[ - ]
Table of Contents [Report This]
Printer Chapter or Story Microsoft Word Chapter or Story
- Text Size +
Chapter 5

Kevin and Brian sat in the back with Sara squished in between them. It was one of those days for
Brian, where he would stare out the window and keep his silence. Both his cousin and his wife
sensed this so they left it alone. Sara felt bad earlier when she watched him act like he was okay.
The days where he was like this were becoming fewer and fewer though and they were all
thankful for that. Jenn was especially glad that the ‘bad days’ were becoming fewer. Brian
helped her to understand that everything was going to be alright.

Today, unfortunately, was just one of those days where he was contemplating life. What would
they do if they came back? Who would they take? Would they make it out this time? How long
was his life really going to be?

The thoughts disturbed him deeply and Brian knew that if he talked, emotion would be evident in
his voice. He didn’t want to make anyone else feel bad so, he tried his hardest to fight the
feelings of apprehension away, to enjoy the days that he had with everyone. Until he could come
to terms with his mind though, Brian decided that he would just enjoy the busy scenery that
passed before his blue eyes. How he wished he was as carefree as the people outside.

Sighing, Brian turned his head and wrapped an arm around his wife’s shoulders. Right now, she
was the only one he wanted. Maybe they would get to the hotel, call Emily, and then lay on the
bed and watch cartoons for the night. Like old times. Old times sounded so good right now.

In the seat in front of them, Nick sat, gently brushing Jenn’s hair away from her face. It was no
surprise when he looked down to see that she had fallen asleep again.

"Are you sure that test was negative, Kaos?" AJ asked, seeing Jenn’s closed eyes and calm
breathing.
"Oh yeah, dude! We have enough out of our terrible twosome right now!" Nick laughed quietly.
God, did he miss them!

Zach and Nicole had been a constant reminder to them that life is never totally hopeless when
tragedy strikes. If Nick hadn’t had Nicole while Jenn was gone, he might have abandoned all
hope of finding his wife. If Jenn didn’t have Zach as soon as she did, she might not have been
as able to move on so well as she had done.

They were all moving on so well and then…. BOOM!

The sudden jolt shook Nick out of his thoughts, grateful that it was only a speed bump causing
the noise. Suddenly, his mind raced back to where this insanity all began, the night of the car
accident. The wreck that had taken his son, Nicole’s twin. The wreck that had taken Brian and
Sara’s baby as well. The wreck that, well, wrecked their lives. Nick was never more grateful to
hear Howie’s voice breaking up the terrible pain in his memory. He was so scared of that pain.

"We’re here guys!" His Latino friend announced from the passenger’s seat.

Nick watched with a grin as AJ was first to bolt out of the van but was abruptly yelled at for
running out without a bodyguard. It was always so amusing when AJ was scolded.

The blonde brought his attention back to the sleeping girl that rested in his lap. He was actually
glad that they had arrived when they did so that he could wake her. Jenn’s breathing had
become a little too calm and shallow for his liking.

"Hey love.." Nick hunched over, whispering into her ear.

Drowsily, her eyes began to open as Brian and Sara were evacuating the car.

"Ew! What am I doing sleeping with Brian?" She said quietly, obviously a bit disoriented, the only
vision she had was the back of Brian’s head as he climbed out of the van.

This caused Nick to laugh out loud and sent Jenn flying into an upright position.

"Oh MY GOD!" She breathed, grabbing her chest for dramatic effect. "YOU scared me!"

"I’m sorry." Nick breathed, reaching the end of his laughter. "We’re.. uh.. Here. And just for the
record, you didn’t sleep with Brian."

Jenn blushed, hitting her husband’s arm and evacuating the van as well as he followed.

Jogging a bit to catch up with Jenn, Nick wrapped his arms around her from behind. "You
wouldn’t want to sleep with Brian. Remember? I’m TWICE the man!"

"Oh…my.. God!" She laughed in spite of herself. "You know, he’s looking pretty good compared
to you right now."

"Who is?" Sara inquired, smiling as she leaned against a wall, waiting for Brian to get the room
key.

As Nick opened his big mouth, Jenn quickly shut a hand over it.

"No one." She responded simply as Nick smiled and mouthed ‘twice the man’ towards her.

"Allllright…" Sara made a strange face towards the couple.

"WHAT am I being left out of? Haven’t I been left out of enough stuff?!" The voice came from the
blonde standing behind Jenn.

"LORI!" Soon, the two best friends were embracing each other tightly, as if they hadn’t seen
each other in years.

"HEY! I didn’t even get it that good!" AJ pouted, standing beside Nick, with his hands dug in his
pockets.

"Oh shut up! You know you will later!" Lori winked at her husband who seemed to perk up at the
comment.

"Ohhhh…" Brian raised his hand towards the front desk. "Sir, I don’t want a room next to these
people!" He had arrived at the last part of Lori and AJ’s conversation.

Everyone laughed at the comment and, even though Sara knew he was faking the happiness
today, she laughed along too. She grabbed his hand though as a sign of security. It was his
acting days when he really needed someone to hold on to.

The greetings and conversation continued between the group. What they had forgotten while
they were enjoying each other’s presence was that they were all Backstreet Boys and
Backstreet wives. They were only reminded by that familiar high pitched scream of a crazed
Backstreet fan.

Everyone’s head turned to look at each other, fear evident in their wide eyes. It only took that
one word from Kevin to put them into action.

"Run."

Each boy was grabbed by his bodyguard as the crowd of fans gathered in huge amounts around
them. Each of their wives followed steadily behind as they had been separated for the boys’
safety.
Fortunately, Kevin, Brian, Nick, Howie, and AJ all made it to their floor safely. The elevators had
been temporarily locked and the stairs were guarded for the time being. They just couldn’t risk
big unorganized crowds because of the threat that Kara or Rick may be lurking about, disguised
as an innocent fan or bystander.

Each boy had already been ushered to their room when Jenn and Lori arrived, chattering away
as if it were an everyday thing to be mobbed by fans. Of course, though, for them, it pretty much
had been. They separated only when they reached their rooms, assuming that Sara had been
with Brian.

A few moments later, it was Brian that showed up at Nick and Jenn’s door.

"Hey Bri, what’s up?" Nick answered, offering a smile to his worried looking friend.

"Uh, Nick, don’t you think we should send security to go look for the girls?" He said, obviously
not understanding why Nick was so calm.

"Brian, Jenn’s already back. Is Sara not?" By this time, Jenn had come peeking around her
husband’s shoulder.

Brian started to freak out. He almost fell into Kevin’s door across the hall.

"Kev, please tell me you’ve seen Sara!" His cousin pleaded as Kevin opened the door.

"No. I thought she was with you." Kevin replied, coming outside his door as Lori, AJ, and Howie
all came out as well, overhearing the commotion.

"What’s going on?" AJ inquired.

Before anyone could answer, Brian began to hyperventilate.

They had gotten her. Rick and Kara were in that lobby and they had gotten her.

His blue eyes searched desperately for help. Someone to find Sara. He took off in one direction
but it wasn’t too long before Nick pulled him back.

"Bri, you don’t need to go down there. If they’re there they’ll…" He tried to talk some sense into
his older friend but there was no use.

They’ll kill her. They’ll hurt her and kill her. The thought sent a pang through his heart, worse
than anything he had ever felt before. He had to get to his wife, the mother of his little girl. So,
why was he so paralyzed?

A cry escaped his lips before he gave into Nick’s embrace.

~*~

It was 1 AM when Lori laid in the embrace of her husband.

"Do you think things will ever get better, J?" She asked quietly, staring up at the ceiling.

"I don’t know, baby. Some days they do but then.." AJ’s word drifted off, knowing she could fill in
the rest.

Some days, there were days like today.

Anytime one of them were late now, it was worrying. A lot more worrying than it used to be.
Today, it had been Brian’s turn to freak out. It was such a heartbreaking scene. Brian had broken
down as Nick held him and security went to look for Sara. While they were gone, Brian must’ve
uttered every possible scenario for what could’ve happened, all of which included Rick and
Kara. And he blamed himself for everything.

AJ had never seen a more relieved look on Brian’s face when his wife came around the corner.
It turned out that she had just gotten caught up in the mass of fans and couldn’t leave without
signing a few autographs. She quickly ran over to Brian, seeing how she had upset him. She
knew what was wrong and she gently nursed him back to sanity.

The experience had made AJ want to hold on tighter to Lori every chance he got. He wanted to
make love to her as much as he could, have mindless conversations with her until early morning
hours, and, ultimately, watch every sunrise with her and a baby in his arms.

"Lori, I…let’s have kids. A family." He smiled at the thought.

"Okay…" Tonight though, they would only hold each other tighter, and fall asleep in the arms
that held forever.

***
“Oh, this feels so good.” Jenn breathed out as the man continued to massage her back. Her
only reply was her friends muffled voices saying something that she couldn’t make out.

Jenn, Sara, and Lori had all decided to spend the day together at the spa since the boys would
be busy all day with tour stuff. Lori had suggested it, seeing the Jenn and Sara seemed to be
very tense over everything. All too soon the massage part was over and they made their way
into another room for a facial.

“I think we should get this done everyday.” Sara said as she sat down.

“Yeah, just get one of these guys onto the bus, and we would be set.” Jenn said with a smile.

“I don’t think Nick and Brian would like that very much.” Lori said with a laugh.

“I don’t care, this is like heaven.” Sara said as she leaned back comfortably. They all quieted
down for a bit as people began to start their facials. As soon as the people finished, they were
instructed that it would need to stay for an hour, and they could just relax. So the girls decided
to start up some girl talk.

“So,” Jenn started. “How is the married life treating you Lori?”

“I love it so much, I just can’t wait till we actually get to spend more time together and start our
family. AJ and I talked about it last night, he really wants to get started on one.” Lori said as she
closed her eyes.

“You two are behind the curve, our kids are getting so old.” Sara said with a happy look on her
face.

“They sure are, it’s crazy how fast they grow up.” Jenn said softly. “I think Nick wants to have
more, but I’m not too sure right now. You know, with everything that’s been going on.” Jenn
hated bringing up the problems they were having, but couldn’t just ignore it.

“Well that is understandable,” Lori followed. “This is all some scary shit, but I’m sure that we
can beat it. You and Nick aren’t having any other problems though, are you?”

“Oh no, everything is great. We are still VERY into each other.” Jenn let out a little laugh at that
thought.

“Eww, we don’t need any details.” Lori said with a sour look on her face.

“I wasn’t going to give you any. Right now I’m just missing the kids a lot, but I know that it’s
better for them to be away. We only have like another month till we get our Christmas Break, so
it will be better then.” Jenn said now looking over at Sara. She had been oddly quiet. “Is
everything alright with you and Bri?”

Sara looked up and them in shock. Of course nothing was right with them, but she wasn’t so
sure if she wanted to share that with them. But seeing the helping looks that they were giving
her, she figured it couldn’t hurt.

“Well, um, it’s never been the same since…well…you know.” Her voice sounded so lost. “He’s
not the same person that he was all of the time. Sure, I know that he still loves me, but...I just
don’t know what to think anymore.” Sara shook her head trying to keep the tears from falling.

Jenn quickly came up to Sara’s side and pulled her into her embrace, Lori soon joined also. “It’s
okay to talk about it.” Lori said into her ear.

“I just don’t think he loves me like he used to. We haven’t…we haven’t…made love
since…since we conceived Emily…” Sara lost it there, the tears flowing freely. Neither Jenn or
Lori knew what to say to calm her, so they both just held her as she cried.

***

The girls hadn’t talked about that for the rest of the day. Once their spa treatment was over they
all headed over to the arena to see the show. Once the show was over they all just headed back
to the hotel for the night. They had the whole next day off, the buses weren’t leaving till 5 the
next morning.

The next day Lori and AJ managed to make it out of their room at around 11 am. They had stayed
up most of the night, loving each other till they were both exhausted. They had decided to
spend most of the day shopping, then would wrap it up with a quiet dinner, to say goodbye since
she would be staying behind.

“I wish that you were done with this movie. I hate being without you.” AJ said with a pout.

“I would LOVE to be with you to baby, but I need to make my money too.” Lori said as she quickly
made her way into a store. AJ followed her, but still had the pout on his face. “You better get
that look off your face. I don’t want people to think I’m not putting out for you or something.”
Lori said with a laugh.

“This would NOT be the face that I would make. I don’t think I’ll ever have to make that face.” AJ
said as he wiggled his eyebrows.

“Very true, how could I say no to a lay…I mean…face like that.” Lori and AJ both started laughing
at that causing one of the sales ladies to look at them.

***

Brian and Sara just slept in that day, feeling comforted from each others embrace. Brian was
first to wake up and he decided to go ahead and order some room service for them.

Sara woke up to the smell of pancakes, a small smile spread across her face. Brian always
ordered pancakes when they got room service, never failed. As her eyes fluttered open Brian
warmly greeted her, “Mornin’ sweetie.” He was setting up the small table in the room for them
to eat at.
Sara sleepily made her way out of the bed and over to the chair. Sara was happy at the aspect
that this seemed to be a good day for them, she just hoped nothing was going to ruin that.

Once they were done with breakfast Sara made her way to the bathroom to shower. When she
came out Brian was sitting on the phone, talking to his mother. “So they are all being good? I’m
sure three kids is a handful to be taking care of, but we really do appreciate it.”

Sara smiled, she was running the towel through her wet hair as she watched him. He still
seemed like a little child when he was talking to his mother, she found that so cute about him.
She was still feeling a little stupid for breaking down like that in front of the girls, but there was
nothing she could do about that now. She turned her attention back to her husband.

“Hi sweetie,” Brian said as he talked to his daughter on the phone. “Mommy and Daddy miss
you. Are you taking good care of your grandma and grandpa?” He smiled as he listened to her
try to communicate with him. Sure it was mostly one word answers, it still made him smile. “Are
Nicki, Zach, and you all having fun?”

The phone call ended soon after that, Sara got to talk too and was glad to hear her daughters
voice. The rest of the day in the hotel room was spent just watching TV as they both just
cuddled together in the bed.

***

Nick woke up suddenly as he felt the bed shift beneath him. Looking up into the dark room, he
made out the silhouette of Jenn making a mad dash for the bathroom. Rolling over and looking
at the clock he saw that it was six in the morning. Taking a deep breath, he stepped out of bed
and headed for the bathroom.

Walking in he saw Jenn crouched down in front of the toilet, getting sick. He made his way to
her and began to rub her back, hoping to help all that he could. He said soothing words of
comfort as she began to calm down a bit.

Jenn let out a sigh, “I’m sorry I woke you up.” She trembled beneath his touch as she tried to
stand up, but swayed as she did so.

Nick shook his head as he helped steady her, “No need to say your sorry.” They slowly made
their way back to the bed. Nick eased her down and pulled the blankets up around her. He
walked to the minifridge and grabbed a bottled water for her, but by the time he reached the bed
he saw that he had already fallen asleep.

He placed the bottle down on the nightstand and made his way over to his side of the bed. He
didn’t understand why she was so sick, and he was worried. She seemed to have good day’s
and bad days, and he could already tell that this was gonna be one of those bad days. He
wondered what was causing this, but as sleep began to greet him, he decided that he would
have to think about it later.

Most of the day was spent sleeping for Jenn, Nick had her take her medicine the next time that
she had woken up. That had put her to sleep pretty quickly and Nick just decided to stay by her
side for the day. At around 8 that night Nick had thought it to be a good idea for them to go
ahead and get on the bus so they wouldn’t have to wake up early.

Jenn was still pretty unsteady, he would have carried her if she would let him, but he settled
with just supporting her as they walked. They only got a few strange looks from passerby’s, but
Nick just ignored them. Once on the bus Jenn decided she could handle getting to the bed on
her own.

“Will you be okay while I go back to get the rest of our bags?” Nick asked as she was walking
away from him.

“I’ll be fine honey, just go ahead. See, I’m at the bed already.” Jenn let out a little laugh.

“Alright, I’ll be right back.” Nick said as he stepped off of the bus. However, he didn’t make it
more than three steps when he heard Jenn’s terrified scream pierce through the night air.