“YES.” Nick cheered out loud.
Jessica woke up when she heard Nick. She looked over at his bed and found him grinning ear to ear. She hadn’t seen him that happy for quite a few days.
“What’s up, something good I suspect?” Jessica smiled.
“I can feel my toes! This is great, I can feel my toes!” Nick kept saying it over and over.
“Can you move your legs?” Jess asked.
“I dunno, I haven’t tried.” Nick’s face twisted in concentration as he tried to move one of his legs. The only response that he got was a spasmatic twitch of his left foot.
“I’m not sure if that’s what I intended to do, but hey, it’s starting to work.” Nick was proud that his feeling was returning.
Dr. Gaynor entered the room. “Good morning Nick, how are you feeling today?”
“I can feel my toes.” Nick responded.
“You can?” Dr. Gaynor went over to the foot of the bed and squeeze Nick’s foot. “Can you feel me squeezing your foot?”
“YES!” Nick was so happy.
“You must be feeling better, You are talking a lot more.” Dr. Gaynor observed.
“Well, the nurse said it would be better for me to try and talk a little more even when I don’t feel like it.” Nick sounded like he was apologizing for speaking.
“And she was right. Let’s see here.” Dr. Gaynor was flipping through Nick’s thick chart. “We are trying to push the pneumonia out of your lungs. The tests we did the other day indicated that your spinal cord was still swollen and we were trying different steroids to see if that would do the job. If you are feeling your toes, I think the steroids are doing the right job.” Dr. Gaynor smiled.
After doing his assessments on Nick he opened the chart and wrote something hastily on it.
“I am going to start physical therapy for you today. We had talked about Friday being the earliest for you to start, but I think you’re coming along well so the sooner the better. How’s that sound to you?” Dr. Gaynor asked Nick.
Nick was anxious to start getting his life back on track. “Suits me fine, doc.” He smiled as he responded.
“Are you feeling hungry?” Dr. Gaynor asked.
“I’m starving.” Nick replied.
“Good, we’ll start you on a gradual diet, can’t start you off on Big Macs and fries, you have to work your way up to it.” Dr. Gaynor wrote more things down on Nick’s chart. “I’ll see you tomorrow.”
“Wow, I can feel my toes and I can eat! SWEET.” Nick was happy that things were finally starting to go towards the positive instead of having all the bad things happening.
“Don’t get too excited about eating yet, you haven’t seen what they’re gonna bring in.” Jess replied from experience. “Do you like jello?”
“Babe, right now jello sounds like heaven.” Nick didn’t care what he was getting, he just knew that this meant that he was on the road to recovery and eating would help him get his strength back.
There was a faint knock on the door. “Come in.” Nick replied.
A tiny, shy food service worker came into the room with a tray. Jessica could tell by looking at her that she was probably a Backstreet Boys fan and was trembling to think that she would get this close to Nick Carter. She walked towards him with the tray and set it down on his bedstand. She smiled nervously.
“Thank you.” Nick smiled at her.
“You’re welcome.” the girl responded. She looked as if she would faint from being acknowledged.
“Oooh, look, green jello.” Nick was checking his tray over. The tray looked big and dwarfed the tiny items that he had been brought to eat. There was jello, clear chicken broth and hot tea.
“Yum, yum. I never knew you would grow to love those things, Nickolas Carter.” Jess laughed.
“I don’t care, I’m just pretending that this is pizza.” Nick said as he started eating.
Jess watched as he ate. It was so good to see him upbeat and alive. She prayed that he would get strong soon. Maybe seeing that commercial on MTV sparked something in Nick.
“Would you like to call Brian today and talk to him, or do you want him to come and see you?” Jess asked Nick while he was eating.
“I don’t care. What do you want?” Nick asked.
“I’m fine either way, but if you don’t want them over to visit, we should at least call him.” Jessica answered.
“I’ll think about it. We need to see what they plan on doing with me today.” Nick was excited to think that maybe he would be getting out of bed. He was tired of laying on his back.
“Hi Nick,” Nick’s nurse walked into his room. I’ve got good news for you.”
“Hi.” Nick replied as he was pulling his covers trying to smooth the blankets out.
“We are going to move you from ICU to a new room today. I don’t think that you will be needing all of this attention now that you are feeling better. This is one good step into recovery, but unfortunately, this means that I won’t be your nurse anymore. Don’t worry though, I will be keeping tabs on you.” The nurse winked at Nick and Jess.
“How are they gonna move him?” Jess wondered outloud.
“Well, by wheelchair, of course.” The nurse replied.
Jess and Nick looked at each other.
“Wow, I get to go for a ride.” Nick didn’t look too certain about that. He could feel his toes, but still couldn’t really move his legs.
“You don’t sound too sure about that. Don’t worry, I have moved people worse off than you, haven’t lost one yet.”
“Do you know what room he’ll be in yet?” Jessica wanted to know so they could let Nick’s parents and the guys know where he would be.
“It said on his chart room 6265, so he’ll be on the sixth floor. He will have a private room, of course, and the security will go up to that room now.”
“Security?” Nick asked.
“Of course, once word leaked out where you were, there was all sorts of commotion and people trying to come in here and see you. I thought you knew.” The nurse told Nick. She was kind of shocked herself to think that Nick wouldn’t realize the type of hysteria he could cause, but then she thought that showed how down to earth and an uncelebrity Nick could be.
“Oh, Nick, you should see the front lawn to the hospital, there are so many people out there. It’s gotten pretty hairy for Brian and Kevin. They had a hard time coming and going the last time they came to see you.” Jessica explained.
“Wow.” Nick said outloud as he was taking in what Jessica was saying. He couldn’t believe that this was happening for him. He tried to keep his thoughts even and not let it go to his head.
An orderly appeared with a wheelchair. “Are you ready to move?” He asked Nick.
“He hasn’t been out of bed by himself yet, I think we’re gonna need help.” Jess suggested to the muscular orderly.
“His nurse was supposed to be here behind me. Let’s get the chair set and ready to go. She should be here in a minute.”
The orderly put the chair next to the bed as close as he could get it. The nurse entered the room.
“Okay Nick, we’re going to do this slowly. I want you to raise the back of your bed to a sitting position.”
Nick slowly raised the bed.
“If you feel funny, stop, though.” The nurse watched Nick’s face as he was moving the bed.
“So far so good.” Nick replied.
“Okay, now Matt and I are going to take care of you. I’m going to put my hand on your back as you scooch your butt over to the side of the bed. This will keep you from falling back. Don’t worry, nothing will happen.”
Nick leaned forward and tried to turn himself by his butt. He slowly but successfully managed as the orderly was holding onto Nick’s upper arm.
“Okay, now here’s the tricky part,” the nurse thought outloud. “Dangle your feet over the side of the bed.”
Nick complied to the command. They had him sit there for a few moments while the orderly held onto Nicks arm. The nurse scurried around to the other side of the bed and unplugged Nick’s IV and moved it to the side of the bed that he was facing.
“Do you think you’re ready to go to the chair?” the nurse asked Nick.
“I guess so.” Nick was scared that he was going to fall.
“Okay, no surprises, on the count of three we’re gonna lift you from the bed and move you to the chair, okay?” the nurse asked before they continued.
Nick nodded yes and took a breath in.
“Okay, one, two, three.” They slid Nick off the bed and into the wheelchair in one sweeping motion. The Nurse and the orderly placed Nick’s feet on the footrests on the chair and she then took the oxygen tubing off of his face.
“How are you feeling?” She looked her patient over, she could see his legs were shaky.
“Weak,” was all that Nick could manage. He felt hot and then cold. His legs were shaking and he couldn’t stop them.
The nurse grabbed a blanket and wrapped it around Nick’s legs.
“I’m gonna have you sit here a few minutes before we move you.” The nurse made sure that they had all of the equipment in place before they started to move Nick.
As they pushed Nick out into the hallway, he looked at the surroundings. He had not been out of his room for a few days and that was on a stretcher, so things looked different to him. Nick noticed the tall security guard standing by the door in the hall.
“Isn’t it nice to be able to sit up?” Jessica smiled at Nick.
Nick responded with a smile back at her. The elevator ride to his room was slow as they got stopped at each floor to let other hospital employees on and off. When they finally got off on the sixth floor, the orderly pushed the wheel chair to the end of the hall to the last door on the left. A security guard was already standing outside of the doorway.
Once they entered the room, Nick couldn’t believe all of the flowers, balloons and beanie babies that were surrounding the entire room.
“These have been waiting for you for quite awhile, you can’t have anything in ICU so they had been holding them for you up until now. Isn’t it neat?” Jess asked Nick.
Nick sat in the chair staring at all of the stuff in the room. He didn’t know what to think or say, he just sat there with his mouth hanging open.
“Well, aren’t you gonna say anything?” Jess asked.
“Wow.” was all Nick could managed. He was overwhelmed to think that there were so many people out there that cared about him.
The orderly pushed the wheelchair close to the bed and put down the safety levers to prevent the wheels from moving.
“Are you comfortable right now or would you like to lay down?” he asked Nick.
“Is it okay to sit up for a little longer?” Nick asked. He was hurting, but the thought of laying back down in the bed at this point didn’t appeal to him.
“I suppose it won’t hurt to sit up for a little bit. I’ll be back in about 10 minutes or so.” with that, the orderly left Nick and Jessica alone.
Jessica walked around the room looking at the cards on the flowers. A lot of the flowers had been sent by fans. There were a few that were from close friends and relatives of Nick’s.
“Hey, you’re not allergic to pollen or anything, are you?” Jess asked Nick.
“I don’t think so.” Nick wasn’t sure. “I guess we’ll find out if I am.”
They heard talking out in the hall. Nick looked at Jess and motioned his head towards the door for her to see if she could see who it was. She jumped up off the bed and walked over to the doorway. It was AJ., Brian, Kevin and Howie. Jessica stood in the door and told the guard that they were okay to come into the room. As the guard thanked her, the boys walked into the room.
“Holy shit, look at all of this stuff!” AJ. said outloud.
“Hey Nicky, how’s it going?” Howie walked up to Nick and patted him on the head.
“Hey, you’re looking a lot better than when I left you the last time, dude.” Brian gave Nick a hug. “It’s good to see yah sitting up for a change, bet it feels good too.” Brian winked at Nick.
“Yeah, it feels different.” Nick replied. He was starting to hurt more and could feel his legs starting to shake. He was hoping that no one could see it under the blankets.
AJ and Kevin were touring Nick’s room checking out all of the stuff that had arrived in his room. It was twice the stuff that they had ever gotten while they were on stage. They felt like there were in a gift shop.
“I’ve never seen so many flowers at one time. Boy Nick, you must be pretty popular with the FTD guy right now.” Kevin joked.
Nick managed a half-hearted smile. He looked over at Jess hoping that he could make some type of eye contact with her to let her know he needed help. She was looking at beanie babies with Howie.
“Hey buddy, is something wrong?” Brian picked up on the pain in Nick’s face. He had a knack for reading what was on people’s minds without having to hear them speak.
“Um, I think I need to lay down.” Nick said softly.
Everyone in the room turned around and looked at Nick when he was talking. Jess noticed that his color was drained from his face and his lips were almost chalky looking.
“Push the call nurse button. Nick, do you feel faint?” Jess asked.
“Yeah.” Nick mumbled the words. The room was starting to get dark and hazy. He had fainted before so he knew what was coming. He started to feel sick to his stomach and dizzy.
Brian reached out just as Nick started to fall forward. He caught him and prevented him from falling out of the chair and hurting himself. An orderly appeared in the door just as Nick slumped in the chair.
“Whoa, I guess he wasn’t ready to sit up this long.” the orderly stated as he brushed past Kevin and AJ. He walked over to Nick and literally picked him up out of the chair and placed him into the bed. He put a blood pressure cuff on Nick’s arm and started the machine to check his pressure.
The color started coming back into Nick’s face as he was waking up.
“Nick, are you okay?” Jessica asked him.
Nick opened and closed his eyes slowly. His face was soaked in sweat. It was taking him a few minutes to register where he was and what had happened.
“Yeah, I’m fine. I just hurt.” Nick replied.
“I’ll have your nurse come in and see you.” the orderly said as he was leaving the room.
All of the guys in the room kept glancing over at Nick to see how he was doing. He looked like he had been running the quarter-mile race and lost. As the nurse walked into the room the guys moved off to the side to keep out of the way.
“Hi, Nick, I’m your nurse, Andrea. How are you feeling?” the nurse was wearing dark purple scrubs and white tennis shoes.
“Not great.” Nick replied.
“I want you to rate your pain level on a scale of zero to ten with zero being no pain at all and ten as get me to the emergency room right now, I can’t stand it.” the nurse asked Nick softly.
“Nine.” Nick said.
“Where are you hurting?” the nurse asked.
Nick pointed to his stomach and his left side. The nurse pulled his gown off his left shoulder while she was telling him that she wanted to check the bandages.
A bandage on his stomach had a small spot of bright red blood on it.
“I’ll be back with some pain meds and I’ll need to change that bandage and take a closer look at the incision.”
The nurse left the room and the guys watched her leave. AJ was the first one to comment about Nick’s nurse.
“Not bad, dude.” AJ said slyly.
Nick didn’t reply back, he attempted to stick his tongue out at AJ.
“Oooh, that hurt!” AJ teased.
The guys laughed at Nick’s attempt to make a joke. As the nurse returned to the room, Brian pulled Jess aside to talk to her.
“How have you been doing?” He looked directly into her eyes.
“Oh, I’m okay.” Jess replied.
“I’ll bet you haven’t eaten since yesterday when Kev and me took you out, have you?”
“No, but I’m okay.” Jessica answered. She had been so preoccupied with Nick that food was the last thing on her mind. She was entirely devoted to watching Nick thrive and getting better.
“No, you’re not okay, you need to eat or you’ll be in a bed beside Nick. Once the nurse is through here, I’m taking you someplace. I’m sure one of the guys will stay here so that Nick’s not alone.” Brian insisted.
“No, really, I’m okay. I’ll get something later.” Jess promised.
“Liar, I know you better than that. I am going to make sure you eat even if I have to force feed you, do you understand?” Brian asked her quietly.
Jess resigned herself to the proposition. She had no other choice and she knew that Brian wouldn’t let it rest until she did what he wanted her to do.
After the nurse changed Nick’s bandage and gave him his medication through the IV tube, she left the room.
“Hey, Nick, would it be okay if I took Jess to go get something to eat, she hasn’t eaten since early yesterday and I want to make sure she eats.” Brian asked Nick.
Nick looked at Jess. “Oh, god, I didn’t know, I guess I wasn’t thinking about you---”
“Don’t apologize, I’m fine Nick and you shouldn’t be worrying about me.” Jessica cut him off.
“I want you to go with Brian, he’ll make sure you do what you’re supposed to do.” Nick knew that Brian would take good care of Jess. It upset him to think that she wasn’t taking care of herself.
“I’ll stay here with Nick,” Kevin offered. “You guys go ahead and go with them.”
Just as the group was preparing to leave, Nick’s family came into the room. After they talked with them for a few minutes, Kevin decided that he would go with the rest of the group so that Nick’s family could have some time with him.