Three hours later, Steph woke up. When she opened her eyes the first thing she saw was Justin, sleeping, but holding her tight. She didn't want to wake him so she just layed her head back down on his shoulder. She reached across him and grabbed his free hand. She locked her fingers with his and closed her eyes. To her surprise, a few seconds later he gave her hand a light squeeze. She picked up her head to see Justin smiling.

"Hey," she said.

"Hey, you ok?" he said, almost whispering.

"Yeah, thanks to you," she returned in a whisper.

"Don't thank me, I didn't do anything."

"Yes, you probably saved my life." She looked at him and he had a very confused look on his face. "Justin, in the last week I've lost all of my immediate family, Dan was my only sibling. I didn't think life could go on for me, and when I saw him dead I could've very easily taken that gun and killed myself. If you hadn't held me, listened to me, let me stay here, I probably would've gone off and committed suicide."

"Well, I don't know what to say, other than that I'm only trying to be a friend to you, and that I don't know what I would have done if you had killed yourself." She smiled at him and rested her head back on his shoulder, still having her fingers entwined with his.

"Do you want something to eat?" Justin asked, breaking the silence.

"I don't know, what time is it?"

"He glanced at his watch then replied, "6:40, I can make you dinner if ya want." When he said that Steph let out a light laugh. "What?"

"Nothing, you're just so sweet."

"Sweeeeeeeeeeeeeet Emooooootionnnnnnnnssssss," he began to sing the famous Aerosmith song.

"Hey, you have a pretty good voice! Did you ever think about singing professionally?" Steph asked, still not knowing he was from ‘N Sync.

"Ahh, well, yeah, I've um thought about it," he lied.

"You should, you are really good at it!"

"Thanks. So do you want some dinner or what?"

"Yeah, sure!"

"Ok, what do ya want?"

"Anything you have is fine with me."

"Geez girl, it's ok, anything you want, I'll get it for ya, even if I don't have it in the house, I'll go out and buy it." This made Steph smile, glad that she had met Justin, but wondering what she had done to deserve someone as nice as him.

"Fine, how bout some…..mac and cheese? You gotta have that."

"I'm the masta at making that stuff!"

"Oh, whatever!" she said and they both got up off the couch.

"Ah, ah ah, what are you doing?" He asked when she followed him to the kitchen.

"Helping you, why?"

"No, no, you are the guest and I need no help making my mac and cheese. I can make that with my eyes closed!"

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Later that night:

"I'm getting tired, do you mind if I go to bed?" Steph asked around 11 pm after they had watched the movie Scream.

"Yeah, sure, come on, I guess I'll go to bed too." Steph followed Justin down a hall and he opened the door to his bedroom. "You can sleep in here."

"Well, where are you sleeping?" He shrugged his shoulders before answering.

"I guess on the couch."

"You can sleep in here, I don't mind, really."

"You sure?"

"Yes! I mean, it's not like we're gonna do anything, at least I don't think we will."

"All right, fine, I'll go change, you can change in there." He pointed to the bathroom attached to his room and walked to the bathroom across the hall. He put on boxers and a wife beater. Usually he didn't wear a shirt to bed but he didn't want to make her feel uncomfortable. He walked back in his room and froze at the sight in front of him. She had on pants and a night shirt, and was laying in his bed with about 15 stuffed animals around her.

"What? They're only stuffed animals! I sleep with them every night!" He gave a little laugh and walked over to the bed. He got in on the other side next to her, but barely fit because of how many animals there were. "Here, I'll put them next to the bed, but I gotta keep this guy, he's my cuddle bear at night.," she said as she grabbed a brown teddy bear. "Dan gave this to me for my 6th birthday."

"Oh, I'm sorry, Steph."

"There's nothing to be sorry about. He's gone, I'll just have to move on with my life." They laid in silence for a few minutes, Justin thinking of Steph, Steph thinking of Justin and Dan. "Well, good night Justin, thanks."

"Good night, and you are very welcome." He reached over and shut off the lights, then laid back down and went to sleep.

Around 3 am Justin woke up to find that Steph had rolled over into him, and her head was burried in his chest. He put an arm around her waist and slowly drifted back off to sleep.

At 9 am Steph woke up, glad to find herself in Justin's arms. She knew she was beginning to really like him, and she was pretty sure he liked her at least a little bit. She leaned her head up and kissed the bottom of his chin, which woke him up.

"Well, good morning to you too!" he said, aware she had kissed him. "How'd ya sleep?"

"Good, you?"

"Good. What happened to Mr. Snuggle Bear?" He asked, noticing he wasn't on the bed anymore.

"I found a new one," she claimed, smiling mischievously.

"Hmm, interesting, that new one is a pretty lucky guy- I mean animal!"

"And I'm one very lucky girl!"

"Well, I'm glad, I mean, the new Mr. Snuggle bear is glad that you feel that way! And you are gonna stay right here while I go do something, ok?"

"Ok, Mr. Bear, but you better come back!"

"How could I not?" and with that, he left. Steph turned on his radio which was on a table next to the bed. She put on the radio station he last had it on, and listened very closely to the song.

She had heard this song once before, and she loved it. She didn't know who it was by, but she really liked the guy's voice. She turned it up, loud enough for probably the whole street to hear. She thought the guy sounded like Justin a lot, but she didn't think anything of it. Just as the chorus was supposed to start, Justin ran into the room.

"Uh, why are you listening to this?"

"Because I like this song!"

"Oh yeah? Well, they're gonna be in town tonight, and I have some pretty good connections, do you wanna go?"

"Tonight?"

"Yep."

"SURE!!!!"

"Ok, let me go make some calls and see what I can do, but you still gotta stay here, I'm still making you somethin'."

"OK," she replied sa Justin left the room.

About 10 minutes later, he came back with a tray of food. She was still in bed so he went over and put the tray on her lap. On it was a glass of orange juice, a piece of toast, and three chocolate chip pancakes.

"Oh, thanks! You remembered," she said, referring to the pancakes.

"Yep, and I made those calls. The concert starts at 7:30, doors open at 6, but we have to got at 5:30 because I got you some backstage passes so you can meet the guys. AND you have front row seats."

"Ahh! Thank you soooo much!" She moved the tray to the side and jumped up and hugged him.

"No problem, we'll have fun." She finished eating her breakfast, and then jumped in the shower to get ready for the concert.

Meanwhile, Justin was down stairs preparing the surprise for Steph. She didn't know Justin was in this group, and he really wanted to make tonight special. He dialed JC Chasez's cell number, trying to get this set up.

"Hello?"

"Hey, JC."

"What's up Curly?"

"Well, I met this girl and she's staying at my house and"

"What!?!"

"No, don't worry, it's a long story and I don't have time to explain right now. Anyway, she doesn't know I'm in the group and I'm bringing her to meet us today, and surprising her onstage. When I bring her back to meet you, don't act like I'm in the group, just act like I'm friends with y'all, ok? I'll handle the rest."

"Gotcha."

"Thanks, man."

"No prob, bye."

"Peace."

Chapter 4