~Friday Morning~

Kevin threw the paper down, "Son of a bitch!!"

Alec grabbed the paper and read what he had been staring at, "AJ McLean Signs Solo Deal With Lou Pearlman...McLean reportedly says 'its great to be home'"

"What are you so worked up about?" she questioned, turning her gaze to her husband.

"Scan down the page..."

She glanced back at the article, AJ had signed with Lou over a week ago blah blah blah...Lou was hopeful he would be the one to reunite the Boys one day.

"What?????"

"He wants to reunite us!!! He's the reason we split up and now he wants to be the one..." he ripped the paper out of her hands. "The money hungry..."

"Are you sure...I mean this could be written by anyone..." she reasoned.

He pounded the paper with his finger, "Right there, press release by TransCon...AJ said something about Lou taking care of this personally..."

She pulled the paper away from him. "With open arms I welcome back AJ, and one day soon Kev, Nick, Brian and Howie." she read the last sentence outloud. By the time she looked up he was gone. "Kev??? Kevin?!?!?" she yelled, walking through the house quickly. Finding the door to the garage wide open she walked inside to find his car gone. "Damnit!!" she cursed, turning around and heading upstairs.

She had to get ready for her own meeting.

*****

Nick stared at his reflection in the mirror, taking a deep breath he started the speech he'd planned out.

"Whatcha think?" he asked once he was done.

Lis leaned against the door. "Yeah..."

He turned. "Yeah? What's that mean?"

"It means I think you sounded good, I just hope..."

"Lou buys it." he finished for her.

"Bad huh? Our entire future lies with Lou..."

"Our entire future starts when this is over Lisa."

"Oh no you used the name."

He grinned, "Yep full name means you're in trouble."

She wrapped her arms around his neck. "What trouble could be worse then this?"

He leaned his forehead against hers. "You know I'd erase this entire situation if I could."

"I know." she sighed, glancing up into his eyes. "I just hope today goes the way you want it."

He smiled. "Course it will."

She put her hands on his chest. "I wish I could be that sure."

"By the end of the day you will be." he promised.

*****

D set the plates down on the breakfast table and smiled as his wife walked into the kitchen. "Morning." he greeted, kissing her cheek.

"Morning." she smiled and took a seat.

"Why are you so dressed up this morning?"

"Oh I'm uh going out with the girls..."

"Shopping?" he questioned, pouring himself a coffee.

"Yeah." she lied, if she mentioned Lou she knew he'd go ballistic and pull a power trip demanding she not go. Much better off to just tell him a little white lie.

"That's good. Spend some time together without this whole mess around is what you all need."

"That we do." she agreed, "What are you up to?"

He shrugged. "Not sure, maybe hang out around the house..."

*****

Lis snuck downstairs, hoping she could get out of the house without Nick seeing her. As far as she knew their meeting was before his...the only thing was getting in and out of TransCon without him seeing her.

"Lis?"

Damnit, she turned around, "Hey I thought you were gonna leave..."

"I got some time to kill before my appointment."

"Oh..."

"Where you going?"

"We're having a wives day..." she explained as he walked closer.

"Well try and relax..." he kissed her forehead. "And don't worry about me..." he whispered.

"If you say so..."

"I do..." he walked her to the door. "Someone picking you up..."

"I'm meeting them..."

*****

Kevin stormed into Lou's office, obviously startling him as he knocked his half filled coffee cup to the floor. "Kevin!! This is a surprise."

"Is it Lou? Is it really??" he yelled, throwing the newspaper at him. "What kind of crap is this?"

Lou scanned down the page. "Its a standard press release. I'm surprised how quickly you forget..."

"Are you overlooking the little blurb about a possible reunion? How you hope to be the one to reunite the Backstreet Boys? Second last paragraph..."

"I didn't put that in there...someone in p.r..."

"Save it Lou..."

Lou shook his head. "Kev you have to believe me..."

"Oh that's a good one, I'M supposed to believe the son of a bitch who ruined us in the first place...now you've suddenly turned into the father figure Lou???

Sorry that leaves a bad taste in my mouth." he paced the office. "Oh here's something for you to think over, up until I read this in my kitchen a couple hours ago I was planning on coming here and signing that contract with my name on it...but NOW???" he shook his head as a sickly sounding chuckle escaped him, "There's not enough money in the world...you couldn't threaten me enough to make me sign or as you had AJ put it 'Come back home'."

*****

Ty paced back and forth in the lobby nervously. They had an hour until their scheduled meeting with Lou and so far she was the only one there. Taking a seat in one of the waiting chairs she stared out the window at the visitors parking lot.

Jenn fell into the chair beside. "Do you know how hard it was to get rid of AJ this morning?" she asked with a sigh, as she ran her fingers through her hair.

Ty laughed, "About as hard as it was to get D out of trying to meet us for lunch? He followed me around the bedroom while got dressed trying to convince me how long it had been since we went out alone."

"Leave it to them...we the only two here so far?"

"I would think so...I went up to Lou's floor and the waiting room was empty."

*****

The doors to the elevator opened up and Kevin strolled out, doing a surprisingly good job of hiding his shakiness. His throat felt sore from the yelling and he'd never felt so drained, yet in some way he felt freer then he had in a long time.

Looking up from her conversation with Ty, Jenn froze as she saw Kevin walk straight past them. "What is it?" Ty asked, seeing Jenn pale...

"I uh...I could swear I just saw Kev..." she turned in the chair to see him walk out to his car.

"What would he be doing here..."

"Remember what Bri said the other night? He wanted to sign...you don't think..."

Ty shrugged, "I don't know...see what Alec says when she gets here..."

*****

Nick watched Lou's secretary in action as he waited. "Can I ask you something?" he questioned when she finally finished on the phone.

"Of course Mr. Carter."

He walked over. "Do you schedule all of Lou's appointments?"

"Most of them."

"Did you schedule mine?"

"I gave you a time yes. But you must have called when I was on my lunch break. I came back to find a note on my desk about you needing to see Lou."

"Oh..."

"Is there a problem?"

"No...no problem at all just wondered." He gave her his famous smile and turned to go.

"Mr. Carter?"

"Yeah?"

"I do hope you sing again. I was a big fan of your group."

"Thank you."

*****

"I have a little going away present for you Lou." Paul began.

"Going away?" Lou looked confused.

"You do know I'm heading home this weekend."

Lou smiled, "That's right. Sorry it slipped my mind..."

"Its all right. You're a busy man with everything going on. Your mind's sure to be scattered."

"That it is."

Paul set a box on the desk. "For you."

"Thank you Paul." Lou lifted the lid. "Wine?"

"Yeah I thought at the end of the day you could use a good drink."

"Why wait till the end? Why don't you join me in a glass now?"

"No no you save that for you."

"Are you sure?" he asked, examining the bottle. It was a very good year. Almost be a shame to drink it alone.

"Very sure. Now we just need to sign some more papers and my work here is done."

"Good."

Paul set a couple folders on the desk. "They're just the standard transfer of money papers, no need to seriously look them over."

"So this should..."

"This ought to cover all the Backstreet contracts."

"Good." Lou scribbled his signature by all the Xs. "I'll give it one last attempt this weekend...I never figured them to be so stubborn."

"Neither did I." Paul commented as he watched Lou sign the final folder of papers without so much as a second glance. "Business is all done."

"Have a good flight home. When are you scheduled to be back?"

"Not for a few weeks at least."

*****

Seeing the door to Lou's office open Nick started to get up from the couch he'd been sitting on when he recognized the man coming out of the door. Quickly he picked up the magazine and started thumbing it through, hopefully making sure he didn't see he recognized him.

Kendal watched Paul leave the waiting room and turned to see Nick flipping through an old Rolling Stone. "Mr. Carter?"

"Yeah?" he asked, lifting his head slowly.

"Go on in, his last appointment just left."

Tossing down the magazine he got to his feet. "Thanks."

Lou smiled as Nick made his way into his office. "Nick so nice to see you again."

"Is it really?" he questioned, looking directly in Lou's eyes. "Course. I like to think of the five of you as my sons."

"Who you managed to screw out of money, their careers and almost their marriages. What a loving father you are." he said coldly. Damnit Nick, control yourself he admonished silently, you need to do this the way you rehearsed.

"That's not the way I see the situation."

"Really? And what way do you see it?"

"I was merely trying to get the five of you back where you belonged...back here...with the TransCon family. You can't deny you were happy here once."

Nick smirked. "Blind and happy are two different things."

"I don't think you were blind Nick."

"Well that's a difference of opinion Lou and I won't be changing my thoughts on that any time soon."

"Why are you really here Nick?" Lou asked, leaning his elbows on his desk.

Nick cleared his throat, "I wanna know why I should sign that contract you keep waving around...don't b.s the issue either Lou, I want REAL reasons..."

"This is a sudden matureness on your part."

"Yeah well..." he shifted in the chair, "We can't live in limbo like this forever right?"

"Very true."

"So...what's in it for me if I sign that..."

"You can have your career back Nickolas, go into the studio whenever you want...although you'd probably want to take a little vacation before even thinking about your solo career..."

Nick nodded, "So I'm solo if I sign that..."

"For the first year or so, then if the others sign...pardon me when the others DO sign...we'll get the plans rolling on a reunion of sorts, maybe leak a few new group recordings out, get the anticipation going before making an official announcement..."

"And financially..."

"You and Lis would be well taken care of..."

*****

Parking her car as far as she could away from Nick's, Lis stared up at the building and took a deep breath. A nervous feeling was starting to appear in her gut. She was more scared about Nick's meeting with Lou then she was about the wives meeting. With Nick's temper lately it honestly wouldn't surprise her if she had to go and bail him out for flying across the desk and attacking Lou.

Taking one last calming breath she grabbed her purse and headed out of her car, stopping as she heard someone call her name. Looking at a car a few stalls over she waved as she saw Shan. "Hey!"

"About time you heard me."

Lis nodded, walking towards her friend. "I was deep in thought."

Shan used her keychain to lock the car up as her and Lis headed towards the TransCon building. "Have you thought about what you're doing if you run into Nick?"

Lis shrugged, "Run like hell in the other direction?"

"Not in those heels."

"Ditch the heels...dive behind a potted plant??"

Shan laughed, "You could try I guess..."

"Anything's better then having to try and explain it to Nick..."

"Am I late?" Alec asked, catching up to Shan and Lis at the doors to the building.

"No later then we are." Lis answered as she opened the door.

"Should have a little time before the meeting I guess."

*****

Lou walked Nick to the door, thinking that maybe he was starting to come around to his way of thinking. "You think things over Nick..." he said patting Nick's back.

Inwardly he cringed at Lou's touch, "Yeah well me and Lis will do some talking."

he said tucking the contract into his coat pocket. He had this sudden urge to build a hell of a big bonfire and burn it, page by page.

"No rush...you and Lis take all the time you need and I'll be here waiting."

"Okay then..."

*****

"What time's the meeting?"

"A little after eleven...why?"

Lis slowed to a stop, "That means Nick's is right before us..."

"And..."

"I told him we were all going out...just neglected to say where..." she ran her hand through her hair. "You guys go on without me..."

"No way this is a unified front we're putting on..." Jenn said walking towards her friend. "If we gotta wait out in the parking lot till Nick pulls away we will."

"What time was his supposed to start?" Ty questioned, looking up at the clock.

"Quarter after ten...that's only if Lou wasn't running late."

"I can call upstairs see if he's running behind."

Alec noticed the elevator buttons light up. "Someone's about to come into the lobby..." she said, "Could be Nick..."

Hurriedly the five of them moved out of sight and waited. "Is it...?" Jenn asked, unable to see around the corner.

Ty watched, "Nope not yet...wait...yeah there he is...and he's heading in the other direction so we can go up."

The five women strode into Lou's office. "Ladies, its wonderful to see the five of you together with all the incidents going on with your husbands, its truly nice to see..."

"Shut up Lou..." Ty said cutting him off.

"All right." He leaned back uneasily in his desk chair. "What can I do for you ladies?"

"You can stop this whole blackmail scheme Lou."

"Blackmail. I'm afraid you're mistaken."

"Are we?" Lis pulled out a tape recorder hitting play. The sound of Lou's voice filled the office: 'Be a shame if those pictures were leaked to the press Nick.'

"That isn't blackmail??" she demanded, turning the tape off.

Jenn tossed the files down on his desk. "And I suppose neither are any of these."

Alec nodded. "Is money so important to you that you'd set out to ruin them? Not only professionally but personally?"

"I can assure you nothing more will go on."

"Oh we can guarantee that." Ty said, leaning on his desk. "Because we have a little proposition for you."

Shan nodded, "See Lou-Lou we did a little investigating of our own and what a sordid little past you have Big Poppa." she sat down across from him. "So hard up for money you took to money laundering for the mob. And you've been skimming too. My if they only knew..."

Lou swallowed the lump in his throat. "What's the proposition?"

"You stay out of their lives and no one needs to know about your little money troubles or how you resolved them with a dozen or more Swiss bank accounts. Oh...and you let AJ out of the contract you roped him into."

"I can't...its been publicized..."

"So will this." Alec said waving his financial records in the air, "I do wonder if you'd suit that lovely orange prison jumpsuit. How long do you think you'd last Mr. Pearlman?"

He took a deep breath, "All right..."

"All right what?" Lis asked.

"We'll take the necessary steps to get AJ out of the contract...and of course TransCon needs to save face..."

"Frankly we don't care about that little fact." Jenn commented.

"And we'd like more then your word that you'll be out of their lives..." Lis added.

Alec nodded, "In fact we had some papers drawn up to that effect...all we need is your signature."

*****

David sat waiting behind his desk, leaning back in his chair. He had it angled so he could see down the hallway clearly. After finding out about the wives meeting with Lou he decided to have them all meet there and he'd take them out so they could talk things over. E appeared in the doorway, "You know they probably haven't even gotten in to speak with him yet."

"True..."

"Worried?"

"Oh yeah..." he said waving her into the office. "Aren't you?"

"They can handle themselves."

"I know they can its just...I can't see him reacting well to finding out they know about everything..."

"Then he shouldn't of been doing it if he couldn't take knowing someone else found out all about it. You have to know that if we could find that all out, so could someone else."

"That's true."

"And if they haven't, I doubt it'll take his investors long to catch on..."

*****

Nick leaned in the corner while he dialled her cell phone. Hearing her voice mail pick up he groaned silently and waited till she finished her little message before he spoke. "Hey Lis...just got out of the hour long hell with Lou...uhm probably gonna go out on the boat for the rest of the day. Its..." he checked his watch, "like twenty after eleven now so if you get this and wanna come with me, I'll wait till about one to go out on the water...call me when you get this okay? All right, see you at home."

*****

"Shit." Ty said slowing to a stop as the group of women made their way to the elevator.

"What is it?" Shan asked.

"I left my briefcase in Lou's office. Shit shit shit!!!"

"Do you want us to go back with you?" Jenn questioned.

"No, I'll go."

"You could always ask Kendal to go get it." Lis suggested.

"I'm a big girl I can walk in and grab it..." Ty stated, glancing back down the hallway. "You go on down without me I'll catch up..."

"You sure?" Alec said, "We could wait here..."

"I'll be right behind you...five minutes tops between the walk back here and getting an elevator."

Kendal looked up from behind her desk as Ty walked back into the outer office.

"Hi I left my bag in there..."

"Go on in, he's just on the phone."

Ty forced a smile, frankly she didn't care what he was up to all she wanted was her bag back. "Thank you."

Lou glanced up from the phone as he saw the door open and Ty walk in. "I'll call you back..." he said quickly and put the phone down. "Tyler what a surprise to see you back again so soon...did you suddenly come to your senses about Howie's future? Maybe you all changed your minds..."

Her eyes narrowed as she looked at him. "Don't get your hopes up I merely left my bag..."

"All right..."

She moved closer to the desk and grabbed her briefcase off the chair, realizing she'd left a set of notes on the desk in front of it she quickly took those and put them inside. "You know this is over Lou...we won't back down from taking everything we have to the authorities..."

He smiled. "The five of you ladies are very headstrong, I admire you for that."

Rolling her eyes she zipped up her briefcase. "Goodbye Lou."

"Goodbye Tyler..." he cleared his throat, "You know that isn't the end of this..."

Turning around on her heel she glared at him, "Think what you want Lou but as of today this is it...through...over...the five of them are free..."

"I think the ten of you need to think what's best for the futures of all of you...especially you and Howie...think of the future you want for your child Tyler..."

Her eyes blazed as she leaned across the desk and slapped his face. "Don't you DARE speak a word about my child...if it wasn't for YOU I wouldn't have almost lost this baby..."

"Howie should of signed right away, taken away all that undue stress."

"Undue stress? What would a deranged psycho like you know about undue stress??"

He smiled, "Ty I'm only showing concern for your wellbeing...these contracts are extremely lucrative for all concerned...keep all of you in the lives to which you've become accustomed."

"I don't care if that would make Howie the richest man in the world, this is over Lou...if you say one more thing the next place I'm going is to the police station with those records..."

Leaning back in his chair, "I think I've said my piece."

*****

Nick stood beside the Durango, fumbling through his pockets for the keys. "Oh damnit..." he groaned, realizing he didn't have them. Turning around he stared up at the building he'd just walked out of it. Maybe they'd dropped out of his coat pocket in the lobby.

Kendal smiled, "Mr. Carter back so soon?"

"You didn't find a set of keys laying around did you? I lost mine somewhere between here and the parking lot."

"I couldn't tell you honestly, haven't left the desk much this morning. Been busy..." she spun her chair around. "Did you want to check Lou's office? He left for an out of office meeting a couple minutes ago..."

Nick tapped his hands on the top of the desk anxiously, "Yeah maybe I will..."

"Go ahead..."

Shan grabbed Lis' arm and shoved her into the women's bathroom as she saw Nick walk out of Lou's office.

Nick stopped, he knew his wife's voice well and he knew damn well that was hers. His eyes scanned the hallway but didn't see her.

"Why the hell did you shove me in here?" Lis demanded as she pulled Shan's hand off her arm.

"Because NICK is outside the door."

"What????"

"Uh huh...I'd say go look for yourself but that would make me shoving you in here pointless wouldn't it?"

"Damnit!" Lis rubbed her forehead tiredly. "Do you think he's gone?"

"How would I know?"

"You could look?"

"Ah yes seeing his wife's best friend peeking out of a woman's bathroom then jumping back when she saw him wouldn't make him suspicious in the least."

"SHANNON!!!"

"Fine..."

Nick sat in the waiting area, his eyes glued on the door to the ladies room.

Seeing it open slightly and Shan peek out he smirked.

Lis leaned on the counter, seeing the door start to open. "Finally!! So is he..." she trailed off.

"Nice surprise Lissy." Nick said, standing in the doorway. "What are you doing at TransCon?"

"Uhm using the bathroom?"

"Not very likely..." he moved towards her. "So what...you didn't think I could do this on my own so you coerced Shan into coming down here with you while I confronted him?" he shook his head, "I'm not a five year old Lis, I don't need my mommy holding my hand while I yell at the big bad man."

She sighed, "Would you shut up for a minute?"

"No!!! I told you I didn't want you anywhere near Lou, not now not ever and where do I find you? IN HIS DAMN BUILDING!!!!!!" Lis couldn't help but giggle.

"You find this funny??"

"You're confronting me in the women's washroom..."

"Its where you decided to hide out when you saw me!!"

She walked over and wrapped her arms around his neck. "Really I love the fact that you're so damn overprotective...its kinda cute in a primal cavemanish sorta way..." she paused, "But I'm fine, I was fine since I stepped into the building and I was fine all through..." she went red as she realized what she had just said.

"You were fine all through what????" he asked, "Lisa answer me!!"

Her eyes met his, "Through the meeting with Lou??" she said sheepishly.

He stumbled back and Lis helped hold him upright, "You had...a..."

"A meeting..." she said helping him out.

"A MEETING????"

"Uhm confrontation may be the better word. Now can we please finish this conversation elsewhere?"

"Why? Need to get your excuses in order?"

"Because someone could walk in here..."

Nick rolled his eyes but almost as if to prove her point the door opened and a woman stopped in the doorway looking at Nick then back at the sign on the door.

"Men today." she mumbled moving past him.

Lis smirked. "See..."