A few weeks had past and things were going wonderful for Liz and Justin as far as their relationship. Liz was still as sick as ever and had her bad days but Justin was right there for her. He kept his word and didn't leave again. He had a few rough days himself, watching her struggle but for the most part, he closed his eyes and helped her out.
The one main thing that changed between the two was the they didn't hold their feelings back. If Justin was concerned about something, then he told Liz. If she felt scared, which she did quite often, depressed, that came about a few times, or became extremely happy, she told him about it. She shared her thoughts about the future and what may or may not happen to her.
Justin didn't like her talking about those things but let her get them off her chest if she needed to. He had completely turned around and his friends and mother couldn't believe it. After the initial shock of his bald head which was slowly growing back, full of tiny baby curls they knew that having their little break from the group was the best thing Justin ever suggested.
Liz had had her third treatment a few days ago. It was true that each one was getting worse but instead of dreading more treatments, she looked at it as only two more and then she was done. She would count down the days until she was finished and then would have to wait awhile to see if the cancer was gone. She prayed every day that when this was over, she would be as normal as possible.
Justin was trying to make her feel normal now.
The two of them were lying on the couch, watching a football game. Liz was having a bad day but didn't want to stay cooped up in her room. She was tired of the same scenery, although the bedroom Justin had let her stay in was beautiful, after a few months, it got old.
The guys were doing okay. Lance had been able to spend a lot of time working with his artists, getting contract, record deals the works done and was growing antsy just sitting around. The others felt the same way.
Chris was busy with several charities and his clothing line but yearned to get back into the studio to start their next album. Joey was bored off his butt and JC was pulling his own hair out. They needed to get back into what they loved doing, their lives, but Justin wasn't ready.
He had worked on a few songs but knew they wouldn't end up on the album because he hadn't spent a lot of time on them. He was fine with being with Liz every day and music was taking a back seat to her. He never thought anything or anyone could keep him from it but that was until he was faced with the realization that music will always be around, Liz might not be.
"YOU GOTTA CATCH THE DAMN BALL IF YOU THINK YOU'RE GONNA WIN!" Justin said, yelling at the TV screen. "Gees, they suck." He replied as he sat on the edge of the couch, elbows on his knees and biting his fingers.
"Justin, could you keep it down a little?" Liz asked from the other side. Her body was aching and her head hurt like a freight train was barreling through. She didn't know if her body felt bad from the treatments or from Justin screaming.
His team was losing BAD. With only a few minutes left in the game, Justin still rooted for them when it was obvious that they would not win today. "Oh sorry." Justin said as he glanced to Liz for a second before returning to the pigskin on the screen. "GUYS COME ON!" He yelled again but this time threw his hands down on the couch, hitting Liz in the leg.
"OW JUSTIN!" She yelled back, reaching for her sore leg. She touched it but even that hurt.
He looked over from his side of the couch and immediately felt bad. "Ebby, I'm so sorry. Are you okay?" He asked but the death look she gave him told him otherwise. "Um, here let me help." He said as he scooted closer to her.
She slowly extended her leg back out and let his hands touch the tender part. She jumped back a little but relax under the feel of his warm hands on her leg. That didn't last long. Justin was preoccupied with the game again and when the team failed to get a much needed field goal, he clamped down on her leg. "DAMMIT JUSTIN STOP!" She told him as she pushed his hands off her and began to stand on her own. "Just forget about it." She said as she got her balance and started to walk out of the room.
"Ebby, wait please I'm sorry again. Honey, I just wasn't paying attention and " His confession was cut short when he saw the palm of her hand raise to tell him to be quiet. He had to admit defeat and slumped back against the couch as her body shuffled out and up the stairs to her room once again.
Justin sat there rubbing his temples trying to stop the headache that was approaching. He thought about what had happened and he really didn't think he hurt her as bad as she was letting on but he had to go apologize anyway.
He picked his body up off the couch and made the short trek upstairs and knocked on Liz's door. She mumbled something incoherent though the wood and Justin took that to be his invitation to come in. He stepped inside the room and saw her laying in bed. She had her back to him and he groaned inward.
She had been in one of those moods today where everything under the sun was bothering her. He was about to leave her alone, she would just get upset to have him in there but he came up for a reason and that was to apologize. "Ahem, um I just wanted to say again how sorry I am for hurting you." He told her, hoping she would roll over but she didn't.
Instead, he heard her sniffle and knew he had done more than hurt her leg. He rolled his head around to work the kink out before easily sitting on the edge very edge of the bed and speaking again. He didn't dare touch her though. "Ebby, honey what's wrong? Did I do something?" He asked but she just kept her back to him.
"Just go away, please Justin just leave." She mumbled into the pillow that she clung to.
He could see her body fighting to breath and shake as the air filled her lungs. She wanted to be alone but he just couldn't leave her like this. He debated whether or not to do it but decided that she needed his comfort now.
He scooted over on the bed a little more and put his hand on her shoulder to help her turn towards him. When her head finally caught up with the rest of her body, Justin saw the tears running down her cheek. Since she had broken down in the shower that day, she didn't try to keep the tears away. In fact, they came out a lot more than anyone thought they would.
"Sweetheart, what is it? Did I hurt you that bad?" He asked, reaching for her face but she pushed his hand away.
"Justin I said don't. No, it's not you. You didn't do anything. My body just hurts so much right now that every inch it moves, it gets worse. I can't even breathe without my chest hurting. Please just make this go away." She pleaded with him and let a few more tears roll down her face. She was so pitiful looking to him. She was curled up in bed, trying to get comfortable but even the softness of the mattress wasn't helping.
He smiled warmly at her and slid his body off the bed gently. He knelt in front of her and crossed his arms on the edge as his head landed in between them. "Baby, I can't make it go away. I don't know how. But there's got to be some part of you that doesn't hurt, right?" He asked, getting an idea. He crept back up on the bed, much to Liz's dismay.
She groaned as his weight made the mattress sink in and move her again. "Justin don't come any closer please." She said as she tried to hold her hand up to stop him but he continued his path.
"Ebby, just close your eyes. I'll find a place that doesn't hurt I promise." He said to her as she pleaded again for him to not move but he motioned with his fingers to close her eyes.
She hesitated a moment but finally consented and slid her eyes shut. She felt him doing his best not to move her and she smiled inward outward, it hurt too bad to move her mouth.
He started with her head, touching her forehead which caused her to moan. 'Okay, not her head.' He moved to her face but the same thing. Every tiny muscle in her face caused her pain. He continued his course with her collarbone, her stomach, and even her leg that he had smacked on accident. Everything ached and he was about to give up when he thought of one more place.
He stood from the bed and made his way to its end. He knelt down on the floor and slowly lifted the covers. "Justin, what are you doing?" Liz asked, mumbling the words.
He just told her to stay quiet. She did as he said and suddenly felt his fingers on her feet. She wasn't ticklish thank goodness or this would have caused her to jump off the bed. He knew she could handle having her feet touched, that's why he did it.
His fingers grazed her small feet until he reached her toes. He wiggled the big toe and started in on 'This Little Piggy.' She tried to keep a straight face when he began singing it to her like she was a child but she did have to admit that it DIDN'T hurt.
He had found the one spot on her body that hadn't been touched by the chemo and she nearly jumped for joy but didn't because that would hurt too. "I think you've found it." She told him as she let out a soothing breath of air.
He smiled, happy that he did a good thing. She was so tense, so upset, so depressed this time around that he felt in the way but right now, he had connected with her again and knew everything would be just fine. When he finished his rhyme, he continued to circle her toes with his fingers and even leaned his head down to touch them with his cheek. This was as close to her as he could get but he wanted her to know that he was still there.
"Thank you Justin." She said as her breathing slowed down and she began to fall asleep.
Justin sighed heavily when he realized she was finally settled enough to sleep. He slowly pushed himself up on his feet and walked around the bed. He looked at her peaceful face, tired and worn out but still beautiful to him and leaned down to brush his lips over her forehead. "I love you, Ebby."
She groaned in her sleep and moved her hand up to her head where his face was still there. Her fingers grazed his cheek a second before sliding back to the bed. "Love you too." She muttered out but quickly found sleep once again.
He smiled at her one last time before walking out of the room and heading back down the stairs. The game was over, his team losing just as he figured but he chose to lay down and watch whomever came on next. It wasn't a few minutes before he heard the phone ring and he leapt off the couch to run and grab it before Liz heard the noise.
"Hel hello." He said into the receiver as he tried to catch his breath.
"Hey J, what's going on today?"
Justin immediately recognized the voice on the other end. He walked causally over to the refrigerator and opened it to grab something to drink then sit on one of the barstools to talk to his friend. "Nothing much. What are you doing today?" He asked as he popped the top to his drink and took a big swig.
He heard some rustling in the back ground and wondered what was going on. "Oh, well, I was just working on some stuff here at the studio and wondered if you'd like to help me out. It would be great if you could come down here for a little while."
Justin thought about it and would have loved to go but Liz was not doing well today and his mother was out of town with the girls. "JC, I really can't leave Liz now. She's having another bad day. She can't be alone."
JC sighed into the phone. He hadn't seen Justin in awhile and wanted to see his friend again. "J, I don't mean to sound insensitive but can't someone else come over and stay with her. I'm sure she'll be fine."
Justin laid his head on the table and let out his own sigh. "JC, I can't leave her, okay. I know I haven't been around much but she needs me. Look, if there was someone who could be here with her, then I would go but there's no one." He said as the two talked another minute before Justin hung up the phone and returned to the living room to continue watching the new football game.
Justin woke up an hour later to the sound of someone knocking at the door. He jumped off the couch, rubbed his tired eyes before he got this aching feeling about who was outside his door. The guys had keys so they would just walk right in and the girls were out of town. Other than that, no one knew his code to get passed the gates.
He slowly approached the door and looked through the peephole. He didn't recognize the woman behind the door and became worried. He stepped to the side and looked out the curtain. He wondered who she was and then saw JC walking up to the door as well and he moved her out of the way.
The next thing Justin knew, JC was opening the door. He slid it open and jumped when Justin was standing there waiting on him. "Oh, hey J, I didn't know if you were asleep or not." He said as he let the woman with him into the house.
Justin eyed her closely. She looked familiar but he couldn't place the face until JC spoke up. "Look who I found." He said as the woman outstretched her hand for Justin to shake.
"Um, I was asleep a minute ago and not fully awake now, so um, who are you?" He asked as he hesitated to take her hand.
She looked at JC and he just stepped in front of the two. "J, it's Lizzy's nurse from the hospital. Remember, the one who wrote the letter?" He questioned and then Justin made the connection.
"Oh, yeah. How are you?" He asked, shaking her hand finally.
She smiled tenderly at him and shook his hand as well. "Its nice to see you again. JC here called me to see if I would help with Elizabeth today. You have to go to the studio or something?" She asked, causing Justin's eyes to widen.
He shot JC a lazy look, knowing what was going on now. "Um, yeah I need to go to the studio but it could have waited." He said, looking at JC who just coughed loudly getting the attention off what he said.
"Oh well, we better get going. Mrs. Worthy here will take care of Lizzy while we're gone, right?" He asked, looking at the middle-aged woman.
She smiled at him then turned to Justin. "Don't worry, my girls don't know that I'm here. They are gone with their father for the weekend and I'm not working tonight so I can stay as long as you need me to. Go, get out of here and start working on that new CD that I'm sure I'll have to buy ten copies of." She said, laughing at the thought.
Justin wasn't sure about this but figured Liz would be safe with her. "Well, you just might get a few free ones for doing this for me." He told her as he winked and excuse himself to go change his clothes.
He ran up the stairs and took his shirt off to find another one that would be more comfortable at the studio. He found a pair of shoes and slipped them on his feet before placing a hat on top of his trademark red bandana, to hide any evidence that he still had little hair. He hadn't been out in public since he cut his hair and he didn't want someone at the studio to see him and question what happened.
He strolled out of his room and down the hall to Liz's room. He wanted her to know that he was leaving and had to make sure she was okay with this. He knocked lightly but didn't hear her answer. He pushed the door open and found her still asleep. He was about to wake her but JC came up behind him, nearly scaring the crap out of him, and he turned to talk to his friend.
"J, we need to get going. I'm sure Julie can tell Lizzy what's going on when she gets up." He told him as his own eyes fell on the sleeping woman. Justin mouthed 'Julie' and JC told him that she was the nurse downstairs. He nodded in understanding but saw JC's face fall.
Liz was still so pale and frail looking that JC felt a tug on his heart and wondered if making Justin leave her was the right thing to do. She didn't appear to be in any shape to move without help and he had to turn his head so he wouldn't look at her any longer.
Justin noticed his apprehension and told him to wait outside. He nodded and when he returned to the other side of the door, Justin sat on the edge of Liz's bed. He reached over and brushed her cheek with his hand before leaning down and grazing her forehead with his lips. "I'll be back soon." He told her sleeping form as he sat back up and then stood. He glanced at her one more time before heading out of the room and meeting JC in the hall.
"Is she going to be okay?" He asked almost in a whisper. He hadn't seen her since the night Justin confessed his regrets and the site of her was something he had forgotten about.
Justin lifted his hat and scratched his tiny curls that were itching as they grew back in. "Yeah, she'll be fine. She's having a bad day but she'll be better tomorrow. Look, can we go? I want to get started so we're not out too late." He asked as JC pushed himself off the wall and agreed.
The two of them made their way down the stairs, caught up with Mrs. Worthy and Justin told her to help herself to any food she wanted, watch TV and even gave her every number known to man to get in touch with him if something happened. She had to smile at his concern for his girlfriend. She finally realized what her girls saw in him and his group. They were so much more than just a couple of singers thrusting their bodies around and driving the fans crazy. They were caring, loving people with some of the biggest hearts she had ever seen. It warmed her own heart to see it.
"Justin, everything will be fine. I'll have Elizabeth up in a little while and will let her know what's going on so you two go on and have fun today." She instructed as the guys made their way out of the house and into JC's car.
A little while later, she was wondering if Liz was okay. She hadn't heard a thing from her room and since Justin had told her that she had been asleep for while now, Julie thought she would go check on her. She knocked lightly on the door but didn't receive an answer, so she silently opened it to peek inside the room.
She saw Liz laying on her back, covers up to her chin and sleeping peacefully. Julie walked around the room to open the curtains to let a little more light into the room and after doing so, she turned around and looked at Liz closer.
She was laying on yellow bed sheets that had no other colors on them but she saw a spot of another color up by Liz's face. She crept closer and when she got to the head of the bed, she slowly pulled back the sheets and gasped at the blood that was trickling out of Liz's mouth. It had stained the sheets and her shirt that she lay in.
Julie ripped the sheets off and sat down beside her, placing her fingers under her chin to get her pulse. It was weak so she rushed into the bathroom to grab a cloth to clean her mouth up and brought the phone back over with her as she resumed her position.
She dialed 911 and spoke to the operator on the other end, telling him that she needed an ambulance immediately. She gave him the information and placed the phone back down, not clicking it off so they could track it if they needed to. She gently tried waking Liz up but she wasn't responding. She wasn't moving, she was barely breathing and Julie began to worry more.
She kept her head clear the whole time and did her best to clean Liz up from the blood that appeared to be dried somewhat on her mouth and clothes. This indicated to Julie that the bleeding had been going on for some time and wondered how long. Justin told her that he didn't wake Liz up when he came in and when Julie herself had entered, the light was so low in the room that she wanted to open the curtain to see better.
If this had happened before Justin left, he wouldn't have noticed it unless he pulled the covers back as she did. That would mean that it happened sometime within the last three hours. That was a bad sign. Liz hadn't moved yet and her pulse was slipping.
Julie heard the phone beeping and she knew that 911 had hung up and were on their way. She clicked the phone off and immediately heard it ring again. It was Justin calling to check in on things. He had taken a break with JC and wanted to talk to Liz.
Julie calmly told him what was happening and that he needed to meet them at the hospital as soon as possible. She heard him fighting his emotions but he thanked her and quickly got off the phone to grab JC and leave.
Just then, Julie heard the knock at the door and rushed downstairs to let the paramedics inside so they could get Liz out of there. She hoped they weren't too late.