Chapter 110 - The Only Way I Find You Is To Close My Eyes

"And we're back.  In the studio tonight we have Mandy Thompson, she is the critical care nurse that cared for Monica Bongiovi after the hit and run tragedy that her and her husband,  Jon Bon Jovi, suffered on their wedding day.  Welcome back, Mandy."

"Thank you."

"Are you ready to pick up where we left off?  You were telling us that you and Jon would watch TV in an empty patient room on nights that you were working."

"That's right."  Mandy mumbles, swallowing the gulp of water that she had just taken, "We did that and other things quite often.  He was there for weeks, if you remember right."

The DJ nods his head, "I remember, I remember.  What else would you and Jon do?"

Mandy wanted to talk, she wanted to tell the world the story that only she could share, "Jon and I were close.  We spent alot of time together, in the hospital and out of the hospital.  Like I told you, he has been to my house."

"Where else did the two of you go?  Did you ever meet the rest of the band?"

Mandy kicks back in her chair, tucking her hands behine her head, "Not formally."

"What does that mean?"

"I said hello to all of them when they would visit Monica."

"All of them?"

"Yes.  I would be in there taking care of her and they would show up."

"What were they like?"

"They all were very worried about Jon and Monica."

"How do you know that?"

Mandy laughs at the DJ, "It's obvious that they were stressed about the situation.  Hell, Richie is her best friend."

"Did he tell you that?  Richie, I mean.  Did Richie tell you he was her best friend?"

"No.  Jon did.  But it was clear that Richie was really worried about her."

"How so?"  The DJ leans into his microphone, "Was Richie there more than he should have been?"

Mandy laughs, loudly, "How much should Richie have been there?"

"Does Richie have a thing for Monica?"

"No.  She is like a kid sister to him.  And why are we talking about Richie?"

The DJ was a little put off by her response, but she's right, "Okay, let's get back to your relationship with Jon Bon Jovi."

"Okay." she's ready, the attention is focused back on her, right where she wanted it.  "What else do you want to know?"

The DJ pauses for a moment and takes a sip of his Coke, "Well, why don't you tell us how it is that you became intimate with Jon."

Mandy smiles and sits up in her chair, trying to give the DJ the image that she's confident in what she is about to say.  "How we became intimate?  Don't you mean when was it that we first had sex."

"Yeah, that's what I mean.  But please try to remember that we have a young audience, so I ask that you keep it all G rated."

"Fair."

"Okay, tell us when and where you were first intimate with Jon."

Mandy looks at her fingers, admiring her nail polish and how well she painted them, for a radio show.  She looks under the tips of her nails and rubs her palms together, "It started one night in the hospital.  I was settling Monica in for the night, I brushed her hair and teeth before I put a clean gown on her."

"Was she awake?" the DJ asks, with an urgency in his voice.  Mandy shakes her head no while scowling at him, "Then why would you settle her in for the night?

"It was doctors orders."

"To brush the teeth of a woman in a coma?"

"Yeah.  It was told to us that Jon demanded that it be done because if she was at home, that's exactly what she would do."

"Seriously."

"We had strict instructions and if we ever deviated there would be hell to pay."

"From whom?"

"Jon."

"Go on, please."

Mandy takes another moment and gathers herself a little more, her leg is bouncing as it drapes over her other leg, "Well, I was putting her things away in the bathroom and Jon came up behind me and started kissing the back of my neck."

"And you let him?"

"Wouldn't you?  Have you looked at him?"  Mandy thinks that she's funny, "I don't know any woman that would turn him away."

"With his comatose wife in the next room?"  Mandy can hear the mild  disgust in the DJ's voice, but that didn't stop her.  

"Yeah." she states and stops.  Mandy and the DJ have a stare off, only being broken because there isn't supposed to be dead silence on the radio.  "You didn't turn his advances away as Monica lay there practically dead?"

"Are you judging me?"

"Well it is pretty bad, if you think about it."

"And this interview isn't?" she snaps back at him.  She wasn't going to have some DJ at a dying radio station judge her based on the relationship that she had with Jon.  "This interview is pretty shady and underhanded, what makes you better than me?"

The DJ inhales deep and slow, exhaling just as slow.  "I'm not judging you, I just think that that is pretty cold - but whatever, please continue."  He shifts in his seat again, "What happened in that bathroom?"

Mandy's smile gets bigger as she is taken back to that time, in her mind.  "I went weak in the knees and could not resist him."

"So you had sex in Monica's bathroom?"

"We did."

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As she listens to her life unfold and the blanks in her memory to be filled in, Monica watches Jon kick rocks across the parking lot of the abandoned gas station that they stopped at.  He's wearing a Tshirt, ball cap, tight jeans and his most favorite pair of Converse.  She notices the tension that he's carrying in his shoulder and she can see the stress and the uncertainty on his face.  But she doesn't care.  The words that she is listening to jab her in the heart and with each one, it goes in even further.  Her heart is racing, about as fast as her thoughts are and she can't stop listening to the craziness that is coming out of the speakers in her car.  "What's the matter, don't you want to listen to this?" she barks at Jon, "Hurry up, it's about to get good.  She's telling the fucking world that you fucked her in my bathroom, as I lay there asleep."

"Stop."

"No Jon, no.  Come listen to this.  Let her fill in your memories like she is mine."

"Monica!" he stops and look over to her, "Stop."

"NO JON, come listen to what this crazy bitch is telling the country about you, about us and about how disrespectful you were as I laid there unable to be a wife to you."

"That's enough Monica."

"Is it Jon?  Is that what you told Mandy Thompson when you were at her house, when you were making fun of me in my room or did you tell her enough was enough when you were fucking her."

"God damn it Monica.  Stop."

"Fuck you!"  she turns her attention back to the built in radio, giving it all of her attention.  She is in a state of shock, on the verge of mental chaos.  Jon pick up where he left off, kicking rocks, when he seen that she was no longer watching him.  He isn't sure what he should do, what she needs him to do or what the truth is for that matter.  His memories are spotty and he's convinced that there must be a reason.  Was this it?

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The DJ can sense that Mandy wants to go into great detail, but he can't let her.  He needs to keep her reeled in so the interview doesn't spin out of control.  "What happened after that night, the night that you were in her bathroom?"

"Happen?" she questions.

"How did Jon treat you after that?  Did you guys talk about what happened?"

Monica gently shakes her head no, but the smile never leaves her face.  "I finished my shift and went home, soon after I finished Jon." she winks at the DJ and he can't find it within himself to smile.  "The next day was my day off, so I didn't see Jon until the day after that."

"How were things when you seen him again?"

"Fine.  He seen me in the hallway and lured me into a janitor closet."

"For what?"

"Well, he kissed me and told me that he missed me."

"Jon did?"

"Yes."

"And then what?"

"After he kissed me and told me that he missed me, I started my shift and did my job."

"Was Monica part of your job then?"

"She was my first patient of the night."

"What happened between you and Jon when you went in to give her care?"

"Nothing at first.  He would wink and smile at me while I gave her her medicine and changed her feeding tube."

"That's it?"

"Believe it or not, her care came first."

"For who?" the DJ raises his own eyebrow and gives her a look.  A look that she perceives as he's not believing her at this point.  "in whose mind did she come first?"

"In mine."

"You're telling me that her patient care trumped your affair with Jon Bon Jovi?"

"That's exactly what I'm telling you."

"Are you for real?"

"I am.  I became a nurse to help people and I took my oath very seriously."

"But not serious enough to NOT sleep with a patients husband?" the DJ is in shock, he can't fathom how one can be good and the other not.

"Jon was my patient too, so I guess you can say that I slept with a patient."  Mandy, again, thinks that she's funny and starts to chuckle.  "What's the big deal?"

"Can you see how your story may not ring true to some that are listening to this?"

"I don't care who believes it or not.  I know that it's true."

"Okay, what happened next?" he rest his head on his hand and continues, "Tell me how it come about that you had this mini affair with him while his wife was in her coma.  How were you able to be in public with him and take his picture?"

"He loves his picture taken."

"How were you able to be out in public with him.  He's a famous musician that gets noticed when he's in public."

Mandy is getting bored with the questions that are nonsense.  She wants to talk about sex, about being with Jon and in her mind - she wants to share the fact that she won, that she had Monica's husband - even as she lay there on her death bed, with it being touch and go in the beginning.  Mandy wants to get out all of the sorted details, all of the top secret information, but the DJ is asking her stupid question.  "I provided him with a disguise.  He always wore a cap and sunglasses, with his hair tucked up.  No one knew it was him, except my best friend."

"And who is that?"

"Her name is Stevie."

"Is she from Las Vegas."

"We worked together at the hospital."

"And she knows about your affair with Jon."

Mandy nods her head and locks eyes with the DJ, "She knows so much in fact, she walked in on us one time when we were going at it at my house."

The DJ didn't see that coming, didn't see that at all, "Your friend Stevie walked in on you and Jon in an intimate moment?"

Again, Mandy nods her head, "She walked in while we were making love."  She starts to laugh as she witnesses the looks on the DJ's face change.  It went from shock to a version of disgust, but Mandy didn't care.

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Monica, with her heart in her stomach and her lunch working it's way out of her stomach, she leans over and turns the radio up for Jon to hear.  "Who in the hell is Stevie?"  She screams at him, glaring in his direction.