Holding Out For A Hero (The Five Sisters Series) (4 page)

At night when they talked over dinner, he told her more and more about his marriage and life as an ER doctor.  As a story teller, Mike was excellent and Taylor found herself wrapped up in the imagery and felt like she was right there in the moment with him.

That night when she went to bed she woke up at 2 am with a start! She had been having a night mare and thrashing around in the bed with Brutus. She was dreaming that she was arguing with a man and he was hitting her in the face and telling her she was no good. He didn't say her name and she didn't know his, but from what she understood of the dream, she felt like it was a boyfriend and her old self breaking up. It was still blurry in memory, but she thought was a something from the not so long ago past.  Mike had told her that she would probably remember the most recent events first. She jumped up out of bed and went upstairs to Mike's bedroom. She knocked and hoped he would wake up. She cracked the door and said gently, "Mike, I need to talk to you."

Mike jumped out of bed and ran to her, “are you ok ? Is everything ok? What happened, did you remember something else?" She walked into the room and he was standing in the entryway, with no shirt on and his lower half covered by boxers. She glanced at his handsome chest, and his pretty blue eyes and blond hair, and the muscles in his arms and chest so sculpted that she wanted to reach out and touch them.
 
He walked her over to the bed.

Taylor sat on the edge of the bed near him. She told him about the dream, and how it had scared her but she also felt that it was a flashback, not just a dream. "Did you hear your name or his name?" Mike asked.

"No" Taylor said. "I am scared now, and I wonder what I left in such a hurry that day, because I see myself getting into my car after we break up." Mike pulled her to his chest and hugged her. She could feel the tension come out of her body just with his warmth. "Would you feel better if you slept up here with me? I will put some pillows between us." Mike told her. He knew if he held her much longer he would start caressing her and they would be making love in no time, but he had much more respect for her than to make her his bridge to getting over his wife.

Taylor murmured, "yes, that would be great. You don't have to put pillows between us, I need someone to hold me after that awful dream." Mike gently lifted the covers and she crawled into the bed. Brutus jumped into the bed as well and snuggled into her side. She was asleep in a minute, leaving Mike there with his thoughts and arousal from her in his bed. He wasn't sure that he had that much willpower, but he finally went to sleep without so much as a touch of her. He did enjoy the smell of her body and wondered if he was falling in love with her, and knew that if she was having flashbacks, she would get her memory back sooner rather than later, and what if she has a husband and family. He couldn't do that to himself much less to her. When it was time for her to go, he promised himself, he would let her go without a fight. She deserved to get her life back.

The next morning, Mike got out of bed as usual to go for a run. He felt the need for a very long run with a very long cold shower after the fitful night of sleep he had with Taylor in his bed. He needed to clear his head and think about what he would need to do next to keep his distance from her to keep his feelings in check. He was old enough to know that she didn't deserve to have to choose between her old life and the time she spent with him.

He had lots of thoughts going through his head as he ran, and he ran for almost twice as long as normal.

When he returned, Taylor was sitting on the porch with Brutus waiting for him. He thought about how content she seemed to be in the house, even with all the luxuries missing like the shops and TV that a woman such as herself would want. He thought about how old she probably was, and he landed on about 25-28 years old. He was 35 and thought that might be too much difference in age anyway. He was almost an
old man
to her.

"Where do you run?" Taylor asked him.

"I run on the trails in the woods and on the roads and where ever it seems to take me." Mike answered. "It helps me to clear my head."

They walked inside and Mike headed up to his shower. Taylor told him she was going to make breakfast. He went to the shower and couldn't help but pleasure himself to release the tension he felt from sleeping next to her all night and waking up to her in his bed. He walked downstairs, and she had breakfast all done.

"Can I go running with you tomorrow?" Taylor asked.

"I don't think it would be good for you. It's only been five days since your injury and you should be careful." Mike replied. He did not know that she had been going out for walks in the morning and felt like she could run. "Tell me about your nightmare last night, I think it's going to be a breakthrough." Mike told her. She actually remembered less of it in the morning because it wasn't so fresh in her mind.

"I don't remember names or anything like that," she told him, "thanks for letting me sleep next to you; it made me feel better."

"Good," he responded.

Later on that day, he heard the doorbell ring, and went to answer it. It was the UPS delivery truck with a package for him from the coroner. Was this the final report on his wife's death?

He took the package to his room and shut the door. Taylor saw him walk by and thought he looked upset, and she wondered what that bad news could be.

In his room, Mike opened the package and started reading the report. It was very technical, but he was a doctor so he could understand the complex information fairly easily.
 
The cause of death was something that had him stunned. Poisoning. His wife had been poisoned? The police report that was also attached and explained many of the holes he had seen in the coroner's report. His wife had died from poisoning; this had caused her to wreck her car. It had taken so long for the toxicology to come back and find the drug because it was rarely used. She had minimal bleeding at the site of the wreck, and this must be why - her heart had stopped beating only moments before. But who had poisoned her?

Mike picked up the phone, and unbeknownst to him, Taylor was listening at his door for a sound because she was worried what the package had to say. Mike called the police lieutenant in charge of his wife's case in their home town to find out who had poisoned his wife and why. It was a very one-sided conversation for Taylor to have to listen to. She hear a lot of questions from Mike, but not much else.  She knew it was wrong to listen, but she was worried about him and what had happened.

Then she heard the room being torn apart by Mike and ran to the door and opened it to see him throwing a crystal vase across the room. "Stop!" Taylor shouted.

Mike suddenly became aware of her standing in the doorway and dropped the objects he had in his hands to the ground. He sagged to the floor and put his hands over his face, looking completely exhausted and sad. Taylor was unsure what to do, she couldn't tell whether he wanted comforting or not. He was just sitting there without saying a word, and she decided that she would need to comfort him.

She walked over to where he was sitting, and sat beside him. She said, gently, "I am here for you to talk to. I don't know what is wrong, but I will listen when you are ready."

He looked up from his sorrow and grabbed her in a hug. She hugged him back and kissed his forehead and told him, "Tell me what’s wrong."

He took a deep breath and said, “Jocelyn and I were married for five years, yet it all seems like a lie now.  That package had the coroner’s report about my wife’s accident. The detectives said that she was poisoned and died before her car wrecked. Then they said that it was her lover who poisoned her. Not her husband, but her lover. She was cheating on me and had been having an affair, and when she broke it off, he couldn't stand it.  They arrested him and got the whole story.  He asked her to go to dinner one last time, and at dinner he poisoned her.  He told the police it was because he didn’t want anyone else to have her. My whole world just crumbled - everything I thought we had together has changed and now I am even more confused than before. I had no idea she was unhappy."

Taylor sat there calmly and let him tell her the information, then gently saying "ok, I see, and I understand" as needed.

She hugged him once again, and asked him what he needed for her to do. He said, "Nothing, I just need some time alone today to digest what is happening." Taylor told him that she would clean up his room and that he should go for a walk, as long as he promised to #1. Come back and #2. Tell her exactly where he was going. He promised and she cleaned the room after he left. He was gone for a couple of hours, and she was starting to get worried, and had a plan to go out and find him or call the sheriff when he returned. He walked around the house and put away all the pictures of him and his wife into a box, then placed the box in the closet upstairs.

He thanked Taylor for cleaning the room, he apologized for his behavior and said he didn't feel like eating anything, and did she mind? She was ok with all that, as long as he appeared stable. He was the only thing in her life right now until she could determine what her plans were and how she would get her memory back. She started to wonder what she would do if he left, but she decided to wait until later to figure that out.

She made her dinner, and made him a light sandwich and took it to his room, knocking gently on the door until he said, "come in".

"Mike, I know you don't feel like eating but you need to eat something so I brought it to you." Taylor said as she placed the plate in front of him and started to bow out of the door.

"Taylor, wait. Thank you for bringing me some food. I appreciate your caring. I am sure you are worried about me, but I am going to be fine. As this day went by, I thought through all the last few months with my wife and I could see the signs I ignored that should have made me curious. I take some of the credit for working all the time but she made a choice. I just have to think some more today, and I will be better tomorrow." Mike said to her.

"No problem, I am worried about you. You have to stop blaming yourself for what happened, you had no idea about it.  I know you are feeling guilty, but there are two sides to this story, and you have to grieve so you can let go.  You are not going to change the past by feeling guilty about something you cannot change." Taylor asked.

"Thank you, Taylor.  I appreciate you." Mike replied and he kissed her forehead. They sat in silence as he ate his dinner, then Taylor took the plate and left the room.

That night was eerily quiet as she spent the night by herself. She kept listening for Mike to make some noise. She thought about how she could not imagine how he must feel, and then realized he must know at some point he was going to lose her too, back to her old self once she figured out who that was. That must be part of the reason for the distance.

In the morning, Taylor heard Mike get up and go running.  She went for her usual walk.  She was more unsure of herself than ever, not sure if Mike would come out of his funk and wondering when the next flashback might occur. 

The sheriff came by later that day, and he spent a long time with Mike discussing the accident report and outcomes.  Taylor left them alone, thinking she would just spend time in the garden and tending the house.

The sheriff and Mike came downstairs later and asked Taylor to sit at the table with them.  Mike told her they had tried running her fingerprints to find out her history, but it had failed and they were no closer to figuring out who she was.  She was not sure how she felt about that, knowing that she would still be uncomfortable until her memory returned.  She wondered how long it would take to get herself back.

Eating lunch with Mike was difficult, he didn't want to talk or do much of anything, and she supposed it was still recovering from his wife's death and the reality of having his dreams shattered.  Mike told her after lunch that they would take out her stitches from the left side of her head, and that it might hurt a little.  She was excited to not have them anymore; it meant that she was healing, and it meant that Mike would have something to distract himself with.