Secrets of a Monkee
Summary: Micky meets his best friends during his darkest hour. Years later, his past comes back to haunt him. Can his friends help pull him back again?
Author's note: sorry, in the last chapter I mixed up Rose's name and said her name was Rose Lily Larson, but it's Lily Rose. I know it's kinda confusing with her being called Lily at times and Rose at times, I even confused myself when typing the last chapter! Lol! and yes, i heard micky say once that he plays drums left footed and right handed and he really doesn't know why. thought it was funny.
thanks to plushchrome for telling me how to do the line!
Chapter 8: Healing
Mike closed the door behind him, leaving Micky and Peter alone. His stomach was a mess. He was still angry, but he was also extremely worried for both Micky and Rose. He knew Micky would be ok, and that his injury wasn't as serious as it could have been, but he also knew Micky's emotional turmoil was only just beginning. It had seemed as though there was something Micky was holding back. Something he wanted to tell them, but couldn't. What did that comment about them doing more than they knew to keep Micky safe mean? Mike would have to make sure that Micky told them later. For now, they had to focus on Rose. Mike had to make sure that Rose was going to be safe when they released her from here.
"So, what is you plan?" Davy asked.
"Simple," Mike replied. "We go see Rose and talk to her. I'm going to see if I can't get her to tell me what's going on."
"Oh," Davy answered, sounding slightly disappointed. Mike figured it was because Micky's plans usually involved some sort of goofy disguise and over the top antics. And about 9 times out of 10, it was Micky who came up with the plan because somehow they always worked. Mike was never sure why, because the disguises were sometimes very terrible. Davy followed Mike to the nearest nurses' station. When they arrived, a beautiful blonde woman looked up at them.
"Can I help you?" she asked.
"Yes, we brought a friend here and wanted to see her," Mike answered. "Her name is Lily Rose Larson."
"Sure, follow me," the nurse stood up and led them down a hallway and into another section of the hospital. When they reached a large room, she stopped. "She woke up an hour ago, but she's on a lot of medication, so she may not completely coherent. I'm afraid I can only allow one visitor at a time, so as not to overstress her."
"Not a problem," Mike answered. "Davy, can you wait out here for a few moments?"
"Yeah," Davy answered, allowing Mike to take the reins on this one. The nurse nodded and opened the door.
"Miss Larson, you have a visitor," she announced before Mike entered. She closed the door behind her, leaving Davy out in the hallway.
"Mike?" Rose asked. She sounded incredibly weak. "What are you doing here?"
"I wanted to make sure you were ok," Mike answered as he pulled a chair up next to her bed to sit down in. "You gave us all quite a scare, you know."
"I'm fine," she responded, but only half-heartedly. He could tell she'd been fighting back tears.
"You don't look it," Mike answered. He kept his voice very low and soft to make her feel less threatened. "We haven't had a chance to talk to the doctor yet to find out what happened." Mike hated lying, but he would if the situation called for it.
"I'm fine," she said again.
"Rose, we, Micky and the rest of us, are all worried about you. You passed out in Micky's arms. You don't know how terrified that made him."
"Micky gave up any right he had to worry about me a long time ago," she scoffed.
"Well, that's not a very nice thing to say." It was very difficult to keep his voice soft after a comment like that. "Micky is very worried about you. Do you know he snapped a tendon in his ankle by jumping out a window just to make sure you're fiancé wasn't beating you?"
"Why did he jump out a window?"
"Because I told him it wasn't a good idea to see you again." Mike took a deep breath, trying to decide how much detail he should go into. He could see the question in her eyes and decided this may be the only way to get answers and to convince her not to go home with Tony. "You see, Micky still loves you. When he was with his girlfriend last night, he said your name instead of hers. He never got over you."
"He still loves me?"
"Yeah. Everything that has happened is tearing him apart. When we met him, he was a wreck. He was drowning his sorrows in whatever bottle he could find, which got him thrown out of his home and unemployed. We took him in and nursed his hangover, but it was much harder to heal him emotionally. He had given up on his music and didn't start again until he needed to bail us out."
"He gave up on music?"
"Yeah. No writing songs, no singing, no guitar, no drums."
"That doesn't make sense." Rose seemed lost in thought. She wasn't really speaking to Mike anymore. "Tony said…" she trailed off, however, suddenly remembering Mike was there.
"Tony said what?" Mike prompted, but she ignored him.
"Micky really cares about what happens to me?"
"Of course he does! Why would he go through so much effort and pain to make sure Tony wasn't abusing you if he didn't care about you?"
"I didn't know if that was because he was just angry that I was even with Tony. They were best friends for years."
"So I heard. But I also saw the gun his little friend pulled on us warning us to stay away from you. Micky nearly let himself get shot trying to go after Tony because he didn't want Tony to hurt you." Rose looked at him and slowly lifted her hand to wipe away a small tear. Mike noticed a small bruising pattern on her arm, and took her hand in his. He moved her sleeve up to inspect it and saw a handprint shaped bruise on her arm. He felt like someone kicked him in the stomach. This must be the bruise the doctor was talking about. "Micky wants you safe more than anything else. And so do the rest of us. We all want you to tell everyone what Tony is doing to you."
"You mean tell the police?" Her eyes were filling with tears again.
"Yes. Why are you trying to protect him? You deserve better than this."
"You don't know me."
"I don't have to. No one deserves this." She smiled when he said this. He reached up and wiped more tears away from her eyes. "Please, Rose. Don't put yourself through this. There's nothing tying you to him."
"No." Rose's voice was so soft, Mike almost didn't hear her. "Not anymore. I'll tell the police, Mike. He did this to me. And Micky told me the truth. Tony's done this before. To other girls. And…" she trailed off, as if she didn't have the energy to continue.
"It's ok," Mike comforted. "You can talk to me."
"I was only marrying him because my family wanted me to."
"I'm sure if they knew what he was doing to you, they'd support you in leaving."
"They would. But they wanted me to marry him because that's what you do when you get…pregnant." Mike's heart sank with the realization of what happened.
"You're pregnant?"
"I was. Until yesterday." More tears spilled out of her eyes. "I told Tony that I talked to Micky. That the house he drove me to was Micky's. He got really angry and dragged me out of the car when we got home. I fought against him and he threw me to the ground and kicked me. The doctors said that I lost the baby because of a blow to the stomach that caused my uterus to fill with blood." Mike closed his eyes in anguish. "He apologized later to me. Said he was just so angry for going to Micky after everything Micky had done to me." Mike wanted to argue with her and tell her that there was no way Micky would ever do anything to hurt her; that Micky would never cheat on anyone as she thought he had, but he knew it wasn't the time right now.
"It's going to be okay," Mike assured her instead. "Tell the police what happened and he'll go to jail."
"I will, but I can't go home now. I have nowhere to go. The house is his mothers. There's no way she'll let me go back there."
"What about your family? I thought your father was here?"
"No, he only came down for the audition. And I can't go home with him. I have school and my job…" she wiped more tears from her eyes. "But I can't go back to Tony. He killed my baby."
"Come home with us," Mike said, the words leaving his mouth faster than he could think about them. He knew it was a bad idea with how Micky felt about her, but somehow he also knew that it was the right thing to do. And perhaps the two of them could work things out and at least become friends again. After all, Micky had said they'd known each other since kindergarten. It seemed a shame they were so at odds with each other now.
"I couldn't do that," she said, looking into his eyes.
"Sure you can. Tony has some friends that are pretty dangerous, and we can't guarantee that Tony isn't going to make bail and come after you or send his friends after you. We can protect you until we are sure that Tony can't get to you anymore."
"What about Micky? Didn't you just say you didn't think it was a good idea for him to see me again?"
"Well, sure, but I think he'll agree with me on this. Your safety and well-being comes first. And I may have been wrong about him not seeing you. It may actually be what he needs." She thought about this for a while. Mike stood to get some tissues from the counter before wiping her eyes again. A soft knock came at the door and the nurse opened the door when Rose told her it was ok to enter. There were two men in suits behind the nurse standing and looking slightly solemn.
"Miss Larson," the nurse said. "I'm sorry to interrupt, but there are two detectives here to see you. Are you feeling up to talking with them?" Rose looked at Mike before she answered.
"Yes," Rose answered. The nurse nodded and stepped to the side before the two detectives entered.
"I'm going to check back with Micky," Mike said. When he was at the door, Rose called out to him.
"Mike, I will take you up on your offer. If it's not too much trouble."
"None at all," Mike smiled back. "I can get a few of your things packed up from your house if you like. You can get the rest later when you've healed up."
"It's not my house, remember? But if you can manage without getting into a fight with Tony's mother, that would be nice."
"We can arrange for a uniformed officer to accompany the young man if you like," one of the detectives said. Mike figured he already knew a good deal of what was going on.
"Yes," Rose answered. One of the detectives got up and led Mike from the room where Davy was still waiting in the hallway.
"Are you going to take care of her once she's discharged?" the detective asked.
"Yes," Mike answered. "She said that she doesn't want to go home to her fiancé and because the house they currently reside in belongs to his mother, she doesn't have a place in town where she can stay. I offered to let her stay with us until everything is settled."
"Did she tell you Tony did this to her?"
"Yes. He's been abusing her for years and she's finally ready to talk about it and get away."
"Well, Tony is being held until we can get her statement right now. If she tells us that she wants to press charges, we will charge him, but I can't guarantee he won't make bail. I'm not going to sugar coat this for you; if she is going to stay with you, keep in mind that he may come after her."
"All the more reason to let her stay with us. Her being alone puts her at bigger risk. He has friends out there, too. Wouldn't put it past them to try and get to her."
"Very well. Fill out this card and I'll arrange for an office to meet with you in a few hours to get her things from her house." Mike took the card and pen from the detective and filled out his name, address, phone number and other information he assumed would go into the case file.
"My friend is still here," he said as he handed the card back to the detective. "His name is Micky Dolenz. I'm going to stay here with him. That's where you'll find me when the officer is ready." The detective nodded his understanding and ducked into the room with his partner. Mike turned to look at Davy who had a somewhat quizzical look on his face.
"Are you sure it's a good idea for her and Micky to be under one roof right now?" Davy asked.
"I'm not sure," Mike answered as he started walking back to Micky's room with Davy in tow. "But what I am sure of is she needs a place to stay where she's safe from Tony."
"So she told you what happened?"
"Yes," Mike answered, but he knew he couldn't tell Davy what had truly happened to her. He didn't want Micky to know about the baby just yet. And mostly, he didn't want Micky to know that Tony had killed the baby. He knew what Micky would do, and knew that it would more than likely get Micky either killed or thrown in jail. He didn't want to tell Davy or Peter because he didn't want them to undergo the pressure of keeping this secret from Micky. Mike would wait until Rose could tell Micky herself. It was better if he heard it from Rose anyway.
"Are you going to tell me?" Davy asked when they reached Micky's room. Mike didn't realize he'd fallen so silent and that Davy was waiting for him to continue. Peter walked out of Micky's room upon seeing them approach.
"Micky just fell asleep," Peter said. "Did you find anything out?" Mike sighed, knowing he had to choose his words very carefully.
"Yes, but I don't want Micky to know just yet," Mike answered.
"Why not?" Davy asked.
"Because if I tell him, he's going to be devastated, then he's going to get extremely angry and do something stupid."
"Micky's not going to just let this go, you know," Peter said. "He told me that he feels guilty about all this. He said that she told him he abandoned her and that he's afraid this happened before and she resents him for not being there."
"Why does he think that?" Mike asked, his interest suddenly perked again. What did Micky mean this happened before?
"Well she told him. I guess right before she passed out she said 'This can't be happening again' or something like that. And she told him that he'd abandoned her when she really needed him in the past. He doesn't understand what she meant by that, because when he told her that she's the one who broke up with him, she said 'That's not what I mean.'" Mike's throat went dry. Rose had said this had happened before. She'd had a miscarriage before? Had it been Tony's baby? Or Micky's? Mike stared at his sleeping friend through a crack in the curtains covering the window to the room and thought he already knew the answer. He knew that Micky couldn't have known about it, though. Even though Rose thought he abandoned her, something must have happened to keep Micky from her; he knew there was no way Micky would abandon someone going through something like that. Especially Rose. Mike thought he had an idea of what, or who, that was. Now he knew more than ever that he couldn't tell Micky what was going on. Mike wanted to throw up.
"Oh God," Mike breathed.
"What?" Davy and Peter asked in unison.
"Nothing," Mike said, still staring at Micky. "I can't tell you guys what happened, because I don't want you to shoulder that. I'll make sure Rose tells Micky later, but right now he can't take it."
"Rose is coming to stay with us," Davy told Peter. "Mike convinced her to tell the cops what happened. Tony is the reason she's here, I guess. But Mike and the cops think that Tony might come after Rose if he makes bail. I'm not so sure that's good for Micky, though."
"Maybe not," Peter agreed, "but she needs to be with friends right now. And if we can protect her, we should. But what are you going to say to Micky?" Mike tore his eyes away from his sleeping friend to look at Peter.
"I don't know," Mike answered honestly.
"You can't lie to him," Davy said. "It's not right."
"I might have to," Mike sighed. "I don't like it any more than you do, Davy, but I can't tell Micky what happened. I'll tell him that she's telling the police what Tony's done and that we are going to watch over her until things settle down in order to keep her safe, but I am going to have to lie to him and tell him I don't know why she's sick. I simply can't tell him the truth right now. If I do, he'll have a breakdown and end up either getting himself killed or thrown in prison." Both of them looked at each other, then at Mike with submission.
The three spent the next hour sitting around Micky as he slept. Mike felt very sleepy, but he was too upset and worried to sleep. Peter started to nod off at one point, but woke up soon after that. Davy had taken to pacing to keep himself awake, which normally would have annoyed Mike if his mind had not been racing. He wanted to talk to Rose again, but knew he was going to have to wait for the officer the police were sending to help him gather Rose's belongings. When the officer finally showed up, Micky was still asleep. Mike and Davy once again left Peter alone with Micky, promising to return shortly.
Micky heard someone call his name. He recognized it as Peter. Peter was also nudging him a little and was asking him to wake up. Micky opened his eyes to see Peter standing there smiling. The nurse and doctor from earlier were in his room, also looking at him.
"Sorry to wake you, Mr. Dolenz," the doctor said when he realized Micky was now awake. "But we wanted to get this boot on you and talk to you about your discharge."
"I'm going home?" Micky grumbled a little, still very tired.
"Once we take care of this, you are," the nurse replied with a smile.
"What about Rose?" Micky asked.
"She's going to stay here for another few hours," Peter answered. "But Mike is going to stay here with her and bring her back to the pad when they discharge her."
"What?" Micky asked, now thoroughly confused. Hadn't Mike been so adamant about Micky staying away from rose? Why was he now suddenly taking her home with them?
"Well, she told the police about Tony thanks to whatever you and Mike told her. But it seems that the house she lived in actually belongs to Tony's mother, so she can't exactly go back there while they process Tony. And the police can't exactly guarantee he won't bail himself out once they do process him, so Mike figured it was the right thing to do in order to keep her safe. He figured you wouldn't have any objection, and he thinks maybe you guys can work out whatever issues you have."
"No," Micky said, surprised but pleased. "No objections. Where is Mike? And Davy?"
"They went to go get a few things from Rose's house with a police officer. They should be back soon."
"While we wait for them to return, we should get you fixed up with these crutches and boot," the doctor said, trying to pull them away from their conversation.
"Sorry, doctor," Peter said sheepishly.
"That's quite alright, young man." The doctor's smile was very warm. He took something out of a sealed bag that appeared to be an oversized sandal, but its bottom was solid. The doctor set the boot next to Micky's leg and pulled out a few ace bandages. "Alright, pay attention to how I do this, because it is very important. If it's too tight, you will restrict the blood flow; too loose, and it won't do you any good." The doctor took Micky's ankle and began to wrap it, starting from the heel of his foot. Peter and Micky both watched as he finished wrapping the foot and pinning the bandage. "Don't take this boot off unless you have to shower." The doctor put the weird looking shoe on Micky's foot now.
"Well, the bright side is this is your right ankle," Peter laughed. "You play with your left foot for some reason, so you can still play drums."
"Not at first," the doctor said. "If he plays left footed, he can start playing again in about a week when he can move around, but as long as he still wears this boot on his foot and uses the crutches to move. Agreed?" Peter and Micky both nodded their agreement, although Micky hadn't gone more than a couple days without playing his music in four years and he knew going a week was going to be hard. "Alright Mr. Dolenz, let's stand you up and get these crutches adjusted to your height." The doctor and nurse helped Micky stand and it only took a few minutes to adjust the crutches and show Micky how to walk around in them properly. The doctor then gave Micky a prescription for pain killers and anti-inflammatory medications to take home as well as telling him how often to ice his ankle and to keep it propped up when he could. As the doctor left the room to get Micky's discharge papers, Davy and Mike walked back into the room.
"Hey," Mike said when he walked in. Micky smiled at his friend, but soon noticed that Mike's eyes seemed haunted. "What's the matter?"
"Huh?" Mike asked, a little confused. "Nothing. Why do you think something's wrong?"
"Nothing," Micky answered dropping it, not wanting to start another argument with Mike. "Never mind. Peter said that Rose talked to the cops and she's coming home with us. Did she tell you what happened to her?"
"No," Mike replied quickly. Almost a little too quickly for Micky's liking. Mike took his hat off and ran his fingers through his hair again. Mike was a bad liar. "She didn't. But the main thing is she's going to be ok. We just have to look after her and make sure Tony doesn't try and retaliate. I put her stuff in my room for now. Davy and I are going to bunk together for a while."
"We don't have an extra bed," Micky said, ignoring the fact Mike was lying to him. He still felt too guilty from before to push things and start another fight. "Are you going to sleep on the floor?"
"No, the officer actually had a spare mattress he was going to sell. When he heard about what we were doing, he gave it to us."
"Wow," Peter said. "That was awfully nice of him!"
"Yeah it was," Micky agreed. "Are you sure you guys are ok bunking together on an old mattress?"
"Sure," Davy said. "The mattress is actually in pretty good condition so it's pretty comfortable."
"Davy's gonna take the mattress because he's so short that being that low to the ground won't really bother him," Mike joked. Davy gave him a little playful smack on the arm and all four laughed. Once the nurse came back in with Micky's discharge papers and instructions, Peter and Davy helped Micky out to the car. He was struggling a little with the crutches and quickly decided he hated them. His arms were strong from playing the drums, but it was still very difficult to keep himself held upright on them. When he relaxed, the crutches dug into his armpits. Peter climbed into the driver's seat to drive them home and Davy climbed into the passenger seat.
"Call the house when she's ready to be discharged," Peter told Mike who stood at the entrance seeing them off. "One of us will come back down for you."
"Mike?" Micky started before they drove away. "I know you're lying to me. I know she told you what happened, and for whatever reason, you don't want me to know. I really don't want to fight with you anymore, but just tell me one thing."
"What?" Mike sighed.
"Did Tony do it to her?" Mike took a while to answer, contemplating whatever ramifications telling Micky the truth might be. Micky looked into his eyes that still looked very haunted, begging for Mike to answer him. "It means a lot to me that you're doing this. That you convinced her to talk to the cops and that you're willing to let her stay with us. And you were right, I do still love her. That's why I have to know."
"You have to promise me that you won't do anything stupid," Mike answered and Micky had his answer. "Don't go after Tony, ok? Let the police deal with him." Micky's heart sank and he felt anger boil inside him again. But he knew this time he had to listen to Mike. He wouldn't go after Tony. He'd stay at the house with Rose. He'd protect her and never let this happen to her again.
"I promise."