Page 15 of Revived

“Oh, thank God!” Chevy exclaimed as I walked into his room.

“The hot nurse is back!” His brother teased.

“I can send the mean one back in, instead,” I told the younger boy. “Behave!”

Kendra laughed again. “I really like you, Mel. You don’t take shit off of anyone, and you manage that without being a bitch.” My smile was the only response that I could muster. Theirs was the type of family that was always a joy to work with.

“How are you feeling today, Chevy?” I asked.

“Better, but there’s still a lot of pain.”

I glanced at his chart to see that he had not self-administered any more pain meds. “It says here that your previous nurse had to give meds when you nearly got sick from the pain?” I questioned. Chevy shrugged slightly while looking a bit shame faced. “Why didn’t you just take your pain meds?”

“I thought I could handle it.”

“When you let your pain build too big, it takes more medication to knock it back down and then you’re in that gross, foggy state from the first day all over again,” I admonished. “Not to mention the fact that being in so much pain causes further complications and actually slows healing.”

“I’ve heard stories about people getting addicted and I don’t want to turn into a rock star cliché before I ever even cut a record.”

“How about we make a deal?” I asked him. Chevy nodded, so I continued on. “I’ll make sure you get weaned over to a different type of pain meds and never have to face addiction, if you promise to discuss your concerns with me from here on out so that you don’t end up causing yourself more harm than good, okay?”

“Does that mean I get to keep you as my nurse?”

“As long as you need me,” I assured him. Once again, I turned to see Gabe was in the room and watching our whole interaction.

5 - Nursemaid

“Mel, do you have a few minutes?” The far-too beautiful nurse turned to look at me, as did my son.

“You’d think my dad was your patient,” Chevy teased as she finished checking over the bandaging on his leg. Mel smiled and asked if he was feeling well enough for her to go see what was up. Chevy said something too low for me to hear and sent his nurse on her way to me.

Once we were out of the room, I asked, “Is everything okay with him?”

“Yes, he’s looking good. He has nice color, stable vitals,” she offered up what I realized was a pretty rote response from her.

“My lawyer is here. He wanted to speak with the both of us. It won’t take long,” I tacked on the last as she turned to glance back at my son’s room. There was a rosy hue to her cheeks and those beautiful eyes of her glimmered under the harsh fluorescents that seemed to leech everything else of its shine. It was becoming a daily battle to avoid staring too long, hanging on her every word, and being so obvious about it that my son’s family noticed.

“Okay, let’s do this.” Mel backtracked a bit and opened Chevy’s door slightly. “If you need me, I’ll be right here at the nurse’s station. Yell or hit your buzzer, okay?”

“Got it,” Chevy agreed quickly, and Mel waited for his response before moving back over to the desk where my lawyer waited for us.

“We’ll have to do it here so that I can still keep an eye out,” she informed me as Ian moved closer.

“Mel, this is Ian Blackwell. He represents me personally and also handles the band’s interests.” Ian stuck his hand out, as if to shake Mel’s, but she ignored it.

“No offense, Mr. Blackwell, I avoid shaking hands while on duty. It helps keep the germs at bay.” For some reason, I thought maybe Mel was lying. I remembered her shaking other people’s hands when offered. It made me wonder if it was just Ian who bothered her, or lawyers in general.

“None taken,” Ian informed her as a genuine smile slipped in place on his face, despite her snub. “My client, Gabriel Northman, made an offer to the hospital to staff you for the duration of Chevy Kendrick’s stay, as well as to come live with him during his at-home recovery process. There was a substantial bonus pay of $150,000 for the year on top of your normal salary.”

Mel glanced over to me, puzzlement in her eyes. “That is not what was explained to me or laid out in the contract I signed.”

“As Mr. Northman made me aware,” Ian confirmed. “They planned on only coughing up $20,000 of your $150,000 bonus to you and keeping the rest. It’s criminal and I have documents being served to those responsible parties as we speak. We would like to rectify this mistake by-”

Ian was cut off when the elevator doors opened and the hospital’s Chief of Staff, along with two security guards, stepped onto the floor. “Melanie Gusterson, you are officially suspended from duty without pay, pending an investigation into breach of contract with Lee Harvey Meadows Memorial Hospital.”

My lawyer grinned. “That was a shit move on the hospital’s part,” he said. “Melanie, you have nothing to be concerned over. Stay right there with Gabriel while I get this sorted.”

“Actually, Melanie is being escorted off the premises,” the prick told us with a particularly dickish gleam in his eyes. “You should be familiar with how that works considering you had Sophie wrongfully removed from the hospital recently.”

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