Chapter 3

Kevin watched as the muscles in Aaron’s face tensed as the nurse walked into the room. She pulled the curtain back and motioned for them to come in. Another nurse stood on the other side of the bed, adjusting a button on a blue machine.

“This is Kelly. She’ll be Nick’s nurse until tomorrow morning.”

“Hi,” The girl said, her voice calm and pleasant.

“I’m going to let you guys stay in here. Remember, only fifteen minutes with two of you. My name is Carol, if you need me.”

The woman left, leaving the room silent except for the machines.

“If it will make you feel more comfortable, I can tell you about the machines and tubes around him.” She offered, finishing with the machine.

“Please,” Kevin said, his stomach turning from the sight of his friend.

“First, can I get your names? I’m sorry, but I just like to get to know my patients families so I can accommodate them more.”

Aaron stood in silence, looking over his brother.

“I’m Kevin. I’m a friend. This is his brother, Aaron.”

“Okay. It’s nice to meet you both, under the circumstances, that is. Anyways, let’s start with this.”

She pointed to the SAT monitor. “We want this top number here, his heart rate, to be between sixty and one-hundred. Most peoples are around seventy. With his surgery, sixties are normal right now. These two numbers are his blood pressure. Because of his spleen damage, they are low right now. Normally, we want about 120 over 80. His is eighty-five over fifty. We’re monitoring this closely, but as I said, with his condition it’s okay for now. The average respiration rate is anywhere for twelve to twenty breaths per minute. Since he’s on a machine, it will always stay above twelve. He is breathing very well on his own, but we wanted to help him out a bit tonight so he could rest.” She stepped back from the monitor and took off the gloves she had been wearing.

“This blue machine here is what gives him pain medication. It’s automatic right now, but as he starts to recover, he’ll be able to control the output himself.” She stepped towards the bed and lowered the side rail.

“This tube in his nose is a nasogastric tube. Since his stomach was injured, this is keeping any food or gas out of his stomach so he won’t get nauseated or sick. The tube from his mouth is a breathing machine called a ventilator. Like I said, his breathing is okay, we’re just helping him out a bit.”

Kelly folded the sheet down to his lower abdomen. Kevin sucked in his breath as he heard Aaron gasp.

“Are you okay? Or do you want some time?”

“No, no go ahead.” Kevin said. “It’s just kind of hard.”

“And I totally understand. Let me know if you want me to stop at any time.”

Aaron sat down in the chair as Kevin placed his hand on his shoulder, hoping to comfort in some way.

“These patches on his chest are electrodes. They are monitoring his vital signs, which is what is on the monitor. Right now, his incision looks terrible, I know. By tomorrow night, after surgery, it will not be anywhere near the size it is now. They placed a special covering over it to let the swelling go down so they can finish the surgery tomorrow. This allows the incision to stay open. The tubes coming out are drains. They are helping to drain any blood or fluids from the area. He’ll have them in a few days after surgery until the wound heals more.” She folded the sheet back up, covering most of the bandages. “He does have a catheter in. Once he’s up and walking around, he’ll be able to have that out. It will also help with his kidneys right now. I think that’s it. If you or anyone with you has any questions at all, feel free to ask me. Nick should be waking up fairly soon, though he will be very groggy. He won’t be able to talk, but he will definitely be able to hear you.”

She offered a grim smile as she replaced the side rail, then excused herself from the room.

“Are you okay?” Kevin asked, looking down at Aaron.

“Yes,” His reply was quiet.

“I’m going to go let Howie or AJ in to see him before time is up.” Kevin started to leave, going back towards the door.

“Kev?” He heard a voice ask.

“Yeah?” He turned around to see Aaron facing him, tears streaming down his face.

“Please don’t leave. I don’t want you to leave me alone.”

Kevin’s heart dropped as he returned to Aaron’s side, pulling him into a hug.

“I know I’m sixteen and supposed to be old enough to deal with this, but I can’t. No one is here but you guys. And I don’t want to be alone with him. I’m so scared.”

Tears burned his own eyes as he held Aaron tight.

The nurse from before suddenly entered. “Time’s up. One of you will have to leave now.” She left as quickly as she came.

“Bitch,” Aaron mumbled under his breath.

“Tell you what, let’s both leave. We can go back to the waiting room and let someone else in. When he wakes up, we can come back, okay?”

Aaron nodded, wiping his face with his sleeve.

As they left the room, Nick’s eyes began to flutter. His surroundings were blurry and the light above hurt his eyes. It felt as though an elephant was lying on body and refused to get up. As he tried to take a deep breath, he panicked, not able to breathe at all. He bit down, realizing there was something in his mouth. Above him, a monitor beeped, one in particular picking up speed. Unable to move his head, his eyes wandered to the door on a figure coming in. As the figure neared, he realized it was Howie.

“Hey buddy.” Howie slipped his hand in Nick’s squeezing it for comfort.

With his other hand, Nick tried to grasp the tube in his mouth.

“Hey, leave that there. I know it’s a pain, but it’s helping you breath.”

Nick stopped, his body settling down, but his eyes full of questions.

“The doctor said you’re going to be okay. You have to have more surgery tomorrow, just to fix what they couldn’t today, but you’re going to be fine. You’ll be back on the road in no time.”

Howie sat down beside the bed, now at eye level.

“Aaron’s here now. He got here while you were in surgery. You just missed him. Kev and him left so I could come in, but I’ll get him for you in a few minutes. They bent the rules for us to see you. One of us can be in here with you at all times. We’ll stay here with you. AJ, Leighanne, and Kristin are all here too.”

Howie watched as Nick’s eyes began closing more often.

“I’m going to let you rest, but I’ll send someone back in to be with you.”

Nick squeezed his hand as he stood. Howie offered him a smile before leaving. The smile left quickly as he was out of the room, the sight in the room near unbearable.

Darkness enveloped him, but only for a few minutes, when he woke from noise at his bedside. Opening his eyes, he saw AJ staring at him, his eyes red rimmed underlined with dark circles.

“Hey kid, Howie said you were awake. Don’t let me keep you up though. You need to rest.”

Nick rolled his eyes at the attempt of AJ trying to sound like Kevin. The room was silent except for the quiet beeps from the monitor, AJ hesitating on what he wanted to say.

“Nick… I uh... just wanted to let you know, that it’s okay that you kept it a secret. At first, I was really pissed, but now, I understand why. Kevin and I both understand. Howie, too. And I just wanted you to know that no matter what; we’ll be here for you. We’re not going anywhere.”

AJ watched as Nick’s eyes began to tear up.

“Hey man, don’t start getting all emotional on me.” He teased, trying to lighten the situation. “I’m going to get out of here so Kevin or Aaron can come back down. I’ll see you later, kid.”

AJ stood, walking towards the door. He turned his head to look back, his eyes meeting with Nick’s. Turning back around, he walked the curtain, no longer visible.

Nick remained awake, waiting for someone else to walk through. He didn’t want to fall back asleep and miss them. The curtain suddenly shuffled from a breeze, and then was pulled back as Kevin walked in.

“Hey,” He whispered, sitting down beside the bed. “Aaron was going to come back in, but he fell asleep in the waiting room. So now, you’re stuck with me.”

Nick blinked, as if saying “okay”. His eyelids were once again becoming heavy as he tried to hold off sleep.

“Go to sleep, Nick. You need to rest. I’ll be here when you wake up.”

Blackness surrounded Nick as he fell into a medicated sleep. He woke up often throughout the long night from Kelly checking his dressings and I.V.’s. She’d apologize, but he found it easy to fall back asleep.

Around daybreak, sun began streaming through the curtains. He had woken a few minutes earlier as Kelly came in once last time to check everything before she left.

“I’ll be back tonight,” She said softly, so not disturb his visitor from their sleep. “Annie will be your nurse now.”

Kelly patted his arm as she left quietly. Outside the room, the hospital was beginning to come alive, though all he could hear was the noise since his window and door were both blocked from view. Turning his head, instead of seeing Kevin beside the bed, he saw his brother. His hair was disheveled, partly hidden by a hood from his sweatshirt. He breathed quietly in his sleep, his face peaceful and body relaxed. Nick lay, watching him sleep. From the corner of his eye, he saw the curtain move. Kevin’s tall figure passed through.

“Hey,” He said quietly. “The doctor is going to come in soon.”

Nerves in Nick’s stomach caused butterflies to flutter. He had always hated doctors and hospitals. Now he had no choice but to be in the hospital. He didn’t even have a choice in the surgery.

Aaron stirred before slowly waking up. His eyes met with Nick’s and he sat up straight. Nick moved his hand in between the bed rails to outside of the bed as Aaron grasped it. Dr. Resnick walked briskly into the room, interrupting the brothers.

“Nick, I’m Dr. Resnick. I was your surgeon yesterday, and will be again today. We’re going to take you down to surgery here in a few minutes, but I just wanted to talk to you about what’s going to happen. Yesterday in surgery, we basically did damage control, removing the pole and stopping the bleeding. Today, we’re going to fix your stomach and get a better look at your spleen and kidney. Your kidney is in pretty bad shape, and may have to be removed. Don’t be worried about it though. People can live full lives without one kidney. Your spleen, on the other hand, is also is bad shape. I’m afraid we’ll most likely have to remove it. Spleens are part of your immune system, so we’ll have to be extra careful for the next few weeks until your immune system builds back up enough to protect against illness.” Dr. Resnick stepped closer to the bed as he folded the sheet down.

“I’m just going to look at the incision.”

Nick looked down, immediately getting woozy. He shut his eyes as he felt Aaron’s grip tighten in his hand.

“It looks good.” He replaced the sheet. “Nick, when you wake up from the surgery, we’re going to have you in an isolation room. It will be for a couple days, at least. This is just to protect you from any nosocomial, or hospital acquired, infections. We have some vaccines we can also give you. In a few days, if all goes well, we’ll have you in a normal room.” Dr. Resnick wrote something on a notepad he held in his hand. “They’re going to take you downstairs shortly. The surgery will probably last anywhere for two to six hours. If all goes well, hopefully by this evening we’ll take out the breathing tube.”

The doctor left, the only noise in the room was coming from the SAT monitor. Two orderlies came in with a chart in their hands.

“Is this Nickolas Carter?”

“Yes,” Kevin replied for him.

“We’re here to take him to the surgical ward.”

“Nick, we’ll be here when you wake up.” Aaron said, obviously holding back tears.

“Everyone will be here.” Kevin added. “We’ll see you in a few hours.”

They moved away from the bed, allowing the orderlies to near it. They set to work quickly, moving the I.V. bags over to a pole on the bed, and then setting up his monitors to a new machine that sat between his legs at the end of the bed. They took the brakes off both sides of the bed before moving him forward. He glanced helplessly at both Kevin and Aaron as he was removed from the room.

From beside him, Kevin could hear sniffles and heavy breathing. He put his arm around Aaron’s shoulders and led him from the room.

“Mr. Richardson,” A voice called from the nurse’s station. Annie jogged towards them. “Sorry about that. I just wanted to let you know that you’re welcome to stay up here and wait during the surgery. I can tell the surgical staff that you’ll be here, and they’ll call with updates.”

“That’d be great, thanks.” He replied. She nodded as she walked away, returning to the station.

“Did you call Emily?” Aaron asked as they returned to the waiting room.

“No. Brian told me they broke up. I wasn’t sure if I should call her or not.”

“What about Riley?”

“I forgot all about her. Don’t tell her that, she’ll eat me alive.”

Aaron chuckled as he sat down near the window in the waiting room. “When did everyone leave?”

“Around three. They said they’d be back this morning. They just needed some sleep.”

Kevin took his cell phone from his back pocket. Searching through his address book, he found Riley’s cell phone number.

“Is she still in Europe?” Aaron asked.

“Yeah. It’s about a six-hour difference right? It’s around noon then. Maybe she’ll answer.”

Riley was a friend of all five band members, but an especially good friend of Nick’s. He had met her before the Backstreet Boys came along, when he was auditioning for television shows. They had managed to keep in touch, and when the band became bigger, she was hired on as their fashion manager. She had left after a few years to go to school and open her own fashion company, but was still friends with all of them. She had shared a house with Nick for awhile in Marathon, but when Emily became a priority of Nick’s, she had moved out, and then left for Europe not long after.

“I’m going to try to call Riley. Have you tried your dad again?”

“No. I guess I should.” Aaron used the phone on the table beside him to call his father while Kevin went into the lounge. Three vending machines lined one wall, as well as a sink and refrigerator. Counters ran along another wall containing a microwave, bowls of fresh fruit, and plates of cookies. There were three tables in the center of the room, each with chairs, and then a couch on one of the walls with a phone above it. Sitting down on the edge of the couch, he took the phone off the cradle and dialed the number that showed on his phone. It rang five times before her voicemail picked up.

“Hey, this is Riley Vergara. I can’t answer my phone at moment, but if you leave your name and number, I’ll try to call you back as soon as possible.”

Kevin waited for the automated voice, then the beep before speaking.

“Riley, this is Kevin Richardson. Uh… I need to talk to you as soon as possible. It’s kind of urgent. I’ll have my cell off most of the time, but if you can call and let me know a good time to reach you, I can give you a call back later. Bye.”

Kevin replaced the phone onto the cradle before returning to the waiting room where Aaron was still on the phone. He hung up shortly after.

“He said he’d try to get here as soon as he could. I guess Ginger and him went on a weekend getaway without telling me… and then he was upset because I wasn’t there when they got back yesterday.” Aaron rolled his eyes. “Get Riley?”

“No, her voicemail picked up.”

“She’s always busy.”

“Yeah. She has too much energy and too little time for it all.”

Howie, AJ, and Kristin suddenly joined the two.

“No Brian?” Kevin asked as Kristin sat down beside him, taking his hand into hers.

“No. He said he didn’t feel good.” Kristin said.

“He needs a swift kick in the ass.” AJ said from across the room. “We’re all dealing with the same thing. I understand some people take things differently, but Nick isn’t dead. He’s still alive and he’s going to need him around.”

“Leigh was going to try to talk to him this morning,” Kristin added.

Kevin only shook his head. He lay back against the couch and closed his eyes. AJ sat down beside Aaron and glanced up at the clock.

“It’s going to be a very long day.” He mumbled, realizing it was only seven in the morning.

***

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