Androshorts: Passion and Compassion

"Couldn't you have prevented it?" she sighed with that look on her face like the sewers had all flooded into her garden and it was my fault.

My Parents were ecstatic from the start, especially my Mum who while worshiping her older grandchildren was just waiting to be a Baby-Granny again and offered any and all assistance we might need and brought a huge basket of baby things for us when Mikey was born, and this still carried on as he grew.

Her mother didn't -- she never visited Nicky in the hospital, never came to the house or offered any of that new Mum advice that maternal grandma's are supposed to; My Mum stepped into the frame perfectly however and loved every second of it, and even that annoyed the miserable Mrs Fraser.

When we visited for the first time with Mikey, her Mother was quite concerned that we didn't put him down anywhere in case her grey and magnolia, sterile, unchanging, terminally boring, soulless house might become dirty, infected with baby milk, vomit or poop. When his nappy needed changing, I took him out to the car and did it, sitting there and looking at my phone and listening to my stereo for at least forty five minutes, blaming a work phone call for my continued absence.

Nicky complained but I countered her argument with, "your Mum doesn't want our son in her house - didn't she make that obvious enough for you?"

It was hard to argue with.

The snooty bitch then announced that she wanted to be called Grandmama -- like the Queen; I could barely control my mirth and from that presumptuous point Michael became Mikey, and this time it WAS just to annoy her. She really didn't want grandchildren but hey, not her choice. My Parents were Nanny Mac and Grampy Mac and loved him twice as much as soon as Mrs Fraser's dislike became evident at his christening.

Pretentious old bag, I was pleased I'd made so much money out of her.

The TV was on and we were watching morning cartoons when Nicky came back from the bathroom, stopping in the doorway with a very genuine smile on her face at the scene before her. She folded her arms, rolled her eyes and shook her head, stepping to her side of the bed and sitting down, slipping her long slim legs under the duvet, reaching over Mikey to take her mug from me, the same National Union of Teachers one she'd used when she'd lived here.

She sipped, smiled then reached out for a biscuit herself, eating between meals -- what?

Once satisfied she too settled and slid down a bit to watch the cartoons, slipping an arm under mine and around Mikey as well.

It was a lovely cuddle and we sat there for an hour watching his various favourites with him and me singing the theme tune to Spongebob Squarepants and Nicky laughed.

Soon we were all getting up and heading for the kitchen and a quite splendid breakfast of toast and a variety of toppings, still in our various nightwear with no one really in a hurry to do anything.

I worked from home anyway and was quite well forward in the projects I had going on so I had some free time for family stuff, Nicky's school had closed the day before and other than some learning materials to email out to her class and some monitoring on Monday there was little for her to do either.

"Come on then Mikey," I said, "time to get washed and dressed!"

Nicky just grinned and started to pack our plates and cups into the dishwasher, another new purchase since she'd left. She didn't seem to mind though, it turned out that the house she lived in had one.

By the time Mikey had washed his hands and face and cleaned his teeth, and I did likewise it was just a bit after twelve and way past the kind of time that Nicky would normally be done and out by, her family was one of those 'early to bed, early to rise, then up and out and doing' families that couldn't condone the concept of the lie-in. Her mother considered me lazy because I'd once said that when I didn't actually have to be anywhere on a Saturday morning, I very occasionally liked to lay in bed with a cup of something, a book or perhaps listen to the news then that slow Radio 4 morning stuff that is all so well done.

In her evil mind she extrapolated that into 'he spends his life in bed' and this seemed to infuriate her because as everyone knew 'early to bed, early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise'. The fact I very occasionally slept in (young child allowing of course), didn't leap from my bed and go straight for my workbench, a shovel or a plough and got very well paid for what I did while not appearing to move from a computer in a small side room off of my lounge drove her mad as well I learned later.

She had looked rather disappointed when she discovered that her daughter's boyfriend didn't have a 'profession' and shook her head and smiled, knowing she had been let down by her daughter yet again. I delighted in telling her that the 'professions' were so twentieth century in concept and that, for instance, I had earned twice the salary of a headteacher for the last three years and while my degree was in English Literature, my Master's was in Classical poetry.

She didn't have a Master's, had encouraged Nicky to get one, then as soon as she discovered I did, they were instantly devalued and not worth the paper or the time. So I bought a shiny frame for mine that had languished in my bottom drawer with my other education certificates and put it in our living room over the fire place above the Fraser family portrait, the three unsmiling souls impeccably dressed against a fake bookcase, next to my family picture of Nicky and I, my Mum and Dad and my sister Judy and her husband on the beach at Brixham, all with ice cream. Her mother never came to our house but I really hoped she would one day just for that certificate, that frame cost almost a fiver.

I took Mikey to his room and dressed him in his jeans and a T-shirt and sent him on his way with a hug, couldn't get enough of them. I stood and put my boxers in the laundry basket for the quick walk to my bedroom and there was Nicky with her T-shirt hanging over her forearms and her lovely naked body on display to match mine.

"Oh!" she said, and held the just removed T-shirt over her midriff, and looked at me.

"Sorry Nick," I said, "I just..."

"Rick," she said with a smile, "whatever our circumstances we've both seen enough of each other with no clothes on not to be worried about this." As if re-enforced by that statement she slipped the T-shirt off of her arms, folded it and laid it on her pillow. I was pleased to see that but didn't mention it.

"OK," I said with a grateful sigh, then a pause, "you still look fantastic Nicky," I said, my head to one side as I looked her up and down.

She did the slightest half-twirl, with the tiniest curtsey making her perfect arse to stick out just enough.

"Thank you!" she squeaked, and she adopted the same pose I had, "Not looking so bad yourself Rick."

"And the bathroom is all yours!" I said indicating the open doorway.

She nodded with a big smile and walked down the short passage and I swear she sashayed, making sure that everything moved in the way she wanted it to.

Still fucking hot!

"Mummy, I can't get CBeebies on!" said Mikey and I turned and looked; but rather than her arm across her boobs and hand over her puss, she stepped forward into the living room, knelt down and put an arm around him and took the remote with the other.

"Tell me the number!" she whispered to him as if she was embarrassed that she didn't know it.

He whispered it back, she tapped the right buttons and suddenly the theme tune to the Tweenies was playing. He kissed her cheek, hugged her around the neck and was back to the sofa.

Nicky stood, touched her cheek where he'd kissed her and slipped into the bathroom almost with a skip.

We had lunch and decided we would walk to the park and it was really nice, with Mikey between us swinging from our arms at every opportunity. He played on the swings, on the roundabout and had a great time, little did I know that after the very next day the playground would be closed and taped off the day after.

We went home and I cooked our evening meal without any advice or interruption and there was another Disney film, a new one that none of us had seen. Mikey was impressed but once he was in bed and asleep, Nicky and I both tore lumps out of the live action version of what had been a fantastic cartoon.

"Would you like another glass of wine Nick?" I asked. There was still half a bottle in the fridge.

"No thanks," she said.

"Tea?"

"Rick, I know I'm a temporary guest and everything but please, you don't have to wait on me!"

"Sorry Nick," I said, "I'm just conscious that you might be a bit... strung out by all of this."

She smiled,

"I am, and I do know that's what you're doing but please don't worry, it's no easier for you than it is for me." She smiled and stood, "I'll make you a cup of tea, how's that?"

"Perfect," I said.

I was watching the late movie 'Zero Dark Thirty' that I hadn't seen before where Nicky had,

"I'm going to bed Rick," she said with a smile, "Am I still OK to..." she nodded towards the bedroom.

"Of course," I said, "I'll just catch the end of this."

"Oh," she said a mischievous grin, "Miss Scarlet does it in the library with the lead pipe."

"Damn," I said, "spoiler."

She smiled and dipped slightly, but then stopped herself,

"Night Rick," she waved quickly and was gone.

There is was; it was her precursor to encouraging me to come to bed with her. The dip; in better days this was followed by the opening of a few buttons on her top to show the cleavage followed finally by popping the buttons on her trousers or her skirt to walk half naked to our bedroom, generally with me behind her.

Similarly that was probably why she had turned down the wine. It wasn't that I intended to get her into bed but even Nicky admitted that a couple of glasses of wine were just the thing to get her 'nicely in the mood'.

I watched the end of the film very impressed by the whole thing, loving the strong cast and the quite 'warts and all' aspect.

I went to bed and Nicky was there, snuggled up and sound asleep. I stripped down to my boxers and slid in next to her.

And there it was.

I could smell her perfume; I knew that she'd put some on when we'd gone out for our walk, but none since, but here I was laying next to her and I could smell it strongly. I held my breath and leaned forward and sniffed.

Yeah, she obviously sprayed it before getting into bed!

Well two could play at that game!

When I woke next morning a bit before six, I'd forgotten to pull the blind and the sun was coming in, and we were spooning again but this time my covered erection was pushing hard against her bottom her nightdress having rode up, in fact nestling quite nicely between her buttocks. I pulled her even closer, slipping an arm under her pillow to slide it around her neck while the other was still on her waist. The arm around her neck made its way into the neck of her nightdress and down to cup her wonderful warm breast, while the other sneaked in from beneath to hold and caress the other.

I lay there and it was quite lovely, and her subconscious must have thought so too, as her nipples hardened into the palms of my hands, and her arms lay across mine. As I drifted off, I even felt her rub her arse against my erection.

The tape-recorded sounds of church bells rung out from the empty bell tower of the 1950's red brick and concrete block church built as a temporary replacement for the one that the Luftwaffe had destroyed seventy five odd years before and was a walk down the road from my place.

"Good morning Rick!" said Nicky stretching out her arms but not removing mine from her lovely body, "you slept well I see?" She rubbed her arse against my erection again.

I made a great play of coming around, slowly removing my groin from her bottom and gently sliding my arm from out of her T-shirt but still under her. The other one from underneath was a lot easier to remove but I will confess that I gave her right boob a squeeze before I let go.

"Sorry Nick," I said stretching like she had, "was right out of it."

"Hmmm..." she said.

"Oh, so it's OK for you to all but masturbate me yesterday morning while you were asleep..."

She rolled over, a shocked smile on her face, which was quite close to mine.

"I did no such thing!"

"Virtually!" I said defensively but with a grin.

"Oh Eric!" she said; just in the way she always had in those happier times. She pursed her lips and narrowed her eyes, but I was pleased to note did not remove my arm that was now lying on her waist, nor did she re-arranged her T-shirt to cover those parts that I'd previously been either holding or thinking about holding, "you never change do you!" she said, leaning forward, "still a fucking pervert!"

"Ah, NO!" I said, "I rather think you'll find that if I'd tied you to the bed and spanked you with your hairbrush, THAT would have made me a pervert!"

I knew that the thought of that kind of thing turned her on and she had once, while slightly pissed and back from watching Fifty Shades of Grey at the cinema, lay across my lap while I lifted her dress and pulled down her panties and lightly spanked her.

She took a deep breath and grinned, knowing what I knew.

There was the sound of a flushing toilet and running water and we knew that Mikey was up. She kissed the end of my nose and rolled out of bed, eventually straightening her nightdress over her quite delectable bare bottom.

She stood in the doorway, and held out her arms,

"MIKEY!" she called out, and there was the thunder of quite small feet then her coming back into the room spinning our giggling son a few times before dropping him on the bed, "You wait there with Daddy, it's my turn to get the tea and toast."

Mikey slid in next to me reaching across for the TV remote on my bedside table, and before we knew it cartoons were playing.

We had another nice, lazy messing-around-in-the-flat day with Mikey in charge of what was going on and what we did, We had a quite respectable Sunday roast and we all took a share in the preparation and actually sat up to the small dining table that overlooked the garden.

Mikey had started to yawn, so as I loaded the dishwasher Nicky told Mikey it was bath time.

"Can I have bubbles!" he shouted and aware that Mum wasn't quite so funky as me added, "Daddy lets me have bubbles!"

"Then you can have bubbles!" she smiled at him, tucking her hands into the back pockets of her jeans and holding her bottom, something I had wanted to do since I'd seen it the morning before.

She took his hand and led him to the bathroom.

I cleaned up, loaded and switched on the dishwasher and made Nicky a coffee. Yes, I'd even bought one of those funky kitchen sized coffee machines that could steam milk, but made her an Americano, her favourite.

I pushed the bathroom door open to the sound of laughter and Nicky leaning over the bath and a huge mass of white bubbles that I could see included my little boy, a pile of them on his head and his face a picture of the simple joy that moment gave.

My pleasure was immediate too. His Mum was wearing another matching bra and panty set, white with black polka dot string disappearing into the cleft of her bottom to reappear with the faint hint of the cleft of her puss between her thighs as she leaned forward to splash him, managing to get a fair amount of bubbles and water on her at the same time.

"Here," I said handing her the coffee, "refreshment."

She sat back and I could see that the white and spotty balcony bra that was giving her such a splendid cleavage was soaking wet and virtually transparent, which for some reason made the whole thing so much more sexy.

"Oh Wow Rick!" she purred as she sipped at her coffee, "this is lovely!"

"New machine in the kitchen," I said, "treated myself."

"Is this decaf?"

"Of course it is," I said, then looked at her wonderful breasts, I paused, "Why, do you think I was trying to keep you awake tonight?"

"Eric!" she hissed at me, then grinned and bit her lip before continuing to drink her coffee.

It was the same again as the night before; she pulled the plug and stood Mikey up, while I rubbed him down with the towel and lifted him out.

"I'll get rid of all the bubbles!" she grinned and taking the shower head started to wash the soft white mountains of remaining suds towards the drain.

"Come on then Mikey," I said swinging the door open and letting him out. I turned to pick up Nicky's now empty mug only to be greeted by the sight of her perfect arse pointing right at me as she stood bent at the waist with a supporting hand on her knee, her slightly splashed panties giving me the best view of her pussy that I'd had in months. As if to add insult to injury her spraying the bathtub gave her bottom the most wonderful swaying motion, the same as she did when we had gone at it with her on her hands and knees. She turned to me,

"I'm soaked!"

"All part of the 'bubbles' thing Nicky!" I said.

She reached behind her to unclip her bra and those perfect boobs spilled out,

"Seeing as I'm already wet, I'm going to grab a shower - wash my hair too," she turned and pushed down her wet panties, pushing her bottom out to me again!

Wow! Upping the game were we? She stepped into the shower and pulled the glass door behind her. I would have given up a fortnight TV privileges just to stand there and watch.

But I couldn't; much as I had a feeling she wouldn't have objected, if we were just friends that had seen each other naked lots it could be a bit creepy and I would play the waiting game if I needed to. Mikey was long since dry and ready for bed so he waved to her and she waved back, calling out to me and asking if she could borrow some of 'my' shampoo.

"Please?" she said hugging herself and giving me a view of that great cleavage yet again.

"Help yourself!" I said, knowing she would soon see my erection pushing against the fly of my jeans if I didn't leave soon.

Mikey asked for a drink before bed and I of course gave in making him a small hot chocolate, which got me thinking to what his Mum liked on a cosy evening.

While he sat and drank, I ran to the bedroom, stripped it and remade it with fresh linen. Again I knew that Nicky loved nothing more after a shower than getting into a bed with crisp, fresh laundered sheets and pillow cases. If I had a shower before I went to bed this would just add to it.

I got Mikey settled into his bed just in time for his Mum to come out from the bathroom wrapped in just a towel to give him a hug and kiss him goodnight.

I turned off his light, read him a few pages of that week's book and pulled the door half shut so he could still see the passageway nightlight.

I went back into the living room, hoping that the teasing that had been going on could be reconsidered but it was to find Nicky still in her towel, sat in front of the TV and staring at the thing.

"Rick," she said, "you need to watch this..."

We'd been watching cartoons and movies all day and had somehow missed the advice about the Prime Minister's televised address about the lockdown and flicking through the channels Nicky had found it just as he'd started to talk.

I had planned to sit on the sofa with my one-time partner with some bedtime hot drinks all very sweet and cosy and discuss options on a phased return to our previous living arrangements.

But here she was, white-faced, nail biting and staring at probably the most significant speech either of us would ever hear short of a declaration of war.

I sat next to her; the towel still tightly wrapped.

The speech finished and there was one of those 'we're taking you back to the studio for some expert comment' moments.