The Backbone of Love

Troy grinned wolfishly as he stared at his wife.

Several feet ahead of him in the upscale gym, Anika was currently working out on an exercise equipment known as a "Roman chair". The tall, leggy blonde was secured on her feet at a 45-degree angle to the floor with her back fully erect and arms crossed over her chest in an "X". Slowly, she flexed at the waist until she formed an almost perfect upside-down "V".

Anika held the position for only a few seconds, but it was enough to give Troy--- and quite a few other onlookers--- an unimpeded view of her incredible ass.

The young man grinned inwardly. His wife may have appeared to be concentrating on her workout, but he knew better. Clad in form-fitting leggings and an equally snug sports bra which flaunted her perfect 34c breasts and impressive 6-pack, Anika had come dressed to impress and to work out.

Troy was in the midst of his own workout, but the gym was crowded and it was impossible not to notice all the other men staring lecherously at Anika. While a typical man would've been appalled to have others openly lusting for his hot wife, that was not the case for Troy. He proudly enjoyed the attention that Anika garnered more than she did!

It was a fetish that the young man couldn't quite understand, but unabashedly enjoyed.

Standing at a shade over 6ft tall, Anika was a model of health and fitness. Her smooth, unblemished skin was tan from a healthy outdoor lifestyle. Confident in her appearance--- Troy's wife had long considered career in modelling--- Anika's skimpy gym attire was ungodly flattering on her toned form. The woman's shoulders were broad and squarish, though not in a masculine way. And while naturally thick-boned, she possessed lean arms and legs that gave her a sleek, athletic appearance.

Anika exuded the power of an athlete yet moved with the grace of a ballerina.

The young blonde's shredded figure was born from hours of physical activity every week: working out at the gym, attending yoga and barre classes, and running over 10 miles every week with her husband and their training partners.

Troy may have referred to Anika as his "trophy wife" but, in terms of physical attractiveness, he considered himself her equal.

Anika's lean body contrasted with her husband's stout, muscular form. Barrel-chested with biceps the size of a lesser man's thighs, Troy radiated strength, confidence, and masculinity. The handsome young man believed he could bed any woman he wanted.

Not that he would ever betray Anika; he adored her and loved her more than life itself.

The couple had married not long after meeting each other in their early 20's. They were both fast approaching their next decade of life, and while they currently enjoyed a life without children the topic of starting a family was coming up more often. However, parenthood was not something that Troy was ready for; marriage still felt like dating, despite the fact that he was monogamous now, and he clearly wasn't ready for that type of responsibility.

As Troy continued on the incline bench press, he noticed an obese man on the machine next to him had paused and appeared to be staring into space with his tongue dangling. He followed the stranger's eyes and, sure enough, the sweaty man was staring at Anika!

Troy grinned smugly

The fact caused his gym shorts to tent.

Just 2 hours ago, Troy watched lustfully as his hot wife strip naked before donning her gym attire. It made him so hard that he bent Anika over, peeled down her leggings, and made heated love to her before cumming in her pussy with a loud roar. In retrospect, the young man felt guilty, even misogynistic, for not asking for his wife's permission first before fucking her.

Then again, Anika didn't seem to mind as she taunted him with dirty words.

Troy took a few moments to finish his last set of reps before rising. Hoping that the stranger was still gawking at her, Troy casually sauntered over to his wife. "You do realize that every guy in the gym is staring at your ass right now, right?"

The woman made a rude sound but didn't stop her workout. "Shut up."

"Seriously, Ani. I mean, it's like they purposely placed this piece of equipment front and center just for you so you can show off."

This time, Anika did stop, and stepped out of the Roman chair. "You're an asshole, babe, you know that?" But the woman's faint grin belied her amusement. Anika privately enjoyed that type of attention and it was oddly comforting--- if not slightly troubling--- that her husband liked to show her off.

Troy ogled his wife's chest. "Your tits always look so fucking incredible in a sports bra."

Anika looked around at crowded gym, horrified. "Omigod, will you shut up?"

"And those leggings make your ass look---"

The young blonde punched her husband in the shoulder, which would've pained a less stoutly man.

Troy's voice suddenly softened as he pulled Anika close and touched his forehead to hers. "I love you."

"I love you, too." Anika looked around again, but this time her expression was sly. "You know, babe," she began conspiratorially. "I've always fantasized about having sex in a men's locker room, and there are plenty of hot guys here. I would love to find one to fuck. We could start on a bench... imagine him pounding me so hard that we're rattling the lockers. Maybe could finish in the shower."

Troy's eyes widened. "Really?"

"I'm joking, you dumbass!"

"I almost wish you were serious, because that sounds so freakin' hot."

After the couple shared a laugh, Anika checked her cellphone. "Hey, babe. It's getting late. We're supposed to meet Ben for lunch in 20 minutes."

While Troy indulged in other men openly desiring his hot wife, it was always a strange feeling whenever she mentioned his best friend, Ben Riley. Troy and Ben had known each other since they were toddlers, and Ben was like the brother he never had. Troy had also introduced Ben to Anika not long after they began dating and over the years, they, too, had become extremely close. Almost as close as the young men were.

It was the worst kept secret in the world that Ben was in love with Anika.

Ben had ever said anything or acted inappropriately towards Anika, but it was the longing looks he gave her when he thought no one noticed that confirmed the obvious to Troy. The young men never discussed Ben's feelings for Anika, nor did Troy ever mention it to her. But his wife wasn't stupid; she must've been aware that his best friend--- her dear friend--- wanted her, even if she was too tactful to acknowledge it.

Troy trusted Anika and Ben completely; they often spent time together without him, and it never made Troy jealous nor did he ever attempt to discourage their friendship. But though it excited Troy whenever another man craved his wife, it felt much different when it pertained to Ben. At times, he felt like he was dangling the proverbial carrot: showing his best friend what he could never have. It was like taunting Ben, though that was never intentional.

It wasn't a love triangle, but more of a tragedy.

"Babe, did you hear me?" Anika's voice pulled Troy out of his thoughts. "I said we need to meet Ben soon."

"You mean Riley?" he asked more pointedly than he had intended.

The pretty young woman returned a look amusement. Her long blonde hair was tied in a ponytail, highlighting the poignant feature of her cheekbones and making her bright green eyes stand out even more. Bathed in sweat and clad in athletic attire that was so tight that it might as well have been another layer of skin, Troy didn't think that his wife could possibly look any hotter than she did right now.

"Babe, are you actually jealous?"

"Jealous? Of Riley? Of course not."

"Then why do you always call him by his last name?" Troy and Ben had been best friends since they could barely walk. Anika was very personable and who cared deeply about relationships, including her friendship with Ben, and it oddly felt like an insult whenever Troy referred to Ben by his surname. The young woman was about to pick a fight on their Ben's behalf, but thought better of it. "Never mind. Let's just get going."

As the couple headed to the exit, Troy pushed Anika's defense of their friend from his mind as he noticed the plethora of beautiful women. They were always in abundance at this particular gym, but there seemed to be much more than usual today. Troy smiled openly at all of them as his wife rolled her eyes.

He may have been married to the love of his life who also happened to be the sexiest woman he had ever met, but if there was one thing that Troy appreciated--- and had a weakness for--- it was a fit, scantily clad, female body.

And that weakness was what changed his life forever.

2 gorgeous Asian women happened to be walking towards him as he and Anika stepped outside. It was difficult to determine their age--- they could've anywhere between 17 or 40--- but they were dressed in similar gym clothes as his wife, showing as much skin, and only slightly less attractive than Anika. Asian women were another one of Troy's fetishes, and his head was on a swivel as they passed him on their way inside.

They returned his flirty smile as he looked back at them while continuing after his wife, and he was only vaguely aware that he had stepped off a curb.

He was undressing the women with his eyes when their flirtatious expression suddenly twisted into horror.

From somewhere ahead, he heard Anika's frantic scream.

"TROY, LOOK OUT!!!"

Troy turned just as a car slammed into him.

Then darkness.

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Troy had nightmares.

Shadowy faces stared down upon him as if he was being studied and dissected. Scary noises accompanied strange shapes on his periphery. It was as if he was viewing these images through a tiny keyhole from far away, or through a distorted lens that made everything into a blurry kaleidoscope. On some level, Troy was aware that he was dreaming. But the realization that he couldn't wake himself from his own nightmare terrified him even more.

Suddenly, he was falling... falling into dark pit. He tried to flail his arms and legs, and discovered to his horror that he couldn't. He was simply dead weight dropping to an endless bottom.

Troy tried to scream but couldn't that, either.

In the darkness of despair... in that terrifying moment when all hope was seemingly lost... a sliver of light suddenly appeared. Barely larger than a pinpoint at first, it grew brighter and brighter, the illumination revealing the distorted images around him and gradually bringing them into focus. A familiar face coalesced before him, brighter and more comforting than any light could ever be. Like a guardian angel, it hovered above him, and Troy's sheer terror was replaced by more than just relief.

Love.

Anika...

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Troy mumbled his wife's name as he slowly regained consciousness. But he lacked an awareness of time and place. Confused, he screamed out in panic.

"Anika!"

"I'm here, babe! I'm here!"

Troy felt his wife's firm but gentle hands caressing his face. His skull pounded from the worst headache ever, his throat was raw and painful, and his chest hurt with every breath. A burning sensation radiated down from his shoulders to fingertips, and his upper torso felt as though it had been used as a punching bag.

Troy couldn't feel anything below his waist.

It took a moment for the young man's eyes to adjust to the light. But when they finally did, Anika was the first thing he saw and it immediately gave him relief. His wife was the solution to everything. Troy gazed up weakly.

Anika smiled with a palpable love that made that reminded Troy how lucky he was to be her husband. "I'm so glad you're awake." She could barely speak above a whisper, and her eyes brimmed with joyful tears. "I'm so glad you're back! We weren't sure if you would..." She couldn't bring herself to finish the sentence, and suddenly lurched forward to hug him.

Troy was still regaining his senses, and but immediately realized that something was off. He looked at his wife more closely, and noticed how pale Anika appeared. She was still more beautiful than any woman he had ever seen, of course, but her face was gaunt, and there was a strained, haunted look around her eyes.

Something was definitely wrong.

Troy's entire body felt rubbery and wrong in a sense that he couldn't explain. Intuitively, everything felt wrong. "What's going on?" he demanded hoarsely.

"Babe, try not to move."

"What going on?" Troy demanded again with rising panic.

The young man suddenly realized that he was lying in a strange bed. He looked at his arms and discovered that they were both in hard casts, from his hands all the way up past his elbows. His mind couldn't process what he was seeing.

Then he looked at his legs.

Several large metal rods and screws protruded from them. The metal appeared bulky and heavy, and his initial thought was that they looked like something straight out of a horror movie. And what little Troy could see of his legs beneath the rods and screws, they looked horrifically emaciated.

He gaped his lower half incomprehensibly as if it belonged to someone else.

Troy didn't realize that he was also attached to a heart monitor--- as well as to other machines and IV's--- until it started beep as his heart rate rose rapidly.

Fear and confusion threatened to overwhelm him.

But Anika was there once more. "Babe, look at me." When he continued to stare at himself in horror, she drew closer until she was directly in front of his face. "Look at me. You're ok. Everything is going to be ok."

"Ani, what happened?"

To his surprise, Anika hesitated and appeared as though she might breakdown. Troy wase still groggy and couldn't comprehend the gravity of the situation. But he had regained enough of his senses to realize that something terrible had befallen him, and dread seized his heart.

A man wearing a white lab coat materialized next to his wife. "Welcome back, Mr. Jorgensen," he began gently. "I'm Dr. Steven Adler. There are some things we need to discuss."

"Will somebody PLEASE tell me what's going on?" Troy cried desperately.

Dr. Adler began to speak, but Anika intervened. "Please, doctor. Let me." The doctor nodded, and Anika looked at her husband. She decided to be gentle but direct. "Babe, you're currently at Center City Hospital. You were hit by a car while we were leaving the gym." She paused. "Do you remember?"

Troy gaped as snippets of memory slowly flashed in his head.

"You were hurt pretty badly," Anika continued quietly. "The doctors had to perform several surgeries on you. We weren't sure if you were going to make it." Tears began to roll down her pretty face again, though she immediately wiped them away. "But you DID make, and that's all that matters."

Troy was feeling sick to his stomach as he attempted to process everything. Though he couldn't recall their faces, he vaguely remembered the 2 Asian girls and also wondered about the driver who hit him. "Was anyone else hurt?"

"No."

Well, at least that's some good news, he thought. "How long was I out?"

Anika tensed. "You were in a coma for over a month."

Troy was too stunned to speak, but the heart monitor began beeping in warning again.

"Babe, please. Try to stay calm. I know it's a lot to take in. But everything is going to be alright. I'm going to call your family and Ben, and let everyone know that you're awake. They're going to be so happy! Everything is going to be ok. I promise."

Anika placed her hand on his, and Troy wanted to cry when he discovered that he was too weak to squeeze it. "How bad is it?" he whispered.

Dr. Adler stepped next to Anika. "Mr. Jorgensen, maybe it's better that you rest for now. You, literally, just woke up from a coma. There's much that we need to discuss, but you should get your strength back first. Let me recheck your vitals. And if you need something to sleep, I can prescribe---"

"HOW BAD IS IT?

Dr. Adler first looked at his patient then at Anika, who nodded. "You suffered massive head trauma, Mr. Jorgensen. You had intracranial bleeding, which is bleeding inside your skull. The neurosurgeons had to perform a craniotomy to relieve the pressure."

"Craniotomy?"

"They removed part of your skull to drain the blood. Then they reattached the bone during a subsequent surgery."

"Oh god..."

"I know this is hard to believe, but you were lucky in the sense that you didn't suffer permanent brain damage... from the injury itself or from the surgeries.

The idea that part of his skull had been surgically removed and reattached sickened him. Without thinking, he touched his head and found that it was heavily bandaged. He quickly withdrew as if the bandages were a sharp knife or poisonous animal. "What about my arms and legs?" He needed to change the subject. Nothing could be worse than knowing that he nearly suffered permanent brain damage.

"Without getting too technical, you suffered multiple fractures throughout your body. Your arms have been healing well. However, your spinal cord was severely injured between the C8 and T1 levels..." Dr. Adler's voice trailed off as he looked at Anika for further guidance, and the young woman was openly pained and had to look away. The doctor, however, remained stoic as he dutifully continued, "The damage to your spinal cord was fairly extensive, Mr. Jorgensen. Luckily, it wasn't completely severed and you have what we call an 'incomplete' injury, so there's a chance that you might regain feeling in your legs. But I need to be honest with you, son. In my best professional opinion, you're most likely looking at permanent paralysis in your lower extremities."

Permanent paralysis...

Troy's life up until this point flashed before his eyes.

The happiest events he had ever experienced... moments with his family... all the trouble that he and Riley had gotten into in their youth... his first kiss at 14... being a 5-star athlete in high school... pledging a fraternity in college... and, of course, meeting and eventually marrying Anika... he was able to recall them all so vividly as if a fog was lifted from his brain.

He relived the accident in his mind, an event that he was starting to remember with increasing clarity.             

He tried to picture his future or, more accurately, the future that he had once envisioned for himself and Anika. Living a healthy life with his wife and growing old together as they were surrounded by a horde of children and great-grandchildren. But that future suddenly no longer seemed possible.

Permanent paralysis...

Troy began to scream, and not even Anika could calm him down.

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Denial. Anger. Bargaining. Depression.

Troy began to experience the stages of grief as he began his physical rehabilitation process.

Denial that his life had changed in the blink of an eye.

Anger about the loss of control over his own body, much less his life.

Bargaining in the sense that he was ruminating on his past and predicting the worst for his future.

Depression that he would never be able to walk again and, even worse, the life that he had expected for himself was no longer possible.

The start of Troy's physical rehabilitation was a test, not only of his body, but of his mind and spirit, as well.

The casts on his arms as well as the metal rods and screws, which he eventually learned were called "external fixators", on his legs were eventually removed. And though the young man still couldn't feel or move anything below his waist, regaining full use of his upper extremities did give him some comfort. But though he had survived a terrible accident and was on the road to recovery, in some ways Troy felt like his nightmare was just beginning.