Monday, February 22, 2016

Chapter 111

Lexie came fully awake, as the bottom dropped out of her stomach.  This must be what was hanging over her all day.

“Officer Davis, has something happened to my daughter?”  Lexie put her phone on speaker and got out of bed. Slipping on her shoes, she grabbed her purse as she listened to the officer explaining what had happened.

“Miss Bongiovi was brought just brought in and we got her contact information from her cell phone.  Seems she was attending a party on campus, and was found unresponsive by her friends, who called 911. The doctor is checking her out now, if you will hold for the nurse, she will explain.” Officer Davis told her.

“Officer Davis, can you tell me why you’re calling me?”  She picked up her phone and started out the door and ran smack into Jesse.

“Whoa mom, is everything alright, I heard you on the way to the bathroom.” Jesse grabbed hold of her as she leaned into him.

“Miss Bongiovi is a celebrity’s daughter and when they come in unconscious barely breathing, the hospital notified the police and contacts the family. We want to get to the families before the media does.” Officer Davis explained.

“Unconscious, is Steph okay mom?” Jesse asked as he followed his mom downstairs.

Lexie grabbed her keys out of the bowl and turned to Jesse.

“I don’t know Jesse, tell Sally where I am going and call your father.”  Lexie told Jesse as she listened to the officer.

“The nurse has some questions for you, if you’ll hold on.” Officer Davis asked her.

Lexie went down and crossed the street to the garage that held their cars. Plugging in her phone into the Bluetooth she waited on the nurse to come on the line and prayed as she pulled out of the garage and headed to Clinton.

Jon sat on the balcony overlooking the Thames River, sipping his second cup of coffee.  The rest of the guys, he guessed, where still sleeping off the booze after their late night bar crawl.  While he woke up at the crack of dawn and did paperwork.  Getting up he headed back in to fill his coffee cup and turned on the television on the way to the room service cart.

“A former hair band front man’s daughter was rushed to the hospital with a drug overdose, more to come up?”  Said the news announcer just as his cellphone went off and the room telephone rang, not a good sign.

Noticing that the cellphone call was from Jesse just solidified that the hair bands front man was him.  Grabbing his cell he sighed a little prayer that he was wrong.

“How bad is she Jess?”  Jon asked as someone banged on the door to his suite.

“Mom just got a call from a police officer in Clinton and she’s headed there.” Jesse told his dad as he went to tell Sally what was going on.

“Does she know what she took?”  He went to the door and peaked out of the security peep eye. Seeing it was Obie and Matt, he let them in the door and held his finger to his lips for them to be quiet.

“The officer was turning the call over to the ER nurse as she headed out the door.  She told me to call you and tell Sally what was up.” Jesse told his dad as he went back to his room and crawled into the bed.

“I’ll call Lexie, if you hear anything else, let me know.” Jon said as Matt tapped him on the shoulder and held his hand out for Jon’s cell.  Jon handed the phone over to his brother and went to the room phone and took it off the hook to stop it ringing.

“Hey Jesse, this Uncle Matt, you boys stay home from school today and wait for either your dad or me to call.  Don’t open the door for anyone but Grandpa and Grandma, you got that?”  Matt had been in the lobby when the news hit.  He had met with Obie as he got off the elevator.

Jon held his hand out for the cell, but Matt handed him his and went on talking.  He had to talk to Lexie, and Jesse said she had left when he called his dad.  Jon started to go back on the balcony, but the vultures were already out there waiting for a sign of him, he sighed and moved into the bedroom and called Lexie.

Lexie took in all the information and pulled into the all night gas station. As the guy filled her tank, Lexie went into the shop and got coffee and a candy bar. The Nurse had said they’d taken Steph’s blood and were waiting on the lab results. The nurse told Lexie that there were no old or new needle marks on Steph’s body, so whatever she took had to be by mouth or inhaled.  Lexie got back into the car she drove about a mile down the road when her cell when off again. It was Matt, she shook her head.

“Matty, I’m about an hour and a half to Hamilton, does Jon know yet?” Lexie sipped her coffee and turned onto the highway

“Lexie, it’s me Jonny, tell me where you are and what the hell is going on.” Jon asked as he sat on the foot of the bed, the television was on across the room with the sound muted. Pictures of them arriving and pictures from outside the small Clinton hospital flashed across the screen.

“All they would tell me she was brought in unresponsive and barely breathing from a possible drug over dose.  The police gave her something when they responded to the emergency call. The Nurse called it Narcan, apparently they give it to all suspected narcotic overdose patients.  Then in the ER they drew blood to see what she took. I’m bringing her home when they release her.”  Lexie told Jon.  “I just hope they don’t arrest her.  This could get her expelled from Hamilton.”

“I’m coming home as soon as possible.”  Jon told her.

“Let me know when you’ll be here. I just had this nagging feeling all day that something was not right. Dorothea and I were talking about it today.”  Lexie told him as she followed the direction that the nurse gave her for the hospital.

Jon was a little shocked that Lexie would discuss anything about her feelings about Stephanie with his ex. They haven’t seen eye to eye on the pot issue and now her feelings concerning Steph.

Lexie couldn’t believe how fast the drive went as she chatted with Jon.

“Listen I’m pulling into the ER and there’s a ton of media people out here. I have to let security know I’m here.  I’ll call you after I’ve talked to the doctor and Stephanie.”  She pulled into a parking space.  “Oh Jon, you better give Dorothea a heads up, she doesn’t want to wake up to this being all over the news and reporters in her yard.”

“I will, call me as soon as you know anything more.”  Jon closed his eyes and said a prayer that this will be over quick.

Security had her park in the employee’s lot and come through the side entrance.  She was taken to a small room off the Emergency waiting area where that was used for grieving families.  She has a long talk with the doctors, who brought her up to speed on the situation. The blood work was back showing that Stephanie had ingested methadone.  The doctor explained it reacted like heroin in the system. It looks like she ingested too much and it acted like a heroin overdose.  She would stay overnight and that the school had been contacted, since she was brought in from a dorm on campus.  That was not a good news, the college has a huge no drug policy. This was the one thing Lexie was afraid would happen.

Walking into the room, the lights were low and Stephanie was in the only bed in the room.  Moving slowly to sit in the seat by the bed, looking at a very pale Stephanie with the covers tucked under her chin. She looked a little like Maddie, her blonde hair spread over the pillow.  Lexie felt tears prickle the back of her eye lids. Blinking them out she reached her hand and touched the hand that lay on top of the blanket, it was cool to the touch.  Bringing her eyes up to Stephanie face, she noticed her eyes were open staring at her.

“Hi, how do you feel?”  Lexie asked softly,

“You came?” Stephanie whispered. Silent tears rolling down her cheeks.

“Did you think I would abandon you, because you took an overdose of drugs?”  Lexie pulled her chair closer to reach up and wipe her eyes.

“I broke the rules, I broke your rules, and I let Ryan talk me into trying these pills.  I didn’t want to take them, I was only going to try one.  Ryan must have slipped more in my drink.  I swear I only took one.” Stephanie cried harder.

Lexie got out of the chair and crawled into the bed to hold her crying daughter.  She whispered soothing words as she rocked her shaking body.

The nurse came into to draw more blood and to give her some medication.  Lexie held her until she slowly feel asleep.  Waiting till she was sure Stephanie was asleep, she slipped from her grasp and off the bed.  Lexie grabbed her phone and stepped out of the room, walking to the nurse’s station she asked a nurse where she could go to make a phone call.

“There is a waiting room down the hall,” The young nurse told her.

“Is there somewhere more private, I don’t want to advertise we are here.”  Lexie asked again.  The Charge nurse that had come in to work with Stephanie, overheard Lexie request and motioned for her to follow her.  “Thank you.” Lexie whispered as they walked into a small office.

“You can make your call in here, we were told by the manager to be all the help we can.”  Nurse Crandle told her.

“I assume my brother in law, Matt, must have called. He runs the security for my husband and the family.”  Lexie smiled.

“Yes, he called before you arrived.” Nurse Crandle told her.  “I have put in for a breakfast for you from the kitchen, I can’t say its top of the line, but the coffee is better than the sludge we have in the nurse’s lounge.”

Lexie waited till she was alone, turning off the light so no one could see her through the window.  She lifted the blind and looked down on the photographers outside the emergency entrance.  Letting the blinds drop she went over and turned the light back on.  She noticed she had four missed calls. Two were from Jon, one from Jesse and one from Matt. Calling Jesse first she left him a voice mail.

“Hey Jess, she’s fine, just upset and scared. We might be home tomorrow. I’ll call you and let you know something more after I talk to the doctor.  Give the Trio a hug for me and make sure your brothers know everything will be better soon.”  Lexie closed off the call and debated on which call the make next.  Matt’s voice mail was short and to the point. Don’t talk to anyone and his men would be there tomorrow at the hospital to keep them safe.  That only left Jon, his voice mails were the about the same as Matt’s.  Checking the time she took a deep breath and called Jon.








Wednesday, February 3, 2016

Chapter 110

“Mom, it’s not what you think.” Jesse blurted as he turned to face Lexie.

“What I see is you two kissing.” Lexie put the mail down with her bag and went over to her chair and sat down.

“Well, I guess it was what you were seeing but, not why. Sal has been helping me with math class, she had just gone thought it last year. I wasn’t getting the concepts and she’s been helping me to understand it. I just took the pretest and aced it. I was just thanking her for helping me get through it.” Jesse tried to explain.

Lexie looked between Sally and Jesse, Sally quickly added to the explanation. “I had the class last year and I knew if it was hard for me, than Jesse would be lost too.  Mark is the math whiz and taught me and so when Jesse told me he was taking the same test, I showed him what Mark taught me.”

Lexie thought back to everything she had been told about the wonderful Mark, Math Whiz, was not the first thing that came to her mind.  She looked between the two of them and decided that keeping an eye on them, was her new part time job.

There was a noise on the monitor on the coffee table.

“Someone is up from their nap.” Sally made a quick exit.

“Oh, Mom D called and asked you to call her.” Jesse said as he headed to the kitchen.

Lexie got up shaking her head, she got up and grabbed her handbag and mail on her way up to the office. Grabbing the phone she punched in Dorothea’s number.

Getting Dorothea’s voice mail, she started leaving a message when Dorothea picked up the call.

“Lexie, thanks for calling back.”  Dorothea sat at her kitchen table.

“I just got back from dropping Jon off for two weeks.”  Lexie shifted through the mail again.  “What’s up, are we still on for Saturday Girls day?”

“That’s why I’m calling, have you talked to Steph lately?”  Dorothea asked as she sipped her coffee.  “She hasn’t returned my calls for the past two days.”

“Nope, not since we set this weekend up. Jon said he talked to her and she apparently has a new guy in her life.”  Lexie kicked off her shoes and checked the nanny cam on the trio.  “I sent her a text yesterday on my way to a meeting.”

“What does Jon say about this new guy?”  Getting up to fill her coffee cup, looking out at the skyline of lower Manhattan.

“I don’t think he trust him, something about not liking how she hasn’t shared any details, except he’s a little older and lives near the campus.”  Lexie told her as she got up and went to the mini fridge for a bottle of water.  “Has Sarah heard from her lately?”

“Sarah and I aren’t speaking to each other right now. I caught her smoking pot in the house and she informed me I wasn’t her mom, and that I let MY daughter smoke pot but not her.” Dorothea sipped her coffee.

“Sorry to hear that, I know Stephanie and Sarah are friends and I thought she might have heard from Steph.” She opened her water and took a sip. “Well, we’ll see if she returns our call, or blows us off this weekend.”

“I asked Sarah if she was going to go with us and I got a grunt.” Dorothea rolled her eyes.

“Well, I have a question, were we like them at that age?” Lexie asked.

“By the time I was Steph age, I was with Jon and traveling with the band.” She thought back to when she was eighteen, drinking and having sex.

“I was working and putting myself through college, eating peanut butter and dill pickle sandwiches.” Lexie laughed.  “My parents didn’t care, I was a late in life baby of two business people, who didn’t understand my dreams.”

They ended the call with plans to meet at Bloomingdale’s in SoHo. Lexie went to check on the trio and made dinner. Snowball and the puppies were taken care of, homework done and checked, and after a little bit of television, it was time for bed.  She sat in the Trios room, rocking Cullen and watching her daughter’s sleep.  Yes she was worried about Stephanie, she was also worried about her daughters growing up and trying drugs and sex. 

“He’s asleep Lexie, do you want me to take him now?”  Sally asked.

Lexie had been so deep in her thoughts, she hadn’t heard Sally come into the room.

“I’ll do it.”  Lexie told her as she got up from the rocker and put Cullen on his back in the crib.

“Are you still upset about Jesse and me kissing?”  Sally asked her, as she sat down in one of the rockers.

“No, you two are old enough to have a relationship.” Lexie told her as she sat down in the other rocker.

“You just seemed so quiet and upset, I thought you might let me go.” Sally watched how she reacted to her thinking of being fired.

“I won’t fire you, I trust you to not let your romance get in the way of Jesse’s school and the trio’s care.” Lexie gave her the way things were going to be from now on.

“Thanks Lexie, I won’t let you down.”  Sally was close to tears.

“Don’t,” Lexie got up and headed to the master bedroom and changed into her grubby workout clothes and headed down to the kitchen.  Fixing her a cup of hot chocolate she decided to walk up and down the back steps before it got too late.  Checking on Snowball and the puppies she sat on the floor by the little family.

“What am I going to do Snow?  I have this bad feeling that somethings bad is going to happen.”  She pulled Inky onto her lap and stroked his fur, the same way she used to stoke Snowball when she was a puppy.  Leaning back on the wall she thought about this coming weekend and the girl’s day with Stephanie, Sarah and Dot.  This was going to be a new experience.  Putting Inky back with the others, she decided not to work out and instead she took her cup of hot chocolate to the bedroom and grabbed her laptop and propped herself up on the headboard and fired up her computer.

She was writing when she got the text from Jon, that they had landed and were headed to the hotel. He said they were dead tired and he was hitting the bed, and that he would call her tomorrow.

She felt bad for him, he wasn’t feeling too good before he left. The kids had brought home a bug, which had traveled through the whole family, except for her. Setting her phone on the bed she checked the time and went back to writing.

She must have fallen asleep, because the laptop was sitting beside her and asleep. Her cell was ringing and she had lost it in the covers. Glancing at the alarm clock and saw it read two in the morning. Who the hell was calling her cell at two in the morning? It wasn’t Jon, his ring was Thank You For Loving Me. She finally found it when it stopped ringing. She was checking her missed call and it read Clinton, New York. That was where Stephanie went to college, but it wasn’t her number.  Thinking the worst she was about to call the number back when her cell went off again.

“Hello?”  She asked.

“Mrs. Bongiovi?” The male voice asked.

“Yes, this is Mrs. Alexis Bongiovi, how can I help you?”  Lexie sat up and wiped the sleep from her eyes.

“Mrs. Bongiovi, this is Officer Davis of the Clinton P. D., I am at the Clinton Memorial Hospital.”  Officer Davis stopped to draw in a breath.  “You are listed as an emergency contact for your daughter Stephanie Rose.”