My Guardian Vampire

Though they did not tell me why, I was apparently staying the night-or day by the time they decided, whatever it was- and had the PICC line put in. During the daytime, due to us renting a room without a window-strangely enough not the only one in the hospital- Mike, Tré, and Gerard stayed as they pleased. Mike and Tré decided it would be best if they stayed with me in shifts, one in the room protecting me while the other catching some sleep and eating at their home. Mike had the first shift with me. It was daytime, but looked like night as all the lights in my room were shut off. Gerard and Mike were dozing lightly in their chairs on either side of my bed.

Rosemary had come into the room to check on my PICC line when I decided to get some answers.

“Rosemary,” I whispered, “why are they keeping me here? I know hospitals like to send their patients home ASAP to keep free beds, so they obviously wouldn’t be keeping me here if there wasn’t a problem. I don’t get why they aren’t telling us.”

“Well…” she trailed softly, her mouth twisting as if battling on itself. She then sighed as if losing a battle. “I’m sorry. I can’t tell you, and that’s mainly because they just don’t know yet. It’s stupid, but it’s in part because they know you’re rich.”

I looked at her with my eyes wide, extremely surprised. She sighed softly again.

“I know, it doesn’t make that much sense. But they’re not going to let a patient with big bucks leave so soon, at least not until they’re extremely, two hundred percent sure of what is wrong. Big bucks equals big lawyers that could sue the hospital. If you find out early, you could also switch out early to another hospital, and they’d lose money. But they’ll be taking the very best care of you until they do find out what is wrong, you can bet on that. They figure if they take such good care of you, you are much more likely to donate a chunk of your cash to the hospital; it’s all about money. It’s just the way hospitals work, unfortunately. And I could lose my job for even telling you this.”

“Thank you Rosemary, so very much,” I said, and placed my hand on hers. “But…if you could lose your job over it, why are you telling me this?” She smiled at me warmly, and used her free hand to pat our two hands.

“I like you, and I’m sick of them, anyways. All I can tell you at this point is that you’re scheduled for a sonogram to look at your baby after lunch. I’m not too sure what that means. Most likely, they just don’t know, and are looking everywhere for answers.”

“Thank you Rosemary. It’s so good to know. Is there anything I can do for you at all?”

“A good review would be nice,” she smiled, and chuckled quietly.

“The best,” I agreed.

“I’ll tell you more when I can. Get some rest, they should be sending up lunch soon.”

“Thanks, Rosemary,” I said again. She smiled and slipped out the door before shutting it. I nodded off after a few minutes, and it seemed like I had only closed my eyes for a moment before a knocking on the door woke me up. Gerard and Mike sat up, startled.

“Lunch,” a person in scrubs said, walking in. He turned on the lights, making all of us shield our eyes.

“Sleeeeeeeppp,” I groaned. “Not lunch.”

“Lunch first,” the man smiled. “Gotta keep your energy up!”

I winced, allergic to cheeriness this close after waking up. He put a folding tray and secured it to the bed, placed the tray with food on top of it, and went back to his cart.

“Eat up!” he ordered, and shut the door behind him.

“Ugh,” Mike groaned loudly. I smiled at him.

“Gerard, could you shut the lights off again please?” I asked. Gerard nodded sleepily and stumbled over to the lights, shut them off, and did another drunken walk back to his chair. Mike yawned.

“Mike, you’re tired. Do you want me to call Tré?”

“No,” he said sluggishly, “gotta do my duty.”

I laughed at his slurred speech.

“C’mon Mike, go back to sleep at least.”

“Order,” he mumbled. My eyes widened.

“Shit!” I cursed. “Mike! Helllooo!” I reached over and shook him. “How do I take it back?!”

“Try telling him to wake up,” Gerard suggested, and yawned.

“Uhm, Mike, wake up please.”

“No please, remember?” Gerard said, seeming to wake up a little. “You have to say it again.”

“Mike, wake up.”

Mike awoke instantly, alert.

“What? What’s up?”

“Oh God,” I said, clutching my heart. “I thought you were going to stay asleep forever for a second there. I didn’t think you could hear me while you’re asleep.”

“Yes, I can, and thank you for waking me up. I need to stay awake.”

“Nooo,” I sighed, resting my forehead in the palm of my hand. “You need to sleep. Please, I won’t make you, but please sleep.”

“No can do,” Mike said, shaking his head. “I feel really awake now.”

“Fine. I won’t order you,” I sighed.

“Thank you,” Mike smiled. “Now you should eat up. Look, they brought you...”

“What is that?” Gerard asked. I looked at the menu.

“Caviar?” I read aloud. “Why they hell would they bring me caviar? No way in hell am I eating this. This could probably pay for three people’s hospital stay alone.”

It wasn’t a little amount of caviar, or caviar alone. There were fruits and cheeses and crackers and other things I could not identify. They gave me containers of caviar, enough to last the three of us a week if we ate it night at day. Rosemary was sure as hell not wrong about them trying to impress us.

“Is there something wrong?” a man said, coming in. He was wearing a clean and pressed labcoat, making him seem both very important and obviously not part of any actual life-saving around here.

“Yes, sorry. I think this got sent to the wrong room.”

“Oh, nono,” the man said. “My name is Robert Regard, and I am one of the sub-heads of the hospital. I’m here to make sure everything is all right and that you are satisfied. Is there anything I can do for you?”

“Mind kissing our asses a little more?” Gerard muttered. Mike and I laughed.

“No, Mr. Regard, I-”

“Please, call me Robert.”

“Robert,” I sighed. I did not like this man very much, and decided to be straightforward. “Listen, Robert, I know it’s your job to do this kind of thing. To impress us. But the Caviar is way too much. I don’t even like Caviar, and I think the money of the hospital could go to a better place, as say, oh, I don’t know, the patients, for one. I thought it was weird I never got to even order my lunch before they had given it to me.”

“My apologies,” Mr. Regard said. It did not feel right calling someone that looked to be my parent’s age a name I would call a friend, so I was at least going to refer to him as such in my head. “What would you like instead? Chicken cordon bleu? Caesar-”

“A hot dog would be nice, Robert. Just a regular hot dog.”

“Oh,” he said. “And to drink? We have a good wine list-”

“Uh,” I said, and looked sideways to Gerard. “I’m pregnant. So I think a coke would do.”

“Are you sure?” Robert asked, as if I was rambling.

“Yes,” I said. “Certain. Please, can we get this fancy crap away?”

“But-“ Robert said, and sighed. “Very well.” He then walked out.

“If I see one garnish on the goddamn hotdog-” I yelled, and got cut off by Gerard and Mike laughing.

“I love you,” Gerard said, and gave me a kiss on the cheek. I laughed.

“So,” Mike said quickly, “now that we’re up, I think that as soon as the sun goes down we should leave to go find Damien.”

“Wait!” I interrupted, really not wanting them to go, especially without me, “I’m having a sonogram soon…Tonight. You have to stay, please? It’s my first.”

Gerard looked at Mike pleadingly, and he sighed.

“Fine. But right after.”

“Thanks Mike,” I said, smiling. I opened my arms for a hug, and he came over and hugged me.

“Life is good when Mike is willing to give a hug,” I laughed. Mike laughed also and let go.

“Excuse me, I have to call a nurse,” I said, and picked up a phone. Rosemary had given me her extension.

“Hey Rosemary, it’s Al-Lilly,” I said. “You know how I was getting the test right after lunch? Is there any way I can change it to after dinner?”

“Ali!” Mike said. “Oh, that’s just not fair.”

I grinned mischievously.

“Thank you so much Rosemary. I’ll see you later. Bye.” I hung up the phone, and looked away from Mike’s eyes, a little kid caught in the act of lying.

“Sorry, Mike,” I said, giving a small laugh. “I really don’t want you guys to go. You should never risk yourself for me, stupid obeying rule or not.”

“Ali,” he laughed, “I’m doing this because I’m your friend, obeying rule or not. I know you would do the same for me.”

I mumbled some curses, pissed that he was right. He laughed again.

“So,” he said, changing the subject to help me save face, “Are you guys gonna know?”

“Gonna know what?” Gerard and I asked simultaneously.

“Are you guys going to know the sex of the baby?”

Gerard and I looked at each other, eyes wide.

Shit.