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Chapter 2

"Got me drowwwwnning in your love." AJ's not rang throughout the arena.

"Sounded great!" A sound manager shouted from the back as Fatima entered with 6 bottles of
water.

"Alright guys, take five and then I wanna practice the "Yes I Will" routine." She passed water
to each of them. "Rok, you okay?"

"Yeah, actually really good today!" He responded. Brian tried to be as nice as he could be
about answering the daily 'are you okay' question. He was used to it from Kevin when
rehearsals got intense, his cousin was always worrying about everyone's health. It got old,
though, when Nick, Howie, and even AJ started treating him like he was made of glass. It made
the whole thing so much harder to forget.

There were times though, when he did need a break, and that just really pissed him off.
Because of that shot he had taken in his back, sometimes his legs would go slightly numb.
Doctors were amazed that he was still able to dance and play basketball and half of the other
stuff that he did. They had warned him that he may not want to as much, but that wouldn't stop
him. Brian Littrell had decided early on that he was going to be as normal as he could be. Well,
as normal as he was allowed to be.

"You sure, Bri? You look kind of stiff." Kevin's forehead creased with worry.

Brian sat on the edge of the stage, rolling his eyes and taking a drink. "I'm fine! At least I'm not
as stiff as Kaos was last night!"

This caused laughter from everyone, until Nick understood it was about him. "HEY!"

"Yeah dude! You're gonna poke Jenn's eye out with that one day!" AJ laughed as Nick's
cheeks turned a pink color.

He couldn't help but smile though. It was a good day when Brian was cracking jokes like he
used to. Days when he had his Frick back.

"HEY YA'LL! What's so funny?"

Brian's head snapped to look towards the back of the venue. That voice always caused an
inevitable smile. Standing and hopping off of the stage, the shorter man watched as his 18
month old daughter toddled towards him, followed by his wife.

"HEY, LOOK GUYS! "Jenn's still got two eyes!" AJ followed up his pervious comment that
gained him more laughter from the guys.

"SHUT...UP!" Nick snarled, following Brian down the aisle to meet his own wife and children.

As soon as Sara reached Brian, he wrapped her into his open arms and kissed her dead on the
lips. For a few minutes. This received cat calls from Kevin, Howie, and AJ, who sat, watching
the couples.

"Woo Lord! What was that for?" Sara's southern accent peeked through. She hadn't felt so
happy and young in a couple of months. Kisses like that, so filled with passion and love, were
a rare thing now.

"It's just a good day, baby." Brian smiled at her, kissing Emily's cheek next. He pretended to
cry when she wiped it off with a grin of her own.

"No Cry Daddy!" She was quick to say and then returned the kiss on his cheek. Yes, she was
the perfect combination of the couple and they thanked God everyday for her.

"Hello Beautiful..." Nick spoke to his wife a few yards away from the Littrells. "How are ya
today?" He asked kissing her sweetly.

"Mmm, quite lovely now." Jenn smiled in a daze at her lover, happy that she and Sara had
decided to drop in.

Nick then knelt to talk to his children, who had been patiently waiting at his feet. Nicole was
first to swing her arms around his neck, such a daddy's girl. Zach quickly followed suit, always
copying everything his sister did. "Ohhhh...daddy lovin'." The blonde grunted as he fell
backwards.

The two laughed profusely as their daddy began to tickle them and then grab them both and
kiss them to pieces. Jenn watched with tears in her eyes. She was always emotional when it
came to her family. It was so amazing how you could love something so much.

"C'mon mommy!" Nick yelled from his place on the floor.

"Niccckk...we're in public."

"We are not!" With that, he raised his foot and gently kicked her behind her knee so that she
fell on top of him and between her two kids.

"There goes her eye, guys!" AJ called from the stage.

Nick looked up and shot him a look before Jenn grabbed his chin and turned his face to hers,
kissing him deeper than she had in the past few months. So deep that all Nick could do was
grin goofily afterwards.

"Sara and I wanted to see if y'all wanted to go eat lunch after this." She spoke softly, getting up
as she spoke.

"Sounds good."

***

"I'm hungry Daddy! Hurry uuuppp!" The whine came from Nicole, who reminded everyone so
much of Nick. He understood why now.

He was just about to respond when Fatima came back. "Alright, quicker we go through this,
quicker y'all get out of here!"

Brian and Nick quickly joined the rest of the group on the stage and took their places with their
canes.

"I open my eyes, I see your face, I can not hide, I can't erase..." Brian sang as he poked Nick in
the butt with his cane.

And for once, the choreographer didn't stop him. There moment didn't come often enough
anymore.

"Oh yeah, that happened the first time Nick changed Zach's diaper." Jenn told as the group
laughed. "I thought he was going to pass out.

Lunch had been going quite well with all five guys, two wives, and three children acting like
their lives were completely ordinary. AJ had been discussing the hopes that he and Lori would
have a baby within the next year and the parents of the group reliving memories of their
newborns. Although Jenn had been a little sad that she couldn't contribute to any stories of
Nicole's baby days, having that little girl resting against her shoulder, as the others spoke,
gave her the comfort she needed.

"Bone, why would you wanna do that to Lori? You know your baby's gonna have like...blue hair
and tattoos!" Nick said between bites of his salad.

"HEY! I'm surprised Zach didn't come out with..." AJ spoke loudly, in his usual manner before
Kevin slapped his hand over his younger friends mouth.

"DO NOT say it, J. I'm eating." Kevin spoke seriously, staring down into his own salad.

Again, the group shared laughter. Strangely, it felt almost odd to laugh. The sound was not
common these days but it was welcome when it did fall upon them.

Emily crawled up into Brian's lap from where she sat between her parents. "Bacon..." She
whispered in his face, making sure that he saw her. Sara smiled as her husband sat their
daughter down in his lap and picked out all of the bacon bits out of his salad and fed them to
her. She knew they were his favorite. Suddenly, every doubt of their marriage vanished from
her mind.

"Is there a Mr. Littrell at the table?"

The group quieted as Brian took a letter from the waiter. It was strange that they would
receive something in a public place like this, but he didn't think twice about it.

Looking back, he wished he had never opened it.

Nick watched as his best friend's eyes widened and his face paled to a deathly white. Those
wide eyes soon rolled back and Emily fell over into Sara's lap as Brian slumped over, the letter
falling into the salad.

"Oh my God..."

***

Kevin couldn’t believe this, the day had been going so well. It was now late into the night, he
knew he wouldn’t be able to get any sleep tonight. In his hand he held the piece of paper that
had ruined everything. He had the note memorized by now:

Hello My Pretty, Pretty, Boy :

I’ll bet you’re thinking ‘Hm, this is strange, getting a letter in a public place.’ That’s how we play
this game, you should know that by now. It’s all crazy and strange and potentially fatal. That’s
okay though, right? Your life is as good as dead anyway. You don’t have much of a love life
anymore, neither does Jenn. Although, you guys look pretty comfortable together lately. There’
s no room for comfort in this world and that is why, the two of you need to be taken out of it.
Don’t worry, we can take care of Sara and Nick too. Watch your back, cowboy, we’re watching it
too. I swear to God, though, if you tell the police about this, I’ll have your ass even quicker. Oh,
what to do now? Hmm, fire is burning away the time you have left. Tick. Tick. Tick. Smelling the
smoke yet, church boy?


Damn them, Damn them for doing this to them again. Everything was finally starting to get a
little better, DAMN THEM!! Kevin finished this thought by pounding his fist into the wall of the
bus. Jenn and Brian had been too afraid to go back into the hotel, so everyone got back onto
their busses for the night, equally as frightened.

Once they had seen Brian fall to the ground, everyone was at his side immediately. Sara was
holding him in her lap, she was terrified. Nick had quickly picked up the note that had fallen
from Brian’s grasp. As he read it his hand went immediately up to his mouth, not believing
what he was reading.

The kids had begun crying when everyone ran to Brian’s side. AJ had quickly pulled them out
of the room as everyone took care of Brian. Jenn had looked down beside Brian and found a
picture. Once she looked at it she had collapsed into her husbands arms, sobbing
uncontrollably.

Kevin reached over to the table in front of him and picked up the picture that had caused Jenn
to get so emotional over. The picture normal would be considered a good one, it was of Jenn
and Brian sleeping together on the couch in a hotel room. However, it had been inside of the
note, meaning that Rick or Sara had been the ones to take this picture. They had been able to
get that close without anyone noticing, and that was what worried Kevin.

He so wanted to get in contact with the police, but the letter had stated that if they did the
outcome would be much worse. They were all torn on this, but decided to take heed to their
warning. It was decided that once they reached their next stop the kids would be flown to
Kentucky, Brian’s parents said they would gladly take care of all the kids during this time.

Kevin looked back towards the bunks. He had forced himself to stay on the bus with Brian,
Sara, Nick, Jenn, and the kids. He was too afraid to let them out of his site for now. All was
quiet, and that was defiantly a first. They were forced to give Jenn and Brian some sleeping
aids for the night, they were both so shaken by all of this.

Kevin sat there for a few more hours, just staring at the picture and the letter. A voice
interrupted his thoughts, “Kev man, you should really try to get some sleep.” Nick said
standing in the hallway.

“Yeah right, like I could sleep right now.” Kevin said not even looking up at him.

“You should try though, we don’t need you to be out of commission too. I just don’t see how
Brian is going to be able to perform tomorrow night. I’m gonna have a hard time myself, we
cant have you not up to par either.” Nick said as he sat down across from Kevin.

Kevin let out a loud sigh as he rubbed his eyes. “You should get to bed. I’ll go lay down in a
minute.”

Nick gave him a questioning look before standing back up. “You better be back there soon,
we will have plenty of time tomorrow to talk about this. We need to all sit down together
anyways.”

Kevin looked up at Nick with a smile, “Yes Nicky.”

Nick rolled his eyes and continued to his bed, “Don’t call me Nicky.”

***

The next morning was a tearful one as the children were sent off to the airport. They had two
of the security guards traveling with them, but they were all still worried. Once the van pulled
away they all decided to talk about what had happened yesterday.

“I still think that we should call the police.” Howie stated from his seat at the table.

“I think we all do D, but we don’t wanna do anything to upset these maniacs. We already know
what they are capable of.” Kevin said, everyone looked to Brian and Jenn as he finished his
sentence.

“With the security guards knowing about it, it will help us a lot too. We at least have some
extra protection.” Nick stated.

Brian and Jenn both were sitting silently in their chairs, not even looking at the others. They
were both absolutely petrified of getting captured again. Both of their dreams had been
plagued with it all happening again. Nick put a comforting arm around Jenn’s shoulders, and
Sara placed her hand on Brian’s thigh. Both trying to give their loved ones some type of
comfort.

The meeting continued for another hour, then they guys had to be to sound checks. Jenn and
Sara both followed them to the arena, too afraid to let their husbands out of sight. That night
they all put on a great performance, knowing that they couldn’t let their fans down.

Once the show was over they all sat in the dressing room, waiting for everything to settle down
so they could leave. Jenn was half asleep leaning against Nicks chest, Sara was comfortably
sitting on Brian’s lap, AJ was on the phone with Lori filling her in on what had been going on,
and Kevin and Howie were talking amongst each other.

Sara suddenly got a questioning look on her face as she sniffed the air. Nick noticed this and
before she had the chance to say anything he spoke up, “I swear I didn’t do it!”

Sara shook her head and took another whiff of air, “Does anyone else smell that?” Sara asked
looking around.

Before anyone had the chance to answer her question one of the security guards rushed
through the door. “We need to get you guys out NOW! The buildings on fire!”