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  1. Short Leash

The tense silence in the vehicle was becoming unbearable and Nick glanced into the rear-view mirror nervously. Sure enough, Baylee was still there on the backseat with a sulking expression on his face. Deciding he’d better keep quiet, Nick drove on, following the big BMW in front of him. The mood had dropped to a freezing point when Baylee had refused to step in the same car as Leighanne. Nick had wondered what could have possibly gone so horribly wrong between mother and son, but he really couldn’t feel bad for Leighanne. He could take a wild guess at what was going on though, cause he’d seen the look on the young boy’s face when Nick had mentioned talking to Larry on the phone the day before.

Stealthily, he dared a look sideways. Brian seemed to be the only one that wasn’t on edge. In fact, he seemed contently happy for the first time in a long time, probably because he didn’t have the slightest clue about what had happened. Nick sighed, knowing that explaining things to Brian wouldn’t make a difference, instead he just smiled at his friend and watched Brian smile back. The joyous expression on his friend’s face made him seem a lot younger than he was and Nick shook his head, still smiling.

After an hour and a half, they’d finally given up their search throughout the mall, and just when they were ready to call the police, Harry had seen them. Nick had watched with open mouth how Baylee bought an ice cream for him and his dad, who happily accepted the treat. Strangely enough, they both didn’t seem aware of the fact that there were three other people looking for them. Nick had realized soon, that as far as Brian was concerned, he was just having a nice day off with his son, and Nick didn’t have it in him to tell his friend otherwise. When the group of three reached father and son though, Nick had watched Brian turn towards his brother with an angry, but childish look on his face, stating that they were definitely late for dinner now and that Mom was gonna ground them for at least two weeks because of him. With a scared look, Harry had snatched his younger brother’s arm and led him, and the rest of the gang, out of the shopping mall, hoping nobody else had heard Brian’s accusation. With a serious expression Nick had never seen on Harry’s face before, the older man had taken charge, planting Brian inside Leighanne’s car, ordering Nick to get his brother home and taking Leighanne and Baylee with him in the BMW. Baylee had shown just how stubborn he could be and refused to step in the car, ‘til finally, uncle Harry relented and allowed him to ride with Nick and his dad.

In all honesty, Nick had rather driven Leighanne home. He remembered the argument he’d had with Harry that morning, the older man refusing to do anything about the stealth escapades of his sister-in-law. Nick had wanted to confront Leighanne, to make her admit to what she had done, but Harry had argued that it wouldn’t matter anyway and in the end the only thing that could come from it was Brian getting hurt. Of course Nick didn’t want his friend to get hurt, but he’d figured that they couldn’t let Leighanne get away with it, and when he studied Baylee’s behaviour today, he could clearly tell that there was a lot more going on inside this family than he could hope for.

“Nick?” the young child asked suddenly in a small voice.

“Hmm?” Nick grumbled, still in thought.

“Are you mad at me?” the kid wondered and Nick looked at him. Did he give the impression that he was mad at the boy?

“Don’t be mad at Baylee, Nick,” Brian said suddenly and smiled brightly, “he bought me ice cream,” he revealed and laughed warmly, though there was some kind of strange juvenility that shouldn’t be there. Wow Brian, you’re great help. Without waiting for Nick’s reply, Brian turned back, staring out of the window, and continued humming to the songs on the radio. Nick smiled too, glad that there at least some sort of music left in Brian.

“No Bay, I’m not mad. I don’t think I’m in the position to get mad at you,” he replied cryptically and could see Baylee thinking hard.

“Well, I did make you come out and look for me, didn’t I?” he stated guiltily.

“Yes, and I’m not entirely happy with that too, but, to be honest… I know why you did it,” Nick admitted softly.

“I… what do you mean?” the child asked, clearly confused. Nick glanced at Brian, who luckily didn’t seem aware of the conversation between his son and friend.

“I mean that… I’ve been talking to Larry on that phone, I can guess what’s going on,” he replied cautiously, inspecting Baylee’s reaction. The shock on the child’s face was priceless and just what Nick had suspected. There was something else too, something that came rather close to relief.

“So you know about that stuff, huh?” Baylee said, looking down, suddenly very interested in the clean floor of his mother’s Jeep.

“No, not exactly, but I’d like to know what you think,” Nick prodded carefully.

“I don’t really know anything, but I can feel it sometimes, you know? I mean… never mind,” the kid trailed off, looking at his father.

                Nick followed his gaze and sighed. “You can tell me Baylee, I’m only trying to help,” he encouraged softly.

“Are you gonna tell my Dad about it?” Baylee whispered fearfully.

“No,” Nick replied in all honesty. “No, he doesn’t deserve to deal with that kind of crap right now.” He could feel the hate boiling up inside him once again and saw Baylee nod slightly.

“It’s just… just the way she looks at Dad sometimes… as if she’s feeling sorry for him… like she’s done something she shouldn’t have…” Baylee explained heatedly.

“What about this Larry dude? Did you ever see him?”

“Yeah, once… he showed up in Atlanta one day, saying he was working on a new production and asking if Mom could help him, I can’t tell you the exact details, cause I wasn’t interested enough for that.” Baylee frowned deeply and got an angry look in his eyes.

“That’s okay Bay, can you tell me when he came to your house?” Nick asked him friendly.

“Uhmm, almost a year ago I think… yeah, it was just a few weeks after Dad got the cancer back…” Baylee explained and Nick heard him sniffle slightly, feeling a pang of empathy toward the young man on the backseat. After all, this whole situation was probably harder for Baylee than for anyone else. Nick had to do his best to not curse every obscene term he knew out loud. Had this really been going on for a year?

“Thanks for telling me, kiddo,” Nick said quietly, “It will be alright, I promise.”

“How do you know that?” Baylee suddenly asked, harshly.

“I just do,” came the older man’s answer, and that would have to do.

Baylee didn’t say anything, instead he turned towards the window with a sorrowful look on his face.

“You know,” Nick began, “You kinda remind me of a certain kid that was around your age twenty years ago.”

Baylee still didn’t answer but Nick saw him raise his eyebrows in expectation.

“He got lost once too,” he stated wistfully. When the kid stayed silent, he continued, “missed the plane, had to stay all on his own at the airport, or so he thought…”

“Really? What happened?” Baylee turned, suddenly interested. He’d heard the story once before, but couldn’t remember it exactly.

“Your dad found me, he’d stayed behind and came looking for me. It was kinda a miracle.”

Baylee smiled proudly, “yeah, my dad finds people.”

Nick laughed. “I’m sure he does. It’s how we got friends. I hadn’t been exactly nice towards him in the beginning, but he still came and found me,” he remembered it clearly.

“You were a pain in the ass.’’ Apparently, Brian remembered it too, and Nick looked at him, surprised.

“So you remember that, but not my birthday?” he teased with a grin.

“Hey, there are important things, and less important things,” Brian stated solemnly and Nick could hear Baylee laughing in the background.

“That’s just great,” Nick mumbled and watched Brian rest his head against the window once more, squeezing his eyes shut.

“You okay?” Nick hated the question, but he couldn’t help himself when he got worried.

‘’Yep, yeah… just tired. Mr Independent over there running off on himself,” Brian opened his eyes and glared meaningfully at his son. “Never do that again, understood?”

“Yes Dad,” Baylee replied with a smirk, glad his father was back.

“Good,” Brian said and relaxed once more, “We’re on the radio, by the way.” He informed the other two.

Nick grinned brightly and turned the music up. The three people in the car singing As Long As You Love Me along rather loudly and off-key. Nick had tried to stay in tune, but Brian obviously didn’t even bother anymore.

“God, I love this song,” the former Backstreet Boy declared.

Not for much longer, Nick thought moodily, but smiled nevertheless.

 

 

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