It had been five years since the accident, but sometimes, late at night, Zayne Lennox would dream of it as if he was there again. They had gone on a skiing trip in the Swiss Alps; Zayne, his twin, their friends, their significant others, and all of their families. Even at the time, Zayne had been aware that this was a particularly privileged life they lived. Him and his twin brother, Zachariah, had gone to the best private schools, and they were both at an Ivy League together.
They were spending their winter break from schooling skiing and snowboarding, getting some much needed rest from their workload at school. They had taken to the slopes a day before Christmas Eve, with Zayne and Zach both on snowboards, as well as Zayne's best friend Elias Harris. The rest of their group, including Zayne's boyfriend Daniel Williamson, were on skis.
They were up on one of the more advanced slopes, enjoying the skill it took to maneuver their way down the snowy mountains. They had all been skiing and snowboarding for their entire lives, so they had long ago left the bunny slopes behind. They were taking bigger jumps each time, and swerving around the trees and rocks as if they were nothing.
Zach had decided to take over the construction company their dad owned after college, but Zayne had dreams of being a doctor. He wanted to be a surgeon, specifically, though he hadn't chosen which area he wanted to specialize in. He could do general surgery, but he could also focus on cancer, brain, the heart, or more. He just wasn't sure which type of difficulty he wanted to go into.
Zayne was free of those worries right then though. Zach and him were standing on top of one of the slopes, looking down at an area where they could take a pretty big jump. The twins got along well, and were always connected at the hip, but they were also incredibly competitive.
Elias stopped next to Zayne and looked down before grinning. "Okay, whoever goes the farthest with the best trick wins."
Zach went first, going down the long hill effortlessly. As he came back up to the jump, he soared into the air and pulled the snowboard up behind him and to the side. He brought the board down a little before he hit the ground again, ending it perfectly. He dropped a red scarf on the ground where he had landed before continuing down farther before he stopped and turned back to them.
Elias was next, and he went into a flip once he was airborne. Their friends and significant others behind Zayne whooped and cheered as Elias hit the ground and dropped a blue scarf at his landing point before going over to join Zach. That left only Zayne left.
"Watch and learn, guys," Zayne called out behind him before he took off.
He quickly gained speed as he went, wanting to get as fast as he could before he came up to the jump point. Zayne reveled in the adrenaline coursing through him as he took to the air. This was one of his favorite feelings, one that would never grow old for him. He noticed that his board scraped against what was probably a rock, but he was a pro in handling himself. He wasn't worried about correcting himself as he flew through the air.
As he looked back, Zayne wasn't sure now if it was the rock or that he tried to land a double flip, something he'd done plenty of times before. No matter what it was that tripped him up, though, the results were all that mattered now. The ground came far too soon and suddenly, and Zayne landed back first.
He would never forget the way his scream echoed off the mountains around them as he felt the pain tear through his body. He had hit otherwise ice or a rock below, and the pain that traveled the length of his body was unlike anything he had ever felt before. It felt like he lay there both for only seconds and also hours before he was surrounded by everyone. Elias was calling for help while Daniel took Zayne's hand and started asking him if he was okay.
Zayne couldn't remember if he ever answered his boyfriend. Eventually, he passed out from the pain and awoke in the hospital surrounded by doctors and nurses. He nodded his head when the head doctor asked in English if Zayne could understand her. She asked him if he could feel her poking his feet and then asked him to wiggle his toes. He was able to do both, though wiggling his toes hurt more than he would have ever cared to admit.
Daniel and Zach stayed with him in the ER as the doctors worked, though sometimes they had to leave for his parents to come in and speak with the doctors to make decisions. Zayne was too out of it, first from the pain and then from the morphine they had to give him just to get him to calm down. His blood pressure was too high and they needed him to stop screaming with every touch to be able to work on him. Any bit of pressure on his back had him practically climbing the ceiling, except it was hard to move his legs. He could do it, but it was excruciating no matter how much morphine they pumped into him.
His mom cried whenever she saw him, and he remembered his dad's stoic face as he tried to be strong for his three kids and wife. Zach always seemed on the edge of breaking down whenever he was in the room and Daniel was so quiet as he held Zayne's hand through it. Daniel looked so broken and defeated as he watched them pump meds into his boyfriend, or watched as Zayne screamed when they examined his back. It was an expression that even in the waking world he could never quite get out of his head whenever he saw him at an event.
The dream ended as he was taken to the OR to get back surgery, and Zayne opened his gray eyes to see the wall in his bedroom. What the dream never showed was multiple back surgeries and having to relearn how to walk again, or how his boyfriend had left him a year later because he couldn't deal with the changes. Zayne could walk, but not long distances and generally not up stairs easily. He lived most of his life in a wheelchair now, or with arm crutches that helped him get around.
Since that breakup, he'd only dated a little bit, but most of the people he had been with had been cautious about committing to him long term due to his physical issues. Zayne had always thought he would eventually propose to Daniel and they would get married, so it was still sometimes jarring to wake up remembering that Daniel had long since moved on. He'd heard through the gossip that Daniel was planning to propose to the woman he was dating, Brielle Weeks, who came from another affluent family of Cherry Hills Village, Colorado.
Zayne had been only twenty years old when the accident had happened, and now he was twenty-five. He had never become a doctor, and didn't even go into medicine. He ended up getting his computer science degree while Elias finished his nursing degree. Elias was working at a hospital, as well as working CFO of Lennox Construction, but Zayne worked from home controlling the entire online and digital side of Lennox Construction from his computer. It wasn't the life that Zayne had expected to live, but he made the best of it.
"Rise and shine, sunshine!" Zach called from outside the door to Zayne's room.
Zayne looked at the clock and groaned. It was already six AM. "You know I have an alarm, right?"
Zach pushed the door the rest of the way open and leaned against the door frame. "Yup, but I also know you sometimes have a hard time waking up from certain dreams."
Zayne frowned at that, hating the way Zach always seemed to know. That was why they lived together though, because he could tell what Zayne was feeling and what he needed. Their parents had bought the house they lived in now not too long after his accident and had the entire first floor gutted and rebuilt so it could be all handicapped accessible for him. They had ramps built in the front and back, and the master was on the main floor while Zach and Elias both lived upstairs.
The basement had been renovated as well to turn it into a rec room and home gym. It let Zayne keep up with his physical therapy exercises to keep his legs and back as strong as they could be. Sometimes he would carefully walk or crawl down the stairs but there was a walk-in part around the house in the back that led to the basement as well if he wanted to take his wheelchair with him. There was also a hot tub near the big double doors to the basement and an in-ground swimming pool in the backyard.
Zayne sat up, letting out a groan as he did so. His back and legs were always stiff and sore in the morning, especially when it was cold like it was now. Usually a hot shower helped that, though. The harder he slept, the worse it seemed to be. There were some days he had to have Zach or Elias get him into the wheelchair, but he tried to keep that to a minimum. Eventually, he knew his brother and best friend would want to have independent lives away from him, and though they always told him they would never let him live alone for safety reasons, he didn't want to be the reason they didn't get married and have kids.
"Do you need help?" Zach asked him.
Zayne gave him a flat look before he pulled his wheelchair over to his bedside and got into it. Zach chuckled at his twin and shrugged before he left and shut the door behind him. Zayne's wheelchair was a sleek sports model. It could be pushed if need be, but the handles were small and only there for an emergency. The wheels were tilted toward where he sat in the chair and there was a built-in section for him to rest his feet that kept his legs pulled up close to his body. The wheelchair he had was mostly black with some royal purple details in the seat and wheels.
His parents had offered to buy him an electric wheelchair when everything first happened, but Zayne still had his pride and had wanted to be as independent as he could be. He wanted to be able to maneuver no matter what wheelchair he was in, especially when he was in the hospital for surgeries. He had to go through a lot of physical therapy to be able to use his arms, as those also used his back muscles, but he had perfected his technique and abilities over the last five years.
Zayne used his hands and arms to wheel over to his dresser, where he pulled out a pair of jeans, a soft v-neck t-shirt in dark blue, and boxer briefs and socks in black. He put those in his lap and then moved into the bathroom where he deposited his clothes on the counter top before he pulled his towel down from the towel rack and placed it on the bench next to the shower. He pulled himself onto the bench where he got undressed and then carefully hobbled into the shower.
The shower they had built in his ensuite was large and the entire wall on all three sides was covered in a wooden bench that he could sit on easily and without too much pain. He had a waterproof cushion that he moved around for early mornings when he was sore like this. Once he had the cushion where he wanted it, he shut the door and sat down before turning on the water and letting it heat up.
Zayne's showers were always so hot they bordered on scalding, which really only bothered him when it was against his scalp. Laying on his back or stomach could always cause a lot of pain for him, but he would move in the shower so that the hot water could hit his lumbar area to loosen it up as he stretched the muscles out. He had lowered sensation in his back now, and would sometimes push the water temperature limits past where he should just to be able to feel it. That and heating pads had left him, at times, with burns on his back but it was hard to tell the old burn scars from surgery scars at times.
