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Chapter 7

Nick waited outside the ladies' room for Jenn to come out. As soon as they had arrived at
the hospital, his wife had went running towards the restroom, no doubt to vomit her
breakfast. It had become almost like a custom on some days. Nick had unconsciously
followed her but was sent back into the hall, seeing the disproval of the women inhabiting
the facility.

It had been ten minutes now and the blonde had become extremely worried. It was not only
that Jenn would be hit hard with her sickness when it came about but, the fact that it came
on and off seemed a bit peculiar to him. What was even stranger is that they couldn't figure
out what set it off. If they didn't know how it started though, how could they stop it? All this
clouded his mind as Jenn finally exited the restroom.

"Baby, since we're at a hospital and all, maybe you should get yourself checked out.. " Nick
suggested, wrapping an arm around her shoulders as they walked down the hall. It worried
him that she had become a few shades lighter than she was that morning.

"No… no, I'll be fine." She quickly pasted on a convincing smile and tucked a piece of fallen
hair behind her ear. "You know my doctor already said it was probably just a relapse from
that virus I had."

"Jenn..."

"Nick! I just forgot to take my medication this morning for it. I'm really alright." Jenn stopped
and faced him, rubbing his arm and smirking. Truth was, she had taken her medication and
it just didn't seem to help anymore. She was scared now, but, she couldn't let on. Not now.
Not so close to the holidays and with Kevin in the hospital…

Kevin…

"Honey, how's Kevin?" The girl asked her husband frantically, suddenly remembering why
they were in this place.

A look of remembrance passed over Nick's face as well. "I'm not sure. Everybody was going
to go see him when I came back to see about you. I guess we can find him ourselves."

The Carters neared the emergency rooms and found one with the door shut. Since it was
mandatory that any of the guys' rooms be private, Nick was almost sure that that was the
right one. Glancing at the chart by the door, Jenn nodded towards Nick.

"Stop POKING me! I am just dandy." Kevin's irritated voice came from where he was
propped up on the bed. A blond nurse had come to shoot him with morphine, which would
numb the pain.

"Hey guys. How is he?" Jenn asked, weakly, forcing down the sick feeling in her throat.

"Um, pretty doped up on morphine right now." Sara responded first, smirking towards
Kevin. "The doctors revealed that it was simply a paintball that hit him and they think he
has a broken sternum. Those asses were only trying to scare us."

"Aw, man." Nick breathed, running a hand through his hair.

"Yep. That means no strenuous activity, which rules out dancing." She further informed
them, biting her lip.

"Well, shit." The blonde cursed, offering his wife a chair before taking one himself. That's
when Nick noticed Brian sitting in a chair in the corner, the look he possessed disturbed
him a bit. "Um, where are the other guys?"

"Howie went to call management and stuff and AJ went with him. He's pretty shaken up. I
think he worries about Lori being alone…"

"That is TOO bad y'all! What're you gonna do without me dancing? I'm the best Backstreet
dancer…" Kevin rambled loudly and randomly, his eyes drooping.

"Morphine kicking in." Sara explained to an amused looking Jenn and Nick.

"Aww, Kev! Who are all your fans going to watch now? You know, they're not going to like
you just standing there." Jenn messed with him, standing and walking to the opposite side
of Sara.

Kevin's eyes widened. "Oh my goodness. Howie's going to steal my fans!" A look of thought
crossed his face before he broke out in hysterical laughter. "Howard.
Hoooowwaarddddd…." He spoke in a strange voice as the other four watched him.

"Hey, I like morphine Kevin. Let's put him on this permanently." Nick spoke up, laughing
slightly, as Kevin began to quiet and fall asleep.

Just as the girls were about to respond, Brian stood up abruptly, shot a glare across the
room and rushed out the door.

"What's wrong?" Jenn inquired curiously, trying to figure out why her friend had reacted
that way. Her eyes returned to Sara who looked just as dumbfounded as her own self.

"I have no idea." With that, the shorter brunette followed the path of her husband, who she
found just outside the door.

"Go back, Sara." He spoke, his head in his hands, sitting on a bench.

"Bri, what's going on?" She ignored his request, knowing he needed to talk. It did kind of
scare her though that he had used her whole name.

"My cousin is in there with a frickin' broken sternum and y'all are all laughing! It's all my
fault that's he even here…" He cried into his hands. God, he sounded so broken.

"Brian, how is it, in any way, your fault?!" Sara coaxed, trying to help him.

"Come on, Sara! Do you not remember where Jenn and I were two years ago?! Are you that
stupid that you forgot how big of a deal this really is?! I was supposed to get rid of these
people. I was supposed to get Jenn out safe and I ended up letting everybody down! Now
there's more than just the two of us involved!" His blue eyes were cast over with a darker
look about them. A look that made Sara very uncomfortable.

"Oh…" She swallowed, looking down.

"Oh's right." Brian knew he had crossed the line. He knew he had hurt her feelings, but he
couldn't turn back now.

"I was just trying to help you…"

"Well, you're not. Just go take care of Kevin."

The coldness of his voice was so unfamiliar , so foreign to his wife. Not even in their
biggest arguments had he used that tone. More than anything, it hurt. Slowly, Sara stood
and left Brian alone on the bench. Just as he had requested in the first place.

Only now, he wished he hadn't.

Inside the room, Jenn had been resting her head on the table until she had fallen asleep.
Nick looked over towards her, still worried about her health. He couldn't lose her. She the
love of his life, the mother of his children. She was the only one that could ever make his
heart jump with just one tender kiss.

Nick decided that he was going to get her checked out, one way or another, before
anything got worse.

His blue eyes returned to Kevin. How dare those shits break him down too. Kevin didn't
deserve to be messed with and now, they had gone too far.

That's when it hit him. What if they had messed with Jenn without him knowing it? With
tragic thoughts, he moved to her chair and pulled her into his lap. She was so warm.

"Those assholes…" Nick's voice was full of sadness. He wouldn't tell her of his suspicions;
it would kill her that she had let them get to her again. What could he do though? His soft
lips pressed against her forehead, racking his brain for his next move.

Nick quickly decided to talk to one of the doctors himself, and see if they would possibly
just take some blood from her while she was sleeping. That way she wouldn’t know of his
suspicions. It took a bit of convincing, but he found a doctor willing to do it for him.

Jenn flinched a bit in her sleep as the doctor placed the needle into her arm, but she did
not awaken. “Mr. Carter, I will take this to the lab immediately, but it may take a few days for
the full results to come back. I will be sure to give you a call once they are at my desk
though.” The doctor said as he made his way out of the room.

“Thanks for doing this Doctor, I really appreciate it.” Nick said with a grim look. He still
couldn’t believe he possible let these assholes get this close. The doctor left just as
Kevin began to stir again.

Kevin let out a loud moan as his eyes fluttered open. His eyes wondered around the room
in confusion. “Where, where are we?” Kevin asked as his eyes settled on Nick.

“We’re in the hospital Kev, do you remember what happened?” Nick asked as he
approached his bedside.

Kevin’s brow furrowed in thought, trying to come up with an explanation. “Bri and I were
waiting for the other bus, and…and…” Suddenly his eyes got really big and he frantically
grabbed at his chest immediately regretting doing so from the coursing pain that was sent
to his brain.

“Whoa, easy there Kev. You need to calm down.” Nick said as he grabbed Kevin’s hands.

“I…I was shot…” Kevin gasped out in remembrance.

“No Kev, you weren’t, well not really. They shot you with a paintball gun, a very high
powered one to be exact. They were just trying to scare us, and unfortunately, I’d say they
succeeded.” Nick said with some sorrow.

“Then why does this hurt so much, if I wasn’t shot?” Kevin asked, still feeling the pain from
his action.

“It was strong enough to break your sternum, but the doc expects you to make a full
recovery. You will just have to take it really easy for the next two months or so. Which
means no dancing, or anything.” Nick said sternly. Nick had to chuckle a bit at that, he was
actually telling Kevin what to do, he kinda liked that. Kevin soon went back to sleep, the
medicine was kicking back in once again, and for that he was thankful.

They released Kevin from the hospital the next day, with precautions to take it easy and to
rest. Everyone was keeping an extra eye on the eldest backstreet boy, which Kevin was
not too fond of.

“That was not very smart of you Kevin.” Howie said after one of the shows. “You don’t
even need to be thinking about dance moves, no less doing them.”

“I think I know what I can handle D.” Kevin said rolling his eyes. He didn’t care what
anyone told him. He hated just standing there and doing nothing, it was so not his style.

“We don’t care what you THINK, all that matters is that the doctor told you, NO strenuous
activity for two months. Shit Kev, it hasn’t even been one week.” Howie was very upset at
the man before him, he was supposed to be the one that followed orders, not disobeyed
them.

Kevin just sat there, not wanting to listen, but he couldn’t help but feel like maybe he had
done wrong. The slight burning in his chest told him so, but he wasn’t about to tell anyone
that. Made him worry if the guys would try to have him not in the next few shows.

“Just don’t do it again Kevin, or next time, we will have security escort you off the stage.”
Howie said with a knowing smile.

That’s when Kevin realized that they would do such a thing, and decided that it wasn’t
worth it. He just made his way out of the dressing room, and towards the busses.

***
Nick looked at the display of his cell phone for about the hundredth time that day. It had
been a whole week since the hospital and the doctor had still not called him back. He
wanted to kick himself for not getting the doctors phone number, or full name for that
matter.

Jenn hadn’t even gone to the arena with them, she was just too sick. Nick had helped her
onto the bus before the show, and placed two of the security guards on there with her. He
just didn’t want to take any chances.

Stepping onto the bus, he was greeting by a smiling Jenn. “Hey honey, how did the show
go tonight?” Jenn asked giving him a hug and a kiss.

Maybe he had been worrying for nothing, he thought to himself. “Wow, you look like you’re
feeling better tonight.”

Jenn and Nick started making their way to the TV area, “When I woke up, I just felt 100%
better. So, enough about me, tell me how the show went.” Jenn asked as she plopped
down on the couch.

Nick sat down next to her, and she leaned into him. “It was great, until Kevin decided to
start dancing. We all wanted to just beat his ass right there on the stage.”

Jenn just shook her head, “That man can be so stubborn at times. Oh, I talked to Nikki and
Zach this evening. They seem to be having fun over at the Littrells’. I just can’t wait till we
get to go see them for Christmas. How bout tomorrow, we go and buy out the Toys-R-Us for
them.” Jenn said with a laugh.

Nick hadn’t seen Jenn this happy in a while, and he didn’t want the moment to end. “Sure,
that sounds like it would be fun. But, um…Brian and Sara are going to be riding on the
other bus tonight. Brian was really pissed at Kev, and doesn’t want to let him out of his
sight. So…that means, that…we…are…ummmm….alone.” Nick had a sly smile across his
face.

“Oh really now, I wonder what we could do, on this bus, all alone….” Jenn said as she
pushed Nick down across the couch. As her lips were pushed against his, all they could
think about was each other. For once, their minds were not thinking of Rick and Kara,
being away from their kids, or the fate of everyone once this was all over. For tonight, it
was all about them.