Summary: The next in the Nick & Lizz series....nearly a year of being terrorized, countless lives have been affected...payback....what a bitch!
Categories: Fanfiction > Backstreet Boys Characters: Brian
Genres: Angst, Drama, Romance, Suspense
Warnings: Violence
Challenges:
Series: Nick & Lizz Series
Chapters: 18 Completed: Yes
Word count: 39005 Read: 31530
Published: 11/25/05 Updated: 01/25/09
11 by Jenna
In the few months I had known her, Lizz was a heavy sleeper, very hard to
wake up. I pushed at her a few times and then her eyes suddenly flashed
open, eyes scanning the room.
She sprung up, her body drenched in sweat. Her eyes nervously scanned the
room. In an instant she realized where she was and acted as if she was
trying to cover up anything that happened.
“You had a really bad dream,” I started out. “Want to talk about it?”
Lizz nervously raked a hand through her blond hair. She shook her head. “I
don’t remember.”
I narrowed my eyes at her. “Yeah sure you don’t.”
“Honestly I don’t remember, can we just drop it?”
“Okay. So what’s the plan for tomorrow?” I asked, desperate to change the
subject and the air in the room.
Sighing, Lizz stood up and walked towards the bathroom. “I think that after
the furniture is delivered, we should go back to the mall when it opens that
way we would avoid all types of crowds and then we need to go grocery
shopping, there’s a ton of stuff we still need to do.”
“Don’t forget I still have to squeeze in my speech therapy at the hospital,” I
reminded her. God I hated going back to the hospital, but it was something
that needed to be done until my voice got better. My voice was my life, like
it or not so basically without it I would be screwed.
“Yeah that’s right,” Lizz replied, sticking her head out into the hall,
toothpaste foaming around her mouth.
“Ohmygod! Mad dog!” I teased.
“Ha ha ha, you are really funny. You should look for work as a comedian,” Lizz
shot back sarcastically.
“Well, I dunno about you, but I’m gonna go back to sleep, I’m beat.
Goodnight, Lizz.”
“Goodnight Jack,” Lizz replied.
‘Goodnight Jack.’ That struck me as being a little odd. Here we were, in an
apartment all by ourselves and she insisted on calling me Jack. I shrugged it
off. Maybe she was afraid if she didn’t practice, she would slip up and call
me Nick again.
My arms were feeling a little “tingly” for some odd reason, but I brushed
that off to being just tired. I drew the blankets up around my neck and
burrowed my head into the pillow.
~*~*~*~
“Vinnie, I had an encounter with a hottie by the newspaper machine,” Marcus
announced as he lumbered into the tiny apartment, newspaper folded under
his arm, six pack of beer in his hand.
“Those are a rare thing in these parts my friend,” Vinnie replied as he
reached for his beer on the endtable.
Marcus chuckled when he recalled the meeting with the stranger. “I think
she thought I was gonna rape her or something, not like that didn’t cross my
mind, but that’s funny.”
Vinnie smiled, the gold cap on his front tooth gleaming.
“You are a piece of work there Marcus.”
Popping open a beer and sitting down with a large bag of potato chips,
Marcus lowered his frame into the stained lazy boy chair.
Vinnie watched as Marcus shoved a handful of chips into his mouth, the
majority of them spilling down the front of his shirt.
“I dunno how you can do that to yourself,” Vinnie said as he shook his head.
Marcus belched. “Do what?”
“Eat like such a pig. Aren’t you worried about getting really fat?”
“Nah, it don’t matter to me, besides, I’m on the lam and the FBI would be
looking for a thinner Marcus so the more I gain the better off I am. Just a
theory, but it works for me,” Marcus replied as he patted his rounded
stomach. “Besides you’re such a skinny wimp you couldn’t eva defend
yourself.”
“I happen to like being skinny thank you very much,” Vinnie defended.
~*~*~*~
Morning seemed to have come all too quickly, Brian thought as he pushed the
covers off his body. He laid in the bed thinking about the events over the
past few days. His eyes fell on the pager, laying on the nightstand. Brian
eagerly scooped it up and scanned through the messages, hoping there would
be a new one from Nick. To his disappointment, there were none.
‘morning buddy’ Brian keyed into the pager. ‘hope all is good.’ Thinking for a
moment, he hit send and then got out of the bed and stumbled slowly to the
bathroom.
Once in the bathroom, Brian stared at his reflection in the mirror. The past
few months had taken it’s toll. His face was a ghostly pale and his eyes
literally looked dull.
“God, I need to get out more,” Brian smirked as he turned on the faucet and
splashed warm water on his face.
After taking care of his morning ritual of shaving, Brian heard the distinct
ringing of his pager. He quickly grabbed a towel and rushed over and grabbed
the device.
‘morning full day ahead shopping and therapy.’
Brian smiled at the reply. He noticed Nick placed shopping first and then
therapy second. Maybe it meant after spending time in the mall with Lizz he
would need therapy.
~*~*~*~
“Okay, do we want to try American Eagle again?” I asked with a grin. This
was a lot better going to the store at this early hour of the morning. The
only people around were the dedicated ‘blue hair mall walkers’ and the walker
wannabes that sat on benches with cups of coffee waiting for their spouse
to finish walking the halls of the mall.
“I’m game if you are,” Lizz replied, smiling.
I started to enter the store but was cut off by two older women buzzing in
front of me, hands pumping furiously back and forth in their quest for
fitness.
“Whoa, what’s the rush?” I yelled out at them. They evidently couldn’t hear
me and never slowed their pace.
“Hey Jack, would it be okay if I go to that store across the way over there?
I really didn’t see anything I liked in my new size here and I wanted to check
and see what they had there. You’d be okay by yourself for a few minutes,
right?”
I narrowed my eyes as I looked in the direction she was pointing. “Tent and
Awning shop?”
“Ha ha, so funny,” Lizz replied as she smacked me on the arm. “I’ll either
meet you back here or you come to me, okay?”
“Yep,” I replied as I turned and entered the store.
You know how you get that feeling that someone is watching you but you
don’t see them? I was getting that as I was looking over the jeans that were
hanging along the wall of the store.
“Are you finding everything?”
I spun around and saw a petite Oriental girl standing in front of me. Her
name tag read Sammy.
“Yeah, I think I got this covered Sammy, thanks,” I replied with my still so
raspy voice.
“You sort of look familiar to me in an odd sort of way,” she pressed.
My heart was literally pounding in my throat. “Oh? Never been here before,”
I lied.
“No, I didn’t mean it that way, I meant that you looked familiar. Like
you could be someone’s brother.”
I kept my gaze on the clothes racks, nervously fumbling through my size and
the next five sizes after that.
She snapped her fingers. “That’s it! You look like you could be Nick Carter’s
brother!”
Aaron? I smiled. “I don’t really think so.”
“I know, silly of me wasn’t it?”
I was starting to feel sort of funny. Like the walls were closing in on me, but
not in a panic attack closing. Something was happening to me, something I
hadn’t felt in months. I turned to face Sammy.
“Oh god, are you alright?”
It hit.
“Oh god,” I moaned softly before I dropped to the floor.
~*~*~*~
I nervously peeked under the dressing room door again to see if there were
any feet close by me. This bodysuit went all the way down to my ankles and
showed underneath the door. It was flesh colored and looked like a wetsuit.
Only tighter. Now that I was sort of starting to get used to it I didn’t loathe it
quite so bad, but I still looked forward to when I would be rid of it. I twisted
all around trying to decide if I liked the jeans I was wearing. Even though I
was supposed to not dress in the same sort of style, I couldn’t bring myself to
wear anything but lowrisers. I was just pulling the deep turquoise shirt over
my head when I was hit with a horrible feeling of uneasiness. I couldn’t
contain the gasp that escaped my lips as I flung the door open.
Without so much as a word to any of the employees I raced out of the
store towards American Eagle. Behind me I heard the cries of the workers,
yelling at me to stop. One of them even shouted “shoplifter.” If I wasn’t so
scared I would have laughed at how ridiculous it would be for me to try to run
out the store wearing their clothes and leaving my purse behind. What kind
of shoplifter would I be if I did that? As soon as I got into the entrance of
American Eagle I saw a small crowd of people. Mostly workers and a few
old ladies. I pushed through the mob, my heart skipping a beat when I saw
Nick on the floor.
“Oh my god, Nick!” I cried without thinking. I dropped down next to him.
He was laying completely still and his eyes were closed. “What happened?!”
I tried to keep the panic from my voice.
An oriental employee that almost reminded me of Kyung was also
kneeling next to Nick. She looked up at me, her eyes wide with fear and
shock. “I - I don’t know. I was talking to him and out of nowhere he got this
funny look on his face and then he started to have a seizure.”
I nodded, my heart sinking. “Come on Ni-Jack. Open your eyes for
me hun okay?” I patted the side of his face gently and held his hand with my
other one.
“Someone should call 911.” What looked like a manager kneeled
down next to me. I vaguely recognized him since I was a pretty frequent
shopper.
“No, he’ll be ok.” I said quickly. “He’s epileptic is all.” I added,
lying.
Nick finally started to stir. His eyes fluttered a moment. He darted his eyes
back and forth wildly, realizing what had happened. They finally settled on
me and relaxed a tad bit.
“Li-“? He started, but I cut him off before he could say something that
would give us away.
“It’s okay Jack. Don’t say anything. You’re fine hun, but you need to
stay quiet ok?” I said soothingly. I hoped he was coherent enough to figure
out my underlying message not to say my real name or anything. This was
going to be difficult. After a seizure he was completely zapped of strength
and would end up sleeping for the next several hours. He was barely going to
be able to walk for the next several hours. I felt a bunch of stares on us not to
mention a lot of whispering and my temper flared. I turned around and
looked up at all the old ladies obviously interested in the commotion. It was
probably more excitement than they had seen in awhile.
“Okay, show’s over. You can go back to your speedwalking now.” I
said shortly. Normally I wouldn’t be so rude, but I knew Nick was
uncomfortable with all these people staring at him and frankly, so was I. Plus
they seemed more excited by it all than concerned.
Most of the women broke up and started to leave with a little coaxing
from the manager.
“We have a back room we can go to if that would help.” The oriental girl
offered. “By the way I’m Sammy.”
I nodded. “Thanks. That would be best.” I thought a moment, trying
to decide what the best option would be. I had worked in this mall some time
ago and in the back room there was a door that led to the trash pickup
outside. I wondered if this store had such an exit and if I could bring the jeep
up to it so Nick would only have to walk a very short distance. I asked
Sammy about it and too my relief there was one. The manager came back
after clearing out the onlookers and between him and I, we helped Nick up
and took him to the back room. They had a cot back there and we helped
Nick to lay down on it. I sat on the edge.
“Jack, I’m going to go bring the car around so we can get you outta
here okay?” I said softly. His eyes kept falling shut, but when I said that
they opened a little wider.
“No...” He whispered, looking uneasy.
“Do you feel like it’s going to happen again?” I questioned.
He shook he head ever so slightly.
“You want to stay here for awhile?” I tried again.
He shook his head again. I could see the exhaustion in his
eyes.
“You don’t want me to leave?” I said even more quietly.
He nodded and closed his eyes again.
“Okay, I’ll figure out
something.” I wanted to smack myself on the forehead. Duh. Go figure he
wasn’t going to want to be alone in an unfamiliar backroom after having a
seizure. I stood up and poked my head out the door. Sammy looked up from
where she was hovering nearby and walked over.
“Can I ask you a really huge favor?” I asked her.
“Sure anything. Is he okay?” Sammy said, glancing behind
me.
“Yeah, but after a seizure he’s going to be really weak. I know this is
a major favor but is there anyway, if I gave you my keys, if you could bring
our jeep around for us?” I prayed she wouldn’t ask why I couldn’t do it and
that she would say yes.
“Of course.”
I smiled with relief and told her where we were parked. Since it was so early,
there weren’t many cars out so it would be relatively easy to find the jeep.
When I reached into my pocket I realized I was still wearing the clothes from
Express and my purse was in there.
“Shit.” I muttered.
“Looking for this?” A saleswoman from Express suddenly appeared in
front of me, holding my purse and my own clothes.
“Yes thank you. I’m sorry about...” I started as I reached for my
clothes.
She gave me an icy stare. “You are lucky that it was an emergency or
I would press charges.”
My jaw dropped to the floor. What was it with these insensitive clods
that I always seemed to run into?! “Well gosh, you’re lucky I have bigger
things on my mind or I would get your ass fired for talking to a customer like
that!” I snapped back. I reached behind me and pulled the price tag off the
back of the shirt and then did the same with the jeans. The total came to
roughly $80 for both things and dug that much out in cash and shoved it into
her hand. “Thank you.” I retorted as I turned on my heel and went back into
the back room where Nick was.
“Damn Marylin, have a little heart will ya? Her friend had a freakin
seizure right here in the middle of the store.” I heard the manager of
American Eagle say to her.
A few minutes later we were helping Nick into the jeep. He was so out
of it and so disoriented that the manager practically had to carry him. He shut
the door and I rolled down Nick’s window.
“Thank you both for your help. I’m sorry about all this, but thank you
for being so great about it.
“It’s not a problem. I hope your friend is feeling better.” The manger
said with a smile.
I nodded and pulled away from the back entrance. When I glanced in my
rearview mirror I saw them watching us and it made my stomach flip flop. It
was probably just me being paranoid though.
Not even fifteen minutes later we pulled up in front of the apartment
complex. I had ahold of Nick’s hand the entire time trying to keep him
somewhat awake. If he fell asleep, it would be almost impossible to get him
up again for the next several hours and I wanted to get him inside first.
Luckily there was a parking spot right in front of our apartment so we didn’t
have as much trouble as I was afraid we were. With him leaning heavily on
me, we managed to get in and get him onto our new couch. It was closer than
the bedroom and I knew he wasn’t going to be able to be on his feet much
longer.
Almost immediately after laying down, he crashed. I managed to get
him his seizure meds before he zonked out on me at least. I sat on the coffee
table facing him, rolling the small bottle of pills back and forth in my hand.
Something troubled me and I finally looked at the bottle. I read the info on
the outside with his new alias and his doctor’s name. Underneath it stated the
date that the prescription should be refilled. I frowned and opened the bottle.
There were too many pills left in there! I narrowed my eyes when it sunk in
that he had been skipping. I wanted to ask him so bad why, but there was
nothing I could do until he woke up.
I paced around the room, restless. I finally decided to go get a
newspaper and see if we got any mail yet. There shouldn’t have been any
unless something was overnighted for some reason. With us, ya never
knew.
I took a last glance at Nick and satisfied that there was no way he
would wake up yet, I was sure it would be okay for me to run that quick
errand. He had three hours before his speech therapy appointment and I
hoped he would get enough rest to at least be able to function.
The mailbox was empty except for a piece of junk mail inviting us to get a
credit card. Already! How do these people work so fast? I stuck my hand
into my pocket and fished out a couple quarters and started to drop it into the
machine.
“Hey there hot stuff!”
The voice startled me and I dropped the quarter. Then the familiar
voice hit and I could feel the color drain from my cheeks. That’s it! I was
never getting another newspaper here again! I had to fight the impulse to run,
but that would look really suspicious. What if he recognized me? I stood
there frozen, unsure of what to do.
“I figured you would come out here again to get another newspaper.”
He laughed nervously. “Not like I was waiting for you or
anything.”
I turned around slowly and waited. There was no hint of recognition in
his expression. There was only a stupid grin. Then my stomach churned.
That was a pretty friendly grin.
“So, what’s your name hot stuff?”
Play it cool, just be cool. “It’s ah, Katie. And you?”
“Marcus. So, you just moved in?” He continued to grin.
Now I smiled. He really didn’t recognize me, but I still felt a little
uneasy. “Ohio. Have you lived here long?”
“Nope. I won’t be here long either. I was just visiting some friends,
but well, one of them died and so...” He trailed off with the sorriest excuse
for a sad look on his face.
I wanted to be sick. “Gosh, I’m sorry. What happened?”
“It’s ah...hard to talk about. I think I will be staying in town to keep an
eye on a friend of his though. Make sure he is okay and all.” He let his voice
almost sound choked, then managed to sound concerned.
My mind raced. Brian! He’s staying here to keep an eye on Brian?!
The sick feeling increased and I wanted to rip him to shreds right on the spot.
“Well it was nice to see you. I better go now.” I gave him the best smile I
could manage and turned around without my newspaper.
“Wait!”
I turned around, my heart threatening to pound out of my chest.
“Yeah?”
He grinned again. “Maybe we could go out sometime?”
I wanted to scream. “Ah, I don’t think so. Thank you though. I gotta
go, bye.” I said hastily.
I had to force myself not to run back to the apartment. All I wanted
was to get back to Nick.
Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters and settings are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. No money is being made from this work. No copyright infringement is intended.