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The next morning I woke up to a poking in my ribs. I groaned loudly to let whoever it was know that I wasn’t quite ready to get up. But that didn’t work the poking continued. Groggily I opened one eye and then the other and rolled them when I saw the tall blonde standing over me, holding out a stick ready to poke me again.

“Seriously!”

“The kids wanna go hiking and I thought, who else could I torture with such an activity. It came down to you and Howie! Are you in?”

So this was the price I had to pay for making peace with Nick Carter. How could I say no to him? He was batting his eyelids and pouting like a child. Then the unwanted thought about it probably being his last hike hit me. My stomach fluttered and I instantly gave into the idea.

“I’d love to.” I exclaimed hopping out of bed like nothing.

Half an hour later I was geared up in shorts, my hiking boots and my hair was up in a pony tail. Waiting alongside Kevin and Howie for all the kids to be approved to join us. Katy was the only one denied the permission to go and was having a fit due to the news. Leighanne was too worried she’d get tired or worse. I agreed.

“This is going to be awesome!” Baylee piped giving DJ a high five.

“Their not gonna be that excited after we go up that one hill Nick was talking about?” Kevin whispered to me. I just laughed. I wasn’t going to be so excited my damn self.

AJ and Brian came through the door huffing and puffing both in a light bicker. “Just admit you don’t know how to fish Alex!”

“The hell I don’t.”

“You almost hooked my eye out!”

Leighanne ran up to him as soon as he said that and she started caressing his face and asking if he was ok. Alex grunted and rolled his eyes, while Brian smirked. He seemed more amused by the whole incident, than mad.

“I’m a pro at fishing. I’ll help out. It’s still early anyways.” Nick dropped his backpack and took the fishing rod from Alex.

All four men headed back to the lake and the women and kids were too curious to stay behind, so we all trailed behind them. Nick wasn’t lying about being a pro, he quickly baited the hook and flung it behind him yelling out something about watching for the eyes. We all snickered and Alex just huffed.

His eyes looked me over and stopped at Kevin’s hands that were placed on my shoulders. My stomach flipped and I was tempted to smile. I didn’t. I just looked away and focused my attention on the fishing expert who was pulling out the tiniest fish we’d seen.

“Expert my ass!” Alex mocked.

Nick turned red and then shrugged, “Hey I caught something!”

“He’s got a point there.” Howie agreed.

"That shit doesn't count!"

"The hell it doesn't. A fish is a fish...no matter it's...size!" Nick retorted playfully.

The debate continued for a couple of minutes and each of the childish men took turns catching the wimpiest fish. It was more of a contest to see who fished out the least edible one. After the debate of who was a better fisher; we headed out to the trails to do our wonderful hiking.

The higher up the hill we went, the tighter the muscles in my legs got. The more I wheezed. The more I just wanted to run back down and wait for them to finish. Nick, Howie and the kids were already way ahead of me and I knew that Kevin was staying behind to help me, just cause he felt sorry for me. He confirmed it when I looked and saw him sitting on a rock with his hand extended watching me crawl on all fours up the rocky trail. The green eyed man was trying his best to control the smile on his lips, but it wasn’t working.

“Shut up! Just because I accepted to come hiking, doesn’t mean I know how. This is the scariest shit ever.”

“Oh come on! That one time you got shot at would beat this.”

I finally took a seat next to him and started dusting my hands and knees off. He placed a hand on my knee and swiped at the tiny pebbles that were clinging to my skin. Warmth spread through my body as I felt his hand make contact with my skin. I looked up to tell him I didn’t need his help and found that his face was only inches away from mine. There was always the subtle attraction towards Kevin. I mean he’s the epitome of tall dark and handsome. Throw in the green eyes and the body and we’ve almost got perfection.

My eyes were fixed on his and there were a ton of butterflies in my stomach. This was probably not the best thing to do at the time. The last thing I wanted to do was make my partner ‘the rebound guy’. Then why wasn’t I moving? Instead I felt my face inching slowly towards his and his warm hand against my cheek instantly made my eyes close. His breath tickled my lips…

“Aunt Soph!”

I screeched and fell off the rock and on my ass. “Hannah.” Kevin stood up laughing nervously as he helped me up once again. “I’m sorry. It’s just that we are taking a break and uncle Nick asked for you.”

“Oh…well then lets go.” We all trudged up the hill to catch up with the group. They all looked up when we appeared, they were apparently having a burping match and by far the winner was Baylee. They were in a fit of laughter as they took turns belching.

“Boys!” Hannah whispered with a smile.

We had our snacks and drank plenty of water. I was hoping there wouldn’t be a need for potty breaks, because there wasn’t so much as a bush in our path. The rockiness stayed behind, but the path grew narrower and steeper. We’d been going at it for almost half an hour and I was exhausted. Howie and the kids had fallen back and Kevin being the protective person he is, stayed all the way in the back. I didn’t have the slightest idea how we would get the energy to go back down.

“It’s not…that far.” Nick huffed. His pace had slowed down and his breathing was elevated.

“We should just rest, Nick.”

“Sophia, you are doing that thing?”

“What thing?” I didn’t even know what he was talking about.

“Treating me like I’m incompetent.”

“I am not! I’m freakin tired…the kids are tired.”

He sighed and turned around, “Just a couple more steps to go. Hang in there Soph.”

That was easy for him to say, because even though his ticker was defective, the guy was in shape. Whether he wanted it or not; I had a watchful eye on him. This was a lot of stress on the body and no matter how fine he believed he was, we didn’t know what could trigger his heart to stop. He suddenly came to a halt and took in a deep breath. His hand rubbed against his chest and I was tempted to ask him if he was ok. I let him be and watched him start up again.

Five minutes later Howie, DJ, Baylee, Nick and Hannah were bouncing around like Rocky at the top of the hill. Which to me was more like a damn mountain. I sat on a rock and took in the beautiful view of the lake, trees, people in their boats and the blue sky. It was all so beautiful and peaceful. I watched my family act a fool, jumping around with excitement, smiles across their faces. There was only one thing missing…Alex.

I shot up when I saw Nick bend over, he was holding his arm and he was cursing. The jumping stopped and everyone turned to look at him. I stood glued to the ground. Watching as Howie bent down and tried talking to him, but Nick said nothing. It was like everything had slowed down. I watched Nick slowly fall to the ground, his body looked strained and his hand moved to his chest. Hannah’s scream brought everything back to regular motion and I sprinted towards my brothers.

“Nick!” I slid onto my knees and slapped him lightly, but now he wasn’t responding. His hand had fallen to the side and his eyes were closed. I placed my fingers on his neck, but I didn’t feel anything.

“Is he alive?” Howie’s panicked voice startled me.

“I don’t know I can’t feel anything.” Tears were now streaming down my face and I was panicking along with Howie. “I swear to God Nick…you can’t die!” I pulled myself up and thrusted the heel of my hand into his chest and continued to pump. “1...2...3...”

“I can’t call 911. There is no signal here.” I heard Kevin say.

“13...14...15...” I took Howie’s hands and placed them in my position and instructed him to count to fifteen again. I tilted Nick’s head back, pinched his nose, took in a deep breath and blew into his mouth.

Howie was on his fourteenth thrust when I blew again. My own chest was tight and I felt like my heart might come up out of my throat. It took me six deep blows before I saw Nick’s chest start to rise slowly and felt his pulse beating under my finger tips. “We have to call someone!” I said.

“No…” Nick croaked. “I’m fine. Just…give me a…a…minute.”

“We are going home right now. As soon as we get back we are packing and going home.” I stood up and walked away. I wanted to be strong, so that the kids wouldn’t get more scared, but I couldn’t. I covered my face and began to cry. Kevin’s arms wrapped around me and I cried into his chest.

Later on that evening no one hesitated to pack up a day early and head back home. We had to get Nick to the hospital as soon as possible, even if he was being stubborn. It felt like an eternity to get to the hospital, but we made it. Nick was quickly admitted and put under a bunch of tests. Howie had the painful job of calling mom and dad to give them the news. Leighanne and Leigh had taken the kids back home to get some rest. The rest of us just waited as patiently as we could in the waiting room.

I sat in the uncomfortable chair shifting from one side to the other. Absent-mindedly picking at the skin around my nails. The hiking incident flashing through my mind over and over. Tears filled my eyes. Kevin took a seat next to me and placed a hand on my leg.

“He’s going to be ok. You saved his life!”

I couldn’t say anything to him, so I just shook my head. That’s not how I was feeling. Deep down I was terrified. He was in the hospital now, where people died all the time.