11/6/2001

They weren't sure exactly how it had happened. Only that it was after their last show, and that was a blessing, because if they'd had to continue doing the tour with the situation, things would have been hell. Not just hell, but impossible.
	So it was the last show and there was all sorts of celebration backstage when the last song was finally done and the last lights and pyros flashed and their last crowd of the tour screamed and roared with appreciation. 
	Joey found him first. He was walking towards the dressing room, still in his sweaty stage clothes, and felt something on his leg. Looking down, he noticed it was a toddler tugging at his pants. 
	"Hey, little guy…" Joey dropped down on his haunches and peered into big blue eyes. "Are you lost?"
	"No," the child said, voice wavering. His sounded very young. "Joey?"
	"Yeah, I'm Joey," he answered. "Where's your mommy? What's your name?" 
	"It's me," the child said, voice raising. The big blue eyes welled up. "Joey, it's me." 
	"We'll find your parents, don't worry." Joey bit his lip and reached out to lift the tot as he stood, carefully holding one arm beneath him and the other around his back. He was so light. He started walking towards the dressing room, wondering why people were so careless with their kids nowadays. 
	Small hands pressed against his chest, pushing back like the chid didn't want to be held, but he was barely able to budge himself. "It's me," the child persisted. "Me."
	"Hey, Joe." JC was walking out of the dressing room. "Have you seen Justin? He disappeared somewhere and we're getting ready to go. Marissa needs him to—Hey…" He paused. "Where'd you find a baby?" 
	"I think he's lost," Joey replied. "He was walking around."
	"Hey, sweetheart…" JC cooed at the child, always unable to hold back when it came to little kids. "Are you lost?"
	The child shook his head and looked about to burst into tears. "It's me…" He pushed against Joey's chest. "Lemme down. Down." 
	Joey held him tighter as he began to twist in his arms. "Should I bring him to security or something?"
	"I don't know." JC eyed the child.
	"I don't know why someone would let a two year old, or however old, wonder around back here..." 
	JC frowned, swallowing. "Wait a minute… Look at him." 
	Joey sighed and held the kid away from him, supporting him just under the arms and looked at him critically. "What? He's just a baby. What am I looking at?"
	"Joey, I don't know how to say this, but I think…" JC moved to stand next to Joey to look at the youngster from the front with a frown. "I think I know where Justin went." 
*****
*****
	They were on the bus when Joey and JC attempted to explain to Lance and Chris, who were both just incredulous at first.  
	"You kidnapped a kid?" was Chris's initial response when they got on the bus.
	After an explanation, they still weren't buying it.
	"What?" Lance's voice rose. He stared at the baby that JC held in his lap, hands tightly clasped in front of him. "That's Justin…?"
	The toddler, listening to the conversation, nodded insistently.
	Chris began laughing. "You've got to be shitting me." He fell off the couch laughing. Lying on the floor, red-faced, he stared at the ceiling, hysterical. The so-called Justin began to cry.
	"Chris, stop," Joey persisted, giving him a look. "We need to figure this out."
	"But…" Chris tried to calm himself, sitting up on the floor. "This can't be real." He stared at JC trying to calm the sobbing little kid. "How?"
	"I've heard of stuff like this before…" Lance began. "People turning into things. It's usually temporary."
	"Where the hell have you heard of it? Lance, I don't know what kind of sites you've been looking at online, but that's impossible!"
	"Apparently not," Joey muttered.
	"What if Justin's sitting at the arena, pissed because we left without him?" Chris persisted. "And we'll be sued for kidnapping."
	"The baby says he's Justin too though," Joey insisted. 
	"Maybe he just has the same name."
	"And the same hair? And the same eyes?" Lance pointed at the child's curly hair and big blue eyes that were crying a little less as JC rocked him. 
	"We've seen a million baby pictures," Joey began. "Lynn shoves them in our face all the time. Look at him."
	"Sounds crazy..." Chris persisted.
	"I don't know..." Lance replied. "Crazy or not, I'm pretty convinced..."
	Chris paused, pressing his lips together. "It's just very weird… But, he is a cute baby, huh?"
	They all looked. The toddler's lower lip trembled. 
*****
*****
	They went to JC's place. By the time they reached there, the child was almost asleep, his eyes closed, and JC warned them all to be quiet as he carried him inside to his bedroom. He laid him on the bed and studied him for a moment before leaving to join the guys sitting in the other room.
	"What do we do?" Lance asked. 
	"We take care of him," Joey replied. "What are we supposed to do? We can't tell his mom. She'd freak out. Johnny would too. The tour's thankfully over." 
	"How long will it last?"
	"How do we take care of him? The four of us?" Chris stared. "Justin as a baby? You know he's hard enough to deal with as a teenager."
	"Well, he's not six feet tall now. He can't say no to us." Joey smirked. "We're big grown-ups to him and we have the upper hand." 
	"How old is he?" Lance asked. 
	JC paused. "Two? Three? I'm not sure. Do you think he knows?" 
	"He can talk," Joey began. "He just hasn't really said anything. Maybe because he's two."  

	JC shrugged. "He knows who he is though. Maybe his mind is still eighteen." 
	"Either way, something tells me his body's gonna want to just sleep and eat all day..." 
	"What does he eat?" Lance continued. 
	"We should go over to Lynn's and steal her old home videos," JC began. "God knows she has a library. We can see what he did as a baby."
	"She'd ask where Justin was."
	"True…"
	They didn't get to talk about him very much longer when Justin suddenly walked back into the room, a little unsteadily on his feet, exhausted looking. He approached them carefully and they all watched him. He was all rosy cheeks and blue eyes and curly hair and pink lips and so baby, but he was still undeniably Justin.
	"How'd he get off the bed?" Chris whispered.
	As Justin walked closer, JC leaned down and took him around the waist, pulling him up onto the couch beside him. "We were talking about you, Justin…" He took his tiny hand in his, looking at the little fingers in wonder. "What we're going to do with you."
	Justin gave a little yawn, leaning into JC's arm. "I'm sleepy," he said. 
	"You wanna stay here?" JC watched him nod. "Or we could bring you to your mom's." Justin shook his head. 
	"I'll stay here," he said in his small voice. 
	"Justin, you're so little…" Joey said. "Have you looked at yourself? Look at your hand next to JC's and everything… It's amazing." 
	Chris stared at Joey. "Yes, Joe, baby's are smaller than grown-ups. Wow." He turned to Justin, leaning down a little to look at him squarely. "How old are you?"
	"I don't know…" Justin answered. He wiped his nose.
	"What do you eat?" 
	"Dunno…"
	Chris sighed. "Alright. Do you wear diapers?"
	Justin shook his head indignantly, looking at Chris with wide eyes. "No!" 
	"I think he's too big for that," JC answered. "Pretty sure. When do kids stop that?"
	"Well, I don't know. I just wanted to know if we've got to run out and load up on Gerber's and Pampers," Chris answered with a shrug. "We're accommodating for you, Justin. If that really is you inside that little body." 
	"We gotta go out and buy a baby book or something…" Lance began. 
	Justin shook his head tiredly, amazed by the overwhelming urge he had to be picked up and to sleep. He tried to fight it, but his mind was a mix of child needs and adult realizations. "I'm still me," he persisted. 
	"Alright, well that's a start."
	"No one can know about this," Chris began. "Can you imagine? Although I guess it's not like no one can see him... No one would ever guess...." 
	"Why don't we go to sleep for tonight?" Joey began, gesturing at Justin, who was fighting to keep his eyes open. "I think one o'clock in the morning's past his bedtime… Considering it's past mine." 
	"Where does he sleep?" JC asked worriedly.
	"It's your house," Chris replied. "Where do you want him to sleep?"
	JC looked down at the curly headed toddler huddled up against him. "Um… Where do you wanna sleep, little man?"
	Joey laughed, shaking his head at the whole idea of what was going on. "This is so ridiculous...." 
	"Don't laugh at the situation," Chris warned in a whisper. "I did and he got hysterical, remember?"
	"Justin, where do you want to sleep?" JC persisted.
	"Not alone...." Justin began in a murmur. 
	"You can sleep in my bed with me, how's that?" JC asked.
	"This couch pulls out, right, man?" Joey patted the couch beneath him. 
	JC nodded, licking his lips. "Yep. Okay, okay… We can handle this." He stood up, taking Justin in his arms, and looked at the other guys. "I, uh… So we'll discuss it in the morning."
	"Maybe he'll be big in the morning," Lance suggested. "These things are pretty temporary." 
	"These things?" Joey echoed. "Who are you to know about these things?"
*****
*****
	JC treated him like glass. When he woke up in the morning with the toddler curled up to him, looking so infantile, he just sighed and started to gently push the covers off, thankful for a quiet night. Justin had fallen asleep the second JC had laid him down. Looking at the clock, he saw they had slept in a couple of hours later than usual, but the tour was over and he figured they had every right. 
	He had hoped things would be back to normal in the morning, but it was pretty evident that that wasn't the case, so he tried not to be too disappointed.
	JC moved carefully, unwrapping tiny fingers from his arm as he slipped out of bed. As he stood, he found accusing blue eyes on him. 
	"You up too?" JC asked. "Alright, you're still small. Come on…" He extended his hand and took Justin's, helping him slide to the floor. "You sleep good?"
	"Yeah..." Justin rubbed at his eyes with fists awkwardly.
	"I'm going to shower, J, alright?" JC said. "I'll see if the other guys are up for you first though. Do you shower? I think you're too little. I mean, I could turn it all on for you."
	"I dunno." Justin made a face. He still looked tired. 
	"What do you know?" JC answered. "You want a bath then? After I shower? Justin, I don't know how to take care of babies, you have to help."
	"I'm not a baby," Justin murmured, arms across his chest. "I'm me." 
	"Okay. I know, I'm sorry." JC leaned down and scooped him up easily, moving inside. He saw Joey and Chris conked out on the pull-out and Lance on the recliner. He walked over and, tightening his arm around Justin, leaned down to slap Joey lightly on the cheek. "Good morning, Joey…"
	"What?" Joey groaned. 
	"Get up. Come on… It's later than you think." 
	Joey sat up on the pullout mattress with narrowed eyes and ran a hand through his hair. "What? Why?" 
	"Because." JC placed Justin on his lap. "Take care of him for a few minutes while I shower." 
	Joey watched JC leave before he could object and then tiredly looked at the sulking Justin, who was climbing out of his lap, seemingly not pleased to be put there. He yawned as he watched him settle on his own on the bed a few inches away, crossing his arms over his chest. 
	"What?" Joey looked at him. "What'd I do?"
	Justin shook his head. "Nothing." 
	"I'm hungry…" Joey moved slip off of the bed and stand up. "You hungry?"
	Justin shrugged.
	"Let's see what JC's got, shall we?" Joey began walking slowly towards the kitchen and Justin scrambled off of the bed after him, moving as quickly as his small, short legs would take him. When they got to the kitchen, Justin let Joey sit him up on the counter. He sat quietly and watched him.
	"Cereal…" Joey opened a cupboard. "You liked cereal. You still like it?"
	"Why not," Justin answered.
	"That's a start." Joey fished around. "Pop tarts, granola bars, I wonder how old this stuff is…" Joey grabbed some things and brought them out to place on the table. "To drink…" He moved to the refrigerator. "I think milk for you… But he probably doesn't have any… And I can make coffee. Not sure you'll like that at two, since you didn't like it as a teenager anyway." 
	Chris was the next one to wander into the kitchen. "Morning, Joe. Morning, little guy. What are we up to?"
	"Breakfast," Joey replied. 
	Chris looked at Justin and frowned. "You're still so small."
	Justin shrugged, looking downcast.
*****
*****
	JC showered quickly and changed even quicker. When he went back out, he noticed his family room was deserted. He went into the kitchen where the guys were all eating his food. Justin was on his knees on his chair so that he could lean his elbows onto the table, and he was pushing a spoon around a bowl of cereal.
	"Good morning," Lance greeted him. 
	JC nodded. "Hey. I see you've all made yourselves at home…"
	"We're eating everything you have," Joey replied jokingly. 
	"We need to go shopping anyway." JC eyed Justin as he reached for a large glass of what looked like soda in front of him. He was sliding it towards him with little hands and, as JC anticipated, it tipped, falling sideways on the table, soda spilling onto the wood in an expanding puddle. 
	JC moved forward in exasperation. "Oh God, who gave him such a big glass?" he sighed as he put the glass right side up and leaned over the chair to take Justin under the arms and lift him up as soda dripped onto him. 
	"Oops," Joey answered, getting up for paper towels. "My fault."  
	"I told you he shouldn't have soda anyway," Chris replied. "Babies don't drink soda."
	"But he's not a baby really, he's Justin..." Joey muttered as he ripped off a few sheets of paper towels. 
	"Sorry…" Justin squirmed in JC's hold. He looked down at his soaked self. 
	"I don't care," JC assured. "It didn't even break. But let's get you cleaned up, alright? Joey will clean it up."
	Joey nodded. He was already pressing a handful of paper towels down on the spill and so JC left, moving back towards his bedroom and the bathroom. Once there, he set Justin down on closed lid of the toilet.
	"I, uh… I'm sure you don't want me to, well, you know… See you…" JC began. "I mean, obviously I've seen you. But I don't know how to help you without being, you know, awkward." 
	Justin just stared at him with big blue eyes. "I don't know." He shrugged, and looked over at the shower. 
	"It's weird how your clothes shrunk with you," JC commented. "I just realized we have no other clothes for you."
	"I don't know.." Justin shook his head. "This is too weird." 
	JC knelt down in front of him and began to lift his shirt gently. "You're still Justin and I… I don't want to make you uncomfortable, you know?" He helped him slide his small arms out of the sleeves and lifted the shirt over his curly head. "So, I'll just… I'll just help where you need help." He took a deep breath and moved over to turn the knobs of the tub, warm water pouring out. He fixed it so that it wouldn't drain, figuring he would stick with the bath idea rather that see if showers would work.
	"Okay…" He turned back to Justin, who was still just standing there, looking at him without much of an expression. "What do you want me to do with you? I don't know the rules here." The water poured into the tub behind him.
	Justin looked down at himself and his chubby hands went to the button of his pants. After a few seconds he managed to undo the button and he grinned at his accomplishment. He sat on the mat that was in front of the tub and reached for his socks, pulling them off a little clumsily.  
	JC tried to keep his eyes on the wall. "Tell me if you need help, Justin… I'm just going to get you a towel…" He turned around to the closet and opened it, looking in for towels. There. 
	Justin meanwhile pulled at the legs of his pants, wondering at how hard it was to get undressed. He didn't say anything, although he did glance up at JC, who was holding a big white towel and staring at the closet. Everything looked so big to him, and Justin tried to find humor in the situation. "JC, you're funny," he said with a giggle.
	"You in the tub yet?" JC asked with a sigh. 
	Justin hurried, managing to get his pants off by himself and stood up. The tub was relatively low walled, so that was good. He managed to get in without killing himself.
	"Yes."
	JC turned around and moved to turn off the water, which was already reaching the top of Justin's chest. He dipped his hand in. It was very warm. He set the towel behind him.  
	"I'm very little," Justin told JC in a small, sad voice.
	"Yes, you are," JC replied. "You're a very cute three year old though. Or two year old. Whatever you are. Lynn's stories must be true. So it's okay. Did I make this too deep? Are you going to drown?"
	"No." 
	"You want me to help you?" JC reached for the bottle of shampoo. "I'll pretend to be your mom, alright?"
	Justin laughed a little and looked up at JC's hands as they began to soap up his hair very gently.
	"In fact, I think I'll try calling your mom to say that I've got, like, my cousin or something, and ask what you used to eat or do or need at three, you know? Because you don't know, right? Maybe you can't eat what you would eat normally."
	"I have no idea." Justin shrugged his shoulders. He splashed his hands in the water a bit. His hand caught his attention and he stared at it for a second before dipping it back into the water. 
	JC sighed, gazing at Justin's smooth golden baby skin, and wondered how long this was going to last. Justin didn't even really seem panicked by it, and JC wondered if he knew more about what was going on. Moments flashed where big Justin's mind seemed to be churning behind the blue eyes, and other moments where JC would swar it was just really a two year old. 
*****
*****
	JC had managed to get Justin clean and wrapped in the big white towel when he remembered their problem. "You don't have any clothes," JC began slowly as he rubbed Justin dry through the towel. He looked at the discarded clothes on the floor of his bathroom as he listened to the tub draining. "Those you got all wet and sticky. We can wash them later, but… What for now?"
	"Shopping…" Justin answered. The towel was huge on him. Ringlets of wet curls dripped around his face. 
	JC scooped Justin up, towel and all, and walked back out into the other room to where the guys were still in the kitchen. They had cleared the table and were just hanging out. 
	"We need to go shopping…" he said. "He's got no clothes."
	"Ooh, minor detail?" Chris laughed. He gazed at the toddler bundled in the huge towel in JC's arms. "Justin, you look very clean." 
	"We're all gonna split up…" JC persisted. "Joey, you and me are taking Justin to get clothes. You two…" He looked at Lance and Chris. "Food. Think and then buy. Lance, I'd imagine you'll be doing the thinking…"
	Lance glanced at Chris. "Yeah."  
	Justin made a face and hit JC in the shoulder. JC just looked at him. "What? What am I supposed to do?"
	"I really want to get dressed now," Justin insisted. He began to wriggle in JC's arms.
	"Well, hold on…" JC answered. "I guess I could give you a t-shirt or something. You'll be swimming in it though." 
*****
*****

	Joey and JC knew they looked ridiculous. They went to the mall, both with baseball caps and inconspicuous clothing, with a child dressed in a huge Adidas t-shirt. In the car, while JC drove, Joey had taken Justin onto his lap and tied the front and back of the shirt together between his legs so that it at least didn't drag. It still looked pretty comical. 
	"You are going to be the coolest dressed baby ever," Joey began and gave Justin a smile. "My mom always bought me these dorky clothes, but we're not going to do that to you, little bro. You are going to look awesome." 
	Justin just grunted as he looked around. Being so little was starting to get to him. 
*****
*****
	"Now…" Chris began as they walked into the food store. "There are several things that all toddlers eat or else there's something the matter with them."
	"Oh yeah?" Lance began sarcastically. "And do tell what those things are."
	"Alright. Well, peanut butter for one," Chris answered. "And apple juice. And Cheerios. Babies always love Cheerios. Oh, and Graham Crackers!"
	"But he's not just a baby, Chris. It's still Justin. Maybe he likes what he likes now."
	"He's always been fickle anyway. He'll eat whatever we get him. But peanut butter, apple juice, and Cheerios are definites."
	"If you say so…" Lance rolled his eyes. 
*****
*****
	"I'll be big again soon," Justin whined from floor level as he watched Joey and JC going through racks and racks of clothing. JC had set him down on the floor so that he could walk around more and so he docilely watched.
	"We hope," JC answered, looking at him. "But if you're not, we'll be prepared. At least you're three and not a newborn baby or anything. I don't think we could handle you and diapers and stuff like that. Three is a cool age."
	"Plus, you're really cute," Joey added. 
	Justin pouted. He knew that already from all the older ladies that they had passed. He'd gotten eight 'aw's, two 'how precious!', three 'what a dear', and four 'what a sweet baby!'. He'd turn his head into JC's shoulder each time in exasperation and that apparently made him cuter to everybody. Even JC and Joey were getting a little annoying with it. 
	Like picking him up. He didn't mind it, but it just seemed to be everyone's instinct to immediately lift him into their arms. Justin felt like he'd always been handled, with a lot of people touching him his whole life, so it didn't bother him, but he had to get used to everyone's hands on him, supporting his backside, hugging him so tightly against them, acting like he would break or they would drop him. He wanted to tell them to stop, but at the same time, being so small, there was that undeniable urge to just be picked up and held. He wondered at it.
	"Hey, we should get him an *NSYNC t-shirt!" Joey exclaimed. "They sell little ones for babies, right? Wouldn't that be so funny?"
	Justin shook his head. "No! Don't do it." 
	"That would be kinda ironic…" JC began with a laugh. 
	"No!" Justin squealed in a higher voice. He was also learning how useful crying was. He found it was very easy to produce tears, and instead of being told to grow up and stop being a brat, they would now rush to see what they could do to stop him from being upset. He was quickly re-learning this skill and how to use it for his advantage.
	"Don’t you want to support us, squirt?" Joey answered. 
	"Not at all."
	"Okay, okay. Fine. No *NSYNC t-shirt for you. Chill."  
	"Uh-oh," Justin suddenly said. He looked surprised. 
	Joey and JC both looked at him immediately. 
	"What?" JC asked.
	"I need to go," Justin murmured. "I really need to go." 
	Joey and JC's looks turned to each other. Joey was shaking his head and pointing to JC. "Man, he is all yours. You’re the one that gave him the bath. You've known him the longest. He's your baby."
	"Joey!" JC hissed. "What the hell?"
	"I don’t even know where the bathroom is!"
	"Neither do I!"
	"You're the designated daddy of the group." Joey crossed his arms. "And it's your t-shirt he's wearing."
	JC huffed. Justin began to get teary eyed and whimpered so he looked at him. He became apologetic. "Fine. Okay. Whatever. Justin, Joey doesn't love you very much. Just remember that. He just says your cute and all, but he's not a very nice guy."
	Justin wiped his eyes as JC lifted him up. JC rubbed Justin's back and said, "Joey, we'll be back. Stay here." 
	Joey smirked and nodded, watching them leave. "Yep."
	JC located the bathrooms near customer service, which luckily wasn't too far away. 	JC looked at him carefully.
	"You just gotta pee, right?" he whispered.	
	Justin nodded tearfully.
	"What's the matter, buddy? It's no big deal, I swear…" JC replied as he walked into the men's room. "Please don't cry. Joey and I are just new to this, you know that. We can handle this, right? You and me can handle anything."
	JC's eyes went from the urinals to the stalls indecisively. There was luckily no one else in the bathroom. He sighed, wishing he could remember back to when he was three years old. "What do you wanna do, Justin?"
	"I can do it," Justin insisted, pulling on JC's arms so that he would be put down. He looked down at the big t-shirt and at how Joey had knotted it. JC knelt down and started to undo it, cursing about Joey. 
*****
*****
	"How did you guys do?" Lance asked as he and Chris carried paper bags in from the food store and moved towards the kitchen. Justin, Joey, and JC were back before them, settled in the family room. None of them looked very happy.
	"Did Justin get a new wardrobe?" Chris said with a laugh as they walked back into the family room. 
	"Fuck off," Justin replied from his seat on the floor in front of the TV. They all stared at him. It seemed so horrifying coming from a toddler's mouth. 
	"Justin," JC snapped reflexively.
	Joey gave him a look. "Don't forget how old you are. We have every right to treat you like a three year old so don't talk like that." 
	"I take it you guys didn't do too well…" Lance said slowly. 
	"We got him lots of clothes," Joey answered. "He just doesn't seem to like being little and he's been a brat ever since we left the mall." 
	"Is he hungry?" Chris replied. "Babies get hungry and then they get annoying. What'd he have other than breakfast?"
	"I'm not a baby," Justin insisted. 
	"None of us have had anything to eat," Joey said. "It's making me cranky too." 
	"Well, then there's the problem…" Chris walked over to Justin. "Is the baby hungry?" he teased. 
	"I'm not a baby.." Justin glared at him as he moved closer, eyes narrowed, sulking. Chris bent down, reaching for him, and he growled when he was picked up. 
	"You should be happy," Chris told him as he brought him toward the kitchen. "We're waiting on you hand and foot. Isn't it cool to be a little kid again?"
	Justin shook his head, wanting to cry as Chris sat him at the table. No it wasn't. He looked down at himself. At his overalls and tiny t-shirt, which JC and Joey had said looked just so cute when they put it on him. The shirt had a duck on it. He wanted to throw up all over it. 
*****
*****
	"How do you think Chris is doing?" Joey asked. 
	JC shrugged, looking still at the TV. "I don't know, and I'm just glad we have a break. I don't know why Justin's being such a brat. We're being so nice to him. We could have just stuck him somewhere or gave him to his mom until he got big again."
	"He was fine until you took him to the bathroom."
	JC glared. "We did great in there. I barely had to do anything. You wouldn't even help him so don't give me that."
	"We got a lot of food…" Lance spoke up, trying to change the subject.  
	"We should have had you take Justin with you," Joey replied. "Stuck him in the shopping cart and you could have just shopped. At the kid's department, all these ladies thought was just 'so darn cute' and wouldn't leave him alone. That's probably why he's getting moody. I think he's scarred for life the way those old ladies pinch cheeks."
	"He gets that now anyway," Lance answered. "He should definitely be used to it. Babies get moody." He shrugged. "Sure he's still Justin, but he's got to be feeling the age of his body a little bit." 
	 "I'm trying to treat him like he's still big," JC began. "But it's so hard because he's… well, he's not big…" 
	Suddenly Chris ran out of the kitchen, yelling curses and waving his hand in the air. "He bit me!" he screamed. "He actually bit me!" 
	The guys all exchanged a look. 
*****
*****
	Justin began to cry as JC grabbed him by the arm and dragged him out from under the table, where he'd been sitting staring at the dirty floor after Chris had left yelling. JC picked him up roughly, no longer like he was glass, and sat him on the counter hard. His back was pressed against the wall and JC's big hands were on his waist, holding him tightly. 
	"What's the problem?" JC demanded. 
	Justin whimpered, face flushed and pink lips parted as tears ran down his face. "Nothing..." 
	"We are doing everything we can." JC spoke firmly, shaking the child and staring into his eyes. "Everything we can. What else are we supposed to do? What other friends would put up with you?"
	"Ow…" Justin whined through his crying and pushed at JC's arms. "Ow."
	"Ow is right," JC answered sharply. "I'm gonna make you say ow for real if you don't tell me what the problem is. Why you're in such a mood."
	"JC, don't yell at me…" Justin wiped at his eyes, trying not to cry. But again, it was instinctively second nature. 
	"Are you hungry?" JC persisted, squeezing him just a little. "Are you overtired? Do you not want to stay here? I know you're sick of being a baby, but you are a baby. And you've been the baby to us forever regardless, and now you're just a real one and there's nothing we can do about it." 
	Justin didn't look like he was going to stop crying anytime soon and so JC gave in and moved to slide him forward on the counter, into his arms. Justin's legs hooked around his waist tightly and JC sighed and rubbed his back gently with one hand, his other supporting Justin. 
	"Okay, I'm sorry…" JC murmured. "Stop crying… It's alright… Sh, baby… It'll work out. You just can't give us a hard time, and you can't bite Chris.... We're trying really hard here. What can we do? Give you to your mom?" 
	Justin pressed his face against JC's shirt, breathing heavily. "No. I don't want to go there..." 
	"We were thinking about making a schedule…" JC moved over to sit at the kitchen table, keeping Justin on his knees as he sat. "Like where you would stay. Because we can't all stay here every night. The guys don't want to be on a couch every night. You know?"
	Justin wiped his eyes and nodded, sniffling. 
	"So… Chris said he'd take you tonight, then Lance, then Joey, then you'll be back here. And hopefully by then you'll be a big boy again anyway…" 
*****
*****
	"What do you want to do? You already ate."
	Justin looked at Chris from his seat on the couch and stared at his finger, which had a big bandaid on it. Because of him apparently. Justin thought it was pretty cool that he'd done that. 
	He shrugged at Chris's question.
	"There's a game on. You still like watching football with me even though you're a baby?"
	Justin shrugged again. He didn't feel like doing much of anything. 
	"Alright. Then we'll watch TV. If you don't feel like doing anything else." Chris moved to sit on the couch beside him and flipped on the television with a controller, stretching his legs out in front of him and up on the table. He picked up his beer and sighed. 
	Justin moved over and leaned down to rest his head on Chris's leg. He locked his eyes on the screen.
	"The Breakfast Club is on after this…" Chris ran his fingers through Justin's curls absentmindedly. "We can watch that too. I haven't seen that movie in forever."
*****
*****
	When Lance opened the door the next day, Chris had a sound asleep Justin under his one arm and a bag in the other. He yawned and waved. "Hey, man."
	"Hey…" Lance looked at Justin. "What's up with him?"
	"We stayed up pretty late," Chris replied. He shrugged. "I don't know. Let him sleep I guess. Babies like to sleep. He was cool. Didn't bite me or anything again. Just hung out like usual." He handed Lance the bag.
	Lance nodded and moved to take Justin from Chris's arms, balancing him carefully. "I haven't watched kids in a while…"
	"Well he's not really kid, remember. Besides, mhe'll just sleep through the day and you won't have to do anything. I know JC and Joey were going out somewhere today. I was going to go meet up with some people too." 
	"Great." Lance made a face. 
*****
*****
	Joey was barely up when Lance knocked on his door the next morning. Justin's cheeks were rosy and he was sniffling, looking not too happy. Lance looked at Joey grimly and handed him a bag.
	"You're a little early…" Joey muttered, scratching his bare chest lightly and yawning. "Like really early. Aren't you?"
	Lance held Justin out to him until Joey took him reluctantly, frowning. He looked at Justin carefully. "What's the matter, honey?" Justin squirmed and wriggled and so Joey put him down, letting him walk past him into his house. He looked back at Lance quizzically. 
	"Chris kept him up like the entire time he was there," Lance began. "So he was beyond exhausted, wasn't even awake when Chris dropped him off. So I just let him sleep and well… He had… You know…"
	"What?"
	"He had an accident…" Lance rolled his eyes. 
	Joey's eyes widened in disbelief.
	"So he's a little upset," Lance continued. "He was crying like all morning and saying he was sorry and so I just acted like I didn't care because you know… babies do that… And he's just a baby really, I mean technically, but geez…  I didn't even know it had happened because he didn't wake me up. But in the morning I asked why he was so upset, you know?" 
	"God…" Joey rolled his eyes. "So what am I supposed to do with him?"
	"I don't know. Like I said, he slept the entire time I had him. I don't know what you do with him." 
	"Great." 
*****
*****
	JC picked up the phone readily. "Hello?"
	"Hey, man, it's Joe," replied the voice, almost in a whisper. "I… Look, this whole having turns thing with Justin? Yeah, I can't handle it."
	"What? It's not even nighttime yet."
	"I've never been with a baby before. Don't know the first thing about it. He's pissed because of that, or pissed because of the fact he didn't sleep at Chris's, slept all day at Lance's, and now he's here fucked up on his schedule, and he… Look, unless you want him to come to you as a victim of child abuse, then come get him now. I'm about to kick his three year old ass."
	"Joey, why?" JC answered.
	"I was the youngest in my family, but I was never like this."
	"What'd he do?"
	"He's a brat. He throws everything I give him. Gave him the controller to watch TV while I took a shower and he threw it and it broke a frame. Gave him a drink and, oops, the glass is on the floor in a hundred pieces.  Let him outside while I got a phone call and all the neighbor's flowers are pulled out of the ground. I know he's a baby but I thought inside he was still a bit more mature… Then he—"
	"I think I get the idea. Wanna put him on the phone?"
	"I don’t know where he is."
	"What do you mean?" JC demanded.
	"He's inside. I know that. But God knows where. I think it's a twisted version of hide and seek. Hide and seek then beat in my mind though."
	JC sighed. "Joey, it's because you're not supervising him and he's bored."
	"Supervising? Chris said it was all just like hanging out like old times. How is it like old times when he's three?"
	"Joey, have you even tried to do anything with him?"
	"Oh, it's my fault? I wish I'd had Lance's turn. Slept the whole God damn day. Oh, until he peed in his sleep, that is. Not too happy about that. I think that's why he's taking it out on me."
	"Alright, Joey, geez… Calm down," JC replied. "Want me to come over and hang out with you guys?"
	"Yeah. Please. And spend the night too if you want. He likes you best. Don't you feel so honored? He can be all yours." 
*****
*****
	"Well, your house is still standing…" JC joked as he arrived. 
	"Yeah, yeah…" Joey muttered. "I still don’t know where he—"
	"JC!" Justin ran in from another room as fast as his toddler legs would take him and wrapped his arms around JC's knees. 
	Joey growled and leaned down to grab Justin by the back of his shirt, lifting him up to gaze at him with narrowed eyes. "There you are."
	Justin just grinned at him. "Hi, Joey." 
	"Oh, that smile's gonna disappear after I'm through with you…" Joey began.
	JC reached over and took Justin from Joey. "Joey, chill." 
	"Chill..." Joey muttered. 
	They walked inside and JC sighed tiredly. He knew they were all still exhausted from the tour having just ended. All of this added stress was just making it worse. "Justin, what have you been up to that Joey can't handle you?" He planted him firmly down to sit on the couch and sat beside him.
	"Nothing," Justin answered.
	"Nothing?" Joey exclaimed. He moved over to collapse in a chair. "I pity his mother! She had how many years of this? He's a little demon!" 
	"Joey ignored me all day," Justin replied to JC sadly, pouting and leaning across his lap. "And he doesn't pick me up right."
	"Aw…" JC laughed and patted Justin's back. "Joey's a bad guy. Remember he wouldn't take you to the bathroom either."
	"Apparently Lance forgot to take him to the bathroom too…" Joey snickered.
	Justin moved to jump up but JC wrapped his arms around him tightly and pulled him to his chest, rocking him and saying, "Joey, that's unnecessary…"
	"Alright, I'm sorry…" Joey began earnestly. "Please don't get upset. Shit happens, and we all know you didn't do it on purpose, Justin."  
	Justin burrowed his head under JC's arm, trying to hide and wanting to disappear. JC just rubbed his back and glared at Joey, who did look very apologetic. 
	"Did you have fun at Chris and Lance's?" JC murmured.
	Justin shook his head, face still pressed against JC's soft shirt, sniffling just slightly. "Not at all…" 
	"Do you think you're back to being big almost?"
	"I missed you…" Justin answered in a murmur. "They're stupid…" JC was the only one that didn't seem to tease with every word. 
	"Hey, I wasn't that bad with you…" Joey answered. "I didn't do anything to you. Well, you wouldn't let me near you… But give me some credit here. You break everything you touch."
	"He didn't break anything at my house…" JC answered. "He was perfect. Don't listen to Joey." Justin leaned back against his chest, feeling comforted. "So everyone's incompetent with children but me…" He sighed, resting his hand on the toddler's middle.
	"I told you I'd be no good…" Joey answered. "Justin, you're cute and all but that's about it…"
	Justin sulked, closing his eyes. "I'm tired of this."  
	"Well, he'll be big again soon…" JC replied and ran his hand along Justin's soft cheek. "And then you'll complain about how you miss him being a little baby."
	"I doubt it," Joey answered. "I like him being my size. He's easier." 
	"Joey, you were the one talking about how easy he'd be to control as a baby!" JC exclaimed. "And then you call for back-up. And if he was like this, then I don't see what the big deal is." JC straightened Justin's shirt and gazed at him. "He's half asleep." 
 	"The point is that he's not like that with me," Joey replied. "And I cleaned up everything he did. Sure you don't believe me…"
	"I believe you…" JC answered. "It's not a big deal though." 
	"I didn't bite him," Justin murmured.
	"Exactly," JC laughed, tickling Justin lightly. "Joey's just a big meanie."
	"He was gonna hit me."
	"No, I wouldn't have," Joey objected. "That was just a threat. You're too little for me to bully. That's why I called him." He laughed. "Preventative measures." 
	"Well, then it can be the three of us. No big deal. Then we'll see in the morning what we'll do. I don't think Chris and Lance were too great." JC made a face. 
	"I slept all day," Justin replied. "At Lance's. Chris wouldn't let me go to bed."
	"Yeah, see… That's not good…"  
	"I think you should be the official baby-sitter," Joey spoke.
	"Not a baby," Justin argued. 
	"Until whatever spell breaks off you are." 
	"It sucks."
	Joey frowned. "Justin, three year olds don't say things like 'sucks'."
	"Not fucking three," Justin muttered.
	"Then two," Joey joked. 
	"Okay, okay…" JC rubbed his hand over Justin's chest soothingly. "Let's forget about it." 
	"I'm hungry…" Justin whined. 
*****
*****
	They went out to eat. Joey and JC called Chris and Lance and they all headed out to meet an hour later at a restaurant in town. 
	"Hi, how many?" the hostess greeted with a smile. "Four?" She looked down and saw Justin, who was standing beside JC, gripping his hand for dear life, looking at all the huge things around him. He never remembered restaurants being so intimidating and huge. "Hey, little guy…" She looked up. "Does he need a highchair or anything?"
	"Um…" JC began. He looked at the others for opinion but then felt Justin tug his hand and kick him. He looked down and saw Justin's face which was clearly objecting to the idea. "No, he's fine," he told the hostess, he moved away to grab menus. JC leaned down to pick Justin up, pulling him tight against his chest. "Don't kick me, baby boy…" he whispered into his ear, patting his back. "Or I will strap you into the most uncomfortable highchair they have." 
	Justin grunted. "I dare you."
	"I will."
	"This whole thing is stupid." 
	The woman led them towards the back of the restaurant to a booth and placed the menus down before saying their waiter would be with them shortly. JC put Justin down on the booth seat and patted him to move in before he and then Lance sat down as well. Joey and Chris took the other side. 
	"I wanted to put him in a highchair," Chris complained as he took a menu. "That would've been funny."
	"He doesn't need one," Lance answered. "I can just see him knocking it over." 
	Chris nodded. "That's why it would have been funny." 
	"Justin, we can save money on you. Look for a kid's menu…" JC began as he opened a menu and put it flat on the table for him. He paused. "You can still read, right?"
	"Yes." Justin's voice was indignant. He boosted himself up to peer at the choices, deciding it would be easiest for him to just stay on his knees instead of sitting. He leaned his arms onto the smooth surface, frustrated at how tall the table was. 
	Noticing Justin's position, Joey said, "Hey, we can get one of those seats for kids like that…" He pointed to a table across the room where a dark haired kid was boosted up by a plastic seat.  "Booster seat."
	"I'm good," Justin persisted, although frustrated. "Don't bother." 
	"Just trying to help…" Joey smirked. 
	Justin had forgotten how stupid the kid's menus were at restaurants. Well, limited. They fluffed it up with all these cutesy pictures and funny names when really all it said was hamburger, hot dog, or grilled cheese. He grunted. With his small teeth and mouth it wasn't like he was going to be able to order a steak or anything anyway.
	"What do you want?" JC murmured to him. "Not much there, huh?"
	"No." Justin put his hand on JC's leg, wondering for the hundredth time what about his age made him constantly want to be held. He moved over closer, and eventually the man got the hint and pulled him to sit half on his lap, resting his chin on top of his head. "That I guess." Justin pointed on the menu to the grilled cheese.
	"Okay," JC answered, slipping an arm around his waist. "Want me to order it for you?"
	"Yeah."
	"So what did you guys do today?" Lance spoke up after looking at the menu briefly. "Huh, Joe? You didn't seem so sure when I dropped him off."
	"Yeah…" Joey rolled his eyes a little and looked at JC and the way he was comfortably holding Justin in his lap. "I don't know. I called JC to come over."
	"Joey sucks at parenting," Chris answered in a taunting voice. 
	"What about you?" Lance replied with a chuckle. "You dropped him off at my place like a zombie. You kept him up the entire night."
	"We just watched TV," Chris objected. "There were a lot of really awesome movies on, right, Juppy?"
	Justin shook his head, staring at his hands, which he had put out flat on the menu. They were so small. He looked at the crayons that the hostess had put on the table for him with resent.
	"So then he was unconscious at my place all day until…" Lance paused. 
	"No." Justin looked up at him warningly, pouting slightly."Don't say it." He was mortified enough by the entire experience. He couldn't bear for it to be brought up again. He hated how the guy treated everything like a joke.
	Lance rolled his eyes. "Until you woke up." 
	"Did I miss something?" Chris asked warily.
	Joey, knowing what Lance had left out, began laughing. 
	JC bounced his knee a little bit, jostling Justin a bit as he said, "Come on, Justin. Sh… Ignore him, you know."
	"Alright, someone's got to tell me…" Chris persisted. "Joey?"
	Joey shook his head, laughing. "I can't." 
	"It's nothing." Lance looked at Chris. "Really." 
	"Then why is Joey having a field day over it?"
	"Because Joey's just a little immature," JC answered.
	"I'm immature?" Joey echoed, still smirking. "Look at who's hanging all over you and then tell me who's the baby at the table." 
	"Joey, God…" JC stared at him. "You really think joking about it helps? None of us can control what's going on." 
	"Are you guys ready to order?" a new voice interrupted. A perky brunette. She had a pen and pad ready to jot down their orders.
	The guys stopped their conversation long enough to order and then JC and Joey turned back to glaring at one another. Justin had hid his head into JC's shirt and was pushing himself down lower. JC held him by an arm gently as he spoke to Joey.
	"We're all trying to make the best of the situation, Joe," he said. "I'm sorry that you're having a hard time handling it, but it's nobody's fault this happened. We don’t even know why it happened."
	"I'm not saying that," Joey objected. "Just because I find something funny, I mean… Who cares if he did that? I think we all did that. But—"
	"You don't have to bring it up." 
	"Lance brought it up," Joey objected.
	"Bring what up?" Chris persisted. 
	At this point, Justin had managed to slide himself down from JC's lap onto the floor beneath the booth. JC's hand had slipped from his wrist and he dropped to sit on the ground. It was dark but he could just make out all the guys' shoes. He compared his little shoes to theirs. It was depressing.
	"Nothing," Lance insisted to Chris. "It's nothing. Really." 
	"Great," JC had said now, giving Joey a look and then twisting to look under the table. "Justin?" he said softly. He didn't want to draw any more attention to the group than possible. They hadn't been recognized yet. He looked at Joey. "Now look what you did. You think this is easy for him?"
	"It's not like I dropped him under there," Joey answered. "You're the one that was holding him."
	"Maybe if you didn't rub things in," JC answered. He leaned to put his arm down towards the floor a little ways, trying not to bump into Lance on the other side as he moved in his seat. He felt around for anything and felt his fingers brush something. He pushed down and felt Justin's hair. He patted gently and whispered, "Please, bud… Come up. It's dirty down there. Joey'll be nice." 
	"He's not going to come up if you just coo at him," Joey began sarcastically.
	"No?" JC sat back up straighter, having gotten no response anyway. "You don't think?" His voice was sharp.
	"All you do is 'baby' this and 'honey' that. You're not his mother. You keep telling us not to treat him like a baby, and then you talk to him like that." 
	"Guys, let's try not to have a huge fight over this, alright…?" Lance started. "It's not worth it."
	"Where is he anyway?" Joey asked, moving his foot around under the table. "Why the hell is he down there anyway? None of us even said what we were talking about." He leaned down to search with his eyes. "Justin? What the hell you doing?" He moved his foot again, trying another direction. There was a thud and a yelp from under the table and he froze. 
	"Did you just kick him?" JC demanded. "Tell me you did not just kick him." 
	"Hopefully that was the wall," Joey answered slowly. 
	"Walls don't cry," JC snapped. 
	"Well, I'm sorry!" Joey exclaimed. He looked under the table. "I'm sorry, Juppy. I didn't mean it." 
	"This is turning out to be a great night, huh?" Chris muttered.
	Lance rolled his eyes. "Oh yeah." He turned to look at JC, who was poking at him, telling him to get out of the booth. He complied, confused. 
	JC went down on his knees and looked under the table. He saw glossy eyes blinking back at him and made out the shadow of the toddler sitting, huddled next to the wall. He gestured at him. "C'mere, baby, we're going for a walk." 
	Justin hesitated before looking at the big shoes he had to get by to reach JC. He leaned forward and started to crawl out. 
	The guys that were still at the table watched JC pick up Justin and walk away. 
	"He'll be back," Lance said.
	"I know." Chris nodded. He paused. "Now what was all that crap before that you all were talking about? Tell me since he's gone." 
*****
*****
	Moving past the overcrowded waiting room of the restaurant, JC sighed and moved in the dark outside towards his car, parked just about fifteen feet from the entrance. 
	"We leaving?" Justin asked, sniffling just a little bit as he pressed his head to JC's chest.
	"No," JC answered. "Just gonna sit for a bit, okay? I thought you might want some space"
	"I do." 
	JC unlocked his car and moved to the passenger side, opening the door and releasing Justin gently onto the seat before shutting that side and getting in the driver's side. He put the car on without a word and flipped on the radio. 
	Justin crawled forward to reach for the radio and had to slide to the floor before he could get close enough for his hands to work the dials.
	"I'm sorry about everything…" JC began, moving his hand to Justin's back and stroking gently as the child frowned at the radio and pressed 'seek' continuously with a chubby finger. "It's not your fault any of this happened. You know that, right?" He ran his fingers down Justin's smooth, flushed cheek. "None of us know how to deal with it, and they aren't trying to make a joke of things on purpose." 
	"Yeah, okay," Justin answered, finally finding a station he liked. He shifted back so that he could lean against the seat. "I'm okay."
	"You're okay, huh?" JC patted him on the side of the head. "Good." 
	"Sometimes it's okay. I'm tired of it, but I like… being small. Kinda," Justin said slowly. 
	"What do you like about it?" JC asked, a little surprised.
	"People are nicer."
	"Than when you're big? But I don't think the guys  know what to do with you now though."
	"You do at least." Justin turned his head to the side a little. He yawned. 
	"Yeah…" JC shrugged. "Well, you're my best friend. Whether you're a baby or not I've gotta take care of you, right?" Justin smiled widely, a baby smile with dimpled cheeks, and JC smirked at him. "Look at you…" JC muttered. "How could Joey possibly have a hard time with you?"
	"He kicked me…" Justin answered.
	"I know." JC made a face. "He didn’t mean that though. He teases and he made a mistake..."
	Justin shrugged.
	"It's just that… they're all jealous 'cause you're so cute now…" JC continued playfully. "With that face and your clothes. Because who bought you the best clothes ever?" He tugged at the other's little t-shirt. "Chris and I definitely get first place there." 
	Justin just shook his head in happy exasperation.
	JC sighed. "It'll work out."
	Justin shifted a little bit, closing his eyes and leaning his head back against the seat. JC gazed at him with a frown. 
	"Don't get sleepy on me just yet. We should go back inside soon…" JC reached over to take the keys from the ignition. "Because you're hungry and I'm hungry and our food's going to come out soon."
	"Okay," Justin answered. He opened his eyes and leaned forward to sit up.  
	"I bet you Joey's going to apologize…and you should probably just accept it." JC began as he stuck his car keys into Justin's pocket carefully. He leaned over to push the door open. "You wanna walk or ride?"
	"Ride." Justin hooked his arms around JC's neck. 
	"Oh, you are going to miss this first class service when you're big again…" JC teased, sliding out of the car. As Justin moved to come out behind him, he lifted him up into his arms. He shut the door behind them and started for the entrance to the restaurant. "You still have my keys?"
	"Yep," Justin answered, wrapping his legs around JC's waist. 
	Once inside, Lance got up immediately to let the two back in. JC let Justin slid in ahead of him like he had before and soon they were all sitting like they had been ten minutes prior. 
	There was a moment of silence until Joey spoke.
	"Hey, Jup, I wanted to apologize…" he said gently. "I'm sorry that I suck at taking care of you." 
	"It's okay," Justin answered in a small voice. "I understand." 
	"I didn't mean it," Joey persisted. He sighed. 
	"The food should be here in any second," Chris continued. "The waitress just came by while you were gone."
*****
*****
	Everything was going as good as expected for the week until the phone call. Justin had reached the point where he didn't mind being little too much as long as the guys were there and he wasn't alone. Being carried was kind of nice and everything was pretty much done for him. All babies had to do were eat and sleep basically. And he did both well. After a tour all he wanted was to lay around and watch TV anyway. The added bonus of people giving him food and carrying him places was kind of nice. 
	But then the phone call. They weren't in when they got it, thank God, or JC thought that he may have freaked out. They were returning in and he heard the familiar beep of his answering machine inside. 
	"Let me just see who that is," he said as he put Justin, who he'd been carrying, onto the floor and pushed him towards the other room where the other guys were already headed. 
	He pressed play and was informed of one message. Yawning, he listened as it told him it had occurred just an hour ago. 
	"Hi, JC, this is Lynn," came a hesitant voice over the line. "I… Well, I just haven't seen Justin and he hasn’t called… And he's at your house a lot so I was wondering if that's where he was? I don't know why he wouldn't have called me or anything, but… Can you just call me, JC? I'm a little worried. I know you guys get busy, but...  Thanks, honey. Take care."
	JC felt his stomach twist and leaned against the wall. Oh no.
	He hurried inside to tell the guys and then didn't know what to say. He walked over to sit on the couch. Joey had flipped on the TV and Chris was on the floor with Justin, playing some game that they had bought him. They'd started to buy him random toys because it just seemed appropriate. He was a little kid after all.
	"What's the matter?" Lance asked first. He'd noticed JC's expression had darkened from when they'd first come in.
	JC put his feet up on the table in front of the couch. "Oh, a lot is suddenly the matter…"
	"Who left the message?" 
	JC took a deep breath, looking down at Justin crawling over Chris for some game pieces. "Lynn."
	"Justin's mom?" Joey exclaimed as he looked away from the TV.
	Justin had frozen on the ground. 
	"Is there another Lynn I could be talking about?" JC retorted. "She's worried because her baby hasn't called. She doesn't know her baby is reallya baby."
	Justin looked shocked. 
	"What are we going to do?" Joey persisted. "Too bad Justin's such a mama's boy that this seems suspicious. Because he would always call."
	"He could still call," Lance said. "It's just that he sounds… like a three year old."
	"Obviously." JC ran a hand through his hair. "We've got to tell her something because she'll keep calling me."
	"I think we should tell her the truth," Chris said. He patted Justin on the head gently. "We don't know how long he's going to be like this and…"
	"Well, it's not forever," Joey objected.  "It can't be, right?" 
	"Long enough that we have to tell her something… We should tell her the truth…" Chris shrugged. "That's what I think. He's her son. What else can we do?"
	"I agree," Lance said.
	"I want to stay here…" Justin spoke up, voice a mix between a whine and shakiness. "No matter what."
	"You'll still be here," JC soothed. "We'll just tell her what happened."
	"What if she wants to take him though?" Lance answered.
*****
*****
	When JC called later, he didn't have to worry about Lynn wanting her son back too much. When he told her, slowly and carefully, what had happened, she wasn't surprised at all. In fact the conversation was far easier than he'd expected.
	"Oh," was what she said. "I was hoping that wouldn't happen."
	And when he politely asked what she meant by that, a little taken back, she was nonchalant.
	"I never told him I guess. Well, it was a fairytale to him maybe. It runs in the family."
	"Oh."
	"It's not permanent," she persisted. "Is he alright?"
	"Um, yeah. He's good."
	"Are you guys okay with him? He was a handful as a child."
	"We're good."
	"Alright. Tell him mommy loves him."
	And that was the end of it. Justin was frantic when JC told him.
	"She never told me!" he cried out. 
	"It's temporary." JC sighed. "She says she loves you."
	"Geez…" Joey had said. "Little family secret, huh, Justin? Was it a full moon that night or what?" 
	Justin groaned.  
	"She warned me that you were a handful," JC continued.
	"You said he was the spawn of the devil, right?" Joey replied. "Baby Satan."
	"Joe, don’t start." JC rolled his eyes. 
	"I'm just saying that I'm glad it's temporary," Joey answered. "Aren't you getting tired of lugging him around?"
	"No. And I'm glad you're not the one that turned into the baby," JC replied. 
	"That'd be a big baby…" Justin persisted. "A fat baby." 
	"I was not a fat baby," Joey began. "You're not too light yourself, squirt, so don't start."
	"Alright, alright…" JC objected. "And to get back to the subject on hand here, yeah, Justin's mom is squared away and fine with it all." 
*****
*****
	But as that was squared away, another problem arose. This one started with Johnny's voice angry on each of their answering machines the next day, not just JC's. Demanding a group meeting. To meet him that evening.
	"What'd we do?" Joey wondered. 
	"We have to meet him in like an hour and we have no clue what for?" Lance began. "That's ridiculous."
	"What do we do with baby?" JC replied. "What do we do with you?" He turned to Justin, who was sitting on the couch beside him and Lance, looking at the pictures in Sports Illustrated. "Huh?"
	Justin just looked at him.
	"Can we leave you alone for a little bit?"
	Justin blinked. "I guess." 
	"What am I thinking?" JC exclaimed. "You're a three year old. Of course not. We'll have to… I don't know…"
	"When we show up without Justin with some tot that looks just like him," Chris began. "He'll think we're crazy."
	"He has to come with us," JC persisted. "Justin, let's get you a hat or something, alright?" He stood from the couch and walked over towards his room. "I'll find something." 
	"A hat?" Chris retorted. "That'll help..." 
	The other three guys were scrutinizing Justin, who was pouting. He did not like being scrutinized.
	"Stop looking at me," he said.
	"Do you think he'll put two and two together?" Joey asked with a frown. "I don't know if I necessarily would. I mean, baby Justin looks like Justin, but if you're not thinking about it, a lot of babies look like him." 
	"But when big Justin doesn’t show up…" Lance continued. 
	"True…"
	JC returned then with a couple of hats. "Alright."
	"We can just say he's one of our cousins," Chris started. "Or something."
	"Baseball cap…" JC placed it on Justin's head, smirking at him. "Too big." It barely stayed on, hanging off, nearly covering his whole head. JC pulled it off and replaced it with a fisherman's cap, a floppy one with a rim that went around the whole head. 
	"That's cute," Chris noted. It was still big but it looked better than the baseball cap. 
	"I hate to admit it, but he's going to be cute no matter what," Joey replied. "Does it cover him enough?"
	Justin just stared at them from under the rim with a small sigh while they argued over it. He barely noticed when Chris took his sunglasses out of his pocket and put them on him.
	"We can tell Johnny that he thinks he's invisible," Lance said. "He'll leave him alone." 
	"Name?" Joey asked. "We can't call him Justin."
	"Just call him baby," Lance replied.
	"What if Johnny asks his name? And whose cousin? Or cousin's baby? Or whatever? And where is Justin?"
	"Justin has the flu really bad," Chris began. "Like he thinks he's dying, we'll tell Johnny. It's JC's cousin because JC's the one holding him most of the time. And we'll call him… I don't know. Tommy."
	"I don't like that name too much…" Lance said, wrinkling his nose.
	"Tommy?" JC echoed.
	"I was thinking the Rugrats." Chris shrugged. "You know, Tommy? Come on, you guys have watched that show. Justin and I used to watch it on the bus when we were bored. Right, Juppy?"
	"Yeah..." Justin just sighed again, seeing darkly through the sunglasses and seeing little with the rim of the big hat. 
*****
*****
	"I've called you all here because of a problem arising," Johnny began. He rarely was angry but this was definitely one of those times. When he pointed to the baby in JC's arms, facing into the man's chest, the guys all froze.
	"Ju—Tommy?" JC began. "W-why?"
	"It's JC's cousin," Joey blurted. 
	"Cousin?" Johnny answered. "That may be fine, but boys, when you walk around public, you get things like this." He gave a different newspaper cutout to each of them. 
	JC shifted Justin to his hip with one arm under him as support as he looked at the clipping. It had a picture of the group with a title 'Father to Be in *NSYNC. Which Member Has Been *Ntimate?"
	He looked at the other guys and by their expressions knew they were similar articles.
	"That's what the press starts to think when you walk around carting a baby," Johnny began. "And buy baby clothes, baby food, baby—"
	"Here's a cute picture of you guys…" Chris handed JC his clipping, which showed a picture of the two of them and Joey shopping.
	"Geez…" JC looked up at Johnny. "Man, I'm his cousin, not his father."
	"This have to be from the Inquirer and Star, right?" Joey began. "No other magazine would post something so unaccredited."
	Johnny nodded and admitted that was true. "But that doesn’t put down the fact that there are suspicions. I want you to make a public statement just to knock down the accusations before it gets any bigger."
	Lance nodded. "We'll call MTV or something."
	"Good." Johnny nodded. He approached JC, now with a smile. "So this little guy's your cousin?" 
	"Yeah," JC affirmed, rubbing Justin's back as the child buried his face into his shirt. He handed the papers in his hand over to Chris again to enable him to have two hands to hold him. "He's, um, he's very shy."
	"I see that…" All Johnny could see was the back of a blue shirt and hat, and little legs covered by jeans that hooked tightly onto JC's waist. "Hey, guys, where's Justin?"
	"He's got the flu," JC answered, feeling heat through his t-shirt where Justin's mouth was pressed against him, breathing in and out. "Really bad. So we let him sleep today."
	Johnny frowned. "Poor kid. Probably the change of schedules has him run down."
	JC nodded. "Yeah, that's probably it." 
	"Well, tell him to feel better." 
*****
*****
	They'd survived. Lynn and Johnny. They decided to celebrate and decided to skip dinner for ice cream, which sounded good to everybody. 
	"Can he have ice cream?" Joey asked as they took their seats at the local Friendly's restaurant. 
	"Yes," Justin spoke up with a glare. He was kneeling on the chair like he was used to now, elbows leaning on to the table. He was tired of them questioning everything he could eat.
	"Well, having you throwing up or something all night wouldn't be fun so I'm just making sure," Joey answered.
	"I think he can." JC looked at Justin. "Three year olds eat ice cream."
	"OK." Joey shrugged. "I didn't know."
	"Oh, my God, Justin, you know what you can get?" Chris began excitedly, pointing on the menu. "The conehead!" 
	Justin stared at a picture of a scoop of ice cream with a face made out of M&M's and a cone dipped in chocolate on top of the 'head'. He made a face, although it did look good. "Why?"
	"Because it's on the kid's menu," Chris replied. "Wow, I haven't had one of those in such a long time. I haven't been here in a long time."
	"Why don't you get one then," Lance answered with a smirk. 
	"You think they'd let me?" Chris asked. 
	"I really don't think they care."
	"Seriously, Jup, you've got to get it," Chris insisted. "And if the person makes it good, there's all M&M's and chocolate at the bottom. It's so good."
	"Let him get what he wants," JC answered, rolling his eyes. "Chris, you can get that one." 
	"We'll both get it," Chris replied indignantly. 
	Joey studied Justin. "Why don't we take the sunglasses off him now?"
	"He wants them on," JC replied.
	"You do?" 
	Justin nodded, peering over the table at the menu.
	"Alright, you little misfit." Joey shrugged. "Whatever you want. You just look weird."
	"So?" Justin replied. He looked up, pushing the sunglasses up because they were sliding.  
	"So nothing. Can you see?"
	"Yes."
	"You gonna wear them to bed too?"
	"Maybe."
	"It's not that big a deal," Chris spoke up. "He looks cool."
	"Yeah, I bet he's the coolest three year old here." Joey smirked. 
	Justin did wind up taking them off after they ordered and the ice cream came. He looked down at the ice cream, he'd ordered the same as Chris anyway, and the glasses that were too large for him slipped off into the whipped cream. 
	"Oops."
	Chris promptly reached across the table and rescued his glasses from the depths of the whipped cream and set them aside on a napkin after wiping them off. 
	Justin said 'oops' about twenty times during the so-called meal. JC used about ten times that many napkins wiping the other's lips and chin and cheeks until the front of Justin's shirt joined in getting chocolate on it. Then he just gave up and said that they'd take a bath later.
	"I forgot what it was like eating ice cream with a three year old…" Lance muttered, looking at Justin, who was laughing.
	"Don't touch anything," JC was saying as he took Justin's hands and started wiping off the fingers with a napkin. "Like my hat on your head. Don't touch it."
	"That was so good," Justin said. He sucked on the fingers on his one hand while JC held his other and rubbed it clean. 
	"Told you it was good," Chris replied. 
	"You didn't say it was messy," JC muttered.
	"Well, it's not for me." 
	"Yeah." JC balled the napkin in his hand and tossed it aside, watching Justin suck on his fingers. "You're hopeless as a baby. Whatever. You guys wanna come over to my place again?"
	"Sure," Lance agreed. The others nodded. 
*****
*****
	Justin screamed when it happened. It was the middle of the night and he was slightly awake, turning over. He rolled onto his stomach how he was usually comfortable and felt something wrong with this position. Something different. So he sat up, yawning, and when he looked down at himself, screamed. 
	He figured it was a nightmare and he could scream his head off for a bit and then one of the guys would come and rub his back and he'd wake up and it'd be normal again. But that wasn't happening and he was running towards the bathroom now. 
	When he looked in the mirror, he screamed louder. His scream was different, it was higher, and he... He....
	He was now a girl.
	First a baby. Now a girl?
	No way.
	At least he was a teenager again.
	"Hey..." JC's sleepy voice began as he neared the bathroom. "What's up with all the—" His eyes widened as he looked into the bathroom. He blinked, eyes wide. "Jesus Christ... What the..."
	"I'm a girl!" Justin screamed. "A girl! A God damn girl!"
	"Justin?" JC swallowed. "So it seems..." He tried to lift his eyes away from Justin's chest. "Maybe you should... get a... a shirt on, and... Um, you know?" Justin had gone to sleep in just shorts. Now those were extremely tight on his hips because they'd been for a little kid and there was of course... his chest. 
	Justin looked at himself, then JC, them himself again, beginning to cry. Emotional girl tears. 
	"Sh... Geez, come on... I'll get you a shirt..." JC rushed away from the doorway and  towards Justin's bag. He fished out an Abercrombie t-shirt and figured that would have to do. He headed back. "Here..." He kept his eyes averted as the sobbing Justin girl thing grabbed the shirt and put it on hastily, still staring in the mirror.
	"I'm hideous!" he yelled.
	"No, actually, you're not..." JC objected, eyes venturing back. "I thought... You're very pretty. You were a cute baby, now you're a pretty girl." 	
	"But I'm a girl!"
	"A pretty girl..." 
	Justin flipped off the lights of the bathroom and pushed past JC towards the other room. "This is a nightmare," he said. "I'm still sleeping in your bed still until all this goes away. I liked being a baby."
	"No, you didn't." JC watched the other slide into his bed and sighed, walking towards him. 	"Justin..." Justin pulled the covers over his head and JC made a face, moving to slip back into bed himself. 
	He felt the warmth of the other beside him and this was totally different. This was Justin but it wasn't... He was smoother, smooth hairless legs and body, smooth… This was a girl. A girl who was rolling over to wrap her slender arms around his waist and bury her face into his chest, sniffling and looking for comfort. It was Justin but it wasn't... JC placed his hand carefully on her hip and realized how Justin's narrow bony hips had changed as well. He didn't say anything though. 
*****
*****
	When Justin woke up again in the morning and realized that his nightmare wasn't going away, he almost screamed again. Instead, he scowled, sensing the change in different parts of his body. He had to go to the bathroom but he was suddenly freaked out to even move.
	"JC..." He pushed at the man next to him. "JC..."
	"Mm... Go back to bed, Curly..." JC rolled over to turn his back to him. 
	"Get up." Justin punched him on the back before sliding out of bed and going  towards the bathroom. In the mirror he noted his somewhat changed facial features. 	Higher cheekbones, more shapely eyebrows, slender neck, long wavy blondish hair... He lifted up the front of his shirt to look again and made a face, dropping it back down immediately. That was something that would take a bit to get used to. 
	Being little or being a girl…
	He whimpered thinking about sitting down to pee. The missing weight between his legs was extremely disturbing. 
*****
*****
	"That's Justin?" Chris blinked as they all settled for breakfast. JC had told them all while a surly Justin took a shower. He'd prepared them to be understanding because none of them knew what had happened or what this next stage was and Justin was still very sensitive about it. 
	"Shut up and don't say anything to me," Justin replied as he took a seat on the couch. He crossed his arms over his chest, taking two maneuvers as he learned where his new breasts were.
	"I didn't know JC was for real..." Lance peered at their friend's new look curiously. "I thought it was some kind of joke. Wow..."
	"He turned into baby, why not a girl?" JC answered.
	"Do you know that... you're kinda hot," Joey said with a smirk. "You make a good girl, man... Look at you."
	Justin glared. "Shut up."
	"He thinks he's hideous," JC whispered to Joey as he sat down with a shrug. 
	Joey shook his head and whistled. "Wow."
	"Shut the hell up, Fatone," Justin snapped irritably. "JC, we need to go shopping today. I can't just wear my clothes." His jeans were sliding down his hips and his shirt, even one of his tight ones, didn't do much for him... He felt like he was going to bust out of it.
	"Ooh, JC, you going shopping?" Chris raised an eyebrow. 
	JC paused, biting his lip. "Am I?"
	"Dammit, yes." Justin glared. 
	"Why me?"
	"I don't know." Justin narrowed his eyes. "The rest of these jokers make fun of me. Look, you know, if this is going to be such a big problem with the group, I mean, it's not like I chosefor this to happen. Jesus." He got up and stalked towards the bathroom.
	"Is she PMSing?" Chris asked.
	"God, he's even hot when he's mad." Joey sighed. "Man, I want to take him shopping. Hey, JC, isn't she going to need... like... a bra and stuff?" He grinned.
	"Oh God, don't say that..." JC rolled his eyes. "He's been upset ever since it happened last night. He thought he'd wake up and it would be gone and he was a bit mad when it wasn't."
	"Good luck." Lance smirked. "Have fun shopping."
	"Well, I for one am glad he's not a baby anymore," Joey said. "That was beginning to piss me off." 
*****
*****
	"I'm not sure how much help I'm going be, Justin…" JC began as they drove to the mall. "I mean, seriously…"
	"You have a sister." 
	"So?"
	"So you have a sister. I don't." Justin sniffled. He'd been half in tears all morning. Being a girl was making him more emotional then being a baby. "I don't know anything…"
	"It'll be easier than being a baby though, right?"
	"I liked being a baby," Justin answered. "It was fun."
	"Oh, you like being a big boy. I mean…" JC tightened his hands on the wheel. "Girl. A girl. A pretty girl."
	"I'm still your best friend. Right?"
	"Of course, man... I mean.... Pal..." JC assured the sniffling Justin. "And that's still not gonna change, alright?" 
*****
*****
 	"Wow!" Justin held up the tank top and shoved it in JC's face. "Look! Man, it's got a built in bra! This is technology for real..." 
	JC turned red as a bunch of people turned to look at Justin for his exclamation. They were in Express and Justin had become slightly less teary eyed when he saw the wide assortment of clothing and colors he'd now be able to wear.
	"Which reminds me…" Justin moved closer. "We have to go to Victoria's Secret." 
	"What?" JC hissed. "Justin, no!"
	"I have to have support!" Justin pointed at his chest. "These things aren't comfortable just bouncing around you know, asshole."
	More people were looking at them and JC was about to die. He was glad that his baseball cap covered his face. Justin had no shame. 
	"You know, you might wanna keep your voice down just a little…?" JC whispered, taking his arm.
	Justin grabbed the amazing tank tops in several colors and told JC to hold them. 	"I'll try all these on. I don't know what the hell size I am… Ooh, pants. Those are phat."
	JC followed him with a sigh, shaking his head as Justin walked to the beat of the loud club-like music playing over the speakers. JC just decided that the most important thing was to keep him, or her, happy.
	"Dangerously low-ride…" Justin read the label of a pair of white pants.  He looked up. "JC, what the heck does that mean?"
	"Um, they're low, Justin…" JC muttered. "I don't know." 
	"Low in what way? Wow, they feel like spandex…" Justin felt the material. "Cool. Look, it's thirty-five percent spandex. Awesome, huh? Think I can pull it off?"
	"Of course."
	"Am I a…" He looked at the other tag. "A four?"
	"I guess. You look skinny."
 	Justin giggled. "They have size zero. Can you imagine? I wonder if I'm a zero." 
	"I doubt it."
	"I'm not fat." Justin looked at him accusingly. "Like you can tell in these scrubby clothes, but I’m not—"
	"No, you're not. I told you that you're really pretty. Zero's just... Well, you're too tall to be a zero. Wanna try any of these on?" JC looked at him pleadingly.
	"Not yet. I want more. Did you bring your credit card?"
	JC's eyes widened. "What?"
	"You did, right? Because…" Justin's pouted a little. "Because that would be really bad if… we had no…" He blinked his large eyes. 
	"I did, okay? I have money. Chill." JC looked at the pants thrown at him. "Seventy five dollars for pants, Justin?"
	"You know you love me," Justin replied as he skipped to the next section.
	"Dear God. He really is a girl." 
	Justin looked up as JC approached him, all the clothes in his arms. He smiled. "Thanks, JC. This means a lot to me."
	JC nodded, rolling his eyes. "Anything for you."
	Justin grabbed several more things. "Let's try this stuff on. Come on."
	"Thank God…" JC murmured, following Justin to the back of the store where they had fitting rooms. 
	"Do you know how bad it is to walk?" Justin said as they headed towards a room. "Like, you've been carrying me for the past, I don't know, and I was really getting used to it and now my feet and legs are big…"
	"They're not big. They're nice," JC objected. "You were a nice baby but this is a step in the right direction."
	Justin reached a room and pulled the door open. It was fairly big and there was a bench, which Justin pointed to. "You sit there."
	JC's eyes widened. "Excuse me? No way. I'm just going to stick the clothes right here and—"
	As soon as JC stepped in to put the clothes down, Justin pushed him in and shut the door behind the. "You have to help me. I've never put on girl's clothes before."
	"It's not any different!"
	Justin was slipping off his sneakers and talking about how he needed new shoes too because they were too big. JC just sat down. 
	"JC, can I tell you a secret?" Justin murmured.
	"What?"
	Justin smiled a little mischievously. "I… I don't have any underwear on…" He laughed. 
	"Oh God…" JC rolled his eyes heavenward. "I'm just gonna—"
	"Sit!" Justin pushed him back down. "You just hold my clothes and sit. You're my best friend, and this is your job."
	"Can I just give you my credit card and—"
	"JC, I don't want you to be one of those poor guys that sit in the food court all sad because their girl is off with their credit card for hours," Justin replied stiffly. "You're better than that…" 
	JC made a face. Justin started to unbutton his jeans and he closed his eyes. 	
*****
*****
	With two bags from Express and two bags from Abercrombie in JC's hands, Justin walked pointedly towards Victoria's Secret. The pink store with mannequins in frilly lace and lingerie. JC's mouth went dry. Sure he was curious but…
	"Justin… Wanna get ice cream?" JC started shakily. He began to think how easy baby Justin had been in comparison.
	"I want a bra. It's not even want, it's need."
	"I can get someone else to do that with you. We don't know how to do that… Right? Why don't we—"
	They were almost at the entrance and Justin turned towards him, pouting and angry. "JC."
	"What, J? I just—"
	"I want a bra. Okay? That's all I want? My God damn stupidly big boobs need some God damn stupid support."
	"Justin, girls don't talk like that…" JC blushed.
	"Well, I'm a girl and I do. It's my body and you're gonna help me." Justin pointed into the store. "Look, there's guys in there. They even have some guy stuff. Come on…"
	JC grunted. "Fine. Fine, fine, fine…" 
	Justin grinned and they entered the store, soft music filling their ears. Justin began looking at the tables of different soaps and fragrances in the front of the store, ooh-ing and ah-ing until JC took his arm and gently reminded him what they were there for.
	"I don't know why I'm suddenly attracted to that kind of stuff," Justin said apologetically. It reminded him of how he liked to be picked up as a baby, just some innate instinct.
	"Let's just get what we're here for." 
	"I want a black one…" Justin said, giggling with a mischievous look on his now truly feminine face. "A lacy one."
	"Oh, God…" JC groaned. It was so obviously Justin within the girl's body. 
	Justin walked up to a rack and peered at the bras. "What do the letters and numbers all mean? It's like a code…"
	"You know, it was kind of fun when Joey and I took you and bought you all those cute little outfits and baby things…" JC said. "This is just… Just… I don't know. Not fun." 
	"I don't want to ask for help…" Justin was murmuring. "A girl my age would know what all this means by now…" 
	"You know what the letters mean, J." JC felt weird calling him J, but wasn't sure to call him 'honey' or 'baby' or what because calling Justin 'Justin' when he was a girl would just be weird. The pet names came easier when he was in the body of a two year old.  "D is like huge. Right?"
	"Yeah." Justin nodded. "Oh, yeah. I know that. And the numbers? There's… 36… 34… 32… 38… What the hell does it all mean? JC, what letter am I?"
	"I… I don't know." 
	"You can look at my chest, JC. God, come on. I'm not like a real girl."
	"I'm not a good judge of… size…" JC's eyes drifted downward to Justin's chest. He thought they were a good size, but he wasn't sure what number or letter that translated into.
	"Having breasts suck, seriously." Justin shook his head. "Man… I guess I'll just have to try a bunch." He looked up at JC as he reached for some. "Can I get black?"
	"Why are you asking me?"
	"Because you… You're, you know, you have to tell me when I cross the line. I don't know how I look…"	
	JC thought back to the dressing room in Express and opening his eyes to see what Justin had tried on. He remembered the low waist line of the pants on his slender hips and the shirts that fell just to his navel and showed the smooth skin beneath, about an inch of his flat golden belly. 
	"I…" he began. "Black might… You can sometimes see black through those shirts that you bought. You know? Joey always makes fun of those girls."
	"Mm… True." Justin frowned. "Hey… Can I get a thong?"
	"Um… I guess…"
	"Cool. Look… Some of these bras have wires in them and some of them don't and…" Justin looked at one carefully. "This one is all padded. That's totally cheating."  
	"Justin, do you want to wait until you know what all of this means?"
	"No. No, I need one." 
	"What about a sport's bra? That'd be easiest."
	"Is that like one of the ones that are like, kinda like a halter top without like, you know, it's like—"
	"Yeah." JC rolled his eyes. "Like that."
	"No, I want a realone. Ooh… This one's got a pretty bow on it… Hey…" He looked up at JC. "I want to run to the bathroom after this, alright? I think my bladder is now like half-size or something." 
	"Okay. And look, why don't you just ask that lady over there for help, Justin? Say you're from another country that doesn't believe in bras or something and you don't know what you're doing…"
	"But…" Justin frowned. "I don't know, that's weird…"
	"I'll wait outside for you." JC fished his credit card out of his wallet. "Okay? I’m not mad at you. It's just… I'm still a guy and you'd feel the same way in this store." He patted Justin awkwardly on the arm. "Come get me when you're done."
	"Okay…" Justin looked disappointed but didn't object.
*****
*****
	JC had five bags now and was barely able to grab Justin's arm when they headed towards the bathrooms in the food court. 
	"Girl's bathroom," he whispered. "Remember which one to go into to. No more urinals." 
	"I know. Can I change into one of my outfits?" Justin asked. "I really wanna." 
	JC watched him grinning and nodded with a sigh. "Fine, whatever you want, here…" He walked over to an empty table and set the bags on it. "Which do you want? Put it in one bag and take it in." 
	Justin grabbed some things and switched some bags around. "I'll be quick. I swear. Thank you."
	JC watched him leave. About ten minutes later, the new Justin returned with a wide grin, wearing the white pants and one of the 'amazing' tank tops. JC took a deep breath. 
	"Do I look okay?" he asked, stepping in front of JC. 
	"Joey's right…" JC laughed. "You're hot."
	"I admire girls," Justin said in a whisper, leaning down to reach JC's ear. "They have a lot of upper thigh strength."
	"Huh?"
	"Those bathrooms? To not sit? I mean it would be gross to sit. So you... You know. So that you can—"
	"Okay… I get it." 
	"I want makeup."
	JC blinked. "What? Come on, we've been at the mall for—"
	Justin moved and sat on JC's lap, wrapping his arms around his neck. "JC… I was the only girl in there not putting on more lipstick or powdering my nose or putting on mascara…" 
	JC wrapped his arms around him carefully. This was weird. It was more like a girlfriend than a best friend, and Justin seemed to have no problem letting his feminine side come out. "You know nothing about makeup."
	"I know from the tour about it."
	"Can we do it tomorrow?"
	"I want to be pretty and sparkly…" Justin nuzzled his face into JC's neck. "Please…"
	"You're already pretty…" 
	"Sparkly…"
	"Mm… You're sparkly," JC breathed. "Can we please just go home and then we can—"
	"No. Let's go to that place we passed. Merle something… They help you out and we can do it really quick. You can help me. And when we get home I can make you up."
	"Me?"
	"Yeah. Make you pretty too, JC…"
	"No thanks. Justin, I'm tired. I've been carrying and taking care of you as a baby all week and it was very exhausting, and now I've been carrying these bags around all day long. I just want to sleep now that I know that you can—"
	Justin pouted, staring at JC and blinking his eyes. "B-but…"
	"Don't you dare cry. You're not a baby anymore… And girls that cry like that are annoying." 
	Justin sniffled. "JC, I thought…"
	"You thought what? Don't cry, you faker."
	"I… Please? Just one more stop and then we'll go home… Please…" Leaning forward she put her lips to his. "Come on."
	"What's that?" JC pulled back a little. "Huh?"
	"I'm a girl now. I can do things like that if I want." Giggling, Justin jumped up. "And since I'm a girl you can't push me around or anything."
	JC smirked. "Sure I can't. One more stop, you promise?"
	"One. Let's go." 
*****
*****
	 When JC and Justin returned, the guys barely got a glimpse of Justin, who ran past them with about ten bags gripped in his fingers towards the bedroom. JC approached them slowly, about to collapse. He sat on the couch heavily beside them.
	"He's excited. Gonna try stuff on," JC explained. 
	"You look like you had fun," Lance noted with a smirk. 
	"We had to leave. One more store and they would have cut my credit card in half…" JC shook his head. "Guys, he's like, really a girl. It's like… As a baby, he was… Well, he wasn't as happy about it in the beginning."
	"Yeah, no kidding," Chris remarked.
	"Yeah, and now… He's, like, for real having fun." JC ran a hand through his hair. "God, he needed everything. And not just clothes either. Reassurance. And I'm just like, no, your ass isn't big. No, you aren't fat. Yes, you look pretty. God damn. He's a girl! Big ass? He's got *no* ass. Shit, I'm tired."
	"What'd he buy?" Joey asked, a mischievous glint in his eye.
	"Man, you lay off him, alright? He's still Justin, so don't you go being creepy with him." 
	"Her. He's a her."
	"I don't care. It's still Justin." JC narrowed his eyes slightly. "Just remember that."
	"Ooh…" Joey elbowed Lance. "Someone's overprotective." 
	"We can't call him—her—Justin anymore…" Chris started. "What should we call him. We should pick a name," he insisted. "How about… Hm…"
	"Justina," Lance said with a laugh. 
	"That's a little too close. We'll think of something." Chris shrugged. "So what'd you guys buy?"
	JC sighed. "Everything."
	"How's it all look? You see any of it yet?"
	"Have I seen any of it?" JC's eyes widened. "I was in the damn dressing room… Did I see anything…" 
	"You were what?" exclaimed. "Man! I knew I should've been the one to go!"
	"Don't be a perve," Lance started. "That's your little brother."
	"Not anymore he's not…" Joey smirked. "Pretty hot, huh, JC? What'd she get?"
	"Stuff…" JC answered slowly. "I'm sure he'll show you all."
	"Not like the first row show that you got though, I bet… We'll only get to see the outside stuff."
	"Joey!" Chris exclaimed, laughing. "Jesus, you really are a perve!"
	"No, I'm curious," Joey corrected defensively. "We've all seen what he's got as a boy. Now—"
	"Then think of him as your sister," JC answered. "You wanna see what your sister's got?" 
	"Hey… Don't change things around. He's not… my sister. That's different."
	"So he's your brother, but as a girl, not your sister?"
	"Yeah." 
	Justin came back then and they all shut their mouths pretty quickly, eyes watching him. He hadn't changed into anything new, just put things down. JC watched the other guys' expressions as they noted the changes. The white pants,  tank top, pink lips, sparkling eyes, cheekbones, tiny waist—
	"Why'd ya'll stop talking?" Justin frowned, taking a seat self-consciously on the ground, just as he would have as a guy. He stretched out his long slender legs and the guys watched all his movements, breathless. "You weren't talking about me, were you?"
	"Of course not," JC objected. "Well, I was just telling them how well we did."
	"Oh," came the uncertain reply. "Yeah, we did really good. JC's a really good shopper."
	"Or buyer at least," Chris replied. "Right? He's Mr. Credit Card."
	"What are we gonna do with all the… little clothes?" 
	Joey smirked. "I'm sure you could still fit into some of those t-shirts, huh?"
	Justin's eyes darkened. "Excuse me?"
	"Girl's don't appreciate comments like that," Lance whispered. 
	"We can give them all to the Salvation Army or something," JC answered. "Don't worry about it. Or someone we know that has a kid."
	"Are you glad you're big again?" Chris asked. "Huh… Justin?"
	"I guess…" Justin stretched his legs out again, spreading them a little. The guys watched in fascination. "I was getting used to being small though… I have to get used to it. I like the clothes though."
	"How's it feel to have… you know…" Joey gestured to his chest. 
	"Weird," Justin answered. "Annoying."
	"They look nice."
	Justin stared. "Shut up, Joey."
	"Not like I'm looking… I just… You know…" Joey shrugged apologetically.
	"Don't live up to your reputation for once…" JC replied. 
	"Hey!" Justin began. "Speaking of which… You know what store we got to go in? Victoria's Secret and they're really nice in there."
	"Was JC in the dressing room there too?" Joey asked with wide eyes.
	"What's that supposed to mean?" Justin frowned. "And we went to Express and I got to shop on the opposite side of Abercrombie and the mirror's in the girl's bathrooms are so much bigger—"
	"Girl's bathrooms." Chris cracked up. "Uh-oh. Justin's been everywhere now."  
	"I almostwent into the guy's bathroom," Justin said. "JC stopped me."
	"What a hero …" Lance teased. 
*****
*****
	Justin wanted to go to a club the next night. He wanted to wear a dress. The guys just exchanged looks with each other. They'd survived a night with him already. Taking two hours in the bathroom. He still insisted on sleeping in JC's bed like he had as a baby because he was used to it, he said, and they let him. The time in the bathroom thing was a little much, but they didn’t want to complain. 
	He was easily emotional. Justin had always been a little whiney, but now that he had upped how much estrogen he had in his body, he seemed easily drawn to tears. They were learning to be very careful. 
	But Justin could stick up for herself as well as they learned that night when she emerged from JC's room ready for the club scene in a short denim skirt and a shiny white halter top that left nothing to the imagination and revealed a lot of skin. When they were getting ready to go and going out the door, Joey was the one who started it.
	"You look good skanky," he said and slapped his ass.
	Justin reeled around and swiftly punched Joey in the jaw.
	"Justin!" JC grabbed her arm and pulled her against him as she started to go after the man who had stumbled back.
	"He slapped my ass!" Justin yelled. "Ow! Asshole!"
	"I was complimenting !" Joey shouted, holding his jaw. "Jesus!"
	"You said I looked skanky!" Justin's eyes weren't filling with tears, but anger. He pulled against JC's grip and the man slid an arm around his waist, holding him tighter. 
	"No, I said you looked goodskanky!" Joey began angrily. "Dammit!"
	"Guys, come on…" Lance began.
	"Do I look like skanky?" Justin asked, lower lip trembling. 
	"Don’t cry…" JC soothed. "You don't…"
	"Your mascara will run if you cry," Chris said.
	Justin sniffled. "I'll be in the car…" He pulled away. 
	"Aw, Joey, look what you did now," JC said as the four were left in the doorway. 
	"He's still strong!" Joey complained. "Dammit. Girl's are supposed to slap, not punch. Tell him that, will you?"
	"You deserved it," Lance answered. 
	Joey grunted. "I just said that he does look good. Is that a crime?" 
	"What you just did," JC began, looking at all of them, "is a prime example of why we have to watch him even more carefully then we ever have at a club. Because he's not just a cute kid now, he's a girl, and some guys, like Joey, obviously going to be a problem. He's not able to handle that." 
	"Is he wearing a black bra?" Joey began, squinting out at Justin in the driveway. "You can totally see it through the white shirt."
	"Joey, stop. Seriously," JC warned.
	"I'm just saying…"
	"Stop." 
*****
*****
	"What have you been drinking?" JC asked as he slid up alongside a dancing Justin, checking in on him for the hundredth time that night. Justin danced differently than before now that he was a girl. More fluid, more curves, and they all admitted, more sexy. Everyone had noticed. JC cut in and slipped his arm around him, a hand on the small of his back, protective.
	"Rum and Roke," Justin told him dutifully, a lazy smile on his full lips. He rested his head on JC's shoulder. She.
	"Rum and coke?" JC corrected, swaying to the music a bit.
	"That's wha' I said…" Justin murmured. 
	"Yeah, huh? Rum and roke..."
	"People buy me drinks, JC…" 
	"Do they? 'Cause you're so pretty, I bet…"
	"Mm…"
	"I also bet that you can't hold as much as you could when you were a guy, so be careful, alright? You're drunk," JC said. "Aren't you?"
	"Huh…"
	"Anyone giving you trouble?"
	"Mm, don’t think so…"
	"You get one of us when someone does, remember," JC persisted. "Chris is sitting over there now, you see?" 
	"Hm…"
	"We should take you home in just a bit because—"
	"Can I cut in?" a smooth voice began. A girl in a short silver dress, sleeveless, hooked her arm in JC's. "One dance? You cut ours off before, sweetie…"
	JC smiled at her. "Yeah. Um, one more, I guess. Let me just tell Ju— her something…" He leaned in to Justin's ear. "You go sit with Chris now, you hear? Gimme a minute and we'll go home. Don't drink anymore."
	Justin frowned a little as JC pushed him back a bit, slipping his warm hand off his back. He grunted as he watched the girl take his spot. This was one who Justin would approve of Joey calling a skank. 
	He watched their hips grind together for a moment, just standing there, forgetting what JC had told him to do. He knew it had something to do with Chris, but he forgot everything after that. 
	JC's hand was sliding across her hip and that was it. Justin moved forward, grabbing the girl by the arm and pulling her towards him. JC was pushed back a bit, taken off guard, and couldn't say a word to intervene before Justin struck. 
	When Justin punched the girl in the eye, she didn't stumble back like Joey had. She went straight to the floor. And he jumped down on top of her, straddling her and lifting his arm to punch her again when suddenly arms were around his waist and pulling him upwards. 
	Justin was a lot lighter as a skinny girl then he had been as a teenage boy and JC had no trouble lifting him off the floor and half carrying him away from the girl who was screaming on the ground.
	"What the hell is the matter with you?" JC was hissing in his ear, dragging him towards the table where Chris was. When they reached him, all he said to Chris was, "Find the guys. We have to go home. Now. Meet us at the car."
	Justin had barely a recollection as JC yanked him out of the club and across the parking lot, taking out his keys and unlocking his car. He pulled open one of the back doors and pushed Justin in.
	"Move. Other side." He prodded Justin inward, climbing in after him. 
	Justin slumped down in his seat and moaned, slouching with his legs sliding apart. JC slapped him on the thigh abruptly and snapped, "Justin, sit up, put your knees together, and start acting like a freaking girl. What the hell was that?" 
	Justin whimpered, frowning deeply. "But I'm not... a girl." 
	"You are for now... Act like it, will you?"
	"But I.... She was .... Skanky.… Skanky girl."
	"You're not dressed any better than she was!" JC retorted. "You realize that? You have no right to just—And girls slap! They don't knock out! That's a boy thing. Boy! You're a girl!"
	"I'm not a skank." Justin wiped at his eyes, smudging darkness onto his cheek. His voice was slurred. "No."
	"Well, that was a skank thing to do!" JC persisted, angrily leaning forward and using his thumb to wipe at the smeared mascara. "You jealous because I switched? I told you to go sit down and you didn't. What the hell was that?" 
	Justin grabbed the hand that was wiping beneath his eyes and held it to his cheek. "Don't be mad at me…"
	"I am mad at you." JC pulled his hand away and glared. "You drink. You get drunk. You start a fight. You have to be careful as a girl! What if I wasn't there? You know what men do to girls like you?"
	"D-don't… What are you going to do to me?" Justin whimpered.
	"No, not me. No." JC shook his head. "I'm not planning on doing anything to you. Just yelling."
	A darkened tear slipped down Justin's cheek. Then another and another. He sniffled loudly and his pink lips parted, lower lip trembling, as he began to cry. 
	At that point, the other guys were getting into the car. Joey slid into the back seat while Lance took the passenger and Chris took the driver's seat.
	Joey began first. "What's with the abrupt end to—Hey… What'd you do to him?" Joey scrutinized the crying Justin. "What's wrong, pretty?" 
	"Nothing," JC objected. "Nothing. He... She's okay. We just had to talk about something."
	"Just something?" Lance asked, peering behind at them. 
	"What happened?" Chris asked. "What was the commotion?" JC handed him the keys and he put it in the ignition and turned on the car. 
	Justin sniffled louder and leaned over, burying his face into his knees and whimpering. JC sighed and rested his hand on the other's back, rubbing gently, feeling the unfamiliar bump of the bra strap under his hand. 
	"Calm down…" JC shook his head at the others. "Nothing happened. It was just time to go home."
	Joey reached over and ran his fingers through Justin's hair delicately. "So it's okay?" 
	JC nodded. "Will be."
	"Yeah?" Joey frowned. "Alright…"
	"We just have a lot of ideas to get used to, I think," JC began. "Let's call it a night." 
*****
*****
	"Can you stop crying?" JC asked, trying to keep his voice low as he helped Justin out of the car. "Your shoes."
	"I hate my shoes," Justin answered, slipping barefoot onto the pavement. Tears still wet his face. "I hate !"
	"Fine," JC muttered with a shrug, trying not to remember how much those shoes had cost him today. "You're drunk. Let's just get to bed. Throw out the shoes for all I care. Leave them in my car." 
	Justin stopped for a moment in surprise, but JC's arm pulled him forward. He stumbled slightly and JC drew him closer with an arm around his waist, but Justin couldn't tell whether it was because he cared or it was convenient. 
	Justin was fuzzy as they all went into JC's place, the guys parting. Joey and Chris headed towards the kitchen while Lance took a seat on the sofa. JC dragged Justin towards the bedroom, JC hissing to remember how to walk.
	"You change. Alright? Put on something... more you," he said once they were there. He pushed Justin to sit on the bed. "What, you gonna throw up? What's the matter."
	Justin just shook his head, staring down at JC's shoes. "No..."
	"And wash up too." JC rubbed his hand on Justin's face briefly where mascara was smeared. "Take it slow and please don't get sick." 
	JC left him sitting there, shutting the door behind him and went to sit on the couch beside Lance, who gave him a small smile. Chris and Joey returned within a minute with chips and several cans of sodas.
	"Justin's going to bed?" Joey asked.
	"He, uh, I don't think he can hold liquor like he could as a boy," JC answered.
	"He could barely as a boy."
	"Well, he can't at all now."
	Chris frowned. "What'd he do? You seemed a little, you know, pissed."
	"I'm not pissed." JC shook his head. "Not pissed. Just… I was really surprised at how he acted."
	"Like a girl?" Lance asked.
	"Yeah. I guess. But not... It's just…"
	"Come on," Chris persisted. "What the hell'd he do?"
	JC rolled his eyes. "Alright, well I went over to him because he seemed to be getting a little, you know, out of it and I could just tell. So I was telling him we were going to go home when this girl who I'd been dancing with before came over to cut in to finish our dance. So I said fine and told Justin to go to you, Chris. He didn't like that very much. He didn't exactly let us dance..." 
	"Oh no…" Joey's eyes widened but he was smirking. "I think I have an idea…" 
	"Bitch slap?" Chris laughed.
	"No…" JC answered, straight-faced. "As Joey knows, Justin doesn't know that girls slap."
	"Oh no!" Joey exclaimed with a laugh. "He slugged her like he did me?"
	"Took her down on the floor," JC answered. "I don’t know what he was so jealous of…"
	"Maybe he likes you…" Lance said with a smile. "And he got jealous."
	"I knowhe was jealous," JC agreed. "But… I mean, it was nothing and he attacked her. It's not like he wasn't going to have my full attention right after the song ended."
	"Aw, Justy's got a crush on JC…" Joey teased. "Now I know why he was pissed at me for grabbing his ass. He's a girly girl now." 
	JC rolled his eyes. "Let me get his shoes out of the car…"
	The guys just laughed at him as he got up and walked out of his house again. When he returned, they were still talking about it.
	JC glared, dropping Justin's shoes on the floor by the couch. "You better not start, guys. You know how sensitive he/she is." 
	"Oh whatever. She can handle it," Joey answered.
	JC just shook his head and started back slowly towards his bedroom. He knocked on the door and there was no answer and so he just opened it and stepped inside. He set his jaw at the scene and closed the door behind him, leaning against it with crossed arms.
	"You haven't moved," he said.
	Justin shrugged, sitting in the same spot on the bed. His bare toes curled into the thick carpet. 
	"You haven't moved an inch." JC pushed off the door towards the bed. "Not an inch, Justin." 
	Justin barely looked up. He just sniffled and shrugged again.
	"Why?" JC persisted. "You wanna go to bed?"
	Shrug.
	"I know you're drunk, but I also know you can answer me." JC reached him and placed a hand under Justin's chin, gently tilting his face upwards. "Right?" 
	Justin leaned forward, his face into JC's stomach, and wrapped his arms around his waist. He hugged him tightly.
	JC sighed and rested a hand on the back of Justin's neck. "I'm not mad at you anymore if that's what you're worried about…" He stroked his fingers against the soft skin gently. "You going to let go? Hugging is nice, but come on…"
	Justin tightened his arms. 
	"I bet you're getting makeup all over my shirt though," JC persisted, starting to pull back. He reached behind him to feel for Justin's hands on his back and began to unclasp them. "Come on, honey…"
	Justin unhappily unhooked his hands as he was forced to and sat back docilely, clasping his hands in his lap. He sniffled again.	
	"You punched two people today," JC said. "You can't do that and then think hugging me can make up for it."
	"You said you weren't mad…" Justin began.	
	"I'm not mad, I'm just saying…" JC moved to sit beside him. "You can't just punch people, you know?"
	"They both deserved it…" Justin's voice was tired. "JC."
	"Yeah…" JC sighed. "Were you jealous?"
	"Of Joey? No, it just hurt when he—"
	"No, the girl…"
	"She was a ho."
	"By appearance? Well, then so were you."
	"Am not…" Justin looked down at the skirt and shirt and grunted. "Am not."
	"Well, you're certainly not very conservative. But, I mean, you've got the body so… why not I guess."
	"I'm not a ho."
	"Of course not." JC patted the other's thigh. "But I'm just saying that you took that girl by her appearance and someone could do the same for you. That it may not be right."
	"I'm not a ho."
	"Alright, I know. I'm sorry I said it. Alright?"
	"Do all my new clothes make me look like a ho?"
	JC looked over and saw watering eyes and cursed. "Dammit," he muttered. "No, of course not. Would I let you buy clothes like that?"
	"Did you…?" Justin whimpered.
	"No. I just told you they don't. Will you please get ready for bed now? You're going to be miserable in the morning." 
	"You do it." Justin wiped his eyes and sniffled.
	"You're a girl now."
	"You're still JC."
	"I know. I know, but… You're a girl and I can't treat you like I used to with—"
	"You said nothing changed!" Justin was starting to bawl now and JC smelled the alcohol when he turned his head and stared at him accusingly. "You said!"
	"Since you were a baby?" JC began. "Things..." He trailed off as he saw Justin's face. "Um... Okay... What do you want to wear for bed? T-shirt again?" JC walked towards his own closet, taking even breaths, feeling like he was walking on eggshells. "Huh?"
	"Yeah." Justin nodded. He rubbed at his eyes, smearing more mascara. 
	JC walked back over with a big t-shirt with Nike on the front. "Can you just stop crying." He sat back down next to him. "I'll wait until you stop."
	Justin moved his hand to grab the shirt and JC snatched the slender wrist in his grip. 
	"You stopped?" JC asked. "You should see your makeup. You'd die." He let go of his hand and dropped the shirt in Justin's lap.
	Justin's fumbling fingers slipped to the edge of his halter top and he started to pull it up without hesitation. 
	JC leaned back on the bed to lay down, staring at the ceiling for a moment, before glancing back at Justin, who had thrown his shirt to the floor and was clumsily attempting to work on his bra strap. JC sat back up halfway to reach over to unclasp it. 
	"You better not do this show for any other boys," he said jokingly as he laid back down. He watched the bra join the shirt on the floor. "And why'd you wear a black bra with that shirt anyway, huh?"
	Justin mumbled something, standing up and starting to unbutton his denim skirt. JC was a little relieved he had kept his back to him. Even a bit more when Justin slipped the shirt over his head. But then Justin turned around. 
	"I can't do it," he said, moving forward. 
	JC sat up again. "Do what?"
	"Unbutton." Justin lifted the front of the t-shirt, revealing her flat stomach to show the skirt.. There was about a row of ten buttons going down the front of the skirt. Only the first two were undone.
	"I can see how that's confusing for your drunk little mind…" JC muttered as he pulled him over to him. 
	"You do it." Justin said, sitting down beside him and still holding his shirt up.
	JC moved his hands to the buttons and felt Justin lean his head down against his shoulder. He sighed and fumbled with the buttons himself, which were hard to undo with the stiff fabric of the skirt. 
	"Thank you…" Justin murmured, and the soft voice was directly in JC's ear, making him shiver. 
	"No problem…" JC was noticing the black panties beneath the shirt that had matched the bra and rolled his eyes. "You like black underwear?"
	"Yeah. Never did that before."
	"Yeah…" JC reached the last button. "Alright." He took the front of the t-shirt and pulled it down. Justin hadn't moved his head from his shoulder and JC figured that he wouldn't think of it either if he didn't say anything. 
	But he did. "Ready to go to bed?" He pressed his chin down to get a look at Justin's face and wiped again at the mascara. "You look like a raccoon."
	"My stomach hurts," Justin said.
	"It does?" JC slipped an arm around him. "It's probably all the stuff that's happened. And the drinks you had. When you get some sleep I'm sure it'll be better. You want a glass of water?"
	"It's a different kind of stomach ache though…" Justin frowned a little. 
	"Are you nervous? Or worried? Is it that kind of ache?"
	"Dunno…" 
	"Well, why don't you just go wash up, and I'll get you a glass of water,, and when you come back we'll go to bed."
	"You too?"
	"Yeah, me too. I'm exhausted after all this. Lemme go tell the fellas good night. You go wash up." JC pushed up off the bed and toward the bathroom. 
*****
*****
	JC was used to the fact that he couldn't change it. Justin had been a baby and he'd dealt with it and now Justin was a girl who was still in the mindset of being a baby because he'd of course just gotten accustomed to that. So JC dealt with that too. He didn't say anything when the only half sober Justin nestled closer to him in bed, a smooth pretty face of a girl.
	Only the pretty girl was sucking her thumb in her sleep. 
	So he was still half baby. That was alright too. 
	JC thought maybe he could be alright with this hybrid because it was still Justin either way and Justin was hard not to love. But when in the middle of the night he heard the screaming that was definitely belonging to this hybrid, he half-consciously wanted to change his mind.
	He flipped on the light.
	He slipped quickly out of bed and when he was going out the bedroom door, he ran into Joey, who cursed. The other guys had conked out earlier as well, between the guest room and the couch. 	 
	"What the hell is the screaming?"
	JC squinted at Joey's grimace and half lucidly replied, "Justin I guess."
	"You guess?"
	"I think it's coming from the bathroom." A follow-up scream seemed to ascertain that. "I'll take care of it."
	"What could he be screaming about? Did he find another body part he didn't know he had?"
	JC yawned. "I'll find out. Go back to bed. I’m sure it's not a big deal." 
	Joey shrugged. "Back to bed after waking up from that? I'm gonna raid your fridge."
	"Whatever. Go ahead." JC left the man to go to the bathroom door. He knocked. It was now seemingly quiet within the room.
	He knocked again. "Justin? You alright?"
	"Go away!" 
	JC grunted, leaning his cheek against the door tiredly. "You can't scream like that and wake me up and tell me to go away."
	"Go away!"
	"Why?"
	"Go the hell away!" The scream was desperate. "I'm dying!"
	JC's stomach twisted a little. "What'd you do?"
	"Nothing! I'm dying!" A choked sob. "Go away."
	"I have a key to this bathroom, just so that you know. Tell me what's the screaming about." 
	"You can't help me!"
	"Of course I can. Just let me in. For what you've put me through recently, that's the least you could do. What's all the crying about? It's the middle of the night."
	A sniffle and silence was the reply.
	"Let me in."
	"Fine. Just a second." 
	JC waited a moment patiently and took a step back from the door. Then the door opened slowly and Justin stepped out, staring at the floor. His cheeks were tear streaked and ruddy and JC immediately moved in to wrap his arms gently around the now more curved, smoother Justin. 
	"Aw, baby, what's the matter?" JC persisted. 
	Justin pushed him back. "I'm dying." He hiccuped. His voice was truly pathetic.
	"How? You look alive…"
	"It's…" Justin's eyes wandered up to JC's, wide and wet and miserable. "You'll think I'm disgusting. I… It is. It's…"
	JC stared. "Why would I think that…"
	"Because of… I didn't know it happened like this. How am I supposed to know? I'm a boy." He started to cry again. "It hurts so bad…"
	JC's eyes widened. "Justin, do you mean to tell me that… You're… you know… Doing that… that thing girls do?"
	"Oh God…!" Justin's face became more distressed, if that were possible. "It's—"
	"Why would I think that's disgusting? I mean… You're a girl, right? So of course you… You know. Do that. And—"
	"But I ruined your bed and your shirt and—"
	"What?"
	Justin darted back into the bathroom and slammed the door, hysterically crying. JC rolled his eyes and walked back towards his bed. Just another thing to deal with. 
	After groaning at what he saw staining his light colored sheets on Justin's side of the bed, he grabbed the sheets up and tossed them into the laundry basket, wondering if it would come out.
	After making up the bed fresh, JC wondered why they had bought Justin everything female under the sun exceptfor the most obvious necessity. So he wandered out into his kitchen to where Joey was eating leftover chicken.
	"You eat my food, you do me a favor…"
	"Favor?" Joey looked up.
	"Yeah." JC smirked a little at the idea.
	"Alright… Favor. What kind of favor."
	"Uh… Walmarts are 24-hr stores right, Joe?" 
	Joey sat up a little straighter. "Why…?"
	"I need you to go out for your sweet baby brother."
	"He's no longer a baby nor a brother. He's a girl. What's he—Oh…. I think I get it. And no way in hell, Chasez. No way am I getting in a checkout line for him with tampons."
	"Joey—"
	"Guys don't do that kind of crap, man."
	"Sure they do."
	"Why don't you do it then?"
	"I have to comfort him."
	"Jesus Christ. Why—"
	"You're up, Joey. That's why. And unless you know a girl that you wanna wake up and ask, you're the man for the job. Alright?"
	"But it'll be in the tabloids that I was buying tampons!"
	"Not this time of night."
	"I don't even know what section they're in!"
	JC stared, crossing his arms. "You're gonna do it."
	Joey set his jaw.
	JC was persistent. "Do it. Quick."
	Joey grunted. "You owe me huge."
	"Good. And get some Midol or something too."
	"Jesus Christ."
	JC grinned and headed back towards the bathroom. He knocked on the door again and heard the toilet flush. "Justy, open the door."
	"I'm dying," was the reply.  
	"Let me in, J. Please."
	"It's unlocked."
	JC walked in, finding Justin standing there with his arms crossed and lower lip trembling. "Joey's going out to get you some things, okay?"
	"Joey?" Justin squealed. "You told Joey?"
	JC's mouth dropped open. "I… Why not—I figured." He watched the tears begin again. "Justy, it's a normal thing. You're not dying. And he's gonna go get you what you need."
	"Do girls go through this every month?" Justin managed. "How do they do this every month?"
	"I don't know. They do."
	"Having a baby can't be much worse than this…" 
	JC rolled his eyes. "I bet you have some more respect for your mom, huh?" 
	"I peed and it was like—"
	"I don't want to hear the details, baby… I understand."
	"No you don't! You're a guy! You still have a dick and you don't have blood pouring out of you and the feeling that your insides are being ripped out!"
	"Sh… Okay. I don't understand… We'll make it better."
	"You damn better." Justin sniffled.
*****
*****
	Justin was better the next day. Joey had come back and delivered the necessities, cursing and muttering to himself. Justin took a handful of Midol before JC could stop him, then took fifteen minutes in the bathroom figuring out the rest of it, and then in about an hour of moaning tragicaly in bed fell asleep. And was better the next day.
	He asked JC and Joey not to tell Chris and Lance, but it was pretty obvious because of his irritability and arms crossed over his stomach. Chris made a joke that made Justin cry and then the cat was pretty much out of the bag. 
	"It's fun having a girl live with us, huh?" Joey muttered. "Are we really going to stay in all day?"
	Justin was curled up on the couch crabbily and had said he wasn't moving and that none of them could leave him. He glared when Joey asked this.
	"You know, Justin…" Chris started slowly. "Most girls are able to keep this whole monthly thing a secret… And they're able to go out…" 
	"I'm not most girls," Justin snapped. 
	"Obviously…" 
	"Guys, since none of us are girls, we can't possibly know, so let's not bug him…" JC spoke up. "Just know it hurts."
	"My insides are being shredded," Justin said.
	"Great," Joey answered. "Shut up about it."
	"I want to change again…"
	"I wonder if you'll change into anything else next," Lance answered. "Like a frog or something."
	"Dear God…" JC sighed. 
*****
*****
	A couple of days later, Justin felt perfect again because he told the guys he was no longer 'leaking'. They grimaced at him and shook their heads, saying how he was overreacting, but he retorted that he was the girl and to shut the hell up. 
	So humming to himself in JC's bedroom with the door locked while he walked around in a thong and a Wonderbra, Justin looked through his wardrobe and smiled.
	JC's eyes widened when Justin emerged from the bedroom in short, tight dress. His eyes widened even more when Justin slithered into his lap, nuzzling his cheek against JC's shirt.
	"I wanna go out," he purred.
	JC swallowed, glancing down at the way in which the other's dress was sliding up and revealing more silky skin of her lean thighs. "Uh…"
	"Take me out…" 
	"In this outfit?"
	"You like…?"
	"I think Joey's gonna slap your ass again, that's all I know." JC rolled his eyes, trying to understand what his role was in the whole situation.
	"And you?"
	"I guess I'm going to have to fight off the other boys when we go out. Let me change…"
	Justin pouted and slid off his lap. "Hurry."
*****
*****
	 "Do me a favor…" JC began as they walked into the loud club, his arm tight around Justin's waist and his lips close to his ear.
	"Yeah?" Justin's eyes traveled around the place.
	"You know your new alcohol limit, right?" 
	Justin's eyes met his. "No attacking girls. I know." Flushing slightly, he persisted. "You know, I was really sorry about that."
	"Just be careful. And dance with me at least once."
	"Of course. You're my favorite." She planted a kiss on his cheek quickly before disappearing into the crowd. 
	Shaking his head, JC walked towards the bar and ordered himself a drink.
	He had a second nature to look out for Justin quite a bit in places like this and the fact the he was now a gorgeous unassuming girl only heightened the instinct. With that dress and those legs and those lips, JC knew what any guy, including himself, would think by the appearance.
	So when halfway into the night, when JC went looking for Justin for his one dance and couldn't find him anywhere, a hollow feeling settled in the base of his stomach. He went on a search. 
	He thanked God for telling him to go for his one dance because that was what led him to seek out Justin. He didn't want to think about what would have happened if he hadn't. 
	It was out a back exit that he found him. The only reason he thought to look was that the door was strangely propped open. It was dark back there aside from a dim street light over the alley. There Justin was lying on the ground, and there was a big brute hanging over him, pushing legs apart and reaching with big hands.
	"Hey!" JC shouted and immediately was over there, fist in the face of the man the second he turned around. It hurt his knuckles but when the man looked up again, he struck once more. And again until the man, obviously drunk himself, had backed up towards the door to the club again, holding out his hand.
	"Okay, okay," came the voice, hoarse. "Dammit, it's not like she wasn't asking for it." And he vanished into the door.
	"Shit," JC replied. He turned back to Justin, who was still on the ground, eyes closed tightly, several tears slipping down soft cheeks. "Justin, oh God…" 
	Justin didn't reply when JC knelt next to him and stroked his hair and cooed and apologized. He closed his eyes tighter, letting out a soft whimper. 
	"I shouldn't have let you out of my sight…" JC pulled him to sit up and enveloped the thin body, pulling him into his lap. "I'm so stupid…" He held him tightly, feeling the fast heartbeat of Justin and he hugged him against his chest. 
	"I'm sorry…" Justin managed. 
	"That wasn't your fault. Did he hurt you? Did he touch you?"
	Justin sniffled. "He was going to go ahead and… I told him no but…"
	"Sh… Guys are dicks… They''re complete assholes."
	"I wanted to dance with you but he said no and he was too strong and somehow we got back here…"
	Kissing his forehead, JC nodded. "Let's go home. Alright? You alright?"
	"I hate my dress… I'm throwing it out…" Justin whimpered. "I'm throwing out all these clothes. They bring bad nights." 
	"Okay… We can do that… Alright… Let's get up, baby. Let's get out of here and go home."
	Justin nodded. "I was gonna dance with you…" He allowed himself to be helped up, crossing his arms across his chest and pressing against JC. "I wanted to."
	JC put an arm around his waist. "That's okay. Another time." 
*****
*****
	Justin stripped and true to his word threw out his dress as soon as they got home, once again strolling around in his thong and Wonderbra while JC averted his eyes politely. Then in just a jersey, Justin sought him out for his dance. 
	"What?" JC asked.
	"You promised me a dance."
	"I did..."
	"You did... And it didn't happen."
	"Okay... We can do this... One dance..." JC flipped on the radio. 
	"You sure you're okay?" JC asked as he cautiously slid his hands around Justin's waist, feeling the female curves beneath the jersey. He was noticing Justin's slight tremor and shaky breathing.
	"Yeah…" Justin answered, pressing his head down onto JC's shoulder and taking a deep, faltering breath. He couldn't help but remember that man's filthy hands sliding up his legs to between his thighs and…
	They danced for just a few more seconds before JC shook his head.
	"No, you're not…" JC moved them towards the couch and sat, pulling Justin down to sit beside him. "You're not okay."
	Justin buried his face into JC's shirt. "No."
	"That guy's gone. You'll never see him again…" JC twisted his fingers through curls. "It shouldn't have happened."
	"You saved me…"
	JC was silent. He kissed the top of the other's head.
	Justin swallowed. "Men are pigs."
	JC nodded. "That's right…"
	Justin shook slightly, withholding tears which he'd felt wanting to burst. He tried to focus on the music on the radio. "I keep feeling his fingers climbing up my legs for me…"
	JC squeezed him tighter. "Well, he didn't get very far and I let him have it. Let's not worry about it anymore. I knew you'd have to be more careful. I don't think you understand how gorgeous you are in these outfits to guys."
	Justin sniffled. "You think I'm gorgeous?"
	JC remembered the guys' teasing about a crush and sighed. "You're the perfect girl, Justin."
	Justin's arms slid around JC's neck tightly. "You're the perfect guy, JC…" 
	And before JC could reply, he felt warm, lip gloss shining lips against his own and one of Justin's hands slipped from the back of his neck to his chest, pushing him back in an attempt to keep the other stationary. The cherry flavor that JC had gotten the chance to taste welcomed him again.
	And his mind was screaming for him to pull back, that this was Justin, this was his baby and he shouldn't take advantage of him when he was a girl, but he wasn't the one that started the kiss after all. Right? He wasn't the one that had dressed so sexily to take him out. 
	But it didn't feel right because although Justin had pulled forward to fully straddle JC, the lips he'd initiated the contact with were trembling and the hand on JC's chest was shaking. 
	JC felt the shaky hand slipping lower, to his abdomen, and then even lower, slipping down the front of his pants, and his eyes widened in surprise, a gasp leaving his lips. "Ju…" he began but Justin pressed his lips harder, cutting off any objection. 
	But JC knew Justin too well. He had every aspect of him memorized from experience and he knew exactly how to recognize absolute terror. And this was it.
	JC moved his hands to Justin's waist firmly and pushed him back in his lap, separating their kiss. 
	Justin was breathing a little heavier and his chin was down, eyes gazing at his hand. It was still in JC's pants. "Um…" He slid it out bashfully. 
	"Just…" JC began. "Forget it…" The music still played dimly in the background. 
	Justin suddenly scrambled off the man's lap, walking intently towards the bedroom with long strides.
	JC cursed, licking his lips to taste the remainder of the cherry before jumping to his feet as well.
	Justin had collapsed on the bed, face down, and was silent. JC studied him carefully as he approached, the lean tan legs that were so smooth, up to the still muscular but more feminine thighs. The jersey had pulled up slightly and JC leaned over to pull it down as he crawled into the bed beside him. 
	"I'm sorry," he said simply. 
	"For what?" Justin said, voice broken as the words were muffled by the bed. 
	"For…" JC moved this hand to pet the other's hair. "I don't know what for, but I am sorry… For tonight, I guess… Justin…"
	"I'm not Justin…" the other sniffled. 
	"You're still Justin. Just prettier…" JC wasn't sure if that was the right thing to say. He rubbed the other's back comfortingly. "We can forget everything that happened…"
	Justin shifted slightly, sniffling as he turned himself and draped himself over JC's lap like a pet, burrowing against him. JC put an arm over him protectively. 
	"I like your lip gloss," he said.
	Justin laughed a little bit, shaking in JC's lap. 
	"Really. I like cherry…" JC leaned down to kiss the top of the curls. "It tasted nice. You're… You make a really nice girl."
	"But?" Justin asked softly.
	"Yes, I do like your butt…" JC answered jokingly as he moved his hand to lightly pat the other's backside. "The one part of you that's more or less the same…."
	"JC…"
	"What, Just? You do make a nice girl…There are no ifs, ands, or buts." 
	"Then why—"
	"You weren't sure, that's why."
	"I—"
	"Do you… You like me now?"
	Justin hesitated. "I've always liked you."
	"But you really wanted to the whole girl/guy thing?" JC persisted. "Is that what you wanted?"
	"That was my intention…" Justin shifted uncomfortably. 
	"Listen…" JC began. "You and I have always been close. And with your… morphing… I guess… We've become a little bit closer. Or more accessible to each other. But I'm not sure—"
	"Just say it then, JC. That you don't—" 
	"I'm not saying that at all." JC wrapped his arm around Justin tighter as he had begun to pull away. He began to wonder what it would be like if Justin really was a girl, what their relationship would've been. "No. That's not what I said. You have to listen. It's you I'm talking about. Justin, you were shaking."
	"I was cold."
	"You were—"
	"I was cold, JC. God dammit, all I have on is underwear and a freaking jersey!" Justin managed to pull away.
	"Then let's put you in warmer clothes and—"
	"Let's? There's no let's with us. There's me. And there's you. Obviously there's no us. I want a sweatshirt…" He slid off the bed to the floor.
	"That's fine…" JC began quietly. 
	Justin stood there, his back to JC, motionless. His shoulders shook slightly and it didn't take a rocket scientist to realize he was in tears.
	JC crawled to sit on the edge of the bed, reaching to touch Justin's side. "Look, I—"
	"Don't touch me!" Justin spun around and took a step back. His eyes looked dark and JC didn't know whether it was because of anger or mascara. 
	"Come on—"
	"This is the worst fucking night of my life!" Tears streamed down his face. 
	"Don't say that.... C'mere. Why would you say that…?" JC sighed. "Come here."
	"Why? Why would I say that?" Justin sobbed. "Gee, a strange old guy tried to rape me in an alley, I'm a fucking defenseless girl, I only bought slutty clothes, I didn't get to dance with my fucking best friend and now he hates me because I molested him!" 
	"You didn't molest me…" JC objected. "You were fine today. You didn't dress like a slut. And I did owe you a dance, I know, but—"
	"Fuck you!" Justin screamed. "I hate having breasts and uteruses that leak and an ass and these thighs and stupid lipstick that smears and mascara that smudges and I don't know how to use eyeliner and I keep cutting myself shaving and why—" Justin broke off with a sniffle. "Why do I have to be a girl?"
	"I don't know why all this is happening... But you're a gorgeous and sweet girl…" JC soothed. "I love you as a girl. You'll be a boy soon, don't worry. I loved you as a boy and a baby and as a girl. I don't care what you are…" He sighed.  "You're still my best friend." 
	"Fuck…" Justin moved to sit down beside him. 
	"I know you're frustrated but it'll work out. I promise."
	Justin took a deep breath and rested his head on JC's shoulder. "I'm done ranting."
	JC sighed. "You are?"
	"I'm PMSing. But post instead of pre."
	JC laughed and kissed him on the cheek again. "Well you have the right to PMS."
*****
*****
	"So one thing led to another…" 
	Joey couldn't understand why JC looked so guilty as he whispered this to Joey, who listened to JC patiently as he seemingly divulged this great big 'secret' that to Joey was no big deal.
	"Yeah?" he encouraged. They were making lunch in the kitchen while the others were out back at the pool. "You guys get freaky?"
	"Well, no…" JC answered. "But, like, I was just supposed to dance with him, not sleep with him."
	"With him, or with him?"
	"Just with him."
	Joey paused the knife he was using to spread mayonnaise. "Um… So? You've been sleeping with him ever since he got turned into a baby." 
	"But this was different. It was different because he was a girl and now it's even more different because he's… I… I don't know."
	"So he likes you. Big deal. He makes a cute girl, man."
	"Yeah, he does. But… It's still Justin. My best friend."
	"Take advantage of the opportunity of a lifetime, man."
	"Speaking of being taken advantage of…" JC began. "You wanna know what happened last night? What led up to all this?"
	"Sure…" Joey glanced down at his two slices of bread.
	JC hopped up onto the counter, folding his hands in his lap. "Well, we were going out just the two of us to this club and this guy wouldn't take no for an answer." He described the situation in the alley.
	"Oh my God." Joey's eyes widened. "For real?"
	"Like you said. He's a cute girl."
	"Dammit, is he okay?" 
	"Now he is. I'm not sure he wants to go out again though," JC answered slowly. "But when we got back he was upset and so we were just relaxing and one thing led to another…"
	"JC, you guys didn’t do it, so what are you talking about?"
	"I know to a connoisseur of sex such as yourself, it doesn't sound like much, Joey…" JC answered. "But I was not exactly expecting to be making out with Justin all last night."
	"That's the thing—It's not Justin."
	"Yes it is."
	"Well, technically. But even so, who better? And he loves you to death, man. That girl is all over you."
	"That's what I'm afraid of." JC frowned. "What if… I don't want this to change anything, man."
	"He's already pretty changed."
	"Yeah…"
	"Look." Joey leaned against the counter and looked at his friend earnestly. "You have every right to like her back. None of us see anything wrong with that. It's kind of cool. Better you than anyone else."
	"Like that weirdo last night."
	"Exactly. We don't know what the hell is going on anyway. So whatever happens... It's not anymore weird than the situation itself. Let's bring these sandwiches outside, alright?" Joey replied. "Come on."
	JC nodded, sliding off the counter. "I'll get drinks." He walked to the fridge and found some Snapples and beers. Joey took the plate of sandwiches and carried them outside with JC.
	Lance was sitting on the edge of the pool. Justin and Chris were in the water. Justin grinned when the two came outside.
	"JC, are you coming in?" he asked with a pout. He ducked his head under water quickly and came up, running a hand through his hair. 
	"I was just making lunch," JC answered. He studied Justin the girl. Now swimming in a t-shirt instead of bathing suit because he said he no longer wanted to be 'slutty'. JC told him that wearing a white t-shirt in the pool was probably just as if not sluttier than a bikini but Justin didn't listen.
	"Throw me a beer," Chris said.
	"In the pool?" JC frowned. He walked over and bent down to hand it to Chris anyway. 
	"We made sandwiches, guys," Joey said. 
	JC put down the drinks and moved to sit on the edge of the pool next to Lance, dangling his legs in. Justin came over to him and draped his slender wet arms around his waist.
	"Don't pull me in," JC warned.
	"I'm not," Justin answered, resting his head in JC's lap. 
	JC ran his fingers through curls with a sigh. He was remembering last night and how slow dancing had somehow led them to the bed and somehow led them to kissing and hands on certain parts and…
	"Just?" JC said softly.
	"Mm…?" He had his eyes closed, arms tight around the other's waist. 
	JC stroked the soft cheek and leaned down to whisper in his ear. "Do you have anything on underneath that shirt?"
	"No…" Justin answered.
	JC bit his lip. "It's white."
	"I wore it for you. You like this shirt."
	"I do…?" JC murmured. He sighed, taking a deep breath to try to focus. "Yeah."
	"Yeah," Justin answered. "Are you gonna come in? Chris wanted to have chicken fights."
	"But you don't have on any—"
	"You don't mind, do you?"
	"Um… I…" JC pushed Justin back just a bit gently to slide into the water. He ducked under himself, coming up wet. "There, I'm in."
	Justin grinned a devious smile. "You're cute, JC."
	"Am I?" JC answered, thinking 'oh my God'. He looked away and found Joey grinning at him like crazy.
	"Yes…" Justin affirmed. "You are." He paused. "JC, I'll put something else on if you want me to..." He rested his head on his shoulder.
	"No, no, you're fine. Just watch out who you flash," JC replied, looking back at him. 
	"I will." Justin smiled, straightening. "Only you."
	JC rolled his eyes. "Justin… Quit being a tease, okay?"
	"I'm not being a tease…" Justin looked frustrated. "How am I being a tease?"
	"Okay, fine. You're not. Whatever, I—"
	"Alright, kids," Chris interrupted as he took the middle of the pool. "Who wants to fight? Joey, Lance, I need one of you guys to help me beat these two. Lance, come and get your ass in the pool, will you? Thank you."
	JC blinked and found Justin still smiling at him. This was going to be a long afternoon. He looked at Justin's white t-shirt again and shivered. A very long afternoon. 
*****
*****
	JC insisted that he get Justin a towel before getting out of the pool.
	"Why?" Justin murmured. 
	JC shook his head, the feeling of Justin still on his shoulders although the fights had ended a few minutes before. He shivered. God. "Well, because you don't want Joey making any comments, do you?"
	"No."
	"Well, I'm sure his seeing through your shirt would encourage some remarks," JC answered in a soft voice. 
	"Only you are supposed to see through my shirt," Justin answered blatantly. 
	"Well, the others have eyes too."
	Justin blinked and JC was allowed to get out of the pool. He walked towards Chris, who was grabbing himself a towel, and took one.
	"So you guys are getting pretty close, huh?" Chris nudged him and whispered with a small grin. 
	"Don't start," JC hissed back, gripping the cotton towel in his hands. He started back towards the pool and as he neared, holding the towel open, Justin climbed out. He caught just enough of a look before he wrapped the towel around the shivering body. Golden skin and curves… God, what curves. JC didn't know whether Justin made a more perfect girl or guy.
	"Thank you…" Justin pressed forward with a small smile. 
	JC swallowed and nodded. "No problem."
	Justin frowned. "What's the matter?" He pulled the towel up tighter. 
	"Nothing," JC assured, smiling. "You hungry?"
	Justin shrugged. "Depends." Giggling, Justin smirked. "Are you on the menu?" 
	"Uh…" 
	"JC…" Justin moved even closer to him and JC could feel the fabric of the towel rough on his arms. Justin let out a little sigh. "I have a serious thing to say." 
	JC paused. "Yeah?" 
	"JC, I want to know what it's like," Justin began, eyes clear and pleading. "Before I go back to being myself." 
	JC studied Justin's pink lips and the smooth curve of his cheek. Golden skin and softness. And he felt himself saying, yes, yes, and yet vocally, "I…."
	"Don't you want to?" Justin pleaded, voice taking on a tone of imploration.
	But JC couldn't help but think that this was Justin. Justin who begged and begged for something that he thought he wanted so badly but then later might not actually be what he meant… But God, JC was so close to saying yes.
*****
*****
	Two days later…
	JC said yes. 
	He started not to care what the guys saw and said because, hell, they knew at this point anyway about the extent of Justin's crush and didn't mind. 
	It was after a movie. The guys had decided against going clubbing because they knew from JC's prior warning and Justin's temperament that the latter really hadn't gotten up the nerve to go out again just yet. So they'd stayed in and watched a movie with a pizza and soda and beer. It went late and the others headed home.
	JC had just intended to lead Justin off to bed. He had been tired before the movie and during it had rested his head on JC's shoulder. Every time JC had glanced over, his eyes had been closed and breathing steady. So when he took his hand and pulled him up after the others had left, he expected to just go to bed without much thought. 
	He was wrong.
	It started off as that sweet kiss again. Right in the doorway. JC had reached for the light switch on the wall and Justin pushed his hand away from it, leaving the room dark. He stepped in front of him and connected their lips, draping an arm around the other's waist. 
	And JC moaned, he couldn't help it, putting his hands on Justin's waist and slipping his fingers beneath the fabric of the shirt, feeling the silky warm skin beneath and the edge of the jeans that within a few minutes would be off.
	Justin allowed himself to be pushed back onto the bed, easily slipping into the feminine roll that he was growing so accustomed to. He spread his legs as JC lowered himself on top of him. His lips were hot. He felt JC's fingers fumbling at the waistband of his jeans with the button and zipper. He lifted himself up slightly to allow his jeans to be slipped down. JC's hands felt so perfect. It was surreal.
	"Tell me when to stop…" JC said, voice hoarse in his ear. "Tell me if you're scared."
	"N-no…" Justin answered. "Just do it." 
	"You're golden." 
	And those were the last words from JC's mouth until the next morning. 
*****
*****
	Justin woke up the next morning, feeling tired and happy and most physically naked. He felt JC's arm wrapped tightly around his waist and smiled. He had almost wondered if it was a dream. 
	He'd been so curious what it would be like.
	They'd done it.
	"We did it," he said aloud, just to make sure it was real.
	"Mmph…" JC murmured from beside him, moving slightly. 
	"Wow." Justin felt tears in his eyes. Not from pain or sadness, but just… "Wow."
	JC was shifting now, turning, and Justin felt his fingers curling on his waist. He took a deep breath and turned himself to be face to face. 
	JC's eyes were open and his lips curved upward. "What did we do?"
	Justin just stared at him, taking a deep breath. Could it be true?
	"Hm?" JC murmured, pulling his hand away from Justin's waist. "Why you look like you're going to cry?"
	"Because…" Justin replied. "We did it… And… We actually did it…" Justin was in disbelief, memories of the prior night fresh and vivid in his mind. 
	"We did…" There was no thinking of whether it was right or wrong or anything in JC's mind. All he knew was that it was going to happen and the way it had was perfect.  It actually didn't feel awkard at all.
*****
*****
	When the other guys came over later in the day, they could see a difference in the two. Justin and JC were slightly more secretive, or reserved, and seemed to be glowing a small smile, radiating bliss. 
	"I think they did it…" Joey murmured to Chris while they went to get drinks in the kitchen.
	"No fucking way!" Chris exclaimed. "You think?"
	"Yeah, I really do… I mean, I would have bet money on it that they never would, but something is definitely up…" 
	They grabbed the drinks and headed back outside, taking special consideration to observe the two. Justin's head was rested on JC's shoulder, his eyes closed, and JC's fingers were slowly running through the ringlets of Justin's hair while he spoke to Lance about something on a totally different subject.
	"Joey, I think you may be right." Chris smiled.
	Joey nodded. "Let's hope it was a good decision…"
*****
*****
	He leaned against the kitchen counter. JC wasn't sure how someone could feel so happy yet guilty at the same time, but he did. When Justin smiled at him now, he knew the smile was different. The smile was now connected with those too brief moments of the night before. Moments frozen in time.
	"Wanna go swimming?" Justin had asked, sliding up to him so they were so close. 
	"Mm… I don't know." JC replied indefinitely. Justin's arm brushed his and JC remembered the heat of Justin's skin the night before. 
	Then he remembered the same Justin that had cried in his arms and sobbed about being that girl. That same girl that JC had made love to. But it wasn't a girl. It was Justin. And that made it different. 
	"Is that a yes?" 
	"Maybe."
	"Maybe…" Justin made a face. "Maybe means… yes?" He hopped up to sit on the counter, sliding himself closer to JC.
	"Maybe." JC slid his hands up Justin's legs. He was wearing a skirt. Smooth legs like silk. His fingers froze. "You're not wearing any underwear."
	Justin blinked at him innocently. "So?"
	"Come on…" JC rolled his eyes. "You're wearing a skirt."
	"So?" he echoed.
	JC laughed, smiling. "Okay fine… I'm not the one to say what you should wear…"
	"It's hot today."
	"So you thought that leaving off that one ounce piece of clothing would work?" 
	"It was working until you touched me." Justin smiled mischievously. "Now I'm feeling kinda hot again." He squirmed beneath JC's hands. 
	"Maybe we should go swimming then…" 
	"Maybe." 
	"Justin?"
	"Yeah…" 
	"Do you like being a girl?"
	Justin looked at him quizzically. "I thought you liked me as a girl."
	"I liked you as a boy too."
	"You did?"
	"Sure."
	"Well…" Justin looked a little taken back. "I can't help being a girl. I'm sorry if that bothers you. I didn't think it did. Not last night at least."
	JC shook his head. "That's not what I meant. I like you as a girl too… Didn't I just say that?"
	Justin closed his legs a little bit but JC didn't move his hands. "But you'd like me to change back?"
	JC shrugged. "Whether you do or don't… But you will, right?"
	"JC…" Justin's eyes shined. "I didn't know you—"
	"I'm not saying you necessarily should!" JC began. He cursed. "Me and my big fat mouth…" He shook his head. "Let's go swimming."
*****
*****
	Justin eventually began to think things were going great. He was getting used to his different anatomy in most ways and loved what had happened between himself and JC. He looked forward to every single time they were together. 
	Then one morning when he woke up he noticed a drastic change. He was small again. His fingers were tiny and his legs didn't stretch out quite as far as he expected. He looked over at JC sleeping beside him and discovered how much larger the man was…
	"No…" he murmured to himself. The sound of his voice was enough to prove it to himself. He was back to being a baby. "No."
	He thought of the night before and the beauty between him and JC in bed. He looked down at his small body with the realization that in this body things were not going to be the same again. And he remembered peeing in Lance's bed and biting Chris and basically having life suck…
	He kicked JC hard.
	JC grunted.
	He kicked him again. His kick didn't have much power. 
	He noticed he was still in the t-shirt he'd gone to bed in. But it was larger on him and his recently generous chest was now flat again. That was just about the only good thing he could gather.
	JC was stirring, murmuring, "Justin, sleep…"
	Justin kept kicking him though. And so finally JC turned and grunted, eyes opening and focusing on Justin. His jaw went slack and Justin could tell he was trying to keep his expression emotionless. "Damn."
	"I'm little."
	"Damn." JC was sitting up now, fully awake, rubbing his eyes and yawning just once. "Damn."
	Justin blinked at him. "JC?" 
	"God."
	"JC, it's okay, right?" Justin's childish voice trembled. "Right?"
	"Of course…" JC's arm slid out and patted his belly. "Of course it's okay. What, I'm supposed to blame you?"
	"Am I on my way back?"
	JC shrugged. "I don't know. Your changes are crazy so I don't know. Maybe you'll become a frog next."
	Justin blinked again, vision blurring, swallowing. "I was just… I was just getting used to being a… a girl…" 
	"It's the oddest thing…. What? Me too. God, Justin, you made a good girl…" JC was starting to slide out of bed. "Such a good girl."
	"I'll be a good boy too."
	"You are."
	"Things don't have to change…" Justin watched JC walk around the bed. "Right?"
	"I'm not a pedophile," JC replied. "So it has to change right now."
	"I know, I know…" Justin answered. "That's not what I meant."
	"Then… You mean when you get back to being a boy?"
	"You said you liked me as a boy."
	"I did like you as a boy." 
	"Pick me up."
	JC sighed and walked over to where Justin was holding out his little arms. He acquiesced and lifted him up, settling him on his hip. "Okay, let's not talk about it now. I want to get some coffee and make sure I'm not actually dreaming." 
	"I wanna talk about it…" Justin persisted as they walked out of the bedroom. "You're not dreaming." He dug the heels of his small bare feet into JC. "I'm a stupid baby again."
	"You're not stupid." They reached the kitchen and JC put Justin down on top of the counter, pulling the over sized shirt on him correctly because it was falling off his shoulders. "Do we have to go over the baby etiquette again?"
	Justin grunted. "Do we have to tell them I'm a baby?"
	"The guys? They're coming over for lunch again, remember?"
	"But…" 
	"Just don't bite anyone. Don't get pissed off as easily."
	"I remember being a baby."
	"Chill, right?" JC smiled. He walked over to the coffee maker. "Just making sure."
	"Don't let Joey pick me up."
	"Oh, no. You and Joey…" JC rolled his eyes. "Let's see if we can keep the drama to a minimum please?"
	"I'm not as good as a baby."
	"What do you mean?" JC glanced behind him.
	Justin was swinging his legs back to hit the under edge of the counter he sat upon. He watched his tiny toes. "You know… I liked being a girl… With you and all… And I was just… Like… When I'm a boy again…"
	"Yeah."
	Justin looked up from his toes and gave JC a look. "I'm not sure what to do now."
	"Me neither, J." JC grinned at him. "Damn, but you're a cute kid, huh? What do you want to eat, buddy?"
	"Cereal, I don't care." Justin shrugged and JC left the coffee maker to go grab a bowl from the cabinet. 
	JC walked over and put the bowl down on the kitchen table.
	Justin sighed. "I hope I'm not a baby very long."
	"Enjoy it while you can." He walked over to grab the box of cereal. "Like I said before, there's nothing we can do. So just let people pinch you and coo and hold you and it'll be over before you know it." 
	"We don't have to split up this time, right?" Justin began carefully, eyes widening.
	"Split up? Oh…" JC began to pour the cereal. "You mean like when Chris had you, then Lance, then Joey, then me, or whatever?"
	"Yeah…"
	"Nah, you can stay here. We don't need to do that. Unless you want to that is…" He grabbed the bowl and then reached over and took Justin with his other arm, pulling him tight against him to move him over to the table. 
	"No." Justin answered, letting himself be deposited in a chair. He knelt up to the table and used his fingers to start eating the cereal. JC went back over to the coffee machine. 
*****
*****
	Chris started laughing when he showed up for lunch. Lance was sympathetic and Joey just rolled his eyes.
	"Again?"
	"It just means he's halfway back to being the real Justin again," JC answered defensively. 
	"You miss your rack, man?" Chris was still laughing.
	Justin pouted, seated at the table. He'd known to expect this. He wanted not to get mad because JC had specifically asked him to keep his cool, but it was hard. "Shut up." 
	"He's got his other anatomical parts back though I guess," Chris chuckled. "You do, right? You are kind of tiny."
	"Chris!" Justin yelled.
	"For Christ's sake, Chris, he's what, three years old?" Lance retorted. "Quit it." 
	Chris smiled and nodded. "Okay. Okay. Justin? I'm sorry, okay, ya damn infant? And for once when I say that, it's legit." 
	"Speaking of legit…" Joey began. "I guess you two can't be getting it on anymore, huh?" He smiled sadly but there was still a hint of teasing.
	"Joey!" JC yelled this time. "That's totally uncalled for." His face was red.
	Joey was silent for a minute. "Okay, okay. Sorry. Hey, I was gonna make grilled cheese… Sound good?"
	"Yeah," Lance said, smiling and trying to break the tension. "So what are we going to do today?"
*****
*****
	Justin was mad. He couldn't stand it. He couldn't stand Chris's jokes about losing and gaining anatomical parts and Joey's puns about their relationship. He couldn't stand it. Couldn't freaking stand it.
	It was an emotional rollercoaster. He'd gone through so many experiences in the three bodies that were so mismatched and confusing. 
	He thought maybe he'd willed himself into it. Somehow. Because the other changes had been a bit more gradual. He'd stayed what he was for a while. But this time, he couldn't stop thinking about being himself again. His original self. Not a girl, not a baby, but Justin. The real Justin. In clothes that fit.
	He'd gone to sleep curled beside JC, quiet and plaintive, yearning for normalcy. He prayed to God and crossed his fingers.
	And somehow it worked.
	So he almost wept in joy when he awoke in the morning and felt long legs stretching out in the bed. He swept his hand down his body and felt a flat chest and, dropping lower, something that was certainly his own and that he was happy to have back.
	Back at last. Thank God. Back at last.
	He turned over and viewed the sleeping JC.  "JC…" he said happily. 
	JC groaned something and turned away, clearing his throat loudly. 
	"JC…" Justin tugged at his arm and rolled him back over. "JC…" He pulled back the covers. "Wake up."  
	JC's eyes opened slowly and squinted at the person looming over him. "Justin… It's late and…" He closed his eyes again until the image he'd just seen sparked him more awake. His eyes widened a bit. "Justin? You're for real Justin."
	"I am…" Justin answered, his lips curving up into a smile. 
	"You definitely are… Wow. I haven't seen actual you in a long time."
	"I know." 
	"Welcome back…" JC replied with his own grin.
*****
*****
	"So you're back." Chris grinned the next day. "Back to being a guy."
	Justin nodded. He couldn’t get the silly smile off his face that he'd had since last night. "Finally." 
	"Did you miss yourself?" Joey smirked.
	"It's nice to be back," Justin agreed. He more than missed himself. 
	"What's with your look?" Lance frowned. "You haven't stopped smiling since we showed up…"
	"I'm just happy I'm tall and can reach everything, and then I won't have to worry about monthly hell anymore."
	"What do we do with all those slutty outfits you bought?―"
	"―I was not slutty―" Justin interjected.
	"―And all those tampons?" Joey continued.
	"Yeah, why'd you buy so many tampons, Joey?" Lance asked.
	"Well, I don't know... I don't know how it works and... They were on sale... It was Walmart. I didn't want to have to go back again."
	"That sucked," Justin said.
	"Yeah it did," Joey agreed.
	Justin glared. "I meant for me, asshole."
	"Yeah, well, it sucked for me too, you know." 
	"You're a dick. All guys are dicks."
	"That includes you too now too, you know," Chris reminded.
	"Yeah, well I'm glad to have that back," Justin retorted. "I missed that." 
	"Well, I'm glad you're back to normal," Lance said, "because the whole flu story was going to run out soon with Johnny." 
	Justin smiled.
	He prayed to God that he would never change again.
*****
	finis