Fallen
By Lis
(c) 2000
********


Ty parked her car in front of the beach house and quickly headed up the
driveway, passing four other cars haphazzardly parked. Before she had even
reached the door it swung open revealing Jenn standing there. "About time
you showed." she commented as Ty walked in.

"Sorry, it was hard to get out of the house with all the media camped
outside. How'd you guys manage?"

Jenn shrugged, "I plowed through them."

The five women sat around in the living room, sitting there in silence for
a couple minutes. "Do any of us know whats going on?" Alec asked looking
at each of them.

"No," they all answered, collectively shaking their heads.

"J's smoking again." Jenn stated, tapping her nails nervously on the
armrest of the couch.

"Bri's living outside, playing basketball." Shan told the group.

"D keeps himself locked in his office."

"Nick's practically living on the boat."

"And Kevin just stares off into space. What the hell happened?"


Brian sat on the back steps, staring out at the yard. Heck three weeks ago
everyone had been over for a barbecue to celebrate the end of the last
tour and now...now everything had fallen apart in a matter of days.


Nick stopped on the sidewalk, his eyes on Brian just sitting there. He
never thought he'd see him again so soon but Lis had disappeared and damn
he was lonely, part of him felt like it was dead so he took the boat down
to the dock and headed for the marina and the extra car they kept in
storage and headed over.


Almost as if sensing him standing there, Brian turned his head and met
Nick's stare. "Nick?" There was no way he was standing there, not after...

"Hey Rok." Nick's legs came to life and he finally walked over to his best
friend. "How you doing?"

Brian shrugged, his hands tossing the basketball back and forth between
them. "I don't know...driving Shan crazy, she tore out of the house early
this morning...how are you?"

Nick ran a hand through his hair, "Couldn't tell ya...I don't even know."


Kevin stared at the headline on the newspaper, "End Of Backstreet" there
were pictures of them from all through their career, the start where they
were barely a group up to the pictures that had been taken a couple weeks
before when they had been presented with the Diamond award for the last
album. He tossed the paper down and put his head in his hands, what had
they done??


AJ walked into his office and stared coldly at the awards on the wall,
"Lie, lie oh wait, lie again." he said looking at everything. His best
friends, hell his brothers...now he was alone.


By the time Lis left the guys' beach house she had a killer headache. All
the wives were in the dark, whatever had happened they were keeping to
themselves. What was going on, she wondered as she drove home through
traffic. Thankfully the media had pretty much cleared out so she drove
through the gates and headed out to the dock, not really surprised to find
the boat gone.


Jenn walked into their bedroom, staring wide eyed at the disaster area.
Clothes were strewn everywhere, chairs were overturned and AJ sat on the
bed in the midst of the mess, talking to himself. "Alex?" she asked,
making her way towards him.

He looked up at her, his eyes red and puffy from crying. "Why Jenn, why'd
he make us quit?"

"I don't know honey..." she held him in her arms and felt his body start
to shake. Who was 'he'?


Shan heard voices as she walked through the house, she stopped and
listened. The one voice,it sounded like Nick...but it couldn't be. They
were all avoiding each other apparently. She leaned against the bedroom
window nad looked outside, a smile appearing on her face as she saw Brian
shooting hoops with Nick.


Lis grabbed the phone as she stirred the spaghetti sauce on the stove,
"Hello?" she asked, propping the phone her shoulder.

"Lis...its D."

She stopped, "Hi Howie..."

"Uh you seen the guys lately?"

"Just Nick but he's spending a lot of time on the boat so I don't see him 
that much."

"Oh...you hear anything about the others?"

"Not really. D can I ask you something?"

"Sure."


The sounds of Kevin playing the piano filled the house as Alec let herself
in. Maybe that's a good sign, she thought to herself as she headed
downstairs to the music room. She stopped on the stairs and watched as
Kevin pounded away on his old piano, not once glancing up at her. He
seemed lost in his own world...