Tell me the words I never said
Show me the tears you never shed
Give me the touch
The one you promised to be mine
Or has it vanished for all time

I let you go
I let you fly
Why do I keep on asking why?
I let you go
Now that I found
A way to keep somehow
More than a broken vow


Ring! Ring!


Cassie’s cell phone brought Justin abruptly back to the present. He debated for a moment whether or not he should answer it. After a brief argument with himself, he decided spying was fun and it was her fault anyway for leaving her phone alone in the room with him. Reaching across the desk and picking it up, he glanced at the caller ID. It said "Little Man". 'Damn,' he thought to himself, 'that’s Him...Cassie’s new man.' A new dilemma presented itself to him. Should he push the call button and confront the man that had destroyed his life or….

"Excuse me, sir? Are you supposed to be in here?"

Jumping at the voice, Justin, whirled around to see George, Cassie’s assistant, walking in the door. A bouquet of flowers was securely carried in the crook of his elbow.

"Oh, I’m sorry, Mr. Timberlake," the young man apologized with a bit of a start. "I didn’t realize it was you."

He glanced around the office as he entered, setting the flowers on the filing cabinet before walking over to Justin.

Just before he got there, the latter quietly placed Cassie’s phone back down where he'd found it. 'So much for that idea,' he thought bitterly.

Justin put on his biggest ‘innocent’ smile as he looked at George.

"No, she was called out on an emergency. Said she'd probably be back in about half an hour, so I could wait for her here." His smile grew imperceptibly.

"Maybe I can help you," he offered graciously.

"No, that’s alright. I was just dropping off these flowers for her. Just delivered, you know." George gave him a curious look. "Now that I think of it, why didn't you just bring them in yourself?"

A thought occurred to him and he grinned. "Oh, get it. You probably wanted to surprise her. Am I right?"

"You got it," Justin lied, his smile taking on sinister proportions. "I’m just full of surprises."

"Well, I have to get back to work," George muttered, more to himself than Justin as he glanced at his watch and headed towards the door. "Good to see you again. Have a good day."

"The same." Justin waited until he was sure that George was well on his way down the hall, then went over to the flowers. Grabbing the card and reading the envelope showed Cassie's name written on the envelope. As he stood there trying to figure out a way to open the envelope without her finding out what he'd done, he noticed that it hadn't been sealed; only had the flap
inserted into the envelope. With trembling hands, he pulled out the card. It read: "See you tonight at 8:00 PM Your place Little Man"

"Dammit," he cursed softly, stuffing the card back into the envelope and replacing it on the holder. "Who the Hell is Little Man? I'm going to find out."

Rubbing the back of his neck and lost in thought, Justin jumped when he suddenly heard someone whistle shrilly behind him. He whirled around to find Annie struggling to get a stroller through the door of Cassie's office with William (or Wills, as most people called him) in the front and what looked to be something large and flat wrapped in brown paper occupying the back seat.

"Little help here would be nice," Annie admonished gently, still trying to wrangle the rogue stroller into its proper place.

"What can I do?" Justin asked solicitously, looking down at JC's son. Wills was the spitting image of his father, save for his eyes and hair which identified him as Annie's child too.

Noticing Justin looking at him, Wills threw up his pudgy little arms towards the man, begging to be picked up. "Unkie Justy! Unkie Justy!" Justin focused his attention back to Annie, who he realized was speaking to him again.

"You could take this painting and place it over on the sofa for me," she repeated, vaguely wondering what he had been thinking about.

Justin took it and placed it where she'd requested, then returned to her and Wills. She'd given up on getting the blasted stroller through the door and had opted to simply leave it in the hallway along the wall.

"Is that one of yours?" he asked, pointing with his thumb over his shoulder at the wrapped object.

"No," she answered, picking up Wills, who was still calling for "Unkie Justy." She handed him to Justin, placing her hands on the small of her back and stretching after the transfer was complete.

"He is getting so big and heavy," she murmured, patting her son on the head. She then gave Justin a questioning look. "Not to be rude, but why, exactly, are you here? Wasn’t your divorce finalized today?"

"Yes," he growled quietly. "I came to talk to Cassie, but she was called out on an emergency.

"Do you think that's really such a good idea? I mean, things are not all sunshine and roses between you two." She winced. "Sorry I used the roses imagery, but I heard about them this morning when Cassie showed up at our door at three, crying hysterically. The painting you referred to is hers."

"Cassie paints? I didn’t know that. Guess it's just something else I didn’t know about my wife." His voice turned bitter. "Or, should I say, ex-wife."

"Actually, she didn’t paint so much as scream, cry and throw paint at canvases for four hours in my art room. Luckily, the children were sleeping downstairs with JC in the guest room last night. They were having a "Sesame Street" night and all fell asleep on the bed. Under the circumstances, I thought it better to just leave them there. When Cassie arrived, I took her upstairs to my studio. Painting's great therapy, even if you're not good at it. I gave her some old clothes, some paints, laid down drop cloths and set up canvases for her. The one on the sofa is the one that she liked the best, said she wanted to hang it here in the office."

Annie turned thoughtful for a moment. "You know, for an abstract, it’s not too bad."

She fixed him with a serious glare.

"By the way, if I hear Linken Park’s "Numb" one more time in the next three months, it'll be too damn soon."

Justin looked at her and laughed. "Annie, you hardly ever swear, especially in front of the kids."

Wills was getting antsy, so he set him down on the floor. Annie walked over to the stroller, got some toys and handed them to him to play with.

Turning back to Justin, she continued. "I am the mother of two nineteen month old toddlers and the wife of JC, who is sometimes a bigger child than the twins. I have had the sum total of 3 hours of sleep, fought traffic to get over here and because of you, whether in a direct or indirect way, am going to be too tired to enjoy my evening to myself."

"I don’t understand." He shook his head in confusion. "I’m spoiling your evening?"

"Once a week, JC takes the children and I have a night to do whatever I want. It's a great time to read a grown-up book, watch a movie, paint, whatever I want. Tonight, all I want to do is study the back of my eyelids. And that's because I was comforting Cassie most of the night because of your childish outburst at her place," she finished angrily.

Annie paused, then continued. "You know, I'm not in the habit of saying 'I told you so', but I think in this case it's justified. You didn’t listen to me when I told you not to do this, and look how it ended up. Exactly as I hoped it wouldn't." Her voice was growing more frustrated. "God, you're so self-centered... sometimes, I just want to slap you back into reality!"

"No hit! Bad, bad," Willis scolded with all seriousness from his place on the floor, shaking his head adamantly.

Chagrined, Annie smiled softly at him. "Yes Wills, you're right. Hitting is bad."

Justin motioned to Annie and they sat down on the chairs by the desk. When they were seated, he started into his defense.

"Annie, I'm sorry that you were put out, but up until last night, Cassie was still my wife. I have a right to know who she's seeing," he added indignantly.

"Justin, you and Cassie haven’t been a couple since CFTC in Miami and you know why. I was there. Well, not there in the hotel room, but JC and I were at Challenge." She glared at him accusingly, her anger starting to spark again. "You were such a media whore and arrogant, conceited snot those few days, I wanted to…never mind," she finished, glancing over at
Wills happily playing on the floor.

Justin jumped in. "Annie, in my defense, I explained that to all of you. A lot of that was just publicity and media attention. It meant nothing."

"Correction", she countered. "You were a married man, yet you conducted yourself like the most eligible bachelor in the world. It was...disgusting. Do you know how much it hurt Cassie? You, of all people, know her fragile history. But you persisted in doing whatever struck your fancy."

"Look. Not just Joey and Kelly, but you and JC as well kept your marriages a secret. Why couldn’t I do the same?" Now Justin was getting angry as well. "Doesn't it seem just a little hypocritical of you, of all people, to be condemning me?"

"Our situations were different from yours. Joey and Kelly have been together forever, and JC and I had our reasons. Besides, Joey and JC weren’t seen with the 'starlet of the moment' on their arm every other week. Do you have any idea what it did to Cassie to pick up the newspaper and see you out cavorting with your latest flavor of the month?" she asked accusingly, staring into him with those eyes of hers. The ones that seemed to see right into his soul.

Annie couldn't hide the swift laugh of outrage that burst from her lips.

"And the excuse, that you were drunk and didn’t know what you were doing...that just sucked. Justin, my God, Cassie walked into your suite to surprise you and found that 'actress' about to give you a 'Monica'. If it had been me, you would never have to worry about babies keeping you up at night."

"Annie!" he laughed, albeit nervously. "You wouldn’t! You're the sweetest, kindest woman I know."

Annie leaned forward until she was very close to him, staring straight into his face. "Justin, have you ever seen JC really angry?" she asked quietly, so only he could hear her words.

"No," he confessed, uncomfortable with how close she was, "but I heard about the hotel incident from Lance and Joey."

"If you ever provoked me that much, I would make that incident seem like a Sunday school picnic."

He shuddered. "Remind me never to let it get that far."

"Oh, believe me, I will," she finished, her anger slowly submerging back inside as she sat straight again. "I will."

Just then, Wills came toddling over, chanting "ice cem, ice cem". Annie reached over, picking him up and putting him in her lap. "In a minute, sweetie," she promised, kissing the top of his head. Bracing herself, she stood with Wills in her arms. "Look, I have to go. We're meeting JC and Dena (Wills’ name for his sister) for ice cream. That is, if they're finished in the studio."

She sighed. "I swear, Claudine has JC wrapped so tightly around that little finger of hers. They could listen to music together for hours. I wish I could have seen them in the studio today at home. Do you know he even had little earphones made for her?"

She walked over to the stroller and placed Wills in it just as JC came up carrying Dena. The girl was the image of her mother with JC’s eyes and hair color.

"Unkie Justy!" she squealed, reaching out to him.

He took her from JC, upon which she instantly wrapped her little arms around his neck and gave him a baby kiss on the cheek. "I love you, Unkie Justy!" She looked over at Annie. "You love Unkie Justy, Mommy?" she asked sweetly.

"Yes, Mommy loves Unkie Justy," her mother answered, taking Dena from Justin's arms. She then looked at him seriously. "Please, think about what I said, and believe me when I say it's better this way. I just hope that, in time, you'll come to realize that truth."

She kissed him softly on the cheek, then went out into the hallway to strap Dena into the other seat of the stroller.

JC came over and gave him a hug. "I’m sorry Justin, but I agree with Annie. Just know we'll be there for you too, if you ever need us."

"I know," Justin answered curtly. "Now go have your family time. I'll get a hold of you later."

"Later." With that, JC took the stroller from Annie in the hallway and left, her close to his side.

Justin stood there for several minutes, then chuckled darkly to himself. "I have a lot to do before eight."