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Chapter Twenty-Four

Chapter Thirty-Three



Jessica felt that she was more nervous than the guys waiting for the show to start. Nick was sitting in a chair in a corner with his head bowed down. Jess was certain he was trying to conserve his energy.

AJ and Brian were clowning around and Howie and Kevin were doing last minute preparations as usual.

Jess wanted so baldy to ask Nick if he was feeling okay but she knew that would only get him angry.

Their manager stepped into the room and clapped his hands, “Are you guys ready? We need you onstage in five.”

The guys put their headsets on and did final adjustments on their mike packs. The opening numbers were always spectacular and everything always had to be adjusted correctly so no one would get hurt.

Jess hugged Nick and gave him a kiss before he left. She whispered good luck in his ear. Nick said thanks softly back. Jess could feel the tension in his body when she hugged him. Nick was always nervous before going onstage. Tonight he acted a little more nervous. She knew that Nick knew about his weakness in his leg and how his voice had been effected when he was tired. The four hour nap gave Nick a complete turnaround but Jess worried it would only last for a short time.

The first song was spectacular. The crowd went wild and Nick was energized. His voice sounded strong and his dancing was perfect. Nick was catching the excitement from the crowd.

As the show was only fifteen minutes into it, Jess could see that Nick was starting to struggle with the dance moves, half of the moves he did half-heartidly or missed entirely. His face was red and his hair was soaked wet with sweat. Suddenly during the middle of a dance sequence, Nick collapsed onto the floor. It took the band a few beats before they realized something was wrong and that Nick wasn’t playing around. Jess ran out onto the stage and knelt beside Nick. The crowd grew quiet except for a few worried screams.

“Jesus Christ I knew he was too sick to be out here,” AJ mumbled.

The medical staff at the concert hall ran onto the stage to assist Nick. They broke open a smelling salt capsule and put it near Nick’s nose. Nick started to wake up and was coughing. His eyelids fluttered open and he looked around.

“Nick, do you know where you are?” the emt asked.

Nick’s eyes shifted back and forth looking around to see where he was. He realized he was laying on a stage in front of an audience.

“At a concert?” Nick said quietly.

“Okay, where is the concert at?” The EMT shouted, the crowd was starting to get noisy.

“Um, England?” Nick guessed quietly.

The guys looked at each other.

“No, buddy, we’re in Orlando.” Brian said.

“Oh, that’s right, now I remember.” Nick lied.

After a few minutes, the EMT’s had Nick sit up. The crowd was still quiet, several girls screamed, WE LOVE YOU, NICK. Nick didn’t seem to be paying attention to what was going on around him.

“Okay, Nick, we’re gonna have you walk offstage with us. Put your arms around each of our shoulders, okay?”

Nick nodded.

“Okay, ready, one, two, three.”

As Nick stood up, the crowd cheered wildly and continued until he got offstage. His walk was very slow and calculated. Jess noticed his limp and leg dragging again.

The EMT’s walked Nick towards a stretcher. Nick seemed to hesitate.

“Now, Nick, you need to go to get checked out.” Jess tried to coax him onto the stretcher.

Reluctantly, Nick accepted laying down and being taken by ambulance to Orlando Hospital.

“Nick, we are going to have you checked out there, okay?” The EMT told Nick as she covered him up with a blanket.

Back on stage, Brian had walked off to see what was going on with Nick. When Jess told him they were taking him to the hospital as a precaution to check him out, Brian asked where and then told her he would be there after the show.

Brian walked back on stage. Fans were curious as to what was going on.

“um, Nick wanted me to let y’all know that he is fine. He is being checked out by the docs to make sure everything is okay. He wanted me to say he’s sorry that he won’t be back but he wants everyone to enjoy the show and not to worry.” Brian said to the crowd. The audience immediately cheered when Brian said he was fine but awhed when he said that Nick wouldn’t be back.

The guys got into a huddle and decided that they would try to sing Nick’s solos together. No one really knew all of the right words so they figured if they were all singing, each would cover the other.

Nick arrived at the emergency room and was quickly ordered blood tests and other assessments were done.

The emergency room doctor pulled Jess aside and discussed his findings on Nick’s tests and what they would be doing.

“Hi, I’m Dr. Davidson. Going over Nick’s recent health history and the events leading up to his collapse on stage and the test results, it appears that Nick is suffering from dehydration and exhaustion. We will get him started with an IV and we would like to have him admitted for a few days at the least to have him rest. I will prescribe something to relax him and help him rest.”

“Okay.” Was all that Jess could say. She accompanied him to Nick’s bedside so he could tell Nick what was going on.

“Hi, Mr. Carter, I’m Dr. Davidson. We are going to admit you to the hospital for a few days.” As the doctor spoke, Nick appeared distressed to think he was staying in the hospital again. “You are suffering from severe exhaustion and dehydration and you need to rest. We will be giving you IV’s to help with the dehydration and I will prescribe something to help you relax and rest.”

Nick just sighed and closed his eyes.

“Nick, it’ll be okay, you need to rest and get better.” Jess tried to make him understand that he was sick.

Back at the Orlando concert, Brian was hoping that the concert would end quickly. The guys attempted to carry the parts that Nick would normally solo on, but really were messing it up because they knew half or none of the words. Brian suddenly realized during part of a song that they still had to contend with the fans that had backstage passes. It was going to be at least another hour before they would be leaving the auditorium.

When the guys finished the last song, they ran off the stage and started grabbing gear as if they were preparing to leave. Brian had to remind the guys that there were still a few obligations that needed to be fulfilled.

“Whoa, hey, guys, don’t forget that we still have the fans with the backstage passes.”

“Shit.” AJ said as he threw his bag back down on the floor. AJ always had the flair for putting things into words what others were thinking.

The backstage fans started filing in. Brian, Howie and AJ sat back on the couch and drank their bottles of water. Kevin was on his cellphone with a friend. Each of them were secretly praying that the fans would just go away. They really didn’t have the time for something like this tonight.

The fans that were backstage seemed to be especially annoying to the guys tonight. A group of girls gathered around the couch and started asking the guys how Nick was and what was wrong with him. AJ was starting to answer the girls when Brian cut him off, Brian knew that anything that was about to come out of AJ’s mouth would not be pleasant or needed to be heard by young girls.

“We know just about as much as you guys do right now. Once we are finished here, we can go to the hospital and check on him.” Brian wished that everyone would leave. It was hard to be polite when you are so worried about someone.

Brian didn’t hardly talk to the girls that had gathered around the couch. He was too deep in thought about Nick worrying about what was wrong with him this time. Brian was hoping that it was only that Nick had been pushing himself too much and not something more serious. Nick was wanting so desperately wanting to be normal again that Brian was convinced that Nick had finally pushed himself too far.

Thankfully, after over an hour, the stage manager clapped his hands together and told the people that it was time for them to leave the guys.

The words were barely out of the manager’s mouth when AJ jumped off the couch and grabbed his gear and was beating tracks to the back door to leave. All of the guys had driven themselves to the auditorium so they would be leaving separately. Brian asked Howie if he would be going to the hospital.

“Of course I am, do you want to ride with me or something?” Howie asked Brian.

“No, I think I will drive myself that way if I want to stay longer I can and also give Jess a ride back to get Nick’s car.” Brian replied.

“Yeah, that does make sense to me. See ya there.” Howie said as he was walking towards the door. He flung his jacket over his shoulder.

“Okay, you know where he is, don’t you?” Brian called out to Howie.

Howie just waived back at Brian without turning.


Chapter 34