"Here, I thought you could use this," Brian said softly as he held out a cup of coffee to Kevin. Kevin was hunched over in a chair, head buried in his hands. He didn’t move, didn’t react to hearing his cousin. Brian sat down gingerly in the chair next to Kevin’s and looked across the hospital waiting room at the other members of the Backstreet Boys, as well as Denise, Kevin and Jamie’s parents, and other family members.

Jamie had been rushed to the closest hospital to the Lexington hotel where they had been staying. Kevin never left her side, riding with her in the ambulance, and he had to be physically pulled away from her as Jamie was wheeled into the operating room. The others had met up with Kevin fifteen minutes later in the waiting room. When they had walked in the waiting room, he was already sitting in the chair in the same position and hadn’t moved one inch or acknowledged their presence in any way. Several hours later, the only sign of life in Kevin was an occasional shaking of his shoulders as he cried.

"Kev, please drink this. Please," said Brian. He placed a hand on Kevin’s shoulder, and he jerked up at Brian’s touch. Kevin stared unseeingly through Brian, a little wildness visible in Kevin’s green eyes. Brian’s own eyes widened at what he saw, and sent yet another quick prayer to God that Jamie and Kevin would both be all right.

"Kevin," Brian said again. Kevin blinked, and saw Brian sitting there, holding out the cup of coffee, a concerned expression on his face. The wildness and desperation still remained in Kevin’s eyes, but it dimmed a little.

"Rok," he said hoarsely. "Is she. . .is she dead?" Kevin braced himself for the answer he expected to hear by closing his eyes and compressing his lips together.

Brian bit his lip. "No," he replied calmly, hoping that Kevin would hear it and calm down as well. "No, she’s still in surgery, Kev. She’s still fighting. Just hold on a little longer, man, please. We’re all here for you, Train." He still held out the coffee, and Kevin finally noticed it. He took the cup, but set it down absently after some of the hot beverage shook out of the cup and onto his hand. The cup caught only the edge of the table in front of him, and fell over, splashing onto the floor and his shoes. Kevin didn’t seem to notice what happened, but Brian jumped out of the way and went to get napkins to mop up the mess.

Brian handed Kevin one of the napkins, who stared at it as if he didn’t know what it was. "Your hand, Kev. You burnt yourself on the coffee," said Brian gently. Kevin’s gaze moved down to his left hand, where coffee had caused his hand to turn bright red. But Kevin didn’t see the burn; all he saw was the etched gold ring on his ring finger. He remembered the look of pure happiness on Jamie’s face as she said her vows and pushed the ring onto his finger the day before. Overwhelmed, he gasped and closed his eyes tightly, although tears escaped and spilled down his face.

"I can’t lose her, Bri. I just can’t," he said so softly Brian wasn’t sure Kevin had actually spoken. Brian took the napkin, brushed Kevin’s hand with it to clean it up, then put an arm around Kevin to comfort him.

"You won’t, Kevin. Jamie is too stubborn to go anywhere just yet," said Brian. Kevin weakly smiled back and said quietly, "Yes, she is."

The others in the room watched Brian and Kevin, and all were relieved when he finally smiled at Brian rather than staring blankly at him. AJ, Nick and Howie took it as a sign to come over and talk to them. They tried to take Kevin’s mind off of why they were in the hospital. On some level, they were successful in that Kevin relaxed a little, and even smiled once in a while at their awful jokes and various impressions. But Kevin never really forgot where he was or why he was there, and as nurses and doctors passed by him, he raised his head expecting them to have news about his wife.

The others in the room let his bandmates take care of him, and they held their own vigil quietly on the other side of the room. They seemed to understand that as close as they all were to Kevin, it was going to be AJ, Brian, Howie and Nick who would get him through this crisis in one piece.

Lunchtime came and went. The guys tried to convince Kevin to leave the waiting room and go eat something with them in the cafeteria, but he refused to go. "No, what if the doctor comes out and I’m not here?"

"Kevin, we’ll leave word that you’re in the cafeteria. They will come get you, I promise. The doctor will find you. We’re not asking you to leave the hospital, but you need to eat something," pleaded Brian. Kevin shook his head, and told them to go on without him, "I’m staying here."

Sighing, Brian rose off the floor from where he had been kneeling in front of Kevin. The others asked again, but this time Brian was the one shaking his head. "No, he won’t go."

"Well, we’ll bring something back for you then, okay Train?" asked Nick. Kevin nodded absently, staring at the floor towards the middle of the room. The four of them looked at him sadly, then turned and walked slowly out of the waiting room to the cafeteria.

They returned half an hour later, carrying sandwiches and sodas for everyone. They all ate in silence, each of them glancing over at Kevin every once in a while. He never touched the sandwich, which remained wrapped up in front of him. He didn’t notice the others, but stared blindly at his hands, idly twirling the ring on his left hand.

It was mid-afternoon when a doctor in blood-stained surgical greens finally came into the waiting room. Lowering the mask, he walked over to Kevin and asked, "Mr. Richardson?" Everyone in the room looked up when they heard his voice.

Kevin looked up, eyes wide, and nodded slowly. The doctor had a serious look on his face, not a smile. Kevin shivered and saw the world go fuzzy at the edges. He gripped the chair’s arms tightly and tried not to black out.