The buses pulled up behind the hotel around 11:00, they had run into a ton of construction coming into New York, the trip had taken much longer then they had counted on, so when they stopped, most people were asleep in their bunks. Lance stretched, and ran a hand over his face. He got up, pulled on his shoes and looked out the window. They had managed to get in without being noticed, but that wouldn’t last long, they needed to get inside, fast. He glanced back at Stasia’s bus, he didn’t see much movement, ‘She’s probably trying to get her stuff together, with no help.’ He grabbed his backpack, and computer bag, climbed off his bus, and onto Stasia’s. He was met with silence. “Ana...crap...Stasia?”

There was no answer. He walked to the living area, and stuck his head through the door. Stasia was curled up on her side on the couch. Jake was laying in a ball, with her arm holding him against her chest. His little head was nestled under her chin, and they were breathing in unison. There was an open book laying beside her head, and a pair of reading glasses was resting gently in her partially open hand. Her ever present ponytail was laying across her cheek, and she was still wearing his sweatshirt. “Stasia.” Lance whispered.

Jake lifted his head a little, looked at Lance, and settled back into his warm little ball. Lance laughed, “You are both going to be stubborn?” He walked over and crouched down next to the couch. He took the reading glasses from her hand, put the in the case that was on the table near her head, closed the book, then tossed the book and glasses case into the bag on the floor by his feet. He pulled her ponytail off of her cheek, and she stirred a little. “Stasia, we’re here.”

Her eyelashes fluttered open, just a crack. “Hi Lance.” Her eyes closed again, then suddenly snapped open. “LANCE!”

“Hey. We’re at the hotel, and we better get inside before we get spotted out here. These buses aren’t exactly easy to hide.”

She sat up, and Jake grunted at her. “Hush! Don’t you whine at me.” He opened one eye, and made another grunting noise. “Up and at ‘em brat!” She scooped him up, kissed the top of his head then set him on the floor. He shook his body, and the tried to crawl into his bunk. “Lance, grab him please, he is trying to get to his bed.” Lance bent down and grabbed Jake who settled into his arms, resting his head on Lance’s shoulder. Stasia stood and stretched, yawning. “Have we been here long?”

“Only a few minutes. Are you ready to go in?”

She picked up the bag from the floor, and looked at him curiously, “I swear I was reading.” She rubbed the bridge of her nose.

“You were, I put your glasses and you book in your bag while I was trying to wake you up.” He continued to pet Jake with long strokes.

“Oh, thanks. I just need to grab Jake’s bag, and I’m ready.”

Diane and Lance had thought of everything, there was a bag packed for Jake, it had spare dishes, food, treats, toys and a baby blanket. She got the bag from under Jake’s bunk and put it on her shoulder. “I’ll take him from you.”

He looked down at Jake who was already sleeping again, “He’s fine, I’ll carry him, I have a feeling if we wake him up again, he’s going to keep all of us up tonight.”

“You are probably right, thanks.”

They got off of the bus and stood there waiting for security to give them the go ahead to enter the building. Chris walked over, looking sleepy, with a dog under each arm. JC was leaning against his bus, yawning every few minutes. Justin was supervising his luggage being pulled from the compartments under the bus, and Joey was talking quietly to Dre. Stasia and Lance were trying to decide on a time for their daily meeting, when they heard a high-pitched scream. “OH MY GOOOOD! IT’S N SYNC!” All of their heads snapped towards the screaming, and before they knew it, teenaged girls were running around the corner of the building.

Dre put his hand on Joey’s shoulder and pushed him closer to the rest of the group. “Inside. NOW!” Everyone obeyed, since Dre was the only member of security outside at the moment, and he couldn’t control the situation if the group got much larger.

Busta started trying to squirm out of Chris’s arms as he made his way towards the building. Just as he was about to fall out of Chris’s grasp, Stasia scooped him up and held him tightly against her chest. “And just where do you think you are going?” She kissed him, and he barked once at her.

“Thanks Stasia, I was just about to lose him.”

“Well, my hands were free since Lance has Jake.” They were all standing, crowded in a service entrance. Busta barked at her again, which caused Jake and Korea to both wake up. The three of them were worked up at all of the noise outside the door. Lance set Jake on the floor next to Korea, and Stasia set Busta down as well. The three of them, lined up and growled at the door. “Get a load of these three.” Stasia had to laugh at the three tiny dogs, trying to protect the entire group.

Lonnie, Jay and the rest of the security team walked into the already cramped space. They handed out keycards and lead the way to the service elevator. Stasia, Lance Chris were standing with Lonnie and Dre, waiting for the elevator to return for them when Chris said, “Hey Stay-a, does Jake need to go out before we go upstairs?”

“Stay-a? Have you been hanging out with Steven? Um...yeah he should go out again. You can’t go out there though, I’ll take the three of them.” She reached for the leashes from Chris.

“What makes you think we are going to let you go out there alone?” Lonnie looked at her. “I’m telling you, this tour is going to be a traveling circus!” He rolled his eye jokingly, took all three leashes and walked out the back door. As soon as the door opened, the screaming got louder. He stuck his head back through the door and asked, “Which rooms did we put you pain in the butt dog owners in?”

“717" Stasia ran over and kissed Lonnie’s cheek. “Thank you so much Lonnie.”

“719" Chris ran over and tried to kiss Lonnie’s other cheek, but Lonnie’s huge hand landed right in the middle of Chris’s face stopping him.

“Those lips touch me, and they will never sing another song.”

“Okay...okay...no kissing...got it!” Lonnie let go of his face and went back out the door.

They rode the elevator up to the seventh floor, and as they were getting out of the elevator, Justin was waiting for them. “Hey Stasia, I had a thought. You run right?”

“Jake and I run every morning, why?”

“Mind if Jay and I tag along with you?”

“Sure, I plan on going around six...can you be up then?”

Chris and Lance both answered in unison, “NO!”

“Shut up! I’ll be waiting. Six...you’ve got a date.”

“See you then.”

Chris said, “Will not.” under his breath, and Lance tried to stop laughing.

Stasia walked out of her room, at 6:00 am, Jake was dancing around her feet. Justin was leaning against the wall across from her door, his eyes were closed, and Jay was sitting next to him on the floor. “Good morning boys!”

Justin opened one eye, “Morning” Jay simply grunted.

After stretching out a little, they started to run away from the hotel. It was quite a while before Justin said anything, “You do this everyday?”

“Yeah, this is when I do my best thinking, I plan the entire day on my run, plus, Jake would be a huge pain if he didn’t get his run in everyday. Why did you want to come along?”

“I thought it would be good to start the day this way, I need to have a way to vent.”

She looked over at him, his brow was furrowed. “What’s wearing on you? You look like you’ve got something on your mind. Want to talk about it?”

He looked down at her bobbing ponytail and grinned, “That’s a girl thing isn’t it?”

“What is?”

“The whole, ‘want to talk about it’ thing. I could think I’m pulling off the ‘nothing gets to me’ face, and Morgan will call me on it. When she says, ‘want to talk about it’ even if I don’t WANT to, I end up spilling my guts.”

“I was like that with my brother. I could read Noah like a book. The week before he died, we were talking about the guy I was dating, I could tell, just looking at him he HATED Garret, but he was trying so hard to be supportive. It didn’t work. I called him on it, and he laughed, he said his little sister shouldn’t be able to read his mind.”

“Did you break up with the guy?”

“Yeah, about a month ago.”

“Oh...sorry.”

She laughed, “I’m not. Noah was right, as usual. It just took me longer to figure it out. Garret was a jerk. When I got back to Michigan, after Hawaii...I found him in my bed.”

Justin stopped running for a second and looked at her. “In your bed?” He began running again.

“Yeah, apparently, he didn’t understand that when we broke up, it meant he couldn’t let himself into my apartment. I explained it to him again.” She laughed. “I have no idea why I wasted so much time with him. I was a mess after Noah and Nicole died, so I was in no position to figure out my relationship, then I just didn’t want to deal with the aftermath. When he finally said he wanted to break up, I jumped all over that idea. I think he was expecting me to beg him to stay. You should have seen the look on his face when he realized I was moving.”

“Does he know where you are?”

“Nope. I didn’t see why it would concern him.” She smiled up at him. “I like having a running partner.”

“Me too. Right Jay?” He shouted over his shoulder at the man following them.

Jay grunted.

Stasia and Justin both laughed. “So Justin, what’s bugging you?”

“It’s just a conversation Morgan and I had in Hawaii, you know Britney and I are...close, right?”

“I didn’t know that, but I guess it makes sense. Morgan doesn’t like the Britney thing?”

“HA! Not even a little. This is the first time, since I met her in fourth grade, that she has told me she can’t support my decision. She thinks Brit just wants to further her career by being with me.”

“What do you think?”

“I think that nine times out of ten, Morgan is right, but I also think I like being around Brit.”

“But what do you think about Britney’s motivations?”

Justin ran quietly for almost a block before he looked down at her again, “I think Morgan is right.”

“I’m sorry, you and Britney can still be friends, you just need to protect your heart, and if your heart is telling you this isn’t right...LISTEN! I spent more than two years with a guy I knew in my heart was wrong. Trust me here, it was a bad move.”

“Did you pass on guys while you were with him, that you wish you hadn’t?”

“You know what’s funny? I don’t think I did. I don’t think I’ve met Mr. Right yet, but I believe I will eventually.”

“I believe you’re right. Think I will meet Ms. Right?”

“Without a doubt.” They ran for another half hour, stopping at Starbucks to get coffee for the group on their way back to the hotel, Justin assured her that they had a meeting at 7:30, and they guys would love them both forever if they brought coffee.

When they walked into the room set up for the morning meetings, Joey jumped up to collect his cup. He made a comment about the fact that she had hugged him when he was sweaty, then hugged her. “Thank you so much! Justin even got all of our orders right.”

She set the cup Justin had labeled “JC’ down in front of him and he smiled up at her. “I love you, you know that right?”

“I’m flattered.”

Lance was sitting in the corner, quietly talking on his cell phone. She held out the cappuccino she had assured Justin was what he really wanted. He pulled the lid off, and smiled at her, he mouthed, ‘Perfect! Thank you! Justin always orders the wrong thing.’

She smiled and started to turn away, when he caught her arm. She raised an eyebrow at him, and he held up a finger. When he hung up the phone, he ran a hand through his hair then quietly said, “Bill dropped of a check yesterday. It cleared the bank.”

“Well that’s good news.”

“Yeah, but I guess he had a few choice words for all of us. He steals, and gets mad when he gets caught...that makes sense.”

“Nothing about that whole thing made sense. I still can’t believe he said he stole it because he could. I think it goes deeper than that.”

“I think you’re right, but I also think this whole mess is over. I just wanted you to know, we got the money.”

“I’m glad.” She smiled.

“Hey! Stasia.” He stopped her again.

“Yeah?”

“I think this is the first time we have seen you in sweats.” He laughed.

Justin put his arm around her shoulder, “I think you’re right Lance. Does this mean you are getting more comfortable around us?”

“No, it means that I went running and haven’t showered yet. It’s not as if I’m going to wear these clothes all day.”

Justin nudged her, “Can I ask you a personal question?”

She looked at his sly grin and said, “Fire away!”

“Do you even own a pair of jeans?”

“I do, one pair, but my friend Jess borrowed them, and I forgot to get them back.”

He laughed, “You and I are going to have to do a little shopping.”

“Why? Do you need help picking out a pair of khakis?”

They both laughed, and she left them to finish their meeting. She was pulling her sweater on an hour later when there was a knock on her door. Lance was standing there. “Come in. What’s up?” He started to say something when her cell phone rang, “I’m sorry Lance. Hang on a second.” She hit the button, then said, “Hello?”

“Stasia! Thank God I caught you!”

“Jess? What’s wrong?” She sat on the edge of the bed, and frowned at Lance. He sat in the chair at her desk and leaned over to pet Jake. He raised his eyebrow in question. And Stasia shrugged.

“Stasia, it’s your apartment. Your landlord called me this morning at the office.”

“Myrtle called you?” Lance raised his head to look at her, she looked completely confused.

“Who is Myrtle? No, your APARTMENT HERE.”

“Oh, what about it.”

“Someone broke in last night, they trashed the place. Well, there was nothing there, so they spray painted all over the living room wall.”

“The living room wall? What did they paint?”

“In big huge black letters it says, ANASTASIA, WHERE ARE YOU”

“Anastasia where are you? What the heck does that mean?”

“I think it means a freak is looking for you.”

“Jess, I’m sure there is no freak looking for me. It is probably Garret’s stupid idea of a joke, I wouldn’t put this past him.”

“Oh, I never thought of that. I just wanted to make sure you knew. You should still call, old what’s his name...the landlord guy.”

“I’ll call Dennis right now. Thanks for calling Jess. I love you.” She turned off her phone, and looked up at Lance, “That is weird.”

“What?”

“My old apartment in Michigan was vandalized last night.”

“Was anyone hurt?”

“No, it’s still empty. But it was my fault.”

“Why is it your fault?”

“They spray painted ‘Anastasia where are you’ in big black letters on the living room wall.” She looked a little frightened.

“Stasia, you are safe, think about all of the security we have with us. Not to mention the fact that this person has no idea where you are now, or they wouldn’t have gone to your apartment in Michigan.”

“Oh, you’re right. Can you wait for a minute while I call my old landlord?”

“Sure.”

Stasia called Dennis, and made him promise to send her the bill for painting the apartment, and for changing all of the locks. She also made sure he filed a police report, and that if he had any other problems he could reach her directly. When she hung up the phone Lance looked at her strangely.

“What?”

“You don’t need this job do you?”

“Need it in the sense of needing it to support myself?”

“Yeah, that’s what I mean.”

“No, I don’t need this job. Sadly, I have enough life insurance money to take care of myself very comfortably for a very long time.”

“Then why are you doing this?”

“Because I want to. I look at this as a challenge, I think I can do a lot of good for Free Lance.”

“I think you’re right. I’m also glad you took the job, otherwise you may have been there last night.”

“Good point. Hey why did you come down here?”

“We have a series of interviews to do today, and I thought you may want to sit in on them, so you can see how it’s done so when you have to take one of our artists to an interview, you’ll know how to run the show. I’d like you to watch the way Johnny and the Jive people handle questions they don’t want us to answer. Some of which will be directly related to you today.”

“To me? Why would there be any more questions about me? We released the information about my job with Free Lance, shouldn’t that keep them quiet?”

“It should, but it won’t. The other reason I want you there is so the press can see we were straight up about you. I think we should have Stacy place a few calls to you while we are being interviewed, to drive the point home.”

“In other words, we are about to make it clear to the press that I am an employee, nothing more.” Her eyes had a dull, flat color, the thought really bothered her for some reason.

“We are going to make it clear that you are an employee, and our FRIEND, nothing more. You don’t have to act any different around us, but Johnny’s ‘no making out in public’ rule still applies.”

When she didn’t laugh, he said, “Stasia, that was a joke.”

“Oh, I know...it just wasn’t funny.” She smirked at him. Her eyes were dancing again. “Are we ready to go then?”

“Yep, get Jake’s leash and we can go.”

“Jake? Are you sure? Won’t he be a distraction?” She frowned.

“No more of a distraction than Busta and Korea, and both of them will be there.” He picked up the bag that he had his mom pack when she put Jake on the plane to Florida.

The three of the made their way down the hall to the elevators where the group was gathering. Chris smiled broadly, “Stay-a, honey...I have a little favor to ask of you.”

“Uh huh? What would that be?”

“While we’re in the room, letting these people pick our brains, will you take the kids out once in a while? Busta still hasn’t gotten over peeing on ‘Rosie’.”

“Of course.”

“You’re a doll.”

“I know.”

They all loaded into vans and were driven to Jive Records, where a conference room was set up with snack foods, drinks, speakerphones, and a lobby full of music journalists, waiting for their turn with N Sync.

Lance settled at the far end of the table, leaving a chair at the very end open, Chris sat next to him, Justin in the center, followed by JC and Joey at the other end of the table. Stasia started to plug in her computer near the back of the room, where there was a couch that Johnny was already sitting on. When Lance saw her settling in there he said, “Hey, sit over here.” Johnny nodded at her when she looked up at him. Then he patted the couch, and the three dogs jumped up next to him, leaving no room for her.

She set her computer down next to Lance and looked a little tentative. He hit the power button for her and said, “Can we look at the contract for Meredith’s appearance at the Mississippi State Fair?” When the computer logged on, he leaned over and whispered, “I think that’s the best picture of Noah and Nicole you have, the one with Jake as a puppy.”

She smiled as she slid on her reading glasses, “Me too. Here you go.” She pulled up the contract, that Jamie had scanned and e-mailed to her. “I have a few problems with it. I’m going to red-line it before we sign.”

“Red-line?” He looked at her.

“Legal speak, I’m going to underline the problems I see with it, and e-mail it back before we agree to sign it, if they agree to the changes, we print it, you sign it, and we’re done. If they don’t agree, I negotiate a better deal with them.”

He smiled, “Can I look at it before you e-mail it back?”

“I wouldn’t send it without your OK, you should already know that.” She looked over her glasses at him.

The first reporter was lead into the room, and sat across the table from the guys, each of whom got up, shook the reporter’s hand and introduced himself. The reporter looked at Stasia, but made no comment. Chris gave her a smile and rolled his eyes. The reporter asked a long series of questions, which the guys answered with no problem. Stasia sat there, next to Lance, reviewing the contract, and highlighting her changes. From time to time Lance would glance over at her progress, and nod, or shake his head, they were already communicating very well, silently. Finally, the reporter couldn’t handle it anymore. “So Lance, can I ask you about Free Lance?”

“Actually, I would prefer we keep the interview about N Sync, and ‘No Strings Attached’, that’s why we’re all here, to discuss the album.”

“OK, can I ask who this is?” He pointed, rather rudely, to Stasia, who just at that moment looked up.

“Sure you can ask, apparently you didn’t read our recent press release, this is Anastasia Blake, from Free Lance Entertainment.”

Stasia stood and shook the reporter’s hand. “Hi.”

“And what do you do at Free Lance?”

Lance cleared his throat, “I’m sorry, but can we please keep this to N Sync and the album? Free Lance is just a side project, my focus is on the group, the album and the upcoming tour right now. Stasia is here to keep Johnny and I in touch with our offices, and artists.”

Johnny stood up and cleared his throat, ‘a lot of throat clearing going on in here’ Stasia thought. “I’m sorry, but your time is up, the guys have another interview ready to start now.” His timing was perfect, because the phone in the middle of the conference table buzzed and the company operator informed their call was waiting. Each of the guys shook the reporter’s hand again and said good-bye.

The interviews went on all morning, Stasia could not believe the questions some people were willing to ask. She didn’t understand why the type of underwear the guys were wearing, had any influence on how well the album was going to do. She had a hard time biting her tongue when a report would ask a stupid question, but the underwear, she couldn’t help but laugh. All five of them turned their head to the end of the table where Stasia was trying to maintain her composure. All five of them, smirked, and answered the question, while looking at Stasia, who was turning darker red with each passing second. She finally just stood up, threw her glasses down on the table,, grabbed the dogs leashes, slapped her hand against her leg. They lined up at her feet, she attached their leashes, and walked out the door without saying a word. After the door closed behind her, they could hear her burst into laughter. Lance motioned for Lonnie, who leaned over next to him. “Can you please go with her?” He whispered.

“Happy to.” Lonnie left the room.

Lonnie found Stasia outside the building, still laughing. “It wasn’t that funny, girl.”

“Are you kidding? Someone had the nerve to ask what kind of underwear they are wearing, and they ANSWERED!” She wiped a tear off of her cheek.

When she and Lonnie quietly walked back into the conference room, the guys were all sitting quietly, and there was no reporter in the room. She raised an eyebrow at Joey and pointed at the speakerphone.

“Nope, you are good to talk, we have a twenty minute break.” Then all five of them stood up at the same time, and she laughed so hard she fell to the ground, there was a steady stream of tears rolling down each of her cheeks. The dogs were all running around, barking. And the five members of N Sync were standing in front of her, in their underwear. Stasia was leaning against the door, gasping for air when it opened and she fell backwards into the hallway, at Johnny’s feet.

Johnny looked down at her, then into the room at the guys, rolled his eyes and sighed, “Oh GOD!” He helped Stasia to her feet, and back into the room, while the guys pulled their pants back up.

She pointed a finger at Lance and said, “I’m telling your momma!” She was still wiping tears away.

“My momma knows what kind of underwear I wear.” He smiled, and buckled his belt. “It was Joe’s idea.”

“Joey, did you REALLY want me to see you in your underwear THAT badly?” Then she looked at all five of them, did you plan that?”

“Well, Yeah! Did you think we all decided on our own to drop our pants and get up in unison?” Chris laughed at her.

“No, I meant the black boxer-briefs. All five of you have on the same underwear.”

They looked at one another and started laughing. “No, that was not part of our plan, Joey just asked if we were all wear clean underwear, without holes.” JC informed her.

“Well thank you for that, Joe.”

The afternoon went basically the same as the morning, an endless parade of reporters, and conference calls with reporters. And each time they were asked about their underwear, they all looked down at Stasia, who didn’t move, she just kept typing away on the contract in front of her, but they all noticed that she blushed a little each time.

At 4:00 the last reporter left the room, Lance had answered questions about Stasia a few times, but basically, the reporters didn’t pay any attention to her. The hype surrounding the new album was huge. And listening to the guys talk about it, she was starting to feel excited for them.

She was laying on her bed, watching TV when there was a knock on her door later that night. “It’s open.”

Justin’s head popped in the door. “Mind some company?”

“No, come on in.”

The door opened the rest of the way, and Justin walked in followed by JC, Joey and Chris who was carrying six pizza boxes.

“Lance is on the phone with Momma Bass, he’ll be down with the drinks when he’s done.”

“What is this all about?” She was completely shocked to see Dani come through the door, with a white box. “DANI! HI!” Stasia jumped off the bed and hugged Dani.

“This is your, welcome to the group, belated Birthday party.” She opened the box to reveal a cake.

Lance walked through the door with and arm load of soda cans, which he dropped down on the second bed. “Hey.”

Justin and Joey pulled wrapped packages from behind their backs and held them out to her. The first package was all of their old albums, even the imports. “There is some frightening stuff on those, don’t hold it against us.” JC smirked.

“OK, I’ll keep that in mind.”

The second box had a keycard for a room down the hall. “What, did you get me an upgrade?”

“Go look.”

She walked out the door, with everyone following her. She got to the room number indicated on the keycard, and slide the card into the slot on the door, when the green light came on, she pushed the door open, and was promptly tackled. Everyone jumped back, when Stasia came crashing into the hallway.

“JESS!”

“STASIA!” She looked up at the people standing around them. “Um...hi.”

They got to their feet, and everyone went back into Stasia’s room. “How on Earth did you get here?” Stasia was looking at Jess in disbelief.

“Well, shortly after I got off the phone with you this morning, he called.” She pointed at Lance, who blushed and nodded his head.

“How did you find her? How did you know? Why did you guys do this?” She was looking around the room at all of the smiling faces.

“I have my connections.” Lance grinned. “OK, so you used her as a reference, I called Momma, got her number, and then I called her. But, this time, it was Justin’s idea, I guess you mentioned missing Jess on your run, and then when I heard about your apartment, I figured that Jess, may want to see for herself the you are OK, and that we aren’t the ones who did the spray painting.”

“Jess...You DIDN’T accuse Lance or the guys of doing it did you?” She leveled an angry look at Jess, who quickly jumped behind Justin and Joey to hide.

“Well, not exactly, I didn’t think they went to Michigan...PERSONALLY...but, I don’t know these guys.”

“Then why would you think we’d protect you from Stasia?” Justin asked, looking over his shoulder at her. “We have quickly learned not to cross her when she’s worked up.” He stepped sideways, and Jess stepped with him.

“Jessica! You get out from behind Justin, and tell me exactly what you said to Lance, and let me tell you up front, if you were rude, I will have to kill you, right here, in front of my new friends.”

Lance interrupted, “She wasn’t rude, she was worried about you, which is understandable.” He walked over to Jess and pulled her by the arm out from behind Justin to face Stasia. Jess plastered a smile on her face.

“Are you sure?” Stasia asked Lance.

“Positive. Now let’s eat.”He leaned down and whispered into Jess’s ear, “You owe me.”

“I know...I know.”

This was the first time the guys and Dani had an opportunity to see Stasia really open up, with someone from outside the group. Watching Stasia and Jess interact, kept everyone laughing all night. They were so sarcastic, at first, everyone was worried that the two of them didn’t actually like one another, but then it became clear that there was a lot of love and affection between Stasia and Jess. Stasia was beaming when she and Jess were telling Dani about Jess’s wedding plans, she was completely thrilled to be maid of honor. Jess was willing to move the date of the wedding if it conflicted with Stasia’s schedule. Lance assured her Stasia could make the date as it was.

JC laughed, very hard when Stasia worked on talking Jess out of having swans at the wedding, and he was amazed that she had kept a promise that was made jokingly. When he had been sitting with Stasia in Hawaii, and she had promised to get rid of the swans in return for the Picachu calls, he didn’t think she’d actually do it. But here she was, paying her debt, explaining to Jess that a bunch of birds waddling around was in no way romantic. Jess bought the idea, and the birds were out. Stasia flashed a look at JC, who was the only person in the room, aware of what she had just accomplished. JC tipped his head in mock admiration. She smiled happily at her accomplishment.

Stasia and Jess decided that the next day, Dani would accompany them to some bridal shops in Manhattan. They were going to have a girl's day out, since the guys would be in the dance studio all day. The entire group was going to meet up for dinner with Dave Holmes and Carson Daly for dinner.

Jess was amazed that she had instantly been included in their plans, solely because she was Stasia’s friend. She was thrilled to see that these were truly good people, who just happened to be famous. They were all going out of their way to make Stasia comfortable, and to show Jess that they were harmless. When Lance had called her that morning, she had been very worried, and she had screamed at him, had she been thinking clearly, she would have realized that none of these people could possibly have anything to do with the vandalism, but she had been frightened for her friend. Lance had listened quietly, and then said that he would send Jive’s jet to pick her up, she should be at the airport in four hours to fly to New York to see Stasia for the weekend. He understood how important Stasia was to Jess, and vice versa, so he wanted them both to be comfortable.

The three girls spent the next day going to every bridal shop they could find. Jess picked out a dress that she was madly in love with, but she was afraid that the price tag was a too high. Jess told the sales girl they would be back after they had lunch to place the order. Stasia had left her bag in the dressing room, so she went back into the shop while Jess and Dani went outside to decide where to go for lunch. While inside Stasia wrote a check for Jess’s dress, if she wanted it, she was going to have it. Stasia knew Jess couldn’t afford it, and neither could her parents. Jess would have wound up not getting the dress, because she couldn’t afford it, now, she had no choice. When she walked out onto the street, Jess and Dani had decided where to go for lunch. After they had eaten Stasia asked Jess if she wanted to go back and place the order for the dress she liked, Jess said she wanted to think about it a little more.

By the end of the day, they had chosen bride’s maid dresses, Jess had chosen a steel gray color, to bring out Stasia’s eyes. She made Stasia promise to wear make-up to the wedding. Dani had promised to help Stasia learn to do her own make-up. When the three women got back to the hotel to get ready for dinner, Stasia followed Jess to her room.

“Jess, I did something today, and I need to tell you about it. Now promise me you will not get mad at me.” She stayed in the open doorway.

“Oh God, what did you do now?”

“I bought the dress.”

“I know, I was with you. I think that color is going to look amazing on you.”

“Um...no...I bought YOUR dress.” She pulled the receipt out of her bag, and handed it to Jess.

Jess looked at the receipt, up at Stasia, down at the receipt and back up at Stasia. “ANASTASIA ELIZABETH BLAKE I’M GOING TO KILL YOU!” Stasia shot out of the door and down the hall, Jess chased after her. Lance had just walked out into the hallway when Jess yelled, so he was standing in the middle of the hallway watching Stasia sprint towards him. Stasia quickly darted behind Lance, who looked completely shocked. Jess was attempting to grab Stasia’s ponytail. “I cannot believe you! Anastasia, you can’t do this to me, I will not let you do this.”

Lance looked at Stasia and asked, “What did you do?”

“I paid for a dress. It’s a gift.”

“Well, that’s not so bad.” He tried to comfort Jess.

“SHE PAID FOR MY $3,500.00 WEDDING DRESS!” Lance turned a little to look at Stasia’s face, she grinned and nodded. It was at that point Jess caught hold of Stasia’s ponytail and dragged her, by the hair, around Lance. “Call them and cancel the order.”

“Ow ow ow ow...NO!”

Lance was trying to pry Jess’s hand out of Stasia’s hair, “Jess, please let go of Stasia’s hair.”

Jess let go and glared at Stasia, “You have gone too far.”

“Why? Why have I gone too far Jess? Because I saw your face light up when you put on that dress? Because you are my best friend, and the closest thing to family I have left in the world, and I want you to have the dress of your dreams when you marry the man of your dreams? Because I can do this for you? Because I WANT to do this for you? Why Jess? Because I love you and want you to have the same light in your eyes the day you marry Brent, that you had today? Why is that so horrible of me?” Stasia stood her ground, and glared right back at Jess. “Please don’t take this away from me, you know how I feel about this money, Jess, please understand why I did this.”

Jess looked at the receipt in her hand, and then at Stasia. “You suck.”

“I know.”

Jess pulled Stasia by the ponytail close to her, then hugged her tightly. “I love you.” She hugged her tighter, “Thank you.”

“Anytime!”

Lance stared at them in amazement, he could not believe the relationship these two had. Stasia had just bought Jess’s wedding dress for her, and Jess had been angry about it, until Stasia softened and pleaded with Jess to let her do this. Lance had seen the exact moment Jess had cracked, he knew that she saw that this was as important to Stasia as it was to her.

Stasia rubbed her head, “You didn’t have to use my full name...twice, and you didn’t have to pull my hair.”

“I got your attention didn’t I?”

“Shut up Jess.” They hugged again, and then noticed Lance standing there smiling at them. “Oh, thanks for your help Lance.”

“It was my pleasure. You guys better start getting ready for dinner, we have to leave soon, wear your party clothes, it should be a fun night.”

“As if she has party clothes.” Jess teased.

“Shut up Jess.” They all went in different directions, to change for dinner.

Stasia decided to wear a black knee length skirt, black turtle neck sweater, Black knee boots with a high heel, and her black leather coat. She laughed at her reflection in the mirror, “I look like I’m going to a trendy funeral.” She pulled her hair into a low ponytail, wrapped a section of hair around the elastic band, pinned it in place, spritzed it with hair spray grabbed her chapstick, a credit card, her ID and her room key. When she walked out into the hall, Jess was talking to Dani, Chris and Lance. “Hi guys.”

“Told you, no party clothes.” Jess grinned evilly at Stasia.

“Nope, not taking the bait.”

“I think she looks fine.” Chris said. “Jake is hanging with the kids and Leslie tonight, right?”

“Yep, Leslie came down and got him a little while ago. He is seriously starting to get spoiled. I can’t believe you took all three of them with you today. Thanks again.”

“Anytime, I enjoyed watching Lonnie freak out while we were rehearsing.”

“Lonnie is going to hate me, I am already a ton of trouble.”

“I don’t hate you at all.” Lonnie walked up behind her, “Out of all of the goofballs, you are the easiest.”

“Thanks Lonnie.”

They rode down to the lobby and Lonnie walked out to the first limo with Stasia, Jess and Dani. The four of them climbed in, the guys followed and got in the next car. There were quite a few fans camped out in front of the hotel, and as usual, when they spotted N Sync the screaming got out of control. As the cars pulled away, fans ran behind, screaming and holding up signs. Stasia thought that she was never going to get used to the hysteria surrounding the men of N Sync. Dani seemed to take it all in stride.

The cars pulled up in front of Gotham Bar and Grill, apparently one of the best restaurants in the city, there was a huge crowd outside. Lonnie got out first, and then followed the three women into the building. When the guys arrived, the crowd got loud, they waved and walked straight in, they were informed that Carson and Dave were already there, waiting. They group was led into a private area, where Carson and Dave were sitting, laughing over something Dave had just said.

Dave and Carson both stood and hugged each of the guys. Lance introduced Stasia and Jess, and pulled out their chairs for them to sit. He had Stasia sit between Carson and Jess, and right across from him.

Lance was watching Stasia talk to Carson, who was immediately taken in by her sweet, funny disposition, when JC leaned over and said, “You’ve been watching her a lot buddy.”

“What? Who?” Lance turned to face him.

“Stasia...Justin was right, she is pretty, I hadn’t really paid attention, but she is.”

“I wasn’t watching her, well I was, but not like that. She works for me, Carson is a very good connection for her to make. Besides, she a little too...conservative. Don’t you think? I have never met someone so preppy.”

“Whatever dude, she’s pretty.”

“Yeah, pretty conservative. Now, drop it.”

JC watched Lance for a minute and then laughed to himself, when Lance’s eyes drifted back over to Stasia. ‘Too conservative for you Lance, I don’t think so.’ He though to himself.