"Jessica? Honey, what's the matter?" Melissa said, walking into the small hospital room, where a small girl, around the age of 7, was curled up on the bed crying. "I...I...can't...f...find my teddy bear." she choked out through her sobs, lifting up her tear-stained face to look at the nurse. "I can find you a new one..." Melissa started to say, before being cut off by Jessica, "My mommy ... g...gave me that...b...before she died." Melissa walked towards Jessica and sat down on the edge of her bed. Carefully pulling her onto her lap and cradling her in her arms.
Jessica wrapped her tiny arms around Melissa's body, clinging onto her tightly. Melissa sighed and leaned her head against Jessica's as she continued to cry. She knew that there was no teddy bear in the world that could replace the one her mother gave her. Melissa lifted her head when she heard light snickering coming from the bed beside Jessica's. She carefully layed Jessica down on her bed, and pulled the curtain back to expose the other bed.
"Jeremy, you wouldn't happen to know where Jessica's teddy bear is, would you?" Melissa said, crossing her arms across her chest. "Me? Ummm...no." the small boy replied, with a mischevious grin across his face. "Remember that little talk we had last week? After you took Ashley's barbie dolls and hid them from her?" Melissa said narrowing her eyes, at the young boy. The boy sat up quickly, remembering that Melissa told him that the next time he hid someone's things from them, he wouldn't be able to go to recreation time in the play room for a week. "Umm, okay, I hid the bear behind the TV in the play room." He said softly, looking down. "Now that's more like it." Melissa said turning around and picking Jessica back up, holding her up on her hip, "Jessica, I think Jeremy has something he'd like to say to you."
"I'm sorry Jessica, I took your teddy bear and I hid it from you." Jeremy mumbled, fidgeting with his blanket. Jessica merely nodded her head, wiping the tears from her face with her tiny hand. Melissa smiled and patted Jessica's back, "Come on, let's go get your teddy bear."
Melissa carried the small girl down the hall with her, who was clinging onto her tightly, with her head layed on her shoulder.
"Melissa? That music group is supposed to be coming by in about 10 minutes to go around meeting some of the kids." Skylar said, looking up from her paperwork. "And you're telling me this, because why?" Melissa laughed, stopping in front of the nurse's station. "Because you're supposed to round up some of the kids and take them into the rec room. They're going to play with the kids and sing a little for them."
"Great, that's all these kids need is a bunch of stuck-up performers that were forced to do this for publicity reasons. These guys are gonna be no different than the others." Melissa thought to herself.
"Mele? Can...um...we go get my teddy bear now?" Jessica shyly asked. Melissa smiled as Jessica called her by the nickname the kids normally used, because Melissa was too hard for the smaller kids to say. "Sure Jess, but I'm gonna have to take you back to your room first, then I'll go get your teddy bear for you. You need to rest up if you want to go with the rest of the kids to see..." She stopped and looked at Skylar, not knowing what group it was that was coming. "If you want to see 'N Sync." Skylar finished for Melissa. Jessica's eyes lit up, " 'N Sync is coming?? I get to see Justin??" She shrieked. "Yes you get to see Justin." Melissa laughed, as she started carrying her back to her room.
"I hate these places." Lance groaned, as everyone started piling out of the van. "You're not the only one, man. I hate seeing all these kids so sick." Justin agreed. "But, hey, if what we do makes them feel even a little better, then I'm all for it." JC said, climbing out of the van with the rest of the guys. "I like seeing all the nurses in those sexy scrubs." Joey laughed, following the guys into the hospital. "Dude, shut-up! Have a freakin' heart for once, you walking sack of hormones!" Chris yelled. "Would you two cut it out?" JC growled, as he shot Joey and Chris a look. "Yes dad." Joey said rolling his eyes.
"Oh there you guys are! It's nice to finally meet you." A tall dark headed doctor said, shaking each one of the guys' hands, "Would you please follow me this way?" He said, walking down the hall to the pediatric ward. The guys followed the doctor in silence.
"I just have to find our head nurse to make sure that she has everything all set up for you guys." The doctor, said looking around, "Oh, there she is." He said, spotting a young blond headed girl running down the hall towards them, hanging on to her stethoscope that was dangling around her neck. "Melissa, these are..." the doctor started. "I'm so sorry, I'll be just a second." she replied running past them at full speed, and taking off down another hallway. "Wow, who was that?" Joey asked, still watching her running down the hall. JC elbowed him hard. "Oh, that's Melissa Morgan, our head nurse. The one I was looking for, and the one that's in charge of the Celebrity Outreach program." The doctor said, laughing slightly at the look on Joey's face. Just as Joey was about to ask the doctor something else, Melissa came running back donw the hallway with a teddy bear in her hands.
"Melissa what on earth are you doing?" The doctor asked, starting to get slightly annoyed. She stopped and looked at the doctor. "I'm sorry, one of the boys hid this little girl's teddy bear and I went to go get it for her."
"Well, if you would stop playing mother for these kids and get back to work , you wouldn't have to keep these young men waiting on you." The doctor retorted. "No, it's okay, really." JC said, turning his head to look at the doctor. Melissa ignored JC's comment and stared the doctor down, "This little girl has no mother! She died in the car wreck that Jessica was involved in, and that's why she's in this hospital! Her mother gave her this teddy bear to her the day before the accident happened. It is the ONLY reminder of her mother she has! Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to return this to her." Melissa snapped, before running back down the hallway.
All five of the guys watched her run down the hallway with shocked looks on their faces. Never had they seen any nurses stand up to the doctors like that, and that immediatley intrigued all of them.
"I'm so sorry for her rude behavior, she's usually never like this." The doctor sighed.
"No, she had every right to do that. She's only doing her job." Chris said, with the others nodding their heads in agreement.
No more than two minutes later, did Melissa come walking back down the hall with two little kids on each side of her, holding her hand, and one on her back clutching her neck tightly. She approached the group and started laughing.
"April, can you ease up on my neck a little bit sweetie, I can't breathe." She laughed again, as the girl loosened her grip on Melissa's neck, staring wide-eyed at the guys, "But Mele! 'N Sync is standing right in front of me!!" She squealed. Justin smiled and approached Melissa holding his arms out to April. "May I?", he questioned looking at Melissa. Melissa merely nodding her head at the man, completely mesmerized at his sincerity. April gasped and flew off Melissa's back and straight into Justin's arms. The other two girls that were holding onto Melissa's hands started tugging on her arms. "What's wrong?" She questioned, looking down at them, "How come April gets to be held by one of them and we don't?" A small red-headed girl whispered to Melissa, looking over at April hugging on to Justin. Before Melissa could answer, JC and Chris scooped up the girls, causing them to giggle uncontrollably.
"Mele! Oh my god! Look at this!" The small red-headed girl shrieked from JC's arms. Melissa nodded and laughed silently, "Yes, I see that Melanie."
"Don't you wish this were you??" The small girl laughed. Melissa's cheeks reddened some, causing the girl to giggle. "Well, I can pick you up too, I have two arms." JC smiled.
"No, that's quite okay." Melissa laughed. "Maybe later?" He teased. "We'll see." Melissa smiled. "I'm JC." He said, extending his hand out to Melissa, "Nice to meet ya, I'm Melissa." She replied, shaking his hand.
"Mele!! Don't forget about me!" A small brown-headed girl yelled, running down the hall towards her.
"I didn't forget ya! I was just about to come get you." She smiled, picking the young girl up, "Well, what do ya say we get this show on the road?" She said, as she tickled the small girl and started walking down the hall towards the rec room.
"These guys are certainly different than all the other groups that have come here. There's something special about each and every one of them," Melissa said to herself. "Especially JC."
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