Discovery of the Moment Ch. 04

Author's note: The last chapter didn't have as many comments as I'd hoped. Please, people, let me know what you think by not only voting but speaking up. Your comments are what drive me forward, for they reassure me that I really DO have an audience.

This chapter will, hopefully, knock your socks off. To the best of my knowledge, it has a sexual act that has not, to date, ever been done before. Truly unique in the annals of eroticism. Enjoy!

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I woke up the next day feeling the oddest mixture of well-rested and completely bombed out of my mind. As the midday light shone through my bedroom window, I took a slow, deep breath and let it out with a quietly contented sigh. I spied, out of the corner of my eye, the sleeping form next to me and smiled lazily at the crazy dream I'd had- the foiled robbery, Sarah getting shot, taking Kelly into The Between and then an ER doctor... for the most part, yeah, it was a nightmare, but what an ending! I'd dreamed about having sex with Kelly and it was so amazingly vivid, so pleasurable that I could've sworn it was real. I turned to look at the alarm clock, to see what time it was, and was pleased to see that, since it was Sunday, I'd been able to sleep in until just past one o'clock in the afternoon. I hadn't sleep that late in years, not since Kelly was a baby. Sleeping in on Sundays, though, had always been a sort of tradition with Sarah and me, but never this late. I guess whatever I ate at the restaurant Saturday night must've really sent me over the moon. I sat up in bed, careful not to disturb my wife on her side of the bed, and groggily started to stand up as quietly as possible.

Just as I'd gotten to my feet, ready to slip off to the bathroom for a morning piss, I heard Kelly's voice. "Dad?"

I glanced at the bedroom door, but saw that it was shut closed. That's odd, I thought to myself. I heard the bed creak slightly as Sarah, who must've been roused by Kelly calling out for me, sat up. Kelly said my name again, but this time the voice was unmistakably behind me. My blood ran cold as I slowly turned to face the voice and, as you might've already guessed, there sat my daughter, naked as a jay-bird, in the spot where my wife normally sleeps in our bed.

And that's when the memories of the night before came rushing back in full, exacting detail. It was a nightmare, all right, but it was one that my family had actually experienced. My wife was in the hospital, recovering from a gunshot wound, and my daughter, who I'd had animalistic sex with in the kitchen, was now in my bed. I covered my mouth in surprise at the surreality of my life at that moment and muttered, "Holy fucking hell, it was all real, wasn't it?"

Kelly's eyebrows knit in confusion as she wiped the sleepiness out of her eyes and then gave me a hard look. "Of course it was real, Dad. What... you thought it was all a dream or something?" Kelly didn't move to cover herself as she brushed her hands through her hair, drawing it back over her shoulders.

I sat down heavily on my side of the bed and looked down at my feet, like they were suddenly far more interesting than the naked young woman who was staring at my back. "Uh. I... yeah, I guess I did." I turned my torso slowly to look at my diminuative daughter, who was still brazenly naked and seemingly unconcerned about it. "Would you, uh, mind covering yourself up for a moment, please?"

Kelly glanced down at her exposed breasts, which looked absolutely lovely in the afternoon light, and then back at me with incredulity writ large upon her face. "Are you kidding me?" she asked. "Dad, after what you did to me a few weeks ago and did WITH me this morning, I hardly think that modesty is going to do either of us any good right now. Besides, our clothes are still down in the living room, remember?"

The events after what occurred in the kitchen came back to me in a slow fog. Most of what we did could be described as "innocent" necking, provided the two people involved weren't a directly blood-related father-and-daughter couple, but I'm pretty sure it never went further than that. I had suggested that bed was a good place to be after we'd made out for several minutes and took off the rest of our clothes. Kelly had agreed and we made way to the master bedroom, where we quickly fell asleep. We'd fallen asleep spooning, me holding her in my arms, and totally oblivious to anything but our own exhaustion. And I suddenly felt an immense amount of guilt for having let my daughter take my wife's place in bed. Having sex with her was bad enough, even though I'd managed to agree to it, but this was unacceptable. What had I been thinking?

"Kelly," I said slowly, "while this morning was... fantastic, I don't think it'd be a good idea for us to sleep in this bed together again. I should've said something about it before we went to sleep, but I guess I was just too tired at the time. I mean... that's your mom's side of the bed. It's just a little too... much. For me."

Kelly looked around herself for a few seconds, taking in the sights from her vantage point and then shrugged. "Yeah," she said with clear resignation in her voice. "I guess you're right. It IS a little creepy. Okay. I'll sleep in my own bed, if that'll make you more comfortable."

I half-smiled and half-grimmaced at my daughter. "Thanks," I said. "I appreciate that. It's not really sleeping together that bothers me so much," I explained. "It's just that-"

Kelly shook her head. "No need to explain, Dad. I think I understand. This is your marriage bed. I can respect that. And will. By the way," she leaned over and kissed me chastely on my cheek, as if she wasn't naked in my bed or maybe as though being naked in my bed was the most normal thing in the world to her, "g'morning, Daddy. I'm gonna go take a shower and freshen up. Okay? And I'll have some breakfast ready by the time you come down."

I nodded numbly as she hopped out of bed spryly and left me alone to collect my thoughts. One event had changed so much of my life in such a short span of time. I was still having a hard time coping with it. I wasn't sure if the guilt I felt was about letting Kelly sleep in Sarah's spot or if it was the fact that I'd agreed to fuck my own daughter so easily while my wife was stuck at the hospital. I'd barely protested when Kelly threw herself at me. I know that I'd realized that my moral compass was already somewhat damaged, having basically raped her a few weeks before while I had slipped between the seconds of Time, but I still had a duty to Kelly as her father. I should have put up more than just a token resistence, should've argued against it. But, honestly, I just couldn't bring myself to do it, to resist my daughter's magnificent charms. I had to be honest with myself, first and foremost- I'd wanted Kelly since she was a budding teenaged girl. Never, before all this business with The Between, had I laid an inappropriate hand on her. But now? Now it was like I was a kid again, ready to fuck her at a moment's notice. I glanced down at my groin as I replayed the events in the kitchen and saw, much to my lack of surprise, a happy, solid and ready erection. Hiya, buddy, wanna play? Oh, how crudely revealing a man's body could be where the Truth is concerned!

I decided to table my misgivings for the time being. I was in for the proverbial penny, so I might as well go for that proverbial pound. I stood up and looked at myself in the dresser mirror. To my complete and utter surprise, I saw a man in the reflection who could not have been me. I mean, yes, it was me staring back in the reflection, but I looked healthier, stronger and more virile. Not exactly younger, but... how do I put this into adequate words? I was looking at a new me. I walked towards the mirror to look at this new me more closely. I didn't really look any different than I had the day before. The same lines in my face, the same gray hairs here and there, the same scars. Nothing was out of place, and yet I looked entirely different. Like- and I hope you'll forgive me if this sounds too absurd to believe despite the facts I've already presented- like my SOUL had somehow become younger while my body stayed relatively the same. Was this a side-effect of my newly discovered ability? Could this explain why I felt so energetic this morning, regardless of the rigors of the night before? Then I recalled something Kelly had said, just as we'd gotten home. She's said that she didn't feel tired, even though she knew she should have. And I felt the same way. Even as I stood in front of the mirror, just having woken up, I felt like I could move the world.

Before that night I'd never stayed so long In Between. I added it up in my head and realized that I'd been there for just over four hours, all told, with the majority of that time being spent in Kelly's company. The longest I'd ever gone before that was thirty minutes. And I'd felt pretty jazzed after that thirty-minute stint, too, but I had simply chalked it up to my excitement at being able to go Between at all. It never occurred to me that I, personally, could be somehow affected by my adventures in the silence of time. I decided that, while having breakfast, I'd ask Kelly if she felt unusually energetic, too.

I quickly took a shower, got dressed and went downstairs to join my daughter for what smelled like a damn good breakfast. I smelled eggs, sausage and hashbrowns as I got closer to the kitchen. When had Kelly learned how to cook so well, I wondered. I guess it had happened sometime between age 16, when the only thing she'd have for breakfast was a bowl of cereal, and 18. Somewhere between those two ages my daughter had learned how to cook and cook well, almost as well as her mother, who normally had this kind of breakfast ready for us every Sunday morning. I walked into the kitchen and decided to go Between for just a moment, so that I could savor the scene before me. Kelly stood at the kitchen stove, a pan filled with some sausage links slightly tilted over a plate. Beside the plate on which she was about to deposit the sausage links was another plate which was filled to the edge with scrambled eggs. I walked up to my frozen daughter, who wore a summer dress with a nice flower pattern on it, and saw that she had a warm, gentle smile on her face. She looked like she didn't have a care in the world and was perfectly happy with her lot in life. I couldn't resist the impulse to plant a small, fatherly kiss on her cheek, then went back to the kitchen's hallway entrance and let Time march on as it should.

Kelly's hand immediately went to her cheek, where I'd kissed her, and held it there for a few contemplative seconds. Then she let the sausage links roll onto the plate and put the pan down on the burner with practiced ease. Without missing a beat, she picked up both plates of food and said brightly, "And good morning to you, too, Daddy," as she turned to place our breakfast on the table. "Would you mind getting us some silverware while I divvy up the food? Hashbrowns are already on the table."

"Sure thing," I replied. Within moments our food was split between us as we sat down to feast, forks and knives in hand. Everything in the kitchen was just like it had always been every other Sunday with the exception that my wife wasn't there to enjoy it with us. "When did you become such an amazing cook?" I asked her after I took a savory bite of eggs and hashbrowns.

Kelly waved the compliment off. "Oh, I helped Mom every once in a while. She taught me a lot, actually. I guess we just never got around to telling you about it." She smiled saucily as she said, "We wouldn't want you to start expecting it, would we?" She fired a piece of sausage into her mouth and continued between chews, "I spoke with Mom a few minutes ago, by the way. While you were in the shower. Had to ask her where she hid the sausage. She sounds good. A lot better than she did when we left."

I nodded. "Good," I said. "I think, after this, I'll go over to the hospital and visit with her for a little bit. Did she tell you if the cops came back to question her some more or did they finally leave her alone."

Kelly shook her head, her blonde hair looking wonderfully bouncy in the early afternoon light that came through the kitchen window. "Nope, didn't mention them," she said. "But she did ask that we bring her some clothes and some books. I wrote a short list for you. It's on the counter."

I raised my eyebrows. "You're not coming with me?" I asked with surprise.

"Nope," she answered nonchalantly. "I've got some errands to run. Life goes on, y'know? But I told her that I love her and will probably see her tomorrow. She sounded okay with it," she added with a shrug.

I said nothing as I continued to scarf down my daughter's fantastically-prepared meal. As I ate, ruminating on my own thoughts, I realized that my daughter was, one day, going to make some man one very lucky son of a bitch. Smart, beautiful, sexy and talented in the kitchen- the man who caught her eye would have to be one magnificent bastard indeed, for she deserved nothing less. In the time being, I felt priveleged to indulge in my daughter's better attributes while I still could. I noticed, as we ate our breakfast in contented and happy silence, that Kelly's knee bobbed frantically to some unknown rhythm. "Nervous?" I asked, breaking the silence.

"Hm? What? No. Why?"

"Well, you've either had too much caffeine this morning or you're trying to send messages in Morse Code to the bugs under the house. Your knee is bouncing like crazy," I noted.

Kelly regarded her bouncy knee for a long second, stopped it, and then looked up at me with a shrug. "I guess I slept better than usual," she answered with a sly grin.

"Actually," I said, "I noticed that I seem to be feeling rather... jumpy, too. Not the nervous kind. More like... well, I feel kind of like a kid again."

"Yeah," Kelly replied with a happy smile. "It's kinda cool, isn't it? Ya think it might have something to do with The Between?"

Now that was completely apropos of nothing, I thought to myself. "Strange that you'd ask," I said cautiously. "What made you think of it?"

"I dunno. I mean, I don't usually have a problem waking up in the morning, but I don't really feel so... peppy, like I did today. I thought that, maybe, it was the sex, but now I'm not so sure. I mean, I've had sex early in the morning and woke up a few hours later before, felt pretty good, but not this good. The only real difference is that, last night, we spent a lot of time Between. Just seems logical to me."

I blinked at my daughter owlishly. God but damn was she smart! Her first sojourn to the Land Between, and she's cottoned on to it in no time. I guess younger people adapt to extraordinary situations better than adults. And the careful ease with which she mentioned our sexual tryst completely blew me out of the water. Was it signs of sagacious maturity or simply the youthful tendency to "let it roll?" Frankly, I didn't care which it was. I was just pleased as punch that she didn't make a big deal of it or make it the focal point of our conversation. "Well, I'm thinking you might be right," I said. "I can't quite figure it out, but if this IS some sort of side-effect of going Between, I can't say that it's a bad thing. I haven't felt this good in years." I put down my fork and leaned forward a little. "Seriously, I FEEL different. But in a good way," I said excitedly. "Stronger, sharper, healthier... like I somehow shaved ten years off. But the hell of the thing is that I don't look a bit different in the mirror. I looked. Physically, nothing's changed a single bit about me, but I'd swear that I could throw a bus right about now."

"Hm," Kelly said through a mouthful of eggs and sausage. "Well, don't get cocky just yet, Dad. You never know: it might wear off. Just don't do anything crazy, okay? You might need that energy for later or something. Or maybe it's like a sugar-rush, y'know? We feel great right now, but in a few hours we might feel totally spent or something."

I nodded in agreement. It had to be maturity, I decided. Idiot kids don't normally give good advice to their parents. "Maybe. Maybe not. I'll try to pay close attention to myself today. You do the same. If you notice anything drastic, call me immediately. If I somehow hurt you by taking you Between with me, I couldn't forgive myself."

Kelly put down her own fork and placed her hand on mine. "Thank you, Dad. But don't worry. I'm going to avoid doing anything too rigorous today. I'll try to relax and stuff." She glanced up at the clock. "Oh, shit. It's almost two, Dad. Visiting hours end at three-thirty and don't resume until around eight o'clock. You better get going."

I glanced down at the remaining food on my plate. To my surprise I saw only a few bites left. Apparently I had wolfed it down a lot faster than I realized. "You're right," I said. I quickly forked down the last few bites and jumped up out of my chair. I grabbed the keys to the Jeep off the countertop and stopped briefly to plant a quick peck on my daughter's cheek. As I strode through the doorway which connected the kitchen to the garage, Kelly called out for me to give her love to her mother. "I will," I called over my shoulder. "And you be good!"

"Yes, Dad! Bye!"

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Sarah, it seemed, was well on her way to the road to recovery. She had full color to her face and was fairly animated, considering the ordeal she'd gone though. We talked for a short while about financial arrangements regarding the medical bills, legal issues regarding the shooting and about how we, as a family, were going to deal with the events of the night before. I assured her that, from all outward appearances, Kelly seemed to be taking it in stride. I was, too, really. We weren't at all in denial about anything; we just accepted things as they had come and resolved, as a family, to face it head-on. Kelly and I had the benefit of being proactive about the whole thing- I'd taken care of the thugs who did this to my wife and Kelly had participated in securing Sarah's safety. I couldn't divulge these things to my wife, but I truly believe that the experiences had by me and my daughter served to be extremely cathartic and helped us to put things into perspective. My wife, on the other hand, hadn't been so lucky. She had to personally deal with and endure the aftermath of a singularly traumatic experience. When I carefully suggested that she see a shrink once her physical wounds had healed, Sarah quietly agreed. Granted, she wasn't enthusiastic about it, but she knew that if she didn't talk with someone trained in helping others through these kinds of ordeals, she might develop some serious issues later on.

Unfortunately, we didn't have a whole lot of time to discuss these matters. When I realized that we had just fifteen minutes left to wrap things up I had briefly considered the idea of taking my wife In Between with me for a short while so that we could talk some more, but decided that doing so was too big a risk. She would undoubtedly notice that the clock wasn't working or that the hospital had suddenly grown very quiet. She'd had too many shocks to her system already without having to face some more. I couldn't do that to her, not while she was in such a fragile state. As I was about to leave, Sarah asked me the damnedest thing, though.

"How did you and Kelly sleep last night?" she asked me.

I gave her a mirthless smirk. "Well, this MORNING, we slept just fine. I hope you don't mind, but she took your place in the bed. I guess we both needed the company because we slept like logs."

Sarah smiled sweetly, totally unsuspecting of what else I and our daughter had done. "That's good," she said with an obvious air of relief. "I was going to suggest that exact thing, actually. I think, while I'm here, that it'd be a good thing if you and Kelly stayed close to each other. Right now, the two of you are all you have until I get fully recovered. I don't mind it if she sleeps in my spot while I'm gone. I want you two to keep each other safe, okay?"