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Chapter 14 - Epilogue

A year later…

Whilst their wedding had been lavish, it was small and intimate. The couple had thought of everything. Their nearest and dearest were in attendance and it had gone without a hitch throughout. At the end of the ceremony, the party had swung into action and guests spent the evening drinking free champagne and eating until they dropped in the early hours of the morning. By this time, Nate and Annie had already consummated their marriage in the luxurious suite at the Waldorf Astoria and were sleeping in preparation for their honeymoon. They were departing for a cruise to the Caribbean early the next morning and wanted to up early in readiness for it. Annie rarely drank alcohol so the champagne had gone straight to her head and she had taken a rest for a couple of hours mid-way through the celebrations. Nate and the aide had been around to help lift her from her chair to the enormous bed. Nate had left her to relax for a while until the wedding breakfast was ready to be served and returned to take her back in. The aide who had sat with his new wife, now helped to straighten out the expensive, made-to-measure wedding gown. When they returned, it was to toasts, speeches and congratulations from everyone. Nate looked like the proudest man in the world to have married such a talented and beautiful woman.

Annie had found the challenge of senior partnership less stressful than she thought. She had been insistent on pulling her weight, taking on her fair share of clients, but she also took all the physical help she could from her staff and that had served to keep her blood pressure under control. She spent much of her time making decisions rather than chasing around after clients or information. At work she was the queen and in the courtroom, just as sharp and clever as she always had, only now she used her disability to good effect, evoking more sympathy for her clients and distracting the prosecutor as a result and she proved an even more difficult opponent than before.

Nate loved Annie and he wouldn’t care if she was nothing other than a talking head. However, he often asked her if she was still happy in her permanent state of hypnosis, because if she had any doubts, he could still reverse it and in all likelihood she could make a full recovery. However, he always received the same response from her. “I’m much happier now than I ever was when I could move.” And she seemed to be telling him the truth. Her sense of humour shone through in talking to people and she spent far less time stressing about work outside of the office. While this continued, Nate was happy to leave Annie a quadriplegic.

Their honeymoon was filled with hours of eating, drinking, people-watching and new experiences. With Nate’s help, they swam every day in one of the pools thanks to a hoist. Annie enjoyed lots of reading, able to use her iPad mounted to her chair. She caused quite a few stares, reclined in her chair in the sun and mouth-stick scrolling through the pages of an e-book.

There were several shore visits to some of the islands, usually requiring plenty of effort to get Annie around. While some were better than others, access was an issue and they generally used a manual chair because it was much lighter, though less supportive obviously. Annie didn’t mind the extra help needed, however, and the locals wherever they went were more than happy to help Nate get her in and out of vehicles or out onto the beach. They improvised where necessary and had a great time soaking up the warm Caribbean sun and friendly atmosphere generated by their hosts.

Staff on board the ship were very attentive and soon knew the couple by name, it wasn’t easy to forget Annie, once meeting her after all. Because they tended to use the same pool each day and sat at the same dinner table, other guests were becoming familiar and chatting to them. Annie’s outgoing nature and sense of humour allowed others to see they need not be worried about offending her in any way and conversation began to flow with other guests. To say the couple were enjoying themselves was an understatement.

Annie had spent some time discussing her situation, anonymously of course, with others over the internet since she had been paralysed. She had started out finding it difficult to talk about what had happened, but as she received messages from others who wanted to experience the same things she had, an idea formed in her mind. Maybe Nate could help others the way he had helped her. He hypnotised people all the time whether it was past life regression or getting them to quit smoking, he had an excellent success rate. She had talked herself with a client she met leaving his office who had overcome her fear of spiders as a result of Nate’s therapy. She decided to have a conversation with him about it whilst they were on honeymoon.

Annie explained the position she had formed in her mind. “I don’t think it’s illegal, but what about your oath?” She asked him the question that had bothered her so much. She couldn’t ask him to do anything against the law or the Hippocratic Oath he had sworn to uphold, but he had done so much to help her; she was unquestionably happier now than she had ever been and her blood pressure was under control. What if he could help others who had needs that couldn’t be solved conventionally, so long as those people were happier, surely they would be better off, even if physically they were not as able as they had been. She had talked to people who wanted to experience what she had but who were willing to consider impaling, injecting or throwing themselves off a roof in order to achieve it. Surely Nate could help these people too, even if only temporarily.

Nate was thoughtful about what she had said and asked him. “Its not illegal, I would argue that its not immoral either, though I don’t know if everyone would agree with me on that score. I can’t guarantee that it will work for everyone though, hypnosis is not always successful, especially if someone is sceptical about it,” he placed his hand on the top of Annie’s arm and stroked it, just where he knew she could feel it. His fingers drew light circles and he gave her a smile. “If you’re thinking what I think you’re thinking, I’ll consider it, but I need to do that on an individual basis and these people will have to be prepared to meet me and discuss in detail what they hope to achieve knowing that I may well refuse to help them.”

“I understand that,” Annie enjoyed Nate’s touch on her arm. She shrugged her other shoulder and forced her arm to bend. With difficulty, she managed to raise it slightly. “Help me touch your face.”

He met her half way and guided her hand forwards. Nate felt his wife’s limp fingers caress his cheek and leaned into her hand, planting a kiss on her fingertips. They smiled at each other and whispered in turn, “I love you.”

The End (for now at least...)