It was night; I remember the rain as it beat against the windshield of my car. Too fast for the wipers to keep up with. I remember too, the dark shadow off one side of the road; only it wasn't really a shadow, but another truck that had overturned, too late to do anything. And I remember sirens, lots and lots of sirens in the distance, then closer, much, much closer.

"You're awake!" I heard her voice saying to me. Yet my eyes wouldn't focus clearly. Bright lights, "too bright" I thought.

"Where am I?" My voice sounded strange, distant, much like the weird dream I'd been having.

"Mercy Hospital". The female voice spoke, saying. "You've been in and out of consciousness for nearly a week now." I remembered the lights, bright white lights as they passed above me, the feeling of movement.... excruciating pain.

"What, what happened?" I asked

"You were involved in an automobile accident, it's amazing you survived." My eyes were adjusting to the light, but the figure standing off to one side of the bed I was lying in, was in white too. It was hard to distinguish her from the harsh lighting coming in through the window of the room. As I lay there looking at her, she appeared much like an Angel having descended from the heavens above.

"Oh God! Bruce!" I exclaimed trying without success to raise myself up. Surprised when nothing worked, even more surprised to find myself suspended within the bed, both arms, legs completely covered in casts. I wasn't going anywhere.

"He's fine." The voice said. "You've been speaking his name over and over. For a while, we thought someone else had been with you, but no one else was found at the crash scene except for you. Even the truck you crashed into had already been abandoned, so that no one else was hurt at least. Eventually we figured out that you were talking about your dog."

"Where is he?" I heard a soft laugh, it sounded wonderful. The face it had come from was still distorted, still out of focus as I strained to see more clearly.

"He's with me." When I found out he was home all alone with no one to take care of him, I went to get him for you. I love dogs, always wanted to have one but never had the time to devote to owning one."

"Thank you." I said relaxing considerably. "By the way, what is your name anyway?"

"Angel." She said. Which didn't surprise me for some reason.

"I'm...."

"Jeffery Collins", she said smiling. "Yes, we learned that much after the accident. No family?"

"Call me Jeff." I told her. "No, no one. I live alone, no brothers or sisters, no wife, no family, only Bruce." Looking up I could see her checking my I.V. bottle; she made some notes on a chart she was carrying. My eyes had cleared. She was beautiful, breath- takingly gorgeous in fact.

"Well, you're certainly going to be with us a while." She told me. "You broke both your arms, as well as your legs, and one or two ribs, which barely missed puncturing a lung. Like I said, you were damn lucky." I made a feeble attempt to move, suspended as I was, feeling quite helpless.

"I wouldn't exactly call this lucky!" I exclaimed.

"Oh...I would. You have no idea Jeff, how close you came to dying." Angel spoke in the sweetest sounding voice I had ever heard before. "But the good news is, you're going to be fine. You're already well on the mend, and with some physical therapy once those bones have had a chance to heal, you'll be up and about in no time."

"Again, thank you." I told her. "And for taking care of Bruce for me."

"My pleasure. Now, get some rest. I'll be back in a while to check on you." I watched as Angel closed the blinds to my room making it considerably darker. "Get some sleep." She said. I closed my eyes, I was tired. I felt something atop my forehead, wondering for a moment, briefly what it had been. It had felt like a kiss. "Over active imagination." I thought, drifting off to sleep even as I considered the possibility.

#

I was dreaming. I knew I was dreaming in fact. It didn't make it any less real however. Even in my dream, I lay suspended within the bed, helpless, unmoving...alone. I felt a small tear roll from the corner of my eye. In a weird way, it felt good, comforting. "At least I'm alive." I thought to myself. I felt the tear roll down my face. And suddenly she was there. She'd been sitting there in the darkness next to me. I felt the tip of her finger gently catch the tear before it reached the bottom of my chin.

"You're ok Jeff, you're going to be ok." She reassured me. Standing up, I felt her presence more than actually seeing her because of the darkness. "Is this a dream?" I wondered. "Or am I awake?" She moved over towards the bed sitting down next to me. Once again I felt the light brush of her hand upon my forehead, I remembered the kiss then too, or what I thought had been a kiss anyway.

"You're not alone Jeff." She told me softly. She continued caressing my face. The feel of her finger as it traced invisible patterns across my nose, my eyes, and finally to my lips was soothing, comforting. And surprisingly...arousing too.

It was still too dark to actually make out any of her features; only the sound of her voice told me it was her. That, and her touch, that soft gentle reassuring way about her when she spoke, even when she moved. The room grew darker still, but I realized in an instant why. She had leaned over in front of me, her soft slips pressing so tenderly, so lightly against my own. It felt briefly like the wings of a butterfly as she kissed me, so light, so fleeting. And then her hand. The touch of her hand. I remembered being hooked up to a catheter, she'd told me that I think, or someone else had mentioned it perhaps. But suddenly, I wasn't. Once again I questioned this as dream or reality still unsure of which was which. It made no difference however, as I felt her hand deftly slipping beneath the hem of the hospital gown I was wearing.

"Relax Jeff, let me make you feel better." Angel told me. I couldn't believe what I was feeling, what she was doing. Her hand was warm, soft. I felt it encompass my flaccid member. For a split second I was embarrassed, ashamed. There was hardly anything there for her to hold on to. Slowly I grew however as she continued stroking me, petting me, whispering into my ear.

"I want you to feel good Jeff, I want you to relax, and know that someone cares about you, that I care about you." She told me.

"Oh God! Angel!" I exclaimed in surprise. I still couldn't believe this was happening, this beautiful, divine, heavenly creature was sitting here next to me on the bed, stroking my cock, teasing it to a firmness that I had all but forgotten, as to what it felt like.

"Hmm, you're getting hard, much harder now." She giggled. "How long's it been Jeff?"

I couldn't remember. It had been so long since I had even been with a woman. A year? Two years perhaps? It seemed more like an eternity.

"I don't know." I answered honestly. "Too long." I laughed. It felt good to laugh even though it still hurt a little to do so. Angel continued to stroke me, using two hands now, alternating, teasing me, squeezing me and continually pleasuring me.

"Feel good?" She whispered into the darkness.

"Oh Angel...yes!" I moaned. "Really good....damn good!" I heard her laugh, that sound, that wonderful delightful sound that reminded me of soft tinkling bells for some reason. "Oh geeze!" I exclaimed through clenched teeth. Angel had lovingly pinched the head of my cock, producing when she did a pearly drop of lubrication. She used it to further stimulate the head and shaft of my prick with.

"Hmm, I love doing that." She told me. "I love how slippery it is, how fun it is to play with it like this." She squeezed my cock again, another droplet of pre-cum oozed from the tip of my prick. Swiftly, she captured it; only this time I sensed her lifting it to her mouth, sucking her finger as she did. "Ahh, yes. Sweet." She stated. "Very, very sweet." I began to realize my pleasure was building. If she continued this much longer, I'd be spending myself everywhere.

"Angel....Angel." I said trying to get her attention. I felt her leaning over, felt her moist soft lips surrounding my prick, felt her drawing it fully into her mouth. "Oh Angel!" I moaned. "Angel, Angel...Angel!" I felt the delicious, extremely intense explosion as my orgasm began. Suspended as I was, it felt like I was floating in space. Every nerve ending, every sensation that I possessed converged within the shaft of my prick as I spurted geysers of pleasured cum-cream deep inside her mouth. Angel continued sucking, drinking my nectar, drawing it like a vacuum from me until I was drained, exhausted...complete.

"Sleep Jeff, sleep." She told me. "Don't worry...I won't leave you, I'll be right here."

I returned to the dream. Sleep came to me then, but I still wondered, "Had I not been sleeping, dreaming anyway?"

#

I woke. It was night, but not the same night. The blinds to my window were open. Outside, the moon was full, glowing brightly in the night sky. The incandescent light filtered through the window of my room casting soft shadows against the wall and across the chair next to it. Looking over I saw her sitting there, smiling.

"Your awake." I heard as well as saw the smile on her face and in her tone of voice. "You had us worried there for a bit." She told me. "We nearly lost you again."

"How long?" I asked, knowing I had been asleep, closer to ever lasting sleep than I had wanted to be.

"Two days, but you're growing stronger, getting better now. I think the worst has passed." She told me. I watched as Angel stood up from the chair. Watched as she removed her cap, unpinning her hair. It was long, dark, falling well below her shoulders.

"Time for your medicine." She told me. Angel crossed over to the window; I thought at first she was about to close it.

"No please, don't! Leave it open." I begged. "So I can see you."

I thought she was reaching to close the blinds, but she turned. Her hands were at the top of the uniformed blouse she was wearing. I watched as she slowly unbuttoned it, eventually peeling it away so that she stood only in her bra, skirt and white nylon stockings.

"I think I like this medicine." I told her. Angel unzipped her skirt stepping out of it. I had assumed she'd be wearing pantyhose, surprised when she revealed her white laced topped stockings, held up by a sexy, frilly garter instead. She wore no panties that I could see, and her dark neatly trimmed thatch of pubic hair was framed perfectly by the bold white lace surrounding it.

"Angel....you're beautiful!" I exclaimed from my bed, wishing more than ever that I could move in order to go to her. Gratefully however, she came to me.

"You like?" She said as she came over to sit on the edge of my bed.

"I like...a lot!" I didn't think it was possible, but Angel looked even more radiant that I remembered. Reaching around behind her, she undid the clasp on her bra. I watched as it partially fell away from her breasts, the full soft upper slopes suddenly revealed. "I wish I could touch you." I told her. Once again frustrated as I "willed" my secured hands and arms to move, neither of which did. Helplessly I continued to dangle there in my prison.

"You can." She told me.

"How?"

"With your lips." Angel allowed her brassier to fall the rest of the way down her arms. She dropped it carelessly to the floor revealing her magnificent charms, two perfect identical spheres. Her breasts were firm, full...teardrop shaped, looking almost elegant, certainly provocative as she sat there on the edge of my bed. Placing her hand around one of them, she leaned over towards me. I felt the tickle of her hard protruding nipple as she placed it gingerly against my lips. "Suck it."

I drew that taut nubbin of flesh into my mouth, rolling the hard little bud with the tip of my tongue as I sucked it, sucked it with a desire that burned within me, sucked it with the need to pleasure her, somehow show her what she meant to me. And more importantly, giving me the determination to escape the bonds that held me. After a few pleasured moments of licking each one of her nipples, kissing and nipping at the fleshy softness of each breast, she stood. Fearful that she would dress now and leave, I nearly spoke, begging her not too. To my relief, I watched instead as she stood, clasping one of her breasts, toying with the nipple, fondling and caressing her pliant breast. With the other hand, she inched it down between her legs where she casually began toying with her self. Angel spread her legs slightly, I heard her soft moan, watched the movement of her hand as she began frigging herself, enjoying it as she did, knowing however that she was doing so for my benefit.

"Oh Angel...Angel. I want to see you come. I want to hear you come. Will you...do that for me?" I asked. Without speaking, she merely rolled her head back against her shoulders. Continuing to massage her breasts, which she now began to include, pinching her nipples, I watched as her fingers began to quicken the pace, stroking her most inner self. The sounds of her liquid pleasure as her pussy began to flow, became frothy, sensual. I could hear her fingers as they played inside her pussy, imagined my own doing the same things to her that hers were.

"Jeff, imagine yourself doing this to me...imagine what it will feel like when you finally do." She stated, "Remember that...remember this!" Her cry of ecstasy was beyond anything I had ever heard before. For a moment I worried that someone outside of the room would hear her, glancing quickly through the semi-darkness towards the door. I heard nothing however, only the continued pleasure that she gave herself, climaxing in waves, hearing her shudders, sensing her joy. It took several long moments for her to compose herself, when she did she once again sat down on the edge of the bed beside me.

"And now, time for your pleasure." Her hand once again lifted the hem of my gown, only this time I was hard when she touched me. "Better! Much, much better!" She exclaimed gleefully. "Nice to see you up and about, so to speak." She teased. And then with her hands, her lips, her tongue...she teased me again. Stroking my penis, she mouthed the head of my prick, taking small little nips at the sensitive flesh. "Going to come hard for me?" She asked. Her hands began kneading my balls, massaging them perfectly as the up and down stroking motion upon my prick tightened them in obvious anticipation.

"Oh yes...yes. Real hard!" I replied.

"Then fill my mouth with your cum Jeff, let me feel and taste your pleasure." Moments later as her hand milked me, I began doing just that. As my prick erupted like a volcano, the hot molten lava poured forth from the tip of my cock, disappearing into the welcoming calm sea of her throat.

#

I again dreamed. In my dreams Angel came to me, meeting me in fields of lazily waving purple and blue flowers. The warmth of the sunshine bathed me in its sensual caress. As I stood there in the meadow, she floated towards me as though riding atop a cloud. We embraced, my arms finally free of their restraints, my legs strong, firm beneath me. Holding her in my arms was the most intense pleasure I had ever known. Simply being with her, touching her, was as erotic as our secret, naughty moments together there inside my room.

"Make love to me." I heard her whispering. "Be with me, be inside of me where I can know you in the only way that two people really can." She said. Pulling me down to the soft bed of flowers below us. I slipped into her as easily as sliding in between clean sheets. She was crisp, new...exciting. Angel engulfed me entirely, all at once. As my prick slid inside that tight moist sheath, I felt a sense of healing, renewal. We began to move together in perfect harmony. My slow forward thrusts were met with tantalizing warm, wet; welcoming's of her hips as they rose to meet me.

"Live! Live inside of me Jeff, feel my spirit, taste my soul...cum with me!'

#

The room was dark, darker than usual. I felt her presence, felt the slight pressure of her lips surrounding my penis, felt the ejaculation already filling her mouth as I came. And I could smell the scent of wildflowers in the air.

#

The sound of voices filled my ears. I knew the lights were bright behind my closed eyelids. I considered opening my eyes, refraining from doing so as I feared the light, feared the brightness coupled by the unfamiliar sounds I was hearing. Conversations, disjointed, fading in and out often reminding me of humming bees as I lay there listening to them. I wished only for the comfort of the darkness, praying in a sense to my Angel, my guardian Angel as I came to think upon her. The night was comforting, soothing, just as she was. The day became a nightmare, panic seized me, and I withdrew seeking the silence that waited for me in the depth well beneath the surface of the light. Anxiously I waited for her shift to begin, hiding in my corner of consciousness until the sound of her voice, or the mere presence of her being there alerted me that it was safe to come out.

"Jeff? Jeff? You awake? I brought someone to see you." I heard Angel telling me. I fought through the haze, swimming up from the depths of despair, opened my eyes. Thankfully the room was dim, nightfall approached. Angel stood in her nurses uniform at the foot of my bed; she was holding a leash in her hand. "I think someone's missed you." She said smiling.

I heard Bruce's familiar waffling chuff, pulling against the leash, he half-dragged Angel towards the side of the bed where he then pounced up, standing on hind legs, paws on the bed. Almost immediately he began lathering my face in anxious greeting.

"I missed you too boy!" I told him, allowing him his doggy pleasures. A twinge of sadness crossed my mind as I wished I could reach out, ruffle his fur and give him a scratch behind the ears as he so enjoyed receiving from me. "How'd you get him in here anyway?" I asked.

"Ve have our vays!" Angel said in a horrible German accent.

"God, he looks great!" I said. Bruce was a fairly large golden retriever. His coat looked better than I remembered it looking, he was strong, healthy, and obviously excited to see me, as it took a little exertion on Angels part to finally pull him off the bed down onto the floor.

"I told you I'd take care of him for you Jeff. And a promise is a promise." I watched as Bruce obediently walked over, sitting down beside her nuzzling Angel's hand.

"Well you've certainly become fast friends. He normally isn't like that with strangers." I'd observed.

"Well don't worry Jeff, he'll be waiting for you. Now, you get some rest. I'm going to take Bruce home, but I promise I'll be back later this evening. Get some rest now...because I think you're going to need it." Angel winked; the look on her face spoke volumes.

"I will." I said grinning at her. "See ya boy!" I added calling out to Bruce. "You take care of my Angel for me boy." I watched as Angel walked Bruce towards the door, already drifting off to sleep before they had even left the room. I heard one last soft waffle from Bruce as they left. He was in good hands.

#

Something was different. I felt different. There was more pressure on my back for one thing, a sense of firmness. I opened my eyes, the room again dark but the blinds were open. I realized almost immediately I was no longer suspended in air. I felt some sort of support against my back, "a brace perhaps" I thought. But my arms, legs though still heavily cast, lay unsupported against the softness of the bed.

"Surprise."

"Angel!" I greeted her happily. "What's going on? When did they do this?" I asked her feeling confused.

"Just before I came on." She told me. "You're doing better Jeff, much better. But you've still got a little ways to go." She'd been sitting next to me in the chair as she usually did during the evening, waiting for me to wake up. "Feel like a little therapy?" She asked seductively.
"Are you kidding? More than..." Her laugh was contagious, and I laughed with her, feeling a giddiness overtake me, filling me with longing for her. Angel stood. I watched as she slowly began removing her clothing, folding them neatly within the chair as she removed each piece. Naked, she moved towards the bed. Carefully straddling me now, she leaned forward allowing me access to one of her sweet succulent nipples. Feeling the teat brush my lips, I lunged at it like a hungry babe, missing, it, lunging again until finally capturing her hard firm nipple between my lips. Sucking madly, I felt my erection stiffen, felt her hand slowly guiding me towards the opening of her sex. Angel began rubbing herself with my prick. The furrow of her slit kissed the head of my cock as she drew it up and then down in a lusty, exploratory way.

"Do you want to feel it inside me Jeff?" She asked.

"Yes! Yes! Of course I do!" I panted breathlessly.

"Then promise me something...."

"What?"

"Promise me, in the morning, you won't hide from the light."

"Ok, I won't" I said, not fully understanding her question to me, but too inflamed with desire for her now to sit there arguing about it either.

With her hand, I felt her slowly ease it inside that satin-slick wonder. Felt her flesh devouring mine as I slid ever so slowly, ever so gently inside. "Oh Angel, Angel...don't tease me, I need you!" I begged unabashedly.

"Just remember Jeff, in the morning."

"In the morning." I replied, too lost in the ecstasy of her quim as it wrapped itself so lovingly around my prick, drawing so much pleasure in doing so that I would have given up my life for her had she asked for it.

Her moisture seduced me, like a thousand tiny lips kissing, nipping at my penis as it slid through the silken passage of her femininity. Over and over we moved, dancing together erotically in a sea of bliss, sensations washing over me in waves as her warmth, her heat enveloped me, burning away all thoughts of helplessness, hopelessness. I felt her orgasms approach, knew it as well as I knew my own as it too began to manifest itself somewhere deep within my consciousness. Angels sudden cry of pleasure became my own. Together we soared into the night, flitting amongst the stars in a climatic explosion of unparallel pleasure, rapture and bliss.

#

It was morning. Once again I could hear the sounds of voices, some familiar, others not. The light behind my eyelids almost burned. I briefly thought to once again retreat into the sanctity of darkness, what I had come to know and feel as my safety, my recluse. But I recalled her words, remembering my promise to her. Fighting against the light, blinding in a way, I felt the tears stabbing painfully at my eyes as I fought to open them. Seconds later I did. Blurry...yet there was motion. My eyes slowly focused, again movement, a white uniform.

"Angel?"

"Oh my God! Mr. Collins! You're awake! I'll go get the doctor!" She said excitedly.

"No! No! Don't! Please...wait!" I begged her. "What's....your name?" I asked

"Nurse...." She paused. "Kathy," She said starting over. "My name's Kathy, I'm your day nurse." She added.

"Angel. Where's Angel?" I asked.

"I'm sorry...I don't know anyone here by that name." She told me.

"Night nurse." I managed; my throat was parched, rough. "Water, something to drink please, water."

"Let me run and get the Doctor first." She stated, bounding from the room an instant later before I could detain her further. Long moments passed, then the door to my room flew open. The doctor I assumed, along with several other nurses including Kathy came into the room along with him.

"Well, well Mr. Collins. We were starting to wonder there for a while if you'd ever come out of your coma."

"Coma?" I thought. "Coma? What coma?" I asked pointedly.

"Yes, coma. You've been in a comma now for nearly three months."

"Three? Three months!" I exclaimed. "That's impossible, days maybe...but not month's certainly not month's." I thought.

"Bruce!" I near shouted, trying to sit up as I did.

"Easy son...easy. Who's Bruce?" The doctor asked me.

"My dog, he's my dog." I said in alarm, getting excited. I saw one of the nurses lean over whispering something to him. He nodded his head in understanding, turning to look back towards me, a sadness etched deep within his face.

"I'm sorry. We didn't know. No one thought to check, and then finally a neighbor remembered something about you're having a dog. By the time the police entered your apartment, he was already dead. I'm sorry Jeff, nobody knew about him."

"But that's not possible! Angel promised me she'd take care of him!" I was shouting then. Alarmed, confused...frightened.

"Angel." I said once again. "Where's Angel?" I watched the Doctor turn, looking at the rest of the nurses who were standing there. "Anyone know a nurse Angel?" He asked them.

"Perhaps I do." Everyone turned, as the gray-haired older nurse stepped into the room.

"You know of her?" The Doctor asked. "No one else seems to recall anyone by that name." He said simply.

Her eyes met mine as she began speaking. "As some of you may or may not know, this hospital was built on the very sight where a field hospital once was, back during the civil war....."

Silence suddenly filled the room, as everyone turned to listen to her.

"Go on." The Doctor told her.

"Well, anyway, as you're all aware, there was a horrible, terrible battle here. A lot of wounded, dying men. It was said that there wasn't enough supplies left to treat the wounded, lying in pain with nothing for it, a nurse, some called her Angel they say, came to them to sit with them and be with them. Doing whatever she could to ease their suffering. They say, she came to some of them in the middle of the night...doing what she could....." She was blushing, leaving off the obvious.

"Anyway, years later long after she had died, for those who had survived, they came here in remembrance of her, calling her 'Their Angel of Mercy', which is where the name for this hospital came from, 'Mercy Hospital', in memory of her. But suffice it to say, the story doesn't end there either." Taking a breath, she continued.

"When I was a young, inexperienced nurse, I had a young man in my ward, horribly burned from being trapped in a fire. The fact that he hadn't died was a miracle in and of its self. No matter what we gave him, did for him, he was constantly in agonizing, excruciating pain. Then one morning, I had come in to his room to check on him, he opened his eyes, looked at me and said: "Angel, Angel...thank you, Angel. At first, I thought he was thanking me his Angel for taking care of him. But then, one of the older nurses who was working here at the time told me a similar story, about Angel, this Angel of Mercy that has been visiting here on and off during the course of the years. As for my patient? Well, he survived and eventually left to live a normal life again. His name was Phillip Peterson, whom most of you know as one of this hospitals major benefactors. So as you can see, though it's been quite a while, it's not the first time that one of the patients here has claimed to have seen her, or....been with her." She said blushing once again.

As one, they all turned to face me, wonder clearly showing in everyone's eyes.

"Well son, if this was indeed this 'Angel' that's been visiting you, it looks like you were in the best care possible." The Doctor said simply.

And I realized then...so was my dog.