The following morning went by smoother than the last, with father and daughter dutifully trooping into the shower for a morning scrub without a second thought. They ate breakfast in companionable silence, and when it was time to put the dishes away, Vanessa looked up from gathering the plates when a blast of music came from the opposite side of the room.
Liam stood by the state-of-the-art sound system, which they hadn't used until then, background sound always provided courtesy of whatever he was watching at the time. He'd turned it on to find a bunch of preloaded playlists catering to all tastes, and selected a randomized title from a Hot Off the Charts kind of compilation. The song was something both had heard but couldn't place, kind of bland but catchy and eminently danceable. So, Ness carried the trays with a little swagger in her step, put them in the dumbwaiter, and twirled around to shake her hips to the rhythm.
She'd never been much of a dancer, but in the sunny, well-furnished living room, it felt good to let loose and be a little goofy, shaking her naked ass as she moved through the space. It was kind of freeing, feeling her firm tits bounce unfettered, the unusual sensation of air currents on her bare pussy. She heard Liam chuckle with a mixture of surprise and fondness, and turned to see him smiling proudly, and shaking his hips to the beat ever so slightly.
Vanessa grinned back, but as was becoming usual for her, she couldn't help gazing down at the cock swinging between his legs, looking particularly weighty as it moved from side to side. His sack swayed, and Ness thought of the millions of little swimmers filling his balls, fancifully picturing them sloshing inside like the contents of water balloons. Obviously, that wasn't how that worked at all, but the absurd imagery was kind of a turn-on, as if her father's virility really could be physically represented like that.
That's when the unbidden image of him draining those overflowing nuts inside her while they spooned came to her mind. It didn't seem that far removed from the erotic reality of what had happened the previous night. Vanessa's clit and nipples tingled at the fantasy, and the memory, and before she knew it, her dancing had dwindled to near-sitllness, and she shot Liam a nervous smile.
'Do you want to get through the questions? I'm starting to feel kinda silly doing this. I'm no good at it.'
'You don't look silly. You look happy. It's a sight for sore eyes.'
Ness's anxiety dissipated somewhat, but she still stopped fooling around and went to arrange the chairs in their usual set-up. Before long, she and her father sat across from each other, looking at the TV as the first question of the day popped up.
13. What is your most treasured memory?
'I'm up first, huh? Damn.'
Liam crossed his arms over his chest and sighed deeply. He had about twice his daughter's life experience, but their most recent years hadn't exactly been replete with precious moments. Vanessa figured he was digging pretty deep, and her assumption proved out when he eventually nodded and spoke:
'I thought about doing the cliché thing and saying the day you were born, because it is one of the moments I want to remember clearly for the rest of my life for sure , but… even more than that, I feel like my most treasured memory is…' Liam chuckled, and the corners of his eyes crinkled as he watched his daughter. 'You probably won't remember this. The first summer after you were able to go back to school. It was the Saturday after class let out, and your mom and I took you to the park with the pedal boats, near where we lived at the time. We got you some ice cream, and you rode in the back while we sailed that rinky dink boat around the lake, and we had to zoom over to shore when you yelped that your shoes were getting wet 'cause water was coming in. Your mom jumped onto the grass, and I threw you into her arms and almost right over her head with how skinny and light you were at the time, and we were all laughing like crazy.'
Vanessa did remember that, though surely not as vividly as her father did. It was one of their last family outings before her mother's condition started to deteriorate. Soon, she wasn't able to even reliably walk under her own power anymore.
'When the experiment finishes,' said Ness, 'maybe we can start doing that kind of thing again. I can't remember the last time we had a day out as a family.'
'We haven't been able to afford a real day out for a long time, but that won't be a problem after this.'
There were hundreds of things that could be done without spending a penny – notably, going to the park – but Vanessa didn't think it was worth arguing. Liam clearly pinned all his hopes on the new hope afforded by the cash prize, so why not follow his line of logic? And speaking of which, it was her turn to respond to the question at hand. She put her hands between her knees and trapped them there, mulling over the matter.
'I think… probably the time I won that essay contest?'
It was the only trip she'd gone on without her dad, and one of the only trips she'd gone on full stop, when her American History assignment won first place in a state-wide competition. She'd visited Washington D.C. with a gaggle of other nerdy kids, some of who she still kept in touch with online, and she still kept the photographs of herself with various senators in a special folder under her bed. It wasn't that she particularly looked up to any of them, but it was tangible proof of her achievements, of what she was capable of doing.
Liam nodded, though he seemed to get the wrong idea. 'Well, when we're out of here, we can go on a trip to somewhere way better than D.C. New York, or California, or abroad! We'll get passports and go to Europe.'
'That'll be fun.' No use clarifying her ambitions for further study now, especially when the next question was up. When she saw what it was, her stomach dropped.
14. What is your most terrible memory?
Father and daughter traded a worried look, and Liam said, 'I guess it makes sense. What with the last question.'
'Yeah. I assume we have the same answer.'
They paused, watching each other for a moment. Their shared most memory was obvious, but they had to state it out loud for the study. Vanessa breathed in deeply, and started to speak, wanting to keep it to the bare facts so neither of them would get too upset.
'Throughout my childhood, I had health issue after health issue, and my mom and dad had to take turns working and caring for me, and it was hard, but they could strike a balance. I got better, and I grew up. I think we had about a year of all of us being in good shape. But I didn't know about her genetic condition, which lay dormant her whole life… until it didn't.'
'Well, we knew about it. Her and me. We just thought we'd have more time.' He shook his head, morose. 'Crazy to think the top of the slippery slope was her dropping a glass .'
They'd been in the kitchen when it happened, all three of them, with Vanessa's parents clearing the table while she finished her lunch. Her mother picked up her still-full glass of water – she never drank enough with her meals – to take a sip, and her wrist buckled, the glass fell to the ground, and Ness's mom let out a little yelp and punted it straight into the wall, the water spreading in an arc over the tiles and Vanessa herself.
'What happened there?!' Liam said, bending to pick up the larger pieces of smashed cup.
'Don't use your hands, you're gonna cut yourself!' his wife urged. 'I saw it drop and I just – I reacted on instinct, I was trying to stop it shattering –'
'By kicking it?' pre-teen Vanessa piped up.
Whether it was Vanessa's little comment or her mother's awkward explanation, Liam snorted and started chuckling, which got Ness started, and ultimately, her mom giggled too. The glass was safely swept away, and they carried on as normal.
They didn't know how common that scenario would become over the coming months and years.
'Mom's condition got worse fast, and in just a couple of years, she was housebound. My worst memory is either – seeing her in bed a few days before she died, because I could just see that she'd given up already, and I couldn't blame her. Or seeing her in her casket.'
'Yeah,' Liam murmured, nodding grimly. He took a deep breath, leaning back in his chair. 'God. I hope the rest's a little lighter.'
15. What is the greatest accomplishment of your life?
'Phew,' Liam said, wiping his forehead in an exaggerated manner. He segued right into his response, not thinking it over for a second, eyes on his daughter: 'That's easy. It's you.'
That was almost too perfect of a response, and it made Ness smile, bashful, even as she tried to summon up the same playful energy her father could muster up when he felt so inclined. 'That's a very stock-standard dad answer.'
'I'm not gonna lie just to be more original. Show me how it's done.'
'I haven't made and raised a person or had a relationship or anything like that! My greatest accomplishment's going to sound stupid in comparison.'
'Try me.'
She hadn't just been deferring the issue. She really was having trouble coming up with a satisfactory answer. She didn't want to repeat the essay story. It sounded a little pathetic to be that proud of it. At the same time, she hadn't exactly had a wealth of opportunities to prove herself. She wasn't even sure what her skills were . She just knew what she enjoyed, and what she was like.
Maybe that was the answer.
'I kind of feel like I'm a lot more… equipped for the real world than most people my age. And I'm pretty proud of that. I think that's my proudest accomplishment, because it's going to pay off in the future, too.'
Liam nodded, the affection clear in his face, though there was some melancholy there too. He'd said how he wished Vanessa could have just lived a regular teen life, and that's probably what was preying on his mind then and there. Ness smiled at him, and glanced at the screen for the next question.
16. If a crystal ball could tell you the truth about your partner, what would you want to know?
This one was a little more challenging. Both relatives took the time to mull it over, and since it was Vanessa's turn to start, she took a little longer, unsure how to set the tone – keep it light, or go more in depth. Deep down, she knew what she really wanted to know in the moment, but she could never ask.
Was his boner in the shower yesterday caused by her?
She did her best to dismiss the thought, and decided to speak as the words came to her mind: 'I think… if I had a crystal ball, I'd want to know how you're really coping with quitting gambling.'
Liam visibly tensed up, and Ness immediately felt her stomach flip, but she decided to stand firm. If not now, when would she be able to bring this up?
'I mean, I want to know because you've been handling it so well . All the articles I read about that kind of –' she knew he didn't like the word addiction, '- situation makes it sound like hell, and you're not even seeing a therapist. You haven't replaced it with drinking or anything like that, either. It's kind of amazing.'
It seemed like she'd sufficiently couched her question, and she hadn't even had to lie to soften the blow: her father's handling of the ordeal really was remarkable. 'Thanks, Ness. That's nice to hear. Really. And it hasn't been easy. You ever wonder why I only have a basic phone? The temptation of instant internet access in your pocket is crazy for somebody dealing with this whole gambling thing. It's why we still have that old computer in the living room, too – well, that, and the cost, obviously. But it's so I can't have it to myself, y'know.'
Vanessa recognized everything he said, and privately chastised herself for not putting the pieces together. She thought her dad was simply not very tech-savvy, and since she wasn't either, she didn't give it much thought. Liam cleared his throat.
'And I do have to set the record straight. I haven't replaced it with drinking, and I haven't started smoking again… but I have other habits that aren't super sustainable that I'm using to cope. The best one's probably exercise. When I'm doing delivery work, I'm rushing around all over the place so I barely have time to do anything, but when I'm chauffeuring and I have to idle, I work out. Pushups, squats, whatever. If I get the urge to gamble, I exercise. It offsets the other issue, which is pigging out on Reese's cups. And… there's other stuff, too. But that's the main strats I've been using.'
Vanessa had been listening earnestly, focussing entirely on the words coming out of Liam's mouth, but when he briefly paused and said "other stuff," his eyes flicked down to the thick piece of daddy fuckmeat resting on his nuts on the chair, and a shiver ran up her spine – and down to her cunt.
Was jacking off another one of his new vices? Was that why he hadn't been able to resist touching himself that first night?
Tightening her grip on her knees to ground herself and keep her fantasies from spiraling, Ness said, 'It's got to be extra hard during football season. Not being able to make bets.'
'Kinda. I try to focus on the game more than the outcome. It's helping me get into the strategy and the play more than before, so that's good.' He paused. 'And as for what I'd like to find out with a crystal ball… I'd want to be able to know when you're actually okay.'
' When I'm okay?'
Liam nodded. 'There's so many times I'll get home and ask if you need help, and you'll say you've got it all under control. And I… I take your word for it, but a couple of times, I've wondered whether I should , because I get the feeling you're taking on more than you should to let me relax.'
'But you work so much –'
'So do you.'
They looked at each for a silent beat, and Vanessa shyly remarked, 'seems like it's another issue we can solve by communicating more. We don't need magic powers.'
'I dunno, I'm starting to feel like communicating is a magic power.'
'And we're turning into wizards?'
Liam cracked up at that, and Vanessa was glad. At the same time, she hoped she'd sidestepped the broader conversation. She knew she did too much, but it was her choice, just like Liam chose to believe her and rest instead of doing housework. It's where she found control. To try and hurry past the topic, she turned to the TV to cue the next part, and thankfully, it seemed the people supervising them were satisfied.
17. Where do you like to be touched and kissed?
Although they'd agreed to answer the uncomfortable queries directly, minimizing the awkwardness, this one gave them pause, shifting the lighter mood they'd managed to summon up since the trauma question. Vanessa peered at her dad, curious to see what he'd say.
Liam folded his arms and crossed his legs at the ankle, subconsciously putting up a bit of a barrier. 'Uh… geez. I guess I'm the same as any guy. I like having my back rubbed, but I think everyone likes that.'
Vanessa had to put a cap on her imagination, which started to expand on her dad's "same as any guy" – obviously, he'd like to be touched and kissed on the rosy head of his prick, his veiny shaft, his full balls. She met his eyes despite her thoughts centering on his cock and nuts, as they seemed to be more and more often. 'You should've said that. I could've given you a massage after you worked construction or something.'
'Yeah, do all the cooking, cleaning, accounting, and massage me while you're at it. C'mon, Ness. Give your old man some credit.'
'Alright, alright,' Vanessa said with a chuckle. Her mirth didn't last long once she realized it was her turn to answer. She thought it over. The question didn't explicitly say it was about sexual touch. 'Um… holding hands is nice. Our hands are so sensitive that it feels intimate. And… Amy likes to freak me out by putting a cold bottle against the side of my neck when I'm not expecting it. That feels really sensitive, too. So the neck would probably be a nice place to be touched, or kissed… and a kiss on the forehead is sweet.'
Liam nodded. 'Your mom liked being kissed on the neck. Uh, if that's not… weird to tell you.'
'I don't think that's weird. It's nice. I like knowing what I have in common with her.'
Liam smiled. Talking about his late wife wasn't painful, the way he'd imagined it might be. It was nice to remember her, to see her in his grown-up daughter. He glanced at the screen. 'Ready for the last one of the day?'
'I hope so!'
It turned out she wasn't, and neither was he.
18. Describe your partner's genitalia in detail.
Liam and Vanessa stared at the screen, shocked at the text and unwilling to let their eyes drift over each other's naked bodies. Why would Shibboleth ask them to do this? It was obscene. It was bizarre. It…
It didn't contradict Vanessa's point about dealing with shame in communication.
She lingered on that thought. She knew about shock therapy, sudden exposure to triggers and uncomfortable situations to force people to deal with their deep-rooted issues. Could it be that the Labs had identified far deeper problems in their relationship than they'd thought? It was the only logical explanation she could find, at least in this limited amount of time. She had to do something.
So she took a deep breath, forced herself to brave the embarrassment prickling her skin, clapped eyes on her father's dick, and started to speak before either he or her own mind could say anything to throw her off.
'M-my dad's penis is a shade or two darker than the rest of his skin. It's circumcised, and the head is nice and plump,' she hadn't meant to say "nice," but she didn't notice the word slipping out, nor Liam's eyes pleadingly looking at her. 'It's a deep pink shade, which fades into his darker skin color pretty sharply around where his circumcision scar sits on his dick.'
This wasn't so bad. She was keeping to the facts, and getting to openly stare at her father's cock as much as she wanted. For a split second before she started speaking, she figured giving such a thorough inventory of the features of her dad's prick might help her get over her recent obsession, reducing it to crass anatomical models. That wasn't what happened. Instead, describing the penis that created her forced her to appreciate the details, each little wrinkle and vein and spot and hair. She was more eager than ever to confirm her observations, to truly feel the weight of his dick and nuts, to find out the texture of a man's cock skin. Given those thoughts constantly spinning round her head, she thought she was doing a pretty good job of hiding how much ogling her dad's made her cunt throb.
Some genital configurations make it much harder to fly under the radar. Vanessa knew this, objectively, and now – when she truly didn't expect it – she had it visually confirmed.
Slowly but steadily, Liam's penis started to harden.