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<h1 align="center">Chapter Thirty-Seven</h1>
<br><br>
Nick took a deep breath in and sighed loudly. Jess looked
up at him, worried.<br><br>

“What’s wrong now?” She asked.<br><br>

“Nothing, I guess I am just a little antzy, that’s
all. It’s been a long two weeks and I hate having to wait
for the damn doc so I can be discharged.” Nick replied.<br><br>

“I know, but, you know how doctor’s schedules are.
He’ll be in here soon, trust me, it’s not like you are gonna
be stuck in here forever, is it?” Jess rubbed his back as
she spoke.<br><br>

“I’m just afraid that he’ll come in here and
change his mind. I think I have done a good job at acting
well rested and shit.” Nick stated.<br><br>

“Acting? Nick, you are supposed to be honest
about this stuff, how in the world would you ever get better
if you play games all the time?” Jess questioned him.<br><br>

Nick laughed, “I was just teasing you, sorry.” <br><br>

“Hey, that is one thing I never want to hear come
from you is teasing about your health, do you understand
me?” Jess was looking visibly annoyed.<br><br>

“Easy there, hey, I am really sorry, I didn’t mean
to upset you.” Nick tried to smooth things over with Jess.<br><br>
“Just please, don’t ever make fun of stuff like
that, I mean, geeze, Nick sometimes you can be so stupid
about shit.” Jess said quietly.<br><br>

Nick walked over to the window and looked at the
street. Jess is right, Nick thought, I really shouldn’t
make fun of my health, afterall, she has been with me
through the worst of it. There was an awkward silence in the
room. Neither wished to speak at the moment, both thinking
about the events that had happened in their lives up to this
moment.<br><br>

Thankfully, the silence was interrupted by a knock
on the door.<br><br>

“Door’s open, come in.” Nick said. <br><br>

Dr. Davidson appeared through the doorway. He had
Nick’s chart in his hands. “Hi, Nick, how are you feeling
today?” The doctor asked as he walked towards Nick.<br><br>

“Pretty good, thanks.” Nick was getting so sick
of that question.<br><br>

“Well, it looks like you are fit to go home, what
do you think?” Dr. Davidson asked as he thumbed through
Nick’s chart.<br><br>

“I’ve been ready for the past week.” Nick
responded.<br><br>

“Well, we wanted to make sure that you were ready
to go home before we released you, I would hate to see you
coming in again, I have seen that you have a tendancy to
push yourself a wee bit too far.” The doctor stated.<br><br>
“Yeah, I guess, I’m just a little anxious to get
better and get on with my life.” Nick sounded like a child
that had been scolded as he appologised to the doctor.<br><br>

“Well, don’t appologize to me, I think this has
been a pretty valuable lesson to you, don’t you think? You
must remember to take it a little more easier. For every
time you put yourself back in here, you take almost 5 steps
back in your recovery. You were involved in a very serious
car accident in June and the body takes almost a year to
completely heal from the type of injuries you sustained. To
put it quite simply, you are very lucky to be alive.” Dr.
Davidson said.<br><br>

The final statement stung like someone had stabbed
Nick in the heart. He never at one time ever felt as if he
could have or would have died throughout his recovery. He
thought that the doctor was just being arrogant.<br><br>

“It’s true, Nick, everything that the doctor is
telling you is the truth, that is why we want you to slow
down and take everything one day at a time. We could have
lost you.” Jess could see the look in Nick’s eyes when the
doctor told him that he was very lucky to be alive. She
felt that it was necessary to let him know that this was
true. Nick was being such a risk taker lately and seemed to
not car about his actions lately by pushing himself to do
more than what he was able to deal with.<br><br>

“If you promise me that you will rest, and
absolutely no concerts for the next four months, and
absolutely no rigorous scheduling, I will allow you to be
discharged right now, but if you fail to keep these orders,
Nick, you will be finding yourself right back here again and
again and again. Your body has been stressed from the
accident and you are not giving yourself a chance to
recover. I am serious when I tell you that if you try and
pick up doing another concert before at least waiting for
three months, you will be back here again.” Dr. Davidson
looked Nick directly into the eyes when he talked.<br><br>
Nick’s mind was racing, how could he make the guys
wait for four months before they resumed the tour. They
were just starting out to tour for the Millenium album and
that had been postphoned since June. If they were to
postphone this thing again after trying to restart the tour,
the sales would never be there and they might as well not
even bother singing ever again. Nick was trying to think of
a way out of this one.<br><br>

“Ah, yeah, I understand you completely.” Nick
lied to the doctor, he wanted to be discharged and have the
matter never brought up again.<br><br>

“Good. I will leave some instructions as well as
some prescriptions that you should have filled too.” Dr.
Davidson turned and left the room.<br><br>

Jess put her hands on Nick’s shoulders. “There,
now you can go home and relax in your own bed.”<br><br>

“Thanks, but that wasn’t what I was hoping to
hear.” Nick replied.<br><br>
“Hey, you heard what the doctor told you, you are
to be taking it easy for another three to four months.
Didn’t you listen to a word he said?”<br><br>

“Yeah, I heard him.” Nick replied. He was sure
that he would do what he wanted to do and no one could tell
him what he could do. It was unreasonable to think
otherwise.<br><br>

Jess could tell by looking at Nick that he was
planning on doing something he shouldn’t be. She couldn’t
monitor every single thing that he wanted to do. Her
thoughts were distracted when the door suddenly opened and
Nick’s nurse entered.<br><br>

“Okay, I have three scrips that doctor would like
you to have filled and make sure that you take these as
directed.” She held them out for Nick to take.<br><br>

Nick took the papers and looked at each one. A
puzzled look came over his face.<br><br>
“What the heck are these things for? He’s got
Prozac, Vallium and Restoril. I would think I wouldn’t need
these anymore once I was discharged.” Nick asked the nurse.<br><br>

“Well, you have been on these since you were
admitted, and we don’t want to stop this suddenly. This
would be a shock to your system.” The nurse explained to
Nick.<br><br>

“We will get them filled, and it will be okay.”
Jess answered for Nick.<br><br>

Nick didn’t look particularly pleased with Jess at
the present moment. He was not planning on taking anything
once he was discharged.<br><br>

“Well, that’s all we need. I will call the front
desk and get a wheelchair sent up so you can go.” The nurse
stated.<br><br>

“Hey, can we cut the wheelchair bit, I mean it is
kinda embarrassing, and I am sure that there will be some
type of media hanging around out there.” Nick pleaded with
the nurse.<br><br>

“Nope, hospital rules, that is how all patients
are discharged. I will have someone here in a second,
okay?” The nurse turned and left without waiting for a
response.<br><br>

Nick looked at Jess. “This is insane, what the
hell are we waiting for anyway? Let’s just get out of
here.”<br><br>

Jess nodded and followed Nick out of the room.
They had to figure out how they could walk past the nurses
station without anyone noticing Nick walking by. They
turned around and went into his room again. Nick grabbed a
basket of flowers that had been sent to him. He figured if
he held it up by his face they would not notice him walking
by. He decided to give it a shot.<br><br>
“Are you ready?” Nick smiled a sheepish grin.<br><br>

“You lead, I will follow.” Jess replied.<br><br>

With that, Nick picked up the plant and walked out
the door. He picked up the pace when they walked past the
nurses station. They were busy answering calls from other
patients and talking to a group of girls on the other side
of the station. Nick knew that the girls were trying to see
him. He got a little nervous for a second when he and Jess
filed past them. Thankfully, they got to the elevators.
Jess pushed the down button and didn’t speak a word to Nick
while they waited for the elevator. They both seemed to be
holding their breath waiting for the elevator to come up.<br><br>

Once they got on the elevator, they both started
to laugh, like they had gotten away with the best plot ever
invented.<br><br>

“That was fun!” Nick laughed as he held the
flowers up to still hide his face.<br><br>

“Yeah it was, wasn’t it?” Jess laughed. <br><br>

There were a man and a woman on the elevator and
they looked at Jess and Nick, neither one of the people knew
who he was.<br><br>

As the elevator stopped on the lobby floor, Jess
looked at Nick.<br><br>

“Are you ready for the next step in this?” Jess
asked Nick.<br><br>
“I will never be ready for this, but we have to
anyway.” Nick still hung on to the flower basket as if it
were protecting him from harm.<br><br>

As they walked out into the lobby, Jess noticed
instantly that the reporter that had been there when she and
Brian had left that one day was there. She grabbed Nick’s
arm and pulled him close.<br><br>

“Hey, watch out for this, she is scoping the whole
damn area.” Jess whispered quietly.<br><br>

“Okay.” Nick replied as he kept his head down
hoping to elude this woman. He was wearing a ball cap and a
tee shirt and blue jeans, he was hoping that would be enough
to have them look the other way. <br><br>

Jess happened to notice the gold chains hanging
outside of Nick’s tee shirt. Those were always a dead
giveaway.<br><br>

“Nick, slip those inside your shirt, quick.” Jess
whispered.<br><br>

“Huh? What are you talking about?” Nick asked
back.<br><br>

Jess reached up and took the necklaces and slid
them inside his shirt. She was hoping that no one noticed
the action. Nick’s necklaces were so big and one of a kind
that it would be easily spotted by someone that was looking
for him.<br><br>

The reporter was watching the crowds come and go,
she was scrutinizing everybody that entered and left the
building. Nick felt for sure that they would be discovered
in a matter of seconds.<br><br>
They made it to the front entrance, and Jess
couldn’t walk fast enough to elude the reporter in the
lobby. As they walked out the front door, however, they
were met with a group of paparazzi and reporters who
immediately saw Nick and started up with the cameras and
shouting questions at him. The reporter in the lobby saw
the commotion and hurried out the door after them.<br><br>

The reporters were shouting out questions at Nick
from all sides. Nick couldn’t distinguish one voice from
another and the questions seemed to mingle together and not
make sense. He really didn’t want to take the time out and
answer any questions anyway, so that worked out well.<br><br>

Nick and Jess tried to force their way through the
crowd of reporters. The more Nick and Jess pushed, the more
the reporters seemed to push back and try to keep them from
leaving. Jess could feel the panic rise in her body.<br><br>

“Hey, Nick, what were you in here for and most
importantly, how do you feel now?” A reporter yelled out
from the crowd.<br><br>

Nick tried to avoid the question entirely. As
they tried to push past the crowd, they found that they
could not move away from them. Nick decided that they had
no choice but to stay and answer questions until they were
rescued by hospital security.<br><br>
“I am feeling fine now, thanks for asking.” Nick
replied to no particular reporter.<br><br>

“Is it true that you were admitted for a drug
overdose?” A reporter yelled from the back of the crowd.<br><br>

Nick looked at Jess and chuckled. “Ah, no, no
drug overdose, sorry, that is a new one to me.”<br><br>

“So what exactly were you admitted for then?”
Another reporter shouted.<br><br>

“Um, I was hospitalized for exhaustion. I was
pushing myself too hard to go on tour.” Nick quietly
stated. The words outloud hit him hard, he was feeling like
he had let his friends down. He was making a mental note
not to allow his health to jepordize their careers any
longer.<br><br>
“So you are okay now?” A female reporter asked.<br><br>

“Yeah, I am 100 percent better.” Nick lied to the
crowd. At least he thought he was telling the truth, but
not the whole truth. He didn’t think there was anything
more wrong with him and that he could lead his regular
normal lifestyle.<br><br>

Thankfully, the security guards came to the rescue
before any more questions were asked. Nick and Jess were
escorted over to the durango that sat in the circular drive
near the entrance. Nick didn’t hesitate to climb into the
driver’s side. Jess went ahead and sat in the passenger
seat. Pictures of them were being taken from all sides. It
was a sea of blinding flashes.<br><br>