~*meanwhile*~

"Where do think Brian went?" A.J. asked Nick who was driving his green Durango.
"I have no idea, but you want to get some coffee or something, for some reason I'm in the mood for some," Nick said getting off at the exit for the Orlando Strip, which was about a four blocks of stores, restaurants, and coffee shops. (again I made this place up) Suddenly Nick stooped short.
"Hey don't do that! Why'd you stop?" A.J. asked.
"Look," Nick pointed ahead of them.
"Wow must've been a pretty bad accident."
"I know, I don't think we'll be able to get over there."
"Do you have any gum or something?" A.J. asked looking through the glove compartment.
"Um..A.J....did Brian take his car with him after he left the mall?" Nick asked uneasily.
"What? Oh, um.. I think so....are you sure you don't have any gum?" A.J. asked again looking through the glove compartment.
"Isn't that Brian's car?"
A.J. looked up, "What are you.....Oh man,"
"Wait don't jump to conclusions, I mean Brian isn't the only one with a dark blue jeep in Orlando."
"Yeah, but look at the license plate," A.J. said.
Nick looked hard to see the license plate, "Oh my God," he gasped.
"It says B-Rok,"
"OK, come on," Nick said parking the jeep.
"Where?"
"Let's go over there and find out if Brian was involved in the accident or not."
They both got out of the car and went over to the scene, but were stopped by a police officer.
"Excuse me, but you can't go over there," the officer said holding up his hands to stop them.
"We have to, I think our friend was involved," A.J. said.
"I'm sorry, but no one is allowed past this point."
"Well, can you atleast tell us if anyone was hurt?"
"I don't-"
A.J. cut him off, "PLEASE! We have to know, he may be one of those people, atleast if no one was hurt too bad we'll know if he's OK," he pleaded. The officer looked at him for a second, "OK, well 5 people, that were in the restaurant, were injured badly and there were 2 deaths, witnesses say that someone was in the path of the car, but we can't get anywhere too near to the car because of the way it crashed into the building, we think there are atleast 3 more people unaccounted for."
"Two deaths?" A.J. asked, afraid one of them was Brian. v "OK, officer, did you happen to see any of the people that were hurt?" Nick asked.
"Yes, why?"
"OK, do you know who the Backstreet Boys are?"
"Yeah, my daughter loves them, I still don't see what this has to do with anything."
"Did you notice if any of the people looked like Brian Littrell?" Nick asked, he didn't want to give away that a Backstreet Boy was involved in an accident, but he needed to find out if Brian was alright. It took the officer a minute to put two and two together, "You mean?...." Nick nodded.
"I couldn't really tell, but three of the people hurt were women, one was a little boy, and there was one man, but I couldn't tell if he was, I doubt it though this guy looked pretty tall."
"What about the.....deaths?"
"I have no idea, I wasn't around when they took the bodies."
"Well, thanks anyway," Nick sighed.
The officer wanted to help them, even though he shouldn't treat anyone differently, but these were The Backstreet Boys, teen idols and they wanted his help. They had to go through enough stress day to day, do they really need anymore worrying if their friend is OK? "Wait, the bodies haven't been identified yet, they took them to the hospital, here take this," he handed Nick a piece of paper, it looked a pass, "That's my pass to get authorized, use it to get into the morgue and just drop it off at the front desk, I think you should see the bodies, to see if one is Brian's, I mean this may be hard, but you have to know."
Nick nodded, "Thank-you."
"No need to thank me, just doing my job," the officer said, then directed his attention to another person trying to get past the check point.
"Well?" Nick asked.
"Well?" A.J. said, they didn't know what to say, one of those bodies could be Brian's and they really didn't want to think about that now.
A.J. sighed, "Call Kevin and Howie and tell them to meet us at the hospital." Nick took out his cell phone and dialed up Kevin's number.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

(at the hospital)
"Are you positive Howie said he was coming?" A.J. asked Kevin.
"Yes, I'm positive, he said he was coming straight over from Kelly's house," Kevin replied.
"Not that I'm eager to go in there or anything, but it's killing me inside to think it could be Brian and I think we should go together, none of us could handle this alone," A.J. said.
Nick, meanwhile, hadn't said two words to anybody since they got there, he was sitting in one of the chairs, with his head in his hands and his eyes closed.
Kevin leaned over to A.J., "He's having a really hard time with this, maybe we shouldn't let him go in, what if it is Brian? He's going to go ballistic," he whispered.
"I know, he should stay out here," A.J. whispered back.
Nick looked up at them, "I CAN hear you ya know?"
"Sorry, but we-"
"NO! I don't really care what you think, I'm going in there, good or bad! So don't try to tell me what's best," Nick hissed.
A.J. didn't say anything, he was bit taken back by Nick's anger, but then again he didn't blame him, everyone was little on edge.
Howie rushed into the waiting room, "Sorry, I got stuck in traffic."
Kevin stood up, "OK we're all here, there's no use stalling, let's go."
Everybody stood up and A.J. gave the pass to the nurse who led to the morgue and let them in, where two tables with the bodies with white sheets over them were set up. Kevin looked back at the door and saw Nick standing there. He went over and put his arm around Nick, "Come on, we're all doing this together."
Nick just walked the rest of the way in with Kevin, he was scared to death. The nurse was about to pull the first sheet down, when A.J. yelled out, "WAIT!"
Everyone turned to look at him.
"What if it is Brian? Oh man....I'm just so scared," he admitted, A.J. hated to admit he was scared of anything, but now he couldn't hold back, this was his friend who was practically his brother they were talking about and he didn't have to put on an act he knew everybody was just as scared as he was.
"I know we're all scared," Kevin said who still had his arm around Nick. There was a moment of silence, not intentionally, but everyone was silently saying there own prayer hoping they weren't going to be short a band mate, friend, and brother.
"OK," Kevin spoke up, "Are you ready?"
They nodded and the nurse pulled down the sheet.
Sighs of relief were heard throughout the room. "Oh thank God, it wasn't Brian!" Howie said.
A.J. wiped away his tears and Kevin held on tighter to Nick, who had started to cry a couple of minutes of ago.
"Would you like me to pull down the next sheet, sir?" the nurse asked.
"Yes, go ahead," Kevin said.
She pulled down the sheet.
"OH GOOD GOD!" A.J. yelled and put a hand over his mouth.
Nick was shaking so hard that Kevin was moving with him, while Kevin's own tears escaped at the sight before them.
"Why God? Why?" Nick whispered through his tears.