I'm so sorry it's been so long…this weekend was crazy and I had no free time to write at all! I'm working on the new chapter now, so hopefully that will be up soon! Thanks so much to everyone who reviewed! Keep it up! And JonasGirl-1, thanks for all of the reviews! It was fun to read all of them in order!
December 17, 2006
When Nick awoke the next morning, he felt even worse. He knew exactly what it was, though. He checked his Omni-pod and sure enough, his blood sugar was up to 470. Unfortunately, his Omni-pod had malfunctioned when Nick had forgotten to program in what he had eaten the day before.
He should have thought about it the night before, but he wasn't thinking straight and he didn't realize it. It still had only been a little over a year since he was diagnosed and even though he knew what to do now, sometimes he forgot about his disease.
Kevin and Joe were still asleep, as well as his mom and dad and Frankie. He figured they all had been out late having fun. He didn't want to wake them, but he didn't know what else to do. He climbed out of bed to go to the mini fridge so he could get some juice or something in him, maybe regulate his sugar. However, as he got up, he became very dizzy and as he started to walk over to the other side of the room, he collapsed.
Joe woke up to a thud on the floor and slowly opened his eyes. He looked over to Nick's bed and saw he wasn't there. For a second, Joe started to go back to sleep, thinking it was nothing. However, Joe remembered that Nick had been sick the night before and became very worried. When he sat up in bed, he didn't see his younger brother anywhere. But, when he got up to find out where he was, he saw Nick lying on the floor at the foot of Joe and Kevin's bed.
"Kevin!" Joe yelled. Kevin rolled over and put a pillow over his head. "Kevin!" Joe yelled again, this time punching his brother in the leg, for that was the only place he could reach.
"What?" Kevin whined as he sat up.
"Nick fell," Joe said, helplessly. He looked down at his brother and picked him up, lying him down on the bed. Kevin looked pretty helpless as well, but was trying to be the good big brother.
"I'll go get Mom," Kevin said as he left the room and went down the hall and started banging on his parent's hotel room door. It was then that Joe realized what time it was. 5 o'clock in the morning. This was going to be a long day.
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Denise had come back to the room with Kevin Jr. a few minutes later and by then Joe had gotten Nick to wake up. He was woozy and disoriented, but he was awake. Kevin Sr. was still in his room, trying to wake up Frankie and call an ambulance.
When the emergency vehicle arrived, Denise climbed into the back with her son. Kevin Sr. drove the rest of the boys in the rental car to the hospital. Nick was admitted and put on an IV to help get his blood sugar levels back to normal. He had fallen asleep pretty quickly after the doctor had put the IV in, but he said this was normal and just to let him rest for awhile.
"I just don't understand why he didn't tell any of us," Denise said to no one in particular.
"I noticed that he was acting strange yesterday, and I thought it was maybe his blood sugar, but I wasn't sure. You know how upset he gets when people ask him about it," the eldest brother said, looking down at his hands, blaming himself.
"It's not your fault," his father said, picking up on what his son was thinking.
"If I would have just said something, though," Kevin said, trying not to get upset.
"Stop. It doesn't matter now," Joe said, angrily. "I need to get some air."
Joe walked out of the room where his youngest brother was sleeping in his mother's lap, his oldest brother was beating himself up, his parents were trying to be strong, and his "little man" as he often referred to him as, was in a hospital bed, completely helpless. Joe couldn't take it.
He walked out of the hospital and into a grassy area. It was just getting to be morning, it was about 7 now. He sat down on a bench and put his face in his hands and cried. Joe wasn't big on the whole being emotional thing. He was always cracking jokes and doing stupid things. He was the "funny" brother. However, he was quite an emotional person, people just didn't get to see that side of him.
He cried for Nick, who was upstairs fighting a daily battle that had once again taken him on the verge of being in a serious condition. He cried for his parents, who had to go through all of this. He cried for anyone and everyone he could think of that would be affected by this. And then he cried for himself, that he wasn't strong enough to be there for his family and instead had to come outside and cry.
Joe finally composed himself around 8 and walked back into the hospital. Immediately when he entered Nick's room he went into the bathroom before anyone could see him. Boy, he was a sight for sore eyes; literally, his eyes hurt. He splashed water on his face and dried it off. Most of the puffiness was gone, however, they were still bloodshot. Good as it was going to get.
Denise was the first to welcome Joe back into the room and he sat next to her, on the other side that Frankie was on. Joe just put his head on her shoulder and closed his eyes. It had been an early morning, and they were all exhausted. Kevin Sr. went for coffee at Starbuck's around 10 and took Frankie with him. Denise went to get breakfast in the cafeteria downstairs for the boys. Kevin and Joe just sat in silence for awhile.
"He's going to be okay," Kevin said, not taking his eyes off the floor.
"I know he is. I just hate it when this happens. I hate that this had to happen to our little brother," Joe said, not looking at Kevin, but instead at Nick.
"He's strong though. And we need to be strong, too, Joe," Kevin said, finally looking at a family member for the first time in hours.
"I know, I know," Joe said, still looking at Nick.
The brothers were silent for awhile longer. Their parents hadn't gotten back yet and they were beginning to wonder where they were. Just as Kevin stood up to go out and call them, he heard a voice he'd needed to hear for hours.
"What? What's going on?" Nick hoarsely whispered. Had it not been so silent in the room, they probably wouldn't have heard him.
"Nick!" Joe and Kevin both said at the same time. Each of them rushed to a side of his bed.
"How you feeling, little man?" Joe asked.
"I, my head hurts," Nick paused, "where am I?" he said as he looked around the room.
"You're in the hospital. You woke up this morning and fell. You're blood--" Kevin started to say, but Nick interrupted him.
"Blood sugar was up to 470, I know. I checked it and that's why I got; up to get something to drink," Nick said, still whispering. "I'm sorry," he said.
"Don't be sorry, bud. We're just glad you're okay," Kevin told him. Joe was speechless at this point. He wanted to say so much to Nick, but wasn't sure how to. He figured he'd do it later, when they were alone.
"Where's Mom and Dad?" Nick asked.
"They went to get some breakfast and coffee. They'll be back soon," Kevin said. As soon as he finished his sentence, Kevin Sr. and Frankie walked in with coffee. Unfortunately, Frankie saw that Nick was awake and dropped the 2 cups of coffee that he was carrying. Nobody cared, though.
A few minutes later, Denise walked in. Her hands were full of things and she was looking down as she opened the door.
"Sorry I took so long, guys. I left to go get real food and I stopped by the hotel on the way back to get some stuff to keep us--" she started and realized Nick was awake. "Nicky!"
"Hey, Mom," Nick lightly laughed and waved to her.
"Oh baby!" she said, putting her things down on the ground. "I was so worried about you!" she cooed as she grabbed his head and stroked his hair, kissing his forehead.
"Mom!" Nick said, teasing her. "I'm not dead."
"We were all worried, Nick," Joe said, finally speaking for the first time since he had asked Nick how he was. Nick just smiled at him, knowingly. He knew that if something ever happened to Joe, he would have a hard time dealing with it, and knew that Joe was having the same problem.
"What'd you bring from the hotel?" Nick asked his mom.
"Well," she said as she got into the duffle bag. "I brought some crossword puzzles and some coloring books. I brought a small puzzle," Denise was naming off the things she brought as she pulled them out of the bag. Frankie was quite pleased with what she had brought. However, her three eldest sons weren't as thrilled.
"Is that it?" Joe asked, his sarcastic nature slowly coming back now that he knew Nick was okay, at least for today.
"What did you expect? Your X-Box?" she laughed. Her sons just stared at her like "Duh!" Denise smiled. "Good thing I'm SuperMom, huh?" she said as she pulled out the gaming system and a few games.
"Cool!" Nick said, his voice starting to come back. Kevin Jr. plugged in the console and put in a game. She had only brought 2 controllers, hoping they wouldn't fight. They didn't. The three switched on and off, all sitting on Nick's bed looking up and the small TV that was mounted on the ceiling. When Joe and Kevin were playing and Nick was just watching he suddenly realized something. "Mom! What time is it?"
"It's a little after one, honey," Denise said, looking at her watch.
"Crap!"
"Nicholas!" she shot at him.
"Sorry. Did you bring my phone?" he asked her.
"Oh yes, I forgot to give it to you," she said pulling it out of her purse. He opened the phone and silently cursed himself. 4 missed calls. All from Miley. Great.
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Miley paced around her room like she had been doing for the past hour. Nick hadn't retuned her phone calls. She didn't have his brothers' numbers. What was going on?
"Hey, bud, how you doing?" Billy Ray asked as he walked past his daughter's room. "Or should I ask, what are you doing?"
"He won't answer, Daddy!" she said as she stopped pacing and flung herself onto her bed.
"Who?" he asked, leaning against the door frame.
"Nick! He was supposed to call me around 10 and we were going to hang out at the beach with his brothers. But he didn't call and I've called him 4 times and he hasn't answered," she said, pouting after she was done ranting.
"Now, I don't know why this would be, but maybe he just isn't as interested as you are, Miley," Billy Ray said cautiously as he approached her bed.
"No, Daddy. That's not like Nick. Forget about us being interested or not. He wouldn't just not answer! Something's wrong!" she said, almost ready to cry. Her dad sat down next to her.
"Come on now, you know what they say, Fifth time's the charm, right?" he said smiling, trying to cheer his daughter up.
"No, that's the third time. But fine. I'll call one more time. If he doesn't answer, I'm going to go find him," she said, picking up her phone.
"Just call him. We'll go from there," Billy Ray winked at his daughter and walked out of her room.
Miley dialed Nick's number and it rang, and rang, and rang. Hey, it's Nick J! Leave a message and I might call you back! Darn; his voicemail; again. She put the phone down next to her and put her head on her pillow. Her eyes started to water, wondering what was wrong with Nick. Then her phone went off.
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"She's calling me," Nick said, hitting Joe in the arm.
"What?" Joe asked, pausing the game and turning around.
"Miley, she's calling me," Nick said again.
"Okaaaaay," Joe said, "so, answer it?"
"I'd like a little privacy!" Nick said. "Help me get up and into my wheelchair. I'll talk to her out in the hall." Kevin and Joe both got up and while Joe balanced Nick enough for him to get into his wheelchair, Kevin untangled his IV and unlocked the wheels so he could take it with him.
Once he was in the hallway, he called her back.
"Hello?" she answered in a raspy voice.
"Hey, Miley, what's up?" Nick said, knowing it wasn't because she was tired. She sounded like she was going to cry.
"Nick, are you okay?" she asked, obviously worried.
"Of course. I was just, uhh, busy earlier," Nick said, trying to sound believable.
"Busy! Nicholas Jonas! Are you out of your mind! I thought something happened to you! I thought you were in the hospital or something!" she yelled into the phone.
"Uhh, the hospital?" he asked nervously, with a little laugh. "Why, uhh, why would I be there?"
"I don't know," she said sternly, "but I thought something happened to you, Nick. Don't scare me like that!" she said, softening her tone.
"I'm sorry, Miley, I just--" Nick started to say, but it was too late. He was interrupted.
"Paging Doctor Helling, paging Doctor Helling, floor 2, floor 2," was heard over the intercom system at the hospital. Nick prayed that Miley hadn't heard it. His prayers went unanswered.
"You are in the hospital!" she shrieked. "Nick! What's going on?"
"I, uhh, Miley I've got to go. I'll call you later, I promise."
"Nick don't you dare hang up that phone!" she yelled.
"I'm sorry. I gotta go," he said and hung up. He hated doing that to her, but he didn't want her to know about anything. He didn't want her to feel sorry for him. He wheeled himself back in the room.
"How'd it go?" Denise asked.
"I don't want to talk about it," Nick grumbled as he wheeled himself over to his bed. Joe and Kevin helped him back up and after looking at him for a few seconds waiting to him to spill, which apparently wasn't going to happen, they went back to their game.
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"Daddy! Daddy!" Miley ran down the stairs and practically ran over her dad on the way down.
"What? What?" he said, catching her before she fell.
"We have to go to the hospital!" Miley yelled, grabbing her coat.
"What's wrong? Are you hurt?" he asked.
"No, Nick's at the hospital!"
"What? How do you know?"
"He called me and I heard someone paging a 'Doctor Helling'!"
"Which hospital?" Billy Ray asked, grabbing for his coat as well. He knew there was no convincing his daughter that she couldn't go.
"I have no idea. We can just go to all of them that have a Doctor Helling working and go from there?" she suggested, then realized how stupid that sounded. "Will that work?" she asked, getting upset.
"I don't know, pumpkin. Come on, let's go find that boy," he said, holding the door open for her. They walked to his car and got in. As they pulled down the driveway, she put her head up against the window. She stared out the window and just wanted to find Nick soon.
"I just hope he's okay," she whispered to herself.
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After 3 different hospitals, they finally found one with a Doctor Helling. Miley, and her dad, just hoped it was the right one. Miley went up to the front desk and waited until the lady behind it got off the phone.
"May I help you?" the lady asked.
"Could you tell me which room Nick Jonas is in, please?" Miley asked. The lady turned to her computer and typed in his name.
"I'm sorry, I've been instructed not to give out his room number," the lady said. Miley sighed and sat down on the small chair across the hallway.
"Daddy, I have to see him," she pleaded with her father.
"Why don't you call him?"
"He'll tell me to go away."
"Just call him, Miles."
"Fine," she said and walked away from her dad. It rang a few times and finally Nick picked up.
"Hey, Miley, what's up?" Nick said, somewhat distracted she could tell.
"Hey, umm, can I talk to Joe?" she asked, hoping he would just put him on.
"What do you want to talk to Joe for?" Nick asked, confused.
"Because she wants my body," Joe said.
"Tell him I don't want any of that," Miley laughed. "I just need to ask him something."
"Okay, here you go," Nick said and handed Joe the phone.
"Hello?" Joe said into the phone in a girl voice.
"You're an idiot," Miley laughed. "Hey, could you step out of the room for a second? I have a question for you."
"Yeah, hang on just a second," he said and handed his controller to Kevin. Joe walked out of the room and put the phone back up to his ear. "What's up?"
"What room is Nick in?" she demanded.
"What?" Joe asked, confused.
"What room is Nick in? I'm downstairs, but they won't tell me where he is!" Miley pleaded with Joe.
"I'll be down in just a second," he said and hung up the phone. A few moments later, Joe was in the lobby with Miley and Billy Ray.
"Joe!" Miley cried when she saw him. She hugged him and looked up at him. "Is Nick okay?" she asked worriedly.
"He is now. Come on, come up and see him," Joe motioned for Miley and her dad to come up. Miley started to follow Joe, but her dad stayed behind. She looked back at him and asked him what was wrong.
"I'm gonna stay down here, bud. You go up and take your time. I'm going to go, uhh, down the street and buy your Mom something nice. Call me when you're ready," he said. "On second thought, I'll just go home. Just let me know when you want to leave," he told her, kissing the top of her head. She smiled and knew that she was lucky that he trusted her so much.
Joe led Miley up to Nick's room. Miley pestered him the whole way up, but Joe told her that Nick needed to explain everything if he was ready to. Joe told her to be prepared for what she was going to see. He was hooked up to an IV and some other machines as well, and he knew that she would get emotional. She told herself to be strong, however, for Nick, and for his family.
Joe knocked on Nick's room door softly. He walked in and Miley followed him a few steps behind.
"Joe, why would you knock?" Nick asked while his voice faded and he saw her. His face dropped, not because he wasn't glad to see her, but because he didn't want her to see him like this. He put down his controller and Kevin looked over to see what was going on. When he saw Miley, he knew. Everyone just stood there looking at her.
"Who are you?" Frankie asked, finally.
"I'm sorry. Mom, Dad, Frank, this is Miley," Joe said, introducing her, even though Nick should have been the one to do it, but he was being quite silent.
"It's so nice to finally meet you, Miley," Denise said and stood up, as well as her husband. They each shook her hand and then all the attention was on Nick. He still hadn't said anything since she had walked in. He wasn't sure what to say.
Denise looked around and noticed the tension.
"Hey, Frankie, want to come with me? I'm going to go check out the cafeteria," she asked her youngest.
"Nah, I'll stay here," he said.
"Frank, I'd really like you to go with me," she said sternly.
"Fine," he said, putting his coloring book down. Kevin Sr. got the hint.
"Hey Kev, Joe, you wanna help me with some stuff?" he asked.
"What stuff?" Joe asked, not wanting to leave his brother.
"You know, stuff," Kevin Jr. said this time (A/N: if any of you get that, let me know! Haha!). He knew Nick and Miley needed to be alone to talk.
"Fine," said Joe, finally getting it. "But I'll be watching you," he said to Nick. The rest of the Jonas gang left and there was just Nick and Miley. She hadn't really moved since she walked in the room, other than to shake people's hands. She was still all the way across the room. They just looked at each other. Neither one knew what to say.
"Miley?" he asked softly. She started to cry and turned away from him. "Miles, come here," he said and patted the hospital bed. She refused and stayed with her back facing him. "Please?" he asked.
She walked over to the bed after she had wiped the tears away and sat down on the one side, close to the middle. She just looked at him. He put a hand on hers and she began to tear up again.
"Please don't," he begged her.
"Nick, what's wrong with you?" she asked, her voice catching in her throat.
"I uhh, I have diabetes," Nick said.
"Oh my God. Nick, how did this happen?"
"I've had it for awhile now. I found out about a year ago. It just got really out of wack and I fell and had to come here. I'm fine, though," he said, trying to reassure her.
"I don't understand. If you've had it and know how to deal with it, what happened?" she asked, confused.
"I'm still really not sure. I think I forgot to program my Omni-pod correctly yesterday after I had that marshmallow thing on the set with you, and it just messed up from that and I felt too sick to deal with it last night and…Miley, what's wrong?" he asked her, noticing she was crying again.
"This is my fault. I'm so sorry. I shouldn't have told you to eat that thing, I'm, Nick, I'm so sorry," she said, sobbing.
"Miley, this is not in any way your fault. You had no idea, and besides, it's my fault for not fixing it," he explained to her.
"Why didn't you program your Omni-?" Miley started.
"Omni-pod. And we were on set. I didn't want you to know about all of this yet. I don't go around telling a lot of people. Here," he said, picking up her hand. "The thing you hit yesterday was this," and placed her hand on his Omni-pod.
"Did I break it?" she asked.
"No, not at all. It was my fault that this happened. Not yours," he told her. She smiled a little for the first time since she had gotten there. His hand was still holding onto hers. He looked down and with his other hand, pulled out his dog tag. "This," he said, putting both of their hands up to his chest to hold the tag, "is my dog tag. It's says I'm a diabetic, just in case anything happens and I'm not with my family."
Miley fingered the metal tag for a moment, then realized how close her and Nick were. Her hand was on his chest, him holding onto her wrist lightly. She was leaning into him slightly, and she looked at him and he looked at her. He looked at her lips and back up at her, and she did the same. But instead of doing what both of them wanted, Miley backed up and Nick set her hand down on the bed. This was not the place for their first kiss.
The Jonas clan came back in about half an hour later, to find Miley and Nick sitting up facing each other in his bed, talking. Denise could have sworn that she saw Nick pull his hand away from Miley's when everyone started to filter in, but she wasn't sure.
A few hours passed and Miley realized that she probably needed to call her dad. She stepped out of the room and called him and told him that she was ready whenever, but if he wanted to take his time, that was perfectly fine. He told her he'd call her when he was pulling up to the parking lot.
Miley went back into the room and sat back down on Nick's bed, which was rather crowded now, with Nick, Kevin, Joe, and Miley all on it. Miley offered to grab a chair and sit in that, but Nick placed a hand on her knee and told her she wasn't going anywhere. She told him that she was leaving soon, and he handed a controller over to Kevin.
"We're not going to get a lot of privacy," Nick whispered into her ear, so that no one in the room could hear. She hit him playfully on the chest.
"Mr. Jonas! What would we need privacy for," she whispered back as she wrapped a hand around the back of his head and stroked his curls. They both looked at each other and smiled. She pulled away as her phone rang. It was her dad and he was waiting downstairs.
"It was really nice to meet you," Miley said to Denise and Kevin Sr. Then she walked over to the boys. "Great to see you again, Kev," she said as she hugged him. "Thanks partner-in-crime," she said to Joe as he enveloped her in a big hug. "Call me tomorrow? Let me know how you're doing?" Miley asked Nick. He nodded and winked at her. She walked over to the other side of the bed and gave him a hug. She breathed him in and wished she didn't have to go. "Don't you ever scare me like that again," she whispered to him.
"I promise," he said and held up 2 fingers, indicating a scout's honor.
"You're not a boy scout," she pointed out.
"I still promise," he said, smiling at her. She left and got into her dad's car in the parking lot.
"He okay?" Billy Ray asked his daughter.
"He has diabetes," she said.
"Wow, I'm sorry," he said, not apologizing to Miley, but just feeling sorry for Nick.
"He's okay, though," she smiled and looked at her dad. "He's going to be fine."