A Mummy For His Baby

She returned the embrace, trying not to gasp in pain. The strength of his arms, the pressure of his hug closed in on her, lighting up the injuries in her back like an electrical grid. A groan of discomfort escaped her throat.

“Did I hurt you?” He pulled back, his green eyes assessing, concern evident, and ran his gaze over her face, trying to determine what had happened.

“I’m sorry. I’m in quite a lot of pain right now—which is why I’m here to see you in the first place.”

Back to her original goal: to be pain and medication-free, to get her life back in order. Starting now.

“Pain? You hid it well during this whole thing.” He released her and gave her one gentle pat on the shoulder.

“Probably an adrenaline surge got me through.”

He lifted one hand and indicated that she walk ahead of him into the nearby patient room. “You’re my last patient of the day, so we can take our time—have a look at you and do some catching up.” The dark brows over his green eyes lowered, pinning her with a direct look. “Tell me what’s going on.”

“I’ll give you the short version. Car wreck. Lots of back pain. I want to get off the pain medications.”

The last few months had been beyond brutal. A severe car crash had ripped her life and her relationship apart. Every time she told the story the pain surfaced—the emotional pain she’d gone through as well as the physical pain which was the reason for her visit today.

She handed him a folder with copies of her medical records. “The long version is in here. If you don’t mind, read it later. Right now I just want to see if you can help me with the pain.”

That was short, sweet and to the point. Rehashing her past wasn’t going to help her today. Telling him about the fight with her boyfriend—the reason for her car accident—was going to have to wait. The end of their relationship had come soon after the crash, due to her physical scars, and had destroyed her.

“That doesn’t sound very good.” He harrumphed and placed the manila folder aside and focused on her. “I’ll take a look at that later, for sure. Right now I want to look at you.”

“Thanks, Beau. I’m sorry, but I hate this pain. Every time I move something hurts, and then if I stay still too long I get stiff.”

The pain receded slightly as she walked along beside him, but the memory of it lingered.

“I can’t win.”

Tears pricked her eyes, but she pushed them back. Tears hadn’t been tolerated by her father, so she’d learned to suppress her emotions. Even now she had difficulty sharing them.

“You certainly can win—but winning may look a little different than you thought. You were in a serious crash. Getting through an experience like that takes time.” They entered the patient room. “Did you go through any physical therapy?”

“Yes. Two months of inpatient rehab. They said they did everything they could, but there’s got to be something else.”

Tears filled her eyes—tears she’d thought she’d finished shedding. Desperation circled her heart and squeezed hard. The pressure in her chest of the emotional pain focused there was like talons, digging in and not letting go.

“Though you did go through some rehabilitation, there’s still work to be done. Rehab facilities often focus on one modality, not on being open to other adjunctive aspects of care that can help people just as much as the traditional ways.”

“Really?” That statement perked her up. Somehow, deep in her gut, she knew there had to be alternative treatments, but she just didn’t know what.

“You came to the right place.”

The look in his eyes caused a surge of warmth through her. Hope pulsed in her chest. With the help of this man—her friend—she knew she was going to get through this tough time.

He peered at her with those intense green eyes that perfectly fit his streaked blond hair. He wouldn’t look out of place with a surfboard tucked under one arm and hanging out on the beach. Except there wasn’t a beach for three hundred miles.

“I’m so glad. You don’t know what a relief it is to hear that.”

Struggling with her emotions, she swallowed twice before she could speak again.

“It was awful. Having doctors telling me I’d never walk again, accept it. I think their sympathies ran out at the same time my insurance benefits did.”

She clutched her hands together to stop their trembling. The memory of the accident had faded somewhat, but she still felt the aftereffects.

“I’m trying not to think too much about that part of it. I’m moving forward, working on my physical abilities, but the pain is so intense at times I can hardly move.”

“You are one tough lady, Aurora—but you always have been.”

Beau pressed his hand against hers, this time offering comfort with a simple touch, and she appreciated the gesture.

“I can see you’re in pain. I’m a D.O.—Doctor of Osteopathy—and I perform manipulations of the body in addition to running the straight-up medical practice. That’s probably a little different than you’re used to.”

“Yes, it is, but I’ll consider anything that will get me where I want to be.”

“Where is that? What’s your goal?” The smile he gave lifted one side of his mouth, making him look like he had a secret.

“I want to be pain-free, off the medications, and back to my old self again. There has to be a way other than just taking more pills or different pills.”

What a relief, a joy, a gift it would be to have her old life back. Or at least to have her body back so she could take the rest of her life where she wanted it to go.

Right now she didn’t even know where that was. Working in a hospital again might not ever be possible due to her injury. Her job was on hold, her apartment had been packed up and put in storage... She looked at her friend, hoping he could really give her the help she needed when no one else had been able to.

“There’s always another way—no matter what the issue is.” Beau went on to describe several natural methods of pain control. “Massage would work. Yoga would be helpful, gentle, and it would provide the flexibility you need.”

“Yoga? I never thought of that.” She sighed as relief started to form in her mind. “I have to be back in action as soon as possible or my mother is going to drive me nuts.”

That was something Beau couldn’t do anything about. Her relationship and her problems with her mother were long term and would probably never change.

“How so?” He opened up a computer program, typing as they talked.

“I moved into her house with the intention of staying just a few days, until I can really figure out what I’m going to do. Unfortunately she’s determined to be my nurse, psychotherapist and nutritionist instead of my mother.”

Yeah, it was all or nothing with her. Always had been. Always would be. At her mother’s age, there would be no changing her.

Yet another reason she’d left home at such an early age. While growing up Aurora had felt like she’d been hatched or adopted. She hadn’t felt as if she belonged to her family. They’d had very distinct ideas on what she should be and what she should do with her life that hadn’t matched at all with what she’d wanted. Her needs, her wants, her dreams, had been squashed by her family.

The only solution she’d been able to come to had been to leave. To get away. Forge a life for herself elsewhere. So she’d broken out and left the state to fulfill her career goals at a large university hospital in Virginia.

At least she’d gotten that part right. A husband and family of her own had been more elusive.

Being in charge of her life was something that she would never change. But those ideas of building a life with someone, having a family, had begun to surface—then had crashed into oblivion after the breakup with her boyfriend and the car wreck. Eventually she’d figured out that he wasn’t a long-term kind of guy. Wasn’t in it for the long haul and didn’t have the fortitude to be the man she needed.

The first time he’d seen her scars he’d recoiled. That had been the end for both of them. All the plans she’d made for her future had come crashing down and she’d come home to Brush Valley to lick her wounds, heal, and recover from the accident and the breakup.

Here she was. Home again. Starting over. A new Aurora, reinventing her life.

Beau looked at her for a moment, contemplating. “I’m sure your mother was scared when you were hurt, right? She’s probably not over the shock of it, so you’ll have to cut her a break a while longer.”