An hour and a half later (A room with a view)

"So, outside of sleeping, what else do you like to do for fun?"

While slightly laughing at the question, Cathy--without even bothering to think about it for a second--replied: "I like to dance...I actually used to want to become a professional dancer--that is, before I decided to go ahead and devote my entire life to children. Now, I only do it in front of the bathroom mirror when I know my brother isn't home to catch me."

"And you---? Besides secretly hiring bodyguards to spy on your child's social worker, what do you like to do for fun?"

After almost choking on the bite of chicken that he had in his mouth, Justin couldn't help but slightly blush and chuckle while taking a sip of the water that sit in front of him. "Becca told you about that, didn't she?"

Even though he was somewhat right, Rebecca had told her about it, Cathy wasn't going to let Justin get away that easily: "Maybe she did, and maybe she didn't, but you're ignoring the question, Mr. Timberlake--what do you like to do for fun?"

Without even bothering to hide the amused grin that was currently spreading across Justin's face, the younger man dramatically rolled his eyes at the woman in front of him before thinking about what she was asking him.

What do I like to do for fun?

Before Kayla had become a constant in his life, Justin probably would've said going to clubs with Britney or hanging out with the guys was his idea of a good time, but in the last couple of months, that old lifestyle of his had become nonexistent--so much to the point where he couldn't remember a day when Kayla hadn't been a part of his every day life causing him to say: "I guess I'd have to say playing basketball--I love shooting hoops with the guys and I actually can't wait until the day Kay learns how to dribble a ball. Hopefully by then, I'll be able to sit her down and teach her some of my other moves that don't require synchronized dance routines."

As the image of Justin trying to teach Kayla a simple lay-up shot, while the small girl jumped around screaming Sync to him, popped into her head, Cathy couldn't help but let out a small chuckle, but then after seeing the waiter making his way towards them with the check in his hand, she quickly regained her composure and waited until Justin had slipped the other man his credit card and the latter had walked away, before turning back to her date and truthfully replying: "You know, Justin, I have to be honest with you. When you said that you were going to treat tonight like it was a date, I almost turned around and went straight back to my room. But now I'm sort of glad I came out with you tonight. I don't think I've laughed this much in years."

After jokingly replying: "Thanks, I think," Justin honestly replied: "I'm glad you're having such a good time--I am as well. And if you're finished with your dinner, I'd like for us to go ahead and move onto the next part of the date, which I can guarantee will cause you to laugh some more 'cause you'll be getting a romantic ride and tour around the city from yours truly and since I have no idea where the hell anything is in this town, it should be an exciting journey for the both of us, what do you say?"

Without even bothering to hide the amused smile that was quickly popping up on her face once again, Cathy couldn't help but roll her eyes slightly before honestly replying:

"I'm ready whenever you are."

After leaving their waiter a very generous tip and telling Mike that they promised they'd be careful if he would just go and meet them back at the hotel--with no avail--Cathy and Justin drove around New York City just talking. Then after realizing it was almost going on midnight, they decided to retire to their separate hotel rooms for the night; where they would hopefully sleep off the large milkshakes which they'd bought from McDonalds--ones Cathy insisted on paying for, saying it was the least she could do.

"Well, it's been an interesting evening...I had a lot of fun tonight, Justin." Cathy commented as soon as she stepped foot in front of her hotel room.

"Me too...and just think, the nights not even over yet."

What?

Noticing the look of shock that was written on Cathy's face, Justin quickly replied: "I didn't mean it like that," causing the blushing female to let out a low sigh and Justin to chuckle slightly, before finally sobering up and continuing with: "I just meant that I usually end my dates with one of these."

With that being said, Cathy silently watched on as Justin leaned in; kissing the edge of her mouth very softly. And then after a second of watching him, she couldn't help but lick her lips in nervousness; an action which she could tell Justin noticed.

Uh-oh.

Before Cathy even knew what was going on, Justin had brought a hand up to the side of her face and was staring at her in--she didn't know exactly what it was, but she could've sworn it was--nervousness. "Tell me to stop."

Even if Cathy had wanted to tell the younger man to stop, she didn't have enough time to do so as Justin quickly leaned in; bringing their lips together almost instantly.

So, this is what it feels like to kiss a popstar.

As the small and tender kiss between her and Justin went on, Cathy couldn't help but find it not only surprising when it began to grow heated. But she also found it very surprising when she realized that she was the one leading the kiss. A kiss that not only chilled her down to the bone but one that was currently making her wonder if this was what she had been missing all along by being with Keith.

Keith!

With that thought in mind, Cathy quickly regained all her senses and pulled back from the man in front of her.

"Wow...I'm sorry. I don't know what came over me."

Knowing that it wasn't his fault and that she wasn't mad at him for anything that he did caused Cathy to quickly reply: "No, it's okay...you don't have to apologize. You didn't do anything wrong."

"Well, then..." Justin began, with an amused look slowly spreading across his face, "why'd you pull away from me...? Besides maybe for lack of oxygen."

Even though Cathy figured she should just laugh at that comment and then tell Justin goodnight, she couldn't.

She knew she had to tell him the truth.

So, with that being her last thought, Cathy quickly replied: "I pulled away from you because...I don't want to lie to you anymore."

There! That wasn't so bad! I can do this...

Noticing the look of confusion that was quickly taking over Justin's face, Cathy opened her mouth to speak before the younger man had a chance to do so: "For the last week, I've been out here under false pretenses. I haven't really been supervising you and Kayla's father-daughter relationship or working on Kayla's case-file--that was finished the day we stepped foot back inside Orlando. But if you let me explain, I'll tell you why I had to lie to you."

After taking a second to wait for Justin to say something--anything really--Cathy opened her mouth to continue on. But unfortunately Justin wasn't having any of it. "I can't believe this."

"I know, but just let me explain."

"Explain?" Justin angrily interrupted. "What is there to explain...? I understand fully. You're saying that for the past three months, you've been out on tour with me and the rest of the guys, hanging out with me and my daughter and making us all believe that we could trust you because you had my daughter's good intentions at heart. And now, you're telling me that you've been lying to everyone for the last couple of weeks and that you've been finished my daughter's inspection for almost 'two' weeks now...that pretty much covers it. There's nothing else left for you to explain. I understand it all."

"Justin, I-"

"No! Justin began, once again: "Don't! I don't want to hear it...I don't want to hear another word you have to say, I don't even want to look at you for another second. I just want you to be gone from my sight and from this tour by tomorrow morning, got it?"

Without even waiting for Cathy to respond back to the question, Justin quickly turned around and made his way towards his room; not bothering to give the older woman one last look before opening and shutting the door to his hotel room quickly behind him.

Well, that didn't go as well as I had thought it would.

July 25, 2002 (New York, NY)

The next afternoon found two of the five Nsync guys watching on as an angry Justin tried to force feed Kayla her lunch.

"Come on Kay, you have to eat your food."

"No!"

"Come on...for me?"

"No. No want pea...dey yuck!"

Usually Justin would've laughed at that comment before trying a different approach, but the fact that he hadn't slept a wink in twenty-four hours and just wanted to get his daughter to eat her lunch so they both could go and take a nap already, caused him to snap.

"Fine! You don't want to eat your peas. Then don't eat them...see if I care! But don't think you're getting any dessert."

Before anyone could blink an eye, Kayla's lower lip started quivering and then she started crying causing Justin to outwardly curse. "Shit!"

"Here, let me help."

Justin opened his mouth to say that he didn't need Joey's help but as Kayla's crying grew louder, he let Joey take her and then walked out of the room; Lance quickly following behind, in tow.

"Something wrong, J?"

"Besides the fact that I just screamed at my one year old daughter for not eating something that she clearly doesn't like causing her to cry...? No! Not that I can think of...how about you? Anything wrong with you?"

Hearing the sarcasm in his friend's voice caused Lance to sigh. "I'm taking from the tone of your voice that your still angry about this whole Cathy situation--"

"Wouldn't you be?" Justin screamed, while turning around and staring at the man in front of him as if he had suddenly grown two heads. "She lied to me--hell, she lied to all of us!"

"That's not exactly true." Lance opened his mouth to say, but before he could get any of the words out, Justin cut him off with: "Look, I know you're just trying to help but I really would like it if you could just leave, so I can be alone right now."

"J--"

"No...!" Justin cut in, "I don't want to talk about it right now. I just want to be left alone so I can go lay down, go to sleep, and forget that this day ever happened, okay?"

Even though Lance wanted to tell the younger man that no, it was not okay, and make Justin listen to everything he had to say. Knowing just how stubborn his curly haired friend could be caused Lance to say: "I'll be outside if you need me."

"Thanks. I appreciate it."

With that being the last word, Lance turned around and made his way towards the door on the other side of the room--the one which led to the hallway; shutting the door behind him after he went through it.

"You talk to him?"

Startled by the voice, Lance quickly looked down the hallway, just in time to see Rebecca coming out of her and Cathy's room.

"I tried to, but you know how J is, he wouldn't let me get a word in edgewise...how's Cat doing?"

After taking a second to further close the space between her and Lance, Rebecca slightly sighed before replying: "She's still on my computer searching for flights back to Orlando but I got her to agree to stay on the tour as my guest for a couple more days--at least until we leave for Pennsylvania on Tuesday."

"Good...that should give me enough time to reach Steve and ask him if he's got any more news for us on her case, yet--"

"And it hopefully will give us enough time to shut Justin up for a second so we both can explain to him what's really going on around here."

That's easier said than done... Lance inwardly thought to himself before outwardly saying: "You know how he is when he gets angry. He wont let any of us near him--even just to explain why Cathy did what she did."

Knowing that was true, Rebecca outwardly cursed whoever gave Justin that stubborn gene. And then as if a light had just went off in her head, she suddenly pulled out her cellphone with a triumphant look on her face.

"Who are you calling?"

After dialing a familiar ten digit number, Rebecca waited until she had put the phone up to her ear and she could hear it ringing, before turning back to Lance and saying: "Justin wont listen to us when he's angry, but I know who he will listen to no matter what kind of mood he's in."

After furrowing his eyebrows in confusion for a second, Lance couldn't help but smile slightly to himself when he heard Rebecca say:

"Hey Lynn...? It's me, Rebecca. I need you to do me a favor."

(Thirty minutes later)

As the phone beside him began to go off, Justin tiredly groaned out loud.

After spending almost twenty minutes trying to get himself comfortable, he had finally been able to lull himself to sleep--only to be awaken a few minutes later by the persistent sound of his cellphone ringing.

This better be important.

Without even bothering to check the caller-id, he quickly picked up his phone and barked: "What?"

"I'm sorry. I must have the wrong number because I could've sworn I called my son's phone but I know this can't be him since I know I taught him better than to talk to me like that."

Shit.

"Sorry, mom. I didn't check my caller-id."

"Apology accepted." Lynn bristly retorted. "Now, do I need to ask what that was all about or should I just assume that it had something to do with what Cathy tried to tell you last night."

"What--how did you know?" Justin opened his mouth to ask. But at the last second he stopped himself, figuring that with how close his mom and Rebecca had become these last couple of months, he knew the older female had to have been the one to spill the beans. "Yes, that is the reason why I'm in this mood right now and no, I don't want to talk about it, mom. So, just let it go...I know enough already."

"Oh really?" Lynn asked, without even a seconds pause. "So, you know that she was fired from her job after taking on Kayla's case and that she only lied to you about working on it these last few weeks because Lance told her to. You knew all of that, Justin?"

"Yes, I.....what?" Justin opened his mouth once again to say, but unfortunately his confusion wouldn't allow any of the words out.

Taking her son's silence as a sign to go on, Lynn continued, after a second, with: "Before you told Cathy you didn't want to hear any more of what she had to say yesterday, Cathy told you that she actually hasn't been working on Kayla's case file these last couple of weeks. But what you didn't let her explain is: why? The reason is-is because her boss fired her. When she asked to go on tour with you guys in May, he gave her his permission and then said as soon as her time out on the road was done, so was she. He then proceeded to give her an ending contract which wouldn't allow her to get another job in social services again for up to four years."

Knowing just how much Cathy loved her job caused any amount of anger that he felt towards the woman to disappear, replaced by growing confusion: "Why? He can't do that."

"But he did! Turns out that a little over a year ago, Cathy and her boss had an affair but when she found out that he was married, she quickly ended it and ever since then he's been trying to find a way to fire her; he's even gone as far as making sexual advances on her in hopes that she'd quit. Interestingly enough, her decision to go with you guys out on tour gave him a reason just to fire her."

Damn.

"I don't understand why she didn't just tell me any of this before--I never would've suggested that she come out here if I had known."

"From what I understand, Lance knew you would see things like that and blame yourself, so when he found out, he suggested that Cathy not tell you anything until Steve had enough evidence to get Cathy's boss to change her contract. Cathy wanted to tell you everything from the beginning, but she promised Lance that she'd wait until they all could tell you--since he figured you'd listen if they all tried to tell you and not just her."

It doesn't matter, I still probably wouldn't have wanted to listen anyway. Justin inwardly commented to himself, suddenly feeling lower than dirt for the things he had said to Cathy the night before.

With that thought in mind, Justin quickly replied: "Hey, do you think I can call you back later on tonight, I suddenly don't feel like talking anymore."

Even though Lynn knew that their was more to the story than what she had told Justin, knowing that her son already had a lot to wrap his mind around 'caused Lynn to figure Cathy could fill the rest in better than she could and she quickly replied: "Sure, I'll call you back before you guys go out on stage tonight, okay...? Remember, I love you, Justin."

"I love you too, mom." Justin outwardly responded before saying his good-byes, hanging up his cellphone, and sitting up on the bed that he was laying down on; figuring with what he knew now, there was no way he'd be getting back to sleep anytime soon.

"Unfortunately."