After carefully explaining the situation to the head of their security as well as stressing the fact that none of this was to be repeated to Lou Pearlman or Johnny Wright or the police, Kevin grabbed his jacket.

“Okay, let’s go look--”

Kevin was stopped when a hand was placed firmly on one of his shoulders. “Mr. Richardson, you need to sit tight. We can take care of this.”

Shaking his head, Kevin disagreed. “You don’t understand. I have to go with you guys. Nick is my responsibility. I need to find him.”

“He is also our responsibility and that’s what we’ve been hired to do,” the bulky black westler-turned bodyguard replied in a firm voice. “You need to stay here and just sit and wait.” Sizing up the young man, grinning he added, “We don’t need you to cause any commotion and you said it has to be low profile.”

Sinking down into a chair, Kevin nodded in defeat. “Yeah, we can’t let Lou find out about this one. He’ll have a field day with Nicky.”

“I’ve got your number, we’ll keep in contact.”

The four men were silent as the bodyguards filed out of the room. AJ was the first to break in. “Why the fuck does that stupid ass kid do this to us?”

Kevin raked a hand through his thick hair. “I wish I knew.”

“He was upset,” Brian offered.

“I think Mr. Pearlman finally pushed Nick too far this time. I don’t think I’ve never seen him this upset,” Howie added softly.

Groaning, Kevin stood up and trudged toward the window. “I think I can safely say that I’ll be prepared for fatherhood when the time comes.”

Clutching the blanket tighter, Nick shivered. ‘How do I get myself into these jams?’ he thought miserably.

With each step he took, he was starting to feel more and more drained. He wanted to find a place out of the way to lay down and take a nap. Shivering, he dismissed the idea.

“No Carter, you have to keep your fatass moving,” he mumbled to himself.

Walking further, his thoughts preoccupied with keeping warm, he started to think of things that made him feel warm; blankets, clothes, the sunny beach in the back yard of his home, his Mom’s chocolate chip cookies fresh from the oven...

Nick’s stomach growled as the thought of cookies entered his head. He could actually taste the cookies and smell them.

“I miss Mom.” Tears started to well up in his eyes as he thought about the comforts of home and his mother. His mother always knew how to make him feel safe and secure and he wished she was standing beside him right now and make this bad situation go away. Sadly, he remembered that his mother was now too busy with Aaron’s career to be bothered with him.

“She doesn’t have time for a fatass failure,” Nick muttered, leaning against an abandoned building. His stomach growled again and he punched it hard.

”SHUT UP!”

Shaking his head he trudged on only after looking at his reflection in the dirty store window. “I’m such a fatass can’t even diet right either. I fucked that one up too.”

All Nick could see was fat. He didn’t realize that he wasn’t the person in the newspaper Pearlman had shown him a week or two ago. He had been losing some of the weight and although he wasn’t slim, he wasn’t fat either. He was just borderline “chunky”.

If anyone had been in hearing distance, they would have thought that Nick was certifiable with his nonstop rambling to himself. His thoughts went from his family, to himself and what a disappointment he must be to everyone and lastly to his girlfriend.

“Manda hates me too,” he mumbled, wiping the tears from his eyes. “Why did she ever stick around with me? I need her though. I have to buy her something to make this better. I can’t be alone. I need her,” he rambled.

As if God was listening to the young man’s complaints, the sky suddenly opened up and sheets of cold, driving rain pelted his face.

Pulling the blanket over his head for protection, leaving a small hole for him to see from, Nick sighed.

“Anyone else want to kick me? God is already against me!”

“Where the hell is that kid?”

“Kev... why don’t you just sit and chill? You’re driving me crazy with all the pacing dude.”

“AJ’s right, c’mon they’ll find Nick.... they always do. That’s why they hired them,” Brian reassured as he patted the seat on the couch.

Howie managed a slight, tight grin. “I’m sure there will be be some wild excuse when Nick comes back.”

Much to the trio’s pleas, Kevin shook off their suggestions and kept his endless pacing; pulling back the drapes and peering out the long window and checking to make sure his cell phone was turned on.

“God, you’re worse than my Gramma is,” AJ chuckled, shaking his head.

Sighing loudly, the tall man tugged a hand through his thick hair. The knob on the door to the adjoining room turned loudly, grabbing the attention of the worried men. As Kevin started toward the door, it flung open, producing two bodyguards with standing between them.

“Is he okay?” Kevin asked as he rushed over to his baby brother, sizing him from head to toe as if he were inspecting him for signs of injuries.

The younger of the two bodyguards smirked. “Yeah, he’s fine, nothing a hot bath probably can’t cure.”

Kevin glared at the man. “This isn’t funny.”

The bodyguard quickly wiped the expression from his face, still meeting Kevin’s glare, taking the challege.

“God Nick, you’re soaking wet and where’s your shoes?”

“We found him laying down in a doorway of an old building,” the other bodyguard offered.

“I-I-Im-m-m-m-m f-f-f-fi...”

“Nick needs to get out of those wet things or he’s going to get more sick than he probably already is,” Howie stated with sudden authority.

Brian jumped up. “I’ll go get the shower started.” He stopped as he stole a glance at his young brother. “My God Nicky, your lips are actually blue!”

As if to protect Nick from more embarrassment, Kevin gestured to the body guards that it was time for them to go, only after he offered a quick thanks for their services. “Remember, nothing goes beyond this room, to anyone. Am I clear on this?”

“Absolutely, sir.”

Kevin wrapped a protective arm around the shivering teen. “You need to get into a hot shower and get out of these things. After you warm up, we can talk.”

Nick only could follow Kevin’s lead toward the bathroom.

“I got the water set to the right temp... not too hot and not too cold,” Brian announced as he stepped aside to let Nick pass.

“Take your time, you need to thaw out, just make sure to holler if you need anything,” Kevin added and then closed the door softly.

With shaking hands, Nick tugged off the wet blanket. He stood for a moment staring at his reflection in the large steamy mirror. Fumbling with the button on his jeans, he stopped and decided to take his shirt off first, gasping when the his bare skin was met with the damp air of the bathroom. After several attempts, he was finally successful in unfastening the button on his pants, quickly shedding the rain soaked jeans.

Losing his balance only to recover before he fell to the floor, Nick sat down on the toilet seat and tugged his once bright white socks off his numb feet. The skin on his feet was red from being cold and Nick doubted he would ever get warm again or the feeling back as he rubbed them.

With teeth chattering and as boughts of chills wracked his body, Nick managed to step into the shower. The warmth of the water felt good as he enveloped his body in a comforting flow. He tried to get his fingers to wrap around the orange bar of soap that was sitting on the shower ledge, but gave up after a few tries, opting to wait until his body thawed out more.

“What the hell was he doing out there like that?” Kevin fumed, pacing the floor again. “Did you see how he was dressed? No shoes either!”

“Good God Richardson, you act like he could have been attacked or something,” AJ grumbled.

Kevin stopped his pacing and spun around to face AJ. “That’s not too far fetched.”

“Well it didn’t happen now, did it?” AJ mocked.

“How the hell do you know?” Kevin hissed, gesturing toward the closed bathroom door. “He couldn’t even talk because his teeth were chattering.”

“From the cold dummy, not from fear,” AJ corrected.

“Would you two just stop this and take neutral corners?” Howie snapped.

“Wait until Nick comes out of the shower, I’m sure he’ll be able to tell us what happened,” Brian suggested.

Sitting on the edge of bed, Kevin folded his arms defensively across his chest. “He better be able to.”