AN: Hay guys, its been awhile for this story but here's chapter twelve.  Thank you SO 
much to Jess and Sam and Valerie for their feedback.  I like feedback.  Feedback good.  

...In which Nicole returns to her less sappy roots...



********************** Nightmare of a Lifetime: Chapter Twelve *********************



“No Aunt Sharon, I’m fine.  They got me the best doctors.  No, they’ll probably release 
me tomorrow morning.  They just want to observe me for awhile.  Apparently I cracked my 
head pretty hard on the concrete ground.  I’ll grab a flight and catch up with the tour.  
Its not that big of a deal, aside from the broken bones part.  

“Yeah, Frank will probably be pretty wasted by the time he gets back.  You might tell 
Ozzy and the tour manager to keep Fermented Panic on the iffy opener list.  I don’t know 
if he’s going to be up for a performance.  

“No, I didn’t officially break it off yet.  I was too busy taking pain medication and 
getting strapped onto a damn stretcher.  Didn’t think it was the right time to break up 
with him.  I know Aunt Sharon.  This wasn’t your fault.  It was a wonderful gesture.  He 
and the guys blew it.  Oh yes, I’m definitely pissed at Chris even though Frankie started 
it.  

“Aright.  I love you too.  Take care of yourself, you hear, and call me when you get your 
blood tests back next week okay?  Send my love to Ozzy.  I’ll call him in a few days and 
let him know I’m okay.  Aright Aunt Sharon.  Aright.  Bye!”

Nicole Perry hung up the phone in her hospital room and glared at her offending arm which 
was currently encased in a cast that ran from her left elbow to her tattooed wrist.  The 
bandage around her head was the only evidence of her mild concussion.  Bill sat quietly 
reading an old issue of Women’s Journal next to her bed.  

“Malcom is going to be pissed,” he said quietly.  

Nicole growled.  “Malcom can kiss my bruised ass,” she responded acidly.  

**************************************************************************************

Episode four of “Tour of a Lifetime: *NSYNC” garnered record, record breaking ratings due 
to the week of hype and publicity that surrounded it.  It started with Frankie’s arrival 
and ended, appropriately enough, with a fist fight, onstage, between Frankfurt McAllen of 
Fermented Pain, the hard core rock band who often opened for Ozzy Osbourne during Ozz 
Fest, and Chris Kirkpatrick of *NSYNC.

Nicole had introduced Frank to the guys before they had gone on backstage and everyone 
had been polite, if a bit frigid.  Chris had taken it into his insane head to invite Frank 
out onstage at the beginning of the concert, much to Nicole’s own shock.  

He had introduced the younger man to the thousands of prepubescent, screaming girls.  All 
was going well until Chris gave Frank a microphone and Frankfurt McAllen made a crack 
about boy bands.  

It went downhill quickly from there and degenerated when Frank, prodded by the booing 
masses, pushed Chris too far with one last verbal crack about his manhood and a very 
pissed off Kirkpatrick started swinging.  Nicole made it onstage before security managed 
to and tried to separate the two furious men.

She was tough as nails and not afraid of men twice her five foot, slender height.  She 
would have been fine too, but the fight, which had begun at the middle of the stage, had 
rapidly progressed closer and closer to the edge and Nicole, with one misplaced stumble, 
had taken the fall that every performer feared.  

Nicole Perry had fallen off the damned stage in front of hundreds of clicking cameras to 
screams, and the horror of five pop stars and one rising rocker.  

It had been very dramatic, especially when she blacked out for a full five minutes and a 
small mob formed.  Perry’s first memory was being strapped to a hospital gurney while 
*NSYNC and Frank hovered pale and frightened in the background, all six famous men 
resisting the efforts of their management and security to get them to a more secure 
location.

The concert was cancelled, Nicole, amidst a string of drug hazed cursing, was carted to 
the closest hospital, Frank boarded a plane for Ozz Fest, and the boys continued on the 
tour.  Whoever hadn’t watched the show by then certainly was now.  

It was bigger than Ozzy urinating on the Alamo.  He was even proud of her in an 
absentminded sort of way.

Nicole broke up with Frank on a cell phone in the lobby of the airport the day she was 
going to rejoin the *NSYNC tour.  The news hit the tabloids by the same evening and 
Frankie drank himself into a stupor.  

Nicole Perry was not in a good mood when she stepped off the plane hours later, 
sunglasses covering bloodshot eyes, arms in a cast, and Bill, with a camera, trailing 
doggedly behind her.  

**************************************************************************************

Lance was the first to see her when she quietly entered backstage during their down time 
before sound check.  Perry wasn’t sure what she was expecting, a welcoming cry and a warm, 
large, blonde hug from Lance Bass was not it.

Expected less for it to be followed by a quieter, less exuberant hug from JC, who was 
watching her with wide, dark eyes.  His fingers lingered on her cast and she patted his 
arm awkwardly, not used to the concern she found in the slender boy band member.

Joey surprised her with a hug of his own, surprised her more by blushing as she stared 
at him in said shock.  “Glad you’re okay Perry,” he mumbled a bit and she smiled 
tentatively at him.  She flipped Justin off for sulking at the fringe of the welcome 
back group.

He glared and gave her a finger of his own, even though a smile tugged at his lips 
while he did it.  Chris, who had been hesitating, started to come forward and she 
stopped him with one shake of her head.  

“You,” Perry said, “I’m still mad at.  I don’t care if Frank started it, you started 
swinging, and because of that I had to break up with my boyfriend of two years.”

He stared at her with large remorseful eyes and Nicole cursed roundly.  “Let me mope a 
bit, smack you around and we’ll be fine.  Okay?”  

Chris beamed so hard you would have thought she had just given him Christmas.  It was 
eerie how quickly they had brought her into their fold, cussing, prejudices, tattoos, 
piercings, and all.  Nicole had never met people so closed off, and open with their 
hearts at the same time.  

Bill sidled closer to her as wardrobe and make up dragged the guys off give them some 
last minute spit and polish before show time.  “You’re going soft Perry…” he sing 
songed as she glared daggers at him from the corner of her eyes.  

“And you’re going to get kneed in the groin in about five seconds if you don’t wipe 
that smirk off your face.”

“Oh come off the hard ass routine…  Why can’t you admit you’re liking them despite 
yourself, that maybe, maybe, you can be friends with people who don’t bite the heads 
off small mammals?”  

Nicole tilted her head up and responded sweetly, “I have absolutely no problem admitting, 
on film no less, that I admire *NSYNC as a whole as people.  I still maintain that their 
music sucks, their fans are generally psycho hormonal children in thongs, and that 
despite fancies to the contrary, I am STILL a hard ass.” 

She proceeded to knee Bill in the groin in one smooth move learned from the streets 
and nightclubs throughout the years.  He dropped like a moaning log.  

Perry knelt down, patted his head as he twitched and groaned, picked up his camera, and, 
with a whistle and more spring in her step since Frank arrived, went over to watch a 
show she still detested but had memorized almost perfectly.  

Lance caught her hiding among the side curtains and winked and waved.  She grimaced when 
she waved slowly back with her broken arm, still in its blindingly white cast, and half 
the venue who had caught the interplay screamed in delight.  

Nicole held the camera up to her face and sighed melodramatically.  “Welcome to a day in 
the life of *NSYNC, Nightmare of a Lifetime.”