Justin shook his head before trying to figure out where he was. It looked like the back alley to the Planet Hollywood, and he could see the flash lights and the photographers pass before him.

He had to be careful; he didn’t want to be seen before he could put his plan in progress. He knew that talking to Joey was useless. Joey wouldn’t listen to someone who *looked* like an older Justin Timberlake, especially not about saving a baby who wouldn’t be born until March, the next year. This Joey still wasn’t a father.

And if he tried to talk with Joey, and any of the others saw him, he would be back to square one. No, he had to remain hidden and thank the stars his *voice* hadn’t changed that much, and that he had never changed his cell phone number, and that he had Nick’s number on speed dial, the last one in his cell memory.

“If you have this number, you know who this is. Leave a message, I’ll get back to you.” Nick’s monotonous voice said, sounding a lot younger than Justin cared to remember said. It was the answering machine that Justin had been counting on getting.

“Nick? This is Justin. Look, I’m maybe a little drunk, but I think you guys could help Joey out, you know?  With the baby and all, maybe Brian could give him some advice, keep the family together and all that shit. Call me, right? Just don’t feel insulted if I don’t actually remember this phone call.”

He hung up quickly, waiting for the familiar nauseating feeling, but it didn’t come. Puzzled, he looked at his phone.

“Why am I not jumping back?”  he asked to the LDS screen. “I called Nick! That’s different! Why am I still here?”

But as he finished the question the world around him rippled once again. As it happened, he guessed the ripple had waited until Nick called his younger self.

Justin had time to smile. His plan was in motion.

*           *           *

Justin smiled when the floor didn’t move under his feet. He was back at his house, not on a tourbus.

That was a bit unexpected, but he could work with that. Even if they were no longer a group, as long as Chris and JC were together, and Kelly and Briahna alive, he could work with the new reality.

Whatever it might bring.

Before going to bed he decided to check on his refrigerator, to see if Cameron had put a note for him.

At least, he hoped it was Cameron. He couldn’t imagine another reality married to Britney.

But there was no note on the refrigerator, no signs that he lived with someone. In fact, now that he paid attention to the house, it looked emptier than before.

“Oh, boy,” He muttered, and closed his eyes.

*           *           *

Justin woke up on his bed, and blinked a couple of times. He had no clear idea of where to go. If he had a meeting, or if the group was together. Time-traveling was confusing, alternate realities were even more so. And if he decided to stay in this reality, whatever it had, he had to start figuring out what was different.

Justin arrived at the Jive’s office building a little before ten, with a plan ready. If there was a meeting, he would just nod and agree with whatever they told him. If there wasn’t a meeting, he would just say he needed to ask Johnny about the upcoming ‘thing’, which was nebulous enough to work. He was not leaving without knowing where his career stood.

The first sign that something was seriously wrong were the covers on the Jive’s building lobby. Once again, he could see Keli, Outkast, Too Short, and Pink’s. But the new one was disturbing. It was a photo of Nick Carter, looking mean at the camera, dressed all in black. The cover read ‘Not your toy’.

A second solo Nick Carter album was definitely not what Justin expected to see.

Johnny’s secretary told him that Johnny was busy, but that she could schedule him a meeting next month if he wanted. That was the second sign, but Justin stayed with his plan. He grinned, thanked her for her attention and left the building without much fuss.

No one seemed to care that he was there. It was sign three that there was something seriously fucked up with the new reality. Still, Justin decided not to turn back to his house and try and find another timeline. He wanted to see if Chris and JC were happy.

*           *           *

Fully aware that he was too early to meet JC at the recording studio, Justin drove aimlessly for a while, listening to the radio.

The more he listened, the more he worried.

Apparently, *Nick Carter* had a second solo album now, *and* an upcoming reality show. Justin vaguely remembered having heard about the reality show once, talking to Lance, back in his original timeline, but back then he had been sure it was just a ‘well, maybe I’ll do it’ thing, and not a sure deal.

There was also the fact that people seemed to care about Nick, and there was no mention at all of the Backstreet Boys.

One DJ, however, mentioned that there were rumors of a fourth *N Sync record. That calmed Justin’s fears a little. *If* *N Sync was still together, then it made sense that Johnny hadn’t seen him alone. Even if scheduling a meeting in a month was strange.

Gathering his courage, he pulled out his cell phone, and dialed memory five. He hoped it was still Chris’s phone.

.

“’lo?” And again, it was Lance. Justin grimaced. Chris with Lance had been successful, but in *that* reality, Justin’s career was stalled. He hoped he wasn’t back in a similar one.

“Lance? I… I thought I dialed Chris’s cell,” he said, trying to sound natural.  He had learned not to question reality out loud.

“You were trying to get Chris’s cell? What happened? Did they finally break it off and no one told me?”  Lance asked him, amused.

“No, I just got confused,” Justin answered carefully. Asking Lance why he wasn’t supposed to call Chris was probably a bad idea because then he would have to explain why he didn’t remember that he was not talking at Chris. “But, hey, how’s everything going for you?”

“Same as it was going last week,” Lance laughed. It was good, Justin guessed, since his friend didn’t seem ready to tear his head out. “Look, I was going to call you anyway. I really would like for you to come to Reichen’s book party, so can I save you a place?”

“Sure, I’ll be there,” Justin lied. At least now he knew that Lance was still with the right boyfriend. Now he just had to figure out why he wasn’t talking to Chris if Chris was dating someone. He just hoped that someone was JC. Things would work out fine. “Look, I have to go. I told JC I would meet him today, but I’ll call you back.”

“JC is going to see you?” Lance sounded surprised. “I thought he was going to keep his head inside the studio until he finished his album. Well, say hello to him for me, ok?”

“I’ll do that.” Justin hung up, puzzled. Sure, JC was supposed to be on the studio, but the way Lance had said it sounded as if he didn’t expect Justin to join him in there.

Trying not to panic, Justin stepped on the accelerator and headed in the direction of the recording studio.

*           *           *

The definitive sign for Justin that there was something seriously wrong with the new reality was when the security guard at the recording studio told him that he was not on the list of approved people to come in. It took three phone calls, and one more mix up with his cell phone memory that made him call his mom when he thought he was calling JC, for him to locate JC so his friend could fix the mess.

Seeing JC with his same old pink t-shirt and his Leo necklace was a relief. Because if JC was wearing his pink shirt, it meant that he still was on the day *before* Kelly and Briahna had their accident. Justin could work with that, even if he had no idea of what was going on.

“Hey, J! What do I owe the honor?” JC asked, hugging him as if he hadn’t seen him in weeks. For Justin it was weird because he felt as if he had seen JC every day for a week.

“You’re never going to believe what’s going on,” Justin said, shaking his head. In every timeline, JC listened to him and he prayed that this time would be no different. “But first tell me, are you dating someone?”

“You know I’m not, Justin, I haven’t been in the mood of meeting someone ever since, you know, her.” JC looked down at the studio carpet, looking defeated.

Justin couldn’t help but curse under his breath. The image before him was a huge contrast with the happy JC he had seen, practically climbing over Chris.

“Ok, I didn’t know that,” Justin said, looking at his hands to gather his courage. “Look, can we get into the studio? I need some privacy to tell you this.”

“Sure, we were just finished now.”

Trying not to dwell on the fact that JC hadn’t invited him to look over the tracks, Justin followed his friend into the studio booth he was using.  Once inside, he took a deep breath and began telling his story.

“I’ve been jumping back in time and accidentally changing the future,” he said, feeling pretty proud of himself for saying everything that JC needed to know in just one sentence.

“That sounds interesting,” JC smiled. It didn’t look as if he believed him, though.

“I know it sounds like madness, but please, JC, you got to believe me, I just came back from a future where we were still *N Sync! Seven albums, packed stadiums, everything. ” And you were dating Chris. But Justin was not going to say that out loud until he was sure that Chris and JC were gay in this timeline.

If they weren’t, well, there was always the option of enough alcohol to drown half of Florida, a party at his house and a closed door. Knowing Chris and JC, a couple of hours would be enough.

Justin was pretty proud of that plan, but first he had to figure out if this particular timeline was good to stay in. He really wanted something like the one before.

“J, I know you took the break up harder than anyone else, but it’s ok. We all know that one day we can get back together.”

“Before that? I was in one when we hadn’t really broke up, but we weren’t together. And I had four albums out. And the night before? Chris had an album out and was getting a second one ready.”

JC looked at him, blinking. “You’re serious.”

“I know it sounds insane. The first time I thought I was dreaming, but that last one was…  It was good, C. Really good.”

“I bet it was, if we had managed to hold on for five more years.” JC was smiling, and that was encouragement enough. Justin knew he could convince his friend that he was telling the truth. “You want to go back to that one?”

“I can’t. I mean, I would, if I could go back just one day. Things got ugly there and I… I tried to fix it again. So I ended up here.” Justin sighed. He didn’t want to tell JC what had happened. “There was something that happened, and I thought that if I just changed one thing, the rest would stay the same. But it didn’t so, now we’re here.”

“It sounds like a good dream,” JC told him and Justin groaned. It didn’t matter if JC didn’t believe it was real, as long as he had good advice, he guessed.

“We could have it back,” Justin said after a while. “Sure, it wouldn’t be the same since we’re not together here, but we could have it back. We just need to, you know, have a group meeting and go from there.”

“You know I’ve been always up for it,” JC laughed. “I’m glad you’re ready to talk to Chris, though. How long has it been? Three years?”   

“I have no idea, JC,” Justin said. At least with JC he could be truthful. “Last night I was in another reality, remember? Why did I stop talking to Chris anyway? He’s my best friend!”

“J, that’s not funny.  I get that you want to talk to Chris again, but saying you don’t remember your fight, it’s not going to work.”

“I don’t know what I did, JC, I am telling the truth,” Justin passed his hand over his head, trying to think. “Look, maybe you’re right, and my time hopping was a dream. I can buy that. But I really *can’t* remember fighting with Chris, let alone not talking to him for three years.”

“You really don’t?” JC raised his eyebrow, incredulous.

“Not at all, hell, even before I dreamed I went back in time, I was fine with Chris. We had just seen each other at your birthday party, and everything was fine.”

“You didn’t go to my birthday party, J.” JC pointed out quietly. “Because he was going to be there.”

“We fought that bad?” Justin asked, biting his lip.

“You never forgave him for being with Nick, J.”

*           *           *

Justin was sitting on top of the kitchen counter, trying to figure out his thoughts.

After leaving JC at the studio, he had driven aimlessly for three hours, trying to figure out where he had gone wrong.

The first time he had changed something was when he had told Chris that Lance was gay. That had ended up sort of fine, at least for the guys. The second time, Nick had seen him, and things had been insane for the guys, even if he couldn’t complain. He still had no idea what he had done the last time. He hadn’t even seen the guys.

This time, he had talked to *Nick Carter*. *Nick Carter* who apparently was now dating Chris.

Why did he keep making his friends gay?

He had tried to talk to Chris. Unfortunately, Nick was in the middle of taping his reality show, and Chris was with him. No one had wanted to tell him where the house was unless he signed a release form that permitted the TV cameras to tape him, and Justin was sure that he *didn’t* want what he had to say to Chris taped for everyone to see.

Even if every minute that passed, he was convinced that he was not going to stay in this reality. It was too wrong for him.

But he needed a better plan than last time. He didn’t want to go back and find out he had caused Joey and Kelly’s divorce, or Chris joining a cult just because he didn’t think things through.

The problem was, he realized, that no matter what *he* did, there was a long period of time between whenever he jumped in to the present. A lot of things could happen in those five years where he had no idea what was going on. This time, for example, he had probably saved Kelly’s life, but since Nick had obviously called Justin, suddenly they had a Backstreet Boy around, and next thing Justin knew, he was coming into a present where Chris was dating Nick Carter. And Justified had tanked.

He had found the Jive memo, hidden among his multiple notes for songs. Apparently, *this* Justin hadn’t worked on music for almost three years. It was no surprise that Lance hadn’t believed that Justin would meet JC at the recording studio.

Whatever he did, he just had to keep Chris away from Nick Carter. Now or Never was the album that was supposed to tank, not Justified.

The doorbell interrupted his thoughts, and Justin went morosely to answer it. The way his luck was going, it was probably Britney claiming that he had volunteered to babysit.

“You look worse than what JC said,” Chris was standing on the doorway. Chris, looking pretty much like he had done in Justin’s original timeline, only thinner, and less tired. Perhaps a little happier, although Justin had never paid much attention to Chris’s smiles before all the jumping had started. But it was *Chris*, dressed in jeans and a Lee Roth t-shirt, wearing his hair long, covered with a bandana. *Chris* without eyeliner, without extra rings, without extra tattoos.

Justin couldn’t stop himself and hugged his friend as if he was his lifeline.

“Woah! JC wasn’t kidding,” Chris sounded surprised, but didn’t let go. “What’s wrong, Justin?”

“Everyone says you hate me,” Justin said, as if that explained everything. He still remembered that reality when Chris had closed the door to Joey’s house on his face. In *that* reality, Chris had hated him, but Justin hadn’t believed it until he saw it with his own eyes.

“No, last time I heard you hated me,” Chris half-joked. “Come on, J. Tell me, what’s so wrong that you went looking for *me* after all that happened?”

“You would never believe me,” Justin said, letting go of Chris. “In fact, it really doesn’t matter. Do you want to come in?”

*           *           *

Three hours later, Chris had accepted Justin’s cover story of a nervous breakdown.

“I woke up convinced it was 2000.” Justin made up his story while serving two beers for them. “And you weren’t in my phone list, so I freaked.”

“You must have been drinking a lot to forget six years, J.” Chris had sounded worried, but Justin was starting to get better at hiding the craziness surrounding his life, so he just waved with his glass.

“I’m mostly fine now,” he lied. “I just thought that it was stupid not to talk to you. We have been friends for so long and then what? I ruin it because you’re happy.”

The fact that he still didn’t know if Chris was really happy didn’t matter. With enough time, Chris would be sure to tell him.

“This was some nervous breakdown,” Chris joked. “J., don’t take this the wrong way but just a month ago you said that me appearing on Nick’s show was obviously just a publicity stunt.”

Ouch. That was, Justin thought, a little worse than what he had said about Lance and Chris. At least, when it had been Lance and Chris, Justin hadn’t talked to the press.

“Since when you and Nick have been together, again?” he asked. Deep down, he was hoping for Chris to say seven years. Only then he could believe he had been that childish. After all, he hadn’t reacted that badly to JC and Chris’s love story.

Except that then it had been JC. JC and Chris made sense. Chris and a Backstreet Boy, not so much.

“Three years, give or take,” Chris looked amused. “It was after his second tour, the one after the settlement.”

“The settlement?” Justin frowned. “What settlement?”

“Oh, you know. The one about his promotional stuff,” Chris waved the idea away. “Justin, are you completely sure you’re ok? You don’t need to see a doctor or anything?”

“I’m trying to mend our friendship and you think I’m crazy?” Justin tried to joke. He was starting to think that maybe he could still work on this timeline. Chris and Nick hadn’t been together that long. They could still break up.

Then it would be just a matter of pushing Chris into JC’s arms and the whole group back in the recording studio. It wouldn’t be just like the other timeline, but it could work.

“It’s just a little strange, don’t you think?” Chris looked at him, very seriously. There was a hard edge in Chris’s eyes that Justin couldn’t remember seeing there before. “You call Lance, ask about me. You went to see JC…”

“They called you?”  Justin looked up, puzzled. “That’s why you’re here?”

“J. You have been shutting us out for almost a year,” Chris said. “The only one you talk to now is Joey, and with him in Chicago, we…”

“Wait, what did you say?” Justin tried not to think about how apparently he had become the hermit in this timeline instead of Chris. He focused his attention on the fact that Joey was in Chicago. “When did Joey left for Chicago?”

“This afternoon, I think,” Chris frowned. “He, Kelly and Briahna called me from the airport. Why?”

“No way,” Justin didn’t listen to Chris. He got up from his couch and started pacing. “No way. I left *there* so Kelly wouldn’t be on the plane today. What time are they supposed to arrive?”

“I don’t know, Justin. And you’re starting to scare me.” Chris got up too, holding Justin by the shoulders, and looking into his eyes. “What’s wrong?”

Justin took a deep breath, looked straight into Chris eyes and braced himself before answering.

“I think I just killed Joey.”

“What?” Chris laughed nervously. “J, I just talked to him two hours ago.”

“You’ll see,” Justin didn’t listen, biting his lower lip. “Just before midnight, the phone will ring. And it will be Lance, or maybe C, and they’ll tell you that there was an accident. You’ll see.”

He couldn’t believe that was happening. The timeline was different, they weren’t going on tour, and there was no reason for Joey to be in Chicago. No reason at all.

Lost in his thoughts, he didn’t pay attention as Chris got his cell phone out and started dialing. Before the last jump, Chris had been taking care of Briahna, because Kelly and Joey had gone off somewhere. And in the first one, he hadn’t seen Joey either.

Stressing his memory,  he managed to remember something JC had told him, back in his original timeline.

That was when Joey asked him to babysit for him and Kelly

Chris, *his* Chris was going to take care of Briahna because Joey and Kelly were going somewhere.

Justin had the sinking feeling that that somewhere was Chicago.

“I’ve been jumping too far back,” he muttered, running to his room and leaving a very startled Chris behind.

*           *           *

Experience taught him that he couldn’t jump anywhere that had already been changed, so Justin didn’t even try to look for a picture of the last month.

He didn’t even want to think about the fact that his album was thinner. There were less pictures to be kept, and even less of the whole group together.

But he had a new plan. One that could insure that Joey and Kelly wouldn’t be jumping on any plane to Chicago for the duration of 2006 if he could help it, and that his career wouldn’t be on the way to be forgotten.

If he managed to keep Chris away from the Backstreet Boys *and* push him into JC’s arms, Justin would consider his plan a success.

This jump had taught him that he couldn’t leave things to chance. He had to take care of everything himself, in the small window that his time-travel gave him.

“Justin, what are you doing?” Chris entered his room, just as Justin was flipping the pages to find the pictures of 2000. He didn’t want to jump too far back, just in case he still needed to do so again. He couldn’t risk running out of pictures. “I just talked to Lance. Joey’s plane hasn’t landed yet, but as soon as he does, he’ll call you so you can see he’s fine.”

“The plane is not going to land,” Justin muttered. There was the Planet Hollywood picture, looking still pretty much the same as it had the night before. But Justin didn’t focus on it. He knew it wouldn’t work. “I don’t know what happened, but it’s going to happen before midnight. The phone will ring, and if I don’t find a way to fix this, Joey will be dead.”

It wasn’t his fault, Justin realized. Joey would’ve been on that plane even if Justin didn’t jump. But he had a chance to fix it, and even if it had took him a couple of false starts, now that he knew what to do, he could save Joey, Kelly and Briahna.

He just had to find the door.

“Justin, give me that,” Chris moved forward to take the album out of Justin’s hands, so Justin stepped back, not taking his eyes away from the pictures. “Look, I don’t know what’s wrong with you, but we’ll try to help you. Nick has a very good psychiatrist and he can…”

Justin didn’t hear the rest of Chris’s phrase, as it was interrupted by the phone ringing. His time was running short, and even though last time he had been able to jump after Joey had answered, he didn’t want to take chances.

“Go, answer it. If nothing happened, I’ll go to Nick’s shrink tomorrow. I promise,” he said to Chris, mostly to get him out of the room. Chris nodded and left him alone, with his pictures.

He had stopped at the page he dedicated to the Latin Grammys. He had a couple of pictures of that performance, most individual shots. But there was one, taken by a photographer that later had sent them to Jive, where he could clearly see the five of them together, singing. They were dressed in dark colors. Joey in particular was wearing a brown long coat that made him look like an extra from the X-files, and Chris and JC were wearing matching suits. That made Justin smile. It was a good moment then, if Chris and JC were sharing styles. He could get them together.

Sure, they were probably not gay yet, but his previous jumping had proven that if anything, Chris was willing to experiment. There was still time before Justin had to deal with Dani, and if this jump worked, he would never happen.

He focused on his tie, black and shiny, willing the picture to open for him.

“What? Fuck, Lance, what?” Justin heard Chris yell, just as the world rippled.

He smiled as he jumped. He could still save Joey.