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Chapter 17: Hiatus

Kevin walked into the hotel room in a sullen manner, water dripping from his hair and down his temples. His emerald eyes were clouded over with disstress of which he was trying to hide. He was visibly starting to shake more now from the cold air that was in the room, AJ had had the air conditioning on, and his clothes were matted to his body. He swallowed as he looked to his three remaining bandmates in the room, but before he could speak outloud, Denise hurried over to him.

"Where is he, Kevin?" she asked, her eyes filled with that of motherly concern. Kevin knew she had been told what had happened and he only wished he could tell her good news, but he couldn't. Denise's eyes begged with him to answer. "Where is Alex?"

"I don't know," Kevin answered unwillingly, running his fingers through his hair. "We're still looking-"

"How could you not find him?" Denise accused, tears suddenly springing to her eyes.

Kevin felt his heart sink as he saw the panic rising in Denise's eyes. He could only begin to imagine the worry Denise was feeling at that very moment, but he could never fully understand it. It was something only a mother could extend to feeling. "Just stay calm," he said softly, gently resting his hands on her shoulders. "Jeff and the other bodyguards are still out looking for him, but they made me come back here and wait. They're going to find him, Denise, I promise."

"Please God, let them..." Denise whispered, nodding.

"Here, Kev...take this," Brian said, offering Kevin an ivory white towel to try to dry off with. "Let me have your room key and I'll go get you a pair of dry clothes to change into."

"Thanks, Bri..." Kevin answered gratefully, reaching into his pocket for the key card to his hotel room. Finally finding it, he handed it over to Brian and his cousin was gone from the room in a split second. Sighing, Kevin collapsed into one of the chairs in the room, using the towel to somewhat dry his hair. He swiped it over his face then proceeded to just stare at the floor. The silence in the room was beginning to make him feel uneasy.

"So what are we supposed to just do? Sit around here and wait?" Howie asked as he began to pace around the room. His eyebrows were set into a deep furl, his eyes filled with mixed emotions.

"There isn't much else we can do, D," Kevin answered quietly as he watched Denise sitting on the edge of the bed out of the corner of his eyes.

"We could be out there looking for him!" Howie raged, stopping shortly to glare at his older bandmate. The shorter Latino proceeded back to pacing thereafter.

"Jeff said it would be a better idea if we stayed here and waited to see if AJ returns on his own. It's better that it will attract less attention if we aren't out there with the guards," Kevin tried to explain.

"It's better? How can you say that? It's terrible on our part to just be sitting around here not knowing where he is!"

"Just calm down and think rationally, D. I want to be out there looking for Aje just as much as you do, but if we were to be doing that, it would be likely to cause attention and possibly more unwanted problems that could harm AJ's well-being. I agree with Jeff that we need to stay here incase he comes back on his own. Would you rather Aje return here and find himself alone because none of us are here?"

Howie sighed and shook his head. "No," he whispered, resting his back against the wall. "I'm sorry..."

"I should be out there looking for him," Denise spoke quietly as she rested her hands in her lap.

Kevin looked at AJ's mother with remoarse. "You're the one he's going to need to see the most when he gets here," he told her, knowing she was desperate for comfort at the moment.

"Why did he want to do this?" Denise asked quietly to no one in paticular. Her emotions were running wild with her.

'I wish I knew' Kevin thought, feeling a bit of failure coarse through him. He knew deep down that him and the fellas had a part in this. AJ already had enough problems building up on his shoulders and with the negative treatment coming from the fellas, Kevin realized, it didn't help the rebel at all. It only made him feel worse. Kevin felt a ball forming in his stomach. He and the fellas had helped in dragging AJ down into a state of deep depression, and they had been too blind to realize the damage they were doing.

And now Kevin couldn't help but wonder, was it too late?

'Please God, let him return safely', Kevin prayed silently as he rested his head in his hands and closed his eyes, muting his ears to Howie's sighing, Denise's quietness, and Nick's constant coughing. He let out his own sigh. 'Don't let anything happen to him, please God, just bring him back here safely...'

*****

Brian sat on the windowsill in AJ's hotel room, his forehead resting against the cool glass as pelting drops of rain continued to beat against it. The weather outside had turned from dreary to just plain nasty. The wind had picked up a few notches and was blowing furiously at the trees and anything in it's path. The rain was coming down harder then ever now and was falling every which way as the wind carried it. "It's getting worse out there," he stated quietly, bringing his forehead away from the glass. He turned his attention away from the window and looked around the room.

Nobody had spoken much over the past two and a half hours that they had been waiting for the return of their friend and fellow bandmate. They hadn't heard any news that seemed to lift their spirits and they all tried to find ways to spend their time in a productive manner. Brian sat at the windowsill, spending his time praying ever so often, Denise tended to Nick who seemed to be getting worse by the minute, Howie had volunteered himself to get ahold of management, and Kevin kept in contact with Jeff every few minutes for updates on whether or not they had found AJ.

So far, no luck.

"It's defenitely getting worse out there," Brian spoke again, agreeing with his first statement and following it with a nod. He looked out the window again 'C'mon AJ...where are you?'

"Knowing our luck, it's probably a hurricane coming," Nick croaked, his throat having become scratchy and his voice hoarse. He rested his hand on his forehead as he layed there atop the bed.

"Well, the weather isn't getting better. That's for sure," Brian replied, stating the obvious.

"Why don't you try to get some sleep, Nick?" Denise suggested as she moved Nick's hand away from his forehead and felt it with her own hand. She frowned, he had an extremely high fever. Trying to keep her mind occupied and trying to keep it from worrying herself sick about not knowing her son's whereabouts, she had set herself into a motherly mode towards Nick, caring about the fact that he had fallen ill.

Nick shook his head. "Not possible until I know if J's ok..." he answered.

"Yeah, I'll let them know," Howie spoke into his cellphone, sitting uncomfortably in one of the chairs. "Uh huh...yeah, we'll be sure to get back to you on when we want to make this concert up. Yeah...I'll tell Nick you said that. Anything else?....Oh sure, yeah, that's no problem. Alright. We'll get back to you as soon as possible. Bye." With those last words said, Howie switched his cellphone off, tossing it to the table in front of him. He winced as it clanged loudly when it came in contact with the table's surface.

"What did management have to say?" Kevin asked.

"They're going to allow us to cancel this concert just this once according to the fact that Nick is very ill and we feel we need him in the concert. Therefore, since he can't perform, niether can we," Howie explained. "Of course I didn't let them know about the other problem, though..."

"Good. They don't need to know," Kevin answered, nodding.

"Will they eventually?"

"That will be decided later, I suppose."

"I guess so..."

"Where is he?" Brian muttered to himself, staring out the window deep in thought.

"I'm sure he and the guards will come walking in any minute," Kevin answered, trying to sound as convincing as possible. He, himself, wanted to believe his own words more then anyone in the room, but he knew they were of false content. He stole a quick glance at his watch...two hours, fifty-five minutes, and counting. Where could AJ have possibly gone?

"It's been nearly three hours, Kev. We should be out there looking-"

"We're staying here. Plus, it would be stupid to go out in that weather now if you're not already out in it."

"But it's not doing us any good to be sitting in here doing nothing."

"I'm sure we'll get an update soon-"

*RING!*

Both Kentuckian cousins jumped at the shrill ringing.

"Kev, your pants are ringing..." Nick mumbled.

"See?" Kevin tried to smile at his cousin. He reached into the cargo pocket on his pants leg and pulled out his cellphone. Looking at the caller id screen, he recognized the number as Jeff's cell and his heart skipped a beat. With an attempt of a hopeful look, he flipped the phone open and brought it up to his ear. "Jeff?" He was answered by an earful of static and he had to hold the phone away from his ear for a second. "Jeff, you there!?"

"Yeah, I'm here, Kevin," came Jeff's answer. "Sorry about that. This storm is screwing up my phone's reception."

"Did you find him?"

Everyone froze where they were and locked their gazes on Kevin, holding their breath as they waited for a positive answer.

Kevin heard Jeff pause on the other end and Kevin's heart sank. "Jeff?"

"Not yet, Kev. We're still looking. There's only so many places he could have gone in this city, and we've covered over half so far. So I'm taking it that he hasn't returned to the hotel...?"

"No..."

"Alright, I'll call you back with an update if we find him. Just stay put, ok?"

"We will..." Kevin flipped his cellphone shut and stuck it back in his cargo pocket with a small sigh. He looked up to find everyone looking at him with hopeful looks, but all he could do in return was to shake his head and say, "Not yet."

This was becoming, by far, one of the biggest problems they had ever encountered. None of them had ever gone missing before and Kevin had never had to deal with a person very close to him become missing. The situation left him feeling clueless and helpless because he didn't know how to fix this problem. He was used to be looked to for an answer, but this time he was unable to produce one. He wanted to look to someone for an answer to this problem, but there was no one for him to look to. Because of this, Kevin knew, things were beginning to fall apart. One thing was for sure.

Backstreet was officially on hiatus as of that moment.