Billy Burrew's Fan Fiction Website

This story is dedicated to all the people that lost their lives or loved ones in the tragic terrorist attack on the World Trade Center Buildings. May God himself tend to the souls of those that lost their lives in this senseless act of violence, and may the God that killed Cain and squashed Sampson get back to work on the people that committed this cowardly, evil act.

Nick sat in the car, holding hands with Elizabeth, his longtime friend and intimate. Nick had been very careful to keep Elizabeth out of the public eye after the terrible reaction his fans had to Mandah. Nick cared a great deal more for Elizabeth than he had ever cared for Mandah, and it showed in his reluctance to bring Elizabeth out publicly as his girlfriend. Nick sighed and squeezed Elizabeth's hand as he thought about their past together. Nick had met Elizabeth shortly after the band had formed. They had kept in contact the whole time that the group was in Europe, and she had even come to visit once for a week during her summer break.

At first, Nick and Elizabeth's relationship had been that of platonic friends. Nick enjoyed hanging out with Elizabeth or Liddy as was his nickname for her, more-so after the guys started gaining recognition and all the girls he met would basically sit and swoon over him during their dates. Elizabeth never swooned over him and she and Nick could just talk about anything. Needless to say, Nick enjoyed her company immensely.

One night, a week after the release of Millennium, when the guys got the news that they had broken sales records and sold over a million albums in a week, Nick and Elizabeth's platonic relationship changed. They had been drinking and talking at the party that Kevin and Brian had thrown and soon Nick found himself leaning over and kissing her on the lips. Elizabeth smiled after it had happened and kissed him back. Nick then realized that, though the change was unexpected, it was quite acceptable to both of them.

Nick and Liddy grew closer over the next few years, and Liddy weathered the teasing of the guys and her friends that knew about the two of them when the subject turned to Nick's then-public 'girlfriend', Mandah. Although she would never admit it to him, Nick knew that she was happy to see Mandah away from him, and the more states away from him she was, the better.

Nick had gone to a upscale, private jeweler in Orlando and had gotten an engagement ring made for Elizabeth. Nick had thought long and hard about a way to introduce Elizabeth to the public in a way where they would just have to accept her, and not crucify her as they had done to Mandah. Not, Nick thought, that the two girls were anything alike. In fact, Nick mused, a lot of the criticism and anger that Mandah got from the fans was deserved for the way she would treat him in public and the less than prim way she tended to dress. Nick smiled as he looked at Elizabeth's outfit, a light gray business suit with black pumps and hose, she and Mandah were definitely from two different schools when it came to a lot of things, clothes especially.

Nick fingered the rings in his pocket and remembered that he had decided that he'd wait to ask her until he met back up with her in Canada in two days. Nick smiled as he remembered the guy's reactions as he called them all together to tell them of his plan. Brian and Kevin both congratulated him on his entrance to the realm of the pussywhipped male. Howie, who also was good friends with Liddy, gushed a congratulations and promised not to breathe a word to her about it. AJ patted him on the back and sighed, realizing that he was going to the last single Backstreet Boy unless he hurried up and found himself someone to marry.

Nick sighed as the car slowed in front of the airport terminal, almost sensing what was about to happen.

Liddy grinned, "Thanks Nick. Really. I'm still not mad at you. You know that, right?"

Nick winced as he remembered one of the first times he had said he would send a car to get her and had forgotten to do so, and she had been stuck at some small airport in Germany until she could get her currency exchanged so that she could use a public telephone to call his hotel.

"Well...I gotta go. I'll see you in two days. I love you." Liddy said as she grabbed her bags and leaned in to kiss his lips.

Nick nodded and smiled after the kiss. "You know I'd come in there, but it would just be a mess if the fans caught me with you."

Liddy rubbed her hands down her sides to straighten any wrinkles and turned and stuck her head back in the car.

"And when I get back, I want to HEAR you say that you love me too. You never say that, you know. Even when we're in private."

Liddy turned and pulled her suitcase with her through the doors and was then gone.

Nick had the driver head to the Boston's Children's Hospital where he and Howie were to meet local kids and promote his lupus foundation. Nick sat in the car and thought about Liddy the whole time there, chastising himself for not telling her that he loved her, more than he could ever say.

Nick got to the hospital at 8 am and he and Howie walked around the rooms, talking and signing autographs for the kids and cheering them up. As they finished their rounds, Nick passed by the nurse's station and saw a group of nurses huddled around a television, talking in anxious voices. The nurse closest to him turned and Nick saw that she was in tears.

The woman looked at him through tearstained eyes and sighed, "Terrorists have taken control of several airplanes. They've flown the first one into the side of the World Trade Tower.

The nurse nodded and Nick heard his cell phone start to ring from the room where he had placed his bag. The nurses parted and Nick could see the terrible damage to the building the he had been in several times before. Nick watched the smoke fill the air around the building and heard the screams of the people on the television and beside him as a second plane rammed into the other Trade Tower.

Nick turned to face Howie and saw that his latin face was pale white with shock and fright. "What....What about Liddy?"

Howie pointed, "That was her flight Nick. It was bound for LA, but got hijacked."

"No......" Nick said, then rushed over to the room where his bag was and grabbed his cellphone.

Nick looked at the screen of the cellphone and smiled in relief, "Howie. She just called me. Hang on...let me call her back. She must have caught a different flight."

Nick walked back to the nurses station and tried to call Liddy, but the shielding in the building kept fading the signal out before it could connect.

Nick looked up at the nurse and asked to use the phone. The nurse turned the phone to Nick and instructed him on how to get an outside line. Nick called her cellphone but was unable to get through. He tried again, several times, then jumped as his phone beeped that it had voicemail for him.

Nick used the nurse's phone to call his voicemail and then pushed the button for the speakerphone. Nick jerked up nervously as Liddy's voice was clearly heard.

"Nick....Jesus. My plane's been hijacked. There's guys with knives here...and they said they've got a bomb. Oh Nicky...They said they're going to fly us into the World Trade Tower in New York. Oh God...Nick...Oh...I can see New York out of my window...we must be close. Oh God. Nick...I love you...I love you. God...I want to hear your voice so badly Nicky...I'm so scared! Oh, God NO!" <click> <signal lost>" The phone went dead.

Nick fell to his knees and screamed. "Oh Nooooooooooooooooo! Liddy! God...NOOOOOOOOOOOOO! Liddy! Liddy!"

The nurses watched in horror as Nick fell to the floor and wept uncontrollably over the loss of his beloved Liddy.

Hours later, Nick lay in a bed in the hospital, curled into the fetal position, eyes wide open, tears falling every now and then. Howie had stayed with his friend every minute since the tragedy, holding or touching Nick, letting him know that he was there and that he shared his grief.

"That I loved her. That she meant more than the world to me. That I'd give everything up for her."

When he stopped crying, Nick got up and walked down the hall. As he reached the end of the hall, he heard a tinny radio playing in one of the kids' rooms and went in to check it out. Asleep on a bed was a young girl, who, as Nick looked at her more closely, bore a bit of a resemblance to Liddy, having the same hair and a similar face. Nick walked around the bed and reached over to turn off the radio when her eyes opened slightly and she yawned.

"Hi." The little girl said. "Am I dreaming or are you Nick Carter from the Backstreet Boys."

Nick smiled lightly for just a second, then it fell back to an expression of sadness. "That's me."

Nick nodded and then pulled the ring box out from his pocket. "I was going to meet back up with her in two days and ask her to marry me."

The little girl gasped and began to cry. "Oh, my God!" The little girl pulled herself up and grabbed Nick's hand and pulled him down to the bed, then hugged him. "I'm so sorry."

Nick sat on the bed and cried as the young girl hugged him, telling him that she was sorry.

The unnaturally loud strains of a guitar pulled both their attentions back to the radio, and the two listened silently to the song that had begun to play.

"Sometimes late at night
I lie awake and watch her sleeping
She's lost in peaceful dreams
So I turn out the lights and lay there in the dark
And the thought crosses my mind
If I never wake up in the morning
Would she ever doubt the way I feel
About her in my heart

If tomorrow never comes
Will she know how much I loved her
Did I try in every way to show her every day
That she's my only one
And if my time on earth were through
And she must face the world without me
Is the love I gave her in the past
Gonna be enough to last
If tomorrow never comes

'Cause I've lost loved ones in my life
Who never knew how much I loved them
Now I live with the regret
That my true feelings for them never were revealed
So I made a promise to myself
To say each day how much she means to me
And avoid that circumstance
Where there's no second chance to tell her how I feel

So tell that someone that you love
Just what you're thinking of
If tomorrow never comes"

Nick began to weep as the song had finished. The little girl held onto him and let him cry.

"Why didn't I just tell Liddy that I loved her this morning? Why did I have to let her go without saying it back?"

The little girl reached over and grabbed the radio and threw it against the wall. Nick jumped as he heard the radio hit and explode into little pieces of plastic and metal.

"Your radio.....?" Nick said as he looked down at the pieces of the smashed and broken radio that were strewn across the floor."

The little girl shook her head. "Doesn't matter. What does matter right now is you. So what if you didn't say it back to her today, or ever. Did you show her that you loved her? Did you hold hands, kiss, talk, share experiences....all that kinda stuff?"

The little girl brightened up suddenly, "Well then, why do you even doubt that she knew? Of course she knew you loved her. It's not what you say when it comes to love, Nick, it's what you do, its your actions. You showed your love for her every time you took her hand in yours, kissed her lips, hugged her close, and everything else. Don't let some stupid song fool you. She knew you loved her, or she'd have called someone else from that plane in those last seconds, wouldn't she?"

It was as if the little girl's words were a sledgehammer, for as she talked her words knocked away some of the weight of self-pity, misery and loneliness that weighed down on Nick. A single tear fell down Nick's face as he stood up and nodded slowly, then leaned back over and kissed the little girl's cheek tenderly.

Nick exited to the hallway and heard the sound of Howie's voice at the nurse's station. He turned the corner and walked towards it, and the nurse talking to Howie pointed over his shoulder at Nick. Howie turned and rushed to Nick.

Nick shook his head. "I was just sitting and talking with the little girl at the end of the hall there. She told me a few things and cheered me up."

The nurse behind the counter paled and stood up. "What girl at the end of the hall? That room's been empty of patients for a few days now."

Nick looked at the nurse, "No...she's a little girl, about 8 or 9 years old, with medium length brown hair and she's wearing a nightgown."

The nurse turned from pale to white as she took her glasses off and said, "You've seen Elizabeth, then? It figures. She only appears when there's some catastrophe."

The nurse nodded, "It was when she was alive. She died in this hospital over one hundred years ago."

The nurse shook her head firmly. "No. She's our resident ghost. I haven't heard of anyone seeing her except during times of disaster. She appears and tries to lend comfort to others, then disappears."

Nick turned and ran back down the hall to the room he had come out of. He peered inside and saw an empty bed, and nothing else. Nick's heart raced for a second, then he remembered the comfort she had given him. He sighed then, and turned to walk out of the room. "Thank you again, Elizabeth."

Nick walked out and joined Howie and saw that the other guys had joined him at the hospital. They came around to him and hugged him, lending support and comfort to their stricken friend.

Nick sat in his hotel room later that night and reached into his bag to grab a CD, and found a small box with his name on it, wrapped in a sheet of paper and a rubber band Nick pulled off the rubber band and unfolded the paper. Nick opened the paper and began to read the note Liddy had written to him.

Nick-
I know you don't want the fans to react to us like they did to you and Mandah. I've thought about this for a while and come to think that if we do it the way Kevin did it, by getting married to each other, it will probably go a lot better. So...I borrowed one of your rings and had a engagement ring made from it. It was not easy to do, since most engagement rings are made for girls, but I found this great jeweler in Orlando that agreed to do it and made me this. So...when we meet up again in two days, if I see that you're wearing it, I'll get down on my knees right there at the hotel and ask you to marry me. I'll make sure not to wear a short skirt that day. It wouldn't do to ask for your hand in marriage and have the entire hotel see what color underwear I'm wearing.

Hope to be kneeling in front of you soon!
(Get your mind out of the gutter....you know what I mean, Nicky!)
Love you!

Nick's face was wet with tears as he opened the box and looked at the ring. He pulled it out of the box and slipped it on his ring finger. It is said from that day forward until the day he died, Nick Carter never took that ring off his finger.

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