Chapter 6

His chair was hard and uncomfortable, his head sat in his hands and he sniffed as he whipped his eyes.  Finally the tears had stopped coming, finally his head had cleared from the fog and finally he was able to look at his wife as she lied in the hospital bed.  It was almost like déjà vu, only having been here a week ago but the only difference was Chelsea wasn’t in a coma last week.  Her colour had come back a little and he could now see that she was breathing.  The doctor told him that the fact she was breathing on her own was a good sign but with coma patients she could wake up or she could go down fast. AJ took a deep breath as he stood up and decided to go for a cigarette.  He walked out of the room and down the hallway of the hospital. 

“Alex?” He heard Kevin’s voice as he walked past the waiting room.

He stopped and looked at his friend.  “You’re still here?” AJ asked his voice and eyes showing the stress he was under.

“Yeah, I’m waiting for Mom, she’s coming right here from the Airport.” Kevin told him.  “Where are you going?”

“For a smoke.” He replied as he nodded towards the elevators.

“Want company?” Kevin asked.

“Sure” AJ said with a light shrug.

The two of them walked to the elevators and waited for one to pick them up.  When it arrived they both walked in and waited for it to take them down.  The two men said nothing and stayed silent as they walked off the elevators.  As AJ walked outside with Kevin beside him he dug into his pocket for his smokes. 

“How are you holding up?” Kevin asked as they sat down.

“I don’t know.” AJ mumbled as he held the cigarette in one hand and the lighter in the other.  “I really don’t, all I know is I can’t lose her again, I lose her again and…” He stopped as the thought put a lump in his throat and then he felt Kevin place his hand on his shoulder.  AJ wiped his eyes and inhaled deeply.  He put the cigarette into his mouth and lit it.  Taking a long hard drag he let the stress and anxiety wash away as the smoke blew from his lips.

“Alex” He heard Kevin say and he looked up at his friend.  His eyebrows fell in confusion when he saw the look on Kevin’s face.  “Get inside.”

“What?” AJ said confused but before he could look at what Kevin was looking at his friend stood up in front of him. Then two hands flew past his band mate and grabbed him by the shirt.  Stunned he dropped his cigarette as the momentum sent him crashing to the ground.  AJ looked up and saw a fist coming at him. He tried to see who was throwing the punches at him but all he could do was curl into a ball trying to protect himself from the furry of punches that came his way.  He could taste the blood in his mouth and he could feel his eye swelling. 

Then he felt the weight come off him and he took this chance to scramble away as fast as he could.  AJ looked up to see what was going on just as Kevin was suckered punch by his brother Jerald.  “What the hell man!” Kevin shouted as he grabbed his face but Jerald said nothing as he ran at AJ again.

“Where were you!!?” Jerald shouted.  “Out drinking again?!”

AJ couldn’t answer as another fist slammed against his face and that time he thought he had lost a tooth.  “Get the fuck off him!” He heard Kevin shout and then felt Jerald let go of his shirt.

“Why are you sticking up for him?!” Jerald screamed at his brother.  “Chelsea is in there because of him!”

“Jerald she fell and hit her head.” Kevin said as AJ sat on the ground staring at the two brothers.

“And where was he, out drinking? Just like the times before, he put this stress on her, he did this too her!” Jerald screamed.  “I hope you’re happy!”

“Happy?” AJ thought and then his blood pressure began to rise.  “HAPPY!?” AJ screamed as he got to his feet.  “You think I’m happy my wife is up there in a coma!?”

“Is there a problem?” A man in a puffy blue jacket asked as two more came up behind him.

“My name is Alex Mclean, my wife is in room 304, and I want this asshole escorted out of here.” AJ said as he touched his lip.

“I’m her brother you can’t kick me out!?” Jerald yelled back.

“The hell I can’t!” AJ snapped back.  “You’re her brother huh? Well how about you start fucking supporting her instead of bringing her down.  When she came back what did you do? Jerald. Huh? What did you do? You made her recovery a hundred times worse because it wasn’t what you wanted.  When I was in the accident instead of being there for her what did you do? When we were getting married you had absolutely nothing to do with her.  So tell me Jerald how have you been a brother to her?”

“She is my wife and I will protect her with every breath I have and right now you are not allowed anywhere near her, you got me, no where near her, now get the fuck outta my site!!” AJ screamed and then left the group of people as he walked to the hospital doors.

“Mr. Mclean?” Someone said from behind him and AJ spun around ready to yell at who ever it was.  “You should have one of the nurses clean up your face a bit.” The security guard said.  AJ looked past the man and saw Kevin and Jerald having some kind of yelling match but with the traffic on the street it was a little hard to hear what they were saying.

“Alright” AJ agreed and let the security guard walk him to a nurse’s station.

He sat on a gurney bed as a nurse began to clean the cuts on his face.  It stung a little but his mind was still so furious over what Jerald had done that it didn’t even register to him.  When the nurse was finished she let AJ leave and he got off the bed.  As he walked down the hall towards the elevator he heard Kevin shouting at him to get his attention.  Slowly he turned around and waited for Kevin to catch up to him.

“I mean it dude I don’t want him anywhere near her.” AJ said before Kevin could even say anything.

“I know Alex, that’s fine, you have the right.” Kevin replied. “Are you ok?”

“I’m fine.” He sighed. “Nice shiner” AJ said with a little smile.

“You too” Kevin replied. “I’m going to wait here for Mom, make sure Jerald doesn’t try to put her in the middle of this mess.”

“Alright” AJ nodded.  “When she gets here just send her upstairs.”

“I will.” Kevin said.

When the elevator doors opened Kevin and AJ went their separate ways.  Kevin went back to the front doors and AJ walked onto the lift.  As the doors closed he leaned against the wall as the elevator jerked a bit and then began to take him to the third floor.  His body began to shake and he closed his eyes trying to fight back the emotion that was ready to burst from him.  The bell to the elevator rang and he walked off as the doors opened.  He was lost in his thoughts as he walked down the hall, past the nurse’s station and stopped at Chelsea’s door.  Taking a deep breath he opened the door and walked into the room.  AJ stopped dead when he saw someone sitting beside Chelsea’s bed side.

“Mom?” AJ said a little stunned to see her there.

“Hi darling.” She said with a warm smile.  “The nurse said you went outside for a minute so I just thought…” Denise was cut off as her son wrapped her in his arms and started crying.  “Oh Alex” She frowned and wrapped her arms around her son.  “It’s ok darling, everything will be ok.”

Those were the words he wanted to hear, those were the words he hoped would make him feel better, and just having his Mom here holding him did kind of help a little.  He cried as his Mom held him, he didn’t say anything he just cried.  Letting out all the frustration and all the pain he had been holding inside. 

“Alex?” He heard his Mom say and he pulled away from her and wiped his eyes.  “What happened to your face?” She asked.

“Jerald showed up while Kevin and I were outside.” AJ told her as they both sat down.

“He did this too you?” Denise asked stunned.

“Yeah, he thinks the reason why I wasn’t there was because I was out drinking.” AJ told her.

“And were you?” She asked.

“No” AJ replied quickly almost hurt she would ask that question.  “Why does everyone think that?”

“Well Alex you haven’t been very forth coming with us over the past few months.” She said as AJ took a deep breath trying to calm himself.

“I know, I know but I wasn’t out drinking I swear.” AJ told her.  “I went down to the flower shop to get her some flowers.” AJ said as he nodded to Chelsea.

“Tell me what happened.” Denise said as she took her sons hand.

Taking another deep breath and began to speak.  “I was in my office looking for…looking for hotels because Chelsea and I were going to take a vacation before the group put the finishing touches on the CD and then started promo.” AJ told her.  “The head Detective of Chelsea’s case and Nadia’s case showed up, he told me that with what Chels had remembered they were able to track this woman to Nevada and they were going to go down there to see what they could find out.”

“They found her?” Denise asked a little excited.

“Not really, they talked to family and the ones who would talk said the last they heard this woman and Nadia were in Nevada, so they were going there to follow up.” AJ said.  “Chelsea was sleeping and it was the first eight hours of sleep she had gotten since all these memories started coming back.  So I went down to the flower shop grabbed her some flowers and then came right back home. I went to give them to her and tell her what the Detective had said and that’s when I found her…” He stopped the lump in his throat returning.  “That’s when I saw her on the bathroom floor; the shower was running and…” AJ broke down crying again and Denise took her son back into her arms.

A knock on the door broke the Mother and Son apart and AJ turned towards the door as it opened.  “Mom’s here.” Kevin said as he poked his head into the room.

“Ok” AJ nodded and the door opened further.  As Anne walked into the room AJ stood up.  “I…I think I’m going to try and have that smoke now.”

“Jerald went back to his hotel room.” Anne said with a soft smile.

“Yeah he got grounded by Mommy.” Kevin joked but then he got an angry look from Anne and shut up.  “Can I join ya?”

“Sure” AJ replied with a light chuckle and it felt could to laugh, if only for a moment.