Things had become pretty routine over the last few hours - someone would be allowed the precious opportunity to gown up and visit Nick in ICU for approximately ten minutes and then return to the private waiting room until it would be their turn once again. Everyone in the waiting room had taken their turns at least once, with the exception of Jane. Everytime she was offered a turn, an excuse was uttered by the older woman......until,,,,,,

"Bob?? When did you get here?"

Aaron felt his heart sink in his chest when he heard his mother announce his father's arrival in her familiar screech.

"We came here right from the airport," the older man explained as he nodded a greeting toward Howie and then shook Kevin's hand.

"Well I was just getting ready to go see my Nicky so you're going to have to wait for awhile because after I go in, they have to do important testing and no one will be allowed back in to see him for almost an hour after that."

Aaron rolled his eyes as he listening to his mother's attempt at sounding like she was ontop of Nick's medical care.

"Wow.....going in for the first time since you've been here makes you an expert now?" he remarked in a sarcastic tone.

The words made Jane visibally jump in her seat. "Aaron Charles, don't you start up with that fresh mouth with me!" she warned.

"Truth hurts, don't it ma? You realize she hasn't even wanted to go in to see Nick before you got here?"

Bob Carter shook his head sadly at his youngest son. "Ace....just let it drop, nows not the time or the place to start this...."

"Yes, exactly," Jane added smugly. "Well if you don't mind, I'm going to find the nurse to go get the hospital gown."

"Jane, you'll have to wait until she comes in to tell you," Howie reminded. "You guys might as well sit and wait," he added, gesturing toward Bob and the girls.

"Where's the rest of the guys?" Bob asked as he took a seat.

"AJ's out smoking....Brian and Kevin went downstairs to the cafeteria to grab some lunch," Howie said.

Bob glanced over at his wife wearily. He knew that Jane would be at the hospital; it was her right but for some reason he felt that the reasons she was here was cosmetic and not heartfelt. Looking over at his daughters, he was relieved to discover they were involved in conversation with Aaron. At least they were occupied for the moment. Before he had the chance to draw his breath in, a nurse in surgical scrubs appeared in the waitingroom door.

"Nick's all set, who is next to gown up?"

Jane Carter dramatically stood up. "I am."

"After she goes in, can Nick's dad go next?" Howie asked.

"How about both of you gown up and go in together," the nurse offered. "I think it is best if the parents go in as a set."

Aaron glanced up wearily at the nurse when she suggested that both of his parents go to ICU at the same time. Howie caught the young man's expression and immediately voiced his opinion.

"Yeah, you two should go in together, it may be easier for both of you."

Bob Carter nodded, standing up and joined his wife. The nurse took them down the hall and showed each into their respective locker rooms, taking time to remind them of the procedures they had to follow. After a few minutes of gowning up, they met back out in the hall, waiting for the nurse.

"So you've been in here once already?" Bob asked, trying to squelch the uncomfortable silence.

Jane shook her head. "No," she admitted with a sigh.

"You haven't? I thought you've been up here for at least a day."

Before Jane could reply, the nurse approached them. "Alrighty.......follow me," she motioned with her hand as she started off further down the hall, through another set of double doors. She stopped outside a closed door. "This is Nick's room. You need to go through the first set of doors and wait until I close the outside door and there is a blue plate on the wall, just press that when you are ready to go in."

Nodding, Bob took a step toward the door, stopping when he noticed that Jane was still standing next to the nurse. "You know we both can go in together.....so are you coming in?"

Jane tossed a disgusted look before she stomped toward the doors leading to Nick's room. "Of course I was coming....you don't have to rush in there like you're in such a big hurry!"

The nurse shook her head sadly, as she watched the older couple enter the first set of doors. She has seen it far too many times where a child's illness places a heavy strain on a relationship. Little did she know that Bob and Jane Carter's relationship had been strained years before Nick even was diagnosed with cancer.

At first neither one of them uttered a word as they stared at the bed and all the machines that surrounded their oldest son.

Jane fiddled with her surgical mask that covered her nose and mouth.

"What are you doing?! You need to leave that alone!" Bob ordered in a harsh whisper.

"I'm getting clausterphobic.....I don't know how anyone could stand to have these god awful things on their faces!"

"Well you need to leave it alone....if you stop picking with it you'll forget you have it on!"

"You're not the boss of me Robert Carter! So do you care to tell me why it took me all afternoon to get ahold of you when I got the call about Nick taking a turn for the worst?"

Bob sighed. "Nows really not the time or the place to talk about this."

Jane ignored his request, walking over toward one of the IV poles. "Our child is sick and I would have thought you would at least have the common decency to have your cell phone on."

"I messed up...sorry but I turned it off and I forgot to turn it back on when I was out of that meeting."

The older woman wasn't finished with her irritation. "Honestly....it always seems up to me to keep everything together."

"I said I was sorry---"

"Stop it."

"Just listen to me....I said I was s---"

"Please stop..I can't sleep with you arguing."

"Nick?"

"Oh my god....my baby!" Jane cooed as she made her way over towards the hospital bed. "I thought you had left us for good!"

"Maybe we should get Nick's nurse," Bob said as he held a hand up to try and stop Jane from moving toward their son.

"Honestly Bob....he's perfectly fine, aren't you Nicky?"

Nick faught hard to keep his eyes open but couldn't will his heavy eyelids to stay up. "I just wanna sleep," he mumbled, ignoring the words his parents had spoken.

"Maybe he shouldn't sleep," Jane decided outloud. "You should try and keep awake Nick."

Bob threw an annoyed look toward his wife. "He doesn't have a concussion for God sakes Jane! I'm going to go get his nurse, just don't touch him until she has a chance to look at him." Before Jane or Nick, for that matter could respond, the older man left the ICU room.

Licking his dry lips, Nick managed to croak out a short question. "Why are you here?"

"Why wouldn't we be here sweetheart," Jane replied, sitting on the edge of the bed, next to his body.

"I thought I told everyone to just stay put."

"We did until we got the call that you had taken a turn for the worse."

"I'm fine," Nick protested weakly.

"No you're not you were in a coma and they weren't sure you would wake up. Your body is rejecting Aaron's marrow."

A shiver ran down Nick's spine. Did his mother just say that he was rejecting the bone marrow?

"I came up to the hospital as soon as Brian called."

"Did you just say that I was rejecting the marrow?"

Jane started fussing with the blankets. "Just rest honey....don't worry now...just rest."

"No....you said something about my body was rejecting AC's marrow."

"Let the doctors worry about those things sweetheart...although if you had a better doctor you probably wouldn't be in this situation right now."

For as weak as he felt, Nick could feel his temper start to flare. Just as he started to open his mouth to say something back to his mother, the door opened and his father entered the room along with a nurse.

"Nick! Your father said you were awake," the nurse said as she entered the room. She took one look at the heart monitor before she got ready to place a stethoscope on his chest. "Easy hon, you seem to be a bit upset, it's okay just calm down..."

Bob Carter had his suspecisons as to why his son was upset. "What did you say to get him worked up Jane?"

"I don't think she did anything to get Nick upset," the nurse defended. "It's not uncommon for a chemo patient to get upset or adgitated with the medications they're on."

"She said I was rejecting Aaron's bone marrow," Nick said in a flat voice.

"What on Earth possessed you to tell him that?" Bob asked incrediulously.

"I-I just mentioned it is all, just in passing...he wanted to know why we were here and it slipped," Jane cried.

"You both are upsetting my patient, you need to take your agruing out of this room.....NOW!" the nurse ordered as she pointed toward the door. "This was a bad idea letting both of you in here at the same time! Most parents pull together for the sake of their child, this is the first time I've seen parents go at each other in front of their sick child! Leave now!"

Once the door closed, Nick took a shaky breath in and then sighed.

"I'm sorry to throw your parents out but it wasn't a good idea to have them in here right now I guess."

Nick smiled sadly, "You have no idea how dysfunctional my family is."