Suspicions

She was naked in that shot, the most beautiful thing he ever saw. A few of the other men had nude photos of their girlfriends that they passed around with pride, Jim kept those of Sandy all to himself.

No way did Jim want anyone else to see her like that, Sandy was all his and private.

Looking closely, Jim could tell that her nipples were popped outwards, tiny and firm so he knew she was excited at the idea of his having such a photo of her.

The only relief was to masturbate furiously, holding that photo in his hand. It helped, but he could not get even close to what she had created in his body with her hands.

Marriage by the time the ship arrived home was a given.

The last letter he received had the words, "Oh God yes!!!!" taking up half of one page. He had finally written that he loved her more than anything on the planet, and wanted her to be his forever.

She was waiting as he stepped off the ship, he asked her again right then, already knowing her answer.

The large diamond that he had purchased in a foreign port seemed to really please her. That had taken all of his savings, and some more money he borrowed from his fellow crewmen.

They teased him with no mercy at all about that, too.

+++

The marriage was a fairly large event, Sandy had far more friends than he did there. Jim had noticed that, Sandy was the type of person that attracted people.

The reception was quite a party, over a hundred people were there.

One young man came up to her and smiled, claiming his opportunity to kiss the bride. Jim felt a pang of irritation when she willingly tipped her head up, since he did know the man at all. But he did manage to control that, when the same thing happened a couple more times he had enough and told her it was time to go.

"There sure seems to be a lot of guys wanting to kiss you." Jim muttered with some irritation to her when they got in the car.

"Oh, it's just part of the ritual, it's nothing. They are just friends, guys I knew before I met you." She told him, picking up on his upset.

Jim pouted briefly but managed to control his emotions.

By the time they got to the beach resort they had booked for their honeymoon, all of that was forgotten.

Their first night as man and wife was an event in itself, they both had deliberately ceased having sex for over a week, wanting the night to be special.

Special it was, Sandy recreated their very first night together, to Jim it was just like that.

The next morning they headed down to breakfast, when they stepped into the lobby he noticed the light coming in from outside outlined her body for a moment beneath the rather shapeless pull over dress she wore.

"Where is your bra?" He asked, looking around quickly. No one seemed to have noticed.

"I didn't want to wear one, we are on vacation?" She told him, giving him a questioning look.

"Anyone can see right through that thing." He told her.

"I'm sorry, I didn't realize. Do you want me to go change?" She asked, still giving him a questioning look.

"No. It's all right, we will just stay out of the sunlight." Jim told her, steering her to a table far away from the windows.

Later on, they went for a long walk on the beach. Sandy had changed into her one piece swim suit, and had a long flowing wrap over it.

As they walked down the beach, a couple they spotted lay on blankets under an umbrella. The woman lay on her stomach, her suit was pulled down to completely bare her back.

"Hey, check that out." Sandy nudged Jim with a giggle. Jim glanced over, the woman was pretty and well built and seemed unconcerned about showing so much flesh.

"That's a bit much for a public beach." Jim told her.

Again Sandy looked at him oddly, but she didn't say anything. She had some plans on doing a bit of topless sunbathing herself but now she thought better of that.

Jim appeared to be a little possessive and she didn't want to do anything to upset him.

In the first year of their marriage, there were a few incidents similar. She saw his face darken once at a nightclub when a man named Carl that she knew from high school asked her to dance.

Not thinking, she hopped up to dance with him. It was a fast song, Carl was a high school friend so she thought nothing of it.

When the next song was a slower tune, it was natural for her to slip into his arms as they chatted about some hilarious things that had happened back in their school days.

Jim appeared to be mildly angry when her friend led her back to their table.

"What?" She asked him, surprised at his obvious reaction.

"You sure seemed to enjoy yourself with that guy." Jim growled.

"That's Carl, I know him from high school. He is a funny guy, we were just good friends." She protested.

"I will just bet. I don't like you snuggling up to some other guy, especially an old boy friend!" Jim growled.

"But it was just a dance, he took me to a party once is all. He isn't an old boyfriend!" Sandy protested.

"Besides, Carl would like you a lot better than me. He told me I was lucky, that you are really pretty!" She added with a titter.

"Pretty?....Oh." Was all Jim said, then the uncomfortable moment passed.

Sandy was well aware now that her husband Jim had a jealous streak, so she began to be careful.

Sandy was happy with Jim for the most part, he worked hard and always came home on time. He was also very good to her, except for the rare times something like her dancing with Carl happened.

That moment had been uncomfortable for her, but she thought perhaps it was her own fault. She should have told Jim that Carl was gay, but she had been so excited to see him, they had been great friends in school.

Still, life was fine. Jim even shared all of the household chores, together they kept a perfect home.

The one thing her husband could do was cook, very seldom was any meal he prepared boring.

So her life with her man was mostly wonderful. He was an attentive lover, taking care to assure her pleasure. Without fail if anything needed to be done, he joined right in, assisting with the dishes, even the laundry.

His only flaws were not liking some of her outfits, that bothered her because she loved to dress in pretty things, she was proud of her figure and worked out regularly to keep it.

That and she needed to be careful with their male friends, so she always now kept them at arm's length.

The easy kisses on the cheek, the hugs she liked with close friends were given up, it was easier that way.

She also never mentioned anything about her earlier experiences. A few of her dates had ended with experiments in sex, and she loved that part when it was with a man she really liked.

Those experiments with sex were not a lot, not compared to some of her girl friends. The late sixties had brought an easiness about things like that, sex between friends was more normal than not.

Sandy had always been cautious, always waiting to think at least she knew a potential partner before giving them a try.

The newness was exciting to her, but most always seemed rushed.

There had been nothing rushed about Jim at all.

Jim had been perfect in that department, that first time with him was nearly enough all by itself. No one else had even come close to making her feel like that except for one.

If Jim had simply claimed her, asked her, she would have said yes, but he didn't. Men sometimes just wanted one thing, and she knew that very well. He almost did that first time, but there was no followup.

She had been so sad to see him go, thinking that was probably the end.

Then came the letters, by the time he was back Sandy was completely lost in this man.

Jim never asked her about any of her relationships though, so she did not volunteer.

She also never asked him, either.

Their complete knowledge of each other was the only thing that was not perfect.

No marriage is ever completely perfect, Sandy told herself.

+++

Sandy was good at cooking herself, and for fun they always took turns trying to outdo each other.

Jim was hoping she would like his newest recipe, a meat loaf with nearly every vegetable one could think of, in the center several layers of their favorite cheeses. He had carefully cut small pieces of the most tender portion of a T-bone steak, pan fried those and blended them into the dish before baking it.

The smell was delicious, Jim could hardly wait for his wife to get home and try it. He had just decided on some fresh Broccoli to steam with a white sauce to pour over it when the phone rang.

He set the meat loaf on a wooden cutting board to cool and grabbed the phone.

+++

"This is Sergeant Miller, Oregon State Police." the voice said.

Jim listened, then he was out the door and into his truck as fast as he could go.

That damned tiny little car, a Honda 600 Sandy had insisted on buying! It had earned the nickname "Apple Crate", it was orange and ugly. Jim didn't like it, the thing would become a volley ball in any kind of accident.

Which was exactly what had happened. Sandy had pulled out around a big truck that was stopped at a light, as she moved over into the left turn lane a Ford Fairlane was turning left across her path and cut the corner, hitting her head on.

The other driver had been looking over his right shoulder to assure no one was coming, so he never even touched the brakes.

The Fairlane had a dented left front fender, hood buckled up and the bumper twisted back but that was all. Her tiny little car was nearly destroyed, ending up on it's top on the other side of two oncoming lanes of traffic in a ditch.

The impact was severe enough that it even broke the back of the seat. Why she was not killed outright was amazing.

It did register on Jim to wonder why she was at that intersection, nearly four miles on the other side of the clinic she worked at and headed back towards it. Plus it was not quite 5 PM, she got off work at 5 PM?

Jim was aware of that jealous streak in him and did try to control it. Things like Sandy dancing with someone to a slow tune irritated him, or another man paying a bit too much attention to her could get him to interrupt them.

So her being somewhere she was not supposed to be made him wonder, but right then Jim was more concerned about how badly she was injured.

+++

"Please have a seat, we will have a Social Worker come out to talk to you." the receptionist told him.

"Social Worker?"

That did not help at all, he was thinking that she was badly hurt or even dead? For nearly a half hour he sat there, barely containing his panic.

Finally, mercifully, a woman arrived and took him back into the trauma center.

Things did not look good at all, she lay there under a sheet as several people worked on her. Jim reached out and took her hand, she looked up at him with glassy eyes, her face pale.

She tried to talk but the words came out strange, slurred.

It was clear that they had her under some kind of medication. He could see the wrappings on her right wrist, looking down he saw the tubing and bag protruding from underneath the thin sheet, and knew they had inserted a catheter.

There were no cuts on her face but she was badly swollen. He could see that she would have two black eyes, and the right side of her face was very puffy, an angry red color.

Then two young men came in, flipped the wheels down on the cart she was lying on and whisked her away.

"Something going on there and we need to take a look." A matronly nurse told him gently.

All Jim could do was sit there and wait.

+++

Finally an older Doctor came in and talked to him.

"It could be worse, your wife has both ankles broken, bruised ribs, and some small bleeding outside of her brain. Her wrist is broken also, she is scheduled for surgery on that. Bleeding is our worry, there are signs of blood inside the skull which is toxic to the brain, but it looks like that should clear up on it's own. I am afraid that it's going to be a long time before she does any walking." He said.

Jim nodded.

"How long before I can take her home?" He asked.

"A couple of weeks at least, maybe longer. They are also operating on her right leg this evening, we are going to have to pin that, then she will need some full time care in rehab. After that, perhaps a wheelchair will do it. You need to make arrangements to get your home ready for wheelchair access if it's needed."

Jim nodded again. He knew this was going to mean some serious changes at home, it would be at least six weeks if not longer before Sandy would be up and around.

He asked to go in to see her, but they had her out cold, there was a slight swelling in her brain that the Doctor said should clear up in a day or so.

"We don't want to take any chances with things like this." He said.

Jim drove down to the storage yard to look at her car. Perhaps he should not have, from the looks of things no human being came out of that alive. Then he saw where the metal had been cut away to get her out of the thing, he shuddered at the thought. There was barely enough room in the driver's seat for her small body, he remembered trying to drive the car himself months before and it was impossible to fit his 6' 2" frame in there with any comfort at all.

On the way home Jim decided that her next car would be 40 feet long, gas mileage be damned. Maybe even a huge Dodge truck like the one he drove.

+++

Every day he went to the hospital, Sandy showed rather rapid improvement. An older female nurse hand fed her at first when he was there. By the 3rd day the bleeding had cleared up, she was feeding herself with her good left hand. Even that was a struggle, it was badly swollen.

"Hi, honey!" She smiled brightly when he walked in. She was sitting up, this time a young man in a blue nurse's uniform was sitting behind her brushing her hair.

That gave him a bit of a start.

It struck Jim that all Sandy had on was one of these flowery hospital gowns, her back was completely bare.

"This is Mike, he is one of my other nurses." She told him, still smiling.

Jim nodded to the man, he got up and excused himself, leaving the room.

Sandy appeared to be completely unconcerned about her partial nudity in front of the guy, the gown she had on was completely open at the back, simply tugged over her shoulders.

"Boy, they wait on you hand and foot around here, I see?" He cracked, intending it as a joke.

"Yes, they do actually. Mike is on from 6 in the morning until 6 at night, then Jerry comes in. I haven't met the ones that are on shift when they are off yet."

"Male nurses, huh?"

"Yes, cute ones, too!" She giggled at that. "You already met Jackie, she is off for a couple of days.

"But they are just nurses. Like me." Sandy added quickly, catching the expression on Jim's face.

"The world is changing I see, I remember nurses all used to be little old ladies."

"Most of them still are, but we have two male nurses at the clinic, also." She added.

Jim didn't know that either, it had never come up. He knew that all Sandy did every day was assist on physicals, and do evaluations for the Health Maintenance group she worked for as a nurse herself.

He asked her what she remembered from the accident, she told him just a flash of blue color, then everything went black.

"What in the world were you doing way out there, anyway?" He asked her. She hesitated slightly, like she was trying to remember.

"I needed some new leggings, you know, the white kind we wear at work? So I drove over to the mall." She said.

"Oh. I would have thought you would do that on your lunch break?"

"It wasn't busy at the clinic so I asked for the afternoon off."

They chatted for a couple of hours, then the man she called Mike came in.

"It's close to visiting hours being over, sir. She needs to get some rest, and we need to bathe her before she sleeps."

"OK." Jim gave Sandy a kiss, then headed home.

The idea of the man bathing his wife popped into his head, but he shook that off, after all, he was just a nurse. Then he thought about what she had said, she went shopping for leggings? But there weren't any in the car, or in any of the few things the tow company had handed him?

Something didn't seem right to him.

The possibles flowed through his thoughts, but Sandy had never shown even the slightest signs of doing something like having an affair?

That was impossible. But she was where she was not supposed to be, and now he knew that some of her fellow workers were men.

Bad thoughts began to creep into his mind.

With Jim at his own job all day, there was no way to know what happened at her place of work. The thought would not fade away, it made him toss and turn that night.

It was all still in his head the next day at work, that evening Sandy was dozing when he arrived, so he just sat with her.

Finally she opened her eyes, smiled at him.

"How are you doing, babe?" He asked her as she struggled to sit up. He found the controller, pushed the button to tilt her upwards.

The sheet and the blanket slipped down when he did that, she reached down and tugged it up with her left hand, wincing at a short stab of pain.

She was nude.

"Where is your gown?" He asked her, startled.

"I took it off, it kept bunching up and making it hard for me to sleep."

"Oh. It's just that with all these guys around....?"

"The nurses? That's nothing, Jerry came in and removed the catheter the other night so it's not like I have any secrets." She let out a small giggle, then quickly stifled that.

Jim felt the flash of anger at that. One of the male nurses had removed her catheter? That meant he had seen her most intimate parts.

"I see. But how do you...?" He asked, being careful to try and hide his upset.

He glanced over at the tiny plastic shower and bathroom stall.

"Use the bathroom? They pick me up and put me in the chair, then move me in there."

Then she saw the expression on his face.

"They give me a big towel or slide the gown over me, honey, it's not like I am naked when they do that." Sandy looked at Jim, she could tell he was trying to hide his upset.

"I guess it's no big thing, I am sure they are all used to dealing with people in your situation?" Jim asked, still not liking the idea of young males working with his wife.

"I'm sure. We all are, I see things every single day at work so I've just gotten used to it. It is different from this side though. So how is everything at home, and at work?" She asked, changing the subject.

"Fine there, I did go in to your work, they understand and said your job is there when you get better. Plus you have medical leave built up anyway, and the insurance company will send some checks."

"That's good."

The rest was just small talk about the insurance and then later the nurse named Mike came in with some food. She began to eat, holding the sheet in place with her right elbow. The left side slipped down, baring one breast for an instant. She tugged it back up but it slipped right back down.

Mike reached down and lifted the sheet over her nearly bare breasts, adjusted it around her back, tying a simple knot so it would stay. Then he nodded to Jim and left.

"Man, they sure aren't too concerned about modesty around here, are they?" He said, mildly irritated at the male nurse just reaching around her and covering up her partially naked breasts.

"No reason to be, it's just a job." She looked at him with a smile. Jim had not reacted that she could see, so she relaxed. Surely he understood about things like that, after all, she witnessed various stages of nudity every single day at her own work.

All of that was just bodies, human beings, none of that ever gave her a single serious thought.

After another hour or so of visiting, Sandy told him she needed to use the bathroom.