Count On Me - Sequel (Laughing into Love)

Chapter 24: The Damage

When Lenny's phone rings with an unknown number he doesn't hesitate to answer "Lenny Fairchild, Assistant to Brian Quinn. How can I help you?" He says, having something to write on already out and in his hand.

"Hello. This is nurse Griffold at a mercy hospital. I have you on file as first contact for Brian Michael Quinn in case of emergency, is that correct?"

Lenny pauses where he walks, not caring about the many pedestrians trying to get around him. He confirms the women's comment "yes, is everything okay?"

"Mr. Quinn was in an accident. He's currently in surgery. Are you available to come to the hospital for further information?"

"Of course, you said Mercy hospital?" He looks down at his notes, a habit of writing everything down coming in handy at the moment.

"Yes, please ask for nurse Griffold and I will assist you further." She says.

"Yea, I'll be right there." He returns and hangs up. He scans the road for the nearest corner to catch a cab and gives him the location of his destination. Once on the route to the hospital he dials Melanie. When she picks up he barely even lets her get out a hello before shouting "Q's at mercy hospital. I'm not sure what happened but I'm on my way!"

"Oh my god, what? Okay. Yeah. I'll head over right now. I'm actually with Sal right now so he'll be coming to!" Melanie's voice is high and in a panic, as she worries about what's wrong with him. When she hangs up with Lenny she explains to Sal "Brian's at mercy hospital. We have to go."

"What? What happened? He asks but is already standing from his seated position to head out.

Melanie tells him the information she knows, which is nothing "just that he's in the hospital and Lenny is on the way there."

"Shit. Should we call his parents?" He asks, getting out of his houses front door.

She shakes her head "I don't know!? Is it bad? Or like a kidney infection or some shit?" Melanie's head races with questions and she knows she needs to calm down. She begins to recite in her head "he's fine. He's going to be fine. It's nothing serious. God wouldn't take my mom and my fiancé away from me all in one year. It's fine."

Sal can tell she's zoned out as he asked her twice if she's okay and she didn't answer either time. He just tries to keep a good speed to get them both there quickly.

"Melanie, over here!" Lenny calls over Sal and Melanie once he sees them walk in.

Melanie quickly asks "have you talked to them yet? What's going on?"

"He's alright, he's in room 306. The nurse let me back there and I was there when he came to. He's waiting to see you." Lenny hurriedly tells her.

She exhales heavily, knowing it doesn't matter what happened just as long as he's okay. "So, I can go see him?"

"Yea, we'll wait here." Lenny smirks and gives her arm a quick squeeze.

Melanie pulls him into a hug "thank you."

"I didn't do anything" he responds in a whisper, not sure why she would thank him.

She answers "he wasn't alone when he woke up."

Lenny and Melanie share a smirk of gratitude and she heads to the nurses station to explain who she is and who she is there to see. The nurse explains the simple directions to her and she nods, confirming she understands. Melanie heads through the double doors further into the hospital to find Brian. When she gets to his room number, she doesn't even knock and walks right in. Brian is laying in the bed, eyes closed and tears instantly sting her eyes. He's still a bit bloodied and totally bruised. His eyes are closed and she assumes he's asleep. She begins to walk forward but her cries stir Brian awake and he mutters as he opens his tired eyes "hey babe, I'm sorry if I scared you."

"no, it's okay. I'm just glad you're okay." She grabs his hand and squeezes it tight and he tries to reciprocate the same, only being able to lightly tighten his grip around her smaller hands. She leans down to kiss his lips and they kiss for a few moments, her tears falling down onto his face. The door opening to his room the only reason they stop, and she pulls away moving to introduce herself to the doctor who just walked in "Hi. I'm Melanie, Brian's fiance."

"Hi Melanie, I'm glad you are here. Brian is actually pretty lucky to be awake and alert. He suffered a pretty serious head injury among some other injuries." The doctor informs her, then formerly introduces himself "I'm Doctor Leo. Please, take a seat." Melanie does as he says, but slides the chair over to be at Brian's side. The doctor goes to the end of the bed and looks over his chart and starts to explain. "When Brian came to us he was alert but confused. After looking over his injuries we determined we had to put him under a local anesthetic. We stitched his hand with 24 stitches and 13 over his left ear. We did scans and x-rays to determine if there was any internal bleeding. We determined his kidney is severely bruised. A few of his ribs are either broken or fractured. We put a split on his left leg. We are going to keep him over night for observation, however, when he is released he will be on bed rest. If you need help with insurance or finding a nurse to help you out over the next 6-8 weeks I can refer you to our hospital social worker."

Melanie, listening intently the entire time he explained his injuries jumps in "no, I'll take care of him. Just tell me what I have to do."

Dr. Leo smiles kindly and says "I will have a nurse explain everything before he is discharged. As of now, do you have any immediate questions you need me to answer?"

Brian shrugs one bruised shoulder to answer no but Melanie hums out "uhmm, no. I guess. Just that, well.." The doctor and Brian wait patiently for her to find the words she is looking for. She finally says "so he's going to be okay?"

Dr. Leo smiles again and expresses "we still need to keep an eye on him but like I said before, he's very lucky. We see much worse injuries when people come in from accidents like this."

"Thank you." Melanie stands, moving quickly to hug the doctor before he could refuse.

When she lets go he heads to the door and says "a nurse will come in shortly to go over a few more things in detail. I'll see you tomorrow for a check-up before discharge."

"Hey, doc!" Brian calls out before he leaves the room entirely. The doctor looks behind him and at Brian. He asks "how's the other guy?"

The doctor tells him "not a scratch on him."

Brian hums lowly "thank God." He knows the accident was his fault and he's been sick to his stomach about it since he came to from the anesthetic and remembered what happened. He needed to know if the person who hit him, because of his own recklessness was okay. Now that he knows the other driver his physically okay, he can sort of breathe, even with broken ribs.