After Kevin placed Nick on the gurney, he let the professionals try to patch him up.

The crew and managers looked on in shock, however it was nowhere near the shock that had descended on those closest to him, his bandmates.

One of them in particular stood out from the rest. I wasn't his paleness, every person that had made the journey that descended tem into the thick, humid night was various shades of pale. It wasn't the blood that clung to his clothes, sticking the material to him and making a faint metallic smell, that is the scent of blood, rise from him. Kevin had the same blood coating him also. No, it wasn't any of these things that made him stand out from the stunned group of people huddled at the back entrance to the hotel.

It was his eyes.

The eyes that had watched Nick through ups and downs, through break-ups and make ups, through things that those on the outside of stardom couldn't begin to understand. The yes that had met up with the ocean blue ones of his best friend and saw all the pain and hopelessness in their depths before he had collapsed. Those ice blue eyes weren't the same now. All that he has witnessed this night had erased the playful joy that made them sparkle and left a dull, lost look in it's wake. The most startling of all was the color. They were no longer blue, the color seeming to have drained right out of them when the rest of his body had paled in shock. Now pools of stormy gray looked out onto the world, the blue clouded by shock and regret.

'Why didn't I realize something was wrong? I'm his best friend. I should have noticed that it was this bad.'

She sat by his feet on the gurney, watching as the two paramedics fought to save his life. Everyone was moving so frantically, the only one who looked peaceful was the one whom they were all frantic about. He lay there, oblivious to the panic around him.

"Who is going with him?"

The paramedic looked at the group and Brian felt himself being thrust forward. He looked at the uniformed man, "I am. He's my best friend."

Kevin took the medic to the side and discreetly whispered in his ear, "You may want to check him for shock too, he has a heart condition and was the one who found Nick."

The medic nodded sympathetically and took Brian to the ambulance, leading him by the hand like a small child.

Within a minute, the ambulance roared to life, the siren not springing to life until they were a block away, the wailing cry like a keening call through the night.

The silent group of people still stood out in the lot, not sure of what to do.

The stillness was broken by a stifled sob. Though it wasn't loud, it ripped through the group like a gunshot. Everyone looked for it's owner and found Kevin leaning against the wall of the building, his forehead resting on the brick.

It seemed to give everyone unspoken permission to break down. One by one, the tears flowed and the sobs wrenched their way into the night.