"Nichole!!! What are you doing baby?" he yelled.
"Coming Daddy!" he heard. As the door to the other room in the hotel suite opened, he turned and smiled at the site of the 13 year old. She was beautiful. 'Just as beautiful as her mother�' he thought.
"You look great baby, ready to go?" he asked her.
"Yep, let's go!" She said bouncing her way to the door. Nick laughed and shook his head.
She had grown up, and this was only the beginning. He didn't know how in the world he was going to be able to get her through her teen years on his own. He had almost died when she got her period. She spent a week with Brian and Leighanne because her mood swings and Nick's inexperience with a girl's period did not mix well. If only Emily had been there to help him. She always knew exactly what to do about everything. She had left him with a very large responsibility and he wasn't at all ready to take it on. Until Nichole turned 5, the rest of the guys and their girlfriends were spending about the same amount of time parenting her as Nick was.
When Emily died, Nichole was too young to really understand what happened to her mother, and when she was seven, she finally began to figure out how important a mother was and that she didn't have one. That was the hardest year of Nick's life, besides the year Emily died. Nichole came home from school crying one day because a boy was teasing her for not having a mommy. Nick sat her down and in between all his tears, he told her how her mommy had died. She had a bad sickness that nobody and no medicine could fix. Nichole seemed to understand but was still having a hard time. When Nick would go to an open house or a school play, Nichole would look out and see all the other kid's mothers, and would get upset again.
This broke Nick's heart all over again. He hated seeing his little girl like that. He knew he had to change. He had to stop moping around and crying every time he saw a picture of Emily. He knew he had to start telling Nichole about all the good times he had with Emily. All the great qualities she had, that he was sure Nichole would have as she got older. He missed Em dearly, but he had to get over the 'she died, I died too' phase. He knew Emily would want that.
So he took Nichole to all of his and Emily's favorite places. He told her stories about what they had seen and done together. And he took her to see Emily's grave, for only the third time in Nichole's life. The first being the funeral, the second was a few months after that, and they hadn't been back since. Nichole was 3 then, and she was 10 when they went back. He remembered her sitting down Indian style right in front of the headstone. She lightly moved her fingers over it and whispered the words written on it. She had turned and told Nick to leave for a few minutes, that they needed to have a mother- daughter talk. He left her alone for 5 minutes and came back to see her standing again, and smiling up at the sky. "I love you Mommy," he heard her say.
Now she was 13, and they were on their way to the American Music Awards. The Backstreet Boys had released a reunion album which was up for Album of the Year, and Nichole, who was one of Hollywood's hot new child stars, was to introduce a performance by her Uncle Aaron. While in the elevator, Nick stared down at his beautiful angel and saw the face of Emily all over again. He missed her so much. But he knew she would be there tonight. She was with them all the time. He could feel it every time he was near Nichole. Emily had given him this beautiful little girl that let the light back into his life.
"Daddy�Dad!" Nichole said snapping her fingers in front of Nick's face. He snapped out of his daze and smiled. "Thinking of Mom again?" she asked. He smiled.
"Just about how much you remind me of her. You're so beautiful." She grinned.
"Yeah yeah, Daddy, you tell me that all the time. But Mom is way more beautiful then me." Nick smiled as he heard her say 'is'. She always acted as if Emily was right there.
Later that night, immediately following Aaron's performance, they were ready to give out the Album of the Year. Aaron stood backstage holding Nichole's hand as they read off the nominees. They could see the guys sitting in the front row looking nervous. Nichole smiled as Nick looked over at her, and she waved. Nick smiled back and blew her a kiss.
"And the winner is�." Nichole squeezed Aaron's hand as the Backstreet Boys all shut their eyes.
"�..The Backstreet Boys!!!" Nichole screamed and jumped on Aaron as the guys stood up in shock hugging each other. They made their way on stage and Nichole jumped out of Aaron's arms and ran straight to Nick's. The guys let Nick go up to the mic first.
"Wow�I think this has to be the highlight of all of our lives. We want to thank God, of course, and the fans�wow�I can't believe they have stuck around this long. I wanna thank my little girl," he paused to kiss Nichole's forehead, who smiled in return, "and I want to thank�.her beautiful mother, who I know is watching us right now. I love you baby, we miss you."