Chapter Forty-Eight
A restless Nick tossed the foam basketball up and down
catching it while he laid in his hospital bed. Brian was in
the shower, getting ready for the doctors rounds.
When Brian came out of the shower, it distracted Nick and he
dropped the ball and watched it roll under Brian’s bed.
“Oh, way to go, ace!” Brian groaned as he bent over and
fished the ball out from under his bed. He tossed the ball
back to Nick, hitting him in the chest.
“Thanks,” Nick replied.
“What’s wrong? Why are you acting so down?” Brian asked as
he settled back into his bed, pulling the covers up to his
chest.
“I know damn well they’re gonna let you go home today and
I’m gonna be stuck in here all by myself. I feel fine, but I
know they won’t let me leave,” Nick sputtered.
“Nick, now, come on. You’ve only been technically here with
us for only four days, they want to make sure everything is
okay with you, I hate to see you go home only to have
something pop up that neither you or Jess can’t handle,”
Brian replied.
Nick just shook his head. He didn’t want to listen to
reason, he knew deep down what Brian was saying was making
sense, but he only wanted to hear him agree that keeping him
in the hospital another day would be extremely stupid.
“Hey, there is a question I’ve been dying to ask you, Nick,”
Brian said, turning the volume down on the TV.
“Shoot,” Nick replied.
“Why were you taking that valium in the first place, I mean
it was an accidental overdose, wasn’t it? You know, the
night of the concert?” As Brian asked, he looked Nick’s face
over to see if he could detect what was going on with him.
“Um...well...how do I explain this?” Nick fished for the
right words. “Well, when we started up practicing again, I
realized how out of shape I was and how hard it was to keep
up with you guys and not get so tired. I found out that the
pills loosened me up and things flowed so easy. I started
taking two pills at a time and I found that it worked out
pretty good. I guess my mistake was the night of the show. I
honestly can’t remember if I took a couple of extra to
ensure that I would do okay onstage or if I just forgot, but
evidentially what I took was too much.”
“Nick, it almost took your life,” Brian replied solemnly.
“I’m so sorry for all of this,” Nick replied, feeling the
tears stinging his eyes. “I wasn’t thinking, I swear I’ll
never do anything that stupid ever again.”
“It’s okay, Nick, don’t beat yourself up over this,” Brian
responded.
Seeing the tears in Nick’s eyes, Brian got out of his bed
and went over to Nick and gave him a brotherly hug. It was
the one of many that had been exchanged over the past few
days. Brian was so happy to have Nick back.
“Oh, boy, leave you two alone for a night and look what
happens!” AJ snickered as he entered the room.
Brian stood up quickly.
“Ha, ha, funny AJ,” Nick said and whipped the basketball at
AJ, hitting him squarely in the side of the head, knocking
off his baseball hat.
“Hey now! It’s just a joke!” AJ replied as he grabbed the
ball and fired it back at Nick, hitting his IV bag on the
pole, nearly knocking it over.
“Oh, good one!” Nick snorted.
“Guys! Come on now,” Brian intervened.
“Yeah Nick, take heart here, I only have one good arm,” AJ
sputtered, pointing to the deep teal colored cast that ran
from his hand to just below his under arm.
“Wuss,” Nick remarked.
Brian narrowed his eyes at Nick. “I said enough!”
Nick folded his arms across his chest. “God, you’d think we
were on the tour bus or something.”
Before anyone could add to Nick’s remark, Brian’s doctor
knocked on the outside of the open door.
“Hi Brian, how are you feeling this morning?” Dr. Singer
asked, clipboard in his hand.
“He feels lousy, he needs to stay here for at least another
week, maybe two,” Nick spoke up for Brian.
Brian narrowed his eyes at Nick. “I feel great, Dr. Singer.”
Dr. Singer approached Brian’s bed and set the clipboard down
on the bedstand. He started pulling the covers back. “I’d
like to check and see how that area where the spleen was is healing up.”
As he started to press down on the area, Brian took a painful breath in.
“Hurts when I do that?” Dr. Singer asked.
All Brian could manage to do at that point was nod yes. It
hurt so much it literally took his breath away.
The doctor started writing some notes in Brian’s chart. “I’m
going to order some labs and an ultrasound, you haven’t had
anything to eat or drink this morning yet, have you?”
“No,” Brian answered quietly.
“What do you think’s going on now, Dr. Singer?” Nick asked.
“I’m not sure, but I would like to run a few tests before I make any decisions,” the doctor
answered. He patted Brian on the shoulder and told him not
to worry.
“Shoot, Bri, looks like you’re gonna be here for another day
anyway,” Nick tried to sound consoling.
Brian sighed. “Yeah, I guess you got your wish, Nick.”
“Hey now, I never wished for that, man,” Nick defended.
“I know Nick, I know,” Brian sadly responded.
Within ten minutes of the doctor leaving, a girl from the
lab came into the room.
“Hi, I’m here to draw some blood from you,” an obviously
nervous young girl stated.
Brian just nodded. He was getting so tired of having needle
pokes done, he just wanted it done and overwith. He watched
AJ pace around the room looking at the flowers on the table
while the girl set about doing her work. Once she was done a
male orderly entered the room with a wheel chair.
“Which one of you guys is Mr. Littrell?”
Nick snickered and gestured at Brian. “He is.”
“I’m here to take you down to radiology for your ultrasound,
you ready to go?”
“As ready as I can be, I guess,” Brian said as he stood up
and slipped his robe on before setting down into the wheel
chair.
“See you in a few, Bri,” AJ and Nick said in unison.
Chapter 49
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