The Backstreet Boys' tour had landed in London three days earlier and the tension in the group was higher than ever before. Both Brian and AJ had broken noses and weren't speaking to each other. The rumors among the crew were running rampant. Given Brian's reputation as the 'good boy', most assumed that he'd done no wrong. The most popular rumor these days was that AJ had slept with Brian's wife, which quickly explained why Brian hadn't been wearing his wedding ring. Luckily, the rumors hadn't gone further than the inner workings of the tour, but still, Brian was a mess.

In his hotel room, Brian was pacing the maroon-carpeted floor thinking about how, in just a few days, he was going to be back in Atlanta serving his wife with divorce papers. Then, he would be back on the road with three guys that hated him—two of which that didn't even really know why they hated him in the first place except for some rumors that were spread by AJ himself.

And then, of course, there was Noelle. She hadn't been around as much these last couple of days. In passing, Brian had heard someone mention that she had the flu. Not seeing her immediately after he decked her brother was okay with Brian, but deep down he had hoped that she would come to him. He understood that he had been wrong. He should have told Noelle that he had a wife. He should have sat her down and talked to her calmly and let her be upset or confused for a little while. He knew everything that he was supposed to have done. But he didn't do it, and he had screwed up royally.

Brian also knew that in just a few days, he and Noelle would be parting ways for good and he wouldn't have any time to make it up to her; he wouldn't have time to tell her how he really felt about her. As selfish as it was, Brian wanted just one more moment with her. He wanted one more kiss, one more touch, one more time.

No, that wasn’t true; he wanted more than just one. He wanted her around all the time. He missed her. He missed her laugh, and her nervous ramble, and her spontaneity. He missed everything.

Suddenly, Brian's chest started to feel heavy. He could feel a panic attack coming on and he knew that he needed to breathe. In his room, he felt claustrophobic. He needed to get out.

Brian threw open the door of his room and raced down the hallway. It was the Boys' day off and it was pretty early. He knew that no one was going to be around, and he was okay with that. At least, he hoped that no one was around to witness his meltdown.

Brian tapped his toe impatiently as he waited for the elevator. His nerves were getting the best of him. For some reason, he couldn't stop moving. Just as the elevator dinged and Brian was about to step on, one of the hotel's maids grabbed his arm, panicked. She was a short, stout, Hispanic lady who spoke broken English. She pointed at Brian and, in a thick Spanish accent, asked, “Backstreet Boy?”

Brian nodded and tried his best to smile. He wanted out of this hotel so bad.

“Do you want me to sign something for you?” Brian asked slowly, while doing his best to run through the motions so that she understood.

“No. You come.” She then turned and marched back down the hallway. When Brian didn't immediately follow, she stopped and waved him along impatiently.

Brian stuffed his hands into his pockets and sighed deeply. He wondered what he could possibly be following the maid towards.

The maid stopped at a door just three down from his room and pointed inside. “Girl, very sick.”

Brian shook his head, quickly realizing that this was Noelle's room. “No, you've got the wrong guy. AJ. You're looking for AJ. Tall. Tattoos.”

Brian continued his name of charades lifting his arm to indicate height and pointing at the cross on his own arm.

The maid shook her head and pushed Brian into the room. She pointed at the bed and repeated, “Very Sick.”

Brian searched the maid's face and realized that she looked seriously worried.

Reluctantly, he walked further into Noelle's room. It was so hot in the room that it was steamy and Brian was sure that he was immediately beginning to sweat. When he got closer, he noticed Noelle, bundled underneath the thick down comforter, trembling. Her face was frighteningly pale. Her lips were bright red and chapped. Her eyes had dark circles around them. You could see little red spots dotting her face where the blood vessels had broken from throwing up. She looked like death.

Brian rushed over to Noelle and knelt down beside the bed.

“Noelle?” Brian said softly as he ran his hands through her hair. “Noelle?”

Noelle's eyes fluttered opened. Brian was sure that she looked relieved to see him, but he couldn't be quite sure because she closed them again so quickly.

“W-what are y-you do-doing here?” Noelle stammered softly.

“The maid found me at the elevator. She was worried about you, and Honey, so am I. I'm sorry, but you look terrible. I think that we need to get you to a doctor,” Brian replied, as he put an arm around her trembling shoulders to give her some of his body warmth.

“I-I'm fine,” she answered weakly, but leaned into him so that he could warm her further.

“You're not fine,” Brian responded sternly. When he reached up and touched her forehead, it was so hot that Brian literally had to pull his hand away. “Where is AJ?”

“Paris.”

Brian nodded angrily. He couldn't believe that he had left Noelle here looking like this so that he could do his solo shows in Paris tonight. How dare AJ get mad at him for caring about his sister, when he so obviously didn't give a crap. Brian picked up the phone next to the bed and called the downstairs lobby.

“What are you doing?” Noelle asked slowly. “Please just leave me alone.”

Brian ignored her request. He needed to get her to the hospital. “This is Brian Littrell. I'm on my way downstairs with Noelle McLean. We need a car to take us to the hospital immediately.”

Noelle began to shake her head, but Brian ignored her again and continued speaking to the receptionist. “No, we don't need an ambulance; a car will be fine, thank you.”

Brian then turned to Noelle again. “Do you think that you can walk downstairs?” He asked gently.

“I'm not going to the hospital,” Noelle replied, sternly. “I'm fine. Will you please just leave me alone?”

“Do you want me to get a mirror?” Brian argued. “You look like you're two breaths away from death. I'm not having your blood on my hands. I'm already in too much trouble because of you.”

“Because of me?” Noelle squeaked out somehow seeming to find her strength. “Because of yourself, adulterer.”

Brian rolled his eyes and let that one go. He knew that this wasn't the time or the place to have this argument. Instead, he scooped a squirming Noelle up out of the bed and carried her all the way down the elevator and through the lobby. Once she realized that Brian wasn't going to put her down, she wrapped an arm around his neck and laid her head down against his chest. Brian had to admit that despite the circumstances it was good to have her back in his arms.

He loaded her into the car quickly and asked the driver to take them to the nearest hospital. When he saw that Noelle was trembling again, he asked him to please turn the heater on. The driver gave him the craziest look he'd ever gotten, but he didn't care. Once Brian explained that Noelle was sick, the driver understood and complied. Both to give her some extra warmth and just because he wanted to, Brian wrapped his arm around Noelle's shoulders and rubbed her arm slowly.

“You could get into a lot of trouble for this,” Noelle said softly as she gazed out the window.

“I don't care what AJ thinks anymore, Noelle. Someone needed to take care of you. You obviously weren't taking care of yourself.” Brian sighed deeply and stared out of the opposite window.

“I-I didn't mean with, AJ,” Noelle replied softly. “I meant with the press. Your wife?”

Brian shook his head and clenched his jaw angrily. “I'm not going to argue about this with you now, Noelle. I've already tried to tell you. I showed you the papers. I don't know how much more you want from me.”

Noelle sighed deeply and then covered her mouth with her hand as she rolled the window down with the other hand. Then, without much warning, she puked out the window. Brian held her hair out of her face, even though he was actually really grossed out. He prayed that he didn't throw up, too, because that would have been too much for him to take.

Noelle wiped her mouth embarrassedly and gave Brian a smirk.

“Brian, seriously,” Noelle started weakly. “It's just the flu.”

Brian shrugged. “Maybe so, but I'm not taking any chances. You can hardly say two words without running out of breath.”

Noelle just shrugged, finally deciding to give up the fight because it wasn't going to matter. Soon later, the pair arrived at the hospital. When Brian tried to take Noelle into his arms, she waved him off and shuffled to the door. When a nurse saw them walking in, she quickly came over with a wheelchair. At first, Noelle tried to wave her off too, but since she only walked two feet and was already breathing heavily and feeling dizzy, she sat down and let herself be wheeled to the waiting room.

They didn't wait long before the staff pulled Noelle into one of the makeshift emergency hospital rooms and took her vital signs. Her fever was through the roof at 103.1 degrees. When the doctor heard congestion in her lungs, he ordered a chest x-ray and soon, they wheeled Noelle out of the room and Brian was alone again.

After a couple of minutes Brian figured that he should probably call AJ, but then decided against it. He could wait until he knew what was wrong with Noelle first. If AJ left Noelle looking the way that she had, then he didn't need to know that she was in the hospital right away.

When they rolled Noelle back into the hospital room a few minutes later, she had a surgical mask over her face and Brian couldn't help but to chuckle.

“Don't laugh at me,” Noelle mumbled through her mask. “I told you. I just have a bad flu, that's why I have to wear this stupid thing on my face. I already can't breathe, Brian.”

Brian shook his head and tried to hide his smile. “You don't know that you just have the flu. Why don't you try to get some sleep until the doctor comes back?”

“The doctor's already back,” Dr. Michael Hensen interrupted in his English accent. “Your friend is right Noelle, you don't just have the flu. You can take the mask off.”

Noelle sighed nervously and pulled the mask off of her face.

“So, what's wrong with me?” she asked weakly.

“You have pneumonia, which in a lot of ways can feel like the flu, and a collapsed lung which is why you keep running out of breath. Your friend here was right in bringing you to the hospital. We're going to admit you and keep you over night to start you on some antibiotics and get your fluids back up. You should start to feel better pretty quicky,” the doctor responded, and then patted Noelle's hand. “The nurse will be right in to bring you upstairs.”

Noelle nodded and Brian thanked the doctor as he left the room.

“See,” Brian said. “Not the flu.”

Noelle nodded again, gracefully accepting defeat. “Thank you for looking out for me.”

“Someone had to,” Brian replied, starting to feel his anger rise again.

“I told Alex to go. I told him that I was fine. Leave him alone,” Noelle argued, though she just didn't have the fight in her. Her eyes just wanted to close.

“You told me to go too,” Brian replied, but then stopped and picked up her hand gently in his. “You need to get some sleep. I'm sorry for keeping you up. We can argue about all of this later.” He kissed Noelle's hand gently and was glad to see that she smiled when he did so. “I'm going to go call your brother for you.”

Noelle nodded as she drifted off, and Brian left the room to dial AJ's number. There was no answer, so he left a message. “I'm just calling to tell you that your sister is in the hospital here in London. Way to go, big brother.”

And then, he hung up. No, it wasn't the mature thing to do, but Brian and AJ had left mature behind the week before in Italy.

 Over the next couple of hours, Brian tried AJ a few more times, but he never picked up. When he saw Noelle's cell phone sitting on the tray next to the bed, he figured that it was worth a try. He dialed AJ's cell phone number and waited.

AJ picked up after the second ring. “Hey Noah, can you believe that Brian's called me about 15 times? He must be sick of being the pariah for once.”

 “Hey Buddy,” Brian said sarcastically. “It's the pariah.”

“What the hell do you want? And why are you calling me from Noelle's phone?” AJ growled, though Brian knew that he was probably just embarrassed.

“I'm calling from Noelle's phone because you wouldn't answer my phone calls,” Brian replied, trying to stay calm when really he just wanted to punch AJ again. “She's in the hospital. She has pneumonia.”

“What?” AJ responded, shocked. “She was fine when I left.”

“She wasn't fine when you left. One of her lungs collapsed, but it's okay because it'll fix itself once the pneumonia starts to clear. So, have a good time in Paris. I'll be here with your sick sister,” Brian replied sarcastically. He knew that AJ felt terrible, but he couldn't help wanting him to feel a little but worse. Once again, not the most mature or Christian thing, but who the hell was Brian kidding? He was probably on God's shit list right about now.

“Look, Douche bag,” AJ replied, “I'll be there soon. And for the record, I haven't been in the hospital as much as you. She seemed liked she had the flu. I didn't get my medical degree through childhood sickness, sorry.”

“That was low, AJ,” Brian replied. “Even for you. I just wanted you to know that your sister is sick. She's in the hospital. Do want you want with that information.”

And with that, Brian hung up. Secretly, he'd hoped that he and AJ could get over this thing that happened to them eventually, but with both of them taking stabs at each other, that didn't seem like it was going to happen. When Brian walked back over to Noelle's bed, they were transferring her to another and getting her ready to take to one of the admitting floors.

When Brian walked over, Noelle smiled. She was actually glad that he was around. It sucked to be sick alone and she couldn't help but to feel growing warmth inside of her when she thought about how he had taken charge and taken care of her. Admittedly, she missed him. Part of her wanted him to crawl into the bed with her and hold her while she slept, though she'd never admit that to him.

She had questions. She had been thinking about him and if it hadn't been for being so sick, she probably would have given in and spoken to him. Now, she was so tired. She knew that the talking could wait until later.