Chapter 69
A week and a half. It seemed as it time flew by. The guys had to hurry to prepare for their second leg of the tour, due to all the mishaps that came about during their vacation. Fatima was concerned with Nick. He wasn’t acting his usual self, and she approached the rest of the guys for help.
“Brian, we need to do something about Nick. His depression is becoming more and more obvious. If he doesn’t start to improve, I will talk to management about having him take a temporary leave of absence.” She said.
“You can’t pull him off the tour. It will kill him, not to mention the fact that it will piss the fans off. You just can’t. Now, come one, let me talk to him and see what I can do.” Brian said with concern for his friend.
“Fine, but he has two days. We leave on Wednesday and I don’t want to drop this on management as the busses are pulling away.” She replied as she walked away.
“Damn Nick, we gotta get you straightened out.” Brian said to himself.
*** *** ***
“Now, one, two, three, four, and slide...slide...” Fatima yelled as they guys practiced their routines. As she watched the five of them, one stood out in particular.
“Nick, come on! Work! You have to get it down by tomorrow. Do you understand.” Fatima yelled over the music.
Nick just waved his hand and looked away. The others noticed and grew concerned.
“You didn’t just brush me off, mister, did you?!” Fatima yelled in his face.
Nick stood his ground and ignored her. She lost her temper and hit the boom box that was next to them.
“Dammit Nick! I know your wife is sick. But, you have a job and an obligation...to the group, to the fans, and most importantly, to yourself! You are throwing everything you have away by acting like this. How will you support your wife and child if you lose this job?!” Fatima screamed at Nick.
“You shut the hell up! You have no idea what I am going through! Heather may die, all because she is too damn stubborn to try to take treatments. I can’t spend the precious moments I have left with her because I have to practice showing my ass to the world! You all have no right to ask me to give up my family for this! I QUIT!” Nick said as he stormed off.
Everyone looked at each other, the tension growing steadily. “You know, he is right. We are asking him to give up precious time with his sick wife to do this. Look, he knows the routine. He knows the music. Why don’t you let him go be with her until we leave on Wednesday. She can’t travel with us the whole time, so let them enjoy what they do have. Please.” Howie pleaded.
The guys all looked at each other and knew it was the right thing. Fatima was upset, upset that she had taken no pity on Nick, upset that she never stopped to think about what he must be going through. Brian went off to find Nick and talk to him.
As he approached the studio door, he saw Nick jump into his Prowler and drive off madly.
*** *** ***
“Nickolas, honey, what are you doing here? Aren’t you supposed to be at rehearsals?” I asked, extremely surprised to see him.
“I quit. I don’t want to be a Backstreet Boy anymore. Not if it keeps me from you. Not if I can’t be with you and our baby. It isn’t worth it. I know how sick you really are, and it is killing me that I won’t be here all the time for you. So, I walked out.” Nick said bluntly.
“You did what!!?? What the hell were you thinking?! That job is your life! You love to sing. Why?!” I yelled. I was so upset to hear that Nick had quit the group, that my head started to spin.
As Nick turned around to protest, he saw me slump down on the couch. “Heather, baby, I am here.” He said as my body went limp. He carried me to the bedroom and laid me down, then went to grab a cold face cloth.
After several minutes, I finally came to and looked into his eyes. “Nick, you...you just can’t quit. What will you do? You need your friends, your singing, and your fans. They all love you very much. Why can’t you just accept that you have to be away from me from time to time?” I said, my body tired.
“Because, if you die, I will regret that I didn’t spend every moment that I could with you. I will hate myself for putting work before you and the baby. I will die if I lose you...” Nick said, his expressions full of sorrow and despair.
“I am not going to die, Nickolas. You listen to me. There is no way I am going down that easily. I am going to have the baby, get treatments, and then be all better. It’s that simple.” I said, knowing full well that it wasn’t that easy.
“But Heather...” Nick tried to say before I cut him off.
“Nick, you go back to the studio and you apologize. Please. They need you and you need them. Don’t walk out on the one thing that you love most. Please.” I begged.
“It’s not the singing and the music I love most, it’s you.” Nick said as he grabbed his car keys and walked out the door.
“I know baby, I know.” I whispered as he drove away.
*** *** ***
“Now what are we going to do? If he doesn’t come back, we are one person short. I won’t go on if Nick doesn’t come back. We will just have to cancel the tour until we get things back under control.” Brian said.
“I don’t want to cancel the show, but Nick is just as important to this group as we are. Without him, we aren’t the Backstreet Boys. He just has to come back.” Kevin said.
“I will go and try to call Heather, maybe she has seen him.” Howie replied.
“God, if I were Nick, I don’t know what I would do either. Heather is so sweet, kind and gentle. She is everything to Nick. Hell, I don’t know what I would do if anything happened to her. I think we have all come to love her very much.” AJ said quietly, as a few tears formed in his eyes.
Suddenly, the management team walked through the door. The didn’t look too pleased with anyone, and found it annoying to see the guys standing around talking.
“What happened? Where is Nick?” Ivan asked.
“Umm, he left for a little while. He should be back soon.” Brian tried to cover.
“Well, he better be back after lunch, because if he isn’t, then he is out of a job.” Jean Louis said.
“He will be, we promise.” AJ said, as he gave the three others a concerned glance.
*** *** ***
“Come on Nick, pick up your phone.” Howie kept saying. “Where in the world are you?”
“Has anyone reached Heather yet?” Kevin asked.
“No, let me try her.” Brian said.
“This is great, Nick is missing and he only has about 15 minutes left to show up. If Mr. Trevino and Mr. Bishop come back, and he isn’t here, then there will be hell to pay.” AJ remarked.
Brian had walked away trying to reach me on the phone. After a few tries, I finally answered.
“Hello?”
“Heather, thank God it’s you. Nick walked out this morning. Please tell us you have seen or heard from him.” Brian pleaded.
“Yeah, he came by a little bit ago, he was really upset. I tried to convince him to go back and apologize and get back to rehearsals. He should be on the way...if not already there.” I said. “When you see him, please have him call, if he can.” I said and then hung up.
Brian walked over and informed the group that he had talked to me. The guys felts a bit more relieved that I had talked some sense into him and waited patiently. About ten minutes later, Mr. Trevino and Mr. Bishop came back into the rehearsal room. They noticed that Nick hadn’t returned and were about to announce his release, when Nick finally walked back in.
“Hi guys, I am sorry I am late. Some things came up, and I had to go and have a quick discussion. But let’s get back to work, we have a long day ahead of us.” Nick said casually, trying not to let on that something had been terribly wrong earlier that morning.
“Glad that you came back Frack.” Brian said with a smile.
“Well, we have a lot to work on, so why don’t we get to it.” Nick said.
The group practiced until about 8:00 pm and then decided that they had enough for one day. As they all stood outside at their cars, they talked about the whole situation.
“We will bring Heather along on the tour. They already had a bus arranged for the two of you, so you two could be together. During the day, we will leave you two alone, to spend time with each other. It doesn’t matter what management says, we will cover for you.” Brian stated, plain and simple.
“But, look, all I want is some free time to spend with Heather. She is already going through alot, and I can’t watch her just sit all alone. I just want her to know that I will always be there for her, whenever she needs me. I don’t want to be 2,000 miles away if she gets sick.” Nick said.
“Then, it is final, she will be with us until the doctors feel that she can’t travel with us anymore. At that time, we will figure out other arrangements. The baby will be born in a couple of months, so that will be good.” Howie said.
“I will talk to her tonight, and get her to pack and stuff. I will fly her in to see her doctor when she needs to have check-ups and then go from there. That is the best I can do. I just don’t want to loose her guys. I just can’t. I need her, and she needs me.” Nick said and then got in his car to drive home.
The rest of the group couldn’t even begin to imagine what Nick had been
feeling that evening, but vowed to help us both in any way that they could.