He knew the smell of hospitals, god he had stayed in this smell for several hours last night but that didn't mean he liked it. In fact he hated this weird scent, a mix of disinfectant, rubber and sickness. He tried to ignore the nauseous feeling it caused in his stomach as he was walking down the hallway, next to Mandy and Iggy.
"Hi. We're here to see our brother Mickey Milkovich." Mandy said to the nurse behind the counter when they reached the ICU. "Names?" He asked, not even looking up from his computer. "Mandy Milkovich."
"Iggy."
"And you are?" The nurse asked, now looking at them, pointing to the third person of the group. "Uhm Lip Gallagher." Lip answered. He eyed him like he wasn't sure if he should let him in but Mandy quickly said: "He's our friend."
The nurse nodded. "Wait here, I'm calling his doctor who will inform you about his condition."
"Do you know how long he will have to stay here?" Mandy asked and the nurse shook his head and said: "But you're insurance is covering the whole stay, including other medical devices."
Lip was surprised. Since when did Mickey have fucking health insurance? Mandy noticed his confused look. "Got a good job now, my insurance covers Iggy, Mickey and me. Iggy looked at her the same way as Lip did. Seemed like he didn't know about that either.
They sat down at the chairs in the waiting area because the nurse wouldn't let them in until a doctor came.
"But shouldn't the government pay for this anyway, since he's a convict?" Lip asked as he remembered where Mickey came from when he was brought into the ER.
A weak smile appeared on Mandy's face. "Ex-con. He was officially released and getting his shit before getting out. Didn't want me to tell anyone, thought about just leaving and letting everything behind so I didn't. Well, apparently he was on his way out when Terry got to him. He didn't care about the guard, knocked him down before he beat Mickey. It took some time until some other guards came and stopped him. Prison called this morning and told me. You know the rest of the story." "Holy fuck." Iggy said and Lip thought the same. It was like some heavenly force didn't want to give Mickey anything else but shit in his life. Not that Lip believed in any of this religious crap.
"How the hell did he get released?" Iggy asked. Interesting question.
"Sammi lied during her testimony so they would lock Mickey up for sure. They found out and actually there wasn't enough evidence to hold him, plus the victim had lied under loyalty oath, so they released him." Mandy replied, making quotation marks with her hands when she said "victim".
Lip snorted. That bitch would have deserved to die for what she had done to Carl and Ian but he knew from Debbie, that she and Mickey hadn't intended to kill her and just thought that she was dead. Not that anyone would have been sad about that but unfortunately she had come back with a gun, ready to kill Mickey and in the end he was locked up.
"Are you here to visit Mikhailo Milkovich?" A woman in a white lab coat made her way towards them. Mandy nodded. "Yeah."
"Then follow me, please." The doctor said and turned around, Mandy, Iggy and Lip quickly followed her. They entered a small room with a desk, some chairs and a couple shelves, obviously the doctor's office. She sat down behind the desk and pointed to the chairs in front of it. "Please have a seat."
When they were all seated she said: "Well, my name is Dr. White and I'm the one who performed both surgeries of Mr. Milkovich. One when he arrived and another one just a couple hours ago."
"How is he?" Mandy asked and Lip could see how she was rubbing her hands nervously against her thighs.
"As you were already told, we were able to stop the bleeding and close the wounds caused by the knife he was attacked with." Dr. White explained in a calm voice, "But unfortunately the injury in his spine was very severe and..."
