Walking into his conference room David nodded seeing everyone there. He'd called them all that morning and asked that they meet there that afternoon, he had some important things to go over with them. And he did. "So you're all probably wondering just why I called you over here."

"To settle the bill?" Brian asked, half joking, half-hopeful that was the real reason.

"Wish it was that simple." he said honestly, looking around at everyone there.

Kevin cleared his throat, "Then do you wanna tell us why exactly you DID call us here?"

He took a deep breath, "I think its time everyone here gets everything out into the open. No more secrets. There's been too much of that lately and with Lou's death I think its time..."

Nick paled at David's words, bowing his head a little as he concentrated on his water glass in front of him.

Brian kept his gaze on Nick. He felt a lump forming in his throat. What if one of David's contacts had told him something about Nick being there that night? What if someone thought Nick had done something to Lou that resulted in his death? They had no proof he hadn't. It would be his word against whoever had seen him...

"Who would like to go first?" David asked, breaking the silence that filled the room.

It seemed that everyone glanced at each other. E turned and looked at Ty and Jenn who were sitting side by side. Jenn took a long sip of her water and scanned the table, didn't seem like anyone was about to speak any time soon. Clearing her throat she pulled her chair closer to the table. "I'll speak...for the wives..."

All the men turned to her and David nodded, "Go ahead Jenn."

"The day Lou died...we all went to TransCon...for a meeting with Lou..."

Kevin pushed his chair back and jumped to his feet. "What??"

"Sit down." Alec said, grabbing a hold of his arm and pulling him back down into his chair. "Be quiet and listen."

D stared at Ty who sat beside him. "You went to see Lou?"

She nodded, "We did."

"How could you be so stupid?"

"Stupid?"

"Yes stupid!! Going there you put yourselves in danger especially you Ty. You're carrying our child you shouldn't be going into situations like that but I guess nothing's going to stop you is it? First that night with Paul and now..."

She let out a deep breath, trying to keep from slapping her husband. "Just shut up and listen."

"No! I refuse to listen to what you think you accomplished by putting you and our child in danger. Nothing is going to stop you until you..."

"I what D?" she challenged.

"You end up hurting yourself."

Ty grabbed a hold of the papers on the table and threw them at him, having had more then enough of his tired tirades. "That..." she said getting to her feet, "is how stupid I am...I must be so incredibly stupid to be trying to free you and the rest of you all from the clutches of Lou..." she shook her head, "Damnit I'm sorry I succeeded because right now Howard you deserve everything Lou gave you." The room stayed silent as Ty stormed from the room and Esha slipped from the room to check on her.

Everyone stared at Howie who was going through the papers, growing paler with every sentence he read.

Turning her attention to Kevin, Jenn leaned forward on the table. "Kev why were you at TransCon before us?"

He shook his head coming out of his thoughts, he'd been trying to see what was on those papers Howie was still going through. "What? Sorry Jenn..."

Alec swivelled her chair, "YOU were at TransCon?? What the hell were you doing there with the mood you were in??"

He turned to her, "I went to tell him off...told him to go straight to hell and take his contracts with him..."

"That's why when I found you at home you were drunk out of your mind?"

"It numbed me Alec, I needed to not feel anything for awhile...just like Nick..."

"Hey don't pull me into this." Nick said, sitting up in his seat.

"Look I went there, told him how it was and left. Nothing to freak out over Alec. Look the five of you went there and met with him and he was fine, so don't jump all over me." Kev said, crossing his arms in front of his chest.

"Did anyone else go visit Lou?" AJ asked, scanning the faces at the table. Stopping on Nick he saw the funny expression on his face. "Carter?"

"I was there..."

Lis nodded, "Yeah its nothing J...he went in before we did...he didn't know anything about us wives meeting with Lou."

"What did you see him for?" D asked, joining the conversation.

"Wanted to do a little digging with Lou..." he said leaning back in his chair slowly. His eyes went to Brian and saw he was waiting for him to bring it up but he wasn't about to. That was his little secret, the one thing he would keep with him as long as he could. He gave Bri a look to keep quiet. Seeing the half-pleading look Nick shot him Bri shook his head slightly, showing Nick his disapproval. Why wouldn't he just tell them what he'd done? Going to see Lou wasn't such a bad thing.

"What happened?"

"Wanted to know if he had any real reasons I should sign his contract. He didn't have any..."

"So it was useless." Kevin said.

Nick sighed, fixing his gaze on Kevin. "No it wasn't useless."

"Seems that way to me."

Ty sat in the waiting area, drinking her water as she listened to the meeting continue on. Esha and she had taken a walk down the block for a few minutes to clear her mind and get some air. "Feeling any better?" E asked concerned as she sat down in front of her. She shrugged, "Little bit. Don't have the urge to file for divorce quite so strongly."

"That's good."

"Is it?" she looked up and sighed. "I thought we were over this. I mean I thought with Lou...it just seemed that should of been the end of everything."

"I thought that way too...evidently this situation has a life of its own."

Ty smiled a little, "Yeah I'm starting to wish it didn't."

"Your losing control fast." Shan whispered to David and he nodded.

"Okay people up here." He said bringing their attention to him. He held up the legal pad Ty had found. "Right here is Lou's notepad, filled with every little detail on what's been going on before you were brought into this and all the way up to what I figure would of been Lou's disappearance in a few weeks courtesy of his Swiss bank accounts."

"What are you talking about?" Brian asked, suddenly very interested.

"This is big guys," David said, "The FBI is involved with this."

Nick paled. "What do you mean?"

"On this notepad Lou's written down a whole pile of information and on the very back, stuck to the cardboard was a phone number to an Agent Walker. I made a phone call, now they didn't give me the whole story apparently they're reserving that for the five of you." he said giving them men a quick look, "But Lou was apparently helping them out on some sort of investigation..."

Bri gave Nick an almost frantic look which David caught. "Something going on fellas?"

Nick cleared his throat, "Not exactly."

"Are they checking into Lou's death?" Bri questioned.

"As Lis knows and so do a few others, yes they are. Apparently they're not buying the natural causes. And after reading through this I can see why. If you want to flip through it you can, just be careful not to rip the pages out the FBI wants to see this when you all go down there." he said handing the legal pad to AJ.

"When we what?"

"They want to talk to you...I guess they decided I'm their link to you so they asked if I could set up a meeting for sometime tomorrow, which is why I wanted to brief you this afternoon and get everything out in the open. Don't want any surprises to come out..."

Brian coughed and Nick groaned.

"Okay what is going on with you two?" Shan asked.

"Ask Nick, he's the one with the secret."

"What secret?" Lis asked.

Brian looked over at his friend, "How about the second one meeting?"

"What are you talking about Bri?" Lis asked, "Nick was only there once and that was in the morning. Right Nick?"

"I did go in the morning..."

"See!"

"But I uh..." he glanced at his wife. "Lissy I did go back and see Lou...you were asleep and I uhm..."

David leaned against the table, "When did you go back?"

Nick looked up at him, "It was later, like seven...I dunno exactly. We came back to the house at five, she went upstairs I watched ESPN till I cooled down and went upstairs. She was asleep so I...I thought I'd go out...drive around a little...ended up at TransCon..."

"You went to his office after you bitched me out??" she asked in shock. "You lied to me!! I asked you that constantly the other day and you said no..."

"Lissy..."

"Was he alive when you were there?" AJ asked.

Nick nodded, putting his hand on his wife's arm but she pulled her arm away. "He was typical Lou what can I say?"

"Typical Lou all right." Kevin said, leaning back in his chair.

Everyone began talking at once and David shook his head, he was losing control of the meeting and fast. "Everyone shut up!!" he yelled.

"What the hell is going on..." AJ asked, his eyes scanning the table. "Nick went back, so what? I don't see the big deal."

"Thank you." Nick said, giving J a quick smile.

Lis walked out of the conference room, digging through her purse for some money for the vending machine down the hall. Seeing Ty and E sitting in the waiting room she headed over. "Hey how are you?" she asked, taking a seat.

"A little better then I was in there."

"That's good."

"What are you doing out here?" E asked.

"Need air. They're all going through Lou's notes and the contract we had him sign. David's going to let them listen to the tape if they want."

"What went on with Nick? We heard some pretty heated voices..."

She sighed, "Nick apparently went back and talked to Lou...you heard the commotion that little revelation caused."

"That's why you need air."

Lis nodded, "Yeah. I need to figure out why he told Brian the truth but lied to me..."

E glanced at the door as Alec walked out, "Looks like the waiting room is going to be pretty crowded soon."

"I'm going to grab a drink. You guys want anything?" asked Lis as she got to her feet."

"No we're okay."

"All right, see you in awhile."

Alec sat down where Lis had been sitting. "I'm going to have a killer headache when this is over, I just know it."

"We all will."

*****

Sitting next to Nick, David watched him flip through the contracts. "I want to talk to you later."

He lifted his gaze from the contract, "Why?"

"Just to go over what happened between you and Lou."

He sighed, closing the papers and sliding them down the table to Kevin. "Nothing happened. I told him what I needed to say, he told me what he did and I stormed off. Typical meeting with Lou. He got under my skin and I didn't get under his." he shrugged.

"If you don't mind though I wanna hear the details..."

Nick let out a deep breath, "Why the hell not?" he surveyed the room. "Where'd Lis go?"

"Probably went to get some air." David answered. Nick chewed his lip as he tapped the table anxiously. "Go find her..."

"Yeah?"

"Yeah go..."

*****

Shan found Lis walking the hallway munching on a bag of chips as she looked for a bench to sit down. "Hey you."

Lis gave her friend a small smile. "Hey. David end the meeting all ready?"

"The guys were all listening to the tape and reading when I left. I don't need to relive that meeting." she handed her a drink and pointed to a bench near the elevators. "So you took off pretty quick."

She popped the top and took a long sip before answering. "Didn't feel like staying in there. It was kinda getting to me."

"Understandable."

Nick heard his wife's voice and rounded the corner coming face to face with her and Shan talking away. Clearing his throat they both looked up at him.

Shan slowly stood up, "Might as well find Brian I guess. David going to let us leave soon?"

"Probably." Nick replied, stuffing his hands in his jeans pockets. "Bri said something about dinner later..."

"Okay...Lis I'll see you later okay?"

"Okay." she watched her friend walk off then glanced at her husband. "So were you looking for me or get lost on the way to the elevators?"

He sat beside her, "I was looking for you."

"Why? Realize there was something else you forgot to mention?"

He groaned, "Damnit Lissy..."

"No don't damnit Lissy me!" she said shaking her head. "Do you know that Lou tried to push us apart by making our entire life seem like a lie??

*****

Taking off the headphones, Howie turned the tape off and looked up to find he was one of the few remaining in the room, only David and AJ remained whispering in the corner over Lou's papers. Getting to his feet he picked up the tape recorder and walked over.

David glanced up as he saw D nearing them, "Listened to the whole thing?"

D nodded, handing it over to him. "Yeah...man..."

"Your wives have a hell of a lot of guts to do that."

AJ grinned, "Have to don't they? They put up with us."

D smiled a reluctant smile, "That's the truth." he peeked out the door where Kevin and Brian sat talking with a few of the wives sitting out there. "Did you book the meeting yet?"

"Actually E's on the phone right now...I can go check and see if she's still on hold. You can leave if you wanted, I'll call you all as soon as I know something."

The two former Backstreeters looked at one another, "Actually I think we'll stick around."

"All right. Be back." David left the room and AJ went over and sat on the conference table.

"Don't give me that look J."

AJ laughed, "What look?"

"The 'your messing with your life' look. I've seen it too many times to count..."

"Sorry but you should go talk to Ty. That little outburst..."

"What it was unfounded?? Come on J..."

"You didn't need to do it that way man. Its over and done with, nothing happened, they did what they set out to do and I'm damn proud of the five of them. You should be too. Hell if Lou was alive the five of us would be free right now."

"So you don't care that Jenn kept this from you?"

"Hey I kept a lot of things from her during this whole deal..."