AN: More action to come, promise. Its called laying groundwork for characterization, or at least that's what I call it... inspiredthoughts@hotmail.com **************** Finding Happiness: Chapter Four ******************* Kevin waited besides Brian at the airport. He shifted and checked his watch before pulling his cap lower, hoping that the damned plane would arrive before they were recognized. The last thing they needed was to be mobbed by teenies at twelve past midnight in Cincinnati. He was impatient and ready to be back at the hotel and resting after their concert. He was damned tired and Bernadette’s plane was already two hours late. Kevin knew rationally that it wasn’t Bernie’s fault but, it didn’t stop him from being annoyed with her. Never mind that he was already annoyed with her, mostly because she hadn’t called him, not once in the two weeks it had been since she promised to come out on tour, bringing Belinda along with her. Not once. Kevin glanced at his cousin who stood silently next to him, arms folded, mouth drawn into a thin line. Brian was thrilled at having his daughter on tour, thrilled beyond words, but the fact that Leighanne was on tour too wasn’t going to make things easier on anyone. Bernadette rarely made things easy. It was part of the reason why it was so easy to ignore her. Leighanne and Bernadette had never met, not long enough to have a conversation. It wasn’t even that Brian took pains to avoid it, it was simply never an issue because Bernadette had been tucked so firmly away with Brian’s youth. Belinda never visited; when her father wanted to see her, he went to her, so Belinda’s interaction with her stepmother was limited. Knowing his niece and her mother, Kevin figured the next three weeks should be interesting. Of course, because of Leighanne’s presence, he was going to have to take Bernadette under his wing so to speak. Not even Kevin was cruel enough to leave her alone with her ex-boyfriend and his current wife. Lyle, Kevin’s bodyguard, tapped him on the shoulder. “The airline rep said the plane just docked and will unload in a minute. You sure you don’t want them to meet you guys in the VIP room?” Brian shook his head slightly and Kevin mirrored him. “We’re good here Lyle. All the people left here are half asleep anyway.” The bodyguard shrugged and flanked them silently. Another very long fifteen minutes later the gate opened and people began to straggle out, looking harried and weary after their extended plane ride. Bernadette and Belinda were at the back of the plane, one of the last ones to depart. Belinda cleared the gate at a dead run as she flung herself at her father, babbling and laughing and looking very, very awake as her duffel bag dropped to the floor. Bernadette followed at a more sedate pace and Kevin wanted to be annoyed with her but it drained away when he noticed the dark circles under her eyes and the tight set of her lips. He went and gently took the heavy suitcase she was struggling with before she could protest. “Hey Bernie…” She shot him a suspicious glance. “Hey.” “Long flight?” “Turbulence,” she replied absently, though her gaze was fixed on Brian and Belinda. He watched her watch them, looking for some signs of longing, of regret, but there was only old shadows of pain and a ragged kind of contentment that he suspected came from seeing her daughter with the man who fathered her. Kevin paused a minute before touching her elbow. Bernadette jumped and turned to him in surprise. “We should get going, it’s late.” “And you don’t want the fans to see you guys picking up Brian’s Mistake and Skeleton at the airport, do you?” He winced before chiding gently, “Bernie…” She took a deep breath and swallowed it. “I’m sorry Kevin, that was uncalled for right now,” she said stiffly before he could reply to her accusations. He noticed that she never said her accusations would always be uncalled for and was suddenly glad Belinda was too young to remember how badly her mother had been treated by the Backstreet Boys when fan sentiment turned against Brian’s pregnant girlfriend. Wondered absently why *NSYNC had weathered the storm, and the Backstreet Boys had let it blow them away. Was vaguely ashamed of the fact that Joey Fatone gushed about his daughter Brianna in interviews and Brian rarely acknowledged his beautiful Belinda. “Come on sweetie, you’ll have three whole weeks to kiss and hug Daddy this time. Let’s get rolling so we can get some sleep, okay munchkin?” Belinda wiggled out of Brian’s embrace with an impish smile but obediently picked up her duffel bag and trotted over to Bernadette’s side without a moment’s hesitation. As much as she might love her father, it was her mother who was there for her every second of the day. Kevin saw the deepness of the raw pain in Brian’s eyes and swallowed suddenly. Ignoring the unease his cousin’s emotions stirred in him, he shouldered Bernie’s heavy suitcase and let Lyle lead them away. ********************************************************************* Bernadette wanted more than anything in the world to take a shower and get some sleep. She hadn’t slept well since she agreed to this crazy plan, and Belinda had barely slept at all due to excitement. Brian was an excellent father when he managed to find the time and his daughter adored him for it, nearly to the point of distraction. Instead she was sitting in the back of a very expensive SUV, being driven by a bodyguard, and was sitting in the backseat with Kevin since Belinda had insisted on perching on her father’s lap in the front seat for the short ride to the hotel. It was far too reminiscent of a time, so long ago now it seemed like a lifetime, when she would have belonged here. When she was still dating Brian. When love mattered more than paying the bills and she could still dance until dawn. She smiled crookedly as she stifled a huge yawn and winced at the twinge in her back. “You all right?” She refused to look at Kevin, to physically acknowledge the deep voiced question, but answered him, because he was Kevin Richardson and she could never truly ignore him, no matter how many years she had tried. He could get under her skin better than anyone else she knew, including her rather formidable mother, and make her squirm until she wanted to scream. “Yes,” she replied shortly, “just a bit of a sore back.” “From what?” Annoyed, Bernie broke her own resolution to shoot him an exasperated glare. It only annoyed her more when she realized he was serious. That he really wanted to know. She remembered a time when Kevin hadn’t been quite so rough on her, hadn’t been quite so judgmental. He had always been impatient and demanding and never gentle, but that was who he was. She had gotten used to the coldness, the casual emotional cruelty he had employed since her pregnancy though, and wasn’t quite sure what to make of a Kevin Richardson who didn’t want her in tears. And because she didn’t quite know what to make of his sincere question, she answered it truthfully, and without her usual sarcasm. “From work. I was trying to shelve inventory but the lift was broken so I had to put boxes up on the top shelves by myself with a ladder.” He stared at her with an indignant expression. “Why on earth would they make someone like you do such a physical task?” And the annoyance returned. “I’m not a cripple Kevin.” “No,” he snapped back, “but you shouldn’t be doing such hard labor. What would have happened if you had thrown your back out?” “They probably would have fired me,” Bernie replied smartly through clenched teeth. “And how, pray tell, would they have justified that?” She snorted and turned away to face out the window. “They wouldn’t have had to Kevin. But if I hadn’t shelved those boxes I sure as hell would have been fired. Its how the real world works, for people who aren’t the Backstreet Boys.” “Guys…” Brian interjected softly from the front as he broke off a much more light-hearted conversation with his daughter, “Belinda.” Bernie swallowed the rest of her angry words because she’d tried to keep her personal opinions about Belinda’s father and uncle private, and brooded as she ignored said father and uncle the rest of the way to the hotel. She didn’t regret coming yet, but she had a feeling that before three weeks was over, she would.