Justin happily skipped into his house as he went in search of Liz and the guys. Elizabeth was not going to believe the surprise he had in store for her. She was going to freak. As Justin entered the family room of his house he noticed that everyone, including his parents and Liz’s parents, were in a circle talking in a hushed tone. Weren’t they supposed to be at work? Elizabeth was sitting next to JC and Chris and they both had their arms around her but the looks on their faces worried Justin. As soon as he stepped into the quiet atmosphere his stomach twisted in a knot. Something was very wrong.

“Hey everybody. What’s going on?”
 

Every pair of eyes turned to him when he made his presence known and that’s when he noticed they were all crying. Who died?
 

“Hey baby,” his mom greeted while attempting to clean her tear stained face. Justin did not like how this was going. He glanced over the guys and Liz’s parents and they were all crying too. When his eyes locked with Liz’s he knew something was wrong with her again. He knew it was serious because Elizabeth never cried about her medical condition unless she thought her situation was hopeless.
 

“What’s going on?” Justin asked again.
 

Elizabeth stood up with a sniff and headed over to where he stood. She hesitated for a minute, which was something Justin wasn’t used to. Liz was always certain about everything.
 

“Hey J…um, can you sit down for a sec?” she asked nervously. What the hell was going on? Why won’t anyone tell him what is going on?
 

“No Val, tell me what’s wrong? What happened this time?” he asked secretly hoping it wasn’t as bad as it seemed.
 

“I don’t know how to tell you.” She confessed sadly.
 

“Start from the beginning.” Justin offered.
 

She took a deep breath and stared at the ground as she spoke.
 

“I went to the hospital for my check up today and they said they transferred my case to a different hospital. They said that if I don’t go to this hospital I won’t be alive for much longer.”
 

That didn’t sound so bad. What’s so wrong about her going to a different hospital?
 

“Ok, so why is everyone crying?” he asked.
Elizabeth sighed as a stay tear rolled down her face.
 

“Because the hospital is in France and we’re leaving after graduation.” She forced out.
 

“WHAT? Liz you can’t be serious. FRANCE?” he yelled, the information still not sinking in. Their eyes met and he could feel the pain radiating out of her dark orbs.
 

“No Val, this can’t be real. It just can’t be.” He said as he backed away from her and headed for the door.
 

Elizabeth anticipated his move and tried to stop him before he did anything stupid.
 

“Don’t go anywhere Justin. We need to sit and talk about this.” All he did was shake his head and run out the door.
 

After hours of driving aimlessly around Millington, Justin parked his car at his favorite park. He knew Liz was there, he could feel her. Getting out of his car, Justin walked towards the little baseball field next to the swings and sand box. He saw the back of someone with black hair in front of him. When he got within hearing distance he cleared his throat to get her attention. Her eyes were red and puffy from crying and tears stained her beautiful face. The pain in her eyes resembled someone who had lost everything and given up hope. Justin cursed himself for his stupidity and running away instead of comforting her.
 

“Why did you leave me?” she asked hoarsely, breaking the silence but keeping eye contact.
 

Justin looked to the sky as a single tear descended from his eyes.
 

“I… I don’t know… I just needed to get away.” She sniffed and nodded at his response.
 

“Why didn’t you answer your phone? I was worried… I thought you might have hurt yourself because of reckless driving. Everyone called you J.”
 

“I know but I needed to get my thoughts straight. I wasn’t expecting what happened today.” He said as more tears dropped from his eyes.
 

“I know that was hard for you to hear but how you think I feel Jus? In two weeks I have to drop the life I know, the people I love, and the comfort I call home. I have to leave YOU! Do you know how much my heart is breaking right now?”
 

Her last sentence came out in a sob and Justin quickly gathered her small frame in his arms and held on tightly. He didn’t know how he was supposed to survive without her. How could God be so cruel? He needed her; he couldn’t possibly take her away from him after 18 years could he?
 

“I’m sorry sweetie… I just… I don’t want to lose you. I love you, you’re my best friend and… I don’t know what my life is gonna be like without you Liz. I don’t WANT to know what my life will be like without you.”
 

She nodded into his shirt as she continued to soak it with tears.
 

“I know but you aren’t losing me forever… I should be back in a year J. And by then I should be completely healthy. I can finally go on tour with you guys.” She informed, her voice muffled by his shirt.
 

Justin nodded his head as he tried to will his stream of tears away. He pulled away from Elizabeth and cupped her face, wiping her tears.
 

“I’d like that…and so would the guys. I don’t want you to leave but I don’t have a choice and I do want you to get better so I’ll have to accept it. But I’m off for two weeks so we’ll make the best of this ok?” Elizabeth nodded in agreement and hugged him again.
 

The two weeks before Elizabeth left went faster than everyone anticipated. They had done everything from going to concerts, clubs, parties, and most importantly, graduating. Liz and Justin had many late night conversations about their past, their future, but they always avoided the present. They wanted to enjoy the time they had together and not spend it crying their eyes out.
 

Today was the day she would leave. Justin was sitting at home with his little brothers while everyone went to airport with Liz. They had said goodbye the night before and they came to the conclusion that it would be easier for both of them if he didn’t see her take off. The pain was still there though because he felt her leave. He felt the emptiness in his heart the moment the plane took off.
 

~End Flashback~

Justin sighed as he glanced at this bedside clock which read 2:08 am. He couldn’t sleep tonight and the memory of Liz leaving 6 years ago was not helping. He sat up in bed and grabbed a T-shirt from the floor. He walked out of his room and headed next door to Liz’s room. He just wanted to watch her sleep, which would calm him. When he entered her room, she was sitting in her bed staring at the door like she was expecting him.

“Hey,” she greeted.

“Hey… sorry to barge in like this, but I couldn’t sleep.”

Elizabeth smiled a small smile and patted the spot next to her. As Justin moved to sit next to her she sighed and lay down on her bed.

“I couldn’t sleep either. Maybe it’s cause I had a dream about me leaving when we were 18.”

Justin gave her a weird look when she said that. Now that was strange.

“Weird…. I just had the same exact dream. Mine ended with me sitting there with Jon and Steven while everyone was at the airport with you.”

Elizabeth sat back up and eyed him. That was strange. They almost had the same exact dream.

“Mine ended at the airport and I was telling everyone to take care of you.” She responded softly.

Silence over took them after. Justin wanted to bring up her heart attack but he didn’t know if she was ready to talk about it just yet. After three weeks he was beginning to wonder if they would ever talk about it.

“I had a dream about Travis.” She said simply.

Justin gave her another weird look. Who the hell was Travis and why was she dreaming about him?

“Who’s Travis?” he asked.

Elizabeth sighed and decided to explain herself from the beginning.

“Remember the night I had a heart attack?” she asked.

“Like I can forget…” he responded quietly.

“Well… do you remember how I told you about falling in love in France?”

“Yeah…” he had been meaning to ask her about that but it must have slipped his mind.

“Well… the guy I fell in love with, his name is Travis and… well… I guess I should start this from the very beginning huh?”

“That might be a good idea,” Justin said getting comfortable and facing her. She played with her fingers and bit down on her bottom lip, both were nervous habits of hers.

“When I got to France I was completely bummed. I missed you, your mom, the boys… I missed everyone and all I did was cry. My family would come to visit me at times and they tried to cheer me up but their efforts were useless. On top of all that, the doctor told me if I didn’t change my attitude soon it would start affecting my health. I basically ignored his advice and ignored my family. I didn’t try to make friends with anyone at the hospital and I turned away anyone who tried to be friends with me.

“Pretty soon I started to feel the effects of my sadness on my health. I started to slow down and get more fatigued. I slept a lot, which was not good. One day I was walking down the stairs for lunch when I slipped and nearly killed myself. Lucky there was this guy there and he caught me. He had dark brown hair, brown eyes, and he was really tan. Very good looking in my opinion.”

Justin felt a pang of jealousy but immediately scolded himself for it. He had no reason to be jealous…no reason at all.

“Anyway he asked me if I was ok with this amazing smile and I smiled but at him. From that day on we became friends. We talked a lot, mostly about why we were there and what our lives back home were like. I told him a lot about you and he seemed really interested cause he seemed to know who you were. We stayed friends for about six months but it all changed when he kissed me in my room. It wouldn’t have been that bad if my brothers hadn’t walked in on us. It took Brian’s people’s skills to prevent Taylor and Matt from killing him.

“When Travis left, they gave me this whole spiel about how I shouldn’t get involved with someone in a hospital. One of us could get hurt and it was most likely going to be me. Of course I turned the table and told them that I needed a life and a way to prevent myself from thinking about my condition 24/7. I told them I was old enough to make my own decisions and that they shouldn’t interfere with something like that. They kinda backed off after that and Travis and I hooked up.

“Everything was going great ya know. We had an amazing relationship considering the circumstances. He would do the sweetest things like hold my hand at the most random moments or surprise me and kiss me in front of all the other patients or he would just hold me if I was upset.”

Why was the thought of Elizabeth kissing and being held by another man bothering him so much? He was only hearing about it but his blood still boiled.

“Everything was great until one night my pager went off, indicating that I had gotten a new heart. All I remember was being hauled off to surgery and wondering where Travis was. When I woke up no one would tell me where he was. Finally three weeks later my dad gave me this letter from Travis and it kinda messed me up.”

Justin reached for her hand when her eyes glazed over with unshed tears, urging her to continue.

“Um… the letter… it… it… he wrote that he was dead and it was because he had a brain tumor. He had told me earlier in our relationship that he had Cystic Fibrosis. He said that he told the doctors to donate his heart to me because we were a perfect match and cause he knew I wouldn’t be alive for much longer. You see Justin, that’s what triggered my heart attack. I dreamt about that letter and how he had given my life back to me. I’m alive right now because of him. I was so heart broken and I’m still not completely over it. I’ve come to accept it but it still… it hurts so much Jus.”

Justin gathered her fragile frame in his arms and sighed as she cried. He couldn’t believe he had thought so many bad thoughts about the man who had saved Elizabeth’s life. So what if she fell in love with him, he had fallen in love with Britney and Cameron… but it didn’t matter now. His Liz was alive and safe in his arms. That was all that mattered.

Elizabeth yawned loudly as she looked over the stats sheet in front of her. The numbers were all jumbled in her head and she couldn’t concentrate for the life of her. Her head hurt from all the crying she did the night before and the lack of sleep didn’t help either. When her door opened and slammed she groaned while rubbing her temples.

“Sorry bout that beautiful. I just brought you some coffee; hopefully it’ll make you feel better.”

Elizabeth looked up coming in contact with light blue eyes and brown hair. She smiled up at his handsome face and motioned for him to sit down in front of her.

“Hey Bryce… thanks so much for this. I don’t think I can survive much longer though.” She said taking a sip of the coffee.

He stretched his lean body and got comfortable. When his blue crystals landed on her she bit on her lip at the thoughts that traveled up her mind. Why did he have to look so good?

“Why don’t you just go home early?” he asked sitting up and leaning closer to her.

“I’m only here for another 15 minutes so it shouldn’t be too long. I’m just sleep deprived.”

“Maybe you should get some beauty sleep, not that you need it. You put many to shame with your beauty as it is.”

Elizabeth rolled her eyes, making him laugh. “I don’t fall for that stuff Bryce.”

“What do you fall for?” He asked in a deep husky tone.

“Um…I… well…” she stuttered.

Bryce smiled and placed his hand over hers. “Listen, I’m tired of beating around the bush with you and playing these games. I want to take you out. On a date, just the two of us.” He said hopefully.

Elizabeth glanced at his hand and back up to his eyes. “We can’t Bryce. We work together.”

“I’m quite aware of that Liz but I like you and unless I’m miss reading everything here, I think you like me too. So why don’t we just be adults about it and go out. If you have a terrible time, I’ll leave you alone.”

Elizabeth smirked as she felt him rubbing the backs of her hand. “And if I have a good time?” she asked.

Bryce chuckled and moved closer. “Than we’ll just have to do it again and again until you get sick of me.” He answered. His free hand reached her cheek and lightly rubbed it. Before things could get any further someone barged into the room, interrupting them.

“Hey Val, ready to…” Justin stopped mid sentence when he noticed the man sitting across from Elizabeth holding her hand. They immediately pulled away from each other but they looked very guilty. Justin felt his jealousy flare up and he was practically on fire with anger.

“Well, uh… seeing as you have company, I’m gonna go. I’ll call you Liz.” Bryce said heading for the door. When he closed the door behind him he stood by the door to hear their conversation.

“Who the hell was that Liz?” Justin asked angrily.

“Your employee.” She answered.

“But what was he doing in your office?” he asked with less anger.

“Talking to me.”

“About?”

“Stuff.”

“Val?” he whined

“Justin?” She said back.

“Fine forget it… could you clean up so we can go?”

Bryce smiled to himself when he realized how jealous Justin was. It was killing him that Elizabeth was interested in someone else besides him. He had always been protective of that girl, even when they were all young. He had kept her away from any guy that might have been interested in her and he had been one of them. Justin was constantly in his way and since he and Liz didn’t remember him it would definitely work to his favor. He had only started working for Justin after he found out Liz was back. Now he was going to make his move and hurt Justin the same way he had hurt him all those years ago. It had been Justin’s fault that Liz didn’t want him in high school and since Justin took her from him he was going to take her from Justin, only his move was going to be permanent.