That Girl Next Door Ch. 06a

Cynthia set about getting everything ready for a big country style breakfast. She sprayed PAM on the waffle iron then plugged it in. She mixed up batter for waffles then set about cooking bacon. While the bacon was frying up, the waffle iron extinguished its power light on the lid indicating that it was finally at the proper temperature for the batter to be added. She got the first waffle started while she continued working on cooking up the full package of bacon. Cynthia estimated that with three hungry mouths to feed and one of them male, that fixing several slices of bacon would be pointless. Once the entire package of bacon had been cooked, she used the leftover grease to fry some hash brown potatoes. She preferred her own eggs Sunny Side Up, but knew from past history that Roel liked his Over Well. Becky would eat hers scrambled, so the eggs would be the last thing that Cynthia concentrated on fixing.

After she had pulled the gallon jug of Orange Juice out of the fridge and set it on the table with three clean glasses and plates, she eased over to the living room and knelt beside Roel as he slept on the couch. She gazed at his sleeping form for a few minutes while feeling all domesticated from her own activities of this morning. As she brushed his bangs back off of his forehead, she thought to herself, 'I wouldn't mind doing this with this man on every weekend morning for the rest of my life.'

Cynthia had once, in a brief moment of brilliance, come up with the idea of waking a former boyfriend with a french kiss. It was a horrible idea in retrospect, but like the saying goes 'hindsight is 20/20'. The last time she had tried this, the guy had woken up coughing and choking on his own saliva plus the additional drool that Cynthia had contributed to the cause. It was a bad memory.

The moment seemed right for her to do the same thing again here in order to jumps-start something with Roel. She thought to herself, 'I have waited long enough to be with this guy, gawd damn it!' Cynthia wasn't about to let this opportunity slip through her fingers. But having learned her lesson last time, she did not use her tongue. She leaned over and brought her lips to Roel's as he slept. Gentle nibbles and sucks on his lips brought him awake.

Roel was caught totally off guard and jerked slightly as he began to wake up. Also when he opened his eyes, he could not focus well enough to identify his attacker. However, since Rebecca was an auburn colored red head, the mass of blond hair obscuring his vision gave him a solid clue. Roel had also been holding a torch for Cynthia but neither one of them knew that their attraction was mutual. In this instant, that lack of communication was going to radically change for both of them.

Reacting purely on instinct, Roel slipped his fingers through Cynthia's hair to reach the base of her neck. Once he found his grip he slipped his tongue into her partially open mouth, tasting a hint of the mint from the toothpaste she had used that morning. Roel was 'swinging for the fences' and Cynthia was 'all in'. As the endorphins kicked in and both of them experienced a feeling of pleasure and happiness, they both moaned into each other's mouths as they continued to deepen their kiss.

They probably kissed for a full minute and a half before the need to breathe finally overcame them. When they broke their kiss, Roel only shifted his position enough in order to press his forehead against Cynthia's. Both were breathing heavily, but neither was gasping for air.

"Where in the hell have you been hiding for all of my life?" Roel whispered to her.

"I was about to ask you the same thing," Cynthia sighed. Then she giggled.

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Having had her sleep briefly interrupted in the early morning hours by Nurse Bridges, Jessica finally became fully awake around 9am. Her mother and father were still groggy, but they were sitting upright and nursing Styrofoam cups of coffee from the nurses station. Jason was awake, but he was just picking at the sausage and egg breakfast that had been delivered to him. He didn't yet have much of an appetite.

Jessica got up and staggered into the Water Closet and washed her face. The hospital had provided a cheap plastic toothbrush with a valet sized tube of toothpaste for Jason to use. There would be plenty left for him to use even if she borrowed some herself, so she helped herself to these items in order to attend to her own maintenance. Jessica was guessing that they would send her brother home either later today or early tomorrow.

Once she had freshened up some, she took a moment to speak to her parents about her credit card. Her mother and father had opened a second account at Discover that was linked to their own. Jessica was the primary user on the account, but by co-signing, her parents were also users on it as well. The bills were all sent to their home in Satsuma so that Mr. And Mrs. Stewart could pay them.

They never doubted for a moment that Jessica would ever violate their trust, so she was free to use it for any emergency that happened to come up without warning. They quickly agreed that the current situation was unusual and urgent enough that their daughter could certainly use the card to feed herself at the hospital cafeteria or a fast food joint nearby.

The food from the cafeteria at the hospital was actually pretty good. It wasn't as good as some place like Luby's^® or the Piccadilly^®, but she had tasted far worse fare at other places. But she had an idea that she wanted to bounce off of her brother before she left the premises in search of sustenance. She quickly scanned the room to double check for strangers and to be certain that the door was securely closed before she approached Jason and gently placed her hand against his cheek.

"Com'ere you," she said softly as she turned his face towards her own. Jessica leaned over the edge of her brother's bed while being careful not to disturb the bedside tray table with his food on it. Their lips met and Jessica slipped her tongue inside of Jason's mouth for a soft intimate kiss. "I love you, babe!"

"I love you too, honey. Look, I'm so very sorry that I put you in this position. I can tell from the bags under your eyes that you have been worried sick about me. I'm sorry, Jess."

"Hey, hey, hey! You stop that nonsense right this instant mister! I have heard from a dozen different people about how Becky's life was in mortal danger and she might have wound up dead if you hadn't been a real man and stepped up to do your duty. I am bursting with pride right now!

"You're a big hero in this town, Jason! Whenever the news is broadcasting your story, I get to point to the television set and proudly announce that you're my brother! My own flesh and blood family! Trust me, I am getting my own high off of your good deeds right now. I'm getting a kick out of being famous by association!"

Jessica kissed her brother passionately once more. Jason had closed his eyes every time that his sister was kissing him square on the mouth, but he suddenly remembered that their parents were present in the room. This time when they ended their kiss, he looked over to where his parents were standing nearby, side by side with one arm each hooked around the other spouse's waist. Jason cleared his throat then grinned sheepishly.

"Yeah, I'm still not used to the fact that you two are not freaking out over Jessie and me being in love. Don't get me wrong, it's cool and all. But it still feels strange no matter how wonderful it is."

"You know what son," Mr. Stewart responded, "even though the rest of the world frowns on what the two of you share, I personally would rather have you kissing each other instead of fighting and being at each other's throats."

"I totally agree," Halona chimed in.

Jessica pointed to Jason's breakfast tray before asking, "Are you hungry and the food is no good? Or is your appetite shot to hell?"

"I'm kind of hungry. But this isn't very inspiring for some reason."

"I feel ya bro," Jessica said. "I was just fixing to go out for some breakfast of my own. I was kind of leaning towards going to Whataburger for some Chorizo and Egg tacos. They bring them back every October, so they should be available right now. Does that sound better?"

"Oh hell yeah!" Jason exclaimed.

It was just about that time that the beautiful surgeon who had seen to Jason's care knocked on the door before entering, her arms filled with three aluminum fold-over clipboards³, one each for the three patients she was checking on in this wing. After she opened the door to Jason's room and rounded the corner, she first noticed the parents in the room. That wasn't unexpected, but she had not been prepared for the change of the guard. Then she saw Jason's sister that she had spoken to the previous evening and that recognition put her back at ease.

"Hello," Dr. Michelle Adams greeted the four people before her. "I'm Dr. Adams. I was the attending on duty when Jason arrived in our E.R."

"Hello again," Jessica said as she approached Michelle. "You spoke to me and my friends yesterday after you finished patching up my brother. I can't thank you enough for saving his life. I would have been so totally devastated if we had lost him...I don't have the words it would take to accurately describe what it would have done to me." Jessica took her free hand and held it briefly in both of hers as a sign of appreciation.

Jason was studying his doctor and could not get over just how beautiful and stunning she was. She was probably in her late 20s or early 30s, but even so she could have walked away from her medical career and become a supermodel. In fact, she bore a slight resemblance to Cheryl Tiegs when she was about the same age, or 29 to 30 years old. Jason was off in a trance and did not notice that his doctor had addressed him directly.

"I'm s.s.sorry," Jason stuttered. "I wasn't paying attention."

"I asked, 'how you are feeling today?'" Michelle repeated with a chuckle.

"I'm doing better than I was earlier now that most of the drugs that you pumped into me are wearing off. When I first came to, I had a pounding headache and my whole upper body was sore and stiff."

"I don't think that we are quite ready to take you off of the IV just yet. We want to be sure that you are getting plenty of fluids back into your body. It also makes it easier to inject a fast acting pain blocker if you become uncomfortable. We're going to hang onto you for a little while longer just to be sure that you are healing up as you should be. But you can probably go home sometime around noon tomorrow or shortly there after. Have you ever had Tylenol 3 with Codeine in it?"

"When he was 15," Halona said breaking into the conversation. "He sprained his ankle very badly while ice skating at The Galleria in Houston. Our General Practitioner gave him a prescription for that and he was off of his feet for a whole week."

"Any adverse reactions to it?"

All four of the Stewarts responded together by shaking their heads 'no'.

"Good then," Michelle said as she turned back to Jason. "I'll give you a script for the same thing then so that you will have some oral pain killers with a little extra kick to them. But I want to keep you on bed rest for the next five or six days at least. If you're on Codeine, then no driving or operating machinery. Understood? If you do not use the entire bottle, and you probably won't, then flush the remainder down the toilet. Got it? Don't do anything stupid like selling it or sharing it."

"Thanks Doc. I promise to do just like you asked."

"Oh, I wouldn't go thanking me just yet, young man. Your father here is probably going to shoot you and put you right back in this bed all over again when he receives my bill!" Michelle laughed. Everyone else in the room joined in with the humor and chuckled along.

After the doctor took his blood pressure manually and listened to his heart beat with her stethoscope, she announced that she was done for the moment and departed to continue her rounds. Jessica left with her in order to fetch her brother something better to eat.

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To be continued...

Dramatis Personӕ

a) Jason Alexander Stewart - The main character of our story.

b) Jessica Anne Stewart - Jason's little sister.

c) Halona Stewart - Jason and Jessica's mother. (When I first began writing this, I had planned on just referring to all of the parents as "Mr & Mrs So-n-so". But the need to name the mother became apparent as she is now playing a larger part in the story than I had originally figured in my initial outline. Chances are pretty good that I will be adding names to the other members of the Stewart and McLaughlin families as the story progresses.)

d) Melanie Rose McLaughlin - "The Girl Next Door". Jessica's childhood BFF and now Jason's fiancé.

e) Rebecca Renee Broussard - While Jason had dated girls during High School, Rebecca was his first and only girlfriend at College. Six months after they began dating, they found a one bedroom apartment that they could afford and moved in together. They had been a couple for a little more than two years, but broke up at the end of April just mere weeks before Jessica's 18^th birthday.

f) Roel Luis Hinojosa - Jason's best friend. They met for the first time in the sixth grade when Roel catches three juvenile delinquents trying to steal his sister's bicycle at school. He takes on all three but is quickly overwhelmed. Jason and some friends in his Boy Scout patrol arrive in the nick of time and save Roel from serious injury while also aiding in preventing the theft.

g) Cynthia Marie Combs - Rebecca's best friend. She develops a crush on Roel after they meet for the first time. During this part of the story, fate lends a hand as she and Roel find themselves both simultaneously unattached for the first time since they met.

h) Brooklyn Bridges, RN - Jason's nurse who develops a crush on her patient, which is a big taboo in the Health Care industry.

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Appendix F(a)

1. "The Dead Parrot Sketch" was first performed by the comedy troupe Monty Python's Flying Circus in an episode that aired on December 7^th, 1969. The principle actors appearing in the sketch are Michael Palin as the shopkeeper and John Cleese as one "Mr. Praline", a recent customer of the shop. These same two comedians have reprised their rolls numerous times over the years and even altered the original lines several times with ad libs. If you perform a search on Wikipedia for more information, their article about this particular skit is very detailed and superb.
2. Florence Nightingale Effect (paraphrased from TVTROPES.ORG) - Maybe it is because they are so cute when they are lying there helpless. Maybe it is because we really want to feel loved and protected when we are at our most vulnerable. First Aid is intimate. You have to lean in close to see the wound as you apply anesthetic to it. Narrowly escaping a life-threatening situation can certainly heighten your emotions. Whatever the case, patients can and sometimes do fall in love with their caregivers. The reverse is also true. When the caregiver is a medical professional like a nurse or doctor, it is considered highly unethical for them to take action on those feelings. Doctors are advised to avoid becoming infatuated with their patients and to also clearly rebuff any overt advances. Having sex (or any other kind of romantic liaison) with a patient or one of their family members is considered a punishable breach of medical ethics. There is even a line in the Hippocratic Oath that specifically addresses this. The purpose is to prevent the Nurse or Doctor from abusing their position of authority in order to coerce sex from their patients.
3. Fold-Over Clipboard. If you have never seen one of these, I will give you a brief description here. Typically, they have two flat aluminum plates that are probably 9"x11.5" so that they are slightly larger than a standard sheet of paper. The two plates are joined on a common spine, sometimes with a coil spring mounted on it to hold them in a closed position. Especially if the spine has extended ends so that the clipboard can be dropped into a file box for storage at the nurses station. The spine usually serves double duty being designed to also serve as the jaws of the clip gripping the documents inside and holding onto them. An internet search for "Aluminum Medical Clipboard/Chart Holder" should produce a photograph of this item for you if the description doesn't help you picture it in your mind.
4. The Boy Scouts of America has a series of ranks that are issued to individuals based upon the objectives that they have completed. In order from lowest to highest those ranks are: Scout, Tenderfoot, Second Class, First Class, Star, Life, and Eagle. Becoming an Eagle Scout is prestigious because of the difficulty in achieving all of the required objectives for that rank. It requires not only a huge amount of community service and physical fitness, but the knowledge obtained through earning all of the required merit badges is pretty much equivalent to earning a bachelor's degree in college.