"Oh Justin, it'sz not that late." Christine tripped on the path towards their car. Justin was behind her and it took all his strength o keep from laughing. Christine had driven them to a dance drinking club and gotten drunk in the first 20 minutes. Justin played along to get information from her. He had hoped that she would have spilled what she knew a lot sooner, but drastic times call for drastic measures.

"Come here baby," Justin said seductively.

"Me?" Christine questioned him. "You want me and not little miss perfect Ali?" Christine walked to where Justin was standing slowly.

"Yesz, you." Justin grasped her hands and kissed them up and down.

"I get you and Ali getsz Mike," Christine said giggling.

"Why doesz Ali get Mike?" Justin asked between kisses.

"Because I stoled you away and wrote Ali a little note." Christine put her thumb and index finger an inch apart in front of Justin's eye to show him how little. "Then she'll go see Mike and Mike will win. Mike paid me a lot of money to come down here and do this. Lotz of money's. And he said we could date. Ali alwayz gotz the guyz and now I'm gonna get both. Mike and I win." Christine started howling with laughter.

"Win what?" Justin asked seriously.

"Win Ali you silly bean. He got some drink thing and then Ali will drink it and they will have a fun time." Christine said in one breath before she passed out onto his shoulder.

By the time Justin got Christine into the car he had a huge pile of drool on his shirt and his arms were tired. He jumped into the driver's seat and called the hotel. "Katie, hi. I need directions to the hotel from Beaches's Delight. And then I need the number to Ali's cell phone. Please don't ask questions." Katie gave Justin short ad simple directions back to the hotel and Ali's number.

~*~*~ In Mike's room ~*~*~

"Oh Mike, I feel so stupid for coming here. I just didn't know where to go and I'm so sorry for everything." Ali continued to cry.

"It's ok honey. That's what friends are for." Mike wrapped his arm around her shoulder's on his love seat in the tiny hotel room.

Just as Mike moved his hip closer to Ali's her pocket started ringing. "Oh, I forgot I brought this. One second please."

Ali stood up and walked over to the windows. "Hello?"

"Ali, listen to me. Don't say anything!" Justin demanded.

"What th-" Ali started. "No, just nod and smile. I know you're with Mike and I know you think Christine and I were messing around, but if you care about me at all then just listen and follow my directions."

"Mmmhmmm," Ali smiled.

"Good, ok now don't think this is me being jealous. Mike is going to try to make you pass out with some sort of drink. Do not drink anything. Pretend to. Just dump it out or something. Whatever is in the drink will make you pass out and Mike will take total advantage of you."

"Huh?" Ali said in a sweet tone.

"I got Christine drunk and she told me everything. Mike paid her off to come here and make you upset and run to Mike. Please trust me. Ali I'm scared for you. You don't know what Mike really is. Now you're going to have to get off so he doesn't get suspicious. If you want to see what kind of jerk he is pretend to pass out and see what he tries to do. But stall. Give me time to get to you. Just say it was Katie calling to tell you about her date. And don't drink anything. I'll be there soon." Ali hung up and started laughing.

"That Katie. Sorry Mike, she was just excited about her date with Lance. Once she starts talking I can't shut her up. Especially about Lance."

"Well, where were we?" Mike patted the seat next to him and Ali walked over and sat by him. He put his arm around her shoulder's once again and pulled her closer. Just as he was about to kiss her neck she stood up abruptly.

"Can I put on some music?" Ali asked quickly as she moved to the stereo. She turned on the cd inside the player and listened to the soft romantic music. To Ali it seemed like a pretty interesting coincidence. "You listen to this kind of music often?"

"Well, I'm a romantic kinda guy." Mike said adding a wink. "Can I get you a drink Ali?" He said as he stood up reluctantly wanting Ali to sit with him.

"Sure, what do you have?" Ali asked hopefully wanting to doubt Justin's claim that Mike wanted to hurt her.

"Something special just for us. I just have to fix it up stay there and listen to the music." Mike disappeared behind the counter and Ali heard him open and close drawers and the fridge.

Just as Ali was about to check the hallway to see if Justin was coming Mike returned with two drinks. He handed Ali the right one and then downed his. "Go on. Have it." Mike urged.

"Ok, oh would you mind getting me a tissue? I have to blow my nose." Ali asked with sad eyes.

"Anything for you," Mike once again disappeared around a corner and Ali heard the bathroom door open. She then dumped her drink into the fake cactus by the window and put the glass to her lips like she just drank it.

"That was really good. What's in it?" Ali asked him as she sat down hard on the table.

"Can't tell. Family secret." Mike said in a weird tone.

"Oh, ok. What should we do now?"

"Why don't we go into my room and watch a movie? I got lots of them." Mike suggested.

"Sure, why not sounds good." Ali said with a giddy voice.

They walked into the room side by side and Ali laid on the bed as Mike put a movie into the VCR. Before the opening credits Ali dropped her head down and put her arms and legs sprawled at her side. She heard Mike laugh as she slowed her breathing.

"Perfect." Mike said as he turned off the movie and closed the door. "Ok, now lets turn you over." Mike pulled her arm and flipped her over. In a bad dressing choice, Ali was wearing an exceptionally accessible outfit. Mike took off her shoes and jewelry. "This time you won't wake up before I can do anything." Just as Mike was unbuttoning her top and had already unzipped her shorts, but left them on, Ali heard Justin's voice in the living room. She then heard a thump against the floor. Mike stopped quickly and tried to lock the bedroom door.

Working on tour almost all the year left Justin strong and he easily pushed past Mike. "Ali, are you alright?" Justin said out of breath from running up the stairs.

"No, no Justin I'm not ok. But I'm better now." Ali dressed herself and got up.

"How did you?" Mike asked amazed.

"Christine is a funny gal once she's smashed. She's on the floor by the door just to let you know." Justin said smugly.

"How could you Mike. I thought I could trust you. You're lucky Jack isn't with us any more because he would kick your small ass!" Ali was yelling so loud that Justin was scared of her. "Don't ever try to make this right Michael! Never." Ali shouted more.

"Never say never," Mike said softly.

Ali heard him and jumped onto him. "Don't you ever use that phrase. That was our phrase you bastard!" Justin pulled her off of him, but not before her fist locked with the left side of his jaw. Justin couldn't help but smile to himself.

"Let me go! Justin just one more punch!" Ali begged.

"No he's hurting enough. Come on let's get you cleaned up. Besides, your not the fist fighting kinda girl. That's a guys job.....guess what I'm a guy!" Justin put down Ali and grabbed Mike's collar and punched him five times.

By the time Justin was done he had broken Mike's nose and had a fat lip himself. They left the hotel room with a bitter sweet feeling. The sweet feeling of beating Mike up, but the bitter part of the whole problem.

"I'm sorry I doubted you Justin. I didn't even realize. I have to tell Bri-," before Ali finished her sentence Justin shook his head.

"He knows. I'm sorry." Justin turned his eyes to the floor.

"Justin, it's ok. I had no idea and you were helping me. Without you I would have had a very bad experience on my hands, again!" Ali said defeated.

"Don't worry about it." Justin played it off like it was nothing. He actually blushed a little.

"It was a big deal, Justin!" Ali grabbed his sweaty hand and held it tight. Then she leaned over and kissed his slightly bruised cheek.

"Hey, what was that for?"

"Because I missed kissing you." Ali said quietly.

"What? Wait, wait, wait I'm very confused." Justin said stopping in their path and turning Ali to face him.

"Me too, but I don't want to have this conversation here or like this. I'm tired and hurt and not ready to talk about this." Ali pulled his hand, which she hadn't let go of, and pulled him to the elevator.

"When then?" Justin wanted to know.

"Tomorrow. But I'll come get you ok?" With that Ali kissed his cheek and jumped into the closing elevator.

"That little vixen!" Justin said chuckling to himself and waited for the next elevator.

~*~*~ With the other five ~*~*~

"It's really late. Where is everyone?" Katie said nervously.

"I don't know. And it's dark out." Chris said in a little voice.

"We know Ali and Justin. They're both strong and smart. They'll be home very soon." Just as Jc finished his sentence Ali stumbled through the door.

Without saying anything she tore off her shorts and jumped into her bed to find Chris already lying in it. "What the hell?!?!" Ali jumped right back out and put up her fists ready to beat down her company.

"Whoa, Ali chill. It's only us." Lance's soothing voice entered her ears and she relaxed her fists.

"Sorry, look I'm really tired and hurt so if you all don't mind I'm going right to bed without any conversation what so ever. Justin should be here in about 2 minutes to so brief with him, but I'm sleeping." Ali got back into bed and shut the light.

All five of them left the room and went into Justin's to wait. Only Justin didn't go directly into his room. He slipped into Ali's room and saw her sleeping in her bed. Without saying a word he kissed her cool cheek and left the room as quietly as he had come in. He was startled to see five bodies shifting around in his room.

"Can I help you all?" Justin asked them.

"You could start by explaining where you were." Katie demanded.

"I was out with Christine. Dropped her off at Mike's then saved Ali after she beat him up. It's 3 in the morning and I'm dead tired. Goodbye." Justin held open the door and without question four of them left. Chris and Joey went to their room. Jc to his and Katie went back to Ali. No other words were spoken other then the murmurs of ‘goodnights' among the people falling asleep.

~*~*~ The next morning ~*~*~

"Get up baby," Katie yelled at Lance. She and the others, minus Ali and Justin, were crowded around Lance's bed.

"Yea get up!" Chris shouted as well, "only we're not gonna call you baby... unless you want us to ::dramatic pause:: baby!" He had everyone laughing.

"No, Katie is the only one who can." Lance said strongly.

"And why is that?" Joey asked as he backed away. Lance was dangerously close to a pillow and getting whacked before he found out about Justin and Ali was something he didn't want to happen.

"Because I'm not going to do this with any of you!" Lance grabbed Katie's arms and held her in a tight kiss.

"Thank the lord for that. I don't wanna be doing that stuff with you little PooFoo boy!" Chris challenged back.

"Thanks for the 411 there grandpa." Now it was Lance's turn to hide. Chris was angry.

"Ok, now we can stop and go listening in on their conversation." Katie led the way and they crept to the door to strain to hear Ali and Justin's low voices.

Inside Justin had brought Ali a flower and some tea. He hadn't liked the idea of waiting for Ali, so when she didn't come to get him at the crack of dawn like he had hoped, he took the situation into his own hands. She was just getting up as Justin began their conversation. "Listen, I really want to know what you meant last night. You said you missed kissing me. Am I right?" Justin said as he sat in front of the girl he loved so much.

"Yes, I did say that." Ali answered shortly.

When she didn't continue Justin did, "meaning?"

"Meaning I missed you Justin. Ok, you can't interrupt. Even if you have to bite your tongue. Let me get out what's been pressing on my heart since you left that first time." Justin's silence let Ali keep going. "I went down one night to Jc's room to talk to him about you, but when I got there I heard you in there. Without really meaning to I heard you tell Jc I was just a fling. You didn't love me and I was just fun. It hurt me so much. All I could do was cry. So I thought if I ended it before you could crush me it would have been easier. It wasn't. Ever since I've wanted to scream out to you that I still love you, but I just couldn't bring myself to do it. Lately though, I've noticed something about you. You've been acting different towards me and I couldn't tell if that was just our friendship growing or something else. I guess there reason I'm doing this is because I'm praying you want me back. And no, before you even think it this is not me on the rebound. I've felt this way since you came back to me!" Ali let out a deep breath and brushed the few tears off her face.

"Oh Ali, you got it all wrong. I did say that, but only said that to cover up my own feelings. I got hurt once real bad. I cared about her with all my heart, but she was just using me. She didn't care about me at all. Loosing the first person I ever gave my heart to was so hard. I guess I didn't want to admit that I felt something strong again. I didn't want to feel venerable, then you said what you did and I felt that hurt all over again. I guess that's why I acted like such an ass for such a long time. I need you and, and I want you back." Justin said as he looked up into Ali's loving eyes.

"Justin, I don't know why we were both so stupid, but all I know is we lost too much damn time, if that's how you really feel?" Ali turned away and smiled a little.

Without a word said Justin put his hands on Ali's cheeks and turned her face towards him. He gazed into her innocent eyes and thanked God for letting him hold her again. He looked at her one more time and kissed her. Long and hard and full of passion. A passion that never had left either one of them.

Their kiss would have lasted all day, but they heard shouts of happiness from outside their door. They parted, reluctantly, and went to the door to find their friends dancing around and rejoicing. "I'm just so happy," cried Joey who had tears in his eyes. They may have been there due to the fact that Chris was spraying his water bottle around in the air, but maybe not. Joey was too proud to say.

"It's been too damn long," Katie chimed in.

"You act like you haven't made out for months," Ali said back and Lance and Katie turned a bright red.

"Come on let's go celebrate over breakfast, you two go to your thang and we'll celebrate. If you know what I mean," winked Chris.

"Bye guys," Ali and Justin said together. Justin draped his arm over Ali's shoulder in such a familiar fashion that you'd think they had been together forever.