Chapter Twenty-Four
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Chapter Thirty-Two



Jessica woke up early, she couldn’t sleep and laid in bed listening to Nick’s breathing rhythm. Her mind raced over the events from the previous night. Nick was able to pull off the concert, but the bad thing was that he had another concert again tonight.

Nick started to stir in bed. He slowly opened his eyes. He turned his head and looked at Jess.

“Morning, how ya feeling?” Jess smiled at Nick.

Nick felt groggy and cleared his throat to speak, “Morning, pretty good.” His voice was weak sounding but a lot better than what it was last night after the concert.

Nick slowly sat up in bed. He reached for the television remote control on the bedstand and turned the tv on to the Today Show.

Jess watched Nick get up and walk across the motel room towards the bathroom. He had a very noticable limp on his left side when he walked. Nick didn’t appear to look as if he noticed he was limping.

“Hey Nick, I’m gonna call Brian and see if he’s up yet.” Jessica called out.

“Okay.” Nick replied hoarsely.

Jess picked up the phone and dialed the front desk. “Ah, yes, could I please have Mike Hart’s room?” Jess asked for the alias that Brian always registered under.

“Yeah?” Brian sounded like he had been woke up.

“Hi Brian, this is Jess, did I wake you up?”

Brian shifted up onto his left side, clearing his throat. “No I was thinking about getting up.”

“Hey, do you want to meet for breakfast?”

“That sounds good to me, AJ, Kev, and Howie are already out golfing, I assume. I’ll be ready in about an hour, Jess. What room are you guys in?” Brian asked as he looked at his watch.

“Um, 4763,” Jess answered as she looked at the room number on the telephone.

“Okay, I’ll come over when I am ready, bye.” Brian hung the phone up.

“Brian said he’ll be down here in about an hour.” Jess said loud enough for Nick to hear.

“What time is it?” Nick quietly asked. The bathroom door was open and Jess walked to the doorway and leaned against it as she watched Nick shave his face.

“It’s 7:34.”

As Nick finished up he looked at Jess in the mirror, “I’m gonna shower first, okay?” he said quietly barely above a whisper.

“Okay with me,” Jess turned and walked over to her bed and sat down to watch tv.

When Jess got finished getting ready, she walked out of the bathroom and found Nick sitting in a chair in the corner of the room watching television. Nick was wearing blue jean shorts, a white polo shirt and his traditional trademark white baseball cap on backwards. Jess couldn’t help but think of how cute he looked and walked over to him and kissed him. As they kissed, a loud knock from the door shook them back into reality. Nick and Jess opened their eyes and looked at each other when they heard the knock.

“I’ll go see who it is.” Jess said reluctantly as she walked over to the door. She looked out the peephole. “It’s Brian.” Jess said as she unlocked the door and opened it.

Brian stepped into the room. He saw Nick sitting in the corner.

“Hey Nick, how ya feeling?” Brian walked over to where Nick was sitting and sat on the edge of the bed facing the table.

“Fine.” Nick answered back quietly.

“Um, are we ready to go to eat breakfast?” Jess desperately tried to change the subject.

“Where should we go?” Brian asked as he stood up.

Jess and Brian looked at Nick.

“How about the hotel restaurant?” Nick quietly suggested.

“Sounds alright.” Brian and Jess said together.

They walked out of the room and followed Nick down the hall to the elevator. Brian noticed Nick’s slow pace as well as the pronounced limp on his left leg. He glanced over towards Jess. Jess just shrugged her shoulders.

No one said anything until they got seated at the restaurant. When the boys stayed at Disney they always got first class treatment and were rarely bothered by fans.

They made small talk as they looked over the menus. After the waitress took the order, Brian leaned across the table and looked at Nick.

“Do you think we should cancel tonight Nick?”

Nick had a puzzled look on his face. “No, why?” He asked quietly.

“Because I can see that you’re exhausted.” Brian answered.

Nick chuckled, “I’m fine don’t worry.” Again his answer was barely audible.

“Nick, you can barely speak, let alone walk.” Jess tried to reason with him.

Nick threw an angry look at Jessica. Jess knew from the past that this look indicated that she should drop the subject immediately.

Brian and Jess sat in the booth quietly, they weren’t sure what to say. Nick seemed content not to speak and drank his coffee and kept his eyes down at the table.

Finally Brian thought about something to say. “Hey, Nick, did you see that group of girls by the stage last night and how they kept jumping everytime you looked at them? That was funny wasn’t it?”

“Yeah, that was funny.” Nick answered softly. He smiled while he thought about it.

“Hey, after breakfast, what do you want to do?” Brian asked Jess and Nick.

“Wanna hang out at the park?” Nick asked softly.

Brian and Jessica’s eyes met. They were both floored to think Nick would even suggest something like that.

“Oh, I dunno, do you really want to fight the crowds?” Jess was trying to put suggestions in his mind. “And besides, you guys have rehearsal this afternoon at 2:00.”

“It’s 9:45 am right now, that’ll give us a few hours to play.” Nick quietly offered.

Before Jess & Brian could add to it, the waitress came with their order. They ate in silence. Once they finished and the waitress put the bill on the table Jess spoke up.

“You were really kidding, weren’t you Nick?” Jess looked at Nick as he reached for the check.

“No, I was serious, why?” Nick didn’t look at her, he was looking at the check.

“I just thought with the concert tonight and how whipped you were after last night’s show, you’d want to conserve your energy.” Jess stated quietly.

Brian tossed money on the table for the tip. Nick spoke as he watched Brian. “I don’t want to sit all day in the hotel room, let’s go get our passes and go. If we get tired, we can always go back.”

Jess didn’t say anymore. Both her and Brian were bother thinking what a huge mistake this was, but they both knew there was nothing either one could say that would change Nick’s mind.

They met each other at the elevator with their passes. Nick put Jessica’s on around her neck and he put his on too.

“Which park?” Nick asked.

Brian and Jess tried to think of the park that would be the quietest and less tiring for Nick. All they could think of was the first park. They got on the monorail in the hotel lobby and sat down. There were a few people already in the car they got in at. Thankfully, they were older people who had no idea who Brian and Nick were.

Brian enjoyed the peacefullness of being in public and not being bugged for a change. He knew it would end at the next stop when the monorail would be letting more people on.

Sure enough, the next stop yielded six teenage girls that got on into their car. They were busy organizing their packages and it wasn’t until the ride started up again when one of the girls noticed Brian and Nick. She nudged her friends and pointed at Jess, Nick and Brian sitting across from her.

“Ohmygod, we’re going to your concert tonight, I’m gonna die.” A small dark haired girl said almost too loudly.

“Gosh, don’t die, that wouldn’t be good.” Brian answered back and laughed.

The girl looked like she was going to faint from the excitement of having Brian aknowlege her.

Nick didn’t say anything, he just smiled and looked out the window. The monorail finally stopped where they wanted to get off. Nick slowly exited the monorail car with Jess and Brian following. His limping was still quite noticable to the point that one of the girls asked Nick if he hurt his leg. Nick acted as if he didn’t hear the girl and just kept walking.

Brian, Jess and Nick spent about three hours at the park. Nick was visibally exhausted. His leg really dragged as they walked into the hotel room. Nick dropped onto the bed and just laid there, his eyes open and staring at the ceiling.

“Was that too much?” Jess was almost afraid to ask.

“Yeah, I’m beat, what time is it?”

“It’s almost 1:30, you have rehearsal in 30 minutes. Do you wanna cancel?” Jess asked timidly.

Nick closed his eyes, “Nope, I’ll be fine, just let me lay here for about ten minutes, okay?”

“Sure.” Jess wanted to go talk to Brian about Nick. “Hey, I’ll be right back, I want to check out the pool and stuff.” Jess lied to Nick. She grabbed the room key and walked down to Brian’s room. She softly knocked on the door. It took a minute before the door opened and AJ was on the other side.

“Hey Jess.” AJ said as he let her in.

“Hey Alex.” Jess replied and snickered. She entered the room and found Brian, Kevin and Howie sitting on the beds.

“Where’s Nick?” Kevin asked with a concerned tone in his voice.

“Back in our room, he wanted ten minutes to rest.”

“He’s not doing too good is he?” Kevin asked.

“I don’t think so, but you know how stupid and stubborn Nick is, he said he’s fine.” Jess said with a sigh.

“That stupid ass.” AJ said as he paced the floor.

“Well, maybe the rehearsal will make him realize he can’t go on tonight.” Brian hated anything to go wrong with Nick but he knew this was going to be very strenuous on him.

“Oh, shit, I better go down to the room, Nick wanted me to wake him up after ten minutes.” Jess said as she looked at her watch.

“Do you think he’d be pissed if we let him sleep?” AJ asked Jess and the guys.

“Probably, but he should sleep.” Jess said. “What should I do?”

“WE should walk down to your room and try to reason with the stubborn sonofabitch.” AJ said.

“Sounds like a good plan.” Kevin said quietly praying that they could get through to Nick. When they entered the room they found Nick sound asleep on the bed where Jess had left him.

Jess motioned at Nick as if to say “who wants the honors of waking him up?” All of the guys pointed back at her. Jess gave them a dirty look back and bent over Nick and gently pushed on his shoulder.

“Nick, time to get up.”

Nick softly moaned and rolled over onto his side.

“Nick, do you want to skip rehearsal?” Jess quietly suggested and hoped he would say yes.

Nick rolled back over onto his back and opened his eyes. He look suprized to see the guys standing in the room.

“I’m up, lets go, gimme a sec.” Nick said sleepily as he got off the bed and and walked into the bathroom to brush his teeth and comb his hair.

AJ noticed for the first time Nick’s slow walk and limp. He pointed at the closed bathroom door and whispered, “There is no way in hell he’ll be able to dance, what is he thinking?”

Everyone shrugged their shoulders.

“I guess Nick will have to find that out himself.” Brian sighed.

“Ready to go?” Nick asked as he entered the room.

Everyone followed Nick out the door and to the elevator. Brian tried to joke around with Nick, jabbing him in the ribs, Nick, getting annoyed with Brian hitting him turned and nailed him in the shoulder with his balled up fist.

“Ouch, what the heck was that for?” Brian asked as he rubbed his shoulder.

“You know I hate that.” Nick said hoarsely with his voice cracking.

Everyone was quiet for the rest of the elevator ride and didn’t utter a word as they walked through the hotel lobby. A white limosene for the guys was parked out front with the driver leaning on the side of it. As the guys walked out he stood up and opened the back door.

The ride to the auditorium was quick, which everyone was thankful for. Once inside the auditorium, they were met by their manager and director.

“Hi, how you guys doing this afternoon? Great show last night by the way.”

The guys stepped onto the stage and put the head mikes on and stood in their usual places.

“Okay, lets have you guys practice All I have to Give.”

Jess cringed when she heard the director request that song. Nick had a lot of vocals in it and it was a very strenuous choreographed dance. She looked at Nick as the band started the song.

Nick slowly licked his lips as if he were deeply concentraiting to the beat of the song. Jessica closed her eyes as Nick started to sing his part. His voice seemed very weak to her and it sounded almost a husly hoarseness.

The dance steps weren’t any better, Nick seemed to falter several times during the song. Jess could tell by the look on the other guy’s faces that they picked up on Nick’s problems. Everyone in the room seemed to notice except for Nick.

“Ah, Nick, what the hell are you doing? I hope you’re just screwing around.” The manager asked over the innercom.

By the time the rehearsal had finished, Nick had basically stumbled through 3/4 of the dances and his voice broke during most of the songs they had practiced. Nick was also soaked in sweat.

“Okay guys, see you back here at 7:00.” The manager said over the intercom. “And Nick, make sure you get some sleep too.”

Nick waived his hand in response. Jess walked over to him. The sweat was pouring down his face. Nick sat back on a stool. Brian came over with a bottle of water and gave it to Nick.

“Here buddy, drink this.”

Nick took the bottle. It seemed to take all of his energy to twist the cap off.

“I dunno what is going on with me, I’m just so tired.” Nick said in a hoarse whisper.

“It’s not too late to cancel your appearance, Nick. The fans would just have to accept the fact you are unable to go on.” Jess pleaded.

“No, I can’t do that and you know that Jess.” Nick softly responded.

Everyone was quiet on the ride back to the hotel. Nick leaned his head against the car door and closed his eyes. Jess was hoping he would be sleeping.

Once they arrived at the hotel, Nick seemed to have difficulty getting out of the car. AJ & Brian put Nick’s arm around their shoulder and walked him into the hotel. As Jess followed them she could see Nick’s left leg start to drag behind him with each step.

Nick was glad to be in his room. AJ and Brian took Nick over to his bed.

“Here you go, lay down, buddy.” Brian said as they laid Nick back slowly.

Jess looked at her watch, it was 2:45 p.m. Nick had four hours that he could rest.

“Nick, I’m gonna close the drapes and turn on the radio, you go ahead and rest, okay?” Jess said as she started to walk towards the windows, but Kevin closed the drapes before she got there.

Nick closed his eyes. Jess shooed the guys out into the hall. As the door closed behind her, she realized she was locked out of the room.

“Oh, dammit, I’m locked out!” Jess said.

“That’s alright Jess, just come down to my room and wait for a few hours.” Brian suggested.

“Yeah, let’s all hang out in Brian’s room.” AJ said mischeviously.

Howie and AJ laughed a put-on sinister laugh as they walked down the hall.

“Do you wanna order room service or go down to eat?” Brian asked the group.

“Let’s go down, I don’t wanna stay cooped up in a room.” AJ spoke up for the group.

“How about Hard Rock Cafe?” Howie suggested.

“Sounds good to me, let me call and see if we can get in.” Kevin replied.

Jess could only think about Nick. She was hoping the nap he was taking was doing him some good.

“Jess, what are you thinking about?” Brian asked.

Jess shrugged her shoulders.

“Comeon, what are you thinking?” Brian insisted.

“oh, I was just thinking about Nick is all.” Jess replied sheepishly.

“Hey, don’t worry, he’ll be fine. “ Brian tried to reassure Jess.

“Guys, let’s go they have a table for us.” Kevin said as he hung the phone up. “I’ll drive, okay?”

They walked out into the hallway and got onto the elevator. Jess was thinking about what to bring Nick back from the restaurant.



Chapter 33