“Yes I am,” Brian lied. In his heart he didn’t feel as if he had lied, Nick was a brother to him, just not the technicalities of being flesh and blood.

The doctor flipped open Nick’s chart and quickly thumbed threw the growing stack of papers in it.

“We’re giving Nick some meds in his IV to help in stopping the seizures from happening. The CT’s were negative, which is good news. I suspect that the seizures are from the meds that he apparently overdosed on,” Dr. Schueller stated.

“How soon before you know whether or not these meds are working?” Brian asked, almost afraid to find out the answer.

“We should know within 24 hours. Nick has already had four seizures since he arrived here, so I would suspect that if we are on the right track with him, this should stop seizures entirely,” the doctor replied as he was scribbling something in Nick’s chart.

The doctor flipped the chart closed. “Do you have any questions?”

“Will this be a lifetime thing.... I mean the seizures; will this be something that can happen to him the rest of his life?” Brian asked hesitantly.

“There is always going to be that chance, only time will tell."

"How's Nick?" Lizz asked as Kyung showed her face in the room.

"He's doing alright," Kyung lied.

"I want to see him," Lizz stated as she starting pulling the blankets off her body.

"Lizz, you need to rest, besides Nick won't know if you're here right now anyway," Brian suggested.

"Why wouldn't he? You guys aren't telling me the truth about Nick. Tell me what's going on, please!" Lizzed begged, looking at Brian and Kyung's faces with pleading eyes.

Brian sighed heavily. "They had to put Nick in a drug induced coma for a few days to see if they can sort out what's causing the seizures."

Lizz put her hand to her mouth. "Oh my god."

"He's okay, Lizz, he's just sleeping so he's not hurting at all," Kyung tried to calm Lizz down before she got upset.

"Please, let me see Nick. Just this one time, okay and then I promise I'll stay in my bed and do everything they tell me to."

Kyung agreed, but she knew it was against her better judgment. Her best friend was pretty stubborn and she knew that if she told Lizz no, she would do it by herself and could possible get injured.

"Okay, but only for a few minutes, okay?"

Lizz nodded.

Brian pushed the wheelchair down the hall into the doorway of Nick's room. Lizz took in all of the equipment that was surrounding Nick's bed, the sounds it made. As they approached the bed, the first thing Lizz noticed as the tubing for the respirator. She knew exactly how that felt.

She reached up and took Nick's free hand and placed it in hers. It was cool to the touch. Looking at Nick's face, tears came to Lizz's eyes. She felt awful in not being able to prevent any of this. She felt responsible for it.

Kyung could see that Lizz was becoming upset. She decided that this was a bad idea to have brought her down here.

"Lizz, I think it would be best that you go back and lay down now."

"But I'm not ready to go yet," Lizz sniffed, silently cursing herself for letting her emotions surface. "I'm fine."

"She's bleeding again!" Brian pointed at the side of Lizz's gown.

Lizz was starting to feel light headed, but she didn't want to acknowledge her bleeding. She wanted to stay with Nick.

"I'll be okay," Lizz snapped.

"We're going back, NOW," Kyung replied, the urgency in her voice forced Lizz to tighten her grip on Nick's hand.

As Kyung tried to pull the wheelchair back, Lizz's grip on Nick's hand jerked her forward out of the wheelchair onto Nick's bed.

I gasped as I tried to keep from losing my balance. I was sort of half lying across the bed. I bit my lip harshly to keep from crying out from the pain in my side. “Damn it, I’m not going anywhere.” I hissed. With that, I kind of pushed myself up so I was sitting on the side of the bed. My grip on Nick’s hand didn’t lessen. I refused to acknowledge the worsening pain. It had been growing steadily more agonizing since I had nearly passed out from trying to keep Nick from falling out of the chair earlier. There was no way I was going to mention it because that would have only gotten in the way. My main concern right now was Nick. The light headedness wasn’t easing.

“Lizz! For goodness sake, you’re bleeding. You need to go lay back down!” Kyung cried, the exasperation and worry was clear in her voice.

“No! I’m fine really.” I insisted stubbornly.

Kyung threw a helpless look at Brian.

“No you aren’t. You are bleeding and you are shaking so bad that I don’t know how you can even sit up. You are going back to your room.” Brian told me as he came around to where I was.

“Please.” I couldn’t help it the fresh tears that started to fall. I was losing control of the situation. I couldn’t leave. “I need to be here. I can’t leave him. Please don’t make me leave. Please!” I cried brokenly. I was so afraid that if I left then something would happen. If I stayed then I could protect him. Make sure he was okay.

“Shhhh, it’s going to be okay. The best thing you can do for Nick is to get yourself better.” Brian soothed as he wrapped his arms around me. I held on for dear life with one arm, but refused to let go of Nick’s hand with my other.

“Lizzie, come on. We need to get your stitches looked at. Maybe after you have gotten some rest, you can come back.” Kyung said gently. Yet the urgency was still in her voice.

“No, I can’t.” I couldn’t hold it in anymore. I had let a few tears fall now and then since I had gotten here, but now I couldn’t stop the sobs that ripped through me. It was the combination of the pain, the failed kidneys, the fact that I could die, but most of all, seeing this happening to Nick. I had always heard that you could talk to people in comas and that they would hear you. I was so terrified of leaving. If I could just stay and talk to him. Tell him not to give up. That I was here and that everything was going to be okay. But, I was so scared. I couldn’t leave. “I need to stay. They can just stitch me up in here or do whatever they need to do to me in here. I don’t care.” Even as I said it, my vision started to get fuzzy on me. I fought it with every ounce of my strength. I wasn’t going to give into it. I started to go limp in Brian’s arms and I felt him tense.

“Lizz? Oh god...”