Patrick Ch. 10

"Yes."

"If you go anywhere near Kevyn with the exception of talking to her about class you will regret it, do you understand?"

"Yes."

"I am leaving now and you won't remember me being here but you will remember the perimeters that we have just discussed."

Patrick left leaving a confused Stuart alone on his couch trying to figure out if he had fallen asleep and had a strange dream.

********

Patrick went back to his room and thought about calling Kevyn to tell her that she wouldn't have to worry about Stuart anymore but changed his mind, she would figure it out when she went to class again. What he needed to do was think about Sunday and where they would go, the batting cages, they would go there first and then what? His house? The only way to find out was to ask.

Kevyn picked up on the first ring.

"Hey."

"Hey." Patrick replied, "I was thinking about Sunday and was wondering if you would like to do a couple of hours at the batting cage and then come to my house for dinner."

"Yes to the batting cages but I don't know about your house for dinner."

"I'm open to suggestions." Patrick replied.

"We'll come here." Kevyn said after a brief hesitation.

She wanted the home court advantage but Patrick saw it differently, he saw it as a sign of trust that she would allow him into her home. He really hadn't been that surprised that she was nervous about coming to his home and would have been surprised if she had agreed.

"We could stop and get take out." he suggested.

"I'll throw something in the crock pot." Kevyn replied.

"You're going to cook for me?" he asked.

"Don't get too excited, it won't be anything fancy." Kevyn replied.

"I'm sure that it'll be good whatever it is." Patrick replied.

"I've got some studying to do so I'll talk to you later." Kevyn said and hung up.

Patrick hung up and got ready to go to his own house, there was no need for him to stay another night now that he knew that he was safe and he had preparations to make just in case by some stroke of good luck Kevyn went home with him.

He had just finished packing when Ethan tapped on the door.

"Headed out?"

"Yes, I need to start getting ready for Kevyn."

"We're here if you need anything." Ethan said as he sat on the bed.

"I know and thanks for everything but there's something that you want to tell me."

"Just take your time is all, you're already ahead of the game in that you know that she loves you."

Patrick sat on the bed beside Ethan.

"What I had to do was difficult and I can't even begin to imagine what it was like for you and Martin."

"It was a very difficult time." Ethan said, "But we survived and you will too. By the way, Katrina and Rachel are open to talking with Kevyn if she wants to talk with them."

"Thanks, I'll keep that in mind. Are Katrina and the pumpkin around? I want to say goodbye to them."

"They're in the kitchen baking snickerdoodles." Ethan replied standing up.

Patrick said his goodbyes and headed home to get ready for Kevyn.

******

Kevyn looked in her freezer to see what she had and it wasn't much, a small package of hamburger and a couple of chicken breasts that wouldn't even begin to fill Patrick up. She grabbed a piece of paper and started making a grocery list and planning for Sunday's dinner. Whatever it was it had to be something that she could put in the crock pot since she worked Saturday night.

"Pork roast." she muttered, "and I can add the potatoes and carrots with it..... Pie for dessert... and.... Rolls."

She finished the list and sat down to study still undecided about class. After thinking about it for a few more minutes she decided to give it another week, maybe Stu had gotten the message that she wasn't interested but if he asked her again about her boyfriend, she would give him Patrick's name since he didn't seem to mind that she used him tonight. It occurred to her that he seemed downright pleased that she had used him, the thing was that it had come so naturally but there were still the rapes to talk about and the fact that she loved him.

********

Saturday night was the longest shift of Kevyn's life, it was the one night that she wished that she could run her ass off just to make it go faster but as luck would have it everyone slept even the confused residents. She tried to take advantage of the quiet night to get ahead of the reading for class but she couldn't concentrate. She checked her phone several times during the night thinking that Patrick might call and was disappointed that he hadn't. By the time her break rolled around she was a bundle of nerves.

Patrick answered on the first ring.

"Are you alright?" He asked worried.

"I'm fine, just nervous I guess."

"What can I do to help?" he asked.

"I don't think that there's anything that you can do except to explain things."

"We could skip the batting cages and just talk."

Kevyn considered the suggestion, as much as she needed to know, she needed to work off the nervous energy.

"No that's ok but thanks....."

"I miss you." Patrick said interrupting her.

"Patrick?"

"Yes?"

"I miss you too."

The rest of the shift passed as slowly as the first part of it, when the end finally came Kevyn flew out of the door and ran to the bus stop. It felt like forever before the bus arrived and dropped her off at home where she started stripping as soon as she was in the door and naked by the time she reached the bathroom.

Freshly showered and in her pajamas Kevyn got out the crock pot, put in the pork roast, mixed the mushroom soup in with onion soup mix and added a half a can of Pepsi. She peeled the potatoes and carrots lay them on top of the meat and poured the soup mixture on top, covered it and turned the crock pot on low.

She cleaned the small counter and got out the ingredients for an apple pie, made the pie adding small pieces of sharp cheddar cheese and put it in the oven after setting the timer on the microwave. While the pie baked, she took out a piece of paper and wrote down all of the questions that she felt that she needed the answers to.

******

Patrick couldn't rest, he resisted the temptation to call Kevyn just in case she was asleep, he only had to wait a few more hours and then he would know where things stood. He wondered what they would do about her job if she agreed to mate with him. He knew how important her independence was to her so he would leave the decision up to her whether she continued working or not and he would encourage her to continue her education.

The online class was as ready as it was going to be and he was now wishing that he had taken his class back, he would have to come up with something else to fill his time if Kevyn decided not to see him again but she wouldn't would she? She loved him but that didn't mean that she wanted to be with him.

Shit.

*****

Kevyn actually fell asleep while the pie was baking; the dinging of the microwave was what woke her up that and the smell of the baking pie reminding her that she hadn't eaten anything since lunchtime at work. She took the pie out of the oven and resisted the temptation to cut the pie, in her opinion the best time to eat pie when was it was fresh out of the oven with a glass of milk or vanilla ice-cream. Instead she made a piece of toast and finished the list of questions that she had for Patrick.

*****

Patrick go to Kevyn's apartment early, he couldn't wait any longer to see her as a matter of fact, he didn't want to go to the batting cages, he just wanted everything over with so that they could begin their life together as mates. He stood at her door for several minutes before he knocked. He waited a minute or two and knocked again and was about to knock again when he heard Kevyn's footsteps hurrying to the door.

Kevyn grabbed her bat and opened the door to a very anxious Patrick. She put the bat down and invited him in, she wanted to hug him but she didn't. She didn't quite trust herself not to do more than that.

"Are you alright?" she asked.

"Nervous but otherwise I'm fine." Patrick replied.

"Why don't we skip the batting cages?" Kevyn said, "I don't think that I can concentrate anyway, are you hungry?"

"Believe it or not as nervous as I am, I'm hungry and whatever you're cooking smells delicious." Patrick replied glad that they were staying in.

"Ok have a seat while I finish things up."

"Can I help?" Patrick asked as he visualized him and Kevyn making meals together or preparing for one of the championship game parties that she dreamt of having.

"No, I've got it." Kevyn replied as she turned on the oven and took the rolls out of the fridge.

Patrick sat on the sofa and watched as Kevyn moved around the tiny kitchen noticing that there were no wasted movements as she put the rolls on a cookie sheet and then got down the plates and glasses. Unable to stay put, Patrick stood, went to the kitchen and stood behind Kevyn as close as he could without actually touching her.

Kevyn stopped putting the rolls on the tray.

"What are you doing?" she asked not moving.

"Nothing....yet." Patrick replied as he leaned forward and kissed her neck.

A blast of heat seared through Kevyn as her nipples hardened and she felt herself grow moist.

"Ummm, you need to go sit down over there." she said and moved from in front of him and turned to face him.

"You're sure that you want me to do that?" Patrick asked as he moved closer and put his hands on her hips.

"Yes!" she exclaimed and then amended her answer when she saw Patrick's raised eyebrows.

"Ok, no but whatever this is goes no further until we've talked so go back over there and stay there until dinner is ready."

Patrick grinned at her and moved away, she was right; they had to take care of business first.

Twenty minutes later, they were eating dinner on TV trays in the living room. Patrick took a bite of the slow cooked pork with potatoes and pronounced it wonderful.

"I'm glad that you like it but save room for dessert, I made an apple pie."

"Sounds good." Patrick replied wishing that he was having her for dinner and dessert both.

Patrick had actually consumed over half of what was in the crock pot and over half of the pie.

"That was delicious!" he said as he ate the last bite of pie from his plate. "I have clean up duty." he said taking their plates.

"You don't have to do that." Kevyn protested. Her mother was a firm believer in that company shouldn't be allowed to do dishes or housework of any kind no matter how long they stayed.

"Please allow me." Patrick replied, "After all you cooked the meal."

"But......"

"But nothing, you sit and relax." Patrick said cutting her off.

When the dishes were done and the leftovers put in containers and sitting on the counter, Patrick sat next to Kevyn on the couch.

For several minutes neither of them spoke. Kevyn reached into her jeans pocket and pulled out a folded sheet of notebook paper and handed it to Patrick.

"What's this?" he asked.

"A list of questions that I want answers to." she replied.

Patrick unfolded the paper and scanned the questions noticing that they were arranged by importance with the first question being "why?"

"Kevyn, in order to answer the first question I have to tell you about my family." Patrick said. "Are you ready to hear what I have to tell you?"

Kevyn hesitated, for just a few fleeting seconds she thought about saying that she didn't want to know, that it didn't matter because she loved him and he obviously wasn't the same man who had raped. She didn't know how she knew that but she knew that it was true. But it would come up again and it was better to find out now then later before she invested even more of herself in this....relationship.

"I.... go ahead and tell me."

For three hours Patrick talked about his family including how Ethan and Martin met their mates and finally he told her that he and his brothers weren't human.

Kevyn stared at him not sure of whether to believe him or not.

"Your whole family raped? All of you? "She asked shocked.

"The males did." Patrick replied.

"I mean..... you.... Jesus Patrick...I... you have to leave."

"Kevyn....."

"I don't believe this; I don't just fall in love with a rapist but the whole family..... I need time to think about this."

The one thing that Patrick noticed was that she didn't say anything about him being a vampire.

"Kevyn did you hear what I said about being a vampire?" he asked.

"What? Oh... yeah I heard you but I don't care about that! I mean I do but I don't."

Patrick had a sense of belief but her acceptance of his vampirism was only part of the battle.

"Your brothers they married their victims and had children?" Kevyn asked temporarily forgetting that she had just asked him to leave.

"Yes, in both cases the pregnancies resulted from the rapes."

"And they're still together?"

"Yes, both Ethan and Martin victims are now they are mates."

"The women, how.... Mates? You mean wives?"

"The two terms are used interchangeably....."

"Wait a minute, what am I to you? Am I one of these mates?" Kevyn asked her head spinning.

Patrick hesitated; he really hadn't planned on telling her that part of it just yet. He wanted to work through their issues first but since she asked, he couldn't lie.

"Yes Kevyn, you are my mate, I knew it from the second I saw you."

"The children, do they know?" Kevyn asked. She knew that she was jumping around in her questions but her mind was trying to grasp and understand the information that it was receiving.

"Most of them know, Victoria Ethan's youngest is only ten but the twins are in their late twenties and are actually trying to figure out if genetics really are in play....."

"Genetics? You mean that they're looking for an excuse for what done." Kevyn snapped.

"No, I mean they're looking for a cause so that it can be prevented." Patrick replied calmly.

"And then what?"

"They've just started their research but Kevyn, I haven't raped anyone in over twenty-five years! Neither have Martin or Ethan. We're trying to reach everyone who needs help, we're trying to stop this."

"I really need for you to leave now." she said softly, her head was beginning to hurt.

Patrick noted her deer in the headlight look and nodded.

"I know I've given you a lot to think about so I'll leave it to you to call me when you're ready to talk again."

Kevyn nodded, her throat was tight as they stood up. Much to Patrick's relief she didn't flinch when he touched her and willingly kissed him back when he kissed her.

Kevyn walked Patrick to the door, kissed him again and locked it behind him. She leaned against the door for a long time thinking about what she needed and wanted to do.

This seemed to be a good time to make that trip back home; her mother's condition was worsening again. Moving from the door she picked up her phone and called the staffing office to tell them that she needed to go home. Then she went online and booked her flight, she had money set aside for the ticket because she knew that she would have to go home at some point. It costs her extra but she made the ticket open ended just in case she decided to stay longer than she planned.

She sent an email to Stu explaining her absence from class on Tuesday and logged off. She wondered if she should tell Patrick that she was leaving and why. Part of her didn't want to but she knew that he would worry if she didn't. Instead of calling him she logged back on to her laptop and sent him an email.

"Patrick,

I need to take some time and think about this. I'm leaving for Pennsylvania in the morning and I don't know when I'll be back. My mother is ill and she probably doesn't have much time left, please don't think that I'm avoiding you....yes I am but it's not because I don't love you it's because I do. I know that I'm not making sense but anyway, I'll call you when I'm back in town.

Kevyn"

She packed her bags after putting the dinner leftovers in the oven. Even though it was early, she called for a shuttle to take her to the airport. Two hours later she was on her way not realizing that she didn't hit the send button for the email to Patrick.