I let out a soft moan.

“Hey! I think she’s coming to.” The voice sounded really far away.

“Good, maybe she can tell us what happened.” Another voice said, equally far away.

I opened my eyes to see a blurry face hovering above mine.

“Nick, back away a little.” The voice was getting closer.

I blinked a few times and everything came into focus. Nick, Kevin, Howie, and AJ all stared at me anxiously. There was another face there too. I didn’t recognize hers though. I looked around the room and finally everything sunk in. I was lying on the couch in the room all of us had just spent the past four hours in. I remembered a doctor coming in and telling us the there were complications and that he might not make it. Then I remembered another doctor coming in and saying that everything was fine. Was this a dream? I sat up quickly. A little too quickly. I was enveloped in dizziness once again.

“Whoa there, Ellie. Do you remember anything?” Kevin asked as he grabbed me to keep me from falling back.

“Brian...” I mumbled. What the heck was wrong with me? I felt so sluggish.

“He’s in the post-op. He’s fine. Jackie and Harold are in there with him now.” Howie told me.

The other lady that was there knelt down in front of me. She shined a pen-sized flashlight in my eyes and told me to follow her finger with her eyes. I guessed that she was a nurse. “When did you eat last?” She asked me.

“Um...” I paused to think. “Brian and I went to Denny’s, but I don’t think I ate anything. I had a Mocha that morning, but that was it. I guess sometime the day before that.” I suddenly felt embarrassed. I must have looked like the biggest idiot.

“Do you know why you fainted?” She asked me seriously.

“I’m guessing cause I haven’t eaten.” I mumbled, my head down.

“That and you have had a lot happen in the past two days. You are probably exhausted, am I right?” Her voice was stern, but kind.

I nodded. I felt like a fool.

“I suggest that you go home for awhile and get a good meal and some rest.” She instructed.

I shook my head. “I don’t want to leave.”

“Ellie, making yourself sick isn’t going to help anything.” Nick said.

The nurse looked at Nick carefully. “You don’t look a whole lot better. I think you should do the same.”

Nick also shook his head. “No way am I going to leave.”

Kevin sighed loudly. “Look you two. Brian is going to be in post-op for awhile and it will still be awhile before he wakes up. Nick, if he saw you like this, you know good and well what he would do to you. He would want you to be taking care of yourself. Ellie, same goes to you.”

“Compromise then. Let’s wait until he wakes up. I want to see him and then we’ll go okay?” Nick finally relented. He looked at me and I nodded.

“Okay, fine.” Kevin sighed again. “Ellie, right now you are eating something though.”

The nurse seemed satisfied with our plans so she left. Kevin held his hand out to me and gestured for me to do the same. I held mine out and he dropped some change into it. “Go get something out of the vending machines.” He ordered.

I looked at Nick and we both laughed.

Howie and AJ shook their heads at us. “Kids.” AJ cracked.

“Whatever AJ, you aren’t that much older than me.” I retorted. He just laughed.

I got up slowly and walked over to the vending machines. I dropped the money in and punched the numbers for Cheetos. I guess I was hungry. I ate the bag in less than a minute. We hung around the waiting room for another twenty minutes waiting for Jackie and Harold to come back. Finally they came down the hall and we all rushed over to them.

“How is he?” Kevin was the first to ask.

“He’s still asleep. They said to expect that he would probably sleep for awhile. So if you guys wanted to go back to your hotels for awhile, it would be fine.” Jackie said. She looked at me. “Are you all right, honey?”

I nodded. “I guess I just wore myself out.” I said softly.

She squeezed my shoulder. “You gave us a scare.”

“I think I’m going to stay.” Said AJ. “Howie and I went back to our hotel for awhile last night so I am good to go.”

“Me too.” Said Howie.

Nick opened his mouth to say something, but stopped when he got a look from Kevin. I smirked at him and hastily said I would stay. I should have known what was coming next.

“No.” Kevin said flatly. “You and Nick are going to go get some rest and some decent food other than cheetos.”

Now Nick smirked at me. “What made you think you were going to get away with it?” He whispered to me.

I shrugged. “I guess we don’t have a lot of choice, do we?”

Before Nick could reply, Kevin answered for him. “Nope, you don’t. And the sooner you go, the sooner you can come back.”

“I don’t want to leave. What if he wakes up or something happens?” Nick said stubbornly.

Kevin leveled a gaze at him. “Nick, be real. You look dead on your feet. If you won’t do it for yourself, do it for Brian.”

Finally Nick relented. “Fine, but if anything, and I mean anything happens you better call me! Promise?”

“I promise.” Kevin replied.

“Guys, be careful getting out of here. There are a lot of people outside. Media, fans, etc.” Howie warned.

“We will.” I said.

After Nick made everyone promise that if Brian woke up or if anything happened that someone would call his cell phone, we were on our way out.

“Do you want to come to my apartment? It is kind of a mess, but I can cook us some real food. It might be better than being in a hotel.” I was hoping he would say yes because I really didn’t want to be alone. Not to mention I was still a little concerned about him. After all, he has taken all of this really hard.

“Sure, that would be cool.” He replied. I smiled. I guess he didn’t want to be alone either.

We got to the main lobby and stood off to the side for a minute. I peeked out the big double doors and my jaw dropped. There were people everywhere! Other than people the things that seemed to stand out the most were signs that people were holding and the big cameras that followed reporters everywhere. Nick saw my reaction and gave a small chuckle.

“I take it you aren’t used to this.” He said wryly.

I merely shook my head.

“Okay, as soon as we go through the doors we are going to bombarded with questions. Keep your head low and don’t answer anything. We are going to make a run for it. Kevin drove so we are going to take his car...”

“Kevin is letting you drive his car?” I blurted incredulously, interrupting him.

He laughed. “It’s a rental.”

“Oh. Sorry, go on.”

“The car is in the parking lot across the street. Crap, we should have got some bodyguards.” He muttered.

“Why don’t we?” I asked.

“Well, security in the hospital is being kept real tight so I guess they figured we would be okay. I know that they do plan on having a guard outside Bri’s room at all times. I’m sure if things get too crazy they’ll all be up here in our shadows.” He told me.

“Are we going to be okay?” I asked worriedly.

“Yeah, with any luck they won’t even recognize us.” He grinned. “Ready?”

I nodded.

We walked quickly towards the front doors. Nick pulled his hat down lower on his head. I did the same with Brian’s hat. I had almost forgot I had been wearing it.

“Remember, head down and don’t answer any questions. And move fast!” He said as the doors opened.

We made it all of ten feet out the door before we were discovered. A barrage of questions came at us.

“It’s Nick Carter!”

“Can you tell us if Brian is all right?”

“Miss? Are you Ellie Cage?”

I did as Nick said and kept my head down. I could see flashes going off all around me and microphones were thrust at me. We tried to hurry through everyone.

“Can you tell us what happened?”

“Sources say that Brian suffered a heart attack. Is this true?”

I was starting to get mad. How can reporters get in people’s faces when they know that they are having a rough time. I think the crowd was getting frustrated with our silence and the questions got more and more nervy.

“Is it true that Brian almost died?”

“Would the group continue without him?”

“Ellie are you seeing one of the guys?”

My anger was growing. How could people say such stupid things? How could they be so insensitive. I was walking really close to Nick and I felt him flinch when they made the comment about him dying. We continued walking.

“Ellie, how does it feel to be almost at the center of all this attention?”

That did it. My head whipped up. I was face to face with the person that made that last comment. He was a rather large man in his mid thirties. He had beady little eyes and a crooked nose. His hair was black and greasy. His cameraman stood right behind him snapping pictures.

“Ellie, come on.” Nick urged. I turned away from that man and hastened my pace.

His voice taunted me from behind. “Oh, I got your attention, did I? I bet there is a pretty big part of you that is glad that all this happened right? I mean look at it this way, you went from being a nobody little college student to the most sought-after girl around. You are all over the news. Everyone wants to talk to you. You just spent an intimate 24 hours with the most famous pop group in the world. I bet you are loving it.”

I whirled around, my eyes flashing. “You bastard.” I hissed. Did I just hear everything he said right? Did he really just say those things to me?

“Ellie...” Nick warned.

The crowd had grown quiet. “What kind of sick excuse for a human being are you?! How dare you say that to me!” My voice grew louder. “Do you have any idea what we have been going through?! His best friends? His family? Him?! How dare you!!” I yelled again.

He looked taken aback at the anger in my voice. Even Nick stared at me in shock. I was even a little surprised at myself. I don’t ever remember being so angry in all my life. Then he smiled. It was a sick smile. He opened his mouth to say something, but before he did, I cut him off, my voice low.

“If you say one more word to me I’ll...”

“You’ll what?!” He sneered.

“Ellie...” Nick said softly. I looked at him and seemed to read what his eyes were saying. He was angry. I also saw that he wanted us to get out of there. I nodded shortly and whirled back around and started to walk away from that jerk. The crowd was quiet now and I think most of them were as shocked as I was. I took about two steps before I felt a hand clamp around my arm and yank me back. I stumbled and almost lost my footing. I turned my head around and gasped. It was that reporter!

“What the hell do you think you are doing?! Get your hands off of her!” Nick yelled. He advanced on the man that outweighed him by at least one hundred pounds. He let go and gave me a shove. I fell into someone and they caught me before I hit the ground.

“Sweetie, are you all right?” The woman asked me as she straightened me up.

I shook my head. This was too much. That psycho reporter and Nick were staring each down. Finally Nick spoke. “I don’t know what the hell you think you were doing, but you are going to hear from my lawyers.” With that, he spun around grabbed my hand and stalked off towards the car. No one tried to follow us, but I could hear that man shouting after us.

“We’ll see about that little Nick Carter. You had better watch your backs kiddies. This is the real world. We play the big boy games.” His laughter grew faint as we entered the parking lot.

The car was on the far side of the lot, but thankfully there wasn’t anyone near us. Nick came over to open my door and I climbed inside. I let out a shaky breath and looked down at my hands. They were shaking. I knew it wasn’t from hunger this time either.

“Are you all right?” Nick looked at me with concern.

“What the hell was that? He was a lunatic! You didn’t tell me it would get that bad.” I accused. I had to admit, that man had scared me.

“I’m so sorry, El. I have never in my life seen a reporter go off like that. I can’t believe it either. Did he hurt you?” I could tell he felt bad, but it wasn’t his fault.

“Not really. Just scared me, that’s all. What a freak. I didn’t mean to snap at you.” I said with a shudder. I don’t think I have ever seen someone so crazy before.

“Well, I am going to find out where he works and report him. You are right, he is a lunatic. He needs to be locked up or something.” He looked at me seriously.

“Did you see the look in his eyes?” I shuddered again.

He nodded. “Hopefully that will be the last we ever see of him.”

“Yeah, no joke.” I agreed.

“Okay, you are going to have to tell me how to get to your apartment.” He said.

I gave him directions and then we were silent until we pulled into the complex. I was relieved to see that there were no reporters lurking around. I wondered how long it would last. That whole incident kept playing through my mind. I began to feel bad for not doing what Nick said in the first place.

“I’m sorry.” I said as he pulled into a parking space.

“For what?” He looked at me.

“If I had just listened to you and kept walking, maybe that wouldn’t have happened.” I said miserably.

He turned off the car and stared at me for a minute. “Ellie, it isn’t your fault. He was way outta line and if you wouldn’t have said something then I would have. Don’t worry about it.”

I nodded and we were silent again. I think he was just saying that, but it still made me feel better. We sat in the car without moving, each in our own thoughts. Mine had returned to Brian. I wondered if he had woken up yet.

“I wonder how Bri is.” Said Nick softly.

I smiled. “I was thinking the same thing. I am sure he is fine though. The guys would have called if anything was wrong and they said they would call if he woke up.” I reminded him.

“That’s right.” He seemed way off in space.

“Well let’s go in and I can cook something for us. How does that sound?” I asked.

He nodded. “Let’s go.”