Chapter 10- Can't Heaven Wait?
Mercer House-
Jack rolled over to watch his clock radio blink 12:00 a.m. It was dark outside so it had to be between two and five in the morning. Jack and Nikki had stayed up until 1:00 watching Lifetime movies. This was definitely wasn't Jack's style but Nikki would stick the remote under her covers every time he complained about changing the channel to MTV2. Nikki was on the couch while Jack sat on the floor in front of her.
"Come and get it," Nikki said with the biggest smirk on her face.
"What makes you think I won't?" Jack said in his low husky voice turning around to her.
Nikki knew he wouldn't try to retrieve it. She admired this about him; he was shy but confident enough to do what he wanted to do.
"Fine, you win," Jack said turning back around.
Nikki watched him sit there in that sloppy rock star way he always sat in. She noticed his body was a great mix of leanness and trimness but it looked more like a surfer boy body. She loved his skin; actually she liked the way his skin felt on hers. Since their little encounter in the bathroom last week, she fantasized about him touching and caressing her in a way she never experienced it before.
"I'm pretty tired," Jack said.
"Yeah, I think I'm gunna go to sleep now too," Nikki said.
"Goodnight," he said standing up to go upstairs.
Nikki grabbed his arm and sincerely asked, "Wanna lay down with me?"
Jack wanted to, he really wanted to but Jerry was upstairs and he didn't feel comfortable. She was still only seventeen and he was twenty one.
"I think I should go upstairs," he said making his way up.
Jack couldn't sleep so he went downstairs to the kitchen. It was his favorite part of the house for many reasons. When he was little Evelyn taught him how to cook. This was the first way they bonded when Jack arrived there. He was very shy around his brothers at first, so cooking was Evelyn's way of opening him up. Jack would ask her if he could cook with her to avoid Bobby, Angel, and Jerry around dinner time. As he got older he would only cook breakfast because his brothers were asleep. They made fun of him terribly calling him Jacky-poo, Fairy, and referring to him as their little sister. He missed those times with his mother and as hard as it was to be in there it reminded him of her in a good way. He could smell everything she cooked standing by the oven. This was his spot. When Evelyn would cook, she would tell Jack to stand there and not move a muscle. And as a kid wanting to obey his mother, he stood there not moving a muscle. He remembered the first thing he cooked on his own, he was eleven. It was the day before his birthday and he wanted to make a cake for himself. Evelyn promised him that he could use the stove when he turned twelve but since it was the day before his twelfth birthday she allowed this to be his first day. It came out smelling good and he decorated it with all his favorite colors. Jack wanted to go tell Evelyn who was down in the basement doing laundry that his cake was ready. Bobby who was twenty- one at the time didn't live at home but came back to spend that week with Evelyn and his brothers. He saw Jack's cake on the table and asked Jerry if it was. Jerry was nineteen and didn't live at home either but close to it. He didn't know about Evelyn's promise to Jack that he could use the stove so he said he didn't think it was Jack's. Angel was the only brother besides Jack still living in the house because he was only sixteen. He walked into the kitchen and asked what the fuss was about. Once they asked him he said he knew it was Jack's. So Bobby took his lighter and lit it on fire. That's when Jack and Evelyn walked upstairs.
"Oh, Jake you made a baked Alaska? I told you no matches," Evelyn said to her son.
"No!" Jack screamed as he tried to blow out the flaming cake.
"Happy birthday!" his brothers screamed to him as if he were blowing candles out and not his entire cake.
"I always knew he was a flamer," Bobby said to Jerry and Angel who were already laughing at the site of Jack trying to blow out his cake.
"You jerks! Who did this?" Jack screamed back as his bluish eyes started to tear.
Bobby, Angel, and Jerry laughed as Evelyn tried to console her upset son.
"That's ok Jacky," Evelyn said, "They just won't get any cake tomorrow," she said grinning at the other boys.
Now this was a very serious punishment. Evelyn made the best birthday cakes in Detroit.
Jack look up to her and said, "Really?"
"Really," Evelyn said as she walked over and put out Jack's flaming cake.
Even thought Jack endured enormous tortures from his older brothers, he knew he belonged in some odd way.
"Jack," he heard someone call from the living room.
Jack had been downstairs a while now and didn't think anyone was up this early. He finally looked over at the clock on the microwave that read 5:45 am. All the curtains were closed in the kitchen but when he went into the living room he could see that the sun was coming up. Nikki was on the couch sound asleep and no one else was downstairs. He wondered who called him but rather than go back in the kitchen he decided to check on Nikki. He didn't want to wake her up but he really wanted to feel her skin against his. So he brushed her hair back of her face and felt her cold cheek. Not only was she cold but she looked pale so he put his ear to her nose.
"Bobby!" Jack yelled as he ran into the kitchen and grabbed the phone.
"What?" Bobby yelled back grabbing his gun from under his bed.
"Hello 911?" Jack huffed into the phone.
Bobby ran down the stairs not knowing that Jack was on the phone calling 911.
"Jacky what the hell," he said pointing his gun in every direction.
Jack was to terrified to speak but he finally cried out, "Nikki…she's not breathing."
Bobby yelled for Jerry to hurry downstairs as he tucked away his gun.
"What happened?" Jerry asked.
"Nicole stopped breathing," Bobby told him as he grabbed their coats and his keys.
Jack grabbed Nikki from the couch.
"You sure?" Jerry asked.
Bobby checked her pulse as they all settled in the car.
"She's not breathing, we gotta get her to the hospital," Bobby said as he sped off.
"I called for an ambulance," Jack cried out.
"It's gunna take em' to long," Jerry told him.
Angel and Sophie were still upstairs unaware of what was going on. The ambulance showed up at the door fifteen minutes later. By that time Jack had handed Nikki to the doctors in the emergency room. She was still wrapped in the blankets from the couch. He held on to them tightly when he was in the car holding her. He had cried all over them while he laid his head on her cold neck. Forty five minutes passed as Bobby, Jerry, and Jack sat in the waiting room. Then doctor came walking out of the E.R.
"Doc please tell me she's going to be alright," Jack wailed as if someone had punched him in the stomach.
The doctor took off his glasses and rubbed his forehead with his forearm.
"Nikki suffered from a pulmonary embolism. She must have been sitting for a very long time because she developed a blood clot that traveled to her heart and blocked an artery to her lung," the doctor told them.
"Is she ok?" Jerry asked.
"We're lucky you got her here as quickly as you did," the doctor told them.
"When can we see her?" Jack asked.
"Not now," the doctor said.
"Why?" Bobby asked.
"We're still working on her and I've ordered more tests. Perhaps you'd like to go home and I'll have someone call you," the doctor said as he nodded and walked back toward the O.R.
"What's really going on doc?" Bobby asked him.
The doctor sighed and said, "Even though we were able to get her breathing again, we don't know how long she stopped breathing. She could have some irreversible brain damage from the lack of oxygen to her brain."
Jack stormed out of the hospital to the parking lot. Bobby and Jerry followed him. Jack squeezed his head with his hands and covered his ears.
"Jacky, it's ok buddy. They're taking good care of her," Jerry said trying to console his distressed brother.
"I'm never gunna be happy am I? Everyone around me dies," Jack said.
"Jack that's not true. Look at all the progress you've made over the years man," Jerry said to him.
Jack yelled in fury and grabbed Bobby's gun out of his pocket.
He held it to his head.
"Whoa! Jacky don't," Bobby said calmly trying to calm Jack down.
"No, I have to. I'm not supposed to be here," Jack said crying.
"Jack just put the gun down," Jerry said to him trying to get close enough to get the gun away form him but not to close.
"No! Don't touch me," Jack shrieked.
"Jack, put the gun down. You're more of a man than this," Bobby said to him stepping closer.
"No, I'm not," he said turning of the safety which made Bobby and Jerry jump.
"Jack listen to me. That girl in there loves you. We love man, we all need you," Bobby said.
"No, no you don't. I'm weak. You said it yourself Bobby!" Jack yelled.
"Jacky you know I just play around with you, now put the gun down," Bobby said.
"I can't. She might die and it's all my fault. It's always my fault," Jack said with his face filled with tears.
"Jack she's gunna be alright," Jerry said to him.
"The doctor said she could have brain damage. You heard him, don't lie to me!" Jack said slamming the gun to his chest.
Bobby and Jerry inched forward afraid that without the safety on he might end of pulling it by accident.
"I don't want to do this anymore," Jack said.
"Don't give up Jacky, she needs you," Bobby said.
Jack held the gun back up to his head and slowly pulled the trigger.
I know, I know. I left you all in suspense and I'm sorry to say this but I won't be submitting a new chapter until tomorrow. If you're lucky you might get one tonight, but probably not until tomorrow. Thanks for reading; I know it's a long fic. but stay with me!