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Chapter 8

Nick brushed away a single tear that had found its way to his cheek. They had been there all night and they didn't hear anything about AJ's condition. All they could hope was that the doctors would be able to save him. That was the most important thing. Even though Nick wished that he knew what was going on at that very moment, he tried to remain relaxed. Which had just about become impossible. He was tense from head to toe. His mind was filled with worries about AJ. Nick ran his fingers through his hair and let out a long sigh.

"He's going to be alright," Kevin assured Nick, "AJ has overcome a lot and he's going to pull through this like he pulled through everything else. I know he will."

"I didn't know that you were awake," Nick said lightly. Kevin smiled.

"Didn't get much sleep. Maybe about a few minutes but that's it. I was way too worred to even begin to let myself get a decent rest."

"I know the feeling," Nick confessed, "I didn't sleep at all. Not only was I worried but I kinda felt guilty. Brian got another phone call last night. He didn't want to tell security because he thought that something like this would happen. AJ thought that we should tell security so he went to tell. Brian went to stop him but I told him to just let AJ do it. That's when it happened."

"It's not your fault Nick," Kevin told him, "AJ was just trying to prevent this. He would have gone no matter what either of you guys did, he's like that and you know it."

"But if we had just went into the hallway with him, this guy wouldn't have had the chance to get AJ," Nick thought, "we could have done that."

"Nick you couldn't have stopped this. If you were with him, he would have shot you too," Kevin tried to explain, "this guy obviously doesn't care who he hurts and he would have gone after you too. It's not like he had anything to lose."

"Not if me and Brian were there. I don't think he would have attacked us because there was a greater chance that one of us would be able to get away. We, I, could have stopped him at least until morning. Or he could have just called security instead of going out alone," Nick said.

"Don't go killing yourself over this. It won't change anything," Kevin informed Nick, "we just have to wait and see if AJ's alright. That's all we can do right now." Nick nodded. Kevin forced a small smile to hopefully comfort Nick. Visually it did, but emotionally, nothing had changed. Nick was still over run by fear. Fear that AJ would die. On the way to the hospital, his condition only worsened. He hadn't told the guys because he didn't want them to worry any more than they already had been. Also, he wasn't sure if he would have been able to tell them anyway. He was still in shock about it himself.

"Morning guys," Brian said. Nick and Kevin looked over at him. He looked like crap, but then again, they all did. These past few hours had been very hard on them all. Espcially AJ.

"Hey Bri," Nick answered, "how'd ya sleep?"

"Horribly. I kept hearing the voice," he confessed, "that was all that was on my mind. I couldn't get myself to think about something else. Everytime I thought I had it out of my mind, it all came rushing back. So anything new about AJ yet?"

"No," Kevin said, "we were waiting for some news ourselves."

"You guys didn't get any sleep?" Brian asked.

"Very little," Kevin answered.

"I don't blame you. Trust me, if you did get some sleep, you wouldn't feel much different," Brian commented, "I'm still tired so it really wasn't worth the effort actually."

"Gentalmen," a voice interupted, "you are here on behalf of Mr. McLean I assume."

"Yes we are," Kevin answered quickly.

"What is your relation?" the doctor asked.

"Cousins," Brian lied. The doctor nodded and took Brians word.

"Well, I'm doctor Johnson and I'm here to tell you guys that he's alright," he imformed them, "he is actually very lucky. Everything just happened to work out for him. Meaning that if he had arrived here ten minutes later, we wouldn't have been able to save him. Also, the bullet just missed his heart. Which as you know if it had hit there, he would have died on the spot. We had to remove the bullet which took a extremely long time. It was a delecate operation. Like I mentioned, it was in a crutial part of his body. Thankfully we had some amazing doctors here last night and they saved him."

"So he's alright. He's going to live?" Brian asked the doctor.

"Yeah, but he's going to have to stay here for a few days just so that we can make sure that he heals correctly. Other than that, he was very lucky."

"When can we talk to him?" Nick asked.

"Well, he's still sleeping. Last night was a stressful night. But I will be sure to inform you guys as soon as he awakens and you can go in there," he answered, "maybe you guys might want to go home, get some sleep and something decent to eat. Because to tell you the truth, the food here isn't all that good. You can go home knowing that he's alive and he will be alright."

"We'll consider that, but I'm sure that we all would probably like to stay for awhile. I think that once we all talk to him, we'll really know that he's okay cause we've seen him for ourselves," Nick told the doctor.

"I understand," the doctor said softly, "you guys are welcome to stay. I'll make sure that you are kept up-to-date about Mr. McLean's progression."

"Thank you very much doctor," Brian said shaking the doctors hand.

"Don't mention it. I was only doing my job. I was more than glad to help," he told Brian, "and I'm sure that the rest of our staff was as well." They remained silent as the doctor left the waiting room.

"Think we should wake Howie and tell him?" Nick asked innocently.

"Yeah," Kevin answered softly. Nick nodded and walked over towards Howie. Nick put his hand on Howies shoulder and Howie jumped.

"Chill man," Nick said a little startled by Howies reaction, "It's only me. I was going to tell you that we just talked to AJ's doctor."

"Sorry Nicky, I'm just a little jumpy," Howie apologised, "so how's AJ?"

"He's going be to alright. The doctor said that everything just happened in his favor. If anything was done differently, it might have cost him his life," Brian answered seriously.

"So he came really close to dying?" Howie asked with almost all of the color in skin gone.

"Yeah, but thank god that he's alright."

"Can we see him?"

"The doctor said that he's still sleeping. He said that he would get us as soon as AJ woke up and we could go and talk to him," Brian informed him.

"Did he give you any indication of how long that was going to be?"

"None at all," Kevin answered for Brian.

"So what do we do now?"

"We just wait. That's all we can do," Nick regretfully replied. Waiting proved to be the hardest part of their situation. The doctor had told them that he would be alright but each of them still had their doubts. None of them would be completely convinced that AJ would make it until they talked to him for themselves. Not only that, but they wanted to tell him that they were happy that he was still with them. Once this happened, they all reevaluated exactly what importance each of them held for each other. They were like brothers. The past nine years of their lives have been spent with each other, achieving their dreams.

Hours pasted and they heard no change in AJ's condition. Security had been posted outside of AJ's door just to make sure that no one who wasn't cleared to be in the room was able to gain access. They had actually been watching over AJ's room since they had arrived. They even waited outside of the the operating room when AJ went in just to be sure. Nick had gone over there several times trying to convince the guard that was assigned the post at the time to let him in. Each time he was told to wait until the doctors gave him clearance. Each time, Nick left slightly fustrated. Though he knew that they were just doing their jobs, he wished that they would let him see AJ just for a minute.

"Anything new?" Nick asked when he walked back into the waiting room where the rest of the guys were still waiting for word.

"No," Brian answered with slight disapointment in his voice.

"They still won't let me in to see him," Nick told them.

"You act like you're surprised. You knew that they weren't going to let you in until the doctors said that it was okay. They are doing what they have been told to, which I think should make you feel better because you know that no one is getting in there that shouldn't be there," Kevin explained.

"Yeah I know but I just really want to see him. Waiting is killing me," Nick whinned.

"We all want to see him but we all have to wait. You're not alone little Bro. We all want to go in and see him too."

"Maybe one of us should go and find his doctor so that we can ask him if we can see him yet," Howie suggested.

"He said that he would keep us up-to-date about his condition. Maybe nothing changed yet and that's why we haven't been notified," Brian reasoned.

"Still, he should have at least let us know something. We've been sitting here, waiting. He could have at least looked in at us once in a while," Howie argued, "How many hours have we been sitting here?"

"Three or four," Brian told him.

"Something had to have happened in that time. There has to be some kind of change," Nick thought out loud.

"Not nessicarily," Brian informed Nick, "he could stay in the same condition for god knows how long but I hope that he snaps out of it soon cause I would like to go home and take a shower and get something to eat."

"Why don't you go back to the hotel really quick?" Kevin suggested, "We could all take turns. Brian you could go and shower and then I could go or Nick or Howie could go. That way someone is always here and can call whoever it was that left and let him know what's going on."

"I'd rather stay for now," Brian answered, "if later on we decide to go to the hotel then that will work. I would just rather hang out here for a while."

"Alright but the offer still stands just incase you change your mind."

"I know, thanks."

"Gentalmen," the doctor said as he stepped into the waiting room, "I apologise for not keeping you guys as updated as I wanted to. There has been a lot happening today and this was the first chance that I got that I was able to come over here and talk to you guys. Just because I haven't been talking to you doesn't mean that I haven't been watching over Mr. McLean. He is doing amazingly considering the condition that he was in when he arrived. I talked to your security before I came here and told them that you guys can go in there at any point from now on. He needs the support to help. I've noticed that when a patient has people around them that care then they are more likely to recover and I support that. So go visit him and let him know that you're here."

"That won't be a problem," Nick told him, "the problem will be getting us out of here." The doctor smiled at Nicks comment.

"Thats understandable. It's hard to leave someone that you care about alone especially after something like this has happened," the doctor said, "I just want to let you guys know that their is a possibility of emotional problems that will come with this. He might have bottled up anger and, in like most cases, end up taking it out in the wrong ways. Or he could be overcome by fear. Never wanting to be alone because he's convinced himself that this is going to happen again. It all depends on the personality of the person who goes through it and how they take it. Each case is different, but I just wanted to let you guys now what might occur in the future."

"Alright. So should we prepare for the worst?" Kevin asked curisouly.

"I don't know how to answer that," the doctor confessed, "You are the ones that know him well enough to notice any dramatic changes in his personality. I'm not sure how Mr. McLean is going to handel this. You really can't predict this because who would ever imagine that this would happen to a person? All I can tell you to do is help through whatever course his mind takes him on. There is really no way to prepare for that because like I mentioned, you don't know how he is going to react to this. If things become bad, then I suggest a phycologist."

"That would be in AJ's best interest right?" Brian asked.

"Of course it would. I wouldn't suggest anything that I didn't think would help. But it all depends on how he's affected by this. Just keep a close eye on him. That way you can prevent things from getting any worse."

"So can we see him now?" Howie asked.

"Of course you can, but if you have any more questions, feel free to ask me. I would like to be of any service to you guys."

"We'll send any questions that we have your way. Thanks a lot for helping us out. It really helped us to know what we might have to prepare for," Brian said.

"I'm just glad that I could help you," the doctor said leaving the room. In no time, they were up from their seats and heading towards AJ's room. It was a great feeling to finally be able to talk to him and to know how he felt. Moments later they arrived at AJ's door where security was waiting; watching. Nick was the first one to reach towards the door. This time security made no attempt to stop him. Knowing this made him grin because he was finally going to be able to do what he so despriatley wanted to do, talk to AJ.

"Bone?" Nick said lightly when he walked into the room with the other guys behind him. There was no responce. They all looked at each other, disapointed.

"I guess we should wait until he wakes up," Howie suggested.

"You figure that all by yourself D?" AJ's voice came. Instantly they turned their attention to where AJ lay.

"AJ's back," Nick said jokingly.

"You know it Kaos," he replied.