Recovery
Chapter 1-Broken
As Janet was helping Hannah after her engagement party her cell phone rang. It was Nick asking her to come over around 5:30pm to talk to the guys about Eddie's recovery. Only Hannah knew about what had happened so Janet agreed to come by. She hated leaving Hannah with a mess but Ray, in typical Cataldo style, hired a cleaning company to come in and clean up when the party was over.
Janet took a deep breath as she walked up the stairs into Eddie's house. She could hear the guys laughing and having a great time. She was hesitant about the up coming conversation. She thought for sure it would not be a good one.
"Janet!" Owen shouted getting up to give her a big hug. The guys were definitely on an up.
"Hey Janet how goes it" said Phil as his girlfriend hugged her.
"Alls good I guess." She replied. "Have you guys talked to Eddie this afternoon?"
"Not since band practice. He was on internet feed. It seemed to brighten his mood." Ikey said.
Nick walked in with a clip board and a beer. "Ok here's the deal. I talked to Eddie's doctors and they said he's gonna be on bed rest for at least 2 if not 5 weeks. Apparently during the beating Eddie's leg was broken. He can't put weight on it at all. So he can stay in the hospital but our insurance is going to go through the roof or we bring him home and take care of him." Everyone started talking, Janet just stared at Nick. "He can't stay here. The only bathroom is upstairs and there is no way we can get a hospital bed up there." Everyone nodded in agreement. "Ikey's is also out and so is Owen's. With the kids and everything with he and Alison there is just no way Eddie will rest there so that leaves my house and Janet's." Janet's heart stopped, they didn't know. "I can't take him Janet. I'd love to but with dad's chemo it's just not going to happen. Every thing is on one level at your place for the most part. If we put the bed in your living room he can desk chair roll to the bathroom with a little modification. The guys and I can come move stuff and even build a temporary ramp for a wheel chair to get him in and out. Are you good with that?"
Janet panicked. They didn't know. Her life with Eddie was over and they didn't know. All she could do was nod and say "when?"
"Doctor says he should be off morphine by Tuesday and able to be discharged so it doesn't give us much time." Nick replied.
"Um you should know. Eddie and I had a huge fight. He won't want to stay with me. You guys are gonna have a hard sell on this one." Janet said
"Is this about Rory?" Owen asked. "I'm sure it's nothing J. Yea gotta forgive him."
"No man. He was out here on the porch sucking face with Rory. No guy does that in public without wanting to get caught." Phil said. "I saw you drive by Janet, I know you saw." Phil continued.
Suddenly the guys were all anti Eddie. None of them knew about Rooster. "Guys guys, it's more complicated than that." Janet started, defending Eddie.
"I don't know Janet." Nick said. "Eddie was happy that morning before Rory walked in. He wasn't looking forward to the engagement party but he was planning on a quiet evening at your place afterward." Janet's heart broke. "I think seeing Rory just confused him."
"Nick really, it's more complicated than that, really." Janet said defending Eddie. All the guys were staring at her. Janet sighed. "My house is perfect. My Grands lived with us before they went to Providence. My bathroom is pretty much set with hand rails and a seat in the shower. I think I even have some accessories in the garage."
Ikey looked at her strangely. "What are accessories?"
Janet blushed. "I think I still have a 'rolling' toilet seat with handles. I don't know we can go thru everything and figure it out. But here's the thing, YOU will have to convince Eddie."
"Janet. This is gonna be a lot of work. Do you really want to do it?" Phil asked panicked that he'd have to take care of Eddie.
"I can do it. I can take some time off at first to get him settled and then go back to work when he's more self sufficient. Sully likes Eddie. It shouldn't be a problem." She answered.
"And we can all help out Janet. After work we can each take a night so you don't miss too much work." Owen offered.
"And I think he'll have a nurse come in every day or so to check on him. I have to check with our insurance to see what that covers." Nick said.
"All right, sounds like a plan. Do you want to come by and see what I've got?" Janet asked anyone who would listen.
"Sure." Answered Nick. "Ickey and I will come over and take a look and see what we need to do."
As they headed out the door Pizza Girl hugged Janet a little longer than usual. "I'll come by after the guys leave. I'll bring chocolate and ice cream."
Janet could feel the tears come to her eyes and just nodded.
She pulled in front of her house just behind Nick and Ikey.
Opening the front door she realized she hadn't been home in "forever". As she walked toward the laundry room she grabbed anything she could put her hands on to make the house look cleaner.
Returning to the living room she could see the guys trying to figure out where they could put the furniture.
First she showed the guys the bathroom and they all agreed that would work. She then showed them her "guest room" which was just a double bed and an old dresser. They then headed to the garage to see what was in storage and finally returned to the living room. Immediately the men went to work. They brought the old dresser to the living room and stood the mattress and box spring against the bedroom wall. Janet decluttered her living room of all knick knacks and put them in boxes for the garage. They moved Janet's couch and end tables into the guest room and rolled up her throw rug revealing beautiful hard wood floors. Nick was impressed with how well they looked but everyone agreed the rug was a tripping hazard. They moved the TV to the far corner and found some cable extenders for the cable box and moved the Lazy Boy over to another corner. The room without furniture was huge but they all knew adding the bed from the hospital supply company was going to take up a lot of it.
While they worked Nick updated Janet on Eddie's condition. By all appearances he had a lot of bruised organs especially his kidneys. The doctors were closely monitoring his urine. Besides the broken leg, which the doctors think happened from a steel toe boot at just the wrong angle, Eddie also had a few cracked ribs and many more bruised ones. The cuts and swelling on his face were the least of his problems but were what everyone saw first. He also had a concussion and some swelling in his brain. Nick said Eddie was not happy about staying in the hospital and insisted he was fine but Nick felt deep down Eddie knew it was right where he should be. Surprisingly, Nick said, Eddie agreed to cooperate with the police. He knew it was Matt but he didn't recognize his friends aside from being Ray's employees. Ikey said he didn't get a good look but knew Matt was the ring leader. Apparently the police planned on investigating everyone before arresting anyone.
"There's more Janet." Nick continued. "Apparently this all started back at the shop when Eddie hit Matt." Ikey and Janet stopped moving furniture to listen. "According to Eddie- Matt made a crack about Eddie sleeping with you. He didn't say what it was but that it wasn't good so he punched Matt in the stomach and head. Ray saw the whole thing. Something about Ray's way of canceling a double date? I'm not completely sure what that means but Eddie seems positive that's when this started. I know he doesn't want you to know so please don't tell him but if it were to come out I think you'd rather know now than read about it in the paper."
Ikey was steamed. He always knew Big Cat was sneaky but he didn't think he was that horrible. Janet just nodded. She always knew Ray couldn't be trusted.
"Thanks Nick." Janet said taking a deep breath.
"I still can't believe Eddie though. I mean come on Rory's hot but what you two have seems to be really strong." Ikey offered to comfort Janet.
Janet just looked at Eddie's friends and decided not to tell them what happened. They were Eddie's friends and always would be.
"Yea, well…." Janet just let it drop.
Eddie closed his eyes after trying his best to put down the liquid diet the hospital insisted he needed to eat. Today was without a doubt the worse day of his life. His broken heart out hurt his body tenfold. The morphine drip didn't do anything to help his broken heart. He opened his eyes to the sound of quiet footsteps knowing it wasn't a noisy nurse. He was most definitely surprised to see Rory standing there.
"Ouch, you look horrible." She said putting a bunch of balloons over in the corner.
"Yea, it's a package deal. What are you doing here?" he asked.
"I heard about the beat down and figured I should come by and check on you. You ok?"
"Yea I guess. Lots of drugs, lots of tests, some broken bones, so far no surgery though."
"That's good." Rory answered. "Can I get you anything?"
"No I'm pretty much bed bound."
"K. hey where are the guys or this girlfriend you're seeing? Shouldn't they be here?" she said looking around at all the flowers and things.
"Yea well it's Saturday. Hannah had her engagement party and the dorks had band practice."
Rory laughed. "NO! They don't still play air band on Saturday afternoons? That is so great!" She continued to laugh. Eddie tried to laugh too but it hurt too much.
"So Hannah and Big Cat? That's totally insane."
"Yea, well he's been good to her and she's had a time of it with Sam, her son." Eddie replied.
"I heard she had a boy."
"He's a great kid. Really honest, too honest but she's a great mom."
"And your girlfriend?" Rory continued curious about the woman that held Eddie's heart.
"Not a topic for discussion." He answered.
"Wait. You're beat to hell and bed ridden and she can't get here and take care of you? What's up with that?" She asked a bit miffed.
"No. Huge fight. She's history." There he said it. Out loud. For the first time since she left only 6 hours earlier.
"Ok Latekka, details. You don't drop a bomb like that and shut down."
Eddie looked at her. What the hell he thought. He had no interest in Rory. Good or bad she was a part of his past and if she stayed in town, great. And if she left tomorrow that would be fine too. That thought gave him a sense of calm and clarity.
"OK. She slept with someone."
Rory just stared at him. "Why?"
"She saw us kissing. OK I guess I'd better back up. She called when you first got to the office, I didn't tell her you were there, I saw her at lunch and didn't tell her you were here and then she came by and saw us kissing. So she went and had sex with someone."
"Um ok but that just doesn't make sense. Was she drunk?"
"Maybe I don't remember. I stopped hearing her at a certain point."
"And who is this "woman"?" Rory asked ready to beat the pants off of her.
"Do you remember Janet Meadows?" Eddie answered.
Suddenly Rory turned white. "Oh My God. I saw her that day."
"Huh?" Eddie asked confused.
"Yea. After I saw you at the store I went by Sully's for a walk down memory lane. I was looking at all the stuff on the wall and I asked her about you. There was some guy there with strange hair. "Rocco Russo?" or something. She said everything with you was good and I ….. I…… I told her you looked sad. And…… and she looked like, I don't know like she was trying to figure out why you'd be sad. And I told how great she looked and then I left. I figured if the local bar maid didn't mention you were seeing someone maybe you'd be interested in …. Well anyway. Wow. She was always a great person. Really nice and caring. You don't deserve her. She's too good for you."
"Yea well anyway she saw us kissing and she went and slept with someone."
"Who? Big Cat?"
"NO!"
"Then who? I mean none of the guys would touch her; it had to be someone she trusted….. That crazy haired guy?" Rory said with a little shocked chuckle.
"Ye know you can leave now." Eddie said.
"Not happening. "She answered settling comfortably into the chair. "So let me get this straight. You were dating the greatest girl in the world. Someone you most definitely didn't deserve, she caught you with your ex girlfriend repeatedly over the course of the day and you never said any thing. Then you're caught kissing the ex girlfriend and she goes and in a drunken stupor, which she must have been to sleep with that crazy haired guy, she has sex with the nearest guy to show her the least bit of interest. Man you need to find a way to forgive her and get her back. You will never do better than Janet Meadows. Hell she's so terrific I'd marry her if I liked girls."
"Um remember you're the ex girlfriend." Eddie said trying to defend himself.
"Minor detail." Waving the notion off with her hand. "When I found out about the secretary I went after everything I could grab a hold of to get back at him. No man you need to fix this. She is the one person in the world who will treat you like gold. Remember when we were in high school and I had that car accident in the shopping center in front of the grocery store? She was working there as a bagger. She punched out and sat with me until my parent's came. She held my hand when I talked to the police and stood with me when my dad came screaming about his car. She took my side and defended me. She was great. And she didn't have to. She didn't hang with us. We weren't friends. She's just that great. Dude on this one, I'm taking her side. Be mad for a while but don't do anything you can't take back. She's a keeper."
"Um did you forget? I'm the one that got cheated on!"
"Um no, no, no my friend. You cheated on her first. You didn't tell her about me and then you were kissing me. From this side of the bed you were the first to cheat."
Uncomfortable with the spot light showing all his faults he pressed the morphine button hoping to escape. The machine wouldn't release the medicine, it knew it wasn't time.
"Ok I see you've had quite enough. How about we talk about something more to your liking. How about that super bowl loss. Being in New York I'm getting really sick of all the Giants fans."
Eddie leaned back and relaxed. The inquisition was over. Conversation centered around sports and the crazy New York Giant's fans.
When she left Eddie's room Rory pulled out her I-Phone and looked up Janet's address. She was not going to be the reason Eddie wasn't happy. Not again.