Chapter 33

"We have been spending far too much time sitting in hospital waiting rooms lately," Kevin said wryly, as he tried to patiently wait for news on Nick and Tara.

"They all look the same though, you ever noticed?" AJ remarked, picking up a magazine from the table. "Same magazines, same tacky chairs, same wallpaper."

"Why is it taking so long?" Brian asked softly, ignoring AJ's ramblings. "Shouldn't they be able to tell us something by now?" The color had returned to Brian's face, somewhat, since the explosion in the hotel room, but his mood was still strangely subdued.

"I'm sure a doctor will be out soon," Kevin said reassuringly.

"Nicky's going to be all right, you saw, he just got his hands cut up," Howie said confidently.

"What about Tara?" Brian asked, looking at Howie. "She looked awful."

Howie pursed his lips, and shook his head slowly. "I don't know about Tara."

"She was only trying to help us," Brian said sadly, running a hand through his hair. "What if we went and got her killed? What do we do? She was just trying to help."

"Tara's going to be fine," Kevin said, looking at his cousin closely. "Brian, maybe you should go back to the hotel, get some rest? We can call you when we have some news?"

"No!" Brian said sharply, appearing insulted by the suggestion. "My best friend is in here, I'm not going anywhere!"

"I just want to make sure you're all right too…."

"I'm fine," Brian insisted. "I just want to hear that Nick…and Tara…are going to be ok."

"Nick Carter?" A doctor walked out from behind a pair of swinging doors, looking at the group expectantly. He smiled wryly when they all jumped up to run to him, "your friend will be just fine."

"Really?" Brian asked, sighing with relief. "Thank god."

"He's getting a few stitches on his hands from the glass shards we had to pull out, but I see no reason why you can't take him home tonight. He'll most likely be out in a few minutes."

"If Nick is so fine, why did he pass out before, then?" AJ asked, his eyes narrowed. "He just conked out."

"Nick lost a fair amount of blood due to the cuts in his hands, but I suspect he most likely passed out from shock," the doctor explained. "From what he has told us, he was in rather poor condition already, that, on top of the shock, is probably why he fainted. It is important that he sleeps and eats normally from here on out, his body needs its strength to recover properly from this."

"A lot has happened to Nick over the past couple of weeks, I don't know if anyone could remain all that strong given what's been going on," Howie said softly.

"Yes, he explained that to us, as he was in some pain from those stitches," the doctor nodded. "I understand it has been difficult for him, but he still will need his strength."

"He's been getting better," Kevin said, looking at the doctor. "Much better, lately."

"His nerves are still extremely frayed, as you will see when he is discharged," the doctor sighed heavily.

"What do you mean?" Brian asked, his eyes widening.

"The moment Nick awoke, he asked about the condition of the young woman who accompanied him, Tara? A nurse told him what she knew of her condition, and he became hysterical. I'm afraid we had to sedate him."

"Sedate him?"

"We could not risk having Nick rip his stitches, either those in his hands or," the doctor made a face, "elsewhere. The sedation should keep him somewhat subdued until the morning, at which time I hope he will be in a better mindset."

"What about Tara? Why did Nick get hysterical?" Kevin asked, his eyes narrowed. "She was breathing, she can't have…."

"No, she is alive," the doctor said quickly, smiling wryly when Kevin sighed with relief. "However, her condition as of yet is still uncertain."

"What's uncertain mean?" Brian asked quickly, his face losing what little color it had regained over the past few hours.

"Tara took the majority of the force of the blast to her head, and as such, I suspect she has a rather severe concussion. She has not regained consciousness, and we are currently working to control the bleeding from her wounds before we can do a CT scan and definitively find out how much damage was done."

"Oh god," Brian gasped, covering his mouth with his hand.

"Hopefully, she will wake up within the next couple of hours, and we will be better able to assess her condition then."

"So you're telling us you don't know how she is," Kevin said grimly.

"I am telling you that she is alive," the doctor said solemnly. "Beyond that, I cannot say as of yet. She has lost a lot of blood, even superficial head wounds tend to bleed quite a lot, and it is impossible to truly evaluate her condition while she is unconscious."

"Jesus, no wonder Nick lost it," AJ sighed, and shook his head. "Poor Nicky…"

"I'm fine."

The group turned around at the weak voice behind them, all of them smiling at the sight of Nick being rolled out in a wheelchair.

"Thank god you're all right," Brian said, running to his best friend and bending down to give him a hug. "How do you feel?"

"Fuzzy," Nick said, returning the smile lightly. "Did they tell you about Tara?" He slurred the question as he raised his head to look at the group.

"They just did," Kevin said softly. "Are you ok?"

"No," he replied, his lower lip trembling as he looked at Kevin. "She's in bad shape, Kev, and it's all my fault." He ran a hand over his head, frowning when he was unable to catch his hair between his fingers with the thick bandages covering his hands.

"It's not your fault, Nicky, nobody thinks that," Howie said quickly, shaking his head.

"I think that," Nick told him, frowning. "They wanna make me go back to the hotel, but I wanna stay here with her…can you make them let me stay here?" He asked, his eyes meeting Kevin's. "Please?"

Kevin turned to look at the doctor, sighing when the man shook his head no. "I think you should get some sleep back at the hotel tonight, Nick."

"I'm not gonna sleep," Nick tried to sound forceful, making a face when he found himself unable to summon the strength to properly argue. "No matter how much they drug me, I still know what's happened."

"He's got a point," Kevin said, looking at the doctor again.

"I love her, don't make me leave her," Nick begged, struggling to stand up. He took a shaky step towards the doctor, "please don't?"

The doctor sighed, and nodded. "All right. But you can't stay here alone, I do need someone watching you tonight."

"I'll stay," Kevin said quickly, before gesturing for Nick to get back in the wheelchair. "We can keep this, right? Until he leaves?"

"Yes, I'd rather he stays in it as much as possible," the doctor nodded. "I will be back as soon as I have some more news for you, or when your friend is assigned a room."

"Thanks," Kevin said, watching the doctor leave. "Nick? You ok?"

The second the doctor had left Nick began to cry, looking near comical with his white wrapped hands covering his face. "No," he mumbled through the gauze, shaking his head. "Look what I did."

"She's gonna be ok, Nicky," Kevin said reassuringly. "All the doctor said was that he doesn't know."

"Not knowing sucks," he said bluntly, sniffling as he looked at Kevin. "When are we gonna know?"

"Soon, Nicky, soon."

****************************************************************

Tara was assigned a room a few hours later, and Nick and Kevin settled in for the wait. They spent the night watching Tara, with Nick whispering to her every few minutes, completely distraught over her condition.

"She looks awful," Nick said for the hundredth time, trying to touch Tara's hands through the thick bandages on his own. "And I can't even feel her through these things…"

"She's going to be all right," Kevin gave his standard answer, although he had to admit he was starting to wonder how truthful that answer was. Tara really did look awful. The top and back of her head, and one side of her face were encased in thick gauze, as was one of her hands up to her elbow. Her eyes peeked out from behind the gauze, puffy and swollen, and had begin to turn black and blue as night turned to morning. The side of her face that was exposed also began to turn black and blue, and was covered with small scrapes. She'd taken a beating from that sugar canister, that was undeniable.

"Can I take them off, you think? Just so I can touch her," Nick yanked on the gauze on his hands, frowning when it refused to budge. His coordination was slowly returning to normal as the effects of the sedative wore off, but he was still rather fuzzy, and his speech was still slurred.

"I don't think that's a good idea, Nick, you have stitches under there," Kevin said, fighting back a yawn. "Maybe you should try to get some sleep?"

"Can't," Nick's wheelchair was pulled up to the side of Tara's bed, and he rested his head on her stomach, staring up at her face. "Not until she's awake."

"I'm awake," Tara croaked, her eyes fluttering open to peer at Nick. "Nicky?"

"Tara?" Nick bolted upright in the wheelchair, and he leaned forward to stare into Tara's eyes, frowning when he saw them barely open. "Are you really awake?"

"My eyes won't open," she said weakly, raising a hand to touch him. "How's that, convince you I'm awake?"

"Your face is swollen," Nick said, touching her cheek lightly.

"So that's why I feel like someone over my head with a truck," Tara replied with a small laugh, before gasping in pain. "Shit," she touched her own face, feeling the gauze covering it. "Nick? What happened to me?" She asked, her voice sounding strangely scared.

"The sugar container exploded, do you remember?" Nick asked, watching as she struggled to open her eyes further to look at him. "Don't hurt yourself, baby."

"I'm gonna go get the doctor," Kevin told them, standing up and leaving the room.

"I want to see you," Tara said softly. "Who was that?"

"Kevin."

"He's here?"

"He stayed here with me last night," Nick said, taking her hand in his and squeezing it as well as he could with his bandages. "I wasn't gonna leave you."

"What's on your hands, Nicky? They feel funny," Tara pushed herself up to a sitting position, breathing heavily as she leaned back against the headboard. "Look funny too," she remarked, fighting to open her eyes enough to peer at his white hands.

"Same as what you got all over your head and face," Nick replied, bending down to kiss her hand. "I'm so glad you're awake, baby."

"I was asleep?"

"Knocked out, yeah," Nick sighed, and frowned. "That bastard got to you in our hotel room, just like you thought he would."

"You have to go get him, Nick, before anyone else gets hurt," Tara said, her eyes opening as wide as they could to stare at him. "You can't stay here."

"I can't leave you!" Nick argued, shaking his head. "Not when you're like this."

"Nick, he was going to threaten all of you, and then he was going to kill you," Tara said, yanking on his hand when he didn't reply. She winced in pain before telling him, "you know what that means!"

"I can't leave you," Nick repeated, looking at her. "Baby, this is my fault…"

"Then you need to make it right!" Tara argued, summoning all her strength to sound as stern as possible. "Look, Nicky, I'm not going anywhere. But if you don't do something, now, someone is going to die."

"I don't want to lose you…"

"And I don't want to lose YOU," Tara replied, looking into his eyes. "Understand me?"

Nick bit his lip, and nodded slowly, "you sure you'll be ok here by yourself?"

"Positive," Tara lay back down on the bed, and grimaced. "Not like I can exactly do anything anyway. If I could keep my eyes open, I could finish working on that proxy…maybe someone can drop it by?"

"I love you," Nick whispered, standing up to place a kiss on her forehead. "Still trying to help us, even when you're like this."

"I love you too, Kaos."

Nick sighed, and kissed her again, feeling like leaving her was going to be one of the hardest things he'd ever done. "Baby?"

"Yeah Nicky?"

He leaned forward to whisper in her ear, running a hand along the side of her face as he spoke. "I'm gonna go stop this guy, then we're gonna get you out of here. And then…" he paused to kiss her forehead again.

"Then what?" Tara asked, her voice sounding breathless.

"Then I'm going to make love to you until you can't see straight, and hold you all night long afterwards. I've never been able to hold you after, you realize that?" Nick sighed, and stood up, looking down at her sadly. "What a messed up relationship we've had."

"We'll make it right, Nick. Just go and get this guy. Jessica. Jessica's the key, I know it," Tara said firmly. "I'll be waiting for you right here."

"Better be. I'll be right back," Nick said, and turned to leave. "Wait," he turned back, and shook his head. "I don't want to say that, do I."

"Never say that," Tara agreed with a soft chuckle.

"So what do I say, then?"

"Just say I love you."

Nick smiled, and nodded. "I love you, Tara," he said softly.

Tara watched him leave, before collapsing back onto the pillows, squeezing her eyes tightly shut against the pain she felt in her head. "I love you too," she whispered, wishing she could be there by his side. "Please be safe. Please god, keep him safe."

***

 

 

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