Double or Nothing Pt. 04

[:::: Authors Note ::::]

Hi Everyone, Welcome to Part IV of the Double or Nothing series. As a new author, I've enjoyed writing and building a story. I've gotten so much feedback from so many people that it's been great. Some of you love the story, others not so much. But I've noticed that the comments and private messages have all shown me that you engaged with what I am writing for the most part. And that is what I have been aiming for!

One other point everyone brought up was the gap between parts. As a new author, I must plead some ignorance. When I posted Double or Nothing Part I, I had not started Part II, and in some ways, I did not understand the passion all of you had in wanting to see the next part so quickly. Thank you for that passion.

As always, a huge thanks to Kite for jumping in and editing with me, He's showing me a lot, and it's helping me to enjoy writing but to polish the story and close gaps that I have a hard time seeing.

One of the most significant criticisms outside of my grammar (yes, I know) is that the plot and dialogue are too long. Well, just to let you know, that's just the way I write. I like to work on my characters; I want to get their motivation and understand their thoughts or feelings. So, that takes time, making my stories a little longer.

What you're about to step through in Part IV is quite long in the telling, there is a lot that I want to get through in this part of the story, and I want to try a couple of different styles. There are a few elements that I would love to have explored further but didn't feel fit the main narrative.

I want to caution you that I've got both religious discussion and more legal scenes in this part. These scenes are to progress the story and are not written to offend anyone as I am sure most of you have different points of view to those that our characters hold. So please try not to be offended and just enjoy the writing.

You have been warned.

I hope that you enjoy Double or Nothing Part IV.

[:::: End of Part III ::::]

I looked at Harmony. My body was feeling tired, the edges of my vision blurry. Then, I heard a phone ring. Fast words were spoken. For a few moments, I lost focus and then felt the cool press of plastic against my ear as Harmony held her phone to my ear.

"Terry, baby, what's going on?" my other amazing girlfriend, Melody, started saying over the phone. I looked at Harmony into those amazing green eyes. I could be lost in them forever without ever having to take another breath.

"I punched the little shit, I mean the big dickhead, I mean doctor fuckwit," I was starting to lose it, slurring and mixing up my profanity. Harmony smiled.

"Harmony told me baby, Terry, Terry, are you listening," her voice was panicked, and we all knew I was fading.

"Yesssshhhh," I slurred.

"Baby, we need you to stay with us. We need you, our love!" Melody was crying through the phone. Looking at Harmony, she was openly sobbing as well.

"Terry, our amazing sweet, Terry, please don't go. We're not ready to give you up so soon after finding you." Harmony whispered.

"Tiiirrred," I replied.

By now, more doctors were swarming around Harmony and me. Finally, she was forced to stand away, taking the phone with Melody away with her. A couple of security guards lifted me onto an awaiting gurney at the doctor's direction, and I saw mum wrap her arm around a crying Harmony.

I had a final moment of clarity where our eyes met, "I love you!" I mouthed, and she returned the gesture.

"We love you too!" she replied.

They started moving me down the corridor. I could feel them pushing me fast, so I closed my eyes. Sight and sound drifted away from me as the drugs finished their work. I was loved and had found happiness, I wasn't alone, but as my consciousness ebbed into nothingness, I did wonder fleetingly if I would ever wake up.

[:::: Part IV ::::]

My mouth felt like I had been drinking Bundy rum for three days straight, you know that feeling when you can't quite get your lips together to try and rub some moisture in your mouth. That was the feeling I had as I slowly returned to the living world.

I was flat on my back in what must have been a hospital bed. I can also say that aside from the feeling of a dead cockroach in my mouth. Enormously heavy limbs and a monumental effort to open my eyes. I could feel that almost every part of me was beyond sore.

However, my hearing was working at least because as I came to, I could hear snoring. I tried almost successfully to move a little, and the snoring stopped, I felt the pressure lift from my torso, and I heard a voice that made me relax.

"Terry?", the question came from one of the two voices in this world that could wake me from the dead. Indeed, that's what I felt like now. But her voice stirred me further awake.

Melody!

Eyelids fluttering, I pushed myself and worked hard at opening my eyes. It was dark out that much was sure as the light in the hospital room was entirely dim and artificial. As my eyes started to focus, one of my two beautiful girlfriends was lying on my hospital bed with me, her usual spot curled up on my right, holding onto my torso. Melody had always loved to sleep on my mid-section. Ever since we first met, that was her place, and despite my laying here in a hospital bed, she had managed to curl herself like a cat onto the bed without affecting my prone position, ensuring her claim on me.

"Harmony," Melody whispered so someone on a chair beside my bed, "I think he's waking up."

Almost immediately, a second vision of beauty, the identical twin of the woman who was until a few moments ago, laying on my torso, stepped in and looked at me. I tried to focus on her, my second girlfriend in the dark. There was no difference between the two women, I loved them both without reservation, and I knew without a doubt they both loved me.

"Well, hello there, handsome, welcome back." Harmony smiled, softly grabbing my hand, squeezing it. I lightly pressed it back, the effort feeling monumental. Finally, she leant in and looked into my eyes, smiling, seeing me try to focus.

"It's okay, our love." She said, using the term of endearment that the sisters had adopted as our relationship developed. "Don't try to move or talk yet. You have been out of it for a while, and we need to walk you through a lot. But for right now, you don't need to do anything but try and relax!" my sexy nurse girlfriend told me.

I tried to smile but found it hard around the tube down my throat. I started to feel like I would choke until both girls tried to calm me.

"Try to relax, Terry. We had to get a tube down your throat to help you breathe. It will feel uncomfortable. But now you're awake; I am sure the doctors will remove it quickly." Harmony explained.

"You scared us so much, Terry, but you amazed us by pulling through," Melody said. Her eyes held a sternness and pain that spoke about how worried she was about me. Then she smiled, leant in and kissed my forehead. "It's okay, our love. I know you have questions, but right now, relax, we are here, we're not going anywhere, and the answers are coming."

Harmony again looked me over for a moment, then looked up at a drip, summoned the duty nurse, and together they pressed a few buttons on the dispenser.

"Go back to sleep, Terry," She spoke softly. "We will be here when you wake up, and trust me, baby, you will feel a lot better after a few more hours of sleep."

She was right. I went back to sleep and woke up a few hours later as the sun was rising when a doctor came in the check on me. Neither of my girls had moved. After doing some initial tests, Harmony helped him remove the tube from my throat, an altogether unpleasant experience. He then followed up with a few more tests while Harmony handed Melody a cup of ice chips. Melody fussed over me for the next half hour, fed me ice, and waited until it melted in my mouth before feeding me another one.

I tried a few times to speak, and it took me a while before I could find my voice.

"What happened?" I said in a gruff voice.

The girls looked at each other, "Terry, there is no easy way to say this, but you died." Melody teared up as she spoke.

"What?" I rasped out.

Harmony nodded. "Twice actually and almost a third time before the hospital staff figured out how to stabilise you."

At that moment, my memories of the brief fight with Dr Dickhead, aka Stephen Morrison, came back to me. Harmony interrupted my thoughts about what happened and continued.

"The emergency team managed to get you to the ER within minutes. I think you passed out on the way. Then," she said, the sorrow she showed on her face as she relived the memories. "They managed to more or less figure out one of the drugs fairly quickly. It was a common anesthetic meant to knock a patient out for an operation. The second drug, though, was much harder to identify." She was holding my hand for all its worth.

"Based on the fact the moron was a surgeon, they worked on the assumption that he was trying to dose you with something causing the heart to slow, where an overdose would cause your heart to stop beating all together." She sighed, "We still don't exactly know what was in the second one, and both syringes are in a lab being analysed for the police."

"So why am I not dead?" I asked, genuinely intrigued.

Harmony smiled. "Good care, a medical team that knew how and when to defibrillate. It's why you feel like you have run a couple of marathons. All your muscles seize for brief periods between the adrenaline shots and the electrical stimulation from the shocks."

Yep, I hurt all over.

"How long have I been out?"

"Three days," Harmony responded, again squeezing my hand. I blew out a breath, almost like last time I had been injured.

Melody leaned in and kissed me. I knew she wanted to tell her part of the tale.

"I was sitting in that meeting with dad and the new supplier when I felt like I would be sick. I felt something wrong almost immediately. It felt like Harmony was caught in some abject horror, and I could feel it. So, I excused myself from the meeting and called Harmony immediately. She let me know you were hurt and put you on the phone," She was now lying on the bed beside me, he hands holding onto my hospital gown as she cried softly. "When the hospital staff got to you, Harmony had to step away, then Josephine and Harmony were following her into emergency to see if they could save you while I was a mess on the phone."

"Dad immediately knew something was wrong when I entered the room again, upset and empty as I had never felt before. Our man had been assaulted, and I was not close enough to help!" she was sobbing, now recalling the incident.

For the next few minutes, she cried snuggled into me on the bed while Harmony came around and rubbed her back. Then, once she had settled down and felt better just gave me a couple of kisses and demanded that Harmony get the chance to as well, to which I, of course, obliged. Finally, she sat back up, holding onto me as if I might evaporate into thin air, but with a look and a nod from me encouraging her, she continued.

"Well, I gave dad the quick overview. Once he and our new supplier heard what was happening, the supplier was happy to reschedule. So, within two hours, dad, mum and I were on a flight here to Maitland. They had brought you out of emergency and into this room by the time we were walking in."

"William and Martha are here too?" I asked.

"Of course they are, silly," Melody smiled, wiping her tears. "They are at home with your mum and dad. They have been here with us every day. Terry, you are our family. I know mum and dad. They think the world of you. They were just as upset as us when we first saw you, unconscious and hooked up to so many machines. They will be in later this morning." Melody gave me another hug. "In fact, you can expect the entire clan today once they know you're awake." She continued holding me and rested her head back on my torso, sighing contently.

For a few minutes, I got lost in my thoughts. As I did, I ran my aching hands through Melody's hair as Harmony looked on and smiled at me, reaching for my other hand and lifting it to kiss it.

I realized I hadn't asked one of the obvious questions. "What happened to dickhead?" A frown appeared on my face.

Harmony smiled, and it wasn't a friendly smile. Instead, it had the look of a predator looking to devour her prey.

"He's been arrested and is currently over in the secure prisoner ward. You hit him good baby. Your punch dislocated his jaw and fractured his cheekbone, and tore several muscles in his face. He also bit a chunk out of his tongue and has his entire face wired shut for at least the next two months."

I flexed my right hand with which I had smashed him; it felt just a little sorer than the rest of me. It was the hand that was running through Melody's hair. She felt the movement and smiled, then she grabbed my hand and kissed it just like her sister was with my other hand, knowing what I was thinking.

"I should also let you know that a couple of detectives will want to talk to you now you're awake. But you're not in any trouble from what I have been told. The dickhead's arraignment hearing will take a couple of months because he can't talk," Harmony told me, as she kept smiling.

I nodded, then sighed. I had narrowly beaten death again.

As the early morning turned into day, my parents and William and Martha came in once they got the message that I was awake. Mum looked better, still frail with the cancer mediation, but stronger than when I saw her just a few days ago.

Mum hugged me. "I was so scared Terry, Harmony and I turned back when we heard you yell, and then after I saw you knock that... that slimy asshole." She smiled. Her rare use of a curse word causing us all to laugh.

"Well, after that, you collapsed, I didn't know what to do. If it weren't for Harmony looking after me, I would have collapsed too. So, we sat in the emergency room chairs, waiting until you were brought out. Terry, I am so sorry. I never thought someone could do something like that!"

"Neither did I, mum, neither did I." I responded, "I knew he felt somewhat threatened by me, and there was no way we would be friendly to each other. But I never thought he would go this far. I do wonder if we will ever find out what tipped him right over the edge?"

"Who knows," William said, "Then again, after the sexual prowess you show with my daughters, your ex-wife would have to be somewhat unsatisfied with him."

Everyone looked shocked for a moment. I don't think anyone expected a comment like that from William. Then, in the next moment, everyone started laughing, it was a deep laugh, tears were running down our faces. For the next half hour, we told joke after joke laden with sexual innuendo, until Paul and Kim came in pushing little Candice in a pram.

"Well, I see that everyone is in high spirits, and it's great to see you awake little brother." My sister said, a smile on her face, but she also looked relieved. "So, what was everyone laughing about?" she asked.

"Your brother's bedroom ability driving Dr Dickhead wild with rage and obviously, his ex-wife has buyer's remorse in bed at home!" Martha said.

Again, the entire room went dead quiet. Again no one expected a comment like that from the demure and proper lady of the Delotiz clan. Again, the room burst open in laughter.

Kim looked over at me and winked.

Around lunchtime, everyone except Melody and Harmony headed back to my parents to rest. Then in the afternoon, the doctors got me out of bed to check me over and worked me through stretching my muscles. Melody helped me with my first shower in a few days, helping me and generally holding me. Every part of me hurt, and I had more than a few muscle cramps that Melody was happy to massage out.

All going well, I would have the result of my latest bloodwork tonight. That meant the hospital could release me tomorrow. I would be stiff and sore for a few weeks, but I could continue my recovery at home if my bloods were clear.

Once released, the plan was to have lunch with mum, dad, Paul, Kim and my new niece, then William and Martha would fly home that evening while Melody, Harmony, and I drove home throughout the night.

While waiting for my results that afternoon, I got a visit from the two detectives working the case against the dickhead. First, they took my statement about the incident. They let me know that I would likely be required to attend his arraignment hearing.

The following day I was, to my relief, released. We had a great afternoon with the family, and after food, laughs, and some impromptu family photos, we all headed home.

Melody, Harmony and I drove home, Melody driving this time, and we had a great time singing bad road trip songs, playing the number plate game. That's where you make up words from the three letters shown on Australian number plates. Melody won that with the letter L.C.D. Most are used to it, meaning Liquid Crystal Display; however, with a smile on her face after seeing the plate, she busts out with, "Little Cock Doctor!" See why I love my girls.

I was home and back to work without too much fanfare. Everyone was happy to have me back, and once I told the story a few times, got shouted a few beers, we all got back into the daily grind.

I also spent some time with Pastor Dan from Betty's church. On one particular day, we were sitting at a great coffee shop in Bathurst, talking through my life over the past few years. Then once I told the story and got to what I wanted to talk about, he stopped me and started to recount a few things.

"So, Terry, it's been a little over six months since Betty introduced us, and I can say that Melody, Harmony and yourself have added quite a bit of spice to our little congregation." We both laughed at that. I smiled as we recalled some of the comments as people understood I was dating both sisters.

"I understand the anger you feel towards your former family, and I can also see why you felt the need to relocate after they had done what they did to you. The church tries not to judge, but I don't think I would have handled myself as well as you did."

I raised my eyebrows, he laughed.

"My job might be a Pastor in a church, but I am still just a man, as fallen and broken as the person next to me. Had I been in your shoes, Pastor or not, I could see how I would have reacted... differently."

We sat contemplating that for a few minutes, sipping our coffee.

Dan smiled and sipped his coffee. He was a younger man and was employed full time by the church; he had a beautiful blonde wife and a four-year-old son that loved life and could always be found in some trouble. I found I liked this guy. I had been raised around the church; my parents were regular churchgoers to their little Anglican church back up in Maitland. Dan wanted to think he was more non-denominational. I liked that he preached God without fire and brimstone. He preached grace and forgiveness, but he always worked towards pushing a real relationship with God regardless of where you were personally. I liked that. It worked in my situation.

He looked at me, eyebrows raised, leaning forward onto the table.

"Now, with all of that happening, you're asking me how you should feel because you want to marry both Melody and Harmony, correct?"

I shrugged, he laughed.

"Terry, you have one of the most incredible stories that I have ever heard of, and trust me, I have heard a few." He smirked. "And for some reason, I think your story still has a few chapters to go yet!"

I shrugged again, "I would have described my life before Carol and Mackenzie left as just ordinary like everyone else's. But since the fateful night, I have learnt to take nothing for granted." I looked at Dan.