As soon as AJ left the room, Leon stepped closer to Brian’s bed. Without even thinking about what I was doing, I broke my hand from Brian’s and dashed to the other side of the bed, putting myself between Leon and Brian.
“Get away from him.” I snarled. Unfortunately, I didn’t sound nearly as intimidating as I would have liked. I was scared shitless and Leon knew it.
“Listen you little bi-”
Suddenly the fire alarm went off and Leon froze, dropping the hand he had raised towards me. “What the-”
Shaking, I took a step back. It had to have been AJ that had done it. This was too big of a coincidence. I just hoped that Leon was too stupid to figure that out.
“That little shit! I warned him that if he pulled anything...” Leon nearly shouted, enraged. He took another step forward and I sucked in a breath.
“Hey guys, we have a-” Shari interrupted, coming into the room. She stopped when she saw the look on my face. “What’s going on here? Who are you?” She demanded to Leon.
Leon glowered at me, his eyes warning me to keep my mouth shut. I swallowed thickly, and averted my eyes down. He had a gun. I couldn’t do anything that might provoke Leon in using it.
“I’m from radiology,” Leon lied, his words smooth.
Shari stared at him warily, uneasy with the man’s demeanor. “Well, I need you to help me close all the doors in the wing.”
Leon shrugged nonchalantly. “I don’t work on this floor.”
“Then you best go back to your floor and do what needs to be done there if you aren’t going to help on this floor.” She shot back.
“Fine.” Leon shrugged again.
“Shari, I need your help in 31.” A voice called from outside the room.
Shari sent Leon another disapproving look before slipping out the door.
“No.” I whimpered, involuntarily stepping towards the retreating Shari.
Leon turned around. “You’re going to pay for this. I’ll be back and next time, I’ll get what I want and there won’t be a damn thing you can do to stop me. Try as you may, but you can’t protect him.”
Anger swelled up inside me. “Get out!”
Like lightning, his hand shot out and wrapped around my neck. I stumbled back as he pinned me against the wall. His huge hand squeezed my throat tightly and I started to gasp for air.
Desperately I tried to claw at his hands to get them to loosen. Unfortunately he had me in a vice grip and I couldn’t budge him. “Please!” I gasped, choking.
“Don’t hurt her!” Brian tried to cry out.
The hand loosened and I got a sudden, precious gulp of air. I turned my head and in my horror, I saw Brian trying to get out of bed. “Brian...no!” I tried to cry out.
“So...the rumors are true. You can’t talk. How interesting.” Leon mused, his attention diverted. Without warning, he put his face inches from mine. “Say it’s Brian I’m choking to death. He’d have no chance of ever talking again, would he? That is, if it didn’t kill him. After heart surgery and now this, it probably would. Shall we try and see?” He taunted, tightening his grip once again.
I could feel my strength slipping away as the lack of oxygen started to take effect. “Please...no...” I begged, the words only being mouthed silently. Blackness danced around the edges of my vision.
“Best you don’t forget what I said then.” Leon warned, with one more forceful clench of his fist. He let go and I felt myself slide down to the floor, still gasping and choking. One hand clutched my throat, the other trying to brace myself as the room spun.
“Brian...” I whimpered.
“Ellie! Oh god!”
“Take it easy, Bri. I’ve got you.”
“Where is he?!”
“Ellie, sweetheart, stay with me.”
“Call Brian’s nurse!”
“No, not yet.”
“He’s in pain, dammit! Call her!”
“Ellie, open your eyes. You’re safe now. Please open your eyes.”
All these voice swam around my head, but I couldn’t tell who was who or what was going on. It was hard to breathe and that fact made me panicky.
“El, take my hand. I’m right here, just try to take slow breaths. You’re going to hyperventilate if you keep breathing like that.” Another voice dropped down in front of me.
I opened my eyes and the moving, blurry figures started to focus. Nick and Howie were kneeling in front of me. My eyes moved past them up to Brian.
Kevin was sitting on the edge of the bed, an arm around Brian, trying to calm him down. Brian’s face was twisted into a grimace, but he was glancing worriedly at me. AJ stood on the other side of Brian, slightly trembling. Satisfied that Brian was in good hands and out of danger, I shut my eyes again.
“Ellie...open your eyes.” Nick directed, giving my hand a squeeze.
“Nick.” Howie said softly.
“No, Howie, she might be going into shock or something.”
I opened my eyes slowly again, locking on to Nick’s eyes. I thought he was mad at me.
“I’m fine.” I croaked, sounding anything but fine.
“No you aren’t. You nearly passed out. Let me see.” Nick lifted his hand towards my neck.
I shrank back, shaking my head.
“El, I’m not going to hurt you. I need to see how much damage he did.” Nick said softly. I let him carefully pry my hand from its protective grip. Gently, he ran his fingers across my neck. Even though he was being careful, I couldn’t stop myself from wincing.
“It’s going to bruise. It’s starting to already.” Howie stated.
“I can see that.” Nick shot back to Howie.
I tried to swallow, wincing again at the pain it caused.
Howie ignored him. “Do you think you can stand? We need to get Shari in here for Brian and until we figure out how to handle this creep, we don’t want to attract any extra attention.”
My legs felt like jelly, but I let him and Nick pull me to my feet. I was grateful when Nick kept a steadying hand on my back. I wasn’t sure I could trust myself to stay up on my own.
“She...already...knows...” I informed them, my throat burning.
“What do you mean?” Howie asked, glancing back at Kevin.
“She came in here.” Brian added.
I focused my attention on Brian. “You shouldn’t have gotten up. You could have fallen or Leon could have tried...” I broke off in a fit of coughing.
AJ turned around and poured me a cup of water from the small pitcher that was on Brian’s tray table. I drank it gratefully, the cool water soothing the raw burning sensation.
“El, I couldn’t...” Brian started.
“What’s done is done.” Nick interrupted, his forehead creased with worry. “We need to figure out what to do now. What exactly happened?”
“It was you wasn’t it?” I looked pointedly at AJ.
He shrugged. “I didn’t know what else to do. Besides, I’ve always wanted to pull one of those.”
Nick gave him a look. “Be serious.”
“I am being serious, Nick! He made me leave to go get you!” AJ snapped back.
The color drained from Nick’s face. “What do you mean?”
“He said that he wanted his first interview to be with you and Ellie. He told me to go get you. I basically told him to fuck off, but he had a gun. What the hell was I supposed to do? I couldn’t argue with him, but I sure as hell wasn’t going to endanger you too!” AJ explained.
“Well you should have! Obviously by pulling that alarm, you pissed him off! He tried to strangle Ellie.” Nick snapped.
Anger rose in AJ’s face. “Look, Carter, he had us cornered. I didn’t know what the hell else to do! I didn’t want to leave them any more than I wanted to get you, but like I said, he had a fucking gun.”
“Guys stop.” Kevin intervened. “This isn’t getting us anywhere. What happened when Shari came in here?”
“She was really skeptical of Leon. She wanted him to help her close the doors in ICU and when he refused, she told him to go back to whatever floor he ‘worked’ on. When she left, he came at me. He, he uh,” I stopped, my voice choking up. Tears sprang to my eyes, but I made myself continue. “He threatened Brian. Brian tried to stop him and he heard Brian’s voice. So now he knows. He basically threatened to come after him if he didn’t get what he wanted.” I choked up again. “I couldn’t-”
“Ellie...” Brian whispered, holding his arm out to me. Somewhat unsteadily, I sat down on the edge of the bed next to him.
Brian glanced up at his cousin before shifting himself from Kevin’s grip. I felt his grip tighten around my shoulders and I turned into his hug. I buried my face in his chest, ever-mindful not to hurt him worse than he was already hurting.
“I was so afraid he was going to hurt you.” I whispered, my tears soaking his hospital gown.
“Sh-hh, I’m okay, honey. And so are you. It’s going to be okay.” He whispered.
The other Boys glanced at each other. Nick sank into one of the chairs, shaken by the whole thing. AJ’s heart was still pounding, the whole incident still too fresh and vivid. The same feelings of guilt that had been torturing him since the whole thing started were being to overwhelm him again. He hadn’t been able to do a damn thing to ease his older brother’s suffering and when finally given the chance, he’d failed. The madman had been right there, in Brian’s room and AJ couldn’t do a damn thing to protect him. Not only that, but Leon had attacked Ellie too. Before his turbulent emotions erupted, AJ jumped to his feet and fled the room.
“Not again!” Kevin exclaimed in dismay, immediately recognizing what drove AJ to suddenly dash from the room. “Howie-”
“I’ll go after him.” Howie was already on his feet.
Brian looked from Kevin to Howie’s retreating form. “What’s going on?”
Kevin shook his head, unwilling to worry his cousin more.
“Figures.” Nick muttered under his breath. His comment didn’t go unheard though.
“Don’t start, Nick. I mean it.” Kevin said curtly, fixing a hard glare on the youngest singer.
I carefully pulled away from Brian, mildly embarrassed for have falling apart like I did. Once again, his amazing strength of character showed through, despite the hardships that were continually being placed on him. After all, he was essentially the one that was in danger here. Leon only would hurt the rest of us to get to Brian. It was Brian whose privacy, safety and life that were being threatened.
“My goodness, what’s going on?” Shari’s alarmed voice filled the room. I felt Brian stiffen next to me and my heart quickened its pace once again.
“Uh, I had a nightmare.” Brian uttered lamely.
Shari’s face traveled from my tear-streaked one to Kevin and Nick’s worried ones before resting on Brian’s once again. His expression was a mixture between pain and worry.
“Does this have anything to do with that man from radiology?” She asked warily.
“No!” I blurted quickly. “He was looking for someone.” The excuse sounded hollow and I prayed she wouldn’t press the issue. Nick and Kevin were watching, uneasily.
“Are you sure he didn’t upset you, he didn’t seem very nice.” Shari seemed unsure of whether she should believe us.
“He wasn’t, he was an ass, but it’s no big deal. Probably overworked and underpaid.” I added quickly.
Shari relaxed. I knew that was a concept she was well familiar with. It was a known fact that nursing was one of the most overworked and underpaid professions out there. Not to mention under appreciated.
“Okay then. Well Brian, you look exhausted and obviously your pain meds have worn off already. Let’s clear out and let him get some rest, all right guys? I’m going to go get another dose for you and let y’all say goodnight.” Shari smiled at us.
Brian glanced at Kevin, his face anxious.
“You don’t mind if I stay do you?” Kevin asked quickly.
“No problem. I’ll be back in a minute.” She smiled again before slipping out the door.
“Whew. Good thing the lights were so dim. She might have noticed.” I whispered, gesturing to the bruises that Nick and Howie had mentioned on my neck.
Brian turned to face me. “I’m just glad you’re okay.” He brushed a strand of hair away from my face. “Thank you, ya know, for protecting me.”
I gave him a gentle hug. “I didn’t really do anything, but I’m glad you’re okay too. And thank you too. Even though I wish you hadn’t tried to stop him, if you hadn’t, he might actually have succeeded in strangling me.” I didn’t want to let go, let alone leave the room, but we had to let him get some sleep. I couldn’t imagine how much he was probably hurting from all the moving he did.
“Nick, I want you to take Ellie back to the waiting room. I want both of you to stay there and don’t leave under any circumstances! Call Howie, if and when he finds AJ, I want you to tell them to stay with you guys in the waiting room. I’m going to call right now and get some extra security outside Brian’s room and the waiting room. Do not leave that room without one of the guards or without letting me know first.” Kevin ordered.
“Kev-” Nick started.
“No, Nick. I’m not taking any chances. Not after what happened. Now go.” Kevin’s tone was serious, his voice tight.
“Fine.”
I felt a hand on my back and I pulled back from my hold on Brian. “I guess we’ll see you in the morning. G’night Bri.” I gave him a small smile.
“Night Ellie.” He smiled reassuringly at me. It made me feel a little better.
“Night buddy.” Nick leaned down for a careful hug.
Brian gave his young friend a tight squeeze. “Take care Nicky, of Ellie and yourself okay?”
“Will do.”
I swallowed the lump that had formed in my throat. Not only did I not want to leave, but the stress of everything was wearing me out. AJ running out like he did worried me, Leon being out there somewhere worried me, Brian’s safety and voice and health worried me and even though I hated to admit it, I was sort of worried about being alone with Nick. I didn’t think I knew how to handle his being mad at me.
Waving goodnight to Kevin and Brian, I followed Nick down the dim hall of the ICU. Neither one of us spoke all the way to the waiting room. Wordlessly, he flipped on the light and held the door open for me. I kept my gaze down as I slipped past him and settled on one of the couches. He didn’t look at me as he flopped down on the other couch and put his head in his hands. The room was silent as I watched him. Tears filled my eyes and I bit my lip to keep them from falling. I was tired of crying. Before I gave in to the tears, I stood up and marched over so that I was standing in front of him.
“Look, I know you’re mad at me, but I don’t think I can deal with that right now. I feel like I’m going to crumble to pieces here. I felt a lot better about this whole situation when we were together. Everything about what we’re going through is so overwhelming and scary, but you made me feel better. You made me feel more comfortable and safer...”
Nick’s head jerked up at the last thing I said. The words died on my lips when I saw the tears streaming down his face.
