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.