A.J. found Howie still sitting in his wheelchair, staring silently at the wall of his room. He entered slowly, closing the door quietly behind him. He wondered what exactly had happened, what Howie had done. Whatever it was, Howie was so wrapped up in it that he nearly jumped out of his skin when A.J. laid a hand on his shoulder.
"Yo D, chill!"
Howie looked up. "Oh, it's you," he responded woodenly.
"Thanks." A.J. grinned at his friend, but knew not to take his teasing any further. Howie could get very sensitive and now was not the time.
He returned to staring at the wall. "I... thought it might be Nick."
"Nick's awake??"
"Nick's... I don't know what's wrong with him, Bone." Howie confessed. "All I could do was sit there, yelling for a doctor, yelling at Mindi. I couldn't help him."
"Hey, not your fault." A.J. reassured him gently. "This is a weird situation for everybody. And you're not psychic."
"I should have helped him," he insisted. "I should have at least talked to him, tried to be there for him. Instead, I wallked away, left him alone with Mindi. I feel like such a jerk."
"What happened?"
"You don't know?" he looked up at his friend again.
A.J. shook his head. "Mindi just said there was trouble and Nick needed Brian. She told me you needed a friend."
"But Mindi was with Nick..." Howie protested. "She didn't leave him alone like that?"
"'Course not D. But you don't have to see Mindi to talk to her." A.J. tapped his temple.
"You *let* her..." Howie was clearly horrified.
A.J. sighed heavily. "Y'know bro, I'm startin' to see why Nick had such a huge problem hauling you out of the bus."
"Nick didn't..."
"Face it, Howie. He did." A.J. insisted, sitting on the bed that had been Kevin's. "I know you don't like it. I know it don't make a load of sense. But it's a fact. Who do you think asked me to sing you awake? You think I make a habit of just standin' around accident sites singing worse than a cat?"
"Nick's in a hospital bed having a seizure or something..."
"What?"
"Mindi says it's telekinesis." Kevin volunteered from the doorway.
"Telekinesis?" Howie questioned.
"Yeah, y'know, moving things with your mind."
"I *know* what it means, Train. Since when does Nick Carter, our Nicky, have telekinesis?"
"He emerged when he was thirteen."
"Jesus Christ, Lina!" A.J. gasped. "Kev, shut the door."
The three Backstreet Boys stared at the young woman who had appeared in their midst. Howie had gone pale, Kevin's mouth hung open... and A.J. was wavering between relief, anger and confusion. No one moved to shut the door, so Lina elected to shut it herself. It swung shut with a decisive click. She was still standing in the middle of the room.
"I'm upset," she stated calmly. "I'm upset and you two need some serious lessons in perspective, so I'm gonna tend to be dramatic."
"Lina..." A.J. began.
"Not now, Alex." Lina was very much in control of the situation. "You know I don't mess around. Just deal with my little extras. I may not have been here for the last while, but I do know what's been going on. And since this seems to be the only way I can help Nick, I'm gonna do what it takes."
"What's going on?" Howie asked, sounding more weary than anything else. He'd already had more than enough weirdness down in the ICU. To have a tall, bespectacled redhead standing in the middle of his room lecturing them... it made his head hurt.
Her expression softened a little. "I know you have a condition, and I'm sorry that we don't have time to deal with it properly. I'll go as lightly as I can." She turned to glare at Kevin. "But you!"
Her dark green eyes positively sparked and Kevin prayed for the floor to just swallow him up. It didn't happen.
""If it wasn't for Nick you'd be dead where you stand, Richardson," she growled. "I'm hoping he didn't horribly misjudge you. I'm hoping that it's just a knee-jerk reaction that has you shoving him away so violently. I'm hoping all this, because if he did misjudge you, he's going to pay heavily for the mistake. And then I'm going to take the exact same amount out of you."
A.J. decided he had had enough. Lina, for whatever her reasons, had disappeared after the accident, and no one seemed to want to talk about her. Now she was here, laying into them. He had the distinct feeling she was full of talk."You didn't come here to lecture us," he interrupted her, "I'm guessing you came to help Nick."
She looked at him for a moment, then nodded in acceptance. "I did. I can't play much of an active role this time, but I think I have the best chance of anyone to get you all to at least understand where Nick is coming from. And if I can get you that far, you might just be able to save him."
"What about Brian?"
"He's going to know far more than he needs to when he's finished down there. Now sit down. I've got a long story to tell."