“God you’re such a dumbass!” AJ hissed as he ripped off his headset brushing past Nick.

“I said I was sorry man, what more do you want from me?”

“How about the fucking feeling back in my foot? You had to step on it at least five times!”

Grabbing a bottle of mineral water, Nick slouched down on the couch, throwing a white towel over his head. He craved to be alone at that moment, but unfortunately for him, the towel didn’t block out the harsh glaring lights or AJ’s harsh voice.

“Christ Carter.....we went over all the steps and we do the show night after night and yet you still screw things up.”

”Would you get off my back? I said I was sorry!”

“Whoa.....whoa, Nick I could hear you yelling above the crowd out there,” Kevin Richardson pointed out as he entered the green room, staring at the blonde’s towel covered head. “What’s going on?”

“Carter kept screwing up his steps and he about broke my left foot,” AJ muttered as he slipped off his shoe, rubbing the offended appendage.

“What happened to your concerns for Nicky?” Howie questioned as he took a seat on the couch next to his youngest brother.

“Yeah, you were certain that he had something more wrong with him and now you act like you want to bite his head off. I never understand you AJ,” Brian added sourly.

Pulling his shirt off over his head and throwing it in a corner of the room, AJ quickly stood up. “Okay, now everyone’s against me!”

“Put your shirt back on!” Kevin hissed.

“What the fuck for?”

“We have that meeting and you need to look presentable!”

“They want the whole package and I’m giving them the whole package!” AJ grumbled as he stomped off toward the bathroom.

Kevin rubbed his closed eyelids with his fingertips, sighing.

During all of this, Brian noticed that Nick remained still, only moving his hand up under the towel to drink from the water bottle. His thoughts slipped back to when AJ had pointed out that he was drinking way too much water and then he remembered that he asked when the last time Nick had went to the bathroom. As far as he could remember, Nick Carter, the guy in the band with the bladder of an ant, hadn’t made a single trip to the restroom since before that interview.

Eight hours ago.

“Nick, maybe we should use the restroom down the hall since AJ is throwing a hissy fit in this one,” Brian suggested.

“I’m fine...I can wait,” came a short reply.

“You should probably take the advantage of going now since Mr. Pearlman will be coming in here pretty soon.....”

”I said I can wait!”

Nick wanted more than ever to just get up and leave. He felt awful and now everyone seemed to be concerned about his bathroom habits. He also wanted to get out of his stage clothes since the pants and the shirt were feeling uncomfortably tight on his body.

Deciding that he needed the diet pills again, he slowly stood up and walked over to where he stashed his backpack. Fishing through the pouches, he finally was able to unearth the tiny tissue with the pills.

“Let’s go down the hall then Bri, I guess I better go now.”

Two of their bodyguards that were situated at the outside of the greenroom door, were ready to accompany the two down the hall. Brian told them when they opened the door that they needed to find another restroom.

“You had a good show tonight guys,” one of the men complimented as they walked down the empty hall.

Neither one acknowledged the comment as they continued toward the restroom door. In a ‘secret service style action’, one of the body guards went into the restroom first, checking the stalls to make sure no one was in there.

“It’s all clear.”

Nick rolled his eyes and groaned as he walked into the open doorway. He quickly walked into an open stall and slammed the door behind him. Brian took the stall next to him.

Quickly unwrapping the tissue, Nick shoved two of the tiny diet pills into his mouth and swallowed them dry. As much as he hated to try the next task at hand, he knew that Brian would be on the other side of the stall wall listening intently.

Clenching his teeth as he tried to relieve himself, Nick quickly found himself biting his bottom lip to prevent himself from crying out with the searing pains he started to feel.

Looking down into the bowl, the urine that he managed to release was rust colored instead of the usual amber color. His body was taking it’s time getting rid of the infection that the doctor told him he had. Before he managed to flush the toilet, he suddenly gasped when a wave of pain struck his kindeys.

“Nick? Did you say something?”

Flushing the toilet, Nick grunted a quick “no” in reply.

“I could have sworn I heard you sound like you’re in pain....are you sure you’re okay?”

“It’s just I still got some blood when I pee, no big deal. I guess my body is taking it’s time with the meds I’m on to cure this infection.”

Coming out of the stall, he was met with Brian’s wide-eyed stare. “You’re still passing blood? Nick that’s really serious, we should get you to see a real doctor this time....”

“We don’t have time for that, remember? We’re getting back on the bus to head for Rome, I’ll be fine,” Nick brushed his friend’s concerns off.

Brian wasn’t letting Nick’s symptoms be as easily dismissed. “I am serious Nick. We’re talking about something that can get worse.”

Stopping at the sink, Nick stared back at Brian’s reflection in the mirror as he replied. “Listen, I’m fine, if it gets worse, I swear I’ll let you know otherwise, just plan on me seeing my family doc when I get back home, alright?”

“Can I ask you something?”

“Like what?”

“What are your other symptoms besides passing blood?”

Nick sighed heavily as he pulled a paper towel from the dispenser. “God Bri, I thought we’ve already gone over this.”

“Just tell me again, okay?”

“I sometimes get blood when I pee, I get headaches and sometimes I feel sick to my stomach and I have really bad backaches, it’s just like I told the doctor and he said that I have a bladder infection and I need to take some pills and remember to drink a lot of water.”

“I really have a bad feeling about this.”

“I’m fine, let’s get this meeting overwith, hop on the bus and get some shut eye. We will be over this damn tour before you know it and I’ll be out of your hair for a few weeks.”

“I’m not so sure about this....”

“End of discussion, there’s nothing for you to do about this so stop being such a worrywart and let’s get back or those guys will start spreading rumors about us being in the bathroom.”

They were met with the bodyguards as soon as they left the bathroom. “I was just about to walk in and get you two. The meeting’s been cancelled and they are waiting for you on the bus.”

Nick and Brian were quickly escorted back to the greenroom to grab their gear and then they managed to make it through the crowd of teens with the bodyguards making a path as they pressed toward the awaiting tour bus. Panic still sprung up into Nick as he picked his way through the crowd of screaming fans; his fear of being thrown against the bus seem to cloud his thoughts.

“What the hell were you doing in that bathroom together?” AJ snapped with an evil grin on his face. Not waiting for an answer, he slipped the headphones to his walkman on and walked back toward the rear of the bus to his bunk.

“He’s a sick bastard,” Nick commented, grabbing a bottle of water out of the mini fridge. “I’m gonna go to my bunk. See you when we get there.” He stopped in mid-step and turned back. “Um, Kev, do you think you could find it in your heart to let me have some of those pain meds since I won’t be in front of the public for a while in case I go psycho again?”

Kevin furrowed his brow at the young man. “Are you in that much pain again?”

Holding out his palm, Nick nodded affirmatively.

“He is, I can vouch for that,” Brian offered only to get cut off by Nick’s hard glare. “Well you are.”

With a nod of his head, Kevin gestured the younger man to follow him back to the bunk area, to retrieve the desired medication. He spilled two white tablets out into the palm of his hand and transferred the meds over to Nick. “I really hate to give these to you, they really hit you hard the other night when you took them, but I also hate to see you in pain. Just lay down and stay put until I tell you we’re there, okay?”

“Thanks,” was all that Nick before he put the pills in his mouth.

“Call me if you need anything.”

With that stated, the older man walked back toward the front of the bus. He took a seat next to his cousin and picked up the Stephen King novel he had started reading the other night.

They had gone into the drive for not even an hour when Brian finally summoned up the courage to talk to his cousin. He had waited for Howie to nod off before he could bring himself to approach Kevin. There were many things that were on his mind, but the one thing that was really bothering him was Nick.

“Kevin? Can I talk to you?”

Looking up from his book he looked at his cousin. “Sure, what about?”

“It’s about Nick.”

From his own personal experience, Kevin knew that he wouldn’t be getting back into reading his novel tonight. A talk about Nick Carter would be anything but a short conversation. “You’ve got my attention, what’s on your mind?”

“I’m really worried about Nick and I’m pretty sure that doctor that Mr. Pearlman hired to check him out wasn’t a doctor.”

“Well, I agree with you on that, but what do you think is wrong with Nick? Is there something more I don’t know about?”

“He admits his back hurts and stuff, but he told me that he is still passing blood when he goes to the bathroom.”

“It’s only been...what....a day that he’s been on the stuff for his unrinary tract infection?”

“Um, yeah, but still....he’s still got blood in his urine, that’s not normal and he’s really in a lot of pain when he was in there.”

“In where?”

Brian’s cheeks started to turn red. “You know....in there.”

Kevin sighed. “God I’m not in the mood to play twenty questions! What the hell are you talking about in there?”

“When he goes to take a leak.”

Kevin leaned back in his seat. “Oh that. Well you know that Nick doesn’t have a high tolerance for pain. It probably burns when he goes, but that’s all part of having those infections.”

Brian opened his mouth to reply when the sound of someone getting out of their bunk stopped him before he spoke. He leaned out to get a glimpse of who was walking down the hall. “It’s Nick,” he whispered.

“Probably sleepwalking,” Kevin commented, grinning.

“I dunno if it’s the lighting or what but he really does look like he’s getting putting on weight.”

Kevin ran a hand through his hair. “Now you’re starting to analyze things too much Brian.” He leaned over to see what Brian was looking at and managed to catch the blonde as he was bent over, hands on his knees, panting. “Nick.....are you alright?”

Kevin jumped up to see what the problem was. He touched Nick’s forearm, quickly noticing that it was wet in a coldsweat. “Nicky?”

The boy looked up and met Kevin’s eyes with a dark, vancant stare. Kevin had seen this look many times before and the hair on the back of his neck stood up. “C’mon Nick, let’s get you over to a chair....”

“What’s wrong Kev?”

“I think he’s gonna faint.......shit NOW!”

As soon as the words escaped the older man’s lips, true to his prediction, the blonde folded up and fell onto the carpeted floor, his dead weight too much for Kevin to hold up on his own.