The Quest For Ben & Jerry's by mersey
Chapter 1 by mersey
Author's Notes:
the scenes kind of jump in and out of sequence so i apologise if it confuses you much :)
AJ McLean’s world stopped when the barrel of the gun was pointe

“Sly Sam slurps Sally's soup. “

 

“Dude, they teach that in therapy?”

 

“Yup.”

 

“Sounds porny.”

 

“Sh…shuddup.”

 

- - -

 

AJ McLean’s world stopped when the barrel of the gun was jabbed squarely on his friend’s chest. No, his brother’s. It felt like forever, his eyes locked to that one spot, the rest of the world ceased to exist.

 

- - -

 

“We need ice cream,” Nick said. “Ben & Jerry’s.”

 

“Dude it’s almost 9. Shop’s all closed by now.”

 

“That’s why we love 7/11, AJ.” Nick pointed out. “And there’s one right up ahead.”

 

He didn’t ask Nick how he knew there’d be one up ahead, knowing Nick, the kid probably had the route mapped in his brain by now. Probably created a friggin game for himself on his drives alone to the studio and back.

 

“I think you're suffering from a relapse. I should have seen the signs man...the whole candy binging thing-”

 

“It's my 'indulge yourself' day. I'm allowed.”

 

“Whatever...still, we’d be late.” And even as he said that, AJ had made a quick left turn off the road, the small store’s ‘7/11’ neon sign glaring like a beacon. “Howie would be cussing on our ass, in Spanish.”

 

“Then we won’t share our B&J’s with him.”

 

“’tis your funeral.”

 

- - -

 

AJ had heard a lot of weird noises coming from fanatic fans over the years. Some sounded spastic, some looked like they were having seizures. There were the normal gasping noises that came with the goldfish in a bowl look, the downright maniacal screams, the incoherent yelling…

 

But no sound had ever made him tremble in fear quite like this.

 

“Oh my God. Something’s wrong with your brother!”

 

And that wasn’t helpful at all, because yeah, he could see that.

 

- - -

 

Brian was a tiny, tiny man. A gnome, really. So it was quite a shock when he had lunged forward and clipped Johnny once, before hands were holding Brian back. AJ never knew it’d take four guys to hold one gnome.

 

No publicity stunts, they’d warned. Not like Johnny ever cared what they want.

 

It had barely been a day after, Nick had not even woke up (the doctor said Nick lost a lot of blood and his body just need to rest and that it’s normal. AJ found that information to be as useful as the random piece of button he found in his jeans pocket because yeah, he could see Nick had lost a lot of blood, he still couldn’t get it totally washed out of his shirt and jeans for God’s sake!) and already everybody and their mother had found out.

 

Last AJ heard, Johnny couldn’t speak even if he had wanted to, for an entire day. Seeing that angry bruise on the right side of Johnny’s face splashed across the cover of US Weekly felt rather satisfying to him though. He almost kissed the short guy. Almost.

 

- - -

 

“Dude, this totally…”

 

“Rocks?”

 

AJ nodded, because he really couldn’t find any other word. There was an entire fridge dedicated to Ben & Jerry’s. He bet they had all the flavours stored in there. This was like, heaven, on friggin earth!

 

“We should totally buy one of each flavour.”

 

Nick’s hand was on his shoulder, squeezing it firmly. It was warm and that was great, because the entire store was freezing.

 

“AJ my man, you’re finally thinking Nick’s logic.”

 

He wasn’t quite sure if he should take that as a compliment.

 

- - -

 

They took Nick away from him. Pried him off his arms because he didn’t want to let go. Then he was gone, and AJ was still sitting on the cold floor, his jeans stained and sticky, the pool of blood next to him had smeared across the tiled floor, mixing with melted ice cream.

 

He must have lost a whole chunk of time just sitting there, because then, he found himself somehow sitting on a bench right outside the store. Someone had draped a blanket across his shoulders (and AJ really didn’t want to know where said blanket had come from), the flashing lights from the police cars and ambulance did nothing until a huge shadow hovered in front of him and there was Brian and Howie, making their way to sit by his sides. He couldn't remember if he had called them or if he had told someone who he was. It didn’t really matter anyway, the important thing was, they were there and AJ was no longer alone.

 

Brian was talking but he couldn’t hear anything. He thought Brian was crying, his face looked scrunched up and wet, and AJ knew it wasn’t raining.

 

It should though, rain, seemed appropriate, considering.

 

Howie’s fingers were cold and it burnt on his cheek. His eyes averted to him and Howie gave him an assuring smile.

 

The sounds came back, everything looked a whole lot brighter than it should and his shoulders felt heavy, like a huge weight had pinned him down. There were movements everywhere, a policeman was questioning the cashier nearby and he knew it’d be a matter of time before they’d require the same from him. He caught the end of Brian’s sentence. “…you okay?”

 

He wasn’t okay. He wanted nothing more than to sleep the rest of the night away. But his thoughts went back to Nick, so he cried instead.

 

- - -

 

“AJ, HEY! What’s crackin’ bro? Everything’s GOOOOOD witchu?”

 

“Ugh, what are you on, Carter?” AJ frowned, pulling his cell phone away from his ear. “No, no, don’t tell, I don’t want to know.”

 

“I’m beating the computer’s ass on minesweeper. Computers are not really bright sometimes.” Obviously this concept was foreign to Nick.

 

“Nick, you have a friggin Xbox, why the heck are you playing minesweeper for?” Beat. “No wait, wait, don’t tell me.”

 

“FIIINNNEEEE, if you don’t want to know anything about what I’m doing, why are you calling me?”

 

“We’re going to the studio. I’m supposed to pick your ass up in ten.”

 

“What?”

 

“You heard me, asshole.”

 

“Dude, it’s like…eight thirty,” Nick said, and as if to stress the point further, added, “at NIGHT.”

 

“It’s not the first time. ‘sides, Brian said you sound more…sexy…at night.”

 

“But, but…I’m high on sugar! Dude, I just ate like, a box of liquorice and tons of gummy bears and then those sour flavoured skittles, have you tried those? It’s AWESOME dawg, you gotta try it some- Brian said I sound sexy at night?”

 

“Dude, just get your ass ready in ten okay? And I’m only doing this because Howie said there’d be hell to pay if I let you drive on your own tonight and frankly man, I think D’s psychic or something, cause obviously from this call, I can tell you’re a hazard to the road out th-“

 

“AJ, you’re rambling, stop it! I want to know how Brian knows I sound sexy at night. I mean, it’s a little disturbing don’t you think? But also very nice of him. I think I’m going to give Brian a hug, ‘cause I think that’s a compliment and he thinks I sound lovely-”

 

AJ rolled his eyes and ended the call.

 

- - -

 

He was asleep, AJ knew this, but the pale face, the dark shadows under his eyes, the sunken cheeks, the parched lips, all these made him looked like a dead man, put to rest.

 

The doctors said…who the fuck cares what the doctors said? They all said the obvious things, like as if AJ doesn’t have eyes to see that.

 

Nick lost a lot of blood, the bullet had punctured his lung. They don’t get to tell him that and then said Nick’s going to be all right and for him not to worry. Fuck that. He was going to worry himself to ulcers until Nick woke up, and even then, he was going to worry some more.

 

They told him Nick needed the rest; that it was normal to let him sleep.

 

AJ had other ideas on his mind. Like, waking Nick up, making him talk, because he wanted, needed, to hear his voice, to tell him that he was okay and that maybe someone could feed him some ice cream.

 

- - -

 

His hands were numb from the cold, his gaze mindful of the mound of ice cream tubs he was cradling, making sure none of them slipped before they get to the counter.

 

He bumped into a full solid wall of Nick Carter’s back instead and a tub of cookie dough ice cream fell to the floor, ruined, and he was sure that tub would be considered sold.

 

“Carter, what’s your problem?”

 

- - -

 

A statement.

 

They sat him in a warm room, gave him a pad of yellow papers with thin blue lines and a blue pen. They pushed a small cup of hot coffee, told him to take his time, no hurry, and then left him alone.

 

He'd been staring at the blank paper for what felt like forever now. He doubt they knew what they were asking of him. How do you put what he had just went through, in words?

 

The cup was warm in his hand, but his body shivered still.

 

- - -

 

Nick woke up late in the afternoon the next day. He was there. Brian and Howie were there. Even Kevin had joined them at some ungodly hour the night before.

 

Nick blinked five times and went back to sleep, but it was enough to keep his nerves at bay. Like a warm blanket on his aching body.

 

The next time Nick woke up, there were a couple of officers by his side, shooting questions.

 

If AJ had known, he wouldn’t have taken up Brian’s suggestion for all of them to have a break and get something to eat at the cafeteria.

 

When they made it back to Nick, one of the officers zoomed in straight for Kevin and said, “Your friend need to start talking if he knows what’s good for him.”

 

He walked past the officers and went straight to Nick and grabbed his hand. “Dude.”  Thank God you’re okay. You really scared me. What the fuck will I do if you had died back there?

 

Never thought he’d be this happy to see those eyes.

 

“What’s that supposed to mean?” AJ heard Howie asking the officer.

 

“We need Mr. Carter’s statement, protocol you understand? But he was mocking us. He wasn’t being cooperative at all.”

 

“What do you mean he was mocking you? He just woke up, maybe if you give him some-“

 

Nick rolled his eyes at the conversation going on behind them. AJ thought that was typical of Nick.

 

- - -

 

There was a guy pointing a gun at Nick; that was the problem.

 

“You at the back! Stand where I can fucking see you!”

 

AJ was almost tempted to dump all the ice cream tubs at him and hopefully that’d be enough time to buy while they hauled ass out of there. He raised his arms up, dropped all the tubs to the floor and stood beside Nick instead.

 

“You too blondie, hands where I can see them!”

 

Nick didn’t move, arms still cradling seven different flavours of Ben & Jerry’s ice cream tubs.

 

The man moved closer and AJ McLean’s world stopped when the barrel of the gun was jabbed squarely on his friend’s chest. No, his brother’s. It felt like forever, his eyes locked to that one spot, the rest of the world ceased to exist.

 

“I’M STILL NOT SEEING YOUR FUCKIN’ HANDS!”

 

And Nick’s whole body jolted, like as if a clown had just jumped from the back of a door and shocked him to death. The tubs of ice cream joining the ones AJ had dropped earlier.

 

Nick’s hands dropped uselessly by his sides.

 

The man poked the gun on his chest again. “I’ll pull this trigger I swear!”

 

“Please, my brother’s just shock. If you could just-”

 

“SHUT THE FUCK UP!” The man yelled and then, keeping his stare on Nick, the man yelled at the teen behind the counter. “You better be packing that money kid or blondie here eats the bullet!”

 

Then everything went to hell.

 

- - -

 

The doctor said it could happen to anyone who had gone through what both Nick and he had.

 

“Everyone has a different way of handling a post traumatic stress disorder,” the doctor continued. “Mr. Carter’s condition is temporary. With a lot of rest and perhaps some therapy sessions, he’ll overcome it.”

 

Some people have vivid nightmares, some, like him, keep replaying the event in their head. Nick Carter decided he’d handle his PTSD by stuttering.

 

- - -

 

The dude came out of nowhere. Another worker on the night shift; probably had been at the storeroom when he heard yelling. Figured sneaking up to the robber and smashing a carton of bottled beer to the head was the smartest idea ever. Probably already envisioning himself tagged as a hero in this little hold up.

 

The fucker didn’t know what hit him. His hand faltered, aim no longer straight to the chest but the gun still went off and AJ had a split second to react and caught Nick midway before he kissed the ground. The asshole was out cold just a few feet away from them.

 

“Nicky, hey, hey, look at me bro!” And even as he said it, his hand was already reaching out for the growing red strain on the right side of his abdomen. “You’re going to be all right you hear me? Just stay awake for me kiddo, stay awake Nicky…”

 

“AJ…” It was the last coherent thing he heard from Nick before he started gasping and wheezing loudly and the blood began pooling.

 

“Oh my God. Something’s wrong with your brother!”

 

But as the first sound of police cars and ambulance made their presence known, Nick had gone really quiet, and AJ decided that silence was the worst sound he’d ever heard.

 

- - -

 

He couldn’t let Nick out of his sight for long; always a constant shadow to his every step, and that wasn’t an easy feat if you want to overshadow a sasquatch, which Nick totally is.

 

Nick let them room together while on tour and even invited him over to his house when they weren’t and AJ was grateful for that. His psychiatrist said he would get over it sooner or later, that it all takes time to heal. For now, AJ was happy with this new obsession of his. Stalking Carter. Hey, it could be worst.

 

“Ch…ch…check…this…ou…ou…out.”

 

“Go ahead rapper boy.”

 

“Lily ladles little Letty's lentil soup.”

 

Nick’s psychiatrist said it’s normal, but it still baffled AJ how Nick could cite through a tongue twister without any glitch but struggles to say a three-word sentence that was on his mind.

 

“Dude seriously, that’s even more fucked up than yesterday’s.”

 

 

 



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