Slade laid on his bed. He was hurt, but not too badly. The doctor said he'd be fine tomorrow.
"Hey, bro," said Jagger, bring some soup. "How do you feel?"
"I've been better," answered Slade.
"Maybe some soup will help."
"I could eat."
Jagger put the little bed table thing with the soup on it in front of Slade.
"Eat up. Oh, someone wants to see you."
"Who?"
"Me," said Jodie, walking in the room.
Slade glared at her. "I don't want to see her."
"She just wants to apologize," said Jagger.
"Oh, yeah, sure. She wants to apologize. Right."
"She does. Now I'll leave you two to talk."
"No! Jagger! Don't leave me alone with-!"
Jagger left closing the door behind him. It was just Slade and Jodie now.
"I'm sorry," said Jodie.
"Save it."
"No, I am. I'm really sorry about what happened. I just wanted to mess with you and have a laugh. I didn't want to hurt you."
"How can I believe you? After everything you did?"
"You deserved it all."
Slade had a tick mark on his forehead.
"I'm fed up with this shit! You've caused trouble the day you got here! Now look. You know what? I wish you dad never got hurt."
"You and me both. I wanna see him."
"Then go see him."
"Jagger said he can't take me. He said you can tomorrow."
"What!?!"
"Please. Do it and I'll stop pranking you for two months."
"How do I know you're telling the-?"
Jodie had the puppy dog face and again Slade didn't know what to do.
"Fine. We'll go tomorrow."
Jodie and Slade arrived at the hospital. Jodie had quickly gotten out of the car and ran into the hospital. Slade didn't know where Joey's room was so he asked the lady at the front desk.
"Excuse me, Miss. Where is Joey Wheeler's room?"
"Up stairs, room 268. Jodie already went there."
"She's been here before?"
"Yes. A young man named Jagger has brought her here a few times so Jodie and see him and how he is doing."
Slade went to room 268. He opened the door a crack to take a peek at what was going on. He saw Jodie sitting on the bed. Joey was laying down asleep. The covers over him. He looked pale. A breathing mask was on his face. He looked like he was dying.
"Hi, dad," said Jodie. "How are you? I'm fine. The Princeton brothers are taking good care of me. Me and Jagger are good friends. And I'm good friends with Kat and some other maids and butlers. They have a dog named Blade. He's a good dog. Very playful. Jagger really loves him. He's the closes to that dog. Kinda like how Tristan is close to his dog Blankey. He said he had Blade since he was twelve. Maybe when you're better we can get a dog. What do you think?"
Joey was still asleep. Breathing slowly.
"Why won't you wake up? Please wake up, dad, please."
She started to cry.
Slade's heart twisted with memories of all the trouble that kid had put him through, who was now crying her eyes out. At that moment, she reminded him of Chazz when he and his brothers were little and Slade would always make Chazz feel better when he was sad.
Slade didn't know what possessed him to do it, but without knowing what he was doing, he found himself walking toward her. He put a hand on her shoulder. She looked up at him.
"Don't cry," said Slade. "He'll be okay. He's strong. You said so yourself."
She told the brothers lots of stories about her dad the the adventures Joey had with his friends.
"I know," said Jodie, wiping the tears. "I just hate seeing him like this."
"He'll get better. Don't worry."
Jodie gave Slade a hug. Slade was shocked, but then he hugged back.
Unknown by them, Joey gave a small smile.
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