Chapter Twelve
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JC got up and started doing stuff around the house, while keeping mindful of his friend on the sofa, still sleeping, but much more soundly.  It was after 7 PM when JC heard the doorbell and hurried to answer it before Justin woke up.  The kid was still sleeping like a rock.  JC opened the door and came face to face with one of the most beautiful women he'd ever seen.  She was dressed in a navy blue tailored business suit.  Her dark hair was pulled into a bun and her blue, almost aqua, eyes were open and friendly.  She was the same height as he was and smiled sweetly as she said, "Are you JC?"

JC stuttered as he said, "Yes, Dr. Gallagher?"

He was speechless.  Justin hadn't mentioned anything about Dr. Breana Gallagher being a knockout.  She smiled and said, "Yes, can I come in?"

JC had forgotten about Justin sleeping a few feet away.  "Oh, sure!  But Sleeping Beauty is still sleeping," JC said as he motioned toward Justin on the sofa.  "He's been there like that for over 12 hours.  I gave him a sleeping pill about 7 hours ago now and he's barely moved."

"What's wrong with him?" she asked as she went over and stood next to the sofa, looking for Justin in amongst all the blankets.

JC replied, "I think it's a combination of a few things, but mostly the fact that he didn't get to bed until this morning.  And then when he did, he was having those nightmares.  He was so tired he was just sleeping anyway, like he was forcing himself to keep sleeping.  When I saw him at noon, I knew he needed some help.  Sorry if that screwed up your plans."

"Well, let's check out the situation," she said, as she carefully sat on the sofa beside Justin.  "Where is he at?" she said, laughing.  "I know someone is there but...."

JC reached to grab the covers but before he could, Justin moved and he came up for air, throwing the covers away violently.  He was still sleeping which JC found amusing.  Breana founded it anything but amusing when, as she watched Justin, he unconsciously licked his lips and moaned softly.  With the covers bunched below his waist, her eyes were drawn to the bottom of his shirt, hiked up exposing the creamy skin of his hard stomach and his jeans, which were dangerously low on his hips.  She closed her eyes.  She hadn't been blind to his obvious physical attributes before but now she felt like she'd been blasted between the eyes.

JC noticed her close her eyes so he leaned forward and covered Justin, saying, "Sorry, Dr. Gallagher, uh, at least he's dressed."   JC stepped back and studied her expression.  "Are you ok?"

Breana nodded and smiled shyly at JC.  She had sat down, intending on taking Justin's pulse just to make sure he was ok, but that thought went flying out of her mind the moment he'd licked his lips.  Now, she scoffed at her lack of concentration and took Justin's hand that had been resting on his bare stomach.  She had to concentrate on his pulse, which she found was steady and strong.  She carefully placed his hand down on the blanket.

"I think we should wake him up.  This should be fun," she heard JC say.

"JUSTIN!" JC said loudly, softly smacking Justin's cheeks.  "We have company!  Don't you think it's time you got your lazy ass off my sofa!? JUSTIN!"

JC looked at Breana who was grinning.  "I take it he's not the easiest person to wake up!" she said.  JC shook his head and roughly shook and poked at Justin's shoulders, still repeating his name.

Justin exploded awake and sat up, glancing around and noticing Breana sitting beside him. "Doc?  What are you doing here?" he said, looking confused and sleepy.

As she stood up, Breana said, "You called me this morning and asked me to come over."

Justin was still half asleep as he tossed the blankets off him and put his feet on the floor.  As he stood up, he noticed his clothes in disarray and smoothed his shirt down.  He felt very unsteady.  "God, JC, what did you give me?  I'm like a zombie," he said as he sat back down and covered his face with his hands.

JC glanced at Breana who was watching his friend, with the same dreamy look most women had when they looked at Justin.  She looked at JC and then back at Justin, saying, "I think some food and possibly some water might help.  Do you feel sick, Justin?"

Justin looked back at her and shook his head.  "I'm just all fuzzy," he said as he sat back and rested his head on the back of the sofa.

"I think, if you can get up and around a little, that'll help too," Breana offered.  JC watched as she walked over to Justin.  "JC, why don't you get some water and find something for him to eat?" she said without turning around.

JC disappeared into the kitchen.  Breana noticed that Justin's eyes were closed again.  She leaned over and shook Justin's shoulder, saying, "Justin?  HEY!  Come on, stand up for me.  I cannot lift you."

Justin opened his eyes and shook his head, standing up slowly.  He blinked a few times before he unsurely slipped past Breana toward the dining room.  As he arrived at the table he fell into a chair.  "God, JC," Justin whined.  "Was that pill like for buffalo or something?  I can't even see straight, you asshole!"

JC walked up with a glass of water and a cup of black coffee.  "Here, shut up and drink this," he said as he held them out for Justin.  Justin took the glass of water and drank it all.  "Take the coffee too, J," he said.

Justin just shook his head so JC set it on the table in front of him.  "I've got a pizza in the oven," JC said.  "Man, I can't believe I'm waiting on you in MY house.  You've just moved in and taken over!"

Justin took a drink of the coffee and said, "I was only sleeping, C.  Hey, weren't you going somewhere?  I thought you were meeting Alex and Steve at that one club.  I can feed myself."

Justin stood up and walked carefully into the kitchen, and filled the glass up at the sink.  He drank it too.  "I must be dehydrated," he said to no one in particular.

He stood there for a few minutes, just trying to wake up.  The buzzer on the oven sounded and JC turned it off.  Justin said, "Go, man!  Stop hovering.  Get ready, I'm fine.  Watch, I'll get the pizza out myself."
He grinned at Breana, who was in the doorway of the kitchen, and then grabbed two oven mitts and opened the oven.  He smoothly grabbed the pizza and set it on the stove.  He looked at Breana and winked.  "See. Smooth as butt-ah!"

JC rolled his eyes.  Flirty!Justin was back so that must mean he was feeling better.  JC said, grumpily, "Ok, fine.  I'm going.  Sleep at your own house tonight, ok Curly?"

JC left to get ready and Justin looked back at Breana.  "You are probably wondering why I'm hiding out here, right?"

"Why aren't you at your house?  Where is Britney?" she said, nodding her head.

"She left for LA at about five o'clock this morning," he said as he cut the pizza.  He looked up at her and asked, "Do you want some pizza?"

She nodded and Justin handed her a plate with a large slice of pizza on it.  As she walked out to the dining table, she asked, "Why did Britney only stay one day?"

"Wanna go out by the pool?" he asked and started walking towards JC's back door.  She grabbed her plate and followed.

They sat there, eating in silence by the pool for a few moments.  Finally, she said, "I'm waiting for an answer.  Not answering my question won't deter me."

Justin looked at her with a dour look on his face.  Breana noticed his heavy eyelids and deep blue eyes that reflected the light bouncing off the pool.  "I fucked up," he said, shoving his plate aside and walked over to the pool.

Breana watched as he rolled his pant legs up and sat on the edge of the pool, dangling his feet in the water.  "Ahhh, this feels so good," he said and looked at her again.

"What happened?" she asked.

"It's embarrassing," he said and scrunched up his face.  "After we got back last night, we fell asleep on the sofa."

Justin paused and turned to look at Breana who had finished her piece of pizza and was looking at him seriously.  "And?" she prompted, motioning with her hand, as she saw Justin fidget under her gaze.

"I don't feel comfortable talking about this with you.  Maybe this wasn't such a good idea," Justin said as he got up and grabbed the plates before disappearing into the house.  Breana quickly followed him in the house and found JC talking to Justin by the front door.

"Just lock up and turn off the lights, except that one," JC was saying as he pointed at the little light by the window.  Justin was nodding and said, "Ok, say hi to Alex for me."  JC waved at Breana and went out the door.

Justin turned around to find Breana staring at him with her arms crossed over her chest.  "Spill it," she said as he walked around her toward the sofa.

He shrugged his shoulders like a boy and rubbed his face with his hands.  As he sat down on JC's sofa, he said, "She started kissing me.  Where Britney is concerned, I don't need much.....prompting, if you will, so pretty soon we were like making out and she had one of her hands, well...someplace she shouldn't have.  Fast forward to the part where I ended up on the floor and she was pissed.  She literally just tossed me on the floor, Doc!"

Breana sat on the coffee table, facing him.  She watched him closely as she said, "I gather you two haven't been intimate yet?"

Justin shyly grinned at Breana and said, "The whole world wants to know that one, Doc.  Our sex life, or possible lack thereof, is the subject of constant speculation."

Justin felt uncomfortable under Breana's intense blue-green gaze and stood up to get away from it.  Breana stood up too, gripping his arm, halting his movement.  Breana was very aware of how close they were standing but looked him in the face anyway.  She wasn't going to let this 20-year-old boy get under her skin.  When he looked back at her face, he swallowed hard and said softly, "No, we haven't had sex, Doc."

He extricated himself from her grip and walked into the kitchen for another drink of water.  His mouth was suddenly dry.  He stalled at the sink, not wanting to be near Breana at that moment, but turned when she came into the kitchen too.  "Doc, I...." he began.

Breana interrupted him, "You can call me Breana."

Justin nodded and said, "Breana, I'm...uh...let's go back out to the pool," and he slowly walked around her and waited for her to follow.

This was not going as Breana had imagined it would.  She again joined him out by the pool.  The sun was setting in the west and was bathing everything in a golden light.  Justin was standing by the diving board, staring at the water.  Breana walked over to where he was standing, with his arms folded over his chest.  Justin turned toward her, with annoyance and said, "What's up with me lately?"

"I'm not sure," she said.  "You've had a long couple of days, Justin.  I'm not judging you by anything you've said here.  You're probably stinging a little bit due to Britney's rejection.  Maybe if you can just rest for a while, and take it easy, things will look better.  Britney didn't break up with you, right?  You parted on good terms, didn't you?"

Justin didn't want to talk about Britney anymore.  He was sick of all those emotions she stirred up and angry at his feeling that she'd jumped ship when things got a little nuts.  "We made up before she left.  We're just going to cool things for a while.  Can we stop talking about this now?" he said as he turned to look at her, his hand resting on the diving board.

"Yes, sure, Justin, we can talk about something else," Breana said, smiling.

As they lounged around JC's house and pool, they talked mostly about his life.  Because she wasn't in the music business, Breana had a different insight into his life and also had a way of extricating his closely guarded thoughts and feelings.  Justin found that it felt good to talk to Breana.  She put him totally at ease, something he thought only Britney could do.  The comfort he found in her warm eyes, made it easier to push the nightmares and what had happened with Britney to the back of his mind.

It was nearly 10 pm, when Breana finally noticed the time.  As she found her purse and keys, he followed her and grabbed his coat, shrugging into it quickly, and his helmet.  She watched him as he shut off lights and locked doors.  He leaned around her and tapped the little lamp by the window, before moving past her.  The lamplight cast long shadows but his dark eyes still gleamed with life, as he said, "Ready?"

He walked out the door behind her and said, "Should we just keep meeting outside the office?  I don't really feel like replaying the other night."

Breana turned then and looked at him thoughtfully.  "Sure, where should we meet?" she said.

He said, "How about my house, tomorrow night?"

Breana nodded at him as he sat on the Harley and, as he zipped up the leather coat, said, "Have you ever ridden a Harley, Doc?"

Breana shook her head, but knew that if he asked her right then, she'd go with him, high heels, nylons and all.  He smiled and said, "You haven't quite experienced life until you've felt the sheer power of a Harley under you."

Breana mind couldn't help but linger on the way he described it.  She focused her eyes on him again and noticed him looking at the helmet he had sitting between his legs.  "I'll follow you out," he said and smiled.  "I'll see you tomorrow night, ok?"

Justin got home as soon as he could and put the bike away, before charging into his house, and locking the door.  Things had definitely taken a turn for the strange.  He'd woken up to a very different Dr. Gallagher, that evening as she sat beside him.  Her eyes were dazzling.  He hadn't even noticed any of this until tonight.

He walked out and stood beside his pool.  It was unbelievably quiet and lonely.  He peeled his clothes off and climbed down into the pool.  The water was warm and soothing and reminded him of times he and Brit had swam alone at night in this very pool.  It was a few days last August that he was recalling and she had looked like some mythical mermaid or something.  She had little braids and sparkles woven into her hair and a barely there bikini that Justin loved.  They had laughed and flirted, telling stories and singing with the CDs most of the night, before falling asleep together in his bed.  This time, they didn't even have time to swim, he thought bitterly as he swam around the pool alone.  Britney really knew how to show displeasure, even though she said she wasn't punishing him, he felt like she was.

The moon shimmered behind the clouds, making it darker than normal for a full moon.  Justin wished he could rewind to before Britney shoved him onto the floor.  He dreaded going into his lonely house, but his talk with Johnny came to mind as he grappled with it.  Part of this whole growing up thing was just learning to take things as they came.  As he picked up his clothes and walked into the house, he wondered briefly if he should call Britney.  She hadn't even left a message for him saying she'd arrived so that meant she was avoiding him.  Fine!  He didn't have to be her lapdog.  He had plates spinning in the air too.  As he crawled into bed, he grabbed her pillow to use.  It still held the faint aroma of honeysuckles and he drifted off to sleep, praying for a quiet night.

* * * * * *

The next day, the NSYNC set list was discussed and they started going over choreography for the new songs.  They still had a few songs to complete on the album, but they were crunched for time so they had to do some multi-tasking.  The guys all bugged him about what happened to Britney until he just told them the topic was off limits.  Amongst all his own spinning plates, Justin was able to push the situation with Britney into the back of his mind again.

Breana had a light patient load that day which made her breathe a sigh of relief.  Justin wasn't perfect, she'd seen that herself the first night they met, but he was far from being the spoiled brat she might have thought he'd be.  She signed on to her computer and typed in the web address where she'd started her research earlier in the week.  It was a fan's website dedicated to Justin specifically, so it had lots of pictures, articles, interviews and trivia about him.  She read the girl's stories and poems, all dedicated to or starring the young man she wished she could push out of her mind.  It was quite a phenomenon; this kind of devotion she found spread far and wide.  It was definitely obsessive and she could see how this seemingly innocent adoration could turn into a prison for those it was dedicated to.  Justin talked about not being able to live up to their expectations and by reading the romantic urgent words, Breana felt some of what scared Justin so much.

She'd learned a lot about Justin just in the few days she'd met with him.  Watching Justin interact with Britney had been very interesting. She found Britney to be his equal in many ways and Britney's love for Justin sparkled in her eyes when she looked at him.  They were easy with each other and very close, touching and whispering the intimate words that you'd expect of lovers.  Except, Breana mused, they aren't lovers.  It was a surprise to her.  She'd seen, on the websites, mindless chatter about the state of Justin and Britney's intimacy.  She also had seen the utter spite and contempt many of the fans had for Britney.  Yet, all this speculation seemed to swirl around Justin and Britney without touching them.

Justin arrived home after 8 pm, and took a shower.  He hadn't forgotten that he had made plans with Breana.  He got dressed and sat on the sofa, closing his eyes and considering the past week.  After about 10 minutes, he called Breana's cell phone number.  She answered, professionally as always, and Justin's voice was soft in her ear as he said, "Hey Doc?  Are we still on for tonight?"

Breana responded, "Your place, right?  What time?"

"I'm home, so whenever you can get here," Justin said.

Breana told him that she'd leave shortly, after he gave her directions to his house.  He replayed images of Britney's visit over in his head as he waited.  He saw Britney's face as she'd boarded the plane, and instantly felt horrible.  If she would call, he'd apologize for acting like a wolf in heat again, but she had to be the one to call.  He wasn't going to put any pressure on her anymore.  She'd have to come to him.

As he sat, lost in his thoughts, the gate bell rang loudly and he ran over to the security system panel.  He pushed the button to open the gates and hit the intercom button to talk.  "Hi Doc!  Entrez!" he said to Breana.

He watched as she pulled her dark green sedan into his driveway.  Breana took a deep breath in preparation for the evening.  This WAS going to be a normal length session and she was going to control the conversation and the entire situation tonight.  She hoped the pep talk she was giving herself worked, as she walked up to Justin's door.  The door opened and he came out to greet her.

Justin motioned her in and she walked into his home, looking around at the starkness of furnishings.  "You are kind of a minimalist, aren't you, Justin?" she said as she turned to smile at him.

He said, "No, not really.  I just haven't gotten around to doing much decorating since I moved in last year.  I'm gone too much."

Breana said, "Well, are you going to give me a tour?"

Justin nodded, and motioned her to follow him out to the pool.

"This, of course, is the pool area.  There's a hot tub here.  This is just a trunk full of toys, like frisbees, waterguns, floatie things, and stuff like that," Justin said as he showed her around.

As she followed him back into the house, he continued to show her some of the things he'd acquired, attempting to get the house furnished.  Breana figured he was either just very busy or not really into the whole decorating thing, though she suspected it was a little of both.  The house had a lot of potential but just seemed way too big for one young, single guy.  She laughed when she heard him echo her thoughts.

"I don't know.  I think the house is too big for just me, that's probably why I crash at JC and Joey's houses now and then.  It just gets too quiet," he said, looking around at the third guest bedroom, which had no furnishings, not even a bed.  He smiled at her sheepishly.

"Do you want something to drink, Doc?  I have some wine coolers, a couple Zimas, different sodas, bottled water, ice tea?  The Zimas are Britney's so you can have 'em because I hate that stuff," he said as she sat in a nice, big sofa chair in Justin's living room.

Breana said, "I better just stick to ice tea, Justin.  I am on duty after all."

He smirked at her and disappeared.  He returned a few minutes later and handed her a glass of ice tea.  He sat on the sofa facing her and said, "Ok, so what do you want to talk about?"