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He took it slow, step by step, passing by other wandering elder patients who would smile at him. He would smile back of course, thanking God that they were older and oblivious to the fact that they were superstars.

“Here we are.” Dr. McNorton announced, taking out his work card and swiping it through a pad that was on the side of the door. He punched in a few numbers and then there was a “click” sound, which indicated that the door was unlocked. He grabbed the knob and twisted it, pushing the door open far enough to allow Howie to walk through.

“I’ll be right out here if anything.” Dr. McNorton said, closing the door.

Howie nodded and had turned towards the bed that held his best friend. He slowly began to walk towards the bed, observing all the machines that were hooked up to AJ. As soon as he reached the side of the bed, he noticed that AJ was fast asleep, his chest rising and falling slowly. His appearance had changed over the weeks, no doubt about that. The goatee he would normally keep nicely trimmed was no longer there, his facial hair was growing freely. His normally tanned skin was now a bit pale, and his lips were cracked, the dried blood evident.

As he continued to observe his features, he didn’t realize that AJ was now awake, staring blankly at him. He looked up and seen AJ’s eyes open, and he backed away a bit, fearing that he would have another “outburst” episode.

AJ continued to stare at him, wondering why he had backed away. He slowly licked his cracked lips and cleared his throat. “D.?” he asked.

Howie froze from moving backwards, and a slow grin crept up on his face. “Jay?”

AJ smiled as well, “The one and only!”

Howie then walked back towards the bed, wanting to hug him, but not knowing what he could do without hurting him. AJ raised his hand slowly, holding it out towards him. Howie took his outstretched hand and shook it.

“Glad to have you back man.” Howie said with a smile.

AJ shrugged, “Well, feels good to be back…” he fell silent for a while, not really knowing what else he could say. “Look, I just want to apologize for how I was acting earlier… I, I don’t what got into me…”

Howie silenced him. “I’m not looking for apologies… don’t worry about it. But, if you don’t mind me asking, what do you remember so far?”

AJ fell silent; he had a feeling that that question would arise. “Well, I remember you… we have been best friends for as long as I can remember. For some reason, I remember going to rehab…” he fell silent once again.

“Is that all you can remember?”

AJ tried to think harder, but he remembered what Dr. Seid told him, and decided not to push it. “Well, beside the obvious, yeah… Dr. Seid did mention something about a Brian, I don’t know if I should know him or something.”

Howie closed his eyes, he remembered everything before the start of their career, and the only he was able to remember after the start of their career was going to rehab. He began to explain everything, from who Brian, Kevin and Nick were, to the explosion of their career as a vocal group, and most of what had happened in his life after that. He tried to explain to him the necessary things, without pushing all this new information onto all at once.

“Whoa…” AJ said, stunned at the chunk of his life he was oblivious to. “We finally made our dream come true, didn’t we Howie?”

Howie smiled and nodded, “Yeah… we did it buddy! Well, I’m gonna go back to my room now, let you get some more rest… but I’ll be back to see you, okay?” he grabbed AJ’s hand and shook it once more before he turned to leave the room.

“Howie, wait!” AJ called out. He was scared to let his best friend go, he didn’t want to lose memory of who he was again, and due to the fact that he was suffering from amnesia, he felt like he was facing this world all alone, and that’s the last feeling he wanted, the feeling of being all alone.

Howie turned just as he reached the door. “Yeah?”

AJ hesitated to say what he wanted to say, he didn’t want to sound childish, but he also didn’t want to stay here by himself. “Do you really have to go?”

Howie smiled. He was acting somewhat like the young kid he knew him to be years ago. AJ would always pull him to stay, he spent nearly his whole childhood alone with his mother and grandparents, and when he found Howie to be his best friend, he did everything he could to make sure that he would never lose his best friend and be alone again. “Yes, I do… but I will back, I promise you.”

“When will you be back?”

“Later on today…”

“When will I get to meet Brian, Kevin and Nick?”

“Whenever your ready buddy.”

AJ tried to think of one more question, and Howie could only chuckle at the antics he was pulling to try to keep him to stay. “One more question…”

“Yes AJ?”

“When can we go home?”

Howie’s heart dropped, he didn’t have an answer to that. “Time will tell Jay… time will tell.”