Chapter 5

And back to the present

Distantly I heard someone saying, “Sam? Sam? Sam?” then felt someone shaking my shoulder.

I looked up, and realized I was still sitting outside Jessie’s hospital room, and that Janice had been trying to get my attention, before finally having to shake my shoulder.

Jessie was standing beside Janice and was grinning like crazy.

She had a small bandage on her forehead.

“The doctor has finished his exam, Sam, and there is no sign of physical ... or mental problems,” Janice said with a huge smile. “Jessie called her parents and told them about the tornado while we were waiting for the results of the x-ray.”

“Where were you Sam? We’ve been trying to talk to you for several minutes,” said Jessie.

I could feel my face flush.

“Just thinking about the past few years,” I said, and I knew Jessie could see the pain in my eyes because she immediately grabbed my hand.

“And especially about the past few months. Ever since I met this totally crazy woman who is attending UGA,” I added.

Jessie squeezed my hand very tightly.

“Are you sure she is okay?” I asked Janice.

“Yes, Sam, she is fine. Not going to be fine, she IS fine. Jessie might have a little headache, but that is all,” Janice confirmed.

“In that case,” I said, stood up and grabbed Jessie and kissed her.

And she kissed back.

Our kiss was becoming more and more passionate, at least until I heard someone making a theatrical coughing sound.

When we broke off the kiss, Dr. Wilson was standing there.

“Sam, Janice tells me you are probably the best Paramedic in the fire department,” he said. “Sam, the hospital could really use your help ... I could really use your help. I know this might not be a good time since you are concerned about your fiancée...”

“She’s not my fiancée,” I interrupted.

“She is his fiancée,” Jessie countered.

“Well ... whatever she is, I know you are concerned, but in the last 30 minutes the Emergency Room has not only filled up, but people are standing outside just waiting to get in. All injured in some way by the tornado,” he explained.

“We are completely overwhelmed. We really need help, Sam,” he emphasized.

I looked at Jessie, and she nodded “Yes.”

“What can I do?” I asked.

“Triage,” he explained.

I knew instantly what he was talking about since that was something I dealt with every working day.

In any medical emergency, where there is more than one injured person, the responder has to make instant decisions.

Triage is from a French word which dates back to the Napoleonic Wars, and means divide into threes.

In any medical situation, there are three types of patients: those who will likely live, regardless of what medical care they receive; those who will likely die, regardless of what medical care they receive; and those for whom immediate medical care can mean the difference between life and death.

Obviously you don’t want to ignore any patient, but quite frankly, some can wait, and for some ... it really won’t matter.

You have to concentrate on the ones who need help the most.

Janice threw a medical kit at me, and since I was still soaked from the rain while trying to get to Jessie, a set of hospital scrubs.

After changing clothes, I examined patients’ non-stop for the next 10 hours.

Checking blood pressure, respiration, symptoms and severity of injuries.

Many patients only needed bandages and tetanus shots, along with antibiotics.

Jessie had asked if she could help me and with Dr. Wilson’s approval, became my “runner,” keeping me supplied with bandages, syringes and whatever medicine I needed to administer.

I was also assigned a junior nurse to write down my assessment of patients, and immediately rush those most seriously injured inside.

In several patients I recognized symptoms of a heart attack, and was able to stabilize those until they could be taken inside.

Twice I had to use the defibrillator to restart their hearts.

Several times I had noticed a photographer taking pictures, but really didn’t think much about it.

Newspapers and television news departments usually showed up at most of the emergencies we would respond to, so that wasn’t unusual. They had a job to do, and a little publicity never hurt – especially whenever the county started talking about our yearly budgets.

Even when I saw Jessie talking to some of the reporters, I didn’t think much about it since I was so busy.

At least until the next day.

It was nearly midnight when I examined my last patient. He just needed a few stitches and a tetanus shot.

I honestly don’t think I have ever been as tired as I now was.

Once I realized the last patient had been dealt with it was as if all the life had been drained out of my body.

As keyed up as I had been while helping at the hospital, now it was almost more than I could do just to put one foot in front of another.

Jessie actually had to help me inside.

As I sat down, Jessie handed me some food and something to drink and I realized this was the first thing I had had to eat all day.

Several times Jessie or a nurse had tried to get me to stop and take a break, but people needed help! I would drink a soft drink or juice, while continuing to see patients.

I feel asleep sitting in the chair before I had finished half my sandwich.

Somehow Jessie and a nurse managed to revive me enough to have me lay down on a hospital cot where I slept for nearly 10 hours.

When I woke up, Jessie was sitting down in a chair beside my bed, holding my hand.

I later found out she had slept most of the night in that chair.

“Good morning, beautiful,” I said.

“Well, good morning, my Hero,” she answered.

When I tried to protest that, she immediately put her hands over my lips.

“You are famous,” she said, with a smile. “Everybody is talking about you. The newspapers and television stations all want to interview you.”

“Interview me? About what?” I asked.

“About this,” Jessie said, as she handed me the local paper.

The paper was folded in half, and on the top half was the headline, “Killer Tornado Devastates Area.” A small headline said at least 10 people had been killed in the county.

“Look at the bottom half,” Jessie volunteered in a very quiet voice, then walked down to the foot of the bed.

When I flipped the paper over, I immediately saw that about one-fourth of the bottom was a story with a box around it, and the headline: “Local Fireman Rescues Fiancée From Demolished House, Treats Hundreds More At Hospital.”

I could feel the blood drain from my face as I began reading.

Basically, the story was about how local fireman and EMT-Paramedic Sam Walker, frantic with worry about his beautiful missing fiancée, UGA star athlete Jessie Johansson, ignored danger as he began ripping apart the remnants of a demolished house looking for her.

Once he found the beautiful young woman, he administered mouth-to-mouth resuscitation until she was breathing again, then carried her over a mile, dodging downed trees and power lines, to his truck.

Arriving at the hospital, even though he was frantic with concern for his beautiful fiancée, he immediately volunteered to help others who had been injured in the tornado.

The article quoted, extensively, Jessie Johansson, the beautiful, all-time leading scorer for the UGA soccer team, as well as quotes from Head Nurse Janice Rand, and the hospital’s new Director of Emergency Services, Dr. Wallace Wilson.

I was credited with saving the lives of at least two heart attack patients at the hospital, as well as helping hundreds of others.

Nurse Rand and Dr. Wilson were also quoted making comments about how worried I was about my beautiful fiancée.

“It is obvious how much they love each other,” Nurse Rand said.

“Even though she had been a patient herself just minutes earlier, Miss Johansson was adamant that other people needed help more and insisted on helping her fiancé, Mr. Walker, as they saved others,” said Dr. Wilson.

The article, which continued to inside pages, included a number of photos of me and Jessie, taken at the hospital.

Some of the photos also showed Jessie handing me items as I was treating patients.

At one point, apparently between patients, Jessie and I were kissing.

I don’t even remember that photo, or the kiss.

The paper also must have obtained a head and shoulder shot of me from the fire department, as well as a great picture of Jessie from UGA.

The paper also mentioned I had spent four years in the Marine Corps, and had served two tours of duty in Iraq, and was a “highly decorated veteran who had been wounded in combat and received the Silver Star for heroism.”

The final paragraph in the story stated that I only needed one more course in English to obtain my degree, and that I was hoping to be able to complete that course through the University of Georgia so I could soon join my beautiful fiancée as UGA grads.

I hadn’t said anything as I was reading, and Jessie?

Well, for once Jessie was being as quiet as a church mouse!

I was so stunned I didn’t know what to say, or even really what to feel.

Should I be mad?

Should I laugh?

Should I start shouting?

As I folded the paper down, I looked at Jessie.

Jessie was standing at the foot of the bed, and would not even look at me.

I couldn’t help but notice that her hands were shaking as she waited for my reaction to the story.

Just looking at Jessie I felt something in my heart began to expand.

“God, she is scared to death of what my reaction is going to be,” I thought.

I again remembered seeing her in the tub of her parents’ house, not even sure at first if she was still living. And I remembered a quote Debs used to tell me all the time: “It is difficult to know at what moment love begins; it is less difficult to know that it has begun.” – Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.

I may not have been able to tell you EXACTLY when I fell in love with Jessie, but I could now tell you for a fact that I WAS in love with this amazing young woman.

“Hey,” I said, very, very softly, “come here, you.”

When Jessie looked up and saw my smiling face and open arms, she first gasped, then her face transformed into a smile that could have turned the night into day.

Jessie ran around the bed to my waiting arms.

I first heard the thud, then Jessie’s scream as she fell face first onto the floor, barely getting her hands up in time to protect herself from the impact.

Jessie, who was barefoot, had rammed two toes into the bed post.

Two hours later I carried Jessie and her two broken toes out to my truck, then went back inside for her brand-new pair of crutches.

“I carried you in, and by golly, I’m carrying you out,” I told her as she laughed through the pain.

While I had been sleeping, Jessie had taken a shower at the hospital, and one of the nurses loaned her some clean clothes.

While Jessie was having x-rays taken of her foot, I had called a friend from the fire department who brought me a clean uniform I always keep at the station.

While she was having the toes taped up, I used the opportunity to also take a shower and shave.

“Are you as hungry as I am?” I asked Jessie, once we were in the truck.

“Starving,” she said.

“French?” I asked, “Or is your foot hurting too badly?”

“French food now,” she said with a raised eyebrow, “French something else later!”

Ooh la la.

I had offered to carry Jessie into the restaurant, but she insisted on using the crutches the hospital gave her.

Once we walked in – me in my white fire department uniform, Jessie using crutches – something extraordinary happened.

At first, I saw a few heads turn to look at us. Then a few more. Then spontaneously, people started standing up and applauding.

Obviously a lot of people had read the article.

Throughout dinner, people would stop by our table and shake our hands and offer us congratulations on our upcoming wedding.

Invariably, they would ask when, and of course the only thing we could say was we hadn’t picked out a date yet.

The more people who came by our table, the quieter and quieter Jessie became.

Many of those people who came by would also drop a bill or two on the table. A lot of $20s, some $50s, and even a few $100s.

Throughout dinner Jessie had been as quiet as I have ever known her, and was just picking at her food.

I wasn’t sure if it was because her foot was really hurting her, or something else.

Then she finally started talking.

“Does it bother you, about the engagement thing?” Jessie asked at one point. “I don’t know why I said it, about being your fiancée. I mean I do know why I said it, because I wanted to tease you a little at the hospital and then it just seemed to take on a life of its own, and when I was helping you outside the hospital last night and the newspaper reporter asked if he could ask me some questions about you and I said sure because I was so proud of you, the way you were helping people, how much you cared, how kind and considerate you were, how incredibly competent you were, then I thought I would tease you a little about UGA and how you wanted to get your degree from there, and he asked me at one point ‘why is your name so familiar,’ and I told him I was on the UGA soccer team, but I never told him I was the all-time leading scorer for the team. I mean I am, but I never told him that, I guess someone at Athens told him that, and I told him about how you dug me out of the crumpled remains of my house and carried me to your truck, but I never said it was a mile and never said anything about downed power lines, and I never said anything about you having to give me mouth-to-mouth resuscitation to revive me, he just made those up, then the reporter asked me about our engagement because apparently Janice or Dr. Wilson had mentioned it to him and then he was asking me and I didn’t know what to say and I couldn’t just say well we aren’t really engaged after all because people were already talking about it like we were engaged and I didn’t know what else to say and I am so sorry if I embarrassed you and now I feel like an idiot and I know you are probably upset with me and I don’t blame you if you are, and if I could go back and change it I would, but I don’t know how to change it now, but I will stand up right here and right now and tell everyone we really aren’t engaged, but please don’t be mad at me and don’t yell at me because I just couldn’t take it right now and would probably start crying like crazy and my foot hurts and I feel like I am about to be sick to my stomach ... and ... and...”

Jessie finally ran out of words and was now just looking down at the table. Tears were streaming down her face.

I had once kidded Jessie about talking for 30 minutes straight without taking a breath. She hadn’t exactly just finished talking for 30 minutes, but it was several minutes and I honestly don’t think she stopped once to breathe.

“Jessie, (she looked up at me and I could see how scared she looked) ... My love (suddenly the fear was gone and something else was taking its place) there is only thing that really bothers me about that,” I answered.

So ... I stood up and started hitting my glass with a knife.

“Could I have everyone’s attention for a minute?” I asked.

“I assume many of you have read the newspaper article about us, and I would like to clarify something,” I said. “The newspaper said we are engaged. The fact is, we are not engaged. Jessie is not my fiancée, and I am not her fiancé. Yet! I want to take care of that right now.”

I dropped to my knees beside Jessie.

“Jessie, yesterday when I saw your demolished house and knew you were inside I went berserk. I didn’t know if you were injured ... or worse ... but I knew right then just how much I love you and that I want to spend the rest of my life with you. Jessica, my love, will you marry me?”

“Yes, Yes, Oh God Yes,” Jessie said as tears began streaming down her face again.

They were also streaming down my face as well. We were hugging and kissing.

We received another standing ovation.

Shortly after that, we finished eating (actually I had already finished and Jessie finally started) and Jessie slowly made her way to my truck.

We had barely gotten inside when Jessie reached over and tried unbuckling my belt.

“I promised you French something else,” she said.

“Patience, Miss Johansson, patience,” I admonished her, pushing her hands away.

“Patience, Hell,” she answered. “I saw a cartoon once, it showed two buzzards waiting for an animal to die so they could eat, but one buzzard said, ‘Patience, Hell, I want to kill something.’ That’s how I feel now, I want to eat you NOW!”

I punched in an address on the GPS, and 20 minutes later we pulled into one of the nicest hotels in downtown Atlanta.

“What’s this?” asked Jessie.

“Patience, Miss Johansson, patience. You kids today are so impatient.”

When we walked up to the counter, I said, “I believe you have reservations for Mr. and Mrs. Walker?”

Jessie gasped loud enough for the clerk to look up and smile.

“Yes, sir, the honeymoon suite,” he said. I gave him a credit card and he gave us a magnetic key and told us how to find the room.

After getting off the elevator, we were walking to the room when Jessie couldn’t contain herself any longer.

Jessie put one crutch in front of me so I had to stop.

“Reservations! Honeymoon Suite! Just what is going on Sam?”

I pulled Jessie against me.

“I talked with Dr. Andrews Friday night. She said she thought we were ready, IF, IF, you wanted to that is. So I made reservations for us here. I had hoped to bring you here last night, but that tornado interfered.

“Are ... are you ready Jessie?” I asked, very gently.

She didn’t actually answer me.

Instead Jessie put her arms around my neck and jumped up, wrapping her incredible legs around my waist and was soon sticking her tongue half-way down my throat.

I took that as a “Yes!”

We were actually only a few feet from our room, so I just carried Jessie like that over to the door, then slid the magnetic key down the slot.

Once inside, I – regretfully – put Jessie down so I could turn and lock the door.

When I turned back around, Jessie was waiting for me.

She didn’t rip the shirt off like she had the previous Saturday, but she unbuttoned it.

Then Jessie undid my belt, unsnapped my trousers and pulled them down with my underwear.

Before I could do or say anything, Jessie dropped to her knees and the head of my penis was in her mouth.

I know her toes had to be hurting from kneeling like that, but apparently Jessie didn’t care.

After gently sucking on the head for a minute or two, Jessie pulled back, then slowly started licking the length of my penis with her tongue. She lowered her head and licked my balls, then gently took one at a time in her mouth and sucked.

I gasped, and Jessie resumed licking my penis, then took me back in her mouth.

The first time Jessie tried to take me into her throat she gagged, then pulled back enough to say, “God, you are so BIG, Mr. Walker.” Before I could respond (my blood had left my head by now), she had me back in her mouth and this time I slid deep inside her throat.

I was moaning and groaning at the feeling; her throat was so tight and her mouth and tongue were absolutely incredible.

Before long, I finally managed to tell Jessie that if she didn’t stop, then I was going to cum.

Rather than stop, Jessie redoubled her efforts until I could hold back no more. I think I shot harder, and more, than I have ever cum in my life. Jessie continued sucking and cleaning me off until I was soft.

I think the only thing that kept me vertical was the fact that I was, by now, leaning back against the door.

Jessie stood up and was in my arms as we exchanged a deep, deep kiss.

I could taste myself in her mouth.

“Come on, let’s go to bed,” she said, grabbing my hand and turning away.

The next thing I knew, I was lying on my stomach, barely getting my hands up in time to catch myself before I would have hit the floor face first.

I had forgotten that I hadn’t actually taken my pants and underwear off.

They were still pushed down around my feet, so when I tried to take a step I fell down.

Jessie, displaying some sadistic tendencies, was laughing so hard I was afraid she would hurt herself

“This reminds me of when I first saw you, lying helpless at my feet, after I knocked you out!” she declared.

I growled at her.

She continued to laugh.

I growled some more.

“Payback, Miss Johansson, can be a bitch,” I warned Jessie.

I rolled over and finally got my pants, underwear, shoes and socks off, then stood up.

As I started to look for Jessie to administer the threatened “payback,” I stopped cold in my tracks.

Jessie ... Jessie was looking at me with a look that I can only describe as pure love.

Yes, there was lust and desire, but there was also something else.

Some undefinable “something” that I think my heart recognized.

“Oh, Jessie,” I said, as I held my arms out. She quickly moved into my arms and we were kissing again.

“Sam, do you mind if I take a shower first?” she said, “I was laughing so hard at you after you fell I think I ... peed myself.”

“Do you need any help? You know, washing your ... back ... or something?” I asked.

Jessie actually blushed.

“I’d love to take a shower with you ... later,” she said, “but I promise I won’t be but a few minutes.”

Luckily the hospital had given us some plastic bags and waterproof tape so I quickly wrapped those around her injured foot.

True to her word, five minutes later she limped out of the bathroom, wearing only a towel.

By the time she reached the bed, the towel was laying on the floor.

It was still early afternoon, so I had turned the lights off and pulled the curtains partially shut, but there was still plenty of light in the room.

As I watched Jessie limp over to the bed I was almost speechless.

I don’t know how, in five minutes, she had managed to not only take a shower but to also comb her hair but she was so beautiful it almost made my heart ache just to see her.

I had a very naked girl standing directly in front of me, with one of the most well-conditioned and sexiest bodies I had ever seen, and yet I could not even look anywhere but into her eyes.

For some strange reason, I immediately thought back to a week earlier when we had almost made love for the first time.

That night, Jessie had been trembling with fear or nerves, and when I had looked into her eyes I could sense lust and desire, but I could also tell she had been scared.

Now, all I could see was love almost radiating out of eyes.

I was still sitting on the side of the bed and was almost afraid to touch Jessie, to break the intimacy of the moment.

Looking into her eyes, I knew my life would never be the same again.

I knew from this moment forward, Jessie would possess me, and I would possess her – totally.

“You are so beautiful,” I finally managed to whisper.

Jessie smiled, then held out both her hands.

As my hands grabbed hers, she pulled me up until we were standing face-to-face, lip-to-lip.

Tentatively almost, our lips met then we were exchanging the most mind-blowing kiss of my life.

Our bodies were tightly pressed together.

I don’t know if we kissed for five minutes or fifty.

Time no longer seemed to have any meaning. We kissed until we finally had to stop.

“Make love to me, please, Mr. Walker,” Jessie whispered against my lips.

“Gladly ... Mrs. Walker,” I said.

Jessie started crying.

“Don’t cry Jessie, but it is going to be a little awkward if after we are married I become Mr. Johansson,” I teased her. “Or maybe you want to become Mrs. Johansson-Walker?”

By now Jessie is both laughing and crying.

“No, no,” she said, “I think I am going to love being just plain old Mrs. Walker.”

“There is nothing plain or old about you,” I said as our lips met again.

After kissing for several more moments, I finally reached down and picked up Jessie in my arms, then gently laid her down on the bed.

I could not help but to pause and just stare at this incredibly beautiful woman for a minute.

And as I did, my mind relived those first few seconds, just the day before, when I saw the almost total destruction of her house.

Almost as soon as I saw what was left of the house, I had just shut down that part of my mind.

I had refused to even consider the possibility, or even more likely, the probability, that she was lying dead somewhere in the wreckage.

The devastation had been so complete it had seemed impossible that anyone could have lived through it.

At first, my fear for Jessie had been almost paralyzing.

Now, as I remembered the incredible despair I had felt in those few seconds, before my Marine Corps, fire department and medical training had kicked in and did what I was trained to do without even thinking, my eyes filled with tears.

“Oh God, Jessie, I was so afraid you were dead,” I cried, “I was terrified you had been killed. And I had not told you just how important you are to me. I never told you just how much I love you.”

Jessie didn’t say anything, just wrapped her arms around me and pulled me down beside her.

“Oh, Sam,” Jessie finally said after several minutes, “I was afraid of the tornado, but I knew you were coming back to me, and I knew you would save me.”

Then her lips curled up in a mischievous smile.

“Besides Sam, I knew you loved me,” she grinned. “I’ve known that ever since you regained consciousness, after I knocked you out that first day.”

I laughed, then rolled my eyes at her.

“I don’t care what the doctor said, I think there must be some brain damage,” I muttered.

Jessie laughed.

“Now, are you going to screw my brains out, or do I have to knock you out again?” she asked.

As our lips met, I could feel Jessie’s mouth open beneath mine. Our tongues began sparring in a passionate kiss.

When I reached over and gently cupped her breast, then started rubbing my thumb across her nipple I could hear Jessie moan, deep in her throat.

“Now, Sam, now!” she insistently proclaimed, “I want you inside me NOW!”

When I reached down between her legs, and inserted a finger inside her, I could not believe how wet Jessie already was.

“NOW, Sam,” she again insisted.

Positioning myself between her legs, my rock-hard penis brushed against her waiting folds.

Jessie reached down and guided me inside her.

It was like sinking into a glorious, blazing hot pool of fire. Jessie was so tight.

By the time I was halfway inside, Jessie was making incoherent sounds of pleasure.

When I finally felt our two bodies meet as I bottomed out, I heard Jessie sigh, “So full. Oh, God, I am so full.”

I pulled slowly out, until just the head of my penis was still inside her, then started pushing in again, just a little faster than before.

Jessie reached up with both hands and pulled my head down to meet her.

Our lips met again, then our tongues.

I began increasing the speed and force until Jessie was again reduced to almost incoherent sounds.

When I moved my head down and sucked one of her rock-hard nipples into my mouth Jessie screamed softly as her incredibly well-conditioned body lifted off the bed in the throes of a mindless orgasm.

I stopped while Jessie came back down to earth, then started moving inside her again.

Jessie’s eyes opened in amazement.

“You didn’t cum yet?” she asked.

“When I cum ... Mrs. Walker ... you will know it,” I promised.

During the next 10 or 15 minutes, Jessie must have had a half-dozen more increasingly intense orgasms.

By the time I finally filled her insides with cum, the only sounds Jessie could make, in addition to moans of pleasure, were prolonged, “Yesssss, Yessss,” or “Saaaammm, Saaammm.”

By the time my body stiffened and I cried out, “Jessie, Jessie, Jessie,” we were both drenched in sweat. That triggered another orgasm from Jessie.

We were both completely spent. I am not sure how long we just lay side-by-side, holding each other.

“Well, Mr. Walker, at least now I know one thing,” Jessie said after 15 or 20 minutes of just holding each other.

“What’s that, Mrs. Walker?” I asked.

“You are DEFINITELY one of the exceptional, gifted Marines. I think you can probably count to 21 and a half,” she said with a big smile.