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He wasn't quite sure how he had gotten back home again. He suspected he had fainted somewhere in between the glass doors of the Firm and the car.

It didn't really matter to him though. The important part right now was that he was home. He hadn't had to sit through the long drive, looking outside, feeling like everything was coming down uopn him.

He was scared of the outside world. He didn't understand why, but everytime he set foot outside he started to feel sick. It was like a stampede of buffalos inside his stomach, and all the blood left his face. The air suddenly went damp and he had problems breathing.

He hated being scared. But he couldn't help it.

He gave AJ a small smile as the older man tucked a blanket around him, and left him on the couch, while he himself went into the kitchen to speak to the other guys.

Nick closed his eyes, and exhausted because of the days events he soon entered the safety of the dreaming world, and left reality behind, if only for a little while.

*****

Kevin looked up from the newspaper he hadn't had time to read earlier that day, and smiled to AJ as he entered after tucking Nick in.

"Is he sleeping?" he asked.

AJ nodded, closing the door behind him as he sat down in the chair next to Howie,and opposite Kevin and Brian.

"Out as a light" he said with a smile.

"Good. Very good." Kevin said.

The silence that followed was akward from them all. They all felt like they should say something, but not one of them had anything to say. So they stayed in silence like that for a while, no one saying a word, all of them staring straight ahead, lost in their own thoughts.

Suddenly it seemed like something clicked in all of their minds, and they all started to talk at the same time.

AJ: Listen, guys, I know this may seem weird...

Brian: AJ, I know you're probably wondering what we all.....

Howie: I am sorry, but I cannot say I am....

Kevin: About the press conferance, how....

They all looked at each other, before they burst out laughing. This wasn't a laughing matter at all, but right now it felt good to laugh. It didn't take long before they all stopped though, and the akward silence was back.

"As I was saying. About the press conferance." Kevin said, and the others looked at him, giving him their full attention. The rest could wait, this was the important matter now.

"What about it?" AJ asked.

"Yeah, what about it?" Howie and Brian asked as well.

"I am just wondering how we are going to go about it." he said.

"Oh." AJ said, not quite getting what Kevin was talking about. "Nick tells the press, I back him up, we show that we are happy and that this won't change a thing. Can't be that hard to tell them right. Personally I am more worried about how people will react, not how we are going to tell them."

Kevin shook his head as AJ was talking.

"That's not what I mean" he said when AJ was done.

"What do you mean then?" Brian asked.

"I mean, how are we going to get Nick there. We all saw what happened today. If he's like that at the press conferance, God knows what kind of conclusions the press will make. For all we know he could have HIV and be dying tomorrow."

AJ looked at Kevin. He understod the problem. There was no way they were going to get Nick there without making him a nervous wreck, again. That wouldn't help him at all. He knew Nick had to get over his fears and walk outside again, but he also knew it had to happen on his own terms, and not theirs.

"I see the problem. So what do we do?"

"I don't know." Kevin said, looking very serious. "That's what I was going to ask you about."

AJ nodded, but didn't know what to say.

A silence fell over them again, but this time it was not because no one knew what to say. Now it was because they were all thinking about what to do. They need to find a way they could get Nick to the press conferance, without making him look like he was dying or something.

There was no akwardness in the silence this time, just a sort of comfort. They knew what the others were thinking, for they were thinking the same thing themselves.

What could they do to help Nick?

 

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