*Author's Warning: I'm not a big fan of vulgar words or cursing in my stories, but there are some circumstances where "oh phooey" just doesn't cut it. If you are easily offended by harsh words or terms that may be a bit controversial, this might not be a chapter you want to read. If you're not bothered by that…rock on! (Yes I've had sugar today.)

Consciousness fought to be recognized while the darkness inside Lauren's mind also clawed at her for dominance. Her eyelids felt like they weighed fifty pounds each, sharp pains streaked across her forehead and around the base of her hairline, and Lauren struggled with trying to escape the vortex of confusion she was sitting in.

At least, she thought she was sitting.

A small fragment of realization entered her confused state and she managed to open her eyes a slight bit before slamming them closed again when light hit her pained eyes. Her forehead furrowed with pain as she raised her stiff neck and pulled her chin away from her chest. It was probably one of the most painful things she had ever done as the muscles screamed out in protest, but finally she managed to hold her head upright. It remained there for a few moments before she groaned and it fell heavily against her left shoulder.

Her tongue slipped between her teeth to wet her dry and cracked lips, and the coppery flavor of blood greeted her. Her teeth raked over her bottom lip and the movement of her sore and bruised jaw caused her to groan again. The pain was enough to remind her that she was no longer unconscious, but it took several moments before the memories of why exactly she was there to begin with dawned to her.

Her head slowly came upright and she fought against the pain of light hitting her eyes to slowly open them and focus on her surroundings. She recognized the huge room immediately and everything looked just like it had when she had left it. Streamers still hung across the ceiling, the lights that hadn't worked before were now glowing warmly, but this time it wasn't the room as much as the situation that was different.

She moved her shoulders to release some of the pressure she felt on her joints, and was shocked to find that her arms were pulled behind her on the chair and were joined together. Her arms were numb from the elbow down, but she pulled against the rope that secured her wrists together anyway. When that proved to be hopeless, she pushed with her legs and found that they were tightly secured together as well.

Her head fell back with a pitiful cry of helplessness, and even she didn't recognize the animalistic twinge to it. She looked down at herself and saw that mud still covered the front of her, and there was a crisscross pattern of scratches up and down her thighs clearly visible through the dirt.

She leaned a little to get a good look at the bindings on her ankles, but the chair was too shaky and off balance for her to see much of anything. When it felt like it was about to tip over, she righted herself and sighed loudly. Her eyes began to burn with tears of pain and fear, but she took several calming breaths to regain her composure. Losing her head and freaking out was going to get her hurt. There was never a more important time for sanity than at that very moment.

Her eyes slid over to the black couch that was to her right and she could feel her bones and muscles begin to shake. Tristan laid there on his stomach, his arms were tied behind his back, his legs were bound as well, his eyes were closed peacefully, and there were bruises already forming on his forehead and cheek. From what she could see of his lip, it was split and bleeding a bit, and there was a long purple-ish mark running across his forehead that ended in a rise that was slowly seeping blood onto the leather of the couch.

She closed her eyes against the sight and found that she couldn't catch her breath as her heart pounded against her ribs. "Tristan…Tristan wake up. Open your eyes. PLEASE open your eyes. Tristan!"

There was no response out of him at all except for the slow rise and fall of his chest as he breathed.

She cried out again with frustration and fear, and pulled as hard as she could against the ropes binding her to the chair. After yanking on them a few more times, she began looking for anything that might aid her plight, but she froze completely still when she looked to her left and spotted Tom sitting casually in a chair a few feet away…watching her.

"Don't concern yourself with getting free, Lauren."

There was no urgency or hesitation in his posture. In fact, he was sitting there looking her over carefully in much the same way he would sit in that same chair and watch a football game on television. One leg was relaxed on top of the other, an elbow was on the side rest, and his arm was bent to bring his hand over to the side of his face. That hand lazily cupped his cheek while his little finger leisurely rubbed back and forth across his lips.

His eyelids were lowered and even though everything about him pointed to relaxation and interest, she could see the hatred he had for her still blazing in his eyes. If it weren't for the fact that he had said something or that slight movement of his finger across his lips, she would wonder if he was asleep with his eyes open. This was not a place she wanted to be and yet for some strange reason she felt like a lion in a cage that he was watching for his amusement alone.

When she began pulling at the ropes again, Tom shook slowly shook his head and spoke softly again. "I said, don't concern yourself with getting free. It's a hopeless task and one that you can just forget about."

Her arms and legs relaxed and she turned to meet his eyes head on. "Untie me."

The corners of his mouth twitched but didn't rise into a full smile. "Oh yeah, I'll get right on that."

She could see that his arm was now bandaged, and the sight of that gave her some strength. It wasn't much, but it was enough to keep her going. "Did something happen to your arm?"

One of his eyebrows raised and he sat up to lean against his thighs. "Nothing happened other than the fact that I realized that you're a lot more dangerous than I gave you credit for."

"You haven't seen anything yet."

"I don't really think that someone in your position should be making threats, Lauren. Need I remind you that I could do just about anything I wanted to right now, and you wouldn't be able to defend yourself?"

"I wasn't talking about me, I was talking about what will happen when Justin gets his hands on you. I'm talking about what will happen when my FATHER gets his hands on you. Not only will Justin rip you a few new assholes, my father will make sure that you're locked away for a very long time in a place where those new ones will be put to good use."

He continued to stare with a slight smile on his face, but she wasn't fooled. Her words had always gotten to him and this would be no exception. "You don't honestly think that THE Justin Timberlake will be allowed into this situation, do you? He's not even allowed to go into public bathrooms without a guard outside the door and one standing inside to make sure that nobody hurts the little baby. Heaven forbid that he should have any misery brought to his life."

He thought about it for a moment and then chuckled. "Please tell me that you're not stupid enough to believe that he will ride in and rescue you. As much as I would love to replace Tristan over there with your one true love…it won't happen. Justin isn't a police officer or even a superhero. He's a stupid nineteen-year-old celebrity who is guarded like Fort Knox. If they won't allow him to be alone, what makes you think that they'll let him come running in here, into a VERY dangerous situation, and all because he wants to save you? Sweetheart…think. You know Mike and you also know that he won't let Justin anywhere near here."

It was true that they would force Justin to stay away for his own safety, and while that comforted her to know that Justin would be safe…it also made her feel like her fate had been sealed in doom. "He'll find me, Tom. He'll find YOU."

He leaned back in the chair and folded his arms across his chest with an arrogant smirk. "You are a constant source of amazement to me, Lauren. Now that I think back on it…you always have been. I must admit that you have intrigued me from the first time I met you six years ago. Even then you…"

"Six years ago? I didn't know you six years ago!"

"You might not have known me, but I definitely knew you. Anyway, even then you were…"

She took a deep breath and raised her voice to interrupt. "What do you mean you knew me six years ago? I would have remembered meeting dogshit that could talk."

It annoyed him to be interrupted, but the disbelief in her eyes intrigued him. "You and Justin used to hang out in the Disney back lot after he finished taping for the day. Every day you rode over with his mother, and while she would talk to the show executives about the next day's taping…you two would play basketball."

Her heart began pounding faster and it had nothing to do with anger this time. "I don't believe you. I don't believe that you were following me around back then and that you have been after us this long. No…no I don't believe it. You're just trying to scare me."

An ugly and terrifying smile stretched across his face. "It was a North Carolina basketball until one day Justin accidentally busted it on the sharp edge of the fence. It was replaced by a black Michael Jordan ball."

She tried so hard to fight the fear that rose up in her throat and tried to suffocate her, but it flowed through her anyway. All of the questions that she had were not only being avoided…they were becoming a reality that was far more scarier than she ever imagined it could be. "You have been stalking us for six years? For six years you have had this obsession with Justin and…"

He held a hand up and interrupted her this time. "Not with Justin. With you, Lauren."

She didn't have time to get stuck on the fear she was feeling because the anger she felt was still continuing to build. It drove her to do and say things that would take her mind off of the terror that threatened to overtake her. "You sick bastard, I was a child! Oh that's right, you have a hangup with children. If memory serves me right, you were married to a child. What's the matter, Tom? You couldn't get a woman to give you the time of day so you got your kicks by manipulating and toying with the emotions of a child?"

"It's not wise to piss me off even more, Lauren."

"Oh that's right, I'm an adult now so you have no use for me. Tell me, when exactly do you lose interest? When puberty ends or when the girl finally gets her period?"

He slowly stood up and his fists balled at his sides. "Your stubbornness is a fault. It always has been. Now it will only get you hurt even more than I already have planned for you. It WILL be your downfall, just like I've always told you it would be. However, I'm not going to let you pull me into an argument or a fight. That will make me weak and there is so much that we have to handle today in such a short amount of time."

"You can't keep me here like this."

"Hmmm, you don't think so?" He started walking towards her and stopped in front of her before shrugging. "I don't know about that one. After all, you're here now and nobody is barging in to stop me. Rest your pretty little head though, as soon as I gather up my things and get things ready, we'll be out of here."

If they left, if they disappeared from this place where someone would think of at some point, then she was as good as dead. "If you were going to kill me, you would have done it by now. You would have done it while I was unconscious."

"What makes you think that I want to kill you?" She turned away and he reached out to grab her chin and jerk her head back around. "I have no need to kill you…you'll handle things all by yourself by the time I'm finished."

Her eyes closed against his words and the trembling inside of her became uncontrollable.

"Aww…you're not going to cry, are you? How heartbreaking would it be for Justin to know that his spunky little pet gave up so easily and was folding so soon? Tisk…tisk."

Her eyelids parted again and she looked up at him through a red hatred-filled haze that blinded her. "He'll get you, Tom."

"THAT'S the look I'm used to! I'm going to let go of your chin and step back before you bite me again. I'm not sure I'll be as nice the second time around." He let go and stepped back before smiling and looking her over closely. There wasn't an inch of her that wasn't missed by his curious eyes. "You really do look like someone…oh I don't know…dragged you through the forest. This look isn't very flattering and I'm going to have to get you cleaned up before…oh look who's awake!"

When she heard him groan, Lauren looked over at Tristan and saw him struggling with the consciousness that she had fought for a few minutes ago.

Tom walked over and kneeled down next to the couch to slap Tristan's exposed cheek. "Wake up sleepyhead, there's so much to do and see."

Tristan cringed against the hard slaps to his bruised cheek and he finally managed to scoot away and open his eyes. "Where…what am I doing here?"

Tom turned back to her and gave her a mocking look of shock. "Oh no! I hope he doesn't have amnesia! It would be simply horrible for you if he suddenly forgot that he's on your side." His eyes darkened with anger and he reached over to fist a handful of Tristan's hair, causing him to groan loudly. "Being on her side is what landed you here, loverboy! ISN'T SHE JUST A PEACH?"

Tristan was trying his best to fight the pain in his head, fight the worse pain that having his hair pulled on caused, and come to grips with what was going on. His breath hissed in and out through his teeth, as did his words. "You're going to fry for this, you bastard."

"After all I've done for the guy, you'd think he'd have more respect than that. Can you believe what he just said to me, Lauren?"

Tristan gritted his teeth even harder against the pain. "You haven't done shit for me. You haven't done anything for anyone beside yourself!"

Tom rolled him off onto the floor where he fell with a loud crash. Lauren could see that Tom was easily nearing his crazy snapping point, and she screamed out when he raised a foot to kick Tristan. "TOM! How did you…how did you know I was in California?"

His foot froze about Tristan as he curled up in a ball below him, and he turned to smile at Lauren. "You want answers? I thought you would be a little more difficult to get my hands on but you surprised me, Lauren. Never in my wildest dreams did I think that you and Justin would be apart, but much to my delighted surprise while I waited in the airport for the flight carrying the guys to come in…you walked out of the terminal alone. I thought that I would have to wait all day for that damn flight from New York to finally decide to take off, but in you walked."

So his plan had been to get her and Justin both, but from the way he talked it sounded like he hadn't followed her to California. His initial idea had been to grab her from the tour. "They'll be here any minute."

"You really need to check flight schedules and the weather channel a little more. It's a great source of information. There's a huge storm covering the East Coast that has delayed all flights out of New York. Last time I checked, their flight hadn't even taken off yet and might be canceled due to weather. Don't worry your pretty little head…we have plenty of time to ourselves here."

"You're trying to scare me and make me think that I'm stuck, but I don't believe one word of this."

He walked back over to her and leaned over to whisper. "You should be scared, Lauren. You should be very scared of me right now."

If what he said was true, everyone who could help her was thousands of miles away. She would have to battle this alone. "What happens now?"

"Now I settle the score a little."

"What score are you talking about? This isn't a game that anyone was trying to play with you! You're pathetic and you always have been. How scared of a person are you to always think that people are out to stab you in the back? Do you know how miserable and IGNORANT that is?"

He grabbed her chin again and his fingers pinched her skin so hard that tears of pain flooded her eyes. "You did destroy me, and you won't get away with it."

If she was going to go down, it wasn't going to be without a fight. "Tell me why we did that, Tom."

His fingers tightened even more. "I don't have to tell you anything."

"Tell me why we succeeded at pulling your entire world apart, and tell me why I enjoyed it so much."

For a moment she thought he was going to hit her, but all he did was stand there and glare down at her. "You enjoyed it?"

"You bet your ass I did. Sometimes the only thing that gave me any comfort was to know that you were going to be groveling at those people's feet and NOBODY would believe what you had to say! It HELPED me sleep at night to think about how you begged and pleaded for them to let you keep your job and your life!"

He gave her chin a little jerk as he released it, and then walked over to grab her bag that he had placed on one of the nearby tables. "She's trying so hard to pull me into a fight so I'll end this quickly, but it won't work because I'm going to enjoy this too much. I've waited TOO LONG for this moment and you're not going to take it away from me, Lauren."

Tristan gave her a look of reassurance, but she could tell that he was just as scared as she was. She was trying her best to make Tom angry and weak, but Tom wasn't one to control his anger once it hit. If he lost it then he would lose it all over her, and he had to somehow find a way to keep Tom focused on him so she wouldn't be hurt. "She has nothing to do with any of this, Tom."

He dropped the bag in a chair in front of Lauren and gave Tristan a curious look. "Oh really? Do tell me this realization you have come to."

"Do you know how selfish and ignorant you are to the people around you? Nobody thinks highly of you, Tom. Nobody ever did and yet the saddest thing was watching you believe that you ran things."

His fists balled again and he took a step towards Tristan. "I did run things."

"You just thought you did, but even the new people around Jive realized what a moron you were. I knew after five minutes of being around you that you were blinded by power that you will NEVER get. You strutted around like you knew everything and like everyone bowed down to you, but you were nothing but a joke to them. They were laughing behind your back the whole time!"

"SHUT UP!"

Lauren figured out what he was doing and quickly shook her head. "Tristan, please don't do this."

He ignored her and continued. "You work off of lies and fear, but how did it feel to know that the people you were trying to scare were really the source of your OWN fear? They terrified you and I think you would die before admitting that. We all saw it, Tom. We all recognized how you walked around in fear of everyone and everything around you, but you were too stupid and blind to see that we all knew your game. You didn't fool a single person…not one."

Lauren screamed and cried out when Tom started kicking Tristan over and over. The blows were so violent and rapid that Tristan's body rocked back and forth against the side of the couch like waves crashing into the beach. The hard heel of his shoe kicked at Tristan's legs, his arms, his stomach, and Lauren cried out even louder when she heard the unmistakable sound of a rib being cracked.

Then there was silence, and Lauren tucked her chin into her opposite shoulder to keep from looking at them. Tom was breathing heavily in anger while Tristan groaned softly in pain and coughed through the breathlessness that had been forcefully induced into his body.

"I thought you had more sense than this, Tristan. The next time you try to pull me into a fight with your hateful words, my foot will forget the lower regions and go straight for your mouth."

He pulled out a huge roll of ducttape from a drawer across the room and wrapped the tape tightly around Tristan's mouth. After kicking him one last time for good measure, he walked back over to Lauren and sitting down in a chair directly in front of her. Her bag was in his lap and his eyes rolled dramatically as he reached out and turned her head to face him.

"Open your eyes."

She fought to turn her head away from him and he struggled against her for a bit before slapping her cheek. "I said, open your eyes and look at me."

Gradually her eyes opened and she blinked against the stinging pain in her cheek.

"Things will go so much smoother if you'll just stop fighting me and go with the flow. There will be a time for you to fight and struggle, but it's not really exciting to me at the moment. Right now I really want you to give me some information that will be helpful to me later on, and the only correct answers are yes and no. Do you understand?"

"Go straight to hell."

"That wasn't one of the correct responses, Lauren. I was afraid you were going to be this bullheaded, so now I'm going to have to come up with a few more rules. Every time you lie to me or give me an answer other than yes or no…you will be punished. Don't make me hurt you this early in the game. Now…do YOU understand?"

It was on the tip of her tongue to say something else, but when he began to dig his fingers into her thigh, she slowly nodded instead. "Yes."

"Good girl. Have you talked to Justin or any of the guys since you got here in California?"

"No."

He looked at her closely to see if she was lying, but then seemed satisfied with her answer. "Do they know you're here at this house?"

She looked down at his hand still resting on her thigh and at the way his fingers were gently stroking her skin. "N…no."

"Are you telling me the truth?"

Her leg slid to the side to remove his hand, but he tightened his fingers on the inside of her thigh and squeezed harder. "Yes I'm telling the truth. They don't know that I'm here!"

Her bag was unzipped and he reached in to pull out some of the contents. "You only packed a little bit of stuff here. Were you not planning on staying a while?"

"That's none of your…" Her words stopped when his fingers bent and his fingernails sunk into her skin. "Yes I was going to stay!"

The pressure stopped and he continued going through the bag. "It would be a shame if the story didn't match up with the facts that you're giving me. Of course, as dirty as you are it will make things very unbelievable. There has to be something suitable to wear in here. You're going to have to get cleaned up and changed before I can really take care of this little problem we have here. Traveling in that state is unacceptable."

Her eyes lit up with hope when he pulled out Mike's cell phone. He gave her a triumphant smile as he gave it a thorough look and tucked it into his pocket. "You won't need that any time soon, but it looks like a few people are concerned about you. There are about twenty missed calls on that thing. You turned off the ringer?"

That was one of the worst decisions she had ever made. "Yes."

"You haven't lied to me about anything, have you? It won't make me happy to find out that the police are already on the way here. That could be very bad for you, Lauren."

"They don't know I'm here."

"When I followed you out of the airport, I couldn't figure this one thing out…WHY are you here?"

She saw him pull a bra out of her bag and watching him examine the article made her feel used and dirty. "Miranda's birthday party."

"Well sweetie, I think they're going to be a tad bit late for the party. Too bad you're going to miss it and that Miranda will have to deal with such a tragedy on her birthday."

She didn't want to know what he meant by that, but it didn't sound good at all.

His eyes narrowed and he glared angrily at her as he pulled a black pair of underwear from her bag. "This is yours?"

Even though she hadn't broken any rules, his fingers dug into her skin again causing her to cry out. "Yes…yes it's mine! Please stop it. You're hurting me!"

"I don't know of many women who have underwear like this unless…unless they…" His face immediately turned red and Lauren tried to push back when his eyes locked on hers. Never had she seen such hatred as what she saw directed at her through those eyes at that moment.

"Did you fuck him, Lauren?"

Tears rolled down her cheeks and she jumped when he threw the bag across the room. "I…I…"

He pulled her out of the chair and pushed her onto the floor. "I asked you a question! DID YOU?"

She tried her best to scoot away from him, but he pulled her across the carpet until she was right back where she had started. When she still didn't answer him, he leaned down and grabbed a handful of her hair. "Don't…please don't."

Her pleas didn't register with him at all. In fact, he seemed even more angered by it.

"I asked you a very simple question, did…you…fuck…him?"

Lauren cried even harder and pleaded with him to listen. "Please don't hurt me."

He shoved against her hair until she slammed back down on the floor, and then he kicked her a few times in the stomach until all she could do was groan back up at him. His nostrils flared with angry breathing as he looked down at her. "ANSWER ME, CARRIE!"

She flinched at his mistake and her jaw dropped when she realized the true instability he was running on right then. The terminology was wrong because that's not what she had experienced with Justin. What they had shared meant far more than what that word and the meaning behind it encompassed. "I…I can't…no I didn't."

"I think you're lying to me, but maybe we should get Justin's opinion on that. What do you say to that?"

Was he so far gone that he was confused about who she was? One minute she was Lauren and the next she was Carrie. "He's not here for you to ask. I swear I'm not lying."

"No he's not, but I'm sure he's dying to get in contact with you. Let's play a new game, shall we? It's called…waiting for Justin's call."

Miranda clicked off her phone and leaned her head on the counter of the ticket booth with a groan. "Why aren't the answers coming?"

A hand ran along her back and stopped at her neck to massage the stress-hardened muscles there. "We'll find her, Miranda."

She turned and relaxed into JC's strong arms. "I've always handled things and I've always been able to find the answers to whatever was going wrong, but this might be my downfall. I don't know what else I can do."

"You can fight against that feeling you have to give up."

She pushed back and pulled her hair from her eyes. "I think I've called every single number in California and I'm beginning to wonder if I shouldn't start dialing for the moon. Do you know how hard it is for me to realize that there might not be anything to hope for anymore? I keep watching Justin, I see that he's looking at me and trusting me to find her, and I can't tell him any more than he already knows. She's…gone."

JC leaned forward and rested his lips against her forehead. "She's not gone and I have every bit of faith in the world that you will find her. SOMEONE will find her."

"But will we find her in one piece?"

He stepped completely away from her and there was pain so deep and so raw on his face that it made her flinch. "I don't want to hear that, Miranda. I don't want to EVER hear you say something like that again!"

"I'm sorry. Really, I'm sorry for saying that. I'm just so scared and everything I've learned in the past about no contact and no information for a long time is coming back to haunt me. The longer it goes that she isn't found or isn't contacted…the less hope there is."

JC squeezed her hand and tried his best to comfort her through the same inner turmoil he was going through. "Have you talked to Justin lately?"

"He's over there with Mike and his anger is building more and more. Mike warned me about Justin's temper and I know you're not going to like this, but I made a call to Justin's doctor. We might have to drug him, JC."

"I don't like that at all. Out of all of the ideas that have come through this place this afternoon, THAT is not an option."

She grabbed his shoulders and turned him back around to face her when he started to walk away. "Just listen to me for a second. You know how he is about Lauren and how overly protective he is. The guy gets pissed off when she gets a paper cut, can you imagine what he's going to be like when it's assured that Tom has her? Can you imagine the rage that he's going to be in if that happens and we're still not on our way west? I'm not so certain that Mike will be able to calm him or hold him back from hurting something…or someone."

"We wait until that time comes and then we decide whether or not drastic measures such as drugging him is even an option. I agree that we won't really know what he's capable of at that moment of madness, but until that happens…we give him the space and the respect as a human being that he deserves."

Justin looked up from the beaded bracelet that he held between his fingers and tried his best to hear what JC and Miranda were busy arguing about. They were being pretty quiet but their tones were unmistakable, and he had no doubt that they were being that way for his own benefit.

"I know this is the fiftieth time I've asked you this, but have you tried their cell phones lately?"

He gave Mike a dirty look, slipped the bracelet back into his pocket, and stood up. "If I get their voicemail messages one more time, I'm going to pull all of my hair out."

"That would make Suzy's life easier."

Ordinarily he would have made a few comments of his own about Mike and his recent connection with Suzy just to get them back, but this wasn't a moment of the ordinary. "I can't be here much longer, Mike. If I have to stare at these walls much longer, I'm going to go crazy!"

"They're working on a flight right now. The storm isn't as bad up here as they had anticipated and a few planes took off a little while ago. That's a good sign."

He rolled his eyes and pulled out his phone. Staring down at the thing, he thought of all of the conversations that he and Lauren had shared over the years. There had never been a time when he couldn't reach her. As stupid as it sounded, it was the biggest sense of comfort he had to know that he could pick up the phone, dial a few numbers, and her voice would overtake him. That voice of hers was like a million hugs at once and it was always there without fail…until now.

What he wouldn't give just to hear it at that moment. What he wouldn't pay or sacrifice to hear it ring and have her beautiful voice on the other end. He needed that comfort and he needed that sense of reassurance that everything would be fine.

With a quick prayer, he dialed the number and waited for the one ring followed by the voicemail message that he never wanted to hear again. It rang once, it rang twice, and by the third ring he was waving his hand to Mike. "It's ringing! Mike, it's ringing!"

Mike immediately stood up and walked over to him. "Voicemail?"

"It's on the fourth ring. The voicemail would have picked up by now. Come on, Lauren. Pick up the damn phone!"

His words caused everyone to gather closer together around him. It was completely silent as Justin held his breath and waited for the sound of someone to answer the phone. "Come on…come on…come on."

It clicked in his ear and he gripped it tighter to his ear with both hands. "Lauren? Lauren answer me! Are you ok? Lauren?"

"I'm sorry Justin, but Lauren isn't allowed to take calls at the moment."

Justin spun around to glare out of the airport window. "Tom, you son of a BITCH! If you do anything to her, anything at all…"

Tom's laughter sounded in his ear. "Oh how I love your audacity, Justin. You're across the country and yet you still have the gall to threaten me? By the way, how's the weather over there? I hope you packed your raingear."

Justin picked up a cup of coffee that was on a table beside him and flung it as hard as he could. People quickly moved out of the way of the flying cup. "Your life means nothing to me. Do you hear me? It…means…NOTHING!"

"I don't know a lot of psychology stuff, but isn't it a bad thing to threaten the person who controls your future in his hands? That is, if you were planning on having Lauren in your future."

His fist slammed into a wall and he leaned forward to rest his forehead against the cool surface. "Whatever you want…money, a plane ticket out of the United States, whatever it is that you want, I'll give it to you if you just let her go."

"It really is heartwarming to hear that you want her by your side again, but did you ever stop to think that maybe she doesn't want you?"

"Don't even try to play with my head right now because it won't work. I know how you work and I also know that you're going to try your best to make me believe something that isn't true. Put Lauren on the phone."

"No, I don't think so."

Justin turned away from the wall and everyone made room for him as he paced back and forth across the terminal. "NOW! How do I know this isn't just another one of your lies? How do I know that you haven't already hurt her?"

"I haven't hurt her at all. I plan on taking my time and enjoying the moment so don't think that I'm going to make this easy for you…and especially not her. There's a lot of things that she needs to be punished for."

"I'm going to rip your spine out, Tom."

"No need to go all Neanderthal here. I'll give you a few seconds to talk to the girl and she'll more than assure you that everything is in working order."

Justin pushed Mike out of the way and huddled up in a corner with a finger plugging his other ear as he waited for her to speak. "Lauren? Hello?"

"I'm ok, Justin."

Her voice was soft and barely audible, but it caused his legs to grow weak all the same. He slid down the wall until he was crouched into the corner, his head rested against it again, and his heart split in half when he was assured that his worst fears had come true. Her voice on the phone proved without a doubt that she was with Tom, and that he couldn't do anything to help her.

"Oh God, Val. He hasn't hurt you, has he?"

"I'm not hurt but I don't know what he might do. He's…"

"Where are you? Tell me where you are so I can…" He heard the phone click a few times. "Lauren? Are you there?"

Tom's voice answered him. "I'm sorry Justin but your time is up."

"If you have a problem with me, then you deal with me. There is no reason to drag her into this because you want to prove a point to me or to her family. You sick bastard, she's not Carrie!"

There was a long pause before Tom answered angrily. "DON'T EVER SAY HER NAME! You can't even BEGIN to comprehend what it feels like to lose the one person who means the WORLD to you. Do you know what that feels like, Justin? Do you know what it's like to love someone more than life itself, to know that she's being hurt, to know that she was hurt and you couldn't do anything to stop it or protect her?"

"I'm feeling it right now, Tom!"

"Do you know what it's like to try to help her and she shuts you out only to turn to someone else? I gave her EVERYTHING and how did she repay me? She threw me aside and she trusted him with secrets and truths that she should have turned to me with! I would have understood them because I loved her, but he fed her lies and made her hate me!"

Justin's fist banged against the wall. "I'm not Jayce and Lauren isn't Carrie. He was only trying to be her friend!"

"HE KILLED HER AND TURNED HER AGAINST ME! And now I'm going to show him firsthand what it's like to lose the most important person in his life."

"If you hurt one hair on her head, there will be no place that you can hide from me."

"There you go threatening again."

"I'm not threatening you at all. I'm making a promise. I…will…find…you."

Tom laughed again but it didn't sound as confident or as arrogant as it had before. "You're not really helping Lauren at all."

"I want to talk to her again."

"No deal. This isn't a visit or even a social hour. You heard that she was fine, she's alive, and that's all you need to know."

Justin gripped his hair and knelt closer to the corner he was pressed against. "I will give you anything you want, I'll change places with her if that's what you want, but just let her go. I'm begging you, Tom."

"I want Carrie back, can you do that?"

"You know I can't."

There was another long pause followed by Tom's laughter. "Then I guess there's nothing more to discuss here."

"WAIT!"

"As I said, there's nothing more to discuss. Although there's something I'm curious about."

Justin could barely hear anything through the cotton-like feeling in his ears. His panic and anger levels were at a dangerous point. "What?"

"You said you would give me anything, right?"

"I'll give you anything you want if you'll just let her go."

He chuckled into the phone and coughed to clear his throat. "Tell me then, what would you give up or sacrifice…just to stop me from making her scream?"

There was a slight commotion on Tom's end followed by Lauren's pitiful voice. "No…NO…Justin!"

When the phone clicked in Justin's ear, he sat perfectly still and clung to the phone as he tried his best to handle the question he was just handed. It was too much at once, the emotions swirling inside of him and the attack on his entire body.

Very slowly he stood up and turned to look at the people around him. There were so many faces full of concern and horror, and even that sight made him sick to his stomach. It made him angrier and angrier to be standing here, to have them standing her, to be in this situation to begin with, and control was no longer something he had any more of.

He quietly walked through the crowd, handed his phone to Joey on the way by, and slowly made his way to a row of chairs that sat far away from where everyone was standing. He stared down at them for several minutes and finally allowed himself to give into the pull of the insanity that had tugged at him for the last few hours.

With a loud yell that turned into an angry growl, his fists punched at the seats. When that wasn't enough he kicked at them over and over until they came away from the floor and rolled over. He wasn't aware of the words coming out of his mouth, but they were angry and they were shouted so loudly and with so much anger behind them that a few people covered their ears.

Airport staff watched in amazement as he proceeded to tear the place apart, and Mike stopped one girl from calling security. "The damages will be taken care of and I'll handle him myself."

Justin had moved on to kicking the wall and punching at it until blood from his torn knuckles began leaving prints. "WHY? WHY LAUREN? WHY IS THIS HAPPENING TO HER? WHY IS THIS HAPPENING TO US? WHY HER?"

Mike carefully stepped closer to him. "Justin, it's me."

"WHY HER, MIKE?"

"I don't know, buddy. I just don't know."

Justin spun around and glared at him through the tears that rolled freely down his cheeks. "I'm not ready to lose her. I'm…I'm not ready…I'm not…it can't happen this way."

"You're not going to lose anyone. You talked to her and she was fine, right?"

Justin kicked the seats again and yelled. "SHE'S NOT FINE! She's alive and there's a big difference. He's going to take her away from me and…and…"

Before Mike could catch him, Justin ran to the counter and proceeded to drag the airport clerk over the counter. "GET A FLIGHT OUT OF HERE NOW!"

Mike pried his fingers away from the man's shirt and pulled him back, but Justin was determined in his anger. He pried Mike's fingers away and started running down the airport. "Justin, come here! Stop him!"

It took four security guards to finally stop him and he was fighting all of them by the time Mike caught up with them. He locked his arms around Justin's and pulled him off of the floor where he was kicking and clawing at the carpet. "I'm going to have to handcuff you in a second, J. Either that or go through your doctor's orders to drug you so you can't hurt yourself or other people. Please don't make me do this."

Justin was so worked up and angry at this point that he was literally foaming at the mouth, and he was so beyond the point of reason that Mike's words didn't register at all. "I'm going to hurt you if you don't let me GO! I'm getting on a flight and I'm going to her even if I have to hitchhike my way across the country!"

"What are you going to do when you get there? We need your head clear and level to help us find her, J. Nobody knows the way she thinks better than you do. Don't you see that we need you to find her? We don't need you in jail or in a comatose state. That's not going to help us and it's not going to help Lauren."

"I don't want to hurt you, Mike. Don't make me hurt you."

For a moment Mike thought that maybe he had reached out to Justin's sensibilities, but that was before Justin's fist came in contact with his jaw. It wasn't the blow that caused him to step back as much as it was the realization that Justin had actually struck him. He hardly had time to get a good hold on him again before Justin kicked him and tried to punch him again.

"LET GO OF ME! Don't make me do this to you, Mike!"

Every time Mike reached to get a better hold, Justin twisted or turned and broke free. They fell onto the floor together and Justin continued to blindly strike out at him. The people around them were all watching in shock as Justin did his best to fight and punch Mike, but it was one of the saddest sights they had ever witnessed. There was no question about how close the two of them were, there was no doubt how much Justin loved and respected Mike, and that's what made things so terrible. The level of love between them made it even more agonizing to watch the scene because Justin would rather hurt himself than to ever hurt Mike in any way. But that's exactly what he was doing as they struggled with each other on the floor.

A few other members of security grabbed Justin's arms and peeled him off of Mike. He pushed and kicked at them as they dragged him away. "SHE NEEDS ME! LET GO!"

Mike dusted himself off and stood up to point at an airport security guard that was watching the action. "Handcuffs…now!"

Justin's eyes widened and he struggled against the strong arms holding him when he saw the handcuffs in his hands. "NO! No…don't do this to me, Mike. Don't…don't do this!"

"I'm sorry, J. It's my job to protect you and right now you need protection from yourself. Guys, give me one of his wrists."

Justin struggled even harder but it was useless against their strength. The cold metal locked around his wrist and he dug his heels into the carpet as they dragged him kicking and screaming across the terminal to a pole that was clear out of the way of anyone. Mike locked the other half of the handcuffs to the pole before everyone jumped back out of the way, and Justin pulled violently at his wrist to get away.

"You son of a bitch! This won't hold me! I'll tear down this airport if I have to, but THIS won't hold me! LET ME GO!"

Mike ran a hand over his head and sighed loudly as he watched the spectacle. "This whole thing is insanity. Not only do we have Tom to deal with, but Justin has just taken himself out of commission."

Miranda stepped up beside him with widened eyes and covered her gaping mouth with a shaking hand. "He's like…foaming at the mouth."

Justin paused from his tugging to glare at her. "SHUT UP!"

"I know that nobody here wants to do this, but he needs something to calm him down a bit. ANYTHING that will cool his head."

Justin started kicking the pole with loud and forceful clanks of his shoes. "If any of you get near me…if you even come close…"

"Miranda, did his doctor prescribe anything?"

JC interrupted before she could answer. "I don't know if I speak for everyone else, but I don't like this. I don't like this at all!"

"THANK YOU, JC! Now get your ass over here with the key!"

"Someone will have to go to the drug store to get it, and I just got news that we're on a flight out of here in fifteen minutes. However, I do have some Nyquil in my bag."

JC growled and walked away with his hands up. "If you drug him, he won't be able to help us at all. You do realize that, right? I REFUSE to be a part of this."

Mike looked at Justin for a few more seconds before turning to Miranda who was already reaching for her bag. "He's not going to help us in this condition anyway. One mention of Tom…" Justin kicked and clawed even harder. "One mention of him and he's going to lose it. If there's something inside him to curb the anger a tad, he'll be more useful. We already know that Lauren is in California and that Tom has her. What we don't know is where she is, and I think that if Justin knew…he would have told us by now. Lance, get everyone ready for the flight while Miranda and I take care of this one here. We will be on that plane the moment they open the doors."

Miranda stepped back with the bottle in her hands and shook her head. "I'm not doing it. You're sick in the head if you think I'm getting anywhere near him like that."

Justin began pacing around the pole. "You're losing fingers if you come anywhere near me with that bottle, Miranda!"

Mike pulled on her arm until she was closer, and then sized up Justin's movements. "Once I get him pinned on the ground, you need to go straight for his mouth."

She didn't like this either, she didn't like having to force him into taking a drug that he clearly didn't want, but he wasn't working on rationality either. One day he would thank them for this. Maybe not in his lifetime, but one day he would understand their actions.

A few other security members surrounded Justin while he struck out with his free fist, but they found an entryway and made their move. In a few seconds of struggling and grunts, Justin was held perfectly still in their arms.

"Ok Miranda, go ahead."

Justin glared at her as she cautiously stepped forward. "I don't care how much JC loves you, you'll be GONE if you do this. Do you hear me, Miranda? You'll be so far gone from this tour that our names will only be a distant memory."

Mike pulled on him until he slid down the pole to the floor. "Ignore anything he says, Miranda. Get over here and do it!"

The only way to reach him was to step between his legs and kneel in front of him. She could see the strained arms of the guards as they held him back, but it wasn't so much the fear she felt of him fighting back as much as it was the look in his eyes. There was a wild and crazy gleam to them that she had never seen before.

"He's so gone."

"He's going to be free in a few seconds if you don't hurry up!"

She held the bottle up to his lips and Justin turned away until Mike grabbed his head and held it still. Once again she tried to put the bottle to his lips, but he pulled them back into his mouth, closing any access she had to them.

"Justin, please don't fight this. We love you and we need to help you any way we can."

"Doping me up isn't helping me, Miranda."

She checked to make sure that Mike had a good grip on his head before reaching out to part his lips with her fingers. Slowly they opened as his head was tilted back, and she poured some of the bitter liquid inside. It was there all of two seconds before Justin spit it back out and covered the front of her with it.

"JUSTIN!"

Mike's fingers tightened even more and he pried Justin's mouth open. "Pour it in again."

She pushed the mess from her eyes and once again she filled his mouth with the liquid. But this time Mike held his mouth closed and covered his nose until finally his throat worked to swallow it. When that was done, they all quickly stepped back and out of his way.

Justin was breathing erratically and directing looks of disgust at them. They watched him and Mike noticed that he was just a little too calm. "Justin, what are…"

With a triumphant gleam in his eyes, his free hand came up and he almost succeeded in sticking his finger down his throat, but his hand was stopped and pulled around his back. "Oh no you don't. You're going to leave this alone and let it work its magic. It should wear off by the time we get to California and look at it this way…when you wake up, we'll be there."

His burning eyes remained on Miranda as he struggled against the arms holding him again. "I…hate…you. You couldn't even find her! You're supposed to be able to do anything, and you CAN'T EVEN FIND HER! It's YOUR fault that she's in California! It's ALL YOUR FAULT, MIRANDA!"

She turned away and covered her face with both hands as the guilt she was already feeling made its way to the surface. She knew that he was speaking from fear and anger that had nothing to do with her, but it still brought out an insecurity that she was feeling too much of at that moment. "I know, Justin. I know."