c6

Nick Carter paced the length of his friend's hospital room, glancing furtivly at the door every few minutes. "He's late." He said worriedly, his forehead wrinkling in concern.

"Yeah, by two and a half minutes." Kevin said irritably, looking down at his watch. "And you've been announcing that he's late every five seconds since two oclock. So if you don't mind, will you please shut up?"

Howie and AJ, who were sitting by the side of Brian's bed, sipping cups of weak coffee nodded. "Sorry, man. But you're really pissing everyone off." AJ said, smiling like he'd just told him that he was his favorite human on this earth.

"Thanks, Bone." Nick scowled, and sat down. "I'm just worried."

"There's really no reason to be." Kevin said, sighing. "No one ever said he was going to be done at 2 on the dot."

Nick nodded. "Yeah. I guess."

They were all silent for a minute, which was good, because the knock they heard from the other side of the door was so soft that they wouldn't have noticed it if anyone had been making any noise. In fact, the first time they heard it, they just ignored it, thinking that it was someone knocking on another door. But when it came again, Kevin, who was the closest to the door, went over to it and opened it.

A frail looking girl stood there, looking up at him with big brown eyes. Her arms were crossed over her chest, and she was wrapped in a gray sweatshirt that looked like it was three sizes too big for her. "Hi." She said softly, looking confused. "Um, I'm looking for Brian Littrell. Do I have the wrong room?"

Kevin's eyes narrowed. "How did you know he was here?" He looked over her head, up and down the hall. "Are you alone."

The girl's eyes widened. "Uh. . . what?"

Kevin was about to shut the door, but then he noticed something about her that he hadn't seen before. Her face was sunken and bruised, her eyes were slightly bloodshot, and she looked like she was about to break in half. "Oh, are you a patient here?" He asked.

The girl nodded. Nick jumped up. "Are you Rose?" He asked.

She nodded. "Yeah. . ."

Nick turned to Kevin. "It's okay. She's allowed to come in. She's one of Brian's friends."

Kevin nodded, and opened the door wider for Rose. She stepped inside worriedly. "What's all the security?" She asked softly. The four guys in the room exchanged glances. Realization dawned on her face. "Oh yeah. He's famous. I forgot."

Kevin looked surprised for a minute. It wasn't often that you ran into someone who didn't know who the Backstreet Boys were. "Oh, yeah. We- er, he is. Sorry. I thought you might be a fan or something."

Rose shrugged. "That's okay. So, um, is it okay if I stay here? I guess he's not back yet." She said, glancing at his empty bed. "But can I wait?

"I don't know. . ." Kevin, who was appearing to be the leader of the group started unsurely. He wasn't sure whether Rose was just some girl that Brian had ran into in the hall once, and now she wanted to get with a Backstreet Boy (admittedly, she was a very good actress if this was the case) or if she was really one of his friends.

"I think you should let her stay, Kev." Nick spoke up. "I don't think Brian's gonna mind having her here." He grinned slyly.

That comment spoken, everyone turned their attention to Rose. She wasn't bad looking, they observed. Not Brian's usual type (blond, blue eyes, big bust), but she was very pretty. Ofcourse, she was bruised and thin, and possesing the look of a typical hospital patient. But that didn't mean that she wasn't nice looking. "So, there's something going on between you and Bri?" Howie asked tentitivly.

Rose's eyes widened. "No." She said quickly. "We're just friends. He bought me a pizza last night. That's all." She sat down on top of a low dresser, and pulled her knees up to her chest. There were a lot of good looking guys in this room. She diverted her attention from all of them, feeling extremely uncomfortable.

"Are you okay?" Nick asked after a minute. Rose looked up, surprised.

"What? Oh, yeah. I'm fine. I'm just going to sit here and wait for Brian." She looked away again.

"O-kay." Nick muttered. That was a pretty obvious way of telling him to stop talking to her. He stood up, and started pacing again. No one said anything, they all just sat there and stared down at their hands, or, in Rose's case, their knees. Finally, interupting the awful silence, the door opened, and a very groggy and out-of-it Brian was wheeled in.