Linzi's Diary 10
The Missing Diary
Rummaging through the box Pippin finds a book. She takes it downstairs and placed it on the coffee table. "Hey dad, look what I found in that box." "Why were you in there?" "I was curious." Brian sat forward and picked it up, he opened the first page and smiled. "What's in it?" "It's one of your moms Diaries, she used to write these all the time." "What are they about?" "Well they're about all of us, she used to write about the things we all used to get up to. I don't think I've seen this one before." "Can you read it to me?" "I can if you want me too?" "Yes please." Pippin sits down on the sofa and gets comfortable, Brian sits back in his chair and begins to read:
Date: 23/9/2005 Place: home Time: 8:45am Music: car stereo
"I'm really scared." Brian holds her hand. "Don't be, there's nothing to be scared about?" "My babies are about to start a new school over here, and they're not like the other kids." "They're triplets not aliens, Jen will keep an eye on them won't you honey?" "Yep daddy." "See, so don't panic, it's not good on the baby. So I'll drop you guys off at the school then I'll get to rehearsals, are you okay walking home?" "I'll be fine, if I have to I'll catch a bus. Don't worry about me, I've done this many a time." Brian parks the car. "Well here we are... you guys have a good time. Love you all very much." "Love you daddy." "Love you munchkin." "Say bye to daddy boys." "Bye daddy." said Tom leaning over for a kiss." "Ooh, kisses from my Tommy, see ya later." "Bye daddy." "Love ya Scotty." "See ya later daddy." "See you later James." they all climb out of the car.
Brian kisses Linzi. "Don't worry, they'll be fine. I love you." "I love you too." She climbs out of the car. "Come on then, let's get you into school." they walk through the gates and into the playground and Brian drives off. "Okay." "Hi, are you new here?" asked a mum. "Yeah, we've not long moved over here." "Your kids are so cute; you have triplets?" "Yeah, they're pretty special." "I bet and they're identical, that must be difficult?" "Not really, they're easy to tell who's who." "I haven't even introduced myself, my names Ellen Crosby." "Linzi Littrell and these are Jenni-Kay, Tomas, James and Scott." "I have a son, he's called Harrison. He'll be in your boys' year." "I've been so nervous about them starting today, it's a big thing for them." "I'm sure they'll be fine once they get settled in and it looks like you could do with a break, how far along are you?" "Six months, I'm glad it's just the one this time." "You must have a very supportive husband." "I do, when he's at home. He calls every night when he's away, he's a great dad." "There you are; Brian must have dropped you off early." said Jenny. "I see you've met Ellen." "I was just saying that her kids are so cute, you don't see triplets often. You two know each other?" "Yeah, we've known each other for years. We had a house together in England, we both decided to move over here with our husbands." "Now you can relax, she's been really nervous." "You know Tom and James will be fine, they have your phone number if anything goes wrong... James has epilepsy and Tom has a prosthetic arm." "I just don't want kids to be horrible to him about it." "Aww bless, this is a really good school, you don't need to worry." "This is the first time they've been out of my sight for a long time." "They will be okay; I don't want to keep repeating myself. Come on let's get them into class, then you're coming with me to my house for a cup of tea." "Okay." they take the kids into their classes before walking back to Jenny's house.
They walk into the living room. "My feet really hurt." "Well, you're three months ahead of me. I am not looking forward to going through that bit again." "Brian best run me a nice hot bath when he gets home." "I'm sure he will, and he'd have candles and rose petals everywhere." "Now that'll be nice... does AJ do that for you then?" "You are kidding, I keep hinting." "I hope these next three months' fly by, I can't wait to meet this baby." "I thought you were going to find out what you were having?" "I was going to, but then we decided that we wanted to have a surprise." "That's exciting, I wish I didn't find out about these two now." "I'm sure you're still happy with having another set of twin boys, at least Christian will have lots of brothers to protect her." "I guess that's true... shall I get us something to drink?" "Yes, I think that sounds like a good idea." they walk into the kitchen. Linzi checks her phone. "Stop it, the boys are fine and Jen doesn't exactly find it hard to make friends." "I can't help it; you know what kids can be like. I don't want Tom being picked on because he's different." "He's five and I'm sure he will be fine, when has he ever let his disability get in his way? You need to relax, all of this stress is just no good for that baby." "The fellas don't have any of this worry, they just carry on as normal." "They have a distraction, here, drink your tea and I'll grab us some biscuits." Jenny walks over to the cupboards.
The boys were in rehearsals before the European leg of the 'Never Gone' tour. During the break Brian wandered over and checked his phone. "Are you going to do that all day?" asked Howie. "No, I'm totally focused on this routine." "Are you sure?" "Yeah." "Kids first day at school?" "Yeah, oh man I am a mess. This is crazy right? We're about to leave for Europe in a few days and I can't spend it worrying about the kids." "But you will... are Linzi and the kids joining us in London?" "I hope so; she's going to talk to the midwife about it. I'll be happy when we finish in November, we'll get to spend the whole of Christmas with our families." "I am so looking forward to that... how's the whole moving thing going?" "Well we're in the house and she loves it, she's already started thinking about decorating... hey will you guys be okay with me bringing James along tomorrow? He has a hospital check up in the morning so it'll be easier if I just come straight from there to here." "I'm okay with that." Smiled Kevin. "Awesome, spending the afternoon with little dude." Smiled Nick. "Are you sure about that? You know he can dance better than you, you don't want him making you look bad." Grinned AJ. "Ha ha, well if that's going to be the case we best get back to work." Brian and Howie walk into the middle of the room and join everyone else.
James, Tom and Scott are sat at their table, Tom was drawing, Scott was doing some painting and James was playing with play dough. The other kids were looking at them. "I want mommy." Said Tom looking scared. "Stop staring." Scowled James. "Okay, what's going on? Are you boys okay?" "Teacher why do they look the same?" asked one of the children. "Ah well, these three are very special because they are identical triplets so that means they were born on the same day and all look the same." "Who is who?" "Well that's a good question, but you know you can ask them." "I know." Smiled Christian. "Scott is doing painting, Tom is doing drawing and James is made a horse with dough." She beamed again. "Thank you Christian, now I'm sure in time you will all remember which one is which. Okay, it's now time to tidy up and then I want you all sitting on the mat for story time." The kids all start to clean up.
AJ arrived back from rehearsals. "And that makes you Larger than life." Sang AJ "Thanks." Chuckled Linzi. "Oh, no I didn't mean you baby. I could never mean you." "You had a good day then? Where's Brian?" asked Jen. "He was still there dancing when I left... We certainly worked hard if that's what you mean, just hate that these days are going to fly by." "I know, but you're wanted around the world and you love your job. Me and Linzi will be fine together and we'll see you again in a few weeks, I know the kids are looking forward to it." "They boys only enjoy it because they get attention from all the girls. I'll let them be at the meet and greet again this time, they'll only get upset if I don't." Said AJ "Those kids will all end up more popular than you." "It's fun for them and it keeps them occupied while they're waiting for the show, you know they get restless in the seats." "Tell me about it, the whole reason we let the boys join you back stage was because they'd decided to run around the whole of Wembley Arena. And mostly because Alex had managed to run into some of your fans and got a cup of cola dropped on his head, we were lucky that he was your son otherwise they wouldn't have been too impressed." "That was funny though." "No it wasn't but at least the girls had a memorable night." "Talking of kids I think it's time to pick them up from school." Said Linzi standing up. She gets a text message on her phone. 'On way to get the kids, will pick you up from AJ's. Love you xx' "Okay, looks like Brian's picking the kids up." "Sweet, well looks like it'll be me picking our little ones up. See you girls again in a while." AJ grabbed his keys and left the house.
Brian is in the car, he has his music up and singing along. "Oh you can't be serious." He slowly stops the car and looks at his watch. "Oh she is going to kill me... will you move out of the way!!" a few cars move ahead of him. He spots a gap between some cars to the next road so he quickly drives forward, a car driving the opposite direction hits him. "This isn't happening right now!" he undoes his seat belt. "Ow! Great!" he gets out of the car holding his arm to his chest. "What do you think you were doing?" "I am so sorry, here I'll give you my insurance details." He writes them down on a piece of paper. "Again I am so sorry; I have to go because I'm late picking up my kids." Brian jumped in the car and drove off toward the school.
He parked the car and rushed into the school. "Dad!" smiled Jenni-Kay. "Hey teddy bear, I am so sorry I'm late. I had a bit of an accident on the way here, where are the boys?" "I think they're still in their classroom, I saw uncle AJ and he said that you were on your way." "I was, where is the boys class?" "I'll take you." They walk towards the classroom. "Daddy!" Tom started running towards him. "Whoa slow down Tom, hey buddy how you been?" "I did drawing." "Awesome, come on runaway let's go get those brothers of yours." He walked into the class room and looked over at the teacher. "I am so sorry; I didn't mean to be so late." "It's fine, I've enjoyed spending time with the boys. They've been telling me all about your job and it's been nice to get to know them a bit more." "They are incredible kids; this is my daughter Jenni-Kay." "Hi." "Hi." "So you fellas ready to make a move home? Hopefully the car will make it." "Yes daddy." Smiled James. "What did you do daddy?" "Daddy had an accident and thinks he may have broken his arm, so let's make a move out of here so daddy can go see a doctor." "Okay, bye boys." "Bye." They all say together as the kids rush out of the class room.
They soon arrive at AJ's, they kids rush out of the car and knock on the front door. Jen opens the door with a smile. "Here comes trouble, come on in... what happened to your dads' car?" "He said he had an accident." "Is he okay?" "I think so; he said he'll be in in a few minutes." "Okay, go on in Jen." Jenni-Kay walked into the house and Jen walked over to the car. "Are you okay?" "Nope, I need to go to a hospital. Is Linzi ready? I'll drop her and the kids off first before I head down there." "I'll just go and see." Jen walked back into the house and into the living room. "Brian's asked me to see if you're ready, silly bugger had and accident and he really needs to see a doctor." "He knows how to make a day interesting." "Me and AJ can watch the kids for you, you go and sort him out." "Thank you, if you need me for anything then call me. I don't like leaving the boys for too long." "Well me and AJ will be here and I'm sure all of the kids will keep him occupied." "Thank you, well I best make a move, I'll see you later Jen." "See you later." Linzi walked out of the house and over to the car, she got into the passenger seat. "Car's a bit of a state, are you okay?" "Yeah, where are the kids?" "Jens going to keep an eye on them while we get you looked at... what happened?" "I wasn't paying attention, I got stuck in traffic and I got angry. I just pulled out and got hit... I didn't want to be late picking up the kids." "Let me have a look." He holds out his arm. "Don't start moving it around because it really hurts." "I won't." She looks at him and sighs. "You are a muppet, come on then let's go." Brian starts the car and they drive to the hospital.
Later that evening AJ had dropped the kids over to Brian's. He knocked on the door and Brian soon answered. "Hey AJ, hey kids! Hey I missed you." He said hugging them all. "Uh oh, Daddy got a boo boo." Said Scott pointing at Brian's arm. "Yep because your dad is silly, okay kids go and play but be quiet because your mom is asleep in bed." "Okay." The kids all scatter. "Is she okay?" asked AJ. "Yeah, she's just six months pregnant and tired. Come on in a minute." AJ walks into the hall and closes the door. "You know Kev is going to go crazy when he sees you with that tomorrow?" "Yep, I can still dance with it. I'll just have to leave out doing any back flips for a few weeks, my own fault at the end of the day and now I have to get a new car." "I did see that... Well the kids were all behaved, Jen made them some dinner so they shouldn't be hungry." "Thank you, we really appreciate that." "Not a problem, right well I will see you and James tomorrow... try not to get into any more accidents." "See you tomorrow." AJ left the house and drove home.
Brian walked up the stairs and into the bathroom where he started to run a bath. "Okay boys, you have fifteen minutes then it's bath time and bed time." He walked into the bedroom and stood by the door with a smile. "You can come in; this is your room too." "I know; I was just watching you." "You know some people would find that creepy... come and sit with me." He walked into the room and lay down on the bed next to her, she smiled at him. "Wait hold that; I'm just taking a picture of you right now with my eyes." "Why?" "Because I need something to picture when I'm away from you." Linzi starts to chuckle. "Oh that's so rude, you have a dirty mind. (He chuckled) I have plenty of pictures of you like that for those moments... I meant one for when I can't sleep or if I have too much on my mind, I can just picture this moment." "You're so soppy, I just don't know what to do with you sometimes." "Oh I'm sure you know exactly what to do with me." He smirked. "And look where that's got me?" "Aww, but don't you look gorgeous with it?" "Not really." He puts his hand on her bump. "Look what we have? We have this amazing family and we're about to add to it with another edition. What are you going to be baby? You can tell daddy." He closes his eyes. "Yep yep, baby says it's a girl." "Oh you think so? I'm telling you I can sense that this one will be another boy." "Well daddy sense says girl." "Okay daddy, you best go check on that bath. I'll go and rally the troops." Brian walks into the bathroom and Linzi goes into the play room. "Mommy, we made a rocket with Lego." Smiled Tom. "Well done boys, right bath time." "Aww mommy." Said James. "Don't start with that, you boys are all smelly after your busy day at school." "We don't smell mommy." "Oh yes you do." "Nope, not me." Tom smiled, Linzi knelt down in front of him. "Come on smelly butt, go get in the bath... first one in gets to splash daddy." Tom jumps up and starts to run followed by James and Scott.
Over at the McLean's. "Okay little lady it's time for bed." "Already?" "Already." AJ picks her up. "Say goodnight to mommy." "Night mommy." "Goodnight Christian." AJ carried her upstairs. "Right, go brush your teeth young lady." "I already done that." AJ looks at her and she grins at him. "Go and brush your teeth madam." "Aww daddy." She walks into the bathroom and standing on her stool she grabs her tooth brush. "Toothpaste please daddy." AJ puts toothpaste on her brush and Christian proceeds to brush her teeth, after rinsing she rushes off to her bed. Jumping up she gets under her covers. "Guess what?" "What?" "Tomorrow I'm going to draw you a picture." "You are? What are you going to draw?" "I don't know yet." "Did you have fun at school today?" "Yes." "Yes, are you happy now the boys are in your class?" "Yes, it's very fun. We played in the water together and read a book together." "Well I think they are happy that they had you there today... okay give daddy kisses." Christian kisses him on the cheek. "Goodnight daddy." "Goodnight baby." AJ tucked her in the covers before walking out of the room.
He walked back into the living room and sat down. "One down, two to go." "I heard that." Said Alex. "Well at least one of you did." "Number one son." "You're only the number one son in a literal sense because you were born first." "Only two minutes by the way." Said Kevin. "Now boys, no fighting." Smiled Jen. "How about you? Do you feel better now that Linzi is finally over here?" "Of course, I'm going over to hers tomorrow to help her with the unpacking. She was telling me that Brian's already started his idea for a studio, at least he'll have a place to go to give her some peace." "We should build one." "No AJ we're not, the garden doesn't have space for one and anyway you all have a studio to go to." "Spoil sport." "It's not a competition, we don't need one so we're not going to have one, I'm going to make a cup of tea so end of discussion." Jen got up and walked into the kitchen. "Oh, Dad just got owned." Chuckled Alex.
Date: 24/9/2005 Place: Studio Time: 10:30am Music: backing music
Howie walked in through the doors and heard music playing, he walked down to the studio and looked through the glass at Brian teaching James some of the dance moves. "Okay with a one, two, three four and stop. Wiggle wiggle turn and slide... yeah you got it." Howie walked in with a smile. "Good morning guys." "Uncle Howie!!" James ran over to him. "Hey James, I just watched you learning that dance; You did good buddy." "Thank you." "Go and get a drink and rest James." "Okay daddy, can I play with my new cars?" "Yeah." James walked off to the side of the room, he grabbed a bottle of water and sat down. "You should be proud, that was awesome. How was the hospital trip?" "All good as much as he can be, they're going to keep an eye on his heart; they think that the holes he's got might just close up as he gets older." "You've heard that one before." "That's what I said too, his epilepsy is under control just as long as he doesn't over do it." "So you got him dancing?" "We're not learning anything too fast." "Love the new edition to your outfit." He pointed at his arm. "Yeah I had an accident, it's all good though." The door opens and Nick walks in. "Hey guys." "Hey Nick, you look worn out before we even started." Said Howie. "I stopped off by the gym on my way here." "Uncle Nick! Uncle Nick!" James ran across the room and into his arms. "There's my little dude, are you ready to teach us all some moves?" "Daddy already taught me." "So you can show us then?" James nodded. "I got some new cars." "That's cool too, you wanna show me?" "Okay." Nick puts James down and follows him over; Brian and Howie sit down in an opposite corner. "He's an awesome kid, you didn't have to dress him up so you matched." Brian looked at himself in the mirror then over at James. "Oh yeah, I never even realised." Kevin walked in through the doors and put his bag on the floor against the wall. "Hey guys wassup, you're nice and early B." Brian points over towards Nick and Kevin smiles. "He's enjoying playing with the cars and James looks like he's having fun too." He chuckled. "Brian's been secretly teaching James some dance routines." Said Howie. "Getting him trained up for the big time?" "I'm not pushing any of my kids into this, they can do whatever they want to. We were just using our time wisely and he was helping me learn some of the routine." "What's with the arm? What did you do?" "I had a car accident, nothing too bad but I did break my wrist." "You going to be okay?" "Yeah." AJ walked in and set his bag down next to Kevin's. James spotted him and started to run over." "Uncle AJ! Uncle AJ! Uncle AJ!" AJ grabbed him and lifted over his shoulder. "Oh no I got him! Quick maybe your dad won't notice if we run away." "No Uncle AJ! We can't do that?" "Oh we can't?" "No silly." "So I'll have to give you back to your dad then?" "Yes." "Okay." AJ puts James down. "Are you going to watch us today and be a really good boy?" "Yes daddy gots me some new cars." "He did?" James walks over and sits down on Kevin's lap. "Hi Kevin." "Hi, I thought you were going to leave me out." "Nope." "Nope?" "Nope." "Did your dad dress you today?" "Yep, I gots on my new shoes too, look." James lifted up his foot. "Smart, they look just like your dads." "Yep." "Yep?" "Yep." "I'm glad we got that sorted." "Daddy I need a wee." "Okay, let's go." Brian stands up, he holds James' hand and they walk out of the room. "I do love that little dude; you know he's going to be even more of a handful when he's older." Said Kevin. "Yeah and I think James might be too." Said Howie with a smile. "So what we starting with today?" asked Nick. "We can just start from the first song in the show and work our way down, I know we'll have to nail down some of the larger routines in the show." Said Kevin. "Yeah I was going to say that we need to go over larger than life again." Said Nick. Brian walked back in with James, "Okay buddy, you go and play so daddy can get to work." "Okay." James sat down on the corner and the guys turn on the music and start to dance.
He plays with his cars for a while, after a few dance routines he stands up and starts to dance around to the music. Backstreet's back comes on and he watches as they move around together, he joins in using the moves that Brian had taught him earlier; Howie spots him from the corner of his eye and watches him while performing the routine himself. When the song finished Howie was smiling. "You okay D?" asked Kevin. "Yeah, hey I thought you said you hadn't been teaching him much? I just watched James dance the complete routine." AJ walked over and stood looking down at James. "Hey little dude, did you just dance all of that?" "Yeah, daddy showed me." "Why don't you show us how good you are, I bet you dance better than your daddy." James nodded. "Oh thanks Jim." "You wanna dance to that again? I know why don't you stand in front of us and if you watch in the mirror you'll see us all dancing behind you, you wanna do that?" "Yes." James runs over and stands in the middle, for five minutes while the fellas get organised he stands pulling funny faces at himself. "Like father like son hey B? You ready James?" asked Kevin. "Yep." The music starts and they all start dancing. The song soon ends and they all look at him amazed by how well he did. "That was awesome, looks like this boy is going to be just like his daddy, you were awesome little man." Smiled AJ. "We should get him to dance with us during the show, that will be just crazy." Said Nick. "I'll have to convince Linzi to let me do that, what do you think Jim? You wanna dance with your dad on the stage?" "Yeah, can I?" "We'd have to talk to mommy first though... right back and play, we shouldn't be much longer." "Okay daddy." James walked over to the edge of the hall and picked up his cars.
They continued with the routines, James had soon fallen asleep curled up on a dance mat and sucking his thumb. The guys took a break and were sat on the floor with bottle of water. "He okay?" asked Kevin. "Yeah, he's five. Must be nice to just fall asleep whenever you want to." "What did the doctors say?" "I was telling Howie earlier; they're just going to keep an eye on his heart; they think the holes might just close as he gets older. That's one of the reasons we took him for a check-up, he sleeps a lot. I know that for some it's a good thing, but he ends up missing out on things and we just want him to be able to join in as much as he can with all the other kids." "That kid is full of energy and like you said he's five, he has plenty of time to join in and do all the things he wants to." "Yeah I know." He smiled.
Rehearsals were soon over, Brian walked over and carefully picked up James and held him gently against his shoulder. "See you later guys, I'll be here tomorrow minus this guy." "Yeah, see you later B." Said Nick. Brian left the studio and not long after everyone else leaves too.
Nick walked in through the doors singing. "Sounds like you had a good day." "We had an awesome day, we got through rehearsals and even got to hang out with our little buddy James." "Aww, no wonder you had fun I bet he was keeping you on your toes?" "He danced with us and he was awesome, the only five-year-old I know who can do the entire routine to Backstreet's back." "You'll have to record it next time so I can see it." "You'll see it when we go over to London, he's going to dance with us on stage." "Does Wizz know any of this?" "Brian's going to talk to her about it... ooh missed you baby." "Missed you too, Nick I need to tell you something." "Sounds serious." "Yeah pretty much is." He looks at her. "What's happened?" "Nothing bad, well I hope not..." "Okay you're just stalling, what's wrong?" "I should have told you a few months back, but you were away and I didn't want to bother you." "Kerry... just tell me." "I'm pregnant." "Oh... you are?" "Yeah, three months." "Three months?" "Yeah, I really did want to tell you when I found out." He starts to smile. "Well that's okay then because I was starting to think that you were putting on weight." "Oi you!" she smiled. "Are you okay with it?" "Of course I am, bring on the Carters... wait till I tell the guys." "They're going to be excited." "Okay now I really need to hug you Mrs Carter." Nick gently took her hand and pulled her towards him before placing his arms around her waist and kissing her.
Brian walked through the door. "We're back!" "James is home!" called Tom running into the hallway. "I see you're not excited about daddy Tommy, you can go and play James." They boys run off down the hall. "How did it go?" "Doctors say he's doing great, they're going to keep an eye on him and hopefully he won't need heart surgery. They think that the holes will close up as he gets older, also he had an amazing time hanging with the fellas today. That brings me to something I want to ask you." "You are kidding me? He's five." "I know, but it'll just be for one song. You know he's okay with all the lights because he's been to all of our other shows, he really did enjoy dancing today." "Does he want to do it? or is this just what you want him to do?" "He wants to do it, in fact he took centre stage today and he really enjoyed it. We all enjoyed having him there too, they always enjoy when the kids come along." "I will have to think about it, I don't want you giving all your attention to just James, you'll need to make the others feel special too." "I'm not singling him out, I love all of our beautiful kids. How can you not? Have you seen how cute they are? Every day I come home from tours and I see how much they've changed, they're a blessing to my life, to our lives." "I know that, still not going to say yes to James going up on stage." Brian leans against the door frame and looks at her. "Don't do that." "Do what?" "Stop it or I will remove you from the room." "Oh is that right?" "Yes, now stop it." She sits down and looks at the TV. "Okay now that's more annoying because I can just feel you doing it." She gets up and walks over to him and he just smiles. "See, you always do that because you know that I'll give in." "Has it worked yet?" "Okay, I will let him go on stage with you but you boys will have to keep a close eye on him at all times. I know I will be in the front row but I can't see what goes on backstage and I will be panicking like crazy the whole time." "I will keep him by my side at all times and when we're on the stage he will be in the safe hands, you know he will I wouldn't let any harm come to him; you know that, if anyone ever caused harm to any of our kids that I would hunt them down and personally lay hell on their shoulders." "Now that would be a sight to see you going all out crazy like that." "I can do that; I would do that for my kids because they mean the world to me." Linzi kisses him. "Love you." "Love you, I'm going for a shower keep an eye on the kids for me." "Okay." Linzi goes upstairs and Brian runs into the play room to join the kids.
Date: 27/9/2005 Place: Carter Home Time: 10:30am Music: TV
Nick walked into the living room and sat down on the sofa with a sigh. "Oh that sounds sad." "It is sad I'm leaving in the morning." "Then we best spend the day doing things together." "We should take Lacey to the beach, take a walk along the sand and eat ice cream." "I think she would like that." "I'll go and get her." Nick walked up the stairs and into Lacey's room. "Hey baby girl what ya doing?" "I'm playing ponies." "Looks like loads of fun, we're going to go for a trip to the beach how does that sound?" "Can we get ice-cream?" "Of course we can, let's go get your shoes then we can go." "Dad I can't go in my pyjamas." "Oh silly daddy, well find some clothes and change then we can go." "Okay daddy." Nick walks back down the stairs and into the living room. "She's just getting changed, I'm going to make a coffee before we go, do you want anything?" "I'm good thank you." Smiled Kerry.
Over at the Mclean's AJ is in the walk in wardrobe picking out clothes. "Damn it!" "What have you done?" "I've misplaced some shoes, no wait I found them." "It's only eleven in the morning and you're already packing?" "I just wanted to get it all out of the way so I could spend the day with the kids." "The last few days have flown by too quickly; it feels like I haven't even seen you." "I know and I feel bad for leaving you guys but we will see you guys on the twentieth of October, we can all go out during the day and see some of the sights. Hey we could take the kids on the London eye, they would really enjoy that." "They would, I'll have to let the school know that they won't be in." "I'm excited about them being there and I've not even left yet." "Yeah well I'm not looking forward to you leaving, I haven't had you back for long enough." "I know but every minute we have together now is worth a million when I'm not here, going to miss my boys and those gorgeous big brown eyes from my little pickle." "She will be upset especially as it's her daddy she asks for at bed time." "See now you're playing the guilt on me, she knows daddy has to work and unfortunately daddy has to work away a lot. But I will be back to spend the whole of Christmas with you all." "So I will finally get you in that Santa outfit after all." She grinned. "And if you're lucky I might wear it for something other than the kids." "Now that was just rude Mr McLean." "But you love it." Christian ran onto the bedroom. "Where you going daddy?" "Daddy has to finish off his work, do you want to help daddy pack his clothes?" "Yes." She walks over to the suitcase and starts to throw things out of it. "No bubba, you have to put things from the cupboard into the suitcase not take things out of it." "Uh oh." "Yeah uh oh, daddy can fix it. Pass daddy some shoes to pack." She looks in the cupboard before grabbing some shoes and passing them to AJ. "Here you go." He looked at her with a smile. "Nice but I don't think mommy will let daddy borrow her fabulous sparkly heels, you're being a pickle to daddy you little monster." He grabbed her and hugged her. "Going to miss you baby." "Miss you baby, daddy miss you baby." "Yep." "I going to play with my horses now." "Okay." She runs out of the room and into her bedroom. "Well you can't say she doesn't have taste; she did pick my best shoes." "I think they're a little too small for me... Oh I am going to miss these little beanie babies too, you're going to be bigger when I see you again and even bigger when we finally end the tour." "Yep, we'll all miss you." He puts his hands on her waist and kisses her. "Love you." "Love you two." "I really gotta pack." "I know; I'll leave you to do that while I make lunch okay." "Okay." Jen walks out of the room and down the stairs.
Brian was in his room also packing his clothes into a suitcase. "Can I fit in there too?" Asked Jenni-Kay who was sat on the end of the bed. "If only I could baby you know I would bundle you away with me." "I'm glad we get to see you in a few weeks' time, we're going to see Grandma and Grandpa too." "You are and you will have loads of fun too." "Be even better if you were there." "I know, but you know I have to work." "I know." "But, we do have today with each other. So what would you like to do today?" "Nothing, I just want to sit with you and get hugs from you. If we do something the day will just go quickly, I don't want it to do that." "So a day just chilling with your dad." "Yes please." "Then I will make that happen just for you." "There you are; I was wondering where you had got to lady." "I was only talking to dad." "She wasn't interrupting me; I was enjoying her company. She wants to have a chill day with her daddy, so I think we should rent a movie and just snuggle together on the sofa with some ice-ream and popcorn." "Awesome, can we do that mom?" "Okay I guess so if that's what you really want to do?" "Yes, yes I do. Thankyou mommy." "That's okay, are you okay with her while you pack? I need to go make sure those boys haven't destroyed the play room." "We're all good here." They smile at each other before she leaves the room.
12:00pm: Lacey had finally picked an outfit and was dressed and ready to go. "Tada." "There's my Lacey baby, okay interesting outfit you have on." Nick looked at her. "I like pink." "You do; we're going to the beach." "We are?" "We are." "Oh daddy, I need my hat on." "Yes you do." "I have your hat, here you go... let's put your hair through the bit at the back, how does that look." Asked Kerry. Lacey walked along and looked at herself in the mirror. "Yep okay let's go." "Can't say she's not her mothers' daughter." "Don't think you don't check yourself in the mirror before you leave Nick, she gets that from you not me. It doesn't bother me what I wear out, you forget I once wore those bright yellow pyjamas at the hotel while you were on tour." "Oh yeah, those were crazy bright." "See, she gets it from you... let's make a move then, I need to get some sun on me." They walk out and get into the car, Nick straps Lacey into her car seat. "Can we have ice-cream?" "We can and we can splash around in the ocean." "Yay." He closes the door and walks around to the drivers' side before getting in. "On to the beach Carter family." He starts the car and drives out of the driveway.
They arrive at the beach. "Look daddy it's the ocean." "It is and we can have loads of fun today." "Yay." Kerry takes her out of the car seat. "No running off, stay with me and daddy." Nick puts on a baseball cap and glasses before getting out of the car. "Here we are, hey they have a fair down the road. How would Lacey like to go on some rides?" "Yes!" she did a little wiggle dance. "She gets those moves from you without a doubt." He takes Lacey's hand in his left and Kerry's hand in his right before walking down towards the pier.
Jen was in the kitchen preparing lunch and the boys were in the garden playing basketball on the trampoline. AJ was sat on the sofa watching TV, Christian climbed into his lap and rested her head against his chest. He kissed her on the head and wrapped his arms around her as she drank from her non-spill cup. Jen walked in with a sandwich and salad on a plate. "Oh bless her." "Is she asleep?" "Yep, do you want me to move her?" "No, she's okay where she is; I'm enjoying her cuddle. I thought she was asleep when she did that big sigh she does." "I'll grab her blanket; I have your lunch." "Thank you." She places it on the seat next to him and gently places a blanket over Christian. "She loves her daddy." "I love her too, it's things like this that make it hard when it's time for me to go. Everything all the kids do I don't want to leave, but then I look around I know that I have to work so they can have the life they have." "And they appreciate everything you do for them; I appreciate everything you do for us. We're living in this incredible house here and we have everything we need, the kids enjoy seeing you on stage and on the TV." "That's the thing because they get to see me and I don't see them, I know when I come home that the time we have together is amazing and very special." Jen sits down next to him and rests her head on his shoulder.
Brian knocked on Jenni-Kay's bedroom door. "Hey daddy." "Hey Teddy bear, we're about to pick a film in a minute, are you still joining us?" "Yeah." "Wassup baby?" Brian walks over and sits on her bed next to her, she puts her arms around him. "I'm going to miss you." "I'm going to miss you too, I always do. What's brought this on? I thought we were all good earlier?" "I know, but I think about tomorrow and I'll be leaving for school and when I come home you won't be here." "Aww, you're so silly, you know you have your phone and you can call me or message me whenever you want to." "It won't be the same though." He kissed her on the head. "I love you Teddy bear, you're so soppy and beautiful. Now what would I do without my best buddy? I won't be gone for too long and you will see me in London, we had this discussion earlier and I promise you that you will have a great time." "I know." "Come on I reserved you a seat next to me on the sofa, we can snuggle together and share popcorn." "I'm coming." They walk down the stairs and into the living room. "What have we picked to watch?" asked Brian sitting down next to Linzi. "We have picked Valiant, it's a cartoon about a pigeon during the war." "Well I'll give it a go, come on Teddy bear lets snuggle up with mommy." She sits down next to him and snuggles up under his arm.
That evening AJ and Jen had finally put the kids to bed and were sat watching TV. "I can hear the boys giggling but they'll soon fall asleep." "Right my turn for huggles with you, I felt like a climbing frame tonight with all of the kids on me." "They were having fun and so were you." "Yeah well when those two come along that's one game I won't be playing; it was hard enough keeping a hold of Chrissy without her falling off of me." "I'm sure between them they'll find something else to occupy their time." "It's going to be really difficult not giving all my attention to Chrissy, she'll be my only baby girl in between all of these boys." "She'll love that, you giving her all the attention. She loves all of the attention as it is and these boys aren't even here yet." "She better know that if any boys come along they'd best be on their best behaviour with her and that if any of them hurt her or upset her I'll be on them like a pack of wild dogs on a rabbit." "Awesome, she'll be dating in secret then? Anyway she'll not only have you watching her back, the others will be right there with you too. Nick is protective over Lacey and Brian's probably the same when it comes to Jen, he won't let anyone harm a hair on her head either." "Me either, that girl is my goddaughter they'd have hell to pay if boys broke her heart too. We have three beautiful daughters between us and they mean the world to us, I know we have the boys but they're tough." "You can't just say that, they're still only seven and they have a long way to go before they're grown men. You need to be there for the boys just as much as the girls." "And I will be, whenever the kids need me I will be there for them." "Good, I'm going to make a cup of tea, would you like one?" "Yeah please." Jen walked into the kitchen.
Over at the Littrells Linzi had walked into the living room. "She'll have to go to her room eventually then you can sit back on the sofa." "I know; I'm just enjoying looking at her. I wish the day had gone a little slower, are you going to be okay?" "You know I will be, what a thing to ask. I was fine when I was pregnant with the boys and you were away, you don't have to worry." "Of course I do because you're not in England anymore, you're not near your parents or your sisters. This is your first time here while I'm away, how can I not worry?" "I have Jen who's a phone call away, we've been through this and we have nothing to worry about. I have midwife appointments and they're only a call away if I need them, you just go and enjoy yourself they're counting on Brian to be Brian." "Aren't I always?" "I guess so." He gets up from the floor. "I can be the crazy Brian that you see on stage and on TV but I prefer to not be like that here with you guys, I could be the crazy Brian but I thought that it would drive you crazy and with the three boys I don't think you need to add me to the mix." "I wasn't complaining, I was just saying that the guys need you to be on top form and give one hundred percent over the next few weeks. I don't want to be the one holding you back, so don't worry about me. I will see you in a few weeks and it'll be awesome." "It will be." He puts his hands on her belly. "You don't have to worry about this one, this one is a forever baby." "Yep most definitely." "Well I am going to have myself a nice soak in the bath, you can put your teddy bear to bed." "Okay." Okay." Linzi walks up the stairs as Brian wakes up Jenni-Kay and takes her to bed.
Nick and Kerry arrived back at the house, Nick carried a tired Lacey up to her room and lay her in her bed. "Daddy?" "Yes baby?" "Will you be gone before I wake up?" "Yeah daddy has to go back to work, I will call and talk to you when I can okay?" "Okay." "Did you have a good day at the beach?" "Yes, until those girls chased us." "Sorry about that baby... now time to sleep, I will see you very soon my little princess." "See you soon daddy, I love you daddy." "Love you Lacey." He kissed her on the head before turning off the lights and pulling the bedroom door closed a little way. He walked down the stairs and into the kitchen. "Still doesn't get easier does it?" "Nope, I'm glad she had a fun day today. It was nice to take her to one of my favourite places and for her to enjoy the ocean was a buzz." "I enjoyed the beach too, got myself a nice tan." "I'm sorry about the girls." "What are you on about? Nick I gave up on letting them bother me ages ago, I gave up on letting them bother me when I married you." "I didn't want it to spoil Lacey's day out." "I can definitely assure you that Lacey had a good day, see you always get like this after you've been home." "Like what?" "Overthinking things and worrying, we're all okay and we'll be here every time you come home." "I know that, just don't want to be without you again." "See this ring right here?" "Yes." "That's you not being without me okay, you don't need me with you the whole time your touring. You know we're just not made that way, we'd only end up getting bored of each other and falling out." "I don't want that." "Me either, that's why we work better when we have space between us. This is time for space and when I see you in a few weeks we will be as we should be, so just go have fun in Europe and look forward to when we see each other next okay." "Okay." "Right I'm going to have one glass of prosecco and chill out on the sofa, there's a movie on that I want to see." "What movie?" "Titanic." "You want to watch Titanic?" "Yes, because I still think it's funny that Leonardo DiCaprio looks like you when he dies at the end." She chuckled. "You seriously did not just say that?" "Oh I said it and there's nothing you can do about it." Kerry takes the bottle of wine and a glass into the living room and Nick follows.
The next morning the boys had all met at the airport and boarding their plane they made their way to Europe.
Date:20/10/2005 Place: Wembley Arena Time: 7:30am Music: Screams from fans
The boys are backstage and Linzi, Kerry, Jenny and the kids are waiting in the front row. "You best behave yourselves boys, we all know what happened when we were here last time." Said Jen. "I love the kids' shirts; I think they look well smart." Said Kerry. "It helps because they all have their names on, so we'll know which twin is which." Chuckled Jen. "It's loud mommy." "I know baby." "Are you looking forward to dancing with your daddy little man?" asked Kerry. "Yeah." He smiled.
The lights go down, the music starts and the kids start dancing in their seats, the screams get louder and the boys kick off the show with 'The Call'. Song by song the kids danced and sang along. "Mommy I don't want to dance for a little while." Said James sitting down. "Oh no, you okay baby?" He nodded his head and sat watching. "You resting so you can dance with daddy?" "Yep." The Backstreet Boys run backstage to get changed for the next few songs and some fans walk over. "Can I just say that those kids are so cute, could we have a picture taken with them?" "Of course, they love connecting with their daddy's fans." Said Kerry. The kids stand and sit with the fans as their picture is taken. "Thank you, it is amazing to meet you guys and we can't believe how nice you are. We were worried in case you didn't let us have a picture. The kids look so much like their dads, how old are they?" "The McLean twins are seven, Jenni Littrell is eight, Lacey Carter is six and Christian Mclean and these gorgeous Littrell triplets are five." Said Jenny. "They are adorable." "Thank you." "Thank you for the picture." "Enjoy the show." Smiled Linzi. The boys came back on to the stage with 'Shape of My Heart' and the crowd goes crazy and start to sing along.
The show was fantastic and as the boys start to sing incomplete one of the security guards comes over to collect James. "Okay have fun baby." "Bye mommy." He gets carried to the side of the stage where he waits on the steps. As the guys finished Brian ran over and waved him on, James runs on. "Hey! did you forget something?" he called into his microphone. "Did we forget something?" asked AJ. "Yeah, because I wanna dance with you." "Oh you want to dance with us?" smiled Nick. "I wanna dance with my daddy." "Who else do you wanna dance with?" asked Kevin. "Everybody." "Everybody?" Sang Brian. "Yeah." Sang James. The music starts up and after getting into their places they start to sing and James dances along. The song ends and the crowd goes crazy, Nick picked James up. "Give it up for my little buddy James Littrell!" they stand in a line at the front of the stage and after joining hands they all bow and walk backstage. "Did I do good daddy?" "You did amazing buddy, yeah." "That was really loud." "That's because they all loved you." "I wanna do that again." "Maybe tomorrow night but you have to rest up now okay? Let's wait for mommy to come and get you." Smiled Brian. The kids come running down the hall, "Here they come." Said Kevin. Brian hugged the boys before hugging Jenni-Kay. "Hey Teddy bear." "Hey daddy." "How was the show?" "Awesome." "Awesome... where's your momma?" "She's coming." "Good." Nick picked up Lacey and held her in his arms. "Look at you my pretty girl, missed you." "Missed you too daddy." The Twins ran over to AJ and he knelt down to hug them before standing up and taking Christian from Jen. "Hey bubba, look at you pretty girl." He kisses her on the forehead. "Can you watch the kids for me a minute Howie." "Sure." "Thanks." Brian starts to jog towards Linzi, when he reaches her he puts his hands on her waist and looks at her; he looks around and smiles. "Oh who cares?" he kisses her. "Wow okay, what was that for and what have you done?" "Nothing, honestly nothing, I just missed you and I love you." "You know I don't mind when you kiss me in public, we've been together long enough to not hide away anymore." "I know; I really have missed you." "I can see, I missed you too and you know what?" "What?" "You're all sweaty and you smell." "Yeah sorry about that, busy day at the office... I'm so glad you're here and you're all looking great." "If this is what you're like after two weeks I can't wait till you finish this tour." "Tell me about it, hey did you enjoy the show? James did an awesome job didn't he?" "He did and he will need a lot of rest, we're going to take it easy tomorrow while you're here for rehearsals. Might have a little stay in bed, I can't see the kids getting up too early because the flight was enough. I can't believe James stayed awake all of this time but no doubt he'll fall asleep on the way back to the hotel." "He's a trooper, I guess we should go rescue Howie." "We should." They walk over to join the others. "Come on you three leave Howie alone now he's had a busy day, where's Jenni-Kay gone?" "She's with Kevin, come on guys I think we need to make a move to the hotel so your mommy and daddy can put you crazy guys to bed." "But I'm not tired yet uncle Howie." Yawned Scott. "Oh really, are you sure about that buddy?" "Yep." "Come on you." Howie picked him up and he rested his head on his shoulder. "Are we all ready to go?" asked Nick. "I think so." Said Jenny helping to put the twins' coats on. "Let's go then." They all walk out to the awaiting bus in the car park and made their way to the hotel.
Howie and Kevin made their way to their room, Nick and Kerry walk into their room and Nick lays Lacey on her bed and covers her over with a blanket. "All that dancing and excitement wore her out." Said Kerry. Nick knelt down and gently stroked her hair. "She's so pretty." "Missed her then?" "You bet, I just wanna sit and look at her sleeping all night." "Now I would let you do that but you need all the sleep you can get, you need to be awake and concentrating tomorrow." "I will be." "You can see her from the bed, I'll swap sides with you." "Okay." He stands up and kisses Lacey on the head. "Night baby." He walks over and sits on the bed before taking off his t-shirt. "Well hello there Mr Carter." Chuckled Kerry. "I can't wait to get into this bed." "Hopefully because I'm in it." "Of course, the bed was pretty empty without you next to me... it's nice that we can be a family again for a day and a half." "It's just not long enough is it?" "Nope, right I am going to get myself ready for my bed." Nick walks into the bathroom.
Linzi lay on the bed and watched as Brian sat with Jenni-Kay. "You know you should be sleeping now?" "I don't want to sleep yet daddy, I haven't spent enough time with you yet." "You sound more and more like your mom every day... you need to get some rest baby; your brothers are already asleep." "But they're babies, I am not a baby." "I know that, hey how about I tuck you in bed and I sit with you until you fall asleep." "What about you? Don't you need your sleep?" "I do, but being with you is more important. So come on let's get you to bed and off to sleep." She climbs onto her bed and snuggles under her covers. "Are you comfy?" "Yes." She yawned. "We're off to a good start then." "I'm not tired, my eyes are just heavy." "Why don't you close them it'll make you feel better." "Okay, but I'm still not tired." "Okay." She closes her eyes and he strokes her hair until she falls asleep.
Brian slowly got up and walked over to his bed. "Yes, I finally get to you." "I was enjoying watching you with her, she really loves her daddy." "And I love her too, remind me again why it was I didn't want her. She is amazing and she always knows how to make her daddy happy, blessed to have her in my life." "She's blessed to have you, so are the boys." He kisses her. "I'm blessed to have you too of course, I'm happy now I finally have you all to myself." "You know that's going to be an even more rare thing once this one comes along, we'll no longer have time alone until they all leave home." "I'm sure we'll be able to find time; we'll also make sure we do the whole safe sex thing this time because five kids are enough." "I agree." He moved up closer to her and put his arm around her. "Night baby, love you." "Love you too." He kissed her on the shoulder and snuggled up to her.
Jen and AJ lay in their bed. "It's all quiet." "That's because they're asleep, it's a nice quiet though." "It is, I actually miss the sound of them playing; listening to Brian and Nick play Xbox isn't quite the same." He chuckled. "I promise you the boys don't make half as much noise as Brian and Nick when they play Xbox, they'd love for you to play a game when you get home. So where you off to after the show tomorrow?" "We have a show in Ireland then back over here to Birmingham and Manchester, when do you and the kids go back to Florida?" "We've got a couple of days over here with my mum then we're flying back." "She'll be happy to see the kids." "She's looking forward to it, she does miss them." "I have said that she can come over to our place whenever she wants, we have plenty of room for her." "I have told her that plenty of times; I'll speak to her again about it. I haven't even told her about these two new additions yet." "Great more of a reason for your mom to string my balls up, I thought you'd already told her?" "Nope, must have slipped my mind, anyway why is she going to string your balls up?" "Because you're a mom to five kids and your only twenty-two; she's going to think that I crushed your childhood." "My childhood? I am twenty-two I'm not a child, anyway she'll be fine with it." "I hope so... okay snuggle time, I need to snuggle with you and fall asleep." "I think I can manage that." He wrapped his arms around her and held her close to him.
Date: 21/10/2005 Place: Hotel Time: 10:30am Music: children's TV.
The kids sat and played on the floor in front of the TV, Linzi was sat on the sofa reading a book; she feels a light tap on her knee. "Mommy, James is sick." Said Scott. "Oh no, it's okay baby we can clean this up, go and have a lay down." After taking off James's T-shirt and checking his temperature she lay him in his bed. "No playing for you today mister, you need to rest." "Okay mommy." James rolled over and closed his eyes to sleep. Kerry knocked on the door and Jen ran to open it. "Hello, where's your mum?" "She's in the other room because James was sick." "Oh no." She walked into the room. "Hello boys what you doing?" "We're playing with cars." Tom held up a yellow car. "Looks like fun, hey how would you guys like to come for a trip out with all of us." "Yeah, but where are we going?" asked Scott. "We're going to see if we can find a park to play in, how does that sound." "Yes." "Yes?" They both nod. "Hey Wizz do you fancy a walk?" "I'll have to take James in his buggy as he's not feeling very good, fresh air will be good for him even if he'll sleep the whole time." "Good, come on then kids find your shoes and jackets, I'll carry the buggy down so you can carry James." The kids put on their shoes and they all made their way down to join the others in the lobby.
Linzi unfolded the buggy and placed James inside. "Are we all set?" asked Jen. They walk out of the door and along to the park, the kids run around on the grass playing with a few footballs and the girls sat making daisy chains. "You forget how cold it is in October, I still have to finish sorting out the Halloween party for when we get back." Said Linzi checking on James. "There's no rush, we can all help out... I'm not sure if I miss not being here but I think if I was to go back to Swanscombe I probably would." Said Kerry. "I miss not being close to my family but I had to move to America for the kids, they have a better life out there and a lot more sun." Jen smiled. "I miss my family too but like you said the kids have a good life in Florida, although we don't have family we do have each other and our little families... and now I have cramp, ow." Linzi chuckled and lay on the grass.
The boys were not far away in the Arena rehearsing and doing sound checks. "All set for another awesome night?" Howie asked Kevin sitting on the edge of the stage. "Yeah, we had a blast last night the crowd here are always the best and the loudest." "It's been fun having little James with us on stage too, I think he may have caught the performing bug and the crowd loved him." "He's an awesome little dude." "Dammit!" "What you done AJ?" "I just realised I've done that move all wrong, I don't even know what I even did. Oh well, on with the show." He smiled. "I hope you're not going to do that later." "No, I know what I'm doing." Nick walked out from behind the stage and danced over to the middle of the stage. "Okay guys, let's get going." Said the choreographer. Kevin and Howie stand up and join Nick. "Where's Brian?" "I'm here, I'm here." He jogged onto the stage and as the music started they performed the first routine.
An hour of play in the park and the girls and the kids were back at the hotel. "Do you mind watching the kids while I take James up to the room?" "He's been really quiet, is he okay?" asked Jen. "He was sick this morning and he's just got a bit of a temperature, I'm just going to strip him off and let him cool down." "Well call us if you need anything, aww bless him. I hope he gets better the boys will miss him not being on stage tonight." "I know, I'll message Brian and let him know." Linzi pushed the buggy into the lift and went up to her room. She took James and lay him on the bed, she lay next to him and he just looked at her. "Hey baby." "Mommy." "Yes bub?" "I'm sick." "Yes baby." He's sick on the bed before going into a seizure. "It's okay baby." Linzi grabbed her phone and called for an ambulance.
The boys had finished rehearsals and were getting into the car back to the hotel. "Dude you seriously stink." Nick looked over at Brian. "So do you." The car turned the corner just as the ambulance turned up. "There's an ambulance guys." Said Kevin looking out of the window. The car stopped in front of it and the guys got out. Kerry is stood by the door, "Oh thank god it's not here for you." Said Nick. "I know..." Kerry looked over at Brian. "What?... Oh god, Oh god, oh god." He darted off towards the stairs. "When he gets to the top of the stairs he's met by Jen. "Hey, wait. You need to stop a minute and breathe okay, you can't go in there like you are because the kids are already scared; if you go in like this you will scare them even more." "Yeah of course... what's happened? I don't even know what's happened. Is Linzi okay? Is the baby okay? Is it James? She messaged me earlier and said he was sick, is he okay?" "He's fine, the paramedics are here just a precaution." "I need to see them." "Are you calm?" "I'm calm, I'm calm." Jen opens the door and Brian rushed in. "Hey baby, are you okay? Is Jim okay?" "Yes and yes, he had a few seizures but he's fine. He's been given some medicines for his temperature, he's just upset that he can't go and dance with daddy." Brian walked over to the bed. "Daddy." "Hey James, what you been doing?" "I've been sick." "You have mommy told me, are you feeling better?" "Yeah, mommy said I can't dance with you." "You're not well buddy, you can come and watch though. Mommy wants to look after you so you don't have any more of those horrible seizures." "I know." AJ walked into the room and over to Linzi hugging her. "Everything okay?" "Yeah, he's back to his usual self." "Still scary though, you're a tough lady to go through all of that." "Thanks AJ." "Uncle AJ!" called James before running over, AJ picked him up. "Hey buddy, how you feeling?" "Better." "That's good, you had us all scared but you're a tough kid aren't you?" "Yep... mommy said I can't dance tonight." "And I think that mommy is right, you need to rest up and get better." "I can dance." Smiled Tom. "You can dance too? Looks like daddy has been keeping secrets." "No, I'm sure you teach your kids the routines too don't you?" "No, I mean Christian dances but she does ballet and my boys just don't dance." "We love to dance." Smiled Tom. "Maybe you can join us tonight?" "I don't think that's a good idea." Said Brian. "Why not?" said Linzi looking at him. "You can't always tell him not to do something, he's just like any other kid and it'll be good for him to not feel different." She continued. "I know... okay, but I think we just take him on with us for 'I'll never break your heart.'" "Okay, if it's a slow song we could bring Scott and James on too. Then all three of your boys will get the chance to be on the stage." AJ looked at Linzi and smiled. "You boys, okay but honestly keep a really close eye on them." "Why don't you bring Christian on with us, all the babies together." "Now I really would have to talk to Jen about that." "Oh you so have to do that because I have an awesome idea for the show tonight." "Okay now this is my worried face." Chuckled AJ. "I'm going to leave now before he comes up with anymore crazy ideas, See you in about an hour." "See you later AJ." AJ left the hotel room. "Okay fellas I think we need to find you something to wear for tonight." Smiled Brian.
That evening the boys were backstage with the triplets and Christian. "Those four are so cute, their outfits are awesome." Said Howie. "We had no choice in the dress picking, it was going to be the pink dress or nothing." Said AJ. "She looks pretty and I love her hair, the boys look awesome too. The crowd are going to love them." Smiled Nick. "Are we all ready?" Brian grabbed his microphone. "Brian!" "Wha... Laura, you made me jump how are you?" "I'm good, I just thought I'd pop back here and say good luck for tonight." "Thank you, have you seen your sister yet?" "Not yet, I'm going to join her in a minute. Look at you boys, you're so good looking in real life." "Thank you, hey we're about to go on stage... you best go and find your seat." Said Nick. "Okay, quick hugs from all of you." They each take it in turn to hug her before lining up behind the stage.
The music started up and he lights went down in the arena. "This never gets old does it?" said Kerry smiling. "It's the whole atmosphere, it always gives us that buzz." Said Jenny dancing around with the twins. The boys appear on stage and the arena erupts with ear-piercing screams, "How can they even hear themselves mom? it's so loud." Asked Jenni-Kay. "They have earplug things in their ears so they can only hear themselves, they'd really have problems if they didn't wear them." "Boo!" said Laura appearing next to them. "There you are; I was wondering when you'd get here." "I was just saying good luck to the boys' backstage, scared Brian and it was really funny." "I'm going to sit with aunty Lolly and dance." Said Jenni-Kay. "If you want to." Jen stands next to Laura and the music starts up. The boys come on singing 'The Call' and the crowd joins in singing along. A few songs in the boys run backstage, music starts up and hand in hand the triplets walk onto the stage; they all stop in a spot and pose. James does a spin before walking up the steps and meeting Christian, they link arms and slowly walk down the steps. The boys appear at the top of the stairs and start singing 'I'll Never Break Your Heart' as the kids sit down on the bottom step and turn to watch them. The song ends. "Give it up for Scott, Tomas and James Littrell, also not forgetting my beautiful baby girl Christian McLean." The crowd cheers and screams as the kids stand up and bow before running behind the stage. "What about that ladies and gentlemen? The backstreet kids!" said Nick. They boys continue with the next song while Linzi and Jenny go behind the stage to collect the kids. "How was that?" smiled Linzi. "That was awesome mommy." Said Scott. "I had great fun." Beamed Christian. "That's good, daddy loved having you up there with him too." Said Jen picking her up. "Mommy, I dropped my hat." Said Tom. "It's okay, I'm sure daddy will find it. Let's go and see what they're doing, Aunty Lolly is here too." "Yay." They all walk back to their seats. "Ooh, mommy daddy's got my hat on his head." Tom chuckled and pointed. "Oh yeah, silly daddy." "Mommy can I go dance with the boys?" asked Christian. "Okay, just stay where they are." "Okay." She hopped down off of her chair and over to the boys by the barrier.
After the show they made their way back to the hotel, the boys soon arrived and walked in through the doors. "Hi." Smiled Laura. "Hey, where have they all gone?" asked Kevin. "The kids were all tired out so they took them to their rooms." "I'd best go up and say goodnight, are you staying here tonight?" asked Brian. "I'm not too sure." "Oh, well if you do then I'll see you in the morning and if you don't..." he hugs and kisses her on the cheek. "Have a goodnight, night guys." He hitched his bag on his shoulder and made his way upstairs. "I'd best make my way up too, goodnight guys." Smiled AJ. "Hold up AJ and I'll walk up with you, Night guys and goodnight to you Laura." Nick followed AJ. "I'm going to go to bed too guys." Said Kevin. "Oh you're all abandoning me." Chuckled Laura. "Well you're more than welcome to join me for a night cap, if you would like to?" asked Howie. "Thank you Howie, that would be lovely." "Cool, well goodnight." "Goodnight Kev." "Night Kev." Laura and Howie walked into the bar and sat down on the table.
He ordered a small rose wine for Laura and a larger for himself. "There you go." "Thank you D." He sits down opposite her. "The show was really good, we all enjoyed it and the kids did a really good job. Christian was so cute holding onto James' arm, I think they all melted the whole arenas hearts." "They are cute kids, we spent the day with little James yesterday and he kept us all amused." "Like father like son." "They were dressed the same... it's nice to see you, we don't see you often." "I know, I should come and see you guys more but with work and everything it's really difficult." "That's a shame but we love seeing you when we do, makes a change from seeing the same people every day." "Same here, it was good to see Wizz and the kids since they moved." "You two were pretty close, how has it been now that she's not there?" "Lonely although I can call her and talk to her and we Skype each other, we're planning my holiday out there so we can spend some real time together. I'm hoping I can get out there for Christmas; I know it means having to put up with Brian but I'm sure I can cope with him. I just think I'll pass when it comes to getting into a car with him, what an idiot breaking his wrist like that." "I think he's definitely regretting that decision, you'll have to make sure you come over and say hi to the rest of us when you come over." "I will do I promise you, how can I fly all that way and not spend time with all of you?" "I know one person who seems to enjoy your company when you visit." "Oh, well now you've got me intrigued, can I ask who?" "Do I really need to tell you? his face lights up when he sees you." "You?" "No, I mean I enjoy talking to you and you're like family but it's not me." "Well Howie I would have never put you down for being a gossip but I still have no idea who you're on about." "AJ." "AJ? He's married and we're just friends, yeah we talk a lot and we text each other but like you said we're just like family." "Okay, I believe you..." "Hey don't you do that." "Do what?" "Giving me those cheeky eyes, I swear we're not like that. Yes, he is sweet and cute and lovely but we are really just friends, so no more of that you." "I'm sorry." "You're just lucky that you're Howie D and you're cute." "I am lucky like that." He smiled. "Are you staying here tonight?" "Looks like it, I booked a room just in case... you best get yourself to bed because you have a busy day tomorrow, I will see you in the morning." "Another day another dollar." "Goodnight Howie." "Goodnight." He hugs her before walking out of the bar and past Brian who was stood in his jogging bottoms and T-shirt. "You okay?" "Yeah, is she still in there?" "Yeah." "Cool night D." "Night." Howie walked up the stairs and Brian walked into the bar.
Laura looked at him and smiled. "Hello you, what are you doing up?" "I couldn't sleep so I came down to get myself a bottle of water." "Ah, so is that what you wear in bed? Very sexy." "Ha no, I don't think they'd appreciate me walking around in what I wear in bed. Are you staying here tonight?" "Yes I am, are all of the kids asleep?" "Yeah I think they were worn out, the boys started to stir a little when I left but they soon settled... I guess I don't want to sleep because I know that in the morning I will have to leave my family again, after everything that happened today with Jim I really don't want to leave." "Do you know how many times James has had seizures when you're not home and how many times she copes on her own? You really don't need to worry about her." "Will you keep an eye on her for me?" "I can try; I'll do my best from over here." "If I buy you a ticket will you stay with her a couple of days so I know she's fine?" "I can, she'll be here with me for a few days anyway staying with my mum and dad." "I know, still doesn't stop me from worrying about them all. Does he really have a lot of seizures when I'm away?" "He has epilepsy of course he's going to have seizures when you're not home, he doesn't save them all up just for you. She copes really well with it and she has Jen and Kerry looking out for her, I will help out when I can but she doesn't really need it." "Why doesn't she ever tell me?" "She doesn't tell you because you don't need to stop doing what you do best every five minutes, she doesn't want everyone knowing about it. She even keeps it away from the press because let's be honest it's nothing to do with them, she will do what she can to protect the kids and look after them the best she can. She's done it fine for five years and you still panic about them? You need to chill; you've got many, many years with those kids. I am off to bed, sleep well and enjoy the tour." "I will." She hugs him before walking up to her room.
Date: 24/10/2005 Time: 10:00pm Place: Birmingham Music: none
"Stop it.... stop it.... stop it.... I swear to god Brian if you don't stop touching my ears I am seriously going to go all out crazy and punch you in the face. Why don't you just sleep?" "I'm not tired." "Then find something else to do because some of us do want to catch up on sleep." Said Howie. Brian got up and walked up to the back of the plane, he picked up some grapes and threw them one by one in the air trying to catch them in his mouth. "I am so pro at this." "Brian stop throwing fruit." Came Kevin's voice behind him. "How long is this flight? because I am so bored." "We have a few more hours of flying yet, why don't you watch a movie." He walked back to his seat and slumped down into it before picking up his writing pad and pen, looking out of the window and thinking he starts to tap on the top of the book. "Okay seriously Brian, we've all got to sit here on this flight and we'd like to see us make it back without killing you in the process okay? We'd all like to be on the ground enjoying a nice cold beer in the bar right now, but we're all here on the same boring flight. Please can you just find something to do that's just a little less annoying, thank you." AJ sat back in his seat, Brian put in his earphones and turned on his music before resting his head against his seat and looking out of the window.
The boys landed in Birmingham, along with their bodyguards they made their way through the airport before getting into their car and making their way to the hotel. "You always know when you're in the UK, it's always raining." Said Nick. "It's October this is about normal." Said Howie. Brian is sat with his headphones on and had made himself comfortable against the window and had fallen asleep. "How are the girls doing?" "I spoke to Jen last night and they're having a blast, they've been out together without the kids and been relaxing like they should be. I mean they're all carrying precious packages, they need to feel good and get all dressed up." "I'm glad they're having a good time, it's good for them to all see their family." They soon arrive at their hotel. "Hey Rok get up!" "I hear you, I hear you." They all get out of the car and walk in carrying their bags. "Okay guys I am going off to my bed, see you nice and early as usual." "Yep Night Brian." He walked up the stairs and into his room shortly followed by the others who also made their way to their rooms.
Date: 25/10/2005 Time: 2:00pm Place: M6 motorway Music: Backstreet Boys cd
Laura and Linzi were singing loudly and dancing happily. "Are we going to make it?" "We're only a few miles away, we'll make it for the meet and greet everything will be fine." "I'm so excited, I can't wait to see my baby." "You only saw him a few days ago." "I know; I can't help it he's just a hot lover." "Oh seriously too much info thanks." "I didn't mean like that anyway you'll get to hang out with AJ without Jen being around." "Will you quit it with that, we're not like that." "Of course not although you did spend time with Howie." "And again just friends, we were just chatting in general about all sorts. Can we just listen to the music and not talk about AJ, we're almost there?" "I have my Backstreet Boys Jacket and my 'Keep Calm It's Another Backstreet Boys Baby' t-shirt on." "I can't believe you got that made." "I'll hang it up and keep it safe and I'll let you borrow it one day." "I can't believe you're still talking about it; it's not going to happen. If Jen heard you talking about him like that she'd punch you, she's meant to be your best friend." I'm only saying out loud what you're thinking." "Yeah well just keep it in your head when we get there, last thing I want is that rumour to be started." "I promise to keep it to myself, I wouldn't do that to you." "Good, right we're here. Do you have the tickets on you because even though you have the bump doesn't mean they'll let you in?" "They do know who I am but I want to mingle in with the fans because it's fun like that." "Even if the fans know who you are?" "Yes, I like to hang out with the fans. They're the ones who keep my hubby on the stage and making music, why should I hide away from them?" "That's true, come on then let's go." Laura parked the car and they made their way into the arena to line up.
Linzi passed Laura her ticket. "There you go." "Thank you, looks like we're the first ones here." "We have half an hour before they open the doors, should have brought a fold out chair with us." "I can ask someone if they have a chair you can use, wait here." Laura wandered off to find someone, Linzi paced around while she waited. "Is this the cue for the meet and greet?" "It sure is, we thought we'd be the only ones going in." "We?" "Oh my sister has just gone to find me a seat." "I'm really excited, this is my first meet and greet." "As you can tell this is my fifth meet and greet." Linzi chuckled. "I don't usually do the meet and greets, I usually just go to the shows." The girl looked at her oddly. Laura walks back carrying a chair. "I have one, I spoke to one of the security guards." "That's nice of them, we have a new person waiting with us." "Hi, I'm Laura and you've already met my sister Linzi." "I have, I love your jacket where did you get it from?" "It was made for my husband, he hasn't worn it in ages and it's the only jacket to fit over my belly." "It's a nice jacket." More fans start arriving and the doors are soon open, they let a few of the fans go in before them.
Linzi starts to dance around. "Why did you just do that?" "I'm excited and I have backache." They take a seat on the first few rows in the stadium while they wait for the boys to come out. AJ was the first to walk out onto the stage. "Hi everyone." He smiled. "Oh hello you two, what are you doing here?" he aimed his question towards Laura. "We're here to see you of course." "Cool, the others will be out in a minute and Brian will go crazy when he sees you're here... okay, right well when the others come out we're going to go through some sound checks, then we can answer some of your questions and generally have a good chit chat and some fun." The others slowly walk up. "Hey Nick, look at all of these people." "I know hi everyone, are we all good?" the fans all say yes along with some giggles. "We have a few special guests too, how are you two ladies doing? Kerry not come with you?" "She couldn't get a babysitter." "Aww that's not fair." He chuckled. Howie walked onto the stage, he gave everyone a wave and sat down on a stool. "Hey guys." Brian and Kevin walked out together, they walked over to join the others and sat down on their stools by their microphones. "Good morning everyone, nice to see you all." Smiled Kevin. "Hi." Brian waved, he spots Laura and Linzi as he sat down and starts to smile. "Okay, what song shall we start with." Asked Kevin. "Can I pick one?" asked Brian. "Sure Rok, what song do you want to sing?" said Nick. "Can we sing 'My Beautiful Woman'?" "We can do that one, let's do it fellas." Said Howie. The music starts up and the boys start to sing and all of the fans dance around along with Laura and Linzi. The song soon ends and the fans clap and cheer. "Okay can I just do one thing before we carry on? because if I don't I will burst." "No." Said Nick with a cheeky smile. "Oh I think you can wait just a little longer... I'm kidding, go ahead." Said AJ. Brian climbed down from the stage and after saying hi to all the fans he finally made his way to the last row, he hugged Laura before looking at Linzi. "I'm allowed to do this by the way because she's my wife." He grinned before kissing her. "Hi." "Hi, get back to work." "Yes." He ran back onto the stage. "Are you okay now?" asked Kevin. "Yes, that was a nice surprise." "She doesn't come to these things often, look at what happened at the last meet and greet with you." Chuckled Nick. "So wrong, ignore him he's so naughty." "I'm naughty? My wife's not seven months pregnant." "No she's three months." Brian smiled cheekily at him. "Okay anyway... on with the show." They boys take a few song requests from the fans and answered a few questions before heading backstage for lunch.
Brian sat on the edge of the stage. "Now why didn't I think that you would come all of this way, maybe because you should be at home resting." "I don't need to rest; I've done enough resting. Anyway this is me resting because there's no such word when I'm running around looking after the other four, my mum let me have a few days off so I could spend some time with you on my own." "Well that's nice of her, I'm glad you're here though and I must buy Laura a nice bunch of flowers for driving you here." "Oh I don't think she needed much convincing." "Do tell." "Nope I promised her that I wouldn't, she just enjoys spending time with you guys as much as I do." "So everything is okay with you?" "Apart from missing you, yes... we're here for the show tonight and the one tomorrow in Manchester, then it's back to my mums to get ready for the Halloween party." "I'm going to miss out on the kids Halloween party? You'll have to send me pictures, I bet they'll look awesome... didn't Jen want to come up and see AJ?" "I asked her but Christian was having none of it and I think she may have caught whatever James had the other day, she had an awful runny nose and temperature; she was clinging onto Jen like there was no tomorrow." "Wait down there a minute, I'm going to come down to you because you're too far away down there." "Oh damn it and I was going to run away the minute you turned your back." She chuckled. Brian stood up and walked down the steps at the edge of the stage, he walked over to her and wrapped his arms around her. "That's better, hey where are you two sitting tonight?" "I think management got us our own box." "No front row tonight?" "That row was sold out; I don't mind sitting up there." "I do, I want you near me as much as I can while I got you to myself. I will talk with whoever is in charge and tell them 'Hey I want my wife in front row.' I can't have you all the way up there." "You can't always have what you want, that's what I tell the kids anyway. Lolly and me will be having a blast up there, all of the room to move and dance around. I don't need to constantly be near you all the time, you're my husband and I don't have to worry about anything." "You don't, that's true... okay I can't hold back any longer, I tried but I just can't any longer." "Hold back on what? What are you on about?" "This." He gently kisses her.
Backstage Laura is sat with the boys. "Hey Lolly catch." Nick throws a sandwich at her and it hits her in the face before falling into her lap. "Oh damn, that wasn't supposed to happen." "Thanks Nick." "Here let me help you get cleaned up here." AJ picks up the sandwich from her lap and puts it in the bin before passing her a tissue. "Thank you AJ, I wasn't ready for that Nick and now my top is dirty." "I might have one you can borrow, follow me my dear and we will see what I can find for you." Laura and AJ walk down to the dressing room and he looks through the clothes. "I may have something that will suit you... here, try this on." "Thank you, hey didn't you wear this top at last night's show?" "Yes, they get washed over night so I know that it's clean. I have another shirt I can wear tonight so it's not a problem, maybe you should avoid flying sandwiches from now on." "Very funny, right I'm going to put this on... you can leave or just turn around." AJ turns around and crosses his arms while she swaps tops. "It's not bad, what do you think." He turns back to face her. "Looks great, I knew it would suit you because I know what sort of style you go for." "Well I do have good taste in many things... are you looking forward to the show tonight?" "Yeah, always love doing shows over here because there's so much energy and you all know how to have a good time." "We all like a good time, we best get back to the others before they think that you've kidnapped me." "Surely they wouldn't think that, anyway I wouldn't need to kidnap you because you'd most definitely run away with me on your own terms." "Now you're just trying to get me into trouble." "At least you didn't deny it... right well let's go and see where your sister is at." "Good idea." Laura followed AJ out of the room and they walked back up to the stage to join the others.
They walked into the changing room and sit down. "Well you managed to find your way back then? Nice top." Said Kevin. "Thank you, you boys best go and get yourselves organised before the show starts. I'll go and see if I can pry Brian away from my sister, have fun and enjoy the night." "And you, I hope you enjoy the show." Said Howie. They each hug her before they walk down to the changing room, Laura walks out into the hall. "Right Mr Littrell put Mrs Littrell down and get back to work, the boys are waiting for you in the changing room." "That time already?" "Yes, come on now get your butt backstage." "Yes mom, right I will see you guys right after the show." "Have fun." Said Laura. "Love you." "Love both of you." He runs backstage and they make their way up to their own private box. "Oh well at least we're close to the stage, I thought our box was going to be all the way at the back." Said Laura sitting down. "People are already coming in... I might have a nap, wake me up before the show starts." "You can't go to sleep; you're meant to be all excited about the show." "I am; I always look forward to the shows. It's just peaceful and comfortable up here... scrap that because I now need to go pee, I'll grab us something to drink on the way back." "Okay, just get me a water." She leaves the box.
After the show they made their way back to the hotel. "We best get ourselves booked in." "You know that we're sharing a room don't you?" "Yes, I can manage to spend nights away from my hubby you know. I just can't wait to lay my head on a nice comfy pillow and snuggle on a soft mattress because my back and feet are hurting after all that dancing." "It was fun though." The girls booked themselves into their room and the boys soon return. "Ah home sweet home?" said Howie. "Home?" asked Kevin. "Yeah, because we spend more of our time in these hotels than we do at our own homes so this is home." "He does have a point." Said Nick. "So what are the plans for you guys tonight?" asked Brian. "Well I know my plan is to just get up those stairs and into my bed." Said Kevin. "I think that's my plan, but obviously into my own bed and not yours... goodnight guys." "Night Howie, night Kevin." Smiled Brian. After hugs Kevin and Howie made their way to their rooms. "You guys joining me for night cap before bed?" asked Nick. "Yeah sure why not, I'm just going to go for a cigarette first." AJ walked out of the main doors and was stood looking at them through the window, Nick and Brian sat down at the bar and ordered in the drinks. "You warm enough?" Laughed Brian. "No I'm freezing." AJ chuckled. "Well that's the great British weather for you." Brian takes a few painkillers. "You still in pain? So much for resting it." "I can't not do a show just because of this, it was my own stupid fault anyway." "I guess it gets you out of moving boxes." "Spending my Christmas unpacking boxes, going over plans for the studio and the gym. Maybe we should have waited to move, I can't expect Linzi to do all of those things with the baby coming." "You know she will do anyway." "Yep." "So you still don't know what you guys are having yet?" "Nope, she wants it to be a surprise. We had no choice when it came to the boys but she wants to find out on the day with this one if it's going to be our last, I am excited though because it gives me a great sense of being when I see my kids. What about you? How you feeling about your baby number two?" "Yeah it's pretty crazy, who'd have thought that this would have been my life right now. Twenty-five, with two kids and having the time of my life doing something that I love with you guys. It's been a crazy ride so far and regardless of what anyone else thinks, this is where I want to be and I'm happy." "I second that, we all made our own paths in life and I know that I don't regret a minute of it... well maybe just the one but we won't talk about that." AJ walked back in. "I forgot how cold it was here in October, so what is the topic of conversation?" "Just talking about life in general." "Any regrets? well we know you have one, I know that I'm happy where I am in my life. I know I have some regrets and I've had some shitty moments but we've come through them I hope unscathed; I wouldn't have picked that this is where I would be if you had asked me back all those how many years ago; but it's those things that happen to us that shape us into who we are now." "Like Brian, now that he's sat there with that big old cast on, he's now learnt not to drive like an Impatient ass." "So funny... but true." They all laugh.
Laura walked into the bar. "Yay, it's Lolly!" said Nick walking over and hugging her. "Hey Nick." "Just you?" asked Brian. "Aww, he's missing his Mrs." Laughed Nick. "Yes just me Wizz is fast asleep, she just couldn't stay awake even though she really wanted to." "Can I go up and see her anyway?" "While she's asleep?" "Yeah, I just want to see her and say goodnight." Laura gives him her key. "Just don't go scaring her, we don't want this baby to arrive early." "Believe me that most definitely won't be my intentions, thank you Lolly." He hugged before rushing up the stairs. "You know, don't get me wrong because I do love Kerry and everything, but seeing him like that is most definitely something that I think many people wish they had." They all nod. "Not saying that I don't have a love for Jen, I do but we don't have the kind of love that means we constantly need to be with each other because we do enjoy our time apart. I just could never understand how their relationship worked, even though we all knew they were together then and even now they sneak off together like teenagers." "I think that's sweet, I think it's lovely that they enjoy having those little moments just for themselves. Not everybody likes public displays of affection, maybe they just prefer to keep those moments to themselves. Would you prefer that they kissed each other in front of you?" "Not really." "Thinking about it I think I would just find that really strange if they did that." "Anyway enough about us, miss Laura what about you? You've come all this way and left your man at home." "Steven had to work so I had some free time on my hands, how could I miss out on an opportunity to spend a few days with you guys." "So do you guys get all mushy when you see each other?" "We miss each other yes but I wouldn't say that we would be all over each other like a rash constantly, anyway I think it's sweet how they are together." "Well after all of this talk of love I think I best go and call Kerry and make sure she's okay, night guys." "Goodnight Nick." He leaves the bar and made his way to his room. "Looks like it's just the two of us." "It does, I thought you would have been in your bed by now after that show." "It was a good show, are you wanting to go to bed?" "I can stay down here for a bit longer, that's only if you're not tired?" "I'm all good." He smiled.
Upstairs Brian was just sat watching Linzi sleep, she rolled over and opened her eyes. "Oh my god! You scared the life out of me, what are you doing?" "I was just watching you sleep." "Thank goodness we're married or that would just be creepy, why didn't you wake me?" "You were sleeping." "How did you get in?" "Laura lent me her key, I wanted to see you before I went to bed. I couldn't lay in my bed knowing that you were just down the hall and I never said goodnight and that I loved you." "I love you too baby, you do look like you need your bed though." "Yeah I am pretty beat; can't I just snuggle with you?" "Sorry, there's just no room for you in this bed with bump in the way." "Well it was always worth a shot... I guess I should let you go back to sleep; I will see you in the morning." "Yes, goodnight baby." "Goodnight." He kisses her before leaving the room.
As he walked into the hall he spotted Nick at the top of the stairs so he hid behind a wall and waited. "Boo!" "For Christ sake Brian, what are you doing?" "Shh people are sleeping Nick, this is no time for playing games." "You jumped out at me, why would you do that?" "I couldn't miss out on that opportunity... I'm just heading to my room, alone." "Me too, what a coincidence. Goodnight Brian." "Goodnight Nick." They both made their way to their rooms.
Date: 26/10/2005 Time: 10:30am Place: hotel Music: none
The next morning the girls were in the restaurant eating breakfast. "So where did you get to last night? I sat up for a while after Brian left and was waiting for you." "I was just talking with AJ and we didn't realise the time... don't even give me that look, he's married and I have a boyfriend. We're just friends and nothing else, why do I have to keep reminding you of that?" "Baby brain... I might have to go and get a second helping of scrambled egg, I think bubba likes it." Linzi stands up. "I feel sorry for Brian after you've eaten all that egg, I would have thought the boys would have been down here by now as we've got to drive to Manchester yet." "I'm sure they'll be down and there was me thinking that I'd be the one wondering where the boys are first." "I know you were thinking it." "Of course I was; you know Brian scared me last night? I wasn't expecting him to be sat next to the bed, he was just looking at me and smiling." "I think he was trying to be sweet and romantic." "It was creepy; I know he means well but that sort of thing isn't usual for him. Saying that I know sometimes he'll just stand by the living room door and just look at me, I know that he's trying to be romantic and sweet but he should know by now that he doesn't have to try so hard." "The boy loves you." "Ah good morning ladies, don't you both look wonderful today." He walked over and wrapped his arms around Linzi. "Morning Nick, you're cheerful today. I'm guessing you slept well?" "Like a baby, how are you both? And how is baby Littrell today?" "We're all good and bubba is hungry." "Yeah I wouldn't stand too close Nick; she's got a craving for scrambled egg." "That's all good as long as you don't burp because then it's just nasty." "So do I get a hug from you or is she the only one who's allowed?" "I can hug you too." "You hug her while I go and get more food." "Yay I get Nick all to myself." Laura smiled. "God I love being so popular... here comes Howie D, good morning D." "Morning guys and how are we this morning?" "We are well thank you, are you packed and ready for a change of venue today?" "Yep I'm all ready; can I get you girls anything from the counter?" "Could you get me another orange juice please and whatever you do, don't get Wizz anymore scrambled egg." "Okay, is she still having cravings?" "Oh yes, she could have picked a better craving than scrambled egg though." "I'm sure it's not something she picked, right orange juice." Howie walked up to the counter and Linzi walks back and sits at the table.
Kevin and AJ walk into the restaurant. "Ooh breakfast, I am so hungry." Said AJ. "Hey girls." He walks past and up to the counter. "Good morning ladies, how are we this morning?" "We're really well thank you and how are you?" asked Laura. "I'm good raring to go today and get this show started." "You've got a good few hours yet, I bet you can't wait till you finally finish?" "I don't mind it; this is one of the best jobs in the world. It's always amazing to see everyone at our shows, you know what it's like because you've been to almost all of them." "That is true... so you Mr Richardson should have a good hearty breakfast before you start work." I am planning to." "Well then you best get over there before those three eat it all." "Right well I am officially full, I'm going to go up and grab my bag and find that husband of mine because I would have thought he would have been down here by now." "He is taking his time." "I'll be back down in a while; I'll bring your bag down with me." Linzi walked upstairs and towards Brian's room. She knocked on the door a couple of times before it's opened. "Hey baby, are you okay?" "Yeah, I was worried about you because you hadn't come down for breakfast yet." "I was just about to come down but now I have you here with me and we're all alone." "That is true, have you packed everything ready to go?" "I have I was trying to pack up quickly because I really wanted to see you, I didn't like spending the night away from you." "Aww bubs, you know that today is our last day with you don't you? You're off tomorrow and I'll be driving back down to my mums for a few days before I head back home." "Now I am worried." "Why?" "Just the fact that you said you were going to be driving home, you can't even drive so of course I'll worry." "I didn't mean that in a literal sense, Lolly will be driving me home of course... ooh I am so going to miss you're not so funny comments, so today we are going to have good fun and will not be clingy all day." "You're not going to be clingy?" "I'm not, when have I ever been? I don't need to be grabbing hold of you every second, are you planning on running away into the sunset with one of your fans?" "No." "Then there's your answer, I will however be there to cheer you on throughout the night and tonight you and me will snuggle up nice and tight." "Sounds like an awesome plan." "It does." "Have you had any breakfast yet?" "Of course." "Did you have the scrambled egg again." "As always, I know you don't like it but I honestly don't have a choice in the matter. Everyone else is downstairs so you might want to go and get yourself something to eat before they eat it all." "Hey do you think it'll be okay if I tagged along with you and Laura in her car? I missed not being with you all of last night and I don't wanna have to sit without you on the bus too, I promise to be a good boy. I'll stay in my seat, I'll wear my seatbelt and I promise to be very very quiet." "Oh you don't have to do that, like Laura and me are going to be quiet on the ride over. You can sing along with us; it can be a little warm up session." "Sounds like a blast, I best go and ask Laura though shouldn't I?" "Yes, that would be an idea but I don't think she'd mind though." "Awesome, do you want me to help you with your bags? I don't want you carrying them down the stairs on your own if they're too heavy." "You can carry mine for me and I'll bring down Lolly's." After collecting their suitcases, they walk down the stairs to join the others.
Brian ran over to Laura and hugged her. "Lolly!" "Oh here's trouble, what do you want?" "Breakfast... and I want to ask you something?" "I knew there was something else that you wanted, you wouldn't have hugged me otherwise. What would you like to ask me?" "Please, please, please can I join you girls in the car? It will be really fun." "I guess so, I thought you would have wanted to be with the boys on the bus." "I know but I really wanted to spend a little bit more time with Linzi and yourself of course." "Okay." "Thank you, you are so my favourite sister in law right now." "Aren't I always?" "Of course." He kisses her on the cheek before walking over to the counter.
An hour later and they were all on their way to Manchester for the next show. "This is a nice car?" "You're so nice but this car really isn't anything special, I'm sure you've been in better cars than this." "Well this is your car and it's nice and actually really comfortable." "I think we'd best put on some music." Laura turned on the radio and as it connected to her phone it started to play The Backstreet Boys. "See even the music you have is the best." They all join in together and sing along.
They soon arrive at the arena and there are a crowd of girls standing outside by the gates screaming and waving, Brian waved out of the window at them. "They better not scratch my car because I won't be impressed and you'll be the one paying to get it fixed." She drove in and parked next to the boys' bus. AJ, Kevin, Nick and Howie climb off of the bus and along with Brian they all stand to wave at the crowd while Laura and Linzi walk into the building. "Are they doing their smile and wave routine?" asked Kerry. "Hello you, what are you doing here?" "I couldn't stay away, mum helped me get a coach up here. How was yesterday? Did you surprise them?" "Of course, they were really surprised to see us sat there in the crowd." "Does Nick know that you're here? he never said you were coming up." Asked Linzi. "That's the good part because now this is my surprise, if they ever come in from their meet and greet moment out there." "We actually did the meet and greet yesterday, standing in the queue with all the fans and joining in with some of their conversations. It was going well until Brian jumped down off the stage to kiss me." "I couldn't help myself, you know I can't keep my hands off of you baby... Hey Kerry I wasn't expecting to see you here." He hugged her. "I thought I couldn't let Laura and Linzi have all of the fun could I?" "Where's Lacey?" "My mum is looking after her for me, it's only for the one night." She smiled. The rest of the boys walk in. "Hey baby what are you doing here?" smiled Nick. "I'm here to see you of course and to see the show, Lacey said for me to say hi daddy and that she misses you." "Aww I miss her too, so glad that you're here with me today I was starting to get jealous of Brian." "Aww, well I am here now so you can hold me and have me all to yourself for the whole entire day... well almost, you will have to let go of me when you go on stage." "Okay, time to put those boys down now we need to do this sound check before tonight." "Yes, sorry Kevin. You best go and get back to work." "Yep, see you later baby." Nick kisses her and walks over to the stage. "Don't you think you're getting out of it, you need go get your butt up there too Mr Littrell." "Do you think they'll notice if I hide behind you all?" "I think they'll notice as you are the lead on many of the songs." Said Laura. "Ah damn it... okay I'll see you girls after work." "See you soon baby." He runs up and jumps onto the stage to join the rest of the group and the rehearsals commence.
The girls sit down in a row of seats in the middle of the hall. "So do we know where we'll be sitting tonight? I hope we won't be sitting too far away I always prefer to be close to the boys." Said Kerry. "Tell me about it, I can't be doing with all the up and down stairs at the minute." "Our box was quite close last night, so hopefully we'll have somewhere like that tonight." "You had your own box?" "Yeah, a whole box and just us two sat in it. We had a lot of fun and a lot of space to enjoy." "Ooh, well fingers crossed we get something like that tonight then. I don't mind sitting with the fans because they're the ones that keep them doing what they do the best, it's you I worry about, I don't want them bumping into you and hurting our new niece or nephew." "Don't be silly, you know that I was twice as big as this last time and I managed to stand front row and dance around without getting hurt. I'm sure we'll get our own box anyway... I love sitting here and watching them because I always sit and think 'How lucky am I? I get to spend my life with that sexy boy." "Yep, we are lucky." "Well I'm glad you two are, some of us weren't so lucky." Frowned Laura before laughing.
They boys soon finished their sound check and they'd all gone backstage where a buffet had been arranged so they could all eat before the show. "Oh quick hide all the food." Smiled AJ. "Haha, when did you get so funny AJ? I'm not hungry anyway because I not long ate, I might have a nose at what you boys have anyway." Said Kerry. "Well I don't know about you but I'm going to get myself a plate." Said Laura. "Help yourself, there's plenty there." Said Kevin. "Would you like me to fix you a plate baby?" asked Brian. "No thank you, I might take a doggy bag for later but right now I'm just not in the mood to eat." "Wow, are you okay?" asked Nick. "Yes, just because I'm pregnant doesn't mean that I have to constantly eat all the time. I'm just going to sit here and relax, just don't forget to wake me if I fall asleep." "Are we that boring?" "Aww no Howie you guys are loads of fun and candy to my eyes, I'm just feeling exhausted." "Well if you fall asleep we won't be offended, you can sleep for as long as you want and we will wake you up so you can freshen up before the show." "Thank you." She lay on the sofa and watched as they sat eating and talking until she fell asleep. "I thought you weren't going to eat anything?" asked Nick to Kerry. "I know, but it all just looked too yummy to not try some." "Missed you." "I was only away from you for a few days." "I know but that doesn't mean that I didn't miss you, you're my wife I always miss you when you're not with me." "Aww thanks babe, I always miss you too but I didn't come here for all of this soppy stuff, I came here to have fun with all of you guys." "Oh we can do fun, we're not all old and past it yet but we have a show tonight and only a limited amount of free time tomorrow." "And when has that ever stopped you guys? I remember the days when we used to get completely smashed after a show and having to watch all of you walk out with sunglasses on looking the worst for wear." "Those were the days, where did those days go? Seems like we just blinked and they vanished." "I guess pretty much, so what shall we do while we have a little bit of free time tomorrow?" "I know what I would like to do." He grinned. "Now now, don't be rude. I want to do something fun together, still not being rude Nick." "I wasn't thinking about it that time, we could always be spontaneous and see how things go in the morning. Right now I need to think about tonight and making it a good night for all of our fans." "Okay, you're such a good boy aren't you?" "Of course, come on you can help me get ready for the meet and greet." They walk down to the changing rooms.
The fans soon turn up for the meet and greet and after some questions, photos and few songs the guys rush backstage to get ready. As usual the show was fantastic and the crowd screamed as loud as always, sweating and panting the boys walk back to the changing rooms. To cool down Brian had gone down to the temporary basketball court out in the loading bay. "Ooh ooh jump shot and he makes it, Brian Littrell is lining up for a shot off the halfway line... and it's in, this boy is on fire." "I thought I'd find you out here playing with yourself." "Join me D, one on one." "I don't think so, I don't even know how you've got the energy to play, I just want to get back to the hotel room and go to bed." "I'm just winding down, helps to clear my mind." He shoots the ball and it goes into the basket. "Were you sent to get me so we could leave?" "No, I just wondered where you'd gone to." "Well you found me... I guess I should get ready to make a move back with you guys, we have more travelling to do tomorrow." "Tell me about it, just promise me that this time you will leave my ears alone. If you touch me at any time during the flight, I will bust you in the face." "I promise not to touch you; I firmly have Nick in my sights for the next flight." "Oh I can see that going down well." "Well that's the plan, here D... Catch." He throws the ball at him. "Thanks I really needed that." They walk back and join the others before making their way back to the hotel.
Date: 18/12/2005 Place: Littrell house. Time: 9:30am Music: None
The bedroom door opened and Brian walked in carrying a tray. "Good morning." "Good morning to you my beautiful wifey, I have brought us breakfast in bed." "I can see; you know that this moment can be ruined at any moment." "Yeah I know, so we need to enjoy it as much as we can right now... I made you scrambled egg on seeded bread and I made sure your bacon was nice and crispy the way you like it, we have fresh orange juice and as you can see I have a single rose for you... just to warn you I will be giving you a single rose every hour today, happy anniversary." "Happy anniversary to you too baby." "We best get eating this food before the kids get smell that bacon." Brian sits on the bed next to Linzi and they enjoy their breakfast.
A short while the kids came into the room and the triplets jumped onto the bed. "Happy andiversary Mommy and daddy." Smiled Scott as he passed Brian the card. "Thank you guys." "I thought I'd keep them busy and quiet for a while so you and mom could enjoy some time together, so we made you some cards." Smiled Jen. "Thank you Teddy bear." "What do you and mommy have planned for today?" "Well as it's Sunday I will be going to church and taking all of you kids with me so you all better behave today." "Do I have to go? Can't you just take the boys?" "I thought you liked going to church with me." "Yeah I know but can I give a miss just for today please." "Okay, but I want you to come next week okay?" "Yes daddy." "Right boys go and put on your Sunday best clothes, chop chop." The boys run off to their room. "Come here Teddy bear." Jenni walked over to him and he hugged her. "You okay?" "Yeah, I just don't want to go to church today. I think I'd rather stay at home with mom and make sure that she's okay." "You know, that sounds like a really nice and thoughtful idea and I think your mom could do with some help while I'm not here." "You can help me get things ready for dinner." "Oh no no, you my sweet are coming out with me tonight. I have well hopefully I have a very romantic night planned for us." "Well that sounds like it could be interesting." "That's what I'm hoping, well I am going to get dressed." "I'd better go check on those boys and make sure they're dressed properly." Linzi gets out of the bed and walks down the hall and into the boys' room, a short while later Brian and the boys had left.
There's a knock at the door. "I'll get it mom." Jenni-Kay opened the front door. "Mom Aunty Kerry is here! Come in, mom is just in the kitchen." Kerry walked through and into the kitchen. "Hey ya I'm here! How are you? Happy anniversary did Brian spoil you yet?" "Hey thank you, he made me breakfast in bed and he gave me a single rose. We're going out later for some dinner." "Just one?" "Yep just one, he's supposed to be giving me a single rose every hour." "So where's he now?" "He's in church with the boys so I get some peace and quiet, Jen is upstairs in her room." "Same here, I'm child free while Nick's taking Lacey out to help with Christmas shopping. They better get me something really nice, what do you and Brian get each other for Christmas?" "We don't get each other anything, we just buy the kids presents." "Oh yeah I forgot that, you two are so weird." "We're not weird." Jenni-Kay walked into the kitchen with a smile. "You okay baby?" "Yes, I have to give this to you from daddy." She passed Linzi the rose. "Thank you." Jen skipped back upstairs to her room. "Well he wasn't kidding was he, he really is giving me a rose every hour. What did I do to deserve that man?" "That boy never fails to amaze us does he? You didn't have to do anything to deserve that man because you so deserve him, I'm getting all excited about what he's got planned later for your meal out." "He's probably planned something really nice and I don't have anything to wear, you know that there'll be someone out there with a camera and he'll look hot and sexy, I'll just be his fat frumpy wife." "You're not fat and frumpy, you're pregnant and beautiful. People will just be jealous that you have Brian and they don't, we'll find something for you to wear don't you panic." "Thank you." "Come on let's go see what you have in your wardrobe." Kerry and Linzi walk upstairs and into the bedroom.
Kerry walked over and opened the door. "Have a look in there and see if there's anything." While Linzi was looking in the wardrobe she grabbed a box out from under the bed and placed it on top of the bedding. "There's nothing in here." "What about in this box? Anything in here?" "What box?" she turned around and Kerry beamed. "Well? Anything in this box any good?" smiling Linzi opened the box and inside was a blue satin dress. "I'm going to kill him; how did you know this was here?" "He told me." "Sneaky little git." She took the dress out of the box and held it against her. "That dress looks amazing and it will look amazing on you, got to give it to him, he does think of everything." Kerry held up a pregnancy bump support and laughed. "Can't say that he doesn't support me." She chuckled. Jen walked into the room. "Wow mom that dress is amazing, you might want to wear this with it too." She passed her a box. "Are you kidding me? Now I feel bad because I haven't got him anything." She opened the box and inside was a necklace that sparkled as the sunlight hit the diamonds. "Let me see... oh wow, what can I say that boy loves you." "He's an idiot who doesn't listen, he knows that I don't do presents when it comes to us." "You are going to look amazing tonight." "So do you know where we're going tonight then?" "Not a clue, that was one of the things he wanted to keep a secret." "Do you know where daddy is taking me?" "Sorry mom, sworn to secrecy on that one, I think that's the whole point of being a surprise." "It must be somewhere pretty expensive if he's got me wearing all of this." "Why do you worry about money so much? It's not like he hasn't got any." "It's not about how much money he has, he could be skint and I'd still love him. I just want to be with him because of who he is as a person not for what he is a backstreet boy, I just don't see that him buying me gifts as what our relationship is about. I know that one day all of this could just stop and we won't have any of this, so I love him for being the person he is so that I can keep being in love with him even when he doesn't have his career." "But surely he's allowed to spoil you at least once a year." "Maybe I can allow it once a year." She smiled.
Brian and the boys arrived back from church. "Anyone home?" he called up the stairs. "You boys go and get changed then you can put a movie on and play." They all walk up the stairs and the boys go into their room. "Anybody here? Teddy you home? Linzi." "Boo!" Kerry appeared behind him. "You scared the life out of me." "Sorry but it was funny, are you alright?" "I will be once my heart stops beating at a hundred miles an hour." "How was church?" "It was nice the same as every other Sunday that we go, is Linzi around?" "Yeah, she's just having a nap. I was just in Jenni's room; we were playing with some of her toys." "Is she okay?" "Yes she's fine." "How did she take the gifts?" "You know exactly what she thought of them." "Did she complain?" "Of course she did but she also loved them very much, those must have cost a fortune?" "It was all worth it lets leave it at that yeah? she doesn't need to know the cost of anything because nothing will ever come close to how much she means to me." "Okay I think I'm about to melt at that, you're such a smoothie Mr Littrell." "That's me... you know it's crazy, when I asked her to marry me it only just popped into my head while I was making my puppy dog eyed apology speech. I didn't intentionally set out to ask her, but when I saw her, my heart started to race and my hands started to sweat; all I wanted to do at that moment was just hold her in my arms and kiss her and never let go. To see Jen in that one photograph and then again asleep in her buggy, just this whole wave of warmth and emotion came over me and I never thought that I could just feel all of that unconditional love for someone that I just met; I had a family right in front of me and I wasn't going to let that go, so I asked her." "I didn't even know you back then, well not personally anyway but it sounds like something out of a story book, like a fairy-tale ending that Disney would come up with." "It felt like that too but everyone just thought I was crazy, I guess I understand in a way because she'd not long turned seventeen and I was two months away from twenty-five but I loved her then the same way that I do today." "That's really sweet, that's something that I wish would come out of Nick's mouth about me. You two are going to have such a nice evening tonight, I just wish I could be a fly on that wall." "Yeah well you can't, this evening is just something for me to show my wife how much I love her." "Well if you tell her everything that you just told me then you can skip the dinner and just get down to the hot sexy part." "She's due to drop any time soon so I think the hot sex can wait for another time, I can make do with just holding her and being by her side all night." "You do that every night." "Yeah and I will continue doing so because that's all we need." "I wouldn't be so sure about that when you say it seen as though you're about to have five kids already." "Yeah five kids but only four times unprotected." Kerry looked at him. "Yeah baby I'm just that good." He chuckled. "Way too much info, what a way to break the heartfelt moment." "You mentioned it first." "I did, I admit that was my fault that I forgot how deep down there is a child buried away behind those blue eyes and blonde hair and that fit as body... but really only three times?" "Yeah, I don't think I was home long enough or awake for long enough to go at it like bunnies." Kerry looked behind Brian. "There's someone behind me isn't there? Are they under ten or under six?" "Under ten." He turned around and smiled. "Hey Teddy bear." "That was not what I wanted to hear thankyou daddy." "I didn't know you was stood behind me did I?" "Well I have come to make myself a glass of juice and to tell you that the boys are drawing on their wall again with their crayons." "Looks like daddy duty calls." "You'd best go; I'll stick the kettle on." "Thank you." Brian walked up the stairs.
That afternoon Brian and Linzi were out on their date, Brian had booked them a table at a nice restaurant where they were greeted at the door and Linzi was given a large bunch of roses. They were shown to their table which was in a private area and out of the window they had a view of the ocean. "Okay now I feel spoilt already." "Well the evening has only just begun." "I don't know where I'm going to put those roses after all of the others you've given me today." "We'll find a place, have I told you that you amazing tonight?" "I think so, about thirty odd times already." "Am I annoying you?" "No I got over that a few days after I met you." "Did I drive you crazy back then?" "In all sense of the word but you were never annoying." "It's amazing that we've been married for six years already." "Are you regretting it already?" she chuckled. "No never, I don't think that could ever be possible and I wouldn't change a thing." "Not one thing?" he looked at her for a minute. "You know if I could change that part of the story I would, I didn't know where we were in the relationship or even if there was one and for the other time... I was a selfish idiot and I wasn't thinking about you when I should have been. But, although those times happened; I think it made us into an even stronger couple." "I guess it did." They order their food and after the meal they take a short drive up the road and stop by a wooden cabin overlooking a lake.
They climb out of the car. "What are we doing here?" "We'll be staying here for the night, come on let's go inside it's freezing out here." They walk through the door. "Wow." "I know, I thought that you'd like it. I also prepared a few things for tonight and one of them being some nice soft pyjamas and some really comfy slippers for you; why don't you go and change into them while I sort out things down here." "Okay." She walked down the hall and into a bedroom, the bed had rose petals spread on top of the duvet with a bunch of roses in the middle. Downstairs Brian lit the fire in the fireplace before changing out of his suit and into a pair of lounge bottoms, on the coffee table he lay out champagne in a bucket of ice along with two glasses and a tray of strawberries. He walked over to the stereo and plugging in his mp3 player he started to play his boys to men album, he checked his watch and smiled to himself.
Linzi walked into the room and looked over at him as he stood half-dressed holding the glasses of champagne. "Do you know how many girls would be so jealous of me right now if they could see you... If I wasn't already pregnant you wouldn't be wearing those trousers right about now." She smiled. "Hey I don't care about all those girls, there's only one girl I care about and she's looking mighty fine in her pyjamas right now." He passed her the champagne glass. "I would like to make a toast to us and to thank you for making me the happiest and blessed man in the world and for also giving me the most amazing children that anyone could ask for... I love you my beautiful lady." "I love you too and I would also like to make a toast to you for changing my life and making me the happiest woman in the world. I would also like to raise my glass and even though I'm not a religious person, I would like to thank god for sending this fine ass man down from heaven and into my life... I love you my Kentucky blue eyed lover." She kisses him. "I need you to put on a coat and shoes." "Why?" "I have something outside for us." "Okay." They both put on their coats and shoes. "Wait here one second, I just need to check that everything is perfect first." He quickly runs out of the cabin and after a few minutes he returns. "If you would like to follow me." As he held her hand in his they made their way outside and down towards the water's edge where a fire was set up and flickering in the light breeze. He removed the plastic sheeting from the seats. "Take a seat." She sat down and Brian placed a blanket over her shoulders and covered her lap before sitting beside her and wrapping a blanket over his shoulders also, across the lake the sunset reflected in the ripples of the water that stretched before them and the snowflakes fell gently around them onto the fresh fallen snow. "Are you warm enough?" "Yeah, this is amazing and so beautiful." "When I was trying to decide what to do for this day a million things came into my head, but when I thought long and hard about each of them I realised that none of them would be enough to show you how I feel about you. I know I say that I love you almost a million times a day but the words don't express anything near how much my heart calls for you, or even how I want to hold you in my arms every time I see you. Each time you walk into the room for me it's like I'm meeting you for the first time every time, my heart starts to pound and my hands start to shake; all I can think of to do at that moment is to just watch you and smile because you make me that happy without even saying a word. To look into your eyes each morning is all I will ever need, to see you looking back at me and how your eyes seem to smile before you do gives me a feeling of gratitude and fulfilment in my life. You are so important to me and wherever I am in the world and whatever I'm doing you are always the first person I think of in the morning and the last at night, with obviously the kids in between because I couldn't live without them either. Asking you to marry me was the best decision that I ever made and I would do it all over again and wouldn't change a thing... I love you with more than my heart can give and I hope you will continue with me on the rollercoaster ride that I promised you six years ago." He smiled.
Linzi looked at him and smiled. "Wow, I wish I'd recorded that because that was amazing." "Me too because I have no idea what just came out of my mouth, I can guess that it was all the right words." "They were perfect and I don't think I can say anything back to you that's half as amazing as that." "I don't need you too, all I ask is that you walk by my side and continue to wear that ring on your finger for as long as I have air in my body." "What if my life ends before yours?" "I will continue to carry you in my heart and wear this ring until my life comes to its end, there's nobody on this earth that could stop me from loving you." He held her hand as a tear ran down her face. "Hey, you're crying, what's wrong?" "Nothing, just got all emotional. I mean look at this place... I'm in a beautiful cabin and looking out at my favourite time of day with you, I don't think I could have imagined being anywhere more perfect to celebrate our marriage." "Only the best for my wife... I think we should go back inside and get you warmed up, it's freezing." Brian put out the fire before they made their way back up to the house.
Brian stoked up the fire in the fireplace while Linzi sat on the sofa and wrapped herself in the blanket. "It should start feeling warm in here in a minute, he poured another glass of champagne and passed Linzi's over before sitting down next to her." "Are you warm enough?" "Yes I am warm enough; you don't need to worry." He placed his hand onto her belly. "This one doesn't know how lucky it is to have you as it's mom, I'm looking forward to meeting our baby; to hold its tiny hand in mine and cradle them in my arms will be amazing." "Another cub to add to our pack... why do you call Jen Teddy bear anyway? I know it's a nickname you came up with for her but I don't think I know why?" thinking Brian began to smile. "The day that I met our daughter and I held her in my arms for the first time, I never wanted to let her go or lose sight of her because she meant to much to me. When she would sleep I would wait to hear her cry just so I could hold her in my arms again, it's like when you're a child and you have that one toy that you have to take with you everywhere you go and you can't sleep without at night; so she became my Teddy bear. I know that one day she'll be older and she won't want to snuggle with me on the couch or have me sit by her side as she falls asleep at night, so I'm enjoying my cuddles with her whenever I can for as long as I have her as my teddy bear." "She really made a mark on you didn't she?" "Of course, she made her mark the moment I set eyes on her photograph in your apartment, I fell in love with her right at that moment." "Then Junior came along..." "Hey, he made his mark too. He'll forever have a place in our lives, he may not be here with us today but he will always be our son... of course our crazy three certainly made up for his absence." "They do, we certainly wouldn't be without those three." "Nope, they keep us on our toes and they're always full of surprises. We were certainly blessed with those three, I was completely surprised when we were told that we were having triplets, I couldn't have even imagined it. Then to be told that two of our boys had complications, that tore me up and I know that we couldn't handle any more heartbreak." "But they were fine and even though they have a long way to go before things get better, they know that they'll always have us when they need us." "Every time they come into a room I can't help but just look at them and I feel so grateful to be their daddy; also the first thing that comes into my head when I see James is 'Alviiin'." He chuckled. "Oh you're so cruel." "I can't help it; they remind me of the chipmunks. Scott is Simon, Tom is Theodore and James is Alvin. That's why I can't wait to meet this one, I want to see what sort of personality this one has." "Does it matter what personality he or she has? They'll all be different and that's what we want for the kids, for them to be their own person and their own outtake on life; for them to decide where they want their lives to go." "Of course, I would never make my kids do anything they didn't want to, I know James and Tom like the stage; I don't think it's Scott's thing, he likes his sports." "Maybe we should enrol them into some sports, get them doing something where they can release all of that energy." "Don't you think that there could be a problem with that?" "No, why?" "What about Tomas? We don't want him to feel left out of things like that, kids can be cruel and I don't know if he can handle that." "That boy is a tough nugget, there are plenty of things he can do. He can do the whole stage thing, he can swim, play football or American football. He can do whatever he sets his mind to, believe me nothing stops that boy and that includes climbing up the kitchen units to steal cookies." "He is a nightmare for that, so you think they'll be okay?" "They will be fine and they'll always adapt to their disabilities, we just need to keep being positive." "I can do that." "Good, now pass me that tray of fruit I'm hungry." Brian passed her the tray.
Date: 24/12/2005 Place: Littrell house Time: 7:30am Music: Christmas carols
The kids ran into the bedroom and onto the bed. "It's Christmas, It's Christmas, It's Christmas." Shouted Scott. "Has Santa been mommy?" "I don't know baby; did you check if there was anything in your stockings?" "No." "Then I think you best go and see." The boys run back into their rooms. "Well good morning to you." Smiled Brian. "Good morning, well I think that's is our call to get up." "Aww can't we stay in bed just a little longer?" "I'm afraid not, our four little monsters have decided that now is the best times to get up and see if Santa has been." "Can I got back to bed once it's all over?" "How about no, come on Mr Littrell move your butt out of that bed and put some clothes on before they all come back again." Linzi got out of her bed and put on her dressing gown before going into the bathroom, Brian sat up in the bed as Tom walked into the room. "Hey buddy what did you get?" "I don't know I can't open the paper; can you help me open my presents?" "I can, how about I open a corner and you can tear the rest open with your teeth?" "Yeah!" Brian picked up a present and slightly tore a corner before passing it to him. "Why didn't you ask your brothers or Jen to help you?" "They were all busy with their presents... ooh I got a car." "That's a nice car too." "I'm going to add it to my collection... where's Momma gone?" "She's in the bathroom getting all freshened up before we all go downstairs to open the big presents." "Why don't you and momma don't have presents? Have you been naughty?" "No we're not naughty, me and mommy don't need presents because we have you guys and that's enough for us... anyway you need to open more presents." "Daddy?" "Yeah buddy." "Can I give these presents to the children that don't have Christmas?" Brian looked at him. "Why would you want to do that?" "Well... I have a lot of toys and our teacher told us about children that don't have a Christmas, I don't want them to miss out." "That's really nice of you to think of other children, I'm really proud of you... can daddy have a hug?" Tom climbed up the bed and he held him in his arms.
Linzi walked out of the bathroom. "Look at you two, I love you guys when you're like that." "Tom has decided that he would like to give all of his stocking presents to the children that don't have a Christmas." "That's so sweet and very thoughtful, wow we have such an amazing boy on our hands." "We do." "You can use the bathroom now I'm finished, Tomas go and find your slippers and when everyone has finished opening their stocking presents we'll go downstairs." "Okay mommy." He jumped of the bed and walked out to his room. "I best stick some pants on." "That would be a good idea, I love this time of year because it's nice to see the kids' faces as they open their presents and I think it's just the whole Christmas feeling." "It does feel kind of special doesn't it? We are blessed with a special family that's for sure." "Go and get ready before they all rush in." "Yes ma'am." Brian walked into the bathroom and Linzi walked along the hall to the kid's rooms. "Hey Jen." "Hey mom, look what I've got." "And they're just the small ones, we'll go down once your dad is ready for the bigger ones." "Okay mom, we didn't get up too early did we?" "No you guys got up the time we were expecting you too, don't forget to put your dressing gown on and your slippers before we go downstairs." "Okay mom." She walked along to the boys' room. "Hey there my little monkeys, what did Santa bring you?" "We gots cars and crayons and a colouring book." Said Scott. "Sounds like you guys will be busy today." "I already coloured in a dinosaur and it looks scary and it's eating all the scared people." James opened his book to show her the swirls of green and red on the page. "That's really good James, aren't you a clever boy? Now don't forget your slippers and dressing gowns, I don't want you guys to get cold." "Okay mommy." The boys search for their slippers. "I'm all ready." Smiled Brian who was stood behind her. "Aren't you just, you didn't have to get completely dressed." "Well I thought that it would be best so then I could get on with cooking the turkey and preparing all the food before everyone gets here, you can put your feet up and relax and enjoy the morning. Come on then all you little monsters, shall we go and see if Santa has brought you any gifts?" They all appear at the top of the stairs and follow him down. "Okay now before we go in, I need to ask a question. I want you to put your hand up if you think you've been good this year." They all put their hands up along with beaming smiles. "Okay in you go!" They all run into the living room and for a moment stand looking in amazement at all of the presents under the tree. "What are you waiting for guys? Go open them." "But daddy how do we know who's present is who's? We can't read." "Okay so maybe there is that, okay come on fellas let me see if I can find your presents for you." Along with the boys he ventures under the tree and passes them their presents before walking back over to stand with Linzi. "I have something for you too." He hands her an envelope. "I thought we said no gifts." "We did." She opened the envelope. "This is a picture of you." "Yeah because I hope that I am all you will ever want and a need?" "Of course you are you soppy idiot, I couldn't want for anything more in my life." "Good, well you my dear can take a seat and relax, hey kids who wants a hot chocolate with extra whipped cream and marshmallows?" "Can we have sprinkles too?" asked Jen. "Of course why now? It's Christmas isn't it?" He walked into the kitchen.
A little later everyone started arriving at the house, Christmas music rang through all of the rooms and Brian and the kids were singing Karaoke in the living room. "We're here!" called Kerry. "Come on in, ignore that lot in there they've been at it all morning." "I bet you're glad that you haven't got neighbours eh?" "Definitely." "Hey sweetie what is going on in there?" "Hey Nick well that would be a bad rendition of jingle bells, I don't think he's putting in as much effort as he should." "You're telling me, so where shall we put these presents?" "Under the tree behind me and we'll pass them all out later, you're more than welcome to take Lacey through to join in." "Do you want to join in with the singing Lacey?" "Yeah mom." "Go on through then." Lacey goes into the living room followed by Nick and Kerry and Linzi go into the kitchen. "Smells yummy in here." "Brian was supposed to be sorting all of the food but he got a little side-tracked." "Just a little." "Can I get you a drink of something." "Oh yes, but I'll just have a glass of cola for now so I can save my glass of wine for dinner." "Good idea, so what did Nick get you for Christmas?" "He brought me this bracelet and some gorgeous Jimmy Chou shoes, I felt really spoilt. What did Brian get you?" "He gave me this." She passed her the envelope. "It's just got a picture of him in it." "Yep because he said that he is all I should ever want and need." "See, how does he do it? He can always out do someone else's present without even trying. It shows how much he loves you, what did you get him?" "Love he's about to have a fifth child I don't think he needs anything else." "That is also true, so when is everyone else turning up?" "I have no idea I think they'll all just turn up when they want to." "Okay well that is me official stepping away and letting Nick take over, hey girlies look at you both how are you Kerry?" Brian danced over to the stove. "I'm good, well don't you look smart." "I always dress like this and its Christmas so I need to look good. You look nice too by the way, Nick bought you some new perfume?" "Yeah, how did you know?" "You just smell different." "There's a whole new side to you coming out B, do you usually smell all of your friends?" "No but you do smell different." "That nose of yours is good for something then." "Ha." "Now, now kiddies behave, you get on a sort all of this food out." Said Linzi. "I am doing that right now." "Yeah Brian get on with it." The front door opens. "So who's going to help me with my bags then?" "Who's that?" "Why don't you go and see." Brian walked into the hallway. "Laura! You made it." "Only just, I was worried about all the snow because I didn't want my flight to be cancelled... but I'm so glad that I made it here and to finally see you all." "We're glad you're here too, leave your bags where they are for now and I'll take them upstairs later. The kids will be happy to see you, they've missed you." "I've missed them too, look at you aren't you looking all sexy and smart as usual?" Brian turned around and looked behind him. "I meant you." "Oh, I was looking to see if AJ was behind me." She looked at him as he was trying not to laugh. "I'm going to kill her." "Who?" "Wizz, I told her not to say anything." "She didn't say anything I promise; I was actually kidding but it seems I hit the mark." "Don't you start... you know I have a boyfriend and AJ is just a friend." "I know and I promise not to say anything more about your little secret." "You better not or I'll have to bosh you one." "Ooh feisty, well go on through and see everyone." She walked into the kitchen. "Yay lolly made it!" Kerry walked over and hugged her. "How you doing honey?" "I'm good, look at you." "I know; baby just keep getting bigger." "Where's Nick?" "He's in the other room singing karaoke with the kids, I'm surprised you didn't hear him." "I wasn't paying any attention." "That's because she had me to look at." Smiled Brian. "Is that baby still in there? Come on I want to know if I have a nephew or a niece." "Anytime soon, just not today. I'm glad you're here maybe now I can get a few sleep ins in the morning, my three little rascals can get you up first in the morning." "See, babysitting duties is all I'm good for... I'm kidding, I do love those boys and at least Jen understands that I need my sleep." "That's because she likes her late mornings too." "Hey, Hey, Hey guess who's here?" Kevin walked into the kitchen. "Hey everyone, Merry Christmas to all of you." "Hey Kevin, you got enough bags there?" asked Linzi. "These are only a few of them, I have more in the car." "Hurry up and put them down so I can have a Richardson hug." He placed down the bags and hugged Kerry. "Merry Christmas to you, you're looking well." "So are you I haven't seen you in ages." "I know but Brian knew I'd be at a loose end and what better way to celebrate Christmas than with family and friends." "Aww, you're so lovely and even though I've known you two for ages I still forget that your cousins." Kevin walked over and hugged Linzi. "Hey momma, you still haven't had that baby yet? It can't be too long now can it?" "Any day now we hope." "Well you look amazing and beautiful, I'm surprised the kids haven't run you ragged." "They do try, they'll be happy to see their uncle Kevin and you'll give Nick a break." "Laura's here!" "Yeah, you finally noticed me then?" "She only just arrived before you." Laura hugged him. "You were lucky with the weather, you must have just missed the blizzards because it is coming down thick and fast out there." Brian looked out of the window. "I best go grab the shovel and salt before the driveway freezes." "You want a hand with that?" "Yeah, two pairs of hands are going to be quicker than one." They walk into the hall and after putting on their coats Kevin and Brian go outside.
They walk into the garage and pick up the shovels and fill some buckets with salt before walking down the driveway. "Do you do this all the time?" "Yeah and I need to do it more at the moment in case the baby comes, I need my pathway to be clear so we can get out as quickly as possible. I'm already panicking because I don't want anything to go wrong with this baby, after everything we've been through with Junior and the triplets I don't want to go through that again." "You need to relax, if all the scans say that the baby is fine then it's fine. The only problem that baby is going to have is that it's got you for its dad." "Oh ha ha, let's get this salt on this driveway before AJ arrives and runs us both over." "Why do you leave the gates open? Anyone could walk in here; you could have some stalker watching you through your windows at night." "You know; I have no idea why I leave them open. I think maybe because so many people come in and out I just gave up doing it, otherwise I'd be up and down all day opening and closing them." "Just make sure you're careful." "I am from now on, I think we've got enough kids... Oh you meant the fans." He chuckled. "You're an idiot." Kevin chuckled along with him. A car pulls into the driveway. "See talk of devils and they turn up." It pulls up beside Brian. "What are you doing out here?" asked Jen. "We're salting the driveway before this snow blocks us all in." "Ah, you'd love it though." "Let me get back to you on that one, Laura, Kerry and Nick are inside so go and get yourself in the warm." "See you in a bit." They car continues on and parks outside the house as Kevin and Brian continue to salt the ground.
AJ knocks on the door and Jenni-Kay opens it. "Uncle AJ!" "Hey look at you, you look beautiful in that dress." "Thank you, daddy bought it for me. Hi Aunty Jen merry Christmas." "Merry Christmas to you, go on kids go find the rest of them." "We're in the family room singing karaoke with uncle Nick." "There you go, loads of fun with Uncle Nick." The kids follow Jenni into the family room and AJ and Jen go into the kitchen. "More people, come on in. Merry Christmas, did you have a good morning?" asked Linzi. "It was as chaotic as it usually is, now I'm looking forward to the Christmas dinner. All I seem to do is eat, these little boys keep making me hungry." "Well you are eating for three, don't worry I'll make sure Brian puts extra on your plate." "Thank you, why are we all stood in here when it smells so nice? it's just making me hungry even more." "Believe me it's better than being in the living room with all of the kids singing." Said Kerry. "Why don't we go and sit in the conservatory and I'm sure one of these lovely men of ours will bring us something nice to drink." Said Linzi. "Well I guess that would be me as everyone else seems to be busy elsewhere." "Thank you AJ, love you." Smiled Kerry as she walked into the conservatory.
There's a knock at the front door and Jenni-Kay rushed out to open it. "Howie!!" "There she is." She threw her arms around him and hugged him. "Sounds like everyone's here." "Yep, you're the last one to be here." "I got stuck in some traffic." "Do you have presents?" "Yes I do but you will have to wait until after dinner before I hand them out." "Excuse me missy, let Howie in the door it's freezing outside." He walks into the house and closed the door. "Hey you, It's good to see you." Linzi hugged him. "It's great to see you too, you look amazing." "Thank you but I know you're just being kind, let me take your coat and you go on through to the kitchen." Howie passed Linzi his coat and she hung it on the stand by the door. "That snow is really coming down now, I wasn't sure I'd make it here on time. Brian did a good job with that driveway, I would of had to park out on the street and walk in." "He wanted to make sure we had a clean exit for when this baby decides to arrive." "Good idea, it's good that he's prepared." "I just wish he'd stop driving me crazy." They walk into the kitchen. "We have another guest." "Hey D, you made it." Smiled Brian. "I couldn't miss out on a Christmas with you guys, I told my mom I'd go up and see her tomorrow." "That's cool, as you can hear the kids are having fun with Nick. Kevin and AJ are out with the girls in the conservatory and I'm just finishing cooking the last of the food." "You know you love doing it." "I do; can I get you a drink?" "Yeah, I'll have a beer if you have one." "Of course I do." He grabs a bottle out of the fridge and passed it to him.
Later that afternoon Linzi was stood in the dining room looking at the table trying to decide how to dress it ready for dinner. "You trying to use those Jedi powers again?" "Just trying to organise where everyone will sit and what colour to put where." "You know you don't have to worry so much about all of that, they won't be paying much attention to how you've decorated the table." She looked at him. "What did I do wrong?" "Seriously, I'll care how it looks. I want it to be perfect and it won't be perfect if it's not done properly." "Okay relax, take a deep breath and focus for a minute." "I can't focus while you're nagging at me, will you please go and do something else." "Yes miss." Brian walked out of the room and into the kitchen with a smile on his face. "What's with you?" asked Laura who was leaning on the counter with her glass of wine in her hand. "Well I have a feeling the baby is going to be here very soon." He excitedly rubbed his hands together. "What makes you think that?" "Because when it's getting close to the time your sister gets all moody and snappy." "I think you'll find that's normal, especially if you've been winding her up." "I didn't do anything, anyway you know how much she loves this time of year. I just watched her stare at the dining table because she couldn't decide how to dress it, then she took a bite out of me when I said to her that she shouldn't panic because nobody will notice." "You're an idiot, of course people will notice. She'll sort it out eventually, she just wants people to be happy and have a good time." "I want that too, I'd also like a wife who is happy and not stressing out over placemats." "Just give her a few minutes and she'll come out here all smiles, do you want a drink? I've watched you bounce around doing everything and not have anything yet." "Yes please, could you grab me a coke?" "A coke? Would you not prefer a beer?" "Nope I can't risk it, this baby can come any day now and I need a clear head. I know it sounds boring but I have to do this." She passes him a can of cola. "I wasn't going to say anything, anyway cola sends you bananas as it is so I'm sure we're in for some laughs from you; just make sure you drink it slowly while you're cooking, we don't need any crazy incidents." "I'll be good." He hugs her. "Thank you for being here you have made me feel less stressed about the whole baby thing, I can relax and feel safe that if anything happens you'll be here." "It's also a good excuse to come out here and have a holiday with my family." "Did you not want to spend it with your boyfriend? Whatever his name is...You know you could have brought him with you." "Stephen and yes I did mention it to him but he wanted to spend Christmas in Ireland with his family, I couldn't force him to come along." "Maybe he just couldn't handle hanging out with someone as sexy as me." "Maybe, we will never know." "You've been with him all of this time and I've never met him, is he avoiding the whole meet the family thing?" "No, he's met my mum and dad already. I think that maybe because you're all so famous at the minute that he just feels like he doesn't need to meet you." "He still needs to meet me; you can't just go off of what you see on the TV. That's not the real me on that screen acting all goofball and crazy, this is me as you know; just Brian Littrell instead of that all out fun Backstreet boy." "I know and I will talk to him about it when I get back home, I'm sure he'll find it strange that a backstreet boy wants to meet him instead of the other way around." "I'm still a person you know? I still don't understand how people find it strange if I ask to meet someone. Hey I can go all out fan girl at times you know when I meet someone that I idolise, a little bit like you when AJ arrives at the house." "Are you going to keep bringing that up? I wasn't supposed to say that, that's Linzi's fault I thought she'd told you about our conversation." "Of course she didn't, anyway I've always known you had a hot spot for AJ. I've known since the first day that you two met but you can be safe that I will not breathe a word of it to him." He smiled.
AJ walked into the dining room. "There you are, I found you... hey what's up? What's got you all upset?" AJ put his arms around her and hugged her. "You're going to think it's so silly." "No I won't, I promise... what's wrong?" "I can't set the table." "Is that what these tears are for? Okay although I do think it's silly, I'm sure that with my help we can make this room look amazing. Now dry those eyes and give me that smile, we can't have tears on Christmas day can we?" "I don't know what's got into me?" "Well I do, it's called a seven-pound baby and a truck load of crazy ass hormones. Does Brian now that you're feeling like this?" "Yes and I told him to go away and leave me alone." "Well no doubt he'll now be all excited because you know you get like this when it gets close to the baby being born." "Well it's certainly not going to be on its way today... we best get this table done." "Pass the decorations and we'll see what we can do." She placed the box onto the table.
Soon the table was dressed and dinner was ready to be served, everyone sat at the table and after a short prayer of thanks from Brian they all tucked in. After dinner the kids all played out in the snow as Kevin played Christmas carols on the piano accompanied by Howie and AJ with Nick and Brian on guitar. The girls were out in the conservatory watching the snow as it fell outside. "I could sleep right about now." Said Kerry. "Brian did a good job on dinner, I think I ate too much though." "AJ did tell you that you didn't need anymore." "He has no idea what it's like to be pregnant, that man can eat what he wants and still stay slim. I might sneak some Christmas cake later when he's not looking, it smells so yummy." "You alright Wizz? You didn't eat much." "Yeah, just wasn't very hungry. I might grab something a little later... those boys sound amazing don't they?" "The kids are enjoying it, well the ones that are still awake. The boys are snuggled together on their bed bless them, they're so sweet when they're like that and it still amazes me that they still do it." Said Laura. "They like to be together; we did try them in single beds but they'd all end up in one bed by the morning." "I never had that with Alex and Kevin, they liked their own space when it came to their beds but they had to be in the same room." "I'll be back in a bit; I'm just going to check on the boys." "Okay." Linzi got up and made her way up the stairs, she walked into the boys' room and covered them back over with the blanket. As she walked out of the room Brian was stood at the top of the stairs leaning up against the bannister. "You know I only checked on them myself ten minutes ago." "I wanted to make sure they were okay myself... don't give me that look." "What look? I didn't realise I was giving you any look." "It's those soppy puppy dog eyes and before you ask I am fine." "I know you are; you are fine as... I was just looking at you and thinking how lucky I am to have you." "I think that should be the other way around, you guys sound really good down there." He walked over to her and placed his hands on her waist before slowly starting to dance. "What are you doing? I thought we were over these little moments like this." "I will always have these little moments with you the whole time I'm with you and beyond that, I'm just in the Christmas spirit and you know how I get." "Everyone's going to wonder where we are." "Have I done something wrong?" "No, you haven't done anything wrong. I told you that I'm fine because you're going to ask me again, at the minute I just feel like a house and I'm all uncomfortable however I sit." "How about I run you a nice hot relaxing bath with bubbles and candles before bed? I may even have a little box of chocolates hidden somewhere too, how does that sound?" "Sounds lovely, what about me?" she chuckled. "So let's enjoy the rest of the night, come and join me and the boys for a song, you know you love singing with us." "Okay, it does sound like you guys are having fun." "We are having fun and now our boys are asleep we don't have to worry." "I will worry, he's eaten a lot of sugar today and among other things. I will be worrying about him tonight." "How about I put the baby video monitor on and that way if you get worried you can check on him with your phone." "That sounds like a good idea." "Good, well I'll set that up while you go downstairs and bring the girls into the living room; pour yourself a small glass of wine and relax." "Okay." "Good, love you." "Love you." Linzi walked down the stairs.
She walked into the living room and started dancing to the song that the boys were singing. "There you are, what have you done with Brian? Did you do away with him and bury him under the patio." Chuckled Jen. "Now why would I want to do a thing like that? I love that little blue eyed nutter; he's sorting out the video baby monitor so I can keep an eye on James." "Is Chrissy okay?" "Yeah, they're all very much asleep and it won't be long until Jen and the boys fall asleep too. They're all upstairs watching a movie with some popcorn, luckily they're all laying on those giant beanbags so if they fall asleep we can just leave them where they are." "Peace at last then." "Come on you guys, don't just stand there come and join in." Smiled Howie. The girls joined in and the house is filled with music.
Soon everyone was in their beds, Linzi walked downstairs and stood for a while in the kitchen looking out of the window. The light came on in the hall and Howie walked in. "Hey, can't you sleep either?" "I think I drank too much my head is just spinning." "You guys did get a little merry." Howie sat down on the bar stool and put his head in his arms, Linzi made him a glass of water and placed it in front of him. "You're going to need that." "I feel terrible." "Now you know not to do it again but knowing what you lot are like I'm sure this will." "I can't even remember how many I had." "Well Brian gave you four and Nick gave you two or three, the only problem with drinking is that everything seems fine until you stop and then everything starts to spin." "So why are you still up?" "This little one seems to prefer being awake while I'm trying to sleep, I think he's going to be a party animal when he grows up." "Wait you're having a boy? How comes Brian doesn't know?" "He doesn't even know that I know so can you please not say anything? You're the only other person who knows." "I can keep a secret." "Thank you, I feel bad that he doesn't know but he was the one who said that he didn't want to know. So when he went out of the room to answer his phone I asked the midwife, I know Brian is hoping we'll have a girl so I hope he won't be disappointed." "You know, I think when he meets him he'll be happy anyway and he'll love him just as much as he loves the others." "I know he will and I'm looking forward to him going back to work to be honest." "He's been driving you crazy?" "Doesn't he always? I know that's why I love him and why I married him but even you know there's only so much Brian you can deal with in a day. I know he only wants to look after me and protect me like he thinks a husband should, but I feel like he's just watching me all of the time and like he's wrapped me in cotton wool." "He loves you and there's nothing anyone can do about it; he just needs to learn that he doesn't have to over-do it." "So you think that it could be my fault that he does it? I always tell him that I don't want anything from him but just him and his heart, He knows that I'm not interested in his money and maybe he's finding that difficult to deal with." "I guess it can be pretty hard, especially when it comes to him spoiling you. Most men will shower their wives with expensive gifts to show how much they love them but if you don't want any of that then I can see why he showers you with affection instead." "I don't mind when he buys me flowers but even then I think that he's been up to something and he's just buttering me up before I shout at him, I've already been through that twice with him and I really don't want to go through that again." "I think that he's learnt his lesson since then, you two have an amazing relationship and you're both lucky to have each other." "Thank you Howie." "I best get back to my bed; will you be going to bed?" "In a while, good night and sleep well." "You too, thank you for the glass of water." Howie made his way back up the stairs. "Hey Brian." "Hey D have you seen my wife anywhere? I seem to have lost her." "Yeah she's in the kitchen." "Thanks D, good night." "Night." Brian walked down the stairs and into the kitchen.
He stood by the door. "Why didn't you wake me?" "You were happily asleep." "You know I worry when you're not lying next to me." "I thought you'd be used to that by now... I'm sorry that was uncalled for." "I worry about you when I'm away too, I do nothing but think about you the whole time and I usually have to have some alone time in the bathroom." "You're so naughty." "I can't help it you always turn me on." He wrapped his arms around her. "I am I annoying you? I can see that you're slowly getting that look like you want to strangle me." "You're not annoying me; I just feel like you're smothering me. It's not a bad thing, I think that it's just with you being at home for such a long time, with Christmas and waiting for this baby to arrive that I just want it to be over so I can feel normal again." "Do you not like me being around for all of this time?" "I do, It's just so hard to explain and I don't want to upset you." "Do you not love me anymore?" "Of course I love you, there's no force natural, paranormal or extra-terrestrial on this earth that could stop that. I feel at the moment that I could just do with some me time and I know it's probably these pre-birth hormones talking, but I just feel smothered and I need to breathe." "Okay." "Okay?" "Yeah, you could have told me this ages ago. As soon as this baby is here and Christmas is out of the way, I will treat you to a spar weekend away and you can just relax and enjoy yourself. Now I know you said that you don't want me to spend my money on you but I think this time there can be an exception, you know I love you and if you're not feeling happy then I will find a way to bring that happiness back to you." "I think I need to write some of the things you say to me down on a piece of paper." "Why?" "Because we'd make some good money making valentines cards." "Hey I can't help it if I'm a sucker for being romantic, you love it." "I do." "Come on, let's get you back to bed." "Okay." "Okay." They walk out of the kitchen and up the stairs.
Date: 31/12/2005 Place: Littrell house Time: 7:30pm Music: Party music.
Linzi was upstairs in the bedroom changing the sheets and the bedding in the spare room when a football bounced past the door. "What did I tell you boys about playing with a ball in the house?" She placed the duvet on the bed before picking up the old sheets, Scott runs past the door giggling. "What are you doing young man?" "Daddy is chasing us." "Where is he?" "He was hiding." "Okay." Scott hides under the piano on the landing; as she walked out of the bedroom Brian runs into her knocking her to the floor. "Oh crap oh crap oh crap, I didn't even see you are you okay? Are you hurt?" "For god's sake Brian!... I'm fine, I landed on my bum." "Is the baby okay? I ran into you pretty hard." "Yes the baby is fine we were protected by the bed sheets, help me up from the floor please." Brian helps her to stand up slowly. "You okay?" "Yes... I need to get these sheets down to wash, can you just keep the kids busy and try not to run around the house? People will be turning up any time soon so I best get everything ready." "I did say I would help so I will help, I'll just put a dvd on for the kids and I'll give you a hand." "Okay, I'll be down in the kitchen." She walked down the stairs and Brian walked into the kids' bedroom.
Linzi is stood in the kitchen laying the table for the evening. "Ow, oi you what are you up to in there? You're hurting mummy." "Do you want me to help with anything?" said Brian walking into the room. "I think I've almost sorted it all, I just wish this baby would behave itself." "You okay?" "I have the worst back pain today and I'm constantly back and forth from the toilet." "Aww baby, it won't be long and our baby will be out of there." "At this rate it can't be soon enough... Ow." "You need to sit down, I feel bad enough after running into you earlier." Brian grabs her a chair. "I'll sit, but not for too long. We still have loads to do before everyone arrives." "Nobody will mind if things aren't perfect, they know that you're pregnant and that you could go into labour at any minute." "Don't let that stop me partying with the best of them." "Oh, I won't." "What are the kids doing?" "They boys are asleep and Jen is watching a movie, they're all fine." "Good, right before we carry on I could do with a nice hug and kiss of off of my husband." "Shall I go and get him? I'm sure he's about somewhere." Linzi looks at him. "I'm kidding." Brian gently hugs her and kisses her. "That makes me feel better, right help me up so I can get on." Brian holds her hand and gently pulls her so she's standing. "Oh ow!" "Are you sure you're okay?" "All is good; I must have twisted a little when I stood up." "You sure?" "Yes I am sure; I have done all this before." "If they get worse please tell me." "I will do, I promise." she smiles. Brian watches as she goes into the living room.
Everyone had arrived at the Littrell house for the party. "Do we have enough food and drink?" asked Linzi walking into the kitchen. "Hey, you're supposed to be taking it easy." smiled Brian. "I would, but it seems this baby loves the music just as much as everyone else." "You need to sit and relax, how have the pains been?" "Don't panic, I'm not in labour just yet and anyway this is a party, I'm meant to be enjoying myself." "You can do that... love you." "Love you too... I need to leave this kitchen, because in all honesty this food is actually making me feel sick." "Oh no." "I'm going into the living room to dance with Kerry and Jenny." "Okay." Linzi walks into the next room. "There she is, waddle over here love." smiled Kerry. "That's not funny, my back is really starting to hurt." "Try and dance, might loosen it." She dances for a while. "Ow, no. I think this baby doesn't like me doing that so much. Can you let Brian know that I'm just going upstairs? I might go to the toilet then have a lay on the bed." "Yeah, we'll tell him." she goes upstairs.
Kerry dances into the garden to where the boys are. "You lot should be in there dancing, not out here drinking." "Are you missing us baby?" said Nick hugging her. "Yeah of course I am." "We'll drink these and come in, how long till midnight?" "I dunno, I think about half an hour or so... ooh, Brian Wizz has gone upstairs for a lay down, I think the baby is causing her some trouble." "I'll go up in a bit and make sure she's okay, I'll let her rest for a while, I'll go and get her before midnight." "Are you excited, any time soon and your new baby will be here?" "I can't wait; it's just I'm like constantly on edge. Every time she calls me I start to panic." "You've done this all a few times, it should be normal for you." "I just don't like to chance things, with what the triplets went through; I don't want to tempt fate." "I'm sure this one will be fine... so what are you hoping for?" "A baby?" "Oh funny, boy or a girl?" "I think I'd like it to be a girl, we have three boys and I think it'll be nice for Jen to have a sister." "Even I'm excited for you now... right I'm going back in to dance the last half an hour away, loves ya boys." Kerry goes back inside.
Upstairs Linzi is laying on the bed. "Come on baby, not now... ow!" The contractions start to get stronger very quickly. Twenty minutes later and Brian walks into the room. "Hey... whoa, oh my god are you okay?" "No!" "Why didn't you call me?" "I was a little busy!" "What shall I do? Shall I get someone?" "No, Brian stay... I need to push. I need you to help me." "Okay, but I have no idea what I'm doing." he walks over and stands next to the bed; he takes her hand. "Hun, I need to check and see where we're at okay?" he lifts up the covers. "Wow, honey I can see the head... wait! Holy crap I can see the head!" "You're not helping!!" "I'm sorry... Okay, when you're ready you just push away." Five minutes and Brian can hear everyone counting down to the new year. "Come on baby, one more push and our baby will be here! Come on!" seconds later and the baby was in Brian's hands. "He's here! Oh wow... We have a boy!" he takes off his jumper and wraps the baby up before passing him to Linzi.
Downstairs there's a knock at the door. Kevin answers it. "Hi." "Hi, I'm looking for Linzi Littrell." "I think she's upstairs, you can go up." "Thank you." she walks up the stairs where she's met by Brian. "I am so glad you're here." they walk into the bedroom. "Who was that?" Nick asked Kevin. "No idea, it looked like a nurse." "No way!" Nick rushes up the stairs, he knocks on the door. "Who is it?" "Brian, it's me Nick." "One minute." Brian opens the door. "Hey." "Hey, Kevin said that a nurse came up here?" "It was a midwife, why don't you come on in and meet someone." Nick starts to smile. "No way." Brian smiles and nods. Nick walks into the room and over to Linzi who's sat on the bed holding the baby. "Oh wow... congratulations guys... okay, so what did you have?" "We had a little boy... Brian delivered him." "You didn't?" "I did." "Can I have first cuddles?" "Of course." Linzi passes him the baby. "He is so damn cute, aren't you the sweetest thing." "Hey babe, is it okay if I take him downstairs and introduce him to the rest of the family?" "I suppose so." "Is that okay?" Brian asked the midwife. "I can't see why not." Nick passes the baby back to Brian. "Oh wait, what have you called him? What's his name?" "Rian." smiled Linzi. "Rian Littrell. Okay, I'll announce him as we go downstairs." smiled Nick.
Slowly and carefully Brian and Nick walk down the stairs. "Hey everybody! Can I have your attention please! I have a very very important announcement to make." everyone looks at him. "Thank you, first off I'd like to wish you all a happy new year... and with that I'd like to announce that just a short while ago a new member of the backstreet family made HIS arrival tonight." "No way!" screamed Kerry with excitement. "I would like to introduce you all to our newest member. Rian Littrell." Brian walked into the room holding the baby and everyone claps. "He is so bloody cute Brian... is it okay to see wizz?" "Yeah, she's in her room." "Cool, congratulations Brian." Kerry rushes upstairs. "Look at you mummy." she smiled. "Is he okay?" "The baby is so beautiful and Brian looks a little pale." "That'll be the shock." "I can't believe you delivered him here." "It was Brian who delivered him." "No way, bless him. That must have been a sight." "I was a little strange but I think it was good for him, made things difficult for me because I have no idea what day to say Rian was born on because he was born dead on midnight." "Well he'll be a lucky boy because he'll get a two-day birthday, he is so cute though and I don't think you'll be getting him back for a little while." "I don't mind that; I'll have all of my cuddles later." "That's if you'll be able to get him back from Brian... I couldn't imagine having Brian as a birthing partner, I wouldn't be able to stop laughing." "Believe me he had no time to start making jokes, he almost had a panic attack but he did a good job." "He did." The door opens to the room. "Hey, look who's back?" Smiled Brian. "He wasn't kidnapped then?" "Nope but he started to get a little wriggly and cranky, so I thought he might want his mommy." He passes the baby to her. "Shall I go and make up a bottle for him?" "Yes please, I think that may be wise." "Okay, I'll be back in a minute." Brian rushed out of the door again. "I hope my Nick will do all of that for me when this one arrives, maybe I should make him write down everything Brian does." She chuckled. "You know he's not anything special, he just adores his kids and hopefully me." "Of course he does." "Do you want to have a hold of him? I can see that you're desperate for cuddles." "Could I?" Linzi passed her the baby. "Oh wow, hello Rian I'm your aunty Kerry." They hear some chuckling coming from outside the bedroom window. "Now what are they up to?" Kerry passed Rian back to Linzi before walking out of the bedroom and out of the upstairs doors onto the balcony. "What are you boys up to?" AJ and Howie were stood looking over holding a bucket of water. "Do I really need to ask what you're going to do with that?" "Nope but it will be so fun." Said Howie.
Downstairs Brian is stood by the kettle and holding Tom. "Hey buddy, are you enjoying the party?" "Yep I almost ate all of the popcorn but uncle Kevin took it away." "I knew you'd be eating that we forgot how much you enjoy it." "Yep so he just gave me some carrots and ketchup." "Carrots and Ketchup? Well that sounds delightful, did you enjoy them?" "They were yucky so I went into the freezer and had some ice-cream." "You didn't do that did you?" "No silly, I just had a sausage." "From the freezer?" Tom chuckled at him. "No!" "No?" "No, I got it from the table." "Well that's good then because frozen sausages are yucky." Nick walked in from outside. "Hey Brian you got a minute? I wanna ask some advice." "It'll have to be quick because I'm making a bottle for a very hungry baby boy." "I'm not hungry daddy." "I didn't mean you, you little monkey. Why don't you go and see if you can find those brothers of yours?" He puts Tom back down on the floor and he runs off. "What do you want to talk to me about?" "Come outside for a sec so it's less noisy." "Okay." They both walk out and stand just under the balcony. "What did you want to ask me?" "Well, I was wondering what you usually do after you become a father?" "Why are you asking me that? you have a daughter." "Yeah I know but I just wanted to ask you." "Okay, well other than losing sleep and losing hair I have no idea." "Oh, well I thought that it would be a good idea if we celebrated the occasion by wetting the baby's head." Nick quickly runs away as AJ and Howie pour the bucket of water landing directly on Brian's head. "Oh wow, that's freezing cold." He chuckled. "I am so getting you all back for this, the tour isn't over you know." "Here you go Brian, I think you might need this." Laura passes him a towel. "Thank you, oh my god I'm freezing." "I'm sorry dude, we just had to do it... congratulations brother." Nick hugs him. "Thank you... (He looks up) Thank you guys!" Brian walked back into the kitchen. "Well they got you good." Said Kevin. "They could have at least used warm water, I'm okay with it. I have no reason to lose it because I'm in too much of a good mood, I mean I am still totally buzzing." "I don't doubt that, you did a great job bringing that boy into the world and into your life. It's always a special moment when something like that happens, for you to be there and be hands on gives it an even special memory." "Yeah although there are some parts that I really don't want to remember, this was my first time at the birth of one of my children and it was amazing. I know saying that sounds a bit strange given that I have four kids already, but I missed out on Jens because let's face it I was a complete dick back then and my boys were a caesarean section. I got to be there this time Kev, to know that the first person my son saw wasn't just some stranger, but me." "You okay?" a tear ran down Brian's face. "Hey it's okay, the shock just set in just take a few deep breaths for a moment." Brian wiped his eyes with the sleeve on his jumper and with his hands on his hips he took some deep breaths. "You feeling better?" "Yeah, thanks Kev." "You better get that bottle up to that baby." "Yeah." Brian takes the bottle from the warmer and walks back up the stairs.
As he gets to the top he's greeted by Howie and AJ. "So sorry dude but it had to be done." Laughed AJ. "Just to let you know, it was all Nicks idea." Said Howie. "Well that I don't doubt." "Well congratulations again to you and Linzi, that baby is super cute." Smiled Howie who hugged Brian before walking down the stairs. "You're looking a little damp there Brian." Smiled Kerry. "Yeah no thanks to those guys." "Here pass me that bottle and I'll give it to Linz' while you go and dry off." "Yeah okay." He passes her the bottle and Kerry walks into the bedroom, AJ and Brian sit down on the top step. "Well, you're next on the baby list." "Yeah tell me about it, two more boys. Life is getting pretty crazy at the minute isn't it? But what a day today has been, it's definitely one to remember." "Yeah, it's crazy what were the chances that he would have been born at exactly midnight?" "Seriously he was born at midnight?" "Yep he arrived just as the clocks rang out, now we have no idea what date to put on his birth certificate. Do we put on the thirty first of December of the first of January? We can't put both." "I have no idea; would you be allowed to put on both?" "Can you just imagine that when Rian gets older? 'Hey Rian when's your birthday? Well I don't know sir because my parents couldn't decide.'" "He'll just be better than his friends because he'll have two birthdays instead of one, anyway you don't need to be worrying about that right now do you? Come on I wanna say congratulations to that lady of yours." "Of course yeah." They stand up from the stairs and walk towards the bedroom. "Are we safe to come in?" "Yeah come on in." He opens the door and they both walk in. "Hey AJ." "Hey you, congratulations, he is absolutely perfect." "Thank you AJ, I feel bad because I'm missing the party." "Hey don't be, you've done something amazing today so you deserve to rest up for the rest of the night." "I'm waiting for her to fall asleep so I can steal him away." "Hey you'll have to get past me first." "You know I was kidding, right I'm going to go and see what Nick and Lacey are doing because I think I've left them long enough for them to cause chaos." "You're more than welcome to come over tomorrow, I should be more mobile by then." "That I will most definitely do." "Well done babes and I'll see you later." "See you later." Kerry left the room and made her way down the stairs. "I know what you're wanting Mr McLean." Brian looked over at AJ confused and he looked back with an even more confused look. "Boys seriously, I meant AJ was waiting for a cuddle for our bubby boy." "I knew that." "Would that be okay? I know you want to have some time with him too." "Of course you can, I have got the rest of my life with this boy I'm sure I could allow you a cuddle." She carefully passes him the baby and AJ sits down on the sofa in the room. "Hello Rian I'm your Uncle AJ... I just realised that I probably smell of cigarettes so your first memory of me is going to be that horrible smell. The good thing is that you'll soon have three new friends to grow up with, so you won't be alone and you also already have three big brothers and an even bigger sister who already love you loads." "He already loves his uncle AJ; I don't think he minds about the smell of cigarettes because his dad smells of beer." "I don't smell of beer... do I really smell of beer?" "Yes, hey would you mind just keeping an eye on Rian for me I really need to go and freshen up a little bit." "Oh of course, I'll take him downstairs so he can see everyone and I promise to keep him safe." "I'll be down in a while I'll just help Linzi out." "You know there's no rush." AJ carried the baby out of the room. "I'll run the shower so it's the right temperature for you." "I can run a shower on my own." "Yeah I know, but I just wanted to do something for you." He goes into the on-suite bathroom and runs the shower. "Are you okay?" "What?" "Are you okay?" "Yeah I'm fine, I'm supposed to be the one making sure that you're okay. You did an amazing job today, I just feel that maybe I should have come up and checked you earlier so that I could have helped you more." "You couldn't have helped me any more than you had done, I was more surprised by how calm you were." "I wasn't calm believe me, my heart was almost pounding out of my chest. I was panicking like crazy on the inside because I had no idea what I was going to do... I was saying to Kevin that today was the first time that I got to see one of our kids being born, Jen I wasn't there for and the boys were delivered by caesarean; so today was a big thing for the both of us and also giving birth here at home I have to say was amazing." "Well you know that was never the plan, now we have another boy in our bunch; maybe you will get your basketball team." She chuckled. "Oh I think the five we have are enough, you know to say that we never planned on having a big family; I'm actually really loving it. I love waking up to see our boys' cheeky little faces in the morning and even watching our girl growing up makes me so proud because she is so pretty." "She'll be fighting those boys off with a stick when she's older." "They'll have to get through me first... your shower is ready, here let me help you up." He holds her hands in his and carefully helped her onto her feet. "Wow." "You okay?" "Yeah my legs are just a little funny still." "I'll be here for you to lean on even if it means having to join you in the shower too." He smiled.
Downstairs AJ is sat on the sofa. "There you are; I've been looking for you everywhere." "Sorry baby, I've been given the job to babysit with this adorable baby while Linzi is in the shower." "You're such a good uncle AJ, even though he's only an hour old there is no denying who his daddy is." "People say that about our kids too, where are the kids?" "They're fine they're all in the play room making a mess with all of the other kids. They're behaving and having a great time, although Kev keeps saying that he's tired; so we should think about heading home in a little while." "Yeah, time is getting on and I'm surprised that they're all still awake." "They're not all awake; Chrissy fell asleep ages ago she's been laying in her buggy." "Oh I didn't get to say goodnight to my baby girl, I'll have to just tuck her in her bed when we get home." "She'll love that... can I have a cuddle with Rian before we have to go?" "Yeah, I'm sure he'll love with his aunty Jen." AJ passes him into her arms. "Hello, oh he's so dinky look at his little fingers they're so cute... now boys don't you start kicking about in there just because mommy's holding another baby." "Only three more months and we'll have our own to hold." "I'm looking forward to it, I'm worried about what Brian is going to be like because you'll be away again in four days." "I'm sure he'll be fine, he's done all of this before anyway and Laura is staying for a few more days, you'll be just down the road and Kerry will be a call away too." "His mum and dad will probably fly over too." "Of course and the last of the tour is only for two more months, then we'll be back home and work free." "Now that I am looking forward to because we will certainly have our hands full... I can't stop looking at this boy, he's just so handsome." "Mom I've got paint on me... oh you have a baby." "Hey Alex this is your new cousin Rian." "Where did he come from?" "Your aunty Linzi had him only an hour ago isn't he cute?" "Yeah, didn't she go to the hospital?" "No she had him upstairs here in this house." "Will you have your babies at home?" "No mummy has to go into hospital because I'm having two babies and I'm not as brave as your Aunty Linzi." "Will my brothers be as small as him?" "Probably, you remember how small Christian was when she was born don't you." "Yeah, she was really little." "And that's how big these two will be." "Awesome... so what shall I do about the paint?" "Leave it, just make sure you take it off when you get home and give it to me to wash." "Yes mom, when uncle Brian comes down can you tell him that the boys have fallen asleep in the tent." "Aww bless them." "If you're okay with Rian for a minute I'll go and check on them." "Yeah I think we'll be just fine." She smiled.
AJ walked with Alex into the play room. "They were playing in there and then they were asleep." AJ knelt down and peaked through the door. "I didn't think you was one for playing in a play house AJ." Smiled Laura. "Ha ha, the triplets have fallen asleep in there, I was just checking on them." "They do that a lot, they'll be fine." "Congratulations for becoming an aunty again, he is so cute and it's amazing that she had him here." "I know I couldn't do that, it sounds scary. I haven't even been up to see her yet, I thought it would be best to leave her to rest." "You didn't need to do that because she'll be coming down here in a bit, she was about to jump in the shower and freshen up so she could see everyone before we all go home." "She's a crazy one that one, I'm looking forward to being here over the next few days because I'll get to spend all day with little Rian, those three and Jen." "You know if you're about and Linzi and Brian need a break you can just call me up and we'll take the kids out someplace." "That sounds like a good idea but you're only here for another four days aren't you?" "Don't remind me." "You love it." "Yeah I do, two more months of this tour then it's back home. There's me no rest even then because the twins will be due and hen we're back in the studio ready to work on the new album." "You're all busy boys aren't you?" "Aren't we always? I still wouldn't change it though because it's the best job ever. Hey we should get you guys back stage with us one night, you know a bit of a one off duet night." "Now that would most definitely be loads of fun but you might have to wait for a while when Linzi feels a bit better." "We can do it on the next tour, make it part of our show." "Yeah well the only issue with that is that we can't all be on the road with you for three years." "We can just make it a one night special the next time we go to London to do a show." "You know I can't just agree to something like that before speaking to everyone else and you need to speak to the rest of the boys about that idea to. Anyway you don't even know what songs you're going to have on the next album yet or what you'll be doing in the show because you haven't started any of that yet." "It can still be an idea, I'll post it to the boys anyway and see what they think at the next meeting." "They're going to think that you're crazy that's what they'll think." "Probably... right I best find a blanket for these boys, I'll leave them for Brian when he comes down." AJ stands up. "Alex, Kev play nicely and quietly okay?" "Yeah dad." "Okay dad." Laura and AJ walk out into the hall just as Brian and Linzi walk down. "There she is; finally take your time woman you're missing the party." Chuckled Laura. "Ha ha, I'm surprised people are still here." "Of course they are it's a party and a we wanted to see you too." "Well here I am, I'm all refreshed and feeling good." "She even looks good too." Smiled Brian. "Seriously? I'm wearing your jogging outfit." "You still look good to me in whatever you wear... hey AJ where's my boy gone?" "Well the triplets are asleep in the playhouse and Rian is in the living room with Jen, they're all safe." "Oh Brian can you sort out those boys and get them upstairs in their beds please? I'm going to steal back my new bubba from Jen." "I can do that." "I'll give you a hand." said AJ
They walk into the toy room, Brian gently picks up Scott and AJ picked up Tom. "Hey you guys need a hand?" "That would be awesome Kev, would you mind carrying James up? and we'll get them all into bed." "Of course." Kevin picked up James and rested his head onto his shoulder before following the others up the stairs. They placed the boys in their beds and tucked them in before walking out of the room and closing the door behind them. "Dude I have no idea how you do that on a day to day thing, those boys aren't that light." Said AJ rubbing his shoulder. "Now you know my secret fitness programme, I have to walk up and down the stairs three times a night just to get those boys into bed." "Well there's no wonder that you were pleased to have the help." "I won't complain about taking Christian to bed ever again." "I'm just glad that they didn't wake up because they can be very grumpy and moody." "Which one's which?" chuckled Kevin. "That was good for this time of the day." Brian chuckled. "Well talking of kids I should round up my tribe and get them ready to go home." "Well thank you for being here tonight, I'm sorry for the surprise halfway through." "There is nothing for you to be sorry for, it was a very special day for you and for all of us. We all had a great time tonight and we will all come back next year." "And I promise that there will be no more babies." "I mean five kids is more than enough even for the both of us." "That's crazy that you guys have that many kids, you don't really think about it when they're running about the place but when you actually say the number out loud it's pretty impressive." "Hey you now that we never planned to have that many, it just happened." "Yeah we know, you didn't even want your first one." Kevin and Brian look over at AJ. "Really dude?" "I am so sorry, that just came out I wasn't even thinking about what I was saying." "It's okay because we all know that it's true, I'm not going to let it get to me because at the end of the day I was an idiot but I know deep down in my heart and you also know deep down that neither of us would change all of this for a second." "True." "Okay fellas, this is getting a little bit too deep and meaningful for me. This is supposed to be a party so shouldn't we all be celebrating right now?" "Kev's right?" "Yes, so let's go and celebrate while the night is still young." Said Brian. "I think you mean while the morning is still young." AJ showed him his watch. "Yeah that too, let's go and have a few beers." "Make mine a large lemonade." "Yes and also that." He chuckled as they all walked down the stairs, at the bottom he's greeted by Jenni-Kay. "Hey teddy bear you okay?" "Yeah I'm going to bed now, I'm tired." "Okay bub, would you like me to tuck you into bed?" "Yes please." "Come on then let's get you into your bed, I'll be back in five boys." Brian walked with Jenni-Kay up to her room, after brushing her teeth she climbed into her bed and snuggled under her duvet. "Are you comfy?" "Yes." "That's good, did you enjoy the party?" "It was fun, it's always fun but now I'm tired and ready to sleep." "Well it's early in the morning now so you can get lots of sleep." "Kisses daddy." "I think I can manage that." He kisses her on the head. "Goodnight Teddy bear." "Goodnight daddy." Brian stands up and walks towards the door. "Daddy?" "Yeah baby?" "Thank you for my new brother, I already love him." "And he loves you too, goodnight teddy bear." Brian walked out of the room and down the stairs before joining the others in the kitchen.
The night went on and soon everyone had gone home. "I'm going to head up to bed, I'll leave you to have some quiet time with Rian but if you need me for anything tonight just shout me." "Thank you Lolly." "That's what an aunty is for, goodnight." "Goodnight." Laura walked up the stairs and into her room. "Wow listen to that." "What? I can't hear anything." "Exactly, although the house is in a little bit of a mess I think it's clear to see the night was a success." "It was and this little one just couldn't wait to join in all the fun, could you Rian?" "Are you feeling better?" "I am, I'm tired but I don't want to go to bed just yet I just want to just keep looking at him." "He is amazing but you should really get some sleep because we have four more terrors to deal with in the morning." "I can deal with those not a problem." "I know you can because you're super mom." Brian smiled, he leant over and kissed her. "I love them when they're at this age but as we all know they grow up way to quickly, it's going to be crazy to think that by the time the tour ends this little boy won't be so little anymore." "It's only two months, then you have all of us again for as long as you want." "Well I am looking forward to that, I think we should take the kids to Disney world for a week, it will give them something fun to do." "Really?" "Yeah, I think we could all do with a holiday. The boys are old enough and Jen will love dressing up as a princess for the day, you could even dress up as a princess too." "Really? Why would you want me to do that?" "Because then I could show you off as my princess for the whole day too and you could be snow white, even though we only have five small people." "No." "Oh I wasn't suggesting that we have any more, the five we have is more than enough. I think we'd be out of our minds crazy to have any more, we just about have enough time to ourselves as it is." "Can we dress the boys up as some of the seven dwarves? I think they would look so cute and you could dress up as prince charming." "I think I'll be trying to make myself a little inconspicuous while at the park, I don't want it ruined by screaming fans because it should just be about us." "You can't just turn off being a backstreet boy you know and you know I honestly don't mind meeting your fans, I'm sure your fans will be respectful to the situation." "Well yeah I hope so, I think we should get to bed and settle this new man in his first bed." "Okay, would you like to carry him up to his bed?" "I would love that." Linzi carefully passed him over and lay Rian in his arms. "Hello buddy, it's time to go to bed." Linzi and Brian made their way up the stairs.
Date: 26th March 2006 Time: 11:30am Place: Studio Music: Nick singing
After the tour the boys took some time out to relax and unwind, AJ welcomed his twin boys into the world before heading back into the studio to work on the next album. "Well it's going to take some time to get used to our new sound." Said AJ sitting down on the sofa and resting his feet on the table. "I don't think it's going to be that different, yeah okay we're down to just the four of us but I know we can make it work." Said Brian. "So did Kevin say why he wasn't going to be joining us?" asked Howie. "He just said that he just wasn't feeling it and he just felt like he was losing his passion for it, he gave us his blessing to keep going without him. We'll just give him time and I'm sure he'll come back round eventually." Nick tapped on the window. "Wow well that scared me... wassup Nick?" he talks to them but they can't hear him. "Nope I haven't got a clue, hold on a minute." Brian turns on the speakers. "We can hear you now." "Hey I forgot to pick up some music on my way out, would one of you mind getting it for me? I need to finish off doing my parts on this record." "I'll go and get it, I haven't got to do mine for a while." "Thanks Rok, the CD is in my studio and it says demo on the box." "Okey dokey, I'll be back in a while guys." "Enjoy the drive." Brian walked out of the studio and got into his car, as he drove down the road he made a call on his phone using his hands free kit. The phone rang a few times before being answered. "Hello." "Hey baby." "Hey you, how's rehearsals going?" "They're going good, I'm just on my way to Nick's he's asked if I could run an errand for him. How are the kids?" "They're at school so It's just me, Rian and Jen has popped in for a cup of tea and some company." "That's good at least you're not on your own then, hey I'll give you a call again later when I get another break." "Okay then bub have a good day at work." "Will do baby, love you both." "We love you too." He hung up the phone and continued his journey until he reached Nicks home.
After pulling into the driveway and parking he opened the front door and walked in to the house. "Anyone home? Kerry it's only me, Nick asked me to pick up something for him... Kerry?" he hears movement upstairs then a muffled scream so he rushes up the stairs. "Kerry, where are you?" "I'm in here!" he opens the bedroom door. "Are you okay?" "No!... Where's Nick?" "He's at the studio, I'm just on my way there now." "I need your help, I'm in labour." "I can see; shall I call Nick?" "No, you need to drive me to the hospital." "Okay, I can do that." He walks over and helps Kerry from the bed and slowly down the stairs having to stop every two minutes to allow for contractions. After locking up the house they climb into the car and Brian drives off. "This is ridiculous." "What is?" "The one and only time I'm on my own and I pray for god to send me someone to help me, he sends me you." "Thanks... wait you prayed?" "This is not the time for being funny." "Sorry... oh please, you have got to be kidding me." Brian pulls the car over. "What are you doing?" "I have a flat tire." "Brian! Oh my god! I'm having this baby now!" "Now!? I'm going to have to call for an ambulance, I don't have a spare." "Oh my god! I think I need to go to church more often, because it seems I called the wrong number! Brian I need to push." "No, wait." "You are kidding me! You want me to wait?!" "Let me call someone." he makes a call to Linzi's midwife. "Hi, Annie it's Brian, don't panic Linzi is fine. But I have my best friends' wife in my car and she's about to give birth, I need your help and advice... right, I have no idea, hold on... Kerry do you know if the head is showing?" "Do you think I can see that?" "What? You want me to look? She's my best friends' wife I can't do that, Kerry I need to check and see if you're... what? Crowning?... I need to see if you're crowning. Just don't tell my wife that I had my head between your legs." "I honestly don't think she's going to be that bothered given the circumstances is she? idiot!" "I guess not... Right okay... I am so sorry." He looks down between her legs. "Wow okay, I remember this part now." "Oh I seriously hope you mean that in a whole different way then what it sounded?" "Yes, I meant this is the same point Linzi was when I walked in on her too... Okay, just do your thing, if you need to push then just go for it okay. I am going to see if I have anything in my boot that I can wrap the baby in because it's freezing cold." He runs to the back of the car and opens the boot, inside are bags full of clothes; he rips one open and has a look through. "Oh seriously I am not chucking this out woman." "Brian!" "He looks down at the jumper in his hands. "Oh dammit it can be washed." He ran round to the passenger seat. "I am so sorry I have to put my hands..." "Will you just stop talking and just do it already!!" "Okay, I think we just need one big push, just one." Kerry pushed and soon enough the baby was out, Brian wrapped the baby up in the jumper. "There you are, hey... congratulations Kerry, you have a boy." "I have a boy?" "Yep... here you go." He carefully passes the baby to Kerry. "Oh wow, look at him?" "Oh believe me, I've seen that boy in a way no man should." He chuckled. "The ambulance is on the way." "Thank you Brian and I'm sorry for shouting at you." "Already forgotten and I'm sorry for not being your first choice as a birthing partner." "You were a good birthing partner, maybe you should take up midwifery in your spare time because this is the second baby you've delivered." "I think I'll stick to singing, looking at other ladies' parts isn't something I'm going to make a hobby of; especially not in those circumstances." He laughed. The ambulance parked up behind them. "I think it's time I let the professionals take over... well done Kerry." "Thank you." Brian kissed her on the head before getting out of the car. "Hey Brian, I think you can ring Nick now." "Oh he's going to kill me, I completely forgot to pick up his cd." "I'm sure he'll forgive you and I don't think he's actually going to care now is he?" "That's true." He took his phone out of his pocket and called Nick.
AJ Picked up the phone from the table and answered it. "Hey." "Hey AJ is Nick out of the booth yet I need to talk to him and it's pretty urgent." "What did you do?" "Nothing, is he there or not?" "Hold on a minute." AJ tapped on the glass and signalled Nick to take the call, he placed his headphones on the mic stand and walked out. "Who is it?" "Brian, he said it's urgent." "It better be if he's interrupting me." He takes the phone from AJ. "What did you do?" "Why do you always think the worst of me? Kerry asked me to call you." "Is she okay?" "Yeah, well she's okay now and I have to say she did an awesome job delivering your son." "Wait what? Did she go into labour?" "Yeah buddy but don't panic everything went okay and they're both healthy and happy." "We had a son?" "Yeah, she's in the ambulance at the minute then they'll be taking her up to the hospital to be checked over." "I guess I should make my way over, will you stay with her until I get there?" "Of course, I'll see you there soon." "Yeah." Nick ended the call. "We couldn't help but over hear, congratulations Nick." Said Howie hugging him. "Congratulations brother." "Thank you guys, well I guess I should make my way over there. Are you guys okay to finish here and I'll finish mine another day." "Yep, you go and see Kerry and that baby of yours, we'll call you later and maybe drop by if all is okay?" "Of course, catch you later guys." Nick left the studio and made his way over to the hospital where he's greeted by Brian. "Where are they?" "I'll take you right there, congratulations by the way." "Thanks, I can't believe I missed the birth." "Nothing could have been done, your boy wanted out and he wasn't going to wait around." They walked into the maternity ward and over to Kerry's bed. "Hey look who I got out of the vending machine." Smiled Brian. Nick walked over and hugged her. "Are you okay? Wow look at him he is amazing... I wish I was there to help you; I don't even want to think of you going through all of that on your own." "I wasn't on my own, I had Brian there... he delivered our boy." He looked over at Brian. "Did you deliver my son?" "Yeah, I mean your boy was in a rush and someone had to do something." He grabbed Brian and hugged him. "Thank you for being there for her and what are you wearing?" "My clothes got a lot of indescribable disgusting stuff all over them, they leant me the scrubs because it was nasty and anyway we're family and I just did what I could... I'll let you two have some time alone to enjoy your new boy, Congratulations guys." Brian left the ward.
Nick sat down on the bed next to Kerry and she passed the baby into his arms. "Where's Lacey?" "She went over to Linzi's for a playdate with Jen, I wanted to get a few bits done in the house before he arrived. I was just making the bed when everything started happening, I started to get the pains then my water broke; the next minute after a few choice words to the man upstairs Brian walked through the door and the rest was history." "It was a good job that I sent him when I did, I just can't believe he was between your legs; I think we'll most definitely make sure that don't happen again." "Believe me I know that even Brian will agree with you on that one." He takes a picture on his phone. "Now what are you doing?" "I'm posting it online so I can show him off to everyone... ooh we need to name him; he hasn't got a name." "Brian." "What about him?" "No you idiot, we should call him Brian." "You really want to call him that?" "Yes, Brian helped bring him into the world and I think we should name him after him." "Okay Brian it is, Brian Carter." "I can't wait to introduce him to Lacey, she's going to love him to pieces." "I can see trouble brewing already, you know she's going to have to start sharing and she's not going to like that." "I'm sure she'll be fine, if not she'll just learn to deal with it." "I just realised that we haven't got any of the baby bits, do you want me to go home and grab them because we will need them." "There's no rush." "How about I run downstairs to the shop and grab a few things from there? We'll need wipes and nappies and a few baby grows." "If you must as you seem you need to." "I do." "Are you feeling a little put out?" "No... okay yes I just feel like I should do something and yeah I guess I'm feeling a little put out because Brian was there for the birth and not me, I should have been the one to welcome him into the world." "I wasn't planning on having him as my birthing partner, things just happened and it just turned out that way. You have to believe me he was a nightmare; I don't know how Linzi managed to put up with him when she had Rian because he was all over the place." "Well nothing changes there then, still I am glad we have our boy now." "Yep, our family is complete." "It is? Are you sure?" "Yeah I think our two are enough for me and I don't think I could handle anymore, it wears me out just watching Jen and Linzi with their lot." "That's true, well I'm happy with our family as it is too." He kissed Kerry on the head.
Brian arrived back at the studio, AJ was in the recording booth so he sat down next to Howie. "What are you wearing? Are you wearing hospital scrubs?" "Yeah I needed to change out of my clothes, have you recorded your parts yet?" "Not yet I'm waiting for AJ to finish, why are you in hospital scrubs? It's not some sort of kinky sex game you and Linzi have going on is it?" "No! Although that is an awesome idea, I had to change my clothes after delivering Kerry and Nick's son." "You delivered their son?" "Yeah." "Have you ever thought about going into midwifery in your spare time? You seem to have a calling for it." "Believe me, I will not be going near any other woman's lady parts again... well apart from my wife's but that's because she's my wife and those lady parts are mine." "Okay too much info thanks Brian." AJ stepped out of the booth. "You're up D." Howie walked into the booth and closed the door. "Why does you wearing that not surprise me in any way? I don't even want to ask what you did?" "I was just telling Howie that I delivered Nick and Kerry's son." AJ chuckled to himself. "Seriously, you delivered Kerry's baby?" "Yeah but seriously not an experience I'd want to do again; it was different with Linzi because she's my wife." "Obviously." "Yeah and I really didn't feel comfortable having to put my hands near her lady parts." "Well you're a braver man than me, there's no way I'd go anywhere near her afro ever." "Okay did you have to call it that because that was just nasty." "I'm sure Kerry was more worried about the fact that you were between her legs, I don't think you would be my first choice of birthing partner." "I wasn't her first choice and she made that very clear while she was having contractions, as she shouted out that she needed to go to church more because when she asked god to send her someone to help he sent me. So she came to the conclusion that she must have dialled the wrong number." "That's actually pretty funny." "Am I really that bad?" "No we're just playing, you did a good job and that's all that counts. You should be proud of what you've done, if you'd have seen me when Jen had the twins... I was a nervous wreck; I didn't know what to do with myself; nobody would have known that I'd been through the situation twice before." "It's a stressful time every time, you never know if somethings going to go wrong at any time and I'm speaking from experience here..." Brian looked at AJ and chuckled to himself. "What's so funny?" "Dude can you hear us right now? What are we doing? We're having a conversation about giving birth... we should be sat here talking about the next tour and talking about this new album, but we're sat here discussing our friends' wife's lady garden and babies... what happened to us man?" "Life happened my friend and unfortunately there's no way of slowing it all down, we just keep moving with the flow and go wherever it takes us." "But I don't want to get old yet, I'm not ready for that." "I don't think you need to worry so much, you may get old on the outside but you'll always have the mind of a twelve-year-old; god help us when that part of you gets old." "Hey!" Howie peeked his head out of the booth. "Will you guys talk a little quieter, I can hear your whole conversation through my headphones." "Sorry D." He closed the door and continued on with the recording.
Over at Jens the girls were sat in the living room. "Oh I so enjoy nap time, the peace and quiet for two hours is just bliss." Smiled Linzi. "Roll on tomorrow when they go back to school, not that I don't love my kids but I always enjoy the peace and quiet." "Ooh talking of peace and quiet I haven't heard from Kerry today, do you think she's okay?" "She must be, if she wasn't she'd be on the phone to us." "Yeah I know, I'm just worried because she said she'd be here by now." "Give her a call and see where she is, Lacey's not being a bother because she's playing with Jen." "That's true and we both know what it's like before your due date, we'll leave her for a bit longer and I'll call her later." "Did Brian say how the recording was going?" "Yeah he said it was going good, last I heard Nick was in recording. He still won't let me hear any of the new stuff, I don't mind because I like it to be a surprise when it finally comes out." "I've heard a few bits, you know what AJ's like, he can't help but sing in the shower." "Any good?" "I think so, I'm usually too busy laughing every time he sings the parts that I gather are Howie and Brian's, he goes all high pitched and it's just too funny." The front door opens. "Backstreet's Back alright!" sang Brian. "Shh, I think the kids are sleeping." "Oh yeah, forgot." They walk into the living room. "Could you have been just a bit more loud?" Linzi threw a cushion and Brian. "Don't I usually say that to you?" "Oh you're so rude." "How comes you're back early?" Asked Jen. "We decided to cut it short today as Nick wouldn't be coming in again today."said AJ. "Oh why's that?" "Didn't you hear? Kerry had the baby." "No, nobody called us." "Yeah so Nick had to leave and I can guarantee that today will be a memorable one." "Oh why's that then?" "Because I helped deliver him." Smiled Brian. "Did you really do that?" "Yeah and I'm so sorry baby but I did have to go to a place where no married man should ever have to go to on another woman, but I had to do something. I had a flat tire on my car and we just didn't have time to wait for the ambulance." Linzi kisses him. "Shut up, you did a good job, I'm proud of you... I did wonder why you was wearing hospital scrubs." "My clothes are in a bag in the hall all covered in yucky stuff." "So everything went okay?" asked Jen. "Yeah and they're both fine and happy and healthy." "We'll have to get her some flowers and go see her tomorrow." She smiled. "It's really quiet, where are the kids?" "The twins and triplets, Rian and Christian are asleep, Alex and Kevin are out in the garden with Jen and Lacey." "So you girls been relaxing today?" "Today? We've only been sat down for half an hour, you boys can do bottle and nappy duty now that you're home." "Okay." Agreed Brian. "You're okay with that?" said Linzi. "Yeah, I have been dying to get a hold of my baby boy all day. I can't wait to spend the rest of the day with him and all the other kids." "Well I'm not complaining about that." "Good, well I am going to the boys room." Brian got up and walked out of the room. "I'm just going to check on my boys, I'll check on Christian and the twins for you." "Okay." Jen chuckled.
Linzi walked out of the room and up the stairs, as she got to the top Brian stepped out. "Hi." "Hi, I knew you weren't really going to the bathroom." "Yeah and I know that you're not actually going to check on the kids." "Oh yeah how do you know that?" "Well I see how you've been looking at me." "And in what way would that be?" Brian started to smile. "You know you can have me if you want me." "We're not at home, we're guests in AJ and Jen's home." "Yeah and?" "We can't anyway." "And why would that be? What because you think that I don't have one of these." He open his hand raised his eyebrow and smiled. "We are so bad." They walk into the bathroom and close the door.
Jen and Lacey walk in from the garden. "You girls okay?" "Hey Uncle AJ, is dad back with you?" "Yeah he's just upstairs with your mom checking on the babies, they'll be down in a minute. Hey Lacey your mom had her baby today." "She did?" "Yeah you have a brother." "Great I really wanted a sister, oh well I'm sure it wont be too bad. Can I go and see them?" "Of course you can, give me a minute and I'll take you over there." "Thank you." The girls go back and sit outside, AJ turns on the kettle and watches the boys out of the window. "You look worn out." Jen stood behind him and wrapped her arms around him. "I'm good, slowly getting back into the routine with you, the kids and work. Brian's been working on a solo album, don't worry he's not planning on leaving the group too." "Linzi never said anything, when did he start doing that?" "A while ago, he'd been recording in his studio at home. It's some Christian based music, it's his thing and he enjoys it." "Have you heard it?" "Some of it, he's got it up for release in May. I hope it goes well for him, he's going to be a really busy boy over the next few months; with our new album and him promoting his stuff too. Then his time with Linzi and the kids, we gotta keep an eye on him and make sure he doesn't end up burning himself out." "Nick managed it when he released his solo album." "I know, but he doesn't have five kids and two of them have disabilities." "He wouldn't have done it if he didn't think he could handle it... I love how you all care so much for each other, it's really sweet." "He's like my brother, they all are and we all need to be in top form; if one of us falls we all fall and I don't want that to happen." "He will be fine." Crying comes over the baby monitor and Brian rushes down the stairs. "Don't fear or I am here." He places three bottles on the kitchen side as he turns on the kettle and fills the bottle with milk powder. "I'll be back." He rushed back up the stairs again. Jen and AJ look at each other and chuckle. "Seems he has everything under control." "Are you going to give him a hand?" "I think you'll find Linzi's already done that." He laughed. "You're so rude, go and helped him with our boys." "I'm going, I'm going." He kissed her before walking out into the hall and up the stairs.
AJ walked into the bedroom, Brian had all three babies on the floor and was in turn changing their diapers. "Okay who are you and what did you do with Brian Littrell?" "Still me, okay your boys are done." "Where's Linzi?" "She's in with the boys, can you watch these while I go make up their bottles." "You don't have to do that." "I'm in the zone, I'll be back." He rushed back down the stairs and into the kitchen. "Hi." "Hi." Smiled Jen. Brian filled the bottles with the water and also fills the sink with cold water. "Look at you Mr multitask, do you need a hand?" "Yeah, can you shake one of these? If they don't get put in the water at the same time they wont cool down at the same rate, we don't want to give one of the kids a hot bottle." "Okay seriously right now you are strange." "This is just going from experience, this is just routine from when the boys were babies. This time is a little bit easier because it does't involve giving injections or medicines four times a day too." "You know AJ is worried about you." "He doesn't have to be, why is he worried?" "He thinks you might burn yourself out with all of the work you're doing. You have your album coming out, you're recording a new one with the guys and you also have your family to look after." "I have discussed this with Linzi and we sorted things and organised things so that it'll be stress free for all of us, she completely supports me one hundred percent and she knows that this album means a lot to me and our family." Brian placed the bottles into the cold water in the sink and Jen just looks at him. "What?" "You know she's definitely right." "Who? Right about what?" "You do look hot in hospital scrubs." "Your husband is upstairs, you can't be saying things like that to me." "Well I did and what are you going to do about it?" "I have no idea how to answer that... I am going to finish with these bottles then take them upstairs." AJ and Linzi walked down the stairs with the babies. "They've saved you a trip." "Great, can you give them the bottles while I step outside for a minute?" "Yeah sure." Brian quickly left the kitchen and wandered into the garden. "Daddy!" Hey baby, hey Lacey you okay? Did you hear about your mom?" "Yeah uncle AJ told me. He's going to take me over to see mom in a while." "She'll be looking forward to seeing you, do you like that you have a brother?" "Lacey said she wanted a sister, there are way too many boys in this family daddy." "Yeah I know but that's not something that moms can control really." Brian sat down on the grass. "Are you okay uncle Brian?" "Yeah, I just need a breathe. You girls can go back to playing or whatever you were doing." They girls wander off to watch Alex and Kevin playing basketball and Brian lays down on the grass, he pulled his cap over his face and took a deep breath in before sighing.
A little while later Brian walked back into the house and sat down next to Linzi. "You okay hun?" "Yeah, I just needed some fresh air.. hey why don't me and Linzi take Lacey to see Nick and Kerry? We're going that way home anyway." "As long as you don't mind." "Of course we don't, Linzi was babysitting her anyway so why not take her back to them again... I'm going to go see if those boys are up." He gets up and walks out of the room and up the stairs. "Okay, he's acting very strange." "I knew he'd wear himself out and now look at him." Said AJ. "He's perfectly fine, he's just had a very busy day. He probably just needs to sleep it off." "I will get him home in a bit and send him to bed, he's going to need all of his rest before he goes away." "He's going away?" "Yeah, he's not going too far, he'll just be going to some of the states to promote the album." "Is he looking forward to it?" "Yeah, he's been working hard in the studio to make it work and to make sure that he sounds okay. The kids love listening to him and it sometimes helps when the kids wont sleep." The boys ran down the stairs and into the living room. "Boo!" said Scott. "Boo? We heard you boys before we saw you." Smiled Jen. "One, two.. where's James?" "He's upstairs with daddy." "What are they doing?" "I don't know daddy said to come down here and see you." Linzi stood up and after placing Rian in his buggy walked up the stairs and towards the room. "Brian! Brian!" he stepped out. "Okay, I know what you're thinking and it's fine; you don't need to panic." "I don't need to panic?" "No, calm down and breathe. He's fine, I think he got a little hot when he was tucked between his brothers." "Then why can't I come in and see him?" "You can come in and see him but I don't want you to worry him or panic him." "I won't, I think it may be an idea to see if we can see a doctor when we go up to the hospital with Lacey." "We can do that, I think that would be a good idea. Now can I go in and see him?" "Yeah he's just resting a minute." They walk into the room and she kneels down next to the bed. "Hey baby, how you feeling?" "Hey mommy." "Are you feeling better?" "Yeah, can we go home now?" "We will go home later, we have to take Lacey to see her mommy at the hospital." "Am I going to the hospital to stay?" "No we'll just being saying a quick hi and then we'll be taking you all home okay." "Okay mommy." "Are you okay to come down stairs with us?" "I'm okay now." He sat up on the bed before hopping down. "Are you okay little man, you want daddy to carry you downstairs to your brothers." "Yes." "Yes." Brian picked him up and they walked down the stairs.
A short while later they were all in the car and on their way to the hospital, they walked through the doors and into the maternity ward. "Mommy!" Lacey ran over to Kerry and Nick. "Hey there sweetie, come and meet your new brother." Nick picked her up and sat her on the bed. "Lacey meet Brian." "You called him Brian?" "Yeah, we called him that because it was your uncle Brian that was there when I had him." "Now that's going to be confusing." "We'll get used to it." "He's cute." "He is, I think he looks like daddy." "Did you have fun with Aunty Linzi today?" Asked Nick. "We went to aunty Jen Jen's house." "You did? What did you do?" "I played outside in the garden with Jen-kay, we made flower chains." "That sounds like fun... where did Linzi and Brian go?" "They're talking to the doctor." "Oh." "Maybe James had one of his seizures again, that wont make things any easier for Brian." "Any easier for what?" "For when he goes away." "I'm confused, where is he going? I thought you boys were recording this album together, he can't just go off and how comes he's going on his own?" "Brian's going on a promotional tour around the states for his new album." "When did that happen?" "We've known for a while, he'd been recording it at home. It's being ready for release in May, I'm excited for him because it's something he really wants to do and he was supportive of me when I released my album." "What sort of music is it?" "It's like Christian pop, you know songs that are about god and that's something he believes in strongly." "Yeah I know that, well I'm happy for him and I hope he does well." "I should let you two get some rest, especially you my sweetheart and I think this little lady needs to go home and go to bed." "Aww daddy I'm not tired." She yawned. "You're not tired? I think that yawn says that you are, give mommy and your brother kisses then we let mommy get some sleep." "Hopefully I can go home tomorrow, I'm going the miss the both of you tonight." "We're going to miss you too but we'll be getting things ready at home for when you get back, I need to sort out the baby's room and make sure we have enough supplies for us all." "Aww, you hear that Brian, you're daddy is so lovely to mommy and Lacey you best behave for daddy tonight and go to bed when he tells you too." "I will mommy I promise." "Good, now quick cuddles." Lacey climbed up the bed and hugged Kerry before gently kissing baby Brian on the head, Nick does this also before picking up Lacey and taking her home.
Date: 30th March 2006 Place: Airport Time: 12:30pm Music: none
Nick and Kerry settled their new baby in at home and were getting into a routine around Nick's work, the boys continued to record the album while Brian prepared for his promotional tour around America. The kids were dropped off at school before Linzi and Brian made their way to the airport, he checked in his bags. "We got a little time before I have to get to my plane, so I think that I will just stand here with you and hold you in my arms." "Wow more public displays of affection and with the paparazzi watching." "You gotta live dangerously once in a while." He chuckled as he put his arms around her waist. "Are you okay with me going away for so long?" "No, I want you to stay and never leave me... of course I'm okay with it, Brian this is your life and something you love; no matter how many times you ask me I will always be okay with you doing your job." "I can't believe that I have someone in my life as special as you." "You keep saying, so I'm surprised you don't believe it yet." "How can I when every time I see you it's like I'm living an incredible dream that I really don't want to wake up from ever." "I could just listen to you talk to me like that all day, but you have to go and get your plane." "I do... tell the kids that I love them every night for me and that I will be home with them in a few weeks time." "I will, you know I will." She looked at him and smiled while playing with his T-shirt. "What?" "Nothing, I was just taking a picture of you at this moment with my eyes." "Why?" "Because I need something to picture when I'm alone at night when you're away." "Oh, like that." "Seriously? You know how to ruin a nice moment... honestly Mr Littrell, I really do love you." "I really do love you too, I will call you every morning and ever night and every time in between when I have free time. When I'm not on the phone to you, I will be thinking of you all the time." "I should hope so too." He kisses her and holds her close before making his way to his plane...
Brian placed the book onto the table. "She remembered everything didn't she?" "She did, it was crazy back then." "You really didn't want any more kids." "Well that's what we had planned but you were a little unexpected." "You loved each other a lot back then didn't you?" "Hell yeah, she was an amazing person." Pippin sat down next to Brian and held his hand. "I'm glad she wrote these diaries, I feel like I can connect with her and know her better. I can see the person that I hope to become the more I read, I feel like I've known her all of my life." "I can't tell you why she made them, but I'm glad that they can make you happy and help you." "Not just me, they'll help all of the grand-kids and maybe one day my kids... Thank you for reading it to me daddy, it was amazing to hear. I'm going to go to bed, are you coming up?" "I'll be up in a while baby." "Goodnight Daddy." "Goodnight." Pippin walked up the stairs and into her room, Brian looked up at the photo on the mantle. "Thank you baby." He drank the last of his drink before making his way upstairs and into bed...