Matt
No matter how much I tried, Mihael would turn me down each time. My parents weren't even close, their room was in the opposite side of the apartment!
He wasn't comfortable with the idea of sex near them, even when I reminded him how many times it surely hadn't stopped him from harassing me in the past. But even if I acted as if I bought that, I knew there was something else, so I tried to be cool with it.
I was happy enough to have him back with me, so I didn't complain, but still, I was horny as hell and his sole presence was a tease.
The hospital called four days after we were back home, saying that Mihael should have his legs plasters removed. This made him less taciturn. Oh, he wasn't moody or anything, just... I could feel something in him was off. But the way his face lit up, even if only for a moment, it was obviously linked to that. An appointment was settled for the next day.
Later in the afternoon, my mother gave Mihael a haircut. He made a face when she offered, and I had to reassure him that she had been cutting my hair all my life for him to accept. He kind of needed it anyway, his hair was all sorts of lengths, and split at the ends. I had cut them myself to limit the damage done by the accident, after he had woken up from his coma, because strands had been burnt and others had simply been tore off, but now it had been growing for months and it was time to arrange this mess.
My mother made sure to leave enough length, and when she was done, damn... it was just like before the accident, and I couldn't tear my eyes off of him. Mihael was happy with the result, but I saw him frown at his scar in the mirror.
With the mix of painkillers, anxiety for the plasters removal, and the excitement to have them off finally, Mihael fell asleep on the couch as we were watching a movie in the living room.
"Mum... Can I ask you a favour?" I whispered to her, as she was sitting at my left.
She nodded, waiting for me to go on.
"I'd like to... prepare some sort of surprise, since he's getting his plasters off tomorrow, can you help me?"
"Of course my little fox!" she contained a soft laugh, "What do you need me for?"
I briefly explained what I had in mind.
"Oh, you want to celebrate, is that it?" she winked at me.
"Yeah, sort of... He's been feeling guilty to be staying here all the time, at your charge, so I thought that we could be out of your hair sometimes."
"Don't worry about your father and me Mail, you know we love to have Mihael here, he's family! But I understand, you two need some alone time, that's normal."
"Mum!" I blushed real hard. I didn't want my own mother to imagine stuff Mihael and me did, it was pretty embarrassing.
"Mail, as much as I'd want you to be my little boy forever, I know that you're an adult now, no need to be blushing!" she teased me as we stood up. She followed me outside as we left Mihael still sleeping, with my father reading the newspapers, sat at the dining table.
We came back with innocent faces two hours later, bags of groceries as an alibi. Mihael had just woken up anyway, so he didn't even notice anything.
The next day, I could tell that Mihael was nervous. I was too, because there was a lot at stake for him. But none of us brought up the topic, as if not to call bad luck.
I hopped behind the steering wheel of my car after Mihael had been installed on the backseat, and we left for the hospital. It was the first time I drove my Camaro since I had been locked away, we had stayed in my parents' apartment the whole time since we were back.
I parked, and helped Mihael into his wheelchair. Damn, I was starting to gain muscle with all this carrying him around.
Mihael had politely declined when my parents had offered to come with us, which I could understand, we had talked a lot about them, and I knew that he felt guilty for all he had put them through. I could manage anyway.
I pushed his chair to the entrance, and asked for Dr Zimmerman. No name was given when the hospital had called, but I assumed that it would still be him since he had been Mihael's doctor during his stay here.
The lady at the counter gave me a look of surprise.
"Dr Zimmerman doesn't work here anymore, I think there is a mistake. Do you have an appointment card?"
"I... didn't know..." I barely had time to give Mihael's name and say that we had had the appointment by phone that a security guy, that was standing close, approached.
"Nora, call the head office for instructions." he simply said, before stepping back in place and smiling to us with a small polite nod.
My sense of panic flared. What was going on?
I barely heard what the woman said on the phone, already freaking out that some shit would happen, but she hung up and politely asked us to wait, and that someone would come and get us.
Get us, what a nice choice of words...
I stood there, just merely stepping out of the way, ready to... ready to what after all? I had Mihael in a wheelchair and even if I ran, there was no way I'd escape fast enough while pushing him, and I wasn't fit enough to carry him on a long distance.
"Mail?" Mihael's voice stirred me out of my train of thoughts.
I smiled weakly, but seeing his half hearted response to it, I knew he was on the same wagon.
Someone indeed came for us, and led us to a treatment room.
"Hello Mihael, hello sir." the man waiting inside greeted us, "I know this might have come to you as a shock, but as Miss Perry told you at the reception, Dr Zimmerman isn't part of our staff anymore, and so I will be monitoring you from now on. I'm Dr Martelli."
"How come the security staff seemed to know who we are?" I didn't beat around the bush, still not feeling safe at all.
"You're Mail Jeevas, is that right?" he asked me, and I nodded, the fact that he knew my name not the least reassuring, not taking the seat he invited me to, "I understand your concern, but rest assured that there's nothing to worry anymore. Dr Zimmerman was arrested the same day Mihael left the hospital, and there has been a thorough investigation among the staff. The security was informed about you so you could receive the best reception in this hospital after everything that happened. I am myself in transit here for Mihael's case only, Andreas is a friend of mine and he asked me to be your designated doctor. He explained the situation to me, just so you could be open about what happened if you wanted to, and feel safe."
I finally took a seat, feeling the pressure leave me like a balloon deflating.
Mihael hadn't said a word, but he took my hand as soon as I sat, and smiled to me softly. I felt a bit stupid to overreact like that, but Mihael actually appreciating my protection, fuck, I had to breathe deeply because my sexual frustration was coming back. If Mihael turned me down tonight, I'd have to resolve the problem with my bare hands so to speak... because this was getting ridiculous, if a simple smile could bring it up.
Dr Martelli, after asking Mihael a few questions and checking his vital stats, called for a nurse and the other doctor that would remove the plasters.
"HONEYPIE!" a loud laughing voice resounded as the door opened on these two persons. Miss double Ds walked to us and hugged us like it was the most normal thing in the world, and truth is, Mihael and me were both happy to see her. She had made his stay here a lot better.
"How are you both, cuties?" she asked, her big bright smile never leaving her lips, as she assisted the second doctor while he started cutting through the plasters.
I had to raise my voice over the sound of the small electrical saw the doctor was using, and it took a while before they finally removed the two plasters since they had to cut twice the length of a whole leg.
The second doctor left once it was done, leaving the nurse to clean Mihael's legs.
I waited patiently, sat on a chair, the large frame of the nurse blocking my sight, and Mihael was lying on his back, waiting for it to be over, so he wasn't looking at me anyway. I could tell by his expression that he was anxious.
She finally left after removing all the bandages, cleaning and taking care of the skin under the plasters, not without winking at us and waving a hand.
Next, we had to go to another aisle of the hospital for some x-rays, and came back to wait for the results in the office. We chatted a bit with Dr Martelli, well, I chatted, Mihael was mostly silent and I knew he was kind of freaking out about the results. He had not been allowed to try and walk yet, we had to wait the x-rays for that. Dr Martelli didn't want any damage done in case something was wrong. Not that Mihael's weight was high – he had lost a lot of weight during his recovery - but it was still body weight on fragile legs.
"The skin has healed pretty nicely. I'm afraid there will be very visible scars since we couldn't do a skin graft, but from what I see in your files, your other broken bones didn't present any complications so there is no reason your legs do. I was more afraid for the skin since it was torn off the bone in places, but it looks fine." Dr Martelli said, "And you have very little residual pain, so that's a good indicator as well."
He was obviously trying to reassure Mihael, but the way Mihael's mouth twisted slightly, I knew that expression... he didn't agree. And I had to admit that saying that Mihael's legs looked fine was a bit far fetched. It might be good from a doctor's point of view, but the scars were actually really bad. The skin, and even the flesh were uneven, with some kind of long deep grooves along the tibia. I wasn't disgusted or anything, it was just scars and I was only happy that there was no additional problem coming our way with Mihael's recovery, but I was starting to understand, from his reactions, where Mihael's insecurities were coming from, and this wouldn't help for sure.
"That looks good." Dr Martelli looked at the x-rays when they were finally brought to him twenty minutes later, "Mihael, I have very good news: you're able to enter rehabilitation right away."
The way Mihael's face illuminated! I was so happy, relieved, everything felt like a hundred tons had just been lifted off our lives.
"You're very lucky young man, with an accident such as yours, chances of full recovery are low. But you're young and you have a good constitution. I have to warn you, it won't be easy, and probably painful at times, but there is nothing in those pictures that hasn't healed properly. Don't overdo it though, you can try to stand a bit, but mostly, wait for your therapy sessions to do the hard work, and see with them what kind of exercises you can do at home. Right now we are not sure how strong your bones are, so if it becomes uncomfortable or painful, stop whatever you're doing and rest. If you have any concern, call me and we'll make an appointment."
Dr Martelli handed out his card, which I took and stuffed into my pocket.
"Now, let's try those brand new legs young man." Dr Martelli stood up from his desk and helped Mihael stand up from the wheelchair he was still in.
Mihael didn't hesitate a single second. He was determined to walk, and I knew him well enough to know that now started a very difficult part for me: I would have to prevent him from hurting himself, because he would more than certainly overdo it, stubborn as he was.
Mihael's legs were far from being sturdy, and he couldn't support himself. The doctor caught him as he lost balance.
"You've lost a lot of muscle, don't worry, it's totally normal, and with a little training, it will soon get better." Dr Martelli's tone was reassuring, but I could read Mihael like an open book: he was seething inside. He took support on the desk, pushing the arms that were holding him away, and tried to straighten. His hands left the desk for a few seconds, and I actually thought he would try and walk, just to prove everyone that he could do it alone.
But he suddenly winced, and gave me a lope sided look. I was already standing next to him, ready to help, so I simply held out my arm for him to take support so he could sit in the wheelchair again. He was in pain.
Dr Martelli made sure we had the required painkillers at home and, after some more recommendations that I knew Mihael wouldn't follow, escorted us to the reception and left us with Nora to schedule the appointments for rehabilitation.
I was relieved though, to see Mihael's mood being a lot better during the drive back home. He could finally sit next to me on the passenger's seat, fold his legs, and the way we chatted, I knew that although he was frustrated not to be able to walk for now, at least we knew he hadn't lost his legs in the accident, and that it was just a matter of time.
We still had the wheelchair in my trunk, but I was pretty positive that with Mihael's fierceness, he soon wouldn't need it anymore. He already could move a lot better without the plasters.
Since he seemed to be in a joyful mood, I changed direction.
"Where are you going?" he asked when he finally realised that I wasn't heading to my parents' apartment.
"I thought you knew the way." I smirked, feigning innocence.