“Well that Joey boy doesn’t need much help,” exclaimed Molly.

“He never did,” stated James. His eyes got wide as he realized what he said.

“I knew it! You are Lance! Now tell me why you lied?” said Molly her green eyes blazing.

“Take it easy, Mol. I couldn’t say anything. Well OK, I didn’t want to say anything. No one except the big guy knows who I truly am. When you’re in heaven your have to go by your given name which means I go by James. I decided to dye my hair and just forget what happened when I was on Earth,” stated Lance.

“That’s why you didn’t want to help me with Brian. You knew that Bri would be recording that album with your old bandmates and you didn’t want to deal,” said Molly.

“Exactly. I went to the big guy and told him that I didn’t want to do it but he said that we all have to face things we don’t want to and that the brave ones are the ones who look it straight in the face and move on. He said if I wanted to move on I had to deal with this,” replied Lance his eyes glistening with tears.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t....”

“Don’t. OK, Molly, just don’t,” replied Lance “I’m going to go and be alone. Can you handle yourself?”

“Um...of course,” and with that he disappeared.

Brian and AJ walked into the dimly lit apartment. AJ was babbling on about something but Brian never heard one word. All he could think of was Sam. Her small delicate, cold hands. Her infectious giggle, her beaming blue eyes, the way her sweet small mouth moved when she talked. Brian didn’t exactly know when he got these feelings but one thing was for sure, he had it bad for her. But Brian was never one to believe in love at first sight. He was more the type of guy who needed to be friends first and something more later but with Sam it was different. It was like he had known her forever. It was like they one half of the same person.

“Bri? Control to Spaceship Brian, come in,” stated AJ shaking his friend.

“Huh?” asked Brian coming out of his trance.

“What do you think?” AJ questioned.

“Think about what?” he asked back.

“You haven’t heard a word I’ve said have you? What’s up? It has something to do with Lexie’s friend, Sam right,” said AJ smirking

“What? You’re dreaming. Why would I be daydreaming about Sam?” queried Brian.

“Well the fact that you kept asking me what I thought about her the whole way home in the car kind of tipped me off,” said AJ looking at Brian over his sunglasses.

“Am I really that obvious?” asked Brian.

“To me and the rest of the fellas you are but that’s because we’ve been around you 24/7 forever. I don’t know about everyone else but I doubt Joey and Lexie saw it.”

“What do you mean?”

“Please Brian, those two were flirting so bad even I was impressed,” said AJ plopping down on the overstuffed sofa and flicking on the TV.

“AJ, what am I going to do? On the one hand I barely know Sam but on the other I feel this connection to her. I have these head over heels feelings for her. This isn’t like me. Usually I need to get to know a girl but it’s like I don’t need to with Sam because I already know everything,” said Brian sitting down next to AJ and sighing heavily.

“And I thought I had problems. Gosh Bri you’d be an awesome guest for the Ricki Lake Show,” stated AJ trying to lighten the mood, “Seriously though, I think you should go with the feeling. Let yourself be swept away and see where the flow takes you. Be irresponsible and spontaneous-like me. Just live, Brian.”

“Thanks for the advice, Bone, but I think I’ll sleep on it. See ya in the morning.”

“Bright and Early, Rok,” replied AJ as Brian walked into his room.

“Oh God, I could really use your help,” said Brian putting his head into his hands as he sat down on his large waterbed.

Molly sat in a corner of his room and watched him agonize over Sam. She had dreamed of being in Brian’s room ever since she heard him utter the words ‘Even in my heart, I see your not being true to me.’ The only bummer was that she had to die to be here. She suddenly heard a soft sob come from Brian who flopped back onto his bed. Her heart ached to comfort him but she was dead. Her time had past. Unfortunately that wasn’t her job. Her job was to, in the words of Toni Braxton, un-break his heart.

“Why can’t I just have a normal healthily life? Don’t get me wrong, I love being a Backstreet Boy but I wish I could just flip a switch. On-Brian of Backstreet, Off-Brian of Lexington, Kentucky.”

Before Molly realized what she was doing or what the consequences were, she appeared in Brian’s room.

Brian felt a sudden swoosh of cold air just like at Applebee’s making him sit up. What he saw was a short girl with long blonde curly locks. She had a tiny petite frame and the white nightgown she wore hung loosely around her body.

“Who are you? A-,” Brian demanded. Before he could yell for AJ, Molly clamped a hand over his mouth.

“I’m the person here to help. I’m your guardian angel. Now I’m going to remove my hand and you need to not scream, OK?” Brian shook his head yes and Molly dropped her hand.

“My guardian angel? You’re an angel?” asked Bri incredulously.

“Yes I am an angel. I was sent here to help you. The big guy thinks you’ve been through enough and need a little love in your life. I’m here to help you find it,” she stated taking a seat on his bed.

“I thought you have a guardian angel the minute you are born?”

“Well you do but we work in shifts. The shift change came a couple of months ago, when you went in for heart surgery-I was there.”

“Wait! How do I know that you are a guardian angel and not just some nut case escaped from a mental hospital.”

“Can mental patients do this?” she asked as she disappeared from sight and then reappeared again.

“What the.....,” Brian trailed off.

“You’ll get used to the idea. Now for some rules-I’m not a genie, I can’t grant wishes but what I can do is help you with anything and everything. For the most part, I’m always with you except when you’re getting dressed or undressed or you’re showering or doing something else naked. But I was with you today in the studio and at Applebee’s,” she finished.

“This, wow, this is, gosh, this is going to be tough to get used to.”

“There is one catch Bri. To tell you the truth, I’m not supposed to show myself to you so you gotta promise you won’t tell anyone about me.”

“Trust me, even if I did no one would believe me! They would send me off to the nut house and I’d get a pretty white jacket and I could hug myself all day long while I bounced off the padded walls,” said Brian as Molly cracked up.

Lance sat outside the window and watched as his former bandmates/friends got ready to watch a movie. He remembered how every single Friday no matter what they always watched a movie and ate popcorn. He peered in and watched as Chris threw a handful of popcorn at JC which started a huge popcorn fight. Lance laughed and then a pained expression washed over his face. He turned slowly and walked away-his friends never knew he was there.

Brian awoke the next morning rather dazed. He thought back to the events of last night and his encounter with his guardian angel.

“Naw, it can’t be. I was just having a strange hallucination,” Brian said to no one in particular.

“So now I’m just a hallucination? You pray for help and now you play it off as hallucinations? I’m disappointed in you, Brian Littrell. I thought you were more open-minded than that!”

“Molly?”

“The one and only. Who else would show up in your room at the butt crack of dawn?”

“You’re really an angel? I’m not dreaming? No one fed me drugs or anything?”

Molly chuckled softly. “No, nobody fed you drugs and you’re not dreaming either. I’m real. Well as real as an angel can be.”

“So what exactly are you here for?” asked Brian sitting up in bed.

“I’m here because you prayed for help. You prayed to God to find a girl and have a “normal” relationship. Let’s see, how did you put it...oh I remember ‘God, I know that you helped me out in my heart surgery but my heart still isn’t fixed. There still is a part that’s empty and I was wondering if you could help me fill it.’”

“Oh my gosh! How did you know that?”

“Because I heard you say it! I hate to sound redundant but I’m your guardian angel. I thought we covered this part?”

“Well it’s going to take some time getting used to! I’m not exactly used to having my guardian angel around,” he replied.

“Brian?” asked AJ popping his head in the door.

“Yeah, A,” replied Brian.

“Two questions. One, are you going to get out of bed and get ready because we kind of have this album thing to record. I mean no biggie but I thought you should be there,” stated AJ.

“Yeah, I’m coming. It doesn’t take me forever to get ready like you!”

“You think I’m bad? What about D? Anyway, my other question, who the hell were you talking to before?”

“Oh no one special. Just myself.”

“Oh OK. Well hurry it up!” exclaimed AJ closing Brian’s door.

“So now I’m no one special?” asked Molly reappearing. “What was I supposed to say? Oh yeah AJ I was just chatting with my guardian angel, Molly. He would have thought I was on crack,” said Brian.

“Well you could of said no one and not on one special,” said Molly slightly pouting.