A.J. pushed Brian down the hall to his own room, lost in thought. The total weirdness of the whole experience was beginning to dawn on him, as were the long-term implications. Nick was psychic. He'd been hiding it all the time he'd been in the group. He knew other psychics. He'd been on rescue missions with other psychics. "I'll bet he has a whole double life." he remarked aloud.
"Hmmm." Brian agreed. A.J.'s attention immediately snapped back to his friend.
"You okay bro?"
"Yeah," was the absent-minded reply.
"Rok, I'm gonna call a nurse if you don't say something with more than one syllable."
"Huh?" Brian started. "Oh. Sorry. I was just thinkin'."
"Not too hard now, we don't want you popping any stitches." A.J. kidded. He opened the door to Brian's room and let him roll in under his own power. Once the door was shut behind them, he asked quietly. "Thinking 'bout Nick?"
Brian stared unseeing at his hospital bed. "I kind of wish I could be like Kevin... convince myself I imagined it all."
"I'm glad you're not. Only person I'd have to talk about it with would be Mindi...and she knows what she's talking about. Nice to have someone confused with me."
"Confused..." Brian considered this. "Yeah but maybe over different things."
"Huh?" A.J. moved to sit on the bed, facing Brian. "Like what?"
"Why didn't he tell me?" Brian's blue eyes were filled with hurt and guilt."I thought we told each other everything. Was he so scared about how I would react?"
"I dunno, Bri. Probably only Nick can tell you that."
"Y'know, when I felt him... I *did* feel him..."
"Mindi told me Nick was getting y'all out, and that you were first on the list." A.J. assured him. "It happened, bro. No matter how weird it was it happened and we gotta deal with that."
Brian's face cleared a little. "Is Mindi still here?"
Two floors down, Mindi felt the question in the back of her mind. She paused before the elevator and reached out for A.J. "Someone's thinking about me."
"Brian." The echoey tone of his thought told her he was verbalizing. "Why didn't you just think to him?"
"You're easiest." She neglected to mention the throbbing headache and exhaustion that were becoming hard to ignore. "What's he want?"
"Basically wants the two of us to sit down with him and tell him about the rescue."
"Just Brian?" How many times were they going to expect the story? "I'm pretty tired right now Alex... I was keeping an 'eye' on Nick, but someone else took over for me."
"Lina?"
"No." She held her breath, hoping he wouldn't ask questions she couldn't answer, but he stayed silent. "Does it have to be now?"
"I... dunno about Brian, but if it's not now, I'm..." suddenly his mental voice became strong and true - he didn't want Brian to hear this. I'm gonna go insane, Mins. Just once over the whole thing and then I'm gonna have that breakdown.
A wave of sympathy filled her. She wasn't the only one shoved into an unfamiliar role. A.J. was a great guy, but he wasn't usually the leader or the one the members of the group leaned on. He'd been holding it together like a trouper for hours, and was obviously very near his limit. They both needed some time off.
"All right." Decisively, Mindi hit the 'up' button on the elevator. "I'll be right up, then both of us had better get back to the hotel."
When she got to the Boys' floor, the nurse at the station pointed her to Brian's room. The door was closed, another token of A.J.'s uncharacteristic behaviour. Even as she knocked the door, she could feel his stress. And she wasn't good with non-psychics at all.
"Come in." Brian called. The first thing that hit Mindi on entering the room was the fact that it was just the two of them. The next was the very sober looks on both men's faces. To his credit A.J. didn't look quite as bad as she knew he felt, just worried. Brian looked... guilty?
"God, Mindi you look tired. Come sit down," were the first words out of Brian's mouth. A.J. patted a space on the bed beside him. She didn't argue, in fact she would have probably agreed if they had insisted she take a nap on the bed.
"Stupid boy bands keeping a person up all night and making her babysit them." she grumbled as she pulled herself up onto the bed. A.J. put an arm around her shoulders, hugging her.
"We'll look into the going rate for sleep-deprivation pay." Brian teased. They all laughed and the tension lessened a bit, which was what Mindi had been going for. "Now that Nick won't have to bribe you to keep quiet about him anymore, you'll need to find other ways to get your spending money."
"Damn, I hadn't thought of that," she played along. smiling.
"How is he? They won't let me see him." A.J. asked.
"Better than they think he is," she reassured them. "From what I can tell he mainly needs to recharge. Now that he's not bleeding, everyone's safe, and he doesn't have to use energy to do anything, that shouldn't take more than a day."
"A day??" Brian's guilt was getting heavier. She could feel it as well as see it.
"Yeah. They may start yelling coma, but don't worry until one of us tells you to start." She felt A.J.'s eyes on her, but was too tired to deal with the worry she could have given them by telling the whole truth. Showing remarkable sensitivity for him, A.J. changed the topic a little.
"So... B-rok wants to hear what happened."
"Shouldn't we tell everyone at once?" Mindi wondered. "It's a long story, and I'm pretty sure Nick decided you should all know everything."
The look in his eyes told her everything. She'd seen that look on the faces of so many psychics who had chosen to tell someone and been rejected. Kids out on the street, a woman or man left at the altar, people learning that love and trust weren't always unconditional. More than ever her heart went out to Nick. If he had to face that while still recovering... She shook her head.
"I'm glad he's got both of you." Then, quietly, she and A.J. began to tell Brian exactly what had happened that morning.