Caleb 16 - Coming Home

Authors note.

As always my thanks to Neurparenthetical, whose untiring vigilance makes my illegible scribble readable. Any residual errors are left there purposely in order to give you guys something to do.

Enjoy. - and please, whatever you feel about the story feedback is always appreciated. I can't improve if I don't know where I am going wrong.

Caleb 16 - Coming Home

When we pulled up to the house, there was a strange car and a couple of motorcycles in the driveway. Loud music was playing from within. I got out of the car and walked to the door, dreading what I would find inside. Stupidly, I didn't tell the girls to stay in the car - although I suppose that if I had, I would have been even stupider to think that they would have paid me any heed. The front door was unlocked, and we walked right in.

There were five strangers in the living room. Two guys in bikers' leathers could have been brothers. They were over six feet tall and bald, and each of them sported a beard. What little of their skin I could see under all the ink was tanned. They were both sitting on the couch, one on either side of Josh. The one to his right had a gun pressed into Josh's side.

Stranger number three was a small, wiry, mixed-race guy. He seemed to be in charge. He was sitting on one of the easy chairs, drinking a beer, and holding a gun loosely in his other hand. He was directing the action.

Louise was on the floor, her top torn off, her arms being held by a skinny black guy while another man of mixed race was trying to hold her legs down and remove her jeans at the same time. They were around thigh level, and she was kicking up a storm. The guy in the chair was laughing and shouting encouragement to the guys on Louise.

I used my TK to stop the music, and everybody froze - everybody, that is, except Louise. She wrested one leg free and planted a solid kick to the balls of the guy trying to remove her jeans. He yelped in pain and curled up into a ball.

"Hi," I said, "how are we all doing?"

Louise and Josh both looked up at me with strange looks on their faces, although neither spoke.

The guy in the chair swiveled the gun in my direction. "Who the fuck are you?" he snarled at me. I ignored him.

"Everyone on the floor, face down, hands behind your heads," I said, and I imagined all of them obeying me immediately, without question, without any other funny business, and without any hope of doing anything besides breathing until I let them. They complied; they never had a choice.

"Right, the guns," I added. I imagined the miscreants releasing their holds on their weapons. They did so, and I used TK to slide them carefully away - far from everyone, including my girls.

I saw Louise flush, and also got a sense of disappointment from her. Knowing her penchant for being Compelled I wryly made the bet with myself that she was sorry I had not included her in the order.

Amanda was already helping Louise up -whose aura, was pulsing purple with brown streaks that illustrated her disappointment.

Josh went over to Louise and he threw his arms around her, pulling her to him. I almost did a double take when I saw that his aura had undergone virtually the same transformation that Louise's had. The menagerie of assholes, meanwhile, were all showing broad swathes of yellow, spiked with red and some black. Orange, a color I had seen before but never enough to identify, seemed to indicate confusion. I didn't spare a moment's pity. I did, however, imagine that none of them were able to urinate or defecate. Thankfully, I seemed to have come up with that good idea in time to avoid any unpleasantness.

Louise pulled Josh's face down and kissed him far more passionately than I thought appropriate, given the circumstances. Then I realized that seeing my Compulsion had triggered a fantasy for her. I filed that away for later. A lot had changed since I'd last seen Louise and spoken to her about my powers. I found myself in need of a new training regimen for my Compulsion, and suddenly had some new ideas about who might be involved, and how.

Louise took Josh's hand and led him toward their bedroom. If anything, that was even stranger to me. I would've thought they would've wanted some closure with whomever these intruders were.

It occurred to me that the guns I'd seen and pushed away might not be the only weapons on the thugs, so I redoubled imagining that they were completely paralyzed and helpless, then searched them all. I found another two guns, and a knife on each of them. I secured all of them and pushed them toward the first two guns.

I went over to the guy I had assumed was the leader and decided that since he had broken into my home, it was only fair that I should be allowed to break into his head. Once again, he didn't have a chance. He was a Norm. In mere moments, his entire mind was an open book to me.

His name was Jerome Kraft, and he was the drug dealer who had previously owned the house. He had been broken out of a prison transport bus and had come back to the house to recover the money and papers he had secreted under the decking beneath the hot tub in the yard. Although the FBI had searched the house, they hadn't found his hidey-hole. He knew this because there was evidence in there that would have meant further charges against him - not just for drug offenses, but rape and murder as well.

He had orchestrated his own escape using some members of his old gang, promising them a cut of the million-dollar hoard, and his plan had been to grab it and then high-tail it to the border. When they'd gotten to the house and found Josh and Louise, they just couldn't resist a little R&R before moving on.

I pondered my next move. Involving the local police directly seemed like a mistake. I'd made quick work of five armed thugs without a hint of a struggle, and I didn't much feel like trashing my own house to cover my tracks. My best option was the feds. I sighed audibly and made the call.

"Frank Howe speaking," he said as he answered his phone.

"Agent Howe," I said, "Caleb Stott."

"Mr. Stott," he said, his voice cold. "What can I do for you?"

"Jerome Kraft and four of his buddies are currently eating carpet in my front room. I thought you might like to come and sweep them up."

There was a long silence.

"I'm sorry," he said, "could you repeat that?"

"Jerome Kraft," I said. "The escaped drug dealer, rapist, and murderer, is face down on the floor in my living room. Would you like to come to get him, or should I call nine-one-one?"

"Rapist? Murderer?" he queried. "He was never charged with those crimes."

"I confess I took a peek," I said. "I can show you where to find some evidence of his crimes, along with a chunk of cash too."

"We'll be there in fifteen minutes," he said, his voice jolting like he was running. "Can you hold them until we get there, or do you want us to get local LEOs?"

"They're going nowhere," I said.

We heard the sirens well before the three SUVs screeched to a halt outside the house. Six agents piled out and drew their weapons before approaching.

"Caleb?" Frank shouted.

I had already opened the front door wide. I didn't want them kicking it in.

"In here," I said. "All their weapons are on the table over there." I pointed to where I'd stacked them up. "All the bad guys are on the floor over there." I pointed again. I couldn't resist.

"Tell me what happened," he said.

"Can I show you?" I asked, and he nodded. I shared the memory from when I arrived at the house until I called him.

"Where's the girl?" he asked.

"I think she's working off some 'frustrations' with her boyfriend in their bedroom," I said.

His eyebrows rose.

I heard another car come screeching to a halt outside the house, and Dianna rushed in, looking panicked. She looked around. I pointed toward the kitchen, where the twins and Jules were trying to stay out of the way.

"Caleb?"

I heard a voice I recognized. I turned to find Agent David Spencer standing over one of the men. I smiled at him.

"Hey - how are you?" I asked.

"Good, thanks," he said. "We can't cuff them. They're a little stiff."

"Oops, sorry," I said. I used Compulsion, rather than TK, to make all of them move their arms behind their backs. Once the cuffs were applied, I made sure that all the agents were ready, and then completely released my control, imagining that all of my Compulsion was a weight that lifted from their bodies and then dissipated. With all the excitement, I couldn't exactly remember all the things I'd forced them to do and not do. I figured the clean sweep was the safest way to wrap things up. They were dragged to their feet, and then outside, to be loaded into the waiting SUVs. I took one more moment to gaze at their auras. All of them were a mess. Jerome's was the most intense of five similar storms; he knew he was completely fucked in a way that he'd never been before.

I'd done the Bureau the courtesy of emptying out the hot tub before they'd arrived. Four of the agents moved it and pried up the decking before digging down into the earth underneath it. It wasn't long before they found what they were looking for.

A million dollars doesn't really look much. I was kind of disappointed. Frank wasn't, and when he saw what else was in the stash, he was very 'not disappointed.'

When all the bad guys had been driven off, and Frank had made arrangements for their vehicles to be towed away, all the agents bar him and David left. They needed to take statements from us, despite my sharing my memory with him.

I had tidied up most of the mess in the living room when the girls and Dianna emerged from the kitchen with coffee for everybody. Josh and Louise returned from their room looking flushed. As they came into the living room, Louise came over to me and pulled me into a tight hug.

"Thank you," she said, pressing her face into my shoulder. The fact that she was also grinding herself against my leg didn't escape my attention.

I didn't say anything; I just held her for a few minutes until she was ready to let go. Once she was, she went to sit on the couch.

Josh was next. He also pulled me into a hug. I thought Louise had gone to take care of them both when they had retired to their room, but judging by the hardness I could feel pressing into me, they hadn't relieved all their tension.

"Can we talk later?" he whispered, and I nodded. He went and sat beside Louise on the couch.

It didn't take long to finish up. The statements were an extremely collaborative effort and produced several tidy packages of white lies. Once that was done, Frank and David left, and after a while, Dianna accompanied Josh and Louise to their room. The girls and I sipped our coffee in the living room, and the silence was at least two different kinds of awkward. The four of us were basically fine with everything that had just happened, which wasn't normal, and we all knew that. Mary and I still weren't in a great place, and neither Jules nor Amanda seemed eager to attempt small talk or any kind of talk for that matter.

Dianna came back about twenty minutes later. "They seem fine," she said. "I don't know if it's just their way of coping, but they were both incredibly aroused by the experience. We already knew that Louise had a fetish for being forced. It looks like Josh shares that. Had she been raped, things might have been different, but given the circumstances, they got off very lightly. I don't think I'll need to see them again, but if you see any issues, let me know and I'll revisit."

She was headed toward the door when Jules stopped her and handed her the grimoire.

"Thanks for the loan," Jules said stiffly.

Dianna looked at her sadly. "Jules," she said. "I'm sorry."

"I trusted you," said Jules, "and you played me, and my family, after we welcomed you into our home. You gave Caleb so much shit about his Compulsion, and yet you used your own power in almost exactly the same way. You manipulated me to get to him."

"I am so sorry Jules," said Dianna. "There are so many reasons why I did what I did, and none of them are worth a damn. You are right. I betrayed your and your family's trust. I promise never to do anything like that again, but I'm sure that means nothing to you right now. You are also right in calling me out for using my power in that way. It was an abuse of my power. If you want to complain to the Bureau, then that is your right. I have no excuses.

"I know that tonight is too soon," she continued, "but I hope we can talk again, and maybe start to rebuild what I tore down?"

Jules gave a stiff nod and then moved to come and curl up in my lap. I put my arms around her and felt her trembling. The brief confrontation with Dianna had shaken her more than walking in on Louise nearly being raped. I understood completely. Already, Jules was internalizing the idea that Norms just weren't much of a threat so long as someone with powers was available to help.

Dianna once more made to leave. "You did well tonight," she said. "I saw the memory you gave to Frank.

"I am proud of you - of you all," she added as she walked to the door. "Goodnight." She closed the door softly behind her.

I stared at the closed door, mulling over the events of the evening.

"It's a good thing we got back in time," said Jules, obviously doing the same.

"It is," I said, "but I'm a bit weirded out by Josh and Louis's reaction."

Amanda giggled "I saw that," she said, "Louise looked pissed that you didn't include her when you made them all hit the deck. That girl has a serious fetish for being controlled."

I nodded. "I noticed," I remarked "They want to 'talk' with me about it. I suspect I know what that will be about."

Amanda giggled again. "Are you going to..."

I looked at Mary. "Before today, I would have flat-out refused," I said, "but I need to train my Compulsion somehow. As long as they are on board, and there are strict safeguards in place, I think I might give them a little of what they want. Besides, I can listen in to their thoughts while it's happening, so the moment they become uncomfortable with it, I can release them. Mary?"

"It's up to you," she replied. "You will have to deal with the consequences."

"Well let me know what Dianna says when you tell her," I snapped, getting up and going outside. I needed some space, and the deck needed to be repaired. It didn't take long to replace all the decking boards, and since the hot tub only weighed in at about twelve hundred pounds empty, I put it back into place before starting to refill it.

My phone rang: Dianna. I wasn't surprised. I picked up.

"Dianna," I said in a flat tone.

"Mary called me," she said without preamble. "She told me about the conversation you had in the car."

"I'm sure," I said.

"She also told me about Josh and Louise," she continued. "I remember what Louise asked you last time. I had a feeling that even our little stunt wouldn't be enough to deter her for long - especially not now that we know that Josh feels similar... She says you are considering it."

"What goes on between consenting adults in the privacy of their own home..." I began.

"As long as they are consenting," she rebuffed.

"So what are you saying, Dianna?" I asked. "Are you saying I should, or shouldn't, do it?"

"Does it matter what I say?" she asked.

"Frankly? No," I said, "but it was interesting to see how quickly Mary came running to you. I guess it proves my point."

"That point being?" she asked.

"Whose side she is on," I said, "and that I cannot trust her."

"She was looking out for you," she said. "Making sure you didn't do something that would get you into trouble."

"She was running telling tales to Granny!" I snapped. "So, are you going to arrest me for abuse of power if I decide to go ahead?"

"No," she said quietly. "As long as you can show the memories of them both agreeing to it, and you can show that you did nothing that they weren't happy with, there is nothing illegal about using your power in that way. It will even serve to help train your power, as you thought."

A few seconds passed in silence.

"Caleb, can we talk?" she asked. "Face to face?"

"Is that Agent Everson wanting to talk," I asked, "or Dianna?"

"Both, actually," she replied. "Can I come over tomorrow to see you?"

I mulled it over a moment. The FBI was still a possibility, and she was still Amanda's grandmother.

"What time?" I asked.

"I could be there for ten?"

"Fine."

"Caleb," she said. "Don't be too hard on Mary. She really is trying to look out for you."

"She is trying to do what all the Eversons do," I responded.

"And what's that?" she asked.

"Keep the Stotts in their place," I said before hanging up the phone.

Since the hot tub was now full, I decided I might as well go and see if Josh and Louise were still awake. I walked through the kitchen into the hall before going and knocking on their door gently. A few seconds later, Louise opened the door, naked.

"I can come back..." I began, but she took my hand and pulled me into their room, closing the door behind me. Josh was laid on the bed, also naked. It appeared that they had been playing, but not seriously. I got the feeling they were saving themselves for something, and I guessed what that something was.

Josh indicated the chair, which had been turned to face the bed, and I sat. They both moved to sit on the edge of the bed, facing me. Neither seemed to be embarrassed in the slightest to be naked in front of me, even though they were both very obviously aroused.

"How are you both doing?" I asked. To an outside observer, it would seem a stupid question, but it had been less than four hours since Louise had almost been raped, and Josh had been forced at gunpoint to watch.

"Caleb," Louise said, "I know this may sound strange, and I don't want you to think badly of me - of us - but tonight was the most erotic experience we have ever had. We were almost sorry that you were able to stop them, although when I saw you compelling them, I nearly came. If you had included me, I probably would have.

I looked at Josh, and he was nodding.

"You know Lou had the fantasy of being controlled," he said. "Well tonight, for her, it came true. When those guys broke in and overpowered us, she just got so hot."

"But she fought," I said.

"Of course she did," he said. "If she had just given in, then it wouldn't have been real. They had to really overpower her, and me."

"And what about you?" I asked Josh. "What did you get out of the fantasy?"

He blushed and looked down.

"It was hot to watch her get controlled," he said, "and I was hoping..." he ground to a halt.

"Hoping what?" I asked.

He looked at Louise, who took his hand.

"He was hoping that they would use him too," she said. "Or at least force him to 'clean up' after them."

"Then why the call for help?" I asked.

"That was when they first arrived," he said. "Five guys came in waving guns. I had no idea what was going to happen. But then things went the way they were going, and I guess we got carried away with it."

"What did you think they were going to do when they had finished with you?" I asked. "Pat you on the head and send you on your way?"

"We kind of didn't think that far ahead," said Louise. "We were just caught up in the moment. But that doesn't matter does it, because you stopped them, and - well, here we are."

"Here we are," I repeated.

"Caleb," said Josh. "You know what we want. Are you going to make us spell it out?"

"That is exactly what you are going to have to do," I said, "because at some point, someone big and bad is going to come for me and expect me to explain what happened with you two. If I don't have some very good answers, then I could be in a great deal of trouble."