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Chapter One Hundred-Eleven
Point of View: Zoe



Kayla and AJ just never came back.

I had a sinking feeling about that.

"You need to relax," the nurse said, frowning at me after she'd taken my blood pressure. She wrote down the numbers on her chart, her forehead a series of creases.

I scoffed, "Like that's possible."

The nurse sighed, "It's going to have to be. The doctor's not going to even consider letting you leave until your blood pressure goes down."

"I couldn't leave if I wanted to right now, my niece disappeared with a freaking horn dog somewhere on the hospital campus..." I stared at the door, willing Kayla to walk through it. I'd even take AJ coming back alone at this point.

The nurse smiled sadly. "I'll see if I can find them for you," she suggested, and she walked out of the room, dragging the stupid wheely blood pressure cuff.

I sighed and tried to ignore the door, looming like a window to the outside world. I grabbed the remote and turned on the TV.

Entertainment Tonight was on.

I stared at the remote, trying to figure out how to work it.

I looked up.

Nick was staring back.

Or at least a picture of him.

His mugshot with those sad eyes...

I stared up, frowning. I wonder if you're okay, I thought, staring into those sad eyes.

"Entertainment Tonight is getting reports that Nick Carter was shot in the back multiple times earlier today after being brutally attacked by another inmate at the Los Angeles County Corrections Facility."

I stared at the TV. Hearing, but not comprehending.

"My baby," I whispered, clutching my chest. "Not Nick, too."

"While there's no word yet on how Nick is doing, we have learned through our sources that he is currently being treated for injuries from the shots, and will be transferred to another corrections facility following his release from the hospital."

I blinked at the television.

I grabbed my little nurse ringer button and hit it. I hit it again. And again. And again.

She came in the door, breathless. "What, what is it? What's the matter?"

I pointed at the TV. "Where is he?"

She looked up at the TV, then looked back at me. An uncomfortable expression on her face.

"See, the thing is, I'm here for a gunshot wound... he's here for gunshot wounds... I know how hospitals work. Patients are grouped up by their maladies." I stared at the nurse. "He's here. He's close."

The nurse shook her head, but she was clearly extremely uncomfortable. They didn't hire stealth secret keepers here, they hired kids just out of UCLA's graduate program.

"Look..... Lucy," I said, squinting to see the name she'd written on the whiteboard when she'd first come in earlier in the evening. "It's like this." I took a deep breath. "Nick is like my son. If he is hurt, I need to see him."

"I'm sorry," Lucy gasped. "I can't." She quickly turned and ran out of the room, looking petrified.

Well then, I thought. I'll just have to take matters into my own hands.



I waited until the shift change at 3am. Lucy would be onto me if I'd requested it from her, but the next one... well, I had a feeling Lucy was too petrified to admit that I knew Nick was somewhere in the vicinity to warn the next nurse. I rang my little nurse's bell.

The new LNA was a petite Japanese boy who looked like a kid Kayla went to third grade with. He looked like he was still in third grade. Oh well, he'll do. "I want to go for a walk," I said. "I need a change of scenery."

He blinked at me. "Ma'm," he said, "You have injuries to your leg."

"Can I get a wheel chair?" I pleaded, "I'm just so bored, looking at these same four walls. I need some fresh air."

He paused. "I don't see why not."

"What's your name, sweetie?" I asked, giving him the loving eyes I gave lost children at grocery stores who I asked where their mommies were.

"Christopher," he answered.

"Oh thank you, Christopher," I said. I watched as my little hero went to go get the wheel chair. Eating out of the palm of my hand.



Christopher was pushing me around the wing in circles. Down one side, across a little hallway, up the other side, around the nurse's station, and back down. We'd done this like eight times, my eyes shooting into every room we passed, looking at the patient as unobviously as possible. There were a variety of people in the rooms, some with their TVs on, most were asleep. But I didn't see any that could be Nick.

"Hey Chris, could you do the vitals for Room 213?" called the RN as she walked by, "I gotta check up on 219."

"Sure," Christopher said. He looked at me. "Let me just bring Zoe back to her room..."

"Oh no, not yet," I begged. I tilted my head back. "I don't mind waiting... Or I can actually do this myself." I reached for the wheels.

Christopher hesitated. He looked around the hallway. "Well... Okay. But don't go on any other path than what we've been doing," he instructed. "I'll catch up with you and see how you're doing when I'm done. Just stop if you need to rest, and I'll come get you."

"Got it," I said, smiling sweetly. "Thank you Christopher. You're a dear."

He smiled and quickly bolted off to room 213.

Now I was alone. My plan was panning out perfectly. And I'd learned some interesting information. Christopher had been holding out on me about the size of the wing. There was no room 219 on the loop that Christopher had me on, yet my RN and LNA were responsible for a room 219, which meant the hall Christopher had been bringing me on to connect to the other side of the wing was not the mark of the end of the wing, but merely a halfway point.

I quickly wheeled down the hallway, right past the connecting hall. Oopsie, I thought as I went rolling by. I think I forgot where to turn. I smirked.

Fresh rooms with new faces were flashing past me. My eyes scanned each one, far more openly now that Christopher was gone and couldn't see it when I peeked in. I wheeled along the corridor.

I was just about to turn around as the end of the hall was looming and there'd been no sign of him, when an elevator door I'd passed opened up and three large, uniformed security guards poured out into the hallway, followed by several nurses, two doctors and a couple of guys in scrubs pushing a gurney. I couldn't see who was on it, but I saw a flash of silver handcuffs attached to the side of the bed.

Bingo.

I hung back, watching. They wheeled the gurney down the hall, the little entourage carefully following it in a formation, blocking the patient as much as possible. They turned down the hallway that Christopher had used. I quickly wheeled after them, my heart pounding.

On the other side of the wing, they turned into a room marked 211 and closed the door behind them.

I stopped in the hallway and stared at the door, my hands folded on my lap. On the other side of that door, I thought, Is my boy.

I'm not sure when the maternal feeling had started for Nick. I think it was when Jane Carter showed so little care for him when I'd called her. Every boy needs a mother. Then, he'd looked so much like the son I'd lost... like David's son... that I'd somehow attached myself, forgotten he wasn't mine.

I stared at the door.

"There you are," Christopher said, coming up behind me. "Tired?" he asked.

I shook my head no. "Not yet."

He looked from me to the door of 211, where I was staring. He paused. "What's the matter?" he asked.

I looked up at Christopher. I pointed at the door, "My son is in there."

Christopher hesitated. "What? No, I think you're mistaken."

"No," I said. "I'm not."

Christopher bent close. "I can't tell you who's in there, but it isn't your son."

"I can tell you who's in there, and it is my son," I answered. "Nick Carter may not be biologically my son, but he is my son none the less."

Christopher looked surprised.

I laid my hand on Christopher's hand. I looked up with him with pleading eyes. "I know you aren't supposed to," I said, "And I don't expect you to do it. But," I said the words slowly, "You can't get in trouble if you weren't with me and I did it on my own."

Christopher took a deep breath. "Not yet," he said, "Everyone's still in there." He took the back of my chair and started pushing me forward again. "They'll leave soon."

I smiled as Christopher pushed me around the oval of the nurse's station and we started doing our loop once more... waiting.