"Hey babe, I'm going to go out and call Brian and make sure
everything is okay, alright?" he said as he stood from his chair.
She didn't answer she just nodded weakly. He exited the room
quietly and walked down the hallway to the sun room at the end
of the hallway.
"Brian please be home." He said as he dialed the familiar
number.
"Yo yo." Brian said laughing.
"Brian."
"Whoa, Nick what's wrong." He could hear how stressed he
was.
"I'm sorry, I didn't have anyone else to call."
"Dude you know you can call me anytime. What's wrong?"
"It's Liz, she's in the hospital."
"Oh man, what happened?"
"I called the doctor today and they told me that she was
extremely low of blood, but man I didn't know how bad it was
would be."
"What?"
"The blood tranfusions."
"Oh, yeah it's not fun dude." Brian said thinking back to
when he had to have them. "It's rough on your body man, what's
happening?"
"They pump her full of plasma and she throws up like crazy
man, but she hasn't ate anything. She's just laying there dry
heaving."
"Oh man. She's sick cause when they put the stuff in it's like
100 degrees man. They can't pump cold blood in, so she's
burning up from the inside. Dude all I can tell you is to try and
keep her cool. Get her lots of ice, make her eat the ice it will
help. Leigh always kept me cold and I mean COLD clothes, like
put them in a freezer or something. It will help her I promise."
"Brian I don't know what I'd do with out you."
"Hey that's what B-Rok is here for man!" Nick couldn't help
but laugh, "Now go take care of her. If she's still there tomorrow
I'll drop by and see ya."
"Thanks again man."
"Nothing to it." Nick sighed and tried to pull himself together
as he walked back down the hallway.
As he neared her room he could hear the nurse talking to
her and knew it was time to start her 3rd round of transfusions.
He entered and smiled at her as she looked over at him.
"Hey babe."
"Hey," she replied weakly. Her voice was so hoarse he knew
it had to hurt to talk.
He looked up at the nurse, "Can you please get her some ice
chips?"
"I sure will." The nurse left the room and came back shortly
with an insulated mug.
"Here, Brian said it would help. He said the reason why you
are so sick is cause all the stuff going in is hot." She nodded and
took the mug from him.
"Thank you." She said as she swallowed the melted ice.
"I'm sorry. I didn't dream it would be this bad."
"I did."
"You knew? You knew you would be sick?"
"Yeah, my cousin Cindy died from anorexia, she had to have
transfusions too." Nick sat down heavily in the chair. "I'll be
okay."
"I know, I just hate to see you lower than you were when
we came in."
"I'm not lower, I'm okay. I will be okay. I've told you that."
"Yeah but if you don't eat-" She held up her hand to stop
him.
"I will be fine. I know I haven't been good, but I promise I
will be fine."
"Okay." He took her hand into his, staring at how thin it
was. He could see every bone. He shook his head.
"What?"
"Why didn't I see how thin you were?"
"Cause I guess realized how thin I was and I hid it from
you."
"Please don't hide anything from me again." He looked up at
her with tears in her eyes.
"You say that like after all this over I'll still be here with
you."
"If I have my way you will."
"What?"
"I know you love Aj, I get that, but you have to see that I
love you too. And I'll do whatever it takes to keep you in my life."
She smiled at him sweetly as he kissed her hand.
"I do love you, just not the way you want me to."
"Hey that's fine... give me time to work the old Carter
charm." She couldn't help but laugh at the look on his face.
"Don Juan you ain't." She said laughing.
"Yet."
"Okay, yet." She said shaking her head.
