c7

Two male orderlies lifted Brian from his bed-on-wheels and onto his hospital bed. Brian's eyes opened for a breif moment, and focused on the group of people surrounding his bed. "Thanks for coming." He whispered, his voice sounding hoarse and broken. "Hi Rose."

She raised her head for the first time, and smiled shyly at him.

"Are you okay, man?" Nick asked, hurrying to Brian's bedside.

Brian didn't open his eyes, but he nodded. "I'm fine." He muttered.

A nurse stepped in the room. "Now, don't burden him with questions right now." She said, shaking a finger at the group gathered in the small room. "Mr. Littrell needs his sleep." She walked to the side of his bed, and busied herself with the IV bag there. "You need to be very quiet if you're going to stay in here."

"Why would we want to stay in here if we're not allowed to make any noise?" Kevin asked irritably.

Brian laughed raspily, still not opening his eyes. The nurse didn't bother answering the question. Instead, she cast one more warning glance at everyone, and then left the room.

Brian forced his eyes open again. "Wow." He said. "You're all here." He looked over at Rose, and smiled. "It helped a lot." He muttered, then his eyes dropped closed, and he fell back into a deep sleep.

Everyone looked at Rose. Her face lit into a smile. Then, completely unexpected by anyone, she rushed over to his bed, kissed him on the forehead, then disappeared back out the door.

The members of the Backstreet Boys who weren't attatched to an IV bag stared after her. "Wow. Weird girl." AJ commented.

Nick grinned. "Yeah well, I got the feeling that she was more than just a weird girl to Bri. You should have seen him last night. He was all showered, and wearing that aftershave." There was a universal groan at the mention of Brian's infamous aftershave, which he still hadn't learned how to apply sparsly. "I don't know, she was kind of hot."

"She was sick looking." Howie pointed out at the same time that Kevin said, "she's too thin."

"Maybe she's one of those anorexic chicks." AJ mused.

Nick nodded. "I guess that's better than if she was really sick. I mean, if Brian's falling for her, it'd be a good thing if she'd not dying."

Everyone agreed to this, and they stopped talking about Rose.

When Brian woke up, four hours later, only Nick was left in the room. "Morning." He said, sitting up in bed and yawning. "How long have I been out?"

Nick shrugged. "A few hours." He said simply, but Brian noticed his dinner tray on the table by his bed. So it must be atleast five-thirty, probably later.

"Where'd everyone go?"

"Home."

Brian smiled sarcastically. "Make sure you thank them for keeping me company while I sleep."

Nick nodded. "Will do!" He looked towards the door, and then back at Brian, saying in a conspirital voice, "damn, that nurse is a bitch, isn't she?"

Brian laughed. "The big one?" Nick nodded. "Yeah. She's awful. Good luck with that one, man."

"Thanks. So, how long'd Rose stay?" He asked, trying to seem nonchalont. But Nick saw the little blush creeping at his face.

"So there is something going on between you guys!" He said triumphantly. "I knew it!" Brian shook his head and started to protest, but Nick didn't let him. "Don't bother. I know what you're going to tell. 'We're just friends'. Yeah, yeah. Anyway, she stayed for about ten seconds after you fell asleep." Brian's face fell. "After she kissed you, she ran out of here as fast as she could."

"She kissed me?" Brian coughed. "What?!"

"Yep. A nice little peck on the forehead." Nick informed him. Then he looked down at his watch. "Oh, damn. I've gotta go. I promised Mandy that I'd be home tonight, and I've still gotta drive back to Tampa. See ya." He grabbed his baseball cap, which he'd left on Brian's bed, and pulled it on along with a pair of dark sunglasses, then stepped out of the room,

Brian watched him go. His surgery was over. His heart was back to normal. Rose had kissed him. Yep, he thought with a satisfied sigh, things were certainly looking up.