The Florida sun hit Jessica’s face as they walked out the front entrance. She squinted and was momentarily blinded by it’s brightness. Once her eyes adjusted, she glanced over at Brian and noticed that he had already had his sunglasses and ball cap on. It was a way of life for these guys lately to hide their faces. Nick didn’t have to worry too much about being seen, Jess guessed it was his mannerisms - he didn’t seem paranoid, but neither does Brian.

There was a small group of people on the front lawn that were standing and holding candles and pictures of Nick. Jess could hear Nick’s voice singing. It was strange.

“It’s funny how it never takes long for fans to find out where you guys are.”

“Yeah, sometimes it can be pretty annoying.” Brian was relieved to think that the group on the lawn didn’t recognize him. They seemed to be checking everyone that entered and left the hospital. It may be the way Jess and he were walking together, arms linked. No one would suspect him being there anyway.

“Could you have found a parking place further away?” Jessica teased Brian.

“Hey, it was the only one I could find and I sure as hell wasn’t going to use the valet - now there would be an instant clue as to Nick being here once someone found me out. I hate using valets anyway, you can’t imagine the stuff they could do in your car.” Brian looked at Jess and winked.

The ride home for Jess was long. She did not like being away from Nicky and was afraid that something would happen while she was gone. When Brian pulled up to her house, she literally jumped from the vehicle and yelled back, “Come on in and make yourself at home,” while she went through the front door. Brian shrugged his shoulders and got out of the car and followed her in.

Jess took the fastest shower in her life. She was going to dry her hair but decided that would take too long and opted for it to dry naturally on the way back. She pulled on a comfortable pair of jeans and a loose tee shirt. She knew that it was necessary for her to be comfortable and not fashionable so she didn’t really care how she looked. She brushed her hair out and applied her make up and grabbed some extra things and shoved them into a bag.

“Okay, I’m ready to go.” Jess announced when she entered the living room. Brian was sitting in the lazy boy watching MTV. “Wow, that was fast. Hey, they have an update on MTV news about Nick.” Brian turned up the volume.

“Nick Carter of the Backstreet Boys was involved in a serious car accident Saturday afternoon. One person was killed as a result of the accident. Carter was taken a Tampa area hospital were he is currently in critical condition. We will keep you updated as further information is released.”

“Oh, thank you for the privacy. This will be great now. Do you know how many people will be hanging out at the hospital?” Brian was disgusted with the report. It really was a violation of Nick’s privacy.

“We’ll just have to make the best of it. Come-on, let’s go.” Jess pulled on Brian’s arm. Jess asked Brian to drive down the street where the accident happened.

“Are you sure you want to do that?” Brian looked at Jess worried.

“Yes, I need to . Are you okay with doing it?” she almost forgot that it could be difficult for Brian.

“Yeah, I can do it.”

Jessica and Brian were quiet all the way there listening to the radio. Brian had it on the oldies station and Jess closed her eyes while she was listening. Nick almost always had his stereo on the oldies.

As they approached the intersection, Jessica could see long screech marks where Nick had applied the brakes in vain. There were flowers on every corner, it looked like some kind of shrine. There were a few girls standing around and it looked as if they were crying. They had a few minutes to look at the intersection since they had to wait for a red light.

“I can’t figure out how that guy just pulled in front of Nick, it looks like he would have a clear view of the traffic from all sides.” Brian sighed.

“Brian, we will never know what that man saw, we can’t blame him for what happened, his family is grieving also, we just have to accept it and go on.”

Brian nodded slowly in agreement, thinking of what Jess had said while looking at the intersection. There were pictures of Nick and flowers on every corner. Some girls were standing off to one side crying.

“I called Leighanne this morning after I found out. She is out of the state visiting her family. I don’t expect her to be coming back here for another few days. She wanted me to tell you that she will be praying for you guys.” Brian was trying to think of something to lighten up the ride back to the hospital. He needed to talk or he was afraid he would lose his composure.

“I’m glad you called her. I will be anxious to see her when she gets back. She is really a crazy person, isn’t she?” Brian smiled, “Yeah, she can be cute at times, but that’s why I love her so.”

As they pulled into the parking lot at the hospital, they noticed that the front lawn was filled with people. It was something they both knew would happen once the accident was out on the news. Brian seemed to be a little nervous when they parked the car. He put his baseball cap on the opposite way he usually wore it and put his sunglasses on. Jess knew that he was afraid he would be recognized and that all hell would break out.

“Just walk with me and stay close. Act like we’re in no hurry and pray like mad.” Brian told her before they got out. Jess nodded and took his arm.

They had to walk through a crowd that was gathering at the front entrance and Brian knew that all it would take is for one person to recognize them and it would start a panic. He looked down at the ground as he was walking. Jess felt a little nervous walking with Brian towards the crowd and held onto his arm a little tighter.

“Ohmygod, it’s Brian.”

Jessica’s heart skipped a beat. Brian did not waste a minute stepping up the pace and getting into the door. Once they were inside, they were safe because of the hospital security. They went to the elevator and waited so they could get on.

Once they got to the fourth floor they felt a little more secure. When they walked towards Nick’s room, a hospital security guard was standing outside of the doorway. He stopped Brian and Jess before they could enter the room. The door was closed so there was no way anyone would be able to walk by and look in. As usual, Nick’s fame was costing his privacy.

“I need to see some type of identification before I can let you in. You need to be approved.” The guard was very tall and muscular, looking as if he were a bouncer in a bar at night. Brian dug in his back pocket and pulled out his wallet and handed the guard his driver’s license. Jess pulled her license out of her billfold. The guard looked at the licenses and then at Brian and Jess. He had a clipboard which had names. He verified that Jess and Brian were okay to go into the room. Jessica asked the guard if there was some type of pass she could wear since she would be in and out of the room during Nick’s stay at the hospital. The guard told her that he would check into it and get back with her.

As Brian and Jess opened the door, a nurse was trying to leave. Once inside, they saw Nick’s parents at his bedside, his mother was holding his hand. They looked over at the door when it opened.

Jess walked over to Jane and hugged her. She went to Nick and kissed his cheek.

“Any change?” Jess asked.

Jane shook her head. “The nurse told me that Dr. Gaynor would be coming in to see us in a few minutes. Maybe he has the results of the blood draw that they did on Nick while you were gone.”

Jane’s face was pale and drawn. It upset Jess to see her that way. She knew how close Nick was to his mother.

The hissing of the respirator seemed to mock the silence of the room. I hope Dr. Gaynor comes in to tell us that Nick can go off that thing. Jess thought to herself. Each hour that goes by with Nick on it was against him.

Brian went up to the foot of the bed and squeezed Nick’s foot. Everyone in the room silently knew that Brian was trying to get some type of reaction out of Nick.

“Hey buddy, wake up.” Brian shook Nick’s foot. “You’ve been sleeping long enough.”

Everyone looked at Nick while Brian tried in vain to wake him up. The only reaction they got from Nick was the heart monitor jumped it’s pace up a little. The respirator still kept the same sickening rhythm.

Just as Brian touched Nick’s foot again, Dr. Gaynor entered the room. He was holding Nick’s chart and was thumbing through the papers. The chart was already thick from all the tests that Nick was having.

“We did another blood draw and have the results back from the lab. I wanted to wait for an hour before we did the draw to see how the transfusion would take on Nick. When we did the transfusion, the hemoglobin levels were at 8.5. The new levels are at 7.9 which is not good news. I’m afraid that we are going to have to take him to surgery. I suspect that there may be some internal bleeding that has to be stopped. We could keep giving him more units of blood, but if he is bleeding internally, it could cause more harm than good crowding his organs with blood. He will be going down to the O.R. in about an hour. Are there any questions?” Dr. Gaynor scanned the group surrounding Nick’s bed.

“Do you have any idea what or where the bleeding is?” Nick’s father spoke with his voice breaking.

“I wish I did. With Nick being unconscious, he is unable to tell us where it hurts and so that makes the puzzle a little more difficult to solve. Try not to worry, I wouldn’t make him go through this unless he absolutely needed it with him being in critical condition.”

Dr. Gaynor shook Bob Carter’s hand and nodded at Jane. “I’ll see you in an hour.”

Jane started crying. Brian and Bob had tears filling their eyes. Jess stared at Nick’s bed. No one wanted to say anything. They all silently prayed.