"Where's Lis?" Jenn asked as she saw Shan walking towards them.

"Lis got caught, she won't be joining us."

"Caught?? What the heck are you talking about?"

"One word, Nick."

"How the..."

"I don't know...but he's up there...so I figure we might as well go before he sees the rest of us and goes even more crazy then he all ready is."

"Yeah, he'd probably alert the others and we'd be dealing with the five of them right here."

*****

The ride down to the lobby in the elevator was silent as Nick glared at the lights while tapping his foot. "Are you going to act like this all day?" she questioned.

"If I feel like it I might." he answered, eying her out of the corner of his eye. "How the hell could you do that Lis??? He's dangerous!!!!!"

She sighed, leaning back against the wall. "We'll talk later."

"Fine." he muttered.

"Good." she eyed the camera in the corner and wondered if Lou wasn't watching this little exchange.

*****

David stared out the window of his office while consulting his watch. They were late. Course it could be traffic he reasoned. It was the lunch hour afterall. Turning around he went and sat behind his desk, flipping through an old magazine to keep his mind off everything.

*****

Cutting the engine on the boat, Nick turned to his wife, "What do you want to explain?"

She stared out at the water, "Lou will never bother the five of you again."

He burst out laughing, "Oh really?? Hmmm he seemed pretty sure he still wanted the five of us with him when I talked to him."

"There's things you don't know okay..."

"Like what?"

"Like Lou's taking money from the mob, he's scamming them...if that gets out he's in some deep trouble..."

Nick stared at her blankly, "You're getting between Lou and the mob???"

"Not exactly between them..."

"No you're just backing him into a corner so he has no choice but to do something..." he rubbed his eyes tiredly. "Why the hell would you do that?" he asked softly.

*****

"Congratulations." David said as he saw Lou's signature on the papers.

"Thank you." they all answered.

David headed over to the table where Shan was pouring herself a drink. "Where's Lis?"

She sighed, glancing up at him nervously. "We ran into Nick, he took her home."

"And he..."

"He's far from enthused..."

He frowned, "Should I go over there?"

"No Lis can handle him, she's done it this long. He'll scream and yell for about an hour then come to his senses..." she said knowingly.

"If you say so."

"I do, now come on lets go celebrate."

*****

Lou made it back to his office, throwing his briefcase on the chair across the desk. Rubbing his neck tiredly he looked out the window at the darkening city of Orlando. Maybe he'd pour himself a glass of that wine before heading home, he wanted to look over some paperwork...then there was the whole Backstreet situation. Damnit what a mess that was now, he thought to himself as he took a glass from the small bar in the corner and headed back to his desk.

Kendal opened the door, "I'm heading home Lou."

"All right, have a good weekend."

"You too. Staying for awhile?"

He nodded, "Little stack of paperwork. Want to stay for a glass of wine?" he asked holding the bottle up.

"I have a dinner date. Another time, night."

"Night." he smiled as she closed the door behind her.

AJ lit up a cigarette as he followed Howie outside. "The girls went out huh?"

Howie nodded, "Yeah...I think its good they take a day away from all this."

"Wish we could." he sat on the lounger and looked out at the pool. "I've been thinking..."

"Yeah?"

"Maybe Nick had a point with the whole walking away from music thing...I mean you've got the acting aspirations...Bri well he can do whatever...Kev always did want to raise his family back in Kentucky..."

"What about you?"

AJ shrugged, staring down at the cigarette in his hand. "Hell if I know...I can find something."

"But music is our life..."

"Maybe its time to find something else..." he looked up at his best friend, "Come on D, you've got a baby on the way..."

D sighed tiredly as he looked out at the yard, "Yeah I know..."

"Come on, you really want to be on the road two hundred days a year while Ty and the baby are at home? You want to hear about the baby's first steps over an email, hear the first word over your cell phone while your driving down some back road on the tour bus and your cell keeps going in and out?"

"You've thought about this huh?"

"Hell yeah I have." AJ stated, "How much time have we wasted??" he shook his head sadly. "Look at the last while, we were supposed to have a nice long vacation...the wives took time off...what time off have they had? They're too busy trying to get us out of some mess they have nothing to do with to do anything...so they're having one day today, one day out of WEEKS D...how the hell do we make this up?"

Kevin tossed the empty beer bottle away and laid back, staring up at the sky. He'd spent most of the day since leaving TransCon just laying there, drinking and thinking. It was amazing, after a few bottles of whatever he'd found he'd started to go numb. Maybe this was what Nick felt like he contemplated as he reached beside him and popped open another beer. Letting his eyes flutter shut he took a deep breath, wanting to just get lost in nothingness for awhile.

"You know..." Alec started.

"Hmmm?" Jenn asked, picking at the food on her plate.

"We all said we went shopping yet all of us are going home empty handed..."

"That's unusual." Ty stated. "So we stop by somewhere on the way home and pick something up..."

"Easy solution."

"Yeah..."

*****

Walking inside the house, Alec kicked her shoes off and stopped at the bottom of the stairs. The house was eerily silent. "Kevin???" she called, turning in a circle. She couldn't see light coming from any of the rooms. Heading for the deck she turned the outside lights on and stepped outside, knowing where he probably was.

Howie put a piece of pizza on the plate and turned back to the movie on television. Hearing the front door open he turned the volume down and smiled as his wife walked into the room. "Hey."

She smiled as she sunk onto the couch beside him, "Hi." she kissed his cheek as she rested her head on his shoulder. "Anything good?"

He shrugged, "Just an old movie I found channel surfing. How was your day?"

"Long." she answered honestly. "What did you do while I was out?"

"Went over to J's for awhile..." he glanced at his wife, "Spent most of the afternoon talking about the future..."

"What did he have to say?"

"Maybe this whole thing happened for a reason..."

"What reason would that be? Cause chaos?" she propped her feet up on the coffee table as she spoke.

"To wake us up to what was most important in our lives." he rested his head against hers.

*****

Kevin groaned as he rubbed his face tiredly with his hand. Faintly he could hear Alec's voice coming from somewhere near him. "Alec...shhh...not so loud."

She kicked the empty beer cans away, "How much did you drink?" she asked, looking around in the dark. The lights from the deck weren't bright enough for her to see too clearly at that distance.

"Not enough..." he sighed, "I'm still conscious."

"Damnit J's supposed to be the drunk one not you." she knelt in the grass. "Get up..."

"Why?? Its nice out here..." he stared up at the night's sky. "Remember when we first got married, we'd spend the whole night out here sometimes just laying here staring up at the stars and planning our future?"

"Yeah..." she put her hand on his and shuddered feeling how cold he was. "You're going to get sick."

He ignored her words, "Used to talk about our family and where we'd go on vacations and what we would do...didn't once ever think things would catch up with us."

"What are you talking about?"

He laughed, a hollow sound that seemed to echo through the yard. "Every wrong little decision we made would magnify and come back to us in the form of Lou...and this..."

"Come on Kev, snap out of this..." she said starting to grow worried. "Lets go in, you can lay in bed...I'll make you some coffee..."

His hand reached out and held hers, "I wanna stay out here tonight...you go grab some pillows and blankets and come back...we'll do what we used to do okay??" he turned his head and looked her in the eyes, "Please Alec?" he asked softly.

She sighed, "Okay..." she gave in reluctantly.

*****

Brian sat in his studio, his guitar balanced on his knee while he played the chorus again softly. Giving a small nod of approval he picked up his pencil and wrote down the notes in his song book. Seeing a small movement out of the corner of his eye he turned his head to see his wife leaning in the doorway, "Hey when did you get home?" he asked, setting his guitar down at his side.

"Not too long ago..." she smiled, "Don't put the guitar down because of me..." she stepped into the room. "What are you working on?"

"Just a little idea I had..." he smiled as she leaned her head on his shoulder and looked at his song book. "Just the melody so far but I think its kinda pretty."

"Can I hear it?"

"Sure."

*****

Nick sighed as he stood in front of his closed bedroom door. Pushing it open he stopped seeing her asleep on top of the bed, still in her clothes from the day.

Taking a seat next to her he brushed her hair back, "I come up to apologize and you're asleep on me?"

Jenn leaned on the pool table watching her husband take a shot. "Nice break." she complimented.

He bowed, "Thank you." he smiled and moved around the table. "You're in a surprisingly good mood." he stated.

Jenn shrugged, "Just have a feeling we'll all have some good news soon."

"Me too..." he winked at her and took another shot.

*****

Lou stared at his computer and pushed his chair back as he blinked a few times trying to clear his vision. Too long on the computer, he reasoned as he saved his work and turned the computer off. Picking up his wine glass he drank the rest of it and replaced it on his desk. Leaning back he turned the chair around and stared out at the skyline, suddenly his eyes started to close and within a minute he was slipping out of his chair, totally unconscious as he hit the floor.