Doctor Nigel Andrews quickly led the man that was carrying his young patient to the trauma room. A young nurse rushed around the doctor and quickly pushed a pedal that elevated the stretcher.
Rich, the bodyguard, gently laid Nick onto the stretcher; his focus solely on the young man. The teen's complexion was a ghostly white and his lips seemed to appear void in color.
Brian stood off to the side, wringing his hands his heart skipping a beat as he took in the lifeless form of his best friend.
"Doc, what is wrong with Nick?" AJ anxiously rasped.
The young doctor was getting annoyed as the tattooed stranger approached the bedside of the patient. "Could you please wait over there," Dr. Andrews spat as he pushed AJ aside. "I have to evaluate the patient before I could even guess what his ailment is!"
"GUESS?!" AJ echoed.
"Christina, please fetch William to escort these men to the waiting area!"
"He didn't mean to sound like he was doubting you, doctor, AJ comes off a little rough at times, please let us stay here, you won't even notice us," Howie pleaded.
Shaking his head, the doctor seemed to ignore Howie's pleas. "Just keep over there," he ordered crisply.
"Like a church mouse," the Latino added quietly, with AJ quickly mouthing the words with a scowl on his face.
Grabbing a smelling salt, the doctor waved it underneath the teenager's nose. "What is his name?"
"It's Nick....Nickolas Carter," Kevin stated quickly.
"Nick? Nick, I'm Dr. Andrews..." the doctor softly stated as he continued to wave the smelling salts. After a few moments, the salts started sending Nick into a burst of quick coughs with his eyelids fluttering open. "Nick, you're at the hospital, I'm Dr. Nigel Andrews, can you hear me?"
Coughing, Nick shook his head in aknowledgement.
"What brings you to Cromwell?"
Nothing seemed to register in Nick's pain-fogged brain at the moment. 'What the heck is Cromwell?'
"Huh?"
"I asked what brings you here to Cromwell Hospital?"
Nick scanned the light green room as he tried to digest what the man had just asked. 'Hospital?'
"Nicky, the doc wants to know whats going on...." AJ suddenly offered from the corner of the room but quickly stopped his words from the quick glare from the doctor.
"Let Nick answer the questions please."
"Where am I?"
"Cromwell Hospital," the doctor stated again, looking at Nick's eyes to see if the words were connecting. "London?"
"London?" Nick croaked.
"You're in England."
"He's on tour," Kevin filled in. "He's in a group."
Nick jerked his head toward the direction of Kevin's voice. "Kev?"
"I'm here buddy."
"What happened to me? Why am I here?"
The doctor looked down at his young patient, concern etched on his forehead.
"I'm wondering if it has something to do with his stomach or something," Kevin suggested as he took a few steps forward.
The doctor took a device from the counter and gently placed it into Nick's ear holding it for a moment until it softly beeped. "Young man, you have got quite a fever."
"How bad?" Kevin asked as he took a few more steps closer toward his band brother.
"40.4 celsius."
"What the fuck is that?" AJ rasped.
"How high is it Dr. Andrews?" Brian quickly asked, praying that the doctor would ignore AJ's choice of words.
"He has a fever of 104.8 degrees fahrenheit."
"Nicky is prone to running high temps," Kevin offered.
"Are you the guardian?"
"No sir, I'm his brother though---"
"Blood relative?"
Kevin shifted nervously on his feet. "No sir, but we are close enough to be considered brothers."
"How serious is this?" Howie asked.
"I have to run tests, but I don't feel too comfortable touching him without permission of his legal guardian."
"What about being an emergency?"
"I don't know without running tests, is there someone we can contact to get permission?"
"Not fatass," AJ spat.
"Can we call his mother? I'm sure she will give permission to treat Nicky," Brian asked.
"If you can get a hold of either one of his parents that would be greatly appreciated," Dr. Andrews stated.
"Don't call my mom," Nick weakly protested.
Dr. Andrews rubbed his patient's shoulder. "Why not?"
"She would get really pissed."
"I'm sure your mother won't be mad with you," Dr. Andrews corrected.
Nick shook his head. "No, you don't know my mom, she would be pissed. I'm not home and I should be and oh God....." his voice trailed off as his eyes welled up with tears.
"Nicky, your mom knows you're with us in England," Howie softly assured.
"Yeah Nick, you just talked to her the other day I think," Brian added.
Nick wiped the tears away from his cheeks. "I did not!"
"Regardless, I really want permission before I do anything," the doctor demanded.
"Where should I go to call Mrs. Carter?" Brian asked.
"Kristina, can you escort this young man to ring Mrs. Carter?"
'It would be easier to call Mr. Pearlman than run the risk of having Jane snap my head off,' Brian thought as he dailed the familiar number to Nick's home. 'Please don't answer....please don't answer.....' he mentally urged as he drummed the fingers of his left hand ontop of the desk.
"H...hello?"
Brian's heart sunk as Jane Carter groggily answered the phone.
"Who is there?"
Make that one angry voice!
"Um, Mrs. Carter?"
"Who is this?" the voice demanded.
"Mrs. Carter, this is Brian---"
"Brian? I don't know any Brians---"
"Nick's friend Brian from the band?"
There was a sigh of recognition on the other end of the connection. "Brian....do you know what time it is?"
"I'm sorry I had to wake you up, but Nick is at the hospital in London and----"
"Oh God, what did that kid do to himself now? Fall off the stage?"
Brian furrowed his brow in confusion. 'Was this woman for real? She sounded so casual about this conversation!'
"Um, no, he is sick and we're not sure what's wrong with him and the doctor needs---"
"Sick? Why on God's green Earth did you drag Nicky to a hospital for crying out loud? Do you realize how much this is going to cost?"
"No Ma'am, Nick is really, really sick--"
"It's that serious?" Jane interrupted.
"Well I'm not sure but he fainted at least twice on us and he looks horrible."
"Could you please at least talk to his nurse and then I'll be sure that someone calls you after we know what is going on with Nick?"
Jane propped herself up onto her elbows. "Where's Lou or Johnny? Why are you asking them...they have our permission to take care of Nick! It must not be that serious if they are not aware of this!"
Brian wiped the sweat that was forming on his forehead. "Why can't you just give the nurse your permission?"
"Because I doubt that it is as serious as you're trying to make this out to be," Jane stubbornly spat.
Brian's posture slumped against the chair as he stared at the phone in disbelief. 'How was he going to get through to this woman that this was a serious situation?'
"I'm going back to sleep, if Nick is as sick as you think he is, you'll let Lou know. Goodnight."
Before Brian had a chance to plead his case with Mrs. Carter, she had abruptly ended the conversation.
"Did you get ahold of her yet?"
Slamming the receiver back onto the cradle Brian buried his face in his hands. "No, that woman is impossible."
"Cuz, let me have the phone," Kevin muttered. "I'll get through to that heartless creature!"
Wordlessly, Brian shoved the phone toward his elder cousin. "Good luck getting through to that ice queen."
Kevin Richardson was only silent for a few moments after he dialed the number to the Carter residence that was written in his address book.
"Jane - Kevin Richardson, we need you to give permission to treat your son at Cromwell Hospital in London......I don't care what you think, you just have to do this and do it now so we can get everything started...I don't give a frogs fat ass what you think, just do it and do it now!"
Brian flinched as he listened to Kevin's end of the conversation. There was no small talk, no pleasantries that he had tried to exchange with the woman, Kevin simply jumped into the heart of the matter. Brian wondered why he couldn't be more upfront and to the point like his cousin. Deep down he knew he why, it was against his nature to be mean. His self absorbed thoughts were suddenly interrupted.
"Stop with the fake crying, just tell this nurse what you have to say and we'll be done!" With that said, Kevin handed the receiver over to the matronly nurse.
His eyes darted from his cousin's anger flushed face to the nurse as she listened to Jane Carter and jotting notes onto the sheet of paper from her clipboard, he wondered what the woman could possibly be thinking of this situation.
Kevin was half-expecting another round of conversation with Jane Carter but was surprised when the nurse hung the phone up after she had finished with her conversation. His curiosty got the best of him and he blurted, "So she didn't want to talk to me again?"
The nurse only replied with a shake of her head as she started off toward the trauma room.
Kevin raked a hand through his dark hair. "Such a bitch," he muttered.
Nick squirmed underneath the warming blanket that had just been placed ontop of him. His fever plagued mind questioned what was taking Brian so long. He knew that his mom would be pissed that someone had called her especially since it was a phone call about him and not Aaron. They probably don't care about him being sick anyway so why should he worry if they weren't gonna worry?
Howie broke into the teen's thoughts. "How you feeling Nicky?"
"Pretty good," he lied. He started to sit up. "Lets just leave."
Howie was quick in placing a firm hand on the young teen's shoulder. "You're not going anywhere Nick, lay back down."
"Ma's gonna be pissed at me," Nick squeaked.
"I'm sure Jane will get over it," AJ rasped. "What the hell is taking Kevin and Brian so fucking long?"
Dr. Andrews glared at AJ. "There will be no cussing in this room!"
A young, big breasted nurse bustled into the room, quickly capturing AJ's hormonal attention. Howie caught his friend's leering gaze from the corner of his eyes and elbowed AJ in the ribs.
"Doctor, I have permission to treat from the patient's mum," she announced as she pushed a slip of paper onto the clipboard.
"My mom is here?" Nick squeaked.
"Dumbass, they had to call her," AJ reminded.
"Have this man removed from the room," Dr. Andrews gestured toward AJ.
"Doc, I'm sorry it won't happen again!"
"You're right young man because you are leaving!"
AJ brushed against Kevin as he passed by in the hall. "Doc made me leave," he spat as he passed. "Make sure you guys come out and tell me whats going on!"
Brian gave a shrug as he looked up at his cousin.
"Must be his mouth got him in trouble again," the tall Kentuckian acknowled with a grin.
With Kevin and Brian barely cresting the entrance to the trauma room, Nick cried out in pain. "STOP! YOU'RE HURTING ME!"
"Easy little man," Kevin soothed with a concern etched in his voice.
"CBC stat draw!" the doctor barked. "Okay son, where does your belly hurt?"
"All over," Nick whimpered as he placed a protective arm across his stomach.
"All over or just here?" the doctor asked as he pressed down, looking at his patient's face for a confirmation. It wasn't until the doctor released his hand from his patient's stomach did Nick reply.
"OH GOD!"
Dr. Adams quickly moved from the patient toward the phone on the wall. "I need Dr. Snyder down in Trauma three, stat."
"What's wrong, doctor?" Kevin asked anxiously.
"I need all of you to go to the waiting area," Dr. Adams snapped.
"I'm not leaving Nick," Brian protested.
"Not until you tell me whats wrong with our little brother!" Kevin demanded.
"Don't leave me," Nick whimpered as he stretched out an arm from under the blanket.
"Appendix," Dr. Adams grunted.