Kimberly

It was within those few seconds that my world imploded. I had even resorted to placing my hands over my ears desperately trying to keep her words out of my head, yet knowing full well they were already in there. Pleading with me to find someone else as the sounds of the car roof being cut off so the fire crew could gain access to her reminded us both that soon she would leave me so very alone. I fell to my knees and cried, my throat burned with my screams yet there was to be no peace.

As one heartbeat followed another, those same words came to me, seconds before the sound of twisted metal being cut away from the car showed the light finally faded in her eyes and she was lost to me. The three things I promised to Traci on our wedding day fought over the ashes of my life. My mind, body, and soul all reached for my broken heart as I finally lay on the cabin floor screaming for forgiveness from the one who heard that lie leave my lips as her life ebbed from her body.

My head hurt, even with my eyes still closed my head hurt so much, even when I opened my eyes all I could see was red. RED? Pulling my head back slightly the hair then came into focus, it was then her perfume filled my nostrils.

"I'm glad your awake, that means I can go for a pee without having to calm you down again."

A very naked Karen pulled the cover off and dashed into the bathroom, seconds later the sound of running water was heard. She hadn't even closed the bathroom door. Karen was very at ease wandering back from the bathroom to the bed; I on the other hand was kinda spooked at all this. She knelt down in the middle of the bed, placed her hand on my forehead and smiled.

"Well your temperature has gone down so that's a good thing. I'm going to get you something to drink."

Karen left and all I could do was watch her ass as she disappeared into the day room, I was still watching the door when she came back with two glasses and a jug of iced tea, placed it on the side, and climbed back into bed.

"I hate to state the obvious, but your naked and in my bed. Did I, did we?" Was all I could say.

"No. I would have broken your arm if you had tried."

She handed me a glass of tea and left me to my thoughts and most if not all had me wondering what had happened. Karen seemed to have read my thoughts.

"I have a confession to make and then I will tell you what happened. I will also tell you this right up front. Nothing happened and nothing was going to happen, what I did I decided was the only thing I could think of from stopping you losing your mind."

For the next ten minutes I sipped my tea as Karen simply stared at the wall in front of us and recounted what had happened. The day that I confessed to being a doctor she went home and phoned her late husband's brother, it seemed having a cop in the family comes in real handy, within the week a folder arrived at her cabin. Everything was there, the accident, the court cases, even a transcript of what Traci said to me as the fire crew worked so hard to get her out of the wreckage.

There were tears in her eyes as she told me. I watched as she wiped them away, chocked back some more, and then continued telling me how one day she woke from a troubled sleep and yet couldn't work out why. She even phoned her late husband's parents to check on Kimberly, she was fine yet that nagging feeling of something bad was either happening or about to happen just kept on and on pounding at her, pulling at her thoughts.

Something made her read back over the information in the folder again and that's when she noticed the date. The most direct route to my cabin was across the lake so she jumped into Kimberly's boat and gave it full throttle all the way across hoping she was going to make it. Even as she reached the jetty, Karen knew she was too late. She could hear me screaming as she lashed the boat to the jetty.

"I held you as long as you would let me but you were just so restless, I tried everything I could think of but nothing seemed to work. The demons in your head had a hold and simply wouldn't let go. Jenna came by but I told her to go away."

It was only then that she looked directly at me. "I knew what I was going to do next, and although I wasn't comfortable doing it, I didn't need Jenna telling me I was nuts. I already knew that."

We both knew this was the most difficult part of her story, even pausing to sip some tea simply added to the atmosphere that started to oppress the room.

"At first I pulled you onto the bed and crawled next to you, but you still wouldn't settle, I knew when Andy died that I needed to be held, Kimberly was still too young to understand, my folks took her with them and my sister stayed with me. My sister crawled into bed with me and just held me for three days. I don't think we said more than six words in those three days but she kept me sane."

Karen put her glass down, moved to sit in the middle of the bed and looked directly at me and said. "I pulled your clothes off."

She went even paler than her normal color. "Those scars on your body make you look like a street map of Houston, how you survived that accident is anyone's guess."

Her eyes seemed to take on a faraway look as she remembered that moment, only for her eyes to quickly look at the scars across my chest once again as if to confirm what she had seen days before.

Karen then shrugged her shoulders and continued. "At first I tried to snuggle in close and hope it was enough."

She looked down at her own nakedness and gave a half smile. "As you can tell that didn't work so I pulled my clothes off and joined you."

"Can I ask why?"

She shrugged her shoulders and then looked directly at me. "I owed you; if you hadn't been here, Kimberly would have died before we would have found her. Your reluctance to tell me you were a doctor intrigued me and I wanted to find out why you hid that from everyone. As for the rest, I simply can't answer you, not through reluctance it's simply that I don't have an answer."

The burning question in my mind only seemed to come out as. "And we didn't?"

It was Karen's turn to smile and shake her head. "Everything works down there that's for sure, for the last two days you have had that stuck between my ass cheeks and it's never gone down and I've been soaking the bed so much, but no we didn't. I knew you were coming out of it because it slowly went down a few minutes before you woke."

My thoughts were all over the place and I simply didn't know where to start. Karen had placed herself in grave danger and I told her so.

She simply shook her head and went on to explain how she met Andy at college. He was a jock with a difference. He came to collage on a football scholarship yet had no intention of turning pro. It was the army that got her husband and as soon as they had both finished collage and got their degree's Karen followed him as his wife. It was the army that snapped Karen up. To them they were getting two for the price of one. Over the years Karen became one of the best on the base in her field of Psychology and Andy went on to be an unarmed combat instructor.

"Andy taught me unarmed combat so you really had no chance if you had got amorous in any way."

"You know you could lose your license if this got out."

Karen simply nodded her head, got off the bed and headed for the door. "I'm hungry, what do you want to eat?"

I followed her, still not even sure in my mind if she had made the right decision.

"Why didn't you just phone a doctor?"

As I sat on one of the chairs by the kitchen table Karen thrust a loaf of bread and a knife in my hands and I automatically set about cutting it.

"What would have been the point, don't forget there is a doctor in this cabin and he couldn't help himself, by the time I had explained it all to another doctor what could they have done for you other than stick you full of drugs to keep you from harming yourself and I thought I took care of that rather well don't you think?"

Even I had to admit to myself that she had done a good job. The worry that I could have still harmed her in some way and not even known about it until I had come around still haunted me, but I decided to keep my mouth shut for now.

"Are you going to put some clothes on now that I'm awake?" I asked.

Karen simply shook her head and continued to pour soup into a pan to heat up. Something just didn't feel right and it just kept on bugging me, even when we were done eating, washed up and put everything away we both still remand naked. She kept up a general conversation as though being naked around a guy you had known for all of three months was the most natural thing in the world. After three hours of this I had enough and asked her again to get dressed, for a moment she looked at me, even noticing the insistence I had placed in the tone of my voice.

"Let me show you something, I will be right back."

She got up from the couch and walked back into the bedroom. A couple of minutes later she came out dressed in one of my shirts. I took one look at her standing by the door, one hand on the wall the other on her hip and I was as hard as steel. Karen tried to hide the flush of her cheeks and smile by looking down at the buttons on my shirt and slowly started to undo them. Then she pulled the shirt off and placed it over the back of the couch, I went soft. Even I looked twice at what just happened.

"Two things Bobby, something in your head is no longer wired right, and second. I figure I'm safer around you naked."

Both angry at my actions and confused by them just as much I went to stand saying. "Fine I'll get some clothes on then."

Karen moved in front of me and I stopped.

"There isn't any need Bobby, I know what you look like naked and have for a couple of days now. What's the point of getting clothes on?"

In a moment of anger I blew up in her face.

"That's not the goddamn point Karen and you know it. This whole situation is just too damn weird and I have enough going on in my head right now than trying to deal with this as well."

I didn't even see her hand move. The sound of the slap registered a split second before the burning sensation of my cheek. Just as quickly Karen moved in to hold me tight to her. Her head rested snuggly into my neck. Even though my mind seemed to go into replay over what just happened, I never saw her hand move. She moved into me and our bodies touched, even her arms when they wrapped themselves around me and her head just seemed to fit so nicely. Her breath warming my neck as she patiently stood holding me, waiting.

"I'm going to let you go now and step back. I'm even going to offer you my hand and I may even suggest you take it. We have a lot to do Bobby, but the speed it gets done is going to be down to you not going into angry mode. It simply has no purpose here."

Slowly she moved her arms and then took a step back. I was finding it increasingly difficult to understand what was going on and even what to do about it. Karen watched me for a second and then held out her hand, mine followed a second later and the smile that lit her face seemed to warm the whole room.

"That hurt." I said rubbing my cheek with my free hand.

"No Bobby, breaking your arm hurts. Slapping you just got your attention back to me where it belongs and out of angry mode where is doesn't belong."

Even as she walked me towards the couch I simply had to ask. "Is this heading towards some sort of S&M thing?"

Her laugh was cute. I had never heard her laugh before. She looked at me and back to the couch laughing and shaking her head. Even as she sat down she was still having giggle fits. Karen waited until I was sat and comfortable before her hand left mine and she got herself comfortable.

"Bobby this is your choice. Say yes to me and I will help you with everything I can. Say no and I will get dressed and leave you alone. Traci is dead, Bobby. What makes it worse is that you watched her die. Either way it still leaves you to pick up the pieces of your life which as we both know is what she wanted you to do.

"If you want me to help Bobby you have got to meet me half way on this. I'm a woman, I'm not strong enough to carry you so make your choice, oh and by the way I want an answer now. You don't get to stew on this one."

I have never seen a person's eyes look as intense as I did right then. Karen seemed to brace herself for either answer I was going to give her and to be honest I simply didn't have an answer.

That was the whole purpose of being here, to find those answers. To heal as best I could and get my life back on track again. I hadn't given myself a time frame and perhaps that was my own fault. The longer I took, the longer I was putting off the inevitable. Nodding my head wasn't enough for her.

"Yes Karen I would like your help please. Just cool it with the pain thing ok."

"Aww shucks Bobby, already your proving no fun at all."

Her smile told me lots more than anything she could say. She then got up and looked out the window. Her face dropped when she looked up so I knew the weather wasn't looking too good.

"Ok this weather isn't going to break today so we are taking this to the bedroom."

I followed, not even sure what I was supposed to do when I got there. Karen pointed to the edge of the bed, and I sat and waited. She took a couple of paces back, gave me a twirl and stopped to look at me once again.

"What do you see Bobby?"

"My neighbor Karen. Naked, in my bedroom, standing in front of me."

Her shoulder slumped slightly and although something crossed her eyes it was too quick for me to see what it was. So I thought it best to start again. This time I looked at her closely as I would when I visually diagnosed a patient. Part of my mental thinking started to detach as I analyzed a naked Karen now standing with her hands on her hips in front of me, waiting for me to say something.

"You have nice feet and you look after them you don't put polish on your nails. You have cute ankles and strong calves, you like to walk, and the muscles in your thighs just confirm that. You are a natural red head, your pubic hair confirms that, your hips are in perfect proportion to your frame and childbirth has been kind to you with your lack of stretch marks. You have a flat stomach and some muscle tone so I would say you have done long distance runs recently."

The redness of her cheeks started to move down her neck. Karen kept her face neutral as I continued to tell her what was in front of me.

"Although I couldn't be positive I think you are a C-cup, they are shaped well and age and gravity won't change that. You have thick areolas that suggest your nipples will extend even more than they do at the moment. Freckles adorn the top half of your chest. Your broad shoulders mean you like weights but not enough to do more than keep fit, the muscles in your arms attest to that. You have soft hands which seemed to contrast with all of the above so my guess is you spend a lot on hand cream to keep them that way."

Karen was now bright red. Her cheeks, neck and the top half of her chest slowly changing to a deeper red as I talked of what was in front of me and the manner I did so. She still refused to say anything, even when she turned and kept her back to me.

"I would put you at my height so you would be five foot seven. As I said you are a natural red head, you get it cut on a regular basis. The muscle tone around your shoulder blades confirms what I said about your weight lifting. The tattoo of an angel over the right shoulder blade means you have a high pain threshold. A nice small waist coupled with a tight ass means you like to keep in shape, watch your weight and what you eat."

It took a moment for Karen to turn again, I'm not sure if she thought I had finished. When the silence between us started to become oppressive she said.

"I would have settled for, nice body and tight buns, plus you missed the mole on my inner thigh. But your assessment of me is correct in every way. See, you do notice women you just struggle to express what and how you feel and that's the part of you we are going to change."

I could only assume the eye test of Karen's body was over because she climbed onto the bed and hugged me before she made herself comfortable on one end of the bed as I did the same the other side. Her style of conversation seemed to change as well. Although light and up beat she set about pulling my life history out of me, yet so subtly that I didn't even notice until I was explaining my first date with Traci. Our talks even continued back in the kitchen as we made supper.

As the build up to the end of the evening was coming I was already mentally dreading what was coming next. Karen noticed and asked me what was wrong. Perhaps I should have kept my mouth shut just this once, but I told her anyway. Her smile disguised something that seemed to be in her thoughts, already I was regretting this. But I had asked Karen to help me, I had come to realize I couldn't do this on my own anymore, all I was doing was treading water waiting for the next major event in my life.

The date of the accident perhaps, if I was a wreck for Traci's birthday what would I have been like when that date started to get closer. We both knew me doing nothing but idly fishing and ignoring the world simply got me nowhere. I had made the choice; I needed to see this through.

"I shower before bed."

Karen nodded, stood and held out her hand before saying. "I get to scrub your back if you get to scrub mine."

Taking a deep breath I looked at her hand before saying. "I've only ever shared a shower or even bathed with Traci, I'm not sure I can do this."

She lowered her hand and sat back down again, Karen remained silent for a few minutes. She simply watched me her green eyes had that way of never seeming to blink.

"Bobby I'm only going to have this conversation with you this once. For a start it's not my job to feel sorry for you, you're doing a damn good job of that on your own. My job is to help you pull your head out of your ass and show you there is life after Traci."

I went to say something. Karen's hand came up to stop me.

"Yes I know that sounds cold and I will admit to feeling slightly sorry I said it. But there is life after Traci. She knew it just as she knew she was dying. She tried to tell you so much Bobby she simply didn't have enough time to do it all."

Her eyes seemed to soften. The memories still seemed to be fresh in her mind when I noticed the tears well up in her eyes as she said. "I'm here to blow on the embers of your life, Bobby. I decided it was my job to bring you back when I came through your door and found you in the middle of the room screaming for Traci to forgive you."

I never even noticed her hand in mine until she gently squeezed it. Telling Karen that Traci would have liked her was simply met with Karen telling me that Andy would have liked me as well, but both are dead now so it was left to her to sort me out and follow what Traci originally wanted me to do.

"Bobby I'm going to keep at you, we're adults, we don't live in a classroom we live in the real world so all your lessons are going to be aimed at you in such a way that they are all life's experiences. I don't have time to explain everything as we do them. Just trust me as I throw them at you, deal with them or ask me to help, that's fine. Just don't wimp out on me; you're a better man than that."

"I know you're right Karen, but that won't stop me from messing up from time to time. I will ask you to help if I think things are becoming overwhelming. But you have to admit two people who have only known each other for three months spending twenty four seven naked as the day they were born in a cabin together is something that needs thinking about."