AWLL 2 - Book 1 - Bethany

December 30, 1985, Chicago, Illinois

"I'm sorely disappointed in you girls!" Stephanie giggled when Jessica, Kara, and I stepped off the bus in the makeshift Terminal 4 at O'Hare. "He can still walk! And Big Brother, THEY can still walk!"

Jessica laughed, "I'd say that you were jealous, but he's your brother, so you really can't be, can you?"

"No, I can't!" Stephanie said, the corner of her lip turned up, which revealed nothing to Jessica but conveyed a clear message to Kara and me.

"I take it the house is in one piece?" I asked, taking our bags from next to the bus and putting them on a cart.

"Nobody was arrested, and we didn't need the Fire Department, so yeah, I guess so!"

We wheeled the cart out to the short-term parking lot and Stephanie and I loaded the bags in the hatch of her Nova. Jessica and Kara got into the back seat, and as they had in Stockholm, held hands. I got into the front seat with Stephanie.

"Do you see how it is?" I asked.

"Get used to it, Big Brother," Stephanie laughed. "The girls have always been in charge!"

She backed out of the parking spot, and we made our way to the exit, where I handed her the $2.00 to cover the parking fee. She pulled out onto I-190 and headed for the city.

"How was Sweden, girls?" Stephanie asked as she merged into traffic.

"Great!" Jessica said. "I really enjoyed it. It was nice and peaceful, beautiful, and Steve's friends are wonderful."

"I loved it!" Kara said. "He'd promised to take me there a long time ago, and I'm glad we went. The hotel was awesome, the country was absolutely gorgeous, and as Jessica said, Steve's friends were wonderful."

"And the sex?" Stephanie asked with a smirk and a wink that only I could see.

"He performed adequately and fulfilled his husbandly duties," Jessica said deadpan.

Kara and Stephanie both laughed, and I just smiled and shook my head. I knew better than to try to verbally tangle with these three, because together, they'd find a way to twist every single word that I said into some odd meaning that would insult my manhood. Of course, my silence didn't help.

"Cat got your tongue, Tiger?" Jessica purred. "He sure didn't last night!"

"Leave it to my brother to talk too much when he should be screwing!" Stephanie giggled.

"Oh, he was tongue-tied alright," Kara giggled. "But it was OUR tongues!"

Stephanie laughed hard. "I guess he lived up to his reputation, then?"

"I have nothing to compare to, but I'd say so!" Jessica laughed.

"I don't either, but I agree!" Kara added.

Stephanie suggestively licked her lips and winked at me again. She DID have something to compare it to and had always told me that the other guys came up short by comparison.

"Squirt, who do the Bears play next weekend?" I asked.

"The Giants. New York beat San Francisco yesterday. And New England beat the Jets. Best guess is Bears against the Dolphins in the Super Bowl."

"Good," I declared. "We can exact our revenge for that stupid Monday Night loss to Miami!"

"Oh, I almost forgot, your tickets for the Penguins game on Wednesday afternoon are on your desk. And the girls made a minor change in room assignments while you were gone."

"Oh?" I said.

"Sofia is moving in with Bethany now that Kara will be sleeping with you. They wanted to give Elyse her private room back."

"I asked them to, Tiger," Jessica said. "I strongly prefer you go to Elyse in her room, rather than bring her to our bed. That's doubly true because Kara will be moving into the Master bedroom."

I nodded, "That makes sense. Elyse will need a place for a crib in less than eighteen months."

"There'll be plenty of room when Dave and Julia move out, and when George and Charlie graduate. By Summer, we'll have empty rooms in the house," Kara said.

I nodded, "I figured that Stephanie would move over so that Jennifer and Josie could give Jesse his own room once he's out of the crib. That would leave us a room to use as a nursery. By the time any of our kids need their own rooms, Bethany will have graduated for sure, and Sofia will be in medical school. At some point, she'll want to get a place of her own, I'm sure, as will Squirt."

"You aren't getting rid of me THAT easily, Big Brother!" Stephanie laughed.

"That's years down the road," I said. "But I do think you should move over once Dave and Julia move out and give Jen and Josie their privacy."

"That makes sense. Oh, one other thing, Tatyana called with her flight information. She's flying in on Friday and she'll fly back to Boston on Wednesday. I promised her that you would pick her up. She'll sleep in the guest room where Jessica's been sleeping. Jorge will arrive on Saturday and he'll be here until the dorms at IIT open on the following Friday."

"Have Elyse and Bethany come back from Ohio?" I asked.

"Today. Elyse asked me to plan a New Year's Eve party. I have everything set. Julia bought the booze for me. You were running low on some stuff, so I had her pick it up. I left a detailed accounting of what I spent so you can reimburse me."

"Will do!"

"When does school start, Jessica?" Stephanie asked.

"Monday, unfortunately. I'm going back to Indianapolis on Sunday. I start a surgical Clerkship on Monday morning, but I don't know what service I'm assigned to. I'll call to ask when we get home, because the letter is likely sitting in my mailbox at my apartment."

"Ah, one more thing, Big Brother. Doctor Barton called and said that he's rented an apartment because they can't close on the house until February 1st. He left a phone number."

"Anything ELSE?" I chuckled.

"The world did not stop to wait for you while you were screwing yourselves silly in Sweden! I think Julia has a bunch of stuff for you, too."

"Tomorrow," I sighed, as the weight of the world began to force itself into my consciousness. "Today is our last vacation day. I want to get home, get something to eat, take a sauna, and then just relax."

We arrived at the house, and when Stephanie pulled into the driveway, Jennifer and Josie came out to greet us. Everyone exchanged hugs, and Josie helped Stephanie and me carry the bags into the house and up to my room, while Kara and Jessica went to the guest room to bring Jessica's things upstairs.

"I'll move my things in here tomorrow morning while you're working," Kara said. "And I'll start some laundry while you're making lunch."

"There's plenty of room in the walk-in closet," I said. "And there are two sets of drawers built into your end, so you and Jess can share. If there isn't enough room, let me know and we'll figure out a solution."

We went downstairs, and I stuck my head in the NIKA office and said hello, then went to my office/study to greet the programming team. Penny jumped up and gave me a huge hug, and Dany and Tom just waved, then turned back to their workstations. I went to the kitchen to make soup and sandwiches. Jessica called to check which service she would be assigned to, and from the smile I saw spread on her face, I was sure it was trauma. She hung up and confirmed it.

"Trauma!" she gushed. "Of course, that means being on call and wearing a pager, but it'll so be worth it!"

"Congratulations. I guess that helps with your future plans?"

"It does. It's not strictly necessary, but I'll have a total of four emergency medicine Clerkships and that's huge. Between that, my grades, and any strings Doctor Barton can pull at the University here, I should be a lock to be an Intern with him!"

I pulled her into a hug, and Kara joined us to make it a three-way hug. We all kissed, and then sat down to eat. When we finished eating, we went for a short walk, and then the three of us went down to the basement to use the sauna. I put up the 'Privacy Please' sign and, for the first time, sat naked in the sauna with my two wives, one on either side of me.

"Why the privacy sign?" Jessica asked.

"Because I just want some time with the two of you. The real world is going to intrude tomorrow morning, and I just want to grab this last bit of peace and quiet before it does."

"Being naked in here is really liberating," Jessica said. "The steam is really relaxing, too."

"We can use the whirlpool, too," Kara said. "I think the three of us can squeeze in together!"

"That sounds like fun!" Jessica agreed.

About twenty minutes later, I adjusted the sauna controls, then filled the tub with warm water. The three of us got in, with the girls turned so that they were half-lying on my chest. I turned on the water jets and all three of us let out long sighs as the water flowed around us.

"Damn," Jessica said. "I really COULD get used to this. I think I have to come here more often than you guys come to Indy. But with my schedule, who knows? If I'm on weekend on call, I won't be able to drive up."

"We'll work it out, Babe. Kara and I will do whatever we need to do to accommodate."

"I love you both so much!" she sighed.

I made eye contact with Kara. "We love you, too!" we both said.

When we finally left the sauna, we put on our robes and went up to our room. We crowded into the shower, which was easily large enough for the three of us, and after we dried off, we climbed into bed for a nap. I set the alarm for ninety minutes later and with it being close to 11:00pm in Stockholm, I had no trouble falling asleep.

When we woke up, I called Stephie to see how she was doing. She was feeling very weak and was often sick to her stomach. I offered to visit, but she turned me down flat, saying that she didn't feel up for it. She did remind me about coming to Georgia for the race at Talladega, and I promised that I'd be there.

The rest of the evening was quiet. After our nap, we ate dinner, which Sofia had prepared, and spent some time talking to Dave, Julia, Sofia, Stephanie, Jennifer, and Josie about our honeymoon. Thankfully, Dave and Julia avoided talking about work -- there would be plenty of time in the morning when I had to acknowledge the real world once again.

Elyse and Bethany arrived home just before 9:00pm and joined us to talk. My wives and I didn't stay up too late, and turned in around 9:30pm. We chose to simply go to sleep, content to be in each other's arms.

December 31, 1985, Chicago, Illinois

I had a quiet breakfast with my wives before work. Kara and Jessica were going to spend the day moving Kara's things to our room, and then they'd help Sofia move in with Bethany. When I finished breakfast, I kissed them both and went to my computer and started writing journal entries about the wedding and honeymoon. Penny, Dany, and Tom arrived just before 8:00am, and I knew it was time to get to work. I saved everything and locked the disk back in the drawer just as Julia came in and asked if I'd meet with her to catch up. I agreed and got up to follow her. She'd made a pot of tea, which we took to the Indian room where Dave and Elyse joined us.

"Lots of good news -- everything with Purina is on-track and Cindi and Mario have signed several new customers," Julia said. "And even more important, our support revenue has increased. Elyse?"

"Based on what we're receiving from the law firms and the construction firms, plus the union shops, we're ahead of plan. I have some revised financials here, which we'll present to the Board when we meet with them in two weeks. If everything goes according to this plan, we can start paying Dave, Julia, and Cindi more realistic salaries no later than April. Cindi has a fairly big deal in the works that would mean some serious money."

Julia took over, saying, "Waukesha County, in Wisconsin, which is west of Milwaukee, bought some Prime computers. They're looking to hire an outside company to help them design and build a bunch of applications with Prime Information and something called 'Blacksmith' which looks like a screen designer and report generator add-on for Prime Information. It's something that we'd assign Tom and one other person to, full time, for at least a year, if not two. And the billable rate would be at least one-and-a-half times our cost for Tom and the second person."

"Holy smokes!" I said. "So we'd hire someone and still have a built-in profit of something like $50,000 a year for a couple of years? Just from that contract?"

"Yes," Julia said. "And Cindi thinks we have the inside track. She met with a guy named John Forster who's responsible for the new implementation and from everything he's said, it's our deal to lose. Cindi, you, Dave, and I have to make a presentation there in two weeks. The contract will be awarded in March and we'd start June 2nd."

"Damn! So what does that mean for Purina?" I said.

"Tom is at a point where we can hire a more junior person to take over making changes and fixing bugs. We owe them the production delivery on March 3rd, which means the timing is perfect. Tom keeps working on that until he goes to Waukesha, assuming we get the deal. Dave wants to put you on the project with Tom to start with, while we bring someone else onboard. A lot of the initial work is design, so it's better to have Dave and you work with me on that while Tom does prototyping. Once the coding starts in earnest, then we'll move another coder in to work with Tom, and Dave will supervise."

"Can we handle two people working remotely like that?" I asked.

"Tom is a known commodity and we trust him, so, yes, we can. He'd be our senior person on site and Dave would go up once a week to do project status meetings."

"Cindi needs a raise," I said.

Elyse laughed, and handed me a sheet of paper, "Here's our new proposed commission schedule. Neither Cindi nor Mario get raises, but we pay them a percentage of each deal that they bring in. I talked to them in broad terms and they're very happy with that. Just from the deal with Waukesha, Cindi would get a very nice income bump."

"What about stuff in the past?" I asked.

"Down at the bottom, I proposed a one-time bonus for each of them. It's not as much as they would have received under the commission structure, but we can't really afford to give them more because it wasn't factored in to the costs."

"No objections here. You two should present this to the Board when we meet."

"Thanks. Now for the more difficult issue. Dave?"

"I'll be blunt, because that's what you like, Steve," he said seriously. "Dany isn't working out."

I recoiled a bit and cocked my head. I trusted Dave's judgment, but I certainly hadn't seen any signs of a problem with her. I wondered if something had happened while I was gone.

"That's unexpected," I observed neutrally. "What's up?"

"Her code is buggy, and she's sloppy. The number of bugs reported in modules she works on is more than triple what you and Penny have combined, and you both work much faster than she does. All those bugs you spent time fixing? Most of those were hers. Part of the problem is that she doesn't test things thoroughly before she submits them to me."

"Have you talked to her about this?" I asked, remembering Scott's admonitions about testing, as well as about managing a team.

"Three times. The first time was at the beginning of December, then again just after you left on your honeymoon. The third time was yesterday. It's all documented, just as Scott taught us to do."

I nodded, "OK. Tell me what you want to do."

"If we were bigger, I'd assign her a mentor and see if we could bring her along. But we aren't big enough to do that. We have far too much work to do to babysit her, even for a month or two. Honestly, Penny's a kid and does a way better job than Dany."

"Dave, I mentored Penny for two years before she started working. That's a pretty big advantage, don't you think?"

"True, but we can't afford to have you do that, and given everything else, nobody else can take the time to do it. I propose we replace her."

I sighed. Reality couldn't even wait twenty-four hours before it smacked me hard in the face. I liked Dany, but I couldn't let that interfere with Dave's judgment. I also couldn't overrule Dave without making everything that I'd said before a lie. At this point, I had to let Dave and Julia run things, or I might as well give up being a programmer and take charge.

"Dave, you're head of development," I said firmly, to mitigate my initial sigh. "Manage your team. Let me know what you decide."

He nodded and Julia smiled.

"If we do this, we should give her some severance pay," Elyse said.

"Can we afford one month's pay?" I asked. "I'd like to make that a policy. If we aren't firing somebody for stealing or lying, or something like that, I don't want to leave them in the lurch."

Elyse nodded, "Let me run the numbers and talk to Jamie before Dave does anything. We need to make sure we're not doing anything wrong."

"OK. You guys manage it. I'll abide by whatever you decide. I assume you'll start looking for someone right away?"

"Yes," Julia said. "If we do this, I'll make calls to the schools and get an ad published."

"Let me know," I said. "Any OTHER problems?"

"Just one law firm that's being difficult about paying the bill. I'm handling that."

I shook my head, "Lawyers!"

Dave handed me a sheet of paper with a list of things he needed me to do. A quick scan showed that I'd easily be busy for the next five weeks working on every piece of software we had. He'd prioritized things and given time estimates for each. It confirmed his concern about not having time for mentoring, and didn't see any obvious red flags, so I got up and went to work.

"It's about time!" Penny teased as I sat down. "Two weeks of screwing around while we were slaving away!"

"Watch it, Pretty Penny!" I chuckled.

"Or what?" she giggled, sticking her tongue out at me. "Besides, you WERE screwing!"

I chuckled and pulled up the first program that I needed to work on and let my fingers begin dancing over the keys. Other than a short break for lunch with my wives, I was in the zone all day. I barely noticed when Dave came in at about 4:45pm and asked Dany to come speak with him. It took me a few seconds to register, but then I realized that he'd made his decision and was telling Dany about it.

Ten minutes later, she came in and looked helplessly at me. I shook my head slightly, and she nodded her understanding that I wasn't going to overrule Dave. She got her purse and notebook, kissed me on the cheek and said 'goodbye' to us.

"What just happened?" Penny asked.

"Dave will explain," I said.

A minute later, Dave came in and told Penny and Tom what had happened. I could tell that Penny was concerned, and put my hand on top of hers to reassure her. Dave shut the door to the office and gave Tom and Penny the news about the potential contract in Wisconsin, and that we'd be hiring some new programmers -- one to replace Dany, and then one if we got the contract with Waukesha.

"Tom, you live up north, right?" Dave asked.

"Yes. Just this side of the Wisconsin border. It won't take me much longer to get to that job than it does to come here. It sounds like a great gig."

"We all think so. Let's keep on track with Purina Mills so we can free you up for the new contract. Cindi's working on some other things, too, but mostly in the PC area, so Penny, Steve, Julia, and I will be super busy. Julia's going to pitch in on some bug fixing during the week once Penny goes back to school, at least until we get a new person to replace Dany. Steve will work with you for the first few months on the new contract, if we get it. Then we'll hire another programmer, preferably someone who is close to the client."

"I have some contacts in the area," Tom said. "Let me talk to a few people. When will we know?"

"March 3rd, they say."

"Do I need to worry about anything?" Tom said, glancing at Dany's empty chair.

"No. Not at all!" Dave said reassuringly. "You've been doing a great job. I talked to Dany three times about the issues before today, so this shouldn't have been too much of a surprise for her. The same goes for you, Penny. You're doing a great job, too. Finances are just fine; we're ahead of our financial plan."

Penny smiled and relaxed a bit, and Tom nodded grimly. He was old enough to have seen this before, and wise enough to ask if there were any issues he needed to worry about.

It was the end of the day, so when Dave left the office, Tom grabbed his things and headed out the door. Penny got up and plopped down on my lap.

"You'll tell me if I'm doing anything wrong?" she asked.

"Of course! But you aren't. You're doing everything perfectly! Just like always!"

She smiled and gave me a quick kiss on the cheek, hugged me tight, and then got up.

"Can I come back for the party?" she asked.

"If your mom says 'yes' and if you follow her rules to the letter," I said.

"You were way more fun before you got married, you know that?" she asked accusingly.

"And now I'm an old fart, who doesn't want teenagers to have any fun?" I chuckled. "Is that what you're saying?"

She laughed, "Well, no. I'll go talk to my mom and see if she'll let me come back."

I shut down my computer and went to find Elyse to see if she needed help setting up for the party. She didn't, because Sofia, Jessica, Kara, and Stephanie had taken everything in hand. I went back to the kitchen to make dinner. I consulted the menu that Elyse had hung on the cork board and began preparing the meal. Bethany came into the kitchen and offered to help, and I gratefully accepted.

"How are you doing?" I asked.

"About as well as can be expected, I guess," Bethany said.

"Is Nick going to be here tonight?"

"Yes, as a matter of fact, he is. But don't read too much into it."

"Problems? Or just caution?"

"Extreme caution. I'm a mess and he might actually be a bigger mess. You know what happened?"

"Just the broadest outline."

"He'd been together with this girl since seventh grade. They had sex when they were fourteen, and he was totally faithful to her, and had given her a promise ring in tenth grade. She, on the other hand, cheated on him repeatedly, almost from the beginning, though obviously he didn't know it until much, much later. They got engaged, and she didn't stop fooling around behind his back. He returned from deployment and she was pregnant by a guy she'd been living with."

"Jesus," I said.

"Yeah. As you can imagine, he's pretty messed up. He's never dated, never been with anyone else, and he's completely lost right now. And you know where I am," she sighed.

"Where are you?" I asked. "We haven't had an in-depth conversation in nearly a month."

"Lost, but not as lost as I was before. I earned A's in all my classes, even the graduate stats class I was worried about. I've spent lots of time talking to Kathy and Jackie, and I spent some time with your friend Anala, too."

"Have you been seeing a therapist?"

"Yes, but it's not helping. I don't think that's what I need right now. I'm pretty sure I know what happened and what I need to do, I just can't do it yet."

I nodded, and asked gently, "Are we back to a scared little girl in a limousine?"

"In some ways, yes, but in other ways, no. It's not sex that scares me now. You took care of that!" she smirked, but then sighed. "It's messing up a relationship. No, that's not quite right. It's being in a relationship. I've failed in every one of them. I failed you. I failed myself."

I put down the knife I was using and turned to her.

"We both failed, Bethany," I said. "The two of us. Don't blame yourself for something we messed up together."

"That's true, but I have to work through my part of it," Bethany said firmly. "You worked through your side of it before it ended. I didn't. And that's the problem. If I had, maybe it wouldn't have ended. But it did. So here I am. Alone. But not alone."

I pulled her into my arms.

"You will never be alone as long as I'm around," I said.

Bethany put her head on my chest and sighed deeply, "Thanks. But I meant in terms of a relationship. But that's a good thing right now. I need to fix myself first, and Nick needs to work through his nightmare scenario. Then, maybe, something can happen. But not before then."

"I'm here for you, in whatever way you need me," I said.

"Within the limits we set before you married," she said, slipping from my arms.

"Of course. But loving you and helping you won't put you between me and my wives."

We finished making dinner and called our housemates to eat. When we finished eating, Kara and Jessica volunteered to do the dishes, and I went back to my study to write in my journal. I had three weeks' worth of catching-up to do, and it was going to take some time. I liked doing it on the computer, because I could jump around in the timeline without trying to guess how much blank space to leave.

I looked up to see Kara standing in the door to my study.

"Hey," she said.

"Hey. What's up?"

"Your wives are done with the dishes and wanted to spend some time with you!"

I saved my work and locked up the diskettes. The three of us went to the Indian room to drink tea and talk.

"How was your day?" I asked.

"Good!" Jessica said. "We're all settled in our room, the laundry is done, and everything is set for the party! How about you?"

"OK. I got a lot done at work, but Dave and Julia fired Dany. And Bethany is still hurting."

"Fired? Why?" Kara asked.

"Poor performance. I didn't really notice, but Dave and Julia did. We'll hire someone to replace her. Dave did exactly what Scott taught us -- to be decisive and act when there are performance issues. I let them do what they thought was right, because otherwise, I haven't really given them the control I said that I would."

"That sucks for her," Jessica said. "But you guys have to do what's best for your company."

"Yeah," I agreed. "I just don't like it."

We finished our tea just before our friends started to arrive for the party. It was a typical New Year's Eve party -- talking, music, and dancing, only I had to manage a three-way kiss at midnight with Jessica and Kara, and then we each kissed each other deeply. After the toast and the kisses, I got one of Don Joseph's cigars, the cutter, and the lighter, and went to the sunroom. I thought about going outside, but decided that it was too cold. When I finished the cigar, the girls and I headed up to bed. We fooled around for an hour before falling asleep.

January 1, 1986, Chicago, Illinois

On New Year's Day, Dave, Julia, Elyse, Jessica, Kara, and I went to the Chicago Stadium to watch the Penguins play the Black Hawks. The Pens were having a typically bad season and things didn't improve on their trip to Chicago. The Penguins scored four goals, but gave up seven, to fall three games under .500, and they looked just as unlikely to make the playoffs as they had in previous years.

"That kid Lemieux is great, but he can't carry the whole team," Dave observed. "You'd think after a couple of seasons they'd find some guys to play next to him."

"They need a goalie," I said. "You can't give up seven goals! They scored four, which is enough to win most games. Their defense isn't the best, but still, a decent goalie stops a couple of those sloppy goals that the Hawks scored."

January 3, 1986, Chicago, Illinois

Tatyana walked off the airplane in Terminal 3 at O'Hare, and we exchanged Russian style kisses. To kiss her as I had in the past would be, even in my view, «некультурный». I realized, as we walked out to my car, that this was probably the last time I would see Tatyana for quite some time. When she graduated, she was heading home to Russia to attend the Higher Diplomatic School. Her appointment to the school had been confirmed just before my wedding, and it appeared that her career plans were moving along exactly as she had hoped.

"How was your honeymoon?" Tanya asked with an impish smile.

"Wonderful! Stockholm was beautiful!"

"Yes, of course, you went on a honeymoon and went sightseeing. I do not believe you, Stephen Rayevich! You had two beautiful girls with you, both of whom you consider to be your wife. I believe you spent quite a bit of time loving!"

I chuckled, "Well, of course, Tatyana Ivanovna! I would have done the same on a honeymoon with you!"

"My father hopes that perhaps our children can live in a different world, where the US and the Soviet Union are friends and competitors, rather than enemies."

"Me too," I said. "Perhaps things will change and Lyudmila Alekseyevna will run a business like mine some day!"

"That is her dream! Her other dream cannot happen now, of course!"

"Me?" I chuckled.

"Yes. She wished to love with you. You know this. She wished you to take her to your bed from the first time she saw you."

"Yes, but I was with you, so that could not happen. It would have been «некультурный» in the extreme!"

"And now, because your wives would never permit such a thing, Lyudmila Alekseyevna will need to find a man at university in California!"

"She'll have no trouble with that!" I grinned.

At home, I had some work to do, so Jessica and Kara took Tanya in hand, and the times I checked on them, they were having a good time, talking, laughing, and drinking tea from my Russian tea service. By the time I was done working, the three of them had become fast friends.