Justin and the other four members of *NSYNC walked into the cramped dressing room that was being a temporary location for this emergency meeting. No one knew what it was about, except for Grace and Dave. In fact, that made the five pop singers a little uneasy.
Grace sat at the front of the room next to Dave, somewhat questioning her decisions leading up to this meeting. She knew Dave was up to something, but surprisingly, what he had proposed as a “fix” for their problem seemed harmless enough. She looked really hard into everything he had said, and while she knew this wasn’t just from the goodness of his heart, she couldn’t find anything that seemed suspicious in his proposal. That fact, in and of itself, made her suspicious enough.
Standing at the head of the room, Grace raised her hand in an attempt to silence the occupants. Besides the member of *NSYNC, a few crew members, the PR director, and some other key players sat awaiting her announcement.
“Thank you all for coming on such short notice, I apologize for that fact. It has come to my attention that some things have been happening on this tour that really shouldn’t be…”
Justin sat straighter in his chair at that statement. Now he was really curious about this meeting, and he was hoping that Grace was going to put a stop to the madness that had taken over this tour.
“I have been back in Orlando trying to handle the financial aspects, as well as other things, concerning this tour, and I left my assistant to handle things. Unfortunately, it seems that things have still been falling apart. The two of us have put our heads together and decided that in order to boost moral for the last week and a half of this tour, as well as get everyone back on track, we’re going to be taping the last days of this tour for an MTV special.”
A slight murmur went through the crowd, and the tones were distinctly upset.
“I know...I know that this is sudden, and will come as an invasion of privacy to some of you, but Dave and I felt it was a good way to push ticket sales and to keep everyone on task. There’s nothing like being caught on tape to make someone clean up their act.” Her attempt at humor was lost to most everyone in the room, and Grace started to sweat.
The only reason she had gone along with Dave’s plan was because she really did see it as a way to gain more ticket sales, and hopefully bring everyone back together for the last few days of this tour. Things had really fallen apart while she was gone, and she felt that bringing in cameras would keep crew members, as well as band members, on their toes. She knew she was going to be met with some flak, but she didn’t think it would be this bad.
“No one ran this by us first, this is something that should have been discussed, not decided.” JC’s strong voice carried over the din of idle chatter, and Grace looked desperately in his direction.
“I understand that this is something that should have been taken up with you all prior to any decisions being made, but I wasn’t informed of this taping until this afternoon. Dave had already signed a contract with MTV, and we are now obligated to follow that contract.”
The noise level rose a little higher at that announcement, and Grace knew that this was not going to be a pleasant end of tour. As suspicious as it was that Dave had gone through with all of these plans without anyone else’s consent, she was still bound by that contract. She was hoping that they could just buck up and deal with the cameras for a few days, and then the tour would be over and life could go back to normal.
Justin sat back in his chair and threw heavy glances in Dave’s direction. He knew the man was up to something else, and from the looks on his band mates’ faces, and even on Grace’s face, they knew too.
After the logistics of the taping were announced and most everyone had cleared the room, Justin approached Grace quietly, hoping to catch her alone.
“Grace? Can I talk to you please?” The young singer looked completely frazzled, and Grace felt horrible for having to thrust him into the lights of a camera crew on top of everything else he was going through.
“Sure…” She looked around and was satisfied that they were indeed alone before patting the seat of a chair and inviting him to join her. “What’s up?”
“I know…I know that you and Dave are close, and I know that he’s your assistant, but is there any way you can get that man fired?”
Grace bit back a laugh, knowing that Justin was being serious. “Well, I think it’s a little late for that to happen. What’s going on here Justin? I come back and this tour is in ruins, and it looks like you’re the one that got caught under all the rubble…and where’s Jamie?”
At the mention of the girl’s name Justin’s shoulders seemed to slump and straighten all in one motion.
“She’s at my house in Orlando. Some things had happened after the death of her father and I had hired an investigator to follow Dave. He found out, and as a way to…ah…settle, I guess, he sent Jamie home.” Sparks flew from the young man’s eyes as he relayed the event, and Grace felt her own surge of anger.
“What? He made Jamie leave? He has no right to do that…” She trailed off in a heated string of explicatives, suddenly aware that her assistant was playing puppet master to this group. (no pun intended).
“He’s up to something again Grace, I don’t know what, but I know that he’s not happy just having Jamie away from here…he won’t be satisfied until I’m really hurting, although I don’t know what more the man could do to me.”
Grace stared at Justin for a while, feeling hurt for the man in front of her. Gone was the fiery anger that she witnessed when first arriving, and here was a defeated man that wasn’t up for much more of a beating. She sighed and placed a hand on his shoulder.
“I’m really sorry for all of this Justin. I can tell you that Dave had no right to kick Jamie from this tour, and now that I’m back she’s more than welcome to re-join you for the last few days. About this MTV thing…there’s not much I can do, and while I’m suspicious, I do think that it’s a good idea on the whole. It will be kinda crappy for the last few days, but it should help with sales and over all ratings. I know that it should have been talked over with you all first, but again, Dave made the decision without even asking me. There’s nothing I can do to stop it, but I will be here for the remainder of the tour to make sure that nothing else goes wrong.”
Justin managed a small smile, not really hearing much of Grace’s speech after she mentioned that Jamie could come back. If he’d known it were as simple as asking Grace, he would have done it a hell of a lot sooner, but he was just happy that he could have his girl back by his side. Thanking Grace for the talk he rushed from the room in search of his phone so he could call his girl and tell her the news.
Jamie sat outside on one of two rope swings that someone had hung from a large oak tree, slowing moving back and fourth with the breeze. Today she had gone to see the lawyer about her father’s will, and was very surprised to find out that she was left with a $250,000 life insurance policy that she previously knew nothing about. Apparently, because Allen had worked at WEG and for Johnny, he had a life insurance policy that was now all Jamie’s. Although it was nice to think that she had something to sustain her, she really felt that no amount of money was worth the loss of her father.
The past few days had been really difficult for her. Being away from Justin and the craziness of the tour had given her time to reflect on things, and she found herself missing her father more and more, as well as thinking about how he had died and all the mysterious circumstanced that had followed. She really wanted to get to the bottom of everything, and it was something she had talked about with the lawyer, but now the matter was out of her hands and she just had to wait. It was this waiting that was torturing her.
So many questions filed through her head at an alarming rate. Was she doing the right thing? Had she moved on too quickly? Was she putting her life on hold to be with Justin?
These were only a few of the thoughts that Jamie entertained as the days stretched on. She knew that she loved Justin, and she was content in their relationship, but now that she had been by herself for a few days, she had come to realize that she had no life outside of him. She had packed up and left Tennessee to be with him in Orlando, and the one person that tied her to her old life was gone. That thought made Jamie feel more alone and isolated than she had ever felt before.
Sighing, Jamie dug her toes into the soft dirt under the swing and gave herself a small push. She had a lot of things to figure out, a lot of questions that she needed to answer. Being away from Justin only made it easier to think, and so far she hadn’t figured out if that was a good thing or not.
A sound from the direction of the house made her look up, and she saw Lynn coming across the yard with two glasses of lemonade.
“Hey darlin’, how are you holding up?” Lynn handed Jamie the glass before sitting down on the swing next to her.
“All right I guess. Today just threw me for a loop, and made me do a lot of thinking.” She took a sip of her drink and offered a small smile to the older woman.
“Thinking about what?”
“Well…” She let out a small sigh and traced patterns in the condensation on the glass, “For one thing, I’ve really been missing my Daddy. Being here just makes it seem more real I guess. On tour I could pretend that it hadn’t happened, get caught up in the craziness of the tour. Now all I have time to do is think, and I just…I really miss him…” She trailed off with a sniffle, desperately trying to hold back the tears that were threatening to spill. Lynn set her glass on the ground before taking Jamie’s and doing the same with it. She then helped the younger girl up before embracing her in a tight hug.
“I know you miss him Darlin’, and I know that this has got to be so hard for you, but I want you to know that you can talk to me whenever you need to.”
Jamie nodded and wiped the tears as best she could. Lynn grabbed both drinks off the ground and lead Jamie into the house where she sat her at the table.
“Sometimes…sometimes I wonder if I’m doing the right thing by being with Justin.” The statement was hard to hear, but Lynn picked it up quite easily. The older woman set fresh glasses of lemonade on the table along with a platter of cookies.
“What do you mean honey?”
“Well, I feel like I’m just following him around. I’ve got nothing of my own going on right now, and sometimes I wonder if I shouldn’t be doing more.”
“Do you want to be doing more?”
“Yes…” Jamie breathed out, “I feel like I stopped living life when I heard about my dad. I mean, I know I had been trying to take some classes and things, but after he died…I just…I just stopped. I let myself hide in Justin and his life…and now I feel like something’s missing.” She looked up at Lynn with sad eyes, and Lynn’s heart broke for this girl.
“What do you want to do Jamie? What would make you happy? Because you know that Justin, and even myself, we would support you in any decision you wanted to make. He just wants to see you happy, Darlin’, and if he knew that you felt like you were being held back, well, he would be the first to ask you what you needed.”
Jamie sat silent for a moment, letting the thought soak in.
“I don’t know what I want, I mean…the first thing that comes to mind is music, but…I don’t know if I could do that without my Daddy…”
Lynn reached out and grabbed the girl’s hand, giving it a squeeze.
“You just think about it for a while, ok? Don’t push yourself to make any moves now, no one’s going to rush you. Have you talked to Justin today?”
Jamie shook her head ‘no’ and Lynn smiled before grabbing the phone off the counter and handing it to her. “Go give him a call, he’s been dying to talk to you.”
~*~
Justin jumped off of the couch he’d been sitting on when he heard the familiar ring of his cell phone. Grabbing it off the table he hurriedly opened it up to receive the call.
“Hello?”
“Hey you…” Jamie’s soft voice came over the line and Justin sank back onto the couch with a contented sigh.
“Hey James…how are you?”
“I’m all right. Your mom and I went to the lawyer today…”
“Yeah, I know. I talked to my mom earlier, she told me about the policy…are you OK with everything?”
Jamie smiled slightly at the concern in his voice. “I’m as OK as I can be I guess, I’m really not sure how to handle it all right now. It’s kind of a big shock.”
“Yeah…I’m sure it is. Hey, I’ve got some news for you.” He excitedly changed the subject and Jamie almost laughed at the childishness of his voice.
“You do, do you?”
“Uh huh. Grace is back on tour with us, and she said that Dave had no right to kick you off and that you can come back for the last week if you want!”
The silence that he was met with was not the response Justin had expected from his girlfriend.
“Is this a silence from shock? Too happy to say anything? C’mon James…you’re killing me here.”
Jamie cleared her throat before deciding to answer.
“Justin…as much as I miss you and love you, I really don’t know if that’s a good idea.”
“What?” To say he was a little disappointed at her reaction would be an understatement, but he really just didn’t understand why should wouldn’t want to come back.
“Oh don’t get me wrong, I would love to come out there, but…” She sighed and shifted in her seat, “Do you really think that Dave wouldn’t still try something? I know that Grace is back, but honestly, I wouldn’t put it past the guy to still connive and attempt to hurt us in some way. And besides, I still have some things here that I need to take care of now, with this lawyer and all that.”
Justin shrugged and let out a small whine.
“But I really, really, really, really miss you!” Jamie laughed at his statement and could almost picture the pout forming on his face.
“I know, I miss you too, more than I can describe. But wouldn’t you like our first night back together to be in your own house without twenty other people running around at any given time? We can have privacy, and time to do anything we want…”
Justin groaned into the phone. “James, you’re evil.”
She laughed and smiled the first genuine smile of the day. “I know. I’m sorry that I don’t want to see you, but I really think it’s better if I stay. And it’s only 9 more days now…”
“Yeah, you’re right. Oh, I didn’t tell you that they’re sending in camera crews from MTV to tape the last week, think it’ll boost morale or something, I dunno. I guess it’s probably better if you don’t come back now, because the cameras are gonna be all over this place and we probably wouldn’t get any privacy.”
“And as much as I love you, I don’t think I want to deal with press. So far people have been pretty clueless about me, and I’d like to keep it that way.”
“People think you’re Lance’s cousin…you know, now that I think about it you do kinda look like him….”
Jamie laughed at the thought and the two talked a little while longer before Justin had to go warm up. It was still going to be rough waiting for him to get home, but now Jamie had a lot of things to think about and she needed a little time to herself. She wanted to figure out what it is she needed to do in life to make her happy, and she didn’t want to be dependent on Justin for much longer. She needed a life of her own, and now was the time to start figuring out what that life would be.
