Well, I've started back up on this chapter of my story. And it isn't my favorite, but I still think it's alright. This chapter involves Jackson and Melissa only. Sorry that I didn't include the others, but I will include them in the next chapter. Enjoy this one though…..
Chapter 10-Soon the pain will go
"Thank you Miss Wu. I'm sure with this information we can track her down. Once everything is in place, you'll be able to testify against her and a judge will decide what will happen to her."
"Thank you" Melissa said as the police officers who were investigating her case left the hospital room.
As they were leaving Jackson walked back in with a sandwich in his hand. "What did they say?"
"They said you should let me have a bite of that sandwich." She looked at him with sad eyes.
"You already ate lunch." But he couldn't resist that look. "Fine." He unwrapped it and handed it to her.
"I ate lunch two hours ago. My lunch is at 11 remember? Besides, hospital food is great unless you're in a hospital bed. Then they jip you on the good stuff." She took a bite. "Mmmm. You don't know how good this is."
"I wish I did." He laughed. "You can have that. I'll go get another one."
"No, don't go. You can have it." She held it out to him.
"Are you sure you don't want such a delicious sandwich?" He joked with her.
"I'll give it up for you to stay with me."
He pulled the chair up next to her bed. "I wanted to stay with you while you told the police what happened. I didn't want you to relive that by yourself. But I wasn't allowed to stay. The officers said it was policy."
"I know you couldn't. I wanted you to also."
"What did they say would happen to her?" He asked.
"They said they would take her in for questioning and the evidence against her is enough for a trial. Then I have to testify against her in court and the judge will have to decide what happens to her."
"Well I will be with you every step of the way. No matter what happens Mel." He reached down to her level for a kiss.
"Speaking of steps, would you mind helping me get out of this bed?" She asked.
"Melissa, you have to stay in this bed for a bit longer. You may not be connected to any wires anymore, but you can't be moving around." He insisted.
"I know that, dad. I just have to go to the bathroom." She laughed. "Could you just help me up?"
"Oh, of course. Sorry." He moved to the hospital bed, reached down and picked up Melissa in his arms.
"You don't have to carry me you know. The bathroom isn't that far."
"I know that, but your body isn't as strong as it usually is, and I'm not taking any chances of you falling and hurting yourself." He set her down in front of the bathroom door.
"You know when you aren't here the nurse let me walk to the bathroom by myself." She smiled up at him.
"Oh yeah?" He smiled back at her. "Well the nurses don't care about you the way I do. To them, you're their patient. To me, you're my girlfriend, my best friend, and if I were to lose you I wouldn't know what to do with myself. So as long as I'm here, I would prefer if you don't walk around by yourself. At least let me assist you."
"Alright, I promise you."
"Seal it with a kiss?" He asked.
She reached up and kissed him. "Now can I use the restroom?"
"Yeah, sorry. Go right ahead. Let me know when you've finished and I'll help you back to your bed." He opened the bathroom door and allowed Melissa to go inside. Closing the door he took a seat on the chair.
Melissa did find it a bit difficult to move around by herself, but she found it more difficult to lay in that bed 24/7. She felt that if she didn't get up occasionally she was going to go insane. She would go to the bathroom more often than necessary just so she could walk around. Melissa pushed down on the rail on the wall to raise herself up from the toilet. She turned on the tap and waited for the temperature to adjust. She took a longer time to wash her hands than normal so that she could stay out of bed longer. Once she thought she had stalled enough she opened the door and called to Jackson.
"Jackson? I'm finished."
"Okay." He stood up next to her and placed his arm around her waist. She waited for him to pick her up but to her surprise he didn't. "Mel, in order to get to the bed you have to start walking."
"You aren't going to carry me?" She asked. "Not that I'm complaining or anything, just, after that speech you gave me I figured I wouldn't be doing anything by myself for a long time."
"Well I thought a little bit about it and as long as I'm helping you I will let you walk back to bed."
"Melissa put her hand over her heart and opened her mouth in mock shock. "I can walk back to bed? Instead of being carried? I've never felt so privileged."
Jackson laughed. "Hey now, if you're going to make fun maybe I'll just…" He lifted her up into his arms and started to carry her to the bed.
"Jackson. That's not fair. Put me down." She screamed at him.
"What was that? Put you down? Alright then." He placed her down onto the bed. "There, you're down."
"That was not nice." She tried to put on a mad face.
"You shouldn't pout darling, it doesn't suit you." He sat down on the bed next to her.
Jackson reached over and carefully started to trace the healing wounds on Melissa's arms. "You're too great of a person to have this happen to you. I just don't understand."
"It's not about what kind of a person I am. It just happened. It's no ones fault." She grabbed the hand that was tracing her wounds. "Are you starting to blame yourself again?"
"No, it's just that…I've seen a lot of tragedy happen in my life. Where I'm from, a lot of things happen. A lot of accidents happen. And the people that become the victims of violence, they aren't bad people and there's no reason for what happened to them."
"I'm sorry that your life has been filled with so much tragedy and heartache, Jackson." She picked up his other hand. " But you have to understand that not everyone is a bad person. Not everyone is out to get you."
"It isn't me that Amelia went after. It was you she went after to get to me." He sighed. "I can't let that happen again."
"Jackson, what are you saying?" Are you breaking up with me?"
"No, Mel. I love you, and I don't want to be without you. What I'm saying is that I'm afraid that this could happen again. I'm going to do everything in my power to make sure that it doesn't."
She placed her hand on his cheek. "That's nice of you. But Jackson, you need to watch out for yourself too. It's not just me this could happen to." She removed her hand.
"I'm bigger than you though. I can fight back. But with you, you're smaller, not to mention weak right now. If this happens again you won't be able to defend yourself."
She stood up from the bed. "Whose to say that it will happen again, Jackson?"
"Melissa you shouldn't be standing up." Jackson said to her.
"What makes you think that something like this will happen again? Do you think that Stacey and Cassandra are going to avenge Amelia and attack one of us." She was starting to rant and raise her voice. Jackson knew that she just getting out her anger that she normally held in. Being the happy cheerful Melissa that everyone knew, she often kept in any anger she felt.
"Mel, please. I'm asking you to sit down."
"Because once Amelia's gone, I'm pretty sure Cassandra and Stacey are going to be excited that they no longer have to listen to her. They will be happy that they can be their own person."
"Melissa, now I'm telling you. Sit down." He said sternly.
"You know Jackson, you can't keep living your life in fear. You could walk out of this hospital tonight and get hit by a bus. You could fall and hit your head when you return home. You just don't know Jackson." She was moving now. Pacing back and forth in the room.
"Melissa, you can't be…."
"Ow!" Melissa crumbled to the floor.
Jackson quickly ran to her. "Mel, are you okay? Don't move." He reached over to the end of her bed and pressed the red button on it. "Hold on. Is it okay for me to pick you up?"
"I think so." She winced in pain as he carried her to the bed.
He laid her in the bed. "Sorry."
As soon as he had put her down a women in scrubs rushed into the room. Obviously one of her nurses, Jackson thought. Perhaps this is one of the nurses that had been letting her walk to the bathroom by herself. Well look at what letting her walk around by herself has done.
"What seems to be the problem?" the nurse asked.
"She was walking around and all of a sudden she was on the floor in pain." Jackson informed the nurse.
The nurse went over to Melissa. "I'll take a look." She checked over her wounds and replaced a few bandages. "Nothing seems to be wrong externally. No bleeding or anything. But when you were moving around you must have twisted yourself. The stabs in your abdomen went pretty deep so you are going to be sore. When you twisted, you could feel the pain become more intense. That's why we only let you walk to the bathroom."
"I'm sorry. It won't happen again." Melissa apologized to the nurse.
"She promises." Jackson looked at Melissa and gave her a stern look, telling her that he wasn't joking around.
"Well, this medicine will take the pain down. You can take it whenever you wish today." She placed the cup of three pills on the bedside table.
"Thank you." Melissa said to the nurse as she stepped out of the room.
Melissa looked over at Jackson. His face held the look she had seen last. The stern look that told her he wasn't happy with her. She understood why.
"I know what you're going to say. I told you so."
Without saying anything he reached over to take her hand. Raising it to his mouth he kissed it. "Don't do that again. In a few days you will be better and then you can rant and let out all of the anger that you want, but not here, when you are in pain. Alright?"
"Alright."
Melissa took her hand away from him and carefully rolled over onto her side as best as she could, facing away from Jackson. As he saw her body start to shake slightly he knew she had started to cry. He leaned forward to get closer to her.
"Mel, what's wrong?"
She didn't turn towards him, or even acknowledge that she heard him. So he got out of the chair and climbed into the bed with her. Rubbing her back he asked again, "Mel, something's on your mind. Do you want to tell me what it is?"
"I want to go home so bad. I really hate this hospital." She turned as well as she could towards him. "But once I leave here, everything changes. I have to go back to school and worry about Stacey and Cassandra. I have to go to court against Amelia and be face to face with her. I haven't seen her since that day in the bathroom, but that scene replays in my head more than I would like it to. It's been a nightmare since I've been here."
He reached for her and pulled her to lie down next to him. She rested her head on his shoulder. "Melissa, listen to me. I get it. Trust me I do. The nightmares…that's to be expected. But once you get out of here we can put Amelia where she belongs and trust me, Stacey and Cassandra are probably going right along with her. They were in on it too. You won't have to worry about them anymore. I'll be with you…nothing will happen. I promise you.
"Okay. I just want it to be over." She was still crying softly.
"It will be soon. Try to get some sleep. Do you need anything?" He asked her.
"Stay with me?" She looked at him and pleaded with her eyes.
"You've got it." He snuggled a bit closer to her and after a few moments both were sound asleep.
Well that's chapter 10. Let me know what you thought by giving me a review….