~ Chapter Fifty Six ~

Bob stared across the table in the small restaurant offside the hotel lobby, meeting the glowering looks of Nick calmly, not really paying attention.  Nick had been in a mood towards both his parents for the last five years.  The psychiatrists had told Bob and Jane it was just the standard rebellion period all teenagers went through, and once Nick was on his own, he'd grow out of it, but Bob didn't see that happening anytime in the near future.  This wasn't just rebellion - Nick got some kind of kick out of purposely defying anything either Bob or Jane wanted.  However, two could play at that game. 

Kevin Richardson was sitting next to Nick.  Bob hadn't ever talked to Kevin, in fact, he couldn't remember a time when he had even interviewed the veteran catcher, but Kevin had stopped by for a moment while waiting for his wife and daughter.  He was leaning back in his chair, carefully observing Bob. 

"What do you want?"  Bob asked Nick, as the waiter approached the table.

"Nothin'."  Nick mumbled, shaking his head carefully.

"Are you sure?" 

"Right now, even the thought of water makes me want to hurl."  Nick announced, leaning forward and pillowing his head on his arms. 

The waiter looked slightly disgusted, and Kevin raised one eyebrow skeptically. 

"Okay, then."  Bob placed his order, then turned back to his son.  "So... what is this?  A hangover?"

Nick raised his head just enough to beam another glare at Bob.  "No.  Can we try stomach flu?"

Kevin nodded in agreement.  "It's been traveling through the clubhouse this last week."

"Oh.  That's all."  Bob dismissed it.  The flu couldn't be helped.  It could, however, be played through.  "Well, some of my career best games happened when I was sick." 

Nick's eyebrows shot up towards his hair.  "Wow, that's great to know. I'll remember that."  He said flatly.

Bob glanced over at Kevin.  He was still staring.  Maybe Kevin did this to everyone, but it made Bob just a little uneasy.  It made him feel as if Kevin was sitting there reading his mind.

"Are you gonna play?"  Kevin stopped the eagle stare for a moment, and directed the question at the top of Nick's head.

"Yes."  Nick's voice was muffled against the table. 

"How's your girlfriend?"  Bob asked, noting what Nick had just said.  The war was on again.  "What was her name?  Susie?"  Bob knew perfectly well her name was Stacy, he had learned a long time ago that Willie Mays could get away without remembering names, but most people couldn't.  Bob refused to look at Kevin.  He could feel him staring again. 

"Stacy, Dad."  Nick sighed.  "She's fine.  Why?"

"I was merely asking."  Bob defended.  "I liked her - maybe it was the accent.  She was cute.  And she was a hell of a lot nicer than that b---- you were dating before." 

Nick's head came up again, smiling this time.  "You know... that may be the one thing we ever agree on."

"Here's your coffee, sir."  The waiter set the cup down in front of Bob, glancing over at Nick as if he expected him to announce an update on the current state of his nausea, and then departed as quickly as he could.

"So you're heading over to see Brian?"  Bob attempted to stare Kevin down as he stirred his coffee. 

Kevin didn't even flinch. "Yeah, he wasn't really feeling up to a lot last night."

"Well, it's nice he has so many friends who care about him."  Bob watched Nick stiffen.  It had been a shot in the dark, but it seemed to have hit home.  Score: Bob - 1, Nick - 0.

"He's my family."  Kevin corrected.  "I thought TV announcers knew all those little trivia facts."  He laughed.

"They don't actually know anything."  Nick interjected.  "They just read it off a little card the worker bees in the back hand them."

"Are you going to go see Brian too?"  Bob could feel that stare again. If he didn't know better, he'd think Kevin knew exactly what was going on. 

Nick opened his mouth, before he gave the coffee mug a look of death, shoved his chair back and bolted for the door, almost taking out a waitress in the process.

"Well, that didn't look good."  Kevin craned his neck to watch Nick leave. "Oh, there's Karen... we've got to get going."  He turned back, giving Bob a polite smile as he stood.  "And Bob, it was interesting to finally meet you."

"Same here."  Bob reached over to shake Kevin's hand.  "Say hello to Brian for me."

There it was again - that hard green stare.  "Of course.  I'm sure he'll appreciate your concern."

Bob watched Kevin greet his wife and then try to grab his daughter as she ran madly in circles around the pillars in the lobby.  The chances of the Mariners pulling out this last game were incredibly low.  They were too emotionally involved now. 

~*~

"Hey, Brian?"  AJ winced at the tone of his voice. He hadn't meant to sound that freaked out.  Then again, he was, so why try to hide it? Hospitals were without a doubt at the bottom of his favorite things list and Brian lying there with an IV and oxygen and a couple other clear tubes AJ wasn't familiar with - it wasn't helping his slightly panicked state of mind. 

"Hi, AJ!" 

AJ wasn't sure if he felt like smiling back at Brian, or smacking him for being so cheerful. Right now, he could go either way.  "What's up?"

Brian rolled his eyes.  "I just got off the phone with my mother.  Took me almost forty five minutes to convince her that she didn't have to fly all the way out here.  And right now they've got me drugged up on so much medication all I can see right now is a very blurry something wearing sunglasses."  He paused to take another breath.  "Sit down, how are you?"

"How am I?"  AJ repeated in disbelief, shoving his sunglasses up on top of his head.  Brian wanted to know how he was.   

"Well, yes."  Brian leaned back against the raised mattress.  "You.  You're the one that got the loss last night."

"Yeah."  AJ flopped into the plastic chair provided courtesy of the hospital.  He had sat in a lot of those chairs over the last three years.

 AJ had gotten the loss last night.  This was the first time he could ever remember being a loser.  Well, he had played for Tampa Bay, but that had been different.  There, it was just a given that they lost.  Now, they had been expected to win.  It was a completely different feeling.  "Things are kind of falling apart, here, Brian."

"No they're not."  Brian argued.  "He hit a good pitch."

"Who says it was a good pitch?"  And who had said AJ was talking about the game?

"Bob Carter did, on national TV.  They replayed it ten or fifteen times."  Brian smirked.  "And if Bob says it, then it must be true."

"That guy is the biggest a------ I have ever seen."  AJ grumbled, before noting Brian's disapproving look.  "Excuse me, but - he is."

"I know that."  Brian sighed.  "He's honestly one of the few people in the world that can make me mad."

There was silence for a moment, while Brian stewed over Bob, and AJ wondered if he could make it to the Mexican border before game time.  Then he wouldn't have to talk to reporters, he wouldn't have to face Kevin, and best of all, there would be no possibility of him pitching in, and possibly blowing game seven. 

"Well, you know what I think?"  Brian said finally.  The energy level that had been present when AJ first came into the room was gone now. 

It wasn't that his mood had changed; now Brian just looked tired.

"No, what?"

"I think you were trying too hard." 

"No s---, Sherlock!"  AJ burst out.

"So you've realized that."  Brian determined, laughing. 

"Yeah - I had ten or so hours last night to sit and think about it."  Who needed sleep anyway?

"How's Felicia?"  Brian changed the subject, a little too rapidly for AJ's tiring brain.

"What?"  AJ stalled while his mind played catch-up.  "She's okay... I mean, as far as I know."

"You think she isn't?"  Brian was struggling to keep his eyes open. 

"I don't know.  She says she's okay... so I guess I just have to trust her on that one."

"Trust is important."  Brian agreed.  His eyes closed, and for a moment AJ thought he had fallen asleep, before Brian raised his head and twisted around until he could make eye contact. 

When Felicia had been in the hospital before, no matter how often she claimed that everything was okay, and that she was fine, whenever AJ had looked into her eyes, he could tell she was more scared than he was. That was what he wasn't noticing with Brian.  Brian wasn't scared at all.  He looked perfectly peaceful.  In a strange way, it made AJ feel a little better about the last two days.

"AJ?"

"Yeah?"  AJ snapped back to reality. 

"Will y'all do me a favor?  Keep an eye on Nick?  He's worrying me a little."

"Sure."  AJ agreed.  He wasn't too worried about Nick.  Nick was more self-sufficient than people gave him credit for.  He had to be, growing up in the atmosphere that he had. 

Brian shook his head as he lay back down.  "It's like he goes through these cycles, and for a while he'll be perfectly fine, and then he slips back down into this really low spot, and eventually he'll snap out of it again.  And right now, he's heading back down to the bottom.  All this stuff with Stacy - I just don't want him doing something stupid, AJ.  You know?"

"What stuff with Stacy?"  AJ seized on that piece of new information.

"They got in a fight before we came down here."

AJ bit back his first reaction, before Brian got on his case about swearing again.  "Who... if Nick started this, I swear, I will kick his a--!  I knew he was gonna do something like this..."

"AJ, Nick's doing enough a-- kicking right now, on his own - y'all don't have to join in."  Brian interrupted AJ's tirade.  "I don't know if it was his fault or not... from what he told me, it sounded like it was both their faults, but I don't know.  Chances are, it was Nick's fault, but he didn't mean to do it."  He scowled.  "He's the one person I've never been able to completely figure out.  And I'm usually pretty good at reading people."

"Are you?"  AJ said skeptically.  "So, what am I?"

Brian didn't bat an eyelash.  "You're the person that keeps everything from falling apart completely."