The Inner Struggle: Beginnings Series Book 7

by Jacqueline Druga

  “You are going to laugh.”

  “No. Never. I am, however, gonna make breakfast while you wash that kid’s hair.”

  “Deal. Frank … thanks for not making funny.”

  With a tightly closed mouth, Frank shook his head and walked into the kitchen.

  Ellen was happy about her talk with Frank. She really thought she was going to face ridicule and even was proud of Frank for being so mature, until that was she heard him laugh in the kitchen. Not just laugh, but laugh uncontrollably. On that, Ellen, didn’t just get pissed, she decided against washing the Hair Hold from Nick’s hair.

  <><><><>

  Joe stretched out his arms as he leaned back in his desk chair. So loudly it came across, as if he were throwing out every ounce of tiredness in his body. “So Jason, we’re done.”

  “Tired Joe?” Jason asked.

  “Old,” Joe answered, “sometimes I think too old for this shit. Gene got sick during his shift last night at the clinic. I had to fill in there then I figured, hey, I’m up so I go see Cole to finalize the metals run he’s doing. Oh yeah, A.K.A. tux run.” He and Jason both snickered at the same time. “I ended up helping him fix that damn tire on the tractor and this, mind you, is all before six. Now that doesn’t include me having to go to the nursery and work for Raz--until Hap got there--because his shingles flared up.”

  “Busy morning.”

  “Yep and it’s not even eleven. You know what happens at eleven?” Joe raised his eyebrows with a single nod. “The wayward testosterone Ellen fan club will be here for a meeting. Oh joy.” Joe ran his hand over his forehead. “Sorry, don’t mean to bitch your ear off.”

  “No, no. That’s fine. Hey at least there is a bright spot to this day huh? Frank’s test of my hypnotic skills?”

  Joe smiled widely. “That’s right. Right after the meeting too. Hey at least if Frank, Dean, Henry, and Robbie drive me nuts, I have something to look forward to.”

  “Cole’s not coming to the meeting? I thought you said the metal run would be coming up.”

  “I’ll have a private meeting with him later. You know as well as I do, if we throw one more person into a Beginnings meeting and we'll have chaos.”

  “I was wondering,” Jason spoke, “how does Cole feel about picking up the tuxedos?”

  “He laughed but he’s pretty busy on the run so he’s taking one of the older gentlemen to put in charge of that.”

  “Is that safe?” Jason asked. “It could be dangerous out there.”

  “Yeah I know, but when Cole spread the word about needing one of them, they all volunteered. Let’s face it Jason, they may be getting older but not one of them is a weak man.”

  Jason agreed. “Something about this world now just doesn’t let one get old. Like you.”

  “Yeah, well I wished I would get there. Sometimes I think I’m ready to retire and do a single job like the other men.”

  Jason began to laugh.

  “What’s so funny?”

  “Well, that just means if you retire, Henry’s the man. Scary thought Joe. Henry is so high strung.”

  “He’d learn. He’s a good guy. The best one we have to take my place. The only downfall is the fact that my daughter can easily influence him. Therefore getting her way on stupid requests like . . .” Joe held his hand out. “The one they presented to me a couple weeks ago. The women want one night a week at the social hall to be ladies night and they want to have Blake strip.”

  “He’s been training.”

  Joe added. “I had to have Cole yell at him. Cole said Blake wouldn’t lift the other day because he didn’t want to mark his body.”

  “Now how did that happen?” Jason asked perplexed. “How did he live in the unscathed world and still look so good?”

  “Vanity, Jason. That’s what it is. Vanity.”

  “But why do the women want him? There are plenty of guys that could do it. This Blake guy, he’s not bright.”

  “That’s probably the reason,” Joe said. “Beside you can’t take away from the fact that he’s a good looking guy.”

  His ‘Thank you’ was his introduction to his entrance into Joe’s office. Frank shut the door with a smile. “I love to hear you guys talking about me so highly when I’m not around.”

  Joe rolled his eyes “Sit down, Frank. We were talking about Blake.”

  “Oh man.” Frank pulled out a chair. “Are you guys wanting to watch him strip too.” He snickered at his own humor.

  Jason stood immediately up. “I’m gone Joe. See you at containment, Frank.” He looked down to Frank. “I look forward to hypnotizing you.” He laid his hand on Frank’s shoulder

  “Uh Jason?” Frank’s eyes shifted to Jason’s hand. “Why? You aren’t gonna put something in my mind to make me like you are you? Since you and my dad have this thing for good looking guys.”

  Jason gave a gentle squeeze to Frank’s shoulder, stepped back to the door and winked with a smile. “You never know, big boy. You never know.”

  Frank’s eyes widened. “Dad! Don’t let him make me gay. I swear to God if I wake up from being hypnotized and I’m gay, I’ll fuckin kill him.”

  “Pipe down Frank. You won’t be gay.”

  Henry’s immediate snicker as he walked into the office, overshadowed Frank’s outward breath of relief. “You thinking of turning gay, Frank?”

  “Don’t get any ideas, Henry.” Frank held up his hand. “Especially since I know you used to have that crush on me. I’m not turning gay. Man . . .” He shook his head. “What is it about me that the gay men in this community are attracted to me?”

  Joe tossed his hands in the air. “What can I say, Frank? When you’re blessed, you’re blessed.”

  Frank ran his hand down his own chest as he took a long breath in. “Yep.” He saw Henry just staring at him. “What!?”

  “There’s something wrong with you, Frank.” Henry sat down. “Sometimes I wonder about you.”

  “Me?” Frank said with a huge smile knowing he had irritated Henry. “Why?”

  “You get the biggest kick out of making yourself out to be the gay men in this community’s sex symbol. You should hear him, Joe. I think he likes it. With you being such a Neanderthal, Frank, I thought for sure you’d be bothered most by it.”

  “Henry,” Frank spoke with arrogance, “why let it bother me? I’m very secure in my sexuality. You on the other hand aren’t. That’s why it bothers you every time Ben checks out your butt.”

  “Frank, I am secure with my sexuality,” Henry spoke defensively.

  “That’s not what he people in this community think. Everyone thinks you got Ellen pregnant as a secret cover up for the fact that you’re gay.”

  “Oh they do not think like that.”

  “They do too, ask them.”

  “You’re an asshole, Frank.” Henry slumped in his chair. “Joe, aren’t we having our meeting?”

  “As soon as Robbie and Dean get here,” Joe answered.

  “Can I tell you about what I did?” Henry asked.

  “Nope. Save it.”

  “But it’s important, Joe. I finished the SUT program. I have the chip ready.”

  “Henry.” Joe brought his hand to his temple. “I told you to save it. Why did you just blurt it out?”

  Waving his hand at Frank who gave his typical agitating ‘yeah’ Henry explained, “I need to have brought up today the fact that we need to have that chip implanted right away. In fact, as soon as possible.”

  “What’s the rush?” Joe inquired. “We’ve been working on it for months. It can’t wait now?”

  “No.” Henry shook his head. “It’s brain surgery, Joe. I think we should do it before Dean loses his . . . loses his . . .” Henry caught himself and he tried to think fast. “Loses his . . .”

  Joe stared at Henry with a tilted head. He waited, watching Henry’s open mouth. And then Joe had enough. “Loses what!”

  Henry jumped back. “Uh . . . his uh…his mind Joe. Dean is headed to
ward a nervous breakdown.”

  Frank scoffed, “He isn’t that fuckin close. Trust me I know. I’ve jumped out at him enough times to try to break him.”

  Joe was a little shocked. To hear Frank say it was one thing. To hear Henry comment on Dean’s mental state was another. “Are you serious, Henry. Dean is breaking?”

  “Um . . . yeah Joe.” Henry hated lying but he couldn’t tell Joe the truth. “But whatever you do, don’t say anything. When Dean gets here, don’t let him know that I told you.”

  “Told Joe what?” Dean asked when he walked in. “What did you tell Joe, Henry?”

  Frank snickered. “About the fact that you like to wear women’s underwear.”

  Dean’s mouth dropped open. “Shut up, Frank.”

  Frank laughed again. “Whoa, Dean, you scare me.”

  Giving a scoffing face, Dean pulled up a chair and sat down. “What did Henry tell you that he shouldn’t have, Joe?”

  “Well . . .” Joe took a second to think. If Dean was going over the edge he certainly didn’t want to be a Frank and help him out. So with quick Joe thinking, he gave his best answer. “Henry was complaining that the lab up at the mobile isn’t as clean as he’d like it.”

  “Oh Henry is full of shit,” Dean commented. “It’s fine.”

  Joe looked at Henry. “Is that the reason you didn’t want Dean to know? Because it really is fine? What the hell kind of trouble are you starting, Henry?” Joe looked back at Dean. He looked upon him with concern and spoke so pacifying to him. “Don’t worry about him, Dean. You have much too much to worry about. In fact, I was thinking that after this virus scare is over, you might want to take some time off. Lord knows you need it and you earned it more than anyone.”

  “Hey!” Frank interrupted them. “What about me? I need a vacation.”

  Dean took in Joe’s tone, ignoring Frank--again. “Maybe I’ll take you up on that, Joe. Some time off with my kids . . .”

  “Our kids,” Frank interrupted.

  “My kids,” Dean stated again, “It will do me some good.”

  “Dean!” Frank yelled.

  “Frank! God, are you annoying today.” Dean looked at him. “What?”

  “Now see, I’m trying to be nice to you and you just go on and on giving me that Dean little-man-attitude.”

  “Why do you say that?” Dean asked with edge. “Why do you say . . . little-man-attitude?”

  “What? I’m gonna say big man attitude? Look at you Dean, you’re little.”

  Dean grunted and adjusted his chair further from Frank.

  Frank scooted his chair even closer to Dean, and Dean moved his further, Frank followed.

  Joe took all he could. “Boys! Knock it off! Christ what is this? Musical goddamn chairs. This isn’t first grade. It’s a meeting for crying out loud. As soon as Robbie gets here . . .” Joe needed to say no more. The final member of the meeting walked in. His appearance took Joe aback. Robbie had lost weight, lots of it. His face was pale and dark circles still colored under his eyes. Joe immediately turned to Dean. “Should he be working?” Joe stood up to his son. “When I saw you this morning it was still dark. Are you feeling all right?”

  Robbie shrugged, “Fine.”

  Joe moved closer to him laying his hand on Robbie’s shoulder and squeezing it, feeling bone. “Dean?” Joe faced Dean. “How much weight did he lose?” Joe pulled at Robbie’s clothes and the looseness of them.

  Dean blinked several times. He guessed he had just been with Robbie so much he really didn’t notice how much weight Robbie had lost. He knew he lost some. “Um . . . we weighed him in at one . . . wait a second.” Dean reached down to the folders he brought in. Robbie’s virus was one of the things being discussed at the meeting. He flipped open the folder. “Ellen weighed him in a . . . no, this can’t be right.”

  “I knew it.” Joe told him as he grabbed a chair for his son then returned behind his desk. “He lost a lot didn’t he?”

  Dean shook his head. “Not according to this. Ellen has him weighed in at two-hundred and three pounds.” A sudden thinking look hit him and he started speaking softly to himself. “Which means all medication and treatments given would have been given according to that weight. Not the new . . .” Dean reached out without taking his eyes off the folder, he grabbed a pencil from the top of Joe’s desk and he began to take notes. “I’ll have to recalculate.” He lifted his head, adjusted his glasses and turned to Robbie. “Robbie, when we’re done, can you come down to the clinic with me. I want to weigh you. I need to know how much you did lose because us over medicating you could have had something to do with what cured you.”

  This shocked Joe. “You mean the antiserum we found didn’t do it?”

  Dean closed the folder. “Not alone it didn’t. It ended up being a combination of occurrences that caused Robbie’s getting well. But I gave a dose of one of our agents according to what Ellen had here. Obviously I gave a bigger dose. I have to recalculate, in connection to his weight now, what the dose I actually gave him was. It probably won’t make a difference, but it never hurts to be sure.”

  Frank laughed in a ridicule way. “You know, Dean, for a big shot little scientist, you sure are stupid. How could you not know he didn’t weight two hundred pounds?”

  “And you would?” Dean asked back.

  “Fuck yeah. I can tell you exactly what he weighs.”

  “Right Frank.”

  “I’m telling you.” Frank stood up. “Robbie, stand up for a second.” He waited until Robbie did. Frank ran his hand over Robbie’s back, across his arms then he lifted him briefly. “Thanks.” Frank clapped his hands and sat back down. “One seventy-two.”

  Dean snickered at him. “Just like that. So accurate. You’re gonna tell me not only are you He-man, Superman, but now your Scaleman as well.”

  “One seventy-two.”

  “On the nose?” Dean edged on.

  “Exactly.”

  “Right.” Dean spoke sarcastically.

  “Bet me.”

  “That he’s exactly one seventy-two?”

  “Yep,” Frank nodded.

  “I’ll bet you. What do you want to bet?”

  Frank thought about. “O.K., no matter what time, day or night, no matter what the other one is doing, they have to change Brian’s diaper when it’s needed.”

  “So what you’re saying is if I win and at ten o’clock at night, I can come down to the social with Brian, when I have him, and make you change him?”

  “Yep,” Frank nodded, “and I get to do the same. The winner gets to interrupt the loser for one week no matter what they’re doing and the loser has to stop.”

  “What if the loser is having sex?” Dean asked.

  “Yep. So when I come knocking on that bathroom door of yours, Dean, the fantasy must stop for diaper duty.”

  Dean grumbled some. “You’re on.” He stood up too. “Come on, Robbie. Ellen has a scale back here in the examining room.” Dean walked to the door behind Joe’s desk, not paying any attention to the fact that Joe had tossed his pencil in the air in meeting time defeat. “In here.” He opened the door.

  Robbie followed Dean in. “Dean, you’re gonna lose.”

  Joe leaned further back in his chair. He stared at Henry when Robbie, Dean, and Frank disappeared into the other room. “Why do I even bother, Henry? You and I will have our meeting as soon as I get rid of these three.” He jolted forward when he heard Dean whined loudly, then Frank laugh after. “Dean lost.”

  Dean stomped from the back examining room. “Shut up, Frank.”

  “Day and night. Ha!” Frank plopped in his chair next to Dean.

  Sulking, Dean leaned. “How did you that? How did you guess his weight so exactly.”

  “Easy.” Frank told him. “I weighed him in here about two hours ago. I saw him and I said, ‘man Robbie are you skinny,’ so we weighed him.”

  “You what!” Dean sat up. “What the hell was all that dramatic feeling him and picking him up?�
��

  Frank shrugged. “I don’t know. You bought it though, didn’t you?”

  “You cheated Frank,” Dean pointed. “All bets are off.”

  “Shut the fuck up, Dean. They are not. You did not make it contingent on whether I had weighed him already or not. Too bad . . . “He saw Dean’s mouth open. “Shut up . . . you lose.” He stopped Dean again. “Baby.”

  Like a tattle tale, Dean turned to Joe. “Joe!”

  “Dean. Enough.” Joe picked up his notes. “Now we’ll start, get you three out of here and then Henry and I can have a real meeting. First.” He cleared his throat shutting up Dean or Frank before anymore can be said. “Dean, I need you to meet with Jason and me at the clinic tomorrow morning for that little experiment you agreed to participate in.” He held up his hand. “Before you say anything, Frank is doing it after my meeting with Henry.” He shifted to the next item. “Virus update, Dean. What do you have on it?”

  “We’re getting close. We think that we can, without a doubt, cure the original strain of the virus.”

  Joe nodded but hadn’t a clue what he was talking about. “So you beat it?”

  “No, not at all. The original strain we beat . . .” Dean saw he was losing them. “All right. We have witnessed three forms of the virus. There is the one we brought back from the future trip, the one which infected Robbie’s men, and then the host virus. The original virus.”

  “Which you’ve seen when?” Joe asked. “When did you see the host virus?”

  “When we gave Robbie the antiserum.”

  Joe’s eyes widened. “So it wasn’t an antiserum? It was actually the virus. Was this a set up?”

  “No.” Dean shook his head. “It was definitely an antiserum. The only thing, it just didn’t work on those already infected. George, for some reason wanted it to work on Robbie but it wouldn’t have. See, an antiserum, a good one, is done by injecting a small amount of the original strain or host virus into the person to build up immunities. When we injected Robbie with the antiserum it had a negative effect. Instead of curing him, it actually gave him the host virus. The host virus therefore took over the virus in Robbie’s blood. And by a shot in the dark, one of our agents, combined with other little things, kicked its ass.”