A Simple Act of Kindness

~~~~~~

"I loved it when you called me, M.J. when you were cumming just now, "Julie breathed, as we bathed I the afterglow of having just made love, "It lets me know that you really do love me, Kyle."

"Mmm, Hmm" I smiled, still holding her against me, my cock still inside of her as we were floating in the pool, "And I'll always love you, too, baby..."

"I want you to keep calling me, M.J." she softly smiled, "Okay, Kyle?

"I'll do whatever you wish, my love," I gently replied softly kissing her lips, "I love you."

"Mmm," she purred smiling, "Right answer baby...right answer..."

~~~~~~

Once I was out of the pool, back into my regular wheel chair, and once we were also both dry and dressed, M.J. looked at me and sadly said, "There's still time for you to back out, Kyle. You don't have to...."

"Has anyone ever told you that you talk entirely too much sometimes?" I asked her smiling, "We're part of one another now, okay? Where you go, I go; and nothing is ever going to change that, not ever. I love you M.J. Smith; and I'm never going to leave you, never, ever, okay, baby?"

"I knew there was a reason that I've always love you, Kyle," she sweetly smiled, and then stood up after kissing me, "Come on, baby, let's get you back to your room so that you can rest. How does that sound?"

"It sounds good to me," I teased, now able to use my hands quite well, "Especially if we get to do this again tomorrow," and then I reached over and softly pinched her butt.

"We'll see," she giggled, "We'll see."

~~~~~~

Chapter Seven

Because she had spent the morning with me in the pool, it was nearing lunchtime when M.J. went home. She didn't want to, but I made her go, telling her that she needed the rest. After faithfully promising me that she would see me later that evening, she left the hospital, but not before letting me know how very much she loved me, and that she now felt complete with me in her life.

Not too long after she'd gone, Doctor Lerner came back to see me, only this time he was wearing a knowing grin on his face, and to his credit, said nothing where M.J. and I were concerned.

"Hello, Kyle," he smiled, "How was the work-out this morning?"

"Excellent," I proudly smiled, raising my hands and arms with seemingly no effort whatsoever. And then as I tried to shake his hand as firmly as I could, I smiled as I told him, "I think that I'm going to be out of here before too much longer anyway."

"Oh, do you now?" He widely smiled, "Well, I'll tell you what, my friend; with that kind of attitude, you'll be out of here before you know it."

"M.J. helped me more than you know," I told him, "She's really good at what she does, and I think that this hospital is lucky to have her."

"Let's talk about her for a moment," Dr. Lerner knowingly smiled, "If you don't mind, Kyle, I'd like to ask you some questions."

"Of course," I proudly told him, "Well talk about anything you want to, Doc."

"Alright then," he began, "How long have you two known one another?"

"We went to high school together," I humbly replied, "She was so smart, smarter than anyone I'd ever known. As a matter of fact, she's still one of the smartest people I know, and I'm blessed to know that she cares about me."

"That's what I really want to talk about, Kyle, if you don't mind;" Dr. Lerner quietly yet sincerely inquired, "Now, don't get me wrong, I don't want you to think that I'm trying to take her away from you, and I sure as hell don't want you to think that I'm trying to pry either."

"I don't think any of those things, Doctor Lerner," I sensibly replied, "But I have to tell you the truth, and let you know that I'm a little curious as to why you want to know about my relationship with her."

"I understand where you're coming from, believe me," he began, "When Julie, or M.J., as you call her, was in college, her roommate, Susan Houseman, is my younger half sister. My mother remarried a man named James Houseman after my father was killed in the Korean War; and they had a baby girl who they named Susan. When she and Julie were roommates, they were at our house a lot so; Julie became like a little sister to me, too, and I guess the point that I'm trying to make, is that I don't want to see her hurt. You know, I was there when she made the transformation from a scared, overweight little girl with some insecurity issues, into the beautiful young woman she's become."

"I don't deserve her, Doc," I said, "And don't think for a second that I don't realize it either. And just so you know, I will be walking out of here soon, regardless of who thinks that I might not. And if I don't; then I want you to know that I refuse to make the mistake of burdening her with the task of having to take care of me for the rest of her life, knowing that she deserves so much more."

"You know what?" Dr. Lerner asked smiling, "I don't think she's going to be burdened with anything, other than knowing that she's blessed to be with a guy like you."

"You think so?"

"Hell no," Dr. Lerner laughed, "I know so."

"Thanks, Doc," I grinned, "I really appreciate you saying that."

"So, tell me," he asked, "How did you really do at the pool this morning?"

"I think that I did very well," I confidently told him, "I was able to move both of my legs, as well as touch the soles of my feet onto the bottom of the pool, but I still can't stand up, well, not totally, and not yet."

"I'm going to have Julie, err, I mean, M.J., put you back into the pool tomorrow morning," he said, as he was writing in my chart, "And maybe after a few more sessions, we'll try you out with a pair of crutches and see how well you tolerate that. What do you think about it, Kyle?"

"All I know is that I'm going to work as hard as I can," I said, "The rest is left up to God."

"I agree with you there," Dr. Lerner knowingly grinned, "But in this case, I think that God is in your corner this time."

"I believe you," I smiled, "But I still need to do the work though."

"Oh, you'll do it alright, I've got a lot of faith in you," he said, "But after lunch, I'm going to send you to physical therapy to work on restoring your upper body strength."

"Okay, Doc," I grinned, "Will I see you anymore today?"

"Probably not," he told me, "But you can count on seeing me after you get out of the pool tomorrow morning."

However, before I could reply, an orderly appeared at my door with my lunch, while at the same time, my stomach chose to growl, making me laugh.

~~~~~~

I was able to feed myself for the first time with no problems at all when I ate my lunch that day, and while I was doing so, my mind was filled with thoughts of my beautiful M.J, and how proud of me that I knew she was going to be when I told her.

Granted; I knew that I wasn't the best looking guy in the world, especially because of the shape I was in at the time, but I sure as hell knew that no one would love her more than me. However, I still felt that she deserved so much more.

And it was right then that I decided that I was going to give it everything I had when it came to my recovery. While I knew that she loved me unconditionally, as well as beyond a shadow of a doubt, I also decided that I was going to be the man that was worthy of her love; one that she would always be able to count on. I mean, after all, look at what she had done to become the woman she now was, as well as all of the hard work and sacrifices she'd made. Therefore, should I do less? Hardly! I wanted...no...I needed to do more.

I made my mind up right then that I was going to do everything in my power to be worthy of the love that M.J. had felt for me for all of those terribly lonely years that her tender feelings had gone unrequited. It was also then that I felt ashamed of myself for not recognizing the beauty that had lain dormant within her when we were but children. However, before I could give it more thought, I was interrupted by a knock at my door, followed by a female voice that asked, "Mister Hendrickson?"

"Yes," I replied, turning my head to see who it was, "What can I do for you?"

A dark haired, dark eyed young lady who, while she was still young, was a cute girl, walked into my room and said, "Hi, my name is Sarah Brewer, and I'm going to be your Physical Therapist while you're here."

"Hi, Sarah," I politely replied, "It's nice to meet you, and you don't have to call me Mister, you can call me just plain old Kyle."

"Okay, Kyle," she kindly smiled, "Doctor Lerner has ordered a physical therapy regimen for you, and I'm here to take down to the P.T. department so that you can get started on it."

Okay," I smiled, "If you'll help me into my wheelchair, we can leave whenever you're ready to go."

"No problem," she grinned, and then wheeled my chair over to my bed, and then helped me turn my legs and body so that I could maneuver myself into the chair.

~~~~~~

We took the elevator to the first floor, and then turned right out of the elevator, after which we traveled another eighty or ninety feet until we came to a large room where people were each using the different exercise machines there. The first thing that Sara did was to roll my chair next what appeared to be her desk, where we stopped. And after applying the wheel brakes on my chair, she took a seat behind the desk, smiling every step of the way.

"Okay, Kyle," she politely smiled, "I need to get some information from you before we begin your therapy today, if you don't mind."

"Of course not," I cordially smiled, "What would you like to know?"

"Why don't we start off with the basics?" she asked, "Like your age, date of birth, and your address" and then after I gave her the information she requested, she smiled and said, "Okay...now we're going to go over to the weight racks. I want you to start off easy, and then we'll go up from there, alright?"

"I'm ready," I eagerly replied, "How much weight would you like me to start off with?"

"Why don't we try five pounds on each arm," she nicely told me, rolling my chair to the weight machine she had in mind, "I don't want you to hurt yourself, okay?"

"You're the boss," I happily grinned, "Whatever you say."

"Doctor Lerner told me that you were a nice guy," she smiled, "I really appreciate it, too."

"Do you get patients that aren't nice?" I asked her, "That must really suck, huh?"

"Sometimes I do," she told me, as she placed the free weight in my right hand, "But most of them are hurting when they come here, and they don't feel good either. Okay, I want you to do five repetitions...ready...begin."

I easily completed the five reps that she asked me to do, and then switched the weight to my left hand and repeated the process. While I was lifting the weight, Sarah closely watched me, writing in a tablet that she had with her.

"Okay, that's five reps on each hand," I smiled, "How did I do, Sarah?"

"You did really great," she encouragingly grinned, taking the free weight from me, "Do you feel any pain in either of your arms, or cramps in your hands?"

"No, not at all," I replied, gently extending my arms and flexing my hands, and literally feeling the strength coming back, "As a matter of fact, that was easy and I feel fine. Can I go to a higher weight level?"

"We'll go to ten pounds," she said, replacing the free weight on the rack and then handing me a heavier one, "But no more than that...at least for today, alright?"

"Like I said before," I chuckled, "You're the boss, Sarah."

"Alright then," she giggled, "You can begin whenever you're ready."

I did the same number of reps as I did with the five pound free weight, beginning with my right arm; and once I was finished, I switched the weight over to my left hand, and began pumping it with my left arm.

I went slowly just as Sarah had told me to do, and just as before, I completed it with no problems whatsoever. However, this time, as opposed to handing the weight back to Sarah, I switched back to my right hand and began pumping the weight with my right arm, doing ten reps as opposed to five, and when I was finished, I switched back to left hand, doing ten more reps with my left arm.

"Okay, tough guy," Sarah teased, "Give me the weight back now."

"Here you go," I chuckled, handing the free weight back to her, "I'm sorry for not doing it correctly."

"Oh, no," she told me, "You did perfectly, but I still don't want you to overdo it this first time, alright?"

"Okay, Sarah," I grinned, "So how do you think I did?"

"Well, I'm not the doctor," she told me, "But personally, I think you can lift as much weight as you feel comfortable with, so long as you don't hurt yourself. Otherwise it'll be my ass if you do...do you understand me?"

"That's great," I happily grinned, "Does that mean that I can do more tomorrow?"

"I want to put you on the bench tomorrow," she said, "Today was just an evaluation to see what kind of shape you're in."

"Thanks," I smiled, "I really appreciate this; and I can't wait to tell my girlfriend."

"She'll be impressed," Sarah giggled, "What's her name? Does she attend Vanderbilt? If so I might know her."

"You probably do know her," I said, "As a matter of fact; she works right here in this hospital."

"Oh, really," she smiled, "What's her name?"

"Julie," I proudly said, "Julie Smith."

"So you're the guy I heard her talking about," Sarah widely grinned, "Oh, my, and you're as gorgeous as she said you were, too." Suddenly Sarah began to blush, and the after girlishly giggling, she looked at me and meekly replied, "I'm sorry if I embarrassed you just now."

"Don't worry about it," I chuckled, the tips of my ears, as well as my cheeks turning red, "That just lets me know that she loves me, that's all."

"She told a couple of us all about the two of you," Sarah quietly informed me," And I think that it's one of the sweetest stories that I've ever heard, too."

"I really love her...a lot," I quietly replied, "But I want to get out of here so that I can be a whole man for her. I hope you can understand that, Sarah."

"I most certainly can," she gently smiled, a warm understanding in her eyes, "And I'm going to help you in every way I can, Kyle. As a matter of fact, we're going to have you up and running before you know it, trust me."

"Thank you, Sarah," I gratefully replied, "I can't begin to tell you how much this means to me."

"You don't have to," she sweetly replied, "We all love Julie to pieces, and I'm glad to finally see her so happy."

"What do you mean when you say finally?" I asked, "Was she ever unhappy?"

"I'll tell you on the way back to your room," she said, placing the weight back in the rack and unlocking the wheel brakes on my chair.

~~~~~~

When Jules first came to the hospital, she was miserable," Sarah told me, as she pushed me in the wheelchair back down the hall to the elevator, "I made friends with her the first week she was here."

"Tell me more," I literally begged her, "I promise not to tell her that you told me, okay?"

"You better not," Sarah chuckled, as she began, "We used to go out on the weekends when we were off. I took her over to "The Exit Inn" over on Elliston Place one night; and you know what?"

"No," I said, "What?"

"Well, a bunch of real cute guys all asked her to dance and she turned every one of them down," Sarah continued, "And when I asked her why she did that, she told me about when she was in high school; about how everyone was so mean to her because of the way she looked...except for this one guy in particular. She told me that he/you were always very kind and sweet to her, and that you even broke up with your girlfriend because she bitched you out for talking to her."

"I did that because I refused to be like the rest of the idiots that we went to school with," I told her.

"Anyway," Sarah continued, "Jules never gave us your name, but she said that she fell in love with you when you guys were sophomores in high school, and she hoped with all her heart that one day she would find you. And when she did, she wanted to look as good as she could so that you would love her, just as much as she loves you."

My heart began to ache at the thought of what Sarah just told me, as well as the fact that my beautiful M.J. had loved me for so long. "My God, Sara," I told her, "I really don't deserve her ya know."

"Don't say that, Kyle," she smiled, "In the short time that I've been around you, I can see why she loves you so much. There aren't many guys like you around, and I'm glad that Jules has you...besides; you can't tell me that you don't love her, because you should see what I see when you talk about her. Your face lights up like a Christmas tree at just thought of her."

"Really?" I asked, Sarah nodding her head, "Wow, I never really thought about it like that."

"I can believe that," Sarah teased, "Most guys don't and that's okay, too, Kyle."

"Maybe not," I told her, "But I've never wanted to be like most guys though."

"And you're not; believe me," she smiled, and then teasing me, she said, "But in this case, it's okay, because there are some things that men in general can't help, and that's one of them."

"I guess I can accept that," I laughed, "But I want to be able to be there for her whenever she needs me, and I can't do it in the shape that I'm in right at this moment."

"I already told you, silly," she giggled, "You and I are going to take care of that as quickly as possible. It's not like you're unwilling to do the work ya know."

"I know," I quietly replied, "I guess it's because I want it to happen yesterday, you know what I mean?"

"You've got to be patient," she told me, as we arrived at my room, "Besides; you know what they say, good things come to those who wait, yes?"

"You're right," I smiled, wheeling myself into my room and stopping at my bedside, "I suppose I'm gonna to have to be a little more patient."

Then Sarah helped me maneuver my body back into bed, where she pulled the blanket over my legs and up to my chest. Then after pushing my wheel chair back into the far corner of my room where it was out of the way, she grinned at me and told me, "You did very well for your first day, but don't get too comfortable. The real work starts tomorrow so; you'd better be ready, tough guy."

"Thank you, again, Sarah," I told her, "I can't begin to tell how grateful I am for everything that you're doing to help me. If there is ever anything that I can do to make this up to you, just let me know, okay?"

"Don't worry about it, this is what I do," she comically grinned, patting me on the knee, "But you're welcome just the same. Now, I want you to get some rest, handsome; you're gonna need it, trust, me."

"Okay," I chuckled, "I guess I'll see you tomorrow then?"

"You'd better believe it," she grinned, "I'll see ya tomorrow," and with a quick smile, she turned and walked out of my room.

~~~~~~

Chapter Eight

Somewhere between four thirty and five o'clock that afternoon, I received a pleasant surprise, when my sister, Laura, showed up with one of her childhood friends, Amy Price. I'd also known Amy since I was a little boy, and because she and Laura were such good friends, I, too, had become friends with her over the years as well.

"Hey, Squirt," Amy smiled, using the name she'd given me when we were all growing up, and also leaning down to kiss my cheek, "How're ya feeling?"

"I don't know," I teased, "I was feeling great until you two got here."

"Oh, shut up," she giggled, affectionately placing her palm against my cheek, "I can see that being in a coma for six months hasn't kept you from still being a smart ass."

"That's right," I playfully countered, "Better to be a smart ass, than a dumb ass like you and Laura."

"Oh, yeah?" Laura growled, smiling, "You can kiss my dumb ass, you little shit."

"Little shit, me?" I grinned, "I'm a lot bigger than you are these days so; you'd better watch who you call a little shit."