Intuition

by Jennis Slaughter

  Grinning broadly, Kasey nudged her boss. “Take a look at it. I think that you’ll like it.”

  “I’m sure I would, but why the hell is it sitting in our holding cells? And where is Collins?” Delaney asked, confused, taking a few steps closer to the bike. It was a damned nice bike to be sure.

  “Look at it Delaney...jeeze, I guess that everyone’s right about blondes.” Kasey shook her head.

  Ignoring the remark Delaney stepped into the cell and grinned broadly as soon as she saw gas tank. It was a custom paint job and the logo for the Bewitched show sat proudly on the tank, only instead of the usual witchy heroine, there was a picture of her wife sitting atop a broom with the pointy black hat and cape. She laughed when she ran the fingers over the words above and below the picture.

  “Witchy Woman,” she chuckled aloud. “Guys, I think it’s safe to say that I am the luckiest woman on this green Earth. That and I am married to the sneakiest woman on this Earth,” she laughed, whistling appreciatively as she took in the engine block.

  Douglas nodded his head and agreed. “You got that right Boss. So, are you gonna crank it up so we can hear what it sounds like?”

  “Not in here. Look at this muffler set up, we’d be cleaning up all the glass from the windows for weeks.” Del laughed, running her fingers over the Harley Davidson script on either side of the tank. “This engine is a beast. This thing can pump out about 125 horsepower,” the blonde said, still a little in awe. “How the hell did you guys manage to get this in here?”

  “The bike guys are in the basement with Carmen. They maneuvered it right in.” Kasey motioned for Michaels to go get them. “They got you a couple of helmets for you too. Said that whenever you came up with a design, they’d do the paint job for ya.”

  “This is… you know I’m not even sure what to make of this. I didn’t see this coming at all,” Del said quietly. She grinned when she noticed a key detail. “Kasey, I’m pretty sure I married the most amazing woman ever. See right here?” she said pointing to an area near the seat. “She even had the seat lowered so I wouldn’t have to stretch to touch the ground.”

  Standing close to the blonde, Kasey murmured loud enough for only Delaney to hear. “She adores you, Del. She will do anything in the world for you.”

  “I know, I’d do the same for her any day,” she was quiet a moment before she continued. “I need to come up with a plan to show her just how much I love this, and her.”

  ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

  Del roared up to the Nook, her whole body thrumming with excitement. It was a short drive from the department, but it was just enough to get her itching for a longer cruise. The bike rumbled deep and low and shook windows around her, and she couldn’t wait to hit a highway and put the powerhouse of an engine through its paces.

  Throwing down the kickstand she pulled off her helmet and headed inside. She spotted Raelin with a customer and waited leaning against a nearby bookshelf until she was finished. Once her wife was alone she watched a second more before speaking up. “You are the most amazing woman on this planet, and I’m not quite sure what I did to deserve you,” Del said with a full grin.

  “You loved me. Plain and simple. I take it that you like your surprise.” Raelin grinned from behind the counter.

  “Like it? Raelin, this is the single most amazing thing anyone has ever done for me. How did you even come up with this?” she asked, nearly in awe as she approached her wife. “I mean, it’s an amazing machine.”

  Smiling at the look on her wife’s face, Raelin answered her. “I wanted to give you something that you would never give yourself, and I saw you drooling over the website a few months ago, so I called them up to have one made, just for you.”

  “Wow, I’m not even sure what to say. Thank you just doesn’t seem like enough.” Del gave Raelin a huge grin. “We should take it to Canal City tonight if we go. It has a passenger seat. I mean, my God Raelin, I only drove here from the department, and you just could feel the bike wanting to take off. It was like riding a horse that wants to run; you could feel it just itching for a good stretch of highway. That engine is over 1200 cc, Harley’s biggest yet, and cranks out about 125 horsepower. And the paint job? Brilliant. I love it so much,” Del rambled looking out the window at the bike, sitting at the curb in all its glory.

  Looking over to see Ariel sitting quietly at one of the tables over in the tearoom side Raelin came from behind the counter and stood next to the blonde. “What don’t you take your lunch hour and have a run? Use the back roads if you want. There’s one running from here to Canal City behind our house that has no stop signs for almost ten miles.”

  “Really?” Del asked, her face lighting up in childlike glee. “How do I get to it?”

  “Go straight out of town and turn up the road towards the house. About a mile behind it there it is. I would have shown you earlier, but every time we’ve headed over there it seems like we’re leaving from here and it’s just simpler.” Nodding her head towards the bike Raelin grinned. “Go on...get out of here. I’ll see you tonight.”

  Not caring who saw her Del grabbed Raelin’s face with her hands and pulled her down for a hungry but quick kiss. “I love you. Not just because you bought me a Harley, but just because you’re you, and you’re mine,” she whispered, pressing their foreheads together.

  “I love you too Babe. Now go have fun.” Raelin caressed the blonde’s face for a moment before she shooed her out of the store.

  ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

  Delaney laughed inside the confines of her full faced helmet as she ripped through the back roads towards Canal City. She’d been right about the engine cranking out the horsepower, but it didn’t feel awkward or heavy. Just the opposite, it ran velvety smooth underneath her and her entire body hummed with the adrenaline as it surged through her veins. Corners were a rush despite the bike’s size, it handled like a dream and the transmission shifted as smooth as silk. Oh, her girl was good that was for sure. Grinning, she settled in to enjoy the rest of her lunch hour.

  ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

  Delaney took a deep breath as she looked herself over in the mirror. Her normally straight blonde hair was holding a gentle curl and pulled down over one shoulder and she’d actually applied a light application of makeup. Nothing heavy just enough to make her eyes pop a little. She tugged a little at the fabric of her dress surprised that she still had it. The black fabric was light and breezy as it fell over her legs, ending in an asymmetrical hem but she was more nervous about the top. It had thin straps up over her shoulders but dipped low in the front, hugging her curves tightly. A simple pendant sat in the dip between her breasts and she chewed her lip nervously but decided she wasn’t going to get any better than what she was.

  Letting out a long breath she headed for the stairs knowing Raelin had already finished getting ready ages ago. She stumbled at the bottom of the stairs as she got her first glimpse of her wife, her jaw dropping at the sight.

  Raelin had opted for crisp white shirt-dress that flirted with her mid-thigh. The short sleeves had a wide cuff and sported a collar and a loose belt around her middle. It gave the impression of her wearing a comfortable men’s polo with flair of formal sophistication and Raelin pulled it off gorgeously. The white fabric made Raelin’s bronze skin glow. Her eyes, deep brown eyes accented by loose tendrils of hair where she’d pulled it back off her face and Del had never seen anything more beautiful in her life.

  Raelin was giving Kai their cell phone numbers when she caught sight of her wife and she stopped talking and her mouth was left hanging slightly open.

  Kai looked over to see Delaney had almost the same expression on her face as Raelin. “Okay...If you guys want I can just take Ariel to Jenny’s and you can stay here.”

  “No, we’re good,” she answered, her eyes never leaving Raelin. She finished the final step and approached her wife. “You look amazing,” she breathed.

  Raelin didn’t even try to speak; instead she let exactly what she was feeling flow through t
heir link and shine out through her eyes.

  Del had to struggle to hold back the whimper when she felt Raelin’s want and need over their link. “Yeah… Kai, do you have everything you need? I already told you about the strawberries and her EpiPen right?” Del asked the younger Spaulding, trying to distract herself from the near overwhelming desire to throw her wife down and ravage her.

  “Yeah, we’re going to be fine. I can always call Kase or Jenn if I really need something. You two have a great time,” the younger Spaulding smirked.

  “Thanks again for doing this for us,” Del said sincerely grabbing the keys off the hook next to the door. “You driving or am I?” She asked Raelin.

  “Oh, you are driving..,” Raelin murmured as she watched the blonde walk out to the car. That dress did more things to the witch than should be humanly possible. Biting her lip, she imagined what the blonde was wearing or not, underneath.

  Del smiled and opened the passenger side door for Raelin. “Well then, your chariot awaits,” she said with a flourish.

  Letting a finger follow the curve of her wife’s breast, Raelin softly asked, “Does that mean that I can ride you later?”

  “I’d be disappointed if you didn’t,” Del breathed stealing a kiss and closing the door once Raelin was settled in. She took the opportunity to try to even out as she got into her own seat and started the car. “Now, where to?” she asked pulling them out of the driveway and turning towards Canal City.

  “I hear that there’s a new Indian restaurant that has been getting raves. I think that it’s called the Taj,” the witch suggested.

  “Sounds good to me. This was a good idea. We haven’t really gone out like this in a while.” Del smiled as she drove. “You really do look good in that dress you know.”

  “Thank you, but you look amazing. I didn’t even know that you owned a dress. You should wear them more often.” Raelin’s light colored eyes revealed her feelings.

  “I forgot it was in there, to be honest. You just want me to wear them more often because you like imagining what I’m not wearing underneath it. I see that look in your eyes.” She grinned.

  “You can see my eyes, but would you like to see what I am thinking about?” The witch thought to her wife.

  “See what you are thinking about?” Del thought back. “Oh! We just did it again. How come we never tried this before?”

  “I have no idea, but we need to test it sometime for distance.” Raelin thought back.

  “Yes. Can you do this kind of thing with everyone?” Del asked as she drove.

  “No, not that I am aware with. If you want my honest opinion, I think that it’s only because we are meant to be together, and because my Goddess has allowed it.” Raelin turned slightly in her seat so that she was almost facing the blonde.

  Smiling Del reached over and squeezed Raelin’s hand. “Your Goddess has been good to us, it seems. Oh, that reminds me; I meant to ask you about this earlier. The other day you asked me to think about something that made me have an emotional reaction, and Ariel picked it up. What did it mean?” she asked.

  “When people are angry, sad or I’m guessing scared, Ariel can hear what they are thinking. I have to assume that it also happens with all emotions.” The brunette ran her thumb over her wife knuckles.

  “So she picks up the thoughts whenever there is a strong emotion involved. You think that is the limit of her abilities or only because she isn’t strong enough to pick up all thoughts?” Del asked.

  Shaking her head, Raelin sighed. “I don’t know. I’m learning this as I go. Her abilities may grow with age or they may disappear completely. She told me the only way that she can block the voices is to suck her thumb, so what I’d like to do first is to get her to be able to block them without doing that. She’s getting to be too old to do that in public.” She didn’t want the little girl teased any more than she already was.

  “So that’s why she hides behind her thumbs so much. I asked her about it one time and Jessie said she didn’t actually start doing that until recently.”

  Raelin frowned. “How recently?”

  “Probably a month before I came to Leroy. I asked because she was never one to suck her thumb. Ariel wouldn’t tell me a thing about it and Jessie had no idea why she started,” Delaney answered.

  “Did anything special happen during that time?”

  “She got sick. We nearly lost her. It was a cold that ended up turning into pneumonia. Took her a while to get over it and even now Ariel is terrified of hospitals and doctors. She’ll have an anxiety attack if you take her to either and you aren’t careful about it. It’s bad enough that sometimes Jessie has to give her something to sedate her,” Del said sadly her fingers gripping Raelin’s a little tighter.

  Raelin pushed calming thoughts at her wife, and brought her hand up to her lips for a kiss. “She’s fine now, but how did she get sick? Was there something dramatic? Something else?”

  “Um, not that I know of. One of the kids at her preschool sprayed her with a hose while they were playing outside and that’s how she got the cold. Why, you think that’s the reason she can do these things?”

  “I’m sorry that I’m asking all these questions, but do you know why the child sprayed her? I know that they tease her at school?” This wasn’t what Raelin thought that she would hear.

  “I have no idea. Did Ariel say they tease her? Jessie’s been trying to get her to open up about it but we can never get anything out of her,” Del said. “She just says she wants to play alone anyway and that’s usually the best we can do.”

  “Yes, they tease her, and when they get mad, she can hear the names that they call her. She’s looking forward to going to a different school next year.” Raelin hoped that she wasn’t speaking out of turn, even though Ariel was just a child, she had told the witch the happenings in confidence.

  “Jessie’s planning on getting her into a local private school. She assumed that Ariel didn’t like the other kids because she’s a bit ahead of them, she was hoping that putting her in a school with other kids a little ahead of the curve that she’d get along with them better. Do you think that will help?” Del asked hopefully. She hated seeing her munchkin lonely.

  Raelin sighed. “It might. She fit in pretty well with the older kids at the foundation, and we made a little bit of headway today at the Nook building a mental wall, so maybe by the time school starts, she’ll be ready. I can have her at the Foundation every day this week, and I’ll get Jenny to help me out.”

  “She’s such a sweet girl, I hate to see her unhappy. Thank you for everything you’re doing for her,” Del said sincerely as she pulled into the outskirts of Canal City.

  “You don’t have to thank me Delaney. I love her just like she was my own,” Raelin quietly admitted.

  “She loves you too Raelin. You’re the only one she felt safe enough with to open up about her preschool. That says a lot.” Delaney smiled, as she headed towards the downtown core. “You think she’ll be okay with Kai? We’re lucky she was already down for the night when we left otherwise I’m not sure she’d have let us go.”

  “I think that she’ll be fine. Kai seems to think the world of Ariel already.” The brunette reached over with her free hand to caress her wife’s face. “You will make a good mother one day.”

  “So will you. Watching you with her sometimes...” Del trailed off a smile on her face. “It’s like watching you with one of our own,” she finished quietly. “Especially when she crawls into bed with us. She always curls against you.” The blonde smiled.

  “She’s a lot like you. You do the same thing.” Raelin smiled back. “I do admit that it feels good to hold her.”

  “She’s not a lot like me.” Del chuckled, deflecting the comment. “She takes a lot after Mike. He’s a big goofball. Besides, with a front like yours who wouldn’t want to cuddle with?” She chuckled, wiggling her eyebrows.

  “Oh, so that’s the reason you like to do that! I’ll keep that in mind.” The witch c
huckled. “I think that the restaurant should be up a head a bit.”

  Del navigated the busy downtown street as Raelin directed her, and soon enough, they spotted it. “Looks pretty swanky to me.” Del laughed as she parked the car in the small lot next to the restaurant. “Don’t let me forget where we put the car.”

  Getting out of the car, Raelin reached for the blonde’s hand. “Don’t worry, I won’t. Have you ever eaten Indian before?”

  “Uh, well no,” Del muttered, as they walked up the sidewalk hand in hand. “I mean, unless you count the hummus I bought by accident one time at the grocery store,” she said a little sheepishly.

  “Well, you’ve got me beat. I’ve never even tried that, but I’ve always wanted to,” Raelin admitted. The witch thought that hummus was Arabic, but wasn’t going to correct her wife.

  “I guess this is going to be an adventure then?” Del grinned as she held the door open for her wife to head through.

  Leaning close as she walked by, Raelin murmured, “I love having adventures with you.”

  Del swallowed audibly as Raelin’s words sent heat flooding through her. “You and me both Darlin’,” she muttered. Del’s eyes went wide as she stepped inside the smell of good food wafting towards her, the faint smell of soothing incense lingering just underneath it. She looked around the space, the walls painted in rich warm colors like reds and gold’s, as sheer fabrics hung neat the windows and doorways. The jingle of bells could be heard and she looked over to a nearby bar area and spotted a small stage where a group of women where entertaining some businessmen sitting around on pillows with their dancing, the lighting reflecting off the medallions on their costumes.

  Del was snapped back to the present when Raelin squeezed her elbow and she noticed that the host was addressing them.

  “A table for two Ma’am?” he asked patiently.

  “Uh yes, sorry. That will be great.” Del smiled.

  He led them to a quiet table to one side that offered them a view of a small dance floor but still gave the illusion of privacy. “Will this be to your satisfaction?”