Shannon honestly did try to pull her lips away from his – but to no avail – he clung to her like a dying man to his last breath – his lips ravaging hers.
Until Jayden broke in with a fake cough in the background.
“Put her down, man. Those sheets don’t hide your hard on!” The only response was a middle finger from Nate’s hand – even strapped to an IV he was a cocky bastard!
“Seriously,” Tori said, kind of embarrassed to watch the two of them going at it for this length of time – even hiding her eyes in her daughter’s blanket as she had been, “It’s been about three minutes, guys, he’s been in a coma for five days Shan, let the man have a drink!”
She pulled back sheepishly, a smile in her teary eyes as he ran his hand down her slender cheek – absolute adoration in every corner of his gaze. With her dark hair falling around them, it was like a curtain – cutting them off from everything – even their closest friends.
“I love you,” she murmured, and his eyes widened in response, before he cupped her cheek in his hand, and opened his mouth to say something in return – a small frown eclipsing his features as he pointed to his throat, “I’ll get you some water, we need to call the nurse.”
But he clung to her, pulling her down over his body and laying gentle kisses on her forehead.
“I’ll go, shall I?” Jayden muttered – faking annoyance, but he knew exactly how Nate must be feeling – he knew this was what Shannon needed. He couldn’t really get angry to that, he winked at his best friend before strolling out the door.
“I’ve missed you so much,” she whispered, against his chest, “For God’s sake, why would you put yourself in that position?”
He kind of threw up his arms smiling – his throat too rough to say a word – and she just kept asking questions!
Jayden poured out a glass of water from a plastic Tupperware jug, handing it over to him chuckling.
“I’d kill for a brew,” he rasped out hoarsely, and they burst into tearful chuckles at his blank, confused expression.
“Nurse is on it, man.”
The afternoon was filled with assessments of some kind or another – MRI, CCG, blood tests, response tests – Nate was well and truly exhausted by the end of the afternoon.
“We should have your results by tomorrow morning Mr. Casey,” Dr. Evans was saying kindly, “And then we’ll have a better idea of when we can maybe get you home.”
“I can’t go now?” Nate was frowning, “I feel fine ...”
“I understand that, Mr. Casey, but you’ve been involved in a very serious accident – you’re been in a barbiturate coma for five days – we have to be absolutely certain that you’re well enough.”
“I can’t discharge myself?”
“Well,” the doctor looked uncomfortable – he’d been fabulous with all of them – incredibly professional, but Shannon could see him struggling up against Nate, once he’d made his mind up on something. He could be persuasive, after all – hell, couldn’t he just?
“Nate, it’s not a good idea ...” she said softly, “I’d feel better if I knew you were well enough ...”
“Mr. Casey,” the doctor reiterated, “There will be lasting effects here. Your cognitive activity will suffer some kind of shortfall – from the trauma itself as well as the barbiturates. We need to monitor that.”
Lasting effects? Shannon’s stomach dropped into her Jimmy Choo’s as she turned back to the doctor – they’d mentioned something of the like, but not in any depth.
“What kind of cognitive damage?” Jayden broke in quietly – obviously just as concerned as Shannon.
“Memory loss, concentration difficulties – perhaps even motor functions,” the doctor said quietly, “We won’t really know for sure until we’ve seen the results. Maybe not until even later – we find that we can never have a proper prognosis for this kind of case.”
“And this is a definite?” Nate was saying gruffly, searching around at the side of him for Shannon’s hand, “There’s no way that I won’t be kosher?”
“You’ve made a remarkable recovery so far,” the doctor was flicking through his notes, “After the surgery, and the first 36 hours, it was clear that there was no longer a high risk of cerebral damage from the Intracranial Pressure, and we would be in a position to drop the level of Thiopental in your dosage, which would gradually draw you out of the sedation. Your lungs are almost completely recovered – although you will need to be administered antibiotics to reduce the possibility of infection.”
“Speak in English, doc, “Nate groaned, “I must’ve missed this class ...”
“In short, I am expecting there to be some kind of complication as a result of this recovery.
Shannon’s heart split for him – her proud, strong man would struggle with this – he’d see this as weakness – deficiency. She could already see his eyes shifting around the room, not quite sure what to make of everything he was hearing. He didn’t trust anyone more than these guys – and yet it was still almost painful for them to be hearing this along with him.
“You can’t tell anyone any of this, right?” he asked the doctor stiffly, who shook his head in response, “Especially memory loss – you’re never to talk about this case and any side effects. With anyone. I’ll give you an extra twenty grand, but it doesn’t even go in a paper. The records are burnt, and you never think of it again.”
“Nate, I ...” Shannon started, but Nate shook his head quietly – not breaking the simmering eye contact between him and the young doctor – who must, by now, have registered that there was something out of the ordinary going on.
“Very well,” the doctor backed down quietly, getting up from his seat, “But I don’t need any extra for that. And you will need rehabilitative treatment, but we can work around that for the most part. We can arrange something before you leave – home visits and the like. Although, we wouldn’t refuse a donation of some kind- to the hospitals’ research programmes.”
“That I can do, doc.”
***********************************************
Two days later, and they were packing his things from the hospital.
He’d become insufferable – even though Shannon never left his side, and Jay and Tori were around almost as often – it was too much like being locked up for his liking, and even the hospital staff were getting irritated with his uncooperative ways.
Tori was spending the morning replenishing Franchetti’s cupboards – for who she had no clue, and she didn’t really want to ask.
Jayden was back at home – getting everything ready at Nate’s place for him to come home. He had a cat – apparently – sort of. Just kind of wandered in occasionally, and he’d feed it. It probably got fed somewhere else as well, but he had started to use it as an excuse with the doctors to get “released” as he was putting it. Nobody had ever seen it, so Jayden felt a bit of an idiot putting food out for what could well be an imaginary cat, but whatever – if it made Nate feel better.
So it was just the two of them in the hospital room packing up his things. So far there’d been no sign of any lasting damage in any of the tests – but he was having some trouble concentrating for long periods of time – and there were migraines to contend with on occasion as well.
They both prayed that that was the extent of the damage.
She was folding his pyjama bottoms neatly into the holdall when she felt him move up slowly behind her, running his hands up the sides of her slender body to cup her breasts – rubbing a building erection into the cheeks of her ass.
“I’m horny as all mother-fucking hell,” he breathed into her ear seductively, “I’ve never fucked on a hospital bed before, do you fancy it?”
She chuckled, leaning back her head against his shoulder as he nuzzled into her neck.
“You mean the bed you’ve just spent the last week in – the first five days of which you were in a fucking coma? You’re joking, right? I think we found the side effects – you lost your mind!”
His tongue shot out to lave at the beating pulse at the base of her throat.
“Or found my hard on ... one of the two.”
“You silver-tongued devil,” she whispered sarcastically, just as the doctor strolled through the door – effectively breaking up the party – although Nate kept her clasped to the front of his body – just in case.
“Mr. Casey ... Mrs. Casey,” he nodded in greeting ... she’d forgotten about that with the nurse, biting her lip in a cheeky smile as she turned to Nate sheepishly with a blush rising underneath her tan, “I see you’re ready.”
“Yup,” Nate winked slowly at his woman – his cock twitching at the thought of her being his wife – at least the doc had known to keep his hands off while he was out of it, “Ready to rock and roll, doc, thanks for everything.”
“If I could just discuss a few aftercare details with you, before you leave,” he started quietly, taking a seat on the bed as Nate and Shannon took the plastic chairs, “Try to avoid anything overtly stressful for the next few weeks – obviously.”
Nate grinned, “Always a rule of mine.”
“And perhaps – avoid any physical exertion for a week or two, until your body is recovered.”
“Wasn’t planning a marathon or anything, so it won’t be a problem.”
“God, Nate,” Shannon groaned with a chuckle, “Take the man seriously, please, this is important!”
“I am! Sorry doc ... carry on.”
A faint blush was creeping up on the young doctor’s pale face – he had a rugged complexion common to redheads, and it was noticeable.
“I was actually talking about ... all kinds of physical exertion.” He was clearing his throat, embarrassed.
Nate frowned slightly, pursing his lips in thought as he said quietly, “No ... I’m not following you?”
Shannon rolled her eyes, lightly tapping his chest with the back of her hand.
“He’s talking about sex, Nate!”
His face was an absolute picture, he looked disgustedly between her and the doctor, kind of panicked, “He’s telling us not to fuck?” he looked back at the good doctor – who was basically crimson at this point, “No. Absolutely not. There’s no way. I’ve been out for a week, man, that’s just not a possibility – find some other way.”
She turned back to the doctor clicking her tongue, before cocking her head to the side thoughtfully.
“Do you think Nymphomania can be a side effect of this coma?”
Because some secret little part of her was actually kind of excited at the prospect ...