~~~~~~~~~~» Meg «~~~~~~~~~~

"You mean she was awake and you didn’t even come get us?!" I asked in a loud whisper.

"Sh," was AJ’s only response.

Howie took one of my hands in his and began rubbing the skin of the back of it to try and calm me down a little. I wasn’t mad that he didn’t come get us, but I did want to see her awake for myself to know that she’d be ok. When I saw AJ sit up, I looked up and found Liz’s eyes open and she was looking at AJ as he held her hand. I instantly hopped up from where I was sitting on Howie’s lap and rushed to the side of the bed.

"Liz!" I exclaimed.

She looked over to me and gave me a weak smile.

"Hey stranger," she replied in a tired voice.

Howie went out into the hallway and called everyone else into the room. Kev was the first one in the door, followed by Bri, Arti, and Nikki. Nick came in last and quietly sat down in one of the corner chairs while everyone gathered around the bed.

"You had us worried there girlie," Arti said in a thankful voice with a small smile.

Liz carefully lifted her left hand from her side and rested it on my hand as it sat on the bed railing. She gave my hand a gentle squeeze before she lifted her hand, turned it over, and looked at the two needles that were in her wrist. The needles were covered with medical tape so that they wouldn’t move, but you could still see them and it kinda grossed me out. Everyone turned towards the door when there was a knock, followed by one of the middle-aged nurses dressed in pattern print scrubs with little brown teddy bears holding bright yellow, red, blue, and purple balloons...she’d obviously worked in the pediatrics ward at one time. She smiled at all of us as she made her way to the bed.

"Well we’ve got a crowd here don’t we princess?" she teased Liz when she got to the side of the bed where I was standing. "I’ve just got to check a few things before doctor Hanson comes in."

We silently watched her read the numbers on the monitors, check the liquid levels in the IV, and check how well Liz was doing on blood, whether she’d need another transfusion or not. When she was done, she said goodbye and politely excused herself before she left. It was only a few minutes before Doctor Hanson came in.

"Good morning Liz...it’s good to see that you’re awake," he told her with a smile as he made his way over to the bed.

He checked out her arm that had the IV’s in it, took another test for her blood levels (the same one that the nurse had taken), and checked her other arm as well.

"Well, the test confirms what I have been told by Nurse Jones. You will need another transfusion, which I can give you now if you prefer, but we also will need to insert the needle in your other arm because the vein that we were using before has collapsed," he explained. "It shouldn’t hurt that much. I’ll go get a pint of blood from the blood bank and I’ll be back in a few minutes to hook you up."

He looked around the room at everyone, myself included.

"You all might want to wait outside while we hook this up," he said as he made his way to the door.

"No...it’s ok...they can stay," Liz said in a voice that was barely audible.

"Fine...but if any of you are squeamish when it comes to blood, I advise you to wait in the hall," he replied before he left.

Once he was gone and the door shut behind him, we turned back to Liz and found her lying there with her eyes closed. When a few lonely tears streamed down her cheeks, I reached up and gently brushed them away. I knew she was in pain, and it hurt me to know that there wasn’t really anything we could do about it. I gulped a little when I saw her wince in pain...no one was touching her, except her hands, so I knew that it was her bruised muscles that were bothering her. She lay there with a look of anguish on her face with her eyes closed.

"Aaaaaahhhhhhh!" she yelped out in obvious pain as she opened her eyes slightly, leaned forward a few inches, closed her eyes again, and collapsed back onto the white starched pillow.

"Dang...someone go get a nurse...she needs something for the pain," I said after she fell back onto the pillow.

Kev left the room, and when he came back, Doctor Hanson followed him in. He had a pint of blood and some equipment in one hand, with an intravenous needle and a bottle of liquid pain medication in the other hand. We all watched him as he carefully filled the sterile needle with the liquid that was in the tiny clear glass bottle. Instead of injecting it into her arm, he pushed the needle into the insert in the IV and squeezed all of the medication into the small bag so that she would be given the medicine at a steady pace. Nurse Jones came in and helped Doctor Hanson put a tourniquet on her arm above where they needed to find a vein. Once they located the proper vein, they inserted the needle into her arm, covered it with medical tape so it wouldn’t move, took the tourniquet off, and took the clamp off of the tube connected to the blood-filled IV bag so that the tube could deliver the needed blood to her body.

"There...this should help her immensely," Doctor Hanson said after they were finished. "Don’t worry...she only passed out. She should wake up any minute...and if she needs anything, push the red button and one of the nurses will be right in."

We thanked him before he left. I pulled a chair over to the bed and sat down next to the bed opposite of AJ. He gently held her right hand and I held her left. It was about 10 minutes before she woke up again. When she gave AJ’s hand a tender squeeze, he looked up at her and found her watching him. She gave him a smile and I watched him reach up and lovingly brush some hair away from her face with a smile in return.

"I feel like I haven’t slept in a few years...prolly look it too," Liz said in a funny voice, trying to lighten the mood of the entire room.

"Yeah...you know you look soooo bad," Arti chimed in with a small teasing smile. "It’d probably take you an hour to get a brush through your hair alone."

"Why thank ya darlin’," Liz replied as if Arti had given her a compliment.

"That’s what I’m here for," Arti boasted happily.

"One of you has to get me out of here," Liz said with a tired voice as she tried to sit up.

AJ carefully put his hand on her shoulder and held her back as if to tell her that she wasn’t going anywhere.

"Meg..." she whispered as she motioned for me to move closer to her.

I leaned over so that she could tell me something.

"I need to talk...make him go away..." she whispered before she pulled back and looked me in the eye.

I knew that she wanted to talk to us girlies without the overwhelming presence of the guys in the room. I stood up, made eye contact with Arti, and gestured to AJ in a way that only a girl could do so that she knew what I meant. I smiled as I watched her stand up and make her way to where AJ was. When she got to him, he looked up at her with a curious glance, wondering what she wanted.

"AJ...why don’t you go...uh...get Liz some ice," she tried to come up with a viable excuse.

He obviously didn’t catch on that we were only trying to get him out of the room, so he picked up the pink water container, gave Liz a small kiss on the cheek, and headed for the door.

"Oh...and...you guys should go with him in case he gets lost," she added with an innocent smile, speaking to the other four guys still sitting in the room.

I smiled triumphantly as we watched them walk out into the hallway.

"You’re soo naughty Arti," Liz said slyly.

"I know," Arti answered with a cute smile.

We all laughed at her silly moment.

"So, what’d ya want to talk to us about?" I asked after a few seconds.

"Oh...well, I dunno. Conversation’s more interesting with no guys around," Liz answered with a small laugh.

"That’s for sure!" Arti added.

"Hey Meg...will you go talk to the nurses and see how long I have to be cooped up here before I can get out?" Liz asked.

"Sure thing," I replied.

I laughed at Arti and Liz’s wacky conversation that they continued with while I left the room. Once I found Nurse Jones, I asked her about Liz’s condition (which was getting better every minute) and when she would be discharged.

~~~~~~~~~~» A Week Later «~~~~~~~~~~

~~~~~~~~~~» AJ «~~~~~~~~~~

"Aje...let me go...I can walk ya know," Liz whined while I held onto her side as I helped her walk down the hallway towards the elevator.

"Come on hun," I tried to coax her into keeping on walking down the hall. "Don’t make me get stern with you."

She sighed as she wrapped an arm around the back of my waist and leaned on me while she walked. She leaned her head on my shoulder, but kept on walking. The other fellas and the girls were at the hotel getting everything packed so we could head straight to the airport to fly home. Nikki wasn’t coming with us because she had to sort out things about the bus, the tour, and other things like that before she could come home.

"Excuse me sir..."

I turned my head a little and saw one of the nurses walking up behind us. We stopped and waited for the nurse.

"Yes."

"I’m sorry...you can’t go down to the lobby just yet because it’s packed with press people and teenage girls. You’ll have to go out the back way. Your limo is waiting, so I’ll show you the way," she said before she turned and walked away.

"Come on hun," I urged Liz on.

She was tired, and it was evident in her face, but we both knew she had to keep going for her sake and everyone else’s too. We followed closely behind the nurse down the hall, down to the ground level in one of the doctor elevators, and then out the back of the hospital to where the limo was waiting.

"Thanks for helping us out," I told the nurse before I helped Liz into the limo.

"My pleasure Mr. McLean," she replied with a smile before she walked back in the hospital doors.

The ride to the airport was somewhat short, considering that we weren’t very far away from it. Everyone else was going to meet us there, so we just went and waited for them on the landing pad where the rented private jet was waiting. Once the bodyguards had the press back at a distance, Izzie came over to the limo and helped Liz out and quickly escorted us to the waiting plane. Once she was sitting in a seat, I sat down beside her in the middle seat. When the other guys came, Nick sat on the other side of me while the others found their own seats and got comfortable. We were on our way back home, where I’d make sure that Liz completely recovered before she did anything that had to do with her career. With us being in the business, we knew what it was like to be forced to perform when you are in less than perfect health, and I didn’t want her to have to suffer like that. When I looked over at her after we took off, she was asleep, so I got up and went to the bathroom. Kev was listening to music while Arti was sitting beside him reading a book. Meg and Howie were talking in the back of the plane as I walked by. When I came back from the bathroom, I walked up to my seat, only to find Liz stretched out on her seat and mine with her head sitting on a pillow on Nick’s lap. He was asleep with his head leaned back on the seat with his right hand sitting on Liz’s upper arm/shoulder and his other on the arm of his seat. She must have raised the arm between the seats when she found that I wasn’t there. I smiled at how cute she looked as I reached into an overheard cupboard and pulled out a blanket to spread over her. I gave her a kiss on the cheek before I made my way to the back of the plane to where Meg and Howie were. They didn’t seem to mind when I sat down with them and started in on the conversation.

© Liz Holder 2000