The guys and Carson decided to sign two TRL t-shirts, one for Jessica and one for Katie. The guys got the rest of their stuff together, and were on their way out the studio.

Carson broke the silence, "Tell Jessica I hope everything goes all right."

"Ok, we will." JC replied and they headed outside.

They all got inside of their awaiting tour bus and told their driver about their early journey to Ohio. Luckily the location of their photo shoot and the hospital were pretty close to each other, only about a half hour drive.

At first the guys all went into the back to just chill for awhile, but they didn’t stay that way too long.

"Guys, I’ve got a headache, I’ll just lay down for awhile." Justin said. "So don’t be too loud, ok?"

"Don’t worry Jay, I don’t think any of us are in the mood to be loud or crazy right now." Lance answered.

Justin headed toward his bunk, and the other four guys all stayed sitting in the back. None of them felt like doing much right then, so they all just watched TV, and this was basically what their whole trip to Ohio was going to be like.

* * * * * * * * * * * *

Jessica waited restlessly until her sister came home to take her to visit Katie. She hadn’t seen Katie yet, and she could hardly wait any longer. She paced around for about an hour after TRL had ended until she heard the front door open.

"Are you ready?" Her sister Stephanie asked.

"Yeah, let’s go please."

They went outside and got into Stephanie’s car. Stephanie was 18 and was in her first year of college. Normally she would mind having to drive her younger sister all over the place, but she knew how much this meant to Jessica, so she drove her, no questions asked.

They stayed silent until they got to the hospital.

"Do you want me to come in with you?" Stephanie asked.

"No, that’s alright. And tell mom I don’t know if I’m coming home tonight…I might stay here."

"Are you sure you would want to stay all night?"

"I don’t know…I’ll see how it goes. And thanks for bringing me here."

"Don’t worry about it. I’ll see you tomorrow then?"

"Yeah, most likely."

"Alright, bye now."

"Bye."

With that, Jessica shut the car door and went into the hospital. She walked up to the front desk, "Excuse me, I need to know what room my friend is in, could you help me?" she asked.

"Here, why don’t you check this list." The lady looked through a stack of papers and pulled out a chart of patients and their room numbers.

Jessica searched the papers until she found Katie’s name, "Room 121. Alright, thank you." Jessica said as she was walking away. The lady looked up to say ‘your welcome’, but Jessica already made her way down the hallway.

She had walked nearly to the end of the hall when she saw room 121 on her left. She sort of paused a minute, bracing herself before she entered. This was going to be very hard for her. She took a deep breath and slowly turned the doorknob. As the door opened, she saw her best friend Katie lying still and quiet on the hospital bed.

"Oh my gosh." She whispered to herself. It was like she was moving in slow motion. After each step she took she seemed to pause and look at her friend. After several minutes of letting this all sink in, she made her way to the bedside.

She bent down by the side of the bed, "I’m so sorry Katie…I’m so sorry." She was whispering softly by Katie’s side but could not seem to cry. At this moment, she was more in shock of seeing Katie actually lying there than she was upset. Her tears seemed to have run dry because of the fact that she had been crying since she heard the bad news early that morning.

She sat there silent for awhile, looking at the machines Katie was hooked up to. She had machines keeping track of her heart rate and her breathing. And when she saw the IV’s and tubes all hooked up to Katie, she started to cry again. The fact that her friend was so lifeless really scared her.

"Why did this have to happen to you? Why?" She looked about the room again, while tears streamed down her face. "Look at this…you can’t even breathe on your own…or get your own food or anything."

Jessica felt nauseous. She got up fast and made her way across the hall into the restroom. Nobody was in there at the time, so Jessica didn’t feel as bad. She did not want anyone to see her like this. Once she felt a little better, she stood up and walked over by the mirror. The reflection shining back at her was a pale faced girl with black mascara running down her face. Her sandy blonde hair was thrown up in a messy ponytail and tears were still streaming down her face.

"I look like hell." She said wiping mascara from her eyes.

She took a deep breath and walked back across the hall into Katie’s room. Once again her tears were temporarily stopped. She paced slowly across the room and sat back down by the side of the bed.

She was starring blankly at Katie when the door opened. Jessica jumped. She was nervous about the fact that the doctor could come in at any given time and have bad news about Katie.

"Hi Jess."

She turned around to see Katie’s parents standing in the doorway. "Hi."

"How long have you been here?" Her mom asked.

"Not that long." Jessica said looking back at the hospital bed.

"Oh. This is only the second time we’ve made it here. Her sister Annie is not taking this too well. We haven’t been able to leave her alone at the house or even with her brother until now. She just keeps crying and having fits, it’s hard to see her like that."

Her parents walked over by the bedside and her mom started crying.

Jessica walked out of the room, she figured they would want to be alone with their daughter. So she walked up and down the hallways and all around the hospital, looking at the different families waiting there to hear news about their loved ones. She walked through a portion of the hospital with mostly sick elderly people, and a group of rooms for children with leukemia, heart problems or breathing problems. It was so sad to see those poor children lying there on their deathbeds at such a young age. But what touched her even more was seeing those children’s parents crying right next to them. She must have walked around for at least a half-hour, maybe even an hour. She was just thinking, and she wasn’t ready to go see Katie again just yet. She walked down to the cafeteria, where the patients who were healthy enough could get food. She walked in there and they offered her a small snack. She took a single bite of the apple they gave her, and she ran back down the hall to the restroom. Her stomach was too weak to keep anything down. Once she pulled herself together, she headed back to room 121.

She opened the door right as Katie’s parents were leaving.

"We need to get home, we’re afraid Anne might be too shaken up with out us there. But we’ll be back later tonight or early tomorrow morning." Her dad said.

"I’ll probably still be here, so I’ll see you again."

Katie’s parents walked out the door, and she could hear Katie’s mom sobbing down the hallway. Jessica walked over to the chair next to the bed, put her head in her hands, and began crying once more.