Date: Tue, 24 Jun 2008 12:38:21 -0400 From: Chris Johns <chris-johns@hotmail.com> Subject: My Hero, Ch.7 Usual rules please peoples. =========================================================================== My Hero Chapter 7 The World Changed Tom celebrated his 32nd Birthday the same day the beast found a host. The blood clot when he was seventeen had not gone without leaving a residue. The residue was cancerous and the tumor fed on it. Marty noticed Tom's new lopsided grin first, it looked so endearing on this big jock who he had loved forever. `God, I'm so lucky to have this man, I have loved him for the whole of my life and still love him enough to die for him.' Marty would never voice those thoughts to Tom. After the two years of Marty's coma Tom had refused point blank to ever talk about it or anything else to do with illness or death. He had worked tirelessly for the UN to ease suffering in the world, working himself and his people to a standstill sometimes. Marty and Laramie virtually worshipped him never complaining, never begging for time off, never voicing disquiet when Tom collapsed from exhaustion. Simply looking after him, tucking him into bed and smoothing the furrowed brow at every opportunity. The lopsided grin became more pronounced and the left hand and arm started to lose mobility. The left side of the face dropped and Marty knew they had trouble with a monster capitol T. "We're going home Tom, I don't want any argument. You need to see a specialist." Tom growled and hurled Marty through a door. "Don't you tell me what to do, you're my slave, I'll whip you if you talk to me like that again." Laramie couldn't believe what he had just witnessed. In all their years together he had never seen Tom invoke violence against anyone unless they had been hurting him or Marty. He crept away knowing what he had to do. When Tom went to sleep that night Laramie injected him. Helpers transferred him to a gurney and he was taken to a UN aircraft that had been put on standby to fly directly back to the states. The plane landed at Washington the next morning and Tom was rushed to Walter Reed Hospital. The brain scan left both Marty and Laramie speechless. Tom's brain was riddled with cancerous tumors. The original one had been a female and had bred. Resting comfortably at the base of the brain intertwined with the spinal cord there was no possibility of operating. The amount of radiation treatment he would need to kill them all would fry his brain. Marty couldn't believe it, his brain would not accept that Tom was dying without any hope of a reprieve. His mind took him back to when he was seventeen and Tom had the blood clot, he remembered how he had talked to Tom, how he had prayed for him to get well. Now he went to a higher authority. The chapel in the hospital was deserted and quiet. Marty took a pew and prayed, he prayed for the miracle that his faith was not strong enough to believe in. He slept, he prayed, he never left the chapel. It was three days before Laramie came for him. "Tom is asking for you Martin." "I don't believe you, Laramie, why are you torturing me, you know I love you as well, but Tom is my life, I can't live without him." "Please Martin, he is asking for you, come with me now." Martin allowed himself to be led back to the room where Tom was. What he saw almost destroyed his sanity. All control of Tom's left side had gone, his face was so distorted it was grotesque. He looked at Marty from his good right eye and signaled for him to come. Marty's look of horror spoke volumes to Tom who was lucid in that last fleeting time before one dies. He took Marty's hand, pressing a piece of paper into it. His good eye said all the things he needed to before he closed it and the death rattle in his throat signaled the end of his life. Martin Aston collapsed and the fight for a second life began. If he died Laramie wondered if he too would join the only two people he had ever truly loved, loved so deeply he could not imagine life without them. Martin didn't go into a coma he just didn't rejoin the world for the longest time. Henry Buford and his wife took him home, they employed the best medical people they could find to look after him and went on with their lives as best they could. Laramie proved the strong one, remaining with Martin almost 24/7. Sleeping with him, making sure he was cleaned and kept comfortable. Talking to him particularly each time the drugs were eased back to see if time would help his recovery. It was no good, each time he remembered he screamed and pleaded for someone to tell him he was dreaming. More drugs, more time in his twilight world. Laramie gradually converted the room so that he could work at the computer still determined to carry on Tom's work, but keep himself close to Martin. It was months after Tom's death and Martin had not regained consciousness without screaming himself back into a world where he didn't have to think. Laramie came up against a block that he knew Tom or Martin would have solved for him and that was when it hit him. Martin would respond to help Tom, or more precisely Tom's projects. He pulled all the needles out of Martin, cleared all the junk away and waited. As soon as he showed signs of regaining consciousness Laramie started. "Marty, I know Tom would have solved this in an instant so please help me. It's this Congo project, the one we were about to make the break through on when Tom was taken ill. Please help me, I can't do it alone and you know how important Tom thought this was. You have to get with the programme Martin or all Tom's work will go down the drain." It worked. Martin was sat up in bed with the computer on his lap and Laramie alongside him. He was munching on a sandwich, punching keys and trying to drink a cup of coffee all at the same time. Laramie was almost hysterical with laughter trying to use his hands as extensions of Martin's. The transformation had taken a few minutes but Laramie had not stopped emphasizing how important this was to Tom. A couple of doctors were stood at the end of the bed waiting for they didn't know what. They couldn't believe this man was functioning at 120% when ten minutes ago he had been out of it. Martin worked solid for hours solving the problem that had beaten Laramie. When he was finished he simply rolled over, slid down the bed and cuddled up to him. A minute later he was sound asleep, totally exhausted. Laramie, with a little help from two very bemused doctors shed as many clothes as he could before sliding down in bed with Martin and returning the cuddle, at the same time praying he would be ok in the morning, or whenever he decided to wake up again. ========================================================================== Sorry this is such a short one. Chapter 8 is ready and I will post it within days.