Why was she phoning so late, he wondered. He waited a few minutes, debating whether or not to call her, and then decided that he'd better.

But when he did, he didn't get an answer. Before he was just baffled, but now he was really worried about her. Why would someone call and then not answer the phone a few minutes later? It didn't make sense, unless something was wrong.

He walked over to his back door and looked out towards her house. Nothing was on; there was no light or noise coming from inside. Something weird was definitely happening.

Then suddenly, he heard it. A muffled cry of pain, which had Nick's heart hammering in his throat. Cairo was in danger, he just knew in and he had to help her.

He picked up his phone again.

* * * *

"I swear, I don't know who Nick Carter is! Honestly! That's just my buddy, Nick Car…Carsorious! It's really just a weird coincidence!" Cairo said, trying to ignore the stabbing pain in her chest (her ribs, she thought to herself) and the throbbing of her cheekbone.

"Listen, you little tramp, I don't know what your game is, but I'm not willing to play it! I don't know who you are, but I know who that was on the tape. That was him, and you know where he is, so you'd better tell me!" the woman demanded, getting ready to kick Cairo again.

"Hey, Kay! Open up the door, baby! It's cold out here!" a voice called out, interrupting the woman. Cairo's eyes widened as she recognized the voice. It was definitely Nick's voice. Why was he here?

The woman looked over at her, and guessing that she was in no way able to put up a fight, she motioned towards the door.

"Answer it," she ordered. Cairo struggled to get up and made her way to the door. She walked as slowly as possible, some instinct telling her to stall, try to stretch everything out as long as possible.

"Get moving!" the woman whispered dangerously. Finally she made it to the door and unlocked it.

"Get back over here and tell him to come in," she ordered. Cairo dashed back to the living room, took a deep breath and said, "Come in. It's open!" and winced when she heard the door open and footsteps come towards her.

"Hey, Kay, what's up with calling me in the middle of the night? I have promos tomorrow!" he complained, walking in as if seeing nothing and sitting down on the couch.

"Nick, get out of here!" Cairo attempted to yell when the woman, who was behind her, clubbed her again with the gun, knocking her out.

"So, you're Nick Carter. I bet you thought that no one would ever be smart enough to find you here, did you? But I did, because I had to find you. I had to tell you…" she trailed off.

"What did you have to tell me? But first, tell me your name. It's not fair that you know mine and I don't know yours," Nick said as calmly as possible even though every bone in his body wanted to race over to Cairo to protect her and beat the woman who had hit her until she couldn't move.

"My name's Jill. And it's taken me forever to find you. But I did find you, and now I have to tell you everything," she said, mesmerized by Nick's presence.

"Okay, well why don't you come out into the hall to tell me, so that Kay over there, doesn't hear anything," Nick said, trying desperately to get this psychopath away from Cairo's unconscious form so that she couldn't hurt her anymore.

It worked. Jill followed him into the hallway.

"Nick, I love you. I've been your biggest fan ever since I could remember and I have waited so long to tell you that I love you. No one else is important as I am, are they? Am I your best fan? Tell me that I am," she pleaded.

"Oh, you are definitely my best fan. No one has ever gone this far to try to meet me. But hurting my friends isn't a great way to get me to notice you, okay?" Nick said.

"Why is SHE your friend? I'm better than she is, you know I am. What can she do for you? Nothing, she's nothing! I'm your best fan, not her! NOT HER!" she screamed.

"Okay, okay. But she's still my friend, and I think you hurt her. If you let me get her some help, I promise you and I can sit down and talk all you want. Just let me see if she's okay first," Nick said, evenly.

"No. You can't touch her. If you do, I swear I'll kill her!" Jill yelled, and pointed the gun at him. Suddenly the screech of a siren startled Jill and she turned around long enough for Nick to grab the vase that was sitting on the end table in the hall and smash it over her head. She collapsed on the ground, crying out in pain. Nick grabbed the gun from her hand and ran into the living room.

Cairo was still lying on the floor in a heap. He bent over her still form and cradled her head in his lap. Please let her be all right, he pleaded. He wouldn't be able to forgive himself if anything would have happened to her and it was his fault.

There was a crash at the door and a voice called out.

"In here! She's hurt, hurry up!" Nick called desperately.

* * * *

"Wow. I can't believe that happened. It just seems so unreal, Nicky. Nothing like that has ever happened before," Kevin said, the next afternoon. Nick had spent the entire night at the hospital, and after seeing Cairo in the morning, he remembered that they were supposed to shoot a promo that afternoon.

Cairo was okay; she suffered a mild concussion from the hit to the head, and a cracked rib and she would be released by the end of the day. She had begged him to go to the promo, saying that she didn't want him to get into trouble because of him.

"But you're in the hospital because of me," he said, looking straight into her eyes.

"That's completely different. Listen Carter; I'm perfectly fine. I have a huge headache, but that's it. Just make sure you're back by six to take me home otherwise I'll make sure the next psycho gets the right house," she said jokingly, trying to make light of the situation. Nick looked horrible. He was tired and worry was obvious in the pallor of his face.

"Just as long as you're sure you're okay?" he asked, as she shooed him out the door. Now, he was assembled with the rest of the guys in the studio, awaiting their interview.

"That is so weird. It's a good thing she called you, otherwise you might never have known," Brian said, reasonably.

"This is horrible. I mean, a close friend of mine is in the hospital because of me. Because of our fame and a psycho fan. What if she had been shot? I would never be able to forgive myself!" Nick said, completely torn apart.

"Listen, Nick, you didn't know this would happen. You're lucky that Cairo knew you personally and didn't send the psycho to your house right away. Then you would have been in trouble. She is okay. This is the first time this has ever happened and I'm confident that it'll be the last," Howie said. Nick sighed and looked away. They just didn't seem to understand how guilty he felt and how worried he had been when he saw the blood streaked across Cairo's face.

"Sorry, Nick, but we have to think about what to say if we're asked anything about this…this incident. Should we just outright say what happened, or should why try to cover it up for now?" Kevin said.

"I want to say what happened outright. People deserve to know what happened and maybe it'll prevent others from trying the same thing," AJ suggested. They all looked to Nick.

"Yeah, I think we should be completely honest," Nick agreed.

* * * *

"So, do the fans ever get to be too much? I mean, do you ever wish that you could just live a normal life?" the radio DJ asked.

"Well, don't get me wrong, we all love the fans and wouldn't be where we are without them, but sometimes they do get to be too much. I think Nick can explain why," Howie said.

"Um, well, last night someone tried to break into my house, but they…well, they got the wrong address. It was my neighbor's house that they ended up in, and the person was a little messed up, and my neighbor, who is a very close friend of mine, ended up in the hospital last night," Nick said.

"You're kidding me?" the DJ said, clearly shocked.

"I wish I was. The person was apparently looking for me, and when they didn't find me, they were pretty pissed. Luckily, my friend had enough sense not to send them over to my house. It was sheer coincidence that she was calling me when the break in happened; otherwise I don't know what might have happened to her. I called back five minutes later, and when she didn't answer me, I knew something was up, so I called the cops, and they arrested the person who broke in," Nick said.

"Wow. That's quite a story. So, in that case, the fans definitely got out of hand. You could do without that sort of thing happening everyday. So, can you guys tell me about your next album?" the DJ carefully steered the conversation away from the topic as he noticed the expression on Nick's face, and the way he had grown incredibly pale discussing the events.