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“Brian?”
“Stay here I’ll go see what that was about.” Brian followed Nick and Brooke sat up on the couch with her head in her hands.
“Nick, can I come in?” Brian knocked on the door. When Nick didn’t answer he went into his room where Nick was face down on his bed. He sat down on the edge of the bed trying to think of what to say. “Nick you have nothing to be embarrassed about.”
“I’m not embarrassed like that. I’m embarrassed because I’m having a harder time dealing with this than her sister. I can’t keep the nightmares from coming, I felt dizzy earlier because I swore I saw her today when I was singing. I’m crazy Brian and I don’t deserve to be friends with Brooke when she’s been through so much already.”
“As far as I can tell Nick, she wants to be there for you, she wants to help you. Let her in, she’s been there, she knows where you’re coming from.”
“She shouldn’t have to go through this again though.”
“You are not the one to decide it Nick, is it because you’re having stronger feelings for her than you’ll let on?”
“She’s a friend that’s it! And even if I did see her as more, Taya wouldn’t forgive me at all.”
“Nick Taya already forgives you, I think she brought you here to find Brooke.”
“Sorry to interrupt, I’m going to head home though. Um, maybe I’ll talk to you later.” Brooke poked her head through the door. As she was about to leave, Nick called out, “Wait!” She opened the door and looked at Nick.
“I’ll let you two talk,” Brian squeezed Brooke’s arm and walked out of the room. At first both were quiet, not knowing what to say to each other.
“Brooke, I’m sorry.”
“For what Nick?” she asked moving closer to him.
“For the way I’ve been acting. You don’t need someone like me around you, pulling you down.”
“Listen to me right now, you are not for fault of Taya’s death do you hear me? I still have times where I break down and miss her and that is okay. It is natural for that to happen. You’re having these night mares again because you just visited your old play spot. Nick you need to find a way to let this go. Maybe you do need to say good-bye.”
“You told me that I didn’t have to because she was always with me.”
“And she is always with you and always will be but you’re making yourself sick. Come with me,” she took Nick’s hand and pulled it.
“Where?”
“Trust me?”
“Of course but where?” Brooke held onto Nick’s hand and pulled him out of his room, grabbed her purse on the floor and went out to her car. She unlocked it and they both got in. Without saying a word, Brooke drove them for twenty minutes. When they reached their destination Nick looked at Brooke.
“What are we doing here?”
“Saying good-bye.” Brooke got out of the car and Nick followed her. They walked up a hill and went under a tree. “You weren’t here for the day we buried her because my Mom didn’t want to just put up a headstone for her memorial service. We picked under this tree because it reminded us of you with her, climbing that old willow we had in the back yard.”
Nick stared before him at the gravestone, he knelt down and ran his fingers across the engraving: Taya Lynn Heart. Beloved Daughter, sister and friend. January 27, 1982 – March 29, 1993. Forever in Our Lives.“Nick it’s time to move on. It’s what she would want and you know it.” Brooke bent over, kissed Nick’s cheek and walked away to give him some privacy. Nick looked up to the sky and then down at the grave stone.
“Hey Tay Tay, it’s me, Nicky. You’re still the only one allowed to call me that, well you and Bailey. I’ve been seeing you everywhere and in my dreams. Your sister brought me here; I think you brought me to her that day at the ocean when I was knocked out. You probably made that happen to me, for those countless times of me throwing you into the river.
“I wish you could’ve really met the guys, seen me tour. They’re my rock when I can’t be. I know I’ve said this a million times but I’m so sorry I wasn’t there that day, if only I had been there when I said I would be. Maybe it would be you I was falling for and not your sister. She’s been amazing and I need to know, if anything were to happen between the two of us, would you be okay with it? I’ll treat her right, you know I would.” Nick paused and felt a breeze go through him; he closed his eyes. “And I’ll always love you. Good-bye Taya.” Nick kissed his finger tips and ran them over the grave and he stood up.
Brooke came up behind him and wrapped her arms around his waist and he pulled her to him; kissing the top of her head.
~*~*~
"Hey Brooke, it's Nick. You're probably at work but I was just calling to see what you were up to tomorrow. We have our," beep. Nick's voice was interrupted from an incoming call. "And looks like you're calling me," Nick switched over . "Hey, I was just leaving you a voice mail."

"Hi, I know. How are you?"

"I'm great, thanks. You sound out of breath, are you alright?"

"Yeah, I'm fine. I was in the middle of a run. What can I do for you?"

"Tomorrow is our concert at Disney and even though the concert is at night, we were planning on spending the day at the park, hit up MGM, you know have some fun."

"I'd love to just as long as I'm not called in tomorrow. I'll know by six am. What time were you planning going?"

"We were going to get there right as the park opens,it's going to be packed."

"Is it safe for you to be even going? Are you going to have body guards?"

"Yes, it's safe. You'll be surprised people will just over look you. Our body guards will be near by but they won't hang out with us. They make us stick out even more." Brooke laughed.

"I could see that happening. But yeah I will give you a call as soon as I know tomorrow."

"Great. Hey what are you doing after your run? Work?"

"No, I worked this morning. I'm just going go home, maybe do some cleaning around the house."

"How about you put the cleaning on hold and come spend the day with me?"

"That sounds like a lot more fun."

"Well, come on over, put your swim suit on and see you in a bit."

"But-" Before Brooke could protest, Nick said "Bye," and hung up.

*An hour Later at Nick's*
Brooke knocked on the beach house, and put her sunglasses on the top of her head. Brian opened the door and smiled.

"Hey, glad you came. Get Nick out of this place because Alex and Howie took Bailey to a play ground and Leigh and I would like some alone time."

"I will do what I can." Just then Nick came bounding around the corner.

Wearing his swim trunks, a Lakers jersey and carrying a bag. Nick grabbed Brooke's hand and pulled her out of the house. "Let's go, later B!"

"Hi to you too. Where are we going?" Nick got into his jeep and Brooke followed.

"Facing your fear." He smiled and pulled out to the road. Nick drove for ten minutes and pulled the car into a parking lot.

"We're at the Y?"

"Yup." Nick jumped out and Brooke got out and walked up to him. They went inside and Nick followed the signs that said "Pool". He paid five bucks for each of them. "Is your suit on?"

"Yeah," Brooke said with hesitation. "Nick, thank you for trying to do what you're doing but I-I can't."

"Trust me,"he took her hand into his and they went into the pool area. Nick took off his shirt and put it in the bag he was carrying and looked at Brooke. She slowly pulled her tank top off, revealing her white and brown bikini top and slid off her jean shorts. She placed them ontop of the bag Nick brought; and took Nick's hand. He walked to her to the shallow end of the pool and went down the steps.

"Come on, you can touch here. Slowly she went down the steps into the warm pool. Nick was right by her side and she put her hands on his shoulders. "Relax, I can feel you shake."

"I'm trying. I just haven't done this since I was like five." Nick helped her with breathing in the water and floating for a while.

"You're doing a great job Brooke."

"Well, I have a great teacher." She smiled.

"Still trust me?"

"I do," she looked right into his eyes.

"Okay, take the ledge and hold onto it. We're going to go in the deep end. As soon as you don't feel comfortable, tell me. I won't rush." She nodded her head, took a hold of the ledge and moved towards the deep end.

"Just like you did in the shallow end, I want you to swim to me." Nick moved away from her a couple of feet.

"Nick-"

"You have to at least try." She pushed off the wall and did the front crawl to Nick. "Look at you! You did it!" once she reached Nickshe put her arms around his Nick.

"I did, didn't I?"

"Now, go swim back to the wall." Nick helped her turn around and she made her way to the wall. "I'm going to go back just a little more, okay?"

"Sounds good." She smiled and looked around the pool and saw it was mostly older people swimming around, with water weights and belts. She watched as Nick swam to the middle of the pool and then she pushed off the wall with a foot and started to swim.

As she was about to reach Nick, someone jumped off the diving board and into the pool, making a large splash. It startled her and thoughts of how when she was five and swam into the lake and almost drowned filled her mind. Her heart began to race and she felt as though she was being pulled under.

"Brooke swim!" Nick yelled. He began to swim towards her as he saw her head go under the water. He kicked as hard as he could and went under the water, putting an arm around her chest he brought her up. She came up spitting and coughing water. "You're alright," he said soothing her as he brought her to the ledge. "Hold on." He pullled himself out of the pool, took her hands and pulled her up so she was sitting on the tile floor.

"What happened out there?" Nick asked with worry in his eyes. He helped her stand and she fell into him, her body shaking. He walked over to the bleachers where they both sat.

"I-I just freaked. I'm sorry."

"You have nothing to be sorry about. You did awesome for your first day. You feel okay though?"

"My body just feels like jello."

"I'll go get our towels. Stay here." She nodded her head and her eyes stayed onto the pool water. Nick came back with their things and put a towel around her shoulders; he rubbed them to try to keep them warm.

Nick knew of her past of how she had gone swimming in the lake one day with her family and her leg got entangled by some long lake weed. It pulled her under for two minutes. She had to have CPR done to her to get her breathing.

"I think that's good for today. What do you say?"

"I could try some more."

"I have other things planned, let's give you a little break." They slide their clothes over their swim suits and headed back out to the car. Brooke smiled as the warm sun hit her still shaking body and got herself into Nick's Jeep.

"What other things do you have planned Carter?"

"Oh, we'll just have to wait and see," he smirked and soon pulled up to Scoops. "Hungry?"

"For ice cream? Always!" She grinned and unbuckled her seat belt. Nick came around to meet her and without thinking before acting, Nick took her hand into his and walked up to the window. Brooke couldn't ignore the butterflies that filled her stomach.

"What do you want?"

"Hmm, its a toss up between mint chocolate chip, cookie dough and twist with chocolate sprinkles."

"Okay sounds good." Brooke looked up at Nick as if he had something growing out of his face.

"What can I get you today?" The young teenager asked Nick.

"We will have a scoop of mint chocolate chip, a scoop of cookie dough with the soft twist on top, oh and with chocloate sprinkles please."

"Nick! I can't eat all of that."

"We're going to share." He handed the cashier a ten and she handed him our large ice cream. Brook took two spoons and some napkins and took a seat on a bench.

"I can't believe you ordered this."

"Why not? You don't like?" Nick asked with a mouthful of ice cream.

"No it is quite surpringly good," she took another bite, and Nick watched as the spoon entered her mouth, and pulled out slowly.

'Get those thoughts out of your head Carter,' Nick said to himself.

"Nick thank you for the swimming thing, even though it ended with me failing."

"Non-sense, it was our first lesson. Next I'll take you to the ocean."

"Ocean Nick? I almost drowned in a pool, with no waves."

"I will NEVER let you drown!" Nick's voice turned serious all of a sudden and they both knew to what he was referring to. Taya.

"I know Nick," she put her hand ontop of his and then fed him a bite of ice cream to relax.

"I hope you're able to come tomorrow. It's going to be fun, Alex is bringing Reanne."

"Really? I haven't talked to her in a couple of days, she's been hard to reach."

"She's been spending her time with A.J. She went with Howie and Bailey to the park today."

"That sounds like Reanne, new guy and the rest of the world doesn't exist."

"Brooke, can I ask you something?"

"Of course."

"Why does a sucessful, beautiful, woman like yourself, not have a boyfriend."

She set her spoon down, cleared her voice and looked away from Nick.

"There just hasn't been anyone special I guess," she shrugged her shoulders.

Nick felt as though she was hiding something from but decided not to push.

"Let's go try it out."

"Try what?"

"The ocean."

"You want to go to the ocean? Are you sure?" She nodded her head and stood up, taking Nick's hand.

"Now, before I change my mind."

"Alright." Nick stood up and they made their way back to the Jeep. Nick drove them back to his beach house, where they jumped out of the car and ran down to the water.

They slipped their clothes off and walked into the shore.

"Nick, don't let go of me please."

"Promise," he held her hand tight and they walked in deeper. "Okay the sand bar ends soon and we'll swim to the next which is just a little ways a way. You alright so far?"

"I'm good."

"Okay, ready, it ends here." Nick put his hand on her waist. "Swim, I'll stay right next to you. I'm not letting go." They swam together about ten feet and reached the next sand bar.

"That wasn't too bad, but it's tiring with the waves."

"You're kind of amazing, do you know that?" Nick asked and pulled her into his arms. "But then again you always were."

"Aww, so sweet. When did you become such a girl Carter?" she jumped up,with her hands on his shoulders, she pushed under water. At the same time he pulled her under with her and they both came up laughing. They continued to play around for a while.

"Hey the tide is coming in, we should head in. We don't want what happened to me a few days ago, to happen to you."

"Yeah, that would kill the day. It is more rough though."

"Just swim and kick, you'll be fine. I'm right here." They both began to swim and made their way to the shore.