A Second Chance
Chapter Five
The next morning, coughs from Nick's bunk woke Brian up. He quickly got out of his bunk and drew the drapes back on Nick's bunk. He found Nick laying on his side, his body wracked with coughing fits. His skin looked grayish, his eyes cloudy.
Brian left Nick and ran up towards Ray, the bus driver and asked him to stop at the next city to stop at a hospital. Brian ran into Kevin on his way back towards the bunks.
"Hey Bri, what's up?"
"It's Nick, he's really sick and I told Ray to stop in the next city to get Nick checked out," Brian replied as he brushed past Kevin.
"What's wrong with him?"
"Can't you hear him?"
Almost on cue, Nick started another series of coughs.
"Oh, it's just a little cold, Brian, I swear you're getting a bit paranoid lately," Kevin replied.
Brian frowned. "He's sick Kev, don't you get it? He needs to see a doctor."
Within fifteen minutes, Ray pulled into a hospital parking lot. Brian rushed out and grabbed a wheel chair at the entrance while Howie and AJ helped Nick to his feet and off the bus. By the time they finished making their short trip, Nick was beat and winded.
All the time the group sat in a private waiting room, Kevin paced and kept voicing his opinions that the guys were getting "weird" and making "a mountain out of a molehill."
"You guys, this is just crazy, it's only a cold," Kevin tried to convince them of it, but he was really trying to convince himself that was all it was.
Finally, after a few hours had gone by, a tall man wearing a white lab coat entered the room.
"Friends of Nick Carter?"
"Yes," Brian spoke for the group. "Is he okay?"
The doctor shook his head as he looked down at Nick's chart. "I have never seen anything like this in my life. You did tell me that he was healthy up until a few weeks ago, right?"
"Right, only for some body aches, he was fine," Brian replied. "What's wrong?"
"What isn't wrong is the question. I have never seen anything like this in a twenty year old man or a twenty year old woman for that matter."
"Quit dicking around and tell us, man," AJ spat.
Brian winced at AJ's choice of words.
"I reviewed all the tests and I actually had to verify that the films weren't mislabled for another patient's. Nick has congestive pulmonary disease, an enlarged heart, osteoporosis, arthritis, hardening of the arteries and cataracts. In other words, his body is that of an eighty year old man's, not a twenty year old's," Dr. Taylor stated.
"How can this be? This can't be true! He looks the same!" Brian cried.
"It is true, I can't explain it, but it's true," Dr. Taylor replied.
"He'll be okay, right? This is something you can fix, right?" Brian begged.
"We could take care of the cataracts, but I doubt he would make it through surgery. The rest of his symptoms can only be treated with pain medications and around the clock oxygen, I'm sorry," the doctor replied.
"But he's only twenty!" Brian shouted, collapsing against his cousin's side.
+Chapter Six+