Brian slammed the car into gear in the hospital parking
lot.
He jumped from the car and ran for the emergency room
entrance. He entered and was blinded for just a second by the
change from brightness to the darkness of the waiting room. As
his eyes adjusted, he saw Nick sitting in the corner, bent over his
knees his blonde hair hanging down over his face.
"Nick?" He asked as he neared the blonde. Nick looked up
and his eyes were bloodshot, the skin under his eyes were purple
from where he had wiped the tears. "Nick! What is wrong?"
"Lizzy," he said simply.
"Okay what's wrong with Liz?"
"I came home," Nick took a deep breath and continued,
"She was in her room, and she had," He stopped again unable to
stop the tears this time, "she had fallen or something and there
was blood everywhere. She wasn't moving. She was blue." Brian
gasped and took the blonde in his arms.
"Oh Nick, I'm so sorry man. What are they saying?"
"I don't know they won't tell me anything." Nick said
sobbing.
"Okay you stay here and I'll try and find something out."
Nick nodded as Brian stood and walked to the desk.
"Brian!" Brian looked back toward the entrance as Kevin and
Howie entered the emergency entrance.
"Kev, hey." Brian said as he walked from the desk toward
Nick.
"What's going on? Leigh called and said you told her to call.
Something about Nick and the hospital." He stopped as he saw
Nick sitting in the corner.
"It's Elizabeth. She had fallen or something."
"Oh, do they know anything?" Brian shook his head grimly
at Kevin as he sat down.
"No, they are running test right now." Brian said as he
joined Nick, and Howie sat down beside Nick and rubbed his
back.
"It will be okay." Howie said quietly. Nick nodded his head
but didn't look up.
They had been sitting in the emergency room for almost an
hour when a doctor came through the double doors from the
emergency room. He stopped and looked around the room. When
he saw that the only people in the room were Nick and the guys
he continued across to them. As he neared, they could see the
blood stains on the front of his scrubs.
"Are you here with Ms. Johnson?"
"Yes." Nick said standing.
"Hi, I'm Dr. Nielsen. She is being taken to the ICU ward on
the fourth floor. If you will follow me, I'll talk to you as we go."
"Okay, guys are you coming?"
"Yeah." They all stood and followed Nick.
"Now, I don't want you to be shocked when you see her. It's
not good. She has some bleeding on the brain. We ran a cat scan
and it came back with some damage. I'm also seeing some signs
of extended stress, parts of her brain are smaller than they
should be. Has she been under a large amount of stress for a
long period of time?"
"Yes, for almost a year now. She was in the hospital just a
few weeks ago."
"Okay, that explains that. Yes I pulled her chart and noted
that, but it doesn't explain the disturbances in the cat scan. Now
she is in a comatose state. But we have hope that she will be
fine. She is showing signs of recovery, her pupils are still dilating,
and she had some pain reflexes, so that is all good news." Dr.
Nielsen said as they climbed onto the elevator.
"So, when she wakes will she be the same?"
"That I can't answer yet. We just don't know how the human
brain will react to this kind of trauma."
"Okay so exactly what happened to her?" Kevin asked as
they exited the elevator on the fourth floor.
"She had blunt force trauma to the right side of her head. It
looks as though she fell and hit her head." Nick nodded. "Okay
here we are. Now I can only allow two people in with her at a
time. You decide who but please only two at a time." Dr. Nielsen
said as they stopped in front of a glass-walled room.
"Okay thank you." Nick said.
"I'll come in with you," Brian said as they entered the small
curtained room. Nick gasped as he saw her. Her face wasn't blue
but it was swollen on the right side. He walked to her bedside
slowly and took her hand in his.
"Hey Lizzy, it's Nick and Brian." He said his voice breaking
with tears, "I wish you would open your eyes." Brian wrapped his
arm around Nick's shoulders as Nick stopped talking. He lowered
his head to her bed and sobbed quietly.