The fall Mark was eighteen, he was out biking with his friends. It was a twenty miler, and on the way back, on a hilly downgrade, one of his chums lost it just in front of Mark, who couldn't avoid the downed bike and went tumbling over it on his own machine.
He woke up in the emergency room, hurting like hell. Someone stuck a needle in his arm and everything went dark. When he woke up again, there was a stranger in his room. She said, "Hi, honey, how are you feeling? You've been out for twenty-four hours. You have a concussion and a bad cut on your forehead. But nothing else is broken. The doctor says you are very lucky because the EMT's scraped you off the pavement only inches from a post that would have broken your neck."
She looked at him anxiously. "Can you hear me? Do you understand what I am saying?"
His dark brown eyes with the long eyelashes stared at her unblinking. He said nothing. No part of his body moved. His head was covered with a large white bandage.
The doctor entered behind her and she jumped up, "He's not talking! Is there something wrong with his brain?"
The doctor put a hand on her shoulder. "He's been in an induced coma because we are worried about intracranial bleeding. His vitals, as you can see on that screen, are close to normal. There may be some bleeding but we do not see any signs of it yet. He is likely to have temporary amnesia after a fall like that. Your son is alive and doing well so far. You must be patient about his brain function. It may come back fast, or it may come back slowly. We will know more in several days. Please visit him twice a day, but don't spend all your time here. You have your own life to lead, and as long as he sees you daily, hears your voice, has you holding his hand, that will be best for him."
The doctor's voice sounded reassuring, but Deborah Collins was not reassured. Mark was her only child. After loving Mark's father and having him disappear back to Spain after impregnating her, and then divorcing the man who couldn't fill Mark's father's shoes, Debbie idolized the only male in her life, who hugged her every day and told her life was fine. Suddenly life wasn't fine for Mark and she was at a total loss about what to do. She trailed out of the room and called her boss, saying she would be at work after lunch.
The next several days proceeded as the doctor had predicted. Mark's body was recovering. His drips were removed, and the nurses helped him stand and walk to the bathroom. His appetite returned. But early every morning when Debbie appeared before going to work, Mark still stared silently at her showing no signs of recognition and uttering no words to her or to any of the medical staff.
On the fourth morning, the doctor appeared with another person and introduced her as the staff psychologist, Ms. Anderson, who said, "I know you are concerned, but patients with Mark's type of injury frequently do not regain speech for a while, sometimes a month or more. Physically, he is ready to go home from the hospital. His doctor and I were wondering if you would like him to come home. There are all the familiar things of his life there, and his mental recovery may be accelerated if he returns to that environment. For the first few days, I can arrange a day nurse to make sure someone is always there to help if needed."
On his second day back at home, Mark got out of bed, pulled on his workout shorts and went down to the gym in the basement. Sheila, the nurse in training who was looking after him, and had made a quick run to the store, searched with increasing anxiety for ten minutes before finding him working out. He was sweating and his muscled body gleamed. She tingled and thought that in other circumstances he might be a nice date, even if four years younger than she was.
He gestured for her to take off her uniform and join him on the apparatus. She said, "Mark, I can't work out with you in my underwear! I'd get fired in a minute if anyone found out."
He motioned to her to stay where she was and returned in a few minutes with workout clothes from his mother's closet.
She looked at him and smiled. "You are the strangest patient I have ever had. The handsomest too." She unbuttoned the uniform and asked, "Would you mind turning around?" He did and she got into the workout bra and shorts. They started a round of the stations. Soon, she was dripping herself and gasping for breath. Mark was doing every exercise with ease. Finally, she said, "Enough, you are lots better at this than I am, even after that nasty fall. Lead me to the shower."
He took them to the big shower with multiple nozzles in his mother's bedroom. He unselfconsciously stripped down and looked at her, his eyes implying they were going to shower together. She stared at him, smiled, and took off the sweaty workout clothes. She knew she had a fine body that he would appreciate. He got several of the nozzles going and she followed him behind the glass wall into the open shower. He held out the shampoo bottle and she ducked to get her hair wet before he squirted the fragrant liquid on her head. His hands were gentle but thorough. She'd never had a guy shampoo her hair before. She'd never been in a giant shower with a man before, especially one with a bandage still on his head, but a big cock between his legs that was nudging her ass.
As she ducked her head under the water again, his hands soaped her boobs and slipped down to her crotch. She jumped and said in his ear, "Hey, no fooling around. You've got me all hot, but I can't get into any sex with you."
He pinched her nipple, kissed her ear, and left her to finish alone.
When she had got back into her work uniform, she found him changing his bed sheets and fixing up the room so it didn't look like a hospital.
They foraged for lunch together in the kitchen. Fruit, some tuna salad, and a chocolate chip cookie. He held her hand and she kissed his cheek.
He went in the other room and came back with a pencil and pad. His words appeared slowly at first, then more rapidly.
"I couldn't remember anything that first day, not even my mother's name. I didn't talk because I didn't want to make a fool of myself. I've tried talking the last two days when you aren't here and it sounds terrible. All jumbled together. Will it come back?"
She had her arm around his shoulder and was reading as he wrote. She said, "Mark, give it some more time. Do everything you would normally do and don't worry about not talking."
He turned and she smiled at him. He pulled her head down and kissed her gently on the lips. She hesitated and then kissed him back. She asked, "Is that part of being normal?"
He nodded vigorously and then wrote, "I would like to go back to school, but will they let me if I don't talk? Maybe you can ask my teacher?" He wrote her name and phone number down on the paper.
