The Closest We Will Ever Get by Mare
Summary:

Nick recounts the day he and his wife met as a bed time story for his daughter.


Categories: Fanfiction > Backstreet Boys Characters: Nick
Genres: Romance
Warnings: None
Challenges:
Series: None
Chapters: 3 Completed: Yes Word count: 4525 Read: 3649 Published: 06/22/13 Updated: 06/23/13
Story Notes:

Yes, you read that right. It is me, and this is a romance. For a while a few people have urged me to try my hand at one so I figured I may as well. This is not a joke lol this is my actual attempt at a romance. It's probably not going to be the best thing I have ever written but at least I can say I tried. It will be a novelette, only three chapters long and then that's it! I sincerely hope you enjoy!

1. The Beginning by Mare

2. The Middle by Mare

3. The End by Mare

The Beginning by Mare
Author's Notes:

This is the first chapter of three. I was originally going to make it a one shot but it started to become a little too long for that. Enjoy!

The Beginning

 

He looked at his daughter and wife with a sense of love he never thought capable. The guys had told him so many times that once he had a child of his own, he’d understand. Of course his only response was a semi-roll of his eyes and the slightest shake of his head. As he got older, his negative body gestures became subtle, almost absent but still not something he was totally willing to give up.

Skylar’s giggle brought his eyes down to where she lay, in her Hello Kitty laden bed surrounded by pretty much every single stuffed animal ever invented. His wife was tickling her daughter’s toes, pedaling her feet as if she were on an imaginary bicycle.

“Mommy, stop!” She said in between the laughter bursts. “Daddy make Mommy stop!”

Everyone said her and her daddy had the same laugh.  

Nick sat on the opposite side of his wife now and lovingly placed his hand over her arm, “You heard our child, cut it out!”

He grabbed the quilted blanket Howie’s mother had made for Sky and lifted his daughter’s tiny legs underneath it before pulling it up to her chest. At the gesture, the four year old gave a disapproving eye roll. She hadn’t quite mastered the art of subtlety yet, but it would come someday. Most likely after years of loud disapproving sighs and door slams of disgust.

Shauna stood up and made her way to the small bookcase in the room, “Okay Sky, which one tonight?”

The beautiful baby girl with the bright blue eyes and long banana curled brown hair, sat up in bed and placed her hand under her chin in deep thought.

“Goodnight Moon?” Shauna’s fingers touched each book lightly as she recited the names, “I Love You Forever, The Very Hungry Caterpillar, If You Give a Moose a Muffin?”

“How about my favorite story?” she said looking at her dad and smiling, “Tell me about the day you met!”

“Again?” Nick asked and shook his head. “Don’t you ever get sick of that one?”

Skylar let out another one of her infectious giggles and threw a pillow at her father’s head. “No, I love it!”

He glanced over at his wife who was already looking his way, “Our daughter is a true romantic.”

“She must take after you then.” He winked as she sat on the bed, “So do I tell it or do you tell it?”

“You tell it, daddy. You tell it more betterer than mommy does.”

“Looks like she got your grammar skills, honey.”

“Very funny…okay well here it goes.”

He sat there for just a second, trying to collect his thoughts. He had recited this story so many times that it should have been second nature to him, but yet he always had to make sure he got it right. He closed his eyes to picture the scene and started to tell the tale.

“Once upon a time, daddy was on tour with his band…”

“Backstreet’s Back alright!” Skylar sang. Of course Uncle Brian wasted no time in teaching that to her.

“Yup, those guys...” Skylar chuckled as Nick continued, “And we were getting ready to go out on stage when I saw this beautiful woman standing right in front of me.”

“Mommy!”

“No, your Aunt Kristin…” He glanced over at Shauna and winked. He enjoyed playing around with his wife as he told the story. “But Mommy was right behind her… and she looked like a Princess. With her gorgeous brown hair, beautiful blue eyes and long legs, she cast a spell on me.”

He remembered asking Kevin who she was. For some reason, he thought Kristin had brought her. That wasn’t the case. No one in the room had ever seen the gorgeous lady before. It’s like she had stepped out of a dream or something.

Nick couldn’t take his eyes off of her which was strange since he typically didn’t go for brunettes in general. She was tall but it was hard to really tell just how tall because she was in high heels. Her long legs were very well defined by the short gray skirt she was wearing. His eyes slowly made their way up her torso, past her almost see through white long sleeved shirt, and up to her blue eyes which locked with his.

She smiled at him and made her way over. “Are we having some kind of staring contest I was unaware of because if that’s the case we’ll have to start over. You have an unfair advantage; I’m much more beautiful than you are.”

Nick was thrown by her reply and just stood there looking like an idiot, “I’m sorry, what?”

She laughed and held out her hand, “I’m Shauna; I work here at the arena. I’m in charge of hospitality.”

“Oh hey…yeah….erm…I’m Nick.”

“And you would be the one in charge of awkward stares?” She asked raising one eye brow.

“Yeah, that’s me.”

She laughed at him and smiled, “You are doing a great job then, keep up the good work!”

He wasn’t sure what came over him, but as she was walking away he yelled across the room at her, “Shauna!”

Everyone who had been talking stopped and stared but he didn’t care. It’s like he had tunnel vision, “Do you want to go out sometime?”

That itself seemed like a really dumb thing to ask. Sometimes he forgot he didn’t have roots, not really. His home was wherever this tour took him. Currently his home was New Jersey, tomorrow it would be somewhere else. Going out ‘sometime ‘when you didn’t stay in one place too long posed quite a few problems, but he still felt inclined to ask.

She walked back over towards him, as everyone else continued on with what they were doing. Nick has made a fool of himself at least once today. Tomorrow something else would come, perhaps a clumsy trip or unannounced fart.

“Aren’t you only in town for this one night?”

“Uh…yeah, I think so.” He nervously rubbed the back of his neck. He looked so much younger than he was at that moment, not that 25 was old to being with.

“How do you even know I’m single? I could be married with ten kids.”

That was a good question. Nick hadn’t even bothered to look for a ring. He glanced at her finger and was happy to see there was nothing there. “I guess I didn’t, but I thought I’d take a chance. I mean the worst thing you could say is no, right?”

“Why do I have a feeling you aren’t used to hearing that word too often?”

He let out his sexy laugh, the one reserved for flirting, “You’d be surprised.”

She looked down at her watch as if it was going to make the decision for her, “I suppose we could go grab some coffee after your show if you want.”

“That would be great! I would give you a time, but we’re done when we’re done.”

“It’s okay, I’ll be here. I guess I’m done when you’re done too.”

He locked eyes with her once again. There was a confidence in those eyes. Something he wasn’t used to seeing when speaking to women his age. Most girls never looked him straight in the eyes. They found him intimidating, as if he was everything the tabloids had painted him to be over the years. Granted, most of those people were also fans of his band or loathed his band. Very rarely was he ever judged for just being Nick Carter, the man. It took him forever to even figure out who that was. He wasn’t sure if this woman was a fan or not. He kind of liked that about her.

“Great…I’ll see you then.”

She smiled and nodded, “Later.”

After she left, the remaining people in the room decided to applaud him for a job semi well done.

“Shut up!” He said, rolling his eyes and going for a bottle of water before being led out on stage.

“You know shut up is not a nice thing to say, daddy!”

Nick glanced down at his daughter and nodded, “I know, I made sure to say I was sorry afterwards.”

“Liar!” She laughed as he tickled her chin.

“Tell me about the coffee shop! I love this part!”

“I do too.” Shauna said as she lay next to her daughter, making herself comfortable for the next part of Nick’s story.

 

The Middle by Mare

The Middle

 

Nick sighed and looked at his two girls. He felt blessed just then and overcome with emotion. It happened from time to time. Skylar just brought about all of these feelings he never thought he could have. He was so grateful that he changed his mind when it came to children, not that he had much choice, but still she was something he would never ever regret in his life.

“I love you.” He said to his baby girl.

“Daddy, keep telling us the story!” Only a well-loved child could dismiss those words. Nick used to yearn to hear them when he was a kid. He thanked God his daughter would never know that feeling of loneliness and disconnection he did at her age. He gently caressed her hair, allowing his love filled moment to pass and continued on with his tale.

“So, after our concert, I was really tired and sweaty.”

“And smelly, don’t forget smelly.” Now it was Shauna’s turn to do a little ribbing.

“Yes, and smelly.” He then pretended to smell his own arm pits and made a disgusted face which once again has his child giggling.

“We ended up at a coffee shop just a few blocks away from the arena…”

It was tricky trying to find places that would be open but yet not overly crowded, especially with the post-concert rush of girls all too excited to go straight home to bed. The last thing Nick wanted to encounter was a bunch of wired up fans while on a first date. Shauna listed off a bunch of different places but settled on this one because of its location and the crowd it generally attracted.

“Let’s just say, no one in here will care about you or the Backstreet Boys in the least.” And she was right about that. The place was completely made for indie rockers. The entire band probably could have shown up unnoticed.

When they arrived only three other people were in the place. Two of which were on their laptops and the other one had headphones on and was bobbing to whatever it was he was listening to as he sipped tea.

Nick knew he didn’t look all that great. The show wore him out tonight. If he didn’t have this date, he would have gladly just gone back to the bus and crashed for the night. He was wearing a pair of overly worn jeans and a black hoodie to mask who he was, just in case. In contrast, Shauna was still dressed in her gray and white, looking radiant and business like all at the same time.  Strangers encountering the two would probably think she was his older sister taking him out for coffee and giving him money from mom and dad.

“So, sounds like you had a good show tonight. The crowd really got into it.”

“Thanks, yeah they usually do.”

She glanced over to the huge bodyguard sitting a few tables away. As much as Nick liked his independence, there was no way he would be allowed to go out by himself and be mobbed, so Q, one of their bodyguards got the unlucky draw to have to follow along. He sat there by himself gnawing on a bagel.

“Sorry about that, management insists…”

She nodded, “I get it.”

There was an awkward tension in the air. Nick always seemed like he was so sure when it came to the ladies, but in reality he felt like a high school nerd asking the beautiful girl to the prom every time, except when it was just a booty call. The thought of sex briefly crossed his mind because he was after all, a guy.

“Are you hungry? Can I get you anything?” He stood up; hoping the walk to the counter would help him loosen up a bit.

They sat in silence for a little while, just looking at each other. Shauna was nursing a black coffee with one sugar while Nick was playing with the straw in his iced latte. It was so clear they came from different worlds. Just as he was convinced he made a mistake she shot a spit ball across the table which promptly hit him right on the nose.

“You have the cutest what the hell just happened, face!” Shauna had said as she blew on her coffee and took a sip.

“I love when you hit daddy on the nose!” Skylar yelled out breaking Nick’s telling of the story.

“Oh, yeah well maybe I should bop you in the nose then, huh?” He asked getting as close as he could to his daughter’s nose and then giving it a gentle tug with his pointer and middle fingers.

She bat his hand away as he continued…

“Anyway…when your Mom did that, I thought I would get her back by dipping my straw in my latte and spitting it at her. She didn’t like that too much, at least she pretended not to.”

“You got it all over my shirt!”

“You loved it!” He winked at her.

“And you still owe me for that blouse by the way! It was one of my favorites!”

That seemed to be all they needed to break the tension. Soon, a conversation started. Very casual at first, then more personal as time went by. Nick learned that Shauna was an only child raised by a single mom. To entertain herself, she used to sing to doorknobs and dance around her house with her grandmother’s old cane. She worked two jobs to put herself through college where she graduated at the top of her class with a business management degree. It turns out she was a little older than Nick, but only by two years. Maturity wise, about ten though. She talked with an ease about her. Even though she was as Irish as you could get, she used her hands as emphatically as most Italians do when they are engaged in intense conversation.

The second round, a glass of water for Shauna and two big chocolate chips for Nick, brought talk about Nick’s life. How hard it was to be famous at such an early age. How he never felt comfortable being in show business but did it mainly because he felt like he would be letting his parents down if he didn’t. He talked about the guys and how much they meant to him, how in his darkest moments, they were the ones that would guide him back to the light.

He was surprised when she said she was actually a fan of their music but didn’t follow them as people. She could sing their songs by heart but could also pass any one of them on the street without a second thought as to who they were.

Turned out both were big football fans. Nick loved the Bucs but Shauna’s heart belonged to the Eagles. She had to be different from all her other Jersey friends who rooted for the Jets or the Giants. She said she did it mainly to piss off her best friend’s boyfriends at first but eventually she started to own her love of the team and once she owned something she loved it passionately.

They shared horrible dating stories, Nick’s much more interesting and over the top than Shauna’s. She admitted she came close to marriage once, but found out he was cheating on her. It took her a long time to get over it and still to this day, that was her deal breaker. She wasn’t a jealous person, she confessed, or one that tolerated playing games but if you cheated, there were no second chances for you. Out the door you would go.

Both were animal lovers. She had a cat at home named Wednesday and anyone who didn’t like the tabby was shown the door. She said she once had a boyfriend who said it was either him or the cat. As she walked him out of her life, she explained that Wednesday won because if you truly loved someone, you wouldn’t put them in the position to let go of something that precious.

How many times Nick has been in that position he couldn’t count but not once did he ever even consider not giving up what was asked. He let so many people walk all over him. Good thing no one ever asked him to get rid of his dogs.

They sat in silence for a little bit, not awkward at all but comforting. Like two old friends rekindling a relationship thought lost. Theirs was just starting though.

“Care to dance?” She asked out of the blue.

Nick looked around to see the three people who were there had long since departed and Q half asleep on his own chair with cellphone dangling in his hand.

“There’s no music.”

“I know this sounds dumb, but I usually have this test I do with the guys I go out on a date with.”

“Test?”

“Yes.”

“I have to say I’m not the best test taker.” He joked, trying not to let his tiredness show. He was beginning to fade but didn’t want this night to end.

She stood up and took him by the hand. He followed her all the way to the counter where there was the tiniest bit of space between tables. “Let’s call this our dance floor.”

“Okay, lets.”

She pulled him close. She had some kind of perfume on that smelled sweet, just the perfect amount so as not to be overpowering. Her heels brought her all the way up past his shoulders. He placed his arms around her waist and she countered by pulling hers around his neck.

“So, what’s this test?”

“I have to be able to hear a song. If I don’t hear it, then this isn’t going to work out.”

“What song?”

She smiled as she closed her eyes, “I will never tell.”

“Is that the name of the song?”

She laughed and said a quiet “Shh…” and in barely a whisper she said, “There it is…”

They began to sway to the music that only she could hear and at that moment, 2:07 am, in a small coffee place in the middle of North Jersey, he knew he had met the woman he was going to marry.

“Daddy dance with me!”

Now we were getting to the real reason Skylar enjoyed this story so much. It was at this point where she got to dance with her daddy. He grabbed her little hand and stood her on the bed. She wrapped her arms around his neck and swayed with him.

“I still don’t know what song you heard in your head.” He said to his wife while he danced with his daughter.

“I’m taking it to my grave.”

Skylar let go of her father, “Now the two of you dance!”

“You heard the little lady…let’s go.”

Nick grabbed Shauna’s hand the same way she did in the café 4 years ago. He pulled her close and wrapped his arms around her waist as she put hers around his neck.

They danced to silence as their daughter excitedly stood on the bed and watched. Keeping her own time as she began to gently jump up and down, placing her hands above her head like a little ballerina.

End Notes:

You'll have to wait for chapter three until tomorrow or later on tonight since I'm not finished with it yet. Hope you are enjoying my foray into the unknown lol

The End by Mare

The End

 

The dance was Nick’s favorite part of the story as well. He remembered what it felt like to hold Shauna in his arms back then, how he didn’t want to let her go, not for one second. She felt like a natural extension of his arm. A missing piece of his puzzle and any other sickly sweet cliché you could think of. He wished he felt the same way as they danced in their daughter’s room. He closed his eyes and tried capturing that love he felt on the first night he met his wife.

Shauna let go and moved to the bed where Skylar was still bouncing.

“Okay time for bed!”

“Tell the story one more time!!” Sky begged as she took one final jump and landed on her butt, laughing the whole way.

“Tomorrow!” Nick promised as he once again covered his baby girl and kissed her forehead.  “Love you more than…”

“The moon, the sun?” She then grabbed her stuffed cow, “This cow?”

He shook his head, “How did you get so silly?”

She shrugged and pulled him close to her, giving him the sloppiest kiss on the cheek.

“Ewww! You slobbered on me!” He said, jokingly wiping it off to even more giggles.

“Okay, enough you two. She’ll never get to sleep if you don’t stop riling her up!”

“Leave it to Mommy; she has a way of sucking all the fun out of a room.”

“Yeah, yeah…good night princess!” Shauna said as she bent down and kissed her daughter on the cheek.

“I love you both!” Sky said through a yawn.

“We love you too!” They answered in unison.

Nick grabbed Shauna’s hand and started dancing her out of the room, which was the other part of the story that Skylar loved so much.  

Once the door was closed, the two of them let go of each other, much the same way they had done slowly over the years.

“You know, I sometimes wish that were all true.” Shauna admitted as they walked down the stairs to the living room. “The way you tell it, it just seems like it should have happened that way.”

“Parts of it did.”

Just like all the best fairy tales and romances ever written, the ones that people like the best are the ones that have the sad and scary parts omitted.

While their first date did take place in the coffee shop, after about fifteen minutes, they headed into the bathroom and had wild, unprotected sex against a bathroom stall.

The conversation about Shauna’s life came about in the abortion clinic while she nervously sat waiting to terminate the pregnancy that was created out of that one night stand. Nick sat there shaking his knee and biting his bottom lip a mix of emotions when it came to what was just about to happen. Just as she started rambling about her college degree and graduating at the top of her class, she realized she wanted to keep the baby. Nick was kind of relieved but mostly scared to death.

They left the clinic together not sure what the next step should be. He was on the road with the boys while Shauna remained in Jersey. He had claimed he would do whatever she needed him to do but she said that wasn’t good enough. That was where the real conversation about her mom happened. She did not want her child to live a fatherless life like she did. Nick agreed because of his own upbringing so they had a very small wedding a few weeks later, concocting a story that they had been together for a lot longer than they actually were. News of Shauna’s pregnancy hit the tabloids a month later.

She begrudgingly left her job and joined her husband on the road which caused a further rift in their already rocky relationship. When the two of them were together, they sat in silence, not really knowing what to do or say. The guys felt helpless watching their youngest band mate cope with everything that was happening but there was nothing they could do.

When Skylar was born, they both decided no matter what, they would make their daughter feel like a little princess. Even though, there was an absence of love between the two, they had so much to give their daughter that it appeared like they were completely in love with one another. No one ever asked any questions. When they were in public, they always held hands and kissed. It seemed real, authentic, the stuff that dreams were made of.

No matter how mad they were at one another, they never fought in front of their child. She would never know how it really was. She was never going to end up in therapy talking about her absent father, depressed mother and loveless home. So they pretended all the time. So much that Nick started to buy into his own fairy tale. On sleepless nights when he would hear his wife shift in her bed as he slept on the couch, he’d be back in that coffee shop, listening to her talk about her life and falling in love with her all over again.

“We did dance, remember?” He asked Shauna as she put the light on in the living room.

“I do remember, just not in the café.”

He nodded at her. She was beautiful, just as gorgeous as when he first met her. Tonight, her hair was up in a ponytail and the short skirt and see through blouse were replaced with a pair of sweats and an overly large Eagles tee-shirt.

“You really are beautiful.”

She smiled, “Nick…”

“What?” he moved closer to her now and wrapped his arms around her waist.

“What are you doing?”

“The dance…”

The night they had that silent dance was shortly after Skylar was born. Neither of them felt anything more than like for each other. Both hoped for more but even after the birth of their child, neither really felt it. They knew at that point, if they stayed together it would only be for the benefit of Sky.

“We could learn to love each other, right?” The words echoed in Nick’s ears as he let them sink in. “Or do you think this is the closest we’ll ever get?”

He looked over at Shauna and not really knowing how to answer, he pulled her close and began to sway. “If nothing else, it’ll make for an interesting dance, don’t you think?”

She sighed and smiled, “I guess so.”

They swayed in each other’s arms for a few minutes before the new born started to cry.

“I’m glad we did this.” Nick confessed, “I mean sometimes it’s hard but to see the look on her face…”

“I agree.” Shauna said “Now shhh…I’m trying to hear my song…there it is…” She closed her eyes and started swaying.

The two of them danced with their eyes closed, unaware of the smaller pair looking on from the stairway.

“Maybe if I make them tell me the story one more time, they’ll fall in love for real.” Skylar whispered as she watched the two from her perch. “And we can all live happily ever after.”

 

End Notes:

And there is the closest I will ever get to a romance. I hope you enjoyed! You knew I had to have some kind of twist in there! But be thankful I didn't kill Shauna off! She almost bit it a few times! lmao

This story archived at http://absolutechaos.net/viewstory.php?sid=11112