"Oh my goodness!" she squealed as she hopped up and down excitedly, passing the card to Tom Green, her co-presenter.

"CAITLIN HOWARD! Come on up here Caitlin!"

Seconds before, audiences around the world has been able to lip-read as she declared, "It won't be me" to Hayley and now they were equally able to lip-read her shocked, "Oh my God" just before her hand flew to her mouth.

It looked to the rest of the auditorium, watching on the giant screen, that she might just continue sitting there looking shocked but Hayley and Liam, seated either side, hauled her to her feet and Liam pulled her to him in a celebratory hug. As he released Caitlin, Hayley took her turn at the hugging before pushing Caitlin down the row towards the aisle.

Caitlin still looked dazed as she walked the seemingly endless distance to the stage, the clapping and cheering ringing in her ears. She concentrated hard as she climbed the steps (she knew exactly how funny she would have found it if somebody else had tripped) and made her way across the stage, conscious of the hundreds of eyes that were on her. Ever the pro, even in the midst of her shock, Caitlin looked around for a camera, found one and smiled straight at it before she was almost knocked over by Britney.

In between hugs Britney managed to lead her to the rostrum where Tom shook her hand before presenting her with the golden statue. Caitlin thought she might stop breathing as she took the award and turned to face the audience. Her audience now, and she didn't have a clue what to say.

"Um, well, uh, thank you, Tom, Brit," the singer squeezed her hand excitedly and let out another squeal, "the Academy, um, y'know, the usual." The audience laughed and Caitlin relaxed a little.

"Well, as you can tell, I really don't have a clue what to say, um but, uh, yeah, I'd like to thank everyone I worked with on To Wake The Vampire, Anne for her inspired writing, Jean for his amazing direction and Brad, Tom and Ellie for making it fun. Also, um my mum and dad, Josh and the rest of my family, No Rulez, Liam, Mark and Hayley and everyone from Contrived Intelligence..." she would have carried on, probably mentioning almost everyone she'd ever met, but it was at that moment that she spotted them. Or rather him. The others didn't faze her, but now she'd seen him she couldn't drag her eyes away.

Behind and to the right of where she herself had been sitting sat the Backstreet Boys. Just the five of them, they didn't appear to have brought dates, and in the middle sat Nick. Caitlin felt their eyes lock, even at this distance she became lost in the intense blue of Nick's eyes and everything around her seemed to shrink as she felt the tears begin to well up. She opened her mouth to speak, but nothing would come out. Nothing except one word,

"Nick."

The auditorium had become uncomfortably quiet. Britney squeezed her hand again and Caitlin felt herself coming back, she wasn't going to humiliate herself, not tonight.

"Um, yeah, I'd, uh lastly like to thank Nick," she paused, "oh, and, uh, and the other Backstreet Boys for, um everything." Caitlin finished abruptly and spun on her heel walking back to the stairs and her seat as fast as she could. As she arrived back Hayley, James and Liam were on their feet again, hugging and congratulating and she mumbled her thanks to them as she sat down. Caitlin forced herself to smile, she knew that the cameras would be on her again before the end of the ceremony, and there was still about an hour to go. Never mind having to get through the party afterwards.

They were announcing the next nominees and she tried to concentrate but the only thing of which she was truly aware was that Nick was here. Liam squeezed her hand and she smiled at him distractedly, shaking her head slightly to try and clear the confusion, to escape the pain, but it was no good.

As Tom Cruise made his way to the stage to collect his Oscar for best actor for To Wake The Vampire, the camera cut to close-ups of his co-stars, and audiences around the world were able to see the silent tear roll down Caitlin's cheek.