Music really does heal the soul. Nick awoke the next morning to find Taylor resting comfortably in the crook of his shoulder, watching him sleep. When his eyes met hers, she smiled for the first time in weeks, turned and kissed Nick's chest, and whispered, "Good morning, Nick."

Stunned, he said the first thing that came to mind, "Oh my God. . ."

". . .I'm back again," she laughed. The horrible pun didn't even register on Nick's radar; he just laid there slack-jawed. Although she was still hoarse, she laughed again, reveling in the sound. "Nick? Are you alright?"

He shook his head, "Am I dreaming? Taylor?"

She pinched him, and he yelped. "Nope, not dreaming, Nick. You're wide awake, and so am I."

"But. . how. . .why now?" he stammered.

"I have no idea." She shrugged, "You seem shocked. Do you want me to go back to the way I was yesterday, and the day before that?" She smirked, "Is that what you want?"

"God, no! Taylor, I just. . .I don't understand," he said softly.

The confusion in his eyes did not go unnoticed by Taylor and she cupped his face lightly, reassuringly running her thumb over his cheek. "I'm not sure I understand either, Nick. All I know is the doctor told me that the anti-depressants would take some time to work." She giggled, "I guess they just kicked into overdrive this morning."

"So, does this mean that you're back to normal?" Nick questioned.

"Honestly, I'm not sure." Taylor paused and contemplated telling Nick more about what she had been thinking about the past few days and why she thought this was happening.

"It doesn't really matter though, I guess." Nick smiled and kissed her nose. "As long as you're back for now, that's all I care about." He started to get up from the bed and Taylor pulled him back down to face her.

"Nick, I feel like I need to tell you some things, about me, about my family. I feel like I owe you at least some explanation."

"Taylor, you don't owe me anything," he said as he tipped her chin up to look at him, "but if and when you need to talk then I'm ready to listen, okay?"

Taylor shook her head and continued quietly, "My mom was like this ya know, pretty much as far back as I can remember."

"Like what?"

"Depressed, withdrawn, just weirded out a lot of times. And my sister has had bouts with depression too. I guess I just denied that it would ever affect me."

Nick gave a sarcastic smirk, "You? Denial? You're joking, right?" Taylor laughed and playfully smacked him on the arm.

"I know, I know. I'm a control freak, so sue me." Her eyes closed as she brought back some rather unpleasant memories. "There was this one time, I was maybe 11 or 12. Dad was off somewhere, doing who knows what, and Mom decided that she needed to take a week off from life. The only thing that mattered to her then was her sleeping pills. She didn't get out of bed for the entire week."

"God, what did you do?" Nick was appalled.

Taylor pinched the bridge of her nose as if she were holding back the tears. "I just went on like nothing was wrong. I went to school, did my homework, went grocery shopping, cooked and cleaned. I guess I just kind of ignored what was going on, or maybe it was that I just didn't understand what it was at the time."

"Where was your sister?"

"She was living in Colorado by then. . .wait, how do you know about Mallory?"

"Jamie and I talked about her just before Jaim left Oklahoma City. I was just curious, I hope you. . ."

"No, it's alright. I guess I just kind of, I don't know, didn't think it was that important," she shrugged.

"You have a nephew named after me and it's not important?" Nick laughed. She thought for a minute, then grinned up at him.

"You mean Carter? Wow, I guess I never thought about that. Speaking of them, I probably should call and let them know where I am, not that they'd worry too much."

"Why do you say that about your sister?" he asked.

"Well, I'm kind of the black sheep in the family," she said jokingly. "I'm the one who would up and move and change my whole life at any given moment. It won't shock them that I'm in Florida."

"Tell you what, we've got the day off today so why don't you call your sister and then we'll get ready and go house hunting for you and Jamie. How's that sound?"

"Trying to get rid of me I see," she teased and duplicated one of his pouty looks.

"NO! That's not it at all, I swear." Nick looked at her sheepishly, then laughed at the expression on her face. "I would love to keep you here. . . permanently," he said lifting an inquisitive eyebrow at Taylor, "but I just don't want to pressure you and I know how much Jamie is looking forward to you guys living together again."

Taylor lost the pout, slightly taken aback by Nick's suggestion. "I don't know if I'm ready for. . ." she began.

"No pressure, Taylor, no pressure," Nick said quickly. "That's why I suggested looking for a house, okay? I'm gonna wait for you, I'll wait forever if I have to."

Taylor called Mallory and they talked for a while, and she even talked to Carter and Hayley. They all offered to come down and see her but she refused. They decided that when she felt up to it, Taylor would go to Atlanta for a visit.

House hunting was kind of like deep sea fishing with meal worms for bait. Nick had all of these huge wonderful houses to show Taylor and she of course thought some of them were great. The problem was that she and Jamie had very different tastes in everything, not just houses. They needed to find a place that was somewhere in between the very plain, casual look Taylor wanted and the fancier, nouveau style she knew Jamie would prefer.

After looking at the eighth house of the day, and the sixteenth time Nick had to situate her and her wheelchair back in the truck, she finally took pity on him. "I think it's time to go home Nick, I'm tired and I know you have to be exhausted."

He stretched and pretended to yawn and then smirked at her. "No, really, I'm fine."

Taylor smiled wearily at him, "Great, but let's go home anyway."

"I'm sorry, I guess I forgot you're not used to this," he apologized.

"It's okay. I'm tired and hungry, and it's a long drive back to Tampa."

So they went back to Nick's house, picking up take-out Chinese on the way. The two spent the rest of the evening eating and talking and laughing at and with each other. It was nice to have the old Taylor back again.

The next week seem to fly by for everyone. All of the guys had come over to see Taylor and they were just as happy as Nick that she was getting back to her old self. Kevin, Nick and Taylor spent an entire evening on the speakerphone talking to Jamie. She was very happy to hear that things were going well but still a little bummed that she couldn't be there to help.

Brian and Leighanne even came over for dinner one night and the four of them ended up playing Trivial Pursuit. To make it fair, the three of them played against Taylor and no one was surprised when she won. She of course was quick to point out that although she was pretty good at the game there was one person whom she could rarely beat – Jamie, the Queen of Useless Information. Nick made a mental note to never play a trivia game with Jamie.

At the end of the week, Taylor had an appointment with a doctor in Orlando for a check up. Nick decided that she needed to get out of the house for the day and go with him to the studio, then he would leave early and go to the doctor with her. She agreed, forgetting, of course how early he was supposed to be at the studio.

Nick crept down the stairs at 5:30am to find Taylor sleeping like a baby. She was curled up as much as possible, hands tucked under her face, face tucked half under a pillow. He laughed softly and decided he had better start some coffee before he actually attempted to wake her up.

Armed with a steaming cup of strong black coffee, Nick slowly approached her bed. "Taylor?. . ." he said softly as he set the cup on the end table. Nothing. "Taylor?. . ." he said a little louder. Still nothing. He perched precariously on the edge of the bed and reached for her shoulder as he called to her again. "Taylor honey, we have to get up. We're supposed to be at the studio by 7:30." Again, nothing. He sighed and decided to use Plan B.

Leaning down close to her ear he started whispering to her. "Taylor, sweetie. . ." he said as his hand slowly smoothed over the back of her neck and across her shoulder. "It's time to wake up. . .if you get up I'll give you a present." By now his hand had slid back up her neck and into her hair, gently massaging along the way.

Wait, there it was. She moved. It was slight, but he knew she had moved. The pillow was no longer covering her face and a coy smile played on her lips. He was pretty sure she was awake and playing along, but he needed to be certain.

His whispering tone changed from pleading to sensual as he leaned closer and moved his hand down her back. "Don't you want to know what your present is?"

A moment later she moved again as he heard her mumble, "Mmmmm, hmmmmm."

"I'll give you your present but you have to wake up first.

She stretched and her eyes flitted open, adjusting to the dim light in the room. She yawned and started to speak before she finished the yawn, resulting in that muffled, incoherent, deep tunnel voice. "But I was having the best dream."

Nick was still leaning over her, "What was the dream about?"

A playful smirk crossed her lips and she reached up to pull him closer, her turn to whisper in his ear. "I'll make a deal with you." Nick laughed, knowing better than to make any deals with any lawyer, even Taylor. "I'll show you what I was dreaming. . ." she said slowly, letting her breath warm the side of his neck, so close that he could feel her lips on his earlobe, "if you let me go back to sleep afterwards."

Nick moaned and turned his head to capture Taylor's mouth with his. Their first passionate kiss in what seemed like forever and they both reveled in the moment. Finally, Nick pulled away and looked in her eyes as he carefully swept the hair from her forehead. "You don't play very fair, Taylor." She just looked up at him with puppy dog eyes and a 'who me?' expression. "And as much as I would love to find out what you were dreaming about. . . No dice, time to get up." He said as he quickly got up from the bed and moved away, honestly expecting to be smacked or, at the very least, hit with a pillow.

Instead, Taylor just glared at him. "You, Mr. Carter. . .are so not my friend anymore." Attempting to reconcile, he lifted the coffee cup toward her, gesturing with it as a peace offering. She carefully took the cup and sipped some, closing her eyes as she felt the warm liquid slide into her stomach. Eventually, she looked back up at Nick who, from what he felt was a safe distance, was intently watching her every move. "Coffee, or no coffee, I hate mornings and you're still not my friend."

Nick laughed, convinced she was awake enough, and turned to go take his shower. "I'll be down in 20 minutes to help you get up and get a shower."

Taylor snickered as she thought to herself, if you help me get a shower, you're gonna be late for the studio anyway. . .

They arrived at the studio thirty minutes late, but only because there was a traffic accident on I-4 East, leading into Orlando. Taylor was set up in the control room while they worked on their music. Nick periodically looked up from the sheets of music in front of him to see Taylor swaying along in time to their voices or engrossed in conversation with the engineers. They made eye contact a few times, and each time Taylor smiled then waved both of her hands, palms down, in a shooing motion, and mouthed, "Get back to work!"

Everyone knew Taylor was close to returning to normal when, during one of the playbacks, she fiddled with the controls. The Backstreet Boys' newest song came out sounding like it had been recorded by The Chipmunks. Everyone burst into laughter except Kevin. He turned around, scowled at Taylor, and barked into the microphone, "Don't do that! Chris, keep her hands off the board!"

Taylor merely flipped the switch so that they now sounded like Barry White. "Any better?" she asked innocently. Again, everyone else laughed.

Kevin just shook his head and said, "God, you are Jamie's friend. I think Nick needs to take you to the doctor now, right?" Nick looked at his watch.

"Yeah, guess I do. Be back in about 20. . . want me to pick up some pizza or something?"

Howie chuckled, "Kaos, are you hungry again? We had lunch an hour ago!"

Nick grinned, "Hey, can't help it. . .hard work makes me hungry. And this is hard. You know how I am. I'll just bring back a small pizza." With that, he left the recording booth to go into the control room, and scooped up his wallet and keys off a chair in the corner where he left them. He and Taylor left the studio ten minutes later.

The others decided it was a good time for a break, so Brian, Howie and AJ wandered outside to get some sunshine while Kevin stayed in the control room to work on mixing the last part they recorded.

A cell phone rang about five minutes later. Kevin looked around after realizing it wasn't his and saw Nick's phone lying on the chair. He reached for it, switched it on, and said "Hello?"

A female voice replied, "Hey sweetie, it's me. I saw your number on the caller ID last night, and I was just calling you back. . ."

Kevin broke in, "Um, sorry, but I'm not Nick. He's not here right now, can I give him a message?"

"Oh, umm. . .I'll just call him later, thanks."

"You want to give me your name so I can tell him who's calling at least?"

"Oh, no. No, I'll just call later," and she quickly got off the phone. Kevin hung up, slightly confused. The voice sounded a little familiar but he couldn't place it. It was probably just one of Nick's sisters. Kevin chuckled as he wondered what kind of Carter family crisis was brewing now.