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<h1 align="center">Chapter Forty-Two</h1>

<br><br>

“Well, Nick, you are getting what you were wishing for, I
just hope that everything will be okay.” Jess stated as she
watched Nick brush his hair and adjust his clothes for the
concert.<br><br>

Nick glanced over at Jess in the mirror. “You
worry too much, don’t be so silly.” <br><br>

“I can’t help it, I was there when the doctor told
you absolutely no concerts until next March, and here is it,
only December and you are going to go out there again. I
just can’t believe it.” Jess didn’t try to conceal her
worry in her voice.<br><br>

Nick turned and put his hands on her shoulders,
“Don’t worry, okay, I will be fine, trust me.”<br><br>

“I do Nick, but this is something you really don’t
have any control over at all. I am scared.” Jess sighed.<br><br>

Nick threw the hair brush down onto the table.
“Oh, come on Jess, don’t do this to me. I gotta go, we are
supposed to be in place in about three minutes and I am not
out there.” Nick kissed Jessica quickly on the cheek and
walked out the door.<br><br>

Once out in the hallway, Nick felt a wave a
dizziness overcome him. He put his hand to his head and took
a faltering step backwards. He shook his head and bent over
to bring the blood back up to his brain. As Nick slowly
stood up, he looked right and left to make sure no one saw
him do that. <br><br>

“There you are, where the hell have you been?” AJ
greeted Nick with a slap on the back.<br><br>
Nick smiled. “Jess held me up, sorry.” <br><br>

“So are you ready, now?” Brian asked.<br><br>

“Yeah, just a sec, I need to get a drink of
water.” Nick turned and darted towards the barrel with the
water bottles. He had managed to take his valium about 30
minutes ago, but he still felt tense. Nick took an extra
two pills out of his pocket and slipped them into his mouth
and washed them down quickly with a gulp of water. <br><br>

Nick ran back quickly to his place behind the
stage and waited with the rest of the guys for the opening
song to cue up.<br><br>

“Man, Nick, you sure make me nervous sometimes,”
Howie remarked quietly.<br><br>

“Sorry, it’s just a weird habit, I need to drink
when my throat is dry.” Nick shot back sarcastically.<br><br>

“Guys!” Kevin growled.<br><br>

Nick immediately stiffened up into postition and
the machines started billowing out the smoke and the special
effects were cued up. <br><br>

One by one, each of the guys took their turns
jumping out of the smoke onto the stage. Nick was fine when
he jumped out, only to notice that his headset wasn’t
working properly and the music he was to be hearing was not
playing in his ear at all. In fact, he noticed right away
that he missed his first cue for his part in a song.<br><br>
Brian gave Nick a funny look when he noticed that
Nick hadn’t started to sing when he was supposed to. Nick
pointed at his ear and yelled the words “not working, can’t
hear anything.” The words he was yelling were only
appearing to be mouthed because of the screaming from the
crowd.<br><br>

Nick threw his hands up in the air to stop the
band. AJ and Howie were dancing and weren’t paying
attention to Nick not singing. The band stopped playing,
but not at the same time, which finally stopped into an
eerie beat.<br><br>

Brian spoke into his headset. “Nick is having
technical difficulties with his mic.” Nick had already
started walking towards the side of the stage where the
sound technician was at.<br><br>

“Hey, there is no sound in my ear here.” Nick
said to him as he pulled the defective headset off.<br><br>

“Are you feeling okay, Nick? You look a little
redfaced.” The tech replied as he took the headset from
Nick.<br><br>

“Yeah, I’m fine, it’s probably just hot under the
lights.” Nick brushed the remark off.<br><br>

The tech handed Nick a new headset. “Try to go
easy on this one, okay?” <br><br>

“Yeah, sure thing.” Nick put it on and walked
towards the center stage again. “Hey! Can you guys hear me
okay?” Nick asked as he was walking towards Brian. The
response was a thunder of cheering. “That’s cool.” Nick
turned towards the band. “Hit a few notes, please.” The
band complied with a few bars of a song. “Alright! lets
take it from the top!”<br><br>

The band started playing Larger Than Life again
and the crowd erupted into cheers and applause. The guys
picked back up and started the choreography to the song.
Nick felt a little dizzy during some of the steps but
managed to conceal it.<br><br>

Once the song was finished, the band immediately
broke into playing Quit Playing Games. Nick was starting to
feel a little tired and was shocked to think he felt that
way and it was only the second set in the concert. He felt
like he could lay down and go to sleep.<br><br>
After the song ended, it was time for each of the
guys to introduce themselves to the audience. Nick, as
usual, was last and by the time they got to him, he was
breathing quite heavily.<br><br>

“Hi, I’m Nick,” he paused to catch his breath. He
usually went on talking about where they were or made some
small joke, but he felt he couldn’t do it.<br><br>

Brian gave Nick an odd look. He leaned over to
him and covering his mike, whispered, “Are you feeling
okay?” <br><br>

“Yeah I’m fine, okay?” Nick growled back, he
didn’t bother covering his microphone.<br><br>

“You look like you’re gonna get sick, that’s all.”
Brian still had his hand cupped over his microphone.<br><br>

Nick said the line that was usually meant for AJ
after they were done with their complimentary introductions.<br><br>
“Are you guys ready to rock Tampa?” Nick shouted
into his mike.<br><br>

The crowd responded with a thunderous ovation.
The band started up the next set with Everybody. It was
going to be a very strenuous number and Nick took a deep
breath because he knew what he would be up against with the
physical moves. <br><br>

Brian kept watching Nick out the corner of his
eye. He could tell that something was off with him as his
face was beet red and he was sweating like he had been
running a race for his life and normally Nick didn’t look
that bad.<br><br>

A couple of times, Nick turned and appeared to
Brian to be way off balance. He thought he would fall at
any time. Nick seemed to keep up the dancing pace along
with the rest of the group. But there was just something
about Nick that wasn’t right and Brian was going to try his
best to figure out what it was.<br><br>

Finally after a series of fast songs, Howie’s solo
was coming on and the rest of the guys got to go backstage
and take a quick rest before going on. Nick practically
collapsed onto the couch in the backstage area.<br><br>

“I don’t feel right,” Nick said breathlessly as
he held his chest.<br><br>

Unfortunately, with all of the screaming going on
and the music blasting away, none of the guys heard Nick’s
complaint. <br><br>

“Hey, Nicky, you gotta go and change for the next
set, what the hell are you doing?” AJ hissed at him.<br><br>

Nick rolled off the couch onto the floor and
dragged himself up using the couch. It seemed like his room
was hours away instead of a few quick footsteps away.<br><br>

“Nick?” Brian called out to him. Nick kept going
into his dressing room and closed the door behind him. “Is
it just me, or does Nick look sick?” Brian asked AJ.<br><br>

“Well, he don’t look like he feels very well, his
face is as red as I have ever seen it. I think he knew he
bit off more than he could chew doing this concert and he is
not gonna say anything to anyone of us. I’ll keep an eye on
him too while we’re out there.” AJ replied.<br><br>
“Well, he better hurry up, he should be doing his
solo in about 10 more minutes.” Brian said as he left to go
out to do his solo and brushed past Howie coming in
offstage.<br><br>

In his dressing room, Nick caught a glimpse of his
reflection in the mirror. His face was bright red and his
hair was drenched in sweat. Nick grabbed a towel and soaked
it in cold water. He put the towel to his face and sat back
in his seat. Nick felt his heart racing, it almost felt
like it would explode out of his chest. He was gasping
every breath he took in and it was feeling like he wasn’t
getting enough oxygen with the air he was breathing. Nick
threw the towel over the back of his head and neck. He bent
over in the chair hoping this would help him breathe better
and get rid of the dizziness he was feeling.<br><br>

A knock on the dressing room door told Nick he was
to be ready to go out for his solo in two minutes. He
hadn’t even changed his wardrobe yet. Nick slowly got out
of his chair and decided he was going to go out there
dressed the way he was, he didn’t feel like he could change
his clothes if he wanted to. <br><br>

Nick slowly opened the door and walked out of the
room. AJ was watching Nick from across the room and was
puzzled when it looked to him as if Nick was staggering like
he was drunk. Before AJ could get to Nick, he was already
out onstage.<br><br>

“Shit! Something’s definately not right with the
boy!” AJ yelled exasperated.<br><br>

Nick laughed into his headset. The band was
playing I Need You Tonight and Nick had missed his cue
twice. “S-s-sorry a-b-bout that.” Nick stammered. His
speech was sounding slurred. Nick bent over as if to catch
his breath. He was getting scared at how weird he was
starting to feel. He was dangerously close to the edge of
the stage. Fans were reaching out to Nick for him to touch
their hands. <br><br>

Nick looked off to the side of the stage and saw
AJ and Brian rushing up towards him with a look of worry on
their faces. Nick blacked out and fell off the stage onto
the floor.<br><br>

Suddenly there was complete silence in the
auditorium. Panicked fans were crowding Nick. AJ and
Brian’s presence didn’t make the matters any better. Brian
started yelling at the fans to stand back so Nick could get
some air. There was a press of the excited fans, that it
shoved Brian and AJ into the side of the stage. Brian
couldn’t catch his breath because of the crowd surge. The
security was trying to contain the crowd. People were
stepping on Nick and pushing AJ and Brian harder and harder.
Brian suddenly slumped to the floor as he became
unconscious.<br><br>

As the panic was starting to intensify, Howie,
Kevin and Jessica could only stand offstage watching in
horror. They were helpless in the situation and were
praying that this would end. Jess couldn’t stand there
anymore, she ran to the side of the stage where Nick had
fallen and was hoping to help by dragging one of the guys
onto the stage out of harms way. Kevin and Howie realized
what Jess was trying to do and they ran to her side. <br><br>

A muscular security guard pulled Brian’s lifeless
body up out of the sea of fans and Kev and Howie grabbed him
and pulled him onto the stage. Next, the guard got ahold of
AJ and he was hurt, but conscious. The guard hoisted AJ up
towards Kevin, and Kevin dragged AJ to safety. <br><br>

The guard was frantically looking for Nick. He
was starting to push girls back hard and some of them fell
down onto the floor. People were stepping on Nick, he was
getting trampled.<br><br>
Jess was so worried about Nick, she didn’t notice
that the paramedics were attending to Brian by performing
CPR on him. Finally, what seemed to take forever, a guard
grabbed Nick by his arms and pulled on him and took his limp
body and placed him onto the stage. Another group of
paramedics started immediate attention to Nick.<br><br>

It was then that Jess realized that Brian was in
critical condition also. She cupped her hand over her mouth
to supress the scream she could feel rising in her throat.<br><br>

Brian’s lips were blue and his eyes were open and
staring straight at the ceiling. Nick didn’t appear any
better. He was cut and bleeding from the fall and bruised
from all of the people stepping on him. The paramedics had
ripped his shirt open and were placing heart devices to his
chest. When they turned the machine on, Jessica could feel
her heart sink when the bumpy rythmn that should be on the
monitor was nothing but a flat green line.<br><br>

“They have to have this thing not hooked up
right.” Jess thought to herself. She watched in horror as
they pulled shock paddles out of a box and hooked them up to
a power charger. As they placed them onto Nick’s chest, and
zapped him with the voltage, his body arched in reflex from
the shock. The crowd screamed as they witnessed the drama
unfold. Jess looked at the monitor anticipating Nick’s
heart to respond to the shock. She was disappointed when it
was still a flat line.<br><br>

“Dammit, Nick, don’t do this to me.” Jess yelled
at him. <br><br>

The paramedics tried to start his heart a second
time, with the same results as the first. Finally, on the
third try, Nick’s heart jumped to life. They had tubes
already placed down his throat and were manually giving him
oxygen.<br><br>

Jess looked over towards where Brian laid. They
had an oxygen mask on him, but they were no longer
performing cpr. They had an IV going and Brian was still
unconscious but appeared to be alive. <br><br>

Jess looked at AJ. He was being attended to by
two paramedics and it looked as if his arm was in a splint.<br><br>

The crowd was silent. You could hear people
crying and some where screaming, “No, no.” <br><br>

The paramedics came back with a stretcher and Nick
was the first one to leave the auditorium. Jessica was told
that she could ride along with Nick in the ambulance. <br><br>