Chapter Fifteen: A Complete Family

Epilogue

Kate laughed at the note that Martha left, poured herself a cup of coffee, sat and drank it. As she sat, she recalled the night's activities and thinking about it, she began to get aroused, just from thinking. As she shifted in the chair, the silk of her robe slid across her nipples. The were already hard little nubs. Oh, hell. Sore muscles or not I need another dose of my husband and I'm not going to wait.

She rinsed out her coffee cup, put it in the dishwasher, went into the bathroom and brushed her teeth, slipped back into bed and began kissing her husband. First on the mouth, then along his jaw and down his throat to his pulse point. He was awakening fast enough so she nipped sharply. He sat up.

"Kate, what the hell?"

"I'm getting your attention. I need you, right now!"

"Jesus, Kate! Wasn't four times last night enough? You must be sore."

She smiled, the smile of a predator.

"I am a little sore, but not that sore. And last night was last night. This is now. I was deprived of my wifely rights for a too long. I want to make up for lost time."

Rick chuckled. He couldn't, didn't want to refuse his beautiful wife anything. He had never experienced a love like hers before. Never thought he'd have it. Dreamed of it, but hadn't believed he'd get it, until Kate. He slipped her nightie over her head and kissed her. Her mouth opened immediately. He began to explore her lush, warm mouth, and she, his.

Their tongues darted and swirled. She let out a soft moan as he kissed the sensitive spot under her ear. She tilted her head back, giving him better access to her neck. She whispered;

"Love me Baby, love me. I love you so much."

He sucked and nipped, lightly at her pulse point as he caressed the underside of her breast, then took the nipple into his mouth, sucking and scraping his teeth over it, gently. Switching to its twin, drew more moans out of Kate. After paying thorough attention to her breasts, he trailed kisses over her stomach, then skipped over where she really wanted him, to place teasing kisses on her inner thighs.

"Stop teasing me and OH! Oh my, yes baby, just like that. He put his tongue and talented

fingers to good use. Her first orgasm felt like her whole body whited out, her body stretched in an arch, a wordless keen of pure pleasure echoing around the room. He gently caressed her as she came down from her high. She lay, trembling against him until she calmed, then got a totally salacious smile on her face.

"It's my turn to make you scream she said, as she began using his tactics on him, starting with his mouth, working his body as he had hers, taking him into her mouth and bringing him almost to his peak, then backing off and straddling him, moaning as he entered her, quickly establishing a rhythm as old as time and yet as new as this moment and uniquely theirs. They climaxed together, neither one knowing who was the louder. They lay, contented in the afterglow for about ten minutes, sated and happy. Kate sat up and said;

"We'd better shower and get ready for the day. We can shower together, just to get clean Darling. I'm not up for shower sex right now. I think I'll need a couple of days to recover."

They got into his shower. The stall was about half the size of a normal house's bathroom. With a built- in bench along one wall. The bathtub was huge, custom made long enough that he could stretch out in it. After showering and dressing, Kate said;

"What do you want for brunch, Darling?"

"Why don't I take us all to Walt's Waffle House.

"No, my Darling, for your first brunch home, I am going to cook brunch for my husband. In fact, we'll only eat breakfast or brunch out very occasionally. The house is the woman's domain. Our house, my domain, my rules. Besides, as I'm cooking, I am teaching Alexis. So, go read your paper and I'll call you when breakfast is ready. She had prepared the percolator the night before and connected it to a timer, so as soon as Rick sat down with his paper, Kate brought him a fresh mug of coffee.

She went back to the kitchen and prepared their brunch. A ham and cheese omelet with mushrooms and peppers. Sides of Canadian bacon and potatoes O'Brian, English muffins with orange marmalade.

After breakfast, they settled with fresh coffee and decided to talk about their future. Rick said;

"You know that I can't get off active duty until this war is over, plus six months. But I know one thing. I will never fly combat missions again. If the Air Force tries to assign me that way, I'll turn in my wings. I have enough points accumulated that they can't assign me overseas, again against my wishes. As it is, I have thirty days recuperative leave and thirty more of ordinary leave, so we have two months before they can assign me anywhere. Of course, I'll receive assignment orders before then. If the Air Force does as they usually do, in cases like mine I'll probably receive my choice among offered assignments."

"Well we'll have some time before we have to make any decisions. But I know one thing I really want to do. I want to work, really hard, om making a baby." Rick wiggled an eyebrow.

"Isn't the hard part my line?" Kate blushed and playfully slapped him.

"Speaking of children, Kate, did all the adoption papers get filed?"

"Oh my God, with the excitement of you coming home, I forgot to tell you. The papers have been filed and the courts have approved the adoption. We were only waiting for you to get home to meet with the judge for the final ceremony." Rick laughed.

"I'll call Judge Markoway right now. He'll clear some time for us, as soon as possible."

Fifteen minutes later, Rick said;

"How does ten o'clock tomorrow morning sound?" The meeting with Judge Markoway was quickly over the judge reviewed the papers and asked only a couple of questions.

"Alexis, do you understand that Kate will now be your mother, not your step mother?"

"Yes, your honor."

"Do you truly want this?"

"Yes, your honor."

The judge smiled. "So, ordered." Kate pulled Alexis into her arms., happy tears in her eyes.

"Finally, truly my daughter, my own precious daughter, I love you so much Alexis."

"I love you, Mommy."

A celebratory lunch followed, with Martha, Jim and Johanna joining them at the restaurant. Due to the services of an overnight developing service, the next morning a photograph of Alexis appeared on Jim's desk, mounted in a silver frame. Jim buttonholed anyone who passed his desk, to "Look at my beautiful granddaughter."

Two weeks later, a furious Meredith Lee turned up at the loft. Fortunately, Alexis was at school.

"What in the hell did you think you were doing Richard? You can't do this to me! I am Alexis' mother!

"No, you're not. Not anymore. And I didn't do anything to you, you did it to yourself. The day you signed away all rights to Alexis. Kate is Alexis's mother, both morally and legally. You have no more way to try and extort money from me. Now get out of my loft and stay out of our lives. Neither of them heard Kate quietly slip into the room.

"You Bastard! Meredith screamed and raised her hand to slap Rick. She never got the chance. Kate's fist impacted Meredith's nose. Meredith shrieked and fell back. Kate advanced on her.

"Rick's too much of a gentleman to hit a lady, or even a woman. Not even such a sorry excuse for a woman as you. I have no such qualms. Get this straight, once and for all. I AM Alexis' mother. She is MY precious daughter. Now and forever. You are NOTHING to her. You're nothing but a selfish money- grubbing tramp. Now, get out of my house, and never come near my daughter again, or it will be the worse for you!"

Two hours later, Meredith was sitting in her hotel room, holding an ice pack to her swollen but not broken nose. There was a knock on her door. She answered it, to see a neatly dressed young man, holding an envelope.

"Miss Meredith Lee?"

"Yes, I'm miss Lee.

He handed her the envelope. "You've been served."

She tore open the envelope. It was a restraining order. Or as they are known in New York, an order of protection. She was forbidden to come within five hundred feet of The Rodgers loft, Alexis' school, the Beckett's house or any member of the Rodgers and Beckett families.

All she could do was return to Los Angeles and try to live off what little she had left of the divorce settlement, the casting couch and her mediocre talent. She tried to console herself that she was a struggling actress, but at this point, there wasn't much help with creditors. She still owned the house in Malibu. She had to find a way to pay the taxes and the upkeep and, yes feed herself. She would, but it was not a way that she'd ever thought she would have to use. But use it, she did. The house, itself was beautiful, and in a prime near the beach, but secluded enough that no one could see what was going on inside. Eventually she was forced to act (if you could call it that} in a few films. She was only a couple of years older than Rick but with late night parties and drinking to try and forget how far she'd fallen; her beauty was fading rapidly.

By the time she was forty, she looked like a very rough sixty. At age fifty-two a blurb appeared in the Los Angeles Times: Local woman found dead. Meredith Lee, age 52 was found dead outside a local bar, Suspected cause of death, alcohol poisoning and hypothermia.

After he was home a month, Rick received a letter from the Air Force offering him a choice of operations officer at the Test Pilot's school, Edwards Air Force Base in California, or command of the advanced fighter training squadron, Luke Air Force Base, Arizona. After a long discussion with Kate and her parents He accepted command of the training squadron. Kate resigned her position at the paper, but agreed to operate as a free-lance journalist, giving the paper first rights to any articles she would write.

They left the loft in Martha's care and moved to Arizona. Kate and Alexis enjoyed the warm weather. They rented a house off post. Two months after they arrived Kate became pregnant with their first son. (Alexis would always be, in her mind, her first child). Despite her slender build, the delivery was a fairly easy one, as such things go. James Richard Rodgers was a happy child.

His older sister often behaving as a "little mother". A tear after the end of the Korean war, Rick was released from active duty and the family returned to n New York, where he returned to his writing career. A year later, Johanna Rose Rodgers was born, growing to be the spitting image of her mother. Two tears after that, Bryan Joseph Rodgers joined the family. Two years later, Kate had a disastrous miscarriage and nearly died. They decided that the church's rules be damned and she had a tubal ligation.

Rick's writing career flourished, but he remained in the Air Force Reserve, Promoted colonel in 1960. Kate also continued to write, carving out a successful secondary career. But her first career, by choice, was that of wife and mother. Rick was promoted Brigadier General in 1968 and retired from the Air Force reserve in 1975, The same year that James graduated from the Air Force Academy. He didn't quite follow in his father's footsteps. He became a navigator in the Strategic Air Command. Doctor Alexis Rodgers graduated from medical school in 1970 and married Doctor Michael O'Brian in 1973. She presented Rick and Kate with their first grandchild in 1976. Johanna Rose, graduated from Julliard in 1977. An accomplished pianist and composer. She married Mark Crawford, another composer in 1980 and had her first child, two years later. Bryan followed in his grandfather's footsteps and became an attorney, joining his law firm two years before Jim retired. They say that men often marry women who remind them of their mothers. In Bryan's case, it was true. Barbara Connolly was also an attorney. He met her as he was litigating a case against a manufacturer accused of cheating their employees out of benefits. She was the attorney for another accuser. They both won their cases. He asked her out for a celebratory drink and it went from there. She was tall, slender and beautiful, much like Kate and just as independent minded. Their initial courtship was rather fiery but in the end it worked out.

Martha Rodgers passed away, after a brief illness, at 92 tears of age, a celebrated Broadway actress.

Jim Beckett passed away at 93 and Johanna a year later.

Brigadier General Richard Rodgers passed away in 2015 surrounded by his wife, his four children, 12 grandchildren and eight great grandchildren. He was buried with full military honors. The family gathered in the same cemetery, three months later. The doctors said that Kate simply died of natural causes. Her family knew better. She simply didn't want to, couldn't live any longer without the love of her life. Alexis was the last to leave the cemetery. She paused as she thought that she heard the soft strains of Blue moon She never told anyone else, they would have thought her insane, but she swore that she saw two ghostly figures dancing, her heart lightened. Where ever her parents were, they were together. And happy.

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