Kevin sat in the lobby of the hotel with a cream cheese danish and the New York Times. Beside him sat Kristin, reading a Nicholas Sparks book, and reaching over to pick at her husband's danish. It was 6AM, and the last thing on earth that Kevin expected to see was Nick toddling slowly down the stairs, hair every which way, wearing the same clothes he'd been in the night before, only with more wrinkles in them. As he sat down beside Kevin at the table the Richardson couple had commandeered, Kevin said, "What are you doing up this early? Did hell freeze over?" He peered around the edge of the paper, bending the page so he could see the front cover story. "One would imagine that the Devil donning skates would be Page 1 news, but I guess that Cats winning ANOTHER Tony would beat even that out, huh?"
Nick glared at Kevin. "Shut up. I spent all night awake, fearing for my life because your stupid cousin refused to listen to me."
"Brian?" Kevin asked, surprised that Brian wouldn't listen to Nick -- even if it was nonsense.
"No. Your other cousin that's staying with us," Nick snapped, rolling his eyes, "Of course Brian."
Kevin folded the paper, resigning to the notio nthat his time of peace and quiet was over now. He focused on Nick. "OK. What's gong on? Brian thinks you've lost your marbles, AJ wants to run intervention with you, and Howie wants us to do a drug test before things get out of hand like they did with AJ and the pink bunnies he thought were stalking him."
"This isn't like the bunnies, Kev," Nick whined, "The mobsters aren't doing the macarena in my living room at 3AM. They're just leaving me notes, asking me to be at the docks tomorrow night and calling to tell me Brian's wrong about something he said behind closed doors while we were alone."
Kristin looked up from The Notebook. "The mob?" she looked at Kevin. "Seriously?"
"No, Kris," Kevin answered, "Don't encourage him." Kristin turned back to her book and Kevin turned back to Nick, raising a wooly one at him. "Nick, I know you've got an active imagination, and that you like to tell stories --"
"NUH UH!" Nick interjected, "I do not tell a lot of stories."
Kevin choke-laughed. "Uh.. yeah. Do you remember Dr. Kimball? The psychiatrist you chased away by saying that you'd been abducted by aliens to perfom sexual favors for them on their home planet - which you escaped from, by the way, using a car that could fly, like Chitty Chitty Bang Bang?"
"That was different," Nick reasoned, "I was TRYING to make her quit. How was I supposed to know that she'd think I really believed that shit? Besides, at least ya'll convinced her I wasn't crazy BEFORE she got me committed."
"How about the girlfriend you broke up with saying you had an allergic reaction to the SMELL of her BLOODTYPE?"
"And if you recall SHE said she was a med student, soon to be a doctor. If THAT was true she would've KNOWN I was full of crap when I told her that."
"And the time you told Johnny you couldn't go to an awards show because you'd been kidnapped by Gremlins...?"
"Chris counts as a Gremlin, dude."
"...or when you said Paris Hilton was sane..."
"I was stupid."
"You said it, not me. Or what about that thing you do when you snicker and hiss into the phone and say you're losing the call because you're going into a tunnel?"
Nick's eyes widened. "You can tell that ain't real???"
"Only when I call your LANDLINE and you do it." Kevin said pointedly.
Nick laughed, "Yeah I guess that'd give it away a lil."
Kevin shook his head. "My point is, Nick, that it's enough now. Just stop playing the game. There is no mob chasing after you, and deep down you know that."
"But Kev," Nick defended himself, "It's not like those things. I knew I was full of crap all those times - well, except for the Paris Hilton thing but I found out soon enough, and that doesn't count anyways. This time it ain't like that, this time it's true!"
"Well, maybe you've made it up so well that you just THINK it's true, Nick," Kevin suggested with a chuckle. "But it's NOT. There's NO evidence, Nick, and if you had the mob after you, there'd be evidence."
Nick reached into his pocket. "I have the note The Goose left me last night, though," he suggested, fishing it out and frantically thrusting it towards Kevin. "That's evidence, isn't it?"
Kevin took it and raised an eyebrow. "You're going to great lengths for this one, Carter."
"Great lengths? Kev, it's REAL."
"Yup," Kevin nodded back to Nick, "OK then."
Howie, AJ, and Brian wandered into the lobby as Nick moped and put away the note, folding it carefully, and slipping it back into the pocket he'd drawn it from. Kevin raised his paper as AJ and Howie sat down between Nick and Kristin, and Brian opted to toast a bagel before joining them. AJ elbowed Nick. "Hey Shithead. What the hell're you doin' up so early?"
"The mob is trying to kill him," Kevin said dryly from behind the Times.
AJ laughed. "Still? You'd think they'd be over it by now. What'd you do to piss'em off? Wait. Let me guess. He's a REALLY big fan of the Simple Life and just read some back issues of the Post?"
Kevin smiled. "Hey c'mon, go easy on him, he's very sensitive about it."
"Thank you, Kevin," Nick nodded appreciatively.
"It's not his fault he's lost his marbles."
Brian chuckled in spite of himself from the counter as he spread cream cheese on his bagel. "I'm sorry buddy, but the story IS a little out there."
"No, shut up," Nick snapped at Brian, "You'll see.. Ya'll will ALL see when I'm belly-up in the frickin' Hudson River tomorrow."
AJ snorted. "Belly-up in the Hudson?"
"He got an invitation to the docks last night," Brian confirmed with a slight smile.
"So don't go," AJ suggested with a bored shrug, "That's obvious."
"And piss'em off even more? Yeah, that's real smart," Nick argued.
Howie shrugged, "So why don't one of us go with him to the docks? Then we'll know for sure if he's telling the truth."
"Howie," Kevin glared at him, "Why must you encourage this nonsense behavior?"
"I think it's a good idea," Howie insisted, "It'll calm Nick down, and if there were any doubts about whether he was telling the truth in the first place then there won't be after that, AND - if in some weird alternate universe thing it's true, then at least Nick won't be alone."
Kevin reluctantly gave a relenting shrug. "Well, OK, I guess that makes sense. I'll go with him tonight to the docks then, that's settled... So now we've got to be at Virgin in a half an hour, and I see three Backstreet Boys who aren't dressed yet."
AJ looked down at his clothes, "If you're refering to me..."
"...Then you need to go change," Kevin smiled.
AJ grunted and stood up, and, followed by Howie and Brian (with his bagel and smear) headed back out of the lobby to the elevators.
Nick stared at Kevin a moment, "You sure it's a good idea you go with me?"
"As good as any we've suggested thus far," Kevin answered. "Besides, at least it'll get the stupid story out of your head."
"I just don't know if it's a good idea for ya'll to get involved."
Kevin shrugged. "I'm really not concerned about it."
He didn't understand why the fellas didn't trust him. Maybe he HAD told a lot of stories, like Kevin said, but that didn't make him the boy who cried wolf, did it? He'd never claimed to have the MOB after him, for God's sakes... this was serious business. Being mistaken for a mob member is a very, very big problem. Especialy when one isn't quite sure how it happened, or where the person he's being mistaken for is.
Nick sighed. Well, they'd see when he didn't come back from his trip to the docks...
When AJ, Howie and Brian finally reappeared, they all bid good-bye to Kristin and filed out the door of the hotel, chatting noisily about the fans. They were so involved in the conversation that even Nick didn't notice the shady looking guy in the courtyard, reading a book about scuba diving.
"Wow. A lot of people turned out." Howie mumbled as the Boys were led through the crowded Virgin Mega Records Store in Times Square to the long folding table where they would be conducting their autograph signing. The fans screamed wildly.
AJ nodded, "I'll say. Maybe we should -uh- rethink that pact we made with ourselves about signing all of them..."
Kevin smiled, speaking through his teeth so the fans couldnt read his lips. "I'd say so."
"Even Kevin's agreeing to cut fan time short?" Brian marvelled, "That's amazing. There really must be a lot of fans here..." He looked around, and realized that the lines went up the stairs as well as all around the store. He gulped. "Holy cow!!!!"
Nick's eyes roamed over the scene before him, and he was instantly transported into a dream he'd once had, just after the Backstreet Boys' first concert, over in Europe, at a packed stadium. He'd dreamt he was on an island in the center of a giant ocean, and all of the drops of water that comprised the sea were faces... faces that looked remarkably like those that he'd seen in the audience that night, and very similar to the ones he was looking at right then as well. It literally was a sea of faces looking back at him eagerly....
As they took their seats at the table and began signing autographs, Nick only got progressively more tired - his lack of sleep from the night before catching up to him rapidly. None of the other guys noticed, at least he hoped, as his head dipped and swayed as it (and his eyelids) got heavier and heavier. And in fact, nobody had noticed at all.... at least until a fan tapped AJ's arm. "Is Nick OK?" she asked.
AJ looked to his left and found his bandmate face-down on the girl's CD, his sharpee leaving a black stain on his cheek.
After the signing, the Boys loaded into the limo while the fans crowded around. Cameras flashed wildly, setting an almost eerie scene, like a thunderstorm. They huddled inside, protected by tinted windows, and waited while the car inched away from the store. "Last time you'll stay awake for an imaginary mob, huh Nick?" AJ chided his blonde bandmate with a devilish smirk. Nick glared through squinting eyes at AJ.
"I can't believe you fell asleep," Kevin answered AJ's comment before Nick had the chance to.
AJ snickered, "Just check the net in a half an hour and there'll be a ton of shots of him planting his nose on that chick's disc."
Nick and Kevin both glared at AJ.
"I'm so glad we're going to finally have this whole stupid mob thing resolved tonight," Brian injected.
Nick nervously wrung his hands. "About that..."
"What?" Kevin asked, exasperated. Brian and Howie raised their eyebrows.
"Did they threaten your little dog too, and then cackle?" AJ asked, imitating the laugh of the Wicked Witch of the West for sound effects, then he snickered. Kevin shot him The Look.
Nick ignored AJ and answered Kevin. "I realized... I think it'd be really, really risky for you to go with me tonight."
"Why?" Kevin asked.
"Because then you'd know how full of shit he is," AJ responded.
Kevin looked at AJ, throwing the Dirty Brow. "Shut the fuck up, will you PLEASE, AJ? You are NOT helpng." AJ feigned being hurt, but Kevin ignored the sad puppy face. "I'm serious, AJ. It's not helping." He turned back to Nick, "Now... WHY?"
Nick took a deep breath. "Because. Right now they think I'm this guy named Jack. If ya'll come they'll realize I'm not, and that they confused me with the actual guy that they think I am right now. So if they find out I'm like NOT him, that's like a security breach and they don't tolerate that shit. Plus it gets you involved too so it's not just ME caught up in this whole big ass mess, but all of ya'll also."
Kevin stared at Nick, rolled his eyes, and replied, "Right. So in other words you're full of crap."
"If that's what you wanna think," Nick shrugged, "But I'm just trying to protect you." He elevated his chin to look brave and lofty.
Kevin rolled his eyes a second time. "So you HAVE to go, unless one of us is going with you, in which case it's not important anymore."
"No. I have to go anyways," Nick explained, "It's just that I'm going alone."
Brian looked concerned now, he shot Kevin a look that asked plainly, 'now what?'
"Nick," Kevin spoke patiently, "Honestly, I don't believe you about this whole mob thing. You know that. But let's just suspend reality for a half a second and say that I do believe you, OK? Do you think I'm gong to let you go meet some mobsters alone? At midnight? At a dock in New York City? I'd have to be crazy. Do you think ANY of us would do that?" AJ raised his hand. "What?" Kevin asked him.
"I would," AJ said, smirking.
Kevin, once again, glared at AJ. "Enough."
"Kevin's right, Nick," Howie injected before Kevin had the chance to bitch-slap AJ. "You might be a pain in the ass, but we'd like to keep you around anyways. We aren't going to send you off to some dock alone in the middle of the night even without the damn mob part of your story. New York isn't any place to mess around like that. It's a dangerous city, and you're talking about a rough area."
Kevin nodded, "So it's final... I'll be going with you tonight, Nick, and by tomorrow the whole mob thing will be officially over and laid to rest."
"Either that or we will be..." Nick intoned dramatically.
"Nick, that's enough," Kevin said, ending the conversation, and turned to look out the tinted windows at the fans as they screamed and waved.
Saving the Day for Blondes (AKA How Nick Carter Became Involved in a Terrorist Mob, Quite By Accident Really!, And Thereby Managed To Save The World For The First Time Ever, Much To Kevin's Surprise.) by Pengi
