When the nausea finally subdued, Justin blinked trying to figure out where he was.

It took him some time to recognize the folded chairs behind him, the gray wall and the ‘do not pass this point’ signs.

He was backstage. And if the big footballs painted on the ground were a clue, he was at the Superbowl.

Justin pinched himself. It was not a dream. But if this wasn’t a dream, it meant that last time hadn’t been a dream either. He had really traveled to the past.

Justin sat on the ground for a moment, listening to Aerosmith, trying to figure out things.

If last time hadn’t been a dream, then he had caused the changes on reality. When he told Chris that Lance was gay, he somehow had made it possible for Chris and Lance to end up together, and destroyed his own life in the process.

Quickly, trying not to be noticed, Justin got on his feet and walked away from the stage where he could hear Aerosmith finishing Jaded. Soon, he would hear JC and Joey, and he really didn’t want to be around for that. Last time, meeting Chris had created the change. This time, Justin was not going to risk being seen by anyone in *N Sync.

He had two options. He could try and find the way to go back to that time where Lance and Chris were living together and his album kept being pushed back, or try to fix things. Fixing things sounded like a good idea, although a bit complicated. If he changed something here, then there was the slight possibility that Chris wouldn’t meet with him in the future, so he wouldn’t out Lance and Chris and Lance wouldn’t end up together.

That sounded like a good plan, except that he had no idea what to change.

He started walking away, checking his wallet. He had a couple hundred dollars and his credit card, which would be of no help if he stayed longer than last time. His account didn’t exist *yet*, so he couldn’t get money out of it. And one of his hundred had been printed in 2004, so that was no good either.

If he couldn’t find the way home before the day was over, he was going to be in deep trouble.

“There!” Justin froze as he saw Nick Carter and AJ McLean on the end of the aisle. Nick was pointing at him. “If you’re such an irresistible catch, I bet you a thousand dollars that you can’t seduce one of *his* bandmates!”

Justin barely had time to register Nick’s words before the world rippled around him again.

*           *           *

Justin opened his eyes and pushed his album away before starting do dry heave. There was nothing in his stomach to throw up, so this time, his carpet was spared.

Once he got the urge to vomit controlled, he drew a deep breath and looked at the album again. The picture of the Superbowl had changed. Chris wasn’t looking at them, he was looking somewhere outside the picture.

Panicking, Justin flipped the pages forward until he found the Challenge of the Children picture that had started it all.

At first sight, it looked as if it was back to normal, in the order that Justin remembered. Chris, himself, Joey, Lance, JC. It wasn’t until he focused on the still figure of Chris when he noticed the new change.

There was a sixty nine tattooed on Chris’s right wrist.

“Oh, boy,” he muttered, before passing out.

*           *           *

Justin woke up in his bed, feeling disoriented. Mostly, it was because he was sure he had gone to sleep on the couch, next to his photo albums, but there was also something different about his bedroom, something unfamiliar, that he couldn’t pinpoint. Until he opened the door he remembered went to a closet only to find his bathroom.

When he went down to have breakfast, he found again a note from Cameron, reminding him of the meeting at Jive, at ten. Justin frowned. He remembered the meeting of the day before, when he had managed to make Lance and Chris live a wonderful romance, and he didn’t want to think about what was expecting him now. Morosely, he turned on the radio, half expecting to hear the DJ say that Lance had a new album coming.

But the sound that filled his house wasn’t Lance’s voice, but his own, singing Sexy Back, and so, Justin relaxed.

Maybe he had managed to put things back to normal, Chris’s new tattoo non-withstanding.  Maybe the tattoo and his house layout were the only changes.

Feeling a lot better with himself, he went upstairs to his newly discovered bathroom to take a shower.

*           *           *

Justin arrived to the Jive’s office building a little before ten, still feeling confused.  Cameron had called him around nine to tell him that she was going to be on the recording studio for some work for Shrek III, and that she was going to be back home around midnight. Justin agreed to everything she said, although inside he was confused. It was one thing to travel back in time through photographs, another very different one was to relieve the same day three times.

It made sense in his head.

He went directly to Johnny’s office, not paying attention to the lobby at Jive. He didn’t want to see the album covers, didn’t want to entertain the idea that maybe something else was wrong besides his tendency to repeat a meeting daily and Cameron changing jobs every time he woke up.

Johnny’s secretary let him in the office, and Justin almost fainted when instead of the tall black man he was met by the icy stare of Theresa Rourke, his former PR agent.

“Justin, hi, I’m glad to see you’re on time,” Theresa called him in, pointing to a chair for him to sit down. “Look, I know you’ve been working with JC for his new cd, but we’re late in our schedule with your album, so do you think you can hurry the studio work? We need that new single now if we want to release it in November.”

“Wait, November? First single?” Justin shook his head, confused. “Theresa, I just heard Sexy Back on the radio. That was the first single.”

“Justin, dear, Sexy Back was the first single of your last album. The one we released last year,” Theresa explained really slowly. “You promised me that this time we would get the new album on time for Christmas shopping. Do you have a title yet?”

“Not… really,” Justin stammered. He had no idea what was going on. He could deal with a delayed album. A new album, was too much. “I haven’t had the time to go through the possible ones.”

“Well, don’t delay it anymore. I don’t want another No Strings Attached in our hands,” Theresa smile was cold. “And while we’re at it, I hope you finish your work with JC as soon as possible. His album is delayed and I don’t want to push it to next year.”

“Sure thing,” Justin managed to say, sounding normal. “Next week at the worst. Anything else? Chris needs help?”

“Justin, are you feeling all right?” Theresa frowned. “You haven’t asked about Chris since… I think three years ago. You know he’s not with Jive.”

“I just, yeah,” Justin shook his head. So Chris didn’t have an album out yet, which was perfectly normal. There would be no eye-liner wearing Chris in this timeline. “Just thinking of calling the guys.”

“I’d like it better if you stopped drinking before coming to our meetings,” Theresa pointed out. “Now go. I have another meeting and you have some producing work to finish.”

*           *           *

Justin closed his eyes, grabbing the wheel of his car at the Jive’s building’s parking lot. Seeing Theresa instead of Johnny had been unnerving. After he left her office, he checked the directory to find that she was the new president of the company, his manager, JC’s manager and Nick Carter’s manager.

He didn’t find the Backstreet Boys’s name on the company current directory.

Justin shook his head. One thing was to fuck up his own career –and he really had to go home and find his notes for a third album he didn’t remember- but if he had somehow managed to make the Backstreet Boys disappear before their last album, it would’ve been bad. He liked Never Gone.

He pulled out his cell phone, and dialed memory five, Chris’s phone.

Last time, calling Chris had been the best way to find out what was going on. Justin hoped this time it wouldn’t be an exception.

“Hello?” Only that Chris didn’t answer the phone this time either.

“Nick? What are you doing with Chris’s phone?” He asked, more confused than before. One thing was having one of his group answering Chris’s phone, but having Nick Carter on the other side of the line was just unnerving. Justin closed his eyes and wished that it didn’t mean the same thing as it had meant last time.

“Justin, you called my phone,” Nick’s voice sounded tired. “And I have no idea where Chris is, and I’m sure he doesn’t want to see you.”

“What do you mean, he’s not going to see me?” Justin frowned to the phone. This timeline was a lot weirder than the one before.

“He and AJ had another fight, and Chris is not going to be on the mood to hear you telling him ‘I told you so’, so fuck off, will you?” Nick explained carefully, whispering.

“Nick…”

“Justin, please!” This time Nick sounded angry, even when he kept whispering, as if he didn’t want AJ to listen. “You haven’t talked to Chris in years, you never cared about AJ, so if you want to be a friend, just fuck off and get lost again.”

“I…” Justin stopped, trying to think fast. Things were really weird in this timeline. “I’m sorry, ok. Whatever I said, I’m sorry. Just tell Chris I’m looking for him, please.”

“I won’t,” Nick’s tone was positively freezing as he hung up the phone.

*           *           *

Figuring that there was nothing to be gained punching numbers at random, and since his cell phone memory’s listing wasn’t the same as it was before, Justin decided to keep the schedule he remembered. If nothing else, JC could have some good advice, just like last time.

JC had been waiting for him at the studio entrance, and Justin sighed. JC looked the same as the day before. Same short hair, same pink shirt. It *was* the same day as before, apparently.

“JC, we need to talk,” he said, not even bothering to turn on the equipment. JC sighed sadly.

“This is when you tell me that after all, we can’t still be friends?” JC asked. “Because you know that’s not true. I forgave you. If you give them time, Joey, Lance and Chris will forgive you too.”

“What did I do this time?” Justin groaned. Last time it had been him not supporting Lance’s and Chris’s relationship. He couldn’t begin to guess why this time everyone hated him.

“What do you mean?” JC frowned. Apparently, the talk wasn’t following the right script for either of them.

“Look, C, I know I’m going to sound insane, but please, listen to me,” Justin let out a deep breath. “I think I’ve been traveling in time and changing our present accidentally.”

JC didn’t even blink at that, encouraging Justin to continue.

“Yesterday I woke up to find that Lance and Chris were living together, Chris had two albums out, I had only one, and everyone thought Lance was the golden guy in Hollywood or something. Today? I have no idea what’s going on today. And before the Lance and Chris love fest? It was normal. Lance was with his boyfriend, my *second* album had been released, we were friends.  I’m going crazy.”

“It couldn’t have been normal if Lance had a boyfriend,” JC pointed out. “You know he got married last year.”

“Please tell me gay marriage is allowed here,” Justin closed his eyes. He could live with being more famous, and he could live with Nick Carter hating him –-he was not going to think about the possibility of Chris and AJ being together. But Lance had been happy with Reichen, happier than Justin had ever seen him. And Justin suspected it was not just because they were happy and in love, but because Lance was finally being true to himself. If he had destroyed that, he really had to find the way to fix it.

“Lance is not gay, at least not that we know.” JC shook his head and Justin couldn’t help but feel that he was missing something important there. “How do you know you’re time traveling?”

“You believe me?” Justin raised his eyebrow. He thought it would take a little more to convince JC that he was telling the truth.

“It sounds like a good story,” JC shrugged. “I wish I could travel back in time, sometimes.”

Justin sighed. JC was humoring him, and Justin couldn’t blame him. If things had been reversed, he wouldn’t believe his story either.

“It’s a pain in the ass,” Justin grumbled. “I keep changing everything! My career, your career, *N Sync! And I have no idea what I did!”

“Well, if you happen to travel back again?” JC offered his advice, smiling. “Do not touch anything. That’s the safest bet.”

*           *           *

Justin decided that this time, before going home, he was going to get to the bottom of the problem. JC had told him a bit about the differences between what he remembered, and what had happened, and Justin definitively didn’t like them.

*N Sync had separated right after the United We Stand concert, and it had been Justin’s idea. Apparently, Justin had yelled at Chris about Chris’s desire to come out, and things had gone downhill from there. Justin hoped his alternate self had freaked over Chris dating AJ McLean, and not over Chris being bi.

It explained why Lance was still in the closet, though.

His first stop was Nick’s house that was thankfully still where he remembered. Nick had to know the whole story, because JC didn’t.

Thanks to his alternate self’s outburst, Chris didn’t talk about his boyfriend to the others. The only thing JC knew was that AJ had left the Backstreet Boys shortly after that, and was theoretically part of Chris’s band.

“What the fuck are you doing here? I told you not to come,” Nick didn’t let him in. He just yelled at him through the outer door’s interphone.

“Nick, I just need to ask AJ one thing and I’ll leave you alone,” Justin pleaded. He hated pleading, but unless he had his answer, he couldn’t leave. “Well, two things.”

“AJ is asleep right now.” Nick’s voice sounded tired. “Ask *me* if you want.”

Justin passed his hand through his hair, frustrated. He wanted to see AJ, he wanted to see how much he had fucked things up. AJ hadn’t been a close friend, but he was a friend. Justin remembered quite well how much he had changed after rehab.

After rehab. There was something there that Justin was forgetting, but he had no time to try and remember it.

“Why did AJ and Chris started dating?” He finally asked, deciding that it was better to go straight to the point since Nick wasn’t going to open the door. Both times he had changed time, Chris had ended up gay. The first time, Justin could admit it had something to do with him telling Chris that Lance was gay. This time, he wasn’t sure how his traveling could have affected Chris this way. He hadn’t even *seen* Chris.

“Why do *you* want to know?” Nick practically growled. “You and Kevin made your feelings on the subject quite clear four years ago.”

Justin’s mind was racing. Chris hadn’t seen him, not this time since he was performing. But AJ *had*. Nick and AJ had seen him, just before he was hurled back to this present.

“Nick… did it had anything to do with the stupid bet you made with him back at the Superbowl?” Justin guessed. It was a wild guess, and he hoped he was wrong. But as long as it was a possibility, he had to know.

Nick didn’t answer, but the door finally opened so Justin drove to the entrance, wondering exactly what he had done.

“How did you know about that?” Nick asked, coming down the steps of the main door. Justin had to brace himself not to flinch. Nick looked bigger than what he remembered. Maybe it was just that he seemed as if he had been working out non stop for four, five years, but he looked intimidating. “Did you tell Chris anything about it?”

“I haven’t seen Chris in a long time,” Justin answered. It was sort of true. He hadn’t seen *this* Chris, and the last Chris he had seen wasn’t the one Nick knew. “And I’m not going to tell him that his boyfriend seduced him for a bet. I just wanted to know.”

Nick seemed to deflate hearing Justin, because he sighed, leaning against the car. “You didn’t? Hell, I, shit. I’m sorry then. I shouldn’t have yelled at you.”

“Nick, what happened?”

“Chris found out, I think, AJ hasn’t been exactly forthcoming,” Nick shook his head. “I think AJ told him, and doesn’t remember he did.”

Justin nodded, shocked. He didn’t need to ask, but it looked as if AJ had never been in rehab this time around. Which sucked, because it meant that just by being there, Justin had managed to seriously fuck up his group and the Backstreet Boys’ lives.

“Do you know where Chris is?” Justin asked, trying to calm himself down. If Chris had just recently found out that his partner of at least three years had been toying with him? He was going to need a friend.

“Why do you want to know? I thought you didn’t want anything to do with them,” Nick asked, narrowing his eyes. Justin shook his head.

“Look, I was an idiot, all right? I want… no, I need to make amends with him. Can you tell me where Chris is?”

“Last time he and AJ fought, he went to Joey’s,” Nick told him. “But I swear, Justin, if you make this worse, I’ll personally will kick your ass.”

Justin nodded. “Trust me Nick- if I make it worse, I’ll kick my own ass.”

*           *           *

“What the fuck are you doing here?” Justin flinched upon seeing Chris’s angry face. He had seen Chris angry before, just not this angry, and never at him. Whatever his alternate self had said and done, it was obviously worse than what he had suspected.

The funny thing was that Chris didn’t look very different from *his* Chris, the one he remembered. He was still wearing his hair long, he was still wearing a bandana. The main difference was that there were a lot more tattoos visible under his t-shirt.

“I came to apologize,” Justin said quickly. It couldn’t hurt, really. If he didn’t found the way to trigger a new trip to the past, he at least could try and salvage his friendship with Chris. Even if it took him years of groveling, he guessed it was worth a shot.

“A little too late, don’t you think?” Chris’s eyes narrowed as he closed the door behind on Justin’s face.

Justin realized that he had really fucked things up.

*           *           *

Justin drove as fast as he could to his house and pulled out the photo album from its place again.

It had to be the album. It was the only logical explanation.  He had to find a way to go back, and stop himself from being seen by AJ and Nick. He opened the album quickly to the Superbowl picture and stared.

Nothing happened.

He focused on the picture, *willing* the ripple to come, but nothing happened. That particular door seemed to be closed.

Frustrated, Justin sighed, and flipped the pages back. Maybe he couldn’t go back to the same point in time, since he had already changed it. Which meant he needed to find a new door.

In the page opposite to the Superbowl picture, he found the Billboard awards one. He remembered that one, when wardrobe had almost had a heart attack thanks to JC’s pants, and Kathie Griffin had handcuffed herself to him. In the picture, they were smiling at the camera, JC’s hand on Chris’s shoulder, all of them holding their statues except for JC. It had been a good night and Justin couldn’t imagine that, thanks to his stupidity, in less than a year they wouldn’t be even talking to each other.

Suddenly, the award that Justin was holding flashed, and the world around him rippled.

Justin couldn’t help but feel grateful.

In the distance, his phone was ringing again.