Cheer Up!

The next morning, Luke headed off to work bright and early. He gave me a sweet goodbye kiss, then pulled back to look into my eyes. "Really, Angela, I mean it. You're the best thing that has ever happened to me."

I smiled coyly. "Is that you talking...or the banana pudding I made for you?"

He grinned. "It's me...but the banana pudding sure didn't hurt things." He stroked at my hair. "I love you."

"I love you too," I replied.

He pressed a quick kiss to my lips, then bounded out the door. I cleaned up the kitchen, then headed out to tend to my farm. I was tugging at a stubborn weed late in the morning when I heard the phone ringing from inside the house. I very rarely got phone calls, so I was extremely curious as to who was calling me. Maybe it was Luke telling me that he couldn't get away for lunch. I quickly wiped the dirt off my hands and stepped into the house, picking up the receiver. "Hello?"

An unexpected voice came in on the other end. "Angela?" an old woman's voice asked. I struggled to figure out who it was, but she told me. "This is Irene, from the clinic. You...You'd better come down here. There's been an accident, and...Luke's been hurt."

I managed to give some reply, and then I let the receiver slip out of my fingers back onto the phone stand. I stood, staring at the wall unblinkingly for several moments. I felt completely numb, but I somehow shook myself awake and made myself leave the house. I walked down the path, my limbs feeling heavy and dead. I tried to tell myself, maybe it's not that bad. Maybe he got bit by a raccoon, or tripped over some logs or something. As I got closer and closer to down, I picked up my pace, until I was running. I burst through the clinic door, my head whipping around frantically.

Irene appeared from behind the curtained area at the back, and motioned for me to follow. I didn't feel very cheered by the grim look on her face, but I reminded myself that the woman always looked grim. Shaking, I moved behind the curtain with her. I looked down at the bed there, and the whole world seemed to swallow in on me.

There was Luke, laying very still. His bandanna was gone, replaced with a thick swath of bandages. I glanced at the table by the bed, and there was his bandanna...soaked in blood. Everything got black around me, and I could feel myself swaying on my feet, then I was aware of nothing.

I came to later. Irene was dabbing my face with a cold cloth. I cracked my eyes open and looked around, hoping it had all been a bad dream. But I looked ahead of me, and there was Luke, still motionless. Dr. Jin came in and pulled up a stool to sit near me. "There was an accident at his work site. I'm not sure exactly what happened, but they were in an older part of the building, and a support beam collapsed. He was pinned for a while, and he's sustained some head trauma. Also, his shoulder was dislocated, so we've had to sedate him. We're not sure as to the extent of his injuries... we just have to wait and see."

I nodded and swallowed, my mouth feeling dry. I stood up cautiously and stepped forward, stroking lightly at Luke's arm. I stared down on him in wonder, still not truly believing that this could be happening. His face was covered in cuts and bruises. Luke looked so unnatural being that still - he even moved around when he was asleep. I turned around and pulled the chair I had been sitting in up closer to the bed, and laid my head down on it, looking at his still body. His chest rose and fell reassuringly...at least he was still breathing. I reached forward and toyed with the wedding band on his finger, running my fingertip over the flames carved into it.

I don't know how much time passed where I was staring at him like that, just watching him breathe. Eventually, I sat back up in the chair. This couldn't be happening. I had always felt like I could deal with anything in the world as long as I had Luke - but I hadn't considered that something could happen to him. What if he never woke up? I started to feel very scared and alone. I had been used to being alone, having lost my parents as a kid, but I had grown to be comfortable with the fact that I had someone now. But...Luke was it for me. I had no other family, no other real friends. I was friendly with everyone in town, but there was no one I could actually call my friend. I was all alone in this...I hugged my knees up to my chest, and started sobbing uncontrollably. My whole body shook with the force of my sobs, and I felt more small and helpless than I had ever felt in my life. All alone...

I felt someone's hand on my shoulder, and through tear blurred eyes I looked at it. The chubby, callused fingers and the battered wedding band there struck a chord in my memory, and I turned around slightly, looking up. Dale looked down on me, his eyes red rimmed and sad. He pulled up a chair close beside me, and we both stared in silence at Luke, the only family that either of us had left. I turned on him, then I moved forward and grabbed onto his shirt, and started crying into his chest. He put an arm around me, patting me comfortingly, but I could hear that he was crying too.

Hours passed, and eventually, Dale stood up to go. "You should go home and rest, you know. You'll collapse if you just sit here all night," he advised me kindly.

"I know," I said, "but...I just want to stay a little bit longer." Dale nodded and then left. I sat, unmoving, for another hour or so. Irene came into the room, and without a word, she set up a cot on the other side of Luke's hospital bed. She placed a pillow and blanket there, giving me a kind smile as she did so.

"Come in here and eat some dinner with us," she urged, but I refused. She urged me again, and finally I consented, eating mechanically, and returning to Luke as soon as I could. He had yet to make a single movement, but I wasn't going to give up hope. I settled into the cot, staring up at his bed. I tossed and turned for hours, pausing to look up at him, sometimes sitting up all the way so that I could see his face, but finally, I fell asleep, if only to sleep fitfully.

I woke up in the morning, feeling groggy and exhausted. I stood up and yawned, then stepped forward to Luke's bed. I couldn't help but smile when I saw something that was so characteristically Luke; his hospital gown was poking up in a very suspicious place. I somehow felt reassured by this silly little detail, like everything was going to be like it always was. I reached down, pulling up some of the heavier covers over his body to hide his arousal from any visitors. As I covered him up, my hand brushed against his length. I started to turn away, but I wheeled back around when I heard Luke groan. "Hey, don't stop touching it," he murmured, his eyes still closed.

I rushed over to him, taking him by the hand of his uninjured arm. "Luke? Are you awake?"

"Yeah, yeah, I'm awake. Tell Pops to hold his horses, I'm gonna be on time to work," he mumbled, a little out of it.

My eyes shimmered with happy tears, and I bent down, covering his face in fluttery kisses. "Heh heh..." he chuckled, then he cracked open his eyes. My heart soared at seeing those beautiful golden eyes once again. He focused in on my face. "Whoa, what's wrong, honey? You're all crying and stuff." He slowly started to look around the room, taking in the situation. "What the fuck? Am I in heaven?"

I laughed. "No, Luke, you're in the hospital."

"Oh...it was a bear attack, wasn't it?"

I laughed again, brushing my tears away. "No, part of a building collapsed on you at work, and you got hurt kind of badly."

"Well...that's not as bad ass as getting attacked by a bear...but it'll do. Whoa, I still have my legs and stuff, right?" He looked panicked for a moment.

"Yes, you do. You just hit your head and were unconscious for about a day, and you dislocated your shoulder." I lightly touched his injured arm.

"Oh...my bandanna feels really tight," he lifted his uninjured arm to touch his head. "Huh?"

"It's a bandage," I explained. "Your bandanna kind of got ruined." I shuddered when I remembered seeing it soaked in blood.

"That's all right, I got more of those."

I just smiled down on him warmly, feeling extremely relieved and lucky. I suddenly realized that I should alert Jin and Irene that he was awake. After I called out for them, they quickly came into the room, assessing their patient. I stepped back so that they could do their work, and thought of something. I went into the lobby and picked up the phone there, dialing the carpenter's shop. A very tired sounding Dale answered, and I blurted out, "He's awake!" without any preamble or explanation. It wasn't needed, because Dale of course knew exactly what I meant.

He arrived at the clinic just a few minutes later, and we went into the back together. Luke was sitting up, looking just as cheerful as ever. "Hey, Pops! Now I know I'm not in heaven, because they wouldn't let a fat old grump like you in!" Dale responded to this cheery insult by laughing heartily, then breaking down into happy tears. I stepped over to him, patting him comfortingly on the arm as he rubbed his chubby knuckles into his eyes. I felt tears springing to my eyes once again, and I let them stream down my cheeks.

Luke laughed. "Aw, look at you two, all weepy over me. It'll take more than a house falling on me to stop me! It'd have to be like, three bears attacking me at the same time!" He tried to swing his arms wildly as he spoke, but winced and stopped. "Ow. I'm all broken."

I smiled widely at him, glad that he was back to his old self. Dale reached out and put his arm around me in a fatherly way, and I beamed up at him.

Luke piped up again. "See, Angela? I told you that you'd get over him seeing us doing it." I gasped, and stepped back from Dale sharply, my face burning with embarrassment.

"Gee, Luke, you always have a way of saying just the right thing," I teased. He just grinned.

Luke had to stay in the clinic for one more day, just for observation. They released him home with me the following day. His arm had to be immobilized for a few days, but other than that, he was fine. Once we got into the house, he scurried over to the bed, laying himself down on it awkwardly. He beckoned at me with his free hand. "Oh, hell yeah. I been waiting for this. I'm so horny, I think I'm gonna die."

I rolled my eyes, walking over to meet him. "Come on, take all your clothes off," he begged. "And...and then," he panted as he struggled to undress himself one handed. "Take my clothes off too." I just laughed, bringing my hands to the buttons of my blouse. I undressed myself, then leaned over him and worked on him. He had managed to unbutton and partially unzip his pants, and he had tugged his pants down on the side of his good arm. I pulled them the rest of the way off, along with his boxers, then hesitated over his shirt. I decided not to take it off, as I remembered what a pain it was to get it on over his injured arm this morning.

"Well, I guess there's only one way we can do it," I said as I clambered on top of him. I took hold of him with one hand, and slid myself down on him carefully. He groaned in pleasure, and I whimpered with desire as I moved further down. He tried to reach forward to grab at my hips, but winced with pain as his injured arm resisted the movement. He laid it back down and just grabbed me with his good arm.

"Now, kiss me," he pleaded, "A real kiss, not one of those wimpy ones like you had to give me because there were people around." I leaned down over him carefully, meeting our lips. I parted my lips, as did he, and we mingled our tongues together. We kissed more and more furiously, the emotions I had over the past few days flooding out in the form of passion. I lifted up from him and laid my hands on his stomach, which was exposed from his shirt being pulled up slightly. I began to grind into him, biting my lip and concentrating intently.

"Yeah...Angela..." he groaned brokenly. "Go...faster..." I complied, moving up and down on him as rapidly as I could. The bed squeaked loudly from the force of my movements. "Oh! Oh, that's it! Ahh!" he cried, and I felt him shudder hard underneath me. I pressed myself all the way against him, and rocked furiously until I was releasing as well. We stayed together, relishing the feeling afterwards. I finally climbed off of him, and lay next to him. He smiled at me, his face blissful, and I rejoiced that I had my Luke back safe and sound.