Marginal Love (Book 4 LS Series)

Chapter 5

Michael's POV

I can't help but grin as the scrub nurse snaps latex gloves onto my hands.

Being here somehow makes me feel young again. Like somehow, I've gone back in time to the good old days. All I need to complete this feeling is the lovely Skip to join me in this surgery I've stolen from her. I assume she'll be here shortly.

Her father is in the gallery, watching me closely. He pretended to disapprove, but then realized he'd rather have me than any of those shaggy-headed freaks Skip calls herself caring for.

"Where is she?" I ask the same nurse shortly. "It's not like her to be late for anything surgical."

The nurse shrugs and blinks her squinty, jaundiced eyes. "Dr. Nelson-Rose may have had a seperate medical emergency," she rasps. "She should be here soon."

I turn toward the surgical table and glance at the body, draped in light blue sterile dressings. Maybe she'll be infuriated to find me here, but none of that'll matter once she knows that there's a life in her hands.

Then the OR door comes bursting open, and in comes a different sweaty-faced nurse.

"What?" I snap impatiently.

"Um... Mr. Jackson," she begins slowly. "You might wanna come take a look at the TV."

"Are you kidding me?" I scoff, turning away from the door. "What's television when there are lives in need of saving?" I can hardly keep a straight face during the last part.

"No, you'll really wanna come see," she asserts, as several of the scrub nurses in the room follow her out.

"Well fuck," I groan and head with them to the lobby.

The crowd beneath the TV parts for me, exchanging worried and slightly frightened glances. I understand why once I glance up and see Skip's face plastered on the screen, along with her 'bandmates'.

My jaw grinds.

"Many Guns N' Roses fans rejoiced this morning at the sight of the band's former members getting off of their private jet in LAX. According to several tips, the band had been in New York visiting with the now widowed Skipper Nelson-Rose, and apparently she's returned with the band to California. Why? No one knows quite yet, but he hope to find out directly from the band."

Next is some grainy footage of a plane with their insignia on the side of it, and five silhouettes walking down a tarmac. One of them is significantly shorter than the rest. And curvier.

"MTV hopes to catch up with them very soon."

I shut off the TV and turn around. Prince is standing there, looking very pale and very angry.

"You didn't know about this?" He asks very slowly.

"Well obviously not," I snap right back at him. "How the hell did she leave New York without anyone noticing until morning? She was just here last night, Slash took her out."

"And you let that happen," Prince states.

I rip off my latex gloves and throw them to the ground.

"I've got a plane to catch."

***

Skipper's POV

He had returned home late again, and I wasn't having it.

I sat poised in a leather chair, watching the fire I'd built flicker beneath the mantle. It had died down to embers by then, and the sun had disappeared oh, maybe.... six hours prior. Dinner had been put on the table four hours ago, and I was pretty close to losing it.