Chapter 64

“Oh, Sambo! Stop it!”

Kim’s voice had a hard edge when she yelled at her dog. He ducked immediately and walked over to his buddy Kidd, who already made sure a couple hours ago to get out of her way. She sighed when she saw her two loyal friends sitting by the patio door completely unsure what to do.

She felt horrible. It wasn’t her dogs fault that Jon wasn’t here. Actually it was nobody’s fault, he simply had to work, but it sucked not seeing him.

Kim sighed again and let herself fall on the couch.

“Come here babies.” She softly called Sambo and Kidd. They watched her for a second before reluctantly moving towards her.

“God, I’m sorry.” She hugged them both dearly when they sat down in front of her.

“I shouldn’t have yelled at you. I just miss him so much.” She told Sambo and his calm brown eyes seemed to understand her.

She never imagined it would be this bad. Jon had only left 48 hours ago for a short trip to Europe before the new album would be released tomorrow and she was already a mess. She had no idea how she should survive the tour, she would go crazy.

He’d warned her that it would be tough. He’d been through it a million times and still it was wearing on him when he had to pack his stuff and leave the ones he loved behind. She told him not to worry, she would be fine.

The funny thing was she really thought she would.

But the last two days had shown her that he was right. She felt as if an essential part of her was missing and the fact that he wasn’t able to call her yesterday evening didn’t help lifting her mood either.

Fran wasn’t feeling any different, she was suffering too. So they both decided to watch ‘their men’ perform in Berlin, Germany at the celebration of the Fall of the wall. Thanks to Kim’s satellite TV they were able to get the channel. But watching them at the Brandenburg Gate in the pouring rain only made them feel worse.

Kim nearly screamed in frustration when the short interview with Jon was over and they moved on to the next highlight of the evening.

“I’m so screwed.” She whispered to herself and shook her head just when her phone rang.

“Yes.”

“Miss Anderson you have a visitor. His name is Jesse Bongiovi and may I add, I think he really needs your help.” Ed informed her.

“Okaaaay. Bring him up, Ed.” Kim said a little confused.

Why was Jesse here? And why would he need her help?

A few minutes later the elevator doors opened and Ed led a limping Jesse to her door or better he half carried him.

“Oh my God, Jesse. What happened?” Kim was shocked.

His right eye was bruised and had already started to swell shut, his bottom lip was bleeding, he had several bruises and scratches on his arms and hands and parts of his shirt were ripped.

“I’m fine Kim really.” The boy tried to tell her, but seemed relieved when Ed deposited him on the couch.

“Yeah, sure I can see that.” She replied dryly and got her medical bag and suitcase out of the closet.

“Should I call an ambulance, Miss Anderson? Do you need any help?” Ed asked concerned.

“No, thanks Ed. I think we’ll be fine. But you can prepare for another visitor in a couple minutes. Mrs. Dorothea Bongiovi. Just send her up, please.”

Jesse winced when Kim mentioned his mother. He really hoped he could avoid seeing her today, even though he had no idea how.

“Kim do you really need to call mom?” Jess started.

“Oh yes, I have to.” She told him in a strict voice and reached for her phone. Ed grinned shortly at the contrite boy and left with the promise to send Dorothea up as soon as she arrived.

“Ok, let’s see how big the damage is.” Kim told Jesse after she had a short talk with Dorothea who promised to come over and started to check his eye. It seemed it was only bruised and nothing else was damaged. To be sure that he didn’t suffer a retinal tear, she carefully applied some colored eye drops.

Fortunately no scratches became visible after a few minutes. They just had to make sure the eye wouldn’t swell too much. Without saying a word Kim handed him an ice pack.

“Kim, I…” Jesse wanted to say something, but she stopped him.

“Not now, Jesse. First I gotta make sure you don’t have to be transferred into hospital. So if you are not in pain all of a sudden or my treatment is causing you too much discomfort. It can wait!”

“Ok.” He nodded and Kim continued to clean his lips and the other small cuts and scratches on his body.

When she checked the upper part of his body Jesse winced. She looked at him concerned.

“Did this hurt, Jess?” she asked and palpated his costal arch again.

“Yeah.” He hissed through his teeth.

“Do you have any difficulties breathing?” She put on her stethoscope.

“No.” he shook his head. Kim looked at him for a second.

“Well, I guess we’ll take a trip to the hospital as soon as your mom is here. We have to make sure your rips ain’t broken, but only suffered a contusion.” Jesse groaned at her explanation.

“Tell me what happened, Jesse.” She encouraged him while putting a suspensory bandage around his chest.

“Nothing.”

“Oh, come on, Jess. Don’t play stupid with me!” He sighed and frowned.

“I got into a fight with some friends.” He finally admitted.

“Some friends. Well, that’s nice. I don’t wanna know how you would have looked when this wouldn’t have been your friends.” The sarcasm way dripping thick from her voice. He gave her an angry look, looking a lot like his father at the moment.

“Come on, Jesse…talk. You know you have to as soon as your mom shows up. See this as a test run to find good arguments, because I’m pretty sure you’ll need them.”

Even though Kim didn’t have the chance to watch Dorothea and her two older kids interact, she was pretty sure she wouldn’t tolerate any fighting, even though she was teaching her children karate. And the way Jesse hands looked, swollen and bruised, she was pretty sure he used the skills his mother taught him.

“They wanted me to smoke…and then they said something about Mom.” He added a little embarrassed and blushed.

“And that made you angry.” Kim said softly and ran her hand through his hair.

“Yeah, you don’t say things like that about my Mom!”

Anger flamed up in his eyes again. Kim nodded understanding. She didn’t ask what was said, she knew he wouldn’t tell her. It was already amazing enough that he came to her first and didn’t check in with someone who had been way longer in his life than her.