The radio turned on early the next morning, eliciting a groan from Nick as he rolled over. "Damn thing..." he muttered, forcing his eyes open so he could find the remote and turn the stereo off.

Lis sighed as he moved away. "Too early..."

"I fully agree..." he muttered, finding the control and about to turn it off when something caught his attention.

"Nicky?" she turned her head and looked at him, "What is it..."

He lifted his hand to get her to be quiet as he turned the volume up, "I thought...but..." he trailed off as he waited to hear the rest of what was being said.

*****

Waking up to a horrible pain in her neck, Alec forced herself away from her snoring husband and sat up as much as she was able to in the hammock. Evidently they'd slept through the night, the sky was now a pale blue and the sun was up. Shaking her husband's shoulder she frowned as he stayed asleep. Easing her way out of the hammock she covered him back up and headed for the house.

*****

AJ heard the phone ring in his office and snuggled closer to his wife, the machine would pick up he had no worries. Whoever it was could wait.

Jenn rolled over, "Isn't the machine on?"

"Should be...who cares I'm not moving right now..." he whispered. "Just ignore it and go back to sleep."

*****

Howie moved around the kitchen, bread was in the toaster, eggs were on the stove and the coffee was on. Perfect. Setting the table he smiled in satisfaction and took a seat, turning the small TV on the counter on. A little early morning news wouldn't hurt.

**And now in local news, Orlando entrepreneur Lou Pearlman was found dead in his office late last night. Cause of death at this time is unknown and there is no word whether or not foul play was involved. Pearlman is perhaps best known for discovering and managing such groups as the Backstreet Boys, NSync and O-Town.**

David grabbed the phone off the counter as he stood in his kitchen, his eyes glued to the television screen. Lou dead?? Somehow that seemed impossible. And the timing...that alone scared him.

E ran to the phone, "Hello?"

"Hi its me David, have you seen the news yet?"

"No I was just about to go out and grab breakfast." she sat down. "Why what's on it? Lou didn't go to the press with something did he?"

"Oh he went to the press all right." David mumbled, "Lou's dead."

E sat in stunned silence. "What??"

"Apparently he's dead. Why does this timing seem funny?"

"Did they say how?"

"Its undisclosed..." he let out a deep breath. "I'm going to call my contacts and see what I can find out...something about this seems wrong."

"I agree. Want me to meet you at your office?"

"You can...I'm debating on calling the guys."

"We can do that from the office..."

"Yeah." he agreed, checking the time. "None of them are probably up right now anyways."

*****

Brian hopped around the room, muttering under his breath and cursing his luck at stubbing his toe on the edge of the bed.

"Bri?" Shan asked tiredly, rolling over and seeing what was going on.

"Did I wake you?"

"Yeah." she smiled, "What happened?"

"Went to get up and tripped over the edge of the bed." He made his way back to his side and sat down. "Feels like I broke it."

"I'll get you some ice for it." she said pushing the covers back. "You stay right here..."

Standing in the kitchen, she grabbed an ice pack from the fridge and decided to grab the paper before heading upstairs. Opening the front door, she picked it out of the mailbox and headed back up to her husband.

Lis stared at Nick, "He...he's dead..."

Nick nodded slowly, his hand going through his hair making it even more unruly. "Lou's actually..." he shook his head. "Man..."

"Nicky?" she looked at him. "Uh..."

"What?" he turned and saw how she was looking at him. "Lissy!!!"

"Was Lou alive the last time you saw him?"

"Course he was!! And I didn't even see him when I went back to get my keys..." his eyes narrowed. "He'd all ready left..."

"It wasn't me..."

"I know we went on the boat..." he turned around and looked at her. "We left Shan there...I have no clue what the others were up to..."

"I doubt any of them..."

"What none of them are capable?" he sighed, "Damnit Lis I could of killed him myself a couple times...what's to say he didn't do or say something to one of them and they couldn't hold back any longer?"

Lis fidgeted with her rings. "I fell asleep last night." she said quietly. "Nick???"

His eyes widened. "You're thinking..."

"You just said you could of done it a few times and I know how you were yesterday..." she didn't look up at him, afraid to see his face. "You definitely were capable of hurting him Nick...and maybe you just went at him and didn't know what you were doing...didn't know how bad you'd hurt him until..."

Nick shook his head. "Lis I swear to you I DID NOT kill Lou!!!!!"

*****

Ty moved the almost burning pan of eggs off the burner and turned around, Howie sat deathly still staring at the television. One glance at it told her something other then the day's highs had gotten to him. "D?"

He blinked at the sound of her voice but didn't move.

"Damnit Howie..." she moved in front of him. "Don't scare me like this, what's going on?"

"He..." he lifted his eyes from the screen, not even registering that the news had moved past the story. "He's dead."

"Whose dead?" she asked confused. He wasn't making sense.

He reached out and took her hand. "Lou...Lou last night..."

She paled as she sunk into her chair, "He's dead...so...this is over??" she asked, still not totally comprehending what he was saying. With his death they were free...no more threats...they could go back to their lives...if any of them remembered what they were.

*****

E walked into David's office seeing him on the phone scribbling something down on a notepad. Slipping into the chair across the desk she tried to figure out what was being said but couldn't make much out. Taking a sip of her coffee she leaned back and waited, he'd tell her what was going on when he hung up.

No sooner then he set the phone down he spoke, "I called in all my contacts...appears Lou was found by the late night cleaning crew on the floor of his office. No obvious signs of death, so far they're ruling it natural causes but they are ordering an autopsy...his doctor apparently said he was in perfect health or as close to it as he ever was just a week ago..."

"So he died of what?"

"They think its a heart attack..." he swivelled his chair side to side, "Seems awfully funny though...clean bill of health a week ago..."

"What are you thinking?"

"That I want to know everything Lou was up to yesterday...maybe he got into an argument with something and it affected his heart...he started to have pain and whoever was there walked out without calling for help and he collapsed without making it to the phone...or it could have just been a normal heart attack. But I'm going to dig into this."

"Should we call everyone?"

"Yeah might as well break the news..."

"Means they're free though....that's one good thing."

"Yeah..."

Feeling the hammock sway beneath him Kev groaned as he gripped the sides trying to get it to even out. "Alec?" he whispered hoarsely as he forced his eyes open.

She wasn't there. "Alec?" he called again, this time a little louder. It took a minute or two to safely manuevre his way out of the hammock and he stepped barefoot on the grass. His eyes stopped on the pile of empty bottles and cans that lay near the hammock and he frowned, he hadn't drank that much had he? Rubbing his neck tiredly he tossed the blanket that was still wrapped around his body on the hammock and made his way back towards the house.

*****

Brian's jaw dropped as he heard what Nick was saying. "You're kidding right?"

"Not on this..."

Without a word he grabbed the paper from the middle of the bed and flipped through it, "There's nothing in the paper Frack."

"Then news of it must of hit after the paper went to press. Believe me Rok, Lou's dead."

"I just..." he rubbed his forehead with his palm, "Its unbelievable isn't it?"

"Yeah..."

"What now?"

"That's what I'm asking myself."

"And what's your answer?"

"Let it sink in...that everything's over now..."

*****

AJ groaned as he stepped out of the shower and heard his cell ringing. Damnit who needed to talk to him this early? Grabbing his robe from the back of the door he wrapped it around himself as he headed across the room and grabbed his cell from the dresser. "Yeah?"

"AJ? Its David."

Sinking down on the bed he groaned softly, "David isn't it a little early to call?"

"Yeah I guess it is but with something this important I didn't think it could wait."

"What's so important?"

Jenn stood in the doorway with two cups of coffee. Seeing J wave her in she set them down on the table and took a seat beside him on the bed.

"Brace yourself..."

"What has Lou done now?"

"Lou's dead. They found him last night in his office..."

All the breath left AJ's body, "Whoa..." he mumbled. "How?? I mean did someone do something to him?" he questioned, trying to fight the thought that maybe one of his brothers had finally had enough.

"I got a little info from my sources and apparently its being listed as natural causes..."

"Man oh man..." he mumbled, looking at his wife who was watching him intently trying to gage what was going on by his end of the conversation.

*****

The ringing phone startled Alec as woke up from her nap on top of the bed. Seeing her husband move across the room to turn the machine on she raised an eyebrow. "Left the hammock did you?" she asked, rolling on her back and stretching out.

"Woke up." he mumbled, his hand running through his hair tiredly.

The sounds of the machine picking up filled the room, stopping their conversation. "Alec? Kevin? Its E...if you're there please pick up its important..." she paused. "Its about Lou...some pretty big news."

Kevin grabbed the cordless. "Yeah I'm here what is it?"

"Is Alec there? You may want to be on speaker phone..."

"Why?"

"Just do it."

Reluctantly he hit the speaker phone button and laid the cordless down. "Okay we're both here..."

Listening to her husband tell her what David had said on the phone Jenn fell back on the bed. "He's really dead??" she asked when he was through.

AJ nodded, "Yeah apparently so." he squeezed his eyes shut. "Argh!"

"J?"

He turned his head and looked at her tiredly, "I don't know if this is how I wanted things to end..." Slowly he pushed himself to feet, moving across the room to the dresser and his pack of cigarettes. "Its just I wanted him to pay for all this..." he explained, "Now it doesn't seem like he will..."

"But on the good side this is over..."

"Is it?" he asked leaning against the dresser. "I mean do we know that for sure?"

"No but it almost has to be...Lou was behind all this J..." she rolled on her side to look at him. "Without him what's left?"

*****

Lis let Brian and Shan inside and pushed the door shut behind them. Shan stayed back as her husband walked ahead to find Nick. "So what went down yesterday?"

She let out a deep breath before speaking, "He screamed and ranted and raved for a good while then gave me the silent treatment all the way back on the boat..."

"He didn't bitch you out there?"

"Oh he did till some woman walked into the ladies room and I dragged him out of there. At least I had my car there, gave him a while to cool off...although knowing him he took the time to plan out what to say first."

"Man..."

"How'd last night go?"

"David wasn't happy when he found out about Nick dragging you off."

"I can imagine."

"But I told him you'd be fine...we ate, went over what we said to Lou, listened to the playback of the meeting. Good thing you handed me your other tape recorder before we ran into your husband."

"Yeah...so far he thinks it was only me who went to confront him."

"You didn't tell him?"

"He was too into it to tell him the rest. Plus I figure it'll come out eventually right?"

*****

Brian patted Nick on the back as he walked outside and found him leaning on the railing staring out at the water. "How ya doing?"

"I don't know. You?"

"I feel numb." he answered honestly. "The water helping you any?"

"No...didn't really think it would." Nick glanced back at the house. "The girls inside?"

"Yeah...figured they needed a little gossiping time on their own...plus ya know I wanted to talk by ourselves."

"Good so did I."

"Sounded like you had something to say on the phone..."

"I did but with Lis around..."

"What is it?"

"I went back to Lou's last night..."