The Recovery Road - Part III - The things we do…

Oliver went back to Shane's house on Saturday morning. He was determined to keep her awake all day and make sure her sleeping pattern was restored to normal. To accomplish that, he needed to keep her busy enough to tire her out by the end of the day. He arrived at 10:30. She was up, showered and talking with Lucy. He brought coffee and donuts and asked Shane if they could dismiss Lucy for the day as he wanted to take her out. She was delighted and Lucy even more so. "Where are we going?" she asked excitedly. "We're starting at the park. There's an outdoor art exhibition with local and out of town artists. Since you are an art appreciator, I thought you might enjoy it." As they arrived at the park, he retrieved a wheelchair from his trunk and sat her gently in it. "Oh, Oliver… where did you get this?" "I hired it from the hospital… for the whole of next week as well, since you're retuning to work on Monday." She smiled adoringly at him. "Oh, how thoughtful of you."

They spent hours looking at every painting, every photograph, and every sculpture. She was in her element and Oliver was surprised at how much she knew about art and which period each piece belonged to. Before they finished at the exhibition, they had their portrait painted by one of Denver's young up and coming artists. They sat together on a park bench smiling at each other, and within minutes they had a perfect sketch of their faces together with their love for each other clearly shining through, all done in water colours. The artist did a remarkable job. It was beautiful in its simplicity! Oliver bought a frame to go with it. One day hopefully, it would hang in their own home… they both dreamed.

It was a beautiful day, so Oliver had prepared a picnic lunch. He laid a blanket under a tree by the same stream Charlie had swung across on a rope. Oliver had been very attentive to all the lunch details that morning. They had finger sandwiches, potato salad, chocolate cake, grapes and strawberries as well as a bottle of sparkling wine. Everything was presented beautifully. Shane was very impressed. Oliver lifted her from the wheelchair and sat her gently on the blanket. They were both starving so they quickly ate everything, right down to the last crumb. Shane was feeling very relaxed as she laid back on the blanket and he laid next to her, propping himself up on one elbow. He was teasing her with the last few grapes. He'd pretend to feed her one, and then pop it in his mouth instead. After a few failed attempts at getting a grape, laughing she said, "Enough of this!" She pushed him back onto the blanket and rolled over on top of him. She then sat on him, leaning forward, holding his hands flat on the ground above his head. She lowered her mouth to his and stole the grape

from him. He laughed and said she was cheating. She said she didn't recall any rules being set for this game and everything was fair play. They both laughed enjoying the silly, spontaneous game they had created. Then just like that the mood changed! They stared deeply into each other's eyes and the laughing stopped. She looked from his eyes to his lips and licked her lips... all she wanted right now were those lips... that mouth... taking over hers. The game was forgotten. She lowered herself once more and kissed him... slowly... intensely... provocatively! She was still sitting right on top of him and once she pulled herself up, she made no attempt to change her sitting position. He was still her captive and he also made no attempt to free himself. "Do you know what this reminds me of?" she asked him. "Yes, I do." he said, his voice an octave lower. "But remember, I didn't kiss you that day on the beach in Georgia." "No." she said. "But oh, how I wish you had. Do you know how long I fantasised about that day? About that almost kiss?" Without waiting for an answer she lowered herself again for another kiss but released his hands to touch his face. But he was quick and once free he immediately grabbed her, wrapping one arm around her waist and with the other he rolled and flipped her back on the blanket and then laid flat on top of her. Now he was the one holding her hands flat on the ground above her head… his captive! "Did you fantasise about kissing me? Do you think you were the only one fantasising about this?" His voice was hoarse, barely a whisper and he took her lips slowly and deeply as he had never kissed her before... so passionately... so intense... burning! Until he knew he had to stop and control his emotions. Reluctantly he let her go, rolled away from her and sat up beside her, looking frustrated. He raked his fingers through his hair and looked at her with his smouldering blue eyes. "Shane, you drive me crazy." "Yes, I know, because you do exactly the same to me." She said returning the same kind of intensity. Oliver knew they were treading dangerously close to the boundary. "We should go." he suggested and looked away in the distance. They stayed there quiet, both considering the choices they had. Eventually Oliver looked at her and said, "Yes, we should go, I still need to buy ingredients to make you dinner tonight." She understood what he was trying to do and joined him in attempting to defuse the charged atmosphere between them. Smiling she said "Wow! You're full of surprises, Mr. O'Toole." He smiled back, a bit half heartedly, still in the process of trying to control his unruly emotions.

They gathered the picnic gear. After loading it into the trunk and getting Shane comfortable in the passenger seat of his jaguar, he drove to the nearest supermarket and purchased ingredients to make chicken parmigiana for three. The dinner was delicious; Oliver was truly a very good cook. Karen helped with the clean up afterwards, and again Oliver sent her to bed early, with the promise to put Shane to bed himself. Once they found themselves alone again, he picked her up and sat her on his lap and she snuggled against his chest as if this was the most natural thing to do. So much had happened that day, and as Oliver had intended, she was extremely tired out. His plan had worked well and he knew she'd sleep through the night again, hopefully without nightmares. She thanked him for the beautiful day, and he lovingly kissed the top of her head. It didn't take long for her to fall asleep. He then got up, lifted her up gently and transferred her to her bed. Oliver hoped that tonight would fix her sleep pattern once and for all, as he didn't want to keep such a close eye on her for much longer as this was taking a toll on him, one that he wasn't sure he could afford to pay... not yet! He was amazed she hadn't questioned this unusual behaviour from him. Instead it seemed she was just enjoying the extra time they were spending together. Truth be told, he loved every minute of it... maybe even a bit too much perhaps!

Sunday passed without incidents of any nature. Shane was trying hard to be on her best behaviour despite the fact she was struggling to keep her hands off him. Oliver was not doing much better, but he seemed to be able to exercise more self control than Shane. Oliver left a little earlier that evening with Shane's strict promise that she would go to bed at a reasonable time so she would be ready when he picked her up early the next morning to go to work.

On Monday morning, everybody was so happy when they saw Shane pushing herself in her wheelchair through the corridors of the Denver USPS main branch. The sorting floor stopped working to clap for her. She felt like a real celebrity, but most of all, she felt loved. Rita and Norman crowded her, showering her with affection. She couldn't stop the tears of joy that rolled down her face.

She survived a little longer than she had expected and only asked Oliver to take her home after 2pm. Every day she did a little better than the previous day and by Friday, she was keen to work the whole day. Oliver took her to the hospital on Friday morning to have her cast removed. She felt a freedom that almost got her running through the hospital corridors. Her shoulder was assessed and declared 85% healed. Overall, she was given a clean bill of health and encouraged to start living a normal life as much as she could. Oliver was very glad to hear it. It had been a very long 6 weeks for all of them, but they had made it over the hardest part.

Both nurses were discharged with thanks, big hugs and well wishes from both of them.

Oliver and Shane breathed a huge sigh of relief… they had survived in more ways than one!