November 21, 2001 Tokyo, Japan

“I can’t believe Parker is three already!” Brian exclaimed as Nick sat down beside him at the large conference table. They’d been making idle chit chat while waiting for Kevin to arrive from a meeting with their tour manager for about an hour.

Nick nodded and thought for a moment about the little boy, “Time really has flown.”

“It seems like it was only yesterday that you were introducing us to Tina and she came on tour with us while she was pregnant,” Brian added and Nick wondered what was with all the talk about Tina and children.

“It was like yesterday,” Howie laughed from the other side of the table where he was going through some paperwork, “He’s only known her for three years.”

Nick rolled his eyes, having heard the same story time and again about how irresponsible he was for getting Tina pregnant, “Thank you Howard I’m aware, and I’ve known her three and a half years.”

 “I feel kind of bad for the little guy,” Brian continued, “All he wanted for his birthday was for you to be there with him and you were stuck here instead. That must be really hard for him, huh?”

“It is hard, for both of us,” Nick confirmed and turned his chair to face Brian, “He doesn’t understand what I do or why I’m not at home right now so everything is really personal to him. Why are you asking?”

Brian blushed slightly, looking to see that the other guys were busy doing something else before turning to face Nick, “Leighanne and I were talking about maybe trying for a baby.”

“From my own personal experience it doesn’t take much effort,” Nick joked then slapped Brian on the arm, “I think that’ll be awesome for you guys. So are you just worried about how the job will play into all of that?”

Before Brian could answer the door to the conference room swung open and Kevin walked in, grabbing the seat at the head of the table.

“I’d like to call this meeting of Backstreet Council to order,” he said, slapping a binder down on the table hard enough to get everyone’s attention, “If the clerk could please give the results of roll call?”

“All Backstreet Boys present and accounted for,” Howie said with a grin.

“Excellent, thank you,” Kevin nodded then opened the binder, “After discussion with our staff I have a couple of motions I’d like to put on the floor. First, there’s been a request come in that we take another break...”

“Kevin,” AJ interrupted, “I know this isn’t the usual protocol but I’d like to speak.”

“Wait until someone seconds it,” Kevin said, always having loved being able to treat their meetings as if he were the Mayor of some city, “So anyway there’s been a request that we take another break starting immediately after the next two Japan dates. I so move.”

“I’ll second it,” Nick said, wondering what AJ was going to say.

“Thank you Nick,” AJ told him then turned to the group, “I know you guys are probably so pissed to hear me say that I want more time off, but I really need it. I think that when I went to Arizona in the summer I really rushed through things. I was so concerned with getting back on tour and not postponing any more dates that I wasn’t really concentrating on fixing my own problems. The counsellors there told me that my problems weren’t just going to evaporate that I was going to end up bringing them back with me and I have. I’ve been drinking again, and I don’t see that stopping any time soon. I need to fix this problem once and for all so that we can get back to work some day.”

The other boys nodded understandingly, “No other discussion?” Kevin asked, “Okay then... all in favour of taking a break after this leg of the tour put up your hand.”

All five hands shot up.

“Now that we’ve settled that we have the small problem of the European leg of the tour. Again, after discussing with our staff members, the people who are paid to be smart about this kind of thing... I’d like to move that we cancel the rest of the tour.”

“I’ll second it,” Brian said immediately with a sharp gasp, if only so he could speak on the issue.

None of them had been expecting to cancel the rest of the tour; they only figured they would postpone it just like they had done with the earlier North American dates.

“Can’t we just postpone?” Brian questioned, looking at the other faces at the table around him who were equally shocked.  

“And how long do we keep putting it off?” Kevin asked, “Until we’ve been on the same tour for three years and no one is buying the album anymore? We have the greatest hits package and the single from that. We’ll just have to see where that takes us. All those in favour raise your hand.”

Somewhat reluctantly the others raised their hands, deciding that it was best to take the advice of the people working for them. After all, they were the ones losing a paycheque from it so if they’d suggested it; it must have been a good idea.

“And finally,” Kevin said, turning to the next page in the binder, “I would like to move that we cancel the studio time we have booked in Stockholm and Los Angeles.”

“Second,” Nick muttered and quickly ran his hands through his hair, “That’s all of our studio time. I think we all know that it’s not that easy to come by when you need as much time as we do. If we cancel now it could be months before we’re able to book that much time together at the studios we like.”

“We’re not going to need it,” Kevin explained, “Because we’re not recording a new album.”

“I don’t understand,” Nick admitted, not knowing what else to say.

“We need to give AJ all the time he needs to turn himself around,” Kevin said and AJ’s gaze never moved from the table top, “It’s not going to be helpful to have studio time, or writing sessions, or whatever else looming over his head making him worry that he needs to be somewhere. We’ll just cancel everything we’ve got planned for right now and once we’re ready we’ll figure things out. Won’t it be nice to just have no obligations for a while, nothing to do?”

Nick stared at him and blinked hard, “I’ve never had nothing to do,” he admitted softly, “what are the rest of us supposed to do?”

Kevin sighed and laid his pen down on the desk while returning the younger man’s gaze, “Live your life for a while Nick. This is your chance to spend the time with your kids that you haven’t been able to. You have a chance here to fix some of the problems you have in your own world. I think it’s going to be great for all of us to just have some time to ourselves.”

“But...” Nick let out a frustrated grunt, “I was okay with having a little bit of time. I figured we’d be off for a month or two. We can’t just say we’re going to be off indefinitely! Shouldn’t we have some kind of mark where we know we need to go back to work? Otherwise why don’t we just call this what it is and say we’re breaking up the group?”

“We’re not breaking up,” Howie interjected, “We’re not. None of us want that. We just want a little time.”

“I would really like some time,” Brian admitted, thinking of Leighanne and their efforts to conceive.

“All in favour?” Kevin asked once no one else had moved to speak.

Four hands came up but Nick made a point of leaning back in his seat and not raising his hand. He couldn’t agree to what could be the possible end of their careers.

“Four against one, motion carried. Sorry Nicky,” Kevin said before turning to the next page, “There’s just one more thing I wanted to mention and that’s the matter of our management...”