The police officer’s voice had a harsh edge to it. I didn’t waste any time
getting the hospital gown off and slipping into the boxer shorts and the
bright yellow coveralls. I couldn’t help but notice the words LARGO
COUNTY JAIL PRISONER in bold black letters across the back of the
coveralls.
“Snap to it Carter, I don’t have all day,” the guard grumbled.
I started to speed up on putting my socks on, then something struck me as
being odd and I stopped.
“What gives you the right to force me to jail? I haven’t done anything!” I
insisted.
“You wanna play tough guy now woman beater?” The officer had a sick sneer
on his face. “Guys in there lump you in the same category as a child abuser,
they’re gonna have fun playing with your candy ass. Don’t make me have to
call for back up cause we’ll drag you screaming from here if we have to.”
I still couldn’t understand why they were accusing me of hitting a woman, it
made my head hurt trying to make sense of it. I sat on the edge of my bed
and folded my good arm across the sling on the other one, I didn’t plan on
moving for no one.
“Okay, then the fun begins Carter, you ass,” the guard said sharply before
he pulled his walkie talkie off his belt. “Mike, we need six backup room 815,
stat!”
Within a course of a few minutes, six uniformed state troopers entered the
room. I tried my best to plant my feet on the ground, my body on the bed to
no avail. Whether I wanted it or not, they were going to take me from the
hospital to the jail.
Desperate, I started jerking my body up and down, tried to squirm away
from their grasp. One officer grabbed deep into the shoulder that had been
shot, I screamed out from the firey pain it produced.
I was oblivious to the stares and the flashes of light, which I assumed were
camera flashes. I didn’t care I needed to get away from these people that
were taking me away and had no right to do so.
Once on the elevator, they literally dropped my body to the floor.
“Now Carter, you can either cooperate or you can make an ass of yourself
when we hit the main floor, your choice,” a short, fat county police office
smirked.
“I’ll be good...... I’ll be okay,” I lied. I had better plans when we reached the
ground floor.
“Just in case,” a policeman said as he wrapped a thick, heavy chain around my
waist twice and then linked it through handcuffs and snapped them onto my
wrists.
The door ringed as it opened up to the hospital lobby. I ducked my head and
bolted past the policemen in the elevator, running as fast as I could towards
the doors. I could hear the footsteps ensuing behind me as I ran barefooted
across the tiled floor. People were standing off to the side, staring and
gasping as I ran past them. They must have thought I was a murderer or
some really bad criminal.
I set my sites to the exit doors, but to my dismay, it was packed with people
standing in front of it either entering or leaving the hospital. I had no other
choice as I lowered my head and took the large plate glass window next to
the door....
My eyes flew open as I felt like a thousand needles
were stabbing my body all at once. I had been awake
for the past hour feeling incredibly uneasy. That
clenched feeling that I had grown accustomed to had
come back, full force. I knew that it had to do with
Nick. I wasn’t having a full blown panic attack like
I had done before so I just laid there and tried to
stay calm. When this sudden explosion of pain hit me,
I started to panic. I heard the beeps of the heart
monitor get more rapid.
“Lizz? Sweetie, what is it? Shit!“ Sheila
burst in the room. She took in the monitors and then
her patient breathing hard, eyes wide with fear.
“Lizz you need to calm down. What is it? What’s
wrong?”
“Hurts...please...he...he...” I gasped.
“What hurts? Who?” Sheila pressed.
I couldn’t even reply to her. I couldn’t catch my
breath. All I could picture was that something had
happened to Nick and visions of Dale, Marcus, and
Terri only heightened my panic. It was like we were
all back in that basement.
“Lizz breathe!!” Sheila tried to remain calm
herself. In her 7 years of being a nurse, she had
never seen a patient react this way. She called in
some help and once again, the only thing they could do
was sedate Lizz. Lizz wasn’t doing herself any good
by getting so worked up. Her injuries were already
serious and they were playing with some kidneys that
were on the verge of failing. Now these panic attacks
were only adding to the danger. If this kept getting
worse like this, they were going to lose her.
Brian’s nurse Laura headed downstairs to the main
floor. She thought Nick Carter would have been on the
same floor as Brian, but he wasn’t there. She tried
to call down to admitting multiple times, but after
being put on hold a half a dozen times, she decided to
just go down and see for herself. As she exited the
staff elevators and walked around the corner, her jaw
dropped at the scene before her. A man in bright
yellow prison garb was running through the lobby with
six troopers and a couple of county policeman on his
tale. Her shock doubled when she saw that the escapee
was Nick Carter. He seemed to hesitate briefly when
he saw the press of people up against the main doors.
Camera were flashing at a blinding rate. Then seeing
no other choice, he ducked his head and charged
through the plate glass window. Everyone seemed
frozen in motion as he let out a cry as the glass
shattered upon impact. Laura gasped and raced over to
him. The troopers were already surrounded him. A few
more were trying to get the crowd to back up.
“Let me through! Let me through! I’m a nurse!”
Laura cried, shoving past the people that stood in her
way.
Nick was hunched over on the ground, covered with
blood. She knelt down by him.
"Let me see, hun." Laura tried to get a look at where
he was bleeding from. He was covered in tiny glass
shards.
He shrank away from her touch, yelling out.
"I'm a nurse! I'm not going to hurt you. Let me see
where you are hurt." She said softly, yet
urgently.
He finally looked up at her. He was going to say
something, but one of the officers cut him off.
"He did this to himself. The prison infirmiry will
check him over." He said gruffly.
"Absolutely not! You don't have any idea how injured
he is. He needs to stay here at least until we can
make sure that he didn't do some serious damage."
Laura argued.
"Forget it lady. He has already proven that he is a
threat." The same officer snapped at her.
"What are the charges against him?" Laura demanded.
"That's none of your..."
A short, fat officer cut off the first one. "He
attacked two women. One of which is in critical
condition and the other is a parapalegic now."
Nick's head shot up. He beat up two women? What the
hell?! There has to be some mistake! He
thought to himself.
Laura immediately noticed the look on Nick's face. It
was of total confusion. He had no idea what they were
talking about and he looked horrified that they would
insinuate that he would do such a thing. That made
her even more determined to help him.
"Whatever the case, he needs to be checked out first."
She insisted.
"No can do." The troopers scooped him up and dragged
him through the crowd of people toward the van that
had pulled up alongside the curb. Camera flashes were
going a mile a minute and Laura could see the tears of
humiliation streaming down Nick's face. She stood
there helplessly as the van pulled away. Almost
immediately people started to ask her questions and
she ignored them all as she ran back inside the
hospital. There were a ton of security around now.
Some were cleaning up the glass, but most were trying
to control the crowd.
Laura couldn't stop thinking about what had just
happened as she headed for the ICU floor. She just
couldn't believe that Nick Carter would beat two women
as seriously as they say he did. When she reached the
ICU's front desk she asked to see Lizz's nurse. To
her mild relief it was Sheila. Sheila had worked on
Laura's floor before moving to ICU so they knew each
other well.
"How are you doing Laura?" Sheila looked very tired
and weary.
"Been better. How's your patient? Brian Littrell is
my patient and he has been asking about her." Laura
replied.
"Not so hot. I don't even know what to make of it.
Her kidney's are on the brink of failure and she was
beaten pretty bad. She's got punctured lungs, broken
bones, the whole nine yards. I'm more worried about
her mental state though. She woke up awhile ago
calling for Nick. She said that something was wrong
and then started having a panic attack. She had to be
sedated. Then when she woke up, she was having
another one and she kept repeating 'hurts' and
'he...he' over and over. She hyperventilated and had
to be sedated again. Her lungs are already weak and
this is making things a lot worse for her. She won't
even talk to anyone. Whatever happened when they were
kidnapped, she seems like she keeps reliving it. Or
she is convinced that something is wrong with Nick
Carter." Sheila explained.
Laura's eyes widened. "Do you know that he has been
arrested for assault on the daughter of the kidnapper
and also Lizz? A bunch of troopers were trying to
escort him out and he tried to make a run for it. He
ended up jumping through a plate glass window. I
tried to insist that he be taken care of before he
left, but they wouldn't hear of it. There wasn't
anything I could do."
"What?! You have got to be kidding me! Is he okay?
He wouldn't attack a woman though! Besides, remember
what happened last spring? He and Lizz stayed really
close friends after that!" Sheila exclaimed.
"Maybe that is why she keeps freaking out. You said
she won't talk to anyone right? Still...I can't
believe that either." Laura frowned. "Brian keeps
asking about them. Shit! How the hell do I tell him
that his best friend is in jail and his other friend
is..."
"Getting worse? I don't know. How bad is Brian? I
don't know who else that could reach her at this
point." Sheila interjected.
Laura shook her head. "He's not in that good of
condition himself. He's spiking a temp and he's
really weak from the surgery."
"And what about Nick? Are the parents still being
instructed to stay away? Where are the other band
guys? Can they help?" Sheila asked.
"I don't know..." Laura rubbed her eyes.
"So, basically we're in trouble here..." Sheila
sighed. "They are the only ones that know what is
going on with each other and none of them can even
help each other."
By the time Laura returned to Brian’s room, pulmonary services were already
there giving him a breathing treatment. She thumbed through his chart and
read the report that indicated that the pneumonia had settled into both
lungs. His condition further complicated the pneumonia since Brian was
unable to move around as of yet.
Brian’s eyes met hers and she knew exactly what her patient wanted.
“Just wait and relax and do the treatment, we’ll talk after that, okay?”
Laura laid his chart on the counter, her back to him. She was wondering how
she’d be able to explain what was going on with Nick. This was going to be
difficult no matter what she told him. She felt her body tense as she heard
the final hiss of the medication going through the mask.
“You sound much better, I’ll be back in two hours to give you another one,”
the respiratory tech stated to Brian as he placed his stethoscope around his
neck.
“Thanks,” Brian replied, weakly.
Brian waited for the tech to leave the room.
“How’s Nick?” Brian blurted.
“Shhhh,” Laura said as she placed her stethoscop on his chest, preparing to
chart his progress.
Brian waited anxiously for her to finish, he dutifully took deep breaths and
let them out for her, coughing each time. After Laura finished writing in his
chart, she walked over to his bed and sat down beside him.
“Okay, I’m not sure how to begin this, but I guess it’s just better to say it
instead of beating around the bush,” Laura said. “Initially, Nick was in this
room with you, do you remember that?”
Brian shook his head no, afraid of where this was leading to.
“Well, once Nick didn’t need ICU services anymore, you know, sort of like
graduated from intensified medical care, they moved him to a private room
towards the end of the hall on this floor,” she paused, making sure the
information was registering.
“Okay, do you remember anything about possible charges being brought
against Nick?”
Again, Brian shook his head no.
“Well, they placed him under house arrest, which was another reason why
they moved him from this room to a new one.”
“Why?”
Laura shook her head. “I’m not totally sure, they were saying that he had
beaten to women, one of them was Lizz and another woman was named Terri,
who is permanently paralyzed because of the assault.”
“I don’t understand,” Brian stated slowly, struggling to breathe. “Nick
didn’t.”
“I’m sure Nick’s lawyer is looking this over, try not to worry about his,” Laura
said as she patted Brian’s arm.
“Can I see him?” Brian asked.
“Sorry, he was just discharged a little bit ago,” Laura apologized.
“Why didn’t he stop here?” Brian asked, softly.
“He, um, couldn’t, they have him in custody, remember?”
Before Brian could respond, AJ walked into the room.
“Hey Bri! Wow, you should see the lobby! Man, there’s broken glass and blood
all over the place! They said some dude from jail tried to escape.!” AJ stated
as he dragged a chair from the corner of the room over to Brian’s bed.
“Nick,” Brian said quietly, looking at his nurse.
Laura nodded in agreement. “I’m sorry, I tried to help, but they wouldn’t let
me.”
“Holy shit, that was Nick that went through that window?” AJ asked.
“He’s okay though, right?”
“From what I could see, he had a lot of cuts and scrapes, but they really
wouldn’t let me go near him,” Laura replied.
“How’s Lizz?” Brian asked.
“Ironically, I ran into her nurse right after seeing the commotion in the
lobby. She said that Lizz was holding her own, but was having setbacks of a
possible kidney rejection and the panic attacks she’s been experiencing. I
found out from her that when Nick has one, or when something happens to
him, she feels it too.”
“Yeah, we know all about that,” AJ replied. “It’s kind of been a long standing
thing between Nick and Lizz.”
