Chapter 6 Getting help

James can feel the ground being washed away from underneath him when he hears those words.

He's not breathing…

They echo in his mind as he watches his best friend lying on the ground, not moving. His face is so pale, not the mocha colored tan he should have. Even his lips have turned ashen.

The whole backstage area has gone completely silent as they stare at the small form on the ground in horror.

"Logan?" Kendall quietly asks suddenly, his voice shaking. He looks at his other friend, who seems frozen completely. "Logan?" he asks again and the smart friend looks up at him slowly, with tears already in his eyes. "What do we do?"

Logan looks back at his still friend, trying to push his mind into working again. He should know what to do. He wanted to become a doctor someday. He knows what to do… Then why is it so hard to remember?

Then, suddenly, another voice rings through, breaking the silence.

"The paramedics are here guys, make way!" Dustin's voice sounds as everyone steps aside to give the medics room to move over to them. The two men immediately kneel down next to Logan and start to check his vital signs.

"What happened?" One paramedic asks and he looks at Logan as the other checks Carlos' pulse.

"I…" Is all Logan can bring out suddenly. It's getting harder to think at all now.

"He's got a pulse, but it's weak. And he's not breathing." The other man says. They spring into action and grab an air pump to help start his breathing again.

"He's got a pretty high fever as well. How long has he been like this?" The paramedic not squeezing the air pump asks Logan. But the usually so smart guy just stares at Carlos' chest as it still won't move on its own.

Kendall watches everyone quietly and then decides to step in.

"Uh, he's been sick for a few days. The doctor said it was a cold combined with the flu. He's been coughing pretty bad and sneezing. He seemed fine before we went on stage, but when we were dancing, he suddenly collapsed. He uh... He had trouble breathing and he seemed to be in a lot of pain." The blond explains as he tries to avoid looking at his best friend so motionless still.

"This isn't working, Steve. We're going to have to intubate." The first paramedic says. Kendall steps back again and puts his arms around his frozen best friends, holding them close. Together they watch as the two men put a breathing tube down Carlos' throat and then again squeeze the air pump as they attach it to the tube.

They quickly lift him onto a gurney and before anyone realizes it, they are already wheeling him down the hall and towards the exit.

"Is anyone coming with him?" One of the men suddenly asks as they load him into the waiting ambulance.

"Is he going to be okay?" Kendall asks them, too dazed to realize what they actually asked.

"I don't know. We'll have to check him in the hospital. But does anyone want to come with us?" The paramedic called Steve asks again.

"I want to go…" James suddenly quietly asks. It's so quiet; Kendall is surprised anyone heard it. Then he nods and lets go of his tall friend, who slowly and still in obvious shock is helped into the ambulance as well.

"We'll be right behind you, James." Kendall tells him firmly, but James doesn't respond. Kendall watches as the doors close and the ambulance drives off with wailing sirens. "Come on, Logan, let's go after them." He says quietly and leads the still frozen Logan towards another car. "We'll call everyone else on the way."

As they sit in the car now being driven by a band member, since they were in no condition to drive themselves, Kendall lets it all sink in.

How did this happen? How did they not see that Carlos wasn't fine at all? Logan had been right all along. Something did happen. They should have just listened to him.

And of course this was the one night Kelly and Gustavo or any of their family members couldn't come and see them. It leaved them practically alone in their suffering. No, wait, not their suffering. Carlos is the one suffering.

He turns his head to look at Logan, who still hasn't returned from that place somewhere in his mind. Kendall wonders what he's thinking. But he knows it'll probably be the same thing he's thinking of. Or rather, the same person.

With shaking hands, he calls anyone who he can think of that should be informed. They all respond in complete shock, not unexpected of course.

Moments later they find themselves in a small waiting area, hoping for someone to come and tell them what is happening. Then, an even paler James emerges through the double doors.

"James, what's going on? Is he okay?" Kendall asks right away.

"I don't… They cut up his favorite shirt and starting shouting stuff I didn't understand and then they pushed me out." He stammers, his voice laced with panic. Kendall squeezes his arm.

"It's okay, James. I'm sure they just needed room to take care of him." Kendall assures him. Then, the doors open again and Carlos is suddenly being wheeled right by them. Kendall and James shoot up right away.

"Hey, wait! Where are you taking him? What's going on?" Kendall shouts after the doctors and nurses, who are rushing their friend towards an elevator.

"We're taking him into surgery. His spleen is badly infected and it needs to come out, now!" A doctor responds, before quickly pressing a button. The two friends stand again in horror and shock, but can't ask anything else as the doors close right in front of them.

"H-his spleen? Doesn't he n-need that?" James asks, his face full of worry.

"I-I don't know…" Kendall responds in all honesty. He doesn't know anything about that sort of stuff. That's Logan's territory. Speaking of which, he looks back again towards the spot where he left his best friend. But the teen is still sitting in the waiting chair, not moving and staring off into space.

"Kendall? Boys?" A female voice suddenly calls out. Kendall rushes forward when his mother approaches, her eyes full of worry. He latches himself in her arms and she just holds him for a moment. "Are you guys okay? I came as fast as I could." She says as she lets go of Kendall.

"Yeah, we're okay…" He answers in a small voice, shaking once again and laced with a hint of fear.

"What happened, how is he doing?" A frantic Katie suddenly asks from right beside her, her eyes wide.

"They just took him up for surgery. They said his spleen was infected? I'm not sure what it means, but they have to remove it." Kendall tells them.

In the meantime, Mrs. Knight quietly approaches James, who is staring at the elevators. The moment he sees her, he starts to shake. The moment she holds out her arms, the first tears spill and James is gone.

"So what happened?" Katie asks again as James' sobs are heard in the background. Kendall takes her to sit down and takes a deep breath. He tells her the whole story about what happened on the stage and up to the point where they found him no longer breathing. Katie may be young, but she's smart and she would have demanded to know anyway.

"It was so scary, baby sis. Just seeing him lying there. That wasn't Carlos. I was just waiting for him to jump up and laugh at us for falling for one of his stupid pranks. But then his lips started to turn blue and it just became so real… And then Logan froze up or something and I…" he takes a deep breath and tries to ignore his trembling bottom lip. "I don't know…" He says as he tries to keep from bursting out in tears. Then he feels a hand slipping into his. He looks down and sees Katie holding on tightly, her big eyes full of fear.

"It's going to be okay, big brother. Carlos will fight to get better." She tells him and he nods. "He has to…" She adds in a whisper and he pulls her into a hug. Both siblings sit trembling in each other's arms for a moment, until they both let go and smile reassuringly.

Kendall averts his gaze back to Logan.

"Kendall, do you think maybe he's in shock? I mean, he's not even moving." Katie tells him when she follows his gaze.

"I don't know." He says when he stands up and kneels down in front of his friend, who doesn't seem to acknowledge his presence.

"Buddy?" He asks quietly as he stares into the far away gaze of his smart friend. "Logan?" he asks again and places a hand on the brunet's knee. "Are you in there, buddy?" when he doesn't get a response, he sighs. "I uh… I know that it was really scary what happened back there." He says in a quiet voice, as his mind reverts back to those blue lips. "But you shouldn't shut yourself off like this, Logan, it's not healthy… Please just talk to us. We… We're scared, too…" He says, his bottom lip trembling again as tears start to form in his eyes. "I'm scared…" He whispers. When Logan still doesn't respond, he closes his eyes and tries desperately not to fall apart. He's not used to falling apart so quickly. But then again, he's never been through a situation like this and Carlos might be dying right now. And James already fell apart, while Logan is off into lalaland… It's hard to stay strong.

"Please say something, Logie…" he chokes out. "Anything…" He pleads.

"Only he calls me that…" A voice suddenly mutters. He looks up, where Logan still sits motionless, that dead look in his eyes.

"What?" he whispers.

"Carlos calls me Logie…" If he didn't see Logan's lips moving, he would have sworn he wasn't the one who said that. His voice sounds so emotionless.

"Uh, yeah, he does…" Kendall says in response, not sure of what else to say to that.

"I knew he was still sick." He then adds in the same tone. "I knew he was sick, I could feel it and I just let him go on anyway."

Kendall frowns. "What? Logan, you can't be seriously blaming yourself for what happened…"

"I knew that stupid doctor was wrong and I knew something bad was going to happen and I just let it happen." Logan says with a shrug, while still looking at the wall opposite him. "He told me he was fine and I believed him, while I knew he was lying." He says with a strange smile forming on his lips. "Can you believe that?" he says with a haunted chuckle. "I believed he was fine and then he collapsed and stopped breathing." He says, chuckling louder now, while tears are slowly falling down. "He stopped breathing and I couldn't remember what to do. My mind was just a total blank. Isn't that the funniest thing you ever heard?" He asks, while laughing slightly.

Kendall watches him with worried eyes, while James and Katie are held by Mrs. Knight and watch with the same concern.

"He could have died, because of me…" He says, his voice now turning into a whisper as more tears start to spill. Kendall shakes his head and gets up from his knees and pulls him into a hug.

"Shh…" Kendall tries to soothe while the smart boy quietly sobs against his chest.

"I'm sorry… I'm so sorry…" He sobs, while Kendall holds him.

"It's not your fault, Logan. Don't ever think any of this was your fault. You tried to warn us and we didn't listen." He says as his own tears slowly come out.

When the double doors suddenly open, everyone looks up. The room is hulled in silence as they stare at the doctor wearing bloody scrubs.

"Carlos Garcia?" He calls out and the world seems to stop.

A/N Okay, this took me so long. I want to apologize for keeping everyone in suspense for so long. I didn't mean to, but this writer's block is just the worst. I can't even write one-shots to try to cure the writer's block now. I have like zero inspiration right now.

Hoping you still like this chapter and sorry for another cliffhanger. I can't tell you when I'll update next. I have other stories I want to update first, if I can. Thank you for your patience and hoping for some more reviews or feedback I'd love to know how to improve my writing, so if anyone has any tips or whatever, just let me know

If you are still reading my stories, thank you so much and I hope you enjoy them Let me know your thoughts on any of my stories through review or PM and if you have any Carlos angst/drama requests for one-shots, let me know those, too ;)

Thank you so much and until next time!

Love, Baxxie