~ Chapter Sixty Three ~

"Hey, it's AJ." 

Stacy shook her head.  Of course it was AJ; she could have recognized his voice anywhere.  "How are you?"

"Terrible."  AJ continued on in the same matter of fact tone. "Your boyfriend owes me one nights sleep."

"Is he okay?"  Stacy seized on that piece of information. "I've been trying to get a hold of him for two days now."

"Well..."  AJ paused.  "He's got a pretty f----- awesome case of the flu."

"And with Brian?"  Stacy pushed on.

"I don't know.  He hasn't said a word about it; he didn't really react at all." 

Stacy sank down on the bed and shoved her hair back from her face.  "Well, I suppose that's good.  I was worried he'd go and do something stupid."

AJ didn't answer her.

"Are you still there?" 

"Yeah..."  AJ said slowly.  "Brian said that exact same thing to me yesterday.  Is that... some kind of standard Nick thing?"

"Well, no..." Stacy was rattled now.  Brian had been worried about Nick too.  "It's just kind of assumed that Nick doesn't always handle things very well." 

"Yeah."  AJ said thoughtfully.  "You know, I've always looked at Nick and the high profile lifestyle he has, and he always seemed like was really good at handling whatever came up.  And the last few days, I've realized that he can't handle any of it, he's just incredibly good at hiding it."

Stacy bit her lip.  AJ had summed things up very well.  Nick was entirely too good at hiding his emotions - a little too good.  That had to be his single most frustrating feature. 

"That, however, was not why I called you."  AJ continued.  "When are you back in Seattle?"

"Later tonight.  Why?"

"Just wondering when I can hand Nick over to you." 

"Okay, let me find the information."  Stacy pulled her bag over and started riffling through the large pile of assorted papers she had collected over the weekend.  "God, AJ, I wish I'd gone to LA."

"Yeah, I kind of wish you had too, but you can't change that now, so quit knocking yourself out over it." 

~*~

Becky sat quietly in her seat on the team flight back to Seattle.  It had been a pretty long time since AJ had deposited her in the seat next to Nick, warned both of them if they dared to move he would kill them and hide the bodies, and vanished.  Becky's legs felt like moving, but she still sat quietly.  It wasn't that she thought AJ would kill her, she knew he wouldn't, he had just been exaggerating, but still, it wasn't a very nice thing to say. 

Especially to Nick - he was sick, and even Becky knew you didn't tell sick people you were going to kill them.  She wasn't sure Nick had even heard AJ.  He had been asleep for most of the flight so far, curled up against the back of his seat, his back to Becky and the rest of the plane. 

Becky stuck her feet out in front of her and clapped her shoes together a few times.  AJ might have been a pretty funny guy, but he just didn't understand that children had to be entertained.  Her parents would have remembered to give her some paper and a pen.

Her parents were flying to Kentucky for Brian's funeral, but she wasn't old enough to go with them.  Becky wasn't so sure about that.  If she was old enough to go stay with AJ and Felicia then she was pretty sure she was old enough to go to a funeral.  Still, she was glad she wasn't going.  Funerals were always sad, or at least they always were in movies. 

Becky carefully unfastened her seatbelt and knelt on the seat so she could peer out into the aisle.  She didn't see AJ.  She did see Howie and a couple other players clustered around the seats at the back of the plane.  AJ might be back there.  Becky sat back down and fastened her seatbelt.  She had seen plane crashes on the news, so it was best to be on the safe side.  Still, it worried her that she didn't see AJ.  What if Nick was sick again?  She would need to know where AJ was.

She turned to check on Nick again.  His eyes were closed, but she didn't think he was sleeping.  Whenever she had a cold or the flu, she lay on the couch and watched videos.  Nick had to play a baseball game and fly across two and a half states. 

Becky would have felt better if she could find an angel somewhere, but she couldn't.  Maybe angels didn't fly on airplanes.  That was something she had never asked Brian.  There had been an angel in the hotel room last night, she was sure of that.  She was pretty sure it was there because of Nick. 

She stuck her lower lip out, concentrating, trying to figure out what Brian would have done.

"Nick?"  She said it very softly, just in case Nick really was asleep.

"What?"  Nick mumbled.

"I'm going to give you a hug."  Becky announced in all earnestness.

Nick opened his eyes, squinting in confusion. "Why?"

"Because I'm your friend."  Becky explained.  Hugs always made her feel better; they would probably make Nick feel better too. 

"Oh."  Nick sighed, too wiped out to comment further.

Becky unfastened her seatbelt and climbed over onto the other side of Nick's seat so she could put her arms around his neck. 

Something wasn't quite right.  Becky was going to have to work on her cheering-up skills.  She was pretty sure that when you tried to cheer someone up, they weren't supposed to start crying.