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Chapter Sixty Four – Ontario / Nova Scotia / New Brunswick

“Everything looks fine Olivia,” the doctor said as he peeked in the room at me. I was laying on a gurney in the emergency room. “Your blood pressure’s high, but I think that’s more because you’re panicked.”

“Why am I bleeding?” I demanded. The words fine, blood, and baby were three words that did not go together in my English language.

“It’s your uterus expanding. First trimester bleeding is fairly normal. The ultrasound showed no trauma. I would just stay off my feet for a day or so.”

“So I’m free to go?”

The doctor nodded. “Yup, I’ll get your walking papers.”
As he walked out of the curtained room, Nick ran in. He looked like he was about ready to keel over; he was still in concert clothes.

“Is everything okay? I headed over here as soon as I heard,” he said. He came up and took my hand. “Rochelle said something about bleeding and…”

“I’m fine,” I said. “I just didn’t want to take any chances.”

Nick seemed to lose ability to stand. He sank weakly into the bedside chair; he brought my hand to his lips.

“You’re sure everything’s okay?”

I nodded. “I just have to stay off my feet for a few days.”

Nick sighed. “It’s this tour. You’re crawling along the ground taking photographs and then we’re keeping you up at all hours of the night…”

“It’s not like I’m doing manual labor,” I argued. “The heaviest thing I carry is the video camera.”

Nick shook his head. I had never seen him look so pale
and sweaty. I squeezed his hand; he looked at me, his eyes full of tears.

“I thought I was going to have a heart attack. I just kept thinking the worst…”

“I’m okay,” I assured him. “I’ll turn over the camera to you for another Nick’s Corner and stay in bed and work for a few days.”

“You’re not getting out of bed,” Nick warned me.

“Except to pee,” I amended.

“Except to pee,” Nick relented.

---------------------------

Staying in bed was easier said than done. I managed to wile away my day in bed by staying busy with footage while the guys hit Nova Scotia. By the time we arrived in New Brunswick, I was beginning to hate everything about the four walls that were closing in on me.

“Nick I’m feeling much better,” I said with a smile. He looked at me like I was crazy.

“It’s only been two days,” he said.

“The doctor said I only had to rest for a day or so.”

“Well, you promised me a few days. A few is more than two.”

I folded my arms across my chest. Nick kissed my forehead.

“You’re cute when you pout.”

“Does that mean I can get up?” I said hopefully.

He smiled. “Nope.”

When he left for sound check, I looked at the Nova Scotia footage from the day before. Nick hadn’t disappointed me with Nick’s Corner 2.0 -- Episode 2.

“Today, I, Nick Carter, am going where no Backstreet Boy has ever gone before,” he whispered into the camera. “I’m going into the heart of the beast.”

The camera zoomed out. Nick held up articles of clothing. “I’m going undercover.”

I couldn’t help but laugh. His first task was putting on a brunette wig. That one small change made him look totally different. He slid on a pair of glasses and then struggled into a pair of skinny jeans. By the end, he looked about ten years younger, but a thousand times less hot. He winked at the camera. “Let’s go see what happens. I’ve got a tiny little microcam on my shirt. This should be interesting.”

The view switched to the smaller camera. I watched with interest as he made his way into the throng of girls.

“When does this thing start?” he asked a girl that was craning her head left and right in hopes to get a glimpse of one of the boys. She turned and glared at him.

“I don’t know,” she said. “Oh my god, I think that’s AJ!”

“Ugh, I can’t stand him,” Nick said. Another girl whirled around.

What?”

“My girlfriend thinks he’s so hot, but seriously, he’s getting old. Those tattoos are going to start sagging pretty soon,” Nick said.

He had about five girls frowning at him by the time he was done. He gave a little laugh with a perfect snort at the end. I covered my mouth to keep from laughing out loud. Bitsy looked up from the rawhide bone she was chewing, sniffed the air, then continued with her task.

“Where is your girlfriend?” one of the girls asked suspiciously.

“I don’t know,” Nick said absently. He turned around and looked at another girl. “Want to be my girlfriend?”

I saw drink spots splatter the camera. “Creep!”

The camera cut off. When it came back on Nick was in a different area of the crowd. He stopped at a girl holding a sign that said ‘Nuts for Nick.’

“What kind of nuts does Nick like?” Nick said. The girl looked at him, then stepped away.

Nick wandered around until he finally came to two girls holding a huge BRIAN sign. He leaned forward, squinting up at it.

“That’s a huge sign,” Nick said. The girls smiled, bouncing up and down in excitement.

“It’s for Brian,” they said simultaneously.

“He’s married,” Nick said matter-of-factly.

“So?”

“So, how old are you guys?”

“Nineteen.”

“Do you think Brian’s hot?”

“He’s gorgeous,” one of the girls said. Both giggled.

“He is really hot,” Nick admitted. “I’d do him.”

You could tell the girls were grossed out; but the girl who declared Brian gorgeous took another look at him.

“Wait a minute…” she said slowly. Her eyes widened. “OH MY GOD! You’re Nick Carter!”

Nick tugged at his shirt. His upside down face came into view.

“Busted!”

The last bit of footage was a mess, but I gathered there was a large stampede of girls and Nick ran away screaming.

I added the tagline ‘how many girls will ignore Nick before one realizes who he is?’ and added a counter after each of his encounters. The more I watched the clip; the more amused I got.

“Having fun?” Nick asked. His face was covered with sweat; he had just finished with sound check. I concluded that the temperature must have been hovering around scorching.

“I just posted your footage,” I said with a laugh. He grinned.

“Hey anytime you want me to put on that wig, you got it.”

“I’ll keep that in mind.”

“You hungry?” Nick asked.

I nodded. “What do you want?” he asked.

I really wanted Chick-fil-A, but considering there were none in all of Canada, I figured I was out of luck.

“Surprise me,” I answered. Nick disappeared but returned a few minutes later with some chicken. It wasn’t Chick-fil-A but it was close.

As I ate, Nick sat on the floor and played with Bitsy.

“Am I allowed out tomorrow?” I asked.

“I suppose so. It’s a free day. Then we have
Newfoundland. And then…home.”

I shook my head. “How come we enter a time portal when we hop on these busses? It doesn’t seem like we’ve been on the road that long.”

Nick laughed. “It’s the ‘end of tour’ syndrome. The last leg of the tour always goes super fast because we have everything down so well. You should have seen us overseas for the first couple dates. Somebody must have sprinkled me with uncoordinated powder. I tripped Brian and AJ about thirty times and I completely forgot the words to All Your Life.”

We shared a smile.

“You know,” Nick said, glancing down at the floor. Bitsy was gnawing his toe like a bone. He kept yanking it away but she kept wiggling on her belly like Jaws to bait. “I don’t think I’m ever going to forget this tour. I turned 30 and decided I still didn’t want any direction in my life. Then I met you and…”

He trailed off. I heard him take a deep breath.

“I met you and I realized that I had stumbled across my human compass without realizing it. For once in my life, I think I’m heading in the right direction.”

I felt tears spring into my eyes. When Carter wanted to be poetic, he sure could. He looked over at me as I brushed a tear away. “You’re killing me, Nick,” I said as I turned my face away. I felt the mattress sink down as he crawled up beside me. His arms wrapped around me like a human cocoon. I twisted and turned until we were face to face. The sparkle in his eyes meant everything to me; I kissed him gently.

We lay there for awhile in our own little world. His hands slid under my shirt, his kisses grazed my face. I felt a smile next to my skin.

“What?” I said with a laugh.

He pulled back; his smile grew into a grin. I felt his fingers slide across my stomach.

“You have a baby bump.”

I rolled over on my back and lifted my shirt up.

“I think that’s just the chicken,” I said. Two days ago I didn’t have a bump, but I couldn’t deny it; he was right.

Nick shook his head, still smiling. “Nope, it’s a baby bump.”

He kissed my stomach gently before standing up.

“Where are you going?” I asked. The bed felt cold without him there.

“I’ve got a concert to do,” Nick said. I had forgotten.

“Knock ‘em dead,” I said. “Take some pictures and stuff for me!”

He saluted me and walked out of the room. I glanced down again.

Definitely a baby bump.