Once again Kyung sat in the Intensive Care room waiting for her best friend to wake up. Lizz had gotten out of surgery nearly a half an hour ago. Now she was on a respirator. The doctor had told Kyung that it was common after a major surgery like that for the patient to be on one. As soon as Lizz woke up and felt a little stronger, they could take it out. It still upset Kyung to see Lizz that way.

She knew that as soon as Lizz would wake up and be coherent, she would try to ask Kyung what she found out about Nick. Kyung wasn’t sure how to handle that one without upsetting her. Laura’s words rang in her ears. “About Nick...he’s being brought to a hospital! It just got called in.

“Here?! How do you know it was Nick?”

“The description they said matched his and they said it was high profile. And I don’t know what ER ended up taking the call. It’s a pretty far range so who knows. I didn’t hear.”

Kyung still hadn’t found out what hospital Nick was taken too. She didn’t want to leave Lizz’s side in case she woke up. Instead, Kyung kept a silent vigil by Lizz’s bed.

Another half hour went by before she began to stir. Kyung stood up and hovered over her. A moment later Lizz’s eyes fluttered.

“Lizzie? Hey, are you finally going to wake up now?” Kyung said in a soft voice.

Her eyes shifted around the room and a flicker of fear passed through them.

Kyung saw it. “You have a tube down your throat so you can breathe. When you get a little stronger, they will let you have it out. Maybe tomorrow morning.”

Lizz’s eyes shifted again and she looked back at Kyung questioningly. They had always been able to finish each other’s sentences and know what the other was thinking and now that came in quite handy.

“It’s a quarter to 10.” Kyung answered.

Lizz looked agitated like she wanted to say something. Kyung was hoping she wasn’t going to ask about Nick and thought that maybe since she had just woken up and seemed a little out of it, that maybe the thought wouldn’t cross her mind.

“Hold on, let me get you a pad of paper and you can try to write what you want to say okay?” Kyung offered.

Lizz nodded ever so slightly.

Kyung left and returned a moment later with a large notebook and a fat marker. It would be easier to write that way. She positioned it so Lizz could write on it easily. Then she put the marker in her hand.

Very slowly, Lizz scribbled “r u ok?”

It looked like a child’s handwriting, but Kyung was still able to read it. A knot formed itself in her throat. She shouldn’t be worried about anyone else, but herself at the moment.

“I’m fine. Don’t you be worrying about me, you punk. You need to worry about getting yourself better!” Kyung chastised. She smiled when she said it though.

Lizz attempted a small smile.

Kyung was relieved that that was her question, but then Lizz gestured for the notebook again. Kyung put it in front of her and Lizz began to write again.

This time it merely read “Nick?” in that same childish handwriting. Lizz’s eyes searched Kyung for the answer that Kyung didn’t know how to give.

Brian stared at Nick’s face as he laid on the cot in the emergency room. He was hooked up to all sorts of monitors and had different IV bags hanging from the pole. They told Brian they still weren’t sure what caused Nick to pass out like he did at the hotel. The only thing they were certain of was that he had a concussion from the fall when Nick hit his head. The labs from Nick’s blood would hopefully tell them at least what he took, the levels could tell them a little about how much he took.

The smell first clued me in to where I was at. It was that sickly antiseptic smell that only a hospital would have. God, how I hated that smell! It made me sick and I’ve been in the ER’s often enough with migraines to know the smell.

Slowly, I opened my eyes to see where exactly I was at. The white tiled walls immediately told me I was stuck in some god forsaken emergency room.

“Nick! Thank god you’re awake!” Brian said with a big grin on his face.

I managed to smile at him. I wanted to ask him how come I landed here when he promised me that we would never go to an emergency room because of the publicity it could generate. The headache I had stopped me from speaking.

Brian’s grin was immediately replaced with a look of concern. “Nick, you passed out at the hotel. What exactly did you take?”

I tried to think back to what I had done earlier. I remember grabbing some brown bottles and dumping the contents on the counter. It was a mixture of my meds and Brian’s meds. Pain killers.... heart meds....aspirin, basically everything but the kitchen sink.

“I’m not sure.” My voice was so quiet; I had a hard time hearing myself.

Brian was still looking at me with that concerned face. When he took his hand to pinch off the tears that were in his eyes, I felt awful. As I was starting to get oriented I remembered I was online when I took the meds. Suddenly it hit me like a slap in the face.

“Lizz!” I managed to shout.

“I haven’t heard,” Brian mumbled, his head was still down.

“Where are we?” I squeaked.

“Oklahoma,” Brian replied, sighing.

“City?”

Brian nodded. He pulled the covers up across my chest. “Nick, you need to quiet down and rest.”

“I need to know,” I protested. I didn’t finish the sentence. If something happened to Lizz I would just will myself to die, there was no point living with her death on my shoulders.

“I’ll find out later,” Brian replied.

I reached out from under the covers and grabbed Brian’s arm and squeezed it as tightly as I could. His eyes locked on mine. “Please!”

“I’ll try Nick,” Brian said quietly.

I suddenly felt sick to my stomach. I grabbed at the tube they had put in my nose and tried to pull it out. Brian grabbed my hands and held them down.

“Nick, leave it in, it’s draining your stomach, you evidentially didn’t throw up all those meds you took,” Brian reprimanded.

I must have started to look weird to Brian because his face got this funny look on it.

“Nick? Hang in there, what’s wrong? NICK!”