Half an hour later, Nick was sitting in a recliner by Kevin’s bed holding Kevin’s hand in his own, rubbing the top of it with his thumb and whispering sweet nothings in his ear. After about twenty minutes, Kevin began to stir.

            “Nick?” Kevin asked quietly, still quite groggy.

            “Ssh. It’s me. I’m here,” Nick whispered, kissing Kevin’s forehead through the protective mask he had over his mouth.

            “I’m tired, Nick.” Kevin said.

            Laughing a little, Nick squeezed Kevin’s hand. “I know. You’ve had quite a day,” Nick said.

            “What happened?” Kevin asked.

            “The incision on your leg from your earlier surgery got infected. Dr. Bell thinks that it was dirt from when you were stuck in the bus,” Nick explained as he drew imaginary designs on Kevin’s forearm with his free hand.

            “Is my leg going to be okay?” Kevin asked, looking down at his leg, which was now immobilized from thigh to toe and covered by a blanket.

            “Yeah, Dr. Bell seems to think so. It’ll take a little longer to get back but we both should be fine,” Nick said.

            “I want to go home, Nick. I want to go home and crawl into bed with you in my arms and never get out,” Kevin said with tears in his eyes.

            “I know you do. I do too and we’ll be by this time next week. I promise,” Nick said. “Why don’t you try sleeping some more?” Nick said quietly.

            “You’re not going to leave are you? Please, don’t leave. Stay with me till I at least fall asleep,” Kevin said desperately. It was a total role reversal. All of a sudden Kevin, who had barely talked to Nick in months and pushed him away so strongly, could now barely stand to be without him.

            “I’m not going anywhere,” Nick said. He ended up sitting with Kevin until midnight when he had to call a nurse to bring him back to his room because sitting was becoming uncomfortable for him

            After two days in isolation, Kevin was moved back to the room with Nick much to everyone’s delight, especially Nick and Kevin’s. Friday brought the arrival of Nick’s brother and sisters followed closely with Denise and Jackie on the premise that Kevin and Nick were not getting treated correctly by the nurses. Brian and AJ just assumed their moms wanted to come and baby them and needed an excuse. Who were they to complain?

            “Nick!” Aaron said, running into their room at top speed and jumping onto his bed, being careful not to jump on his brother.

            “Wow, Aaron. I thought you weren’t coming until tomorrow,” Nick said, laughing and hugging his brother and then his sisters.

            “Dad convinced Mom that she should leave early for Florida spend a day in the spa at the hotel,” Angel said simply as she plopped down on the couch reading her ever-present book.

            “Oh, cool,.” Nick said, smiling he loved seeing his brother and sisters and he didn’t see them nearly enough with Jane being such a butthead.

            The afternoon was spent with people coming in out of their room, keeping them company and making sure the press was satisfied. That finally was stopped when Brian, Howie and AJ issued a statement saying they would not be doing any more press until Kevin and Nick were ready to join them. Tim, Jerald and Leighanne took Nick’s brother and sisters to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in the afternoon while Brian, Howie and AJ stayed and helped the pair through an agonizing session of PT.  What that was happening, Brian and AJ’s mothers did all the guest’s laundry, which hadn’t been done in at least a week.

            Monday couldn’t have come fast enough for the pair, who were dying to get back home to Florida and some semblance of privacy so that they could attempt to get their relationship back on track. Since Nick’s family, Kevin’s brothers and Brian and AJ’s mothers had arrived, the two men had barely had any time alone.

            “We get to go home today,” Kevin said quietly Monday morning as they sat eating their breakfast.

            “That we do, although one of those clowns will be staying with us for at least a week until I can walk on crutches,” Nick said while chewing his cereal.

            “Ugh! Chew, swallow, and then talk, Nick,” Kevin said, smiling. “Howie said he’d be staying at the house, and he knows that we need alone time. He’ll leave us alone,” Kevin said.

"Dr. Bell's not happy we're not going to that rehab center," Nick said simply.
"I said it to her and I'll tell her again. There's no fucking way I'm staying in some

rehab center for two weeks when I can spend my time in my own house out of the public eye and do the same shit at home I'd be doing there," Kevin stated.

"Hey! Don't yell at me. I agree with you. I was just saying it was kind of amusing to watch her try to convince you," Nick said, laughing as he remembered the scene the previous day when the Dr. had tried to convince them it was in their best interest to go to the rehab center. Both of them were not hearing it. As it was, people were at their house that very minute changing the playroom into a gym to do rehab in. Additionally, someone was transferring all their stuff from their third floor bedroom to the guestroom on the main floor and a PT had been hired to come and work with the two men every day until they got a clean bill of health.

"I can't believe I'm going to be stuck in a wheelchair for three whole weeks," Kevin said, pouting just a bit.

"Neither can I. You're going to ruin all our door jams," Nick said with a straight face, but burst out laughing when he looked at Kevin.

"Ha, ha. Very funny," Kevin said, trying unsuccessfully to hide the smile from his face.

The morning was spent chatting idly about nothing particularly important, including slinging insults back and forth during their morning session of PT to keep their minds off the pain they were experiencing.

Kevin's brothers, Leighanne, and the other three boys showed up just as they were finishing lunch.

"So you two ready to blow this pop stand?" AJ said, walking into their room.

"God, you have no idea," Kevin said.

"Yes, I really do. It's fucking February in Cleveland. Do you have any idea how fucking cold it is out there?" AJ said, helping Kevin into his wheel chair as Brian assisted Nick.

"No, I haven't been outside since I been here, moron," Kevin said sardonically.

"Just be glad we weren't in like Alaska or like Minnesota or some shit like that, Alex," Nick said, laughing as the group proceeded towards the door after having checked Nick and Kevin out and cleared everything with the doctor.

"I would've left your sorry ass here if we were," AJ said in reply sardonically. Nick and AJ swung insults at each all the way to the airport where a plane was waiting to take them back to Orlando. Once on the plane, both Kevin and Nick fell asleep resting comfortably against each other on couch towards the rear of the airplane while the rest of them sat up front.

"So it's nice to see he's coming around," AJ said quietly.

"That infection scared the living day lights out of him. I don't think he was even thinking. He just instinctively called for Nick," Howie said quietly.

"Which is how it should be. I love my brother, but he's a stubborn sonof'abitch. He doesn't mean to be. He just is and he got it in his crazy little head that he didn't need anyone. Not Tim or I, not you guys, and for some crazy reason, not Nick either," Jerald said.

"Well, let’s hope that they'll work it out," Leighanne said quietly. Meanwhile in the back of the plane, Kevin was on the couch, his leg resting on the seat of his wheel chair on a pillow, with Nick asleep on his chest. He could hear what the others were saying, but he didn't stop them. He knew everything they were saying was true. He had always known it. He just didn't know how to deal with it all.

"I love you, Nick. You have to know that," Kevin whispered, kissing the top of Nick's head. "I promise no more shutting you out. If I'm hurting, I'm going to talk to you. This past year has been nothing but trouble," Kevin said quietly so he wouldn't wake Nick up. "You know Chris talked to me before the accident, before we left Gund. He told me how I had to wake up because I was losing you and if I didn't watch out, you'd be gone when I realized that I still loved you and it'd be too late. And I just looked at him and told him to fuck off. I don't know how either. I was just so angry. Why me? Why did God have to take MY mom and dad? I'm sorry, Nick. I'm so sorry. I promise I'll make it up to you," Kevin said with tears falling down his face and he nuzzled the top of Nick's head.

"You already did," Nick said quietly, burrowing further into Kevin's chest.

"How long have you been awake?" Kevin asked, smiling down at Nick.

"Since you started talking. Kevin, you don't have to make anything up to me. All I care about is that you realize that I love you and I'm here for you," Nick said, locking eyes with Kevin. “And I know what happened with Chris. He was not pleased. He's like ‘that boy and me are going to have a problem very soon,'" Nick said, doing his best impression of Chris angry, which caused both of them to laugh. "I know we got to talk about what happened this last couple of months. Believe me I want to, but can we maybe hold off for a couple of days? Just…I want to just enjoy having you in my arms again," Nick said quietly. He wasn't saying one of the things he was thinking though. Nick was afraid that when he and Kevin talked, they'd have a big blowout fight again and he'd lose Kevin again, and Nick honestly didn't think he could go through that again.

"Nick, I know what you're thinking. Don't. You're not going to lose me again. I promise," Kevin said solemnly.

"How can you say that though, Kev? We always said we'd be together and look what happened in the last couple of months. I don't mean to doubt you. Really I don't. I guess I'm just scared," Nick said.

"I know you are. And you have every right to be. But Nick, I can promise you we're going to be together forever because this time I'm going to take the steps I need to so that I can make sure I keep that promise," Kevin said firmly. The couple continued to talk for the rest of the flight, abandoning what Nick had asked just a few minutes before to wait and talk about their situation at a later point.

"Come on, gimps. The plane's landing. You got to come and sit on the chairs," AJ called from the front as he and Brian came back to help both Nick and Kevin up towards the front where they sat in real airplane chairs and buckled up for the landing.