What Price Pleasure
Troubles in Our Triumverate

BY: Cassy

Disclaimer: Just to piss Chessire off, I'm gonna continue with this storyline. *evil grin*

Tamara found Gigs in the kitchen puttering around cleaning. The weretiger found baking to be one of her preferred methods of relaxation. The smell of fresh chocolate chip cookies flooded the room. "Hey," Tam said as she snagged a couple of cookies from the platter, still hot and gooey, and sat down.

Gigs smiled at her third, wiping a cookie sheet dry and putting it back in the cabinet. "Hi, Hon," she replied. "Whatcha up to?"

"Heard some of what you were telling Greg about getting away with Asher to sort things out," Tam told her. "I think it's a good idea." Gigs' smile faded, but Tamara didn't notice...she was in full chatter mode now. "Just had an argument with him over at Lyza's last night about the fact that I am NOT an invalid...got bit for my troubles...and scolded for not eating enough fruits and veggies. It was VERY hard to refrain from making a vulgar joke about that," she giggled, then sobered abruptly. She knew her friend wasn't going to like the next thing she was about to say.

"Just for the record, though...and please don't be mad at him, because I gave enough provocation," she pled with her eyes for Gigs not to get angry, "...he didn't roll me for the bite, and it hurt like hell." Seeing Gigs eyes start to darken, she quickly added, "He apologized for hurting me, but said he HAD to get me to listen to him somehow."

Tamara glanced off, chewing her lip in thought and spoke almost to herself, "Perhaps I can harness this hormone-induced bitchiness and bully him into going off with you to sort things out. Derik's still here, and you said yourself that Nat can take care of the kids."

Her voice grew softer and tears pooled in her eyes as she continued, "Jean-Claude's bed isn't the only one I've been staying out of since learning of the baby. Asher's been respecting my decision to refrain from HIM as well. If I'm not in the way, maybe the two of you will stand a better chance at happiness together." The tears poured over, and she wiped at them with a shaky laugh, "Damn hormones...there I go getting all weepy again."

Tamara placed a hand on Gigs' arm, noting a fine trembling in it. And it looked as though the tiger's eyes had gone a glittering amber, although it was hard for Tam to be sure through the tears in her own.

"Gigs, please understand that it's ME saying this, not Asher through me," she begged her friend. "Please don't leave him...I know that Kylie healed his physical scars, but the emotional ones inflicted during all those years...centuries...of abuse after he lost Julianna are still there. He still believes, deep down, that he DESERVES to be abandoned by everyone...although he'd never admit that. He's already told me that if you really think you have to leave, that he won't hold you against your will, even though it's within his rights as your third and master. He loves you Gigs."

Gigs, however wasn't really hearing what her friend was saying anymore. The anger of past betrayals and abuses she'd suffered at the hands of others was blinding her until there was nothing but her beast's rage.

Tamara didn't realize this and continued babbling, "And I think he DOES understand that what you need is not seducing but trust. It's not easy for him, given his nature as a childe of Belle Morte, but he really does want to give you what you need...I better stop now, before I get all weepy again."

Gigs stood suddenly, stomped to the door, slamming it open and stormed down the hall. Alarmed, Tamara followed quickly behind her. They reached the living room to find Asher and Jean-Claude in the middle of a chess game. Without warning, Gigs stormed over to Asher, picking him up by the throat and tossing him across the room into the wall like a rag doll. She pounced across the chair and grabbed him by the throat again. Effortlessly she hoisted him UP the wall and backhanded him. His lip began to bleed where her claw had caught it.

"Gigs NO, don't be mad at him...it's MY fault!" Tamara sobbed. I tore her up inside to see them fighting like this (even though Asher was making no move to defend himself).

Gigs frown deepened. "I'm not angry, Tamara," she told her third. "I'm making sure I have his undivided attention, so he can LISTEN to me."

Asher spoke meekly, "Was there something you wanted, ma chat?"

She leaned in close to the master vampire, her voice a low lethal purr, "Don't you ever let me hear about you biting Tamara like you did at Lyza's last night ever again, or so help me I will nail you into that damn coffin and drop your ass to the bottom of the ocean. Do I make myself perfectly clear, fangface! I don't care HOW unreasonable she's being, that is ABUSE Asher, and I won't tolerate it for ONE MINUTE. Not towards our children and NOT towards Tamara. I mean it."

Asher licked the blood from his lip but remained silent. He kept his face carefully blank.

Gigs growled over her shoulder at Jean-Claude, "Haven't you got a city to run, Jean-Claude?" He quickly and discreetly removed himself from the room, not wanting to incur the tiger's wrath.

Tamara stood watching all this, miserable sobs wracking her body. Gigs continued to focus on Asher, but spoke to Tam, "NOW...Tamara, why don't you have a seat, wipe your eyes, and tell me just EXACTLY how it is you overheard my conversation with Greg...unless fangface her has needled his way through my shields instead of respecting my privacy for which I'm gonna SMACK HIM AGAIN!"

She drew her claw back to do just that, and Tamara lunged forward to grab her arm to stop her. "NO! I was just out in the hall talking to Esther is all. She only has human hearing so she couldn't hear what you were saying,...but I could. That's all. Ash didn't have anything to do with that. Please...put him down," she'd finally managed to get her voice under control and tried to calm her friend.

The tiger gave Asher another menacing look before dropping him unceremoniously to a heap in the floor. "Fine," she practically hissed. "Then you should know for the record that if i DO decide to take this asshole on vacation with me, then it will only be because YOU are either in Norfolk where Ramses and Kylie can back you up...or in St. Louis where Jean-Claude and Anita can back you up."

She noticed the stubbornness enter her friend's visage and continued a little more softly, "No, you're NOT an invalid, but you're ALSO in no condition to take on Belle's fury...and I've had ENOUGH bullshit from the lot of them. She will NOT be messing with ANY of this Triune's children. NONE of them." She glared at Tamara, her eyes still amber, daring her to argue.

Tamara nodded quietly, glad that Gigs' temper was no longer focused on their master, and that her protective streak had kicked in against the TRUE threat to them and their children.

Gigs looked back at Asher, where he still lay on the floor, looking back at her but remaining motionless. She took a few deep breaths. "For now, we'll just have to stick it out the THREE of us. We have children to care for and protect," she declared then stalked from the room, shields of solid steel firmly in place.