Sam set his phone down on the nightstand and settled into bed. He let out a deep sigh and closed his eyes.
It had been a long day.
His job was ramping up into its busy season. Lots of late nights and weekends. That wasn't the problem though—he had been at that job long enough to deal with its stresses. The problem was his wife.
Well, that wasn't quite right. Or, at least, "problem" wasn't the right word. His wife, Laura, had been in a car crash a couple months ago. Some moron had run a red light and had t-boned her. It had broken her pelvis, one leg and one arm. Basically, her whole left side had been crushed. She had been airlifted to a hospital over an hour away—the closest one that could deal with her level of trauma. The surgery to screw her pelvis back together had gone as well as could be expected and her broken limbs had been set appropriately too, but it would be a very long recovery period.
And that was where the stress came in. She had gone from a hospital to a nursing facility and finally back home. But she still needed in-home care and therapy. Even two months out, she still needed help safely getting from bed to her wheelchair, or from her wheelchair to the shower or toilet.
In addition to needing assistance with a lot of normal stuff, she was also (obviously) unable to really help with chores around the house. Laundry, dishes, grocery shopping, cooking, cleaning, yard work—and so on. Sam had to do it all. At least they didn't have children...
Well, that wasn't entirely true. He had had help, of course. Laura's parents had flown in to care for her, although they couldn't stay for more than a few weeks. After that, her siblings, aunts and cousins had taken turns staying over. These guests were certainly helpful, especially in keeping Laura company while he was at work, but they were a source of stress in their own way, in all their little eccentricities. Her mom's chain smoking. Her aunt's bad hearing and tendency to shout everything. Her brother's habit of constantly starting conversations about topics Sam had absolutely no interest in.
At least their current guest wasn't so bad: his wife's cousin, Elise. She was in college studying to become a nurse practitioner, so she had taken to the role of caregiver very easily. She was also a pretty good cook, which was more than could be said about most of Laura's relatives—especially her mom.
Sam felt guilty in feeling so worn out by it all. Whatever he was going through must be nothing compared to the pain that his wife had endured, either in the crash itself or in the weeks of physical rehabilitation.
Sam had known he had married a strong woman, but she had truly shown just how tough she was these past weeks. It made him wonder just how well he would have done, if he had been in her place. But, mostly, seeing her work so hard to overcome her challenges had made him love her more than ever.
And it was difficult, to say the least, to not be able to express this love. Physically. It was strange—he had seen her body battered and bruised, had held her hand countless times while she sobbed uncontrollably, and even helped her pee into a bedpan, but he found her not a tiny bit less physically attractive.
Sam opened his eyes and turned his head. Laura sat up in bed beside him, doing something on her phone—texting, likely. Her messy hair sat in a frizzy tangle at her shoulders and she wore a very unflattering plaid nightgown. He wanted nothing more than to climb on top of her, hold her tightly, and fuck her until they both came.
But it was not to be.
Her body no longer looked bruised and all her casts had come off but her pelvis had been slow to heal. She could barely put her own body weight on it long enough to stand, much less endure the pounding that would come with sex.
It was out of the question. It wouldn't always be—but, for the foreseeable future, it was.
She put down her phone.
"Bedtime?" she asked.
"Sure," Sam replied. He got up to turn off the bedroom light and returned to bed. It was a warm summer night, so he lay with the thin blanket only half covering him.
In the darkness, he felt her hand search under the blankets until it found his. They lay, fingers interlocked, for some time.
"I know things have been tough for you," she finally said.
Sam started to protest. She felt a lot of guilt over how she had been a burden to those around her. Of course, he didn't feel the same way, even if things were hard. But he was shushed into silence before he could even begin to reassure her.
"But you've been doing such a great job," she continued. "With me, the house, and everything."
She paused.
"I want to do something for you," she said.
He felt her hand leave his and make its way up to his chin. She gently guided him to roll to his side and bring his lips to hers.
They kissed softly, slowly.
It was a gentle, romantic embrace. So, Sam felt somewhat guilty of his almost immediate erection. It had been so long...
"You're not... ready, are you?" Sam asked hesitantly.
"No," his wife replied, a tinge of sadness in her voice. "But I know that you need it. So here is what we're gonna do."
She reached up and knocked three times on the headboard. A moment later, the door to their bedroom opened, and her cousin Elise crept in.
