Chapter One: Once Upon A Time


Brian wiped the sweat from his forehead as the makeup lady quickly touched up his cheekbones.
“Sure you’re okay Rok?” A.J. asked as he slipped on his cowboy hat.
Outside their small makeshift dressing room thousands of screams filled the arena.
“Yeah, I’m fine,” he lied. Truth was he was a little shorter on breath than to his liking.
The Boys took stage once again, but as Brian came running up the steps to the entrance he felt his body give out on him. He came falling down the stairs, colliding with Kevin and Nick who were directly behind him. He tumbled to the ground, his head light.
“B!” Nick yelled as he and Kevin got up off the ground and rushed to his side.

~TWO HOURS LATER~
Brian’s eyes fluttered open and stared blankly at the white walls. The scene was all too familiar to him, but yet when he opened his mouth “where am I?” Came out in a whisper.
Kevin was sitting by his side and heard him mumble the question.
“The hospital Bri, you took a pretty hard fall back there,” he leaned over to look at his cousin.
“I see our patient has woke up,” the bald headed doctor smiled.
Brian blinked rapidly trying to focus, it took a little while before he could see the man before him.
“Mr. Littrell, it seems like you’re having some trouble with the blood flow in your body. It looks like we may be facing some major clotting near the upper left chamber of your heart. We ran some tests, but the results will take a little while to come back. Until then I suggest you stay.”
What the doctor had said made no sense. It was only three years ago since he’d had the surgery and they diagnosed him with a full recovery. He didn’t believe what this man was telling him.
“Kevin I want to go home,” he muttered.
“It’s only ten minutes down the road Bri, why don’t you just stay here tonight,” Kevin looked at him with concern.
“No I want to go HOME, to Kentucky,” he looked at Kevin seriously before looking at the doctor. “I want a second opinion.”

~AT THE SAME TIME~
Tia flipped through the channels. It was Saturday, she had the day off as usual. She worked at the hospital, so when she had gone in a few days ago it was easy to talk to her boss to get some time off for the tests they ran.
Nothing on television particularly caught her eye.
“Tia?” Her mother called walking down the hall.
“Yeah Mama?”
“I just spoke with Betty, Doctor Scott is going to be able to see you Monday morning instead of Wednesday,” she informed.
Tia sighed. She wanted to go Wednesday because she’d already be there working. Her doctor was one of the top physician’s and University Hospital and was well respected. Tia had been seeing her since she was a baby and trusted no other. She would go Monday, even though she had the day off.

~THE NEXT MORNING~
Brian tossed his Nike bag on the floor and his hat on the bed. He sighed as he dropped his head into his hands. Management was pissed, the record label was pissed, the fans were pissed. But his health is what he convinced himself came first, and no matter how much time it took him to get through whatever it was, he would take it.
“Brian dear are you going to church with us?” His mom called.
“Yeah be there in a sec,” he yelled back. He quickly ran a comb through his hair and left the house.

~THE NEXT MORNING~
Tia looked at her watch as she sat in traffic. She decided to work that afternoon to make up her shift that she’d missed last week, so after the appointment she’d go straight to work for a while. She hated the weekly appointments, they were so routine, but she had no choice.

~AT THE SAME TIME~
Brian unbuckled his seatbelt and got out of the car. He was a bit early for his appointment. Hopefully he could get in early so he could get the second opinion that the doctors in Orlando were wrong and he could get back to life. This waiting and the weighing of what could be wrong just overloaded his mind.

~TEN MINUTES LATER~
The lady at the front desk told Brian it would be about fifteen minutes so to have a seat. He plopped down in the chair, his blue eyes scanning the crowd around him. Bored he snatched up a magazine on the chair next to him and began flipping through it.

~AT THE SAME TIME~
“Hey Nancy, I’ve got an appointment with Doctor Scott at 10:30,” Tia handed the lady behind the counter her medical card.
“Okay, it’s going to be about ten minutes, okay dear?” The blonde lady smiled at Tia.
“Thanks,” Tia smiled back as she walked through the crowded office and sat down in a chair.
She looked around for a magazine when she saw the one she wanted, but there was a man holding it. She studied him closely, he was wearing a pair of blue jeans and simple blue t-shirt to match. His eyes followed the words on the page as she looked at him. He looked so familiar to her.
Tia wasn’t the type to hold back, she always spoke her mind whether it got her in trouble or not.
“Excuse me, do I know you from somewhere?” She politely interrupted his reading.
Brian turned to look at her, his eyes staring back at the familiar brown eyes that he’d remembered clearly.
He squinted, studying her hourglass body and her soft face.
”Tia?” He stuttered.
She knew that voice anywhere.
“Brian?” She almost yelled.
They stared at each other shocked before he quickly took her in his arms and embraced her tightly.
“What are you doing here, I thought you moved to Orlando?” She said, tears forming at her eyes.
As he told her the whole story of the past eight years she listened intently. They both had been coming to the same hospital since they were children. He was a year and a half older than her, but since her condition was more rapid they always found themselves running into each other. Once they were in high school they passed each other in the halls. Tia confided so many things to him once upon a time, he was the only one that ever truly understood what she was going through. But then he moved away when he was barely out of high school. She was almost seventeen then, she hadn’t even had the surgery. She’d heard on the news about three years ago that he’d had the surgery and she was ecstatic.
It seemed like it had only been a few seconds, but they talked for over fifteen minutes when the nurse stepped out into the lounge.
”Littrell, Brian,” she announced.

He stood up and smiled down at her. She loved the way he smiled, it had a way of bringing warmth and goodness into a heart that seemed so empty.
“I’m in town for a while, I’d like to see you again, call my parents house, you still have the number?” He asked.
Did she have the number? Of course she did and it took all that she had over the past eight years not to call it to just see where he was.
She smiled at him.
“I will.”
He winked at her as the nurse took him away.
“Tia, Dr. Scott will see you now,” Nancy smiled at her.
Tia let herself into the long white halls and made her way down to Dr. Scott’s office when she heard Brian’s voice coming from one of the rooms.

“Mr. Littrell, I’m very concerned about your condition at this moment,” the lady began as she walked him in the room. “So have a seat and we’ll talk about it.” Then she shut the door.
That was one thing Tia hadn’t thought of, why was Brian here and what was wrong with him?


Chapter 2
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