The Mule

Chapter 11

Marissa and Braxton settled into a routine. She would get up in the morning with him and he would hook her up to her infusion. They had coffee and he ate breakfast while it was running. He tried and tried to get her to eat in the mornings, but she refused. After he went to work, she would go back to bed for a few hours, then - if she wasn't working days - Gail, Braxton's neighbour, would come over and help her with bathing and getting dressed.

He rearranged a few appointments so that he could be home by supper time every night, even giving up his lunch breaks to see those patients who couldn't reschedule for any other time. At home, he got supper ready while chastising Marissa for not eating the lunch he'd prepared for her. He would take it to work the next day after making her something fresh and he'd eat on his 10 minute break between patients.

After supper, he would start the dishwasher – something he rarely used when by himself – then hook up her IV infusion. While it ran, they would watch tv or just talk. She hadn't heard from Brian regarding a therapist, and once again Braxton offered to refer her to one, but she declined. He couldn't get her to talk about the beating, but she did open up about her life before her injury. She could talk for hours about her family and growing up on a dairy farm. It made him wonder all the more about why she'd left. It didn't make any sense. The closest he could figure was that it had something to do with her being kidnapped, but she wouldn't talk about that.

She didn't dream the night after the really bad one but did have one the night after that. Braxton once again came in to wake her up and stayed with her until she went back to sleep. He wanted to bring up the topic of referring her to therapy there in Denver once more, but he felt it would be futile. He just hoped that her boss found someone willing to see her online soon.

Thursday, Braxton took the afternoon off to take her to two appointments – with Ryan and Gideon. To do this, he scheduled his later patients for early morning, leaving the house at 6am to get to the office and get it ready by 7. Marissa had finished her infusions Wednesday night, so she did not get up with him, instead opting to stay in bed.

Ryan was pleased with how her bone was healing - he'd had an x ray taken of her arm before her appointment. He took her cast off to look at the incision and was not pleased with what he saw – there was a bit of pus oozing from it. Not a lot, but enough to be worrying. He said he was going to give her a week more of IV infusions and up the dose of antibiotic.

"I'm not going to put another cast on right now", he said to her. "I will wrap it and I want you to take it off twice a day and pour disinfectant over the incision." He had made the incision partially over the cut on her wrist so she would only have one scar. "I'll show Braxton how to wrap it back up again. There are pins in your bone so you won't re-break it, unless you fall on it or something."

"What if she hits it on something?" Braxton asked.

"It could break if she hit it hard enough. Why?"

"She's having nightmares and she thrashes about in bed until I wake her up. I'm afraid she'll whack in on the nightstand."

"Maybe you could move it away from the bed?"

"I will do that."

"Marissa, why are you having nightmares?" Ryan asked. She shrugged.

"It's because of the beating that she won't talk about, Ryan. I've been trying to get her to let me refer her to a therapist, but she won't. She says her boss is looking for one who will do it over the Internet."

"Good, whatever works. She doesn't need to be having nightmares. She has enough going on."

"SHE is in the room, you know", Marissa said irritably. She hated it when people talked about her as if she wasn't in the room or as if she were a child.