Nights of Paralysis

Carol's hand was stroking one cheek while my other was pressed against her warm breast. My erection was getting stronger. As before, each time I became erect, the pressure in my head eased. This was a great way to get pain relief.

I was remembering something Carol had said yesterday, not to me, but to Doctor Mary Smith.

"Sod the nation, I want him."

Was that true? Did Carol really want me? I couldn't believe that. Carol had been my unattainable dream partner. What had happened to Carol in the years since I last saw her?

"Martin, I'm sorry I can't give you more than a kiss and a cuddle but I have a senior position in this hospital. I'd risk my career if I acted like Chloe, and end it if I copied Janis. I want to. But I can't. Not here, not now, not in my hospital. I'm jealous of Janis. When you have recovered and have left our care, that will be different. I'm not letting you walk out of my life again."

Carol's hand pulled my head against her breast, turning herself slightly so my lips made contact.

"I shouldn't do this..."

Carol eased me away, unbuttoned her blouse and lifted her bra before resting my head against her naked breast. Her erect nipple brushed my lips.

Could I?

I could. I opened my lips and let her nipple enter between them. My eyes rolled up to register Carol's surprise. She clasped me tighter and her breast began to follow her nipple.

I tried harder. My lips opened wider. Carol gasped as I accepted more of her breast. If only I had been able to do this years ago.

"Martin! If you can do that, what else can you do?"

"Can you wiggle your fingers? Or toes?"

I was enjoying Carol's breast too much to respond instantly.

"Please? Try?" She insisted.

OK. Fingers? I willed my fingers to move. They did twitch a little. Toes? I curled them slightly.

"That's great. Keep going!"

Suddenly Carol pulled her breast away, dropped her bra and frantically buttoned her blouse. She was almost finished as Janis walked in. Carol and I had heard the sound of her footsteps.

"Don't stop, Carol," Janis said calmly. "He's enjoying you. How's he doing?"

"He has just twitched his fingers and curled his toes. His lips..."

"I saw what his lips were doing on the monitor at the nurses' station."

"They should have turned it off!" Carol objected.

"I think they are too interested in Martin's reactions to do that. Shame. I can't repeat yesterday's performance, not if it will be recorded. But I can do what I came for and massage his muscles. I'd like your help, Carol."

"Of course I'll help. How?"

"If you could support his head, perhaps by sitting behind him, I could work on his arms and legs. I don't want his injury to move."

Janis propped me up as Carol climbed on the bed. They rested my head back in Carol's cleavage. Her arms wrapped around me as Janis started probing my leg muscles, gently at first and then almost painfully harder.

"Is that too much for you, Martin?" Janis asked. "Blink once for yes, twice for no."

I had to think. Yes, Janis' fingers were hurting but I could endure them. I could feel them. That was important. I blinked twice.

Janis continued to press hard, working up and down my legs. When she moved to my arms my head sank further between Carol's breasts. I was more aware of them than of Janis. My erection became firmer as I relaxed, enjoying the attentions of two good looking women.

"Is he saluting you or me, Carol?" Janis asked.

"Probably both of us," Carol replied.

"OK."

Janis put her head near my hips. I twitched as her tongue touched my erection and felt myself shudder slightly as she ran her tongue along it repeatedly. When she took it in her mouth all three of us felt my body's reaction.

"Keep at it," Carol whispered. "It's working!"

Janis' mouth was too full to reply.

Carol unfastened her blouse again, then her bra. She pressed her naked breasts around my head, managing to turn me slightly so that a nipple met my lips.

That was it! I came into Janis' mouth. She lifted herself off me, out from under the sheet and emptied her mouth into the washbasin. She returned with a warm damp tissue and cleaned my penis.

"Now, Martin," she said. "Can you move your fingers?"

I could. Not very far and with careful deliberation.

"Your toes? And feet?"

Bliss. I could wiggle my toes. I could turn my feet outwards then inwards.

"I think I've done as much as I can for you, Martin," Janis said. "Now you should have professional physiotherapy. They won't do everything I've just done. I'll leave that part to Carol. She's made it very clear that you are hers."

"Have I?"

"You have. All the nurses know. I don't think that will stop them loving him unprofessionally but they acknowledge that Martin is yours. I'd like to see him when I get back, if only to say thank you."

"What for?" Carol asked.

"Years ago he took me to several ballet performances. At the time I didn't appreciate them as much as I should have, but the memory stayed. I particularly remembered one event which included a pre-performance back stage visit. I was impressed by the dancers' obvious fitness and stamina. Several years later I became involved in football training for a Women's team. They were told that ballet practice might help. So I enrolled them all for ballet classes and of course I had to go too. Now I'm qualified to teach ballet to amateurs. That's where I'm going now."

"In those boots?" Carol was incredulous.

"Of course not. These are steel toe-capped. I'm wearing them to protect my sore toes, sore from the ballet pointes. I'll change when I get there."

As Janis was speaking she waved a booted foot in the air in my line of vision. They were heavy boots with a floral pattern.

"I'm sure Martin can hear everything, Janis. You can, can't you? Blink once for yes."

I blinked. Once.

"OK, Martin. Thank you for the ballet. I wish I could do more for you. But I'll leave you in Carol's capable hands, or rather between her breasts."

Janis bent over and kissed me.

I heard her boots clumping off down the corridor. I rested between Carol's breasts, almost asleep and enjoying where my head was cradled.

Suddenly there was a commotion outside with several female voices shouting loudly and several thumps like several people falling to the floor. One of the armed Policewomen was shouting into her radio.

Carol carefully laid me down, hurriedly climbed off the bed and went to the door. She looked out carefully before locking the door on the inside. She stood between me and the door.

"Don't worry, Martin," she said.

Her tone of voice didn't convince me. Carol was scared. She watched the door carefully for several minutes. I could hear an alarm bell sounding, not a fire alarm, a different set of distinct rings.

Carol moved aside. I saw Janis' face appear in the glass of the door. Carol unlocked it and Janis came in. Her hair was dishevelled but she seemed exultant.

"What happened?" Carol asked.

Janis perched on the side of my bed.

"I was just about to leave the hospital when I saw a woman dressed in a long black cloak with a large headscarf approach the front desk. She asked for directions to this wing of the hospital and was told which lift to take. I wasn't convinced that she was a woman, nor that she should be in the hospital so I took the lift with her."

"What happened?" Carol asked.

"I became even more suspicious. If she had been wearing a face veil I would have been sure. She wasn't, but her headscarf was pulled well forward, hiding her face unless you were immediately in front of her. She had a shoulder bag but from the way it swung it seemed to have only one heavy item in it. As she got out of the lift she turned this way. At the corner of the corridor she peered around, presumably saw the armed policewomen and reached into her bag. She started to pull out what looked to me like a large gun.

I was a few steps behind her walking as quietly as I could but she was fixed on the policewomen. I got even closer and said 'Can I help you?' She turned, tried to pull the gun free, but I kicked her in the balls she shouldn't have."

"With those boots?"

"With one of them. If I say so myself it was one of my best kicks. She doubled up clutching her balls. The gun went flying along the corridor. I punched her on the chin, shoved her head down to meet my rising knee. She was groaning on the floor as I ripped off her headscarf, grabbed her arms and tied her wrists behind her back. I shouldn't have done, but in the seconds before the policewomen reached me, I kicked her in the ribs several times."

"But she wasn't a she?"

"No. She was a he. A young, clean shaven man with a babyish face and damaged balls, probably with broken ribs, certainly with a broken nose. The police have arrived in numbers and he's being taken away. Whether he will be able to ask any questions until his injuries are treated, I don't know. I don't care. I should have kicked him more."

"Thank you, Janis."

Startled, the two of them looked at me. I had spoken. My first words since I was shot. I couldn't believe it, myself. But Janis had saved my life, probably the lives of the two policewomen, and Carol had been prepared to defend me as well. I didn't deserve such devotion. A tear rolled down my cheek.

Janis reached out with her finger and touched the tear.

"You did it for strangers. I'm glad I could do it for you."

She kissed me.

"But now I must go. I think I'll have to cancel my ballet class because I'll be too busy with the Police. I'll see you in a couple of weeks."

Then she was gone. Carol hugged me fiercely.

"Thank you too, Carol," I said.

"Why thank me?"

It took more effort to say a longer sentence.

"Because you stood between me and the threat."

Saying that took almost too much from me. I shut my eyes, only to open them again as Carol kissed me.

She pulled away suddenly as several policemen, most armed, entered the room. One was obviously very senior.

"I'm sorry, Mr Thomas," he said, "but we will have to move you. If it hadn't been for your friend Janis..."

"I know. She told me. Is he badly injured?"

The policemen laughed.

"He will be walking very carefully for the next few weeks. But you can talk?"

Carol answered for me.

"He has managed a few words since the attempted attack -- his first. I don't think he can say much, yet."

"That's OK. We will need to interview him about the gunman he tackled but we have video from several mobile phones. It looks as if Mr Thomas saw the gun and reacted almost instantly. We have been able to question the gunman in hospital..."

I raised an eyebrow. Why 'in hospital'?

"You didn't know? Your tackle cracked his hip and the impact on the pavement broke his arm in two places. He has fractured vertebrae in his neck. If you had tackled like that on a Rugby pitch you would be facing a ban for several matches. The scrum of police and bystanders that followed you broke several ribs and his other arm."

"Good." I said.

"It might deter him from another attempt if he ever gets out of jail. He is wanted by the US when we have finished with him. We think the man who was outside was his much younger brother. We have been trying to find him. He was possibly hiding as a fully veiled woman. He is slight enough to get away with that. Back to what I said. This room is too accessible. We thought that the threats to you were just posturing. That was a mistake that could have been fatal to you and my officers. We'll move you within the hour."

I nodded.

"There's no reason why he shouldn't be moved, is there, Sister?" He said to Carol.

"Don't ask me. I'm not assigned to his case. You'll have to ask Doctor Mary Smith."

"So why were you with him?"

I answered before Carol could. My hand grabbed hers. I surprised myself and her with that movement.

"Because she's my girlfriend," I said.

"You are fortunate in your girlfriends," the Policeman said wryly. "They don't talk to the media, they seriously damage a potential assassin, and this one is a Sister in this hospital."

"I know. I'm grateful to them all and to Janis. But Carol is my girlfriend."

"OK. I'll leave you two lovebirds alone, but you'll be moving within the hour."

He left, followed by the other policemen.

I was still holding Carol's hand.

"Your girlfriend, Martin?" she asked.

"If you'll have me."

"Of course I will," she replied. She kissed me long and hard.

There was so much I wanted to ask Carol about her life between our previous relationship and now, but the little talking I had done had exhausted me. She had to leave me about twenty minutes later and I went back to sleep.

I woke up when two hospital porters came into the room.

"Hello Mate," one of them said. "We're here to move you. You don't have to do anything. We're taking you with the bed and all this equipment -- if we can get through the crowd of armed police outside."

"But you don't need them," another porter said. "Just one of your many girlfriends would be an effective bodyguard. That bloke she tackled is in a bad way. His balls are split open, his nose is broken, as are several ribs. I wouldn't want to argue with her. What is she? A Karate black belt?"

"A ballet dancer," I croaked.

"Wearing steel-capped Doc Martens," the first porter added. "He won't be doing anything with the virgins he thought he might get, or anyone. Even thinking about what she did makes me wince."

The thought of his injuries made me wince too.

"I wouldn't want her as a girlfriend," the second porter said. "I can't imagine having a domestic argument with someone like her. I'd be in intensive care in minutes."

"Yes, Harry, she's not like your wife. She's soft..."

"As is yours, Bert. We're lucky in our wives. They must have been soft in the head to choose us."

"And we're glad they are. Making love to mine is like sinking into a soft mattress. Martin's girlfriend would be like wrestling a tigress..."

They continued talking. I closed my eyes as we seemed to move along interminable corridors and in and out of two lifts. At last my bed was wheeled through two sets of heavy doors and into a larger room.

"Sorry about the view, Mate," Bert said. "There isn't one. That window," he pointed at the closed blinds, "Faces a blank wall. I suppose they think someone might have a go with a rifle. This room is usually reserved for dangerous criminals, not bleeding heroes."

Doctor Mary came in about quarter of an hour later.

"Hello Martin," she said. "We are going to scan your head again. Now you can move slightly and have managed to talk a few words, we think the swelling in your brain has reduced. The scan will check that. You won't know anything about it, because you'll be asleep, just like the last one."

Doctor Mary attached something to one of the bags of fluid suspended by my bed.

"That's the anaesthetic. It wouldn't be strong enough for an operation.

Normally it would just make you feel drowsy, but should be enough to send you to sleep while we move you to the scanning room. When you wake up, you'll be back here, and Madeleine will be with you."

Within minutes I was sound asleep.

MADELEINE

I woke up, opened my eyes, to find Madeleine lying beside me, her arm around my shoulders, and her breast against my check.

"Welcome back, Martin," she said. "I understand that you have started to talk and move a little. While you are still recovering there is something I want to do..."

She slid her arm out from under my shoulders and straddled my hips, lifting her skirt to show that she was naked underneath.

"Are you ready?" She asked.

Ready? My erection was answering for me.

"Yes," I croaked.

"Ready, but not prepared. Just a second."

Madeleine took a condom packet out of her skirt pocket, opened it and fitted it slowly. Just the touch of her hands was nearly too much. I tried to hold back as she lowered herself carefully.

"I'm just going to hold you at first, Martin, and let you get used to the idea you are inside me. I have been warned, no, instructed, to treat you gently."

I closed my eyes briefly. I couldn't believe that Madeleine was riding me so carefully. She had always been the dominant partner. Now she was repaying me, again.

Gradually she tensed her muscles around me. She played with my erection, first encouraging it and slowing down to a stop. Almost my whole awareness was concentrated on her contractions and slight movements. I was also watching her brown hair swaying gently around a smiling face above me.

Suddenly her movements, which hadn't altered their rhythm, were too much. I came into the condom and my whole body shuddered, far more movement than I had made for days.

"Well done, Martin!" Madeleine exclaimed. "You're coming back to life."

"Thank you, Madeleine," I said. "Thank you for being here for me."

"I was glad to. You have made me believe in myself again, after James.

This might be my last visit because you may be discharged soon, and Carol has plans for you. But it isn't over yet..."

It wasn't. Madeleine continued to hold me inside her until my erection returned. She rode me again, with more movement this time, until I came again.

She climbed off, removed and disposed of the condom, and cleaned me up. If she had given me the wet tissue I might have been able to do it myself. It was pleasant to have Madeleine doing it even though I was too spent to become erect again.

She stayed another quarter of an hour. Before she left she told me she would be in contact again once I had left hospital, but as no more than a friend. She was making way for Carol.

She kissed me long and sensuously before she went. I went back to sleep.

MARIE and CHLOE

The two nurses, Marie and Chloe, followed Doctor Mary into my room.

"I am going to remove your drip, Martin," Doctor Mary said. "I think you have recovered enough to start feeding yourself, with their help. OK?"

"Yes, Doctor Mary," I replied.

She removed the drip so expertly that I hardly noticed it going. Marie wheeled the drip support stand to the edge of the room.

"We don't need to keep you naked any more," Doctor Mary continued. "There are no injuries that need checking, but I have a question. I'm not sure whether I should ask you without the Police being here, but I will. Why have you got old bullet wounds?"

"I'm not sure I can tell you, unless you have a security clearance," I replied, trying to make light of it. I looked pointedly at the two nurses.

"Marie, Chloe, could you leave us alone for a couple of minutes?" Doctor Mary asked.

They left, shutting the door behind them. I could still see the outline of an armed Policeman outside.

"Well? There is no record of you being in the forces. So how?"

"I wasn't in the UK armed forces. I was in the Australian ones."

"Australian? There's no record of you leaving the UK for any length of time, except for holidays."

"There wouldn't be. Not as Martin. I went to Australia with my parents before they divorced there. There I was named as John and Martin was my middle name. Even my surname was different, my mother's. While there I joined the school Cadet forces and then the Australian Army. I was painfully shy. I think my original idea was that I might become more confident with women if I wore a uniform. That didn't work too well. I'm still shy with women. I fought in Borneo as part of the Australian Special Forces. I was good at it, so good that my enemies put a high price on my head, and so high that it was an embarrassment."

"What did you do to earn that?"

"I can't, or rather shouldn't, tell you. It is enough that when I was injured the Australians thought I should follow my mother back to the UK. I did, under my earlier name, and then changed it. If the security services had checked thoroughly they would have found an unexplained gap of several years in my life. My parents killed in the traffic accident were my mother and stepfather. My birth father still lives in Australia and has remarried."