Part 56:
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~Next Morning~

AJ opened the door, "Lissy you came." he laughed looking her over and
seeing her hotel robe. "And nice ensemble by the way."

"I figured why get dressed up when it is you afterall." she laughed, "And
really what good is eating breakfast alone? Besides you said you were
going to fill me in on what your plan is with Lou." 

"Not good at all. And I will fill you in." he waved her in, "I just gotta
jump in the shower first. Alarm went off late."

"Sure it did."

"It did really. And I ordered breakfast so if you could grab the door? I
promise I won't be longer then five minutes."


Howie stood outside AJ's hotel room door. He took a deep breath, mentally
running over what he wanted to say. Jenn had realized the truth, please
talk to her and come back. Sounds good, he told himself as he raised his
hand and knocked.


Lis turned the tv down and glanced at the door. Definitely a knock. "J I
think the food's here." she called as she headed for the door. 

"Be right out!!" he yelled back.


Howie smiled as the door opened and it quickly faded seeing Lis standing
there in her robe. "Lis??"

"Howie? Your not room service."

"No I'm not." he pushed by her inside the room and froze as AJ walked out
of the bathroom, a towel around his waist. "What in the hell is going on
J??"

AJ looked at D, "What are you doing here D? You promised you'd give me
space."

"Space for what? To hop into bed with Nick's wife?? Or former wife or
whatever your calling yourself today Lis."

"D come on this isn't what it looks like." Lis said, looking at AJ for
help.

"Yeah D..."

"Oh really? Lis isn't in your room in only her robe and you aren't in a
towel, I can see from here how rumpled the bedsheets are. Did you two
enjoy yourselves knowing how miserable your spouses are? J you know how
upset Jenn is...Nick's drinking himself into oblivion and you two are
getting..."

"Us two are trying to have a meeting over breakfast."

"Ah a meeting, what kind of meeting??"

"Howie what do you mean Nick's drinking?" Lis asked interrupting the two
men. 

D raised an eyebrow, "He's trying to forget everything by drinking every
bottle in the house. I'd say he's damn near succeeding."

"Oh no." she sat on the couch, staring blankly at the muted television.

AJ shook his head, "Howie listen to me, do you think me and Lissy would
have an affair with each other right now??"

"I don't know...maybe your not thinking with your brains."

AJ groaned, "Believe what you want." he went over and sat next to her.
"You okay?"

"He's drinking J, Nick never drinks...he hates it..." she looked at D.
"How bad is he??"

Howie sat down across from her, "He's not good Lis. We're all worried."

"Did E see him??"

"She's there right now."

Lis nodded, "She'll be able to get through to him."

"What he needs Lissy is you though. He wanted to go out after you but
Brian stopped him."

She let her eyes close, "I still don't believe him."

J excused himself and went to get dressed while Howie stayed there with
her. He moved over to AJ's spot beside her. "Why don't you believe him?"

"I can't..."


Jenn pulled her car into the driveway of the beachhouse and quickly got
out. She knew AJ wasn't there and Howie had promised her that he'd call as
soon as he was able to talk to J, but she missed her friends and wanted to
catch up a little. See if there was anything she could do to help out.
Just as she was halfway to the front door Alec and Kevin came walking out.
"Hi guys!"

Alec smiled, "Jenn! What are you doing here?"

"Came by to see everyone. What are you two up to?"

"Meeting with JC." Kevin answered, digging through his pants pocket for
his keys.

"Oh..."

"Want to come with? You did go see Justin so you know what to say." Kevin
offered.

"Sure. I'll follow you over in my car." she turned and headed back to her
car.

Alec watched her go and turned to Kevin. "She seems happier."

"Maybe she talked to AJ."

"Or she's going to."

"We'll find out later. Come on we've gotta go or we're going to be late."


By the time AJ emerged from the bedroom fully dressed, room service had
arrived and Lis was picking at her toast while Howie drank his coffee.
"Why you here D? I thought you said you'd give me the space I needed."

"I talked to Jenn..."

"And she's filing for legal separation?" AJ finished, taking his breakfast
off the tray.

"No she really wants to talk to you and sort things out. Jenn knows you
were telling the truth J."

"Least one of you does." Lis mumbled.

"I'll see about calling her. I'm a little busy right now."

Howie set his coffee down. "How are you busy? Right now all I see is you
sitting around here with Lis."

"I've put my own little plan in motion. As of Monday morning I will be
fully and completely represented by Lou Pearlman."

"Shit you've lost your mind!!!"

"I have not!! And stop giving me that look of insanity Howard. Look I'll
tell you what I'm doing but you gotta swear not to tell the others or they
could blow this."

Howie shook his head, "What are you getting yourself into Bone?"

AJ smiled, "I'm gonna try and shake Lou a little. I gave him quite the sob
story about the five of us hating each others guts. I even threw in the
fact I've moved out of the beachhouse."

"Oh so now he knows we're all staying together."

"He did before. Look come Monday he's gonna issue a huge press release."

"J..."

"Shut up D and listen. I know what I'm doing. I'm taping him every time I
go in there and I do believe the woman in there with him before me
yesterday looked extremely familiar...as in Nick's pictures familiar."

Lis stared at her friend. "WHAT??"

"I checked last night. David sent me a copy of a few of the shots when I
talked to him late last night. Its the same woman. So Lissy if I can blow
Lou out of the water, we may get her too."

"What do you want the rest of us to do?"

"Stay the hell out of it. Stay away from me right now, make it look like
none of you are speaking to me...I'm thinking he may have someone watching
me shortly."

"Damnit..." Howie muttered, running a hand nervously through his hair.
"You gonna be okay J??"

"As long as we get the scumbag I'll be fine."

"You want a guard or something??"

"Not right now. Just don't mention anything to the others though all
right? Last thing I want is Kevin at the door screaming at me and blowing
the cover."

"All right. Good luck man. And if you need me...I'll be here."

"Thanks D."


Shan woke up to the smell of food. She rolled over and came face to face
with Brian holding a tray. "What...when did you get here?"

"Late last night, early this morning. I got a little worried when you
didn't come back to the beachhouse."

She covered her eyes with her hand, "Yeah I needed some time alone."

"Kind of figured." he set the tray down and took a seat next to her.
"Cassie's leaving shortly."

"That's nice."

"Shan I haven't felt anything for her since I was nineteen, I just wish
you'd understand that."

"I would if I could, but there's so much going on right now I don't know
what to believe."

"Do you believe I love you?"

She watched him for a minute, "Yeah."

"Then that should tell you all you need to know."


Sitting in the waiting room at the recording studio was beginning to get
to Jenn. She stared up at the pictures on the walls and began tapping her
fingers on the arm rest. Her patience in this situation was pretty much
gone. Alec turned to her and smiled, "Shouldn't be too much longer."

"I hope not."

Kevin laughed softly, "Just like J, your the two most impatient people I
know."

"What can I say, I learned from the best." Jennn answered as a man entered
the room.

"You three here to see JC?"

"Yeah."

"Come on back, he's free."

They followed him down the hall to the lunch room and found JC taking out
a drink from the fridge. "Hi Kevin." he smiled and shook his hand. "Sorry
to hear about you guys breaking up."

"Thanks. This is my wife Alec and AJ's wife Jenn."

"Nice to meet you both, hate to meet here but it was the only free time I
had. I'm doing some producing today."

"No problem." Alec answered, taking a seat at the table.

"What did you want to see me about?"

Jenn cleared her throat. "Have you talked to Justin lately?"

"No why?"

"We've talked to him and he was pretty uncooperative."

"About what?"

"JC...Lou blackmailed us into breaking up." Kevin said, "He had things on
us that seemed realistic but we've found out they aren't true. We need to
get him back, and we want to turn tables on him. There's a way we think
but we need your help."

"Lou blackmailed you??"

"He set things up to make us appear in an unsavory light. He's holding it
all over our heads and he could do the same to you. Especially since you
guys know more about his secret then we do."

"What secret would that be?" he asked, playing clueless as he opened
another water.

"That most of his backing is illegal money."

JC smiled, "The court transcripts are sealed, no ones allowed to speak."

"None of our information came from transcripts JC." Alec spoke up. "We did
a little research on our own and found that out."

He took a sip of his water. "What do you want from us?"

"We need some information. All we want is to put Lou away. He's involved
in illegal activites and we're just going after him, no one else. He's
controlling our lives right now JC, none of us know if he's gonna leak
some falsehoods about us to the press...the last demand he made was for us
to all go back under his management as solo acts. The man is clearly
insane."

JC nodded, "I always thought so. Look I need some time to think okay?? I'm
not saying I and the other guys will help but I'm not saying we're not
either."