Mike & Karen Ch. 19

"Pretty sure she'd work free for a decade if we did," Mike chuckled. "It's what she wants more than anything, to lose her virginity to you and I."

"Mmmm, then when the moment is right, maybe we'll see to that," Karen murmured, still floating on a river of bliss, and so very desperately in love with her husband. "Anything that makes my mighty lord happy."

"And anything for my princess," he whispered, drawing her in for a kiss.

***

Blackwell Manor, three decades earlier...

It would be a busy day, after a night of sleep like none of the visitors had ever conceived of. They'd each been given their own rooms, with very comfortable beds that were a dream come true to sleep on. Mike, who was too big for any of the beds in the various staff rooms and other guest suites, had finally been assigned the master suite, which belonged to Karen's parents, because it contained the only bed big enough to fit him, and she needed him in fighting shape the following day.

"You'll be staying in here," she said at the entrance to the room, gesturing at the vast expanse while she stood beside her. The double doors were so wide that there was actually space for the two of them to fit for once. "Will it meet your needs?"

She half-expected him to seem very offended by the wealth and luxury that surrounded him, but then she remembered that he hadn't even blinked as he passed through the rest of the Manor. Shouldn't the bedrooms be at least as opulent as the rest of the place?

She didn't know whether to be annoyed by his lack of proletarian outrage, but she was in no position to pick a fight with him right now either. She needed him.

"I'm looking forward to trying that bed," he said simply, nodding. "Not very often I see one that can accommodate me."

"Help me through this, DeBourne, and I'll make sure your dorm room is ninety percent plush mattress when we get back," she said with a tone of certainty. "The en suite bathroom has its own shower and hot tub, in case you need to relax, and-"

"I'll probably just freshen up and hit the sack, to be honest," he said simply. "I'm gonna need all the sleep I can get if I'm gonna pretend to be a zillionaire business magnate."

I'm perfectly willing to loan you all of my sleep as well if it helps, Karen thought. You'll never appreciate how much of this hinges on you, DeBourne. If you thought I pushed you to your limits before...

"I'll leave you to it, then," she said, nodding. "I'll send somebody up to wake- I mean, one of the girls or myself will come by to wake you in the morning."

"That's fine, just don't send Remington," Mike said as he began pulling off his shirt, revealing his titan chest and making Karen's temperature rise significantly. "You know what she'll try to do."

"Valid point. I'll be sure to do it myself or send Heyman, since she's gay," Karen agreed, turning and walking away. "Sleep well... father."

Mike shook his head and walked into the room, looking around. He may have wanted to explore and marvel at everything, but there'd be time for that later. He was well aware of exactly what was at stake here. If this scam blew up, the damage to the Blackwells would be immeasurable. He was also reasonably sure that imitating people and conducting business deals on their behalf without their permission was a crime. He didn't need Janet to tell him that.

He'd stripped down to his boxers and laid his clothes over a chair. A few minutes after his ablutions, he was crawling into the titanic bed, amazed at how much room there was. He got greedy and sprawled out in the center, his arms and legs stretched wide as the cushy mattress seemed to hug him and bid him good night. He sighed contentedly and closed his eyes...

Only to open them seconds later. The lights were still on. Desperate to not leave his cocoon, he peered around the walls, looking for light switches, but seeing none.

He clapped his hands together on a hunch, but nothing happened. Frowning, he looked at the ceiling.

"Lights out."

Suddenly he was enveloped in darkness. He grunted and settled back in to go to sleep.

No wonder Gordon's crazy, he thought to himself as he began rapidly losing consciousness. I wish I was crazy...

***

"All right, DeBourne is ensconced in his room," Karen began.

"You found a dungeon big enough to hold him?" Janet quipped, making Mona and Lisa snicker.

"Very funny, you trollop," Karen sighed. "He is seen to. Now we should all get to bed; we'll need all the sleep we can get. The rooms I've picked for you are right next to mine, where Heyman and I will be staying."

"What, she gets to stay with you in your big suite and ginormous bed?" Janet protested. "Why does Heyman get to?"

"Because she has sex with me," Karen pointed out. "Are you filling in?"

"Well, no," Janet said somewhat awkwardly. "But... well, you've told us before that the bed is easily big enough for all four of us, and you promised us if we ever did a sleepover, we'd all use it, right?"

Well, Karen had promised that, she had to admit. Granted, she hadn't anticipated these exact circumstances when she'd made said promise, it was just meant to be a fun girls' night when she would let her closest friends see into her past, and part of how she became who she was.

"Gotta be honest, Kar, I think we're all kinda scared," Mona added, giving her friend a wan smile. "I don't think even you have been involved in an international scandal before, and if we five sophomore university students screw up, that's exactly what happens, y'know?"

Karen nodded, because she didn't want to hear herself say that it was true. She'd committed herself to this insane course of action, and she didn't dare fail. She was always so confident that everything would work out her way, because it always did, and she was taking bigger and bigger chances as she walked toward her destiny.

But less than two weeks ago, she'd been thwarted by someone who was at least her equal, and it had been a bitter pill to swallow. Was that why she'd arranged this insane endeavour? To make up for the sting of that loss?

She wished she had DeBourne's fearlessness. When she'd made it plain that she intended to scam Chinese industrialists, no doubt with strong connections to Beijing and the People's Communist Party, he just laughed jovially like some Nordic god and said he was in without a second thought. The crazier the scenario, the more he wanted in, to prove himself against it.

"I'm scared, Kar," Mona confessed. "And I want my best friends with me tonight."

Karen sighed and nodded. "Well, I wasn't really planning on having sex with Heyman tonight anyway, since we'll need all the sleep we can get. Fine, we'll all use my bed. I guess I can refrain from sleeping naked for one night."

"I'm sure we can adapt," Janet laughed as they all stood up and left the lounge. They'd been drinking champagne, and Karen would make sure that there was a hangover remedy available for the morning, just in case.

There was no room for error, after all.

She led them up to the third floor and down the halls to the end of the west wing, where her suite of rooms awaited. They were all gaping in wonder (even more than before) as she opened the doors and gestured for them to enter.

"Hoooooleeeeeeee shit..." Janet breathed as she looked around. "This bedroom is bigger than all three of our dorm rooms put together."

"Are the walls really dusky pink?" asked Mona, gazing at the décor. The wallpaper and paints, subtly complementing one another, were accented by pink gold leaf, and all the ornate furniture fit into the theme as well.

Lisa almost seemed at a loss for words. "Kar, I... I know I tease you about you being the enemy of the common man and such, but... what was it like? Growing up like this, I mean. Sleeping in this room when you were a little girl."

"I never wanted for anything, but I had to work for everything," Karen answered, feeling ambivalent about these surroundings, as she always had. "I do not belong to some classless, nouveau-riche family; I can trace my ancestry all the way back to the time of William the Conqueror. The first Blackwell we know of is mentioned as a prominent landowner in the Domesday Book."

"Damn," Mona said, still stuck looking at the wallpaper, but listening intently. "I thought I was kinda cool for tracing my mom's family back over a hundred and sixty years, but isn't that around nine hundred? Talk about blue blood."

Karen nodded. "Indeed. Nine-hundred exactly, in fact. And in this family, you weren't allowed to be dead weight. Perform to your utmost, always. Earn this life or be banished."

"Sounds harsh," Janet mused.

"My parents love me endlessly, but they made sure that I was my best and most accomplished self," Karen sighed. "So my life was perhaps one of idyllic luxury, but I never dared fail, either."

"That'd screw me right up, no lie," Mona said. "Trying to be worth more than all this constantly, just to validate myself."

"Hey, uh," Lisa interrupted, getting everyone's attention. "Not to rain on the parade, but I don't think we're welcome in here..."

Karen looked over at the bed, and indeed saw her gorgeous Persian cat scowling at them from her plush pillow. The beast was the single most spoiled vertebrate alive on the planet. She barely tolerated anyone, including Karen, who was her theoretical owner.

"Oh, yes, Bianca," she sighed. "There might be some negotiating involved if we want to share the bed with her. She's used to having it to herself since I moved on campus. Don't be upset if she doesn't take to you, she dislikes every-"

"Oh, nonsense," Janet cooed as she walked up to the bed and introduced herself. To Karen's complete amazement, Bianca stood up to greet Janet and allowed the law student to pet her. Karen had never seen anything like it before. "She's just a pampered little sweetie! Isn't she? Isn't she?"

They all gaped as Janet picked the beautiful cat up and held her overhead, making ridiculous noises at the animal before bringing her down and cuddling her close. The damn cat was actually purring, loudly. "She's just a pretty, pretty princess, yes she is."

"And here I thought she only knew her way around dick," Mona said, watching with a raised eyebrow. "What gives, Remington?"

Janet looked up and smiled as she sat on the edge of the bed, caressing Bianca under her chin, which was normally a murder trigger. "I grew up with five older brothers, and there's almost ten years between the youngest one and me. They hardly ever had time for me, so I got really good with animals and pets to compensate."

She absolutely beamed and hugged Bianca tight, rocking her. "I've got my cuddle buddy for the night. You guys'll have to work something out for yourselves.

Mona sighed and looked at Karen. "Guess it's us. You and me, with a Heyman filling?"

"That works for me," Karen replied, shrugging.

"Hey, don't I get a say in this?" Lisa protested, trying to sound offended.

"No," said both her friends, making her blush and go silent.

"Okay, let's get ready," Karen announced. "We need as much sleep as we can get, we've got a lot to do, and tomorrow's our only full day of prep."

At Karen's behest, the girls all got ready for bed. Karen indeed proved accommodating by wearing a long nightshirt to bed, as opposed to her normal nudity. Lisa and Mona wore similar long shirts, while Janet was just wearing a T-shirt and panties while she snuggled Bianca on the far side of the bed. The other three cuddled close, appreciating the contact.

Before long, they were all asleep. Lisa was sandwiched between Karen and Mona, who were hugging across her. The redhead, sound asleep on her back, had a happy smile on her freckled face, her hands held just above her like little cat paws. Karen knew that meant she was truly content.

So be it, because they all needed to be in the exactly the right frame of mind for what came next.

***

Blackwell Manor, the present...

Tatyana looked at the couple over her teacup before setting it down on the saucer and placing it on the table. Across from her sat Mike and Karen on a large chesterfield, and Jordan sat in a chair on another side of the table they shared while the strains of Haydn played in the background. He smiled in amusement at his successor's expression.

"I must admit, if I may be so bold, that I would have expected Mister DeBourne to be the one who was always coming up with strange schemes that could spell disaster," she said softly. "Were there many others like this?"

"More than a few, one way or another," Karen said, smiling. "And I remember them all fondly. I was always roping Michael into bizarre situations, and always with the excuse that he was the person with the absurd talents I needed to complete whatever the task was. Truth be told, however, they might also have been an excuse to keep him nearby, even if I thought there was no chance for us."

"You know things are out of whack when I'm the reasonable and sane one," Mike added, making Karen smirk up at him and nudge him gently in the ribs. "Well, to be fair, Mona was probably the most level-headed of the group."

"It was not the little Jewish girl from the sounds of it, certainly," Tatyana agreed, nodding.

"I must admit, I do miss Lisa, my dear," Jordan mused, adding a lump of sugar to his tea. "I miss them all, really, but I had a soft spot for her. Is she still married and living in Idaho?"

Karen nodded. "I'm hoping she can make it up for the housewarming in March, along with the other two. We'll have this place together by then, and having them around will be such a thrill for old times' sake WE have a lot of surprises to spring on them, after all."

"A pity that Bianca and Odo are not around for Ms. Remington to coddle," Jordan said. "They were very fond of her."

"Janet scooped up all the rejection I got from Bianca and turned it into affection," Mike chuckled. "I wouldn't be surprised if she got along with Blurgle and Grundle."

Tatyana made a face. "Those are Master Alex's hermit crabs, yes?"

Mike and Karen both just nodded.

"I have now encountered his rather... eccentric sense of humour, but I do not yet know which of you to blame for it," the seneschal admitted.

The married couple pointed at one another before they began laughing. Jordan just shrugged, knowing that the blame lay squarely on both their shoulders. It wasn't anything he hadn't been used to for some decades now.

"You are not still trying to pull scams like this occasionally, are you?" Tatyana asked.

"No, I think my wife has that out of her system by now," Mike said. "And I personally was never prone to insanity."

Karen looked up at her husband. "You got drunk and stood on top of a section of the Berlin Wall and sang 'Men of Harlech' while they knocked it down underneath you. I was there. Thank God you weren't wearing your uniform."

"I had a bigger crowd than Hasselhoff did," Mike sniffed.

"You were a serviceman?" Tatyana queried, taking another sip of her tea.

Mike nodded. "Kar and I both were, from the late Eighties to the mid-Nineties. I was Airborne, she was infantry, attached to sciences and psychology."

"It's a nice way of saying 'the pretty girl wasn't allowed to fight, so she got to teach'," Karen added, leaning forward and whispering to Tatyana. "We were both stationed out of Petawawa. I thought my father was going to have a stroke when I told him I was enlisting with Michael."

"He didn't approve of military careers because they were too pedestrian?"

"That, and he hadn't fully processed my recent announcement of my relationship to this big lug," Karen answered, tilting her head at her husband. "A military stint is not unheard of for Blackwell men, but his little girl..."

"Even though we both left as commissioned officers," Mike pointed out. "I was a captain, and Kar was a lieutenant."

"Maybe if I'd joined the navy," his wife mused, tapping her finger against her cheek as she looked at the ceiling. "Somehow convinced the Canadian government to rename one of its ships the Thunderhawk."

"Ah, yes, I have met her," Tatyana said, nodding. "She is the young woman suspended in the library, yes? Miss Prospero and Trilby do not know what to make of her."

"She's only one of three we have here," Karen explained. "There's two older ones, both in storage in the basement. They're considerably older and more delicate, so they don't stand up as well as the one you see. The one in the library adorned the Thunderhawk that fought with Nelson at the Nile and Trafalgar. Had the War of 1812 gone on longer, it might have come to deal with the Americans along with Wellington."

"So it is only just over two hundred years old, is that all?" Tatyana quipped.

"The oldest one survived the battle against the Spanish Armada, so yes, Trafalgar is the baby of the group," Karen said simply, letting Tatyana pour more tea for her. "As for what happened next morning..."

***

Morning, Blackwell Mano, 1987r...

"Angie, thank you so much for coming!" Karen said as she swept the woman into a grateful hug.

"I wasn't about to say no, even if I don't know what's going on yet, and this is my week off," the older woman replied, smiling at the beautiful young lady in front of her. "Oh my goodness, is this where you really live? When I saw it from the outside, I thought I was being pranked."

"No, this is where I was raised," Karen said, gesturing for her to enter. "I live on campus currently."

"Why?" Angie asked, still looking around in awe.

"I've been asked that a lot recently," Karen sighed. "And I'm hoping what I'm about to ask you doesn't send you flying out the door, flapping your arms and screaming."

"I'll manage to not do that somehow," Angie said as she walked arm-in-arm with Karen through the manor to a study, where Lisa, Mona, and Janet were waiting. "But what is it that you want?"

"It gets better every time I hear it, girl," Mona said from her chair, drinking more champagne. "Go on, Kar..."

Karen drew a deep breath, standing and holding Angie by the hands, in case she tried to bolt. Angie was the kitchen manager for the Scott Mission, not far from the university, and the previous fall, Karen and her friends had helped her through a major crisis. She felt deeply indebted to this remarkable young woman. She would hear Karen out.

"I'll just be blunt," Karen began. "My father doesn't know it, because he's on vacation in Europe, but I am trying to negotiate a business deal with tycoons from China, and I am stuck using myself and a small core of people to somehow pull this off, scamming them into thinking that they're negotiating with my father."

Angie stared at Karen for some seconds before glancing over at her three sitting friends, who all simply nodded. She looked back at Karen then. "Um, okay. What... do you want from me?"

Karen smiled wanly. "When I told the staff my plans, they all fled for the hills, all of them. I need someone to prepare a business dinner one would entertain Chinese multimillionaires to."

"Oh, you just want me to cook?" Angie said, looking relieved. "Well, I can do that, sure. I'll have a few of my best people join us and we'll just whip everything up and stay out of the way, right? How many am I cooking for?"

"Maybe twenty, at most," Karen said, sounding incredibly relieved, while her friends all sighed in relief as well. "Trust me, my kitchen has everything you'll need. What would you like to make? Keep it Western, since they're coming to us."

"Well, it's been a while since I've made my veal ossobuco," Angie mused. "Say, broasted potatoes and some colourful root veggies or asparagus. You guys can handle the drinks, right?"

"I'm sure I'll work that aspect out," Karen almost gushed while Mona, Janet, and Lisa laughed and hugged one another. "I'm so happy you agreed, Angie, I was in a real bind."