Point of View: Brian
Leighanne and I were in bed after the long day's worth of rehearsing and talking that Kevin had us doing. Leighanne was reading a magazine and I was pretending to be reading a book, but my eyes had travelled over the same sentence probably a thousand times without ever seeing it.
"Honey," Leighanne mumbled, "Why don't we go to sleep?" she asked.
I snapped to reality and shook my head, "I'm okay, Leigh, really," I said.
"Baby," her voice was gentle, "You haven't turned the page in over three hours..." I glanced at the clock and realized how quickly time had gone by since we'd sat down. She reached over and tilted my book down. "Plus, it's pretty tough to read upside down..." she pointed out.
Flushing, I muttered, "I'm just worried about him."
"We all are, Brian," Leighanne said.
"Not as much as I am," I answered sternly, shaking my head. "He's my brother, my son, my best friend..."
Leighanne sighed. "I know," she whispered.
I frowned, "He's has to be cleared tomorrow, he just has to be..."
She reached over and took my book and closed it, tossing it onto the floor by her night stand, then rolled over so her head was against my chest, listening to my heart beat. I rested my hand on the back of her head. "It's gonna be okay, Brian," she whispered.
I hung onto her, imagining where Nick was, all alone... It killed me, imagining him like that. Nick, of all people, didn't thrive at all - even a little smidge of a bit - when people weren't properly paying attention to him. He was like a child that way. That was why the fans' adoration always worked so well for him, why he was always so willing to accept the spotlight. He craved it, thrived on it, required it. It was just a part of who Nick was... and he was being starved of it.
I sighed. “Honey, I’m gonna go downstairs,” I whispered after a few minutes of silence.
“Hmm?” she mumbled.
“I’ll be in the living room,” I answered, slowly disengaging her from me and sliding off the bed gently to keep from waking her up.
Sleepily, she muttered, “Do you want me to go with you?” but she wasn’t even really awake.
“No, sleep, babe,” I answered, slipping out the door.
I went downstairs expecting to be alone, but noticed my kitchen light was on. I wandered in and found Kevin sitting at the table, a mug of milk in front of him, accompanied by a plate of leftover tuna casserole. The table was strewn with papers. He looked up when I came in the room. “What’re you doing awake?” he demanded.
“I could ask the same of you,” I answered. I pulled open the fridge and got out the round casserole dish. Taking a fork from the drawer, I dug in right out of the pan it’d been made in and leaned against the counter beside Kevin. “What’re you looking for?” I asked, glancing over the papers.
“I want to find this call from Krystal on Desi’s phone bill,” he answered.
I picked up a page of itemized cell phone bill and started reading down it. After a few moments, I realized it was physically impossible to stand, read, and eat at the same time and I pulled out a chair and sat down, shoveling a bite of casserole into my mouth.
“I figure if we can definitely prove that, even according to the phone bill, the call happened at the time of the accident then we’re doing good.”
I nodded, “Can’t hurt.”
We searched in silence.
“Kev?” I asked, looking up at him. He lowered his page and raised an eyebrow. “What do you think is really going on here?”
He looked surprised, “Really going on here?” he asked.
“Yeah,” I said, “I mean… You can’t tell me everything that’s happening between Nick and Krystal and Leon and Desi and all that is a coincidence, can you? I mean….” I paused. “Desi and Leon were roommates. What’re the odds of that?”
Kevin thought for a moment.
“Bear in mind that Leon was Kayla’s boyfriend and that’s how Nick met Leon,” I added, "Not through Desi."
"And we met Kayla..."
"Through Zoe, Nick's driving instructor," I answered.
Kevin frowned. Dropping the papers to the table top, he leaned back and rubbed his chin, thinking. "That is odd, actually," he said at last.
"So what do you think it is? What do all these people have in common?
We sat silently for a few long moments. Honestly, I was thinking up some pretty crazy shit. Mob involvement. Drug rings. Lord only knew what Nick got involved in when he was strung out, right? I imagined all kinds of things that Desi and Leon could've been in kahoots on...
"It doesn't matter right now," Kevin muttered finally, "All that matters right now is getting Nick's name cleared and getting him home."
I nodded. Kevin was right. The rest of it didn't really matter. Leon, Desi, the whole lot of them were all extraneous. Krystal's death being accidental and not Nick's doing was the only part of the puzzle that mattered for the time being. Once Nick was out we could solve the rest of the mystery bit by bit... or even just let it go. But as we searched through months of old phone logs, I had a feeling it wasn't going to let go of us.
Finally, after several long minutes, Kevin found the call and we decided we should go back to bed, get some rest, so that we could wake up bright-eyed and bushy-tailed the next morning to defend -- and hopefully free -- our friend.
When I got back upstairs and crawled into bed, Leighanne rolled into me once more almost instinctively. I wrapped my arms around her. It was almost 4:00 AM. We didn't have much longer before the trial, actually. I ran my fingers over her hair, and my other hand carefully found her stomach and pressed against it. I smiled to myself, imagining the baby inside doing the same.
"You're silly," she yawned quietly, sleepily, feeling my hand.
"Do you want it to be a boy or a girl?" I whispered.
"I don't care," she whispered back.
"I want a lil girl," I mumbled.
Leighanne stirred ever so slightly, lifting her head and pulling her hair out from under her cheek. She laid it back against my shoulder again. "Why a girl?" she asked.
"Because she'd be beautiful like you," I answered, kissing her forehead, "And she'd be a princess."
Leighanne smiled. "I love you," she said.
"I love you, too," I answered.
She blinked at the clock. "Did you sleep at all, Bri Bear?"
"Not really."
"Kevin's gonna be pissed at yoooou," she whispered.
I smirked, "He was up all night, too. We were looking at old phone logs of Desi's."
Leighanne laughed, "But you know he'll blame you for not sleeping and completely forget that he didn't either."
"True."
"Brian?"
"Yeah?"
Leighanne pushed herself up so she was leaning over me, her eyes serious. "I just want you to know that if for some reason Nick doesn't get released today --"
"He's going to be-"
"Shh, listen. If for some reason he isn't, I want you to remember this." She covered my hand that was on her belly with hers. "Remember we need you. All three of us. Okay? And we're all here for you, all three of us." She stared into my eyes. "Don't do anything crazy, okay?"
I thought about the hushed conversation I'd had with Kevin about breaking Nick out, and I realized Leighanne knew what we were thinking.
I nodded.
"I mean it, Brian."
"I know," I said heavily. Leighanne leaned down and kissed my nose before settling back down against my shoulder.
