“Justin?” The voice was distant and he vaguely recognised it as he awoke from a deep sleep. His mind was heavily clogged up from the past few days events and he wondered was he all that his friends cared about? It was nice that they cared so much, but he felt like they should at least care for themselves in some respect to the media frenzy.

“Yeah?” he grumbled and sat up slowly, trying not to fall off the bed. Hand placed itself on his shoulder to steady him up.

“You have a visitor?” the voice asked, now that it was closer he could tell it was Anna. He smiled softly and nodded.

“Who is it?” he asked and allowed Anna to help him get out of the bed and get dressed.

“It’s your manager Johnny,” Anna replied softly and handed him a pair of jeans as he made his way to the end of the bed. “But he’s not alone.”

“Oh, so the others are with him?” Justin asked, his interest peaking at the thought of his four friends. He heard Anna sigh as he took the denim from her with a smile.

“No, your friends aren’t with him,” Anna answered and he felt his smile fall.

“Oh,” he said sadly and placed a hand on the bed so he could begin getting dressed.

“Look, why don’t you get dressed so you can go meet Johnny?” Anna asked cheerfully, trying to forget what she had just heard. Justin nodded and unfolded the jeans.

“Okay, I’ll be ready in a bit,” he replied quietly and he heard Anna shuffle out of the room, closing the door slightly behind her, leaving him to get dressed.

“Mr Timberlake.” The voice was new to him; it was an older masculine voice as he walked into the room. He tried to smile, but failed.

“Johnny?” he called out into the darkness before he felt a hand place itself on his shoulder.

“Hey kid,” Johnny’s voice said, and Justin released that bit of air that was holed up in his throat.

“Hey,” Justin acknowledged as he was helped into a chair. “What’s going on?” He heard Johnny sigh, and a chair being pulled closer to him.

“Justin, I’m here with both our lawyer, Dale Finch, and the lawyer for the truck company, Luke Hatton,” Johnny began after a long silence, “We wanted to talk to you about the progress we’re making on the law suit front.”

“Okay,” Justin nodded, feeling his tension return. There was a silence before anyone spoke again.

“Mr Timberlake, I’m Dale Finch,” the older masculine voice from before began and Justin nodded as he felt someone take his hand and shake it. “I’m the lawyer your manager hired for you.”

“Hi,” Justin said softly and pulled his hand away gently.

“And I’m Luke Hatton,” a new voice said from the side, “I’m representing the truck company.” Justin nodded in acknowledgement before anyone continued. “Mr Timberlake, I’d like to approach you with a proposal my clients would like to offer you.”

“And what would that be?” Johnny cut in, as he saw Justin had gone silent for the moment.

“My client is offering a one million dollar settlement in order to settle this out of court,” Luke replied calmly, but it was received with mummer from Johnny and Dale.

“Out of court?” Dale asked, “but that is not what we agreed Luke.”

“I know, but my clients feel it would be better if this was settled out of court. Would you really like to see this hit the front page of the Enquirer?” Luke asked, he knew exactly which cards to play and how to play them right.

“No, but the decision we made was that…” Johnny cut in, but Justin interrupted him.

“I think we should go ahead with it,” Justin said speaking up for the first time in a while. “He’s right, I don’t want this all over the tabloids Johnny, you know as well as I do they will have a field day with this.”

“I know, but Justin…” Johnny protested and Justin shook his head, he knew what he was doing. He really didn’t want this all to go to court, where it would be a public circus for everyone to admire as they wanted.

“No Johnny,” Justin said firmly, “I know you want what’s best for me. But that is what would be for the best, not only for me but for the guys as well. You know once I get out of here the media will go mad with us, and they don’t need the extra fuel that a court case will bring.” He noticed, the room had gone quiet and his chin was resting on his chest.

“Are you sure it’s what you want J?” Johnny asked after a while and Justin nodded, refusing to add more to the conversation.

“Okay then. Mr Hatton, if we are to proceed with this agreement will the one million your client is offering include medical bills and such?” Luke interrupted, taking control of the legal side of things.

“No,” Dale answered and Justin felt eyes on him, “Mr Timberlake has suffered enough. He is right when he says the media frenzy will cause him more damage, therefore my clients are willing to pay an extra half a million to cover medical costs and expenses endured since the time of the accident.”

“Fine, we’ll finalize this once we get back to my office,” Luke nodded as Justin heard papers shuffling.

“Wait,” Justin called out, and the shuffling stop. “The driver of the truck was he….? I just, I need to know.”

“Yes Mr Timberlake,” Dale answered with a soft, defeated sigh, “Unfortunately he was and we are very sorry for the fact that you had to endure such hardship because of that. We hope the settlement will be able to fix all that.”

“Nothing will ever fix what happened,” Justin said softly and turned his head away. “I know that now. But maybe the settlement might help Johnny and the record label recover from the loss of money that they put forward for us to record another album that never will make it out of the studio,”

“Don’t say that Justin,” Johnny cut in and placed a hand on his shoulder, and Justin turned away.

“No Johnny it’s right and you know it,” he said and sighed. “Thanks for the offer Mr Hatton, please tell your client that we accept it and that Mr Finch will go over the details with you.”

“I will Mr Timberlake,” Dale said, “Thank you for your time, and again we’re deeply sorry for your loss.”

Justin sighed and offered the man a small nod, and as he did so he heard Johnny sigh as well. They both knew right then and there, that this was the end for the group but even though the settlement would not help that Justin would be able to move on. Because he now had hope, and faith and he knew he was not alone in his onward battle with his life.