A little something different for me. A longer and more involved story. As usual, no car chases, no gunfights, and no sex with animals.
****
Robert Stevens was calm and smiling contentedly in his dream. His arm was draped over Peg's body as they spooned, his hand resting gently on her soft breast. Her wonderful scent swept over him - her hair, her perfume, her natural scent. Oh how he loved that scent, and oh how he had missed it. It had been so long since they had slept together like this, so long since he had had his arm around her and felt her presence in this way.
As he slowly emerged to consciousness he began to realize that he had it wrong. He wasn't spooning with his one true love, he was hugging a pillow. He didn't have his hand on her breast, that was just the softness of the pillow. He tried to open his eyes to see where he was, but his eyes wouldn't open. He hurt. He really, really hurt, in every part of his body. He became aware of sounds - beeping and air pulsing and footsteps and voices. He became aware of a tube in his nose, and needles and wires. And he hurt all over. He must be in a hospital, he realized. But Peg's scent. That was still hanging in the air. That part of his dream had been real. Unable to see, he was confused. All he knew for sure was terrible pain. He lay still in case there was somebody there to hurt him - in case Peg had found him and had come to finish him off. Then he heard it.
"Hello, Robert."
It was her voice. She was really there - wherever "there" was. But how could that be? How had she found him? Would she hurt him again?
"No, no, no," he muttered as he tried to move. It hurt to move. He struggled a bit, then he lay still.
"Be easy, Robert, you're going to be okay," came Peg's sweet voice, trying to sound reassuring. "You're in the hospital, but you're going to be okay. I'm so happy to found you."
Again he struggled, but again he found he couldn't move much.
"Don't try to move, darling, you're in casts and bandages. Do you remember what happened?"
He was silent. He didn't remember, but he wasn't sure if he should have, and he wasn't sure if Peg was the reason he was hurt. Well, he knew she was the reason he had been hurt in the heart for a long time, but he didn't know if she had caused him to be injured this time.
"You've taken a terrible beating," Peg told him, gently. "Some thugs jumped you and beat you senseless. You have broken bones and internal injuries. But the doctors say you will recover and regain your strength."
Robert's mouth was so dry. He wanted to speak, but his tongue and his lips were too dry to work together. Seeing him trying to talk, Peg wet a washcloth and pressed it against his mouth to give him some moisture.
"W-why are you here?" Robert asked. "How did you find me? Did you set those men on me?"
She was stunned. How could he imagine such a thing? After a moment she rose. "I have to let them know you're awake. They'll want to come in and check you over. Then I'll call the girls and Charlie." With tears in her eyes she left the room. "I'll be back, and we'll talk more."
She notified a nurse and soon there was a clutch of men and women in scrubs gathered around his bed.
When finally she was let back into room she went to his bedside and gently took Robert's hand. She wasn't sure if he was still awake. With his eyes covered it was hard to tell.
"Sweetheart, I did nothing to hurt you," said, softly. "Why would you think so? No, I love you, and not a minute has passed since you left the hospital in Columbus and left me behind that I haven't thought about you and wondered what happened to you."
Robert didn't stir. Minutes passed. Finally he turned his head toward her.
"Are you and Charlie still together?" he asked, softly.
"No, Robert, Charlie and I have never been together. Charlie is our friend. You have always been, and will always be the only man for me."
At that Robert turned his face away from her. Why had she come all this way after all these years just to lie to him?
She saw it. She closed her eyes. All this time gone by, and already she was lying. And he knew it. She had to. At least for now.
Finally he decided to change the subject. "Why can't I see? Am I blind?"
"The doctors tell me that your eyes were injured in the beating. They are covered so they can heal. They say your vision may be affected, but you will not be blind. The bandages will come off in a few days, then we'll know more."
"We? You mean me," he thought.
"You never told me, why are you here?"
"I'm here because you are my husband, and I love you. After you disappeared we searched and searched for you, but you had just gone. Every evening after work and every weekend Charlie and I drove down every street, talked to everyone we saw trying to find you. I was distraught. We didn't know if you were dead or alive. Your head injury from the bike accident had changed you, and we were frightened about your ability to cope on your own.
"For weeks and weeks we searched. Finally we had to give up."
There it was again. Peg and Charlie. Charlie and Peg. He hadn't been wrong. And here she was admitting it. Did she think he was stupid?
"But I've never stopped loving you, and hoping one day we'd be together again."
Robert was tired. He was confused. His head ached and his body hurt. It was wonderful to hear Peg's voice and to be bathed in her scent. But he was so tired.
"I need to sleep," he said, softly.
"I'll go back to the hotel and make some calls, and freshen up a bit, and I'll be back this evening," Peg said. She leaned over the bed and kissed him gently on the lips. He didn't respond. He was already asleep.
As she walked past the nurses' station she was approached by Robert's doctor. "Ms. Stevens, I wonder if you would take a few minutes and help us with your husband's medical history. All we know is that he was delivered to our emergency room a week ago, unconscious and badly beaten. We admitted him as a John Doe. He had no identification on him, and his friends in the homeless camp just knew him as Bobby, or The Mayor. The officers who responded to a 911 call about the beating searched his kit, and they found a piece of paper with a phone number. That's how we contacted you."
Peg shook her head. "Robert was an executive of a telecommunications company where we live in Ohio. Seven years ago he was in a terrible bicycle accident and suffered a closed head injury. He was in a coma for five weeks. When he finally came out of it he was confused - the injury changed him. He went from being a confident, funny, and very smart man to being frightened and nervous. My loving husband was transformed into a suspicious introvert."
"We found that he has a metal plate in his skull, no doubt from the earlier accident. Did he have any other preexisting conditions we should know about?"
"Only high blood pressure, which he controlled with medication. And after the accident his blood pressure seemed to have returned to normal. How was he when he came in?"
"Well, we ran a full battery of tests to assess his condition. Apart from being malnourished and badly in need of a dentist, he appeared to be healthy. The only drug we detected in his system was marijuana. And of course since he's only now awakened, we've been unable to do any sort of a behavioral assessment.
"If I may ask, how did he come to be living on the street here?"
"After he recovered from the immediate trauma from the accident, the hospital began physical therapy and occupational therapy. And he began seeing a therapist for the mental changes we were seeing. All of this activity was exhausting for him in his condition, but he made good progress on the physical side. The mental side was tougher. Somehow he became convinced that Charlie Ford, his best friend, and I had been involved behind his back, and had caused his accident trying to kill him. No matter how we denied it he was convinced, and he became afraid of us. As the time approached for him to be released to come home, he managed to sneak out of the hospital and disappear.
"Charlie and I and the police and all our friends searched and searched, but he was just gone, like a ghost. That was the last we knew until I got the phone call six days ago. Thank goodness he kept my phone number."
"Thank you," the doctor said. "You've filled in some blanks, and as we continue to observe him we'll look to fill others. As soon as he's alert enough we'll schedule a psych consult. Monitoring his blood pressure, respiration, and heart rate, I can tell you that when he recognized that you were in the room, his anxiety level spiked. If that continues, we may have to ask you to take a step back from visiting. Is there anyone else who could be with him who might not trigger that response?"
"I'll see if one of his daughters can come. They were girls when he left, but they are young women now. He'd have no reason to fear them. Of course he has no reason to fear me either, except for his imagination."
With that Peg left to go to the hotel. She was exhausted, apprehensive, and guilty. Her mind raced. Although she loved and had missed Robert terribly, life had settled into a comfortable routine since he left, and his return would doubtless complicate things. And what to do about Charlie ...
*** Six days before, in Ohio: ***
Peg toweled off after finishing her post-sex shower. Charlie just had to have it so nasty. Since Robert had been gone, Charlie Ford had met her sexual needs. But whereas with her husband sex had been a tender, loving session of mutual care and concern, Charlie had to be athletic. Sex with him was like a wrestling match. And after resisting for six years, she had finally given in and begun to let him have anal - so dirty and nasty. And why did he have to smear cum and her fluids all over her body? No, the sex was worth it, but oh how far it was from how she had been raised and how Robert had treated her.
And after so much time together and regular fucking, her connection to her missing husband had faded, and her feelings for Charlie had grown. He had been such a help and such an anchor for her after the accident, and then after Robert had disappeared. She would not allow herself to call it love, but it would be hard to describe the difference.
Oh, but there were differences. Robert was educated and urbane. Charlie had finished high school, and he was smart - but his were street smarts, not sophisticated or cultured. She and Robert enjoyed talking about books, and attended opera. Charlie liked action movies and NASCAR. No, she had come to rely on Charlie, and she had developed feelings for him, but he could never replace Robert.
