Three months had passed since Nova's hit and run. Three long ass months. They never found out who had hit Nova in the first place and Nova knew that they probably never would. She was okay with that. She was just thankful to be alive and breathing after everything she had been through, knowing that it all could have ended way worse.
Nova's mother was on the first plane out the moment that she got the call about her being in the hospital. Nova tried to tell her mom over and over again that she was fine but her mother Caroline insisted that she came up. Nova was never one who wanted to inconvenience anyone, but she was actually thankful that she did. She may have not realized it, but at that moment Nova needed her mom more than ever.
She stayed for about two weeks and helped Nova settle into her 'new' life, a life of harshly realizing that she was going to have to accept the help of others. She helped Robin and her friends move all of Nova's stuff and got her settled into Robins loft where she would now be residing.
This accident definitely changed Nova's life and shifted it upside down for sure. She had lost her job working at the Outlet, she knew that was going to happen. There was no way in hell Glenn was going to hold her spot.
Even though she had lost her job, she was happy to hear that they gave her position to Juan as the lead photographer. He was one of her best friends and even though her and Glenn never quite saw eye to eye, she was happy that out of everyone, Juan was the one to get the promotion. He deserved it more than anyone and he was a hard worker, she knew he would do great things with his new title. She had taught him well, now it was time to see what he could do.
In result of her losing her job, she was forced to take Robin up on her offer and follow through with her plans of putting her things in storage and moving in with her. It was an adjustment for sure and at the time it was very upsetting to Nova, but eventually she just accepted her fate and realized that this was the way that things were going to have to be if she wanted to stay in New York.
On top of everything, Robin was nice enough to find a place for Nova at her PR firm just answering emails and acting like one of Robin's many assistants. Nova had never realized just how big of a person Robin was in the PR world until she had taken that job. That surly explained how she was able to afford all of those designer brand outfits that she paraded herself around in.
She wasn't making as much working for Robin as she did at the Outlet, but it was enough to get by and give Robin money towards rent, even though Robin assured her many of times that it was not necessary. Her parents would also send her money whenever they could, which she was very appreciative of. Nova couldn't believe how cool Robin was about taking care of everything for her.
And she sure did take care of EVERYTHING. Doctors appointments, grocery bills, meals, helping her shower and get around the first few weeks after her surgery, just about everything. No matter how much Nova would refuse, Robin would still step in anyway and help her out. Sometimes Nova would get annoyed at her forwardness, but she felt like she didn't have any right to complain considering she was on her turf.
She was very grateful to have Robin in her life, as well as Heather and Violet. Between the three of them, they made sure that Nova had a ride and company for just about everything. They would talk often and arrange their schedules to figure out who was going to be taking Nova wherever she needed to go that week. Nova felt like she truly has the best friends of the city.
She still kept her job singing at the club. Granted that was about all she could do, but Mr. Lucas was such an understanding person and he had so much love for Nova that he would either have a stool out or she would sing on top of a piano so she didn't have to walk or dance. As long as she could still sing, that was good enough for him. She was even starting to take piano lessons every now and then from one of her buddies that also had an act there, just to pass time and get her out of the house. She was actually getting pretty good too!
She still saw Jimmy at the club but usually he just avoided her like the plague. Once in a while he would shoot her a dirty look but for the most part Nova just ignored him. As far as she was concerned, he was just another jerk and he never showed her the slightest bit of concern for her after she came back from the accident, not that she cared.
Nova had never felt so loved before, watching the way all of her friends came together to help her out. It was almost enough to help fill the void that Q had left in her life. She hadn't heard from him since her accident and even though she had a lot to focus on, she still thought about him. Granted, it hurt less and less as time went on, but he never fully left her conscious. Almost every day she would wonder how he was doing or see something that reminded her of him that he would have appreciated.
She still didn't know what fully happened there, but she tried not to dwell on it. It wouldn't change anything. She knew that she did nothing wrong and that it all stemmed from his own issues on trust, but she still wished that he would have given her the chance to explain. Robin told her countless times that he was not worth it, but that didn't stop him from invading her thoughts. At night, she even dreamed about him from time to time.
Robin would give her little updates on the show if Nova would pester her enough so she knew that they were in the middle of filming their third season. Nova figured he was probably too busy to think about her.
Nova was finally at the point where she was able to somewhat freely walk around without the help of a friend or a crutch and she tried to walk every day to get the function of her leg back. According to all of her doctors visits and physical therapy, she was healing quite well, but her knee was still very sore. They told her that it would never be 100% back to the way it was and that there was a chance that she would walk with a limp for the rest of her life, but that didn't stop Nova.
As much as Robin worried, Nova would leave the loft and at first she would walk to the end of the street and back, testing herself to see how far she could push it before things got too painful. After two weeks of doing this, she was able to walk another block and then another block after that. She was up to three blocks now, almost four and even though walking back was a struggle, she still pushed herself to do it every day. She could feel herself slowly start to take back control of her life.
"Hey where were you?" Robin asked Nova as she came back from one of her walks. "Oh, I just went for a walk" Nova huffed, visibly exhausted after the whole ordeal. She hobbled over to the kitchen to take an Advil for the stiffness she was feeling. "You know you gotta be careful with that, you should just use the gym downstairs, that's why it's there. One of these days you are going to get mugged!" Robin nagged.
"They can't mug me if I don't carry anything on me" Nova said, throwing Robin a wink before she took a sip of water. "I'm just saying, you need to look after yourself" Robin urged. Nova waved her off and limped over to the couch.
Robin was in her chair reading a book and she glanced over at Nova when she plopped herself down. There was a moment of silence between them as Nova drummed her fingers against the arm rest. "How was the set today?" Nova asked, causally trying to make conversation.
Robin looked at Nova above the rim of her glasses and sighed. "What? I'm just asking you how your day was" Nova said innocently.
She knew that Robin didn't really like to talk about work, especially when she was working with the Jokers. Her and Pete McPartland had never really warmed up to each other and he had often fought her on most of her ideas for marketing the show. He was kind of old school and Robin was very much with the times so a lot of her ideas he didn't find necessary, especially if they costed money. The network was the one who brought her in so he had to deal with her whether he liked it or not. They could never really find a common ground.
"The permit for one of the filming locations fell through and I had already released the advertisement to get people to sign up for the fake focus group that they were suppose to be doing so Pete wasn't very happy with me today" Robin explained.
"Oh shit...I'm so sorry sweetie, did he blow a cork like last time?"
"Pretty much. He says I'm too trigger happy. Whatever that means. I mean they tell me the plan so I release the ad as soon as possible to make sure we have the best turn out and then they do something stupid by not making sure the location is secured and then I'm the one at fault. I feel like I just can't win here. Now every time I do anything geared to the public, they want me to run my whole business plan by the main producers which means they are going to tear up my whole approach."
"Ugh that sucks. Maybe you can talk to the network and see if you can get them to ease up on you a bit. I mean you are only there to help make the show a success" Nova suggested.
"No, the network is making me deal with it all. They don't want to hear it. All they care about is their ratings. You know you would think after how I filled every single one of those seats in all of those venues the guys preformed at on their tour, they would trust that I know what I'm doing and let me do my job" Robin complained.
"Yeah you would think" Nova said, unable to help the smile on her face. Even though her and Q had a falling out, she was happy that their tour went that well. She still wished them all the best, even if they were no longer in her life. She thought it was cool that they were on the brink of making a name for themselves.
Robin rolled her eyes and shook her head, letting her gaze follow back to her book. "Well, I'm going to head in for a shower, I'll see ya in a bit" Nova said as she made a move to stand up.
"Here, let me help you" Robin said as she put a marker in her book and moved to go help Nova.
"No it's okay, I got it" Nova said, waving Robin off.
"No, let me help, I insist, I don't want you to hurt yourself" Robin said, blowing off Nova's wishes.
"No Robin, seriously, it's okay, I got it" Nova tried again, but Robin didn't listen and grabbed her by her elbow.
"Robin, I got it! I'm okay!" Nova repeated, this time with a firmness in her voice that she didn't use often. Robin backed off and looked at Nova as if she were taken back by her words.
"I'm sorry, I'm just sick of not being able to do anything for so long. I know you want to help but just please, let me do this" Nova back tracked her words, feeling bad that she reacted so strongly.
"Okay okay, I just worry about you that's all" Robin said, still standing on top of Nova as she got up, just in case she needed help.
Nova hissed from the pain but she was able to successfully get up by herself, it just took her a minute.
"See, I'm fine" Nova showed Robin. She gave Robin a look of assurance and Robin gave her a nod once she saw that she really was okay and sat back down to her book. Nova hobbled to her bedroom to get her clothes. She heard Robin call out one more time that she was right there if she needed anything.
As much as Nova appreciated it, she was getting to the point where she was done having everyone being so attentive to her. She felt like if she continued to let everyone do things for her, then it was going to take her that much longer to fully be back on her feet and Nova just didn't have time for that. As much as she enjoyed living with her best friend, it was starting to get old and even though Nova would never confront her, Robin was starting to get on her nerves.
It was hard enough sitting back and letting people take care of her but now she was getting to the point where it was time to try and do things on her own and Robin made that very difficult. At times it felt very controlling and like Robin just didn't trust her judgement on anything. It was almost like Robin had a plan for just about every movement she did through out the day. She knew for that reason, Nova would not be able to live with Robin forever and it made her really miss her quiet apartment when she lived by herself.
This new life was starting to get old.
When Nova made it to her room, she automatically went to her phone to check her messages, like she always did whenever she was away from her phone for a period of time. She had a couple of texts from her mom and one of her buddies at the Star, and also a missed call from a number she didn't recognize.
Nova couldn't help but chuckle to herself. "Oh course, the moment I'm away from my phone, everyone and their best friend wants to talk" She said to herself, shaking her head. She responded to the text to her mom first and then studied the number that called her. Oddly enough it was the same area code that Q had and her heart jumped at the thought. She dialed her voicemail to listen to the message.
"Good evening, this is Geoff Celis from TruTV, I am trying to reach Nova Brady. I received your business card from Pete McPartland. If you could give me a call back, my office number is 321-098-7654, I was told that you were the one who did all of the promo shots for season 3 of Impractical Jokers and I would like to talk to you about a few things. I'll be looking out for your call, talk to you then."
Nova's heart practically jumped out of her chest. What on Earth could this Geoff Celis guy want to talk to her about? That shoot was almost six months ago! Aside from the Jokers, the last time she had heard anything from the network was when they reviewed her images.
Nova was about to call out to Robin to see what she thought about the message but then stopped herself. Robin was very touchy when it came to anything with that show and it was awkward to talk with her about any of it, especially with her history with Q. Deep down she had a feeling that Robin for whatever reason, would react negatively and not approve of her calling this guy back.
She decided that she was just going to have to find out for herself what this Mr. Geoff Celis wanted to to talk to her about...
(I know this one was kind of a shorty, but there is alot that I want to focus on in the next chapter)