~ Chapter Sixty Four ~

Nick closed his eyes, his head leaning weakly against the back of the seat. He choked back another sob, which caused his head to spin again, but he figured it was better than the alternative.  If he completely lost it he'd end up passing out from the pain.  His head felt like it was going to explode.

He hadn't cried since he was fifteen.  He couldn't even remember the last time he had cried in front of someone, much less an entire airplane. The strangest thing about the entire situation was that Nick didn't even care. Nick shifted carefully in his seat, trying to sit up so he could breathe. Right now, he felt exactly like he had in Little League and the wind had been knocked out of him sliding into home plate.  When he finally did pull in a decent breath, his head started pounding worse than before.

With a start, Nick realized that someone was sitting next to him.  His brain had cleared enough that he recognized that yes, he was still on an airplane, and yes, someone was sitting next to him, holding a Kleenex box.

Nick turned his head slowly, attempting to keep his head from feeling any worse, to see AJ sitting where Becky had been before, his usual half skeptical, half 'I can't believe I'm part of this universe' look firmly in place.

"Where's Becky?"  Nick couldn't even hear his own voice over the ringing in his ears, but AJ seemed to have heard.

"We landed about ten minutes ago. She's with Howie."  AJ tipped his head towards the front of the plane.  "He's teaching her how to play poker. Kevin'll never leave his kid with me again."  He smiled at that thought, before shoving the Kleenex box over farther.  "Here, you're gonna need more than one, buddy."

Nick's brain finally worked through the command of getting his hand to take the Kleenex box.  He did appreciate the fact that AJ acting as if things were perfectly normal.  It was pointless, but still, it had been Nick's standard mode of operation for several years now.

"You scared Becky to death."  AJ added.

"Yeah, well, I kinda freaked myself out too."  Nick muttered, attacking his nose with a handful of the Kleenex.

AJ didn't answer, which was to be expected.  Nick supposed there wasn't a whole lot that could be said anyway.

"You ready to clear out of here?"  AJ said finally.

"No!"  Nick snapped his mouth shut, trying not to burst into tears again, forgetting for a moment that his nose was completely plugged up and he couldn't breathe with his mouth closed.

"Okay."  AJ held his hands up in surrender.  "Fine. We'll wait."

Nick forced himself to breathe before he started hyperventilating.  He really wanted Stacy to be here right now.  The chances of that happening were pretty slim, however.

"AJ."  Nick's brain didn't have any control over what was coming out of his mouth.  It was almost an out of body experience, except he was still very much so in his body, his head made no doubt of that fact.  "AJ, I don't know what to do."  Now he was crying - again.  This had to be some kind of record.

"C'mon, Nick, chill."  AJ was slouched in the seat, absently tapping his foot on the floor.  "It's all under control, okay?"

"No, it's not."  Nick protested.

AJ raised his eyebrows.  "You're going home with me and Stacy's picking you up when she gets back tonight.  What else has to be under control before you'll calm down?"

"I'm going with you?"  The wall of pain between AJ and Nick's brain was making it hard for him to process.

"What, you think I'm just gonna leave you at the airport?"  AJ said in disgust.  "Look at yourself.  No offense, but you're a mess."

"Stacy's in Minneapolis."  Nick finally caught up to the last part of AJ's explanation.

"Her flight gets in tonight.  I talked to her this morning - look, you don't have to worry about any of it, okay?"

Nick leaned back against the seat and closed his eyes.  He wasn't used to this; to having someone actually care about what happened to him.

Brian had cared about what happened to him.

"Nick, you okay?"  AJ sounded concerned.

"My head hurts."  His head wasn't all that was hurting.

"Yeah, we need to get you some more drugs."  AJ agreed.

Nick squinted weakly at AJ.

"What?"  AJ said defensively.  "Legal drugs!  Why is it that whenever I say drugs, people always... do I LOOK like a drug dealer?"

Nick would have attempted a smile at the comment, but all his attention was currently focused on not passing out.  His head was steadily hurting more and more.

"Yeah, don't move, I'm gonna get Rich.  I'll be right back."  AJ vanished to find the team trainer.

Nick opened his mouth, but AJ was too quick for him.  He didn't want to be left alone, even more  than he wanted the vice like grip on his head to go away.  This time, he didn't even try to fight it.  He honestly didn't care what happened.

~*~

Kevin stared out the hotel window.  It didn't offer much of a view, but he wasn't paying attention to the scenery to begin with.  He knew he was still in a state of shock, everything had been sliding off him without making too much of an impression, including Karen's hysterics of the last ten hours, and the fact that Kevin had forgot about Becky.  However, Kevin was more than aware this wasn't going to last.  He had gone through all this before, and he knew all too well it was going to get much worse before things got better.

Karen was sprawled across the hotel bed, still in her jeans and sweater.  It had taken a not so mild sedative, but she was now out like a light. She could have the entire bed if she wanted - Kevin had no plans on sleeping anytime in the next twenty hours anyway.  He still hadn't told Karen what had happened with Becky, and if he was lucky, she wouldn't hear about it for a long time.  Well, chances were, Becky would tell her, but that was okay. Karen would have calmed down by that point.

That was one of the many cool things about Karen.  While she had a tendency to flip out over absurdly small things, she recovered just as quickly.  She'd be perfectly fine by the end of the month.  Kevin, on the other hand, operated exactly the opposite.  He'd be okay eventually, he knew that from previous experience, but it would take time.

He might as well do something productive while he was waiting.  Kevin turned away from the window and started sorting through suitcases.  AJ had stopped by to collect Becky's stuff earlier, and at that point, Kevin hadn't been too concerned with keeping things in order.

Gertrude was buried halfway underneath Karen's cosmetics bag.  Kevin picked up the little cloth doll, smiling slightly as he remembered Becky's insistence that it was an angel.  Brian was the one that had given her the doll, and knowing Brian, he had in all probability planted the idea about the angels.

Brian, Becky and their angels.