The Marine & The Beauty Queen Ch. 05

We made our way back to the cabin, then Susan went back out to the creek to get some of the canned drinks she had put in the creek to cool. No sooner had she left than I grabbed her medical kit and found a bottle of aspirin. I shook two out, then as a blinding bolt of pain went through my head, shook out two more, then another.

I dry-swallowed all five pills.

When Susan came back, she suggested I lay down for a rest while she warmed up some food. I actually think I dozed off for about 15 minutes, and when she woke me up I felt much better. The headache was now just a dull pain, and my joints felt better.

Although I wasn't really hungry, I forced myself to eat most of a steak, and a pork chop, along with some potatoes. I was almost ravenously thirsty, and quickly downed two cokes and a beer. God, beer tastes so much better when it is cold!

Susan was standing at the sink, cleaning up the dishes when I hobbled up behind her, reached around and started unbuttoning her blouse. I slipped a hand inside and cupped her breast (she wasn't wearing a bra), and started playing with her nipple.

She turned around and reached down and started rubbing my penis through my shorts. A few minutes later we were both naked, and back in bed and Susan was on top with my penis buried inside her. This time, she held me while she lowered herself onto me.

By the time I had cum, Susan must have had four or five orgasms, and just collapsed on top of me with her breasts pressed against my chest.

Soon, Susan was snoring gently into my ear. I thought it was so sweet to hear her snore!

Before long, I joined her in slumber.

I woke up about an hour later with the most incredible sensation! As I looked down, Susan was kneeling beside me, with my now hard penis deep in her mouth. Her beautiful tight butt was just a few inches away from my shoulder, so I took one hand and started rubbing her between her legs.

She moaned. I reached out with my other hand and moved her thigh over to the other side of my head, and soon my tongue was deep inside her as well.

We 69'ed until we both had incredible orgasms.

Susan again lay down beside me, with her head on my shoulder and we drifted off to sleep together.

We slept for about two hours, and when we woke up it was nearly 8 pm. Susan got up and started the fire again, and closed the windows. It was getting a little chilly, and the fire quickly heated up the room. Susan again washed herself in front of me, then dumped the water and refilled both bowls before she had me walk over to the table when she washed me completely.

Unlike early this morning, this time she did not hesitate to wash all of me, and was soon sucking me deep into her throat. I soon filled her mouth with cum, then had Susan back up on the table where I tried to bring her just as pleasure as she had brought to me. After she had a half-dozen orgasms I was hard again, and I was deep inside her making love once more.

By now, it was about 10 pm on Saturday night and Susan and I went back to bed.

That was pretty much the last thing I remember until I woke up back in the hospital.

I was alone in the room, and I had IV's in both arms, I could feel a catheter in my penis, and my right leg was elevated, in traction, about six inches off the bed. I lay there, trying to make sense of how I had gotten back here, and what was going on, but finally decided to simply buzz for a nurse.

It couldn't have been more than 15 or 20 seconds before the door burst open and two nurses rushed in. One of the nurses was Debra.

"Thank God, you're awake," Debra said.

I tried to talk, but my throat was so dry I couldn't speak. Debra poured some water for me, then held the cup while I drank through a straw.

"What . . . What is going on Debra?" I finally managed to ask.

"Well, obviously you know who I am, and I assume you know where you are?" Debra asked.

"Yes, hospital, Corpus Christi," I answered.

"Do you know what day it is?" she asked.

I thought for a minute. The last thing I remembered was falling asleep with Susan Saturday night.

"Uh, Sunday?" I ventured.

"Today is Wednesday," Debra answered. "You have been unconscious since Sunday."

Four days? I had been unconscious for four days?

Suddenly I panicked!

"Susan! Where's Susan?" I cried out, trying to struggle to sit up.

Debra and the other nurse both had to push me back down, and I didn't stop struggling until Debra told me that Susan was fine, and would be back in a few minutes. She had gone to her apartment to take a bath and change clothes.

I actually began to cry. For a minute I thought something had happened to her, and the absolute relief at hearing she was alright was overwhelming.

"I don't understand, what happened? How did I lose four days?" I questioned.

Debra explained that Susan had been sleeping, and dreaming she was in a sauna. Suddenly she woke up, and reached over to touch my face, and almost had to jerk her hand back I was so hot.

She jumped up, grabbed her medical kit and managed to take my temperature.

"You were registering 105 degrees," Debra. "106 can be fatal, and 105 can actually cause brain damage.

"That's why I was so relieved that you knew who I was, and where you were," she said.

"Susan ran some cold water and began putting cold cloths all over you. She also managed to get you to swallow some aspirin, and soon your temperature begin to fall," she continued.

Susan had checked my bandages and notice some blood on the bandages so she had removed those.

"Your knee was swollen and bleeding, and had some pus leaking out. Susan cleaned your knee and put fresh bandages on, then gave you a couple of shots of antibiotics. The antibiotics, plus getting your temperature down, saved your life."

"She correctly diagnosed that you had a staph infection in the knee, and while in rare cases staph infection can cause a high fever, she felt it was too soon for that high a fever to develop."

Debra continued that after the fever came down, I would alternate between being semi-lucid and moments of being very disoriented. During the lucid moments Susan found out that while in Iraq I had been struck by what had first been called Blackwater Fever, but they later found out was simply malaria.

"Yes, I had a mild case of malaria," I admitted. "At first I was amazed, since I thought malaria was something you only caught in jungle like conditions, from mosquitoes. Iraq was about as un-jungle like as you could imagine."

Debra said Susan correctly surmised that the staph infection had weakened my body's immune system to the point that when I became sick with a full-blown attack of malaria, it totally overwhelmed my system.

"I do have to say congratulations on one thing," Debra said with a grin. "Susan said every time you became disoriented that you started calling for her, and when she held you and told you she was there you started saying 'I love you Susan, I love you.'"

I didn't say anything for a moment, then grinned and said: "Well thank God for that. That I was calling Susan's name! Can you imagine if instead I had been calling 'Debra, Debra, I love you,' then Susan would have learned all about our ongoing affair!"

Debra's mouth actually dropped open, and for one brief instant the look of absolute stunned disbelief on her face was worth all the additional torture they would probably inflect on me once I started physical therapy again.

The other nurse burst out laughing like a hyena. At least until a now recovered Debra cast a baleful look at her, then the other nurse remembered that she had something else to do for another patient. She was still snickering as the left the room, and we could hear her occasionally laugh out loud as she walked down the hall.

Debra then turned her baleful look upon me and said, "I think we really need to check for possible brain damage!"

Then Debra smiled brightly at me (I had a sudden chill) and asked if I would be interested in saving the government some money?

Very cautiously I asked, "How?"

"When Susan comes back, just say something else about comparing her weight to mine. If she doesn't kill you outright, then I will finish off what little is left!" she declared with an evil grin.

"Susan . . . Susan told you about that?" I asked, very softly.

"She told me everything. EVERYTHING!" Debra answered, "including what you were doing when you said it . . . Mr. Super Stud!"

I could feel my face turn bright red.

"She told me WAY more than I wanted to hear, but at least it was better than seeing her crying her eyes out and blaming herself for almost killing you," Debra added.

"Susan is blaming herself?" I asked, and the shock must have been evident in my voice.

Debra explained that Susan kept saying that after four years of medical school, she should have realized my knee was infected Saturday morning, and not swollen from overexertion either during physical therapy, or from our activities Friday night. And how when she saw how pale I was, and how thirsty I was she should have known I was having an attack of malaria.

"I keep telling her that no one, not me, not a doctor, no one could have known, but she keeps blaming herself," Debra added. "The only time I can get her to stop tormenting herself is when she is telling me about how incredible you are in bed . . . or on the kitchen table."

"She said I was incredible?" I asked, with a huge smile.

"Oh God, definite brain damage," she exclaimed.

"Did you know that for the first two days she would not leave your side for a second, except to use the restroom? She even insisted on having her meals here. It wasn't until we had hospital security come in and threaten to arrest her that she would even go to the cafeteria. She has skipped school for three days now.

"Her father came in this morning, and when he saw her he threatened to throw her over his shoulder and take her to her apartment so she could take a shower and change clothes. I actually thought she was going to hit him she was so mad. He finally convinced her that if you woke up and saw her the way she was looking this morning, the shock would send you back into unconsciousness and even kill you.

"They've been gone for an hour, and should be back any minute now," Debra said.

Just about then, the door flew open and Susan entered the room, but she didn't look over at me.

Instead, she started talking to Debra: "What's going on with Charlene? She is laughing like a hyena, and every time I ask her what is going on, all she does is say, 'Debra, Debra, I love you,' then starts laughing even harder."

"Ask your idiot boyfriend there, because I am going to go kill a nurse," Debra declared, as she stormed out of the room.

As the meaning of Debra's words became clear to her, especially the part about "ask your idiot boyfriend," Susan turned to look at me.

When she saw me grinning at her, and I held my arms out, she practically flew across the hospital room.

She was laughing and crying, but most importantly, kissing me over and over and over. Of course, I was doing all those things as well!

Before long, though, Susan stopped kissing me, than a look of almost despair came over her as she started crying in earnest.

"You could have died. And it would have been my fault," she sobbed.

I tried repeatedly to tell her how wrong she was, but it wasn't until I grabbed her shoulders and literally shook her that she finally began listening to me.

"I didn't tell you that my knee had starting getting worse Friday morning. And I didn't tell you how much it was hurting by Friday night. And I didn't tell you how Saturday afternoon, when you asked about my knee and I said it was better . . . well it actually did feel better but I didn't tell you that my other knee was hurting, along with my hips, back, shoulders and even my elbows.

"When you said I was looking pale, I joked about it, but I didn't tell you how much worse I felt in all my joints, and I didn't tell you how much my head hurt. And I mean, really hurt.

"When you went to get the drinks out of the creek, I didn't tell you I took five aspirin. And after I woke up, I really did feel better. For a while.

"The fact is Susan, you saved my life despite my not telling you how I felt. You saved my life Susan. You! You did it, no one else."

Even though both Susan and I knew it was against hospital rules, she climbed into bed with me. Of course we had to be careful because of the maze of tubes running all around me.

"You scared me to death, Dennis. I thought . . . thought you were going to die," Susan said, tears still running down her face.

"From now on, if you know what is good for you, you will tell me EVERYTHING, even if you have a hang-nail," she said.

I told her I would, then I found myself drifting back to sleep, content because the woman I loved was with me.

We actually slept together all night. I later found out that nurses came in several times to check on me, but just let Susan sleep, knowing she had gotten virtually no sleep since early Sunday morning.

Thursday morning Debra brought breakfast in for both of us, and made Susan get up since the doctor would be making his rounds soon.

When the doctor came in, he checked my knee, then explained they actually had to reopen the knee to treat the infection directly, thus I would soon have to start my entire physical therapy sessions over again. As you can imagine, I was thrilled to hear that -- NOT!

After the doctor left, Susan filled in the details Debra had left out.

"I don't understand Susan. I weigh at least 70 pounds more than you. How did you get me through the caves to the four-wheeler? And how did you ever get me on the four-wheeler?"

Susan just shook her head.

"I honestly don't know," she said, "I just knew that if I didn't, then you were going to die. My cell phone wouldn't work that far out, and I knew you would die if I didn't get you back. I couldn't leave you there, because your temperature could have started going up again."

Susan said she did remember tying me to the four-wheeler, using rope from her saddle, looping the rope around my upper thighs. Then she sat in front of me, and tied my hands together, in front of her stomach.

She couldn't drive too fast, since I could still fall off despite the rope around my legs. And if I had started falling, I would probably have pulled her off as well. And yet, she couldn't go too slowly, since she knew how desperately I needed advanced medical attention.

The worse time was when she had to stop to open the gates. She was terrified I would fall off, and she didn't think she would be able to get me back on the four-wheeler. Once she had a gate open, she just left it.

By the time she reached the final gate, she was close enough for her cell phone to work, so she called her father and had him call an ambulance. She told him to instruct them I had both a staph infection, and was a recently returned Iraqi veteran, suffering from a full-blown malaria attack.

The ranch was so far out, by the time she was driving up, the ambulance was just arriving. They immediately started IV's, plus gave me much stronger antibiotics than Susan had in her medical kit. Susan rode with me first to the nearest hospital.

"I told them I was your wife, and a nurse, so they let me stay with you," she said.

I told her if I had my way, she would soon be both!

She laughed and kissed me. I think that meant she agreed!

Once I was stabilized, she then rode with me in another ambulance back to Corpus Christi where Debra had a team waiting on me.

The rest I knew.

When it was lunch time, Charlene the "other nurse" brought our plates in. As soon as she saw me, Charlene began to laugh, and when Susan asked her why she just shook her head and laughed some more.

After she left, I told Susan what I had said about 'Debra, Debra, I love you,' and our supposed affair. And about the incredible, stunned look on Debra's face!

Susan started laughing so hard she was crying.

"I can't believe someone hasn't killed you by now," she said.

As we were lying together that night, on the hospital bed, I suddenly remembered what John had said to me on the four-wheeler, as we were getting ready to go to the Canyon for the first time.

"Susan, do you remember when we were leaving the ranch, you were getting on your horse and John shook my hand then leaned over and said something to me?"

"Oh, yea, I meant to ask you what he said?" she answered.

I told her John said he knew I loved you, but "be gentle. She has secrets she thinks Debra and I don't know about."

Susan turned pale.

"You think he knows, that he and Debra know about . . ." she couldn't finished the sentence.

"About Chicago?" I deflected the answer and Susan gave me a smile of relief and nodded her head.

"I don't know. But you might have underestimated just how much they love you," I said.

Usually, by now, at the end of visiting hours Susan would leave and go back to her apartment and get ready for school the next day. That night, however, she slept with me again.

It was another week before I became ambulatory again, meaning Susan could push me around in a wheelchair. We resumed our walks and talks around the hospital.

By now, Susan had resumed her studies, but every day she was back with me by 1 pm.

Then one day, about three weeks later, Debra, Susan and my doctor came to see me.

To make a long story short, my knee would never be the same. Too much damage, even without the staph infection. And the Marines really didn't need men who could not physically perform their duties.

The Marines offered, and I accepted, a 30 percent disability. It took about a month to process the paperwork, and I continued my physical therapy. But finally the day came when I received my discharge, and was also released from the hospital.

I walked out . . . well limped out . . . of the hospital a freshly-discharged Marine, and a now-unemployed civilian. Not that I didn't have prospects.

During my final three weeks in the hospital, Susan would take me to the ranch on the weekends, and John and I started having long talks about the different farm equipment I had operated.

At one point he asked me if I had ever operated any heavy earth-moving equipment, and I explained that I had spent two summers after high school graduation working for a construction firm that cleared land, and graded it for Wal-Mart stores throughout the South.

I regularly operated bulldozers, graders, back-hoes, compactors, etc. He started asking specific questions about some of the equipment and I explained as best I could remember.

The next weekend, when Susan and I pulled up, John had a bulldozer sitting beside the house. He had also constructed an obstacle course for me to navigate through, and had staked out an area about three bulldozer blades wide, and about 300 feet long.

My challenge was to make my way through the obstacle course, without tearing anything up, then level the ground in the staked area to a uniform depth. No inclines or depressions, and the most important thing was it be as flat as possible through the entire area.

I hadn't driven a bulldozers in several years, so John let me practice for a while. Apparently, I passed because John said after my discharge he wanted to have a serious talk with me.

One month after my discharge, Susan received her nursing degree. Two weeks later, we were married. When I was discharged, I received part of my disability pay as a lump-sum payment, plus got paid for my unused vacation time. And while in the hospital for the past several months I had spent virtually no money, so, with the addition of some savings I had, I actually had about $45,000.

Susan and I spent two weeks on a Caribbean cruise, then another week in Rosewood Canyon.