Over the course of the next thirty-six hours, Amanda stayed by JC's bedside. The doctor had requested she spend as much time with him as she possibly could. He also lifted all restrictions for visitors, allowing JC's family and friends to come and go as they wished.
After the first twenty-four hours, the nurses were noticing a difference in JC's condition. Throughout the next twelve hours, the doctors started to wean JC off oxygen. He was able to keep is oxygen saturation levels near normal at room air, but he still wasn't breathing on his own, yet.
Amanda stayed by his side nearly the whole time, only leaving to go eat something or to take a shower at the hotel. As she sat with JC, she talked to him. True to her word, she also brought him his MP3 player. Throughout the day, she kept changing the play list. Between their two computers, they had what seemed to be the entire radio catalog for the past three years on their hard drives. She picked songs she liked, ones he liked, fast ones, slow ones, even threw in a couple Christmas songs for the heck of it.
All four of the other guys were having a difficult time with JC's current condition. Justin and Gen had arrived from LA late morning on Tuesday, the accident had occurred on Monday. Joey got there a couple hours later. Lance decided his friend was more important than space and had flown in from Russia, arriving late afternoon on Wednesday. Lance seemed to be handing the situation better than the other three, but not by much. He and Amanda had sat with JC for a couple hours that afternoon after Lance had arrived. They talked to both JC and each other, or sat in silence holding his hands. When Lance nearly fell asleep in mid-sentence, Amanda told him to go to the hotel. He protested at first but quickly agreed when he about fell asleep while arguing his point he wasn't tired.
Joey was having the worst time with the situation. He'd only been able to stay with his friend for a couple of minutes the two or three times he'd visited already. Justin and Chris were hard to read. The former hiding his feelings behind his smug, tough guy persona and the latter kept cracking jokes the whole time. Gentian had yet to bring herself to see JC. She was deathly afraid of needles and hospital equipment. It was all she could do to stay in the waiting room supporting the other guys.
Amanda couldn't tell exactly how the rest of the Chasez family was doing. Karen was spending nearly as much time with her son as Amanda. The two women had been able to have two or three good talks about the future of the young couple. Amanda had been surprised by her conversations with Karen for the sheer fact she barely knew the woman, but yet had been able to talk with her more comfortably than anyone else in the world, even JC.
Karen yawned as she stood up, "I think I'm going to go eat," she said as she gathered her purse. "Any use in trying to talk you into coming?"
Amanda smiled at her concern, "Absolutely not," she replied with a yawn. "I ate when the doctors were examining him," she continued as she settled back in her chair next to JC's bed and took hold of his hand. "Besides, I think I'm going to take a catnap," she said through another yawn.
"Young lady, don't go wearing yourself out on his account," Karen warned.
Amanda again smiled at her concern. "I'm not, he's improving, I'll sleep after he wakes up," she said pointedly. Karen put her hands up to show she wasn't going to press the issue further. She had learned through her talks that once Amanda put her mind to something, there was no stopping her.
As Karen talked with JC's nurse at her station, Amanda stretched and pulled the blanket up on her shoulders. She laid her head back and closed her eyes. Five minutes later, despite being overly tired, she was still awake and very uncomfortable. She let go of JC's hand and stood up, careful not to put much weight on her left leg. As she stretched her hands over her head, she paused and looked intently at JC's face. Did you just move your eyes, she thought. When JC didn't do anything after she stared at him for a few minutes, Amanda sat back down, never really breaking her gaze on JC's face. She tried settling back in the chair and immediately knew it was not going to work. She let out a heavy sigh and leaned her elbows on JC's bed, taking his right hand in her hands.
"Ya know JC, you've got to wake up soon. I know you love to sleep and hate waking up, but this time, I know you won't regret it. Besides, I'm getting bored and my butt's falling asleep because I'm sitting on it so much right now," she said with a half smile. She raised his hand to her lips and gave it a kiss. "Please wake up soon, I miss you." She wiped a single tear from her eye and sighed.
She let go of his hand with her right hand and rested her arm on the bed and laid her head on her arm. She kept JC's hand in her left and rested them close by. She was comfortable in this position. She didn't know why, maybe it was as close to JC as she could be with out being in bed with him. She smiled at the thought. She remembered how safe she felt sleeping in his embrace. His strong arms holding her as close as possible as they slept. She remembered how softly he touched her. How easily he brushed his hands down her hair. How gently he caressed her cheek and lips with his fingertips. She smiled at the memory, so strong she nearly felt his hands on her face. She sighed. She wrinkled her nose. It hurt, like someone had hit it. She reached with her left hand and rubbed it and then settled back into her memory. There it was again, something hurting the tip of her nose. She lifted her and looked around and suddenly caught JC's clear blue eyes looking at her.
"JC, you're awake," she practically screamed. He nodded weakly just as a nurse rushed to side and started to take vitals. She and Amanda both had to keep JC from reaching for the tube in his throat.
The doctor soon arrived. He started assessing JC's neurological functions. His coordination, while shaky a bit, appeared to be intact. The doctor produced a writing tablet to test his long-term memory. JC knew his name, birth date, the year and the president. The doctor then tested his short-term memory. He asked JC one simple question. "Who is that," he asked as he pointed to Amanda.
Amanda could swear JC smiled if she hadn't known he could barely move his mouth because of the tape holding his breathing tube in place. He wrote something on the tablet and handed it to the doctor. Dr. Peterson furrowed his brow as he read what JC wrote.
"What did he write," Amanda asked softly. The doctor held the tablet up for her to read. She smiled brightly through the tears that started to flow as she read what JC had written: "Mandy". The doctor furrowed his brow again at Amanda's reaction. "He's going to be alright," she said softly and smiled at JC. She could tell by the look in his eyes that he knew she understood what he had written.
The doctor looked at her in confusion, as did the nurse. "The last thing we were talking about before the accident was nicknames. I hate the name Mandy," she said and continued softly, "I hate Mandy." She kissed his hand and smiled at him.
