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35

Kevin stood ready to tackle Lou to the ground if the need to do so arose. His emotions were playing tricks on him now and he wasn’t sure who he could ever trust again. The only thing certain was he was making his way out of that room even if it meant running over the man who had jump started their careers and made them everything they had become.

What exactly had they become anyway? He felt himself shudder at the thought. “Let us out of here Lou”

“Now Kevin, I know you are upset son…but listen to me”

“No, we’re done listening to you. Never again Lou, now get out of the way or we are going to have a serious problem”

Before he could say another word on the issue Jane’s pleas were heard echoing throughout the room.

Howie turned to see Jane walking past the door with a panicked expression on her face, “Nick” He said without thinking.

Brian quickly followed Howie as he ran into the room and stopped short when he saw Jane standing near hysterics next to the opened window.

Howie scanned the room and his heart stood still when there was no sign of Nick anywhere. By this time Fink was now slowly getting up off the floor and was smiling ear to ear as he sat down staring at the window. The only one who seemed to notice was AJ who made his way over to the man and grabbed him by the collar and pushed him off the chair, “Where the hell is he?” he screamed completely losing any composure.

“The window” Jane managed to gasp out between sobs, “He jumped out of the window”

“No!” Howie ran to the window and hesitated before looking out. He couldn’t bear to see it. There was no way he could live with the image of Nick splattered all over the street.

Kevin did look out the window without even thinking twice and to his relief there was no sign of Nick guts anywhere. He did see a white shoe out of the corner of his eye. For some reason, that scared him more then seeing Nick lying on the floor a few thousand feet below.

“Nick!” He yelled now moving his head out of the window trying to get a better look at the distraught teen, “What are you doing out there?”

All he could see was Nick’s left foot and his arm hanging on to the building. “Leave me alone Kevin”

“What? Come back in here now before you fall!” He thought about going on the ledge after him but couldn’t make himself do it. By now Howie was standing next to him, still not allowing himself to look out the window. “He’s on the ledge…” Kevin said looking down at his own feet, “Why is he on the ledge Jane?”

Jane didn’t answer, only continued to cry on the floor. Denise walked over to AJ and gently caressed his shoulders from behind. “This is it baby, This is the endgame Jane was talking about?” He pulled away from her at that point, “What?” She made sure to whisper only so he could hear since everyone was already so occupied with focusing on the window. “you knew he was going to do this?”

“This has been the plan all along” Denise now made her way from her son to Jane as she continued to sit and cry on the floor. “What have I done?”

“Everything will work out. Don’t worry he won’t jump” Denise assured her. AJ just stood dumbfounded watching the two parents console one another as his baby band brother was on the ledge at the top of a sky scraper.

“Nick please come inside! You are going to fall” Brian pleaded as he to now made his way over to the window. Kevin had since left the main window to try to find another way to get to Nick.

By this time a crowd of people had gathered below, Nick allowed himself to look down for just a moment; a huge mistake since he suddenly felt woozy realizing what he had actually done. He was outside on a small ledge hundreds of feet high and he, Nick Carter was afriad of heights. He laughed, he couldn't help it.

"NIck, get the hell back in here" Brian said, now quickly loosing his cool.

"Bri...i'm afriad of heights"

"I know that! Look Nick don't do this, whatever it is we can work it out"

"No...don't you see? It's to late Brian. I have to do this or it won't end"

"Nick..." He quickly stuck his head back in the room only to notice it was now full of people bussling in trying to find out what was going on. Someone mentioned calling the police.

"What is he talking about?" He asked Fink directly who only shrugged and suddenly feigned worry.

"There's no way to get to him except for going out there" Kevin said running back into the room in a panic.

Now reporters were making their way into the room and it was suddenly becoming a circus. "That's it, i'm going after him"

"Are you nuts Kev?" AJ said laying a protective hand on Kevin's shoulder.

"Got any other ideas?"

"Yes, we should wait for help to arrive. They'll be here in a minute"

"Jay Nick is a clutz, he's lucky he can walk two feet without tripping over his own feet, I don't know if we CAN wait a minute"

"Let me go then" Howie said voice low but convincing. He was looking down at the floor but when he said that he made eye contact with all three boys. "Let me go out there and get him"

"No way D! It's dangerous. I know I can handle it"

"But I can't?" He was still staring a Kevin, "You need to let me do this" He sounded so full of guilt it almost hurt to hear him.

"Fine but be careful Howie we don't need two Backstreet Boy on the ground"

"Oh that's very reassuring" He said walking over to the ledge and sticking his leg out.

"What is he doing? Where are you going?" Howie heard Denise as he continued to make his way out the window.

The flashbulbs of some more reporters coming into the room were on overdrive now. He tried to ignore that as he took a deep breath and climbed out onto the ledge.

It was surprisingly bigger then he pictured a ledge to be. He actually had about two to three feet of room out there. He looked at Nick who had his back against the building and firmly grasping the wall. "Nick" The voice so close almost made him lose his balance. Howie put his hands up as if to catch him, but luckily he steadied himself.

"Howie? What are you doing out here? Go back inside"

"I will when you do buddy"

"I can't" He closed his eyes and swallowed hard. "I have to do this and everything will go away. That's what Fink said"

"What do you mean? That bastard told you to jump? Nick don't listen to him everything..."

"No! Not to jump but to climb out onto the ledge. He said if I did this all our troubles will go away"

Now sirens in the distance could be heard. Actually they were right outside the building forming a small barracade. It looked like Christmas with all the police lights.

"He said that once I did this that everyone's name would be cleared and we would come out on top as heros"

Howie slowly went to grab for Nick's arm, careful not to startle the teen too much. He grabbed him which made Nick open his eyes, "Nicky....let's go inside. Come on. This has gone to far. We will deal with anything that comes our way but not like this. Come on" Now there were tears in Nick's eyes as he tried turning towards Howie, "But then AJ, Brian and Kevin will still be in trouble"

"We'll deal with it Nicky"

A police officer stuck his head out the window, "Son are you okay?" Howie nodded, "We are going back in now" He still had Nick's arm in his grasp, "Come on baby, it'll be okay"

"Howie...don't tell them what I told you, okay?" Howie nodded but as he was about to climb into the window he felt Nick grab onto him with his other hand. To his horror he saw Nick slowly loosing his balance and starting to fall. "Jesus!" He screamed as he grabbed onto Nick as tightly as he could, Nick now dangling off the side of the building. The policeman was quick to offer his help as was the rest of the guys and together they all managed to pull Nick to safety inside the building. Cheers were heard coming from the crowd below.

Once inside he collapsed to the floor quickly surrounded by the guys but Howie on top of him. "don't you ever do anything like that again Nick or I swear I will throw you out a window myself!" Kevin yelled.

The room exploded with life at that point. Reporters and police streaming in trying to get to Nick and Howie only to be pushed away by Fink, Johnnie and Lou. Jane was now sitting on a chair covered in a blanket and talking to a news person while paramedics made their way into the room to check Nick to make sure he was okay.

"Howie was able to hear bits and pieces of random conversations going on around him, "Something to do with illegal drug activity by a few members of the band" Then he turned to see another reporter standing off to the side. He walked close to him to hear, "Kevin Richardson was suspected on arson and murder while his cousin Brian was accused of selling drugs..."

Now it was almost a hypnotic state he was in, trying his hardest to find out what the heck people were saying about them.

"People think the teen was reeling over his friend's troubles and maybe one or two of his own"

"Mr. Dorough?" He looked up to see a female reporter sticking a microphone in his face, "What you did was heroic out there, rescuing your friend...tell me what do you think led him to doing that?"

Howie thought long and hard, taking in the scene before him. The tons of police and Jive personel all staring at them. Reporters furiously writing and photographers flashing pictures. "No comment" He said finally realizing why Nick was on that ledge and finding himself wanting to go back out there again for good.

Fink walked behind Howie and grasped his shoulder, "I'm sorry but right now none of the boys are willing to make a statement. Let them relax and we will be back with that statement shortly, Howie come with me" He said smiling at the cameras and leading Howie out of that room and past even more press people.

Once they were safely tucked away Howie grabbed Fink by the shoulers, "Why the hell do you tell him to do that?"

Fink pushed him away and grabbed HOwie turning him towards thw window where he was a helicopter from a local newstation, "Look out there Howie! What do you see?"

"It's a zoo"

"You're right and you know why they are hear? Because of you guys"

"God you really ARE a monster"

"No i'm not Howie, i'm a businessman" He let go of Howie and pulled a cigarette out of his pocket, "Now I must admit, I didn't think you would go after him but since you did i'm sure he told you what I said?"

"Yes"

"Well then you know that soon you guys are going to be cleared of everything. Just one big misunderstanding after the other and the poor Backstreet Boys caught in the middle of it all"

"I'm not going to let you get away with this" Fink smiled, "Oh really?"

"Yes really" He was just about to walk out the door when Fink said, "Then I guess we'll have to use this then" That made him sotp and turn around, at first scared to death that when he did he would be facing a bareel of a gun. Fink holding yet another manilla envelope and smiling met him instead. "What's that?"

He threw it to Howie, "Why don't you check it out. It was about to find it's way on Barbara Walter's desk but I managed to intercept it... but Howie not sure how long I can keep covering for you guys" He was enjoying this game he was playing and Howie wanted to leap at him and rip his throat apart.

He held the envelope in his hand for a few minutes contemplating on just tearing it up and dealing with the consequences, but his curiousity got the best fo him and he tore into it only to find two pictures.

The first one was in front of the Lion's Den when he had Matt slammed against the wall in a threatening way after he had pushed Nick to the floor. Only thing was nick was not in the picture.

"Yeah what about this?"

"Wouldn't it be a shame if people saw you bullying your youngest band member? I mean if a kid is pushed so far there could be consequences like trying to throw himself out a building for instance"

"That's not Nick you know perfectly well that that isn't Nick" Fink shrugged, "Do I? It looks an awful lot like Nick"

Then the next picture was of Matt all beaten up and brusied. "Yeah that one is awful isn't it?"

"You're a bastard"

"Imagine what would happen if the press got a hold of these pics, couple this with your two drug addict friends and the other one who likes to burn down houses. Seems like you guys have a quite a problem"

"All I have to do is have Matt and Jessica come forward and tell everyone what a lying scumbag you are"

He laughed again, "Howie I have to say it's odd hearing you cuss. I'm glad we picked you"

"What are you talking about?" Matt made his way into the room, "Boy it's really is a jungle out there!"

"How is everyone holding up?" Fink asked now thumping out his cigarette.

"good, they are all being swarmed by reporters and all very curious to know where Howie is"

"He'll be out in a minute, we are just finishing up" Howie looked at Matt with disgust, "Howie come on if you got as much money as they paid me you would have done the same thing"

"No I wouldn't have"

"They paid me a lot to disappear which is what I plan on doing right now" He looked at the pictures Howie was holding in his hand, "I'm sorry about all this" He said before walking out the door.

"Balls in oyur court Howie. You keep everything to yourself and everything will be fine but if I hear on thing about me or anyone else being behind this then unfortunately I won't be able to keep these pictures in hiding and that also means that to do so Nick might have to be seriously hurt. We wouldn't want that to happen would we?"

He didn't answer only stared at the wall. "Choice is yours and by the way those aren't the originals... He said pointing to the pictures. "Don't wait too long people are waiting to hear from the hero!" Then he walked out the door leaving Howie standing there clutching the pictures so hard he was crinkling them.