Chapter Forty-Seven



Jess sat reading a book while Brian was away in physical therapy. They both decided to play CD’s out of Nick’s personal collection to stimulate him into waking up. A smile played across Jessica’s lips when she thought of how much Nick hated hearing any song by n’sync or Britney Spears.

Quietly setting the book down, Jess went over to the CD player and put in n’sync’s latest CD, No Strings Attached. She purposly laid the headphones near Nick’s right ear.

Turning the volume up, Jess giggled in spite of herself and sat back down into the hard plastic seat and picked up her book.

“If this don’t do it, nothing ever will,” Jess sighed as she stole a glance over at Nick.

Brian was wheeled back into the room sooner than Jessica expected from physical therapy. He looked exhausted, but not tired enough to notice the music coming from the CD player.

“You trying to kill him or something?” Brian asked with a smirk on his face. He knew how much Nick loathed any music from n’sync.

“Nope, just trying to piss him off,” Jess replied as she wet her index finger and flipped a page on the paperback novel she was evidentally engrossed in. Brian nodded his head in Nick’s direction. “I think it’s working, look.”

Jess stood up and looked at Nick’s face. Instead of seeing a peaceful look, his eyebrows were knotted together and he literally looked mad about something. Jess smiled and looked at Brian.

“I knew it! I knew we would get a rise out of him!” She rushed over and caught Brian up in a big bear hug. “Now if he would only complain!”

Before Brian could reply, Nick started off into a loud moaning, turning his head from side to side.

“N-o-o-o-o-o-o-o.”

It was barely understandable, but Jess and Brian understood it, it was music to their ears.

“What did you say, Nicky?” Brian asked.

Nick’s eyes popped open. He still was moving his head from side to side. “N-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o.”

Approaching the side of the bed, Jess looked directly at Nick’s face. “You want this off?”

Nick’s head became still. He laid there, just blinking his eyes. He looked like he was concetraiting on something to say.

After waiting for a few moments for a response, Jess turned the music back on. This started Nick moving his head side to side and moaning, “N-o-o-o-o-o-o-o.”

Brian gestured to Jessica to turn the CD player off, it was clearly agitating Nick. Once the music stopped, Nick was quiet again. Jess walked over to his bed and lovingly straightened his blankets up and fluffed the pillows.

Nick laid in bed quietly, watching Jess, not showing any emotion except exhaustion.

“Nick, I wish you’d snap out of this,” Jess sighed.

“Do you think we should call Nick’s nurse, I think this is something like progress for him, maybe they can do something more for Nick since he reacted to the music,” Brian said as he stared at Nick.

“Couldn’t hurt,” Jessica replied. “I’ll go down to the nurse’s station and tell Melanie, be back in a second.”

Brian wheeled himself up to the side of Nick’s bed. He took Nick’s hand and squeezed it. To his amazement, Nick lightly squeezed it back.

“Nick, if you can hear me, squeeze my hand again,” Brian commanded.

It took a second, then suddenly there was a slight squeeze placed on Brian’s hand. Tears welled up in Brian’s eyes.

“Nick! You’re coming out of this, aren’t you? You’re gonna come back to us!” Brian could hardly contain his excitement.

“Do you want to hear n’sync again, Nick?”

Nick responded by shaking his head “no.”

Brian patted him on the arm, “Yeah, I guess you’re right, God knows you’ve suffered enough trauma for one day.”