[A/N: I found this story I wrote during the summer but never posted when I was trying to get some order on the computer... Enjoy.]

Characters: The Backstreet Boys and Nick's 18-year-old girlfriend Danielle.

DIE FOR YOU

Howie listened carefully; a low sobbing was heard on the other side of the door.

"Nick?" He looked at his friend who didn't react at all. He hurried over and sat down in front of him. "What's wrong?"

"Danni" he sobbed without even looking at Howie.

He got up and tried to open the door to Nick and Danielle's room. Locked.

"She won't let me in..."

"Danielle!"

There was no answer so Howie turned to Nick again.

"What did she do?"

Nick just shook his head. He couldn't tell anyone what Danielle had told him. He could hardly understand it himself.

"Is she pregnant?"

"What?" Nick stared at Howie "Why would she..."

"Well... she's becoming worse since we left and..."

"WHAT DO YOU KNOW ABOUT THAT?!"

Howie stared at Nick. This was the last thing he'd expected from him. He'd prepared for Nick to burst out in tears or just refuse to answer him, but not yelling. "I'm sorry Nick, I just..."

"What? What Howie?"

"I just thought you needed someone with feelings" he muttered and walked back to his room "Guess I was wrong."

Nick ignored the sound of the door closing. He honestly couldn't say that he cared about how the guys felt anymore.

The soft little click made him get up. Danielle had calmed down again. He slowly opened the door and stepped in.

"Danni?" He looked at her.

Her black hair was put up in a messy ponytail, her normally beautiful green eyes were slightly reddish after the tears, the only thing he didn't recognize from other fights was the empty look. Danielle had opinions on everything and she had always something to say, but right now... it seemed to be someone else sitting there, not Danielle, just another sad girl.

"Are you okay?" He walked over to her and sat down next to her on the bed.

Danielle didn't answer him, she just looked at him for a while. Nick carefully kissed her on the cheek and watched her quietly.

"Whad did he say?" She said after a while.

"Howie?"

She nodded and looked at him, he could see that she still was upset.

"He thought I'd made you pregnant."

She nodded quietly and leaned herself against him.

< But since we haven't had sex that would be pretty impossible > he thought and looked at her.

"Brian asked me the same thing yesterday" she sighed.

"He did?" Nick said surprised.

"Yeah" she mumbled.

Nick smiled and looked at her. She'd fallen asleep in his arms, and it made him happy to know that she trusted him. They'd been together for four months, they'd spent the past one on the road and it hadn't been good for her. She'd completely rejected his every attempt of coming closer to her.

He hated to fight with her, maybe cause he never had a chance. She was so fragile that it scared him. He couldn't yell at her, he would never be able to in anyway force her to anything in fear that she might snap. Their fights was more her letting it all out on him, and him taking it in hope that it would be the last time it would happen.

He knew the others didn't believe him when he said that they hadn't had sex. He couldn't really understand why they didn't though. Danielle wasn't a slut and he would never push her into anything. She'd break down if he tried, he knew it so he just played everything by her rules.

He closed his eyes and slowly fell asleep.

"Nick" Kevin muttered and grabbed his arm "Group talk right now."

"But..."

"Now."

"Fine" he muttered and carefully moved away from his sleeping girlfriend and followed Kevin to his room.

He stepped in and realized that this wasn't some normal problem when he saw the others. Howie was clearly still upset over how Nick had acted the day before.

"What?" he muttered and sat down on a chair.

"Where shall we start?" Kevin looked at the others.

"Well" Brian said carefully and avoided looking at Nick "I think it started a couple of months ago..."

"Four to be exact" A.J. muttered.

"Is this about Danielle?"

The others looked at him, a bit surprised over the hostility in his voice.

"It is, isn't it?" He looked at them "I love her, I don't give a shit what you might think about that and..."

"Nick" Kevin interrupted "we've known you for at least seven years, we know this isn't you."

"Then what is me?"

"You are normally a happy guy, you've turned into someone who doesn't give a shit about the people around you and are walking around like if there was nothing in your life that can make you happy."

The others looked at Nick, hoping that A.J.'s words had effected him at least a little bit.

Nick nodded and looked at them one by one. "Okay, anything else?"

"Anything else?" Howie stared at him "You yelled at me yesterday when I just wanted to help you! You punched Brian when he said that you should break up with Danielle cause she was making you depressed! I thought you were going to kill Kevin when he said the same thing!! And how many times have you and A.J. fought cause he just told you to stop acting like a bitch against your own fans?!"

Kevin and A.J. looked at Brian, they all knew he was the one that was most hurt out of all of them.

"So what?"

They stared at him, none of them could believe that those words just had come out of Nick's mouth.

"What?" He muttered "It's no big deal..."

"No big deal?" A.J. hissed and walked over to Nick. "YOU HIT YOUR BEST FRIEND CAUSE HE'S TELLING YOU THAT YOUR GIRLFRIEND IS DEPRESSING YOU?!"

"YOU DON'T KNOW SHIT ABOUT THAT!"

"I'M NOT BLIND! I CAN SEE WHAT'S HAPPENING TO YOU!!"

Nick got up and pushed A.J. aside and walked to the door.

"I'm not breaking up with her, no matter what you might say" he opened the door and turned around again "If this is how it's going to be then I rather leave the group."

"WHAT?!"

They stared at him. They knew that he'd grown attached to the idea of helping Danielle with her depression but they never thought that it would come to this.

"Okay" Kevin said and walked over to him "We don't want you to leave, but she's not good for you..."

"I don't..."

"BUT" Kevin interrupted "if this is our only choice then take a week or two off, to calm down and do whatever you want with Danielle."

"Preferably break up with her" A.J. muttered.

"I'm not, live with it" Nick hissed and turned to Kevin again "This is the first good thing I've heard from you in a long time."

"Cause you haven't listened" Howie sighed and looked at A.J.

It was one of those rare cases when they agreed over something in a fight, unfortunately this was also something that they couldn't do anything about, it had to be Nick's decision.

Danielle looked at him. They were at a rented house in the middle of nowhere, but as it seemed he'd forgot the keys.

"I'm sorry" Nick mumbled "I can't find the keys... I..."

He checked his pockets another time and then turned to Danielle and shrugged his shoulders. She didn't even answer him, she just sighed and looked at the car.

"Oh my god no" he muttered and hurried over "They are there... the key to the house, the car keys and the mobile..."

"It's raining..."

"I'm sorry Danni" he said and shook his head "I didn't want this to happen, I'm sorry..."

When he turned around he couldn't believe what he saw. A smile, a cute smile on Danielle's face.

"Danielle?" He looked at her.

She looked at him, still smiling, she could see how his eyes were filling up with tears and the smile on his face.

Without warning he ran over and hugged her.

"I love you Danni" he whispered.

"I... I love you too" she mumbled and hugged him back.

They stood quietly, hugging each other for a while.

"You're soaking wet" Nick mumbled and looked at her.

She nodded and looked at him. He could see the little spark in her eyes, like if she'd finally found something to live for.

"You'll get a cold" he said seriously.

"Doesn't matter" she smiled.

"Of course it will, you'll get sick. Let's find a roof or something..."

"It's okay Nick..."

"I don't want you to get sick" he smiled "Come on, there have to be somewhere where we can get away from the rain..."

She sighed and rolled her eyes.

"Fine" she smiled.

Nick looked around.

"Okay" he sighed "this is the only place that will give us a somewhat good protection from the rain."

Danielle smiled and sat down on the stair and leaned against the wall.

"I'll just go and see if I can find a blanket or something" he said and started walking.

"Nick!"

"Yeah?"

He turned around just to find her next to him, shivering of cold and completely wet.

"Don't go, it's dark..."

"I'm just..."

"Please" she grabbed his arm and looked him in the eyes "Don't leae me."

"Okay Danni, I won't" he followed her back to the stairs "I won't go anywhere."

He slowly sat down, expecting that she were going to sit down next to him, instead she sat down in his lap, leaning her head against his shoulder.

"Are you okay?" He looked at her.

"Don't leave me" she mumbled "just don't leave me..."

He nodded and laid his arms around her. It amazed him how much she'd changed when they'd got away from all other people.

< Maybe she just needs some time > he thought < If that's what she needs then that's what she'll get... all the time she needs... >

Nick walked into the room and saw Danielle looking at a picture "What's that?"

"My old class..." she sighed.

Nick sat down next to her and looked at her and then at the picture.

"I surly belong there" Danielle sighed "Mark and Sam are dead..."

"What?" he stared at her.

"Mark got killed a month after this picture was taken and Sam two years later from an overdose."

"But... you're just kids..."

"14" she said without looking at him "But we were in that shit way before that."

Nick looked at her. He knew about the way Danielle had grown up, all the pain she'd gone through, all the death that she'd seen, but they'd never really talked about school.

"Four years ago, the same year as Mark died, Emma started doing drugs too... It wasn't a bad neighborhood, it was just a bad class." She looked at him "She was walking the streets to get money for her drugs last time I saw her."

"You're kidding, right?" he looked at her.

Danielle shook her head "I'm sorry to say that I'm not, I didn't like any of them, particularly not Emma, but I can't say that I ever wished them something like this."

"Two dead, one prostitute on drugs."

"That girl, Anne, slept with one of the teachers, he, I can't remember his name, is in jail, she" Danielle pointed at a blond, pretty girl "She threw herself in front of a train, when she was 17. Otherwise we got out of there pretty okay, everyone except me." She slowly placed the picture on the table again and looked at him. "I can't believe you're my boyfriend... I can't believe I have a boyfriend..."

"A boyfriend who loves you" Nick whispered and hugged her.

It was quiet for a while. He had to go through Danielle's words again, in his head, it was so hard to believe. First her parents get murdered, then her aunt dies in cancer, and now this.

He carefully stroke her hair and kissed her forehead. All he wanted to do was to help her, but now he felt that he might not be albe to.

He felt how all the power in his whole body quickly faded away by the thought of Danielle in that coffin.

"Are you okay?" Brian grabbed Nick's arm.

"No" he mumbled and looked at Brian.

He had the saddest, most powerless look in his eyes that Brian had ever seen. Nick did his best to wipe away the tears, but they just kept coming, he finally gave up and looked at the people there. Some Danielle's old class old class were there too. He could see what they were thinking. Another one was gone, another lost. They didn't know that this wasn't how it was supposed to end.

Nick carefully looked at the others, feeling uncomfortable when the priest started talking. They were upset, upset and mad, and sad. Sad that Danielle had died, mad at him for trying to do it with her.

"I was supposed to be there too" he mumbled.

Brian looked at him and immediately made him feel guilty for having those thoughts. Nick looked at the coffin again. This wasn't how it had been supposed to be.

At first he'd thought he could help her, make her happy, and make her love life. The result had been the exact opposite.

< I was supposed to die too > he thought < You weren't meant to leave on your own... We did it together, and somehow I survived... >

Brian wiped away the tears from his cheeks and looked at his best friend, something had gone so wrong...

< I'll join you, sooner or later. It didn't end like we thought it would but at least you'll finally sleep forever. > Nick slowly looked at her classmates and then back at the coffin < I'd do exactly anything for you Danni, even die... >