I stood in the doorway to Lizz’s hospital room, I knew I was shaking, my legs were still not used to supporting me. She was sleeping and I didn’t want to wake her up. Brian stood behind me, his hand holding onto the stupid belt they made me wear when I was up and about, ready to catch me if I fell.

“Come on Nick, this is all I’ve been hearing out of your mouth for the past three weeks was how you couldn’t wait to see her,” Brian whispered.

As I set my jaw, I hesitantly took a step towards the threshold into Lizz’s private room. My knees buckled, almost sending me crashing to the floor, but thankfully, Brian had a grip on the belt and groaned as he braced himself and jerked me back into a better position. The noise, unfortunately, woke Lizz up.

Lizz’s eyes focused on Nick standing at the foot of her bed, a big smile on his face. She rubbed her eyes, chalking the vision up to her not being fully awake or the medications she was taking.

I laughed at the confused look on her face. God, she was so sweet and innocent looking! I really appreciated her as a friend.

“Hey there lazy girl!” I teased.

“Oh my god, Nick! Wait a minute, you punk! You never told me they were letting you out!” Lizz folded her arms across her chest. “I’m mad at you!”

I looked at her and tried to give her my best face with a hurt look on it. I smiled when I saw the smile spread across her face and watched in awe as she slowly pulled the covers off her legs and gently raised herself out of her bed. Her steps were almost as slow and shaky as mine, but her legs were stronger, I glanced back at Brian, standing behind me. He looked a little nervous.

Lizz wrapped her arms around me and pulled me into the tightest hug I’ve ever gotten in my life.

“You really are tall.”

Brian raised an eyebrow to that remark. He was expecting something a little different from her mouth.

Looking down at the top of her head, I could only think of one remark, “And you’re definitely short, much shorter than I ever expected.”

“Sit down, I’ll climb back into bed, we have lots to talk about,” Lizz directed as she walked back towards her bed and slowly sat down. As she watched Nick struggle to walk towards the chair, her heart sank, she felt a pang of guilt, still feeling that this was something she could have prevented.

“I made arrangements to have my physical therapy here so I could come and visit you until you were better,” I stated, looking into her eyes to see if she was pleased with the idea.

“Oh, Nick, that’s wonderful. You know I worry about you too much, don’t you?”

I shook my head yes. “Probably as much as I worry about you.”

I shook my head. I couldn’t believe he was here.

“What?” Nick asked me.

I grinned at him. “Just you being here. You look great.”

He smiled back. “I’m feeling a lot better. Still the slow days, but ya know how it is.”

I nodded. “Yeah, I still can’t get used to the idea of new lungs. I’m not 100% yet, but still, it blows my mind. Plus, now I have a cool looking battle scar.” I nodded down to where the incision traveled halfway down my chest.

Brian raised an eyebrow. “Cool looking?” That wasn’t what he had expected to hear either.

I laughed. “Ya know...”

At that moment Kyung walked in. I had totally forgotten that she went to the cafeteria. Her eyes lit up when she saw Brian and Nick. “I take you made it here okay?”

I shot her an accusing glare. “You were in on this too?”

She smirked at me. “Yeah, what are ya gonna do about it?”

“Body slam you.”

Nick cracked up. “You and your threats of body slamming! Have you followed through on one of those threats yet?”

I narrowed my eyes at him. “Want to be the first?”

He laughed harder.

Brian watched us all, shaking his head. I saw that he was trying to keep from laughing.

“You think that’s funny?! Step in line!” I tossed at him.

That did it. We were all laughing. Finally Brian stood up, giving Kyung pointed looks, and announced that he was going to take a walk. Kyung hastily agreed and they left Nick and I alone.

“Wow, I know we have talked about everyday, but you being here is just...wow. An awesome surprise.” I finished. I couldn’t stop smiling.

“That’s the idea.” He replied. “So where’s your parents?”

My parents had finally found out about two and a half weeks ago. They saw it on the news. Believe it or not. All of Kyung attempts to get a hold of them and then they see it on the news. They were in a mild state of shock when they got here. I was relieved that I had had the surgery a couple of days before so I was looking better. We had some long talks and since then, they had been up here as much as possible.

“They went to get something to eat.”

“You mean they left??” Nick kidded. He was well aware of how I was starting to go a little crazy. Don’t get me wrong, I was more than happy that they were here, but I was starting to feel suffocated.

“No joke.” I rolled my eyes.

There was a moment of quiet. Then Nick spoke, his voice quiet. “Do you ever just sit back and think about the whole thing? About why the things happened the way they did or what would have happened if it didn’t happen that way?”

I nodded. “Constantly. If I hadn’t signed on when I did. Terri and that damned tabloid. If that girl hadn’t read that, she wouldn’t have...and I probably wouldn’t be here. I don’t know what to think about that. If none of this would have happened, I wouldn’t have new lungs. But you wouldn’t have had to go through all this. I would never want you to go through this, even if that did mean dying younger than I would now. But if this had never happened, there might have been another time ya know? Another time that you might have tried something and what if no one was there that time? But now after all this, so much as changed...Am I making any sense?”

Nick nodded. “Complete sense. I hate that I have affected so many people because of what I did. But like you said, it might have happened again. But now, after seeing what the consequences are, I would never go down that road again.” He stopped and bowed his head. “But why did this have to be such an expensive lesson?” He whispered.

I reached over and put my hand on his. “Because those are the ones that are the most well-learned. Nick, you aren’t the only one who learned something. Everyone affected did. We’re stronger because of this. You know that right?”

He looked up at me and nodded.

“We’ve still got a way’s to go. And not just physically. The world is going to remember this for awhile. We can’t let what people say, get to us. We’ll get through this, all the way.”

Nick showed a hint of a smile. “Damn Lizz, you sound like Brian.”

I grinned. “Thanks.” My eyelids starting feeling heavy, but I fought it. I was so happy to see Nick, I didn’t want to go to sleep now. But Nick noticed.

“Lizz, you need to rest.”

I shook my head, feeling more and more drowsy.It's the meds. Well, that and they said I would be a lot more tired for awhile... I trailed off.

"So go to sleep. Lizzard, we have all the time in the world while I am getting PT here." Nick insisted.

"Okay, on one condition." I whispered, fighting sleep.

"What?"

"Sing for me."

"Damn, you never give up do you?�" He rolled his eyes, but I saw a glint of a smile. "Okay, fine, but don't think this isn't going to be a regular thing.

"Okay." I grinned like the Cheshire Cat. I relaxed into the covers. Nick's beautiful voice was the last thing I heard as I drifted off into a peaceful sleep. Right at that moment, I couldn't have been happier. ~the end~