A dark, empty house...or is it?

When they made it back home, Pat began to assume the worst. Sally pulled up to the house and she and Pat saw not a light left on and not a peep coming from within. When the car's engine went silent, moans and grunts could be heard all around the neighborhood,presumably of family, friends and roommates all coming together for the dinner hour. By contrast, the Arton household seemed abandoned.

Pat dug his phone out from his bag. He flipped through his text history with Alex, hoping to gain some context over what had happened, but to his dismay found no new text since her chain from earlier about her and their mother.

"You, uh, get any texts from Dad?" Pat asked, turning to the side to find Sally already thumbing through her own phone. She shook her head and gave a tense "Mm-mm" through pursed lips.

"You don't think Alex stormed off, did she?" Pat asked.

"Of course not, sweetie," Sally reassured, putting her phone away and reaching out to rest her hand on Pat's thigh. "Things were tense by the time I had left, but the nastiest things were already put out onto the table before I went to pick you up."

"So...you know about—?"

Sally nodded, her eyes looking both comforting and uneasy. "It was hard for your father to admit it, and that just made Alex more upset. I brought up what I said last night, about how I had held similar feelings for you that he did for Alex. That was enough to put his defenses down and open up, but Alex—"

Sally paused, pursing her lips and flexing her jaw before letting out a sigh and continued. "—rightly pointed out it's not the same thing, him lusting after her like I did with you. By then, your father started to open up to your sister. Started talking about how these last couple of days have changed him as much as it did the rest of us. Things were still tense between them when I left, but I left with the hope that they would at least come to an understanding by the time you and me got back home."

Sally turned away from Pat to look back at the dark, quiet home. Even from just her profile, Pat could read the worry and conflict all over his mother's face, and he could predict where some of that conflict came from, because to an extent he shared it with her. He felt an ache of conflict with the love he felt for his dad with what Alex had said about him. He remembered what Adrian had said, about how Pat should stop comparing himself and his family to Prude-world standards, but the implications about what Alex had claimed about their father's wandering eye was unsettling, regardless of societal standards between worlds. At the worst, it suggested that Ted had agreed to his job transfer and moved the family to the Sexworld partly so he could indulge in his apparently longstanding desire to have sex with Alex, whether or not that was a mutual desire on her end.

Pat didn't want to think that his father was capable of such ghastly predatory behavior, but he also knew how sex and power imbalances were back in the Prudeworld, and how he and Alex would have had completely different experience that probably went right by Pat back then. Still looking at Sally, Pat could tell that she was worried about similar things concerning Ted, but he could also tell such thoughts were being turned inward, that she was ruminating on her own desires towards her children through the lens of Ted's behavior back in Prudeworld.

Pat reached out to his mother, resting his hand on her shoulder. "Mom, you're not a bad person for wanting me," he said. He felt her shudder, as though he had read her mind. Pat then added "And Dad isn't a bad person, either. Deep down, he isn't."

Sally looked back to Pat. Even in the dark of the late evening, he could still make out the gleam in her eyes. Whether those tears came from distress or affection, Pat could not tell and honestly did not care. He brought his hand higher, settling his palm against his mother's cheek, and stroked the skin underneath her eyes with his thumb. To his relief, there were no tears that he needed to wipe away.

"Thank you, Patty," Sally said with a slight tremble. She took his hand by his wrist and brought it down to plant a soulful kiss right below his knuckles.

"It's just a thing about having a family," she continued. "You can love them so much, you can't help but fret over them sometimes. One day, you'll feel it yourself."

Pat's heart, having been gripped by anxiety for the last few moments, felt a sweet moment of relief. He remembered what Adrian's mom had said—_As soon as a mother fucks her son, she considers it. Be brave and talk to her about it. _But, as much as Pat wanted to confess it, so sure even without Jeanie's encouragement that Sally felt the same way, it had to be put off for later. The divide among their family took priority before he could even entertain growing the family.

"Well, hey," he spoke up, reaching away to collect his bag. "We may as well head inside. Who knows, maybe they went out on a walk, or even out to dinner somewhere, and just forgot to tell either of us."

Sally made a relieved smile. "Your father always did have an issue keeping in touch. Used to."

Their shared laugh was enough levity to get them to pull out of their seats and make their way inside. With Sally carrying dinner in both her hands, Pat became the one to tend to the front door—the only door the house had—and found it unlocked. He and Sally found the interior to be just as dark and empty as it appeared from the outside, but with the door open could now pick up the faint sounds of panting and gasping.

Pat turned around to Sally, and mother and son shared a silent, inquisitive glance with each other before venturing further into the house. Their tip-toeing through their own home was not necessary, but the curious tension compelled them to not loudly announce their arrival, especially as they made it into the foyer only to hear the suggestive noises increase. Down the hall, they could then hear some wet, squelching sound. It grew louder as they crept forward, and above it Pat could soon make out choked, labored grunts interspersed with a playful feminine giggle.

By the time they had turned the corner into his parent's bedroom, Pat had to pinch his lips together to stop from making any audible reaction.