Spending a week with Nick wasn't as much fun as most fans would expect. They hardly slept at all, spending most of their time in the studio, and getting drunk at night.

He called Natasha and explained what was going on without going into too much detail. He explained that he wasn't going to answer the phone and if it was important to leave a message and he'd call her back. Once that was settled he and Breanna pulled out the sleeping bags and threw them down the stairs that led to the studio. "This is going to be crazy!" She stated happily. "Got the pizza?" She asked. "Of course! It's downstairs waiting for us. I also have the pizza man on speed dial down there, too!" Nick said. "You sure are proud of yourself, aren't you Frack?" She teased.

After a while Nick and Breanna went over all the lyrics she had stored on her computer. Nick was eating pizza but Breanna was nauseated by the smell. "Bree? Can I ask you something?" He asked while still staring at her computer screen, munching away. "You just did." She smiled back. "No, seriously!" He shouted taking his eyes off the screen to look into hers. "I know. What's up?" "Your lyrics. They're completely dark and gothic. Are they all like this?" He asked while hitting the page down key. Breanna looked back at the screen as the happy feeling she had been having all day drained away. She nodded her head when she realized all her lyrics had an edge to them. They weren't happy or even close. They were all about losing. Losing in life, losing to death, losing love, losing hope. "Lauren Christy. Massive Attack. Even Cirque Du Soleil. I think I see a pattern and I think we can copy them but there's a problem." He stated. Breanna sighed in relief. She was waiting for Nick to ask her why her lyrics were so dark but instead he was trying to figure out a sound to go with the words. "What's the problem?" "All of those artists use a lot of layering. We have the equipment but I don't think we have the experience with computers to layer all of this especially with the time frame we have." Breanna looked at Nick and started laughing. "What's so funny? I'm serious! We don't have the experience or the time." He stated. "Nick, Nicky, Nicky Boy! Time is not a problem. Neither is experience. Do you have a Mac down here?" She asked looking around the studio. "Yeah, the Mac's over there. Why?" "What kind of programs do you have on it? Do you have the full version of Cool Edit?" Nick looked at her and shrugged. "I think so. But I've never used it." "Cool! I've been using it since I was 17. So, problem solved. What's the next problem?" She asked. "There isn't one." He replied. "Yes there is...That pizza is making me sick." Breanna got up and ran towards the bathroom.

After 6 hours of going over all of her songs, Nick and Breanna finally decided on one song that wasn't as dark. Breanna had titled it "Softly Dying". Nick and Breanna argued for an hour over the name but in the end Breanna won. "I pick the title and the lyrics. You pick the music and you get full control over the recording process. I'll do the layering and then we'll burn it onto a CD. Cool with you?" She asked as Nick moped around the studio. "You serious?" He asked, his face turning from a frown into a smile. "Geez boy! You're a sore loser. I'm sorry you don't like the title of the song but that's the nicest thing I could call it. Suicide Song sounds too depressing anyway." She teased. "And yes I'm serious. You're the producer of this song so you get free reign." She added.

By the end of Monday they had the song picked out. When 11pm approached they agreed to call it quits for the night. "I've got Play Station down here and movies too. We can just kick back here and if any ideas spring to mind we're in the right place!" Nick said, walking around the studio cleaning up. "You sure you don't want any pizza?" He asked. Breanna placed her hand over her mouth and ran to the bathroom. "Guess not." Nick shrugged. After she got out of the bathroom Nick gasped. "You look like shit!" He shouted. "Thanks." She said with little enthusiasm. "I've got the flu thanks to your girlfriend." "Hey don't blame my little angel!" He said in a sweet voice. "You two make me sick." Breanna teased before picking up the phone. She sat on a couch in the studio with the phone in her hand, unsure if she should actually dial. She dialed the first six digits but quickly hung up. She picked up the phone again and finally dialed all seven digits. By the fourth ring his voice mail picked up. She decided to leave a message to show him that she still kept her word. "Hey D it's Bree! Just wanted to see how you were doing. It's 11 o'clock and I'm in Nick's recording studio working on a secret project. No one else knows about it, so hush! Damn, I gotta go! I'm still feeling like crap with this damn flu. Take care and call me sometime. Don't call this week though. Me and Nick aren't answering the phone. We're even sleeping in the studio in sleeping bags! Haha! I'll talk to you later. Night!" When Breanna hung up the phone her hands were shaking. She felt like crying but knew it would probably make her sick. Nick had been watching the entire time and knew she was tearing herself up over what to do about Howie. Nick walked over to Breanna and sat down on the couch with her. He put an arm around her shoulder and turned the TV on with the remote. She cuddled up with Nick, not saying a word about the phone call he obviously heard. By midnight Nick started to tell her jokes and stories about some of the crazy things he and Brian did in the past. Breanna was in stitches by one AM. "Want a drink?" He asked her. "YES! Vodka! Tequila! Scotch if you have it!" She shouted. "Damn Alchy, calm down." He teased. He walked over to a small cabinet and pulled out a bottle of Absolut Vodka and handed it to her. She pulled off the top and drank as fast as she could. Nick laughed for ten minutes straight at Breanna. He'd never seen a girl drink so fast in his life. "But this is Breanna! The girl from Vegas!" He reminded himself.

By the end of the night Nick and Breanna had passed out from drinking too much. When they woke up, it was already noon. "Shit, Bree! It's noon! We're never gonna finish this song if we don't start now." Breanna woke up with the worst hangover she had ever had in her life. The first thing she did was crawl off the couch and walk over the bathroom. She was always sick lately. The flu was draining all the energy out of her.

Tuesday seemed to have come and gone quickly. Nick was experimenting with different drum beats while Breanna stayed near the console to do the recording. They had 6 different drum beats all together that they liked. Breanna ran them through the computer and layered them, adding different effects here and there. When she was done she presented it to Nick who was in awe. "I did that?" He asked. She nodded her head enthusiastically, grinning at him. He was impressed with what he had done. "So what's next?" She asked him. "Bass, I guess. They kind of go hand in hand." He stated. Breanna picked up the bass and played around with it trying to find a beat she liked. "I'll play each drum beat that we recorded and you try to copy each one. Then you can run 'em through the computer and work your magic, k?" Breanna agreed and did as she was told. After four hours she was done. By the time it was midnight, the drums, bass, and guitars were already recorded. "Tomorrow we'll probably spend all our time doing the keyboards since they have the most effects. Then I want to try to record your vocals tomorrow night. Hopefully we'll be done with recording by tomorrow and we can spend all of Thursday fixing everything." Nick explained. "This is going to be the fastest song I've ever recorded." Breanna stated. "Me too! I hope this comes out okay. For spending only a few days on it so far, it sounds pretty killer."

That night they decided to play video games instead of drinking. "I don't think I can handle another hangover like the one this morning." She joked. Two AM rolled around and Breanna was already in her sleeping bag asleep. Nick continued to play video games when he heard her cellphone ringing. He ran to her duffel bag and rummaged through it until he found the phone. Call ID stated Howie as the caller. "Hey D, she's asleep." Nick said in a slight whisper. "Want me to wake her?" Nick asked. "No, Nick! Don't wake her. She's been sick. So, what's this project you two are working on?" Howie asked, unsure if Nick would talk to him about it. "Oh man, it's so killer! She's like this amazing artist. This song is going to blow everyone away." Nick was gushing about the song. He couldn't believe how much the music swelled around his head every time he played it. Just the guitars, bass and drums took him into an alternate universe. "But?" Howie finally asked when he realized that Nick's voice had trailed off. "But it's dark. D, it's almost suicidal. The lyrics are just, I don't know." Nick sighed trying to think of a word to describe the words. "Haunting?" Howie conjured. "Yeah! That's it. They're haunting. It's like you're in a haunted house but you know for sure that you're not going to survive, but you have to try anyway. I can't explain anymore. You're just going to have to wait." Nick teased. "What are the words?" Howie asked, ignoring Nick's taunting. "The songs about losing love and hope. Losing everything important to you. Just losing, basically. D, out of all her songs, all *30* of them, this was the most positive." Nick explained. "How's she doing?" Howie didn't want to discuss what Nick was obviously trying to get at. "She's fine. Sick as a dog. I can't eat pizza around her without her getting sick to her stomach. We got blind wasted last night after she got off the phone with.... She was...I guess not in a good mood." Nick offered. "Sorry, ignore what I just said." Nick kicked himself for telling Howie as much as he did. "Okay, well Nick. I'm gonna go. I have some things I have to do. Watch her for me, please?" Howie said almost in a whisper. "Sure man! I'll tell her you returned her phone call. Later!" Nick hung up the phone and looked at Breanna who was sleeping peacefully. "Oh c'mon Bree! Just get back together and stop making the rest of us miserable!" Nick whispered as he crawled into his sleeping bag. "I have no clue why we're in sleeping bags. What was I thinking? I have 9 rooms upstairs and here we are on the hard floor sleeping in my studio....And.." "Stop your bitching and go to sleep! You can go to your room if you want but if I leave the studio I won't want to come back here tomorrow. I need to stay in my frame of mind. Now shut up or I'll have to hurt you." Breanna shouted, not opening her eyes. Nick mumbled under his breath but was stopped as soon as Breanna kicked him.

All day Wednesday Breanna and Nick were on the different keyboards experimenting with different sounds. "This would be a lot easier if Kevin were here." Nick stated. "I got it!" Breanna shouted happily. She replayed what she thought sounded cool but Nick wasn't sure if he liked what he heard. "Nick, listen to me. Once it's layered and altered with computer effects it'll sound totally different!" Breanna recorded what she just created on the keyboard and ran it through the computer, layering it 8 different times. When she played it, Nick was impressed. She recorded the same thing from the same keyboard with a different sound effect. She opted to try a violin effect. When she ran it through the computer, adding it to what was already layered, she became happy. She could already here the song in her head. She added the keyboard rift to the music they had recorded over the past few days. When she played it for the first time, she used headphones so Nick couldn't here. She wanted to surprise him. She was finally completely happy with the raw version of the song. Nick walked around the studio trying to think of something to do to add to the song. "Hey Bree, would you consider some background vocals?" He asked. Breanna thought for a moment before responding. "Kinda like Enya? She uses a lot of layered vocals as sound effects." Nick nodded his head. "Yes, I want to do that! Want to record some vocals?" She asked Nick. "Me? I was referring to you." He stated in disbelief. "Oh...okay. But if the song sounds like it needs a male voice, would you consider doing it?" She asked. He moved his head from side to side. "Is that a yes?" She asked. "Sure. But we have to record your vocals first."