The Recovery Plan

Warning; This erotica has a lot of build-up, character development, and is an emotional roller-coaster based loosely on my own life. It contains themes and such that could be triggering to victims of physical and emotional trauma, and the sex is not til the end. Reader discretion advised. Hopefully, the wait is worth the ride.

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PROLOGUE

"Of all the fucking luck," Lani cursed loudly. Not that anyone could hear her, high up on Grouse Mountain, hiking a small trail.

The very unladylike curse was due to the pissing downpour that seemed to spring up from nowhere, and her Jeep was a good 45 minutes back down the hill. She was already drenched, her flannel shirt clinging to her body like a wrinkled second skin. She muttered curses under her breath, as if suddenly shy of being overhead. Then she remembered how alone she was and screamed a loud angry "FUCK!!!" straight up into the sky as she jogged onto a side trail that lead into the think pine wood that covered Grouse, hoping to find some shelter from the flooding showers. As she found a tree to hide under, she had little to do but think.

As she pulled an extra shirt out of her pack to try to keep warm, she thought back over her life, trying to figure out where she lost control of everything...

*** Eight Months Ago ***

Lani was a beautiful honey brown brunette, in very good shape from daily gym visits, a modest five feet three, with a c cup bosom. Sadly she also had a severe type A personality. She found herself with a heart condition at only 26, the result of a hugely OCD work ethic. In her young life, in just the three years since graduated UBC with a Masters in accounting, she had risen through the ranks of her firm to a very high-paying position, peer respect, and a corner office.

Until she terrified her secretary and all the girls on her floor by collapsing outside the boardroom after a meeting to land a very lucrative client, in the grip of the youngest aged heart attack her firm had ever seen. An ambulance was called as her boss and her secretary sat with her, both very panicked. As the EMTS arrived, they both rode with her. Her boss, Gerald Briggs, tried his best to stay calm as he called Lani's mother, who was out of province on business. Her secretary, Gina, squeezed Lani's hand as she drifted in and out of consciousness.

Gerald and Gina could do little else but wait as Lani was in surgery. They hadn't spoken often, as he usually only dealt with the higher ups on staff in his own department, but Gina knew why he'd come here, or at least she thought she did.

He caught her her staring at his wedding band, and broke the tense silence with a laugh.

"No Miss Graves," he said suddenly, "I'm not having an affair with her."

"Oh Mister Briggs I didn't think-" she stammered.

"Yes you did," he smiled. "Everyone does. I suppose it's flattering. It bothers Allana but since she works so damned hard she at least knows no one thinks she only got promoted on her back."

"But then," Gina asked, "Why are you here if she's not your Mistress?"

"She's become like a daughter to me," he replied quite matter-of-factly.

He told Gina about the day Lani and he had become close. It was after a late board meeting. He had never really discussed his loss of eight years ago with his staff, but that night had been the fifth anniversary of the car crash that took his wife and daughter, and as Lani was packing up folders, she turned to bid him goodnight and found herself hugged.

Her first instinct was to scream sexual harassment until she heard him crying. She gently pushed him out of the hug and led him to a chair, bringing him water. He composed himself, though he still cried quietly. He apologized to her for his outburst, and explain to her about his loss. He had told her he was depressed that day to begin with, and she reminded him so much of Cheryl, his bright beautiful daughter who was killed at only fifteen.

He then said he would understand if she wanted to find other employment after his outburst, but she instead just hugged him and told him about her father. He'd had colon cancer, and died only three days before her graduation from UBC.

Over the past three years they had became very close. He transferred her to his partner's department to avoid conflict of interest because he just wanted to spoil her. Because of this, everyone knew her promotions were earned. Besides, no one doubted it anyway, no one else busted their ass like Lani did.

And all that ass-busting soon had her laying on a hospital bed with a stitched up incision on her chest, barely able to move, with her substitute father figure trembling at the foot of her bed. Gina stayed long enough to see that she was okay and left to fill in her co-workers, who by now had filled up the waiting room in concern.

Gerald sat quietly, tears in his eyes. He squeezed Lani's hand gently, not moving from her side. After an hour he felt her fingers weakly squeeze back, and he looked up. Her eyes were open, just barely, and she tried to move but couldn't.

"You're in the hospital Allana," he said calmly, though his eyes were still wet. "A private room at St. Paul's. You had a heart attack. The surgeon said your coronary artery temporarily contracted and went into a severe spasm, mostly likely due to the horrible overstressing of your heart. They operated and conducted a bypass. The surgeon said that artery is too damaged, they had to bypass it.... at 26 you just had a goddamn bypass to save your life..."

He broke down then, crying, seated at the foot of her bed. She wanted to hug him, feeling guilty that the man who'd filled the emptiness her father's death left, sat weeping because of her. But as weak as she was, all she could do was watch him cry.

"I can't Allana," He choked out. "I can't. Not again. I let you in, I love you like I fathered you myself. I can't go through that pain again."

"I'm... sorry," she whispered hoarsely, her throat dry from the morphine. He fed her a few ice chips, tenderly, with fatherly concern.

"I know you are," he said, composing himself. "But you're so driven. I've warned you, the company physician has warned you. Your mother has warned you. Even your staff has tried to warn you. I mean my god Allana! A healthy twenty-six year old woman should not EVER be having a bypass operation. You were this close to being a corpse!"

Lani just nodded and cried. She knew she overworked herself. Filling her life with work dulled the ache. It kept her from dwelling on her first great hurt.

She'd only fallen in love once, in high school. With the captainess of the cheerleading squad. Or so she thought. After months of build-up, stolen kisses in equipment closets and library rows, hings went to hell at prom, as pictures of her kissing a girl were plastered on the gym wall in a slide show, which the chaperones didn't get turned off near fast enough.

The girl and her boyfriend were expelled in grad year for perpetuating such a stunt didn't ease the ache. So like all hurt teenagers with a broken heart, Lani had sworn to never love again.

Well, that was the official story anyway.

Eight years later she'd succeeded in keeping that promise, and her method of doing so had nearly killed her.

Mister Briggs squeezed her hand.

"Allana," he said sternly, "at the company physician's express medical order, seconded by the surgeon who cut you open, and agreed upon by every single person in my employ, I'm putting you on one year of paid medical leave. You are not to set foot in the office until next March. You're going to learn how to relax, maybe even catch your breath every so often. I want you going to cozy relaxing restaurants. You're to go the movies AT LEAST twice per month. You will eat no less than one tub of ice cream every weekend watching no less than 4 hours of mindless TV."

She tried to lift her head to protest, but he stopped her, just as her mother arrived. Betty Lenton was irritated to say the least, and very afraid of what she almost lost. The still-attractive 45 year old blond greeted her beau with a hug, having been dating Gerald for little under a year. Then she took the chair beside Lani's head, opposite Gerald. She squeezed Lani's hand, just as the combination of exhaustion and pain medication put Lani back into unconsciousness.

"How long?" she asked Gerald, trying but failing to hide the anger and sadness in her voice.

"Nine and a half hours," he replied. "God Betty, Doctor Morrow said she had the heart of a 55 year old Wall Street stockbroker."

Betty sat by her daughter's side, stroking her hair. She hadn't yet actually looked at Gerald despite the hug, and when she did she saw the legal notice in Gerald's hand and snatched it.

"Oh dear Gerald," she protested, reading quickly. "You KNOW she'll fight this dear. She's so type A, she needs to have at least a little work or she'll go crazy. Can't you just give her severely limited workloads?"

He sighed.

"I suppose I can love," he replied, reaching over to squeeze her hand. "I just don't want her in the office, she'll never attend her doctor ordered counselling and work will keep sucking her back in. I'd have to fire her, and then you might stop dating me."

Betty kissed him, and looked back down at Lani, who had introduced him over dinner the night after their good cry in the office over lost family.

"Never going to happen Gerald," Betty said assuredly. "You're the best thing to happen to both of us in four years. You've beautifully filled a deep empty space both of us had after Micheal died, and I know we've done the same for you. I'm forever grateful she decided to bring you to dinner that night, but right now she has to come first. What can we do to get her to slow her life down a little? I can't bear the thought of losing her."

Gerald squeezed Betty's hand again and looked at his future stepdaughter. His mind raced, searching for possibilities. Then his mind flashed back to the day before, at the meeting just before Lani collapsed, and the lucrative client Lani helped nail down for the firm. The client, a shy young woman who was filthy rich after a successful lawsuit, had been looking at Lani intently throughout the meeting, and seemed to show genuine concern when Lani fell. In fact the woman had knelt at her side until the paramedics arrived, holding Lani's hand and offering words of encouragement.

"I'll let her handle the Sobreviviente account," he said. "Melanie is a low maintenance client. She's a very nice young lady, quiet and soft-spoken. She's not at all demanding, and won't require Lani to work too hard, but she's important enough a client that Lani's need to work should be satisfied. At least enough that she has time and the willingness to go to her counseling, and do lots of relaxing things. I think they'd work well together. Melanie asked about her today at the office before I left to come here."

Betty scrunched her face a moment.

"You don't mean the frail doe-eyed blond girl who acts like all her money is a curse, do you?" she asked.

"Yes," He said. "She's a very sweet person. Lani might even come to be friends with her. Why do you know her?"

Betty sighed.

"Yes," she replied. "We met last week over lunch when Lani was talking to her about how your firm would keep her money well-managed. She spent most of the lunch nodding, with her head down. She acted as if afraid of randomly being hit, and kept looking at Lani with a look that..."

She trailed off into silence for a minute, pondering. Then she smiled, just a little, creasing the corner of her mouth, and looked back at Gerald.

"Do you remember what I told you about her senior year Gerry?" she asked. He nodded in reply. "Well, to this day I'm sure she still thinks Micheal and I were clueless about the whole thing, but we knew. I loved the bright shining glow of happiness on her face that year, even though she hid it from me. When the truth came out I wanted her to confide in me but she just shut down. I asked her why she had originally tried to hand off Melanie's account to someone else last month. For a moment, her face got that glow back, then she shut down again and just said she had too much else to busy herself with."

"She refused that account?" he blinked incredulously."She told me she just didn't have room in her caseload, so I moved the Masterson account to Grable because I needed Lani. I had to have my best working this account."

He paused there, looking at Lani, and Betty could see the light bulb going off over his head.

"It does make sense," he said. "I did think Lani was abnormally professional even for her, always with quick curt handshakes and focusing more on the sales pitch than on the client. Like she was trying NOT to make eye contact. Well all the more reason I think. If she's assigned to an attractive client she may have a certain fondness for..."

"I know Lani too well," Betty mumbled in semi-agreement. "It'll force her to be extra professional, and since she won't have any other assignments to throw herself into, she'll throw herself into counseling and recovery instead. If only to be able to come back to work and hand Melanie off. Mostly to keep her mind off of that glow."

Betty didn't like the idea of Gerald using what seemed to be such a nice girl that way, and doubted the professional ethics of it, but they both agreed it was the easiest way to counter Lani's OCD work ethic. They each kissed Lani's sleeping cheek and went home, praying Lani would get through this. In the morning, Gerald placed a call.

*** Seven Months Ago ***

Lani was sitting upright in her bed eating lunch while Gina helped pack up her belongings. Gina had been house-sitting while Lani was indisposed. Truthfully Gina too saw Lani as family, like the older sister she'd always wanted as an only child. She just never said so.

As for Lani, she was itchy and impatient and trying not to scratch the scar left by the surgery. The doctor had told her she would finally be released tomorrow, barring further 'incidents'. Her hospital stay had needed to be extended because Lani overstressed herself trying to force a quicker recovery and had pulled a few crucial internal stitches trying to excersize. It reached the point where he wheeled her to the morgue. He showed her victims of fatal cardiac arrest, and all but promised her she'd end up there very soon if she didn't take her recovery seriously.

Melanie arrived, dressed in a casual business skirt suit with no tie, and sat politely by Melanie's bed, smiling at Gina and waving.

"Hello G," she said cheerfully. She and Gina had spent the last two weeks preparing for Lani's release and got along rather well. Gina turned and returned the greeting warmly. Lani meanwhile just grunted and waved and avoided eye contact.

"I um... I bet you're anxious," Melanie said softly.

"Anxious," she replied, "is a dramatic understatement Ms. Sobreviviente. I'm outright bloody restless."

Melanie frowned.

"I told you already," she said. "Melanie is just fine."

"It seems unprofessional to call you Melanie," she protested.

"So deal with it," Gina chimed in. "For the next eleven months, she's your responsibility. Mister Briggs and your mother have kept her up to speed."

"And," Melanie interjected, "I'm as worried about your health as anyone. My money manages itself almost Lani. I barely spend any except on necessities. I plan to help you get healthy. So tomorrow I'm picking you up and I'm taking you to lunch on Granville Island. The stone slab grills there are heavenly."

"Lunch?" Lani slumped. "I'm an accountant, why do we need to go to lunch now? Can I at least go home first to shower properly and dress?"

Melanie nodded.

"Yes you may," she said sternly.

She stood up and shook Lani's hand softly. Lani felt a little jolt go running up her spine, but no one noticed, she hid it so well.

After Melanie left, Lani sniffed her palm and sighed. The scent of natural lilac, her favorite. She almost wondered if someone had told Melanie this. She cursed her mother and her boss for doing this to her. She honestly had no clue how she was going to remain professional dealing with the first woman she'd felt anything for since high school.

"Normally being attracted to a client would be frowned upon," Gina said, not even looking up. "But in your case I don't think anyone will mind."

"what did you say?" Lani stammered.

"You heard me," Gina retorted, turning around sharply with a scolding look. "I've known you three years. I've been at your side from co-worker to manager to junior vice president. You're my best friend and I know you too well."

Lani sighed, wringing her hands.

"Momma said the same thing," she sighed defeatedly, not feeling like an argument. "Do I have lesbian tattooed on my forehead and no one's bothered to tell me?"

"Nope," Gina said. "I don't care for labels like that anyway. Besides, you're so desert dry you don't really qualify as ANY-sexual. What do you think made your little glow so easy to spot? And why are you acting like your dog died?"

"Love isn't worth the risks," Lani said, still staring at her hands. "Sex is a vibrator away. And clients are off-limits anyway. I do like to retain at least an air of professionalism."

"Bullshit," Gina said bluntly. "You're scared to let your walls down."

Lani looked up at her angrily.

"I should fire you," she fumed.

"But you won't," Gina said smiling. "You love me to bits and besides, you need me."

"Demote you then," Lani snirked.

"Hardly," Gina said, hugging her.

"It won't happen G," Lani said, hugging back.

"Why not L?" Gina asked.

"Because I won't let it," Lani said very matter of factly. "She's my client, end of story."

Gina got up and walked toward the door. With a smile she turned back to Lani.

"If you say so."

With that she left the room, and all Lani could do was sniff her hand once more.

"Lilacs....." she sighed wistfully, and went to sleep.

*** Six Months Ago ***

Lani sat at the quiet corner table at the Keg, growing impatient and nervous when Melanie arrived. So far everything had gone well. She'd been able to ignore the observations of Gina and her mother, and stick strictly to business. So she wasn't prepared to lose all the breath in her lungs at the sight of the black velvet cocktail dress suddenly standing in front of her, low cut and exposing just the right amount of cleavage, below a beautiful soft nape, adorned with a heart pendant choker.

"Wow..." Lani muttered, unaware it was said out loud, and hurriedly buried her nose back in the menu as Melanie sat down.

"Thank you," Melanie said shyly. "G helped me choose it. I wanted to look nice today."

Lani frowned and made a mental note to find G and murder her in her sleep, but very quickly shrugged off her irritation.

"Why? It's just another meeting."

Melanie smiled shyly.

"Not really," she said. "You've managed my money, sorted out my tax obligations, helped me invest some money wisely, and pretty much have everything running automatically. We don't have any business TO discuss."

"Then.... why ARE we here?" Lani asked, acting puzzled but suspecting the reason, given how her therapist kept stressing the need to just cut loose and enjoy a lunch out with a friend or such.

"Lani," Melanie began, "Your boss, your mother, your secretary, they all care very deeply about you. I think the whole firm does. You're in charge of managing my estate and I've come to trust you. I'd like to get to know you better and I KNOW you're on orders to relax and learn to have fun, so I wanted to just talk to you, over lunch."

Lani thought about getting up to leave, but decided against it. She HAD been obeying Doctor's orders to avoid her old work levels, and she knew that Mom and Mister Briggs and G would all have a cow if she didn't at least attempt to show Melanie some simple friendly civility. So she decided one lunch couldn't hurt.