Stay the Night

Chapter 2

August 1st, 2001

"Singer Mariah Carey has reportedly cancelled her appearance on tonight's​ MTV twenty year anniversary special. Her team has continued to decline to comment on her condition."

Janet Arvizo was sitting in the master bedroom watching the news. She was stunned when Mariah was admitted to a psychiatric hospital in Connecticut a few weeks prior. She decided not to call Michael immediately after the incident because she wanted to give him the chance to sort everything out with his family. Now that a couple of weeks had gone by, she decided it would be alright for her to call.

Janet picked up the house phone and dialed Michael's number. To her surprise, he answered on the third ring.

"Hello?"

He sounded exhausted.

"Hi Michael." Janet started.

"Oh, hi Janet." He responded flatly.

"What's going on? I've been watching the news and they've been saying Mariah's in the hospital. I just wanted to make sure everything's okay."

"Yeah, yeah everything's okay. We're all fine, Janet." Michael replied. "Thank you."

Janet nodded slowly, unnerved by Michael's dead tone. "That's good..."

"We should be coming home soon." Michael continued.

Fuck.

"Oh, that's wonderful." Janet exclaimed. "The boys will be so happy to see you."

"Yeah...Well I have to go." Michael said.

"Okay."

Janet hung up the phone and glanced around the room. The bedroom was covered in various shopping bags, receipts, and food wrappers. She'd been making herself at home in the master suite, and now that Michael was on his way back she had to start getting everything back to the way it was when he left. The only problem was that there was so much junk in the room she didn't know where to start.

Damn it!

August 6th, 2001

"Mr. Jackson?" The nurse called from afar.

Michael escaped his thoughts and glanced at the man. For the first time in three weeks, he was going to see his wife--and boy was he at a loss for words.

"Are you ready to go back?" The nurse asked.

Michael nodded and followed the nurse through multiple layers of security doors and personnel. Just before he was allowed back into the patient area, he had to go through a security protocol to make sure he could not cause any harm to the patients, or they to him.

When he finally made it back into the patient area, the first thing he noticed was how un-hospital-like the place looked. In fact, he thought it more of a prison than a place where people went to be cared for.

"Alright, Mr. Jackson, here we are." The nurse informed. "When you're ready to go in, just be careful and aware. This is her first time having contact with any non staff-member, so you need to be sensitive to her disposition."

Michael nodded. "Is there anyone in there with her?"

"Just her doctor, for monitoring. When you go in, try not to make any sudden movements or noises--you don't want to startle her." The nurse advised.

Michael, palms sweating, placed his hand on the door handle. He slowly turned it and let himself in.

August 6th, 2001