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| Part 4 by Castgimp |
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| He climbed into the tent, knocking the snow off his boots and then pulling them off to leave by the front flap. The tent was crowded with three bodies inside, but it was cozy, and warm from the sun beating on the canvas. Ben was sitting up, with his legs in the sleeping bag. Jasper asked if he could see Ben's ankle, and with my help, Ben moved his foot and injured ankle out through the zipper on the side of the sleeping bag while still managing to keep himself mostly covered up. It wasn't until that moment that I realized that our sleeping bags zipped together would make it obvious to Jasper that we had been sleeping together. Well, I thought self-consciously, he did say he had seen it all. Jasper was very professional. He spoke to Ben softly as he examined the ankle, asking him questions as he gently pressed and twisted his foot. Ben for his part was grateful for the assistance, and seemed to be flattered by the attention Jasper was paying to him. Jasper concluded that Ben's ankle probably was broken, or at the least badly sprained. The good news, he said, was that it seemed to be stable, and, as I'd suspected, that there was no obvious displacement. He said he could call for a rescue team and a sled, but that it would probably take them at least three hours to get here, and another three hours to get Ben down to the road in the sled. If he thought Ben's ankle weren't stable, that would be his recommendation. As it was, he thought that he and I together could get Ben down the mountain more quickly, but that it was up to us. He said he would radio ahead for an ambulance to meet us at the trailhead, which, on foot, even moving slowly with Ben through the snow, we ought to be able to reach in about two hours. We both agreed that made more sense than waiting for a rescue team to reach us. I asked about our tent and our packs. He said we should leave them for now, but that once we had Ben squared away in an ambulance and on his way to the hospital, he and I could return for them, and then meet Ben later at the hospital. Unless I felt I needed to ride to the hospital with Ben in the ambulance, he added. Again we agreed that his plan made sense. I was very happy to have someone else making decisions for us. This was clearly not Jasper's first mountain rescue. He knew exactly what he was doing. He said we would need to immobilize Ben's ankle as best we could, and then get both of us dressed for the hike down the mountain. He suggested ripping up t-shirts to make strips of bandage to wrap Ben's ankle with, but I told him we had an Ace bandage from the first aid kit. Working together we got Ben into a dry pair of underwear and warm sweat pants. Ben's nudity didn't seem to phase Jasper in the least, and Ben didn't seem self-conscious about his nakedness in front of Jasper. Then we carefully pulled two big wool socks over Ben's injured foot and ankle, one at a time, for warmth. Jasper then wrapped the elastic bandage over the socks, winding the beige material tighter than I had the night before. The first-aid kit also contained a role of white adhesive tape, which Jasper used to wrap over the ace bandage to stiffen it. I remembered that I had a partial role of white athletic tape in my shaving kit that I had used when I jammed a finger playing basketball the previous spring. Jasper used what was left of that role of tape to continue wrapping Ben's ankle, and by the time he was done, he'd crafted a fairly convincing makeshift cast. With a hiking boot on his good foot, Ben was ready to go. I got myself dressed and Jasper radioed to let them know he'd found us and that we were on our way, and off we went into the snow. With one of us on either side of Ben we were able to move pretty efficiently through the snow while keeping Ben's injured ankle out of harm's way. Our progress was much swifter than when Ben and I had made our way to the tent by ourselves the previous evening. Jasper and I each wrapped an arm around Ben's back, and we were able to carry his weight when he rhythmically lifted his foot off the ground. We were all panting from the work of it, and stopped frequently to rest, but I had no fear this time that we would not make it down to the bottom of the mountain. My arm rested against Jasper's on Ben's back, which was comforting, and even intimate in some way. Jasper asked us questions about where we were from and what we did for a living and where we had hiked, and told us the story of how he came to be working as a National Park Ranger in the White Mountains of New Hampshire. It turns out he had been an investment banker in Atlanta after college, but quickly grew weary of his glass office tower existence, and had packed it in and taken a job where he could spend his days out doors. The going was tough, and slippery, and our footing uncertain, but we never fell. The snow level decreased as we descended, and as we neared the base of the mountain the trail became sticky with mud and slush. The hard work of keeping Ben and both of us upright kept me from thinking too much about what had happened back in the tent earlier in the morning. I didn't have time to worry about what it might mean that Ben and I had been sucking each other off with gusto just before Jasper arrived. I did have a load that never got shot, and being in such hot and close proximity to the sweating bodies of both Jasper and Ben kept me aroused and sexually aware the whole time we hiked. I was horny. There was no doubt about it. But at the moment there were more important things to worry about. Ben seemed to survive the ordeal of our descent without much suffering. One or the other of us asked him periodically how he was doing, and he kept saying he was fine. I can't imagine his ankle didn't hurt him, but we tried our best not to knock his ankle and to keep his injured foot from having to touch the ground, and for the most part I think we succeeded. As promised, there was an ambulance waiting for us at the trailhead parking lot when we finally got there. It had taken us about two hours to get from the tent to the base, just as Jasper had predicted. The EMTs helped Ben up onto a stretcher and then quickly splinted his ankle. They left our makeshift cast in place but slid the whole bandaged foot and ankle into a stiff foam u-shaped form that hugged the back of Ben's calf and foot, and then wrapped this with additional tape to secure it. They said they would take Ben to the emergency room in Conway, which was the closest hospital. I told Ben I'd meet him there after Jasper and I had rescued our belongings from our campsite. I remember feeling strangely lonely as the ambulance pulled out of the parking lot and onto the highway with its lights flashing. I knew I would see Ben later in the day, but it felt funny to me that he and I were suddenly separated. Back on the trail, Jasper and I were playful. It was a relief to have only our own weight and bodies to worry about, and without the burden of carrying Ben between us, we were able to dash back up the mountain with considerable speed. He joked at one point that we had better slow down or one of us would end up with a broken ankle. The trail was narrow, and as we hiked next to each other our arms knocked together from time to time. At first I thought it was accidental, but as we got closer to our campsite it seemed to happen with more frequency, and I began to get the distinct impression that some of the touching was deliberate on Jasper's part. I knew there could be no doubt in his mind that Ben and I were gay (and I was shocked that suddenly I thought of Ben as gay when even 48 hours earlier I would not have said that he was). Some of the fear I'd felt when I first heard Jasper's footsteps outside the tent returned to me. Just what was I getting myself into, hiking up the mountain with this park ranger? My legs were tired by the time we made it back to the tent. It had taken us less than two hours this time, unencumbered by Ben, but it had been a pretty stiff ascent. I was also starving. Jasper and I kicked off our boots and climbed inside to start packing up our belongings, and I immediately lunged for the provisions sac. I stuffed food in my mouth while Jasper laughed at me. "You look like you're starving!" "I am. You want some?" "Not as much as I want you." And with that he grabbed the front of my shirt and pulled me towards him. I was surprised, but not entirely unprepared. All the way up the mountain I knew there was a spark between us, and I had a load that was fired up and ready to go from my interrupted morning session with Ben. Without even really thinking about it I yielded to Jasper. I allowed him to pull me into him and I opened my mouth to his as he drew me up against him. There was one perfect moment of our bodies folding tenderly into each other, and then that was replaced by the frenzy of both of us trying to pull each other's clothes off. We managed to get mostly naked, except for our socks, and then we were rolling on top of the jumbled pile of our clothes and the sleeping bag and even the bag of food that I had been looting. Jasper's body was long and lean and hard and nearly hairless. His long dick, fully hard, pushed against my stomach as he ground his hips against me. I was enjoying the simple pleasure of being ravaged by a handsome man in a tent on the side of a mountain. There was an urgency to Jasper's rutting that suggested he had not had sex in quite a while. Soon his fingers were probing my asshole, and before I knew it he had flipped me up onto my shoulders and was probing my butt with his tongue, rimming my asshole and licking the coarse down around the base of my balls. "Do you have a rubber man?" he grunted as he raised his lips from my ass to breathe. "Yeah. Hang on." I was a confirmed top and had only been fucked a handful of times in my life, but something about getting in on with a park ranger in the snow made me throw caution to the wind, and I was soon gleefully impaled on Jasper's hard man-cock with my ankles in the air and a commanding view of his handsome torso bearing down on me. Jasper was a good fuck. He may not have been recently laid, but he knew what the hell he was doing. I suspected that investment banking was not the only thing that had occupied his time in Atlanta. He fucked me there on the floor of the tent until I saw stars, and then, jamming his hips hard into me, shot his wad into the rubber condom and bit my shoulder and moaned with uninhibited pleasure. I worried briefly that once he came his interest would wane, but after he pulled himself gently out of my ass he lovingly sucked my cock, laving it with warm spit and expertly playing my body like a fine violin until I came squealing and bucking and shooting up into the back of his throat. When we were done I suffered a momentary pang of remorse, feeling that I had somehow betrayed Ben and abandoned him in his hour of need seeking instead my own selfish pleasure. It was fleeting, but painful, and caused me to grow silent and even sullen in the moments after my explosive climax. But Jasper, somehow sensing the shift in my mood, snuggled up next to me on the sticky sleeping bag and whispered into my ear. "Thanks man. You didn't have to do that. I don't know what you and Ben have going on, but as soon as I saw you this morning, something happened inside me. I've been living without for a long time, but you...I wanted to be with you. You were great." "So were you." I had to agree. "It was a good fuck." "Awesome." We rested then in silence, until we started to get cold. "Well," I said finally, feeling at last that I had mastered some of my guilt, "I guess we should get moving. We have to clean up this mess and lug it down the mountain." "Yeah. We gotta' get you over to the hospital. I hope Ben is OK." "He'll be fine," I said, overconfidently. "He's tough." "I'll bet he is, coming down that mountain yesterday with a broken ankle." "We don't know it's broken yet." "I think it is Mike. I didn't want to say it in front of him, but I'm pretty sure it's broken. I've seen a lot of broken ankles in my day." "I'll bet you have." Somehow I was jealous. "It goes with the territory. We get a lot of recreational hikers who don't know what they're doing. They get tired, get in over their heads." "Is that what you think about us? That we're inexperienced?" "No. Shit anybody can turn an ankle over out here on these trails. I'm just saying I've seen my share, and I think Ben's ankle is broken." "Well we'll see." I felt like we'd had a fight, our first disagreement, and that made me suddenly cranky. I wanted to be alone with our stuff. I wanted to pack up Ben's clothes without Jasper watching. I wanted to be able to smell Ben in his soiled laundry as I jammed it into his backpack without worrying about what Jasper would think if I suddenly brought a pair of jockey shorts to my nose. I felt as if I were riding an emotional roller coaster, and realized how stressful the last 24 hours had been. The stress was starting to take its toll. I needed to see Ben. We packed the insides of the tent in silence, mashing things in wherever they would fit, and then commenced collapsing the tent itself, which attached to the back of my pack. With our cook stove and unused food and clothes, we had a lot of shit that needed to make its way down the mountain. "You boys don't pack light do you?" Jasper ventured playfully, trying to break the silence. "Yeah, well, what do you want from a bunch of amateurs?" I laughed deliberately, so that he would know I was joking. Whatever slight I'd felt I had now forgiven. My mood picked up considerably as we hoisted the over-full packs onto each other's backs. We were finally on our way, and I was that much closer to seeing Ben. I'd been in love with him for almost eight years. Now, for the first time, I had a sense that we might have a future together, and I couldn't stand the idea of being apart. I knew Ben was married, and he lived in Seattle, but at the moment those seemed like simple hurdles to clear. What mattered was that I loved him, broken ankle and all. For the first time in my life that didn't seem like a ridiculous set of feelings to have. The second trip down the mountain was uneventful. Jasper and I bantered back and forth easily as we descended back down through the snow and into the mud. My legs were truly tired by the time we reached the parking lot for the second time, and I was glad to slide my pack off of my back and into the trunk of my car. My car started, which was a relief. I had harbored a vague notion in the back of my mind that after all that had happened, the battery might be dead. Instead it started right up. Jasper had a park service jeep, and we agreed that I would follow him to the hospital in Conway. It was nearly five o'clock by the time we pulled into the hospital parking lot, and the light was already fading from the sky. I hadn't thought far enough ahead to know what we would do next, but I figured whatever the outcome of his medical examination, Ben and I would need to find somewhere to stay for the night before heading back to Boston the next day. The hospital was small, and the emergency room was surprisingly empty. There were only half a dozen people quietly slumped in vinyl-backed chairs around the waiting area. I told the receptionist that I was here to pick up Ben Nahigian, and her face lit up. "He'll be glad to see you. He's been resting down the hall while his cast dried. Wait here while I tell him you've come." While his cast dried. Why did those words make my balls shiver? I was unaccountably agitated. While his cast dried. Despite the pounding my unaccustomed asshole had received only hours ago and the huge load I'd shot into the back of Jasper's throat, I found my cock swelling in my undershorts. While his cast dried. I said those words over and over to myself while I waited. And then from down the hotel corridor I saw Ben emerging from the shadow. He was moving toward me on a pair of metal crutches, and his ankle did indeed seem to be encased in a hard white cast. As he got closer I could see that the cast was made of plaster. He had a sheepish grin on his face, and when he got close enough that we could easily speak without raising our voices he said simply "Jasper was right. It's broken." Before I could say anything, I felt a presence behind me. I turned around and there was Jasper. He asked us if we needed anything, and even as I tried to say no he was offering to let us stay at his house with him for the night. I looked quickly at Ben to signal that we should decline his offer but Ben was already enthusiastically accepting. 'That would be great," Ben gushed. "I'm really tired, and sore, and I don't know if I could face that drive to Boston tonight." I had a sinking feeling in my gut. "We can get a hotel. Really. It's not a problem." I was trying to steer this in a different direction. "I wish you'd stay with me. Really." Jasper was insisting. "I get so few guests this time of year. I would be pleased if you would stay the night. I can make you both very comfortable." There was a twinkle in his eye that made me very uncomfortable. I didn't know what Jasper had in mind, but what I wanted more than anything was a night alone with Ben to figure out what the hell we had going on between the two of us. And somehow I wanted him to want that too, and I was mad that he was squandering what little time we had left together by getting us tangled up with Jasper. And besides, I wanted to be alone with that cast. That cast that had been drying all afternoon. That hard white plaster cast that was encasing Ben's broken ankle. I didn't want to share that cast with Jasper or anyone else. The next thing I knew we were helping Ben ease himself into the back seat of my car where he could stretch his leg out. We had agreed to follow Jasper to his house, which he claimed was actually a cabin in the woods. I was very dubious, but we seemed to have committed ourselves. At least Ben and I would have some time in the car alone to talk before we got there. "So," I began, once we were underway, "what did the doctor say?" "It's broken." "Yeah, you said that. Badly?" "I don't think so. He didn't say exactly. They don't have an orthopedic guy here. I was just seen by the ER doc. He said it's broken. He put this cast on to immobilize it and protect it, but he wants me to see an orthopedic surgeon. He said if we were going back to Boston that we could do it there. He said I'll need a different cast in any event. I guess this one is temporary. He said when the swelling goes down this one will be too loose, but that this should protect it until I can get somebody else to take a look at it. He gave me those x-rays to take with us." The nurse had actually handed the big envelope to me as we were leaving. "But he said they'll need to x-ray it again. He said I should stay off it as much as possible, and keep it elevated. I guess he's worried that the bones might move." "Huh." It was all I could think of to say. I was trying to listen to Ben and keep my eye on Jasper's jeep moving through the dark ahead of me. "Did he say how long you'd be laid up?" "Nah. I don't think he really knew what he was doing. I mean he knew it was broken. But he wants me to see someone who specializes in this. He gave me some names of orthopods in Boston we can call." "Did you call your wife?" I used that word "wife" instead of her first name. I don't know why. It felt kind of violent. How could my Ben be married? Maybe I was even trying to hurt him by reminding him that he was married. I didn't want to have to give Ben up a second time. He didn't answer me at first. "No. She'll assume we're still up on the mountain. She won't expect to hear from me for a few days yet." "But shouldn't you call her?" I couldn't stop myself. "It can wait," he said, subdued. "Let's wait and see what we're really dealing with here. I'll call her from Boston." By now we were pulling off the main road and onto a gravel drive that wound back through some pine trees. Eventually we pulled into a clearing where a lovely log home stood lit by a spotlight at the end of the driveway. So he really did live in a log cabin. I opened the door and stepped out of the car as Jasper walked back towards us. "This really is a long way from Atlanta," I teased him. "It sure is," he said. "And I like it that way. Let's get Ben out of the car." We helped Ben out of the backseat and up onto his crutches. The spotlight caught the white plaster of his cast and illuminated it so that it almost glowed there in the dark driveway. Jasper led the way up his front walk, with Ben following. I brought up the rear, watching Ben tentatively place his crutches ahead of him in the dark. Even as he hesitated with each step he was graceful as he pulled his body forward. He held his cast up off the ground, his leg bent at the knee. I wanted to be there to catch him if he should stumble, but he seemed to be stable, mastering the crutches quickly. Jasper opened the front door and threw on the lights, illuminating a deep living room with a large fireplace at the end of it. "This is it gentlemen. Your home away from home. Make yourselves comfortable while I rustle us up some dinner." He kept talking as he disappeared into the house. "I have a small guest bedroom that you can use tonight. Or if you'd like, we can all sleep here in the living room in front of the fire." "That sounds like fun," Ben said as he pulled himself further into the house on his crutches. He rested for a minute, balancing his casted ankle on his single naked big toe which rested lightly on the slate floor. "Dinner and a fire sounds perfect. I've got to put my ankle up. It's starting to throb." |
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