Quirk of the Brain

Disclaimers

If you find any errors, please remember they are there for a purpose. I am striving to include something for everyone, and some people are always looking for mistakes.

This is a story. It is not a story about what you would do in this situation, or even what you think should be done. There would be no point in writing a story where everyone's reaction is the same. This overlooks the individuality of the characters and what they, as created by the author, would do. That may not align with what you would do. Please try to keep that in mind when reading.

Any participants in sexual activity are 18 and over.

Word Count: 12,256

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QUIRK OF THE BRAIN

It's strange how things work sometimes.

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It was late.

Diana wasn't sure how late, but damn sure too late for someone to be calling.

She hoped it was Marty's phone and not hers. Either way she just covered her face with a pillow and audibly said 'thank you' when it stopped after the fifth ring.

She had just gotten comfortable when the ringing started again.

"Damn it!" she yelled as she opened her eyes again. "Martin, answer your God damn..."

The words stopped suddenly as she realized her husband wasn't in bed with her. She glanced at the clock -- 3:37am -- as she picked up her phone off the nightstand and wondered why her husband wasn't in bed now. He had been there when they went to bed a few hours ago.

"Yes, hello, hello?" she muttered into the phone.

"Is this Diana Miller?"

"Yes, yes, it is. Who's this?

"You are the wife of Martin Miller?"

"Yes, for God's sake, yes! Who is this?"

"Mrs. Miller, this is the emergency room at North Town Medical Center. Your husband was brought in about an hour ago and we still had your contact information from the incident a year ago. He's been in an accident. Would it be possible for you to come down right away?"

"Oh my God! Is he okay?"

"I'm not at liberty to discuss his condition over the phone, ma'am. Could you please come down?"

"Yes, of course. I'll be there as soon as I can."

She ran upstairs where her daughter was sleeping. Dallas (named after the city in which she was conceived) was attending the local university but living at home to save money. She'd enjoyed the dorm experience for her freshman year but as a sophomore didn't think living near campus would be conducive to her studies.

"Dal, wake up."

Nothing.

"Dally, wake up."

This time with a little shove on her shoulder. Still nothing.

"DALLAS, WAKE UP!"

Dallas sat up straight in bed and tried to force her hazy eyes to focus. The light in the room was on. That had been a short night.

"Dallas, your father has been in an accident. He's in the emergency room. You need to get dressed. We need to go."

She rolled out of bed and pulled her nightshirt off over her head, giving no thought to the fact that she was standing naked in front of her mother at the age of 20, having long ago given up wearing bras or panties to bed. It wasn't like they had never seen each other naked before. Dallas stretched to her full 5'4" height and her left hand unconsciously scratched the stubbly brown hair growing in on her mons. She really needed to shave.

For her part, Diana didn't even notice as she was too busy pulling an outfit out of Dallas' drawers.

Finally dressed, the two women drove to the hospital as quickly as they felt safe doing. Dallas started peppering her mother with questions about what happened but Diana had no more information than she had already given. It seemed like an eternity before they got there but was only about 10 minutes, given the lack of traffic this time of night/morning.

There was a space near the entrance and Diana swung the car in at a poor angle but didn't care at all as they leapt from the vehicle and headed inside. They were shown to Martin's room in the ER and were shocked at his condition. He was well bandaged and clearly unconscious.

They were given forms to fill out. Your grief doesn't exempt you from paperwork. Dallas moved her chair so she could be close to her father. They were there for about an hour before a man and a woman in police uniforms entered.

"Good evening, ma'am. I'm officer Gail Stanton and this is my partner, Robert Hanson. We were first on the scene of your husband's accident. Any word on how he's doing?"

"No one has said anything to us, officer," Diana answered. "Oh, this is my daughter, Dallas."

"We need to ask you a few questions. I know the timing is bad but it's best to do it as soon as possible."

"Of course."

"Do you know what your husband was doing out this time of night?"

"That's the funny thing, He was home and we went to bed together at around 10:00pm. I didn't even know he wasn't there until the hospital called."

"Ma'am," officer Stanton said to Dallas. "Can you confirm that?"

"Actually, I can. We had been watching a movie on TV that ended at 10, and then we all went to bed. I saw dad go into the bedroom with mom."

"What movie?" the officer asked.

"Something with Keanu Reeves. Some action movie. Dad picked it. It was his turn."

"Were you folks having any particular issues? Financial problems, maybe? Or marital?"

"Nothing that all married couples don't face. No particular problems, no. I just don't understand why he was out without me knowing. Are the people in the other car hurt?"

"Well, that's the thing, Mrs. Miller. This was a one-car accident. And according to both witnesses, your husband's vehicle was driving normally and then rather suddenly accelerated directly into the large oak tree that sits at the corner of highways 121 and 288. There were no skid marks and no one recalls seeing brake lights."

Diana and Dallas looked at the officers as the realization of what they were suggesting became clear.

"Are you implying that my husband did this on purpose? That he tried to kill himself?

"We still have to examine the vehicle for possible mechanical failure, and of course we'll need to speak with your husband when he wakes up. But that is certainly one possibility we are considering, yes. Are you sure there were no problems you can think of."

"Officers, I love my husband very much, and we have a wonderful marriage. No, there are no problems that I can think. I'm sure this was just a matter of him losing control or dozing off. It was very late. I'm sure there is a...reasonable..."

Diana burst into tears and was unable to complete her sentence. Officer Stanton laid one of her cards on a table, asking them to call if they thought of anything else, then made their way out of the hospital. Dallas closed the door to Martin's room for privacy.

"You didn't tell them."

"No, Dallas, I didn't," answered her mom as her tears subsided. "It's none of their business and had nothing to do with this. Your father was fine with it."

"If it did, he'll say something when they talk to him."

"We'll cross that bridge then."

[::::::::::}

The next few days passed slowly for everyone. Martin remained unconscious and had been admitted to the hospital, and Diana and Dallas spent as much time as there as they could. They were often there together but made sure he was never alone.

Fortunately, Diana knew Martin's boss and called him to let him know what happened, and that he would be missing work. She carefully avoided saying anything that would cause anyone to think this might have been an attempt on his own life.

The accident had taken place on Saturday night/Sunday morning, and Martin eventually started to show signs of waking on Wednesday morning. By that afternoon his eyes were open, though with all the medical equipment attached to him he couldn't do much more than look around.

Diana was there and noticed, coming to his bedside to reassure him that everything was going to be okay. Seconds later, a nurse came into the room hurriedly, something on the monitors alerting her that her patient was awake. Diana returned to her seat to allow the nurse to do her work.

Soon, more medical personnel came into the room to check on Martin. Diana took the opportunity to step outside to call Dallas to let her know her father had woken up. Dallas did not answer so she left a voice mail.

Soon, much of the medical paraphernalia was removed. Martin's left arm had been broken, but he was right-handed and did not expect it to hinder him too much. His throat was raw from the tube, so he was given a white board so he could communicate. The nurse read the message and asked him if he was certain. Martin nodded his head.

The nurse quickly went into the hallway while tests continued.

"Mrs. Miller, I must inform you that your husband has asked that you not be allowed back into his room. Your daughter either."

"What! He's my husband, I have a right to be in there with him."

"I'm sorry, Mrs. Miller, but the patient's wishes come first."

"Let me just talk to him, we'll straighten this out."

Diana tried to get past the nurse but never got close, so she resorted to shouting.

"Martin, Martin, please talk to me. What's going on? Martin! Martin!"

"Mrs. Miller, please stop shouting. You're disturbing our other patients. Now, you can wait outside the room if you want, but if we catch you trying to enter the room or causing a ruckus we'll have you escorted out of the building. Am I clear?"

"Yes, you're clear," Diana responded, with little choice but to do otherwise.

Dallas finally made it to the hospital 45 minutes later. She found her mother sitting in a chair outside the room.

"Mom, why are you out here?"

"Your father has banned us from the room."

"Both of us. I mean, I can see why he'd ban you, but why me?"

"What the hell does that mean? And what took you so long to get here?"

"I had just woken up when Bradley stopped by to see how I was doing. We kind of..."

"Jeez. You were screwing your boyfriend rather than being here for your father?"

"Sorry mom, but he was still unconscious when I left," replied Dallas in a tone that indicated she was not sorry. "This has been really stressful and I needed...to get unstressed. It worked really well, for what it's worth. When you get a chance, you should call..."

"No Dallas. I'm not going to do that. And let's not talk about that right now. It's disrespectful."

The irony made Dallas chuckle.

[::::::::::}

There was a knock on the door followed by the entry of a tall, very attractive brunette. She was dressed professionally but not like a doctor, though her badge gave her away as a staff member.

"Good morning, Mr. Miller. I'm Doctor Lasseter, one of the hospital's mental health specialists. How are you feeling?

"As well as can be expected, I suppose."

It had been 9 days since the accident. He had regained the ability to talk, the white board a thing of the past. He'd asked about when he might be released and could never get a straight answer. Until now.

"The hospital has asked me to spend some time speaking with you. Would that be all right?"

"Do I have a choice?"

"Not if you want to go home anytime soon. I do have to clear you to be released," the shrink replied, a bemused smile on her face.

"Then let's get this going."

Dr. Lasseter pulled one of the chair over to the bedside and sat, crossing her long legs. She took a few minutes to review the file she was carrying.

"Okay, so you were brought in a little over a week ago following an accident that involved you and a large tree. I also see that you've banned your wife and daughter from visiting, and I suspect those things are somehow related."

"Got it in one," Martin replied. "She'd been cheating on me."

"Unfortunately, not a rare occurrence these days, though it rarely leads to this kind of reaction. Is there more to it?"

Martin went silent for several minutes. He didn't really want to talk about this, especially with a pretty female doctor. He wondered if they had a guy, a really old guy he could talk to. Dr. Lasseter waited patiently. This was not the first time she'd had to wait for someone to get themselves to start talking. Her patience was rewarded.

"I was suffering from...depression, I guess. Nothing that was diagnosed or anything. I was just, well, like I said, depressed."

"About anything in particular, or just in general."

"I hadn't...I couldn't...I haven't been able to get an erection since...in a little over a year."

"Since the previous accident, right?"

Of course she knew. She probably had his whole medical history in her hands. She just wanted to make him say it."

"Right. It wasn't even a bad accident. I was in the back seat, my boss in the passenger seat, and his boss driving. We got hit from behind. There were no airbags or even very much damage, but I hadn't been prepared for it. I got some whiplash and hit my head on the seat in front of me. I assume that's what did it."

"The report says you had a mild concussion and the whiplash," the doctor interjected.

"My doctors couldn't explain it. None of the ED drugs worked even a little bit. They ran a bunch of tests, some more than once, and the best explanation I got was that 'something' had happened and part of my brain was damaged."

"So, you couldn't get an erection, which led to your wife eventually becoming dissatisfied with your sex life, which in turn led to her taking a lover. This eventually wore you down and led to the events of that evening. Is that about right?"

"In a nutshell, yes."

"And how long was it before your wife took that step?"

"Seven or eight months, I guess. We tried taking care of things orally, and got some toys to simulate, you know..."

"The penetration. I understand how it works, Mr. Miller. I've had sex before."

"Of course, sorry. I'm just a little uncomfortable. Um, anyway, that was okay at first, but we were still hoping my...ability would come back. We'd talk about staying in bed all weekend, really have a good time. That never happened, of course. Eventually it went on so long that she decided to get her needs taken care of elsewhere."

"Did she discuss this with you beforehand?"

"No. I found out about it when I came home from work early. A tired cliché, I know. And not only was she home with her lover but my daughter and her boyfriend were at it, too."

"They were doing it as a group?" Dr. Lasseter asked, the shock evident in her voice.

"No, thank God. Diana and Bill were in the bedroom, and Dallas and Brad were in the living room. That's how I found out that my wife was cheating on me and my daughter knew about it, and apparently approved."

"Which explains why your daughter was banned as well."

"Yes. Oh, and if I didn't mention this before, Bill is Brad's father. We knew him casually before as our daughter's boyfriend's father. I found out later that it was Dallas that suggested Bill to her mother. That's another strike."

"Did you confront them?"

"Not right then. Maybe if Dallas hadn't been there I would have confronted Diana, but I'd already seen enough of my daughter's anatomy. I left and waited until that night."

"How did that go?"

"Not what I expected. She was sorry I found out but made it clear that if I was unable to take care of her she would have it done by someone else, and she preferred a 'regular partner', as she put it, to having to find someone new every time. Bill was unattached and had similar needs so he was her choice."

"What did you do?"

"What could I do? She was right about my not being able to take care of business. It wasn't her fault that I couldn't perform so she did what she had to do."

"What if, hypothetically, she had asked you beforehand. Would you have agreed?"

"You know, I've thought about that a lot, and part of me wanted to say I would have been agreeable because I loved her and wanted her to be happy. But I don't think I would have been okay with it. We made vows, we made promises, and one of those was 'in sickness or health'. I wouldn't have done it to her so I couldn't be okay with her doing it to me."

"Obviously, she continued seeing him."

"Obviously. And now that I knew about it, she was less discreet about it. I don't know if she started doing it more often, since I don't know how often they'd been doing it before, but where before it had been limited to during the day while I was at work, now there were trips to the store on the weekend, and some of that time was clearly spent with Bill."

"That must have been difficult."

"Difficult doesn't even begin to describe it. But again, I didn't think there was anything I could do. She deserved a sex life and I couldn't provide it, but the whole thing was killing me."

"Tell me about the night of the accident."

"We'd watched a movie on TV as a family. We still had those nights, those moments. I kept my pain, the emotional pain that is, to myself. I guess that was a mistake but I didn't want to burden Diana or Dallas. They kissed and hugged good night while I got a 'good night' from Dallas as she walked in the other direction. I think that was the moment I realized she had totally lost respect for me as a father and as a man. I could hardly blame her since I didn't respect myself either.

"I got ready for bed as normal. Diana did the same. Everything was the same as it always was, every night, the same thing. I waited for Diana to fall asleep then got dressed and grabbed my wallet and keys. I went upstairs and peeked into Dallas' room. She was asleep, too. I blew her a kiss and said goodbye.

"I went and got into my car. I knew it had air bags but I thought if I hit hard enough it wouldn't matter. I didn't have a specific plan but just drove around. I was aware of the big oak tree but it wasn't my immediate destination. I drove by it the first time and realized there were no barriers and there was a pretty straight approach available. I drove around again and went straight for it."

They sat in silence for a few minutes, both allowing the tale to be processed in their brains. Finally, the doctor spoke.

"Mr. Miller, I want to thank you being so open and honest with me today. That's something of a rarity. I'm going to let you get some rest and take some time to process what you've told me. Would it be all right if I came back tomorrow?"

"I'm not going anywhere," he quipped.

They shook hands and Dr. Lasseter left the room. Martin picked up his cell phone, which he'd left at home that night and which Diana had brought to him before he banned her, and answered a few texts and emails. Included in that was giving his boss an update. Then he closed his eyes and tried to get some sleep.

[::::::::::}

Back home, Diana was trying to keep it together. She had been under the impression that Marty was fine with her time with Bill, that he gave it to her as a gift because he loved her so much. Even when she first heard about the...incident (she no longer believed it was an accident) she was sure it had nothing to do with that, but now she wasn't so sure.

She suspected the police had spoken to her husband but hoped he didn't say anything about her relationship with Bill. The police hadn't contacted her again, but since it wasn't technically a crime to have sex outside your marriage, maybe they just wrote it up as a suicide attempt and left it at that. Case closed.

Still, he had never actually objected...had he? If he did she couldn't remember it. And besides, she was not going to live her life in celibacy just because some idiot decided to rear end her husband's boss. That was not what she signed up for and she damned sure wasn't going to agree to it now. Once Marty came home she would make a point to be more aware of his feelings, more discreet about her times with Bill, but no way was she giving it up.

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The next morning, Dr. Lasseter stopped by as promised. She followed the same process of getting one of the non-descript, sturdy chairs that each room had two of and took a seat. Marty watched in amusement. And noticed what a nice ass the good doctor had squeezed into that skirt. Alas, little Marty remained a recluse.