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Janet stopped typing. She slammed her finger down on the backspace key and watched as the line of text that she had just composed disappeared. She stared at the little blinking curser, at the blank page; thinking about all of the words that she knew would remain forever unsaid. As much as she wanted to apologize, to say ‘thank you’, Janet knew that she could never put the words that she wanted to say on paper even if she could finally organize her thoughts well enough to get them right.

Closing her laptop, Janet stood up from the rocking chair and tip-toed over to stand next to the two identical cribs. For the first time in their short lives, her daughters were sleeping peacefully; alone in their separate beds. The surgery had gone exceptionally well, and the doctors had reassured her that both girls would go on to lead long and happy lives. They would no longer have to struggle to move about; literally joined together at the hip.

The separation of her babies was something that Janet had never allowed herself to consider because of the price tag. Conjoined twins were an anomaly and separating them was a daunting task that very few surgeons were willing to tackle. That is, unless the price was right. So, when Carl had told her to go ahead and schedule the procedure, when he had told her that he had found a way of coming up with the startling sum of money, Janet had chosen not to question him. Deep down, she had known that he and Angleo would be obtaining the money illegally. But, for the sake of her children, she had chosen to protect herself by turning a blind eye to the situation that had literally unfolded just down the street.

In the end, Carl had paid the ultimate price; he had sacrificed his own life to give his daughters the life that they deserved. Janet would be forever grateful to him and to Angelo for what they had done, but she still couldn’t prevent the deep feelings of remorse that surged through her body whenever she thought about the five men who had been locked in her basement. For her, the Backstreet Boys were no longer iconic because of their music, but because of the unintentional gift that they had bestowed upon her family.

Carl had thought of everything. He had never issued the hospital a penny directly from his account. So, while the police had been able to track the money derived from the votes to Carl, they hadn’t been able to properly determine where the money had gone after he had withdrawn it from his account. As far as the police were concerned, Carl had sunk all of the money into a phoney overseas corporation. Janet would never know how Carl had transferred the money to the hospital, and she had a feeling that she was better off not knowing. Her husband had gone out of his way to ensure that the funds would never be traced back to her or to the girls and, for that, Janet would be eternally thankful.

On that fateful day when the police had raided her late father-in-law’s empty house and found the five men in the basement, Janet had been safely tucked away in the hospital’s waiting room with her sister by her side; awaiting news of the girls’ progress. Carl had told her that he was working a double shift, so her surprise had been legitimate when the police had arrived to question her and to tell her that Nick Carter of the Backstreet Boys had killed her husband.

Janet’s shock had only increased when she had learned that her brother-in-law Angelo had somehow managed to survive. She had quickly told the police everything that she knew - that her husband’s brother lived a nomadic lifestyle; working in the janitorial field on cruise ships that criss-crossed the Caribbean to avoid the trouble that always seemed to befall him whenever he stayed in one place for too long. With that information, it hadn’t taken the police long to determine that Angelo had encountered the Backstreet Boys long before he had locked them up in the basement. As it turned out, Angelo had been on staff for one of the dedicated Backstreet cruises; an assignment that had apparently encouraged him to experiment with his sexuality and to be rather rudely rebuffed by none other than Nick Carter himself.

Since Angelo clearly had motive, the police had quickly closed the case and Carl’s involvement had been deemed as supporting. Angelo was now serving a life sentence with no chance of parole for five counts of attempted murder, and Carl’s name and participation in the whole ordeal had been pushed to the side by the police, the media, and the fans. So, although she often felt guilty about the pain and suffering that the five boy-banders had endured at the hands of her family members, Janet had decided that she would take her husband’s secret to her grave. After all, that’s exactly what Carl had done.

“Did you hear about those conjoined twins?” Lauren stopped scrolling though her newsfeed as Nick walked into the room. “I think I mentioned them to you before; they were joined at the hip and doctors in New York successfully manage to separate them. Anyways, they were released from the hospital a few days ago. Apparently, it’s one of the most successful separation procedures that has ever been performed on a set of conjoined infants.”

“Yeah, sure.” Nick absently rubbed at the scar on his temple. He flashed his wife what he hoped was a convincing smile. “I remember. That’s great.”

Lauren sighed. She lowered her phone to her lap and gently moved her hands across her ever-growing stomach. “Are you nervous?”

Nick shrugged; sheepish. “A little.”

“It will be like nothing ever happened.” Lauren paused as Odin began to kick. “You guys will pick up right where you left off.”

Nick shook his head. “It’s not that simple, Lo. Nothing for us will ever be simple again.”

“Nick ...” Lauren reached out and caught him by the hand as he turned to walk by her chair. She fumbled to find the words that she wanted to say. “... this is going to be amazing. You’ll see.”

“She’s right, Nicky. This is going to be amazing.”

Nick turned away from Lauren at the sound of Kevin’s voice. He swallowed hard as he watched the Kentucky cousins step into the room. The last time that he had turned to face Brian and Kevin, he had essentially been tasked with the deciding which one of them was going to live and which one of them was going to die. The sight of the two of them standing in front of him, shoulder to shoulder, with smiles on their faces, was enough to bring him to tears.

“Hey ...” Nick flushed; embarrassed by how emotional he sounded. “You guys came together?”

“We were home visiting family to celebrate our cousin’s engagement.” Kevin answered in his typically slow fashion. “So, yeah, we flew in together.”

Nick nodded. His eyes left Kevin’s face and drifted to Brian. He returned the soft smirk that the shorter man was giving him. The ease of their initial interaction gave Nick hope. Maybe Lauren was right; maybe everything would be as simple as picking up right where they had left off.

It had been almost a full four weeks since the five of them had been together; since they had been freed from the basement. The memories were still raw for all of them, and they were all still struggling to cope with their new reality. The walls that they had carefully constructed to keep themselves hidden from each other, as well as from the world, had all come crashing down. For the first time since they had skyrocketed to fame, none of them had a place to hide. Their new found vulnerability was equal parts liberating and terrifying. Their physical scars were almost completely healed, but their emotional wounds were forever changing.

“How’s your shoulder?” Nick stepped forward as Kevin opened his arms. “Still sore?”

“A bit.” Kevin acknowledged. He wrapped his long arms around Nick and slapped his youngest friend affectionately on the back. “My dancing may suffer as a result.”

“Your dancing suffers as a result of your lack of rhythm.” Brian quipped. He playfully elbowed his cousin out of the way and pulled Nick into his own embrace. “It’s good to see you, Nick.”

Nick grinned into the top of Brian’s head. He tightened his arms around the smaller man’s back and let out a sigh of relief. It felt good to hug Brian in greeting instead of out of desperation. The two of them had spoken extensively since the ‘incident’, but they hadn’t physically seen each other since they had each been discharged from the hospital.

“Your scar looks better.” Brian leaned out of Nick’s grip ever-so-slightly to look up at his face. “Hardly noticeable.”

Nick snorted. The scar was still the first thing that he noticed every morning when he looked in the mirror. Of course, it would always be more visible to him than to anyone else; a permanent reminder of the hardships that he and his brothers had endured.

“How are yours doing?” Nick asked the question tentatively, reluctantly pulling out of Brian’s embrace. “Still sore?”

“Not really.” Brian lifted his shirt to reveal the series of now light-pink lines criss-crossing his chest. “I mean, ya’ll can still see ‘em ...”

“B, I know you’re happy to see me, but can you at least try to keep your clothes on until we’re alone?!”

Brian lowered his shirt at AJ’s words. A goofy grin spread across his face as he allowed his friend to wrap his tattooed arms around his back. “You know that I can’t control myself when you’re around.”

“Are we comparing scars?” AJ continued to laugh as he slapped Brian on the back and moved on to greet Nick. “You should see mine! It still looks like a bullet hole!”

Nick snorted again as he returned AJ’s hug. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see Rochelle stepping forward to greet Brian. Nick watched as Brian hesitated before slipping one of his arms around Rochelle’s waist. He saw Brian lean forward and whisper something in her ear. Nick kept his eyes locked on their exchange as Rochelle whispered her response before gently pressing her hand against Brian’s chest and planting a swift kiss on his cheek.

“I told you, Bri.” AJ called out; seemingly having eyes in the back of his head. He stepped away from Nick and moved towards Kevin. “Everything’s good. My lady’s cool like that.”

“Hey, fellas.” Howie’s tentative voice rang out. “Ya’ll doin’ okay?”

“We’re all fine, Howie.” Rochelle smiled at the Latino. She stepped away from Brian and gave the southerner a gentle, unnoticeable push in Howie’s direction. “Like AJ said, everything’s good.”

“We’re keeping our promise, right?” Brian embraced Rochelle’s nudge and stepped forward to pull Howie into a hug. “No apologizing, no talkin’ about shit that doesn’t need to be said; just movin’ forward.”

“A promise is a promise, Bri.” Howie licked his lips to hold back his emotions. It felt so good to be back; to be welcomed back despite everything that had happened. “I’m just happy that we made it this far; that we’re all here where we’re supposed to be.”

“We’ll leave you guys to it then.” Lauren exchanged a quick hug with Rochelle. The relief she felt at seeing all five men together and smiling was indescribable. “Ro and I are going to do some shopping for the baby.”

“When you say some shopping ...” Nick trailed off.

“We really mean a lot of shopping.” Rochelle playfully rolled her eyes and gave Nick a small wave as she followed Lauren out the door. “Have fun making plans, boys!”

“We better come up with some big plans.” Nick rolled his own eyes. “This kid is already bankrupting me and he’s not even here yet!”

Kevin let out a small grunt. “Wait until you have two.”

“Or until the one you have becomes a teenager.” Brian laughed.

“Or until you have a girl.” AJ chimed in.

“Guys!” Howie grinned. “Does this mean that we’re gonna do this? It kinda sounds like none of us can afford not to do this.”

“I think it’s decided.” Kevin grinned. “Let’s have Eddie put out some feelers and see if we can gauge the public’s potential response.”

“Sophia!” Kayleigh waved to get her friend’s attention. She stifled a laugh at the look of panic that crossed the other woman’s face as she turned away from the Starbucks counter and moved to greet her. “Have you seen it?! Have you heard the rumours?!”

“Oh God ...” Sophia placed a coffee cup into Kayleigh’s outstretched hand and took a deep breath. “Is it ...”

“I think it’s true!” Kayleigh practically shrieked as she thrust her phone into her best friend’s face. “It’s all over social media! Nick even hinted in one of his tweets that it’s going to happen; Backstreet Boys are totally going to do Vegas and we are so going!”