Aaron’s mind was brought back to the present when he heard the distinctive sounds of Nick gagging in the bathroom, apparently nothing left in his stomach to throw up, the dry heaves making him moan from his already tender stomach. Grabbing the blankets, Aaron pulled the covers over his head in hopes to drown out the sounds.

‘Was Nick really sick with a stomach flu or did he have an eating disorder?’ Aaron questioned himself. All the signs and the symptoms that was listed on the internet were there. It made sense to him. The one thing that scared Aaron the most was the thought of losing his brother. This illness could kill Nick if he didn’t get the help he desperately needed.

He wanted Nick to get the help, but he wasn’t sure how to go about doing it. His mother was certain that Nick was gaining weight but her only remarks had been that Nick was throwing his career away with every pound he gained. If he went to his mother, that would make Nick mad and he would never talk to him again and his mother would surely be riding Nick’s back on that.

The sound of Nick choking between heaves was more than Aaron could take. His own stomach was starting to do some flip flops of it’s own and his mouth was starting to salivate as the nausea was building. Flinging the covers off, Aaron darted towards the door leading to the hallway. He needed to get sick and he needed to talk to his parents.

As the door to the room clicked shut, Aaron realized that he was stranded, no hotel card to get back and no card to get into his parent’s room. He needed to find a bathroom or something to throw up in NOW.

As if Aaron’s prayers were heard, the door to Brian’s room swung open. Without a moment’s hesitation, the blonde teen rushed past him, shoving him against the door. To Aaron’s horror, the bathroom door was closed, meaning that Leighanne was uing it. His eyes scanned the room and he quickly rushed over to the ice bucket, dumping the ice out onto the floor and immediately throwing up into it.

Brian rushed up to the young boy and started rubbing his back, trying to soothe Aaron when he began to cry. Aaron hated being sick and his emotions always went wild when he threw up. Once he was done being sick, Brian escorted him to the unoccupied bed.

“I gather Nick was using your bathroom?” Brian grinned slightly, trying not to show his concern too much in case it would worry Aaron.

“Yes, he was getting sick,” Aaron replied quietly, debating on how to tell Brian about his concerns for his big brother.

The grin faded and the concern was starting to show through his blue eyes. “Oh?”

As Aaron searched for the right words to tell Brian that he thought Nick was bullemic, he heard a soft gagging noise from the bathroom.

“Is she.... is Lee sick too?” Aaron stammered.

Brian stood up as the door opened to the bathroom, a pale looking Leighanne appeared in the doorway.

“I think she caught a flu bug,” he stated as he walked towards his wife.

“Oh,” Aaron replied. “That’s what Nick said he had too, a stomach flu.”

Helping his wife to bed and covering her up, Brian responded with, “Well, it’s going around and now it looks like you might have caught it too.”

Aaron shrugged his shoulders. “Yeah guessso.”

“Why don’t you stay put and I’ll go across the hall and check on your brother, he’s probably wondering where you ran off to,” Brian said in a calming voice.

Aaron settled back into the bed as he watched Brian walk out the door. He seemed to be so caring, Aaron decided. “Leighanne?”

“Yes, Aaron?”

“I think Brian would make a cool dad someday.”

Leighanne smiled at the thought. “Someday.”

“Nick? It’s me, Brian, open the door!”

Waiting patiently for Nick to come to the door, Brian wondered what really was happing with his little brother. He had seemed so moody lately, distant in some ways. Ever since Japan things seemed different with Nick and he couldn’t put his finger on what it was. The mumps had hit him hard, there wasn’t any denying that fact, but Brian couldn’t understand why Nick still looked heavier than normal. The other question was why was he still getting sick.

“You look like shit Nick,” Brian announced as Nick opened the door. Checking him out, Brian took in every clue on Nick. His face was pale, his hair was wet and sweaty looking. He looked drained of energy but then again he had just gotten sick and it was also past 2 o’clock in the morning.

“Thanks for stating the obvious, I feel like shit,” Nick sighed as he sat down on the edge of the bed. He looked warily over towards his brother’s bed and then did a quick double take when he noticed that no one was laying in it. “Where’s AC?”

“He’s across the hall in my room.”

“Why?”

“He had to get sick and I guess he panicked and ran out of your room and I just happened to have opened my door and the rest is history,” Brian replied.

“He had to get sick?” Nick groaned.

“He’ll live,” Brian responded with a grin. “Kids do that you know.”

Nick buried his head into his hands. “Well, I hope so, that kid has a tough schedule coming up and he needs to be healthy.”

Brian patted Nick’s leg. “I think you need to lay down and get some rest and don’t worry about Aaron for right now. It would probably be best if you two weren’t sharing a room together since you have the flu too. You’ll keep infecting each other and no one will get better. I would keep him with us but Leighanne is sick too so I’ll take him to your folk’s tonight,” Brian paused but then added once he saw the look on Nick’s face, “and you really don’t have any say in this because of the sorry state you’re in right now. Get some rest Nick, tomorrow should be a better day for everyone.”

With that said, Brian turned off the bathroom lights and softly closed the door to the hall. Going back to his hotel room, he went in and explained to Aaron that he needed to be spending the night with his parents to keep he and Nick from getting sicker from each other.

“Mom’s not going to be happy with me,” Aaron cried.

“She won’t be mad Aaron, it’s going to be okay,” Brian assured.

“You don’t know my Mom very well,” the boy protested as he walked with Brian towards his parent’s hotel room.

“You’ll see,” Brian stated with confidence as he knocked firmly on the hotel door.