Discovery Of The Moment Ch 07

Author's note: In this chapter there are some elements of nonconsentual sex, but it all works out for the best and no one is hurt by it. Understand that the main characters are changing and their morals are shifting, too.

Please keep in mind that this is all a work of fiction. Incest, rape, stopping time- these are all figments of an overactive and feverish mind. They do not reflect Reality and I would NEVER suggest that anyone attempt any of these things in real life.

Your votes and comments are, as always, what keep me going. If you want more, TELL ME. Even suggestions for moving the story forward are welcome. Public comments, especially, are deeply appreciated. I hope all of you are enjoying this series and continue to enjoy what I can provide in the future. Just please remember to vote and comment!

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As I walked into the dark Italian restaurant, dressed in blue jeans, a white button-down shirt and a pair of hiking boots, I felt like I was the luckiest and best-dressed man in town. The reason for this juxtaposition is the beautiful creature who was hanging from my arm, my daughter Kelly. Simply dressed as well in a cream-colored pleated dress that came down to her mid-thigh with an open back and simple sandals, Kelly looked positively radiant in her understated but self-confident way. When we stopped at the main entrance to survey the other clientelle in the restaurant, it was clear that Kelly was exuding some sort of mystical and non-verbal message to everyone there that, yes, she was most definitely with me. Her shoulders were back, her bountiful breasts showed lots of cleavage and her arm crooked into mine in a sort of possessive way. In truth, I felt like I was on top of the world. Indeed, there were lots of people there, the place being at about 3/4 of capacity and all of them much more nicely dressed, but not a one of them, male or female, could have felt as comfortable as we did at that moment. I guess you might say that the most important accessory either of us wore that evening was each other and clothing was a mere redundancy of social mores.

The hostess approached us within seconds with a slightly stiff air about her. She looked like she couldn't be much older than Kelly and might have disapproved that such an older man was out with such a young lady. "I'm sorry," the hostess told us, "but the wait for a table will be about forty minutes."

I took a better look around the place and saw that there were still plenty of tables available. I nodded to one in particular that was empty and asked, "What about that one?" As soon as the hostess turned to look at the table, I flipped Kelly and I into The Fold. Kelly looked at me quizzically as I went to the hostess station and quickly jotted down our last name in the reservation book, which I noted had only a few names written in it. In my earlier years I had taken a keen interest in art and could fairly well render just about anyone's signature. The penmanship in the book was easy to copy. I went back to Kelly's side, exactly where I had been before I flipped, and reinserted us into Normal Time.

The hostess, unaware of our second-long disappearing act, turned back at me with a disdainful look. "I'm sorry, sir," she replied, "but that table has been reserved."

I cocked an eyebrow and said, "Indeed? Perhaps it's reserved for us. I made a reservation this afternoon. The name's Baker."

The hostess' eyebrows knitted in slight confusion. "I'm sorry, sir, but we do not have a reservation under that name."

I smiled calmly, completely unperturbed. "Please indulge me and look again."

She rolled her eyes blatantly, went back to the book and gave it a cursory glance, "As I said, sir, there's no-" Then she stopped when she saw, in her own handwriting, my name staring back at her. "Uhm... what the... how could I have-? Well, Mister Baker, I guess you're right." She glanced up at me with an almost pained expression, her mind racing as it tried to reconcile how she could have missed seeing my name all night long. "Please give me a moment to, uh, prepare a table for you." I quickly got her attention before she could leave, produced a fifty-dollar bill and nodded towards a darkened corner of the restaurant where I wanted us to be seated. The hostess, being nobody's fool, snatched the fifty out of my hand and sped away to get a table ready for us.

Seconds after the hostess scurried away, Kelly leaned into my ear. "You, Dad, are an evil man."

I looked at my daughter with a blank expression, as though I had no idea what she was talking about, and said, "Only when I need to be."

The hostess came back quickly, two menus hugged close to her chest, and said, "Mister Baker? Would you and your wife please come with me?"

"My daughter and I," I corrected with a gentlemanly nod to Kelly, "would be pleased to."

"Oh, I'm sorry," the hostess said with a slight blush of embarrassment on her cheeks. "Please forgive me, then. My mistake. Uhm, right this way, please."

Moments later we were seated at a corner booth, somewhat removed from the other customers, and our drinks were on order. Kelly was all smiles when she said, "I was kinda hoping that you wouldn't correct her. When she called me your wife, I got a tingle down my spine."

I grinned ruefully at her. "I'm sure you did," I replied. "But I have a feeling that she would have disapproved."

"Who cares?" Kelly retorted saucily. "Her problem, not ours."

"You've never worked in a restaurant," I said evenly, "but I have, when I was about your age, actually. I worked as a bus-boy in a place not very different from this. The hostesses were all bitches and all of them took a sort of evil delight in passive-aggressive behavior. When they saw a couple they didn't like, they'd invariably give them a small table, instruct the waiters to make small mistakes or even be so bold as to spit in their drinks. A word to the wise, my dear: never piss off the host or hostess. Otherwise, your entire evening can quickly turn into a disaster."

Kelly's eyes sparkled with indignation. "It's terrible how some people can be so cruel for absolutely no reason," my daughter bristled. "I'd never do something like that to someone."

I shrugged. "Some people don't teach their kids good manners. Now excuse me for a moment while I enjoy a small amount of pride at having taught you so well." Kelly blushed slightly and her cheeks dimpled in a demure smile. "You know," I said happily, "you do look quite nice tonight."

Her blush deepened at the compliment and seemed to glow. "Thank you, Dad. You do, too. It's not the clothes, though. It's the happiness I see in your eyes. I don't think I've ever seen you so relaxed and comfortable." The hostess returned to our table and inobtrusively placed our drinks in front of us. I had a glass of wine while Kelly chose to have some iced tea. The hostess, I might add, didn't say a word to us and was gone almost as quickly as she'd arrived with our drinks.

I smiled wistfully at my daughter once I was sure that the hostess was well out of earshot and said, "Well, how could I not? I'm sitting in a four-star restaurant with the most beautiful girl in town."

At that precise moment, a reasonably attractive young woman came up to our table holding a small notepad and a pen. I glanced up at her and realized immediately that she was not one of the staff. "Exuse me," she said politely and addressing Kelly directly, "but... uhm... could I have your autograph?"

Kelly's eyebrows nearly shot off her head as she looked at me in surprise. Then she regarded the young lady. "I'm sorry, but I think you might have me confused with someone else."

"Well, you certainly look like her."

"Who?" Kelly asked.

"That girl on that TV show, Heroes. The cheerleader? If it wasn't for the hair, you could be her twin."

"Hayden Panettiere," I offered. I was a fan of the show and knew exactly who she was referring to. And it was true, Kelly did bear a remarkably uncanny resemblence to the young actress, though my daughter's hair was indeed a bit darker and her breasts were considerably larger. Those two differences aside, Kelly was the spitting image of Ms. Panettiere. I'm surprised that Kelly hadn't been told that before by someone else. I never mentioned it simply because, well, Kelly is my daughter. Comparing one's daughter to an actress isn't really something that comes up very often and I had always assumed that Kelly's friends had pointed it out to her.

The young woman seemed to realize that I was there for the first time. "Yeah," she said, "Her."

Kelly smiled kindly at the young woman and said, "Well, I'm sorry to disappoint you, but I'm not her."

The young girl smiled back pleasantly but did look somewhat embarrassed and crestfallen. "Oh. Well, I'm sorry, then. Sorry to interrupt," she said to both of us. "Have a good evening."

"Thank you," I said. "We will. And I hope you do the same." The young girl flashed as small smile at me and then left us alone. I looked at Kelly and asked, "Is that the first time that's happened to you?"

"Yeah," she answered, looking somewhat nonplussed. "Weird, isn't it?"

"Perhaps a little, yes," I replied. "But she's right, you know. You could be her twin. I can't believe nobody's mentioned it before."

Kelly shrugged indifferently and said, "Well, I guess there's a first time for everything." We fell into a short silence for a moment as we sipped our drinks and then Kelly said, "So... she was cute."

"Who? That girl?"

"Yeah," Kelly said. "Actually, there's a lot of pretty ladies here."

I looked around the restaurant again, this time to take in the female sights. I guess old habits die hard. Over the years I had trained myself to not look at other women when I was out with someone. Seeing other guys do that always struck me as being disrespectful. But now that Kelly had mentioned it, I couldn't disagree- most of the women there, both staff and customers alike, were fairly attractive. There were certainly a few that I wouldn't look at a second time, but the fair majority of them were definitely appealing to look at.

"I guess so," I said cautiously. "I hadn't noticed."

"But now you do."

I eyed my daughter carefully, not entirely sure of where she was going with this. "Yeees. Any particular reason you bring it up?"

Kelly's eyes seemed to dance with a strange sort of impish glee that I hadn't seen since she was a little girl. "Well, I was thinking," she began. "With all these beautiful women around and with your ability to go into The Fold, it's amazing to me that you don't... you know..."

My brow furrowed at this. I didn't understand what she meant. "What?"

Kelly rolled her eyes balefully, exasperated with the fact that I wasn't on the same page. "Check them out."

I arched my brows a bit and regarded my daughter with a new sort of interest. This was surprising, even from her. "Check them out? What, like go into The Fold and see who's wearing panties and who's not?"

"Sure, I guess," Kelly said. "I mean, aren't you at least a little bit curious?"

I leaned back in my chair for a moment and then said, "Well, honestly? No, not really. I've been devoted to Sarah for so long that it never really occurred to me that I might... well I guess it's not really cheating, but it is an invasion of other people's privacy. But that doesn't mean I haven't done something like that before. When I was first getting used to going into The Fold, I'd walk around streets and play around a bit. Sometimes I'd go into people's houses and see what was going on behind closed doors, when they didn't think anyone was looking."

"Really?" Kelly asked excitedly and with keen interest.

I shrugged. "Yeah. Most people are just boring, to tell you the truth. They do pretty much the same things you and I do when we're alone."

"You mean they have sex with their daughters?" Kelly said cheekily in a low voice, her eyes smiling brightly at saying such a thing in a public place.

I gave my daughter a reproachful, withering look. "Behave," I said sternly. "Of course not. But, you know, people mostly do the OTHER things we would do when we're alone. Watch TV, surf the web, masturbate, cook, talk on the phone... everyone's got their little secrets, of course, but very little of it is really alarming or worth getting worked up over."

"Like what?"

"Hmm," I hedged, not sure if I should be airing out other peoples' dirty laundry. Then I realized that, now that Kelly could go into The Fold on her own and her times were getting longer, she'd find out about some of these things on her own anyway. So there really wasn't any use in holding anything back from her. "Like the Cowers, down the street from us. While they don't have any children of their own, it turns out that they aren't strangers to incest." I then quickly described how I discovered Francine and Delilah, listened in on their conversations and learned about Joe's involvement.

"Wow." Kelly gasped in surprise. "Wait, you mean BOTH of them? With his sister?" I nodded and Kelly got a far-away look in her eye as she took in this scandalous bit of news. "Holy shit! I mean, WOW. Y'know, I used to watch them making out sometimes, in their back yard. I knew they were a hot couple, but wow. His own sister. Shit. Two instances of incest on the same street. What're the odds of that?"

My smile turned wolfish. "Actually, there's three instances of it," I told her. "You know that bachelor down the block and across the street, the one with the Porsche? His mother moved in with him a few months ago. Apparently her husband was sleeping around on her with some of the younger girls at his office, interns and the like, so she left him to go live with their son. Well, it turns out that she decided that she wanted a younger man in her own life and started an affair... with her son."

"No fucking way!" Kelly blurted, almost loudly but quickly muted her voice to a hoarse whisper. She glanced around the restaurant to make sure that no one heard her and then leaned closer across the table to talk. "No way! But he's, like, in his thirties. That's got to put her somewhere in her fifties, doesn't it? How in the hell did you find this out, Dad?"

"Pretty much the same way I learned about the Cowers," I answered. "Honey, it's like I said: everybody has their secrets. And they deserve to keep them. Most of the secrets are small and meaningless, but a few will sometimes surprise you. Some people, though, keep them pretty well hidden. You will find out some of these secrets on your own, I'm sure," I said seriously, "but you can never tell anyone about them. Except maybe me. But you can't tell anyone else, not even the people who have these secrets. People would want to know how you found out and some might get mighty upset that you know about them at all."

"True," Kelly said thoughtfully.

"So," I said conversationally, "it seems to me that you brought this topic up because you're curious, too. Aren't you?"

"Curious?" Kelly said. "About what?"

I smiled playfully. "About who's wearing underwear and who isn't. You brought it up, so I figure that you want to know."

Now that she was put under the spotlight, Kelly gave a mirthless smirk. "Am I that transparent?" she asked. If there's one universal constant about all teenagers, regardless of their gender, it's that sex is always on their minds. As a man in his late thirties, I knew this to be true.

I grinned at my daughter warmly. "It's okay, sweetheart. I guess it's natural. But I'm kind of surprised that you mentioned only the women here. I'm even more surprised that you mentioned the attractive ones." I watched Kelly carefully for her reaction when I asked, "Would one of us happen to be a closet bi-sexual?"

Kelly tried to take the demure approach in her answer. "Maybe," she answered with a slight shrug. "I mean, it's not like I'm a total lesbian or anything, but I've tried it a few times."

I narrowed my eyes at Kelly for a few seconds and then said, "Okay. I can accept that." Part of me wanted to grill her right there and then for details, names and dates, but I chose instead to respect her privacy. After all, I did just get done saying that some people have their secrets and deserved to keep them. If she wanted to tell me more then I guess she would have.

"So what about you?" Kelly asked. "What's good for the goose is good for the gander."

I cocked a single eyebrow at her. "Me? Bi-sexual. Sorry, honey, but no. I can look at a guy and readily agree if he's handsome, but I've never been interested in anything but women."

Just then the waiter appeared at our table. It didn't take long for Kelly and I to give our orders, since we're both creatures of habit and usually know what we want from any menu before it's handed to us. I chose Fettuccini Alfredo and Kelly chose the Linguini. We handed our menus over to the waiter and he sped off quickly to the kitchen.

Once we were alone again, Kelly said, "I'll be right back." At first I expected her to stand and head off for the ladies room, but instead, she suddenly disappeared from sight, having gone into The Fold. I'd seen her do this a number of times already, so it wasn't a shock to see anymore, but I was surprised that she'd go without telling me what she had in mind. A second later she reappeared with a cat-that-ate-the-canary grin on her face.

"How long this time?" I asked her immediately. It was part of her training, which we had started a few days earlier, for me to inquire about how much time she was able to stay in The Fold on her own. With each successive trip, her "Fold Time" had gotten longer. So far she had been able to stay there for just shy of five minutes.

"Sorry," she said, "I didn't count this time. But I wasn't gone long, maybe three minutes or so."

"So what'd you do?"

Kelly's grin widened. "I did some looking around, of course. You see that girl over my left shoulder, the blonde one with the blue dress?" I casually looked over my daughter's shoulder and nodded. "Commando," Kelly told me and then added, "And shaven."

"Indeed?" I asked. I regarded the young woman a second time and noticed the young fellow sitting opposite to her. I supposed that he was going to be in for quite a surprise before the night was out. Then I fixed Kelly with a stern gaze. "Y'know, Kelly, I'd really prefer it if you'd warn me before you do something like that. You know your control goes out the window when you get excited."

"Which is precisely why I didn't take long," Kelly quickly responded and then continued. "I'm not a total idiot."

I briefly closed my eyes and bent my head downward, knowing where this was headed. "Oy," I muttered.

"Oh, come on, Dad. Relax a little and have some fun. It's harmless and it's not like they'll ever know." Kelly's enthusiasm began to show clearly now as she said, "Think of it as a training exercise for me. At home we're in a controlled environment, so there's no real pressure for me to stay focused. But out here, in public, I have to be more careful. And the more careful I am, the more focused I'll be." Before I could respond, she said, "Be right back," and then disappeared again. She came back a second later looking a bit more flushed. "Okay, now that was unexpected."

"What was?" I asked, almost wishing that I hadn't. This game of hers was making me nervous. I hadn't intended to let her test her abilities in "real world" situations just yet and this felt a bit premature. That said, she did show a lot more confidence in herself and I wasn't about to shoot that down. Confidence, I had learned, was an important key in learning how to control how long she could stay in The Fold.

"You see that couple over there, in the opposite corner?" Kelly slyly pointed to a young man and woman who were seated in a corner booth similar to ours. They were sitting very close together and seemed to be lost in each other's eyes, totally oblivious to the world around them at that moment. Their attention on each other was so absolute that it looked like they might share a very passionate, inappropriately obscene kiss at any moment. "She's giving him a hand-job as we speak," Kelly whispered. "She actually has it out and is stroking him right now. And she's probably going to go down on him, too, just as he's about to cum. Right here, in front of everybody, and no one's going to know but us." It was pretty dark where they were, but I narrowed my eyes at the couple and focused on them more intently. Now I could barely see that his hands, too, were moving, gently stroking the sides of his companion's left breast as he casually wrapped his arm around her shoulders. Kelly smiled wickedly at me and said, "Pretty hot, huh? I'll bet you never would've guessed if I hadn't told you."