Immediately after they arrived at the hospital, Julie was wheeled into the emergency room and that was a place where Nick wasn't allowed to go. He was told to stay in the waiting room and wait. Nick then had to make a very difficult phone call. He had to call Julie's mom and tell her what happened. He dialed her mom's phone number and waited for her to pick up.
"Hello?" said Monica.
"Hi, Mrs. Lanar, this is Nick Carter." Said Nick holding back tears.
"Of course, hi Nick. How's it going?" asked Mrs. Lanar. She sounded like she was in a good mood.
"Not very well I'm afraid." Said Nick.
"What's wrong? And come to think of it, why are you calling instead of Julie?" asked Mrs. Lanar beginning to sound worried.
"I don't really know how to say this so I'm just gonna come out and say it. Mrs. Lanar…Julie was involved in a hit and run." Blurted out Nick.
"OMG! How is she? Is she ok? Is she alive?" exclaimed Mrs. Lanar, her voice sounded frantic.
"I don't know, she's in the emergency room and I can't see her there. I was told to wait until they know something." Explained Nick, tears were running down his face.
"I'm coming to the hospital right away, I'll be there as soon as I can." Said Mrs. Lanar. Nick told her the name of the hospital and hung up the phone. By that time Kevin, Jen, Brian, and Jess had gotten to the hospital and they said that they called Howie, Stacey, AJ, and Angela and told them what happened. They all gathered in the waiting room.
"Do they know anything yet?" asked Brian.
"No, she's been in there for over a half an hour and still nothing!" exclaimed Nick in frustration; he didn't even bother hiding the fact that he was crying.
"Don't worry, everything will be okay." Said Jen trying to reassure Nick.
"Oh yeah? Then how come I have this feeling deep down inside that nothing will ever be the same?" snapped Nick.
"Because you're very vulnerable right now, but you'll see, Julie will be fine." Said Kevin. Nick didn't say anything; he just buried his face in his hands and continued to cry. At that moment, AJ, Angela, Howie, and Stacey had arrived. They saw everyone else in the waiting room and rushed in there.
"I'm afraid we've got more bad news." Said AJ. Nick picked up his head.
"What is it?" he asked.
"There's a whole crowd of reporters outside the hospital." Said Howie. "Apparently someone saw you get into the ambulance and they reported it. Now the street outside of the hospital is swarming with reporters and some are trying to get inside." He explained.
"I don't care!" yelled Nick. "The only thing I care about right now is when I'm going to know how Julie's doing." He added. Then they heard Mrs. Lanar outside the waiting room demanding to know where her daughter was. They all came out and motioned for her to follow them.
"Hi everyone." Said Mrs. Lanar, it was easy to tell that she's been crying because her eye make-up was smeared. "Do you know anything yet?" she asked.
"No, nothing at all yet." Said Nick wearily.
"I'm sure we'll find out something soon." Added Brian.
"I just can't believe this happened." Said Mrs. Lanar sitting down. "Julie is such a great person, she doesn't deserve this!" she exclaimed.
"We know she doesn't, and believe us, we're all praying that she's going to be ok." Said Jess.
"I just feel like this is a dream and any moment now I'm going to wake up and find that everything is okay and nothing has gone wrong." Said Mrs. Lanar, she was crying hard.
"I should've gone to the store with her!" exclaimed Nick out of nowhere and jumped up from the chair.
"Whoa, Nick, don't blame yourself for this." Said AJ trying to calm down his friend.
"Why not?" exploded Nick. "If I would've gone with her none of this would've ever happened and we would all be home right now watching TV!" he yelled. Then he stalked out of the waiting room. Brian ran after him.
"What exactly happened?" asked Mrs. Lanar.
"Well, as far as we know, Julie went to the store to get some soda and when she was standing on the corner waiting for the light to change on her way back home, a car came out of nowhere, hit her and then just drove off." Said Kevin.
"I can't believe this." Said Mrs. Lanar shaking her head. At that moment, a doctor came into the waiting room. Everyone got up.
"Mrs. Lanar?" he asked.
"Yes, that's me, how's my daughter?" asked Mrs. Lanar coming up to the doctor.
"Not very well I'm afraid. She has a very serious head injury and she is in a coma. When she fell from the car's impact, she hit her head on a pole and frankly, it doesn't look very promising. I'm so sorry." Said the doctor sympathetically.
"No! But you can be wrong, right?" asked Mrs. Lanar her eyes full of fear.
"Yes, but I'm afraid that in this case, there's not much chance that we are." Said the doctor.
"I have to go find Nick." Said Kevin and ran off to find Brian and Nick.
*~*~*

Brian and Nick were standing near the hospital cafeteria talking when they saw Kevin coming. Nick's senses immediately went on alert because from the expression on Kevin's face, the news wasn't good.
"How is she?" asked Nick.
"Not good I'm afraid." Said Kevin shaking his head. He told them what the doctor had said and Nick nearly collapsed. He slid down on a nearby chair and his face lost all color.
"No!" was all that he could say before completely breaking down in sobs. Brian and Kevin tried to comfort Nick but he pulled away. After fifteen minutes of crying, he wiped his eyes and got up.
"I wanna see her." He said and started walking back to the waiting room. Brian and Kevin followed.
When they got there, they saw that Mrs. Lanar wasn't there and they were told that she was with Julie. Julie was in the intensive care unit and was only allowed to have visitors for ten minutes at a time. Nick waited patiently while Mrs. Lanar was with her daughter. When she came out, he was allowed to go see his girlfriend.
Nick went into Julie's room and winced. Julie was hooked up to several machines, which were keeping her alive. She looked so fragile in the bed that Nick couldn't bear to look. He finally got himself together and came and sat on a chair next to Julie's bed.
"Hey." He said quietly taking her hand in his. "Now, I know you can hear me, so listen up. You can't quit. I don't care what the doctors say, you're strong, I know you can fight this, please fight it." he begged; tears were flowing freely from his eyes. Julie remained still. "I love you too much and you can't just die and leave everyone. We're supposed to be together forever remember? That means that this isn't over here, it means that you're supposed to wake up and tell me that you're okay. Please Julie, wake up." But there was still no change. Then Nick began to sing softly: "Open up your heart to me, and say what's on your mind, oh yes. I know that we have been through so much pain, but I still need you in my life this time…" then all of a sudden he heard a long beep and realized that it was Julie's heart monitor. She had flat lined. All at once a team of doctors rushed into the room and Nick was forced to step back. Then everything happened in slow motion. It was like Nick was watching himself watch the doctors working on his girlfriend. Somewhere in the distance he heard the doctors yelling:
"One…two…three…shocking…not working…again…one…two…three…" Then all he heard was the steady long beep of the heart monitor and then there was silence. All the machines have been turned off. At that moment it finally hit him full force: Julie had died.


chapter 12 epilogue