Chapter Nine

When they got off on the fourth floor, they saw that there were five girls standing with the security guard trying to get into Nick’s room. The girls stared in disbelief as they watched Brian and Kevin walk past them with Jessica. Jess pointed to her badge around her neck in a discreet manner to clue the guard in on her privileges without having to stop.

They found Nick sleeping once inside the room. Brian and Kevin quietly found a chair and sat down on one side of the bed so that Jess could be with Nick on the other side.

Nick had the television on so at least they had something to do besides stare at Nick while he was sleeping. The station was on MTV and by coincidence, they were showing a Backstreet Boys video. Jess watched Nick on the TV dancing to their new song, I Want it That Way which had been released recently. She wondered how long it would be before Nick was able to perform again, or if he would be able to perform again.

“That was a lot of fun with the fans in the background.” Kevin said softly. “Nicky was so shy around them, I think he was kinda afraid that he would get sucked into the crowd even in a controlled environment where we were filming. Some bad memories take a long time to go away.”

Kevin was talking about the time they were on tour in Orlando. Some fans got over excited and Nick bent over on stage to take some stuff the girls had held up for him. When he reached out, someone grabbed his arm and pulled him into the audience. It didn’t take much time for the security to respond and grab Nick and pull him to safety and back onto the stage. Except for getting a good bruise on his butt, Nick was okay and a little shaken.

Nick moaned softly. He opened his eyes and looked at Brian and Kevin sitting beside him. He smiled.

“Hey Nick, how you feeling?” Kevin asked.

“Sore.” was all that Nick managed to say.

Jessica leaned over and gave Nick a kiss on the cheek. His skin felt hot. Jess looked at him closer and noticed his face was flushed.

“Are you warm, Nick?” Jess asked.

“No, cold.” Nick whispered.

Jessica pulled the covers up to get him warmer. This was the answer she was hoping Nick would have told her, he was shivering and she knew that he was chilled.

“I think I’m gonna call your nurse to come in and take a look at you, I think you may be running a temp.” Jessica prayed that her assumptions were wrong.

Jess pressed the call button and the nurse entered the room almost instantly. She was holding a syringe which meant that she was planning on coming in before Jess had hit the call button.

“ESP.” Brian commented.

“I was coming in to give Nick his IV meds, the doctor ordered a change in the steroids we were giving him.” the nurse stated as she was pushing the medication into the IV line. Was there something Nick needs?” she looked up at Nick briefly.

“I thought Nick looked a little flushed and he feels hot to me. Nick says he’s cold and he was shivering too. Am I being over-concerned or what?” Jess ran the words together because she was so nervous.

“Okay, when I’m done with his IV I’ll come back and check his temperature.” the nurse said as she was still pushing the IV. “Nick are you comfortable as far as pain?” she asked.

Nick made an attempt to shrug his shoulders. He didn’t know if he was comfortable or not, his chest hurt and his stomach. Nothing really changed as far as pain since he had been awake from his coma.

“Would you like something for the pain?” the nurse asked.

Nick nodded. He didn’t like getting pain medication because it made him so sleepy, but everything they had given him so far made him tired anyway.

The nurse left and was back with a thermometer and a syringe for pain medication. She took the thermometer and inserted it into Nick’s left ear. A beep went off almost instantly. She looked at the reading and reset it and tried it again. The beep went off quickly again.

“What it is?” Jess wondered.

“It’s one hundred four point two.” she replied.

Jessica could tell that she was concerned. Nick was burning up, the fever was much too high which could mean that he was fighting an infection of some type.

She gave Nick his pain medication through the IV line. No one talked in the room while she was working. When she finished, she left the room.

Nick stared at the television sleepily. The medication was starting to slowly work. Pretty soon he would be asleep again. He was trying to fight that part of the medicine but was losing the battle. His eyelids were getting heavy.

“That’s okay buddy,” Brian talked to Nick. “Go ahead and rest, you need it.”

Nick accepted Brian’s suggestion without question. As he drifted off to sleep he was startled awake by a stabbing pain in his arm. He opened his eyes to find a lab technician beside him drawing more blood.

“Ohgod.” Nick muttered. He was getting sick of all the tests that they were doing. It seemed like an endless cycle of x-rays and lab tests. When were they going to stop this shit. Nick thought to himself. He knew that they were only doing this for the good of his health, but enough was enough. If he could get up out of the bed, he would and walk away just to escape all of it.

“I’m sorry, did I hurt you?” the tech asked Nick.

“No, I’m just tired.” Nick spoke up. Jessica was kind of startled at how much more clearer his voice was this time and it was more than two words.

“Why are they taking more blood, I thought they were happy with doing a blood draw once a day for his iron levels.” Jessica was trying to defend Nick since it seemed he was getting tired of the whole thing.

“The doctor ordered this test a little bit ago. I’ll have his nurse come in if you have any questions.” the tech replied as she took the vial of blood and shook it and then labeled it and put it back into her cart.

Just as the tech walked out of the room the door was opened wide and the portable x-ray machine came into the room. The x-ray technician was an overly friendly man who cheerfully announced that he needed to take a picture of Nick’s chest.

“Oh god not this again.” Nick hated having that x-ray taken because of how they had to position him and move him. His ribs were still healing but moving was painful. It hurt to take a deep breath when he would want to speak up.

“Sorry dude, doctors orders.” The tech smiled as he got the film and placed it behind Nick’s back.

“I need you people to step out into the hall, for your safety.”

Jessica, Brian and Kevin walked out into the hallway while the technician took the films.

For your safety, Nick thought to himself, what about my safety?

As he was enduring the x-rays, Jess, Kevin and Brian stood out in the hallway across from Nick’s room. Nick’s nurse walked over to them to tell them what was going on.

“I called his doctor after I saw that his temperature had gone up and he wanted some blood tests and x-rays to rule out a few things.”

“What does he suspect?” Brian asked.

“A rise in his temperature could indicate many things such as an infection, pneumonia, anything. He wants to look at the tests before he can determine what is going on.” she replied. “I will make sure you know as soon as we know.”

The x-ray tech wheeled the machine out of the room. Jess wished she could ask him what the films looked like but knew that he would not tell her. The group walked back into Nick’s room only to find him laying there with his face distorted in pain.

“Is there something I can get you?” Jess asked Nick.

All Nick could do was shake his head. It hurt to breathe. He was blaming it on the x-rays not knowing that something terrible was going on in his body. He coughed and moaned after he coughed.

Brian and Kevin decided that it would be best for them to leave so that Nick could get some rest. They each said goodbye to Nick either by grabbing his shoulder or messing his hair.

Jess got up and hugged Brian and then Kevin and thanked them for coming up and staying with them for awhile.

“Call us and let us know.” Kevin said as they were leaving.

“See you later.” Brian smiled at Jess and Nick.