It was a few hours before Frank could get Shannon alone in order to reveal Rene's newly acquired knowledge. He seized his opportunity, following along behind her when she went to the house for a bathroom break. There were facilities in the pool house, to be sure, but Rene was already in one and Andrew in the other.
Shannon knew something was up when, upon her exit from the powder room, she found him leaned up against the opposite wall.
"May I speak to you in the study for a minute?" Frank had witnessed her reaction when she'd snapped on Boone at learning of his own awareness of their abilities, he only hoped she'd go a bit easier on him when she learned of Rene's discovery, and the fact that it was because of him.
He came out marginally better than Boone had; at the very least, she didn't swear at him and call him names. She'd never communicated with him telepathically before, but on hearing his admission; she projected the full force of her displeasure into his head.
"Anymore people find out, and they might as well post it on the state border signs." Shannon fumed after letting him know, in no uncertain terms, just how pissed off she was.
Frank gestured his apology helplessly.
"And now, I'm guessing seeing as you went to all this trouble to tell me privately, that you're expecting me to tell Boone." She demanded with a beleaguered sigh.
"Andrew thought it would be best that way." Frank explained.
"Yeah, lucky me, I'm sure he did," Shannon responded, sarcastically. "Any more revelations this week, and I'm sure my brothers' head will explode. All right, I'll tell him. He's been pretty good this week, but you know this could go either way." She warned, even though Frank had no idea what she was talking about. She spun on her heel and left the room before he could ask.
She finally got Boone alone when they returned to their room to shower and get ready for dinner that night.
"Boone?" She immediately knew she'd used the wrong tone when he turned to her, his face a mask of worry.
"What? Just what? What the fuck now?" He cried, waving his hands in the air in frustration. "Is there an asteroid speeding towards Earth, a tsunami approaching the California coast? What?" He named ridiculous calamities, in order to prepare himself for whatever it was she had to divulge. He dropped his head to his hands, shaking it.
"Boone, calm down." Shannon said soothingly.
He sighed and raised his head, though his fists were clenched. He might have been successfully battling his disease but there were limits, and he was reaching his. "Shan?" He pleaded, letting her guide him to sit on the bed.
She crouched to meet his eye level, "Boone," Shannon waited until she got his attention, "Rene knows about us."
His mouth opened and he stared at her for a bit, drawing a deep breath, he asked all the reasonable questions: where, why, when and how.
Boone digested the answers, his head bowed. "We're going to have to stop letting people in." He said, quietly.
"I know, baby." Shannon agreed.
"We can't let new people into our lives. Even though Frank said she found out because of him, not us, we just can't get close to new people anymore," He said as if she hadn't even spoken. "We can't do this," Boone gestured around the room, "stay at people's houses; let them spend several days with us. It's…dangerous."
"I know that Boone. I already agreed." The somewhat bleak future his words painted stung, but she knew he was right. Shannon tried to console herself with the knowledge that they had a fairly wide circle of friends "in the know" as it was. She wondered how he was going to deal with Andrew? As he got older and went from grade school to high school to university he was obviously going to form new friendships. That discussion could wait, she decided. She would call a family meeting once they got home.
They didn't discuss it when they joined the others in the dining room, though the thoughtful glances that Boone directed at Rene certainly advised all those present that he'd been apprised of her knowledge. He was much quieter than normal throughout the meal though, they all noted.
After consuming a cup of after dinner tea, Boone announced that he was going for a walk.
"I'll come with you." Shannon offered, already rising.
"I'd rather be alone." Boone shook his head.
"Boone, I don't think that's…" She started.
"I'm not going to do anything stupid Shan, this situation hardly warrants it; I just need to be alone for a bit!" Looking extremely upset, he stormed out. Andrew and Shannon jumped when they all heard the front door slam behind him. She worried that she'd pressed him too far, though if he was angry and slamming doors it was undeniably better than if he'd retreated into his shell of meek mildness.
She looked at Frank, "I told you it could go either way."
"I don't understand." He told her. "Why would he think that you'd think he'd do something stupid?"
"You don't know?" The two Jackson's shook their heads.
"I just thought you would, gossip being what it is." She shrugged hoping the gesture would lead them to think it was no big deal. Shannon glanced at Andrew who gave a slight nod of assent. "Boone…he suffers from chronic depression, I worry about him; we both do. He can over-react sometimes, so we tend to be a little over-protective." She made sure that her tone was light. If they didn't know about his depression then they certainly didn't know that he'd tried to commit suicide, and she wasn't about to tell them.
When they looked concerned, she rushed to assure them. "I'm sure all he really wanted to do was go for a walk by himself, it's how he works things through, he'll be fine." She hoped.
When Boone rejoined them an hour later, he seemed much like himself again, accepting a small measure of sherry, which he left mostly untouched, and another tea.
As Shannon had promised that morning, they had sex that night for the first time in almost a week. It was urgent and hurried; they strove for a quick release as they usually did after the regularly occurring brief periods of abstinence. When they were done, Boone lay by her side and pushed the covers down past their hips, running his hand over her perfectly flat stomach.
'What is it, baby? You questioning our decision?' She'd had a feeling that having sex again for the first time since reaching their negative conclusion might trigger something within him. She assumed that he was re-hashing their discussion of earlier in the week and could possibly be reconsidering their decision not to have another child.
'No,' Boone answered, surprising her, 'just remembering what it was like to watch Andrew grow inside you. It was such a miracle, but once was enough for me.' Boone gave her a big grin, then with a sigh pulled the blankets up and snuggled her in close.
The next couple of days passed by pleasantly. They did more touring, with Frank and Rene's local knowledge they explored places that they'd previously overlooked.
Frank finally got to satisfy his curiosity about their abilities when Rene packed Andrew off for a few hours leaving him alone with Boone and Shannon. Once she'd mentioned that she was going to visit a friend of hers whose grandchildren were over, he got permission from Boone to go along too and then scrambled to gather a few things into a backpack.
They were both given an opportunity to get to know Shannon a bit better when Boone accepted an invitation extended by their Austrian chef to show him how to prepare a few of his traditional national dishes. Armed with his ever-present notebook, Boone headed for the kitchen, leaving the others by the pool. Several hours later, in mid-afternoon he returned carrying a heavily laden tray, an excited grin the size of the state of Montana on his face. He quickly laid out the dishes they'd made, explaining each one, telling Shannon how he was going to incorporate several into his menus once he'd amended them to meet his stringent criteria and added a few of his own personal touches.
It was their last night in Napa, Shannon had been sending him subtle signals all evening; brushing her fingers against his when she passed him something at dinner, a laugh accompanied by a sultry glance at one of his only marginally humorous comments, casually tracing patterns on his thigh as the five of them had after dinner drinks and hot beverages in the den. Andrew had given them a bit of an amused glance and a shake of his head when he'd headed off to bed, recognizing the signs easily. Boone excused them both as soon as he felt they'd lingered long enough to be polite.
Upstairs in their bedroom, he pressed her back against the closed door and kissed her gently, teasingly, brief tantalizing brushes of lips and tongue, before deepening it, though still keeping it soft and slow. After a few minutes they moved from the entrance part way to the bed, and then paused again to continue, hands added now, though still little more than grazes.
Shannon finally tired of their dance, and pulled away, eager to divulge her secret purchase. She'd been saving it for his birthday, but had changed her mind at the last minute, stuffing it into her bag on a whim when she packed for the trip. His birthday was just a little over a week away anyway. "You get ready; I've got to get something from the dresser. I have a surprise for you." She turned him and pushed him towards the bathroom.
Boone made short work of it, when he emerged Shannon was standing by the bathroom door, her hands behind her back. His efforts to see what she was hiding were met with her deep throated laugh, "Not yet, Boone. You get naked and climb into bed; I'll just be a minute." He hurried to comply.
When he heard the sound of the bathroom door opening, he turned on his side and propped his head up on his elbow in anticipation, though he wasn't prepared for the sight that the opening door gradually revealed.
Shannon was dressed in the most provocative lingerie he could ever have imagined, as a bonus it was in his favourite shade of dusky blue. A whimper escaped him along with her name, as he ran his eyes over the lacy demi-bra, panties and garter-belt, all topped by a diaphanous, completely sheer, thigh length kimono, that, though closed and loosely belted with a silken tie, left everything completely exposed, even her stockings were the same enticing shade of blue.
Shannon smiled sultrily; he was giving her exactly the result she'd been going for. His open face displayed surprise, pleasure and lust in equal measures.
She crossed to the bed, every movement exuding sexuality. Boone pushed himself up and slid across to her side, the covers falling to his hips. He was suddenly aware of his own nudity in contrast to her fully clothed form; he wished he'd left his boxers on.
"But I told you to get naked, Boone, didn't I?" She switched off all the lights except the bedside ones, using the rheostat to turn them to their dimmest setting, enough illumination by which to see without being intrusive.
Boone nodded, speechless, rising to his knees when she reached the side of the bed, sliding his hands up her back under her cover-up, pressing their bodies together and kissing her softly but deeply.
"You want to help me take this off?" Shannon asked with a twinkle in her eye, her voice low and throaty.
To her surprise and delight, he shook his head, no. 'You went to all that trouble to put it on, let's enjoy it for a while.' His words filled her head.
He touched her everywhere the various fabrics covered her, carefully avoiding any of her exposed skin, the eroticism of it unmatched. He'd quickly moved back from the edge of the bed pulling her with him, within fifteen minutes she was a puddle of primordial ooze lying on her back as he played his fingers and mouth over her. Finally he moved to one side and lifted each of her legs in turn, releasing the fastenings of the garter so that he could pull her panties down. He redid the fastenings, while kissing at the newly exposed skin and moved to kneel between her legs again.
'Isn't it time for my turn, Boone?' She asked, holding him back.
He nodded wordlessly, and let her guide him onto his back. Shannon straddled his hips and lowered herself onto him, leaning back with her hands on his thighs so that they could both see everything.
It was over far more quickly than either of them wanted. Boone reached for her arm to pull her down to his chest once the aftershocks had abated, but she evaded his grasp. She shrugged the kimono off then reached behind herself undoing the clasps of her bra; she then held it out over the edge of the bed, letting it drop to the floor. Only then did she let herself relax down against him carefully, keeping him inside her. She melted into him, kissing the side of his neck softly, the brushes of her lips feather light, interspersed with flicks of her tongue at his pulse point.
'I want you all over again,' he said, she could already feel him stiffening.
'Later,' Shannon promised, as she gave herself over to sleep.
She kept her word twice more during the intervening hours before dawn.
A bit reluctantly they packed the bikes after breakfast the next morning and took to the open road again. The meandering route that they followed over the next two days slowly worked them back towards home. Having explored the state during vacations and weekends in the years Shannon had been gone, Boone and Andrew had seen many of the sights before, but both found new joy in rediscovering them with her. The digital camera was filled almost to capacity when they mounted the bikes for the final short leg of the trip that would take them home.
As pleasant as it was to get away, they all had huge smiles on their faces when they finally pulled into their own driveway and the roar of the two engines dwindled away to silence for the last time.