The party that night in the Polar B'ar seemed extraordinarily
exuberant, for some dang reason, and just about everyone was drunk
enough to sink a "Valdez". A lot of them just passed out there in the
B'ar or kept going in card games or whatever, but our guys managed
to stagger back to their old RV, AD with them.
        Wiley and Orv got loose around 3 AM and took the Stearman
up in the full moonlight and twilight and buzzed the place, partyers
stumbling around outside while yelling and waving jestfull fists at the
old guys. Tom and Elaine had to stop some other drunk old war vets
from getting into planes, but they did let Chuck Yaeger go on up in
the Spad to dogfight with the Razorback Rockheads.
        The four "kids" flew in in the morning with the Cessna 411
they had bought in Wyoming. The village was nearly dead. Elaine
was the only one to greet them on the ramp, telling them about the
party. She walked them over to the B'ar, still with the passed-out or
card-playing patrons scattered around, and started to get some
coffee on, but then just asked them if Frogs would do.
        Jess and the others made their hungover appearances before
the kids went to wake them up. Bloody Marys all around was Kit's
call. Jessy quietly told them the new Gold news and got their
unbelieving reactions. She and Kit pleaded for calm, though more
for their pounding craniums than the attention, none of the gamblers
paying any notice, and no one waking from their stupors, neither.
Jess, after a check whisper with Kit, asked Elaine if she and Tom
would head up the mining effort. And Elaine said that she would be
happy to take it on.
        The guys planned next to head to South California to buy the
land they needed. They got the news on Pute, though, that the
President - yep, wiley Willy - wanted to give Jessy the Medal of
Freedom in a Rose Garden ceremony with a few other heros of the
WPG. Soon.
        Putey also had a little more ominous news on the threats to
the WPG and themselves: black ops was alive and kicking and part
of the "counter revolution". The bastards were going for total coup,
suing for WPG elections and raising all kinds of bogus questions to
confuse the world, besides making a little headway in some of the
conflicts they were secretly waging or advising on.
        "STILL haven't changed their codes!" Pute was commenting.
"Either just way too confident, or they want you to know what
they're planning, for some reason..." their laptop continued, "but they
may be gunning for you...."
        "Dam, honey," Jess softly said to Kit, "why can't they just give
up?"
        "Got me, precious...I guess they think they can get all the
military in one fell swoop. Anyway, highness, maybe it's time...for
you..." and looked at her with the sad puppy eyes, "to go on home..."
he barely got through his lips.
        "How can you say that?! We're a dam team, Cody. We beat 'm
before. We'll beat 'm again! I know I promised...and I still do. But
it's not time." The others were nodding in support of her, but they
understood his feelings.
        "Wo wo wo...higherness..." that hammer pounding even harder
on his headache. "We've come a long way...together," kissing her on
her temple. "I guess we can go farther," he capitulated. "'Laine...do
we have any aspirin?"
        "Sure do there, Buff," and Elaine went over to get the bottle.
        "That's better," Jess answered quietly, kissing his face, just mad
at the bastards was all, he knew. "I'm just mad at the fucking bastards
is all, you know that," knowing he just wanted her safe.
        "I know, precious. I just want you safe," he answered.
        "I know, darlin'. I just don't want to leave you," and they kissed
more.
        "God, you guys are sickening," Flee joked.
        As they all laughed, Kit took four aspirin and passed the bottle.
"Do we have a cook alive?" he said to the room. After a deep lack of
response, they settled for toast with elk jerky and talked about
everything with everyone.
        Jess and Kit flew the Staggerwing on skis very much later up to
the glacier with Amelia, and Flece and AD talked it out as they had a
sexy, erotic manage a cinq up there in the hot sun on the snow and
ice. Jess wanted to stay with Kit. So Jess WOULD stay, they all
knew, she being the leader of her own life. But, after Kit's arguments
about what the computers were reporting, all the women agreed that
she should go if it became way too wooly. And she accepted their
judgement. But it was no big thing. They were really just up there for
the sex.
        They had totally long and longingly reverent goodbys with
everyone the next morning, Wiley quipping, "you guys really wear
out 'chur welcome, y' know that?" among the rest of the comments,
and they were off to Southern Cal, the kids following in the 411.
        They bought 2,ooo acres outside of Eagle, contiguous to Joshua
Tree National Monument, and hired on the crew to clear the ground
and construct the hangars, runway and the rest. Kit contacted his
engineering buds back in Los Alamos to hire them on to start on the
two-seater prototype. Not long after, Josh and Kenj stayed to head it
all up and the others were on their way to Washington after Jess got
the firmed-up date for the Medal ceremony.
        They stopped back at Truchas mainly to see everyone, but
helped on the studio, worked a little on the album and dug some in
the mine. And they were back in business as the WPO - comming
often with Sundance about the counter for the counter-revolution.
That next day they headed back to the airport to jet to D.C., and BR
joined them. He was asking their opinions on his running for
governor of New Mexico after he and Flece had had some minutes
of their renewed inseparableness, steaming up the Citation's windows
next to them after boarding.
        "Would that make Flee a governess?" Jess sassed.
        "Why the heck do you want to be so pube-ic," Fleesh was
seriously hanging his idea. "You know what freedom you - WE will
have - if you do that?!"
        "But he'll be able to hire interns!" Buz ribbed.
        "Why not run for Senate?" Kit thought, thinking about the
White House up the road for his pard.
        "Jeepers," Savanna chipped in, "giveth the guy a break."
        "Jeepers?!" several of them taunted together, giving everyone
a laugh, as Jess and Savvy handled the checklists and lit the cans.
        "Well...I guess I'll tell 'm no," BR said pretty matter-of-
factionless.
        "YES!" Felecia cheered, kissing him relentlessly. "TRIUMPH!"
        And they were airborne Eastbound, Julian and Maria and the
kids flying beside them in their own jet - a used Lear, their hired
pilot teaching the kids how to fly it - all of them wanting to see Jess
get her medal. They all stopped in Kentucky and, amidst the great
party at the farm, Jess and Kit gave their nearby farm to Jessy's
getting-married niece and to-be nephew-in-law.
        "Well, I must admit...Kit sure is a generous soul," Craig
confided to Jess when she and her step-father got some private
moments for a stroll out the back 4o.
        "It was my idea, Daddy!" Jessy came right back.
        "Well, I don't doubt that, peaches...but it's his money."
        "No, Dad. It's our money...it's ours!" and whooped to
celebrate the fact, putting her arms around him and hugging tight in
her happiness. "Mmm, Daddy, I sure love you."
        "Awww, God, I love you too, sweetheart...but you do see
what it looks like, don't you?"
        "Sure I do. But you just tell anyone who asks that I got a
movie part for over a million for my part in the WPG effort and
have been doing a lot of free concerts and flying, and a bunch of
ranch work."
        "Well...when you put it that way...all right, honey, all right.
You seem to be comfortable with it, despite all of us."
        "If I weren't, Daddy, you know I wouldn't be doing it. And I
figure everyone will see...eventually."
        "Well...I guess I'm with you, Jessica. But I don't think the
others will ever accept it. And you know Ginny's having an awful
hard time with it."
        "I know, Dad. I know....It'll just take time."
        "So you're staying with him, then...?"
        "O Dad...yeah, I still want to...and he still deserves me,"
giving a coy look, "...and God, Daddy, it's just so....great!"
        "Well, he's the luckiest sonofabitch who's ever lived."
        "That's what he says too," she snickered and gave Craig more
tender hugs and kisses.
        Meanwhile, BR was undergoing the family gauntlet, Flece's
folks there, happy as heck to SEE her again. That was taking some
pressure off of Kit. Not much, though. But, luckily for he and BR,
it was time to head on to Washington, and they chartered a
Gulfstream for the families and all drove back to Lunken.

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