Title: Shades of Gray - - Light Gray
Author: Granitite Stone, granitite@yahoo.com
Disclaimer: If they were mine, would I be writing fanfiction? There is no malicious intent in this story, I know nothing about these men's real lives.
Rating: R
Summary: When one moment changes everything, and one decision can change a lifetime, you make the best choices you can. The question is, what choice is the right one? Even if you think you've made it, what's not to say you wouldn't have been happier the other way?

Brian sat up. "I tried to call you all day yesterday. Where were you?"

"The 1990's, trying to keep myself from doing something stupid." Joey closed his address book. "I'm sorry Justin kept hanging up on you."

"It's okay." He waved Nick closer, so he could hear too.

"It's just that he and Britney, who is suffering from extreme sexual frustration, got into a huge fight. He still won't sleep with her, she made this joke about interchangeable pretty boys, and threesomes."

"That's the first relationship I've ever seen that's going to be ruined by the guy not putting out." Something occurred to Brian. "Hey, what were you doing in the past?"

"Convincing myself that claiming Brianna was the best idea. Who knows what I would have done if my future self, uh, present self, whatever, wasn't their." Joey was sick of trying to keep the terminology straight. "I never figured you for the switch, though. You've always seemed to be happy, your choices cut and dry."

"This isn't time travel. I'm from an alternate reality." He looked at Nick, and motioned him closer. "A very alternate reality. How did this happen to me?"

"A girl dressed in solid black or white asks for your autograph. She'll do it in private so it's legible."

Nick took the phone. "But I signed too. Shouldn't something have happened to me?"

"Legible, Nick." Joey sounded a little annoyed at having his conversation interrupted. "I've seen your autographs. As for what caused this, we can only think of one thing."

"What?"

"God is trying to tell you something."

Nick scowled. "You'd better not be telling Brian that in the other time line. He's got enough issues as it is."

"It may not be your Brian that's being taught a lesson. It all depends on which book you signed."

"Black, I signed the black book." Brian innately knew that he and not the other Brian was the one being sent a message. "It's me, isn't it? I made the wrong choice."

Joey didn't want to put it that way. "They're trying to tell you something, something important if they went to all this trouble. But it doesn't mean you made the wrong choice."

Nick broke in. "How do I get my lover back?"

"According to the Fates, the standard visit is less than a week, as long as the student learns what he's supposed to."

"Fates?"

"They're the two girls who did this, on the orders of some mysterious man they call, the Boss."

"If my Brian signed the white book, does that mean these Fates approve?" Nick couldn't stop a huge grin from materializing on his face. This was the validation he thought Brian had always needed, but would never get.

"It means the two of you share something the Brian sitting next to you needed to see."

"I see." Nick hung up the phone, looked heavenward and shouted "Yes!"
-----
Kevin found Brian staring into space. "You in there?"

"Just thinking." He turned to face Kevin. "For them, is it worth it? To have my own mother hate me, to never be able to tell anyone?"

"Nick and Brian would say it was. They got into a huge fight a while back because you, he, gave Nick a ring. He freaked, really freaked, and they didn't speak for three weeks. Howie finally told Nick that he was going to apologize to you and fix things, or his life would become even more of a living hell."

"Sweet D threatened Nick?" Brian almost laughed. "What happened?"

"Nick went and had a measure of "No Place" inscribed onto a silver ring. Meanwhile, Brian is cracking up, and decides it doesn't matter how much of Nick he had, as long as he had him. When Nick gave him the ring, Nick claims you actually swooned."

"I don't swoon for anybody." Brian sounded exactly like his counterpart had.

"I'm going to tell you something that no one else but the other you knows." Kevin got very serious. "Do you remember my friend Mike?"

"Yeah, you worked at Disney with him." Brian met Kevin's eyes. "You're not telling me…"

Kevin looked embarrassed. "I cared about him a lot. He broke up with me, for my own good he claimed, right before we left for Europe."

"If I'd come to you, would have told me about this?" Brian was in shock.

"Yes, but I would have used it to convinced you to stay away from Nick. For a long time, I thought there was no way something this big could stay a secret."

"And now what you think?"

"I'm not sure it should be a secret at all."
-----
They sang, and that night on the lists, fans commented on how the group dynamic seemed a little off. Many fans had heard the rumor that 'No Place' was to be sung at concert, and there was wild speculation about why it hadn't been performed. On the het lists, they figured it had just been a rumor. The slashers joked they were afraid Brian and Nick had broken up.
-----
Leighanne was packing when Brian got back to the hotel. "Where are you going?"

"The dentists."

"You need a suitcase to get your teeth cleaned?" Brian knew what this was really about. She was running. "You just can't face him, can you?"

"No, no I can't." She closed her suitcase. "And this dentist's appointment, which I made three weeks ago, is a good way to avoid him. You're right, he has the capacity to be you. Do you know why he chose me?"

"No." He'd spent most of the past two days trying to figure that out.

"I read his journal last night." She sounded a little ashamed. "When you went to talk to Nick, the phone rang."

"Yeah." He vaguely remembered that, but it was so long ago. "But I never got the message."

"It was your mother. Your mother! Asking you when you were bringing me home to meet her. She's the reason he said no to Nick, the reason he stayed with me." Leighanne was getting ready to scream. "He married me because he's a coward."

"I could be him just as much as he could be me." Brian sat down, and patted the space next to him. "Just because I *could* have chosen you doesn't mean I'll be ditching Nick when I get home."

She wouldn't sit down. "But he'll probably be ditching me. Nick wasn't your second choice."

"Fine, run. Don't face him, be just as cowardly as him." Brian gave up. This entire reality was insane. "I'm staying with AJ."

Go to Dark Side Part Three or Go to Light Side Part Four

~When I look into the mirror, and see a face I don't recognize, I am no longer surprised.
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