Kevin blinked his eyes as he rolled over in bed, trying to fend off the morning sunlight that was flooding through the open blinds of the window. He tossed off the covers, cursing himself for not remembering to close the blinds the night before. When he had swung his legs out from under the warmth of the blankets, he sat up on the edge of the bed, his feet finding comfort in the softness of the carpet, and stretched his arms above his head. He sighed quietly and stood up to close the blinds so maybe he could get back to sleep.
And he fell back down, pain ripping up through his leg, finding himself back where he had started from--laying face up on his bed, cursing himself. Cursing himself for thinking that it would go away. Cursing himself for thinking that he would be able to just forget about what happened. Cursing himself for not telling anyone. He had cursed all there was to curse the night before, and he was doing it again.
He lay there for a few seconds, thinking. AJ had come to check on him last night. He had a feeling he would. He had seen the looks he had been giving him all the way to Detroit. Looks of suspicion, like he knew what he was hiding. When he had come to see him, he thought he had come to prove his theory correct, but it hadn't seemed that way when he settled down in the nearest chair and started to talk. No pressure, and, except for one question about his ankle, no questions about the show. Just genuine concern. All the anger he had felt when AJ had walked through the door melted away at the worry in his voice, the honesty of it. 'If I had only been that honest,' he thought, pulling himself to sit up.
He leaned forward, reaching down to touch his ankle, but decided against it. His eyes drifted down his leg and came to rest on the swollen joint, and he looked away. He realized then that he hadn't really taken a good look at it, afraid one of the guys would catch him and find out, afraid of what he would see himself. He still was. He took a slow, deep breath and made himself look again. A long purple bruise extended from his ankle up the outside of his leg and another down the outside length of his foot. The swelling couldn't have gone down any from the time it happened. If anything, it had gotten worse.
He reached out an apprehensive hand, gently sliding it down the inside of his ankle. Nothing, just a dull pain there. He ran his hand back up and over the top. He winced, quietly crying out, and quickly took his hand away, feeling a sharp pain tear up through his ankle. He scooted back down and lay back onto the sheets, still fighting the throbbing in his ankle. It was broken. God, it had to be.
His head turned toward the door as a soft knock drifted through the room. "Kev? Kevin, open the door." It was Brian.
"What? I'm in bed, trying to sleep. Leave me alone," he said, not making a move on the bed and trying to sound as grumpy and as miserable as possible.
"Come on, get up," he said, "We've got rehearsal at eleven."
Kevin looked at his wristwatch. Ten o'clock. He slammed his wrist back down on the bed beside him and groaned. He sat up and, for the second time that morning, threw his legs over the side of the bed and stood up, more carefully this time, balancing most of his weight on his good foot and stepped toward the door, doing his best not to limp. He grabbed his navy bathrobe from a nearby chair and wrapped it around himself before he arrived at the door.
"Kev, are you up? Get out of bed! Can you hear me?" He wasn't exactly moving fast enough for Brian. "Kevin! I could always get a key, you know!"
Brian was startled when the door swung open and he found himself face to face with a rather disheveled, angry looking Kevin. 'Note to self,' he thought, 'don't forget to tell Nick that there will be no playing jokes on Kevin today.'
"What Brian?" Kevin said, still clutching to doorknob, ready to slam the door if he didn't answer quickly enough.
Brian looked up at him. "Uh, we're all gonna head down for breakfast in the restaurant downstairs. You coming?"
Kevin's expression softened. "Uh, well, I'm gonna hop in the shower right now, but maybe I'll join you later," he said, moving to close the door.
But Brian put his hand out, holding the door open. "Hey, we'll wait up, it's no problem," he said as looked up at Kevin, who was displaying much more interest in the floor than he was in what he had to say. 'Man, talk about mood swings. One minute he's jumping down my throat for getting him out of bed and the next he's as quiet as a mouse,' he thought, taking a second to study his cousin who was still engrossed in the carpet, his gaze not shifting from its spot at their feet. 'Maybe AJ was right. Maybe something is bothering him. But, he would tell me. I know he would, but AJ seemed so persistent last night. Maybe . . . oh, what the hell.' He broke the silence and took a step closer to him. "Kev?" he said, his voice soft.
He finally looked up at him. "Hmm?"
Brian reached out and put a hand on his shoulder. "You wanna talk?" He said, keeping his eyes locked with Kevin's.
Kevin hurried to answer, perhaps a little too quickly. "No, B. I'm fine. You guys just go have some breakfast and I'll be down in a little while, okay?" He closed the door and turned around, leaning against it. He didn't want any more questions. They all saw it, he knew. Well, AJ and Brian sure as hell seemed to see it. And God knows they wouldn't keep quiet about it. He sighed and ran a hand through his hair. He slowly sank down to the floor and held his knees tightly to his chest, not even making a move toward the shower.
Kevin never did show up for breakfast. Brian had made a point of stopping him as he got into the hotel van to offer him a bitter remark. "Be down in a little while, huh, Kev?" Kevin had shrugged off the comment and had made his way into the van.
The ride to the arena had been quiet, the atmosphere heavy. And now, with rehearsal in full swing, the scene was very much the same. With the exception of a couple of half-hearted, mumbled greetings, none of them spoke a word to anyone when they arrived, and still hadn't. It had been twenty minutes already.
Kevin did his best to keep up, carefully taking light steps on his left foot while executing the moves in somewhat of a robot-fashion. The effort was doing him no good; he was never in time with the others, always finding himself behind them by at least one or two steps, which, he noticed, was beginning to get him some unwanted attention. Out of the corner of his eye he could see AJ and Howie constantly staring at him with fixed eyes, and being rather blatant about it. It was making him uneasy.
Despite the ungodly number of Tylonol he took before he left, his ankle felt like it was about to snap in half. It felt on fire with every step he took, and it wasn't getting any better. Maybe showing up hadn't been such a good idea.
AJ was starting to bother him. His intense gaze hadn't left him, and Kevin felt the anxiety building up inside him. It was as if he was waiting for him to screw up, fall, stumble, anything, and then he just might have the heart to stop staring at him. Kevin turned his head and looked him in the face, thoughts rushing through his head. He studied him, only to find himself being studied right back. Kevin was the first to look away.
'Damn it!' he thought, his mind reeling as he saw AJ motion to Brian, who began to take up AJ's habit along with him. `What the hell are they staring at? Do they want to me to say it? Do they? Would they like me to scream it out, let all of them know now? It's broken, damn it! Should I say it just like that? Would that make them happy? God, stop staring at me!' It took everything he had not to start screaming at them, to fly off the handle, to just let it out and hear the anger in his voice echo off the walls of the empty arena. 'If I yell loud enough, the fans outside might hear it too, save me an extra announcement.'
He hadn't noticed how far he had fallen behind. The music had stopped, but he was still moving, lost in his thoughts. The others stood by looking at him.
"What is he doing?" Nick whispered and leaned over to Howie, who had a stupefied look plastered across his features.
He could only shake his head. He still hadn't stopped yet. What was up with him?
"Kevin!" Fatima shouted, making the string of them jump.
Kevin stopped, stumbling as he did, and looked up at her, surprised.
"What in the hell are you doing?" she said, her voice forceful. She took a step closer to him. When he didn't answer, she continued. "Would you like to tell me why you are falling so far behind and how you could be so entranced not to notice when the music stops?"
She was angry, and Kevin took a careful step backwards. "I, I don't know why," he stammered.
"You don't know, huh?" she said, hands on her hips.
The rest of the guys looked visibly annoyed, waiting for his next ingenious reply. He never offered any. He stood there, his eyes glued to the floor, embarrassed.
Fatima turned toward the guys and said, "Take a break, you guys. Be back here in fifteen minutes." She turned back to Kevin, who had begun to walk away, arms hanging limply at his sides, and waited until the others were gone before speaking again. "Kevin," she called out softly, no anger in her voice this time.
He didn't look up. He simply turned around and headed back to her. He stopped in front of her and lifted his head to look at her. He knew what she was going to ask.
"Is everything okay? You don't look so good, like something's bothering you? You all right?" she asked, almost whispered, and put a comforting hand on his shoulder as she waited patiently for him to answer.
He looked away, weighing his options. 'Is everything okay? No, it's not. But should I tell her that? No, probably not. It would cause too many problems. She would have to tell the guys, or make me tell them, either one, and I have a feeling they won't be too happy about what I have to say. We might have to cancel the show. I wouldn't be able to be there, that's for sure, and that would make the promoters angry, and we can't have that. No, too many problems. It's better the other way, this way. All I have to do is bite the bullet for two days. I could do that,' he thought as he looked back at her. 'Sure I can, no problem.'
"Everything's fine," he said, lying straight-faced, and becoming a little ashamed of himself.
Her hand slid from his shoulder and down his arm. "Yeah, well, then let's get our act together, okay?" she paused, was greeted by silence, and continued, "Are you sure you're okay?"
He nodded and turned towards the stage exit, not looking back or waiting for an answer.
"There, you're all set," Faith said to the jumpy little blonde girl who sat in front of her. The bee sting hadn't been bad. At least she had known to come to a station. Smart little girl.
She watched her jump off the bench and run out of the tent to join the throng of kids outside the arena. She turned around, coming face to face with Laura, a new nurse at the hospital who had also decided to take advantage of the extra pay and give up her free day. Brooke had never met her before, but she found her friendly, though a bit too ostentatious for her liking, and, despite her show-off mannerisms, they struck a small friendship.
"Wow," Laura said as she took a peek over her shoulder at the number of girls waiting outside, "there must be, like, at least about a hundred and fifty girls out there! Holy shit, Faith!"
"Yeah, there's a lot," Faith said. "I never thought there would be this many, and it's only, what?" She paused to look at her wristwatch, "eleven-thirty!"
"They'd do anything for a glimpse, I guess," Laura said.
Faith nodded. "Yeah, but I just can't believe how many there are," she said, still a little stunned.
"Me either. But it's fun, though, isn't it?" Laura said and punched her arm lightly.
"Yeah, it is."
Kevin made his way into a back room, looking for a bottle of water. He found the guys gathered around a table, hushed.
He stopped in the doorway. "Why did it get so quiet in here all of a sudden?" He said, smiling. It had been the first thing he had said to any of them since they had arrived. He made his way over to a cooler on the floor, opened it, and pulled out what he was looking for. None of them had answered him. He turned to face them, screwing the top off the water bottle. "You guys okay?"
Howie rose from his seat and, with his eyes locked with Kevin's, walked towards him. Concern was written all over his face, as he stopped and searched Kevin's eyes, looking for something, a clue to why that had happened back there. "You know, Kev," he said, "we were wondering that very thing about you."
Kevin looked down at his water, watching bubbles rise to the surface as he put the top back on. He put his arm around Howie's shoulders and walked them back to the table. Howie went to stand behind AJ, still watching him, as Kevin moved to stand behind Nick's chair on the other side. He leaned over Nick and placed the bottle on the table and straightened back up. He looked at all of them and finally spoke, "Guys, I really appreciate how everyone's been so worried about me, but, I'm fine," he stopped and looked at AJ, "really, I'm fine. You all know how tough the last couple of months have been for me lately," and he paused again, thinking about Kat. God, he missed her. The past months have been hell and, "and last night hasn't made my life any easier." It wasn't a lie. He had been thinking about Kat a lot, every day even, especially now. The tour was almost over. They had planned to spend a week doing absolutely nothing together, just enjoying each other during long walks on the beach, or sitting cozily in front of his fireplace, just the two of them. But not now. All he had to look forward to when he came home was a cold, empty house, void of life, and endless lonely nights, sleepless nights, alone. Nope, not a lie. The memories, the emotions, were coming back to him and he didn't notice when a tear escaped his eye and ran down the side of his face.
AJ was up first and by his side immediately. He wrapped his arm around his shoulders and drew him close, saying, an apologetic tone to his voice, "Kev, we had no idea. I had no idea. I'm sorry."
Brian sat frozen, looking up at Kevin through teary eyes. He should have known. Why didn't he figure it out? It was there, hell, it had been there for the last few months, but it was so much stronger now. He got up and joined AJ next to him. "We were just worried, Kev. You weren't saying much, keeping to yourself, you know? And, you know you could tell any one of us anything right?"
Kevin looked at him, the emotions in him subsiding, his tears stopping. He saw Howie there next, standing behind Brian.
"Yeah," Howie said, "and anytime. You're more important, Kevin."
Kevin felt guilty. He had been sidetracked by Kat and had forgotten the other reason he had been so distant. Maybe he should tell them now, while they were still sympathetic. No, he couldn't. He had thought about it already. He'd wait for a while and tell them later, after all this was over. He looked at them all, one by one, and whispered simply, "Thanks."
AJ smiled and patted his back. "Hey, no problem, bro." He brought his face around to make Kevin look at him. "Now smile," he said and shot him a goofy, drunken smile.
Kevin grinned. He felt better, better about Kat, better about the whole situation.
"That's better," AJ said and he made his way back to Howie, who had taken his chair, and he stood behind him.
Kevin turned to Brian, though, not moving from behind Nick's chair. His ankle hurt enough and he wanted to avoid any unnecessary movements. "I'm sorry about breakfast this morning," he said.
"It's okay, Kev," he said. "I wasn't mad anyway."
Kevin and Brian became engrossed in pleasant conversation, leaving Howie, AJ and Nick to occupy themselves in other ways. Nick quickly drifted off into a daydream, not unusual, and became unaware of Howie and AJ's newborn plan.
Howie nudged AJ and nodded at Nick, "Hey, looks like Nicky's a little zoned out, don't you think?"
AJ leaned over across the table and waved his hand in Nick's face. He got no reaction and waved a little more vigorously. Nope, nothing. "Yeah, I'd say so. What do ya say we break him out of his trance, huh, D?" he said, looking down at his friend.
"Just what I had in mind," he replied, flashing a mischievous smile.
Kevin and Brian were still busy talking, now about Brian's plans to build a new house over the summer, and didn't notice the plot against Nick.
AJ took a deep breath, and yelled out at Nick, "Hey Nick! Wake up!"
Nick broke out of his dream with a jump, stood up, and sent the chair he had been sitting in directly into Kevin. "What?" he yelled back, startled.
Nobody answered. Kevin fell back, stepping down hard on his left foot. He felt a snap in his ankle and he yelled out at Nick, "Nick! Damn it, Nick!" He lost his balance and fell against the wall and slid down to the floor. He closed his eyes, the loud snap of his ankle echoing over and over in his ears. If it wasn't broken before, God knows it was broken now.
Howie was the first to react and was running over, followed by AJ and Nick. Brian stood rooted to his spot by the table.
Howie was the first to reach him and knelt down next to him. "Kev! Kevin, are you okay? Kevin!" he said, as he watched him, his eyes fixed on his face, wishing he would speak, or groan or anything.
Kevin sat there, eyes still closed, trying to catch his breath. He fought the desire to reach down to his ankle. He had just made excuses for himself five minutes ago, and there was no way he was going to admit to this now. He gritted his teeth and slowly opened his eyes to three worried faces. He reached up for Howie and put his hand on his shoulder. He didn't want him to go anywhere.
Brian began to make his way over. What had happened? He hardly saw any of it. One minute he was saying how he thought he should put a balcony on the second floor and the next he was screaming at Nick and sitting in a heap on the ground. A big blur. His eyes fell on Kevin. He was clutching his stomach, trying to breath. 'The chair must've knocked the wind out of him,' he thought. 'He has to be okay. Oh, God, why does this stuff keep happening to him?' In a sudden burst of energy, he knelt down in back of Nick and shoved him out of the way, bringing himself face to face with Kevin. He heard Howie asking him to talk to him, to say something.
"Kev, come on, just say anything. I hate you would be nice right now, or anything. Just say something," he pleaded with him.
Kevin let his gaze wander from Howie to Brian, who was kneeling in front of him.
When Howie had stopped talking, Brian looked at Kevin, trying to remain as calm as he could. Despite his efforts, the quiver in his voice came through as he spoke, "Kev, cuz, come on, talk to me. I just want to know if you're okay? Are you alright, Kevin?"
Kevin stared at Brian, and nodded. He still couldn't quite find his voice, or the breath to work it. But, he'd be fine. He would be okay. He'd stand back up and go back out and carry on like he always did. No problem.
Brian wasn't satisfied with just the nod. "Kev, just say one word, that's all we want. One. Just one."
Kevin leaned his head back against the wall. God, it hurt. It all hurt. His ankle hurt. His stomach hurt. His head hurt. It was taking most of his self-control not to reach for his ankle. He struggled for a deep breath, and managed only to muster up a shallow one. He looked at Brian, who was still waiting, and whispered, "I'm okay." He coughed the rest of the breath out, but began to succeed in taking longer breaths, some shakier than others, but breaths all the same. The air was getting to his lungs.
They all breathed a sigh of relief and smiled to one another. Mission number one complete, on to mission number two: he had to stand up. Fatima would be coming back, looking for them, in ten minutes. They had to blow this clambake and get back to rehearsal.
Kevin brought his knees up to his chest and rested his head on his knees. His body shook from coughing and his ankle was throbbing. 'Dear God, make it stop. I'm sick of this. Just make it stop.'
Howie watched him. He was hurting. He could tell. Something was definitely wrong. He kept his eyes on him and was relieved when his coughing stopped. He continued to watch him. He wasn't moving and wasn't about to. He tried to talk to him again. "Kev," he started. He wasn't about to look up at him either. "Kev, we need you to get up. Fatima'll be back soon. You need to get up." He was breathing fine, that wasn't the problem; in fact, his breathing was speeding up. There was something else. That chair did something else, not just knock the wind out of him.
Kevin kept his head bent down. He heard Nick, for the first time since the chair came crashing into him. He was apologizing. Apologizing for what? It wasn't his fault. He wanted to look up, to tell him that, but he couldn't. What he heard next put his heart on his list of hurts. Nick was crying. Lord, he felt guilty enough already, and if he had to tell Nick that it wasn't his fault, none of it was, he just might break down along with him. He raised his head, eyes closed, not wanting to look at any of them. He just wanted to think. He couldn't think of much, just of how much he wanted all of this to go away, how he wished he had been the one on the horse that day. He thought of how he wished he were the one that was taken to the hospital, that they had screwed up on him, so none of this could've happened.
Brian looked at him, seeing his face torn in pain. He didn't know what to do, so he talked to him, something Kevin always used to do for him when he was in the hospital, scared of the surgery. He leaned closer to his face and softly began to whisper to him, "Come on Kevin, everything's fine. Your fine, we're all fine. Let's get you up and back to rehearsal so you could just forget about all this. Get you mind off it, Kev. Come on."
Kevin opened his eyes. God, they cared so much. He knew it. A new wave of guilt swept over him. They all looked so scared. Maybe they wouldn't be so mad if he told them, maybe. No, they wouldn't. They didn't care about the show; they cared about him.
He looked down again. It hurt so badly. It wouldn't stop, wouldn't go away. He couldn't stand it anymore. He didn't try to fight his hand as it traveled off Howie's shoulder and down. He closed his eyes as he touched his ankle, waiting for the pain to intensify. It did, but his hand didn't move. He kept it there, holding onto it.
Howie's eyes widened as he watched Kevin grab his ankle. His conversation with AJ came back to him from this morning. He had known all along. His head shot up to look at his friend.
AJ was already looking at Howie. "See?" he mouthed to him and nodded at Kevin. Howie nodded, acknowledging that he had been right and looked at Kev, then back at AJ. "He needs help," he mouthed back. "We could talk later."
And AJ nodded.
Brian had turned his attention to Nick and had him drawn close, comforting him. "It's not your fault, Nick. What happened, happened. It's nobody's fault."
Nick wouldn't have any of it and kept insisting. "Yes it is. If I didn't blow up, it wouldn't have happened." Some tears still slid down his cheeks and he tried to wipe them away as he spoke.
AJ slid his hand up Kevin's back and let it rest on his shoulder. "Kev?" he said, being careful not to startle him.
He didn't answer.
Howie leaned in close. "Kev, you need to get up," he said, just as softly as AJ had spoken.
Nick pulled away from Brian and spoke next, his voice small and weak, "Kev, I'm sorry. But," he trailed off to wipe some more tears as he sniffled, "but we all really need you to get up."
That voice, it tore Kevin apart. He sounded so scared, so small, like a lost little kid. But those thoughts were erased as he felt Howie grab his arm and start to pull him up.
"Stop, Howie!" he said, with all the force he could manage. "Howie, please!"
Howie let go and he sank back down. "I can't," Kevin said, not looking at them.
"What do you mean, you can't?" Brian asked, suddenly panicky.
Kevin's head shot up. "I can't get up, Brian. I can't!"
They were all quiet then. AJ was the first to speak again. He rubbed his hand across his shoulders and said, calmly, "It was last night, wasn't it?"
He didn't answer. God, why didn't he tell them before?
"When you landed, right?"
Continuing to look down, he nodded. He finally looked at them, scared at what they might say. He saw nothing but concern and forgiveness for him on their faces. When he spoke, his voice came out sounding much like Nick's had, lost and small, "I'm sorry. I just . . . I couldn't tell you. I thought I could make it."
"Kev, it's all right," Howie said, and grabbed ahold of his arm again. "We'll talk about this later. Right now, you got to get up. We'll help you."
Reluctantly, Kevin let Howie help him up. He felt the support of Nick's arm around his back, while Brian and AJ looked on, ready to catch him if he fell. Kevin put his weight on his right foot and, instinctively, his left came down to help. He stumbled, nearly finding himself back against the wall, but Nick kept him up. He whimpered softly and straightened up, leaning on Howie. He tried to focus on Brian, who was standing in front of him, but his eyes didn't want to cooperate. His vision was gray, and his head was light. He wanted to sit back down, but Nick and Howie still had a firm grip on him. Things were getting blurry and voices were becoming muffled and unrecognizable.
He heard Brian. Was he talking to him? He couldn't tell. He stared ahead of him, trying to force his senses back to normal, but they were fading fast. He felt a wave of weakness run through him and he tried to talk. He was surprised when he was still able to. "Guys, help. . ." The words had barely left him before the world spun out and he collapsed, falling limply against Howie.
Brian began to panic, yelling over and over, "Kevin! Kevin, wake up, Kevin!" as Howie and AJ eased him down to lay him on the floor. Brian fell hard on his knees next to Kevin and cradled his head in his lap. Tears were threatening to spill over as he whispered to Kevin. "I'm here, Kev. We're gonna take care of you. It's okay, just wake up. Please, Kev . . ."
Howie and Nick were beside Brian. They didn't know what to say.
Nick turned to Howie, "We need to help him now, okay? Just get him some help." He was almost as panicked as Brian was. His words were delivered fast, with no breath in between. His eyes searched Howie's, waiting for an answer.
Howie could only nod.
AJ, meanwhile, had crawled down to Kevin's feet and had untied his sneaker and by this time had taken it off. He removed his sock and pushed up the leg of his pants, bracing himself for what he was about to see.
"Oh my God . . ." He whispered quietly.
"What?" Howie said, as he made his way over, leaving Nick and Brian, on his hands and knees, over to AJ.
AJ didn't look up. He gazed upon Kevin's ankle, his mouth hanging open. He felt Howie lean over his shoulder, his face next to his. "Holy shit."
Kevin's ankle was worse than what they had imagined. Bruises practically covered his ankle, going up parts of his leg and down parts of his foot. The joint itself was swollen to a size of about an orange and a half and was twisted into an ugly, unnatural shape. It had to be broken.
Howie sat back and tried to think. 'Okay, it's almost noon, there should be some kids out there, maybe they could help,' he thought. No, what kid could take care of something like this. But maybe a parent could . . . Maybe . . .'
"AJ!" he said, shaking his shoulder. "AJ, I've got an idea!"
AJ turned around. "What, what's the idea?"
"There are kids out there, right?"
AJ shot him a strange look. "Yeah, why?"
"Well," Howie said, "when there are a lot of them out there, there are usually, like, uh, nurse stations and stuff, in case somebody needs some sort of medical attention. And maybe if, well, maybe we can get somebody to help Kev."
AJ's face lit up at the realization. He stood up and nearly ran Nick over as he made his way to the door. Brian and Nick watched him, confused. He turned around at the door, and before swinging it open, he caught the look on Brian's face. "Don't worry, Bri. Be back in a flash." And he was gone.
"Hey, Faith, what do you think is going on out there," Laura said as she nodded toward the crowd around one of the stadium gates. They had started screaming and began to cluster together all in the same place, reaching for something.
"I haven't the slightest," she said, straining her eyes to see what all the commotion was about. "No, I can't see anything . . ."
Laura dismissed it, waving her hand at the crowd, "Ah, it's probably nothing. They probably saw one of their hands or something. Who knows."
But the noise was getting louder, and closer. It was something, and that something was making its way closer to the tent. It wasn't nothing.
Then Faith saw him. A man came running, frantic, through the sea of people. A red baseball cap was pulled low on his head, trying to hide his face. She saw him catch sight of the tent. He broke into a jog and it wasn't until he was about ten feet away that Faith realized who he was. It was AJ.