“No, he’s not my boyfriend, this is Joey a friend of yours.” Kevin said, letting out a mental sigh, so much for keeping his sexuality a secret.
Lance said his voice doubtful, “Are you sure about that? I don’t know anyone called Joey.”
“I’m going to keep an eye on AJ. Try not to worry too much,” Kevin said with a smile as he left the room, pulling Joey with him.
Knowing that the two groups needed to talk about their situation Kevin said to Joey, “Can you go and get a doctor for Lance? I’ll see if I can find a private waiting room, it looks like we all need to talk.”
Joey said with a small smile, “Sure. We’ll meet you at the waiting room.” It looked like Kevin was more than a little upset at what Lance had said.
Kevin walked down the corridor to AJ’s room where the three healthy Backstreet Boys were sitting around the bed with worried looks on their faces, as they took in AJ’s cuts and bruises.
“He’s just gone back to sleep but he said that he wanted to speak to you when you came in.” Howie said, although he had no intention of waking their fallen friend.
“I think you should wake him up, D.” Kevin said, his tone making it clear that it was an order not a suggestion.
Howie glared at him for a few seconds, unable to believe Kevin was acting so cold when one of their best friends, their brother in everything but blood was injured.
“AJ come on wake up. Kevin’s here.” Howie said as he gently shook the sleeping man.
AJ opened his eyes, wondering what everyone was doing in his room. The he remembered everything, but foremost in his mind was the fact that Lance wasn’t with him. Was his James hurt and no one was going to tell him?
“Calm down, AJ. I’ve just seen James.” Kevin said quickly, seeing AJ was about to start worrying.
Kevin ignored the questioning looks from the rest of his friends as he pulled a chair over to the bed and sat down. He knew that now he had admitted that he had seen Lance, AJ would bombard him with questions.
“How is he? Where is he? Why won’t anyone tell me anything?” AJ asked quickly, his voice rising with every word.
Not wanting to go into Lance’s injuries or the fact that Lance seemed to have forgotten his family and friends Kevin said, “He’s a little banged up but he should be okay. He took a blow to the head so his memory is a little scrambled. He remembers you though and said that I’m to tell you to stop worrying and that he’ll see you as soon as they let him.”
“Thanks, Kev. Can you tell him that I love him and I’ll try to stop worrying?” AJ said as he returned to sleep, relaxing now that he knew his boyfriend was well.
Kevin walked outside; waiting for the other three healthy Backstreet Boys to join him he wondered just how he could explain everything. He didn’t really want to reveal everything he had found out until they met with Nsync.
“Just what was all that about?” Nick asked angrily as he glared at Kevin.
“I’ll tell you as soon as we meet up with Nsync, it concerns them as much as us,” Kevin said before walking down the corridor, giving the other three no option but to follow him if they wanted to know what was happening.
“Why are we here when Lance needs us?” Chris asked in confusion, he would have thought that Joey would want to stay with the younger man.
As he paced around the waiting room Joey said, “We need to talk to Kevin about Lance. It won’t take long and Lance is out cold.”
Justin snarled, “Whatever he has to say doesn’t matter, Lance is hurt.”
The creek of the door opening caused Nsync to look at the door in dread, was someone coming to tell them Lance was worse? They let out a breath they hadn’t even known they were holding when the four healthy Backstreet Boys strolled in worry on their faces.
“Why doesn’t everyone sit down and then we can get started?” Kevin suggested, as he saw the rage burning in Justin’s eyes, clearly the others didn’t want to be there.
The eight sat down in silence, too worried about their friends to bother with idle gossip. Kevin looked from face to face wondering just how he was going to explain everything without someone losing their temper.
Kevin said, “Everyone knows that Lance and AJ were in an accident, I’ve talked to them and it appears that they were in the same car when the accident occurred.” As he spoke he looked at the others to see how they were taking everything so far.
“I didn’t think Lance even talked to AJ,” JC said half to himself.
Kevin said with a small smile, “From what AJ and Lance have told me it seems that the pair know each other quite well, in fact...” before he could continue there was a loud knocking on the door, seconds before it opened.
“Have any of you seen Mr McLean?” Dr Elise Smith asked as she looked at the eight men.
“Yeah, about ten maybe fifteen minutes ago in his room. What’s happened?” Howie said a feeling of dread coming over him.
She replied leaving the room with a worried look on her face, “He’s disappeared from the room, given your status it’s possible that someone might have moved him.”
“Come on, I have an idea where he is!” Kevin said inspiration hitting suddenly.
The other seven didn’t question, knowing that AJ could be in the clutches of a crazed fan or lying alone injured somewhere. Kevin walked quickly through the corridors, stopping outside Lance’s room. The eight stared in shock at the picture before them.
Inside the small hospital room, AJ was running his hands through Lance’s hair, crying. As they watched, Lance awoke and arched into the touch. Lance gently touched AJ’s face, pulling the other man towards him and placed a gentle kiss on the older man’s cheek.
Brian asked aloud in shock, “What’s going on?”
“I would have thought that was obvious.” Chris said, amusement in his voice. Apparently they had missed a lot - how had they missed it? He was about to say something else but stopped as AJ’s voice flowed out into the corridor.
Close to tears AJ said, “I thought you were dead, James.”
“You’ll never get rid of me that easy. I love you, Alex. I’m sorry I scared you,” Lance replied seriously.
“Only you would say sorry for getting in a car crash. God, I love you so much, James.” AJ said as gently kissed the back of Lance’s hand.
Lance said in mock seriousness, “You can do better than that.”
The pair kissed passionately, reassuring each other that they were okay and that they were together. As they kissed, Lance looped his arms around AJ’s neck, pulling the other man down towards the bed.
Breaking the kiss, Lance patted the side of the bed and waited for AJ to join him. AJ got into the bed, gently moving his arm across Lance’s waist. The pair instantly fell asleep, unaware of their friends watching them in a mix of confusion and amazement.
