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As Brian sat in the chair next to Nick’s hospital bed, he recalled all the
events that led him up to this point. The fever had risen to a dangerously
high level and Nick started hallucinating, acting like a madman. Why it had
taken this long to get Nick to a hospital, Brian wasn’t certain. He decided
that the fear of the media being involved especially with the rumors of Nick
possibly abusing drugs played a large roll in their stupidity in seeking medical
attention.

Brian’s thoughts were interrupted when Nick moaned softly. He still hadn’t
awakened since he was brought to the hospital. The doctor had pushed IV
fluids trying to bring the fever down. He seemed to have been baffled about
Nick running such a high fever, especially with the diagnosis of mumps, but
the doctor relaxed a bit when Kevin pointed out that Nick was prone to
running high temps when he was sick.

“mmmmom?”

Brian quickly stood up. “Sh-h-h-h, Nick, it’s me Brian.”

“Wha....what are you doing in my bedroom?” Nick asked as he wildly looked
around the room.

“You’re in a hospital,” Brian said quietly.

Nick’s eyes shifted as he tried to gain his bearings. Thoughts swimming
through his fever plagued mind, thinking the worst possible scenerios.

“What happened? Why am I here?”

“You have the mumps and your temperature went sky high and we had to get
it down,” Brian explained. “You’ve been here for three days.”

Nick nodded as he closed his eyes but opened them again quickly when he
heard Brian tell him that he had been in the hospital for over three days.

“Three days!?”

Before Brian could continue, a nurse knocked and entered the private room.

“Mr. Carter, I’m Nurse Fuchida Sachi, your day nurse, you can call me Sachi.
I’m going to help you up to take a walk to the restroom.”

As he slowly got out of bed, Nick thought his legs felt like lead weights. He
was shocked to find that he had been out of bed several times. “I don’t
remember getting out of bed before.”

“That’s because your fever messed you up,” Brian pointed out.

The nurse led Nick to the bathroom door and closed it behind him, stating
with a very thick Japanese accent that she would be outside the door if he
needed help.

“Yeah need held, holding it?” Nick mumbled as he slowly walked towards the
sink. He took a long look at his pale face in the mirror. He was happy to see
that his neck was back to normal perportions. Lifting the hospital gown up he
decided to see if his testicles were still swollen. Nick couldn’t be sure but to
him they looked as if the swelling had gone down. “It all must have been that
stupid mumps and the fever,” he mused. Standing sideways, he was
disapointed to see that his stomach was still swollen looking. He shrugged his
shoulders, deciding that another diet was in fact in order, although he
wished he could have proved Bruce wrong.

“Nick are you okay in there?”

Nick sighed. “Yeah fine.” He wondered why he couldn’t have a little privacy.

The doctor is here to see you.

“Okay, I’ll be out in a minute.” Nick closed his eyes as he swollowed, trying to
push the nausea out of his mind. Grabbing the IV pole, he made his way back
out into the hospital room, finding Brian standing next to the doctor,
involved in a small conversation. There was another man standing next to the
doctor, also wearing a white lab coat.

“Hello Mr. Carter, I’m Doctor Hu and this is my associate, Doctor
Kamisuchi,” the young Japanese doctor stated.

Nick nodded slightly at the doctors causing them to nod slightly in return.
He couldn’t help but smirk when they semi bowed, this was a custom that no
matter how hard he tried, he still found amusing.

“We would like to talk with you about your condition,” Dr. Hu started as he
opened the dark green file he held in his hands.

“Could you leave the room, Brian?” Nick asked softly.

All Nick could think about was the doctors talking about his balls and this
was conversation he really didn’t want to share with anyone, Brian included.

“I think it would be best if I stayed, ya know, two sets of ears in case you
miss something they tell you,” Brian defended.

Nick glared at Brian. He knew his intentions were good, but he just felt that
anything the doctors wanted to tell him didn’t need to be shared with
anyone. “Please!”

Brian looked mildly hurt that Nick wanted him to leave. “Okay, but I’ll be
outside the room in case you need me, okay?”

‘What the hell would I be needing Brian for?’ Nick wondered. ‘All they’re
gonna tell me is that my balls had a good case of the mumps, I had a high
fever and I need to lose weight. Big deal.’

Thankfully, the doctors waited until the door clicked shut before they
addressed their young patient.

“You gave us a scare with your high temperature, Mr. Carter,” Dr. Hu
started.

“Well, high fevers are kinda common with me when I get sick,” Nick
defended nonchalantly.

“Well, one hundred six degrees is a little too high to be considered normal,
Mr. Carter, your brain was getting overheated and you were not in a good
frame of mind when they brought you into our emergency department.”

‘I’m never in a good frame of mind,’ Nick said to himself.

“Well your fever has finally subsided to a normal range of ninety-nine point
one and we feel that it will fluctuate from time to time, but it should never
go above one hundred,” Dr. Hu advised.

“Okay, so I’m good to go now? I can get discharged?” Nick asked anxiously.

“We have some areas of concern,” Dr. Kamisuchi spoke up, gesturing to Dr.
Hu that he wanted the chart.

Nick swallowed hard, as he noted the look of concern that was evident in the
young doctor’s face. The tension seemed to build as the man shuffled
through the chart, looking for the papers he needed. To add effect, he
started questioning the other doctor, speaking in his native language.

“Nahen zentai genkoushi!” Dr. Kamisuchi whispered harshly.

‘Okay, yeah whisper in a language I have no clue about!’ Nick mentally
cursed.

“Achikochi!” Dr. Hu answered as he pulled a green and white striped sheet of
paper and handed it to Dr. Kamisuchi.

Dr. Kamisuchi bowed, causing Nick to once again grin although his nerves
were frayed.

“The results on your blood work has us a bit concerned,” the doctor
announced as he looked at the paper. “If you don’t mind, we would like to
keep you at the hospital to run a few more tests to rule out some things.”

“Nno, no way,” Nick balked at the thought of being held up any longer in a
foreign hospital. “Just let me go, I will with or without your permission, just
that the management would prefer you to release me.”

“We can release you, we cannot keep you against your wishes, but I would
strongly recommend that you follow up with your doctor when you reach the
states. This is something that needs to be checked out,” the doctor firmly
added.

“Okay,” Nick replied, taking the sheet of paper that had numbers and names
of things written on it.

“Make sure you give this to your doctor, I am going to give you a letter that
you must give to your doctor which will outline my concerns on your blood
test results.”

“Sure.”

“Good luck Mr. Carter,” both doctors stated before they left the room,
brushing past Brian as he entered the open door.

“So are you staying?” Brian asked when the door clicked shut behind him.

“Once they get this damn IV out of my hand, I’m leaving. They told me I can
go,” Nick replied.

“Sounds good, I’ll call Bruce and let him know so that he can get the flight
arrangements made.”

“Good, you do that and I’m going to get cleaned up when I get this damn IV
out! Where the hell is the nurse?”

“Nick, don’t you dare!” Brian shouted when he noticed Nick fingering the
tube to the IV line.

“Then she better hurry her ass up or I pull it,” Nick threatened.

Brian was relieved when there was a firm knock at the door and a nurse
slipped into the room.

“Thank God,” he breathed.

“You worry too much, ya wuss,” Nick joked as he watched the nurse put on
surgical gloves. She quickly removed the IV and placed a band-aid on the top
of his hand.

“I will be back in a few minutes with discharge instructions,” the nurse
stated as she hung the IV tube over the top of the pole.