The days of the week suddenly became a blur. The rest of the Boys' Italian dates fly by. On the tour’s last day in Italy, Brian received a package that he'd been waiting for—the divorce papers that he was planning to give to Leighanne and file in Atlanta in just a few short weeks.

On the morning of departure, the package was still sitting on the small breakfast table that adorned the room. Brian had been unable to open it. After a week like the week he had been having, he half expected something to jump out of the package and attack him for wanting to live his life. Granted, he hadn't made the best decisions, but of all people, his friends should have been willing to hear his side of the story.

After their confrontation, AJ had run to Nick and Howie and told them his version of the truth and with that, Brian's work life became an island. He sang what he was supposed to sing, answered the questions that he was supposed to answer and then went to be by himself. If his friends only cared about what he had supposedly done to Noelle, then that was fine. Just like AJ, they could fuck off. It didn't matter that he actually cared about her. It didn't matter that, hell, he was legally-fucking-separated from his wife.

No, to the men he called his best friends, none of that mattered. Brian knew that he was to blame. If he couldn’t trust his friends enough to confide in them about the problems that he and Leighanne were going through, then he couldn’t blame them for not trusting him when all was said and done.

Finally, Brian opened the package and began to scan the documents. There was something in the divorce papers about agreeing to give Leighanne some kind of settlement despite their prenuptial agreement, but basically, it said, ‘sign here to end your marriage’.

Brian clenched the pen in his hands. Immediately, tears began to swell in his eyes. He wasn't completely cold-hearted. The end of his marriage still hurt, despite knowing that it was right.

As he put the pen to the paper, he closed his eyes and signed his name. He opened one eye first and then the other. Then, he sighed as he looked at his scrawled name staring up at him from the dotted line. He'd only scanned the documents, but it didn't matter what they said. Brian had asked his lawyers to represent them both, but to keep it quiet for a while. He knew that the papers were fair and, truthfully, he knew that he was going to give Leighanne whatever she asked for anyway—even if it cleaned him dry.

Brian's phone buzzed just then, signaling to him that it was time to catch the shuttle to the airport. They were off to London for their last week of shows and appearances and then it was back home for a week to face the music.

-----

Breakfast had become a tradition for Noelle and AJ, especially the day that they left for a new city. On this day, however, Noelle could feel the ramifications of running around in the rain. Her head was pounding and just the smell of food was making her stomach turn.

“Noelle,” AJ asked as he sat down at the table across from his sister. “Are you okay?”

Noelle nodded slowly. “Yeah, Man. I'm just not feeling that well. I'm ready to get on the plane so that I can just sleep for a few hours.”

AJ nodded slowly. He knew that the normal stress of being on tour got to people that weren’t used to it pretty quickly, but he was sure that Noelle’s brain and body had gotten twice the stress-related dosage. “Do you want me to call you a doctor when we get to London?”

Noelle shook her head and laughed softly. “No, I'm fine. I just need some soup and some sleep. You warned me that touring will do this to a person, I should have listened.”

“You want to grab some soup to-go?” AJ asked as he glanced at his watch. “We need to get going here pretty soon.”

“Yeah,” Noelle replied. “That'll be good, if they have any. It is breakfast time.”

AJ chuckled softly. “They’ll find us some.”

“Thanks. So,” Noelle started slowly, not entirely sure that she should bring up the topic that she wanted to. “Have you spoken to Brian?”

“Nope, not since that day.” AJ glanced at her out of the corner of his eye. “Have you?”

Noelle sighed and shook her head. “Nope. Not at all. He must hate me. I mean, he didn't even try.”

“He doesn't hate you, Noelle. There's no way that he hates you. He probably feels like a douche bag. And anyway, you shouldn’t care if he hates you, because you should be the one hating him,” AJ replied softly.

Noelle shrugged as she ran her hands through her hair. “I guess I should, but I don’t.”

Meanwhile, as Brian was making his way through the hotel lobby, he noticed AJ and Noelle sitting at a breakfast table inside of the restaurant alone. He stood frozen in his tracks, watching them as anger and frustration rose inside of him. Tucked under his arm was the folder with his separation and pending divorce papers. He stopped and clenched the manila folder in his hand, but then continued walking. As he reached the sliding glass doors, he left his luggage with the bellhop and then rashly turned toward that restaurant. Whether they believed him or not didn't matter anymore. They could believe what they wanted after they had the proof in their hands.

As Brian reached Noelle and AJ’s table, he knew that he should have just gotten on the shuttle and gone to the airport. Instead, he stopped and slammed the manila envelope down, causing the water glasses to shake and the guests at the nearby tables to give him dirty looks. Noelle looked up at him with large, shocked eyes as AJ whirled around ready to pounce. “Both of you have had a lot to say about me the last couple of days.”

“Brian,” AJ stopped him, standing up from his seat at the table. “Noelle and I both told you to leave us alone. Enough is enough. Nothing that you can say is going to change our opinions of you.”

“I don't give a shit about your opinion of me. Sit down and shut up,” Brian growled back, before turning to Noelle. “You can believe whatever you want about my character, but here, in this folder are the divorce papers and the separation papers, both signed by me.” He took out copies of both and laid them down on the table. “Like I said, believe whatever you want about me, but my feelings for you are real. You made me feel something despite everything going on in my life. You made me realize that it didn't have to be like this anymore. The separation was because I was scared of taking the next step, but here it is. Right here. If you want to protect yourself and tell yourself that I'm just like him, that's fine, but you're not taking me down with you.”

Noelle glanced down at the papers that Brian had tossed in front of her and then looked up at Brian's piercing gaze. She opened her mouth to speak, but nothing came out.

“Brian,” AJ interrupted again. “That's really enough. You made your point, but it doesn't change anything. Just go, Dude.”

Brian glared at AJ disgustedly. “That's fine, Man. I'm already gone.” He turned to leave and then stopped again. “No, you know what, I gave you chance after chance after you screwed up. You're a hypocrite in the worst way and you know what else?” Brian stopped and he punched AJ in the face as AJ had done to him two days earlier. “Call that a delayed reaction.”

With that, Brian walked away, feeling proud and disgusted with himself all at once.