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Adie finally turns up somewhere

Adie knew what hotel they were staying at, she also knew that any Backstreet fan worth her salt would also know, and that was where she hit her first snag. The entrance was surrounded and unless you had a key or a booking reference, access was being denied. She had attempted to use her cell phone, cursing herself when she realised how long it had actually been turned off for, but when she tried to switch it on the battery only lasted for about ten seconds and she remembered that before she left Nashville it had been beeping incessantly at her reminding her to charge it. She hung back at the Starbucks across the street, making sure she had a good view so she could see them arrive but also keeping a low enough profile so she wasn’t spotted.

After twenty minutes she saw the first of the buses  arrive, and so made her way outside towards it. Nick was the first to get off, with Q not far behind, and she was sure she would be able to get at least one of their attentions whilst Nick signed for autographs. She was a little shocked when Nick kept his eyes to the ground and walked quickly towards the entrance of the hotel, not once meeting the faces of the fans who had probably been stood there for hours. It was very unlike him and she knew that the shit was most definitely going to hit the fan when he came face to face with her.

Alex was next off the bus and with all the commotion that ensued with not only him but Brian signing autographs she pleaded her case to the doorman once again. Again she was denied access and she couldn’t really blame him, it was probably his jobs worth to let someone in who wasn’t supposed to be there. So again she was left to wait and a few minutes later Alex almost walked by her unnoticed until she called his name.

“Adie?” He asked surprised, grabbing her hand quickly when a few fans repeated the name. Cameras were aimed in her direction but luckily the flashes only got her back as Alex walked her into the foyer of the hotel.

“What the hell was that?” She asked.

“Get used to it sweets, they were the same when Rach was pregnant, they are going to be like vultures when she comes out with Max,” he told her. “What are you doing here?”

“I’ve been asking myself the same question,” she said as she followed Alex to the bank of elevators.

“He doesn’t know you’re here does he?”

“No. What was with him earlier, why didn’t he stop?” She asked stepping on to the elevator, Alex taking the case from her.

“He’s been going crazy, convinced that you’re either dead in a ditch somewhere or have left again. Why didn’t you tell anyone where you were going?” He asked.

“Because -” she started but was cut off by Alex.

“SHIT!”

“What?” She asked panicked.

“He’s probably on the phone to the police now.”

“Police?” She questioned.

“It’s been twenty four hours since he spoke to you last, he was going to report you missing,” Alex told her, taking off down the hall when the elevator doors opened, yelling to Q about which room was Nick’s. Adie followed behind and stood in the doorway of what was Nick’s room as Alex tried to get his attention but Nick carried on his conversation anyway.

“Yes I’d like to report someone missing,” he said to the other person on the phone.

“Nick?”

Alex tried again but again Nick just carried on “Adrianna Jones,” he said and it was then she knew she had to speak up.

“Nick?”

He must have leant forward so that he could see past Alex, she saw him relax slightly but then he turned from her, continuing his conversation on the phone.

“She’s uh, she’s just turned up actually. I’m sorry to waste your time,” He said down the phone, listening to what was being said from the other end of the line. “Thanks for your help, bye.”

He shut the phone off and placed it down on the table but he didn’t make any move to get closer to her, he didn’t speak to her, he didn’t even look at her and that was when she knew it was only going to be a matter of moments before he exploded.

Obviously feeling the tension in the room heighten Alex also made to effort to leave and so the three of them remained silent. That was until Alex’s cell phone began to ring, he grabbed for it out of his pocket as quickly as he could.

“It’s Rach,” he said softly to Adie, “Do you want me to stay?” She shook her head no and moved aside so he could leave the room, gently closing the door behind him. She walked further into the room, kicking off her shoes as she sat down on the bed, but still Nick remained silent the only change was his icy glare directed towards her.

“Are you not pleased to see me?” She asked, knowing that no matter what she said it would only end up in an all out fight.

“Where the hell have you been?” He hissed, his pupils small, his eyes deep blue with rage.

“I’m sorry,” she apologised.

“I don’t want to hear you’re sorry, because frankly your apologies are worthless. Why the hell didn’t you call me?” He asked but he didn’t give her enough time to answer, his tirade carrying on. “I’ve been worried to death about you, I called everyone and nobody had seen or heard from you, do you know the kind of things that have been running through my mind? You could have been lying dead in a ditch somewhere, I had visions of you slipping in the god damned shower and breaking your neck, I-”

“You thought I left again,” she finished for him in an equally angry tone.

“Yeah,” he nodded, “Is that what you want to hear? Yeah I thought you left again. You go on and on about how you want to earn my trust back but I’ve been gone five minutes and you pull a stunt like this,” he ranted standing up. “Why the hell didn’t you just call me to tell me you were coming?”

“Because I didn’t know I was coming here,” she said quickly. It was the only was she was going to be truthful with him, she knew she had to tell him, even if it was going to be hard for him to hear. It stopped him instantly and she stayed silent after her admission waiting for him to respond.

“So you were leaving again,” he stated softly, his shoulders sinking.

“I didn’t know what I was doing.”

“You packed a bag,” he said pointing at her suitcase, “You got your passport out, people don’t do that unless they are planning on going somewhere and if your first plan wasn’t about coming to see me, then where the fuck were you heading?” he asked the anger returning to his voice.

“Don’t swear at me Nick, I think I deserve a bit more respect then that,” she told him bluntly.

“Respect?” he nodded, “Have you respected me? Did you respect me enough to call me? TO CALL SOMEONE?!” he yelled as he kicked her case to the floor. She watched as his anger spilled out into physical aggression, knowing that it wasn’t just about today. This was about everything, his parents, her leaving, the fans finding out, this was Nick’s only way with dealing with it, to lash out at things, to break things, she had seen him do it many times when they had first started dating but it had been a while.

“I wasn’t thinking clearly,” she tried to explain.

“Obviously-” he tried to interject but she cut him off by standing and becoming equally as angry.

“LET ME FINISH!” She yelled, “I never asked for this Nick, I never wanted to be in the spotlight, I never wanted people writing about me, or trying to take pictures of me.”

“It’s part of my life, it’s part of who I am and if you can’t deal with that-”

“If I can’t deal with that what?” She said cutting him off, “We’re finished? You have no idea how close I came yesterday to doing that, to finishing us for good. Do you know how hard it is to deal with being called a bitch, and a slut and trailer trash and a gold digger just because I’m with you? Do you know how embarrassing it was when the ER’s time wasters went up by twenty percent overnight just because “Nick Carter’s knocked up girlfriend” worked there?” She yelled but she knew it wouldn’t be long before the tears would start to fall. “I never wanted this, all I ever wanted was a normal life, with husband and a few kids but instead I met you,” she said her breath catching as the first tears escaped.

“Biggest mistake of your life right?” He finished for her, crossing his arms over his chest. She walked towards him, shaking her head in disagreement, “No. I have never felt they way I feel when I’m with you,” she told him as she uncrossed his arms so she could take his hands in hers. “I can’t do this on my own, I can’t raise a child on my own and I don’t want to run anymore.”

He squeezed her hands as he told her, “I don’t want you to run either.”

“I love you, I think I loved you from the moment you bought me coffee and saw me in underwear with one hell of a hangover,” she semi laughed through her tears making him smile back at her. “I just can’t seem to stop screwing up.”

“But you’re here, it might not have been the way to go about it, but you are here,” he told her softly as he sat her down on the bed, him sitting next to her.

“I almost wasn’t,” she sniffed.

“Doesn’t matter, you’re here,” he whispered. “I’m sorry I got so angry.”

“You don’t have to apologise, you had every right to be mad. I was just confused Nick, my head was screaming at that all this shit wasn’t worth it, dealing with comments, and the media attention…I don’t need that hassle in my life. God knows I already have enough crap to deal with. I don’t take criticism well, I hate not being liked, I do things to please people, I do things to try and have an easy life. Most of the time that means following decisions made by other people, or running away when things become to difficult, I’ve been doing it my whole life,“ she admitted as she stared at the wall in front of them.

“Screw everybody else, put yourself first for once. It doesn’t matter what I think, what your parents think, what the media thinks. What do you want?” He asked.

She was quiet for a few moments before she looked to him, her answer being, “To be happy.”

“Are you not happy now?” He asked unsurely.

“I look at my life, I look at what we had a year and a half ago, are we ever going to get that back?” She asked softly a few tears escaping.

“We can damn well try,” he told her as he leant in to wipe the tears away.

“You know the day…when you turned up at Chelle’s after you…you said I was the only thing that made sense in your life?” She asked and he nodded, “I need you in my life,” she admitted.

“I’m not going anywhere,” he smiled.

“You’re the only guy who…you look at me like I’m the only person in the world, you’ve done so much for me and I walked from you and you still want me. I guess I just don’t believe that I’m worth the trouble.”

“You listen to me,” he said placing his hands on each of her cheeks, “That’s your problem right there. You don’t value yourself enough, you let people put you down and you believe what they say. I’ve got news for you Sugar puff, YOU matter. I learnt a long time ago you can’t please everybody, there is always going to be somebody out there who doesn’t like what you think, what you wear, or what you look like. You know what I say to those people?” He asked.

“What?” She sniffed.

 “FUCK YOU!” He yelled as he let her go of her cheeks, smiling widely when she began to laugh. “C’mon say it with me.”

“Fuck you,” she said softly, making him roll his eyes.

“I know you can do better then that, C‘mon from the diagram,” he said, nudging her arm.

“FUCK YOU!” They both yelled together.

“What’s going to make you happy Adie?” he asked.

“Being with you and I know that in order to be with you I have put up with the attention, I have toughen up to it because at the end of the day the only way I know I am going to be truly happy is by being with you and by growing old with you,” she told him as she wiped at her eyes.

His gaze had dropped to the floor, just like it always did when conversations got too heavy, or when he was being complimented but she could see the smile that had formed on his lips at her words.

“You mean that?” He asked shyly.

She nodded, “Just you Carter.”

***

Having not slept at all for almost twenty seven hours it didn’t take long for Nick to drift off once his head had hit the pillow. After all he knew Adie was safe, she had been lying right next to him, nestled safely in the crook of his shoulder, her long her tickling his chest, her breath warm against his skin.

He awoke some hours later, but when he went to give her a squeeze he found her to be too squishy and when he cracked one of his eyes open her realised that it wasn’t her at all, just the pillow she probably hadn’t used, his chest being apparently more comfortable then a feather down pillow. He smiled as he moved the pillow to her vacant side of the bed, it was a trick she had started long ago. She would wake up for work at some ungodly hour, far too early for him to be up but he would miss the weight of her, the feel of something nestled against his skin and that would wake him to the point where he would not be able to return to sleep in the lonely bed. The pillow was just the right shape to fool him, and so when she was working, he would always wake up to her pillow instead, his surrogate Adie.

He knew from the sound of the water running and her off key singing that she was in the shower and he remained in bed for a few moments, smiling at her attempt at hitting some of the higher notes to the song. He eventually pushed the covers back and made his way towards the bathroom, making sure to open the door quietly so he wouldn’t disturb her singing, the song blaring from her Iphone. He leant against the sink as some of the steam cleared and laughed when he saw her singing into the shampoo bottle. His laughter made her turn her head quickly but she didn’t stop her singing.

“You’re thinking so complicated, I’ve had it all up to here, but it’s so overrated, love and hate it ,wouldn’t trade it, love me jaded,” she sang loudly, and very off key before she strummed on her air guitar. “I may need a backing singer,” she told him as she pulled open the clear door to the shower. He accepted her offer, stepping into the shower taking the shampoo bottle from her.

“J-j-j-j-jaded, there aint no baby please when I’m shooting the breeze with her, when everything you see is a blur, and ecstasy’s what you prefer,” he sang, a lot better then what she had, into the shampoo bottle.

She laughed as he started busting his moves in the shower, he picked up the bottle of conditioner and used the bottles as best he could as drum sticks, the loud clanks against the tile sure to drive the person in the next room insane. She took one of the bottles from him before wrapping her arms around his neck, she leant up like she was about to kiss him but at the last minute she pulled back, and tugged until his face was directly under the spray of the shower. She almost died laughing as he coughed and spluttered at the shock, knowing she would be in for it. He didn’t disappoint, grabbing for her arm he made sure she couldn’t escape the spray as he turned the water down to near on freezing.

“FUCK NICK!” She screeched when the water hit her skin making her shiver.

 “Paybacks a bitch,” he told her as he turned the temperature back up before leaning down to kiss her.

He could feel her smile as she leant in to the kiss, wrapping her arms around his neck, his hands found their way down her sides, his hands resting on her ass. He gave it a light squeeze as he pulled her body closer to his, he smirked when he felt her start to twiddle some of the short hairs at the nape of his neck, whilst her other hand trailed down his chest, eventually coming to rest on his hip. He took the initiative and pulled his lips away from her, instead choosing to trail feather kisses down her neck and along her collar bone, her soft moans echoing throughout the shower. He was soon moaning along with her when he hand trailed further, her index finger tracing the dark hairs surrounding his hardening cock. Adie slipped her spare hand under his chin, making him move his lips from the spot just behind her ear, she bought them back down to her own, her tongue massaging his within seconds.

Following his lead she stepped out of the shower, still connected by mouths. She didn’t know what happened next, maybe his feet got tangled, maybe it was due to the fact that his feet were wet and there was not a towel on the floor, but he ended up on his ass.

“SHIT!” He yelped, his hand coming to rest just above his eye to obviously try and ease the pain of where he hit it against the corner of the square set sink.

“Oh my god,” she exclaimed, bending down to his level, “Are you okay?”

"I don’t know what hurts more, my head or my ass,” he whined.

She bit on her lip to try and keep from laughing out loud at him but it didn’t work. She ended up near on crying with laughter as he playfully glared at her.

“That’s fine, just laugh at me when I’m naked, venerable and have a broken ass, Oh fuck,” he moaned when he removed his hand from his head and saw the crimson stain on his hand.

“C’mere,” she laughed as she held out her hand to him. He took hold of it and let her help him up, she kissed the tips of her fingers before she placed her hand on his butt, “There the toosh is all better, now let me look at your head,” she said making him smile.

Nick hissed slightly when she touched the wound making it sting. She threw him a look that told him to grow up before she reached for some tissue to try and clean up some of the blood, she inspected the wound further. “I don’t think it’s going to need stitches, C’mon,” she said as she lead him into the bedroom.

She sat him down on the bed before she rummaged around in her purse, pulling out the desired items a moment later. “Now you can have a plain one, a pink one or a toy story one,” she said holding up the band aids in front of him.

“Toy story,” he grinned.

“Child,” she said rolling her eyes.

“You gave me the choice,” he pointed out as she cleaned his head some more, “Ow!” He moaned.

“Stop being such a baby,” she chastised as she stuck the band aid to his head.

“But it hurts.”

“Trust me in November you are going to see pain,” she told him with a shiver as the cool air from the air conditioning hit her skin.

“You scared?” he asked as he watched her wrap her robe around herself.

“I’m trying not to think about it,” she admitted with a nervous smile as she made a move to walk past him and back into the bathroom but he managed to catch her hand and pull her towards him so she ended up sitting in his naked lap.

“You’ll be fine,” he assured.

“Says he who whined about getting a band aid put on,” she said with a raise of her eyebrows.

“I’m a complete pussy when it comes to pain, you know that, that’s why you’re having the baby and I’m not,” he said as he kissed her nose.

“I’m hungry,” she thought allowed.

“Me too,” he leered as he parted her robe so he could look at her chest.

“I meant for food,” she corrected, pulling his head up so his eyes were looking into hers.

“But…in the shower,” he tried to reason.

“You ruined the moment Nick, not me and now you’re daughter is hungry.”

“Damn kids,” he grumbled.

***

He watched slightly in awe, slightly in disgust as she chowed down on yet another jalapeño pepper. He liked spicy food but at the rate she was going through it, she was going to have no palate left, the spices burning away the roof of her mouth.

“What?” She asked when she found him studying her.

“Doesn’t it burn?” He asked as he dipped on of the nacho’s in the salsa.

“No,” she said shaking her head.

“Seriously?” he asked.

“Yeah. Oh crap,” she moaned unexpectedly.

“What?” he asked.

“Heart burn,” she grumbled, placing her hand to her chest.

“Can you be surprised?” he joked making her stick her tongue out at him. “How long have you got off work?”

“I’ve got four weeks leave to take before I go on maternity leave.”

“When do you go on maternity leave?” He asked placing another nacho into his mouth.

“Mid to late September, I think I’ll tag two weeks on to the beginning rather then take four weeks in a row now,” she said slinking down in her seat slightly.

“What are you doing?” Nick asked.

“Nothing,” she said a little too quickly, her gaze fixed on the entrance of the hotel’s restaurant. He turned to where her eyes were fixed and it was then he noticed the few girls sat at the bar, their giggling and quick movement of their heads away from his a dead giveaway of who they were.

“Ignore them,” he told her, his hand slipping into hers across the table.

“It’s hard to ignore death glares,” she said softly her eyes in her lap.

 “You want to go?” He asked. She looked to him and then to the exit but with a sigh she shook her head no. “You sure?” He asked.

“It would class as running, I’m not doing that anymore, remember?” She reminded.

 “Yeah I remember,” he smiled giving her a wink. “What do we say to ‘em?”

“Fuck you,” she said quietly so no one else would be able to hear.

“Good girl.”

“ADIE’S HERE MOMMY!” She heard someone yell from across the resturant.

“If they didn’t know it was you to begin with they sure do now,” Nick laughed as he turned and spotted Baylee with Brian and Leighanne close behind.

“Hey kiddo,” Adie greeted, smiling brightly when Baylee pretty much launched himself at her in a hug.

“Baylee be careful,” Leighanne lightly scolded.

“Mommy didn’t tell me you were going to be here. Can we paint like we did last time? Oh can we go to the park too? And you and Nick said you’d take me to the zoo, and I gots Horton hears a who on DVD now can we watch it?” he reeled off quickly making her look to Brian and Leighanne with a laugh.

“It’s a good thing I’m here for a few weeks huh?”

“What am I kid? Chopped liver?” Nick asked ruffling Baylee’s hair.

“You can come to Nick,” he said rolling his eyes, making everyone laugh.

“Adie I think you should lay of the nachos,” Brian joked looking down at her rounded stomach before accepting her hug as she stood up. “Congratulations.”

 “Thanks,” she smiled before enveloping Leighanne too.

“You look great,” Leighanne complimented, “Feeling okay?”

“Yeah I feel great, really good,” she smiled as she placed a hand to her bump proudly before she reached out to take Nick’s hand and it was in that moment that he knew she had meant what she had said earlier.

He just hoped it would all work out because right then it all felt to good to be true.

Chapter End Notes:
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