Chapter One

As rehab clinics went, this place was top of the line: classy, exclusive, and expertly staffed. Unfortunately it wastoo exclusive. Submitting to his morning hygiene, Karl Jensen sighed. His eighteenth birthday was only two days away. Once that milestone was reached, his already disastrously ruined life was sure to take a turn for the far worse.

It was ironic: if he could only bring himself to care, he might not be in this shit. As it was, he could only regret that he was going to lose the best nurse in the world too. Picking up as always on the least subtlety of his mood, the angel in question paused as she soaped up her sponge-mitt. She sought him out with a sympathetic frown.

“No luck with the social worker, huh?”

“Nope. It looks like my options are the state home or nothing. Without insurance that’s what I’m stuck with.”

Those lovely brown eyes were like quicksand: depthless wells of compassion trying to suck him in. Karl looked away.

He couldn’t take it; didn’t deserve it.

She was too good to him. Despite the powerful emotional bonds that had developed between them over the past year and a half he felt the usual lessening in her presence.

Doreen Drake was a far better person than he could ever be. And at thirty she was so experienced – not to mention wise and perceptive – that he felt not only naked (which he was) but utterly transparent before her.

By now she knew him better than he did himself. She knew what he’d done, what he’d caused and what the doctors said about his condition. Yet despite his weakness, his moral if not criminal culpability she still doted on him.

She openly proclaimed him her favorite patient. She worked endless extra shifts for him and generally devoted herself heroically to his recovery. Within the bounds of propriety she’d become closer to him than anyone since the accident – and only one before. Now as she picked his arm up and began to gently scrub it, Karl took a moment to consider their relationship. He hadn’t really done so until now, just passively accepting its development along with so much else. Now that he was on the brink of losing it forever, he was finally moved to appreciate it.

On its most elemental level Nurse Drake was his primary caregiver. Karl was currently (perhaps permanently) nearly completely paralyzed. He couldn’t scratch his nose, eat or even past waste without her help. Naturally this dependency, humiliating as it was, fostered a sense of intimacy between them. Yet that was just the seed fro