Chapter
10
By Julie
When
Brian awoke, he found three anxious faces peering down at him. “Hey, Bri.
How we doing?” asked Howie, looking relieved. Brian looked around and suddenly realized he
was lying in a hospital room.
“What
am I doing in here?” he asked anxiously.
“You
passed out in the waiting room, and Dr. MacDonald wanted to check you out to
make sure you’re alright,” Kevin replied.
“He said you probably just passed out from the shock and because you
hadn’t really eaten since breakfast.”
“He
also said you were dehydrated, so he’s giving you some fluids,” AJ
explained. Brian then noticed the IV in
his arm.
“When
can I get out of here?” Brian asked.
“Right
now, if you want to,” said a voice.
Brian looked up to see Dr. MacDonald entering the room. “I’ll take you off that IV and let you go if
you promise to go right down to the cafeteria and get something to eat and
drink.”
Brian
nodded eagerly. “I will,” he said.
Dr.
MacDonald smiled. “Okay then, let me
take out this IV, and then you can go.”
A
few minutes later, the four guys were on their way down to the cafeteria on the
first floor. The food there didn’t look
too appetizing, but they were all hungry, so they ordered some food and managed
to choke it down.
As
soon as they finished, they headed up to the third floor, the Neuro ICU, which
was where Nick had been put. He was in a
private room at the end of the hall. The
room had a special lock on the door that you had to punch a code into to get
in. This was to protect Nick against any
fans that might find out about him, although the place looked nearly empty
right now. Brian, AJ, Howie, and Kevin
all hoped that the fans would not find out about this until it was all over. None of them were in the mood for being
stampeded by screaming girls.
“Have
you been in to see Nick yet?” Brian asked as the other three led him to a
waiting room to sit down.
They
shook their heads. “We’ve been in with
you,” said AJ.
“They
moved him up here right after you passed out, but they haven’t let us see him
yet. We have to wait for someone to come
out and tell us we can see him,” explained Kevin.
Brian
nodded sadly, hoping he could see his best friend soon.
***
About ten minutes later, Dr. MacDonald appeared. “You may go in to see Nick now, two at a
time,” he said. “I have to warn you
though, what you will see may scare you.
Nick is attached to many machines that are monitoring him and helping
him breathe.” The guys nodded
nervously. “Okay, which two are going first?”
Immediately, they all looked at Brian. He smiled weakly and stood up.
“Kev?”
he asked, looking at his cousin. Kevin
shook his head.
“No,
AJ, why don’t you go with Brian?” he asked.
AJ shot him a strange look, but nodded and stood next to Brian.
“Okay
then,” Dr. MacDonald said. “Come with
me.” He led them down the hall to room
345, which was at the very end of the hall.
“Now, this is the special lock I was telling you about,” he said,
motioning to a device on the door. “All
you have to do is punch a set of four numbers into the keypad and hit the star
button. The numbers are 2, 0, 7, 5. You have to punch them in that order, or it
won’t work.”
AJ
and Brian nodded. AJ punched in the
numbers, then hit the star. The door
opened, and they walked in. It shut
behind them. Dr. MacDonald had remained
outside, letting them spend time with Nick alone.
Brian
and AJ approached Nick’s bed slowly.
Even across the room, the sight of him was not a good one, but it got
worse up close.
Nick’s head was wrapped in bandages, hiding
his blonde hair. They could see angry
looking bruises showing below the bandages on his head. Other than the bruising, his face was
colorless. He was hooked up to many
machines that beeped and hisses, giving the room a nightmarish atmosphere. Brian saw that he was on a respirator,
meaning he was unable to breathe on his own.
Brian didn’t know about a lot of medical
things, but he knew that was not good.
He took one of Nick’s limp hands and held it in his own while he said a
silent prayer for God to help his best friend get through this and be all
right.
***