When Nick opened his eyes, he was immediately greeted with the pale blue walls that was once his study. The desk had been pushed against a corner, papers were still piled the way he had left them before the cancer had wrapped its icy grip around him. So much unfinished business.
Unfinished business!
Thoughts regarding that phrase entered his mind. Nick recalled something that he had heard or read where people don’t cross over into the next world if they had unfinished business. He had a solo album that was still in the works, the guys had their album that was waiting for him to get better.
“I don’t even have the time to die, Layla” he muttered to the dog that was laying on the floor beside his bed. He looked down at the animal, longing to be able to pet the puppy. It was a gift from his parents….he hated to part with the other dogs that had been his only true companions but when he had gotten sick, he knew that he could no longer take care of them.
“Nick? Is everything alright?”
Nick visibly jerked out of his thoughts, looking at the door where Brian stood.
“Huh?”
“You said you didn’t have the time to die….”
He suddenly remembered that they had a monitor in his bedroom and they could hear everything that went on in the room.
“Oh that….it wasn’t anything,” Nick replied in a small voice.
Brian inched his way toward the sickbed. “You wouldn’t have said it if it wasn’t anything. C’mon, do you want to talk about it?”
“It was just stupid talk with Layla……right baby?”
The pup stood up, staring at her master, wagging its tail as she panted.
Brian stared down at the animal, skeptically. “You know I still don’t feel too happy with you having a dog in your room while you’re trying to recover.”
“If I didn’t have her,” Nick paused as he yawned, “I think I would give up. She keeps me sane.”
Brian cocked his head to one side. “A dog keeps you sane? What the heck are your friends for? Entertainment?”
Nick managed to grin despite himself. “Yup.”
Shaking his head, Brian stepped around the dog and drew the blankets up on his best friend’s chest. “Did you need me to bring you anything with your afternoon meds?”
“Its that time already?”
“Yeah, sad but true, its 3 p.m.”
“How about you help me into the living room. I’d like to sit on the couch and watch TV.”
“What’s wrong with the TV in here?”
“Isolation?”
Brian looked at the television and then thought of how lonely it had to be for Nick being cooped up in a hospital room. He sighed when he remembered how getting Nick around was no longer a simple task.
“Sit tight until I get Bone to come in and help.”
“I don’t think you need someone else to help….I can walk a little by myself and I ain’t gonna use that damn wheel chair so put that back in the corner,” Nick argued when he watched Brian pull out the chair that had been on loan from the hospital equipment store.
“You know the doctors orders…you can’t get up by yourself.”
“What if I say no?”
“Then you stay in your bed.”
“You know this is abuse?”
“Nicky, how about you just use the walker, okay? I know you’re weak and I have to have AJ stand on the other side while you walk with this.”
Nick groaned. “Would it make you happy?”
“Ecstatic.”
“Yo Nicky….I heard you and dickhead over the monitor. You want to take a walk?”
Brian winced. “Why must you call me dickhead, Bonehead?”
“Because the name totally fits.”
Nick laughed. “He does have a point there, Bri.”
“So how does this thing fold out again…” Brian mumbled as he sat the walker beside the bed.
“You fold those things out,” Nick directed as he started to move the bed into a sitting position.
“Whoa Nick, wait until I’m ready for you to get out of bed,” Brian snapped when he heard the motor whirl on the bed.
“I’m just putting the head up higher, don’t get all over protective on me,” Nick grumbled.
“I doubt Kaos would move so fast that you couldn’t be right there, ease up Rok,” AJ rasped.
“It would be my luck that Nick would fall out of bed or something and then I would have to call Kevin and explain what happened.”
“Oh for crying out loud Brian, I’m not fragile.”
Nick stared at AJ and Brian as he stifled a yawn behind the back of his hand. As much as he wanted to get up and walk out into the living room, the whole idea of the trip now started to wear him out. Sucking a deep breath in, he looked at his band brothers. He wished he hadn’t talked them out of the wheel chair, but the stubborn side of him refused to admit defeat. “Are you two ready cause I am.”
They had walked only a few feet when Nick suddenly felt the need to sit down. He hated how much his body had grown to betray him since the cancer had struck but the old stubborn Carter in him refused to acknowledge that he was having fatigue issues.
Brian, the ever-present mind reader in their Frick-Frack relationship paused, asking, “How are you doing?”
“Kay,” Nick quickly answered as he struggled on. Looking ahead, he could see that the couch in the living room seemed so close but yet so far away.
“You sure? You seem to be breaking a sweat,” AJ observed.
“Hold on Nick,” Brian said as he quickly left his best friend’s side, returning with a chair. “I put this right behind you, sit down slowly.”
“I guess I needed to rest for a minute, I’ll be fine in a sec,” Nick admitted.
“Take your time…better yet, I can go get the wheel chair and bring you into the living room, this was stupid trying to walk this far your first day back from the hospital,” AJ said.
Nick waved the rebel away. “I just needed to catch my breath. I’ll be ready to go in a sec.” Truth be told, Nick knew he wouldn’t be ready in another minute and that AJ had hit the nail on the head by saying trying to walk this far was too much for him! Oh, how he hated his body right now!
“Okay, let’s go to the rest of the way.”
“There’s no hurry,” Brian suggested.
Slowly getting up into a standing position – with help from his friends - Nick grabbed the arms of the walker.
”Yeah there is I like to start what I finish.”
“I have a feeling your doctor is going to shoot me when she finds out what we did today,” Brian groaned.
Nick paused in his steps for a moment, before taking another slow, calculated step onward. “Yeah.”
“I can get that chair if you need---“
“I’m okay,” Nick panted as they were inches from the stairs that led to the second floor of the house.
“Nicky….sit down….NOW!” AJ yelled as they got to the stairs.
“I’m fine!” Nick argued.
”SIT!” Brian and AJ shouted in unison.
“What the hell is going on??” Kevin said as he let himself into the house through the front door. ”Nick??” Kevin shouted as he dropped his luggage by the door. “What the hell!”
A harsh coughing fit greeted the older man as Nick tried to catch his breath, panting between the coughs.
“Nicky wanted to walk into the living room,” AJ explained.
“And so you let him? What the fuck do you think wheel chairs and the word no was invented for?” the dark haired man spat.
“Nick said he felt up to it,” Brian defended.
Instead of allowing the young man to finish his trip to the couch under his own power, Kevin scooped him into his arms, carrying him to the couch.
“Don’t just stand there, get him a blanket,” Kevin growled as he shot a look toward Brian and AJ that could shoot daggers.
During the entire time, all Nick could do was cough and pant for air. He felt bad about his friends getting bawled out for something that wasn’t their fault but he didn’t have the strength or the energy to defend them right now.
It wasn’t until AJ brought the blanket to Kevin, did the older man realize that Nick’s breathing was labored. He reached into his coat pocket, pulling out his cell phone. “I should call Dr. Andersen.”
Nick shook his head. “Don’t…”
“You’re having trouble catching your breath…”
“No,” he persisted. “I’ll be fine in a minute.”
Kevin stared at the young man skeptically. “I have a feeling that phrase is what landed you in this mess to begin with.”
“If you call Dr. Andersen, I will refuse to go to the hospital so don’t even bother trying.”
Kevin sighed as he squatted in front of Nick, folding his hands under his chin. “So what do you suggest I do then? Worry all night?”
“Just give me some time; I always get like this when I do something physical.”
“Nick I swear you’re going to give make me gray before I’m forty.”
“Which isn’t too far off,” AJ reminded Kevin in a sing-song voice.
Kevin quickly rocked back onto his heels and stood up.
“I thought your flight wasn’t due until later,” Brian asked, desperate to pull Kevin off the thought of calling Dr. Andersen.
“Yeah and wasn’t D coming back with you?” AJ added.
Kevin shook his head. “Howie said he’s going to drop by later this weekend. He had some loose ends that he had to work on.” The tall man paused when he caught the sight of Nick’s puppy bounding into the room. ”What is that?!” he boomed.
“That is called a dog,” AJ answered with a cheeky grin.
“I know what a fucking dog is…..whose is it and why is it here?”
“She’s mine….my parents gave it to me as a gift,” Nick softly replied.
“A DOG?! Whatever happened to a card or a shirt?”
“There’s nothing wrong with giving me Layla,” Nick defended.
“Germs, Nick….that animal has germs and that is one of the worst things you’re supposed to be around,” Kevin sputtered as he stared at the pup.
“And a hospital doesn’t?”
“She needs to be kept out of your room! THAT THING will be sleeping with me until you get better.”
Nick stuck his bottom lip out as he pouted. “Since when did you become negative on pets?”
Kevin sighed. “Its not that I’m negative on pets. I’m far from that Nick and you know it. It’s just that you’ve come this far and I hate to see something like this screw things up for you.” As he paused, he looked down at the dog. “I can’t believe your parents would do something dumb like this,” he mumbled.
