Nick stared down at the mass of blonde hair that was spread on his chest. In his arms, cradled protectively, was Leigh’s sleeping form. He breathed in, and exhaled softly, attempting not to wake this beautiful creature. His mind wandered to the previous night, and the passion that he had shared with her. It almost scared Nick as to the intensity of what he felt when she was nearby, or when he was making love to her. Leigh made him feel things that he had never felt with any woman before. Nick brushed a few of the strands of hair that had fallen across her face, revealing her peacefully closed eyelids. He recollected how the eyes that they now hid had connected with his, and in an instant Nick was made whole. It didn’t matter at that moment whose body he was in; their souls were the most important thing that had joined last night.

Leigh began to gain consciousness, and almost immediately felt the soft gaze that Nick held her in. It was the most intoxicating feeling she had ever experienced, and Leigh wanted to savor it.

Nick noticed her eyelids flutter slightly before, one again, Leigh’s eyes ascended toward his, and they met. Words were spoken without speech; words of confusion and understanding, and forgiveness and nervousness passed back and forth between the blue and gold-speckled orbs. Gently, Nick lowered his head and brushed his lips against her forehead. “Are you all right?”

“I’m—I’m fine. I just…I have to get…I just…I have to go Nick.” Leigh’s trembling voice matched the movement of her body, which was now shaking like a leaf in autumn. She pulled her large tee over her head, and gathered her shorts, bra and underwear in her arms, along with one of the hotel sheets, which had been accidentally pushed to the floor the previous night.

As she reached the door to the adjourning room, Nick’s voice stopped her dead in her tracks. “Leigh?”

“Yeah?” Leigh turned slowly and saw him sitting up on the bed, glancing between her form, the door that she was about to exit through, and his hands.

“You don’t…regret it, do you?” His eyes stayed focused on her now.

Leigh didn’t answer for a long time. She was remembering. Remembering how nice it felt to be held by him, how his breath sent shivers down her spine. How his kisses left her unable to think clearly, and how he looked at her as their bodies were joined. No, she didn’t regret it…but she was confused. Leigh knew that cheating on Justin wasn’t something she ever planned on doing, because she vowed that she would never hurt her best friend in any way. And yet, here she was, contemplating the touch of another man—for he was another man to her now. He was no longer a stranger in Justin’s body. He was Nick. “Nick, I--,”

Nick smiled warmly at her. He saw his answer in her eyes; there was no need for her to vocalize it. “I understand.”

Leigh gave him a very small smile before proceeding out the door, and into her room. When it was shut behind her, Leigh threw the bundle that had been held tightly to her previously onto the floor. The sheet seemed to unfold itself slightly, and a small hotel pad fell out. She had inadvertently picked up both the sheet and the notepad in her rush to get out from under Nick’s glances.

Curiosity getting the better of her, Leigh picked up the pad and began to read. As she skimmed the hastily scratched handwriting, she noticed a number written boldly in the middle of the page. Under the number were the words “Marriot Marquee Paris—Justin’s hotel.” Leigh gulped, but she knew that she needed Justin to get through this situation. She had already proven how ineffective she was of being strong and confident without his presence. He had always been her rock, since a time when they weren’t even old enough to realize how much the other’s friendship really meant.

Tentatively, Leigh walked over to the bed, and pulled her purse into her lap. She unzipped it, reached inside, and extracted her cellular phone. For a minute or so, Leigh turned the black piece of plastic in her hands, still thinking whether or not to involve Justin. She wasn’t at all sure that it was fair to him to throw her problems on top of the ones he was already facing on his own. Despite these thoughts, Leigh’s fingers dialed the long phone number, and hit the send button. It took a few minutes, but then the shrill ringing began pulsating into her ear.

Justin threw his body on the bed, racked with laughter. Alicia stood by the door with her arms crossed against her chest. She was trying to look upset, but she failed in stopping the smile that crept onto her face as she watched Justin try to catch his breath.

“It wasn’t that funny Justin!”

That brought on another round of chuckling from Justin. “I—can’t—believe—you just DID that!”

“What?” The incredulous look that Al was going for completely crumbled and it took all of her self-control not to laugh right along with him. “How was I supposed to know that woman didn’t speak English.”

“Al, we are in FRANCE!”

That was all it took for them both to collapse on the bed again. Justin started to tickle Al, and she squirmed to get away from his hands. Every time she tried to wiggle out of his grasp, Justin pulled her tighter to him and continued to tickle. Alicia sighed and resigned herself to being groped until Justin got tired of it. She looked up into his face, and tried to keep a bored expression on hers. But, that all changed when Justin looked down into her green eyes. They were as lost as they had been that afternoon on the bridge. Justin lifted his head up to capture her lips, but the ringing of the phone broke his concentration. When he looked at Al again, she made a cute, silly face and he smiled at her. Reaching to the nightstand, Justin took the phone off the cradle.

“Hello.” There was no answer on the other end. Probably some French fan who had gotten Nick’s hotel room number. “Hello?”

“Justin?” The voice that he knew so well cracked and came through the phone.

“Leigh?”

Justin saying her name was all it took for Leigh to break down. It was ultimate confirmation for her that this was reality.

“Leigh, sweetie, what’s wrong?”

“Everything, Justin. I managed to mess everything up,” she said through her sobs.

“Take a few deep breaths for me and calm down, all right?” Once he heard her comply, he continued. “Leigh, you need to stay strong. I know that this is confusing for you…it is confusing for all of us. But we need to stay focused and help each other out. OK?”

“But, how can I be strong without you Jus?”

“Leigh, you are the strongest person I have ever known. And we need that strength. We need you. Nick needs you.” Justin said firmly, but gently.

“I’m so confused. Justin, I…we…”

“I know about that Leigh. It’s OK. I don’t blame either of you. You didn’t know, and Nick wasn’t sure what he could do.”

“But, that’s just it. We…I went into his room last night.”

This was a bit of a shock to Justin. “What? After you knew? Why?”

“Justin please, don’t be mad. Please, I just…I had to know.”

Any small bit of anger Justin held melted away. “Know what sweetie?”

“I don’t know. I can’t explain it. Oh Jus, I am a mess here. I don’t know if I can do this.”

“You are gonna be fine. But, Nick can’t do this without you. He needs you to teach him the dances. Can you do that for me? For him?”

“I’ll—I’ll try Justin.” Nick popped his head into the room a few seconds later and Leigh looked up at him. “He’s right here, do you want to talk to him?” she asked into the phone.

Nick began to furiously shake his head ‘no’. He didn’t want to be put on the spot with questions he wasn’t in the mood to answer. Nevertheless, Leigh pulled the phone away from her ear and held it out to him. After she rid her face of a few stray tears, she whispered, “It’s Justin.”

Nick walked over to her and retrieved the phone. “Justin? What’s up?”

Without even so much as a hello, Justin replied, “Nick, be careful with her. She is confused and vulnerable right now. And if you hurt her in any way, there will be one less member of the Backstreet Boys or Nsync, depending on whose body you are in when I kill you, got it?”

“I could never do something like that Justin.” Nick focused on Leigh, who was staring blankly out the window of the room, to the streets of LA below.

The tenderness in Nick’s voice caused Justin to stop for a second. It was so sincere that Justin felt he could trust him. “OK, I think that we have a solution. We need to get together, face to face, and figure out what exactly we are going to do about this, and how we switch back.”

Nick spoke. “I think it has something to do with the writing on the back to those medallions.”

“Right, I was thinking that, too,” Justin said. “I heard Kevin say that you guys are scheduled to record in NY in 3 days,” he imparted, referring to the BSB. “And, I know that we have an performance on TRL for that day, and then some more publicity stuff before our next set of shows there.”

“So, you want to meet in the city?”

“Yeah. There is a Chinese restaurant there that JC loves. Ask him where it is, and meet me there. I know how to get there, but I can’t remember what streets it is on for the life of me. Now I should probably let you go. You and Leigh have a lot of choreography to go over, and not much time to do it.” Justin sighed as Al began to rub his shoulders. He had almost forgotten she was in the room.

“OK. I will talk to you later then, sometime before we meet.”

“Wait, Nick? Alicia is right here, do you want to talk to her?”

“Yeah, put the girl on.” Nick smiled.

Al grabbed the phone from Justin. “Hey Nickstar!”

“Hey Al. How’s it going over there? You showing Justin the ropes.”

She laughed. “Yup, that’s my job. But, actually, I’m just being my crazy self and looking like a fool.”

“As usual,” Nick laughed.

“Hey! Naw, actually, you are probably right. How are you doing? This whole thing is really strange, huh?” Al could tell that Nick was trying to be brave for her, but she wasn’t going to press the issue and make him upset.

“Yeah, it certainly is,” Nick sighed still watching Leigh.

Alicia was just finishing up massaging Justin’s shoulders, and he got up and made his way to the bathroom. She watched him cross the room, until the door closed, blocking her view. “It certainly is.”

Nick tired to lighten the mood, considering they were both off in their own little dream worlds. "Now, Al, remember, just 'cause I'm not in it doesn’t mean you can do whatever you want to my body."

"Oh, in your dreams Carter!" A twinkle appeared in her eyes and she pretended to muffle the mouthpiece of the phone. In a sing-song voice she said, "Hey Just, that blowjob I promised you is off! Nick said I can't touch his body!"

Nick laughed. “Always the smartass.”

“That’s me.”

“OK, well, I have to go learn some dances now, but I will be sure to talk to you later, OK?” Nick said.

“Sure thing Nickstar. Keep your chin up, OK? We will all get through this mess somehow.”

“Thanks Al.” Nick pushed the end button and terminated the call.

Justin walked out of the bathroom with a sly smile on his face, just as Alicia was putting the phone back on the hook. “What’s this I hear about a blowjob?” A second later, he had to duck from the pillow that went whizzing past his head. Laughter filled the room once again.

**note from the author-as is probably evident to all of you that have been following this story for a while that I have been having some difficulty (writer's block if you will) the only way that I can imagine getting past that is if all of you out there who enjoy this story line give me your ideas, comments, and suggestions. please send your feedback to she_got_game33@hotmail.com and help me out. otherwise, the frustration that I am experiencing may cause me to take this story down. thanks a bunch. PL&DP-*symone*