Stormwatch - Thundersnow

Soon she was gasping and whimpering, her hips moving of their own accord, Josh started driving his cock into her pussy in time with her gyrations. Little cries escaped with each slid of her clit through his now soaked pubic hair. "Yesss... yesss... yesss Effi..." Now as her orgasm overcame her, she was crying out, "Cummminggg... cumminggg... Effiiiiiii!!!" she started thrusting back on his cock harder and harder as waves of release washed over her, and as it passed, she sagged down to his chest taking deep shuddering breaths.

Now he rolled her over, her beautiful hair fanned out on the couch, her nice round breasts wobbling on her chest with every movement of her body. Josh's cock was still rock hard, he was aching for release, and he was so close when she collapsed. Her eyes showed that she realized what she was in for, and she gave him a tired smile. "Ready Nica?"

"I'm all yours," she whispered so quietly he barely heard her over the soft music in the background. His hips began to move, and he propped himself up on his arms so he could watch. He loved this woman so much and there's only one joy more intense that watching her cum, that's the joy of being the man that is driving her out of her mind with passion.

His hips began to thrust, first slowly and measured, basking in the warm clinging of her pussy on his cock, then faster and the need to cum started to build. His measured thrusts started to become frantic, her breasts began to wobble in circles as he thrust harder, deeper. "No!" she gasped, it was still barely conceivable to her to have more than one orgasm with a man, but Josh was different than any man in her past, he wanted her to be cumming constantly, and sometimes he can reach that lofty goal, but right now he was so close to cumming himself, he may not last long enough.

"Cum with me Effi," she gasped, this one was coming quick, her eyes were practically spinning as this marvelous cock pounded her to ecstasy. Josh dropped to his elbows as he began to fuck franticly. Veronica lifted her legs and crossed her ankles around his back while he fucked harder and harder.

Her orgasm hit her just as she grabbed his ass cheeks, digging her fingernails in she cried out in guttural groans of ecstasy, immediately followed by Josh. His cock erupted spurting hours' worth of pent-up semen. He jerked and thrust as deeply as he could, the waves of bliss shaking his frame with each spurt.

Finally, they relaxed in each other's arms, kissing and whispering endearments as their trembling subsided. Josh started to get up but Veronica clutched his arms, "Where are you going?"

"I was thinking of getting a glass of water for us and a washcloth."

"Hold on," Veronica smiled, "stay with me a moment." So Josh stayed and they kissed and soon his cock began to deflate and slide out. "That's the best part," said Veronica.

"Why is that the best part?"

"It's like Mission Accomplished to me. I spent all evening getting you worked up, that tells me I did a good job."

"Yes you did," smiled Josh. "I better get a washcloth."

"You better get a mop! Gaa-Lee! you should have told me how much you can hold." Josh had never heard Veronica talk like this before! "Yeah," she said as if reading his mind, "I'm real people too, now get that cloth."

Chuckling Josh came back with a warm moist cloth and cleaned her (and the couch) up. "What do we want to watch?" she said as they settled in on the couch to relax and rebuild their energy for round two. "I want a romance movie."

"I have the perfect movie for both of us," said Josh and soon the Legend of Bagger Vance came on.

"This is a sports movie," Veronica pouted.

"Just watch the interplay between Charlese Therron and Matt Damon," said Josh. "It will take a while, but you will love it." And for once when picking a movie, Josh was right. What got Veronica hooked was that Matt Damon's character was a veteran struggling with PTSD and Charlize Theron's character was trying to deal with that. Veronica was in tears up by the end of the movie.

֎ ֎ ֎ ֎ ֎ ֎ ֎ ֎ ֎ ֎

Josh's cellphone woke him up around 3:00 AM, it was his "other daughter" Terri McCarthy, Josh was sure that she was either drunk and looking for a ride home or there was trouble. "What's up Terri?" he asked quietly.

"I didn't want to disturb you, Mr. Friedman said not to call you, but we got trouble."

"What's going on?" He sat up on the edge of the couch, the tree still glittered softly, and the fire had burned down. The encroaching cold was going to wake him to tend to the fire soon anyhow.

"Ellicottville is down."

"Oh crap." Ellicottville Urgent Care is more than a bandage and aspirin medical center, it's a small but full-fledged emergency hospital. There are several ski resorts in the area and EUC is the only place that can handle a horrific skiing accident for scores of miles. The ski resorts will probably close if their medical support is lost. Terri explained the issue and the more she explained the more confusing it was. To Josh it sounded like a newbie at the hospital did something to their server and now half of their network is down and record keeping is in limbo. "Who do we have in Ellicottville?" Josh asked.

"Jenn has been down there since ten o'clock," said Terri. Jennifer Combs is Terri's "Partner in crime" and one of Josh's top field troops, but she was a network specialist, this smelled like a server issue.

"Who do you have with you?"

"It's just me and Gucci right now but Mr. Friedman called all-hands-on-deck. Everyone is coming in."

Sal "Gucci" Cuccinotta is new and he's really good, he's another direct hire by Ant Friedman who is widely known for always hiring "the right person for the right job." Josh carefully placed a log on the fire and said, "Ok, I'm heading down to Ellicottville. Give me a call if you get it fixed before I get there."

Josh dressed then found Veronica's cell phone and laptop and placed them on the couch next to her, then pulled on his boots. "Where are you going?" she murmured.

"EUC is down, Ant called an all hands."

"Oh no," Veronica groaned. Ellicottville is not their biggest client, but they need to protect any client in dire straits especially on a weekend like this, Christmas is less than 3 days away. "Did they call you in?" she asked. Ant promised her that they'd be left alone for a week!

"No, no one called me in, but I heard there was a problem." He gave her that look, this company was their life, they both owe Ant Friedman a lot.

"Ok, do you want coffee before you go?" asked Veronica as she got out of bed and pulled on her diaphanous robe out of sheer habit.

"No, just wear that when I get back. That's all I need." And with a kiss he was out the door. Moments later her phone rang, she didn't have to look, she knew exactly who it was.

"Good morning Anthony."

"I'm sorry to wake you dear, did I wake Josh?"

"No, he was up earlier, he's heading for Ellicottville."

"I told his people not to call him..." Anthony sounded angry, but he continued, "he'd probably be angry with them if they didn't call."

"Exactly, it was his decision to go in, I know he wasn't asked," said Veronica who understood too, and was angry also, but there was nothing she could do to stop it. He was probably the same way when he was in the military.

"We're going to have a conference call with Ellicottville at eight, let's get together at seven thirty and go over what we know so grab some winks, ok?"

"Call me if you need me." Veronica pulled on Josh's robe, made a k-cup of coffee and stepped out onto the porch barefoot. It was warming up, the snow they got yesterday will be gone by noon, it looks like no white Christmas this year. She sipped her coffee and had a strange thought, here she was feeling sad and lonely because Josh was going to fix a computer, she should be happy. The more he can make their customers happy, the more money she makes, but she's sad, like she's afraid he won't come back... weather like this spawn's black ice and on these winding weaving roads through the southern hills, Josh could end up in the ditch and never get there.

How would she be handling it if this was a few years ago and he was going off to war? Josh's career in the USAF put him on AC-130 gunships for a few years, most of the missions were training missions, but several of them were combat operations and his last mission went very, very badly. She looked up at the thick blanket of clouds that covered the land and tried to imagine what it was like for his first wife Yesenia when he was flying. Did she leave him because she couldn't handle the fear that he wouldn't come back?

Hours dragged on slowly for Veronica as she paced the cabin in solitary silence. She was on her third k-cup when she realized that she probably should have made a pot. Finally it was seven thirty and the conference call was packed, almost every technical wizard in the company and not a few programmers were in on this. Anthony started with a role call and of course Josh wasn't there, nor was Jenn, which wasn't too strange, Josh was notorious for being late for conference calls. He finally logged in over ten minutes late. "And how did you spend your first full day of vacation?" asked Anthony.

"Well, we dug out the cabin and had a simple dinner that couldn't be beat..."

"DON'T YOU DARE!" snarled Veronica which brought gales of laughter from her co-workers.

Don went on to describe his findings and his trouble shooting steps, including the dead ends, the incorrect assumptions, the trouble ridden failed steps and on and on. Veronica is not a technician by any means, but by association with this company she knows the difference between switches and glitches and can tell when something sounds expensive, she's also got a very good memory for issues in the past, unfortunately EUC was running their own equipment and not equipment supplied by Andalon which made integration into their operation model a bit dicey.

It was eight o'clock and time for EUC brass to join and Josh still hadn't come to the end of his report. The head of hospital IT started out by saying "Thank you so much for everything you've done! We've learned so much just from watching Josh and Jenny, I don't know how we can thank you."

Anthony Friedman was stunned; he was expecting a royal ass chewing and was preparing to force Josh to give an estimate on when they'll be back up because he didn't give one yet. While Veronica was treading water with business babble, mousy hellion Terri McCarthy who was sitting in Josh's chair in the meeting room tapped Anthony on the shoulder and showed Anthony her laptop screen. Anthony quickly sent Veronica a text message on Slack.

"I'm sure Mister Gravely has been working quite diligently and will... you've been up since five thirty this morning?!?"

"Yes ma'am," came Josh's aw' shuckin' southern drawl. "It were a bit of a faht, but we got 'er." An email arrived from Josh showing not only troubleshooting work (warranty) but also a long list of billable upsells.

"Thank you for your work, Mister Gravely," came Veronica's terse reply.

"I think she's upset with you for burying the lede," said one of the EUC executives to Josh when they were on mute. "That girl can be a handful; she should be a redhead."

"Tell me about it," groaned Josh.

"Aw, don't worry about it," said the hospital CEO who was acquainted with Veronica and Anthony. "She'll probably take it out on her husband."

"That's what I'm worried about," groaned Josh. Apparently the news of Veronica's wedding reached down here, but the name of her new husband hadn't reached Ellicottville yet.

"You can crash on my couch," offered Jenn as she helped herself to another bagel.

֎ ֎ ֎ ֎ ֎ ֎ ֎ ֎ ֎ ֎

Josh had to drive all the way back to Andalon to make sure that the documentation for the work was completed and the necessary network changes at their end were made. Josh's solution was creative, and it will keep EUC up and running. And now it was time to head home. He looked at his watch and groaned, he's got to get past stadium traffic to get home.

Crap.

"What did I tell you about Starting with the Results?" Veronica didn't sound happy. "There's a way to handle conference calls."

"I thought y'all knew," said Josh as he crept through stadium traffic trying to get home before kickoff. The sky was heavy, it looked like was going to rain heavily. The thermometer in the truck read 40 degrees, but it was 45 degrees just a few minutes ago. "Terri was watching the system stats, she should have seen it."

"You just wanted to be the hero charging in on your white stallion," Veronica retorted.

"I just want to be your hero."

"You already are, now hurry home, but be careful, this weather looks strange."

"Are you wearing that robe?" Josh grinned as Veronica put her phone on speaker.

"She sure is!" called Andi.

"Welllll" said Veronica, "I thought you would be home sooner, and I forgot that they were coming over for the game and now they won't let me change, and they have me serving snacks otherwise they threaten to put pictures on the internet."

"I'll do it too!" Paul called from the background. There was laughing, which included Veronica, so Josh knew that something was up.

"The clouds just opened up," said Josh. The rain was a deluge, his wipers could barely keep up with it.

"You must be near the stadium," said Paul, "we can see it on TV."

"Yeah, I'm trying to get over to the 219," said Josh but he didn't know if they could hear what he said. His Jeep Gladiator had a hard top and the pounding by the rain was deafening. He believed he heard Veronica say, "We have it here too."

The rain only lasted a few minutes, without warning the rain changed to snow. Wet, heavy snow. Huge flakes made of hundreds of smaller snowflakes that were huddled together for safety, spiraling down from the clouds. "JOSH! ARE YOU OK?" Veronica shouted into the phone.

"Yeah, I'm fine why..."

"Oh thank God," gasped Veronica, "It was so loud, then the phone just went silent, I thought you were getting run over or something." She was shaking, her terror was that real.

"I'm OK honey, the rain stopped, now it's snowing. I'm almost on the 219." The 219 is a divided four lane expressway headed straight to where he wanted to be. Even in bad weather the ride will be maybe 45 minutes. Tops. He'll be able to see the second half of the game. Just as he was about to turn onto the on-ramp he saw a semi sliding sideways on the 219. It came to a halt sprawled across his entrance ramp blocking his way onto the expressway.

"I need to find a different route, the 219 is blocked HOLY CRAP!" There was a sudden flash and Josh was blinded for a second and there was a loud KA-BOOM! He wanted to shrivel up and duck - that couldn't have been an incoming round, what the hell was it? He swiveled his head left and right but there was nothing burning or blown apart.

"What was that?" asked Veronica. There was a tinge of panic in her voice.

"I don't know," said Josh as he headed back to Springville on a route that he took Veronica on last year.

"The guy on TV said it was lightning," called out Andi. "It happened just after the kickoff and the fans went crazy!"

"Ridiculous," grumbled Josh, "Lightning doesn't happen during..." As if he were heard by a celestial power with control over the weather, there was a brilliant flash of light and at the same time Josh heard a distinct *Click!* followed almost immediately by the loudest clap of thunder that he ever heard. "Yep, it's lightning. I just had a near miss." Making sure that the truck was in 4 wheel drive Josh headed south on 277 through Chestnut Ridge, the park he took Veronica to on their first date over a year ago. "Hey, it's snowing here in Chestnut Ridge, wanna go tobogganing?"

"No, I want you home safe."

"That's going to be a while honey, it's hard to see and I'm not moving very fast." Josh could barely see; the snow was clogging his windshield wipers making his windshield a wet streaky mess. He could reach out and knock the snow off of the driver side wiper but not on the passenger side, so he kept the defroster on full blast hoping to melt the snow off the wipers.

"This is insane!" said Paul who was concentrating on the game. Of the four friends he's the only native Buffalonian. "You can't see the field markers, they have to stop and clear off the yard lines with shovels. We certainly have a Snow Bowl." It's only been snowing for a couple of minutes, but the field is already covered with several inches of snow.

"Are you recording this?" asked Josh. He's heard of Snow Bowls, but he's never seen one.

"We sure are!"

The road was becoming very slick, the traffic was compressing the snow into what was nearly a sheet of ice. Even with big knobby off-road tires and the drivetrain in four-wheel drive he was having a hard time keeping the front wheels ahead of the rear wheels. "Look folks, I'm going to hang up, I need to concentrate on driving." Another flash of lightning and blast of Thunder accentuated his words.

"Ok, be safe, call if you need anything... holy shit!" Veronica rarely if ever swears, but she just happened to look out the window and saw that the snow that Josh was experiencing had finally reached them, it was like a sheet of white past the porch. Her view of the pond mere yards away was completely obscured by the volume of snow. The world took on a sepia tone of brownish gray from the snow blocking and filtering what sunlight could make it through the clouds.

Andi looked and cried, "Honey! Look!"

Paul reluctantly pried his eyes away from the TV to see the snow cascading from the sky "Oh my god..."

Andi grinned and wrapped herself around him, "It's like the day we met!" and she dragged Paul out onto the patio. "The twins are probably going crazy."

"I need to hear their story," said Veronica to Josh.

"You haven't heard how they met? It's a great story, and it will sound a bit familiar. I really have to go Nica; driving is getting really difficult. Luv ya."

"Love you." Veronica stared at the phone in her hand with the dread that no one would ever call her Nica again. Trying to ease her fear she stepped out onto the porch where Paul and Andi stood clinging to each other watching the snowy deluge from under the cover of the patio roof. Veronica became aware of a hiss; she rubbed her ears, but it was still there. It was everywhere and nowhere at the same time. "What is that sound?"

"That's the sound of heavy snow," said Paul. "Every flake makes a tiny sound when it lands, usually it's so tiny it's impossible to hear. But when you get millions of huge wet and heavy snowflakes, it sounds like this."

"Wow."

Fifteen miles away, Josh was saying "wow" himself, for a different reason. He had forgotten about Herman Hill. Herman Hill was not real steep, but it was long; the road went down the hill and straight into the village of North Boston NY. As the Jeep began to build up speed Josh tapped the brakes gently and all four wheels locked up and the truck started sliding.

A man thinks of strange things when you're heading down a mile of hill and out of control. Things like slamming the transmission into reverse to stop the slide. Paul taught him a few things years ago and slamming the transmission into reverse was first on the list to avoid. First thing to do was to pump the brakes gently, next was to put it in neutral when you're going to apply the brake on a slippery road. Why? Because the transmission is still pushing you forward especially in automatics, but it works for standards too. Paul took the truck out of gear and began gentle brake applications, he also put his right wheels on the shoulder of the road to increase traction in the gravel, but that only worked when he could see the shoulder of the road. These factors slowed him down to a stop, which took a half mile, and he's got another mile to go, and the next mile is steeper.