Tim, the Teenage MC



When Joey and I were little, we played all sorts of pretend
games with the other kids in the neighborhood.  A favorite
with the girls was 'house', playing with their baby dolls
and kitchen sets, and despite we being boys and all, Joey
and I did seem to play it a lot ourselves.

But when we were tired of the girls, we and a couple of the
other guys would find a big piece of cardboard and make it
our 'garage'.  We would pull our tricycles or big-wheels up
onto the cardboard and let whoever was the 'mechanic' fix
whatever ailed our vehicle.  Then when we got our bicycles,
we started mimicking what we had seen Joey's dad doing to
his Olds, and by the time we got our ten speeds, we had
learned enough through general experimentation that we could
disassemble, clean and lube the parts, then reassemble our
bikes without getting too much grease on our clothes.

I guess everyone doesn't ride bikes like the kids in our
neighborhood did.  The best times were in the spring and
fall, especially after a rain shower.  You know... puddles. 
Heh...  Nothing like the zzzzzzzz sound of rubber going
through water.

Anyway, we were always thinking up something to pretend to
be or do, and our bikes became lots of different things
during our ventures into the realm of our imagination.  Joey
and I used to argue about what we would be when we grew up,
and we always ended up racing our bikes or something to
prove we would be the best at whatever it was.

The memory of Joey and I trying to make our 'jets' jump
higher in the air while chasing and evading pretend Soviet
bogies from our patrol route flashed through my mind as the
F14 Tomcat I was in went vertical.

Joey and I watched Top Gun I don't know how many times when
it came out in '86, and we had even talked about me using my
abilities to get us both a ride in one, but nothing ever
came about it with Suzi being around to bring us both back
down to earth.

Anyway, my dad has this... friend in the Air Force who my
dad does favors for from time to time.  My mom and dad went
to his daughter's wedding about a month before my graduation
and somehow they got onto the subject of a graduation
present for me...

Shit.  Up until the moment I felt I don't know how many G's
pressing down on me I had been thrilled with the idea of
flying in a real F-14 and experiencing some of those fancy
maneuvers like in the movies first hand.  But then when we
started tilting backwards... as in upside down, I started
feeling nauseous and yeah... a bit scared.

"You okay back there?" Leroy said with some difficulty over
the intercom in the helmet I wore.

"Uhhh..." I managed to peep out before my eyes caught the
horizon just above me and my stomach did a couple of extra
twists.

I wanted to close my eyes just shut down until it was over,
but I could feel Leroy's own excitement over sharing what he
felt was the greatest experience a man could have in his
life, so I kept my eyes open and tried to keep breathing
while my fingernails dug into the seat's material.

Man, was I glad I didn't close down.  Despite the fact that
the entire world was hanging above me instead of below me, I
couldn't help but feel that thrill coming back with great
force.

I had mixed feelings when Leroy continued doing the loop and
brought us back to being horizontal... right side up.  He
was afraid I was gonna lose my cookies in his cockpit, and
while there was no chance of that actually happening, I
didn't try to stop him for I knew I was going to be late
getting to the airport as it was.

I gave Leroy the exhilarated response he had hoped for, and
I didn't fake it one bit.  And I didn't feel as big of a
chicken when Leroy explained that you had to get scared in
order for you to get the big rush that made it so great.

You can imagine how disappointed I was when ten minutes
after I had nearly shit in my pants that he radioed the
tower and started our decent for our landing.

I couldn't believe how shaky I still was when I unfastened
my mask and belts and tried to raise myself up to get out of
the cockpit.  I managed to do it on my own on the second
try, and even got down the ladder without a problem, but
then my legs started to shake like they were made of
spaghetti, and I ended up having to be helped off the
airfield after thanking Leroy pathetically sitting on the
ground.

I felt better when I checked to see how big of a wimp Leroy
thought of me as and found that he was still grinning to
himself from realizing how big of a thrill it must have had
been for me to cause that kind of shakiness afterwards.

"About time," Joey said urgently as I passed through the Air
force's check point inside the airport's terminal.  "Come
on.  They're probably prying Suzi from the door so they can
take off now."

When I just stood there gaping at his crewcut, he grabbed my
hand and started pulling me quickly down the terminal. 
Somehow I managed to keep up with him despite feeling the
unsteadiness of my legs.

"There they are," I heard Suzi's urgent voice just as we
turned the corner and witnessed the terminal's door that led
to the airplane being shut.

I was in a daze while trying to catch my breath and leaning
heavily against the wall as the attendant processed our
tickets and reopened the door.

They had already disengaged the ramp from the aircraft, but
there was only about a foot gap open between the airplane's
open door and the end of the ramp.  Suzi agilely leapt
across like a cat, Joey just stepped over like it didn't
exist, and I...  hesitated.

"Come on... What are you waiting for?" Joey said impatiently
when he noticed I wasn't directly behind him.

"I feel like I'm ready to faint," I admitted, still puffing
from the run.

"Shit," he said while rolling his eyes and tossing his and
my on-board bags to the ground behind him.

Everything just suddenly blurred a moment, then I found
myself planting my feet to hold myself up while Joey's hand
released the grip he had on my shirt just below the collar. 
It took me a moment to realize I was inside the airplane,
and then I dazedly followed Joey down the aisle as they
sealed the door behind us.

I was staring over at the door as they finished when Joey
said something I didn't catch but drew my attention to the
fact that they had stopped and I managed to avoid walking
into him.

"What?" I asked.

"Do you want the window seat?" Suzi repeated for him.

"No... I've ah...  already seen everything I could want to,"
I said with a weak grin while gently grabbing onto the back
of another seat to steady myself.

"You okay?" Suzi said as she sat down in the seat they had
offered me then motioned for me to sit in the middle.

I collapsed into my seat and said, "I will be.  Just give me
a minute."

I closed my eyes and focused on relaxing, and then a minute
later felt a cool damp paper towel wiping off my face.

I waited for Suzi to finish before opening my eyes and
thanking her, then accepted her peck on the cheek and gave
her one back in return.

When I looked over at Joey from his "echem," he playfully
moved his head closer to make his cheek more accessible.

"Uhm...  Thanks to you too," I said while giving his chin a
pretend punch with my fist.

"Shit.  I was the one who dragged him through the terminal
and then had to pull him the door before he could..." Joey
muttered, before sighing and saying, "Suz, you sure you
don't want first class seats?"

"Yes, I'm sure," she said firmly.  "It's only an hour and a
half flight, Joey."

"I know...  Oh well.  I guess it will just make us
appreciate the first class seats on the flight to England
and back," he said while running his hand over his crewcut.

"Correct me if I'm wrong, but..." I said just before the
engines roared and the plane started speeding down the
runway.

I dug my fingers into the armrests out of excited
anticipation, but once we were off the ground and the
acceleration tapered off, I sighed with disappointment, then
made a "hrmph" sound before noticing they were both watching
me closely out of curiosity.

"What?" I said with a sheepish grin.

"That plane ride must have really been something," Joey said
grinning.

"Shit.  You can say that again," I said while stretching my
arms above me.  "What took two hours on the train going
there only took less than thirty minutes coming back."

"What were you going to say before the takeoff cut you off?"
Suzi asked.

"Oh yeah," I said while putting on my best straight face,
turning towards Suzi and taking her hands in mine
consolably.  "Suzi, I don't know how to say this but..  I
think Joey's been cheating on you."

"What?" Suzi said surprised.

"What did you say?" Joey said from behind me.

"No he hasn't," Suzi said with a slight frown.  "He couldn't
have..."

"He couldn't have what?" Joey said a bit alarmed.

"I know, I know, it's hard to believe he could, but..."

"Hey now!" Joey said sternly.  "What am I being accused of? 
Tim, turn around and tell me before I..."

I turned around to face him, then couldn't help but let out
a snicker before blurting out, "I seem to remember the last
time you got a crewcut, you swore you'd kiss a cow's butt
before you'd get another one."

"Shit," Suzi exclaimed before slapping me on the side of my
shoulder a couple of times saying, "I KNEW you were joking."

I ignored the sting in my shoulder as Joey's blush reached
his bare legs, then after he sat back in his seat without
even a single cuss, I got concerned and playfully ran my
hand across his fuzzy head.

"I was only trying to joke around," I said apologetically. 
"It really surprised me.  I almost didn't recognize you."

All he did was sigh, then kept looking over at Suzi while I
waited for him to make some kind of reply.

I suddenly understood it had been Suzi's idea and I got the
impression he had done it without objection when she had
asked him to do it.

I crooked my head and put on a thoughtful look while
studying his new look, then admitted, "Actually, it doesn't
look bad at all now that your ears aren't too big for your
head."

"What do you mean?" Suzi said, trying to see around me and
finally just stuck her head beneath my crooked arm.  "I
think it's sexy on him."

"Yeah, but one summer a long time ago Joey and I both got
crewcuts, and Joey got made fun of because his ears looked
too big..."

"They weren't too _big_," Joey said a bit exasperated. 
"They just stuck out away from my head more than... 
others."

I had sat back to let Suzi silently study his ears easier
which only made Joey blush again, but then he tried to make
it seem like he didn't care when she announced his ears
looked fine.

I was pretty tired from all the excitement, so I just sat
back and closed my eyes to relax some more while Suzi
watched the scene out the window and Joey silently rubbed
his hand over hair, trying not to be too obvious that he
really was measuring how far his ears stuck out from the
sides of his head.

I was in the middle of recalling the cockpit of the Tomcat
when one of the stewardesses asked the people in the row
ahead of us what they would like to drink.  I decided I felt
better after I stretched again, then nudged Joey and said,
"She's right, you know.  It does look sexy."

"Yeah?" he said, letting his eyes follow the stewardess's
ass as she walked back to the refreshment cart.  "So you'll
get one before we leave for England?"

"Uhm.." I said hesitantly, then bit the bullet and said,
"Yeah, sure.  Why not.  But I don't think it will look as
good on me as it does you."

"Why's that?" he said while giving the stewardess an
enchanting smile as she approached to ask us what we'd like
to have to drink.

"I just don't have the muscle head build," I said with a
little sigh and watched his already smiling mouth twitch a
little due to his amusement to my words.

"So how was the wedding?" Suzi asked after we were handed
our drinks and Joey got us some extra crackers with his
charm.

"Yeah really.  And why were you so late?"  Joey inserted.

"I can't tell you the ending first," I said amused.  "It
would ruin the story."

"Uh huh," Joey said before munching on a cracker.

I took the last gulp of my soda then reached out to the
stewardess with my mind to get a refill before beginning.

"The train ride over there was neat.  I spent most of the
two hours in the passenger car talking to this German girl
and her mom.  I think I'd like to travel and see the world a
bit this fall.  The images I got from their minds..."

"How old was she?" Joey asked.

"Jess was thirteen I think, and her mom was in her
thirties," I replied.

"Oh," Joey said with a little disappointment.

"Go on," Suzi prompted me.

"Uhm, anyway, when I got to my stop, I didn't see anybody I
recognized so I did a pulse to find out who was supposed to
be there to pick me up."

"I thought Jerry was going to..." Joey said.

"He was.  And he did, but only because I had done the pulse
and hadn't called a cab.  Jerry came running in about a half
hour after I had gotten there without a shirt on dripping
wet with sweat and marks all over his chest and back..."

"No shit?" Joey said with a lecherous smile.

"Isn't that bad luck?" Suzi said trying to suppress her own
smile.  "I mean I take it Dana and he... That has to be bad
luck, doing it two days before their wedding."

"Maybe the day before, but I don't think it's considered bad
luck two days before.  Hey, you saw them a year ago...  Was
Jerry... uhm... a little overweight or anything?"

"No," Suzi said squinting her eyes like it helped her to
remember.  "At least I didn't notice if he was.  Why, is he
heavy now?"

"No...  Oh, duh...  I know what it was.  Shit.  Why didn't I
think of it before?"

"What?" Joey and Suzi both said.

"Oh, its just that later when I saw... more of him, I
noticed what I thought were stretch marks on his legs and
stuff.  But that must have been from when they burned the
tattoos off."

"Burned?" Suzi said with a shudder just before Joey
exclaimed, "They had to burn them off?  How?  Why?"

"Well, I didn't find this out until I had dinner with her
parents that evening.  From what I understand, the only way
you can remove tattoos is either by surgically removing the
skin, or sanding or burning the skin down past where the ink
is.  They had their faces sanded to get rid of those right
away, but then after Dana had her baby, the rest were burned
off using some kind of laser."

Joey and Suzi sat there stunned for a few moments, and I
recalled my own reaction and thoughts when Dana's father
mentioned burning the graffiti off in passing at the dinner
table and I had peeked in his head to see what he had meant
by it.

"How long were they... miserable from it?" Joey said,
breaking the silence first.

"About six months, but they..."

"Six months?!?" Suzi moaned.  "Did they have it done all at
once? Or did they do it a little at a time?"

"A little at time.  And they didn't really feel much
discomfort from it because my dad made them sort of like it. 
I didn't know this, but my dad's been taking care of their
medical bills and stuff.  I guess that's why their parents
were so nice to me and all."

(I had intended to stay at a hotel, but because most of
Dana's family lived in town, nobody extra was staying at
their house.  Dana's father insisted they had room for me
and had me cancel the reservations I had made, but if I had
known I was going to be taking her little brother's room
with the tiny twin bed while he slept on a sofa sleeper, I
would have kept my hotel room.)

"What do you mean he made them like it?" Joey said after a
moment's thought. "He didn't make them like the pain, did
he?"

"Not exactly, no.  I'll have to ask my dad when we get back
because I don't understand what he did.  Whatever it was
apparently worked pretty good because Jerry's biggest
complaint about it all was he and Dana couldn't fuck until
they were both healed."

"Shit.  You'd think after all the fucking they did when
Steven had them they would have burnt out of it by now,"
Joey commented.

"No chance of that happening any time soon," I blurted out. 
"Jerry practically yanked me out to the parking lot then
handed me his keys and asked me if I could do the driving. 
He didn't even give me a chance to reply before he ran back
to his van and got in the back."

"You're not making this up, are you?" Suzi said
suspiciously.

"I swear this is really what happened.  When I got to van,
they were in the back on the floor fucking like animals.  I
mean, they were clawing each other, and if I hadn't known
they were both doing it willingly, I would have said it was
a rape from all the struggling they did.

"I watched them about ten minutes before I got too hot and
started the engine and the A/C, then just tried to ignore
them as I worked out how to get to Dana's house from the
station."

"So you didn't... join them or anything?" Joey said.

"No!" I said, a little insulted.

"Didn't think so," Joey said with amusement.

"Shit.  I guess the thought did cross my mind a couple of
times," I admitted.  "But once I got on the road I kind of
tuned them out until Jerry asked where we were from the seat
behind the front passenger seat.  At that point I pulled
over so I wouldn't have a wreck after getting a glimpse of
him sitting there with his legs spread so wide I could see
his hole.

"I didn't sense a trace of modesty in either of them.  Dana
was on the floor half asleep with their juices all over her,
rubbing some teeth marks just below her left nipple.  She
said hi to me, and it took me moment to say hi back.

"Jerry put his shorts and a shirt on then told Dana she
better get dressed since we were only five minutes from her
house.  Man, Dana didn't like that for some reason.  She
told him to fuck off, that she'd get dressed when she was
good and ready, then spent the rest of the trip arguing with
him before rushing to get her clothes on when we pulled into
her driveway."

"What did they argue about?" Suzi asked.

"Stupid stuff.  Like how he was going the long way, how he
wasn't paying enough attention to his driving, how she was
gonna get us pulled over from standing up front naked like
that."

"So why was Dana being such a bitch?" Joey asked.

"Yeah, what did Jerry do?" Suzi countered.

"It's not what he did, but what he wouldn't do," I
explained.  "Dana wants to have another baby.  I mean, she
wants one now, but Jerry wants to wait until they can afford
it and stuff.  Dana's mom explained that one to me.  Dana
seems to think that they have to have a baby for them to
really be married."

"Shit.  Sounds like Dana's a bit messed up," Suzi said
sadly.

"Yeah, but I think she's gonna be okay.  I mean, her parents
and Jerry's parents are practically best friends now and
completely support the two getting married.  And I found out
the next morning that Jerry and Dana are totally faithful to
each other.  You remember her little brother Sam?  He was
one of your kids at camp, Joey."

"I vaguely do," he said, calling up the time he had caught
Dana sucking the ten year old's dick at camp.  "Just because
she doesn't want to mess with her little brother any more
doesn't mean she's faithful."

"Yeah, I know that, but Sam's thirteen now and apparently
his dad ended up telling him the truth about what happened
to Dana, Jerry, and us.  I kept getting weird vibes from Sam
all evening, then he woke me up the next morning really
early and wouldn't tell me why, so I peeked.  You'll never
guess what he wanted."

"It's not hard to figure out really," Joey said, flipping
his tray up after discarding his wrappers.  "What do all
thirteen year old boys want?"

"Video games," Suzi said with a smirk.

"Besides that," Joey grunted.  "Oh, go ahead and tell us
Tim."

"He wanted me to kidnap him and this girl he's nuts about,
brainwash them, then undo it like what had happened to Jerry
and Dana.  He wants to have that kind of bond with that
girl, but when I dug out the memory of him and her doing it,
he got really scared and basically started to fall apart on
me."

"I know what you did," Joey announced.

"What did I do?"

"You called Dana in and probably played back some of her
memories of what happened to discourage him."

"Actually, I did think of that, but I had the feeling he was
just scared of what would happen if his parents found out
after all the lectures they gave him about saving it for
marriage.  He saw this as the only way to make it okay to
have sex with this girl who apparently refused to do it
again after the first time."

"So what did you do?" Joey sighed.  "Tell him to live with
jerking off at night until he's old enough to get married?"

I blinked at him, then said, "Yeah, basically."

"Really?" Joey laughed.  "How did he take it?"

"Not too good.  Sam even tried to threaten me by saying he'd
become a homosexual if I didn't help him, then he nearly
shit in his pants when I told him about Eric and I.  He
opened up after that though.  He sort of admires what Jerry
and Dana have.  He's seen them go from yelling and screaming
at each other to crying in each others arms in apologies,
and a few times watched them make love when his parents
didn't know he was there.  At some point during our talk I
scanned Dana's mind and confirmed she didn't seem to even
think about anyone else but Jerry, and later I found Jerry
felt the same way."

"I guess they've been through even more stuff than we have,"
Suzi said softly.

"It's more than that, Suz.  They've both been put through
the same things at the same time more or less.  Nobody else
has as much in common with them as each other.  Same thing
goes with their parents.  They're really good friends
because they always have something in common to talk about,
namely their kids.  It's no wonder Sam felt the way he did. 
He's like been left out of having someone else who had so
much in common with him."

"Did you say anything to Dana's mom or dad about Sam?" Suzi
asked.

"Indirectly, yeah.  After talking about sex for so long, the
poor kid was really aching to get off, so I told him he
could have his room back for a while and closed the door
after me.  I managed to pull his dad into the master bedroom
and asked him to sit down on the bed, then I formed a one
way between Sam and his dad and left.  I had to make up
excuses for them missing breakfast, then about half way
through the meal Sam and his dad came out together with
grins on their faces."

"Sam wasn't pissed at you?" Joey said suspiciously.

"Why would he be?  As far as he knew his dad just walked in
on him right after he had jerked off and they had a man to
man talk about stuff.  I couldn't think of a better way of
making his dad understand what was going on than to just let
him experience what Sam was thinking and feeling.  I kept
the one way up almost the whole time I was there.  I think
Sam's in good hands.  He and his dad spent a lot of time
talking those couple of days I was there."

"Enough about Sam already," Joey said.  "How did you fix
Jerry's and Dana's baby problem?"

"What makes you think I fixed it?" I said seriously.

"Oh come on, Timmy," Suzi said.  "You wouldn't leave a thing
like that behind without trying to fix it."

"Okay, you're right about me trying, but...  I made the
mistake of trying to talk to Dana about it, and after
getting an earful, I had to get her to look me in the eyes
to get her to calm down.  The only thing I could have done
to help her was to command her not to want to have a baby
right away, but I think that would have messed her up even
more."

"You mean she still wants to have a baby as soon as
possible?" Suzi asked.

"Yeah.  And that's sort of why I was late.  The wedding was
fine, and they even kissed okay at the end, but at the
reception they kept smooching and getting wrapped into it
more and more until finally they had to be kept apart until
it was time to leave for the airport.

"Because they were going to Florida for their honeymoon,
Jerry's dad was driving the three of us to the airport. 
Well they were on the floor struggling to get into their
clothes before we even got out of the reception hall's
parking lot. Jerry's dad just sighed and shook his head,
then asked me to try and get Jerry's tux off him before he
messed it up since it was a rental.

"Heh.  I surprised his dad when I came back almost right
away with the tux.  I guess he forgot who I was and all. 
But he didn't get to say anything for that's when Dana
started screaming for him to get off.  I mean, screaming,
screaming.  Like Jerry was killing her or something.

"Jerry was as surprised as we were, and when he got off her,
she started yelling 'I want a baby!' over and over with her
legs spread open.  Jerry tried to talk nicely, then tried to
get her to argue with him, and then tried to ignore her. 
But when we got to the airport, she refused to leave the van
and screamed kicked when Jerry tried to make her go."

I had to pause to drink the last swallow of my soda, then
for a moment thought they both had stopped listening to me
from their distant stares into nothing.

"So?  What did you do?" Joey said finally, shifting in his
seat uncomfortably.

"What could I do?  Nobody was asking me for my help, and I
didn't know what I could do that might not make things worse
later.  But I wasn't about to leave them with Dana in the
state she was.  She was pretty close to losing it, you
know?"

"Fuck, Tim.  Just tell us what happened," Joey said
desperately.  "This isn't fun for us, you know."

"Yeah, I know.  Sorry.  Jerry lost his temper and started
yelling at her, how she didn't care about anything but
having a fucking baby, but he was going to fuck his wife on
his wedding day one way or another and just...  well, he
fucked her.  For all I know she could be pregnant now."

"Shit," Joey said a bit relieved.

"Did they catch their plane?" Suzi asked.

"Yeah.  Their plane just had problem after problem until
they got on," I said with a little grin.

"Heh," Joey said. "Well, I guess things turned out okay.  I
mean, it sounds like their families will get them through
the rough times if they need it."

"Yeah, I guess," I said, feeling a little disturbed about
it.

"Timmy," Suzi said, snuggling up against me.  "You didn't
cause their problems.  Steven did."

"I know, but," I sighed, but then looked down at her and
smiled.

We talked off and on about little things for a while, then
when Joey got up to go to the bathroom, I decided to do the
same and followed him to the back.

"Hey Joey," I said, catching him before he closed the door.

"Yeah?"

"Uhm, I just wanted to say I'm sorry for picking on you."

"Picking on me?"

"Yeah.  You know.  The hair."

"Oh.  That's okay.  I'm used to it."

He shut the door before I could comment, so I entered the
one next to his and made myself go before returning to the
seats without Joey.

"Tim, I'm worried about what we're going find when we land,"
Suzi said as I sat down.

"You mean if we find Candice messed with Eric's head."

"Yes."

I sighed, then said, "I talked to Candice over the phone
yesterday after she finally got around to returning my call
from last week.  Yes, she's altered his perspective on a few
things, but she swears she was only trying to help him.  I
agreed not to try and change things back if Eric agrees that
he wants to stay the way he is and if I think he is capable
of making that decision freely."

"You could have called me and told me," Suzi said a bit
annoyed.  "I worried about what she might have done all
night last night."

"Sorry.  It kind of slipped my mind with all the stuff going
on yesterday.  We still don't know exactly what she did, and
I got the impression Candice isn't going to tell him she did
anything until she has to.  But I'm more worried about what
I'm going to say when I see him."

"Well, you'll just have to work that out on your own," she
said crossly while getting up.

"Where you going?" I asked as I let her by.

"Think about it."

"Shit," I said, realizing I was in the dog house now.

Joey came back while she was gone, and when he asked where
she was, I replied, "She said think about it, so think about
it."

"Oh," he said, looking back down the isle, then sat down
beside me.

"Joey, what did you mean about you being used to it," I said
a moment later when it occurred to me.

"You know Suz..."

"You mean she makes fun of you?"

"Tim, I know you're just being... yourself, but don't worry
about it.  It's just part of the package."

"What package?"

"Me being her love slave," he said simply while blushing a
little.

"Oh," I said a bit dumbfounded.

"You know, its strange..."

"What is?"

"Well, until you mentioned it, I didn't care whether or not
my ears looked funny with this hair cut.  But then I thought
maybe it might make Suzi look bad, and I had to check myself
out in the mirror for five minutes to make sure I looked
okay...  Weird, huh?"

I looked at him, and for the first time saw the aura of
submission around him that I had been picking up ever since
I first saw him in the airport terminal.

"You really are, aren't you," I said softly.  "When did
you..."

"I don't know..." he said while blushing deeply.  "Sometime
before the haircut, but definitely after you left and we
broke the share link."

"Huh...  I knew you were worried about what would happen
when Suzi wouldn't be able to take control of you, but I
didn't think...  You feel okay though?  You definitely
aren't acting like yourself."

Joey smiled and said, "That's because I'm not _my_ self.  I
like gave that up for her.  I'm now her self.  If that makes
any sense."

"Yeah, I guess so.  But are you happy with that?"

"Happy? I'd have to say I'm content which is something I
haven't been for a long time.  So yeah.  I'm happy with it."

"I'm glad someone is," Suzi said, slapping Joey's knees then
mine to make us make room.

"So you don't like it?" I asked her after she sat down.

"Like what?" she said coolly.

"Doesn't she know?" I asked Joey.

"I don't know.  I don't know how she'd miss it though."

"Don't talk about me like I'm not here!" Suzi snapped. 
"What are you two talking about?!"

I covered Joey's mouth before he could reply, then looked
her in the eyes and said, "Ask him later when you two are
alone, okay?  This isn't the place."

"Fine," she said huffily and turned away to give me the cold
shoulder.

"Suz," I said, not used to her acting this way with me. 
"I'm sorry I didn't think to call you and tell you about
what I found out yesterday.  I swear I had every intention
to tell you both before we got there.  I didn't mean to
leave you in the dark."

She sighed then turned back towards me and said, "I'm sorry
too.  I'm just so worried about Eric."

I gave her a kiss on the forehead and said, "Believe me, so
am I...  So am I..."