PART 12

Howie stared up at the ceiling, they'd managed to get through dinner rather quietly. Ty had pretty much clammed up after he asked her if she needed to tell him anything. He didn't want to come out and say what he found and demand to know why she was hiding it from him but...how much longer could she hide it from him?

"J?" Jenn said from the doorway.

He looked up from his desk, "What? Isn't it awful late for you to be up?" he glanced at his watch and saw it was almost four in the morning.

"That's just what I was going to ask you. You've been holed up in here since you came home."

"I'm sorry but I've just been busy going through some papers."

"Need some help?" she offered.

He shook his head quickly, "No its okay. I'm fine."

"Your acting funny." Jenn observed, trying hard not to fall asleep.

"Might be the lack of sleep." he closed the folder. "You go on to bed, I'll join you in a couple minutes okay? Just wanna put everything away."

"Okay."

Jenn rolled over in bed half an hour later and watched AJ sleep, he looked more content then he had in days. Maybe something good had happened at the meeting she thought as she inched closer to him. And he hadn't had a single drink since he came home, she smiled to herself as her eyes slowly fluttered closed, maybe things were looking up.

Lis went through the closet, stopping and glancing at Nick's side. Everything was still there. She told him to get out and he just left, not taking anything. She doubted he'd go to any of the guys which left her clueless as to his whereabouts. Stop caring about where he is, she told herself, he doesn't care about you so why worry about him.

Nick watched from the bed as Lis sat on the floor on the closet, staring at his jersey. He rubbed his temples and stood up, grabbing a few things from the dresser and dropping the note on the bed before silently leaving again.

"Nick?" Lis called, hearing the front door close. She jumped to her feet and ran inside the bedroom, finding it empty. "Nicky?" her eyes settled on the piece of paper on the bed with her name on it. He'd never just left without saying anything before she realized as she opened the paper and scanned it 'I'll probably stop by sometime tomorrow get some more things... Nick'

E watched as Nick got in the car, "Well?"

He didn't say anything just pulled out of the driveway, "I avoided her...I'll see her in awhile."

"She's your wife Nick."

"Wife who so eloquently told me to get lost. So I am..."

"You know how immature you're being?"

"Do you know how much she flipped when she found those pics?"

"Yes and I would too...Put yourself in her shoes for a minute Carter, what if those were of her and some other guy?"

Kevin shut the lid on his suitcase and looked up to see Alec watching him from across the room. "Going somewhere?" she asked, her eyes on the suitcase.

"Yeah thought I'd go up and see if I can't help Rok with the writing. If not I can always crash at mom's for a day or two."

"Kinda sudden isn't it?"

He shrugged, "We're slowly starting to get our friendships back. Thought it be good if I could get away with Rok by ourselves for a couple days."

"Which translates into I'm not invited. Honestly Kev is this about Brian and you reconnecting or is this you avoiding me?"

Kevin shook his head, "This has nothing to do with our marriage."

"I wish I could believe you." Alec said getting to her feet.

Shan pushed her way past Lis inside the house, "You okay?" she asked worriedly.

Lis shrugged, "Who told you?"

"Bri...you coulda called Lissy. What's going on?"

Lis walked into her office, picking up the paper off her desk. "You probably haven't seen this. Tells the truth."

Shan raised an eyebrow as she started reading the story, every couple minutes she glanced up at Lis sadly then went back to reading. Finally she tossed the paper down on the chair. "Has everyone seen that?"

"Alec has I know that, she's the one who told me. I don't know about Ty or Jenn."

"The whole things true?" she somehow couldn't picture some of the things in the article being true.

Lis shrugged, "At least Nick's is."

"You can't just go by that Lis," Shan started.

"I saw pictures Shan, real pictures he was hiding on the boat. Him and some other woman." Lis took a deep breath trying not to cry again, seemed like that was all she'd done the last couple days.

"Shit Lissy." Shan gave her friend a hug, "Did he say anything?"

"He can't remember...that's his whole excuse..."

"Awww man, you need anything?"

"No." she walked over and sat on the couch, "Did you read what they said about B?"

Shan picked up the paper and scanned it again, "Bri's a partier and sometimes made AJ look like an angel. Okay if that's true that I need to see..."

Howie walked outside where Ty was working on some notes in a legal pad. "We should talk before I leave tonight."

She pushed the pad aside. "Okay. About what?"

"I don't know." he studied her for a minute, "I'm thinking you have something you need to tell me though."

She took a deep breath, "I have that same feeling where your concerned D."

"So in other words your going to keep quiet as long as I do? Don't you think that might get a little hard to do in the next couple months Ty?"

Ty's eyes widened, "What?"

"Your going to start showing sometime Ty...why couldn't you tell me you were pregnant instead of letting me find the test tucked away upstairs?"

"Because you are so damn - lately I don't want to be around you let alone having a child with you!"

He sat there in shock for a minute, "You don't want this baby?"

"I do but..."

Howie put his hand up, "I don't want to hear it. I'll call you when I get to Puerto Rico."

Nick looked at the man sitting across the desk then back at E and shook his head, "Nuh uh, nope he is not going to be looking into this."

"Nick just give him a chance."

"Yeah what do you have to lose?" the man said standing up. "From what I know and heard you've lost the band and possibly your wife."

Nick's eyes narrowed, "How'd you know that?"

"Couple people saw you check into the hotel the other night and talked to some others who talked to some others. Anyone with a brain figures its got to be marital problems. But what kind is the question."

"Why would you care?"

The man sighed, "I don't unless your going to be a client. But I am a good friend of the Backstreet wives."

"Just sit and talk to him," E said practically pushing Nick down in the chair and sitting in the other one.

Nick glanced at the detective and frowned, knowing he was one of Lis' exes. "Fine David, here's the story."

David quickly slid behind his desk. "Do tell and I won't repeat a word."

"Good. Basically we were blackmailed by Lou Pearlman. He has things on all of us."

"What kind of things?"

"Brian's first divorce never went through, Kevin supposedly has a child somewhere, Howie' laundering money for the mob, AJ's a drunk and a recovering drug addict and I'm a womanizer."

David stared at Nick for a minute, "And he has proof of all this?"

Nick pushed the envelope across the desk. "Yeah."

After a couple minutes of looking at the pictures David set them down and looked at Nick, "The pics are real that's for sure. But the situation might not be. I want the job."

Brian pulled the car into the parking lot of the hotel and glanced at the crumpled paper in his hand. Room 238 was staring back at him. He took a deep breath and stepped out of the car, locking it behind him and heading inside. Five minutes later he stood in front of the door, waiting for it to open.