The beeping of the heart monitor wakes me, but when I open my eyes everything is just a blur of colors. A constant hum next to my head is the only thing to focus on as reality slowly slides back into place. Before my vision clears I figure out that I'm in a hospital, and I'm too weak to move. Toes and fingers tingle as I try and wiggle them as best I can, to get any movement out of my extremities.
"Welcome back to the living, Mr Ward." The voice is deep and masculine, reassuringly calm. Right before my eyes can focus a bright light blinds me, first in my right eye, then the left. Cold metal then touches my chest, and if I had the strength to moan I would have.
"Save your energy and rest. You're lucky to be alive. As soon as the nurse takes a blood sample. We will let your mom back in. She's been worried sick about you." Suddenly I know I'm alone again. What energy I have fades quickly, and my eyes close before anything really manages to come into focus. Soon the blackness of sleep takes me.
I dream vividly in my sleep. A dream of running endlessly across fields of sparse grass dotted with twisted trees. The dream becomes one of lounging in the shade of one of those trees while a woman lays next to me, her head resting in my lap. She never turns her head toward me in my dream, her long black hair hides her identity. We are both nude and the soft skin of her cheek sends tingles through my leg. This is my woman.
Then the dream skips again. A strange young man comes at me, violence in his eyes, a challenger. I meet him head on while a gathering of faceless people watch us intently. As the battle commences we roll to the ground, delivering blow after blow. Somehow I wind up on top and without hesitating sink my teeth into his neck, tearing away a chunk of flesh. Blood spurts against my chest and face as I look around at the watchers. My family. I roar at them and the black haired woman emerges from the crowd. My family. My woman.
When I wake up my body feels full of life and energy. Before I realize where I am, I'm sitting up and looking around for the black haired woman from my dream. My eyes work perfectly now, finally seeing what I understood as truth last time I woke up. I am in a hospital, but I can't for the life of me remember why. All I can think about is the woman from my dream, and the aching hard on I still have.
"Morgan! I'm here, baby." She embraces me from the side. I freeze in shock. My own mother is holding me tightly and I can't fight of the heightened state of arousal from my dream. She smells like lavender on a mid summer morning. That thought slows my hot blood enough to be able to turn and return the embrace. The throbbing downstairs slows, but doesn't go away entirely.
"What happened?" I ask her, in a voice that sounds more like a cross between a croak and a whisper than my usual voice. I can't remember anything. My body aches like I've been in a car accident. She breaks away long enough for me to try and cover my crotch as she tries to answer.
"There was an explosion in the lab at school," she says with her back to me. Her dark blonde curls bounce and her shoulders slump as she speaks, giving away her attempt to hide her tears from me. I remember the noise and the light. The ringing in my ears and the pain in my arm, which seems to be alright now. I remember trying to crawl out of the room, but the smell, pungent and dizzying, overwhelmed me.
"The doctors say you breathed something poisonous. You were dead for a few minutes, Morgan. The EMTs revived you. They saved your life." Tears flow down her cheeks. It's hard to think about what happened to me, but harder to watch her cry. Carefully I swing my legs over the edge of the bed and on rubbery knees take the few steps over to her and hug her.
"I'm okay now mom." I don't really think I am. Taking two steps exhausted my energy supply. She stops crying though, and rest her hand on my arms where they wrap around her shoulders and upper chest. We stay that way for a few minutes, embracing.
"Morgan?" She finally says.
"Yeah, mom?" I reply. Still enjoying her peaceful smell and the embrace. I hadn't seen her since winter break, months ago.
"Your sorta poking my butt." Oh no, I am. My hard on is stiff and pressed against the ass of her jeans, and I realize it feels amazing. She stumbles as I push away, my embarrassment giving me extra strength.
"I'm sorry." I'm not sure if I mean that I'm sorry it happened or sorry that it felt felt so good. I suddenly realize that the hospital gown isn't tied and I'm presented with the very embarrassing prospect of my mom seeing my covered, yet raging, hard on or my bare ass. I chose the ass because I haven't been rubbing it on her. She laughs.
"It's okay. That things been standing at attention the whole time I've been here. Everyone's noticed it. Some of the nurses even complimented it." Mom is pretty when she laughs. Her blush tells me that she is just as embarrassed as I am, but trying to work with the helpless situation. The awkward silence is broken by the entrance of the doctor. The tall skinny man looks surprised to see me standing, but doesn't mention it as out of the ordinary.
"Mr Ward, there's some good news and bad news here. The good news is that we are releasing you today." The voice is the same as when i awoke before, calm and reassuring.
"We're going home, Morgan." Mom puts her hand on my shoulder as she says it, the excitement easily heard in her voice. I have more pressing concerns.
"What's the bad news?" I ask him. He crinkles his face as if trying to think of how to put it in lay and terms.
"The poison is still in your blood. It's not a lethal amount, but it's increasing your blood flow. Hence your constant erection. The good news there is that it isn't as much as, say a Viagra. You do what young men do a couple times a day, and if it is still a problem in a week, then go to your primary physician for follow up tests." He takes a piece of paper from the clipboard and passes it to me. Turns out that is that; it's a patient release form. All it says is to get a lot of rest, drink a lot of liquids, and take Tylenol for any headaches.
I couldn't have made it if not for the fact that mom had become a fitness nut after I left the house. She looked years younger since I left for college, and though I'm no small guy, she easily helps me into shorts and a tee shirt. She looks away red faced when she helps me get my shorts on, even though the hospital gown covers everything except the tented effect. Eventually we manage to get dressed and wheeled out to the car.
