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Chapter Twenty-Four

Chapter Thirty-Seven

Nick took a deep breath in and sighed loudly. Jess looked up at him, worried.

“What’s wrong now?” She asked.

“Nothing, I guess I am just a little antzy, that’s all. It’s been a long two weeks and I hate having to wait for the damn doc so I can be discharged.” Nick replied.

“I know, but, you know how doctor’s schedules are. He’ll be in here soon, trust me, it’s not like you are gonna be stuck in here forever, is it?” Jess rubbed his back as she spoke.

“I’m just afraid that he’ll come in here and change his mind. I think I have done a good job at acting well rested and shit.” Nick stated.

“Acting? Nick, you are supposed to be honest about this stuff, how in the world would you ever get better if you play games all the time?” Jess questioned him.

Nick laughed, “I was just teasing you, sorry.”

“Hey, that is one thing I never want to hear come from you is teasing about your health, do you understand me?” Jess was looking visibly annoyed.

“Easy there, hey, I am really sorry, I didn’t mean to upset you.” Nick tried to smooth things over with Jess.

“Just please, don’t ever make fun of stuff like that, I mean, geeze, Nick sometimes you can be so stupid about shit.” Jess said quietly.

Nick walked over to the window and looked at the street. Jess is right, Nick thought, I really shouldn’t make fun of my health, afterall, she has been with me through the worst of it. There was an awkward silence in the room. Neither wished to speak at the moment, both thinking about the events that had happened in their lives up to this moment.

Thankfully, the silence was interrupted by a knock on the door.

“Door’s open, come in.” Nick said.

Dr. Davidson appeared through the doorway. He had Nick’s chart in his hands. “Hi, Nick, how are you feeling today?” The doctor asked as he walked towards Nick.

“Pretty good, thanks.” Nick was getting so sick of that question.

“Well, it looks like you are fit to go home, what do you think?” Dr. Davidson asked as he thumbed through Nick’s chart.

“I’ve been ready for the past week.” Nick responded.

“Well, we wanted to make sure that you were ready to go home before we released you, I would hate to see you coming in again, I have seen that you have a tendancy to push yourself a wee bit too far.” The doctor stated.

“Yeah, I guess, I’m just a little anxious to get better and get on with my life.” Nick sounded like a child that had been scolded as he appologised to the doctor.

“Well, don’t appologize to me, I think this has been a pretty valuable lesson to you, don’t you think? You must remember to take it a little more easier. For every time you put yourself back in here, you take almost 5 steps back in your recovery. You were involved in a very serious car accident in June and the body takes almost a year to completely heal from the type of injuries you sustained. To put it quite simply, you are very lucky to be alive.” Dr. Davidson said.

The final statement stung like someone had stabbed Nick in the heart. He never at one time ever felt as if he could have or would have died throughout his recovery. He thought that the doctor was just being arrogant.

“It’s true, Nick, everything that the doctor is telling you is the truth, that is why we want you to slow down and take everything one day at a time. We could have lost you.” Jess could see the look in Nick’s eyes when the doctor told him that he was very lucky to be alive. She felt that it was necessary to let him know that this was true. Nick was being such a risk taker lately and seemed to not car about his actions lately by pushing himself to do more than what he was able to deal with.

“If you promise me that you will rest, and absolutely no concerts for the next four months, and absolutely no rigorous scheduling, I will allow you to be discharged right now, but if you fail to keep these orders, Nick, you will be finding yourself right back here again and again and again. Your body has been stressed from the accident and you are not giving yourself a chance to recover. I am serious when I tell you that if you try and pick up doing another concert before at least waiting for three months, you will be back here again.” Dr. Davidson looked Nick directly into the eyes when he talked.

Nick’s mind was racing, how could he make the guys wait for four months before they resumed the tour. They were just starting out to tour for the Millenium album and that had been postphoned since June. If they were to postphone this thing again after trying to restart the tour, the sales would never be there and they might as well not even bother singing ever again. Nick was trying to think of a way out of this one.

“Ah, yeah, I understand you completely.” Nick lied to the doctor, he wanted to be discharged and have the matter never brought up again.

“Good. I will leave some instructions as well as some prescriptions that you should have filled too.” Dr. Davidson turned and left the room.

Jess put her hands on Nick’s shoulders. “There, now you can go home and relax in your own bed.”

“Thanks, but that wasn’t what I was hoping to hear.” Nick replied.

“Hey, you heard what the doctor told you, you are to be taking it easy for another three to four months. Didn’t you listen to a word he said?”

“Yeah, I heard him.” Nick replied. He was sure that he would do what he wanted to do and no one could tell him what he could do. It was unreasonable to think otherwise.

Jess could tell by looking at Nick that he was planning on doing something he shouldn’t be. She couldn’t monitor every single thing that he wanted to do. Her thoughts were distracted when the door suddenly opened and Nick’s nurse entered.

“Okay, I have three scrips that doctor would like you to have filled and make sure that you take these as directed.” She held them out for Nick to take.

Nick took the papers and looked at each one. A puzzled look came over his face.

“What the heck are these things for? He’s got Prozac, Vallium and Restoril. I would think I wouldn’t need these anymore once I was discharged.” Nick asked the nurse.

“Well, you have been on these since you were admitted, and we don’t want to stop this suddenly. This would be a shock to your system.” The nurse explained to Nick.

“We will get them filled, and it will be okay.” Jess answered for Nick.

Nick didn’t look particularly pleased with Jess at the present moment. He was not planning on taking anything once he was discharged.

“Well, that’s all we need. I will call the front desk and get a wheelchair sent up so you can go.” The nurse stated.

“Hey, can we cut the wheelchair bit, I mean it is kinda embarrassing, and I am sure that there will be some type of media hanging around out there.” Nick pleaded with the nurse.

“Nope, hospital rules, that is how all patients are discharged. I will have someone here in a second, okay?” The nurse turned and left without waiting for a response.

Nick looked at Jess. “This is insane, what the hell are we waiting for anyway? Let’s just get out of here.”

Jess nodded and followed Nick out of the room. They had to figure out how they could walk past the nurses station without anyone noticing Nick walking by. They turned around and went into his room again. Nick grabbed a basket of flowers that had been sent to him. He figured if he held it up by his face they would not notice him walking by. He decided to give it a shot.

“Are you ready?” Nick smiled a sheepish grin.

“You lead, I will follow.” Jess replied.

With that, Nick picked up the plant and walked out the door. He picked up the pace when they walked past the nurses station. They were busy answering calls from other patients and talking to a group of girls on the other side of the station. Nick knew that the girls were trying to see him. He got a little nervous for a second when he and Jess filed past them. Thankfully, they got to the elevators. Jess pushed the down button and didn’t speak a word to Nick while they waited for the elevator. They both seemed to be holding their breath waiting for the elevator to come up.

Once they got on the elevator, they both started to laugh, like they had gotten away with the best plot ever invented.

“That was fun!” Nick laughed as he held the flowers up to still hide his face.

“Yeah it was, wasn’t it?” Jess laughed.

There were a man and a woman on the elevator and they looked at Jess and Nick, neither one of the people knew who he was.

As the elevator stopped on the lobby floor, Jess looked at Nick.

“Are you ready for the next step in this?” Jess asked Nick.

“I will never be ready for this, but we have to anyway.” Nick still hung on to the flower basket as if it were protecting him from harm.

As they walked out into the lobby, Jess noticed instantly that the reporter that had been there when she and Brian had left that one day was there. She grabbed Nick’s arm and pulled him close.

“Hey, watch out for this, she is scoping the whole damn area.” Jess whispered quietly.

“Okay.” Nick replied as he kept his head down hoping to elude this woman. He was wearing a ball cap and a tee shirt and blue jeans, he was hoping that would be enough to have them look the other way.

Jess happened to notice the gold chains hanging outside of Nick’s tee shirt. Those were always a dead giveaway.

“Nick, slip those inside your shirt, quick.” Jess whispered.

“Huh? What are you talking about?” Nick asked back.

Jess reached up and took the necklaces and slid them inside his shirt. She was hoping that no one noticed the action. Nick’s necklaces were so big and one of a kind that it would be easily spotted by someone that was looking for him.

The reporter was watching the crowds come and go, she was scrutinizing everybody that entered and left the building. Nick felt for sure that they would be discovered in a matter of seconds.

They made it to the front entrance, and Jess couldn’t walk fast enough to elude the reporter in the lobby. As they walked out the front door, however, they were met with a group of paparazzi and reporters who immediately saw Nick and started up with the cameras and shouting questions at him. The reporter in the lobby saw the commotion and hurried out the door after them.

The reporters were shouting out questions at Nick from all sides. Nick couldn’t distinguish one voice from another and the questions seemed to mingle together and not make sense. He really didn’t want to take the time out and answer any questions anyway, so that worked out well.

Nick and Jess tried to force their way through the crowd of reporters. The more Nick and Jess pushed, the more the reporters seemed to push back and try to keep them from leaving. Jess could feel the panic rise in her body.

“Hey, Nick, what were you in here for and most importantly, how do you feel now?” A reporter yelled out from the crowd.

Nick tried to avoid the question entirely. As they tried to push past the crowd, they found that they could not move away from them. Nick decided that they had no choice but to stay and answer questions until they were rescued by hospital security.

“I am feeling fine now, thanks for asking.” Nick replied to no particular reporter.

“Is it true that you were admitted for a drug overdose?” A reporter yelled from the back of the crowd.

Nick looked at Jess and chuckled. “Ah, no, no drug overdose, sorry, that is a new one to me.”

“So what exactly were you admitted for then?” Another reporter shouted.

“Um, I was hospitalized for exhaustion. I was pushing myself too hard to go on tour.” Nick quietly stated. The words outloud hit him hard, he was feeling like he had let his friends down. He was making a mental note not to allow his health to jepordize their careers any longer.

“So you are okay now?” A female reporter asked.

“Yeah, I am 100 percent better.” Nick lied to the crowd. At least he thought he was telling the truth, but not the whole truth. He didn’t think there was anything more wrong with him and that he could lead his regular normal lifestyle.

Thankfully, the security guards came to the rescue before any more questions were asked. Nick and Jess were escorted over to the durango that sat in the circular drive near the entrance. Nick didn’t hesitate to climb into the driver’s side. Jess went ahead and sat in the passenger seat. Pictures of them were being taken from all sides. It was a sea of blinding flashes.

Chapter 38