Chapter 20

The silence in the room was nerve wrecking. Every once in a while you could hear a sob escape one of the young men in the room. They have been sitting in this room waiting for over an hour on news of Brian. With every minute that passed, their hope faded little by little. A soft knock on the door brought the boys back from their thoughts. A older gentleman in a white coat opened the door and stuck his head in.

“Excuse me, but I am Dr. Adele and I’m taking care of Brian Littrell during his stay here. I need to discuss with you what happened to him before you may see him.” After a few moments of silence, Howie finally spoke with his slightly hoarse voice, “Yes sir, please come in and have a seat. We have been waiting anxiously to hear news of Brian's condition.”

The doctor walked in quickly and shut the door quietly behind him, then he took a seat in a chair that faced the boys waiting patiently as the boys quietly introduced themselves.

“Can you gentleman please tell me of any strange behavior you noticed from Mr. Littrell before this happened?” asked Dr. Adele.

Kevin slowly cleared his throat and spoke in a strained voice. “Um yes sir I did notice something. One morning Brian woke up and he looked pale to me. I asked him about it and he just laughed it off saying he was alright. Even thought I had a feeling that something was wrong, I quickly dismissed that feeling and we made our way to dance practice. About halfway through, we broke into groups to work on our dancing and Brian was in my group along with A.J. As time passed I noticed that he kept looking at the clock. I once caught his eye and asked him if he was ok and he told me yes and just kept dancing. Finally it was time for lunch and I was about to follow Brian to ask him what was wrong but a member of our management team stopped me and told me that he needed to speak with me about make up dates for some concerts we have missed. When the meeting was finished, Nick came running up to me and was saying that he found Bri in the cafeteria and that something was wrong with Brian. I quickly made my way to the cafeteria and found Brian with his head on the table. After a few moments of coaxing him, he finally lifted his head and I was shocked at how sickly he looked and it disturbed me. I asked Nick to go get the others and tell them to come to the bus because was was taking Bri to the hotel to rest. After Nick left I asked Bri if he needed any help and he got mad at me and started yelling at me. I was shocked because he is normally peaceful and hardly never yells at anyone. He tried standing up and walking away, but his legs gave out and he almost fell to the floor, but I caught him in time. I lifted him in my arms and carried him outside. On our way to the bus, he rested his head on my shoulder and it was then that I realized how warm he was. By the time we got on the bus, Bri had fell asleep so I put him in my bunk which was closest to the front of the bus and walked outside to wait for the rest of the guys. After they got on the bus, we left and we all fell asleep in the bunks. I think it was about 30 minutes after we had left that I thought I heard someone let out a cry of pain. I thought that maybe I had imagined it, but I decided to investigate anyways. I went to where Bri was and it looked like he was asleep.”

Kevin sighed deeply and took a drink of water from the bottle that Nick had offered him.

“I then checked for fever and he still had a pretty high one, so I was searching for some Aspirin in my bookbag when he woke up. I asked him how he was and he said he felt better and suddenly chuckled. I asked him what that was for and he said that he was glad he felt so much better and he thanked me for carrying him to the bus. I finally found the aspirin and gave them to him and told him to go back to sleep. We finally got to the hotel and checked in then we all fell asleep. I woke Brian up some time later and brought him something to eat and told him to get ready because we had to be at the venue 2 hours from then. We got to the venue and had a quick sound check then went on stage. That is the last time I...I talked to him” quietly said Kevin as he let out a loud sob.

Dr. Adele reached out his arm and patted Kevin on the shoulder,”Thank you very much for telling me this Mr. Richardson. This information may help us assess to Brian’s needs. Now Mr. Carter can you tell me what happened when you found Mr. Littrell in the cafeteria?”

Nick took a deep breath before he started to relive what had happened. “Um, well after Howie and I got finished practicing, I decided I would make my way down to the cafeteria to get some lunch and see if Bri was down there. I got down there and got my lunch and spotted Brian’s jacket. I made my way over there and I noticed that his lunch was pushed away and that he was resting his head in his arms that were on the table. I found it kind of strange that Brian would get his favorite food and not eat it so I asked him if he was alright and he said nothing was wrong. I got frustrated because I knew something was wrong with him and I asked him again. This time he slowly lifted his head and the first thing I noticed was how gray his eyes looked. Usually they were a bright blue and it kind of shocked me to see how stormy gray they were. I then lifted my hand to his forehead and he sighed and then when I pulled away, his head returned to its original position and I told him to stay put and I left to find Kevin. Then Kevin came and I went to go find the guys then we left for the hotel. After we got to the hotel and was resting, Bri woke me up to tell me that I had to get up and he had some food for me. He also told me that he was gonna take a shower while I ate. He was in the shower almost an hour and it worried me because he usually only took 20 minutes in the shower so I asked him if he was ok and he said yes after a few moments. Then he turned off the shower and came out. After he got ready we left for the venue and then we started the concert. The next thing I knew I heard a gasp come from the crowd and heard a lound thump. I turned around and found Bri lying on the floor grasping his chest and then he started thrashing around. I screamed for someone to call 911 and then he stopped thrashing around and looked up at Kevin and Kev grabbed his hand and then a moment later Bri stopped breathing. I remembering screaming. Kevin then snapped into action a few moments later and tried to give him CPR. Brian still wasn’t breathing so Kevin started screaming and about that time, the paramedics came and also started CPR on him. Oh god they said that he might have Brain damage. Oh God.” said Nick as tears quickly rose to his eyes and fell down his flushed cheeks.

“Thank you for telling me what happened Nick.” said Dr. Adele softly as he attempted to comfort the young man.

“Are you gonna tell us what is wrong with Brian, Dr. Adele? Please don’t keep us waiting any longer. It is driving me crazy not knowing.” whispered A.J.

“Yes of course, sorry about that gentlemen, I hope you will understand that I had to get information from you gentlemen also to better understand what happened leading up to this. Brian’s heart is very weak. It always has been since he was born. Another small hole has developed on the left side of his heart within we would say the past year or so. Because he was so weak, the case of pneumonia he developed has caused his heart more strain and the hole has grown much larger recently. It is currently too large to do surgery on, so his only hope is a heart transplant.” the doctor said as his voice trailed off and he allowed this information to be processed by the young men in front of him.

After the boys recovered from their shock Howie asked with a shakey voice,”Is there anything else you need to tell us doctor?” The doctor took a slow deep breath as he prepared himself to tell the boys more devistating news about Brian.

Chapter 21