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Chapter Twenty-five








Jess and the guys were literally camped out in the
lobby at the hospital. They anxiously awaited any news
about Nick. It was hours ago when Dr. Gaynor talked to
Brian and Jess. Kevin had left a message for Nick’s mom and
dad to call on his cell phone, but so far they hadn’t
returned the call.


Finally, a nurse approached Brian and said that
Dr. Takagheshi would like to speak with him. Jess stood up
and walked with Brian to a conference room off the lobby.
They sat in the small room waiting for this doctor to come
in and talk to them about Nick.



A tall thin man wearing a white lab coat entered
the room. The name Dr. Takagheshi was embroidered over the
left front pocket.


Holding his hand out, he introduced himself to
Brian and Jess.



“I am Dr. Takagheshi, cheif of neurosurgery. Dr.
Gaynor requested I look in on Nick.” As the doctor sat
down, he sighed. “I looked over the results of the MRI, CT
scans that Dr. Gaynor had ordered on Nick. He has had what
appears to be clots for quite sometime, quite possibly
before the trauma of the car accident. I’m not sure what
would have caused it, more than likely he had a blow to his
back at one time or another within the last few months.”



Jess tried to think of when that would have
happend. Brian was doing the same and he suddenly recalled
when that could have happened.



“He fell offstage about three months ago and
landed on his back. He said he was fine.” Brian said.



“That could have done it. Anyway, what I will
have to do now is operate on Nick to remove the blood clots
and try to stem the bleeding that is still going on. The
clots are causing the paralysis because it is blocking the
signals from his central nervous system. We will do the
surgery and will have to keep Nick suspended in a drug like
coma for two to three days afterward to keep his body still
so that he can recover. We will know if we have prevented
premanent damage once he is out of the coma. I won’t lie to
you, time is against Nick right now, the longer we wait, the
worse he could be, these clots are pressing on nerves and
could permanentally damage them. Nick will be prepped for
surgery within the hour. Are there any questions?”



“How long will the surgery take?” Jess asked
quietly.




“Anywhere from five to ten hours, I’m not sure.
This is something that can’t be rushed into. Anytime you
are dealing with the spinal cord, you have to be extremely
cautious and delicate. I would guess if Nick is done within
eight hours, we would be doing great. I’ll see you in
awhile.” Dr. Takaghesi stood up, shook Brian’s hand and
patted Jess on the shoulder.



After the doctor walked out of the room, Jess
burst into tears. Brian hugged her to comfort her. They
walked slowly out of the room and into the lobby to tell the
guys what was going on. AJ’s reaction to the news was more
of a violent one, as he slammed his fist down on the table.
Howie and Kevin appeared to be as shocked as Brian and Jess.



“This isn’t goddamn fair.” AJ spoke bitterly. AJ
usually didn’t swear like that in front of Brian but he was
so upset that he wasn’t thinking about anything but the
unfairness of the whole situation.



Jess put her arm around AJ. AJ slowly started to
relax. Kevin and Howie just looked shocked. They felt like
everything was starting to fall apart around them and they
didn’t have any control over the situation.



The group decided to go to the cafeteria for
coffee while they waited. They knew that this was going to
be a long day for them, not to mention Nick. Each of them
were secretly praying for Nick but on the same hand also
praying that the news of this would not spread out to the
media again.



As they walked down the hallway towards the
cafeteria past people, there were quite of few strangers
that recognized them. The guys just kept walking and
talking like there was nothing amiss. Jess was in the
center of the group and just walked along with them, not
speaking.



They found a booth in the back of the cafeteria
and sat down. Some people were intentionally walking
towards the back of the room to look at them sitting there.
It didn’t take too long before they were approached by two
teenaged girls holding pieces of paper and a pen.


“Um, could we get your autographs, please?” The
girl that appeared to be older than the other one spoke
nervously.



The guys looked at each other. Brian had a sly
smile play across his face.



“Sure, Jess, you sign first.” Brian said as he
took the piece of paper and the pen.



“Me? Why me? They don’t want my autograph.” Jess
looked at Brian like he had brain damage.



“Oh, we don’t mind, I mean, after all, she is with
you guys so she must be someone important, right?” The
older girl spoke up, again nervous.


“Yeah, she is important.” Brian smiled.



“Who are you, are you a girlfriend or something?”
The younger girl asked.



“Yes she is.” Brian, AJ, Kevin and Howie said
together.



“Comeon guys, stop it.” Jess was started to get
embarrassed.



As Jess signed her name on the piece of paper a
girl put it together who she was.



“Ohmygod, you’re Nick Carter’s girlfriend, aren’t
you?” The older teen spoke out, almost too loudly.



The guys instantly hushed her to be quiet, they
didn’t want a crowd to come over.



“If you’re here, where’s Nick?” The younger girl
demanded.



“He’s busy right now.” Kevin answered.


The guys passed the paper around quickly to get
the girls away from the table. They didn’t want to answer
anymore questions.



“He’s not back here is he? Oh, god, I hope not.”
The older girl asked.



“Thanks ladies.” Brian handed the paper and pen
back to the girls.



“Is Nick here?” The girl persisted.



“I said thanks.” Brian did not want to answer the
question.




“He is, isn’t he?” They kept waiting for an
answer from the group.



“Hey, we signed the paper, isn’t that enough?” AJ
was getting annoyed.



The girls turned and left. AJ can be intimidating
when he wanted to be.



It wasn’t ten minutes when a another cluster of
girls appeared at the booth. This group was accompanied by
an adult.



“We don’t mean to bother you, but could you give
these girls an autograph, please?” The man asked polietly.



AJ held his hand out. He didn’t say a word to
them, he was starting to get stressed and was afraid if he
spoke he would say something he would regret later. The
guys didn’t say anything to the group of girls, they just
wrote their names very quickly and passed the paper onto the
next person.



“Where’s Nick?” A girl asked in the group. “I
thought he was out of the hospital.”



The adult came to the rescue before anyone in the
group had a chance to respond. “If he isn’t here with them,
then he must be here someplace else. I’m sure he’s okay and
it’s none of our business where he is so just leave it at
that girls.”


The guys smiled at the adult and said thank you to
him. The girls were obviously disappointed that they didn’t
find out where Nick was, but were thrilled to have
autographs.



Kevin leaned close to the table. “Man, do you
think we could find a place where we won’t be bugged so
much?”



“I don’t know, we’ve been here for about ten
minutes and have been interrupted twice. I don’t like
that.” AJ replied. “You know that the media will be
finding out about this soon.”



“Let’s hope not.” Jess said quietly back. “That
will mean security guarding the door and the whole bit.”



“Let’s see, Nick has been in surgery only an hour
and a half, he could be there for another three and a half
or more, there aren’t too many places to be at right now.”
Brian said.



A nurse approached the table. “Hi, my name is
Lynnette and I’m work on the pediatrics floor. I couldn’t
help but notice you guys, aren’t you the Backstreet Boys?”



“Yeah.” AJ replied quickly.



“Would you ever been interested in coming up to
the pediatrics floor and visiting with some patients some
time? It would really brighten their day, especially the
kids that are sick with cancer.” The nurse asked quietly.



“Yeah, sure sometime maybe.” AJ answered.


“Thanks, I’m sorry I didn’t mean to bother you.”
The nurse turned away and left.



“AJ, I think you came across kinda short to her.”
Jess put her arm around AJ. “Soften up.”



“I’m sorry, but I hate getting bugged at a time
like this. Everybody wants something all the time, we get
no privacy anytime.” AJ appologized.



“Yeah, but AJ, if people stopped bugging you guys,
you would be out of a job because they wouldn’t be listening
to you anymore, would they?” Jess pointed out. “We’ve got
over three hours to kill before Nick is even possibly out of
surgery, don’t you think it would be nice to do something
like this for the kids?”



The guys looked at one another. They seemed to be
hesitant about doing it.



“Comeon, guys, it’s for the kids.” Jess insisted.



“Alright, I guess it would be fun to do it.” AJ
answered, much to the shock of the rest of them.



“Great, then I will go over to that nurse and tell
her for you guys, okay?” Jess asked.



The guys nodded and watched Jess walk across the
room to the nurse that had spoken to them.


“Hi, Lynnette? I’m Jess and I’m sorry that AJ
seemed to be short with you, but he has alot on his mind
right now and he can be a little intense.”



“Oh, that’s okay, I understand, I guess.” Lynette
smiled at Jess. The other nurses kept eating while Jess
stood there.



“Anyway, I talked to them and they agreed to come
up to the pediatrics floor and visit the kids if you would
still want them to. We are going to be here for a little
while and I told them it would be a great thing to do.”



“Oh, that would be great. When can they come up?”
Lynette asked.


“When you’re done with your lunch, I guess.” Jess
answered.


“Okay, then I’ll come over to your table when I’m
ready and then I can take you there.” The nurse smiled.



“Okay.” Jess said and turned to go back to sit
down with the guys.



“The nurse will come over here when she’s done
with lunch.” Jess informed the guys as she sat down.



As Jess was talking, Kevin pulled up his pager and
looked at the message. “Nick’s parents must have finally
got my message, excuse me, I gotta find a phone to call
them.” Kevin started to slide over and Brian stood up to
let him out.



“I wonder if his mom and dad will come back from
California with the kids when they find out what’s happened.
Aaron is starting his touring and they decided it would be a
fun summer vacation to go as family.” Jess wondered
outloud.



“I don’t know what they’ll do.” Howie spoke
quietly.



Kevin was gone for a few minutes and came back
into the cafeteria. He was hard not to notice and there
were a few heads that turned to see where he was going.



“I talked to Bob and told him what had happened.
They are in San Diego right now. I told him to wait until
Nick comes out of surgery before they decide what to do.”
Kevin said as he sat down next to Brian.


The nurse again approached the booth, but this
time she had some of her friends with her.


“Are you ready to come with me?” She asked.



Brian and AJ lifted their cups and finished off
their coffee. They all moved out of the booth and followed
the nurse out of the cafeteria.



The guys knew that this was an important thing to
do for the kids, but they were nervous about doing something
like this. They got on a staff elevator with the nurses
and, of course, the elevator stopped at every floor to let
hospital staff and some patients on and off.



The time on the pediatrics floor went by quickly.
The kids were suprized and happy to see the Backstreet Boys.
A few of the kids asked where Nick was. Jess thought it
would be a good idea to tell them that he was sick and the
doctors were taking care of him.



Brian finally suggested to the group that they
should be going. It was getting close for the time that
Nick should be out of surgery.



The nurses asked them if they could take a picture
of the guys with some of the patients with them to put on
the wall in the hallway. Kids and nurses gathered with the
guys and Jess agreed to take the picture.



“Thank you, you guys have made their day.” All of
the nurses spoke to them in unison.



The guys replied by saying thanks and waiving.
Jess walked out with them to the elevator.



“See, now that wasn’t so bad, was it?” Jess
asked.



“It was okay, I guess, a little sad though.”
Brian said.


“Yeah, but you made someone’s day and that is
something that no one could ever take away from them.” Jess
reminded them.