Tugging a hand through his blond hair, Aaron shifted his stance nervously, avoiding the stares of the two young girls that shared the elevator with him. He couldn’t help but overhear the whispers of the two; his stomach twisted into knots.
It wasn’t until the elevator stopped at the floor he wanted did the girls summon the courage to speak loud enough for Aaron to hear. “Aaron, we’re sorry to hear about Nick, could you let him know that we hope he’s gonna be better soon.”
“Thanks,” Aaron mumbled as he exited the elevator.
He walked with uncertainty down the corridor toward the ICU wing where Nick was at. Aaron hadn’t been up to see his brother for a few days and since he wasn’t paying too close attention to his surroundings, he was unsure of where Nick’s room was.
He stopped at the nurses station and waited patiently for someone to acknowledge his presence. After a few minutes of watching the people dressed in scrubs occupying themselves with paperwork and answering patient’s call lights, Aaron cleared his throat.
“Um.....excuse me,” he started out softly. It became apparent that no one heard him so he coughed into his hand. “Excuse me can you tell me what room Nick is in?”
A short, fat, gray haired nurse stopped writing on the chart that was in front of her and stared at Aaron over the top of her glasses.
“It’s past visiting hours, you’ll have to come back in the morning!” she huffed, going back to her papers.
“B-but I want to see my brother,” Aaron stammered.
The woman glared at Aaron. “That’s impossible, don’t you realize this isn’t a hotel?! People here are sick and they need their rest!”
“Aggie, I think it’s okay for him to see his brother,” a male nurse replied as he stepped away from the nurses station. “You’re Aaron Carter, right?”
Aaron managed a slight nod.
“Come on, I’ll take you down to Nick’s room,” he said as he started off down the hall. “Forget about Aggie, she’s a pain in the ass, I think she’s your brother’s favorite nurse.......not really, she’s a total pain in the ass. My name’s Shaun. Nick probably won’t be much company tonight, he’s had a rough night so far....”
“What’s wrong?”
“He started his new chemo and it isn’t agreeing with him too well,” Shaun explained.
Even before they reached the door to ICU room number three, Aaron could hear the distinctive sounds of moaning. His heart leapt into his throat as he wrung his hands. He was hoping that what he heard wasn’t Nick......he was wishing that maybe it was someone else.
“Hey Nick, look who came by to check up on you,” Shaun announced as they walked into the dimly lit ICU room.
Aaron stayed back by the door, unsure if he should follow the nurse into the room. The smell of sickness hung in the room. Swallowing nervously, he looked over toward Nick’s bed, finding his brother laying on his side, legs drawn up.
“Hey AC,” Nick croaked, pasting a slight grin on his pale face.
Aaron slowly walked up to his brothers bedside, his breath caught in his throat as he looked at Nick. The familiar bright ocean blue eyes were dull and red-rimmed, his skin a pasty gray. The fullness of his brother’s face also surprised the young teen.
Nick noticed the expression on Aaron’s face. “I’m not contageous,” he stated weakly as he held out his hand. “C’mere.”
Aaron walked slowly toward the bed, his eyes filling with tears.
Aaron scooped Nick’s hand into his. “You’re so cold...”
Nick ignored his little brothers comment, trying to look past his shoulder. “So who came up with you?”
Shaun quickly pulled a blanket out of a steel cabinet and spread it across Nick’s body. “You’re suppose to say something if you feel uncomfortable.”
“You’d be in here all the time then Shaun,” Nick muttered, rolling his eyes. He then gave Aaron’s hand a gentle squeeze. “So?”
Aaron jerked, looking down at Nick with a puzzled expression. “Huh?”
“So who came up with you?”
“Nobody.”
“In the waiting room?”
“No one came with me,” Aaron quietly admitted.
“How did you get here then?”
“Um, I drove....”
“AC you.....”
Before Nick could finish his sentence, a sudden wave of nausea swept over him and he quickly pulled his hand out of Aaron’s grasp, reaching for the plastic emesis basin. Aaron could only wince as Nick’s bouts of dry heaves left him gasping for air before another wave would hit him again, wretching over the curved basin, spitting bile after he was finished.
Laying back into the pillow, a soft moan escaped Nick’s lips. “S-sorry,” he quietly apologized.
“Nick don’t apologize.....I’m the one that’s sorry...” Aaron corrected.
“What are you sorry for?”
“I drove your Porsche,” Aaron admitted quietly.
“I don’t care about the car goof head, you could have gotten into an accident and gotten hurt....”
Aaron grinned. “I’m not a sucky driver like you Nick, I do know what I’m doing.”
“Okay....okay, I know I suck, but why didn’t you have Kevin or AJ bring you?”
“They weren’t around..”
“Mom and Dad?”
“Um, they were busy fighting,” Aaron mumbled.
Nick could feel his heart beating faster. “What about this time?”
“I don’t wanna talk about it, I’m here to see you.”
Nick grabbed Aaron’s hand, squeezing it as best as he could manage. “What were they fighting about?”
“The usual shit.”
Nick remained silent as he looked sadly up at his brother, waiting for Aaron to unload the burden he was carrying; the heart monitor and oxygen saturation monitor beeps breaking the silence that hung in the room.
“She wants to take me back to LA to work,” Aaron sobbed.
Nick sadly shook his head. “Things never change with her....I’m so sorry AC.”
“God all she does is run me day in and day out Nick. I want to be with you not in LA. She doesn’t understand....I hate her!”
“Don’t say that Aaron,” Nick softly reprimanded.
“It’s true.....I hate her Nick!”
“AC she’s only does what she does cause she thinks it’s for the best I guess,” Nick quietly theorized.
”AARON CHARLES CARTER!”
Nick and Aaron both winced when they heard their mother’s voice bellowing in the hospital room.
Jane Carter rushed into the room, stopping short of Nick’s bed, putting a hand over her mouth. “Oh my dear sweet Jesus! What have they done to my baby...”
“He’s sick mom,” Aaron spat angrily.
“His beautiful face....oh my,” Jane cooed as she approached the bed.
Aaron glared at his mother. “Is that all you care about is how we look? Are you scared that it might rub off on me or something!?”
“Aaron don’t,” Nick said softly.
“Don’t you dare speak to me that way! I’m your mother!”
“Yeah a mother that doesn’t give a shit about her kids,” Aaron mumbled.
This time it was Jane that narrowed her eyes. “What did I hear you just say?”
“Please....don’t fight,” Nick pleaded.
“Nicky your face is so swollen....that doctor doesn’t know what she’s doing to you,” Jane cried. “I should have put my foot down and had you flown to that specialist in LA when I had the chance.”
“Ma, I’m sure it’s okay,” Nick replied.
“Don’t think for a minute that I’ve forgotten how you stole your brother’s car and drove here young man!” Jane snorted as she wagged a finger at Aaron.
“I already know about it ma, it’s okay,” Nick remarked.
“It’s okay?” Jane asked incredilously. “He did something that was illegal not to mention that your father was going to call the police to report your car stolen before I stopped him---”
“Try telling the truth Jane, it was you that was going to call the police,” Bob Carter snapped as he entered the hospital room.
Jane whirled around staring blankly at Bob. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“You know exactly what I’m talking about Jane.”
The bickering between the two continued as Aaron stood off to the side, unshed tears welling in his eyes and the heart monitor rhythm quickly stepping up it’s pace.
“Oh God...” Nick moaned as he leaned over the emesis basin once more when a bout of dry heaves wracked his stomach.
“Can’t you see what you’re doing to him Bob?” Jane cried as she hurried over to Nick’s side to comfort him.
“ME? What about you?”
”STOP IT! STOP FIGHTING!” Aaron shouted tearfully at his parents while Nick was wretching into the emesis basin.
“You’re going to all have to leave now,” Shaun stated sternly as he entered the room. “You are disturbing Nick and he needs rest.”
Holding her had out, Jane held her head high. “Come along Aaron.”
Aaron planted his feet, refusing to move. “I’m not going.”
“Didn’t you hear the nurse sweetheart? He said we have to go,” Jane pleaded in a sweet voice.
“Let AC stay,” Nick interrupted when he caught his breath. “I don’t wanna be alone.”
“I just gave you something to help you sleep Nick, he might as well go home with your parents,” Shaun replied.
“I don’t wanna be alone,” Nick repeated.
“Come on Jane, if Nick wants Aaron with him, we should let him....”
“But I’m booking a flight for the morning and he needs to be ready to go,” Jane interrupted.
Tears slipped down Nick’s cheeks as he listened to his parents argue over his brother.
“Aaron, I’ll see tomorrow, call me if you need me,” Bob Carter said as he kissed the top of the young boy’s head. Reaching over he wiped the tears from his oldest son’s face. “I love you Nick.”
The scene that could have been a tender moment for all was pierced when he grabbed Jane’s arm. “Let’s go.”
True the nurse’s words, it didn’t take long before Nick succumbed to the medication and fell asleep. Soon the young blonde had nodded off to sleep while he sat in the chair beside his brothers bed; his hand lightly grasping Nick’s.
Aaron dreamt of the carefree times he spent with Nick; playing basketball, swimming in the gulf, riding in the boat....His dreams had even taken him back to the younger times in his life when Nick was thirteen and he was six:
“I’ll miss ya squirt,” Nick said as he playfully rubbed Aaron’s hair.
“Cut it out!” Aaron protested as he tried to flatten his hair back.
“You like it and you know it!” Nick teased.
“I don’t want you to leave but can I have your stereo when you’re gone?”
“NO WAY! YOU LEAVE MY STUFF ALONE DINK!”
“Boys stop the fighting, and don’t push your brother you might hurt him,” Jane reprimanded.
A long steady pinging replaced the words that were coming from Nick’s mouth. Aaron jerked awake, bleary eyes scanning the room as a nurse rushed in.
“What’s wrong?” Aaron questioned with fear in his voice as he watched the male nurse press buttons on a machine.
“It’s nothing, Nick was laying wrong and it cut his sats, he’s fine,” the man reassured.
“His what?”
“Oxygen saturation levels, he’s fine Aaron,” Shaun stated.
Aaron ran a tired hand through his hair.
“Can’t sleep?”
“I shouldn’t sleep,” Aaron guility admitted. “Nick didn’t want to be left alone.”
“I don’t think he meant for you not to sleep,” Shaun added with a grin. He leaned against Nick’s bed. “Are you doing okay?”
“I’m not the patient,” Aaron said.
“Well, you are his brother and I can see that you’ve got a lot of things going on here.”
Aaron glanced at Nick’s sleeping form. “I just worry about my brother...like no one tells me whats going on with him like they’re trying to protect me or something I guess.”
“What do you know about Nick?” Shaun quietly asked.
“Just that he’s sick and you said he got more chemo stuff, but no one has told me what is going on,” Aaron’s voice trailed off. He quickly looked the nurse in the eyes. “He’s not gonna die is he?”
“Whoa.....that was quick! Why are you asking me that?”
“You’d probably know better than anyone else would working in this place and all I mean.”
“Your brother is actually a pretty tough guy and I mean that. He is no doubt in a lot of pain, but I’ve rarely seen him cry or ask for things to ease his pain.”
“He hurts?”
“Cancer can be pretty painful, I mean we’re talking about a disease thats attacking his body, so yeah Nick is in constant pain.”
“God no one ever told me that,” Aaron whispered.
“There’s probably a lot of things you don’t know about your brother. He’s getting this higher chemo because he wants to try a bone marrow transplant with himself as a donor,” Shaun explained.
“Oh my God, he’s that bad? I thought he was getting better,” Aaron cried. “I thought people had to donate to the person not him getting his own stuff.”
“Thats an option that was presented to your brother but he faught Dr. Andersen on that, he said something about not wanting to have anyone go through the pain he is going through.”
Aaron stared at his brother’s swollen face in wonderment and awe. “I would do it for him, I would do anything for him. He can be so stubborn.”
“That’s a good quality for a cancer patient to have and your brother has enough stubborness to circle the entire oncology wing and back,” Shaun smiled.
Aaron returned Shaun’s smile.
“I told you more than what I should have, but I know that Nick wouldn’t mind, he needs to have someone in his corner so to speak.”
“I’m glad you told me cause I’m gonna kick his scrawny butt when he gets better,” Aaron concluded.
“Kick his butt? Why?”
Aaron softly rubbed his brother’s hand. “Cause he’s too stubborn to speak up and ask for help when he needs it.”
“Ah.”
“Shaun, can you stay with my brother while I go to the bathroom? I don’t want to leave him in case something happens.”
“I can do that, go on, nothing will happen to him while you’re gone,” Shaun promised.
“Thanks...I’ll be back in a minute.”
With that said, Aaron walked out of the room toward the public restrooms; a plan formulating in his head.
Nick was never going to be alone and if and when it did come down to a donor for bone marrow he would do it. He would save Nick’s life. No question about it.
