Chapter 6

Pam had been with Merlin for about a month and still had heard nothing from the Hero League. She regularly walked to where she was found, hoping for a note, sign, or telepathic message. The baby was growing and kicking regularly. Barry told her that he was a little over average size. She wished Ralph was here to feel the kicks and movements of his son.

She missed Ralph and wanted to feel his arms around her and kisses on her mouth and body. Sometimes, she dreamed of him beside her in bed and could hear him calling her name. She thought, 'He must be frantic not knowing where I am. I feel sorry for the people he must be hounding to get me back. I just hope he doesn't go into a rage as he did on our second honeymoon when he thought I had been raped."'

On a beautiful sunny day, she got a telepathic call from Ralph. 'Pam, I'm here. Where are you?'

She answered, 'Ralph, is that you?' but got no further response. She ran to Merlin and shouted, "Merlin, get the donkey and cart! I heard Ralph; I think he is here. We should go to the same location that you found me. Right now!"

Merlin quickly hitched the donkey to the cart, and they hurried to the castle rampart wall. As they rolled up, they could see a red and black pile off on the side of the path. They stopped the cart, and Pam and Merlin ran to the figure. Pam rolled the body over and saw it was Ralph, unconscious with a crossbow bolt through his left shoulder.

Pam was in tears seeing her husband. She called, "Ralph, Ralph!" but he didn't answer.

A guard yelled down from the top of the wall and asked, "Is the demon dead? I shot it when it came out of a flash of light. It must have come straight from hell."

Merlin yelled back, "You did a great job. We will take the creature to study." The guard knew who Merlin was and how he had killed the dragon. Studying dead demon bodies didn't seem unusual for a magician.

Ralph was alive but bleeding badly. They had to return him to the cottage to remove the bolt and staunch the bleeding. Together—so the guard would think that Pam was an ordinary woman—they lifted Ralph and placed him in the back of the cart. As he had done when he found Pam, Merlin covered Ralph with a cloak and straw so none of the townspeople would see what was in the back of the cart. Pam sat at the back next to the mound that was Ralph, so happy that her husband had found her.

Merlin thought, 'Ralph will never survive a wound like that.'

As they headed down the path, Ralph started to move and moan. Pam put her hand on his head and telepathically said, 'Ralph, it is me, Pam. You have found me. You are injured and must be quiet to be safe.'

Ralph answered, "Pam, Pam," before falling unconscious again.

When they returned to the cottage, it was late, and no one was around, so Pam picked Ralph up and put him to bed. She gently laid him down and rolled him to his right side so he wasn't leaning on the crossbow bolt. The bolt was one of the larger ones, approximately three-quarters of an inch in diameter. They had to get the bolt out, but it had a tanged end, so pulling it out would make the hole in Ralph's shoulder even larger. They would have to remove the tang from the bolt shaft.

Ralph was moaning and started to move around again. He called Pam's name several times. Pam said, "Ralph, I am here. It is Pam; I am right here."

Ralph looked at her and asked, "Is it really you?"

Pam smiled at him, said, "Ralph, it is me," and kissed him. Ralph smiled and fell back unconscious.

Merlin and Pam decided to burn the tang off the bolt end. They heated a metal fireplace poker to red hot and placed it on the wood shaft below the tang. The poker burned through the wood, and the tang fell off.

Because Ralph was in so much pain, Pam made a potent concoction of the hallucinogenic pain reliever before waking him. "Ralph, Ralph, wake up, honey."

He woke, and she had him drink the mixture. He complained, "That tastes vile."

After a few minutes, the mixture began to take effect. Ralph said, "Oh, these are the good drugs," slurring his words.

Pam smiled and asked him, "Does your shoulder still hurt?"

Ralph replied, "What shoulder?" She knew he wasn't feeling any pain. Pam quickly pulled the bolt out, and Ralph thrashed loudly as blood poured out of the wound. While Merlin reheated the poker, Pam removed Suit, folded it, and placed it under the bed. Pulling the suit off Ralph, she saw the bruises all over his body from the rough trip through the portal.

When the poker was red hot, Merlin brought it back to Pam. She used it to cauterize the wounds on both sides, and the bleeding stopped. Ralph moaned loudly while this was being done. She put honey mixed with antiseptic herbs on the injuries, wrapped a clean cloth over his shoulder, under the armpit, and tied it off at the top of his shoulder. She gently laid him back down.

Ralph was entirely in a hallucinatory state. He looked at Pam and drunkenly said, "I can see your aura. It is beautiful like you. It is golden with purple streaks and green dots."

He looked down at her baby bump and said, "I can see the baby's aura too. It is yellow with red streaks and green dots. How pretty?" Then he started staring off at other things. Pam smiled, knowing he would be upset with her for giving him the hallucinogens. He was very anti-drug use. She lifted him off the bed, and Merlin placed a bed pad under Ralph to catch the urine that would eventually come. She knew he wouldn't get out of bed for quite a while.

The effects of the mixture lasted for several hours. Ralph lightly chewed on the fingers of his right hand, drooled, gave tiny moans, and stared at things around the room. He gave no complaints of pain.

After a few hours, Ralph's eyes looked fearful, and he started saying things like, "I don't want to be here." "I can't be in the in-between." "I didn't set my anchor." "I don't want to disappear." And he chewed more fervently on his fingers, breaking the skin once when he jumped from the sudden sound of a bowl being dropped by Merlin. The bite bled, and the blood ran down his chin. Pam washed his face and cleaned the cut on his finger.

Pam knew he was having a bad trip, remembering things that happened to him when he was in the in-between. She told him, "Ralph, you are okay; you are not in the in-between. You are here with me."

Ralph looked at Pam and said, "Make it go away … I want to come home. I don't want to be here anymore." He grabbed her hand and held it to his face with tears streaming down his cheeks. Pam felt bad that Ralph was having such a bad time. Pam gave him water every hour to flush the hallucinogens from his system. Finally, he fell asleep.

The whole time Pam and Ralph were talking to each other, Merlin couldn't understand what they were saying, but he could tell by their soft tones that they cared about each other deeply.

When Ralph awoke the next day, his shoulder was in excruciating pain and felt hot. His eyes shot open, and he immediately started moaning loudly, saying, "Oh God, my shoulder hurts so bad."

Pam rushed over and looked down at him with a big smile. She placed Barry's sleeve on Ralph's forehead and said, "103, you have a fever. We'll have to take care of that."

Ralph asked, "What about taking care of the pain? How do you know how to do all this stuff?"

Pam replied, "We can do that too. Barry downloaded his knowledge of natural medicine to me."

Ralph nodded his head and closed his eyes in pain.

Pam brought Ralph a bowl and said, "Here, drink this. It will help with the pain."

Ralph asked, "It's not the same stuff as before. I remember thinking I was back in the in-between. A lot of the weird stuff I saw was similar. I was afraid again."

Pam said, "No, this is different. This is happy stuff."

Ralph drank the mixture and said, "It doesn't taste as bad as the other stuff."

After about 10 minutes, Ralph said, "I'm so loaded; I haven't been this loaded since college," and chuckled.

Pam asked, "Does your shoulder hurt?"

Ralph answered, "What shoulder?" and this time, Pam laughed.

Since Ralph was feeling no pain, she changed his wound dressings. Ralph giggled through the whole process.

Ralph said, "I have to take a piss—where is the bathroom?"

Pam said, "You are not getting out of bed."

Ralph said, "Then I will piss my pants." He lifted the blanket, looked at himself, laughed, and said, "I don't have any pants, and I just pissed the bed." He laughed again.

Pam chuckled. "I put a bed pad under you so you can piss on the bed."

Ralph laughed, "I guess I'm like a baby now. Are you practicing on me?" and laughed again.

As Ralph lay on the bed, he looked around the room and chuckled.

Pam asked him, "Are you hungry?"

Ralph replied, "Yes, I've got the munchies."

Pam brought him a bowl of oatmeal. He looked at it and asked, "Oatmeal? Where is the milk and sugar?" and giggled.

She poured milk into the bowl, put a dollop of honey on top, and mixed it. She set Ralph up so he could more easily feed himself.

Ralph took the wooden spoon, looked at it, and laughed. "What a funny spoon." He slowly dipped the spoon into the oatmeal like he had difficulty finding the bowl's opening. He scooped up the oatmeal and slowly brought it to his mouth, more sucking on the spoon than eating the oatmeal off it. Some oatmeal stuck to his chin.

Ralph said, "This milk tastes funny," and laughed again.

Pam told him, "That is because it is goat's milk." Ralph made a sound like a goat, laughed again, and took another scoop.

It took Ralph about half an hour to eat the small bowl. Pam came over and asked, "Are you done?" Ralph looked at the bowl, brought it to his mouth, and started licking the remnants from the bottom.

She said, "Okay, you're done." and took the bowl and spoon. Ralph laughed.

Pam wiped the oatmeal off his face and gave him another concoction for the fever.

Ralph said, "I'm tired," and went to sleep. His fever broke later that night, and he slept the rest of the night.

The next day, Pam checked Suit, and he was 100%. When Ralph woke, Pam removed the covers and bed pad, leaving Ralph naked. He asked, "What are you doing? Why am I here naked and uncovered?"

Pam said, "I'm getting your bath ready."

Ralph replied, "Oh, that sounds great." Pam brought a large bowl of warm water and a bar of soap. She wetted a cloth and lathered the soap onto the fabric. She washed his face, arms, the rest of his body, legs, and man parts.

Ralph lay there in ecstasy and said, "Oh, God, that feels so good." Then she rinsed the soap out of the cloth and returned to Ralph's body to rinse off the soap. She then dried him with a clean, dry cloth.

"And now for your surprise," Pam exclaimed, pulling out Suit from under the bed.

Ralph excitedly exclaimed, "Suit, where have you been? Transfer now." Suit moved a sleeve over Ralph's chest, glowed bright red, disappeared, and reappeared on Ralph.

Grinning broadly, Ralph rubbed the emblem on Suit with his right hand and said, "I missed you, buddy. I hope you are okay." Suit said in Ralph's head, 'Yes, I am fully recalibrated to the frequencies for this universe, and the hole in my left shoulder has been repaired.'

Ralph said, "That's great, and I feel better already."

Pam said, "Suit, I want to talk to you." Ralph stared off, and Suit came forward.

Ralph's head turned towards her, and Suit said, "Yes, Pam, what do you need."

She said, "As you know, Ralph is still not in good shape. You will have to continue with his healing. I authorize you to make him sleep in four on-two off cycles. This should conserve his energy toward healing as quickly as possible."

Suit said, "I concur with your plan."

Pam said, "Thank you, and good to have you back."

Ralph came back and said, "I'm tired. I'm going to sleep now." And he instantly fell asleep.

Merlin had been sitting on the other side of the room watching this washing and suit renewal ceremony. It was unbelievable to him that a suit of clothing could move and talk. He thought, 'There must be some demon living in it. At least it seems friendly.'