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“Rok, just sit down for five freaking minutes, man! It’s making me frantic.” Nick said as he tugged Brian’s shirt as his older friend kept pacing up and down the small waiting room. “I just can’t, Nick. I just can’t.”
“Bri, please sit down, getting upset won’t help her in there!” Kevin said as he looked towards the hallway where the operating rooms were. And he didn’t want his cousin to end up in the hospital again as well, he quietly thought to himself. “For just this once, Kev, don’t baby me. My health is perfectly fine, and nothing will happen with me, alright?!” Brian snapped at his cousin, as if he had read his mind. Kevin thought otherwise, but was wise enough not to respond. “How long has she been in there now?!” Brian now really began to panic. “It’s been three hours or so,” Howie replied, “but I’m sure the doctor will come and talk to us as soon as they finished the operation.” “I know.”
Half an hour later Brian finally sat down, staring at the wall, but seeing absolutely nothing. He was thinking of all the memories they shared. Thinking of them brought a smile to his face, but at the same time a tear was rolling down his cheek, because he was afraid of losing her.
“I’m going to get something to drink. Anyone else want something?” No one answered, so A.J. went to find a vending machine. He really wasn’t that thirsty at all, but he just had to get out of that waiting room for a minute or so. The tension in there was killing him. He got himself a bottle of water and just stared outside of a window for a moment. Just hang in there, sunshine.. He always called her that. He didn’t even remember how that started, but he knew she liked it. She was his sunshine, she had always been, but it became exceptionally clear when he went through the darkest period in his life. While he was in rehab and therapy, she somehow always managed to make him laugh so hard that he ended up crying. Of course he had the guys supporting him in every way they could, but it was different, talking to a woman about it. She just has to get through this, she has to. We all need her down here, we really do.

In the mean time, Howie almost fell asleep in the waiting room.
“How the hell can you sleep at a time like this?” Brian snapped at him.
Howie startled, and sat up, rubbing his eyes while his head turned red. He looked at Brian, ashamed of the habit that sometimes really got him in trouble. “I..I..Sorry man, it’s not as if I don’t care.”
“You have really weird ways of showing that then.” Brian replied as he raked both hands through his hair.
“Bri, I know you’re upset, we all are, but you don’t have to snap at all of us. That ALSO won’t help her.” Kevin sounded angry. “At times like these we need each other most and you know that as well as I do.” Brian didn’t reply. Sometimes he hated Kevin for always being right. He looked up as he heard the door, but was disappointed to see A.J. come back in. About five minutes later, the doctor finally showed up.

“Please stay seated. I’m Dr. Greene.” The doctor said as he walked in the waiting room, sitting down across the five men. He looked at the chart he was holding. “Wendy’s just on her way to the Intensive Care.”
“How is she? Will she be allright? Why does she have to go to the IC-unit? Can we..”
“Brian, let the doctor do the talking for a moment.” Nick spoke softly while he put an arm around Brian’s shoulder as if that would keep him safe from what was about to come. Nick already saw that things were bad, very bad. He could tell by the way the Dr. Greene looked at them.
“She was very weak when you brought her in. We discovered that she has been beaten in the face for at least ten times. She broke her nose because of that. But we also found out that she had a very serious head injury. It looks like her attacker hit her head on some rocks quite a few times.”
“But she’ll be okay, right?” Brian asked in fear.
Dr. Greene sighed, and decided not to answer that question just yet. First he had to tell them everything that had happened to her. Well, not everything. “The attacker didn’t quite stop there. He also stabbed her six times. Some of her internal organs were heavily damaged, that was why there was so much blood.”
The guys were in shock, but Brian managed to ask again: “She’ll be okay, right? Please tell me she’ll be okay.”
“We don’t know, sir. She had a CAT-scan, and we saw some brain damage. We don’t know how bad it will be and what functions will be affected until she wakes up. Unfortunately, that may take a while. Her body was hurt that bad, that she slipped into a coma.”

“But she will wake up, right?” Howie asked. Dr. Greene said there was no way to be sure of that. After hearing that, Brian broke down. He buried his face in his hands and just cried uncontrollably. Nick held him, but Brian shook him off. His world just fell apart and even the touch of his best friend was too much right now. Nick broke into tears at that point as well. He just felt worthless. They weren’t there for Wendy when she needed them most, and now he couldn’t even be there for his best friend. A.J. stormed out of the waiting room and just ran for the door to get some fresh air. When he reached the parking lot, he just fell to his knees and cried. The tears kept coming and he didn’t feel the need to control them in any way. Back in the waiting room, all the guys were crying, except for Kevin. He wanted to be strong for everyone else, like he always was. Dr. Greene asked him to follow him to his office, across the hall.

Dr. Greene opened the door and gestured for Kevin to step in and take a seat. After both men sat down, Dr. Greene had something to tell Kevin. “There’s something else I need to tell you, but I didn’t want to break more bad news to Brian, with his heart condition, I just didn’t want to put him at risk.”
Kevin was surprised Dr. Greene knew about Brian’s condition, since the surgery was a few years ago, and for some reason he didn’t think Dr. Greene was a big fan of their music. “But how do you..”
“My daughter’s a fan.” Dr. Greene explained. “She told me Brian’s story a few times, because as me being a doctor, she wanted me to reassure her that Brian would be allright with the surgery and all.”
Kevin nodded. “But.. what do you need to tell me? Things can hardly get any worse.”
“Believe me, they can.” Dr. Greene let out a sigh and paused for a minute. “Kevin, she wasn’t only attacked, stabbed and almost killed, she was raped too.”

He couldn’t believe what he’d just heard. This was too damn much for him to handle. Tears of anger built up in his eyes as he walked out of Dr. Greene’s office. He started walking towards the waiting room too see how Brian was doing. But he realised he just couldn’t go in right now, not just yet, not like this. He leaned back against the wall with his head hanging down. How could anyone do this to her? He couldn’t believe God could be this cruel, well, he wasn’t sure anymore there was such a thing as God. And now what was he supposed to do? He couldn’t tell Brian. He already fell apart when he heard about the other stuff that had been done to her. The last thing they all needed was him ending up in hospital as well. But Kevin also knew that his cousin would instantly notice that something was bothering him.

“I just can’t tell Brian, not just yet..I must stay strong.”
“You can’t tell him what?” A.J. said as he approached Kevin.
“Jesus, A.J., you scared me the shit out of me. I didn’t even realise I was talking out loud.”
A.J. shrugged. “Sorry big guy, but what is it that you can’t tell Bri?”
“Nothing man.” A.J. rolled his eyes at the older man. “Owh come on, you know I won’t fall for that. Now tell me, what is it? I won’t tell Rok, allright. The last thing we need is for him to end up here as well.”
“I just thought of the same thing. Dr. Greene told me that she was hurt even worse. She’s been raped, Alex.” At this point even Kevin broke down. Tears were rolling down his cheeks just like they did three years ago. A.J. was shocked, both from the message that just hit him very hard, and from seeing Kevin like this. “Please, tell me this is some terrible joke that got out of hand.” “I wish it was, Alex, I wish it was.”
A.J. couldn’t cope with what he just heard. He just went numb, both body and mind and couldn’t move a muscle.

“Why are you crying, Kev?”
“Jesus, Howie, you gave us quite a scare there.” A.J. as he jumped when he heard his voice of his friend who seemed to be coming out of nowhere. “Well, Alex, now you know what I just felt like.” Kevin said while he tried to fake a smile through his tears. “How’s Brian doing, D.?”
“Not that good. He hasn’t stopped crying, but he wouldn’t let Nick or me hold him or comfort him in anyway.
I just pray this won’t affect his heart or anything. But now tell me what you guys were talking about. By the look on your faces I would say it’s like someone just got killed.”
“That’s almost the truth, D. Dr. Greene told me that Wendy was almost killed tonight. But the attacker didn’t only almost take her life. He took something else as well.” Kevin closed his eyes. Saying it once was horrible, saying it twice almost undo-able.
Howie’s eyes darted back and forth from Kevin to A.J. and back, trying to figure out what they were not telling him. “I don’t understand, Kev. What are you trying to tell me?”
Alex interrupted. “Listen D., you can’t tell Rok any of this, allright. He could hardly take the other news. He probably couldn’t handle this, I know I hardly can.”
“Alex, you’re scaring me. Kev, you’re not making any sense. What in the world happened to her?”
Kevin shook his head and let out a sigh. “She was raped, D.”
Howie’s jaw just dropped, he closed his eyes and almost stumbled, but he put one hand on the wall for support. “How.. she...what the hell...oh my God..” He then continued to whisper in Spanish, leaving the other guys in the dark to what it was he was saying. Suddenly he stopped whispering, so they all just stood there silently for about 10 minutes, when they heard Nick’s voice coming from the waiting room. “Brian, nooooooooooo!!!!!!!”