*During this time*
Stacey had finally joined Leighanne and she hoped she would find him at his house. Everyone was really upset and didn't know what to think because the doctor didn't come to tell them what happened yet. They were all really tense, hoping everything was fine with Nick. They were in their waiting area, still waiting for the doctor.
"What is taking so long?" Becky asked to herself.
"I don't know baby..." Aj sighed laying his head on her shoulder.
"It's been hours since we wait! What's going on?" she replied impatiently. No one answered because no one knew what was going on. They didn't know why it was taking so much time. At this moment, Nick's mother and father entered in the room. They all stood up to welcome them.
"I'm sorry Jane!" Aj said hugging her.
"It's not your fault dear. But what happened? Is he alright?" she asked with tears.
"We don't know anything!" Kevin said sadly. "The doctor didn't come!!"
"What? He didn't come yet?" Bob asked.
"No...we don't know what is going on and they are all so busy in here...it's hard to talk to someone!"
"Well I'll try to get informations from someone!" Jane said walking out the room.
"Do you know how the accident happened?" Nick's father asked.
"The police officer told me that he was driving really fast and he missed a stop sign. A van ran into him...on the driver side." Aj explained.
"Oh God.." Bob replied sitting down. He looked at the floor not knowing what to think. Then, Jane arrived in the room. "So??"
"A nurse told me that the doctor is doing a surgery right now... not on Nick. But he's there for the emergencies and something happened right after Nick arrived" she said.
"Can we see him?" Becky asked.
"No... she said we should wait for the doctor. He's the one who'll tell us if we can see him..."
"Damnit!" Ashley sighed. "When the doctor will be finish??"
"They have no idea! The best thing for us to do is to wait..." Jane replied.
They all sat down quietly, not knowing what to do. Jane and Bob called the other children to tell them what was going on. After an hour, around 5am, Howie and Carly entered in the room.
"Any news???" Carly asked hugging Becky.
"No... the doctor is in surgery right now..."
"For Nick????" Howie shouted.
"No... not for him. Thank God. But we have no idea how he is doing." Kevin said.
"Shit.." Carly sighed taking Howie's hand. They sat down too and wait for the doctor to come.
Brian ran into the hospital like a crazy. He couldn't think about anything. He wanted to see Nick and talk to him. Tell him that he was sorry. Get things back like it used to be. He was running so fast and not paying attention. He didn't notice the window in front of him and ran into it.
"Oh my God sir. Are you alright?" a nurse asked him.
"Hum...yes..." he said with pain. His head was now hurting badly.
"Here you are!!" Leighanne shouted seeing Brian. "Don't run like this or you'll get hurt!!"
"It's too late!" he replied touching his forehead.
"Can I help you?" the nurse asked.
"Yes, we're searching for M.Nickolas Gene Carter. The ambulance brang him here around 1:30 this morning." Leighanne explained.
"Is he the young guy who got a car accident?"
"Yeah!!" Brian said impatiently.
"Ok well just go the third door on your right. A lot of his family and friends are already waiting there..."
"Thanks a lot!" Leighanne replied while Brian started running to the door. She followed him and walked in the room.
"There you are!" Stacey exclaimed running to Leighanne.
"Where is he???? How is he????" Brian asked nervously.
"We don't know..." Aj said.
"What you don't know??? You have to know!!!! How is he doing???" he asked again, freaking out.
"Brian...please...calm down..." Jane said standing up and walking to him. She hugged him like she was his own mother. "Don't worry. It'll be fine."
"I want to see him!!" he cried.
"We all do buddy... but we can't..." Aj said trying to comfort him. Brian cried for a moment on Jane's shoulder but then walked away and sat on a chair, away from everyone else. He wanted to be alone. Leighanne sat with Stacey and Kevin but she was often glancing over Brian to see how he was doing. He was looking so sad. She wanted to much to do something for him but she knew she couldn't do anything.
After an hour, Aj decided to go talk to Brian. He didn't know what pushed him to go but he wondered why Brian was looking so upset with the accident... wasn't he angry at Nick? He sat next to him and seeing that Brian wasn't going to talk or anything, he decicded to break the silence.
"So..." he said searching for something to start the conversation. "What made you change your mind?" he decided to ask him. He wasn't talking really loud because he didn't everyone to hear what they were saying. Brian stayed silent, like thinking about an answer. Aj stared at him, waiting for the answer. Brian finally turned to face him. Aj couldn't even see his eyes because there were too much tears in front of them. "I'm sorry Brian but I thought you were still angry about Nick..." Aj apologized seeing how sad Brian was.
"I... I... " Brian whispered but he broke down in tears. Aj put an arm around his shoulder to comfort him.
"I'm sorry Brian... " Aj said.
"Why it happened when I was finally ready to forgive him Aj?? Why???" he cried. Aj hugged him, not knowing what to say. He was about to cry himself; Brian kept whispering "why...why..." as he cried and it was really hard for him to hear that.
Ashley looked at Brian crying and felt so sorry for him. She decided to go talk to Jane and Bob, since she knew them really well. She walked to the chair next to Nick's parent and sat beside Jane.
"Hey Ashley..." Jane said trying to smile.
"Hey..." Ashley replied sadly. Tears were forming in her eyes and she didn't how much longer she could keep them inside.
"Are you alright?" Jane asked noticing how she was looking.
"Well..." she started. Some tears started falling on her cheeks. "I just... can't believe it..."
"I know how you are feeling sweetie..." Jane replied rubbing her back. "Don't worry...I'm sure everything will be fine..."
"I hope so... " Ashley sighed still crying silently.
"So tell me, how are you parents doing?" Jane asked trying to change her mind.
"Oh they are doing great. " Ashley replied wiping the tears from her eyes. "My mother told me she miss you.." she added with a little smile.
"Tell her I miss her too. I should call her someday. I didn't have enough time for the past months... with Aaron and Leslie's carreer. You can tell her I'll call her soon... "
"Alright. She'll be really happy..." Ashley said with a smile. Her smile slowly fade away as she thought about the old days, when Nick and her were playing together...and were making their parents going nuts. It usually was great memories but now knowing Nick was maybe between death and life... she couldn't smile. She could only think about Nick hurt and it made again a few tears falling on her face.
"Do you remember when Nick broke his leg when he was 7??" Jane asked like reading in Ashley's mind.
"Yes I do..." Ashley replied still crying a little.
"Do you know what I remember the most about that incident?"
"What?"
"I remember... that short blond haired girl knocking on the door each morning to give him his favourite kind of cookies. That little girl whom was putting a Get Well Soon card in the mail box each days of his week of rest. That cute little girl always there for him during this hard time." Jane said talking about Ashley, who smiled. "And do you know what he told me one night?"
"No What?"
"He told me that he was really lucky to have a friend like you. And that you helped him getting better faster." Jane said with a smile. "And you're still at his side today... you'll be with him again... and I'm sure you'll help him getting better again..." she finished knowing it would make Ashley feel a little better. And it did. Ashley hugged her again, still crying a little bit.
"Thanks Jane...I don't know how you're doing to be so strong... but I'm sure you're helping him a lot too... and he loves you a lot." she said as Jane smiled.
Leighanne and Stacey were talking together as Kevin was sleeping on Stacey's shoulder. She had her arms wrapped around him.
"So you two are finally going out?" Leighanne smiled looking at the cute couple. "I knew you had a thing for each others!"
"Well.. " Stacey said blushing. "What can I say? You were right..." she added with a little laugh.
"You look so good together...I hope it will last long..."
"I hope so too... " Stacey smiled. "I just don't know how we'll go through Nick's accident.... Kevin was looking so upset...and I can understand why... it's unbelievable..."
"Yes I know.." Leighanne replied glancing at Brian who was still crying in Aj's arm. "Poor guy..."
"Nick or Brian?" Stacey asked with a grin.
"What? Well...well...both!" Leighanne said. Stacey smiled. "But look at him..." she added talking about Brian. "I just can't stand seeing him like this... in fact, I've never seen him so sad."
"It's probably really hard for him... I guess he wanted to forgive Nick right?"
"Yes he was going to... " Leigh sighed.
"And it's all because of you..."
"What?"
"Well...I'm sure you pushed him a little to make him forgive Nick. You're the one he was talking to" Stacey explained.
"I didn't pushed him...but it's true we talked a lot about it."
"I'm sure Nick will thank you for that..."
"I don't think it change something. Because you know, I'm sure Brian would have been that upset even if he wouldn't have decided to forgive Nick. I'm sure he would have forget everything the moment he would have known about the accident."
"You think?... I don't know. It's true he would have been shocked and upset...but as much as right now?" Stacey asked looking at Brian crying. "I'm not sure..."
"Yeah but now he's so upset that I'm not sure if it was a good thing to help him to forgive Nick. I don't know how he'll get through it...imagine if Nick..." Leighanne didn't last her sentence, feeling tears coming up.
"Don't think about that. And...we'll all be there to support him. You've already been there for him during the past days... and he will probably turn to you during the next weeks... you just have to be there for him...." Stacey said.
"I know... I'll always be there for him."
"Do you still have a thing for him?" Stacey asked.
"Well...I don't know sincerely. I've thought about it. But I think I'll always have a little something for Brian... we got through so much..." Leighanne answered. Stacey just smiled back. A moment later, around 8 am, the doctor came into the room, as everyone who was sleeping woke up.
"Finally..." Jane exclaimed standing up. "How is he doing doctor?"
"Hi...you're Nickolas's mother?" he asked.
"Hi..Yes I am... how is my son doing?"
Everyone stood up and walked closer to the doctor so they could hear well. The doctor looked at them all before to speak.
"Well... it's hard for us to say something because Nickolas is in a coma right now. He hurted his head pretty bad so we don't know when he'll wakes up." the doctor said seriously. Everyone was quiet so he kept talking. "All his body was touched...especially his legs. Well, all his left side is injured because the van completely ran into him."
"Will he be alright??" Aj asked. The doctor sighed.
"It's really hard for us to say. We'll have to wait until he wakes up. For his legs, I think it'll be alright. Maybe he'll have some problems to walk at first. If there are really serious problems with his it,we'll do our best to get things right. I don't think we'll have any surgery to do. He only has a plaster cast and I think it will be enough. But as I said, we'll have to wait until he wakes up."
"And what about his head? Did his brain was touched too??" Nick's mother asked.
"Unfortunately, yes." the doctor replied. " Because you see, he didn't have his security belt on... so when the van ran into him, his head has been shaken in every way and it knocked the steering wheel and then passed through the window." the doctor explained. "But he's been lucky because no glasses from the window entered in his head. But he knocked his head really hard so we don't know what we'll happen. There are three options... maybe he'll come back as he was, with no big troubles. Maybe he'll have a few problems, especially with his memories but everything will come back after a while or... " the doctor paused and looked at them with a sorry look.
"Or what???" Brian shouted.
"Or maybe he'll forget everything...and when I say everything I mean... how to walk, how to talk, how to eat... all his intellectual capacities, plus his memory" the doctor said. "He hit his head really badly you know...The chances aren't really big but...it might happen. We'll see when he wakes up..."
"Jesus.." Jane whispered as Bob took his hand.
"Can we see him???" Brian asked.
"I'd prefer if you'd wait a little. He just came back from the scanner and other tests. Let him time to rest a little because if there are too much move and talks around him, he won't want to wakes up" the doctor said. "In an hour or two, you should be able to see him..The nurse will tell you."
"Alright. Thanks doctor." Bob replied shaking his hand.
"I think I'll go back home to get Aaron because BJ told me he looked pretty upset..." Jane said to Bob.
"If I'd be you Mrs...I would stay here...just in case..." the doctor said before to walk away.
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