~ Chapter Sixty Seven ~

"Well, don't we look nice."  AJ said in surprise, circling around Nick slowly. 

Nick frowned, wondering if AJ meant we in the royal sense, or if he really meant both of them.  Knowing AJ, he meant both.  "What's with the vulture thing?  Quit circling."  He fixed AJ with his best glare. 

"What?"  AJ stepped back and did his best to look innocent, more or less failing miserably.  "Geez, you're in a bad mood.  Go chew on someone else's head."  He collapsed into one of the folding chairs set up to the side of the stage, legs flying every which way, head bobbing to the music playing over the sound system.

"Yeah, well, I've been to a few of these stupid World Series things." Nick sat down next to AJ, although without nearly as much flair.  His head still wasn't quite up to that. 

"Stupid World Series things?"  AJ repeated, arching an eyebrow.  "This is merely for the city to pay us the homage and respect which we are due, seeing as how we traveled all the way to LA and not only returned with our lives and original genders intact, but also with a rather ugly World Series trophy."

"AJ!  There you are."  Mariners' general manager, Joseph Wright, interrupted.  "Um, since Kevin is the team spokesperson, and he isn't in town, Howie tells me that you'll be filling in?"

"That's not AJ."  Nick jerked a thumb at the black clad figure next to him.  "It's a walking ego in sunglasses."

Wright just looked confused.  "Howie said..."  He repeated. 

"Yeah, dude, I'll do it."  AJ said lazily.  "Nick's just pissed that he has to go to another of these events, since he's been attending them since he was in diapers."

Nick zoned out, while Wright and AJ had a brief and apparently confusing discussion over exactly what AJ should be saying.  AJ was right; he had been attending playoff rallies and celebrations pretty much as long as he could remember. 

The Mariners had set up a makeshift stage out of scaffolding, covered with a white tent, of course, in case of rain.  Various men in suits were standing on the stage, conferring with each other.  Nick assumed they were the usual group of city officials and Mariners front office personnel that showed up for every playoff celebration.  It struck Nick as funny that he didn't even know who the Mariners owner was, much less what he looked like.  In New York, he had fought with the owner several times over the course of the season.

"There you are."  Stacy said from behind him.  "You found AJ, I see."

AJ twisted around to give her a fake smile.  "They want me to get up on that stage with a microphone."  He thought about that situation for a moment, shoving his glasses back up on his nose.  "What do you suppose Wright would do to me if I started singing?"

"Trade you, hopefully."  Nick grumbled.  He wasn't really mad at AJ, it was just that he wasn't in an especially good mood, which wasn't helped by the fact that he really didn't want to be sitting at a team celebration when he didn't feel like there was anything to celebrate.  AJ could care less if Nick picked on him or not, in fact, there was a fairly good chance that he was enjoying it. 

AJ raised his eyebrows at Stacy.  "Tell me, why is he so bitchy today?"

"Is he?"  Stacy said innocently, wrapping her arms around Nick's shoulders.  "Someone got up a little too early today." 

"No s---."  AJ muttered.  "Okay, you know, it looks like they're finally about to get this thing started, and if I don't want to be locked out of the car, I really should go hang out with Lissie for a while."  He stood up, patting Nick on top of the head.  "I'll just surprise both of you with what selection I choose for my musical number, okay?"

"Do you suppose he'll really get up there and sing?"  Stacy watched AJ slouch off towards the other side of the stage.  Her arms were still around his chest, her chin resting on his shoulder. 

"Probably."  Nick sighed, leaning back slightly. 

"You okay?"  She hugged him tighter. 

"Yeah, fine."  He reached up to grab one of her hands.  "Just don't go anywhere, okay?"

"I'm not."

Nick twisted around to face her, as much as he hated to break the hold she had.  "I mean it.  Don't go anywhere?"

"I'm not."  Stacy repeated.  "Okay?  I promise."

"Okay."  Nick repeated, trying to relax, even just a little.  Was he really getting that desperate?  The last four days, just the thought of being left alone was enough to bring on a panic attack.  He had no idea what had brought any of it on, but he was officially freaked out about it now.  Maybe he had finally gone off the deep end. 

They had started the ceremonies, the sound system turned up loud enough that Nick was sure people could hear for a ten mile radius.  At this rate, he was going to have a headache by the time this was over. 

He didn't really pay attention to the ceremony.  They had the standard bragging about the team, rehashing the highlights of the season, complete with highlight video, which Nick purposely didn't watch.  He didn't want to see Brian.  That would be too much to handle all at once. 

When they called AJ up to the podium, Nick pulled himself back to reality just a little, mostly out of curiosity as to what AJ was going to do up there.

AJ stood for a moment, staring out at the large crowd of people.  He had taken off his sunglasses, but it didn't stop him from looking as if he was still watching over the rims.  "Hi."  He said finally. 

Nick relaxed a little.  At least AJ's voice was quiet, and he had enough sense to figure out the microphone would pick up his normal voice, rather than talking loudly or almost yelling, as some of the people before him had done. 

"Usually, this is something that Kevin would handle, but since he's out of town, I was delegated to talk."  AJ explained.  "I apologize in advance."  He added wryly. 

"I don't have a whole lot to say, which is a great relief, I know, but bear with me here for a minute, okay?  First off, on behalf of the entire team, I have to thank all the fans for being as cool as they are..."  He paused as the crowd started cheering.

"Suck up..."  Stacy muttered.

"Yeah, you guys ROCK!"  AJ yelled, before cutting loose with what could only be described as a maniacal cackle.  "Also..."  He continued, once the cheering died down.  "I'd like to thank the rest of my teammates for all the great memories - I'm going to look back on this season as something special... it was a lot of fun." 

He glanced over at Joseph Wright for a moment, before turning back to the microphone and the crowd.  "And in closing, I want to say that... before game seven, we dedicated the game and the series to Brian.  If there were more people in the world that gave as unconditionally as he did, we'd all be in a much better place.  Brian, this was for you - we love you and we miss you, buddy."  He pressed his lips together in a smile, raised one hand in a small wave to the crowd, and exited off the podium. 

Over the years, Nick had perfected the trick of completely withdrawing and going through life on autopilot.  AJ's closing remarks had been the final straw.  Either he went to pieces before a rather large crowd of rabid baseball fans, or he shut down and started auto piloting his life again.

There were still people speaking on the stage, but Nick didn't hear a word of it.  When the ceremony ended and Stacy asked him something, he answered, but he had no clue what she had said, or what he had said in reply.  He smiled when he was supposed to, he shook hands with more people than he could even begin to count; he even signed a few autographs.  When people congratulated him on the World Series win, or said how sorry they were about Brian, he responded automatically. 

He was vaguely aware that Stacy had her arm around his waist as he stood talking to a local sports reporter.  Somewhere in the back of his mind, was the nagging little thought that he'd like to tell her every single problem he'd had since he was fourteen years old, but the rest of his mind threw up a big red warning flag at that thought.  So, he pulled himself father behind the protective wall he had built up and shoved the thought away.  He had learned his lesson the hard way this time and he wasn't going to let himself get hurt again.