Chapter 2

The doctor worked me over pretty good, and before he was satisfied, I was hurting everywhere.

Not crying like a little girl took all of my concentration, but he finally finished stitching, sewing, stapling, and all the extraneous activity that comes with it. I was shaking from the pain when he finally quit.

"Mr. Fleming, you have an extremely deep gash in your left thigh that will take several months to completely heal. There is no substitute for time, I'm afraid, and it will take two months, minimum for all the healing to take place.

"You can lengthen that time by going back to work too soon, or overdoing rehab. I will prescribe a specific rehab regimen, and you need to follow it precisely. There are no shortcuts if you want to regain as much use of your leg as is going to be possible in light of your injuries.

"Your other injuries will heal up in a few weeks, and other than a bit of scarring, you should have limited long term damage to deal with.

"However, your leg will never be what it once was. Unless I miss my guess, you can expect to regain up to sixty percent of the flexibility you once had in that leg. You can hope to achieve up to fifty percent of your strength back, but it won't be any more than that. There is too much nerve damage, and honestly, Mr. Fleming, once tendons, ligaments, nerves, and cartilage are damaged they are never fully restored.

"The injuries you suffered were greatly aggravated by the superhuman feat you preformed saving the two people in the other vehicle. You might have escaped with recoverable damage if you simply stayed in the car until help arrived, but then two wonderful people would not be cleaning themselves up on the other side of that curtain. They'd be downstairs, in our morgue.

"You need to console yourself, that you earned your scars and damages doing something truly heroic." He patted my arm and left.

As soon as he was done giving me my news, the doctor went to see about Brian, giving me a chance to pull myself back together. It was obvious I was going to be using crutches, a cane, and maybe a wheel chair to get myself back to regular activity. That meant a month or two off from work, because my job included way too much up and down, stairs, ladders, and sidewalks.

A couple of years ago, I would have rebelled and worked anyway. Now I couldn't wait to find a place to recuperate in Branson, and be near Beth Ann, Colleen, Rebecca, and Millie, not to mention Mr. Bell.

Thinking about Mr. Bell got me thinking about Jennifer, Tabitha, and Tammy.

Then I thought about Benjamin.

They all needed me at a specific moment, or their lives would take a very different direction.

And that scared me.

The nurse gave me a pad and pen, so I could make notes of who, what, where, and when. Fate was a fickle mistress, and I had appointments I couldn't miss with all of my loved ones, or risk tragedy and loss for people I loved, and a dog I adored. For a half hour, if not longer, I jotted down names, dates, places, and times.

So intent was I that I didn't notice that I had a visitor.

"Mr. Fleming? Let me introduce myself. I'm Beth Morse. I couldn't help but overhear what the doctor just said about your injuries. You saved our lives today, and I wanted to tell you how grateful we are for what you did. The Trooper just shared with me how remarkable it was that you could stand up, much less cross the highway and pull Brian out before the fire killed us both.

"I heard how badly you were injured, and the doctor agreed it was physically impossible for you to help us the way you did. I am so sorry you got hurt saving us, but so grateful you were there when we had no other chance.

"Thank you. You saved me and my son ... and he's all I've got, so you really saved me twice, when you saved Brian..."

She looked stricken, frightened, worried out of her mind, and so incredibly beautiful. Beth Ann, alive and in person, affected me like she always did. It was instant arousal, total attraction, and complete capitulation. If she had asked me to set myself on fire and jump off the Sears Tower, I would have tried. She still resided in every corner of my soul.

When I realized I was back where it all began, I hoped that Beth Ann would be here waiting, but when she spoke to me, looked right into my eyes, and smiled her thanks, I nearly grabbed her in a bear hug. Instead I smiled and said, "Mrs. Morse..."

She interrupted and sad, "Please ... please call me Beth." Her eyes were as blue as they were the day we came together in utter bliss, and I wanted to kiss her with every fiber of my being.

"Please, Beth. Please call me Carl. I'm Carl Fleming. Are you Ok? Is your son going to be fine? How badly are you two hurt?"