You Do What You Have To Do
Chapter 51
By Tee and Danielle
(C) by us too.
************************************
All previous chaps at http://members.xoom.com/BSBescapes 
 
I snuggled myself right against Kevin from head to toe, resting my head
against his solid chest.  When he wrapped his arms around me, I felt safe
and warm, like the world outside of them didn't exist. 
 
I looked up at him, "You ok, Bumpkin?"  
 
He blinked a few times and I saw him smother a yawn. "I'm just wonderful,
Nickers."  
 
I smiled, "Good.  Now get some more sleep."
 
We both closed our eyes and slept a few more hours tangled in each other
and the sheets.  
 
A soft knock at the door woke us up, "Yeah?"
 
I heard my mom's muffled voice, "Breakfast."
 
I acknowledged that we heard her and told her we would be there in a few
minutes.  I flopped back down on the bed and shook Kevin's shoulder. 
"Come on, Bumpkin.  Breakfast."
 
He mumbled something about mom and school and not going.  I grinned and
nibbled on the rim of his ear, "Baby, I ain't your mom." I wrapped my
arms around him and rubbed my hand over his abs, "Come on, Bumpkin. 
Don't force me to get creative."
 
I heard him chuckle, "As much as I would love to see what "getting 
creative" means, I don't think your mom would appreciate us being late 
for breakfast."
 
I sighed, "Your loss, man."  I got out of the bed and stretched, pulling
my clothes off of the floor and   smiling at the way that Kevin was 
watching my every move.  I started bumping and grinding for him doing a
reverse strip tease as I got dressed.  By the time  I was done, he was 
giggling.  This big muscle of a man was actually giggling.  I grinned at
the sound of it and leaned down to kiss both of his cheeks, right over 
his dimples, "You are adorable. Now get dressed."
 
He did a mock salute and grabbed his clothes off the floor, heading for the
bathroom, making sure to wiggle his ass for me, which made me giggle.  "You
go, Ru Paul!"
 
He turned around and shot me the Turtle look o' death and then smiled before
disappearing into the bathroom.  I heard the water running a second later
and knew he was wetting down the pretty atrocious bed head he was sporting.
 
He walked out of the bathroom a minute later, fully clothed and ready to go
to breakfast.  He put out a hand for me to grab and pulled me off the bed. 
 
We walked into the kitchen to see it bustling with activity with the four 
of us kids in there now and Kevin and my parents it was a full house.  As
soon as we came through the door, Leslie launched at Kevin and wrapped 
him in a hug, soon followed by BJ and Aaron until he was fairly dripping
in Carter kids.  They were all talking excitedly about the two of us and 
I saw Kevin shoot me a look like 'what in the world were you doing while 
I was sleeping last night?' 
 
I just smiled at him and wiggled my eyebrows.  I figured BJ had broke 
the news to Angel and Leslie.  Speaking of Angel....  I looked around 
and saw Angel on the edge of the big hug of Carter kids, looking down at 
the ground.  I smiled, she was so shy.  How she survived in the family was
just beyond me.  I went over to her and grabbed her into my arms, hugging 
her, "Hey Ang.  I missed you."
 
I saw her eyes light up and made a mental note to myself to pay more 
attention to her.  She seemed to get lost in the rambunctiousness of 
the other three of us. "You did?"
 
I nodded, putting my forehead to hers. "I did.  I miss our talks, 
Quiet One."
 
She smiled and it just lit up her whole face.  "I missed you too, Nick."
 
I pulled my wallet out of my pocket, "I can show you how much I missed you."
I pulled out a piece of paper that was well worn and folded in a special 
pocket. I unfolded it and her eyes lit up again.  It was the letter she 
had written me when I was in the hospital after the whole Stefanie thing.
She had written the most beautiful things to me and I always carried that
letter with me.  When I felt like no one in the world loved me, I just 
looked at that and knew that my shy, quiet little sister thought the 
world of me.  Mushy, I know, but it worked for Angel and I.
 
She took the letter in her hands and looked up at me, "You carry it with 
you?"
 
I nodded, "That is my most favorite thing in the whole world, Ang. I never
leave without it."
 
I saw Kevin looking over the heads of the other yapping Carters to look 
at Angel and me and smiled at the two of us.  I smiled back and ruffled 
Angel's hair.  "Did Beej tell you about Kevin and I?
 
She nodded, "Aaron said you are getting married too."  
 
I heard a glass break and looked up to see my mother looking at Angel and
I, standing no more than a foot from us.  "Married?"

I sighed, "I asked Kevin to marry me last night, after....after our 
discussion.  Momma please be happy for us." 
 
She went to the broom closet and grabbed the dustpan and brush, cleaning up
the broken glass on the floor.  "I am happy for you.  I just thought you 
would have told me instead of me having to find out by overhearing it." 

I lowered my head a little and looked up at her with the big puppy dog eyes,
"I'm sorry, Momma.  I was going to tell everyone at breakfast.  In my own
defense, Aaron was the only one who knew, he spilled to everyone else." 

Aaron buried his face in Kevin's chest and Kevin patted him on the shoulder
to let him know it was ok.

Mom gave Aaron a look, "You know better than to tell secrets to others, 
Aaron.  Apologize to Nick and Kevin." 

Aaron looked at the floor and scuffed his foot back and forth, "I'm sorry."

I cleared my throat so he looked up at me, "It's ok, Aaron. I know how hard
it is to keep a secret you are excited about." 

He looked up at Kevin to make sure it was ok with him too, and Kevin 
smiled down at the little boy, ruffling his hair, letting him know it 
was ok. 

We all sat down for breakfast and it was like watching some sort of 
organized chaos. All in all it was just another breakfast at the Carters.
We finished breakfast and Kevin and I spent some time just goofing 
around with my brother and sisters for about an hour or so and before 
we had to leave.  We had an interview at KTLA, the NBC affiliate in Los 
Angeles, at 5.

Mom pulled us both into the kitchen again before we left and sat us down
at the table, shooing everyone else out.  She sat across from us and 
looked at us both, "I'm ok with this now, I did a lot of thinking last 
night and I just needed some time to digest it.  Kevin, I'm sorry I hit 
you.  Nick, I'm sorry that I forced you into a bad place, stuck between 
love and family, I never meant to do that to you. I'm sorry for hitting 
you too. I've never raised a hand to you before that and I'm ashamed that
I broke that last night."

We both nodded, accepting the apologies.  She continued on, "There is 
something that I want from the two of you.  As a mother I need it for 
my piece of mind."  She stared both of us down, "I want you to promise 
me that you are having safe sex.  I know you had "relations" with that 
awful woman, Kevin.  And Nick, you've been on the road since you were 
barely a teenager and I'm smart enough to know that you weren't tucked 
in your bed asleep by nine every night. Promise me this so I can sleep 
at night.  Promise me you've been safe and you are going to continue to 
do so."

I looked at Kevin and he looked at me and I think the thought of last 
night and this morning hit us both at the same moment.  Our eyes held 
and a silent conversation went through them.  We both promised each 
other that we wouldn't be that careless again.  My mom was right about
Stefanie and hell knew where she had been and who they had been with.
We both turned to my mom and looked her in the eyes, "We promise."

She let out a long breath and smiled, "Good.  That's all I wanted.  
I couldn't bear it if anything happened to either of you." 

I got up and hugged her, "I know, Momma.  Thank you for worrying about us." 

Kevin hugged her too and she chuckled, "I'm your mother and soon to be 
mother in law, it's my job."

We both laughed and let her go.  She looked at the clock, "You two better
get on the road if you want to make it back to LA in time to get ready."

After a lot of hugs and kisses and more than a little whining by Aaron 
that he wanted to go with us, we were back on the freeway to L.A. 
shrouded by our baseball caps and sunglasses from teenage motorists. 
We'd been lucky so far that we'd not been jumped by teenies, but we 
were not going to press that luck if we didn't have to.

Once we snuck in the back way to the hotel and up to our suite, we 
both ran around to get things organized and ourselves presentable, 
a bodyguard arranged and phone calls to management saying we were 
back open for business, it was time for us to leave.  

The interview was....an interview. After a while, they just sorta 
blend together unless they come up with a question that sticks out 
at us as new.  Kevin is still talking about the MuchMusic interview 
he did before coming to me.  They asked each of the guys who their 
favorite Backstreet Boy is. That was a new one. The bugger chose AJ.
I smacked him for it.  

When we got back to the hotel, we just fell into bed and got up the 
next morning to go through it all over again. 

Brian, Howie and AJ sat in front of a television set watching a tape
of the interviews that Nick and Kevin had done in LA the previous day,
smiling.

"Look at them! Those be some happy Boys!"  AJ was grinning as he looked
at the two of us on the screen.  

Brian nodded, "Nick doesn't look like he wants the world to swallow 
him up anymore."

Howie was grinning too as he nodded in agreement, "And Kevin is smiling.
Look, that is actual teeth we are seeing!"  He looks out of the window 
and up at the sky, "Damn, it's still up there, I thought for sure that 
sucker would have fallen with Kevin smiling like that."

Brian laughed and looked at the screen again, seeing my eyes darken 
when I talked about why Brian wasn't in L.A. with me any more.  He 
swallowed hard, knowing that neither Kevin or I were going to let him 
off easy for what he had done. 

And he was right.