Chapter One

Rachel Bass was running late. There was no other way to swing it. She had five minutes to get from the Capitol Records Tower in Los Angeles to Lance's house in Burbank. There was no way she was gonna make it. Not even if she hit every green light and there was no traffic; two things that would never ever happen. At least not in LA.

'Where are you?'

Rachel looked down at the text message from Lance and sighed. 'Still at the Tower. I'm hurrying. I'm sorry.'  She replied as she climbed into her car. She groaned looking at the clock as the minutes ticked closer to three o'clock. She was supposed to be at her brother's house twenty minutes ago where she was slated to be a guest on his radio show, Dirty Pop.

'Oh the life of a superstar country singer. ;)'

'On my way now, just cover for me.' Rachel text as she backed her vehicle from the parking spot. She held the phone in her hand as she straightened the wheel and put the car in drive. It vibrated in her hand and she gave the screen a quick glance.

'Where are you?'

This time it wasn't from Lance. It was from Ben; her boyfriend of two years. The relationship had started off great. They really clicked and had a good time together. A big thing was her family liked him, especially Lance. Being her twin brother, Lance had a lot of say in who she dated not that he knew that particular piece of information. 'Just leaving meeting. On my way to Lance's.'

Unfortunately their relationship may have started off great but it hadn't stayed that way. Lately though it wasn't all that great. The text message she just received was one of the reasons. Ben started texting her a lot more when they were apart. Asking where she was, who she was with, when she'd be home. It had gotten so bad, that she had to have her assistant, Megan, make up a rule where she had control over her cell phone while Rachel was working.

Aside from trying to keep tabs on her all the time, there were rumors that he was cheating on her. At first, she had brushed them off. You couldn't survive in the business without having rumors spread about you. It was just part of the deal. You have to learn to look at the source and ignore. Lately they'd been harder to ignore. He had stopped touring with her, choosing only to come during the bigger city dates.

It had come to mind that Ben was only with her for her money; for the people he could meet and the parties he could get in to. The days of him on her arm being dragged to any event she wanted was becoming a thing of the past. Some of the smaller events, he didn't know why she wasted her time. If he wasn't going to be photographed, he didn't want to waste his time especially if it had something to do with equal rights. She was a firm believer that people should have the right to marry whom ever they choose and enjoy the benefits. She had thought Ben believed that as well, but lately she wasn't sure.

Their last fight had been about the parties after the Oscars. The Oscars were still three weeks away. Each year, Rachel tried to make it to Elton John's after party. All proceeds from the party went toward his AIDS Foundation. Lance went every year and when she wasn't on tour, she tired to be there as well. Thirty-five hundred a ticket was nothing to laugh at but she paid but she bought two and Ben threw a fit because he wasn't going. There were better parties to attend.

It was time to pull the plug on their relationship. They wanted different things in life. Ben was shooting toward notoriety and rubbing elbows with the richest of rich. She just wanted to sing and perform her music. When she wasn't doing that, she wanted to be home spending time with Lance and Michael; visiting her parents and older sister, Stacy and her family back in Mississippi. She didn't need to be seen with the latest who's who of Hollywood. She just needed her family.

When she came to the stop sign to pull out onto the road, she tossed her cell phone down in the cup holder and fiddled with the radio buttons on her steering wheel. In a matter of seconds, Lance's voice filled the car as his show started.

"Well hello my little peanuts," Lance's voice hit her ears. "It's Tuesday, January twenty-. ninth.

"I'm proud of you for getting the day correct," Drew said.

"I had it written down." Rachel heard papers shuffling and she could picture her brother holding up the outline of the day's show. "Even circled. It was supposed to be a special day."

"Aww, a special day. Why is that Lance?"

"First let me introduce my peanuts today..."

Rachel smiled listening to him introduce the friends he had on the show. She liked how he called them his peanuts. She wished could be there right now. Being on tour, which included some overseas dates, she had been unable to appear as a guest on the show. She should have been there the first day in September when Dirty Pop went on the air but she had a show in Texas that night. There were times she had been able to call in, but had been unable to actually be in studio with them.

"Today is special because we have a new peanut with us..."

"Looks like the same old crowd to me Lance. Me, Lisa, Turkey..."

"Well our new peanut is running late but she'll be here. You know being on the show will really skyrocket her career. She won't miss it."

Rachel laughed and rolled her eyes at Lance's words.

"I think you've kept our listeners in suspense long enough," Lisa said.

"Well joining us as soon as she makes her way from The Tower to my house..."

"She'll never make it in time," Michael broke in. "The show will be over by the time she gets here."

"If you guys don't be quiet, I'll never get to introduce her."

"She's not even here how can you even introduce her."

"Well she will be here," Lance said.

"Who!"

"My sister!" Lance's voice rose. "That's right listeners. You heard it here and on my Twitter account, her Twitter account and DirtyPop108's Twitter account basically all week. As soon as she makes it through traffic, we'll have a real celebrity in the house, my sister Rachel Bass."

Rachel shook her head as she listened to them talk about her and wished she was there to participate. "Come on," she muttered coming to a stop behind a couple cars at a traffic light. She rested her elbow on the door and leaned her head in her hand, her fingers threading through her long blonde hair.

She couldn't wait for this tour to be over. After the Blown Away tour, she was taking time off. Her record label didn't like it because she was taking time for herself. The last five years had been spent touring and releasing albums. She enjoyed it all but she was tired. She wanted to spend more than just a couple weeks here and there in her house before leaving again. She wanted to hang out with Lance and Michael; get to know her brother's boyfriend of three years better.

The next year she wanted to spend relaxing, enjoying time with family and friends. Appearances and interviews would be kept to a minimum, aside from what was already scheduled, the only appearances she planned to make were on Lance's show as often and frequent as he allowed her. The plan was to do nothing, get rested up because after her time off she wanted to start writing songs for a new album.

The light changed colors and the line of traffic moved forward. She lifted off the brake following the car in front of her as Lance changed topics from her to JC. She smiled hearing Lance talk about his former band mate, JC Chasez. She had the biggest crush on the singer during the band years. He was nice and fun to be around. He was generous and would do anything for you and was always a good listener. They had plenty of good times together talking and joking but it never went further than friendship. Her heart had been destroyed when Lance broke the news JC had started seeing a journalist from one of the teen magazines.

"Anyway, let's play the clip," Lance spoke.

Rachel continued driving as the radio played a clip of JC. She wasn't sure what it was exactly and wished she would have been paying attention while Lance had been talking about JC, So far she heard girl's shrieks and screams and it reminded her of the times she went on tour with NSYNC and listened to thousands of girls screaming their names. She heard the beat start then the guitar and finally a chorus of hey's and ho's. She recognized the song immediately and hit the volume button.

"Is this a low song?" Drew asked over top of the video when JC finish the first verse.

"No it goes higher, coming up here," Lance spoke.

When JC's voice, octaves higher rang out from her speakers her lips parted before growing into a smile. She would never tire of hearing JC's voice. She heard the surprise in Drew's voice and the knowing in Lance's. JC's voice was so beautiful and pure. Hearing him sing, she could almost see the grin she knew had to have on his face. It was then she realized she wanted to write with him on her next CD and talk him into singing a duet with her.

She came to a stop at a red light, resigned on hitting everyone until Lance's house. She grabbed her phone again and scrolled through her contacts until she came to JC's name. 'Hey you! Long time. Just heard you killing the Lumineers' song! I need to discuss something with you when you have time.' She sent the text with a smile on her face hoping they could get together soon. She dropped her phone back in the cup holder as the light turned green.

~*~

"I think your sister might be standing us up." Drew spoke as they came back from the long break between the hours. They had just started hour number two and Rachel had yet to show.

"She was at a meeting with her management," Lance looked at his cell phone, frowning. He hadn't heard from his sister since she text him an hour ago apologizing she was late. He thought she would have called or text by now with an update. His phone remained silent.

"Now Lance, your sister is arguably one of the biggest female country music stars," Drew noticed Lance was distracted and fought to pull him back to the radio show. It had been a little slow all night because the whole show had been planned around Rachel's visit. He even had two games slated for Rachel and Lance to play. One was a 'who knows who better' where Lance had to answer questions about Rachel and vice versa. The other game was 'Who Knows Lance Better' where Rachel and Michael answered questions about Lance. "She hasn't been doing this for very long."

"No, she's only been around for a little over five years now." Lance looked down at his phone, almost willing it to ring with a phone call or message.

"Right. So what was she waiting on? I mean she had the perfect opportunity to break into the business in 2000-2001 when NSYNC was at the top. But it wasn't until the end of 2006 or so that she came out with her first single."

"Stage fright," Lance said with a small chuckle. "Rachel was completely scared to sing in front of people."

"No way," Drew said.

"Oh yeah. She never sang in front of us. The guys, they didn't know she could sing. You wouldn't believe that phone calls I got when they heard her first. They were in total disbelief."

"How did she go from having stage fright to being able to put on three tours, overseas dates, awards shows, talk shows?"

"Honestly? I have no idea. We were both kind of shy, even when I first joined NSYNC, I was. I grew out of it obviously. It just took her longer, I guess."

"Interesting fact I saw when I was researching today," Drew shuffled some of the papers in front of him. "She was 'discovered' singing one of NSYNC's songs."

Lance nodded. "I don't know if many people knew this, but before Giggles here, Rachel was my assistant. My stint on Broadway was coming to a close and we were in the theatre before the show. We were sitting on the stage together looking out over the empty seats and she asked me what it felt like to be on stage and sing in front of people."

"But it's not like this was something new for you." Lisa spoke. She heard this story plenty of times. She never got tired of hearing it.

"Yes and no," Lance explained. "There is a difference singing in a sold out arena in front of thousands and thousands of screaming fans and being on stage in Broadway. It's really hard to explain. It's all the same and yet so different. I pulled her up and told her to sing. Oh man, she was adamant about not singing. We weren't completely alone, there were a lot of people milling around readying for the show but no one was paying any attention to us. She made a big deal about not knowing what to sing, so I just picked 'This I Promise You'."

"And she just started singing?"

"Well no. I told her I'd sing with her. When we got to JC's verse she was singing by herself. By the time she got to the bridge; you know the 'over and over I fall,'" he sang the line of the song. "She was killing it. JC would have been proud. And everyone had stopped what they were doing to listen."

"And the right person heard it?"

"The right person heard it," Lance answered looking down at his phone when it started vibrated across the desk. It was a local number that he didn't recognize. He tapped the ignore button and let it go to voicemail.

"Now she's one of the biggest selling country music stars." Drew shook his head at the luck that fell Rachel's way; from just sitting talking with her brother to being overheard by a scout for a major record label. Everything had just spiraled from there.

"How about we take a break here and when we come back, do a little Pop Five? You still have stories?" Lance asked Drew. The anonymous caller left a voicemail and he was curious.

"I have some leftovers from yesterday," Drew said as Lance threw the show to break, he started sifting through his papers to pull the stories.

"Who called?" Michael asked watching as Lance pulled one of his ear buds from his ear and held the phone against his ear.

"I don't know local number. Maybe she's calling from someone else's..." His voice trailed off when the voicemail kicked on.

"What is it?" Michael watched as Lance paled. He grabbed his ear bud cord with one hand and yanked both buds from his ears tossing them up on the desk. He stood up and walked the few short feet to his boyfriend. "Lance?"

The voicemail ended but Lance still held the phone to his ear in shock. He looked up at Michael, his eyes wide and panicky. He opened his mouth to speak but nothing came out. He could vaguely hear the show coming back from break in his ear.

"Who was on the phone Lance?" Michael took the device from Lance's hand and looked at the screen. The voicemail had already ended so he tapped the repeat button and listened to the message. As he heard, he felt the blood rush from his face.

"What's wrong? Who was on the phone?" Lisa asked. She was scared. She knew judging from the look on first Lance's face then Michael's, the news wasn't good.

Lance pulled the other ear bud from his ear and tossed it on the desk. He reached for the pen he always had with him during the show and quickly scribbled a couple words on one of the pieces of paper laying in front of his chair. "I need to go."

"We need to go," Michael corrected him. He grabbed their cell phones holding them in his hand as he rushed up the basement steps in search of wallets and car keys.

"Lance?" Drew asked confused as Michael tore from the room.

"Sorry," Lance looked at the two people left in the room and the open microphones. He wished he could say more, but the last thing anyone needed is for the news to get out faster than it already would. He handed the paper he had scribbled on to Drew before he turned and all but ran up the stairs.

After a second of watching Lance leave, Drew looked down at the paper, his eyes widened and he heard Lisa gasp in shock.

Rachel. Hospital. Car accident.