Chapter 4

The ride to the hospital was hair-raising, to say the least. Lance was never one to really enjoy the need for speed that his friends had. For Pete’s sake, JC was the one who jumped at the chance to drive in their recent video for their hit song, “Bye, Bye, Bye!” Lance had been offered the chance, but was relieved to let JC take over in that area, although he didn’t know which had been worse at the time they filmed he video, him driving or him as a passenger with JC driving. He could honestly say that he had never been so thrilled and so scared senseless at the same time in his entire life by the experience.

‘JC…JC…’ Lance quickly snapped out of his thoughts and used all his remaining reserves to stay focused on the task at hand. There had been no time for him to dwell on his own thoughts or to beak down, for that matter, and he was afraid of what it was going to be like when he actually had the luxury of doing so. But for now, he was the one who needed to stay in control of the situation and take care of the needs of his friends.

Lance snuck a quick glance in the rear view mirror to look at the pair sitting behind them. The silence in the vehicle was almost deceiving to him. It would be fairly easy to believe that he was the only person within the confines of the vehicle had it not been for the occasional sounds of sniffles from Joey and the sighs that were coming from Chris. Both young men looked frightened and miserable and Lance was sure that his own face mirrored theirs.

He returned his attention to the road and allowed his mind to once again search out his feelings. JC was so good in situations like this. He always knew how to make everything seem right as rain. Suddenly, Lance felt guilt over assuming the role that JC so often took. JC was always known as the serious one, the one in charge of the group…he had even earned the nickname “Dad.”

‘Wait a minute,’ Lance thought, shaking himself inwardly. ‘What am I doing? Stop it…stop it! I was actually thinking of JC in past tense terms.’

He shuddered to think that he could even dare to do so. He had to get a grip on himself and his emotions. He looked at the ambulance in front of him and concentrated on the fact that his friends…no, his brothers…were in that vehicle alive. Yes, thank God…they were alive.

He dared to sneak another glance in the rearview mirror to see how Joey and Chris were holding up. The two hadn’t changed positions since his last glance, just minutes before. He saw that Joey was huddled in the back seat, pressed against the door of the vehicle. Lance could see tears marking a trail down his friend’s face as he stared out the window and he quickly adverted his gaze, knowing that he himself would be very close to tears if he did not look away.

A few seconds later, he glanced again toward the back seat, but this time at Chris, who seemed lost in his own thoughts, staring out the window. Chris happened at that moment to catch Lance looking at him, their eyes locked for a split second, before Lance quickly stared ahead at the ambulance speeding through yet another intersection. Lance laid on the horn and quickly followed the ambulance, with the police officer’s vehicle not too far behind.

The blaring horn seemed to bring Joey out of his silence. “I can’t believe this is actually happening,” he said as he continued to stare out the window. Chris shifted in his seat to face Joey and put his hand on Joey’s shoulder.

“I know. One minute we’re horsing around and the next we’re pulling JC out of the pool.”

“We almost lost him,” whispered Joey.

“Yeah,” Chris whispered as his grip on Joey’s shoulder tightened.

“What happened to Justin, Lance?”

“The firemen said that it was shock. I guess he blamed himself for what happened,” Lance replied trying to remain focused on the road.

“You know how sensitive he is. This is going to take a lot of help to get him through this,” said Chris with a bit of dread.

Justin was known as the tenderhearted member of the group…always quick to defend the underdog in a situation and take care of those around him when help was needed. Lance suddenly felt anger at the thought that Justin was going to take the blame for something that JC had chosen to do. He couldn’t understand where the anger was coming from and he was not going to just sit there and stew about it. He needed to let it out.

“It wasn’t his fault,” said Lance firmly as he looked up in the mirror at his two friends. “JC made that choice when he decided to make that dive. All he had to do was say no and leave it at that…but he couldn’t.”

He then banged the steering wheel in anger causing both Joey and Chris to jump. This was a side of Lance that did not normally come out. He and Joey were usually the easiest going members in the group. And up to that point, Chris and Joey had not realized exactly how upset Lance was until his outburst.

Chris looked into the mirror to see Lance’s face once again turned to the road ahead. He knew that the younger man was upset, but he had remained in such control during the time that the firemen were there and even under more control while he and Joey had performed CPR on JC. Lance had also been the one to tell Chris to go to Joey and that he would stay with JC and Justin during the time that the firemen took care of them. Chris shook his head and decided that Lance needed some time to get a grip on his emotions.

“Cool it, man,” said Chris quietly, with understanding in his voice. He reached for Lance’s shoulder and squeezed it. “Now is not the time to loose our cool. It was a freak thing that could have happened to anyone of us.” With that, the silence in the vehicle became almost as deafening as the sirens surrounding them.

Minutes later, Lance and the police officer followed the ambulance up a driveway to the emergency entrance to Mercy General Hospital. Lance parked not to far away in a little parking lot. Even before he had come to a complete stop or turned off the engine, Chris and Joey had already exited the vehicle and had taken off at a dead run for the doors to the emergency room. Lance pocketed the keys and took off after them, meeting up with the pair at the back of the ambulance and watched as the firemen quickly unloaded their friends from the vehicle. JC was fastened firmly to a backboard wearing a c-collar, with multiple tubes running from his arms and an oxygen mask hiding his pale features. They could barely tell that his eyes were slightly open as an emergency room attendant quickly joined one of the firemen in pushing JC’s stretcher into the open doors of the ER. Next, the stunned boys watched a litter being lifted out of the ambulance and onto a waiting stretcher. In the litter, they saw a very pale Justin, his face also obscured by an oxygen mask. He was trembling violently and seemed to be unconscious as he was whisked past the boys into the hospital. Joey, Lance, and Chris while stunned by what they had just seen, quickly followed behind and were met by a familiar face just inside the doors.

“Dr. Shannon…I…we…” Joey could not put his thoughts into words as the tall doctor strode up to him and put a reassuring arm around the young man’s shoulders.

“It’s okay boys,” the doctor said as he watched Lance and Chris walk up. “I’m going to go in and help out the attending physicians in a few minutes. I’ll keep you informed just as soon as I know more myself, okay?” He watched the young men as they nodded numbly.

“There is going to be one of the nurses coming out in a few minutes with some paper work that you’ll need to fill out.” Dr. Shannon looked up and saw that one of the head nurses in the department, Shane Matlock, was walking up to them along with a few security personnel. The doctor indicated for the security personnel to head over to the main doors which they did without a word. They had already received information on the situation minutes before the boys had arrived and were ready to call for back up if necessary.

“Boys, this is Shane Matlock. He is one of the RNs in the ER department. He’ll have some questions for you to answer.” The boys shook hands with the middle-aged man.

“Before I leave, I want to ask you a question, but it might upset you and it isn’t meant to,” the doctor hesitated before going on. “I need to know if you can get a hold of any of JC’s family or Justin’s family?”

“It’s that serious…are they going to die or something?” Joey stammered as he suddenly felt a little light headed and dizzy.

Dr. Shannon quickly noted Joey’s distress and pale appearance before leading him to a nearby seat and having him sit down, putting his head between his knees before sending Nurse Matlock to get an icepack to place on Joey’s neck.

The doctor saw that JC and Chris looked almost as pale as Joey and he quickly had them sit down in the same manner as Joey knowing that he didn’t want one of them to pass out, much less the three of them.

“I just want you to take some deep breaths Joey. Lance, you and Chris too.” As he waited for the boys to calm down, Dr. Shannon explained his statement.

“The reason why I asked that question is that since Justin is fairly young, we may need to speak with a relative if we need to do certain treatments. And, as a parent myself, I would want to know what was going on if my child had almost drowned or was suffering from shock.” Just as he had finished, Nurse Matlock showed up with an icepack. As he handed the icepack to Dr. Shannon, the doctor motioned that two more were needed and the nurse quickly made his way back through swinging doors to complete the task.

Once the nurse had returned with the icepacks, the doctor gave the boys a few moments before he allowed any of them to sit up and answer his questions about JC and Justin’s families.

“JC’s parents are with mine in Europe,” Lance quietly explained. “They called yesterday from their hotel and said that they would be pretty hard to catch once they left Paris for the Swiss Alps, but would be calling in the next three or four days.”

“Justin’s mom and my parents are in Vegas this week,” Joey said. “They were planning on starting a week long hike down to the bottom of the Grand Canyon this morning and would be in touch with us at the end of the hike.”

“Do you think we need to call the authorities or something to see if they can find their families?” asked Chris with mounting concern. He was afraid that the doctor would say yes, causing some panic among parents in trying to get here. And, on the other hand, the answer no upset him too, because that meant that for the time being, he, Joey and Lance would be in charge of care decisions for their friends. He didn’t know which possible answer upset him the most.

He dared to look at Lance and Joey and could tell that they were thinking pretty much the same thing. Their glances at each other were not lost on the doctor and he figured that he knew what the problem was. He was going to have to take care in what he would be saying in the next few minutes. After a moment’s hesitation, Dr. Shannon carefully began speaking to the boys.

“Why don’t we see what the ER staff has to say before we start making decisions on who to call and how to get in touch with them.”

What he was suggesting pretty much went against everything he stood for, but at the moment, he knew that the boys were near the breaking point and he did not want to be the ones to push them beyond that point. As he began to stand up, a thought suddenly occurred to him.

‘The boys could call Justin’s aunt in Texas. She had been so quick to come just a few months ago during another incident where Justin’s mother had been out of pocket and he had needed stitches and a little extra TLC after a fall down the stairs in his home, not to mention the time when Joey and his nightmares got out of hand almost a year ago.

‘What was her name…Jan…Jan Scott,’ he thought to himself.

“Uh guys, what about Ms. Scott?”

“Justin’s Aunt Jan?” asked Lance.

“Yes. Do you think she could come out here?”

When Dr. Shannon saw three pairs of eyes light up, he knew what the answer was to his question.

“I’ve got a phone call to make,” said Chris as his eyes scanned the ER waiting room for a phone. Seeing one on the far wall, he took off at a quick trot to call Jan. Knowing her, she would be on the next flight out.

“I’m going to go to the back and see how JC and Justin are doing.” Dr. Shannon gave Joey and Lance a pat on the back before walking away. He looked at Chris who was waving and giving the thumbs up sign and mouthing, “she’ll be here tonight.”

Five