The House Ch. 05

"What are you thinking? A black woman?"

Dwight sighed realizing that he and Minerva were no where near having that conversation about where they wanted their relationship to go if anywhere. He knew what he would like to see happen but he had some hard questions to ask himself. It had taken months to finally come up with a less than civil but working agreement with Beth as far as visiting the kids went, was he willing to jeopardize that? Again, it was much too early to be thinking about that but maybe not. If he wasn't willing to risk not seeing his kids then he needed to end things with Minerva before they went any further.

Aaron watched Dwight and wondered what he was thinking so hard about. He was positive that whatever it was, Minerva was in the middle of it. For the first time, Aaron wondered about Dwight's personal life, had he been married? If so what happened to her? Were there children? He swallowed his jealousy when Dwight pulled Minerva closer and kissed her awake. He turned away not wanting to see Minerva return the kiss as he knew that she would, damn it! Those lips were his!

"So do something about it." Sadie said knowing that he would be angry.

"What the hell? Stop talking in riddles and say what you mean or shut the fuck up!" Aaron retorted.

Sadie smiled at him and shrugged, his anger meant nothing to her but was a stumbling block for him.

"You have to control your anger." she told him offering him a clue.

Aaron glared at her and walked away partly in anger and partly because he knew that she was right.

****

Minerva woke up badly needing to empty her bladder. Before Dwight found her, she would scoot over to a spot and wiggle around until she got her jeans down, urinate and wiggle around until they were up again. There was no help for it, she couldn't wait.

"Dwight, could I ask you to take a short walk?" Minerva asked hoping that he would catch the hint.

Dwight understood. He got up and walked a short distance away. While he waited for Minerva to finish, he looked around the woods. There were things here, he could feel them watching him and not all of them were friendly. He had never liked these woods and only came here with his friends to avoid being called a coward. He could now admit that he had and did believe the stories about this place and he couldn't wait to get out of here. He wasn't afraid but nervous but the nervousness was more for Minerva than himself. He had to get her out of these woods and soon. The problem was that she wouldn't be able to walk that far and even if she could it would take too long which left him only one option, he had to leave her there.

"Ok!" Minerva called out to him.

Dwight sat down next to her and took her uninjured hand in his.

"Minerva, I have to leave you here so that I can go for help." Dwight said and watched her reaction.

"I kind of figured that." Minerva replied in a matter of fact tone of voice.

"I'll be back as soon as I can." Dwight promised.

"I know, I'll be fine just be careful."

"You know," Dwight said. "You're one hell of a woman."

"Ok sweet talker." Minerva laughed.

"Seriously, most women would be begging not to be left alone." Dwight said as he took a drink of water before setting out.

"I didn't say that I wasn't scared." Minerva clarified. "I just know what has to happen if I'm going to get out of here so get going!" she said with mock severity.

Dwight kissed her, stood up and did a few stretches and took off in the direction of the house.

*****

"We should stop him!" The Colonel said as he, Millicent and Oliver watched Dwight run off.

"He'll be back for her and besides, don't you want her well for whatever you have planned for her?" Millicent asked.

Reluctantly, the Colonel agreed as he watched Dwight disappear into the distance.

****

Aaron sat on the ground next to Minerva watching her as she snuggled under the blanket. He liked that she wasn't afraid to admit that she was afraid but she was also facing facts, she would have done well in his time. Once she was out of the woods and safe at home, he was going to spend more time here and find out who the major players were. If they couldn't swear to leave Minerva alone, they would be banished immediately, Oliver, Wilcox and the witch were going to be among the first to go when he found them. As far as he was concerned, they had given him reason enough for banishment.

****

Minerva had just dozed off again when she heard voices approaching.

"Minerva! I'm back!" Dwight called.

Minerva closed her eyes in relief as Dwight led a group of men carrying a stretcher over to her.

"Miss me?" he teased as Minerva hugged him.

"Not at all." she teased back kissing him.

Aaron stood by as the men helped Minerva onto the stretcher, lifted it and started back toward the house. He summoned the soldier and ordered him to take the rear.

"Alert me if anyone or anything impedes their progress." he said as he moved to the front of the group.

Dwight walked along side of the stretcher holding Minerva's good hand. The closer he got to the house, the better he felt. When Minerva was taken care of and feeling better, he was going to talk to her about not going back into the woods, whether she would listen to him or not he didn't know but he was going to try.

An ambulance was waiting for them when they made it out of the woods. Minerva didn't want to go to the hospital but really had no choice, her wrist had to be examined and set.

"I'll meet you there." Dwight said as he kissed her. As he drove to the hospital, he realized that he had kissed her a number of times in front of the rescue team. He experienced a brief moment of anxiety but that was because a couple of the guys' wives were friends with Beth. He sighed and braced himself for the phone call that he knew that he would be receiving in the next few days.

"Spent the night in the Richard's woods did ya?" The doctor asked as he examined Minerva.

Minerva winced as he prodded her ankle.

"Yes and I have no plans for a repeat stay." Minerva replied meaning it.

"Don't blame you, they say that the woods are haunted." He said as he rewrapped her ankle. "Dwight did a good job of splinting and wrapping." he said changing the subject. "The ankle is sprained so stay off of it for a few days, the wrist as you know is fractured but you won't need surgery. You'll need to wear a cast for several weeks but you'll be fine."

Dwight held Minerva's hand as the doctor removed the splint after giving her morphine for pain. As the morphine took effect, Minerva heard a voice.

"Don't forget to come back when you're better."

Two hours later, Dwight was driving Minerva home to pack a bag. He had managed to convince her to stay with him at least until she was able to walk. Since she couldn't do the stairs, Minerva was at Dwight's mercy as to what he packed.

To her surprise, he did well choosing sweats and tops with sleeves big enough to go over her cast. It was with the underclothes that he went crazy. He packed several pair of the crotch less panties with the matching bras, he did have the presence of mind to pack "normal" under things as well. After he packed the clothes, he went into the bathroom to gather the list of things that Minerva told him that she needed.

He couldn't find one item and decided to look inside of the bedside table. His eyes widened when he saw the variety of toys in the drawer.

"Hot damn!" he whispered as he picked out a few of the toys that looked like her favorites and tossed them into the bag. He had tried to get Beth interested in trying different things including toys to spice up their boring sex life but she had always refused going so far as to call him a pervert. After that, their sex life went from boring to almost nil, if they had sex once a month, Dwight considered himself lucky. He prided himself on the fact that he never stepped out on his wife and it wasn't because there wasn't plenty of opportunity, he took his marriage vows seriously.

Dwight looked in the bathroom one more time for the missing item, a bottle of cream and found it in the shower. When he made it back downstairs, Minerva was fast asleep on the couch.

****

Aaron watched Dwight pack for Minerva, he was doing fairly well until Dwight began to pack her under things. He barely controlled his anger when Dwight found the toys in the drawer and packed a few of them. The bastard was going to use them on her he realized. Aaron stomped out of the room to collect himself. The fact of the matter was that as much as he hated the fact that Minerva was going to be staying with Dwight, it was for the best. It would give him a few days to deal with Wilcox, Oliver and the witch. He forced the thought of Dwight and Minerva in bed together out of his mind, it only served to anger him and he couldn't focus on the problem at hand if he was angry.

Aaron stayed in the bedroom not wanting to see Dwight and Minerva leaving, had he watched, he would have seen three apparitions standing along the line separating the safety zone from the woods.

****

"She's leaving!!" Oliver exclaimed.

"I told you that we should have taken her!" Colonel Wilcox said angrily.

Millicent looked at him in disgust.

"You are such a fool." she said quietly. "It's no wonder that your men were slaughtered." she said effectively shutting him up. "He was ready for us, we wouldn't have stood a chance had we tried to take her then. Now all we have to do it wait, she'll be back because she won't be able to stay away."

The three apparitions vanished just before Aaron decided to look out of the window leaving no evidence that they had been there.