Mad Woman✓

27. Battle wounds

It was my season for battle wounds, battle scars, body bumped, bruised. Stabbed in the back; brimstone, fire jumping through. Still, all my life, I got money and power and you gotta live with the bad blood now

   JOE

My eyelids are heavy but I manage to slowly open them. My entire body feels heavy, but the pain is dull. Barely there. I slightly tilt my head to the side. My sight is blurred, but I see her. Her eyes are closed, her chest rising and falling evenly.

Next to her is another woman. Dark hair. She is asleep too. I think I remember her from that night...

"Thank God, you're awake. I was starting to get worried." Suddenly there's a face in front of me. An older man. Fifties.

John.

"How do you feel?" he asks, shining a light into my eyes.

"Sleepy", I say, "How's-" "She's good. Tired, but fine. Unharmed. Worried about you is all." "And-" "They are in prison. And they're never ever coming out of there ever again." "Good." I close my eyes again and doze off.

When I open my eyes, everything is less dizzy. Less heavy. More painful.

And Taylor is looking at me, getting up the second my eyes open.

"Joe", she says, carefully putting her hand on mine. "Taylor", I smile.

"How do you feel? Are you in pain? Do you need anything?" she asks softly, her eyes closely inspecting my face, my eyes.

"I feel like a truck drove over me. Like, eight times. But I'm fine besides that."

"Ah", she breathes, then softly chuckles. She still looks worried.... But her face relaxes a little.

"Excuse me.." A woman walks to us. A nurse, I think. She has a stethoscope around her neck and wears a white coat. Her hair is up in a tight bun, "I am going to check your heart and lungs, is that alright?"

I nod and let her take the blankets off my chest. It's cold in here.

"Where are we?" I ask, not recognizing the room we are in. The place doesn't look like a hospital either.

"We are in the nursing wing of my mother's house. My mom's best nurses have been fixing you up and the best surgeons....." she falls silent for a moment before she softly continues, "We are back in New York. Patrick is here too. Your mom couldn't come but I have been visiting her every few days."

I sit up, a little too quickly. "Don't sit up, sir", the nurse warns be before carefully pushing me back down. "Mom? Patrick? Where is he?"

"Do you want me to get him? I think he's in the kitchen downstairs." "No.... No, I'll- I'll see him later.. First I want..... What happened?"

She tells me how her father, John, Selena and the police saved me. When she mentions Jasna, I frown.

"Jasna Bishop?" I ask her.

Her eyebrows raise, "You know her?" "She was my assistant back at the office", I say. Taylor smiles softly, "John really had it all planned out." She continues telling me how Selena, her best friend, her father and John dragged me to the van, then on the plane.

We have been back in New York for about two weeks now.

"So it's really over?" I ask Taylor.

She nods, "It is over. The police are convinced that they tried to set me up for all the.. for what happened to my exes. Especially when they saw what they were doing.. doing to you.. I feel kind of weird, though.... I feel like I should be in prison. Maybe not with them, but I need some kind of punishment too.. It's not completely fair. I still did what I did."