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It seemed like forever and a day; the wait for the unexpected. For Howie it was probably one of the worst feelings in the world. Knowing he had caused so much trouble for everyone, knowing that this was solely his fault. He sat in the corner of the room, after Johnnie and Nick exited and barely said a word to his fellow band mates as they sat anxious, waiting and wondering what was going to happen next.
So, no one even noticed when Kevin came traipsing in weary and looking a bit sleep deprived. He sat down on a chair next to the wet bar and didn’t say a word to a sole. Howie looked over at him but refused to make eye contact. He knew Kevin was aware whose fault this whole thing was.

“So, anyone want to tell me what the hell is going on?” He finally asked once ready to deal with the situation. All the question did was give Howie another knot in his stomach.

“Okay if no one wants to talk then I will” Kevin stood up and made his way over to Howie who stood up, ready to take whatever came his way. “We are in a whole mess of trouble. Do you have any idea how many reporters I had to pass to get up here D? What were you thinking?”

“I’m sorry Kevin, but we really didn’t even care that it was a strip club, that’s not why we went in”

“Why DID you go in then?”

“It’s a long story and I’m getting a little tired of telling it over and over again”

“I think I am entitled to an explanation Howie”

Howie sighed, his shoulders visibly shrugging. “Okay fine…we went in to look for a guy”

“What guy?”

AJ, seeing Howie ready to just crumple under the stress of the situation decided to take over for him, “He found this guy who was crying under a desk..”

“What?” The explanation only seemed to be making Kevin mad, more and more confused.

“There was a guy who looked just like Nick and he was upset over at Jive”

“What does that have to do with the strip club?”

“Remember the picture in the paper Kev; the one of Nick standing on the edge of the building?”

“Yeah I do, it wasn’t him though...although after his Mom gets done yelling at him we might want to lock those windows”

“Is it that bad?” Brian asked his cousin, the first time he had spoken since Johnnie and Nick’s departure. “It sounded pretty rough. I was in there for a few minutes and Nick was in tears trying to get a word in with no success"

“Uh oh, the wrath of Jane…”

“He deserved it AJ, that was stupid and frankly, I think you should have to incur the wrath of Jane too Howie”

Howie nodded. As much as he wanted to argue with Kevin, he knew he was right. He was also feeling a little better knowing that Kevin was back and maybe he would take control of the situation. As if reading Howie’s mind, Kevin continued, “Anyway what’s done is done, now we just have to try to fix it”

The door opened up revealing a very sad Nick and an angry Johnnie, “Well that was anything but fun!” Johnnie said going to the fridge and grabbing a beer. “You touch this any of you and I will break your fingers!” He pointed to all of the alcohol in there. Nick went straight for the bathroom not even saying a word to anybody.

“That woman is not happy, and I wasn’t very happy that I had to deal with it” He took a swig of beer and plopped down on a chair, “Okay so while Nick was being yelled at, I made a few calls on my cell. We are releasing a statement about this whole stupid thing very soon. Right now we are having Linda working on it.

Linda was the band’s publicist and she was a gem in her field. If anyone could clear things up it would be her. Howie relaxed a little at the mention of Wonder Woman’s name. “So, I guess my advice to you guys would be; go back to your rooms, relax, and stay the hell away from the phone if it rings... and absolutely NO leaving this hotel or even going down to the lobby unless I tell you to. GOT IT?” He looked all the guys up and down stopping the longest on Howie. Once he received the nods he was looking for he walked out of the room slamming the door on his way out.

“He is so nice isn’t he?” AJ said going over to the half empty can of beer that Johnnie had left and took a sip.

“ DAMMIT AJ!” Kevin said grabbing it from him and throwing it in the garbage. “Enough!”

Brian walked past his cousin and lightly knocked on the bathroom door, all the other people in the room’s eyes followed his actions. “Nick buddy…you coming out?”

“I’m peeing I’ll be out in a minute” Nick’s voice was a mixture of irritation and agony; the high pitched crack that comes with crying followed by the gulping that comes with the cover up. Brian just stood there standing at the door waiting for his friend to come out, not even sure why. It wasn’t like he was a child or anything. But at the time he needed to keep himself busy doing something and tending to Nick seemed to be the most natural activity. Finally the toilet flushed and out came Nick who looked like a mess. He smiled at his friend, tears all but gone from his eyes and made his way over the rest of the guys.

“Hi Kev” He said feigning a smile.

“Hi”

“Did Johnnie tell you guys that he plans on releasing a statement?”

“Yeah Nick, he told us while you were in the bathroom”

“I told him all about the guy that looks like me Howie, but I don’t think he believed me”

“Of course he didn’t because it’s ridiculous” Kevin sighed and made his way over to the window, “you know I can’t leave you guys alone for ten minutes without something happening”

“Oh please…save it” AJ walked over to his older friend ready for an argument. It’s funny how personalities really showed in times of tension. Kevin was a blamer. When something went wrong he laid blame on everyone but himself but then always tried his best to fix it. AJ on the other hand would fight, with anything or anyone. Brian couldn’t ever seem to keep still, pacing back and forth or biting his nails anything to keep him from slowing down enough to deal with a problem and Nick would cry or sleep or yell anything overdramatic. Howie was the one that usually just stayed in the back, keeping everyone around him calm. Not this time though, this time he was the reason for it.

The funniest thing about the situation he thought to himself as he watched his band mates trying to cope with all of this, was that no one really knew if this situation was as bad as they thought it was. Kevin did say he saw a bunch of reporters but where they on the news? Did they make it into the huge papers? Or just the tabloids?

“You know if it was just the tabloids, it would be easy to deny” All the guys looked over at Howie as he verbalized his thoughts. “I mean, who believes that stuff anyway?”

“If it was just a tabloid do you think Johnnie would be having such a cow?” Leave it to Kevin to burst his only bubble of hope.

“No…probably not, but maybe he is just being over dramatic”

“Not Johnnie!” That got a laugh out of everybody. Good old AJ always good for a laugh. “Well no matter what happens, I think as long as we tell the truth we will be okay” Nick said nodding his head as if that was the only logical conclusion.

“Oh yeah; that you were chasing your double who had thrown himself off of a building. Yeah they‘ll buy right into that”

“They might”

“Nick wake up and join us in the real world for a minute okay?”

“There’s no reason to be rude”

“I know…sorry” Kevin calmed his tone and walked back over to join the rest of his group, “But I just think Johnnie knows what to do. The less you guys say the better”

“I mean wasn’t it a tabloid that printed that story in the first place? Of course they would believe it” That was a light bulb moment for Howie. Nick was right. “I bet it’s them” once again all eyes shifted their gaze to Howie, “What D?” Brian asked.

“I bet it was them. They are the ones that were there to see” Then it all became so clear to him. Hadn’t he given his number to the guy over at the Inquisitor? It had to be him. The one calling, the one threatening. “I’m gonna call them”

“Johnnie said no phone calls” Kevin stood up and blocked Howie from leaving.

“No he didn’t. He said we shouldn’t answer the phone”

“No way D. you can’t call a tabloid! God what has gotten into you?”

Kevin was making so much sense. Why on earth call the one source that could drag their names to the ground? He just felt like this was the answer. “I just know Kevin. I know it’s them. They probably followed us there”

“So what is calling gonna do besides let them know you really WERE there?”

Howie looked up at Kevin and then to the rest. They all seemed to be in agreement with Kevin; all except Nick who nodded his head egging Howie on.

“Okay you’re right”

“Good, I knew you’d come to your senses D. Let’s let the pros handle this one”

Howie sat down next to Nick and smiled.

“Everything will be okay”


~*~*~*~*~*
Howie and AJ made their way back to their own room and Howie was happy for the retreat. Maybe he could take a nap since his night of restless sleep was now catching up to him, besides the less he thought about the things the better he felt. So, when AJ headed into the bathroom to take a shower Howie plopped on his bed and tried to close his eyes. “God I hope my Mother didn’t hear about this” He found himself saying out loud”

“Yeah then you’d know how I feel” Howie jumped, his heart leaping into his throat.

“Where the hell did you come from?”

“I snuck in”

“When?” now his heart was racing so fast, he knew sleep was not going to happen.

“You must have dosed off. I needed to get away from Kevin. He can be a real pain sometimes” Nick was sitting in the corner of the room almost under the table. The kid for being as lanky and clumsy as he was, could sneak around like a ninja. Once he spent a whole night under Howie’s bed, Howie was still waiting for an explanation about that one.

“You scared me”

“I know…sorry”

“Did you get into a lot of trouble?”

Nick made his way from the table over to the bed and sat across from Howie, “Uh…yeah you could say that. Mom wasn’t pleased”

“I’m sorry I got you into trouble”

“Yeah so am I” The smirk on his face showing that he secretly loved this little adventure; his next question further proving that. “So, you gonna call that place now?”

“I don’t know Nick…I think it’s a bad idea”

“You didn’t before Kevin hounded you about it”

“I know but…”

“But nothing Howie, I think it’s a good idea”

“That’s even more reason not to do it”

“HEY!”

Howie laughed at the pout that Nick plastered on his face. That kid was too much sometimes.

His cell phone rang twice before he picked it up this time. He only went for it because if he didn’t Nick would.

“Hello?”

“Tell the kid it’s you’re Mom and you want to be alone” That voice again, gruff and mean. HE knew Nick was in the room. How?

Howie moved his hand over the mouthpiece, “Nick if you don’t mind it’s my Mom”

“Okay cool…tell her I say hello” Nick stood up and left the room.

“Good” The man said.

“How did you know he was here?”

“Lucky guess…so…looks like we need to have a discussion”

“Look I think I know who this is…”

“Believe me kid you have NO idea”

“You need to stop bullying me around”

“You started it”

“Why did you frame us?”

“Frame you?” The man laughed, “I didn’t’ frame anybody. You went into that club”

“What do you want?”

“Careful about your volume Howie…you never know who is listening” Howie felt the need to look around the room just then; expecting to see someone jump out from under his bed.

“Well? Answer me dammit! What do you want?”

“I just want to make sure we are clear about what it is you are going to tell the press”

“I’m not telling the press anything”

“Good boy. And what about the police?” “Nothing”

“Good. Nice to see you are a fast learner Howie...Because I would hate for it to get out that you were the last person seen with a corpse” Howie went numb, his heart once again in his chest.

“Wwwhat did you say?”

“You heard me right. It would terrible just awful if those pics ever made their way out in public don’t you think? You pinning that blonde guy to the side of the building”

Howie didn’t know what to say, he wanted to strangle the phone, “You are a…”

“Easy Howie…seems like your fate is in my hands. Imagine everyone’s surprise when they were to arrest you on suspicion of murder”

“What are you talking about?”

“Nick of course…tall blonde…looks a little like someone you know”

“But…he is alive”

“No Howie…he WAS alive. Now he is not, because he didn’t do what he was told. Are you going to do what you are told?” Howie didn’t answer. His mouth opened wide staring at the wall in shock as if there was a huge monster about to eat him alive.

“What do you want?” He barely managed to get out.

“All in due time kid” There was a brief moment of silence. Howie could actually hear the man smiling on the other end of the phone.

“Like I said it would be a shame if word were to get out…I’ll be in touch” The man hung up and Howie un nerved just sat there shaking.

Unaware that AJ had heard most of his conversation.