Lol, Nick and his gremlins is hilarious. Interesting twist to add a bit of fantasy in there. I can only imagine what those creatures are doing to Leighanne. Poor Kevin and Kristin, so sad to see them file for divorce despite trying their best. Even though this story appears to be unfinished, at least AJ and Brian have Baylee back. There was no way they were losing custody of him. =)

Ooh, this is so dark and mysterious, I like it. Great use of imagery in the supernatural stuff that Brian is seeing. I can only wonder if the other three guys got themselves in danger and if Brian were able to save them in time.

Awww, this whole story was cute! The scene with Brian confronting a bleeding crying Kevin was intense. I love the anticipation as we see AJ drowning in a pool of jealousy for Leighanne but not knowing that Brian is all his. AJ will make an excellent father for Baylee, I know it

*claps* I love the roller coaster of emotions that Brian has gone through from denial to crying a lake of tears to hating Nick for leaving him so soon. How morbid that Brian has to relive that nightmare each night. I can imagine how chilling it would be to enter the room Brian is staying in only to see a seemingly empty barren room with his silent self under the covers. Good job :D

OMG, I'm gotten hooked on this fic. I've registered on this site just to give my two cents on it. 95% of what I read is slash so I had to check this out. I agree that the more realism a fic has, the better it is. This fic makes me feel like crying and laughing because although this HIV outbreak is devastating, I can breathe a sigh of relief and jump for joy that it's just make believe. ^_^
I had to hold onto my seat with Howie's revelations with Leigh and Nick. Poor babies, I feel so bad for the Doroughs. Leigh is betrayed by her unfaithful husband and Howie has to be the bearer of bad news and trying to keep his family from falling apart. And he's not even sure if he's entirely straight. You just can't help but feel bad for Sweet D even though it was his fault what happened to Holden. The layers of angst are giving me chills in a great way. =D

Author's Response: Wow, thank you so much for the amazing review! I'm flattered that you joined the site just so you could leave me one! I'm glad you're enjoying the story! I have never read much slash, and this is my first time writing it (even though it *barely* qualifies at this point, I'd say LOL), so it's really cool to have slash readers jumping on board! And yes, thank goodness it's only make believe LOL. I'm glad you're enjoying all the angst and that you feel for Howie. He messed up, but it's not like he did it on purpose, poor guy! Thanks again for reading and taking the time to review. I really appreciate it!

I’m afraid that Leigh already has divorce papers in my mind. It doesn’t look good for Howie. The poor fella, he meant no harm.
lol Funny that Howie still lingers on the hope that Nick will develop feelings for him through this. Responding to your last chapter's end notes, as much as I’d love to imagine a scenario where Nick and Howie engaged in penetration, I’m going to choose to believe that they only went as far as oral sex. I don’t think Howie would forget fucking or being fucked by his friend. I’d like to believe that the guys were unlucky enough to infect the other even when the odds were against them. ;)

Author's Response: Thanks for your review and your comments about my author's note! That's pretty much how I feel too, but I wanted to leave the door open for anyone who wasn't buying the bad luck thing LOL.

The previous two chapters were intense. I shed some tears when Nick found Howie passed out in the living room. If I were Nick, I'd have the urge to shake Howie violently and beat his chest until he breathed properly, which would probably only make things worse.
What a relief Howie made it out alive. It was such a twist that Kevin and AJ. Dammit Howie, when your body recovers, I should punch you in the shoulder for not spending your New Year's Eve with AJ instead of your depressing house. I'm glad that Leigh cried when she got the call from Kevin. Hopefully she'll let him see the kids again.

Author's Response: Thanks so much for the review! I love that I could make you cry. :) Everyone seemed surprised that it was Kevin and AJ there instead of Nick and Lauren. Yeah, someone seriously should have invited Howie over to New Years to spare him the pity party at home LOL.

It’s been more than a year since I read chapter 22. I just now read the last 12 chapters of this story and it was well worth the wait. This is A+ fanfiction material here.

So many emotional parts. I was misty eyed when AJ told Nick about the liver failure, when Howie told his bandmates he was turning down the transplant, and when Nick was visiting a dying a Howie. I needed to take breathers to remind myself that Howie is okay and to prepare myself for a possible grim end to Howie’s story. Leave it to Nick and his dramatic self to make it so Howie had to experience near-death for him to be receptive to Howie’s pleas for forgiveness.

So cute of Howie to have a little unrequited crush on Nick. I always thought Howie seemed too grossed out by Nick to feel that way, but there’s gotta be a reason why they’ve grown closer in more recent years. After all the awkward and angsty moments between them the past few months, I can’t wait to see what’s in store for their bromance now that they'll be living together. XD

Author's Response: Aww, thank you so much for coming back to this story and leaving me such a nice review! Last year was not a very productive year for me in terms of writing; I kind of hit a wall with the whole transplant storyline and didn't have a lot of time to resolve it, but now that I'm over that hump, I'm feeling really inspired again and trying to stay that way. I'm glad you're still enjoying it too! I know what you mean; it's always nice when Howie shares pictures of his family looking happy and healthy so I can remind myself that this is just a silly fanfic. I love what you said about "leave it to Nick and his dramatic self" - so true!! I really do think Nick needed to see Howie near death for him to realize he doesn't hate him and move forward toward a place of forgiveness. I have never tried to write slash before, and I started this story (well, the original short story first) as an experiment to see if I could write it seriously, so it was interesting trying to figure out how one or both of them could have feelings for the other. I can definitely see why Howie would be grossed out by Nick, but I can also see how, in a slash universe, he would develop feelings for this new, more mature (and much hotter!) version of Nick we've seen emerge over the last few years. I love their bromance in real life, and even if it never develops into a real romance like Howie would like in this story, it's fun writing about their relationship either way. Thanks again for the feedback; I appreciate it!