Chapter 71.
Earlier...
In the upstairs bathroom, Mike handed Maggie her purse. She sat it down on the vanity and dug around in it; pulling out a contact lens case, saline, and a case which held her glasses. She sat everything over to the side. Maggie then pulled the plunger up on the sink so nothing could slip down the drain if she had a mishap. Mike watched as she then leaned over the sink and cupped her left hand under her right eye. With her other hand she placed her index finger in the corner of her eye and pulled it taught in the direction of her ear. She popped her eye open, and the hard contact lens that had been in her eye landed in her cupped hand. She rinsed it off and placed it in it's case. She repeated the process with her other eye, though this time it took two tries before the lens popped out of her eye and into her hand.
As Maggie removed her lenses, she wished she could still wear soft contacts. She really hated wearing the hard contacts. They had been a thorn in her side for almost ten years. They were expensive and uncomfortable. They took much more maintenance than soft lenses. And she couldn't wear them for more than 8 or 10 hours before they just got too uncomfortable and she had to remove them. But as much as she hated them, she hated wearing her thick glasses more. So she put up with them, she had no choice. She just wished she could wear soft contacts again. But her eyesight had deteriorated in her teen years. She had high myopia and severe astigmatisms now, which meant that soft contacts just wouldn't correct her eyesight enough for her to function anymore. Ever since she got them, it seemed her life revolved around her hard, rigid gas permeable contact lenses. Well, that was until she got braces.
With her contact lenses in their case, everything was a blur to Maggie. She reached over towards the vanity and blindly groped for her glasses. Mike reached out and put his hand over hers. He whispered "I've got them." Gently, he slid the thick lensed myodisc glasses onto her face and the world came into focus for her. She looked at her husband and embarrassingly said "thank you." He looked her in the eyes, which appeared smaller in the thick lenses, and softly answered "you are welcome". He gently kissed her.
Every night for the past month had been a similar experience. Every night she would remove her contacts, and he would then help her with her expander and headgear. And every night he had to look on as his beautiful wife tried to disappear into the floor. Even in front of him, the man that loved her, the man that would die for her, she was mortified. For reasons that Mike could not understand, Maggie had never realized how beautiful she was. He could still replay the first time he saw her in his mind. He knew right then she was special. He thought she was the most beautiful thing he had ever seen then. And he still felt that way. If anything, he found her even more beautiful now. But she didn't share this opinion of herself. And since getting braces he had seen her self-esteem plummet even more. He had tried everything he could think of to try to lift her spirits and get her out of her funk, but so far nothing had worked. He hoped that time would help heal her fragile psyche.
This was all despite the fact that Maggie had clear braces on her top and bottom teeth; of course except for the molar bands; but they weren't very visible when she smiled. But she so rarely smiled since she had gotten them, it didn't really matter that her braces were actually very discreet. And despite the fact that she did have the expander screwed into her mouth, she had overcome her lisp very quickly. Maggie had been terrified of getting braces, and she had absolutely refused to start treatment if she had to wear all metal braces and the very visible facemask hooks that Dr. Cooper normally used on patients. So he made some compromises in his treatment plan for her. He had fitted Maggie with clear braces, and he had developed a protraction method that eliminated the need for the hooks. But, like most things in life, compromises come at a cost.
With her heavy, thick glasses now on her face, Mike picked up the wrench. Without saying a word, Maggie leaned her head back and opened her mouth as far as she could. Mike made one turn on her expander. And then a second. Once he was done, he enveloped her in a hug. Maggie replied very softly "thank you." After holding Maggie for nearly a minute he released her; his vulnerable, scared and hurting wife.
He picked up the facebow. Even though he had been doing this for a month, it was still tricky. Unlike a normal facebow that slid into molar tubes from the front; this facebow had a u-shaped bend at each end of the prongs that went into her mouth. It actually slid into the backside of the molar tubes. More than once Mike had thought it was very much like a fish hook being impaled on each side of his poor wife's mouth. Maggie opened her mouth, and Mike carefully inserted the facebow. Being careful not to poke her; he had done so a couple of times in the past already; he placed the facebow as far back in her mouth as he could, all the way past her molars. He then slid the facebow forward, into the tube on one side of her mouth, and then the other. He then reached in with his fingers and locked the spring activated mechanism that would keep it from sliding out of the tubes accidentally on each side. This was to keep from possibly injuring her; maybe even putting out an eye; if the facebow slipped out during sleep, sports, or other activities. Sandy had been very adamant when she was teaching them how to install the headgear that they must latch the headgear on; patients back in the 60's and 70's had actually lost eyes because of them.
With the modified facebow installed, Mike looked down at his wife. She had her head down, avoiding eye contact. He kissed her on the forehead and said "you are doing great." He then picked up her red Petit facemask from the counter and placed it up to her face. Just as the facebow had been modified where it went into Maggie's mouth, the other end was modified as well. The outer bow had been shortened, and there was a double bend in each end. It looked like a little W at each end of the facebow. Mike took an elastic and hooked it on one of these litte W bends, then attached the other end to the horizontal bar on the facemask on that side. He took another elastic and repeated it on the other side. He picked up one more pair of elastics and put them on as well, except this time he crossed them across to the other side of the facemask, increasing the force from the elastics. With the four elastics now in place, Maggie grimaced; the facemask pulling the facebow forward, the facebow pulling her maxilla forward. They were almost done. Mike leaned in again and kissed Maggie on the top of the head and whispered "you are doing so great."
The final step was to strap everything in place. Mike picked up the Interlandi headgear and gently fit it over and around his wife's head. The white plastic c-shaped plates that lay in front of each of Maggie's ears clashed with the black straps, and her strawberry blond hair and lightly sunkissed skin. From the counter he picked up more elastics. These were larger, and much stronger, than the ones he had used earlier. He hooked one to one of the two hooks that had been integrated into the chincup of her facemask, and then hooked it to the second post of the c plate of the Interlandi headgear. He repeated this on the other side. Then he took another of these stronger elastics. He hooked it to the chincup and then hooked it to the 4th post on the c plate, increasing the force being exerted on Maggie's chin. Again, he repeated it on the other side. She now had 4 strong elastics pulling up and back on her poor chin, magnifying the discomfort she felt. Dr. Cooper had explained they needed to try to control Maggie's prominent chin while bringing her maxilla forward, and thus the need for the interlandi headgear. But, he told them, they could use the chincup of the facemask to accomplish this and avoid another separate appliance. And the interlandi would eliminate the need for the headstrap that other patients wore at night to secure their facemasks. And that was the last thing that Mike had left to do. He reached over and grabbed a strap from the table. He snapped it to the forehead pad of Maggie's facemask, and then snapped it onto the top of the c plate on each side of his wife's head, securely holding the mask to her face. Finally, his wife was wearing her headgear. The same headgear she would need to wear for at least 34 hours this weekend to catch up on missed time from earlier in the week.
Maggie turned and looked at herself in the mirror. Between the glasses, facebow, facemask, and interlandi headgear little of her face was actually visible. A tear welled up and ran down her face. But with her heavy glasses trapped beneath the intimidating mass of straps on her head, and knowing how hard they were to get back on when she had her headgear on, she didn't even try to wipe her eyes. Mike saw the hurt and embarrassment in her face. It was the same thing every night. He wished he could do something to take away her pain.
Mike slid up against Maggie and nestled his face in her neck. He kissed her low on the neck and then whispered "I." He then moved up a little higher on her neck, managing to avoid the strap from the Interlandi, and he repeated the kiss. He whispered "love". He then made his way up to her ear. After nibbling on it for a few seconds he whispered "you". Without saying a word he started working on unbuttoning her top. Despite the glasses and headgear, he still found this creature the most seductive thing he had ever seen. And if he was being honest with himself, seeing her so vulnerable was a turn on for him. He had tried this before at home in the past month, and Maggie had always rebuffed him. Once she had even asked him "how can you even look at me when I wearing this?" With her headgear on, she wanted to hide from the world, even from him it seemed. Since getting her headgear, intimacy between them had become a thing of the past. Mike realized that Maggie found herself too ugly to make love, and this broke his heart.
But for whatever reason, tonight was different. Maggie turned, and actually looked up at him. She then reached down and grabbed his belt.
