Well, I hope you liked that last chapter. I'd love to hear from you either way. What follows for the next TWO chapters is a wrap up of this story AND a primer for the next. Yes, there is another story coming. I hope you'll like that one to. In the mean time, enjoy this chapter.
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50
You bought a building?
I opened my eyes with difficulty. The lids stuck together. I wanted to rub them, but my arms wouldn't do as they were told, so I settled for blinking several times. I tried to look around, but my head wouldn't move any more than my arms. My whole body felt like it was trapped in wet cement.
The little bit of the room that I could see without turning my head, told me that I was flat on my back in was windowless, plain white room, with plain white furniture, and a light panel ceiling. I was struck with a crazy fear that the adventure had reset, like a time loop in a science fiction movie. I worried that I was waking up on Solum for the first time.
I couldn't feel Shawn and wondered where he was. I wondered where I was and why my body wouldn't do what I wanted it to. Maybe a waking dream.' I thought. The last thing I remembered was Shawn's worried face and David Bowie singing Heroes.'
A door outside of my field of vision opened and shut. Someone entered the room I was in. The person was humming snatches of unfamiliar music as they made the sounds of doing something routine. Whoever it was sang a few words here and there between the humming. The voice was very big and very deep, a full-throated bass voice.
The body that owned the voice appeared in front of me. It was a man with a wide, friendly face, thick black hair brushed straight back, brown eyes with flecks of gold in them, rich olive skin, and a lean, sinewy build. He wore light green hospital scrubs. He lifted a glass tablet from somewhere next to me and scrolled through it. I tried to speak, but my voice cooperated about as well as the rest of me did. After a great effort, I managed a gargled hiss.
The brown eyes with the gold flecks in them shot passed the edge of the tablet to lock onto mine. The man lowered the tablet from his face and smiled. His features were medium-heavy, appropriate for his wide face. His lips were full, his smile warm and genuine.
"Welcome back, Mister Incolumitas. This is the Doctrina University Hospital in Epistylium. I am Doctor Altrix. Don't try to move or speak. Your body is restrained and there is a breathing tube in your throat. You have been in a coma and on life support for eleven days. It seems you used too much magic. Your body consumed all of your fat, most of your voluntary muscle mass, and more than half of your bone density. When you were brought in, you weighed less than one-hundred pounds. We've been waiting for you to regain consciousness before starting the rebuilding process."
The man's face became grave. He took a heavy breath like he was going to give me some bad news. "Full disclosure, Mister Incolumitas, the process, especially the bone reconstruction, will be very painful. For that, I am sorry. The muscle regeneration has its own challenges. We can give you back your mass, but not your strength. You will have to work to redevelop your physical power."
The man clapped his hands once and rubbed his palms against each other like he was preparing to undertake a physical task. "Now that you are awake, we can get started. I plan to keep you on life support for another twenty-four hours to make certain your body can maintain itself. If everything goes well, we'll take you off the systems by this time tomorrow. Then you will at least be able to communicate. Do you understand everything I've told you? Blink once for yes and twice for no."
I had about a million questions, but I couldn't ask them with blinks. I blinked once to answer the question he'd asked.
"Are you in any pain?"
I blinked twice.
"That's good." The man...the doctor, seemed pleased. "You have some very dedicated friends Mister Incolumitas. At least one of them has been keeping vigil here since you arrived. The Steward's nephew has been particularly concerned for your well-being. Wait right there. I'll see who is here now." He tucked the tablet under his arm and strode away.
Wait right there, he says.' I thought with a mental huff. Where the fuck could I go?'
A second later Bem burst into the room. "BIG GUY!" He shouted. He leaned over, his face in mine. "We were so worried."
I tried to speak again before I remembered that I couldn't. Bem placed his index finger against his pursed lips. "Don't...let me talk. I'm so happy you're awake. Shawn will be thrilled. You didn't miss him by much. He's been practically living here. Neb had to order him to go home and rest. She drove him. He...uh," Bem's voice grew soft and thoughtful, "he loves you...like a lot."
Bem leaned back to think. "Let me see, what else? Oh! A team from The HALL got back from the mountain yesterday, or maybe the day before, it's been hard to keep track. They agree we did our jobs. The `ancient evil'" Bem said using air quotes around the words, "has been defeated and all the magic is back. The Steward authorized the first payment to us. You'll get yours once you can sign the confidentiality agreement. We're all millionaires thanks to you."
Bem's expression darkened, and I guessed something weighty needed to be said. "I hate to tell you this, Church, but your Vic...we made it back to town in five hours, Neb drove like your life depended on it. I guess it did. Shawn worked so hard to keep you stable. If not for him, you'd be dead...again."
Bem paused and shook his head. "Not dead again...I mean, he saved you again. But the Vic, something happened...about fifty miles from Oppidum, a red light on the dashboard came on. A little while later, another one came on. The car made noise and there was smoke...this sweet-smelling steam...it made it back though. Neb drove it right up to the town medical center where they put you on life support and got you ready to get transported here. I don't know anything more than that."
"Mister Custos," the doctor's big bass voice said from somewhere that I couldn't see, "don't tire him out. That's enough for a first visit."
"Sorry, Church," Bem frowned down at me like a child who'd been caught doing something he shouldn't, "have to listen to the doctor. I'll let Shawn know you woke up. Don't worry about a thing."
Bem left the room, and the doctor and I were alone. He leaned over me again. "I hate to cut your reunion short, but you need complete rest until we can start building you up. Try to sleep."
I shut my eyes. My consciousness shut down as I closed the lids.
A month later I was eating lunch in bed. I'd gained twenty pounds. The abilities this gain brought were limited to sitting up for a half-hour at a time and feeding myself. My magic was back, but I was strictly forbidden from using it.
The first week and a half after I woke up were spent in white-hot pain while some rat-bastard specialist doctor worked every day to increase my bone mass with magic. I'm sure he was a very nice man, but the agony he inflicted upon me made it difficult for me to like him. I mean, how many people thank a dentist after a root canal? The following two-and-a-half weeks were spent in the care of a brother / sister team of muscle experts. They put some of my mass back and started my physical therapy.
The meal in front of me was something; a big oval plate covered in pockets of fried dough stuffed with bacon and cheese, sausage and cheese, cheese and cheese, and the like. I had been directed to eat as much protein, as many calories, and as much dairy as I could, to provide the building materials my body needed to recover. Between meals I drank the equivalent of protein shakes. I couldn't help but think that the constant eating and my new diet was just as bad as it had been when I was trying to maintain my weight prior to the mission. I chalked it up to something that had to be done and tried not to complain no matter how tedious it got.
Luckily, I always had plenty of company to distract me. The original mission team remained dedicated to making certain I wasn't alone for long, if at all. The Dux brothers had hung around a little at the beginning of my rehabilitation, but Cy wanted to get back to his family and Vulp seemed to come as a set with Cy. After they left, Shawn and Neb and Bem took over the rotation of visits.
My current company was Neb. Shawn had just left. He had an appointment with his uncle to go over some damn thing or another. I missed him whenever he wasn't with me and tended to resent anything that took him away, his uncle included. As it was just Neb and me, and as I was eating and not conversing, Neb busied herself by reading from a tablet while she sang snatches of Motown that she remembered from our drive across the plains. She remembered quite a bit and her lovely voice went well with the lyrics. I was impressed by her memory and the way she sang.
Neb kept coming back to the song that she and Bem had danced to, Smokey Robinson and the Miracles with You Really Got A Hold On Me.' She'd sung the first verse and was singing you really got a hold on me' in ask and answer fashion when my doctor walked in for his daily visit. Neb's melodic contralto rose and fell with the repeated line. Doctor Altrix was scrolling through the glass tablet that recorded my vitals when the tune wormed its way into his head. Neb sang another verse and the first `you really got a hold on me' when the doctor jumped in to be the answer to her ask.
His voice complimented hers well. They sang the line twice more in ask and answer, then harmonized it once. Neb seemed to suddenly realize what she was doing. She clamped her mouth shut and colored slightly at the attention the doc was giving her. "Miss Torolus, what is that lovely tune you were singing?" Doctor Altrix asked as he approached Neb's chair. "I don't think I've ever heard anything as sweet as that song. Is it new?"
Neb clutched her tablet in her lap. Her eyes met mine with what I took to be a plea for help. She couldn't very well tell the doctor the song she was singing was music from another world. The doc knew much of my story as far as my unique magic went, but my origin had not been included in the briefing he'd received. Neb seemed at a loss of what to do.
"She wrote it." I blurted, inspired by an impulse to lie in Neb's and my favor.
"CHURCH!" Neb scolded. "I didn't write it." She tried to convince the doctor by saying it again. "I didn't write it. He's teasing me."
"Don't be so modest, Neb." I doubled down on my own horseshit. "You should be proud of your talent."
"Church!" She scolded me again.
"It's a lovely song." The doc complimented in his bass voice. He moved toward Neb like he wanted to get to know her better by getting physically closer to her. "Do you have any more?"
Neb stood from her chair and backed away from the approaching doctor. "No, I don't have any at all. I didn't write it. I'm a musician, but not a songwriter."
"A musician?" The doc sounded intrigued. "What do you play?"
Neb backed almost to the wall, then darted out to the side to avoid the steadily advancing doctor. "Anything with strings." She replied as she fled around the room.
The doc's face lit up at her answer. "Really? How wonderful. I play the piano and the organ. My dream was to be in a band, but I never met anyone with the creativity to write music. I'm considered a talented musician, but only with other people's material. Are you a professional songwriter?"
"I'm a Warrant Officer in the special forces branch of the military. I'm a military strategist, not a songwriter." Neb insisted. She'd backed around the room and was at the head of my bed as she tried hard to make her point. She wasn't having much luck.
"Maybe not a professional," Doctor Altrix said sweetly, "but anyone who can write lyrics as pure and beautiful as those...Miss Torolus, I urge you not to hide your light under a bushel. Please, let me take you to dinner tonight. I would very much like to talk to you. My shift is over at five. I can be changed and ready by half past. Please." He begged her.
Not even tough-as-nails-Neb could hold out against the poor man's pleading. "Where should I meet you?" She relented at the end of a sigh.
"Anywhere you say." The doc replied eagerly. "Here...out front...in the lobby, or I...I could come to your apartment..."
Neb shook her head, more at the doctor's enthusiasm than at his list of options. "The lobby, I'll see you in the lobby at five-thirty."
The doc beamed. "I am so pleased you accepted. Until this evening Miss Torolus."
"Neb." She corrected.
"Neb." Doctor Altrix grabbed Neb's right hand from where it hung at her side, leaned over, and kissed the back of it. "A lovely name for a lovely lady. I am Calidi." He released her and floated from the room on a cloud of joy.
Neb watched the doctor go. When he was gone, she scowled at me. "What is WRONG with you? Why did you tell him I write music?"
I couldn't tell her it was a whim brought on by their brief duet, even though it was. I tried some fake reason. "He's an attractive man, isn't he? He's built like Bem and about your height. You said Bem was close to your ideal. He's an educated, professional man who loves music. You're a talented, professional woman who loves music. You both have perfect singing voices. I thought you two would like spending some time together."
Neb's scowl softened and she shoved the rolled sleeves of her grey overshirt above her elbows. Her action called my attention to her outfit, and I puzzled over it. I didn't know why she continued to wear the fatigues, except maybe she hadn't been able to get home yet. I really didn't know why she was still hanging around six weeks after the mission. I enjoyed her company but didn't understand. I thought of us as friends, but not close enough for her to visit me daily for weeks and weeks.
Neb looked at the door to the room that the doctor had so recently passed through. "He is an attractive man, and he does have a nice voice." She admitted.
Neb turned back to me. I was grinning. She pointed a long finger at my grin. "Don't smile at me like you won something. I reserve the right to be angry with you." She shoved her sleeves up again and gestured down at herself. "What in the world am I going to wear? I haven't been on a date in...I don't even remember how many years."
I snatched my phone from the nightstand and made a quick call. Shawn had gotten it for me as a `you can move your arms again' celebration gift. It took only a second to get passed Attie of Anticuus Men's to talk to Rubi. "Rubi...Church. I have a friend here with a wardrobe emergency. She's a woman. I know you specialize in men, but can you do women to? Please."
Rubi was reluctant until I told her I'd lost a lot of weight and would need all new clothes soon...and that money was no object. That admission made Rubi very enthusiastic. I gave Neb the address and sent her on her way.
After that day, I didn't see Neb very much. She'd stop in for a few minutes here and there, usually when she was on her way to meet the doc. I figured things between her and the doc were going well when he came in a week later whistling "Higher and Higher" by Jackie Wilson. I made a mental note to figure out how to transfer my CDs to some format that would work with Solum electronics. It sounded like Neb was going to need a larger repertoire to draw from.
About three months after that, I was in the middle of doing my physical therapy. I'd gained another forty pounds and could move around pretty well. I liked to refer to the therapy sessions as my Zen time. I was on a rowing machine and was rowing nowhere. Across from me, Bem was on a stepper and was climbing stairs to nowhere. As Neb's attendance at my bedside tapered off, Bem's increased to the point that he spent almost as much time with me as Shawn.
Bem and I had grown close, close enough that I didn't have any secrets from him. I didn't offer him my every thought, but if he asked a question, I held nothing back. He'd seemed quiet lately, more introspective than usual. "Are you OK?" I asked my friend.
Bem paused on the never-ending staircase. Both the pedals of the machine sank to the bottom of their stroke, and he turned his head to face me. "I don't know what to do now."
The silence of my machine made it possible for me to continue my rowing and talk at the same time. "What do you mean?"
Bem shrugged helplessly, stuck his hands in his pockets and looked at the floor. "I'm unemployed. My old job took me all over Solum. I was always on the go. I don't even have a place to live. I've been staying at The HALL. I tried keeping an apartment once, but two entire years went by without me seeing the inside of it. It seemed silly to keep the place, so I sold my furniture and cancelled the lease. I live in barracks, dormitories, or hotel rooms. My possessions are whatever I carry with me. That's been my life. Now I have all this money, and nothing to do."
"Do you have any hobbies?"
"No, unless you count sex."
I stopped rowing and leaned on my oars. "I meant something you like to do that could become your passion."
"Like sex?" He asked.
"No, I mean something you're good at."
"I'm good at sex."
I rubbed my face with my hands in frustration. Every time I did it, I surprised myself with what it felt like. My fingers, if not quite skeletal, were still very thin and my face was little more than skin stretched over my skull. The one good thing my body did as it consumed itself, it didn't leave me with big bags of empty skin. As it turned fat and muscle to magic, it used the spare skin for fuel as well. "You know what I mean." I said to my hollow palms.
"Yes, I do." Bem admitted with a sigh. "The answer is no. I grew up fast in a little farming town, not very different from Oppidum. My father was the town's only lawyer. My mother left when I was a kid. I hated the dullness of life there. As soon as I could, I escaped and joined the military. Since then, I've been on the move. I know people all over the world, but I don't have any real friends. It's just me, my suitcase, and the rest of my life."
"What about me and Shawn?" I asked, maybe a bit indignantly.
"What about you?"
I was hurt by Bem's lack of understanding. "Aren't we friends? I thought at least you and I were. Fate pushed us together, but after all we've been through, and these months you've spent with me...I thought we were friends."
"But you and Shawn have each other."
"Yeah...so what?" I challenged Bem. "You and me can still be friends. I was hoping when my body works again, we could be friends with benefits."
Bem's face lit up and the gravity in the room seemed to lessen. "Oooohhhh...that sounds great." Then, as quickly as it came, the light went out of his gaze, and the gravity seemed to return. "Say, Big Guy...I've been meaning to ask, with everything you lost...uh...did you lose any...um...I mean...did everything shrink?"
I was confused until I remembered who I was talking to. As it was Bem, every discussion eventually became about my penis. "Actually," I grinned up at him, "less padding means there's more usable length."
"So hot." Bem breathed.
I laughed and went back to rowing nowhere. "Bem...for the rest of it...there's plenty of time. I enjoy your company and I know Shawn does. You're welcome to hang around with us until something tickles your fancy."
"Thanks, Big Guy...means a lot." Bem went back to stepping and the moment was over.
Two months after that, Doctor Altrix was ready to release me from the hospital. I was walking on my own, and my weight was up to one-hundred-and-seventy-five pounds. That was still underweight for a man of my height with my large frame, but I was merely thin instead of skeletal.
Shawn had been busy making arrangements for my homecoming. He knew that climbing the stairs to his apartment would be very taxing for me until I'd had a lot more therapy, so he made an offer for the first-floor unit in the same building. The woman who lived on the first-floor also owned the building. She was unwilling to give up her apartment until Shawn offered her too much money for the whole building. She greedily accepted and moved out almost immediately.
Shawn's purchase worked out in more ways than he anticipated. Satis and Bellus were hoping to break their lease on their third-floor apartment. Bellus wanted to get pregnant, and the couple needed a bigger place. Shawn happily released them. To simplify matters for us even more, Shawn made the second-floor tenant a nice offer to vacate, which he accepted. The idea was for the second-floor place to become my therapy gym.
Around the time Shawn took possession of the building, Bem's situation came to a mini-crisis. "I don't know what to do." He complained to Neb and Shawn and I. It was a rare moment when we were all together. Bem was hanging around as usual, sitting in the visitor's chair. Shawn was sitting next to me on the bed. Neb leaned on the wall near the room door.
Neb looked great. Rubi had done a fine job on her wardrobe. That day she wore a high-waisted, belted dress with a long flowing skirt, very short sleeves, and a modest neckline. The dress was rich royal-purple, and the belt was mint-green. Neb was waiting for the doc's shift to end so they could go to dinner and do some more work on a project they'd started between them.
One of Ars' experts had come up with a way to transfer my CDs to a digital Solum format and we'd let the doc in on the secret of where I came from. The new couple was spending their evenings listening their way through my music collection. The doc seemed to be very excited about the strange music from another world. He regularly sang his way through my daily check-up. That day, the selection had been an alternative hit from the 90's, `Shine' by Collective Soul.
"What's wrong?" I asked, getting back to Bem and his problem.
"I'm sick of living at The HALL. Now that you're getting released, I won't ever see you guys." He huffed, his arms crossed and his chin in his chest.
Shawn brightened up with an idea. "Why not move into my old place? I bought the whole building. It's furnished, but you can do anything you want with it. At least you'll be near friends until you figure yourself out."
"That sounds great!" Bem enthused, going from bummed to thrilled in an instant. "How much rent do you want?"
Shawn and I stared at Bem. Shawn spoke first. "You're kidding, right? Nothing. If that bothers your conscience, a credit a year."
Bem grinned at how silly he'd been. "Guess I forgot we're rich. Thanks, Shawn. When can I move in?"
"Anytime. I already moved to the first floor. The place is clean and ready."
Neb cleared her throat and looked like she wanted to ask a question but didn't know how to get started. "Uh...Shawn...could I use one of the other apartments for a while? At least until I see where this thing with Cal...I mean Doctor Altrix is going."
Shawn was happy to keep the team together. "As long as you want it, it's yours. Come by anytime and I'll give you the key."
"Just not tonight." I chimed in.
"Why not?" Bem and Neb asked almost in unison.
"Tonight belongs to me and Shawn." I explained without elaborating.
The most malicious leer I'd ever seen spread itself across Bem's face. "Oooohhhh, you going to put the extra length to work, Church?"
Heat poured from my face. I'd hoped that I'd eventually be numb to Bem's innuendo, but after seven months, almost eight, his leering comments still brought the blood to my face as easily as the day we met.
Shawn answered for me. "We're going to see if this new body is as much fun as the old one was. Next week he starts training with the Elit Fortis expert that trained Cy and Vulp."
"I don't want to be as big as them," I added, "but I'd like to put some muscle on. I want," I looked at the floor and wrung my hands, "I want to be attractive, for him." I jerked my head toward Shawn.
Shawn linked his arm through mine. "I keep telling him it doesn't matter. Thin or fat, ripped or soft, it's him I love."
I leaned my shoulder into Shawn's to get his attention. "You like powerfully built men, right?"
"Yes."
"Then that's what I'll be."
Shawn shook his head. "It will please me if you put muscle on, but you don't have to put muscle on to please me."
"If it pleases you, it will please me." I retorted.
"And me!" Bem added.
We all laughed.
Soon after that discussion was had and settled, the doc arrived with my release papers and some instructions on diet and exercise. He collected Neb for their date and left. Bem left for his last night at The HALL. He promised to see us in the morning for the key to his new place. Shawn took the bag that held my few belongings, little more than a few pair of underwear, a toothbrush, and a razor, and he led the way out. I shut the room light off and pulled the door closed behind.
. . . . . . NOT THE END! ONE MORE CHAPTER TO GO!