[note from the author: I was so floored to see more reviews that I not only am posting this tonight, but...I’m writing a new chapter. I have several new ones written that no one has seen yet. Hehe, I know, I’m a big fat meanie huh? lol

Plientie: Don’t worry at all, you didn’t hurt me in any way. As this story goes on, I’m finding that I am letting more and more out. It isn’t easy, but I’m glad I’m doing it. Plus, I’m glad that people are trying to figure it all out. :) Btw, thanks for the compliment directed to Ellie.

EllieAnn: You have an idea?? By all means, tell me! lol If y’all guess it, I’ll be honest with ya. If it ends up coming out, I may play it into a possible sequel...

Charmed-Fantasia: As for Gracie, she was a cameo based on a real person. One of the girls who had been reading this story wrote and asked me if she could play a part in it. She explained to me how much it meant to her and even though I don’t usually do that kind of thing, how could I say no to that? :)

To everyone: Thank You So Much for your continued support!]

My head was absolutely killing me, but I did my best to ignore it. Getting out of the hospital undetected was a bigger challenge. There were quite a lot of people about.

“Ellie, what do you mean you have an idea on how to find Lee?” Nick asked as we walked brusquely down the hall.

“Okay, where is she?” I asked.

“What? I don’t know.” He gave me a funny look.

“No, I mean what country?” I chuckled at him. He gave me the “bread box look.” I picked it up from a book I read when I was really young. This girl asks a question and her friends think it’s a dumb question. So they look at her as if she had asked what a bread box was. My best friend and I said it all the time.

“Norway. But that’s all I know.” Nick watched me, probably wondering where I was going with this.

“Norway...” I repeated, thinking on that for a minute. “Okay, here’s what I’m thinking. We only know where she...”

“OH MY GOSH!!!”

“It’s Nick Carter!!!”

“Is Brian okay?!”

A mob of at least two dozen girls appeared out of nowhere and they surrounded us. I glanced at Nick and the look on his face mirrored my own feelings. This wasn’t good. We were almost to the elevators, but suddenly they seemed like they were a lot further away. The group pushed against us as we tried to get to our destination.

“Oh my gosh, what happened to you?”

“Did someone beat you up?”

I looked at Nick helplessly. We seemed to attract trouble. Why did this always have to happen to us? He shrugged at me and I rolled my eyes. He was no help.

“It’s okay, I just had a problem with some stairs.” Okay, so it was half the truth. I wasn’t about to tell them that Nick and I were attacked by a psycho reporter.

“What about Brian?” The girls pressed.

“Brian’s getting better.” Nick smiled reassuringly. I could tell that his patience was wearing thin. Neither of us wanted to deal with 20 questions right about now. Luckily the elevator doors opened and we jumped on. I was shocked when none of the girls tried to follow us. As soon as the doors shut, Nick let out a long sigh.

“No more going anywhere without bodyguards.” He grumbled.

“Sorry.” I assumed responsibility since I was the one that dragged him with me.

He looked at me. “Don’t apologize. It isn’t your fault.”

Right. Okay.

We took the elevator down to the basement level and walked to the lowest level of the parking garage. When we got there I waved a security van down and he drove us to Kevin’s rental.

“Smooth as silk.” I grinned as Nick pulled onto the main road.

“You always so reckless?” He glanced at me, before shifting lanes.

“Shut up Carter. You know you aren’t any different.” I informed him as I shut my eyes and leaned my head against the seat.

He chuckled and then grew quiet for a moment.

“Is it bad?”

“Nah, I’ve got a hard head.” I mumbled.

“That’s for sure.” Nick agreed.

“Hey!”

He laughed again. “Oh by the way, where are we going, O Woman With the Plan?”

“Sorry. Uh, anywhere with internet access.”

“Is it okay if we go to the hotel? We can use my laptop, if it decides to work for us. Plus I can get a few things.” Nick suggested.

“Sure.”

I kept my eyes shut for the remainder of the ride. My headache didn’t really lessen, but it didn’t get worse at least. I still felt like I was in a mild state of shock about all this. If someone told me this was all going to happen, I would have laughed in their face. Then I would have laughed some more.

“You aren’t sleeping are you?”

I jumped as Nick’s voice shook me out of my thoughts. “Ah...no. Just thinking.”

“‘Bout all this?” He asked softly.

“What else?” I cracked a small grin. It wasn’t like I had anything more interesting going on.

“We’re here.” He announced.

I opened my eyes and squinted at the light. It was cloudy, but tell my head that when it is pounding mercilessly. There was a small crowd of people around the lobby entrance of the hotel. “Here we go again.”

“No, we are going around the back. I have my room card so we’ll use that to get in the rear door.” Nick said smugly.

Thank goodness for nice hotels that had this perk. When my family would used to go on vacations, my little sister and I would fight over who got to carry the little card around and stick it in the slot. Being the older one, I usually won. Only when I felt exceptionally nice would I share.

We actually made it inside without any problems and I couldn’t have been more relieved. We took the elevator up to the top floor and again, luck was on our side when we saw that the hallway was totally empty.

“We usually don’t share rooms anymore, but this time Bri and I shared one.” Nick said quietly as he stuck the card in the slot.

“Did you have any idea that anything was wrong that morning this all started?” I asked, immediately regretting it when I saw the look on his face.

He dropped his head, his voice almost a whisper. “No. He gone before any of us were even awake yet. He was quiet the night before, but I didn’t want to press him about it. I should have done something or said something. Then maybe he wouldn’t have left in the morning and...” He trailed off.

“No, Nick. Don’t blame yourself. You’ve been doing nothing, but totally being there for him. If you would pushed him before he was ready, that might have made things worse. Don’t do this to yourself.” I said emphatically.

He shrugged and I couldn’t tell if he believed what I said, but I didn’t press the issue. “Come on, let’s focus on finding Lee right now okay?”

He nodded. “I still don’t know how you plan on doing that.”

“Well, with the internet, anything is possible. I’ve heard that you go on there quite a lot, is that true?” I followed him as he led me to his laptop sitting on the hotel desk. I tried not to chuckle at the mess on what I guessed was his side of the room. I guess I shouldn’t have been so embarrassed about my apartment.

“Ah...maybe. Yeah, I guess I am on there some, yeah.” He stammered.

Now I did laugh. He looked like a kid with his hand caught in the cookie jar. But I immediately regretted it, cause my head seemed to rattle hard enough to come off my shoulders. Sometimes he was so open, but then other times he was evasive like no other. I guess it was par for the course.

He sat down in the chair and busied himself with signing on his computer. “Piece of crap. Work!” He mumbled at it.

I bit my lip so I wouldn’t laugh again. He sounded like me on the computer.

“Okay, it’s on. Now what?” He said a moment later.

“She’s staying at a hotel in Norway and that is all we know?” I confirmed.

“Yeah...ohhh I know where you are going with this! We get a list of the hotels in Norway and we go from there?” Nick’s eyes lit up.

“Yeah.” I nodded. “What do you think?”

He chewed his lip. “I think it is going to take a long time, but it might work.”

“I know, that is why I didn’t want to say anything to Brian about it. I don’t want to get his hopes up in case this doesn’t work.”

“Probably a good idea. Alright, let’s get started. We can go on and make a list of as many hotels as we can, then take them back to the hospital and start calling them to see what we can find.” He suggested.

“Okay. That is going to be a massive phone bill though.” I raised my eyebrows.

He gave me a long look. “So?”

Oh yeah. I forgot who I was talking to for a minute. These guys seemed to have that ability. They are so much like just regular guys that I forget some of this stuff sometimes. Like he doesn’t need to worry so much about massive phone bills. Especially in these circumstances. But, I intended on using my cell to make calls too. I don’t care what the bill turns out. We have more important priorities here.

Almost two and a half hours later we had come up with a list that would take us plenty of time to get through. Brian had his laptop in there and after being there for about a half hour, Nick suggested that I work on his while he worked on Brian’s. We could have kept going, but Nick was anxious to get back to the hospital. I had to admit that I was getting pretty antsy myself. We thought about taking the laptops with us, but decided against it. We could just come back after we got through with our lists.

I was getting sleepy too and I think Nick noticed it. So we gathered our stuff and headed back out to the rental car. Again, we made it undisturbed, but that didn’t mean we would be so lucky at the hospital. So far, our luck had only been good about half the time. We decided again on the rear entrance. Even though it was still cloudy, the sun had been trying to peek through for a lot of the day. Now it was pretty low in the sky and I knew it would be getting dark soon. This day seemed to stretch on in some ways, but it flew by at the same time. The rear entrance was a good idea as there wasn’t as many people around. We made it inside without any hassles and I couldn’t believe our good fortune. We were doing pretty good.

Until the elevator ride.

It was empty when we stepped on and I punched the button for our floor. We made it just past the 3rd floor and suddenly the elevator jerked to a stop. I almost gasped out loud.

“I didn’t touch anything, I swear!” I exclaimed. I’d broken an elevator before and that had been a very bad situation. But that was a whole other story.

“What the hell was that?” He asked, alarmed.

“I dunno, but look. We are between floors. See?” I pointed to the light between the closed doors that fell almost in the middle of them.

“This is just peachy.”

I punched the buttons a few times and nothing happened. “What do we do?”

“Push the red alarm button.” Nick suggested.

I reached over to press it, but before I could, the elevator phone rang. I jumped at the unexpected ringing and I glanced uncertainly at Nick before answering it.

“Hello?”

“I have you just where I want you.”

My blood ran cold and I nearly dropped the phone. “What the hell do you want, Leon?”

Nick’s eyes widened and he grabbed at the phone. I took a step back and waved him off. Last thing we needed was Mister Temper pissing off Leon any more. But then again, I wasn’t all that cool either.

“You know what I want. My interview. I’ll let you go, when you give me what I want.”

“Well ya know what, asshole? People in hell want ice water. If you don’t let us go, I am going to slap a lawsuit on you that will bury your ass.” I hissed.

“Fine, maybe you would rather I ask Brian. I heard he wasn’t doing so hot. What happened to his voice?” Leon sneered.

I felt the color drain from my face. “You stay away from him.”

The look in Nick’s eyes at that moment almost scared me. He looked pissed. Before I could react, he snatched the phone out of my hand and began tearing into Leon. I never heard such anger come from someone, but then again, Leon had just threatened his best friend.

“Bastard!” Nick slammed the phone down.

“What?” I asked anxiously.

“He hung up on me.” Nick seethed as he started to pace the small space.

“Now what?” I slumped against the wall, trying not to get claustrophobic. I think Nick was too pissed to even think of being claustrophobic.

Before Nick could reply, the elevator lurched to a start again. “We can’t say anything yet, El.” Nick said softly as the doors opened.

“What do you mean? About this?” I whispered back.

“Yeah, I don’t want to take the chance of him doing something to Bri. I don’t think he could get near him, but I don’t want to risk it either. I’ll take care of this on my own.” He said darkly.

“No, Nick. You are going to get in over your head. This guy is a maniac.” I argued.

“Ya think? He punched me and gave you a black eye.” Nick said with a hint of sarcasm.

I wanted to add that he had trapped us in an elevator and threatened Brian, but I decided to drop it for now as we made our way back to our waiting room. No one was inside, but there was a note on the table.

Kevin

“Well I guess we didn’t run into them.” I offered.

“I hope they don’t run into Leon either.” Nick added. “You ready to go?”

“Yeah.”

We made it to the ICU without anymore incidences. The door to Brian’s room was closed and I hesitated before going any further. Nick gave me a little nudge from behind so I knocked on the door.

“Come in.”

I pushed through, followed by Nick. Kevin was reclined in a chair with a book while Brian slept. I wanted to ask how he was, but my voice caught. Nick asked instead.

“Worn out. They poked and prodded him enough. He starts the therapy to get his voice back. This is going to be tough.” Kevin said softly.

I only half listened to Kevin and Nick talk. I kept my eyes on Brian. I would have taken his place if I could. He slept so peacefully and I don’t know how that was possible. Hospitals just weren’t easy to sleep in. At least I never was able to get a decent night’s sleep in them. But then again, they had sedated him to run the tests. He had to have been so exhausted.

We lapsed into silence. The TV was on very softly and Nick and I sort of watched it. Kevin remained engrossed in his book. I kept glancing at the window. The had just sunk below the horizon and the sky was still splashed with an array of color. I got up from my chair and climbed in the window seat. Hospitals were so confining. All around you, the whole world went on with it’s business while life for you stood still. You could be in the hospital for a good month and it would seem like time didn’t even move. But when you finally get out, you realize that you so much has happened outside of you and without you and your only choice is to pick up where everyone else is and try to catch up the best you can. Time stands still for no one. I sighed. I didn’t want Brian to have to be going through this. And he was going to have an uphill road to travel.

“Ellie?” Kevin called softly.

I turned towards him, my eyebrows raised.

“He’s waking up.” He said softly.

I smiled faintly and hopped down from the window. Nick and Kevin were watching him anxiously as his eyes fluttered and finally opened. He looked at all three of us in turn and smiled. When he saw me, his smile dropped into a frown. My heart fell for a second and I thought he didn’t want me in there, but then he reached his hand up to his cheek and looked at me questionably.

Oh boy.