Chapter Six

“Hi sleepyhead. I’ve been waiting for you to wake up.” Jess smiled at Nick.

Nick opened his mouth to talk, but nothing came out. He cleared his throat and tried again. “Where am I?” Nick’s voice was barely audible.

“You are at Tampa Bay Hospital, you were in a car accident.”

Jess looked into Nick’s eyes to see if anything was registering. Nick licked his dry lips and tried to speak again. “What happened?” His voice was still weak, it was hard to hear him.

“You went out for a drive, to clear your mind, like you usually do, except that you were going a little fast and a truck pulled out in front of you, he ran a red light and hit you on your side of the car.” Jess explained.

Nick opened his eyes slowly and turned his head gingerly and looked at the equipment that was by his bed. He turned and looked at Jessica. He appeared to look her over. He licked his lips again and then cleared his throat. “Was anyone with me?” he asked hoarsely.

“No, you were in the car alone.”

Nick closed his eyes again. Jess could tell his eyes were moving under the lids. “Are you thirsty?” Jess asked.

Nick managed to nod his head slightly. “I’ll press the nurse button and see what we can do for you. How are you feeling?” Jess was hoping he wasn’t in a lot of pain.

Nick didn’t answer right away. It seemed to be that he was accessing his body. His response was limited. “My head hurts and my side and stomach.”

The nurse came into the room. “Yes? Oh, I see we are awake now. How are you doing?”

Nick smiled weakly. It wasn’t even a smile. “K.” that was all he could manage to say.

“Could he have some ice chips or something? His mouth is dry.” Jess asked the nurse.

“I think we could do that for him. I’ll be right back.”

Nick closed his eyes. He was so tired, he had never felt this tired in his life. He drifted off to sleep. By the time the nurse came back with his ice, Nick was already sleeping. She put the cup on the bedstand and used the opportunity to check his vitals again and the IV’s. She smiled as she walked out of the room.

Jess decided to call Bob and Jane and Brian and let them know that Nick was out of the coma. She walked down the hall towards a lounge. She looked at the clock and saw that it was past 11:30 p.m. She hesitated on calling Nick’s parents because they would be sleeping. “I should call them and wake them up anyway, I would want to know that my child was getting better.” Jess thought to herself as she dialed their phone number.

“Hello,” it was Bob Carter that answered the phone. He did not sound as if he had been woken up.

“Hi, Bob, this is Jess.” Jess waiting for a response from him before she continued.

“Yes, Jess, Hi. How is Nick, any change?” Bob asked anxiously.

“Yes, that’s why I am calling. Nick finally woke up about an hour ago! It was good to see him awake. He is pretty weak, but he seems to be fine.” Jess excitedly told Nick’s father.

“Oh, that is good news. So there doesn’t seem to be any brain injuries?” Bob asked.

“No, he did have a problem the first time he woke up, he didn’t act like himself at all, but the doctor gave him something to put him back to sleep and when he woke up the next time, he was fine.”

“So he can move, I mean, his spine isn’t injured?” Nick’s dad was anxious for the news.

Jess stopped before she answered, that was the one thing that Nick didn’t mention and she didn’t ask. She tried to recall quickly whether she saw his legs move or not. She must have because she would have remembered if she didn’t.”

“I guess, we didn’t really talk about that and Nick didn’t say anything about his legs. He said his head, side and stomach hurt.” Jess hoped that this would satisfy Bob.

“Oh, that’s good news. I’m glad you called. Is there anything you need?” Nick’s dad asked.

“No, I’m fine. So I’ll see you tomorrow?” Jess asked.

“Count on it, we will be there sometime after 9:00. Thanks again for the good news. Bye.”

“Goodnight.” Jess replied and then hung the phone up.

She pulled another thirty-five cents out of her pocket and dialed Brian’s number. His answering machine picked up the call. That was not unusual for the guys to do that, they were constantly getting calls from girls that discover their numbers. She listened to the dull message on his machine: “Hi, you have reached 497-6695, please leave your name and message at the tone, thanks.”

“Wildcat, are you there, this is Jess.” Jessica had to use the code word so that Brian would pick up his phone. All of the guys had code names when they were screening their calls. Nick’s was Gooch. What a stupid nickname, Jess thought to herself.

“Yeah,” Brian answered. He sounded like he was asleep.

“Hey, it’s me, Jess. I wanted to let you know how Nick was doing.” Jess waiting to see if Brian was more alert.

“Oh, hi. How is he?”

“Much better, he’s come out of the coma about an hour ago. I just called his parents to let them know. Oh, Brian, it was so good to talk to Nick again. I was so scared.” Jess poured her heart out to Brian. She repeated the same story to him that she shared with Nick’s parents.

“Can he move at all?” Brian asked.

Jessica was starting to get scared. That seemed to be the only question she could not answer. She couldn’t remember if he did move his legs. She knew that he was moving his arms.

“Yeah, I guess so. I was so happy to hear him talk, I didn’t really notice him moving his legs. He complained that his head, stomach and side hurt so he must be okay.” Jess answered with a worried tone in her voice.

“Oh, don’t worry, I’m sure he is okay, you know Nick...” Brian’s voice trailed off. “I plan on stopping in again tomorrow. Kev will be coming along with me. Is there anything you want me to bring along?” Brian offered.

“No, I’ll be okay.” Jess really needed a change of clothes, but she felt silly asking.

“You don’t sound too sure of yourself, what do you need?” Brian asked, “I told you anything you need, I can get you.”

“It’s silly, or I guess stupid, could you grab on of your tee shirts or something, I just need to change, I don’t know what I was thinking when I went home with you the other day.” Jess talked quickly, she was embarrassed.

“Not a problem, and you were thinking the same thing I was thinking, that Nick would be okay and coming home quickly. We will take care of you, remember, we’re family.” Brian reminded her what all the guys in the band say. They are a close knit group and watch out for one another.

“Thanks Brian.” Jess sighed.

“You’re welcome. Hey, give Nick a big squeeze on his foot and tell him it’s from me. I would tell you to give him a kiss, but well, I would rather do that in person. It’s more meaningful.” Brian laughed.

“Will do, Brian. Bye.” Jess laughed.

“C-ya later.” Brian hung the phone up.

Jessica walked back to Nick’s room after she stopped at the pantry on the floor to grab a cup of coffee. As she approached the door to Nick’s room, there were two girls dressing hospital garb talking to the security guard.

“But we’re from housekeeping and we need to go into that room.” Jess could tell right away that they did not work for the hospital, that they were fans.

“Where are your id badges then?” the guard asked impatiently.

“Uh, we forgot to put them on before we left home.” the girls said in unison.

“Sorry, no id, no entry. Have a nice night ladies and you better leave the hospital before I have you removed for trespassing.”

Jessica was walking towards the door and the girls were looking straight at her. Their mouths dropped open when Jess walked past them and opened the door to go in. Privately, Jess laughed inside. It was great to be able to do that.

Nick was still sleeping when she sat down and turned the television on. He started to stir as she sat down. Jess muted the volume on the TV thinking that was bothering Nick.

Nick softly moaned. She looked over at him to see if there was a problem. He opened his eyes slowly.

“Hey babe.” Jess softly spoke to him.

Nick turned his head slowly towards Jess. He could smell the coffee and that’s what woke him.

“Is the TV bothering you? I’ll turn it off if it is.” Jess offered.

Nick shook his head slowly. He swallowed and tried to form words to talk. “It’s k.” He spoke very quietly and you could tell how weak he was.

“Did you want some of your ice now?” Jess looked at the cup. It was filled with water, the ice had melted.

Nick nodded.

“I’ll go get you some fresh ice, be right back.” Jess got up quickly. She set her coffee cup on the bedstand. She hurried to get back to the room before he drifted off to sleep again.

Nick watched her walk out of the room. He was still having a hard time remembering what happened to him. The last thing he remembered was playing basketball with Brian. He could not remember the car accident. As he laid there, he checked out his body mentally. The first thing he did was run his tongue over his teeth, as if to do an inventory to see if they were still there. He noticed that his tongue hurt to use.

The next thing Nick did was move his arms and looked at the cuts and scrapes on them. He knew his side and stomach hurt, but he didn’t know why. He looked down at the foot of his bed. It was then that he noticed that he didn’t have any feelings in his legs. He tried to move his feet but there wasn’t any response at all. He took his hand and touched his thighs, he could feel them with his hand but his legs didn’t feel anything. “Oh my god, what is going on?” Nick thought to himself. “This is not real, I don’t understand this.”

“I’m back.” Jess announced when she came back. She looked at Nick and could see the worry on his face. “What’s wrong, Nicky?” Jess asked.

“How am I hurt?” Nick was barely able to get the words out. Jess had to strain to hear the words.

“Um, first, I want to take some ice,” Jess tried to use that time to think of how to explain his injuries. Nick opened his mouth to take some ice. All Jess could think of was a baby bird with it’s mouth open.

“When you were hit, your head hit the steering wheel and the car door, and you were in a coma for about a day and a half. The accident happened on Saturday afternoon, it is now Monday morning. The doctors were concerned that because of the swelling on the brain that there could be some brain damage.” Jess looked at Nick to see if he was understanding. Nick kept looking at her taking in all of the information. She continued, “You broke all of the ribs on your left side, which would account for the pain on your side and one of the ribs punctured your left lung. They had to put a tube into the lung to drain the fluids from it and to open it back up. Then they had to take you to surgery yesterday morning because you had some internal bleeding. You had some cuts on your liver that they fixed.” Jess did not want to offer any more information. She was hoping to skip the part about his spine hoping that there wasn’t a problem with that.

“What about my legs?’” Nick asked quietly.

“What do you mean?” Jess knew what was coming and she was afraid of getting emotional, afraid of concerning Nick.

“I can’t feel them.” Nick look scared.

“You can’t? That um, that could be temporary. Dr. Gaynor said that you bruised your spine in the accident. It must still be swollen, I mean you can move your arms so it must be a matter of time before your legs will be working. You’ve been through so much Nick and it hasn’t been that long. I’m sure we’ll know more in the morning.” Jess tried desperately to soothe Nick. She kissed him on the cheek.

Nick closed his eyes. It looked like he accepted that idea for now. Jess was hoping that what she said was true. “It has to be true, Nick would not be the same if he couldn’t dance, perform.” Jess thought to herself.

The late news was on and Jess turned the volume up a little when a picture of Nick was on the TV. She listened intently to the newscaster:

Nick Carter of the Backstreet Boys is in critical but stable condition following a two car fatal accident near his home in Florida Saturday afternoon. Witnesses say that a pickup truck driven by Wayne Henderson of Plant City ran a red light and slammed into the vehicle driven by Carter. The driver of the truck died at the scene. A hospital spokesperson stated that Carter had underwent surgery to stem internal bleeding and he remains in a coma.

Jessica knew that the information the television provided was old, Nick was out of the coma now and looked pretty good. Hopefully tomorrow will bring more good news for a change. She dialed up a few channels and stopped on MTV. They were playing the latest BSB music video. Jess’s heart skipped a beat watching Nicky dancing. He was so fun to watch. He practiced so hard on perfecting the moves to that video. He was having so much fun doing it.

When the video ended, the V-jay was updating Nick’s condition:

Nick Carter was injured in a fatal two-car accident near his home in Tampa, Florida. He was injured when a driver of a pickup truck ran a red light and hit Carter’s vehicle on the driver’s side. The driver of the truck was killed instantly. Carter was transported to Tampa Bay Hospital and was reported to be in a coma earlier, but a hospital spokesperson reports that he is coming out of the coma and is responding to questions. We will keep you updated on his condition as details unfold.

They showed a picture of the hospital with the crowd that had gathered and was keeping a vigil. Then there was a clip of Brian and Nick’s parents leaving the hospital.

Brian Littrell and Bob and Jane Carter left the hospital early Sunday afternoon. Littrell is a close friend of Nick Carter’s and was keeping vigil after the accident.

Jess could tell that Brian was nervous walking from the hospital. In the video clip she could hear fans screaming. She felt sickened to think that at a time like that girls were still stalking the guys.