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Nick and Stacie got to her house twenty-five minutes later and pulled into her parking lot. Stacie went up to her and unlocked it as Nick stood behind her.

"Are you hungry? It's about lunch time," she asked.

"I'm okay right now. Unless you're hungry?"

"Not really," they walked in and she set her purse and on the table by the door. She picked up a bottle from the window-sill above the sink and opened it. The last pill of the bottle dumped into the palm of her hand, she put it in her mouth, turned on the faucet and stuck her head under it, getting a drink.

"I gotten you a glass if you asked," Nick laughed. Stacie stood up and dried her mouth with a towel.

"That would've been too much work," she laughed. "I have to call in my prescription, I'm out."

"I'll go pick a movie to watch and we can be bums for a while."

"Perfect," she pulled out her cell phone and called her pharmacy. She gave them her Rx number and they told her it would be ready later that afternoon for her. Stacie went into the living room, Nick had a movie in already and was lying on the couch. Stacie pulled a blanket from the chair and brought it over. She snuggled into Nick and pulled the blanket over the both of them.

"Why are we watching Finding Nemo?" She laughed a little.

"Because it's a great movie and a happy movie!"
~*~*Later On~*~*
Both Nick and Stacie had fallen asleep before the movie got half way through and Stacie was woken up when her phone began to ring. She picked it up off the floor and answered.

"Hello?"

"Hey Stace it's Payton, did I wake you or something?"

"Yeah, Nick and I were just taking a nap. It's alright."

"Oh sorry, I was just calling to see if I could stop by to pick up the shirt I let you borrow a while ago."

"Yeah sure, if I'm not here, Nick will be. I have to pick up my prescription in like a half hour. I'll leave it on the table."

"Hey I'll pick up your for you. It's pretty much on the way."

"Really? That would rock because I'm too comfortable lying here."

"No problem. See you in a bit." They hung up and Stacie turned to face the sleeping Nick and snuggled into him deeper.
~*~*~
Payton had picked up the prescription for Stacie and got into her car. Before going to see Nick, well, get her shirt that she didn't plan on wearing any time soon; she came up with an idea and opened the bottle of pills. They were large peachy color and reminded Payton of her vitamins she took daily. She always kept a travel sized bottle in her purse and took one out and put the two side by side. They were pretty much identical, the only difference was the small F that was printed on Stacie's pills. Taking the chance, Payton dumped the prescript pills out into her hand and counted out how many there were. She then counted out the same number of vitamins and put them into the bottle. She put Stacie's pills into her vitamin bottle and put the bottle back into the bag it came in.

"Let's see what this does to our poor little anemic angel," Payton grinned, put her car into gear and drove over to Stacie's.
~*~*~*~

Forty-five minutes later the door bell rang and Stacie got off the couch, careful not to disturb Nick who was still sleeping. She answered the door and Payton walked in. "Here are your pills," she handed Stacie the bag.

"Thanks so much, oh, let me get the shirt." She placed the bag onto the table and went up stairs into her room to find the shirt. Payton walked into the living room and saw Nick sleeping on the couch. She stood over him and brushed a piece of hair that had fallen over his eyes.

"Here it is," Stacie called out coming in.

"He's passed out huh?" Payton laughed.

"Yeah, he's been sleeping all day. I'll get him up in a minute. So where are you going tonight that involves you wearing this sexy shirt?"

"I have a date," Payton lied.

"With whom?" Stacie put a hand on her hip.

"I met this guy at work the other day, he asked me out, I said sure why not. He's taking me to this very hip place he says."

"Well, call me tomorrow and tell me all about it!" Stacie smiled at her friend.

"Count on it. Oh, also, I wanted to talk to you about Nick meeting with me."

"He told me, it's fine. He came to see me at the gave and we talked and things are good. So, thank you for opening your big mouth," Stacie laughed.

"Anytime, okay well I have to go get ready. Tell Nick I said hi whenever he may wake up," Payton glanced at Nick one last time before leaving.

"Okay Nicky time to wake up," Stacie sat on the edge of the couch and shook Nick a little.

"Five more minutes."

"Nick, we slept through the entire beautiful afternoon. It's already six."

"Damn. I should call the guys about the meeting."

"Have them come over, I'll make some pasta and salad."

"I'll ask," Nick took out his phone and sat up rubbing the sleep from his eyes. Stacie took the movie out of the DVD player, put it in it's case and then turned on the television flipping through the channels. Nick had called Brian and was talking to him rubbing Stacie's stretched out legs over his lap.

"Okay Brian and A.J. are coming, they were together I have to call Howie."

"Great, are their other halves coming?"

"No, you may be the only girl tonight. Can you handle being surrounded around the Backstreet Boys?"

"I don't know, I may faint," she laughed and Nick called Howie.

"Yeah just come on over and we'll have dinner and talk about what I missed today," Nick spoke into the phone. "Okay see you then," he hung up.

"Okay you have to feed four boys now."

"I'll go get started," as she went to sit up, Nick pushed her down on the couch and kissed her.

"What was that for?" She asked pulling away.

"Just because. Now go make dinner woman!" Nick pushed her up.

"Come help make the salad!" She pulled Nick's arm and they went into the kitchen.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
"So, I really didn't miss much," Nick asked taking another bite of his dinner.

"Yeah, we should just start the tour March. That gives us the holidays with our family, we'll just be missing winter and it's almost a year away to get a set list, routines, opening acts and all of that." Brian explained.

"Okay so I'll call them and let them know we agreed to March tomorrow," Howie agreed.

"By the way Stace, this is an awesome dinner." Alex thanked her with a mouthful.

"Nick helped, he made the salad." Nick looked up and grinned and then all of a sudden jumped up from his seat.

"I have an idea!" Nick yelled.

"Uh oh, should we start running now?" Brian joked.

"What's that babe?" Stacie asked.

"You can be our trainer, like for injuries and getting us into shape again."

"That's a great idea and then you can come a long and keep our girls company," Howie nodded his head.

"I don't know Nick. I'm already part of a school."

"You have plenty of time to give a two weeks notice. Don't you want to come?"

"I think it would be a lot of fun and I would love to see your shows and spend time with you."

"You'll get paid a lot more this way than at a school." Alex added.

"It's not about the money."

"Well, think about it Stace okay?" Nick asked pleading with his eyes. She nodded her head and then asked, "Who wants dessert?"
~*~*~*~
Almost a month had passed since Ryan's birthday and Stacie was now living with Nick for the most part. She claimed she only moved in to get to the waves easier and not for Nick. They both had been busy with work, Stacie sports training at games and personal training here and there as well. Nick and the guys were meeting every day to get the tour under way.

"Come on you're taking days to paddle out," Nick called out Stacie as he paddled on his surf board. She finally reached Nick and and lay on her stomach breathing hard.

"I feel like I'm out of shape."

"You work out every day though."

"Doesn't mean I don't feel like I'm out of it. I need to rest a minute."

"Maybe you're getting sick," Nick questioned sitting on is board.

"I don't know." She sat up and put her hands on her hips looking out into the ocean.

"Or maybe I'm just getting in better shape than you, I mean I did finally win with our run two days ago."

"I let you win I told you," she laughed and then got ready for a wave. "Actually you take this one, I'll wait a minute."

"Okay," Nick got ready and then began to paddle to get the wave. Stacie felt shaky and had actually felt weak for the past two weeks. She often was light headed and although she had promised to keep nothing from Nick, she for some reason kept this from him. One of the best waves she saw of that morning came rolling in and she began to paddle hard. The wave rolled under her board and she stood up taking it in. As she came close to finishing the wave out she had another dizzy spell and fell backwards into the water.

Nick had already began paddling with his board back out to the ocean after his wave he caught, he watched as Stacie took her wave and cheered her on. Out of no where he watched as she fell backwards and figured she slipped or the wave just wasn't as good as it looked. When she didn't pop right back up he swam to where her board bounced up and down.

"Stacie!" He yelled and he began to get a little nervous. When he reached her board he dove under the water and saw her struggling to swim upward. He unstrapped the board from his ankle and reached her, wrapping an arm around her waist he swam her up to surface. He had her body go up onto her surfboard and pulled her into shore. She was coughing as Nick picked her up and set her down into the sand.

"What happened?" He asked lifting her chin to meet her eyes.

"I got a little light headed." Nick looked her over and noticed she was pale in the face and her body was shaking.

"Let's get you home. Nick looked behind him and saw that his board was down a little ways on the beach. "Let me grab the boards and put them behind the rocks." Stacie nodded her head and Nick put a towel around her shaking body. He jogged down t he beach, quickly got the board, picked up Stacie's and put them behind the rocks. He then went back to Stacie and helped her to her feet. "Okay?" He asked and she leaned into his body, he kept an arm around her and they went back up to Nick's house.

"I think I'm going to shower and lay down." She told Nick stepping inside and followed her up to the bathroom. "Nick I'm alright now. I'm just kind of tired. I think I may just be getting the flu."

"You have been real busy lately. Take tomorrow off?"

"I can't, I have a soccer game I have to be at. I'll take Tuesday off, it's just a practice and a client for training."

"Okay, well shower, I'll make you some tea and breakfast before you take a nap."

"You're the best," she went on her tip toes and kissed Nick.

"I know," he smiled and he changed out of his suit and began making breakfast.

Stacie turned on the shower, slipped out of her bathing suit and then took out her braid in her hair. She stepped into the warm shower and let the water run down her. As she finished washing the shampoo out of her long hair, an overwhelming sense of nausea hit her and got out of the shower and got sick into the toilet. After a minute, she stood up, put a towel around her body, brushed her teeth and then went into the room to get dress.

"You look worse than you did earlier, were you getting sick?" Nick asked as he put a plate of food on the bed and the tea on the night stand. Stacie nodded her head and climbed into bed, curling into a ball. Nick picked out a pair of his boxers and one of his hoodies and put them on her. "I'm going to call Payton and have her call the school and let them know you can't come. You probably don't want french toast huh?" Nick asked rubbing her back. Stacie shook her head no and sat up a little. "Try some tea," Nick handed her the cup of warm tea and she sipped on it. "If it is the flu you're going to need a few days off baby."

"It has to be the flu." Nick was silent for a moment and then took in a deep breath.

"Is there any chance you could be...well, pregnant?"

"No, I have my period right now. I use birth control and you use a condom."

"I had to ask, because it is morning and you did get sick."

"I'm not pregnant Nick." She set the tea down and lay her head on the pillow.

"I'm going to call Payton for you. Get some sleep," Nick helped Stacie climb under the covers and kissed her forehead.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~**~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
"Are you sure you're up to working out with us today, you still look like you're not one-hundred percent," Nick asked Stacie as they walked to the car with their gym bags.

"It's been over a week now, the flu is gone." She stated as she climbed into the passenger seat. "And I have to get the Backstreet Boys in shape in eight months."

"I just don't like how pale you are and the make up isn't hiding it," Nick started the car and drove to the gym.

"Hey ready for day one of me kicking your butt?" Stacie asked Howie giving him a hug hello.

"We'll see, I'm in pretty good shape." He smirked.

"We will see. Now go, all of you ten minutes on the bike." Stacie directed. After she had them do a five minute stretch and then worked legs, biceps, triceps and abs. After an hour work out they headed outside to start their run.

"Three miles?" Alex whined.

"No worries, we'll go slow but, I have a feeling you're going to want to quit smoking after this." Stacie smiled and they began jogging slowly down the side walk.

After doing a slow jog for about an hour, they finally reached three miles and made it back to the gym. "I told you, I don't care how long it takes, because we're going to do this as a group. We'll do three miles until we can get it under forty-five minutes and then go to four and up. In a few weeks, you'll be singing as you run." Stacie explained to them. "See you guys tomorrow for tae bo!" She said excitedly.

"I'm so glad we've been running together this summer," Nick told her putting an arm around her shoulder walking to the car.

"Me too."

"So, we really get to play laser tag?" Nick asked raising his eye brows.

"Yes, tonight with Payton, her knew guy and some other friends."

"Sweet, I'm going to kick your butt." Nick told her opening the car door for Stacie.

"I'm pretty bad, so it won't be hard to." She laughed and tilted her head back feeling exhausted from the work out. The two went to Nick's to shower and relax a little before meeting Stacie's friends at Laser Quest. Stacie had just lied on the couch for a few minutes to rest and ended up falling asleep.

"Baby wake up, we have to head out." Nick rubbed Stacie's arm.

"Hmm?" She asked sleepily.

"Laser tag, we're going to be late if we don't go in five minutes."

"Oh, okay." She sat up and brought a hand to her spinning head.

"Stace?" Nick asked in a knowing tone.

"I'm fine, let's go," she stood up and put her sneakers on.

"I'll drive," Nick said still not buying what Stacie was telling him.

"Alright," she got into Nick's car and went to Laser Quest.

Once there, they walked up to Stacie's group of friends and Payton was with her new guy Rome. After tehy introductions, they went into a room where they put on their vests.

"What's you code name?" Nick asked Stacie putting his vest on.

"Mystique, after the Xmen chick. What's yours?"

"Kaos," Nick nodded his head grinning.

"There's a shocker." They were allowed in and everyone went their own way. It turned more into a game with just Nick and Stacie because they kept trying to get each other. On their third game, Stacie was wiped out and she stayed mostly in the upper chambers hitting people. Only five minutes into the game however, she was sweating more and breathing was something she had to concentrate on.

"Nick," she called out walking slower heading down the ramp to the lower level. She knew he wouldn't answer to her and continued to move around. She held on to the walls to help her balance and felt herself being tagged in the back. She looked down at her gun to see who was shooting her. "Dragonfly," it read and that was Payton. She as hit again and again by her and the room began to spin and she fell her to her knees. Stacie looked up trying to see if she could find Payton, her eyes took glance at Payton just above her before everything went black.