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AJ stood off to the corner of the room, arms folded as he watched Nick struggling to lift his body off the bed.

“Dude......seriously, that kid ain’t got the strength to get up out of bed how the hell can he get up to meet the public this morning?”

Brian laid the bathroom towel he had been carrying onto Nick’s bed. Squatting down, he faced the younger boy. “Nick, do you really think this is such a good idea?”

Nick met Brian’s gaze. “Nothing we can do about it, I’ll be fine,” he replied through gritted teeth. “Besides, I just have to find a way to get up that don’t hurt my stomach, I’m not weak.”

“I’d really feel better if I call your folks or something,” Brian offered.

Nick shook his head as he slowly sat up. “Don’t bother, what are they going to do from Florida? I’ll be fine.”

“What they can do is stop this crazy crap that Lou is having you do when you are clearly not well.”

“Yeah Nick, you should just save yourself for the show tonight,” AJ agreed.

Nick stared for a moment before a funny expression flashed in his eyes. Without saying a word, he stood up as fast as he could manage and hobbled into the bathroom, slamming the door shut behind him.

AJ looked at the closed door and smiled an uneven grin at the Kentuckian. “I think the ex-lax has begun to take effect.”

Brian could only look at AJ and roll his eyes. “Duh!”


******
Staring at the full plate of breakfast food in front of him, Nick’s mind was anyplace but at that conference. In fact, the thought of food did anything but make him feel better. He had gotten a little relief in the bathroom before they met with the management and the other band members, but that relief was only temporary and in the form of a bout of diarrhea which still seemed to be ready to make a re-appearance at any given moment, based on the queasiness of his stomach.

“Jesus Nick, you’re wringing wet,” Kevin whispered into the young boy’s ear. “Are you feeling okay?”

Nick could only shrug his shoulders and paste a small smile on his face in response.

“All of you need to remember that we have a tight schedule to keep today and we must be on our best to meet the public, England has many Backstreet Fans and are one of the first fan club affiliates so we need not disappoint the fan clubs...”

Lou Pearlman’s droning voice sounded mechanical as Nick played with the folded napkin in his lap.

“Nick you will be expected to be extra sharp this morning at the record store meet and greet. Word has it that one of the fan clubs has something to award you there,” Pearlman continued, arms motioning toward the young blonde.

All eyes in the room directed their attention to Nick’s reaction about the meet and greet. Nick still acted as if he was in another world, eyes focused on his lap.

“CARTER!”

“Dude, you’re spacing out...” AJ wheezed as he elbowed Nick in the ribs.

”SONOFABITCH....WHAT THE FUCK DID YOU DO THAT FOR?!?!” Nick instantly doubled over, panting from the pain.

”THAT WILL BE ENOUGH OF THAT KIND OF LANGUAGE FROM YOU!” Pearlman boomed as he set his gaze into the young teenager.

“He didn’t need to do that!” Nick panted.

“Pay attention and it wouldn’t have happened,” Pearlman advised.

“Did Nick get his problem fixed?” Denise McLean asked across the breakfast table.

Although he was still in pain from being elbowed by AJ, Nick wasn’t too out of it to feel humiliated by the question that AJ’s mother asked - as if he weren’t even in the room!

“Yes I took care of it,” he muttered with a hard glare.

“Aww that’s so good to hear,” Denise sing-songed.

“I’m only feeling like crap now because AJ jabbed me in the side.”

“He was just trying to get you to pay attention Nicky,” Denise soothed.

“Don’t call me Nicky!”

“Easy there Nick, calm down,” Howie whispered.

“Well, if you people are done horsing around, we have a shuttle van that is waiting to take us to the record store for the signing and meet and greet party,” Pearlman announced as he swatted at the itinerary in his hands.

“Brian, tell them to just wait for a few minutes, I gotta stop and use the bathroom before we get on the van,” Nick whispered as he hurried past the Kentuckian.

“You want me to come with you?”

As much as Nick wanted to cry out YES! he bit his lip and said a quiet “no.”


*****
Nick grimaced as the shuttle van pulled up in front of the huge record store. His stomach seemed to hurt more than earlier and the only relief he had gotten was the two trips he had made to the bathroom. It wasn’t as if he had to go to the bathroom, it was more like someone was stabbing him in the side with a sharp knife.
As the van made a complete stop, Johnny Wright turned around in the front passenger seat to address the young men. “We have this scheduled for approximately one hour of signing album covers.....nothing else. Lou said that we have to be on time for the press conference that is scheduled after this so let’s keep this on time, alright?”

Security pulled the side door of the van open, and the roar of the enthusastic young crowd poured in. Pulling his jacket closer to his body, Nick edged his way toward the door.

Kevin grabbed his younger brother by the arm as he stepped out of the van. He instantly noticed Nick’s hunched posture and placed a quick, comforting arm around the young boy’s shoulders. “Are you doing okay?”

One of the bodyguards stepped up on the other side of Nick and hurried the two men through the crowd into the empty record store lobby.

Glancing around the room, Nick could see the obligatory long conference table set up with bottles of water, sharpie markers and name tags. Much to his dismay, his seat was at the center of the table - next to AJ’s.

Ignoring the name cards, Kevin deliberately pulled out AJ’s chair and sat down.

“Dude! That’s my seat!” AJ spat.

“Just sit at the end,” Kevin growled, “I’m sitting next to Nick.”

“Well maybe Nicky should sit at the end,” Howie decided.

“Gosh Nick you look horrible,” Brian gasped as he looked at his brother’s ghostly pale features.

Nick pasted a thin smile on his face, “I’m okay....let’s get started.”


Gripping the side of the table, Nick ambled his way over to the vacant seat between Kevin and Brian. Slowly, he sat down, trying to ignore the obvious stares from the two Kentuckians. Brian quickly taking an opportunity to touch the young boy’s forehead.

“Shit Kevin, he’s got a fever!”

Kevin reached over and felt Nick’s warm arm. “Nick why didn’t you say anything?”

“Let’s just get this overwith so I can go back and lay down,” Nick croaked.

“I wish to thank you young gentlemen for coming to my store on such short notice and I would like to thank Mr. Lou Pearlman, is he here?”

Johnny stepped up quickly and shook the store manager’s hand. “Lou couldn’t be here this morning, he is organizing the press conference the boys have to attend after this album signing, and I’m sorry if I sound short, but we have a tight schedule to keep so we should probably open the doors and let the fans in.”

The store manager seemed a little put off by Johnny’s fast insistance but motioned for the doors to be opened. The store manager’s voice boomed over an intercom system directing the girls to form lines in front of each member of the Backstreet Boys, and try to keep the lines even. AJ smirked at the thought of girls trying to keep the lines even and shook his head as he fiddled with the black sharpie marker in his hands.

Nick signed the album covers and pieces of paper the girls handed them to the point that he could barely read his own signature. The ‘n’ in Nick became less and less recognizable as time passed. Just a small hump with a line.

“Oh Nick, I love you so much,” a young red head girl squealed.

Nick being the polished professional, managed to smile through his pain the famous “Backstreet Smile” as he scribbled his name on her CD cover. “Aww thanks, I love you too.”

At one point, a sharp pain cut through his stomach and Nick couldn’t help but gasp out in pain.

Brian caught it instantly. “Are you okay?”

Nick quickly bit his bottom lip and grimaced. “Yep, just fine,” he mumbled.

This time Kevin interrupted. “Nick do you need to stop?”

”People, we are now finished with the autograph session, there is a president of a Backstreet Boys Fan Club that would like to present to Nick an award in honor of Backstreet Fans from the UK.”

The girls groaned in protest after being told that the autograph session was already overwith. In a peacemaking move, Johnny Wright stepped up to the microphone and announced, “If we do this presentation quickly, I will give you people an additional five more minutes since you’ve been such a good group of young ladies and gentlemen!”

That seemed to have a calming effect on the crowd but no one dared move from their spot, each clinging onto the items they wanted autographed by their favorite singers.

The store manager took the microphone from Johnny and cleared his throat and announced in a throaty English accent, “Miss Anastasia Freeman, president of UK Backstreet Fans.”

A petite young teenager stood up to the microphone clutching onto a vinyl record album with a picture of the Backstreet Boys as a background.

“Thank you Mr. Fedders, in honor of UK Backstreet Fans, I would like to ask Nick Carter to come up to the podium to accept this award from us to them.... Nick?”

With a shaking hand, Nick set the sharpie marker on the table and slowly stood up from his seat. Mentally he was praying that his feet would be able to perform the task at hand and get him from point A to point B.

“Nick, you want me to go with you?” Brian whispered as he looked up at the sweating blonde. Placing a hand on the back of each of the remaining chairs, Nick slowly made his way over to the young fan club president.

“We worked really hard getting support for this award and have contacted all the websites and support groups online for this. Thousands of online fans have signed this letter with their email address showing you guys all the support you deserve for this...”

All Nick could do was stand in one spot, hunched over as the young girl blabbed on and on and on.....It wasn’t that he didn’t care, it was he couldn’t care. His stomach felt like it was literally being torn from the inside out.

Being the professional despite the circumstances, Nick managed the famous Backstreet grin and held his hands out to accept the award.

“Thank you so very much,” he grinned, holding the award half way up into the air for the crowd to see. “We appreciate you guys.” As Nick stood there for a moment, his face void of expression, sweat pouring down his pale cheeks. His eyes seemed to be looking through the crowd instead of being focused on anyone in particular.

“Oh fuck, Nicky looks like he’s gonna go!” AJ spat as he quickly stood up.

True to AJ’s prediction, Nick took two faltering steps forward before his eyes rolled back in his head and he sunk to the floor causing the fans to scream and instantly step back away from the fallen singer.