TNP 20 "Plans Were Made"

A Chapter by dw817

Nancy wants me to tell a different story than what actually happened, and there is a payoff to this, the question is, where do my loyalties lie ?

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THE NANCY PRINCIPLE

My time in working for the government during the Savings & Loan Crisis of 1990 with a beautiful
woman who took care of absolutely everything for me in my employ. And I mean EVERYTHING.

© August 2013 Written by David Wicker
Please do not reprint without permission

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CHAPTER 20 - PLANS WERE MADE
* * *

This chapter is Rated: TEEN

It was the next day when I finally re-awoke. Rose was still there but both Dad and Tricia were also beside my bed again in separate chairs, and arguing still, apparently over legalities and issues of money compensation.

Rose ignored them completely and instead reading a magazine on vampires and the undead, her favorite.

Suddenly a nurse arrived to break up the two of them. "You're the Father ?" she asked my Dad.

He nodded.

"YOU can stay." she said pointing to him.

"And now who are you ?" she said turning to Tricia with her arms crossed angrily.

"I'm Tricia, I'm his supervisor at work and I brought him here." she said trying to sound official and important.

The nurse pointed that finger again, "You - can GO !" and then stepped between the two of them ending whatever argument, debate, or conversation that could have continued. Dad coughed out a laugh. Boy she was a serious nurse !

"Dr. Wicker," Tricia told my Dad carefully, "I'll be in touch." and held out her hand in a friendly gesture.

"Okay, miss." Dad said but didn't shake her hand. He also didn't have the same crispness as Tricia. I think it was just setting in him that I could've gotten hurt or killed in the fall.

He sat down in a chair. My Dad was over 50-years at the time and age was not treating him well. Tricia looked over her shoulder as she walked away.

"All bark and no bite." she muttered under her breath hurrying her steps to the elevator, but he didn't hear her.

Dad only sat for a minute when a doctor approaching him motioning him to stand.

"Dr. Wicker, can I speak to you for a moment ?" he said. His voice sounded concerned.

Dad stood up in an instant, "Certainly, doctor. What's the problem ?"

"Your son, he ahhm ... " and he couldn't continue and instead, showed him a medical chart.

He quietly explained, "We gave him a quick test, similar to an MRI to see if there was any brain damage in his concussion. Tell me, have you ever had your son tested under these conditions for these -ahhm- inconsistencies ?"

Dad got mad again and standing raised his voice at her, "Yes he was tested earlier and YES I know what you saw and what you're asking about and NO he didn't get that from falling and NO it's none of your goddamned business !"

My Dad was shouting quite loudly on the last statement.

The doctor stepped back a moment and you could clearly see his eyes were wide with surprise at the sudden outburst from my Dad. This was apparently a sensitive subject.

"Dr. Wicker, he could - " the doctor began in a tone which I had heard so many times before - and my Dad would have nothing to do with that.

But the doctor, seeing he was going to get nowhere with this, stopped his 'requests' when my Dad suddenly got up and walked away to the restroom to get away from the implications he was suggesting.

The Dr shrugged it off, then he walked into the shared room to see Rose was there holding my hand. The smile on her face beaming up to him warmed him compared to the cold reaction he had earlier with my Father.

"Well now." he said in his best Doctor's voice. "And how are you doing young man ? And this is your Mother of course ?"

"Better." I said quietly. "Rose brought Susan." and then I peeked the covers a bit to show my Teddy Bear. The fact that I was in my 20s introducing him to a stuffed animal made him twitch his eye a bit at this. Wasn't I supposed to give this sort of thing up when I was younger ?

Ah - but the Dr didn't know my history or why they were so important to my sanity today.

Then he paused on something else, "You said her name was - Rose ? I thought this was your Mother ?" I knew why he was saying this as Rose had an easy 20 years on me at the time and if she was a date of mine, that might appear odd to someone who had walked a straight line all their life.

"Oh no." I said, "Not really. She's my NEW Mother." adding emphasis on the last two words and I finished the sentence as if that was completely satisfactory and hugged Susan to emphasize as Rose gave me a nice kiss on my forehead to confirm the statement.

The doctor looked at me for a moment to see if I was trying to deceive him and clearly, I wasn't. My girlfriend was also my Mother. It was hard to explain but there it was.

"That's fine." he said losing some of his friendliness in his voice to be replaced by confusion and stepped back a bit.

Then he got official and 'policy-oriented' to her, "Now then miss, if you are not direct family, I need to ask you to leave now. Visiting hours are over."

* * *

"Awww !" I complained.

Rose smiled at me, "It's okay sweetie. I promise I'll be right back." and then to the doctor, almost a little angrily, "Yes, I'm his girlfriend and I have been for a few years now. Is there a problem with that ?" and she smiled sweetly to the doctor baring her teeth viciously to show, that unlike my Dad, she was all bite well before any bark.

The doctor's face screwed up in a frown. Something was clearly amiss here. I could see this was getting sticky so I added, "My Real Mom isn't allowed to see me anymore, Rose is BOTH okay ?"

The Doctor, determined to not let this odd fact phase him returned back to his friendly-doctor voice, "Ah ! That's alright then."

Just then a big fellow entered to stand beside Rose. For all sakes of appearance it might've been Hagrid from the movie Harry Potter, were it not out yet, with an exceeding growth of beard and mustache that weaved in a complex pattern over his face.

Just as port and just as tall and bushy but exceedingly handsome nonetheless, like Santa Claus but with a darker beard.

He didn't speak to me, but nodded to Rose.

"May I ask who you are then ?" my Doctor directed to the big fellow as he was rather intimidating all by himself towering over the diminuitive doctor.

He spoke in a deep but friendly voice, "I'm Jimbo, I'm her husband, doctor."

The doctor was definitely not getting this. "But HE just said that ... !" and pointed at me but but couldn't continue the sentence. I smiled back with total naivety of his confusion.

Rose cleared it up, "It's okay, sir, my husband, HE, BRINGS me to see Dave so we can get together. He knows all about our little arrangement, don't you ?" and she looked to her husband for confirmation of that odd fact.

"Yessir !" I said when he didn't answer, and I squeezed Rose's hand who was still holding mine and I gave Susan a gentle hug, my Teddy Bear with the other.

Jimbo nodded his head to confirm that fact but didn't speak further. While it was clear he did this, it was also clear we were not -exceedingly- good friends. And one didn't have to think too hard on that.

I remember we once talked in private when Rose herself was in the hospital from a stroke she had back in January, and what he said made sense, "I would rather she was with you then some of the 'other' guys she's been running around with."

"Why is that ?" I asked innocently.

"You're harmless." he concluded, and I always did feel good about not being obtrusive or in others' ways or being a bad guy.

At this point the doctor looked very well like he himself needed a doctor right now and that one eye of his was twitching like mad as his brain tried to figure out the myriad mess he was just told about all of us.

I was dating a woman, married, for years now, the husband brought her by to see me, and she was both my girlfriend AND Mother and - heaven knows what else !

Dad had returned from the bathroom but from the friendly look on his face, it was clear that he also knew of the unusual arrangement me and Rose had, and shook her husband's hand warmly.

"Sir." my Dad said to him. Jimbo was clearly the tallest person in the room so everyone had to look up to him.

The doctor, not wishing to get back into an argument with my Dad (and perhaps to get himself a cool drink of water to clear his head) hurriedly left, apparently extending visiting hours to all of us.

"I just heard." Jimbo said to my Dad, almost apologetically as if it were his fault or at a level he wanted it to be because of what happened.

"I'm sorry it happened." he said simply. He was definitely a man of few words but had a kind heart if the truth be known.

Dad returned to my side. It was clear from the look on his face he wanted to probe me deeper about what 'really' happened but with Rose by my side, he didn't want to upset me.

I was going to show my Teddy Bear, Susan, to her husband as I doubt he knew of the affection or importance I had for them when the same strict nurse we met earlier re-entered glaring at everyone.

"And just who the heck are you !? What did I just get through telling you ? Come on now ! Visiting hours are over !" she demanded, apparently not intimidated by Rose's husband's size.

"Sorry." he said gruffly and left the room not wanting to explain. Then she saw Dad on one side of my bed and Rose on the other. This was not the first or last time people would mistake Rose for my natural-born Mother.

The nurse's voice softened and she clasped her hands as if it were a sign of perfection, "Oh. Now you have your parents here, everything is alright. We'll have dinner in about an hour. Anything in particular you want, honey ?"

I wasn't about to correct her on who Rose was at this point. There was enough confusion already so I skipped it, "Yeah, ahhm ... Something chicken-fried-steaksy, cream gravy, french-fries, the works ?"

* * *

"That's a big appetite !" she said and smiled at me. "I don't know if the doctor wants to give you such a big meal yet with what you've been through, let's see what I can do."

And with that she left.

Now, my Dad was never ever fond of Rose, but the ONLY reason of that when I really questioned him one time about it was because Rose was married. That was the only reason !

Wayne, 48, whom I dated when I was 17, my Dad said he clearly wished I was still dating him, rather than date a married woman. Can you believe that ?

Anyways, it was obvious I wasn't gonna follow the norm in life, especially if I got tricked into doing it, which is what happened with Rose (and she's still proud of what she did), and usually I just smiled and let life happen around me without really questioning why or worrying if my boundaries were violated.

That made life more interesting I thought, to never complain about stuff and let people show and do things to you, whether it seems right or not. How else are you gonna learn about life ?

So both Dad and Rose stayed. Dad kept trying to change the conversation back to what 'really happened' and Rose kept turning the conversation back to talking about the girls I met at work, apparently a bit jealous now knowing they were all about my age and she was quite aware she was rapidly approaching 40.

Sure enough, the nurse arrived an hour later with what was clearly a chicken-fried-steak dinner as requested, but the meat was cut and a good half of it was missing from the plate.

The nurse looked at me, "If you're still hungry kiddo. You can have some ice-cream, but that's as far a menu as you get on your first day here. We're still wanting to run some further tests and examinations if we can."

Dad got defensive again, "I thought he just fell down the stairs and needs stitches ? There doesn't need to be anymore testing !"

The nurse stood up to Dad, "Sir ! Your son split his head wide open on the landing of those stairs ! We will keep him here as long as we see fit and we will run whatever tests we want to ensure his health and recovery !" and with that she huffed out the room.

I ate my meal in silence and read one of my pick-your-own-path books, TSR did a great job of writing those, and my favorite author was still Rose Estes. Dad read a 'hospital' magazine provided on the rack.

Rose had her classic Fangoria magazine and salivated over the vampires, ghouls, and monsters in it. I grimaced at her and she looked up with a toothy smile for me. Yeah, she was like that.

It was about 10pm at night, I was getting tired, and my head, despite what work was already done on it still hurt. I called the nurse on the push-button thingie in my mechanical bed and she arrived promptly.

"My head - hurts." I said simply to her.

"Well I can't imagine why !" she admonished and laughed as if it were a joke.

"Yeah." I said uncomfortably.

"Here, I'll get you something for that. You need to sleep now anyways and we're moving you to a single room in the morning. Are you two going to stay the night ?"

My Dad got up and stretched. "No, I need to work tomorrow myself. You'll take care of him, nurse ?"

"As if he were my own." the Nurse said but immediately tried to bite it back from the harsh look of Rose who looked like she was ready to bite into her.

"That's my job." Rose growled, and got up from her seat to talk to her husband who was still sitting outside, reading a technical journal now.

The nurse arrived several minutes later with a small white pill on a tray. My head was really splitting, no pun or figure-of-speech intended so I took the pill and at once the pain went away, as well as my consciousness, and I knew no more ...