“Hi, my name’s Leah and I need to get some blood this morning.”

I looked at Leah and I knew she could tell I was dissatisfied by the thought of getting more blood taken from me, I was sick of feeling like a pincushion.

After a few minutes of her poking around on my arm, she sighed and reached over towards the light switch.

“I’m really sorry,” Leah apologized as she turned on the over head lights, “I just am having a hard time finding a good vein this morning.”

I groaned as the lights flickered on, hurting my eyes. I wanted to tell her it was okay, but I didn’t trust any words that would come out of my mouth. With my luck lately, I would end up calling her a bitch or something and get slapped for it.

Leah quickly drew the blood from my arm and shut the lights off once she placed the vial back into her cart. She cheerfully thanked me and left the room. I lay awake in the dim lighting, listening to the noises of the world outside my door.

I finally was distracted from the noises in the hallway by a fly buzzing by my face. I laughed at the irony of a fly living in ICU. I decided to call the fly AJ. It was a perfect name for the fly because it reminded me of AJ, always buzzing around quickly, never staying in one spot for long. The fly must have realized I was mentally thinking about it because it landed on my cheek. Out of reflex, I brushed the fly from my cheek.

Brushed my cheek?

I looked at my hand in front of my face. I hadn’t been able to control any movements that I wanted to since I came out of this damn coma. The meds they were giving me were working! I wanted to shout out to the doctor that it was working, god, I needed to tell someone. Wait, did that mean I could talk too? I decided to chance it and I cleared my throat. I was hoping to say ‘Hi how are you today’ but the only words that came out were the same jumbled up mess that I had been saying before.

That was bad, no improvement there. I tried to keep myself up and reminded myself that I could move my hand. It was only the one hand, but hell, one was better than none.

A nurse came into my room with another IV bad and a syringe. I watched her hang the new bag on the pole and then she uncapped the syringe with her mouth - I was thinking how professional - and looked at her watch as she pushed the mediation into the IV line.

Feeling that familiar burn into my arm as the mediation was entering my bloodstream; I closed my eyes and let the sleep wash over me.

“Lizz? Honey, come on, please I need you to wake up to sign some forms.”

Lizz opened her eyes to see one of her nurses standing over her bed with a clipboard. She started to stretch but the pain caused her to stop and take a sharp breath inward.

“Forms? What kind of forms?” Lizz whispered as she struggled to get into a half way decent sitting position in her bed. The nurse hurried and placed the pillows behind her back for support.

“They found a donor for you and I need you to sign the consent forms,” the nurse cheerfully stated.

Lizz’s eyes shifted back and forth as she tried to grasp the reality of the situation.

“They found one so quickly,” Lizz gasped.

“You’re very lucky to have gotten it,” the nurse explained.

“But if they found one so quickly, that meant I was on the critical list, doesn’t it?”

“That doesn’t matter now, what matters is we need to get you prepped to be shipped off.”

Lizz hesitated signing when she heard the nurse say that.

“Shipped off? Where?”

“Not too far, just to Tulsa, there is a surgical team waiting for you there.”

Lizz’s heart sank. To go to Tulsa would mean that she would be leaving this hospital and leaving Nick. “But I need to be here,” Lizz weakly protested.

The nurse took the clipboard from her hands. “Honey, it’s for your own good.”

Lizz could feel herself panic. “Kyung... Where’s Kyung... I need her! I need Brian!”

"Well, I‘m afraid we have some good news and some rather disturbing news." Brian, Kyung, and Lizz’s doctor were sitting in a small conference room. Upon hearing those words, Kyung took a sharp breath in. She wasn’t sure she could handle any more bad news. Brian saw this and gave her hand a quick squeeze.

"We’ll start with the good news." Dr. Saxton smiled. "We have a kidney for Lizz."

Kyung gasped at the same time Brian exclaimed, "Thank God!"

"B…but how? What about the waiting list? Even being listed as critical can still take months!" Kyung stammered, her shock evident.

Dr. Saxton’s face grew grim. "Well, I’m afraid that’s the bad news." Brian and Kyung exchanged glances as the doctor continued. "I’m sure you both aware of the recent addition of the National Enquirer that featured an article on Nick and Lizz."

Kyung felt a lump form in her throat. This wasn’t going to be good. She barely saw Brain nod out of the corner of her eye.

"Unfortunately a young girl took the words in the article as truth." Dr. Saxton said.

"Words? What words?" Kyung shook her head.

"Where it said that Nick had suffered from brain damage and would never walk or speak or be able to take care of himself. One of his fans, an 18 year old girl, became very distraught over it and…took her life." Dr. Saxton finished gravely.

"Oh god!" Brian cried hoarsely.

Kyung covered her mouth and squeezed her eyes shut.

"Her mother and father said she became very distraught after she found out. She became withdrawn and depressed, barely talking to anyone." Dr. Saxton continued.

"But how…?" Kyung whispered.

Dr. Saxton seemed to understand what Kyung was trying to ask. "Her parents are devastated, naturally. Surprisingly they harbor no feelings of blame. Instead they want some good to come from this. They want their daughter’s kidneys to go to Lizz."

"Does Lizz know?" Brian asked suddenly.

"They should be prepping her to be transported right now, but she doesn’t know who the donor is." Dr. Saxton replied.

"Shit, Brian, I don’t know what this is going to do to her!" Kyung said urgently.

Brian nodded. Then he raised an eyebrow. "Wait, what do you mean, transported?" Brian asked.

"There will be a surgical team waiting in Tulsa for her." Dr. Saxton said.

"Tulsa?!" Kyung still seemed like she was in shock.

"What about Nick? Does he know any of this?" Brian continued to question the doctor frantically.

"Not to my knowledge."

"Oh boy." Brian muttered. This was starting to get overwhelming.

Suddenly Kyung snapped her head down to her pager. "It’s Lizz’s room."

Brian glanced at Dr. Saxton. "Have me paged when all the paper work is signed so we can get Lizz to Tulsa as soon as possible." The doctor said as he shook Brian’s hand.