Nick and Isabella are on the bus. "Nick you have to tell the guys. You need help." she tells him.

"I know. I'm just scared." he confesses.

"I understand that but they'll do what's best for you."

"What about my family?"

"Nick what other problems do you have with your family besides Mitzi?"

"They were great when I started wanting to be a singer. They helped me through everything. Suddenly they changed; my mom got materialistic and Dad controlled my money, I was a bank to them not their son."

"I've noticed that they've tried to call you but you won't answer. Nick I'm sure that they realize their mistakes now and they only want to rebuild their relationship with you, money or no money. They want you to be safe and happy. Give them a second chance. You gave Mitzi numerous chances after all she did to you. She didn't deserve it but they do."

"If Mitzi tries to come back I'm not gonna let her. And you're right I need to give my family a chance, I need them now more I ever have."

The other Boys come on the bus. "Hey we wondered you two were." says Brian. Nick looks at them then at Isabella. She takes a hold of his hand and says, "Tell them."

"Tell us what?" asks AJ.

Nick sighs and says, "You're going to hate me."

"Nick we won't hate you." assures Kevin. "Now tell us what's going on."

Nick starts crying. "I've been...doing stuff."

"What kind of stuff?" asks Howie.

Nick looks up at them with shame in his eyes. "I've been hurting myself." he says in a low voice looking back at the floor.

"How have you been hurting yourself Frack?" asks Brian. Nick doesn't answer.

"Frack look at me." Nick looks up at him. "What have you done to yourself?"

"I...I'm...I'm bulimic." He starts crying again. "And I had been cut...cutting myself." He sobs loudly.

The guys are shocked and grow eerily quiet. Then AJ says, "Gee Nick, I know I haven't tortured you in a while, I didn't know how much you missed it."

Everyone looks at him and suddenly Nick starts laughing. "For real Nick, we'll help you get through this."

Brian sits beside of Nick. "Frack why didn't you talk to me? I tried to get to you and you just pushed me away, maybe I didn't try hard enough."

"No, Bri it's not your fault. I just didn't want to listen to anyone."

"Nick we'll get you some help Man." says Kevin.

"Yeah, we can cancel the rest of the tour." says Howie.

"No!" says Kev.

"What do you mean, 'no"?" asks Howie. "Nick needs help."

"I know that but how can we do it without messing up our rep?"

"Tell the truth!" yells Isabella jumping to her feet.

"Look Kev, remember my heart surgery? We'll just tell people we need to get Nick help." says Brian.

"You're situation was different Brian. You didn't do anything to hurt yourself." says Nick.

"But Nick what you're doing is just as dangerous." states Isabella.

"Plus there would be so many rumors spread about why this is happening." says Kev.

"Okay so we make up something." says AJ.

Isabella sighs, "Nick you'll do the show tonight, and then you guys will hold a press conference tomorrow without him canceling the rest of the tour."

All the guys look at each other. "Okay." says Kevin. "We'll say you're just *really* exhausted and can't make the rest of the tour."

"But there's just two more weeks, are people really going to believe that I can't make it?" asks Nick. "So many people will be disappointed."

Isabella kneels in front of him. "Nick people will be even more disappointed if something happens to you." She takes hold of his hands. "You have no other choice."

AJ adds, "I think that people will believe that you're just exhausted, you look like hell."

"Thanks Man, you're cute too." retorts Nick with a snicker. "But you're right. So what do you do? Say something like I passed out after the show tonight?"

"Yeah." answers Kevin. "I think that'll work."

"Okay, so now we gotta call management and schedule a press conference..."

Brian pauses and looks at Nick before saying, "and call your family."

Nick puts his face in his hands and mumbles, "I don't know I'm gonna face them."

Isabella pulls his hands from his face and raises his chin so his eyes meet hers. "I'll help you." she assures him.

He smiles. "Thank you." he whispers.

"I'll call your family." Brian tells him.

"And I'll get the press conference scheduled." says Kevin.

"Okay."

"Just rest now, we've got a few more hours until showtime." says Brian.

The guys leave the bus, and Isabella suggests to Nick, "Why don't you take a nap?"

"No. I mean hey it'll be better if I am really tired looking tonight."

"True, it's very logical but..." She smiles. "You will get better Nick, I know you will."

"You have more faith in me than I have in myself."

"You have to have faith in yourself. Nick a lot of people love you but there is one person that has to love you before anything will really matter."

Nick looks at her. "That person is Nick, you have to love yourself."

"I'll try." he says. "I think I will lie down but no nap."

"Okay."

"Can I lay my head on you lap?"

"Sure."

Nick lays his head on Isabella's lap and she starts to run her fingers through his hair. "Don't do that it'll make me sleeping." says Nick.

She stops. "Okay." She relaxes her arm across him and he takes her hand in his.

"Thank you." he says.

"For what?" she asks.

"For taking care of me. I don't why you're doing it but thank you."

Isabella wants so badly to tell him she's in love with him but is afraid of scaring him and him pushing her away. "I care for you Nick. I keep trying to tell you how wonderful you are, I wish you could see it's the truth."

Tears fall from Nick's eyes. He knows that he can trust Isabella, and he too wishes that he could see himself the way she sees him.

A few hours later Brian comes on the bus. "Hey."

"Hey." Nick and Isabella say.

"You better start getting ready for the show." Brian says to Nick.

Nick sits up and sighs. "Did you talk to my parents?"

"Yeah."

"Did you tell them what I've been doing?"

"Yeah. I know how hard it was for you to tell us so I thought I'd spare you having to tell them. They'll be here after the show."

"Are they mad at me?"

"No! Nick they love you. Like us they're shocked but they love you and are going to help you, so will we. Me and the others are holding a press conference tomorrow."

"You're making sure that no one will be backstage but the people who should be aren't you?" asks Isabella.

"Yeah. We've made sure security is tight." answers Brian.

Nick sighs again. "Well we've got a show to do." he says getting up off the couch and leaving the bus.

The guys minus Nick hold a meet & greet before their set. "Where is Nick?" one girl asks.

"He's not feeling well." answers Kevin. "So he's resting and saving his energy for the show.

"I hope he feels better." says the girl.

During the show Nick just goes through the motions. It is obvious that something is wrong and Isabella thinks to herself, "If I didn't know the truth I'd just think Nick had the flu or something." She notices people looking at him and whispering.

At one point doing the show Nick gets dizzy and staggers and Brian grabs a hold of him to steady him. "You okay?" Bri asks.

"Yeah."

The Carters are waiting backstage at the end of the show. When Nick sees them he runs and hugs them. "Mommy, Daddy." he whispers in a childlike voice.

Jane looks at her son's face and sees the split lip and black eye where he has sweated away his make-up. She begins to cry, "Oh Sweetie. We should have been able to protect you."

"I know Brian told you what I've been doing. I'm sorry."

"Son don't apologize to us. We have to take some responsibility for this ourselves. We'll get you better." says Bob.

"Where are Aaron and the girls?"

"At home getting your room ready. We want you to come home with us." says Jane.

"Can Bella come too?"

Isabella is shocked by Nick's question. "Yes." says Jane.

"You'll come won't you?" Nick asks Isabella.

"Yes."

"Nick would you mind if we spoke to Isabella alone? asks Bob.

"No. I'll go shower then we can go get my stuff from the hotel."

Once Nick leaves Bob asks Isabella, "How long have you known?"

"I knew something was wrong but I didn't know what. I thought maybe he had your stomach problems. I saw him changing clothes one night and saw the cuts, he threatened to send me back home if I said anything; I thought I could help him if I was here so I didn't say anything. I only found out about the bulimia today. I followed him and saw what he did."

"Thank you for taking care of him." says Jane. "I would like to blame all this on Mitzi but as Bob said we have to take some of the responsibility too." She begins sobbing, "I just hope that my baby doesn't have any irreversible damage."

"Mrs. Carter we have to believe that Nickolas will be okay. We can't give up on him." says Isabella.

"We won't." says Bob. "We'll do everything we can to get him better."

Once at the family home Nick is greeted by his sisters. He hugs them all then notices Aaron standing a few feet away. "Hey Little Bro."

Tears fill Aaron's eyes and he runs to his big brother and jumps into his arms. "I've missed you, please stay this time."

"I'm not going anywhere." insists Nick with tears in his own eyes. Still holding Aaron he turns to his parents and asks, "Do they know?"

Aaron answers before Bob or Jane can, "Yeah. Mom and Dad told us after they talked to Brian. Nick please get better."

"I will I promise."

"It's late I think we all need to sleep now." says Jane.

"Okay." says Nick putting Aaron down.

Aaron notices Isabella and asks, "Who's she?"

"This is Isabella Spencer. She's the contest winner, and she's been taking care of me."

"Thanks for taking care of my brother." says BJ.

"You're welcome. I only want what's best for Nick."

"Leslie, Angel would you show Isabella to the guestroom?" asks Jane.

"Sure." says Leslie. "Come on."

After she's ready for bed Isabella goes to Nick's room. "Hi."

"Hey." he says. "Come here." He motions for her to sit on the bed next to him. "I loved having you hold me last night, I felt so safe. Would you..."

Just then Aaron comes in. "Nick can I stay in here with you?" he asks.

Isabella smiles at Nick. "Sure." Nick tells Aaron.

Aaron climbs in bed next to his brother. Isabella stands. "Good night you two."

"Good night Bella." says Nick.

"Good night." says Aaron.

Isabella leaves the room, Nick turns out the light and Aaron puts his arm protectively around his brother and they fall asleep.

"Hey guys." says Isabella.

"Hey." they all say.

"How's Nick doing?" asks AJ.

"Well he hasn't made himself throw up today."

"That's a good sign isn't it?" asks Kevin.

"I hope so. Bob and Jane are checking out eating disorder clinics."

"I still can't believe this has happened." says Howie. "How could we not know how much Nick was hurting.?"

"He's a good actor. He doesn't like to burden people with his problems so he hides them but I still think he does things as a way of crying for help." states Isabella.

"It's weird, you've only known him for a short time yet you seem to know him better than we do." proclaims Brian.

"I just understand a lot of what he's going through." She sighs. "Well come on he's out back."

They go out onto the back porch. "Hey guys." says Nick.

"Hey man." they say.

"How was the press conference?"

"They wanted to know where you were and we told them that you were the reason we called the press conference." answers Brian. "We said that you were extremely exhausted and had to take the rest of the tour off. They just wanted to know when we could reschedule and we said we didn't know. We said we hadn't planned on when to start recording the next album or doing another tour yet."

"I just hope that it works." says Nick. He grabs his stomach and doubles over.

"Nick what's wrong?" asks Isabella.

Nick straightens up. "I just had a pain. I'm okay now."

"You sure?" asks Kevin.

"Yeah."

"Oh God please don't let him have any problems because of the bulimia." prays Isabella.

That evening as the Carters and Isabella are having dinner Nick barely touches his food. "Nick honey please eat." begs Jane.

"I don't feel so good." replies Nick in a low voice.

"Nickolas don't do this." scolds Jane. "You have to get yourself better not get another eating disorder."

"I'M NOT! I DON'T FEEL WELL!"

"Jane please..." begins Isabella. "He has eaten good today and he also hasn't been feeling well."

Nick looks at her with his sad eyes as if to say, "Thank you."

Jane apologizes to Nick, "I'm sorry Sweetheart, I'm just trying to look out for you."

"I know Mom." says Nick before taking a bite of food.

"We found a place not far from here." says Bob.

"We'll take you there in the morning Nick. You can decide if it's the right place, if not we can look for another. As long as you feel comfortable that's the main thing."

"I'm sure it'll be fine." says Nick. He grows pale and gets a pained look on his face. He brings his hand to his mouth and runs to the bathroom, his father follows.

"Jane, Isabella come quick!" calls Bob. The women run to see what's wrong.

"He's vomiting blood."

Jane gasps and kneels by her son. "My baby." she says crying. Isabella wets a washcloth and hands it to her so she can wipes Nick's face.

Nick stops vomiting and lays in the floor in the fetal position and sobs. "Nick you have to go to the hospital. Do you think you can make it to the car?" asks Bob.

"No." cries Nick.

"I'll call an ambulance." says Isabella.

"What do you think is wrong with him?" asks BJ who overheard everything.

"It could be any number of things." replies Isabella.

"Doctor how is he?" asks Bob.

"We're waiting for the test results now." Dr. Gray answers. He looks at Isabella. "Are you Bella?"

"Yes."

"He's asking for you."

She goes into the room to find Nick curled into a ball on the bed with his eyes closed. "Nick?" she whispers.

He opens his eyes and smiles at her. "Bella."

"Do you feel any better, Sweetie?"

"Yeah." he answers groggily. "They gave me something for the pain and it's made me so sleepy." He fights to keep his eyes open.

"Well just sleep now."

"No I wanna know what's wrong first. Where are Mom and Dad?"

"They're talking to the doctor."

"I'm being punished." says Nick.

"What?" asks Isabella stunned.

"Whatever is wrong with me is a punishment for what I've done to the people I love."

"Nickolas no! Whatever is wrong with you was caused by what you did to YOURSELF. Your family and friends love you. You are the only one who is punishing you, and you have done anything to be punished for."

"You're making me sound perfect."

"I know you aren't perfect but you are one of the sweetest people I know." she tells him with tears in her eyes. "You're soul is beautiful and deep. Nick you are a terrific person. I pray everyday that you see how precious you are and start to love yourself the way we all love you."

Nick just looks at her. "Is she for real? I'm afraid to trust her too much but then again I feel closer to her than I do anyone."

Just then Dr. Gray and the Carters enter the room. Jane goes to her son's side. "You're gonna be okay, Sweetie."

Nick sits up and looks at the doctor. "What's wrong with me?"

"Nothing that can't be fixed. The bleeding was caused by irritation of your stomach caused by the excessive vomiting. We'll just give you some medication and put you on a bland diet for a few days."

"Thank God it's nothing serious." says Bob.

"Well it is serious." says Dr. Gray. He looks at Nick. "Your illness is very serious. Bulimia..."

"Doc I know. I'm going to the clinic tomorrow. Can I stay at home tonight please?"

"Yes. I'll get your prescription and diet sheet. Have your doctor at the clinic call me."

"Okay."

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