Chapter 36

"Brian!  Oh thank God!"  Angela leaned over and gave him a gentle hug.

"How do you feel?"

"I'm in alot of pain.  What happened?"

"Sweetie, "she started.  "You were shot three times by a man who was robbing your house."  She watched his eyes widen.  "The neighbors heard the shots and called the police.  Luckily, Krista and Nick were driving back to my house and they saw the ambulance and police.  They stopped, identified you, and rode with you to the hospital.  AJ, Howie, and Kevin came soon after them.  They were here all night.     Earlier, Krista came to get me and brought me here."

"So did they take the bullets out of me?" he slowly asked.

Angela sighed.  "No, not yet.  Bri, I know that this is alot for you to take in right now, but you have to relax so that you can a little bit better and they can operate."

"OK," he said as he tried to sit up.  He winced in pain at every move. So Angela helped him until he was comfortable.

"So what was this big news that you had to tell me?" he asked curiously.

"Well, these aren't the exact conditions that I wanted to tell you under," she teased.

Brian went to reply, but fell back on the bed.  The heart monitor let out a loud, continuous beep.  Angela looked up to see the straight line that indicated lifelessness.  She panicked and ran out of the room.

 "Somebody help me!  My boyfriend isn't breathing!!"

The guard got up to calm Angela down while a couple of doctors and nurses ran into the room.  They performed shock therapy on him and gave him chest compressions.

Angela tried to run into the room, but the guard held her back.  

"You'll have to leave," he said to her.  "Once the doctors get everything under control, they'll send someone up to let everyone know what's going on."

She slowly turned around and walked toward the stairs.  On her way she passed the nurses' station and Molly was sitting there doing paperwork.

"Angela, what's wrong?"

"Brian stopped breathing," she whispered.

"Oh sweetie...."  She got up and gave Angela a hug.  Even though Molly didn't know Angela very long at all, she felt so bad for her.  She seemed to really love her boyfriend and was taking all of it very hard.  Molly decided that she would look out for them.  "Are you going to be OK?"

"Yeah," Angela said slowly.  "I need to go up and tell everyone else."

"OK.  If there's anything I can do, let me know."

"Alright, I will," Angela replied distantly.

Molly watched her stagger towards the stairs and hoped that everything would turn out alright in the end for the two of them.  She absolutely hated seeing young couples in love like this.

Angela eventually wandered upstairs and to the room that everyone else was in.  She flashed her badge her to the guard who let her in.  Nick jumped up as soon as he saw her walk in.  "What happened to Brian?"

"Brian stopped breathing," she choked out again.  Saying it again made it very real to her.

Nick felt those words slap him across the face.  His best friend had stopped breathing.  Meaning that he was no longer living.  "Brian...." he mumbled.  Nick felt himself fall back onto the couch with Krista and just let himself cry.  She stroked his back and let him cry on her.

"Damnit!" AJ shouted and punched the wall.  He stormed out of the room.

"I'll go after him," Howie said and left the room as well.

Kevin got up and sat Angela down.  "What else happened?" he asked her.

She took a deep breath.  "I was talking to him when he suddenly fell back and wasn't breathing or anything.  So I ran out and shouted for doctors. They came in and started doing shock therapy and CPR.  I tried to see what was going on, but the guard made me leave."

"Do they think he'll be OK?" Krista asked.

"I'm hoping that he will be because-"

"Brian will pull through," Kevin interrupted.  "He's a strong kid.   But for right now Angela, you need to just sit down and take it easy.  Just remember that sometimes no news is good news."

"I know.  I think I'm going to go get some coffee to help calm me down." And with that, she left.

After Angela left, Krista leaned over to Kevin and asked," Do you really think that Brian is going to pull through or were you just saying that?"

Kevin looked over at her and said, "Oh, I know that he's going to pull through."

Six hours later.....

It took Howie a while, but he finally managed to calm AJ down and bring him back to the waiting area.  Nick and Krista were both asleep on the couch due to lack of sleep the previous night and being emotionally drained.   Kevin couldn't sit still and was constantly pacing around the room.  Angela just
sat curled up in a chair in the corner and had the same blank stare on her face since she walked into the room.  They were all waiting for some sort of news.

"Howie, why don't you take Angela, Krista, and Angela back to your place for a while?  It's not doing them any good just sitting here.  AJ and I can stay here in case we hear something," Kevin suggested.

"That's a good idea."  They both woke up Nick and Krista.

"I'm not going anywhere until I know what's going on," Angela refused.

"Come on Angela.  It's the best thing for you right now," AJ gently coaxed.

"No," she said flatly.

Finally, Krista grabbed her arm and dragged her down the hall with Howie and Nick following her. "We won't be long!" she called to Kevin and AJ. Krista just rolled her eyes.

Not long after that, a doctor approached them.  "Hi.  I'm Dr. Thomas. You two are with Brian Littrell right?"

"Yes, we are," Kevin answered.  "But you have to do me a favor and hold off on telling us how he is.  I just sent his girlfriend and a couple of my bandmates home to get some rest.  Is it alright if I can get them back here so we can all hear his condition?"

"Sure, no problem.  Just have one of the nurses page me as soon as you're ready."

"Thanks alot." Kevin said.

"I'll call them," AJ volunteered.

It wasn't long before they returned, all very eager to hear Brian's condition.

"Where's the doctor?" Angela demanded.

"Calm down Angela," Krista said.

"I have to go ask for him," Kevin replied.

"What if everything isn't OK?" Nick asked randomly.

"Don't say that!" AJ snapped.  "He's going to be fine.

"Everyone needs to calm down," Howie said.  "Being at each other's throats isn't going to help Brian."

"He's right guys," Krista agreed.

"The doctor will be here soon," Kevin said, returning to the waiting room.

Suddenly, Angela started rambling about the baby and how she was mad at herself for being mad at Brian.  Krista looked up and saw four confused faces.  "What is she talking about?" Nick asked.

Krista hesitated before saying, "Angela is having Brian's baby.  And she got mad when he didn't show up last night."  She suddenly felt bad for betraying her best friend's trust, but she knew she had to tell them.

Looks of surprise replaced the confusions on all of their faces.  But before they had a chance to question Krista, Dr. Thomas came in.

"Hi.  I'm Dr. Thomas," he said, re-introducing himself to everyone else. He then sat down in the only empty chair in the room.  "I have some good news and some bad news.  The good news is that we have Brian stable and breathing after extensive surgery."

They all sighed in relief, but knew there was more coming.

"The bad news is that although he's stable, he has a weak pulse.  We took only two bullets; the one that was in the shoulder and the one farthest from his heart.  He wouldn't have made it through surgery had we tried to take out the closest one.  We have him back in the ICU under close monitoring.   We're doing everything we can to make him comfortable and...."

"What's the point to all this?" AJ interrupted.

Dr. Thomas sighed.  He hated telling people this.  "Things aren't looking very good for Brian at all.”

***

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