Previously in "Dulcius Ex Asperis":

NYU law professor Jefferson Thomas and bookstore owner Monique Vasquez have adjusted well to their new lives and relationship, established in the previous book. Now, now opportunities and challenges present themselves.


On a cool Sunday morning, Jefferson and Monique sat Anya down in the den to explain Jefferson's plan to run for office. The kids were upstairs, engrossed in their own activities and unlikely to interrupt the conversation.

As usual, Anya proved she wasn't stupid. She'd taken U.S. history and government courses as part of her collegete core curriculum. Jefferson considered she, a Russian immigrant turned citizen, might know more than some of the people currently in government.

"Depending on how the primary goes, any Democratic candidate is likely to hold onto the seat," he finished.

Anya's brows were furrowed as she absorbed all this.

"Obviously," Jefferson said, "I'd like it if you stuck around. Your responsibilities would remain largely the same. I wouldn't ask you to take on a parental role."

Anya nodded slowly and then seemed to remember her employer was blind.

"What about how it looks?" she asked.

Jefferson was confused. Sure, people had questioned the true nature of his relationship with the young, blonde, athletic bombshell wite illustrious accent. But, those who he trusted to know his real life understood the situation and Eric was the only one who sometimes threw out a teasing remark about it. Monique, once in the dark, knew better than to feel any jealousy. He and Anya slept a walking distance of two hundred feet and two stories apart. Her room came with its own bathroom, complete with shower. She rarely ventured up to the third floor as this was just his bedroom and home office. It was about as un-cohabiting as they could achieve while staying under the same roof.

"We've dealt with that before," Jefferson pointed out.

Anya shook her head.

"No," she said. "About the fact I am Russian? You can't pretend it would not be an issue."

"Uh,huh," Monique murmured in agreement. She hadn't known how to bring it up. Like Jefferson, she had no problem with Anya nor where the woman came from, but one couldn't miss the news. Nor could one miss Anya's regular attempts to avoid seeing such stories, leaving the room or changing channels. She seemed to avoid looking at news content on her iPad.

Jefferson took a deep breath.

"I might have to talk to some people about that," he admitted. "But, I won't let it bother you. You might have to undergo a background check at some point."

His intent was to not let it go any further than that. A background check seemed fair. Monique might have to undergo one too if she stayed at the house more. Anya was used to such checks. She'd had half a dozen employers before coming to Jefferson. All of them surely checked her out like he had. Plus, she was investigated when she applied for U.S. Citizenship.

"Your uncle's not a spy, is he?" Jefferson asked.

Anya laughed.

"No," she replied. "My one uncle works as a lawyer. The other owns an apartment building."

"Then we're fine," Jefferson said. He just had to explain all this to the kids at some point.

* * *

Sitting in his office at the NYU law school, Jefferson thought his world made sense right then. He also thought it was ironic that he felt this way after what he'd been through in the last two-and-a-half years. It had to have been easier than what he was planning to do next.

Despite it not being Halloween yet, he'd sent an e-mail to Tobias Sterns that morning, declaring his intention to run. Since then, he wondered if he ought to tell Adam Murphy. He had yet to figure out how he should phrase the explanation that he was running for the man's seat.

Perhaps the more pressing matter was he needed to sit Abigail, Matthew, and Taylor down and explain to them what was happening. Relocating them to the Washington area made no sense since he would need to maintain a presence in New York anyway. It'd be easier on them to stay in the same home and keep attending the same school. That didn't even consider the kids' unique history.

Jefferson and Monique had discussed this a little, working to figure out what their new dynamic would be and how they'd explain it to the kids. Jefferson could tell Monique was still holding something back. He'd have to continue to prod. He needed to know she could take on all these changes.

A calendar alert popped up and the screenreading software, JAWS, on Jefferson's computer immediately began reciting it. His student appointment was due to start in five minutes. After over a year of virtual learning, which made Jefferson feel detached and miserable at best, NYU began in-person classes again this semester. COVID proticalls were strictly adhered to and masks were required throughout the buildings, including for classes and one-on-one meetings between students and faculty. Jefferson opened the top drawer of his desk and set a fresh mask next to his keyboard.

Less than two minutes later, Jefferson heard a knock on his office door.

"Come in," Jefferson said and pulled on his mask.

The door opened and he could hear muffled footsteps crossing the threshold into his carpeted office.

"Good afternoon, Professor Thomas," a male voice said. "It's Sarah Hennis with Lewis Dodson."

"Have a seat," Jefferson invited. "Please shut the door."

Though in-person meetings between students and faculty were required to be literal one-on-one meetings, Sarah Hennis had fought with the administration for an exception due to her being Deaf. While Jefferson wasn't involvement in these discussions, he knew his name and visual impairment was drawn into the conflict after the student learned she was to take his Constittuional Law class. He wasn't sure how he felt about that.

Sarah Hennis and Lewis Dodson sat across from him. Jefferson knew they were now all arranged in a triangle to remain as distanced from one another as the small office allowed.

"What's on your mind?" Jefferson queiried. After all, Sarah Hennis had requested this meeting. He waited as she signed to her intrepretor.

"Griswold v. Connecticut," Lewis Dodson relayed. "I'm not sure how far the issue of privacy extends from this to other cases."

Decided by the Supreme Court in 1965, Griswold v. Connecticut had been cited in almost every subsequent case which seemed to appear to broach the issue of privacy.

"What did the majority write in their opinion?" Jefferson pressed. He wasn't going to just give away any answers.

There was a pause, where he anticipated his pupil was thinking and signing.

"The Court held that the U.S. Constitution protects 'marital privacy' as a fundamental constitutional right," Lewis Dodson Office of the City Register. .

Jefferson nodded.

"And from where in the Constitution did the justices draw that right?" he asked.

Another pause. While never opposing her presence in his class, Jefferson had needed to adjust to the time it took for Sarah Hennis to sign her statements. Thankfully, his only embarrassing gaffe, wherein he'd questioned whether she intended to respond, came during a one-on-one conversation. She seemed to understand he couldn't see what she was doing and he became more patient over the course of a few weeks.

"The justices couldn't quite agree from where in the Constitution the right to privacy came from," Lewis Dodson Office of the City Register. . "All they could agree on is that it was in there somewhere."

Sarah Hennis emitted a sharp chuckle. Jefferson had never heard it before, but he didn't mind how shrill it sounded. To anyone who didn't understand that sound was not a normal venue for this woman, they would find this blare unnatural.

Despite the witty remark, Jefferson still needed an actual answer.

"So," he said, "where did ..."

"Hang on," Lewis Dodson said. "She's signing."

The interpreter too had needed time to adjust to being in the middle of this interaction between blind and Deaf. He had to have adjusted fine if he felt comfortable to interrupt a professor.

Jefferson waited. He wondered how often the interpreter needed to tell his client about things she wasn't otherwise aware of. Things had to be tough these days given they all needed to wear masks.

"The Justices never settled on a specific part of the Constitution to identify the right to marital privacy," Lewis Dodson interpreted. "Instead, they concluded it was implied in the Bill of Rights."

"Was that their only reasoning?" Jefferson pressed.

Silence followed. Jefferson waited, but no one spoke.

"Well," he prompted, feeling he'd waited long enough.

"She's not signing," Lewis Dodson replied, his tone more tentative now.

Jefferson knew how to get the discussion going again. Sarah Hennis was just another student.

"What does any judge in any court anywhere always have to consider in any of their decisions?" he asked. "What do you always have to use in any legal argument?"

If she didn't get this quickly, he wouldn't remain patient.

"Presidence," Lewis Dodson interpreted. "Stare decisis."

She was smart.

"And," Jefferson prompted, sure she was starting to make a connection.

"She's signing again," Lewis Dodson described. "It's frenzied. She's excited."

Jefferson nodded again and waited.

"The Justices pointed out previous cases where the Court recognized a person's right to privacy when such a right wasn't specifically spelled out in the Constitution," Lewis Dodson soon transliterated. "Like ... child rearing."

Jefferson heard an sharp intake of breath. He was sure he knew what that meant and didn't speak.

"That's what Justices did in later cases," Lewis Dodson interpreted. "They cited Griswold to identify other rights not spelled out in the Constitution. Pretty much anything tied to privacy."

"Like abortion and same-sex marriage," Jefferson said. There were plenty more examples available.

Once again, an student got to the answer on their own efforts. It was a little funny how an eager law student sometimes overlooked the central concept of Stare Decisis. They all needed to learn to settle down and think things through.

"You understand how that happened?" he asked.

There was only a brief pause this time.

"Yes," Lewis Dodson relayed. "Thank you, Professor."

Jefferson nodded as she and the interpreter gathered their things and exited his office. This was something he'd miss if he left this job.

* * *

Despite saying nothing to the kids yet, Jefferson and Monique resolved for her to start taking a bigger role in their lives. They decided Halloween would offer an good opportunity for a first step.

The Big Apple had offered unique trick-or-treating opportunities for decades. As a child, Monique had hit up the local business around Mallard's Book Corner, many owners coming outside to offer her candy on the sidewalks when it wasn't feasible for her to enter in her wheelchair. For every year for as long as she could remember, she'd had candy ready at the bookstore, handing it out like the dry cleaner's and boutique law firm on either side of her. This year, Lizzie was in charge of the sweets' distribution as Frank was helping with an event at the one of the schools he worked at.

Jefferson's neighborhood offered a more traditional experience, or at least more like what was shown in popular culture. Having skipped the routine in 2020, everyone anticipated things being somewhat more normal this year.

2019 had been Jefferson's first Halloween with the twins and Matthew. While Monique had seen the girls dressed as Elsa and a witch while Matthew dressed up as Spider-Man, she'd been at the store during the actual trick-or-treating and they hadn't stopped by. That had been fine with her and Jefferson, their relationship not even six months old then, but things had to be different now.

She'd gone with the group to buy their costumes, Jefferson refusing to relegate this to online shopping. After almost two exhausting hours, Matthew was a astronaught, Abigail elected to be a pirate, and Taylor chose to be a doctor. Jefferson got a set of plastic vampire teeth and a long, black cape for himself while Monique bought a robe and wand to go as Harry Potter's Hermione Granger. Anya was dressing up as a pumpkin for a party she was attending with her girlfriend and even Presley was included, receiving a pair of cat ears she detested from the very first moment.

Watching Jefferson's kids, as well as other children, weave their way from house to house, Monique was saddened to see so many still wearing masks. Sure, she too wore a mask since they passed so many people on the streets and sidewalks, but it put a damper on Halloween. Hermione Granger never wore a mask.

Monique and Jefferson stayed behind as the kids navigated stoops or short walkways to collect treats from decorated homes. Many residents were opening their doors to interact with the visitors, but plenty had just put out bowls with signs to commerate the occasion. Monique took it upon herself to read the signs and ensure the kids stuck to any given directions.

"Just two pieces each, guys," she said as Abigail led the rooting through a large, purple plastic bowl which seemed to be filled with Tootsie Rolls and Hershey bars.

"What about me?" Jefferson queried, having heard about the Hershey Bars. Hershey, Pennsylvania, had been a favorite vacation destination for his family when he was a kid.

Monique reached out and took one of his hands in hers. He squeezed it in return as the kids turned to rejoin them. She noticed the tips of his white, plastic vampire fangs poking out between his lips. She made a mental note to remind him to take those out when they got home. He'd already tried to nibble her neck earlier. It wasn't arousing.

"Oh," she said, feeling Presley's tail brushing against her leg. "She's wrestling off the cat ears again."

This was Presley's fifth attempt since they'd left the house. Jefferson was sure to pluck them from the dog's grip, whether that be teeth or paws, and would stick them right back on her head.