“I think that everyone does.” Brian said from next to him. They had been at the hospital for almost two hours and hadn’t heard anything about Megan. Everyone was worried. The whole Carter family along with the four additional Backstreet Boys and all of the girls had been sitting in the enclosed space since they had reached the hospital and were in desperate need of good news.
“I can’t believe that this is happening.” BJ said from the other side of Nick. She had been attempting to calm him down and had succeeded to some degree. “When is the doctor going to come out? You’d think that two hours would be enough to know if she was OK.”
As if taking a cue the doctor came through the door of the waiting room just then. “Is this the party with Megan Bradford?” She asked.
“Yes!” Everyone said in unison. She smiled.
“Who’s her guardian?” Jane and Bob stood up and walked over to the woman. “Mr. and Mrs. Carter?” They nodded. “If we could step outside for a few minutes I’d like to talk to you in private.” They agreed and followed her out into the hall and shut the door behind themselves.
“This isn’t good.” Nick started. “If she was OK, the doctor would be able to tell us the news together. Something has to be wrong.”
“Frack, chill. She’s gonna be just fine. She’s probably just in shock.” Kevin tried to calm his younger friend’s fears, but in reality he, along with everyone else in the room, was just as worried.
After a few minutes of silence Bob and Jane re-entered the room. “How is she?” Kaytee asked, talking for the first time since she had entered the room.
“Well, she is still out. But she’s stable. They are going to let us visit her. No more then five at a time though. They think that if she hears our voices she may wake up sooner. If she’s not awake tomorrow then they will let more people visit at a time. She’s looking good though.”
“So she’s OK? And we can go see her?” Nick asked, standing up. Jane nodded with a smile.
“OK, who’s going with Nick?” Brian asked.
“How about you kids go?” Bob said. “I know that you are all really worried about her, so I think that you should go first.”
“OK, let’s go.” BJ said, patting Nick on the shoulder before walking past him and into the hall, Leslie, Angel and Aaron right behind her. Nick slowly followed. They turned the corner and saw a guy coming out of Megan’s room. “Hey, what the hell were you doing in there?”
“What’s it to you, little girl?”
“The fact that she’s my friend, has something to do with it.”
“Sorry, but I’m not talking.”
“Well, you’re gonna talking to me.” Nick spoke up.
“And who the hell are you?”
“I’m Megan’s boyfriend, what the hell were you doing in her room? The doctor didn’t tell you that you were allowed to see her.” Nick took a close look at him. Dark brown hair, fairly tall. “Wait a second.... Angel, Aaron, go get Olivia. Leslie, go get a nurse” Scared, the twins did as told, and Leslie headed to the nurses’ station.
“What the hell? Whatever... I’m leaving man.”
“I don’t think so. I’ve got someone that I want you to meet.”
“I’m not interested.” He turned to walk away but Nick wasn’t going to let him get away. Not without a fight at least.
Nick lunged after him and grabbed him by the arm. “No, you don’t understand. You really need to meet this person.” Before the other guy knew what was going on Nick had both of his arms behind his back and he was in an amount of pain.
A few second later Olivia was walking down the hall towards the two teenage boys, Nick’s back to her. “Nick, Aaron said that you wanted me to...” The sentence died on her lips as Nick turned around to reveal the other young man. “Oh my.... That’s.... That’s...”
“You recognize him?” Nick asked. All she could do was nod as she took a few steps back. Just then Leslie came back with a nurse.
“What’s going on here? Is there a problem Mr. Carter?”
“Miss, this man was in Megan’s room. He won’t tell me what he was doing, but I don’t think he was here to make sure that she was all right. Olivia recognizes him as the guy who gave Megan the death threat that put her in the hospital.”
“Oh my god. OK...” The nurse turned to Leslie. “Sweetie, can you go back to the station and tell one of the receptionists to call 911. Can you hold him?”
Nick looked down at the other guy and nodded. “No problem.”
“OK, I’ll go in and check on Megan.”
“I didn’t to anything to her.”
The nurse eyed him a moment and then replied “Some how I don’t believe you.” It was all she said before opening the door to Megan’s room and walking in.
A half an hour later the police had come and taken Matt down to the station. The nurse had changed Megan’s IV bag and made sure that everything else was OK. They were doing tests on the IV fluid to see if Matt had put anything in it. Things were finally settling down again and they were once again told that they could visit.
“You wanna try this again, Big Brother?” BJ asked as she stood up in the waiting room.
“Yeah.” All five of the Carter kids once again made their way to the room that housed their friend. Once they were all inside the room BJ shut the door and walked over to the bed.
“She looks so...” Aaron started.
“Sad, and tired.” Leslie finished for him.
“Do you think she’s gonna be OK?” Angel asked, looking up at Nick with worry in her young eyes. Nick looked down at her and wanted to cry.
“I don’t know... I sure hope so.”
“She looks so...” BJ couldn’t begin to describe the person in front of her. She wasn’t the smiling, laughing girl that had lived next door to them for over a decade. It wasn’t her brother’s girlfriend or even on of her best friends. It was someone that none of them had ever seen before. It was someone that they had never been able to see before. It was the side of Megan that was hidden, the side that was worried and vulnerable, and most importantly, scared.
“She looks like she did when I found her that night.” Nick said sadly. They all knew what night he was talking about, the night her parents died.
“Well, I don’t think that there is much that we can do for her in here. Are you going to stay with her Nick?” Nick nodded in response to BJ and as she ushered the rest of the kids out of the room to tell the next shift of people that they could visit Nick took a seat next to the hospital bed. Taking her hand in his, he kissed the back of it.
“Come on, Megs. Wake up and we can go home.” The words were barely audible as he put their hands back down on the bed and laid his head down next to them. It had been a long day....
