Count On Me - Sequel (Laughing into Love)

Chapter 26: Going Home

Two minutes after the doctor leaves, Lenny comes into the room "good news, I did everything I needed to and I saw that hot doctor on the way out. You're clear to go home!" He smiles wide and opens his arms likes he about to twirl.

"Whooh" Brian mockingly chimes in, causing all of us to chuckle "ow, don't make me do that."

"Sorry. Here I have everything in this bag from your car." He puts it on the end of the bed.

Brian quickly thanks Lenny, not wanting to draw any attention to it "Thanks. Hey, after we get in a cab to go, why don't you take the next few days off. You really helped me out doing everything today."

"You are not taking a cab home, I have my car here." Lenny objects "but I wouldn't mind taking a few days after getting you into bed."

"Perfect. Let's get a nurse in here to help me out." He smiles, wanting so badly to get home and lay down in his own bed.

Melanie leaves to find the nurse and Brian asks Lenny to put the bag of personal belongings on the seat of the wheelchair he is taking with him. Lenny does as is asked and the nurse and Melanie return to the room. The nurse explains to the two of them how to help Brian in and out of bed, in and out of the chair. She explains standing for long periods of time will be tough for awhile so he should not be showering but bathing. He can't move his body enough to clean himself so he'll need help. Lenny jokingly comments "if you need me to take care of your sponge baths, you know I'll be on the clock for that."

Brian knows he's joking but returns "luckily I have my fiancé for that, but I'll keep your number on speed dial."

"I'll hold my breath waiting for the call!" He beams, but moves so Melanie can get behind the chair and push him out of the room. They stop at the front desk for a few more details about home care and to get the number of who to call about the bills that will soon be coming.

After they get outside, Lenny gets his car to the front and everyone helps get Brian into the car. Melanie sits in the back with him as Lenny puts the wheelchair in his trunk. Once at the house, it takes 20 minutes to get him up his front house steps and into bed. Lenny asks if there is anything else he needs from him but Brian and Melanie both assure him they are fine and that he can have off till Monday. He waves them goodbye and skips out of his house. After a few moments of silence, Melanie whispers into the air "I'm so glad you're okay. I was so worried."

"I'm sorry I worried you" he hums back, clearly tired and about to fall asleep "I love you, you know that, right?"

"Of course I do. I love you, too." She says back, but she can already tell he is asleep.

He wakes up a few times in the night, and Melanie has to help him around 6 in the morning to the bathroom. As they head back to bed after, she texts his parents letting them know to come by around 10, that she'll make sure he's up and ready to see them for a bit. She drifts back to sleep next to Brian, their hands on top of one another. Melanie wakes up again before Brian and stands up slowly to stretch. She's got about a half hour before his parents come. She grabs her phone and a pair of clothes to change into. After changing and brushing her teeth, she reads the text from Lenny "hey, we left his bag of personal belongings in my trunk. I didn't know if anything in it would be important over the next few days so I dropped it off. I put it on the side table by the door. Let me know if you need me, but if you don't need me that's grand too 😘"

Melanie responds back with a thank you and a thumbs up and heads to grab the bag and put it away. She brings it to the kitchen table and drops out all the contents. It's paperwork for his car, his now broken phone and cable, some other random papers all scrawled about the counter. She starts to organize them and sees an eerily familiar envelope among the belongings. When she turns it over, she's shocked to see her fathers handwriting on it. It's the same letter she threw away, only it's not in the trash and it's open.

Melanie loses all sense of control and storms into Brian's room yelling "WHAT THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH YOU ?! YOU TOOK THE LETTER FROM MY DAD AND YOU READ IT?"

He's stirred awake but can't understand why she's yelling at him. What did he do? The doctor said he would be disoriented when he first woke up, and this must be what that feels like. He tries to speak up "Mel, I don't know what you're talking about. Hold on."

"No. Why'd you do that? Why would you open that letter?!" She cries loudly.

He shakes his head "I don't know what you're talking about. Can I have a few moments to wake up?" He asks.

"Fuck you!" She yells at him, turning to leave his room and get away from him. Although she wants to storm out of his house she knows she can't and has to stay to take care of him. At least until his parents come and maybe offer to help. She can just accept the help saying she has work to do for Sal. That won't solve her problem but it will get her some time away from Brian to really figure out how she's feeling about this. She waits impatiently at the kitchen counter, in front of the letter for his parents to arrive.