Brent called Andrea several times that day and left messages. He tried to call her at the hospital and was told by another nurse she worked with that she was busy and could not come to the phone. It upset him greatly. It could have been that she was just very busy but he suspected it was not the case at all. When midnight came and he called again and spoke to the answering machine he felt his bowels turn to water as the realization that she'd gotten the same thing in the mail hit him like a ton of bricks. He rolled over onto his stomach on the bed, buried his face in his pillow and cried. He cried like a baby and felt extremely stupid at the same time. He would never get it right! He loved Andrea with all his being and now she was gone from his life within a day! He hated himself right about now. He wondered, as he slowly drifted to sleep, how he was going to face tomorrow.

Andrea came home from work and saw there were 11 messages on her machine. She pressed the erase button without even listening to them. It had been Brent and she didn't want to talk to him. In fact, she told herself she never wanted to speak with him or see his lying face ever again. She wouldn't subject herself to another cheating, good-for-nothing man. She was worth more than that. The hurt of it all was killing her inside but she swallowed it back and moved on. She didn't need a man, especially one that needed sex with other women like most people needed oxygen. She took off her scrubs and put on her pajamas. After checking the locks on the doors she crawled into bed with the novel she'd been trying to get through for a month. When the phone rang at midnight she set her book down and stared at it until the answering machine picked it up. Hearing Brent's voice she cursed herself for not turning down the volume. Listening to him speak miserably at the machine she felt tears flood her inside and leak down her cheeks. She slid down in the bed and cried. She loved him so but wouldn't tolerate a cheater. She cried herself to sleep.

The next day, instead of the usual hard run, Andrea took a long, slow walk. She wanted to be out of the house and away from the phone as much as she could before leaving for work. It was quite difficult for her to hear the phone ring, knowing it was Brent, and not answer. When she got back home she showered, got ready for work, and then called Terri. She heard Terri gasp when she told her about the pictures she'd received in the mail, then silence.

"I just don't believe it Annie." Terri said.*"I know. I'm in disbelief myself. I thought he loved me, I really did!" Terri clicked her tongue at Andrea.

"He does love you Annie. I am trying to tell you that this whole thing is bullshit. How do you know these pictures weren't taken a year ago?" She said in Brent's defense. It just seemed wrong to Terri.

"Well," Andrea began in a sassy tone. "Could be the date on the pictures!" Terri felt her heart sink into her stomach.

"Fuck." She whispered. "Annie, I'm so sorry."

"It's okay." Andrea said sadly. "What did I really expect from a man who's subject to women daily. I guess it's a hormone thing. We want love, they want sex and it doesn't matter how or where they get it."

"I just don't understand this, he loves you, I know he does!" Terri sighed heavily. Andrea felt tears pooling and tried to will them away. She moved around the house with the phone.

"I think he thinks he loves me Ter. I just can't talk to him right now. I want to rid my life of him. The sooner the better. I can't go on with my life being sad and feeling cheated. I just want him gone." This was serious and Terri was concerned. She didn't believe Brent would do this to Andrea on purpose and after the two hung up Terri called Carl. He didn't answer his cell phone. She left a message. When Andrea got to work she found Brent had sent flowers. She dug the card out of them, threw it away, then delivered the flowers to an elderly woman patient on the floor pretending they were for her. She busied herself with her work, went home exhausted, and fell asleep immediately.

Curt called Terri late that night and told her what he knew of the whole thing. Terri felt relieved. She told Curt that Andrea would not talk to Brent.

"She has to Terri, Brent's really hurting. You should see him. He's pale, nauseated, and sick to his stomach all the time. He's even complaining of chest pains. It's really weird what love will do to ya. It's spooky. He looks like shit, every day it gets worse. He can barely finish a concert." He asked Terri to talk to Andrea, to convince her to speak to Brent, to hear his side. Terri told Curt she would try.

The next day Andrea and Terri had lunch together. Terri told Andrea about her conversation with Curt. Andrea refused to even look up at Terri as she spoke.

"Brent did not cheat on you Annie. Someone set him up." Terri told her. "Please call him, please!" She pleaded. Andrea just shook her head. He would be here in Chicago sometime in the next day or so and she knew she would have to face him then. She refused to call him before that. She was rehearsing what she would say to him when they did meet. It was going to be hard. One look at his face, into his blue eyes and she would be a helpless child. She was dreading it.

"I'm sure we'll talk tomorrow." Andrea said. "I can't talk to him now. It's too upsetting." Terri threw her hands into the air. She wouldn't convince Andrea and so she looked away, shaking her head.

"What if the 'set-up' story is true? You're going to hurt both yourself and him for nothing. I can't believe you. I thought you were smarter than that." Andrea looked quickly at Terri. She couldn't believe her friend was saying that to her. Terri knew what Andrea went through with Jamie and what it took to cleanse herself of him. A whole year of pain and humiliation. How dare she criticize her for acting this way. Hadn't she suffered enough in the past? Andrea got up from the table, threw a $10 bill down and glared at Terri.

"I thought you were my friend." She said and walked away.

"Annie, call him!" She heard Terri shout as she left the restaurant. Andrea went over to the mall and walked around until it was time for work. She was tired and sad.

The bus wheeled into Chicago at 4 that day. Brent was pacing the length of it like a caged animal. He couldn't wait to see Andrea. He hoped she would listen to what he had to say. He loved her and would not let this relationship end. He would go down fighting! Suddenly he sat down feeling weak and nauseated. His heart was fluttering and it made him feel dizzy. He got up and ran to the bathroom where he retched but didn't throw up. His only thought was of Andrea. When the bus finally parked and everyone was bustling around, Brent exited the bus. He was looking for someone to drive him to Andrea's when he bumped into Alex. He asked Alex to drive him, Alex said he would. Brent went to the van and waited for Alex to get the keys. He met him there a moment later. Before getting into the van Alex handed Brent a tiny white pill and a can of Coke.

"What is this?" Brent questioned.

"It's a Valium." Alex told him. "It will calm you down, make it easier for you to think." Brent took the pill. They got into the van and with Brent's instruction drove to Andrea's. She wasn't home, he knew she wouldn't be. He got out of the van and thanked Alex for the ride and the Valium. He was feeling more calm already. Alex watched from the van as Brent started going up the stairs, stumbled, caught himself and then went into the house. He sat there a moment and watched as the door shut and Brent disappeared into the darkness, then he waved and smiled.

"Bye Brett old boy. Have a nice life or maybe I should say death." Alex chuckled and drove away. Andrea left work early that night. She was extremely tired and could hardly keep her eyes open. Mary Ann came in at 10 to relieve her. She drove home in a daze. When she went to unlock the front door she noticed it wasn't locked. She was nervous to enter. She was positive she locked it when she left. She pushed the door open and just stood there. It was dark. She saw something on the floor in the living room. It didn't move. She crept in, flipped on the hall light to see what it was and panicked when she saw Brent laying on the floor on his stomach. She ran over to him, calling his name. He didn't move. She rolled him over. He was pale and clammy. She grabbed his wrist, feeling for a pulse. It was very weak. She got up, ran over to the phone and called the paramedics. She left the front door open and knelt down by him. He was barely breathing. She talked to him softly and touched his hair while she waited. The paramedics arrived not long after. They came into the house and knelt down beside Brent. They asked her questions while they examined him. Was he drinking? Did he take any pills recently? Is he on drugs? Any history of chronic medical problems? She couldn't answer any of them. One of the men stuck a pulse oximeter on his finger then leaned his face down to Brent's. He was smelling his breath for signs of diabetic acidosis or alcohol perhaps. He told the other paramedic that it smelled like garlic but that could have been dinner. Andrea stood back and watched as they worked. They pricked his finger to check his blood sugar, one started an IV as the other performed an intubation and stuck a giant bulb into it and began to pump air into Brent's lungs. They hoisted him up onto the stretcher and wheeled him to the ambulance. Andrea locked the front door and climbed in beside him. She held his hand all the way to Edwards and cried softly. She wondered what he done, had he taken something? Was this a suicide attempt? She blamed herself. At the emergency room the doctors and nurses wheeled Brent into a room and, after apologizing to Andrea, pushed her out and pulled the curtain closed. She sat down and let them do their job.

They hooked him up to an EKG and drew multiples tubes of blood. Upon examination and finding nothing visibly wrong they immediately checked for toxins in his blood. They called Andrea back into the room and then left her alone with him while they waited for the results. She spoke to him softly, telling him she loved him and to hang on. She kissed his cheek, her tears making it damp. The doctor came back a short time later and hustled her out again. It would seem his levels of potassium were lethally high and he had also ingested a Valium. They induced vomiting and injected a medication into his IV to counteract and eliminate the potassium then sent him for an abdominal x-ray to check his stomach. Andrea knew that high levels of potassium in the blood can not only stop your heart and kill you but destroy your gastrointestinal system as well. She followed him down to x-ray, thinking, wondering how Brent got all this potassium into his system. It was very odd. She was nervously thinking someone had poisoned him. But who? Brent wasn't medically educated enough to know that he could die from taking potassium. And where would he have gotten it anyway? While she was waiting for him as he was being x-rayed, two men in suits approached her and introduced themselves as detectives from the Naperville Police Department. She had a feeling they would show up sooner or later. Better sooner than later. They questioned her about Brent. She felt bad admitting that she knew nothing. She said she hadn't spoken to him in days. They made some notes and then told her they were going to wait to talk to Brent himself. She told them he was still unconscious. They went off but watched her from a distance.

When they were back in the ER the doctor told Andrea his assessment. He told her that Brent had mild damage to his intestines. They would try to treat it with medication but he may need surgery. He had potassium poisoning and was lucky to be alive. She looked over at him lying there unconscious and felt tears again. The doctor said they would admit him and take him to a room to be monitored closely until the crises was past. She started to cry. Dr. Matthews, who knew Andrea well, put his arms around her shoulders and hugged her to him. She cried then, soaking his lab coat.

"It's going to be okay, Annie. We'll take good care of him." He soothed. She finished and wiped her face with a tissue Dr. Matthews handed her. She felt so guilty. She had rejected him at the time when perhaps he needed her the most. She believed this wouldn't have happened if she had just listened to him. She went over to Brent and looked down at him. He looked so helpless and vulnerable just lying there. She touched his face softly, he didn't even flinch. The transport man came shortly after and moved Brent up to a room. When he was in his own bed and the nurses were finished moving around him, fixing the IV and monitors, hooking him up to the EKG, Andrea called Curt's cell phone and told him what happened. Not more than an hour later the room was full of concerned people - including Curt, Geoff, and Kelvin. Alex was noticeably absent. Andrea went out into the hallway with the three guys and they each took turns hugging her tightly. She told them how bad she felt about Brent and they told her not to blame herself. She had just told them how the the police had questioned her because they thought Brent had been poisoned when the same two detectives joined the group. Geoff felt his anger rise. It was something to do with Alex, he would bet his whole fucking life on it. He wasn't even hearing the detectives talking he was thinking about getting back to the bus and kicking some major ass. He looked around at the faces of his three friends and Andrea's tearful face. He couldn't believe no one else thought Alex was suspicious but him. When they had gotten to the hospital and Andrea explained the severity of Potassium Chloride poisoning Geoff thought of Alex immediately. Alex didn't seem smart enough to pull it off but he could be an excellent actor. And, he hadn't found out much about him in all his searching but he hadn't had much time either. He decided it was time for him and Alex to have a little face to face, turned around and stalked away down the hall towards the stairwell.

"Hey, wait!" One of the detectives shouted after him, Geoff just kept on going. Kelvin followed him, running to catch up with him. "Where is that man going?" Detective Davidson asked pointing to Geoff. Curt stayed and talked to the detectives with Andrea.

"He has had suspicions about one of the roadies for a while now and none of us believed him. We just didn't think there was anything to be suspicious about. I guess we were wrong." Curt eyed the stairwell. "You might want to follow him, he's probably going to fuck him up." The detectives took information from Curt about Alex, where he could be found, if he was even still there, and then left hurriedly.

Curt and Andrea went back into the room. She stood next to Brent who lay motionless, expressionless and barely breathing. He was hooked up and plugged in to all kinds of machines and tubes. She reached down and touched his hand. It was warm at least, but he didn't even flinch. She asked Curt to get everyone out of the room and he did. She was alone in the room at last with Brent. She looked down at him then leaned her head down on her arm which was resting on the side rail. A tear slid down her cheek and onto the stainless steel rail. He could have died. He still could. His heart could be permanently damaged by the poison he took or was given. She wouldn't know until he could speak. Geoff thought he had been deliberately poisoned by the same man Curt thinks may be responsible for sending her the dirty pictures. She sighed heavily. She pictured Brent in her mind, his sexy, knowing smile, the way his blue eyes curl when he laughs. She touched his face lightly. She thought of his touch, his smell, his kiss. She'd missed him so much lately. His arm was still casted. She thought of the story Curt told her about the night he fell. She wanted to believe Brent but there was that shadow of doubt. But why would he have lied to her? She put the rail down and lay her head on his chest. It was rising and falling very slow. She put her face close to his ear and whispered that she loved him. She kissed his cheek and whispered to him that she needed for him to wake up. He didn't respond. She kissed him again softly on the mouth. "I need you Brent, please come back to me." She whispered again. "Brent, please wake up. I want to tell you something." She hesitated and then continued. "You're going to be a father."

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