I heard the main doors burst open and I turned my head. Kevin and Nick came running in. They were looking all around and Kevin started to ask a nurse where Brian was. I ran over to them.

“Kevin, Nick. I’m Ellie.” I had to put my emotions aside so I could tell them what was going on.

“Where is he?! Is he okay?” demanded Nick.

I took a deep breath. “They’re working on him right now. He...he stopped breathing. They had to shock him.” I choked out. I was starting to lose my composure.

“Oh my God.” said Kevin, barely audible. Nick’s eyes widened and I saw the fear in them. He looked so lost at that moment. Like he thought he was losing his best friend. That was all it took for me and I began to cry.

Without a word, Kevin put his arms around me and pulled me to his chest. I was overwhelmed with emotion. The fear and stress all came pouring out. I had been trying to be strong, but I couldn’t do it any longer. My crying grew harder and soon my whole body was racked with sobs. Kevin held on tight to me and just let me cry.

“Shhhh...it’s okay, sweetheart. Just let it out.” he said softly as he stroked my hair. I clung onto him with all my might.

I didn’t even notice Howie and AJ come up. “This is the girl Brian was with today. She just brought him here. He’s being worked on right now. She said they had to...had to shock him.” Nick said quietly to them. He struggled to get the last part out. He sounded as if he were trying to keep from crying.

“I saw it. I saw them shock his body. Oh God, help me. I saw them do it.” I moaned through my tears. That whole scene just kept running through my mind over and over again. I cried harder.

“Shhh. C’mon. Brian is tough. He will pull through this.” Kevin said trying to reassure me. Or was he trying to reassure himself?

I had to pull myself together. This wasn’t doing anyone any good. They must think I am a complete fool for losing it like that. I pulled away and wiped my eyes.

Kevin’s shirt was wet where my tears had run. “I’m sorry about your shirt.” I mumbled. ‘What a stupid thing to say!’ I thought to myself.

Kevin just smiled. “It’s no problem.”
We all looked up as a nurse approached us. “Follow me.” she said brusquely. “I’m going to take you to a conference room, where it‘ll be more private. The doctor will come talk to you shortly.”
We followed her to a room with a table with some chairs scattered around it. Nick sat down heavily in the nearest chair. He still looked like he was on the verge of tears. Howie stood behind him with his hand on Nick’s shoulder. I pulled out a chair and sank into it. AJ sat down next to me, watching me carefully. Kevin paced back and forth in the small room. I put my face in my hands and tried to keep the image of Brian being shocked out of my head. It wasn’t easy. No one said a word. I think everyone was still adjusting to the shock of everything. I heard the door open and I jerked my head up. Kevin stopped pacing and stood behind me.

The doctor walked into the room and stood on the other side of the table from us. “Well, there is good news and some not so good news.” He started. We all stared at him expectantly. “The good new is that we got Mr. Littrell breathing again. He is still in critical condition and we are trying to get him stabilized. We are going to run some tests and we will let you know the results as soon as we get them back.” He looked down at me. “Miss, you were the one that brought him in here, correct?” he asked.

I nodded.

“Can you tell me what happened?”
I took a deep breath and swallowed. My voice was still shaky when I began to talk. “I have been with him since 8-something this morning. We met at a coffee house. We stayed there and talked for a couple hours. At one point he kind of stopped what he was saying and closed his eyes. He looked like he was in pain. When I asked him about it he said it was nothing. I didn’t really believe him, but I decided not to press him. Then we went bowling. He really scared me then. It was towards the end of out third game. He was standing up and all of the sudden he practically collapsed. He was breathing hard and looked pale. And he looked like he was in pain again. I ran over to him and held onto him cause I thought he was going to pass out. Then it all seemed to go away. He tried to tell me he was fine, again. I left it alone until we went out to get something to eat. I was kind of nervous so I asked him what was going on. He said that he went to the doctor not very long ago and they told him that he had another hole in his heart and that they were probably going to have to operate on it. Then he got a scared look on his face and he grabbed his chest. It looked like he was having a heart attack or something. It was obvious that he was in trouble. I helped him out of there as fast as possible to bring him here. On the way here he got paler and he looked sort of out of it. I grabbed his hand to try to keep him alert and he was cold and clammy. Then his breathing got really ragged and shallow. Then it stopped.” I let out a long shudder. AJ reached over and put his hand on my arm and rubbed it.

“He was very lucky to that you found him this morning and that you acted so quickly in bringing him here. You may very well have saved his life.” He said seriously.

I just stared at him numbly.

“Someone will be in here in a few minutes to take you to a different room on the ICU floor.” he said to us.

“Um...is there any way we can have sort of a private room since uh...” Kevin suggested.

“Of course. I know who you all are. I am going to instruct the staff to keep quiet about this.”
“When can we see him?” Nick asked. It was the first thing that he said in awhile.

“After the tests.” was the doctor’s response.

With that the doctor left the small room. We all sat there without saying anything. A few minutes later the door opened again. A young nurse poked her head into the room. “Please follow...” she stopped when she realized who she was talking to. “Oh my gosh! You guys are the Backstreet Boys! That is what the doctor meant when he said the patient was high-profile. Wow. It’s Brian isn’t it? I hope he is going to be okay.” she rambled as we followed her into the hallway. All the guys put on sunglasses (except AJ who never took his off) and hats. They must have been keeping them in their pockets. Even in the seriousness of everything I had to smile. They didn’t look very inconspicuous. In fact they were drawing sort of a lot of attention to themselves. No one, however, seemed to want to approach them right now.

Then over the hospital speaker system came, “Will the owner of a dark green Jeep Wrangler, license plate number RLM-915 please report to the front desk.”
I stopped in my tracks. “Brian’s Jeep! I just left it outside the doors!”
“Do you want me to go move it?” Asked Kevin.

“No. I think I need a breath of fresh air.”
“I’ll go with you.” AJ quickly added.

“Alright. I’ll call your phone and tell you guys what room we are going to be in.” Kevin told AJ. He nodded and we hurried to the front desk. Sure enough we had to move it. As we started to walk out the doors someone called “Wait...you brought the patient in with the heart problem right?” I turned around and saw an orderly running towards me. He held a ziplocked bag in one hand and Brian’s hat in the other. “Here. We almost forgot to give this to you.” he smiled apologetically as he held out the stuff. AJ looked inside the bag that contained Brian’s wallet, spare change, a piece of paper and his cross necklace. I saw his eyes brim with tears behind his sunglasses. He immediately blinked them away and turned his head. I put my hand on his shoulder. He turned back to me and forced a smile. He looked thoughtfully at Brian’s hat that I was clutching. He took it from my hands and dropped it lightly on my head.

“Better take good care of that hat for him, darlin’. It’s his favorite.” He put his arm across my shoulders and we walked toward the doors together with fear in our hearts for what was to come.