They waited in the surgical waiting room for three hours hoping for some type of news. Each time the volunteer at the reception desk picked up the phone they held their breath hoping that it would be their turn to be notified. Finally his name was spoken: “NICK CARTER’S FAMILY, NICK CARTER.”

Jessica winced at how loudly the woman said his name. She felt all the eyes in the room on them as they approached the desk.

“You can go to surgical consult room number 3 down the hall and to your left,” the receptionist cheerfully told them.

They crowded into the small waiting room. There were a couple of boxes of kleenex on the table and a few magazines. Again one of the magazines had a picture of Nick on the cover. Jessica was hoping that this would be a good sign, she was tired of having bad things happening to Nick.

Dr. Gaynor entered the room still in his surgical clothes. He looked tired.

“We found the bleeding, Nick had a couple of lacerations on his liver that needed to be repaired. We had to give him two more units of blood during the surgery and I irrigated and suctioned all of the blood that had filled his abdomen.” Dr. Gaynor talked fast.

“So how is he now?” Jane asked quietly.

“He’s in stable condition. He’ll stay in surgical recovery for about another half hour and then they will take him back to his room. We will keep checking his blood levels a few more times today and if everything looks alright, we will taper those tests down.”

Nick’s father stood up and shook the doctors hand as he was leaving. “Thank you, Dr. Gaynor.”

When the doctor left the room Nick’s dad suggested they go to the cafeteria and get something to eat.

“I’m not very hungry,” Jane stated.

Jess nodded in agreement but decided it would be good for them to at least get a cup of coffee and sit together. As they walked down the hall towards the cafeteria, Jessica noticed that some of the people that were walking by were pointing and whispering. She held Brian’s arm tighter and felt safer by doing that.

They sat at a booth in a darker corner away from people. No one got anything to eat but had decided to have coffee.

“I hate being away from Nick right now.” Jess sighed as she looked at her cup.

“I know Jess, but you shouldn’t let yourself worry so much. He will be okay, he’s got to be. This surgery is the thing that will make him better, it’s no wonder why he has been in a coma.” Brian tried to console her.

“I hope you’re right.” Jessica replied.

“As soon as Nick is back in his room, we’ll leave for awhile once we know he’s settled in.” Jane said. “Jess, you should try to go home and get some rest too.”

Jessica shook her head. “No, I couldn’t rest, I need to be here with Nick. I don’t think I would feel better anyplace else, besides, I wouldn’t want him to wake up alone and not know what was going on.”

Brian looked at his watch. “I think Nick should be back up right now. I plan on leaving with Bob and Jane, it’s better in a group, if you know what I mean.”

They went back up to the fourth floor. A security guard was keeping vigil outside of Nick’s door which was a good indicator that he was back in his room. As they approached the door, the guard stood up and again requested identification. They all complied.

“Did you find out about getting passes so we don’t have to go through this every time we go out, not that I don’t appreciate what you are doing,” Jess wondered.

“Yes I did ma’am.” The guard produced green badges with a chain that they could put around their necks. The tag was simple and said visitor clearance level 5. He handed one to Jessica and one each to Nick’s mother and father.

When they slowly walked into the room, they were all afraid of what they would be greeted with next. Jessica noticed right away that the sound of the hissing of the respirator was gone. She looked at Nick’s face and was shocked to see that the tubes that were going into his mouth to help him breathe were gone. The tubes were replaced with oxygen being supplied with tubing placed near his nose.

Jessica went to the bed and held Nick’s hand. The swelling seemed to have gone down quite significantly since the surgery. His face was still so bruised and his mouth looked sore from having the tubes in it.

Brian went up to the bed and gave Jess a hug. He then touched Nick’s shoulder. “Hey buddy, how ya doin’?” Brian wasn’t expecting Nick to answer him, but was hoping that he would respond.

Bob and Jane kissed Nick. “Jess said that she would be staying with you,” Jane spoke softly as she smoothed Nick’s hair from his forehead. “Your dad and I will be coming back again later. Love you.”

Jess hugged Nick’s parents goodbye. When Brian hugged her, he gave her a tight squeeze and whispered in her ear, “Call me if you need anything, even if you need to talk.”

“Okay, I will. Thanks.”

As they left, a nurse came into the room with new IV’s and other apparatus. Jess watched her change the IV bags and put medication into Nick’s IV line. The nurse looked at Nick’s face while she was administering the medication.

“Did you want to have the television on or music?” the nurse asked Jess. “The silence can be a little nerve-wracking and besides it’s good for the patient.”

“Either one is fine, I guess.” Jess didn’t care, she wouldn’t pay too much attention to either one, she was too preoccupied.

“I suppose if we put music on and got ‘N Sync that would irritate Nick enough to get up and turn it off, you think?” the nurse smiled as she was trying to make a light hearted joke.

“It probably would. I guess TV would be fine.” Jess smiled.

The nurse gave Jess a remote control for the television and turned it on. While they were talking, another nurse came in to draw blood since they were still keeping track of his hemoglobin levels. When the nurse put the needle into his arm, Nick made a soft moaning sound. Everyone in the room looked at each other and then at Nick.

“Nick can you hear me?” the nurse asked. There wasn’t any response from him.

“Is this a good sign?” Jess asked.

“It could be, I don’t know his full history, but any sound coming from a patient is an indicator that he could be waking up. I’ll have a resident come in and look at him.” The nurse left the room quickly.

Once again, Jess was in the room with Nick by herself. She pulled her chair up closer to him. Suddenly, Nick’s arms went up to his face in an almost defensive type of a position as if to shield his face from something. His eyes were still closed.

“Ahhhhhhhhhhh,” Nick let out a hoarse yell.

Jess stood up and tried to pull his arms away from his head.

“Nick, it’s okay, it’s okay. Shhhh.” Jess tried to calm him down in a soothing voice. She managed to pull his arms down at his side. She looked at his face. His eyes looked wild with fear. They darted around the room quickly. Nick looked at Jess and it looked like he was looking past her.

“Nick, it’s okay, I’m here with you,” Jess tried again to calm him down. While she was talking to him she noticed that the heart monitor was beeping rapidly meaning that his blood pressure was soaring. She pushed the nurse call button.

Nick looked at her and around the room again, this time a little slower and he seemed to be focusing a little better. Nick turned and looked at Jess again. It looked as if he didn’t know her, it was a strange look on his face.

The nurse came into the room.

“He just woke up, but he seems to be very agitated.” Jess tried to fill the nurse in.

The nurse saw that the monitor was beating rapidly. “I’m calling his doctor.” Just as the nurse turned, the resident physician entered the room.

“The patient just woke, he seems to be lethargic and his pulse is rapid.” the nurse reported to the resident.

Nick stared at the medical staff as if they were creatures from another planet. His face showed fear. Jess tried to calm him down by holding his hand. She noticed that his skin felt cold and clammy and that his face and hair was soaked in sweat.

The resident rattled off some type of drug that needed to be administered stat. The nurse nodded and headed out the door. The resident checked the machines but didn’t touch Nick. After a few moments, the nurse appeared with a syringe. Nick still looked as if he had seen a terrifying scene when he looked at the doctor and the nurse. The nurse was preparing to inject the medication into Nick’s IV when he tried to push her away with his free arm. Jess stood up and tried to hold his arm back. It was pretty easy to do since Nick was weak from the injuries. Within a few seconds as the drug began to go into his bloodstream, Nick relaxed and his arm dropped.

Dr. Gaynor entered the room. He was able to access Nick now that he was unconscious. The heart beats were normal again and Nick looked peaceful.

“What is wrong with Nick, why did he act that way?” Jess was scared and confused. The first thing that popped into her head was the mention of the brain injury and the chance of brain damage. This definitely was not Nick.

“Jess,” Dr. Gaynor spoke as he sat in a chair. “You remember that Nick has been through a lot with this accident?”

Jessica nodded her head in agreement.

“And you remember that he took a pretty good blow to his head when he hit the steering wheel and the door. I believe that Nick’s reactions right now can best be described as “shell shock”. In otherwords, when you have had a serious event happen to you, and your body, sometimes the system is so overwhelmed that mixed messages are sent and the responses are out of order.”

“The nurse said that he was lethargic, what does that mean?” Jess anxiously asked.

“When you are lethargic, that is when you have a head injury and you are not appropriately responding to outside stimuli. It can happen when you have a concussion, which would be one of Nick’s injuries. You appear to be here physically, but your brain is still asleep, it’s almost like sleepwalking. He could have been hallucinating. We have given Nick something to calm him down and rest, so that he can gradually wake up again. I was concerned that he would do more damage to the surgery he had or injure something else further.”

“How long do you think he’ll be asleep?” Jess wondered.

“I’m not sure, he may not wake up until tomorrow. I think it would be a good idea for you to go and take a break young lady, this would be a good time to do that since I can honestly tell you that he will not wake up again for hours.” Dr. Gaynor smiled and patted Jess on the hand.

Jess stood up and kissed Nick’s cheek. She decided to walk outside and get some fresh air to clear her head. Once she got off the elevator and walked out the front door, she saw the large group of Nick’s fans that were standing on the front lawn keeping a vigil. Jess was glad that she was still an “uncelebrity” and that no one knew that she was Nick Carter’s girlfriend.

She heard someone in the crowd talking, “Hey, I think that’s the girl I saw walking in with Brian Littrell. Do you think she’s Nick’s girlfriend?”

Jess kept walking as if she didn’t hear the girl. It would be only a matter of time before they would figure her out.