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Nick regained his footing in a matter of seconds. He tore his eyes away from Brian; away from the trail of blood that was running down the cinder block wall and whipped around to face the two men who had caused him unimaginable pain. Both men were seemingly frozen in surprise; their eyes locked on Brian’s body that was now crumpled on the floor. Nick could tell by their stance that he had made the right choice. He had succeeded in catching them off guard.

Knowing that he had only seconds to his advantage, Nick fired off two shots in rapid succession. The first caught the smaller man directly in the chest and the second ripped through the bigger man’s massive upper arm. Angry at himself for having missed his second target, Nick tried again. He fired a third shot, but their remaining captor was too quick. The bigger man dropped to the floor as the bullet sailed past him; one eye on Nick and the other on his partner who had fallen to the floor in a pool of his own blood.

“Fuck!” Nick cursed himself and brought his arms up to try again. He wasn’t sure how many bullets he had left. He couldn’t afford to keep missing.

“You little shit!” Angelo roared. He pushed himself off of the floor; narrowly missing Nick’s next attempt at shooting him in the chest. “You killed my baby brother!”

Angelo’s rage was all consuming. He could barely see beyond the red that was pressing in from the corners of his eyes and blurring his vision. He had officially had enough of the little blonde Backstreet bastard standing in front of him. With one well-practiced movement he fired off a shot at Kevin who had lunged forward in an attempt to retrieve the gun that Carl had dropped when he had been killed. His shot was on point, and Angelo curled his lip in satisfaction as he watched the tall, dark haired man fall to the floor. Then, without missing a beat, he kicked out his left leg and sent the final riser supporting Howie’s weight skidding to the far side of the room.

Nick felt as if the scene before him was unfolding in slow motion. He could feel his eyes widening as he watched the riser slide out from beneath Howie’s feet. Dropping the gun, Nick hurled himself at Howie’s legs in a desperate attempt to save him.

He missed by an inch.

Nick’s fingers groped frantically at the air, but he just couldn’t stretch his body far enough. His stomach connected roughly with the cement floor just as the rope tightened around Howie’s neck.

Howie gagged in desperation. He could feel his eyes popping out of their sockets as he instinctively began to claw at the rope that was pulling against his neck. He scratched at his skin even though he knew that his efforts were futile. His vision was already growing dark.

It was all over in a matter of seconds.

By the time Nick had managed to roll himself over onto his back, the rope supporting Howie’s weight had broken away from the ceiling. Howie’s limp body was now lying in a heap of dust, chunks of cement, and pieces of broken plaster less than a foot away from where he had fallen.

“You killed my brother!”

Nick raised his arms in a useless attempt to shield himself. The big man was lumbering towards him with his gun pointed directly at his chest. There was no way out and Nick knew it. Nick also knew that it no longer mattered what happened to him. He was the last one standing. This is probably what the men had wanted from the very beginning; for him to endure all of the suffering of watching his best friends die before meeting his own tragic end.

Nick’s mind flashed to Lauren; to her round stomach and to the son that he would never get to meet. He was ugly crying now; the tears streaming down his face and collecting at the corners of his mouth. He licked away the salt as his mind ran through all of the moments that he would miss, all of the children that he would never have, all of the songs that he would never sing, all of the relationships that he would never fix. This was his last living moment and he was all alone with no one to comfort him, to wrap their arms around him and to tell him that everything was going to be okay.

“You are so dead, Carter!”

Nick stared up at the man through his tears. His whole body tensed. He clamped down on his tongue so hard that he tasted blood. The barrel of the gun was getting closer. Nick closed his eyes. He didn’t want to know when it was coming.

The horrendous bang of the bullet leaving the chamber was so loud that Nick’s hands flew up to cover his ears. He yelped in surprise and opened his eyes just in time to see the bullet catch the angry man in the side of the neck. In another slow-motion montage, Nick watched the burly man sink to his knees almost immediately next to where he was lying; his blood-curdling scream echoing through the room.

“Police!”

Nick couldn’t move fast enough. The room was filled with people before he could even push himself into a sitting position. Everywhere he looked there were people in NYPD vests; some holding guns, some holding shields and all of them moving frantically about the room. Three men dressed in SWAT gear swooped down on the man who had been about to kill him; yanking off his face mask and dragging both of his arms behind his back.

“Are you Carlos? Carlos Costa?”

The big man didn’t answer. He just continued to emit wounded animal noises as the blood gushed from his neck. His uncovered face revealed the true extent of his rage; murderous.

“We’ve got one still alive!” Another man decked out in an NYPD vest practically screamed in Nick’s face as he offered him his hand. “You’re Carter, right? Nick Carter? Are you injured?”

Nick ignored the man’s questions, as well as his outstretched hand. He pushed himself off of the floor using his own power and staggered forward. There were too many people in the room now; too many people to look at and to distract him from his destination. He caught sight of Howie’s motionless body as he moved forward and clutched at his stomach. He had to know if he had done the right thing.

“Nick – Mr. Carter?!”

Nick held up his hand to silence the woman in an NYPD vest who was trying to get his attention. His whole body ached from hitting the floor, but he ignored the pain and continued to hobble forward. He could see clusters of people on the floor around AJ, Kevin, and Brian, and his heart swelled in his chest. He couldn’t be the only one left.

“... caught me in the side ... I can stand.”

As far as Nick was concerned, the whole world stopped. The sound of his voice gave Nick tunnel vision. Everything in the room blurred into an unintelligible mess except for him. Nick dragged himself forward until he was standing only a few feet away from where one of his brothers was being helped into a standing position. He could feel himself growing lightheaded. He wasn’t the only one left.

“Bri ...” Nick’s heart was pounding. He waited until Brian raised his head and their eyes connected before he tried again. “Brian, I ...”

Brian shrugged off the hands of the men who had helped him to his feet. His still bleeding skin burned from where the bullet had grazed the side of his chest, but the pain didn’t stop him from moving forward as far as his still shackled ankles would allow and falling into Nick’s open arms. Brian was crying before Nick was able to lock his hands behind his back. He didn’t know what he wanted to say; what he was supposed to say.

Nick’s own tears started to fall to match Brian’s. It didn’t matter that Brian was shaking, or that he was sobbing, or that he was bleeding, or that he was caked in dirt. All that mattered to Nick was that Brian was alive. Despite the chaos that was swirling around them, Nick felt safe. He always felt safe with Brian.

“You have shitty aim.” Brian choked. “You cut up my side pretty bad though.”

“I had no choice ...” Nick stopped; tried again. “They put me in the situation that you refused to answer, Bri. They put all of the people who I love the most in a room and told me that I could only save one. I knew that if I hit you just enough to draw blood that you would play along. It was – shooting you was the only way that I could pick you.”

Brian squeezed his eyes shut and tightened his grip on Nick. He felt exceptionally guilty and immensely grateful all at the same time. It had taken every ounce of willpower that he possessed to lay on the floor and pretend to be dead while he listened to Nick’s desperate attempts to save Howie and Kevin on his own.

Brian had only dared to open his eyes once it had been confirmed that one of their captors was dead. Of course, that was also the moment when his cousin had been shot and Howie had literally had the life sucked right out of him. Brian had helplessly watched the two of them die from his position on the floor, and he knew that the horrendous images would haunt him for the rest of his life.

“I had to protect you.” Nick continued through his hysterical sobs. “When they were torturing you, you could have said my name to save yourself, but you didn’t. You’ve always gone out of your way to protect me and, despite everything that’s happened between us, there was never any doubt in my mind ...”

“We have a pulse!”

Brian’s eyes fluttered open at the exclamation. He swallowed hard and dared to lift his head away from Nick’s chest. His eyes locked with Nick’s and the two of them simultaneously turned to see who the newly arrived paramedics were screaming about.

“It’s faint, but it’s definitely viable! He needs blood!”

“Oh God, AJ ... you mean he’s not ...” Brian cut himself off as his cousin’s voice drifted out amongst the commotion.

“Forget about me.” Kevin ordered the paramedics who were busy scurrying around him; attempting to bandage his oozing thigh. “I’m not the one who barely has a pulse.”

“Kev?” Nick’s voice cracked as he caught sight of the older man being slowly pulled up into a sitting position. “Kev, you’re – you’re okay?”

“He’s got a bullet lodged in his left thigh, but he’ll be fine.” The female detective who Brian recognized from the meeting that he and AJ had attended at the police station answered Nick’s question before Kevin could speak. “It would be a different story if he wasn’t so good at playing dead.” Her eyes drifted to Brian. “I guess the same can be said for you.”

“And AJ?” Nick stared after the stretcher containing AJ’s body that was hastily being carted out of the room.

“He’s been shot in the stomach, and he’s lost a lot of blood.” Julie shook her head slowly. “I haven’t been told anything more.” She paused. “The two of you need to be examined. You could both have internal injuries.”

“I’m fine.” Nick replied generically.

Emotionally, Nick was the farthest from ‘fine’ that he had ever been. He ran his tongue along the front of his teeth as he watched yet another man in an NYPD vest drop to the floor and begin to fiddle with the shackles that were still locked around Brian’s ankles. No matter how hard he tried, Nick couldn’t bring himself to say Howie’s name. He knew that he was dead. There was no way to fake death by asphyxiation.

“What about – what about D?” Brian forced himself to utter that words that he knew Nick was too scared to say. He swayed forward and tightened his grip on Nick’s arm as the man fiddling with the shackles around his ankles succeeded in getting them to pop open. It was painful to swallow beyond the lump in his throat. “Is he ...”

“The luckiest out of all of you?” Julie couldn’t help it; she allowed her lips to drift into a soft smile. It was nice to be able to deliver some good news in the midst of such a terrible situation. “The ceiling anchor broke at exactly the right moment. The sudden lack of oxygen, combined with the fall, knocked him unconscious, but he’s still very much alive. She nodded over her shoulder. “The EMTs are going to transport him to the hospital right now.”

Nick, too, swayed on his feet. If Brian hadn’t been holding on to him, he probably would have crashed to the floor. A gut wrenching sob racked his body and he, once again, pulled Brian into a bone crushing hug. The relief that was coursing through his body was almost too much for him to handle.

Julie watched the two men standing before her with measured interest. Even though there were literally people in every square inch of the room, she felt like she was somehow intruding on their private moment. She wasn’t sure what the future held for them, or for the rest of the group, but Julie was completely sure that nothing in the Backstreet realm would ever be the same.