A Friend in Need

“Let me ask you something. I know the answer, and yet I find I still have to ask this because I can’t believe even you can be this stupid.”

He pushed on with his argument when he pointed out that my team had just come down from our last case and all that was left was going to be the paperwork. Even that much still left me wondering where this conversation was going. He sat there, looking at me like I was an idiot since I couldn’t figure out what his point was.

In the end he decided to try English.

Look Martin, you had a drama filled weekend and by your own admission, there is still going to be a heck of a lot of drama before this is settled, so why are you here?"

Something made him pause, his face hardened and he said, “Please don’t tell me you came in here to…”

“No.” was my immediate response. I had worked with this man far too long not to know where he was going with his conversation, so I put his thoughts to rest. “Everything I find out about her will be volunteered. I simply couldn’t come in here and find out her life history from a computer terminal.”

At least his mood changed, and he went back to resting against the back of his chair. He may be my boss, but he was my only friend when my munchkin and I first got there; my first weekend there was at his house, doing the family barbeque out back. I wasn’t going to ever lie to him. The thing was, because of that statement, it also means I had to speak my thoughts for the first time since the accident.

“Meagan Winters is a woman who’s known a great deal of hard knocks in her life, the one ray of sunshine is her daughter. But I tread a very fine line here. She’s going to be at my place so her body can heal. It has to be her choice once it does. All I can do and I will include Hannah in this statement is let both of them know that we want them to stay.”

It wasn’t a staring competition; at least I hoped it wasn’t.

“I know you broke that coding on Friday before you left. Show your people and have them monitor it for the next two weeks. If anything of importance comes from it you tell them it comes to me. You have an hour to sort your team out and then you’re on two weeks leave.”

A small smile rested on his lips and I could almost read his thoughts; he couldn’t wait to get home and tell his wife of this conversation.

“Go home, go to the hospital. I don’t care, just get out.”

We both stood at the same time. This was the man who had persuaded me eighteen- months earlier to move there. His family welcomed us both with open arms and a party on their back lawn, and over the months I had come to class him as one of my best friends, even though he was also my boss. His hand came across his desk, we shook and he told me to see myself out, he was also smiling when he said it.

*******

I drove to the hospital and found a space right next to a familiar car, feeling amused at the situation, I parked right next to Jodie’s car. The sight I saw when I approached Meagan’s room can only be described as a cross between controlled bedlam and a woman’s tea party. Both the munchkins were seated on the end of the bed, Meagan’s legs between the girls as they signed real fast to each other while they crayoned pictures onto her cast; my neighbor and Meagan were almost head to head with each other both watching the girls and looking rather conspiratorial.

As for me, I was leaning against the door frame watching all this. It still took them some time to figure out I was there. My daughter hopped off the bed and thrust a crayon into my hand; it appeared I had to sign her cast, as well. When I did, the girls set to surrounding my signature with flowers, much to the amusement of both ladies watching. Jodie took the girls back to the house ten minutes later, which was after they had decided between themselves that their job with Meagan’s cast was done.

“I’ve got the prettiest cast in the hospital, and look, I have your signature, I can forge that now.”

We both smiled before I added. “Only if you have a crayon handy.”

I got us both something to drink and we spoke until it was time for me to leave, I sensed we had taken a few tentative steps beyond being strangers. We were still both being cowards, though. For me, the big tough ex-army and now government man who carries a gun, and I was still afraid to let anyone other than my daughter close again.

For Meagan, she was still that proud woman and above all, a mother. It had been left to her to care for Clare from the very beginning and without anything even close to a support structure. I had wondered if we should both take a leaf out of our own daughters' handbook: they had already bonded to the point that they had almost started to finish each others sentences. And here were, the know-it-all grownups, still stuck in the emotional game of "I’ll show you my emotional scars if you show me yours."

By the time I got back home, I found that my neighbors were taking the girls out for pizza that evening, meaning I was going to visit Meagan all on my own later. The conspiratorial smirk didn’t go amiss either.

Resigning myself to watching the girls leave and getting changed myself, I phoned ahead and with the idea of pizza as not that bad a thought, I rang Meagan and asked what she wanted on hers. I picked it up on the way in and also dropped a couple off at the nurse’s station, as well. It’s always good to be in with the people looking after you. The doctor stopped by to tell Meagan that barring some major drama he would be discharging her late the next afternoon.

We celebrated by cracking open a soda each, and went into the logistics of foods she liked and disliked, so I could get them in on the way home, later. The girls were on a new high when I got back home and told them.

*******

Getting her back to the house had its own fun parts: with the cast on she couldn’t fit in the front and I had to slide her across the back seats, much to her amusement and my wondering where I was allowed to place my hands when I pulled her across the seats. I was also given a bag of stuff from the nurses that I would need to use until I could make my own run to the drugstore, later.

“Martin. We need to talk.”

I looked over at my rear view mirror and a part of me wondered if I should pull over. The reasoning side of my brain decided to keep that as a clear option should this conversation warrant it.

“You saved my daughter’s life and between you and Hannah you’ve given Clare hope. That hope over these last few days has rubbed off on me as well.”

She paused and used that pause to lick her lips, suddenly her eyes lit up and she pointed to the radio playing quietly in the background. “Please, turn that up.”

I did and we both listened to the song, Highway Song by Blackfoot. It was one of my late wife’s favorite songs. She called me a Neanderthal when I said it was just a song, she made me listen to it twice before she would let me go. Now Meagan was making me listen to it, as well, and I couldn’t understand why.

She continued in a slightly softer tone. “That was playing on the radio when the car went sideways and took on the tree.”

I felt a cold chill run down my spine and had to look away, pretending to turn the radio down again so we could continue to talk. Meagan continued as though nothing had happened, and I was left wondering if something had.

“I don’t think either of us can ever repay you and your daughter for what you’ve done for us. Thank you, Martin, and I will confess that I’ve been looking forward to this day.”

She reached across the space between us and her hand came to rest on my shoulder. This time I pulled off the road and turned to look at her.

“All through the journey back to Mr. & Mrs. Whitman’s mansion I was still wondering what the hell I was doing. My only answer was they agreed that I could bring my own daughter and the security of a two-year contract. That was going to be two years of money I desperately needed, even if it meant working for those people.”

Even in the half light of late afternoon I could see the single tear trickle down her cheek, yet all through what she had said so far, Meagan had refused to take her eyes off me.

“Call it fate, call it foretold that the accident would happen and we would meet. I don’t care, I’m just glad I’ve met a carbon copy of me, lying in that hospital bed and looking at walls has given me plenty of time to think about all this, Martin.”

This time her eyes hardened, almost challenging me to interrupt her.

“My mind was made up when you signed my cast.” Her voice was just above a whisper, I’m glad I had turned off the engine or I may have missed what she said next. “I want to try US out, Martin. If there is room in your heart for Clare and me, then we want that room.”

I turned slightly in my seat so that I could look at Meagan without giving myself neck ache. This woman had said what my own thoughts tried so hard to tell me over these last couple of days, but the sober part of me chased those thoughts away. I had become comfortable with my life and stopped looking for someone to share these feelings that are dancing around in my head and heart.

Her eyes gave her away first, her facial features soon caught up, she thought I was about to reject her.

“I snore, I sleep naked in bed. I’ve been known to leave to toilet seat up on more than one occasion and I haven’t had sex with anyone but my hand since my wife died.”

This time I could almost smell the breaks go on with her emotions and she laughed. She had the cutest laugh ever.

It was also her turn when she said, “I’m a heavy sleeper, but I like waking up in the middle of the night for sex and I don’t own a nightgown.”

Meagan see me smile and pushed onwards. “After that creep tossed me down the stairs, I went off men.” Now I watched her blush profusely. “When they sent him to jail I kinda went overboard and overcompensated in the penis department. But reality set in, and I realized I was on a self-destructive course. My daughter brought me back from the brink and I haven’t had sex with anyone but my fingers since then.”

We both smiled, our verbal agreement made we headed back to the house and the girls. They ran out as I opened the door and helped Meagan onto crutches. She was treated like royalty by the girls, while I carried the bags. Jodie stayed for a while and couldn’t get the smile off of her face when she watched me place Meagan’s case in my room. It was also then she suddenly remembered she had to get home. I thought I knew why she was in such a hurry.

The girls were hyper for the rest of the evening. It was close to nine that night that they wilted and we put them to bed. The reality of what we were doing sank in while Meagan was sat on the edge of our bed.

“Martin, we do have a problem, I doubt either of us thought this through. I’m not on the pill, I have the greatest of doubts that you have a pack of condom’s sitting in a drawer somewhere and even if you did, going by what you said on the way here I would take a close look at the use by date on them.”

We both must have felt like teenagers right about then. I did point out that she was in a cast. She, in return, just raised an eyebrow and gave me one of those looks that pretty much told me that if the flesh was willing then A would find a way to enter B. We may have felt like teenagers that night, but the responsible adults did make an appearance and for most of the night we talked, we touched and we experimented.

Meagan gave me one heck of a blow job, and when I retaliated and her body calmed down, my fingers then proved just as masterful. I had to get up and bring back a damp cloth to wipe her down while she was still pulling oxygen into her lungs. Yes I learned a lot about Meagan that evening, she was very vocal during sex. More than once she swore at her cast because she wanted to take a more active role.

The only fear I have going forward in this relationship was for my hearing, when Meagan orgasmed she near on screamed it out of her body. We managed a couple of hours of sleep before her threat of middle of the night sex proved correct, leaving me to wake with her head bobbing up and down on my erection. My hand went to her pussy and she had to swipe it away.

“I’m concentrating on this; with your fingers in me I’m going to be a puddle again and will forget about your dick.”

Her mouth once again engulfed me and this time did as I was told, lie back and enjoy, and I did. We laid against each other panting, for different reasons. When we looked at the clock the thought of trying to grab another hour was out of the question. We both smelled like sex. Getting up, although reluctant, was best, since we both needed a shower before the girls woke.

I carried Meagan into the shower, sat her on a wooden stool and told her I would be right back. She looked confused, but she did tell me that she didn’t have anywhere else to go. She heard me laughing all the way out of the bathroom. When I came back, she looked, her eyes grew and she burst out laughing.

“Oh, so now you’ve found a condom? But, honey, I’ve had my mouth round it. I can guarantee, unless you believe in fishermen’s tales, it’s not that big.”

I smiled and shook my head, draped over my arm was a protective covering to go over her cast so she could have a shower. It was one of a packet that the hospital had placed in the bag they gave me when we left.

My mind did wonder: if last night was anything to go by, what would the rest of our lives be like? More smiles all round, I should guess. We washed each other, touched and played and although I wouldn’t swear to it, my mind did wonder if I could navigate her body with my eyes closed now, because she sure knew every part of mine.

We had breakfast ready by the time the girls got up. They took one look at us and hugged each other; their smiles were from ear to ear all through breakfast. Jodie joined us as we were finishing up. She did that look and did the smile thing, as well; it must have been a girlie thing.

Jodie looked towards me and said, “I’m getting the girls dressed, you help get Meagan dressed and then take the girls to the park while Meagan and I pull all her clothes out of the spare room and into yours.”

An hour and a coffee later, the girls and I were at the park. They climbed and I near on freaked when they hung upside down on a frame. They ran around, climbed and used the slide for a good couple of hours, interspersed with ice cream, of course.

I had to park on the street, since a car was now parked on my drive. The girls ran in while my eyes took in the car. The answer came when I followed the noise into the kitchen; Karen sat by the kitchen counter, her file open and spread across it, a reminder that she was to be part of our lives for some time yet.

*******

Meagan's cast came off, Jodie offered to have the girls on a sleepover, and since April was back from college, her bedroom was going to be sleep central. Meagan carried out her promise and christened all but the girls' room. Jodie phoned later in the day and offered to have them longer if Meagan wasn’t done yet. I’m not sure I was supposed to hear that, but Meagan had her on speaker and didn’t warn Jodie in time.

After a period of consultation (ten minutes) with the girls about marrying their mom, I got down on one knee and asked nicely. She got down on both knees and passionately kissed me before holding her hand out.

We married on Valentine’s Day. On the insistence of Meagan, we invited Karen, as well. Although Karen signed off on the paperwork weeks after Meagan came to live with me, she still popped round for a coffee and was always on Meagan's list of people to invite when it came to burning meat out back. We talked about more children a couple of times, but we looked at the two munchkins we had, and both decided that they were more than enough.

We did say to them that since there was a spare room, one of them could move into it. I near on had a riot on my hands, not to mention two weeping munchkins. I made it up to them, though, I did insist on a bigger bed for their room.

When my boss retired, he named me to take over and ten years after moving a thousand miles from my old home and on my wife’s insistence, I took the promotion. She did ask me once if I ever did poke around in her past. The look I gave her reminded her that she only ever got to ask the once. I never did and never would, Karen told me enough, and it was time then to leave it be and only listen when she spoke about her past. She knew all of mine, and her and the girls came with me when I placed flowers on my late wife’s grave when we came to visit my and my late wife’s family.

When we turned to leave, I watched out of the corner of my eye. Meagan placed her palm on my wife’s grave and then said. “Thank you, since you gave them to me that night, I will look after them always. Your daughter is already a stunning young lady and going to be a heart breaker as well. It’s a good thing her daddy carries a gun.”

The End.