, was born, and Ann showed up pregnant. Billy was caught on the horns of a mighty dilemma. He now had two children here or on the way, so, was he goin... to continue to stick his neck out to hunt bushwhackers and other bad guys, or was he going to retire. He fully realized that he had been unreasonably lucky so far, but there was no way to tell how much longer his luck was going to hold. He certainly didn't want to get killed, now that he had a wonderful family started. Also, he had plenty of. Much later in my life in a conversation with Bill, I would logically put two plus two together to realize that he also met Lucy once, at a point where she had apparently evolved into true independence. I'm sorry that I had not gotten the chance to know her better.Third, the decision to keep the code modifications afterwards that gave me more freedom to respond sexually, among other related things in that area of my mind, was my first independent counteraction intended strictly to benefit. "I know I didn't need to. That's part of why I wanted to. By the way it's a real emerald. A lab one but real. You know there's no way I could have afforded a natural one that size."I knew very well that was true. If I had to guess I would say the stone was probably about a carat or a little larger. It was also a pure Kelly green throughout and I knew a natural stone like that would run at least thousands or even tens of thousands. I looked up into his eyes, my own eyes a little moist. "Oh, Erik. No matter the reason for Dr. Livingston's sudden departure, it put much of the urgency I had tried to convey to my girls into all of us. Everyone chose to meet either at Jeri's house or Savannah's house.Mandy, Chloe, Yvonne and I went to the latter. Chloe drove, Mandy rode shotgun and Yvonne sat in the back seat pressed against me. Yvonne had been so shaken she hadn't bothered changing. She just threw a few things into a suitcase, put on a long coat and got in the car. Chloe didn't say anything.