"Boston has some nice hotel rooms, if I remember correctly," Axl informed me as he grabbed his suitcase and shuffled over to the door to wait for Duff.

"Yeah? Nice," I mumbled rather apathetically.

"Hey, you okay?" he asked quietly.

"I'm fine."

"Right... Uh, Steven has the key to your guys's room; he's already up there. I think it was-"

"217," I cut off. "Yeah, I know... Thanks."

"Okay. If you need anything, Slash and I are in 254, and Duff and your brother are in 214."

"Noted," I said, giving him a tired smiled.

"Alright... C'mon, McKagan," he said loudly.

"Waitin' on Izzy," Duff called back.

"I'll be up in a minute; I can't find my coat," my brother shouted from the back room.

"Did you check your bunk?" I asked.

"Not yet."

"He'll catch up," I assured.

Duff shrugged, and stepped off of the bus, Axl right behind him.

"Slash, you comin'?" he asked.

"I'll wait for Iz."

"Suit yourself. I'm taking the bed by the window, though," he said before closing the door.

"So, Carolina, you're with Steven tonight?" Slash asked, swaying slightly.

"Yup."

"He snores," he said, scrunching up his nose at the thought. "Let's trade our roommates," he suggested as he got closer to me.

"No, thanks."

"Come on, baby, I won't tell if you don't," he drunkenly purred in my ear, kissing my neck as as my brother rolled into his bunk to grab his coat.

"Get the fuck off of me," I hissed, pushing him back.

"You're seriously still mad at me?"

"Yup, and even if I wasn't, my brother is right fucking there!"

"He didn't see anything... besides, it's been three days. How much longer are you gonna be pissed at me?" he asked exasperatedly.

"Indefinitely," I snapped as I grabbed my suitcase and walked off of the bus and up to the hotel, dodging Duff and Axl in the lobby as I headed for the room Steven and I were supposed to share.

I made it to the room, and knocked on the door, which opened to reveal Steven, who looked burned out, and thankful to have a night off.

"Hello, Miss Isbell," he said cheerily, taking my suitcase from me and letting me into the room.

"Evening, Mr. Adler. Nice to have a break, eh?"

"Definitely. It's much needed."

"Y'know, Stevie, I don't get how anyone on this fucking tour works," I mumbled with a sigh, walking in and dropping down onto the king size bed that we were supposed to share.

"What do you mean?" he asked, his blue eyes locking onto me as he sat beside me.

"There's always something going on behind the scenes. I don't see how anyone thinks."

"Yeah, you're right. We all have our own problems," he mused, twisting a bit of my hair between his fingers. "Take me, for example: I'm sure it's no secret that I have some issues, but I'm battling with that on my own. As long as I can still play, there's no problem."

"Steven, y-you're okay, aren't you?" I asked worriedly, looking up at him. "I don't know what I'd do if anything happened to you,man."

"Well, let's just say that I can't play so well lately," he said with a sad smile. "But I'm okay."

"You need to get help," I murmured, feeling myself get choked up. "It'll end up killing you."

"Hey, don't worry about me. I'm fine- we just have to work on keeping it tight when we play. Anyway, what I wanna know, is where do you and Slash stand?"

"Ten feet apart. We don't stand together. Not for a few days now."

"Oh, I think he mentioned something about an 'interview gone awry,'" he said with a smile, using air quotes.

"Yeah, that's a nice way of putting it."

"There weren't many details. He wasn't super informative...What all-"

Our conversation was interrupted by a light knock on the door. With a roll of his eyes and his trademark smile, Steven got up to see who was there.

"Hey, you two," Axl said as he stepped into the room. "How's it goin'?"

"Sup, Rose?" I asked tiredly.

"Nikki's looking for you, Rae."

"Nikki?"

"Yeah; he said he and Tommy missed you and wanted to raise a little hell. Just don't tell your brother," he said with a laugh. "Room 337."

"Oh, take the key," Steven said, tossing it to me. "I might go out later."

"Thanks," I mumbled, standing up. "See you later, I guess."

I waved at the pair and headed for the elevator, feeling the excitement grow at the thought of seeing Nikki and Tommy after the last few days I had experienced.

°°°°°°

"I missed you so much!" I said, squeezing Nikki as tight as I could.

"I missed you, too, Carolina," he replied, picking me up off of the ground. "You know that it's only been, like, two days since we've hung out, right?"

"Yes, but do I care?" I asked, taking step back so that I could look at his face. "It's been a long two days."

"I can agree with you on that one," he mumbled as he put an arm around my shoulders. "How are you and your fuck buddy?"

"Not buddies."

"Ah," he said slowly, tilting his head back slightly. "Sorry to hear that."

"Are you really?"

"Well, you seem bummed," he mumbled with a shrug.

"Hm, but what if I'm not?"

"Then congrats! I'm always around," he joked.

"Oh, shut up," I said, playfully hitting his chest as we sat on the couch.

"Oh, come on. You would never take me up on that offer?" he asked.

"I didn't say that," I mumbled.

"Ooh, nice way to step around the question."

"I'm not stepping around anything," I said simply. "I'm willing to try anything once- twice if I like it," I flirted.

"Really? I think I like the sound of that. Just be careful of what you're trying," he warned.

"Nikki, how have you not realized that I have no fear?"

"Now that you mention it, I've never seen it. I think you do have fear; I'm still waiting to see any trace of it," he said softly, tucking a bit of hair behind my ear. "So, what do you want to do?"

"Uh, I don't know... Hey, how's the view?" I asked, noticing that the sliding door was open, the thin curtains moving with the slight breeze.

"I don't know, actually. I was just about to go out and look when you knocked on my door."

"Well, pardon the interruption," I joked.

"Hey, I'd say you're a pretty good interruption. If it was Mick... well, I probably wouldn't answer the door."

"Oh, how sweet of you."

"Of course; I am always sweet. The nicest, most kind human being on this planet."

As we sat quietly on the balcony, we watched the city moving below, practically buzzing with Boston's night life. Lights changed colors and cars and motorcycles breezed by in contrast to the few people that were walking along the sidewalk, taking their time, breathing in the cool air.

"I'll be right back," he said, heading inside. When he returned a moment later, he had a small jar in his hand. "Tommy almost left his stash in the last hotel room but I grabbed it," he said, holding up the jar of weed so that I could see. "He's not getting this back like it is- maybe I'll just give him the empty jar. Up for a smoke session?"

"Of course. In case you haven't noticed, being mellowed out won't hurt me."

"Yeah, you're a little tense," he laughed, "I don't have T-Bone's pipe, but I think we can roll it in some paper. Don't they usually stick bibles in the drawers at these places?" he asked, walking back inside to look through the nightstand.

"Why don't you just use a receipt?"

"That doesn't sound as cool. Imagine, someday, you can be all, 'oh yeah, I smoked a bible joint once.' That's pretty badass... but I'll see if I can find a receipt."

"If you have one it could be about the right size, rather than having to tear up a book page."

"You got a thing for Jesus?" he teased.

"Oh, absolutely," I said sarcastically.

"Knew it," he mumbled, looking in the pocket of his leather jacket. "A-ha! Here we are; one receipt for- drum roll please- a bottle of Jack and a pack of smokes."

"That sums you up, eh?"

"Pretty much."

We wandered back out to the balcony, and I leaned against the railing, which, to be completely honest, didn't feel very stable, especially because of the fact that the old iron was split over halfway down, but I ignored the feeling as I watched Nikki do his thing.

"So where's Tommy?"

"I don't know. I thought he was going to come hang out with us, but he probably got distracted or something."

"Yeah, by a sexy blonde with no panties," I quipped.

"Probably," he agreed, laughing softly. "So, what happened between you and Slash?"

"He's just an asshole that doesn't give a shit about me. End of fucking story," I said. "Sixx?"

"Hm?" He placed the half-ass joint between his lips and lit it, taking a long drag.

"How have you been doing?" I asked, noticing that he looked thinner and paler than he did on the last leg of the tour.

"I'm good," he lied, passing me the lighter and the joint. "Hold it here, it's not sticking," he advised.

"Are you really?" I asked before taking a hit.

"Yup," he said, coughing slightly as he released a huge cloud of smoke. "Just getting over the flu."

"Nikki Sixx coughs from marijuana, but can chug a bottle of Jack on stage without an issue," I teased, taking a second puff, which was larger than the first.

"Hey, there was a lot of smoke," he justified with a shrug.

"Mm-hm." I blew a smoke ring, feeling proud of myself, as if I was 16 again, watching as Nikki put his finger through it.

"Clean rings."

"Surprisingly," I mumbled, passing it back to him. "Really though, the flu?"

"Yeah; I've been getting it lately. I think it's done."

"I hope so; don't get me sick."

"I'll do my best not to. So, who are you paired with tonight?"

"Steven. He snores like a freight train, but it's cool."

"Have you ever gotten stuck with your brother?"

"Once. Then he realized that he can't bring girls to the room when I'm there."

"What a shame. If Steven keeps you up you're more than welcome to stay the night with me," he offered.

"Thanks. I might take you up on that. We'll see."

After a little while longer, I leaned back against the railing again, but this time, the the metal bar behind me moved. There was a strange metal squeaking noise as the screw slid out of the building, and the metal began to give way behind me, quickly bending where the metal was broken.

Before I realized what was happening, Nikki jumped up and pulled me away from the ledge, holding me in his arms as we stared at the now empty spot that I was standing at moments ago. With the loud sound of a crash, we leaned a bit to see that the chunk of old cast iron had landed in a dumpster in the alley below.

"What the fuck just happened?" I asked, pale as Nikki pulled me back into the hotel room.

"All of that just happened so fast," he said drawing in a deep breath, "but at the same time, it felt like slow motion."

"Jesus Christ... Maybe the bible joint would have prevented that," I said, my heart beating a mile a minute as I realized that I almost fell back with the rail; I was leaning back, and about to go over the edge, when Nikki grabbed me. "T-thank you."

"Anytime," he said, paler than before as he wrapped his arms around me, which was very comforting seeing as I felt more fragile than a dried out leaf under a blowtorch. "Just don't do that... ever again... Talk about shitty things to happen while you're stoned," he mumbled.

We stood there for a few minutes, not knowing what to do other than cling to each other as if the room was coming down around us.

"Well, I-I should go check on Steven. Hopefully we'll hang out later," I said after a while, letting go of him with shaky hands.

"Come back if you need anything. And I do mean anything. If anyone starts giving you shit, let me know," he said with a weak smile, his green eyes hazy but sincere. "And don't fall off of any other balconies."

"Thank you, Sir. I'm sure I'll be able to take care of myself, but I'll let you know if I need anything," I promised. "I won't be going near anymore balconies, I can tell you that," I added, kissing him on the cheek before heading for the door. "Hey, Nikki?" I asked, stopping dead in my tracks and turning to face him.

"Yeah?" he asked, looking up at me.

"Can I try something?"

"Sure?"

I walked back to him, gently placed my hands on either side of his face, and pressed my lips to his, not really knowing why I was doing it. Perhaps out of curiosity.

What surprised me the most was the fact that he was so willing to kiss back right away; he wrapped his arms around my waist and pulled me to his chest as I tangled my fingers in his messy black hair, slipping his tongue in my mouth just a moment before we broke away.

"I- uh, I should go. I have to check on Adler," I mumbled, my cheeks flushed as I awkwardly headed for the door, leaving Nikki puzzled.

"See you around," he mumbled.

Hey, guys! So, side note, I know that this doesn't really follow the proper timeline, but it's all part of the plan, lol. I love reading your comments, so feel free to leave some. Vote/comment/share, all of that fun stuff. Thanks! ♥