I Will Love You Forever

Chapter 3, part 6: Necessities

When next he went to the bathroom, Lu followed him. He was a little self-conscious about it when she walked up beside him to watch him pee. He lifted the seat, took care of his need, put down the seat and lid and flushed the toilet, then washed his hands. "Did I pass?" he asked Lu, who was still standing silently by the toilet, watching him.

She was still wearing the clothes she had worn in the woods. She turned to look at the toilet, and then stepped around in front of it and lifted the seat and lid. She pulled down the front of her shorts just as Ken had pulled down his fly, and she appeared to be grasping herself. Then ...

"Whoa!" He stepped forward quickly. "Try to stop, if you can."

Lu just continued to let fly, hitting her hand, the front of the toilet, the floor, and her shorts.

Ken yanked her shorts and panties down, then turned her around, still peeing, while he flipped the seat down. He got her down onto the seat just as she finished. "There," he said. "That's how you ladies do that. I'm sorry, but I just didn't know what things you might have lost, back there. We try hard not to get any pee anywhere but in the toilet. My wife gets upset about misses." He smiled ruefully, but she did not smile back. "Are you done?"

Lu just looked at him with no expression, and he sighed. "Here. Take a bit of this. It's called toilet paper. Now wipe yourself here, like this, and drop the paper in the toilet."

He had to show her the other basic technique, too, and how to wash her hands. Then he had to do a lot of cleaning up around the house, as she had not been continent since they had been there. He was thankful Lu had bought laundry soap as he began to wash their clothes. In the midst of cleaning up, Ken frowned, wondering just how long it had been. Their cell phones had died in the rain out in the forest. With no clocks, watches, or working phones, he had no way of knowing even what day it was.

He got the floors cleaned up from all the accidents, got the shower curtain hung, then got her into the shower. He didn't try to clean what remained of her beautiful hair, but he got her soaped up from her shoulders down, and got her rinsed off. She watched him solemnly as he did. Her nipples were very erect, but she didn't otherwise react to anything he did. He got her out and toweled off, then said, "Wait there," while he stepped back in, to soap and shower himself. Lu watched him, with no expression.

When he was done, he led her back to the bedroom, but remembered they didn't have any furniture yet. It was all still in storage. He went back out to the kitchen counter, and there was their suitcase, unopened. He opened it, and found pajamas for them both. Lu followed his lead in getting them on.

"Hungry," she said.

"Yeah." Ken nodded, although he was more exhausted than hungry. "Let's eat."

"Let's eat," she echoed, still with no emotion.

They had another can of soup, before they brushed teeth, which he also had to show her how to do. While in the bathroom, Lu used the toilet as if she had done it all her life. Ken gave a huge sigh of relief. Back in the living room, they lay back down on the mattress. He pulled her up close to him, her injured side on top, and fell asleep in seconds.

* * *

"We're making progress, sir," said Major Handy. "We've eliminated over half the area in the last week, and we're going faster as we concentrate assets on the remaining areas."

"The question is, Bob, will it be fast enough to keep Small from grabbing control."

"I don't know, sir," the major said unhappily. "We do still need his air assets."

"Maybe, but he's a self-righteous pain-in-the-ass bureaucrat, and the longer it takes us to find the crash site, the more likely he'll be able to take charge of the whole thing. If he does, then who knows what kind of lunacy we'll be in for."

"God only knows, sir."

* * *

The next day, Ken got up first, and Lu got up right after, following him into the bathroom. They had always been private about using the toilet, but she watched him with expressionless attention while he used the toilet, then used it the same way herself—except she peed sitting down. She also followed him into the shower, and this time helped him to soap up, even as he was helping her. Ken was very careful not to get any soap or water on her open head wound, but otherwise got her as clean as he could. She still needed help stepping over the edge of the tub, but otherwise, she could manage herself around the house just fine. Again, he marveled at the fact that she was still alive, and at least partly functional. Then he stopped, and looked down at himself.

Two things were bothering him. Rather, they bothered him because they weren't bothering him as much as they should have been. The first was that he could see almost across his entire field of vision. It was still pretty blurry, but it was nearly all there. The second was that his leg could now take his weight, and was only a little bit red and a little bit swollen. The red streaks were still there, but they had faded so much they were barely visible.

Amazing. Well, he wasn't going to look a gift horse in the mouth. He had figured he was a dead man, for sure.

He looked over at Lu. Damn. He had almost—He cut off the thought. I'd never have been able to live with myself, if I'd left her out there to die.

As he looked at her open head, missing so much, that little voice in the back of his head started up again. It might have been better if you had, it said. You know you're going to have to take care of her the rest of her life. Shut up. The voice kept going. Unless you divorce her, of course. No one would blame you.

"Shut up, goddammit!"

Lu was looking at him, puzzled again. She was doing that a lot, lately. He shook his head, and said, "Never mind." Got to hold it together. We have to get to a hospital.

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