Twins

"But why not just go around the shoreline?"

"Oh, baby, I would love to, but time's against us. Remember that, most of the time, the quickest way between two points is a straight line."

By now I had put together a rough A frame and, using some of my spare rope, I made myself a makeshift harness for the front. I'm not stupid; I knew what I was asking of myself, and the condition I was going to be in when I got this done. I ringed the area we were going to be in on the map and wrote the grid reference next to the circle.

I then handed Karen the map and told her never to lose it. The Forest Rangers would ask her questions, and I had written on the map everything they needed to know. She looked at it to confirm what I had said and then nodded. The map was folded and shoved into her inside pocket before the zipper went up, sealing it securely.

Taking only what we needed out of our packs, I then pulled Stacey onto the frame before once again looking at Karen.

"You need to walk alongside her. When she wakes up she needs to see you. Hold her hand and tell her everything is going to be all right."

For the first time Karen looked long and hard at me.

"And is it, Andy? Is my sister going to be all right?"

The tears increased with every second as I pondered an answer to her question.

"Let's get her to the other side of that little hill, Karen, and into the arms of the Forest Rangers. As to the true answer to your question, I just don't know, but I'm doing my best to keep her alive with what I know and have. That you have to believe."

She knew I wasn't lying to her, so she just nodded and took a step back to be closer to her sister. I lifted the frame, pulled my makeshift harness as tight as I dared, and started walking up that damned ridge.

I heard nothing behind me. My concentration was totally focused on getting to the top of this fucking ridge and down to the shoreline on the other side. I do remember at one stage that I was on all fours, with my lungs threatening to burst in my chest, but at least I could see that shoreline now. The one thing that kept me going was love. I loved both these women with all of my heart and, just like Karen's, that heart was breaking because one was hurt and I couldn't do anything other than this to keep her alive.

That realization set a new resolve in me. She wasn't going to die on my watch! I was going to marry both of them, have all sorts of strange monkey sex with them, and love them until we were old and grey. They loved me and told me oh so many times: I had to step up to the plate and prove my love for both of them. With strength I never knew I had I just kept putting one foot in front of the other, remembering to go down the other side of the ridge at an angle or I would lose control of the stretcher.

When we cleared the trees and my boot touched sand, my body simply stopped working and I fell to my knees. A hand lifted my head and water cascaded over my face, and all I could do was wheeze like an old man who had just run a marathon.

"I have a signal now, Andy!"

Pulling a package from my pants pocket and handing it to Karen as she talked to the Park Rangers, I fell forward. I was leaving Karen on her own and couldn't help her any longer. The roadside flares would help her attract attention when the Rangers came. I just prayed she didn't use them all at once, and then I lost consciousness.

*******

Karen and I would alternate visits to the hospital. She had already contacted her folks, but the cruise ship didn't dock for another day yet, and even then it was going to be an island hopper before they could get to anything that resembled an international airport. The doctors avoided the hard questions, leaving us both with our own "what if" scenarios and prayers. Karen had left an hour ago; she was exhausted and needed to rest, so she went back to the hotel down the street to crash.

Her hand slid into mine on the bed, and that tingling feeling was as strong now as it was the day we first met. She was smiling at me.

"I'm not afraid to admit it now, Andy. It's like a tickle that sits on the back of my neck when I touch you."

For just a moment I almost admitted to the same thing, although mine was the stomach area, which I just found odd. As my fingers closed around hers she gently pulled her hand away, resting it just inches from mine.

"I can't, Andy. I already felt my pussy getting wet just from that small touch."

We giggled like school kids before her eyes watered and she started to cough, taking a moment to regain some semblance of normality. I was willing to wait, but I suspected her pride didn't want me to see her like this. If it was at all possible, I just loved her a little more because of it.

"I can't blackmail you, Andy. Hell, between us we tried everything else, so I'm reduced to begging you. I know you will look after my sister as I know you would have me, and that's what I need her husband to do, Andy."

A smaller cough interrupted her this time, and I used a tissue to wipe her mouth.

"You're not settling for second best, Andy; I wouldn't do that to you. Marry my sister and look after her for me, please. She's all me, Andy. She loves you just as much as I do. Hell, if I didn't have this shit going on in my life I would have insisted that we came as a package deal, so marry her, Andy - please!"

It was my eyes' turn to water up. The doctors had given her just days to live, yet she was spending precious time marrying her own sister off to me. Suddenly, with a fierceness of movement that was so out of character for her, she grabbed my hand tightly, forcing my shocked eyes to look directly at her.

"Marry her, Andy! Marry and love her as I know you would me, and I promise you a gift that will come from my heart."

I didn't get to answer her, as the strain of her last plea caused all the machines in the room to go off at once, and doctors and nurses dashed into the room. A male nurse practically picked me up out of the chair and "helped" me out of the room as one doctor at the center of all the activity started shouting orders.

Scattered words such as "flat-line" and "stand clear," long needles being stabbed into her chest, and then those same words were repeated twice more. Even then, my mind was willing the machines to bring back that incessant pinging noise. Eventually even the organized chaos in the room came to an end, and the nurses and doctors filed out. None would make eye contact and, as the room finally became quiet, one of the orderlies closed the door and stood with his back to it.

The ordered part of my brain sought my cell phone; the more coherent part dialed her number and, as the line connected and a ringing sound could be heard, bile came to my throat. I swallowed a couple of times before my body took pity on me and my stomach settle down. As the ring tone ceased, and Karen's voice replaced it, my mind forced my lips apart and I uttered the words neither of us wanted to hear.

*******

Karen came down the corridor at a run; the look on my face must have said more than even I realized. She let out a scream that must have echoed around the whole hospital before crumpling to the floor. I carried her over to the seats and she just molded herself against my body, her heartbreaking sobs being interrupted only by her need to breathe. By the time a nurse had located the doctor, Karen had grabbed some self-control back, but her eyes were all puffy and tears still poured down her cheeks. Occasionally she would wipe away the tears, but sometimes she was so deep in her own thoughts that I wiped them away for her.

I sensed the start of something different in the attitude of the doctors and nurses on this floor when one of the nurses assisted Karen off the seat and took her to Stacey's room so she could say her last goodbye before the journey downstairs to the morgue. Professor Marshall and his wife arrived while Karen was away; we sat together, but said nothing after the Professor introduced Trisha to me. She held my hand for a while, but soon retracted it when the nurse brought Karen back.

"We're taking her with us, Andy. Her folks want her with family and, since my wife is the closest to family, they agreed."

His hand rested on my shoulder. I'm not sure if it was a gesture of condolence, or to simply make sure I stayed there. Karen was in no fit state to object. In fact, judging by the vacant look in her eyes, I would have been surprised if she even knew her own name by the time Professor Marshall and Trisha each took an arm and helped her out the hospital.

I stayed for a while longer, but it became obvious that they wanted me gone so they could move Stacey's body without me watching them. The finality of the whole thing became apparent, even to me. So I stood, took one last look at the door I knew hid Stacey's body, then drew in a deep breath and made it last until the elevators before I needed to expel it.

*******

From the time of Stacey's death the hospital quickly returned to their comfort zone: the rules. Hospital rules stated that I wasn't "family." They also stated that, as such, no information could be given out to the general public without specific permission from the family. Mr. and Mrs. Carmichael sent people to collect their daughter from the hospital morgue two days later. Poor Karen went home to Fairfax with Professor Marshall and his wife the day after they came for her at the hospital, and I couldn't blame her.

Professor Marshall did speak to the Dean, and between those two and the college counselor I was placed on compassionate leave. Sounds fine and outstanding, doesn't it? Well, it wasn't. I had never been so humiliated in my short life, despite my plea to stay and continue with my classes. The Dean called my folks and, although he used a more polite term for it, I was effectively removed from campus.

I read about the funeral on-line. The Fairfax Times obituaries column was impressive, and so was the side story about the funeral. Stacey was well thought of, that was for sure. They even had to close their old high school for the day so most of the teachers and students could attend. I got drunk that night. My folks knew and turned a blind eye, hoping that I didn't drop totally off the edge.

Waking up the next morning soon put a stop to that thought. How can a room go round and round when you're lying on your bed staring up at the ceiling, and in broad daylight at that? If anything can defy the laws of physics, it's waking up to that while nursing a hangover.

When I regained some semblance of balance (much later that day, I assure you), I promised, and have upheld, that vow of "never again." I apologized to my folks for not only letting them see me like that, but for even doing it in the first place. The relief on my parents' faces spoke volumes and, if nothing else, it became a wake-up call to me as well. It was time to stop hurting those people close to me.

I needed to purge my system, and the quickest way was going to hurt the most: finding my running gear in my bag and telling my folks I was going for a run. I was sick twice on the way around the park, but made it back to the house determined to put the last eighteen months behind me.

Then I stumbled over the suitcase that stood five paces inside the door of my parents' house.

I recognized her perfume while I was still getting up, my eyes following her body the rest of the way. She was crying when our eyes met.

"I'm sorry, Andy."

What was left of my heart broke right about then. "I can't do this, Karen."

My legs felt too weak to support my weight and I fell to my knees, crying like a baby. Karen followed me to the floor and cried right along with me. For days now I had felt like all I was doing was arranging deckchairs on the Titanic, and now I was clinging to this woman like she was my only life preserver and I daren't let go.

My mind, in the hope of staving off insanity, did a reset, and my world went dark.

*******

I eventually woke, and focused on the blonde hair. She was in my bed with me, and my body just made me lie there, saying and doing nothing, and yet smelling her with every breath I took. Karen folded back the covers and walked to the bathroom in a pair of my old pajamas. When she returned, the fact that she was naked inside them was confirmed by the jiggle of her tits and a glimpse of her blonde bush through the opening of the pajama bottoms.

When she spotted me awake she smiled, and I sensed that she was having to fight the urge to run back to me. She shuffled onto the bed, sat cross-legged facing me, and waited me out. Karen obviously still didn't really comprehend the difference between men's and women's pajamas. The view left absolutely nothing at all to the imagination.

"My folks didn't know, Andy. You may not believe that but it's true. I was in no fit state to tell them and, by the time of the funeral, it was too late. It took Professor Marshall sitting them down and telling them, Andy. Even then they didn't believe it until they talked to me."

Karen started to fidget, the confrontation with her folks clearly still fresh in her mind.

"By the time Professor Marshall and I were done, they realized their mistake. They can't take it back, Andy; as much as they may want to, they just can't. Shutting you out wasn't intentional, Andy; they just didn't know what we were doing."

I think by now she had figured out what was holding my attention. When I caught on to the silence my eyes finally drifted to hers. Karen's cheeks may have been a little red, but not all that much.

"We've slept naked since we were ten, Andy. I simply don't own nightwear. Your mom gave me these when I told her what I wanted to do, and that I didn't pack any."

She pulled the top tighter to her for comfort; to me it merely emphasized her chest even more.

"You've been out for two days now. We knew most of that was exhaustion, but we kept the doctor's number on speed dial just in case."

This time she leaned down, her hands holding my head as she did. The top of her pajamas dropped with the added weight of her tits, and I got to see her chest and freckles for a full second before her lips touched mine. That mental life preserver sure felt comfortable with her in my arms and, as her mouth parted from mine, her tongue quickly flicked across my lips. It was perhaps the most sexually charged moment I had encountered in my life.

"I'm not getting naked for you, Andy; please don't ask me to. I'm not sorry for what you've seen so far but, since I don't own nightwear, I can hardly be blamed for all the skin you're seeing."

For the oddest of reasons my mind wandered back to the moment I first met the twins, while sitting under the tree, and of course the put-down of our middle linebacker Martin Sorenson.

It was then I smiled and said, "I've not got that twelve inch dick, huh?"

For a moment confusion reigned inside Karen's head, and then she had that light-bulb moment and the most mischievous smile came over her.

"Who do you think has been giving you bed-baths for the last two days, big boy?"

I blushed. She just went on as though she hadn't noticed.

"I've sat astride you when it got hard, and I've worked out how far that's going to go inside me. I would say you're a perfect fit."

Perhaps I was supposed to be shocked by her honesty, but this was Karen talking, and stuff like this came out of her mouth all the time.

"So you took advantage of me?"

Her eyes were alive as though she was once again re-living that specific moment in her mind. She smiled before saying, "I didn't have a tape-measure handy, and I want you awake when you make love to me. Add to that a heavy dose of women's curiosity and there you have it."

For a moment Karen fought the need to say anything more, but to deny doing that wouldn't have been Karen. Something wasn't sitting right in her thoughts, so she just had to say it.

"We were going to be a package deal, Andy. Wife 1 and 1a; there was never going to be a second wife in our marriage."

This time we both held on for the ride as another wave of emotions tore through both of us. Occasionally one would kiss the other's cheek, but it was the closeness that comforted us both.

Eventually mom figured us out and, with a light knock on the door, said, "I know you're both awake, so come down and get something to eat."

I gave Karen my dressing gown, since she was the one flashing so much. It also seemed mom now had a daughter. Watching the interaction between Karen and my mom sure made it look that way: all I was waiting for was for one to finish the other's sentence and that would have sealed my belief. It was weird watching them move around the kitchen as though every motion had somehow been choreographed between them. Dad watched for a while, shook his head, and went and hid in his man cave.

When we ate we did so as a family, at the table. It must have been an odd sight if anyone had come to the door that evening, but the unbroken conversation between us just carried away any awkwardness with it. The phone did ring while dad and I were moving the dishes and stacking them into the washer. Mom handed the phone to Karen and she went off into the living room for some privacy to, I assume, talk to her folks.

We all stuck to the kitchen while Karen was on the phone. When she came back she placed it on the cradle and we all gravitated back into the living room. Karen waited for me to sit before she sat next to me, pulled her legs onto the couch, and rested her very warm body against mine. It was clear by her mannerisms that she had something to say, but at least she waited until we all got comfortable before she spoke.

"It's finals year, Andy, and we both need to get back to school. Dad wants to know now if I'm staying at the sorority or moving in with you, so that he can sort out accommodation."

My confusion must have reminded her that I hadn't been around for the initial conversation.

"Although the sorority has said I'm welcome back any time, I just can't, Andy. They even offered a change of room for me, but all I will see is Stacey, and I just can't at the moment."

I was slightly surprised by this but, after all, the twins had been at college for two years now. Perhaps my mind was just taking things too literally, but surely Stacey's presence would be in more places than just the sorority house. Karen must have read my thoughts, because she smiled and explained that it was either the sorority house or leave college. She wasn't about to waste those years. Stacey wouldn't have wanted that.

Karen clearly had more to add. She just wanted an answer to her first statement before she proceeded. She was right: we did need to get back, so I nodded and told her that, if we were going to keep her math scores up, then sharing would be a better idea. For a second I did wonder if I was making the right decision, but seeing the smile from her at my answer let me know I had. However I was also being a pragmatist. Karen couldn't afford to let her grades slip. If she saw that happen it would become self-perpetuating and the last months' efforts would all come undone.

Her face was neutral when she continued. "One bedroom or two? But remember, Andy, if you choose one bedroom we're going to be seeing a lot of each other naked, but bits of you are not getting into bits of me until our wedding night. It was Stacey who was supposed to take care of that part of you until then."

Mom looked on with genuine pride in her new daughter's willingness to admit she was a virgin.

"One will be fine. We both need the company, more so when the memories come rushing back."

This time it was Karen's smile that lit up the room. Surprisingly, I even got a hug out of the deal as well. It was then something changed in Karen, and I just knew this could well be a "clear the room" moment.