Date: Wed, 18 Jul 2001 18:03:58 -0700 (PDT) From: John D <zachstack@yahoo.com> Subject: BSB Hearts Assunder Book 2: Harmony pt 12 Previously... [Restaurant lobby of Dan Sullivan's hotel] "Shut it. Well, you better wipe that smirk off your face before I do. I know what this can do to your career if I give you this "exclusive"," Scott mockingly immitated Dan's voice. "I know what it will mean for you money wise as well. No, two grand ain't enough. Two grand doesn't even cover the time I just wasted on waiting for you here today. I want a cut of whatever you get, and I want my brother left out of the whole thing." Scott glared at Dan enough to burn a hole through the center of his face, but fortunately that didn't happen. Even hatred isn't that potent. ******************************************************* [Leighanne and Brian's room on the plane.] Brian slumped down on the padded chair, and hid his face behind his hands and groaned. 'At least finally, I'll get him back. I promise I'll make it up to him, oh God let me not fail him again...' Brian muttered over and over to himself while he rocked slowly back and forth on the chair. ******************************************************* [Outside the plane] "Personally, I think Jane is full of it. She causes more harm than good. I'm pretty sure she had something to do with the headline the other day." John took a deep breath. Burc suddenly clenched his jaw muscles as they rounded the corner. "Well, hello John..." Jane's sharp cheerful voice rang behind John. End of Part 11 ------------------------------------------------------- **Disclaimers: This is only a work of fiction and should only be taken as such. Any resemblances between the other characters to any real, living or dead, persons is highly coincidental. This does not reflect the lives of any of the Backstreet Boys or their family members. This is mainly a PG 13 story. Enjoy** ------------------------------------------------------- BSBHAB2: Harmony Part 12 "Red Flag" [Bryan's car] "I-I-i.." Bryan was utterly speechless. Was he that obvious? Nick gave a light hearted laugh. "Is that what that offer to lunch was a couple of days ago?" His laugh was full and boyish, it could melt the largest glacier in the world. "eh," Bryan shrugged, not knowing how to reply. "Bryan, I like you. I enjoy being around you. Your nice, you are full of surprises, you're an all around nice guy. It's just..." Nick let it trail on, he too didn't know what to say. "The person you visit in the cemetary almost everyday?" Bryan offered, smiling gently over to Gene's side of the car. "Yeah," Gene sighed. "I just don't know if I am ready for a relationship. I don't really know if I can ever find my heart again after I lost Brandon." Gene gulped in air, tears shimmered behind his light blue eyes. His body shuddered, and he let out a long ragged sigh as Bryan pulled up just outside the closed gates of his private sea front home. "Gene, I-" Bryan turned to look at Gene. Nick gave a bitter laugh. "I am not even truthful about who I really am to you. I can't do this, Bryan. I'm sorry, I just can't!" Nick jumped out of the car, slamming the door shut behing him and ran up the driveway and into his house. ******************************************************* [Somewhere in Tampa] 'Shut it. Well, you better wipe that smirk off your face before I do. I know what this can do to your career if I give you this "exclusive"," Scott mockingly immitated Dan's voice. "I know what it will mean for you money wise as well. No, two grand ain't enough. Two grand doesn't even cover the time I just wasted on waiting for you here today. I want a cut of whatever you get, and I want my brother left out of the whole thing.' The last scene with Scott played over and over in Dan's head. He was starting to be afraid of Scott since their last encounter. He had heard of his anger in his researches, but nothing in the world could've prepared him for what the reality of the situation was. One thing's for sure, the pay off for this better be good. [phone rings] "Hello? Oh, hey David, what's up?" There was a moment of silence while Scott listened to his partner back in New York. "So they left already huh? Well that's nothing special. Anything else about what we're after though..." he was cut off by something David said on the other line. "WHAT?! No, get that faxed to me right away. How could we have missed that?!" Dan jumped up from his hotel bed and started to rummage through his stuff to head down to the lobby for the fax. "I'll head down now. Shit, David." Dan whispered to himself as he hung up and shut off the lights before running down the hallway for the elevator. ******************************************************* [The day before, New York Airport] "Hello, John." Jane smiled like a cat who just ate a canary. "J-Mrs. Carter," John answered frostily. "Anything I can help you with?" "Oh just need a little chat, that's all." Jane's smile never faltered. "Sorry, Jane, but John has some things to do before the flight and he can't --" Burc tried to interject himself just as frostily as John had done, but Jane cut him off. "Oh, don't worry about it, Burcky. It'll only take a second." She interrupted Burc mockingly before pulling John away without much ado at all. "So, I see you think so highly of me?" She smiled coldly at him, her eyes betrayed her disgust at having to "lower" herself by talking with the help. "Never you mind how I run my kids' lives, you do your job as I tell you to. Fraternizing with Burc about our relationship is not part of that job. I suggest you do your job properly from now on or else..." Jane let her voice trail off to let her threat sink in before continuing. "Oh, not that I am into petty threats at all, John. But let's get one thing straight, I like you even less than you like me. To me you're only a piece of dirt that can easily be replaced. Look at your predecessor for instance," Again Jane let a moment of silence take a breath between her lines. Yes she was still smiling when she continued. "For your sake, let's just hope you don't end up with the same injuries as he did." ******************************************************* [Still the day before on the BSB's plane] "Brian, I...?" Leighanne walked back in to the room intending to grab her purse before heading off to the others. "Brian!" She quickly ran to the side of her distraught fiancee. [Nick's room 12:00 midnight] Nick couldn't sleep after what had happened earlier with Bryan. He doesn't know if he could ever love again. His life has just never been the same since...since Brandon was taken away from him. Since that day his heart has been broken. He slowly got up from his bed, his dog eying him painfully not knowing how he could comfort his master at such a painful time. As his only friend -- seemingly -- the dog knew that his master had chosen this life and to suffer in his way. There wasn't anything he could do except suffer along with him in silence. The dog whimpered and followed Nick loyally to the bathroom. Nick leaned on the countertop staring at his tear-filled red eyes. Even now he still couldn't accept the reality of Brandon being dead. Just thinking of Brandon dead made him feel like he too was too far gone to love again. Nick bowed his head and cried. Why? Why did it had to happen to him? Why?! He cried. His heart ached with the pain of a broken hearted lover. He had known that Brandon was his soulmate since they practically met. Why did he have to succumb to pressure like the way he did? He knew deep inside that despite his antics and vitality, there was a flaw in him that made him weak. Even now he can still feel that flaw like a gaping hole in his cold unloving dead heart. He swalloped and opened the medicine cabinet. He just doesn't know how to feel anymore. He gingerly picked up the shaving creme with trembling and weak fingers when he saw it. His deliverance from all this pain. It was staring him straight in his eyes; his razor. He slid his fingers over the handle almost absent-mindedly. Staring at the metal edges of the blades themselves, he knew even now that he could do it. ******************************************************* [Somewhere in a Tampa] Scott hung up his phone and began to pace his room. He was so sure that Dan was now playing into his grasps. But for some reason, since he saw Nick leaving the cemetary only a few days ago, he hasn't been sure about his own convictions anymore. He loves his younger brother, but he no longer knows if his burning hatred for Nick Carter is justified anymore. The other had beed distraught over the grave of his former lover. But he just didn't think that Nick has suffered enough as yet -- or has he? Scott punched the wall of his room in exhasperation and decided to go to a bar instead. Just as Scott reved up his car and pulled out of his driveway, his phone inside blazed to life in a desperate and vain wailing. ******************************************************* [In a hotel lobby somewhere else in Tampa some half an hour earlier.] "Shit. Shit. shit!" Dan scanned over the new papers and files David had just faxed him and he knew he had to do something fast. He quickly fished out his phone from his pocket and dialed Scott McGill. Busy! He must try again. He has to, there was someone else's life at stake now. ******************************************************* [Some hundred miles away in Georgia after the Backstreet Boys -- sans Nick Carter -- terminal.] A man stood in the dark shadowed corner of the terminal. "Yes, it's for his own good." The shadowed man hung up the phone and stepped out into the light to reveal himself to be John the bodyguard with a deeply concerned -- even distraught -- look on his face. End of Part 12 Tell me what you think!