Nick and AJ waited in the lobby of the hotel while Howie had gone to change his clothes and "real quickly" fix his hair. Nick sipped on hotel coffee while AJ picked at a muffin. People were milling around the room like crazy, ready to go begin their tours of the city. Outside traffic congested the street and they could hear the faint sounds of car horns blaring. Everyone seemed preoccupied with their own troubles, too much so to notice the two singers sitting in the breakfast nook quietly waiting for their bandmate to come downstairs.
"This could take forever," Nick commented, yawning, "It's Howie, and it's Howie's hair."
AJ looked around nervously, feeling as though someone was watching him. He shrugged the feeling away after a quick scan of the room, seeing nobody looking at him, and decided it was paranoia after the morning's discoveries and disclosures. "This is truth," he responded to Nick, a bit on the delayed side. Nick gave him a funny look. AJ leaned closer to him. "Do you feel like someone's watching you?"
"Not really," Nick answered, "Not anymore than I usually do."
AJ cast his eyes around the room again. "I feel like someone's watching us."
"You're just paranoid," Nick accused him, shaking his head, "Nobody's watching us. Remarkably few people have even noticed us at all. Besides, even if someone was watching us it's not a huge brainbender why."
"You're probably right," AJ agreed, leaning back again and popping another bite of muffin into his mouth, "With all the crazy shit going on right now, I'm probably being stupid. Speaking of that," he rubbed his hands on his jeans, "I'm sorry I was a bastard to you before. I shouldn't have needed Kevin to corrobate what you were saying to believe you. You're my oldest friend and I should've just trusted you. Or at least not have made fun of you. Quite as much as I did, anyway."
Nick shrugged, "What else are AJ's for?"
"You mean THAT'S what we're for? Making fun of you?" He smirked, "My life makes so much more sense now."
Nick squinted his eyes at AJ. "Nice."
"Well I'm just doing my....." AJ's voice trailed off into silence.
"What?" Nick asked, "Doing your what? Duty? Assistant? Is your assistant a girl? Why'd I end up with a dude assistant??" Nick paused, realizing AJ wasn't answering. "AJ?" he looked concerned and started to turn around.
AJ quickly grabbed Nick's wrist, "Don't. Don't turn around. There's a guy... a lil bit behind you, but a little to your left... he's staring right at you. He's reading a book, and is wearing a funny hat." AJ swallowed and adverted his gaze from the guy. "I told you someone was looking at us."
Nick sat perfectly still, practically petrified in place. "You shittin' me?"
AJ shook his head. "Not at all, so just act natural. Hopefully Howie'll get down here and we can leave." The two of them sat frozen in their seats, nervous as hell, unable to do much but sit and swallow their own saliva trying to think of other things. AJ's muffin went untouched and Nick began nervously wringing his hands.
After what seemed a decde, Howie stepped up beside the table, looking not all that much different than he'd looked before he started, and greeted them. "OK, I'm ready. Let's go."
AJ pulled Howie down into a chair. "Sit a second." Howie sat. "The guy near the door with the book. He's been watching Nick and I for awhile now. Don't look at him on the way out. Got it?"
Howie looked at AJ with a weird expression. "Uh. What guy by the door with a book?"
AJ looked. "He left???" Nick looked, too. "Well. Maybe he wasn't watching us, then." AJ shrugged. Nick let out a breath of relief.
"You two are paranoid," Howie said simply. "Dudes if the mob was gonna stare at you, they wouldn't make it obvious. Come on, we've got stuff to do."
They all stood up and as they made their way to the door AJ glanced at the seat where the guy had been. In his place was the book he'd been reading, and AJ noticed it was about scuba diving. Nick stepped outside first, followed by Howie, and then AJ. They began walking down the sidewalk, blending with the crowd. When they reached the curb, Nick felt someone grab his elbow. "Come with me."
Nick looked up and found himself actually looking up (now there's a first) into a heavy set man's face, his eyes shrouded by sunglasses. "GUYS!" Nick cried as the man guided him towards a white van.
AJ and Howie looked over. Howie's jaw dropped. "Nick! Someone stop that guy!" AJ burst into a run in their direction, but the guy had already pulled Nick into the van and slammed the door before AJ reached it. He banged his palms against the white exterior, but it did no good because the van swept away from the curb. AJ chased it the way a german shepherd dog might've, but to no avail because the van quickly pulled into traffic and veered around a corner, blending into the hub-bub of the city. Howie stood rooted to the sidewalk in disbelief.
"Now what?" AJ yelled from where he stood, then stepped out of the street. "What're we gonna do?"
Howie shook his head, "I have no idea. Did you see which way it went?" AJ pointed over his shoulder. "Well don't just stand there..." Howie said, breaking into a jog, "Let's go. It's New York -- they're bound to get stuck in traffic." The two guys dashed down the street.
Nick's eyes were wide and his breath came out in short gasps as he laid on the floor of the back of the van, confused and staring at the door through which he'd just been tugged moments before. "Who are you? What're you doing with me??? What're you doing with me? I'm not Jack! Please, I'm not Jack! Don't hurt me!"
The man who had initially grabbed him removed his sunglasses, revealing a stern-looking, gym-teacher like face. Nick cowered away. The man reached for his pocket. Nick began to see flashes of his entire life zoom by his eyes - certain he was going to die. He hoped that the other guys were safe and that Gopher would get out of trouble OK too. He wished he'd called his parents and tried one more time to reconcile and he wondered what Heaven was like. The man pulled something out of his pocket - Nick was certain it was a gun - and held it up. Nick closed his eyes.
"Officer Bryant," the man's voice was low, "FBI, New York."
Nick peeped out of one eye at the man's badge, which he held up in front of Nick's face. Nick stared into the guy's eyes in the picture, then blinked up at him in real life. "You're a cop?" he asked, confused. Suddenly he recalled the guy having been at the train station and in the lobby the time before. "Why are you following me?"
"I've been on your tail since you were at Fat Freddy's newsstand Saturday," Officer Bryant replied. "We were waiting for our undercover guy, Jack Taylor, to get there, when you came along and stumbled into his place. We weren't sure if you were aware of your involvement or not, and finally we realized you were - but last night, proved it was involuntary after you got Timothy Gopher out of the Hudson for us."
Nick paused, "You've got undercover cops in the mob?"
"We were planting one Saturday," Officer Bryant explained, "During the investigation of the death of a man named Kensington a year ago. When Timothy Gopher went missing from Maine, we knew exactly where he was, and we knew the only way to help him was to place undercover men in the middle of the action. Somehow, we got you instead."
"It was totally an accident..." Nick answered. He paused. "Does this mean I'm off the hook? I don't have to worry about it anymore, right? Cos you can send in your undercover guy and they'll forget about me. I can go back to normal?"
Officer Bryant shook his head. "I wish it was that easy for you, Nick. I'm sorry, but it's not."
"Why not? You just said you've got the real Jack Taylor, and --"
He held up a hand to stop Nick. "But now they think YOU, Nick, are Jack Taylor. We cannot let them find out anything different or else the entire thing is blown."
Nick nodded slowly, "OK, but... What're you gonna do? How do I get out of this all? Isn't there anyway? I just want to be normal again."
"Well," Officer Bryant said, "Here's the thing. You, Nick, are Jack Taylor. It's too late now for you to back out. And if we're going to stop them from bombing the Embassy... it's too late for us to put a new officer in."
"Bomb the embassy?" Nick asked, eyes widening, "What? Since when?"
Officer Bryant smiled cautiously, "That's their plans for Wednesday, you know."
Nick swallowed hard. "So what do you plan to do?"
The officer looked at Nick square in the eyes. "I need to ask you a favor."
"How.. much.. further.." Howie was beginning to wheeze, "Can you.. see.. the... the... the van?!"
AJ panted, running, but not quite as breathless as Howie was. He'd taken to running over the past couple months, and had perfected the art of smoking while jogging. Running without the cigarette was just that much easier. He nodded, "It's up here... right up here.. C'mon D, you can do it. Keep pushing yourself."
They ducked between tourists with cameras and resident New Yorkers with their stylish business suits, nearly knocking over a few women whose high heels didn't allow for much balance. AJ apologized profusively to many of them, and thought that if he hadn't been chasing after a van to save one of his very best friends lives he probably would've had to stop and hit on a couple of them -- especially that sexy red head a few blocks back.
"How.. long.. have we... been... running for?" Howie gasped out as they turned another block in pursuit of the van.
AJ shrugged as he galloped on. "Twelve blocks.. maybe thirteen.."
Suddenly, the van pulled to the side of the road, and Nick hopped out of the back of the van, waved, and stepped onto the sidewalk. AJ stopped short, skidding to a halt, and Howie ran right into his back, nearly knocking him over. "What the hell'd we stop for?" Howie asked, breathing ridiculously loudly. He looked up ahead, and spotted Nick coming towards them. "What the hell?"
"I have no idea," AJ replied. He bent over, resting against his knees.
Howie looked down at AJ bent over in front of him and stepped to one side. "Dude do not stand like that in public in front of me."
Nick came up to them a moment later. "You guys followed us?"
"Course," AJ replied to Nick's sneakers. He leaned up, "Why wouldn't we?"
Howie glared at Nick, "We thought you were about to be kidnapped. What happened?"
Nick smiled. "We've got someone to go undercover now."
AJ raised an eyebrow, "We do? How? Who? Who was that in the van?"
Nick laughed. "That was Officer Bryant. The guy with the book in the lobby. He's been watching me since Saturday when all this crap started. He wanted to talk to me about ways to fix the problem...before it was too late."
"So who's going undercover?" Howie asked.
Nick's smile only widened. "Me."
"You?" Howie looked confused.
Nick nodded enthusiastically. "Yup. Me. I'ma saaave the day!!!"
AJ held his head with his hands. "Oh God! We're all gonna die."
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
