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Kevin was told to go out of the room while Dr. Kent, a heart specialist, was taking care of Brian. He sat down at one of the chairs in the hallway and cried uncontrollably with his face in his hands, his arms resting on his knees. What if Brian’s condition had returned? What if he had to undergo surgery again? Would this nightmare ever end? What everyone was scared of, had happened. His cousin ended up here as well.
Nick and A.J. saw him sitting there as they were on their way to see Wendy again. They glanced at each other and hurried over to him. Nick sat down next to him, rubbing his back and A.J. sat down in front of him.

“Kevin, what’s wrong?”
Kevin wasn’t able to talk, he had a huge lump in his throat.
“You need to talk to me, big guy. Is it Wendy?”
Kevin shook his head, trying to regain his strength.
“Just the stress?”
Kevin shook his head again, while trying to get rid of the lump in his throat.
“Kevin, you’re scaring me. Is it Rok? Open up to me, Kev.”
Kevin nodded. “It’s Brian. He was telling me that he hardly recognized Wendy, because of all the machines and her bruises. I held him while he cried and then he suddenly collapsed. I don’t know what’s wrong. Dr. Kent is examining him right now. He’s a heart specialist. They told me to go out here.” Kevin sighed.
They all waited in silence to hear from Dr. Kent, everyone in his own world with his own thoughts. Howie and Phoebe joined them and Nick filled them in on the news about Brian. After that, no one spoke until Dr. Kent came out of Wendy’s room.

“Is any of you related to Brian?” he asked.
“I am, but it’s okay, you can tell us all about his condition. The others are family as well, just not by blood.”
“We aren’t quite sure what’s wrong with Brian, but it definitely isn’t his heart. Its beating is constant and strong, with no signs of his condition returning. We’ll run some tests to find out what it was, but as I said earlier, it isn’t his heart. The nurses will take him to another floor now to run some tests. If we have any news, me or Dr. Greene will come and find you and talk to you.”
The guys were a bit relieved when they heard that it wasn’t his heart, but still, what did cause him to collapse?

Nick got himself and the others something to eat while they were waiting for Dr. Kent or Dr. Greene to tell them what was wrong with Brian. No one felt like eating, but they all managed to eat something. When finished, they went back to Wendy’s room and prayed together, now for both Wendy and Brian’s health. Well, Kevin pretended to pray. In his mind, he was just drifting off. Dr. Greene entered the room shortly after, and asked all of them to follow him to the family room, so they could all sit down and the nurses could check on Wendy.

“This may sound like a ridiculous question, but when was the last time Brian ate?” he asked.
“I’m not sure. Do any of you guys know if he had breakfast this morning?” Kevin asked as he looked at the other three.
“He didn’t, he told me this morning while we were driving over here.”
“Then I guess it was around ten o’clock last night, about an hour before Wendy called him.”
“That’s strange then,” Dr. Greene replied. “We found his blood sugar was very low, so we figured that he hadn’t eaten anything since at least yesterday afternoon. The combination of that, stress and lack of sleep, can cause people to collapse.”
“Well, he didn’t get much sleep last night, that he’s told me right before he fainted.” Kevin said.
“Dr. Greene, right after we found Wendy, Brian got sick and threw up. You guys were already on your way to Kevin’s car. That’s why we weren’t right behind you.” Nick answered.
“Well, there’s our explanation. So in fact, his blood sugar was low, because of lack of food to keep it’s level normal. Then there’s nothing to be worried about. The amount of stress, lack of food and sleep caused him to faint. That often happens when people get into these kind of situations. We did give him something to help him sleep, because of the exhaustion. When he wakes up, he’ll be fine, physically.” Dr. Greene got up, but stopped at the door. “For now, we put him in Wendy’s room. That way we can keep a close eye on him, and you don’t have to go back and forth between the two of them.”
The guys had huge smiles on their faces, so relieved that it wasn’t anything major. They hugged each other and started to make little jokes again.

“Are you Mr. Richardson, Littrell, Dorough and Carter?”
They turned around to see who was there. “I’m Kevin Richardson, this is Nick Carter, Howard Dorough and Alex Mclean. Brian Littrell has just been admitted in this hospital as well.”
“I’m sorry to hear that. I’m Jack Thomassen and this is my partner, Josh Stanson. We’re here to take your statements about what happened to Ms. Hamilton last night. Mr. Carter, would you please go with detective Stanson and Mr. Dorough, would you please come with me?”
After they took all of their statements, detective Thomassen said:”We will need Mr. Littrell’s statement as well.”
“You can’t, not at this moment,” Dr. Greene stated as he walked into the family room. “He just collapsed this morning and he needs his rest. We’ll call you when he’s able to give his statement.”
“But..”
“We will call you, detective Thomassen.”

Thomassen and Stanson turned around to get back to the station. Howie was behind them while they were walking to the car, he himself was on his way to see Phoebe, who decided to go outside for a moment and get some fresh air. He couldn’t help but overhearing their conversation.

“I can’t believe people are still this stupid nowadays.” Thomassen stated.
“I know what you mean. Going into the park by yourself at that hour is just like asking for trouble.” Stanson replied with a sigh.
“She probably was asking for it anyways, looking way too sexy or something.”
Howie was about to explode at that moment, he just couldn’t believe what he had just heard.
“And because of that, we’ll be working overtime again. Stupid little b*tch.” Thomassen cursed.

“Don’t you ever dare talking about her like that again!!” Howie exclaimed.
Thomassen and Stanson turned around and all of the blood drained from their faces. “We didn’t..”
“Just get the hell out of my sight! Get OUT of this hospital and prepare yourself. I won’t leave it at this.”
Howie’s body was shaking as he turned around and went back to the family room, still stunned with what he had heard.

After Howie told the other guys what he had just heard, he called the police station and he filed a complaint about the the detectives. He was told that there had been more calls about their behavior and they would no longer handle Wendy’s case. Nick was still angry about what they said about Wendy and if looks could kill, Kevin, A.J. and Howie would no longer be standing on this earth. “I really need to wake up from this nightmare. I don’t think I can take much more. First Wendy gets hurt, then Brian collapses and now these two bastards.”
“Well, we won’t be hearing much from those two. Another detective, McGraw, will take over her case. She will come and talk to us tomorrow. She will need our statements again, but I’m more than happy to give them to her instead of ever having to see Thomassen and Stanson again.” Howie replied.

Dr. Greene interrupted the conversation. “Brian just woke up and he’s asking for you. All four of you to be precise. He’s doing fine, still a bit drowsy from the sedative though. Just let him wake up some more and then you can tell him about the epileptic shock and the rape. His health is not in any immediate danger. We checked his heart and it’s just fine. And if you do think something’s wrong, we’ll be right around the corner.” With those words, Dr. Greene left the family room. The guys sighed and looked at each other. They knew they had to do this, but none of them liked it one bit.

~~~~

“Hey Rok, how are you feeling?”
“I’m fine, Nick. I will have to stay in this bed for the rest of the day though.” Brian yawned. “Dr. Greene told me what happened. I’m sorry I scared you like that, cuz. I just didn’t feel like eating and didn’t know this could actually happen.”
“I know, Brian. We had to force ourselves to eat as well this morning. But don’t worry about it. We’re all just extremely happy and relieved that you’re fine.” Kevin hugged his cousin. “Kev, I still need to breathe..” Brian chuckled. That made the other guys burst into laughter as well.
“Is there any news on Wendy, Alex?” That caused an immediate and awkward silence.
“Uhm..”
“Well? Nick?”
“Uhm..”
“Howie? Tell me, you guys.” Brian’s voice was now filled with worry and fear.
Kevin sat down next to Brian, with his face in his hands, lost for words. Brian asked them to tell him a few more times, and then just waited for someone to open up to him. By the looks on their faces, it was very difficult for them to tell him what he was about to hear, and that scared him, big time. Kevin finally found the strength to look his cousin in the eyes and tell him what they had been hiding from him.
“Brian, Wendy went into epileptic shock last night. Dr. Lockhart called to tell me just minutes after you called me. I rushed over here right away, but thankfully they already managed to stabilize her.”
“Why on earth didn’t you call me?” Brian snapped.
“He didn’t call any of us, Rok. Kevin fell asleep with his head resting on her bed. We found him like that this morning. We were planning on telling you when you got here, but before we could, you fainted.” A.J. decided not to tell Brian that they didn’t tell him rightaway because they were scared of how his body would react. Besides, this wasn’t a very big lie, now was it?
“Are you sure she’s okay right now? Don’t hide things from me to protect me, Dr. Greene told me that my heart is perfectly fine.”
“I’m sure, Brian. I talked to Dr. Greene this morning. But me and Dr. Greene did hide one thing from you.”
“You and Dr. Greene?! What? And why?!”
“Dr. Greene didn’t want to tell you, because he wasn’t sure you could handle it at that perticular moment. He didn’t think it was the right time to tell you. And I agreed with him. I’m so sorry Brian, but Wendy was raped last night.” Kevin’s eyes filled up with tears. “Please don’t be mad that we chose to hide it from you, it seemed like the right thing at the time.”
Brian didn’t respond. “Wendy was raped last night. Raped last night.. raped.. raped..” It just kept repeating in his mind. He started to feel dizzy, so he put his head back on the pillow, just staring at the ceiling. Raped last night.. A tear ran down his cheek and onto the pillow, leaving a path for the tears to come. Nick put his hand on Brian’s shoulder, but he didn’t react. He turned his head to the right, looking at Wendy. He wished she was closer to him, so he could hold her hand. But for now, he was right beside her, in his mind he held her close, lost for words as well.