Chapter 62

"Gone what you fucking mean its gone?"
the guys all exchanged glances to each other, then Rich spoke...
"we don't know how, but its gone, we have had lawyers working on it twenty four seven, and he stiffed us, the contract is watertight, and cause you is the only one he signed to manage there's nothing any of us can do...."
"that low down fucking lying piece of cow shit... 3 fucking years.... "
"Jon calm down man, its only money, we can make more when your fit enough..."
"Calm down, fuck calm down Rich, I aint getting stiffed by some fuck ass wipe like Doc McGhee... I'll sue the bastard for everything he has...."
"Jon, the contract is watertight."
"what the fuck you on Rich... there are always get out clauses?"
Rich looked down and shuffled his feet, "not when he's sacked there aint."
I looked at Rich like he had lost his mind... "what the fuck do you mean sacked, I aint sacked him, he was arrested for drugs right?"
"Kinda?"
"What the fuck does kinda mean, will someone please for the love of god tell me what the fuck is going on?"
Again the glances passed to each other, "will you all stop fucking doing that?  Dave went to explain but rich held up his hand and again took the lead.
"Ok, sit down though already..."
I was not happy being told what to do, but I sat anyways. "Ok I'm sat and tell me..."
Rich perched his butt on the window ledge and began.
"thing is the night you were admitted to hospital, your mom and pa and us were with you at the hospital none of us knew if you would live or die, your ma asked me what had gone down and I told her what had taken place, your pop listened too and then the shit hit the fan when Doc walked into the hospital arrogant and smoking his cigar... he was all smiles... your pop beat his ass and cutting a long story short both me and your ma fired him. "
"You what?"
"Fired him"
"What the fuck Rich, why did you do that?"
rich was getting pissed, "its like I told you, ok?, we were all worried about you Jon, we didn't know if you would live or die, so why the fuck would we be happy to have an arrogant ass like Doc pacing the hallways being his fuck off asswipe self, he was the reason you were in ER man... Jesus wake up and smell the coffee..."
rich started to pace the room, Teek and Dave spoke up too, "Jon, there's no right and wrong ok man, Rich and your folks did good..."
I snapped, "did they? how you figure that Dave, eh? I am broke... I've worked my ass off for three years to find out I'm fucking broke, I have a family to support and I'm broke, but that's ok, because you all safe guarded my professional integrity..."
Rich spun on his heels and squared up close to me in the face..."
"you arrogant little prick, professional integrity my fat arse, it was YOUR LIFE, ok YOUR LIFE....you know, I don't know anyone that has the loyalty of each other blood kin or not, we all cared about you and took the lead, and ok we are broke but we can move on and make more money, so fuck you for beating up on us for doing the right thing, you should be fucking kissing our feet not ass whipping us... Doc is the fuck here, so do us a favour Jon, direct it at the person responsible not US! " with his last word he turned and walked out of my room, the guys all followed him. I was sat alone pissed and mad with no one to bounce it off...

I waited hoping against all hope the guys would come back, but I was clearly wrong, I had pissed them off as much as they had pissed me off, I rang my call bell and decided to call my ma and pa and speak with them.
The phone was wheeled in, I dialled the number, my ma answered , "hello"
"Ma its Jon,"
"I know who it is, you ok?"
"no, I've got some questions Ma..."
"Questions what kinda questions?"
"about the night I was admitted to hospital,  Doc McGee..."
I sensed my ma had stiffened up by her response...
"Umm what of it?"
"can you tell me what happened?"
"what you wanna know about that night for?"
"Ma please, just tell me..."
"what do you wanna know?"
"what happened when Doc arrived at the hospital, what exactly happened?"
"ok, but tell me why do you wanna know?"
"because ma, its important.."
"he showed up, a totally self absorbed little prick... Rich told us what had happened to you when we got to the hospital, so when he turned up... lets just say things got ugly..."
"in what way ugly ma?"
"look it don't matter does it, your pa, Rich and me sorted it..."
"Yeah?, you think?"
"what's with the attitude Jon...."
"The attitude, ma you have cost me my royalties.... I'm fucking broke because of you and Rich and pop, that's what's with the attitude...."
"I'm sorry, why are we to blame exactly..."
"BECAUSE YOU FUCKING FIRED HIM...."
my temper was raging, my ma and her pussy foot story, was really jacking me off and although I knew I was outta line I could not stop myself..."
"NONE OF YOU THOUGHT ABOUT THE CONSEQUENCES DID YOU?, NOT ONE OF YOU THOUGHT ABOUT THE CONTRACT I HAD WITH HIM?"
I was in full flow when my pops voice came on the phone,
"JON, ENOUGH ALREADY... RESPECT SON..."
I stopped and listened... I tried to calm my voice to speak to my pop, "I'm sorry pop, but I'm broke, I've got a family now and nothing to support them with..."
"Jon, you have money, I took care of it, you have plenty in your bank to see you through, so what's your beef, and maybe you should have asked first eh before  sending flying accusations... Jeez sometimes between you and your ma I'm surprised I'm still able to function."
I was stunned, and stammered down the receiver, "but the guys have been to see me, they have told me the money is all gone nothing left..."
"Have they?, well they have been taken care of too, I guess Rich forgot with the stress of everything, but all is good ok?"
lamely I replied, "Ok, thanks"
but I still needed to know one thing... "Pop, did you beat Doc up and fire him?"
there was silence at the end of the line, finally he spoke, "I wouldn't say beat him exactly... more knock him out.... your ma and Rich fired him... is that all? cause I wanna get back to the game... and Jon... you need to apologise to your ma..."
"Ok, pop, put her on..."
my ma's attitude was evident as she spoke... "what you ready for round two now? cause honestly I'm a little tired from all of this..."
"no ma, I wanted to say sorry..."
"what was that? I must have misheard or something, I'm sure I heard the word sorry? but my eldest don't say sorry?"
"Ok, Ok knock it off ma, I am sorry...."
"So you should be, Jon you really need to hold that temper of yours, you may not fight physically but your tongue is cutting son and hurts more.... so stop and think ok?"
"yeah ok, I'll try..."
"no don't try Jon, do it, and if you spoke to the guys that way time to start on your knees and beg or forgiveness... don't ya think?"
"yeah its good ma I'll sort it..."
"ok, well good night then..."
"Night"
I hung up the receiver, I was full of remorse for my outburst with Richie and the guys, and my folks but I justified to myself, I had good reason.... first thing tomorrow I would make contact with Rich and the guys and make it right, the fact we had money was gonna be my bargaining tool to get them back on side... For now I was shattered and as I swung my legs into bed in next to no time I was sound asleep.

Chapter 61

The elation of being a pop lasted way after all the visitors and D and my baby had all gone home. I felt weak and tired but exhilarated all at the same time, and it seemed every few minutes the congratulations train pulled into the station and more messages passed through my room door.

When Dr called in too see me and perform simple obs she was smiling too.
"What? Cause your a pop your the only one that can smile?"

I held my hand up in protest, "not at all, its nice to see you smile, you should do it more often it suits you..."

"Sarcasm is not your strong point Jon, can I suggest you don't indulge in it?"

"hey, I wasn't being sarcastic, I was being honest...."

Doc paused and looked at me, as slowly the smile disappeared. "What you mean?"

"just that, well I get your job is serious, but your face lights up when you smile and its a real nice change from the serious Doc face..."

she sat on the edge of my bed. "truth is Jon, I am dealing with patients facing the possibility of death, I need to be focused, and how would it look to my patients If I went around smiling all day? huh?"

"maybe that you had hope for them? like you did for me?"

She rose from the bed, and finished writing on my chart, "Thank you for your comments Jon, but Ill stick to being a Doc, and you stick to being a rock star and we will get on just fine ok?"

It was clear I had pissed her off, though that was not my intention, all I wanted was to give her praise, which had totally back fired... as she was reaching the door, I tried in one last vein of hope to turn her visit around, "thank you again Doc, for delivering my daughter, for being there for me and my family...." I paused, she smiled again and her face softened, "You are very welcome, it was my pleasure, and congratulations again...."

this time I smiled as she asked, "have you thought of a name yet?"

"Yeah kinda, couple of idea's mulling around but nothing we can both agree on..." then it hit me, so I asked, "Doc can I ask what's your first name?"

She smiled again as she answered, "Stephanie Rose, my mom wanted me to have a double name, not a first and second like most kids, so she called me Stephanie Rose, its a mouthful, but you get used to it. I hated it when I was in school, but I guess as we get older our mind-set changes, and now, well I like it..."

"Doc that's a beautiful name, thank you for sharing it with me..."

"Well you did ask..." she giggled as she walked back to the door way, as she opened it, she gave one last smile as she left.

I just kept repeating her name over and over, "Stephanie Rose, Stephanie Rose," then I added " Stephanie Rose Bongiovi..." I liked it, really liked it, knowing D as well as I did I knew she would love it too.... when she visited I was gonna run through my idea of the name.

then there came a knock, before the door was pushed wide, and Sambora and the boys were back,

"hey hey hey, its papa Bongiovi....."

Rich came over and we palm hugged, the others filtered in behind, they had cold six packs, balloons and pennants to hang up round my room... Dave started hanging the decorations, while Tico opened a can and sat on the window ledge and head back took a deep gulp of the amber liquid flowing down his throat, his sigh of joy after told me it tasted good... he looked over  with a look of guilt on his face, "sorry bro, no offense but you gotta wet the babies head...." he raised the can towards me as he took another drink... Rich had oved to the chair and after giving Dave instructions on how to put up the pennants Rich asked the same question as the doc had... "so what are you gonna name your little princess?"

I didn't wanna share my thoughts with the guys until I had spoke to D, so gave them names that were herrings... "yeah, Diana May, Olivia Sara, Georgia Marie, we just don't know... anyways you guys aint all come over to talk baby names have ya? what's up?" All three of them held each others gaze, but Rich was the one that spoke, "Thing is, when your fixed real good, and there's no rush, we wanna go back out of the road again, but its your band and ultimately your call, we wanna know what you think?"

"Right and what's brought all this to a head you have to ask me now?"

again that look between them that told me something was going down....

"What?, shit you guys are freakin me out, what's with you all?"

Rich spoke again, "thing is, we have been asked if we wanna go join a band, you know keep us working.... and we thought given alls you have gone through and now with the baby an all, well nothing is clear...."

Wait a god damn minute, I am out of action for a while and you guys are looking to ditch and go some place else?"

"this time Dave spoke, "no, its not like that Jon, and its fair to say its been more than a while, and hey we aint blaming you, but we are musicians you know, we came on the jovi ride, and its  been a blast, but we aint earning right now, and well, bills have gotta be paid right?"

"your broke?, but we toured for two years? where's the cash? we should all be good to live well for years off the back of that tour?"

I was getting more and more pissed as the looks kept passing between them....

"Will someone please tell me what the fuck is going on?"

Rich spoke again, "Doc MgGhee, Jon, he, well..."

"Well what?"

"he stiffed us man, we got very little from that tour, its gone, man all gone..."