Day 6...

Kel showered for a long time that morning after she and Nick shared the evening in the chair on the deck. She wasn’t necessarily trying to wash Nick off of her skin, it was more like she was trying to wash away her guilt, and her pain. That wasn’t something that was going to flow down the drain though, and after using nearly all of the hot water in the house, she stepped out of the tub and resumed her routine of getting dressed for the day.

When she finally found the strength to leave the bedroom and find Nick she found him in the living room on the couch looking out at the water. He’d opened up the windows in the house letting fresh air in instead of the artificial air of air conditioning that nearly everyone in Florida lived with year round. It was still early enough in the day that having a natural breeze flow through the house was providing a perfect temperature as well as a calming effect on the whole house. They both knew from experience though that within a few hours the sticky heat would take over and they’d either have to endure sweating, or go back to the manufactured cool of centralized air.

She quietly sat down on the couch with him and turned sideways to look at him. Waiting until he turned to look at her, she wondered what was going through his mind and figured it was probably similar if not exactly the same as what was bouncing around in her own head. When he turned his head to look at her she smiled and rested her head on her arm which was lying on the back of the couch, "Morning…"

He smiled as well, "Morning."

They watched one another silently for a while before either of them spoke, and when they did speak they did it at the same time and laughed. "You go first…"

Nick shook his head, "Ladies first…"

Kel nodded and took a deep breath, "Um… so last night."

He nodded, "Yeah…"

"You know we… well, we just can’t go there again." Nick nodded as he listened to her go on, "I’m not ashamed of what happened. It was…" She shook her head as new tears threatened her eyes and her voice dipped to a near whisper, "It was beautiful. You made me feel wanted in a way I hadn’t felt since before AJ hit rock bottom." Those words made her cry and she pushed her tears off of her face with her fingertips. "I love you so much, Nicky… You’re my best friend, and the only person who I can be completely open and honest with. You always have been. And last night was just another thing that I’d never even fathom experiencing with anyone else. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve pushed other guys away who tried to get in my pants. Guys who were supposed to be AJ’s friends… But the way I look at last night, it wasn’t some dirty grope to be ashamed of. So I’m not ashamed of what happened. It still can’t happen again though. Not while I’m still with AJ."

Nick nodded and moved closer to her on the couch, "I’d never try to take advantage of you. You know that don’t you? I’d never hurt you like that. I just felt so strongly like you needed last night. You needed to know that you were worthy of feeling so much more than pain." He sighed as he saw another set of tears fall down her cheek, "I love you too… so much."

"I know you do honey…" she said with a sniff and a smile.

"I’ve been so worried that you were going to think I was some perverted freak who wanted to prove I could get in your pants or something…" he told her with a slight smile and she laughed.

"Sweetheart… You are a perverted freak," she smiled and ran her fingers through his hair with the hand that was resting on the back of the couch. "But I know you’d never hurt me or push me or try to take advantage of me."

"If I’m a perverted freak, then you’re one too…" Nick said with a bigger smile and leaned in to kiss her cheek.

"Then we’re the perfect pair…" she smiled as she kissed his cheek back and cuddled up to him for a healthy dose of lazy mid-morning cuddling.

~~~~~

"That little old lady over there wants you to know that my wife is beautiful…" Nick chuckled as he sat down next to Kel on a bench and handed her the soft serve ice cream cone that he’d stood in line for five minutes for along with his own.

Kel giggled and smiled at the ‘little old lady,’ "Are you hiding a wife from me Nicky? I’m hurt. I mean, I know we’ve spent some time apart, but I’d at least think you’d tell me if you were married."

Nick rolled his eyes and licked his ice cream, "She thinks you’re my wife, dumbass…"

"Ohh!" Kel chuckled and winked. She leaned forward and kissed his lips then smiled, "Chocolate… yum."

"Mixes pretty well with your raspberry…" he smiled and noticed the older woman watching them with a smile. "She said that it’s obvious to her how much you love me and how much I love you. She also said that we’re going to be together for a very long time. I couldn’t break her heart and tell her that we weren’t married."

Kel smiled, "It’s okay, I think it’s sweet. And aside from the married part she’s right. We do love each other horribly, and we are going to be together for a very long time. So it’s all good…"

"That’s true…" he nodded.

"Plus, if I were your wife I’d have to give AJ his ring back…" Kel laughed. "And well, it’s too pretty to give up."

"Is it all about the ring? Isn’t my love enough for you?" he teased.

"Honey, your love is not all you have to give… don’t even try pulling that shit with me. You can afford a nice ring, and yes, it’s all about the ring," Kel laughed.

"I’m shocked…" Nick said with a mocked look of disgust on his face. "I don’t know, what he does to make you cry… "

"He buys me pretty rings to make up for making me cry…" Kel teased.

"But I’ll be there to make you smile… I don’t have a fancy car…"

"Yeah you do…"

"To get to you I’d walk a thousand miles…" he sang and batted his eyelashes before laughing and resuming the eating of his ice cream.

"You’re nuts…" Kel giggled. "And you know… it’s pretty sucky that with all of the sappy romance songs that you guys have put out, you’ll never really be able to use them on a girl without it being tacky. You guys have some great songs, but you have to resort to using someone one else’s songs to woo your women."

Nick laughed, "I guess…"

"Random thought…" Kel smiled with a shrug.

"I like your random thoughts, although sometimes they frighten me," he smiled back. Kel smiled knowing exactly where he was going and she decided not to even try to stop him because she knew he wouldn’t shut up until he’d teased her. Before long he was giggling quietly until he couldn’t hold it in anymore, "You were so cute when you were young and innocent."

"Oh bite me…" she laughed.

He raised his voice imitating her at a much younger age and giggled, "Nick, I don’t understand it… how does a blow job work? It just doesn’t seem like it would do anything… where does the air go?"

Kel giggled and shook her head, "So I didn’t know what a blow job was! Sue me, Carter, I was a kid. And you know just as well as I do that the term is misleading. I still think they should call it a suck job instead."

Nick cracked up and wiped tears from his eyes, "Well I know that all of the Backstreet fellas call them suck jobs now thanks to you…"

Rolling her eyes she sighed, "Yeah, and I so appreciate you telling them the story and embarrassing the hell out of me so long ago…"

"Oh, baby, you know it just made them love you more…"

"Whatever…" she smiled. "Not like you ever say anything stupid."

"Never…" he smiled and grabbed her hand pulling her to her feet as they finished their ice cream and threw their napkins away.

She waved to the woman who thought they were married, and then looked up at Nick as they walked down the beach, "Tell me something, Mr. I Never Say Stupid Things?"

"Sure…" he smiled as he swung their linked hands like a little kid obnoxiously.

She smirked up at him, "Do you still resign in Florida?"

After their ice cream they’d shopped in the little artsy shops close to the house they’d invaded in the Keys, and had spent their money like rock stars. Nick alone had at least six different bags in his hands, and by the time they took a break, Kel was sporting quite a few of her own as well.

"Ooh!" Kel exclaimed excitedly and then giggled at the pained look on Nick’s face.

"What now?"

Kel laughed again, "Just one more store, I promise. You don’t even have to come with me. Here, sit and watch the bags…" she smiled as she led Nick to a bench and dumped her purchases at his feet.

"I’m hot…" Nick whined.

"Yes you are," Kel teased with a wink. "But I’ll be quick. I just want to see if they have something in that store over there. Then we can go back to the house and cook dinner."

Nick shook his head at the grin on Kel’s face and then smiled, "Go fast…" Kel kissed him on the cheek and literally bounced off toward the store she wanted to go to so badly. Nick chuckled and looked at the bags sitting around his feet. "Jesus… we shopped like AJ today…"

Marathon shopping or not, he had to admit that the afternoon had been a blast. He and Kel had somehow been able to overcome the awkward feeling of the morning, and snapped right back into the comfortable roles of best friends again. They’d shopped together for pure joy and wants instead of anything that they actually needed, and thoroughly enjoyed themselves.

While waiting for Kel’s return, Nick made himself comfortable on the bench and looked around his surroundings. Occasionally someone would pass him by and smile, not having a clue who he was, which he loved. Other times he’d get a second glance by someone who was pretty sure they knew him, but didn’t want to take the risk of being wrong. When someone finally found the nerve to approach him he was flipping through a comic book that Kel had bought him several stores earlier.

"Excuse me, Nick?"

"Yeah?" he said looking up quickly from the multi-colored page.

"Hi…" the young woman said with a smile. "You’re Nick Carter…"

"You’re right…" he chuckled.

The girl smiled and then groaned at herself, "God, that was a stupid thing to say. I’m sure you know who you are… Sorry."

"It’s okay…" Nick smiled. "Who are you?"

"Oh, I’m Tracie…" she said with a grin. "And this is my cousin Kat…" she said pointing to the girl next to her.

"Nice to meet you both…"

"You too… see, Kat didn’t think you were you, so I told her I’d come over and prove her wrong."

Nick grinned, "Did you at least make a bet?"

The girls laughed shaking their heads, "No…"

"Dude! You should have made a bet if you really thought for sure you were going to win…"

"Yeah… well next time I decide to prove her wrong, I’ll make a bet," Tracie giggled.

"Sounds like a plan…" Nick said flashing a classic smile that made both of the girls melt.

"So… been doing a little shopping huh?" Tracie asked with a smile.

Nick laughed and looked at the abundance of bags at his feet, "Yeah, just a little. They’re not all mine though…" He looked at one of the girlish bags and shook his head, "My friend is in a store over there somewhere and she’s promised me that it’s the last store."

"Cool. So you’re here with a girlfriend?"

Nick laughed, "Nah… I mean, only in the innocent sense of the term. She’s my best friend, and a girl."

"Aww…" both of the girls said and then laughed at themselves as Nick chuckled.

Just then Kel bounced back to the bench and sat down next to Nick with a smile, "Hi…"

"Hey," he smiled. "Find what you wanted?"

"Yup… sure did," she smiled and held up a small bag. She then looked at the girls and smiled, "Hello ladies."

"You’re Kel…" Tracie said and then smacked her own head as Nick laughed. "Sweet Jesus I did it again…"

Nick laughed a little harder and looked at Kel who was slightly confused but smiling, "Tracie here has a little trouble with the need to tell people who they are…" he chuckled and smiled at Tracie. "This is Tracie and her cousin Kat. They were admiring my shopping bags."

Kel nodded with a smile, "Gotcha… and yeah, I’m Kel."

"How is AJ?" Kat said finally using her voice.

Kel smiled sincerely and nodded, "He’s really good."

"I’m so glad he finally decided to get help. I saw him on TV not too long ago and he looked so happy again…"

"Yeah, he’s very happy. It’s nice to see him smile again."

"Our aunt is actually the person who got us into loving Backstreet, and she’s had trouble with alcohol for years. But when AJ came out about his addiction and went into rehab, she did too. So in a way, he saved her life. She’s been clean for a year now and she’s so much happier. I can only imagine what being sober has done for AJ."

"Oh, honey…" Kel sighed with a smile and reached out to touch Kat’s hand. "I’m so glad your aunt got herself some help. That’s wonderful."

"Can you just thank AJ for us? For being so honest about it all and for being such an inspiration? We’re so proud of him."

Kel smiled and nodded, "I sure will sweetheart. Thank you, he’ll love to hear that."

Nick smiled as he watched Kel talk to the girls for a few more minutes, their conversation growing lighter as they strayed away from alcoholism and turned to shopping. He’d always loved the way that she treated the fans of Backstreet. She knew just as well as he did that fan encounters could be very intrusive and horribly annoying depending on the day, but she always seemed to handle them with a great flair, even when she was blowing them off with a nice smile and an "Sorry, we don’t have time…" To see her talking about AJ helped him see once again just how much she loved him. It was one thing for her to tell Nick one on one how much she loved AJ, but he couldn’t deny the twinkle that showed up in her eyes when she spoke to complete strangers about him. Love like that simply wasn’t something she could fake.

When the two girls finally left, Kel looked at Nick and smiled, "They were sweet…"

"Yeah… three cheers for non psycho fans," he laughed.

Kel laughed and pulled out the small bag she’d gotten in the last store, "I gotta show you what I found."

"What the heck is that?" Nick laughed as he looked at the package she’d held up.

"Okay, you know how when we were like twelve, we used to make suntan tattoos by cutting up band-aids into shapes then staying out in the sun all day?"

Nick laughed at the memory and nodded, "Our mothers would probably say that our sun tattoos were the pre-cursors to all of the real ones we have now."

"Probably…" Kel nodded. "But these…" she said and opened up the package, "they’re like sun tattoos for the new millennium. They’re already made into shapes and all we have to do is stick them on. Cool huh?"

"Honey…" Nick smiled as he took the bag of self sticking shapes and looked at them. "We both have real tattoos… we don’t need sun tats anymore."

Kel groaned and took the bag from him, "Oh bite me… they’re fun and you know it. Tomorrow we’re doing them, and no amount of whining is going to get you out of it."

"Whatever… can we go eat now if I agree to let you stick one of these on me tomorrow?"

"Yeah… and I decided I don’t want to cook, so we’re going out and you get to eat even sooner."

Nick smiled at Kel as they picked up their bags, "I love you…"

She smiled and nodded, "I know you do… but you’re still paying for dinner no matter how much you kiss up."

"But I paid for lunch…" Nick whined with a smile.

"Yeah, and you gave me shit about my sun tattoos too… so you get to pay. Plus, you’re a big pop star and I’m just a pop star’s girlfriend. Your income is much better than mine," Kel said with a grin.

"Hmmph…" Nick huffed as they walked toward his truck lugging all of their bags. "We need to do something about that."

Kel laughed and shook her head, "Baby, being a Backstreet Girlfriend is a full time job. I’m a therapist, a mother, a confidant, a cook, a sex slave, a wardrobe consultant, a talent advisor, a beta tester for new songs, a photojournalist, and most of that isn‘t just for AJ, it‘s for all five of you. Until y’all retire, I’m not even going to attempt to hold down a real job."

Nick laughed, "God… you work harder than we do!"

"I’ve been trying to tell you that for years…"

"Yeah well, I’m a pop star, I don’t listen."

Kel rolled her eyes, "You’re such a pain in my ass."

"But you love me…" Nick cooed and batted his eyelashes at her while giving her his best smile.

She tried to ignore him but couldn’t and nodded with her own smile, "Yeah honey, I do."