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At four-thirty, a nurse came into the waiting room, where Jane, Kevin, Howie, AJ, and Brian sat anxiously.
“Nick’s been prepped for surgery and taken up to the surgical holding area,” she informed them. “Dr. Madden’s running a little behind schedule, so it could be a little longer before he actually goes into the OR. Would you like to see him before the surgery?”
Jane nodded. “Yes, that would be great,” she said.
“Okay,” the nurse said, smiling pleasantly. “I’ll take you all downstairs to the surgical floor then.”
“Thank you,” Jane said.
The nurse nodded, and started out of the room, motioning for them to follow her.
The five of them took the elevator to the surgical floor, and once there, the nurse led them down the hall to an area with many patients in it, each separated by a curtain. She led them to one of the corners, where they saw Nick lying on a gurney. “Go ahead and spend some time with him. We’ll be back to take him to surgery in a little bit.”
“Okay,” Jane said. “Thanks.”
“No problem,” the nurse replied, walking away.
When she had gone, Jane approached the gurney on which her son lay, just as still as ever. “Hi, baby,” she murmured, giving his hand a tender squeeze. “It’s Mom. I’m here, and so are the guys.”
“Hey, Frack,” Brian spoke up, his voice catching in his throat. He would never get used to seeing Nick like that, so inert and lifeless. He studied Nick, struggling to hold back his tears as he did so. Nick’s face was colorless, except for the purplish bruises that dotted his forehead and temples. The bandages around his head had been removed, and he could see stitched-up cuts running across his forehead, embellishing an arc-shaped bruise that had obviously come from his head crashing into the steering wheel.
“Hey, Nick,” the others mumbled.
They spent the next twenty minutes making small talk to Nick’s still form, not even sure if he could hear them or not. Then, finally, the nurse from before came back with some other nurses and attendants.
“It’s time to take him to the OR,” the nurse explained to Jane.
Jane nodded nervously, grasping tightly to Nick’s limp hand. She bent and gave it a tender kiss, then forced herself to step away. “We’ll see you later, baby,” she whispered. “Be strong.”
Unable to speak, the four guys stepped back from their friend as well, reluctantly following Jane from the room.
An hour later, they sat in a waiting room on the surgical floor, nervously awaiting news on Nick.
They all looked up at once when the door opened. Brian’s heart began to pound rapidly when he saw Dr. Madden walk into the room. His expression was unreadable.
“Nick made it through the surgery just fine,” the doctor said. “He’s in Recovery right now and will be there for the next couple hours, just so we can monitor him.”
Jane nodded. “So, you drained the fluid?” she asked.
Dr. Madden nodded. “Yes,” he said. “The pressure and swelling of his brain should go down now. Then we just have to wait.”
“What are his odds?” They all turned to look at AJ, who had asked the question.
Dr. Madden cleared his throats. “I’m going to be honest with you,” he started, and they knew right away it was not good. “Even with the pressure being released from his brain, the odds aren’t very good. I’d say his chance of surviving is 30-70.” Brian’s heart sank. Those weren’t good odds at all. “And while I’m talking to you about this kind of thing, I just want you to be prepared. Even if Nick does pull through, there’s a good chance he’ll never be normal again. He could have severe brain damage and be impaired for the rest of his life.”
Jane began to cry right then. “Oh, my God,” she murmured, her voice shaking with tears.
“I’m sorry to tell you that, Mrs. Carter,” Dr. Madden said, looking down on her sympathetically, “but I think you should know the truth. It’s not a sure thing; I just want you to be prepared for the worst.”
Jane was unable to say anything with the flood of tears that spilled from within her.
“Thank you, Dr. Madden,” Kevin said bitterly.
Dr. Madden gave a quick nod and left the room, leaving them to be alone in their grief at the discouraging news they had just been given.
A week after the crash, Marissa was still having nightmares every night. She had not gone to school all week and didn’t know when she would ever go back. She was in no emotional state to be there, she knew that much. Just the thought of it made her wince.
She had thought that as time passed, things would get better. But they had not. She was not even near getting over the crash. She didn’t talk to Kaelyn very much, but when she did, Kaelyn always seemed depressed and emotional, sounding on the verge of tears nearly all the time. Marissa worried about her greatly. She herself had been emotionally scarred by what had happened that night, but she knew Kaelyn was even worse off than she was, for Kaelyn had lost Luke, her boyfriend, the boy she loved with all her heart. Could she ever get over the pain of that loss? Marissa wasn’t sure.
As worries about her best friend flooded Marissa’s mind, worries over someone else flowed through her as well. That someone was Nick. Marissa hadn’t heard anything on his condition since Monday’s TRL. She was partly uneasy by this, yet partly relieved. She had hoped to hear that he was getting better and would make a full recovery, and hearing nothing disappointed her. Yet, in some ways, it was a good thing, for she knew that if he had died, MTV would be the first to find out, and she’d hear about it right away. And that was definitely something she didn’t want to hear. She wasn’t sure she could handle Nick dying, with Luke already being dead. What would happen if Nick died too? Not only would she be hit with double the grief, but millions of girls worldwide would literally hate her. Just thinking about it brought tears to Marissa’s eyes.
Why had this happened to her? Just a week ago, she had been a normal teenage girl, having fun with her friends at a party, with not a care in the world. And then, because of one stupid mistake, one wrong decision, she had been jolted into this horrible world of pain and guilt. She wanted to ask what she had done to deserve it, but she knew that was a stupid question. She had been drinking, and so had Shawn, and she had let him drive her home. If she had been responsible, none of it would have happened. She would probably be going to another party that very night. Luke would be alive, Nick would be fine, and they would all be happy. If only they could be happy like that again. If only...
It had been two weeks since the accident. Two weeks, and still, Nick remained in a coma. Dr. Madden did not seem very hopeful about Nick’s condition. The only encouraging thing was a slight increase in Nick’s brain activity level. Dr. Madden had told Jane and the guys that that could be a sign that he might be waking up. But it was not for sure, and lately he had been stressing the point that even if Nick did wake up, he might never be the same as he was before the crash.
Still, through all this, Nick’s family and friends refused to give up hope. Brian, AJ, Howie, and Kevin were at the hospital every day, as was Jane, while Bob and Nick’s younger siblings came to visit on weekends. All the while they prayed, begging the Lord to bring Nick back to them.
Aaron burst into Nick’s room, his eyes filled with hope as he glanced at his big brother. Almost immediately, the hopefulness left his face as he realized Nick looked no different than the week before, when he had last visited him.
He glanced around, realizing he was alone with his brother. His father and sisters had met up with his mother as soon as they’d arrived and had gone to the cafeteria to eat lunch with her. Anxious to see Nick, Aaron had refused lunch and instead gone into Nick’s room in Neuro ICU.
Now that he was there, he was not so sure he wanted to be. During the flight to Atlanta, he had had a feeling that things would be different when he got there, that Nick would be better. But now, it looked as if his feeling had been wrong. Nick was no different, and Aaron felt uncomfortable being there in that eerie room with him. He regretted not going for lunch with his family.
But he knew he wasn’t going to leave Nick all alone because he was afraid to be there. Nick had always supported him, and now here he was, there to support Nick.
“Hey, bro,” he whispered, his voice faltering as he inched closer to the bed, his eyes fixed on all those scary machines around his brother. You’d think that after two weeks, he would be more accustomed to the medical equipment, but he wasn’t. The machines and monitors still terrified him.
Still, Aaron wasn’t going to let them scare him away from Nick. He had to be there for his brother.
Bravely, he sat down in the chair that customarily sat next to the bed and gazed at Nick, at his deathly complexion, bruised face, and the wisps of matted blonde hair peeking out from beneath his gauzy headdress.
“Hey, Nick, it’s me. AC,” he said, his voice increasing in volume as he gained more confidence. “Just wanted you to know I’m here, bro…. Hey, you ‘member that time when you came to my concert in New York?” Aaron smiled, remembering that night. It had been months since the two brothers had seen each other, and Nick had showed up at Aaron’s concert, surprising him onstage and bringing tears to his eyes. “You were there for me then… and I’m here for you now. But please, man, you gotta wake up… okay? Please?” Aaron’s voice broke, as tears started to rise in his brown eyes. He blinked furiously to keep them back. He wasn’t a baby anymore. He was thirteen, and thirteen year old boys didn’t cry. Aaron sniffed loudly, rubbing at his eyes to get rid of the tears.
He glanced at Nick, wishing that he would awaken to see his little brother crying and make fun of him for it. Aaron would give anything to be teased and tormented by his older brother again. Anything.
Aaron rested his hand lightly upon Nick’s limp one for a moment. Suddenly, he gasped and jumped back as he felt Nick’s hand move under his.
“He moved!” he gasped aloud. “Nick? Nick?” He stared anxiously at his brother’s still face, just waiting for his blue eyes to open. He had moved! He had to be coming out of his coma.
But minutes passed, and nothing happened. Nick’s face looked blank, expressionless, as it always did.
Aaron sighed, but refused to give up hope. He stood up slowly, his gaze never leaving Nick as he backed towards the door. When he reached it, he whispered, “Be right back, Nick,” and darted out. He had to find his family and tell them the good news.
“Mom! Hey, Mom!”
Jane looked up to see Aaron running through the crowded cafeteria, shouting. At first, she jumped up in alarm, but she could tell right away that nothing bad had happened. The expression on his face was not at all upset. She sighed, slightly embarrassed by her youngest son’s rambunctious behavior.
“Aaron, what’s gotten into you?” she scolded gently when he arrived, breathless, at their table. “You know not to run through a hospital, of all places!”
“Sorry, Mom, but I gotta tell you somethin’!” Aaron insisted.
“What?”
“Nick moved!” he cried, his eyes wide with excitement.
They all gasped, exchanging shocked glances.
“He’s awake?” Angel asked hopefully.
“No, not yet, but I bet he will be soon,” Aaron told her.
“Did Dr. Madden come to check on him yet?” Jane asked.
“I don’t think so,” Aaron said. “I was the only one there when it happened, and I didn’t tell anybody besides you guys.”
“So what exactly happened?” Bob asked.
“He moved his hand,” Aaron replied.
Bob and Jane glanced at each other and smiled, each thinking that this could be a turning point for their son. Hopefully, the worst was now over.
“Mr. and Mrs. Carter, I don’t want to tell you this, but I also don’t want to get your hopes up,” Dr. Madden was saying, just a half hour later. “Often, coma patients have spontaneous movements, where their eyelids will twitch, or their arms or legs will move slightly. But it doesn’t always mean they’re coming out of their comas. Many times, it’s just nerve reflexes.”
Jane’s heart sank, and she felt Bob’s grip on her hand tighten, as his jaw clenched.
“So he’s no better?” Bob asked, his eyes narrowing on Dr. Madden, as if it was somehow the doctor’s fault.
“Now, I didn’t say that. Actually, I got some results back from a set of tests we ran yesterday on Nick, and they showed some improvement. All I’m saying is, don’t get your hopes up because Nick moved his hand. He’s not out of the woods yet, and that’s not guaranteeing that he’ll wake up anytime soon. We just have to wait and see,” Dr. Madden said.
They nodded, but their hopes had been dashed by the thought that Nick’s movement could have just been a reflex and not a sign of his awakening.
“You okay, Mom?” BJ asked, later in the waiting room. She could tell how depressed Jane was after what Dr. Madden had told them.
Jane offered a tight smile. “Don’t worry about me, honey. I’ll be all right,” she said softly. “But why don’t you take the kids to go see Nick. You haven’t really been in there much today, and your father and I need some time alone to collect our thoughts.”
BJ nodded, turning to Leslie, Angel, and Aaron. “Hey, come on guys, let’s go visit Nick, okay?”
They nodded, reluctantly getting up from their chairs and plodding down the hall behind her to Nick’s room.
Once there, BJ turned on the TV, trying to get her siblings’ minds off of the tragedy that surrounded them. She took the seat next to Nick’s bed, as they sat in the other chairs.
As the younger three absently watched television, BJ’s gaze wandered around the room, as her mind roamed. When she turned back to Nick, her eyes nearly bulged out of her head. His eyes were opened.
Stunned, BJ grabbed his hand, giving it a firm squeeze. “Nick,” she whispered, leaning over to study him. He was staring straight ahead, but his eyes blinked. This was no reflex, she knew. He was awake.
Leslie turned around first at the sound of her older sister’s whispery voice. She gasped loudly when she realized her brother had awoken. “Oh my-“
Aaron and Angel spun around and gasped in unison.
“Nick!” Aaron yelled, leaping out of his chair and hurrying to his brother’s side, Angel quickly following behind. In a matter of seconds, the four younger Carters had surrounded Nick.
“Aaron, go get Mom and Dad,” BJ commanded, her eyes never leaving Nick’s.
Aaron nodded wordlessly, hurrying out of the room, tearing down the hall as he had done earlier. It may have been a false alarm then, but this was definitely not. Nick was truly awake.
“Aaron, how many times do I have to tell you-“ Jane started, as Aaron came running into the waiting room.
“He’s awake!” Aaron exclaimed, interrupting his mother.
“What?!” Jane and Bob cried at the same time, leaping out of their chairs. They ran past Aaron down the hall to their eldest son’s room.
“Nicky?!” Jane cried as she burst into the room. Happy tears filled her eyes as she gazed into the blue eyes of her son, the eyes she was not sure she’d ever get to see again.
“Oh, Nicky, baby, you’re finally awake,” she sobbed, giving his hand a squeeze. As she cried, she glanced up at his face, taking it all in. “I love you so much, honey,” she whispered.
Surprisingly, the void look on Nick’s face didn’t change with her words. His eyes stared straight ahead, not fixed on anything in particular. She knew he couldn’t talk because he was on a respirator, but she had expected to see something in his eyes, something to let her know that he was really back. But there was no expression in them, just blankness.
Something was wrong.
Jane stood up slowly, not taking her eyes off of her son. She inched back to where her husband stood, at the foot of Nick’s bed.
“Be right back, honey,” Jane said softly towards Nick, taking Bob by the arm and dragging him into the hall.
“What’s wrong?” Bob asked, puzzled.
“Did you look at him? Did you see his face? His eyes?” Jane asked.
“What about them?” Bob asked, his brow furrowed in confusion. “What do you mean?”
“He looks so… empty… like he doesn’t even recognize me. I mean, he wasn’t even looking at me. He was staring straight ahead the whole time, as if he didn’t even see me. It… it was like he was in a trance.” Jane struggled to put her observation into words.
“Well… maybe he’s just groggy,” Bob offered.
Jane looked doubtful. “I don’t know…” she said. “It just seemed like something wasn’t right with him.”
“Well, I’m sure Dr. Madden will be in any minute to check him over,” Bob said.
“I hope so,” Jane replied.
As if on cue, they saw Dr. Madden approaching Nick’s room.
“Dr. Madden!” Jane called.
Dr. Madden broke into a smile when he saw his patient’s mother. “Hello,” he said. “I hear Nick woke up just now.”
Jane nodded, smiling. “Yes. But… I don’t know… it seems like something’s not quite right…” she said.
“How so?” the doctor questioned.
“Well, it’s hard to explain. But it’s something about his eyes. It looks like there’s no expression in them. They have this distant, empty look to them,” Jane said.
Dr. Madden nodded seriously. “Well, I’ll go take a look at him now, if you don’t mind,” he said.
“No, not at all,” Bob said. “I’ll get the kids to come out.”
He went back inside Nick’s room and called out his four younger kids, who stood hesitantly against one wall, as if they were afraid to go closer to their brother.
Dr. Madden nodded at them in greeting and entered Nick’s room, closing the door behind him.