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Chapter Eighteen – December 11 (On the way to Cozumel)

The next morning, I woke up at 4 a.m. I had to pee. In fact, I always had to pee. I lumbered off to the bathroom. I must have fallen asleep on the toilet because my whole body literally jumped as I heard a scream from the bedroom. I jumped up, flushed (I was OCD on flushing) and ran out into the bedroom.

I couldn’t believe what I saw. Three women were in our bedroom, two were at the food of the bed and one was actually on the bed by Nick. All three were dressed head to toe in black, except for writing on the back of their shirts. From the light coming from the bathroom and through the window I could vaguely make out that the shirts said ‘Operation Save Nick.’

“Get her!”

The two women at the foot of the bed ran towards me; I saw a rag in their hands. Nick sprang to his feet only to find that his wrist had been handcuffed to the bed.

I had a split second to think of a plan. My first thought was to run into the hall and flag security, but I knew by the time I undid the lock and chain that they would have me. Instead I ran back to the bathroom and slammed the door shut. I locked the door just as they got to it.

I took a deep breath as I thought of what to do next. Nick handcuffed in a room with three crazies freaked me out. I looked around. My cell phone was in the other room. I tapped on the walls; they seemed fairly thick.

Ten full minutes passed before I decided to try the medicine cabinet. With a yank, I managed to lift it off the wall to see what was behind it. I was greeted with a welcome sight: the medicine cabinet to the adjoining suite. Taking the butt end of my hairbrush, I stabbed at that mirror until it went crashing down to the floor. I heard loud mumbling and as I peeked through the hole in the wall, I saw the bathroom door open.

“What the fuck?” AJ grumbled. I quickly looked away; he was stark naked.

“AJ, you need to call security,” I whispered loudly as I stared intently at the tiles on the floor.

“Liv? Oh shit,” he said. I heard the opening of a linen closet. When I peeked he had a towel around his waist. He looked extremely confused.

“What’s going on?”

“Get security. Three women have Nick handcuffed in the bedroom.”

AJ stared at me like I was insane. “Really?”

I was getting impatient. “Yes, really! Please get security?”

“Hunh. That’s only happened once before. Hang tight.”

He walked out of the bathroom. I heard him say something to Rochelle and then I heard another door open. Less than thirty seconds later, I heard our bedroom door being knocked off its hinges.

It would probably be silly to mention that I never did get back to sleep that morning. Security found that the girls had crawled through the air ducts and after lifting a few ceiling tiles, had found their target: Nick Carter’s room. The two that had chased me were holding a chloroform cloth. The other one had handcuffed Nick to the bed.

I couldn’t help but wonder how anyone had managed to smuggle chloroform on board. If it was that easy to smuggle chloroform, who knew if anyone had a gun? I unlocked the bathroom and stepped into the bedroom just as security managed to get the handcuffs off of Nick’s wrist. He rubbed the tender skin and looked at me.

“You okay?” he asked. He looked shaken up. I nodded.

“Except for the fact that I now know AJ sleeps in the nude, I’m fine.”

“Huh?”

I shook my head. “Never mind. This has happened to you before?”

“Millennium Tour. Indianapolis. Those girls were naked.”

I smirked. “Something tells me you didn’t scream as loud that time.”

“I didn’t have a pregnant fiancée to worry about. That was the stuff twenty-year olds dream of. This is a different story.”

-------------------------------------------

By nine o’clock in the morning Nick and I were moved into another cabin. We decided to ditch the luxury of a balcony room for safety reasons. I had a vision of fans rappelling onto our balcony and coming through the sliding glass doors. Nick and I didn’t think things would go well if we filed a police report once we docked at Cozumel; if we were in the States it would have been another story, but Mexican law was iffy at best. Instead, the three women were stripped of their VIP package and refused entry to any Backstreet events.

“The thought of them actually getting you with that chloroform is freaking me out,” Nick kept saying. “That could have sent you into labor.”

I shook my head. “Listen, as crazy as this morning was, we’ll be docking in Cozumel in less than four hours. How about we order some breakfast and just try to relax.”

Nick sighed and kissed the top of my head. “Well, I am hungry and this room didn’t come with complimentary cereal. Besides, I hope I don’t jinx us, but I really can’t think of anything more that could go wrong.”

“Right,” I smiled. “What else could go wrong?”

During the course of the morning, every single one of the guys stopped in to check on us. Howie and Leigh were first. Next was AJ. Rochelle walked in behind him.

“I’m thinking you need to go bald Nicky,” AJ said. “We need to ugli-fy you.”

Nick laughed. “Thanks for saving my ass.”

“Speaking of asses…” I teased. AJ looked at me sheepishly. “Well Jesus, I didn’t think I was going to walk into my bathroom and have you go all Jack Nicholson in The Shining on me. I about crapped myself.”

“At that point I didn’t care if you were painted Avatar blue, I was just glad to see you.”

“So are we going to hurry and book another fan cruise soon?” Rochelle said. Nick shook his head.

“Y’know it’s sad. The few rotten eggs ruin it for all the truly good ones.”

“I know. We switched rooms too. The big hole where the medicine cabinet should be was a little distracting. We’re two doors down from you.”

After AJ and Rochelle left, Brian, Leighanne, and Baylee were the next to show up. Brian stood in the doorway and shook his head.

“It never fails to amaze me. What is it about you that makes females go all crazy? I’d like them to spend one day with you after you’ve eaten eight bowls of chili and then I’d like to see them survive in a room with you.”

I had not yet experienced eight bowls of chili, but living through three bowls during Nick’s chili-rama was enough for me to fully agree with Brian.

“I don’t know! I’ve looked like fat Elvis, been covered in zits, and thrown up in every potted plant in LA and they still flock to me,” Nick said, shrugging adorably. “I’m like that chocolate guy in those Axe commercials. They just want to bite me.”

Brian and I laughed, but at the mention of chocolate Leighanne did a quick run for our bathroom. A few seconds later the sounds of her retching her guts out filled the room. Brian paused for a moment, then walked in.

“It’s okay, babe,” I heard him say softly. Baylee looked towards the bathroom; I had never seen him look angry, but there was no denying the look on his face.

“STUPID BABY!” he yelled out.

Brian stuck his head out of the bathroom and we switched places. Leighanne was holding her hair back; her head was still hovering over the toilet bowl. She looked at me and began to say something but another wave stopped her. I held her hair back as she went another round.

“Dude,” I heard Nick say from the other room. “What happened to no more diapers?”

“Shut up, Nick,” Brian said with a laugh. “I take full blame. Pampers can write me a thank you letter later.” I heard quieter voices; I could only assume Brian was lecturing Baylee.

“Why did I think I could go on a cruise with morning sickness?” Leighanne moaned. I handed her a cold, wet washcloth. She sat on the cool tile floor and wiped her flushed face. I smiled sympathetically.

“I think it ranks right up there with puking on a plane,” I said lightly. “Except this lasts longer.”

After a few more minutes and a glass of water, I followed Leighanne back to the bedroom. She pointed at Nick.

“Don’t tell anyone,” she said. Nick looked at her innocently. “Who me? I can keep a secret like no tomorrow. No problem.”

Leigh looked doubtful. Baylee was still pouting, his arms folded across his chest.

“I think we’ll continue our conversation back in our room,” Brian said. He took Baylee’s hand. Leighanne gave us a weak smile and followed Brian back out into the hall. Nick closed the door behind them.

“We’re going to need a traveling nursery with us on tour next year,” Nick said with a smile. I laughed.

“Remember, it’s a secret.”

“You knew?”

I nodded. “Yeah, I figured it out.”

“And you didn’t tell me?”

“It was a secret!”

Nick pouted. “I see how it is.”

I rolled my eyes.

“You and AJ both kinda suck at keeping secrets,” I said.

“You have a point,” Nick admitted.

With only an hour to go before docking, I put together a big beach bag full of sunscreen, sunglasses, emergency cereal (for Nick), and bottled water. I sat on the loveseat and spread out the travel brochures.

Nick looked over my shoulder. It seemed the highlight of the area was snorkeling and scuba diving, two activities I knew Nick would love.

“Maybe AJ or Howie can go snorkeling with you,” I said. Nick shook his head.

“And what are you going to do?”

I smiled. “I’m going to stay on the beach and read a book.”

“We need to come back here when you can snorkel. Have you ever done that?”

I shook my head. Nick smiled.

“I’d love to snorkel with you.”

“That would be awesome. I’d never turn down a vacation,” I said. I pointed to another brochure. “I’m thinking that we can go see Punta Sur lighthouse and then you can get some of the guys to go snorkeling.”

“Then we’ll have dinner and then AJ’s dying to go to this night club called Neptuno. They’re supposed to have a wicked laser light show.”

“Sounds like a good day to me,” I said.

Nick leaned over the back of the loveseat, his hands sliding onto my shoulders.

“And then, senorita,” he said. “We come back for some sexy time, no?”

I laughed. “Si, senor.” I leaned my head back to look up at him.

He leaned down and kissed me and I couldn’t help but think that after a rocky start, the day was going to be amazing.