Chapter Forty-four

Jess sat and stared at the television, not really paying attention to anything that was on. She looked up briefly to see Kevin pacing the floor and over at Howie sitting in the corner thumbing through a magazine. Each of them were preoccupied with their own thoughts about their friends.

A surgeon entered the small waiting room. “Are you family of Mr. McLean’s?”

Kevin turned and answered the doctor. “Yes, is he okay? How did the surgery go?”

“He is out of surgery, and it appears that everything went well. We had a difficult time aligning the bones in place, but the plates and screws are doing their job.” The surgeon stated with confidence.

“How long will AJ be staying?” Howie asked.

“I would assume that he will be hospitalized for 48 hours, provided that everything is okay postoperative.” The surgeon looked at his watch as he spoke.

“When can we see him?” Jessica asked anxiously.

“He is still in the recovery room and will be moved to the floor in another hour or so. I will have them notify you when he is moved.” The surgeon turned and walked out of the room.

“God, that’s good news to hear. At least AJ is out of the woods. I am worrying about Brian though, with him in ICU, and Nick too, I am scared.” Jess spoke quietly.

“They will be fine, Jess, quit making yourself get upset over this,” Kevin said as he put his arm around her.

“I want to go see Nicky. I wonder if that nurse is gone now.” Jess was upset about the nurse that was on duty earlier. She refused to let her in to see Nick because she was not immediate family. Jess had to resign herself to standing in the hallway and barely getting a glimpse of Nick from there.

“Would you like me to check and see if that nurse is still there? I will go and see if I can get you in to see Nick.” Howie said as he left the room.

Jess glanced down at the table and looked briefly at the magazines that laid on it. Her eyes briefly stopped at a picture of the group. It struck her as funny that she would always come across a picture of Nick or the group when she was at the hospital.

After a few minutes, Howie came back into the room, he was smiling. “Good news, the nurse is gone. I spoke with the head nurse in ICU and explained the situation to her and she agreed that you should be able to come and go to Nick as you pleased. You don’t have to worry about that nurse telling you no ever again.”

“Oh, god, that is good! I want to go see Nick now.” Jess said as she stood up and hugged Howie.

“Would you like me to take you up there?” Howie asked.

“Oh, thanks, I would like that.” Jess replied.

Kevin and Howie walked with Jessica towards the elevators and quietly waited for the elevator to arrive. The lobby was busy and people started to gather by the elevator with them. There were a few young girls in the group of people and they immediately recognized Howie and Kevin. Both men were relieved when the girls only whispered quietly to one another and didn’t ask them for an autograph.

When the elevator finally arrived, they waited as it stopped on each floor until it finally stopped on the fourth floor for them to get off.

Jessica took a deep breath outside of Nick’s room before she entered. She felt her stomach tighten in knots as she walked into the room. There were numerous IV’s hanging from a pole next to Nick’s bed. A heart monitor kept it’s steady rhythm and an oxgen monitor kept a pulse. Nick laid quietly in the bed, his face was pale. Jess softly touched his cheek, hoping that he would open his eyes in response. His skin felt cool to the touch and Jess could feel the tears well up in her eyes as she looked at Nick.

“Hi babe, how are you this morning?” Jess asked Nick as if he would be responding to her question. “AJ’s surgery went fine and they said he will be in the hospital for another couple of days. I have been praying for you to get better. I wish you would wake up and tell me that you are fine. Please, Nick, can you wake up?” Jess’s voice trailed off as it was filling with emotion. She felt Howie’s hand on her shoulder.

Jessica turned to Howie and started to cry. Howie held her tightly and kept whispering “Shh.” It made Jess cry even more.

“This just isn’t fair. Why does this stuff have to happen to Nick?” Jess cried out. “I can’t accept this any longer.”

“Jess, Nick will be fine, he is just resting now. We have to believe that everything will be alright.” Kevin reasoned.

“No, no he’s not alright, he’s in a coma for christsake. I want him to talk to me, I want him to wake up and get angry.

“Jess, these things take time. They are working on getting the meds washed out of his system. The doctor said it would be a few days before Nick would wake up and it’s only been one day, you have to just wait it out.” Kevin said as he put a hand on her shoulder.

Jessica sighed as she looked at Nick laying so still. “God, how I want this whole nightmarish year to be overwith.” Jess thought to herself.

Jess pulled a chair up to the side of the bed. She told Kevin and Howie that she was going to sit with Nick for awhile and then would go to Brian’s room later.

Howie took the hint that Jess wanted to be alone with Nick and grabbed Kevin’s arm and told him they should go across the hall and check in on Brian.

As the guys walked into Brian’s room, they found Brian awake watching his nurse push medications through his IV lines. He turned when they walked into the room and managed a faint smile.

“Hey, Brian, how are you feeling this morning?” Kevin asked.

“Good.” Brian answered softly. They could tell his strength was gone from his body. He looked very pale and tired. Brian licked his lips and had a puzzled look cross his face, he managed to speak one word, “How?”

Kevin realized that Brian could not remember what happened that landed him in the hospital.

“Oh, god, Brian, you don’t remember, do you?” Howie asked.

Brian shook his head no. He looked at both Kevin and Howie to see if their faces could reveal if it was bad news, all Brian could think of was a car accident and he realized Nick was not in the room or Jessica.

“Do you remember being onstage in Tampa last night?” Kevin asked Brian.

Brian thought for a few minutes and then again shook his head no.

“Well, we were starting our tour again and I guess Nick wasn’t as ready as he thought he should have been. He blacked out and fell offstage. You ran out and jumped into the crowd to help him because he was being stepped on and you got mixed up in the surge of the crowd and you were slammed up against the stage. It knocked you out cold and stopped your heart. They ended up having to do surgery to fix your spleen, and they are hoping it can be saved, otherwise they will have to go back in and take it.”

Brian listened to Kevin and tried to comprehend what he was telling him. He slowly spoke up, “Nick?”

Kevin was hoping he wouldn’t ask him that question since Nick was still in a coma from the narcotics he had accidentally taken too much of.

“Um, well, Nick is um---” Kevin was trying to find the right words.

Brian reached out and touched Kevin’s arm that cause him to stop in mid sentance.

“Just tell me.” Brian said quietly.

Kevin swallowed. “Nick is in a coma.” He looked at Brian’s face to see if it registered.

Brian slowly closed his eyes. Tears slipped down his cheeks.

“But the doctors are optimistic that he will come out of it in the next couple of days.” Howie added quickly.

“Jess?” Brian slowly spoke.

“Jess is fine. She waited by the stage when this happened. She’s pretty upset, but she’s okay. She is with Nick across the hall.” Kevin said softly.

Howie stood up. “I’m going to go get her, she would want to see you, Brian.”

Brian watched Howie leave the room. Brian closed his eyes, the pain was starting to make him feel sick to his stomach.

“Brian, are you okay?” Kevin asked. He noticed that Brian was still pretty pale, his color didn’t look good at all.

“My stomach hurts.” Brian replied, it was barely audible.

Jessica rushed into the room. She immediately went up to the bed and kissed Brian. “God, Brian, I am so glad to see you awake. How are you feeling?” Jess said as she looked at his pale face. His eyes looked almost drained of color, empty.

“Ok.” Brian said quietly.

Jessica knew that Brian was lying, but she didn’t bother to correct him. She could see the pain in his eyes.

“Aww, I wish I could help you feel better, Bri.” Jess tried to be sympathetic. She watched a lab technician enter the room with her cart.

“Hi, my name is Melissa and I need to draw some more lab work from you, can I see your ID bracelet?” The girl was young, and very nervous. Jess and Kevin looked at one another for a moment. They both knew that the girl knew of Brian’s celebrity and was intimidated by it.

Brian held his left arm out for her to read the name tag and verify the numbers on the chart and vials. Once she was finished, she placed a rubber strap around Brian’s upper arm.

Kevin and Jessica decided to make small talk with Brian so that the tech wouldn’t feel uncomfortable with them in the room.

“So, um, Brian, I found one of those books you were looking for the other day.” Kevin stumbled with the words.

“Did you get it?” Brian asked without any enthusiasm in his voice.

They all were watching the girl wash the site where the blood was going to be drawn from.

“Yeah, I picked up a copy for me too, it looked pretty interesting, so I thought, what the hell.” Kevin replied. Just as he finished, the girl stuck Brian with the needle. Brian took a quick breath in and winced.

“Oh, my god, I am so sorry, did I hurt you?” Melissa asked, almost too loudly from being nervous.

“It’s okay.” Brian said nervously.

The girl was starting to grow more nervous as she saw that no blood was flowing into the tube like it should have. She undid the rubber strap and there was still no blood flowing out.

“Brian, they drained you dry, dude.” Kevin observed.

Brian rolled his eyes at Kevin. He was too tired to make a response.

“I’m sorry, I think your vein rolled. I have to try again, I’m really sorry.” The girl apologized as she wrapped the band around Brian’s arm again.

Just as she was starting to insert the needle into Brian’s arm, an alarm sounded off from across the hall from Nick’s room.

“Code Blue, ICU nine, code blue ICU nine.”

Jessica and Kevin jumped up and ran across the hall leaving Brian lay and worry about what was happening.

Jessica and Kevin stopped short in the doorway. Howie was standing off to the corner in Nick’s room, his eyes brimming with tears. A resident doctor was straddled across Nick’s body doing CPR. Kevin and Jess were pushed out into the hall by the doctors and nurses that were running in and out of Nick’s room. A crash cart was pulled to the side of Nick’s bed and the paddles were charged up. The resident jumped off the bed and a doctor yelled clear and then applied the paddles to Nick’s chest. Nick’s body arched up in response to the shock and all eyes in the room focused on the the monitor that had been showing a flat line. Nick’s heart responded with unnatural wavy lines. The doctor took the paddles to Nick’s chest again. This time the rhythm went back into the proper position.

Once Nick’s heart was back into fibrillation, the team of doctors and nurses walked out of the room leaving only Nick’s nurse checking his IV lines and monitors.

Howie approached Kevin and Jess. “I was just sitting next to Nick, kind of talking to him and all of a sudden, alarms on his machines went off. The next thing I knew, a whole bunch of doctors and nurses came running into the room. They said he was gone. I got scared. They said he was flat lined. Why is this happening?” Howie was still shaken by the experience.

Jess put her arms around Howie and held him in a tight hug. Taking a deep breath, Jessica walked towards Nick and put her hand on his hand. She pulled it back when she felt the coolness of his skin. She then reached up and smoothed back his blond hair. Jess stroked his hair, “Nick, you have to try and wake up, we need you baby. Please, I don’t know how much more of this I can take.” Jess tried to choke back sobs as she spoke. She felt Kevin’s hand touch her shoulder.

“God, Kev, he’s getting worse, not better! This isn’t supposed to be happening to him, not Nick, not Brian. Oh my god, Brian!” Jess looked out the door towards Brian’s room. “He doesn’t know what’s gone on.” As Jess turned to leave the room to tell Brian, Kevin put his hand on her shoulder.

“Whoa, calm down Jess.” Kevin told her softly.

Jess looked up at Kevin and then continued to walk out of Nick’s room to Brian’s room. Howie and Kevin walked into Brian’s room with her. When they entered his room, they found Brian looking at them with a worried expression on his face.

“Nick was flat lining.” Howie stated simply.

Brian’s mouth dropped open. He fully understood the terms concerning Nick’s heart.

“They got him back, he’s okay.” Kevin quickly offered.

“My god, there’s more wrong with Nick than what you’re telling me.” Brian said with an angry tone in his voice. “Tell me, NOW!”

“Um, Nick accidentally overdosed on his valium, Brian. It caused his heart to stop. They are trying to push it out of his system, I guess it’s still in there and that’s why it stopped again, I guess.” Kevin said.

“Accidentally overdosed? How did that happen?” Brian was insisting he be answered.

“Only Nick can answer that question, Brian.” Kevin replied quietly. “The doctors feel that Nick should be out of it for a few more days. Until then, we will just have to wait.”