Goal Posts

"Yes and the man next to him is a scout for the Houston Texans," the other announcer said.

"Either team would be lucky to get Arville Brodt in the next draft," the first announcer said.

"True, true, everyone on this team says that he's a real leader and we'll be back after these messages," the second man said.

The game resumed with the defense on the field beating up on the hapless visiting team.

"I'm kill him yeah," Rachael laughed as the camera cut to show Arville standing in the middle of the female cheerleaders, leading them in a cheer.

On the sideline, Coach Schaeffer looked all over for his quarterback and turned beet red when one of the assistant coaches pointed to the cheerleaders.

"What? Now that little fruit loop wants to wear a dress too?" he barked, stomping to where Arville was trying to extricate himself from the squealing, adoring cheerleaders.

"Any time you're ready, Princess," Coach Schaeffer barked.

At Elise's home, Rachael jerked when her cell phone rang.

"Hello?" she asked.

"We making us a stew; Arville always real hungry after them games; you come over?" May's voice asked.

Rachael could smell Darren and Dick making their chili, could smell the beginning of Elise burning the cornbread.

"Well, I got no way get there," Rachael admitted.

"Jonas come get you; where you staying?" May said.

"Good, more for me," Darren said when Rachael let them know that she wouldn't be eating their chili that evening.

"Let me get that car seat," Dick said, shrugging into his heavy coat.

Jonas and Dick chatted pleasantly as they put the car seat into the car.

"Your Dad's Sheriff Davis?" Jonas asked when Rachael was in the car, buckled up.

"Yeah, well, he's my step-dad, but like Arville says, 'only steps in our house go up to the front door," Rachael said happily.

May clapped happily when Rachael entered the trailer and immediately grabbed Elaine and talked excitedly to the infant.

"And you going grow up all beautiful and Oh!" May said to the child.

"And Arville says she going play football too," Rachael chimed in.

"You going to play football?" May asked the child. "Huh? You going play football?"

"What kind stew that is? Smell good yeah?" Rachael asked.

"Road kill; not really sure what kind of animal it used to was," Jonas joked.

"He think he all funny yeah," May said. "It's the chicken had after yesterday.

"The only time Rachael got her hands on Elaine again was when Elaine fussed for her breast and even then May hovered over the child.

"Forty five to six," Jonas announced when Rachael came back into the room.

An hour later, Arville came into the small trailer, hugging himself against the horrible chill, made all the harsher by the sun going down.

"Hey!" he said happily when he saw Rachael sitting on the couch.

"Hey nothing!" she said, trying to look angry but failing terribly. "What's with this dancing with them cheerleaders, huh?"

Rachael kissed Arville as hotly as she could with his parents right there in the room.

"Don't you know you my man, ain't supposed be doing that?" she asked, slapping him on his arm.

"They grabbed me and started kicking me and slapping me and said only way they'd stop if I dance with them; I swear!" Arville lied, picking her up. "I hated it! Oh, it was terrible!"

"Put me down!" Rachael demanded.

"Heard her, boy, put her down," May demanded.

"Hey, little girl; you ain't walking yet?" Arville asked Elaine, then kissed his mother.

"Go wash them hands, we having stew," May said.

"You been picking that baby up, changing her diaper, getting her spit all over and been cooking the whole time but he got to go wash them hands?" Jonas asked.

"And you wash them hands," May ordered and Jonas followed Arville to the small bathroom.

"She a good girl, yeah," Jonas whispered to Arville as they studiously scrubbed their hands. "Been sitting there, ain't heard nothing bad come out her mouth and been wanting help your momma."

"And Momma ain't let her no," Arville finished for him.

"Aw well, you know how your momma is 'bout her kitchen," Jonas agreed.

"They was saying on TV y'all win this next one and them Blue Jays lose to Norman you going Pecan Bowl," Jonas said as they dug into the hearty stew.

"Uh huh but Myndee ain't lost at home but that one time and that was thirty years ago," Arville said.

After coffee and ice cream, May gave Elaine a series of noisy kisses, Making Rachael smile. May then pulled Jonas into their bedroom.

"Oh, hey, I can..." Arville stammered as Rachael prepared to breast feed Elaine.

"You can sit right there and talk to me," Rachael demanded.

"We been going out now, what, two months and this the first time you seen my boobs," Rachael said as Elaine latched onto one nipple.

Rachael grabbed one of Arville's hands and pressed it to the other breast.

"You ain't even touched them; almost like you scared of them," Rachael said quietly, then kissed him hotly.

"Play with them," she whispered. "They like to be played with."

She kissed him, sucking on his tongue and moaned when he did squeeze the milk filled orb in his hand.

"They like being played with by you," she whispered and thrust the breast harder into his hands.

Milk dribbled freely and Arville brought a finger to his mouth and tasted it.

"How's it taste?" she whispered.

"Not bad," he shrugged.

"Then get you some more," she suggested, rubbing Elaine's back as the infant sleepily suckled on the other nipple.

Rachael left her blouse and bra off while she changed Elaine's diaper. She then lay the child on the couch, putting a pillow against Elaine to prevent the infant from rolling off of the couch and onto the floor.

She then hugged Arville fiercely, pushing her heavy breasts against him. They kissed hotly, tongues dancing with each other's.

Rachael reached down and found Arville's very hard cock trapped in his snug jeans.

Arville groaned as Rachael rubbed the length of Hiscock. He then stiffened and groaned as he loosed a torrent of semen into his briefs.

Harrison Smith, Elaine's biological father, had been the only boy Rachael had ever been intimate with. Harrison stood at six feet, three inches, and had weighed two hundred and thirty four pounds, mostly muscle.

Harrison had packed six slender inches of manhood and Rachael had assumed Harrison was large. He certainly acted as if he was overly endowed.

So when she fished Arville's nearly nine inches of thick muscle out of his sticky briefs, Rachael was in awe.

Rachael knew how to suck cock; Harrison Smith made sure of that. By the time Rachael discovered she was pregnant, she was quite skilled at sucking cock. She was quite skilled at tonguing Harrison's sweaty scrotum.

She was not used to wanting to suck cock; Rachael was not used to desiring the sperm that shot out of a man's cock.

But she wanted to suck Arville's cock, desired to taste him, desired to hear him moan her name as she pleased him with her mouth.

Her gag reflex kept her from swallowing Arville down to the root. She bobbed her head up and down, small hand stroking the length that did not fit into her mouth.

Rachael grunted when she felt Arville unsnap her jeans. She shuddered as his large finger traced up and down her wet pussy, tickled her slick pussy lips.

Harrison had never done that; Harrison only grabbed her breasts, or the back of her head. Harrison had given little thought to Rachael's pleasure.

"Mmmph!" Rachael screamed her orgasm around the head of Arville's cock when Arville's thick finger teased her hard nub.

"Mmph!" she screamed in orgasm again just as Arville unloaded a thick torrent of sperm into her mouth.

After she finished swallowing all Arville had to offer, Rachael leaned heavily against him.

"You do that with just your fingers? I can't wait 'til we..." she shuddered.

She sighed in contentment as she felt Arville's arms around her. She actually dozed for a moment, happy in his arms.

Jonas had left his car keys on the table and Arville grabbed the keys. He then helped Rachael bundle Elaine against the arctic chill blowing in from the Atchafalaya and drove Rachael and Elaine back to the Davis' home.

"It getting pretty serious?" Carmen asked gently as Rachael carried Elaine up the stairs.

"Yes ma'am, I think so," Rachael admitted.

"I hope so," Rachael said as she got Elaine ready for her bath.

Chapter 10

The last regular game of the season was against the University of Central Kansas Bucks. Whichever team won, if Myndee lost, they would advance to the Pecan Bowl.

For either team, it would be their first visit to a Bowl Game

Late in the second quarter, Coach Schaeffer groaned, threw up, then collapsed on the side line.

A few moments later, the second ambulance carried two players to St. Elizabeth's Trauma Center.

Ed Baggett named Cole Harrison, the Defensive Coordinator as the interim Head Coach.

"Seventy nine T," Cole ordered and Arville nodded his head 'yes' and ran out onto the field.

At Darren and Elise's house, the adults sat around calling out bets to one another the Storm's chances of going to the Pecan Bowl. Rachael sat on the couch, smiling at her man as the television cameras focused on his smiling face.

But before Arville could even call out the audible, the Bucks' left cornerback came across, picked Arville up and slammed the quarterback to the ground, hard.

Rachael gasped, horrified. Her sense of horror grew as the cameras again zoomed in on her man, but this time the young man wasn't smiling. He just lay on the ground, face bathed in sweat.

"Get up, Cowboy, get up," Rachael begged.

The television screen again showed the blatant infraction, showed it in slow motion, showed the savage tackle that Arville had been subjected to.

"And that ground is frozen solid," one announcer was saying.

"It's like being slammed onto an asphalt parking lot, the other announcer agreed.

"Get up, Baby, please," Rachael begged as the television showed Arville just lying on the ground, unable to even move his hands.

Over and over, they showed the horrible image of Arville being picked up and slammed. They did show the U.C.K. head coach screaming at the cornerback and gesturing angrily at the locker-room.

"Baby? Please?" Rachael begged as the television camera focused on Arville's sweating face, showed him bravely trying to smile.

"Come on; get you to St. Elizabeth's," Elise said, pulling Rachael to her feet.

"Cowboy, please," Rachael begged the image on the television as an ambulance finally roared onto the field.

Elise used lights and siren and got Rachael to the ER. But other than sit and wait, there was little that they could do. May and Jonas were busy filling out the forms, talking with the doctors and administration.

The waiting room began to fill up with women claiming to be Arville's girlfriends, fiancés and even his wife. One young man even claimed to be Arville's life partner.

"Rachael Thibodeaux?" a nurse called out loudly. "Rachael Thibodeaux?"

"That's me, I'm Rachael," most of the females in the room clamored.

"Step back, move!" Rachael barked; living with one retired police officer and next door to two police officers had taught her a few tricks of the trade.

"That's her yeah," Jonas agreed, pointing to the blonde woman that was slicing a path through the other young women.

May and Rachael clung to each other and sobbed as Jonas tried to fill Rachael in on the prognosis.

"What's all of this mean?" Elise asked.

"Means he might never walk again; the injury to his spinal cord was pretty severe," Jonas said.

"Can I see him? Please?" Rachael begged.

"He's sleeping now," May said.

"Please? Please? I just need to see him; I need to see my cowboy," Rachael sobbed.

Arville was in a fog; he heard nothing, saw nothing, felt nothing.

"Hey Cowboy," he heard a voice softly call out to him.

He struggled to find that voice. He knew, if he could reach that voice, he'd be happy.

"Hey Cowboy," the voice sounded faint now.

"Ripper and me?" Rachael sobbed, wanting desperately to touch Arville, but being cautioned not to touch him. "We love you."

"We love you," Arville could barely hear the words and tried desperately to call out, to reach out, to grab that thread dangling right in front of him.

For the next four days, Rachael, May, and Jonas took up vigil in Arville's hospital room. One would come in to give the other time to go home, to shower, to sleep, to grab a bite to eat, and then return to Arville's bedside.

Rachael was sitting next to Arville's hospital bed, breastfeeding Elaine when Arville woke up. For a long moment, he lay, watching the beautiful young woman and her beautiful baby as they bonded in this simple way.

"Hey," he finally said when Rachael pulled the now sleeping infant away from her nipple.

Rachael's head snapped up and looked into those beautiful eyes.

"Hey, Cowboy," she forced herself to stay calm as she pressed the call button.

Before she even had time to put her bra cup back over her breast, the room was packed with nurses and two doctors.

"It was flashing him them boobs what done it," Jonas joked when he joined May and Rachael at the hospital.

After Arville had been awake for a week, he was transferred to Pine Groves Assisted Living facility; to their Rehabilitation wing.

Christmas came; Rachael and Elaine showed up to have Christmas Dinner with Arville but Arville couldn't even feed himself.

"What, Rachael, why?" Arville angrily asked her. "Huh? Why are you wasting your time? I'm a fucking cripple! I'll never be able to walk again! Fuck! I'll never be able to fuck you; why are you wasting your time with me?"

"Because, Cowboy," Rachael snapped, eyes blazing. "We love you, all right?"

She got to her feet, hugging Elaine close.

"And we sure as shit don't need you sitting around feeling all sorry for yourself, hear?" she snapped.

"Yeah, you're crippled," she said, then poked him in his forehead, making him wince. "But you still got a mind. You can still think, you can still talk."

She put Elaine into her stroller and strapped the infant in.

"You love me?" she asked, nearly yelling. "Huh? Do you love me? Do you love Elaine?"

"Well, yeah but..." he said.

"Then I'm not wasting my time! And don't you ever, EVER let me hear that self-pity shit ever coming out your mouth again, you hear, Cowboy?" Rachael yelled and walked out the room, pushing Elaine in front of her.

In the hallway, Rachael found a bench and collapse, sobbing bitterly.

Later, Arville told May and Jonas what Rachael had said to him. Jonas somberly nodded his head.

"Girl's right," he said. "You want to sit around feeling sorry for yourself? That's wasting her time. You doing your best? You really trying? Then that ain't wasting her time."

Bennie, a small Latin nurse came in and ushered May and Jonas out so he could change Arville's bedding.

"Bruce's coming in tomorrow; think you'll be ready to do a little physical therapy?" Bennie cheerfully asked.

"Yeah," Arville nodded.

Bruce did come in the next afternoon and talked with Arville about football, about sports injuries, about the cold weather, about everything.

"All right, see you tomorrow," Bruce said.

"Wait, I uh, I thought we were going to..." Arville said.

"We did," Bruce said, losing some of his smile. "You, uh, have only minimal response. It'll take some time, but I'm pretty sure you'll be able to regain some strength in your arms again."

Arville's face must have displayed his disappointment. Bruce tried to force a smile to his face and failed.

"Look, time takes time, know what I'm saying?" Bruce said.

Rachael and Elaine brought in the New Year with Arville, sitting in the lobby and watching the fireworks through the plate glass window. At midnight, Rachael kissed him softly, then held a sleeping Elaine up for Arville to kiss.

As it was New Year's Day, Bruce wasn't expected to be coming in. Rachael, who had been present at many of their physical therapy sessions, came in and did what Bruce did. She pushed his arms, even nodding as Bruce did when Arville reached the range of movements.

"You're pretty good at that; you ought to think about getting you a degree in it," Benny said to Rachael as he brought in Arville's lunch. "Want to feed him, or want me to do it?"

"I'll feed him; he's my man," Rachael smiled.

After she finished feeding Arville and had him cleaned up, Rachael smiled mischievously at Arville.

"Ready for dessert?" she asked and dug in her large bag. "Found this in Henry's room; little booger was hiding it."

"Open wide!" she declared as she pulled out the marshmallow gun.

Arville laughed heartily and Rachael took that opportunity to fire. The marshmallow struck Arville in his right cheek and he used his hand to wipe at his cheek.

"What?" Arville asked as Rachael stared at him, mouth open in shock.

"You moved!" she nearly screamed. "You moved your arm! Do that again!"

Bruce came in the next day and almost fell over in shock when Arville cheerfully waved in greeting.

"What did... How did you do that?" he asked.

"My girlfriend shot me," Arville said.

Bruce worked with Arville and this time when Bruce finished, Arville was bathed in sweat.

"Brother, get that girl to shoot you again, you hear?" Bruce said and wiped at his own forehead. "As far as I'm concerned, that is a bona fide miracle."

Before the fateful football game, Arville had been bench pressing two hundred pounds regularly and often did a hundred and fifty pound curls. He asked Rachael to bring him some ten pound dumbbells and nearly gave himself a hernia trying to lift the weights.

"Here, Cowboy," Rachael said gently, taking the heavy weights out of his limp hands. "Let's start off with these, all right?"

Arville looked at the two pound weights and fought down his sneer.

"Come on; give me ten," Rachael barked at him.

He did and groaned at eight, nine and ten.

Rachael kissed Arville, sliding her tongue into his mouth. She backed away and made a face.

"Need to start brushing your own teeth too," she said. "Now that you can use your arms again, don't need to be waiting on Benny come do it, all right?"

Putting the toothpaste onto the toothbrush was more difficult than lifting the two pound weights. But Rachael refused to help Arville. She just watched, beautiful face set in determination.

Arville had most of the toothpaste on his shirt and on his sheet. But finally, he had a dab of the minty toothpaste on the brush and brushed his teeth.

"Get the back ones too," Rachael ordered, holding out a cup of water.

"Dude, I love your girlfriend," Bruce said as he examined the toothpaste streaked shirt. "You don't marry her? I will."

Chapter 11

Rachael sat in Arville's room, waiting. Elaine used Arville's bed frame to pull herself up to unsteady legs. The infant smiled her nine toothed grin as her mommy encouraged her, praised her.

"Oh! Well, that's all right, let's try that again," Rachael encouraged when Elaine sat, hard on the tiled floor.

"Hey, there they are," Bruce said when he pushed a nearly slumbering Arville into the room.

"Hey," Arville said weakly.

"Dada!" Elaine crowed and Arville's tired face creased in a weak smile.

"That's right, there's Daddy," Rachael encouraged. "Say Guess what Daddy, I'm almost walking now.'"

"Okay, chair's locked. Get into bed," Bruce ordered.

"Oh, come on, damn it," Arville snapped.

"No. You come on, get into bed," Bruce barked. "Or your ass can just stay in that chair all day, huh?"

"Jesus," Arville snarled, but did grip onto the rail of is bed.

Rachael watched as, just as her daughter had done, Arville gripped the bed and hoisted himself up.

"Little more, little more," Bruce encouraged as Arville sprawled onto the bed.