Chapter Four
Present Day

Brian didn’t like the way everyone was staring at him. Dr. Perry was giving him a look of disproval, the Hispanic nurse was looking downright hostile and the cops just appeared to be confused. He sighed deeply and looked up at the white ceiling. His head was fuzzy, it was the only thing the morphine seemed to be affecting because his other injuries were still agonizing. He didn’t want to know what his body would feel like without the painkillers. “Where’s my wife?” Brian asked, not moving his gaze from the ceiling.

“We haven’t gotten in touch with her yet,” the short Hispanic nurse responded. Brian couldn’t remember her name or if she had ever even told him. “We’ve tried her cell phone and home line several times.”

Brian pursed his lips together. It was odd that Leighanne seemed to be unreachable, she had been at home when he had driven off earlier. He thought maybe it was for the best anyway. He wasn’t sure how he would react to her, especially with his mind so unclear. He didn’t want to say something he would end up regretting.


“Brian? Can we talk?”

Brian looked up from the TV immediately at the sound of Leighanne’s anxious voice. He frowned when he saw her. She looked worried. She was pacing slowly, her glossy blonde hair was pulled up in a ponytail and it bounced with every step she made. “Hey? What’s wrong, honey?” He grabbed the remote and shut off the TV before taking her hands and pulling her down into his lap. “What’s up?”

Leighanne began to cry suddenly, startling Brian. She buried her head into his shoulder and mumbled something inaudible into his shirt.

“Sweetheart, I can’t hear you.. talk to me. Come on..,” Brian cooed to her softly. He rubbed her back and wondered what could possibly be wrong. Only ten minutes ago she had gone upstairs to take a bath and she had seemed perfectly fine then.

After a moment of sniffing, Leighanne picked her head up. She wouldn’t meet Brian’s eyes with her own, she looked off to the side instead. “Brian... While you...,” she paused, trying to find the right words and Brian patiently waited. “I don’t think we should go out with the Taylors tonight,” she finally stated.

Brian shrugged, “Ok, whatever you want is fine with me.” He looked at her, his eyebrows knitted in confusion. Jake and Amanda Taylor were their next door neighbors, at least as “next door” as you can be in their neighborhood. The large mansions had even larger yards. Jake was a retired pro baseball player and Amanda was his much younger wife. They were nice people and Brian and Leighanne often went out to dinner with them.

“That’s it?” Leighanne looked at him, anger creeping into her face. She stood up and walked a few feet away. “Aren’t you going to ask why?”

Brian rubbed his forehead with his thumb and index finger, he could feel a headache forming. “Sorry, of course. Why don’t you want to go out tonight?” He had wrongly assumed that if Leighanne wanted to talk about, she would. He had already asked her to and Brian didn’t want to push her.

She turned around to face him, her ponytail whipping behind her. Her eyes flashed with emotion. “Why don’t you just admit that you don’t care? You don’t care about me at all!”

“Huh?” Brian was on his feet before he realized it. “Wait just a minute, where do you get that from? What is this really about, Leighanne? You know I care about you. I love you.”

Leighanne turned her back to him once more. Brian had to strain to hear as her voice lowered to a whisper, “You’re never here, Brian. You’ve been touring so much... Baylee and I can’t go with you all the time like we used to, he’s growing up and has lessons and practices that he can’t miss.” She sighed and wiped at the tears in her eyes.

“Honey, I know. It’s hard but we’ll work it out,” he spoke softly and wrapped his arms around her from behind. He wanted to comfort her because he understood. The last tour had been hard for him as well. He loved his job and his band. He loved to sing and perform, but he‘d been doing it for a long time and he was getting tired of life on the road. “We’ll come up with something that makes everyone happy. The other guys have been wanting to do their own things anyway. We’ll figure it out, ok? But what does this have to do with the Taylors?”

“You know how you asked Jake to check up on me every once in awhile? I was so lonely, Brian. I missed you so much and I was feeling so depressed. Baby, I’m so sorry,” Leighanne turned around in his arms. Tears were pouring freely and her lips trembled as she spoke. “I love you, Brian. So much.. we can work it out, we can go to counseling or.. whatever you want, just give me another chance.”

Brian dropped his arms to his side and he felt a weird sensation in his stomach as he listened. “What are you saying? Did you sleep with him?”

Leighanne nodded slowly, “Just once, Brian.. and it was such a huge mistake. I wish I could take it back! I.. I had to tell you the truth.. but please, it was just once and it won’t ever happen again.” Desperate, she grabbed his hand and held on to it.

Brian looked down at his wife’s hand intertwined with his. Her wedding band sparkled up at him and he jerked his hand away. “I have to go,” he said, stiff and emotionless. He didn’t bother to look at her as he grabbed for his jacket and keys. Brian didn’t feel the rain as he walked the short distance between his back door and his car. He didn’t feel the cold whipping around him angrily. He couldn’t feel anything, inside of him or out.


“Excuse me, sorry for the interruption,” a large man dressed in scrubs apologized as he entered Brian’s room. “How you doing, sir?” He asked quickly, out of politeness. Brian nodded, recognizing the gesture for what it was. The man appeared to be in a hurry and he didn’t linger on the small talk. “Ms. Carol, sorry to interrupt but Nick Carter is on the phone again. He wants to talk to Jules but I can’t find her anywhere.”

“Julie went home,” Carol responded as she adjusted Brian’s IV. “Thanks to him.” She gave Brian a cold, pointed look.

He didn’t know why she was upset, but Brian knew it wasn’t good to piss off the woman responsible for sticking needles in him. “I’m sorry. Is Julie Young a friend of yours?”

Nurse Carol scoffed at him. Dr. Perry placed a reassuring hand on Carol’s shoulder to quiet her. She turned away from Brian and Dr. Perry answered for her. “I’m sorry, Mr. Littrell. Carol and Julie work together often. We’re a close team here, like family. Some of us take it a little personally when--”

“Julie works here?”

Dr. Perry nodded, ignoring the rude interruption. “Miss Young has worked in the Emergency Department here at Atlanta General for just over a year now. She’s one of our finest new nurses. And she saved your life,” he added at the end, peering at Brian curiously.

“A nurse? That’s not the Julie I know. And what do you mean she saved my life? Isn’t she the one that hit me?”

“No,” Dr. Perry answered. He kept a professional tone as he replied. “She’s the one that called 911. She also performed first aid on you and kept you alive before the ambulance came and the EMTs took over. I’m not sure what makes you think she was the drunk driver involved. If she was, the police here would have arrested her and taken her down to the station. The man that hit you tried to flee the scene but they caught him. He was also driving a stolen vehicle.”

“Oh.” Brian slowly let out a breath he had been holding and closed his eyes. He tried to understand what the doctor was telling him but Brian couldn’t comprehend Julie as anything but a bottom feeder. He vaguely recalled her angrily shouting at him the last time he had seen her five years ago. She had said something about not needing money, that she was going back to school and taking care of herself. Brian hadn’t thought much of it then, he had just wanted her to go away before anyone else had realized she was there. He hadn’t wanted AJ to see her and fall back into old habits. To him, Julie had always been just another one of AJ’s druggie friends.

Julie had apparently been telling him the truth though. He still couldn’t picture her as a nurse, but he knew it had to be true if they were saying it. He remembered the look on her face when he had kicked her out and Brian inhaled sharply. She had looked devastated at his accusations. He realized he would have to find her and apologize to her. Spending any time at all with her wasn’t on his top ten list of things to do when he got out of the hospital but it was his own fault for jumping to conclusions. Julie Young had saved his life. That was something that Brian never would have imagined in a billion years.