Date: Sat, 15 Jul 2000 21:42:30 -0700 (PDT)
From: ngcfan
Subject: Calming Waters

Disclaimer: I do not know any of the characters in this story personally.
Plus, this story is a figment of my imagination.  It is not true.  And, I
do not know the orientation the Backstreet Boys or Nsync.  This is pure
fantasy.  I'm a fan of Nick Carter so this story is Nick-friendly!

Prologue

The party at Brian's house was in full blast as all the members of the two
groups arrived.  Over a hundred guests had shown up, to Brian's delight.
The music was on and everybody enjoyed the food.

Brian loved this house.  He had bought it when he knew how much Nick loved
the ocean.  Not that Nick knew, but Brian thought it might give him an
advantage over Lance.  This house was beautiful, exotic, and only two miles
away from the beaches on the west coast of Florida.

Brian smiled even brighter when he saw the other Boys arrive.  "Glad you
guys finally made it.  I thought I'd have to hire some thugs to kidnap you
and get you all here!"

"Brok, you couldn't drive us away even if you had ten cannons in front of
your house," Lance replied cheerfully.  "You see, Just here has an
impeccable sense of smell.  You could not separate him from a cheesecake
even if you tried.  Don't let his thin form deceive you!"

"Thanks so much for your friendship," Justin replied wryly.  All the other
guys laughed at the conversation.

Brian laughed, too, but he stopped suddenly.  He craned his neck.  "Where's
Nick?" He was worried that Nick decided not to come.

"I'm here," Nick said from behind Brian.

Brian jumped, nearly dropping the servings he was holding.  "Don't do that.
Gosh, you gave me a heart attack!"

"Sorry," Nick smiled sheepishly.

"Brian, stop clogging the pathway and let us in," AJ cried out.

Brian laughed and stepped aside.  All nine guys of BSB and Nsync
immediately forced their way in and started to enjoy the party.  Everyone
got lost in the excitement.

As Brian roamed around his house, being the perfect host, he noticed that
Nick was sitting on the couch talking to some people which Brian knew Nick
wasn't too close with.  He laughed as Nick tried to make conversation
unsuccessfully with them.

Just then, Lance walked from behind him.  "Are you thinking what I'm
thinking?" Lance said, making Brian jump and dropping his servings.

"Is there a conspiracy going on against me?  Geez.  You scared the hell out
of me!"  Brian shrieked.

"Sorry," Lance smiled.  "So, are you thinking what I'm thinking?"

"And what are you thinking?" Brian asked curiously.  He hoped it wasn't
another silly idea.  Last time, it nearly ruined his friendship with Nick.

"Let's spike his drink!" Lance said excitedly.

Brian gave him a smirk.  "And what do you hope to accomplish?"

"Well, I'd just like to see what he looks like, drunk."

Brian laughed.  He knew Lance had a crush on Nick.  And he knew that Lance
knew that he himself had a crush on Nick.  So the two decided that all was
fair in love and war.  They were going to fight gallantly for Nick's
affection.

"I don't know," Brian said.  "Remember what happened last time when we
tried to determine whether he was gay or not.  I thought he was gonna rip
our hearts out."

Lance laughed.  "You got to admit, though.  That was funny."

"Well," Brian laughed, "It was only funny after the fact that we knew he
was gay."

"So are you with me or not," Lance pressed. "Or are you too chicken?"

Brian wasn't one to back off a challenge.  "All right, I'll take the cup to
him.  You mix it with whatever you have in mind."

"Deal," Lance said, never once taking his eyes off Nick.  He smiled
wickedly.  This was going to be fun.

**********

Nick saw Brian walk towards him and smiled in relief as he excused himself
from his audience.  "I thought I'd never get out of that!"

"Calm down, Nick," Brian said sweetly. "Here, this should calm you down."
Brian gave Nick the spiked fruit punch.

Nick looked at Brian, surprised.

"What?" Brian asked innocently.

"Since when have you been so nice to me?"  Nick squinted his eyes in
suspicion.

"Just drink it, you idiot!"  Brian said, feigning a hurt expression.

Nick laughed.  "All right, sorry!  I guess I'm just paranoid."  Nick took
the cup and drank in one big gulp.

Brian smiled, satisfied.  "Here, have another."  He handed Nick another
cup.  Nick still felt thirsty so he took the cup.  He gulped the second one
in one gulp.

Nick's cheeks were suddenly flushed.  Brian smiled, knowing that he was
starting to feel the effects of the drink.  Nick smiled and started to walk
back to his couch.  Though he was flushed, he was still conscious and
alert.

As soon as Nick walked away, Brian walked back to Lance and smiled
triumphantly.  Lance laughed and gave Brian a high five.

"So what's our next step?" Lance asked excitedly.

"Next step?" Brian raised his eyebrows, not really knowing what to do with
a drunken Nick.  "You mean you're not satisfied?  He's gonna be drunk."

Lance smirked at Brian.  "You know, you're a total airhead. What fun is it
if Nick is only drunk.  We should, well, tie him to a bed or something so
that when he wakes up, he'll think he's kidnapped.  Something like that."

Brian cringed.  "You sound like a prepubescent Nick.  I remembered how
rotten his pranks were.  But even he grew out of it.  I do not know how
your mental development has stopped, but I think you need to grow out now!"

Lance laughed.  "Oh, come on, grandpa.  Let's stop this pretense.  You want
just as badly as I do to have a little fun with Nick.  Come on!"

Brian laughed.  "All right.  Let's brainstorm.  Umm, how about we leave him
in the park, tied to a tree."

"Naw, too public.  Let's bring him to your room and tie him to the bed.
And since he's so scared of gremlins, we'll turn off all the lights.  Then
we could scare him, you know, like tickle his feet or something."

Brian laughed at that idea.  "Yeah, that sounds like fun. Let's go then."
As the two turned around to get Nick, they realized that Nick was nowhere
in sight.

Lance and Brian ran to the couch where they saw Nick laying a few minutes
ago.  He was not there.  Both frantically scanned the room.  They were
about to go find Nick elsewhere when Lance grabbed Brian and pointed at the
door.

There, a tall, dark figure, which they didn't recognize, was holding Nick's
drunken form by the waist, and pushing him into a sportscar.  Lance and
Brian quickly jumped at it and raced to the door, knowing that something
was terribly wrong.  Without even thinking, both of them jumped into
Brian's car as the sportscar that Nick was shoved into sped out of the
driveway.

Lance yelled chaotically as Brian revved his engine and stomped on the
accelerator.  His tires screeched as the car raced out of his driveway.
Lance never took his eyes off of the sportscar.  "Quick!" Lance screamed.
The other BSB and Nsync members heard the commotion and ran out only to see
Brian's car disappearing behind the rows of houses in the neighborhood.

Brian cursed as he tried to follow the sportscar, wondering why they were
even in this situation in the first place.  The sportscar in front of them
sped up even faster as Brian realized that they were discovered.

Brian stepped harder on the accelerator, but to his chagrin, the sportscar
was too fast and disappeared.  Lance cursed even more.  However, Brian
wasn't going to give up.  He thought hard.  They were near the beaches.
These kidnappers must want to find a nice secluded place where they
wouldn't be seen.  With that in mind, Brian headed for one of the more
private beaches around that area.

Lance and Brian screeched to a halt as, to their delight, they saw the
sportscar parked behind a tree.  They quickly got out of their cars and
scanned the scene hoping to catch a glimpse of their handsome young friend.

"There!" Lance pointed at a loading dock not to far away.  True enough,
they saw two men grabbing Nick's limp body and carrying it to a little boat
near the dock.

Brian and Lance wasted no time in following them.  As they neared the dock,
the boat carrying Nick's unconscious body was starting to disappear from
view.  "What do we do now?" Lance asked.  "I don't swim very well."

Brian panicked.  "Do you see any other boats and some floats or life
jackets?"

Brian and Lance quickly jumped around, searching.  Finally, Lance saw the
old, worn down boat with a motor on it.  He motioned to Brian.  Without a
second glance, Brian jumped into the boat, with Lance on his heels.  Both
pulled at any string or lever they could find, and to their surprise, the
motor somehow got turned on.

Then the were whisked away, both falling back.  Brian frantically grabbed
whatever lever he could find and pulled sending the boat into a 180 degree
turn.  Lance looked at Brian in disbelief.  "How did you do that?"

"Never mind how did I do that?  We're facing the wrong direction.  How do
we turn around?" Brian panicked as the boat the carried Nick's body was
slowly disappearing into the fog.

"Well, do something!" Lance felt his heart jumping furiously in his chest.
They were losing Nick.  "And do it fast because the winds are picking up.
It looks like a big storm."

Surprisingly, they managed to turn the boat around with Brian once again
directing the motor.  Soon enough, they disappeared into the fog and
everything was out of view.  The waters seemed calm, almost angelic.  They
tried to listen for the sound of the other boat.  To their delight, they
could hear the boat not too far off in the distance.  They quickly made
their move only to be met by darkness.

Lance and Brian looked up in horror as they saw the storm racing across,
hitting them like a bullet.  Before they knew what was going on, the waves
began to crash into their boat sending them both reeling into the waters.
The storm mercilessly ripped their boat in two as both struggled to stay on
the surface.

Meanwhile, a little down, the mysterious man was fighting hard to keep
Nick's face above the waters, praying that Nick would not drown in the
process.  With a little quick thinking, he managed to get a life jacket on
Nick and securely tied a rope around Nick's waist and attached it to his
arm, making sure that Nick would not drift away from him.

About 30 minutes passed before the storm moved along its tortuous course,
away from the four near-dead victims.  Finally, their bodies lay strewn
like worn down strings on the beach, drenched in salt water and not knowing
that the adventure had just begun.