Chapter 7

Their life together was filled with the most beautiful lovemaking of their lives, often out by the pool late at night with the tiki torches lighting their lovemaking. Steve’s hard work on the yard gave them a beautiful love nest, but then on Friday it hit. One of the most horrible parts of MS is the sudden onset of exhaustion. It’s an exhaustion of the body, mind, and spirit. Steve has coached her through a couple of these, but they are horrible. He was thinking of talking her into installing a hot tub on the patio. They were on the patio and Steve was preparing to grill steaks for dinner when Maria said, “I think we need a hot tub right here,” and she stood next to the shower.

“There’s plenty of room there and I have plenty of bamboo to make another privacy wall ... would it help you?” he asked.

“No honey, that’s not necessary for me but I will order one for you.”

“I really don’t need...”

“Yes you do!” she insisted forcefully. It was a tone of voice that he never heard before. “I’ve seen the pain in your eyes when you carry me, I’ve seen how you turn on the seat heater in your truck the moment you get in, but only on days that you’ve been carrying me. I’m not going to have that on my conscious ... and what if your back spasms the next time you carry me?”

“Spasms?” he demanded.

“Yes!” she nearly shouted. “Neuro-muscular spasms. The kind of thing that will make you drop me when you’re lifting me!” That time she was shouting.

Steve glared at her; his eyes suddenly went dead, which worried Maria. “You’ve read my medical history.” It wasn’t an accusation; it was a statement of fact. He has had neuro-muscular spasms that paralyzed him for up to ten minutes. The debilitating spasms he feels have only been mentioned to by agency, the VA. Steve loved his VA medical team, it took him long enough to build a team that he had faith in, his doctors, nurse practitioners, and technicians, he has faith in them all, but their management were all political stooges as far as he was concerned. “You and I both know that my records are supposed to be protected. Look darling, I love you more than life itself, but this...” his tone suddenly grew as icy as hers. Captain Anderson just came out of retirement. “I need to know where the leak is.”

“I can’t tell you, just know I did it out of love for you ... and fear,” said Maria.

“You’re afraid of me?” he demanded. “Maria, you’re not afraid of anything except MS...”

Shit, with that tone of voice, any man or woman would be afraid of him. A long time ago, he needed people to be afraid of him because sometimes combat medics need their orders followed or people die. He was now a disabled veteran because some jerk didn’t follow one simple order, “Stand fast!” which means don’t move a muscle.

The jerk moved exactly where he shouldn’t have and set off an IED that killed him and two other soldiers. Steve threw himself over the soldier that he was preparing for a medevac to shield the guy from a building that collapsed, and Steve ended up with a stone wall on his back. The agony of those long minutes in the “front leaning rest position” (the up position in a pushup) while Bruce and the survivors of his squad dug out him and that soldier he was protecting still comes back to haunt him. He could still remember hearing Bruce McLaren’s panicked orders to the squad to “Dig god damn it! Shut up and DIG!” Bruce was lifting stone blocks that weighed a hundred pounds and threw them like tennis balls while he had a bullet in his side ... Steve’s arms cramped so badly from holding himself and a section of wall up off the injured private that he couldn’t raise them for two days. Then, once the private was clear and heading for the Chinook and a ride home, Steve collapsed to the ground. His job was done. He woke up hours later in a hospital in Kandahar with back, head, and shoulder injuries.

“Afraid of you?” Maria scoffed. “No, I’m afraid of my family. If you dropped me they would not be happy with you at all.”

“I’m sorry, I apologize for yelling...” He took some deep breaths and said, “I’ll dial it back, but my medical information is for me, my doctors, and my wife. I’m upset with the VA for handing it out and your daughters don’t scare me.”

It’s not my daughters he should be worried about, she thought. “They’re concerned.” Her tone suddenly softened. “When we get married do you mind if I change my last name to Bellini-Anderson?”

Maria, her sister, and her daughters all kept their maiden name Bellini after marrying. He’s never seen anything like it. “You Bellinis, you really love your family kinship, if you want to change it, when we get married you can change it to anything you want.”

Maria looked up at Steve, trying to smile through her pain and exhaustion. “Do you realize that you just agreed to marry me.”

“Do you realize that you’re now stuck with me?” Steve finally realized how much he wanted to love and care for this beautiful woman every day for the rest of his life. “I’m not getting rid’a you any time soon, capeesh?”