Draw your own conclusion (for Tarrakhash and Blurugirl)

[Blurugirl]

Shahlah Jacobson thought she had a perfect life. Mostly.

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Granted, her life hadn't started off perfectly, mostly or otherwise. Her father had become enamored with an Iranian man, and Shahlah had been the result of the romance. But the romance quickly devolved into abuse and control from her biological father, who left her mother and her when Shahlah was five,

No problem. When Shahlah was nine, Shahlah's mother would meet the man who would become Shahlah's stepfather.

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Shahlah loved her stepfather. But she loved all her family. Shahlh's stepfather was a commercial artist who still kept tabs with his classical roots. He was successful enough that he could run his own business out of their office. But he also taught an art history class at the local college, and drew "non-commercially", as he called it. And though Shahlah had no talent of her own, her stepfather made sure Shahlah was still introduced to his world. He had not only taught her about different artists and artistic movements throughout history, but also how to appreciate and critically analyze art as a whole.

Shahlah had a good relationship with her mother. Mostly. Well, Shahalah's felt her slightly nerdy mathlete daughter should be outgoing, and she definitely did not appreciate the mostly frumpy, form hiding clothes her eighteen year old daughter wore. But Shahlah still appreciated her mother. Well, things had become strained between Shahlah's mother and stepfather, and she knew her stepfather spent some nights on the couch in his office, but he always said that was because he was working late. And if the two were having problems, they were going to great lengths not to expose their kids to their marital strife.

And Shahlah adored her little five year old brother. Mostly.

Hunter was blonde and blue eyed (the same as everyone else in the family except Shahlah) and was just as sweet as he could be. He would sit by Shahlah on the couch, cuddle up to her, and ask her for a story if she wasn't busy. Or just sit there and be sweet and good if she was busy.

Hunter was perfect. Mostly.

Except Hunter would draw on anything if given a chance. In response to Hunter's artistic exuberance, the walls were painted with wipeable paints, Hunter was given special crayons, and anything you didn't want drawn on, was locked up and put away. Because Hunter would listen and obey about everything except drawing.

Which is where the story begins.

Shahlah's stepfather would keep his office locked, to ensure that Hunter didn't draw on any of the more expensive books he had on his shelves. In addition, all important papers were kept locked in the bottom drawer of the office.

Shahlah and her mother had keys to the office, and Shahlah went into the office one to use the family printer. While she was printing out a paper due on Monday, she noticed the bottom drawer of the desk was ajar. She was about to close the drawer when a folder in it caughter eye. It was titled "Life Drawings." Shahlah immediately knew that meant Nude Sketches. Although she was a modest young woman (overly modest, in her mother's opinion), Shahlah wasn't shocked about the idea of her father making nude sketches. That's what artists did, after all. She would have been more shocked if her father made landscape paintings. He did have curt words about that sort of thing.

Curious, Shahlah pulled out the folder and began flipping through it. She didn't recognize some of the models, of course, but assumed they were student models her father had met at the college. One of the models, though, looked familiar to Shahlah. It took the teen a few minutes to recognize who the nude woman was in those sketches. It was HER!

Shahal was more than a little shocked that her father has been imagining her nude. Well, he had not only been imagining, he had been mentally airbrushing the nude mental image of his stepdaughter. The young woman in these pictures was gorgeous! It was sort of like the optimized version of what Shahlah thought she could ever aspire to.

Probably the only thing her stepfather had not improved on, Shahlah though with a self-conscious smirk, was the size of Shahlah's breasts in the sketches. But then she couldn't really fault her father on that. After all, with the frumpy clothes she made sure she was wearing any time she stepped out of her room, he had no idea on how to guess. The breasts in the sketches looked to be about a cup smaller than Shahlah's D cup.

Still, the part of Shahlah's mind that her stepfather had trained to look at a drawing analytically thought they were good, if woefully inaccurate. So Shahlah took a couple of post its from the desk, wrote some critiques, attached it to the drawings, then returned them to the bottom drawer. This time, though, she made sure the bottom drawer was locked. Hunter definitely didn't need to get to those pictures!

Chuckling, Shahlah locked up her father's office, headed to her bedroom, did a few things on the compute, then called it a night. At ten o'clock on a Friday night, Shahlah was happily asleep in her own bedroom.

 

[Tarrakhash]

He nodded,"Just us, there isn't a need for this to be beyond us." He listened to her and nodded,"It does, I have a little more complicated feelings about it because I feel like I let her go, failed at keeping us a part and all the usual issues that a man has when his wife leaves him." He looked away for a moment, shrugging, not aware how much that might be an underlying factor in him even attempting to get close to a girl like Shamira,"But yes, it does feel like a weight is lifted and none of us have to pretend to be something we're not...and I'm happy about that. I love you, just the way you are. I hated it when she tried to make you into...well whatever it is that she was aiming for."

He let out a chuckle,"But yes, this is a little weirder, but everyone is in agreement..somehow...and it's comfortable." He looked at her and frowned as something else flagged his mind from what Shamira had said,"So...I have to ask...since it's awkward already.....are the three of you also....touching, I suppose, is the politest way to put it and still it sounds creepy."

 

[Blurugirl]

"What?" Shahlah's look was one of sheer surprise. "Oh, nononononono. I mean, there's nothing wrong with that, just you know, my thoughts don't go that way. Sarai's neither. Shamira's...well, I love Shamira, but I always thought she was kind of like Sheldon. You know, her thoughts didn't run in any direction on that subject. Well, I would have thought that untl today." Shahlah touched her lips, remembering the quick good night kiss her friend had given her. "I just...well, I think if this was a meeting, we'd table the subject until next Saturday. Wow. Huh." With a somewhat dazed look on her face, Shahlah got up and gave her stepfather a perfunctory kiss on the forehead before heading up to sleep, deep in thought.

 

[Tarrakhash]

Stephen chuckled,"Just checking...it's been a revelatory couple of hours....figured I'd get it all out in one go." He nodded in agreement with the Sheldon comment,"Okay, Saturday it is then."

Although giving Shamira more time to think about her enjoyment of being touched might evolve into something else. He got up and started towards the kitchen and stopped, chuckling,"Still no alcohol in there, Stephen, you really should have got that worked out...."

With that he headed to his office, work and sleep with some strange thoughts of his own and a hint more excitement about what Saturday would bring. This was..well unexplored territory now.

 

[Blurugirl]

The week was...well, 'interesting' was too mild and restrictive a word. The easy going spirit between the three teens seemed disrupted. Well, perhaps 'disrupted' is too strong a word. Shamira was her normal silent, withdrawn self away from house. At home, she was quiet, happy and pleasant. She still took her self-appointed duty of being Hunter's homework tutor seriously. And she kept up her new habit of referring to Stephen as 'Daddy', and giving him, Shahlah and Sarai good night pecks on the lips.

Shahlah seemed deep in thought all week. Sarai...well, Sarai was having a little fun with it, bouncing between calling Stephen either Mr. Jacobson or Dad when she was serious, and Daddy when she was feeling a little facetious. But all in all, she was friendly and huggy with all.

As was her new custom, Sarai was the first one up on Saturday morning, getting breakfast prepared for her new family.

 

[Tarrakhash]

Despite the upset as the four of them tried to find their new equilibrium, Stephen had grown to accept that Shamira was right and this would grow and move on it's own. It had been exposed for what it could be and it felt like most of them had drawn back a little, but Stephen suspected that was because they were all considering the implications of what had been brought to light. Now it was time to see where the chips would fall, all in all it had still been a peaceful, pleasant week otherwise.

Getting up he made his way through to breakfast, making a detour past his usual spot to give Sarai a hug and then going to sit with a glass of Orange Juice,"So, what are the plans for today? Hunter off to soccer and then you guys doing anything?"

 

[Blurugirl]

Sarrai returned the hug, then opened the oven door to pull out a sheet of cinnamon rolls This in and of itself was not unusual. Sarai's Saturday breakfast repertoire was varied and seemingly endless. What was unusual was that there were three other trays of cinnamon rolls already on the counter. In addition, the bags under Sarai's eyes gave evidence that she had been up early baking those cinnamon rolls. That is, if she had been asleep at all.

"Would you like to know what your son did this week?" Sarai said. Despite the semi-accusatory tone in her voice, there was more humor than admonishment in her eyes as she put the final tray of cinnamon rolls on the counter and prepared to begin icing them. "And don't even think about touching any of these rolls!" she said with a laugh.

 

[Tarrakhash]

Looking at the rows of cinnamon rolls Stephen smirked, he made to reach for one only to be admonished and he chuckled,"Oh boy.....child ownership....my child.....I'm going to go out on a limb and say that he likely didn't challenge one of you to a cinnamon roll eating competition....."

Looking over the number of rolls he smirked,"I'm going to ask what time his friends are coming over? And how many?" Patting Sarai on the shoulder he sighed,"You should have told me.....I could have helped you know? We're a team."

 

[Blurugirl]

"No offense, 'Daddy'," Sarai said with a sigh as she began icing the cinnamon rolls, "But you would have gotten in the way. So you know how Hunter is going to Autumn Camp week after next?" The school district that Hunter and the girls went to gave their students a week off at the end of the October. Hunter would be spending it a soccer camp, which he was looking forward to. "Well, the soccer team is doing breakfast for the kids and their parents at his school cafeteria this morning. Hunter volunteered me to make cinnamon rolls, and volunteer you and all his sisters to help serve breakfast. Unfortunately, I didn't find out any of this until late last night when Mrs. Gatlin called."

Mrs. Gatlin was one of the chief soccer mom's. Since Stephen's wife had left and the girls had taken over in helping take care of Hunter, Sarai had become a contact point for the family with the soccer mom's. This was due in part because Sarai actually knew quite a few of the boys and their parents already, through her aunt and uncle's gaming and comic shop. But it was also because Sarai had been able to make snacks a couple of times at the last minutes (making snacks, and not just buying chip bags from the big box store) when one of the mothers responsible for that task bailed at the last minute.

"Mrs. Gatlin called to ask if needed any help bring the rolls over, and to remind us we all needed to show up early to help serve breakfast. When I asked Hunter about this, he said, "Oh, yeah, you're bringing cinnamon rolls, and everyone else is helping, and went back to sleep. So go get a shave and shower, and the rest of Hunter's helpers will be down in the living room when we're ready to leave. And you owe me big time," she said, grinning. "HUGE! Colossal Scale."

 

[Tarrakhash]

Stephen groaned as the story was laid out, he put his hand over his face and chuckled,"That boy...I'll talk to him, but yes, it looks like I need to rush a little." Chuckling he started heading up to shower and he stopped, giving Sarai a long look,"Thank you, and I do owe you, I also know you won't be shy about calling in your debt. You let me know what I can do, Sarai, anything with in reason, okay?"

Smirking he winked at her,"I know you have a tendency to go off the deep end so I need at least some restrictions right? I'll be back in a bit." With that he headed upstairs to shave, shower and get ready to take his rather interesting collection of a family to go do..well...family things. And that started with getting himself ready, he even dolled himself up a little, some cologne and trimmed his mustache before making his way down and looking over the rest to see if he could help.

 

[Blurugirl]

Downstairs, all the rest of the family was waiting for Sarai and Stephen. Hunter was in a clean soccer uniform, with Shahlah kneeling in front of him, checking to make sure he's clean. Both her and Shamira were in nice dress jeans and semi-dressy T-Shirts (Shahlah wearing a pink one, Shamira a green one), their long hair hanging behind them loosely. Both looked more than presentable. If the pair had shown up at high school dressed as they were, no one would have believed they were the two nerdy girls who took al the honors and AP classes.

Shamira beamed when she saw Stephen coming down the stairs. "Saira said go ahead and load the trays in the back of the SUV and she'll ride in back with them. She also said Hunter should be thankful he's so cute, or she'd be asking you to not let him go to soccer camp week after next." The last was said with a stern look at Hunter, who ducked his head and blushed.

"I'm sorry, Dad, I meant to say something," Hunter said guiltily. "I just kept forgetting."

"You need to apologize to Sarai, too," Shahlah told her little brother.

"Just try not to forget next time." Sarai said, coming down the stairs. She was towel drying her long hair, wearing dress blue jeans like Shamira and Shahlah, though her dressy T-shirt was light blue. "Okay, people, let's get those cinnamon rolls loaded. They're not going to do it themselves."

 

[Tarrakhash]

Stephen returned Shamira's smile with one of his one, nodding at the instructions and coming to stand next to her as she gently berated Hunter,"Yes, my boy, it's important that you do remember, perhaps you should get the teacher or mom to write these in your homework book, I know Shamira checks it every day." He reached out to put a hand on Shamira's shoulder,"Because you know she cares about you a lot....make sure we do better, buddy, we know you mean well."

His eyes lifted at Sarai's words and he smiled, all three of them were so beautiful and all when you weren't looking too,"Come on then, Hunter you grab your stuff...girls get a tray each and let's go. Sarai won't tolerate any slackers, and you don't want her chasing us around...." Smirking he headed up to load the stuff in the car, carefully making sure there was space for Sarai to sit as well before supervising the others and grabbing another tray as needed.

 

[Blurugirl]

The breakfast went as planned, with the homemade cinnamon rolls being the hit of the buffet. Sarai was a little worried when the cinnamon rolls began disappearing quickly, thinking she should have made more. Mrs. Gatlin reassured her that she could have brought an entire bakery's worth of rolls and the ravenous army that were the soccer teams would have devoured them like piranhas.

More than one mother came up to compliment Stephen about Sarai, telling him what a beautiful and talented daughter he had, which caused Sarai to blush to no end.

In fact, Stephen got no end to the compliments of his daughters, how beautiful and intelligent and talented they were. In fact, this presented a problem. The three teens, as earlier said, were looking more than presentable, and had attracted the attention of more than one of the fathers with wandering eyes. One would think that common decency would prevent someone from hitting on another woman in the presence of one's wife, particularly at a breakfast being held for one's child. One, however, would be very wrong.

The girls, in their fashion, handled it in different ways, as did the gathered mothers present.

Sarai dismissed it. After breakfast, she found herself at a table of other mothers who cooked, and wanted to know the recipe of the cinnamon rolls and other snacks she had prepared. Sarai could not have been more excited and intense in a conversation than if she had been discussing the pros and cons of retcons in various comic genres. She was also feeling flattered that she was being brought int the inner circle of the other soccer moms. When one or two of the more slithery dads tried to break her away from the culinary pack, she dismissed them and went back to talking about cooking shows.

Shahlah was a little perplexed by it. But she had been brought into the crowd of parents keeping the kids busy, and she dismissed anything that didn't involve running games for her beloved little brother and his friends happy and busy.

Shamira was terrified by it. She had been shy and quiet on the serving line, only being comfortable around her family and Hunter's teammates. So when she got "hit on" while Stephen's attention was turned away, she panicked and immediately rushed to where Stephen was standing. She didn't cling to him, exactly, but she didn't let herself get more than an inch away from him for the rest of the morning.

It was Mrs. Gatlin who once again unwittingly came to the aid of the extended Jacobson family. She got Stephen and Shamira over at a table and slowly got Shamira out of her shell, complimenting her how she had been working with Hunter at home. Shamira was a bright red at all this praise, but much more relaxed to.

"So, Mr. Jacobson," Mrs. Gatlin began, "I'm not going to make you commit, but this winter, when our team is indoor, some of us were thinking of some fun and educational activities for the kids to do, while they wait for it to warm up so they can go outside again. I know you teach at the college. Do you think you might be able to come up with something arts-wise? And you too Shamira. I know you do all those honors programs and I know you have done so much with Hunter and his classwork." Shamira was a bright red now, but also very pleased.

As Stephen gave Mrs. Gatlin his answer (and as the handful of skeevy Dads were roundup up by their soon-to-be vengeful spouses), one of the Dads went up front and make an announcement. "Sorry to break this up folks," he began, "But the Weather folks just issued a Severe Thunderstorm Watch until this evening. So we better start heading home. But before we got, let's have a big Huskies thank you for all the mothers and dads who made this possible today." A loud applause with the soccer players howling and barking followed.

"I guess we should go get the trays, and everyone else, and load up the SUV," Shamira said to Stephen.

 

[Tarrakhash]

Stephen, while he hadn't forseen the problems spotted them when they happened, but he couldn't be everywhere at once, so he watched the girls and intervened when he could or when he had to. Sarai seemed to have things under control, so he only bothered to get one of the men's wifes to look in her direction to help, it was easy with simple hand movements he drew her attention in the direction of Sarai and let her own eyes tell her all she needed to know.

Shahlah seemed to have discovered the shelter of a crowd, but Shamira, that was the only time he really acted. Moving away from his assigned post he slid up next to Shamira, his hand sliding around her elbow as he gave the dad in question a glare before saying to Shamira,"Come, dear, I need your help at the table." The look he gave the guy promised a swift and thorough beating if he came near her again, and he was very happy to have her close to him, his murder eyes ready for any man that so much as looked at her.

He spent a lot of time holding onto her arm, or with his arm over her protectively, and the other two may have seen that he had a very well practiced death glare that followed the first man around like a pair of lasers....that mother fucker was on Stephen's hit list....if Stephen wasn't a mature adult who didn't consider driving his SUV over people.

Ms. Gatling brought him back to smiles though and he chuckled,"Oh, I'm sure that between Shamira and I we can come up with a couple of things...." It would also allow him to keep her out of harms way and close to him while they were out in public. The Thunderstorm announcement drew his attention and he nodded to Shamira,"Yes, let's do that....looks like we'll have to postpone drawing to another day, okay?" He gave her a smile and a quick sidelong hug before making his way around grabbing empty trays and rounding up Sarai and Shahlah.

 

[Blurugirl]

Shahlah had Hunter in tow when her stepfather gathered them about.

"So are we in danger?" Hunter asked as all the kids were talking about the weather. As the group carried their trays to the SUV, the clouds were getting darker, and there were even a few spatters of rain starting to fall.

"No," Shamira explained, as they loaded trays into the back, "Because it is a watch, not a warning. A watch means something could happen, while a warning means it is happening."

"And besides," Sarai added, "Your dad is an excellent driver, and this SUV is top of the line, and Shahlah keeps it well maintained." The last was a reference to the fact that Shahlah was the most mechanically inclined of the three young geniuses, a fact that spilled over into her normal, day-to-day life and which had been one of the many points of contention between Shahlah's now departed mother and Shahlah.

"Yeah, she does boy stuff like that," Hunter opined. This immediately got him three hard glares as the family climbed into the SUV.

"Hunter, there is not girl stuff or boy stuff," Sarai instructed him. "There's just stuff some people do better than others."

Hunter nodded dutifully as he and Shamira took the center seat. Sarai climbed in the far back with her trays and looked like she was ready to go to sleep. Shahlah climbed in the front passenger seat and noticed a warning on the navigation console.

"Some kind of accident on the main road home," she noted. The suggested alternative route was just an extra ten minutes, and went by the River Park. Technically, it wasn't a Park, but just a small rest stop on the edge of town with a scenic overlook over Gopher Gulch. And technically, it wasn't Gopher Gulch, but rather Goforth Gulch, but everyone had gotten used to calling it Gopher Gulch.

Shamira got Hunter buckled in, and the young boy immediately started yawning. Shamira smiled and said, "Someone's ready for a nap!" Hunter just nodded and almost immediately dozed off.

As the SUV began its way home, the rain started coming down. The SUV was coming up to River Park when there was a sudden break in the weather, though the skies remained overcast and threatening. Shamira was the first to notice the flashing emergency lights of a Honda Compact on the side of the road just before the Park. The Honda was rolled on its side. It didn't appear to be anyone in or around the car.

 

[Tarrakhash]

Stephen was listening as they drove, smirking at the boys stuff/girls stuff comment and even added in his two cents,"And let me tell you, Hunter, there is not a lot of stuff that these three girls aren't good at."

When Shamira pointed out the little car he frowned pulling over, as far as he could he knew the rain would make visibility hard, and putting on his hazards he looked over his shoulder throwing his phone into Shahlah's lap,"One of you call 911, one of you stay with Hunter keep him in the car...tell me one of you has some first aid? I know there is a kit in the trunk but it's super basic...."

He climbed out of the car, zipping up his jacket and heading to the over turned car to see what was going on.

 

[Blurugirl]

"Actually, it's been upgraded," Sarai said from the back, getting the first aid kid out.

"I got it," Shahlah said, transferring Hunter over to Shamira's lap, who nodded dutifully. "We, uh, did a lot of upgrading on the roadside emergency kit, Dad," Shahlah said, grabbing the kit from Sarai as she ran to catch up with her stepfather. "Some on the car's security, too, including biometric keys," Shahlad added. "But Shamira did the transfers when she got your fingerprint for your computer system," she added.

A quick inspection of the car showed nobody was in it. "Dad..." Shahlah pointed to some kind of marks or tracks or something that looked as if they went right up to the protective rail a few yards off the rail that lined the gulch beyond.

"Dad!" That was Sarai yelling, phone in hand There was absolutely no note of sarcasm in Sarai's voice when she called Stephen 'Dad.'. "911 is not responding, and the landline to the police station is busy. A few people on my social account are saying that accident we detoured around knocked out the county's 911 system."

 

[Tarrakhash]

Stephen nodded at Shahlah's words,"Well that's good news....i think we might need it." He looked all over the car and realised it was empty. Moving around the car to where Shahlah was standing and he cursed under his breath this was like a nightmare, fucking crazy, he moved to the barrier and looked over.

"Man....I hope they aren't stuck down there in the rain....",his eyes scanned the gulch wall,"Do we have a tow rope somewhere? If they found someone they might need it."

 

[Blurugirl]

Shahlah looked over the railing with her stepfather and didn't see anything either.

"I don't...wait, there's something," she said, motioning to a grayish something that looked like it might be something.

Just then there was a little break in the clouds, and all rain stopped.

"Well, that's a break we need," Sarai said. "Hang on a second."

Sarai ran back to the car and brought back a small drone, barely bigger than her hand.

"Part of your upgraded emergency kit," Sarai explained. "Mainly for taking accident pictures. And we'll need to put an app on your phone for it too, Dad." Again, Sarai was using the title 'Dad' naturally in the stressful situation. "Shahlah, if you'll do the honors?"

Shahlah nodded, pulled out her phone, and activated the app Instantly controls and a camera view came on the phone's screen. Shahlah nimbly piloted the drone down to where the gray object was. It turned out to be a young redheaded woman, unconscious, wearing a gray hoodie and grayish-blue jeans and a white T-shirt with a spiderman logo on it.

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Sarai whistled. "If this were one of the pre-MCU Spiderman movies, she'd be a dead ringer for Mary Jane," Sarai remarked "Unfortunately, there's no webswinger around."

"She's not waking up, Dad," Shahlah said, as she used the little drone to buzz the redhead.

"We've got three different types of rope, Dad," Sarai said, "But we aren't just going to be able to lower a rope to her. Somebody's going to have to climb down and tie it to her. And I know you don't want to hear this, but I think it's going to have to be Shamira. She actually climbs and does stuff like this."

 

[Tarrakhash]

Stephen watched carefully as the girls worked, he was horrified to find the person was not only down there but also very much alive...if not concious.

He looked at Sarai and frowned,"You're right....I don't like it. What if that storm comes back? Or even just the wind....." He looked very unhappy,"That said, if it was one of you three down there I'd hope someone would at least try."

That didn't make him look any happier of course,"Ask Shamira if she will....." He really didn't like it.

 

[Blurugirl]

Sarai went back and talked to Shamira (once putting Hunter to the side, of course). Shamira nodded then the two had a very stern talk with Hunter, telling him he had to absolutely stay with the truck and not leave it for ANY reason. Hunter solemnly promised. Shamira buckled him in, told him to stay put, and then she and Sarai went to the back of the SVU and brought back two ropes, both looking sturdy enough to hold a person.

Shamira made herself a jury rigged harness before making her way to Stephen. "It'll be all right, Daddy," she promised him. She pointed to a nearby elm, one about a half a meter in diameter. "We'll use that tree as an anchor. It'll be all right, Daddy," Shamira promised. "Once we get everything secured, Sarai will watch Hunter. I'll get the rope tied to the girl down there, you'll pull her up, then lower the rope back down, and I'll be up." Shamira gave Stephen a look with her soulful blue eyes that was meant to reassure him.

"And when we get home, you can order a winch for the front of the SUV," Sarai said. "Don't worry, Dad, we'll have a pulley system that will make Archimedes proud."

The two young woman got something together while Shahlah watched the unconscious woman on video. "I think she's coming round," Shahlah shouted.

"Better get moving then," Sarai told Shamira, giving her a hug before she went back to check on Hunter.

Shamira gave Stephen one more hug before she began nimbly climbing down the gully side.

 

[Tarrakhash]

Just because they seemed to know what they were doing, and because Shamira reassured him several times didn't make him any more sure this was the case and he supervised everything with nervous eyes and much wringing of hands.

Of course he hugged her back and made a brave face but he was basically hanging over the edge from the time she went over watching and fretting the whole time.

He didn't know how long this would take but he was determined to keep checking and do what little he could to keep Shamira and his other girls safe.

 

[Blurugirl]

It was amazing watching Shamira descend down the side of the gulch. She was a veritable mountain goat. Then a startling thing happen.

"Dad," Shahlah said, showing him the phone. "The other girl is waking up and...and I think her and Shamira know each other."

The scene on the phone, being sent back from the drone, was...well, surreal. It wasn't a chance meeting on the corner or the coffee shop, but the look on the face of the waking redhead was relief and happiness at seeing Shamira. Shamira said something reassuring to the redhead, who relaxed. Shamira asked her something, and the redhead pointed at her right wrist and left ankle ankle. Shamira nodded, and helped get the redhead into the makeshift harness on the second rope she had brought down with her. Shamira then turned to the drone and made an upward pointing gesture with her hand.

"That's your cue, Daddy," Shahlah said.

 

[Tarrakhash]

Stephen watched the drama unfold, shaking his head in amazement. Finally though he nodded and grabbed the rope,"I might need some help, I'm not 20 anymore." That said he did keep himself fit....just not strong enough to randomly haul up injured girls.

Still he braced himself against the side and hand over hand worked the pulley system the girls had in place pulling up the red headed girl. He did it slow and steady, aware he still had to get Shamira up....and he wasn't going to injure himself or tire himself out till he got Shamira to safety.

 

[Blurugirl]

As the redhead came over the edge, Shahlah put the drone on "auto-hover" and helped her up.

"Shahlah? Professor Jacobson?" the redhead asked, looking at her two rescuers.

"Do we know you?" Shahlah asked, obviously confused.

"Yeah, but we should get Shamira up first," the redhead said, getting clear of the harness that had brought her up.

Shahlah nodded, getting back to her phone and getting the drone in position. "Shamira's ready to come up anytime, Dad," she told Stephen.

 

[Tarrakhash]

Stephen eyed the girl, she called him Professor? From one of his classes, not worrying to much about it for now, getting Shamira up was more important, he started working on Shamira's rope as soon as he got the all clear from Shahlah, he hauled slow and steady again, although his mind was already puzzling over the red head, trying to figure out which class she was in....or perhaps she was a model, he didn't think so he normally remembered them...but there had been a lot going on recently.