When Felicity and Peter returned two days later, a Saturday, they were debriefed by James and Heather about Ruthie and Hope. Peter didn't seem that surprised at the news, but Felicity was shocked that a woman she admired would take such a big risk.
Later that day, the Grand Council met at Rod's office. The six ministers had been joined by Patrick who wanted a complete break from his pastoral past, and Hope was delighted her brother would be sharing her ministry. He also brought a major revenue stream - most of his congregants were in the "one percent" and were more than happy to help out an already successful church, and to help Hope and Felicity to take down more false teachers. Along with the ministers were the four children.
Shelby spoke first.
"I'm not going to ask what happened, because it did," she said. "Frankly, Hope and Ruthie, what you women want to do is your own business. As far as Ruthie wanting to marry a lesbian couple - well, Rod and I have leaned that way anyway, and using the loophole you thought of is brilliant. We're going to make a ton of money off of this, but for a while we'll have to be very discrete about it. That includes confidentiality agreements."
"The problem, women," said Rod, "isn't what you did, but that you did it to each other. If you, Hope, was still an outsider and you seduced Ruthie, Shel and I couldn't have cared less. But you are both ministers, unmarried ministers of this church both of you, and doing what you two did did creates a conflict of interest. Ruthie, the congregation forgave you for sleeping with Lisa, just as they forgave Peter and Felicity and have welcomed them as an expecting couple. But this is something they may not look past."
"What are you getting at, Rod?" asked Ruthie.
"You'd better hope no one was spying on you two. You seem to have forgotten that, while the wood lot may be the church's, we signed an easement to the local trail association so there is public access. And with both of you - all seven of us - having top security clearances, we're all potential subjects for blackmail. Shelby and I have played the game for as long as we can remember, and it occurs to us that even if you had went to a hotel you wouldn't have covered your tracks. Hope, at least."
"I'm not sure I understand," said Hope.
"Well, my brother James and I will make you understand," said Heather, with a bit of anger in her voice. "Mom, Dad, you, Felicity and Patrick are merely co-pastors of our church. Aunt Shelby and Uncle Rod are the senior pastors which makes them your boss. Even though you effectively work as the equals you should be. But we - all of us - report to the congregation. Including us kids, as my brother and I help manage Sunday School with Maighread and Rhiannon. If our parishoners get word of this, it will go to a special meeting of the members. And if a simple majority vote non-confidence, then they'll force our Aunt's and Uncle's hands."
"If it ends up a dead tie, Rod and I will break the tie for you - we promise you that," said Shelby. "But if you lose, we'll have no choice but to fire you. We've worked too hard on this church to risk losing it. This is our home and our calling. And we intend to serve our Master, here, until we're called home. Sorry, guys, but if push comes to shove, we'll shove. We won't have your backs. We're sorry to tell you that, but our kids are unanimous with us on that too. Now that our military discharges are about complete - and we'll get our pensions in full after all - our first priority is our children, and the second the church. End of story!"
"My sister and I may resign over that," warned Patrick. Hope nodded.
"That's your choice, brother. But my husband and I have made our choice. We'll do everything we can to protect all of you. But if there is a leak, Hope and Ruthie will be on their own. And they'll have to make the biggest sales pitch of their entire lives. And Hope - " Shelby turned to her " - you'd better dip into your televangelist skills and Ruthie her book and street smarts, and write the best sermon you'll ever write. Because 'sorry' just won't cut it on this one."
"What about it, Ruthie?" Hope turned to her partner.
"We'll get started on it in the morning, after I do a chapel wedding," said Ruthie.
"There is one thing," Maighread wanted to know. "Aunts Ruthie and Hope, Rhiannon and I talked about it after supper last night but ..." She couldn't finish the sentence.
"Are you gals going to continue to sleep together?" asked Rhiannon bluntly.
"Probably," admitted Ruthie. "Hope and I are thinking, about once a week."
"Then you ladies truly are insane," said Felicity with anger. "I may be bi-sexual, and I may have brought up the idea of a threesome with Hope - I made it look like she came up with the idea a few months back but it was me ... but anyway, I made a vow to be faithful to Peter and I intend to stick to it. Like Rod said, you are both ministers at this church, not at separate ones. Even cheating televangelists make a point of sleeping with other, competing, televangelists - not someone inside their church like a certain country singer - slash - minister did over twenty years ago. Remember, 'I have sinned against you, my Lord!'? You not only have to put the kibbosh on the concept, but also on finding a boyfriend in-house. This is really pressing your luck, and it's not a video game! You are, and always will be, my sisters in Christ. But I won't have your back either."
"And not from me," said Peter. "Ruthie, you may be the mother of my children - two of them - and if you and Hope want to continue, go ahead; but if you get fired, I'll seek primary custody. That's how strongly I feel about it."
Ruthie shed a tear and started sobbing. She wasn't anticipating this.
"Make no mistake, honey, you'll always have free access to the children. But if and only if you lose your job, then they'd be living with me full time."
"What about you, Patrick? I understand about your position in the church and your perhaps wanting to leave, but ... you wouldn't shove your own sister under the bus, just after we finally reconciled after nearly twenty years?" asked Hope to her brother.
"I'd never do that, it's just I don't have as much power as you, sis," replied Patrick. "My credentials really aren't that great and I've had to start rebuilding them from scratch here at this church. I can advocate for you but I know I won't be much help. Chances are, that'll get me fired too. Frankly, if you get caught, the three of us should resign together just to avoid the embarrassment of a church trial."
"Wrong, Patrick. We're not resigning," said Ruthie. "We'll fight this. I know who might want to blackmail us - Hope and I both do. That same person is also behind the bond scam. We've narrowed it down to three people. But we want to get it down to the one before calling the Secret Service."
"What if he or she calls you out first ... Mom? Aunt Hope?" asked James.
"Then we go public right away. If they smear, so do we," said Hope. "And Ruthie, the gang here is right. I loved our afternoon and night together, but that's it. We really do need to find men - online."
"Yeah," said Ruthie in resignation. "I get a friends discount from the site I'm on if I recruit a member on the site I use, and your intro discount will be bigger too. I'll get you set up while we're writing our argument."
That was what Hope and Ruthie said to their colleagues. But it was a feint ... they had every intention of continuing their relationship.
At this, the meeting was dismissed with everyone agreeing they would keep the affair to themselves. Everyone left the office, except for Shelby and Rod.
"So Shel, want to do it - shag, now, on my desk?" said Rod, laughing.
"You bet," his wife replied. She wasn't laughing. Which meant she got to be on top. They made love for three hours before going back to the parsonage to make supper for their daughters. The girls knew what their parents had done, and that made them happy - that their parents had sex at all times of the day, and anywhere at that.
It was Rod's turn to deliver the sermon the next day, and the meeting that day forced him to revise large sections of his sermon. It would be an uncomfortable one: Leaving Jonestown, Guyana. About not drinking the flavored water of preachers, the mass media and advertising. And watching one's step. He worked late into the night.
Meanwhile, Shelby decided to go to bed early after she tucked in her daughters. She entered the bedroom, and took off all her clothes. As she slipped on her nightgown over her naked body, God spoke to Shelby. She was pregnant with another set of twins - this time a boy and girl. And she and Rod had conceived them on Felicity and Peter's wedding night. She would deliver on the same day as Felicity. But God told her to wait to tell her husband until the pregnancy test, if she could wait.
Shelby was shocked. She was the same age as Felicity and Lucy, thirty-five, but she thought she had experienced menopause very early, just three years before. She never even told her husband that she had not had a period all that time, but compensated for that with the fact they had the best sex of their lives. She felt guilty over the non-disclosure, for the entire three years. All that time, she insisted they use no condom, no Pill, both of which did increase the pleasure for both of them.
Rhiannon and Maighread had also been resigned to the fact they would never had another brother or sister. Now they would have both.
Shelby didn't know how to tell Rod, or their daughters, the news even when she did the Number One test and it did come back positive - she knew it would because she knew it was God who had spoken to her, He had never lied to her before and He never would, now or in the future. How this would affect her marriage to the man she loved more than anyone else except her Saviour she didn't know, and she became frightened at the prospect of revealing the truth, because she knew that even if she was having her periods Rod did not want any more children under any circumstances. She started crying when she thought she might lose her best friend forever, and their daughters their father too.
She also mused when she remembered that she gave birth to her girls the same day Ruthie delivered Heather and James. Now she'd be doing the same, on the same day as and with Felicity. It was much easier with Ruthie, who she had been friends with when the latter was still in Grade One, and that they were pregnant "together". But Felicity, who she still privately thought was the cause of Peter and Ruthie to fail in their marriage, was another matter. The undisputed Queen of apologetics certainly was ready to be a mother, but that she worked under the same complex as both Ruthie and herself made it all the weirder. The only thing that could be worse was if Peter had gotten Ruthie pregnant the very last time they made love before his and Felicity's affair.
Then it hit Shelby. Actually, it was God who blindsided her when He continued His message. Ruthie was pregnant as well, with her ex-husband's babies. They were twins, another boy and girl too. And Ruthie didn't know either, even though she was eating much more than usual. Stress from the breakup, she was claiming.
Three of the four women pastors were now in the Mommy's Club, and all at the same time.
Shelby couldn't take it any more. She went to the basement to sleep, but could not, instead she was crying most of the night. She couldn't bear spending the night with her husband.
But she knew she had to tell Ruthie and Felicity. And she would, just before the service the next day. They, too, started bawling when they got the news. Ruthie much more than Felicity. Now they were really going to be stepmothers in fact, not just in spirit. For their fetuses all had the same father. But they were delighted for Hope. Once the women got over their tears, for Hope had cried with the other women, the three ministers hugged each other with joy. They realized this was a great opportunity.
Especially for Ruthie and Felicity. Both would have the upper hand when they told Peter he was going to be a father to four children, not just two. They relished the thought of telling him. Especially when they announced they were both going on maternity leave immediately and making him take care of every one of their needs, especially the housework ... for both of them.
As they expected and hoped, Peter was crushed - although James and Heather were even more ecstatic that they were going to have siblings from both their mothers, than about first hearing of their stepsiblings Isaac and Rebecca. The twins quickly promised their father they would help him, as well as their mother and stepmother, as much as they could. That did not make it easier for him, especially when he remembered that the night before he left to see Felicity, he and Ruthie had made love one last time in hopes of igniting a spark. It turned out he did - not one in Ruthie's mind or heart, but two in her womb. But when the couple found the next morning they had almost no emotion for each other anymore, it was then he decided to make his beeline for Enid and into the arms of Felicity. In just four days, he had impregnated two women. He felt like the victim of a sports reporter turned trash TV host who had all but trademarked the phrase, "You ARE the father!"
To add insult to injury, Shelby then decided not to wait to say anything, instead she also dropped the bomb on Rod just before the service, and that she was taking leave too. Rod shrieked. With joy that he was going to be a father again - indeed, he apologized to her saying he had changed his mind but had not told her yet with the thought they might adopt one or more children from the inner city. With agony that he would have to tend to his wife's every need, too - and that their daughters had the intention of helping only her; not him personally, directly or indirectly.
Three of the most important women in his life, besides his daughters, were offline indefinitely; and he - along with Peter and the Anderson siblings - were left holding the bag caretaking one of the most powerful congregations in the nation.
Rod was on the verge of snapping. He called the Defense Department and asked to speak to their crisis line. He detailed everything that happened over the past months, including the classified information the posse was dealing with. His personal essay lasted over one hour. Once the counsellor calmed Rod down, assured him everything was okay and referred him to a local counsellor, Rod decided to make another phone call to an old friend of Ruthie's.
"Reverend Hamilton?" inquired Rod. "Hi. Thanks for taking my call. I know you're retired, but can you pitch in here in Saint Louis for a couple of months? It's gotten way beyond crazy ... what, you know about the investigation? Oh, Lucy told you. Well, it gets worse; you see ... uh, yes, she is as a matter of fact. What? You will? Thank you, sir! Oh ... while you're at it, call Eric, please. My posse could use his and Annie's help too."