Justin stepped back instinctively as soon as the dizziness passed, luckily finding a wall behind him. He could see the stage perfectly, where they were sitting on stools getting ready to perform. No one seemed to be paying attention to him, but he knew he couldn’t count on that to last for long.
He hadn’t had a lot of time to figure out what to do. He already knew that talking to himself was a terrible idea, and he wasn’t going to risk talking to Chris again. In fact, talking to anyone in *N Sync sounded like a terrible idea.
And he didn’t want to talk to the Backstreet Boys either. His only two contacts with the other group had ended in two very, very bad realities for himself. Even if Chris had looked happy with Nick, the best possible thing for *N Sync was for Chris to end up with JC.
He had to plan his next move carefully. He didn’t want to end up in a timeline where he was forgotten by everyone again, or in a timeline where Chris was miserable. Whatever he did, it had to be carefully executed.
“Oh, sorry,” Justin felt the bump and almost didn’t hear the apology, turning to see the woman standing next to him. Just like in the Billboards awards, he hadn’t been careful enough. He just hadn’t had enough time. But the dizziness didn’t come, and he didn’t felt the jump, so he forced himself to smile and turn around to meet whoever had bumped into him
“It’s ok, I wasn’t paying attention,” he said to the tall blonde, biting his tongue after he spoke. He hadn’t seen her very often, but he still recognized her. Kristen Richardson was hard to forget, even if, making a quick mental subtraction, she wasn’t Richardson yet.
“Excuse me, have we met before?” she asked, frowning a little. Justin knew right there that she was trying to place his face. His only consolation was that even when he still looked pretty young, there had to be enough differences so she wouldn’t peg him as Justin Timberlake.
“I don’t think so,” Justin answered smiling. He had always been polite to Kevin’s wife. “I would remember someone as pretty as you.”
In the very instant he said those words, Justin realized he had made a mistake, because he had barely time to register that she was smiling back at him, a cute, flirtatious smile, before the world rippled around him and the Today Show taping disappeared around him.
* * *
The floor under his feet wasn’t moving, which Justin decided to take as a good sign. As much as he had enjoyed the touring timeline, he preferred to be near his house in case he needed to jump out again.
Besides, the nausea of the jumps was getting to him. Even if he was no longer throwing up, his stomach still felt as if it had been on a rollercoaster for two days, without the rest of his body to work as a cushion.
Breathing deeply, he braved to look around the house. It looked pretty much like his old house, even if there was something different Justin couldn’t put his finger on. The decorations were more subdued, but nothing that could actually tell him if he had jumped into a bad timeline or a good one.
The note on his refrigerator read: “Hon, don’t forget your meeting tomorrow. I’ll be back at 7.”
No signature, but Cameron had never called him ‘Hon’.
Sighing deeply, he covered his face with his left hand. It was then that he saw the golden ring on his ring finger. A wedding band, mocking him with its presence.
“Oh, boy,” He muttered, and closed his eyes.
* * *
Justin was getting used to waking up in bed after traveling. At times, he toyed with the idea of not getting up. Just staying in bed until midnight, waiting for the call that would tell him what new disgrace had happened to Joey just because Justin was having troubles staying in just one timeline at a time.
His bed was much bigger, bigger than his usual king size.
There were framed pictures on the nightstand, and he didn’t want to see them because he knew that they would be showing him with whomever was his wife. Probably Britney, because he couldn’t imagine marrying someone else. Not even Cameron.
Besides, it couldn’t be Cameron. If he had married Cameron, the note on the fridge would be signed.
Drawing a big breath, he finally gathered his courage and picked up the nearest frame. On it, he could see himself, perhaps two, three years younger, dressed in a black tuxedo, hugging a familiar blonde in a wedding dress.
Kristen Richardson.
Kristen Timberlake, his mind corrected. Somehow, he had managed to marry Kevin’s wife.
“Kevin must hate me here,” Justin put the frame back on the night table. “I probably joined witness protection just to stay away from him.”
Fully aware that he shouldn’t just stay in bed and hope reality would fix itself, Justin got dressed and went downstairs. If he was lucky, JC wouldn’t hate him here. And Chris and JC had been together in the past, where Justin hadn’t made a mess out of their lives, only his. So maybe Chris and JC were together, and things were fine for the group.
If things were fine for the group, he could live with Kevin trying to kill him.
He was making plans on how to figure out the timeline without going to Jive and making breakfast when Chris came in the kitchen, wearing a boxers and a t-shirt.
“Morning, J,” Chris said, passing on his way to the refrigerator.
“What the fuck are you doing here?”
“You told me I could drop by whenever I wanted,” Chris answered, not even surprised at his reaction. “And I needed a place to stay tonight.”
“What happened to your house?” Justin breathed deeply. He was married to Kristen Richardson, he could handle a surprise visit from Chris that early in the morning. The fact that Chris seemed so at ease in his house was good, Justin figured. It meant that they still were friends.
Maybe this reality was the good one.
He couldn’t deny that his wife was hot.
“Had a fight,” Chris answered. Justin bit his tongue not to ask for more details. There was something in Chris’s tone that told him that Chris was not going to give him more details. “I hope you and Kristin don’t mind me staying for a while.”
“No, of course not,” Justin said, forcing himself to smile. He sure hoped Kristen wouldn’t mind.
* * *
He left Chris after breakfast, claiming that he had to go to his meeting at Jive.
Chris hadn’t told him anything more about the fight, but Justin had learned to be more observant in the past few days. There weren’t any wedding bands around Chris’s fingers, so his friend wasn’t married. Chris usually talked about his partners by name, but this time, he only mentioned a ‘him’, which meant that either Justin wasn’t supposed to know who Chris was dating, or Chris had gotten used to the secrecy.
Neither option was a good one for Chris’s happiness, in Justin’s humble opinion.
But if Chris wasn’t going to give him more information, Justin was going to go out and find it. He needed to know if he had managed to fix everyone else’s lives, even if his own was a little messy at the moment.
The radio didn’t help him. Sexy Back was played twice on the way to Jive, and the office building looked exactly the same. It wasn’t until Justin checked the company directory that he realized that the Backstreet Boys had stopped recording with Chapter One. Never Gone wasn’t listed.
He cancelled his meeting with Johnny and decided to go straight to the recording studio, to meet JC.
He was thinking about what he was going to tell his friend, how to fish information to know if JC was the mysterious ‘him’ that Chris had mentioned, when his phone cell started ringing. It was the generic ring, so he had to look at the LCD screen to figure out who was the caller.
It was Brian Littrell, so Justin breathed deeply and took the call.
“Hey,” he said, trying not to give up anything. He didn’t even know if he was friendly with Brian or if he hated him for marrying his cousin’s girlfriend.
“Hey, J.” Brian sounded quite friendly, which was strange. Even in his timeline, he and Brian weren’t exactly close. “Look, I was wondering, are you and Kristen free this weekend?”
“Sure, I think so,” Justin lied. He had no idea what he was going to be doing on the weekend. He didn’t even know if he was going to be there on the weekend. “Why?”
“Well, Lieghanne is going to see her parents with the kids, so I got the house free,” Brian said, maybe a little too cheerfully. “So I thought I would make a party, you know? For all my friends. You, Kirsten, Nick, Chris, Lance… everyone. What do you say?”
“Count us in.” Justin found himself smiling. Maybe in this timeline, he had managed not to screw his friendship with everyone. He still didn’t know how he had ended up marrying Kristen. Maybe Kevin didn’t hate him. “Do you want me to ask Chris?”
“He’s at your house?”
“Yeah, he’s visiting us for the week,” Justin smiled as he finally arrived to the studio. “Look, I have to go. I’ll call you later so you can tell me all the details, all right?”
“Yeah, I’ll wait for your call.” Brian hung up, and Justin let out a relieved sigh. He had managed a whole conversation, and Brian hadn’t suspected a thing. He was getting better at pretending he knew what was going on.
* * *
JC was waiting for him to start to work on his remix. That alone was a good sign for Justin. It meant that marriage or not, his career was still on the same track as it was supposed to be.
As every single time before, JC was wearing his pink t-shirt, only the Leo necklace was missing. That made Justin bit his lip. JC had only took off his Leo necklace twice. In his original timeline, and Justin had never asked why he had done that, and in the one where he was with Chris. He prayed silently that JC hadn’t been the one who had fought with Chris that morning.
“You’re early, J.” JC shook his hand, leading him into the recording booth. “I thought you weren’t going to come until this afternoon.”
“There is something I need to tell you,” Justin said, trying to put his thoughts in order. He knew JC would believe him. If he was talking to him, JC believed him. “But first tell me, are you dating someone?”
“You know I’m not, Justin, I just broke up with Eva, I don’t think I’m in the mood for meeting anyone new.” JC looked down at the studio carpet, looking defeated.
Justin sighed. It was not exactly a good thing, but at least JC and Chris hadn’t fought. And if Chris was with a guy, and had fought with that guy, there was a chance to push his friends together. Maybe at Brian’s get together.
“I didn’t want to bring you back bad memories,” Justin apologized sincerely. He was starting to hate seeing JC so down. “But I had to know. Because what I’m going to tell you is absolutely insane and if you had been with someone who wasn’t her, I bet you wouldn’t believe me.”
“What are you talking about?” JC frowned, confused.
“I’ve been jumping back in time and accidentally changing the future,” he said. It was the same thing he had told JC a couple of timelines back, but it still worked as a summary.
“You went to a time where you weren’t married to Kristen?” JC shook his head, smiling. “That sounds like a bad nightmare.”
“I wasn’t married to Kristen yesterday, C.” Justin sat down, lowering his head. “I wasn’t married to Kristen today. I was living with Chris. And married to Britney. And on tour. And living miserable and alone. I’ve been repeating this day over, and over, and over again.”
When JC didn’t answer, Justin looked up, worried. He half expected to see his friend calling someone, probably the local psychiatric hospital. But JC had just dragged a chair and sat before him.
“I think I could deal with traveling to the past, but living the same day over and over again sounds boring,” JC said, after a while. “You’re sure it’s the same day?”
“Unless you’ve got a closet full of pink shirts, it is the same day,” Justin sighed. “And it always ends with something bad happening to Joey.”
“Oh, Justin,” JC muttered, making Justin look up alarmed. He didn’t like the way in which JC’s voice had broke. “Shit. You know it wasn’t your fault, right?”
Justin tried to keep his breathing even, not to freak out. “C… What happened to Joey?”
He really didn’t want to hear the answer. He didn’t want to see JC reach out to grasp his hands and tell him that Joey’s accident in New Orleans during the rehearsals of Pop Odyssey had been almost fatal, or that his friend had lost a leg.
He couldn’t believe that he had caused that change just by talking to Kristen, back in 2000.
It couldn’t be his fault.
* * *
Justin hadn’t even had the chance to open the door of his house when a furious Chris opened it for him.
After leaving JC, he had decided that he was not going to stay there any longer. It didn’t mattered if his career was doing well, if JC’s career was doing fine. Joey had lost a leg, and, according to JC, closed himself off from everyone.
That wasn’t right. He had to change it again, and fix things.
“Why did you tell him I was here?” Chris asked, as soon as the door was open.
“Tell who?” Justin blinked, confused. He hadn’t forgotten that Chris was staying with him, but he had hoped that his friend had left somewhere for the afternoon.
“Brian, of course!” Chris raised his hands, as if giving up. “Shit, J. I thought you understood I didn’t want to see him right now.”
Justin blinked, understanding dawning on him.
“Oh. Oh, shit. You and Brian.” Justin closed his eyes, gritting his teeth. Why Chris couldn’t stay with one partner? And why with Brian? Chris had never fooled with a married woman, why here he was with a married man? “Fuck, I’m sorry Chris, I should’ve kept my mouth shut.”
“Yeah, you should’ve,” Chris shook his head, going inside the house. “Why didn’t you?”
Because last I knew you were with me and not with Brian, wasn’t a good answer and Justin knew it. Because I had totally forgotten you had a lover, was a worst answer. Chris usually didn’t think Justin was self centered, but if he admitted he had forgotten something that Chris had probably only told him, things were going to end up badly.
“I’m sorry. I don’t know what I was thinking.” It was a lame excuse, and he knew that, but it was the only thing that came to his mind. “I was just trying to help.”
“I know,” Chris got inside the house, so Justin followed, hoping that it meant that he would get some time alone. While he knew he could jump even if he was being watched, he really didn’t like the idea of jumping away with Chris talking to him. “I’m a bit tense today, I’m sorry.”
Realizing that the only way he had to stop whatever had happened to Chris in this timeline was to know what had happened, Justin decided to try and figure things out. He still couldn’t believe that he had managed this particular scenario just by smiling at Kristen once.
“So, uhm, do you want to talk about what happened?” He said, trying to sound helpful. The truth was that he had little experience listening to other people problems. Mostly, other people listened to him.
“Brian got the divorce papers filled today, but he didn’t give them to Leighanne,” Chris said, sitting down on the couch. “He’s afraid that she will fight him for the custody of Baylee and Allan.”
Justin had no idea when had Allan been born, since his memory swore that Brian Littrell only had one kid, but he nodded with what he hoped was a wise expression. He only could think that obviously Chris was a bad influence on Brian, because Brian had straight out lied to Justin on the phone, acting as if nothing was wrong, probably just to find out where Chris was.
“You think she will?” he asked, still trying to figure out the situation.
“I don’t know.” Chris shook his head, defeated. “I wish I could tell him that she won’t, but she was never too happy about us, so it could go either way.”
If he had any idea of how they had started dating, Justin could have a good advice for his friend. Or at least something more than just staying there, sitting next to Chris.
“What do you want to do?” he asked, trying to sound as if at least he had any idea of what was going on.
“I want us to be happy,” Chris answered, smiling at him. “And we will, don’t worry. It’s only a matter of time.”
“Yeah, I guess it is.” Justin smiled too, while he was making mental math. He just had to be more careful. He had managed a good reality once, he knew he could find that one again, or another like it.
It was only a matter of time.
* * *
Justin waited until eleven to see if anyone called him. Kristen called to his cell around eight, to tell him she was coming back home the day after tomorrow, but that had been the only call. Chris had gone out, presumably to a club a little after that.
While he was sure that this time there wouldn’t be a Fatone on a fatal accident, Justin didn’t feel relief in that knowledge. Joey’s life was pretty much fucked up already. He just *had* to fix that.
The problem was that he still had no idea of how he was making the changes. At first, he had entertained the idea that maybe he was making the changes happen, but after finding out that Chris and JC had been together before any of his jumps, and realizing that sometimes, what happened was completely out of his control, he had figured out that it wasn’t his fault.
It was the fault of whatever that was making him jump, of course.
So he needed a better plan, one that ensured that there was the least possible margin of error. He still had a good stash of pictures, at least five years worth of moments with the five of them together where he could jump, but Justin wasn’t planning for more than one jump.
He had it figured out. There were three things that all his jumps had in common, ever since his original timeline. He had to figure out how to keep Chris happy, and Joey and his family safe. His successful career was the third, but Justin had the sneaky suspicion that if he could manage one and two, three would come along nicely.
Number two, keeping Joey safe, was the one that was giving him trouble. He could more or less have some input in Chris’s love life when he jumped far in the past, but that didn’t insure Joey’s well being.
But whatever that was making him jump had also counted on that. Justin kept repeating the same day, over and over, so if he just called Joey and stopped him from going to Chicago, next reality would be the one where everything was fine.
He had gotten it right the first time, he realized. After seeing all the different timelines, Justin had figured out that it all centered in the trust they had with each other as a group. Talking to Chris that first time had not solved everything, but that had probably been because Justin was too old by the time his friends came out as a couple in that timeline.
Justin had to admit that by the time he was 20, he was too self aware of what bad publicity could do to his career.
He just needed a place to talk to the younger Chris, in private. Just give him a few pointers, to keep the timeline as close as possible to the one where *N Sync had been in top of the world. Not let his friends go, don’t let silly fights escalate. Check the springs for every single gimmick they did, just in case.
Then, come back, call Joey, and make sure neither he nor Kelly would be traveling around that day.
It was simple; it was so easy that Justin couldn’t believe he hadn’t thought of that before.
* * *
Finding the right picture had taken time.
Even when Justin was sure that he only needed one more jump, he didn’t want to jump too far back that he wouldn’t have an extra out, just in case. He had limited his search to 2000, because that was when he figured things had started going wrong. With the success of No Strings Attached, and when everyone and his mom had started telling him that he didn’t need the others.
He just needed to get Chris to see that Jive didn’t have to have the last word about their publicity. If Chris saw that, if Chris got more involved in the politics around the group, Justin was sure that the group’s future would be different.
He still hoped for a solo career, but after all this jumping he had realized he missed his friends.
The picture he ended up choosing was one from the release of No Strings Attached, at the Virgin Records Megastore. They were fresh out of the legal battle against Transcon, together and sure that they could take the world. He was wearing a red knitted sweater under a leather brown jacket, smiling and standing next to Chris, who was wearing a three-tone blue knitted sweater. In the middle of the picture, JC stood out, with a white turtleneck, his arms crossed, smiling to a camera slightly to the right. Joey had his arm over Lance’s shoulder, wearing a black Superman baseball cap. Lance was looking sideways to something out of the camera reach, with a strange smirk on his face.
Justin looked into the picture, trying to lose himself on it. For a moment, he was scared that it wouldn’t work, that since his phone wasn’t ringing, since Joey wasn’t in a fatal accident, he wouldn’t be able to jump. But finally, JC’s sweater started trembling, and the world rippled away once more.
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