It was amazing to think that one little necklace could cause so much trouble.

It seemed so innocuous, innocent. The small black gem was an iridescent thing, had an amazing ability to change its appearance depending on how you shone light on it. Wrapped in a delicate cage of silver, the piece of onyx hung off of a completely normal chain. There was nothing to suggest this necklace was particularly special; it certainly didn't look expensive or flashy or even noteworthy. One might even venture to call it boring.

What it did was anything but boring.

The last time the necklace had been worn, it had turned lives upside down and inside out. It was hard to know whether it had altered destiny or just facilitated its preset path, but it had wielded an uncomfortably firm hand in changing the course of lives. It had altered perspectives, changed attitudes, imparted secrets and generally been about as troublesome as it was possible for anything in this life to be.

It was strangely warm to the touch, seemed to radiate a tiny heat from within. One might almost imagine there was a supernatural glitter to it - though it was more than possible that was just the mind playing tricks. It rolled between fingers, looking remarkably innocent under the intense gaze to which it was being subjected. It was a gaze of weariness, of thoughtfulness. It was a gaze of suspicion, but also a gaze containing dangerous amounts of curiosity.

It was unsurprising, given that the owner of the fingers had been one of the three lives in particular that it had really screwed with.

The necklace stood as solid proof of destiny being the funny thing it is. In the vast scope of human possibility it turned out that life did have meaning, seemingly insignificant things did matter and that choices always had consequences, even the smallest ones. Anything was truly possible, there was some grand cosmic design running through life and things happened for reasons. Sometimes, it was difficult to decide whether that thought was comforting or just overwhelming. That was a whole other theological and existential debate which had been raging for millennia, one of no interest to the person holding it.

So, the owner of those fingers, taking a deep breath and recalling precisely how you used the necklace, began rubbing the stone, eyebrows narrowed in concentration. The voice spoke loudly and clearly to the empty bedroom.

"I wish I could see Claire again."

The stone began to emanate an eerie blue glow, and there was something painfully ominous about it. For a brief moment the fingers trembled, and the thought began to form that maybe this hadn't been such a great idea. It was all very well in theory, having a magic necklace which granted wishes, but the reality of it was that you were messing with forces you didn't understand: forces far greater than you that could squash you like a bug.

The whole deal with the black mist appearing and slowly twisting serpent like into the shape of a body - that was more familiar. A young woman who must have been in her twenties began to emerge, one of petite stature and brunette hair. She wore a particularly penetrating expression, one eyebrow arched high and her arms folded tightly across her chest.

"Well, well, well. I certainly wasn't expecting to see you any time soon."

"Hello to you too, Claire."

"Cut the banalities, alright? I just got summoned from on high, out of something very important I might add; I don't have time for you to feed me bullshit. What in God's name do you think you're doing playing with that thing? Did we not learn the last time?"

Okay, the hostility was somewhat unexpected. Claire had been quite amiable enough the first time, even if seeing her had been somewhat of a shock. Ghosts tended to be shocking.

"I just… I wanted to talk. I'm sorry, I just…"

Her face softened a little, and something that might have been sympathy passed briefly over it. "If I were you I'd have wished for a new holiday home in the Bahamas, or maybe a lottery win."

"I don't need money. I need answers."

"Okay then. What's the question? What's this question we're so desperate to have answered we summon the dead… though at least you didn't hold a séance, those frickin' things are really annoying to get sucked into." She threw her hands out in an invitational gesture.

"I need to know how it's going. In the other dimension."

Being a spirit and therefore dead, it really shouldn't have been possible for any blood to have drained from Claire's face. However, what little colour it had was promptly lost and a slight panic hit her eyes. To anybody who wasn't aware that other dimensions really did exist the statement would have sounded like a bad science fiction cliché, but more to the point, delusional. To Claire, who knew a good few secrets of the universe and was aware not only of their existence but of what had happened the last time somebody had crossed one, it only sounded dangerous.

There was a reason people said that curiosity killed the cat.

"Oh I don't think you should be asking that."

"Why not?" The voice sounded bold, almost defiant; it was a far cry from the fear of the previous minute or two. It didn't, however, count on Claire's blunt and forthright nature, which had only become exacerbated in her afterlife.

"One, because the whole cosmic point is that you never know what happens if you choose differently and yes, okay, I know, last time, but that was an extenuating circumstance and it was an accident. Which leads me onto two… I'm sure you've been torturing yourself wondering if the grass really is greener on the other side, but do you honestly think you're prepared to know? Really?" She asked shrewdly. "You think you can handle finding out?"

She did understand. She truly did; it had to be horrific learning of an entirely separate version of you running around an alternate dimension, playing out the other path your life might have taken. That, however, was exactly why people were never supposed to know - once you got a little taste of the knowledge you would start tormenting yourself over every decision, knowing that somewhere else it was being played out differently.

"I need to know. So please, tell me."

"Nope. Can't, it's against the rules," Claire answered succinctly, shifting her insubstantial weight from one foot to another and re-folding her arms over her chest. "And quite frankly I wouldn't if I was allowed to. Honestly, my friend, I understand why the curiosity has to be a killer but… God, I shouldn't need to tell you this, you were there. You saw what comes of seeing the other possibility; you're still living with the damn fallout. I'm sorry I can't help you, but honestly it's better if you don't know. And I'm sorry I can't stick around but they're calling, I have to go."

"Don't make me do this."

"Make you do wha… no. NO. Oh fucking no. Don't. Please, for the love of all things holy, do NOT do what…"

The thumb furiously rubbed the onyx again as a hurried voice interrupted her. "I wish I could see what it's like in the other Renee's dimension."

The onyx began to glow blue, and Claire could only put her head in her hands, shaking it vigorously.

"Well now you've fucking gone and done it."

Justin felt incredibly light headed and woozy. It vaguely reminded him of how he used to get travel sick, before years of travelling on the tour bus had acclimatised him.

The whole thing was a freaky experience; that was for sure. One moment he had been standing in his own bedroom, the next he had felt an iron grip settle somewhere around his stomach, like a hand had somehow managed to reach into his insides. Without mercy it had then yanked him forward and in a split second he was now standing outside a recording studio. It wasn't a studio he had seen before but he'd been in enough of the places to be able to recognise the general set up, even just from the corridor outside.

"Well that was about the dumbest thing you've ever done."

"How would you know?" He asked Claire as he tried to gauge his surroundings. "You were Renee's best friend, not mine."

"Process of elimination. There's nothing in the world you could have possibly done that was stupider than this."

"Whatever…" He looked down, trying to see if his other self's body was the same as his. It looked identical, right down to the… "Hey, what are the odds that my alternate reality self would be wearing exactly the same clothes as me?"

They were the exact same clothes. His feet were still bare, his jeans still had the same fading and threadbare patches, and he was still wearing a vintage Rolling Stones t-shirt. Hell, he could even see the small grease stain from the grilled cheese sandwich he'd made himself earlier. However, if the clothes hadn't tipped him off then the slightly smug look on Claire's face would have done it - she looked far too evil.

"Okay, what did you do?"

"I did nothing." She snorted. "You made the dumb wish all by yourself. But since you have, I will be your tour guide."

"So it's the same deal as what Renee did… I get three weeks or it's permanent?"

The entire reason for the little wish he had just made was Renee. Until a couple of years ago, Justin had been happily dating Renee Anderson, who like himself was a pretty famous pop star. Well, maybe happily wasn't the word, but they had been struggling along and life had been fairly normal. Then, one day, she had begun acting strangely. He'd been ready to have her committed, but it had turned out that body snatching was actually possible and inhabiting the body of his girlfriend was a different version of her from another dimension, one who had never become famous and thus never met him.

That had caused a few issues - not to mention a few headaches while he tried to understand the metaphysics of it. That was before he even started on the fact that he now knew magic was real and there was some form of life after death.

It had turned out that Renee had wished on the necklace entirely accidentally, even idly, unaware of what it could do. Some strange cosmic rule had said she had precisely three weeks in which to wish herself home, or she would be stuck in his reality permanently. It had taken them a while to hunt down the necklace on his side of the dimensional pond and she had wished herself home with only moments to spare, leaving some serious emotional debris behind her.

"Justin?" She tapped on his head, and surprisingly enough she actually hit it. He let out a yelp of surprise - last time they had met, she had been incorporeal and he had watched Renee pass right through her. "You didn't make the same wish as Renee."

"What? Yes I did!"

"No…" she mocked, "you didn't. She wished to be famous. You wished to see this reality, her reality. The one where she didn't become famous at the age of eighteen and then meet you: that's what you wished. And since you were wishing on that cursed piece of crap… boom!" Claire clapped her hands in front of his face. "You're going to see it. It, however, is not going see, hear or even feel you. I think you'll find you can't touch anything."

"What?" He panicked, desperately snatching at the door handle. When it sailed right through it, his blue eyes widened impossibly and his jaw dropped open. "Holy shit! Fucking hell, woman, you knew what I meant!"

"Technicalities are a bitch, huh?" Claire said, leaning casually against the wall. She might have looked relaxed, but she had a rising feeling in her gut that this entire trip was going to be unpleasant and cause more problems for him than it solved. "Lucky for the rest of us, you were sloppy with the wording - hence why they tell you to be careful what you wish for. You said you wanted to see it - you can see it without being part of it."

"Well…" He said, beginning to rub the pendant in his hand again - surprisingly enough, it was still along for the ride. "Maybe I'll just have to do some more wishing."

"Don't!"

Claire's arm shot out with superhuman speed, clutching his wrist. Justin was thoroughly annoyed with her, with her whole attitude and lack of co-operation, but suddenly there was a pleading in her eyes that he couldn't help being affected by. Clasping the necklace around his neck, ignoring the fact it was not a particularly male accessory, he folded his arms over his chest and looked expectantly at her.

"Look…" Claire said slowly once she realised he was prepared to listen. "Maybe this is the compromise. You get to see it but you don't get into the mix and start confusing things, and you can observe objectively. So… how about we just go on this little tour, when you've seen enough I'll take you home and we can lay off the wishing for a while. How's that?"

"Okay."

Justin nodded a little too quickly and she was still stuffed full of misgivings, but she nodded back.

"Okay? Well, if you're ready to meet yourself, you can just walk straight through that door. Literally, no need to open it."

"Wait a second… explain to me where exactly we are and why I got turned into Casper."

"Umm… shit, I hate explaining this stuff to civilians. It's confusing enough to me. Umm…"

She patted her hands against her thighs, trying to think of a good euphemistic way to explain everything to him. Justin tapped his foot against the ground impatiently, marvelling at the way it didn't make any noise.

"Think of this space we're in as kind of an observation deck, dimensionally speaking. We can see and hear everything but we can't affect it, which is why you seem to be passing through things. You haven't actually become a ghost like me or anything; it's just that technically you don't exist in their time and place so you can't touch anything in it. It's just that in the dimensional space you ARE in there's nothing to touch."

"So why do I have ground beneath me?"

She gave him an evil glare. "Don't make me hit you. If you haven't noticed, I can do that now."

"Yeah, how come?"

"Call it a promotion."

Justin sighed, scratching his beard. He could still feel that, at least. "Makes sense, I guess… where are we? Oh, and how come I didn't get separated from the necklace like Renee did?"

"Umm… not sure, somewhere in Southern California." She told him. "Same day as where you were… although interestingly enough we seem to have skipped a few hours. You might find you've lost some time once you get back home, I'm not sure. As for the necklace - Renee wished herself into an entirely different body, one which was nowhere near it. You just wished yourself here, and you were holding the necklace so it came for the ride. That's all."

Filled with trepidation, Justin took a deep breath and started walking for the door, Claire automatically following behind. Possibly he was doing something stupid, but something within him just had to know. She obviously thought he was being an idiot, but she had failed to appreciate how desperate he had to have been to even consider touching the necklace again. Every instinct in him said he was about to smack his nose against the door and get pushed back, but instead he stepped straight through it as though it were nothing.

It was the most singularly head spinning experience he had ever had in his life.

Most people never had an opportunity to see themselves as other people saw them - mirror reflections were reversed images, after all, and TV screens were not the same as live action - but here he was watching himself crouched over the mixing desk. A huge grin was stretched across his other self's face and his whole torso was bobbing in time to the frenetic beat pounding through the speakers.

It was a little deflating for his ego. Where he was dressed sloppily, this other Justin was looking smart and preppy in jeans, a long sleeved shirt and a woollen sweater vest. His blue sleeves were rolled up and pushed to his elbows, a ridiculously expensive watch gracing his left wrist. His head was neatly shaven, with a well cultivated shadow of stubble keeping his face from looking too young. He looked clean and well rested; in contrast, the other self he didn't know was observing him had a messy head of curls that needed cutting, and a long beard which grew untidily down his neck.

Great, so not only did this guy have Grammys where he didn't, he looked a heck of a lot better too. Maybe Claire had been right - this trip was going to be a real bitch.

It was when he finally dragged his eyes away from his other self that his heart truly leapt into his throat. There, sat next to the other Justin, their two heads bobbing in perfect synchronicity, was one JC Chasez. That would be the JC Chasez, who in his reality he had been estranged from for years. It was yet another piece of fallout from his relationship; the other *NSYNC guys had always disliked Renee and considered her about as good for their group as Yoko Ono had been for The Beatles.

"JC?" He stuttered. He recalled this reality's Renee telling him during her short visit that in her world *NSYNC had never fallen out with each other, but seeing it first hand made his own loss hit home. "Are the other guys here?"

"Not here, but around," Claire responded. "You guys have never really worked as a group again here, but you're all still friends. They're working on JC's solo album."

"He has a solo album here?"

"This'll be his second."

"God…" Justin blinked. In his reality JC had disappeared from the limelight, choosing to eschew all remnants of his former life.

His ears finally registered the backing track that was playing. It was like nothing he'd heard. He thought it was what you'd get if David Bowie and Prince had mated, but with more of a guitar sound. The music he made back home was more like an RnB version of *NSYNC, nothing like this. He could hear an element of the electronic sound JC had always liked, but other than that he was struggling to get a grip on it. Was this coming from the other Justin or JC? Was this the kind of stuff he generally came out with in this dimension? And since when had he become so handy with a mixing desk?

"Ahh this shit is good!" The other Justin exclaimed as he finally switched off the track. "What do you think lyrically? Like, I think it's gotta be something you can do staccato, but that beat's pretty crazy right?"

"Man, crazy is the word…" JC chuckled, leaning back in his chair with his hands behind his head. "I'm thinking I wanna do something a little off the wall, lyrically. I think this is too good to waste on 'boy meets girl', or 'I like clubs.' You were so right about that bass line though."

"Can you not just see them bouncing off the walls to this shit?"

"Let's not get ahead of me." JC smacked him gently upside his head before pushing his chair back and stretching. "I'm bathroom bound, back in a second."

His other self just nodded and began drumming his hands against the desk, knocking out the beat which had just been playing and beat boxing a little to himself. For his part he was staring after JC, a look of longing passing over his face. It was safe to say he'd kill to be like this with JC again - he sorely missed the times when they would sit just collaborating in the studio, usually cracking up every five minutes and constantly ribbing each other, back and forth like brothers. They had been as good as brothers, once. Now he'd probably be the last person anybody would think to tell if JC got found dead in a ditch somewhere.

Claire remained helpfully quiet, but every so often he would hear a little cough from her or get a flash of her in his peripheral vision. Justin wasn't too concerned with her. He was too busy staring at the man he could have been. Maybe he was being presumptuous, he'd seen them for three minutes together and had been standing here since JC left the room another five ago, but this man he was gawking at appeared happy. There was a contented vibe emanating from him, and he was more than a little green about it.

That envy magnified about four hundred percent when the door re-opened.

"Renee…" he breathed out, shocked by her presence. He thought she had said she didn't know him in this reality, except through the magazines?

She looked completely different. He'd always known she wouldn't look exactly like his Renee, she had told him as much, but it was still a shock to see it. Her breasts were smaller, for one thing; clearly she had kept to her word and not succumbed to the lure of the boob job as his girlfriend had. She was a little curvier as well, less skinny, but it looked good on her. Her hair was a dark chocolate, obviously dyed, but she was practically glowing. Her skin bore a healthy tan, showed off by the cute little white sundress she wore and its delicate straps. She looked practically edible.

"Hey baby!" The other Justin had turned around in his chair and burst out into a big smile.

"BABY?!" His cry went unheard by any but Claire; his eyes were virtually about to fall out of their sockets.

Renee smiled, trotting over on her impractical wedged sandals and setting down a Starbucks carrier of two coffees and a frappuccino on the counter before sliding onto her boyfriend's lap, wrapping her arms around his neck. Justin watched incredulously as his alter ego immediately put his arms around her waist and pulled her closer, dropping a luxuriously languorous kiss on her lips.

"Hey yourself. Where's JC?"

"Bathroom."

"How you guys getting on?" She dropped another peck on his lips, and Justin couldn't help remembering how nervous and uptight she had always been with him when visiting his reality. She seemed over that now. "Secured your next number one yet?"

"Listen to this…"

The other Justin replayed the track he and JC had been working on. Immediately Renee's mouth dropped open a little, her expression making a silent exclamation that elicited a chuckle from him before she too began to giggle. Their observer couldn't help it as his eyes darted between the guy's hand stroking her bare knee and her fingers massaging the back of his head. They would have been buried in his hair, if he'd had any. The actions were full of familiarity, such an affectionate thing - one he dimly recalled experiencing once upon a time with his own Renee.

"It's hot, right?" He finally asked Renee after switching it off.

"What the hell was that?"

"You don't like it?"

"I frickin' love it, I just have no idea what the heck it was."

"That's exactly what we were going for." He grinned. "So how was your day babe, interview go okay?"

"Yeah, it was alright… I just hate doing these teeny pop magazines. I think their audience and my music don't quite mesh, they always end up asking me kinda weird questions."

"Weird questions?"

"Well, not weird, just kinda pointless and entirely unrelated to anything. I think they only put me in there because I'm the great Justin Timberlake's girlfriend."

"And they seem to like your clothes. As do I…" He grinned, cheekily starting to slide his hand beneath her skirt until she batted it away playfully, pinching his arm as punishment.

"Great. I parade around in some pretty clothes and they all wanna put me in their pages. I'm Paris Hilton."

"Except that you can sing."

"Ooh, I'm telling the tabloids you said that."

"And then I'll tell 'em that this whole thing where they think it's strange such a nice girl is dating a horny bastard like me is a complete misconception and that you're the inspiration for that whole shackles/whip me thing in SexyBack."

Renee couldn't help bursting into giggles, hiding her face in her boyfriend's neck as their laughs mingled together in the air, his hands stroking her back affectionately.

"She's famous now?!" Justin hissed at Claire, unable to believe what he was hearing, especially given how badly Renee had taken to her alter ego's popularity and the attention on her.

Claire waggled her hand in the air, twisting her wrist from side to side in a 'sort of' gesture. "Not as famous as yours. She started out doing RnB but she wound up going in a very guitar, almost folk music kind of direction. Think Norah Jones but less boring. She's popular enough, but because she didn't go so mainstream she sacrificed a little fame for that - not that she minds. As you can see, she's pretty happy with herself these days."

"So I see," he muttered darkly as he watched them begin kissing yet again.

His favourite part of the whole little show was when JC walked back in and it turned out that he seemed friendly with Renee. He greeted her with a hug and a kiss on the cheek, and Justin still knew JC well enough to know he didn't pretend to get along with people if he didn't. He was a polite guy, but he wasn't going to fake it either. She then distributed the coffees - apparently she'd hung out with JC long enough to know what to order for him - and they proceeded to sit and chat and laugh together, all things he had never been able to do with the Renee and JC of his own reality. Well, at least not at the same time.

This bastard really did have everything. Justin idly wondered if hating the alternate reality version of you amounted to hating yourself.

Renee picked up a good cluster of the jasmine scented bath bubbles in her hand, and with a quick puff of breath sent them flying into the air. She giggled manically when a big tuft of them settled on Justin's nose. He stuck out his lower lip and attempted to blow them away, but only succeeded in getting them stuck to his eyebrow instead.

"You know sometimes baby I think you're really 17 and your ID is fake."

"Or maybe you're getting old and grouchy before your time," she riposted, running her hands over his chest and enjoying watching the droplets of water run down it, disappearing into the bubbles. "I'm just havin' some fun."

"Oh we haven't got to the 'fun' portion of the evening yet."

"Dirty."

"And?"

"Just stating the obvious."

Renee couldn't help lowering her head and planting a kiss on his wet shoulder before tenderly nuzzling his neck. They were having a rare month together - normally their visits were much shorter but with them both recording they had a lot more freedom over their schedules - and they had been curled up watching Pretty Woman when she had idly commented that she'd always thought the whole bath scene was cute. She should have learnt by now not to mention any fantasies to Justin, because eight times out of ten he quickly started trying to make them come true.

So here they were (despite his complaints that she was going to make him smell like a girl), and he was lying back against her, playing with her fingers. She had had relationships in the past but never one where she had been this intimate with somebody - sharing baths and having somebody in the bathroom while you brushed your teeth seemed more intimate to Renee than even the sexual aspect of a relationship. Being with somebody the way she was with Justin was a new and giddy experience for her, and she took great pains not to take the little things like this for granted.

She had learnt an incredibly hard way about that.

Justin could never be told that she had visited an alternate dimension and met another version of him: likeliest scenario, he'd probably call somebody for a straightjacket. However, she had learnt a lot of painful lessons from the whole exercise. For one thing she had learnt that while she wanted to be a successful musician, fame did her more harm than good and she should keep her mind on the music not making her name. That sounded obvious, but until you knew the inside of the industry you wouldn't understand how easily the two got confused.

More importantly, she had seen what too much fame had done to her other self and her relationship with her Justin. She had compromised her body, her image and her entire life. She had cheated on him, pushed him away and had taken all her frustrations with her existence out on him. Unbelievably this didn't make her a terrible person - just a very confused, encaged and lonely one. That said it wasn't exactly desirable either.

Renee was determined that would never be her. She wasn't as skinny as her alter ego, or as famous. She'd declined the boob job and despite a brief flirtation with the blonde of her alter ego she had preferred being dark and enigmatic. More importantly, however, she was in charge of her own life, and she had never been more determined about anything in said life than treating Justin well. She was all too aware after her cross-dimensional trip that everybody was capable of anything, and that it was your choices that made you - so she made the choice to be very proactive in appreciating her boyfriend.

Possibly she went a little over the top on occasion, but he had yet to complain.

"You had any more thoughts on the anniversary? It's less than three weeks away." Justin reminded her, idly reaching his hand back to play with her wet hair.

"I don't know." Renee shrugged, her skin brushing against his as she did so. "You still keen on Vegas?"

"I would have preferred Hawaii or somewhere but we only got so much time and we can't do long flights." His lips pursed in concentration. "I mean we don't have to go anywhere, we could find somewhere around here and just do the classic dinner date, but…"

"But the mighty Justin Timberlake is never satisfied unless his gestures are grand." She knew him too well. He couldn't even do a simple bunch of flowers without doing it extravagantly (not that she minded, she knew it was just his way). "I'm just kidding ya babe, Vegas sounds good. Dinner and a show and some great clubs, what more can we ask?"

"Is that a definite vote for Vegas?" He felt her nod in response. "Great, I'll get something booked. Can you believe it's a year already?"

Renee pondered this as his lips trailed her jaw. "Feels like longer."

"It was longer. I spent six months chasing after you before you finally let me take you out, remember?"

Again, this was something she'd never be able to explain to him. She had fed him a line about her career being at a crucial starting stage and that she needed to concentrate on it. The truth was it had been fear of falling in love with him (she'd certainly developed feelings for the other version, so she'd had a sinking feeling that this one would do even worse) and repeating her other self's mistakes and hurting him. She'd seen how the other Justin had got screwed up over that. It was true enough that he'd be a distraction, but it had been her insecurities which really explained the reluctance to get involved.

However, he had been persistent. They had originally met when they bumped into each other at a recording studio, and he had then done some producing for her before she dropped the whole RnB sound. The songs had never seen the light of day, but by this point the sparks had already flown and Justin had already started to pursue her. She had held out for as long as she could, but finally she had decided that she could apply the lessons she'd learnt not just to her career but to also to him.

There was only so long you could resist a guy who was constantly sending you cute and funny e-mails and text messages asking you out in incredibly dorky yet amusing ways.

At this point, they were at a year and counting and they'd never had a single argument (at least, nothing more than light bickering). He liked to point this out to her regularly, usually as a tease that it had to be coming soon.

"What can I say, I like to play hard to get."

"Frickin' near impossible to get!" Justin scoffed, running his hands over her legs beneath the surface of the water. "Lucky for you I liked ya so much, because most guys would have quit long before I did. I'm not even sure why I didn't quit long before I did."

She smiled, biting her lip coquettishly before finding his, kissing them sweetly. "I am a lucky girl," she breathed.

"You'll be getting luckier later."

"Actually…" She began shifting, sitting up further in the bath and forcing Justin to move, sitting up himself. "If it means going to bed I'm thinking now would be good. This water's going cold and a nice warm bed sounds awesome."

Ever the gentleman (one of her favourite things about him), Justin immediately got up and out of the bath and headed for the towel rack. Renee couldn't help it as her eyes trained themselves on his body; he was far too pale and needed a little sun, but every girl liked a few rippling muscles on her man and she sure as heck had them on hers. Quickly tying one around his waist, he walked back over to the bath and offered a hand to help her up, wrapping the warm but slightly too scratchy towel tightly around her as soon as she had her feet back on the floor.

"Thank you kind sir." She gave him a teasing grin.

"Really, the view was thanks enough."

She smacked his arm playfully. "You're a bad, bad man and you know it... okay, what?"

Renee knew that expression. Justin had a knowing grin on his face, and she didn't know what she had said but obviously there was some joke going on here that she was not privy to.

He leaned in and pushed his lips to her ear, where she could feel every movement they made. "Did I mention how beautiful you are lately?"

"Nice distraction tactic buddy. Not at all obvious."

She couldn't help being slightly mollified, however, especially as he took her face in his hands, thumbs brushing over her lips.

"You are beautiful."

She flushed pink, eyelashes batting shyly. "I love you." That was all she could think to say.

"I love you too." Justin told her as his lips descended on hers once more.

***

"So, Mr Voyeur…" Claire tutted disapprovingly as the Justin she was babysitting finally emerged from the suite. "We done spying?"

He shifted uncomfortably from foot to foot, not meeting her eye. Claire had point blank refused to follow them into their hotel suite, saying it was a step too far with invasion of privacy. She had also bluntly pointed out they could very well be having sex in there, said it was fairly perverted watching other people have sex without their knowledge.

Justin had left before that had happened, couldn't stand the idea of watching it. Once they had got into bed and the kisses had become more making out, that was when he had chosen to leave - he figured it wouldn't be long before they were making love. It had been strange enough just observing them together; he knew it was still Justin Timberlake, knew it wasn't like she was really with another man, but it still felt that way. It was confusing and it made the resultant jealousy even harder to get a handle on than if it had been some random stranger.

He supposed it didn't help that his own Renee was really not this affectionate with him right now. It had been hard watching the two of them; it wasn't like they were constantly making out or groping, but they were always close and seemingly always touching in some way. The banter was quick and easy, they were obviously completely comfortable with each other and very in tune. That much had been obvious even when they were just sitting on the couch watching a movie, let alone once they'd hit the bathroom. Everything about them screamed synchronicity and togetherness.

He really missed that.

"I'm done." He sighed heavily, unsure what to make of everything. He was also having slight guilt about watching them in the bath, though he honestly would have left if anything sexual had started happening. "I can't believe we end up together in this dimension too. How weird is that?"

Claire shrugged. "Destiny's a funny thing. There'll be dimensions somewhere in which you two never set eyes on each other, but… well." She neglected to mention that she had played a part in leading Renee to Justin's recording studio that day; after everything she'd gone through Claire had thought she deserved the opportunity, although it had been up to her to capitalise on it.

"You know, sometimes I wonder what life would be like if I'd never met Renee, almost wish I hadn't." He told her.

"That's normal."

"Except I can't figure out whether it's my Renee or this one I wish I'd never met."

"That's… okay, not so normal, but fairly understandable." She sympathised. She had quickly worked out that trying to make he sure he got as much out of this trip as possible was the safest way to stop him doing anything else with the necklace, but more than that she honestly did feel sorry for him. His life hadn't exactly been made easy for him of late.

"They seem really in love." Justin said quietly, fiddling with a loose thread on the hem of his t-shirt.

"Well…" Claire said softly, "if you paid attention last time you know there's a core of a person that never really changes, even if their circumstances do. He's just like you underneath it all, and it seems to me you're a guy who falls pretty hard."

"Yeah… so I guess he probably is too."

"Probably." She smiled wryly.

"Do you think she ever thinks about me?" He asked. "Wonders what would have happened if she'd stayed?"

"I don't think crossing dimensions is something you forget in a hurry."

That had not been what Justin meant, at all. Claire's flippant remark overlooked the subtext of what he had said - the one that said he thought about it all the time, incessantly in fact. By the time she had left, he and this reality's Renee had developed some complicated feelings towards each other. He couldn't help wondering if she thought of it like he did. Obviously she was happy so he doubted she was torturing herself the way he was, but he wondered if she ever thought of him as more than an idle recollection.

Sometimes he just couldn't help wondering how things would have turned out if she'd made another choice.

Claire was sitting on the plush carpeted floor outside Justin and Renee's hotel suite, drumming her fingers against it. Naturally they made no noise and being dead her sense of touch was somewhat impaired, but she had nothing else to do.

Well, that was a lie. She had worrying to do, and she was doing a lot of it. The Peeping Tom version of Justin apparently was not done with whatever he wanted to see yet, and she was stuck here until he was. He couldn't be left on his own. There hadn't been a heck of a lot to see while the couple were sleeping, so he had been hanging out in the living area of the suite. Occasionally he popped back through to ask her questions, and he swore blind he hadn't been in the bedroom but she wasn't so sure she believed him.

On a more practical level she was concerned that the longer he was here, the longer he was missing from his own reality. How differently time passed in this dimension was unclear, but she knew he would lose at least some. She made a mental note to arm him with a good cover story before she sent him back. This was not the main cause of her worry, however; that was based almost entirely on exactly what he wanted from this trip and how he would react to everything he had seen.

It wasn't hard to understand his baser motives. Apparently he'd been having a tough time dealing with everything non-celebrity Renee had told him about his other self and had been too curious to resist taking a look. Obviously, he also had unresolved issues with the girl, and it wasn't like he could talk to anybody about it. If he did, it was a one way ticket to a straightjacket. Claire couldn't blame him for his interest, although she could blame him for being stupid enough to act on it. In her humble opinion, a wish on the necklace was asking for disaster when used to pry into destiny and he of all people ought to have realised it.

What she didn't understand on the higher level was exactly what he was looking for out of this, what resolution he hoped to find.

She was also worried that if he had been tempted to use it once, he would be tempted to use it again. Acts like this were always hardest the first time, and when people grew in confidence with such things they also grew in stupidity. It was Claire's biggest fear that the next time he picked up the necklace, he would do something he'd regret. Not just him, but also Renee and possibly all those in charge. What Renee had done had been accidental, but she had taken the lemons and made lemonade. She'd listened, she'd learned, and she'd done the smart thing and put the universe back to rights.

Claire didn't trust Justin to do the same. He'd done this on purpose, knowing the disruption he would cause. He had intended to do a body swap, and it was sheer luck that he'd been so sloppy with the wording - clearly the Powers That Be had jumped on that little loophole. The magic forced them to grant his wish, but it didn't force them to take anything beyond a literal interpretation of the words. Of course they had known what he was intending, but they weren't obligated to adhere to that so long as their actions satisfied the phrasing.

Justin wasn't stupid. If there was a next time, it would be an unequivocal next time. The fact that he might make such a move did not inspire her with confidence that he would behave rationally.

To that end, Claire was facing a moral dilemma. As she sat outside the dark oak door with its gilt numbers, stared at the deep red carpet and generally looked out of place amongst the expensive vases and flowers decorating the corridor. It was expressly forbidden for her to interfere in the happenings on Earth, in any dimension. She could explain, offer advice and opinions, even guide people to opportunities the way she had when she had led this reality's Renee to Justin's studio that day… but she wasn't allowed to interfere with free will. She wasn't allowed to force people's decisions either way, she wasn't allowed to eliminate possible choices from the equation and she most certainly was not allowed to remove the necklace from whoever currently had hold of it.

Needless to say, she was very tempted to help Justin 'lose' the necklace, once they got back. She had absolutely no idea how in the world to do it without breaking the rules, however, and her bosses certainly wouldn't help. They were bound by the magic; they could not refuse any wish no matter how terrible, and they could not decide who was and wasn't allowed to make wishes. Claire thought that those were the dumbest rules ever, but then she supposed they were the all knowing and powerful ones - maybe they saw a purpose she didn't.

Sometimes, Claire really hated knowing secrets of the universe. It seemed like the more she knew the less she understood.

"Look who decided to show up," she said when her charge finally walked back out through the wall. He seemed to enjoy the novelty of that; most people when faced with this observational dimension still came through the door by habit.

"What time is it?" He asked. "There are no clocks in there."

Claire jerked her head silently towards the ornate ornamental clock on the wall between the emergency stairs and the elevator.

"Nine? I knew they ought to be awake by now."

"Justin…" Claire said, "Did you hear what you just said?"

"Huh?" He looked at her blankly.

"You're berating people for not being awake so you can spy on them. What's wrong with this picture?"

Justin pointedly ignored her. "Don't they have things to do? Isn't he supposed to be recording with JC?"

"How am I supposed to know?" She sighed in exasperation, toying with the hem of the turtleneck sweater she was wearing (a perk of the afterlife was magically appearing clothes). "Maybe they have a day off or maybe they've just overslept. Who knows?"

"And here was me thinking you knew everything. Were you this hostile with Renee?"

Her eyes narrowed dangerously as she hoisted herself to her feet to look him in the eye. "Listen, bucko, Renee wasn't doing anything as monumentally moronic as you are right now. Not to mention she never invaded anybody's privacy like this or more to the point, forced me to. She's my best friend, lest you forget, and I am NOT comfortable with this, on any level. You were spying on her in the damn bathroom, man. Don't think I'm unsympathetic, I know you've had a rough time but this is really not helping you out here. And also it's mega creepy."

"You were the one who told me we should impartially observe," Justin pointed out, folding his arms defensively across his chest.

"No, I was the one who begged you to take the lesser of the evils, which would be this."

"Well…"

"Honestly, Justin," she continued, "what are you expecting out of this? I mean, you've seen it. She's happy here, the other you is happy with her. I mean, I know in some ways that has to sting for you but would you have felt better if she was miserable? I honestly don't get what any of this was trying to accomplish, other than to help you wallow in your pain some more. It's not healthy."

Justin bristled, feeling some grains of truth in what she said. In some ways he wasn't quite sure what he had been looking to achieve, but all he had known was that wondering was killing him. Surely it was better to see and to know than to let your own nasty imagination torture you with possibilities?

"I just… wanted to know how she was."

"Well obviously she's fine. So why are we still here? What precisely are you expecting to see from this morning that you didn't see last night?"

There was no way to answer that question without admitting that he had actually peeked in on the pair of them sleeping, once there was enough daylight to give some illumination. It had been physically painful to see; they had been coiled up together exactly the way he and his Renee used to. It wasn't just a lovers' vibe; the two pictures were literally identical, Renee's appearance notwithstanding.

His other self had been stretched haphazardly out on his back, one arm strewn across the pillow behind his head and a foot poking messily out of the sheets. His other arm curled tightly around his girlfriend, whose body was half sprawled across him. He couldn't see beneath the covers, but experience told him she had one leg hooked with his. It was almost like a movie scene, except the pose wasn't quite as tidy and streamlined. The room was sumptuous, the bed enormous and draped in rich burgundy. Idly Justin wondered if this version also insisted on providing his own bed linen.

He knew he probably shouldn't have looked in, but once again nosiness had got the best of him. With a pang he had realised how much he missed being that way with somebody, how long it had been since he and his own girlfriend had been wrapped up in each other like that (literally and figuratively). Once again he almost had to hate his other self: so peaceful and unperturbed even in sleep, looking so blissfully content. Clearly there was nothing keeping him awake at night.

"Earth to Justin?" His thoughts were interrupted by Claire waving an impatient hand in front of his eyes. "Is anybody home in there?"

"Oh, yeah, sorry," he muttered.

"Look." Claire pushed her back from her forehead, sighing slightly. "I don't want to push you here but I'm a little worried about how much time we've taking; the longer you're here the longer you're missing from your own reality. You think you're anywhere near leaving?"

"Just… give me a little longer."

With a huff and a groan, Claire sat back down and resumed staring at the expensively papered walls.

***

"Justin…" Renee tapped his chest gently with an index finger as he began to stir. She didn't want to wake him up unwillingly (because that inevitably led to grumpiness) but if he was coming out of it on his own she saw no harm in encouraging it.

"Mmmm…" Came the sleepy response.

"You awake babe?"

"No." He frowned before reaching over to kiss her forehead and then rolling back to his previous position, eyes never opening.

"Have you gotta be in the studio?" She had to persist because he had a habit of waking up, having a conversation with her and dropping back off in the middle of it. If that happened, he wouldn't remember a word she'd said to him.

"No." Justin's fingers trailed lazily over her bare shoulder. "JC has… stuff… "

"You wanna go out for breakfast? Maybe go back for those pecan waffles you said you liked?"

"Food… is good…"

Renee bit her lip coyly, unable to stop the smile spreading across her face. He was adorable when he was incoherent like this; there was just something she liked about seeing him in less than his usual sharp and alert state. Possibly it was the fact he looked like a five year old and said some fairly embarrassing things on occasion - she just found it funny.

Sometimes she found it silly that even after a year she still got a little giddy waking up with him in the mornings. They were long past the honeymoon stage where the love making was constant and everything was all romance and candles. There was, however, still much to be said for waking up draped all over a hot guy who adored you. She'd be lying if she said she got treated like a princess twenty four seven, but for the most part she had a pretty considerate boyfriend and she really enjoyed going to sleep and waking up all cuddled up to him (even though he often complained that she wriggled too much in her sleep).

It was just a nice way to wake up. She was sure her hair was a total mess, and she'd probably find crease marks imprinted in her skin somewhere from the sheets. But she was toasty warm, being held close by the man she loved and he was just really, really nice to look at in the mornings. She lusted for his body, she was unashamed of it. It was often a source of wry amusement to her that she had originally been shocked at how oversexed the Renee and Justin of that other reality had been, considering she was now just as guilty of it (at least when she could spend the time with him, anyway).

"I'm gonna jump in the shower, babe, are you joining me?"

Her only response was a relaxing of his grip and the sound of his slow, even breathing. Clearly the man had fallen back to sleep already. Experience had taught her she just had to leave him to it and let him wake up when he was ready.

"Fine." Renee dropped a kiss on his chest before sliding out of his embrace and clambering out of the tangled sheets. "Sleep's more fun than wet and naked me. I'll remember that Timberlake."

Justin slumbered on without hearing a word.

***

This time, Claire had actually followed Justin into the room, if only to try and censor his spying a little. She really wished she hadn't.

"God, my eyes…" She shook her head as if trying to burn the image from her brain. "Hasn't she heard of bathrobes?"

"Not like she knew there were people watching her on another plane of existence." It was Justin's turn to be the reasonable one for a moment or two. He hadn't followed her into the bathroom a la the previous night, but was remaining in the living room with Claire. Besides, he'd already seen it all, and there wasn't much to be gained from watching her in the shower by herself except a rare sneak peek into the female grooming routine.

"True, but… ugh. That was so wrong. Anyway, kiddo, you good to go?"

"When do we absolutely have to leave?" He asked.

"Well…" She desperately tried to think of an answer which was truthful but did not encourage him to stick around. "Technically you could stay here forever if you wanted, I can't take you back until you're ready to go, but… like I said, time's still passing in your world and I don't know how much. I imagine it's on a similar time frame but I can't guarantee it, and even by that standard you've been missing… got to be somewhere between twelve and eighteen hours. Somebody's gonna start wondering where you are."

"Yeah…" Justin's voice trailed off, as he started at the bathroom door. You would almost believe he could see through it, with a gaze so intense, but all it revealed to him was some cherry veneer under which was almost certainly wood of the cheapest kind dressed up to look expensive. For the price you paid for these hotel suites, it seemed wrong.

"Whenever you're ready, just say the word."

"Okay. I've probably seen everything I can from here anyway."

"Alrighty then." Claire began preparing for the unpleasant sensation of traversing dimensions. "You just grab my hand and away we go."

Justin's back was to Claire at this point, and she couldn't possibly have seen what his hands were doing. It wasn't hard to deduce however, once he opened his mouth and started talking.

"I wish to swap places with this reality's Justin Timberlake."

Just as she had feared - this time he hadn't left any wiggle room. He'd been terribly specific.

"Oh SHIT!" She screamed in frustration and fear to the cosmos, though none but the idiot wearing the necklace could hear her.

Inside the hotel suite, specifically the bedroom, the young man stretched out on the bed began tossing his head from side to side, squirming and wriggling. Then, almost as quickly as he had started, his body settled back down into its previous position.

The only visible difference was the tension which had replaced the previously peaceful expression on his face.

Humming one of Justin's newest songs as she stepped out of the shower, Renee grabbed a towel and quickly wrapped it around herself. Wiping the condensation from the mirror as best she could, she grabbed her toothbrush and got to work on her teeth.

If nothing else, having a mouthful of white foam stopped her whistling. The problem with being around Justin while he was recording was that his songs got stuck in her head, and it unduly influenced her own writing process. Spitting out the toothpaste and quickly rinsing off her brush, Renee reached for the hair dryer before deciding that she couldn't be bothered. Call her lazy, but drying and styling was far too much effort when Justin was always telling her he liked the bed head look. Possibly he liked her looking like she'd just rolled out of his bed, but either way it gave her an excuse to go the indolent way.

As she walked out into the living room she couldn't help shivering - she guessed she must have hit a breath of air con without realising it, though she couldn't see a vent anywhere near. Having wet hair and only partially dried skin couldn't help either. Shaking it off and ignoring the goose bumps which rose on her arms, she started rummaging in her purse for her hairbrush.

***

"Renee? Renee? Can't you fucking hear me?"

"Ohhhhhhh boy." Clapping a hand over her eyes, Claire still couldn't help peeking through her fingers at the poor, confused version of Justin who had just replaced the trigger -or maybe that should be wish - happy idiot version. That version who was currently in the other room, having just gone and thrown all their asses out of the frying pan and into the furnace.

"RENEE!"

"She can't hear you," Claire informed him miserably.

"Who the fuck are you?"

This version of Justin had already been looking scruffy between the old t-shirt, the sloppy jeans and the messily cultivated beard. However, in the few minutes since the wish had been granted an incredible panic had settled in behind his eyes, making him appear manic. It was quite understandable, but it did make him look somewhat like a drunken hobo.

"Okay, I know you're uber-freaked but you need to calm down, okay? I'm going to have to tell you some pretty crazy sounding shit and you hyperventilating is not going to help you deal."

"You want me to be calm when there's some psycho stranger in my hotel room? Okay." Damn, this version was just as sarcastic. He painted a pleasant smile on his face and spoke with the patented Starbucks employee fake chirpiness. "I repeat, who the fuck are you?"

"Maybe this'll go better if I just show you…fuck this is not good."

Claire was seriously torn between helping this Justin (who was the victim in all this) and popping into Renee's dimension properly so she could give body snatcher Justin what for. She hated to think it, but maybe magically finding himself in the living room in a place where his girlfriend couldn't hear him would help on that score. Considering that he was experiencing it first hand, maybe he wouldn't be so hard to convince.

Justin for his part was scared out of his wits. One moment he had been sleepily talking to Renee, the next thing he knew he was standing in the other room, fully dressed, with no recollection of how he got there and some strange woman standing next to him. She was about the same height and colouring as Renee, but her face was much rounder and olive toned; he detected some form of Latin or maybe Filipino heritage.

This was before they even got started on the fact that he suddenly had a full beard when he'd only shaved yesterday.

"What the hell is going on?"

"Okay…" She took a couple of steps towards him, wincing. "If I could just ask you to pick up Renee's bag."

"What the fuck? Why?"

"Because you're going to have a really hard time believing what I have to tell you, and I think you'll be a little more willing to listen to me if I give you a demonstration. Just try it."

He had no idea why he was listening to the crazy woman who had invaded his hotel suite, but Justin still dutifully grabbed at Renee's bag. His hand passed straight through it. Thinking he must have missed it, he tried again - the result was the same. Disbelieving, he took a further three or four swipes at it before his eyes widened in horror and he realised that his hand was passing straight through it every time.

"What… the… FUCK?" Justin screeched, becoming oddly high pitched.

"Okay, here goes…" Claire steeled herself for the inevitable ridiculousness of what she was about to say. "Long story short… alternate realities and dimensions are real. There's other realities in which another version of you is living their life but making different choices than the ones you have and so their life goes a different path. Right now you're in a holding dimension, kind of like an observatory where you can see other worlds without being in them or affecting them. I was here showing a different version of you what your life is like, but because he's a much fucking dumber version he kind of did this body swap number on you. You're in his body, he's in yours. That's why you wound up here with no explanation, that's why I'm here, that's why Renee can't hear you."

"Uhh… say what now?" He squeaked.

It was, at least, an improvement on the swearing. "I'm really sorry, I know this has to sound crazy and be really confusing but…"

"Who are you?"

"Umm…" This was her next favourite part. "Renee ever mentioned a Claire to you? That's me; I'm a friend of hers."

His brows scrunched together so much they almost looked like one. "The only Claire she's ever told me about died in a car crash or something."

She shrugged, holding her hands in the air sheepishly. "Got run down. But yep, that'd be me - told ya you'd have a hard time believing this."

For her part, what she had a hard time with was deciphering his reaction to this news; he started peering intently around the room, scrutinising the walls. The TV set, the sofas, the dining table and chairs, the cabinets, the curtains, nothing in the cherry panelled room escaped his scrutiny. He even bent down to peer under the coffee table. Slowly yet silently he paced around the room, peering intently at things.

"Ashton set you up to this, huh? No fair putting the punk on the same guy twice."

Wryly she remembered the other Justin having the same reaction when faced with the idea that Renee had been body swapped - almost word for word. The guy must have been looking for cameras.

"Oh. Denial. My favourite stage of the game..." she muttered. "Justin, Ashton's good but not that good. What, you think the bag's a hologram? You saw Renee pick it up; she look like a trick of the light to you? You think Ashton Kutcher painted an incredibly realistic beard on you while you slept?"

"Renee…"

Justin dashed into the other room, and Claire groaned. Great, all she needed was to have to go in there and deal with two Justin Timberlakes at once. They seemed to cause her enough grief on their own.

"And yet he has no problem walking through solid wood…" She hurried after him.

***

It was almost like having an out of body experience. Not being in this new body - funny, he'd expected that to be the weirdest part, that the sensation would seem unnatural or something. Amazingly enough it still felt very much like his, although his face felt oddly bare. He'd grown far too used to living with a beard. No, what felt so surreal was the way that a dripping wet, towel clad but mostly naked Renee had (on seeing he was awake) bounced onto the bed beside him, dropped a happy kiss on his lips and smiled brightly at him.

It was so familiar yet so alien. It was odd looking at her as a brunette when he was so used to her bleaching the hell out of her hair, but more to the point she was looking at him with obvious love in her eyes. He couldn't remember the last time he'd seen anything but blankness in his own girlfriend's.

"So, we're actually awake this time?" She asked brightly, reaching across him to grab the hairbrush on the nightstand. She could have sworn she'd left it in her purse.

"Yep." He chuckled weakly, a little disoriented. "You showered?"

"Yes. Somebody had an option to join me except he fell asleep on me instead."

"Well then somebody's a stupid bastard."

Renee laughed, not realising that he was utterly serious. "That was cold, Timberlake. My feelings are very hurt and I think you're gonna have to make it up to me. There might have to be shoe purchases."

"Damn, couldn't we go for sexual favours instead?"

"No because that's not punishment - that's fun." She smacked his bicep, and in a daze he watched motionlessly as she jumped back up and practically skipped to the ornately carved closet. It looked like it belonged in a stately home rather than a hotel, as did most of the furniture in the room. "So were you awake enough to hear the breakfast idea?"

"Uhh…"

"I'll take that as a no."

Justin was breathing a sigh of relief that she was taking his lack of knowledge as pure sleepiness. Suddenly he had an insight into what it must have been like for her when she visited his reality; being dumped somewhere without any back story made life difficult. It made him feel guilty for the way he had initially turned on her once he had found out, the way he'd accused her of being a conniving little liar. This stuff wasn't the easiest in the world to pull off.

Possibly that should make him feel guilty about the soul he'd just evicted rather than what had gone on in the past with her, but he was trying not to think about that.

"Sorry, tired. What about breakfast?"

He couldn't help reaching up a hand to play with her hair as she sat back on the bed beside him with a pile of clothes, or letting his eyes follow the curve of her collarbone up towards her neck. He really couldn't help looking when she dropped the towel and started pulling on a pretty cute pink and black underwear set.

"I was thinking we could go back out to that Eggscentric place that was off Main Street. Those waffles are too sinfully good not to."

"We could do that." Justin yawned, his eyes never losing focus on Renee as she affectionately rubbed his arm before turning her attention back to her shirt and jeans.

"It's a plan."

Jumping up so she could pull on her pants properly, Renee did a little hop and wriggled herself in until she was happy with where they sat (they were a little tight, but she was too fond of the way they made her butt look to forgo them for comfort's sake). Finally satisfied, she clambered back onto the bed and hovered over Justin on all fours, effectively straddling him.

"Morning." She smiled as she moved in closer.

"Morning…" Justin managed to breathe out before her lips met his.

For a brief moment they hung there in time, seemingly suspended in the moment. Justin felt a dizzy head rush as he revelled in the fact he was finally kissing her again after so long - and that he was kissing somebody who wasn't his Renee. It didn't last for long however as she broke away and sat back before the kiss could really go anywhere.

The frown on her face was making him really nervous. She looked… dare he say annoyed? She was certainly looking at him like something had displeased her. Naturally his mind latched onto the idea that she'd somehow known from his kiss that he was not the Justin he was supposed to be. It was fair to say he was just a little terrified.

"My God…"

Oh he felt like he was going to throw up all over the nice sheets.

"That's disgusting. You need to go wash up like now because you have the worst morning breath EVER."

"Gee…" He responded weakly, trying to inhale deeply without looking like he was having trouble breathing (not an easy feat). "Way to make a guy feel good, baby."

"Go on." She removed herself from his lap so that he could get up. "Go wash up, lazy ass. Toothpaste is your friend."

***

Her heart was breaking for him.

He had just had to watch his girlfriend kiss another man, and the hurt was written all over his face. He looked curiously like a puppy dog, and suddenly she understood why girls had found him so appealing post-Britney. It wasn't just the suddenly being single, it was the walking wounded vibe - clearly it made females want to mother him.

Add in the fact that he hadn't really been watching her kiss another man because technically it was his body with somebody else in the driver's seat, and you had a really complicated situation. She could almost hear the conversation he was having with himself in his head: the one where one voice asked how she was supposed to know and the other which still insisted she somehow should. In any event, her sympathy was all his. Naturally she felt a little sorry for Renee who was basically being defrauded, but at the moment she was more worried about this gentleman.

The moron who had just got out of the bed, however, him she was going to bloodily mutilate. There might also be bamboo slivers under his nails, she hadn't decided yet.

"Justin?" Claire broached him tentatively, a gentle hand brushing his arm. He immediately recoiled from it and backed off, crossing his arms defensively across his chest. He moved exactly like a wounded animal - he had the same look of fear in his eyes.

"I don't… what is this?"

"Like I said to you - the body you're in now, it's still Justin Timberlake. It's just Justin Timberlake from a different world, where he's lived his life differently to you. I brought him here so he could get a glimpse of your life, here being a dimension where you can just watch things but not affect them - that's why you can't touch anything. But the bastard pulled this body swap on me when he wasn't supposed to, and now he's in your body and you're in his."

"Why? Why would he do that?"

Justin did not want to believe this woman. He wanted to believe this was some horrible but ultimately insignificant dream. However, he'd never had a dream this tactile before, he'd never dreamed of any of Renee's dead friends and he had never managed to walk through walls or grow a beard which he could physically feel. In fact, he'd never had dreams in which he could feel the things he touched - but he had felt himself, had felt this Claire chick.

So for now, he was going to play along and just hope he woke up.

"That's a long story… this isn't the first time he's dealt with this. Or the first time he's met your girl there. About two years ago Renee body swapped with the version of her from his world, except she did it by accident."

"What? How?" Not that he believed her; he just wanted to know what she was going to say.

"That necklace you're wearing? It's like the magic lamp only I'm not a genie and nobody's limiting you to three wishes. Rub it and make a wish out loud, it'll get granted. She didn't know that, he did."

"Great!" Justin smiled brightly, sensing an end to the dream and a perfect wake up point. His hand flew to the chunky pendant around his neck. He couldn't see it, but it felt ugly. "I wish…"

"It won't work," she interrupted him. Irritation dripped from her voice, although he wasn't to know that he was not its object. "Unfortunately, you can't undo his wish. He has to."

"What? You mean I'm stuck here?"

Why the heck wasn't he waking up yet? Justin really wanted to wake up now. This all sounded far too crazy and like a bad Star Trek episode (although he supposed that would involve alien meteors or something rather than a necklace, Pharrell had forced him to watch a few episodes one time). He really did not want to believe that the innocuous looking woman in the shirt and jeans was dead. He refused to believe he had really just seen himself kiss his girlfriend from a bystander's perspective - except that it was somebody else in his body. Any second now, he expected his brain to explode; this was all too much.

"Not if I have anything to do with it. I'm going to pop into your dimension and kick his ass until he wishes you back but in the meantime… I have to put his body back in his dimension. He's been here too long."

"What?" Now he was really starting to panic. He'd never had a panic attack before, but if it involved his airway constricting then he thought this might be one. "No. No. I'm not going anywhere, I REALLY want to wake the fuck up now."

"Justin…" Claire put on her best soothing voice, inching slowly towards him. "I'm going to fix this. I swear to you, I will." She purposely left out the possibility of the three weeks elapsing and him being stranded in the strange body.

"But right now, I have to put this body back in the dimension it belongs in before somebody files a missing person's and you have more than you can deal with on your hands. I promise, as soon as I've read him the riot act and checked some stuff with my bosses, I will be back to see you and we can talk and you can interrogate me all you want. It'll just be in his house, and so long as you don't leave it the only people you might have to see will be your mom or Trace. You can handle your mom or Trace, right? All you have to do is come with me, and just wait in the house. You don't even have to step outside."

"Mom…" He could use his mother's comfort right now. "But, Renee…"

He looked back towards the figure on the bed, the one stretched out across the covers flicking through US Weekly. He even had to smile a little bit when he saw her blow a raspberry at a page which contained a big picture of the two of them - rumours irritated her, even the harmless ones. God, all he wanted to do was wake up and hold her... and then it made him sick to his stomach thinking that if this Claire girl was to be believed, he'd be leaving the woman he loved to hang out with, kiss, and possibly even have sex with somebody else. He wanted to throw up.

"Trust me, I'll look out for your girl there. I love her too." Claire told him softly, holding out her hand to him.

Shaking like a leaf, Justin's still blue eyes stared at her hand, honestly afraid. Right now he was only half convinced this was a dream, and the last thing he wanted was to find it was real. Well, maybe if he took her hand that would be the signal for him to wake up. Either way, it didn't seem like he had much of a choice. His fingers gingerly stretched out towards hers, hesitating every half inch, but instead of grabbing for him she patiently let him grasp her open palm in his own time. When he took her hand he expected to see a flash of light or stars or something like that. He hoped to see Renee bouncing on the bed around him trying to wake him up, which would indicate that he'd had a real funky dream and he ought to seek therapy...

Instead, he had the odd sensation of being grabbed by the entrails and yanked through space…

"I mean, don't get me wrong, I love Tim but I just cannot see how his beats and my music are gonna mesh. He was talking beat boxes for crying out loud, and I really don't want to piss him off but it just doesn't…"

Renee could have been talking to the wall, for all the attention her words were getting. In truth she probably would have found the wall more receptive, but she was too cheerily chatting away to notice.

Justin probably looked for all the world like he was listening. His blue eyes remained focussed on her at all times, defying all normal behaviour. If it hadn't been for the need to blink or occasionally look at his plate to see where his food was, his gaze would probably have stayed fixed on the same spot for the entire forty minutes that they had been there. The pecan waffles were in fact very good but he had no idea they were, having ignored the taste of all food going into his mouth. The eating was an entirely secondary activity to the staring, and he was giving as much concentration to it as to her words.

He was trying to put his finger on what it was that was so different about her. There were obvious things like her hair and body shape; however, there was something far more profound separating her from the alter ego of his own reality. Clearly she was also in a far better mood than his girl, but that wasn't it either. Another glaringly evident one was that she ate like a pig - it had to be said. She wasn't messy, but he was fairly amazed by the amount she was managing to stuff away in that pretty little mouth of hers (and with very little break in the conversation, either).

Eggscentric had turned out to be an incredibly grungy little diner off of Main Street. Appearances, though, were deceptive - everything was clean, the food was good and more to the point it was quiet. They were sitting there sans security, and he hadn't seen one photographer. The booths were a disgusting shade of green vinyl (it reminded him vividly of wheatgrass shakes), the tables had scratched plastic surfaces and the counter looked incongruously sixties inspired. Nothing matched with anything else, the name was fairly stupid and he'd almost been surprised the cutlery hadn't been plastic too. The waitress was friendly, though.

"… I mean, how do you think I should bring it up with him?"

It took Justin a full twenty seconds to realise he had been asked a question and was now expected to answer it, as was customary.

"Umm… I don't know." He shrugged, shovelling food into his mouth so he couldn't speak for a moment.

"Well, he's your friend." Renee added some more sugar into and stirred her coffee with her spoon. "I like him and I don't want to burn any bridges but can you really see Timbaland producing on a Renee Anderson record? How the heck would that come off?"

He had to take some more time to process this information. Justin was having a hard time with the idea that a master hip hop producer would be best pals with the Prince of Teenyboppers. Then he remembered that his doppelganger apparently had a little more credibility than he did. It almost made him tempted to go look up his record sales too; it'd be nice if he could beat him at something.

"Well… I guess you either gotta just be straight with him or give him a shot in the studio and judge by what comes out."

"Maybe." She nodded, taking a sip of coffee. Justin was just impressed he'd managed to come out with a vaguely sensible idea. "You okay, babe? You seem quiet."

"Yeah." He gave her a flash of his best hottest-poll-winning smile and tried to look at ease. "I'm just doin' me some eatin', that's all."

"Like that ever stopped you yakking my ear off." Renee rolled her eyes at him mischievously.

He was trying to work out whether her dimple was more or less pronounced when her face was more rounded. As soon as he realised what he was doing, however, he chastised himself for constantly comparing her to somebody else. The whole point was that she was not that person, and he wanted to see what 'not that person' was like these days. Constantly comparing the two of them wasn't going to help his purpose.

He still wasn't quite sure what that purpose was, but he was working on it.

The table fell into amiable silence as Renee concentrated on the side of chocolate chip pancakes she had ordered. Her rationale had been that ordering wholemeal balanced out the chocolate. His opinion was that she had a sucking vacuum where her stomach ought to be.

There were a million and one things he wanted to know, but he couldn't broach the subjects knowing as little background as he did. It was all material that the Justin of this world would be able to recall at the drop of a hat, and it would look strange if he didn't remember things. That had been one of the things that had tipped him off about Renee when she had done her body swap - the amount of elementary stuff she hadn't known - and he was going to learn from her mistakes. If he was going to observe this life properly he needed to go undetected for as long as possible.

Claire was the person he needed, but Claire hadn't come around yet. If it was even Claire who would be his guide for this little trip: she had been this Renee's, but his own Renee (who wouldn't tell him much about her experiences of the college life she'd been dumped into) had been given a different guide, an elderly relative who had died when she was small. It occurred to him that she was probably dealing with the other Justin, who was probably extremely confused at this point.

Learning about alternate dimensions could seriously fuck with your head - he of all people knew.

In the meantime, without her to ask a few things and get some background from, he was stuck. He couldn't very well ask Renee how they'd met or what they did together or what had happened with her career. She expected him to know. There were certainly questions he could ask to get her talking on the topics, but they all required at least some level of common knowledge between the two of them before he could do it. Justin was gaining more and more empathy for what she had gone through on her little trip to visit him. He was second guessing every word out of his mouth, every look and every gesture, and it was fairly tiresome.

"Excuse me…"

The silence was interrupted by a lady in what looked like a cashier's uniform from a supermarket of some description. She was hovering in a way that was very familiar to Justin - nice to see not everything changed.

"…I'm so sorry to interrupt, but are you Renee Anderson?"

Renee smiled, rapidly chewing while gesturing at her mouth with her hand and rolling her eyes comically, causing the interloper to giggle. Finally she managed to swallow. "Sorry, I had my mouth completely full there but yeah, yes I am."

"Hi, I'm Marcia Perry," she held out her hand which Renee shook quickly. "I really am sorry to disturb you but my daughter Annie absolutely loves your CD and I was wondering if I could ask you to sign an autograph for her."

"Sure, if you have a pen, but I don't think I got anything good to sign… can she make do with a napkin?"

"You kidding?" Mrs Perry laughed. "I think she'd be happy if you signed an empty juice box or something."

There was a bright flash of teeth as Renee accepted the pen and grabbed a napkin from the dispenser. As she scribbled away on the napkin, the older woman turned to smile at Justin. The expression didn't quite go away when she met his harsh blue eyes, but it certainly faded somewhat as she fixed her gaze back on his companion, who seemed to be having trouble writing without ripping the napkin to shreds. He hated being bothered on his off time, and especially while he was eating.

Of course it had technically been Renee who had been bothered, but it was all the same to him. One thing he had never understood in all his years as a celebrity was why people couldn't understand the fact that there was public time and there was private time, and meals out were definitely private time. It wasn't like he had glared at the woman, but he wasn't going to make huge efforts to be friendly to people who disturbed his time with his girlfriend (even though she was, to be precise, somebody else's).

Renee did not fail to notice this, but the smile never wavered as she handed the napkin back to Mrs Perry and once again gave her the photo shoot smile. "There you go."

"Thank you so much, you just made me the world's best Mom. Thank you, I'm so sorry to have interrupted your meal."

"Not at all. Tell Annie I said hi."

Once she had left the café with her daughter's prize, Renee turned back to Justin with a somewhat annoyed expression. It was more disappointment than anger, but still the mouth was set firmly and the eyebrows had drawn just a little closer together. It was an unmistakeable frown.

"I'm almost impressed - you could not have been less friendly without actually insulting the woman. What gives?"

"What? It's not like I was rude to her." He shrugged defensively. "I just don't like getting bugged by fans when we're supposed to be on a date."

"Never seemed to bug you before." She raised an eyebrow, picking up her fork and pushing the last couple of pancake pieces around her plate. "At least not when it's one really polite lady who wasn't hurting anybody - it's not like it was one of your psychotic worshippers trying to hit on you in front of me."

This meant absolutely nothing to him, but her Justin would have known exactly what she was referring to. It had been pretty much agreed between the two of them when they would and wouldn't agree to give autographs if together, and Renee's fans probably got the better end of that deal. It had nothing to do with favouritism, but was based instead on past experience. When people were hunting for an autograph from one of them it was usually him, and his fans tended to be less painstakingly polite than the lady they'd just encountered. Some of them seemed to take great offence if he told them no (and at Renee's very existence), and there were far too many of them who had no sense of when it was appropriate to approach him.

Renee's fans, however, tended to be a little older and a lot less fanatical than his. This was no reflection on either Renee or Justin; it was just the reality of her genre of music and the lesser level of fame she possessed. She still had her share of overly invested ones or people who had little grasp of when it was and wasn't polite to advance for the autograph or the picture, but generally speaking they were a little better. Normally Justin respected that and was nice to Renee's fans if they were nice to Renee, so she was having trouble understanding why he'd given her the evil eye. The woman couldn't have been more polite if she'd tried; it wasn't as though she'd interrupted a candlelit dinner.

"Sorry, sorry…" Justin mumbled, reaching for his orange juice as he realised he had clearly made some relationship faux pas he wasn't aware of. "Just not in the mood to deal with the outside world today. What do you say we go back to the hotel and don't come out for like, three weeks?"

The three weeks was a Freudian slip of epic proportions, but Renee was of course completely unaware of this. Shaking her head, her irritation not quite dissipated, she still managed to fix a look of affection on her boyfriend.

"We both have recording to do and an anniversary trip to Vegas to take. Kind of difficult if we don't leave the room."

Justin's ears perked up at the mention of an anniversary. "Vegas…" He tried to avoid phrasing it like a question.

"Speaking of, where do you wanna stay? The Palms is supposed to be good, but I know you've been there more than me so I figure you got the scoop on the hotspots." The brunette decided that dwelling on the subject wouldn't do anybody any good - he'd been a little grumpy with a fan, it happened. He was only human.

"I don't know. I'll give it some thought. You about done, Ren?"

"Uhh, sure."

As Justin pulled out his wallet and tossed some bills down on the table, she collected up her jacket and bag. She couldn't quite put her finger on it, but something was definitely up with him today. It wasn't the first funny mood he'd been in and wouldn't be the last but it did seem to have come from the blue, a little. He'd probably be fine in a few hours and it wouldn't make the smallest bit of difference to anything at all, but she was a little puzzled by it.

Quickly she decided not to press him about it. He'd tell her if he wanted to, but in the meantime it was probably best for her to just let him stew for a while and deal with it himself. It was entirely understandable, and in any other circumstance it would probably have been wise for her to so readily dismiss it. If she'd have thought a little harder about this particular instance, nonetheless, she might have wondered why he had just called her Ren.

Only one Justin Timberlake had ever referred to her as Ren, and it wasn't the one she'd been dating for the past year.

"You okay?" Claire ventured to ask Justin, who was looking at the alien surroundings of his other self's house with not a small amount of incredulousness.

"This is some whacked out dream I'm having…"

"Umm…" She shifted uneasily from foot to foot, not sure how exactly how to talk to him. The boy seemed determined to stay in denial, and until he accepted the situation he was in she couldn't risk leaving him. That made her nervous, because she really needed to go drop in on his counterpart and give him a good left hook for sheer idiocy.

"Fuck… this is…" He was staring in wonderment at a platinum disc on the wall. There were many of them around, a lot of familiar looking awards too - Teen Choice surfboards, moon men - but he was staring at a platinum disc for a Justin Timberlake album he'd never made.

"What can I do to convince you that you are not going to wake up and find this is all a dream?" She finally decided to just ask him. "I know this has to be a total head trip but it's real and you need to get with the program, mister, the faster the better."

They had landed back in what appeared to be the study of the other Justin's house. The place was very sterile, all white walls, black leather and pale wood surfaces. There was a complicated looking phone and fax system on the desk, as well as a very expensive looking laptop. If it hadn't been for the awards and discs placed on the walls and on shelving, there wouldn't have been a drop of colour in the room. Even the carpet was a pale shade of beige.

Claire had vainly hoped the jump through dimensions would allow it to hit home, but he remained stubbornly resistant. In all honesty, she understood. It was a hard enough concept to grasp when you wanted to believe it - and few people in her experience ever wanted to believe it. It had taken Renee some time to accept it herself. The other Justin when faced with his body swapped girlfriend had only believed it because he'd had a lot more time to observe the weirdness; there had also been that business where she had still been incorporeal and he had watched Renee fall through her. Just to hammer it home, she had then disappeared into thin air - and all this while he knew he was already awake. This Justin probably had grounds to believe he was still asleep.

"Holy… Renee?"

Her head immediately shot around to look where he was. He had picked up a picture frame from the desk; he was staring at it in disbelief and… was that disdain? He certainly wasn't impressed by what he was seeing. Moving over to stand next to him, she struck a casual pose and looked over his shoulder.

"Yep," the brunette replied nonchalantly, trying to play it just right. "In this dimension, you never went out with Britney or Cameron or whoever. You've been dating Renee since you were… oh, gotta be eighteen or nineteen. She's the Teen Queen of Pop around these parts, always has been. You ask anybody here about Britney Spears and they look at you and ask who the fuck you're talking about."

"Huh?"

It was almost comical, the confused expression on his face. His left eyebrow was practically up by his hairline. Dream or not, the idea that he had never dated Britney was inconceivable, let alone the idea that she who couldn't visit a bathroom without making headlines wasn't famous. No Cameron, either? It was weird to think about what his life would be like if he'd never been involved with either of them. Not to mention his music… well, he supposed that would explain the difference in CD covers. You couldn't write Cry Me A River without a Britney to piss you off first.

Wait, why was he thinking about this like it was real?

"The… the hair… and the boobs, God, they look too big for the rest of her body to hold 'em up. Who told her that was a good look?"

He couldn't help it - the hair must have had the hell bleached out of it, and he couldn't help comparing it to the striking chocolate colour of his girlfriend's hair. It might not have been natural, but it was well looked after and glossy and it suited her. The bleach job in the picture he was holding made her hair look like straw. He'd never been a fan of boob jobs, either, but he could at least admit that when well done they looked okay. This woman was obviously carrying boobs far too big for her worryingly thin frame, and it did not look good.

Again, why was he talking like this was an actual person and not a figment of his imagination?

"All questions Renee asked, when she did her accidental body swap," Claire informed him, perching herself on the desk and failing to catch his eye. "The woman you see in that picture is a puppet making music she doesn't believe in and wrecking her body trying to live up to an image that has never been her. Sad as that is, it's a good chunk of what made your girlfriend the woman she is today, the one you fell for. Because she saw it, had to spend some time in that overly coiffed body and decided that 'to thine own self be true' was more important than record sales. And if I may say so, I'm fucking proud of her. She seems… calmer, than when I last saw her. Content. Kudos on that by the way, I think you helped on that score."

"Let me get this straight…" Justin said sceptically. Noticing a clean sweater hanging off the back of the desk chair, he swapped the stained t-shirt for it. Maybe it was just a dream, but he felt unkempt. He wondered if there was a shaving kit anywhere in this dream, too. "Renee body swapped with some alter ego…"

"Before she got famous in your reality." Claire nodded.

"And you expect me to believe that she dated some alternate version of me and this little trip changed her life and made her go make music and… now you expect me to believe the same shit has happened to me? What am I supposed to be learning, exactly?"

"Nothing, because you have only made this trip because your alter ego is fucked in the head," she informed him bluntly. "And she didn't exactly date him, she just had to fill in until she could undo it all and get back to her own world where she belongs. And yes I do expect you to believe it, because it has happened, and once again I'm really sorry it has but you need to deal."

"Wouldn't that mean she only came to me to try and replace him?" Justin grouched.

Claire pounced on this with a cat like grin. "Wow, are we getting jealous over something we don't even believe happened? And no, it means nothing of the sort. Why do you think she turned you down for like a year straight?"

"Six months!" He corrected her with an evil glare.

"Whatever. She wasn't going to use you as a substitute, that's not Renee. Turns out she just likes ya. And if I may say so, from what I've seen she likes ya a lot more than him. You make a lovely couple, by the way. Did you really write SexyBack about her?"

"W-w-what?" Justin stammered in disbelief. How in the world could she know that? That was a private joke between him and his girlfriend.

"See? Now how I would I know that unless what I say is true and I've been watching? Not anything too intimate though," she hastened to add. "There're some things I don't need to see."

Justin squeezed his eyes tightly shut for a moment, trying desperately to reconcile all this information. If this was really a dream, then the only reason dream lady would know his secrets would be because it was his mind working through them in his subconscious. However, he was still struggling with the incredible physicality of all that had happened, and the fact that he was dreaming about a dead woman who had died at the age of fourteen and whom Renee had only mentioned about once in the entire time he had known her.

He couldn't say he had ever been a spectator of his own life in his dreams, either. He'd never seen himself from a third person's perspective in them.

"Okay…" He finally opened his eyes again, blinking far too much before seating himself at the desk chair. "Tell me the story, the whole story, from beginning to end. I'm not saying I believe you, I just… whatever. Tell me."

Looking nervously at the clock, desperate to go to the other reality to find wish boy, Claire began to launch into the whole tale.

"Well, it begins one night with Renee - your Renee - finding a magic necklace but not realising that it's magic…"

***

Justin was fairly horrified to see that Claire had just materialised in front of him, doing that strange black mist thing that she did. He couldn't believe she'd had the audacity to do it while he was with Renee, but Renee was happily staring at the TV screen, laughing away at a Friends rerun. She was standing in front of the television, blocking his view but obviously not his girlfriend's, and she looked entirely like she meant business. Her entire demeanour was icy and her eyes were blazing in a way that remind him all too much of hellfire. Even her outfit had become scarier - she stood in front of him in an entirely black and mildly dominatrix-looking get up.

"Oh that's right boy - be afraid. Be very afraid."

He desperately wanted to respond, but obviously talking to thin air was not the way to convince Renee he was the Justin she had been dating for the past year. He had a horrible feeling Claire had known that and done it on purpose; she had picked a time when he couldn't easily extract himself and it was impossible for him to answer her back.

"You, Justin Randall Timberlake, are the most inconceivable halfwit I've ever had the misfortune to come across. Do you have any idea what you've fucking done? You're completely defrauding Renee, you completely screwed over poor Justin who I just left sitting in your room completely head-fucked by what you just did and totally afraid you're going to take advantage of his girlfriend, after no less than three hours of trying to convince him this is all real, I might add, poor guy thought he'd been fed some kind of hallucinogenic, and what's more you did it on purpose, knowing what kind of shit you're asking for using that necklace. What kind of shit are you trying to pull?"

He squirmed uncomfortably in his seat and bit his lip. Apparently being dead meant run on sentences and not needing to stop for breath as you reamed somebody out. He badly wanted to yell back at her but he had no choice but to sit back and take it. Renee was already looking at him oddly, clearly unused to the fidgeting.

"Here's what's going to happen. You are going to tell Renee what you did and who you are. You are then going to find out where she put that necklace, and you are going to make a little wish to put yourself and the other Justin back in your rightful places. The faster you do this, the easier it'll be on you and I'm not just talking abut how much I'm going to kick your ass for this, which as you have noticed I am now capable of."

Justin's blue eyes met her dead ones defiantly, and he saw the anger which flared up in her face.

"You have precisely three weeks from today to put this right, asshole. She's happy and she's fulfilled for once in her damn life and I am going to make sure she stays that way, you understand me? If you even think about keeping up this bullshit, there's going to be Hell to pay. Because let me tell you, if you let the time run out and thus fuck up my girl's existence there, I am going to haunt your every waking moment. Don't think I can't do it. Tell her and then find that necklace. That's not a request. She already made her decision, you weren't it, now grow the heck up and respect that. You don't belong with her, he does. And let me tell you…"

Justin really didn't like the way Claire's eyes had clouded over, the long pause or the way her voice had suddenly gone quiet with that last sentence.

"…messing with destiny never ends well, Justin - nothing good will ever come of forcing yourself in where you don't belong. There's a reason they say curiosity killed the cat."

With an odd gleam in her eye, Claire disappeared in what could only be described as a rather violent explosion of black mist. It was so vigorous in fact that he couldn't help coughing as it enveloped his face. Apparently Renee didn't notice, for she immediately twisted round in her seat to face him, looking somewhat alarmed by the suddenness of it. It wasn't like he could actually breathe it in, but it was swarming his face and his throat felt horribly dry until finally it dissipated and he could bring the involuntary hacking to an end.

"Are you okay, baby?" She asked, concern on her face as she rubbed his back soothingly.

"Yeah, yeah… just got this sudden itch in the back of my throat," Justin replied weakly before gently tugging at a strand of her raven hair with his fingers. Tenderly they stroked the ends before he leaned forward and kissed her briefly, pulling away with a tight smile. "See? All better."

Looking at him with troubled eyes for a moment, Renee tried to brush off her feelings and settled down into his embrace, nestling herself under his arm. Her arm stretched lazily across her stomach as she tried to focus back on the TV, but she couldn't help the nagging sensation that something was up.

Justin for his part was brooding on Claire and her excessive rage. He found it just a little unbelievable - when Renee had visited his reality, there had been a huge question of whether she should stay or go and apparently Claire had been very supportive in helping her make her own decision. There had been none of this 'hell to pay' business, that was for sure. How come he wasn't being afforded the same treatment? How come she thought it was okay to order him around when it was his wish and his choice?

More to the point, why was she so convinced that if he stayed around he would ruin Renee's entire existence? Why would he do that? Was she trying to say he had some virulent touch and that she would get messed up the way his Renee had become messed up? Who said he couldn't love her just as well if not better than that other guy? Who said he was the most perfect best little Justin? He also didn't see how Renee would be taken advantage of any more than she had taken advantage of him when pretending to be his girlfriend without his knowledge, and he had been cool about that (or, okay, after a brief moment of fury he had been cool with that).

He stewed on that, convincing himself that what she had said was completely baseless and unjust and that he would not take orders from her. Justin Timberlake could make his own damn decisions, but he still had to smile at the passion in it all.

Apparently death had never stopped Claire being Renee's best friend - loyal to a fault, and protective in a most tigress-like manner. It'd be sweet, if it wasn't so damn irritating.

After spending ten minutes yelling into thin air, Justin had ascertained that Claire could not be called upon at will. She apparently showed up when she felt like it.

This was fine and dandy, but he abandoned. Not in a small way: he felt completely and utterly deserted. His body had been hijacked by some stranger who could very well have nefarious intentions towards his girlfriend, he had been dumped in some strange world he didn't belong in and his one link to home, hope and sanity had disappeared into the ether. It was madness that he was thinking of a ghost as his link to sanity, but he was finding a lot of that around.

The major piece of crazy thus far was that this house was remarkably similar to his home in Los Angeles. It was the same sprawling Spanish style, filled with similar furnishings and pieces and personal touches. He found that entirely creepy, if he was honest. After some intense time on Google he had caught up with his alter ego's life story, which differed remarkably from his (at least from *NSYNC time and onward). He'd even watched a few You Tube interviews; that had been a complete head trip, watching his own mouth give voice to things he had never said in his life and occasionally disagreeing vehemently with himself. That was why it odd to him that they could be so different in so many ways, yet the trappings of their existences and their homes behind closed doors were so alike.

The other thing he had done, naturally, was pull out the album and take a listen to it. He didn't like to say it, but he was forced to - it sucked, in his opinion. That was to say that it sucked in comparison to what he knew he was capable of. It was all stuff that would have worked fine for *NSYNC back in the day, and had it been *NSYNC singing it back in the day he wouldn't have batted an eyelid. It was, however, Justin Timberlake singing as a solo artist in the here and now, and he couldn't help feeling disappointed in his evil twin for not having moved on yet. There were a few fleeting hints of better to come in some of the songs, but they had all let him down in the end.

For a moment or two Justin had felt guilty for being so judgmental. After all, this guy shared his chromosomes. He supposed it didn't really matter what the heck he thought; somebody was buying the stuff, and if this Justin was happy to produce it who was he to tell somebody else how to live his life? In fact, who was he to judge that he was living the life of Justin Timberlake better than the other version?

Still, he couldn't help thinking that he had to be winning in the love stakes, since he hadn't yet done any body snatching to try and get away from his girl.

"God, how long am I going to be stuck here?"

He decided to do his whining out loud, since the deafening silence was starting to drive him crazy. He was talking to himself just to hear a real voice instead of the television.

There hadn't been much to do but sit around and wait; he was far too afraid to step foot outside the house. After hunting through the bathroom he had managed to find a much neglected shaving kit and fix the furry animal his other self had allowed to breed on his chin. He'd almost been afraid to put the blunt looking blade to his face, but he'd managed to bring it down to an acceptable level of stubble with no more than a couple of nicks. The closet had been similarly irritating - it was all stuff he'd grown out of wearing over the past year or so, t-shirts and the whole bling /pimp thing he'd tried for a while. It took him a good deal of hunting to be able to come up with a hooded sweatshirt he thought he could live with, and he chastised himself for being so picky.

Or maybe he wasn't being picky; he just didn't want to wear any of the garments because it felt completely unnatural to be in somebody else's clothing.

How precisely Claire had managed to convince him that this insane debacle was not a dream he wasn't sure, but he was resigned to it at this point. Possibly that was because he had yet to have dreams in which he fell asleep and woke up again, or that lasted so damn long. Claire had sworn she was going to fix it, but in the mean time he couldn't do a lot except try his best to occupy himself and hope to God that the asshole hadn't laid a finger on Renee.

Currently, he was making himself some lunch with what little food he could find. He was putting off any grocery store visits on account of not wanting to leave, so he had been forced to do his best with the eggs and minimal amount of vegetable matter he could find. Justin only wished he had paid more attention when Renee had told him about all the stuff she used to make as a student when money and food supply were tight - she had boasted that she could buy enough food to eat for a week on an incredibly tight budget and without skimping on meals. Come to think of it, he was sure he'd watched her make a Spanish omelette once before, he wished he'd paid more attention to that too.

He also wished he'd paid more attention to the pan instead of burning himself, but to be fair it was the sound of the front door which had sent him into blind panic.

"Justin?" The voice called. His blood froze in his veins, and his palms began to sweat. "Justin?"

"In here," he called out weakly.

The blonde head appeared in the kitchen door, and he tried not to stare. For one thing, he was a little busy nursing his burnt finger under the cold faucet, and for another he didn't want to act like it was a shock to see her. This reality's Renee was looking fairly tired and more than a little fed up, and he didn't imagine that she'd be in the mood for any strange behaviour he might inadvertently exhibit.

"Hey," she said quietly. "I just forgot my glasses, if that's okay. Only so long I can cope with contacts."

"Sure it is." Justin couldn't help thinking it odd that she was asking if it was okay to retrieve her own stuff from the home of a guy she'd been dating since she was nineteen or so.

"Wow… is that actual cooking you're doing? And you shaved…" She joked weakly. "I'm shocked."

"There ain't even any microwave meals around here. I guess I need to shop." He nodded, daring a nervous glance at her face.

"I thought Trace did that for you, why don't you just call him?"

He couldn't exactly tell her that he was too afraid to talk to Trace because he wasn't actually the Justin he was supposed to be… or could he? If what Claire had said was true, he and this Renee had an experience in common: that of being yanked from your own body for reasons beyond your control. Was it possible that she, rather than being the person he should avoid, could be an ally?

"Well… I can't."

"What do you mean you can't?" Her brow creased quizzically. "Did you guys have a fight? Make a difference from you fighting with me…" She mumbled inaudibly.

"Do you, uhh… recognise this?"

Justin pulled the necklace he was still wearing out from beneath his sweatshirt. Clearly Renee did recognise it, for her face immediately went white. Come to think of it, he thought he sensed a little anger too.

"What the fuck is that doing around your neck? I thought you said you got rid of it!"

"I didn't say that."

"Yes you fucking well did!" Renee screeched, yanking at her own hair in distress.

"No, I didn't. Your boyfriend did. Your boyfriend who is not me - though I'm told we look kind of alike."

"What are you… no. NO. No, no, no… you have to be kidding me."

One thing he could say for this Renee, she caught on as quickly as his own version did. She had slumped onto one of the stools at the end of the counter, her hands to her mouth as if in prayer. Hell, she very well might be in prayer. More than once he'd considered praying to these cosmic bosses of Claire's to see if they could fix this.

"If what you mean by that is 'are you Justin Timberlake from another dimension', the answer is yes and my GOD I wish I didn't have to say stupid sounding shit like that."

"Oh my God…" In any other situation the squeaking might have been comical. "You know what? I wish I could say I was fucking surprised."

"Little birdie told me you've been through this yourself," he explained, "that's why I figured I could tell you."

"Well, I guess I see why you can't talk to Trace right now. Who made the wish?" She asked quietly. "You or him?"

"Shit, I didn't even know alternate dimensions fucking existed until I found myself in one," Justin informed her with a scowl on his face. "I mean, no offence to you or your world or anything but I really liked mine and I'm kinda pissed I was made to leave."

"Well. Don't I feel just fantastic now - I can't believe the bastard did this."

She wrenched her hands away from her face, smacking the counter top in frustration. Things had really not been the same with Justin once she had been returned to her own body. He had found out about what had really happened on their break, and that she had cheated. Amazingly enough he hadn't broken up with her, but all she had been enduring ever since was an incredible display of passive aggressiveness from him. There were the snide little comments, the way he used her past mistakes against her to get his own way, and the way he seemed to have completely withdrawn from her physically. They still had sex, but sometimes she got the feeling she might as well be a groupie for all he cared and it made her feel incredibly cheap.

This… this was just the icing on the cake. He'd made lots of comments about how the other Renee had been how she used to be and had herself much more together than her, but this really was the final blow. Justin wasn't just comparing them any more, he'd decided he wanted to switch.

"Wow… I'm sorry." Justin felt guilty now - he hadn't even stopped to think that this would be bad news for her. "I didn't even think… I've just been going so out of my damn mind I just wanted to tell somebody."

"No, I understand." She smiled weakly at him before going to the cupboard and removing a glass - she really needed water. Her mouth had gone inexplicably dry. Justin made a note of where they were, since he'd been unable to locate them that morning. "I would have killed for somebody to talk to while I was stuck at the other Renee's college. Do you know her?"

"She's my girlfriend." Justin nodded.

"Figures…" Renee sighed wearily. "But yeah, all I had was this stupid ghost of one of my dead relatives to help me out and it wasn't like I could even call him, he just showed up when he felt like it… it was weird. Hey, do you have one?"

"Ghost? Oh yeah, Claire. Fuck I never thought I'd see the day I had a pet ghost…"

"Relative, friend?"

"Your friend. Died when you were fourteen or something."

"My Claire?" For the second time in the space of five minutes, her face lost all colour. Nervously twisting her watch around her wrist, Renee tried to process this. Somehow it had never occurred to her that if one person was a ghost there would be others, and that they could include somebody like her. "How come my friend is your spirit guide?"

"I can answer that."

"Claire! About frickin' time…" Justin exclaimed as he flipped his now nearly burnt omelette onto a plate - he was so hungry he'd eat it anyway.

Claire, however, wasn't paying attention. Renee was looking at her with tears pouring down her cheeks, and her heart was breaking for her. It was strange, but no matter how their lives had split off in different directions both this Renee and the other one has spent exactly the same time with her and to that end, they were both still her best friend. She knew it had to be strange for the woman, seeing her again, but she had to admit she was glad this Justin had apparently been honest - the rule was that nobody else could see her unless they knew that Justin was not who he was supposed to be.

"Oh honey…" She said sadly, striding over to the crying blonde and wrapping her arms around her, cradling her head in one hand and tightly squeezing her shoulders with the other. "I'm so sorry babe."

Justin's eyes became very fixed on his food, and his hand very intent on shoving said food into his mouth. There was a tinge of charcoal to the taste, but it was still fairly edible.

"How much did you get round to telling her, Justin?" Claire asked as Renee's sniffles began to subside.

"Just who I am and that he switched us."

"Okay. Long story short, Renata…" she smoothed her friend's hair out of her face where it was sticking to her wet skin. "I was the other Renee's guide while she was here. Your boy worked out that there was something really up with her, and when people do that it means the magic keeping me from their sight quits working. So, your Justin met me, and because he knew me then when he made this wish now he called me to him. I was only giving him the tour of this Justin's life, but then when I was least expecting it he made the wish to actually swap. Hence this guy suddenly found himself right in front of me in your boyfriend's body and Miss Poor Sucker here is technically now guide to both of them. Did I completely lose you yet?"

"Amazingly no." She muttered, extracting herself from her dead pal's embrace and swallowing nearly the entire glass of water in one gulp.

"So, let me get this straight…" Justin interrupted. "If Renee… my Renee, I mean… if she works out that there's something weird going on with him that means she'll be able to see you? And you can tell her what he did?"

"Yeah." Claire nodded in affirmation. "It was so annoying, I just chewed him out right in front of her and she was oblivious and it was killing me."

"He hasn't… is she…"

"She's fine." The brunette smiled sympathetically at him, again feeling strangely maternal towards him and his puppy dog expression. "She's remarkably quick on the draw, too, she's already giving him those 'I know something's up but I can't figure out what' looks. I'm kinda hoping that means she'll work it out quick."

"Well she better!" Renee threw her hands up in the air, immense irritation on her face. "Because he's not going to want to leave while she doesn't know and if those three weeks go by we'll be screwed!"

Claire winced as Justin's icy blue gaze hit her. This was not going to be pretty… "What about three weeks?"

"Oh, did I, uhh, not get around to telling you yet?" She offered weakly.

"You sure as fuck didn't."

"Well… if three weeks go by and he hasn't reversed the wish it kind of becomes… permanent."

"WHAT?" Justin bellowed with impressive volume as he accidentally broke his plate by throwing it into the sink too hard. "And you forgot to mention it?"

"You were just already freaked and I wanted to break it to you gentle like…okay, okay, I'm sorry, I'm just a little panicked about this whole thing and I don't know what to do."

Claire collapsed onto the stool next to Renee, propping her chin up with her hand and looking thoroughly fed up. She was aware that this wouldn't exactly be encouraging for her companions - when the spirit guide was out of ideas it wasn't very heartening - but she really couldn't help it. She had no idea what on Earth she could say to comfort either of them, or how she was going to convince the other Justin that he needed to switch back. Without the other Renee on side it was going to be hard, and obviously if she couldn't see or hear Claire then Claire couldn't make her understand what was going on.

"You know, it's funny." Claire breathed out an enormous sigh. "Last time all I had to do was make sure Renee was managing to live her life okay and that she made her decision for herself… now I just have no idea what the heck I'm supposed to do. I feel really bad about this whole thing and until Miss Renee wakes up and smells the coffee I can't talk to her and I feel impotent. Except that's not a good word for a girl to use and UGH."

"Well, I now feel crappy for you as well as for her and oh, yeah, me." Justin grimaced with a deep sigh as he pulled up the remaining stool and joined the little pow-wow circle at the end of the counter. "Look at us; we're like a little circle of losers right here."

"That's not comforting." Renee griped. "And hey, at least your girlfriend didn't swap bodies to get away from you. I always knew she was like Little Miss Perfect and I was the screw up version but really, did he have to confirm it?"

"Renata, you are not a screw up." Claire told her firmly. "You got problems but big whoop, so does everybody else. This thing is not your fault, it's entirely Justin's. Not you, other Justin," she clarified for the benefit of her other audience member. "He's idealised this other life in his head, so instead of dealing with his problems and bringing his own life back to where he wanted it, he's trying to take the short cut. Which is the dumbest plan I ever heard of, but there you go."

"But did he have to do it with my life?" Justin whined. "I like my life. It was going nicely."

"Good for you."

"Now Ren, no need to be mean." Claire said. "The poor bastard did spend six months so desperate to go out with her he bordered on stalking and his movie just went straight to DVD. His life's not that perfect."

"Hey!"

"Hey your damn self," she griped. "You know it's true."

"That's the last time I spill my guts to you."

"Children, please?" Renee got up and headed for the fridge, knowing there was a bottle of wine in there that she had bought in vain hopes of a romantic evening that had then got ruined by Justin deciding they should go see Monster Trucks with Trace and Nick. "You bitching at each other really isn't helping… six months?"

"I just liked the girl, alright?" Justin grouched; he was feeling a tad picked on. He hated it when girls ganged up.

Renee stared forlornly out of the window and into Justin's neatly manicured back yard; it wasn't neat by any of his own doing, he paid somebody. It seemed like whenever he had a problem he paid somebody - or swapped somebody - to fix it for him.

"Gee. You spend six months running after her and I can't get my boyfriend to talk to me for six minutes at a time. Claire, are you sure we're the same person?"

"Okay, no alcohol for you."

"What, why?"

"You've gone into self pity mode perfectly fine without it." Claire rolled here eyes and snatched the bottle back, replacing it on the fridge shelf. "You're as good or as bad as she is, you just made some different choices. You both have ups and downs just the same, it's just she's on an up right now and you're not. That doesn't make you a failure and the whiny moping is not going to help, alright? You lived her life at college, you saw she wasn't having the greatest existence back then, you should frickin' know better than to think her life's any more perfect than yours."

Justin snorted loudly, getting up and deciding to wash up the pans he'd used. This was purely because he needed something to do with his hands. It was a comfort thing, needing to keep his hands busy. "See? Maybe this is what you have to do. Keep me and her from becoming suicidal with the pity party."

"No, what I need to do is work out exactly how I can get this all switched back and back to normal and remove that stupid necklace from existence."

"Can't we just smash this one?" Renee asked.

Claire shook her head. "No. It wouldn't undo his wish and to be honest, I don't think it's a good idea right now. I'd feel better if we still had a little magic onside. Not that I think anybody should be using magic right now but in case of emergency, you know, at least until I manage to beat the stupid bastard into switching back."

"Hey, that's my stupid bastard you're talking about…" Renee trailed off as she thought about it. "Why can't I have a drink again?"

Raising her eyes to the heavens, silently imploring her bosses to give her some better advice on what the hell she was supposed to do, Claire planted herself in front of the fridge. Resolutely she stood, blocking any access to its alcoholic contents.

"Okay, JC, let me get this straight…" Renee frowned, trying to get a handle on what exactly it was he was complaining about. "You drove over here, interrupted my session to tell me that Justin's got PMS?"

"No, not…" JC threw up his hands in frustration, throwing himself into the producer's chair. He wasn't quite prepared for it to go flying backwards, having forgotten it was on wheels, but he just about managed to get it back under control. Renee giggled at him, but he calmly put the chair back next to hers and tried to think how to explain the tale again.

"Then what?"

"He's just all over the place. It's like he's a total space cadet. He's completely forgotten everything we talked about, he was looking at the desk like it was going to bite him, and you know it was kinda creeping me out the way he looked at me. Like he hadn't seen me in months or something."

"Hey. Maybe the fan fiction's true and Joshtin lives."

"Renee!"

JC stomped his foot on the floor with a whine, unappreciative of that little joke. Renee and her personal assistant had come across some fairly dirty fan fiction which seemed to have confused his and Justin's sexual orientations with Lance's, and she had been teasing them mercilessly about it ever since. She insisted it was harmless, they both insisted it was gross.

"I'm serious! I have no idea what the hell is up with the dude, but it needs to stop now because I'm on a frickin' deadline!"

"I know, C, I…" She flung her hands in the air, reaching for her caramel latte. "I mean, I can't say I haven't noticed him being a little weird, but every time I ask him if anything's up he just says he's fine. I mean, it's not like this is the first time he's had a funny mood, he usually snaps out of it right?"

"Renee, come on," JC kept pushing. "No disrespect to you, I know you know him real well, but I've been working in studios with this guy for ten frickin' years. He can be a little bitch when he's in a mood but he always gets the job done - whereas today he was sitting in there like he'd never been behind a desk before. I just wanna know who that dude is and what he's done with Justin."

"You are such a drama queen." Renee leaned forward and patted his knee affectionately.

"Ahh, you're probably right." JC pushed his hands through his mini Mohawk of hair and sighed. Slouching backwards and twisting from side to side in his seat, he smiled sheepishly at her. "I'm just stressing over this record and Justin didn't pick a great time to have an off day."

"Nah, you definitely have a point about him being a little loopy but he's probably as stressed as you are. Hell," she snorted, "sometimes I think he's more worried about your record than his. But you know him; this'll probably have blown over by tomorrow. Or if it doesn't just tell him straight and he'll snap out of it, he listens to you."

"He listens to you."

"When it suits him he listens to me." She smiled wryly at him, readjusting her suede skirt where it had got caught between her folded legs. "But, since you're here anyway, wanna tell me what you think of this song? I'm loving this melody but the lyrics are totally off and I'm struggling."

"Sure."

JC pulled up closer to the desk and Renee hit a few buttons, letting the song blare out. It was only a rough cut so far, but she'd hit a bit of a block with it. If there was one thing she could say for her relationship with Justin, it was that the plethora of musical types around him had been useful to her. That wasn't why she was with him, but she had no shame in taking advantage of it; neither did he if he came across somebody through her that he thought he could work with.

Most of Justin's contacts didn't really produce her type of music - JC certainly didn't - but it helped just having another musical ear to listen to things occasionally, spark things back off. It was also nice being friends with JC, she had to say. He was a great guy, perhaps a little quieter than Justin but great fun to talk to and always very affable and easy going. It had to be said: the guy was also great for a party. Back in college she had been more of a girls' girl than anything else, so it was cool to have some more male friends around. She couldn't lie and say they were all her best buddies, but it was good to get along with them.

"What do you think?" She asked JC once the song was over.

"Well…" he chewed his lips pensively, considering his answer. "If I'm honest I can't get my finger on it either. Like I like the theme of the song and I like the verse, but that bridge just ain't right."

That was something, she hadn't thought of that. "You think it's the bridge?"

Renee began drawing a little smiley face onto the notepad where she was scribbling the lyrics down, and subconsciously her pen started tracing over the bridge as she re-read it. JC was tapping his fingers together in a Mr Burns style, obviously deep in musical thought. Renee almost had to laugh at how identically he and her boyfriend were dressing these days - she liked to call it 'geography teacher chic.' JC was even wearing a collar and smart shoes on his off time these days; she wasn't sure what had happened to t-shirts and jeans.

"Yeah… I think it's kind of… repetitive. Like, it doesn't say anything the verse didn't already. That make any kind of sense?"

"Hmm… I guess so," her eyebrows bunched together as she considered that. "Eh, it'll come to me. I was thinking of throwing in the towel to be honest, I haven't left this damn room all day and I think it's starting to block my energy or my chi or whatever."

"You need to let off some steam," JC encouraged her. "Me and Tyler were planning on some club action tonight if you and J wanna join us. Hey, maybe it'll kill two birds with one stone and loosen his ass up."

"True." She nodded. "I'll ask."

***

Justin couldn't haven been more relieved when Renee had suggested clubbing.

Clubbing was a wonderfully universal activity which was much the same wherever you went in the world. In fact, it was even the same if you skipped worlds entirely. Clubbing was an activity which required absolutely no previous life information. All he had to do was dress up, show up, and drink up: dancing optional. He could do that, it was wonderfully uncomplicated.

In fact, thus far it had been an absolute blast. Renee had quite naturally commandeered the bathroom after putting on some insanely loud old school disco, and he couldn't say that it hadn't put him in a good mood. He'd even busted a few moves while picking his outfit for the evening - an outfit he'd immediately had to change when Renee had exclaimed that she was wearing blue so he couldn't. He had tried to point out that since he had got dressed first she should be the one to change, but all he had got was a pointed look and a declaration that if he ever wanted to have sex with her again he would change his clothing.

Justin really hoped she hadn't seen him nearly choke when she'd said that. He had in fact slept with her back in his own reality (once without knowing who she was and once with), but she of course thought she was talking to the guy she slept with regularly. He was trying to avoid the issue of what he would do if she came onto him; he wasn't quite sure what his intentions were for sticking around and he didn't particularly want to sleep with her if this was only going to be a passing trip.

He saw no wrong in acting like her boyfriend or kissing her, that was all just par the course to keep this guy's life in check and running as normal, but somehow it felt like sex was a deception too far. Yet again, he'd had some insight into his time with Renee back when she had been the one on an inter-dimensional trip; he was no longer surprised she'd been so jumpy about his sexual advances.

Still, either way, he had wound up changing his shirt to an approved maroon number. He had to admit that the lady probably looked better in blue than he did anyway. Renee was currently holding court in the booth with JC, Tyler, and a couple of girls he had been relieved to hear he had never met before. The club was very much Japanese inspired, and paper screens separated the VIP area from the view of the regular club goers. The dim light came from ornate lanterns set on the wall (although the candle glow was fake and in fact a light bulb), and everywhere you looked there were dragons and Japanese symbols he couldn't possibly read. Renee was giggling manically at some story Tyler was telling, cosmopolitan in hand, and he was struck by how glowingly happy she looked.

There was also the small matter of the dangerously low cut corset and the wonderfully tight jeans which were making her butt look just a tiny bit bigger than it was - a horror from the female perspective, a blessing from the male. Justin wasn't going to deny he felt a strong attraction to her. It was only natural, Lord only knew he'd had a thing for Renee Anderson in all her forms for many a year now, but there was something about this new look and new confidence that was incredibly sexy. He couldn't help lamenting the lack of said confidence in his own girlfriend, but then he supposed that must be at least a part of what he was there for - he wanted to know what was better, what was worse and what remained the same. Maybe he was just trying to gain some outside perspective on his own life from it.

In all this observation it occurred to him that he probably ought to start looking for the necklace if he was even remotely considering going back home (possibly he should have ruminated on that before he started wishing), but then Renee jumped up and asked him to dance. Naturally, all thought of responsibility and destiny and the state of his existence immediately flew out of his head.

"Oh my God did that girl just pinch your ass?" Renee yelled in his ear as he pulled them to a spot towards the side of the floor, away from the heaving mass in the middle. Even as they had been walking hand in hand she could swear she had seen an arm reach between them.

"Pinch is too minor a term - I'd go for grabbed!" He'd had to practically put his mouth on her ear to be heard, the sound of Beyonce's latest was so thunderous.

"Well hmpf!" Renee grinned jokingly, wrapping her arms around his waist and protectively planting her hands over his butt. "That's my job!"

"And you do it well!" Justin joked before putting his own arms around his dance partner and beginning to relax into the beat. If there was one thing he knew how to do in any place it was dance, and Renee was a pretty good little mover herself.

He couldn't help enjoying the way she was so easy and tactile with him. He wished he could reciprocate more fully, but he was still a little too anxious about her and this whole wishing business to be able to completely loosen up. Still, her hands seemed to glide over his back and chest at will, the movement of her hips was fairly hypnotic and her smile was incredibly infectious. He'd always told her - well, the other her - that it was her smile that sold her. You couldn't see it and not want to smile yourself.

'Hey!" Renee exclaimed as a couple of clubbers brushed straight past them (practically through them) without so much as an 'excuse me.' "Like you didn't have three feet of room, bitch."

Giving up on the grinding, Justin turned them down to more of a sway as his rested his forehead on hers in order to speak and be heard. "Somebody's feisty this evening."

"Somebody would like it if people were just a little less rude, grabbing asses and barging into us." Renee rolled her eyes. "Just because we're famous…"

"Look around you baby…" Justin pointed out. "This is a club. People invade your personal space whether you're famous or not."

"That's true." Renee mused as she remembered her college days and the oh-so-fun way complete strangers would waltz up and start trying to grind on her without any preamble. That was something she never appreciated… unless she'd had a few too many and forgot herself. She couldn't pretend she'd always been Little Miss Virtue.

"Okay, I just got your frickin' hair in my mouth." He pulled a face as he removed the offending dark strand. "Maybe you should start wearing it up."

"Maybe you should stop putting your lips all up in my face… course that'd be no fun, would it?" She riposted flirtatiously, hands roaming over his biceps.

"I was under the impression you liked that, considering you're dating me."

"Boy, do you never pick up a hint?"

Justin knew precisely what that hint was, but he chose to ignore it for the moment. Instead he pulled Renee's body flush with his, his hands pressing her firmly to him by the small of her back, and began guiding them both from side to side, his hips leading the way. Renee's eyes locked onto his curiously, waiting with baited breath for whatever it was he was doing. His body started dancing in a way that was almost a challenge, an invitation for her to match or outdo him move for move. For every shake of her shoulders or shuffle of her feet, Justin was bending or rolling his body in some new step, urging her to keep up with him.

It was an odd sensation - she could feel a strange tension between them both that was both exciting and somewhat disquieting in its unfamiliarity. Her boyfriend was keeping on her toes; that was for sure. Every nerve ending in her body was twitching in anticipation of wherever it was he was taking this. There was definitely a sexual vibe about the whole thing, almost like it was the start of a mating ritual or something - except that she really did not like to think of their sex life as 'mating.' Justin had her transfixed in his gaze and it was safe to say he probably could have done anything he wanted with her in that moment, even right there in the middle of the floor - she was that hypnotised.

It was oddly anti climatic as his arms tightened around her in a squeezing hug, and his head dipped to her shoulder to drop a kiss on it. Even as she put her own lips to his jaw and hugged him back, fingers affectionately brushing over the nape of his neck, Renee couldn't help wondering what exactly had just happened and what exactly had got into her boyfriend.

"Oh my God you're kidding me…"

"Nope."

"Seriously, you have to be lying to me."

"Nope."

"You mean to say…" Renee creased over, clutching her side to try and alleviate the pain that was brewing there. "You actually exposed Janet Jackson to the whole entire world? While she was wearing some freaky ass kinky nipple ring?"

"It wasn't that kinky, it was like this sun thing…" Justin drew a circle in the air in the vicinity of his own nipple and his companion only seemed to laugh harder. He was glad she was finding it so funny because he still had a hard time finding any humour in it; it had caused him far too much grief.

"Ooh boy…" The blonde wiped her eyes quickly with her thumb, trying to settle back down as she stretched her Juicy clad legs out on the couch. "And I thought it was embarrassing when I slipped on that puddle at Rock In Rio. Thanks, man, I feel a whole lot better."

"I'm very happy for you." Justin poked his tongue out at her and she burst into laughter again.

For all his initial surprise at how different this reality's Renee seemed to be, on further discussion - and a bottle and a half of wine - he was beginning to find that she was more like his own girlfriend than he'd given her credit for. Once she began to relax and the evil sense of humour began to come out, he thought he saw a similar spark behind the eyes there somewhere. He'd had fun talking to her, finding out what her (and his) life was like here.

After Claire had disappeared to go do some more groundwork and to go plead with her bosses about what did and didn't constitute breaking the rules (she was hoping she was allowed to use violence), Renee had very kindly offered to accompany him out to the grocery store. This was a huge relief; Justin had needed to get out of the house, but he hadn't been able to risk it. Renee changed that; she could be a buffer if he needed her to be, tell him anything he needed to know and apart from anything else it helped him keep up appearances.

Once they had got back home, they had mutually decided to camp out on the couch with some snacks and some drinks to have a long chat, answer any questions the other might have. The answers weren't always pretty, but still Justin felt it was very productive. It was also undeniably interesting, hearing about how your life might have gone if you'd made other choices - although he didn't want to hear too much, he figured too much curiosity was probably a bad thing.

So there they were - they were both at opposite ends of the couch, but the distance between them wasn't uncomfortable or awkward. Renee had plenty of room to stretch out, there weren't any bad personal bubble issues, and for two virtual strangers it was just about right. The room was quite homely, in a very shabby chic distressed kind of way, lots of earth tones everywhere, and the atmosphere was helpfully non-threatening. The stony beige coloured couch was also very squishy. Neither of them felt under any pressure, and as such it had helped the stories to come pouring out. Sometimes he felt more like he was looking at Britney than Renee - the sweatpants and belly shirt combination really wasn't his girlfriend's thing - but he still in a strange way felt like he was talking to his girlfriend in some sense, and it was comforting.

"So how long did it take you to live that one down?"

"Two years and still counting."

"For God's sake," Renee snorted, "aren't there any wars or famines in your world?"

Justin shrugged, rolling his eyes comically and making her giggle again. "You'd think not, way they tell it."

"Okay, so we did careers, we did families…" Renee mused aloud. "Go on, I'll bite, how'd you meet your edition of me?"

"Well…" Justin picked up his glass, staring for a minute into the ruby liquid before launching into the story. "She signed to Jive and originally they wanted her to do RnB, though she's totally dropped that now and she does more of a guitar, female John Mayer kind of thing. She got lost in the studio one day and barged into my room instead of hers, and we exchanged pleasantries for like three minutes… but then they asked me to write and produce some stuff with her, and I did and… I don't know. I kind of lost my head somewhere around the third day when she asked me to pass her the coffee and it was like she'd started the Hallelujah Chorus. It was monumentally lame, to tell you the truth, I was sprung so bad."

Renee smiled wistfully, taking a sip of her own drink and delicately picking up a Dorito and taking a tiny nibble. "It's okay. I know the feeling, pathetic as it is. So how come Claire said you stalked her for a year?"

"Six months, sheesh!" Why did he always have to make that correction? He propped his feet up on the coffee table, stretching lazily. "Once we were done recording I asked her out and she said no, and I didn't get it because I could have sworn she liked me too and she gave me some lame excuse about it being too early in her career… and… I mean, what can I say, I persisted. I was dead set on her and being my cocky ass self I was sure she liked me too and I swore that she had to at least go on one date with me. Even if she refused to ever see me again I was determined she at least had to give me a chance."

"Six months, though?" She raised a perfectly plucked eyebrow at him. "Even if you did get the happy ending that does flirt dangerously with stalker territory."

"So I was told," he responded wryly with a sheepish smile, grabbing a fistful of popcorn. "Sometimes I seriously just despaired, but then I figured the fact that she hadn't called the police on my ass or at least told me to go away had to mean she liked me."

"Stalker logic."

"Shut up!" He kicked her softly with his sock clad foot. "What about you? How'd you meet my evil twin?"

"He's not evil!" She protested loudly. "It was my first ever Billboard Awards and *NSYNC was there and I wanted to meet you all because I had this huge crush on JC…"

"Wait, does that mean my girl had a crush on JC?"

"How should I know? Anyway, I just… I saw him and it was sparks. I totally had that Hallelujah Chorus moment, which is so cheesy it's unreal and kinda bad considering he was wearing this absolutely terrible, like, purple slash maroon coloured velvet suit or something, but… yeah. I was bumping into him at all the teen shows and he asked me out and the rest is tabloid history."

"Tabloids as bad with you guys as they are with us?"

"Don't know, didn't read much while I was visiting your world… though hey, weren't you dating Cameron Diaz? What happened there?"

"Badness." Justin grimaced at the memory. "Don't wanna talk about it. But yeah, if you can't go out to dinner without five photographers accompanying you and you've got married and split up so many times you make Liz Taylor look restrained, that about matches us."

"Yeah, that about sums it up."

Renee pulled a face at Justin and enjoyed the way he chuckled at it. Laughter wasn't something that happened a lot with her boyfriend these days. It was wonderful when it did. It made her feel hopeful for a minute that maybe they were getting closer to working it out, but thus far she'd always been disappointed. Pulling her hair band from her wrist and quickly tying her hair back in a sloppy ponytail, she mused on how different a vibe she got from him than her own Justin. Certainly he seemed a lot happier; then again, she supposed he had reason to be.

She hadn't met him on her little visit to the other Renee's body, but she had read up on him to see how he was doing; it had been an irresistible impulse. He'd done very well for himself, and she'd had more than a little guilt when she saw that he was still friends with the other *NSYNC guys. She had never meant to cause so much friction between the guys; she just always seemed to be putting her foot in it with them and making them dislike her. It was like the harder she had tried to ingratiate herself the more she'd messed up. It had hurt to see that with her out of the way the problems hadn't arisen.

"Can I…" Justin sifted uncomfortably, knowing he was about to broach a very thorny subject. "If you don't mind my asking…"

"It's okay."

"Do you… I mean, I'm a little concerned about my girlfriend here and I'm wondering how far you think your guy there might go to keep up the charade that he's me. You know him and I don't, so…"

"I honestly don't know." Renee shook her head sadly at him, swirling the wine in her glass and staring into it like somehow it held the answer. "I mean… he's real big on not cheating, but she's still Renee Anderson and I kind of had an indiscretion myself a while back so I don't know if that's going to change the rules in his head."

"You cheated?" Justin asked, fairly surprised.

"We were on a break and I didn't mention the fact I'd been with anybody else in the meantime," she responded honestly. "I was really messed up for a while and thinking maybe I didn't want to be in the relationship, I started the break but he was the one who kept it going and it screwed me up because naturally that was the minute I picked to realise that I still wanted to be in the relationship…"

She paused, thinking deeply, and Justin began to get twitchy. If she wanted to talk he wanted to allow her to do so, but this wasn't exactly answering his question.

"Being in your girl's body kind of set me straight in this weird way. For the first time in forever I could do whatever the hell I wanted, and it just kind of reminded me to stop and smell the roses once in a while. I got back all hopeful that I could fix me and him, but by this point he'd seen how much more together your girl was than I was and he was so frickin' obsessed with everything she told him about your life and her life that he kind of didn't notice that I had actually grown my ass up a little and he…"

"He what?" Justin pushed.

She smirked, lifting her eyes to the ceiling and laughing sardonically. "The only thing giving me any comfort was the fact that he said he'd got rid of that necklace, because I've been feeling for a while like he'd swap in a heartbeat. Not just because of your girl, I think he's got this idea in his head that you're getting it right and he's getting it wrong, but I definitely got the impression he had unfinished business with her. So to answer your question, I'd like to think that he'll stick to his guns and draw the line at sleeping with her but I would not put it past him."

"I know I wanted an honest answer out of you but that kind of sucks."

"My turn - how likely do you think it is that she'll notice it's not you?" Renee posed her own question. "I'll be honest, at this point I'm really not sure he wants me enough to come home and I'm kind of relying on you to have her sprung enough to kick his ass back here."

He became very quiet for a moment, and from the way his fingers tapped the arm of the couch she mused that this had probably been a burning puzzle for him, too. Of course they were both coming at it from different wants and needs, but it seemed to her like she and he were probably on exactly the same wavelength right about now. It was fun to be the ones left out in the cold.

"Honestly? I really want to believe she'll notice - especially because the idea of anybody else touching her makes me want to throw shit - but I don't know." Justin had to be honest with both of them at this point. "We've only been dating a year and if I was following all that existential shit Claire was saying right, then maybe there's enough the same that he can pull off the act."

What Justin was referring to was Claire's little spiel about how the core of a person remained the same and it was only choices and the resulting circumstances that differed. She'd gone into some lengthy example about how people had huge expanses of unexplored potential and it was just that different choices tapped into different parts of it and made them look more different than they were. He'd had a really hard time getting the gist of it- not only was her subject matter very complicated but Claire talked fast.

"I don't know," Renee shrugged. "I mean I'm sitting here with you and okay, I know who you are, but I don't see him when I look at you. I know that's weird since you're in his body and all but I just don't."

"I guess that's kind of encouraging. And I gotta admit I don't look at you like her at all, I mean I'm not attracted to you in the… that really didn't sound so insulting in my head."

She flashed him a grin. "That's okay, me neither. Don't get me wrong, I've actually had fun talking to you which is really kind of weird, but no. No attraction there at all. I mean, you are similar in a lot of ways, you both do that really annoying knuckle cracking thing and like the way you speak and stuff like that are similar but… I can't explain it, you just have a different vibe."

Justin pondered this for a moment, fiddling with the hem of his black wife beater. "Yeah, that's what I thought about you. I mean, I know you've had some shit going on so that's understandable, but even beyond that… it's like I can see how you are Renee, but I can see how you're not, and I think even if I had caught you in exactly the same mood as my girl I'd still see a difference."

"See why didn't Claire explain it like that? I actually get what you just said."

"Claire's… interesting. Was she like that when she was alive?"

"Amazingly, I think dying made her even more of a smart ass."

"Not smart enough to dream up a way out of this," he complained, pulling his feet off of the coffee table and drumming them nervously on the floor.

Justin couldn't help it, his every thought always circled back to how in the world he was supposed to get home. He wasn't used to feeling so powerless; he'd always been very much in charge of his own life and career, a man who made his own destiny. He loathed the fact that his fate currently lay in someone else's hands. Renee felt compelled to speak up in her best friend's defence - funny how that impulse was still alive after all these years.

"It's not like it's her fault. She does have that awkward little paradox where she needs to make Renee realise who he is so she can see her, but she can't do anything to make that happen until she can see her."

"I know." Justin sighed, swallowing the rest of his wine in one gulp - considering he still had half a large glass left that was somewhat worrying. "It just sucks. I can't help thinking what's the point of having her around if she can't... whoa, where's the fire?"

Renee had suddenly leapt up and in the process had managed to spill red wine all over the coffee table, from whence it was now dripping all over the very light coloured carpet. It was going to be a pain in the ass to remove the stain.

"I got it. Least, I think I do…"

"What?" He asked as he automatically reached for the napkins - little good that it would do. Really he shouldn't be concerned as it wasn't technically his carpet.

"Renee can't tell her, but you can."

Justin snorted impatiently, looking pointedly at her. "Did we not listen? There can't be two Justins in one dimension. I can't make the switch so I can't tell her jack. I can't wish you there because all that would do would swap you and her over, and for all we know he'd just reverse his wish. That'd land us back where we started because my Renee wouldn't be able to undo your wish and all we'd have done would be swap places but still have the same problem and for FUCK'S sake, I can't even follow myself right now. This dimensional shit is driving me insane!"

"There can't be two Justins or two Renees in the same dimension, it's true." A wonderfully sly expression began to curl at the corners of her mouth and narrow her eyes. "But what if you went back to that weird watching place you guys told me about? You could wish yourself there, then her too - you could tell her everything so she'd be able to see Claire. Did you understand any of that or do I need to try again?"

Justin did have to take thirty seconds or so to process what she had said before fully comprehending, but once he'd cottoned on it did smell of brilliance. Provided that the strange cosmic rules currently preventing him from kicking his other self's ass (and sadly would prevent him ever doing so) didn't forbid this too, it could really work. He thought it was in fact the best plan anybody had ever had in the history of making plans.

"I think you're right… fuck, you're a frickin' genius, woman. Maybe we should check with Claire first though? I had to go with her when she brought me here, she seems to be the way you move through these dimensions and once again I'm appalled with the sentences coming out of my damn mouth."

"Well why don't you just wish yourself there now, she'll have to pick you up anyway and you can explain the plan. Even if you can't get the other me there you can at least check up on my bastard boyfriend. Did that sound bitter?"

"Little bit." He nodded.

"Oh well. Get to wishing, boy."

"Well, we're here," Claire told Justin who was feeling a little queasy from his trip.

The sensation of travelling across dimensions like this was not pleasant for the living, and she was very grateful she didn't have to go through that. She could walk through worlds the way she could walk through a room (or through walls). She supposed that would be kind of neat if it wasn't always about work.

"Cool." He tried not to retch and surveyed his surroundings, recognising the hotel suite. It was incredibly quiet, which he took to mean that the two of them were out somewhere. He was very grateful for that, because if they were out in public it was far less likely that they were having sex. "So… you think this'll work?"

"I was impressed with her coming up with it," Claire nodded encouragingly. "I don't see why it won't, it's not breaking any rules I can think of. Just remember there's only so long you can keep her here before somebody notices she's missing, and she's probably going to be freaked. Also, you better be prepared for her to… well…"

"Not believe me?"

Claire had to nod in response. Renee probably wasn't going to take too long to understand where they had brought her, having been through this before. She was, however, probably going to take some convincing about the whole body swap notion - it wasn't like you could check souls the way you could check fingerprints. He would probably have to work to persuade her of his real identity, and Claire couldn't help Justin with that because she wouldn't become visible until Renee believed it on a significant enough level. She didn't have to completely believe it, but she needed to feel it somewhere within. He had his work cut out for him.

"Do you want me to wait here with you or do you want me to go wait outside or something? I'll be able to hear you when you call."

"Outside would be good, thanks."

"Okay." She straightened his collar and then patted his arm. "Good luck."

"Okay…"

Justin took a deep breath as his ghostly pal exited the room via the wall. He was oddly nervous. He had done his best with his alter ego's wardrobe to put together an outfit that was more his style; he wanted to make himself more familiar to her. The shirt however was a little tight around the collar and the sweater vest was a slightly odd shade of teal. After their trip to the store he had actually been able to purchase a decent shaver and was looking much neater, but he felt oddly nervous about Renee setting eyes on him.

Possibly he was fixating on his appearance because it saved him fretting about what he actually had to say.

It was the waiting that was killing him. Claire had warned him to wait until she was back in the suite before wishing for her presence; they didn't know where she was, and they couldn't risk having her vanish in front of witnesses. The clock out in the corridor had informed them that it was already 2am. Between him, Renee and Claire they had worked out that later was probably better because it gave them a better chance that she was safely ensconced in the hotel room, but unfortunately it wasn't to be. He was also very aware that the other world's Renee was probably waiting up and wondering what was happening, and he was hoping he wouldn't have to keep her waiting for answers.

Finally his wish came true - no necklace required - and a very dishevelled Renee and Justin stumbled through the door. He couldn't help narrowing his eyes in a hateful glare; he thoroughly resented the fact that somebody else was wearing his body and putting his hands all over his girlfriend. He surmised that they must have been out to a party or maybe a club: Renee was in party gear and they both looked mildly sweaty.

"I'm so ready to crash," an obviously drunk Justin announced. He hoped he had a nasty hangover. "You coming to bed?"

"Gotta get my make up off first."

The observing Justin couldn't help smiling; one thing he had never been able to do was get Renee into bed until after her make up came off. She claimed it was bad for her skin and bad for the pillow cases if she neglected to remove it. It was also fortuitous; with any luck his body snatcher pal would become completely unconscious before he noticed that Renee was taking her time in the bathroom.

"Okay…" He glowered as he watched the guy kiss his girlfriend's bare neck. "Hurry back now."

As soon as the bedroom door closed behind him, Justin immediately grabbed hold of the wretched piece of onyx around his neck and began rubbing fervently.

"I wish the Renee I'm watching was in this dimension with me right now."

Well… it didn't hurt to be specific, even if it didn't make for a good sentence. It was a very odd thing to watch - Renee never moved a step, it was unnecessary for the wish, but the air seemed to shimmer around her the way it did if you stared into the horizon on a really hot day. Her fingers flew to her stomach, clutching at it, and for a moment he felt guilty putting her through the nausea of this type of travel.

Finally the shimmer faded away and Renee's hand was instead clapped to her mouth instead of her stomach.

"God, I only had three drinks…" she muttered to herself, squeezing her eyes shut for a moment before letting them flutter back open. Justin's heart skipped a beat as she finally seemed to catch sight of him.

"Uhh, babe, how did you get back here so fast… wait, you changed? Why?"

"Renee?" He spoke softly, almost inaudibly.

"Justin?" She answered sarcastically, wondering how he'd managed to sober up so fast. In fact, wait a moment, was it just her or was he more closely shaven than he had been thirty seconds ago?

"Try and touch something, baby."

"Okay, did you smoke something with JC and Tyler while I was at the bar?" The brunette couldn't help her nervous laugh. She knew he'd been a bit off kilter for the last few days but this was the strangest occurrence yet. It was a fairly rapid turn-around; he'd been perfectly normal a few seconds ago. Well, he had been drunk, but normally.

"Just do it, please."

Purely to shut him up, she blandly reached out for the lamp on the table. It was quite a surprise when her hand went straight through it. Calmly, slowly and deliberately, she attempted it again and still got a fistful of air. She couldn't believe it. Plainly magic had entered her life once again and she was not happy about it. She'd had her fill the first time.

"Okay, I'll bite." Renee tossed her head defiantly and Justin almost had to smirk at how sexy he found it. He obviously had issues. "Clearly somebody's been working the mojo. Where am I and who are you?"

"To answer your first question…" Justin stuffed his hands in his pockets nervously and shuffled his feet, feeling entirely like an adolescent school boy trying to talk his way out of detention. "We're in this weird dimension where you can watch things, but like you can't touch stuff and people can't see or hear you. As for the second…"

"Why do I have this horrible feeling I know the answer to this question?" Renee folded her arms across herself nervously, a lump in her throat. If he was who she thought he was, she had never thought she would see him again.

He shook his head fervently. "Oh you really don't."

"Enlighten me."

He stepped closer and closer to her, until he was towering right over her petite frame. Justin picked up her small hands in his, and he thought he felt a little tremble in them. Much as she tried not to meet his gaze, her eyes couldn't help being drawn back to his cerulean orbs and looking straight at him.

"I'm your boyfriend."

"No," she responded shortly, "my drunk ass boyfriend is in the other room."

"In body…" He traced a finger across her cheek, "but definitely not in spirit."

Renee's body became rigid beneath his touch and her eyes desperately searched his face, disbelieving. "You have to be lying to me."

"He switched us, sweetheart," Justin rushed ahead with his tale, wanting to get the whole thing out before she started freaking; she had a habit of incessantly talking when she did that and it was hard to get a word in. "That necklace thing that you wish on? He kept it after you left him and he wished for me and him to switch so he's in my body. I'm your boyfriend, not him, and I haven't been with you for about four days now. You need to get him to find it in your world and switch us."

"But… no… no… you can't be my boyfriend, my boyfriend doesn't even know about that cursed damn necklace!" She whimpered pathetically, desperately trying to find some other explanation for this. The dimension hopping she could readily believe because she had done it herself, but she refused to believe she had been living with the wrong man for four days without noticing.

"I really didn't know a goddamn thing about it until I found myself landed in front of your pal Claire, who is fine by the way," he told her with an inappropriately perky tone. "She'd come see you herself but until you accept that the dude in there is not who he says he is, you won't be able to see her. You remember how that works, right?"

"Okay, alright."

Renee pushed his hands away from her frame and stepped backwards, dragging her fingers through her dance snarled hair and trying to calm down long enough to have a coherent thought. Clearly the dimension hopping part of what he had said was true. However, she had absolutely no guarantee that this guy wasn't the other world's Justin trying to pull some weird stunt on her.

She didn't like to think that he would. In the three weeks she had spent with him she'd like to think she had seen a better person than that, but she could trust nothing right now. For all she knew, if she just believed this guy she might play right into whatever he was doing. It would make sense that the other Justin knew about Claire and the necklace when her Justin shouldn't (since she refused to ever tell him such crazy sounding stuff).

"So, if you're my Justin… what's the name of my first album?"

"Broken Promises," he replied promptly.

"Correct…" she told him begrudgingly before realising that he could have just looked that up somehow. "No, wait, anybody could know that… my mom's name… no, course not, don't be a dumb bitch Renee… what's the name of JC's new album?"

"Trick question, he hasn't named it yet."

"Very good. Okay, next question…"

She couldn't have sounded less thrilled that he'd got it right, but to be fair this had to be strange for her. He determined right then that he was not going to hold any of this behaviour against her. Despite the fact it was mildly irritating that she hadn't immediately seen the real him on looking into his eyes… or something like that. Justin didn't like to hurry her, but he was anxious about time.

"Try something about our relationship, baby. Something only you and I would know."

"No calling me baby until we've ascertained your identity, buster." Renee told him off, pacing across the floor. She was surprised she hadn't worn a hole in the carpet yet, she hadn't stopped her nervous walking since she had pushed him away. "Alright, how many times did you ask me out?"

"God, did YOU even keep track of the number of times I asked you out?" He couldn't resist the snort which escaped his mouth.

"Oh. Fair point." Her mouth pursed in a frown, until light dawned on her face and she rephrased the question. "Which is my favourite of the ways you asked me out?"

"Umm…"

Justin scratched the back of his head nervously. He hadn't expected her to come up with any stumpers, but this was actually a pretty hard question. He really had asked her out a zillion different ways (some more creative than others) and if she had even told him which had been her favourite he had most surely forgotten it.

"To be honest I'm not even sure you told me. I know it wasn't that whole thing with the flyers on your windshield because you looked really embarrassed about it…umm…" He really was struggling with an answer.

"You seemed to think that Garfield thing I e-mailed you was funny, and I know you still have the t-shirt I had made… I left you a lot of really dumb voice mails, and I had Trace call up your PA for that whole my people call your people and let's do lunch shit…"

Mild panic was beginning to set in. He'd been so doggedly and pathetically persistent in his pursuit of her that he really had asked her out an incredible number of times. It had happened so often, in fact, that Nick and Trace had tried to pull an intervention on him. With concerned faces they had told him that he was only setting himself for more rejection, her answer wasn't going to change and that the obsession was reaching Fatal Attraction proportions at an alarming rate. He'd proven them wrong, but the number of attempts it had taken meant that Justin had forgotten half the methods he'd unsuccessfully tried.

"Shit, you know what, I don't know what your favourite was. What I can tell you is that my favourite other than the time you finally said yes was the time that I invited you to my house for a party and there wasn't one and it took you like ten minutes to realise that nobody else was going to turn up. Anybody else would have had a bitch fit but you just laughed and told me I should be in restraints on a psych ward, and then we had a beer."

Now Renee's hands really were trembling. First they wanted to fold defensively across her stomach, then they were tugging at her hair in disbelief and stress and then they were covering her face and nose, trying to help her control her ragged breathing. There was absolutely no choice but to believe him now. There was no way in hell anybody but him could have possibly known about any of those things (with the exception of some Kinko's employee in the case of the flyers). There was too much detail, too many of the different methods described, and more to the point she had seen the way he looked at her when he said it.

That was the look her boyfriend always gave her. That was the odd thing that had been missing for the last four days - the last four days' worth of strange behaviour that suddenly meant all too much sense. It made a horrible, sickening sense. There was not a single part of her being which was happy with this conclusion. She really didn't want to believe it, but unfortunately she was going to have to.

"Oh God." Renee couldn't choke any more out before she had rushed at him and thrown her arms around his back, chest shuddering with every breath as she tried to comprehend what had just happened. "Baby…"

Justin for his part was squeezing her with superhuman force, his face buried in her neck as he inhaled deeply, almost trying to breathe her in. Renee's hands shakily made his way to his face, whereupon she tilted her face towards his and gave him a few swift, worried kisses before hiding her face in his chest once more.

"Oh God… are you okay?" Her fingers clutched at handfuls of his sweater. "I'm so sorry, I should have known. Did you… God you must have been so freaked, I know I was… have you been okay, nothing bad happened?" She was babbling, unable to quite take control of herself.

"I'm okay, baby, I'm okay." He kissed her temple, rubbing his hands over her back and trying to soothe her. "I was really freaked but Claire's been helping me understand everything. I even met the other Renee and I told her what happened and she's told me some stuff too, I was just worried about you and what he was doing in my… God, baby, please tell me you haven't…"

"Haven't…?" She looked up at his face and his terrified expression immediately tipped her off. "Oh no, thank fuck no." She clutched at him even tighter, dropping a few more reassuring kisses on his mouth. "You… he's been acting really strange and I thought it was weird but I just figured you were in a funny mood. Oh thank God... oh my God, what if I had…"

Renee's arms tightened around his neck to the point where he almost couldn't breathe, but Justin couldn't really say he cared. He hoisted her up and let her wrap her legs around him, holding her as tight as he could. He just wanted as much of her in his embrace as possible. For her part, she was filled with a gut wrenching guilt which she was trying to purge through hugging; of all people, you'd think she'd be able to spot a soul swap when she saw one.

"You didn't baby, and that's all I care about."

"I'm going to fucking kill him," she squeaked. "What's he trying to pull?"

"I don't know, but if he thinks he's having you he's got another thing coming," Justin replied darkly. "You have to get that necklace back and make him switch, baby, before this stupid three weeks is up."

"Oh, shit…" She unhooked her legs and let her body slide down his slowly, eyes staring into the distance. "I put it away somewhere, umm… shit, I put it in the attic at my mom's, and when my folks split up she took some and Dad took some and they gave some back to me… it could be anywhere."

"Well, start looking."

"I will, I will. Fuck, J, why is this happening? Everything was so damn perfect…"

"I know baby, I know."

Justin once again wrapped her up in a hug, gripping her body as close to his as he could manage and running his fingers through her hair. Guiltily he thought about how blasé he had been about such things, how he had taken it for granted that his girlfriend was there and his to hold. Well, that was going to change as soon as he got his own body back.

"Claire?" He called out. "I think she can see you now!"

"Claire?"

Renee's head immediately shot up and started looking around at her surroundings, and she gasped a little when she saw her dead best friend walk through the wall in a chunky knit sweater and sweatpants. Whatever doubt had been left was now officially gone; she knew Claire would never have colluded with such a rouse.

"Renee?" Claire ventured hopefully.

"Oh yeah, I can see you," she replied faintly.

"Hey." Claire strode on over and Renee was shocked by the very solid way in which she reached out to give her a quick hug. "How you doing honey?"

"You're… you weren't before…"

"Oh, the solid thing." Claire smiled weakly at her. "Kind of like a promotion. Seriously, are you okay? I'm so sorry about this, I feel totally responsible."

"How?"

"She was giving the bastard a guided tour of our life and he decided he liked it a little too much." Justin responded with a touch of bitterness.

"He tried to do the switch but was sloppy with his wish and won a guided tour by me instead," Claire elaborated. "I was hoping he'd get his answers that way and be satisfied. I really wasn't shy about telling him what a bad idea it all was, but he blindsided me and made a much more exact wish just when I thought he was ready to go home."

"So what do we do now?" Renee asked.

Claire straightened up with a battle ready gleam in her dark eyes. "You can see me now, which helps. You and I are just gonna have to tag team him and convince him he doesn't want to stay. I think if he sees you've realised who he is and want him gone that should help."

"Okay, I can do that." She nodded affirmatively, trying not to worry about the fact that her boyfriend's destiny now depended on her powers of persuasion.

"Great… umm… Justin, I hate to cut this short but… I really ought to put you guys back."

"What?" Her more alive friend immediately reached straight back out for the man in question and began to cling. "But…"

"Ten minutes?" Justin looked towards Claire with pleading eyes.

She might have been able to resist him, but she certainly couldn't stay firm in the face of her obviously distraught best friend. Renee looked positively panicked by the whole thing, and she figured that insisting they separate immediately would be too much. Claire knew that they, unlike the other Justin, would heed her advice - oddly enough that made her far less bothered about them doing so. Ten minutes probably wouldn't make too much difference either way. She nodded briefly at Justin, and then tactfully disappeared back out into the hall.

Renee was involuntarily shuddering in her boyfriend's arms, looking fairly wild eyed. "How am I supposed to go back in there? I have to go get into a BED with him…"

"It's okay." Once again he kissed her temple, rubbing her arms in what he hoped was a reassuring motion. "You're just going to sleep, that's all, and you can kick him out onto the sofa tomorrow. At least you know now. I don't care just so long as you know and I know you won't let him touch you…"

She made an indeterminate squeak which might have been trying to be words.

"Just do your best, convince him to make the wish and I'll be back with you before you know it baby."

"What if I can't?" Tears began slipping from her eyes, which he immediately began wiping away with his thumbs.

"Hey, my girl can do anything." With a manly sniff, he gave her a sad smile. "That's why I love her."

Renee tried to smile back at him, but when she opened her mouth to speak the words weren't coming out in the way she wanted them to - they were too quiet and worried. "I love you too."

"So, uhh…" He couldn't help a small, wry smirk. "What was your favourite way I asked you out?"

She ducked behind a sheet of dark hair, looking a little sheepish. "Don't actually have one - you asked me out a whole lot and I think it'd take me like a year to even start narrowing it down. I just wanted to see what you'd say."

Deciding that there wasn't much left to say, Justin took the opportunity to swoop on in and give his girlfriend a much deeper kiss. He was hoping he'd be able to pull this little trick again but he really wasn't sure he'd be allowed and it was entirely possible this was the last kiss he'd be getting for a while - maybe ever, if Renee failed to find the necklace or convince the interloper to go home. They had about eight minutes left, and he was going to make them count. Feverishly she kissed him back, barely stopping for air. Both were trying vainly to meld their bodies together somehow, as if that could somehow prevent the magic separating them again, but that certainly wasn't to be.

He was going to kiss his lips raw if he had to, he was not letting go of her until the last possible second.

When Justin awoke in the morning, mildly hung over, it was to a note from Renee saying that she had recording to do and that she would see him later. This was actually fine - he wanted to spend the day doing a little quiet research of the type which would look mighty odd if she saw him doing it.

The previous evening had been a timely reminder than he had made this wish for a reason and that he ought to get along with fulfilling that little quest. It wasn't all bad; last night had allayed some of his fears that he wouldn't be able to cope with this life. He had managed to hang out with JC like they'd never been apart (and he had really soaked up every second of that) and he'd had a great time with Renee once he'd let himself relax for a moment. However, it had also hammered home that the whole point of this trip was to get a rounded view of his other self's life, and to do a thorough compare and contrast instead of just assuming it was better. Hanging out with JC and Renee, who clearly were the better elements, did not help that in the slightest.

He had known before he even came here that his other self still had JC, Lance, Chris and Joey, had Grammys, and he had known that Renee was in a better headspace. Granted, he hadn't known Renee was dating this reality's Justin, but that was more like an unexpected gooey filling in a chocolate he'd already known was there. He had basically known that his other self had a lot going well for him, and Renee was just one more thing. What he needed now was to see the flip side of everything, find out what was less perfect about his life.

Claire would have been a great first port of call, but she had yet to pay him a visit since her horrifically ominous 'I will haunt you to the end of your days' speech. She wouldn't show up on demand, so she was going to have to wait. Google, however, was at his fingertips, and he had spent a very long (and admittedly boring) morning reading up on the high and lows of life as Justin Timberlake in this reality.

He had read about the traumas of Britney Spears, and listened to the resulting songs. It was very odd to think that tiny little Britney from the Mickey Mouse Club could have screwed him over that way. He almost hated to think it about himself, but he actually considered the way he'd handled it not exactly stellar. At best it struck him as bitter, at worst outright vindictive. A little voice in the back of his head asked him whether he just wanted to make his alter ego into the bad guy. It pointed out that maybe the man had good grounds - or maybe he was just a little worried that he was as capable of it as the other guy - but still he couldn't help the disapproval.

Justin couldn't say the same of the songs however - aside from the odd filler, he had to admit it was excellent work, as was what he had heard of the second album in progress. He wondered bitterly why he couldn't manage to write songs like this when they were basically the same person. He had read with amusement the wardrobe malfunction saga (and laughed at the term 'wardrobe malfunction'), frowned a little when he saw that the media speculation and intrusion was apparently just as bad whichever world you happened to be in, and then had his jaw drop to the floor with the Cameron Diaz news. He didn't think he could get her to look twice at him in his own world.

He also noticed that the movie career wasn't going so well. One movie straight to DVD, one being held up by legal issues… the music seemed to have done spectacularly well, but the acting hadn't got off to an especially auspicious start.

It seemed to him, as he tapped a pen listlessly against the pad where he was making notes, trying to order his thoughts, that obviously the guy had at least some share of annoyances and obstacles in his life too. If he was honest with himself, he probably could have figured that out without needing to travel through any alternate realities. What he didn't quite understand, and what he supposed he wasn't going to figure out by anything except experiencing this life, was how this version of him managed to make lemonade out of those lemons when he was struggling to.

"You know what I've realised?"

"Shit!" Justin jumped about a mile out of his chair before turning around to see Claire standing behind him, looking far less threatening than she had last time in a skirt and sweater. "Don't fucking sneak up on me like that, Jesus!"

"No, not Jesus. Can't tell you whether he exists or not, against the rules." She gave him a soft smirk.

"Very funny. So, you here to yell at me again?"

"You know what I've realised?" Claire repeated again, looking thoughtfully at him.

"What?"

"I've been running around panicking about what to do. How to handle you, how to handle the other Justin and Renee…"

"Renee?" For a moment a pang of guilt speared his stomach; he had almost forgotten that he'd left her behind.

"Yep. She's fine. Extremely confused and kind of hurt after learning that you left without a word, but fine." Claire raised a pointed eyebrow at him. "But whatever, we were talking about me, right? So I'm all panicking and wondering what on Earth I'm supposed to do as a spirit guide here and what the heck I can do except lecture you all day, and you know what occurs to me?"

Justin leaned back in his chair and tossed the pen down. "No but you're about to share."

"I can sit here and yell at you all I want. Actually what I'd like to do would be to smack you upside your head and ask what you think you're playing at. But…" She looked at him with what almost passed for sympathy, and even made an apologetic gesture towards him with her hands.

"I can't force you to do anything and I shouldn't be trying. Wouldn't matter even if I did, lecturing you is probably only going to make you do shit just to spite me, which isn't good for either of us. You're obviously looking for something and I'm supposed to be the guide… so, Justin Timberlake, what are you looking for and how can I help you find it?"

He was actually rather floored by that little speech. Another lecture was what he had expected, and he'd already been complaining to himself that she refused to offer any assistance. At any rate, he certainly appreciated the turn around. He wasn't stupid, he realised she was probably doing this in order to give herself a better chance of convincing him to find the necklace and wish himself home, but she was being fairly open with her opinion and he had to respect that. Claire was probably right; even if this did suit her agenda, it was pretty helpful to his too.

"Thanks."

"It's my job." She nodded at him. "Seriously though, I need some kind of reason as to why you're so keen on living this life, because until I get that it's going to be hard offering any advice."

"I just…" His blue eyes wandered over to the piece of paper, which was full of all sorts of fun facts. "You know, right? How screwed up things are with Renee, with JC and the guys, with my career… on paper I should be the luckiest guy in the world and I'm fucking miserable. And I know the little lady is too, but then when the other Renee came for that little visit and she told me how well this guy was doing and she seemed so… I don't know. Something's right here that isn't at home and I need to figure that out."

"Be honest, Justin…" Claire hit him with a freakishly penetrating glare. "This isn't just a research trip, is it? It reeks of unfinished business to me."

"I…" he wanted to deny it, but couldn't. "She had feelings for me, I know she did. Fuck, she went and hooked up with me… I mean him… whatever. She's now with Justin Timberlake here off the back of what happened between her and me. And I can't sit here and pretend I wasn't attracted to her even when I knew she wasn't my girlfriend. And I can't help wondering if maybe she was supposed to stay."

"But she didn't, Justin," Claire told him softly. "She made that trip for a reason and she met you for a reason, but she made that choice. Don't you think if she was supposed to stay she would have?"

"And she hasn't even noticed I switched yet, and I know she's been responding to me. So this trip I made has to be for a reason, right?" He kept pressing on, on a roll now. "What if I was the one meant to be with her and we were only ever supposed to be apart for a little while? What if I'm here because I'm supposed to stay here?"

"Okay…"

Claire was very much aware that she needed to either shoot this down immediately or at least give him something to think about that would stop him taking this thought and running with it. It was difficult, because he had a point; he had to be here for a reason. Clearly he'd had a much stronger hand in this than Renee had had with her cross dimensional trip - she had been completely guided by fate whereas he had meddled with it - but he still had a point. There was a purpose in here somewhere, and it wasn't impossible that the purpose had been to make a permanent switch.

It'd be helpful if she could tell him that Renee knew and was unhappy she'd been lied to, but she had agreed that was Renee's prerogative.

"You have GOT to remember that you have four people in the palm of your hand right now. You can't just think of this in terms of yourself. What about your actual girlfriend? What about the other Justin? How exactly would this switch serve either of them?"

"Well… it just would, right? If it's destiny?" Justin responded weakly.

"You can't just look after number one and assume everything else will work itself out, JT." She didn't say it unkindly. "Take it wider. Three weeks is one thing, but forever? You got years and years of life between you and him that's different, Justin. People you've barely met who mean a lot to him. How you ever going to make that yours? How you ever going to make her yours when the guy she's spent the last year falling in love with isn't you? I know you want to think that it started because of you… and maybe it did…" she had to begrudgingly admit, "but what's gone down since has been with him, not you. How's that going to work out?"

"I thought you weren't going to lecture me any more?"

He was pouting fiercely, arms folded defensively across his chest and sock clad feet tapping on the floor irritably, but Claire wasn't biting. She merely folded her own arms and looked sharply at him.

"Giving good advice means telling you what you don't necessarily want to hear, just like you're saying a few things I'm not exactly loving right now. I'm not telling you what to do, Justin, but these are all questions you're going to need to ask yourself. Do you remember…"

Here she was about to pull out her trump card. Once she had taken Renee and the more innocent Justin back to their opposite dimensions last night (or technically this morning), she had sat down with Renee and quizzed her on exactly what had happened between her and body snatching Justin on her three week trip to his world. She had figured she needed as much ammunition as possible, and though Renee had been extremely reluctant she had eventually dished.

"Do you remember what Renee said to you, just before she left? About how your feelings for her were only about your problems with your girlfriend?"

"Yes…" Justin said slowly.

"Do you wonder if maybe that's still true?" She asked gently.

"Still? Was it ever?" He riposted, only to receive a shrug in reply.

"That's for you to answer, but I think you need to seriously think on it. It's fairly obvious to me that Renee Anderson in one or other version is where you're meant to be at, but you really need to think hard about whether what you feel for this world's Renee is honestly about her for all her differences, or if you're just looking for a short cut because you know your own relationship needs some serious work."

Justin became silent at this, and Claire decided that she had probably given him about as much as he could take for this precise moment in time.

"Okay… I need to go, I have things to do and I probably need to go check back in with the other Justin, but will you promise me something?"

"Depends," he answered shrewdly.

"Find the necklace. I'm not going to pressure you into using it, but I don't want you realising you want to go home but then running out of time because you couldn't find it quick enough. Does that sound fair?"

"Yeah. Okay." Justin nodded.

It did sound fair enough, and if he was honest it was probably the most practical thing to do. There was no point in cheating himself out of a choice, if he was going to honestly explore where it was he should be then he needed both options fully available to him. Of course it meant confessing his identity to a certain brunette singer, but in all probability he would have had to at some point anyway.

Claire gave him a pensive smile, waggled her fingers at him in farewell and then did her disappearing act.

For what was perhaps the first time since he had got here, Justin began wondering what was happening back in his own dimension. How had Renee reacted on finding out that he'd gone (he inferred from Claire that she had), and how was she getting along with the other Justin? Was he turning her head the way this reality's Renee had turned his own? Had what he'd done hurt her? Was she hoping he would come home or was she detached, unconcerned? Did she miss him at all?

Should he be worried that it had taken Claire's mention of her to make him even think about it?

"Well… you know I'm always happy to have you visit, honey…"

Renee couldn't see Faith Anderson's face over a telephone, but it was scrunched into a mildly confused expression. It wasn't often she got calls from her daughter asking if she could stop over to raid the attic.

"…What's so important about this necklace anyway?"

"It…"

Her daughter struggled for a response, and came up with only one. It was one she was probably going to burn in Hell for, but she was desperate. She silently mouthed a quick prayer to the heavens, asking forgiveness. Hey, maybe she could ask Claire to pass the message on.

"It's just that it was Grandma's, Mom, and I'd forgotten all about it but I just thought of it and… I know it's kind of silly…"

"Oh no, sweetheart," Faith said. Her mother had not long passed away, and she knew it had hit both her girls hard - Renee's sister had been particularly distraught. "I understand. Besides, it'll be nice to see you. Lou was talking about maybe stopping in so you never know, you might catch her too."

"I mean it might even have gone to Dad's…but, you know, I wanted to see you so I thought I'd check with you first."

She winced, knowing that the subject of her father was still an issue for her mother; they had only been divorced for a couple of years and it had been fairly acrimonious. It was something which had happened in both realities, although for her more famous alter ego it had happened years sooner - the fame had lit the fuse for the problems in their marriage. Another thing she had noticed about both worlds was that her father was not fond of her boyfriend in either, which was why she was hoping she didn't have to go to his home to retrieve the necklace.

Renee hoped that because she was going to have to force Justin to accompany her. It wasn't a prospect that thrilled her, but she needed to keep a leash on him. As she knew all too well, it was a minefield trying to impersonate somebody when you knew nothing about their past. Given how awkward media attention could be, it was too risky letting him run loose to make a headline grabbing slip up. She didn't want her boyfriend's reputation besmirched by an impostor.

"Okay honey. Let me know when your flight gets in and I can come pick you up."

"It might have to be late; I need to keep it quiet as possible, especially if I do bring Justin. Paparazzi are the last thing we need."

"That's fine, so long as you let me know in advance."

"Okay Mom, I gotta go but I'll call you with the details. Love you."

"Love you too." Both women hung up simultaneously.

Sighing, she pushed herself back from the mixing desk and spun around in her chair. Determined to avoid Justin for a while, she had sought refuge in the studio. Renee had that morning pulled on her slouchiest combat pants and a nice baggy turtleneck sweater: comfort clothing. Her dark hair was scraped back into a sloppy ponytail, precariously perched on the top of her head, and her face was devoid of make up. She had tried to come back and work on the song that had been giving her trouble when JC had stopped by, but it wasn't happening.

It had been impossible to do anything but cry once she had been returned to her rightful place. She had long put the whole body swap experience out of her mind, save to remember the lessons she had learned, and the fact that she had been thrown back into it gnawed at her insides. For one thing, she hated the idea that her boyfriend was off having cosy chats with a richer, more famous, skinnier version of her who was a known cheater. Still, it was entirely secondary to the utter betrayal she felt.

She was beyond angry at the other Justin for what he had done to her. She wasn't angry that he had wanted to see her, talk to her, but she was livid at the duplicitous manner in which he had chosen to make that happen. He had deceived her, pretended to be someone he wasn't, and he had snatched her boyfriend and her life away from her without a single word of warning. Had he even thought about the fact that he was purposely throwing her world into chaos? Did he care?

"Fuck," she said out loud before throwing her pen at the wall.

What it was supposed to achieve she didn't know, but she didn't dare throw anything heavier and more satisfying. She'd only have to pay for it. Oddly it registered in her mind that the room smelled of stale take out, something greasy along the line of McDonald's. Normally the studio was a wonderful place for her, a place of creativity and catharsis. Today it felt oppressive, and the beige walls strangely like a prison; that was probably because she didn't want to face the fraud waiting for her back at her hotel room.

Renee wasn't being entirely honest with herself. Certainly the iron fist gripping and squeezing at her stomach had a little anger behind it. She had a right to be angry with him. That, however, wasn't really the primary cause of it.

Mostly it was guilt. There was a little fear in the mix, but the bulk of it was guilt.

There had been a fake, a charlatan standing where her boyfriend should be. He walked and talked like her boyfriend, but he wasn't her boyfriend. Heck, she had even noticed some of his strange behaviour - but not once had it ever crossed her mind that it wasn't him. It had not crossed her mind one single, solitary time, not even in jest. Shouldn't she have known? Shouldn't she have realised somehow? How could she have felt another man's touch and looked into another man's gaze and not seen the truth behind his eyes?

It was horrible, but it was raising questions about how deep her love for her own Justin really ran. She had always pinpointed the moment she fell for him as the fourth time he asked her out. That was the one where he had responded to her complaint that she had nobody to see any girly movies with by saying that he would suffer any chick flick she wanted him to so long as it was on a date. Naturally she'd already had a little crush (it was unavoidable, given her history with the other Justin), but that was the moment she honestly thought she had begun to love him.

Now she was wondering if it was a delusion. Now she was wondering if she had been kidding herself, if she didn't know him or feel for him as much as she thought she did. How else could she have failed to spot his absence?

If that was the case, it begged the question of why she was spinning such a fantasy for herself. The unavoidable answer would be that she was using him as a substitute for the Justin who was in another world where she couldn't have him: the next best thing. That thought made her want to throw up, but she couldn't honestly dismiss it. She just didn't know, and the fact that she didn't know scared her because to her mind there ought to be an easy and unequivocal answer. That answer ought to be the man who had been with her for the past year.

All things considered, Renee was really not looking forward to the confrontation she was going to have to have with the man wearing her honey's skin. She was as afraid of his motives and feelings as her own, if not more, and she doubted the next few days were going to be pretty.

***

"So…"

In an alternate dimension, while the chocolate haired Renee Anderson was sat in a studio brooding, the blonde haired version was driving back from lunch with a similarly brooding Justin Timberlake. Naturally he was in the passenger seat; with her own boyfriend this would never be the case, but he wasn't familiar with their neighbourhood.

There had been a few photographers outside the restaurant, but it had been nothing he couldn't handle. All he'd had to do was talk and eat. He'd also briefly had to hold her hand for the cameras, but that wasn't a big deal to him either. He felt a little guilty thinking of the girlfriend he'd reluctantly parted from the night before, but he had a feeling she'd understand about the whole keeping up appearances thing. She had been through this herself.

"So what?"

"Well," Renee said, "you still haven't told me a lot about last night, and it's not like I could ask in the middle of the restaurant. What happened?"

Justin heaved a sigh. "Not much that's relevant to you, really. I told her, took a while to convince her but she got it, she's hunting down the necklace and she and Claire are gonna do whatever it is they have to for him to wish us back. Oh, but you'll be happy to know they haven't slept together. She said she noticed him acting weird, it just never occurred to her that it wasn't me."

"He…" Renee took a shaky breath. There was an odd sensation of relief in her stomach - strangely akin to the kind you felt on finally managing to get to the bathroom when your bladder was painfully full. "He hasn't come onto her then?"

"I… I don't actually know." He gritted his teeth. "I had to watch him acting like me - and I mean really acting like me, hugging her and shit. I gotta figure they've made out, but I don't know if anybody actually came onto anybody."

"Oh," she said. Her eyes clouded over.

"Okay, spill it."

"What?"

"That was a deeply subtext filled 'oh.' So spill."

It was funny how fast they had become confidantes. Part of that was probably the familiarity, the amount of similarities between the two versions of each person. A bigger part was the natural camaraderie of two people both thrown into a situation of unprecedented insanity. The side effect of being half familiar with each other already was that they were much more attuned to signs of worry or hurt than two people of such brief acquaintance would normally be - hence his uncanny ability to read her.

"I just… AHH!" She let out a loud growl, smacking her hands against the wheel. "You know sometimes I think everything's he's been doing since that last damn body swap has been to punish me for that stupid fling I had. Like, how long do I have to atone for it before we can move on? Could he forget it sometime this side of eternity?"

Having been cheated on and unwilling to forgive himself, he had to offer somewhat of a defence.

"It's hard to forgive, and harder to forget. I know when I got cheated on it drove me crazy thinking about it. I just couldn't handle this image I had in my head of somebody else with my girl."

"But, see, it's not even…"

She hated trying to defend herself when it came to this. For one thing, it always sounded like she was just making excuses - she never expressed it right - and for another she still hadn't quite convinced herself that she was worthy of defence.

For all their problems she loved her boyfriend. Seeing him half the man he was and knowing it was her fault killed her a little more inside, every day. As much as she tried to tell herself that he was a grown man and responsible for his own attitudes, every time he reminded her of what she'd done or put her down for it she couldn't help the voice in her head that told her she was making him be this way. The voice that told her she'd made her bed with the wrong man between the sheets, and she had to lie in it.

"It's not even what?" Justin asked.

Renee couldn't help the way her hands shook as she indicated and pulled into the next lane.

"I can't tell you how many times he and I went through it. So many fucking times. We agreed that we should move on and forget it. Except… he doesn't even seem to be trying. Like, I understand how hard it would be and I never expected an easy ride, I know I have to earn his trust back, but it feels like I'm constantly walking on fucking eggshells and busting my ass trying to make it up and he's not even trying to move past it. He's more interested in your fucking girlfriend and how much of a fucking saint she is."

"Hey!" Justin protested loudly. "Don't get attitude about her because he's being a bitch!"

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean that badly about her," she said. "I'm just sick of being told she lives Renee Anderson better than I do."

"Look, you shouldn't feel bad because he's fixated on her, or me, or whatever," he began. "Sure, you hurt the guy, but that's not an excuse to be an asshole after he agreed to try and put it behind you."

"I don't think you can really understand, Justin." Renee breathed in deeply and exhaled with a shirt puff of air. "I feel horrible for what I did, I really do. I feel like shit every time I get compared to her or reminded of what a shitty thing I did, and in that second I hate him for how he's being, but then I have to remember why he's being like that: because I hurt him."

Justin stared at her with pity, and his gaze seared her flesh. She hated people feeling sorry for her; she felt sorry enough for herself without other people's sympathy.

"I feel guilty every damn second for what I did, and then I get to feel guilty for all those moments where I blame him for what's happening between us but then remember why he's acting the way he is. I spend every waking minute feeling like shit, and a few of my sleeping ones too with some of the nightmares I've had."

"Ummm…" He struggled for a way to phrase what he was about to say delicately.

"No disrespect intended, but he sounds like he's being a complete bastard. He's got you pretty much hating yourself here - somebody who's supposed to love you shouldn't be doing that."

She shook her head fervently as she pulled up to their gated community, opened the window and keyed in the code that would open the gates. There was a paparazzi van tailing them, but they weren't the only celebrities in the neighbourhood and the guys manning the security cameras were well versed in shooing photographers away.

"You just don't understand, you can't, you… there's moments when we manage to stop fighting for more than two consecutive seconds and we're alright and…" Renee breathed a deep sigh, tears stinging her eyes. "For a second I see my old boyfriend there, the one I hadn't completely screwed up, but then he's gone again. And then I feel bad again for not knowing how to keep him there. I know there's something else I could be doing, but I just don't know what it is."

Justin didn't know what to say to this, so he remained silent. Privately he was of the opinion she should be kicking his ass and taking a firmer stance with him. He doubted it would ever happen. Between her own remorse and her boyfriend's confidence demolishing remarks, she was shouldering all the blame and thus in her own mind forfeiting the right to take exception to or confront his alter ego's behaviour.

There was an insidious little voice whispering in the back of his mind as he looked at her, flashing the faces of cheating girlfriends past in the place of hers. He would love to say he saw no parallels between the body snatcher's stubborn refusal to forgive and his own, but he'd be a liar. Part of him wanted to argue that what had been done to him was worse and merited less compassion. That didn't stop him from wondering if those girls had all felt the same regret, the same sense of shame and self loathing that she was - and if he, like the other Justin, had been completely insensitive to it.

Maybe Renee wasn't the only person feeling guilty.

"Remind me what's so important about this necklace anyway?"

Louise punctuated her words with a grunt as she shifted an overly heavy box of books out of her way. It was a boiling hot day (as most summer days were in Florida) and stuck in the attic was not a great place to be, in her opinion. However, their mother had immediately on hearing that Renee was going to go up there accosted her and ordered her to help. She'd also 'suggested' that they tidy up - just since they happened to be up there anyway.

Louise had attempted to complain this was child labour until her mother had sweetly reminded her that she was always a child in her mother's eyes but not the law's.

Renee tried to hold back a sneeze as she brushed some dust off the top of the box she was about to open. "Grandma just told me she wanted me to have it, that's all."

"And remind me why lover boy's not helping instead of me?"

"Because he's fixing shelves for Mom."

This was merely a convenient excuse. Justin had never done any DIY in his life, had always had interior designers for such things, but the job kept him out of her way. There had been a very stony plane ride in which he had attempted to talk to her - first she had plugged her headphones in and watched the movie, and then she had pretended to be asleep. By the time he'd been able to attempt talking to her it was too late and Faith Anderson had pulled up to the sidewalk, hugged them both and started loading their bags into the car.

Louise blew a strand of hair away from her face, which was sticky with sweat. The rest of her was equally sticky with sweat and the entire attic smelled horribly musty. Renee wasn't looking much better, but her dark hair disguised it more than her sister's lighter shade of caramel blonde did. The two were of similar height and build but Renee had always taken more after their mother, with whom she shared the same heart shaped face and big round eyes. Louise's jaw was a more feminine version of her father's square cut one, and the only things that gave her any resemblance to Renee were the high cheekbones and the button nose that nobody in the family could account for.

"Umm… I don't mean to be nosy…"

"But you're gonna be anyway…"

"Naturally," Louise said through a smirk before her expression dropped to a more thoughtful gaze. "Are you and the pop star having a fight?"

"What makes you say that?" Renee did an impressive job of keeping her voice at a neutral tone as she rummaged through a box of boxes, hoping that one of them would yield a stash of jewellery. Perhaps she ought to consider a few of those scripts she was getting; she was a better actress than she thought.

Her sister's lips didn't stay still as she mulled this one over - if they weren't being sucked into her mouth they were being pursed or bitten. A fairly comic series of expressions made their way across her face as she tried to voice her thoughts.

"It just… I don't know. You're looking at each other funny."

Renee laughed - of course, Louise didn't have to know she was laughing because it was true. "This is the extent of your evidence, huh? Lou, it's a good thing you gave up that whole forensic science idea."

"Shut up, munchkin!" She laughed good-naturedly. "Seriously though… you just seem kinda off, that's all - he's kinda quiet and you're not doing that whole sickening googly eyes thing like usual."

"It's nothing. He's just kind of stressed about his stuff and I'm just kind of stressed about mine."

As always, the art of the entirely factual yet still misleading statement was something she had mastered; she'd got pretty good at it while insisting to the press that she was not dating Trace Ayala. It had been tremendously awkward at the time, given that she had in fact been fending off the amorous attentions of his best friend. Justin, displaying some wonderfully screwed up logic, had argued that this was in fact the perfect cover for the two of them going out because it gave her an excuse to hang out at his house a lot. Her response to that had been to tell him that he clearly had some faulty wiring in his head.

Compared to the Justin she was now having to put up with, he was the epitome of reason and sense.

Louise cocked her head to the right, peering at the back her little sister had turned to her as if it would give something away. Presently she shrugged to herself and turned back to the jewellery box she had managed to locate, trying to untangle the mass of chains, earrings and brooches in an effort to actually see what was in there.

"Yeah. Because song writing's so hard, right?"

"Hey." Renee responded by pretending to aim an empty box at Louise's head. "Let's see you write an album that sells 7 million copies worldwide and then you can step to me with that shit."

"Your album only sold four million."

Her face curved in a wide smile. There was nothing like a little bickering with Louise to make her feel at home. "I was talking about Justin, dumb ass."

"Yes, well… prancing round with your flesh hanging out for Rolling Stone will get the little girls' panties in a twist, I guess. Power of hormones will sell anything these days."

Louise shrieked as Renee went ahead and threw the box at her that time.

"And what is it you do all day, huh Ms Accountant? Like it's that hard adding up numbers, they teach you that in first frickin' grade…"

***

"Uhh… I think I'm done, Mrs Anderson." Justin poked his head into the utility room where Renee's mother was pulling a mass of laundry out of the dryer.

"Since when am I Mrs Anderson to you, Justin?" She laughed, though not unkindly. "In fact, since when I am Mrs Anderson these days?"

Justin was impressed she could poke fun at her divorce - he'd always got the impression it was still kind of a sore subject with his own girlfriend's mother. He didn't like to ask Renee about it, but he wondered if maybe the divorce here hadn't been so caught up in accusations of adultery. Since they hadn't discussed it, he wasn't to know as this world's Justin did that Nathan Anderson was only an issue to his ex-wife when it came to the two of them actually being in a room together or arguing about where the girls would spend holidays. It had been so bad the previous Christmas that Louise had threatened to spend it with her boyfriend's family instead.

"Did you change your name back?" He asked before wondering if that was appropriate - pretty much in the wrong order.

"No." Faith didn't appear to think anything of it, shrugging instead. "I thought about it, but to be honest I don't think I mind enough. More hassle and paperwork than it's worth - besides, I tend to think of it more as my children's name these days than Nathan's."

"What's in a name, huh?"

"Exactly," she said, smiling at him without picking up on the undercurrent beneath his words. He of all people knew that even the exact same name didn't denote the exact same person, so what was keeping an ex's surname? "Would you mind folding some of this stuff up for me, honey?"

"Sure."

Justin automatically picked up some pillowcases and started folding. He wasn't anywhere near as neat or as deft as his companion; he tended to have somebody else do his laundry, be it the hotel or his cleaner. It wasn't that he was too lazy to do it; he certainly did his own when he went home to Shelby Forest. He just never seemed to have much time and it was easier.

Idly he wondered if the Justin of this world was the same. He wondered if his girlfriend ended up doing his laundry as much as she did in his world. He wondered if Faith and his own mother hung out occasionally the way they did in his world, and he wondered if Louise and Trace had to play tag-along the way they so often did for him and the blonde version of Renee. They were all little things that he was quickly realising three weeks was not going to show him, or be enough time for him to think of everything he wanted to ask.

Staying, however, seemed unthinkable right now. Renee could barely bring herself to look at him, let alone talk to him.

"So what are you kids up to while you're here?" Faith tried to make conversation as she realised he'd become quiet. He'd always liked Faith - she reminded him of Renee in demeanour as well as looks. They weren't best friends the way the tabloids always made out, but they got along.

"Umm… I don't know," he replied distractedly. "Hadn't thought about it."

"If I were you," she said shrewdly, "I'd fit in some fun time before both of you go back on promotion again. You both seem a little tense, you ought to go out and take your minds off things. You're too young for frown lines."

Guiltily, Justin remembered one of Renee's little barbs from the previous evening. She had told him that if he ruined her anniversary there was a possibility she would disembowel him. When he had later received a voicemail from Rachel letting him know that she'd booked flights and a suite at the Palms in Vegas, he had realised that they'd been planning to make a big deal of it. Apparently they had been ready and waiting to go and let their hair down, but he'd thrown a spanner in the works.

He'd also been surprised to realise Rachel had become his PA. He didn't understand what had happened to Trace - he'd had plenty of text messages from him, so clearly they hadn't fallen out.

"Oh sorry, that's the phone. Keep folding and I'll be right back." Faith winked at him before departing the room, leaving him to his heavy thoughts.

Or at least he thought that was what was happening until he saw the familiar black mist gathering in the spot she had previously occupied. It was funny how blasé he now was to it. Objectively speaking it was a pretty creepy sight, it looked horrendously malevolent and like it wouldn't be out of place in a horror film. It didn't perturb him in the slightest any more, though he did wonder why it was black. Claire seemed to be working for the big guys, and he'd always assumed that would come with a shade of white, silver or gold. Black definitely smacked of something more infernal.

"Hey," Claire said once she was finally solid and all present.

"Hey," he replied shortly.

"Oh, grouchy. I'm guessing she's not talking to you?"

"Did you have to tell her?"

"Hey, don't blame me for this Timberlake." She jabbed an index finger in his direction with narrowed eyes. Technically it wasn't a lie - working out how to disillusion her had been the other Renee's little coup. "You're the one who lied to her."

"I know, I know." Justin let out a large sigh as he separated his pile out and put some in front of Claire. "Help me out here?"

"Nuh-uh," she said sweetly. "It'd look weird if you'd done enough work for two people when she gets back."

He grumbled and muttered a little, but he let it go fairly quickly if only because he didn't have time to waste arguing with her. He considered her excuse a total cop out, but he had to let her win that one. If she'd still been incorporeal he would have understood, but she had no excuse now she could actually touch things.

"Anyway, to what do I owe this pleasure?"

"Did you have to sound so sarcastic?"

"Claire…"

"Alright, alright." The ghost threw her hands up, relenting. "Just checking in. Found the necklace yet?"

"Renee's in the attic looking."

"You managed to have any kind of conversation with her about this yet?"

He shook his head. "Not unless you count her threatening to castrate me."

Claire winced in sympathy - she didn't have to be a guy herself to know that threatening a man's privates was a low blow. "Well, she's pissed… and kind of hurt, I think. You kind of threw her for a loop here, you can't expect her to deal without at least a bit of anger first."

"Yeah but we need to talk this out," Justin responded as in his flustered state he dropped the bed sheet he had already spent far too much time attempting to fold. "I'm here for a reason, and I don't think it's for her to not talk to me ever again."

She didn't respond to him, but she was already making a mental note to go give Renee a talking to. He was right, although not in the way he was thinking. It wasn't going to do either of them any good to avoid addressing whatever issue it was that had brought him here - for one thing, that was just begging for him to do something stupid yet again in his search for answers.

For another, Claire had a sneaking suspicion that maybe Renee had a little something of her own to address with this little visit. Clearly there was something unresolved with this man, or his little visit wouldn't be rattling her so much. Maybe she would have been able to avoid it ever becoming an issue if she'd never seen him again, maybe not, but the fact was it was unavoidable now and running from it wasn't going to do her any more good than it would him.

She'd really been hoping this would be a quick job where she just had to swap the idiot back into his own world and be done with it. However, the more Claire watched this unfold, the stronger that feeling in the pit of her stomach became. The feeling that maybe Justin wasn't the idiot she'd had him pegged for, the feeling that maybe this was just as meant to be as Renee's trip had been. How the story was meant to end she really wasn't sure, but the more she talked to the four of them the more she started suspecting that it needed to play out to its own conclusion.

That, of course, would necessitate her stepping back, not popping up so much and more or less leaving them to it. It would mean her entrusting them all with their own fates and letting them be their own guides.

She really hated doing that.

"Shit… I should've stayed home."

"It'll be fine."

"Renee," Justin said testily, "I'm about to walk a red carpet with somebody who's meant to be my girlfriend. I haven't done that in years. Did I mention that I'm not actually the guy I'm supposed to be and I have no idea how to answer any questions about the asshole?"

"Hey!"

"Sorry," he mumbled unhappily.

When at the last minute Johnny Wright had called the house to remind them both that they were supposed to be attending the MTV Movie awards, his first instinct had been to play sick. He was now wishing he'd listened to it instead of Renee who had cajoled him into it. Her reasoning had been that they needed to keep up pretences and people would talk more (and thus the paparazzi hunt for them more) if he didn't go. Begrudgingly Justin had conceded the point, but he wished he'd stood firm.

It was nothing unusual; he'd done this type of thing a million times before, but that wasn't the part he was worried about. He'd have to sign a few autographs and talk to a few people's best friends on the phone or record answer machine messages for them. That would be a piece of cake. It was the press he was terrified of - he knew nothing about this guy's career, had purposely eschewed finding out. He figured he ought to learn the lesson from his other self's mistakes and not start delving too deeply into what could have been. Having to stick with Renee so much he couldn't entirely avoid it, but he could do his best.

He allowed himself a sideways glance at her. It was becoming less and less strange to see her with blonde hair, but he still had trouble getting over the body difference. The breasts were the obvious part, but he didn't think he'd be able to pinch even a little fat from her. His own girlfriend was soft, a little cuddly - still toned, but she had more curves and maybe she was a dress size bigger (if he ever saw her again, he would never ever admit that). Her midriff was on display under a black turtleneck sweater that had been cropped, but her legs were hidden under a floaty white skirt and she had covered up for the most part.

Justin privately thought she looked a lot nicer for it than she did in the scantily clad publicity shots he'd seen around, but he was as likely to mention that as he was the dress size thing.

"Look…" she said reasonably. "We just have to make an appearance, get the promo done. I have to present this award, but you're really only here because they expect you… him… whatever, they expect Justin Timberlake. We usually do the awards shows together so it got to the point where if they don't get what they expect the rumours start, and we don't need that right now. It'll be fine, you do this all the time superstar."

"I just…" he sighed. It occurred to him that the only reason he'd stopped doing this public relationship thing was learning from the Britney debacle. He guessed this guy had met his Britney and never broken up with her, thus hadn't been taught it yet.

"What?"

She was encouraging, so he spoke. "I stopped doing this whole public relationship shit a long time ago because it was more hassle than it was worth. I mean, people know me and you… her…"

"Pronouns are hard with this magic crap, huh?" She laughed and he had to chuckle with her.

"No shit. But yeah, they know we're dating and it's not like we're hiding out in our houses but we don't do work stuff together except for behind the scenes. This…" he gestured to the crowd beyond their darkened windows, "is like my worst nightmare."

"Really?" She tilted her head to the side, looking at him from behind thoughtful eyes. "I always just considered it like going to the work Christmas party together or something. Least it's an excuse to spend some time together when you're always away from each other."

"I guess I just learnt to make up the time elsewhere."

"Hmm."

Renee became quiet again, staring out of the window. Justin was driving them both in her Porsche - normally they would have just shared a limo, but they had wanted to avoid having any kind of staff around. They needed to speak freely in order to prepare him to act as his alter ego.

"So… remind me again what I'm supposed to be doing right now?"

"Tell them you're just playing around in the studio but the details are a surprise or something on those lines."

"And, uhh…" he swallowed nervously. "Exactly how openly do you guys usually talk about each other?"

Finally she cracked a small smile. "Feel free to be as sycophantic as you want about my work or my appearance but any relationship details always get a no comment."

"Okay." Justin breathed as the pulled up to the valet and he prepared to make his entrance in front of the flashbulbs. "I can do that. Sure. No problem."

"You trying to convince you or me?"

"Does it matter?"

"No because it's not working either way."

Renee poked a playful index finger against his cheek and then quickly checked her hair in the mirror as Justin grimaced and reached out his hand to open the door.

***

Meanwhile, at the same time the other Justin was looking similarly pained. The look was similarly brief, but it wasn't the cameras he had to smile for: it was Louise. Louise in his reality had always been like an annoying but still much liked older sister - she was always picking on him. In this reality she seemed to treat him mildly like an adult, which was a nice change, but she was still sharp as a tack and she still made a lot of fun of him. The woman was not stupid, didn't miss a trick, so he needed to keep his game face on.

It would be nothing compared to the game face he would need if the worst happened and he did in fact have to face Nathan Anderson. The scenario was looking more and more likely; Faith's attic was looking neater and tidier by the day but had still not yielded the gem, and he was already a week and a half into his three week stay.

"God I hate it when she does phone interviews." Louise punctuated herself with a huge yawn. "We have to sit and be quiet for hours while they keep her on hold just in case they suddenly decide to talk, and they always ask really dumb questions."

"Try having to give the damn interview." Renee riposted.

"Enough people have mistaken us over the phone…" her sister replied with an evil grin.

"Oh hell no, bitch." Renee chuckled, tossing a sofa cushion at her - she felt free to swear with her mother out getting groceries. "I can only imagine the shit you'd say just to be evil which you would then leave for me to clean up. I still haven't forgotten the aneurysm Ken Sunshine nearly had over that comment you made about buying me handcuffs for Christmas."

Justin nearly choked, which only served to make Louise laugh louder. He was still having trouble reconciling this version of Renee with the one he'd met on her body swap; call it brazen, call it merely open, the girl was a lot less prudish. That wasn't the easiest concept for him to get his head around. His perception of her was as somebody sweet, sensible, even a little shy, so it was strange for her to have picked up some of the confidence he more associated with his actual girlfriend.

Or at least he had until the last couple of years where she'd stopped talking except to have fights with him.

"Hello?" Renee finally said into the phone, signalling that somebody was in fact talking to her. Justin and Renee fell obediently quiet.

"Yes sir, I'm here…"

"Well thank you, it hasn't sucked that's for sure!"

"Yeah, I've been really pleased with how the first album's done and hopefully I can match that with this next one I'm doing now."

"It's more a… uhh… I guess you could say it's a little more up tempo, a little perkier, but I think generally it's not a huge step out to the left, it's just me getting better at what I do. At least I think so, hope to God everybody else does or I'm in some deep doo-doo!"

It was inane, it was banal, and Justin didn't even need to hear the other side of the conversation to be able to fill in the blanks. It was the radio version of small talk, getting the pleasantries and the plugs over with before the DJs started getting bold and going for the personal. Sometimes they did just go for the jugular straight off, but most of them were canny enough to let their subject get comfortable first.

A lot more inane talk about her music went by before the conversation took a more interesting turn and he began to pay attention.

"Uhh… he's alright… he's fine… I mean what do you want me to say?"

She was laughing, obviously making a joke of what he suspected was them getting coy with her (obviously over one Justin Timberlake), but the expression on her face was entirely incongruous with her tone. That was the upside of phone interviews - you could be picking your nose the entire time and nobody would know.

"No, it's not that, it's not like it's some huge terrible thing that people ask me how my boyfriend is but I just don't get why people are so interested. I mean, I know he's famous and all, but I swear we're just as boring as anybody else. People always ask me what we're doing like they expect me to say we're whizzing around the world or bungee jumping in Africa or something and I'm like 'well last night we rented a movie', that's about as exciting as it gets."

Louise was clutching her stomach and her mouth, clearly trying to keep her laughter silent. If she was anything like her other world counterpart, she had concocted something far less innocuous in her mind and it was that she was laughing at rather than anything Renee had said.

"Oh boy, I love rumours."

"Uhh… I don't think so. If any of them are about me he hasn't mentioned it. He's got better things to talk about anyway."

"Yeah, it's really good stuff. I mean, but I think this one's just going blow everybody away with how much better it is, and it's not like the first one wasn't fantastic, if you know what I mean."

This was the part where her face went white. The voice remained happy and upbeat, but her entire body seemed to sag into the chair.

"There's nothing I can say to that which people won't take as either a lie or me being stupid or something, so I'm gonna keep my mouth shut and people can think what they want. I'm really not going to talk about it."

"Which part of 'really not going to talk about it' didn't make sense to you?"

And then she did something that he had never seen his own Renee do … she hung up entirely.

Louise immediately did exactly what she knew her sister needed her to do. She plopped herself down on Renee's lap and curled her body into the tight space of the single armchair with her, wrapping her arms around her neck and kissing her cheek before laying her head atop of hers. Justin remained quiet, deciding that he'd rather just watch. It felt a little voyeuristic but finally he thought maybe he was going to get a taste of this life, even if it was a moment.

"Assholes?"

"Assholes," the brunette replied as she rubbed her hands along her older sibling's arms. "They're back on the shit about Cameron being back in the picture."

"Justin?" Louise addressed him loudly.

"Yeah?" He hadn't counted on being drawn in.

"Are you screwing around with your ex girlfriend behind Renee's back?"

"Not that I'm aware."

"Well there you go. Nothing to it, so they can go fuck themselves."

Louise took it as sarcasm, but it was in fact a truthful answer - if her boyfriend was screwing around on her, Justin didn't know it. He tended to doubt it, much as he'd like an excuse to think badly of his other self. Even he had only managed to nearly kiss somebody else once while he and his girl were on a break; he'd been free as a bird, but couldn't stomach it. Cameron Diaz was hot and all but he couldn't see the other Justin going for his own leftovers rather than Renee; he'd certainly looked like he was into her in that bathtub, much as he shuddered to remember it.

Of course he wouldn't remember if he hadn't been the Peeping Tom who had watched them in their room, but that was another issue altogether.

"I wouldn't even give a shit if they just didn't keep pushing, you know?" She complained. "No matter what I say they'll keep thinking what they want and all they'll do is try and make me look stupid with it, so why the fuck am I expected to answer them all seven zillion times? I mean God, they wouldn't even be interested enough in it if not for…"

Everybody in the room knew that the missing word was "Justin."

It was a strange thing, that if you put two celebrities together in a couple they became a force in Hollywood that was more than the sum of its parts. Once you hooked up with somebody else who was famous, together your fame grew exponentially. In Renee's case, most of her tabloid appeal was her relationship. Her music wasn't the most commercial stuff around so her fans weren't the type to care, but by dating somebody so much more famous than her she had become a rumour magnet by association. Gossipers were drawn to Justin first, but she had been dating him long enough that she was starting to become a target in her own right and she really didn't appreciate it.

It occurred to Justin that he had come across his first truly significant difference, right here. As far as celebrity and other people's perceptions went, he and his own girlfriend had entered their relationship on equal terms. This Renee and Justin really hadn't, and through that he thought he had just discovered the first downside of being Justin Timberlake in this reality.

That was interesting.

"I really have to be bored."

"Oh come on you know you're as curious as anybody."

"I think you're just trying to snoop and get the details on me and her. You could just ask, you know."

"I am asking! I'm just using a pre-formatted structure which allows for more specific answers plus gives you a test score at the end. Everyone's a winner."

There were moments when sometimes Justin really did forget which Renee he was looking at. This was no mean feat, given that this version was blonder, skinnier and generally a little more miserable. It was just that sometimes she would say or do something which was completely indistinguishable from his girl. That was entirely understandable; it just happened to be incredibly creepy.

Trace had wound up staying with them for the night after the awards show. How precisely he was managing to pull off the charade in front of the guy who might as well be his Siamese twin he wasn't sure - he was merely grateful. They had stayed up late drinking beers and being fairly evil about some of the performers and acceptance speeches, and then there had been a crazier moment when somebody had decided a midnight dip was in order and the ensuing splash war had made so much noise the neighbours had complained. Trace had waved them off that morning with a quiet whisper to Justin that he was glad to see him looking so much happier.

When Justin thought about that, he felt kind of bad. Everybody seemed so happy that the guy they thought was their Justin was looking less down in the mouth. It was going to be a real let down when he came back.

He didn't know why such a thought had slithered into his head, but it wasn't the only one. When he compared the nervy thing that had first walked in to the more relaxed Renee who now saw fit to tease him whenever she felt like it, he felt bad for her that he was dooming her to relationship hell again. Every time he looked at the platinum discs on the wall and remembered the sub par music that had won them, he felt bad that this world hadn't been shown the full extent of JT's capabilities. Perhaps that was purely arrogance talking, but he liked to think he knew what he was capable of and that it was better than this. All in all, he'd had a few too many of these thoughts.

Renee Anderson (or the brunette version, anyway) was the only thing keeping his mind on track. He refused to sit back and let another woman he loved get stolen from beneath his nose.

"Fine, go ahead," he sighed.

"Okay… don't worry, only a few more questions to go." Renee shifted in her seat, tucking her legs beneath her on the sofa and brushing a lock of hair out of her face. "In how much detail do you remember your first date: A, perfect detail, B, a lot but not everything, C, general detail, or D, not very well?"

"A." The response was immediate.

"Umm… you know what, Justin?" Renee was twisting her napkin nervously in her hands, obviously feeling awkward. "The restaurant and stuff has been real nice and everything but I don't think this is working."

"What? Why?" He wished his words weren't blurting out the way they were, but what she had said was his worst nightmare.

"It just… I don't know, we… I mean, we've barely talked all night," she said quietly, wincing even as she did so.

Renee couldn't help it; not only was she sorely disappointed but now she had to be the one to do the horrible 'let the other person down' speech. She hated having to do that. As much as she had resisted going out with him, her shying away hadn't been down to lack of want on her part. Although she had feared what would happen if this date went perfectly, she had still desperately wanted it to. The stiff, uncomfortable evening they'd had was the last thing she had expected; normally they were so relaxed and flirty with each other, she didn't get this.

"We've talked!" Justin insisted.

"You asked me if you could take my jacket and if I was ready to order, that was about the extent of it Justin."

"But the night's not over yet!" Justin was aware that after six months of pursuit that desperately begging her not to walk out on a date put him firmly in pathetic loser territory, but he just couldn't cope with the idea that he'd so royally loused this up. He'd spent far too long trying to score this date with her, it had to go perfectly. He was far too attached to the woman at this point to give her up so easily.

"Not over? It's a complete non-starter. I mean, I'm so sorry to be blunt like this Justin but you can't be having too good a time either."

"Shit. Shit, shit, shit…"

"Justin…"

"Fucking shit…"

"Justin…"

He was actually starting to alarm Renee at this point. It was the look on his handsome face that was doing it - the normally amiable expression was screwed up into an ugly collision of anger and upset. As he sat there in his pristine suit with his currently signature waistcoat, he should have looked drop dead gorgeous but was in fact looking highly unattractive. She assumed he was angry with her, but none of it was directed at her.

Justin 'Perfectionist' Timberlake was trying to deal with the reality that he'd completely screwed up on something he'd worked hard for and had really wanted. He never dealt with that too well, and normally busted his butt making sure that didn't happen - but from the word go nothing had gone right. He'd been nervous, he'd struggled to make conversation, he had somehow forgotten every dating skill he had ever learned and might as well have been a fifteen year old for all the suave he possessed.

"Justin…" Renee reached out to touch his arm but was unsuccessful as instead his head was put into his hands and a few more choice words came out.

"Shit I did this so fucking wrong."

"No, I mean this is all really nice and everything…"

"Spare me the lie, Renee, I know you're just trying to make me feel better but I fucked this up so bad and we both know it."

"Justin…"

Maybe one of these days he would let her get a sentence out, but now was not the time.

"I'm sorry, I just spent so long trying to get you on this fucking date and after all that I just really wanted it to be nice for you and you to enjoy everything. All I wanted was for this to go well so I could ask you out again because I can't stop fucking thinking about you and I can't even fucking do that right, no wonder you didn't wanna go out with me the last zillion times I asked and even as I speak I'm sounding like the neediest loser ever, please somebody shoot me."

She wasn't quite sure what had happened to her throat when he had accidentally blurted out that she was constantly on his mind. It was quite possible her heart had leapt into it. It made no sense - this was perhaps the worst date she had ever been on, and yet in the last thirty seconds somehow she wanted to go out with him again more than any guy she'd ever dated in her life.

"Justin you didn't fuck anything up you just… you're just trying too hard." Renee told him gently, running a gentle hand over his bicep in what she hoped was a comforting manner. "You're making this into hard work and it's supposed to be fun, remember?"

"How is that not fucking up? This whole thing's a disaster, you're right."

"I didn't say that!" She protested. "Look, let's… you wanna just get the bill and then maybe we can go somewhere you can relax a little more? Or you wanna just go for a walk or something?"

Did Justin's ears deceive him, or was she actually asking to spend more time with him rather than begging to be taken home? It was true - wonders never ceased.

"Wow," Renee said. "I don't think I even remember my first date that well, though in my defence it was years ago. Okay, next question… how often do you fight: A, never, B, occasionally, C, regularly, D, non-stop?"

"Never. As of yet, anyway, we're both just waiting for that to turn into occasionally," Justin joked, trying to shake off the overly vivid image he had of Renee on their first date.

She'd still been blonde, at the time, and had turned up as a vision in lemon yellow. It was a shame that the cute, sunny little dress hadn't really matched her expression for the first part of the evening, but once they'd left the overly stuffy restaurant it had much improved. She still had the dress but never seemed to wear it - when he got home, he'd have to ask her to.

"I'd need a clearer definition of what qualifies as regular and what equals non-stop." Renee was clearly trying to crack a joke in the same light hearted manner he just had, but it didn't quite work. It was a good effort, but fell just that touch too short.

"Can we hurry this up?" Justin changed the subject. "I wanna do something less girly."

"Oh shut up it's the last question anyway. What do you rate as the most important thing about your relationship: A, being part of a couple, B, a healthy sex life, C, spending time together, or D, the compromises you make?"

Justin's eyebrow rose involuntarily. "Dang. Would've said all the above - that's weird, normally these questions have a really obvious top answer."

Renee very charitably neglected to tease him about how familiar he must have already been with such quizzes. "That's the point - they have to throw in a couple of hard ones to make sure you're not completely cheating with the answer you know you're supposed to give."

"Is it really up to Cosmopolitan magazine to decide which of those is more important in a relationship and score them like that? Just because you don't agree with them they're telling you you're not prioritising right?"

That did it - she rolled her eyes very obviously in his direction. "It's a magazine quiz not a law babe, nobody's holding you to it."

"Okay, fine… umm…"

Did it make him a terrible boyfriend or just a typical male if he was tempted to say the sex life? He considered sexual chemistry pretty important, personally, but he had a feeling that a publication for female readers might not necessarily place the same emphasis on sex a guy would. Possibly he shouldn't be so concentrated on giving a good answer. In fact, scratch the 'possibly,' he knew he was being anal retentive. The problem was that with so much time having ticked by and being faced with the scenario that he might be stuck here permanently and never see his girlfriend again… Justin didn't know. Maybe he just wanted to think that he'd been a good boyfriend. He was already having enough guilt over having taken her for granted, and that was before the agonising fantasies of her deciding actually she preferred the other guy anyway.

Let alone the guilt he had over sometimes thinking this Renee needed him more than she did. So Justin really needed to believe that she loved him and he was good to her and that none of this meant anything.

"C, spending time together: probably because I haven't since this damn switch and may never again."

"Are you okay, baby?"

Justin's eyebrows furrowed together in a look of concern. His girlfriend had been uncharacteristically quiet. Normally their 'comfortable silences' were punctuated by just the odd random comment, a couple of sentences here and there. This time she actually had remained silent. She was by no means a chatterbox, but this was a little extreme.

"Huh?" Her eyes blinked before shifting in his direction, looking at him somewhat blankly.

"Are you okay?"

"Oh… uhh, yeah, just thinking to myself is all."

He took this as his cue to get up from his armchair and drop himself onto the sofa next to her. Pulling her towards him, he brought her body down with his until they were both stretched out in a mess of limbs. Had it not been for his big feet, it might have been difficult to tell one person's denim clad legs from the other one's ( it was the peril of your boyfriend owning a clothing line, you tended to go for the same washes).

"What cha thinking about?"

Renee smiled softly to herself, wondering if that wasn't supposed to be the woman's line. "Oh, just more recording and stuff. We're both off and away again."

"What musicians do."

"Yep. That they do."

"So why the long face?"

As if to hide said face from him, Renee buried it in his neck. A perk of this was that while one arm hugged her to him the other started swirling strands of chocolate hair around his fingers, and it was very soothing. She liked it when he played with her hair, toes, fingers or whatever; it made them feel close, somehow (her and Justin, that was, not his fingers and her hair).

"I just… it sucks. We're together five minutes and we're gone again. I think I spend more time missing you than actually with you and I know that's just what we do and I wouldn't have it any other way but… blah. You know."

"Yep, I do."

Funnily enough he did know what she meant. Renee was now the third girlfriend in a row who had been in the entertainment industry and thus had to take a lot of trips away - as did Justin. All relationships had their own difficulties but long distance ones came with a few ready made, before you even began to consider the individuals involved. He liked to think that he was pretty good at phone conversations (and he knew not all guys were, Trace in particular tended to keep them short and perfunctory), but they were nowhere near the same. It wasn't like the substance of their conversations differed much; they talked the same random way both in person and across wires. The difference was the simple presence, the physical affection - and that was before they even started on how much he preferred having a woman around to celibacy.

"Just a little depressing, that's all. Tomorrow morning we catch our planes and poof. Gone. Won't see each other for weeks."

"Unless…"

"Unless?"

"Give me a sec, I haven't thought of it yet," he joked as she smacked his arm playfully.

"You're not helpful."

"What if we worked it so we could record in the same place?" Justin finally had his light bulb moment. "We'd get to spend all our off time together, plus even when we're working we at least get to go to sleep next to each other. Is that helpful?"

"Wow…" she teased. "Finally you're good for something."

"I thought you said I was good for the sex?" He glared mischievously at her.

"I lied to spare your ego." It was a good thing he knew she was kidding, because her poker face was disconcertingly good. "That is a great idea though. Plus, I mean, our anniversary's coming up… I mean, I don't know whether you usually make a big deal of anniversaries or whatever but maybe we could go on vacation somewhere or something for a couple days?"

"Anniversaries are good with me." Justin kissed Renee's cheek. "I think I ought to celebrate the fact I've been tapping this fine ass for a whole year now."

"Say anything like that ever again and you will never tap this fine ass ever again."

"Understood. Witness me shutting up."

A much happier Renee reached up and planted her lips on Justin's. Taking his opportunity, Justin went for the make out - something she was more than happy to go along with. Loving the giggle she emitted when he cheekily pinched her butt, he took a moment to glow with couple-type bliss. He loved just even saying he was in a couple, but if there was one thing he definitely appreciated it was how easily they seemed able to compromise and make time for each other.

"Okay…" Renee broke away with a frown. "Is that Trace or did the dogs get loose again?"

It was funny how the second the memory went onto more everyday things he stopped paying any attention to it. He'd stopped paying attention to lots of things, but mostly to his companion who was muttering to herself and totting up scores in the margins of the magazine article. He wanted to tease her for her lack of mental arithmetic skills, but he thought better of it. Pissing off women was generally not a great idea.

"So what's the diagnosis, Doc? Is my relationship doomed?"

"Well… you're borderline."

"Huh?"

He looked so confused she had to laugh. Her Justin was the same way, sometimes they both just took things far too literally. It both amused and saddened her when she picked up on such silly mutual quirks like that.

"Well you scored as 'nearly there' but if you'd got one point higher it would be true love."

"According to The Bible that is Cosmo?"

"According to The Bible that is Cosmo."

Justin knew he should have said that his favourite thing about his girlfriend was her mind and not her butt, but he just hadn't been able to help it.

How precisely did you weigh up which was the lesser of two evils?

Renee couldn't figure it out. She had two problems sitting in front of her right now - one physically and one metaphorically. Both of them were contributing to her headache, but knowing which one to tackle first was a puzzle seemingly beyond her intellect.

Location was playing a big part in her issues. Regrettably, she had been forced to leave her mom and Louise behind; the necklace was not in Faith Anderson's attic and searching it yet again would not make it appear there. She'd had her PA search her own attic in LA (purely because of timing issues) to be told it wasn't there either. This only left one other option: her father. That would be the father who absolutely despised Justin. That would also be the father she wasn't overly enamoured with at the moment; maybe she ought to be over the divorce, but she still had issues with him dating a secretary only a few years older than Louise. It was the mid life crisis cliché and she viewed it as somewhat of an insult to her mother. All in all, she really didn't want to be in his house.

She particularly disliked being in his house at the moment because apart from treating Justin as if he was invisible, he had dumped her second problem on the table and chastised her for it like she was a child - or worse, like he was her manager. The pictures of her and Justin clubbing had hit the gossip rags, and they were accompanied by stories describing how they'd made a scene on the dance floor with their "steamy" moves. The stories were basically about how they were so in love they couldn't keep their hands off each other and clearly needed to get a room.

Nathan Anderson's issue was probably more to do with disliking the idea of his baby girl and Justin Timberlake having carnal knowledge of each other than any actual fears for her reputation and career. Renee had taken exception to his lecture on both grounds - not to mention on grounds of her being a grown ass woman who could dance at a club with her boyfriend if she felt like it.

Her own issue with the articles was threefold. Firstly she was worried what her own Justin would say if he saw the pictures once he got back, but that wasn't an immediate problem. Secondly, it had created a real atmosphere between the two men which she really did not need to be dealing with right now. She defended Justin, but really it was her boyfriend she was defending - that was who her Dad was aiming his vitriol at, and that was who would hopefully be dealing with any of it in future. This whole trip was fraught enough; she had precisely five days to find the necklace, and she was stressed as it was without them fighting.

The actual core of her heartache, however, was more familiar. It was the nagging guilt at the way she had failed to distinguish one Justin from the other, and most significantly had reacted to him. She had been there in that club and he'd had her mesmerised. The heat had most definitely been felt, and for once the tabloids hadn't been exaggerating what they'd witnessed (even if the embellishing details on what happened behind closed doors were utterly fabricated).

The only thing which made her look up from the incriminating photos was the small swirl of black mist in her peripheral vision. Justin was upstairs searching the attic and her father was wining and dining his plaything, so she felt no compunction in lifting her head and smiling wearily at Claire.

"Hey babe."

"Hey," Claire smiled at her. "How're you bearing up?"

"Shitty." Renee automatically moved down the bench so that her friend could sit next to her. "Which is the opposite of how you look, by the way. They have good boutiques in the afterlife, huh?"

The outfit in question was a nautically striped blue and white shirt and denim skirt. The girl (ghost) looked cute.

"Why thank you." Claire pretended to fluff her hair, preening, and Renee couldn't help giggling sadly. There were a lot of these moments they should have had together; they had been missed on account of Claire's untimely death. "You'd look great if you weren't looking so depressed. Did I mention I love that you dyed your hair? You're like my paler twin."

"Yeah. How come you're dead and still have a darker tan than me?"

"I love being half Latina. Now, come on," she slapped a hand gently on Renee's knee and squeezed. "What's up?"

"My father hates my boyfriend. I hate the guy inhabiting my boyfriend's body. I can't find the necklace to switch the two of them back. And I made the gossip columns again."

"Hmm." Her phantom friend cast a critical eye over the pictures, barely bothering to skim the article. She knew well enough the pictures had been taken post body swap. "Umm… don't hate me for saying this but you don't look so much like you hate him here."

Renee raised a pointed eyebrow. "That's why I hate him."

"Ohhhh. I get it."

"Glad you do. Wanna clue me in?"

Claire very much wanted to clue her in, but she chewed her lip and scrunched her nose in concentration as she tried to think of a delicate way to put it. It was very difficult, trying to gently steer somebody in the right direction without them being any the wiser. She'd been a spirit guide long enough that she was pretty good at it - usually. It was trickier when you were so emotionally involved with the person in question; it clouded your judgment and made you second guess yourself.

"Honey… I've been trying to stay out of this. Hey, I have!" She said indignantly when Renee snorted. "I just… you're avoiding him, and I don't think that's healthy. You guys have issues, and not talking about them is just going to make them fester. Or it's going to make him do something else that's stupid, and I'm still not over last time and the insane chunk of my schedule it's taken up."

To hell with subtle steering, she was just going to give it to her straight.

"What is there to talk about though? He shouldn't be here!"

"And yet he is."

"No shit, Clara."

"I just…" Claire sighed deeply, tucking a strand of Renee's hair back into her ponytail. "I don't think the question you should be asking right now is whether or not he should be here. He's going to have to make that decision, just like you did."

"But that's so unfair, why does he get to choose for both of them?"

"Why did you get to choose for you and her?" she countered. "Because you made the wish."

"Hmm."

At the lack of a decent response, Claire decided to press on. "Honestly, honey… is there a part of you that wants him here?"

"I…" She immediately tried to deny it, but the words died on her lips. There wasn't a piece of her being that didn't hate herself for it, but she couldn't refute it. "I don't even know why. I already left him once before and I love my boyfriend, I really do. But I couldn't even tell them apart, and obviously I was still attracted to him… fuck, maybe I did know and just didn't want to admit it, I can't work it out and it's driving me crazy. I don't even know what the hell there is for us to even say."

"Do you not think maybe talking with him would help that? I mean, I know you're scared sweetie but the only way you're gonna work out how you feel is to be around each other and thrash this thing out with him."

"I just…I can't even work out which is which any more." She brushed a tear quickly away before her friend could spot it falling. "Like, I think of all the things about my guy that made me fall for him and suddenly I can't remember whether that was him or whether I'd done it all before in the other dimension, you know? Like, I can't work out whether I fell for the guy or I fell for the face of the other guy, if that makes any kind of sense. And I feel horrible because I should know that, there shouldn't be any question."

"But there is, sweetie," Claire pushed. "You're gonna have to face up to that and deal with it. Because whether he stays or goes, you need this finished in your head or you're going to spend the rest of your life struggling with the consequences. That's not fun, babe."

Renee smacked the magazine off the table in irritation, watching it fall into the pool. Her father would probably chew her out for that, but she was disinclined to care.

"Look." Going for another tack, she put her arm around Renee's shoulders and tried again. "I already said a million times that some parts of them are the same and some parts are different. Clearly, the parts which are the same attract you and let you feel for each guy. The devil's in the difference, though. You gotta work out what it is you want from there."

"I just… UGH!" She raised her hands to the heavens. In her mind's eye, she was glaring at Claire's bosses for screwing with her life. She really, really hated destiny. "I left him once before. I belong here, I do, and I know that. So the Justin that was born here should belong here too, right? So why is this even a question?"

"But you missed him, right?" It was a good point. "And just because you belong here doesn't say anything about which Justin does. You could just as easily have belonged there, you know."

"You are not helpful."

"I'm not helpful if you want instructions on what to do, no," she said wryly. "If however you want pointers on how to find the right answer yourself, I think I'm pretty damn excellent."

Renee was surprised that Claire had stopped being so gung ho about switching the two Justins back. It was less surprising, however, if you considered that she'd been in and out of all four lives that would be affected and she saw the consequences in each decision. Neither decision was perfect. She supposed it depended on what you wanted the outcome to be - the right decision might not necessarily mean 'happy ever after' for all of them. There were selfish decisions which could be made, and there were ones which could lead to heartache.

Claire was looking a little further ahead than either of the Justins or the Renees, considering a bigger picture and choices to be made beyond the mere 'to switch or not to switch.' They saw only the pebble hitting the water, but she was seeing the ripples.

"So," she abruptly changed the subject, "why does your Dad hate Justin so much anyway?"

"I have no idea."

"I was trying to get off the nasty subject, throw me a bone here."

"Like this one's any better?"

"Shut up."

"Sometimes," Renee snorted with an evil smirk, "I think being dead made you even more of a brat than you were before. Think all that cosmic knowledge went to your head."

"Like fame didn't go to yours?" she teased in response. "Never used to make assistants go buy your tampons, did you?"

Her friend's dropped open with incredulity and not a small amount of embarrassment. "How the fuck did you know that?"

"Cosmic knowledge." She stuck her tongue out. "Come on though, I'm curious, what did Justin do?"

Renee shrugged, which caused the precariously thin straps of her lacy camisole to slip down her shoulders. She'd long ago given up on rearranging them if they did that, they only seemed to fall down again within seconds. She was wearing them with a long string of pearls and little pinstriped shorts. The look was entirely stolen from a look she'd seen in Vogue while in England; it was probably long out of fashion, but she liked it.

"Breathed, pretty much. It was just after we got together, we went out to dinner with him and his floozy and Justin was charm itself. Didn't seem to matter. Mom loves him, but Dad thinks he's a waste of space."

Claire pried a little further, surreptitiously trying to get Renee thinking on her relationship. "How about you and his parents?"

"I get on fine with his mom, we're not like best friends but she's always nice to me. I mean she's one of those ladies who would be nice to you whatever, but I think she likes me. His step dad's a really nice guy, but I haven't met his biological dad yet. They're not so close as him and Paul."

"So Lou gets on okay with him and your Mom loves him, you're doing okay with his family but your Dad just hates him?"

"Yep." Her glossy hair glinted a little in the sun, showing signs of some caramel streaking (and also a few roots starting to poke through). "I'm not sure whether he just got this playboy impression of Justin from the papers or it's just a protective father thing he'd do to any man I bring home, but I hate it. J's always busted his ass to be pleasant to him."

"Thus ruining the picture perfect 'everybody loves everybody' thing?"

"Ahh, we were never picture perfect. I guess they have tabloids in Heaven too and you've been reading too much of that shit."

"And on that note," Claire poked her indignantly, "I'm out. Though I am actually going to stop by your beloved next so any messages?"

"You're not going to tell him about…"

"Ha!" She screeched. "Do I look stupid? Wait, don't answer that. Anything you want me to tell him?"

The words 'I love you' sprang to mind, but somehow she didn't feel right saying them. Almost like her disloyal thoughts would noticeably have sullied them and he would somehow pick up on it. It was totally irrational, but she hadn't been feeling rational in some time.

"Tell him I miss him." She knew that much was true.

Normally, the comings and goings of people weren't something he paid huge attention to. In this instance, Justin had never been so glad to see the back of anybody in his life.

It was oddly comforting to know that Renee's father didn't like him in any lifetime. For once he felt like there was something his alter ego was no better at than he was. Idly he wondered when the animosity had begun in this world - in his he had made the oh-so terrible mistake of picking up Renee's phone and being a little too colloquial in his greeting. He had never been able to work out why the man disliked him so; his best guess was that he was protecting his youngest in some overbearing fatherly way, but even that theory seemed to be missing something. It especially missed something when here the brunette Renee had been so much older on meeting him. It was a little more understandable that he didn't want a teenage daughter sexing it up, but the other Justin had met her when she was significantly into her twenties.

Still, he had been grateful to watch the man walk out of the door this morning. He was relieved now that he had taken so long to come back, and in fear that any second he would. Nathan Anderson had been far less understanding of the necklace story than Faith, had considered it very odd. Possibly if it had been purely Renee visiting he wouldn't have questioned it so, but she'd had to do a lot of improvisational work to cover it up. His own method of dealing with it had been to shut up and let her talk, and then to hide in the attic looking for the necklace.

Justin was incredibly frustrated by the necklace. You would think magic could actually do something useful for you, but thus far he had no answers and he was probably going to have to return immediately on getting the necklace back. He couldn't stick around with Renee not speaking to him. So, in summation, all he had earned for this trip was no answers and probably an even deeper rift in his already flailing relationship.

He was starting to agree with Claire's first thoughts - that it was the stupidest idea anybody had ever had in the history of Man.

The whole thing confused him deeply. He saw shades of himself, parts of himself he didn't even recognise, and yet he had no idea how it all fitted together or where the patterns started making sense. As far as he could gather, there was nothing discernible that ought to account for the difference between their two worlds. They both had the same talent, same commercial success, same family and almost the same people in their lives. So why was this guy being taken seriously and having somewhat successful if ultimately transitory relationships when he couldn't?

And why despite them being the same age did he somehow feel like he was a high school kid looking at a graduate - like the guy was completely untouchable, a million miles from him and all he would ever be?

"Hey."

"OWW, Jesus!"

"Sorry."

Renee's entry to the attic had been so utterly silent that it has shocked the hell out of him and the arm he'd involuntarily shot out had hit a particular solid old dresser. He supposed he should be impressed by her stealth - the stairs had been creaky as hell when he'd trundled up them.

"Any luck?" Renee picked her way over the boxes and looked critically at the mess around him. He couldn't help noticing her shorts had disappeared in favour of more attic-sensible sweats (not that he'd admit to himself the amount of attention he paid to her appearance).

"Nope."

"Oh." Her face clouded over in an expression of worry. Intriguingly, he didn't recognise it - there was something behind her eyes that he couldn't quite pin down to a specific emotion. She seemed to shake it off, slapping her thighs a couple of times as if to wake herself back up; then she did something really shocking and actually looked him in the face. "So, what's left to go through?"

He pointed to a large stack of boxes the other side of the attic. "Those. I'd have got more done already but all the shit in these dressers was so messed up together I had to separate it all before I could go through it."

"You know, in hindsight I should have been a little more careful about where I kept that thing."

"Why'd you keep it?" he asked curiously.

Renee's breath caught in her throat as his words settled. Claire's warnings still rang in her ears and she knew in her heart of hearts that her ghost was right. Denial might be easier than facing up to things but it wouldn't get her results and she had less than a week to get those. What he had asked wasn't a question that had ever occurred to her before. Suddenly it seemed a very pertinent one she ought to have considered earlier. After what he'd done it was lucky she had kept it, but that still didn't help her avoid the answer.

"I guess… I don't know. I guess I didn't want some other sucker picking it up but… I don't know. Didn't feel like I should be getting rid of it somehow."

Justin's voice rang strangely hollow as he responded. "You mean like you weren't quite done with it?

"I…" She needed a good rebuttal but was having extreme difficulty finding it.

"Renee, I know I'm probably just gonna make you mad again but I might as well say it while you're not yelling at me - I am really sorry about this, you know. I didn't mean to hurt you in any way, I just… this whole thing never felt over to me somehow and I need it to be, one way or the other. I'm sick of thinking about it every damn second. And I know the way I picked to do that was real fucking dumb, but I was desperate."

Taking a second to ponder her response, Renee sat slowly down next to him, crossing her legs under her. She pulled a box out from behind Justin's back and took his silence for confirmation that it hadn't been searched through yet.

"What about, Justin?" This was a genuine question, but part of her just wanted him to be the one squirming for a change. "What made you so desperate you would do this?"

"My life is so shitty right now I wanted to see how the other side lives, and… well, you. I just… I think about you. I'm not sure what that means, but I do. We did kind of sleep together, you know."

Justin hadn't expected himself to be so candid with her. It was probably the little piece of his head which was gleefully celebrating the fact that the lines of communication appeared to be re-opening. Indulging in one of her nervous tics, his companion pulled her ponytail out and redid it once or twice (or three times, to be exact). Without knowing precisely why, she was yanking pieces out and strategically arranging them around her face.

"What makes it shitty?"

"Fighting with Ren all the God damn time. The way we can't seem to get past what happened just before you got there or what happened while we were apart. My total lack of musical credibility. You know, the same old."

"The musical credibility… well, not to be a bitch but that's your own fault. You gotta take the risks to nab that and you've been playing safe."

"Gee, thanks." Possibly she had a point there, but he couldn't vocalise that right about now. Claire's bluntness appeared to have rubbed off on her and now he was less sure that chatting was a good idea. "I just… God, why does he get to be the big man and I still feel like a little boy?"

"Well…" Renee said slowly, cogs turning creakily in her brain.

She had a feeling what she was about to say was amateur psychology at its worst, but it was all she had. Also, it was better to talk than to keep looking at her boyfriend's body in clothes which her boyfriend had long since grown out of wearing, style wise. Looking at him did weird things to her head and stirred up feelings she didn't necessarily want to have.

"Maybe because he's moved on in his life and you haven't. I mean, he was kind of forced to. His relationship with his first big love ended in a big old fireball and left a huge mess after it that he had to clean up, you're still with yours. He had his life totally shaken up and that kind of totally shook up his career too and made him start going for all this risky stuff going solo, but you're still kind of doing the one man version of *NSYNC."

"What, so you think I'm totally immature and I should ditch Renee because it'll force me to grow up?" Justin asked incredulously, unable to believe his ears.

The woman did not pull punches, he had to give her that - it was an odd sensation, feeling the mental wind so thoroughly knocked out of him. He'd become so used to his own girlfriend constantly backing down over the past couple of years that he'd forgotten how much of an impact people so close to you could have.

"I think you're in a rut," she replied. "That doesn't mean you're completely immature or that you should necessarily break up with her, it's just that I think you've grown up but you're still in the place you were seven years ago. And I think the reason you feel so bad there is precisely because you have matured and part of you knows that you shouldn't still be in that place."

"I… but…"

"Holy shit I found it!"

Renee squealed happily as she yanked her prize out of the box - that black, sparkly piece of onyx which had begun all the trouble in the first place. Justin was about to wish she wasn't smiling so hard when she granted it for him… her face fell, twitching oddly in thought.

"Umm… I'm gonna keep this with me, okay?"

"What?" As if he wasn't confused enough already, that was the one sentence in the whole conversation that he would pinpoint as the most bewildering. "I thought you'd want me to swap us back immediately."

Again Renee's face faltered, and she didn't look at him when she stood up. "It's not my decision, right? You told me that I shouldn't let you make my decision for me, and I think it's only right I do the same by you. Just… try not to draw it out, okay?"

"Ren…" he stuttered incomprehensibly, absolutely floored. It was a good job he was already sitting on said floor or falling on his ass might have been a possibility. Then, before he could even work out how to even start questioning that, something else popped into his head. "So why you keeping it?"

With that she smirked and raised a weary eyebrow. "What, after the whole sneaky swap thing? Shame on you if you fool me once, dude, but I'm the moron if I let you pull more shit."

Again it struck him how unused he was to being challenged by her - clearly the guilt trip he'd been so successfully putting on his girlfriend had made him complacent. That, however, didn't mean he was completely rusty.

"So," he began as she went to leave him on clean up duty. "For somebody who's been refusing to talk to me for so long, you sure seem to have me all figured out."

"Well…" She let out a tiny sigh before giving him an odd look: sadness and trepidation. "I thought about you too."

There was silence for a moment between them; before he could answer her she was jogging down the stairs, yelling up to him that she would pack their suitcases since she couldn't stand another moment in a house with 'that man.'

***

At the same moment as that Justin Timberlake was wearily dumping junk back into boxes and trying to put them back in some semblance of order, the other was sitting out by the pool. Shell shock was not an unfair diagnosis. His skin had taken on a paler pallor than usual, and his eyes were still that little bit too wide. His stance was not overly rigid and his basketball shorts and t-shirt were perfectly normal attire, a detached observer might not have noticed the difference. What gave him away was that he was nervy, and every sound coming from behind the neighbours' fences was setting his teeth on edge.

He had now come to the conclusion that the inhabitants in this world were both fucked in the head. Previously this impression had been reserved for his doppelganger, but it was now extending to Version Blonde too.

Version Blonde Renee had begun a very disturbing discussion with him that morning. She had started talking about the nature of destiny and how your life could go to places you had not expected. Justin was sick to death of such topics, but they were pretty relevant and unavoidable at the present time. She had cited Claire's death, the level of fame she had been unprepared for, her first life swap… but then she had started twittering on about this one. That in itself would have been fine, but she'd taken on a somewhat fatalistic tone which hadn't been there in their previous discussions. She seemed convinced that this was their fate and that they should accept it sooner than later. The disturbing portion of the conversation had been her monologue on why it was a good thing.

The kiss has been far more disturbing, but then that didn't have much to do with discussion.

Renee, at some undeterminable point, had come to the conclusion that he was a far better man than his alter ego - ironically, much like said alter ego had. This worried Justin to no end; people around here needed to stop thinking he was perfect or so different, because he was steadily coming to the conclusion that he wasn't.

He'd already compared the passive aggressiveness of his other self's coping mechanism and found it horribly akin to his own. He had thought of all the times he had bowed down to the record company or the input of one of the other *NSYNC guys back in the day instead of pressing his own point (sometimes rightly, sometimes not), and he had considered how easy it would have been for him to have stayed in that spot. He'd pretty much only pushed it on a whim and kept pushing purely because he saw the result.

There was also a pretty startling but unavoidably likely indication of where he and Britney might have been in their relationship by now if they hadn't split up. He remembered the amount of time it had taken for him to work out how to be in a more adult, considered relationship rather than throwing yourself into the all consuming expectation of first love. Every once in a while he wondered if - had they not split up - as they got older they would have managed to make the transition into that more adult and sustainable state of affairs. Now, as he looked at Renee, he saw what he thought was the result of a failure to do that.

She refused to see the same, on either count. She saw a reflection of her boyfriend (and also of herself by proxy), a better reflection - she had just forgotten that the image you saw in a mirror was a reversal, not true reality. He, in contrast, had finally come to understand what Claire had been banging on about all this time. He saw the identical cores; he saw that the differences were only in choice and consequence. Justin now understood just how easily they could be in each other's respective positions instead of the ones they were currently in now. Renee saw none of this, which was why he had a sickening feeling she had been kissing a fantasy of fixing her relationship rather than him.

The fact that this feeling sickened him was troublesome in his view. As was his growing and somewhat contradictory feeling that being subjected to her boyfriend again would only continue to damage her (contradictory in view of his 'we are the same' revelation and that he didn't consider himself harmful to her). It was always frustrating to be torn between what was best for you and what was best for someone else - particularly when you were so unsure about what was best to begin with.

What really bothered him was his own failure. Renee had earnestly told him how at ease she felt with him and how for the first time in two years she felt like she had somebody to talk to. With wide eyes she had looked at him in wonder, like he was an answer to her prayers and that he would fix her. He had failed to make her understand. Despite his best efforts, he had failed to talk her down or to dispel her illusions.

He had also completely failed to keep himself from kissing her back. More to the point, he was wondering if he'd failed to make his best efforts trying.

Renee lingered in the doorway of the hotel suite, watching Justin's deep and even breathing.

She wasn't sure why she was so compelled to do it, but still she did. Maybe it was her imagination, but he appeared to be sleeping a little easier. Fewer crease lines marred his forehead, and the lips didn't seem so tight. If she could see his bright blue eyes, she imagined that there would be a touch less cloud behind them. They'd had a friendly if completely frivolous and issue-ignoring chat on the plane ride back, and the mood in the suite was a lot better than the one in which they had left it.

His presence in her bed reminded her of the last hotel suite they had shared, before she had left his dimension. After he'd discovered Renee's identity he had been determinedly sleeping on the sofa, too angry with her to share a bed but too gentlemanly to kick her out of it. Finally the discomfort had won out over his pride and he had begun sleeping in the space next to her again.

Then things much more intimate than sleeping had happened.

This situation didn't strike her as entirely dissimilar. The sofa bed provided by the hotel absolutely sucked and apart from anything else, the last thing she wanted was a maid noticing it had been slept in. The break up rumours would have started before she could even blink. Before she had been so livid with him she was willing to risk it - now she had told him he could share the master bedroom so long as he kept his distance. Justin had been more than happy with that, and had duly done so. He hadn't put a foot wrong, even coming to bed fully dressed when she knew he preferred sleeping in less.

It had been strangely easy to fall asleep in his presence; she had expected to be more uncomfortable with him in close proximity. She had still woken before he did. In the time since she had forced herself out of bed she had drunk two cups of coffee, brushed her teeth and watched some cartoons, yet still he slumbered on. Renee couldn't help wondering what he was dreaming, wondering if his dreams would shed any light on what he was thinking. Still, he was unlikely to tell her what he dreamed, so she guessed that was out. She found him oddly unfathomable.

Of course she found her own boyfriend unfathomable too, much as she disliked admitting it.

Twirling a lock of dark hair around her finger, Renee mused that this was probably the first time in her life that she wasn't in awe of Justin Timberlake - in at least some small way. When she had first met him in that alternate dimension she'd been in awe of his success and his goodness; then she had come home, met the other version and been in awe of not only that but also his incomprehensible fascination with her. She understood how pop's young ingénues had met each other at a glitzy party and had their heads turned; she still didn't quite get how some huge superstar could meet her in a studio on a day when she didn't even look cute (she'd had a nasty head cold) and be enamoured enough to spend six months shrugging off rejection.

Her Justin took risks and saw opportunities where most people saw hostile territory in a way she never could. This Justin had an incredible ability to leap without looking where she would only hesitate. Both of them seemed to see through her in a way that in some ways was reassuring and in others scary beyond all measure. There was so much about them both, about Justin Timberlake in any dimension that she wanted to understand but just didn't.

She needed to now. She needed to know what she wanted.

That was why she took a deep breath, braced herself for the unpleasant sensation of crossing dimensions and rubbed the necklace, wishing herself back into the No Man's Land where she had first been told of the JT switch.

As she landed there it didn't look any different to the hotel suite, but the way her head was spinning told her she'd got where she had asked to be. She was about to open her mouth and make another wish before a cloud of dark mist announced Claire's imminent arrival.

"Umm… what are you doing?" The ghost asked, blinking in confusion. As ever, Claire didn't go for pleasantries. "I got the big dimension moving vibes but I was damned if I knew why, so I thought I'd better check on ya."

"I need to talk to my boyfriend."

"Oh, right!" Claire slapped her own forehead. "Should've thought of that. Though, now I do think about it I'm surprised you two haven't done this more often, seeing as he worked out that clever little way for you to do it."

"I had a necklace to find and honestly I kinda think it would be salt in the wound," Renee said quietly.

"Good point, well made. Umm… do you need me or should I just…"

"Go, yeah. Thanks babe."

"Sayonara!"

Claire vanished as quickly as she had turned up, leaving a nervous Renee to gaze at the necklace. It had been but a momentary interruption, but it was enough to make her think twice. Was this really a good idea? Did she even know why she was doing this or what it would achieve? The other Justin had very little time to make his mind up and she had promised him the opportunity to make it up pressure free; was this only going to wind up being a goodbye?

Taking a deep breath, she closed her eyes and made the wish anyway.

The air seemed to shimmer for a few seconds, and then in the blink of an eye a very surprised Justin stood half naked before her. A queasy expression masked his face and he hadn't even managed to button his jeans; she had clearly caught him in the middle of something.

"Man I can't wait until I never have to jump a dimension again," he joked weakly.

Dispensing with the traditional greeting, Renee quickly strode over to him and threw her arms around his neck, hiding her face in it - she had to stand on tip toe to do it in her bare feet. He smelt like he'd just showered, clean but without his usual cologne. Taking a deep breath and closing his eyes, Justin returned the hug while breathing in her hair. It was funny to him how they smelt so different, didn't even use the same perfume. Possibly if they had known they were both fixating on each other's smells, they would have laughed.

"I catch you in the middle of something?" Her voice was muffled by his skin.

"Getting dressed," he told her as he combed his fingers through her hair. "Which I see you haven't got round to yet. Cute pjs."

"Oh." For the first time she raised a smile as she remembered she was wearing cow skin print pyjamas that were far too long for her. "It was cold last night."

"It's like that in summer."

"Shut up." Her face had been pulling back from his neck, but his teasing had just sent it straight back. She had actually picked the pyjamas because she had been sharing a bed with the other Justin and they were the most unrevealing thing she had - since she normally slept in underwear or nothing.

"Hey…" Gently Justin pulled back from her so that he could take her face in his hands and make her look at him.

For a moment he chose not to speak, tracing his thumbs over her cheeks and wondering quietly to himself why his heart had started pounding a drumbeat in his chest. He had nothing to feel guilty for, right? He had been kissed, not the other way around, and he was looking at this woman now and still feeling butterflies for her. The dark hair that made her eyes pop out at him, the heart shaped face and the pink glow to her cheeks; they were familiar and felt solid to him, like they rooted him to his own life and world. That thing with the other Renee had to be a blip - that was all.

"What's up, baby? Has something happened?"

"No… yes… I don't even know, I just wanted to see you," Renee blurted out, trying not to look like she was about to burst into tears at any second. "God, I want you home."

Even as he kissed her temple and drew her back into his comforting embrace, she realised it was true. She did want him home. She wasn't sure that she wanted the other Justin to leave - which might have seemed contradictory - but she didn't think she could take much more of her boyfriend being gone.

Now it was Justin's turn to hide his face in her neck. His arms involuntarily tightened around her waist, noticing how much softer she was to hold than her skinny blonde alter ego. He felt horrible for even thinking it, but he was realising how far away his Renee and his life had become to him whilst walking in somebody else's shoes. The new world had become almost more real to him than home and he hadn't even spotted it happening. He'd started to think maybe one girl needed him more than the other…

…Until the other had wished him here and was now clinging to him as if afraid he would blow away in the non existent wind.

"How are you getting on with the necklace? Only a few more days, baby."

At least she still had enough fire to roll her eyes at him. "How do you think you got here, dummy? Found it at my Dad's."

Justin grimaced. "How is your old Dad?"

"Still screwing around with his cradle snatched plaything and being a bastard to his daughter's boyfriend."

"Good to know nothing changes," he joked.

Then a though occurred to him, one that stopped everything being funny. She had found the necklace. If she had found the necklace, why the hell wasn't he back in his own body yet? He knew he couldn't be, because if he was then he would have landed into whatever clothing his other self had currently dressed his body in. Okay, he'd been having second thoughts about going, but it wasn't like she had known that.

"Umm, baby? If you have the necklace, why aren't I home yet?"

"Umm…" Renee had to force herself to meet his eyes. "Because… well…"

"Spit it out, woman," he said menacingly, his grip becoming a little too vice like for comfort.

"Basically because it's not my decision to make, it's his, and if I force him into anything he's only going to do something else that's stupid and because I just… I… he gave me the choice, I have to do the same for him."

"And have we considered me at all in this equation?" Justin shrugged her off, drew himself away from her touch. He was almost surprised at the flaring in his stomach, the anger he was feeling. "He gets to make my decisions for me?"

"Well he does that even if he switches you back…" Renee argued weakly.

"Or do you not want me back, is that it?" He spat angrily. "You having more fun with him? I know you met him first, maybe I was just the substitute and you'd prefer the original? What have you been doing with him while I haven't been around, huh? You got feelings for him or something?"

Justin didn't expect the wounded look on her face. He'd expected her to get mad at him, the way she got mad at Louise or her father when she argued with them. The last thing he had expected was for her to take the submissive approach.

Then with horror he recognised it and remembered precisely which blonde he'd previously seen it on. Possibly he'd forgotten that it wasn't only Justin Timberlake who was the same person in any dimension.

"How can you even ask me if I want you back?" There was an almost unnoticeable tremor in her shoulders. "How could you even question that? I didn't ask for this either, Justin!"

"I don't know what's been going on when I'm not around, do I? I don't know what happened last time between you guys?"

"Well it's not like I know what's happening between you and her when I'm not around and she's a known fucking cheater, so how you can…"

"That's not her fault!"

"Oh so it was his?"

"How can you defend him after all the shit the bastard's done? He's turned her into a wreck, not to mention the shit he pulled on us!" The submissive approach had not lasted long, and now she was just mad at him.

"It's not like she's Miss Whiter Than White here pal, I actually lived her life once remember? God, since when do you condone cheating, Justin? What the…"

Renee's face became incredibly pale. His eyes had flicked to the side just one too many times, and clearly she was hitting a nerve. The tension had risen in his shoulders, which was to be expected, but he looked far too uncomfortable. She hadn't expected him to be so defensive on the other Renee's behalf - and it was also to be noted that he had taken a comment which was clearly levelled at his own hypocrisy and made it about her. The resulting sensation was not unlike being strangled.

"What the hell happened between you two?" She asked in horror.

"What are you saying?" Justin responded weakly.

"Don't give me that… oh my God. Did… did you guys… do something? Did you kiss her?"

"No." That was not a lie. She had kissed him. He'd been far too affected and confused by it, but he had initiated nothing.

"Something happened, Justin." It was a statement, not a question. "I'm not stupid and I've done this before so don't lie to me. I mean at the very least… she's totally turned your head, hasn't she?"

Justin was so angry he couldn't bring himself to speak. He was angry at Renee Anderson in all her forms, and he was angrier at Justin Timberlake in all his forms. He couldn't deny a word she was saying. What she had said also frightened him to death. Half of that was the realisation that she was right, his head had been turned and he didn't know what that meant. The other half was that if she was surmising on the basis of her own experience that his head had been turned… well, he'd just learnt what she hadn't been telling him.

His reaction was interesting - he grabbed Renee by the waist and forced his lips onto hers, taking her by surprise. For a moment she could do nothing but let her eyes bug out, too surprised to react. Weakly she pounded at his bare chest with her hands, trying to make him stop, but before she knew it she was countering his rough kisses with a ferociousness of her own. Where his grip dug almost painfully into the small of her back her nails were leaving crescent shaped dents in the skin of his shoulders, yet still their angry kissing continued.

Finally Justin pulled away, lips somewhat bruised, and relaxed his grip a little. Renee looked momentarily dazed from behind her curtain of dark hair, but slowly her breathing began to even out.

"Renee Anderson turns my head, alright?" He told her shakily. "I see her and I see you. You mean fucking everything to me, so if I see her hurting and especially because of something I or some version of me did, I want to throw some shit. I care, I admit it."

"So…" Almost compulsively Renee's trembling hand ran over Justin's bare bicep, over the cross tattooed there. "Can't you understand that I can look at him and see you? And that I can't help but feel bad for him and want to help him? That I can't… I can't just order him around? I have to respect him more than that?"

"I… I guess." Justin pushed his forehead against hers, running his hand through the hair at the back of her head and trying to relax. He hadn't realised precisely how wound up he had got himself.

"Justin?" Renee asked in a small voice.

"Yeah?"

Tears welling in her eyes, she asked him the question she dreaded. "Did something happen between you two?"

A lump in his throat, Justin nodded dumbly. "She kissed me yesterday. I think she's convinced herself I'd fix her problems for her. I've been avoiding her."

She almost laughed. She would have, if she didn't feel so much like dying. "Same thing he did, when I was there. Thought he could start all over with me and go back to their glory days when I... she… whoever wasn't all jaded."

Now it was his turn to feel like hell, but still he probed deeper. "So something did happen back then?" He hated the fact that she nodded, but he hadn't even met her so he couldn't hold it against her. "And now?"

This time the tears really did threaten to start spilling. "I only kissed him, while I thought he was you, but I feel like… I feel like I should have known. And I didn't. How could I not know, Justin?"

It stung him more than he could have thought possible when she asked him that. Her obvious guilt and confusion made it fairly impossible for him to get mad at her again - apart from anything else, it couldn't make her feel worse than she already did - but he had to ask himself the same. Should she have known? Would he have in the same situation? Clearly they were both suffering from confusion over their feelings towards various versions of the other; so what did that mean?

He took her face in his hands once again, and gave her a much softer, gentler kiss. Renee turned her face away, pushing her mouth into his palm and squeezing her eyes shut so hard that she could see stars.

"Isn't Claire always saying that each version's the same at the core anyway? How you supposed to tell if we're both the same?"

Renee finally met his eyes, gazing at him pointedly. "You agree with everything Claire says?"

"I don't know," he said truthfully after a lengthy pause. "I don't know."

They both fell silent and she sank into his arms once again. Both kept to their own troubled thoughts, but they clung to each other anyway, Justin rocking them both from side to side. He felt a small amount of wetness on his skin and knew she was close to tears if not crying. The fingers of her left hand compulsively trailed over his skin, and shot tingles through it wherever they made contact.

It then occurred to Justin that his answer to that Cosmo quiz had gone from 'never' to 'occasionally' - they had just had their first fight. Despite her presence in his arms, whether they had survived it was yet to be seen.

"You know…" Justin started nervously, not wanting to spook Renee. She'd been very civil to him for the last day or so, and he wanted it to continue.

"I know lots of things. You going for anything in particular?"

She looked up with a wry smile and a smirk in her eyes. He was incredibly grateful for it all: every kind gesture, every gently teasing remark. With little time left on the clock, she was finally warming back up to him after his ill advised wishing. Justin appreciated it, he really did.

He appreciated it on more than one level, too. This was what he had been hoping to find when he had come into this world; easiness with Renee Anderson. Lord only knew he hadn't been at ease with his own girlfriend in a very long time, and part of him had just wanted to remember what it felt like when their interaction was easy and comfortable. Even though this wasn't romantic - he had a feeling he'd be looking for a bruising if he hit on her - it was still an improvement.

"I just… I'm surprised you're letting me come along," he said. "Or that you're even being nice to me at all."

"Well…" Renee said slowly as she indicated and made a left turn, heading towards the studio where she was due to have a photo shoot this afternoon. "You wanted to see my life so I might as well show it to you. Besides, these things are deathly boring and I could use a pal."

"That doesn't explain why you haven't tried to kill me yet."

"You forget I did this too. Maybe not on purpose, but I have a small notion of what it feels like in your shoes right now. It's not a small decision."

"True that," he chuckled ironically as he adjusted his baseball cap. "So, tell me, how do Justin Timberlake and Renee Anderson do interviews in this world?"

"Justin Timberlake and Renee Anderson don't," she responded.

"And yet we're driving to one now?"

Renee smiled from behind her oversized sunglasses. "No, you're not getting me. Justin Timberlake does interviews and Renee Anderson does interviews, but Justin Timberlake and Renee Anderson do not do interviews."

"What, not even on the carpet?" Justin was interested to know this. Joint interviews were old hat where he came from; they must have done a million of them. Half the time it was just a ploy to actually spend some time together in their hectic schedules - a joint work venture was the best excuse.

"We don't walk the carpet together," she informed him while glaring in her mirror at the guy behind her, who was far too close for her liking.

This really did pique his curiosity. "Never?"

"Never."

"Why?"

"Mainly because of him, but I can't say I particularly like the idea either. He used to do that all the time with Britney and their relationship just got way too public," she clarified. "I don't know exactly what happened, I haven't asked, but he says that was a huge contributor and it made the break up ten times worse because the world felt entitled to see the gory details."

Justin remained quiet as she made this explanation, fiddling with the zipper on his William Rast jacket - he was impressed, he wondered if the clothing line Trace was coming up with back home would produce items so comfortable. What she was saying wasn't unfamiliar; it was a criticism often levelled at him and Renee. People (mainly tabloids) claimed that by being so open and hitting all the celebrity hotspots they were letting the world in, thus couldn't complain when they wouldn't leave them alone.

She continued on with the account. "It just makes him jumpy because he got burned. He and Cameron were demons about it, got real pissed with people who asked. He's mellowed out a little now, but he still doesn't like us doing too much promo together and I tend to agree with him. If somebody asks we just kind of dodge the questions."

"Is it weird for you knowing he's been with all these really famous women?" Justin got a little nosy. He was pretty much Renee's first love and she his, so they didn't have that issue.

"I'd kill to be as tall as Cameron." She shrugged as she pulled to a stop at the lights, taking the pause in driving to push the sleeves of her sweater up to her elbows and readjust the watch that was threatening to become unclasped. "Honestly, it doesn't bother me. It used to, but it occurred to me that, you know, celebrities aren't that glamorous once you actually know how the business works. It's no different from dating a regular guy who has some exes in the background."

"True." Justin chuckled. "I know I ain't glamorous."

"Do you leave dishes in the sink for more than 24 hours before they get washed, too?"

"Umm…" He scratched the back of his neck.

"That was a yes. See? That's not glamorous, that's just gross. Why do you both do that? You just lazy asses or what?"

"Do I take it from that little domestic titbit that you guys live with each other?"

The back of Renee's neck blushed. It had just occurred to her that there was something weird going on when you were being quizzed about your relationship by an alternate version of your boyfriend. Possibly it was the lack of discomfort or awkwardness that was weird; she had come back from her little confrontation with her man upset, angry and confused, yet oddly it had made her interaction with this edition a little easier.

Maybe it was an issue of karmic balance and she could only be angry with one at a time - she still hadn't forgiven that kiss. She hadn't forgiven him for failing to avoid the other woman's lips, and the other woman was just lucky that cosmic rules forbade them to be in the same dimension. There would have been an ass whooping and some blonde hair might have been ripped out.

Still, she couldn't complain that the atmosphere around her and this Justin had softened. The previous evening they had sat up late and watched Friends reruns while playing Go Fish. Accusations of cheating still hung over Justin's head, but he claimed she was just bad at it. In a weird way it was nice to just be friends with him - as much as she liked the smooching, sometimes she and the boyfriend forgot that they could just hang out and not have sex. Heck, add some chocolate and some homemade margaritas and it could have been a girly night in.

"We don't live together, but…"

"But?"

"When we're both around, we pretty much spend every night together anyway. We just both like having our own space. Besides, it's only been a year; it'd be jumping the gun. I mean you guys don't live together, right?"

"No." Justin sighed audibly, his breath leaving a little condensation on the window he was leaning against. "We both seem to go through stages of wanting to and then not wanting to, except we never both want the same at the same time. And it certainly wasn't gonna happen in the last couple of years."

"If you don't mind me asking…" Renee began slowly, "how come you guys didn't patch everything up yet?"

"It was just awkward, after everything you told me." His fingers tapped an off kilter rhythm on the dashboard, one that wasn't quite in time with the song playing on the car stereo. "Until that point she and I had basically been play acting that everything was better, you exposed just how not better it was, and I just had a really hard time coming to terms with what she did."

"I mean… I told you why, though." Renee pushed him gently, not wanting to hit any nerves. "You seemed like you understood."

"She couldn't tell me why," he said quietly. "I mean, you were guessing. It sounded like a good guess and it made sense and all, but I needed to hear it from her. But she couldn't actually explain herself and I just got madder and madder at her for cheating on me, when she had, like, no reason for it. Then she got pissed with me, and I got pissed with her for getting pissed at me, and then…"

"Then what?"

"The pod person took over my girlfriend and now all she does is either say yes to everything or cry and leave the room."

"You know…" She began thoughtfully.

"What?"

"I do that. When I'm scared of pissing somebody off, I kind of just sit back and be all compliant and shit. I just hope that they'll cool down and if I don't make any waves for a while it'll fix it. Or I used to, anyway."

Justin mulled this over in his head. It was dangerous judging one Renee by the other, he was beginning to see that (better late than never), but still it was food for thought. "Used to? What changed?"

"My Dad." She smiled at him weakly, sad eyes hidden behind the dark lenses. "After my folks split up… I'd fight with him about the way he was being, but then get scared once he got angry with me and I'd back down. Except that the problem never got talked out and I'd still be mad at him and whenever we were together it was obvious that it was still going on under the surface. Now, I just argue with him until it's resolved. We still fight a lot, but at least it's not about the same thing over and over."

"Nobody likes Groundhog Day."

"And that movie sucked too."

On that note, Renee swung the car into the parking lot at the photography studio, haphazardly parking the car in a corner. Despite her wedged heels and her skirt, she managed to daintily jump out of the car and slam her door shut before Justin had even managed to take his seatbelt off. As he was stepping out of the vehicle was had opened the backseat up and was grabbing her oversized bag (he did not understand why with so little to carry she needed such a large bag, but she claimed it was a fashion thing).

"You ready to do this thing?" She asked.

"I basically just have to shut up, sit in the back and look pretty right?"

"Well we can't expect miracles."

He narrowed his blue eyes at her while she smiled innocently at him. "And what exactly would be the miracle?"

"You keeping your mouth shut or looking pretty."

Renee wisely decided to start running before he made the lunge in her direction, giggling manically even as she sprinted for the studio doors.

***

"Claire?" Justin called out miserably, head in his hands. He knew she wouldn't come if called and it was futile, but he was at his wit's end.

"Claire?"

It was a pleasant surprise when she acquiesced to his request, the cloud of black mist solidifying into her familiar figure a little more hastily than it usually did. Possibly he was overanalysing, but she looked a little stressed. If she had been alive, he would have imagined she'd just come in from a bad day at the office - her face and hair were just a little dishevelled, and a few frown lines covered her face. Now he thought about it, it kind of sucked that you couldn't escape lines and wrinkles even in death.

"Hi. What's up?" She asked wearily.

"I could ask the same… I thought you didn't show up on demand?"

"I don't, I just needed to make a stop by anyway." Claire sighed wearily, throwing herself into the lawn chair next to Justin's. Jealousy she eyed the cranberry juice on the table between them - she might be solid now, but food and drink was still beyond her. They were strictly for the mortal coil, but right now she could use some chocolate. "So what's making you look so miserable on this lovely day?"

It was a gorgeous day. The California sun glinted invitingly against the turquoise waters of the swimming pool. The grass looked lush and green, and whoever did the other Justin's landscaping for him had turned the garden into a riot of colour - lots of bright reds, oranges and yellows, interspersed with fresh looking white. The air was fresh and cleansing, though perhaps a little more breeze would have been better.

"Did you know she kissed me?"

"She did?" Claire groaned, pushing her fingers through the hair at the crown of her head and letting out a low growl. "That was just about the last thing I needed to hear. Why?"

"Hell if I know."

"Your best idea, then."

"Umm… delusion that I'm the perfect version of her boyfriend and I can fix everything for her? She just thinks I'm hot? How the fuck should I know?"

"Was it random or did you lead her on?"

"HEY!" Justin let out a barely contained yell, a fierce frown settling over his face. His patented Glare of Doom fell onto Claire, but he should have learnt by now that she was unfazed by these things. She merely returned his gaze with a bored, critical expression.

"I'm not playing here, Justin. I know you guys are friends and all but is there even a remote possibility that you got too cosy with her at all? Even if you didn't mean to? Best to be honest here or my advice will mean jack shit."

Justin instantly opened his mouth to protest, but the problem with such accusations was that they immediately made you paranoid. In an instant your previously harmless interaction would become laden with innuendo in your own head until you couldn't work out what was reality and what was panic.

"I… don't think so…"

"Bearing in mind of course that she's hurt and vulnerable and likely to overanalyse otherwise innocent behaviour at present?"

"Fuck," he whimpered, burying his face in his hands and rubbing it against his palms with a movement that was almost painful.

"Does 'fuck' translate to 'yes,' 'no' or 'I don't know' in this situation?"

"I don't know," he exhaled in one long breath with little pause between words.

Claire tapped her fingers against the lawn chair, and Justin would not realise until after she had gone that the reason it seemed so off to him was that it made no noise. As she took a moment to consider her next comments, he also noticed that her chest didn't rise and fall. It was strange, she seemed capable of inhaling and exhaling if she wanted to - in fact she often let out little huffs when she was annoyed - but most of the time she didn't actually breathe.

He was just about to start wondering how she could talk if no air was passing in and out of her vocal chords when she finally decided to speak again.

"I can't even tell you how dangerous this is right now."

"Dangerous?" He squeaked nervously, pulling at the collar of his polo shirt. "Why?"

"At this point I have no idea what the other Justin's going to do about this wish, but if he gets back here and she's in that kind of state it's probably going to make shit worse between them and make him do something else that's stupid. Heck, it might even make HER do something stupid."

"Is it bad that…" he started uncomfortably before halting in the middle of his sentence. He expected Claire to prompt him, but instead she patiently waited. "I feel so weird about what she did but it's not making me desperate to leave like I would've thought it might?"

She laughed ironically. "Believe me honey, after you're dead you'll never look at the concepts of good and bad the same way. Who am I to tell you that?"

"I thought you knew all the secrets of the universe."

"Not all, just a few. Just as many as I need to do this spirit guide gig."

"Fuck, what does it matter? I'm screwed either way. I feel guilty about leaving either of them and I feel bad for being such an ass about him…"

"Being an ass about him?" Claire leaned forward, suddenly interested. "Enlighten me."

"I just… assumed he was the bad guy." Justin shrugged, touching the tips of his fingers together while tapping his flip flop clad feet nervously against the patio. "More I compare us though, more I see myself in him. And also Renee - my Renee, I mean - totally bitched me out for being mean about him last night. Okay, what's so funny?"

His ghostly companion had actually laughed out loud on hearing it. For the first time, her smile seemed to have some light behind of it instead of merely annoyance.

"Just strikes me that no matter how you mix it all up, Renee Anderson always winds up sticking up for Justin Timberlake and Justin Timberlake always winds up defending Renee Anderson. It's so totally twisted of me but I kind of think it's cute."

"Glad somebody does," he grumbled. "I just… how do I end up where I belong?"

Immediately she stopped laughing, and rubbed a sympathetic hand over his forearm. "Change what you can and accept the things you can't, babe. You can't guarantee where you're going to end up at this point. To be real, it might not be where you belong - that all depends on him. But you need to take control of the things you can, and that means working out for yourself where you belong."

"But what good is that if I don't end up there?" He asked helplessly.

She struggled for a good way to put it. "If you don't end up there, at least you'll know the difference. And you'll know better than to just slot into a life that doesn't belong to you. Don't…" Claire shifted uncomfortably, aware that what she was about to say was very leading but not knowing how else to word it. "Don't just give in to this Renee because you feel bad for her or you feel like you should, or that there's no alternative. There's always another choice."

He raised an eyebrow quizzically at her. "I thought the whole spirit guide schtick was about destiny and meant to be?"

Getting up to leave, she tipped a wink in his direction. "Free will, baby. Just because they have a plan doesn't mean you have to follow it."

Leaving Justin to contemplate that, she disappeared back into the ether. He for his part slumped back into his chair, looking up at the picturesque sky. It was a perfect shade of blue, with just the right smattering of fluffy white clouds. Though he stared at it, he was actually trying to look beyond it - trying to look past it to wherever these people Claire was talking about lived, these people who had a plan for everyone.

If they'd fill him in on the one for him, he'd appreciate it. Heck, he wasn't greedy - a little hint would do.

Renee had a bit of a grudge against hotel mini bars.

It was true enough that the record company was paying the bill for this room and so she shouldn't feel guilty about stealing a little wine from it. It wasn't even stealing really, somebody would pay for it. She just never understood why they charged such exorbitant prices when downstairs in their own bar you could get a healthier measure of the same drink for the same price. She would never get that.

Still, she felt the need for a little alcohol. It was midnight, and the witching hour was afoot. This was supposed to be an hour of magic and mayhem, the spirits coming out to play. Black and white became indistinguishable, shadows ruled and if you believed those stories her mother used to read fairies would come out and tend to the flowers in the shrub borders. This was supposed to be the hour when incredible things came to be.

That hour would not be the witching hour for her. It would be the hour before it, the one that would be upon her in 23 hours - the one in which Justin had to irrevocably decide precisely which dimension he was planning to hang his hat in.

She had the feeling it would be a very stressful hour, should he string out his decision that long.

Curled up on the sofa in her flannel pyjamas, hair twisted on top of her head in an untidy knot, she had found herself utterly unable to sleep. It seemed to her like every time she thought about her little dilemma, it changed form; one moment she was fighting off feelings for both Justins, the next she was pondering whether Justins were in general more trouble than they were worth, and then sometimes she had to wonder whether Justin wasn't the only one supposed to be learning a lesson.

That confused her greatly, which was no change. The whole debacle had confused her from the beginning. It just nagged at her, the notion that she had something else to learn from all this; she'd thought it was all tied up the first time. She had learnt a great big lesson about how she was not the same as her other self and could make her own choices - yet now everything being said and done seemed to underscore the idea that they were actually pretty similar. That made no sense, and she resented it. What was the point of shifting the cosmos to teach her a lesson only to teach her a contradictory one later?

Putting down her wine, she picked up Justin's guitar and started strumming idly to herself. She was picking out the chords to one of her own songs, a ballad she had written about finding her inner voice. At the time she had been so proud. The song had been her own little secret, a testimony to her experiences that only she could truly understand. Now it all seemed… inaccurate. Like she'd had the idea wrong in the first place.

"Man that sounds depressing."

A bleary eyed Justin had appeared in the doorway, casting long shadows in front of him as the bedroom light burst through the opening behind him.

"It's on my album. Thanks."

"Oops." He grinned sheepishly before taking the guitar from her and throwing himself down on the couch next to her. "Come on, if we both have to be insomniacs let's make a good time of it at least. Pour me a Jack and coke will ya?"

His fingers deftly began strumming an improvised melody. It was overly cheery, if she was honest, but she still had to grin (a little bit - just inwardly).

"Her name is Renee…" he began to croon.

"Oh Lord." She gave a loud snort while fixing him his drink.

"She sometimes wears a beret…"

"Tell me how you have platinum discs if that's your song writing capability."

"I'd like to take her out for…" He frowned, trying to think of a rhyme. "Umm…"

Even his 'umm' was perfectly in tune, and she really wanted to laugh at him very, very badly. She ought to be more stressed with him for not appearing to have made a decision, but she really wanted to crack up laughing.

"Sushi?" She suggested.

"Sorbet!" He crowed, pointing at her triumphantly. He began to pick up steam, strumming with more confidence and hesitating less between lines.

"I'd like to take her out for sorbet… she has this long dark hair… she's sittin' over there… I wonder what colour is her underwear?"

Renee gasped, simultaneously appalled and dying of laughter. Picking up one of the blue throw pillows, she beat him repeatedly round the head with it a few times while he cracked up at his own hilarity. This only spurred her attack on, and eventually Justin had to put the guitar down purely so he could cover his head with both hands. Clearly the girl had some pent up rage going on.

"Okay, okay, I give!" He laughed loudly, his sides aching with the merriment.

She looked at him with what was trying to be disgust but was more of a smirk. "That was so wrong - so very, very wrong."

"Yeah but it was fun."

"Ass." She picked up her wine and took a gulp while giving him exaggerated evils. Still, she smiled at him as she pulled her feet up onto the couch and tucked them under, sitting comfortably in the lotus position as she sank into the cushions. Some hotel rooms had very ornate, decorative looking couches that were impossible to sit on, but this one was deliciously squishy.

Justin took a gulp of his drink, enjoying the way the alcohol hit the back of his throat. "So you couldn't sleep either, huh?"

"Nope." Strands of hair fell out of her bun as she shook her head. Playing with the hem of her pink pjs, she stared awkwardly at her matching pink pedicure (she hadn't meant to match, it had just happened). She found it amazing how quickly their silences could go from comfortable to awkward.

"Would it…"

"Would it what?"

Justin was tempted to say 'never mind' as he looked at her small frame. It would be incredibly easy to just remain quiet. If he voiced the thought in his head, he'd probably have to commit to it. He was enjoying their nice, easy banter and wasn't entirely sure he wanted to put an end to it by taking the conversation in the direction it probably ought to go.

"Would it make it better if I told you I kind of made a decision, sort of?"

Renee gulped, a lump rising in her throat and sticking there uncomfortably. "How do you sort of kind of make a decision?"

"Never mind." His skin flushed with embarrassment, and his head bowed a little, blue eyes hitting the carpet and staring intently at it where it was beginning to bobble with age.

"No, what? You made a decision?"

"I umm…"

"I promise I'm not going to hit you if I don't like it."

That raised a touch of a smile, and it steeled his nerves enough for him to take a deep breath and tell her. "Well… I guess what I mean is I made one decision but I have another to make, is what I mean by kind of sort of."

"So…?" She let the question drift off, open ended.

Forcing himself to take the plunge, Justin told her. "I decided that whatever else I do with my life… I'm going back. Home."

It was an odd sensation. Perhaps she should have been ready to feel shock at whatever he said, but she had blithely assumed she would feel euphoria on him saying that he wanted to go back. For a brief moment a little part of her wanted to take it as rejection, but she quickly quashed it by reminding herself the lengths he had gone to in order to be sitting there in the first place. A million thoughts battled for supremacy in her mind at once, but slowly a settled expression began to take over her face. The emerging victor was the warm feeling rushing to her face and stomach.

"I think… I think that's a good decision," she said slowly.

Unmistakeable relief washed over Justin. His body sank back into the cushions, his stature going straight from rigid to serene in less than a second. An audible release of breath exhaled from his lips.

"You do?"

"Yeah." She nodded compulsively, her nods getting more assured as they continued. "I honestly do."

"Good." His smile was still a little sad, but encouragingly hopeful. It was certainly more hopeful than she'd seen it in the past three weeks. "I just… you know what I figured out, after we've been hanging the last couple of days.?"

"Enlighten me."

"I was so desperate to see you…" he admitted shyly, refusing to meet her inquisitive eyes. "For two years I've been kind of obsessing over the attraction we had and thinking about it constantly and then I get here and like… please don't take offence, but it's kind of gone."

"Oh sure, I won't take offence that you find me unattractive," she kidded. Well, she was mostly kidding, but a little part of her was unimpressed with his lack of tact.

"I got here and it was so overwhelming to be near you and it was such a head spin but, now… we've been hanging out as friends the last couple of days and I haven't been tempted to hit on you or felt really affected by you that way at all. And I didn't expect that. I expected to be more confused than this."

That really would have been a kick in the teeth, but with a moment of clarity she understood exactly what he meant. Heck, she even agreed with him. The last few days would have been very relaxing and enjoyable if not for the pressure of the wish deadline looming.

"You know…" she began. "I got confused, but… now I think about it, I think it was just because I kind of expected to be. You obviously caught me off guard and it was a head fuck, but… nah. I can't say I've been tempted to kiss you or anything either."

It was strange, given how much obsessing she'd done about her inability to tell one Justin from the other, but since she had learnt who he was she couldn't say she'd ever been tempted to kiss him. It seemed ridiculous, now she thought about it. All that agonising she'd done and she hadn't even stopped to notice that he wasn't exactly setting her aflame there.

"I think I worked it out, finally." Justin picked up the guitar again and settled it on his lap thoughtfully, strumming a few random chords as he talked. "Like… I thought this life was the thing to aspire to, but I finally worked out that it's not mine and it's not my choices and that if I was meant to have this life I would have made these choices. I don't belong here and it was pointless trying to wedge myself in. Like, maybe we're the same at the core, but there's a reason he went left and I went right. So now I just get to know that I can do better than I'm doing now, but I can find that on my own terms."

Scratch that, she was seriously tempted to kiss him now - not romantically, but in a purely congratulatory way. It was just about the smartest thing he had ever said. It was exactly the lesson she herself had learnt first time around, but he had verbalised better than she ever had. (That said she'd never literally verbalised it for fear of being locked up in a psych ward and diagnosed as delusional).

"I have to hand it to you Justin." Tears glittered in her eyes, a bittersweet mixture, but she was happy for him. "I had my doubts there but I think you made the right decision. So… umm… I know this is awkward, but… do you wish now?"

"Umm…" He scratched his head, knowing that he was getting to a part she wouldn't like. "You know how I said I sort of made a decision?"

"Yeeees?" Renee eyeballed him warily.

"I need to put off the wish for a few more hours?"

"Is that wise?" The screech in her voice hadn't been intentional, but it was present nonetheless. "We're on the clock here, Justin."

The settled look on his face had disappeared in a matter of seconds, to give way to a small amount of fear. It was surprising enough that it made her stop her tirade before it had really started. Her hands gripped a cushion a little too tightly, and his wrung themselves together in his lap.

"I… I know I have to go back…" he told her slowly, "but… I still… I still haven't worked out what to do about her."

Renee's mouth opened to say something, but the best she could do was form a silent 'oh' as she twiddled unnecessarily with a lock of loose hair.

"Well… I don't want to sound like I'm just trying to get rid of you, but maybe it would be a better idea if you considered that back home, given the time constraints?"

"But…" He felt weak for admitting it to her, but he had no choice. It wasn't manly or even very adult, but it was what it was. "Here I'm guaranteed to be able to avoid her."

"Justin…"

"No, no, listen to him, he's got a point!"

None of them had even noticed the black cloud slipping in behind them, but both jumped at the sound of the harried voice.

"Clara?" Renee asked dumbly, a little taken aback. She hadn't seen her for a few days and now she turned up to say Justin should stick around? After all the campaigning she had done to make him leave?

"He's got a point, Renata, I mean what's a few more hours so long as he meets the deadline? Oh, and by the way Justin, congratulations on a very smart decision. Always knew you'd do the right thing."

Justin rolled his eyes. "No you didn't."

"No I didn't," she responded immediately, "but so long as you did who cares? Seriously, you need to stay put for a few more hours."

Since this fit in perfectly with Justin's plans, he wasn't looking Claire's sudden change of heart in its gift horse mouth. Renee, however, having been Claire's best friend for too long, immediately smelled a rat. Claire didn't literally smell of anything since she was dead, but Renee knew her far too well to take this at face value.

"What's happened?" She demanded.

"Nothing, nothing!" She protested weakly before meeting her best friend's disbelieving and reproving gaze. "Well, nothing much. Minor hiccough. Really, I'm all over it and totally on top of it."

"Are you ignoring the obvious sexual innuendo there too?" Justin asked Renee who nodded in agreement.

"I just need a few hours, that's all. I promise, Claire will fix it."

"Fix what?"

Renee dearly wanted an answer to that question, but her best friend had infuriatingly disappeared before she could answer. She'd used to do that in school, too, drop a tantalising hint of gossip and then disappear to class before she could be forced to dish.

The habit was no less irritating when she was dead.

***

Another Justin sat on another couch, similarly unable to sleep. He however was sitting in a mansion, not a hotel. He found it odd how this house was far too big for him; his own home was a similar size, and even when alone in it he didn't feel quite so dwarfed. The best he could suppose was that it was other people's homes that made you feel small - places where you didn't belong. Sometimes he thought maybe he could belong there, given time, others he wasn't so sure.

With a pang in his heart he was staring at a magazine. It was the round up of the red carpet he had done with this reality's Renee, and it was utterly strange to see himself with his hand tucked into the blonde's. It felt more like he was staring at old pictures of him and Britney than brand new ones taken within the week.

He couldn't help comparing it to the last set of pictures he'd seen of him and his girlfriend. They weren't posed like these; they never did red carpets together so the only shots of them as a couple naturally came from the paparazzi. With bodyguards in tow they had been walking down the street hand in hand, having just picked up some sustenance before heading back into their respective studios - they'd only met up for a quick lunch break together.

The pictures of him in the blonde probably fit the profile of 'couple in love' better. Touchy feely, beaming smiles, looking picture perfect. This would be the shot of love's young dream that most tabloids would prefer to run as a cover shot. The paparazzi photos had involved perfectly normal, expressionless faces. It was only when you saw the way her eyes fell on their clasped hands or his glance sideways at her that you caught the notion they were focussed on each other.

Justin was trying to take Claire's words to heart, he really was. He was trying to focus on what he would do either way, wherever he wound up at the end of all this (with less than 24 hours to go). More than anything he was trying to work out how to live his own life no matter where the location. That used to come so easy to him, but the last three weeks had made him question everything he'd ever thought of his life and decision making process.

The door bell rang, and he frowned quizzically. It was gone midnight, who could it be? Claire never used front doors and Renee wasn't prone to late night visits… he supposed it could be Trace. Scratching his itchy, stubble covered head, he padded towards the front door, yawning and cursing himself for being unable to sleep.

As he opened the door, all blood seemed to rush from his head. He felt dizzy and faint.

Renee Anderson stood at his door.

A brunette Renee Anderson stood at his door.

Justin's mouth went to shape the words 'holy fuck,' but somehow they died in his throat.

His immediate thought was that somehow his girlfriend had shown up at the door. Being a smart guy, he quickly realised that such a scenario was impossible. It was only souls that got transferred, not bodies, as evidenced by all the switching and swapping of forms that had gone on between the two dimensions. He had woken up in another place and body, after all, not just another place. It would make no sense if after all this body swapping she had shown up in her own body.

The other big hint was that the woman in front of him might have been a brunette but her hair was still far too light to be his girlfriend's. Hers was a dark chocolate shade; this was very chestnut and still had some hints of blonde to it.

"So am I going to stand here all night or are you going to let me in?"

Justin shrugged in disbelief and walked dumbly back into the house, leaving her to enter at her leisure and close the door behind her. Walking back into the lounge, he saw the photo albums open on the table and hurriedly stashed them under the sofa, not wanting her to see. He'd had the basketball highlights muted on the TV in front of him as he perused the pictures, but now he put the sound on and sat back down. He blinked rapidly as he watched - not a second of it was actually registering in his brain but he didn't want Renee to think he'd been thinking about her in the slightest.

To say that he was freaked out would be akin to saying that Iraq was a bad situation - it didn't even begin to cover it.

He had thought it was bad enough when she'd kissed him. It had been extremely confusing and had made him feel horribly guilty for reasons that were somewhat beyond his understanding. Claire's reaction wasn't especially comforting and he wasn't sure he was going to forget the look on his girlfriend's face any time soon either. She'd been far more accepting than he could ever have expected, but he knew her too well and he guessed she was probably still mad at him. Justin had to understand that - he after all was still seething at the fact that she'd kissed somebody who wasn't him and it wasn't even like he blamed her for it.

It was only as Renee entered the room that he remembered he didn't have his shirt on, and hurriedly he grabbed the sweatshirt he'd discarded from the back of the couch and yanked it on. He was now going to be far too warm, as if he wasn't uncomfortable enough, but he didn't want her seeing too much of him at that second.

She was far too casual as she sat down on the couch; as soon as she did he wanted to kick himself for failing to take the armchair where she couldn't get next to him. Justin tried to look her up and down without appearing to take his gaze off of the television - it was very awkward and he could feel his eye muscles straining. The hair looked better, he had to admit; it was still dry and flyaway, not in good condition after all the bleaching it had taken, but the darker hair hid it better. He also noted with alarm that she was wearing a very preppy outfit which was far more like his Renee than her; he couldn't see how she could possibly realise that however, so he had to let her off.

"Didn't you and Trace go to this game today? Or technically yesterday?" Renee gestured to the screen, an amused smile playing on her lips.

"Umm…" He did a double take and realised that she was correct. Trace had called, he had wanted to get out of the house, and while they had been out he had been surreptitiously feeding him tips on getting the clothing line up and running. "Yeah, we did."

"So… why are you watching it now?"

Justin grunted in response. "There's nothing else on and I have insomnia."

"Oh, I know how you get."

"Umm, no you don't." He couldn't help the slightly biting way he formed the words. "You know how he gets."

"What's the diff?" She smirked. He wasn't sure why, but he found the expression very irritating.

"There's a fucking big one."

Renee sighed wearily, fingers pushing themselves through her hair. She was finding herself fiddling with her hair a lot, not used to the shorter length or the new colour she saw every time she picked it up to play with it. She hadn't expected Justin to be so confrontational - she knew their last meeting had finished in an awkward place, but he'd never been snippy with her in his short tenure in her reality. It was bruising to her already beaten ego that he was taking such offence to the whole thing.

"Hmm. Strikes me more and more that there's not much difference at all."

"Well if you will purposely try and remove all differences… nice hair by the way. Wonder where you got that idea."

Renee rolled her eyes. "It's hair, Justin. I just felt like a change, where's the big?"

"Oh, okay," he said pleasantly before narrowing his eyes at her. "You're blonde for like a decade and then just so happen to try and dye your hair my girlfriend's colour and it just so happens to come right after you throw yourself at me? How fucking stupid do you think I am? Oh, and so you know, you totally missed the shade."

It was amazing how quickly he could pass through the shock and denial stage right onto anger. Possibly this was a mere symptom of the already dangerous level of frustration he was experiencing, but Justin had just about had enough. He had less than twenty four hours to go until somebody else decided his future for him, he felt powerless and helpless and the last thing he needed was for her to go off the deep end like this. Between Britney, Cameron and this one, he was beginning to wonder if he had some pestilent touch that made women crazy. Maybe the other Renee was better off without him if that was so - he liked her sane.

It was the mention of his girlfriend that managed to raise the reaction he was looking for; subconscious it might have been, but he was looking for a fight.

"Oh, wait, I forgot. Everything in this universe is about her, right? Everything's fucking about her; it could never be about me, right? God forbid I've wanted to make some changes for a while, fuck no, I'm just trying to be like Little Miss Perfect." She sang the words mockingly, like she was telling a child a nursery rhyme.

"Well if I were you I'd have gone for some intensive therapy rather than the bottle," he sniped.

"Oh because she's so fucking perfect, right? She already humped my boyfriend once before, how do you know she isn't RIGHT THIS SECOND, huh?"

"Because maybe you managed to fuck up your relationship, but ours was going swimmingly until the idiot boyfriend you screwed over decided to hijack my existence!"

"And what the fuck do you know about my relationship, huh?

"Well you haven't stopped bitching about it since I got here, so I'm kind of under the impression that it stinks." He smiled mockingly at her.

"God you're a stupid asshole."

"Wait, I'm sorry…" he pretended to scratch his ear, "remind me, was it you trying to seduce me the other day or did I just dream that?"

"Hah, you probably have dreamed about that."

"Oh you fucking wish…"

"Now, now, children!"

With an unusually dramatic puff of smoke, Claire had appeared before them. She looked ready for battle, in a very severe black outfit that made her ghostly pallor look even paler. Her stance was firm, her arms crossed tightly across her chest, and her head tipped to the side in a very teacher like position. The left eyebrow was raised firmly and she looked as unimpressed as Justin had ever seen her.

"You gotta love it," Claire said in a dangerously bright voice. "One minute you're trying to put your tongue down his throat and the next you're getting into bitch fights with him. And don't you even try to look smug Timberlake." She had pre-empted the smirk that was rising on his face. "You could use a time out yourself, brat."

"She started it…"

"Did not!"

"My GOD I feel like I'm dropping IQ points just listening to you." Claire rubbed her temples despairingly. If she wasn't dead, she'd probably have a stress headache coming on. "Does somebody want to tell me what the fuck is going on here? Starting with you!" She rounded on Renee unexpectedly. "What the hell did you do to your hair?"

"There's a multi million dollar hair care industry and yet one girl dying her hair is surprising?" Renee protested.

She was met with an impatient and disbelieving look. It was the rancour behind Claire's eyes that gave it away. "I know secrets of life and death, sweetheart, do you think for one measly second I'm going to buy that bullshit?"

"I wanted a change!"

Justin wanted to make a snippy comment about this constant desire for change being her biggest problem, but Claire looked scary and he thought that for once in his life silence would be a good idea. It had startled him precisely how quickly their conversation had devolved into childish bickering, but he couldn't help it. It was a dreadful tendency of his and one his mother always scolded him for, but when frustrated he could get a little bratty. He was not however admitting that to Claire or apologising to Renee, because she really had started it. Nobody had made her try to hijack his girlfriend's position.

He refused to entertain the niggling thought poking at him, the one that pointed out he'd considered letting her.

"Yes, well, if I thought for one second you were actually making positive change for yourself on your own terms I'd be thrilled," Claire barked at her. "Trying to clone his girlfriend is not helping. And also fairly dumb considering you never met her and have no idea how she even is."

"What happened to 'we're all the same at the core,' huh Claire?" Renee stood up and faced off with her, imitating both her stance and her steely eyed glare. "Funny how your story changes every time it suits you. Fuck, do you even know a damn thing like you claim to or are you still just pretending to know all and then disappearing every time I call you on it? We're not dabbling in high school gossip any more Clara, so you pretending to know shit doesn't work any more."

This might have stung incredibly, had Claire not seen straight through it. She'd been a spirit guide long enough to recognise somebody who was desperately trying to hit back because they were flailing.

"For somebody not playing at high school any more, sweetheart, you're doing a crappy job at playing grown up. Do you honestly think that trying to hurt me or even him is helping right now? You've been doing this far too long, pushing people away and hurting them because you don't know what the hell it is you want. Time to wake up and will you SIT DOWN, Timberlake, I haven't finished with you."

Justin threw his hands up in the air with an exasperated sigh, flinging himself back down on the couch. Their little Mexican stand-off appeared to have nothing to do with him and his insomnia was giving way to a desperate desire to go to bed and hide under the covers. He really wanted to leave.

"Okay so you," she pointed at Renee, "stop trying to be somebody you're not and sabotaging everything and everyone that's been good to you and YOU," she rounded on Justin, "let's talk about this whole 'you hurt me so I hurt you' mentality you got going, because as life philosophies go it stinks."

"I don't have a…"

"Yes you fucking do!" She jabbed a finger at his chest, eliciting a small squeal of protestation. "You admitted it! Your whole disgust at the wonderfully passive aggressive shit he's been doing to her is because it's hard to look in a mirror and see something you don't like. And yet here you are, doing the same shit, hitting back at her because she's confused you. For God's sake, I thought you were meant to be the sane one! My only comfort in this whole thing has been knowing that at least you had your head on straight and you're just as bad as those two!"

"Two, huh?" Renee spat. "Of course, even you think she's perfect."

"Oh will you grow up and stop obsessing about her? This is not about her and never has been - it's just you transferring all your issues and as usual BLAMING ANYBODY BUT YOURSELF!"

The yelling took both Renee and Justin aback. They were genuinely a little afraid of her in that moment. In movies and on TV whenever a God or somebody powerful got angry, their voice was given a thunderous effect - it was a total cliché. When a ghost was in front of you doing it for real, however, that was somewhat different.

Claire took a number of deep breaths in - she did not breathe and wasn't inhaling any air at all, but it was funny how the habits of the living lingered. Cracking her knuckles - which made no sound, but at least she felt it - she let the tension in her shoulders settle before continuing.

"If anybody is under any delusion that I'm playing here, now is the time to wise up. I ain't got time to play. Whatever this shit is between you, you are going to solve it. NOW. You are going to discuss it and solve it between you - like adults instead of the overgrown brats you're being now. Understood?"

"But…"

"But nothing," she growled at Renee. "You are going to fix this. I suggest you go home and sleep on it and come back here first thing with your grown up hat on. You are going to stop fixating on everything and everyone but yourself and blaming all you problems on them, and he is going to act like the grown ass man he is and actually deal with his feelings instead of lashing out. Okay, is anybody not clear on the plan here?"

Renee's response was to turn on her heel and to stomp out of the house, slamming the front door viciously on the way. Clearly, she had some way to go before dropping the childish behaviour she'd been so guilty of. With her gone the wind seemed to disappear from Justin's sails. All he could do was compulsively rub his hands over his shaved head, looking dazed and somewhat stoned.

"You're one scary lady, you know that?"

Claire couldn't help it; a small laugh left her mouth. "I've been told."

"Note to self, try not to piss you off."

"I don't have time to play, Justin," she repeated.

Thinking of the photo albums he'd stashed under the sofa and the girlfriend he'd been fretting over before her alter ego had shown up, he smiled sadly. "I'm kind of short on the stuff myself."

Briefly Claire considered telling him a decision had been made, but she thought better of it. There was no incentive for him to hash it out with this world's woman if he knew he was leaving, and she really thought he needed to. He needed to for both their sakes.

"Go to bed, Justin." She rubbed her knuckles over his head in admonishment and affection. "Wake up in your more mature guise, okay?"

"Can't promise."

"Try."

"That I can."

Justin sat hunched over the studio desk, remarkably quiet.

Part of this was his mood, and the other part was trying not to talk too much lest his apparently great buddy Timbaland got an idea in his head that he was behaving strangely. It felt odd, that such a respected hip hop producer was treating him and his work with this much esteem, but it didn't suck. He wondered if this was what it felt like to be this world's Justin Timberlake - he no longer wanted to be that guy, had woken up from that little delusion, but he still liked the feeling. If he was able to go home and recreate it on his own terms, he couldn't ask for much more.

Well, he could, but Renee was an entirely different manner.

Luckily for him, this quiet mood of his seemed to fit the way Tim was used to working with his alter ego. He was apparently used to Justin coming up with lyrics and melodies while he played with beat boxes and the drum machine. Apart from the odd question about what Justin thought of this or that or if Justin could think of a good riff to go with whatever he was playing with, he just left him to it.

Part of him considered it pointless, seeing as he'd decided to go home. The other part of him thought that working with this guy was necessary for him, that he needed to prove that he was up to it. It wasn't like he'd get a chance to finish the song, but he figured the other Justin could either consider it an apology gift or just forget about it. He almost wished it was possible to talk to the guy face to face; it hadn't escaped him how selfish he'd been for the last few weeks, and he probably owed the dude a little grovelling.

While he was busy staring into space, Tim had reached over and whipped the piece of paper out from under his nose, eyes scanning back and forth over the lyrics. As he got to the end, his face stretched out into a broad grin and the man began to chuckle.

"Oh 'cause it's not obvious who this is about," he slapped his hand against his knee, shaking his head at him. "Good thing the world's not going to realise you did this literally, the girls are gonna eat this shit up!"

"Real fucking funny, Tim," Justin tried to joke with him as he snatched the sheet back. Tim had found it funny that he was writing things down, but that was a difference between this world's Justin and him. He had played it off with some lame excuse, but then Tim's cell phone had provided a timely distraction.

"Hell, I wouldn't be surprised if your sad ass did write her a symphony. Did you?"

"No!" Justin exclaimed before realising that he wasn't actually sure. Renee hadn't told him much about how she'd got together with his doppelganger, only that he had been very persistent and creative with his date requests for about six months, and he was using it for a little inspiration. "I probably wrote her a love note or two, but that's as much as I'll give you, ass."

Justin had got half way through the second verse of a song that he figured would have to be titled 'My Love.' As much as he was basing it off of this reality's couple, a little gift he wanted to leave Renee as well as an apology to the other Timberlake, he couldn't help but find his own self in there too. He often wondered what it was he would have to do to win his girlfriend back; maybe she'd been technically with him, but she'd been gone for some time now.

He was now at a point where he wasn't even sure he should have her back - wasn't sure it was good for either of them or if he even wanted it. Putting off the wish was pure cowardice, but he just didn't know how to answer the question. Having been with her for so long, he was a little terrified of the possible outcome of their next meeting.

"Hey, you know we love shorty in here, right Nate?"

"That woman keeps me in Starbucks and smokes, damn straight!" Tim's latest 'apprentice' yelled from the booth where he was playing with the amps. Justin wasn't to know, but Renee's recording sessions tended to be shorter than her boyfriend's and thus she usually wound up making mercy stops for food, drink or anything else the guys might need.

"Still, you write Love Stoned about her, you write this about her - people gon' get the impression you whipped, boy!"

"She ain't got me whipped, Tim."

It wasn't a lie - she had the other Justin whipped. He, as he had now realised, was over his little infatuation with the brunette. It was the blonde version he still had some issues with (or at least, he was under the impression she was still blonde, being none the wiser).

He found it interesting… the other Justin had written a song about her? He had to smile at that; he'd been guilty of the same himself, though he'd never had the guts to admit it to his girlfriend. He'd written a ditty called 'Where Do We Go From Here' which he was tempted to put on the next album, but he was kind of worried what she'd say if she heard it. The whole thing was as suggestive of a break up as a make up, and he had a feeling she'd freak.

She tended to freak no matter what he said lately - hence the reluctance to go back.

"Hey y'all…"

A female voice sounded from behind him and he immediately whipped around in his chair, unconsciously grabbing the piece of paper in front of him and stuffing it under his desk.

"Hey Renee!" The other guys chorused as she made her way over to his chair, standing behind him and putting her hands on his shoulders with a reassuring squeeze. He guessed half of it was just an act to keep up the pretence that all was well, but he liked to think some of it was support for him. She had to know this whole thing was awkward for him, but appearances needed to be kept up.

"How you getting on?"

"We cool, we cool," Tim answered for him. "How was your session, sugar?"

"Crappy, I cancelled." She waved a hand dismissively. "Not in the zone today."

"Well I keep telling you, you let Timbo at your music and he'll weave his magic on it…" Tim said teasingly, trying to tempt her. She'd already had a hard enough time trying to turn him down politely, but he was in his way as persistent as her boyfriend.

"I tell you what, we'll see how J's album does and maybe you'll convince me." She winked at him with a smile. Much as she didn't think he was the producer for her, she genuinely liked the guy. "Speaking of, can I steal you for a couple minutes J?"

"Sure. I'll be back in a few, man."

"Take your time," Tim waved him off before turning back to the desk and getting caught back up in what he had been doing.

Renee led Justin by the hand out into the corridor, and then into the little kitchenette where Tim had made sure a fridge, microwave, stove and an X-Box had been installed for creature comforts. Justin took a moment to process the slovenly Juicy tracksuit (well, slovenly for her) and the worried expression on her face. He took it this was not a social call.

"What's up Ren?" He asked as he pulled himself up onto the counter, dangling his sneaker clad feet in the air.

"You know how Claire said she'd check in with me this morning? Well, she didn't, and now it's no longer morning."

"Well hey, it's not like she can die twice, right?" He said gently. "No need to worry about her."

The brunette looked at him with a scathing expression which suggested he was the village idiot. "I'm not worried about her; I'm worried about whatever the fuck it is she's trying to fix that she won't let us in on. It's keeping her way too long and we're on the clock here. Speaking of, have you worked out your girlfriend issues yet?"

"No," he mumbled guiltily.

"Hurry that up please. I need to get my issues with my boyfriend fixed too and I will need him present for the occasion."

"What issues?" Justin asked curiously. He seemed to recall much complaining that her life had been perfect until he'd made his wish, so what was she talking about?

Renee realised a moment too late that she had neglected to mention a lot of her confusion and most importantly the other world's kissing incident to him. He was now lookin at her with a suspicious expression and she needed to back track, quickly.

"What, you thought you could swap lives and not leave him and me with a little something to talk about too? You being here just… changes the perspective a little. Nothing major, just needs to be said. And, also, I need a hug."

"Well… we're friends, right? I could hug you if you want?" He offered shyly.

Thankfully her expression softened a little and she gave him a smile, poking his rib cage affectionately. "It's not the same, but I appreciate the thought."

"It's really not the same, is it?" He sighed. "Fuck, I don't know what to do, Ren. I love her, but… is that enough? I can't help thinking that maybe we screwed up too much to fix it."

"Well…" She rubbed his sweater clad sleeve comfortingly. "I guess that depends on what kind of damage you did and how hard you wanna work on fixing it. If it's not worth enough to you to fix it then… well, maybe you did fuck it up too much."

"What about you?" He asked, still trying to probe her for details. "Is it worth enough to you to fix?"

She frowned quizzically. "Your relationship's none of my business, man."

"No," he laughed, "I meant yours."

"Course." Despite herself, she smiled. All she could hope was that the other Renee hadn't turned her boyfriend's head enough to make him feel differently." I think we got a little more left in us yet."

"I'm not so sure. About me, I meant, not you." He hastened to include that little addendum. "We…" Sadness passed back over his face again, soft pink lips forming a melancholy pout. "We haven't exactly turned each other into nice people, you know?"

"I have to run, Justin, but…" Renee struggled to offer him something, anything useful. "My grandma always used to say before she died that what we've done means nothing any more - it's what we can do that's important. She said there was no point worrying about shit you can't change so we might as well focus on the future 'cause that's still in our hands."

"You agree with her, I take it? Even after all this destiny crap Claire spouted?"

Even as she backed towards the door, Renee held out her arms with a broad grin and winked at him. "If I'd have listened to Grandma in the first place it might have saved me an inter-dimensional trip, there. 'Cause that was pretty much what that little excursion to your world taught me. And also, I love Claire but I don't care if she has been told a few secrets of the universe, girl's still got a big mouth."

Justin wanted to laugh, and if he hadn't been so depressed he would have. The little mention of Claire had suddenly made what Renee had said earlier actually register with his brain. It was a pretty good point, actually. Why the hell had he ignored it? What precisely was it that had made Claire order him to stay put and then go MIA? He'd been so caught up in his own selfish relief at not being forced back yet, he'd missed the important point.

Maybe he hadn't learnt anything from this trip after all - you'd think he wouldn't have made that mistake twice.

Silence was a very awkward thing, Justin found.

It wasn't always like that. There were a few people in his life he never had that trouble with, people he could sit in total silence with in a room without it feeling uncomfortable or stilted. Precious were the folk who could keep the atmosphere pleasant without having to resort to inane babble - that was what Justin had found.

Renee Anderson, funnily enough, had never been one of them. He could say that equally of each version, this world or the next. Head over heels he might have been, but he'd never experienced a single moment with the woman where some form of communication hadn't felt necessary. It didn't have to be talk - certain actions spoke louder than words anyway - but she had just never been one of those people. Half of him thought that was simply because he was so head over heels he couldn't go without, the other half wondered if maybe they weren't as comfortable as he liked to think they were. One way or another, he'd always had to be conversing with her.

Today was no different. She had turned up on his doorstep at roughly ten in the morning; it was now mid afternoon and the pair of them had yet to say a single word to each other. It had been hellish. Justin was absolutely dying, and the resentful look on her face wasn't making life any easier. He didn't understand why she'd bothered even coming over if she had no plans to talk to him, but in all fairness he had yet to form any kind of sentence himself.

It didn't help that he was having a hard time looking at her. The hair might have been the wrong shade of brunette, but it was still throwing him off, as was the sudden change in dress sense - it was like looking at a hybrid. The hair was between the bleached version and the chocolate version, the outfit was still too pop-starry and revealing to be his own Renee's style but it certainly took a step that way and all in all it confused him. The sun dress was a little too revealing, the jeans too tight, the heels too high and the make up too heavy, but enough had changed to make it a lot harder to look at her and not see his girlfriend.

Even as he was thinking about it, she wafted into the room, hair bouncing around her face. With a strange delicateness she walked over to the refrigerator and moved the carton of orange juice from it. Moving swiftly and quietly she had grabbed a glass, poured herself a drink and drifted straight back out of the room before Justin could even draw breath to speak, let alone say something.

He was annoyed. It was annoying. He'd never known himself have so little to say.

***

"Lou I'm serious!" Renee exclaimed, protesting as her evil sister decided to laugh instead.

"Yeah, right. You want me to fly up there and interrupt your little game of House with lover boy? No thank you. Watching you two making out every five seconds is not my idea of fun."

"We wouldn't be!"

"You said that last time! Besides, I'm busy. Work's been a pain in the ass and I can't take off right now."

Renee could have made a pretty convincing argument for her sister as to why such the making out scenario was unlikely, but it would only land her in the psych ward. Instead she had to sigh and give in, changing the subject.

"Fine, leave me to waste away. See if I care."

"You're supposed to be recording anyway, when you gonna have time for me?" Louise riposted. "I'll still see you in a couple of weeks, sweetie. Besides, weren't you guys supposed to be going to Vegas soon?"

"Oh, yeah."

It seemed hard to believe that with her relationship under so much scrutiny she had forgotten her anniversary, but the big day was looming. It was looking less and less likely her boyfriend would be around for it, however, so she wasn't holding her breath. Claire still hadn't deigned to show up, Justin was still holed up in the studio doing anything but thinking about what he was supposed to be thinking about, and Renee was despairing. Finally she had called her sister for some comfort (and also a conversation that didn't sound like it could have taken place on Dawson's Creek).

"It's nice that you're now so high up in that superstar stratosphere that such things mean nothing to you."

"And on that note I'm going," Renee said dryly. "Bye. I'd say I love you, but since it's clearly unreciprocated…"

"Whatever, loser. I'll speak to you soon."

"Bye."

She pushed the end call button with a sigh, tossing her phone on the coffee table and pulling her knees up to her chest. Pulling the fur throw off the back of the sofa (clearly not real, but it looked good), she curled up into a ball in the corner and laid her head wearily on its arm. It was amazing how she could feel so old and so young at the same time - she was behaving just as she had when a child and upset, yet she felt like the frown she'd been wearing for so long was beginning to etch premature lines on her face.

It was no less than four in the afternoon. There was no sign of anybody at all, and she was worried. It seemed like the sigh of relief she had breathed when Justin had told her he would make the wish again had been too hasty; Claire had ordered him not to, he seemed more inclined to run from his problems than face them and it wasn't like she had a grip on anything herself.

Perhaps she ought to have been thinking of what she would say when her boyfriend got back, whether the two of them were destined to hurt each other as much as their counterparts, what she was going to do. Maybe an idea of what she'd do if he wound up staying after all should have popped up. Instead she fell into a troubled sleep, and it was there she remained even as Justin crept quietly into the suite, more than four hours later. Clearly the insomnia the night before had finally caught up to her.

He said nothing, merely readjusted her slipping blanket and quietly went into the other room. There, he sat himself down at the table to write.

***

"Okay…" Justin was proud; it was his first word of the day… a mere ten hours later. "Don't you think we should talk now?"

"What's to say?" Renee shrugged as she continued perusing the pizza menu. She had spent most of the day hiding in Justin's studio, playing around with some vocals. "He's clearly not wishing us back, you might wanna get used to it."

"Four hours is a long time," he replied unconvincingly.

She snorted derisively. "In politics maybe but this is the real world."

"GOD!" Exhaling sharply out of his nose, trying not to get angry at her again, Justin breathed heavily. "You're impossible."

"Yep. That's why he's not wishing us back; I'm the crappy one remember?"

"Oh play a different fucking tune," he grouched, fiddling anxiously with the hem of his Beatles t-shirt and trying to remind himself that beer might cause more problems than it solved.

"I'll tell you what, we'll let your girlfriend ditch you for somebody else and see how well you take it!"

"I took it better than this!" Justin said, settling for a water bottle instead of the beer and sitting himself on the counter next to the fridge. He had in fact been cheated on and dumped for somebody else; he wasn't unfamiliar with how it felt to get ditched. "Yeah, I was pissed, and then I was bitter, but then I decided to get up and get on with my life. You've been walking around like this for two frickin' years!"

"I'm sorry, can you count?" Renee laughed evilly, purposely brushing up against his legs as she herself went to grab a soda from the fridge. "You've been here three weeks."

Justin replied with a sardonic smile, shrugging his shoulders up high. "You've been doing this woe is me, I must suffer shit ever since he found out you cheated on him. Instead of trying to fix it and getting on with it, you watched it all go down the fucking toilet because for some weird reason you think you deserved it. So, yeah, two years sweetheart."

Renee's mouth dropped open for a moment before she seemed to recover herself, tossing her head lightly and glowering at him. He tried to pretend he was unperturbed, but the closer physical resemblance to his girlfriend now meant that her looking pissed off with him had greater effect than before.

"Don't talk like you know shit about my life."

"Don't talk like you know shit about my girlfriend," he responded pettily.

Her face curved into a disturbingly cat like smile and she sidled over to him, making him almost tip his water all over his crotch as she ran her hands over his thighs. He hadn't expected that remark to prompt any kind of seduction there.

"You'd like to think that, wouldn't you?" She traced a finger over his left knee. "Fact is I am your girlfriend. It's all the same, right down to the part where both of you are too dumb to catch on. Hence why you both seem to think she's so darn gosh perfect and I'm some loser."

Throwing her hands off his knees, Justin scooted over on the counter, placing himself away from her, and jumped down to prevent any more touching and feeling.

"How many times do I have to tell you she's not perfect? But there's a fucking big difference between you both right now - she's made an effort to get her shit together and you seem happier to sit around blaming everybody else instead of doing something to fix it yourself. I know he was an asshole to you, but you were too busy with the self pity to actually get off your ass and stand up to the guy. Nobody's to blame for that but you, so will you please change the fucking record and quit blaming me or her or anybody but you?"

"God," she said in disgust as she threw her hands in the air and walked away from him, "we're clearly stuck with each other, I actually try to reach out to you because I think you're a nice guy and we could be good together and then you act like this."

"Hey, you're the one who molested me!"

That really did make her burst out laughing. "Oh please. It's not molestation if you kiss me back, moron. Which just proves my point - on some level, you know it's all the same and we could be good together, you're just in serious denial. Still, midnight's gonna come around and snap you out of that real quick."

"You think we could be good together? Sure, because the last couple of days with you have been so fucking pleasant," he snorted. "Do you not get it? You are not her. I am not him. We have been through two totally different lives. You are totally fucked up and will continue to be fucked up until you get off your ass and start fixing your life and you'll forgive me if the last thing I wanna do is date somebody who's only with me because I look like the ex she's not over."

Even as he said it, Justin realised how true it was. Despite his confusion, despite the guilt and the pull he had felt towards her, there was no question of them ever dating. He was fairly sure that in any dimension any version of him cared to live in there he could fall for Renee Anderson, but you couldn't fall for a second version if you'd already gone ass over feet for a first. Maybe in another life, had they not met the others first, but not this way. What that said about his girl he wasn't sure, given that she hadn't met him first, but he could never be in love with this one and if she would actually be honest with herself she'd feel the same. They weren't interchangeable.

Maybe he'd lost sight of that for a moment when he'd let her kiss him, but he was now understanding his reaction. He'd been afraid that he was feeling things he shouldn't be, when actually his gut was telling him the opposite.

"Are you deaf?" She sounded more exasperated every time she spoke. "This is not about him."

"This whole thing is about him," he contradicted her. "It's about you and him, I don't even factor into it. Only reason you're trying to make me part of this is that I'm here and he's not. But I am not him and you cannot fix whatever's fucked up with him by coming onto me because I. Am. Not. Him. To be honest though I'm not even sure you can fix it with him. You might be better off breaking up with the dude and attempting to fix yourself first."

A short, sharp sting hit Justin's cheek, and it took him a moment to realise that she had reached across the counter and slapped him. Oddly, his reaction wasn't anger or irritation or any form of comeback. Oddly, he began to smile.

"I think I hit a nerve. Not the first time that thought's gone through your head, is it?"

"Shut up."

"They say you gotta live with yourself first before you can live with somebody else."

"Shut UP!" Another loud smack sounded through the room and Justin had to stretch his jaw out, surprised at the strength of her. Still he began advancing towards her, refusing to let her drop his gaze even as he saw her quivering torso and tightened lips.

"You were trying to be somebody you weren't long before that hair changed colour," he told her softly. "How'd you expect a relationship to last when one of the people supposed to be in it doesn't really exist?"

"Are you trying to make me kill you?"

"Either way, you gotta figure your only shot at making up with him has to be you being honest and yourself for a change," Justin said as finally he had her backed up into the wall. "Or is that what you're afraid of, huh? Afraid he won't want you if you do?"

It was when she burst into tears and dropped with alarming speed to the floor that he began to wonder if he wasn't pushing a little too hard. He didn't mean to be insensitive or anything, he just seemed to have a talent for it. It almost reminded him of the time he'd made Christina cry during one day of MMC filming because he'd asked her what was wrong with her hair and it turned out she'd spent an hour making it look that way. The guilt began to grip him a little too hard and he began to feel queasy in the stomach area.

Feeling her face begin to burn with heat, Renee hurriedly rubbed at her eyes and nose in an effort to make her tears stop. Trying to get a handle on it was giving her hiccoughs. Wondering how on Earth she was going to answer any of that, she dared to look up at Justin.

He looked confused, and a little green. He blinked rapidly when he caught her gaze, and it looked like he was having trouble forming words. There was a funny twitch in his lip and he was scratching his arm nervously.

"Justin?" She asked, scarcely daring to believe what she saw behind his eyes.

"Ren… you dyed y-your hair," was what he said in response. It was lame, he knew, but he had nothing else.

Three weeks without setting eyes on her, and that was the best he could come up with. It was pathetic.

***

Looking at the desk which had suddenly materialised in front of him, Justin scarcely dared believe his eyes. He thought he knew what had happened, but he didn't want to believe it lest it turn out to be some kind of tease. When his eyes went to his watch, it was his own watch. He was clad in a sweater he remembered buying just over a month ago. He was sitting at a table that looked very much like the one he'd been staying in before the little swap had happened, and when he put his hand to his head there was more than three weeks' stubble on it.

And when he stared down at his hands, flexing and wiggling his fingers as if that could tell him which body they were attached to, he caught sight of a scrawled note he naturally had to pick up and read.

Dear Justin/other me,

I owe you an apology, but I have no idea what I could say to make up for this shit. Just know that I am. Sorry, I mean. Things got a little crazy in my head and I acted selfish because I couldn't deal. Rest assured I'm tossing the necklace.

Shit this is harder than I thought, what do you say to yourself? I just wanted to say that after being you, I kind of admire you. You went for it and took the risks and you got it, hope I can pull that little trick off someday. I just wanted to say that. I didn't do anything while I was here that you need to worry about (unless that is you hate the song me and Tim wrote, hope you don't. It's better than anything I wrote in a long time, even if it's not finished).

I just wanted to say about Renee… keep hold of her. I'm guessing you've seen how badly I messed up by now. Don't do what I did - I took her for granted. I neglected her, didn't realise she needed me until after she had to go elsewhere to find it and then once the shit hit the fan I took everything out on her instead of trying to work on stuff. I think I sucked the life out of her, and believe me when I say you don't realise how easy it is. You won't even notice it happening until it's too late and you're both complete strangers, which is why I'm telling you now… don't fuck this up. Fight for her, she's too much to lose. You guys are older and wiser than we were, and I think maybe you got a better chance at making it work if you just watch out for this stuff. Me and my girl gotta be a pretty memorable warning, right?

Oh, and keep hold of JC too. You won't realise how important he is until he's not there.

Again, very sorry,

Justin

Well, he supposed that settled it. He'd been returned to his rightful place and time. Swiftly folding up the note and stuffing it in his pocket, Justin wandered out into the living room area of the suite, his heart heavy and his mind swirling.

He caught sight of the small body nestled into the corner of the couch. It was amazing how small she had managed to make herself. The familiar sight of her dark hair and even breathing ought to have comforted him, but instead a strange knot had tied itself in his stomach. Dark circles lined her eyes, and even in rest she looked tired. Knowing her as he did, Justin had a suspicion that when she woke up they were going to have to have a very difficult conversation.

He had no idea what to do with any of this, what he was supposed to make of this entire trippy experience. Finally he was back in the world he belonged in, that he was sure of, but any notion of where to go from here eluded him. Then again, it was hard to go from arguing with a crying hysterical woman to sitting in front of a desk reading heartfelt letters from his doppelganger without a little confusion. Maybe he should go easier on himself.

Quietly he sank down on the sofa next to her. Taking care not to wake her, Justin pulled Renee's feet onto his lap and the blanket over the pair of them, watching her sleep as he lightly rubbed her ankle.

In the grand tradition of Las Vegas, the suite was enormous and wonderfully tacky. Everything was in overly bright colours and three times the size it needed to be. In contrast to the usual style of its current guest, everything was done in very modern fashion; it was full of sharp angles and bright lighting. There was also far too much furniture - three couches where one would suffice, side tables thrown into every conceivable crevice and copious vases around the place. It was a funny setting for some more old fashioned anxiety.

When Justin was nervous or impatient, he fidgeted. When he was both nervous and impatient, it went beyond fidgeting and into the realm of severe agitation. His feet tapped, his fingers twitched or his hands drummed out a restless rhythm against his knees - occasionally all three. There would be lots of little huffs or sighs, and much clearing of his throat. Luckily he was alone, or it might have been very irritating for somebody.

They might, however, have been momentarily cheered by the way he bolted up from his seat when he heard the sound of the door clicking; its lack of grace was comical. Being alone to think in a suite far too big for one person had wound his muscles a little too tight. Nervously wiping his palms on his jeans, he strode over to the door where a denim and leather clad Renee Anderson was pulling her suitcase through the door.

Justin wasn't sure what had surprised him most: the lack of a bellhop or the fact that she'd only brought one case.

"Hey…" Renee drawled slowly, perching her sunglasses on top of her head. Giving him a shy smile she set the suitcase down for a moment and unzipped her jacket, looking for somewhere to throw it down. It was just a quick flash of teeth, but it was comforting.

"Hey yourself," he responded, automatically picking up the suitcase for her. "You want me to stick this in the bedroom?"

"Thanks," she nodded, handing him her jacket too. "Is there a kitchen or mini bar in here somewhere? I'm desperate for some water."

Justin pointed haphazardly at the door to her left, and Renee disappeared in there while he hoisted the suitcase into the bedroom. It seemed too far away for the weight he was carrying. Now he understood why she only had one suitcase; she had clearly discovered some ingenious way to fit her whole closet into it. It never occurred to him to utilise the wheels or the pull handle, so instead he hefted it all the way across the master bedroom to put it down next to the dresser, glaring disapprovingly at it all the way.

When finally he took a deep breath and crossed back out into the living room, he saw Renee had already kicked her shoes off into a corner and was chugging almost compulsively on a bottle of Evian. Instead of sitting on the sofa she stood by it, one hand on its back to prop her up. Justin took a moment to observe her: the form fitting jeans, the tight sweater, the messy hair and the pensive expression. Her index finger tapped restlessly against the bottle, and her lips were pursed together in apprehension. It looked like she was as nervous about this as he was.

For a moment, he started rethinking whether the best time for them to reunite was a weekend trip; it might have been jumping the gun just a tad.

Clearing his throat and making his presence known, he began a slow amble across the room to where she was. Screwing the cap on the bottle and setting it down, her hands went self consciously to her pockets even though her gaze remained steady with his.

"Hi," he finally said as he got within reach.

"Hi," she echoed.

As though they were autonomous from the rest of him, Justin's arms reached out to take her by the waist, pulling her to him. One snaked across her waist, the other her back as hers reached up to lock around his torso. Her face went into his t-shirt clad chest as his hid in her neck, breathing in the scent of slightly faded Dior.

"God I feel like I haven't seen you in weeks." He gave a half chuckle that was muffled against her skin.

"Well, except for a twelve hour stretch there, you haven't," Renee reminded him.

"True."

Breathing in a little deeper, Justin's hand met her shoulder blade and readjusted its grip, bringing her in that little bit tighter. It was odd - having not seen each other for three weeks, they had managed to spend all of a morning in awkward silence before agreeing that they needed a break to think things over. It was odd that they'd chosen what was meant to be an anniversary trip as a reunion, but she was praying it was a good sign.

She hoped that if he'd come here packed and ready for an entire trip, he wasn't going to leave her - or at least he wasn't planning to. Funnily enough the same thought had occurred to Justin; the difference was that he had counted the number of hotels along the strip she could move to if she decided he wasn't worth it. Both of them were heavily aware that even if they both walked into the suite with all intention of working their relationship out and getting back to some semblance of normal, that didn't guarantee they could make it happen. There was much to discuss, and it wasn't all going to be pretty.

Releasing him from her embrace and pulling back, Renee took his fingers in hers and guided him to a seat on the sofa. When they sat down it wasn't as close as it could have been (and would otherwise have been), but the gap wasn't an uncomfortable.

"So… how you been?" She asked as she plucked at a loose thread on the white cushions.

"Umm… okay, yeah. You?"

"Okay." Her nodding was tentative.

"Recording going any better?"

"Yeah, yeah. Just a touch of writer's block, I think."

Justin's face wore an understanding expression. "Should have just called Louise, you know she's always got somethin' to say."

A chuckle escaped her. "Probably should have, but she's at home with Mom. She's swamped at work."

"Oh." He struggled for another nicety to fill the silence with. "What else you been doing?"

"Not much, just recording and I took a couple dance classes in my off time." Scratching at the back of her hand, running out of things to say, she decided to steer the conversation to him. There was a large elephant in the room with them, one that resembled the last month or so, but it was amazing how they were managing to avoid bringing it up. "You and Tim get anything done in the studio?"

"Actually, yes." It was as good an opening as any, so he took a deep breath and went for it. "We finished the song the other Justin started writing. Did you know what he was writing about?"

She shook her head, glad he'd been the one to bring the topic up. "Enlighten me."

"Not sure, but I kind of think he wrote a song about how you and me got together."

"Really?" Her eyebrow rose slightly of its own accord.

Justin nodded, scratching at his freshly shaven scalp. "Yeah. All about what a guy's gotta do to win his woman over. It's good shit, too, even if it was only half done. I was kinda surprised about that actually, from what I heard of his last CD. And it's also kind of weird because he kind of gave me an idea for a song about, well, them. I needed a ballad anyway."

Renee thought for a moment, struggling to come up with a response. An "oh" was all she could manage.

They sat there in silence for what must have been thirty seconds or so before movement resumed. At first her mouth merely twitched, her face struggling to remain impassive. The undoing was when her eyes met Justin's steel blue gaze, and his own lips were threatening the same. Soon enough they were both wearing wry, matching smiles.

"Clearly you're a bad influence on yourself," she teased.

"Clearly." He rolled his eyes before his chuckles subsided and a more meditative expression settled over his features. "So what are we doing, lady?"

"Having an awkward conversation," she replied sardonically before conceding to seriousness. "I don't know. I mean… have you been thinking what I've been thinking?"

When nothing else came out of her mouth, Justin had to do some prompting. "It's hard to answer that unless you tell me what you were thinking."

"Just… I don't know." She twisted in her seat, pulling her legs up beneath her and turning towards him. Nervously she twisted a lock of dark hair around her fingers. "Like… wondering what happened with you and what you've been thinking about it. And I guess I've kind of been wondering how much you and me are really like them."

"Like them in the sense that we're gonna make each other miserable?" Much as he hated to ask, the clarification was necessary. He winced a little at her unhappy nod.

From fiddling with her hair, Renee's fingers began picking at her cherry red nails instead. It was hard meeting his eye. "It's just weird, is all. I don't know what being around her has made you think about me, or anything like that. And even after all those annoying little speeches of Claire's I still don't entirely get this destiny thing or how much we're going to wind up being like them."

"I don't know about being like them, but I can really tell you that meeting her made me appreciate how much you got your shit together," Justin told her. "I mean…" he hesitated to ask the question, "are you, like, worried that I did something with her?"

"You already told me you did."

"Well yeah, she kissed me but I didn't do anything about it." Justin's palms were once again rubbing anxiously against his thighs, his fingers twitching. "You don't need to… she's not you, and to be honest I think she was just looking at me like I was him. I mean, I felt bad for her because she reminded me of you in a lot of ways and I can see how you guys are similar, and I admit it kind of confused me. For a while I felt guilty and like I sort of owed her something, but… she's not you. And what about you? I mean, you met him first."

A small, sad smirk twisted the corners of her mouth. "You know, it's funny. I always had that little question in the back of my mind, this little fear that I was using you as a substitute for him. And I know that's messed up, but the really stupid thing is while he was here I spent two weeks so busy worrying about how I might feel more for him I failed to notice that I didn't. You know, feel that way. And neither did he - there was never any danger of either of us hitting on each other or anything, once he stopped pretending he was you. It's really kinda dumb."

"It's like…" Justin struggled to voice his thought correctly. "Like you can be attracted to either but it's not the same as the one you've actually been with and that you know real well?"

"Yeah. Exactly." There was yet more head nodding. She wished it would desist, she felt like a novelty toy, but she couldn't stop.

Weighing up the moment in his mind, Justin concluded that somewhere in this conversation they had decided that they still liked each other. This he took as a licence to reach over and hoist her body across the gap between them. Renee snuggled in beneath his arm, nestling under his shoulder and laying an arm across his stomach. For a moment she was content to just feel the rise and fall of his breathing beneath her, but naturally her second question had to rear its ugly head again.

"Do you think we'll end up like them?"

Thinking back to the letter he still had tucked into the journal nobody knew he kept, Justin shook his head before kissing her temple. His hand rubbed her arm soothingly.

"Nah. I mean, we could if we're not careful, but… I think we know enough that we'll be careful."

"I just…" She ran the hem of his sleeve anxiously between her fingertips. "I can't help thinking that they started out all happy and thinking everything was perfect too, and now look at them."

"They were younger than we are," he pointed out, again thinking of his other self's words. "They knew a lot less about themselves, and this business and shit. And you already did a pretty good job of making sure you didn't go her way. Meeting her, I can see why you're so anti the commercial route. It's a choice, right? We can choose not to be them."

"I guess." She shifted uncomfortably, still unconvinced.

"And…" he hesitated, not wanting to admit what he was about to admit. "Seeing his life was kind of a wake up call for me too. That passive aggressive crap? I've been that guy. Looking at it from the outside kind of puts it in perspective - next time we have a fight, I'm going to fight it out with you 'til it's done instead of the endless unspoken punishment shit."

"Gee, can't wait."

"So does that mean you're sticking around to fight with me?" He asked, blatantly fishing. She paused for a moment, breath clearly hitching in her throat before she let out a long exhalation.

"Suppose." Renee tapped his nose with her index finger before asking the final question she had floating around her head. "Think we might make it yet… you think they will?"

"I think… she loves him." That was the best he could come up with.

"I think he loves her, but I'm not convinced it's enough," she said quietly, sadly.

Pulling her slumped body upright so that they were face to face Justin gently ran his hand across her face, brushing her hair back. His thumb stroked out the contours of her cheekbones.

"Maybe not. But I think it's time you and me stopped feeling so responsible for them; we're not them."

Her eyebrows creased in worry, she met his gaze with an anxious pout. It was a niggling fear that didn't want to go away. "But we could be."

Turning his face to hers, looking directly into her eyes, Justin gave her an affectionate little glare of admonishment. "Didn't you listen to a word I said? We're not gonna be. We are officially choosing not to go that way. So says me."

Finally, for the first time in what seemed like forever, he leaned forward and brushed his lips softly against hers. For a brief pause their faces hovered less than an inch from each other, pulled back so little that they were sharing breath. As their mouths met again his kiss became a little firmer, a little more resolved. As her body arched gently into his, his hand met the back of her head and his fingers tangled in her hair.

Briefly Renee pulled away to give him a grin. "Screw it, we're good. Made it to our anniversary so we can't be doing that bad, right?"

"Right," he chuckled.

She leaned towards him again, nipping at his lower lip playfully. Laughing into her kiss, Justin took it upon himself to surprise her by flipping them over, settling his body over hers. She continued to giggle as she tickled his sides, though it didn't seem to hinder the making out. Lips never separating, they prodded and poked and generally molested each other. They teased like they were back in the playground until Justin's hand began inching under her shirt and he pulled back to speak.

"I heard there's this unspoken rule that if you've been apart for a while you have to have a lot of sex to catch up."

"Isn't there one of those for anniversaries too?" She asked in mock seriousness. Predictably his response was to nod vehemently. "Gee. Guess I packed too many clothes."

As Renee kissed him again, Justin congratulated himself for a cunning plan and successful results. He'd been positive that taking her on what had been intended as a romantic trip would re-stoke the fires - almost 90 percent.

"So… what do you think?" Justin asked nervously, scratching at his neck.

His manager sat back in his chair, swivelling slowly from side to side as he readjusted his cap. Folding his hands over his stomach, he looked at the mixing desk and then at Justin.

"I don't have to tell you Justin that this is a huge surprise."

"Yeah, I know." He bit his lip anxiously, searching Johnny's face for some kind of reaction. He'd known that presenting the music he had so far was going to be a complete risk, but if there was one thing he'd learned it was that he needed to take them.

"It's way left of field for an artist doing what you do and aiming at that market."

"I don't want to aim at that market any more." Justin's gaze fell on the mixing board, and his fingers drummed nervously against it. "I mean, if they come along then great, but I'm 25, Johnny. I ought to be making songs people my age might actually listen to. And I mean people my age who weren't *NSYNC fans and won't just follow me anywhere."

With a thoughtful and penetrating look at Justin, Johnny readjusted his cap for the fiftieth time and nodded.

"Well, from a personal perspective, I think that's long overdue and I love what you got. I think you got the talent to see this through, but what we need is the label's backing and this is going to make them nervous."

Justin's face had begun to break into a relieved smile, but now the anxiety was back in full force. "You think they won't?"

Johnny's face set into a pensive frown, his brain obviously ticking over as fast as it could behind his brown eyes. His fingers stroked his chin, occasionally tapping at his lower lip. Justin sat in painful silence, waiting for the manager's verdict.

"I think we gotta sell this to them right. I mean, if this works Justin your exposure could double and it might earn you some credibility amongst over musical genres, widen your radio audience too. If it flops, you're going to have a hard time picking yourself back up."

"I can do this, Johnny, I can."

For the first time in a very long time, Justin honestly believed that. He had seen what he was capable of, and he was determined to see that through. He had felt justified in using the song he'd written for the other Justin, finishing it off in his own world, and he had taken it as a foundation for the few songs he'd managed to put together so far. It was a long way from the pop he was used to doing, but he was a lot more excited than he'd been about his music for a long time. Pop was easy to churn out like a machine; this was challenging him a lot more, and that first song was the lynchpin for it all. He couldn't help wondering what his more critically successful self had thought of it, but he knew he couldn't dwell on that.

For one thing, he'd never find out. This time he had been true to his word - he had got rid of the cursed piece of onyx, sold the necklace on eBay. It had been sent out under a false name with a false return address. The thing was priceless, and he had given it away for the princely sum of nine dollars and sixty eight cents. There was no longer any way for him to connect to that other world - that one in which he'd already made such a success of his career. Anything else he needed to learn he was just going to have to figure out by himself.

"It's a risk," Johnny warned him.

"It's about time I took a few."

Johnny's head remained still, but his eyes flicked sideways to his young charge. He knew there was little point trying to tell an artist what direction they needed to go in. It was, after all, their art. "Alright then - I will go have a talk with Clive about this. I think it might be better if I try and sell the concept to him first before I take any music up there; if I just throw this at him out of left field he'll probably be more resistant to it."

"Okay, cool. That makes sense." Justin sniffed, cursing his cold, and nodded his head again. The stupid illness had been making it a lot harder to record vocals. He was no longer coughing and sneezing, but his sinuses were still blocked.

"This stuff is really good though, Justin. I think if we can get the image change right this'll do wonders for you." Johnny wanted to leave on a more encouraging note. He didn't want the kid thinking he disliked the stuff, because he honestly thought it was a vast improvement. He wasn't quite sure where it had sprung from so suddenly, but he was quietly enthused.

"Thanks."

He still looked worried, and Johnny didn't think there was much more he could say so he stood up, pushed his chair back and said his goodbyes. Justin barely even turned to say farewell, instead concentrating his sight on the mixing desk like it held his answers. He sat like that until Trace burst back into the room.

"Say it, Trace Ayala is your God."

"Not until you prove it." Justin managed to raise a smile for his best friend. The whole tone of these sessions had been melancholic but hopeful, determined. He wasn't in the best of spaces, but even through the badness he was beginning to feel a kind of forward momentum his life had been lacking for quite some time. The struggle felt necessary, productive, and so he was managing to keep his head up through it.

"I don't know how, but I managed to schedule you a meeting with Timbaland."

That really perked Justin up. "Awesome!" He slapped Trace's hand in victory. "You are my God."

Trace preened, making multiple bows to an imaginary audience around the room. "It took all my powers of persuasion, but finally I managed to make him curious enough about this new direction of yours to come talk to you and listen to what you got. He's not making promises though. And I kind of think he can only be assed because you're just two towns away, but let's not look an incredible gift horse in the mouth."

"You're a legend, T, thanks."

Trace flicked through his Sidekick, trying to think if there was anything else he needed to update Justin on. "Oh, you remember that fashion guy you told me about?"

"What fashion guy?"

"You know, Daniel."

"Oh, him, right." Justin quietly realised this must have been somebody the other Justin had clued Trace in on, seeing as he was part of this clothing venture of Trace's in the other dimension. He himself had declined, wanting to give his best friend something that he wasn't a part of - sometimes he thought his association with Trace was more prohibitive than helpful to the guy.

"Had a phone conference yesterday, he's got a ton of ideas for marketing. Really likes the line. Oh, and I tried that mysterious dance producer you were going on about but no dice. His people are like fucking pit-bulls; they won't let anybody near the dude."

"Dude? For all I know it's a woman," Justin responded.

"It's definitely a dude," Trace divulged, "they said 'he.' But apparently this guy's one of those where you don't approach him, he comes to you. And only after you've signed the longest fucking confidentiality agreement ever. They e-mailed me a copy of it and after reading it I think it was to scare me off."

"Fuck." Justin leaned back in his chair, locking his hands behind his head and rocking back and forth contemplatively. "I need somebody with a dance edge for this one track and that guy's hot. I need this record to be edgy."

"I'll try 'em again, see if being a stubborn ass will get it done." Trace made a reminder to himself.

"You are good at that." Justin's quick agreement earned him a surprisingly forceful punch to the shoulder.

"Oh, and uhh…" his voice became soft, sympathetic. "Ren called me earlier."

"Oh." He felt his throat begin to burn painfully. "How is she?"

"She seems good, yeah." His friend began to shift from foot to foot uncomfortably and Justin knew he was about to hear something he wouldn't like. "She wanted me to ask you if you'd mind her telling her manager. About… you know."

"Us breaking up? You can say it, T."

"Yeah, that."

"Sure. She can go shout it from the rooftops if she wants."

"JT, it's just her manager."

He fixed his friend with a slightly irritated but not unkind look. "T, read between the lines. She wants to tell Leslie either because she's started to hear whispers and she's preparing for it to go public, or because she wants to go public. It'll go straight from manager to publicist."

Trace gave a low whistle. "I guess you're right. Shit, are you ready for that?"

"It's been two months, man. I'm as ready as I'll ever be."

Justin rubbed a weary hand over his face. His eyes were stinging and he felt a couple of tears coming on, but by this point he knew he could control them. He had no idea what she and the other Justin had been talking about when he had pulled that final body swap on them, but whatever it was it had apparently been a wake up call for Renee. She had taken all of twenty four hours to come back to him and tell him that she thought they needed to break up.

The saddest part was that he hadn't been able to disagree with her on that. He'd disagreed with her a lot in that horrendous, nearly three hour conversation that they'd had in the middle of the night. She had told him he didn't know her, and he'd disagreed. He had never disagreed with anything so much in his life as when she had told him that he was in love with somebody who had never existed, but he couldn't make her see herself the way he did. He'd sworn a whole lot when she had told him their relationship had been nothing but a disaster. When she told him that he was disgusted by her, that he had really taken exception to (though he could see how she'd come to that conclusion).

He hadn't been able to disagree, however, when she had said that they hadn't been working for a very long time and that they both had too many individual problems going on to be able to help each other through anything. Renee had resolutely told him that it was clinging onto their relationship so hard that was leaving them with no energy to actually make themselves better. As much as he hated it, he had been forced to concur.

It was, after all, the truth.

So that was what he had thrown himself into doing. Renee had left him - or they'd left each other, he wasn't sure - and he had thrown himself into the change. Work had begun on Justin Timberlake 2.0, the new and improved version. He'd spun a chrysalis around himself as fast as he possibly could, and he was hoping he'd crawl out a butterfly rather than a moth. He'd cleaned up his appearance, hired a new stylist to turf out the contents of his closet and finally find him a new style after all these years. He had thrown himself into the new music, taking pains to run against every instinct he would normally have in a studio and try the road less travelled.

He had hidden from the spotlight, had temporarily become a recluse, but Renee had continued parading in it like nothing had happened. Something had happened, however, and it was noticeable. The magazines were all raving about her new hair colour and her new, more sophisticated wardrobe. Of course admitting that meant admitting he'd been keeping tabs on her through them, so Justin had never made this observation to anybody except his momma (she already knew what he'd been doing without being told, she was his mother). Louise seemed permanently attached to her side, and the pair of them seemed to be going to a lot of spas and doing a lot of shopping.

She looked happier. She didn't look like she was jumping for joy, but the bags seemed to have disappeared from under her eyes. She looked like she was finally kicking back and letting some of the weight off her shoulders. A weight, Justin was pained to realise, that had included him. They had quietly decided between themselves to keep quiet about the break up for a while; with their schedules it wasn't unusual for them to be apart for long periods so the paparazzi didn't blink an eyelid at it. They had thought it would be easier.

"You miss her, huh?"

He smiled wryly. "I've been in love with her for what, seven or eight years? No shit Sherlock."

"For what it's worth, I think she misses you too," Trace ventured tentatively. "I'm not supposed to tell you she was asking how you were and what you were doing and stuff, but she was."

"Doesn't matter if we miss each other." He drew slow circles around the rim of a long empty Coke can. "She's right. We missed our shot to fix it and now it's too broke to fix."

Justin stood up and stretched, mindful of Trace's concerned eyes on him.

"It's okay T, really. I'll be alright. And so will she. If you'll excuse me, I need to go find the men's room."

As Justin walked out of the studio, leaving a stunned and silent best friend behind him, he strode along the corridor with his head held high. He really, honestly believed what he had just said. Somehow, some way, the two of them were both going to get by. Maybe it wouldn't be together, but they would make something more of their lives than they'd managed to in the last couple of years. It was just a hunch he had. If he was really lucky, at some point enough water might have gone under the bridge for her to even play a part in his world again. He doubted it would be as his girlfriend, but he'd take what he could get.

Although intent on the bathroom, Justin forgot all about his overly full bladder when he saw a familiar looking face go passing by.

"Claire?" He asked incredulously.

The figure had already disappeared around the corner in a flash of dark hair, and he was all too aware he might be setting himself up for the loony bin by following her. Still he raced after the possible Claire, struggling to keep up with her as she moved swiftly into the stairwell and around yet more corners. Finally he saw her disappear by a door. His first instinct was to burst through it, but in an attempt to appear sane if he walked in there and it wasn't the ghost of his ex girlfriend's best friend he tried to take it at a more normal pace. It could, after all, be some poor intern who happened to have dark hair.

The sight before him when he walked into the office was far more of a shock than any ghost could have been. The brown haired figure turned in the black leather chair and looked equally surprised to see him.

"Justin?"

"JC?" He cursed himself for the overly high pitched squeak.

Neither of them had clapped eyes on each other in years. JC had disappeared firmly into the ether and for all Justin had known, off the face of the planet. He almost had to smirk when he realised the guy looked and dressed the same way his other world self did these days - a sharp black shirt and black tailored pants, he looked incredibly Johnny Cash inspired and his hair stuck up in a little faux hawk, exactly the same. They hadn't seen each other since the last screaming match they'd had when JC had declared it was 'Yoko' or him, and Justin had chosen Renee.

"Umm… how are you?" JC asked politely.

"Umm… good, good." Justin fiddled with his watch tensely, and he knew the gesture didn't escape JC. After years of bus living, they knew each other's little tics and habits. "You?"

"Can't complain. How's… Renee?" He struggled to say it, but Justin appreciated his civility.

"Wouldn't know, we broke up two months ago."

"Oh. Dude, I'm sorry."

"No you're not."

"No, I am," JC corrected him, looking somewhat sheepish. "That sucks, man."

"So… what are you doing here?" Justin asked. "Are… are you doing some recording?"

"No." He shook his head. "I've been producing these days."

"Really? That's awesome!" Before he could stop himself or think that after the first polite conversation they'd had in years this was pushing it, Justin was blurting out the first thought that came into his head. "You should come do something for me."

It was a little ego crushing when his once brother (not to mention idol) looked so sceptical. "For your stuff? Didn't think I'd fit in with your sound."

It was incredibly embarrassing and he wanted the ground to swallow him up, but still he pushed on if only to save a little face. "I'm doing a huge revamp, ditching the teenybopper shit. I could use your expertise, man, you were always the best vocalist of the whole bunch of us. Plus it's… it's been too long, and I… I've missed hanging." he finally managed to say.

JC's face was completely unreadable. "You thought I was the best vocalist?"

Justin's cheeks became a little pink. "I got ears, don't I?"

Incredibly, his former band mate managed to crack a small smile. "Well, if nothing else I guess I gotta hear this brand new direction."

Justin wasn't so restrained, and broke out in an enormous grin. "Awesome. I got a couple tracks I need somebody with an eye for dance music to take a look at anyway. Most of it's more RnB and hip hop influenced, but I wanna get a little of everything in there. About time I grew up, right?"

JC was privately of the opinion that Justin looked like he'd grown up a lot - it was something in his demeanour. He'd been unable to keep from tracking the man's career, and from what he'd been seeing even a few months ago he'd have rolled his eyes in disgust at the thought of facing down his once best friend. The guy had seemed stuck in a bubblegum time warp and he had always thought better of him. JC might have grown up and got over his hatred of the dude's (now ex) girlfriend, but that didn't mean he liked Justin's attitude. The Justin Timberlake in front of him seemed a changed man, however, and JC had far too much history with him not to get a little hopeful. Still, it never hurt to approach things cautiously.

"Can't be a bad thing," he shrugged. "Umm… sure, we could do that. Let me give you my card and we'll set something up."

Justin eagerly took the small, stiff white card from JC's outstretched fingers, practically grabbed it even. Maybe this was too formal for his liking, but anything he could do to reconnect to JC (or any of his former band mates) would be done. Glancing at the details on the card, he did a double take. Not for the first time that day, his jaw dropped in shock. "You… you're Chaser?" Well, he supposed it was only one consonant from Chasez. "But… I've been trying to set up a session with you for weeks, man!"

"Really?" JC was similarly shocked. He couldn't imagine Justin paying much attention to dance producers.

"Man this is awesome…" he muttered before realising he was in an actual conversation and not talking to himself. He raised his voice a little. "Seriously, C, I knew you were good before but your stuff's awesome. I don't know why you're not releasing albums, man."

Their conversation was interrupted as the executive JC was meeting decided to turn up and was a little surprised to find Justin Timberlake in his office. Saying a hasty but pointed goodbye to JC, promising to call (and deciding to do it personally rather than via Trace), he left the room. Traipsing slowly back towards the studio, he stared at the business card. He wasn't looking where he was going, but lucky for him it was late and few people were around. He guessed that explained JC's presence - if he was secretive about his identity, he wouldn't show up to meetings in broad daylight when paparazzi might be crawling around in the bushes.

"I'll be damned," he finally muttered to himself as he hit the bottom of the stairwell.

It had certainly been an emotional day, with one thing or other. From Renee to JC, his head was swimming. Looking up at the landing, out of the window where a starry sky was visible, he gave a small smile. Call him crazy, but he thought he knew what had just happened.

"Thanks, Claire," he said softly to the heavens. In all likelihood he'd seen an intern and got the wrong door, but he kind of liked the idea that she was looking out for him.

He was taken by surprise yet again when there was a quick rush of black mist before his eyes. The woman in question solidified in front of him, standing on the landing and looking down on him at the foot of the staircase. It was, in fact, the quickest he had ever seen her show up.

With a barely suppressed grin, she raised an eyebrow at him. "You're totally welcome. But you're on your own now kid so make it happen, alright?"

Before Justin could even open his mouth, she tipped him a wink and was gone.