Chapter 21
One month
later
Things had slowly begun to get better in the past
month. Kevin, AJ, and Howie had all
gone home, leaving Brian and Leighanne to share the duty of caring for Nick, which
they had both grown accustomed to. It
was now just a regular part of life.
Nick had made some improvements since he had been living
with Brian. He could not speak yet, but
he made noises. His face still looked
blank most of the time, but when someone was in the room with him, his eyes
followed them. When it was Brian, there
seemed to be a kind of sparkle in them that didn’t show when anyone else was
there.
Still, Nick had a long way to go. There was no movement in his arms or
legs. The nurse who came daily to give
Nick his medicine, which was in the form of a shot, had showed Brian how to
exercise his arms and legs to keep the muscle from deteriorating.
Brian wasn’t even sure why. It didn’t look promising that Nick would
ever have hope of walking again anyway.
In fact, it didn’t look promising that Nick would ever be doing much of
anything again.
***
One morning, the phone rang. Leighanne grabbed it, putting it to her ear.
“Hello?” she said.
“Oh, hi, Mrs. Thompson. Oh...
sure, that’s fine. Okay. Okay, bye.”
“What was that about?” Brian asked.
“That was Nick’s nurse, Mrs. Thompson,” Leighanne
replied. “She’s going on vacation next
week so she won’t be around, but she’s already hired another nurse named Alice
Scott to come in her place.”
“Oh, okay,” Brian said.
“Sounds good.”
***
At promptly two in the afternoon, one week later, the
doorbell rang.
Brian opened the front door to find a young red-haired
woman standing on the porch.
“Brian Littrell?” she asked, stepping forward.
“Yes,” he said. “Are
you the new nurse?”
“Yes. I’m Alice
Scott,” she replied, shaking his hand warmly.
“Nice to meet you, Ms. Scott,” Brian said, smiling
politely.
“Oh, call me Alice,” she said.
“Okay. Well, Alice,
come on in,” Brian replied, stepping back to let her enter the house. “I’ll show you to Nick’s room.”
Alice gazed wonderingly around the house as Brian led her
through it to the guestroom.
“Nick, meet Alice, your new nurse. She’s going to be taking care of you for this
week, until Mrs. Thompson comes back,” Brian introduced, leading Alice into the
room.
“Do you have any questions, or should I just leave you to
your business?” Brian asked Alice.
“Nope, I think I’m all set,” she replied, smiling at
him.
“Okay. I’ll be back
later then,” Brian said, stepping out of the room.
As soon as he was gone, Alice closed the door and turned to
Nick. “My, my, Nick, you’re in worse
shape than I thought. This is going to
be great!”
Nick’s eyes stared at her as she pulled a small camera out
of her medical bag.
“Say cheese,” Alice giggled, aiming the camera and snapping
a picture. The flash went off brightly,
causing Nick to blink his eyes in pain.
Alice ignored this and stepped closer to get a better view,
snapping another picture right in Nick’s face.
After taking a few more shots, Alice quickly put away the
camera and set to work, giving Nick his proper injection, for she really was a
nurse. A nurse in search of money by
selling rare pictures of Nick Carter as the invalid he had now become to all
the hot tabloids. She knew it was a
great plan; she would make fortunes.
“There you go, Nicky,” she said, packing up her medical
supplies. She snickered. “See you tomorrow.”
***
Two weeks
later
Marissa walked through the grocery store, carrying a gallon
of milk and a carton of eggs in her arms.
She got into the express check-out line behind several
other people. As she waited, she
glanced at the rack of magazines beside her.
Her eyes scanned the headlines, falling on one that headed the front of
the National Enquirer in big, bold letters:
Nick Carter
Impaired for Life
Find out
the devastating truth on this Backstreet Boy’s condition.
Shocking
rare photos inside!!
Marissa felt a wave of nausea run through her. She picked up the magazine with shaking
hands and turned the pages until she came to the article. As she caught sight of a blown-up picture at
the start of the article, she gasped in horror.
***
