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Blind Rage - Chapter Sixteen

~*~*~*~*~

Jason Whise let himself into Lizz’s room. He was a little nervous at how she was going to react when he told her that she had been falsely accused of murder. What if she did sue? Almost to his relief, she was asleep. At least he wasn’t going to have to deal with her just yet.

“What are you doing in here?”

Jason jumped at the angry voice. He turned around and immediately recognized the woman standing there as Lizz’s nurse, Sheila. She was glaring at him.

“Some of our information was misunderstood and the charges against your patient have been dropped. You can remove the restraints.” He informed her, his voice cold and hard.

“Oh that’s nice!” Sheila spat. “The damage has already been done! Do you realize the severity of the situation? I seriously doubt that you even have the slightest notion so let me clue you in. This poor girl, along with her friends, was kidnapped and terrorizied. Someone beat the hell out of her and shot her. I can’t even begin to understand what she went through. She can’t talk about it. Anytime someone tries to ask her about it, she starts shaking. Not only is her physical health in very serious condition, but her emotional health is extremely fragile. Tying her down caused her to have a panic attack and she had to be sedated. When she woke up, she panicked again and had to be sedated again. And now you are telling me that we can remove the restraints?! Well how nice of you!”

“Oh spare me the sob story. My client went through equally as tramatic experiences. She lost her boyfriend and will probably be paralyzed for the rest of her life.” Jason retorted.

“You came down here to tell me that I could remove the restraints right? Well you did, now get the hell out of my patient’s room.” Sheila narrowed her eyes into angry slits.

Jason smiled cockily at her and left the room. Sheila sighed heavily and went to remove the restraints from Lizz’s wrists and ankles. Being under sedation still, Lizz didn’t even stir. Sheila brushed a strand of hair of Lizz’s face and sighed again. Lizz was so alone. Her best friend was still missing and everyone’s families that were involved were not allowed near the hospital. If they did, Kyung died. Sheila knew at this time that there were only three people that Lizz would let near her without panicking. She didn’t know anything about Brian’s condition and the last she heard about Nick was that he had amnesia. That was what they had said when he was admitted. Sheila left Lizz’s room finally, trying to come up with something.

~*~*~*~*~

“Damnit, I could kill her for screwing us like this.” Dale muttered as they drove down the winding dirt road. They seemed to getting further and further out in the middle of nowhere. He was driving and Marcus sat shotgun. Kyung was tied down in the seat behind them. The suburban’s heater was broken so the three of them suffered in the cold temperature.

The longer this went on, the more Kyung worried that she wasn’t going to make it out of this alive. Macus was growing steadily more angry with her as every hour passed. It was only a matter of time before he let all his anger go on her. Kyung’s thoughts drifted to Lizz, Brian and Nick. She was so worried about them and not knowing what was going on was killing her.

~*~*~*~*~
Nurse Laura Shelton hung a new IV bag on her patient’s pole. He had been slipping in and out of consciousness for the past few days, but he had finally woke that morning. He was still very weak from surgery and the damage from the fluid that had built around his heart and, by the looks of the dampness of his hair, Laura suspected that he was running a temp. “Nurse?” Brian called out weakly. His nurse obviously didn’t hear him so Brian tried calling out for her again. “Nurse?” “Hi, what can I get for you?” Laura asked cheerily. Brian attempted to clear his throat, hoping that would make his voice sound a little stronger. “My friends?” Laura nodded at Brian’s question. “I’m sorry, but I really don’t know too much about them right now. Do you want me to check for you?” Brian managed a slight nod. “Okay, I’ll do that, but first I need to check to see if you’re spiking a temp, your face looks pretty flushed,” the red haired nurse said as she placed a thermometer into Brian’s ear. Instantly, the beeper went off on the small, white device. “Ah, just as I thought, 102.4,” Laura remarked as she looked at the reading on the thermometer. “Okay, let me tell your doctor about the temp and then I’ll check and see how your friends are, okay?” As Brian watched his nurse leave the room, his thoughts went back to Nick and Lizz. The last he remembered was hearing a gunshot and a man carrying Nick’s body saying he accidentally shot him. Brian couldn’t remember anything after that and wondered how long he had been out of it.
~*~*~*~*~
The police officer’s voice had a harsh edge to it. I didn’t waste any time getting the hospital gown off and slipping into the boxer shorts and the bright yellow coveralls. I couldn’t help but notice the words LARGO COUNTY JAIL PRISONER in bold black letters across the back of the coveralls. “Snap to it Carter, I don’t have all day,” the guard grumbled. I started to speed up on putting my socks on, then something struck me as being odd and I stopped. “What gives you the right to force me to jail? I haven’t done anything!” I insisted. “You wanna play tough guy now woman beater?” The officer had a sick sneer on his face. “Guys in there lump you in the same category as a child abuser, they’re gonna have fun playing with your candy ass. Don’t make me have to call for back up cause we’ll drag you screaming from here if we have to.” I still couldn’t understand why they were accusing me of hitting a woman, it made my head hurt trying to make sense of it. I sat on the edge of my bed and folded my good arm across the sling on the other one, I didn’t plan on moving for no one. “Okay, then the fun begins Carter, you ass,” the guard said sharply before he pulled his walkie talkie off his belt. “Mike, we need six backup room 815, stat!” Within a course of a few minutes, six uniformed state troopers entered the room. I tried my best to plant my feet on the ground, my body on the bed to no avail. Whether I wanted it or not, they were going to take me from the hospital to the jail. Desperate, I started jerking my body up and down, tried to squirm away from their grasp. One officer grabbed deep into the shoulder that had been shot, I screamed out from the firey pain it produced. I was oblivious to the stares and the flashes of light, which I assumed were camera flashes. I didn’t care I needed to get away from these people that were taking me away and had no right to do so. Once on the elevator, they literally dropped my body to the floor. “Now Carter, you can either cooperate or you can make an ass of yourself when we hit the main floor, your choice,” a short, fat county police office smirked. “I’ll be good...... I’ll be okay,” I lied. I had better plans when we reached the ground floor. “Just in case,” a policeman said as he wrapped a thick, heavy chain around my waist twice and then linked it through handcuffs and snapped them onto my wrists. The door ringed as it opened up to the hospital lobby. I ducked my head and bolted past the policemen in the elevator, running as fast as I could towards the doors. I could hear the footsteps ensuing behind me as I ran barefooted across the tiled floor. People were standing off to the side, staring and gasping as I ran past them. They must have thought I was a murderer or some really bad criminal. I set my sites to the exit doors, but to my dismay, it was packed with people standing in front of it either entering or leaving the hospital. I had no other choice as I lowered my head and took the large plate glass window next to the door....
~*~*~*~
My eyes flew open as I felt like a thousand needles were stabbing my body all at once. I had been awake for the past hour feeling incredibly uneasy. That clenched feeling that I had grown accustomed to had come back, full force. I knew that it had to do with Nick. I wasn’t having a full blown panic attack like I had done before so I just laid there and tried to stay calm. When this sudden explosion of pain hit me, I started to panic. I heard the beeps of the heart monitor get more rapid.

“Lizz? Sweetie, what is it? Shit!“ Sheila burst in the room. She took in the monitors and then her patient breathing hard, eyes wide with fear. “Lizz you need to calm down. What is it? What’s wrong?”

“Hurts...please...he...he...” I gasped.

“What hurts? Who?” Sheila pressed.

I couldn’t even reply to her. I couldn’t catch my breath. All I could picture was that something had happened to Nick and visions of Dale, Marcus, and Terri only heightened my panic. It was like we were all back in that basement.

“Lizz breathe!!” Sheila tried to remain calm herself. In her 7 years of being a nurse, she had never seen a patient react this way. She called in some help and once again, the only thing they could do was sedate Lizz. Lizz wasn’t doing herself any good by getting so worked up. Her injuries were already serious and they were playing with some kidneys that were on the verge of failing. Now these panic attacks were only adding to the danger. If this kept getting worse like this, they were going to lose her.

~*~*~*~*~

Brian’s nurse Laura headed downstairs to the main floor. She thought Nick Carter would have been on the same floor as Brian, but he wasn’t there. She tried to call down to admitting multiple times, but after being put on hold a half a dozen times, she decided to just go down and see for herself. As she exited the staff elevators and walked around the corner, her jaw dropped at the scene before her. A man in bright yellow prison garb was running through the lobby with six troopers and a couple of county policeman on his tale. Her shock doubled when she saw that the escapee was Nick Carter. He seemed to hesitate briefly when he saw the press of people up against the main doors. Camera were flashing at a blinding rate. Then seeing no other choice, he ducked his head and charged through the plate glass window. Everyone seemed frozen in motion as he let out a cry as the glass shattered upon impact. Laura gasped and raced over to him. The troopers were already surrounded him. A few more were trying to get the crowd to back up.

“Let me through! Let me through! I’m a nurse!” Laura cried, shoving past the people that stood in her way.

Nick was hunched over on the ground, covered with blood. She knelt down by him.

"Let me see, hun." Laura tried to get a look at where he was bleeding from. He was covered in tiny glass shards.

He shrank away from her touch, yelling out.

"I'm a nurse! I'm not going to hurt you. Let me see where you are hurt." She said softly, yet urgently.

He finally looked up at her. He was going to say something, but one of the officers cut him off.

"He did this to himself. The prison infirmiry will check him over." He said gruffly.

"Absolutely not! You don't have any idea how injured he is. He needs to stay here at least until we can make sure that he didn't do some serious damage." Laura argued.

"Forget it lady. He has already proven that he is a threat." The same officer snapped at her.

"What are the charges against him?" Laura demanded. "That's none of your..."

A short, fat officer cut off the first one. "He attacked two women. One of which is in critical condition and the other is a parapalegic now."

Nick's head shot up. He beat up two women? What the hell?! There has to be some mistake! He thought to himself.

Laura immediately noticed the look on Nick's face. It was of total confusion. He had no idea what they were talking about and he looked horrified that they would insinuate that he would do such a thing. That made her even more determined to help him.

"Whatever the case, he needs to be checked out first." She insisted.

"No can do." The troopers scooped him up and dragged him through the crowd of people toward the van that had pulled up alongside the curb. Camera flashes were going a mile a minute and Laura could see the tears of humiliation streaming down Nick's face. She stood there helplessly as the van pulled away. Almost immediately people started to ask her questions and she ignored them all as she ran back inside the hospital. There were a ton of security around now. Some were cleaning up the glass, but most were trying to control the crowd.

Laura couldn't stop thinking about what had just happened as she headed for the ICU floor. She just couldn't believe that Nick Carter would beat two women as seriously as they say he did. When she reached the ICU's front desk she asked to see Lizz's nurse. To her mild relief it was Sheila. Sheila had worked on Laura's floor before moving to ICU so they knew each other well.

"How are you doing Laura?" Sheila looked very tired and weary.

"Been better. How's your patient? Brian Littrell is my patient and he has been asking about her." Laura replied.

"Not so hot. I don't even know what to make of it. Her kidney's are on the brink of failure and she was beaten pretty bad. She's got punctured lungs, broken bones, the whole nine yards. I'm more worried about her mental state though. She woke up awhile ago calling for Nick. She said that something was wrong and then started having a panic attack. She had to be sedated. Then when she woke up, she was having another one and she kept repeating 'hurts' and 'he...he' over and over. She hyperventilated and had to be sedated again. Her lungs are already weak and this is making things a lot worse for her. She won't even talk to anyone. Whatever happened when they were kidnapped, she seems like she keeps reliving it. Or she is convinced that something is wrong with Nick Carter." Sheila explained.

Laura's eyes widened. "Do you know that he has been arrested for assault on the daughter of the kidnapper and also Lizz? A bunch of troopers were trying to escort him out and he tried to make a run for it. He ended up jumping through a plate glass window. I tried to insist that he be taken care of before he left, but they wouldn't hear of it. There wasn't anything I could do."

"What?! You have got to be kidding me! Is he okay? He wouldn't attack a woman though! Besides, remember what happened last spring? He and Lizz stayed really close friends after that!" Sheila exclaimed.

"Maybe that is why she keeps freaking out. You said she won't talk to anyone right? Still...I can't believe that either." Laura frowned. "Brian keeps asking about them. Shit! How the hell do I tell him that his best friend is in jail and his other friend is..."

"Getting worse? I don't know. How bad is Brian? I don't know who else that could reach her at this point." Sheila interjected.

Laura shook her head. "He's not in that good of condition himself. He's spiking a temp and he's really weak from the surgery."

"And what about Nick? Are the parents still being instructed to stay away? Where are the other band guys? Can they help?" Sheila asked.

"I don't know..." Laura rubbed her eyes.

"So, basically we're in trouble here..." Sheila sighed. "They are the only ones that know what is going on with each other and none of them can even help each other."

By the time Laura returned to Brian’s room, pulmonary services were already there giving him a breathing treatment. She thumbed through his chart and read the report that indicated that the pneumonia had settled into both lungs. His condition further complicated the pneumonia since Brian was unable to move around as of yet. Brian’s eyes met hers and she knew exactly what her patient wanted. “Just wait and relax and do the treatment, we’ll talk after that, okay?” Laura laid his chart on the counter, her back to him. She was wondering how she’d be able to explain what was going on with Nick. This was going to be difficult no matter what she told him. She felt her body tense as she heard the final hiss of the medication going through the mask. “You sound much better, I’ll be back in two hours to give you another one,” the respiratory tech stated to Brian as he placed his stethoscope around his neck. “Thanks,” Brian replied, weakly. Brian waited for the tech to leave the room. “How’s Nick?” Brian blurted. “Shhhh,” Laura said as she placed her stethoscope on his chest, preparing to chart his progress. Brian waited anxiously for her to finish, he dutifully took deep breaths and let them out for her, coughing each time. After Laura finished writing in his chart, she walked over to his bed and sat down beside him. “Okay, I’m not sure how to begin this, but I guess it’s just better to say it instead of beating around the bush,” Laura said. “Initially, Nick was in this room with you, do you remember that?” Brian shook his head no, afraid of where this was leading to. “Well, once Nick didn’t need ICU services anymore, you know, sort of like graduated from intensified medical care, they moved him to a private room towards the end of the hall on this floor,” she paused, making sure the information was registering. “Okay, do you remember anything about possible charges being brought against Nick?” Again, Brian shook his head no. “Well, they placed him under house arrest, which was another reason why they moved him from this room to a new one.” “Why?” Laura shook her head. “I’m not totally sure, they were saying that he had beaten to women, one of them was Lizz and another woman was named Terri, who is permanently paralyzed because of the assault.” “I don’t understand,” Brian stated slowly, struggling to breathe. “Nick didn’t.” “I’m sure Nick’s lawyer is looking this over, try not to worry about his,” Laura said as she patted Brian’s arm. “Can I see him?” Brian asked. “Sorry, he was just discharged a little bit ago,” Laura apologized. “Why didn’t he stop here?” Brian asked, softly. “He, um, couldn’t, they have him in custody, remember?” Before Brian could respond, AJ walked into the room. “Hey Bri! Wow, you should see the lobby! Man, there’s broken glass and blood all over the place! They said some dude from jail tried to escape.!” AJ stated as he dragged a chair from the corner of the room over to Brian’s bed. “Nick,” Brian said quietly, looking at his nurse. Laura nodded in agreement. “I’m sorry, I tried to help, but they wouldn’t let me.” “Holy shit, that was Nick that went through that window?” AJ asked. “He’s okay though, right?” “From what I could see, he had a lot of cuts and scrapes, but they really wouldn’t let me go near him,” Laura replied. “How’s Lizz?” Brian asked. “Ironically, I ran into her nurse right after seeing the commotion in the lobby. She said that Lizz was holding her own, but was having setbacks of a possible kidney rejection and the panic attacks she’s been experiencing. I found out from her that when Nick has one, or when something happens to him, she feels it too.” “Yeah, we know all about that,” AJ replied. “It’s kind of been a long standing thing between Nick and Lizz.”