Anywhere For You

By Keelie Rosara


“Nick?” Keelie paused, listening hard.

Nothing.

She tried shouting his name again, louder this time. “NICK?”

She held her breath; still no response. She was getting impatient.

“NICK!!!”

“Keel?” His golden blonde head popped around the doorway, ocean blue eyes questioning. “What’s up, babe?”

Keelie put on her most angelic smile. “Niiiicky…?” she sing-songed.

“Keeeeelie?” he mimicked her, azure eyes sparkling playfully. “What?”

She tried to act innocent, batting her eyelashes, beaming that smile she knew he couldn’t resist. One finger rose to twirl a lock of her flaxen hair, while her other hand went to her swollen belly. “I just got the biggest craving for Ben & Jerry’s…” she began, her tone wistful.

“… And?” Nick prompted, playing dumb. He knew exactly what she wanted, but he was going to make her ask for it. Beg, even. He loved to be difficult.

Keelie felt more impatient than ever; her craving was growing stronger with each passing second! But she kept smiling. “Well… I was hoping my wonderful, amazing, brilliant husband would go to the store and get me a pint. Since, ya know, I barely fit behind the steering wheel these days.” She gave her belly a pat for extra emphasis.

Just a few months ago, it had been flat and toned, but now it was so round that she could barely see over it. She could hardly wait for their baby to be born so that she could catch a glimpse of her feet again! Thankfully, she only had a few more weeks until her due date… and thankfully, she had a husband who was willing to give her pedicures!

Nick really was wonderful, amazing, and brilliant, with his sensual foot rubs, careful applications of toenail polish, and these late-night ice cream runs. Sure enough, the corners of his mouth twitched with a smile he couldn’t hide, and he sighed. “What flavor?”

“Cherry Garcia! No… Chunky Monkey!”

“Ya sure?” Nick asked flatly. He was all too used to Keelie changing her mind.

“Yeah, I’m… wait! No… yeah… yeah, I’m sure. Chunky Monkey it is!”

“You better not change your mind,” Nick warned.

Keelie grinned, letting her lashes flutter over her aquamarine eyes again. “I’ll just call you if I do,” she replied, holding up her cell. “Got your phone?”

Nick pulled his own cell phone out of his pocket, along with his car keys. “Got it.”

“Perfect. Don’t be long!” Keelie sent him off with a wave, smiling with contentment as he disappeared into the night. She felt like the luckiest girl in the world – wife of Nick Carter, expectant mother of his child, and soon-to-be consumer of a pint of Chunky Monkey ice cream. Surely, life couldn’t get any better than this.

~*~*~*~*~*~

I’d go anywhere for you
Anywhere you asked me to
I’d do anything for you
Anything you want me to


Nick couldn’t help but smile as he drove his Escalade along the winding roads that connected the gated community where he and Keelie lived to the grocery store where he would find the treasure she most desired, at least at this particular moment: a pint of Ben & Jerry’s finest Chunky Monkey ice cream.

He didn’t necessarily enjoy leaving the comfort of his home at eleven p.m. on a rainy March night to drive a mile down the road for ice cream. But for Keelie, he’d do it. For Keelie, he’d do anything.


I’d walk halfway around the world
For just one kiss from you
Far beyond the call of love
The sun, the stars, the moon


She was his life, his other half. Together, they were whole, and together, they’d created a new life, the little life growing inside of her womb. In a month or so, they would be parents, and Nick couldn’t have been more excited. He had never looked forward to something as much as he was looking forward to the arrival of their little bundle of joy. They didn’t even know what the sex was yet, because Keelie had wanted it to be a surprise. Keelie loved surprises.

As for Nick… he just loved Keelie.


As long as your love’s there to lead me
I won’t lose my way, believe me
Even through the darkest night, you know

I’d go anywhere for you
Anywhere you asked me to
I’d do anything for you
Anything you want me to
Your love as far as I can see
Is all I’m ever gonna need
There’s one thing for sure
I know it’s true
Baby, I’d go anywhere for you


As he drove, Nick thought back to how they’d first met, he and the love of his life.

She was fresh out of college and newly hired to run the Backstreet Boys official website. As webmistress, she was invited to come on tour with the Boys, so that she could provide pictures and updates from the road. Nick and the guys had communicated with her a bit through email, but he would never forget the first time he’d met her in person. How she’d looked up from her laptop, tossed her sleek, blonde hair out of her sky-blue eyes, and flashed him a radiant smile that seemed to penetrate straight into his soul, filling him with warmth.

He’d been a skeptic before then, but at that moment, he found out what it felt like to fall in love at first sight. From then on, he was a believer.

Keelie spent more time on his bus than hers that tour. They spent every spare minute they had together, and even multitasked, Nick helping her decide what to put on the website, while Keelie served as the muse for his latest love songs. He warmed up his voice serenading her, and she always had a compliment that would make him feel good.

After years of failed relationships, countless women who had used and abused him, Nick had finally found the one, and it didn’t take long for him to put a ring on her finger and commit his future to her. They were married on a sunny Saturday in May, and now, less than a year later, they were about to start a family.


I used to think that dreams were just
For sentimental fools
And I'd never find someone
Who'd give their love so true
But I knew the very minute
Couldn't live my life without you in it
Now I want the whole wide world to know


Imagining the mother of his baby at home drumming her slender, long-nailed fingers against the arm of the couch as she waited for her ice cream, Nick pulled the SUV into the parking lot of the grocery store and turned off the engine.

Ducking his head against the pelting rain, he jogged into the store and headed straight for the freezer cases. Thankfully, they were well stocked with Ben & Jerry’s, and after a moment, he found the flavor Keelie had requested and pulled a pint-sized tub off the shelf.

On his way up to the cashier, a case of fresh flowers caught his eye, and he paused. The glass front of the case captured his reflection, as he stood there contemplating the selection. Finally making his choice, he reached into the case and emerged with a beautiful bouquet of multi-colored tulips. They were sure to brighten the dreary night and make Keelie smile. After all, she did love surprises, and tulips were her favorite. ‘I am a great husband,’ Nick thought, grinning at his reflection as he let the case door swing shut and walked up front to pay.

It was still raining when he left the store, trying to protect the flowers tucked under his arm. He let out his breath in a big gust once he finally climbed into the dry interior of the Escalade, hearing the rain beat down on the roof as he lay the bouquet carefully on the passenger seat next to him. The ice cream, he dropped to the floor. He started the vehicle, putting the windshield wipers on full-speed, and pulled away from the store.

With his mind far away in reminiscence of his relationship with Keelie, he didn’t see the tree branch until it was too late. With a thud and a crack, the SUV crunched over the branch, and he felt his front right tire pop. “Shit,” he hissed, gripping the wheel so tightly that his knuckles were white, as he tried to regain control of the vehicle. He managed to ease it to the side of the road and stopped, jumping out into the pouring rain. He ran around to the passenger side of the Escalade, and sure enough, the tire was flat.

“Well, now what?” he muttered, a clap of thunder muffling his words. He could try and change the tire himself –
not that he ever had before – or he could call for help and wait.

But then, Keelie would be waiting too. Keelie, at home all alone, pregnant and craving her ice cream, which was slowly melting in the car. Nick sighed. He couldn’t keep Keelie waiting. It was only a mile or so to the house. He could walk it, and come back for the car in the morning.

His mind made up, he opened up the passenger side door and took out the ice cream and the flowers, locking the doors as he shut up the car. Pocketing his keys, he set off down the road. He tried to shield his purchases from the barrage of rain beating down on him, but it was no use; within seconds, his shirt was soaked through, and his shoes sloshed with each step. Still, he kept walking, determined to get Keelie her ice cream.


I’d go anywhere for you
Anywhere you asked me to
I’d do anything for you
Anything you want me to
Your love as far as I can see
Is all I’m ever gonna need
There’s one thing for sure
I know it’s true
Baby, I’d go anywhere for you


The roar of the rainstorm was so loud that he didn’t hear the car until it was upon him, its headlights washing over him. He moved instinctively to the shoulder of the road and turned, squinting into the bright lights that seemed to be coming right at him. Temporarily blinded, he raised his hand to shield his eyes, and as he did, he realized the car was out of control, barreling toward him.

He had no time to react, no time to get out of the way. He heard the squeal of breaks as the car tried to swerve, but it was too late. It struck him, with more force than he could have ever imagined, and the flowers and ice cream slipped from his arms as his body was thrown up and over the hood, cracking the windshield as it bounced off and tumbled onto the street.

There was a moment’s realization of what had happened, as he lay on the wet pavement, his body twisted and bent, too broken to move. An unnatural darkness, blacker than the stormy night, crept over him, and as it did, the irrational thought came to him. ‘Keelie won’t get her ice cream.’ And then… ‘I’m never going to see Keelie again.’

That was his last thought as he was swallowed by the darkness, Keelie’s angelic face on his mind as it lost consciousness.

~*~*~*~*~*~

It was getting late. Where could Nick be? Keelie had all but lost her craving for Ben & Jerry’s, the hollow in her stomach replaced by the gnawing sensation of worry.

“Mama’s going to go look for your Daddy,” she told their pet pug, Rachel, with a decisive nod, scooping up her car keys and cell phone. She had tried calling Nick a couple of times, but gotten no answer, and that’s what scared her. Nick always had his phone on him. She’d even seen him put it in his pocket. There was no reason for him not to answer, unless… unless something had happened.

It was still pouring outside. She listened to the rain on the roof as she started her car, pausing to pull her long hair, the color of cornsilk, off her face. She tied it into a messy ponytail with a black scrunchy and put the car into gear.

Even with the windshield wipers whipping back and forth across the windshield, it was hard to see out for all the gales of rain. She drove slowly, keeping her eyes peeled for anything out of the ordinary, though she prayed she wouldn’t find anything. Her worst fear was that Nick had been in some horrible car accident. She just hoped he had gotten sidetracked, made an extra stop on the way home. Maybe his phone had died. Or maybe he’d dropped it in the rain, and it was broken. He had to be okay, wherever he was; he just had to be. Bad things didn’t happen to perfect couples like Nick and her.

When she saw the swirling lights of an ambulance up ahead, she all but lost it. Her breath catching in her throat, she pulled off to the side of the road and left the car running as she climbed out.

A cop came up to her right away. “Ma’am, this is the scene of an accident; you can’t be here right now.”

Keelie looked wildly over his shoulder, searching for Nick’s Escalade. She didn’t see any cars at all, but maybe they had already been towed. “Please, sir, you don’t understand,” she started to plead with the police officer. “I’m looking for my husband. He should have been back a long time ago, and I can’t reach him on his cell phone. Can you tell me-”

She paused suddenly and gasped. The officer didn’t have to tell her anything. She watched in horror as a stretcher was whisked by, her Nick lying lifelessly upon it. “No!” she cried. “Not Nick!”

The officer reached out a consoling hand, but Keelie twisted away from it, bursting into hysterical tears. “Noooooo!!!!!” she howled, and as her whole world seemed to cave in around her, she crumpled to the ground.

“Ma’am? Ma’am, please… you need to come with me.”

Somehow, the officer got her up off the ground and walked her shakily to his patrol car. She sat in the passenger seat and cried over the dashboard as he told her what had happened.

“Apparently he’d gotten a flat tire a ways back up the road. We found his Escalade left abandoned. He must have been walking for help when he was hit from behind by another car. It was a hit and run; the driver never stopped. He was drunk, likely.”

Keelie didn’t care about the driver of the other car. “What about Nick?” she asked between sobs. “Is he going to be okay?”

The officer gazed into her cerulean eyes with grave seriousness in his own mahogany brown ones. He wished he could lie to this poor woman, especially given her delicate condition, but he was compelled to be honest with her. “His injuries are very severe,” he told her, taking hold of her petite hands. “He’s likely suffered major internal damage. He’s been in and out of consciousness since we found him. At this point, he’s barely clinging to life.”

“No…” she whispered, shaking her head, her tear-filled orbs wide with anguish.

“They’re working on him in the ambulance now. Would you like to see him?”

Somehow, Keelie found the strength to nod her flaxen head. “Yes,” she whispered, trying to steady her quivering voice. “Please. Take me to my husband.”

The officer gave a nod and came around to help her out of the car. Her sparkly black, sequined flip-flops squished against the flooded pavement as she walked on slender, unsteady legs to the ambulance. Its ominous, flashing lights were making her feel light-headed, and all of a sudden, her knees buckled, as a sharp cramp hit her belly. She cried out in pain and fell, sinking to the ground. Immediately, she felt the rainwater soaking into the seat of her pink velour track pants, but she didn’t care. She clutched her pregnant stomach, moaning in sudden agony, all other thoughts temporarily thrown out of her mind.

“Ma’am?!” The police officer was kneeling at her side in an instant, his hand pressing down on her shoulder as he looked at her with concern. “What is it?”

“I… I don’t know!” Keelie gasped through her pain, feeling distraught. “It’s… my belly… the baby!”

“Is it a contraction? Are you in labor?” The office pelted her with questions.

The thought hadn’t occurred to Keelie, but as a second cramp hit her, she nodded frantically. “I… I think so!”

“Medic! Over here!”

The EMTs who had been working on Nick suddenly swarmed around Keelie. They loaded her onto a second stretcher and carried her into the dry interior of the ambulance. As the contraction faded, she looked over and saw Nick next to her, and her heart nearly broke.

His face was blood-streaked and ashen beneath the oxygen mask over his mouth and nose, and he was lying stiffly, strapped down to the gurney, his neck in a large brace. He was unconscious, but she reached out and took his hand and gave it a squeeze.

“Nick? Baby, it’s me, Keelie. Can you open your eyes for me? Please, Nicky, please open your eyes. You have to wake up. Our… our baby’s on the way, Nick… ahhhh!” She trailed off, crying out in pain, as her body was wracked with another contraction. She bore down on Nick’s hand, even though he didn’t squeeze back, as she fought through the pain.

One of the EMTs looked up from between her legs and over at his partner, his face alarmed. “This baby’s coming fast! I don’t think we can get her to the hospital; we need all the help we can get to tend to both of them here. We’re going to have to deliver in the ambulance!”

“No, wait,” Keelie gasped, writhing in pain. “Please! I’m not ready! Nick… I need Nick! Nick, please… please wake up! I love you! I love you so much! Just open your eyes for me, baby, please!”

Suddenly, his lashes began to flutter, and as Keelie held her breath and watched, his sapphire blue eyes opened and looked over at her.

“Nick!” she cried, breaking into a tearful smile. “That’s it, baby! Look at me. You’re gonna be alright, Nicky… you’re gonna be just fine.”

“Wha… wha’ ‘appen?” Nick croaked, barely hanging on to consciousness.

“You were hit by a car. Stay with me, Nick,” Keelie said fiercely, wrenching his hand as he threatened to slip away again. “You gotta stay awake now. Our baby’s on the way, Nicky… stay here for our baby.”

“Baby?” he repeated, his cobalt eyes foggy with confusion.

“Yes! Our baby! I’m in labor, Nick! I’m- ahhhhh!” She screamed out again, as the next contraction hit, stronger and more painful than ever. This time, she felt Nick squeezing her hand with the last of his failing strength, as she gasped and cried in misery.

“I… love you… Keelie,” he whispered once the contraction was over, and she had wilted against the stretcher.

“Oh Nick… I love you too,” she panted. “More than life itself.”

“Sorry to break up this moment, but we need to get this baby out,” interrupted one of the paramedics. “Now, on the next contraction, I’m going to tell you to push, and I need you to push with all your energy. Do you understand, Keelie?”

Keelie nodded. She was scared, but she knew she had to be strong for Nick, so that he could stay strong too. “I’m ready,” she said bravely. “Keep squeezing my hand, Nick. Don’t let go. Don’t ever let go.”

“I won’t… let go…” came Nick’s rasping vow. “I’d do… anything… for you…”

“I know, baby… I know,” Keelie sniffled. “Just don’t leave me. That’s all I need you to do. Stay with me.”

“I’ll… try…”

When the contraction came, Keelie steeled herself against the stretcher and pushed. She could feel Nick’s grip on her hand, weak but still there, and she squeezed back as she bore down with all her might, her eyes scrunched shut with the effort.

“Keep pushing… just a little further,” the EMT coached from between her legs. “The baby’s almost out.”

She was about to put all she had into one final push, when she felt Nick’s grip on her hand slacken. “Nick?” she cried out, squeezing his hand. There was no response. She turned her head and saw him lying lifelessly on the gurney, the way he’d been when she had first seen him. Only now, his oceanic eyes were open. Open… but vacant, glassy. He was staring at nothing… seeing nothing. “Nick?! No!” she begged, through the pangs of her labor. “Do something!” she screamed to the paramedics who were trying to deliver her baby.

“Come on, Keelie, keep pushing,” urged the paramedic who was helping her, while his partner rushed to Nick’s side. “Let’s deliver your baby. Focus, Keelie.”

As Keelie Carter screamed and pushed with all her might, her husband Nick’s body was jolted with a surge of electricity from a pair of paddles shocking his lifeless heart. Her baby slid into the world as his soul left it, and just as one paramedic told her, “It’s a boy,” the other shook his head and whispered the words, “He’s gone.”

A wet, warm bundle was placed in Keelie’s arms, but as she clutched it to her chest, her tears falling upon her baby’s face, she felt only emptiness.

~*~*~*~*~*~

In the emergency room at the hospital, the attending physician filled in the time of death on Nick Carter’s death certificate, while in the maternity ward, a nurse jotted down the time of birth of his son.

With her pen poised over the birth certificate, she looked up and asked Keelie, “What name have you chosen for your baby, hun?”

Keelie had barely had time to think, but it took her only a split second to give her answer. “Nickolas,” she whispered. “Nickolas Gene Carter… Jr.”

The nurse added the name to the birth certificate, and Keelie looked down at the newborn in her arms, taking in his appearance for the first time. He was beautiful, she realized, and some warmth spread over her numb heart. “Hi Nicky,” she murmured, though it pained her to say his name.

The newborn’s wispy eyelashes fluttered at the sound of his mother’s voice, and his eyes opened. Keelie looked down into them and gasped. They were pure blue, the color of the sea when it reflected the sky on a cloudless summer day. They were Nick’s eyes.

Her own eyes filled with tears, but even in the midst of her sadness, she felt the unyielding strength and protectiveness only a mother could possess. “You’ve got your daddy’s eyes,” she told her son softly, stroking the wisps of blonde hair plastered to his soft scalp. “Your daddy loved you so much… more than you’ll ever know. And so do I. I’ll do anything for you. Anything…”

In the back of her mind, she could hear Nick’s voice singing the words he’d always used to sing to her, the old lyrics to his song. “I’d go anywhere for you, anywhere you asked me to… I’d do anything for you, anything you want me to… Your love as far as I can see, is all I’m ever gonna need… There’s one thing for sure, I know it’s true… Baby, I’d go anywhere for you…”

Remembering the sweet sound of his voice, Keelie blinked back tears and swallowed a sob, determined not to break down and frighten the infant in her arms. Nick wouldn’t want her to do that. He would want her to be strong for his son.

And she would be. This new life before her… he was her life now. The only thing worth living for. She would do anything to protect him, anything to keep him safe, and she would raise him to be the kind of man Nick had been. It was the one last thing she could do for Nick, who had sacrificed his life out of his devotion to her.

Miles away, the rain washed away the melted remnants of a pint of Chunky Monkey ice cream, while the battered bouquet of tulips remained on the road, a lingering reminder of the love between Nick and Keelie Carter.

And somewhere, far beyond the realm of where he’d intended to go for Keelie, Nick looked down upon his widow and their newborn son and smiled at the love he saw.


Your love as far as I can see
Is all I’m ever gonna need
There’s one thing for sure
I know it’s true
Baby, I’d go anywhere for you
For you


~*~ The End ~*~


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