The ABO Serum

Homecoming

"Do mated omegas smell bad to alphas other than their mate?" Lance asked his best friend over emergency coffee.

"I don't know, do they?" Carey snapped back.

"You smell like chlorine," Lance clarified. And his usual jasmine tea, but that wasn't pertinent. Carey laughed.

"You called me for emergency coffee. I was in the middle of water aerobics. I figured I didn't have time for a shower. I assume this has to do with Stephanie and her husband," Carey explained.

"So, you've heard the gossip?" It wasn't really a question. Of course, he had. People always confided in Carey and he knew half the town. He was their drug dealer. When he'd decided to go into a barista program instead of college, Lance balked, but that was exactly what Carey told him. He wanted to start a business with a lot of security and given the addictiveness of caffeine, opening a coffee shop was as lucrative as being a drug dealer, without having to worry about the ATF.

"I've heard that you dallied with the preacher's wife right after coming out of quarantine and she passed the ABO disease on to one of the most beloved pastors in town. I've heard the pastor is in quarantine at the GenLife hotel and she's walking about town like nothing happened," Carey never minced words.

"Hm," Lance said. "Then you haven't heard that she left her kids on my doorstep and disappeared?"

Carey almost spit his tea out before offering an, "Oh, fuck!"

"Yeah, just yesterday. And guess what I did today?"

"Took the kids to see their dad if you're not a monster," Carey said.

"Bingo, but there's a twist."

"Don't keep me in suspense."

"He's my reciprocal pair," Lance finally confessed. At this, Carey did spit his tea. It fanned out in a fantastic spray, but he managed to avoid soiling any nearby patrons.

"You, ah, what? That's..." Carey was speechless.

"Yes, that sums up my reaction too. Hence, emergency coffee. You're an omega, and you have a mate. What the fuck do I do now?" Lance seldom looked distressed. Part of being a good lawyer was having an excellent poker face. But there was a tiny tic next to his right eye that gave him away sometimes. If it weren't completely out of his control, he'd have fixed it already.

"Um, I fell in love before either of us were exposed, so I don't know what to do with your question. I'd imagine you're feeling intensely possessive, but you've got a deep pile of shit to shovel if you want to act on this." Carey paused and then scrunched up his nose as he realized, "Oh, if you're reciprocal you'll have to act. You'll have to live together at least. We've got one pair making do as roommates, so as far as the physical distress goes, you don't have to mate completely to avoid it."

"Honestly, I don't mind mating. I've put off starting a family because I only seem to attract manipulative bitches like Steph."

"Hey, she's our friend," Carey protested. Then conceded, "yes, we have a manipulative bitch for a friend, but you still fucked her so be nice. You put her in a rather untenable position. Condom break?"

"Yeah, they don't really make them strong enough to hold alpha sperm. But I didn't approach her. She came on to me," Lance protested.

"And you didn't think it was a bad idea to bone the preacher's wife?"

"You know I don't believe in that. It was an opportunity for a metaphoric 'fuck you' to religion. I'm incapable of resisting that kind of poetic irony. But that's not the issue here. The issue is," his voice dropped to a whisper, "my son is now living with me, and the man he calls daddy is my reciprocal pair," his voice returned to normal. "My mom could tell at first glance and is giving me the nth degree. Now, my body ignites whenever I remember his scent, which is still a little weird to think about, but whatever. There's no reason for me to resist and every reason to go with the flow and let nature take its course."

"Except that you screwed his wife both before and after he married her, knocked her up and walked away, he's probably got a longer list of offenses. You don't believe in God and he's a pastor. You don't feel any guilt about this do you?" Carey added. "Stephanie isn't my only friend who's a bitch."

"You needed two bitches by your side to balance all your sweet innocence." Lance said, then noticed a fresh plate of brownies going into the display cabinet and waved down the coffee girl. It was a slow hour, so she came out from behind the counter to see what he needed. He smiled flirtatiously and asked for a fresh pot of tea, a glass of whole milk, three brownies and a banana. Then, he handed her a fifty and told her to keep the change. She practically danced back to the counter to start their order.

Carey shook his head in dismay. "You are not going to make your omega happy pulling that kind of stunt."

"What stunt?" Lance asked, oblivious.

"Listen, I'm going to help you because I'm afraid the preacher will suffer a great deal more if you bumble about this on your own, and because we've only seen reciprocal pairs turn out well despite having all sorts of weird starts. Though I can't say any have started out this insane. You've got to give him security, stability, and sincerity. Got that?" Carey proceeded to supply his friend with a primer on caring for your partner without expecting anything in return. He went into detail about little ways to demonstrate affection. "You can't have expectations to recoup your efforts in love. You have to let go of that."

"I didn't say anything about love. A family is basically a domestic contract relating to social and fiscal responsibility," Lance interrupted. Carey facepalmed. He couldn't explain that part to Lance. He could only hope nature eventually smacked him over the head with it.

Taking Carey's advice and following it, in his own over the top way, Lance bought the new family home, hired a decorator to make it fabulous for the kids and win them over, moved Carey out of the parsonage, and did the sweet texting and bedding exchanges, and bringing the children for visits and treats, and generally letting Jonathan know by his actions that he would be secure and stable and sincerely attentive. He could see that it was wearing him down. He didn't forget that Jonathan's own body was his best ally. He hated that he couldn't visit for so many days in a row when Jonathan had his heat, but the long separation was worth it when he called him immediately after and asked Lance to, "bring me home."

He picked him up that afternoon, right after getting the little ones from preschool and Josiah from day camp.

Josiah hugged his daddy for all he was worth. The last seven weeks were tough on the boy. He'd been doing his best to look after his little brothers, but they missed Mommy a lot. They climbed into his bed every night. He missed mommy too, but he was old enough to understand that there were bigger things going on. And he knew Daddy would come back for them. Mr. Lance was very nice, but he couldn't replace Daddy. When he saw how Mr. Lance moved Daddy's things into his own room, he thought Mr. Lance might be trying to replace their mom.