Jane and Nick rushed into the emergency room. Nick ran up to the counter:
"Someone called us about Katelin Marciano?" The nurse looked up from the chart:
"Yes. That was me. She's in surgery right now. The doctor will be out to talk with you as soon as possible. Are you guys family?" Jane glanced at Nick:
"Close enough. Her family lives out of state." The nurse smiled:
"We'll let you know as soon as we hear anything."
"Thank you." Jane and Nick went and sat in the waiting room. Jane put her hand on her son's:
"I'm sure she'll be fine honey." Nick forced a slight smile:
"God, I hope so." A few minutes later, Brian and Leighanne rushed in. Leighanne ran up to Nick and gave him a hug:
"How is she?" Nick shrugged, tears forming in his eyes:
"We haven't heard anything yet." They all sat there for another hour in relative silence. Finally, the doctor came out:
"Are you all with Miss Marciano?" Nick nodded:
"Yes. We are." The doctor had a solemn look on his face. Leighanne whispered to Brian:
"I feel like I'm having déjà vu." Nick threw them a quizzical glance before looking back to the doctor:
"Is she okay?" The doctor swallowed hard:
"She has a broken arm, a few broken ribs, and she had a lot of internal bleeding. We were able to stop it but she took a nasty blow to the head. I'm afraid she's slipped into a coma. I'm sorry." Nick collapsed in his chair crying. Jane sat down and put an arm around her son:
"What are her chances of waking up?" The doctor sighed:
"If she awakens in the next 48 hours, I'd say her chances for a full recovery are near 100%. Anything past 48 hours, then it's a possibility that she may never wake up." Nick put his head in his hands and started sobbing:
"This can't be happening. I never even got a chance to apologize. To tell her how much I love her and that I never stopped." Brian put a comforting hand on his shoulder:
"I'm sure she knows, Frack. I'm sure she knows." Just then, Krystal came bursting through the door:
"How is she? Who's watching Aaron?" Nick's head shot up in surprise:
"What?" Krystal noticed Nick for the first time:
"Holy shit…" Nick looked around at everyone's faces. They were all avoiding his glance:
"What do you mean, 'who's watching Aaron?'" He looked at Brian:
"Brian?" No one answered him:
"Will somebody please tell me what's going on? Is Aaron Katelin's son?" Still, no one said anything. Nick sank back into his chair:
"I'll take that as a yes….So I've really lost her this time. She's moved on with her life. She has a kid for god sakes." The four others glanced at each other. Brian sat down next to Nick:
"Frack…" They were interrupted by the doctor again:
"You may go see her now." Nick looked up at everyone:
"Can I go first? Alone?" The rest nodded as Nick got up and made his way down the hall. He put his hand on the doorknob and slowly turned it. He gasped at what he saw. There she was. Even with the all the bandages, she still looked beautiful to him. He sat down in a chair next to the bed and grabbed her hand:
"Hey babygirl. It's me." He paused and moved a strand of hair out of her face:
"I wish I could see your beautiful brown eyes again. Can you please just open them for me? I know I screwed up, Kate. I wish I could turn back time and take it all back. I never meant to push you away or hurt you like I did. I guess I lost you for good now. Maybe I never really had you at all. You were like this dream. This perfect dream…I saw your son today, baby. He's perfect, just like you. Whoever the father is is one lucky guy…I wish you and your son all of the happiness I couldn't give you." He stood up and leaned over her, kissing her one last time:
"Goodbye Katelin."
Brian stood outside the door listening to the whole thing. Tears sprung to his eyes. Leighanne walked up and wrapped her arms around him:
"Hey baby. What's wrong?" Brian pointed inside the room:
"Look at him. He has no idea how much she still loves him and we can't tell him." Leighanne pulled away for a minute:
"Why can't we tell him, Brian? He deserves to know. What if Katelin…what if she never gets the chance to tell him?" Brian wiped the tears off of her face:
"Don't talk like that Leigh. She's going to get the chance to tell him. I have faith in that." Nick walked out of the room with his head hung down:
"I need to get out of here, guys. I'll see you later."
***** ***** ***** ***** ***** *****
Nick walked out to the beach in front of his house and sat on the rocks, overlooking the ocean. He sighed and remembered that this was where he first met Katelin.
'Are you okay? Where does it hurt?'
'Everywhere'
'I'm going to take you back to my house and clean you up. I live right over there.'
'I can't even begin to thank you for everything you've done for me, Nick. Who knows what would have happened to me if you hadn't decided to take that walk.'
'I don't know how I'm going to get through this.'
'I'm here for you, Kate.'
'You've been a great friend to me in the last 24 hours and I'll never forget that. I hope we can remain friends because you're a really great person and if others can't get past the Backstreet thing than it's their loss.'
'I'm sorry, Kate. I wish there was something I could do to make it all go away.'
'Please stay here. I just need someone right now.'
'Nick, you're totally in love with this girl. Just face it. That's what's behind all of this. You're helping her, not only out of a sense of duty but the fact that you want her to fall in love with you. You're acting like her knight in shining armor.'
'Fine Brian! I'm in love with her. I'm so in love with her that I can't even think straight. I mean, you should've seen her this weekend. Her eyes were shining, she was smiling the whole weekend, and she was just so damn happy. I've never seen this side of her and I totally fell in love. I love her.'
'I think that I love you.'
'How can you fucking tell me that knowing everything I've been through?!'
'I love you, Nick.'
'Didn't want to bother me with it?! Katelin, it was OUR baby. Not YOUR baby. God, Kate, I feel like I don't even know you. How could you make such a life altering decision without me?'
'I can't even fucking look at you right now, Katelin. I have no trust in you whatsoever.'
'Now you wanna talk about trust, Nick? You want to know why I don't fucking trust you?'
'Yeah right, you don't remember, Nick. Everyone remembers something like that. That's just a fucking excuse. Well you know what? I don't care if you remember it or not. The fact is is that you did it. You slept with another fucking girl, Nick. Don't stand there and tell me you love me when you fucked another girl!'
'I know what I did was wrong, Nick. I know that I made a mistake. But I never thought that this would be the way you would get back at me. To quote you, Nick, 'I can't even stand the sight of you right now.' You fucking disgust me and we are finished!'
'God, I never ever thought that the day would come where I would compare Nick to Rob. I mean, Brian, Rob hit me but what Nick did hurts so much more.'
'Please don't leave me, Kate. I don't know what I'd do without you. I love you with everything that I have. Don't give up on me. On us. We can get through this. I love you.'
'Come on Nick. Just let go.'
'What else is there to say? You already made your decision. What I think obviously doesn't matter.'
'Well, I guess that's it then. I don't want to do this if I can't actually be with you.'
'You're leaving?'
'There's no reason for me to stay. You made yourself clear, Nick. You don't want to make this work if it has to be long-distance. No sense in staying here and prolonging the inevitable. I was able to get a flight out this afternoon.'
'I love you so much.'
'Mmmm...me too. I'm so happy you're living with me.'
'Happy New Year, baby. I love you.'
'Your brother was in a car accident.'
'I'm sorry. There was nothing more we could do for him.'
'No, Kate. I need you with me. I can't do this by myself.'
'You want me to deal with it. This is how I'm dealing.'
'Kate, my little brother is fucking dead and I feel like getting drunk. This helps me okay. It numbs the pain. This is the only thing that is going to help right now. Nothing, or no one, else can.'
'Yeah right she loves me. If she loved me she would understand that this is how I deal with my problems.'
'Nick, calm down. She's here, but she's sleeping and I know that she doesn't want to talk to you. She's had enough, Nick. She had to get out.'
'I'm not waking her up Nick. You're wasted and it's not going to help any. Whenever the day comes that you can stay sober, I'll let you talk to her.'
'God damn you Aaron!'
Nick sat there, sobbing into his hands:
"I'm so sorry, Katelin. I love you."