Free Rachel's Accident by Barbara Peters

though. My mind was heavy with guilt and doubts.
    But I knew as well as him that it would be a mistake to let anything happen between us. We were still employer and employee. This just couldn’t work. He was the kind of person, who would soon tire of someone like me and cast me away. And I just wouldn’t be able to live through that and then continue working for him.
    I continued my work for a while and then went home. I couldn’t stay there any longer with him ignoring me. It physically hurt to have him so near, but not being able to see or touch him. Somehow over the course of the last two months while I worked for him and then treated him back to health I had fallen in love with him.
    I didn’t know what to do anymore. I wrote him a note and laid it on the kitchen table. The note read two simple, unmistakable words.
    I quit.
    I left the key to the front doors on the note and with that I gathered my things and left. First thing tomorrow morning I would grovel and beg for my two old jobs back. I wasn’t beneath begging for what I needed to survive.
    I must have looked horrible when I got home because Jess immediately rushed over to me and asked me what was wrong. I spilled out my heart to her while the lump in my throat grew and tears started spilling over. When I was finished I was sobbing into her shoulder.
    “Such an asshole. I’m so going to bust him up. You just wait. I’m going over there and he’s gonna get an earful from me.”
    “No, just let it go .” I didn’t want her to go to the trouble when I knew she didn’t have the time for such shenanigans. She had to get up in the morning. I just wanted to forget about him and move on. Jess relented and sent me off to bed to sleep off my stress.
    “Everything will look different in the morning,” she said.
    Of course, such things were easier said than done. I was too depressed to fall asleep that night. I also couldn’t stop thinking about him. At one in the morning I’ve had enough and borrowed Jess’ car to drive around for a bit and get my mind off things.
    All of a sudden there were bright lights shining directly in my eyes and I couldn't see anything anymore . Completely blinded I jerked the steering wheel to the side, trying to avoid a head on collision with whoever had driven into my lane.
    It didn't help anything, though. I felt the impact as the other car collided with the side of mine. I was jerked around in my seat and my car skidded off the road and into the ditch. As the grill collided with a tree trunk my head banged against the steering wheel and I was out cold.
    I could hear distant shouting. My head was a single throbbing ache. Couldn't the person shouting my name just shut up? I was trying to sleep here and with the constant throbbing and shouting, which was getting louder by the second, that was a task nowhere near possible to accomplish.
    "Rachel," I heard the voice shout. I t sounded vaguely familiar , but I couldn't for the life of me tell who it belonged to.
    "Please, Rachel, wake up. Come on. Please, don't leave me."
    The voice sounded agitated and panicked. I wanted to soothe it and tell it that everything was going to be okay. But I couldn't figure out how to move my lips.
    The voice came again. "Can you hear me, Rachel? Please, wake up," it begged me.
    I was trying. But my body wouldn't listen to me. The heavy throbbing in my head wasn't helping things either. I tried as hard as I could to open my eyes.
    A halo of light framed the figure standing above me. I could only make out shadows and outlines, but the figure seemed distinctly masculine as did his voice now that I thought about it.
    "Rachel," the voice breathed with relief .
    Before I could answer my body was overtaken with exhaustion alone from the strength I needed to open my eyes. As the voice faded away my eyes fell shut and I was taken back to the land of unconsciousness.
    I jerked out of sleep in the middle of the night. All around me monitors started beeping and a