A Discussion Between Man, Woman and Child

Roger and I were looking over some dubious paperwork for another addition to the family business when my Cousin Elizabeth stepped into the drawing room.

"Ah," she smiled, "Cousin Barnabas, still as handsome and youthful as ever."

I turned to give a pleasant assurance, "Thank you, Cousin Elizabeth, but never forget, however you appear to others, all of you shall look the same to me."

I offered my hands and she took both in hers as she spoke.

"Very well," Elizabeth nodded, "you shan't keep everyone from believing what they see, but... what you see is more important to us, isn't it?"

What I admired was seeing the reflection of who my mother could have lived to be in my Cousin Elizabeth now, with luxurious chestnut hair, and the warmth of love in her heart glowing from her eyes, "I hope I am," I told her, and we let go our hands, "I exist now in as much solitude in my own home but with as much unity in this modern world as I'm allowed with my uncertainty to its fast-paced extremities."

"Meh," Roger joined in, "it's nothing any of us should concern ourselves with. Business is business, but fad and fancies carry on with or without our approval. I'm more than happy to stay in the basic and classical forms as we've always done. Although..." here Roger peered across the room and blinked a confused stammer, "perhaps not so much in all of that dreaded neon Judith Collins was so fond of."

We chuckled at this oddity. It was such a rough business looking back in time.

Cousin Elizabeth led me to the door and opened it, "It's so nice to see us all working things out on somewhat of a regular basis, isn't it?" Her hand rested on the knob of the in-turned door.

"Yes it is," I admitted lifting my cane and leant my weight on its arc to press the end to the floor, "How is the Ghost of Bill Malloy?"

Elizabeth smiled in exhale, "As crazy about me as ever, Cousin Barnabas. My husband and I are having quite a stir getting some privacy out of Bill. He always was so fond of me... Oh, how about Kooky Caleb? Is he gone for good?"

"I doubt that, Cousin Elizabeth. As well as he shifted out of sight from us as Victoria took hold of Seaview I've been wondering if he'll come back to us... as many of our ancestors do."

Keep her hand on the knob she held one cheek to lean me toward her to kiss my other, "As it should be. You shan't get lost in the woods, my friend. By this time, none of us shall."

The door closed and I wended my way about said woods to reach my home and... my love.

I closed the door of The Old House and removed my coat. How long it lasted and how well it wore I still found beyond my own belief. As I hung it up I stroked its elegance and reminded myself of the time periods I'd lived through, the travels I'd experienced and how it followed me along all of that time, along with my cane I stowed away, and the ring I wore. Now my eyes fell upon the band worn on my left hand, I found that one more to my perusal of enjoyment, but both remained precious to me.

I looked up the stairs and felt the heartbeat of my beloved. I knew through my telepathic understanding she was lying in her bed, where I'd cherished her to be. Touching the banister I longed to see her as I'd often longed to see her, but there was a change; I knew I would see her. The sadness of never believing we would be one, nor a shared duality was foremost to my mind in so much time and agony.

I took to the stairs, let my fingers drift along the hand rail. Up I went and her heartbeat became stronger.

I stopped on the landing and heard... felt another.

My baby...

The soul of the sister I had lost. Our child.

It almost hurt to feel this. This tiny heartbeat flowed into the rhythm of my own and my bride's. I felt this inside and adored its condition to me. Would I ever be a good father? Oh, yes... I could already see her first steps toward me... They would be from the davenport to the coffee table and I would stretch my hands out to be sure she stumbled not. My adorable child, Sarah Dupres. In our minds this was her name, and what she would be in the future. I allowed my sweetness to guide me in any French wisdom... for I knew she was right.

What I was now that drove me so far in my love and my searching. She was growing faster and so close to us. The breathing of my bride as if in one ear of my mind, and to my other ear the fluctuations of amniotic fluid around my daughter in her womb... where I had helped to place her.

Maggie awoke before my hand was on the knob of the door and as I opened it she spoke, "Please... please come in, mon doux amour. Please, I've missed you."

I was in her room, our room and shut the door, turning the key in the lock with care, "No longer, mon demón? Josette?"

Did I speak this to her or did I send it to her in thought? I, myself, am unsure.

"Not tonight, Barnabas," she said aloud, "Please, just come to bed."

My stomach blended with my heart as her words reached me. No turmoil was in this place beyond the coiling of all the love we'd shared, brilliantly spread across the grounds, but better still in private quarters.

She was on the left side of the bed, under one sheet and it wasn't until I'd stepped to the right side that I noticed she'd already climbed in.

Maggie was awake to my understanding of this and said, "Join me." Again, I cannot know whether she said this vocally or whether she left me the echo of it in her thoughts, but I turned down the sheet to slip in beside her. As I did so, I suddenly wanted her terribly.

I must describe in these journals the exhilaration of being with her. How our skin touched so much of each other. Knee to knee, leg to leg arms wrapped around... all of what I wanted could become so close and not only was it what I'd always hoped for, she did as well. Together the adoration flowed from each other through our lips, upon our bodies and to the pulsing of our lives... however much we were undead. No longer did this matter to me... nor to her.

I was above my Josette whom I'd impregnated. Her smile was wan and delicious, even though I was behind her and could not see it. Curling tendrils abounded down her ear as the strait brown locks behind reflected her more modern condition. I leaned over her as she lay sideways, filled with child and rotund in the stomach but still beautiful... splendorous... the feast of my adoration.

My hands felt the downy flesh of her cheek, drifting throughout her neck and shoulders. That shiver of elation flowed from her heart to mine and she turned her head to look up at me as the candles in the room glowed over us, throughout the room.

"How are you two, tonight?" I requested, gently.

Her smile spread and released a pearly essence. Even here the sharpened cuspids were allowed air, "We are well, my sweet love. We've been waiting for you."

I let my hand glide down to cup her midriff and hold my family in my grasp, "What do you wish to tell me? Shall we speak together?"

"Yes," Josette told me, now resting upon her back as I let my palm remain holding these two who were so dear to me, "let us communicate as one. She is aware right now of what is happening."

"How is that?" I inquired, almost whispering.

"Because, Barnabas, her spirit dwells here, but also awaiting on the other side; you see? There is that connection when we change form. It's always been that way."

"I do see," I nodded, and unveiled the sheet to press my lips where my lover and child were joined. This brought the former a swift inhale and I continued to kiss them both over and over again. I have come to understand, however strange it is, that these touches to a woman with child excite her passions. Is it because she need not fear becoming pregnant as she is already? Or is it the firing of her womanhood toward being in the exclusive creation of inhabiting the creation of life itself? One might consider how incredible this concentration must be. I, being a part of it, certainly did. And as I loved her, I continued to both ease her through it and come to understand how much a part of this process I was. Our lives did more than join now; it brought forth and returned a life we missed so deeply. For this, I could not love her more. And I would show her every day and night... every day and night.

Her hands came down to bring my face to hers. Our lips met. I could feel the shift of new being below, as if I were carrying her myself. My lips were released, "Oh, my."

Maggie smiled up at me, "Yes... discovering more than you supposed you might, cœur de mon cœur."

"Heart of my heart," I echoed back, drifting my hand up her arm to hold her own, "then let us speak to her."

My autumn eyes met with her brown ones and after focusing on her pupils a tiny, shy and familiar voice came out between us...

"Father?" it asked.

"Yes, my dear. I'm here."

"Don't be afraid."

"I'm not afraid. I'm happy... just to listen to you."

"Good. Will you allow the Witch to deliver me, Barnabas?"

"Of course... if that's what you want."

"It's what needs to happen. She needs to be trusted."

"Why, Sarah?"

"Because she's been hurt worse than us, worse than anything you can be blamed for."

"We understand, my child."

"Good. Do you know what will happen, Father?"

"What will happen, Sarah? Your mother and I want to know."

"I will come to you all and correct. I will be well and she will give me a pet someday."

"Will she?"

"Yes. It will be very humourous, Barnabas."

"Why?"

"I will name it Joshua and it will be a cat."

I hummed, clutching my beloved in hand stronger, "I see. Yes, that will be an amusement between you and her, I'm sure."

"I want to tell you more, but I fear we can't talk for much longer now."

"I'm listening, Sarah. What do you wish to tell us?"

"Angelique is pregnant."

My expression fell from enchantment to concern. No, I could no longer fear the woman of my unwonted lust and shame... as my daughter was telling me in this connection, now Angelique was with child herself.

"Sarah," Josette's voice was within me, as she contained our stare in this discussion, "who is coming? It's someone we know, isn't it?"

"Yes," our child told us, "and he will be like a brother to me... so do not worry, Mamma. All will be well."

"Who shall he be, Sarah?" I requested of her, still resting my hand on them both below.

"Nephew Caleb, Father. He will be my cousin."

The shock of this brought a horror to my heart, but mostly due to what I knew of the ghost and full grown man, "Caleb, Sarah? Will he be good to you?"

The connection was fading, but I could still faintly hear her, "Oh, yes. He will be like a brother to me. I'll be with you all very soon. Don't lose hope. All will be well. I promise. Now kiss Mamma for me, Father, and in doing so, kiss me."

I quickly leant a peck to the lips of my bride and in this our discussion ended. Maggie inhaled deeply and so did I.

I fell to my right side and she to her left. I bent my knees to reach hers and we kept room for our child's growth between us, by hand still resting on Sarah... and then Maggie's hand on mine. Our eyes were locked and I asked her, "What would you like now? Would you like to sleep?"

Josette blinked slowly and her mouth showed bemusement, as did those tantalizing eyes, "No... I want to touch and feel and speak with you, Barnabas. I think it is wonderful what's going to happen... not to mention," here she dropped her eyes down, "what already has."

I inhaled deeply, reaching my right hand to her head, cupping underneath her ear, finding that tenderness I always cherished.

"What would you like to discuss?"

"I want to remember, when we three were all together after you failed to... destroy yourself. How grateful I am we kept you from that."

Exhaling I told her, "Josette, don't you understand why I faced that challenge?"

"Yes," she responded in all sweetness and recognition, "to know what I went through and to be with her... I understand. We understand. When we were downstairs that first night... together again... Do you remember the bliss that we shared?"

I had to kiss her, at least once and our lips parted, "Oh yes. You spoke to me in French once more. You recalled things I hadn't heard in eons. All those wonders about what I'd missed and been so stupid not to recall. I asked you how I never knew it was you and you said..."

"I said," she continued, "how could you know? Your mind was lost when you came out. You pursued me as viciously as you had been pursued. Exposure does these things. We re-enact the behaviour of our tormenters when that is all we have to surround us. And then, you remember, Barnabas? How I kissed you?"

I breathed, "As I hadn't been kissed by you in almost two hundred years. Yes. I was sure, but then more certain, it was you and what more you would be to me as yourself now. In the lives you'd journeyed, Josette. You have become something above yourself and even more for me to admire, more for me to adore. And we gazed, listening to the fire spark and you..."

"Oh," she grinned, "yes... you noticed the odor, didn't you? It wasn't perfume but-"

"It was perfume to me," I interrupted, "It was the stronger indication of who you were that I hadn't dwelt upon before. It was you because I smelled your hair. I hadn't let myself do that when I took you by force. And you allowed us to kiss, but not excessively, not voraciously. Gently... slowly... searching ourselves in the loss of time and space... my darling bride."

"Mmm," Maggie intoned, "and as we tired and blaze died down in the hearth... who stepped toward us in our fatigue?"

My left hand drifted over her womb, "Yes... Sarah. As corporeal as she could be and wanting to lie over our laps, Josette."

Maggie's hand pressed over mine that stroked where our child was snuggly held, "Of course, and do you remember what she did as we fell asleep? I fancy not, so I will tell you. She hugged me where our hands are now and the last thing I heard was her telling me that someday, in many years, her heart would beat with mine... and if we did not lose hope, she would live again...through us."

My expression dropped as I digested the reverberation of her words, "I wanted to believe this, Josette. Is it true? Please tell me it is, not because I don't believe... but because I remember that... and... I want to believe..."

Maggie laughed and clutched the hand I'd placed over her stomach, "Of course, mon demón. Of course you and I will be the parents she never had, and..." here she kissed me tenderly, "I want you... my love."

My hand stroked her cheek, her chest and where our hands met below. I wondered if I had enough knowledge to please my bride in her condition and be wary of our child. (In all of these words and expressions, I was more than prepared to serve her request.)

"Oh..." Maggie told me, "It's all right, mon doux amour. Just kiss me at the neck and at my back and we shall move according to what needs to be."

She turned away and I could do nothing but obey her commands. As soon as her back was afore my front I pressed my lips below her ear, along her neck, massaging her shoulder blades as they faced me and the speed of her breathing entranced me to continue... to raise her locks of hair and bite behind her skull... to which she responded in adoration and told me, "Please feel my skin, my sweet love, please explore me again as you've done before."

"Always a pleasure," I told her, "always more than I ever hoped to have..."

"Nor I, Barnabas... please remember... we are together in this re-unifying."

I'd pressed my mouth upon her hips and looked towards my bride, "Always, Josette, I always knew that you and I shared the agony of being separated..." I scooped my hands underneath where she lay, "Please... will you turn on your back?"

She did, and I stroked the top of her thigh, listening to her gasp. The flutter it brought to my stomach fed further my desire to her again.

I wouldn't compel myself upon her, but express my love down to her knee, along her calf, kissing her toes and then reaching her other leg and guiding myself to stroke, kiss and fondle what she had that I would show kindness to. But when I reached her own motherhood she found my head in her hands and said, "No, don't disturb us there that way, come to greet me."

I took myself up and her lips were my safe haven. I drifted into her mouth and out of it, massaging where I could to keep my bride happy, and so she was. My hand rested on her breast, now enlarged due to the obvious point on the calendar. Josette would not resist. My fingers rested at the bone of her hip. When I took my hand further up to her throat she inhaled in a passion that invited me to kiss her again and then I heard from her mind, "Take me once more, Barnabas, before we must leave all love making behind and only know each other by touches alone."

So filled with my child as Maggie was, I contemplated what needs I had to provide for her. Stroking her sides, I shifted her body to the center of the bed, and she moved in accordance with what scene I tried to create. Josette pulled her legs back, bending her knees, stretched out her arms and welcomed myself, her husband, arcing myself over her at first to kiss her until she confessed, "It's alright, bring yourself to adhere to the dance we share."

I did as I was bid.

I would kiss her hands. Palms, fingers, wrists, nails, all exposed to my lips while I pursued our pleasure. Josette's hands unwound from mine and I saw her arms rise to surround her head as she began unleashing her enjoyment in gasps, wanting to change position but having to remain on her back... continuing this experience with me.

Maggie let her arms come down at her sides as she tried to relax. We finally found each others hands and laced our fingers together. This blend of touch provided me with what I needed to bring forth, and what she needed while I longed for her lips to kiss. This was no struggle. In all my concentration, my own eyes closed to feel her again with this. My bride and lover... all that I'd always wanted to know, and now I did. Again and again. How I longed to kiss her. Josette let out a stark inhale and I knew I'd done the right thing.

As she gasped, my bride took her legs up and I found the palms of her feet in my hands. I kissed her ankle at my right and then the one at my left. Releasing her feet, I carefully moved, and she straitened her legs as I lay upon the right side of her bed.

Maggie released her breath and found my cheek, gliding her hand over it, down my neck and chest.

"Now we have what was needed," she expressed.

"I know, my love. I know."

"As do I, mon demón... as do I."

I took the back of her head in my hands, reaching under the luxurious hair, and we kissed as passionately as on the first night we wed, stretching across time, and into the magnitude of what we had enlarged our love to become.

I, Barnabas Collins, being so in love with her, and I knew why I was; for she was the change of the gloom and austerity Collinwood had been from my childhood. But in Josette Dupres I knew her kindness and understood how it would alter what we were.

Maggie taught David. Josette loved Angelique. She adored Sarah and was soon about to give birth to her. Maggie helped Julia, she laughed with Roger. Josette studied the family history before it was published to unlock Victoria Winters unfair accusations. She helped Elizabeth to understand that Witchcraft was not a crime. Kitty left Edward's ring behind to pursue the true love that was I and died for it a second time.

Josette Dupres, Kitty Soames, Maggie Evans. All as the woman of my dreams and beyond: She gave Willie Loomis counsel, took a menial job to support her father, forgave my wretched abuse of her, stood fast for Amy Jennings, gave Chris her support, reminded Carolyn and Victoria that although no father connected them, one fine mother did.

Of this woman, who is so neglected from a lack of extreme action in personality... well perhaps she is simply more subdued? Margaret Josette Dupres is my one true love, my only true love and the binding force of change for the better within our home and within my heart.

To all She has done for myself, for my family and for my home I can only bless myself for falling in love with her.

Without her I am shadow.

Within her I am light.

Thank you for reading. Let me know what you enjoyed. And if you're wondering who the heck Caleb Collins is? Please visit my profile page, linked from my name and reach The Pit of Ultimate Dark Shadows Episode 11: Part Two of "Caleb Collins Fights Back".

He's a pistol... and I think... Angelique Collins deserves to give birth to a little boy like that? Don't you? ;)