Howie and Breanna celebrated their one year anniversary and her 22nd birthday by sleeping. The week before was the official kick off of the European tour. Eve and Kevin were busy in their hotel room making wedding plans. Brian and Izabel stayed in their room telling Tommy bedtime stories with little success. Tommy was still hard to put to bed at night. Nick and Natasha were no where to be seen but everyone assumed they were in their room trying to be alone and AJ and Mya were out clubbing. Everyone was happy but tired.

Whenever Breanna wasn't giving an interview or practicing for a show she was hidden away in some studio trying to lay down vocals for her debut album. She had written 13 songs, Brian had given her 3 songs that he had written and Kevin was helping co-produce as much as he could with the limited amount of time they had. As soon as Breanna was done touring with the guys she would be heading into the studio with Max and Mutt to finish up whatever wasn't completed on the road. Howie explained to her that she would soon go out around the world promoting the album and follow the promotion with a tour. While she was on tour the guys would probably be back in the studio recording another album. When the guys went out touring for that album she would be back in the studio. Breanna wanted to have her schedule in sync with Howie's but that wouldn't be possible. The guys shared producers with Breanna and Max didn't have time to produce two albums at once. Breanna was crushed but Howie did his best to show her the bright side of things. They planned to take their vacations together and Breanna agreed to move into Howie's house with him once the tour was over. At least when she went back into the studio it would be in Orlando.

"Do you realize that we won't be back in Orlando until October?" Breanna asked Howie one night after a show. He plopped down onto their bed and laughed. "Does it matter? Soon you're going to be so busy you won't care what city you're in, as long as you get to sleep." She laughed at him with a twinkle in her eye. "What? What are you thinking?" He asked her. "Nothing. I remember trying to comprehend how famous you guys were last year and here I am with my own fair share of fame. Life's bizarre." She laughed. "C'mon. Let's get some sleep. We have to be up at 5 tomorrow morning." Howie quickly fell asleep but Breanna laid in bed trying to think of what a normal life felt like and how she took it for granted. She missed her mother and father and especially her brother Alexei. If he had been traveling with them he would know what to say to make it all better. Instead, Alexei was back in Santa Monica partying with his friends and going to school. Being normal. Taking it for granted. She longed for her life back but she knew that wouldn't be happening any time soon. Fame was good to her so far but she felt like her life would spin out of control in the next year causing her and Howie to go their separate ways. Breanna felt tears sliding down her face as she stared out the window at the moon. "What do I do now?" She questioned God or whoever was in control of the universe. "This is something most people would give their lives for but I don't want it. What's wrong with me? All I want is him." She whispered. Howie woke up and listened to her cry. "I can't handle this. How does he do it? He has the guys for support but I'm going alone. I have no one to help me or support me. I'm not going to have anyone by my side once this tour is over. What do I do?" She tried not to sob but it was difficult. Howie slowly place his arm around her waist and pulled her towards his body. She turned around and buried her face into his chest as she sobbed herself to sleep. By the time she had calmed down it was 2 in the morning. Howie laid awake the rest of the night stroking her hair thinking about everything. Things seemed some simple. Breanna would sing and go on tour and make a lot of money and get a lot of attention. But it was a lot more complicated than that. Breanna would be doing all of this alone as a solo artist. She never had training before and she never even wanted any of it but it was thrown at her. She accepted it just because Howie encouraged her. He felt guilty but at the same time he knew that no one on Earth would pass up an opportunity like that. He finally fell asleep but 30 minutes later AJ came running up the stairs pounding on their bedroom door. "We're late! Get up! Let's go! You have 20 minutes!" "God, last years tour wasn't this grooling! Hell, even the Millennium tour before that wasn't this hard." Howie mumbled to himself. He let Breanna sleep in as he ran around the room packing whatever they forgot to pack the night before.

Brian slowly walked up the stairs with a magazine rolled up in his hands. He had a stern look on his face and his lips formed a perfect line. He slightly knocked on Howie's door as he walked in. "She still asleep?" He whispered. "Yeah, she had a really rough night. This is getting to her. I'm just going to let her sleep and carry her out to the bus if I have to." Howie stated, staring down at Breanna as she slept. Brian nodded his head looking at Breanna before turning his attention back to Howie. "What's that?" Howie asked, motioning to the magazine in Brian's hand. "Maybe I should explain this to you downstairs or should I wait until we're on the bus?" Howie knew that it was probably a tabloid but the look on Brian's face sent a shiver down his spine. "Yeah, tell me later. I don't think I want to know right now." Brian turned around and walked back down the stairs. "Ten minutes, D!" He reminded Howie. One of the bodyguards walked into their room and took their luggage downstairs. "She better wake up! We're leaving in 5 minutes." He commented. Howie nodded his head as he continued to stare at Breanna. "Did I do the right thing by encouraging her to sign a record deal? I thought I was trying not to be selfish but maybe I was wrong." He thought to himself.

Howie woke Breanna up with a kiss. "Hun, put your Nike pants and jacket on. I'll go grab your shoes and then we have to leave. You can sleep on the bus." Breanna sat up in bed and yawned. "Okay." She shuffled over to her favorite black Nike outfit and put her pants and jacket on. Howie threw her pajamas into his backpack as he placed her shoes in front of her. She stepped into her shoes and walked over to the bathroom to brush her teeth. Howie watched her as she absent mindedly did everything. He found her Nike hat and sunglasses and handed them to her before they left the hotel room. As a rule, they never showed affection in public. Instead, they walked out of the elevator one behind the other towards the tour bus. Once inside the bus Breanna made her way to her bunk and crawled in. She was out like a light as Nick giggled. "She must have gotten NO sleep!" He shot at Howie who nodded his head. "She's stressed out. She cries herself to sleep and there's nothing I can do about it." He hesitated to explain any more but Nick took the hint and didn't probe further. Brian walked to the back of the bus where Nick and Howie were talking and sat down. "What is it?" Nick asked. Brian pulled the rolled up magazine out of his jacket and tossed it in front of Nick and Howie. Nick grabbed it and read the front page. It was a tabloid like Howie originally thought but it had two pictures he wished to never see again. Brian's ex, Rachel was on the cover with Howie's ex, Helaina. Nick's stomach jumped into his throat as he handed the magazine to Howie. With one look at the cover Howie dropped the magazine and stood up, pacing around the room running his hands through his hair. "What did it say?" He questioned quietly. The magazine was written in German but he knew Brian had it translated. "It talked about us, and them." Brian mumbled. "What exactly did it say?" "Helaina told them how Breanna took you away from her and how she is using you to create a career for herself. It also talks about Helaina being pregnant but you demanded that she get an abortion because a baby would be a burden on your career." Howie exhaled deeply and shook his head. "That's not how it happened! I never demanded she get an abortion. She threatened she would if I didn't play by her rules." He was becoming hysterical. "What? What are you talking about? She was pregnant?" Brian asked with large eyes. Howie nodded his head slowly. "The only person who knows about the pregnancy is Breanna." He mentioned quietly. Nick's jaw dropped to the floor. "What did Rachel say?" Howie asked. Brian looked down and sighed. "She knows about Thomas. She told them that I had a son with another girl who I had a one night stand with and that I dumped Rachel because of Izabel. That bitch even said his full legal name and Izabel's name!" Brian punched his left hand with his right one as he sat on the couch contemplating everything. "What do we do now?" Nick asked quietly. "We deny everything." Kevin stated as he walked into the room. He already knew what happened because a fan had given him the tabloid when she met him in the lobby of the hotel. "But Bri, you wanted people to find out about Thomas sometime soon. Why not set everyone straight about what really happened between you and Rachel." Nick suggested. Brian shook his head. "I don't know. I have no idea what I'm supposed to do." Howie was still pacing around. "What do I do? I didn't think Helaina would be a problem." "I have an idea. I don't know if you'll go for it, or if Breanna will for that matter, but it's worth a shot." Nick said. "What is it?" Brian asked. AJ walked into the room fully aware of what was going on, and sat down on the floor to listen to the guys. "Tell the press that you and Breanna broke up because she couldn't handle your touring schedule. Then tell them that you and 'Shy Rose' are dating." Howie sat down to think about what his friend suggested. "I'll have to talk to Breanna about this." He muttered, barely audible. "It's not such a bad idea. But, I'm not sure how she's going to feel about it. This means she has to pretend that Breanna is a whole other person." He stated. "Well, she's doing that now, D." AJ spoke up. "I know." Howie was worried about the tabloids and how much worse they could affect Breanna. She was doing a good job portraying 'Shy Rose' but he knew that the stress that went along with the job was getting to her. "Wait, don't we have a PR firm?" Nick asked. "Yeah, of course! Don't you know?" Brian yelled out, staring at Nick like he was from Mars for not knowing. "No, I *know* we have a PR firm. I'm just saying why don't we let them take care of this bullshit. That's why we pay them. If we tried to handle this ourselves, we'd be doin' a lot of 'open mouth, insert foot' kinda things." Everyone looked at Nick before laughing. Howie threw a pillow at Nick but he caught it and tossed it back. "Nick, when did you grow up?" Kevin asked, smiling at his friend.