Swollen Issues - Chapter 22

Nick straightened himself up before opening the door to the breakfast room. He was late, like always. Ten minutes and that wouldn´t go unnoticed. He had cause for his tardiness since his stomach had been acting up. Badly. But that was not something that he would reveal to his friends. No way!

'Hey Nicky do you feel shitty?’

´What´s the simililarity between Nick and Clinton? They both got caught with their pants down!'

Yuck, he shuddered. There would be NO ending to the jokes. Not to mention what AJ would say at the press conference. More shuddering.

As he opened the door, entering the room, silence fell. Five pair of eyes staired at him. A safe sign that he had been the object that they had all been talking about.

He said nothing as he made his way over the floor to the table that the boys were seated at. He sat down slowly on the couch, not wanting to stir his already aching balls. Lowering his head he waited for the remarks to come. He dídn´t have to wait long before Bruce said in an sarcastic tone, "Good, you decided to come after all."

No response was heard as Nick stared down at the table. He had no energy to make his usual smart remarks since is head hurt so much. Looking at AJ, he was reminded that he should have put his sun glasses on. Maybe he could borrow AJ´s. Fat chance, hell would likely freeze over before Nick could get his hands on one of AJ´s prescious belongings.

Silence. The boys all looked at Nick, taking in his haggard appearance, smug smiles on their face. At that time Nick knew that the remarks and jokes would be bad. He waited for the signal.

Kevin opened up, "How are you feeling today, Nick?" Not much concern was in his voice.

"Not too good," he whined. "My stomach feels kind of funny," If he had left it with that sentence, it would have been alright but instead he continued, "I think I most have ate something bad."

"Ate..don´t you mean drink?" Howie said, smiling.

"Like Jeagermeister" Brian grinned.

"Hey wasn´t that for medicinal purposes?" Kevin butted in, laughing.

"Next time take a bottle of laxative. It´s much cheaper and it will clean you out as well," AJ grinned sending the boys into loud laughter.

The boys knew. Bruce had told them about his situation. Nick sighed deeply. The jokes followed like pouring rain on a stormy night!

"Are you going to sell that plant?" Howie asked, looking serious.

Nick rose his head, "What?" drawing a blank.

"Yeah the silk plant. You could sell it on E-bay ‘Puked on by Nick Carter’. Would bring in a fortune!" Howie looked like he was enjoying the situation. Payback time for all of Nick’s pranks.

More laughter.

"Hey Nicky, remember this..." AJ showed the gestures that Nick had made refering to Brian and Leighanne intimacy. More laughter followed. Revenge was sweet. No mercy was shown for Nick. Not from any of the boys, Brian included.

Nick groaned. Life was hell. He laid down his head on the cool table. It felt good against his hot face.Sighing, he listened as the boys were telling more jokes about his evening out. It was a bad idea to come down to this meeting, Nick pondered. Instead, the idea of getting to bed seemed better and better.

“Alright, alright," Bruce called out after a while. He had been laughing just as bad at Nick, but there were serious things to discuss too. He started to talk about strategies and the boys listened. Patiently.

All but Nick. His throat felt like it would explode and his head was all stuffy. Shivering he wrapped his arms around his body. He was freezing and he wished that he had put his jeans jacket on. Exhaustion was starting to take its toll and as Bruce was talking Nick closed his eyes, trying to fend off the murmuring sound. So tired, so achy.

He must have dozed off because next he could feel a gentle shake on his arm.

"Hey Nick," a soft voice said. Nick looked up, confused to see Brian looking down at him, a concerned look in his eyes.

"Mmmm.." he mumbled groggily. His throat hurt too much to talk. His eyes burned and he closed them again. It felt so much better.

"Are you okay?" Brian asked, drawing Bruce’s attention to them.

"Are you two listening?" Bruce sounded irritated.

"Yeah, but I don´t think that Nick is feeling so hot," Brian was grasping the situation.

"Yeah, it´s called a hangover," AJ grinned and there was laughter once again.

This time however Brian wasn´t too convinced that it was all there was. Nick looked really ill.

"No, I mean that he is sick," Brian tried to explain about Nick’s health. No one was listening. Not even Nick, even if he was the subject of the discussion. After awhile Brian gave up. Time would tell if he was right. And he was never wrong when it came to Frack. Never.

"Finally I want to say that we meet down in the room beside the press room in one hour. That is 10:30 am for those of you that have trouble understanding figures," an indirect comment to Nick. "Today is a busy schedule, show and all and I will have NO delays, Nick, and I mean NONE!"

Nick raised an hand, just to let Bruce know that he had followed his words, not letting up his head from the table.

With that, the meeting was over. The boys stood up, all but Nick, who looked like he was really out of it.

"Come on, let´s go," It was Kevin’s voice.

"Let me be, wanna sleep," Nick mumbled, tired.

"You can get get a quick nap in your room," Brian said, trying to get Nick’s attention. All he got was a groan in reply. Nick’s body hurt too much to move and his head felt like lead.

"Hey you..Frack," Brian ruffled the blondes head, accidently touching his forehead in the process. He gasped. Nick was warm. "You have a fever?" he asked, getting Kevin’s attention.

"I dunno. I feel kind of strange," Nick moaned. There was no use in hiding how he felt any longer since he felt so bad that he just wanted to get into bed, too sick to care about anything besides sleep.

"Do you hurt anywhere?" Kevin asked, getting into super Kevin mode. He felt Nick’s forehead as well, frowning.

"My head..my stomach and my.." Nick was going to say groin when he stopped, changing his mind. Way too embarrassing to tell the guys. Even Brian. ".... and throat." Another cough.

"I think he´s got a temperature." Brian was talking to Kevin. "Look at his neck, it´s so swollen."

Nick could feel the two cousins looking him over, and then touching his neck. Kevin felt his glands. " Yeah his glands are swollen too. Could be the strep." Super Doctor Kevin decided.

"Ouch," Nick yelped, raising his head, trying to sit up. It had hurt when Kevin had felt on a sore spot. He regretted his sudden move since everything swam out of focus. Dizzy. He shook his head, trying to clear his vision.

"Are you feeling dizzy?" Kevin was now as concerned as Brian. He sat hunched down beside Nick.

"A little.”

"Any nausea?" Kevin was going through the symptoms.

Nick nodded. His stomach was churning again and he wasn´t sure if it was from sickness or from that he hadn´t eaten anything since yesterday.

"See I told you that Frack is sick." Brian sounded a mix between concerned and irritated.

"Yeah...yeah, yeah," Kevin hated it when he was proved wrong, even from Brian. He turned his attention to Nick again. Feeling the glands, once more. "Yep strep throat," he muttered once again.

"You have to tell Bruce that Nick is really sick and that he can´t do the press conference," Brian begged.

"Right Bri, you think that Bruce will listen to that? He just say that Nick is hungover and that he has put himself in this position."

"You know what.." Brian raised his voice telling Kevin what he thought about Bruce and how he was ignoring Nick’s health.

Nick winced. All the yelling hurt his head even more."Frick..really, it´s ok. I think I can manage now."

He made another attempt to stand up, when he had to sit down again. The room was turning 360 degrees.Whoa...when had he started to feel this bad?

Kevin grabbed his arm, repeating the scene like the night before, only now he was showing more concern."Easy buddy, sit down before you pass out."

Nick nodded, closing his eyes he leaned back on the couch, "Just let me rest here before we have that press conference, okay." He knew that he sounded dramatic, but the truth was that he had no energy to even make it to the room.

The flu had him in a tight grip and combined with the hangover Nick just wanted to sink into oblivion.

Chapter 23