January 02, 2002 Tampa, Florida

His lips dropped to the side of her neck and he breathed deeply, admiring the perfume she was wearing for the evening. He used his teeth slightly, nipping at her skin as he made his way up towards her ear. His hands slid across the flat plane of her stomach, pulling her flush against his chest.

Tina giggled and Nick felt his pants tighten at the sound. He was drunk and she was amused.

“Nick, you’re so wasted,” she laughed, not exactly sober herself.

She had been buzzing after her first drink, and had only managed to follow it up with two more before she was in a bad place. She had immediately switched to water but Nick had kept the drinks coming to his side of the table to catch up with her.

“You’re wasted,” he countered, laughing as she turned around in his arms and wrapped hers around his neck.

Tina’s smile was huge and she went up on her tiptoes to give him a quick kiss, “I at least have an excuse. This is the first time I’ve ever been out drinking I’m supposed to be a lightweight!”

“Let’s dance!” Nick exclaimed, grabbing Tina by the hand to pull her out onto the busy dance floor.

Things had been nearly perfect since Christmas Day when Nick had proposed save for the occasional disagreement. Tina used every moment that she could to admire her engagement ring and smile at Nick. It wasn’t an instant cure for their relationship, they knew that. They both knew that they had a lot of things to work on but they had decided to call a truce at least until the glow wore off.

The first post Christmas conversation they had was with her parents. It was at Nick’s insistence that they get both of them in the same room and set out some ground rules. He had explained to them that although they were appreciative of everything, and wanted them both to be involved in the kid’s lives in every way, they needed to take a step back. He’d told them how badly he wanted an opportunity to try and make it as a family, but in order to do that he had to be able to make a mistake here and there. He’d given them a set of rules that included knocking before entering the house, not coming over while people were still in bed, and not passing judgment on his actions in his own home. It was an awkward conversation but it all needed to be said.

Nick was tired of not being able to walk around his own house in his underwear, or have sex with his girlfriend in the middle of the afternoon (nap time was often the only chance they had together) without running the risk of one of her parents waltzing into the house.

In exchange Nick had promised to give them the same amount of respect in return. He would keep his comments as long as they did. He was willing to give anything a try for Tina, Parker, and Zoey.

Tina’s father was more than happy to agree. He had decided since it seemed like they weren’t going anywhere for a while that he was going to go back to work. He was bored of sitting at home and tired of all the drama that came along with Nick and Tina and Nick couldn’t blame him. Lynn on the other hand had a more difficult time with it. She didn’t like that Nick got to call all the shots but she eventually agreed. As long as he kept paying the bills and stopped lashing out at them she would keep her opinions to herself, or, at least, try to.

One of the Mulligan’s Christmas presents to the two of them had been a few free nights out. They were originally going to use one of them the previous night and ring in the New Year with a night on the town but Parker had started feeling sick as they were getting ready to head out the door so they delayed their plans until the next night.

Tina didn’t care what night they went out, she was just excited that she got to actually accompany Nick to a club for some fun. She had never been out partying with him before; she only ever got to hear the war stories the next day of his good times with his friends. In the past she had either been pregnant, breastfeeding, or pregnant again and the last person that Nick wanted to take along to a club.

There were a few things that she hadn’t been expecting on her first night out with her soon-to-be-husband. She hadn’t expected drinking to be so fun (her only real experience being seeing either her father or Nick hung over the next day) and she hadn’t expected Nick to be such a bad dancer. He danced for a living practically but he was such a white boy in his freestyle.

Tina couldn’t help but laugh at him as he flailed around, narrowly missing hitting people with his arms before he made his way back to her.

“You’re crazy!” she laughed, wrapping her arms around his neck.

Nick’s cheeks were flushed from the drinking and the dancing and he smiled lazily at her, “Let’s call your mom and tell her we’re not coming home tonight. We’ll get a hotel and have loud, crazy, monkey sex all night.”

Tina laughed, her cheeks blushing pink though he couldn't see it for the club's strobe lights, "Right, because I'm so loud!"

"Who said you were the loud one?" he teased, leaning down to kiss her passionately. He reluctantly pulled away, pulling slightly on her bottom lip, "Go call your mom and we'll get out of here. I need to piss first so I'll meet you outside."

"Charming," she chuckled, kissing his chin, "I'll call, you pee."

Nick grinned and slapped her on the ass as he walked away, heading towards the bathrooms. Tina just shook her head and walked towards the door, pulling out her cell phone at the same time. It was late so she was unsure whether her parents would even be awake at that point. Her mother was going to stay over at their place until they got home but given that it was nearly two in the morning she was likely asleep.

Tina could feel eyes on her as she dialled the number and self consciously pulled at the hem of her black mini skirt, wishing it had just a few more inches of fabric. It was probably the last time she ever let Nick give his opinion on her wardrobe choices.

The phone rang and rang before finally going to voicemail and Tina sighed, hoping her mother thought to check the machine if she woke up.

"Hey, it's me," she spoke into the phone, "Just wanted to let you know we're going to get a room for the night. Nick drank a bit too much and he wants to crash," she lied, hoping she didn't sound too intoxicated herself on the message, "Call me if you need anything."

She hung up and thought to herself that she would have to listen back to that message later just to see if it made any sense or if it only had in her head at the time.

"Tina?" someone called out and she felt the hair stand up on the back of her neck at the familiar sound of the voice.

After taking a deep breath she turned, her eyes scanning the door for Nick as soon as she saw an unmistakable head of ginger coloured hair heading towards her.

"Wes," she said with a tinge of nervousness in her voice, "What are you doing here?"

After their fight Nick and Wes hadn't spoken a word to each other. It wasn't as though Wes hadn't tried though. He had sent a few apologies Nick's way all of which had been ignored. It wasn't a big deal to Nick to lose a friend, he knew he would have more and given the circumstances this had been a friendship he had been happy to dissolve.

The red head laughed, motioning toward the club, "Partying. What are you doing here? Are you here alone?"

She shook her head, about to answer when he interrupted, "I've been calling you for months. I wanted to apologize for what happened in the summer. I was way out of line. It was a misunderstanding. Did you say you were here alone?"

When Tina went to answer she was interrupted for a second time. This time though it was Nick that cut her off, completely oblivious to the fact that anyone else was standing next to her.

"Baby!" he exclaimed, doing a quick check behind him at the club before he reached her, "A huge fight just broke out in there! I barely got to the door. I think someone called the cops, we should probably get a cab before they get here."

"I'll take that as a no," Wes said and Nick's head snapped around so fast Tina was worried he'd pull something.

"What the fuck are you doing here?" the blond demanded, his stance immediately becoming defensive, "I thought I told you to never speak to her again."

Wes rolled his eyes at the other man and laughed, "Right, because you get to decide who she talks to."

"I do," Nick snapped and Tina didn't dare try to correct him given the fact that he was drunk and now angry. She knew that he wasn't being honest but his ego and pride often got in the way of the truth. As long as she knew the truth she was happy to let him run his mouth.

"You're just a bully," Wes challenged, "You act like you're hot shit because you know that if you weren't loaded and weren't a celebrity nobody would like you. Not a single person wants to be your friend because you're not a good person, Nick."

Nick didn't prove Wes wrong as he immediately grabbed him by the front of his shirt and pushed him up against the side of the building. Tina sighed and put her hands on her hips, watching the two of them get into it for the second time. None of them noticed another man armed with a camera walk up to the altercation and start snapping.

"Come on Nick," she said with annoyance clear in her voice, "The last time this happened I'm the one that ended up with a black eye!"

"Hey Backstreet Boy, you beat your girlfriend?" the paparazzo asked and Nick turned just in time to be blinded by a camera flash.

The moment of blindness was enough time to Wes to get away from Nick and take off, yelling threats of lawsuits as he made his way back to his friends.

"C'mon dude," Nick urged the photographer, "Don't start shit."

This time he was serious. This wasn't just some asshole he wanted to beat in a pissing contest this was serious business. He had tried very hard to make sure that Tina and the kids never made it into newspapers or magazines. Parker in particular, had been in the media a couple of times, mostly because he was likely to be found out with Nick alone. They very rarely went out as a family which kept the attention away from them. No one had ever seen Zoey and it had been years since Tina's photo had found its way into a magazine and he wanted to keep it that way.

"She just said it man," the man laughed, still clicking away on his camera, "She said you gave her a black eye."

"No!" Tina exclaimed, "That's not what I said at all!"

The camera was turned on her and she squinted hard against the bright light, using her hand to defend herself against the flash.

"Hey!" Nick called, grabbing the guy by the arm, "Don't take pictures of her! Take all the pictures of me that you want but don't take pictures of my fiancée."

"Fiancée?" the pap asked, his interest piqued, "That's new. That smells like an exclusive to me!"

Nick reached for the camera but the guy was too fast, quickly moving out of his grasp, "How much do you want?"

"For what?" the guy asked, camera still poised to keep shooting.

"The picture," Nick explained, "I'll give you whatever you want."

"Nick it's not worth it," Tina warned him, watching cautiously out of the corner of her eye at a group of police officers that were dealing with the fight that had been ongoing in the club. One of the cops broke off from the pack and started making his way over to them. Tina tried to get Nick's attention but he was engrossed in bargaining with the paparazzo. The other man was making veil threats about who he would sell the pictures to and she could tell Nick was getting frustrated.

"Nick," she tried again, pinching his bicep. He only ignored her, pleading with the photographer to delete the pictures.

Tina could feel her heart pounding a little faster as the cop finally reached them, instructing them to move along.

She never could have expected what happened next. The initial warnings from the officer were ignored by the two men with Nick finally trying to convince the cop of wrongdoing on the part of the photographer. The three of them argued before Nick was instructed, by name, to get lost.

"What about him?" Nick demanded to know, pointing to the other man, "He was taking pictures of me!"

"You celebrities give me a headache," the cop said with a roll of his eyes, "This isn't Hollywood, no one cares about you here. I told you to leave, now leave."

"You know who I am... so you're picking on me because I'm famous? Aren't you supposed to be impartial?" Nick asked, unable to believe that the other guy was just going to walk away without any words from the police.

"I'm going to count to three and if I don't see you walking away you're going to have a bigger problem than some guy taking pictures of your pretty boyband face," the cop warned, which only set Nick off on another rant about police harassment.

Tina could only watch, frozen with fear, as the cop reacted to Nick's hostility. He had him on his knees on the ground in a flash and had handcuffs on him just as quickly. He radioed to another one of the cops then made a big show of parading Nick in front of the people out in front of the club like a freshly hunted buck, as if having a celebrity in handcuffs were something to be proud of.

She could see that Nick was fighting to turn around but she couldn't find it in herself to move towards him. Finally he was turned around as the cop opened up the back door to his cruiser and Nick started to tell her something but before he could finish he was pushed into the back of the car.

'Wait' she wanted to yell but her voice was caught in her throat along with a lump of emotion. She didn't know what to do. She looked around quickly and realized as the cop car started to drive away that everyone that hadn't been looking in the back of the cruiser was looking at her. She ground her teeth to keep the tears at bay while trying to think of what to do.

Her parents didn't pick up the last time she had called, but she could always try again. She turned her back to the group of people and started scrolling quickly through her cell phone, looking for anybody that could help. It scared her slightly to think that she was incredibly helpless without Nick. She had let herself become completely dependent on him to the point that she didn't even know how she was going to get home. She had no car, no money, no idea of how to get Nick out of jail, or even where she would be able to find him.

Tina ran an anxious hand through her hair, tugging on the ends slightly as she willed herself to think harder. Finally it came to her, the one person who would be able to help her. Finding the number in her phone number she hit send and waited until a groggy voice picked up on the other end.

"Hi, it's Tina," she introduced, "I'm sorry for calling so late but... I need your help."