Chapter 32

Decided to post an extra chapter this week in honor of kissaversary. Enjoy!

Freddie has just told Sam that Melanie is going back to Portland to live with her father.

"Well what about Alex? Does she know? Oh God, don't tell me she's planning on fighting you for custody." Sam suddenly panicked.

"Shh. Mel only told me so far. And I guess Pam maybe. She promised to tell Alex soon, though."

"Aw, man. That's going to suck. I mean, for the kid. She's just getting used to having her mom around." Secretly, Sam thought it would be a relief to Freddie, but she wouldn't admit that if her life depended on it.

"I'm going to insist that she does video chats at least a couple of times a week and calls her and stuff."

Sam scoffed. "Good luck with that. Who knows, with the way she says dad stays on top of her with the meds and all maybe she won't fall off the face of the Earth this time. Truth is, I wouldn't trust either of them and they're my blood."


Melanie left town and returned to her dad's with the promise of a daily call to her daughter. For many weeks, a daily call became the routine, mostly video chats every evening just after dinner time. Freddie was impressed at the way she was staying on top of her promise to Alex. Although he hardly ever shared more than a few words with Melanie, he always stayed within ear shot when she was talking to the child. Their relationship, while obviously strained, was very cordial and friendly for the major part, at least on the surface.

Sam and Carly kept on with their lives. They were the go-to babysitters and were called upon more and more to sit with the girl. Freddie was given the chance at a supervisor position and jumped at the opportunity even though it meant that he would need to spend more time at the office than he had been. As long as he was either able to leave in time to pick her up from school or arrange for Spencer to do so until he could get home, every thing worked out fine.

It was almost the end of February, and Seattle was having an unusual cold snap. While the city was anything but dry on a normal basis, there was actually very little snow and ice. This changed overnight. Freddie woke to the sound of his phone and the school's emergency alert system calling to report that there would be no school due to the ice and instructions to check email for online assignments.

Freddie sighed and got out of bed. Why did the school have to call so early? It was barely 6:00 a.m. He made a quick bathroom stop before lying down again. Suddenly he remembered that he was scheduled to go into the office today. He had a mandatory team meeting set up with everyone in his department. Since being promoted to supervisor, he decided on weekly meetings to make sure everyone was staying on track with their assignments and this was the day that had been chosen for the meeting.

Before long his phone rang again. Marissa was calling that she was requested to stay at work because several of the day shift nurses weren't able to come in due to the weather but she would be home as soon as possible.

He hung up and laid there staring at the ceiling. Well, maybe Spencer or one of the girls could hang out with Alex for a few hours if his mom couldn't get home. Surely the roads weren't that bad. He grabbed his phone and checked a few local news sites. Obviously he was wrong, things weren't just bad, they were horrible. The meeting would have to be rescheduled. He quickly sent a group message out to his co-workers and laid back down, glad that he didn't have to go anywhere.

Without even realizing it, Freddie drifted off to sleep and was awakened over an hour later by his phone again. "Ugh. What now?" He moaned to himself. "Aw, nards. It's almost 8." He griped as he grabbed at the thing to make it stop producing sound.

He recognized the ring tone as being from Sam and considered silencing it for a few seconds before finally answering.

"Freddie! Get down here. Your mom's hurt!" Sam ordered.

"Sam? What are you talking about? Where are you?" He was cut off by a pounding on the apartment door. "Hold on, I need to get the door."

"Yeah. That would be Carly coming to watch Alex. Now get your butt down to the front door, your mom fell on the ice and we're waiting for the ambulance."

"An ambulance? Oh my God! OK, OK, I'm on my way. Just let me get dressed quick." He made his way to the door and left his dark haired friend in, wearing nothing but his boxers and a white wife beater undershirt.

"Freddie! Did Sam get a hold of you?" Carly pushed into the apartment. "Dang, is that what you sleep in?" She glanced him up and down, a little more leeringly than she would have preferred. "I mean, you're not wearing pants." She blushed and pretended to look away, slyly checking out his shoulders and slowly letting her eyes drift southward.

"Yes, Sam just called and if you girls would give me two minutes, I'd be wearing pants. I already slept too late." He slipped back the hallway to his room, pulled on enough clothes to be decent and grabbed his jacket and phone.

Carly called back the hall to him. "Well hurry up. Sam said your mom's in a lot of pain and she can't stand up. I guess Sam's the one who called for an ambulance after she saw her fall."

"Alex should soon be getting up. There's no school today because of the ice. Just hang out with her and make sure she gets breakfast, OK? I'll text or call when I know what's going on." He said, heading out the door.

Freddie stepped off the elevator in the building's lobby to find Sam pinning Lewbert down in front of his desk with some kind of wrestling hold on his left leg. "Aaaaahhhh! Let go! Let go, you beast! Oh God, my leg is breaking!" Lewbert shouted and repeatedly slapped his hand onto the floor, tapping out.

Seeing Freddie, Sam left go and ran to grab him by the arm. "She's right over here. Come on."

"What the heck are you doing to Lewbert?" He asked, as he was being dragged to the door.

"He tried to move your mom which is the last thing she needs. And I kind of, well, kind of lost it. So I threw him off her and beat his ass into submission." Sam huffed. "Anyone with the sense of a tree frog knows you don't move someone with a BACK OR NECK INJURY!" She shouted toward the prone doorman.

"I was just trying to get her out of the LOB-BY!" Lewbert shouted back.

By now the paramedics had arrived and were assessing Marissa, who was moaning in pain, lying in the building's main doorway, flat on her back.

"Stay calm, Ma'am and try not to move. We're here to help. Do you know what day it is? Did you bump your head?" A tall, dark skinned EMT, younger than Freddie, asked her while shining a light into her eyes. "Sir, you'll have to stay back. There's nothing to see here. Go on about your day." He told Freddie, who had pushed in next to his mother and had touched her hand.

"Tuesday! He's my son!" Marissa whimpered. "Start an IV, 5 cc's of morphine and 20 of ace 3 steroid, stat. And put an air splint on my ankle."

The other man, who was taking her vitals looked at her funny.

"I'm a trauma nurse, I know what I'm doing. Now give me some DRUGS! This hurts like a bast . . ."

"Mom! Mom, I'm here. What can I do?" Freddie asked, kneeling down to talk to the middle aged woman.

"Call Dr. McKennon, he's the best back doctor in Seattle and tell these people to give me some damn pain meds!" Marissa shouted. "NOW!"

"Alright, Carl. IV is in, you can give her the morphine." The medic told the EMT. "Is there a hospital your mother would prefer?" He asked Freddie, after slipping an oxygen mask onto the woman because Marissa was now getting loopy.

"She works at Seattle General." Freddie replied, with Sam now bending down next to him.

"NO!" Marissa shouted, pulling off the oxygen mask. "Ow, I need to go to University Trauma Center. They're the only hospital in this county certified for back and neck injuries."

"Is anyone going to help ME?" Lewbert shouted from the other side of the lobby, trying to crawl over to the door on his belly like an alligator, dragging his sore leg behind. "That-that witch. She ripped my LEG OFF!"

"Stuff a sock in it or I'll rip off your arm and beat you with it!" Sam yelled back and threw some random object at him.

"Only one of you can go along with your mother in the ambulance." The EMT told Freddie. "There isn't room for both you and your wife, Sir."

"She's not my, uh, never mind." Freddie tried to argue. "Don't you need to get to work?" He asked Sam.

"I called off already. How about if I follow in your car so I can bring you home. University's clear on the other side of the city, a taxi will cost a fortune."

Freddie nodded and handed her his car keys. As soon as Marissa was loaded and ready for transport, he got on board and the ambulance took off with Sam following behind.

"So no one is going to call an ambulance FOR ME?" Lewbert shouted to thin air as everyone left, leaving him on the floor alone. "MY LEG!"

Other tenants came and went as he was lying on the floor and paid him no mind.

A few hours, several x-rays and a lot of pain killers later, Marissa was drifting in and out of consciousness in the trauma bay of University hospital. Sam and Freddie were both in the room, waiting to hear from a doctor or basically anyone who could tell them what was going on with her, other than she was hurting bad.

"Hi. I'm Doctor McKennon. You must be Fredward and um, Melanie." He looked at the screen of the digital device in his hand before extending a hand toward them.

"Yes, you can call me Freddie. This is Sam, my friend, not Melanie." He replied.

"Oh, I see. We got Marissa's information from Seattle General, there must have been some glitch with the records. It says your wife's name is Melanie. Anyway, your mother is very lucky. The break at her ankle is simple and should heal without surgery. However, the angle at which she fell was serious and she dig break her tail bone, which in most people is actually quite a bit smaller."

"Psh, I told you that you were part monkey." Sam leaned in and whispered into Freddie's ear.

Freddie glared back at her with a huff. Sam just grabbed his hand to say 'I was teasing' without words.

The doctor cleared his throat "None the less, it should heal without any intervention. There is a lot of bruising and shock to her lower spine which will make standing very painful and walking nearly impossible with the cast on her foot. At least until the swelling goes down and we can get her into physical therapy."

"What does that mean, that she's going to be in the hospital for a while?" Freddie asked.

"Unfortunately, yes. We're going to place her in traction for a few days and begin direct injections to help with the swelling. After that, more than likely, she will be transferred to our physical therapy building up in mid-town to help her get her strength back. I'm not going to lie, she could be there for several weeks."

"I see." Freddie sighed. "But she will walk again?"

"Oh, yes. It'll take some time and there will be pain but your mother will make a full recovery." The doctor assured him. "And personally speaking, I've known Marissa for some time. She's got a will power that won't quit. I'd say I've never met such a strong willed woman."

"Preaching to the choir here." Sam again whispered.

Freddie squeezed her hand to make her be quiet.

"I'd say if anyone can defy the odds and get out of the therapy center sooner rather than later, that person would be your mother."

"I just don't understand what she was even doing home." Freddie told Sam after the doctor left and he walked closer to Marissa. "She had just called me and said she had to stay at work because some of the day shift nurses couldn't make it in due to the ice."

Sam just shrugged. "I should have used that excuse, too. I told my boss aunt Flo was kicking my butt and I needed a personal day." She smirked.

Marissa had heard them and spoke softly. "I was coming home so you could get to your meeting."

"Mom!" He touched his mom's hand. "You're awake?"

"Not by choice The pain meds are wearing off." She mumbled. "Why aren't you at your meeting?"

"I called it off." He told her. "Postponed it, rather. And not because of this. Because of the ice storm. I didn't want to ask anyone to drive in when the roads weren't safe."

By late in the afternoon Marissa was sleeping peacefully in a drug induced state and Sam and Freddie were on the way back to Bushwell. He had called Carly and brought her up to speed about the situation hours earlier.

Fortunately, the brunette was able to take a day off as well to be able to sit with the girl and had managed to help her complete all of her online assignments that were necessary on a snow day.

"Oh thank God." Carly called out when they finally walked into apartment 8-D.

"Daddy!" Alex ran at her father, hugged him and turned to her aunt. "Aunt Sam! How is Grandma?"

"She's doing just fine, honey." Freddie told her. "She'll be home before we know it."

"Did you make anything to eat?" Sam asked Carly. "All we had was overpriced vending machine junk at the hospital."

"I found a bowl of something, I think it was some kind of casserole, in the freezer. I tried heating it up but it smelled like something dead, so I called for Chinese. We just finished our chow mein and pot stickers."

"Well, speaking of things that smell dead, momma's about ready to eat road kill so how about some take out of our own, Freduchini?"

"Pizza?" He suggested.

Carly returned to her own apartment but Sam chose to stay with Freddie and Alex for a little bit. "Hey, I know you've probably got work stuff to do and you haven't even checked your email all day. Go ahead and take care of what you need to, I've got Alex." Sam told Freddie after they were done eating and had explained to the child exactly what happened to her grandmother.

"Thanks, Sam. Uh, you should probably know that her mom Face Calls every night at quarter to 7." He told her wanting to be honest.

Sam just shrugged.