"Brian?" she said quietly and nudged him. "Hi there, sleepy head," she said with a smile as his blue eyes met hers, "what are you doing here?" she asked quietly, but he shrugged his shoulders. "Take my hands," she told him and he did, then she told him to pull, she was up out of bed, her feet on the floor and she began to walk to the door.
"You can walk!" he said with surprise in his voice. "Yes, now you can leave..." she ordered him. "Why?" he asked with hurt in his voice. "Because I said so," he nodded and she walked around the room, waiting for her legs to give out, but they never did, she spun around and giggled with delight, she was free again! She did a couple of dance moves to make sure that she still could and then she went back to sleep, without any nightmares. She woke up and saw that Brian was sitting next to her again, she got up and decided to walk around. First, she went to the desk and talked to one of the nurses that she had seen the night before. "Hello nurse, I just wanted to tell you that, as you can see, I can walk, you can tell that stupid doctor that I don't need any of his help and I will sign myself out this afternoon." She said this with a smile and continued to walk around, not knowing that Brian was watching her, and following her. She walked quickly up to the fourth floor and stared at the babies in the nursery.
"You know...one day your baby might be sitting in this nursery," she heard someone say right behind her. She turned around and saw Brian there. "Don't be silly, I won't have children." "Why not?" he asked sadly. "I am not the type," she said looking back at the babies. "I think you are," he said very quietly. "I am hopeless," she told him. "No you aren't." He said, knowing that he had to get through to her that not all men would hurt her, he would never hurt her. She shook her head and went back to her room, she was strong enough to go home, she knew it, but she didn't have anywhere to go, she would never set foot into that apartment. She packed and Brian watched her in the doorway, she quickly got dressed into a pair of jeans and a black halter top, it was summer so she knew that she would be warm enough, even in the Connecticut weather that was unpredictable. She sat on the bed and began to cry, she didn't know why, but she just started to cry.
Someone came up behind her, and she knew it was Brian. He hugged her and told her that he would never let anything hurt her again, she didn't believe him, but she let him hold her anyway. "You are coming with me, you are going to stay with us and Lauren decided to move in too." She nodded and he helped her into his car, they sped to the guys house, not saying much to each other. She walked into the large house that was just a couple of blocks away from her old apartment. All the guys were sitting there, and Lauren and Nick were lying on the floor, Lauren's head on Nick's chest. "Hey everyone, look who I got, " Brian said with a big smile as they walked into the large living room that had a complete entertainment center and posters and pictures all of the walls. Katie just looked around with a bit of disbelief, but smiled as she saw the group's expression.
They had no idea that she was going to come today, they had agreed that she should move in, the police had dropped all of her things over that morning, but they didn't know she would be there so quickly. "Wow! Your up and everything!" A.J. said with a smile as he came over and kissed her on the cheek. "Yeah I am fine, I can even dance, I tried it this morning, like at 3," she said and they all laughed. Brian led her up the stairs and showed her the bedrooms. It was a huge house there was one bedroom for everyone, and even two extra. One hall was devoted to the bedroom, if you walked down the hall on the right you would find Howie's, Kevin's, Nick's and Lauren's rooms, on the left was A.J.'s, Brian's and Katie's, with one bathroom. There was a total of 4 bathrooms. The attic was fixed with air conditioning and everything, that was the recording studio. The basement was wonderful. It was divided in half by a glass wall, so you could look on the other side and see what everyone else was doing. Half of it was a computer/entertainment/rec room and the other half of a dance studio with polished wood floors, a CD player, a tv/vcr and mirrors.
After the tour of the house Katie went to her room, which was next to Brian's and across from Lauren's, but she had a feeling Lauren spent a lot of time in Nick's room. She began to unpack and she heard a soft knock on the door. "Come in," she yelled at the door and Howie came in, his hair pulled back and he was wearing a t-shirt and black stretch pants. "How you doing?" he asked gently. "Great, being here really makes me feel comfortable." "I'm glad," he said with a smile, "I was wondering, actually, we were wondering, if you would like to come down into the dance studio and show us what your made of," he said with a huge smile. She giggled and nodded.
"I'll be down in 10 minutes." He left the room and she changed into a purple leotard and black spandex pants. She pulled her hair up on top of her head and washed her face, she was ready. It was the moment she had always waited for, to dance with the Backstreet Boys. She walked down the two flight of stairs and saw the guys stretching out on the ground, she joined them and Lauren sat and watched, telling everyone that she wanted to be the 'music controller' they hoped she didn't feel left out, but she looked like she was having a blast.
"Ok Katie," Brian said, "This routine is for the next leg of our tour for 'Roll With It', so watch once or twice and then you can join us and see how you do." She nodded and sat next to Lauren. Lauren turned the music on, almost all the way up, and the guys faced the mirror, Kevin, A.J., Howie,
Brian, and Nick standing side-by-side. They did the routine and Katie watched, it looked really simple so she decided to join them on the first try. "I got it, where should I stand?" She asked and Kevin told her to stand next to him, she stood there, stared at the mirror and her eyes met with Brian's, she smiled at him and then the music came on. She kept up with them, but she wanted to go faster, and change a couple of steps, but didn't want to say anything. They went through the whole song and then it was over and Katie was still ready for more.
"Wow! Now that was amazing!" Brian said. But Katie nodded, staring at the floor, "What's the matter?" Brian asked. "Well, I would like to change a couple of things," she said with a smile and everyone nodded and laughed. "Okay, first I think you should speed it up and change a couple of the movements with your arms and add a couple of steps." She showed them what she meant, and it took her half an hour to get them to understand it. Finally, though, they went through the whole song and it went perfectly.
They all showered and then Katie and Lauren helped cook dinner, for once all the guys were going to stay home. Usually they went to the clubs or out on dates, but they were all free that day. They worked on some more routines and they told Katie that their choreographer was going to come over and work with them, and they wanted to show the new and improved versions, and Katie agreed.
That night she slept like a baby, and she knew that someone kept coming in and checking up on her, but she didn't know who. They guys had been all really good with her, A.J. was quiet a lot of the time, he still felt guilty, the others were nice and were always trying to help her out. She looked at her clock and saw that it was 5, Kevin and A.J. usually were up by then. She walked down the hall and heard a noise coming from A.J.'s room, she wasn't sure what it was, or if she should bother him, but she decided to knock on the door and see if he answered.
"Who is it?" he asked in a muffled voice. "Katie. Can I come in?" She asked. "Uh...okay." he said and she opened the door and found him sitting up in bed with just his shorts on, his face wet. "Oh god, are you okay?" She asked, turning his light on. He was red and seemed to be dripping in sweat, but he had a huge pile of blankets on him. She went over to him and touched his forehead and nearly screamed, he was burning up.