| Chapter 19 The guys walked off the stage after a great performance. "Man, I think that was our best one to date," Kevin said. "Yeah, it was good," Brian said, walking over to Tara and giving her a kiss. "Nick, your girls were in rare form tonight," A.J. said. Nick laughed, "So that's what you call them now? My girls?" "Yeah, I mean it's obvious they're here for you," A.J. said, "How could you miss that damn sign?" Everyone laughed. "What's with the security around them, Kev?" Nick asked. Kevin looked over at him, "You noticed huh?" Nick rolled his eyes, "I'd have to be blind not to. So what gives?" "We just thought it best to kinda keep an eye on them," he said. "Why?" Nick asked. "Bad vibes man," A.J. said, "And my vibes have yet to be proven wrong." "Um, OK," Nick said, looking at A.J. like he'd lost his mind. They all headed into the dressing room to change before heading to the hotel. Kevin walked over to Nick, "Hey, when we get back to the hotel, I need you to come help me with something." Nick looked at him, "Yeah? What?" "Well, I got a game cube and I have no idea how to work the thing," Kevin said. Nick stared at him, "A game cube? Since when do you play video games?" Kevin smiled, "What? I can't start something new?" Nick shrugged his shoulders, "I guess. Just doesn't sound like you is all." Kevin smiled at him, "There's a lot of things you don't know about me, ya know." "I'm sure there is," Nick said, "But please don't share them. I have a feeling that I wouldn't be able to handle them." That brought laughter from everyone within hearing distance. Kevin grinned, "Yeah, probably not, little brother." ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Everyone got off the elevator and headed to their respective rooms. Kevin and A.J.'s rooms were next to each other, with Howie's and Brian's across the hall. Nick went into Brian's room and set his bag in the extra bedroom. "Hey, I'm gonna go over to Kev's for a bit," he said as he headed out the door. Tara watched him leave. Something in her gut wasn't right, but she figured that Nick could take care of whatever it was. Nick walked across the hall and knocked on the door. He heard Kevin yell come in from inside the room, and let himself in. "Hey man," A.J. said, from the mini bar. "Hey, you gonna play something when I get this set up?" Nick asked. "Yeah sure," A.J. replied. Kevin walked out of the bedroom with the box, "I haven't even opened it yet." Nick laughed, taking the box from him and getting to work. "You know Kev, there may be hope for you after all," he said, pulling the cords from the box. "You think?" Kevin teased, glancing back at A.J. A.J. winked at him, and went about making them all something to drink. "K, Kev, this is how you hook it up," Nick said, showing him the right cords to plug in where. Kevin watched attentively, asking a few questions here and there. When Nick got the game set up, he looked up at him, "So, what game did you buy?" "Um, I forget the name of it," Kevin said, going back into the bedroom and getting the bag with the game in it. Nick took it from him, looking at it, "I haven't seen this one. Must be new." "Yeah, the clerk said that was going to be the game to have," Kevin said. A.J. walked over, handing the two a drink. Nick looked at it, "I really shouldn't. I'm gonna have to be able to focus later you know." "Aww, come on, one won't hurt you," A.J. said, "Plus, I made yours a virgin anyway." Nick stared at him, "Really?" "Yeah man, I know you can't be doing what you have to later if your plastered. Give me some credit," A.J. said, looking offended. Nick looked down at the drink again, then shrugged his shoulders, "OK, thanks man." "No problem," A.J. said, glancing at Kevin. "We gonna play or what?" Nick asked, setting his drink down and picking up a controller. "Yeah, you can teach me how to work one of these things," Kevin said, picking up the other controller. Nick laughed, "I wasn't expecting to be here all night you know." Kevin looked offended, "OK blondie, start the game." ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The guys had been playing for about an hour. All the while, Kevin and A.J. watched Nick. He seemed to be getting sleepy, and they wondered just how long it was going to take. Nick finally put the controller down and rubbed his eyes, "Man, why am I so tired all of a sudden?" "What are you saying? You're tired all the time now," Kevin said. Nick shook his head, "No, not like this." "Dunno man, long day I guess," A.J. said. Nick looked at them, then grabbed his empty glass and walked over to the bar. He set the glass down and happened to look at the bottom of it. "What the hell is this?" he asked, holding it up. "What?" Kevin asked. "There's like some kinda powder something in the bottom of the glass," Nick said, then he looked at them both with horror in his face, "God, what did you give me?!" Kevin put his hands up, "Nick, it's for your own good." "What the hell did you give me Kevin!" Nick yelled. "Nick, don't get so upset. It's OK," A.J. said, trying to calm him down. "OK? You have no idea what you just did! You just made it impossible for me to focus, how the hell am I suppose to fight them if I can't think?" Nick said, trembling. "Nick, you won't have to. We're gonna stay with you so they won't show up," Kevin said. "Do you really think that matters to them? I can still dream Kevin, they can still get to me," Nick said, horrified. Kevin and A.J. looked at each other, not ever having thought about him having dreams when he was asleep. "Oh fuck," A.J. said. "Oh fuck is right," Kevin said, walking over to Nick, "Nick, we're sorry. We promise we'll make it right." Nick was swaying where he was standing, fighting to keep his eyes open, "How?" "We'll think of something," Kevin said, putting a hand on his shoulder and leading him over to the couch. Nick fell onto the couch. Kevin and A.J. got him comfortable then looked at each other. "What are we gonna do?" A.J. asked. "Damn I dunno. I can't believe I didn't think about him dreaming, shit!" Kevin said. Just then a knock came at the door. Kevin walked over and looked through the peep hole. "Oh God, it's Tara," he whispered. "Double fuck!" A.J. said, throwing his hands in the air and pacing back and forth. "Kevin, open the door," Tara said in a stern voice. He and A.J. looked at one another. "Nice knowing ya," Kevin said. "Yeah, you to," A.J. answered back. Kevin opened the door and smiled at Tara, "Hey what's up?" She walked past him into the room, looking around. She found Nick on the couch and walked over, checking on him. She then faced them both with her hand on her hip, "Someone better be talking right now." "Um, well...you see we...um," A.J. stammered. "Tara, we thought we were helping him out, but we didn't think about the dreams," Kevin said. "What were you doing?" she asked. "We wanted him to get the rest he needed to be able to fight, so we were gonna stay with him while he slept, so they wouldn't show up," Kevin said. "Yeah, you guys weren't suppose to know we did anything. But Nick found some of the sleeping pill in the bottom of the glass and freaked out," A.J. said. "How many did you give him?" Tara asked. "Three," A.J. said. Kevin and Tara both looked shocked. "Three! How could you give him so many?" Kevin asked. "Dude, I usually take two, and he's a lot bigger than me," A.J. said in defense. "Yeah but he doesn't take them all the time. He's not tolerant to them like you are," Tara said. A.J. looked at the floor, "Damn." "Tara we're really sorry, we were just trying to help," Kevin said. "Kevin, what made you think that you staying with him would make a difference? I could touch you right now and knock you out until I wanted to you wake up. What makes you think that they won't do the same thing?" Tara asked, angry. "I..just..we, um...." he stammered, "I dunno. We didn't think." "Damn right you didn't think! I told you guys to stay out of this, that he had to do this on his own. You guys may have just cost him everything!" she yelled. They both looked at the floor, feeling like a five year old being disciplined by their mother. Brian and Howie came through the open door. "What is going on, we can hear you across the hall," Brian asked. Howie didn't say anything, knowing their plan had gone horribly wrong. Tara looked at him, "You were in on this too?" Howie dropped his head to the floor, "Yeah." Tara threw her hands up in the air, "Ahh!" Brian looked at all of them, then at Nick out cold on the couch, "Someone wanna clue me in here?" Tara stared at him, "I will. Your brilliant band mates here drugged Nick, thinking they could stay with him all night while he slept and keep Jered and Ephah from showing up." Brian looked at them shocked, "How could you? Kevin, how could you even go along with something like this?" Kevin winced, "I'm the one that thought of it." Brian looked at him in shock. A.J. looked up, "Tara, how did you know?" She stared at him, "Unlike Nick, I don't get distracted. I could feel something wasn't right with you guys, then I felt Nick's shock and anger. It wasn't hard to put two and two together." "So what are we gonna do?" Kevin asked, looking over at Nick. "You are going to do nothing," Tara said, pointing at him, "You've done enough already. I'm going to stay with him and pray they decide to take a night off." "Honey, you can't face them alone," Brian said. She ignored him. "Yeah, we'll stay up with you," Howie said. "Guys, you will be no help to me if they come. In fact you would be more of a liability, cause instead of just Nick to worry about, I would have all of you to worry about," she said. "What about Tracy and the others? Couldn't they come and help?" Brian asked. Tara shook her head, "No they can't. When they left him, it was for the duration of his trials." "We could...." Kevin started. Tara cut him off, "Just don't Kevin. I'm about this close to slamming you into the wall," she said, holding her thumb and forefinger about half an inch apart. Kevin grimaced and sank into a chair, putting his head in his hands. "Tara, we're sorry," A.J. said. She glared at him, "You just don't get it. If you apologized from now till the day you die it won't fix this." A.J. bit his lip, warding away the tears that were threatening to show themselves. Tara sighed, looking at them all, "Pick him up and take him to his room." No one spoke, but did as she instructed. They deposited him on the bed, looking to Tara for what to do next. "Get him in his sweats, I'll be back in a minute," she said, leaving the room. The guys proceeded to get Nick ready for bed. "I can't believe I didn't think this would happen," Kevin said. "Man, none of us thought about this. Don't blame yourself, we all did this," Howie said. "Hey don't include me in that all stuff," Brian said, "I just don't get how you guys could do this." "Simple, just like when you did it to him," A.J. said, "Put the pills in his drink and distract him." Brian glared at him, "I didn't mean that, and thanks for reminding me of something I've been trying to forget for months." A.J. smiled, "No problem." "Will you two stop it," Howie said, "Us fighting isn't going to solve the problem here." "Yeah, you're right," Brian conceded. "I still say we should stay with him. Tara can't fight the two of them on her own, and Nick is obviously not gonna be any help," Kevin said. "I dunno that I would cross Tara right now, she's really pissed," Howie said. "Yeah Kev, I've never seen her so mad," A.J. said. "Well she can't hurt us all. We just have to stick together and make her let us stay," Kevin said. They all got quiet when Tara entered the room. She had pulled her hair back into a pony tail, and had her sword with her. "You look like you're ready for a war," A.J. commented. "I am," she said, sitting down next to Nick. All the guys stood there, looking at her. "You can all go now," she said. "No, we're staying," Kevin said, crossing his arms over his chest. Tara glared at him, "Kev, I'm really not in the mood right now." "Neither am I," he said, "We're all staying." She looked at each one, getting a nod from them. "Guys, I can't protect all of you," she said. "We aren't asking you to. But I will not leave you here to face them by yourself," Brian said. She stared at him, knowing he wasn't about to leave. Tara sighed and waved her hand at them, "Alright you can stay." The guys smiled at each other and found various places in the room to sit and wait. "Some of you should try and sleep, it's gonna be a long night," Tara said. She watched as everyone but Kevin found a place to lay their head and sleep. She stared at him. "I got him into this mess, I'm gonna get him out of it," Kevin told her. Chapter 20 |