Center Stage
Copyright© 2025 by Lumpy
Chapter 36
I sat on the edge of the hospital bed, wincing as the doctor finished up the last of my stitches. The adrenaline had fully worn off now, and I still had the shakes. I’d had them before after fights, but never like this. Although I guess this wasn’t so much of a fight as someone trying to kill me.
“I’m so sorry, I’m here,” Kat said, rushing in.
The doctor looked up at her, but didn’t say anything as she came over to my opposite side from him and took my hand. One of the benefits of a certain level of status was getting escorted to the doctor right away and your girlfriend being escorted through to you. Or it could have been Hal and Warren, who’d both still been in the bar, and who followed the ambulance and started greasing the wheels the moment they stepped into the building.
I’d actually tried to convince them to just let me get a bandage from the ambulance attendants and call it a day, but nearly everyone had insisted I go to the hospital and it didn’t seem worth fighting over.
Kat had stayed behind to move some of our stuff from our room to Lyla and Tabitha’s room, until we got a new one, since our current room was kind of destroyed and might be a crime scene. I’d thought she’d have had to wait a lot longer to get that arranged, but maybe they only lock down crime scenes like they do on TV when someone dies, and not just when someone is assaulted.
“You’re lucky it wasn’t deeper,” the doctor commented, putting a bandage over the finished stitches. “This should heal up nicely. The discharge nurse should be along in a little bit with instructions on care and cleaning and to get you all situated.”
“Thanks, Doctor,” I said, reaching for my shirt and starting to pull it back on.
As the doctor left, Hal came into the small curtained-off area I was in.
“Charlie, how are you holding up?”
“I’m okay. It’ll probably be sore tomorrow, but he put something on it that’s helping with the pain and he prescribed painkillers.”
“Good. Good. The press is already swarming outside. Don’t worry, I’ll handle them, but we need to discuss our next steps. If you’re not feeling up to it, we can postpone the concert and hand out rain checks to everyone. It’s not ideal, since we will lose some of the fans, but I’d prefer you wait until you can put on a good show, rather than trying to push you to do more than you’re ready for. However, if we’re going to do that, it’s better to announce it now rather than wait two days for the decision.”
“No. I’m good to do it. I might not be up for all of the interviews Quinn set up, however. Do you think we could cancel those? At least the ones for tomorrow?”
“No, we can send your bandmates to do them. It’s not quite the same but it’s better than just not ... actually, that’s a thought,” Hal said.
“What? We shouldn’t send them?”
“No, actually, we should send them to do all of your interviews. Keep you out of the public eye until your first show. The news is going to feed on this, hard. That is obvious even without all the reporters camped outside. If they’re going to use you, we should use them right back. We’ll have your friends tell everyone you are, of course, fine. You’re just taking a few days to prepare for the show. But ... everyone’s going to try to read into it. The news people can’t help themselves! They’ll speculate about how your tour will go with you injured. The amount of free media we’re going to get off of them will be invaluable.”
A year ago, I would have balked at the idea. But he was right. They were going to try to use me to drive ratings one way or another, so I had no problem using them.
“Anything to get out of interviews,” I said, getting a laugh out of him.
I’d done all the marketing asked of me, but I’d never made it a secret that I didn’t love doing it.
“Good. Good. Did you want me to stay with you? Make sure you get back to the hotel alright?”
“No, I’m good. They’ll be releasing me soon, and I’ve got Kat, Jean, Warren, and the others. There will be enough people to escort me back.”
“Alright, get some rest. I’ll make sure Warren has what he needs to take care of your stay here and then I’ll deal with the reporters,” he said, patting my leg and nodding to Jean as she came into the curtained off area as he left.
“Everything sorted out?” I asked her.
The police had practically followed me to the hospital and had come in to talk to me, but it was brief, with Jean and Hal handling most of it. Another thing that either having money or notoriety helped me with.
“Yes. We’d already been talking to the locals in every city we would be in about the situation with him, and they already had a warrant out for him in North Carolina, so it made everything pretty open and shut. You might have to deal with testifying when he finally goes to court, but that can take forever. He’s likely to plead out, or to get deemed unfit to stand trial and held for a psych instead.”
“Ohh, good.”
I was worried about how dealing with this would go, since I had not been wowed with the legal system so far in my life. But I also knew there was a two-tiered system, and people with nothing were treated very differently than people who had resources. This was my first time seeing my resources in action. I wasn’t sure I liked causing others to fall behind as I moved ahead of them in line, but I also didn’t want to have to deal with everything, so I wasn’t going to complain.
“Kat, can I have a minute with Charlie?” Jean asked.
Kat nodded, squeezed my hand and left the curtained area. Jean had a serious look on her face. Well, she always had a serious look, but this was extra serious.
“I’m turning in my resignation, but I wanted to tell you first,” she said. “I’ll stay until the company can find someone new to protect you, but after that, I’m done.”
“Why?”
“You almost got killed on my watch. I can’t in good conscience continue to protect you when I failed so badly.”