As soon as the doctor gave Kevin the confirmation of what he suspected what was wrong with Nick, the rest of the group that had been allowed in Trauma Room Three were quickly ushered out, leaving Nick crying out for them to stay and not leave.
For some reason, Kevin Richardson felt as if he had let his little brother down in some way and the feelings were evident in the way the older man carried himself down the hall toward the waiting room.
AJ jumped up from his seat in the corner of the room and rushed up to Kevin. "So is something happening with the kid?"
"The doctor said it was Nick's appendix," Howie calmly informed.
AJ stared at Kevin as he slumped down into the nearest seat in the waiting room. "That's all? I mean it looks like Kevin is acting like the kid is gonna die on us or something---"
Brian laid a hand on the tattooed rebel's shoulder. "Jay, this is not the time to joke around, okay?"
"It's just an appendix," AJ rasped.
Kevin placed his head in his hands as he leaned his body forward.
AJ's eyes rivioted from the tall Kentuckian's posture to Howie and Brian's face. "I don't get it," he mumbled as he gestured with his index finger at Kevin. "Why is he acting like the world is gonna end?"
Kevin looked up at AJ and took a deep breath in. "Because I have to call Pearlman and explain to him why we won't be at the promo deal he has set up in the morning," he stated through gritted teeth.
"Oh."
"Yeah big oh," Kevin replied as he raked a hand through his thick hair.
"Well it's just Nicky's appedendix, you know how those things go, I had a friend that was out surfing like the next day," AJ recounted, ignoring Brian's duboius look; one eyebrow arched in question.
Howie shook his head at AJ's lame attempts in trying to make the situation lighter. "Bone, just sit down and keep quiet, I don't think you're helping the situation."
Kevin groaned as he stood up. "I guess I have to call Pearlman sometime."
Brian stood between his cousin and the telephone. "Why don't you wait until after everything is over, then you'll be able to lay out the situation with him."
Reluctantly, Kevin sat back down. "I guess you're right."
"There, there son," a nurse soothed as she laid a cool wet cloth ontop of her young patient's forehead.
Nick resisted the woman's attempts in making him feel better and pulled the washcloth off his forehead, dropping it to the floor.
"You need to have this on you to keep your fever down," the woman insisted as she placed another cool towel onto his forehead.
"Leave me alone," Nick whimpered as he reached up for the cloth again. This time, however, the nurse was quicker than he expected and she placed a tight grip on the young man's wrist.
"Nope, you can't do that kiddo," she scolded.
Nick looked around the room, searching for his friends. "Wh-where did everyone go? They promised they wouldn't leave," he cried.
"Dr. Adams asked them to leave before the surgeon came in for the consult."
"Surgeon?" Nick croaked.
"You're a very sick young man," the nurse replied in a hushed voice.
Nick grabbed the edge of the blankets. "I wanna get outta here!"
The nurse placed a firm hand on the blonde teenager's chest. "Lay back down!"
Nick glared at the young woman. "YOU CAN'T MAKE ME!"
Nick's challenge lit a fire in the nurse. "Listen here young man, you're sick and you need to stay put and you will not be leaving while you are in my care!"
Startled at the nurse's sudden change in her caring attitude scared Nick and tears quickly sprung to his eyes. "I want Brian," he mumbled.
"If I get Brian will you calm down?"
Nick shook his head ever-so-slightly in the affirmative.
"Fine, Fiona, go fetch his friend Brian please."
The young student nurse nodded and quickly left the room.
"When the surgeon comes in----"
"NO!"
"Young man, you need to take it easy," the nurse scolded.
"I wanna go home," Nick whimpered; eyes flashing wildly around the room, looking for someone or something that would comfort him.
"Hey Nicky, I'm here."
Nick's body relaxed a little when he heard the voice of his best friend as he entered the room. He still had his guard up and quickly dipped his shoulder away from his nurse's grip. "Rok you gotta help me!"
Brian cautiously placed a comforting hand on his band brother's shoulder. "Nick, take it easy, no one is gonna hurt you."
Nick looked over at the nurse suspiciously. "She will! She's tried to do stuff to me a lot."
"It's the fever," the nurse stated in a soft voice.
Brian nodded his understanding. "Has the surgeon been in yet?" he whispered.
"No, not yet, but I'm sure he's not too far away. Dr. Penderson is the best in his field so that makes him the most in demand so it does take some time for him to get here.
"Rok.....Bri....."
Just as Brian turned to see what he young friend wanted, Nick's stomach decided an encore was in store for all of the vomiting and promptly spewed down the front of his brother's shirt.
Brian Littrell immediately turned a shade of yellow-green; clamping his hand over his mouth and nose and immediately backed away from the sickly teen.
After a few moments of dry heaves was Nick able to look over at his friend with an apologetic face. "I'm sorry," he replied sheepishly.
Brian could only hold up his free hand and shake his head as if to say 'it's okay, I understand.'
"Let me fetch you some scrubs, I'm sure your clothing is ruined," the student nurse offered while Nick's nurse busied herself with Nick.
The young nurse handed Brian a freshly washed dark blue scrub shirt and pants. "I'm guessing you'd be in between a small or a medium, but I could only find a mediu----"
Brian hasitily grabbed the clothing from the girl. "Medium's fine."
"You can change your clothes over in that room," she gestured toward a heavy wooden door. "There should be a plastic bag you can put your soiled clothes into."
A red faced Brian managed a thin smile as he hurried over toward the room. After a few moments, Brian shed his street clothes and threw them away into the trash can deciding that there was no way any cleaner would want to attempt in washing out "Nick Carter's" puke from his clothes.
When he left the small bathroom, he cornered the young student nurse. "I'm sorry I can't stay in here with Nick, something about vomit--"
"I understand completely, sir."
"Thanks, I'll send Kevin down for Nick, he's much better than I am with all this sick stuff."
With that, Brian quickly left, hoping that Nick was too occupied to notice. He barely crested the thresh hold to the waiting room when he was approached by AJ, smug grin on his face.
"Dr. Littrell! Damn, you look pretty smart there!"
Brian puffed out his chest as he pulled out the front of the top. "Think so?"
The bantering was abruptly stopped by the elder brother. "Why aren't you with Nick?"
"Kev, sorry but you need to go in with Nick, I just can't do it with him getting sick and all and he's in so much pain and stuff, it just bugs me to see him like this and you're much better than any of us---"
Kevin stared down at his cousin. "Nick threw up on you?"
Brian blushed. "Just go, okay?"
Without uttering another word, Kevin quickly left his cousin's side and hurried down to trauma room three. He expected to see Nick thrashing on the table or worse yet, throwing up into a basin and was surprized to find that he was surrounded by several doctors and nurses.
He stood off to the side of the room, not wanting to draw attention to himself and run the risk of being asked to leave the room.
A soft voice drew Kevin's attention from the scene that was unfolding in front of him. "Excuse me sir are you Kevin?"
"Yes?"
"Your friend is very sick."
Kevin folded his arms across his chest. "Yeah, I know."
"Really sick, his blood counts are off the charts, have any of the doctors talked to you yet?"
Alarms went off in the Kentuckian's brain. Just as he opened his mouth, two of the doctors turned away from Nick and approached Kevin. The senior of the two doctors offered his hand.
"Hello, I'm Dr. Bernard Rosenbaum and this is my associate, Dr. Sheila Schmitz. Are you guardian over Mr. Carter?"
Kevin accepted Dr. Rosenbaum's hand. "Yes."
"We have a very sick young man there. We're fearing his appendix may have ruptured but we won't have any way of knowing until we open him up. We're expecting the surgery should take less than an hour and then an hour or so in recovery."
Kevin had stopped listening after the doctor has said that he thought that Nick's appendix might have ruptured and the rest of the words seemed to bounce off his brain. He must have had a blank expression on his face when he suddenly felt a tap on his shoulder.
"Are you alright sir?"
Kevin blinked a few times before his eyes focused on the gray haired doctor standing in front of him.
"Huh?"
"I said are you alright?"
Kevin raked a hand through his thick, dark hair. "Yeah, sorry I guess I sorta spaced out after you said it might have ruptured. Are you sure?"
"We won't know until we get in," Dr. Schmitz stated.
"Do you have any questions?"
Kevin shook his head.
"If you'd like, you can stay with the patient until he goes into surgery, I think it would be in his best interests," Dr. Schmitz offered.
"Thanks."
Kevin was thankful to see that his young brother was resting when he approached the stretcher. A young nurse scooted up a chair so he could sit down.
"You might as well take a seat, this is going to be a long night I'm afraid."
Scooping Nick's hand into his, Kevin cupped his other hand over the top. "I'm afraid so too," he whispered.