As Barbara McKean walked down the long hallway past the cafeteria and to the main lobby, thoughts were still running through her mind about that kid’s parents and that one boy again. As much as she tried to push the thoughts out of her mind, they kept re-entering, haunting her, hounding her, not letting up almost as if it were insisting that she do something.

She knew that Nick Carter was a high profile patient in the hospital. She knew how important he must be when she pulled into the employee parking lot when she reported for her 7am shift. There were hundreds of girls, ages varied, standing on the front lawn which had started to spill out onto the sidewalk and part of the parking lot. Many were holding pictures of that patient.

“I have to do something, but I need my job,” Barbara sighed as she walked past the gift shop. The newspaper rack made her stop. Staring back at her was a tabloid with a picture of this poor kid lying in bed and split next to it was a picture of a young girl, also lying in a hospital bed, unconscious. Barbara grabbed a copy of the paper and slammed a five dollar bill on the counter with the paper.

“Hey Barb, bad day or something?” Bruce, the volunteer clerk in the shop asked.

“You could say that,” Barbara mumbled.

“I didn’t think you were the National Enquirer type of a person,” Bruce chuckled as he rang up her purchase.

“I’m not,” Nurse McKean snapped back.

Bruce leaned back away from her as if she had taken a swing at him. “Whoa, you are a little testy today.”

The nurse grabbed the paper and the change and spun around on her heels and stormed off out of the shop. Once she got into the elevator, she could feel her heart pounding as if it would leap out of her chest. She thumbed through the magazine until she reached the Nick Carter article.

When the elevator stopped, she quickly folded the paper under her arm and exited the car. She went directly to the nurses lounge on that floor and took a seat off in the corner near a lamp and started reading the article:

BAD DAY IN BSB LAND FOR NICK CARTER In apparent suicide attempt, Nick Carter overdosed on the tour bus while they were en-route to their next stop in the Midwest. Carter was online with a fan and spelled out his intentions to her. Things went from bad to worse when the fan followed Carter’s actions and drank a bottle of some type of asthma medication that caused her heart to speed up and nearly explode.

This did not end with a death, rather this has unfolded into a battle for their lives! Nick Carter has suffered brain damage and it looks now that he will never be onstage ever again as this has left him without the ability to speak or move! The girl has permanent kidney damage and will require a transplant to save her life!

We are following this soap opera saga and will continue to provide updates and photos as we received them from our reliable source inside the hospital in Oklahoma City where they are being cared for.

Nurse McKean’s hands shook with the rage that was filling her body. She needed to get a hold of herself and calm down, but she couldn’t. The mere thought that Dr. Minnick would be walking away from this Scot-free upset her. Her dilemma was clear: expose Dr. Minnick’s error and lose her job because of the incident that happened 20 years ago or ignore it ever happened and watch this kid’s life be ripped from him.

All through that night Kyung had kept a vigil at Lizz’s bed. Brian had done the same with Nick, much to Kyung’s frustration. She had managed to get him to eat a few crackers yesterday after he had nearly passed out again. He was just so damned stubborn. Once, at about 3 am, she went to Nick’s room to check on them. She was relieved to see Brian was curled up in the corner of the chair, asleep. Unfortunately that didn’t even last an hour because he came to see how Lizz was about 45 minutes after that. He didn’t go back to sleep.

Kyung sighed and rubbed her eyes. It was only a little after 7 am. Her shift would be starting in less than three hours. She watched Lizz sleep and her thoughts drifted to the day before when she and Brian had learned what had happened.

….She had returned from the kitchen to find Brian leaning forward, his head in his hands. She frowned, used to seeing him in that position. After giving him the graham crackers they both walked over to the nurse’s station.

Caroline immediately rushed up to them. Kyung was disturbed by the look on her face. She almost looked scared.

“Kyung right?” She asked.

Kyung nodded.

“Has Lizz had a history of panic attacks that you know of?” She asked.

Kyung shook her head slowly. “No, never.” Where was this going?

Caroline shifted her attention to Brian. “Has Nick?”

Brian shifted uncomfortably. That was too personal of information to be giving out to some random nurse. “Why, do you ask?”

“Please, it is very important!” Caroline stressed.

Both Kyung and Brian could see hear the urgency in this nurse’s voice and they glanced at each other. Finally Brian nodded slightly.

“But Lizz never has? Are you sure of this? Could she be prone to one?” Caroline persisted.

“No, of course not. I would know, she’s my best friend. What is going on?” Kyung demanded.

Caroline leaned forward. “Nick just had one.”

Upon hearing that, Brian shut his eyes. That was the last thing that Nick needed. What had brought this on? He then felt a pang of guilt. If he had been there...

Caroline continued. “At the same time, apparently, Lizz also experienced one.”

Kyung’s mouth fell open. “Lizz did?! Why?!” She exclaimed.

“We don’t know, but it had something to do with Nick. She was very insistent that something was wrong with him. She kept repeating that, and getting more and more upset. Her monitors started to go haywire and she had to be sedated. There was no way that she could have known that Nick was having a panic attack at the very same time. There aren’t phones in the rooms and she, of course, couldn’t go anywhere hooked up to the dialysis. Not to mention that Nick can’t even speak. There was no way that she could have known!” Caroline stated in awe.

Brian looked like he might faint again and Kyung could only stare at the nurse in shock. This was unfathomable. Lizz had never in her life had anything like that happen to her. She couldn’t imagine how this was possible.

“Wait, I’ll show you.” Caroline went to go get the two charts. She brought them back and laid them on the counter. When she opened them, however, those pages were missing. “What on earth?!”

She whirled around. “Allison! What happened to the notes that were just written about the panic attacks?”

Allison looked up from her charting and gave a puzzled look. “What do you mean?”

“The pages aren’t in here!” Caroline exclaimed. “Who would have taken them?”

Allison began to rummage around the desk. “I don’t know. The only people that were even in here were you, Marissa, but she was not even over here, and a girl from housekeeping.”

Kyung and Brian exchanged nervous glances. That didn’t sound good.

. “I’m sure they will turn up.” Caroline assured them.

Kyung sighed again as her thoughts returned to the present. Lizz had remained knocked out all night. Whatever they had given her was obviously pretty strong. Nick had woken up once, but he got agitated and had to be sedated again. Everyone was still puzzled over the whole situation, but at least one of the nurses had found the missing chart papers. They were actually back in the chart where they should have been in the first place. Kyung wasn’t sure why, but that unnerved her. As did Lizz having a panic attack and why it seemed to be connected to Nick’s. It frustrated Kyung because she liked to have concrete answers to things. This was something that she couldn’t figure out. There was a knock at the door and a second later Brian let himself in. The look on his face was ashen and his eyes were red.