finally slipped out,
but she hugged my arms around her and didn't want to get up for another few
minutes.

"Next time," she

promised me quietly.

"When it makes

sense," I told her. "We don't need to rush it. And I'm going to want
you more before the 'right time' pops up."

She smiled and turned,

kissing me over her shoulder. "I want you always," she told me.

I did end up getting anal that

night, but it was with Ivy before everyone was getting ready for bed and it was
a quickie. The girl was honestly astounding at how easily she could take my
cock in her little behind. Then I waited up for Vanessa at the fire pit in the
compound, chatting with Dani and Leo who wanted to let Aria and India have a
little alone time in their RV.

When Vanessa finally showed

up for the night, dead tired and covered in the dirt of the day, I brought her
into the RV and got into the shower with her. She almost fell asleep on her
feet as I washed her, but perked up when I planted my lips to her cunt and we
ended up having a fast and passionate fuck in the little bathroom as she
muffled herself with a towel between her teeth to keep from waking the others.

I almost told her I loved her

again afterwards but managed to stop myself. Instead, I carried her back to the
bed and found Kyla looking back at us from her side of the already crowded
mattress. Somehow I wasn't surprised that she was the one who was still awake even
though we had an early morning coming up, and she made space for me to lay
Vanessa down and soon I was being snuggled by the two of them.

The next morning Vanessa was

up early as always, needing to get out the door well before her day-shift
workers showed up on-site, and Kyla and I weren't far behind her. We tried to
be as quiet as possible but it was no good, and Erica ended up cooking us
breakfast in the buff as Ivy helped Kyla by braiding her hair as the Filipino
woman did her makeup for that 'natural look' that she preferred when we were
working.

We were out the door before

six; the drive down to Sheridan would take a couple of hours. It was southwest
of Portland, and even the lack of dealing with traffic wouldn't make the back
highways any faster. We were both wearing our button-down, collared shirts to
look as 'official' as we could, and I had my badge out on the neck chain again
while she wore hers on her belt. We took the scenic route, though that was
mostly because it was also faster according to Google Maps, and passed through
a few of the smaller towns that were around the fringe of Portland before we
got down to Sheridan itself. I had told Kyla about the experience going all the
way down to Eugene, but thankfully we didn't run into any locked-down towns or
ghost towns as far as we could tell. There was a checkpoint as we got off the
18 and followed the directions Captain Torreno had sent me, but seeing our
vehicle and a flash of our badges was enough for the National Guard to wave us
through without questions.

At the end of the directions

we pulled into FCI Sheridan, the medium-security federal prison. I almost had
deja-vu of when I had pulled up at the Eugene PD; the parking lot was full
of cars and trucks; civilian, police and National Guard.

"Why the hell do they

need us here for this?" I muttered to myself as I put the truck in park.

Kyla grimaced, looking around

out the windows. There were a few people walking into and out of the gates, all
uniformed in one way or another, and they all were wearing medical masks and
gloves, and many of them had full hazmat hoods. "I think most of the
people here are busy with what's staying behind, not whoever we're taking with
us."

That made me grimace as well.

"Let's get suited up," I said.

Kyla and I got out of the

truck and went around and opened the bed, strapping on our bulletproof vests
with their emblazoned 'sheriff' patches; Miriam had sent those patches down to
replace the 'police' ones that had been on them before. Then I took the M4 out
of the secured compartment and did a quick check on it before we stowed it in
the front seat, and we each took a couple of extra mags for our side arms out
of the compartment as well.

Maybe it was a bit much, but

we were both getting bad feelings about things.

Lastly, after locking up the

truck bed again, I took a moment to drop my mask and kiss Kyla. "I'm sorry
last night didn't work out the way you planned," I said.

"I'm sorry I made an

offer I had to go back on," she said with a little smirk. "I'm
definitely glad we waited, though. My ass felt weird for half the night after I
got that plug out of me. I can't imagine what sitting in the truck for that
long would have been like."

That made me laugh, and she

gave me another peck before we raised our masks again and headed for the front
gate to the prison. We were met there by a pair of National Guardsmen who
checked our IDs and radioed inside before directing us back to the truck and to
follow a road around the walls to a back gate that would bring us to a loading
area. We quickly went and were checked again at the back gate with the National
Guardsmen there not even blinking at the M4 blatantly displayed next to Kyla in
the passenger seat.

We were waved through and

pointed towards a collection of various police vehicles and a small, spread-out
crowd of uniformed officers. We pulled into line with the others and got out,
receiving some nods. Everyone was standing around the front of their own
vehicles and were waiting for something, so we did the same. Parked next to us was
a State Trooper from somewhere else in the state, and beyond him was a guy with
an SUV marked as a Federal Marshall. Beyond them was a local PD from Sheridan,
and a couple of cars from Portland.

No one was talking, so again

Kyla and I kept to ourselves, unsure of what the protocol here was.

A few minutes later another

vehicle came rumbling in, this one looking for all the world like a military
vehicle, blacked out and making me shake my head. I'd always heard complaints
about the 'militarization of the police' from folks while I lived in Portland
and hadn't really cared; if the bad guys could upgrade, why couldn't the
police, in my book. But this just felt like a bit much. It was labelled as
belonging to the Salem PD, and two SWAT-equipped officers got out wearing full
gas masks.

"Jesus Christ," I

muttered to myself.

"Remember, dear,"

Kyla murmured to me. "None of them have the vaccine."

That made me second-guess my

eye-rolling. What I'd seen and dealt with, and what had been happening down in
Eugene, I'd been engaging knowing I had the vaccine. These men and women didn't
have that luxury. They were facing every day, likely all day, with just a thin
pair of gloves or medical mask between them and a whole lot of awful.

How could I blame them for

using gas masks if they had them?

A couple of minutes later a

few men in military fatigues stepped out of the loading area of the prison, and
once they came into the light I could see the markings. They were National
Guard, with one wearing the oak leaves of a Major and the other two the stripes
of Sergeant Majors. The Major nodded and one of the Sergeant Majors went back
inside, then the other two came to the edge of our little row of law
enforcement officers but stopped about twenty feet away. The Major gestured to
the Sergeant Major who had stayed with him, and the younger man took about ten
steps back and to the side, and then the Major took off his mask and breathed
deeply of the fresh morning air.

"God damn," he

grunted, smacking his lips for a moment and taking another breath before
turning his focus on us. "Alright, folks. I'm Major Button, and I'm going
to assume you all are fairly in the dark about what's going on. I'll keep it
brief; FCI Sheridan is shutting down. There was an outbreak and we're seeing
99% plus casualties among the prisoners, corrections staff and administrators.
The staff who are still around are in quarantine, and the fortunate few
convicts who are still alive need transporting. We're just waiting on the blood
tests down from a lab in Portland to give us the Okay to move them. You'll all
be heading to the same place in a caravan. The good news is the convicts are
all scared shitless so we haven't had any problems with them. The bad news is
that a lot of the survivors didn't get infected because they were absolute
shits and were in isolation when the outbreak happened, so if they do manage to
shake their abject fear we're talking about men who aren't afraid of violence.
We're expecting that might happen as you close in on Columbia River and they
start looking at entering another facility."

"Wait, we're bringing

them to CRCI?" one of the Marshalls spoke up, interrupting the Major.
"That's a minimum security facility."

"It's what we've

got," the Major grimaced. "There hasn't been an outbreak there, and
the Corrections folks there have been reinforced with a unit from the
Army."

There was some muttering from

the other officers in line with us, and I could understand their issue. The division
of criminals into degrees of risk was important; lots of people thought it was
about the risk of convicts breaking out of prison, but that wasn't true at all.
It was about the risk of the convicts to each other, along with to the
staff.

"Alright. Stick around

out here, we're expecting the results from the tests any time now. Sergeant
Major Oscars here will organize the loading. Godspeed, gentlemen." The
Major looked like he was about to turn and pace back to the building, but
stopped himself and visibly sighed as he slipped the mask back on over his face
and then turned and left.

"Well, guess we're going

to Portland after all," I said to Kyla, stretching a little.

"We should be bringing

them down to Salem," said one of the Salem PD guys through his gas mask
next to us. "State still has medium security beds open after their
outbreak."

"There was an outbreak

down there, too?" I asked.

"Yeah," said the

other Salem officer. "Pretty much every prison and jail in the state.
These transfers usually go pretty smoothly; most of the time the convicts are
just happy to get out of whatever hellhole they were in. Wouldn't be surprised
if most of them have PTSD for the rest of their lives."

"How many transfers have

you done?" Kyla asked.

" Umm, six?" the

officer replied. "Three in Salem, helped out with one in Portland, and
then a couple of county jails but that was just one guy each time."

"Just make sure you keep

a lid on any shit they try and spew," the other one said. "Literally
and figuratively."

I nodded. "Noted."

It was about fifteen minutes

before the Sergeant Major came out and gave us a quick rundown of the loading
operation. Each of the individual cars would have one prisoner, and the
remaining four would be loaded into the big Salem PD transport. The first officers
in line were waved into the loading area to sign for their prisoner, and it
wasn't until the Marshalls were headed in that I clued into the numbers. There
were six vehicles total, meaning nine prisoners were being transported. A place
the size of Sherian FCI had to hold well over a thousand inmates at least,
probably closer to two.

If it was hard to match up my

experiences with what the other officers dealt with on a daily basis, I
couldn't imagine what being in that prison had been like. And this was just one
prison.

When it was our turn, Kyla

and I marched into the loading area and I was handed papers pertaining to the
transfer, and I signed for the prisoner. His name was Jackie Fallows. Jackie
was marched out to us in an orange jumpsuit with wrist and ankle shackles, and
I quickly checked they were secure. He was a shaggy guy, his facial hair cut
into a rough goatee, and his eyes were a little sunken and darted around
nervously. I was easily a head taller than him, and Kyla was nearly as tall as he
was, but he was wiry under the bulky jumpsuit as I took him by the arm and led
him towards our truck.

"Hey, so, any chance of

like... a burger and fries on the way?" Jackie asked once we were out of
the loading area. "I swear to Christ I'll be a fucking fly on the wall if
you guys could get me some decent chow. I went three days in the hole without
food before they found me, and they've been feeding me like shit since then.
Not that the food in there was good anyways, it was always shit, just like...
more shit."

"Sorry, inmate," I

said. "No can do on detours, we're convoying it and I doubt the boys in
the big rig can fit through a drive-through."

"Damn," Jackie

sighed. And then he just kept talking. Yammering away as we got him up into the
back seat of the truck, I didn't think he even stopped talking after we got the
door shut and before we got into the front. I quickly got the sense that Jackie
Fallows was a nervous talker, and he was nervous as hell.

The Salem PD guys brought out

four prisoners chained together and shuffling in line, and it took them five
minutes to get them secured in the back of their rig. One of the officers
stayed with them back there while the other got in the front seat and nodded
down at me. Soon all of the vehicles were humming as their engines turned over,
and we were pulling out of the parking lot and rumbling towards the gates. I
waved the Salem rig ahead of me, and the officer waved and gave me a little nod
in thanks before pulling ahead.

"Why send him

first?" Kyla asked me.

"Just instinct," I

explained. "Really he should probably be in the middle of the convoy as
the biggest vehicle with the most number of prisoners. It doesn't make sense
for him to be the tail of the group."

"Hey, you were in the

military!" Jackie crowed from his seat in the back. "Where did you
serve?"

"All over," I said,

trying to keep my voice pleasant but detached.

"Any time in the

sandbox? I was in the sandbox, just like my Daddy before me. Different wars,
obviously, but man that shit was wild. You ever kill anyone? Me, I never got
the chance, which sounds weird considering all the fighting, right? But nope,
never did. Nearly got blown up a couple of times, but didn't fire my rifle
once. You'd think a guy like me, they'd put me in the action, but,” He just
kept talking.

The drive out of Sheridan was

short and we were on our way to Portland. I hadn't known what to expect for a
prisoner transport, and I still felt a little bit of an edge of vigilance in
the back of my mind as we made the drive and Jackie rambled away to himself in
the back. I was almost surprised that Kyla didn't snap at the guy, but then
she'd probably had training on keeping her cool and patience. I just sort of
entered a zen state of letting his voice turn into a meaningless drone as I
checked behind us in the mirrors.

"What's wrong?"

Kyla asked me, her voice cutting through Jackie's and pulling me back.

"Nothing," I said.

"Just thought a car back there was possibly following us, but it turned
off."

"How long?" she

asked, ducking her head to look into the side mirror, but the road was empty
behind us was empty now.

"They showed up just

outside of Sheridan, so maybe twenty minutes. Likely just local traffic, it
only stood out because the roads are so empty."

I could tell Kyla frowned

behind her mask and started checking the mirrors occasionally as well.

The drive was going to take

about an hour and a half since Columbia River was located in the northeast of
Portland and we were southwest of the city. Usually, we would have needed to
run the emergency lights or something for a convoy like the one we were in once
we hit the city limits, but we didn't even need that. We passed cars, but they
were sparse and avoided our trail of law enforcement vehicles. The fastest
route had us passing right through downtown, and again I was struck by how
ravaged certain streets looked; we even passed through the area that had been
the 'no police zone' or whatever where folks had tried to stage their
anti-authority protest in the early months of the year. It was even worse than
the rest of the city, but there weren't any roadblocks anymore and the tent
city that had started building was nothing but trash.

We did pass by the skyscraper

that housed Miriam's operation, and I whimsically wondered if we should call
her to see about stopping by when we finished the transport. She'd probably
think it was funny that I was doing boring as hell police scut work, and tell
me it was my own fault for being too helpful.

"Harri!" Kyla

called.

I slammed my brakes at the

tone of her voice.

The transport truck hit the

back end of the State Trooper car and clipped the front end of the Salem PD
rig, sending it careening sideways. The transport had come from our right,
blasting through an intersection. I hadn't seen it earlier because of the
buildings, and Kyla had only seen it at the last moment.

My whole body was jerking

forward from slamming on the breaks, and I heard a dull thud behind me as
Jackie rolled forward from the force and smacked his face into the Plexiglas
between the two rows of seats. I braced my hands on the steering wheel, and
Kyla was braced against the dash. The truck skidded and I peeled it to the
right, avoiding the end of the Salem PD rig.

It took a hot second for my

brain to catch up with my hands. Instincts stick in the muscles longer than the
mind, and the advanced driving course I'd taken while I was an MP had taken
over. In the split second my mind needed to catch up, things were changing
rapidly.

The transport truck had hit

and then jackknifed, folding in on itself and blocking my vision of the rest of
the convoy and the State Trooper who had gotten hit. The Salam rig wasn't
damaged heavily but had careened into a street lamp and had one wheel off the
ground as it was propped up on the street lamp base. The most immediate
problem, at least in my book, was the black panel van that was screeching to a
halt in the wake of the transport truck and the three motorcycles that were
rounding the corner a block back from us, heading in our direction.

I'd been in two ambushes

while I was deployed as an infantryman. Both of them had been what's called
'far ambush,' where we were getting shot at from a decent distance away. As
long as there is no debilitating damage to the vehicles, the best course of
action in that situation isn't to engage the enemy but rather to get out of the
kill zone that the enemy had picked out.

This wasn't that. This was a

'near ambush,' and it meant things were fucked. There was only one proven way
to deal with a near ambush effectively, and it generally required everyone in
the convoy to be on the same page; but we hadn't even taken the time to set up
a radio connection, let alone trade phone numbers or something.

I had two options, and they

boiled down to instinct and adrenaline. Flight, or Fight.

I slammed my foot down on the

gas and the truck leapt into motion, gunning it straight towards the black
panel van. It had stopped and the side door was sliding open at the same time
as the driver was starting to hop out. Men, dressed in rough clothes and
wearing black balaclavas, were starting to exit. I saw two rifles.

They saw me, or heard, too

late. Or maybe they heard the scream of terror from Jackie in the back seat.

The crash bar of my

beautiful, brand-new truck smashed into the side of the panel van a millisecond
after it hit the much softer obstacle of their bodies.

The impact took less time

than it took to suck in a breath. The guy that had been coming out of the side
door had gotten blown back inside by the impact, colliding with whoever was
following him out. The driver didn't just take the impact of my truck, but also
of his own door slamming into him and pinning him to his vehicle. Then the van
itself took the brunt of my powerful V8 engine, crumpling around my crash bar
and hood as my beast of a vehicle slammed and pushed it across the street and
into the curb, tipping it up onto two side wheels but catching the bottom of my
crash bar and wedging us in place.

Two seconds, maybe less.

I tried not to look at the

man who was currently leaking blood out of... well, probably a lot of places
onto my hood, and instead glanced over to Kyla. She was wild-eyed but moving,
unclipping her seatbelt.

"Go right and circle

around them," I ordered her. "And I love you."

"I love you too,"

she grunted as she opened her door.

I opened mine as well,

stepping out and drawing my sidearm. I wasn't too worried about the men in the
panel van at the moment and immediately dropped to one knee pointing the muzzle
back down the street in the direction we'd come. My vision was a little fuzzy
and I had to angrily blink it straight as the three motorcycles were coming to
a stop. Two of them had headed closer to the Salem rig, while another one had
stopped a little further back and was already off his bike and bracing some
sort of an SMG in both hands. I couldn't tell what it was from the distance,
but it looked something like an Uzi. He opened fire at the same time I did.

I emptied my mag, and he

probably did too. Again, it took maybe four seconds in total.

The spray of bullets panged

as they hit my truck and the street. I saw sparks pop off of his bike. The
second half of his shots sprayed wildly into the air as he fell back. I'd hit
him at least four times; practice counted for something when you weren't within
five yards.

I darted left, heading for

the back end of my truck, and felt a stab of pain in my right leg but it didn't
give out so I kept moving. That was a good thing because more shots started
ringing off the side of my truck from the direction of the other motorcycles. I
got around the end and behind the wheel, dropping my empty magazine and
slamming home a new one from my belt. Kyla was firing the M4 from somewhere on
the other side of the black panel van. I rolled onto my belly on the street and
stuck my arms forward in a prone firing stance, looking under my truck at the
motorcycles and opening fire again. This time I was slightly more methodical
and between myself and Kyla we put down both shooters.

Then there was a metallic

bang that sounded different from the other shots and was right next to me. It
sounded like a muffled shotgun.

My eyes went wide and I

scrambled up from the ground and around to the back of the panel van, but I
only made it two steps before a rapid series of shots rang out, this time
sounding like my own. As I rounded the van I found Kyla down on her back, her
M9 sidearm pointed up at the side of the panel van where she was finishing
emptying her mag. There was also a hole in the side of the van about the size
of a fist, and the M4 was a mangled mess on the ground.

I emptied the rest of my

magazine into the side of the van as well, only maybe four bullets before I was
done, and rushed to Kyla and grabbed her by the shoulders of her vest and
hauled her backwards. No more shots came from the van, however, and she rolled
to stop me from pulling her further than the back.

"Are you Okay?" I

asked her. "Are you hit?"

"He shot the end off of

the rifle," Kyla grunted and held up her hand, showing me it was fine.
"I almost lost my hand. Are you Okay?"

"I'm fine," I said.

Like a liar.

We both reloaded and I peeked

around the side of the van before I started side-stepping around it keeping my
muzzle trained on the shotgun hole. I made it to the front where one of them
was on the ground, his blood pooling under him; I couldn't be sure if the
impact from the truck had hit him, or if Kyla had shot him. His door was
hanging open though and I checked inside the van; there were four men in the
back and none of them were moving. It was possible some were only knocked out
from me ramming them and they hit their heads.

I had more pressing concerns

though as there were more gunshots from nearby. Kyla had followed me around the
van and had gone all the way to the corner of the building and was peeking
around. Across the intersection, the driver of the Salem PD rig was out and
sitting against the side of his vehicle with the look of a man who'd been shot,
but it also looked like he'd gunned down the driver of the transport truck.

Moving to Kyla, I tapped her

shoulder and we both circled around the corner of the building and up the
sidewalk to the back of the transport. She ducked low and looked under it, then
stood and we both moved around.

A shot rang out and punched

the metal of the transport trailer right in between Kyla and me, and we both
pivoted and my finger twitched, just a half-pound of pressure from pulling the
trigger as I stared down my sights at a police officer looking at me with wide
eyes as he realized we were friendly.

I still almost shot him in

that split second. Between the adrenaline and my rage, I was this close
to shooting him down knowing he'd almost hit Kyla.

He dropped his gun, cringing

away from it. It was the officer from the Sheridan PD.

I put a hand on Kyla's

shoulder and we kept moving, but it was over. The Marshalls were taking charge
of things on the other side of the transport where another group of the
motorcycles had closed in. A couple of the officers were down, and several of
the bikers had gotten away. Kyla and I started to rush back around to the other
side of the transport to check on the downed Salem PD driver, but my leg
wobbled and I staggered, and Kyla saw it. She turned and I saw her eyebrows
furrow, but didn't hear what she said.

Then I was on the ground and

she was over me, her hands on me. Searching me.

"Leg," I grunted.

Then I lost consciousness.

"God fucking

damnit," I groaned, and someone grabbed my hand and said something.

My head was pounding and I

felt dizzy for a long moment even with my eyes closed. That passed, and the
whom-whom-whom in my ears started to clear around the same time as I peeled
an eyelid open.

I was kind of surprised to

find Miriam was the one holding my hand. I was looking up at her and a hospital
room ceiling; well, the ceiling was just a ceiling, but the hospital bed I was
lying in was a big clue.

"You back with me,

Harri?" she asked me quietly, almost whispering.

"Umm," I grunted,

trying to sit up, but she put her other hand on my chest to keep me down.

"Don't," she said.

"How long?" I

managed to croak.

"Six months,"

Miriam said, her face a graven tombstone of emotion.

"; What?" I

exhaled, leaning back into the pillows. Six...? "How?"

She snorted and her

expression broke into a smirk. "How the fuck are you so gullible, Black?
It's been three hours."

"God fucking

damnit," I groaned again, rolling my eyes.

Miriam moved aside, showing

me that Kyla was sitting in a plush-looking chair in the corner of the hospital
room, her eyes closed as she slept but her hands knotted into fists.

"She's Okay?" I

asked.

"Better than you,"

Miriam said. "A little shaken, once you were in surgery. Before that she
was ice. She called me instead of 911 when you collapsed."

"We're in your place,

aren't we?" I asked, looking around the hospital room. On second glance it
was newer than I would have expected of any random hospital, and the door was
able to be hermetically sealed. We were in one of the quarantine rooms that I'd
seen when I'd been able to visit Vanessa while she was here.

"We are," Miriam

nodded. "I wasn't about to feed you into the hospitals even with you being
vaccinated. It's..." She stopped and took a breath. "Let's just say
you would be just as likely to die there as get better, and you aren't that bad
off."

"What is wrong with

me?" I asked.

"Well, two inches higher

and I could have been razzing you for getting yourself shot in the ass,"
Miriam said. "You got hit in the meat of your thigh, Harri. Straight
through-and-through, doctors aren't even sure if you got hit straight on or if
it was a ricochet. The main reason you collapsed was blood loss because you
didn't patch it, you idiot."

"Lucky that's all it

was," I grunted. "Asshole opened up on me with an Uzi or some
shit."

"I was told," Miriam

said. "Wasn't the idea for you to be staying out of trouble?"

"This wasn't supposed to

be trouble," I sighed. "The Staties asked for the help, it should
have just been some driving around."

"Yeah, well, I got red

in on the situation with the prison systems," Miriam grimaced.
"Whatever you think you know, it's worse than that. Let's just say that
you would have been turned away at the gates even if you did reach Columbia
River."

"Fuck," I sighed.

"Who even was it that hit us?"

Miriam sighed and shook her

head. "You've got a hole in your leg and your truck looks a little like
Swiss cheese, let alone any damage to the front end and the axel after you
tried to fuck a van with it."

"Sorry," I said.

"Guess I'm not playing nice with the toys you sent me."

"Yeah, well, when I get

you something new don't worry about adding on to our meal tab," she said.
"I'm going to ask you for something sooner than later and it's going to be
more than a meal to pay it back."

"You're dodging my

question, Miriam," I sighed. "What happened?"

"You need to rest,

Harri," Miriam said.

"I'm not trying to get

up and go here," I said. "I just want,” I trailed off, looking over
at Kyla again. "Hon, you can stop pretending to be asleep."

Kyla's eyes blinked open and

she rose from her chair in one graceful movement, stepping around Miriam and
leaning down to kiss me as she cupped my face with both her hands. "I'm so
glad you're Okay, mahal ko," she whispered against my lips, though
it was a new couple of words she hadn't used before. She kissed me again and
stared into my eyes for a long moment.

I knew why she'd been faking

her sleep, and I was a little proud of myself for noticing it. Miriam had been
dodging questions, sure, but she'd also be fairly open and Kyla had wanted to
listen in. I probably would have let her if I hadn't wanted her in the
conversation properly.

"Now," I said.

"One of you better tell me something here."

"It was a prison

break," Miriam said with a little shake of her head. "I haven't been
tapped into whatever the investigation is, I just deployed a security force to
scoop you and a couple of the other wounded officers up and brought you here
for medical aid. The most I know is that it was likely a biker gang, or them
and some other allies, trying to spring someone or everyone being
transferred."

"In the middle of

downtown Portland?" I asked, feeling a little incredulous.

"This isn't the city you

remember, Harri," Kyla said. "It's gone wild. More brutal. I heard
one of the officers saying that there wasn't a single 911 call from the area
during the shooting. People are afraid of everything, including the
police."

"Fuck," I groaned.

It was like the city had turned into an old Western town when a gunfight was
about to happen. People cleared the streets and only the bravest even watched
from their windows.

"It's not your

concern," Miriam said. "The Marshalls are all over it, and they've
got backing from the Feds. I've got a feeling organized crime is pulling this
kind of shit all over the country right now if things are the same in other
states."

I grunted and nodded, and

felt down at my leg with the hand that Miriam wasn't still holding and got a
nice spike of pain from it as I touched the bandage. "Do the girls
know?" I asked Kyla.

"They know," Kyla

nodded.

"Vanessa is on her way

here," Miriam said. "Erica gave me a chewing out like I haven't had
since boot camp, but I can only bend so many rules and I can't let her or Ivy
in the building. Vanessa can give some blood to check up on her vaccination
status, so I can get her in here with you."

"Okay," I sighed,

nodding. "Okay."

"He needs to rest,"

Kyla said, feeling at my forehead.

"I'll go check on

things," Miriam agreed. "And you two also need to... boost your
vaccinations. At some point. I'll be back once Vanessa gets here."

I meant to say goodbye, and

thank you, and probably some other things, but my mind was feeling a little
foggy. I blinked and when I opened my eyes Miriam was gone but Kyla was
standing where she had been, holding my hand. "How drugged up am I?"
I mumbled.

Kyla smirked and leaned down

to kiss my forehead. "You're on the good stuff, Harri. Just get some
sleep."

I closed my eyes again but

didn't drift off immediately. Or maybe just not entirely. I could hear Kyla
talking and I realized she was on the phone, but whatever she was saying was
getting muddied in my mind. It was just good to know she was there.

"It'll be fine, the

nurses know the deal," someone said.

"I just don't want to,”

"Kyla, you both need it.

Just suck his cock to start."

"Uh," I grunted.

"Harri, baby,"

Vanessa said. "I'm here."

"Vee?" I asked,

confused for a moment as I blinked myself awake. She had crawled up on the
hospital bed and was lying next to me on her side, resting her chin on my
shoulder as she held my hand in both of hers.

"How are you

feeling?" she asked me.

"Am I on morphine?"

"Pretty sure that's what

they give people who get shot, Harri," she said.

"Get me off of it,"

I said. "It's fucking with my head."

"Kyla?" Vanessa

asked.

"Harri, you need pain

meds," Kyla said.

"So switch me to

powerful Tylenol or something," I groaned. "I can handle the pain,
but I want my head clear."

"Okay," Kyla said.

"I'll get the nurse."

Kyla went to the door to the

room and pressed a button on the wall. When she walked away I noticed she was
out of her police clothes and was now dressed in a pair of sweatpants and a
pretty cotton t-shirt that clung to her fit form. I rolled my head to look at
Vanessa and she met me with a little kiss. She was dressed in similar
sweatpants but had on what looked like one of my undershirt tank tops with an
athletic bra underneath.

"It's good to see you

out of uniform, Vanessa," I chuckled.

"That's what you think

of at a time like this?" she laughed. "Let me guess, you decided to
get shot so that I would take an afternoon off, too."

"It worked, didn't

it?" I smiled, but blinked and when I opened my eyes there was a nurse
standing over us.

"He really should be on

the morphine for another six to eight hours at least," she was saying.
"If I switch him over now he's going to hurt like a motherfucker."

"Is it going to be that

bad tomorrow?" Kyla asked.

"Mostly," she said.

"He wants it,"

Vanessa said.

"Okay," the nurse

said. "I'll let the Doc know."

"Thanks," I

grunted.

They fussed over me a bit,

and I drifted again since the morphine hadn't actually been cut off yet, and I
woke up to an odd sensation.

"Umm," I groaned

and twitched.

"It's Okay, baby,"

Vanessa whispered in my ear. "Just lay back and enjoy it."

I blinked my eyes open and

looked down my body. Vanessa was still lying next to me cuddled up as she
kissed my cheek, but my hospital gown was lifted up to my stomach and Kyla was
kneeling on the bed as well, straddling one of my legs as she slowly sucked my
cock and looked up to meet my gaze.

"Don't have to,” I

started, but Vanessa interrupted me by turning me by my chin to meet her lips.

"Shush," she

shushed me. "She wants to, and she needs to. You were both exposed
to multiple potential vectors, Harri. The tests came back clean, but we want to
be safe just in case. You need to make sure the vaccine is working at high
capacity. So Kyla is going to suck you off until you fill her mouth. Then we'll
let you rest a little, and then we're going to reenact what you and I did when
you woke up in a hospital gown in this building. Then, after a little more
rest, you're going to fuck Kyla as well."

"Yes, nurse," I

groaned, letting my head fall back. Kyla was using her tongue to slither around
my cock head and even though the sensations were weird and dulled from the meds
it was still pleasurable. My cock was obviously enjoying it too as I was
already close to full mast.

"God, look at her,"

Vanessa whispered to me. "She's so fucking pretty already, but somehow
she's even hotter with your cock in her mouth."

I reached to Kyla with the

hand that Vanessa wasn't holding and Kyla caught it with hers and intertwined
her fingers with mine, smiling with the whole head of my cock between her lips.
This wasn't usual for us, being sexual with one of the others present; the only
time it had really happened before was after that shootout at Mary's and us
being detained overnight when she'd participated in the 'Whose Mouth Is This?' game
with the others. Kyla was still uninterested in women and our time was just for
us.

But here she was blowing me

with soft, slow motions that spoke of her desire for me, and to make this last,
while Vanessa was with us in bed and watching.

"I'm mad at you, you

know," Vanessa whispered to me.

"For getting shot?"

I guessed.

She nodded. "And not

making me take more breaks. I miss spending time with you and the girls. But
especially you."

"You wanted to

work," I said. "You love doing your job, and it was emergency
pacing."

"I know," she said.

"But... you should have made me."

"I don't think I could

make you do anything, Vanessa. I don't know if anyone could make you do
something you don't want to do."

"You could," she

whispered. "Youkan. Don't let me be away from you, Harri. I,” She
stopped and swallowed.

I turned to her and kissed

her hard, or at least as hard as I could considering the situation and the
positioning. She kissed me back just as firmly, our lips mashed together as our
foreheads touched. The kiss ended but we kept our faces touching.

"I love you, Harri. You

big fucking bastard," Vanessa whispered.

"I love you too,

Vanessa," I said quietly.

"Finally," Kyla

said, taking her lips from my cock and nuzzling the shaft with her face as she
looked up at us. "Jesus, Vee. Took you long enough."

"Shut up," Vanessa

said, obviously a little embarrassed by her own emotions. "It's; this is
all happening too fast. It's not normal."

"None of it is, but

you've clearly loved him since before I joined the family," Kyla
countered. "And you've been making him wait to say it because he didn't
want to push you away."

"I have?" Vanessa

asked in surprise. "I thought... we were just supposed to be..."

"Vanessa," I

chuckled softly. "I wanted to tell you I loved you that first time we were
alone together. It's almost ironic that you're saying it to me here, when I
wanted to say it to you like thirty yards from this spot."

"God," Vanessa

laughed gently. "I'm so messed up."

"No you're not," I

said, squeezing her hands with mine. "You're you, and I love you."

She kissed me again, and Kyla

went back to blowing me as she held my other hand. It was a long, slow process
that they took to build me up; and they were working together even if
they weren't communicating or even looking at each other. Every once in a while
Vanessa would stop kissing me and turn my face to look down at Kyla with my
cock in her mouth, and she would kiss her way down my jaw to my neck and then
up to my ear to whisper naughty things to me. Then Kyla would squeeze my
fingers and flick her eyes to Vanessa, signaling to kiss the other woman again.

"God, I love you

both," I groaned softly in between kisses. "I'm close."

"Do it, baby,"

Vanessa said. "Fill her mouth. Give her your cum. She wants it so bad. I
know because I want it too. I crave it from you. Give her your load and remind
her why she wants to have your babies."

"I want his babies for

more than being his little whore," Kyla said, taking her lips from me for
a moment and jerking me off with her hand.

"Well, yeah,

but..." Vanessa said, smiling and looking down at the other woman for the
first time in a while.

"Fair," Kyla

smirked. "She's right, hon. Usually I would want your load in my cunt. I
love that obey gooey feeling when you go off in me, but I want it in my mouth
now. I want to taste you. Can I have that, Harri? Can I have your delicious
seed all over my tongue? I'll even share it with Vanessa if you want. I'll give
her half."

"Yes, please,"

Vanessa whispered to me. "Can I have some too, Harri?"

"Fuck," I grunted,

closing my eyes and letting my orgasm roll through me. Kyla dropped her mouth
to my cock and I released right onto her tongue, four big spurts before she
started sucking hard, pulling the rest out of me as she hummed a gleeful,
almost manic laugh and her own body shuddered through an orgasm brought on by
the chemical bonding from the vaccine.

I let out a long, loud

exhalation as my orgasm finished, but opened my eyes when I felt Kyla leave my
cock and climb up the bed carefully. Then, to my astonishment, she leaned down
to Vanessa and kissed her, their tongues swapping back and forth as they traded
my cum. Vanessa's body twitched and flexed as she was fed it and got her own
orgasmic spike, and she gripped my fingers tight.

"Fuck," I groaned

again. I never thought I'd see Kyla kissing one of the others beyond a friendly
peck.

"Hmm," Vanessa

hummed as Kyla finally pulled away. "Thanks, Kyla."

"No problem," Kyla

smirked. She sat back, carefully avoiding my injured leg, took my cock in her
hand and started to slowly jerk it again. "Harri obviously enjoyed
watching that."

"Kyla, I mean; It's was

hot, and surprising, but I don't expect you to,”

"I know, hon," she

said, gently squeezing my cock to silence me. "I know. I'm not changing my
stance on things. I'm straight. I just... it felt right in the moment. And it's
not like I regret it."

"Neither do I,"

Vanessa smirked.

"Good," Kyla said.

"Because now it's your turn. Get your pants off, I want to snuggle him
while you fuck him."

I, apparently, didn't have a

say in this, and soon Kyla was in the same spot as Vanessa had been and laying
her cheek on my shoulder. Vanessa had hopped down from the bed and shucked her
sweatpants and panties, then climbed back up. It took some doing for her to
find a way to mount me that was comfortable enough for her to slowly grind on
my cock while also not putting pressure on my left leg.

"God, fuck," I

groaned once she was settled, my cock stuffed deep into her. She was leaning
forward slightly to keep her weight high and was grinning down at me. Kyla,
meanwhile, had shifted higher on the bed as well to give some more room and was
sort of curled over me a little and looking down at me from above, running her
fingers through my hair.

"Just close your eyes

and enjoy it, Harri," Kyla whispered to me. "You'll be back to
ravaging us soon enough. Let us take care of you."

"Fuck, even shot and

dopey from the drugs this is still the best cock I've ever had," Vanessa
groaned. "I love you so Goddamn much, Harri."

"I love you too,

Vanessa," I groaned. "I love you both."

Kyla kissed my forehead, and

Vanessa kissed my lips, and then they both made soft, sweet love to me one
after the other.

I was released from the

medical wing of the Air Force building the next day. Vanessa and Kyla had both
been allowed to keep their phones this time and that night I'd video called
with Erica and Ivy, then with Leo, Dani and Aria for a couple of minutes. They
were all glad to see I was Okay and sent their love.

The tone of things changed

once I was back home.

"Fucking asshole,"

Erica said and punched me in the arm. Hard. "Don't fucking do that to us
again!"

"Ow, fuck," I said.

Erica wasn't super strong or anything but she could throw a punch. "Jesus,
Erica. I didn't get shot on purpose."

They had at least given me

time to get back inside our compound, using a crutch to help keep weight off my
wounded leg. Vanessa had driven Erica's car into the city and Kyla and I had
hitched our ride back with her since my truck was; Actually, I wasn't sure where
my beautiful truck was. But based on what I vaguely remembered Miriam telling
me, it wasn't exactly in driving condition at the moment and must have been
towed somewhere.

I was sitting down; tenderly;

in one of the deck chairs and Macho had jumped up on my lap and squirmed around
in glee that I was home until I was giving him a rough belly scratching and he
was lolling his head to the side with his tongue hanging out. That's when Erica
hit me.

"She is right, mon

amour," Ivy said, perching herself on the armrest of the chair and
glaring at me even while she took my chin in her fingers and pulled me into a
kiss. "There was no reason to put yourself in so much danger."

"It wasn't supposed to

be dangerous," I sighed. "No one expected someone to attempt a big
jailbreak."

"Still," Erica

said, continuing her frown at me as she sat in the chair next to mine.
"You scared the shit out of us."

"I'm sorry," I

said, resting my hand on Macho's belly and just scratching him with my fingers.
I'd never thought I'd be the kind of guy with a lapdog, but the little guy had
grown on everyone quickly. "Kyla and I were doing something that we
thought would be helpful, and then when we were in danger we did what
was necessary."

"That's some bullshit,

Harri," Dani said, coming from inside our trailer with three bottles of
beer in each hand fetched from the fridge and starting to hand them out.
"You were being the hero again. And I, for one, am pissed at you as well
but I'm not going to give you shit for it. You two shouldn't either. You knew
what you were getting into when you picked him, Erica. And Ivy, I know you love
the fact that he's a protector and super capable at that, so stop trying to
give him shit for doing just that."

"Stop being reasonable,

you bitch," Erica sighed with a little self-deprecating smirk for Dani as
she accepted a beer from her.

"I'm sorry,

Harrison," Ivy said, wiping under her eyes to try and keep herself from
crying.

"No, ladies," I

said and then sighed out an exasperated breath. "Don't start apologizing.
You two... I get it. And you have a right to feel the way you are. Especially
since you couldn't come to check on me like Vanessa could. You've been bottling
all that in. You can take it out on me, that's Okay; you need to get it
out."

"That's not what; ugh,

Okay, maybe that's part of it," Erica said, curling her feet up under her
in her chair as she looked over with an expression that was more frustrated
with herself than with me. "I'm not asking you to change, babe. I'm not
even asking you to not ever get in a risky position again or anything. Just...
make sure it's worth it. To us. To people who... God, maybe this sounds
awful, but to people who matter to us. Moving random prisoners from Point A to
Point B doesn't change anything for us, doesn't protect us or make our lives
any easier. Fuck, you weren't even getting paid to do it, Harri. The
only reason you were out there was because you thought it was the right thing
to do but it wasn't right or wrong, it was just a thing. We could have
lost you and Kyla for nothing, and then what happens to us?"

I had to close my eyes and

let her words run through me because they were something I'd been stewing on
myself internally and I hadn't put to voice for myself yet. She was right. I
could make an argument for the community policing stuff because it was
in my community. The more people were safe in Jewell and around the area, the
more they acted civil and protected themselves and each other, then the better
this place would be long term. Helping Mary and the kids had been good.
Helping the women at Valkyrie Falls was good. Even driving down to Eugene on
what had really been a fool's errand from the start had been a good thing to do
because it helped Melina with her peace of mind and stopped her from risking
herself.

Maybe, potentially, the

prisoner transport thing could have earned me a favor with the Staties. But
what were the chances of that favor ever being paid back? Or them feeling like
it was actually owed?

Getting those men out of that

prison had been a good thing, certainly, but I hadn't needed to be there for
it. One more prisoner in the big SWAT truck instead of our vehicle wouldn't
have made a difference. It was possible that Kyla and I had saved a couple of
lives with our actions, but could I judge risking my life and the lives of four
women I loved for something like that?

The soldier in me said I'd

just been doing my duty, and the man in me said it was a thing worth doing. But
the husband in me... the boyfriend. The lover. The father, sooner or later.
Those parts of me that had found and bonded to these women that I loved...

"Stop pushing him,"

Vanessa said. She'd been hanging back a bit, likely since she'd had time with
me already and felt like she owed it to the others. "Look at him. I can
see his mind going a mile a minute. He knows all of this, Erica. You don't
think he's already considering this?"

"I know he is,"

Erica said. "But sometimes..."

"Sometimes a man needs

it put to him straight, or he'll run around it in circles until his legs fall
off," I said and snorted a little laugh. "That's something my mother
used to say about my father."

"Smart woman," Dani

smirked from where she was standing behind Erica.

"Okay," I said.

"Erica, babe, I hear you. Ivy, I'm sorry. I love you."

"I love you too, mon

amour," Ivy said softly, shifting to lean against me from her perch on
the armrest.

"Kyla," I said,

looking around. She stepped up behind me and put her hand on my shoulder.
"I'm sorry I put you in a position like that again. I'm; God, I'm so
sorry, and so glad that you didn't get hurt."

"I asked for it,

Harri," she said. "It was; Fuck, I don't know. I love you."

Macho was not amused that I

took my hand from his belly to take Kyla's on my shoulder and he rolled over
and stood on his hind legs in my lap and started licking at my face.

"Okay, Okay," I

said, fending him away. "Fuck, dude. Not on the lips." I pinned him
down to my lap again and he wagged his tail and looked up at me with that
little wide-eyed innocent look of his as he got his belly scratched again.

"Vanessa," I said,

looking over at her. She met my eyes and smiled and nodded. "I love
you."

"I love you too, you big

bastard," Vanessa said.

That seemed to be news to

Erica, Ivy and Dani, who all reacted like they were high schoolers and
immediately were talking a mile a minute as they surrounded Vanessa and were
hugging her. Kyla took that opportunity to lean down from behind me and give me
a kiss on the cheek and let me know she needed to go take a nap; she hadn't
slept since we'd left the morning before for Sheridan.

That left me with Macho for

the moment, but I noticed that Leo had come out of his RV; he, Aria and India
had disappeared after first welcoming me home to give us some privacy for the
conversation. He was frowning a little and gave me the universal guy nod for 'follow
me over here,' so with a grunt and a grimace I got up from the chair and
hobbled after him with Macho tucked under one arm like a little furry football
as he played with my fingers, gnawing on them lightly.

Leo led me around the side of

the RV, out of sight of the girls, and turned and waited for me before leading
me beyond the hanging sheets outside of the compound and next to one of the
storage containers.

"It was just your leg,

right?" he asked me, obviously concerned. "No concussion or
anything?"

"Just the leg," I

said with a sigh. "Thank,”

Leo punched me in the face.

Now, Leo wasn't a big guy. He

didn't work out, and I doubted he ever really had with any seriousness. But he
worked with his hands, and he wasn't necessarily out of shape, so when
he punched me it staggered me back a step and blossomed a nice shot of pain in
my nose and a black circle in my vision for a moment.

"Fuck," Leo hissed,

grabbing his hand.

"Fuck," I grunted,

feeling at my face with the hand that wasn't holding Macho. "You could
have at least let me put the dog down."

"Yeah, but then he might

have run off," Leo grimaced, feeling his knuckles with his thumb.
"God damn, you have a hard face. Fuck, Harrison. God fucking damn you. You
need to stop fucking around. You scared the shit out of me and Erica. Do you
know the last time I saw my sister cry? Like really cry? Cause I can't. But she
did when she heard you'd been shot, and she came to me because she couldn't put
it on Ivy or Vanessa. She needs you, Harri, and I'm not just talking
about the vaccine. She needs you, Okay? Fuck, we all need you. How long
do you think I could take care of three live-in girlfriends, let alone my
sister and any of the others, without you? You're changing all of our lives and
I'm so fucking grateful for that, but fuck you for it, too."

I grabbed Leo and pulled him

into a hug. Just the two; well, three; dudes in this mess together. Macho
seemed to sense the moment and didn't squirm, instead nuzzling his way between
the two of us a bit.

"I'm sorry," I told

Leo.

"It's not just you,

Harri," Leo said. "She needs you. I need you. I love you, dude."

"I know," I said.

"I know. I'm sorry."

We hugged it out for a bit,

and then both of us backed away feeling a little chagrined. I felt my nose,
making sure it wasn't broken or bleeding, and he checked his knuckles again.
Then I slapped him on the shoulder and nodded, and he nodded back, and we went
back inside the compound.

To be continued, Based on

a post by Break The Bar for Literotica

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