I decided to post another update as I am anxious to get through this portion of the story and onto other parts. Not that I didn't enjoy writing these parts... but it's actually a little difficult to do... the dialogue is rather limited. There are important interactions in these hospital scenes, though, so I certainly couldn't skip them.
This chapter got kind of long and probably could have been broken into 2 parts but, as I said, I'm anxious. LOL
Here's Chapter 8!
Chapter 8
In Melanie’s hospital room, Maggie sits next to the bed, her head resting in her hand, and her other hand firmly grasping Melanie’s, her eyes closed. The door opens, Daniel enters with Chad in the wheelchair.
“Mom…” Daniel smiles, as he wheels Chad to the bed.
There’s no response. He lightly touches her shoulder, “Mom.”
She jumps slightly, “Oh! Hi, I’m sorry… I fell asleep for a second” She smiles to Chad, standing up and walking over to him, she hugs him, “Hi handsome.” She kisses his cheek.
Chad smiles, “Hi… how’s my girl?”
“I’m sure she’s a lot better now that you are here.” She smiles to Daniel and he wheels him closer to the bed. They quietly leave the two alone.
Chad pulls Melanie’s hand to his lips and kisses it, “Hey beautiful.” He pauses, trying to find the words, “I’m so sorry this happened, Melanie.” He places a hand on her stomach, “I promise you that I will never let my father hurt you or our baby ever again. You don’t deserve this… you don’t deserve to be put in these situations. Whatever is needed to protect you, that’s what I’ll do. Everything and anything I can do to make sure you are both safe, and healthy and happy. That’s all that matters to me.” He leans in and places a kiss on her lips.
Phillip met his father in the hall of the hospital, with a beige travel bag in his hands. He hands it to him as he approaches, "I hope I got everything you asked for."
Victor nodded “Thank you for bringing this. Maggie will appreciate it.”
Phillip nods, “Of course. Anything I can do to help… How is Melanie?”
Victor took a deep breath, “Still unconscious. Maggie has barely left her side for a second.”
“Is Chad okay?”
Victor nodded, “He has a broken leg, but that’s all. Melanie got the brunt of it.”
Phillip shakes his head, “Poor kid though, what a terrible place to be in. Worrying about someone you love like that, and blaming yourself.”
Victor sighs, “I know.” He pauses, looking at his watch, “I didn’t realize it was already 7. Are you on your way to Titan?”
“Yeah,” He nods, “Meetings all morning, then I was hoping to take Parker to see mom.”
He laughs sarcastically, “Should have been here earlier. You missed her show.”
“Mom was here?”
His father raised an eyebrow, “With Stefano. He rushed to see Chad as soon as he heard… even though it was his fault that the whole thing happened to begin with.”
“Well, he has a right to see his son.”
“Not in my book. You put your family in danger, you don’t get to play the part of concerned father. He should have shown a little more concern before he made enemies that were going to go after his son.”
Phillip shrugged, “Come on, dad, how could he have really known that someone would do that. You know what the business is like.”
“You’re supposed to protect the innocent… your family and their loved ones. This happens too often… an innocent person gets hurt and the guilty come through untouched. I can tell you one thing… this is the last time a member of my family gets caught in DiMera cross-fire.”
Phillip studies Victor’s expression, “Well… all I can say is you better think it through before you do something that you end up regretting. In the process of trying to protect your family, you could end up getting into the same situation as Stefano, and another person could end up hurt.”
Victor looks up at him, raising an eyebrow.
Near the nurses station, Daniel stands going over Melanie’s chart for yet, another time. Maggie beside him, she rests her elbow on the nurses’ station counter, placing her hand to her head.
Daniel sighs, “You know… you should really..”
She looks up, “If you tell me to go home one more time…”
“Okay, I won’t say it,” He retreats, “But I will say that if Melanie wakes up and finds you in a bed down the hall… I can promise you she’s not going to be happy.”
“I’m fine. Just a little headache. Nothing a couple Advil won’t fix.” Maggie sighs and looks up at him as he puts his arm around her, “When is Carly getting in? Should I have Victor send a car?”
“Um… yeah I guess that would probably be good. Her flight should be landing shortly.”
She nods, “Okay, I’m going to call him and let him know then…” She starts to head away from him.
“Thank you.” He turns towards her, “Hey…um, mom?”
She turns quickly, “Yeah?”
He sighs, “I…just want to…” He pauses, “I really don’t know what I would do without you here.”
Her eyes fill with tears, “Daniel...”
“I love you. Thank you.”
She nods, “I love
you.” She takes a deep breath and turns back, walking away. She wipes her tears as she makes it around the corner. She and Daniel had come a long way, but it still took her breath away when she heard those words from him. She had worried for so long that they would never get to that point, and now it’s almost second nature, but she will never take it for granted. She sniffles her tears away and dials her phone, leaning against the wall, waiting for an answer, before hearing Victor’s voicemail, “Hi, it’s me. I just wondered if you could send a car to get Carly at the airport. Her plane should be landing soon. Call me back.” She hangs up her phone and is startled by a hand on her shoulder. She turns to find Miranda standing beside her,
“Oh, Miranda... Hi.” She forces a weary smile.
“How are you doing?”
She nods, trying hard to keep her tears at bay, “I’m fine, honey. Thank you.”
“I just finished my shift, I was hoping I could stop and see her before I went home.”
Maggie reached out, brushing Miranda’s hair from her face, “Of course you can. She is so lucky to have such a sweet friend.”
Miranda sniffles her tears and shakes her head, “No… I’m the lucky one.” She looks up at Maggie, her eyes brimming with tears, “She’s like my sister. You know, neither of us ever had a sister.” She smiles, “She’s the closest I’ll ever have to a relationship like that. I love her so much.” She chokes up, unable to hold back her emotions.
Maggie takes Miranda in her arms, hugging her tightly, “She loves you too…”
They pull away, Miranda wipes her tears, “I’m sorry… you should not be comforting me like this.”
“Nonsense.” She smiles, “Don’t even think about it… It helps me to know that there’s all of this love surrounding Melanie. She needs it now more than ever.”
Miranda nods as Daniel approaches from behind Maggie.
He smiles, “Hey..”
Maggie turns around, her arm around Miranda.
Miranda smiles, “Hi, Dr. Jonas.”
“Call me Daniel… please… you’re my daughter’s best friend!”
She holds back her tears at his words and nods, “Okay.”
He addresses Maggie, “Did you get a hold of Victor?”
“Um.. well I left him a message. I’m sure he’ll get it and make the arrangements right away.”
He nods, “Good. She just texted me and I don’t want her to have to wait, you know?”
“I know.” She looks at Miranda and back to Daniel, “Um, honey, is Chad still in with Melanie?”
“I’m not sure… I think he just had to go down to physical therapy, why?”
Maggie smiles, “Miranda just wanted to see her…”
“Oh!” He smiles, “Come on, I’ll go with you,”
She smiles to him and turns, hugging Maggie one more time, “Thank you.”
Maggie nods as Miranda walks away with Daniel.
Maggie watches, leaning against the wall she cries softly, holding her hand with a tissue to her face.
Victor approaches from the hallway behind her, “Maggie…”
She turns, wiping her tears, “Hi! I just called you.”
He kisses her, holds up a bag, “I had Phillip bring you some things to take a shower if you wanted to… and clothes to change.”
She nods, “Thank you.” She takes a deep breath, losing her balance for a minute, she steadies herself with the rail on the wall.
Victor grips her arm, “Darling… are you all right?”
“Fine. I’m fine..” She looks up at him, standing up straight.
“You really need to get some rest. And when was the last time you ate something?”
“I’m not tired or hungry.” She takes the bag from his hands.
“Maggie…” He warns.
Her eyes shoot through his, “Victor, I’m fine. Listen… Carly needs to be picked up at the airport.”
He nods, “I’ll call and have a car sent over. But, will you please just at least sit and rest for a minute?”
She rolls her eyes, “I am so damned tired of everyone telling me to rest! I am fine…” She pauses, “It’s Melanie who isn’t.” She chokes up, her anger turning to tears, “She’s lying in that hospital bed and there is absolutely nothing I can do to fix it. I don’t need to rest. I don’t need to eat. I just need my granddaughter to be all right.” She cries as Victor wraps his arms around her, “I just need her to be okay…”
Victor kisses Maggie’s head, “I can’t imagine what this is like for you. Melanie is such a strong girl… so full of life. So much like you, and we both know that you would fight as hard as you could to come back to everyone you love.” He pauses, “I know you are trying to be strong for everyone else. But I’ll make a deal with you- I won’t get in your way of taking care of everybody else, as long as you let me take care of you.”
She nods, looking up at him, “Okay.”
He kisses her, before she leans back into the embrace.
A little while later, Daniel looked at his watch before entering Melanie’s room, he opened the door and found Maggie seated in the chair beside Melanie's bed, with her eyes closed. As he shut the door, She opened her eyes, startled slightly she looked over at Melanie, only to see nothing had changed.
She looked up at Daniel, wearily, “How is she?”
He leafed through her chart and sighed, “The same, they are monitoring her brain activity intermittently. She isn’t getting any worse, though, and the swelling is way down.”
“The baby?” She questioned.
"So far so good," He nodded, “The ultra sound technician should be here in a little while, though.”
Maggie sighed and leaned back in the chair, crossing her legs. Daniel was observing the monitors and the IV’s when the door opened slowly. They both turned to see Carly enter the room cautiously.
She sighed and shook her head at the sight of her daughter; she looked to Maggie and Daniel, “Hi…”
Maggie got up to greet her as Daniel hugged her first and she immediately began to cry.
After they broke away, Maggie stepped up and choked back her own tears, “She will be so glad to see her mom here when she wakes up.”
Carly nods, having a hard time staying composed as Maggie hugged her. They broke away as Carly looked to Melanie and walked over to the bed, pulling up the stool and taking her hand, kissing it, “My babygirl…”
Daniel and Maggie observe before turning and walking out of the door.
She brushes Melanie’s cheek with her hand, her own tears flooding her face, “Melanie, sweetie, it’s momma…”
Is Melanie pregnant??
This chapter got kind of long and probably could have been broken into 2 parts but, as I said, I'm anxious. LOL