9 comments/  34419 views/  14 favorites

Battle Scars

By: owengreybeard



This story is fictional, and involves two characters that stand in for me now and then.

I arrived at the airport at least an hour before the flight. Partly habit, but partly nerves, I have to admit. I didn't really know how I was going to do with this, didn't know what to say. All I knew is that I had to be there.

Some weird logic told me that it was supposed to be me returned from far away, an injured warrior returning to a loving friend.

Not her.

I had made it through two tours in the Gulf. I came back with a purple heart. I reached out for a friend who'd been hit by shrapnel from an IED, just as another exploded next to him. He'd been blown apart, and I was hit in the chest and face, as well as my left hand, losing the outer three fingers. At the same time, my best childhood friend was on a mission of mercy with the Peace Corps in the Sudan. I got home a whole year before I got news that Ann had gone missing. 

As much as I'd like to say that I had headed a Rambo-like rescue mission to Africa to free her from her captors, the reality of it was that she had already been freed by a faction in opposition to the one that had kidnapped her by the time we heard of her disappearance. I'd found out a week ago that she'd been exposed to some contaminated water in Africa and gotten parasites, which required the removal of both her eyes. 

That's all I'd known until three days ago, when a former boyfriend of hers called to ask me meet her flight at the airport in Medford. He said he "Just couldn't bear to see her 'that way". Now, as the flight taxied to the jet way, I found myself thinking of the not-too-distant past, when we'd been best friends.

Ann was tiny, even when we were kids. Two years younger than me, she looked like she was five when I was twelve. But then, everybody looked small around me. At 5"10", I was taller than either of my parents and most of the adults I knew. I leveled out at 6'7" when I was 19, but Ann had not broken five feet or 90 pounds. She became tiny Piglet to my huge Pooh.

She was the kind of friend who never cut anybody any slack, but was never mean about it. She took my teasing like a trooper, and somehow, I knew how far to push, never once going too far, either. She was my harshest critic while being my staunchest defender. She held my hand, huge compared to hers, while I cried after a girl broke my heart. I beat the snot out of a boy for breaking hers, then stood and took a pounding from her for doing it.

We told each other everything as we grew up, and looking back, it may have been a reaction to her leaving for the Peace Corps than drove me to become a Marine. My parents didn't show up for my graduation from boot camp, but she did. Came all the way from Ethiopia. She said she'd had vacation, but a mutual friend told me otherwise. Ann was afraid no one would be there for me. 

We knew each other very, very well. I had spoken to a friend of mine, an Incident Debriefer for LAPD about Ann, and she'd told me what to do, how to do it, and had given me her cell phone number just in case. 

Ann came up the jet way before the other passengers, holding the elbow of a female flight attendant. She had a folded-up white cane in her other hand. The flight attendant looked at me, and asked, "Are you Robert Akins?"

"I'm afraid he couldn't come." I replied.

"I can't release Ms. Taylor to anyone else, Sir," she replied. 

I took a step toward her. "Is Ms. Taylor a minor, unable to make her own decisions, Miss?"

"Well no, but I have instructions to release her only to a Robert Akins."

Ann's face grew concerned beneath her dark glasses. I had been using my Marine voice, and I don't think she'd recognized me yet. As her sightless face scanned back and forth, she asked, "Who is it, Deborah?" 

Smiling, I bent over and whispered in the worried flight attendant's ear. 

She said, "It's an extremely large, intimidating man, who has just told me to say, "Hello, Piglet?"

Ann gasped and flung out her hands. I swept her up and spun her around, nearly knocking the other woman over. 

"Oh my God! Pooh, is it really you?" she yelled. Her laugh quickly turned to sobs as she melted, the need to be tough having vanished when I wrapped her in my arms. I waved one-handedly at the woman, who surprisingly, blew me a kiss and retreated. I put my other hand under Ann's knees and cradled her to me as she sobbed.

"Shh, little one. I'm here for you. Pooh's here. Do you have any luggage?"

She shook her head, sobs turned to sniffles and hitches of breath. "Where are you going to take me, David?" she sniffed.

"We're going to my house, Annie. Is that OK?"

"That would be awesome. I didn't know you were home yet, so I called Robert."

"I know. He called me."

"He couldn't do it, could he? He couldn't stand to see me. I'm not sure I could stand to see me either."

"Are you done, squirt?" I said softly.

"What do you mean?" she asked.

"I hate to disappoint you, Piglet, but I haven't scheduled a pity party for ya. You should know me better than that. You've had four months to feel sorry for yourself. It's time to move on."

I felt, more than saw, the little smile on the face I suddenly realized that I loved. 

"Can't blame a girl for tryin'," she whispered. 

"Now, can I please put you down? You've gained a lot of weight." I put her on her feet, just in time to catch the flat of her hand on my chest as she swatted me.

"I have not gained weight! I've had a goddamned parasitic infestation, you asshole!" She swatted me again, then went pale and put her hands to her face and gasped.

"Annie! What's wrong! Did I hurt you? Oh, Jesus, Annie! I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry. Do you need a Doctor? Maybe I better find a phone. Wait. I have a cell phone. I'll call 911. Oh sweet Jesus, Annie."

I was on my knees in front of her, fumbling like an idiot through my pockets for my phone, when her hands finally found my face. She hugged me to her chest, disturbingly ample for such a small person.

"I'm OK, ya big doofus! I just moved too fast. The woman who took out my eyes was not a very good doctor. In fact, she was only about one step up from a witch doctor. She saved my life, but her technique left something to be desired. It just hurts if I move my head too fast. Oh. Oh No. Pooh?"

"What, Annie?" "Pooh bear, are you crying?" Her hands swept my face, gentle and cool. She lowered her forehead to mine.

"I'm sorry Annie. I thought I'd hurt you. I didn't know what to do. I couldn't stand that."

"Silly old bear," She cooed, kissing my nose. "Take me home."

I gave her my elbow and walked out of the terminal. As we walked we were quiet, just happy to be alone together. I helped her into my pickup (it is Oregon. We all have pickups.), and described the night as we made our way south to our hometown of Ashland. 

As we drove, her hand felt it's way across the seat, reaching for me. When she found me, she released her seatbelt and slid over next to me, then searched for, and found, the belt for the center seat. She leaned her head against my arm and sighed. I put my arm around her shoulder and held her to me. 

By the time we reached my house, in the southwest hills of Ashland, she was asleep. I held her to me carefully as I got out and opened the door. I carried her upstairs and put her on my bed, covering her with a down comforter as I slipped off her shoes. I picked up a chair and put it down facing the bed. I thought as I drifted off that maybe I should turn off the light, but then realized it didn't matter.

"POOH BEAR! DAVID! WHERE ARE YOU?"

I awoke to Annie screaming. She was sitting up in bed and her arms were wind milling, reaching for me. 

"I'm here, Annie! I'm right here!" I said, lunging onto the bed to hug her to me. She sobbed for a while and settled down. She suddenly reached to her face, and clapped her hands over her eyes, realizing her dark glasses were gone.

"Where are my glasses, Pooh? Did you take them off?

"No, Annie, I didn't. Let me look. Oh. You're sitting on them. Move over a little you must have knocked them off when you sat up. Uh oh, they're broken."

"Oh, no. What will I do? You can't see me without them, Pooh. I'm too ugly." She continued to hold her hands over her eyes.

"I've already seen you, Piglet. Trust me, you're still the most beautiful girl I've ever known. You want ugly you should see me," I said, and instantly wished I could take it back. " Shit. I'm sorry I said that, Annie."

"It's OK, Pooh. Really. You shouldn't feel the need to change how you talk around me. You never have, why start now. I guess I'm just disappointed with the way I look. Most people who lose their eyes can have prosthetics. I probably can't. The woman who removed my eyes cut off the eye muscles clear at the back of my sockets. In a civilized country, they would have left enough muscle to fasten onto an insert so prosthetic eyes would track. Now I'm stuck with these huge empty holes.

She was right. Where her eyes were, there were only open holes, her eyelids collapsed inwards into them. Occasionally, the lids would twitch, in a parody of blinking. As she tilted her head down, tears that had puddled into the gaping sockets sloshed out and dripped onto her blouse.

I held her head in my hands and kissed her face, including her butterfly-like eyelids. She reached up and put her hands on my head. Realizing that I had not told her about my injuries, I pulled her hands away from my scarred face. 

"Wait, Pooh. Let me see."

Annie put her hands on my thighs and scooted closer until our knees touched, until she was a foot away from my face. Her hands went to the top of my head and began to "see" me. 

Her hands moved lightly but thoroughly over my hair, a look of puzzlement occasionally crossing her face. I looked carefully at her, watching her brows knit and relax as she found new things, the familiar parts of my face. She smiled when she found the notch on my nose, probably remembering that I had gotten it defending her honor against the onslaught of a particularly aggressive suitor. Her fingers found my lips and I playfully bit at her.

"Quit it. I'm reading!" she smiled.

When she reached the scars on the left side of my face, the smile disappeared and she breathed in sharply.

"Pigl..." 

"Shut up! I'm not done," She breathed.

She finished her scan of my face and moved down my neck, her fingers delicate and fleeting on the wrinkled, raised scar tissue. I thought she would stop at my neck, but her fingers opened the buttons on my shirt one by one, until she pulled my shirt out of my pants in front. As she leaned against me to reach the rear of it, her stiff nipples brushed my belly, swaying gently with her movements.

I pulled off my shirt, still kneeling in front of her on the bed. She started, smiling again, at the back of my neck, spider like and swift against my skin. As she rounded my shoulders, her frown returned. Her face pointed over my shoulder as if, though sightless, she couldn't bear the sight of my damaged body. When she reached my hips, the tears fell out of the wells of her eye sockets and streamed unchecked down her face.

Instinctively, I took her face and began to kiss away the tears. I licked her cheeks delicately, gently. My tongue circled her openings, the tip sampling the velvet skin of her lids. 

And then, in.

Into the reservoirs of her tears, behind the silken layers of her lashes. On, into the former resting places of her blue-green eyes. As I touched a slight protrusion at the smooth rear of her eye opening, she moaned.

"Are you OK?" I asked.

"Oh, yes. Yessssss. When you touch that spot, I get flashes of light, flashes of things I've seen. It's amazing, Davie. How did you know to do that? I love it."

"I don't know. I just wanted to touch every part of you. I've missed you so much, Annie. You are all I thought about in Iraq. If I could just make it back to see you again, I knew everything else was easy."

"Why me, Dave," she asked, her head tilted to one side like always, but this time, there were no smoky eyes looking through me. Not ever again.

"How can you not know, Piglet? Oh, Annie. You're the one. The only girl I've ever loved. I have loved you since I was three years old. I just didn't know it until I saw you today. I'm sorry to drop it on you like this, and I'd totally understand if you want me to go away."

"There are a couple of problems with that whole thing, Pooh. 

"One. Why'd you wait to fall in love until you were three? 

"Two. It's your house, I can't really ask you to leave. "Three. I am so totally in love with you."

She found my head with her hands and pulled me to her. Her kiss was unlike any kiss the world had ever known before. Sweet and full of hope and promise, but very, very sexy. She pulled back a little and pretended to look into my eyes. 

"Are your eyes closed?"

"Nope."

"Silly old bear."

Battle Scars Ch. 02



1

Anne pulled me to her and I held her for a while, her head against my chest.

"I smell like airline upholstery and somebody else's sweat. Will you take me to the shower, Pooh?"

"Sure. Come with me," I said, backing off the bed. I held her hands as she knee-walked to me and stood.

"I'd love to." She answered with a smile, her head tilted slightly. I led her to the bathroom. 

"All I've got in here is guy stuff, would you like me to go get your bags?" 

"Would you mind? I've got a little shampoo and other stuff in the smaller of the two. First, though, would you describe the room to me, so I don't fall into the toilet?"

"Oh, yeah, Sorry." I took her shoulders and turned her so that her back was facing the wall. "The bathroom is about twenty feet long. The toilet is at three o'clock, inside an alcove with a pocket door. The door opens from right to left, and it's closed now. The sinks are along the right wall at one o'clock, and the bathtub is straight ahead at twelve o'clock. The shower is at ten o'clock and it doesn't have a threshold, so you can walk right in. it is separated from the rest of the bathroom by a glass partition, but no door. At nine o'clock is a steam room door. Straight ahead is a long bench, oriented from twelve to six o'clock."

"Man, if the bathroom is like this, the rest of the house must be awesome!

"It's pretty nice, I guess. It's way too big for me, though. I better go get your stuff. I'll be back in a sec. The garage isn't far." As I left, Anne was stepping carefully toward the bench, her hands sweeping from side to side. It reminded me that I should get her cane out of the truck as well.

I pattered down the hallway toward the bathroom, my bare feet noisy on the warm dark walnut floor. I knocked on the bathroom door with my free hand.

"Come in."

Anne was naked, her arms akimbo at her sides, a slightly vexed look on her face. "How many knobs does this frickin' shower have anyway?" she asked, holding her hands out in an expression of frustration. 

I was speechless. The little Annie from my childhood was gone, and in her place was a different woman. She still wasn't much more than five feet tall, but the captivity and injury had not been kind to her. Her hair was dull, it's auburn gone nearly black. Her hipbones were quite pronounced and I could see her ribs gliding beneath her skin as she breathed. Her breasts had always been average sized, but her thinness emphasized their size and they lay like nearly empty sacks on her chest. She was trembling slightly, and her cheeks were wet with tears. I must have taken nerves of steel to stand up like that. She was the most beautiful woman I had ever seen.

Is it possible for a heart to break with anguish and explode with love at the same time?

Yes, it is.

2

I dropped the bag on the bench and swept past Ann into the shower. I turned on the heat lamp in the ceiling and started all six of the upper showerheads. I took her by the shoulders and led her into the shower, adjusting the sprays so that she didn't drown.

"David, you dope, you're getting soaked! You forgot to take off your clothes!"

"I didn't forget. I didn't want to take advantage." I said.

"I need to hold onto you. It's kind of disorienting in here, what with all the water coming from all around, OK?"

I stripped off and put my wet clothes in the bathtub. Grabbing her soap and shampoo and other girl stuff from her bag, I headed back in. 

Her face was toward the heat lamp in the ceiling. 

"Is that the sun I feel?"

"No, love, it's a heat lamp. It's about 11:00 pm, remember? There is a skylight up there, but the sun only shines directly through it in the mid-afternoon. If it's OK, I'm gonna wash you, OK?"

"I was hoping you would. A lot. Did you say 'Love' Pooh?"

"Yeah. You got a problem with that?"

"Nope. I just like hearing it."

I put some wash lotion on my fuzzy thingy and began to scrub her neck and shoulders. Ann crossed her arms over her tummy and stood still. I put my left hand beside her and placed it on her hip to steady her while I washed her soft, pretty boobs. One of her hands slowly dropped until it covered mine. I felt her explore for a while, and then the other hand joined in. One hand held my index finger, the only one remaining, and the other held my thumb.

"Is there anything at all the bastards didn't hurt on you?" she asked quietly. 

"Nothing that you don't know about now, my love. Now turn around. I need to do some more cleanup."

I got down on my knees and turned her around to face toward the river rock wall of the shower and began to scrub her back. Her hands explored the stone.

"It's warm. I expected it to be cold. Is this river rock?" she asked.

"Yeah. It's from the Rogue River up by Shady Cove. It's warm because I had it included in the Hydronic heat system when I had the house built. The whole place is heated with hot water circulated through the floors, and in this case as well as the steam room and the other showers, just behind the stone. Spread your legs."

As she did, I slid the wash fuzzy between her legs and washed her butt. It was adorable, and made me think happy thoughts. 

"Would you like me to shave your legs, Annie?"

"Actually, I can do it, if you'd rather not."

"Well, I'm already here, and I don't have a lot of gauze around to stop you from bleeding to death from the nicks."

She turned around and smacked the top of my head and said, "Asshole," with a smile. "Just for that you have to shave my pits, too."

"No problem. Anyplace else need pruning?"

"I don't know. I've never shaved anywhere else." She was blushing.

I got my shaving cream and got to work on her pits first, which didn't take long. I had her sit on a stone ledge built into the wall of the shower to do her legs. For such a short person, her legs were enticingly delicate, and the looked great without several weeks of hair growth. I put my hands on her knees when I was done and pushed them apart. Ann put her tiny hands on my shoulders for balance.

"Do you want me to stop?" I asked.

"No. Go ahead, if you'd like to," she breathed.

I lathered her mound and began to shave, changing blades after a little while. Her dark red pubic hair was sparse to begin with, and it didn't take long to clean her up. I put a finger inside each outer lip to hold them firm while I shaved them, and noticed that her breathing had quickened. Her pussy was just a tiny crease; no inner lips were visible at all.

Ann leaned over and whispered into my ear, "I don't think that part of me is clean yet. You need to do a better job."

I squirted some body wash on my hand and began to move it in circles around her mound, occasionally moving inside her lips. Her hips began to circle lazily around on the bench as her breathing turned to shallow panting. I found her little clit, nearly buried in the fleshy joining at the top of her crease and began to flick it and push on it like a little button.

As I slid a finger into her, I was astonished to find my way partially blocked!

"Careful there, Pooh. That's unexplored territory. Unh, that's good. Keep rubbing right, UHH! THERE. OH yeah... Oh, oh, oh, gonnacumm...gonnacumm...NOW! 

She jerked and shuddered, and then fell against my shoulder. She started to laugh.

"Whoa, fuck! That's a lot more fun with help. Can we do that again?"

3

"Annie! Are you a virgin?"

"Yup. As the song goes, 'Savin my love for you'. It was close there in Africa, but I got lucky. Hey, it's my turn to wash you now, OK?"

"I'm not done with the front part, yet. You have to wait."

"Nothing to see there folks, just move along," she joked.

"I'll be the judge of that." I said, kneeling again, then sucking one pendulous breast into my mouth, I applied just a little suction to the end. I flicked the tiny nipple with my tongue, and Ann inhaled sharply, while beating gently on my head with both hands. Her face was pointed over my shoulder, and her eyebrows were arched in surprise.

"Oh, fuck, Pooh! That's just real nice. That's really, really nice. Do that some more!"

I cupped the other breast with my hand and squeezed it gently, and then slid my one-fingered hand down and plugged my thumb into her pussy. I slid my index finger around her rosebud a couple of times, and slid it in a little. Her hips started to corkscrew, and she began to make a high keening noise with each exhale. I pinched my finger and thumb together and slid both in and out more quickly.

"Eeee, oooo. Ohhhh. Oh David! Oh David! Oh God! Oh shiiiiiiiit! Cumming againnnnnnnnOHH!" 

She exploded on me and collapsed across my shoulder. My lower hand felt a sudden gush of heat as she came. I just kneeled there, with this tiny woman draped across my shoulder as she shook and shuddered. 

"Oh, boy!" Ann said with a beaming smile. "I hope you don't have anything to do tomorrow, because I think you've created a little monster, Pooh. OK, you've put this off as long as you can, mister. It's my turn to play with your goodies. I'm just going to start right in, but remember, I've never done any of this before, so you're gonna have to advise me. Hand me the soap and the fuzzy thing."



Battle Scars Ch. 03



4.

Ann squirted my body wash out onto the blue squishy, using her thumb to tell when there was enough on it. She stuck her hand out for me to take the bottle, and after I did, I leaned past her to put it on one of the rock shelves built into the shower. I brushed against her head as I leaned, and she jumped a little.

"Sorry," she said. "you surprised me. I can't hear you move over the noise from the water."

"Then I guess I'll have to keep in constant contact with you, so you don't forget I'm here."

"That's a good idea. You should definitely keep touching me. Speaking of touching, is there somewhere you can sit so I can get to all of you?"

"Sure. I'll sit on this shelf to your left." Holding her shoulders, I backed to the shelf and sat down. Ann started at my head, the hand without the pad leading the other one. First, a delicate examination with her fingertips, then a gentle, slow rub with the soap scrubber. Her face alternately pointed toward me, then away as she used other senses to feel and "see" me. The expressions on her face as she washed me ranged from contentment, to serenity, to anger when she reached the scars. 

The pace and pressure of her scrubbing increased as she found the scarring on my left shoulder and chest, until it felt like she was grating carrots on my chest. The sensations passed seamlessly from tickling to pain, depending on the damage. She was obviously unaware of the change in her ministrations, and eyebrows knitted as she scowled.

"Ann? Annie? Piglet, you need to lighten up, you're gonna hit bone here pretty soon!" I took her hands in mine and she collapsed against me, sobbing. I tipped her chin up and began to kiss her face as she wept. All thoughts of sex evaporated as I held her and subconsciously, I think I was glad. I hadn't had sex since I'd gotten back from the Gulf, and I realized I hadn't had much of an erection, either. Before I had a chance to worry about it, though, I grabbed a giant towel from my left and wrapped it around Annie, then picked her up as I had in the airport and padded back into the bedroom.

I swept back the covers and laid my Piglet in the bed. I dried off quickly and got in beside her. She wriggled quickly over to me and I put my arm under her neck and shoulder and rolled her toward me. She put her head on my chest and sighed.

"You OK, girl?" I asked.

"It's just so sad, what they did to you, Pooh. It must have hurt so badly."

"I was about to say the same thing, Annie. I wish I could go to Africa and kill every one of them, very slowly and painfully."

"NO!" she yelled, her face coming up off my chest. She spoke into my eyes, as if she could still see them perfectly. Her face was livid. "You are better than them, David! You don't have to give me retribution, don't you see that? What is done to us is done. My captors did what they did to get attention. They live in unbelievably awful conditions, harassed by people who look just like them, but some historical fight or argument makes them hate each other. It's the same with Iraq. We went there with good intentions, but history is against us. But we have to be better than they are, David. We have to stop hating, because it will destroy us. Gandhi said, "An eye for an eye leaves the whole world blind." I am living proof of that, Pooh. I don't need your wrath to protect me. Your love will be enough, OK?"

And then,"I'm sorry I yelled, Pooh."

I've been yelled at by top-kicks, I've been yelled at by enemies and allies. But I've never been so determined to take a lesson to heart as I was at that moment, and I was determined to learn and do better.

"You're right. I'm sorry for that, I really am. I think that violence is all I've known for so long that it's kind of a knee-jerk reaction for me. I will try to do better. OK, Piglet?"

I pulled Annie up onto my chest, and she kissed me a couple of times, then snuggled into my neck. In a few minutes, her breathing slowed, and I slid her back into my armpit and we both slept.

5.

The early morning sun was low enough that it came in through the small side window of the hummer. It was not yet 0800, but it was already past 85 degrees and rising quickly. Looking ahead at the sand swept road, I noted that the two other Humvees ahead of us were making best time around the various obstacles. I didn't hear a sound as the pavement ahead and to our left erupted like a mushroom cloud of asphalt and sand. The vehicle twisted to its right and overturned, and I found myself on the sand beside the road. The events slowed down to a crawl as I found my rifle and began to search the wreckage. My driver was partially trapped under the vehicle, and as I pulled on the collar of his flak vest, I thought that he didn't weigh much and, with no particular haste, that adrenaline surely does make you stronger. I didn't actually see that the lower half of him was missing until I noticed the blood trail we were leaving. I looked over his shoulder and saw the shiny white of his pelvic bones.

I remember thinking that I wasn't going to be able to use the tourniquets inside the pockets of his BDU pant side pockets because they were obviously gone. I realized that the man was dead, finally, and as I reached around his shoulder to grab his tags, I noticed a leg moving by the largest pile of rubble in my view. I ran to the side of the overturned hummer and saw one of my men, a Corporal named Ambler, sitting against a wheel from one of the hummers, blood oozing from a wound in his back. The wheel and tire was flat on the ground, and I could see the hub and lower control arm sticking up from it. Ambler looked over his shoulder at me and pointed with a shaking hand. Ten feet in front of him was a child's red backpack. It bore the likeness of a well known purple dinosaur, smiling gaily and apparently pointing with glee at the Nokia cell phone duct taped to one of its shoulder straps. In the instant that I processed what I was seeing, the screen on the phone lit, and I knew it was going to explode. I jumped out to grab Ambler and pull him over the tire just as a wave of heat and pressure rolled into me like a hammer. My left arm flew back away from my friend and I was thrown against the undercarriage of my own hummer. As the skin on my face and chest burned, I passed out. 

When I awoke, I was up to my armpits in a stainless tub, and a person in a dinosaur-purple scrub suit was leaning over me. As I burst into crystal clarity, I realized he was pulling dark, burned patches of skin off my chest with a pair of forceps. I drew back my hand and screamed in anger and agony.

"DAVID! WAKE UP!" There was enough light in the predawn sky to illuminate my bedroom well enough that I realized right away the it wasn't the debridement room in the military hospital in Germany. Ann cowered near my waist, her hands on my stomach. Her eyeless face was turned in my direction, and she was panting with stress.

"OK! OK, I'm awake now, Annie. Are you alright honey? Did I hurt you?"

"I'm all right, Pooh, I kind of expected some fireworks after all the tossing and mumbling, but you were really struggling for a while, and I was afraid you might take a swipe at me." She laid her face, right side down, on my stomach and smiled at me. "All better now?" she asked.

"I'm really trying to be better, Ann. I really am." I heard my voice crack and deepen at the same time Annie did, and as the tears began to cloud my vision, she began to gently grope her way to my face, her hands delicately feeling for a pathway. She sat beside me and pulled me more or less to her lap. As I lay across her, she turned me to her and hugged me. 

For the first time since I was a child, I felt totally secure, safe and beloved. As the feelings overwhelmed me, my naked childhood friend stroked my hair and we allowed the barriers to fall completely. With her silky breasts against my face, the sound of her heartbeat and the murmurings of her love and support in my ears, I wept.

6.

When I awoke from a dreamless slumber, the first thing I heard was Ann's voice.

"I've been checking you out while you napped, mister. You didn't tell me you were a hottie," she said, softly. 

"You didn't take advantage of me while I slept, did you?" I asked.

"Well, no, as a matter of fact, I didn't. But I intend to. Now you be a good boy and lay down with your head up here beside me, OK? And don't you lift a hand unless I tell you to, or I will have to have a stern talk with you, understand?" She attempted to frown, and almost pulled it off.

"Yes, Ma'am, I'll be a good boy," I said. I did what she asked, and lay down with my hands beside me, noting that her mouth was open a little, and her pink tongue darted out and moistened her lips. She felt her way down to the bottom of the bed, and started exploring me with her hands. 

"What size shoes do you wear?" She asked.

"What do you...?" 

Her face turned to me, her brows frowning. "Answer the question, mister. It may be required for me to know this in the future."

I decided to go with it completely. "Eleven in shoes, 11 ½ in boots, Mistress."

She smiled. "Very well."

Her hands traveled over my feet. "You need a pedicure. I'll do that later. What color is the hair on your legs?"

"Blonde, Ma'am."

As she made her way up my legs, her breasts swung in little circles, the nipples rigid and quite long. I really wanted to play with them. Ann bypassed my crotch and went up my belly.

"Tighten your abs." I did. "Oh, my. Those are nice. I think I could play on that playground all day." Now her boobs traced patterns on my thighs. Her hands spider-crawled their way down my right arm, and she massaged my hand gently. "Ring size?"

"Twelve, Mistress."

"Very well."

She straddled me and moved her hips a little on my stomach. The wetness she left turned cool quickly. Then she was off and kneeling on my left side. Her hands started at my left shoulder and slid downward. When she reached my abbreviated hand, a frown crossed her face, and then she tilted her head, like a dog listening to a distant sound. She started again at my wrist, where the skin narrows in a straight line toward my index finger, the only one left. As her hands joined and slid down my hand, she got a puzzled expression on her face and then flushed red. "I wonder what I could do with this?" She said, with a wicked smile, and a twitch of a fluttering eyelid, which could have been a wink.

"It, and everything attached to it, are yours to do with as you will, Milady." I whispered.

Annie straddled me, and then scooted down to kneel between my legs, her glistening bare pussy trailing a string of silver down my body.

Ann brushed her cheek gently back and forth on my lower belly a couple of times, and then turned her face straight down. My rod lay directly under her nose, and as if she did it every day, she kissed it. Her little pink tongue came out of her lovely mouth and lapped at my soft cock a couple of times. She slowly slid down a little and used her left hand to pick up my limp penis, and sucked it tenderly, completely into her mouth. The heat was amazing. She moved her tongue in tiny circles under the ridge at the end of me while waves of suction pulled me straight.

"Oh, my Lord, Annie. That is incredible. I have to tell you though, I haven't had an erection to speak of since I got back. I'm kind of nervous that maybe I don't work anymore. I'm so sorr..." And then I felt it. The tension started at my hips and spread. 

My dick plopped out of Annie's mouth, significantly larger than it had been when it had disappeared into it. She rubbed her cheek against it again and said, "I don't think that's gonna be a problem, mister. I intend to heal you, then use you for my own sluttish purposes until you beg for mercy." She smiled, then sucked me into her mouth again. She moved her body between my knees, her legs bent, ankles crossed like a little imp. Her head moved up and down slowly in time with her suction, her tongue lashing creatively. In a disappointingly brief period of time, wondrous pressure began to build in me, and I gasped, "I'm gonna cum, Piglet!"

"Mmm hmm," She moaned as she 'looked' at me. As the liquid fire burst out of my body, Ann pulled me out of her mouth, and aimed my cock at her face. My eruption took the form of at least five ropes of semen, and covered her from her hairline to her chin. She laughed gaily as my head fell back against the pillows, my cum oozing down her face. 

"All it took to get you hard, apparently, was someone worth doing it for," she said in evident satisfaction. "You have made a mess, mister, and I expect you to help clean it off ."

I grabbed a t-shirt out of the drawer next to the bed and carefully wiped her face, dabbing at her smiling lips. By this time Ann was sitting on my hips, and I pulled her to me and kissed her tenderly.

"This is the highlight of my life so far, Piglet. I am the luckiest guy in the world right now," I whispered. I noticed a little semen pooled in one of her eye sockets, and bent her toward me. I put my tongue gently into the depression and found the taste unusual, but not unpleasant. I went deeper and Ann began to moan as I stimulated the bump apparently corresponding to her optic nerve. As I pushed gently with my tongue, I added my thumb on the other side.

"Shiiiit, Davy. That is sooo cool. I can see colors like fireworks, and splashes of images. Please don't stop." Her mouth hung slack, and her eyebrows flared as she 'saw' things.

I pulled my tongue out and replaced it with my other thumb, guiding her lips to mine. As our tongues intertwined, I maintained my pressure as her breathing became coarse. 

"Ohhh. Ohh, God, Pooh. I can feel it in my pussy. You have to be inside my body!"

She reached between her legs and pushed my prick down into her puffy little slit. She found her entrance and began to sit, very slowly, on my miraculous erection. I am only an average size for my height, around 7 inches, but her virginal pussy grasped me like I was John Holmes. Before I had entered her two inches, she started to buck her hips and chant, "Oh, fuck. Oh, fuck. Oh, fuck. Oh, fuck."

I released my grip on her head and palmed her tits. Her aureoles were quite dark, nearly purple, and mounted low and to the front of her breasts. Even partially empty from her near starvation diet, as I assumed they were, they were just so wonderful to touch. The nipples that grew from them seemed longer and more delectable every time I saw them. Lighter on the tips and pebbly all over, they were as long as the first joint of my finger, and nearly as big around. 

These were not the firm, high boobs of a teenager, or the inflated monstrosities of a porn star. They were real, and warm, and I put my hands behind them and pressed them to my face before squeezing them together and sucking both spongy nipples into my mouth simultaneously.

Ann gasped and dropped onto me, the penetration of her hymen a non-event, the pulsing of her hips seemingly out of control as she took me into her body, her mouth open soundlessly yet smiling from ear to ear. She rode me frantically, and as my hands found her hips, her breasts began to swirl in circles, batting repeatedly at my face. She began to whine, hiss, growl and laugh all at the same time as her head swiveled, looking everywhere in the room and seeing nothing but the images in her mind. I felt my cock strain as her breathing nearly stopped and her pussy nearly crushed me. Her arms shook, her breath whooshed out of her lungs and she collapsed on my chest.

"Oh, sweet Jesus! I have never in my life felt anything like that! Oh, Pooh! That was phenomenal! We have to do that again. And then we'll do it some more." Ann was smiling from ear to ear. Her face was aglow, her eyebrows high and sweat was dripping off of her nose.

In that, I had to agree with her. When Ann climaxed, her cunt gripped me so hard, I expected to find a blood blister on my cock. The undulations I experienced were absolutely otherworldly, and they continued, like aftershocks. Every time her pussy clenched, my tiny woman shuddered and her tits swung in a graceful arc. After the third one, I filled her with so much cum that my ass ached, and she started to leak down onto the bed. 

She sagged to my chest, her chin on my sternum, her boobs folded forward, peeking out from under her shoulders like brown headlights. She began to kiss me gently but urgently, while attempting to talk at the same time.

"That was kiss the greatest feeling kiss I have ever had kiss kiss. Kiss why didn't you kiss tell me sex was kiss so mind blowing? Kiss kiss If I'd known kiss kiss I would have raped you a kiss kiss long time ago". 

"Well to tell you the truth, kiss kiss Piglet, that kiss kiss wasn't normal sex kiss kiss. That was normal kiss kiss sex like the Queen Mary 2 is kiss kiss a nice little boat kiss.

Her head shot up, and she stated:

"I'm starving, Davey. Let's take a shower and get some breakfast. I'll cook.

Continued soon in chapter 4. 



Battle Scars Ch. 04



I am very sorry it took so long to continue this saga. The demons took control for a while there, and it just wasn't possible for me to be in the world these characters inhabit. The bad things have been banished for now, so here is the latest in the "Battle Scars" series. Thanks for waiting. OGB.



I awoke from a rare dreamless sleep to the sound of a telephone ringing, and then heard my Annie speaking in hushed tones. She took down a number, reciting it softly as it was given to her, and then disconnected the call. I heard her bare footsteps coming down the hall from the kitchen. 

The morning light was beginning to seep through the small bamboo grove surrounding the meditation center outside our bedroom, the leaves tinting the light to a soft green, and breaking the silhouettes on the bedroom wall into indistinct waves of dancing light and shadow. The open glass doors admitted the warm smell of the star jasmine and wisteria near the Koi pond and I couldn't help but smile. The hiss of blowing leaves overrode the sound of the waterfall, and the sounds of fall entered the bedroom to join the smell of approaching coffee.

I rubbed the sleep out of my eyes with the backs of my hands, the left one missing all but the index finger and thumb, thanks to an IED in Iraq. As I sat up in the huge bed, my Piglet came into the room. As had become my custom, I swung my feet over the edge and began to speak as soon as I saw her enter the room. Although I loved to talk with her, the sound helped to guide her to me. 

"It makes my day to see you walk in here. It's like having a dream come true every single morning." 

She walked into the room four measured steps, put her left elbow out and slid slowly forward until she felt the foot-post of the bed with her forearm, not even spilling the huge mug of black coffee in her hand, a near twin to the smaller mug in her right hand. She stepped two steps to the left and then three forward, coming to a stop within a foot of my legs. Her wonderful pendulous breasts swung to a stop shortly after she did. "That looks hot, be careful not to drop in, okay?" "Why would I drop it, Pooh, the dangerous part was just getting it here...oh!"

I had snuck my hands under the tray with the coffee mugs on it and was currently pulling down gently on Piglet's small brown nipples. I rolled them between my thumbs and index fingers, and the hot coffee on the tray held her captive, helpless to escape my friendly assault, although the look on her face made it seem that the last thing she wanted to do was escape. Her mouth dropped open as I worked her nips, and already her pussy had begun to make happy wet noises. 

"Take the tray, Pooh, I want your cock in my hands, okay? Honey, I really need you to take the tray form me. Please take the tray...? DAVID! TAKE THIS FUCKING TRAY BEFORE I THROW IT ON YOU!"

I took the tray, and when she heard it hit the bedside table, she launched her little body onto mine, grabbed my cock in both hands and stuffed it into her petite little mouth. Her cheeks went concave as she sucked and licked, and as one of her hands slid sown to her crotch, I slid mine over it. Her mouth popped off my dick, and she turned her face to me with a smile.

"Hands off, mister! This is MY show." She growled at me.Her mouth returned to its happy work and took up a tempo to match her hand, and within a few minutes, I was ready to blow and so was she. In seconds, I exploded into her mouth, and she growled some more as she swallowed me, and then collapsed onto the floor as she came. 

I pulled her gently but urgently off the floor and simultaneously lay back against the pillows and plugged her onto my still hard cock. Her pussy was still in spasm from her orgasm, and just as she stopped moaning in ecstasy I began to rocket up into her. Her moaning became an urgent keening as her cunt rippled on me, and my eyes locked on her tits, which had taken on a life all their own, jumping and slapping against each other, her tummy and my chest. The slapping noises we made filled the room, and her voice changed again, this time into an open-mouthed whine. 

"uuuuuhhh, uuuhhh, ooohhhh, ooohhhhhhhhhfuuuuuuuccckkkkkmmeeeeee! Gonnacumagain, gonna cummm, gonnacumgonnacumgonnacumNOWWWWWW!" My balls felt like they were trying to either explode or crawl up my ass as I filled her completely with cum. She fell onto my chest with a wet noise and we both panted like dogs for a couple of minutes. 

When we finally got our breath back, Annie pushed up a little and 'looked' into my face. "Oh, you sweet, wonderful stud! I think I entered another dimension. That was so truly fine!" I just nodded, and after I caressed her face and hair for a while, she laid her head down on my chest and we both drifted off.

We awoke about an hour and a half after she had walked into our bedroom naked, bearing joy and coffee. I was stroking her face and smiling like an idiot when she woke up. 

"Ack! My thighs are stuck together! Do you always produce so much cum, Pooh? I feel like you've been after me with a fire hose. I think we're going to have to put a vinyl liner on the bed."

"Are you complaining about our sex life? After all, we don't always use the bed. But if it bothers you, we can always stop..." Like lightning, her hand flew out and groped around on me until it found my mouth and covered it to silence me. 

With a very stern look on her beautiful face, she said, "This is not a complaint, mister, it's a comment! And if you ever pass on an opportunity to fuck me, I will beat your ass ragged, do you understand me? Honestly, I never knew it would be like this, Pooh." She smiled and kissed me passionately for just a second. 

"I think about you and your cock all the time; it's a good thing I'm blind, or I'd be looking around for things to stick up my cunt constantly. If these bedposts weren't so tall, you'd come in one day and find me stuck on one like a hood ornament on a car."

I laughed out loud at her. "That produces all kinds of wonderful images in my mind, Piglet, but none as hot as you."

"You, sir, are a suck up. And that is just fine with me. So... seeing me with a zucchini in my pussy wouldn't disappoint you, then?" she said, her head cocked to the side. 

"Darlin' you just let me know what you want for toys, and we'll go get them."

"Well, all rightey then," she said, not much like Jim Carrey.

I headed for the shower, one of our favorite places, and she came along, holding my damaged hand lovingly. During the soaping up and rinsing down, I remembered that she had taken a phone call in the morning.

"Hey, sweetness," I asked. "Who was on the phone this morning?"

"Oh! I'm sorry Pooh, I totally forgot about it. I was bringing coffee, and then you were playing with my tits, and, well, you know... It was a Doctor Hanson up at the VA in Portland. She was going into surgery, and she asked if you would call her around lunchtime. I wrote down the number on the pad by the phone."

"You are amazing, Annie."

"Bullshit! Any fool can take a phone message. Besides, it good for me to write, so I don't forget how, ya know? Help me pick out some clothes and you can call while I'm getting dressed, okay?"

Annie made her way into our closet, her movement guided by subtle tilts of her head to hear reflected sound and by reaching ahead to find landmarks. There was no way I was going to miss out on her getting dressed. I was infatuated with this little woman; I just couldn't get enough of her. I had promised to take her on a bike ride out into the Cascade Mountains today, and so we would be looking for warmish clothes to go under the riding leathers I'd had a friend make for her as a surprise. 

Fall had already begun to descend on our little valley, and I expected temperatures in the 70's, which meant 50's in the mountains. A great time of year in the Rogue River valley, but cool on a motorcycle. It was a good thing she'd gone shopping.

I had learned a lot about clothes since Annie had come to me, in fact, I'd added a second walk in closet off the master bedroom for my clothes and moved hers into my old one. The closest I'd come to frustration since she'd arrived had been the process of moving her clothes into the closet. I had no idea there were so many colors, and names of colors, and textures, and styles. 

My original plan was just to take the stuff out of her old closet at her old house (now sold off and gone, by the way) and put it roughly into the same place in the new one. What was I thinking? I finally had to back away and call in a friend.

Randy is one of my best friends, and makes an impressive living as the costume shop manager for the local mega-theatre complex we call OSF, the largest Shakespearean festival outside of England. So say the very least, the man knows colors, fabrics and can tell you measurements by looking at you as you turn in a circle. He is also a charter member of the precious circle of my gay friends. 

I called him to ask for his help, and I could tell by his voice that by the time I'd finished telling him about Annie, that, one, he was weeping, and two, zombie hordes could not have kept him from organizing Annie's closet, even after what I thought was a clever joke about how hard it would be to get him out of it. 

The next afternoon, Randy arrived with his partner Eric, and after fussing about, treating Piglet like a china doll and getting a new one ripped by her, they got down to business. And business meant that most of the clothing I had so carefully put away ended up flying out of the closet door and going to Goodwill. This, of course, meant shopping, the one thing I dreaded more than overwhelming numbers of armed enemy combatants. And what is so wrong about wire coat hangers? You'd have thought that I had skinned kittens alive from the looks I got from the two amigos.

One of the things Randy knows about me is my bank balance, so he knows I wouldn't miss the money that I was absolutely sure he intended to spend on Annie. And for some reason, Medford wouldn't do; in fact, I thought Randy's eyebrows were going to fly off his face when I suggested it. Fortunate for me, I had a security job lined up that would take me out of the country for a couple of days, so I didn't have to go to San Francisco with the Wonder Twins and Piglet. 

It had been six months since I first saw Annie at the Medford Airport, and we hadn't been separated since. Randy assured me that Annie was safe with he and Eric, and I believed him, since he was retired from the British SAS, and was possibly more deadly than I was.  

Randy made the arrangements, including a private jet and two nights at the Mandarin Oriental. Thankfully, he had to explain the jet and posh lodgings to her, and not me. She wouldn't hit him, at least I didn't think she would. So I kissed her goodbye and waved at the Citation 7 as it scalded down the runway at MFR, then turned and boarded the more mundane CRJ700 bound for Denver, and then sites offshore. It didn't occur to me until later that she couldn't see me wave.

My body guarding gig was uneventful, and I returned unkilled from overseas, walking through the door at 11:15 on a Tuesday night. I'd left a voice message on our phone when I got on the plane in Denver three hours before, and Annie stood at the far end of the hallway waiting for me. Except for the automatic light on the porch, it was totally dark in the house. 

"Be a good boy and do exactly as you're told, is that understood?" she whispered.

"As You Wish." My favorite quote from our favorite movie, "The Princess Bride". 

"Follow me." She said. She turned exactly 180 degrees and walked away from me into the house. As she passed the wall into the living room, I slid the light switch on silently. She stopped, just out of my view around the corner in the bedroom. 

"Can't you wait to see me by candle-light? I can hear the elements sing as they warm up, Pooh. Please turn them off."

I turned the lights off and followed as she walked away from me. Her four-inch heels made her just a foot shorter than I was, but they did amazing things to the way she walked. I heard the soft tinkle of bells, but I couldn't locate them. Later, I asked Randy where he had gotten seamed silk hose and a garter belt tiny enough to fit Annie. He told me that I did not want to know, and I believed him.

I followed her beautiful swaying ass into the bedroom, which had been transformed into a palace of delight. There must have been a hundred candles in the room, the scent they gave off was intense, and they gave off a wonderful glow. Annie stood before me, her shaking hands betraying the fact that she was extremely nervous. Her black gloved hands swept up her body, which was encased in black leather from her little feet to the middle of her breasts, except for a glimpse of thigh where her boots stopped and her corset began. And I do mean corset, by the way. 

Her waist is normally tiny, but encased in the rigid embrace of the delightful device she wore it could not have been more than 16 inches around. The corset enhanced her hips and ass, but the biggest focal point was her pubic mound. The corset was cut away from her out-thrust clit and labia, framing them tightly and pushing them even more to the front of her body. The tender flesh framed in the opening of the leather was engorged with blood, deep pink and literally dripping with shiny fluid. Annie's clit looked like a cock, and it strained toward me with a quivering urgency. 

Not far above it, her tits were presented on two black leather half-cones for me to stare open-mouthed at. Her nipples extended over the end of the custom-fitted holder, each of them dark, rigid and enclosed tightly in a golden band, from which hung a tiny golden bell. Playing the part, Piglet spread her black boots a little more and as she shook her shoulders, her bells rang softly. A strand of silver mucous stretched toward the ground from her pussy, her large brown labia engorged and two inches long. 

Her hips pumped slowly, erotically, as she attempted to contain her passion. A black silk sash covered her empty eye sockets, tied at the side of her face like a pirate headband, and ringlets of her soft hair hung down over her shoulder.

The effect was absolutely stunning, and I said so.

"I have never seen, and I will never see, a more beautiful, erotic woman than I see before me now, Ann. You have taken my heart and my soul, and I think that I am happy for the first time since we drifted apart so many years ago. You are so beautiful that I am nearly afraid to touch you. Fortunately you are also so very sexy that I have to take the chance." 

Annie smiled and held her arms up to me. I closed the distance between us and took her hands in mine. I placed them on my shoulders and put my hands completely around her waist on the stiff warm leather. I lifted her, as light as a child, and placed her on the edge of the bed, where I knelt between her legs, placing her boots on my shoulders. Her clit stared up obscenely at me, and I took it between my lips and sucked gently. Annie came almost instantly, her body shuddering with release, the little gold nipple bells making a lovely sound. 

As she caught her breath, I retrieved her breasts, which had fallen to drape across her upper arms, and played absently with the nipple clamps. She moaned and frowned in extreme pleasure as I pulled on them one at a time.

"I could get used to these, love. Very sexy." 

"I'm glad you like them, Pooh. I was thinking about having them pierced for you, would you enjoy that?"

"I have a hard time imagining you any sexier, but I think that would be very hot."

"So do I; now come up here and lay down on the bed. It's time for me to play with my favorite toy."

"What is your favorite toy, Annie" I asked. She "looked" at me as she climbed up my body. "My favorite toy, David, is your amazing. Big. Fat. Fucking. COCK!" She hissed as she slid it inside her fiery cunt and dropped. Her tits followed her down a fraction of a second later, and they spent the next few minutes trying to catch up. 

Fortunately for me, they never did. The night went on and on, and we made love and just plain fucked until dawn, and then took a long shower and slept nearly until dark again. We both walked like cowboys for a couple of days after that, but the smiles never left out faces...

I followed Annie into her closet and turned on the light so I could see her. She swept her left hand along the clothes on that side until she came to the short-sleeved blouses. 

"Pick out the cropped red Kauai Harley tee for me, okay? And then the Seven Jeans with the wide legs; they should be in the drawer on the top left. And then the Engineer boots with the 4 inch heels. I'll need some tall socks for them, probably the SmartWool ones, and the color doesn't matter. I think a thong to please my man, and you can pick the color. Which bra do you like, Pooh?"

"I like the red Bombshell, if that's okay."

"But that makes me a DD and the t-shirt will get stretched."

"You say that like it's a bad thing, Piglet," I smiled.

"Men! If I had eyes, they would be rolling right now. Seriously, Pooh, would you want me to get implant to make my tits bigger? I'd do it if you wanted me to."

Boy, talk about a sentence some men would pay good money to hear! 

"You know, Annie, a lot of men would jump at that, but not me. I wouldn't change anything about your boobs at all. If they were bigger, they wouldn't move like they do now; it's also possible that your nipples would be numb, and I don't think that's right."

As I spoke, she started to smile, and when I was done, she inhaled deeply, throwing her chest back and shaking her shoulders an almost imperceptible amount. The combination of movements set her breasts in motion, bobbing and swaying, her dark nipples surging erect. 

"Like I said, they're perfect, just like the rest of you. Now, if you got an urge to have them pierced, I wouldn't mind that at all."

"I've made an appointment over at SouthSide Tattoo to have them done next week, Pooh. I feel so very lucky to have you, darling." She said this while she was bending over, loading her breasts into the Vic's Bombshell bra. I barely heard her because my attention was, as always, elsewhere.

"Why's that?" I said. 

She straightened up, and while pulling her boobs into place, 'looked' straight at me, suddenly serious.

"I came off a plane as damaged goods, emotionally and physically wrecked. No job, no prospects, no caretaker, no real means of making my way through this world. You picked me up, both literally and metaphorically, and just by being you, you fixed everything. You accepted me, took me into your home and into your heart, and did everything you could do and much, much more to ensure that I was all right. I hate to bust your bubble, hoss, but people just don't do things like that in this world anymore. I just want you to know that I think about you all the time; I know how lucky I am that you were, and are there for me, and I will never, ever forget it. I owe you my life and everything in it, and I love you more than I thought it possible to love anyone."

"Wow," I said softly.

She chuckled softly. "That was a carefully rehearsed speech, and all you have to say is, 'Wow?"

"Not exactly, darlin'. Come with me, okay?" I started out of the bedroom, and led her to our Zen Garden. I sat her down on our meditation bench and knelt before her. Her hand went to her mouth, and she inhaled quickly. 

"My original plan was to do this in a more beautiful place, but then I realized that you couldn't see it, and that it's you that brings the beauty to a place anyway. I listened very carefully to what you just said, and you're right, you do owe me for all the time and effort I have expended in your care lately, and I have decided on a way that you can repay me."




Battle Scars Ch. 04



Her brows had begun to come together as soon as I knelt, and I decided I had to move quickly if I was to pull this off before she misunderstood." When I went to pick you up, I didn't know what to expect; you're right about that. The minute I saw you again none of that made a bit of difference, because I have loved you all of my life, but I never felt that I was good enough to be with you." 

Her head began to shake in denial, and as the tears started to fall, she whispered, "It was always you, David."

"And it was always you, Ann. I can't obligate myself to marry you when I am running off around the world to potentially get killed every month..." 

She inhaled and began to cry in earnest. It was now or never.

"So I have retired. Anne Marie Taylor..."

"YES!" She shrieked.

"I'm not done yet," I whined. "How do you know what I was going to say?"

"Okay, I'll be quiet." She smiled, wiping her nose with the back of her hand.

"Anne Marie Taylor, will you..."

"YES! I lied, Pooh I can't be quiet! Oh Pooh, yesyesyesyesyesyesyes, I'll marry you!"

She was bouncing up and down on the bench, and her cleavage was doing flip-flops in the bra, but her face was, for once, the winner in the 'where do my eyes want to look' contest. It was radiant, her eyebrows high, her face beaming in a smile that lit up the garden and my very world. I remembered the beautiful eyes that used to live in the dark hollows before me, and I decided that she was every bit as beautiful without them as with them.

After a few minutes of cuddling, she got cold, so we went inside. Well, she was mostly naked after all. I helped her dress after she asked if we could still go for a ride. I gave her the package of leathers that Randy had custom built for her, and typical of his designs, they fit her like a second skin. The vest presented her cleavage very, very nicely and was longer in the back to eliminate cold breezes and prevented her showing her gorgeous ass to anyone but me. The chaps fit snugly at the tops of her hips, and zipped down the back of each leg, with a leather cover Velcro secured over each zipper. I mentioned that they would be quite spectacular worn by themselves, and got a playful swat on the arm for my comment.

Just as I started to the garage, she reminded me that I was supposed to call the Doctor up at the V.A. in Portland, so I wandered into the kitchen and dialed the speaker-phone as Annie began to breeze sightlessly through the refrigerator, making sandwiches appear as if by magic. It was important that everything in the fridge be put in its own place, and I tried hard to be good about it. The results were delicious meals that I really loved.

My call was transferred to a Dr. Jennings in the orthopedic rehab unit.

"This is Dr. Jennings," an alto woman's voice stated. 

"Dr. Jennings, This is David in Ashland. You left a message with my fiancé this morning?" Anne smiled at the use of the term and put her hands over her mouth to stifle a happy giggle. "Excellent, Gunny! Thanks for calling back. I have a former Company member of yours here in the ortho ward, Corporal Gabby Jackson." 

Annie's hands flew to her face again, this time in shock; we'd both gone to school with Gabby, and she'd once been Piglet's best friend. Unfortunately, I'd only had contact with her a couple of times; a Company is a large number of soldiers.

"Brief me in, Doc. What do you need from me? Whatever it is, it's yours."

"Corporal Jackson has been stateside for five months and she's due to be separated in a couple of weeks, Gunny. She won't tell us anything about her destination, her family, where she intends to live, etc. We intend to send her to VA Camp White near you, but after that, she's adrift unless we can find her a billet."

"Roger that, Doc. Consider it found. Can you give me a SitRep on her injury?"

"Jackson has lost both of her legs at the hip, and has sustained some notable other injuries, including partial paralysis of her left arm and some nerve damage in her neck. She is coping as well as I could expect under the circumstances, but as I am sure you know from personal experience, a lot of the damage is deep inside. I have approved Total Disability for her, as well as lifetime palliative care and hardware, but that's pretty much going to consist of a wheelchair and driving aids, am I clear? This is going to be a long term relationship if you decide to commit to it, Gunny."

I looked at Annie, and was not a bit surprised to see her nod once, very decisively.

"Consider it done, Doc. What is her departure ETA?"

"Two weeks from today, Gunny."

"Oh, Doc?"

"Yes?"

"Don't billet her at Camp White. She'll be staying here."

"Roger that. Well Done, Gunny."

"Semper Fi, Doc."

'Oorah!"

Annie held on tightly to my waist as we thundered down the highway toward Howard Prairie Lake. The trees flashed by us as we swept through the gentle curves, surrounded by primordial forest. Her head lay against my shoulder, the helmet turned to the right, since she had no need to look at the scenery. The visor was open, and I could hear her inhaling deeply through the intercom.

"It smells so great, here, Pooh! I'd forgotten how wonderful it is in the forest. The smells, the feel of the wind, even the sun coming and going as we move into the cool shadows, it's all just amazing!"

"I was hoping you'd like it, Annie; before you arrived, this bike kept me sane."

"I really like the sounds and the feeling of the power it has. It's like flying, and what's with the seat vibrating?"

"Just an extra added benefit women have discovered, and Milwaukee has refined, I guess. If there's a particular rpm you need, just let me know and we'll try to find it, OK?" She laughed out loud; what a wonderful sound.

We pulled off the road at Howard Prairie Resort and parked the Harley by the dock. Annie took my elbow and we walked into the resort and got an ice cream cone. Sitting on the top of a picnic table by the lake, I gazed at my Piglet as she turned her eyeless face into the sun and let the breeze blow her hair. 

"It's hard for me to imagine what it's like to not see the light of the sun through my eyelids. Can you describe it for me, or would you rather not?" I asked.

"I don't mind at all, Davey. It's who I am now, and I think I can say with total honesty that I'm okay with it now. I don't find myself trying to turn toward sounds anymore like I used to, trying to look for the source. The muscles in my eye sockets stopped twitching a couple of months ago, probably since my brain stopped trying to control non-existent eyeballs. I still feel my eyelids twitch all the time, and I don't really understand that. When I turn my face to the sun, I just feel heat. You might think that my world is completely black, but it's really not. I think that the loss of my sight has engaged different types of awareness instead, and I think I sense things almost as colors now." 

"Let me give you an example. Close your eyes and listen with me, okay?"

"Okay," I said, and moved to sit on the bench between her knees, facing away from her. She put her hands on my cheeks from behind and turned my head to the right and down a little.

"There's a small animal over there, probably a squirrel. He's chewing on something hard, stopping every once in a while to chew and look around. Open your eyes and tell me what you see. I see the color brown in my mind, probably because I remember squirrels being brown."

Sure enough, a Golden Mantled Ground Squirrel sat on his haunches about ten feet from us, exactly in the direction Annie had my head pointing. "Got it in one." I said. "Tell me this, Piglet. Do you ever think you'd like prosthetic eyes? They wouldn't turn or anything, but I just wondered."

"Actually, Pooh, I have called around to see what my options might be, and they come down to this: One, doctors cut off my lashes, and graft my eyelids to the back of my eye sockets. Then I could get a set of eyes with eyelashes and lids that pop into the holes. Or, they permanently implant filler balls into the sockets and sew the eyelids closed, so it looks like I am sleeping all the time. The thing is that I don't seem to have any of the problems that most people in my circumstances have, like eyelashes turning in and growing into the lids. I don't really find that I want to do any of those things, Pooh. If you would rather I did one or the other, I'd do it for you, but we haven't talked about it. Do my empty eye sockets gross you out? I try to wear big sunglasses in public."

"You know, Annie, they don't bother me at all, but then I love every little bit of you anyway.. I think that they're expressive, and somehow kind of sexy, probably because they are so different. I like it when you try to blink; please don't get me wrong, but it's so erotic, kind of like your eyes are in bondage, that it really gets me hot. I guess it seems so natural to me now that I wish you wouldn't change it. And I think the Stevie Wonder glasses need to go. All the girls are wearing smaller ones now, and I just happen to have gotten you a set. "

"So the message is to go without the glasses when we're among friends or alone and wink at you frequently, right? Well then, I think that's settled. Let me check out those glasses, okay?"

I went to the Harley and got the glasses out of their case and handed them to her. The lenses are quite dark, round, and about the diameter of quarters. She put them on and immediately looked even more sexy to me

"Wow, those make you look even hotter! Give me a kiss, little one?" S

he puckered and I matched my lips to hers seamlessly, just as her tongue slipped out and licked my teeth. 

"Oh, wow, they're so light! I love them already, but do you think they will show too much socket?"

"Oooh, you know how I love you to talk dirty, baby!"

"Oh, for Christ's sake, Davey! Do you ever think of anything other than sex?" She laughed. 

"Not since I've been around you, love." I answered.

"Good answer, big guy."

"You know, I proposed to you a little out of the timeline I'd decided on, and I didn't have anything to put on your finger. Hold out your hand, Piglet."

"Oh, David! Describe it for me, will you?"

"I don't think I need to, Annie. You know what it looks like." 

Her head tilted and she frowned a little.

"After your mom passed away, your Dad came to me. He told me, and this is a direct quote. 'Son, I don't know what is wrong with you and why you haven't married my Annie, but I know in my heart that someday you are gonna come to your God-damned senses. When you do I want you to have this. If you don't marry her, then I don't give a fuck what you do with it.' And then he gave me your mother's emerald wedding ring. And now I am giving it to you, if you'll have it. The omly regret I have in this is that he never jnew we were going to go through with this before he passed."

She held out a tiny shaking hand, and I slid the ring on her finger. It was a perfect fit. She held it out in front of her face and turned it as if she could see it. "Is it beautiful like I remember it, Pooh?"

"Yes it is, Darlin'."

"This day just gets better and better, Pooh. I look back on the night the witchdoctor took my eyes out, and it's suddenly the greatest thing that ever happened to me because it brought us together. I am absolutely the happiest woman in the world."

"I'm just sorry it took that to get the job done, I guess."

"It would have happened eventually. Nothing can stop True Love."

We sat in the sunshine for a while, just enjoying each other's company. Talk eventually turned to Gabby, and the changes we'd have to make in our lives when she came to live with us. The facts were that we didn't know very much; the Doctor had just filled us in as best she could and there was no way to tell what Gabby's state of mind was. I thought that the only way to see was to go to Portland, and I said as much. We agreed to go north to Portland at the beginning of the week, and rode home on a different road after a short walk along the shore. Rough ground was hard for my girl, so we stayed on a nice pathway. She described everything she heard, which was really quite amazing to me, especially when she told me that she can hear when I smile, since apparently my teeth make noise...weird.

Interstate 5 bisects Oregon north to south, and it's about a five hour drive from our house to the Portland VA Hospital, which is just off Terwilliger Boulevard, overlooking the Willamette. 

It took us closer to seven hours, partially due to me having to pump off bilges (Pee), and partially because there is an unwritten law in girl-land that says that you have to stop for ice cream every so many hours. We stopped at a little place in a town called Rice Hill, where a small ice cream cone is about a foot tall.

I had called ahead and reserved a hotel room at a nice older hotel called The Benson, and we took a nice bath together in the evening, and then slept like the dead until 0700. We ate quickly and then headed to the hospital. 

When the sliding doors opened and the smell hit my nose, I stopped like I'd hit a wall, and Annie almost walked in without me.

"Geez Pooh, you could warn a blind girl when you're gonna stop! I nearly...what's wrong, David?"

In an eye blink, my skin had gone clammy, my heart was banging in my chest, and I was certain that I was going to pass out. Within seconds, Piglet was yelling and a pair of large black hands had me by the shoulders and had guided me back out the door and sat me on the bench outside. The hands fished down my shirt and had my dog tags out and read.

"Stand Easy, Gunny!" a basso profundo voice rumbled in my ear. "First time in a hospital since your injuries, I'm bettin'. Ain't no big thing brother, it happens to most of us. Places like this have nothin' but bad memories for us, and your brain is throwin' up flags and telling you to evac not only now, but Right Now. It'll be better if you have a chance to breathe and set your jaw against it. You let Master Chief Phillips know when you're good to go, and we'll take a run at this together, you copy?"

"Roger that, Chief. I don't know what that was all about, but I have a soldier to see, and I'll be damned if bullshit like this is gonna stop me."

"Miss, turn to your right 90 degrees and walk 20 feet. You have no obstacles," rumbled the Master Chief. Shit! I'd forgotten all about Annie!

"I'm sorry, Piglet! I forgot about you for a second, there."

"No worries, Pooh, it was pretty obvious the Master Chief had your back. If you don't mind my asking, is it that obvious that I am blind?" Her cool hands slid over my neck and the world regained a good part of its focus.

"No Ma'am, not unless you stand at these doors for a long time, as I have. I've seen a lot and when your man went down and you started feeling for him with your hands, it became somewhat obvious. Pooh...Piglet, well I have heard it all now," the Master Chief grunted, and began to laugh. 

"Thank you for your help. Buy you a cup of coffee after I've seen the Corporal, Chief?" I asked.

"Very well, Gunny. I am on duty here until 1700 hours."

I looked at the Chief as I stood. A handsome black man, the Master Chief looked to be about 250 pounds of Navy stuffed into a six foot block of dusty black granite. His wrinkled face wore a trimmed salt and pepper beard under a shiny shaved head, and his powerful arms and shoulders held sway over a pair of artificial legs that appeared to begin about mid-thigh. I shook his hand and thanked him again as Annie and I headed through the doors of the hospital once more. He was right, it was better if you were expecting it; not fine, but better.

We were met right away by an intern to Doctor Jennings. "Corporal Jackson is in the lounge at the end of the hallway, Gunny." She offered.

"What is her state of mind, Doctor?"

"I would say she is guardedly optimistic, but frankly, by the time most soldiers have been in the hospital as long as she has, they'll act like a duck if they think it will get them out of here. Having said that, I think she's pretty much accepted the loss of her legs, possibly because that's a given. Her hand and wrist are another thing for her. We don't know how much of that function will return, and we don't have a lot of confidence that very much will. We have her in a brace that keeps her hand from curling up, but it is probably futile, and I think she knows that. It could be a year before we would consider her medically stable, which means that improvement is unlikely. She caught some shrapnel in her neck and it has damaged the nerves that control her vocal cords. Today she's just hoarse sounding, but sometimes she can't speak at all. It comes and goes, and we all know that it could go and not come back. We don't know very much about the regeneration of nerves, and they are totally unpredictable. She has agreed to return to Southern Oregon with you, and I actually think she's looking forward to it pretty seriously. I'll have her paperwork done very shortly, and you can take her around 0900 hrs."

"Really? We were led to believe that it would be another week."

"Well, Gunny, when a Senior Gunnery Sergeant who is a recipient of a Navy Cross and three purple hearts says he has the situation in hand, we tend to believe him."

"What's that all about, Pooh?"

"It's nothing, really Annie; we can talk about it later if you want."

"It's hardly nothing, Gunny, if you will excuse my presumption," Said the Doctor, looking at Annie. "The Navy Cross is the highest award for heroism the Navy can bestow, and there are only a handful of recipients in the history of the Navy." 

"So my Pooh is a hero to somebody besides me, then Doctor?"

"Your 'Pooh', as you have so strangely named him, is a hero to more people than you can imagine, Ma'am." said the Doctor with a smile.

"Thanks for the compliment, Doc," I said, embarrassed by the attention, "but in my opinion, every bed in this hospital has a hero in it, and I'd like to go see one in particular, so if you don't mind..."

"Understood, Gunny. She's at the end of the hall, room 2644. Carry on."

"You know that we will be talking about this later, right?" Piglet said.

"Never doubted it, friend."

As we neared the end of the hallway, I pulled Annie into a hug and spoke softly over her head so that she could hear me.

"I'm glad we are setting out to do this thing, Annie, but I don't have any misconceptions either. This is going to be really hard, and I want to make it clear that I am going to do my best to see this through, but I am not willing for it to affect ourrelationship. You are my first priority, now and always, so let's keep the communication going and we'll get through this, okay? I don't know what to expect, but I'm pretty sure that she's going to be deeply depressed and in denial over a lot of stuff. I have lined up a VA psychologist just in case."

"Thanks, my love. I'm ready to do battle for Gabby, and I couldn't if you weren't beside me. Let's do this."

As much as we had steeled ourselves to prepare for it, when we pushed open the door on room 2644, we were not prepared for the sounds that echoed off the walls.

Laughter. Not giggling or a little chuckle, but roaring belly laughs that would have made a demon smile. Gabby sat on her bed in a NAVY sweatshirt and a pair of grey running shorts, her arms wrapped around her belly basically laughing her ass off. Tears were rolling down her cheeks, and her face was red from exertion. From the small screen hung from the gantry arm extending from the wall came the unmistakable sounds of Patrick Warburton's voice from "Family Guy". 

I stepped around the door and said. "Is this a good time, Gabby?"

"Holy shit, it's...you!" She croaked. The doctor was right, her voice was screwed up, the sound grating and soft, the words halting as her brain tried to fix things. Her smile got even broader and she held out her hands to me. Well. Her right hand, anyway. Her left arm moved out, but her hand just flopped at the end of in. The hand was in some sort of glove with springs holding the fingers outstretched, and it dangled at the end of her arm like a rag. I slid onto the bed, trying not to get close enough to touch anything sore or tender. She appeared to have no legs whatever, and she was propped up with pillows at each hip. She held me fiercely and buried her face in my neck. Soon I felt her shoulders start to shake and the tears began. 




Battle Scars Ch. 04



I snapped my fingers softly so that Annie knew where I was, and she joined me on the bed. She slid her hands down Gabby's left arm and lifted it onto her shoulder, then slid in beside me to hug her friend. 

After a while, Gabby loosened up a little and I let her shift her hug to Ann alone. "Oh, how I have looked forward to... this," she said as she looked past Annie's shoulder at me. "Oh crap, David, what happened to your face?"

"IED, Gabs." I held up my damaged hand." No more guitar solos for me, either."

"You don't play the guitar, Gunny." She said with a puzzled look."

"I know; I'm just sayin'..." I smiled. She smiled back, which was a good thing in my book. Annie sat back a little and 'looked' at Gabby. 

"So, don't you think this is a pitiful way to finally make it into the insurance company height to weight chart limits?" she said. 

Gabby smiled, and said, "And is your future so bright, you have to wear shades?"

Annie 'looked' over her shoulder at me and said, "She doesn't know?"

Annie took Gabby's right hand in hers, partially to have a hand to hold, and partially to keep her from grabbing the sunglasses away. Gabby looked at Annie's hand and cried out, "NO way! You guys got hooked up? It's about time!" 

You're right about that Gabby. But there's something else you need to know, okay?"

"Okaaay?" she said guardedly.

"When I was in Africa, I got a parasite in my eyes which caused what is called River Blindness."

Gabby's hand broke free and pulled Annie into a hug. She looked over her shoulder at me and asked, "It's treatable, isn't it, Annie?"

Piglet shook her head and said, "I'm afraid not, Gabs. They had to take my eyes out because I couldn't stand the pain anymore." 

Gabby leaned back and snatched Annie's glasses off and looked at her eyeless face, stunned. "No. no. no. Annie, my poor Annie; who's gonna tell me I look like a fucking clown when I ...dress wrong ...now?" The tears began again, and this time Piglet and I joined in for a little while.

"I guess that would be me, now, Gabs." Are you ready to get out of here?"

"Only you could imagine how much I want out of here. When can we go?"

"I have a feeling the Doc we talked to this morning has probably already checked in with Dr. Jennings. Where's your gear?" 

"Well, all I have here is what's in the locker there and the wheelchair by the door. It's a nice little Quickie™, but I can't use it by myself very well yet. It'll be fine if one of you wants to push, though." Her voice fell to a barely perceptible whisper by the end of the sentence.

"Me, pick me!" Piglet burst out, bouncing up and down on the bed to the point that Gabby had to grab the side rail to keep from falling over. "You can sit, and I can push you and I can finally work off some of the weight I've gained since I got back from Africa."

"Well, maybe after your arm gets better, Gabs..."

"They like to tell us stuff like that, Dave, but you and I know better. You want to see?"

"Might as well get acquainted with it, since I'm gonna be taking care of your sorry ass for a while," I said, daring her to flinch. She didn't.

"Damn straight, Gunny." She grabbed her sweatshirt and worked it up over her head, then drug her withered arm out of the sleeve. She wore a wife beater underneath the sweatshirt and her nipples were apparently very hard. It wasn't pretty; her lower arm appeared to be nearly devoid of muscle tissue. There was a mass of scar tissue just above her elbow, which to my experienced eyes was certainly a gunshot wound. 

"The nerves are mostly gone, gunny, so I don't expect it will ever work again, and only one little part of my biceps is still working, so there's not much strength. Look, I want to thank you for giving me a place to go until I get back on my f... Well that was gonna sound stupid, huh? I just don't want to fuck up your lives any more than I have to."

Annie found Gabby's face and held it in her hands. "You are our dear friend, and right now you need us. We are thrilled to be there for you."

"Thank you, both of you, it means a lot to me Annie. I've missed you both, but especially you," she whispered.

I had my head in the closet when Dr. Jennings walked in.

"Are you ready to get going with this group?" she said.

"Nothing personal, Doc, but I won't miss this place at all."

"And we hope to never see you again unless you come in the front door, either. Well, you're signed out, and the packet I have put on the bed has all the contacts you'll need for the Domiciliary in White City. Good luck to you Corporal."

"Aye aye, Captain." She saluted, and the Doctor snapped one back at her. The room was quiet for a minute after the Doctor departed, and then I said, "Let's get out of here!"

"Roger that!" agreed Gabby. 

"Where's my new toy?" said Piglet. I brought her to the wheelchair and directed it to the bedside. 

She reached down and locked the wheels and I looked at Gabby.

"Do you need to pee first?" I asked. She was pulling her sweatshirt on and threading her lifeless hand down the sleeve.

"I'm okay for now Dad," she smiled. "And I brought my special seat so I don't fall through and get wet."

"So how do we get you into the chair?

"We don't, I do this..." she put her limp left hand on the bed and grabbed the seat of the wheel chair and flipped around, planting her butt firmly on the seat.

The trip down the hall to the front desk was exciting, what with a blind woman pushing and the passenger giving less than adequate instructions. I only had to prevent collisions three times, and Gabby only tried to fall out of the chair twice.

We made a stop to see the Master Chief, but he was occupied with a vet and her family, so I took down his info and promised to catch up with him the next time I was in Portland.

I got Gabby loaded into the Range Rover, along with Annie, who wanted to sit in the back seat with her friend, and we got on I-5 southbound. They chattered for quite a while, until Gabby got so hoarse she had to stop talking. I stopped for gas at Albany, and they were both asleep, Annie with her head against the right window and Gabby sideways in the seat, her shoulders against the seat back and her head on Annie's lap. 

There was a lot of room for Gabby without legs, and I was surprised to see that Piglet was holding Gabby's left hand in her own. Just before I turned into my drive and the electric gate swung open, I looked in the mirror at my precious cargo, and they were both smiling in their sleep.

And so it begins.



Battle Scars Ch. 05



I was pretty surprised when I got to the house and opened the garage door that the girls did not wake up. I had a chance to unload Gabby's meager pile of stuff along with her wheelchair, before a head popped up in the back of the Range Rover. It was Gabby, and she pushed up with her right hand as she held her floppy hand up near her lips and made a 'shhh' sound quietly, looking down at Annie, and then back at me. I slid Annie out and into my arms, with only a mild complaint from her.

"I'll be back for you in a second, okay?"

"Okay, I promise I won't get out and run around," she said with a wink. I felt like shit all the way to the bedroom and back. I tucked Annie in and told her I'd be back after I got Gabby situated. She mumbled something like 'give her a kiss for me'.

I started to apologize to Gabby when I got back to the truck, but she stopped me.

"Don't overthink this Gunny; I am totally over the mourning for my lost legs, okay? If you try to talk around my damage, it's gonna drive us all crazy. I'm a big girl, but more than that, I'm a Marine."

"Understood. At least I know you're not gonna try to kick my ass anymore, right?" We both laughed at that. 

I leaned into the Rover, and she slung her limp hand around my neck and grabbed it with the other one. I stood and she slid across the seat and smacked right into my belly. I put my hands under her hips tentatively, not knowing where to grab. "Just grab a handful of something, David. It's completely healed and it hasn't been touched by a man in quite a while, so I'll thank you for touching that when I catch my breath." 

My face flamed red, and she chuckled all the way to the spare bedroom. Annie and I had decorated it before we'd come to get Gabby, which was good, since we hadn't expected to bring her home quite so soon. It was full of tiger paintings and photographs (she loved tigers), and pictures of the three of us as kids and young adults.

"Oh my God, David, this is really amazing!" she croaked." I can't believe you guys did this for me, it's just perfect! Are you trying to get me to move in permanently, or what?" she said with a little smile. I knew how insecure she probably felt, and so, without checking with Piglet but being confident in the outcome, I said, "That's the plan exactly, Gabby. At least until you get tired of us. Believe me when I say this, Gabs, you are welcome here forever if that's what works best for you, alright? Do you need help to go pee, or anything else? I already installed your seat on the head, like you said, so you won't fall in."

I put her down in the little purple wheelchair, and she fastened her hip belt and then made her way quickly around the room, her floppy hand dangling as she pushed the rim with her wrist. She found her duffel, and began to unpack. 

"We are just down the hall, so if you need anything, just yell, and we'll come for you." I bent to give her a hug, and after she kissed my cheek, she stroked it with her limp fingers and said, "Thanks, David, you guys are lifesavers, and I am so happy to be here."

"We're happy to have you. Sleep tight."

I brushed my teeth and crawled into bed beside my girl. I once saw a quote, and it came to me now. "I have heard the Eskimo have a hundred words for snow, and that the Egyptians have fifty words for sand. I wish I had a thousand words for love, but all I can think of is the way you move against me when you sleep, and there are no words for that."

The precious movement of Annie against my hip turned to frantic scrambling at 2:03 in the morning, and Piglet was out of bed and flying down the hall before I was fully awake, and I prize my reflexes highly. I was up, armed with my Kimber .45 and following her scent trail to Gabby's room through the moonlit hallway in seconds.

I scanned for tangos and then hit the light, only to find Annie sprawled on the floor holding the side of her face, and Gabby had her back to the wall, and her arms were swinging hard, elbows slapping on the wall with every motion. I finally realized that, at least in her mind, she was running! I knew from Annie's example not to try to wake her, so I did what I would have done in battle.

"STAND DOWN, CORPORAL!" I yelled at her face. Her head jerked around and her wild eyes were panicked. "My legs don't work, Sir! My legs don't work!" 

"There is nothing wrong with your legs that my boot up your ass won't fix, corporal! Do you hear me?" 

"OORAH, Gunnery Sergeant!"

"Come to Attention, Corporal!" 

Aye Aye, Gunnery Sergeant!" She snapped to, and as she started to fall forward, her face relaxed and she hit my arms asleep. I laid her down and went to get my Piglet. She sat, dazed, on the floor, holding her cheek, tears of pain and shock rolling slowly out of her poor eye sockets. 

"Let me check you out, Annie," I said, quietly. She nodded, and I moved my hands around her face, exploring for a fractured zygomatic arch or Palatine bones, and the floor of her eye socket seemed fine, although it was already starting to bruise. "Let's get some ice for you, okay, and some Ibuprofen will slow the swelling." I led her to the kitchen and made up an ice pack for her. As we made our way back to the room, she stopped me in the hallway.

"I don't want to leave her alone tonight, Pooh. She seemed so scared..."

"You went through this with me, Piglet, right? She'll probably sleep into the morning, and then she'll be fine."

"We don't know that, David. Pick her up and take her to our bed. She's sleeping with us for a while."

She'd used my name, so I knew I'd better do what she wanted. I'm dumb, but I'm not stupid. 

"Okay, Annie. I guess I can sleep in here."

"The hell you will! She needs us both, David." Anger flashed across her face, and then her eyelids twitched in a blinking motion and her face softened. "I'm sorry, Pooh. I thought you might like to sleep in the same bed with two women, though." She reached out and touched my face. 

"Your touch is what healed me, Pooh, and I think it will help her, too."

"I don't know, Piglet. I think that the kind of touching that healed us would get me killed by my Fiancé if I tried it with Gabby," I laughed nervously. 

"Please understand me here, David. We do need to talk more about this because you have to be in agreement, too. The fact is that she needs human contact with people who love her, and if it goes further than snuggling, I would understand, Pooh. She is as close to a twin sister as any woman has a right to have and I would do anything for her. If that means sharing you with her, if it is okay with you, I would do it with joy in my heart. You are far too wonderful to keep to myself."

Whoa.

"I am completely on board with taking care of Gabby, little one, but it's not worth it if it's going to compromise our relationship in any way. It sounds like you are not only okay with me having sex with her, but it almost seems like you are encouraging it, is that right, honey?"

"I never really thought of it like that, but I guess that's what I'm saying, with one little difference. I actually meant that we would be having sex with her. She was like a twin to me growing up, but I have to admit that she was my freshman "Girlfriend", so to speak. My only lesbian encounter ever, by the way, Pooh. She's broken, and nobody can fix her except for us, okay?"

"It seems like you have really thought this out, Piglet, so I will go along with it, but I have to tell you that it feels wrong planning to have sex with someone other than you."

"I appreciate that you feel that way, Pooh, and thanks for going along with me on this. I will make it up to you somehow. I just hope you don't find her amputations and paralyzed hand to be a problem. 

"Actually, it's kind of like your missing eyes, at first I didn't mind, and now I think it sexy as hell. I have to admit I'm curious about her body."

I kissed her on the cheek and went to get some ice water for the bedside. When I got back, she was in bed with Gabby, stroking her hair and holding her tightly. I gave Annie the ice water, picked up our friend and we made our way to the bedroom, Annie holding onto my shoulder. 

I put Gabs down in the center of the bed, and Piglet scooted in beside her. I climbed in, and Annie pulled me close so that we made a Gabby sandwich. I draped my arm across Gabby's tummy and found one of Annie's boobs to hold. She made a happy sound and murmured, "That's nice, Pooh. Thank you for doing this." It was good that Gabby's legs were gone because it gave me more room for my raging hard-on.

I awoke early, and it took a few moments to remember what had happened during the night. I was a little embarrassed to find my hand on a breast this morning, since it was Gabby's rather that Annie's. There could not have been more difference between Annie's abundant tits and Gabby's unless she had been a man. Piglet's boobs were huge, pendulous, with tiny nipples, and Gabby's were exactly the opposite. She appeared to have no breast tissue at all; she was totally flat-chested, but her nipples were enormous; fat round cherries the size of my thumbnail, pebbled and dark brown, nearly purple. They sat atop rounded, puffy dark brown areolas that looked like halves of golf balls. I was entranced until I realized that I was looking at my topless friend lying next to my naked fiancé. 

I jumped out of bed and headed to the kitchen to make coffee. I peeked around the corner of the bedroom door a half hour later, holding a tray of coffee, scones and a fresh ice-bag for Annie. Gabby was crying and patting Annie's face gently, causing her to flinch every time contact was made. 

"OK Gabs, honey, it's okay. You were asleep so it wasn't your fault. Calm down a little, sweetie."

Finally, she stopped patting Annie's face, and I gave the ice bag to her, and she held it to Annie's face tenderly. We explained the new sleeping arrangements while she got her wits about her, and she asked if we could take her shopping, since she had no clothes to speak of. 

"OK, you can go shopping, but on one condition." I said." I'm not going, because I hate shopping. The downside of that is that Ann gets to drive." 

I waited for a second, and then the awkward silence broke when Annie started to giggle and Gabs looked like I had grown horns and a tail.

"What?" I said, "She's a very good driver!" They both broke up over that, and the crisis was over. 

The shopping trip wasn't that bad, and it was over in only about seven hours, but it seemed like days. Imagine two women who have known each other all their lives going shopping together, right? It is just going to be an experience. Then imagine that one of them is blind, and the other one is in a wheelchair that she can't push by herself. Honest to God, it was like the three stooges go the Nordstrom's. Then add in the fact that the one in the wheelchair wants me to look at every combination so she can describe it to her blind friend in painstaking detail. It was brutal beyond my ability to describe. And then the fashion show when we got home! That was just, just, well great, actually.

Several weeks went by, and to my great surprise, everything just kept getting better, especially between Annie and myself. What I had originally worried was going to cause problems never happened; Gabs just integrated into our home seamlessly. She'd stopped having the nightmares the night we began to sleep together, and whenever Annie and I needed some alone time, she just vanished. I actually commented on it when Piglet and I were basking in some pretty heavy afterglow one afternoon after dropping Gabs off at the Physical Terrorist's.

Annie was draped across my chest, and I was idly stroking her smooth, strong back. "I wonder if Gabby ever has sexual feelings anymore."

"You can't be serious, Pooh, can you?" I didn't say anything. "OF course she thinks about sex, she a 24 year old woman."

"Have you talked to her about it? I mean, has she mentioned it to you?"

"Well, that pretty much seals it up, Pooh. You know nothing about women at all."

"What? I'm just saying..." 

"It's okay Davy, I'm not making fun of you...much. Girls above the age of 18 usually don't talk about sex with each other, but I have to admit that our dynamic is a little different. Neither of us is in a position to go out and secure a mate; we're both too fucked up for that; I just happen to have scored the best man in the world seemingly in spite of my handicap. Gabby is in a different position, and she knows it. She is visibly handicapped, she can't really get out by herself yet, and she's not sure her girl parts work that well yet."

"What do you mean by that, honey?" I asked.

"When her legs were blown off, there was naturally some collateral damage to nearby structures, as I'm sure you can imagine. She's expressed some frustration with urination and such, but since I can't see what's going on, I can't really comment, you know? I do know that she feels less than desirable, and that makes me sad. Since you brought it up, how would you feel about taking her sexuality on as a project, just the three of us?"

"A few weeks ago, I would have objected, but I think it's important for her, and I'd feel terrible if she needed help and we weren't there for her. 

"Plus, she's hot, and I'd love to hump her bones again after all these years," Annie blurted out. "Did I mention how long her tongue is?"

I was so surprised by her comment that I snorted, which broke us both up.

"So how are you going to bring this subject up, just say, 'David and I would like to have a three-way with you in the middle, okay?"

She laughed and said, "I was hoping to be more subtle than that, you moron. I think I'm going to offer her a massage, and see where I can take it from there. Tonight, maybe after she gets back, because I know she's always sore after P.T."

"I'd love to be a fly on the wall for that session, Piglet..."

"Not as much as I'd like it, buddy. I want you within shouting distance, because I want you right in the middle of us. We just have to take baby steps, because I don't know how badly her body is fucked up. If I think it's gonna work, I want this to become a night to remember for all of us."

I went to get Gabby at the Therapist's, and on the short drive home, she showed me a new hand brace they had made her to use with her wheelchair. It went over the limp hand and wrist and stabilized the whole lower arm so that she could use it to push the wheel rim with. She was excited to use it the next day, and was hoping that Annie would be willing to go for a run with her. I said that I was pretty sure she would love to, since she was grousing about gaining weight.

"What's she talking about, David? She has the hottest body I've seen in years. If I had tits like that, I'd...keep my mouth shut about them, I guess, especially when the co-owner was in the car with me. Sorry about that, Dave."

"It's okay, Gabs, I happen to agree with you, except the changing tits part. If you'll forgive me, I think your tits are hot as hell, too, and I have some experience, since I've seen them over the last few months."

"Are you kidding me, Dave? I have no tits at all! The ten year old boys down the street at the elementary school have bigger tits than I do."

"Ahh, but they don't have nipples to die for like yours, admit it."

"You think they're hot?" She said, looking down at the afore-mentioned items. "Wow, we should SO not be talking about my nipples right now!" She looked down at what would have been her lap, consternation on her face. "This is probably TMI, Dave, but I really need to get laid. It's been over a year, and I get wet when the wind blows."

"It's funny that you say that, because right now Annie is at home getting the massage room ready for you. She told me about your adventures in college, and asked if she could make a move on you."

"You have got to be shitting me! What did you say?"

I pulled over to the side of the road under a grove of willow trees and turned off the engine. I turned toward Gabby and said, "Only if I get to play too, and she answered that she was hoping for that."

"Sweet Jesus, David, I'm so excited I think I might puke! This is more than I could ever have dreamed of! I think you are both so very fine, and I really need to be in the hands of someone I trust the first time I try this. This cannot fuck with our friendships, though. Nothing is worth that, you know. I think I'm babbling, but I'm so nervous... and horny, fuck! I am so horny that I am sitting in a puddle right now, and..mmmph!"

I'd grabbed her by her ribcage and put her down on my lap, then kissed her. She pulled back a little for just a split second, and then she just went off on me! Her hands were everywhere and she shoved her tongue deeply into my mouth. Her hips were gyrating wildly, making fucking motions at a speed someone with legs could never duplicate. We kissed for a couple of minutes and then took a break.

"I kind of feel like I'm stealing Annie's thunder here, Gabs. Would you mind if we went on home and I let her plan play out? I don't want her to think we're going behind her back, okay?" "That's perfect, David, and I agree completely, although I'd really like to have your cock in me right now. The other thing is that I have been rebuilt a little in the girl part section, and it may take a while to get that all figured out. How about a compromise? Put me on the seat beside you and put my little limp hand around your big cock. I won't be able to do anything with it, but it will stay curled around it. plus, I cna't lay still through a massage, as wonderful as her massages are, so we need to get with the program. Sound like a plan?"

It did sound like a plan, so I scooted her around and beside me, slid my dick out of my fly and opened her little hand. It was slightly clenched, and resisted a little, but once it was wrapped around me, it held on firmly. I even gave myself a stroke or two with it, which was very erotic, for some reason. 

Gabs sat beside me, eye fixed on my dick and her helpless little hand. I took advantage of the positioning to slide my right hand inside her t-shirt and take her nipple between my fingers. As I drove, I rolled it gently around, and she moaned, swore and panted all the way home. We sat in the car composing ourselves before I took her to Annie, but she smelled like sex, and there was nothing to be done about that except to take a shower. 

I put her down in the bathroom, told Annie that we were back, and went to the kitchen for a drink of ice water to cool down. When I made it back to the bathroom, the shower was running, and both girls were apparently in it. I announced my presence through the steam and waited for instructions. 

"Pooh, I want you to sit on the seat there under the window and I'm going to give my little sister the finest washing she's ever had, okay? I'm going to start with the back so the best part will be last" 

Annie said as she stood in the stream of hot water. Her big clit pointed right at me like a pink gun sight, twitching occasionally in concert, I knew, with her pussy. Her little nipples were hard as rocks and she was panting with excitement. I sat on the stone seat under one of the other shower heads and put Gabby on my lap facing me. The abbreviated vee of her legless torso slid down between my knees until the width of her hips stopped her. 

She looked at me through half closed eyes as Annie applied shampoo to her shoulder length brown hair and began to scrub. Gabs tilted her face up and leaned back against my arms. In a move that made me even harder, she bent her left arm and brought her paralyzed hand to her right nipple. She slid her right index finger between her left finger and thumb, spreading them apart, and then removed her finger, leaving one of her huge nipples between them. She looked at me and whispered, "Squeeze my nipple between my fingers, please. I can't do it by myself, but if you help me, we can do it together." 




Battle Scars Ch. 05



I took her limp hand and did as she asked, and was rewarded with the hissing intake of breath as she felt the pressure. When I released it, her hand fell to my lap.

"I can feel everything, did you know that, David? My paralyzed hand is exquisitely sensitive, even though I can't control it at all. And I'll tell you a secret; I love it. My limp hand and my missing legs make me so very, very horny; I can hardly keep my panties dry. This whole thing is like a wet dream come true. I love to drag my useless hand around my body and trying to use it to do things with makes me nearly cum. Oh Lord, this feels wonderful; Annie your hands are like magic."

Annie's magic hands slid around Gabby's shoulders and pulled sharply on her nipples.

"Fuck yeah!" she yelped in surprise. 

"I think I want to play with the other side now, please. Put her sideways on your lap, Pooh, okay?"

I spun Gabby around and we finally got to see the extent of the damage to her pelvis.

"I'm sorry you have to see me, guys. I haven't had the guts to look, but it's gotta be gross." t was definately not gross, although it was very, very different. With the exception of a fine network of fine pink scars, Gabby's bottom was smooth unbroken skin, save for three openings, whose intentions were obvious. The normal pink wrinkled skin was gone, except for a small oval around the opening to her vagina, which was slightly puckered outward. Her ass looked kind of like a smooth stomach with three belly buttons. Then I noticed a very subtle little pucker above the others, and slid my finger across it. Gabby's stomach did an involuntary crunch and she growled at me. 

"X marks the spot, right, Gabs? Seriously, this is beautiful work. It must have been a female surgeon; a man would not have made you this pretty." I slid my fingertip around the entrance to her vagina, and then dipped it in a little. 

She whined an unintelligible noise and clutched at my hand, drawing it toward her body.

"I don't think you're going to get any cooperation out of her until she relaxes a bit, Piglet, what do you think?"

"I think we stand her up and see if she fits, Pooh."

"Yesss, please, yessss!" Gabby hissed. I took her light little body in my hands and centered her pink vaginal opening on my rigid cock, then began to inch her downward. She was tight, but not impossibly so. 

"Tell me if you need to stop or quit, Gabs. I don't want to..."

"Oh David, shut up and stick that thing into me, okay? Oh, it's perfect, so perfect...Ohhhhhhhhh...cumming cummingcummingNOW!" she yelled. I felt her pussy ripple on my cock, and the sensation was incredible. A lance of heat struck me, and I looked down to see a clear stream of liquid coming out of the top hole in Gabby's mound as she either squirted or lost control of her bladder, and I didn't really care which it was, I was really sexy to me. As the motion subsided, she suddenly slipped down another two inches and I was buried to the hilt. 

"AAAAHHHYEESSSSS! Cumming again! OHHHSWEET JESUS CUMMINGAGAIN!!!!!"

Gabby's eyes rolled in her head, and her arms were outstretched to her sides, her right hand in a claw, her left dangling and limp. This is the one Annie found, and two of its floppy fingers made their way into her mouth, where she rolled them on her tongue and sucked them gently. Gabby moaned as she experienced the inside of Annie's talented mouth. 

"Ok, enough of this shower crap," I said. "If we do this right, we're gonna end up here again in a while anyway. Let's get to the bedroom, okay? Hang on to something, Piglet."

She grabbed my shoulder and I stood, Gabby impaled on my cock so tightly that she felt like a part of me. I took slow steps, each one settling Gabby onto my cock with a squeeze. By the time I made it to the bed, her lube was dripping onto the floor, and she was ready to cum again. 

Annie scooted around me and climbed onto the bed, groping for her friend as I put her on the sheets.

"Pull out for a little while, Pooh. I want to see what she looks like."

I did, over Gabby's whimpered, "No's". Piglet lay on her tummy until she found Gabby's butt, and then she swiveled around and stood, bending at the waist to feel her friend's anatomy with hands, face and tongue. Not being one to look good fortune in the mouth, I slid right into Piglet's drooling cunt and began to slide in and out very slowly.

"David, wait, I'm trying to... I want to...oh, fuck; I guess I'll just have to multi-task, mmm, oh yeah. Gabs, this feels wonderful...so smooth and rounded. OOhhh! Fuck me, pooh bear. I like it, Gabs, and i want to eat it all up."

Annie's hands were feeling their way around Gabby's smooth butt, and from further away, I could see the shape better. Any remnants of her butt and cheeks were gone, and her body tapered very smoothly into a tapered point, ending at her pubic bone, which was why she had a hard time sitting up on a hard surface. As Annie feasted on her nether regions, Gabs writhed and shivered, but there was no movement below her hips, so the doctors must have disarticulated her femurs. She was clutching at Annie's hair with both hands; well, the right was clutching while the left drug around at the end of her wrist. I found it very erotic to watch, and I felt an orgasm coming. 

"I'm not gonna last too much longer girls, who wants me as I cum?" 

"It's Gabby's turn, Pooh. Come lay back on the bed, I want to feel her on top of you, and you can eat me!"

She moved quickly out of the way, feeling her way to the head of the bed, while Gabs pushed up until she was upright, balanced on the tip of her pussy, balancing by putting one hand down. She presented a truly erotic appearance; her head was slightly downcast, and I realized she was staring at my cock. Her hair was a mess, she had sweat running down her body and her hips were jerking involuntarily, making fucking motions. I rolled onto my back and started to help her up, but she pushed my hands away and whispered, 

"I'll do it myself, Dave. I know where that thing goes, and I'll do it myself." She placed her limp hand on my shoulder and the other one on the headboard of the bed. Her shoulders shook as she lifted her body off the bed and swung her trunk over my cock and then slid down my length smoothly. 

As she came to a stop, her mouth went slack and she muttered, "So deep. So fucking deep and so fucking big." 

She shifted her other hand to my other shoulder and began to rock her hips on me. She may not have been able to lift herself, but the hip-snapping action she had begun was very effective, as was the missile lock she had on my eyes. She stared into my soul with incredible intensity as she fucked me. 

In a moment, my view was obscured by Annie's perfect ass as she sat on my face, burying my nose in her pussy. As I ate her, she leaned forward and began to fondle and kiss Gabby with great tenderness, and not a little pent up passion. Her tiny hands seemed to be everywhere, touching, pinching and feeling. Gabby was coming unhinged from the intensity of the pleasure we were feeding her, and as I slid a finger over the tender spot where her clit used to be, she locked her pussy tight on me and began to shriek tiny short little barks of pleasure in time to the spasming of her pussy, and that happy motion sent me over thedge, and i began to pump Gabby full of long-held cum. 

I pinched Annie's protruding clit at the same time, and all three of us shook the rafters with our cries. I was pretty sure Gabby had torn my dick off, and I was hoping that the wetness oozing out of her tiny little pussy-hole was semen and not blood. 

Annie had squirted out her passion onto my face, and the sweet liquid was even in my ears as she slid off my face and collapsed onto the bed. 

Gabs fell onto my chest, panting like she had just run a 10K race

"I may be biased here, Gabs, but I think all your parts work just fine. What do you think?"

"I have never had a series of orgasms like that. Whatever they did down there, I could feel my toes clenching when I came, and it's like my vagina is from a terminator!"

"I hear that! I just looked to see if you pulled my dick off. Other than a blood blister on the end, it seems okay."

We all laughed at that, and after a while Gabby spun on her side and snuggled up to Annie, taking her face between her good hand and her limp one. She traced the inside ond outside of Annie's empty eye sockets gently. 

"That really nice, Gabs. Feel free to do that any time, okay?"

"I'll keep that in mind, love. What do you see, Annie? Are there any images left for you, or have they all gone away?" She kissed Annie's eye sockets gently one at a time, which made my Piglet smile.

"I still have a lot of images in my memory, but I find that they are more and more from my childhood. I have to admit that when I hear your voice, I 'see' you as a teenager, most often with the frizzy permanent you got in 11th grade."

"Oh, God, how awful! Please try to find a better one to visualize Annie. I really hated that hairdo!"

"How about me, Piglet? What image do you see when you think about your Pooh?"

Her head fell toward the bed a little. "I have to say that I am starting to be unable to remember your face at all, David. The images of you from the past are being slowly replaced by emotions and concepts, which are wonderful in their own right, but still I mourn the loss of your face from my mind. What comes to me when I hear you, touch you, are feelings of safety and warmth, combined with dark vivid swirling colors of excitement and sensuality. It's quite wonderful, but just different than I had expected."

"I am just so sorry this happened to you, Annie. We knew the chances were fair that we would come to harm, David and I, but you were doing nothing but trying to help," Gabby said softly.

"Water under the bridge, Gabby. I am fine now that I have David, and you are just the frosting on the cake, girlfriend. Does anybody feel the need for a bath?"

"Oh, hell yeah," Gabby said, "How about you, big guy?"

"I've got your butt, I mean back, girl. Come on over here, and I'll give you a lift to the tub."

I picked Gabby up, supporting her with my one-fingered hand and then reached out my other hand for Annie's. She joined us and we all started down the hall on the way to the tub. I hugged Annie to me and kissed her. As we kissed, Gabby added her lips beside ours until we were kissing in a circle. 

Halfway down the hall, Gabby piped up, "Hey Dave, you do realize where your thumb is on my naked butt, right?"

"Well, I don't want to drop you, so I had to put it someplace secure."

"Asshole." She muttered.

"Exactly," I answered.