The mind’s mystery – Part I: The vacation (closed)

The mind’s mystery – Part I: The vacation

“Take a vacation, it’ll do you good.” The words of his best friend’s brother still rang in his head, “we can take our families it’ll be good for us.” Had he been right? He didn’t know yet. That was yet to be seen. So far it had just gone badly and promised to get worse.

The trip that Honor Virtue had suggested had sounded like a good idea until Rick realized that he would have to face Honor’s sister Faith, the earlier mentioned best friend. He hadn’t seen her in 6 months since he had sort of put her then boyfriend Jared through a wall. He had witnessed the rat bastard put his hands on Faith and that had pretty much been that. This was the longest that Rick and Faith hadn’t spoken since the Virtue family hired Rick at age 20 to tutor their oldest daughter Faith in shielding her abilities. Their families had been close before that, but being 5 years older than the oldest of the Virtues, Rick had kept his distance until that point. All of the Virtue siblings were named you guessed it, after virtues, Faith was the oldest with Honor her brother Patience the next girl, and so on down the line. That had been 10 years ago that they had crossed from being family friends/his kid sister, to real friends. That all being said, Rick had stormed out, after breaking Jared’s face, with a very expensive statue no less, and putting him through the wall. He had had to go, before he did something even more stupid, like put Faith through that same wall, for letting a man hit her. He didn’t give a damn if she said he was well connected—that he could protect her siblings—could help their people. He was a slime ball rat bastard and deserved what he had coming, and frankly he still didn’t give a damn if she was glad he had intervened or was furious at him.

The second problem with the vacation was Constance, His wife—he really had a way with the ladies. She had claimed to need to wait to join him until some project finished at work. However Rick knew better. He didn’t need the waves of deceit that were rolling off of her to know that was a big fat lie, however his empathic abilities made it very clear that she was lying, even if he hadn’t already known it from her too casual attitude or the nervous flittering of her hands. Rick saw it all. The military had taught Rick well and she was no hardened criminal to stand up to his scrutiny, no, she was an amateur and not even a good one. Why hadn’t Rick called her on her bull shit you might ask? Because sadly, that’s what he did, he didn’t rock the boat. She knew too much, and had made it clear if he ever left her he was done. He was just grateful that his travels overseas kept him away.

Even overseas though, she kept him on a tight leash. He went along with it because he really did care for her, really did want things to work. She was extremely jealous, and Rick associated with few people outside of his marriage. The virtue family was the exception, especially Faith. That had always been where he drew the line with Constance. She did not need to be jealous of Faith. She was like his sister; she needed to “chill the fuck out.” It was a constant fight between them, but somehow was the only line that Rick was ever able to hold against his wife. So the only female attention Rick even got outside of his wife was with someone he viewed as a sister, while she repeatedly betrayed him with every man she wanted to.

Rick had reluctantly agreed to meet his wife at the Cabin later. Unfortunately something came up and Honor would also not be able to come to the cabin for a couple of days, this would leave Rick alone with Faith. This normally wouldn’t have been a problem, but after his rampage at Christmas, well he did not know what to expect.

He pulled his truck into the long driveway, gravel spitting from under its tires. He had wanted to drive his jeep so he could have felt the wind, but Faith had asked him to bring his grill and some other things, so the truck it was.

Getting out of the car, he began to unload. From his time in the military, Rick was made of muscle. He was tall with dark hair and cool gray eyes, eyes that some said could be soft and Smokey, or hard as flint or steal, depending on the situation. Rick was not looking forward to what was to come. Not the questions about his wife, not the awkwardness over Jared, and certainly not the questions that would come if the ever observant Faith noticed that he was still in too good of a shape to be a salesman for a computer company, or even a government contractor. As far as she or any of her family knew he had been discharged from the military years ago. If only life was ever that easy.

Faith Virtue already knew that this year's family vacation was going to be difficult seeing as Rick would be there. It was going to be even harder seeing as she was going to be there alone with him for the first few days of the vacation. Honestly she was still a storm of emotions since the last time she saw him. For months, she feared telling either Honor or Rick about the abuse she suffered at the hands of her now ex fiancee. Granted Rich had taught her at an early age to supress her gift but Jared learned about it and used it and her to his whim keeping her under s fearful leash of threatening to report her if she did not do as she was told. However, somehow fate interviened and Rick caught Jared in the midst of beating her. He saved her honest, but only for Jared to go through with his thread.

Turning up the long gravel road she saw the large cabin start to come into view but she also saw Rick's truck there. Pulling up next to his truck, Faith sighed softly and slid her fingers through her messy ruby red bangs. She closed her sapphire blue eyes and leaned back against the seat taking a deep breath. "Can't put off the inevitable" She sighed to herself as she opened toe door and got out of the truck she was driving. Going around to the back flatbed, she grabbed the large box of cleaning supplies and headed around to the already opened side patio door. "Rick?" She called out as she sat the box on the large dining room table kicking up a small cloud of dust.

Her gaze was drawn out the window to the beautiful view of the lake and the dock and her mind "I remember those days" she thought to herself as she looked at the lake.

The sun was just beginning to go down when Rick climbed out of his truck, surprised that He’d beaten Faith there. Remembering where Honor had said the key was, he opened up the cabin and began carrying in supplies. It became quickly apparent why Honor had conveniently had something else to do for the first couple days of the trip. “Slippery bastard knew this would be a lot of work, silly kid would do anything to get out of work, even cut 2 days off his vacation.” He muttered to himself.

He had just cracked open his first beer and was in the middle of surveying the house when he heard the popping of gravel under the heavy tread of truck tires. The lady of the house had arrived. He made his way slowly through the house back towards the open patio door. The cabin if you could really call it that was decently sized with 2 bedrooms, each with 2 large beds in each, a bathroom, and a great room which seemed to include living room and kitchen. There were enough couches to seat quite a number of people, and he suspected at least 1 or two of the couches hid beds under their pillows. You could get quite a few people in here, if the people weren’t too big on privacy, and didn’t mind sharing beds, depending on how many people came. On that score, Rick wasn’t even sure how many people would eventually be there. His wife, Honor and Cheri, honor’s fiancée, Faith, of course. He didn’t know if any of Faith’s other siblings planned on coming.

Rick heard her calling him and wandered back into the kitchen area in time to wave away the cloud of dust she kicked up. “I like the decorating scheme your brother has made here.” He said by way of greeting. “Knew he was dirty, didn’t realize that dust was also his thing.” He bent over to pull a second bottle from the cooler extending it to her. Rick could sense the turmoil coming from her, but for now, at least he wasn’t going to mention it. He’d been a soldier for many years. He’d seen grown men crying for their mothers and pretended not to notice, because that was part of the guy code. He knew eventually she would probably bring stuff up, but until then, he planned to pretend nothing was wrong, after all he was on vacation and he’d be damned if he didn’t enjoy it. His only acknowledgement of the awkwardness between them was the fact that he did not immediately open his arms to invite her for a hug, something he’d done since she was a little girl. “Been a while.” He continued leaving a slightly awkward pause before he remembered that he wasn’t going to be the one to acknowledge their estrangement so finished, “since anyone’s been here I see.”

Faith was mindful not to touch Rick's hand as she hesitantly took the offered beer. "Thanks," she said as she tore her eyes away from him and back out at the view of the lake. "It has been a while since anyone was out there honestly." She said as she opened the beer and took a long sip off of it. Seriously Honor thinks he is so slick. He knew this place a mess." Faith found it hard to look at Rick and just standing there so she started moving around the great room opening up the rest of the windows wide while making sure all the screens were in place so the bugs couldn't come in as she started to air things out.

She didn't want to seem like she was avoiding Rick, but she was still hurt a little after what happened over the holidays. "We, should get started, cleaning since it seems everyone saddled us with it and we don't have much time to get this place together." She sat the half empty beer bottle on the table and went into one of the bedrooms opening the windows.

Rick watched her moving around the cabin. She was apparently not as good at the playing it cool game as him. “Yeah, that’s probably the only reason he invited me, so I could do his grunt work for him.” He laughed a little, not saying what flitted through his head that a couple years ago it would have been her that invited him. He was glad she couldn’t read his thoughts. Although he figured she was getting hints of his emotions, he was shielding like a son of a bitch, but he held no doubts that she was sensitive enough to get some of it. The problem was he didn’t even know how he felt. He knew he wasn’t sorry for what he’d done. Bastard had deserved a beat down.

Rick finished his beer and with a clink dropped it into the garbage bag he had started. “Fortunately most of the work seems to be just dust and general stuff. Although it looks like one of the shutters wasn’t on good in the back bedroom, and that bedding will all need cleaned and stuff,” he walked back towards the bedroom as he spoke, “I’ll work on replacing that screen and sweep up the glass if you’d like. Fortunately it doesn’t look like any critters moved in.” Without even waiting for her answer he began hunting for a broom and dustpan.

He stepped back into the bedroom where she was presumably surveying the damage. “This will complicate sleeping arrangements. But at least it’s just the two of us for a couple days; we can get this cleaned up before it’s too big a problem.” No one could say that Rick wasn’t persistent, as he still tried to soldier on, wishing if she had something to say she’d just get it out of the way.

Faith sighed mildly annoyed by the broken glass looking around the room and checking under and around the furniture in the room for any signs of any critters and indeed there was none, however she did find the culprit of the broken window. a rather large pine cone obviously was blown from one of the nearby evergreen trees during the last storm and the window was the unfortunate victim of it. "I'll clean this up. I think there are some spare screens in the shed." She said to Rick as she went to get the broom and dustpan and swept up the glass. After she cleaned up the glass she stripped the beds down to just the mattress.

As she came out of the room Faith sighed deeply. Honestly she wasn't for small talk and she could pick up a little of his feelings though he was doing his best to shield himself. She tossed down the pile of sheets on the floor and looked at him. "Stop it Rick. Just stop it!" She snapped angrily at him. "You know, I get it. Okay!" She sighed softly as she slid her hands through her hair.

He had checked some of the other rooms while she cleaned up the glass, figuring that he would go look for the screen in a few moments.

He was apparently not doing as well at shielding and his term oil was probably coming through louder than he would like. He was back in the hallway about to tell her he would go look for a screen when she came out with the dirty sheets.

He raised his hands placatingly "Stop what?" He asked. He stepped closer to her, "Sorry, if I'm being weird but we've not even spoken in months, this is awkward as hell and I'm trying to make the best of it. I probably shouldn't have come, damn Honor anyway." He muttered this last sentence. There was much he wanted to say, to explain things, but he didn't know how to.

He took a deep breath and finally decided if words weren't doing what they needed then he would try to display normalcy through action, and there was one action he had avoided out of his fear of her reaction. He slowly opened his arms in silent invitation.

A palpable tension had built between the two as Faith looked at Rick and his out stretched arms. No, she wasn't angry, but she was hurting and feeling betrayed. She continued to look at him with his open arms and reluctantly gave in stepping into his arms and eventually hugging him.

As she came in contact with his body, she could feel a sudden surge of overwhelming emotions he was trying to suppress almost reading him perfectly like a book. Her arms tightened around him as she buried her face in his chest. "Why didn't you reach out sooner?" She asked.

She came to him slowly. More hesitantly than he hoped but yet faster than he had expected. He folded her in his arms. His emotions were filled with apprehension, worry that he had ruined things between them, yet a sense that he had done what he saw as the right thing. Under neath all of that were darker emotions, anger, resentment, hurt, loneliness, but all save that last had very little to do with her she could probably tell.

He cleared his throat. "You didn't even call me." He said softly, "you always call me, I thought I broke us. I was so angry with you for letting him hurt you like that." He stroked her long red hair unconsciously as he spoke, "you deserve so much more than that kind of treatment. I know you told me not to interfere but I had to." He fell silently letting his touch do more of the talking, he held her close, hands roaming the length of her back. Up and down, holding her protectively. She had always seemed so small in his arms, but she fit perfectly, his cheek able to lay across the top of her head, where she was at least a head shorter than him.

Faith's tiny hands gripped the shirt he was wearing as she kept her head buried against his chest. "I was so upset at what you did. I know I shouldn't tolerate abuse from anyone, but I put up with his abuse and cheating to keep me safe. But after the altercation, Jared walked out on me to go stay with this other girl he knocked up." Her body was tense but she relaxed as she felt him rest his chin on her head.

They stood there for a long moment silent just holding each other. "I don't care how upset you may have thought I was, I wish you would have gotten in touch with me. I really could have...nevermind." she said shaking her head slightly not finishing the thought she was having. "You could have talked to me about the stress you are dealing with" She changed the subject slightly.

He rubbed her back, "I don't know how safe you thought he'd make you, and don't care, someone needed to keep you safe from him." He said with the supreme confidence of someone who didn't know the military had gotten to her after Jared left.

He shrugged at her words about him. "Its not that important, same shit new day." He said with a deep sigh. He tried to play it off. He was not ready to talk about his own wife. "Did I hear you right, did you say cheated on you too? Shoulda hit him even harder." He muttered this last stentence kissing the top of her head. "You know my wife." He said continuing his earlier thoughts, "she wouldn't be happy if we weren't all embroiled in drama up to our ears. Its her way."

"Still, what was one of the first lessons you taught me? " Faith hesitantly slipped out of his arms and continued to go about cleaning up. "Don't bottle up what you are feeling. even if it is to nobody, talk.' She stood up on her toes and placed a light kiss on his cheek. She was still upset but she knew that it would get them no where. "It's getting late and there's still stuff to do. We also need to check the generator as well as some other things. "She said as she looked at Rick. "How about this, get some stuff cleaned, fire up the grill and sit out and catch up." Faith smiled. She was still a little upset but she was willing to work on putting her hurt behind her.

He nodded, "You should have taken that same advice, talked to me about Jared, maybe then I might not have reacted how I did." He had started to say over reacted, but he was still not sure he had. "You could have called me too." He said softly. He let his hand brush over hers for a second as she pulled away before he let it drop. Hanging on to resentment would do neither of them any good.

"Good ideas." He said about her plans, "Especially the food, I'm hungry." Then again, Rick was always hungry, at least that's what she always said. "I'll get the generator going so that we have hot water in a bit, and look for one of those screens. "I know how much you like your hot showers." He teased. She'd never been the most girly of women, and he had often teased her insinuating she was. He had to admit though a shower would be nice. However, the hot water would be important to run the washing machine, all that bedding needed cleaned.

Turning, Rick left the house. He found the generator with little difficulty, and after some work got it up and running. Grabbing a replacement screen he walked out of the shed slamming the door, smiling at the way the sound proofing in the shed kept the generator's loud noise to a minimum, meaning the peace of the area was not spoiled by the necessity of power. He then stripped off his shirt, to begin splitting logs for a fire. The days were almost hot, but he knew up here in the mountains, the evenings could grow cool, and there was both an indoor fireplace, and a fire pit outside. Depending on what she had for dinner he might even consider cooking it over the fire, although he'd brought the grill, as requested.

He was soon sweaty from the work, as he chopped away at the logs that someone had cut the previous season, but not split.

As soon as she heard the generator kick in, Faith headed to the cellar and flipped on the breaker giving power to the cabin. She then turned on the water pump and water heater. Combing back up from the cellar she glanced outside to see Rick splitting logs without his shirt on and blushed deeply as she continued going about gathering up the bedding to take it to the washer.

Thankfully the kitchen wasn't in too much of a messy state so she was able to make quick work of it getting the fridge cleaned and chilled, some of the dishes washed and rinsed. Faith then went out to her truck retriving a cooler that had been in the back of the extended cab and brought it in putting away some of the food she brought up with her but leaving out two thick steaks. "Hey, how about steak for dinner tonight?" She called out the window to Rick.

At her call he paused in his efforts to listen, "Always heard you liked meat." He said with a grin, somehow managing to turn it into an innuendo. "Sounds good to me."

Laughing he leaned the ax against the pile of logs he had created as he walked over to the grill to fire it up, still not bothering to put back on his shirt, intending to wait until he cooled down. He was tempted to jump in the lake to cool off. "Hey Faith, gonna get in the water to cool off don't let the grill burn the house down.

With that, his Jeans and boots joined his shirt, leaving him clad only in his boxers. He headed down to the dock and with a flying leap, landed in the lake. "Holy hell that's cold." He yelled with a laugh. It wasn't so cold that he'd not get used to it, but cold enough that it was a shock after the hard work he'd been doing.

"You ass!" Faith playfully shouted out the open patio and watched as Rick stripped down to his boxers. She couldn't help but laugh harder as he yelped feeling how cold the water was. "I could have told you that" she shouted back before heading back into the kitchen to prepare the steaks seasoning them as well as two rather hearty baked potatos for the grill.

Grabbing a large beach towel from own bag of clean clothes she headed out to the patio along with the steak and potatoes. Considering the sun was slowly setting she turned on the patio lights and then tossed the potatoes on the grill since they would take the longest.

Faith sat at the table looking out at the lake watching Rick and her mind began to drift.

"You know you like my ass." He replied, "damn why didn't you tell me it was gonna be so cold." He griped knowing she probably wouldn't hear him.

He was too tough to give up though he swam out too the swim deck in the middle of the lake and then back, his muscles rippling with the movements. "What, not gonna join me, afraid you'll get cold?" He said with a laugh, "Afraid your nipples will poke someone's eye out?" He smirked, liking teasing her. Although that comment made him think of her breasts and how he'd surely enjoy seeing them He wasn't supposed to think that way but he wasn't dead, and she was stacked.

Finally he came out of the water, shivering even more when the cool breeze hit him. "You know how they cure hypothermia, right?" He teased waggling his eyebrows. "C'mon, don't be a hog, share that towel... Gimme." He said pretending to pout at her.

"You should have knows it was going to be cold at this time of the evening up here in the mountains" Faith said to him telepathically as she watched him swim out to the little platform in the lake then swim back. When he got out of the water, she laughed as she watched him shiver as the cool night air hit his wet skin. "Cooled off enough from chopping wood?" She teased wrapping the large towel around him then hugging him. A deep blush reached her cheeks as she found herself pressed against his nearly naked wet body and she felt the sudden urge to kiss him tenderly on the lips.

"Um, I...if it weren't for me making dinner, I would have joined you." Faith said as she hesitantly pulled away from him and returned to the grill and actually put the steaks on the grill.

He was surprised at her telepathic message. He had no idea her abilities were that strong. However he forgot about it for the moment when she wrapped him in the towel and hugged him. "Yep, that's exactly how they cure hypothermia, body heat. Though to do it properly people have to be naked together under a blanket." he said grinning.

"Sure blame the food on why you didn't join me. you just didn't want me to see your assets. I understand, they're too perfect for me." he said rubbing her shoulders briefly, "Not to mention I'm like your brother, yuck, right?" this last rang as a lie, and both of their abilities to detect lies were too strong for that one to not light up. Sister or not, the thought of her naked, was by no means "yuck" to Rick.

"Guess I should change then, huh? No one wants to eat almost naked. Too bad that shower isn't warm yet, I'm an idiot and now I'm freezing." he laughed at his own silliness. "Yes, I think I'm cool enough." he finally added, answering her earlier question.

Faith blushed deeper as she knew he lying about the yuck comment regarding seeing her naked. "Looks like you're just sol until I've finished washing the sheets." She laughed though she could feel him trembling a little under the towel.

In a rather daring move she took off her t shirt and then reached under the towel and pressed her ample bra clad double d chest against his chilled body. After what seemed like an eternity, but in reality was just a moment, Faith slipped hesitantly away from Rick then went over to the grill to toss on the steaks knowing they wouldn't take long to cook. She blushed deeply as she glanced over at Rick. "Um.. we could chill by the fireplace after dinner." She said as she glanced over her shoulder grilling the two steaks to perfection.

He shivered watching her pull off her shirt, not sure what she had planned, and then he felt her slide her hands under the towel, slipping around to his back, pressing her body close, and those large breasts encased in their cloth prison pressing against him. He was startled at the rapidness of his body's reaction to her. This was the most attention he'd been shown by any woman but his wife in a long long time. He unconsciously pulled her closer.

When he slipped away, somehow he felt even colder. He was pretty sure he'd seen her in partial states of undress before, but it'd been a long time, and it had never felt like this. "Sounds like a plan." He said, "I'll go change and start the fire. Steaks smell good." He wanted to say something about what had just happened, but didn't dare, if he said something it might lead to awkwardness, he just wanted to enjoy that for what it was.

Stepping into the house, he soon returned in fresh clothes, and the towel was now in his hands rubbing his short hair dry. He threw the towel over a chair and moved up behind her looking down at the steaks. His hands rested on her shoulders as he leaned in close to get a better view of the steaks. However it also gave him a great view into her cleavage, which made him shiver a little. "Damn looks good." He murmured almost in her ear, but was he talking about the steaks, or her breasts?

Faith opted not to put her t shirt back on just yet as she stood at the grill in just her shorts and bra. A rather new tattoo of a butterfly was clearly visible on the back of her right shoulder as she stood there grilling. Her mind had begun to wander a little andshe was lightly startled when she felt Rick's hands come to rest on her shoulders. A light shiver ran through her body as his warm breath tickled her ear. "Hmm, the steaks or my cleavage?" She teased as she took the steaks off the grill to let them rest.

Faith found herself leaning back against Rick reaching up to touch his hands as they rested on her shoulders. There were questions on her mind she wanted to ask but kept them in from the fear of not wanting to make things too awkward for them. The truth is she had always had feelings for Rick however she never pursued them instead ending up in one bad relationship after another. "Um... Steaks are ready." She once again slipped from his grasp and pulled her t shirt back on. After she plated the steaks and the perfectly grilled baked potatoes she handed one to Rick.

That is the question isn't it?" He said with a laugh. "Wouldn't you like to know." He felt her hands cover his and found he liked the contact. His wife barely touched him these days, not even casually as Faith just had. They had always touched one another more than most did. It had started when he was tutoring her. Touch enhanced both of their gifts and she had to learn to shield while being touched. He had not pushed her as hard as he had been thought. He had not done things to her, sexual things to get her to shield while even that was going on, but it had been done to him.

He almost reluctantly pulled his hands away. Yes, he had always been good at bending but not breaking those boundaries with Faith. However, it had never been particularly easy to do so though.

Accepting his plate he moved to the table and sat his plate down. He then pulled out the chair for her. "Damn, did you have to put it back on?" He pretended to pout. The action spoiling the chivalry of his holding her chair for her, just a little, but that was his way, a mix of formal and irreverent.

Faith sat at the table with Rick, and realized she didn't bring out any forks and knives. She jumped up from her seat and quickly went back inside returning a moment later with some cutlery and handed a knife and fork to Rick. As they ate dinner, they had a comfortable conversation though she was mindful not to talk about what happened to her after Jared left her and reported her to the military.

When they finished eating, she took the dishes and put them in the sink then got a bottle out of the cooler. "So, how about that fireplace and some wine?" She said as she held up the bottle and walked over to the fireplace Rick had started up earlier.

They had pretty run of the mill conversations. They discussed her younger sister's forays into motherhood, how Rick's uncle had asked him to come visit and Rick's declining, explaining to Faith how the man never wanted anything to do with the family when his parents were living and he probably just wanted money. They also discussed some of the work still to be done and whether they would have to do it all or if Honor would do any of it when he got down.

"Sounds good to me." He said clearing the dishes and setting them in the sink. He stirred up the outdoor fire pit which now had some nice coals going, "Did you bring stuff for s'mores?" He asked curiously, sitting down on one of the camp chairs he had pulled out of the shed earlier. The other chair was still folded up. He left where she sat up to her. Would she sit across from him where they could talk and see one another, or would she sit beside him.