Nothing Personal

It’d been two days since Do was taken to the hospital. They had admitted him and started to run tests on him to find out what was wrong and no results had come up yet. Zo was on edge and barely getting any sleep or eating much and Alex was beginning to worry. This was one of the only times that he had felt completely helpless and didn’t know what to do. And he hated it. He wanted to do something, anything to help Zo and Do.

At one point, he had even debated whether or not to get the first plane ticket out to Minnesota. To just high tail it out of there and tell the guys he would be back in a few days. But Zo had said no when he had asked her if she wanted him out there. Besides, now that he was thinking it through a little more, he realized what he would have done to the guys. Just abandon them in the middle of tour.

No matter how much he loved Zo, deep down he knew he couldn’t just abandon his friends. His band. The people who were a part of a lifelong dream of doing what they loved. Not that he wouldn’t do anything for Zo.

For two days now, Zo and the rest of her family were basically living at the hospital. Colter had left for two hours to grab some things for his mom and Zo since both of them refused to leave Do’s side. The little boy was sedated and spent the entire day going in and out of consciousness. The doctors had sedated him because he was in a lot of pain and he wasn’t able to stay calm.

He would only wake up for a half hour at the most. But that had only been one time. The other times he would stay up for only ten minutes if they were lucky. So really all Zo and her mother were doing in the hospital was staying by a unconscious Do and waiting to see what the tests said.

*Hey kiddo, how’s he doing?* Alex asked as the third day neared. Zo was reading a book that Colter had brought her but he knew that she wasn’t really reading it but instead just making herself look like she was fine. But he and the rest of her family knew that she really wasn’t.

She gave a heavy sigh and Alex knew that she was just about to explode. She had kept all her emotions in, besides the first day when everything had happened when she locked herself in the bathroom and cried, and Alex knew that it was only a matter of time when she let it all out finally.

*I’m fine,* she replied tiredly and turned the page of her book.

Alex just rolled his eyes, *Zooey.*

*Alright! I’m not fine ok!? I’m freaking out! I can’t stand this anymore! Why did this have to happen to him? What did Do ever do to anyone that he had to deserve this? It should have been me! Why couldn’t it have been me?* Zo yelled as she realized she had started crying. *Shit,*

*Zo, it’s ok. You don’t have to hide your feelings. That’s why I’m here.*

She sighed, *I know, I just don’t want my mom to see me like this. She’s worried enough as it is. I shouldn’t be adding to it.*

*Then just excuse yourself from the room and go to the bathroom.*

*I don’t want to leave Do.* She sounded like a small helpless child when she said that and Alex wanted to just pull her into a hug and never let her go.

*Babe, he’s not going anywhere. He’d want you to take care of yourself too and not worry about him.* Wait what? Did he just call her babe? Oh shit.

Alex listened silently as she debated with herself about getting up and going for a walk. And silently thanked God that she didn’t catch the little nickname he called her. *Alright I guess you’re right, babe,*

Shit. *Uh, y-yeah, sorry about that. I don’t know where that came from.* He replied shakily and she just laughed.

*It’s fine,* he could just see the small blush and nervous smile she got on her face when she answered back.

He stayed with her while she told her mom where she was going and asked if she wanted anything. When her mother declined, like Zo and Alex knew she would, she just nodded and kissed Do on the head before leaving. Walking down the hall, she made her way to the elevators while Alex tried his best to distract her while she worried about what could happen while she was gone.

She went to the cafeteria in the basement of the hospital and Alex realized how picky she really was when it came to food. Finally he forced her to make up her mind and pick something. She really was a pain sometimes.

Instead of going back up to the room after she finally picked something out, she stayed in the cafeteria to get a change in scenery. Alex let her be to her thoughts for a little while and sighed as he knew that the guys were going to come to check on him since he had hidden himself in his bunk again.

The last few days he had put most of his free time into making sure Zo was ok and all the guys were getting worried. Jack especially. He knew that even though his best friend was trying to act like he was fine and even joked that Alex was going through his ‘time of the month’, Jack was worried. He needed to make sure that Jack didn’t go to drastic measures and call a shrink of have an intervention. The boy was known to go over board at times.

So he made sure the Zo was ok for the time being and jumped out of his bunk and walked to the front of the bus to try to help convince the guys that he was ok. Sometimes he wished that he could just tell the guys about Zo, well at least just Jack. But he knew that they would never believe him. That they would just laugh and think he was drunk.

He found the guys in the front room playing video games. Zack and Vinny were playing while the others watched or did something else. When he walked in, Jack looked up from what he was doing on his computer and Alex instantly caught the look on his best friends face and replied in a smile encouraging him that he was fine. Taking the seat next to Jack at the small kitchen table, he looked at the computer screen and rolled his eyes when he saw that he was watching talking animal videos on youtube.

“Really?” Alex asked as he stole the water bottle from Jack and took a sip.

“Yes, I’m bored and you’ve been acting stupid the last few days so I needed to find some way to entertain myself.” Jack replied and paused as he realized what he had said. “Wow, that sounded really dirty,” he giggled.

Alex just rolled his eyes again and stole the computer for him and started to check his facebook. He could feel Jack’s eyes on him as he did and he chose to ignore it as he focused on the screen.

Jack started giggling again next to him as he logged on and Alex just turned and raised a eyebrow at him in silent question. “I know your password now.”

“Like you didn’t know it before. You’ve hacked my facebook more than once,” Jack just shrugged and nodded as he continued to check his accounts.

As he did, Flyzik came in and Alex honestly hadn’t even known that he wasn’t there. When their manager saw that Alex was there, he gave him the same look Jack did and he just shrugged it off choosing to ignore it. Flyzik announced that they needed to start getting ready and everyone piled out into the venue to go about their normal routine.

The show must go on.