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Chapter 9

Nick looked through the window of the moving car. He was being taken back to the hotel after another visit with AJ. Doctors said that they wanted to keep him for another few days for observations. Nick couldn't understand why he just couldn't come home. He was well enough that he was doing things for himself, he wasn't dependent on anyone. To Nick, AJ was almost completely better. Still, he was forced to listen to the doctor.

This ride seemed longer than all the others had. Even compared to the first trip he had taken with AJ in the ambulance. That had to have been the worst ten mintues of Nicks life. All he could hear was all the machinery that they were using to keep AJ alive. Occaitionally, there was the sound of AJ whimpering in pain, which had to have been the worst sound Nick had ever heard. Some scary things had occured to Nick before but having one of your best friends, brothers, almost die made everything else pale in comparison.

When they finally arrived back at the hotel, Brian had to tell Nick that they were there so that he would get out of the car. Nick opened his door and took in a deep breath of the cool air. He looked over at Brian who was looking at Nick with worry on his face and in his eyes. He knew that Nick was taking this pretty badly. If only Nick knew how badly Brian was actually taking it. He had been succesful in keeping most of what he felt out of conversation. There was no way that he was ready to talk about what he felt his role was in this intire situation.

The two best friends walked into the lobby of the hotel and walked over to the elevator. Brian reached out and pushed the button to the floor that they were staying on. The entire journey up was silent. Neither of them knew that to say to each other. They both possesed guilt for what happened that night. Each of them thought that in some way they could have prevented it. Finally, they stopped on their floor and walked over to the room that they, along with AJ, were sharing.

Once they entered the room, still nothing was said. Nick had suddenly found himself trying to fight of the tears that were threatening his eyes. He didn't want to cry, because then he would have to explain to Brian why he was crying. He couldn't lie because Brian could always tell when he was lying. Nick figured thats what he got for spending so much time with him. Not that it was a bad thing. They were the best of friends so he didn't know why he just couldn't come out with what he wanted to say. It was like part of him was telling him that if they knew, they would hate him. They would think that it was his fault this happened because he didn't do anything.

Nick and Brian looked at each other when the phone rang. Neither of them made a move to answer it. They were both afraid that it was that crazy man who had been calling Brian. The phone didn't stop ringing even when they didn't answer. Brian looked at Nick with fear in his eyes.

"Should I get that?" Nick asked Brian in almost a whisper.

"What if it's him?" Brian fearfully asked.

"Then we are going to handle this the Carter way," Nick told him. He gabbed the phone before Brian could say anything to him, "Hello?"

"Nick, hi. Is Brian there? I would really like to talk to him," Leighann's voice came.

"Sure, I'll put 'em on for ya," Nick answered and held out the phone, "it's your wife." Brian let out a long sigh of relief when he took the phone from Nicks hand.

"Hey honey," he answered.

"How's AJ?" she asked softly.

"He's doing better. His personality is back with a vengence," Brian answered.

"That's just proof that this man can bounce back from anything," she told Brian, "when are they letting him out of the hospital?"

"In a couple days, they just want to make sure that he's okay." Nick rolled his eyes at the statement. AJ was fine and everyone knew it.

"Rather be safe than sorry."

"I know."

"So how are you doing?"

"Alright. I'm exausted though. I've been spending most of my time at the hospital. I couldn't get myself to leave AJ like that. I wanted to stay there still but security made me and Nick come back to the hotel. Kevin and Howie are over there now."

"I'm going to let you get some sleep then. You sound like you need it. Tell AJ that I'm glad that he's alright."

"Okay, love you."

"Love you too," she said and hung up the phone. He looked over at Nick who was laying down on the couch with his eyes closed. Poor kid was probably just as tired as he was he realized. It was like he was seeing what this was doing to everyone else for the first time. Even though he knew that they were all in it since the beginning. The phone rang again, Brian smiled he thought that it was Leighann again. He reached for the phone and grabbed it.

"Hello?" he answered.

"Hello, Mr. Littrell," the familiar voice came again, "I'm sure that you've been expecting my call."

"Why did you hurt AJ? He didn't do anything to you! I didn't do anything wrong! Just tell me why alright!!!" Brian yelled.

"My my Mr. Littrell, are we the gutsy one today?" The voice joked but then quickly turned serious, "I do hope you know that if you do any more stunts like that, I will be forced to take action. You think I didn't know how close I came to killing Mr. McLean? I do know that I just missed his heart. Next time, I won't miss. This was a warning shot, so don't fuck with me."

"What did I do that made you go after AJ?" Brian asked again.

"You told him about our little conversation. I thought you would have figured that part out. He was going to tell about our little chats and I was not about to let that happen. You think this is all a joke, but it's not. I am more serious than you think Mr. Littrell."

"Why are you doing this? Just tell me what you want, just stop this please. I don't want anyone else to get hurt," Brian pleaded.

"Then play by my rules and nothing else will ever go wrong again. Can you remember that?"

"Yes, but..."

"Good, now I look foward to talking to you again," the voice said and then the line went dead. Brian dropped the phone and took a deep breath. He looked over at Nick who had fallen asleep. At least he didn't know about this other wise this guy might go after him too. Brian didn't want to see any more of his friends getting hurt, they had already been through too much. The only thing that Brian could think of to prevent the guys from getting hurt again was to play by this mans rules. The lives of the guys depended on it.

Brian sat on his bed and let his head drop into his hands. What the hell was he going to do now? He didn't have anyone to talk to because talking about the phone calls were off limits. It wouldn't be long before somone noticed that he was hiding something, and he didn't know what he was going to say when the time came for an explaination. Since they already knew about the phone calls, they would ask him if that was it and he wan't sure if he would be able to lie.