Her Second Chance At Love complete

(12) I'm Staying with You

Lisa’s POV

I woke up feeling worse than when I fell asleep when was that yesterday?  Could it be possible.  I rubbed my body and my temples forgetting for a moment that the left side of my face hurt.  I soon remembered and winced at the pain.  Before I knew it Mike was at my side asking a million and one questions about how I was feeling.  I assured him that I was ok I had just forgotten myself for a few moments and touched my face.  He reached up and softly caressed the left side of my face and said "I'm so sorry it hurts you like that.  I'm so sorry someone hurt you like that." I started to tear up again at the sweetness that was this man who barely knew me.  "You don't have to stay with me you know I'll be ok."  He looked at me as if I had just taken his heart right out of his chest.  "I am staying here because I care about you and you are wrong.  You won't be ok alone.  You went through something very traumatic in the attack alone not to mention the emergency surgery you had to endure just to save your life."  I paled at his words and said "wait, what are talking about emergency surgery?"  He looked at me shocked and replied "nobody told you?"  I shook my head.  Nobody had said a word about any kind of surgery.  What the hell had they removed now while I was asleep?  The last time I had surgery and didn't know about it I woke up less of a woman because I was missing my uterus.  What they hell did they take now.  I burst into tears at the thought of even more things being taken from me and I just couldn't bear it.  Immediately I was engulfed in the most comforting and warm arms I had ever felt.  They were providing me comfort and release from all the emotions I was feeling.  As if sensing my distress, he reached down and kissed the top of my head and then started to speak. 

Mike’s POV

 I took a deep breath and started to explain to her what had happened.  "When I brought you in from your attack you were barely conscious.  You were bleeding really bad from your head and I didn't know what all had happened.  I only knew the few bits that you had told me and how bad off you looked when I got to you.  They rushed you in and you lost consciousness almost immediately.  When they ran a CT scan on you, they found you were bleeding on your brain and if they didn't do surgery right away you would have died.  But they were able to stop the bleeding and as long as you stay calm and rest over the next week or so you should be making a full recovery."  She gazed up at me and I knew she believed I was telling the truth it pained me to tell her that much and that she hadn't known.  Her reaction to having been told about a surgery she didn’t remember had me puzzled greatly.  I could see a bit of a reaction but she looked like they had removed a piece of her that she could never get back.  This woman was deeper than I ever believed and I wanted nothing more than to get to know her more.  I had already made arrangements with my corporate office for my VP and best friend Brent to take over for a few weeks.  She needed my undivided attention and Brent was more than capable of running the business for me. 

She glanced up at me and said "I don't understand."  That simple statement was loaded and I gave her a puzzled look and said "what don't you understand honey?" "I don't understand why men hurt the women they say they love."  She was thinking about her past loves and lumping them into the creep that hurt her this time.  My heart was dying inside because I couldn’t take her pain away for her.  I shook my head silently and pulled her closer to me in a tight embrace "I don't know the answer to that myself. But I can tell you this I'm not like other guys."  She smiled at me snuggled into my shoulder and said "I get the feeling that you are telling the truth and that you wouldn't ever hurt me or anyone else if you could help it."  I looked at her and said “that’s where you are wrong.  While I wouldn’t hurt you or most people, I would love to take the guy that put you here and teach him a few lessons.”  She smiled at me and we sat on her bed just holding onto each other like that for what seemed like an eternity and it felt right.  She once again drifted off to sleep in my arms.  I sat with her for a while just thinking about how the fates had played their cards with my life.  I had thought I found the one to share my life with many times.  When I got with Charlene, I really thought she was the girl.  Damn she was beautiful and spirited.  We clicked so well but the thing I didn't see was how much she drank.  She was an alcoholic and not willing to give it up for anything.  I had tried to get her help many times over and was met with a brick wall each time.  Each time I tried she would deny that she had a problem and wave it off as I just didn't like her having fun.  Hell, when she got her fourth DUI, lost her license and had to serve jail time it still didn't sober her up enough.  The day she got out she started drinking once again.  That was the final straw for me.  I knew that I didn't want to live my life waiting for that one phone call that would tell me that my wife was involved in a fatal accident.  While imagining your spouse as a victim of a fatal accident was horrible in its own right my nightmare was worse because I feared finding out that she caused a fatal accident.  I couldn't think of how humans could hurt other humans like they did.  I had studied a wide variety of religions trying to find my place in the world and they all at least to me held the same basic theme.  To love one another and treat others like you would want to be treated.  However, I wasn't feeling quite so nice towards the man that had did this to my precious Lisa.  The night we went out it was so magical.  We enjoyed each other's company but had to leave the restaurant because we had overstayed our welcome.  But we had continued the night by walking in the park.  It was great and we chatted a lot.  I loved her personality and found that she had a very big and caring heart.  After a while the timing felt just right and I pulled her close to me and kissed her.  I had been dying all night to find out if she fit as well in my embrace as I thought she would.  I was also dying to find out if she tasted as good as I thought she would.  Damn was I taken aback by the results.  She more than delivered without even realizing that was what she did.

Lisa’s POV

I had been in this damn room and this damn bed for three days already and I wanted to go home.  I told the nurse that and she told me she would let the doctor know I was getting antsy.  I drifted off to sleep.  After a while the doctor had come in to look after me.  He woke me up so that he could run all the tests that he needed to see how I was healing and if I could be released.  He started to ask me questions about how I was feeling in my private areas and Mike went to excuse himself from the room so that I could talk more openly with the doctor.  When he spoke up saying he was going to leave the room I couldn’t help the look of terror in my eyes begging him not to leave.  "If you want me to stay Lisa you have to say so I'm not a mind reader.  I will stay if you want me to but I don't want to impose and make you uncomfortable.  There are questions you need to answer and I understand those answers might be difficult in front of someone you don't know that well."  With a soft voice I opened up and said to him "Please will you stay.  I would have a hard time answering those questions even if you weren't here. But for some reason you give me strength."  With that he nodded his head and sat back down.  I focused on the doctor and told him to continue with his exam.  He started asking questions and I answered to the best of my ability. From the corner of my eye I could see Mike cringe here and there when I talked about where I was hurting or feeling discomfort and I knew it wasn't because he was disgusted with me but because he truly felt sorry for me.  I didn't want him to feel sorry for me.  I wanted him to feel passion for me because despite how much pain I was in I couldn't help but think of him in that way.  Maybe the way that the rape happened was a blessing because I didn't remember the entire event so the act of s*x wasn't that tarnished in my mind.  Of course, with that being said I could always end up remembering at the wrong time so I knew I would need to proceed with caution.  I wasn't sure because my memory was blurry, but I couldn't remember even feeling this way towards my ex-husband.  He had been the only man I had ever been with before the rape so now I had been with two.  One I no longer cared for and the other I didn't really know.  Then the doctor made the statement that really made me cringe "we will watch from any ill effects from the rape luckily for you there won't be a pregnancy."  I glanced over at Mike whose head seemed to snap to attention at that.  With all the chatting we were doing the other night we hadn't really talked about that.  I wondered if that would be the death of this budding relationship?  The fact that I could no longer have children.  He knew I had kids because I had told him all about the girls.  But I hadn't told him about the hysterectomy.

Mike’s POV

The doctor pronounced her healthy enough to leave the hospital under the provisions that she stays down in bed for a week or until she had a chance to do a post hospital checkup.  Also, she couldn't be alone for a few days as anything could happen and she would need to have help as quickly as possible.  I could see that she was wracking her head trying to figure out how she would swing that when Ray walked in.  He looked at her with a sadness in his eyes that she had noticed yesterday but hadn't said anything to anyone but me.  I had informed her that he was feeling a lot of regret about the path that their lives had taken and she just nodded her head.  I could tell that they needed a few moments to themselves and frankly since she was being discharged today, I needed to run to my place and gather a few things.  I looked over at Ray and shook his hand saying “nice to see you again.”  He smiled weakly at me and said “likewise.”  I looked over at Lisa and informed her that since she was going to be discharged today and I was going to be staying with her until she was healthy enough to be alone, I needed to gather some items from my place.  She nodded her head at me, I kissed the top of her head gently and left the room.

Lisa’s POV

 "Hey, how are you doing?" Ray asked me.   I smiled at him and he looked nervous.  "You know, don't you?" I asked.  He nodded his head in affirmation that he did indeed know.  The air seemed strained now.  Who all knew I had been raped?  Oh, joy would my sister and family have a field day with this one.  I wanted to cry.  Ray broke through my thoughts "the girls were told that someone really bad hurt you and that they had to stay with Jessica and I for a week or so."  I looked at my former husband in disbelief he was going to take the girls while I healed?  "But they are worried we are hiding more from them and would like to talk to you so I thought I would come over to let you talk to them."  With that Mike said "You are in good hands here.  I'm going to let you have a chat with your girl’s honey.  I need to make a run to my apartment anyhow to grab a few things that I'm going to need for the next week."  I looked at him confused and he smiled at me saying "I'm staying with you while you heal." I went to open my mouth to argue with him but before I could he was gone.  Ray was watching him leave and then he turned to me "Lisa, you got yourself a good guy there.  I'm so glad you found him.  Grams must have sent him to you. Should we call the girls?"  I couldn't speak his words were so tender I hadn't felt that tenderness from him since we were dating.  I was filled sadness of what could have been between the two of us.  When did it go wrong?  I hated to admit it but I still loved him a touch.  Before I knew it, I was hearing the tiny voice of our littlest girl "hi mommy.  Auntie Jess and daddy say a bad man hurt you.  Are you going to be, ok?  We are going to stay here for a wittle bit so that you can feel better cause we are hard to take care of and you need to rest ok mommy and I want you to rest."  With tears in my eyes, I told my little girl that would be a good idea, then I chatted for a little bit with the other two. When they hung up the phone, I looked at Ray and told him “Thank you for letting me talk to them." He smiled at me "they are your kids, more so than mine.   You are the one that has cared for them all this time.  I took you for granted Lisa can we try to be friends?  I realize we will never be what we were again but I would like to be friends."  I nodded my head and told him that sounded great.  With that he took his leave of my room but before shutting the door he turned to me and said "you should really know that man really loves you.  Let him help you all he wants to."