Chapter 18
“Hi, sorry I’m late,”the doctor said as she entered and closed the door behind her. “I’m Dr. Hillard, you must be Naomi Alcott?”
“Yes.”
“Okay, I’m going to get right to the point.” The doctor had been speaking the entire time, and looking at a chart, she never looked up until she sat behind the desk. She stared at the couple before her, then cocked her head to the side and scowled.
“Do I know you?” she asked the man before her.
“Tessie,” Clark said, and she jumped to her feet to rush around her desk.
“Clark!” She hugged the other man, then stepped back with her arms on his biceps. “Are you home for good?”
“Yes. How are you?”
“Good. Have you called Jared yet?”
“Not yet.”
“Let me get your numbers before you leave. He was asking about you a few days ago. Did you know our fifteenth-class reunion is coming up?”
“No.”
“It’s next summer. Wait until I tell him I saw you.” She laughed and settled behind her desk. “He’s also going to be so jealous.” She reached for a photo in front of her and turned it so Clark could see it.
“Holy shit, Jar’s bald?”
“Yep. He started going bald while still in college, before we got married. After our first child was born, he said freak it, and shaved his head.”
“Wow, I’ll have to pick on him about it.” He looked at Naomi. “Jared took pride in his hair.”
“Ah.” Naomi didn’t know what else to say. She observed the two of them and realized that they were friends, and not former lovers, which eased the pressure she’d felt in her chest about the thought of Clark with another woman, even if it was in his past.
“Okay, as much as I want to play catch up, I’m here to do a job.” Dr. Hillard nodded and turned to Naomi. “I went over all the information I have, and before I go any further, I have one question for you.”
“What’s that?”
“Who did your initial surgery? And who did your other surgeries.”
“I never had any surgeries.”
“Excuse me?”
“I was told that the damage was so severe and permanent that no one ever did any surgery on me. They told me it would be useless to even attempt one.”
“Who told you that?”
“My father, and one of the doctors at the hospital in Las Vegas.”
“Well, I don’t know how to say this, but they lied to you.”
“Excuse me?”
“In my professional opinion, and I’m not one to toot my own horn, but I am the head of orthopedics here, but I would stake my reputation on this.”
“On what?” both Naomi and Clark asked together.
“If they would have operated on your broken hips and tailbone when the accident first happened, you never would have been in a wheelchair. At least not as long as you have been, probably for a few weeks until you healed, but not this long. You would have walked out of that hospital under your own power. Sure, you would have probably had a walker, or crutches, but you would have been walking. Now, we have a lot of work cut out for us.” She stared at the couple before her and paid close attention to how Clark interacted with Naomi. She had nothing to compare to, because Clark had never dated anyone before he left for the Navy, but she watched his facial expressions and saw that he genuinely cared for her. As she watched them, her phone went off and she took that opportunity to answer it, and sent off a series of texts. She looked up, and asked, “Are you okay?”
“I don’t know,” Naomi admitted. “What type of work are you talking about?”
“Intensive physical therapy, and working with a chiropractor. It shouldn’t have taken you five years to get to this point. I feel with the regime both myself and Dr. Rob set for you, you’ll be walking by Easter.” She held up her hand at their hopeful looks. “I’m not going to lie, Naomi. It’s going to be hard and intense.”
“How often?” Clark bit out.
“Definitely three times a week, possibly more, but only at the beginning. It will depend on what Dr. Rob finds.”
“Who is Dr. Rob?”
“He’s a chiropractor. If you’ll follow me, we’ll go see him now.” She stood and walked to the door. After she opened it, she turned to look back at them. “Trust me, you will be amazed what technology can do nowadays.”
“It’s up to you,” Clark said to Naomi when she looked at him. “Whatever you decide, I’ll be right by your side.”
“I don’t know if I can do it three times a week.”
“Why not?”
Naomi looked toward the open door, and when she didn’t see anyone there, she leaned in close enough that her lips touched his ears, when she whispered, “What about the bounty on my head.”
“Shit, I forgot all about that.” Clark stared at her in shock, and they both remained silent for a few moments, until Clark shook his head. “Why don’t we get all the information now, then we can discuss it when we get home.” He looked off into space, then came back to her with a small smile. “I have a thought, but let’s get all the information first, before I tell you what I’m thinking.”
“I’ll agree to that. I’m wondering if we can get the physical therapist to live in one of the spare cabins at Broken.”
“Not before we do an extensive background check on them,” Clark said firmly. “That’s what I was thinking too, but I want to be armed with the information first.”
“That’s a given,” Naomi said, then wheeled her chair around, and headed toward the door. Clark was right behind her. In the hall they looked around and didn’t see anyone, but they heard people talking at the end of the hall with the open door. She turned her chair and headed in that direction. When she wheeled herself in there, Dr. Hillard and the man she assumed was Dr. Rob were standing before the light board that held several x-rays.
“Naomi, Clark, come here,” Dr. Hillard called them over, and they went over to look at the films. “This is Dr. Rob, and he’s going to be working with you a little bit today. I want you to look at these. These are the x-rays from the day of the accident.” She pointed to them, and then pulled a pen from her pocket. She proceeded to describe what she saw, and explained how the doctors should have been able to operate on her years ago. She then slapped up the new set of x-rays, and again explained what she was seeing.
“You really think she’ll be able to walk again?” Clark asked in awe as he heard what Tessa had to say.
“I do,” Dr. Rob said as he turned, and looked at them for the first time. “I’ve never heard of anyone taking five years to heal, and because it’s been so long, then Ms. Alcott will have to go through extensive physical therapy to get her muscles trained again to hold her weight.” He walked over to a desk in the corner and picked up a clipboard before he turned back to her.
“I’d like to ask you a few questions, Ms. Alcott.”
“Sure, but please, call me Naomi.”
“Okay, Naomi, I’m sorry, but some of these questions might sound intrusive, but believe me when I tell you, they really aren’t. Your answers will give me a better understanding of what I will be dealing with and better to help you.”
“Please, Naomi,” Dr. Hillard said. “Be brutally honest in your response, no matter how embarrassing.”
“Okay,” Naomi answered, but she looked at Clark with scared eyes. She breathed easier when he reached down and took her hand in his. The contact had her relaxing.
“What do you need to know?”
“First, Dr. Hillard showed me the e-mail you sent. The two of us have been working together on coming up with a treatment plan. I don’t know if you know this, but the spine being out of whack, can cause all sorts of medical problems in our bodies. I’ll get to that in a second, but first, what was the very first thing that happened that made you reach out to Tess?”
“I was working at my desk, doing paperwork, and I needed to go someplace. I pushed my chair back, then swung my legs to the side. However, I hadn’t realized that I hadn’t moved far enough back until my knee hit the desk, and the actual desk moved several inches. I have a healing bruise on the outside of my knee.”
“Okay, did you feel anything.”
“Not initially, but the next day, after I showered, I was getting out and I passed out for several hours.”
“I’m not saying you’re wrong, but how do you know it was hours?”
“Because I looked at the time when I showered, and I had my favorite music station blaring on my phone. My battery was at eighty-nine percent when I went into the shower. When I came to, it was dead.”
“Okay, do you know why you passed out?”
“I didn’t at first, but it’s happened three times since. It even happened earlier today. I paid attention because I did not lose consciousness. The first time it happened, I hit my head on the toilet. Since that day, I moved my chair away from there.”
“Good, good. What, if anything, did you experience?”
“When I turn a certain way, I get ants.”
“Not the actual pest,” Clark said with a chuckle.
“God, no, the sensation of ants crawling.”
“Using Mr. Alcott, can you show me?”
“Riceman,” Clark said, then turned to Naomi. He looked at her with a raised brow and she turned him so his left side was close to her, but his back faced the doctors. She looked at him with a smirk.
“I’m about to feel you up.”
“Go for it.” He laughed and winked at her. He loved that her cheeks turned pink.
“Okay, first I feel like some pulling here, as soon as I feel it, the ants feel like they are walking in a single line along here.” She ran two finger across Clark’s left butt cheek, down the outside of this left thigh, around to the inside of the knee, the outside of the calf, and when she reached the ankle, she looked up at the two of them. “It doesn’t stop there, it continues to the bottom of my feet. Since hitting my knee, sometimes if I lie just right in bed, the bottoms of my feet feel like they are crawling with ants.”
Clark had turned back around then, and they both saw the two doctors exchange grins. “Very good.”
“What does that mean? The sensations she’s feeling?”
“It means that her nerves are finally waking up. The path she traced on you is the exact path of the sciatic nerve. This is good news. The initial accident did not sever the spinal cord in any way, shape, or form. However, it did compress it, hence the paralysis in your legs.”
“What was the actual damage?” Clark asked.
They watched as Tessa walked over to the light board with the original x-rays, and pointed with her pen again. “She broke both hips, here, here, here, and here. Along with those breaks, she broke her tailbone. I’m shocked that she had been able to sit on it.”
“It was hard, and I hate to admit it, but for the first six months, I was heavily medicated. It took another three months to get off the pain pills the hospital prescribed me. By then I was making plans to leave my home and come here to Colorado. Once I was here and away from the person pushing the pills onto me, I haven’t taken anything except over-the-counter medication and only when I needed it.”
“You’re drug free now?”
“Yes.”
“Okay, one last question, then I’d like to get you on my table.” Dr. Rob looked at the clipboard, then back at her. “Do you now, or have you since your accident had trouble with bowel movements?”
“Not really, nothing out of the ordinary, at least not until I hit my knee into my desk three weeks ago. Since then, it’s like, and I’m not trying to be gross here, only honest, but it feels like the exit is only half the size it was before. If that makes any sense.”
“Actually, it makes perfect sense. Did your body move when you hit your knee?”
“Yes, it did. I thought I was going to fall out of my chair, I hit the desk so hard.”
“And you’ve been experiencing these crawling sensations, and falling when getting out of the shower?”
“Yes.”
“Wait,” Clark said suddenly, then looked at Naomi with wide eyes. “Tell them about what happened with Miller and Firth.”
“Oh, shit, sorry about swearing, but something happened a couple of weeks before I hit the desk with my knee.”
“Tell us,” Tessa demanded.
“There was a problem at the ranch, and well, some bad people showed up and tried to take over. It didn’t work, anyway, one of the bad people flew through the air at me and tackled me out of my chair. I didn’t feel anything then, but a few days later was when I started feeling the sensation of ants crawling over me. Everything I already explained happened, and on Thanksgiving day, I carried a cold dish on my lap, and I felt the coldness from that dish on my thighs through my jeans.”
“Great, thank you for being so honest with me.” Dr. Rob put the clipboard down, exchanged nods and looked with Dr. Hillard and walked over to a padded bench with several cut-outs in it, and patted the surface. “If you could come over here, we’ll get started.”
“No,” Clark said as he stood to his full height. “I want to know first-hand what she’s going to go through. If I agree with it, then I’ll allow her to get on it.”
“Overprotective there, aren’t you?” Tessa laughed at him as she shook her head.
“Clark?” Naomi asked.
“No, I went to a chiropractor on base a few times. You’re literally turned into a pretzel and then the doctor pounces on you to get your bones back in place.”
“Really?”
“That was my experience. I won’t allow you to go through that.”
“With this table, it’s come a long way from what you experienced. Though we really do still do that if it’s warranted to pop you back into place where you belong. If you really want a treatment, then I need you to remove your shoes and empty your pockets.” Dr. Rob didn’t seem offended, and Clark quickly bent down to untie his combat boots, and toe them off.
He looked around and walked over to a counter. He looked at the others in the room, and said, “Do not judge me.” He pulled a gun, in its holster, from his lower back, another one he unstrapped from his ankle, his wallet, some change from his front pocket, along with a folded knife, then another knife from the opposite ankle from the gun. When he was done, he patted himself down, then removed the tube of lip balm from his other front pocket.
“Sir, if you don’t mind my asking, what do you do for a living?”
“I’m a rancher, but the day Naomi hit her knee was the day I arrived home after serving my country as a Navy SEAL for twelve years.”
“First, let me thank you for serving, second, it’s hard not to be armed isn’t it?”
“Yes. What do you want me to do?”
“Lie face down.” Dr. Rob patted the bench again, and Clark did as instructed. As Dr. Rob started making adjustments to the bench, Clark lay there and allowed him to do his thing. When the bench started moving, he jerked, but settled into the rhythm of the machine as it gently stretched him.
“Would you like any heat or ice on your back?”
“Really? If that’s possible, I’d love some heat on my neck. I’ve been bent over a desk reading for the last few weeks.” He sighed in relief when he felt the heat on his neck and upper back, and within twenty seconds, he zoned out. While he was relaxing, Dr. Rob, and Tessa explained the procedure to Naomi as they watched. When a buzzer went off, the machine stopped moving, and Dr. Rob asked Clark if he was doing okay.
Ten minutes later, Clark sat there with a stunned expression on his face. “Holy shit,” he whispered as he looked at the three people in the room. He started to stand, but Dr. Rob stopped him.
“No, let the blood finish rushing to those spots, give it a couple of more minutes.”
Naomi watched as Clark sat there, and when he looked up at her, she felt her heart melt at his grin. “Damn, if I thought there was nothing wrong with me and I feel like this, then I encourage you to try it.”
“Really?”
“Yes.” Clark stood slowly, and when he had his feet under him, he walked over, took her chin in his hands, and lifted her face to his. He leaned in and gently kissed her on the lips. With his mouth inches away from her, he smiled and nodded. “I’m with Tessie and Dr. Rob on this. You won’t be cured with one treatment, but I’m sure we can work something out with these sessions and a physical therapist.” He jerked and his eyes opened wide before he whipped around and stared at the two doctors.
“What’s wrong?”
“Rin’s a physical therapist—or she was before she was fired, and no one would hire her.”
“Why? What happened?”
“Did she offend a patient?”
“No, she lost her hand in the accident that killed our parents and was in the hospital for weeks. No one would hire her, and she ended up inheriting the ranch. She’s been running it for the past six years.”
“Your parents are dead?” Tessa asked in shock. She held up her hand and shook her head. “Jared and I only moved back here to this area two years ago. We lived in Denver, but wanted the kids to grow up close to where we did. I never heard about their accident.”
“Yeah, it was bad, and I was overseas on a mission and couldn’t make it home until after everything.”
“I’m so sorry.”
“Thanks, I’ll have to check with her to see if she still has her license or not.” He turned to Naomi. “But the ultimate decision will be up to you.”
“We’ll have to talk about it. I have no problem with Erin being my therapist, but I don’t know if she’ll have the time, with everything going on.”
“Before we dismiss it, let’s talk with her,” Clark said, then looked at Dr. Rob. “Can Naomi have a session on that thing?”
“Absolutely.” Dr. Rob stood close at hand, and walked Naomi through what she had to do. As she was getting ready, then strapped in, Clark put all his things back in his pockets and redressed his feet. He sat in a chair close to her head as the table moved back and forth. He only moved out of the way when Dr. Rob started working on her back, and he cringed when he heard all the bones snapping back in place. Each time there was a particularly loud series of crunches, Clark grinned at her expression of shock. When Dr. Rob stepped back, he told her not to move for at least five minutes.
“How do you feel?” Clark asked quietly from beside her head again.
“Good.” Before the word was totally out of her mouth, she let out a small scream.
“What’s wrong?” Both Dr. Rob and Tessa asked as they rushed to her side and each of them laid a hand gently on her back to keep her in place.
“The ants are all over my legs.” She looked around wildly and gripped Clark’s hand. She scowled at the two professionals when they high-fived each other.
“Perfect, that means that the important things that were pinched are becoming un-pinched and you are getting blood flowing back to those parts. I don’t know whether you know this or not, but once nerves are damaged, sometimes it takes years for them to heal. That’s what I’m thinking is happening here. You’ve had no feeling for years, and now that I was able to adjust you, it allowed some blood to flow. You are not cured by a long shot, I would say if we continue with treatments like this, along with the physical therapy, then you could have at least a ninety percent chance of walking again. I’m not going to give it more than that until things progress more. I’d say, don’t plan on standing with crutches or a walker for at least six months.”
“Can you write up a plan?” Naomi asked as she allowed Clark to help her sit up, and she had to pause as the blood rushed to her head. She rubbed the back of her neck and grinned when she realized the stiffness was gone.
“Yes. I’ll e-mail it to you. Have your sister contact me or Tessa, and we can discuss things.”
“Okay, right now, I only see one problem,” Clark spoke. “First, Naomi and I have only known each other for three weeks, but I will be with her during all of her treatments. We live over an hour away from here, and sometimes, especially if there’s a ton of snow, it might be a problem getting here. We have room available if Rin can’t do it, for a physical therapist to come and live at Erin’s Way.”
“He’s not stopping my treatments,” Naomi spoke, and gripped his hand. “It’s that we operate a horse ranch, and there’s a lot of work to do. I don’t know whether that table will travel and you can come out to the ranch, or if we could even purchase one and you come out yourself to do the session with that table.”
“It’s pretty expensive, and I know your insurance won’t pay for the actual table.”
“Write it up anyway, please. Once we get everything we can sit down and discuss things.”
“Okay, can you give me a couple of days?”
“Sure.” Naomi nodded, then helped herself into her chair. While she’d been talking to Dr. Rob, she noticed Tessa had been texting furiously on her phone. She looked up then and asked the other doctor. “Are we done here?”
“Yes, I’ll write up everything we discussed and get it to you in a couple of days. If you feel any pain, let me know.” Dr. Rob handed her a business card, and they all turned to leave.
In the hall, Tessa stopped them. “Thank you for coming in. Now you know why I wanted to do this after hours. Rob and I have this practice together. Sometimes a person just needs to be adjusted and not operated on, or have bones set. Now that we’re done, I have a personal question for the two of you.”
“What’s that?” Clark asked as he came out of the office with their rain ponchos and jackets. He helped Naomi into hers before he put his own jacket on.
“Jared dropped the kids off at their respective Scout meetings, and he doesn’t have to pick them up until eight. He asked me if I wanted to meet him for dinner. He also said to invite you two.”
“I could eat,” Naomi said, and they quickly agreed they would join them. After getting the name of the restaurant, they agreed to meet there in thirty minutes.
Before they left the parking lot, Clark turned to her to ask, “Are you sure about this?”
“Yes, but I have an ulterior motive.”
“What’s that?” Clark started the truck and turned to looked at her with a quirked brow.
“If your friend really is a judge, do you think he could look into what’s happening with the Firths?”
“Shit, I never thought of that. I’ll be the first to admit that with the information we have on you, I forgot all about the Firths.”
“And, I know we don’t have names yet, but if we have a judge in our corner, if the people that have a target on my back show up, do you think we can get advice from him? Can he look into things from a legal standpoint that Jake can’t?” She drew in a deep breath and let it out in a rush. “I know this bounty on my head is important, but I feel that we should deal with the Firths first, get them taken to jail, then we can fully concentrate on what’s happening to me.” She held up her hand at his look of fury. “I’m not dismissing my problems, and I won’t stop contacting Jake and Detective May if we go off the ranch, I just think we need to deal with the immediate threat first, which happens to be the Firths. Once they are out of the way, then we can go after Benson with guns blazing.”
“Let’s see how this dinner goes. I haven’t seen Jared since I left for the Navy. Maybe we can have him, Tessie, and the kids come out to the ranch, and we can talk more openly there. Show them what we’re doing, maybe even allow the kids to ride a horse.” He shrugged as he backed out of the parking space and headed to the restaurant. “Maybe it can be practice for when Broken really does get clients.”
Twenty minutes later, they pulled into the restaurant, and with the handicap placard still attached to his mirror, Clark was able to get a parking spot right up front. Thankfully it had stopped raining, and by the time they were out of the truck, Jared and Tessie had joined them on the sidewalk.