Chapter Seven
Chris was sitting alone in the waiting room of the hospital with his head in his hands. He had left his car on Serita Lane, the back road that he had found Joey on. He came to the hospital in the ambulance with Joey, holding his hand the whole way.
Joey hadn't woken up on the ride to the hospital. Chris knew it was better for him not to wake up until the doctors were able to do something. He hadn't even noticed until they had reached the hospital that the front of his shirt was soaked with Joey's blood, and there was blood all over his hands and forearms.
The nurse that had met Chris at the waiting room door told him to go clean up and she'd bring him a shirt to wear, but Chris had told her that his friends would be coming soon, and they were bringing him another shirt. He washed his hands and arms and then went back out to wait.
About six minutes later Michelle and the guys came jogging in. They saw Chris, and the first thing they noticed was the blood on his shirt. Lance bit his lip as he walked forward and put a hand on Chris's shoulder. Chris looked up with a tear streaked face, and gratefully took the shirt Lance handed to him.
He peeled off the bloody shirt and let it fall to the floor, quickly pulling on the fresh shirt and pulling himself into as tight a ball as he could, with his knees up to his chest.
Michelle walked over to him, careful to avoid looking at the shirt on the floor, and wrapped her arms around Chris. Chris let his head fall back onto her shoulder but stayed quiet, silent tears continuing to run down his cheeks.
The guys all gathered around, none of them really knowing what to do. Sure, Joey had been in the hospital before, when he hurt his leg, but this was one hundred times worse. This time they could actually lose him.
~~~~~~~~~~~
By early the next morning, the story was plastered all over the news. The media didn't know much, but they did know that Joey Fatone was in the hospital, and that was big enough news for them. The guys wanted to keep how Chris had found him secret, because they knew some people might blame him for it when it wasn't his fault and that's the last thing he needed.
Lunch time rolled around, and still no word on Joey. Chris was starting to get antsy just sitting there. He wanted to know if his brother was okay.
By mid afternoon he was ready to go up and demand to know what was going on, but before he could even gather his strength to stand up, Ashley came through the waiting room door.
"Where is he?" she asked, almost sounding angry that he hadn't shown up at her house.
"He's hurt, Ashley," Lance said coolly, trying to keep himself collected.
"I need to see him."
"We can't yet," Jc said.
"Well I want to see him, now," Ashley said, sounding even more demanding than the first time.
Chris stood up and got right in Ashley's face, looking at her with burning eyes.
"You need to sit your ass down and wait, like the rest of us."
"You need to back off, Chris. You can't tell me what to do."
"No, nobody can tell you anything, because you're so think you don't seem to understand anything."
"Well, it's your fault he's in here in the first place. If you hadn't-"
"It's not my fault he's in here, it's yours."
"Like hell it is!"
"Like hell it isn't! You kept him out so god damn late. If it wasn't for you being such a fucking slut he'd be okay right now."
Ashley was so stunned that Chris had just insulted her that she didn't say anything back.
"You need to get out of here. Don't come around me, the guys, Michelle, or Joey again. If you do, I'll pull out some old shit of yours hand start myself a little media frenzy."
"You wouldn't dare."
"Oh, you don't think I would? Honey I've got so much dirt on you I could send you into exile for the rest of your life."
Ashley glared at Chris for a long moment, as if they were having a heated battle with their eyes and thoughts alone. Then she turned around and stormed out of the waiting room in a huff.
"Bitch..." Chris mumbled, heading back over to his seat.
Once he sat down he looked up at everybody. They were all staring at him in disbelief.
"You did it... You actually told her off..." Justin said in awe.
"Yeah, it's about time I did. I almost lost one of my brothers over her, I've had it with the bull," Chris said, crossing his arms, knowing it would make the guys smile.
Chris still felt horrible about what he had said to Joey, and was worried sick about him, but he felt considerably better after telling Ashley off. He looked around at the guys for the first real time since before everything happened, and wanted so much to ease their worries.
Then he looked at Michelle. She had been great. Right there with him through everything. Chris didn't think he could have told Ashley off if it wasn't for Michelle.
Chris sat, trying to think of some things to do that would make the guys at least smile, when a doctor came in, wearing one of those looks on his face that showed he was about to say something important.
"Family and friends of Joey Fatone, I imagine," the doctor said, looking at the guys and Michelle.
They all nodded in response.
"I have some news on Joey."
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