Chapter 24

By Julie

An hour later, Howie, AJ, and Kevin were once again sitting in the lounge with each other. They had just finished calling their parents. Howie had taken care of calling Nick and Brian's parents. It was hard for all of them, but especially Howie, having to call Brian and Nick's parents and tell them that their sons were in critical condition in a hospital halfway across the country. Both Jane and Jackie had sobbed over the phone. Bob and Harold had not openly cried, but Howie could tell they were very upset.

Now that they had finished calling everyone, they just had to sit and wait. All five of the guys' parents were flying up and would arrive in a few hours. Until then, however, Kevin, AJ, and Howie were left alone to wait and wonder how Brian and Nick were doing.

***

They waited another half an hour without any word on their two bandmates. Finally, Dr. Collins, the doctor that had spoken to them before, came in once again.

"Well, Brian has just been taken out of surgery," he said.

"How did he do?" Kevin asked.

"There were some minor complications during surgery, but he is fine now," Dr. Collins replied.

"What kind of complications?" AJ asked.

"He started to lose too much blood, but don't worry, the surgeons came him transfusions and fixed him up," Dr. Collins said.

"Was he hurt bad?" Howie asked.

"His internal injuries were quite severe," the doctor admitted. "His stomach was severely injured, but it was able to be repaired. It will take some time to heal, but eventually it will be fine. However, his spleen was too badly hurt to be fixed, so it was taken out." Kevin's eyes widened. "Don't worry," Dr. Collins assured him quickly, "people can live without spleens." All three of the guys relaxed a little.

"When can we see him?" asked Howie.

"He's still unconscious right now and in recovery. When we move him into the ICU with Nickolas, you can see him. But he'll need a few hours in recovery first," Dr. Collins said.

The guys nodded. "What about Nick? How is he doing?" AJ asked.

"There hasn't been any significant change in his condition," Dr. Collins said sympathetically. "But don't worry, it has only been a few hours since he was brought in. He's still on the respirator, and we're pumping him full of antibiotics to hopefully stop the pneumonia."

"Will he eventually get better though?" Kevin asked worriedly.

"I can't promise you that," Dr. Collins admitted. "He is very sick. This is one of the worst cases of pneumonia I have seen in quite awhile. If we had started to treat it a few days ago, it wouldn't have gotten so bad. But going all those days without medical attention made it get worse."

The three guys looked at each other guiltily. Deep down, they knew it was not their fault. But they couldn't help feeling responsible for what had happened to Nick.

"Thanks for telling us the truth, Dr. Collins," Howie managed to say.

Dr. Collins nodded and offered them a sympathetic smile. "I'll leave you guys alone now. Make sure you have someone page me if you need anything."

They nodded and watched as he left. Then they all broke into silent tears, crying for their two beloved brothers.

***

 

 

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