The four men barely walked out of the front door of SunValley when AJ quickly pulled out his pack of cigarettes, lighting up the smoke.

"Geeze Jay, you act like you've been without a cigarette for a month," Brian commented with disgust as he fanned the blue smoke away from his face.

"Well this whole day has been nothing but hell for me, so leave me the fuck alone Littrell," AJ rapsed as he continued toward the vehicle in the parking lot.

"You know you can't get in the Envoy with that---"

"Yeah....yeah, I know Kevin, I know all about the no smoking shit," AJ spat. "Jesus, could you lay off rules for one freakin day Richardson?"

Kevin looked darkly at the rebel. "Rules are made for a reason."

AJ rolled his eyes. "Spare me the lectures."

Brian clapped his hands together, looking for a way to end the arguements between Kevin and AJ. "So, what do you think we should do now? It's only..." he paused as he glanced at the watch on his wrist, "it's only 6:45 how about we hit a decent burger joint or something."

"Yeah that sounds like a good idea, I really don't want to go back to the hotel yet," Howie agreed.

Kevin nodded in agreement as he pressed the unlock button to the vehicle. "Put the cigarette out before you even think about getting in, AJ!"

After taking a last deep drag from the smoke, AJ flicked the cigarette away with his index finger and thumb. Noticing the rebel's actions, Kevin hurried over to where the lit butt fell and quickly squashed out the smoldering ember. "Jesus Christ AJ, you want to start a fire?"

"We're in a friggen parking lot Richardson, I don't see anything that could burn," AJ sputtered, smoke escaping his mouth as he spoke.

Howie shook his head as he entered the back seat of the dark green Envoy. "AJ sure likes to start fights with Kevin," he muttered. Brian nodded in agreement.

"Pushes the buttons 24/7......So Kev, where should we go?" Brian asked cheerfully, hoping to end the bad vibes that were hanging in the air.

Kevin dragged a hand over his face in a tired gesture after he glanced at the tattooed rebel that took the passenger seat in the front. "There are a few places I would love to suggest that Bone goes....."

"Kevin, lets play nice tonight, okay?" Howie pleaded. "You've only got to be around Jay for one more night and I think it would be best to just put the past in the past..."

"What the fuck are you talking about D'?" AJ spat, folding his arms across his chest in a defensive manner.

Brian waved his hand in the air. "Just drop it, how about we find a dark bar and discuss our plans for tomorrow over some burgers and beer?"

AJ turned around to face Brian with a smirk. "Okay, a dark bar and beers? You're serious?"

"Of course I'm serious, you know we always think better over some burgers and beer....it's in the Backstreet credo."

Kevin backed the vehicle out of the parking space, taking the directions off the OnStar.

"So where are we going?" AJ asked as he turned back to face the front.

"A burger joint called Dewey's," Kevin muttered as he guided the Envoy down the two lane road. Most of the journey was travelled in silence until AJ grew tired of the quiet atmosphere.

"So how come you and D have to bail again? I don't remember what you said that had your panties in a ball," he rasped as he absently played with the cigarette lighter on his thigh.

"Don't you dare lit that up in here---" Kevin warned with a glare.

"Jesus...."

Kevin sighed. "As I said before we have personal business to take care of and it just so happened to fall at the same time is all."

AJ was relieved as Kevin pulled the vehicle into the large bar parking lot. He barely waited for the car to be put into park before he opened the door, quickly exiting. One of the first moves he made after leaving the car was place a cigarette to his lips and automatically clicked the flame up to the fresh smoke. Brian shook his head in disgust when he caught the actions of his bandmate. Smoking had always been a level of comfort for AJ in the past but with everything that had been going on with Nick over the past several months, tied in with guilt feelings that the tattooed rebel harbored, Brian knew that AJ's habit had increased rather sharply.

The four men walked into the dark bar and were quickly seated in a booth towards the rear of the restaurant. The atmosphere was a casual and relaxed one, the floor was old hard wood and there were bowls of peanuts in shells where patrons could crack open the casings and throw them onto the floor. Waitresses and patrons alike walked over them and it made a loud crunching noise.

AJ grinned as he surveyed his surroundings. "Hey...I kinda like this place," he stated as he leaned his body into the curved booth. "It's like home."

Howie wrinkled his nose in disgust. "Yeah if you live in a pig stye."

A waitress dressed in denim short shorts, a red sparkled halter top and a cowboy hat approached the booth, laying laminated menus on the table. "Hi my name is Wendy....would you like to order something from the bar?"

"Welllll hello there Wendy," AJ grinned. "I'd like a JD and diet coke." The others tossed AJ an annoyed glare as they recited their orders for the young woman.

"Alrighty, I'll be back with your drinks in a minute," she announced in a sweet voice as she turned.

AJ stretched his arms out and cracked his knuckles. "I like what I see here.....how about we take Kaos to this place?"

Brian leaned forward in his seat. "To a fricken bar? Are you insane? Nick wouldn't want to be in a place like this!"

"Nick loves places like this!" AJ protested.

"Loved," Howie corrected. "Nicky loved places like this. Now he is content to watch cartoons and color in coloring books. Do you honestly think Nick would be capeable of handling some place like this? Look what happened this afternoon when those fans approached him?"

"Yeah, I swear he was going to have a panic attack right there," Kevin added.

"AJ you have to realize that Nick isn't the same person he was last year. He may never be the same person," Brian pointed out.

AJ scowled. "If you keep up with the negative attitudes, I could see where he won't ever be the same person!"

"You can't put a kid in a situation like this though," Howie reminded.

"A kid? Hell if you forgot, he's an adult.." AJ snapped.

This time it was Kevin that spoke up. "A kid trapped in an adult body. Christ Bone, Nick isn't what he was before the accidental overdose, I know if we could turn back time we would and everything would be all happy and normal but you have to stop and think about this, mistakes were made and now he is paying the unfortunate price for it."

The heated conversation stopped abruptly when the waitress returned with the drinks. "So have you guys decided what you'd like to order for dinner?" she questioned with a pen poised over her order pad.

"Um, actually I think we'll need some more time to order," Brian apologized. "We were too busy talking to look at the menu."

The waitress smiled. "That's okay sweetie....here, you might want to look at this while you're deciding," she said as she handed a red booklet on the table.

Brian pulled the object towards him. "What's this?"

"We have a little karaoke thing going on tonight so I thought you'd be interested."

AJ snorted at the woman's comment. "Us interested in singing?"

"Why not? It's fun and people really get a hoot out of it. It would be your chance to be a celebrity for a few minutes."

AJ took a generous gulp of his drink. "Already done that trip."

Howie craned his neck to peer over at his bandmate. "I can't believe you, AJ McLean of all people would turn down a chance to get all the attention."

"Well some of us don't feel the same without Nick on stage," he replied sourly.

After a few moments of looking over the menu Brian was suddenly assualted with a peanut shell tossed at his face. He glared in the direction that the offending item came from and was instantly rewarded with a grinning AJ.

"Dude...I've been trying to get your attention!"

Sighing, Brian put the menu down and stared at his tattooed brother with annoyance. "You got my attention....what's so important?"

AJ leaned over toward Brian, whispering, "I was thinking, since they have this karaoke thing and since Kevin thinks it's a bad idea to have Nicky out in public places like this, how about we go to Walmart or something and get a karaoke machine and pick the boy up and have a good old fashioned sleep over in the hotel without anal Kev and D?"

"We all think it's a bad idea about bringing Nick to a place like this," Brian defended, "but you know what? I think that is probably one of the best ideas I've heard come out of your foul mouth in years."

"So it's a done deal then?"

"We'll have to call the Carter's to get permission to take Nick out overnight but I think this has some possibilities," Brian smiled.