For the Greater Good: Continued

imhapless challenged readers of his story "For the Greater Good" (https://literotica.com/s/for-the-greater-good-1) to provide an ending for it. The quirky, engaging characters and the interesting situation in the original story led me to accept the challenge. If you haven't read the original, please do so at the URL above. There are no sex scenes in this continuation.

My thanks, as always, to blackrandl1958 for her friendship, encouragement, perspective, and editing skills. This continuation is posted with the kind permission of imhapless.

*****

I didn't know what time Ashley would be home, so I called in to work and took the day off. I was no closer to a plan for what to do about her cheating than I had been the previous night. I did figure out why we suddenly needed to talk about it right away so it wouldn't affect our future together: John Paxton must have told her that I saw Chad Beltran fucking her.

Ashley called a little before noon. She still sounded like she could use a good night's sleep, but was upbeat.

"I want to stop by Tom's on the way home," she said. "I came up with a couple of tweaks for the delivery system that I want to install. I could probably talk Melinda through them, but I can do them myself a lot faster, and besides, I want to see how Tom's doing. The video conference just isn't the same. Is that okay?"

"Sure, and I agree about the video conference. You're all packed and moved out, then?"

"Yes, we just finished. John and Chad helped me. It's weird: it was the quietest we've been with each other for weeks. Now that the project is finished, we couldn't find a thing to talk about!" Well, I thought, a guilty conscience will do that to you.

"So, you'll grab some lunch, head to Tom's, and then home?"

"No, I don't want to take time for lunch. I want to get to Tom's, make the changes, see that everything's working, and get home as soon as I can. I've missed you, Kurt."

"I've missed you too, Ashley. Give me a call when you're leaving Tom's, okay? I want to know how he's doing, too."

"Sure, but I'll save the details until I get home. I love you, and I want you face to face," she said, and hung up.

Before I could sink back into what I intended to be deep thought, my phone rang again. It was Dr. Chad Beltran.

"Look, Kurt, I expect you're upset with me, and I don't blame you. I'm not calling about me, I'm calling about Ashley. You need to know what really happened before she gets home." I needed to hear what he had to say, but that didn't mean I would like it, or him.

"Ashley isn't going to tell you this, because she doesn't brag, but you need to know how important she was to the team. She's the one who ran the team, not John. She was the person who wouldn't let us quit, who kept us focused. In her field, Dr. Lee is just as brilliant as Ashley, but she deferred to her, too. The truth is, Ashley found the cure for your brother. The rest of us were her supporting cast, but we did our best to make sure she had whatever she needed." Chad paused for breath.

"About three weeks ago, we hit a roadblock. Ashley was the only one who could get us past it, but she was stuck. We all tried to help her, but nothing was working. Finally, she told us about how you had helped clear her mind when she was working on her dissertation. We just all stood around and looked at each other. I don't think any of us thought of her as a sexual person, for all that she's so hot. I had flirted at her a little in the very beginning, but she shot me down so hard I had stopped even thinking of her as a woman. She was just a scientist.

"I finally got up my nerve and asked her if she thought that would help now. She said yes. We... did what we had to, and it worked. Ashley had a solution two hours later; it was brilliant, and completely original.

"We talked that night before we went home. Ashley stressed that she didn't have any feelings for me, and didn't want me developing any for her, except as teammates. She did tell me I'd done it well for her, and I said I'd enjoyed it too: hell, I'd have been crazy not to. Ashley said she wouldn't tell you: it would only hurt you, and it was all about the cure, which you wanted just as much as Ashley. It really was just sex, and it was for a good cause.

"We did it twice more after that, only when we hit roadblocks we, or rather she, couldn't get past any other way. We told the receptionist that if you came in while we were doing it, she should steer you to John, and he would try to keep you from finding out. He didn't tell us that you knew until last night.

"I hope you two will find a way to work through this and stay together. I'm sorry you found out; that wasn't supposed to happen. I'm not sorry we did it, because if we hadn't, your brother would be dying."

"Looks to me like you have other reasons not to be sorry," I growled at him. "You get credit for a cancer cure, great sex with a hot woman, and a bonus check on top of that, right?"

"Kurt, none of that mattered at the time. Ashley kept us all so focused on the goal that none of us were even thinking of that."

"Yeah, but you're going to cash that bonus check anyway, aren't you?"

"Well, yes..."

"Would you still have offered to have sex with Ashley if she'd been fifty and weighed 200 pounds?"

I could hear him gulp as he imagined that possibility. "Well, I can't say for sure. I hope I would, but I guess I won't really know unless it happens." Nicely dodged, I thought, but at least he didn't lie.

"So, I'm supposed to understand that the only reason you fucked my wife is for the cure. For the greater good, as it were. And I'm supposed to, after the fact, consent to paying for my brother's life with my wife's faithfulness?"

Chad thought for a moment. "It's not really like that, Kurt. It's more like... well, as if I'd helped Ashley stretch, or given her nutrition supplements, or something. It wasn't even really like sex."

"Well, it sure as hell looked like sex to me. Don't try to play fucking word games with me, Doctor!" I put as much scorn as I could into the title.

"I'm sorry. I'm not trying to game you. All I can tell you is, in her heart, Ashley is still faithful to you, just like in my heart, I'm still faithful to my wife."

"You're pretty convinced about that, are you?"

"Yes, I am."

"Does that mean your wife understands this, the way you're expecting me to?"

"What?"

"Since all of this was done for the greater good, and you're faithful to her in your heart, she understands, doesn't she?" Silence.

"You have told her, haven't you, Dr. Beltran?"

"N-n-n-o." He could barely get the word out.

"Then maybe I should."

"NO! Please don't. You can't do that. We have kids, young children. Don't break up their home. Don't make her suffer, don't tell her, please." He stammered in his panic.

"You're telling me that she wouldn't understand, even if I explained it to her like you did to me?"

"No, she wouldn't. She's a wonderful woman and I'm crazy about her, but she wouldn't understand. She... she might even divorce me." He sounded pitiful, but I had no sympathy for him.

"In other words, your wife, who knows you far better than I do, would never buy the bullshit you're trying to shovel off onto me."

"Well, no, but..."

"So why should I buy it?" More silence.

"Why did you really call me, Dr. Beltran? It has nothing to do with Ashley, does it?"

"Well..."

"Come on, it's not that hard. You want me to stay with Ashley so you won't feel guilty, and you want me to keep quiet so your wife won't kick you out. Right?"

"You won't tell her, will you? It would just destroy my marriage and my kids."

"Frankly, after you put my marriage in danger, I don't have much sympathy for yours. Before you called, I never thought about calling your wife. Now I'm undecided. I will do one thing for you, however. If I decide to tell her all about it, I'll give you twelve hours' advance notice. How's that?"

I could hear him swallowing hard. I thought that my little triumph should have felt better than it did.

"I guess... I guess that's about the best I can hope for."

"It certainly is, and you're getting off easily at that. After all, you still have the memory of great sex with a hot woman, and don't forget that bonus check."

I was pretty sure that when I heard Ashley's story, it would match Beltran's, and despite what I felt about him, I was glad to have the confirmation. It meshed with what John had told me, as well. More importantly, it matched what I knew about Ashley. I knew her laser-like focus, and I knew how much my family meant to her: she had often told me that she wished she could do something to repay them for how warmly they had welcomed her. Well, she had her chance, and she seized it with both hands. Unfortunately, it cost me at least as much as it did her.

I mused and paced the floor while my mind did an imitation of a hamster on an exercise wheel, until the phone rang again. Three o'clock: Ashley should be ready to leave Tom's. My hand trembled as I answered the phone.

"Hi, hon. I'm at Tom's."

"I can tell. I can hear the rug rats loud and clear."

"Yeah, they're pretty excited. Your mom's here, too. She wants me to stay for dinner, and she wants to get the whole family over here. The kids don't want to let me go, I had to bribe them to get five minutes to call you. I know we need to talk, and I promise we will, but could you possibly meet us here for dinner? We can talk when we get home."

She wasn't joking about the kids; they adored their Aunt Ashley. When it came down to it, I wasn't sorry to have an excuse to postpone my decisions about Ashley and our marriage.

"Yeah, I can be there. Is Tom up for it? Shouldn't he be resting?"

Ashley snorted. "That little brother of yours thinks he's up for anything. The way I figure, it will take all of us together to keep him from doing something stupid like playing dodge ball with the kids again." We chuckled at the memory. The last time he'd done that, we'd had to take him to the urgent care. He loved rough-housing with his kids, and it was heart warming to think that in time, he would be able to do it again, perhaps even with his grandkids.

"Okay, I'll see you in about an hour, then."

Ashley was sitting on the front step of Tom's house watching for me. She wasn't alone, though: she was about to be swarmed under by four active young children. Usually, Aunt Ashley was eager to roll around with them on Tom's soft green front lawn, but today she just stared at the driveway. I no sooner stepped out of my car than she ran full speed for me, with open arms. We held each other hungrily, not even kissing, as if we were afraid we might lose each other: which was just about the state of things.

We held hands as we went into the house, trailing nieces and nephews behind. That might seem odd, given what lay between us, but it was a habit, and I didn't want the kids to see anything different.

"Uncle Kurt, Mom says Dad isn't supposed to play dodge ball with us, so you have to. Come on! Race you!"

Ashley laughed. "You're committed now, big fella. Try not to get slaughtered too badly." She kissed me briefly and gave me a push out the back door.

The object of the game (for the adult, that is) was to run the kids all over the yard so they'd keep it down to a dull roar at dinner, then be tired enough to go to bed soon afterward without complaining. I worked hard at it, which had the added bonus that I didn't have energy to think about Chad and Ashley. Not only did I 'win,' I was relaxed and at ease for the first time in two weeks. When dinner was called, I made my grand entrance with one niece riding my shoulders, another in my arm, two nephews holding the other hand, and a stupid grin on my face. The conquering hero, you'd better believe it.

I dumped the kids in the bathroom, supervised their washing up, and seated them at the "little table" before taking my seat next to Ashley. She leaned over and whispered in my ear, "You're my hero." Tears sprang into my eyes. She gripped my hand tightly. "I mean that."

I should say something here about Ashley and my family. I had delayed bringing her home to meet them while she was working on her dissertation. I had come to know Ashley as a sweet, gentle girl who had been alone most of her life, and didn't want to be any more, but only because she had chosen to show me that side of herself. Everyone else knew her as the quirky genius. I was head over heels in love with her, so I didn't want them thinking of her as weird or flaky.

One night about halfway through her dissertation year, she asked me point blank when she was going to meet my family.

"You talk about them so much they're obviously important to you. I need to meet them. Besides, I don't have a family any more, and I miss that." Then in true Ashley fashion, she gave me a set of four dates and times to choose from, and told me to set it up and tell her when it was scheduled. I did.

I tried to warn Mom that Ashley wasn't like any other girl I'd dated, but she was having none of it. "Let her make her own impression, Kurt, just like she'll form her own ideas about us." That was good advice, but I was still worried about what my down to earth, bluntly honest big sister Jill would think.

The whole family was there for dinner. Thank goodness, my family doesn't do that stupid thing where you have to sit across from your "person of interest," as Ashley put it. We sat side by side, so she and I could face the inquisition together, except it was more love-fest than inquisition. Ashley was far more relaxed than I was; I don't think she stopped smiling the whole time. After dinner, I took a beer into the back yard, relieved at how well things had gone.

Jill came out to join me. "What do you think," I asked her.

"She's a sweetheart," Jill said. I almost dropped my beer. I mean, I knew that, but I didn't think anyone else did.

"She's a sweetheart with a smoking hot body, who just happens to be a genius. How she fell in love with you, I'll never understand, but she did. If you let her get away, you're even dumber than I think you are, and if you hurt her, I'll skin you alive."

I stammered something or other. This was not what I had expected at all.

"Yes, yes, I know," Jill resumed. "You were worried that your big sister would swoop in to protect you from this strange woman. She is strange in some ways, but then so are you. She's perfect for you."

Jill had been right, of course. Ashley had fit in perfectly with my family, and our love had only grown. By the time we married, we could both truly say that we were far better people because of each other. Besides, if we hadn't said it, my entire family would have said it for us.

Those memories stalked my mind as I once again sat next to Ashley at a family dinner, trying to get my mind off what she had done with Chad Beltran. Fortunately, not much was required of me in the way of conversation: it was all about Ashley.

Dinner was over. We put the kids to bed upstairs, and settled in for wine and grown-up conversation in the living room. Tom tapped his glass to get our attention.

"There are some things I need to say tonight, while we're all here," he began formally.

"Mom, remember how worried you were when it took Kurt so long to find the right woman?" We all chuckled at the memory. "Ashley, you fit into this family like you were born to it, you've made Kurt happier than we've ever seen him, and we all love you like a sister. We knew from the first that Kurt had picked a good one, but we had no idea how important that would turn out to be.

"Ashley, you saved my life, just as surely as if you'd pulled me out of the path of a speeding train. You saved Melinda from being a widow," he squeezed his beautiful wife as she teared up, "and Brianna and Young Kurt from being fatherless." He paused a moment.

"We all owe you more than we can ever repay, so we won't even try. Instead, I give you this promise. I will treat every day as a gift, to be used wisely and lovingly. I will never take my family for granted, but will love them as if they might be taken from me tomorrow. I will always be grateful to you, and will tell anyone who will listen that I have the best and smartest sister-in-law in the world!"

Ashley blushed as we clapped for her. She's funny about things like that. She has no false modesty about the many awards and honors she's received: she's gracious, but she knows she earned them. When people she loves praise her, though, she becomes embarrassed and goes into deflect mode.

"Well, I was only part of the team," she began after we quieted down.

"That's not what John Paxton told us," Melinda broke in. We laughed and clapped; Ashley blushed.

"There is one other person you need to know about," Ashley said. "When I first presented my proposal to RCA, they were excited about it, but there was one problem: money. Most of the funds they had were earmarked for other projects they were already doing, and couldn't be transferred to HDGC. We wouldn't have been able to start, except that this person volunteered to raise the money we would need. He did, too: he raised almost a quarter million dollars. I'll never know how much of that he contributed personally. I do know he sacrificed more than anyone else, including me, to find this cure. Unlike me, he won't get recognition or a patent or a publication out of it, and he certainly won't get any money: he did it strictly for love. I will love and honor that man until the day I die. He is my husband, Kurt."

Now it was my turn to blush and look embarrassed. Ashley's eyes shone with her sincerity as she looked into mine; Tom wheeled over and shook my hand. The moment passed, and the room broke into smaller conversations. Everyone wanted to be near Ashley and tell her how wonderful she was, and that was fine. Besides, it was true. I didn't seem to be needed, so I took my half-full glass of wine out onto the back porch to think about the new complication that had been added to my dilemma. Ashley was the heroine of the family now, even to the kids. If I couldn't handle what she'd done, and we separated or divorced, I could see my entire family siding with her. I would be completely alone. That sucked.

"Okay, lil' bro', spill it."

"Well hello to you too, big sister," I smiled back at Jill, though it was too dark for her to see.

"What's going on with you and Ashley?" Jill was never one to beat around the bush.

"Jill, she's completely worn out. She hasn't been home yet, and when she gets there, I think she might sleep for a week."

"Oh, come off it, Kurt. You were a better liar when you were eight. I'm a woman. I know when a woman knows something is very wrong and is desperately trying to make it okay, and I've been married long enough to know when a man is trying to pretend things are okay when they aren't. Neither of you is fooling me. It's almost as if she cheated and you found out and she knows it, except she wouldn't do that." I was glad it was dark so she couldn't see the shock on my face.

"Kurt, I'm a good listener, and I love you both. You know that. You can tell me."

I was sorely tempted, but I couldn't do it. "We both love you, too, and I'm that close to telling you all about it. The only thing is, Ashley hasn't even been home yet, so we haven't had a chance to talk it through. I owe it to her to do that first. Okay?"

"Of course. You're right, you should do that first, but if either of you needs someone, remember your sister who loves you." She patted my shoulder and returned to the house.

If Jill could read Ashley and me that easily, what about the others? I wasn't too worried about Tom, but Melinda was smart and perceptive, as was Mom. Whatever became of Ashley and me, I never wanted Tom and Melinda to find out that his cure had been paid for with Ashley's cheating. It was time for us to go home.