Brian's amazed elation faded quickly when Nick made no move to get up. He approached the prone form of his friend carefully. The first thing that hit him was the smell. Nick was rancid, ten or twenty times worse than his worst day on tour. What he saw when he knelt down drove the odour from Brian's mind entirely.
Nick hardly looked human and certainly didn't look alive. Fleetingly Brian wondered how on earth he'd recognized him. His hair was long, greasy and tangled. His face was grey, whether from dirt or lack of oxygen Brian couldn't tell in the mix of shadow and too-bright light. The very faintest pressure of Brian's fingertips over Nick's ribs produced a pained yell.
"I'm sorry Frack, sorry!" he exclaimed as the younger man woke and made a panicked attempt to crawl away. Brian didn't know where to grab for fear of causing more pain. Frozen with indecision, he began to babble, his accent becoming thicker as his nervousness grew. "Stop moving, you're gonna hurt yourself. I promise I won't touch you. God please... Just stop... stay put, for the love of God, Nick!"
Nick had almost reached the shelter of a nearby tree when he paused. Frightened eyes flashed quickly over Brian - once, twice, three times. On all fours, with his neck craned at an uncomfortable angle, he looked like a wild animal. His mouth worked slowly. The first few tries produced no sound. Eventually he worked up to a painful-sounding croak. Both men winced.
"Water," Brian decided. "Nick, you want water?"
Nick seemed to be listening hard, without actually understanding.
"Okay. I'm going to get up, slowly." He suited actions to words, holding his hands out in a gesture of harmlessness. "I'm going to go into the kitchen and get you water. Don't leave, okay?"
Nick stared at him wordlessly, an injured animal, still tensed for flight.
Brian closed his eyes and prayed for strength. "Please Lord, let me help him."
Once he was inside, Brian ran for the kitchen. He knew the layout of the place too well to need lights. It only took him a moment to fill a tumbler and return to the lawn, but he still sighed with relief on finding Nick hadn't gone.
Getting him to drink the water took a good ten minutes. Nick wouldn't let Brian come too close, so Brian set the glass down near Nick and sat down a few yards off. Attempts to pick up the tumbler revealed more injuries - what looked like badly-healed burns on Nick's palms. After watching his once proud groupmate attempt to bend over and lap water out of the glass, Brian couldn't stand it any longer.
"Nick," Nick shrank back at the frustrated tone. "No, it's okay. I'm not mad. I'm not going to hurt you." Brian crawled slowly towards his friend, sternly informing his heart that it wasn't allowed to break at the suspicion Nick exhibited until he'd gotten Nick safely into bed. "Here."
It was a trick he'd learned with his newest neice, Kevin's daughter Stacey. Brian dipped two fingers into the water, then held them out towards Nick. Nick wrinkled his nose, either in confusion or distaste, Brian couldn't tell which. He repeated the action, this time sticking the fingers in his own mouth and sucking for a moment. This got Nick's attention. When Brian tried again, he edged closer and gave a tentative lick.
"Gooood," Brian encouraged soothingly. "It's okay buddy. I'll take care of you."
Dawn was breaking as they finally emptied the glass. Nick licked his lips and made another attempt to speak.
"Br...Bri-an?"
He had to stifle the urge to smother Nick in a hug. "That's me," he agreed, trying to grin, trying to keep things light."I'm Brian."
"Brian."
"And you're Nick."
Nick nodded. Pointed to Brian. "Brian?"
"I promise, it's me. Brian."
Nick was still having trouble processing this idea. "Brian?"
"Brian," he agreed firmly. How could he prove it? Nick didn't seem to be in the mood to accept a driver's license. There wasn't much in the way of... He started to pull up his shirt.
It did the trick. When Nick saw the scars on his chest, the tears finally began to fall. "Brian." Slowly, painfully, he crawled closer and laid his head in Brian's lap. Brian stroked Nick's hair and cried with him as the new day began.