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Kristin walked through the hallway, a bouquet of flowers in hand. She stopped in front of her husband’s door, staring at it, hesitating to go inside. Through the window in the door, she could see a nurse tending to him, adjusting some of the machines and checking his IV connection. When the nurse was done, she grabbed her clipboard and made her way out of the room. As soon as she opened the door, she was greeted by Kevin’s wife.

“May I help you?” the nurse had asked her.

“Hi, my name’s Kristin Richardson,” she introduced with a warm smile. “I’m Kevin’s wife, I was just visiting, that’s all.”

The nurse smiled back, “Oh, why hello. You sure are one lucky gal to be married to handsome man such as him, I swear, old women like me just don’t know how to find a man such as yours! You may go inside though, I was only checking his stats. The good news was that his heart and brain activity improved from yesterday, in fact, they have been improving over the days this week. I’m on my way over to Dr. McNorton to report the good news, he should be pulling through in no time. Do you have a vase for those flowers?”

Kristin had looked down at her bouquet, “Oh, no…”

“Here sweetie, let me take it, I’m on my way over to the desk anyway, and I’ll grab a vase for you.”

“Thank you so much,” Kristin said as she handed the flowers over to the nurse.

“No problem…” she said as she began to walk away. “Oh, and in case anything happens or if you need anything, don’t hesitate to hit the nurse button, it’s on the right side of his bed.”

Kristin nodded, turning to face the room. She slowly walked in, closing the door behind her. She stood there for a while, trying to bring herself to walk towards his bed, she just couldn’t. She turned and had grabbed the door knob, wanting to run out of the room, but something was pulling her to stay. She released her grasp on the door knob, turning to look at his still body. Hesitantly, she began to walk towards the right side of his bed, glancing over all the machines that were hooked up to him.

As soon as she was at his bed side, tears sprung to her eyes. There was a bandage that was wrapped around his head, and his face seemed stern and a bit swollen. She slowly rose her hand and began to gently run her fingers through his hair, tickling his scalp.

“Hey baby…” she whispered. “the nurse said you should be pulling through in no time… you don’t know how glad I am to hear that. You’re the only one we’re all waiting for… both Howie and Brian are healing fine, Nick too… AJ’s conscious, now we’re just waiting for you baby. I know you can hear me… can you open your eyes for me sweetie?” she waited for something, anything, but he remained still, his eyes shut.

She gently grabbed his right hand, being careful not to disturb the IV needle that was there. “C’mon honey…” she said as she gently squeezed his hand. “open your eyes for me.” she waited once again, and only got the same results.

She sighed, “I know… it takes time, I’m just… I’m just anxious to see you babe, I can’t wait any longer to see your eyes… to hear your voice. I need you Kevin… and I don’t mean to sound selfish, but I need you now, so does your mother, your family and fans… the fellas.” She fell silent for a while. “I’ve brought you flowers honey… the nurse took it to go and put it in a vase of water, which I should go and check to see if she’s coming back with it…”

She had released her grasp on Kevin’s hand when she said that, but then, she felt pressure on her hand, his hand was grasping onto hers. She leaned in closer to his bed, hovering above him, waiting to see if his eyes would open. His eyes fluttered open slowly, and the monitors that were hooked up to him began to beep faster. As soon as he was able to keep his heavy eyes open, he slowly glanced over towards his wife, who was near in tears.

“Baby?” she softly ask, making sure that he was really conscious and that she wasn’t just envisioning it. “Baby, if you can understand me, I want you to squeeze my hand, can you do that for me?”

Kevin continued to stare at her, not doing what she had asked. It wasn’t till later he began to respond, squeezing her hand to let her know that he could hear her. Kristin’s smile grew even bigger as more tears spewed from her eyes. She reached over the railing on the side of his bed and had clicked the nurse call button. Within seconds, two nurse had entered the room, and Kristin had tried to back away to make room for them, but Kevin refused to let her hand go.

“You can stay there,” the nurse had told her. “We’re just going to remove the tubing from his lungs.”

Kristin nodded and had walked back towards the bed, squeezing his hand. They took off the tape around his mouth and began to pull out the tubing. As soon as it was out, he began to cough and wheeze for air, grasping his wife’s a bit too hard. Once the tubing was out, his grasp began to relax a bit, until it sort of fell limp. Both the nurses exited the room, leaving Kristin alone with her husband once again.

Kristin began to gently run her fingers through his hair once again, watching him as he took in gulps of air. Once his hissing, aching lungs had gotten enough air, he looked over towards his wife and grinned, “Hi…” he croaked, and then began to cough.

She placed her finger on his lips, suppressing his coughing spasms and preventing him from saying another word. “Shh… don’t say anything baby, just breathe…”

A few minutes passed, then Kevin was able to suppress his coughing fits. He looked up at her and reached his hand out, shaky but slow, he caressed her face. She simply let her eyes drift closed and smiled when she felt her husband’s touch for the first time in a long time.

She grabbed his hand and brought it away from her face. “Baby,” she took a pause to kiss him on his palm. “I’ve missed you…”

He smiled, “How could you miss me when I’ve been here for the whole time?”

There was a knock on the door, and both of them turned around to find Dr. McNorton peering in. “I hope I didn’t interrupt anything.”

“No,” Kristin replied. “Come on in doctor…”

Dr. McNorton pushed the door open more fully and had walked in, walking towards the other side of Kevin’s bed. “Sorry,” he apologized. “Just came here to check his stats, I promise I’ll be out in a quick minute.”

He pulled out a small flashlight from his coat pocket and clicked it on. He began to shine it in Kevin’s eyes, observing the way his pupils would shrink. “Hi Kevin I’m Dr. McNorton, do you know where you are?”

“The hospital” Kevin replied in a monotone voice.

“Do you know who this woman is on the right of you?”

Kevin looked over towards Kristin, “My wife.”

“Do you remember what happened?”

Kevin faltered to reply. When he became conscious, he wasn’t aware of his surroundings and situation at first, until Dr. McNorton asked him questions. He tried really hard to think, but come to think of it, he couldn’t, for the life of him, remember what had happened, why he was there, what had got him there. “No.”

“What’s the last thing you remember?”

Kevin thought for a while, his mind backtracking as best as it could. “I remember… a bus… leaving somewhere on a bus…”

Dr. McNorton nodded, writing down a few things on his clipboard. “Uh huh… go on.”

“I remember… we were at a venue, weren’t we? The fellas and I had gotten done with a show, and we left on a bus to the next city… don’t know where though.”

“Okay,” Dr. McNorton continued to nod. “Do you remember when this was? The date of your last concert?”

His head began to hurt as his mind continued to dig deep through his memories. “November… November 13th I believe…”

“I see… and is that all you remember?”

Kevin fell silent for a while, was that really all that he had remembered? “Yes… why doctor? What is this all about?”

Dr. McNorton stopped writing on his papers. He looked up at Kevin, and then had glanced over towards Kristin, as if making sure it was all right for him to tell Kevin what happened. Kristin simply nodded. “You were involved in a severe accident… your bus crashed to be exact. The tire of your tour bus popped and the bus driver lost control of the vehicle.”

Kevin’s eyes widened, they’re tour bus crashed?!? “Wait, what… when did this happen? Where’s Brian and them? Are they alright, are they still alive?”

Dr. McNorton held up his hand to prevent him from blabbering anymore. “Please Mr. Richardson, calm down. The four of them are fine, but if you don’t calm down, I won’t tell you anything more.”

Kevin nodded like a little child. Dr. McNorton began to discuss the injuries each of them suffered from the crash. Kevin could only stare at the doctor, wide-eyed at the new information he was receiving. He glanced over at his wife, who was silently crying, and then had looked back at the doctor. “Wait, there was someone else on the bus…
someone else was with us…” he tried his hardest to remember who it was. “It was… Aaron, that’s it! Aaron was with us as well, what about him? Is he okay?”

Both Dr. McNorton and Kristin looked at each other. “I’m sorry,” Kevin’s eyes closed. “Aaron was… he didn’t make it.”

Kevin remained silent for the longest, eyes shut tightly. Kristin grabbed his hand and began to squeeze it. “Baby?” she called out. “Baby, please… don’t shut us out like this. Please, talk to me Kevin…”

Kevin’s eyes opened, revealing glassy, green orbs. “Thank you doctor.” he mumbled, squeezing Kristin’s hand in return.

Dr. McNorton nodded and turned to walk out of the room, leaving the two alone once again.

“I’m sorry sweetie…” Kristin whispered, raising Kevin’s hand to her lips, kissing the top of it softly and gently. “Are you okay?”

Kevin continued to stare at the closed door, not wanting to allow the new information to sink in. “I’m okay… I’ll be fine, I just need to rest some more, that’s all.”

Kristin nodded and had leaned down to kiss him on his forehead. “I’ll leave you be… I’ll be back to check on you later, if you need anything, just hit the nurse button on the side of your bed.” She kissed him on his cracked lips, tasting a bittersweet mixture of dried blood and salty tears, mixed with the sweet taste of the lips she had been longing to kiss again. “I love you Kevin…”

Kevin licked his lips, tasting his wife on them. “I love you too baby…” he whispered, watching her as she made her way out of his room. As soon as the door closed, his eyes drifted close as well. He was now beginning to regret ever waking up.