Bittersweet Revenge
Part 2
Brian sighed as he sat
down on the edge of his bed. Today was a day he had been looking forward to
since he landed back into the hospital after Marcus tried to do him in, but it
lacked the happiness that he should be feeling.
Walking over to the
window, Brian leaned his head against the frame, staring down at the large
crowd that stood on the front lawn. It had almost a month since Nick’s
"funeral" and the fans were still out in force showing support. He
had a hard time trying to convince himself that Nick wasn’t gone, just away on
a small vacation until the coast was clear. This was the longest Brian had ever
been away without some sort of contact from Nick since they met back in late
1992. That was years ago but it seemed like only yesterday.
"Hey you ready to
leave this hole?" AJ exclaimed as he burst through the door.
Brian smiled slightly.
"Since you put it so delicately, I guess now’s a good time."
"Good. Dumbass and
Howie will be up in a minute and we’re taking the service entrance out," AJ
laid out the plans.
"Did you remember to
tell the nurses that all this goes to other rooms?" Brian asked as he
looked at the large assortment of flowers, balloons and plants. "All but
this, I have to take this with me."
AJ watched Brian walk over
to a balloon assortment, some of the balloons were already hanging low towards
the floor, the helium depleted.
"What’s so special
about that one?" AJ asked casually.
"It was from
Nick," Brian replied quietly.
The silence that followed
the statement was uncomfortable. AJ still didn’t know that Nick was still alive
and only two floors away. He shifted his weight back and forth and made
nonsense whistling noises to ease the obvious tension in the room.
"Brian, you ready to
walk out?" Kevin cheerfully asked as he and Howie entered the room.
"Yes." Brian
coughed to clear his throat up, silently praying that he wouldn’t break down
and lose it on his way out the door.
"Well, we get to walk
out instead of the wheelchair business since we’re gonna duck out and avoid the
press," Kevin advised.
"Good idea,"
Brian replied.
~*~*~*~*~*~
"Jack, the car is in
the circle drive so I guess I’m ready if you are," Lizz said cheerfully,
trying to practice using the alias.
"Okay, ready in a
second," I called out from the bathroom.
When I entered the room,
Liz’s jaw dropped. When she left me the other night my hair was getting back to
it’s normal color, which I hadn’t seen in years, with dark roots that were
growing out. My hair had grown past my ears and I usually wound up swearing at
the length every time I had to tuck some of it behind my ears whenever I looked
down.
Standing before her now
was a man that had short light brown hair, dark brown eyes, and unshaven face
and a neatly trimmed brown moustache. This wasn’t Nick Carter at all, I was
practically reborn.
"Omigod,"
Lizz gasped.
"Do you think this
will work?" I questioned. My voice was still hoarse, but it was getting
stronger everyday. It actually added to the new identity.
"I can’t believe it’s
you!" Lizz stated as she walked around me. "You don’t look anything
like you!"
"I guess the
challenge will be when I go out in public," I remarked with a grin.
An elderly woman knocked
on the open door, pushing a wheelchair. "Transportation," she
creaked.
Stifling back a laugh, I
obediently sat down in the wheelchair.
"All set," I
said, folding my hands into my lap.
Lizz couldn’t help but
snicker as she looked at the new Nick setting in the wheelchair his knees
looked like they could reach his ears because of the length of his legs while
he sat in the chair. The quick dirty look that I shot at her caused her to
stiffen up and force the smile from her mouth.
"Okay, let’s do
it," I stated calmly. It probably sounded calm, but the butterflies in my
stomach were a million times more than what I ever felt at the beginning of a
show.
The woman guided the chair
down the hall to a staff elevator. It jerked to a stop on the floor above that
Brian was on. I briefly thought about wishing to tell the old woman to stop on
the next floor and take me down the hall to his room as a few hospital
employees got on the elevator with us.
As the elevator stopped on
Brian’s floor, the old woman quietly commented on how busy the elevator was
this morning. To my surprise the door opened up and there stood Brian, Howie,
Kevin and AJ waiting to get on. I looked up at them wanted to say something but
was stopped in doing so when I felt Liz’s hand clamp down on my shoulder. This would
definitely be the test to see if our disguises worked.
All but one hospital
employee exited the elevator and Brian and the guys got on. Kevin pushed a
button and the door closed. None of us spoke a word. Suddenly AJ whispered
something to Kevin. I strained to hear but it wasn’t clear and I couldn’t even
take a guess.
I couldn’t stand it
anymore. I had to say something, anything to see if I could pass inspection.
"Hey, are you guys
Backstreet Boys?"
God, my voice sounded
horrible, almost like I was a 23 hour a day smoker or something.
"Yeah," AJ
replied bluntly.
"My little sister
likes you guys," I stated with a grin.
"Thanks." Brian
replied quietly.
The elevator stopped and
the guys filed off. Only Howie glanced back at Lizz and I and gave us a quick
"thumbs up" and told us to take care.
When the door closed I
started to laugh a little. Lizz lightly smacked me on the shoulder but didn’t
say anything since there was still a hospital employee in the elevator with us.
It was really weird. For
the first time in years I was able to leave through a front entrance without
all the paparazzi and press directing questions at me. They were out there, but
they ignored us as I was guided up to the rental car.
I opened the passenger
side door for Nick as the transport lady set the wheelchair wheels into lock
and lifted up the foot rests. All the people around made me nervous, but no one
spared us a second glance. It was weird.
"What? I wanna
drive!" Nick frowned at me as he got up out of the chair.
"Tough shit. You
don’t know where you’re going." I smirked, walking around to the other
side of the Jeep.
He thanked the lady
politely and then turned to me as I put my seatbelt on. "Okay then, O
Smart One, where are we going?"
"Well, for the past
few days I have been apartment hunting. I found a few, but I didn’t want to
just make a decision without you." I explained.
His eyes widened
considerably. "We’re living in an apartment?! Together?!"
I laughed. "I know. I
can think of a few people who would have a heart attack at the idea, but what
other choice do we have? We can’t stay in a hotel room and we are going to be
staying here for awhile. You are still going to be getting your speech therapy
and Brian will be getting his physical therapy too. Hm, I wonder if you guys
are ever gonna run into each other. Anyway...Marcus is going to be hanging
around in town and Terri and Agnes are here too and if we are going to do some
digging and stuff, we need to stay here for awhile yet. A motel won’t work
cause we need to look like normal people that live here, not visitors. We’re
going to blend right in with the rest of the world. Getting two apartments
would cost too much and that would look kinda funny too. Besides, I don’t think
I could live alone right now." I added quietly, my mind flashing back to
the horrific words on my bathroom mirror. I shuddered.
"I know, to tell you
the truth, that idea doesn’t sound too appealing to me either. Besides, someone
has to keep an eye on you, right?" He nodded smugly, turning everything I
said over in his head
. "Oh god, that’s
like the blind leading the blind!" I snickered.
"But god, an
apartment? Just how big are these apartments you have been looking at?" He
asked warily.
I laughed again. I could
just picture his mind going from his rather large house to the shoeboxes I have
been looking into. He was going to freak. I guess he took me laugh as an answer
and sighed. We fell into silence as I drove down the main road.
"That was
weird." Nick spoke softly after a few minutes.
"What?" I
glanced at him, before switching lanes to pass yet another pokey driver. The
elevator scene flashed in my mind for the umpteenth time. As soon as those
doors opened and they stepped on, I felt my heart rate start beating a mile a
minute. I guessed it was a combination of both mine and Nick’s nerves. I didn’t
know what he was going to do so I clamped my hand down on his shoulder, warning
him to behave. I should have known better because he said something anyway. As
soon as he started to talk, I was sure the guys were going to figure it out. At
least Brian.
Nothing. They barely even
looked at us. Brian didn’t at all, keeping his head trained to the floor. At
one point I saw him look up just a little, but he wasn’t facing us. His eyes
were still red-rimmed and he looked sad. Like he had lost his best friend, and
in a sense he had. My heart ached for him and the rest of the guys and it took
all my willpower to not blurt out the truth right then and there. I was
relieved when we got off the elevator because anymore time on there and I would
have cracked.
"Seeing them. I can’t
believe they didn’t recognize me. Or you. I mean, we look different, but
still..." Nick’s voice sounded faraway and I knew he was playing the scene
over in his head too.
"That’s why I didn’t
talk. I sound the same at least and I didn’t want to risk it. Plus I was afraid
of what I was gonna say." I added.
"They looked like
crap. I figured they would have been over it by now."
I turned and glared at
him, smacking him hard in the arm. I hated when he made comments like that.
Saying people would get over it really fast if he were ever gone, as in if
something ever happened to him. "Well, there’s your proof dumbass!" I
informed him.
He looked slightly taken
aback at my reaction, rubbing his arm.
"I’m sorry hun. I
just hate to hear you say stuff like that. Losing someone you care about takes
a long long time to get over and you never really do.
You know that as well as I do. And you’ve got a lot of people that care a lot
about you. Brian has told me a million times he’d be lost without you. Now he
has to go who knows how long without you? So no more of that talk, got
me?" I said seriously.
He nodded. "I got
you." He looked kind of down and it made me feel bad for snapping at him
like that. Then I remembered one of the last conversations I had with Brian
before I became Katie Allen. I knew this would cheer Nick up.
"I almost forgot to
tell you. We got a little code. No one knows cept
you, Brian and I. It’s nothing major. We just thought it would help a little
bit." A smile played on my lips as I Nick looked at me curiously. I pulled
my new cell phone out of my purse and handed it to him. "Page Brian and spell
out a message to him." I instructed.
"Huh? How..."
Nick started.
I grinned. "Well we
can’t keep in contact any other way, but this is actually pretty safe. No one
is going to know or be able to trace this and we’ll erase the pages as soon as
we figure them out so no one can find them. It’s at least a way to let the
other one know they are being thought about."
"Cool." His face
lit up and I smiled too. Anything at all to make this a little easier on
everyone. He dialed the number and then punched out some numbers. Then he
clicked the phone shut and handed it back to me. "I put that all was okay
and that we miss him."
I smiled. "Sounds
good. Did you remember to put the spaces between the words?" I teased.
"Shuddup." He
laughed, remembering when I had given him a hard time for that awhile back.
I reached my hand back and
rifled through one of the side pockets of the duffel bag until I found the
black pager. When I found it I pulled it out and tossed it at Nick.
"Here’s your new pager Jack. If Bri manages to figure out what you put,
you might get a message back."
"Sweet..."
"Okay, here we go.
Apartment complex number one. Remember to keep an open mine hmm?" I pulled
into an empty parking space and shut off the engine. I couldn’t help but laugh
softly at the look on Nick’s face as his brown eyes scanned the small
apartments.
~*~*~*~
Brian rested his head back
on the seat of the hotel courtesy van, closing his eyes and ignoring the bantering
of the guys. They made it out of the hospital without any troubles or fans
detecting them. Although he was now away from the hospital, his thoughts and
heart was still there as long as Nick was still there.
His pager started
vibrating and at first Brian decided he would check it later but something was
gnawing in the pit of his stomach so he pulled the small dark blue device from
his belt.
At first when he read the
message on the pager, he couldn’t make it out.
"allisokwemissyou."
It took a few moments when
he suddenly realized who it was from. His heart skipped a beat.
Nick.
"Bri, you okay?"
Kevin asked as he noticed Brian was acting funny.
"Huh? Oh yeah, I’m
okay," Brian replied as he quickly erased the message Nick had sent him.
Thinking for a moment, Brian keyed in a return message to Nick’s new pager
number.
"Thank God, I miss
you too. I just got out."
Brian smiled as he hit
send. This was going to be his lifeline for the next few weeks and he was
grateful that Lizz came up with this idea. To be apart from Nick and not
knowing what was happening literally tore him up. Looking out over the scenery,
he felt a mixture of happiness and sadness as the van pulled into the hotel
entrance.
"Home sweet
home," AJ said in a monotoned voice.
~*~*~*~*~
"Vinnie, I’m glad you
could help me out, man," Marcus stated as he popped open the bottle of
beer.
"Hey, no prob,
anything for a friend of a friend," the short, stocky man replied. He
picked up the remote control and started surfing through the ten snowy channels
his television set picked up. "I used ta have cable but they shut me down
when I got behind on the payments."
"Assholes. Ya know
that’s the problem with the system, they pick on all the little people,"
Marcus observed after taking a huge gulp from the brown bottle.
"I hear ya,"
Vinnie replied, stopping on a soap channel. "So how’s your sister
doing?"
Marcus’s gaze turned hard.
"She’s alive but it ain’t much of a life. Carter did her over good."
He suddenly smiled. "But I ended up getting Carter in the end."
"Ain’t he the one
that just died?"
"Yeah."
"So you got your
revenge, so everything is done, right?
"Maybe it is, maybe
it ain’t. I just don’t feel closure on this yet, ya know?" Marcus replied
and then belched.
~*~*~*~
"I’m not gonna even
consider living in a dump like that, you have got to be kidding me," I
sputtered as I bounded down the steps of the complex back to the safety and
security of the rental jeep.
"Hey whoa, slow down
Jack," Lizz called out. "And I’m driving mister!"
Slamming the driver side
door closed and I walked around the front of the vehicle and literally threw my
body into the passenger seat. I set my focus towards the front, folding my arms
across my chest.
"Are you having a bit
of a temper tantrum?" Lizz teased.
"No I’m not having a
TEMPER TANTRUM!" I defended.
"Okay, cause I could
have sworn you were," Lizz remarked as she turned the key in the ignition.
"Okay let’s analyze this apartment situation here. Number one, we can’t
afford to live in a high rent district, number two like it or not, we’re gonna
have to live on a budget--"
I narrowed my eyes at
Lizz. "A budget?!"
"Hey we’re supposed
to be low key, low profile, how would you explain to someone that we can live
on a small income but yet still have tons of side extravagances?"
"Well um, we could
um."
"My point exactly.
Okay, so I’m guessing that this place is a dump, but I specifically wanted to
start out here so you would appreciate the place I really think we should stay
at. My plan was to work our way gradually up to it."
"Let’s not dick
around, just take me to the place you think would be good, I’m sure anything’s
better than this rat infested apartment complex," I snapped back.
Suddenly, my new pager
played out a snippet of the beginning of Disney’s Little Mermaid theme,
signaling a message had been received. Raising an eyebrow at the sound, I
pulled the black pager from my belt.
"I couldn’t resist,
I’m a sucker for Disney themes, and Brian contributed to the pager so I figured
what the hell," Lizz apologized.
"Ha ha," I replied dryly. "Hey, Brian said he misses
me too and that he just got out. Gimme your cell."
"Nick you can’t call
him!"
"I’m not that dumb,
I’m just gonna reply to his reply and I will remember the spaces this
time," I replied as I punched out my message to him.
"I know you did, I
saw you leave."
Happy with what I punched
out, I hit send and closed the cell phone up and handed it back to Lizz.
Lizz could see the smirk
on my face. "Okay, what did you do?"
"Nothing."
"Bull, you can’t lie
to me Carter."
"Okay, okay, I just
told him that I knew he was out of the hospital, that’s all."
"Yeah, sure I believe
you. Okay, here we are, Oakridge Apartments."
I looked wearily at the
narrow three story brown bricked building. In my opinion, it looked like a
tenement from
"Jack, this is pretty
much our last choice, come on," Lizz coaxed as she got out of the car.
"Coming dear
Katie," I teased as I opened my door.
~*~*~*~*~
Brian stared at his pager,
jaw dropped. How could he have seen me? Surely I would have seen him then... He
thought to himself. His next guess was that Nick had somehow messed up the
page, but there were even the correct spaces in it.
"Brian?"
Brian looked up to see
Kevin looking at him curiously. He hurriedly erased the page and stuck it back
on his belt. The other guys had already gotten out of the van and were carrying
the few things they had left up in Brian’s room and also all Brian’s stuff.
"Oh, sorry, I’m
coming." Thankfully they had managed to keep it a secret that Brian was
being discharged today so their wasn’t a huge mob at the hotel. They ended up
switching hotels just to be on the safe side, but to them it was six of one,
half a dozen of another. They started to look alike after awhile.
Brian got out of the van
slowly, putting more attention into dialing a message back to Nick.
"How."
~*~*~*~
"C’mon, you have to
admit this place doesn’t look that bad." My eyes took in the surroundings
as we walked up the sidewalk towards the main office. It wasn’t nearly as
menacing as some of the other places I had looked at. This place was actually
pretty decent and I was pretty proud of myself. It was clean and there were
even some flowers planted here and there. Yeah, the brown brick wasn’t all that
attractive, but you can’t have everything.
"I miss my
house." Nick muttered.
I sighed. "Don’t get
me started."
Nick looked at me in mild
surprise. Okay so there was more of an edge in my voice than I had meant to
come out. I was just nervous and I wanted Nick to be at least somewhat happy
with this place.
"Sorry, it’s not that
bad. I’m just getting used to this." He said quietly.
"It’s all good."
I smiled reassuringly at him. He returned the smile and then his attention was
drawn to the Little Mermaid again. I narrowed my eyes at the grin that appeared
on his face. "You better not be messing around on there!"
He gave me that all too
familiar innocent look that made most girls melt. "Nice try Carter.
Doesn’t work on me." Unfortunately my voice didn’t come out as mean
sounding as I was aiming for though. I just shook my head in resignation.
He gave me a look of mock
horror. "Who’s Carter? My name is Jack Carpenter."
My eyes widened at my
mistake. "Whoops..."
"Yeah, whoops is
right, gimme your cell phone. And by the way, why do you get one and I
don’t?" He stuck his lower lip and and I snickered.
"Yours is coming, you
brat. Amy didn’t have time to reconfigure two of them so they can’t be traced
or picked up on. We have a PO box that it is going to be delivered to within
the next couple days." I explained handing him my cell. "What did he
say?"
""How?""
Nick grinned again as he typed out another message.
""How"
what?" I countered, but he ignored me. Right before we went into the small
office I stopped cold.
"What’s wrong?"
Nick flipped the phone shut and stuck it in his pocket.
I chose to ignore that for
now. "When I came in here the first time I filled out an application in
our names just in case because they always do a credit check and they would
check our rental history and stuff. What if it comes up blank? We are so
screwed!" I fretted.
"Whoa, take it easy.
We won’t know until we find out." Nick rested a hand on my shoulder.
I groaned. "Go
figure, you’ve never had to mess with this shit before."
He laughed. "Thank
God."
I just shook my head and
we walked inside. A middle-aged man sat at the desk and offered a pleasant
greeting.
"Hi, my name is Katie
Allen, I was in here the other day and filled out an application. This is
uh...my uh..."
"I’m Jack
Carpenter." Nick stuck his hand out, giving me a look out of the corner of
his eye.
"Oh, that’s right.
Let me check." The man turned around and rifled through a file cabinet.
"You’re going to have
to do better than that, dumbass." Nick whispered.
"Shuddup." I
hissed back kicking him.
"Ah, yes here it is.
Well y’all’s have been approved. You both have excellent credit and your rental
history has been spotless. Not one mark in the past three years you have been
together. That’s pretty good. All I need you to do is fill this out and I need
a $150 deposit and I can show you to y’all’s place." The man placed a
piece of paper in front of us on the desk.
Three years of being
together?! I looked at Nick and he looked like he was trying not to laugh. I
just stood there like an idiot so he grabbed the pen out of my hand and started
signing his new name in the various places.
Only a few minutes later
the man escorted us around the side of the complex and up the stairs to
"Well here
goes..." Nick stated as he unlocked the door and swung it open. I reached
around him and flipped on the light.
It was moderately sized.
It was actually about the same size as the apartment I had shared with Kyung. I
felt a pang in my heart when I thought of that. I hadn’t talked to her since
this all happened. Everything happened so fast that I didn’t even have time to
call her. I wouldn’t be able to tell her anyway about what was really going on
and I hated to lie. She had to be so devastated by now. I was going to have to
page Brian to get a hold of her and let her know I was okay. I shook it off and
put my attention back to the room.
"Well?" I looked
at Nick anxiously.
"It’ll do. Ya know,
that guy is gonna wonder why we have a two bedroom apartment if we are
"together"." His voice carried from the tiny kitchen he had
wandered too.
I walked into the hallway
that had both rooms. They were right across from each other which was sort of
odd since most apartments had the rooms on opposite sides. Then it dawned on
me. "He probably thinks that is gonna be the baby’s room!" Nick’s
head whipped around so fast I thought it would snap.
"Baby?!" He
choked.
I about died laughing.
Literally doubled over, holding the side of the wall, uncontrollable laughing.
The look on his face was priceless. Between breaths I explained my theory about
the location of the room. His eyes grew even wider and he shook his head.
"Okay," I said,
composing myself. "We’ve got a lot to do. We need to get some cheap
furniture, food, and we both need clothes. Where do you want to hit first? Mall
or used furniture store?"
Nick’s eyes grew wide
again. "How about I let you do that stuff and I will hide out here?"
He asked hopefully.
"No dice Carpenter.
Mall then?" I smirked at the look on his face. This was going to be so
weird for him, going out and blending in with the rest of the world.
"How did I let you
talk me into this?" He muttered as we headed back out the door.
"Could be worse. You
could be all on your own about this." I giggled at the look of horror on
his face.
"Okay okay, but at least I would be free of your ass keeping me
in line." He grinned to show he was just playing around.
"Ha ha ha." I retorted dryly as I
locked the door behind us. "Before we go anywhere we are stopping for
food. I’m starving."
"Sounds good, but I
am driving!" Before I could react, he grabbed the keys out of my hand and
darted away as I lunged at him.
"You punk!" I
hollered, tearing after him. Okay, between the two of us there was never going
to be a dull moment.
~*~*~*~*~
"Boy, I’d forgotten
how tired a trip home from the hospital can make a guy," Brian sighed as
he laid back on the queen sized bed in the hotel room.
"You’re feeling okay
other than that though, right?" Kevin asked anxiously.
Brian half heartedly waved
his hand at his cousin. "Yeah, I’m feeling okay, just tired."
"Okay, well, you go
ahead and get comfortable and crawl into bed and rest. I don’t want to see you
getting a setback from overdoing it today," Kevin instructed in his usual
"fatherly-like tone of voice." "I wrote down my room number just
in case you need anything."
The vibrating of the pager
snatched Brian’s concentration from Kevin for a moment.
"Thanks Kev, see you
in a few then."
As soon as Kevin closed
the door, Brian took the pager off his belt and smiled slightly. It was another
page from Nick. He was answering Brian’s question about how he knew that he had
been discharged from the hospital.
"staff elevator i was
the guy in the wheelchair and i told you my sister likes the band."
Brian narrowed his eyes as
he tried to recall what happened only a few hours ago. He remembered getting
onto the elevator and there was hospital staff and as hard as he tried, he
couldn’t recall the face of the man in the wheelchair. There was no way that
could have been Nick. He would have known him instantly.
"Damnit," Brian
softly mumbled as he re-read the message and then erased it. After a few moments
he started to feel calmer. If he didn’t recognize Nick then surely Marcus
wouldn’t be able to either. Then he remembered the voice - it very gravely,
like when you have a good case of laryngitis. Brian hadn’t talked to Nick since
he underwent the throat surgery so he definitely didn’t have any clue as to
what type of a voice he had been left with.
~*~*~*~*~
"So where’s a BK or a
Mickey D’s at around here?" I asked as I guided the jeep down a two lane
road.
"Oh, sure, you drive
and you have no idea where you’re going," Lizz replied in mock protest.
"Hey, don’t give me
that, I just happened to have taken an unexpected stop in this city when the
bus was going through here. Ohmygod, a Wendy’s!"
Lizz shook her head as I
took the corner into the parking lot on two wheels.
"Hungry much?"
"Shuddup. Are we
dining in or drive thru?"
"I doubt you’d be
able to handle actually going into the place let alone staying in there,"
she challenged.
I pulled the car into the
parking space and killed the engine. "Oh yeah, I accept your
challenge."
Old habits die hard, I
decided. I was feeling pretty cautious as we walked across the parking lot
towards the building. I was waiting for an ambush of teenyboppers or something
screaming and yelling and flashing cameras in my face. All I saw were some high
school girls walking out of the restaurant and it sounded like they were
talking about feminine hygiene products.
"Refreshing change,
eh Jack?" Lizz winked at me.
"They could have
spared me the douche topic," I mumbled as I held the door open for her.
Slipping into a booth with
our trays, I was still waiting for someone to recognize me and bug us while we
ate. Nothing happened. It was nice in a way but really weird in another. I
guess I was liking the idea of having a normal lunch out in public but in a way
I missed the fan interaction.
"Something wrong,
Jack?"
"Huh?" I
straightened up in the booth. Lizz must have detected my daydreaming.
"Sorry, I’m fine."
"No deal, I know you
too well and you know that. Besides, I can feel your stomach is in knots. Come
clean and tell me what’s bugging you."
I repeatedly stabbed a fry
into the pile of catsup on the burger wrapper.
"It’s okay, I’m
fine," I lied.
"Bull, you’re playing
in your food. You of all people don’t play with food. Come on Ni.. Jack, just
talk to me," Lizz asked as she placed a soft hand on my forearm.
"I um, I miss the
guys," I looked down at the table.
"And?"
"Andimissthefans,"
I rushed the sentence.
"Ah, once a celeb,
always a celeb," Lizz teased.
"Shuddup, of course I
like having a normal lunch and all, but still..." He trailed off, stabbing
at the poor fry again.
"Yeah, but this isn’t
really normal to you either, is it? I mean, you are used to being mobbed since
you were what, thirteen? And now suddenly you aren’t. Go figure, it’s going to
be a little weird for you till you get at least somewhat used to it." I
said gently. I didn’t know what to say about missing the guys because there
wasn’t anything we could do about it. I had to admit, I did too. I missed
Howie’s support and quiet compassion. I missed the feisty ribbing I would
exchange with AJ whenever we got the chance. I even missed Kevin acting all
"father-like." Of course I missed Brian probably the most. I had
gotten used to spending about every breakfast in his room, plus the other
random times during the day. He was way to easy to talk to and one of the few
in my life that knew some of my secrets. Not to mention he helped me keep Nick
in line. I had to smile at the last thought cause it did take both of us.
"What?"
I was interrupted from my
thoughts when I looked up from my own now-mushed fry
that was in my hand. Nick was watching my expression.
"You just went from a
really sad look so grinning all smugly. What’s that all about?" He asked.
I shook my head.
"Don’t give me
that." He said warningly.
Now I laughed. "Okay
fine, geez. Just cause I can badger you to death to tell me something doesn’t
mean you can do it to me too." I teased. Then my smile faded a little.
"I was just thinking about what you said, I guess. I miss em too."
Geez, if I did, I couldn’t imagine how bad he must.
"We’ll get through
this." Nick patted my hand.
"Damn straight. Ready
for the furniture place?" I had to keep from smiling at the look on his
face.
"Why there first? Are
you sure I can’t just go back to the hotel?" He was almost whining.
"Okay, but don’t
complain when I pick you out one of those girly daybeds with pink sheets and a
lacy dust ruffle." I smirked when his jaw dropped.
"You wouldn’t!"
He exclaimed.
"Try me hun." I
gloated at him, then grabbed my tray and drink cup and walked calmly over to
the trash bin.
He scooped up his stuff
and followed behind me, grumbling all the way. I was greatly amused, and even
managed to forget about the high level of stress we were under. The trip to the
furniture store was an absolute blast and I was in seventh heaven. I loved
furniture and furniture shopping. At first I was trying to get stuff that was
the absolute cheapest, but Nick assured me I didn’t have to be looking at the
shabbiest stuff in there. I think he was already frustrated that we were
looking at used furniture, but there was no way we could come to our "new
home" with a bunch of new fancy furniture. We each got a bed and a
dresser, a small kitchen table with a few chairs, a comfy couch, coffee table
and a TV table. The store was going to deliver it all the next day which meant
we were going to get to spend our first night on the floor. Fun...
The mall was a madhouse.
It seemed like all the teenagers in the city were there and as soon as we
stepped in we both tensed up. I know I did and I was equally as sure that Nick
did and it made me wonder if we were sort of bouncing off each other.
"You okay with
this?" I whispered.
Nick nodded uncertainly.
"Okay then, we can
just start walking and stop in any store that we see that we want to go into.
None of my clothes fit anymore and I don’t even know what happened to them
anyway and you can’t wear yours. That would look weird, your clothes suddenly
all disappearing when you "aren’t with us anymore". Not to mention,
if anyone is attentive enough to remember anything you ever wore..." I
rambled.
""K." Nick
said, his eyes scanning the people that passed by. Of course, no one paid us a
second glance. It was weird.
Things were fine in the
first couple stores. We decided we didn’t want to split up so we took turns
going into whatever stores looked appealing. By the third store, a very crowded
American Eagle, things got rough. I had wandered to the girls" side and
was looking at some shirts when the tension hit me with a sudden fierceness. I
turned quickly and looked around for Nick. When I saw him, my heart leapt into
my throat.
"Nick, what’s
wrong?" I blurted before thinking to use his alias. He was darting his
eyes back and forth and breathing really fast.
"Need...to
get...outta here..." He gasped, brushing by me.
"Shit!" I
exclaimed softly, feeling his panic. A few heads turned our way as he rushed
out of the store and I ran to catch up with him. Once we got outside of it, I
pulled him to a bench off to the side and we both sank onto it. He leaned
forward, putting his head in his hands, trying to breathe a little calmer. I
didn’t say anything yet, just put my hand on his back and rubbed it softly.
"Sorry..." He
finally said, barely audible.
"Don’t be. This was
way too much. I should have known better than to try to come here at this time
of day. I wasn’t really thinking." Okay, I felt really bad.
"I don’t even know
what happened. One minute I was fine, getting clothes...Then all of a sudden
this girl looked at me and I thought she recognized me and I panicked." He
shook his head.
"Hun come on, a lot
has happened in the past few days and you’ve got so much on you right now. It’s
no wonder that this happened. Come on, we’ve already got some stuff and that
will be enough for now. We can come back when it’s not so busy." I
suggested.
"Okay, but we still
need to go to Walmart. We need the basics." He
said, sounding a lot calmer.
I nodded and we gathered
our bags and headed to the car. Walmart was a breeze
and even kinda entertaining. We got some "basics" like towels,
kitchen stuff, some munchies, some pillows and blankets, a small stereo (for
now) and two alarm clocks, toiletries, and some other odds and ends. We looked
in the clothing area and found a few things like sweats and a couple tee shirts.
For the hell of it we headed to the toy aisle and goofed around like a couple
of ten year olds. Last, but not least, we went to the electronics area and got
a television and a few CDs. I let Nick do all the check writing because I knew
I would have a heart attack if I saw how much we had spent today.
Finally we were more than
ready to go home. We were both ready to relax a little bit and watch some
sitcoms on TV with a bowl of parmesan and popcorn. Neither one of us talked
very much during the drive, each wrapped up in our own thoughts. Luckily when
we got to the complex parking lot there was a space almost right in front of
our apartment, making it easier to haul in all our stuff.
A half hour later we had
arranged our blankets and pillows in front of the TV and had some popcorn in
the microwave. "I’m changing." I announced as I walked into my bare
bedroom. My bags were sitting in the middle of the floor since I didn’t even
have any hangers yet to hang my stuff up on. I could smell the popcorn so I
picked up the pace before Nick got to all of it without me. When I walked out
back into the living room I felt 25 lbs lighter. It was great.
"Whoa." Nick
glanced up from the bag of popcorn that he had just retrieved from the
microwave.
I laughed. "Yeah that
body suit makes quite the difference doesn’t it? I got pretty used to it, and
now I feel weird like this. Almost like I could just start flying or
something."
"Ha! You probably
could, lightweight!" He snickered.
"Ha ha." I said dryly. "I can still take you."
He widened his eyes then
laughed. I watched as he proceeded to dump the parmesan on the popcorn and I
was almost drooling. It'd been forever since I had this. He caught my look and
turned away, arms wrapped protectively around the popcorn.
"None for you,
Kat." He said over his shoulder.
"Kat?" I asked,
slowly advancing on the popcorn.
"Yeah..." He
inched away.
I hissed at him and he
cracked up. "You best share or I am gonna rip your arms off and beat you
with them!" I threatened.<>
He laughed harder and
darted into the living room, dropping in front of the TV. I followed suit and
plopped down next to him. Before he could react I grabbed a huge handful and
shoved it all in my mouth. He watched me in amusement and started to laugh all over
again.
"Whfa
sho hunnie?" I tried to ask.
"You pig." He
shook his head at me.
I jumped up. "I’m
going to go get a newspaper. They had one of those things by the mailboxes. Be
right back okay?"
Nick looked worried.
"It’s dark though."
"Nick come on, it’s
not Lizz anymore remember?" I reminded him.
"You aren’t wearing
your body suit." He countered.
"Yeah, but like you
said, it’s dark, who’s gonna notice? And I am just getting a paper." I
argued.
"Okay okay, but hurry back." He relented.
I grabbed a handful of the
change that Nick had taken from his pocket set on the counter before breezing
out the door. I heard him call out "hey!" before I shut it and
snickered to myself. I felt kinda weird going out in public without the
bodysuit on, like I was breaking a major rule or something. Actually I kind of
was, but I was also wearing black sweat pants and a dark sweatshirt so you
wouldn’t really be able to tell anyway. There was only one guy at his mailbox
anyway and I ignored him as I walked over to the newspaper stand and fed some
change into it. Only, when I went to pull up on the little door it got stuck.
"Damn it." I
muttered. I jerked on the handle, but it wasn’t budging. Then I heard a deep
laugh from behind me.
"Having some trouble
there?"
My blood ran cold at that
voice and I couldn’t even move. I was struck by paralyzing fear and all I could
do was stand there helplessly.
Marcus.
He walked around the side
of me, looking at the newspaper bin. I stared at him then looked all around,
hoping to find someone else near. The area was poorly lit and there wasn’t a
single person outside. I looked back to Marcus.
"Are you okay?"
He gave me a funny look. Not a look of recognition, but a blank stare with a
curious look to it.
He didn’t recognize me!!!
My legs went weak with the sudden realization and only then did I realize I was
trembling. "Uh, yeah, I just don’t feel very good I guess." I said
softly.
"Yeah, you look a
little pale, you oughta be inside getting some rest." He said almost
nicely. It made me wonder what he meant by "being inside." Holy shit,
what if he was trying to hit on me?! I staggered backwards.
"You’re right, I
think I better be going now." I stepped back again and then turned around.
"Yeah, but aren’t you
forgetting something?" He called.
I choked back a sob. Here
it came, I was dead. The whole thing was ruined and I had just put Nick in
danger. Again. I turned to face him, shaking like a leaf.
"You forgot your
paper." He smiled at me, handing out the paper he had managed to dislodge
from the bin.
"Uh, thanks." I
took it with a shaking hand. I did manage to smile before I turned away and
started walking. I purposely went in the opposite direction so he wouldn’t know
where to find me. Besides I couldn’t go back inside just yet. I was an absolute
wreck and I didn’t want to tell Nick about this just yet. He had already had a
rough day and I didn’t want to freak him out any worse.
I was still shaking so bad
I thought my legs would give out from under me. I’d managed to keep myself from
crying at least. He lived here?! How could I have managed to pick the one
apartment complex in the whole damn city that he lived in? And how did he even
afford it here? He was still wanted by the FBI and everything. But, now that I
thought of it, he looked kind of different too. I didn’t recognize him, it was
his voice that clued me in. I was still shocked he didn’t recognize me, but I
didn’t even look like myself anymore so I guess he shouldn’t have been able to.
Hell, Nick and I were in the same elevator as the guys and they didn’t notice
either one of us so Marcus shouldn’t have either. When I was convinced that he
was gone, I headed back to the apartment.
"What the hell took
you so long?!" Nick stared at me when I walked in the door.
"Uh, I wanted to look
around a bit." I lied.
"Bullshit. What’s
wrong Lizz, you look upset." He said a little more softly.
"Ah, its just I was
thinking about everything." I tried to cover.
He didn’t look convinced,
but let it drop for now. I dropped the paper on the counter and wrapped myself
up in the blanket on the floor. Nick watched me for a minute, but didn’t say
anything. Halfway through the next sitcom my eyes started to grow heavy and
before I knew it, I was asleep.
~*~*~*~
I shot straight up in my
covers and looked wildly around the room. What had woken me up? The TV had been
turned off and the only light in the room was coming from the small sliver
under the bathroom door that we had left on.
There it was again! It was
at the door. I glanced at Nick, who was sleeping a couple feet away from me. I
crawled over to him and shook his shoulder. "Nick, wake up!" I
hissed.
The doorknob jiggled and I
heard the familiar sound of the lock turning. I jumped to my feet unsure of
what to do. We didn’t even have anything that could be used as a weapon. Hell,
we didn’t even have any kitchen knives! Before I could move, the door flew open
and Marcus stood there with a malicious grin on his face. I moved so I was
standing between him and Nick. I wished he would wake up.
"You thought you
could fool me with that cheapass disguise? Sorry
Lizz, it didn’t work and now you are Carter are going to pay. Is that him
behind you? Ha! Maybe I should kill him in his sleep. Or I could kill you first
and let him watch helplessly. What do you think?" He sneered at me.
"You aren’t touching
him you bastard." I said in a low voice. At least it was dark and he
couldn’t see how bad I was shaking.
Then everything happened
at once. Nick woke up. Marcus lunged at me. I screamed. Marcus had a hold of my
arms and was trying to pull me away from where Nick was.
"What the hell?? Oh
my god... Lizz!" He exclaimed as his expression went from confusion to
shock to horror.
I struggled against Marcus
as he pulled out a gun and aimed it at Nick. "Noooo!!!" I screamed as
it fired.
***
