Brenda walked into the school dark circles under her eyes; she'd barely gotten any sleep. She walked with Dylan, his arm around her shoulders. She didn't even care what she wore today, just throwing on a pair of jeans and a t-shirt. Her mind was back at the hospital with her brother. She leaned into Dylan's side as they headed to her locker.

"Brenda!" Kelly hurried to her side. "I didn't think you'd be in school today." She wrapped her arm around her best friend's waist, her blue eyes flickering with concern. They hadn't been allowed in to see Brandon last night, but they had tried to be there for their friend. They'd been told as much as they could about what was going on. Words like stroke and such sent shivers down all their backs. "How's Brandon?"

Brenda hugged her, briefly letting go of Dylan. "Mom said I needed to go to school. Dad's going to work for a few hours and then going back to the hospital. I need give a note to the office to let them know Brandon won't be in for a while." She took a shuddering breath. "And he was sleeping when I left. Dr. Freedman said he's going to do that a lot but he's probably going to have more tests…." She ran a hand through her dark hair as they stood by her locker. "He said if Brandon does okay the next couple days, they'll move him to a regular room… right now they can't." She wiped at the tears on her face. "I want to be there, not here. I want this to be some colossal nightmare I'm about to wake up from." She took another breath. "I'm going to head back there after the third period."

Dylan nodded. "I'll drive you if you want. That way, I can come in and see him for a few…" He kissed her temple. He then looked over to the side when he heard Brenda's breath caught in anger. Emily stood at Brandon's locker like she was waiting for him. "Bren, I'll handle it. You go to the first period…"

"What the hell is she doing by his locker?! What does she want?" she growled. She wanted to rip the blonde hair out of her head. She started to head over there but Dylan put a tight arm around her shoulders

"Come on, Babe. Let's just get your books and head to the first period." He wanted to keep her as far from Brandon's girlfriend as he could. He quickly helped her get her books from the locker that was three away from her brothers.

He then spotted Andrea heading towards Emily and knew a whole new problem had just arisen. Not to mention, he could see Donna walking over from the other direction as well.

Andrea had been looking for Brandon all morning as they had a staff meeting for the Blaze after school. She headed towards his locker, seeing his girlfriend Emily standing there, seemingly waiting. "Hi, Emily. Is Brandon here yet?"

Emily gave her a smile. "No, not yet… Just waiting for him. He didn't answer his phone this morning and didn't pick me up either, so I figured I'd meet him at his locker." She leaned up against the locker, keeping an eye out for him. "He's probably running late because he didn't feel so great last night. He left with Brenda and Dylan."

Donna snorted, shaking her head, and took a step forward to correct her. Before she could stop him, David started walking over instead. His shoulders were rolled back, and a scowl was etched across his face.

He stomped over to the two girls who were still chatting away. He shot a glare at Emily before turning to Andrea. "Brandon won't be here for a while. He ended up in the hospital last night." He tried to hold his temper back as Emily tried to dispute that. "I can't go into all the details, but let's just say it's not good, Andrea."

"What do you mean 'it's not good?'" she asked, her voice taking on a worried tone. Neither of them noticed as Emily started inching away from where they were standing. She was watching them out of the corner of her eye as if to listen in but not get caught. "Where is he?"

"He's in West Beverly Hills hospital," David stated plainly. "Last we heard he was in the ICU. We were there with Brenda and Dylan all last night but weren't allowed to go in." He sighed. "I know their mom's still there right now." Before he could continue, Andrea was taking off the other way. He looked over at Donna who shook her head. They both knew where Andrea was headed.

Donna hurried to Brenda's side. "You better call your mom to let her know that Andrea's on the way," she said. "She's going to have questions."

Brenda frowned. "What do you mean?" she asked.

David looked a bit sheepish. "I told her Brandon's in the hospital, and it isn't good when Emily tried to play it off like he just didn't feel good last night," he explained.

Hearing that, Brenda rushed to the payphone to dial the number for the hospital

* Scene Break***

Andrea grabbed a cab and directed the driver to take her to West Beverly Hills Hospital. What had gone so bad that Brandon was in the ICU? Her mind was spinning with all a myriad of different scenarios.

She knew he had gone to the rave with Emily the previous night but Emily had only said that he hadn't been feeling well when he went home with Brenda and Dylan. Yet David had immediately corrected her and said he was in the hospital. In the ICU no less.. She felt her heart beating fast in worry.

He was one of her best friends and she hoped that he was alright. If she had been watching earlier, though, she would have seen how Brenda looked that morning and known that it wasn't good.

She made record time to the hospital and headed straight for the ICU. She knew she couldn't actually go in but she still stepped up to the information Desk. "Uhm… I'm looking for a friend of mine…"

The nurse casually looked up from her clipboard and at her. "And that would be?" she asked.

"Brandon Walsh," Andrea replied just as she saw Cindy Walsh walking through the doors of the ICU. "Mrs. Walsh… how's Brandon?"

Cindy looked up. She had been with Brandon 'til he fell asleep again. She was tired and had dark circles under her eyes. Her shirt was rumpled and looked like she'd slept in it. "Andrea." She moved towards her as one nurse had told her that Brenda had called her to let her know that Andrea was on her way there. She frowned. " Oh you weren't here last night…" She was hard pressed to remember who had been there last night and early this morning.

"No," Andrea confirmed. "Is he okay?" She moved towards Brandon's mother's side and sat down on the couch next to her in the waiting room.

Cindy frowned, rubbing her eyes. It had been a long stressful night. She then started to fill her in on what they were told so far. She started hugging her when Andrea started to cry. "He'll be okay … it's just going to take some time… I stepped out for a bit. He's resting right now…" She hoped she wasn't lying to the young girl and that he'd recover. She knew her son was sick though and it was going to take a long time before Brandon was even out of the ICU, let alone released from the hospital.