Brooke watched as Kevin threw the last of her luggage into the back of his car. Once he slammed the trunk shut, he glanced over at her. "You ready?"
"Yeah," she answered, quietly, walking towards the passenger side door.
"You don't have to go, you know." Kevin slammed his door shut and started the engine. "You could always just stay here with me."
Brooke laughed, slightly. "You would just love that, wouldn't you?"
"Why wouldn't I?" Kevin asked. "I was against this idea from the start. I don't want you to go, baby."
Brooke covered his hand with her own. "I know you don't, honey. But this is my job. This is what I love to do. I have to go."
"I know." Kevin sighed, defeated. "I'm just going to miss you."
"Me too," Brooke replied, staring wistfully out the window.
Before they knew it, they were pulling up to the airport, where Brooke was meeting the rest of the Nsync crew. Kevin parked the car and waited while she got checked in. After Brooke collected her boarding pass, she turned around and looked at him. "You want to walk me in or should we just say goodbye here?"
"I guess we should just say goodbye here," Kevin responded, sadly. "I'm double-parked." The two of them stared at each other for a minute before Kevin pulled Brooke into his arms. "I'm going to miss you so much, babe."
"Me too." Brooke tried, unsuccessfully, to blink her tears away. "I'll be home before you know it, Kev. And then we'll be married."
"You better believe it." Kevin grinned before pulling her into a long, passionate kiss. "Bye."
"Bye," Brooke whispered as she watched him turn around and walk back to his car.
***** ***** ***** ***** ***** *****
"So," Ang began, sitting down on the couch next to Brian. "We ever going to talk about this or are you going to ignore me for the rest of your life."
"I'm ignoring you," Brian replied, never once taking his eyes off of the television.
"Oh grow up, Brian!" Ang was fed up. He had been ignoring her for close to twenty-four hours now. All because she didn't tell him about the threats. Didn't he understand that she just didn't want to bother him with it. He always worried about her and she just didn't want him to have to worry about this. "I'm sick of this shit. I'm sorry that I kept all of that from you. I just thought it would go away. Now you know and you can play the hero instead of AJ, okay?"
"That's what you think this is about?" Brian looked at her as if she had grown another head. "You think I want to be the hero? Think again, Ang. That has nothing to do with this."
"Then why the hell are you so pissed?" Ang exclaimed, jumping off of the couch.
"I'm pissed because you fucking lied to me!" Brian yelled back, his face red with anger. "You kept all of this from me. It's not what you kept from me. It's the fact that you were keeping shit from me in the first place. It could've been anything."
"Fine Brian!" Ang cried, tears of frustration welling up in her eyes. "You want to know what's been going on. I've been getting phone calls, letters, notes on my car. It's been happening for a few months now. The reason that I've changed my cell phone number three times is because of that. The reason that I'm freaked out every single fucking time the doorbell rings is because of that. I don't know what the hell to do, short of going to the police. But we can't do that now, can we? Because there was a dead body involved. The whole fucking reason this shit started in the first place is because I woke up next to a god damn dead body. And someone knows about it. And whoever that someone is, isn't going to let me live it down until I leave you."
Brian just stood there, stunned by her outburst. He didn't know what to say. He felt horrible for yelling at her. For being mad at her over something so stupid when she clearly had so much other stuff on her mind. But, somewhere in the back of his mind, he couldn't help but feel that this was all his fault. If only he hadn't lied to Ang and gone out with Leighanne that night, none of this would've happened in the first place. She wouldn't have left the Los Angeles club with some random guy. She would have been with him. Safe in their hotel room. He took one more look at her tear-stained cheeks before grabbing his car keys and running out of the house.
Ang stared at the empty space where Brian had just been standing. She was completely and totally in shock. How the hell could he just leave like that? After everything she had just said to him? At that point, she could do nothing else but collapse on the couch in tears.
***** ***** ***** ***** ***** *****
Nick was in Aidan's room, getting him up from his nap, when he heard the doorbell ring. "Kate!" he called, picking up Aidan and walking into the hallway. As he neared her room, he heard the shower running and realized he would have to get the door himself. "Come on, Aidan. Let's go see who's at the door." Reaching the front door, he opened it up and was surprised to see AJ on the other side. "Bone? What are you doing here?"
"I had a message to be here last night," AJ replied, stepping inside the house. "But I couldn't make it. I'm assuming this is why I was supposed to be here." He grinned and tickled Aidan's side. "And who is this little man?"
"This is Aidan," Nick said, proudly. "Aidan, this is Uncle Bone."
"Hi." Aidan's little voice was barely audible.
Nick laughed slightly. "He's so overwhelmed by the amount of people he met yesterday. He's still getting used to Kate and I."
"Ahh," AJ smiled. "So how is Miss Taylor? Still as hot as ever?"
"Back off, Bone." Nick leveled a warning glance at him.
AJ threw his hands up in defense as they made their way into Nick's kitchen. "I was just kidding, man. But why should you care anyway? You have Lanie, still, right?"
Nick rolled his eyes. "Of course I do. That hasn't and it isn't going to change. But Katelin is still my ex-girlfriend and the mother of my child. I would appreciate it if you would keep your paws off of her."
"I'm engaged, man," AJ laughed. He loved getting Nick worked up. It was almost pure entertainment in itself.
"Speaking of which," Nick began, setting Aidan in his booster seat and handing him his juice. "Where has Sarah been? I haven't seen her in a while and she wasn't here last night with everyone else."
"Actually." AJ cleared his throat, nervously. "She's away for a little bit."
"Why's that?" Nick asked, curiously.
"She thinks I'm still in love with Krista," AJ admitted, looking at the ground.
"What?!" Nick exclaimed. "Where the hell did that come from?"
"I don't know." AJ sighed. "She wanted me to go see her. To see if there were any feelings there still."
"So that's where you were yesterday." Realization dawned on Nick. "Did you see her?" AJ nodded. "And how does she seem to be doing?" Nick had seen her at Mr. Taylor's funeral but he hadn't really gotten the chance to talk to her for very long.
"She's good," AJ replied, quietly. "I think. She looks good. Gorgeous as ever."
"That it?" Nick prodded. He knew there had to be more to this. Something had to have happened while AJ was up in New York.
"No," AJ mumbled. "She kind of broke down in front of me. Telling me there was never any closure. To us or the baby. She wanted to know if there was still a chance for us."
"And what did you tell her?" Nick's curiosity had peaked a long time ago and he really wanted to know the entire story.
"I told her that there wasn't," AJ admitted. "I'm engaged, Nicky. I can't go back to all of that again. It's over. Way over."
"You sure about that?" Nick questioned, softly. "You sure that you're not still in love with her?"
"No." AJ's voice was quiet. Almost inaudible. "But I love Sarah, Nick. I've worked so hard to make things work with her. Why should I do that to her? Why should I do that to myself? Things with Krista were never particularly stable. I don't think we could go back to that ever. And I don't think I really want to."
"Hey guys," Katelin took a nervous step into the kitchen. "Am I interrupting?"
"Not at all." AJ grinned and stood up, picking Katelin up and spinning her around in the air. "It's great to see you, Kate!"
"You too." Katelin smiled, shooting a quick glance at Nick before walking over and giving her son a small kiss on the top of his head. "I hope I didn't come at a bad time."
"It's fine," Nick answered, shortly.
Katelin sighed, quietly, to herself. She had been living with Nick for only a short day as of now but in those twenty-four hours, he had said about five words to her. Total. As much as she knew that they could never get back what they once had, she wished that he could at least stand to be in the same room with her. "I was going to take Aidan out to the beach. Do you mind?"
AJ laughed. "Why do you think that you have to ask his permission?"
Katelin shrugged, smiling slightly, although she did feel like she had to ask Nick's permission. Although, biologically, Aidan was her son, it felt like he was Nick's and she was the live-in nanny or something. "I guess I don't. But you didn't have any plans with him did you?"
"No," Nick replied, as he lifted Aidan out of his booster seat. "You guys go ahead. AJ and I will just hang out here."
"You sure you guys don't want to come?" she asked, hopefully. She wanted to spend some time with Nick. To talk to him like a normal person instead of always feeling like she was walking on egg shells. And it would also be cool to hang out with AJ again.
"Actually, I've got to get going." AJ stood up and grabbed his keys off of the table. "I need to go find Sarah." He reached over and pulled Katelin into a hug. "It was good seeing you again, girl."
"You too." Katelin returned the hug and smiled, widely, before going to gather some beach towels and toys together.
"Walk me out?" AJ raised his eyebrows at Nick and walked into the foyer. He made sure Katelin was out of ear shot before he began speaking. "Go with her, Nick. I can tell she's nervous as hell being here and it doesn't look like you're making it any easier."
Nick nodded but didn't offer a response. It's not that he meant to act like that around her. It's just that he wasn't sure just how to act. He didn't want her to walk on egg-shells around him but he also didn't want to send out any wrong messages. He was in love with Lanie. Having Katelin back into the picture was not going to change that. And Nick firmly believed that.