Chapter Forty-Six



Jessica got off the elevator and headed down the familiar hallway to Nick’s ICU room. She stopped in the doorway when she found the bed stripped, all the machines gone and Nick no where in site.

She turned around quickly and half way ran to the nurses station. Jess tried to calm the panic she was feeling rise in her body. “Please! I need to know where Nick Carter was taken to.”

A nurse looked up and mumbled “Yeah, you and 10,000 other hormonal girls.” Speaking clearer she added, “Miss, you are not allowed on this floor, only family of ICU patients.”

‘Oh god, she thinks I’m a fan,’ Jess thought to herself. “No, you don’t understand, I’m family---” Jess’s voice trailed off when she could see that the nurse wasn’t listening to her. “Oh god, please! You have to believe me.”

“Miss, if you don’t leave right now, I will have to call hospital security,” the nurse abruptly stated.

Blinking away the tears that were filling her eyes, Jess decided it would be best if she left the nurses station and went down to the next floor to Brian’s room.

Jess felt relieved when the elevator stopped on the fifth floor. She walked quickly past the nurses station desk, trying to avoid contact with any of them in case they were called from the ICU desk to be on the look out for her.

When Jess walked into Brian’s room, she was greeted with one of the biggest smiles she had ever seen on his face. Her eyes followed the direction of his gesture to see Nick laying in a bed next to his, asleep.

“Oh my god, Nick!” Jess blurted out, rushing towards his bedside. As she grabbed his hand, she spoke softly to Brian.

“I was so scared, I went to his room in ICU and he was gone. The nurse wouldn’t tell me where he was and, oh god, Brian thought the worst, I thought I lost him forever,” Jess cried.

“They just moved him into my room only an hour ago. I thought you’d know,” Brian replied. “I guess they figured if Nick were around someone he knew and hearing my voice, it would possible trigger something and jolt him out of this coma.”

Jess ran her fingers through Nick’s hair. “We can only hope and pray, Brian.”

She took a good look at Nick. He still had tubes going in and out of him and he still appeared to be in a deep, restful sleep. There were no changes in him at all. Glancing over towards Brian, she noticed that the smile on his face was gone, replaced with a look of worry and his color had paled.

“Brian, are you alright?”

“Uh-huh.”

“You’re lying, something’s wrong, tell me what’s wrong,” Jessica demanded.

“It’s my stomach, I’ll be fine.” Brian tried to lessen Jess’s worry about him. He was worried about himself as well as about Nick, but he dismissed the pains in his stomach as nerves, never bothering to say anything to his nurse.

Nick softly moaned which diverted the attention away from Brian for the moment. Jess held her breath, hoping this would be the one time that Nick wakes up, but was disappointed when nothing else happened.

“Brian, when is Nick going to wake up? I’m getting so scared. This has gone on longer than when he was in the car accident,” Jess broke down and started to cry.

“I wish I knew honey,” Brian looked at her, suddenly feeling helpless.