| Chapter 29 Nick opened his eyes blinking them against the light coming through the window. He looked out, seeing the sun rising. He closed his eyes, basking in the glow. Nick heard something and looked over, seeing Lyn in the chair next to him asleep. He stared at her, studying her face. Ted walked in the room, and Nick pointed at Lyn, "She's asleep," he whispered. Ted smiled, "Good, she needed to sleep." "Has she been here the whole time?" Nick asked. Ted nodded, "Since we got here." "Speaking of here, where is here?" Nick asked. Ted sat down on the side of the bed, "You're in Atlanta." "Oh," Nick said, "But we don't live here?" "No, the three of us live in Vancouver," he answered. "Vancouver? Canada?" Nick asked. "Yeah, you moved up there with Lyn better than eight months ago," Ted said. Nick nodded his head, trying to process all the information he was getting. "How are you feeling this morning?" Ted asked. "I hurt," Nick said. "I imagine you do. Is the pain medication helping?" he asked. "Yeah, I don't like it though. It makes me sleep," Nick said. "Well, right now you need all the rest you can get," Ted said. "I guess," Nick replied. "Is there anything else you want to ask?" Ted asked, seeing that look in Nick's eyes. "There's a lot of things I want to ask. I just don't know where to start," he said. "Well, just pick something and we can go from there," Ted said. Nick thought for a moment, "What do I look like?" "Oh, that ones easy to solve," Ted said, getting up and pulling the mirror off the wall. He held it up so Nick could see. Nick stared at himself, reaching up and gently touching the bandage on the side of his head. "That will come off in a week or so," Ted said, trying to reassure him. Nick nodded and Ted replaced the mirror. "Anything else?" he asked. "Doc, um, Ted, what's wrong with my head?" Nick asked. Ted looked at him, then sat down on the side of the bed again, "It's a really long story." Nick shrugged his shoulders, "I'm not going anywhere." Ted smiled, "Well, it all started about a year ago......" ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Aleisha lay in bed watching Brian sleep. He'd had a rough night, filled with nightmares. She was glad he was finally resting. Her mind drifted to what she should do next. It was obvious that Nick was no longer a threat to her, as long as his memory didn't return. If she had anything to do with it, it would never surface. She thought about proceeding with her original plan, there was nothing stopping her now. She smiled, Soon, I'll have everything. Brian opened his eyes and saw her smiling, "What are you smiling about?" She looked over at him, "I was just thinking how happy I am, here with you." Brian smiled, "The feeling is mutual." "Do you think we can go back to the house today?" she asked. "I hope so. I love Kev and all, but I'm really getting tired of being here," Brian said, "I'll call the detective and see what the hold up is." Aleisha rolled over and snuggled next to him, "I'm like you, Kev and Kris are great, but I'd rather be back at your house." Brian put his finger on her lips, "Our house." Aleisha stared at him, then grinned, "Our house. I like the sound of that." Brian leaned in and kissed her, "I'm glad you do." Aleisha kissed him passionately. Brian pulled her closer to him, running his hand up her shirt. Just then a knock came at the door, "Bri, the detective is on the phone for you," Kevin yelled from the other side. Aleisha groaned as Brian got out of bed. He looked back at her and smiled, "Think of it this way, the sooner I talk to him, the sooner we can go home." She smiled, "What are you waiting for then? Go, go," she said, shooing her hands at him. He laughed as he left the room. Aleisha got up and picked out the clothes she wanted to wear. She was headed to the shower when Brian came back in. "Well?" she asked. "We can go home," he said. She looked at him, "Why aren't you happy?" Brian sat down on the edge of the bed, "He said they combed the house and didn't find anything. Nothing that didn't belong to the three of us, and Angel. And the security tapes are blank." "Blank? How can they be blank?" she asked. Brian shook his head, "I don't know. The system didn't go down, they recorded 45 minutes of nothing. All the cameras, they blank out about fifteen minutes after we left, and are blank for 45 minutes, then come back on about five minutes before me and Kev got there. What could make them do that?" "I don't know," Aleisha said, "So the police, they have nothing?" Brian nodded his head, "Not a single shred of evidence. They only thing they can hope for is that Nick will remember what happened and who did it to him." Aleisha reached up and played with the back of Brian's hair, "Bri, I'm sorry. I know you wanted to catch who did this." "Catch, no. Kill, yes," Brian said, anger in his voice. She looked at him shocked, "Kill?" "Leisha, whoever did this deserves to have everything Nick went through done to them. They almost killed him! And now, he's had his whole entire life taken away. I've lost my best friend and he doesn't even know it!" Brian yelled. Aleisha could see the emotion in Brian's eyes. She reached out and pulled him to her, letting him cry on her shoulder. "Why, why did they have to do that to him?" Brian asked through his sobs. "I don't know honey," she said, trying to comfort him, and wishing he'd just shut up about it. Finally Brian pulled away and wiped his eyes, "I guess we should get ready. I have a feeling its gonna take a while to clean the house up." Aleisha nodded her head, and proceeded to head to the shower. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Nick sat in bed playing with what the hospital called breakfast. Lyn had woke up and Ted had convinced her to go eat with him. Nick was replaying what Ted had told him in his mind. Everything that had happened to him since they'd met. It sounded like a soap opera, surely all that couldn't happen to one person in their entire lifetime, let alone the span of just a year. Just then a knock came at the door. Howie stuck his head in, "Hi, um, are you up for visitors?" "I guess," Nick said. Howie and Kira walked in, followed by A.J. and Leighanne. "How are you this morning?" Leighanne asked. "OK," Nick said. Kira had some books in her hand, "I brought these for Lyn yesterday, but in all the commotion I forgot to leave them." "Thanks," Nick said, taking them from her and laying them to his side. "Where is Lyn?" A.J. asked. "Her and Ted went for breakfast," Nick replied. "I guess that's what this is?" A.J. asked, looking at the tray in front of Nick. "Suppose to be, I have my doubts though," Nick said. Everyone laughed. "Nick, I brought something that might help," Howie said, holding a scrapbook in his hands. Nick looked at it, "What's that?" "This is something a fan gave me a while back. It has a lot of pictures and articles from the time we first started out together, till about two years ago," he answered. Nick smiled taking the book from him, "Gee, thanks A.J." "Um, it's Howie." "Oh, sorry," Nick said, embarrassed. "That's OK," Howie said, not wanting him to feel bad. A.J. was trying not to laugh out loud. "Well, we'll go and let you rest," Leighanne said. "No, wait," Nick said. They all looked at him, "Will you guys stay and look through this with me? Answer my questions and all?" "Yeah, we'd be glad to," A.J. said. Everyone found a seat as Nick started looking through the album. "Where is this?" Nick asked, pointing to a photo. Howie and A.J looked at it. "Well, that's when we were in Europe. See we all had to share rooms, and ......" ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Brian and Aleisha walked into the house, followed by Kevin and Kristin. They had insisted on coming and helping them clean up. With one look at the house, Brian was glad they had. There was dust from the fingerprint kit all over everything. Dirty footprints were on the carpet. The entire house reeked of the smell of blood. "God," Kristin said, seeing it for the first time. "It's worse upstairs," Kevin said, remembering the scene he found. "Well, where do we start?" Aleisha asked. "Kev, I guess you and I can put the furniture back where it goes," Brian said. "Kris, lets go get some cleaning stuff and start on the ground floor and work our way up," Aleisha said. Everyone got to work, knowing it was going to be a very long day. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Lyn and Ted came back to find everyone in the room, laughing hysterically. Nick was holding his side, "Stop, I can't take it anymore." "What's so funny?" Lyn asked. "Remembering old times," A.J. said, wiping the tears from his eyes. "Yeah, I'd almost forgotten that story," Howie said. "God D, how could you forget something as memorable as that?" A.J. said, then realized what just came out of his mouth, "Damn, Nick I didn't mean....." Nick put his hand up, "It's OK" He lay back in the bed. "You aright?" Lyn asked. He nodded his head, "To much laughing I think. I'm really tired." "Guys, let's go and let Nick rest," Kira said. Nick looked at them, "Guys, thanks." "No problem Nicky," A.J. said, getting up. "Nicky? I don't like Nicky, just Nick is fine," Nick said. "Well at least that hasn't changed," Leighanne said, smiling. Nick looked at them confused. "You hate it when we call you Nicky, always have," Howie said. "Then why do you?" he asked. "Cause it bugs the hell out of ya," A.J. said with a smile. "OK," Nick said, smiling back. Nick watched as they left the room. "Well, it looks like you've had a full morning," Ted said. Nick smiled. "Did you eat anything?" he asked, looking at the food tray. "Um, not really," Nick said. Lyn and Ted looked at each other. "What?" Nick asked. "We had this problem with you when you were in the hospital before," Lyn said. "You wouldn't eat the hospital food at all," Ted added. "You call that food?" Nick asked. Lyn smiled at him, "Nick, if you want I can go get you something." "No, that's OK. I think I just want to go to sleep," he said, yawning. Lyn helped him get settled in the bed, finding the books at his side. "What are these?" she asked. "Oh, um Kara left those for you," Nick said. Lyn laughed, "It's Kira." "Man, I don't think I'll ever get anyone's names right," Nick said, frustrated. "Don't worry about it right now," she said, "Just go to sleep." Nick looked up at her, reaching out and taking her hand in his, "Thanks for staying here with me." "I wouldn't be anywhere else," Lyn said. Nick smiled at her and closed his eyes. Soon his grip on her hand released. Lyn let go and sat down, looking through the books. Ted had left after Nick had fallen asleep, leaving her there alone. She sighed, not knowing what she should be feeling right now. She loved him with all her heart, but he didn't even know her now. She tried not to dwell on it, it would only cause her pain. Still though, he had some connection to her. He trusted her to stay with him, wanted her near. That had to be something. Maybe they could find their way back to each other. She prayed for that very thing. Lyn brought herself out of her thoughts and looked over the books. There was quite a selection, novels, magazines, history, mythology. Lyn shrugged her shoulders and pulled one of the novels out, laying the others on the table next to the bed. She opened it up and started reading. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Kevin and Brian collapsed on the couch. "Are we done?" Brian asked. "Aleisha was sitting in the chair across from him, "I think so." "Guys, I know a good cleaning service that can get the blood stain out of the carpet," Kristin said. "Thanks, leave their number and I'll call them in the morning," Brian said, already half asleep. Kevin got up and helped Kristin out of the chair she was sitting in, "Let's go home and go to bed," he said. "Guys, do you mind keeping Angel tonight, I really don't feel like going back and getting her," Brian asked. "Yeah sure," Kevin said, on his way out the door. "Thanks," Brian called after him. Brian and Aleisha sat in silence, hearing Kevin's car pull down the drive. "You ready to go to bed?" Aleisha asked. Brian nodded, getting up and taking her hand. They walked up the stairs. Brian was careful not to step on any of the blood, with every step his heart sank, not knowing what happened to Nick, and knowing the person that did it was getting off scot free. They tiredly walked the rest of the way down the hall and into their bedroom. Brian sat down on the bed, pulling his shoes off, "I need to go see Nick tomorrow." "We can do that," Aleisha said, getting into her pajamas. "Good," he said, crawling into bed and pulling the covers over him. Aleisha crawled in next to him, turning out the light. She scooted close to him, wrapping her arms around him. Brian looked at her and smiled, "You know, suddenly I'm not quite as tired as I was." She laughed, pulling him closer, "Neither am I." Chapter 30 |