Legal disclaimer: this is fiction. I'm not implying anything about the sexual preferances of any member of the Backstreet Boys, neither am I making any assumptions about their personal lifes. If you're too young or there are any other laws keeping you from reading material like this, then go away, or at least don't get caught. This will involve m/m-reløatinsships, you have been warned.
Author's note: I'm so sorry for the ridiculous amount of time I took to get this chapter out. But here it is, the update! :-) Thanks to Aeoros for helping me out and for telling me he liked my story. And to the gang at the boybands story. I know this has happened before to other people, so please, if you discover a story that clearly not belongs to the person claiming to be the author...then go tell. Mail the real author, the list owner, just make sure the truth is known. Plagiarism is something we can all do without. Love and looneytunes from Kat.
Chapter seven:
AJ was still laying against Howie's chest, feeling the older man's strong arms hold him. The dream had been one of the usuals, but this time waking up didn't bring him the comfort it usually did. The whole situation they were in was so surreal that for a moment AJ wasn't sure where the dream ended and where reality began. Snuggling closer to Howie, he was so thankful for his boyfriend. He couldn't imagine life without him, they were so perfect together. Howie's hand moved to rub his neck. "You ok, sweetheart?" he asked softly. "Yeah," AJ whispered, not willing to leave the warmth and safety of Howie's embrace just yet.
"I guess we should start doing something," Brian's voice sounded loud in the quiet room, even if he was speaking in his normal tone. Howie looked over at him, "like what? Sorry," he then quickly said. "It's just that..." "I know," Brian answered. "But I was thinkng about calling the police again, see if they know something more. After that, I guess we should start to go through mail...messages, something like that. You all know Kevin would never bother to tell us if he had received threaths of some kind. We all get them, and most of the time they're harmless."
That made Howie sit up a little, AJ still holding on to him. "AJ and I can look through the mail and stuff, I think we both need something to keep our minds occupied." "I'll call the police then," Brian agreed. Looking down he saw that his hand still had a firm grip around Ingrid's. Looking at her, he knew what he wanted and after what had happened he wasn't going to take any chances. "I'd like you to come stay with me," he asked simply.
Howie got to his feet, pulling AJ up with him. "I think that was our clue to leave the room," he said, "we'll go mail-hunting." Taking AJ's hand, they left the livingroom, Brian could hear them going upstairs to the study. At the top of the stairs, Howie stopped. "I want to check on Nick," he said. AJ silently followed. He couldn't even begin to fathom what kind of pain Nick had to be feeling. The thought of something like that happening to them, that he would be forced to be apart from Howie, scared him more than all the nightmares AJ had ever had.
Nick was still sitting on the floor, beside the bed. Resting his face against the smooth covers of the large bed, he didn't want to move. He didn't want to leave this room, at least in here he could feel Kevin closer to him than outside.
The door creaked slightly, and a voice said his name. "Nick, are you allright?" Howie asked, hurrying over to Nick's side. "I'm sorry, stupid question," he said when seeing Nick's face. "Come here." Gently he helped Nick to his feet and they sat down on the bed. AJ sat down next to Howie. "Anything new yet?" Nick asked, pushing his hair away from his eyes. "Not yet," Howie answered. "Don't worry, Nicky, we'll find him." With a small sigh Nick rested his head on Howie's shoulder. "I hope so," he whispered. "I want my Kevin back."
"Come help us go through the mail and all," AJ suggested. "Maybe we'll find something that can help us." Quick footsteps up the stairs nearly startled them. Brian came into the room. "How are you holding up, Nick?" he asked concerned. Nick shrugged helplessly. "I'm trying." "That's good," Brian said, lifting his hand to place it on Nick's shoulder. "He's fine, Nick, Kev's soon going to be back here with you." "How can you be so sure?" Nick asked and looked up at Brian. "Hell, we don't even know what pshyco has done this to him, we don't even know where they are..." Tears flooded his eyes again, and Nick looked away. "I can't be sure, Nick," Brian answered softly, "but we can't loose hope, we have to believe that it's going to be all right."
Nick didn't answer, just wiped the tears away from his eyes. "We'll take care of him," Howie said, "did you talk to the police?" "They don't know any more either," Brian answered. "But the police chief said he would call as soon as they knew more." Looking beat and tired Brian sat down next to AJ. "I've asked Ingrid to come stay with me, and she accepted. So I'm driving her to her friend's so she can get her things. Then I'm going to get some food and stuff too. I don't know about you, but I'm not feeling up to any cooking." "Sounds like a good idea," AJ said. "Howie and I are probably going to stay here for a while too."
"We'll be back in about an hour," Brian said, getting up. "Ingrid's on the phone with her friend as we speak. I'll see you later then." He left the bedroom again. Howie got to his feet and pulled Nick up with him. "Let's go," he said. "We have a lot to do." "Where do Kevin keep his mail? AJ asked, as he followed them out the door. "The study," Nick answered. "He keeps all paperwork, mail and stuff there."
The study was a combined office and library. Nick hadn't really spent that much time in there, but he knew where Kevin usually kept his messages and mail, and his lap top computer still rested on top of the big mahogny desk. Without speaking much they went to work. Every once in a while Nick would look at the picture in a heavy silverframe on the top of the desk. The photograph showed Kevin and him, in the pool at AJ and Howie's house. Kevin was sitting on the egde of the pool, Nick was standing in front of him, the water nearly up to his chest. His arms were around Kevin's waist and Kevin's arms rested around Nick's neck. They were looking at each other and not the photographer, both smiling.
Sitting in the chair behind the desk, Nick picked up the picture. Slowly letting a finger run down the cold glasscover, he again felt the painful twinge of fear. This could be all he had left, pictures and memories... The sunshine fell in the windows, making the silver glow. Carefully Nick put the picture back down. He couldn't think like that, he had to stop acting like they had already lost the battle. Taking a deep breath, Nick sat back up in the chair.
"Guys?" AJ's voice brought him back. Both Nick and Howie turned to their darkhaired friend. "I think I found something," AJ continued, he was frowning. "There's this letter here..." He held a sheet of white paper up for them, across the center of the paper a word was written. "Soon." One word only, yet more scary than any of them would have imagined.
"Was the envelope opened, AJ?" Howie asked. "It was," AJ answered. "so I guess Kev has to have seen it. I wonder if there's more like that one." Nick had taken the envelope and was studying it. "There's no stamp or postmark on this," he said, "it must have been delievered." "Maybe," AJ said, "but that also means that this was written by someone close to us. Someone who knows Kevin's home-adress or someone we work with..." "We better show that to the police," Howie said, taking the paper and folding it back into the envelope. "It's typed, but maybe they can find out something still."
"Why couldn't he just tell us that he had been receiving threaths?" Nick said, his voice taking on a slightly angry edge. "Maybe we could have done something to prevent this if Kevin could just once in his life not been so damn stubborn! If he had just told me..." Nick's voice trailed off. AJ got up from the floor and put his arms around Nick. He didn't say anything, he knew that there really wasn't anything he could say to make Nick feel better.
Leaning heavily into AJ's embrace Nick fought the tears that was once again stinging his eyes. "I just want him back..."
Kevin had no idea what time of day it was. Or what day it was, for that matters. He thought he might have been in the secluded room for about 24 hours now, but wasn't sure. In here, in the dark most of the time, it was hard to tell. Daryl's visits had started to get into a routine. Either to bring food, or anything else that required letting Kevin loose from the chain. After he had told Kevin about his feelings, he had been strangely quiet about the whole issue. It was an alarming silence, which made Kevin nervous.
Laying in bed he was careful not to move his leg too much. The chain had dug into his ancle, causing wounds that bled and made the jeans cling to his skin. His headache was almost gone, which Kevin was very thankfull for. But he still felt kinda drowsy and spent most of the time drifting in and out of sleep. His time awake was spent mostly thinking about Nick.
He missed him so much. They had never been apart for a long time, after they had gotten together. A couple a days at the most. That was about what either of them could take. Phonecalls was a poor excuse for touching and kissing, and seeing the other one smile. Going to visit family or have family come visit them was getting to be a tricky situation as Nick and Kevin hadn't told their families about them being a couple yet. Up till now they had been so wrapped up in each other and being in love that they really didn't notice much of anything else.
The sound of footsteps coming closer shook him out of his thoughts, Kevin didn't feel like dealing with Daryl at that moment so when he heard the door be unlocked and opened, he pretended to be sleeping. The lights didn't come on, but the door was left open. Lights from whatever was outside the door, seeped into the room. Daryl sat down on the bed next to him, Kevin had to use all his willpower to not turn over and move away from his kidnapper. Keeping his breath even and his eyes closed, Kevin was beginning to feel very nervous about what Daryl intended to do.
A hand was placed on his shoulder, just at nape of his neck. The fingertips of Daryl's hand touched the bare skin on Kevin's neck and he had to physically restrain himself to not reach up and swat the hand away. The hand shifted and started sliding down his chest. As it reached his stomach, Kevin knew he wouldn't be able to pretend to be asleep very much longer. He felt dirty, he felt like something filthy was sliding all over him, making his skin creep. Then Daryl's hand went in under his sweather.
When they had reached the end of the pile of mail, they had found two more letters. Each one only stating a word, printed in large letters. The first had said "Mine", the second had said "Forever". The study was now quiet, Nick had given up being angry, like that would do him any good now. But he just couldn't understand why Kevin hadn't mention the letters to anyone, not even to management or security. Not even to him. He thought they shared everything, even the bad things.
The phone started ringing, and they all jumped at the unexpected sound. "I'll get it," Nick said, getting up from the chair. AJ and Howie had moved to the large couch, now cuddled together, holding hands. Nick picked up the phone hoping that by some magical, goodnatured twist of fate he would be hearing Kevin's voice when he answered. "Nick?" a voice asked after he had said hello. It was Mrs. Richardson, Kevin's mother.
"Hi," Nick whispered, feeling the pain triple inside of him. "Oh, God, what do I say?" he thought. "I was just calling to hear if there's anything new," Mrs. Richardson said. "I know it's early yet, but..." "I know," Nick said. "I'm going crazy not knowing too." There was a slight pause, and Nick wondered if he had said too much. "Have you heard from the police?" she asked and Nick relaxed, if only a little. Kevin and him had agreed to tell their parents soon, but right now he wasn't sure he could deal if Kevin's mother reacted badly to their realtionship.
"The police haven't found anything new," Nick told her. "But..." he stopped, not sure if he should continue. "What, Nick?" Mrs. Richardson immeadeately said. "Nick, please don't think that you need to keep something from me so you won't scare me or make me worry more. I need to know." "We found some letters," Nick explained, "Kevin has been receiving threats, apparentely it has been going on for a while..."
She paused again, and Nick felt the twinge of fear in his heart again. Those letters scared him to death, the one word-sentences held more dread than a whole page would have been able to. Looking down at the picture on the desk again, Nick sighed. "Where are you, Kev?" he thought for the millionth time.
He nearly didn't hear Mrs. Richardson saying his name. "Sorry," Nick said, "I was just looking at a picture..." "Nick," Mrs. Richardson repeated, her voice filled with a lot of emotions that told Nick it wasn't easy for her to say what she wanted to say. "Yeah?" Nick answered, hoping her next question wouldn't be what he suspected. It was. "Nick, is there anything going on between my son and you?"