"Guys, the kids are here. The guards are showing them around, but I want you to meet their chaperones before you meet the kids." Lou said to the group of guys sitting around the lounge. "Chris, get off of Joey and fix your hair. You look like a bum."

"I am a bum." Chris told him, but got off of Joey and straightened himself before turning to the now standing Joey and fixing his hair and clothes.

"Get off of me Old Man." Joey said, swatting Chris's hands away from him.

"Come on, guys. Let's go." Lance said, walking out the door, the rest of the group following. They all followed Lou down the hall. They were talking quietly amongst themselves when they heard a shrill scream from the room where the girls were waiting.

"Oh my God! Sheena?! Sadie talk to me! God!" They heard a girl yelling. They immediately broke into a run. "Somebody! Help me!" they heard coming from the room.

The guys burst into the room to find a woman with long brown hair bent over a girl that look similar with short pixie cut hair. The girl looked up at them, tears in her blue eyes. "Help me. She passed out. I don't know what happened. Do something." She pleaded with them when she couldn't get her to wake up.

Quickly a blonde man with spiky hair rushed over to the unconscious girl and pulled her into his arms, picking her up and setting her on the couch. Another of the guys pulled the crying girl away so that the others could try to help. A tall brunette man with a goatee rushed down the hall and was back in seconds with a glass of water and a wash cloth. Handing them to the blonde, he stepped back. The blonde with the spiked hair put the cloth to the girl's head and gently shook her. She moaned slightly and turned her head away from the wet cloth.

"Come on, sweetie. Wake up." The man said, in a deep bass voice with a slight southern accent. The girl groaned again. Her eyes fluttered slowly and then slid open the tiniest bit.

Sheena could see the figure leaning over her. She wanted to roll over and go back to sleep, but the person above her wouldn't let her. She blinked her eyes again and tried to focus on the person hovering above her. When they finally did focus and she saw the stranger above her, her heart stopped and she screamed, sitting up quickly. A little too quickly for her heads liking. As soon as she sat up, the world began to spin and her head was pounding.

"Sadie? Are you ok?" she heard her sister asking.

"I'm fine, Sherri. Why did you wake me up. I was finally sleeping." Sheena asked, almost irritated. Then she remembered where she was and why. Then she remembered what had happened. "Oh shit. If your head always hurts like this when you sleep, I think I will stick with not sleeping." She said, laughing painfully at her joke, holding her head in her hands. She felt her sister lift her into a hug. She was vaguely aware of other people in the room.

"God, Sadie. You scared the hell out of me. Don't you ever do that again." Sheryl told her sister, her voice shaken still.

"Well, I know that a year ago, girls would faint when meeting us, but usually not until after they actually met us." Joey joked and immediately got an elbow in his side from JC.

"What the hell is going on in here?" Mike said, screeching to a halt in front of the door, followed by four other bodyguards and ten little children. "We heard yelling and someone calling for help. Who the hell is Sadie and what happened to Sheena?" Mike asked looking around the room frantically. His gaze landed on the two girls clinging to each other on the couch. They pulled apart after a few seconds more, one wiping at tears and the other looking very pale and sick.

"I am so sorry about all of the fuss. I passed out. I am both Sheena and Sadie." Sheena said, blushing, bringing some color to her cheeks but not much.

"Sadie! Are you ok?' Tommy rushed forward and hugged her tightly in his strong teenage arms. He was quite a big guy for a thirteen-year-old.

"Yea, Tommy. I'm fine. Why don't you help the Mike and the others with the kids so that they can finish their tour of the place. Don't worry about me. I'm fine." Sheena tried to convince him.

"Ok, but only if you are sure you're fine. I don't want to leave you here, sick." He said, looking at her closely. Some of her color had returned to her face and she was looking a little better.

"I'm fine, Tommy. Now go on and have fun. Ok,buddy?"

"Ok." he reluctantly agreed and followed the other kids and guards out of the room.

Sheena looked at her sister and saw the fire in her eyes. She gulped and turned to the room of people that she hadn't met. "Ok, now that I am a little more coherent..."

"I don't think so, Sheena Dawn. You are not getting out of this lecture. No way." Sheryl said, angrily.

"I think we are going to go.....somewhere else." Chris said, heading out the door, the rest of the group agreed and followed him out. Lou closed the door behind them. They all leaned against the wall, trying to ignore the shouts from inside.

"Justin, are you ok?" JC asked looking at his friend's ashen color. Justin started to nod, but put a hand over his mouth and ran towards the bathroom down the hall. "Well maybe after he gets over that bout of anxiety he will be fine for the kids." JC said, straightening to follow him.

"But are those two going to be ok for the kids?" Joey muttered, still listening to the shouts from inside the room.

"What? Another lecture about my health? Don't you think I have heard it all all ready? 'Don't eat too much of this.' 'Get more sleep.' Don't you think I have heard it all?" Sheena said, calmly and exasperatedly to her fuming sister.

"Yea, I know you heard it but I don't think you were listening! I tried to tell you this morning and you wouldn't listen. You bottomed out your blood sugar, you overloaded your system with caffeine. You haven't even slept in three days. You said two, but I know for a fact it has been at least three. How can you expect to go be able to function like that?" Sheryl asked, practically yelling at the top of her lungs.

"Look, I can't help the sleep thing. I just can't. No matter what I do, I can't. I told you that I didn't mean to eat all of that damned sugar. I didn't realize I had had that much until it was too late. I can't exactly take that back afterwards can I! And the caffeine. It was either the kids got here in a million pieces or me pass out. Which one do you choose? I opt for the second one myself." Sheena yelled back at her.

"You would say that. You scared the hell out of me, Damn it. I want to help you but I can't unless you let me! But you won't!" Sheryl yelled at her, thoroughly angry.

"Help me? You can't help me! You know you can't and as much as that little episode scared you, you can't imagine how it scared the hell out of me. It wasn't the sugar or the caffine or even the insomnia! You can't help where that is concerned!" Sheena said, almost in tears.

"What do you mean? If it wasn't that then what was it?" Sheryl asked, worried and concern showing in her face again.

The guys were still listening out side the door. Justin and JC returned during the pause in the conversation. "What'd we miss?" JC whispered to Chris, feeling slightly ashamed at their eavesdropping on an obvious family discussion, no matter how heated. Chris filled him in but got quiet when they hear talking again.

"It isn't the sugar, or the caffeine. The insomnia is only part of the problem. It's happening again. I can't control it anymore. I don't know what to do, Sherri. The medicine and the doctors helped for a while, but its back and I can't stop it." Sheena said, tears flowing down her face.

Sheryl stood there shocked. Her face fallen and paled. 'This can't be happening again. Not again. I don't know if she can survive another one.' Sheryl thought to her self. "Sadie, you don't mean that you're having another..."

"Yea, another round of nightmares. Your sister is still the freak. I don't know why. I don't know how. I just know that they are. I lay awake at night crying. I can't eat half the time. I stay depressed. I tried to hide it from you. From Mom and Dad. From the kids. I can't do it anymore. Everything is falling apart. I tried to hide them and will them away, but they just kept coming. I can't stop them." Sheena was crying openly again. It pained Sheryl to see her hurting like this, knowing that there was nothing that she could do. When she had had her first trouble with nightmares, the doctors had told them that they had to be supportive, but that that was all that they could do. She had to solve it on her own. It was not a help that she was manic depressive at the time.

"I don't understand how. I mean, you haven't been working too hard. You have tried to make sure that your life is as stress free as possible. You've been happy here with the kids." Sheryl said, sitting next to her and hugging her close.

"I don't know. I don't know. I really don't." Sheena said, then wiped the tears from her eyes. "Let's talk about this later. I think that I have been embarrassed enough for one day. Fainting and then you reaming me out, me airing my dirty laundry, " Sheena said, getting off the couch and walking to the door, "while these six guys listened, albeit unintentionally, to every word we've said." She jerked the door open and laughed at the guilty looking faces staring back at her. "Well, come on in guys and introduce yourselves." She said, giggling as they entered the room. They all stood around uncomfortable at being caught red handed.

Sheryl looked them over, noting the two blondes and three brunettes, one of the blondes with curly hair and one of the brunettes with a goatee. That was how she had always recognized whom they were after the dreads had been cut from the hair of the shorter member.

"Sheena, you don't know who they are do you?" She looked at her sister carefully. Sheena looked over at her sister and then back at the group of singers in front of her. She studied them for a moment, watching them smile when recognition shown in her eyes.

"Oh, oh my God. Now I am truly embarrassed." She said, putting her hands over her face covering unsuccessfully the blush that was rising from her toes to the crown of her head. "I can't believe the day I am having." She said, disbelievingly.

"Don't worry on occasion, our days have been worse than this." the now recognized Lance spoke up.

"Yea and Chris has them on an everyday basis." JC said, laughing, but his face fell when he saw that Sheena wasn't paying attention. "What are you doing?" He looked at her confusedly as she knelt down on the ground, head between her knees.

"JC, she's hyperventilating." Lance told him. Sheryl walked over calmly and put her hands on her sister's back, leading her over to the sofa to sit down.

"Jeeze this kinda reminds me of old times." Joey said, with a little laugh.

"Guys, I don't think that's a good thing." Chris said, practically a whisper. Everyone looked at him. He was kneeling on the floor beside Justin, in the same position the girls had been in moments before. He was hyperventilating as well.

"Jeeze, what is it with these two?" Sheryl asked, looking between the two.

"Well when she passed out he threw up. You tell me" Joey said, looking between the two.

"Joey, think about it. You said yourself it was just like old times. Girls passing out. Hyperventilating. Anxiety attack." Chris said, rolling his eyes at his larger, but clueless friend.

"Anxiety attacks. Is that why you guys stopped performing?" Sheryl asked, still rubbing her sister's back, trying to calm her down.

"Yea, the pressure and stress on Justin got to him. He started having attacks and we had to stop until he could get them under control. He was doing good until we came back to the studio. He had two yesterday and this is his second one today." Lance explained, bringing in some cool rags and a couple of bottles of water for the two young but stress friends.

"Well, you guys had better shape up. The kids are going to be back any minute. They will freak out completely if they see Sadie like this, not to mention some of the older girls still love Justin and wouldn't take seeing him like that lightly." Sheryl said, the mention of kids putting Sheena more at ease and calming her down. After a few more shallow breaths, her breathing was beginning to return to normal. As her breathing returned, Justin's did also.

"You guys, must have some kinda psychic connection or something." Chris joked, just before they heard a knock o the door. Making sure that the two hyperventilating people were getting back to normal, Lou walked to the door and opened it for the guards and children.

"Hi kids, did you have fun?" Sheryl asked, placing a bright smile on her face for the children. "I hope they weren't too much trouble." She said, looking at the guards, expecting them to run, screaming in the other direction.

"No, they were perfect angels, except for that whole fire thing in studio four." Mike said, a serious expression on his face. Sheryl's mouth fell open in shock and Sheena's head shot up.

"They did what?!" Sheena asked, jumping up from her seat, her breathing back to normal and the earlier problem temporarily forgotten.

"I was only kidding. They were very well behaved." Mike said, placing a reassuring hand on her shoulder. Sheena let out a relieved sigh and sank back onto the couch.

"Well, since things are going so well, let's get on to the surprise. Children, I would like you to meet some friends of mine. This is Nsync. That is Joey, JC, Chris, Justin and Lance. Guys these are the children from Gainesville." Lou said, introducing all of the children to the guys.

"It is so nice to see all of you. I hope that you are having fun on your trip." JC said, leaning down to one little boy.

"We are." Said the little boy shyly.

"I am so glad to hear that. Maybe we can hang out with you for a while and get to be friends." JC said, ruffling the boy's hair and receiving a smile for his efforts.

"Why don't we take them into the studio and let them watch you work?" Lou said, looking pointedly at Justin to see how he would react to this. Surprisingly, Justin seemed excited about the entire thing. Almost as if he were his old self.

"Sure, let's go." Justin said excitedly, heading for the door and talking to a couple of the kids on the way.

"That is weird. One minute he is hyperventilating and then the next he is as charismatic as he used to be. Weird." JC said, looking at his friends who appeared to be just as confused as he was. Shrugging their shoulders they followed, the two girls walking in front of them.

Sheryl leaned against the wall, looking at the group of five to ten year olds, with the exception of Tommy, watching the group in the recording booth. She was happy to see them excited about something. She was also happy to see that the guys were gracious enough to spend their time with them. As happy as all of this was for her, she couldn't help but plaster on a fake smile to hide the worry that was building up inside of her.

'How can this be happening again?' she asked herself. She had seen her sister deal with the nightmares in high school and she had seen how much they had taken out of her. She couldn't sleep, or wouldn't most of the time, for fear of having a nightmare. She had been unable to eat most of the time and she had started to hallucinate after months of exhaustion. Some how she had managed to keep her grades up and graduate early, but it was visible that she was just going through the motions of living. She went out with friends and she went to parties, but she didn't seem to be all there. There was even a time when she had started to take speed to try and stay awake. That was the scariest experience for Sheena and Sheryl and her family as well. Sheena was so hyped up that she couldn't sit still. She was moving around and full speed all of the time. She could barely keep herself still long enough to talk on the phone for five minutes. Then she started studying non stop, became moody and pushed all of her friends away. She had yelled at her family and was easily put on the defensive.

She had eventually ended up in the hospital when the speed accompanied with the exhaustion of weeks of not sleeping took their toll on her mind and body. She had gone to see a psychiatrist. He said that the nightmares were brought on by stress and that the ensuing insomnia was a result of the nightmares. When the nightmares were taken care of through medication, the insomnia remained. The doctor wouldn't give her medicine for that because of reactions with the other meds. It was up to Sheena to take care of that. After months of medication, the nightmares had gone away completely. Sheena's dependency on speed had been overcome, but the insomnia continued but only in spells.

Sheryl and her sister had tried so hard to keep the stress out of her life and to keep her emotionally open. Things had been going great. Sheryl had noticed the insomnia had gotten worse lately, but she had no idea that it was caused by the nightmares. Sheena had done a good job of hiding them this time. She hadn't suspected a thing. Now there was just one problem. What were they going to do?

"Serrie?" came a little girl's voice from near the floor. Sheryl jerked herself from her thoughts and focused on the little girl in front of her. Susan was tugging on her shorts. Sheryl bent down to the girl, a smile on her face.

"What is it, Suz?" Sheryl asked, straightening the little girl's shirt for her.

"Tommy, wants to know where Sadie is. He said, that she left a few minutes ago. He is worried about her. I am worried about her too." Sheryl straightened at what the girl said. She looked around the room and sure enough, Sheena was gone.

"Damn it." Sheryl cursed under her breath, mindful of the children around her. She saw that the guys were finished in the booth and that they were talking to some of the children. She spied Mike and Jessica in a corner talking amongst themselves.

"Mike, have you seen my sister? She left here a couple of minutes ago and I don't know where she went." Sheryl asked, trying to hide her concern from the large man, but he noticed.

"I haven't seen her. I didn't see her leave. Is she all right? Do you want me to go look for her?" Mike asked, uncrossing his massive arms from his chest and standing at his full height, going into bodyguard mode.

"What's wrong?" came a voice from behind Sheryl. She spun around to find Lance and Justin behind her.

"Sadie left a little while ago and I don't know where she is." Sheryl restated to the two young men, her concern only partially hidden. "Mike you can stay here and watch the kids for me if you don't mind. I am going to go and look for her. I am sure she just wandered off." Sheryl said, giving him a small smile as he nodded in agreement.

"We will come with you. We can split up. It would go quicker that way." Justin suggested, surprising Lance with a boldness that he hadn't possessed in a quite some time.

"That would be great. Thanks." Sheryl said, heading out the door. She went to the right of the door and Lance to the left. Justin headed out side to check the recreational area and the parking lot.

"Where are you, Sadie?" Sheryl asked aloud, looking into several rooms and apologizing to the occupants. She went into the bathroom and found no one there either.

"Sadie?!" Lance called down the hallway. He had checked the rooms on his end of the building and called into every women's restroom he had come across, hoping that she was in there. He didn't think that she was in danger or anything, but they were worried none the less. He ran into several people that he knew very well and asked all of them if they had seen the rather tall, blue eyed brunette, but came up empty every time.

Justin had checked several buildings outside and every car in the parking lot, not sure of what they were driving when they pulled into Orlando. He had checked the basketball area and the picnic area, finding nothing. He was on his way back to the main building, cutting through the parking lot again when he heard crying coming from one of the large van's that was sitting away from the other cars. Slowly he crept up to the vehicle, his heart pounding. He could feel himself trying to lose control, but he fought the urge, concentrating on the troubled girl that he had met earlier. He brought his hand up and knocked on the hard black metal of the van's door.

"Who's there? If that is you, Sherri, just go away." A small voice called out through the closed door.

"Sadie, is that you in there? It's Justin. You know, Justin Timberlake?" Justin called through the still closed door. He saw some movement and then the side door slid open a little.

"I know who you are, Justin. What do you want?" Sheena asked, almost in a whisper, her voice husky from the tears that were still demanding to be shed.

"Sheryl was worried about you and we didn't know where you were. She and Lance are looking for you inside. Why are you hiding out here?" Justin asked, trying to see her through the small crack in the door.

"I'm not hiding out." Sheena stated matter of factly.

"Really? That is strange. You sneak out on everyone, you are in a van by your self and you don't want to see your own sister. It sounds like you're hiding out to me. Do you mind if I came in and talked? I look really stupid standing here talking to a door." Justin said, a smile coming to his lips when he heard her laugh lightly and then slide the door open so that he could climb in.

"Who would have thought?" Sheena said, sliding over on the seat so that he could sit down.

"Who would have thought, what?" Justin asked sitting down and leaning back in the seat.

Sheena laughed a little. "Who would have thought that I would have Justin Timberlake, teen heart throb, sitting with me alone in a van?" Sheena laughed some more, but stopped when she noticed that Justin wasn't laughing. "What's wrong? Did I say something stupid? That was stupid wasn't it? I'm sorry."

"No it isn't you. You have your issues and I have mine. Speaking of your issues, do you want to talk about them?" Justin asked, turning to her and studying her face. He noticed how her eyes clouded over at the prospect of talking about her problems.

"Do you want to talk about yours?" She asked quickly, the tone sarcastic.

"I'm sorry. You don't even know me and here I am butting into your business." Justin said, turning his head and studying his hands now instead of her face. "But I am at the point now where I don't mind talking about my problems." He said, glancing at her. She turned to look at him and he quickly put his head back down. Shyness was something that she had never expected from Justin Timberlake.

"I would have never thought you would be shy. Now Lance I can see being shy. Maybe even JC at times, but you?" Sheena asked, a hint of surprise in her voice.

"Well I didn't used to be shy. It is a semi-recent development." Justin explained to her.

"Why did you guys stop touring?" Sheena asked after a drawn out silence that was dying to be broken.

"The million dollar question at last.' Justin said with a laugh. "We are kinda on an extended vacation of sorts. I needed time to recuperate and figure out how to deal with things."

"I know that feeling. Had one of those myself. St. John's clinic, not a pretty place to be." Sheena said, the dislike for the place evident in her voice.

"What was there?" Justin asked, almost afraid that she wouldn't say anything else. He wanted to help her and maybe in some far-fetched way it would help him.

"Doctors, psychiatrists, you name it."

"Do you mind if I ask why you were there?" Justin asked, not wanting to push her but trying to get her to open up.

"You couldn't hear my sister and I yelling about it. You don't know already. Jeeze I thought the entire studio knew by now." She said, laughing again.

"I wasn't paying attention. I was too busy trying to keep my self from either passing out right along with you or throwing up." He laughed at himself and then turned to her. "Do you want to talk about it?"

"Well, seeing as you and the other guys are close and they heard it, they will probably tell you anyway, so why not." Sheena took a deep breath and sunk down in her seat some more. "I had really bad nightmares. Actually, they were more like night terrors, but what does that matter right? So anyway, I went to this doctor and he said that it was brought on by something that happened in my child hood and that he wanted me to stay in the clinic until it was worked out. He didn't know what he was talking about, but I am getting ahead of the story." Sheena ran a nervous hand through her hair, and glanced at her guest to her own pity party. He was casually gazing at her and listening intensely to her every word.

"So I went to this clinic. First, they said that they were going to treat me for my exhaustion and lack of sleep. See, when the nightmares began, I threw myself into my schoolwork and everything else around me, trying to keep my mind off of it and stay awake. They kept me pretty well doped up and the nightmares occurred anyway. Finally, I stopped taking the meds and stayed awake all night. You know what kept my mind off of it all and what got me through most of those nights in the clinic?" She asked, turning her gaze back to him.

"What?" he asked eager to hear the rest of her story. Sheena laughed a little.

"Don't think that I am really crazy, or maybe I am. Who knows? Anyway, your music. I would listen to your CD's every night and stay awake. It took me away from everything. It was all that I had in that place. Until the doctors found out about me not taking my meds anyway. Then they took my CDs player and my CDs and threw them all away. Then I had nothing." Sheena's voice was angry now.

"What did you do then, I mean, weren't they treating anything?" Justin asked, very curious now. He was shocked at himself. At the mention of being a fan, he didn't even blink, when usually he would get sick to his stomach and start to sweat.

"They were treating my exhaustion and putting me under hypnosis to see what it was in my past that was causing the night terrors, but they weren't really TREATING anything. Finally after months of them telling me that it was all in my head, I went home, and the night terrors continued. That is when things really went down hill." Sheena said almost in a whisper.

"What happened then?" Justin asked, a little more eager to find out about the girl beside him than even he liked.

"I don't want to talk about it anymore." Sheena stated matter of factly, wiping a tear from her eye and looking out the window.

"I understand. Really, I do. I was just curious. I mean, I don't know what it is like to go through your particular problem, but I do know what it is like to try to hide things from people and act normal. I know what it is like to feel terrified of the thing that you love. I love to sing and perform, but I can't even do that anymore. Hell, yesterday was the first time I have been back to the studio in almost a year and a half. It took everything I had just to walk through the doors then." Justin said, wanting to tell her everything, knowing that she would understand.

"You can tell me if you want. I know you do. I am a good listener, besides it'll take up my mind so I don't think so much." Sheena said, laughing at the expression on his face.

"You read my mind I think." Justin said, grinning at her.

"It was the sound of your voice. I know that tone. I see it in the kid's eyes and I hear it in their voices when they decide that they want to tell me about their families. I can see it in your eyes, and I can hear it in your voice. So talk to me." Sheena said, giving his hand an encouraging squeeze. He wrapped his hand around hers and let it comfort him. He felt connected to her in a way that he hadn't felt with anyone, not even the guys, in almost a year. Sheena didn't seem to mind. She looked as though it were comforting to her as well.

Chapter 2

Chapter 4