Shelby woke up to what sounded like someone pounding on the door. She inhaled deeply and stretched her body slowly, one limb at a time.
When Shelby heard the knocking again she got up and walked to the door. She opened it to see a frantic Joey waiting on the outside.

"Shelby do you realize what time it is" He asked storming into her apartment.

Shelby shut the door behind him then noticed the clock.

"Oh shit." she muttered when she saw that she had overslept by a half an hour.

"Yeah, oh shit. Come on Shelby, we have to go right now. Where's your bag?" Joey glanced around the room looking for Shelby's things.

"Right there. Wait I need to change right quick." Shelby pointed to her bags.

"There's no time Shelby, you'll have to wait." Joey said grabbing her duffel bag.

"But I'm in my pajamas. And I look--"

"Adoreable." Joey cut her off.

Shelby sighed in defeat and slipped on a pair of flip flops and grabbed her back pack.

Shelby grimaced when she saw her reflection in Joey's window. She was wearing pink pajama bottoms with little bears hugging and a pink tank top with the bears only bigger with the words 'Hug Me' written on it. Her short hair for once was flat and not in spikey disaray like normal.

"You look fine, Shelby." Joey reassured her.

"I don't suppose you have a hair clip or anything?" Shelby asked trying to find someway to do her hair.

"Check the glove box, sometimes Kelly leaves things in there." Joey suggested as they changed lanes.

Shelby opened the glove box and to her amazement she found a cute little silver bobby pin with a teddy bear on the end. Smiling she parted her short hair, or what she could of it and put the clip in to hold it in place. That action left her with some bangs and as she looked in the mirror she was surprised at what she saw. For once she looked at herself without any kind of self-hate, and for the first time Shelby found herself looking, well, almost cute.

Shelby's thoughts were interrupted when Joey's phone rang, causing her to jump.

"Hello? Yeah, we're almost there...Yeah...about five minutes. Shelby slept a little long. Yes, I know. Okay, we'll be there." Joey hung up the phone, looked at Shelby, and rolled his eyes.

"That was JC, he said they were all at the airport pacing wondering if we were going to make it. The plane will be taking off soon." Joey looked down at his watch.

"Sorry Joey, I didn't mean to get you in trouble." Shelby sat back in her seat feeling a little guilty for oversleeping.

"It's all right Shelby, just prepare to be chewed out when we get there." Joey nodded pulling into the airport parking lot.

"Great, our terminal is all the way at the other end of the airport." Joey observed as they checked they're flight.

"Guess we'll just have to book it." Shelby shrugged as they checked in they're luggage.

Joey and Shelby took off toward their terminal as fast as they could, making it there just as the flight attendant was shutting the door.

"Wait! We need to be on there." Joey called as they ran up to her and handed her their tickets.

"Your lucky, we're just about ready. Enjoy your flight." the woman smiled and handed they're ticket stubs back to Joey.

Shelby was trying to catch her breath as they boarded the plane. She folllowed Joey as she had never been on a plane before.

"We're in first class." Joey informed her as they walked toward they're seats.

"Thank God you guys are here." JC sighed when he saw them.

Joey plopped down next to Lance leaving Shelby the only other open seat.

Shelby noticed that the only spot left was next to a seat with someones discman on it. Shelby really wanted the window seat so she could see what was happening outside. She looked around and when she saw that no one was looking she put the discman on the isle seat and took the window seat for herself.

"No. Nu-uh, no way. Get up. I'm sitting next to the window." Justin said watching her get comfortable.

"This is your seat?" Shelby looked up at him with big eyes.

"Yes, now please, give it back." Justin waved.

Shelby got up and let him sit back down before sitting in the seat next to him.

"It's okay you know, I won't bite." Justin teased her.

Shelby smiled slightly, but was getting nervous when the seat belt light came on. She buckled hers and clasped her hands tightly. She'd never been on a plane before and to be honest, she was terrifed.

She dug in her bag and pulled out a teddy bear that matched her pajamas, and held it tightly. She could feel the plane starting to move and she held her bear with one arm and with the other, she clung to the arm of her chair for dear life.

"Are you okay sweetie?" Justin asked seeing her death grip.

"I'm terrified. I've never been on a plane before." Shelby whispered honestly, looking at him again with those big eyes.

Justin thought she had never looked more vulnerable then she did right then. The thing that made him catch a breath, that made his heart drop, was the fact that she'd never looked so cute, so lovable as she did right now as she looked up at him.

Shoving those thoughts aside, Justin gently grabbed her hand and entwined her fingers in his, pulling her hand close.

"It'll be okay, Shelby." He whispered trying to comfort her the best he could without making either of them feel akward.

Shelby gathered strength from Justin and closed her eyes. Soon they were in the air and the tension eased out of Shelby.

"You can unbuckle your seatbelt now." Justin told her as he did the same.

Shelby unbuckled and watched as Chris and Lance both got up and walked to another set of seats setup in a square facing each other. Since they were the only ones in first class they had it all to themselves. Shelby watched as JC and Joey got up and joined them.

"Can I go over there?" Shelby asked Justin pointing to where the other guys were seated talking.

"Yeah, let's go. Justin nodded standing up.

Shelby grabbed her bag and walked over and sat down right across from JC and between Justin and Chris. Shelby was still holding her bear feeling a sense of security keeping it with her.

"Hey Shelbbers, stand up." Chris said pulling her arm to stand.

"What?" she asked looking at him.

"Turn around." he demanded looking her up and down.

Shelby eyed him skeptically but obeyed him and turned in a circle, feeling embarassed to have everyone staring at her as they were.

Chris tugged the bear from her grasp and set it where she was sitting and grinned.

"You look adorable." Chris smiled taking her into his arms for a big hug.

"Okay." Shelby replied hugging him back.

"This is the part where you say thank you." Chris reminded her as if she didn't know.

"Come here, my turn." Lance pushed Chris out of the way. "You look really cute." Lance smiled hugging her.

JC was there to meet her next as she was passed off to the right. JC gathered her close and agreed with what they had said. Since he didnt come up with anything new JC was made fun of, everybody saying he was unoriginal and he was just a copycat.

Joey was waiting for his turn when Shelby turned to him and hugged him first. "Are you going to flatter me too?" Shelby asked.

"You are adorable Shelby, just believe them." Joey replied.

Shelby turned to Justin knowing her was next. She nervously played with her hands and bit her bottom lip as she waited for him to give her some kind of hint.

Justin gently put his arms around her waist taking care for the cuts he knew were there. He waited until he felt her wrap her arms around his neck. As he tightened his arms and inhaled her scent she melted into his embrace. He couldn't help but notice how right she felt in his arms. Wait! What was he thinking, he was still in love with Britney, right?

"You are beautiful Shelby." He shocked them all including himself.

Shelby felt her face heat with a blush as she looked into his eyes finding nothing there but truth and something else she couldn't identify. "Thank you," she whispered not breaking eye contact.

Justin pulled her close one more time and whispered for her ears alone. "Forgive me for hurting you Shelby. I'm so sorry."

He heard her sharp breath intake and several moments later he felt her nod against his chest. As he felt this he felt a huge burdeon lifted from his shoulders.

The other guys had been watching this display just as surprised as Justin himself was. What surprised them the most was the raw emotion they saw in Justin's eyes the moment he forgot to hide it. They all had one thing on they're minds...things were going to get interesting around here.

The moment was broken when the captain came over the speaker and announced that they were going to be hitting turbulance so everyone needed to be seated and buckled.

Rather than going back to thier seats, the guys and Shelby all stayed at the square which luckily for them had seat belts.

Shelby found herself back between Chris and Justin while Joey, Lance, and JC were all directly across from them.

When the ride started getting bumpy from the turbulance, Justin subconciously grabbed Shelby's hand and held it as to reassure her everything would be fine.

"HOw long will it take to get there?" Shelby asked.

"It depends." Lance answered.

"Oh." Shelby nodded.

"What do you usually do on flights?" Shelby asked trying to keep her mind off the turbulance.

"Read, listen to music, talk, sleep, whatever." Joey shrugged.

"Sounds kinda boring." Shelby curled her lip up.

"Well what would you do your highness?" Chris asked from her left.

"I don't know." Shelby shrugged. "Maybe play a game."

"What kind of game." Joey asked.

"I don't know." Shelby answered. "We could always play that Game Sysco again."

"No thanks, besides we don't have paper or pens." Justin replied from her right. "We could still play a questions game. Kind of like truth or dare without the dare. We could like ask a question and if you don't answer or don't want to answer you have to do a forfeit like tell an embarassing story that happened to you." Lance suggested.

"Hey that sounds kind of cool." Joey nodded.

So it was decided, they would play this new game. THe only rule they set was if you forfiet the question you either had to tell the story of your first kiss, or an embarassing story. Since it was Lance's idea it was decided he would go first.

"All right. If you dont have an embarassing moment you have to kiss Shelby." Lance added at the last minute.

"No." Shelby shook her head.

"Why not?" Joey asked innocently.

"Easy for you to say when you're not the one whos going to get mauled. Besides we need to stay seated and buckled." Shelby reminded them.

"Yeah whatever." Lance flipped his hand as to ignore the rule.

"Okay, it'll work for Chris and Justin then." Joey said pointing to the two who were sitting right next to her.

"It's not working for anyone." Shelby said getting frustrated.

"What are you getting so riled up about Shelby?" Chris asked from her left.

"Don't you think that a kiss is sacred and shouldn't be shared with just anyone? Especially not in a game, its just degrading." Shelby explained her feelings.

"Why, Shelby, you're a true romantic." JC looked at her surprised.

"Why do I have to be a romantic to feel that kissing should be sacred." Shelby looked at them with a scowl.

"Not everybody feels the same way you do Shelby." Chris shrugged.

"Guys, lets just forget it and get to the game." Joey suggested.

"Good idea. I'll go first as previously decided. JC, why do you like being a part of Nsync?" Lance asked JC.

"You're lame Lance." JC shook his head. "Just answer the question." Lance plodded.

"Well, I like being a part of Nsync because this is my family and what I love to do. I love music, touring, the fans, everything about being here. The only real downfall is the fact that we never get to see our families and we dont have any privacy." JC answered.

"Yeah." Lance nodded in agreement. "You're turn.

"Shelby, why do you like black so much? And I don't want one of the stupid reasons you've been giving us, but I want the real reason." JC asked Shelby.

"I like black so much because it's soothing. My whole life people have made fun of me, but if I wear black I can blend in with the shadows. I can try and be invisible if you will." Shelby explained the best she could.

Nobody said anything for a few moments after that. It saddened them to think that their friend had endured so much in her life.

"Why the glum faces? It's my turn now. Now this might not be the best time to ask this, but I have to know if I'm going to get better. Why do you hate me so much Justin? From the moment you saw me you said cruel things and I'd like an honest explanation as to why. Please." Shelby turned her attention to Justin who had appeared to have turned pale.

"I'ts kind of a long story, but then again it's not; yet the pathetic thing on my part is that I really had no reason. I had recently broken up with Britney. Dumped I should say. It'd been a hard couple weeks and when I saw you at the party I just lashed out. I hadn't been deeling with the break up very well and you wer the first person I lashed out at. To me, you were weak and easy prey. Please don't think I see you as that now, but thats' what I felt back then. After getting to know you better, even when I still was being a prick, I saw what a great person you are. What an honest, sweet, loveing person was under that shell I kept breaking. I meant what I said earlier. I am so incredibly sorry, Shelby. I never meant to hurt you. I never meant to make you want to hurt yourself." at that Justin as emotional as he was feeling started crying.

Shelby and the rest of the guys watched Justin break down and start sobbing.

"Has he grieved at all since they're break up?" Shelby asked out of concern for her friend.

"No, this is the first time he's let it all out." JC swallowed thickly, hating to see his friend so upset.

Shelby just nodded then manuvered herself so she could wrap her arms around Justin.

When Justin felt Shelby's arms surround him, he put his own around her and clung to her for dear life. She was his lifeline and he was hers. They both were healed more from those precious moments then any time before.

While the two of them held each other and cried, Chris moved over to the other seat so he could talk to the guys.

"Guys, they're falling in love." Chris said low enough in case the couple could hear him.

"I don't think they're even close to that yet." Lance disagreed.

"I'm with Lance, he's been a prick up until now and he's still trying to get over Britney. I think they'll get closer, but I don't forsee love anytime soon." Joey answered.

"Chris does have a point. Justin was realizing some things when they were hugging earlier. I think his feelings are going to change quickly, but he will ignore them for a while. He'll keep reminding himself he's still trying to get over Britney and deny his feelings for Shelby. That's just how he is." JC added.

Shelby and Justin remained in each others arms until they landed in New York. They hadn't expected to fall alseep together, but that was how they ended up.

Justin was the first to wake up. He awoke as everyone was getting off the plane. He looked at Shelby who was still in his arms, her head resting in the crook of his arm. "Beautiful." he whispered.

Once again Justin had to push these thoughts away as he gently shook Shelby trying to wake her up.

"Shelby, honey, wake up." he whispered in her ear.

Shelby felt Justin's warm breath on her ear and slowly opened her eyes to find his face merely inches away. She smiled tenderly and watched as he smiled back. "I didn't mean to fall asleep." She whispered without moving to get up.

"Neither did I, but we did. Come on we have to get up." Justin said sitting up, bringing Shelby with him.

Shelby stood up and wobbled before finding her balance.

They walked off the plane and into a crowd of screaming fans. Shelby was a little scared when she saw the fans trying to grab Justin as he walked ahead of her. Thankfully his bodyguard Mike was with him. He had met them before going through the massive crowd.

Shelby was the last person to go through the crowd and all the fans were trying to figure out who she was. They had all seen her walk out with Justin so they knew she was with them.

One girl who was an over obsessed Justin fan and sure he would one day marry her grabbed Shelby's arm and dragged her close.

Shelby was terrified when the fan grabbed her arm. She felt tears coursing down her cheeks when she couldn't get away.

"He's mine." the girl holding her captive screamed ruthlessly.

"Let go of me," Shelby cried out, nearing a panic attack.

Justin heard SHelby cry out and looked back to where she should have been right behind them. He felt his heart drop to his knees when he saw a fan holding her captive.

Without thinking Justin ran back to were Shelby was and tried to pull her away.

"Let go." Justin pleaded with the girl.

"Please," Shelby whispered getting weaker. She could feel and almost smell the blood from the wounds she knew had reopened.

"Get off her." Mike yelled pushing the girl back.

When Shelby was let go, she fell backward and onto the ground. Not wanting to deal with any thing else, Shelby got to her feet and walked as quick as she could--in her condition--into the airport.

Justin ran to catch up to her and make sure she was okay. He put an arm around her shoulder, but she backed away immediatly.

"I'm sorry Shelby," Justin said feeling like he'd done something when she'd pushed him away.

"It's not your fault." Justin said putting his arm out.

"NO, I can't, I'll get blood on you." Shelby responded trying to pick up the pace.

It was then Justin looked down at her and saw for the first time that numerous scabs had opened up and Shelby was loosing a considerable amound of blood. Her deep side wound was opened and Justin saw that where the girl had grabbed Shelby was already starting to bruise--over the cuts that were already there.

"Blood be damned." Justin cried as he put his arm around her shaking form.

Justin took care of their luggage and led them to the van that would take them to the hotel. It wasn't going to be until the hotel where they could stop and see to Shelby's bleeding.

He kept her close to his side the whole time, hoping the pressure would help stop the blood flow.

"How is she?" Joey asked concerned.

"Pretty shaken up." Justin answered looking down at the girl asleep in his arms.

"Poor little thing." Joey shook his head.

"She started bleeding again." Justin whispered.

Joey's eyes widened as he looked at Shelby's sleeping form in Justin's arms.

"Why didn't she take care of it back at the airport?" Joey questioned.

"There was no way to, I asked her but she didn't want to hold everybody up." Justin inhaled deeply them slowly let it out.

"She's one tough cookie." Joey stated thinking back on everything she'd been through.

"That she is." Justin agreed.

A few minutes later they all walked into the hotel and rooms were distributed. Joey with Lance, JC with Chris, and due to what happened it was easily decided that Shelby would stay with Justin as she clung to him and wouldn't seperate herself from him. They only had a short time to settle in before they had to be at a photo shoot and then TRL.

"Shelby, your back to your old self." Chris observed when they met in the lobby before going to the photo shoot.

"What do you mean?" Shelby asked getting slightly defensive.

"Well your hair is spiked and your back to the blacks." Chris pointed out.

"Sorry, I have no more cute and adoreable clothes." Shelby shrugged.

"So how are you feeling Shelby?" Joey asked sitting next to her as they loaded up the van.

"I'm okay," Shelby answered with another shrug.

"You look tired." Joey noted.

Shelby sighed and nodded her head.

"Here, why don't you lay down." Joey guided her head to his lap as she stretched out her legs on the seat next to her.

This was what Justin saw when he stepped into the van. He sat down next to Lance with a strange feeling in the pit of his stomach.

"What's up man?" Lance asked catching Justin's strange expression.

"Nothing." Justin denied more for himself than for Lance.

The photo shoot went really well and to Shelby's surprise, she actually had a lot of fun. Everyone was really nice and treated her as they would have one of the guys.

At TRL Shelby stayed backstage with the guys and watched as Carson Daly was telling them what was going on.

"And who is she?" Carson asked pointing to Shelby.

"We're taking her on tour with us as part of a new therapy program. A person goes with a celebrity and they all help each other out." JC explained.

"Oh, I've heard of that. Mind if we bring her out and introduce her to America, ask her some questions?" Carson asked.

"If she doesn't mind." Justin answered.

"Ask her." Carson nodded.

"Hey, Shelby, come here. Carson wants to ask you something." Justin called.

Shelby walked over and stood next to Justin and waited for Carson to speak.

"I was wondering if you had any problem with going on the show and letting us ask you some questions, introduce you to America." Carson asked.

Shelby's eyes got really big and she looked at Justin, then Joey, then back to Carson.

"You want ME to be on the show?" Shelby repeated to make sure she had heard everything correctly.

"Yeah, if you would like to." Carson nodded.

"All right, I mean its not like every day I get to be on national television." Shelby nodded with a shy smile.

"All right, I'll tell the producers and we'll let you know when to come out." Carson smiled as he walked away.

The show went off without a hitch and as Shelby watched everything, she was getting more and more nervous. Her eyes were wide as they called for Nsync to come out. They talked with Nsync for a few minutes then they're conversation changed course and Shelby knew it was almost time.

"So I hear you brought a special friend with you today." Carson said.

"Yeah, we sure did." Justin smiled looking over at Shelby.

"Who is she?" Carson asked picking up some different vibes from Justin.

"She's a girl who's going to be touring with us. We're going to be helping her work through some problems as she helps us." JC explained.

"Let's meet her, come on out here." Carson motioned for Shelby.

Shelby walked over to stand between Justin and Joey, her two lifelines as all eyes were on her.

"So Shelby, what kind of problems are you having? Why are you with Nysnc?" Carson questioned.

"Um, well, basically after I almost committed suicide, I decided it was time for some help and the lady at the hospital gave me this as an option and I took it. And I'm with Nsync because I was placed with them." Shelby explained feeling breathless and hoped that was the right answer.

"So you didn't have a choice to who you wanted to go with?" Carson questioned.

"No." Shelby shook her head.

"Are there any chances of you getting with any of the guys?" Carson asked daring.

"What do you mean?" Shelby answered with a question of her own confused as to what he meant.

Carson glanced at Justin who was staring at him to what could be considered a glare. "What I meant was, are there any chances of you dating any of these guys."

"Look at me, I'm not really they're type." Shelby answered honestly.

"Well there you have it America, we'll be back after this." Carson led them into commercial and they were informed that everything was finished.

"Thank you guys, it went good. Shelby it was nice meeting you." Carson hugged all the guys and then shook Shelby's hand.

When they were all in the van ready to go back to the hotel, Lance brought up what was on everybody's mind.

"Shelby, why did you put yourself down back there?" Lance questioned.

"What do you mean?" Shelby looked at him.

"When you answered Carson's dating question, you said you weren't our type, why?" Lance explained.

"I don't know, it was the first thing that came to my mind. And it's kind of true. Look at you guys and look at me. We're from completely different worlds. Besides, you could get any girl you wanted, why waist your time on someone like me." Shelby sighed then looked out the window.

"Don't you dare say that Shelby. That's not true at all. Yes, we are from two different worlds, but don't ever imply that you're not good enough." Justin said surprising everybody with the intensity of his words.

"Thank you Justin." Shelby said resting her head on his shoulder, once again drawing comfort from him.