March 14th....that afternoon.

Jen didn't say anything as Alex drove back to Justin's house. She had never seen Alex this worried before. Jen really didn't see the big deal. Justin had only been gone for about a day, he would be back. Alex hadn't really talked about it much, but she looked half-shocked and half-scared.

"Lex, I'm sure he is ok."

"Hey, do you want anything to eat before we go back to my house because we don't have much food."

"Alex...I'm not hungry. It'll be ok."

"Oh look we are here. Ohh, look JC and Lynn are here. Yay!" Alex smiled, but it was obviously fake and forced on to her features.

Jen shook her head and stepped out of the car when Alex parked it and made her way to the house not even waiting for Alex. She busted through the doors getting strange looks for JC, Chris, Lynn, and Mike.

"She's going insane."

JC and Chris smiled comfortingly. Mike and Lynn just stared as Alexandria numbly walked into the house, not acknowledging anyone. She went to the kitchen set down her keys and her satchel with her books in it. She pulled a Snapple out of the fridge and opened up one of the cabinets to get something to eat. She hadn't eaten all day.

But she stopped with what she discovered there. Justin's assortment of cereals were all perfected lined inside the cabinet she happened to open. She didn't even blink as she stared at all the named brand cereal boxes.

She was trying to forget about it all, just move on with her life for the time being. But all day she had been thinking and worrying about him.

"What have I done?" She whispered to herself.

"You haven't done a thing, sweetheart. Justin's stubborn. And his momma is so mad at him right now." Lynn chuckled and wrapped her arms around Alex, resting her cheek on her shoulder. "He'll be all right."

"But where is he? Everyone keeps telling me he is ok but then you all say that it's not like him just to go off without anyone knowing. What am I supposed to do? Sit here and wait for him to come through that door? What if he doesn't ever come back? What if I ran him off? What if something bad happened and he is lying dead on the side of the road?"

"Shhhhhh." Lynn tried to comfort the panicking girl that's voice got louder and louder as she talked. She was now shaking as Lynn held on to her and rocked her back and forth. "Calm down, Alex."

"Hey, Damn...I'm going to throw the trash out, it's over flowing." Chris mumbled as he threw his bottled coke in the trash. "I'm going to go talk to Johnny and some other people, do you guys want me to bring any food back?"

Lynn nodded and shooed Chris away with her hand as she continued to "shh" Alex. Chris gave them a helpless look before compacting all the trash in the bag and pulling it out of the can and walking out the door.

"Lynn what am I going to do if he doesn't come back?" Alex sniffed and pulled away from her, searching the older woman's eyes, hoping she could comfort her and tell her it would be ok.

"He'll come back. He has to come back, if not I'll go find him and beat his tail so hard he wont be able to walk." Lynn signed when a breathy laughed sounded from the young girl in front of her.

"Come on, let's go in the living room with everyone else."

Alex nodded and let Lynn pull her towards the large white room. JC and Jen were talking, sitting beside each other on the couch and Mike was over by the piano, seemingly inspecting it as he held a cell phone to his ear.

Lynn led her to one of the big comfy chairs and she sat down in it slowly, running her hands over the leather that covered it. Lynn gave JC and Jen a worried look, more so for Alex than her son.

"Hey Lex, how are you?" JC asked in a smooth voice.

She didn't look at him, just relaxed into the chair and sighed. "Justin loves this chair. We always fight over it because it's so comfortable."

Jen whispered to JC. "Would you mind taking me home later. I don't think Alex needs to be driving."

He smiled at her and nodded. "Sure."

Mike turned around from the piano and walked over to Alex handing the phone to her. "It's Johnny. He wants to talk to you."

Alex's eyes widened and she took in a shaky breath as she accepted the phone. "uh, hello?"

"Hey Alexandria. How you holdin' up?"

"Um, not very well." She looked at Lynn as she talked with Justin's manager. He basically just told her what she already knew, which was that no one knew anything. He had called about everyone they could think of, and no one had heard from the popstar.

While Alex was on the phone Jen turned to JC. "Hey, no offense or anything. I mean I know that Justin is kinda recognizable, but what's the big deal? He just hasn't told anybody where he was for a day. I mean cant he just want to be alone for a day or two."

"Jen, I know it's hard for you to understand. But Justin can't be alone. And if he wants to be he has to TELL someone where he is going and what he is doing. I mean, it doesn't seem like a big deal for you if someone just disappears for a day, but it IS because Justin's safety is a major issue. It may seem a little weird that we are getting all worked up, but we have to." JC sighed and whispered the last part making sure Lynn or Alex wouldn't hear.

"Something's wrong Jen. I mean, I'm trying not to show my worry but Justin is too smart to just disappear. Even if he wanted to, he would tell at least Mike so that if something happened they would know. And Chris would pull a trick like this, get everyone worked up for nothing, but Justin wouldn't. Justin knows better than that. Something is going on, and we are just trying to figure out what it is."

"So you mean, like you think something bad has happened?" Jen asked, now for the first time very worried.

"I don't know what to think Jen. I don't know what to think." He shook his head and looked over to Alex who was nervously biting her lip.

The phone of the hose rang and everyone looked at each other hopefully. It was how it had been all day, when the phone rang everyone got their hopes up. "I'll get it." Lynn stood up and walked calmly to the phone and picked it up.

Everyone stared at her.

She turned around smoothly and walked over to Alex who was eagerly and hopefully staring at Justin's mother. "It's for you..."

She took away the cell phone and exchanged it with the cordless phone. Alex put it to her ear and whispered an "hello?"

"Baby..."

Immediately Alexandria curled up into a ball and started crying. "Momma, I'm so scared."

"I know baby. It'll be ok. I'm sorry it took forever to call, I just got your message. Just calm down, I'm sure he is ok."

Alex stood up and shouted into the phone, storming up to the steps. "Dammit mom, everyone keeps saying that! But I know it's not true. If he was ok, he would be here with me right now, momma. He would be with me..." Alexandria stopped when she reached the top of the stairs and slowly walked over to his/their bedroom.

"Alexandria, calm down babe. What was your fight about?"

She pushed the door open and walked towards the bed. "I caught him talking to one of his friends on the phone and he said he didn't know if he wanted to be with me..." She swallowed her sob and choked out. "...anymore."

"Well did you give him time to explain it?"

She laid down in the bed, shoes and all and pulled the sheets and comforter over her. "Not really. He didn't really want to talk to me and then we just got mad and I don't know mommy, but now I don't know where he is..."

"Alex you are getting all worked up. Maybe he just wanted to get away for a while and clear his head."

"But MOM!! You don't understand. He can't DO That. No one knows where he is; it's like he just vanished. It's like someone just picked him up and carried him off, away from me."

After a long pause, Alex's mom's voice quietly spoke through the phone. "Alexandria, this isn't like Andrew. It's not the same thing."

"Well forgive me for not taking it well when people I love more than anything are taken away from me!" Alex yelled in a cold voice in the phone.

"You just need to relax."

"I CANT!"

A knock on the bedroom door seemed to wake Alex up from her bad thoughts. She called a "come in." And watched as the door edged open.

She wasn't prepared for the site before her.

"Mom..." She said hoarsely.

"Baby, what is it?"

"I'll call you back." Alex clicked off the phone and stared at the person who was now running into the room, crawling up the bed and tackling her in a hug.

"HEY LEXY!!!!"

Alex closed her eyes and tried to fight back the tears. "Jon..."

"Guess what? My teacher said that I was one of the smartest kids in math at school. She even gave me this thing of stickers!" He giggled, rolling off her.

Alex looked up at the doorway to see Lance standing there. She gave him a pleading look and he mouthed, "He doesn't know. Don't tell him." to her. He shook his head at her to emphasis his plea. She nodded in response before he grinned and shut the door behind him.

"Lexy, when's Justin going to get home. I gotta tell him something." He rolled over on his stomach and swung his feet high in the air.

"Um, Justin went away for a while."

"Where did he go?"

"Jon, why don't you tell me." Alex said, trying to change the subject.

"Oh, well its kinda a guy thing." Jon said, blushing a bit.

Alex sighed. This day was just getting harder and harder. She hated that Jon didn't know and wouldn't and couldn't understand that his brother was....missing. She felt like his disappearance was all her fault.

"But uh, you are my best friend so...I don't know." Jon pursed his lips and looked at her shyly. "What do you do if you like somebody?"

Alex thought she hadn't heard him correctly. A faint smile, one of the first in hours played upon her lips. "Jon do you have a crush on a girl at school?"

"Uhhh...I guess. I mean her name is Steph and she's really pretty and she's really nice. And today when we played kickball she was captain and she picked me to be on her team first."

Alex smiled and rolled over on her stomach like him and nudged him in the side. "Well why don't you ask her. There's no harm in asking her."

"But what if she says no? What if she laughs at me?" He looked at her with wide eyes and a slight pout.

Alex sighed, contently. It was amazing to her how a 7-year-old, who had no idea about male and female relationships had the same worries that people her age did. She smiled fully. "But won't it be better to ask and find out. If she doesn't like you, than she wasn't worth it in the first place. But just think...what if she does like you?"

Jon bit his lip and began to giggle, covering his face with a pillow. "If she likes me then we can be like you and Big J. hehehehe."

"Ummm." Alex chuckled a bit. "Maybe not exactly like me and Justin."

Jon giggled and rolled over, squirming as Alex tickled his sides with her fingers. She laughed as he tried to tickle her in return.

It was the only happy moment she had had all day.