by Nicole Field
"What?"
"We went camping, Liz and me. I went swimming. Turns out there was some gnarly stuff in that lake. I got infections and things and it was bad for a bit and it could've been way worse. Leg got the worst of it.
He made a sawing motion that had Rebecca wincing.
"He won't always be so incessant with the amputee jokes," Kate told her. "He does it a lot at first to hide how nervous he is."
Grant gave her a look.
"You," Rebecca swallowed. "You don't need to be nervous."
"But you are," Grant said, quiet.
"I'm sorry. It's not, I don't mean to—"
"It's okay." Grant took her hand again, kissed it.
They were quiet a moment. Rebecca could feel everyone watching her, gauging her reaction, trying not to show they were doing it.
"So, while we're on the topic," said Michaela, "you want to know how I got these scars? It's probably a lot at one time, but Grant is uncomfortable about his leg thing not being more badass. You'd be doing him a favor."
Rebecca laughed, tremulously. "Hit me."
"Woodchipper."
Rebecca was almost sure they were being assholes again, but she couldn't be certain, not with Michaela's profession. She tried to put the right tone—a combination of skepticism and sympathy—into her voice. "Seriously?"
"No! Back when I was working for another guy, me and a coworker were screwing around, and I lost my footing. Fell a good ten feet straight into a glass pane. Shattered and cut me up pretty decently."
"Decently," Elizabeth repeated. "You could've lost use of the arm."
"I didn't though," Michaela said, in a way that made Rebecca think she was used to saying it.
"No," said Grant. "We both could've been cyborgs, with his and hers detachable limbs, but it wasn't meant to be."
Rebecca laughed again, mostly because she thought they wanted her to. "So, the pain days—"
"That's not," Grant closed his eyes, ran a rough hand through his hair. "That day with you wasn't typical. It's, like Andy said, it's a new prosthetic. They're working out the kinks and I was, I—"
"He liked you and he knew we liked you," said Elizabeth. "He panicked. He did it with Kate too. He worried the leg would change things if you knew."
Grant stared at her. "Thank you, honey, for clarifying that."
"He did freak out," said Kate. "Thought I wouldn't want to sleep with him because he was missing a leg. Imagine his relief when I said I didn't want to sleep with him because he wasn't missing a dick."
"It wasn't just about sleeping with you," Grant said. "Don't make her think that's all it is."
Kate immediately backtracked and explained that it wasn't about sex, not for any of them. Sex could play a part, if Rebecca wanted, but only if she wanted, but it wasn't something creepy and purely pornographic. Kate went on like this in some detail before Michaela pinched her side and told her to shut up.
"So, you do all sleep together," Rebecca said after they'd all been quiet for a moment.
Elizabeth laughed. "How long have you been wanting to ask that?"
"Since we met at the café," Rebecca admitted.
"Sometimes we do," said Elizabeth. "It's not the easiest thing to do. The kids, you know. And it's exhausting. Fun but exhausting. None of us is built for that."
Michaela scoffed. "Speak for yourself. I could handle everyone every night. The rest of you are just pussies."
Rebecca laughed at that, a little hysterically probably.
"So," Grant said, and then nothing. He was smiling still, but his hands were agitated, twitchy.
Rebecca felt them all, watching her and trying not to. She took a breath. "You shouldn't go with shark attack, you know."
"No? Why not, it's manly."
"Flesh eating piranhas are cooler."
He stared at her a moment, then took her face in his hands, kissed her hard.
"Yes!" He grinned, slamming the fist one of hand into the other. "God yes. I was now attacked by flesh eating piranhas while hiking through the Amazon."
Grant kissed Rebecca's cheek, her forehead, her lips again until she complained about his stubble scratching against her.
"That's what you get for encouraging him," Michaela chided. She was smiling though.
*~*~*
"You don't need me for this," said Rebecca.
"I do, I do, I absolutely need you here tonight. So much," Kate argued.
Kate was slightly drunk. Rebecca was meant to be quizzing her for her finals. They'd done that for a bit before Rebecca realized she'd prepared many, many flashcards for no reason.
"You know this stuff backwards," Rebecca said. She was on the couch with Kate, sipping a drink.
"Mmm. I don't know you backwards though."
"Was that, I'm sorry was that a line, or...?"
Kate took Rebecca's drink, set it next to hers on the table. "Smartass. Smartass with no grasp of language." Kate moved to straddle her.
"Of that language and those ridiculous names, no, not really. Is that why I'm here, so you can laugh at my mispronunciation?"
"Totally. Only reason."
Kate's hands skimmed along Rebecca's torso. Her eyes were bright, mischievous. Rebecca tried not to go too crazy as Kate's weight shifted against her.
"God. My own wife all over another woman in the middle of the living room."
Rebecca flushed as Michaela came down the stairs, but knew Michaela was anything but annoyed.
"I sent our precious angel babies away next door so you could study," Michaela continued, "and this is what I find?"
"This is an entirely better reason to send them away," Kate said, hooking her hands at the back of Rebecca's neck, but looking at her wife. "Hi, baby."
Michaela shook her head and strode forward. "No, nope, I won't be made a fool of in my own house. This stops now."
Rebecca laughed and screamed along with Kate as Kate was lifted off of her, tossed to the cushions. Kate squealed that they should watch the drinks as Michaela dropped herself down next to Rebecca.
"There," she said from between Rebecca and Kate. "You want my wife, you'll have to go through me."
"You are such a Neanderthal," Kate said. She sat up, pushed aside a few books and papers that'd been knocked aside. She crawled across the couch, not as big as the one Grant and Elizabeth had, and kissed Michaela. Then she tried to climb over her and yelled for Rebecca to save her from her 'loveless marriage'. The three of them tussled until one of the drink glasses really did almost break. After that Kate ended up with her head in Michaela's lap, Rebecca on Kate's other side.
"I'm dizzy," Kate whined while Michaela stroked her hair.
"That is because you can't drink worth a damn," Michaela said. "She'll be dead to the world in five minutes."
"I will not."
Michaela didn't even look at her wife. "She will be completely dead, and not even her strongest, most magical coffee drink will make a difference."
"Liar," Kate said, even as she rested more comfortably in her lap.
Michaela's free arm, the one with the tattoo, settled over Rebecca's shoulders. Rebecca sank into her. She didn't move very much for a while, only sitting forward sometimes to sip her drink. She felt warm and tired from the earlier absurdity but was also buzzed; the vibrant colors of Michaela's ink drawing her eyes even more than usual. She moved enough to trace her fingers over the body art, the scars it didn't quite conceal. Normally she'd ask first, despite Michaela saying she didn't have to. The alcohol and the endorphins stilled her tongue.
The tattoo was massive, went all down Michaela's back, which Rebecca had only recently discovered. The intricacies of it still fascinated her, the small details. The stars, the differences of the planets. The scarring that could almost pass for another little detail of that galaxy. Rebecca kissed one of the jagged lines, another.
She heard and felt Michaela hitch in a breath.
"Tickles."
Rebecca pulled back a bit, saw Kate's eyes were c
losed. "Stop?"
"Not if you don't want to."
Rebecca didn't want to. She mapped the arm with her lips, her fingers and felt strong muscle underneath. Sometimes Michaela would sigh, shiver, but beyond that it was quiet.
Quiet tended to make Rebecca thoughtful, at least when alcohol was involved. She studied Michaela's tattoo and her mind wandered down a hazy path about space and the universe and balance, things coming and going.
"You're frowning," Michaela said, kissing her forehead.
"Sorry."
"Not what I was looking for. What's up?"
Rebecca thought about telling her all the vague, half-formed space stuff, about things getting pulled into the orbit of other things. "You guys are really balanced."
"Balanced?" Michaela sounded amused, but her eyes were serious enough.
"The four of you, what you have now. It's really good."
"It is," Michaela acknowledged, quiet. "Is it just the four of us?"
"No. I don't think so. I'm just, I don't exactly know where I fit sometimes. Long term."
"Ah. Is this the part where you finally panic over having joined a harem?" The corner of Michaela's lip drew up in a smile, but her eyes were warm with sympathy
"A little."
"Are you a sad drunk?"
Rebecca considered it. "Not sad. Contemplative. I like even numbers."
"What?" Michaela laughed, stopped herself when Kate shifted on the couch.
"Two and two's a good number. You're all married, paired up in a way that's easy to explain. It's like an equation that's already balanced."
Michaela was quiet, but only briefly. "C'mere."
Rebecca had no objection to that, moving to rest against Michaela's side. Michaela's arm covered her again, warm and strong.
"Are you happy here?" she asked.
"Yes," Rebecca said without having to consider it, holding onto Michaela.
"And there's more than one way to solve a math problem, right?"
"Mostly, yeah."
"Okay. So, we rebalance the equation. Carry the three, solve for X, square the divisor of the exponent."
"I can absolutely see now why you couldn't teach Andy math," Rebecca said, and got pinched for it.
"It's good I couldn't." Michaela looked at her, kissed her. "It really is, cause this way we found you. You still think this is good?"
"I do."
"Then we'll figure it out. Okay?"
"Okay," Rebecca said, snuggling more comfortably into Michaela's side.
*~*~*
"Becca!" Andy ran up to her in his swim trunks. "I finished second grade!"
"I know, buddy, that's amazing!"
Rebecca sat up in the chair placed back from the Jones's pool, hugged him. It was a celebration on multiple fronts. The first pool outing of summer, Andy completing second grade—he'd finished with a B minus in math—and Kate killing it on her finals, though that surprised no one.
"I'm so proud of you," said Rebecca.
Andy nodded. "I'm a shark."
"You are?"
"Yup. I'm going to eat Ellie."
Ellie was on the shallow end of the pool, sporting water wings and giggling as she played with Kate. Elizabeth was near the middle, her legs dangling over the side of a small innertube. Michaela was with Tyler, making noises she claimed came from a submarine as she towed him around on her back. She paused in this to address Andy.
"If you could not eat your sister, that would be amazing."
"I finished my school!" he argued, indignant.
"And I am very, very proud of you, but you can't eat your baby sister, pal. Sorry."
"Kate said that you were going to eat her later."
Elizabeth could be heard snorting back a laugh.
Kate hefted Ellie into her arms. "I did say that, Andy, but you know you weren't supposed to hear it, so that means it didn't happen."
"But—"
Grant came from inside. He wore swim trunks but hadn't put them to use. Some of the metal of his prosthetic glinted in the sun. "Hey buddy, you know what? You're not a shark."
"I'm not?"
"Nope," he said, approaching Andy and Rebecca. "You are a big, hungry, flesh eating piranha! Piranhas are so much more badass."
He bent to tickle Andy, pretended to snarl and bite at him. When Andy was properly worked up, he screamed "I'm badass!" before cannonballing into the pool and making for Kate and Ellie.
"Yeah," Michaela drawled, "killer fish is so much better than killer shark. Thanks for that."
"Thanks for not inviting me to your dinner with Kate. Rude person."
Michaela rolled her eyes. She and Tyler pretended to fire missiles at Andy.
"So." Grant sat on the edge of Rebecca's lounge chair. "Not jumping in?"
"Nah." Rebecca had dug up her bikini, but it remained dry and the bottom half was covered by loose shorts. "I'm good here."
"No fun."
"Pot, kettle." She was just now starting to get the hang of the way the banter around here went, she thought.
It'd taken time for him to wear shorts around her, let her see the leg. The trunks he wore now seemed only for show, and he still had a t-shirt.
"Cyborg bits don't do well in water," he told her, by way of explanation.
She'd figured that much, but she'd also heard Elizabeth say he still swam. "Sure, but do you have like a," she gestured at the leg, "a waterproof version?" She'd seen athletes with those.
"Do they make them, yes. Do I have one, no. Expensive as hell and insurance says they're 'non-essential'." He shrugged. "With this hotel contract, maybe Michaela will get me one for my birthday if I'm a good boy."
Rebecca thought about pressing it, chose not to for now. "So, summer vacation, huh?"
He smiled at her. "Yeah, that's a thing."
"I guess Andy's done with tutoring."
Grant looked at her, looked at Andy being chased by Michaela while Ellie giggled hysterically. He looked back at her. "Don't know. Summer sessions would be good, don't you think, so he doesn't forget everything?"
"If that's what you think."
Grant cupped her face. "I think you are going to be in a lot of trouble if you try ditching us just because school's out."
The knot in Rebecca's stomach loosened. "Well, I wouldn't want that."
"No, you wouldn't. You got plans for the Fourth of July?"
"I hadn't thought about it yet."
"Good. You can come here. I can't do fireworks anymore, Elizabeth has this stupid idea I'm going to blow off a limb, but—"
She punched his arm.
"You need to be in that pool," he said, eyeing her critically. "How are you not roasting?"
"How are you not?"
"Baby, you know me, I'm always this hot. It's a curse, but I cope." He did something that Kate called his Abercrombie and Fitch face.
Rebecca scoffed openly. "You should get in there. I know you swim."
"Yeah, that's…" Grant combed at his hair, looked away from her and didn't explain what it was.
Rebecca understood suddenly. "You don't wear it."
He tapped at his leg. "Not for that, no."
"Okay, so, don't wear it."
"Becc."
She'd never seen him without the leg. Of course he was worried about what her reaction would be. "It'll be fine."
"Rebecca…"
She cupped his face in both hands. "Trust me. Please?"
"I do."
"Okay, so." She kissed him.
"I don't want things to be awkward between us."
"I've felt up your wife. Wouldn't that make things awkward, if they were going to be?"
He grumbled at that.
"If you take your leg off now, I might take my bikini top off later."
"Huh." Grant made a show of hesitating for only a moment, then pulled his shirt over his head. "Give me a little help."
She followed him to the edge of the pool, watched him take the leg off. She took it from him when he had, moved
it so the electronics wouldn't get wet. The stump drew her eye, she couldn't say it didn't, and he knew she was watching him.
She'd wondered how he would be in the water, but he was easily a better swimmer than she was, gliding around the pool like it was nothing.
"You happy now?" he called. Ellie had moved into his arms, going crazy as soon as she saw him splash in.
"Extremely."
"Okay. We had a deal, Teach, don't you dare forget it."
She watched him swim, dangled her feet in the water when Tyler paddled over to hang out at the edge with her and show how long he could hold his breath. Ellie got fussy eventually, having accidentally been splashed too hard by one of the boys. Elizabeth and Kate took her inside while Michaela took each boy by the hand as they argued over who had upset the baby.
Grant and Rebecca were left by themselves; he in the water, she back to sunning in her chair.
"Hey, Becc?" he called.
"I said later, Grant."
"Not that." He swam closer to the edge of the pool. "Give me a hand up, will you?"
Rebecca eyed him.
"Yes, I need a leg too, but I need out of here first."
Rebecca frowned, kept still.
"For God's sake. You want me to drown in here, is that what you want? I'm getting tired. You want to be in the news for letting the one-legged man drown in the shallow end of the pool? They'll call you a monster, Becc."
Rebecca rolled her eyes and stood, went to him. "Shouldn't we get Michaela? She's stronger."
"Nope, you and I got this. You'll do just fine, promise."
He held out his hand. She bent. At the same time, she heard the patio door open.
"Shit. Becc, don't, he's going to—!"
Elizabeth's voice came just before Rebecca was pulled into the pool.
*~*~*
"Your couch sucks," Grant stated. "You need a bigger couch."
They were a mess of wet, half-dressed bodies and towels, dripping all over the leather of the aforementioned couch at Michaela and Kate's house. Rebecca was laid out on top of Elizabeth, with Elizabeth running fingers through her messy, chlorine-tangled hair. Michaela was next to Grant, head on his shoulder, and Kate was half on top of both of them.
"It's my mother's couch," said Michaela. "She'd be crushed if we didn't use it."
"I'm being crushed under the weight of all of you. No offense, Becca," Elizabeth said, kissing her forehead.