December 19, 2001 Tampa, Florida

Tina had always looked for advice with how to handle Nick but no one really had any. He truly was an enigma of sorts, difficult to read and even harder to anticipate. Her first experiences with Nick (hanging out on the beach in Florida, enjoying spring break) had all been good. After all, he was trying to woo her, he had admitted multiple times that his goals that weekend did include getting into her pants. It wasn't until the first couple of weeks of being with him on tour had passed that she realized what an asshole he could be at times. She had tried to get advice from her mother but they were both in the same boat - innocent bystanders, merely watching as Hurricane Nick stormed through.

That is when she had developed a relationship with Nick's father. Getting to know him was the closest she'd ever been to figuring Nick out but there were still things about him, particularly influenced by his upbringing and subsequent fame that made the two of them fundamentally different. Bob had worked for what he had as an adult and although Nick had worked too, he'd never had the nine-to-five experience like both his parents had.

Max, on the other hand, seemed to have shared in those experiences with Nick and she could only imagine that someone this woman was married to was likely wealthy and successful also. They were the class of people that Nick considered himself now, whereas his parents were the class below.

"Do tell," Tina said, keen to hear what could be the advice she had been waiting for.

"Just slip a little something into his food," Max explained.

Tina frowned, that wasn't what she had been expecting "You want me to poison him?"

Max gasped and shook her head, "No! Not poison him! Unless of course that's something you had been thinking about?"

"Well no," Tina shook her head quickly, "I don't really want to kill him. I kind of need him."

"Only kind of?" Max teased, reaching out to poke Tina's arm jokingly, "What I meant was give him something to calm him down. My ex-husband, Will, was so uppity. He was one of those people that is stressed out all the time and makes everyone else stressed out just looking at him. So I started sprinkling some Valium in his breakfast every morning and sure enough he calmed right down."

"Because you were drugging him," Tina pointed out, "So he wasn't really calmer."

"He acted calmer though, and that was enough for me," the older woman shrugged.

"Well Nick isn't like that though. He's not stressed, he's not nervous, he's just... annoying," Tina said frankly and the two of them laughed.

Though Tina was pretty certain the conversation was over at that point Max had more to contribute.

"What about Ritalin?" she asked and Tina gaped at her wide eyed.

"Are you serious?" she asked, "You want me to put Ritalin in his food? What if I don't make his food? How would I even get Ritalin?"

"Semantics," Max waved her off, "You don't work in this business as long as I have and not have contacts. I could hook you up."

"You're serious," Tina said, still trying to take in everything that had happened in the last couple of minutes. Her initial thought was to turn the other woman down. She couldn't be that deceitful. What if something happened to him because she was giving him medication that he didn't even know about? Part of her though couldn't help but wonder whether it would work. After all, the only thing her parents did have to say about Nick was that they were sure he had some kind of attention deficit disorder. She couldn't stop herself from mentally rationalizing the whole thing, that maybe it would be for the best and just what he needed.

"It's not like you're injecting heroin into his veins," Max told her honestly, "You just have to make sure you make at least one of his meals every day. Is that such a tall order?"

"Not really," Tina admitted, "He's not on tour right now so I'll be making most of his meals. If I didn't he would either starve or eat nothing but Doritos and Dr. Pepper."

"And when he goes on tour give him some spiel about how they're vitamins and he needs to take them or something," Max said with a chuckle, "Men are pretty stupid, he'll probably buy it. What's the worst than can happen?"

Tina was amazed by what a master manipulator the other woman was. It didn't really surprise her that she was divorced, "He finds out and makes me leave?"

"I'm telling you, it'll work," Max said and Tina truly believed she was being sincere.

"Okay," she relented with a quick nod, "I'll try it. If it means that I might actually be able to deal with him for once I guess I will have to take the risk. Telling him he needs to see a doctor about it definitely won't work so I don't have a lot of other options."

~*~

Tina ran her fingers through Nick’s hair, soothing him as his body shuddered above her. Both children had gone down easily and fallen asleep quickly and Tina couldn’t deny that if they wanted to spend any quality time together it would have to be then. She didn’t even have a chance to vocalize it to Nick though before he had them both half undressed and heading towards their bed.

He let out a heavy, satisfied sigh and relaxed against her. It was times like this that Tina was able to notice the changes in his body. When they’d first met him resting his body weight against her was something she loved, feeling enveloped by him. Now though, since he had started gaining weight, he was just heavy. She didn’t want to be rude but became harder and harder to breathe and made her worry about what could happen if he fell asleep in that position.

Nick dropped a kiss to her ear, “I love you,” he whispered, pulling back to look at her.

Tina smiled and ran the back of her hand over his flushed cheeks. While many people looked sexy and glowing after sex, Nick just looked amusing. He was always sweaty and red, as if he’d just run a marathon. Tina always thought he looked cute, his face like a tomato after he got worked up.

“I love you too,” she said with a smile, “So...” she prompted, “What did you get me for Christmas when you were out shopping today?”

Nick laughed, resting his elbows on either side of her head, “Socks and underwear. Why? Were you expecting something else?”

“You’re a liar,” she teased, tickling his side quickly just to see him squirm.

“No,” he giggled, “I’m telling the truth. That’s all Parker wanted to get for you, socks and underwear!”

“Did you at least get me the nice kind?” she played along and he nodded.

“Only the best for my Baby... Fruit of the Loom.”

They both laughed and Nick took the moment to roll off of her and onto his back. He pulled Tina over to him, wrapping his arm around her as he got comfortable against the pillow.

“I still have to buy something for you,” Tina mused, her hand running over the light smattering of hair on his chest.

Without opening his eyes Nick shook his head, “No you don’t. You don’t have to get me anything.”

“Don’t you want something to open on Christmas morning?” Tina asked with surprise obvious in her voice, “Parker will want to get you something and I want to get you something.”

“Fine, use the Amex,” he said reluctantly, thinking to himself how pointless it was that he was going to buy himself his own Christmas presents. He felt the same way when his parents asked for money for gifts then bought him “something special” with it. It’s not special if the present comes out of his pocket. He would have appreciated it more if Tina and Parker had made him a gift.

“Maybe I’ll get my mom to watch the kids and ask Max if she wants to go shopping. It’ll be nice to go with someone else,” Tina said excitedly, resting her chin on his shoulder.

Nick tensed, that was definitely not what he wanted to hear, “I don’t think you should hang around with her that much.”

He couldn’t see her face because his eyes were still closed and the only light on in the room was the dim bedside lamp but she still looked at him with a shocked expression, “Why? I like her.”

“I don’t,” he countered, “There’s something about her. She comes off as a bit of a bitch.”

“No one said you have to hang out with her,” Tina muttered, putting her cheek back down on his chest. She closed her eyes, not wanting to get into an argument with him about it. If he didn’t want her to hang out with Max she could respect that but it didn’t mean she was going to actually do what he said.