Chapter 6

The alarm woke us early so we could get Emma to the airport for her flight. Hanna drove so that she could leave her car at the house instead of trusting it to the parking lot at Logan International Airport. We said a tearful goodbye at the gate and watched her walk down the jet-way to her plane before we returned to the jeep.

We’d had every intention of going back to bed, but Dawn had other ideas and we ended up taking her for a walk. I still wasn’t up to handling the leash yet, but Hanna was with me and I promised to get one of the girls to walk her every day until I could take her out myself.

“I think she’ll be okay with the run of the backyard for most of the time,” Hanna admitted as we paused to let Dawn investigate a smell that had her attention. “She definitely needs to be walked every day though. Once you’re up to getting pulled around by her, it’ll be good for both of you to get out regularly.”

“Therapy dog?” I asked with a laugh, getting Dawn’s attention. She wandered over, flirting shamelessly for a pat, which she got. “I can’t wait ‘til I can run with her,” I said seriously. “She’s gorgeous. I’m worried about how to care for her in the summer though. She’s a cold weather dog, right?”

“Yeah, and they don’t generally like to swim,” she confirmed. “The vet told me that their outer fur dries, but the undercoat stays wet and heats up terribly. If you do get her used to swimming, you’ll have to dry her fur and then make sure she still gets plenty of shade, water to drink and preferably air conditioning.

“Yeah, I’m thinking about getting a separate A/C system for the basement for summer this year. That gives Dawn a little more coolness to bask in,” I confirmed. “Hopefully she’ll really like the water and I can take her to the beach, even if I have to dry her off thoroughly and brush the sand out of her fur.”

We walked on in silence after that, Dawn getting a sense of the neighborhood and tugging on the leash when she found something interesting. When we got home, we put her on her tether and went next door where breakfast was being held.

“You got a new puppy for Christmas, I hear,” Dan said lightly.

“More like we’re dog-sitting for now,” I said. “Dawn’s in the back yard if you want to take a look at her.”

“I saw her last night. She’s a pretty dog,” he admitted. “She seems really happy out in the snow.”

“Oh, she is,” Hanna said with a smile. “Put her out in the yard when it snows hard and she’ll lose her mind with glee. She needs to come in to get warm, but for the most part, she’s built for cold weather.”

After breakfast, I got a call from Gina.

“Hey, sorry I never got back to you guys last night. I fell asleep on the sofa. I woke up in the middle of the night and figured you’d already be in bed. What are you up to today?”

“We hadn’t really decided that yet. Probably just spending the day with Hanna and Dawn.”

“Dawn?” she said curiously. “Who’s Dawn?”

“She’s Hanna’s roommate. She’s gonna be staying with us through the holidays. You wanna meet her?”

“Uh, sure,” she said uncertainly. “When did that happen?”

“Hanna asked yesterday if we’d mind since Dawn didn’t have anywhere else to go for Christmas.” I grinned at Hanna when I said it. I was getting a small sense of how much fun she’d had with us yesterday. “You should definitely come over if you have time. She’d be thrilled to meet you.”

“Okay. If you want,” she said. She didn’t sound all that enthusiastic about it so I decided to let her off the hook.

“Gina, honey?”

“Yeah?”

“You’re not allergic to dogs, are you?”

“No, why?”

“Because if you were, we’d have to put Dawn out in the back yard for Christmas.”

“Oh! Dawn’s a dog?!!?” That got her attention. “Is it okay to bring Hector? He loves animals.”

“Sure,” I said. “Dawn seems to like everyone so far, bring him along.”

She said goodbye and I was more certain than ever that Dawn was going to be pampered around the house.

When they arrived a little while later, Dawn had tired herself out a little, but was still excited to meet new people. She sniffed them longer than usual, probably because they had the smell of a cat on them. In the end, she was happy to let them play with her and Hector in particular was drawn into running around the back yard with her.

“So she’s your newest girlfriend, huh?” Gina said with a smirk. “You know, I thought you’d actually meant that you’d picked up a new girl since last night.”

“That’s how Hanna told me about Dawn,” I admitted. “Emma, Tricia and I spent all day wondering about this roommate she was bringing to dinner.”

We laughed about it a little bit and spent most of the morning watching through the kitchen window as Hector and Dawn played together. Eventually they wore each other out and came in shortly before lunch.

The four of us sat down with Mom while Dawn came to lay down at my feet, earning her a pat on the head and a scratch behind the ears.

The rest of the day was quiet. We walked Dawn in the afternoon, stopping at Tricia’s house to introduce her and then back home once she was walked out. I had to admit, I was doing fairly well with the cane and made arrangements to send the chair back to the medical supply company that week.

The next few days were kind of hectic. Mom had to stop in at the school to talk about resuming classes in January, I had two days to take all my exams from the semester and test out of German. I was one of only seven students taking exams on Monday since most exams had finished the previous week.

I did my first day of rehab at the gym that afternoon. Everyone was really excited to see me on my feet and out of the chair. I got a lot of hugs and some kisses before I settled down to work with Diego, my therapist.

He shook his head and glanced over at the cheerleaders. “I wondered why you wanted to get out of the rehab clinic a couple of days a week. Now I know. How’d you get those girls to love you like that at your age?”

“Let’s just say the guy that shot me was a real creep,” I said lightly. “Everyone except his parents seem to appreciate the fact that I stood up to him.”

“Yeah, I heard he wasn’t in the running for any awards, but maybe next time, duck a little more often?” He chuckled and we got to work.

It was painful and it sucked. I felt feeble and pathetic by the end of it, but he said I was doing okay and to keep positive. “It’ll be slow,” he said, “but the improvement is there and it’ll keep coming if you work. Just concentrate on giving those ladies a great big hug if you need some motivation.”

Tuesday I was the only one there at school. I wrote my exams, did the speech portion of my German testing and was done. I couldn’t believe the term was over and I sat there in a kind of daze. After that, I spent the afternoon in tests with Carl and Dr. Nichols, who we’d all decided now met the needs of the project much better than the other five.

Toward the end of the afternoon, Victoria arrived and I knew that our decision was about to become official. She sat in on the end of the tests and we chatted before the four of us sat down and discussed it in depth. She was delighted and I felt like she was going to be easy to work with. Carl seemed relieved and Victoria was happy with her too.

Wednesday was a bit of a different milestone. I found myself in Samantha’s care for most of the day. She poked and prodded me endlessly, was sternly critical of me being out of the chair this early, removed the last of my stitches and listened to my breathing.

She was somewhat mollified that I’d only stopped using the chair on Friday and that I’d been slowly increasing my activity.

“I still get plenty of rest,” I told her. “When I do too much, I tell everyone I need to take it easy and they all get it.”

“Just don’t push yourself,” she warned. “You’ve still got months ahead of you before you’re back to full strength.”

“I know. I’ve talked to both Hanna and Diego about how hard to push and when to hold back. I’ve got an aggressive plan for my therapy mapped out, but my goals aren’t unobtainable. I want to be back in top shape before April 1st. Everyone seems to think that’s a goal we can achieve if we don’t suffer any major setbacks.”

“If you push too hard, you’ll create some setbacks,” she told me, not unkindly.

I nodded. “I kind of need this,” I told her. “The thing on April 2nd is a goal that keeps me going. Being fit by then is not unreasonable. It’s four months from the time I started working on the arm.”

She nodded and changed the subject after that. “How are you feeling about the scarring issue?” she asked.

I shrugged a little. “It still bothers me a lot,” I admitted. “Oddly, the shoulder and the back don’t horrify me as much. Those scars look manageable. It’s the chest and stomach that bother me.”

She nodded. “At the end of January, you’ll be healed enough and the scars will be settled enough that we can do surgical revisions on them and then see how they turn out afterwards.”

“Hanna suggested I talk to you about laser treatment for them,” I said. “What’s involved in that?”

“It’s a good secondary option for reduction. My recommendation is to start with the surgery to reduce them and then use the lasers to smooth them out later, say about six months after the last surgery. Given how big the scarred area is, it could take up to four treatments, each about four weeks apart. That would put the last treatment at about Halloween or a little before.”

I nodded. “That sounds okay to me. I’d like to be able to start them a little earlier, but I guess that’ll depend heavily on how I recover from the surgery in January.”

“That’s right. I wouldn’t even consider it sooner than 4 months and even that’s on the inside track of where I think you should go for treatment.” She leaned back and looked at me pointedly. “Now, let’s talk about the other concern you have about your recovery,” she said evenly.

“Which is?” I asked, uncertain where we were going.

“I assumed you were eager to resume battering vaginas all across greater Boston,” she said dryly. “Maybe I was wrong.”

“Of course I’m interested,” I said with some irritability in my voice. “I just assumed that I was a few weeks away from being healed enough for that. The last surgery I had was minor and that was still two weeks before I was cleared for sex. This was major surgery. I didn’t think the same timetable would apply.”

She shrugged. “So long as it’s not violent or too prolonged, you should be able to resume light, and I DO mean light, activities. If you feel a tearing sensation, stop and call me immediately. Your leg is fine and you’ve been closed up for almost a month now except for the abdomen. That’s healing nicely though and I don’t think it’ll give you any problems. I would say you should avoid any pounding sex and any positions that will cause a lot of strain on the area. Definitely no girl on top rides. From behind is a good safe position and so is missionary. You can position your girl on the edge of the bed and stand up for it, if that feels more comfortable, but just make sure you’re aware of your own limitations.”

I nodded and took it all in, having assumed that I’d be celibate for Christmas. This was by far the best gift I’d gotten. “I will follow your orders to the letter,” I assured her. “You gonna come watch to make sure that I get it right?” I added with a smirk.

“Yeah, you’re feeling better,” she laughed. “Go, enjoy your Christmas.”

I stood up and put the gift bag I had with me on her desk. “Merry Christmas, Samantha,” I said lightly.

“For me?” she asked, surprised. “I’d assumed that was for Victoria.”

I shook my head. “She’s coming to dinner on Friday. She’ll get hers then.”

She nodded. “Should I open it now or wait?” she asked.

“You can open it now,” I assured her.

She removed the paper packing the top of the bag and pulled out the bottle of Champagne. “Very nice,” she commented. “I don’t often drink because I’m on call. Surgeons who drink aren’t in high demand. This though, I think I can find an evening to make this worth opening. Thank you, Matt.”

“You’re very welcome,” I said, a little disappointed that it wasn’t a gift she’d be able to use more freely. “You’re not done though. The bag’s still not empty.”

She looked inside and found the box from the jewelry store, wrapped in festive paper and tied with a bow. “Went a little overboard, didn’t you?” she asked dryly.

“You saved my life,” I said simply. “I can’t possibly go overboard on you. I promise it’s not a set of Ferrari keys or tickets to Hawaii. I’m not sending you to Hawaii without me.” I grinned at her.

“Awfully sure of yourself, aren’t you?” she asked with a smirk of her own.

“We’ll take turns caning each other to see who breaks first,” I promised. “We can go up into the hills to pick the bamboo ourselves.”

She laughed. “Cleared for sex for three minutes and already making plans,” she shook her head. “You ARE a treasure, Matt.” She unwrapped the box and opened it, looking at the diamond necklace and earrings in surprise. “This is very extravagant, Matt,” she said uncertainly.

“You’ve been good to me,” I said dismissively. “You’ve been a good friend, a mentor and a lifesaver when I needed you most. It’s no more inappropriate a gift than a certain purple bra and panties set,” I reminded her with a crooked grin.

“I still have yet to get a response from Victoria,” she reminded me.

“Yeah, things haven’t exactly been going according to plan lately,” I admitted. “Hopefully we’ll be back to normal soon though. Is there any estimate on when I should be able to do some of the more rigorous exercise?”

“Take it slow,” she said. “See how you feel with some light activity and be aware of your arm’s limitation as much as the damage to your core.”

I nodded. “Fair enough. Should I stop in next week after seeing Victoria or do you think I need another checkup?”

“Oh you should stop in any time you have questions about your other activities and any time Victoria’s given you something to show off about. Other than that, I think we can look over your condition in two weeks unless you have difficulties. You’re still taking your pain medication, right?”

I nodded. “Not as much as you’d like this past week. I had to do 26 exams between my release and yesterday. I kind of needed to be alert for that. I’ve been taking them at night though and on the weekend. Now that I’m through all the stuff I need to be clear for, I’m back on them morning and night.”

She frowned at that, but nodded. “I understand the need to prioritize, but you need to follow the orders for now. You’ll be off them in a few weeks and can go back to high-gear. Right now, accept being a little high.”

“I will. I promise.” I shook my head and laughed. “I’m probably the only teen you have to talk into getting high.”

She smiled thinly and nodded. “There are a lot that wouldn’t need a second talk about it,” she allowed. “Anyway, I’m with done my exam, go flirt with Victoria.”

“I see how it is,” I said, getting to my feet and getting the cane under me. “You get what you want and then I get shown the door. I feel so used.”

“Come see me when you’re a little older and you’ll feel well-used,” she said dryly.

“Hawaii for my 16th birthday?” I suggested.

“Don’t make promises you can’t keep,” she said and got up to show me out.

“We’ll see,” I said. “If you wait for me that long, I’ll be only too happy to take you to Hawaii.” I was dead serious. I think she knew it too. “I like you a lot, Samantha. I kept coming to talk to you because I like you. I know there are lines you can’t cross with me just yet, but someday...” I let that hang in the air and winked at her before I opened the door for myself and limped out of her office.

I made my way to Victoria’s office and by the time I got there, I was glad she had the couch. I kind of wanted to stretch out on it. When I got there, there was another woman waiting and we stood and made conversation since her door was locked and the “In Session” light was lit.

Her name was Jill Tanner and she worked in the hospital. She looked familiar, but I couldn’t place her. “I work in intensive care,” she supplied seeing my curious look. “We met a few times while you were in and out of consciousness. You kept calling me ‘Creep’ for some reason.”

I laughed and told her about the hallucinations I’d been having at the time from the combination of morphine, fever and other medications. She chuckled and nodded in understanding. “I’m not gonna say that makes sense, but it fits together more coherently than some of the things I’ve been told.”

It wasn’t too much longer before the door opened and Victoria led a young girl out into the hall. She was very withdrawn and looked at us both worriedly.

“Hello,” I said to her brightly. “I’m Matt,” I offered her my hand.

She looked surprised and took my hand uncertainly, shaking it before she muttered hello to me. “I’m Stephanie,” she practically whispered.

“Hi, Stephanie,” I said with a smile. “I’m pleased to meet you. Will I get to see you again from time to time if I come early on Wednesdays?”

“You ... you’re here to see Dr. Spencer too?” she asked, wide-eyed.

I nodded. “It’s been kind of a rough year for me,” I said dismissively. “She’s been a lot of help to me. You’re lucky. You couldn’t have a better doctor to talk to.”

She nodded. “She’s really nice to me too,” she said quietly then looked at Dr. Spencer, who had a delighted smile on her face.

She nodded encouragingly. “It’s okay,” she told the girl. “You can talk to him. Matt’s perfectly fine to talk to.”

She was timid in a way that reminded me of how Beck had been after she shattered at the end of October. She bit her lip. “What happened to your leg?” she asked quietly.

“I got shot last month,” I told her simply. “I’m still getting better.”

“I’m sorry. Did it hurt a lot?”

I nodded. “It felt weird. More like burning than getting cut. It still hurts though. Mostly I just feel weak.”

“Did they catch who did it?” she asked. She was slowly starting to creep out of her own shadow for a minute.

“He died,” I said. “I had to stop him from hurting anyone else. I wasn’t alone when it happened.”

She nodded. “You’re that guy!” she said, realizing who I was. “The one they call Captain America. Everybody talks about you.”

I chuckled. “I don’t look all that heroic now, huh?” I said with a smile.

She shrugged. “You’re still alive. That’s pretty good for getting shot, right?”

“That’s a good way of looking at it,” I said pleasantly. I wanted to instill a little confidence in her. She seemed so timid and withdrawn that I didn’t think being friendly to her was too much to ask out of my day.

Victoria touched her shoulder gently and reminded her that her mother was waiting for her and that she’d see her again next week.

Stephanie nodded vigorously and then gave me a very small, shy smile before she bounded off down the hall.

I watched her go and when she got to the corner, she looked back. I waved to her and she waved back, just curling her fingers before she disappeared.

When she was gone, I let Victoria show me in. I assumed she had something for Jill to take up to ICU or that Jill had something for her, but to my surprise, she sat down in the chair opposite Victoria. I’d been about to kick off my shoes and stretch out, but contented myself with massaging my leg with my hand.

Victoria settled herself and looked at me with a smile. “Stephanie normally doesn’t speak to strangers,” she told me. “You should be proud of what you just accomplished. She’ll probably want to know more about you when I talk to her next week.”

I shrugged. “You know me. If she wants to know and you think it’s okay, I trust you with how much of my case you share.”

She nodded. “Still, without telling you the specifics of her case, you just helped a young girl reach a milestone in her recovery.”

I nodded and smiled. “Should I try to show up a few minutes early from now on then?” I asked. “Or is it better for her to not see me again?”

She pondered that. “If you want, show up a little early next week and we’ll see how she reacts to you again. She may withdraw from how open she was, but we’ll let her have the chance to figure it out.”

I nodded. “Can do,” I assured her.

“No doubt you’re wondering why we’re not alone today,” she said, bringing up the topic.

“Not really. We met in the hall. I also figured if I made a smart-assed comment about the elephant in the room, so to speak, she’d put me back in ICU. The drugs there are stellar, but room-service menu was terrible, so I’d rather not go back.”

That made Jill laugh. “So he’s like that all the time,” she commented.

Victoria nodded. “Matt’s his own brand of charm, wit and nerve all rolled into one. He’s been hospitalized here four times and each time leaves with more women enamored with him than he had when he arrived.”

“That’s not REALLY true,” I defended myself.

“Oh really?” she countered. “Would you like me to remind you of the names? Lana the first time, Patty the second, Emma the third time and I daresay you’ve got a couple of girls that are just waiting for medical clearance before they drag you off to try to put you back in here.”

“Okay, when you put it that way, it sounds worse than it is, but Lana was already smitten when we got to the hospital and Patty was ... complicated. I’d already asked Emma to marry me and I haven’t picked up anyone from my last stay here. Absolutely no one. I didn’t even get down to see that X-Ray tech you keep raving to me about.”

“Whine about that a little harder,” she scoffed. “Maybe I’ll invite her for your next birthday if you’re a good boy.”

“I’m ALWAYS good,” I argued. “I just don’t always behave.” I gave her my most insolent smirk. “We’re getting rather far off-topic though. You were about to tell me why Jill is here.”

She smiled at me thinly. “Of course. Jill is here because of a promise I made to you in regard to your father. Since Samantha didn’t work out, I felt that now might be a good time to discuss things with her.”

I turned to Jill, who looked a little uncomfortable now that the cat was out of the bag.

“Now I’m VERY pleased to meet you, Jill,” I said with a smile. “Has Dr. Spencer filled you in completely or left you with more questions than answers?”

“She said that due to your case, she couldn’t tell me how it had happened, but that you’d come to be in possession of your father as a submissive. I’m very curious about that.”

“His previous dominant stole a lot of money from some businesses that she did accounting work for. She’d laid out a paper trail that led back to him and to the rest of our family. When we figured it out, he turned her in to her bosses. Some of those businesses are the kind that handle their disputes in-house rather than call police. So she was ‘handled’ and he was left without anyone giving him direction except me.” It was about as close to the truth as I was willing to get with someone I’d just met.

She nodded. “I know a few people that see their subs as a disposable resource. I’m not particularly thrilled with that outlook.”

I nodded. I’d gotten a feel for her as thick-skinned from how well she had accepted being called ‘Creep’ in my delirium. She was presenting a better face for Donald than I’d gotten from Samantha. I loved Samantha dearly, but Dad would have been ruined in her care.

“I’m really not interested in getting too deep into the nuts and bolts of how your dynamic works, I just want him to go somewhere he’ll be cared for and respected in his submission. He has a relationship with me and my sister which he’s been rebuilding and that needs to be respected too. If you can provide him with a loving environment, then I’ll be happy to call you Grandmother.”

“Grandmother?” she said dryly. “I’m not that old!”

“No, but essentially, you’ll be my father’s Mommy,” I pointed out with a smirk.

“I suppose that’s true,” she said sourly, but there was a hint of a smile on her face. I got a good feeling from her.

“Obviously I can’t expect you to accept him without meeting him,” I allowed. “We should make arrangements for you to meet him.”

“I’m out of town for the next couple of weeks. I usually take my vacation for Christmas and New Years. We could set something up for the weekend of the 9th if you’d like,” she offered. “I HAVE met your father though. He was up to see you in the ICU.”

I nodded. “That was as a nurse that was tending his son. We want him to see you outside that environment. I’ll set up a dinner or something for that weekend. I’ll bring a few of my girls and do introductions.”

“How many of those girls ARE you dating?” she asked curiously.

“Not nearly as many as I could be,” I said honestly.

“Not modest at all, are you?” she asked with a chuckle.

Victoria spoke up then. “Matt has an incredible gift,” she said, looking at me from the corner of her eye. “Not his intelligence, which is frightening in its capacity. Matt’s greatest gift is his compassion for others. He touches people. They respond. I’ve yet to meet anyone that Matt’s met that hasn’t been bettered by the experience. I’ve witnessed him turn a grown woman from a completely hostile adversary into a staunchly loyal acolyte in an hour. The boy he was forced to kill that night victimized a lot of girls. Matt championed their cause to the bitter end. I have no doubt that four of every five girls that visited him would go to his bed gladly. The fifth would likely wish she had in years to come.”

“Were you the hostile adversary?” Jill asked delicately.

“Dr. Spencer and I have never had a hostile or adversarial relationship,” I clarified. “She’s saved my life more times than I can calculate. If she argued with me, I’d instantly stop whatever I was doing. If she argues with me, I know I’m in the wrong.”

“That IS an interesting dynamic for a doctor and a patient to have,” she said, interested all over again.

“Not really so surprising,” I said lightly. “In her line of work, she needs to have the trust of her patients. She’s earned mine a hundred times and she’s been in my corner at times I haven’t been able to find support at home.”

“Not even from your father?” she asked.

“For a long time, I couldn’t think of him as my father. I had his submission. I could give him orders and expect them to be carried out. That doesn’t make for a paternal relationship. It’s also part of the reason I’m eager to have his collar pass to another. I’m hoping that can be you.”

She nodded. “I wasn’t judging,” she assured me. “I was just curious about how deep your relationship with Dr. Spencer went.”

“I’d take a bullet for her,” I said immediately. “I know better than most how much gunfire sucks and I wouldn’t hesitate to put myself between her and a gun. She’s convinced me in the past to set aside what I wanted more than anything else in the world because she told me that it wasn’t right.”

“And yet, you still managed to carry Vance Waterman’s head through your house and drop it on your front step,” Victoria said dryly.

“But I didn’t go out looking for him,” I protested.

“No, you didn’t. I expect that you’ll extend Patrick the same courtesy?”

“Of course. Neither of us are in any condition to do much right now. I have one arm and one leg, he’s still somewhere recovering from knee surgery, or he was. I suppose he’s having to answer for a lot of rape now that the girls have come forward.”

That was news to her. She’d left that party before the confrontation with Vance’s father. “What?!!?” she blurted, shocked.

“Yeah, It happened while I was in the hospital. I guess Vance’s parents came to the house and asked Emma to take down the video of the attack. She told them Patrick had a lot of enemies and then when they asked why, the girls started coming forward one by one. I’m not happy about it, but the DA is doing what he can to protect them.”

She nodded. “That’s incredibly powerful testimony,” she said. “If they all came forward, it’s a mountain of evidence.”

“A few didn’t and that’s fine,” I said. “They all have their reasons and I’ve talked to a couple of them. It’s not the end of the world.”

We talked back and forth for a while and then Victoria wanted to talk with me alone so she showed Jill out and promised to let her know what I had arranged for after the new year.

When we were alone, she seated herself and we talked more freely. “You laid it on a little thick for her, didn’t you?” she asked lightly.

“ME?!!?” I gaped at her. “What about ‘Matt’s greatest gift is his compassion for others’? Those words came from your mouth, not mine,” I reminded her with a laugh.

“Alright, we both got a little carried away,” she admitted with a smirk. “I did have a chance to speak to a lot of the girls at the hospital and at your house. They all hold you in very high regard.”

I nodded. “I feel the same about them for the most part. My girls have warned me to keep one of them at arms-length and I think that’s good advice right now. I don’t get quite the same mercenary feel from her that they do, but then if she’s good at it, I wouldn’t get that feel from her, would I?”